BXBX NOVEL Chapter 51 Other Side Of The Coin
"Young Master, we have been everywhere in the city. It's getting late, I think it would be adequate to head back now." Albert said and turned back after Ethan and the girls boarded the carriage again.
"Wait!" Ethan exclaimed.
"Yes? Is there anything you wish to do?" Albert halted as he turned back and asked looking at Ethan from outside the carriage.
"Old Man, you have shown me the glory of this city, won't you show me the ugly side as well?" Ethan said with a smirk.
'Ugly side?' Both Earlene and Anicia thought as they looked at each other in bewilderment.
Albert flinched in surprise as his eyes widened with shock.
For a few seconds, a silence ensued as Albert looked at Ethan strangely.
"What do you mean? This is all the city has to off-" Albert said trying to dodge the topic but Ethan did not give him a choice.
Ethan pulled out a gold coin from his pocket and held it between his thumbs in front of Albert as a slight smile appeared on his face.
"You see this coin? It has two sides... Old Man, everything in this world has two sides. This city too; has two sides. One that is glorious and for everyone to see... And shameful one that you don't wish for me to witness. Is that not so?" Ethan stated confidently in a matter of factly manner.
Albert sighed with resignation as he stared at Ethan with narrowed eyes.
"Young Master, you have two ladies here with you, it would not be appropriate to go over to that area," Albert tried to bargain.
He felt that it would be dangerous if not out of place for Ethan to visit that place. Anyhow, Albert truly felt that it would accomplish nothing even if Ethan were to see that place.
"Both of them chose to come with me, I don't care if it's appropriate or whatever. Father told me that one day the responsibility of this Duchy will be on my shoulders. I will not ignore weaknesses and merely dwell on the satisfaction of our strengths. Now are you taking me there or should I go myself?"
Ethan spoke calmly but his words had the sharpness of a razor, his eyes were flared up with determination, stubbornness, and a threatening glare.
"Very well, but on one request. You cannot step out of the carriage when we're there." Albert stated firmly.
"Fine!" Ethan agreed and closed the carriage's door.
The carriage once again began moving at a fast pace, from the southwest side of Adenberd to the southeast it traveled rapidly, droving over from in front of the fortified city walls and the sturdy entry gates.
The more to the eastern side of the city they moved, the crowd density on the streets decreased. It was the early period of evening when they reached their destination.
The carriage entered a wide dark alleyway in between decent-looking tall buildings that were built very tightly close to each other on the roadside, like a closed curtain to hide what lay behind.
As the carriage slowly entered deep further inside the alley, a pungent odor of piss and filth entered everyone's noses. And despite the sun still blazing in the sky, the surroundings got darker and as well as gloomier.
Ethan sighed helplessly as what he suspected was indeed the case. He moved the curtains of the carriage just slightly and peeked outside cautiously to see how bad the situation truly was.
The alleyway was narrow and only had enough space for one carriage to pass through, so Albert, Jason, etc were closely moving alongside it on their horses.
Ethan's all three bodyguards were incredibly puzzled as to why they were even wandering in a place that even the adults hesitated to go in.
'What is the Young Master thinking? He shouldn't be in a filthy place like this!' All of them thought silently as they looked out for any potential threats even more cautiously than before.
Outside the carriage, people in yellowish dirty clothes were lying around on the sides, they seemed extremely malnourished, sickly as well as lifeless as they curled up seeing the little convoy heading inside the slums.
Gradually the alley merged into what looked like a chaotic slum filled with wooden huts, made-up disheveled houses, and dirty grayish streets—it was like a completely different world from outside.
The noise of endless cursing, coughing, incomprehensible quiet babblings, groans, sobs, and angry shouting bombarded everyone as the carriage entered.
A few hooligans on the side stepped forward with desperate expressions on their faces as they saw the lavish carriage approaching. Soon they made a huge ruckus grabbing the attention of all the rogues and sickly, hungry folks in the area.
Albert and the three bodyguards unsheathed their swords giving off murderous intent which fortunately made the crowd wake up to their senses.
Finally realizing after seeing the insignia that the Lord's carriage had arrived at their forsaken ground, some of them kneeled immediately as they cried out, "Save us! Please save us!"
"Give us food!"
"We don't want to sell ourselves!"
"Lord! Help us!"
"Agh, *cough cough*, I haven't eaten for days!"
Earlene averted her saddened gaze from the window and stared at Ethan pensively wondering if his goal for the outing was to visit the slums in the first place. Or perhaps it was something else entirely? She had no words to speak of in such a peculiarly complicated situation. She could only wait and watch how things play out.
On the other hand, Anicia covered her ears in absolute horror as she heard the pleading of the masses outside. Her body shuddered as she abruptly jumped into Ethan's arms burying her face in his chest and clasping to his arm tightly.
Ethan in contrast was completely calm, he held Anicia in his arms as he looked at her bitterly and stroked her hair gently while patting her back slowly to comfort her.
'Maybe I shouldn't have brought her here afterall,' He thought and sighed inwardly as the shouting outside intensified.
Albert narrowed his eyes at the crowd emitting dense killing intent. He had been serving the White Family for decades and very well knew the dark side of Adenberd city. But there was simply no solution to the issue. The people in the slums had become lazy and rogue over time.
Simply giving off money wasn't an option as that would only increase crime among those people. There was no good solution to pull these motivation-less, dull, and sick parasites out of poverty.
Albert only hoped to not get killed by Albaer for giving in to Ethan's demand and bringing him to the slums. At the same time, he hoped that Ethan would not demand something like 'help these people now' or something outlandish along those lines as things never worked in such a simple manner.