A gloomy back alley.
That darkness and stench felt alien even in the loud, bizarre night market where things that were not human gathered.
And the grotesque beings beneath the gas lamps, standing there at the mouth of the alley and staring at me.
Sunken eyes in uniforms.
—My, this is the kind of place you would hate to walk through in good shoes.
But I had to go.
And I couldn’t let my fellow trainees notice that my feet had frozen for a moment at the sight of that scene…!
Squelch.
I stepped into the back alley.
The others came right in behind me.
Squelch, squelch.
As I walked between the narrow walls and into the black shadows beneath the dim gas lamps, side doors packed tightly together slid past on both sides of me.
“……”
It was bizarre.
The whole scene looked like I had stepped into an image stitched together incorrectly, as though the same little side door had been duplicated endlessly.
And the stares boring into us from both sides as we walked between the doors.
Ha.
They were all wearing worn-out uniforms smeared with filth. Abnormally gaunt black bodies stood stock-still against the walls.
Turning only their heads toward us.
—For a star, attention is inevitable! But even stars need rest. This Brown can, as always, lighten that burden for you for a little while….
I wanted to scream and cling to him, begging him to please do exactly that, but…
No. It’s fine.
I shouldn’t use “Turn Off the Lights” right…