Chapter 678: Twenty-Four, Part One

Water... water ghouls?

Thales swept his eyes over the monsters in the sewer in disbelief. They were packed densely together, each with a different form, constantly letting out inhuman roars.

"Human, what does your flesh taste like? Is it the same as the last one?"

The tumor-covered insect monster deliberately circled a few feet around him, its intentions malicious.

Thales swallowed.

What? The ghost stories around Jade City's docks were actually real?

They really ate people?

Since Mallos's "safety rope" had worked just now, could they find this place?

Even if they found it, would they have any way to deal with this group of monsters?

No. Counting on them would be too late. Right now, the most important thing was...

Thales took a deep breath. In the sewer's increasingly intense stench, he looked toward Hilley at the end of his vision. She still lay alone in the giant monster's hands, her face covered in blood, her life or death unknown.

The Sin of Hell's River began to burn, and the sewer brightened before his eyes as if it were day.

"Thank you."

Amid the monsters' roars, Thales clenched his teeth.

"Thank us for what? For eating you?"

The insect monster giggled, several pairs of insect limbs twitching back and forth.

"Thank you, art design."

Thales bent his knees slightly and said steadily,

"For making you only look disgusting. At least you aren't as scary as the Black Path."

"What?"

The next second, before the insect monster could react, Thales roared and pounced toward it like an arrow leaving the string.

Same as always.

One chance.

The insect monster let out a shriek, but Thales saw the timing clearly and rolled, barely brushing past its side.

Splash!

Amid the monsters' roars, great sheets of water flew up. Covered in sewage, Thales pushed himself off the ground and continued forward without the slightest pause.

He darted left and right, passing through the gaps between two rows of monsters and continuing onward.

Startled, the nonhuman monsters were thrown into commotion, and their hissing and roaring grew louder rather than quieter.

The Sin of Hell's River burned hotter and hotter. The colors the monsters showed through Hell's senses were strange. Some places were the red of flesh and blood, while others were the cold darkness of...

Huh?

Before Thales could think it through, a tentacle lashed at him from the side like a whip.

Smack!

At the critical moment, Thales flipped forward and avoided the whip. Water rose behind him.

But he did not stop. He only kicked out, ruthlessly striking the spherical monster that had thrown out the tentacle. The latter roared in pain and shrank backward.

Water ghouls were not as hard to deal with as he had imagined, right?

Thales's confidence rose slightly. Without stopping, he continued to charge ahead.

"How dare he, human!"

The insect monster's furious shriek came from behind.

"Catch him and eat him! Catch him and eat him!"

The sewer filled with different roars. Another monster's forelimb came smashing down like a sickle, but Hell's senses allowed Thales to see the timing clearly. Amid the splashing water, he advanced instead of retreating, drew his legs together, tucked in his arms, and slid out through the gap beneath the sickle limb.

At last, after breaking past that sickle-limbed monster, the only thing left before Thales was the ugly-faced monster that had grabbed Hilley. It whimpered strangely and seemed about to turn and flee.

Closer to her.

Closer!

Thales roared and quickened his steps.

The next second, the ugly giant monster abruptly turned back, and its enormous arm swept across with fierce speed.

As expected.

Just as he thought.

The Sin of Hell's River crackled in his body. Thales clenched his teeth and leapt into the air.

The giant monster roared as its strike missed. Its arm tore through the sewage and stirred up a wave as tall as two people.

But Thales did not stop. With the Sin of Hell's River strengthening him, he swung his dagger in midair and nailed it into the monster's arm, using the momentum to swing himself onto its shoulder.

If Yala were here...

Would she also praise the timing and footwork of this jump?

In midair, Thales could not help thinking that.

After all, that elder sister bartender from the underground street had left the deepest silhouette in his heart.

But unfortunately...

The next second, Thales shouted angrily and swung an elbow as he fell, striking the monster squarely in the forehead.

Thud!

The monster's ugly features instantly shrank back. One second later, it swayed and collapsed.

Thales landed before it and rolled to shed the impact.

Good.

He stepped forward and barely caught the girl slipping from the giant monster's hands.

"Hilley, are you all right? Wake up!"

Thales anxiously shook the motionless girl and could not help reaching out to check her breathing.

Good. She was still breathing. She had only fainted.

