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At one of the staircases connecting the twelfth and the thirteenth decks, there were two guards and a group of three Dustbin Diggers, the latter of which was forcibly taking an item or two from every person looking to use the stairs. A small cage filled with downcast cats they had caught was nearby. Unlike other parties, they had used a three-legged rat as bait. Pocketing some coins by handing the cats over to the referee was on their minds. “I’m getting tired of waiting. What if that bastard never shows up and spends his time hiding somewhere on this deck?” “How long can he hide?” “He’s been quiet as a mouse, but he’s gonna come out eventually, and when he does, he’ll suffer. The sooner he comes out and admits his guilt, the better it is for him.”

  In the K Block on the tenth deck, Gerett entered the hollow hall allotted for tending the children they had saved from Znjoa Schweess and his associates. Usually, the hollow hall was mostly filled with triple bunk beds, but now only a few regular beds remained, and the rest of the hall was filled with dolls and toys. The floor was also carpeted with grass to give the park vibe. When Gerett entered, many children ran over to hug him, though none of them could tightly hug him because of his fatness. “Uncle, did you bring sweets for us?” their eyes were on the bags in his hands. “No, these are my snacks,” replied Gerett, taking slow but larger steps while keeping his chin up. “If you want a bite, you’ll have to wait till pigs fly.”

  The weather around Exvo seemed pleasant, and Stussy was appreciating the time under the sun. Gerret came to her in a hurry and said, “Chief! A report from the first deck says that a monster is coming up. From what they’ve noticed, it’s a nanari, so they said they weren’t gonna attack it.” Nanaris, also known as Ninetooths, were sea monsters that looked like a humongous snake with two fins running along the spine, all the way to the rear and beyond. They had no eyes or nose but only a mouth with nine sickle-like teeth inside. The myth about them was that they ate only dead, rotting, or toxic beings and rarely attacked a living being, so they came to be known as Oceanmaids. While most part of that myth might be considered real, nanaris not attacking living beings was generally believed to be false because, in the past century itself, there were countless cases of nanaris attacking ships, especially those of pirates, so much so that the marines gave these beasts the nickname ‘Pirate...

Lean and dark women and children were walking in intense heat for miles in search of water, and they had no spirit to shoot the breeze. The women had thin hair on their heads, and the children were just skin and bones, with their ribs showing out in full.

As a pack of Dustbin Diggers plodded past, two eyes secretly and patiently peeked through the gap in the clinic’s partly-open door until those men took a sharp left into another street. Soon, the door opened fully, and a young man dressed in a jerkin stepped out, a foul cauliflower in hand. The hood partly hid his face, though part of the facial scar was still in the open. “Just how long are they going to search for me? Don’t their legs get tired? It’s as if they are bred for long walks and composed chores—just like the walking water-thief [1] .” As he walked, the silence, that annoying silence that filled the streets uneased him, for he felt like anyone could step out onto the streets at any point, and his cover might get blown. If the Drill Hall hadn’t been vacated, the pathways probably wouldn’t be so quiescent.