Another day without finding work.
Just past morning, Old Kohler returned from the docks, head lowered, walking slowly.
September had already ended. October's footsteps had just begun, and Backlund immediately became unbearably cold and gloomy.
Though it was morning, the air was already permeated with choking, damp, cold smoke. Beyond a few meters, you couldn't see what lay ahead.
Old Kohler tightened his clothes, trying to use his tattered coat to preserve his body heat and prevent it from escaping.
He hadn't found work for several days now. His remaining money was just a few pennies, not nearly enough to rent even the cheapest bed.
The only lodging he could afford was a rope bed (as the name suggested, just a rope strung horizontally that people draped themselves over to sleep haphazardly for the night, costing only a penny).
But Old Kohler was reluctant to pay even for that kind of bed, because he had to eat.
Without food he'd have no strength.
Without strength he couldn't get work hauling things at the docks. And that way, he could only wait for death.
Along the stone steps by the Tussock River bank, he walked slowly, white fog obscuring his vision ahead.
In a daze, Old Kohler seemed to see his past days.
Back then, he'd been a shoemaker with decent skills. He'd had a wife, children, and a house to live in.
But then an illness took away his family. Even he himself had been critically ill, staying in the hospital for a long time before surviving.
But as the price for surviving, he'd exhausted all his savings and gone bankrupt.
In Backlund, it was almost impossible for poor people to rise up. They would only gradually weaken in continuous poverty until they quietly died.
Every day people died in East Borough.
Old Kohler had seen many.
People would starve to death, die of illness, get run over by carriages, die in factories from having arms or legs crushed off.
Even this Tussock River with its pungent smell would sometimes have bloated, pale corpses floating up...
Just then, his body suddenly shuddered.
At the far end of the gray-white smoke, a blurry human figure was floating downstream.
It was morning, and the surroundings were strangely quiet. Because the smoke was thick, blocking his vision, it felt like he was the only person left in the world, keeping company with that thing drifting down.
Storm above, no way! Am I so unlucky today that I'm running into a corpse again?!
Old Kohler was on the verge of tears. He was just about to move away when he suddenly noticed the figure was struggling and splashing in the water.
It doesn't seem to be dead!
He worked up his courage and walked forward a few steps, looking carefully. Sure enough, what was in the river wasn't a corpse, but a young man.
He was struggling in the water, being carried downstream by the current.
"There are steps over there! Grab on!"
Old Kohler called out.
In the waterways within Backlund city, at intervals there were gentle slopes.
Old Kohler didn't know what purpose they'd been designed for, but they happened to provide a way to climb ashore.
The young man heeded his suggestion, reaching out to grab the protruding edge of the waterway and steadying himself.
The morning temperature was very cold. He was shivering.
"Hurry and climb up!"
Old Kohler shouted.
However, the young man only glanced at him without moving. On the contrary, he seemed to be planning to let go.
Looking more carefully, his clothes weren't the rough cloth worker's attire common in East Borough.
Instead, they had a certain quality, like some high-end goods.
"Come up quickly! What are you waiting for?"
Old Kohler urged, having already walked almost up to the young man. But the other party still clung to the stone steps without moving, his face showing a numb and pained expression.
"Please don't worry about me. I jumped down myself."
He said, his lips pale, teeth chattering.
Jumped down himself?
"Why?"
Old Kohler asked in surprise.
"Because he wants to die, I suppose."
From the fog nearby, someone said lightly.
Old Kohler looked toward the voice and saw a person dressed in white sitting on the bank, legs hanging naturally over the water's surface, looking quite leisurely.
Because the fog was heavy, he couldn't see the person's face clearly, only vaguely making out blue eyes.
"It can't be that he wanted to practice swimming, right? The water quality of the Tussock River isn't suitable for that activity."
He made an ill-timed joke.
Wants to die?
Old Kohler froze. He looked again at the waterway.
The young man in the water heard his words and pressed his lips tightly together without saying anything.
"No, don't give up hope..."
Old Kohler advised awkwardly.
The other party's attire was fine, looking like someone who lived comfortably.
This left him, a poor person from East Borough, completely unable to understand why the other would want to die.
"What do you know?!"
The young man was provoked to anger by their attitudes, his fingers gripping the stone steps tightly. "Everything I had, my hopes and future, have all been destroyed!"
"No, you're still healthy..."
Old Kohler said clumsily.
He really wanted to tell the other party about all the miserable things he'd experienced: family members dying, bankruptcy, serious illness...
Even at this moment, he was struggling to survive, only hoping to live a few more days. But his eloquence was too poor. He didn't know where to begin.
"Why do you say your hopes are destroyed?"
The young man on the riverbank asked with great interest. He didn't seem to intend to persuade him, only wanting to hear the other's story.
"Since you've already decided to die, why not share your circumstances with us?"
"It's all because of those damned noble lords in Parliament! They repealed the Corn Laws!"
The young man in the water became agitated, his eyes both excited and desperate. "Thanks to that, my family went bankrupt! Our company is finished..."
It turned out the young man's family had originally run a grain company.
His father purchased grain from farmers in various places, then resold it in Backlund.
Ever since the Corn Laws were repealed, grain prices plummeted and their company quickly went bankrupt.
His father, from the overwhelming blow, soon broke down physically and died.
And he himself had devoted all his efforts in the first half of his life to inheriting his father's company.
However, just the repeal of one law had turned everything he'd built into useless effort. He felt his entire world had collapsed.
"What did all my efforts, all my dedication amount to?!"
He shouted in the icy water, angry and desperate.
"I see. Understandable, very understandable. No wonder you want to commit suicide."
The young man on the bank nodded as if empathizing.
Old Kohler was somewhat dumbfounded. What is this person doing? Not only is he not rescuing him, he's even going along with his words, urging him to die?
"Don't listen to him!"
Old Kohler quickly stepped forward several paces, wanting to pull the person up. But seeing the icy river water, he hesitated.
If I fall into the water, with weather this cold, I'll very likely catch a cold. With my current physical strength, catching a cold could really kill me...
"Heh heh..."
As if seeing through Old Kohler's thoughts, the young man let out a mocking, miserable laugh. He was about to let go and let his body sink into the water.
Just then, they heard the young man on the bank speak.
"However, your death would be one thing, but your mother is still alive, right? Have you thought about what will happen to her?
At her age, if she came out to work the streets, probably no customers would even be willing to patronize her, right?"
Both men were dumbstruck.
The despairing expression on the young man's face in the water was first replaced by shock, then quickly filled with anger.
He splashed about, looking like he was about to climb ashore!