At this moment, Hilley's face was covered in blood and her entire body was soaked in sewage. Behind them, the water ghoul insect monster's furious roar was deafening.

"Stop him!"

Just then, Thales felt a tremor beside him.

The fallen giant monster was huffing and moving again.

Damn it. I knew it. The legendary water ghoul wouldn't be that easy to kill.

Thales could not care about anything else. With one hand, he supported Hilley and let her lean against his shoulder. With the other, he held JC in a reverse grip and aimed at the giant monster's neck.

But at that moment, a gloved hand grabbed his wrist.

"Wyanna?"

Thales was startled and delighted. But as soon as he lowered his head, Hilley, who was slowly waking in his arms, could not help spitting a mouthful of sewage all over his face.

Damn it.

Thales had no choice but to raise his sleeve and wipe his eyes, while Hilley broke free from his embrace, knelt in the water, and coughed desperately, coughing up quite a bit of sewage.

"Listen to me. We can't stop. There are still a lot of water ghouls, or whatever the hell they are, behind us..."

As he spoke, the giant monster beside them sat up and shook its head.

Thales's expression sharpened. He prepared to carry Hilley and run, but Hilley pushed him away without ceremony.

"No. Wait."

Hilley's voice was weak.

"What? Why?"

Thales was immediately stunned, but the monster was slowly recovering. It leisurely raised its huge arm and loomed over them.

Fuck!

Thales instinctively grabbed Hilley's hand, pulled her behind him, and raised his dagger at the monster.

But in that instant, Hilley suddenly lifted her head.

"No!"

Hilley was filthy all over, and the blood on her face looked especially frightening. But she clung to Thales's arm, looked shakily at the ugly giant monster, and did her utmost to make a sound.

"Bobo, no!"

At that moment, the monster's arm stopped in midair.

What?

What was going on?

Thales stood in front of Hilley and nervously stared at the monster.

The monster before them tilted its head and leaned closer. Its tiny eyes blinked on its ugly face.

"Woo woo?"

The monster mumbled words Thales could not understand.

"Yes, Bobo."

Hilley coughed again and kept panting.

"I'm all right. All right."

"Woo woo!"

The next second, the monster lowered its enormous arm and happily stomped its feet.

"You... you know this thing?"

Thales frowned, but he did not dare lower his dagger.

"He is not a 'thing.' Put down your weapon."

Hilley exhaled and swayed. Thales quickly caught her.

Just then...

"Big guy!"

The insect monster's shrill male voice rang out. It brought a large group of monsters charging in from behind.

"Kill him! Eat him!"

Before Thales could frown, Hilley sighed. She leaned half her body against Thales's arm and staggered around to the giant monster's front.

"And you, Vorniak!"

She shouted hoarsely.

"You attacked the wrong person!"

Hilley's female voice was especially clear amid the sewer full of monster roars. For a time, the noises the monsters made grew quieter.

"Stop, stop! Everyone stop!"

The half-human, half-insect monster shouted loudly, making its own kind move aside, and then it stepped through the water and appeared before them.

The situation was unclear, so Thales nervously protected the girl behind him.

Whoosh!

A torch was lit, and Thales hurriedly narrowed his eyes against the sting.

"Twenty-Four?"

Under the firelight, the insect monster's face was still full of ugly, disgusting tumors, but its voice was filled with confusion.

"You... you're all right?"

"Apparently."

Hilley said irritably, wiping the blood from her face.

"Is this how you welcome me?"

What was going on?

Twenty-Four?

Thales looked at Hilley, then at the insect monster, his head full of fog.

The insect monster called Vorniak held the torch and looked warily at Thales. In the end, under Hilley's stern stare, it sighed and began to reluctantly "shed its skin." To be precise, it removed the skin suit covered in carapace, spikes, and insect limbs, revealing the body of a normal human.

Thales's mouth fell open.

Behind him, the giant monster who had just received Thales's elbow shook both hands and pulled his arms out of a pair of fake giant arms. However, his face remained twisted and crooked. That was probably natural.

More and more torches were lit, illuminating the sewer. The monsters behind Vorniak also began to move and "shed their skins" amid a burst of commotion. They removed different monster masks and head coverings, took off hides, threw away fake limbs, and revealed one human figure after another.

Thales suddenly understood.

So that was it.

What Hell's senses had seen earlier were actually flesh-and-blood people wrapped inside skins.

