Chapter 707: Chapter 232 Vera Williams_2
Leonard Churchill looked around and saw an area resembling the Commoner Slum District, where patched tents were everywhere and the air was filled with a strange smell of urine and feces.
The Underground City occasionally received rain, and everything outside was damp, covered in mud.
It didn’t look like the Sinless City.
He asked, “Where is this?”
“Sir, don’t you remember?”
The boy glanced at Leonard, then remembered, “Oh, right! You must be very hungry. This morning, I found you fainted by the tent because of hunger…”
Leonard listened without a word.
His emaciated condition indeed looked like someone who had fainted from hunger.
The boy seemed cheerful and talkative, different from a typical beggar, likely educated to some extent. He went on, “This is Bolton Mechanical Town, part of Baron Bolton’s territory. Most of us have fled here from the famine in the west in Rum County. You must have heard of it. Where do you come from, sir?”
Leonard had seen the Federation map before and had some memory of Rum County, which seemed to be in the western part of the Federation.
But the distribution of cities in the Underground world wasn’t on a flat plane, and he wasn’t sure exactly where it was.
Nor had he heard of this Bolton Mechanical Town.
Thinking it over, he directly asked, “How far is it from here to Sinless City?”
“Where is Sinless City?”
The little boy looked puzzled, tilting his head and after a moment of thought, said apologetically, “Sorry, sir, besides this one time, I’ve never left Rum County in all my years. I’ve never heard of your ‘Sinless City’.”
Leonard didn’t mind; it was normal for a “Pigeon” of that age not to have heard of it.
But what he could be certain of was that he was no longer in Sinless City.
Just then, a cool breeze blew by, making one shiver slightly.
The boy remembered something else and quickly explained, “Oh, sorry, there’s one more thing. When I found you… your clothes were already gone. Probably taken by scavengers. So I found you a burlap sack…”
Perhaps worried that Leonard might misconstrue that he had taken the clothes, the boy seemed to want to explain further.
Leonard interrupted him, smiling, “Thank you.”
He added, “Thank you for saving me, and for your bread and clothes.”
The smile on his face was contagious, and the little boy also wore a radiant smile, “You’re welcome.”
Leonard had already surveyed the simple tent with the corner of his eye. Other than a dirty blanket, there was nothing else.
It was small and basic.
It seemed unlikely that anyone else lived there with him.
Being an orphan himself, he casually asked, “Pigeon, where are your parents?”
Upon this topic, the boy’s cheerful smile immediately faded, and he twiddled his fingers, saying, “I don’t know. There was a war before, and my father was conscripted to the front lines. Later, the war reached our town, and I fled with my mother and the other adults there… to the train station. There were too many people, and she pushed me onto the top of the train. The train started moving… my mother couldn’t climb up, and entrusted Fat Aunt next to her to look after me. Later on the way to Bolton Town, Fat Aunt got lost too…”
As he spoke, his eyes glittered with tears.
Yet he seemed to think of something and bravely held back the tears from spilling down his cheeks.
Upon hearing this, Leonard fell into a brief silence.
A five- or six-year-old child fleeing famine alone, the extent of separation anxiety his mother must have felt while pushing him onto the train.
To maintain such pure kindness was truly remarkable.
He asked, “Are you scared being alone?”
Pigeon tilted his head, contemplating, “I was a bit scared at first, with wars going on everywhere… but then I got used to it.”
Pigeon recalled something and gave a bright smile. Very seriously, he said, “When we got separated at the station, my mother told me I was now a man, just like my father, and could take care of myself. She told me to follow Fat Aunt obediently and that after the war was over, if I returned to our town, I would be reunited with my mom and dad…”
Speaking these words, Leonard saw a naive radiance in his eyes called “hope.”
In the eyes of a child his age, a mother’s words were the law of the world.
Mom said they would certainly be reunited, so Pigeon believed without a doubt.
He looked forward to the wars ending and being able to see his dearest parents again.
As Leonard watched the innocent and naive face, he couldn’t bear to speak of the harsh world that adults saw.
Pigeon seemed full of anticipation for the future reunion with his parents and said, “And everyone’s been really good to me. Sparrow, Road, Forest, Big Mountain… are all friends I met along the way, and they’ve all taken good care of me. They say that if I can wait a bit longer, the war will end…”
Leonard listened and nodded silently.
He wasn’t about to shatter the naiveté of a youth an asked, “What did your father do?”
Talking about his father, Pigeon puffed his chest with pride, “My dad was the town’s doctor and a very powerful card master. I heard he was also a great Hunter who had even ventured into many dangerous places…”
His bright eyes were filled with a deep longing for the future, as he continued, “When I grow up, I want to be a card master too. I also want to become a great Hunter.”
Hearing this, Leonard smiled, “Yes, you’ll become a great card master.”
Pigeon looked at the eyes regarding him and got a little shy, suddenly realizing something and with an adult-like, apologetic face said, “Oh, I almost forgot, may I ask for your name, sir?”