Volume 6. Epilogue.
Another day in the life of Patrick.
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Winged City a�" South Borough.
District A.
In a familiar house that was considerably better off than the other houses in the area. A bald man with a trimmed black beard, brown eyes, and dark skin tone, groggily woke up by the fragrance of the morning snow that carried the first rays of sunlight, hidden underneath the thick layers of dark clouds that constantly loomed over the city.
"Oh dear, what a surprise. Having you wake up by yourself for a change is a bit worrying. What's wrong?"
Patrick Pazuzu, a former patrol guard of winged city, sat up on his bed as he scratched one of the short horns protruding from the sides of his head as he instinctively nodded to his wife's words before suddenly disagreeing with her.
"I have no idea why you would assume something is wrong. Is it a crime to wake myself up sometimes?"
"Fufu... I was only having a laugh. No need to be so defensive. I adore waking you up you know. So it's a bit worrying when you've been doing this recently."
"Urr... right... my bad."
With a lazy attitude, Patric stood up from his bed and stretched his arms wide in a yawn before walking over to the bathroom to wash his face. Even for a recently promoted city worker like him, a bath wasn't something he could afford in this neighborhood so a basin filled with hot water was the only alternative for washing up.
The taps in his house flowed unlike most of the houses in the south borough but he could not afford the luxury of a magic plumbing system to magically produce perfectly heated water so he had to do so himself as he woke up earlier than usual, which meant his wife hadn't had the time to prepare some hot water for him.
Truth be told, there weren't many households in the entire city that would be able to afford the luxury of magically heated water running directly through the taps so he considered himself to be doing quite well for a man of his status.
Thanks to a certain deal he had with the former city lord he had been promoted from a patrol guard to the patrol captain to expand his range of influence in order to gather more detailed information from the entirety of the south borough.
Lucky for him, the paperwork for his promotion was pushed through before the new city lord had arrived, otherwise, he would've still been a common patrol guard earning only peanuts for his salary.
If he hadn't inherited this house from his father he didn't think he would've been doing so well till now but things were starting to change for him.
After preparing the water for himself, Patrik hurriedly finished getting ready for work as his wife had already prepared an early breakfast for him this time around.
Stepping out of his front door he was met with an almost empty street as the sun hadn't even risen yet so only a few public carriages galloped through the streets every once in a while.
As he walked, he could see a few homeless people sleeping in the alleys along the streets with a few drunks passed out on the gutters.
The cold air made his breath visible and even Patrick himself was beginning to wonder why he was heading out so early today. Well, he was well aware of the reason and it wasn't because of his new position but rather the condition that came with it.
Even though Lord Aur was no longer the city lord, he was still a very powerful noble in this city and thus, controlled some influence so Patrick had to honor his side of the deal and investigate everything he could about Lix else he loses more than just his newly found promotion.
Hence why Patrick had decided to wake up earlier than usual recently, it was so he would have time to investigate when fewer eyes were watching.
The reason why he was being so cautious was because of the incident that had given him this opportunity, to begin with. The incident had happened behind the alley close to the south borough junkyard.
The time he and his friend Gaap had walked in on the dismembered pieces of countless bodies. An incident that had been so well covered up that no one besides him and Gaap, alongside one of his former superiors, the previously Patrol Captain for district A, no one else in South Borough knew about it.
Not to mention both that superior and Gaap had been transferred out of the city which was something that seldom happen to common patrol guards. Hell, he wasn't even sure if those two were still alive.
Patrick believes that if it wasn't for Aur, he probably would've ended up in the same boat, which was why he had to do his best.
From the way things about that incident were handled, Patrick believes the underground organizations in the city may have had a hand in it. The chances they were after Lix was also high so he couldn't carelessly ask people about any of them.
This was why he spent his time identifying those that could secretly be questioned for a price by hanging around shady places like bars, brothels, and gambling parlors before and after work.
At first, he had thought this would be a waste of time but after stumbling upon some crucial information on the underground organization in question, he changed his mind.
He now knew that the organization most prominent in the winged city was called Numbers, controlled solely by their Numbered elites. However, that incident behind that alley a while back had completely incapacitated the Number division assigned to South Borough.
He didn't know if Lix was responsible for doing that but if so, he owed him thanks as things had been more peaceful in the south lately. There seems to be fewer people high on blue and the only ones going crazy were the crackheads which the patrol guards could handle fairly easily.
Still, none that brought him any closer to learning about Lix. All he knew was that he regularly visited the Runic weapon shop whenever he was in town but unfortunately, Patrick did not have any connections in the other boroughs and was unable to know when Lix had entered and left the city.
How unfortunate as he heard Lix had already come and gone before he could blink. If only he could find a connection from the west that would be willing to help.
After doing his round with the late bars and gambling parlors as the brothels were uneventful in the morning. Patrick headed to work as usual.
Everything seems to go smoothly today as well with the reduced violence in the south borough although this meant there was a surge in petty crimes with no organization to control the meatheads.
Yet, these idiots were easier to deal with than with the surge in the drug, Blue powder. After rounding up his work for the day and assigning the night shift to someone else, he began his nightly ritual again and headed for a cheap bar.
Hoping to hear some more juicy information again today, he quietly went to the corner and took a seat.
"Oy! One draft beer and a bowl of minced meat stew."
Calling the attention of the rather robust bartender, he placed his order and relaxed only to hear a tired sigh coming from the seat in front of him.
Unfortunately, as he was busy observing the more rowdy characters in the bar when he walked in, he failed to notice the young lady that sat on the other side of the table he had chosen at the corner of the bar.
She had a gloomy expression on her face as she gulped down an entire cup of bear-like its was just water.
Patrick's eyes opened up wide as he observed her rather familiar appearance. She had short brown hair that seem to have been scattered by a helmet, and a pair of short black horns protruded from her forehead, complimenting her pale orange skin tone.
Her bright brown eyes seemed dull and lackluster as she stared blankly at the empty wooden cup of beer she had just consumed.
"Is that you, the umm... Talking bull girl?"
"Oh great, even after coming this far out."
Her cheeks seems to turn red as she sighed tiredly without even raising her head to see who had addressed her. Most likely assuming they were only there to tease her.
"Oh right, sorry. I've only heard the rumors so I only wanted to confirm it was really you. Your name is, Riva right? You're one of the guards assigned to the west gate ain't ya?"
"Hmm..."
Having finally heard her name come out of someone's mouth since the event that occurred yesterday, Riva raised her head for the first time to see who was speaking to her. He was wearing the uniform of a Guard similar to hers but slightly different and she didn't recognize his face.
"Right, since you live in West borough you wouldn't know who I am. I'm Patrick, the Guard Captain. Nice to meet you."
"A captain? Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."
"Don't worry about it, I'm just a Patrol Captain so I'm not of a higher rank than you I'm afraid."
"Oh... Is that so. Sorry."
"Hmm... Why are you apologizing. I said not to worry anout something like that."
"Right..."
RIva sighed deeply as her head droopped down as she said that. Sensing her willingness to talk rapidly fasting, Patrik suddenly thought of something as he spoke.
By the way, I have a proposition for you. Should help you get rid of this silly nickname as well, what do you say?"
Riva's ears twitched for a moment as the light finally reflected off her eyes. Her attention seemed to have been piqued as she leaned forward to listen to what this lesser demon had to say.
"I'm listening."
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End of Volume 6: Demon Conspiracies.
Read 𝓁at𝙚st chapters at (f)re𝒆we(b)novel.com Only