Chapter 407: The Southern-Residential District
As one Marquess Balfour’s True Disciples, whenever Eris left safe-zones like the Manor, she was constantly being protected by a team of masters that included at least one Spirit Initiate. The same was true for Lucas and Christina, but the difference was Eris’ protective detail seldom appeared before her, instead just watching over her from the shadows.
Whether this extra layer of protection was even necessary was debatable, as inside Misty City, anyone with fiery red hair was basically untouchable.
The Balfour Family weren’t tyrants; if anything, they were incredibly kind and righteous rulers, but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. Everyone, whether they were natives or foreigners, knew not to offend a Balfour unless they wanted a good beating, as for trying to harm one, that was basically a death sentence in Misty City.
Where things differed greatly with other noble families, however, was if a commoner brought a complaint about a member of the Balfour Family to a member of the family’s Law Enforcers, a real investigation would be launched.
If it was found that someone from the family was really at fault or had caused serious trouble, they would be severely punished.
Celestina’s rules for her family could be summed up fairly simply as ’don’t cause me trouble’, and it was enforced strictly.
Today, for the first time, Eris was breaking that rule.
Lucas, Tina, and Sasha were working, and all of her usual guides were also busy, but Eris had an important reason for going out.
Eris had visited all of the orphanages in Misty City already, some of them multiple times, and she had made friends with many of the kids there.
Today happened to be the tenth birthday of one of those friends, a little girl named Becky.
The tenth birthday was an important occasion for any child in the Rockwell Kingdom, but the orphanage that Becky was being cared for in was one of the poorer ones, so they couldn’t really throw her a party of any kind.
At most, the old Director of the orphanage would give Becky an extra portion of food for dinner tonight.
That naturally didn’t sit well with Eris.
Eris had never wanted for food before, and since arriving in Misty City, she had attended so many parties and banquets she was almost sick of them.
She knew that life wasn’t fair, and that some kids would always have more than others, but the difference between how she lived and how Becky would be spending her precious tenth birthday was too jarring for Eris to stand.
It simply wasn’t right.
As such, Eris decided she had to do something. Gifting Becky anything too fancy or expensive would create problems, but a big batch of snacks she could share with the other kids at the orphanage would probably be fine.
Eris still wasn’t very good in the kitchen, but after many lessons and practice sessions with her mom, Christina, and Lucas, she could now manage some simple things, like cookies.
Thinking so, Eris had struggled hard last night, enlisting the help of the maids and ’borrowing’ some sugar from her Senior Brother to make enough sweets for today.
They were still a bit burnt, but that was really just extra flavour...
In any case! Thanks to Timothy, or ’Little Timmy’ as she usually called her big nephew, Eris knew her way through the streets of Misty City from the central district, where the Manor was, through the markets, past the south-central residential area, and to the poorer southern district.
Although it was one of the biggest, wealthiest cities in the kingdom, there was still a massive divide between the rich and poor areas of Misty City.
The southern-most residential district wasn’t quite a slum, but it was obvious to anyone who visited that no one of any real means was living there.
Houses in this part of Misty City were crammed right up against one another and built from the cheapest materials available. They weren’t shanties on the brink of collapse, but many weren’t far from that point.
The roads were also narrow and, aside from the biggest thoroughfares, made solely of dirt. As such, when it rained hard, it wasn’t unusual for this part of the city to flood or for streets to be washed out.
There were some homeless people and beggars, but those that were that destitute only comprised a minority of the southern district’s population. Most who lived here were simply poor, unskilled, or suffered from debilitating injuries which had drained their resources and prevented them from getting better work.
One might expect such a place to be littered with garbage and sewage, but surprisingly, the southern districts level of cleanliness wasn’t that much worse than the rest of Misty City.
The reason for this was simple, a certain highly prestigious and influential Spirit Doctor from the Empire had proven there was a link between how clean a city was and how often plagues broke out.
Ever since that knowledge filtered down to the nobles and rulers across the Blue Sky Continent, keeping up a minimum standard of sanitation became the norm.
Street cleaners and sweepers in the south residential district were what Lucas would call ’government employees’, labourers who were paid directly by the city administration and Balfour Family.
Dumping refuse directly onto the streets, whether it was human or animal, was also a crime punishable by hefty fines.
Of course, people still needed to take care of their business, so in order to alleviate this particular issue, public toilets were built throughout the district. These toilets were little more than big outhouses, but they got the job done.
Like with most of the city, such facilities, which no one spent more time in than absolutely necessary, were cleaned and emptied by criminals and slaves as part of their punishment.
As for where all the waste was ultimately dumped, some of it was carted to giant pits several kilometres to the south and then buried, but the most common method of disposal was simply to pour everything into the river far enough downstream to not cause issues.
Dumping untreated waste created its own set of problems, but no better solution had been found as of yet. It was also one of the main reasons the southern district had become the gathering place for the poor; it was closer to this unpleasant byproduct of civilization.