Fuck water ghouls.

"Ha."

Thales helplessly let out a breath and lowered his dagger.

"After all that, it was people scaring people."

And here he had thought his martial skills had improved, that he could leap and dodge through a dangerous sewer full of water ghouls, killing his way in and out seven times...

Huh?

Thales blinked in surprise and looked at Vorniak after he removed the monster hide, revealing his true form.

He did not look very old, but the tumor protruding from his right shoulder was as large as two or three heads, like a ball stuffed inside his body. Not only did it twist his form crookedly and make it bulge strangely, it also pushed his head toward the left, pulling his right shoulder and right arm a foot higher. When he walked, his whole body rose and fell unevenly, uncoordinated and irregular. Worse still, the pus-seeping tumor extended onto Vorniak's face, making half his face look terribly swollen.

To be honest, it was even more...

Uncomfortable than his half-human, half-insect appearance from earlier.

Thales instinctively frowned.

The strangely shaped Vorniak seemed extremely sensitive. He noticed Thales staring at him and immediately shot him a look.

"What? Never seen a monster before?"

Vorniak said viciously. When he spoke, his shoulders were uneven, and the glaring tumor beside his neck twitched up and down, making people uncomfortable.

Thales showed an awkward smile. He lowered his voice and said to Hilley,

"What exactly is this place..."

"Ah, so it's you, little calamity, Twenty-Four!"

Before Thales could finish, a short figure dragged a pile of soft skin suits through the water with difficulty and came before them.

Thales had to lower his head to see the figure clearly. This was a man with short arms and short legs, at most three feet tall, but his head was unusually large, and his face looked fully forty years old. He was, hmm, a dwarf?

"Why did you come back? Gathering day hasn't arrived yet!"

The extraordinarily short man raised his head, revealing a weathered face.

"Uncle Hauser."

Hilley said weakly,

"Can't I come back early to have a look?"

Vorniak snorted from the side, the tumors on his face and shoulder trembling chaotically.

Short Uncle Hauser stood on tiptoe, narrowed his eyes at Hilley, then looked at Thales. Only then did he grunt, turn around, and creak his way back, waving his short little hands.

"Go back, go back. It's not an invasion. One of our own came home. Disperse, disperse. Aren't we eating?"

A large wave of relieved voices came from the sewer. The people who had taken off their skin suits turned back one after another, whispering among themselves as they scattered away.

Uncle Hauser patted the ugly-faced "giant monster" with the unusually tiny eyes and drove him to his feet.

"Yes, Bobo, you go back too. Go back. Go back and eat. Nothing to do with you now. Yes, you silly big fellow..."

"Woo woo woo!"

"All right, all right, you adorable big fellow..."

"Woo woo!"

Thales looked at those "monsters" dragging their skin suits back, uncertain and startled. Among them, some had ugly faces, some lacked arms or legs, some had unusual bodies...

This was...

"Right. Where's Srimanny?"

Hilley reacted and quickly asked,

"Vorniak, where is the man who came down with us?"

Vorniak tilted his body, shrugged the only shoulder he could move freely, and raised the torch to make way.

Behind him, Srimanny lay straight in a corner by the wall, eyes shut tight. He had long since been frightened unconscious.

A few minutes later, Thales and Hilley sat around a fire by the edge of a long-abandoned reservoir. The sewage flowed quietly in the low ground several meters away from them, and the well openings overhead cast down a few beams of light.

"What could I do?"

Vorniak sat across from them, waving both hands. The tumor on his shoulder looked practically like another head.

"The emergency exit suddenly opened. You were carried back by Bobo, unconscious and covered in blood. Then two people came down, and the second one was even holding a weapon. Anyone would think you had caused trouble outside and were being chased down... tell me, Twenty-Four, what was I supposed to do?"

"Maybe you could have been friendlier instead of immediately starting to scare people."

Hilley had changed into slightly cleaner clothes, and her head was wrapped in bandages. She held a container that was less a cup and more an iron box, drinking the strange-tasting medicine inside.

"I hadn't come back in too long. I missed my footing while turning and hit my head. Then I fainted. Hiss... ah, it hurts!"

Hilley touched the wound on her head, her expression painful.

Thales sat beside her and frowned at the medicine in his own "cup."

"Hey, scaring people away was your idea!"

