“It’s okay. The two of us will find a way. I’ll figure out how to keep you alive, I promise.” While I was worrying, Jayard spoke with surprising optimism and determination.

I had nothing to say. He really was unexpectedly reassuring. He was just a kid, and might not even be as old as I’d been in my previous life.

Besides, I really did need Jayard. Without anyone to help me, I might’ve died tonight. At least I had a blanket over me, and being held in his arms was much warmer than before—though I still wasn’t comfortable being held by a man.

Besides, whether I accepted it or not, there was no going back for him now. Mackduff had probably already realized Jayard had stolen something and run off. Even if he went back, he’d get beaten half to death. We might as well see how things played out.

I fell silent and quietly watched everything around us. Unfortunately, my night blindness was so bad after dark that everything looked like a blurry mosaic. I couldn’t tell people from ghosts ten meters away. Wait!

I’d just been thinking about how I couldn’t tell people from ghosts, and I thought I saw something terrifying. In the darkness at a street corner, I thought I saw a bloody human head floating in the air—but when I blinked, it was gone.

Was it an illusion? Or had my night blindness made me see things wrong? When I stared at that corner again, there was nothing there. Jayard raced past the block, leaving the spot far behind us.

At first, I hadn’t known how big the city I’d been transported to was. Maybe it was only a small town, since I’d spent all my time holed up in one little neighborhood.

But after Jayard carried me along for a while, I realized the city was enormous. He’d been running for over half an hour, and there was still no sign of reaching the end.

I couldn’t make out the outlines of the buildings in the distance, but I could see lights shining from their windows. Tall buildings stood in every direction.

We’d clearly been in a slum before. The roads were narrow and nothing but mud, with no drainage system at all. Everything was filthy and stank of sewage. The homes were falling apart, and everyone we saw was homeless.

But after we’d run for a while, everything changed. The roads here were wide, paved with neat rows of blue-gray stone, and elegant streetlamps stood at regular intervals along both sides.

These streetlamps weren’t like the kerosene lamps from before. They didn’t give off flames, but their light wasn’t like the lights from my previous life, either. It was a soft, silvery blue, like moonlight. I had no idea how they produced it.

Most of the homes on either side were two or three stories tall, though some had four or five floors—or even more. They were elegant and luxurious, and quite a few had little gardens. At last, the stench was gone.

I’d finally escaped that unbearable stench. It had been awful. In my previous life, I’d always lived somewhere beautiful, with good living conditions and modern cleanliness. That filthy, chaotic slum had been no different from staying in Hell.

Now that we were out in the open, I could see the light from the nearest celestial bodies, even though thick fog still covered part of the sky and hid the stars. And this time, I was completely sure: I really had been transported to another world.

There were actually three moons in the sky. One was crimson, about the size of a washbasin, and it was the largest. Another was emerald green, about the size of a bowl. The last was pale blue, and looked no bigger than a ping-pong ball.

They also went through their own phases. The blue moon looked full, the green moon had a chunk missing, and the red moon was only a crescent, just like the curved moon from my previous life.

Clearly, my original world didn’t have three moons, and they weren’t these colors, either. It looked like I really had ended up in another world—or maybe on another planet somewhere in the universe?

But the city was even bigger than I’d imagined. Jayard carried me farther, and we’d already crossed three neighborhoods. We also passed what looked like a factory district or commercial area, a park, and a bridge.

After we crossed the river, that faint stench slowly began to return. It seemed we were getting close to the place Jayard had mentioned. He’d said he was taking me to another slum, somewhere far from Mackduff where we could make a living.

Knowing how big this city was put me at ease. We’d passed plenty of people along the way, and even though it was already night, the streets were still busy. I couldn’t say how safe the city was, but at least the chances of Mackduff finding the two of us seemed like a needle in a haystack.

“Um, do we really have to go to a slum? Couldn’t we just find somewhere to stay on a street corner?” I asked cautiously. I really didn’t want to go into a filthy place like that. Besides, plenty of homeless people in my previous life just laid a blanket or a quilt out on the sidewalk and slept there.

“No. Sleeping outside is far too dangerous.” Jayard immediately turned down my suggestion. He looked so serious that he even scared me.

I wanted to ask him what was so dangerous, but he didn’t seem interested in explaining. He just held me and kept going. In the end, we arrived at another slum. Just like the last one, its houses were run-down and the surroundings cramped.

The difference was that there seemed to be several factories around this slum. Huge pipes covered the factory district, and some even ran straight through the slum.

I knew they were factories not because I could see them clearly, but because even at night, those factory buildings were roaring with noise. The sound of those massive machines was enough to give them away.

“This is where the workers from the factories live. Outsiders and people who can’t get by anywhere else usually have no choice but to take factory jobs. Then the factory owner assigns them a place here,” Jayard said.

I guess no matter what world you’re in, grueling labor and working overtime into the night are unavoidable. I looked at the slum’s residents. Most wore work clothes or plain white undershirts. They were gaunt and sallow, their faces worn out. They walked as if they had no strength—or with blank, numb expressions.

Well, at least they were probably better than the thieves, swindlers, and beggars on the other side. At least they had honest jobs. The downsides of the place had just gained one more: putting up with the factory noise.

I was wondering where Jayard would take me to settle down, but he headed straight for a small canal nearby and carried me down the steps. When we reached the bottom, I was stunned.

On either side of the canal, a platform stretched for several hundred meters along the water. Quite a few homeless people and beggars were sitting there, too. Thick pipes lined both sides, constantly pouring wastewater into the canal.

I understood. This was the factory drainage system—in other words, the sewer. I couldn’t believe Jayard was planning to settle down here.