Chapter Thirty: The Shortcut

There is no subway in the City of the Firmament.

For an airborne metropolis designed to rival the world’s great capitals, this is almost unimaginable. The locals have mocked the authorities’ inaction countless times. All our taxes are just being used to raise bioengineered pigeons! That’s a common joke among students.

Gongsun Ce had made the same quip before. But now, with the topic raised in a serious discussion, he could hardly brush it aside with a student’s jest.

The Esper spoke slowly, “There are sewers and underground cables in the City of the Firmament…”

“But how deep do they go? Ordinary pipes are only one or two meters deep. Even if the city uses a utility tunnel system, it’s only a few meters underground. But a subway would require tunneling more than twenty meters deep. It’s not that the city’s managers don’t want a subway—they simply can’t build one!” Alice Eidol’s words came faster and faster, in stark contrast to the Esper’s hesitation. “What is unique to the City of the Firmament? The answer has always been right before us: the city itself. It floats in the sky—it’s built atop the corpse of the Sky Dragon!”

If you started digging from the surface of the city, going down dozens of meters, where would you end up?

“We’re standing on the dragon’s wing. The ground beneath the Fixed Wing and Feral Wing Districts probably isn’t deep enough for a subway tunnel, but if you reach the central district…”

“You’d have to break through the dragon’s hide and dig into its very body!” Alice pointed excitedly at her companion. “Takizawa Yoshihisa’s investigation of the sewers was to map out the city’s underground pipes and find their design flaws, while Tirloth was on the surface looking for the corresponding entrance. That’s it, Gongsun Ce! The Dragon Cultists are headed for the city’s underground spaces—the interior of the Sky Dragon itself. Judging by how their leader separated from them, they’ve already found an entrance into the dragon’s belly!”

How could he have missed it? It was the most logical answer: the Dragon Cultists had come all this way to go beneath the city, into the body of the being they worshipped as a god. When the great nations built the City of the Firmament, they must have considered this. Before city planning even began, they would have investigated the dragon’s internal structure, and only then dared to construct a city atop its remains.

If the dragon is a creature, what would its abdominal cavity contain?

The Esper tried to deduce their movements. “Tirloth left the Thorn District for the Fixed Wing District. I doubt that madman knows the city’s local birds—you don’t even know them—so he probably went by land. By land… Miss Alice, Tirloth’s tracker lost signal at that time.”

“I thought he just hid somewhere with poor reception… You mean—!”

Gongsun Ce pointed at the ground beneath their feet. “Of course the signal would be lost—Tirloth K. found a way to go underground. He was right beneath us! He discovered the method to get below, and his escape was to relay that information to their leader. During that process, they must have found your tracker, which is why Tirloth had the resources to set a trap and lure us to the Fixed Wing District. That only drew us away from where we should have been investigating from the start!”

Picking up the details he’d previously missed, the young man felt his mind come alive.

He traced a finger across the map on the screen, starting from the Thorn District at the lower body, following the course up a quarter of the dragon’s torso, turning at the junction of wing and body, and pointing to their current location in the Fixed Wing District. “If the target is underground, everything makes sense. Somewhere in the area where Tirloth moved, there must be a passage leading down. Miss Alice, it’s time for you to act…”

Alice rapidly entered a string of numbers. “The city authorities must know what’s beneath the City of the Firmament!”

The hunter’s call seemed to go through; Gongsun Ce heard a rapid yet elegant string of words in the common tongue from behind him. Her pronunciation was more precise than that of the average citizen in the kingdom’s capital, and she used not a single slang term or colloquialism.

Three years ago, he would have understood every word, but now, having been away from that language environment for so long, he only caught the gist: the hunter was demanding information about the city’s underground from the kingdom’s officials.

Judging by her ever-more agitated expression, the conversation was not going well.

“You call this the utmost assistance? Your stubbornness will bring shame to the cross on your chest!”

This must have been a grave accusation in the kingdom. The person on the other end did not reply immediately, seemingly taken aback. Alice’s face darkened further, until, after a few more words from the other side, her expression finally eased, and after a brief exchange, she hung up.

“Looks like the situation isn’t good.”

