Chapter 97: The Shithole of a City Known as Ashmelion (1/2)

Calvin took this time to admire the disgusting smell lingering in the air. Back on his previous timeline, the air within the Ashmelion was so thick with pollutants that the fog in the air couldn't even be considered as fog anymore. It should be called smog. This visible air pollution called smog was created from the hundreds of factories in the city of Ashmelion.

The group continued their walk without saying anything at all.

The entire city of Ashmelion was divided into two halves by the Revoir River. Calvin separated from the Fayke family's caravan on the other side of the Yang bridge which connected both halves of the City of Ashmelion. The Yang Bridge looked imposing due to how wide it was — but the number of vagrants and beggars on its sidewalks diminished its beauty.

The Yang Bridge had the highest concentration of vagrants and beggars due to the number of carriages that passed through the bridge every day wherein the vagrants and could take advantage of to get some alms that the carriage passengers and sometimes drivers hurled towards them while they were in the comfort of their vehicles.

Both halves of the City of Ashmelion was also separated into five boroughs.

The Eastern Borough was the center of commerce. This place was the headquarters of many small companies, and the shopping district of Mapayapa Street along with the Joselian Royal Bank was also located in the Eastern Borough.

The Center Borough, on the other hand, which was the closest to the Yang Bridge and Revoir River housed the Ashmelion Stock Exchange Commission.

This place was also the headquarters of the Joselian Royal Bank as well as the headquarters of rail companies and bulk cargo commerce companies due to its close proximity to the river.

The Church of the Goddess of Compassion and Light, the Lumiere Cathedral was also located in the Center Borough.

As for the Western Borough, also known as the Capital of Slow Death... People often avoid this borough due to the fact that it housed hundreds of factories. The smell in the air was so thick with chemicals and sulfur that it was incredibly hard to breathe.

However, even though the air within this Borough was so toxic.

People suffering from poverty still visit this place to work in the sweatshops.

The adults frequented this place due to its brothels and work, while the children also flocked to this place so they could work in the various industries located in this place.

The boys worked for the textile companies while the women, adults, or not — often worked as strumpets, while some, worked in the matchstick companies.

The Southern Borough served as the main residential district for people whose income was in the middle-class range. It also housed a lot of small scale companies and a wet market, so people from all the other boroughs frequented the Southern Borough to do their shopping for their daily necessities.

As for the Northern Borough...

This was the most crowded area in the City of Ashmelion.

Ashmelion had a total population of ten million residents, and a preliminary estimate of the population count in Northern Borough amounted to at least three million people. This was where the poor lived along with the gangsters, petty thieves, and rogues.

One could consider this part of the city as the most unsafe place in the city of Ashmelion.

Calvin gave a bitter smile.

'The City of Ashmelion is also known as the City Where Dreams Begin. But from what I can see right now, and what I have experienced back then. This place is more suitable to be called the City Where Dreams Die Out. You don't even know when you'll lose your life from gangsters and thieves in a shithole like this.'

'I wonder just how did a pair of mother and daughter live all this while without being captured by the slave merchants and traders...' Calvin glanced at Charlotte and felt a sense of admiration towards this tough woman.

This city just wasn't suitable for raising children.

Calvin knew that Charlotte suffered a lot.

Just a single look on Charlotte's yellowish eyes, as well as her unusually pale complexion, made it obvious that she had suffered a lot just for the sake of her daughter. Why? Well, it was because when you compared Cecilia's complexion to Charlotte's, one could easily see the difference.

Her daughter looked incredibly healthy while Calvin reckoned that if Charlotte continued on doing whatever she was doing for them to survive in a shithole like this...

Charlotte would definitely die from an illness in the next five years.

Calvin let out a sigh.

He wasn't someone that always saved a damsel in distress.

But he was always thorough whenever he gave his help.

Since he had already decided to help both mother and daughter in their plight, he made a promise to himself that he would change their lives.

After all, Calvin was someone who never finished what he had started.

The group continued their journey and they then arrived in the Northern Borough proper of Ashmelion.

Calvin swept his gaze across the houses in front of him and discovered that the placement of houses and how close they were to each other reminded Calvin of the dangerous favelas in Brazil.

Furthermore, the place lacked any sanitation.

There was no sewage system so the people used chamber pots and just hurled their crap and urine out of the window.