The City Where Gray Rain Falls Chapter 13

Even if the neighborhood watch work was said to be easy compared to other jobs, they still had to walk for hours each day, so it was grueling for Vincent, who limped slightly due to arthritis pain.

Despite that, he never pushed his work onto his partner, nor did he ever complain no matter how long they walked. When it truly became too much, all he did was suggest they rest a bit, just like now.

“Being young is a wonderful thing. When I was your age, I was flying around too.”

In the short span of a week, Isaac had learned a lot about Vincent.

That the situation in Sector 26 was no different from Sector 28. That he had been desperately looking for work to send his sick wife to a capable doctor. That he also had no idea how he himself had been selected. That he had lost his only son at a young age, unable to do anything, and so he was fighting with all his might because he didn’t want to lose his wife too.

Such circumstances were enough to stir sympathy and fondness for the unfamiliar Vincent.

Perhaps it was because he was the first person Isaac had gotten this close to since entering the city, or perhaps because he’d had absolutely no one to rely on. Even Isaac would let his guard down in front of him and sometimes chatter a little.

“…I don’t think there are any suspicious people.”

“Hehe, that’s true. Who would parade around openly asking to be caught?”

“From outside…”

“Outside? Outside the city?”

Lost in other thoughts, he had almost let his words slip. That he didn’t know where or how to start looking for someone who had come in from outside. That there was someone he was looking for. That was why he was wandering around so diligently.

“Ah, I mean, this kind of work is my first time. I don’t know how to spot someone from ‘outside.'”

Isaac judged it would be best to wrap up the conversation neatly, if only to cover his slip of the tongue. So he crafted a question to ask for a bit of advice, one that would allow the other man to boast freely and flaunt his years of experience.

“Ah, that’s not difficult. Think of it like a spot-the-difference puzzle. You look for someone who makes the city’s gray background feel out of place.”

“Can you see it, Vincent?”

“I’ve lived here for over fifty years, so of course. I can spot someone from outside at a glance. Ha ha.”

Vincent thumped his chest and let out a hearty laugh. It was rather amusing to see him confidently boast like that, utterly unaware that the ‘suspicious person’ from outside was right beside him.

It was clear that even this man, streetwise to the ways of the city, hadn’t an iota of suspicion toward Isaac. Once he felt certain he was perfectly disguised as just another citizen, another question he had been keeping bottled up spilled out of his mouth.

“…By any chance, is there a way to find a missing person?”

“Missing? Ah, is someone in your family missing?”

At the question asked in return, Isaac unconsciously nodded. It wasn’t exactly a lie. Asel was family, and he had come all this way because he wanted to find him.

“Ahhh, so that’s why you applied to the neighborhood watch…”

The moment he realized his partner’s pitiful circumstances, bitterness immediately seeped into Vincent’s expression.

“Well, it makes sense. There’s absolutely no way to search here.”

In the city, people disappeared daily for various reasons.

Some were dragged away somewhere and never returned. Some, though rarely, left the city altogether. Others sold their identities and chose to vanish on their own.

Therefore, missing persons were treated the same as the deceased. Whether it was real death or a false one, it was all the same in that they had gone to a place from which they could not be found. There was no way the city would waste its administrative power on searching for a single person.

“…Ahem. It’s a pity. Still, it would be nice to at least know whether he’s alive or dead.”

“Yes. That’s true…”

Those left behind, the family and friends of the disappeared, wanted nothing more than that. Just to know if they were alive or dead. Vincent surely knew that, too, but a mere commoner struggling just to get through the day likely had no real solution.

His eyes slid shut as he stroked his chin, and a murmured soliloquy unconsciously slipped from his lips.

“If only we could check the death registry in the records room on the third floor of the Public Security Bureau… that would be great…”

Though it was a passing remark tossed out in regret, Isaac didn’t miss what Vincent said.

“The death registry?”

“Ahh, when bodies are found, the Public Security Bureau handles them. Whether they’re identified or not. Anyway, they manage all the city’s death records.”

Suddenly clamping his mouth shut, his eyes darting left and right, Vincent saw his partner sinking into dangerous thoughts. He groaned as he laboriously pulled himself up, using the sound as fuel, and issued a stern warning.

“Forget it. I was just talking.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to die, don’t even think about it. That’s not a place you can enter recklessly, nor one you ever should.”

∞ ∞ ∞

Waaaaah. The siren signaling the start of the curfew blared, and the city became deathly quiet, eventually buried in pitch-black darkness. But in front of the Public Security Bureau building, it was bright with lights lit to celebrate the new Chief Commissioner’s inauguration ceremony.

The city’s rules were only obligatory for citizens. The rulers could monopolize the quiet night anytime by holding or attending lavish banquets.

Due to the Party’s recent policy prohibiting needlessly extravagant social events, they needed a proper pretext like a new Chief Commissioner’s inauguration. But for them, things like being out during curfew, or the alcohol and expensive clothes forbidden to citizens, were practically everyday things.

To the man of the hour, who was doing a final check of his attire in front of the mirror, his adjutant Walter relayed a rather unwelcome situation.

“Most of those who responded they would attend have arrived, but the number of attendees itself is too small, which is problematic. Even Mr. Lot hasn’t come…”

Although this inauguration ceremony was being held much later than those of his predecessors because approval had been so slow in coming, the Party’s key figures had declared a mass boycott.

Even those who at least sent a reply saying they would be unable to attend due to some circumstance or other were on the better side. Usually, the invitations were sent back unaccepted, without even stating a reason for their absence. Samuel’s foster father, ‘Lot,’ was the same.

Some concocted their own reason, saying they were too afraid that gathering together might lead to some irreversible accident. But this was the Public Security Bureau, guarded by hundreds of officers. Such excuses didn’t hold water in the city’s greatest fortress. Moreover, during the time of the previous Chief Commissioner, a cast-off has-been, hadn’t everyone attended except for a few who were unwell?

This was nothing more than a petty power play. Even if they had no choice but to tacitly condone an unqualified outsider rising to the position of Chief Commissioner, they didn’t want to come in person, clap their hands, and offer congratulations.

What reason could such great personages have to grace an event merely commemorating a watchdog getting a fancy title?

Receiving the list from Walter’s hand and roughly scanning the attendees, Samuel’s eyes formed a meaningful arc.

On the five-page invitation list, those marked as finally attending numbered less than half. The first page, especially, could be counted on one hand, and the back pages barely exceeded ten. Only on the last page had the numbers been filled out enough to save face.

“Still, everyone who’s supposed to come, came.”

Numbers were utterly useless. What mattered to Samuel was whether the finest bait that would whet the appetites of the fish he had penned in had arrived. Fortunately, roughly two of the finest baits Samuel had in mind had readily accepted the invitation.

Since it was the angler’s prerogative to test with as many different materials as possible to know exactly what the big catch wanted.

“Chief Commissioner, the deployment at the main building is also complete.”