Above The Sky
Chapter 579 - 579 548 Azure City Tragedy 13

579: Chapter 548: Azure City Tragedy (1/3) 579: Chapter 548: Azure City Tragedy (1/3) A while back.

The Avak Viscounty, Azure City.

In the residential area of Azure City, the large communal apartment complex built by Viscount Awak had three floors and could house sixty families, with over two hundred people living there.

The majority of them were young people from rural areas who had come to work in the factories, with some families who hadn’t yet saved enough to buy their own homes living there as well.

There was nothing wrong with this.

Though using the toilets, bathing, and doing laundry in the communal apartments could be a bit troublesome, people could accept it once they got used to it.

In the Avak Viscounty, the local customs were quite simple, and there were many who were willing to help their neighbors.

Some of the elderly even took it upon themselves to look after the children of the young people who went out to work.

Unlike South Ridge, which was still in a period of development, the life within the inner side of the West Frontier Plains in The Empire, an area which had been developed long ago, was quite peaceful.

Although there were no opportunities to make a lot of money, there were no problems with food or clothing, as there were always job opportunities to be found and enough food to eat.

Viscount Awak himself would occasionally look after the domain residents, like designing some affordable and durable communal apartments.

After all, he knew very well that his rule would be much less troublesome if the people led comfortable lives.

Furthermore, in the Terra Continent, people’s access to information was not very rich, and their ambitions and desires were not great.

An occasional festival with drinking and meat-eating was considered joyous and delightful.

Usually, a family would live their days in tranquility, boasting and chatting with friends, gossiping about family affairs, and one couldn’t say that they were unhappy.

Aunt Lydia was famously warm-hearted in the apartment, always cooking extra food to share with the young people who came home exhausted from work every day, so they wouldn’t neglect their meals and damage their health from being too tired.

Besides that, whenever there was trouble in any household, she would definitely be there to help, and she was always able to offer genuine assistance.

Lydia lost her parents to a mining disaster when she was young, and it was the kind-hearted people in the apartment who helped her find a job to support herself through the years.

Now that her own days were getting more prosperous, in her words, she had to do something, or else she would feel uneasy.

Practically every resident in the apartment had been helped by Aunt Lydia at some point, and her entire family lived there, renting three apartments.

Her sons and daughters were all by her side.

Although she had enough money to buy a separate house to live in, she chose to stay because she couldn’t let go of the ‘troublesome fellas’ in the apartment.

Recently, there were only two things that troubled Aunt Lydia the most.

One was a mother and son living on the second floor.

The mother married a man from outside the area who died young, and the husband passed away from illness when the child was just one or two years old.

She brought up her son with great hardship on her own.

Now that the boy had grown up, it should have been time for her to enjoy life, but instead he was determined to make his own way in the world.

He himself certainly did not think this way.

According to his words, he wanted to go to The Grand Duchy to seek fortune and bring his mother a better life after he had succeeded.

But the fact was, he would leave his old mother alone at home, desolate and lonely.

It wasn’t that the mother didn’t agree.

The trouble was that she agreed too readily.

Although she wanted to live with her son, she couldn’t bear to refuse her child’s wish…

What’s more, as a mother, who doesn’t harbor an unrealistic ‘trust’ and ‘expectation’ for their own child, believing without reason that he/she can succeed?

But how many young people eager to venture out had Aunt Lydia seen over the years?

In a godforsaken place like Terra, ten out of ten who went out to seek their fortunes would be lucky if five returned, thank the Light’s protection!

She had seen too many mothers and fathers watching their children leave town and then waiting, never to see their child return.

From missing them to worrying, from worrying to anxiety, from anxiety to fear, and from fear to confusion.

And eventually, from confusion to the ‘despair’ one feels upon hearing the word ‘missing’.

“Ruishe is still too soft-hearted…

She’s had such a tough time over the years, I really don’t want to see her collapse upon hearing that Miles has gone missing…”

As a mother, and even a grandmother, Aunt Lydia naturally didn’t favor the son’s ideas.

But she didn’t want to simply negate a young person’s dreams and aspirations.

Moreover, because Ruishe had always been too good to Miles, the son hadn’t fully realized that his idea of venturing out on his own was not only very dangerous for himself but also quite selfish.

So lately, she had been thinking about how to subtly remind Miles of his mother’s hardships, as well as her increasingly frequent coughing and dizziness…

As for the second matter, it was actually this.

