A chat group where you switch bodies with Alicia at the start?

Page 162

"You're looking for that nursing home, right?"

"Yes, the person I'm looking for is called 'Aponia'."

Upon hearing Jiang Qiao's goal, the cat was somewhat surprised:

"Oh, so you were looking for her, Alice..."

In fact, Aponia's private sanatorium was one of the recipients of her poverty alleviation aid. After she robbed the rich to help the poor, she would often secretly send some dry food or other items to the sanatorium's storage room.

She didn't have much contact with the caregiver, or rather, she deliberately avoided contact with her. Although Aponia seemed quite gentle, she was quite intimidating to a child like Paddo who had grown up like a wildcat.

If you get caught, you'll be nagged for at least half a day. Cats that have had similar experiences still have psychological trauma when they think of Aponia.

"I don't know much about that sanatorium, but it seems to be in a bad situation lately... You can try to find out more from Xiao Paduo, haha, she's probably the most well-informed and knowledgeable person in our Twilight Street."

"Okay, okay, leave it to me~ I may not be good at other things, but when it comes to knowing Twilight Street better than me."

After saying that, the cat chuckled and said:

"Oh dear, Sister Ellie, you should have said you wanted to find a sanatorium earlier. I'm an expert at this kind of thing."

"I'll lead the way, um... it's best to avoid the main roads."

Leaving the hardware store, Pado, who was walking ahead, volunteered to lead the way, while muttering to herself.

"why?"

"Recently, Huanghun Street has become more chaotic than before. I don't know why, but some of the petty thugs who used to be relatively well-behaved have started to openly block the muddy road and attack people, making everyone on Huanghun Street feel uneasy."

"Is it related to the sanatorium?" Jiang Qiao keenly sensed something.

"It seems so. Some people say it's because that nursing home was taking in patients indiscriminately that epidemics from outside have spread in... Ugh, if you ask me, it's definitely those bad guys in the rich neighborhood causing trouble again. What epidemic? We go to that nursing home all the time, and nothing's happened to us."

Following behind the nonchalant cat, the pink-clad girl frowned slightly.

He remembered that Aponia often meant well but ended up doing bad things.

In fact, Jiang Qiao had encountered some Herrscher of Domination particle carriers along the way in Twilight Street, but the proportion was significantly higher after arriving in Twilight Street.

Jiang Qiao initially thought it was due to the atmosphere of Twilight Town, but through what Pado said...

Putting aside her thoughts, the girl casually said:

"Speaking of which, shouldn't the side road be more dangerous?"

"That's true, but the alley we're talking about is actually little known even to the locals. Don't worry, we discovered it by secret while we were buying goods here, and we've managed to evade those bad guys' pursuit many times thanks to it."

As she spoke, a somewhat smug Pado climbed up an extremely dilapidated ladder. "Stay close to me, Sister Aili."

Indeed, very few people would know about such a passage. After all, what the cat calls a 'path' is actually a series of holes and rooftops connected together. It's hard to call it a 'path' in the conventional sense. If you had to say, it's more like a path that a cat would walk on.

However, it does have advantages, such as being well concealed.

Following Pado, Jiang Qiao felt as if she were playing some kind of stealth game.

...Hmm, it feels like it would be faster to just take the main road.

However, it is indeed a very novel experience.

The only downside might be... there's a lot of dust.

"Cough cough~" The pink-haired girl coughed as she dusted herself off. A green light flowed across the surface of the broken emerald ring on her finger, and the choking particles gradually disappeared in the breeze.

Finally, after following the cat over several buildings and across several rooftops, Jiang Qiao finally heard some good news:

"Alright, Sister Ali, we've arrived."

At Pado's direction, he saw his destination—the sanatorium in Aponia.

Needless to say, it is just as dilapidated as this twilight street, but it looks quite simple and clean, showing that someone cleans it regularly.

"Many homeless children and patients in Twilight Street are taken in by Sister Aponia to her sanatorium. Although I don't really want to get close to her, Sister Aponia is indeed a rare kind person. It's just a bit wasteful. Food is something that is very precious in Twilight Street, but every time I come here after I have nothing to eat and I am thinking of finding some leftovers to fill my stomach, I can see leftovers. Hey~ they taste pretty good."

Because of the scarcity of resources and extreme poverty, the residents of Huanghun Street always cherish food. They would eat it so much that they didn't even need to wash the bowls, and after checking them, they might even find that a corner was missing.

In places like this, it seems that "leftovers" can only be found in the trash cans of the rich.

"Hey, what's going on here?"

Pado, who was the first to climb into the sanatorium, was stunned when she saw the somewhat messy sanatorium, which looked as if it had experienced some kind of riot.

