It was another day without finding work.
Just after morning had passed, Old Kohler returned from the docks, his head lowered as he walked slowly.
September had ended and October had just begun; Backlund immediately became incomparably cold and damp. Even though it was morning, the air was already thick with a choking, damp mist, making it impossible to see more than a few meters ahead.
Old Kohler tightened his clothes, trying to preserve his body heat with his tattered overcoat and prevent it from slipping away.
He hadn't managed to find any work for several days now. He only had a few pence left, not nearly enough to rent even the cheapest bed. The only accommodation he could afford was a Rope Bed—as the name suggested, it was just a horizontal rope that one hung over to get some sleep, costing only a Penny a night.
But Old Kohler was reluctant to pay even for that kind of bed because he had to eat. Without food, he would have no strength to take on the labor of moving goods at the docks, and that would mean waiting for death.
He walked slowly along the stone steps of the Tasock River bank, the white mist obscuring his vision.
For a moment, Old Kohler seemed to see glimpses of his past life.
Back then, he was a skilled shoemaker with a wife, children, and a house to live in. However, a Sickness had taken his family, and he himself had fallen critically ill. He spent a long time in the hospital before finally surviving—but the price of survival was the exhaustion of all his savings; he was bankrupt.
In Backlund, it was almost impossible for the poor to turn their lives around. They would only gradually weaken in constant poverty until they quietly passed away.
People died every day in the East Borough; Old Kohler had seen plenty of it. People would starve to death, die of disease, be crushed by carriages, or die in factories after having their arms or legs severed. Sometimes, even the pungent-smelling Tasock River would yield bloated, pale corpses...
Just then, his body suddenly jolted.
At the end of the gray-white mist in the distance, a blurry figure was floating downstream.
It was morning, and the surroundings were eerily quiet. Because the mist isolated his vision, it felt as if he were the only person left in the world, accompanied only by that floating object.
Storm above, no way... Am I that unlucky today? I'm going to run into a corpse again?!
Old Kohler was close to tears. Just as he was planning to hide further away, he suddenly noticed the figure was struggling and splashing in the water.
It doesn't seem to be a dead person!
He plucked up his courage and took a few steps forward to look closely. Sure enough, it wasn't a corpse in the river, but a young man. He was struggling in the water, being carried downstream by the current.
"There are steps over there, grab them!"
Old Kohler shouted out.
Every certain distance along the river channel within Backlund City, there was a gentle slope. Old Kohler didn't know the purpose of this design, but it happened to provide a Pathway to climb ashore.
The young man followed his suggestion, reached out, grabbed the protruding edge of the channel, and stabilized his body.
The early morning temperature was very cold, and he was shivering violently.
"Hurry up and climb up!"
Old Kohler shouted.
However, the young man only glanced at him and didn't move. On the contrary, he seemed to be planning to let go. Looking closely,
His clothes were not the coarse cloth typical of East Borough workers; instead, they had a certain air about them, looking like high-end goods.
"Hurry up, what are you waiting for?"
Old Kohler urged, having almost reached the young man. But the other party remained motionless, clutching the stone steps, his face wearing an expression of numbness and pain.
"Please, just leave me alone. I jumped in myself."
His lips were pale, and his teeth chattered as he spoke.
Jumped in himself?
"Why?"
Old Kohler asked in surprise.
"Because he wants to die, I suppose."
Someone said airily from the mist nearby.
Old Kohler looked toward the sound and saw a person dressed in white sitting on the bank, legs dangling naturally over the river, looking quite leisurely. Because the mist was heavy, his face couldn't be seen clearly, only his blue eyes were vaguely visible.
"He surely couldn't be wanting to practice swimming. The water quality of the Tasock River isn't suitable for that sport."
He made an ill-timed joke.
Wants to die?
Old Kohler was stunned. He looked back into the river channel. Hearing the words, the young man in the water pursed his lips tightly and said nothing.
"No, don't do anything rash..."
Old Kohler persuaded dryly. The other's clothes were very nice, and he looked like a person of means, which made it completely incomprehensible to a poor man from the East Borough why he would want to die.
"What do you know!"
The young man was incensed by the attitude of the two. His fingers gripped the stone steps tightly. "Everything of mine—my hope and my future—has been destroyed!"
"No, you're still very healthy..."
Old Kohler said clumsily.
He really wanted to tell the other person how many tragic things he had encountered—family passing away, bankruptcy, serious illness... even now, he was struggling just to survive, hoping only to live a few more days. But he was so poorly spoken that he didn't even know where to begin.
"Why do you say your hope has been destroyed?"
The young man on the riverbank asked with great interest. He didn't seem to have any intention of persuading the man, just wanting to hear his story. "Since you've already decided to die, why not share your experience with us?"
"It's all because of those damned Aristocrats in Parliament! They abolished the Corn Laws!"
The young man in the water became agitated, his eyes feverish and desperate. "Thanks to that, my family is bankrupt! Our company is finished!"
It turned out the young man's family originally ran a Grain Company. His father would buy grain from farmers everywhere and then resell it in Backlund. Since the Corn Laws were abolished, grain prices plummeted, and their company soon went bankrupt. His father, unable to handle the blow,
His health collapsed, and he died shortly after.
And he, all his efforts in the first half of his life were for the sake of inheriting his father's company. However, the abolition of just one law made everything he had built for himself a futile effort. He felt as if his whole world had collapsed.
"What was all my effort and sacrifice for!"
He shouted in the icy water, angry and desperate.
"So that's how it is. Understandable, quite understandable. No wonder you want to commit suicide."
The young man on the bank nodded as if he could empathize.
Old Kohler was a bit dumbfounded. What was this person doing? Not only was he not saving him, he was even following his words and urging him to die?
"Don't listen to him!"
Old Kohler hurriedly took a few steps forward, wanting to pull the man up, but seeing the icy river water, he hesitated again.
If he fell into the water, with the weather being so cold, he would very likely catch a cold... With his current physical strength, catching a cold really would mean death...
"Heh."
As if seeing through Old Kohler's thoughts, the young man let out a mocking, tragic laugh, and then prepared to let go, allowing his body to sink into the water.
Just then, they heard the youth on the bank speak.
"However, it's fine if you die. Your Mother is still alive, isn't she? Have you thought about what she'll do? At her age, if she goes out to walk the streets, I'm afraid no customers would be willing to visit her."
Both were dumbfounded.
The despair on the face of the young man in the water was first replaced by stunned silence, then quickly filled with rage. He splashed about, looking as if he were about to climb onto the bank immediately!