Recently, a strange plague had begun to spread in Azure City, with sufferers experiencing symptoms like dizziness, seeing stars, and a growing difficulty to concentrate.

Many people had fallen ill, and a lot of people speculated that it was the work of spies from Fiery Flame Land spreading the epidemic, causing a bout of minor panic.

But when the Emissary of the Grand Duke came with the cure and distributed it to everyone, the epidemic was eradicated.

Aunt Lydia had initially thought that the epidemic was over, but just a few days ago, similar symptoms resurfaced, affecting many people, including Ruishe—mostly those who were frail, and nearly all the elderly suffered even more severely.

It was precisely because of this that Miles, who had originally planned to depart in July or August, had stayed in Azure City, taking care of his mother, and began to entertain the idea of staying for good.

That was also why Aunt Lydia wanted to try to persuade him once more.

For young people, you could only go along with their words, otherwise, if their rebellious nature kicked in, the more you wanted them to stay, the more they would be determined to leave.

Only when they themselves vaguely harbored such a thought, would subtle hints be effective.

“It’s an opportunity, I guess,”

With this thought in mind, the aunt felt that the epidemic had come at just the right time.

She had never worried about not finding a cure for the plague—those crooks from Fiery Flame Land only knew such tricks, and for the Grand Duchy or The Empire, developing a cure would surely be simple.

Just like last time, before many days passed, the alchemists of The Grand Duchy had delivered the cure.

But Aunt Lydia had never considered one thing.

Neither The Grand Duchy nor Fiery Flame Land, nor even The Empire and the Spirit Wisdom Institute, had expected an accident to happen.

Nor the tragedy that was about to befall them.

With worries for Ruishe and Miles’ family in her heart, Aunt Lydia finished buying ingredients for the day and prepared to head home.

The large and spacious three-story apartment building was already in sight, and she couldn’t help feeling a bit of joy: “Today, I will make a stew with radishes, let the dough rise, and bake some bread tonight…”

No matter what, life always goes on day by day.

This is the daily routine for the vast majority of ordinary people on Terra Continent—fretting over household matters, contemplating today’s and tomorrow’s dinner.

But suddenly, Aunt Lydia felt something wasn’t right.

—It was too quiet.

The streets surrounding the apartment complex…

were they ever this quiet?

Beyond that, it was unusually noisy near the apartments as if people were quarreling.

It sounded like they were even fighting—how could this be?

Everyone was supposed to be kind and gentle…

With such doubts, Aunt Lydia slowed her pace, and at that moment she vaguely saw a man covered in blood, supporting an old man and holding a little girl in his arms, stumbling out of the apartment.

At first, she didn’t see clearly, but soon, she was shocked to discover that the man was her own son, and the unconscious elder he was supporting was her husband, while in her son’s arms was Cynthia, her beloved granddaughter.

With a thunk, Aunt Lydia placed the basket with the food on the ground, wanting to rush forward, and the man also saw his mother’s figure, his face a complex mix of surprise, joy, and fear.

“Mom?!

Quick, run…”

He shouted loudly, but he couldn’t move any faster—there was a rather deep wound on his shoulder and thigh, inflicted by a knife: “Someone in the building has gone mad, Rosy…

Rosy has been killed by them, we need to escape!”

The man’s eyes were bloodshot as he spoke; he wished he could turn around and fight those madmen right away.

His mother had been helping the apartment’s residents for so many years, and he had always been trying to assist everyone to the best of his abilities, even Embrace Light couldn’t deny their selfless goodwill.

And what was the result?

His wife was just chatting with other women in the apartment and was suddenly butchered to death by several crazed lunatics!

If it wasn’t for him needing to protect his father and daughter to get out, he would have fought to the death by now!

And Aunt Lydia was stunned.

Rosy?

Her daughter-in-law, who was always a bit gloomy but was very gentle, kind, and baked good bread?

She was dead?

Just like that…

She was gone?!

In an instant, an indescribable shock swept through the old woman’s heart; she began to feel dizzy and saw stars swirling before her eyes.

And if one looked closely at those stars, they could vaguely see all the experiences of Lydia’s life, all her memories, and ways of thinking.

And all of this was being recorded by an unseen force, then condensed into an intangible, immaterial ‘existence’…