Gun of Ashes

Chapter 1402: Chapter 2: A Pleasant Life

The chilly gaze fell on Lorenzo, making him extremely uncomfortable.

“Guess what I saw when I got back to my dorm?”

“What?”

Lorenzo completely failed to notice the change in atmosphere.

“Ruins. A whole pile of ruins. Like two monsters had a brawl in there, tore the entire floor to pieces and brought the main structure down with it… My memory’s a bit fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure that place wasn’t supposed to be a combat zone, and don’t even start on normal firepower—no way it could’ve blown it to hell like that.”

Red Falcon said it all with a deadpan face.

Think about it: a nice vacation, and he ends up filthy as hell, finally claws his way back to Old Dunling from the countryside, gets despised by passersby, figures he can at least return to a warm, cozy room… only to be greeted by a cold mass of rubble… and all Red Falcon’s piles of books were in there!

“Ahem.”

Lorenzo coughed a few times, not quite daring to meet Red Falcon’s eyes.

He thought back to that final entanglement with Roger. In that brutal fight, Lorenzo had no time to care about anything else, but now that he dug through his memories… it seemed like, maybe, probably, possibly, he really had accidentally knocked over a building.

Red Falcon… really seemed to have nowhere to stay now. The Perpetual Motion Pump was also in the middle of the Cleaner’s purification. They were rushing to deal with the Demon corpses piled up underground and speeding up Holy Silver casting, trying to seal that erosion-soaked Death Row for good.

“I’m guessing this has nothing to do with you, Lorenzo?”

Suddenly Red Falcon put a hand on Lorenzo’s shoulder. At that distance, Lorenzo could clearly smell the fishy, earthy stench on him, and decided the blanket Red Falcon had used should be thrown out immediately.

“Of course… nothing to do with me,” Lorenzo forced a smile, then shoved Red Falcon toward the stairs. “I’m guessing you’d like a hot shower. Go on.”

Red Falcon eyed Lorenzo suspiciously. Unfortunately, his memories of that day had been blurred almost entirely; otherwise, he really would’ve loved to know how exactly his place had collapsed.

But compared to that, what he wanted more right now was a good shower and then a comfortable sleep.

…

“Ah… this is really weird.”

Listening to the rush of water upstairs, Lorenzo’s thoughts wandered.

He’d always felt his life was pretty dull. When there was nothing to do, he just zoned out endlessly. When Mrs. Van Rudd was around, at least he could bicker with her.

So he actually didn’t mind Red Falcon barging in; at the very least, it brought a bit of life into this cold, empty house.

Come to think of it, he’d lived alone for far too long. After enough time, you couldn’t help but get nostalgic. He was actually wondering whether he should get a few roommates.

The thought flashed by and Lorenzo didn’t dwell on it. Who would come be his roommate anyway? No matter how he imagined it, it felt weird. More importantly, deep down Lorenzo knew he was a very solitary person most of the time.

So he would just lie alone on the sofa like this, slowly rotting in the silence, seeping into the cracks of the cushions and flowing all over the floor.

Yeah, something like that—slowly, silently.

Lorenzo closed his eyes, savoring this strange sensation, like he was soaking in clear water, when the doorbell rang again.

This visitor was much more polite than Red Falcon; at least she knew to knock. Then a crisp bang of someone kicking the door open rang out, and whatever praise Lorenzo had for her shattered all over the floor.

“Yo! Lorenzo, you’re not dead yet!”

Eve strode in, waving at Lorenzo.

“Huh?”

Lorenzo’s brows knitted. Judging by the usual daily client count of Winchester Law Firm, he was getting way too many visitors today.

“So you finally know how to tidy up, huh? That’s rare.”

As soon as she came in, Eve started critiquing the office. Compared to the previous disgusting dump, the place was undeniably much tidier this time.

After the torrential rain, Lorenzo had reorganized the office, turning it from a war-room back into a plain old law firm. All the random junk had been sorted out and piled together.

“Mm… mm!”

Lorenzo hesitated, then nodded in affirmation.

He would absolutely never admit that after that last gathering, Selyu had arranged a cleaner for him, coming once a week to make sure he didn’t drown in garbage.

“So, what brings the illustrious Miss Phoenix here today?”

Lorenzo asked.

“Nothing much.”

“Nothing much?”

“Yeah, nothing much,” Eve looked puzzled at his reaction. “We’re friends, right? What’s wrong with dropping by to see a friend on a day off?”

Lorenzo had no comeback for that. Then something occurred to him, and a bad feeling welled up inside.

“You’re a bit off today, you know that?”

Eve said bluntly. She walked toward Lorenzo and immediately caught a whiff of a strange stench. Lorenzo stood up, trying to block her and say something to explain, but most of the time people’s thoughts move faster than their words. While you’re still organizing a sentence, the other person might’ve already drafted a ten-thousand-word essay in their head.

Both of them froze. Lorenzo looked panicked. Eve stared, baffled, at the clothes tossed on the floor—muddy, stinking, clearly a man’s clothes.

Lorenzo’s? But Lorenzo was wearing pajamas, looking like he’d just gotten out of bed.

Then another rush of water sounded from upstairs, followed by footsteps. Looked like someone had finished showering.

“No… wait, listen to me.”

Lorenzo was completely tongue-tied. He desperately wanted to explain something, because, well, having a man taking a shower in your home did sound kind of weird.

“Who is it?”

Eve’s reaction was very calm; she clearly hadn’t gone down the bizarre routes Lorenzo had imagined.

Realizing that, Lorenzo relaxed a lot. But what she said next left him utterly speechless.

“Don’t tell me the great Mr. Holmes has finally figured it out?”

Eve looked at Lorenzo with a delighted expression, deliberately teasing him.

“Who is it? Is it Se—” Eve deliberately drew out the word, trying to catch some slip in Lorenzo’s expression. Lorenzo looked like he couldn’t take it anymore; to stop her wild speculation, he blurted out the name.

“Red Falcon.”

“Red Falcon?”

“Yeah, Red Falcon.”

The two of them stared at each other. Eve’s expression froze; then her mouth slowly fell open. She wanted to say something but no words came out.

Eve and Lorenzo could be considered old acquaintances. As her guide, she’d always had some odd feelings about him. But every time she thought about Lorenzo as a person, there was this sense of helplessness. After all, in many people’s eyes, women’s charm had less pull on Lorenzo than Demons did.

That was what she—and many others—had always believed, up until today.

“Red Falcon!”

Eve shrieked.

“Who?”

The door upstairs opened. Wrapped in a blanket and still steaming, Red Falcon came down.

His condition was awful; he just wanted a good, solid sleep. If possible, he wanted a bed, not the sofa.

“Lorenzo, you called me? If there’s nothing else, I’m gonna go crash in your room for a bit.”

Red Falcon asked for confirmation. He knew some of the stories behind this office; the other two rooms were never open to anyone.

Then he saw Eve, staring blankly at him. Red Falcon completely failed to notice the subtle tension in the air.

“Yo, good morning.”

Red Falcon greeted them. Seeing no reaction from Lorenzo, he took that as consent and turned to head toward Lorenzo’s room.

Everything in the world seemed to fall into eternal silence. No one knew how long it lasted. Lorenzo covered his face and let out a grief-stricken roar.

“Ah—”

He drew the sound out as long as he could, yelling until he ran out of breath.