--- [Alex’s perspective]
The architecture and design of the city is just as chaotic as the stairs.
There are dirt roads that lead into concrete that lead into gravel.
There are wooden houses next to apartment complexes made of bricks next to restaurants made of stone.
There’s a river flowing right through the city stretching as far as the eye can see, and bridges that cross it in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Unlike most places in the world, there is no coherent style, no planning, no rules…
It’s almost like every single person that lives here built their homes on their own, with whatever materials or specialties they had available to them.
It may look like a mess, but there’s a certain charm to it…
Not gonna lie, I kinda dig it!
“So, what do you think?” – Leanne
She smirks as she can tell from the look on my face what my answer would be.
“So this is what you wanted to show me? It’s cool, but… Why? Why couldn’t you answer my questions where we agreed to meet up?” – Alex
She steps forward and looks back at me as she throws her arms wide open.
“This Alex… This is Solis!” – Leanne
She lowers her arms and grabs my hands.
“This is our hideout; everyone in The END is welcome here. Inversely, everybody outside of The END are not welcome here… If the higher-ups find out I brought you here without permission and I don’t get any results to show for it, I’ll likely be executed… I hope bringing you here is enough proof of my sincerity. I genuinely want to help you, Alex.” – Leanne
She lets go of my hands and starts walking along the path while signaling me to follow.
She says that, but there’s no way for me to know if she’s telling the truth or not…
That could easily be a lie too, and her life isn’t in danger at all.
But…
For some reason, I get the feeling that she’s telling the truth…
For now, I’ll cautiously trust her…
“Where are we going now?” – Alex
“To the bakery. There’s someone I want you to meet there.” – Leanne
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Who?” – Alex
“You’ll see!” – Leanne
…
Still not answering everything then…
“Come on, Mom! We need to hurr- Ah!” – Kid
Suddenly, a kid runs into Leanne while her head was turned the other way.
She was holding an ice cream, but when she bumped into her, it fell on the ground.
“Sally!” – Mother
She runs up to Leanne to see if she’s okay.
“I’m so sorry! She’s so reckless and never looks where she’s going!” – Mother
She grabs her daughter’s arm and pulls her back.
“Apologize to the lady!” – Mother
“I… I’m sorry…” – Sally
Leanne squats down gently, lowering herself to meet the child’s eyes.
She puts her hand on her head and pats her.
“Don’t worry about it, kid. I’m not hurt.” – Leanne
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a strange looking coin.
“Here, take this and buy yourself a new ice cream, okay?” – Leanne
“Oh, we’re fine! You don’t have to. It wasn’t your fault.” – Mother
“Don’t worry about.” – Leanne
The mother takes the coin from the kid’s hand and tries to hand it back to Leanne, but she just walks away without looking back.
The mother looks over at me, and tries to hand it to me instead.
“Give it back to her, would ya?” – Mother
I shouldn’t take it; Leanne clearly wanted the kid to have it.
“Sorry, gotta go!” – Alex
I quickly catch up to Leanne again, leaving the two of them behind.
“What was that?” – Alex
“What do you mean? The kid?” – Leanne
I didn’t expect there to be kids living here considering it’s the hideout for a terrorist organization, but that’s not it…
“No, the coin.” – Alex
“Oh. Right. We use an entirely separate currency here from the rest of the world.” – Leanne
“Why?” – Alex
“So that we aren’t dependent on anything in the outside world at all. The world is so corrupted and poisoned that we don’t really want anything to do with it the way it currently is. Not everyone in The END are hunters or Divinity users. Sure, I and many others fight to make the world a better place, but what are people like that mother and kid supposed to do? They’re just regular people. They likely joined us to escape the horrible conditions of wherever they came from, and just want to live in peace.” – Leanne
So there are regular, everyday people, living here too…
Just like me and my mother before I became a hunter…
As we walk around the corner, I see a gigantic wall in the middle of the city.
It’s completely straight and goes from the floor to the ceiling.
It looks so unnaturally placed, like it was just plopped into a living, breathing, city.
We’re underground, so if that was just where they stopped digging, I’d expect it to just be dirt and rock.
It was intentionally placed there, but why?
“Curious about the wall, eh?” – Leanne
I nod.
“It’s called ‘the wall of separation’. The other side is where the Raguelites live. Don’t worry about it too much, we’ll stay on this side.” – Leanne
“Raguelites?” – Alex
Seth mentioned something about ‘Urielites’ too…
“Does ‘Raguelites’ have something to do with ‘Urielites’?” – Alex
“Yes, but I’ll explain that part fully as soon as we get to the bakery.” – Leanne
More waiting…
As we continue walking through the city, I get to experience more of the strange architecture.
We had to cross the river once more, and rather than just jumping over it, she made me walk up a set of stairs only to take a slide down to the other side…
The street we needed to get to was on the other side of a long row of buildings.
Luckily, there was a shortcut.
There’s a bar with a door to the other side, so we just went through there instead.
Of course, like everything else here, it couldn’t just be a normal bar…
The building looked like it was upside down; it even had a ‘roof’ on the ground…
It’s silly, but I guess that’s just what this place is like.
“There it is!” – Leanne
She points to a small shop on the other side of the road.
The pleasant smell of freshly baked goods would have let me know where to go even if she didn’t say anything.
The door is tiny; almost like it’s made to be the perfect height for young children.
We crouch down and squeeze ourselves through to get inside.
…
Is that…?
“You’re back sooner than I expected, Leanne.” – Shin
“Ugh, I told you we should have ordered already!” – Lily