Vorniak protested.

Thales looked around uneasily.

This was a long-abandoned sewer. The conditions were crude, but the area was not small. Inside lived all kinds of, all kinds of, uh...

"Today, the illusion in the teacup showed 'return,' so I knew something would happen. Haha."

On the other side, a short dwarf woman scooped a spoonful of foul-smelling medicine from a battered bucket and walked toward Srimanny, who was curled in the corner and even more frightened after waking up.

"Keep drinking, unless you want to get sick or die from infection! You should know, that was sewer water just now!"

"Thank you, Aunt Gadama."

Hilley sighed and drank the foul medicine without hesitation.

"In any case, Twenty-Four is back. That's the best thing. Perfect timing, eat lunch with us!"

Beside the fire, a girl stirring a pot picked up the conversation. Her voice was sweet and clear, and her long hair was black and glossy.

"Thank you, Dorothy. I can't wait."

Hilley smiled as she replied, her voice especially gentle.

Thales could not help looking at Hilley. This was the first time he had heard her speak with such a good attitude.

But for some reason, that girl named Dorothy had been facing them with the back of her head the entire time...

Huh?

Thales was startled. Only then did he realize that from her forehead to around her eyes, and from her nose to her chin, the girl's face was covered in dense hair.

That was why, from afar, it looked like the back of a head.

Dorothy sensed Thales staring at her and immediately trembled. She suddenly covered her face and turned away, avoiding his gaze.

"Hey, where are you looking?"

Vorniak angrily shouted from the side, and Thales quickly lowered his head.

"It's all right, Dorothy. He's my friend."

As Hilley comforted Dorothy, she looked reproachfully at Thales.

"He doesn't know better."

"Friend?"

Vorniak said irritably, his hostility toward Thales overflowing.

"We don't have friends!"

"Oh, don't be silly, you little tumor."

Aunt Gadama put down a spoon taller than herself and turned around.

"Of course you have friends. The whole tunnel is full of them!"

"Woo woo!"

Farther out, Bobo, the giant with a peculiar face, rare appearance, and the mind of a child, huffed and nodded.

The whole tunnel.

Thales turned his head. In this abandoned sewer, every corner and cavern had some people living in it. Hmm, "peculiar" people. It was mealtime now, and they moved busily back and forth, their figures flickering in the firelight.

"It's not the same! You, me, Twenty-Four, Dorothy, Bobo, and Uncle Hauser, we're all the same. We belong here."

Vorniak pointed unhappily at Thales.

"But him. He isn't one of us!"

One of us...

Thales frowned.

"Oh, of course he's one of us. Look if you don't believe me."

Hilley raised her head, turned around, and smacked the back of Thales's head.

"Ow!"

Thales hissed in pain.

"What are you doing?"

But Hilley not only did not stop, she struck him several more times in succession.

"Ow! Ah! Ouch!"

Thales could not bear it anymore. He moved three steps away, turned back with his hands over his head, and glared angrily at Hilley.

"See?"

Hilley looked at Vorniak and Dorothy and shrugged.

"This is Wya. When he was little, he fell and broke his head. He's brain-damaged."

Everyone was stunned when they heard this. A few seconds later, Vorniak turned his head away angrily, while Dorothy giggled.

"I'm truly happy for you, Little Six!"

Aunt Gadama waved her spoon and laughed heartily.

"You finally have a boyfriend!"

"Woo woo!"

The peculiar residents beside the fire began jeering back and forth. Only Vorniak remained unwilling.

Facing their gazes, Thales was incomparably embarrassed.

"He is not my boyfriend."

Hilley said listlessly.

"Really? But the way he saved you just now was very handsome!"

Aunt Gadama blinked.

"Yes, that's how storybooks write it!"

Dorothy added.

"What about him?"

Uncle Hauser appeared from another opening with a pile of goods in his arms. He came to a table that was clearly a workbench, stood on a footstool, and gestured toward Srimanny, who was hiding in the corner and forcing a smile.

"All right, he's a passenger from above."

Hilley sighed.

"A refugee."

As soon as she finished speaking, Thales felt that everyone's gazes toward Srimanny immediately turned wary, full of rejection and hostility.

At that instant, he suddenly realized that the few strikes to the back of his head just now had been Hilley's guarantee for him.

"All right. Srimanny is a defense attorney."