The blue-haired hunter gritted her teeth. “Insufficient clearance, need to consult superiors, a decision will be made and we’ll be informed… At a time like this, the esteemed gentlemen can still say things like that!”

Gongsun Ce sighed, covering his face. “I’m starting to believe the kingdom’s sitcoms are realistic.”

“Bureaucrats are the same everywhere,” Alice said, frustrated. “In the end, all they’d say was that if we ‘inadvertently enter certain areas due to force majeure,’ the kingdom will ‘trust the judgment of frontline personnel, and to avoid unforeseen incidents from third-party interference, will refrain from dispatching a rescue team for now.’”

The bespectacled young man waved his hands.

“Translate, translate.”

“In other words, if we find our own way down, they’ll turn a blind eye and won’t stop us. That’s as much as they’re willing to do.” The hunter shook her poor sidekick. “Go ask the information broker what he’s found, quick!”

Your anxiety is understandable.

But at least don’t treat the harmless Esper like that—his glasses were about to fall off.

“Don’t panic, don’t panic.”

Finally realizing her lapse, the blue-haired hunter quickly let go.

“Sorry.”

The Esper stared blankly. “It’s fine. It’s better than dragging me by the collar at a brisk pace. I’ve long since gotten used to being manhandled by older women from the kingdom.”

This was no lie.

“Really…” Alice hesitated. “Your tone is so hopeless I can’t tell whether to joke or offer sympathy.”

Please offer sympathy.

The nature of an action doesn’t change based on the doer’s appearance or status. Whether the blow comes from an ugly old man or a petite beauty, the pain is the same. Only subjective perception changes—because it’s a beautiful girl, it’s okay; because it’s a friend, it’s okay; and a rare few might say they enjoy pain, so it’s okay. The Esper counted himself in none of these categories. Whether it was the subtly intimidating hunter or the willful knight, both with their dazzling looks, he felt nothing positive about being handled roughly.

Only at times like this did he truly appreciate the value of friendship. The suited pervert and the information broker would never treat him that way; those two would always act appropriately at the right moment.

Just as they were doing now.

Gongsun Ce pulled his phone from his pocket. On the screen was a call from the information broker. Miss Alice smiled in delight.

“Hello, Gongsun Ce speaking.”

On the other end, there was the crunch of chips—Mo Yuankai must have opened another bag.

“What’s the status, Ce?”

“We’ve defeated Takizawa Yoshihisa; they worship the dragon as a god. We suspect the last leader went underground. Miss Alice doesn’t have the clearance for intel—the best the authorities can offer is to let us figure things out ourselves.”

“Got it. The nearest Blue Feather Station is a ten-minute walk straight ahead; then circle back to White Feather Station in the Thorn District.”

The Esper sent the coordinates to the hunter, and Alice vanished with him in tow.

From the factory gates to the top of the high-rise, to the center of the highway, their figures flickered and reappeared like ghosts, leaving behind a few startled bystanders and a scattering of fading flowers in the night.

Radio communication wouldn’t hold up under these conditions. The information broker hung up and sent a series of recorded voice messages instead. “The last dragon cultist hid well. At 6:40 last night, he entered the main entrance of Hensler Complex in the central district and never came out. I suspect he entered the underground from that building.”

Alice sped up the teleportation. “That was two hours ago?! Why would he—”

“Miss Eidol, you must be wondering why I didn’t find out sooner. Every piece of surveillance footage showing this man was tampered with. Either he’s bribed someone high up in the city, or he used his own abilities to achieve this effect.” The broker’s voice was as calm as when they’d first met. “Now, to answer your second question. If you try to use the official route, you’ll never catch up. That’s why I told you to take the shortcut in the Thorn District.”

The Thorn District, at the rear of the central district, forming the dragon’s lower body—the area where Gongsun Ce lived.

It was named for the dozens of giant white towers that rose from underground.

The dragon cultist leader had entered the underground from the central district, so logically they should head there as well, but the broker’s advice was otherwise…

“I’ve lived in the Thorn District for years and never knew there was a way underground near my home.”

His old friend laughed. “Ce, you really are oblivious. Have you ever wondered what those white towers called ‘thorns’ near your house actually are?”