The interior of the sanatorium was nothing like the cleanliness it appeared from the outside. It was filled with traces of violence.

"There were signs of a struggle, blood...this bullet hole...it was a pistol bullet."

Following closely behind, [Alicia] approached the pillar, gently touching the bullet marks and holes left behind. At the same time, the gear marks belonging to the Herrscher of Reason appeared in her eyes, quickly capturing other traces inside the sanatorium.

"It wasn't long ago... maybe just a few hours ago."

"Phyllis, is anyone still at the sanatorium?"

"Ah... let me see!"

When asked, the somewhat flustered cat rushed into the sanatorium. Judging from her familiar manner, she was already a regular at this sanatorium.

Picking up a trace of blood, sensing the remaining information within, the pink-haired girl frowned slightly:

“There are traces of Honkai energy in the blood…but Aponia also takes in patients with Honkai disease…it’s hard to tell.”

"Aili, there's one more person!"

—He was a child from a nursing home who had hidden away.

Her Honkai energy resistance is quite high... Did she pass the control particle test like Phylis?

Sensing the traces of the Ruler of Domination, Jiang Qiao revealed a knowing expression.

Based on the information provided by the cat, there was no one else in the entire sanatorium except for this child who was hiding very well.

There were only signs of vandalism, and not even a body was found, which is obviously very abnormal.

He glanced at Pado, who paused for a moment, then understood what he meant, nodded, and asked the only survivor in the sanatorium in a rather gentle voice:

"Timmy, tell me... what happened at the nursing home, okay?"

Jiang Qiao could see the little guy's fear.

While this body should be able to soothe them, it would be more appropriate to let Phyllis, who is more familiar with the children in the sanatorium, do it.

And this is clearly accurate, although Pado and Aponia have a rather ordinary relationship, she is quite close to the children in the sanatorium.

Suddenly... a group of people rushed into the sanatorium and kidnapped everyone except me... because I was playing hide-and-seek, I managed to escape.

Hide-and-seek is one of the few forms of entertainment available to the children at the sanatorium.

The only remaining child, named Timmy, was the best at hide-and-seek in the sanatorium.

Even within this not-so-spacious sanatorium, he could hide very well thanks to his superb concealment skills. In this respect, even Phyllis had learned a lot from Timmy—although this hide-and-seek technique seemed to fail every time she encountered Aponia. That seemingly gentle nun could always catch Thoth in a very short time, and then transform into a great monk from the East to let Timmy, who was trying to provoke her, experience what it meant to have "every family has its own troubles."

But today, this seems to be an exception.

"I don't know where they took everyone from the nursing home, but... it seems to be in that direction."

"What's in that direction, Phyllis?"

Following the direction Timmy pointed, the pink-clad girl, who had been squinting, immediately consulted her Twilight Street guide.

Although the cat seemed a little distracted by the situation at the sanatorium, it quickly gave an answer after glancing at the situation.

"Over there, there's a Good Luck Bridge..."

—It is said that as long as you cross that lucky bridge, your luck will improve. This is a rumor circulating in Twilight Street.

However, almost no one believed it.

After all, so many people come and go on the Bridge of Good Fortune every day, yet none of them seem to have won a big prize.

It's possible that you'll get lucky even more often.

For this reason, truck drivers often avoid crossing the Good Fortune Bridge.

Two words—bad luck.

“I quite like this bridge. Although many people think it’s unlucky and dilapidated, when there’s nowhere else to go, we can just bring a blanket and make do for the night in the archway under this bridge. Sister Ellie, don’t be fooled by its old appearance. It’s quite comfortable in winter and summer. Many homeless children like us use it as their home.”

Walking on the twilight bridge with Alicia, Pado touched the rusty handrail and sighed:

“Every time I come here, I feel a sense of nostalgia. Sometimes I think, maybe this is where I was born?”

"Since Sister Aponia's sanatorium opened, many homeless children here have had a new place to go... Although we can't stand her lecturing anymore, she is really a very, very good person, as are everyone at the sanatorium."

"...How could anyone target them?"

The chestnut-haired girl's voice was low and her mood was somewhat down.

She really liked the nursing home—it felt like home.

Aponia's selfless acts of kindness were also a form of salvation for the underprivileged residents of Twilight Street.

So often, the wealthier residents would donate some food, and the petty thugs at the bottom of society wouldn't dare to cause trouble for the Aponia sanatorium.

It could be said that the sanatorium in Aponia was the only glimmer of humanity in this garbage dump-like twilight street.

The kindness of the residents of Twilight Street is almost entirely preserved there.