Swordsgirl and Cockroach -Chapter 2 / Part 5-

SWORDSGIRL AND COCKROACH

CHAPTER 2
END OF THE TRACK

PART 5

“Kiri… have you seen other people living in this tower?”

“Uh… Not really, so far I’ve only meet the owner.”

“From my deduction… This is a new private town made by that owner. But you need at least 30 people to start a private town and the town need to have a source of income, medical facility, constant food supply, and housing for all its residence. I haven’t seen anyone since I woke up, so maybe everyone is busy drilling inside that tunnel as their source of income.”

“What are you sounding all dramatic about? The owner told me himself everyone here are miners and they started this town with the owner’s money.”

“You know people make private towns for profit, right?”

“Yup. It’s some kinda business, isn’t it? Not that I know much about it.”

“That owner is using the other residences to work as miners, sell the ores for profit, then use that profit to advance the town. Of course he’ll be taking some of those profit for himself.”

“Hey, he saved you. Don’t make him sound like a bad guy here.”

“I’m not… But businessmen are cunning people. I don’t suppose he will simply tell us where the body snatcher went.”

“… so your point is…”

“Listen, Kiri. No matter what we’ll talk about… don’t say anything about us following the track.”

+++

Thus the girls are now inside a cozy room. Complete with air conditioner and nice glass walls where they can see the desert outside. The owner sits on a small sofa. In front of him is a small coffee table and a wider sofa facing towards him. The girls are sitting on that wide sofa.

“So let’s get to the point, ladies.” The man says. “I… we need your help.”

“We are glad to— “

“I’m very sorry, sir.” Bailey cuts Kiri before she bursts out unnecessary words. “What kind of help is it? We are kind of in a hurry.”

“Oh really? That’s unfortunate. I don’t think this problem can be solved with haste.”

“We are very sorry, sir. But as thanks for helping us, how about we pay you instead?”

“No, please don’t. It wasn’t anything worth paying for.”

“Of course it was, sir. You saved my life even given me water.”

“Please, ladies, you are our only hope.”

“Well… even so— “

“WE’LL HELP, SIR!” Kiri jumps in unable to hold her tongue any longer. “Please tell us what to do!”

“Kiri! Shut it!” Bailey whispers. She is clearly not pleased.

“Geez, Bailey, you’re being very rude here.”

“I deeply thank you, ladies. So you see…” The man continues. Bailey lets out a small sigh and is forced to go along. “…we are facing a water problem.”

“Water problem?” Kiri asks.

“Yes. We may have drinkable water right now, but soon enough maybe one week, we’ll run out of it.”

“Eh?” Bailey flinches. “And yet… you still gave me water.” She’s starting to feel guilty.

“Don’t worry about it, there are enough for everyone. But if you feel obliged to pay us back, we need you to go and solve this problem.”

“Uh… we aren’t specialized in that, sir.”

“Don’t worry, it isn’t a hard task. We get our water from a water pump to the east from here. But it’s an old pump. I suspect either someone turned its power off, or the pump itself is broken. I need you to go check it out. If it’s broken, just report back. But if there’s something you can do about it, we’ll thank you handsomely.”

“Bailey, it doesn’t sound hard. Let’s do it.”

But Bailey puts her hand up Kiri’s face, telling her not to disturb.

“Can’t you send some of the residences? Surely you have at least 30 people living here.”

“I wish I could, but we’re running out of time. We have to get a medical facility, enough housing, and a constant food supply in six months. But this is our last month and we haven’t get any of those. Everyone’s doing their hardest to get enough money to buy those facilities.”

“How about contacting the Interdimensional Agency?”

“That we can’t, sadly. The water pump isn’t actually official either. It’s an illegal pump that was used by mafias to get free water to sell. It isn’t ours. If the Interdimensional Foundation knows we can’t even afford our own water pump yet, they’ll end our town even before six months, seeing how there is no hope for us to fulfill that condition.”

The atmosphere turns heavy. The owner is clearly in a pinch, but Bailey doesn’t have time to waste as the body snatcher is moving further every second passes.

---continues in part 6---

created by: Yanaka

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