Hilley said,

"He has money."

Looking at so many peculiar gazes, Srimanny had no choice but to smile amid fear and tension.

"Two coppers an hour. Twenty for overnight. Food costs extra."

Vorniak pulled a long face.

"Stop looking. You're not the first person to come here for refuge!"

Srimanny froze until Bobo beside him gave an angry grunt.

"Woo!"

Only then did Srimanny react and hurry to speak.

"All right, all right. I'll pay. I'll pay, damn it..."

But his motion to take out money stopped.

"Er, I, I, my money is all..."

Srimanny awkwardly pointed above his head.

Under the hostile gazes of the gathered residents, Thales sighed, took out the money pouch the real Wya had given him, pulled out a handful of coins, and handed them to Vorniak.

Only then did everyone's gazes soften. Dorothy and Aunt Gadama began passing bowls and distributing food, though it was only ordinary oatmeal and stew.

"Th-thank you. Is this a sewer? What exactly is this place? And who exactly are you?"

Srimanny was no longer as tense as before, but perhaps because of his circumstances, or perhaps because the environment was too dirty, he still seemed very uncomfortable.

"This place is our home."

Aunt Gadama dragged the pot over, dumped a spoonful of porridge into his broken bowl, then carefully scraped around in the pot and gently placed the next spoonful into Hilley's bowl.

"If that doesn't work, you can understand us as our gang."

"The Overlord Gang!"

Vorniak held up his bowl, incomparably proud.

"The Sewer Gang!"

Uncle Hauser, who was sorting through old goods nearby, mocked him.

"The Brutal Gang!"

Vorniak refused to accept it.

"The Scary Gang!"

Aunt Gadama laughed loudly.

"The Super Terrifying Gang?"

Vorniak hesitated, then offered another suggestion.

"Woo woo!"

Bobo answered from the other side.

"The Underground Monster Gang!"

Vorniak still wanted to struggle a little.

"The Helpful Gang."

Dorothy said softly, her face covered in hair.

"Fine."

Vorniak sighed and gave up the argument. He touched the tumor on his shoulder.

"We've argued for more than ten years, and we still haven't agreed on a gang name."

"You're the only one arguing."

Uncle Hauser laboriously opened an old umbrella full of holes and began dismantling the ribs.

"In the tunnel, everyone is busy living. No one cares about that at all."

"Of course we have to care!"

Vorniak argued.

"How did the Blood Bottle Gang and the Brotherhood make their names known? That's right, it started with a mighty and impressive name!"

Thales stayed silent, watching them bicker back and forth, yet he felt a sense of familiarity.

It was as if he had returned to the beggars' Sixth House.

Perhaps outside the house, danger was everywhere, but as long as one entered the house, as long as one hid inside the nest of one's own people...

"So the legend of the water ghouls in Jade City is you?"

Thales suddenly asked.

"Other way around."

Uncle Hauser shook his head.

"We used the water ghoul legend to scare unrelated outsiders away and keep them from danger. Twenty-Four's idea."

Thales leaned close to Hilley's ear and whispered,

"Why do they call you Twenty-Four?"

Hilley's eyes brightened. She raised her left hand, and the six fingers on it bounced back and forth.

"Oh."

Thales suddenly understood.

But the next moment, he realized that at some point, Hilley had taken off her gloves.

The eldest daughter of the Covendier family sat like that, showing her twelve fingers, holding her broken bowl with a relaxed posture and a natural expression. She sat in this dirty, foul-smelling abandoned sewer, around the fire, going back and forth with Dorothy, Vorniak, Bobo, and the others, arguing and joking.

There was no golden splendor, no fine clothes or delicacies, no attention from thousands of people.

But she, Hilley Covendier, or perhaps Twenty-Four, sat among them. Among the giant with the peculiar face and deficient mind, the young man covered in tumors, the dwarf couple, the girl with hair all over her face, and perhaps many more besides.

And she smiled so happily.

So freely.

As if this place was her true home, her fortress, her Emerald Palace.

In that instant, the damaged and incomplete faces and bodies of the people before him suddenly became much easier to look at.

Thales suddenly understood how Hilley had become connected to this place.

By comparison, did he, Thales Jadestar, have such a place?

Mindis Hall?

Star Lake Castle?

Thinking this, Thales gradually fell into a daze.