Neither Stanley nor Freddy wanted to discuss any more with George. Talking to him was worse than remaining silent, so they chose silence over all.
After a short way to the other side of the town, they had to take a few congested roads to go to the prison area. That was when they truly got to see just how obnoxious George was.
George walked around the city as if he owned the roads. He would scold people who were just a little late to make way for him and even curse them out if they didn’t see him coming.
The people couldn’t talk back to him either, so they could only wallow in hatred and stay away from the man.
Stanley heard words such as ‘the crazy one’ or ‘the shitty one’ as he walked past the group of people that had come across George. He very soon realized that George had a reputation in the town for being a very shitty Defender when it came to manners alone.
Stanley hated George too and found his obnoxiousness hard to stand. However, since he was shadowing him at the moment, there wasn’t much he could do except follow him.
They arrived at the prison not long after which was on the other side of the stream.
“Who’s in charge here?” George quickly shouted as soon as he reached there. A man in Defender clothes walked out and frowned when he saw George.
“Oh, is it you that’s in charge today?” George asked. “What’s your name again?”
“What do you want?” the man asked, clearly angry at George.
“Hmph! Don’t show me your attitude and hide your anger. You weren’t good enough to be an actual Defender and are stuck here working as a prison guard. Hah, I knew you weren’t any better than this back when we were just trainees anyway,” George said. .
“The fuck do you want? Tell me or leave,” the man ordered.
“God damn, talk about hidden anger,” George said. “No need to get worked up. I’m here for the prison registry. We need every bit of information about who is currently in the prison, whether as a guard or as a prisoner.”
“Alright, just wait a minute,” the man said and walked away.
Stanley looked beyond the prison gates to see what it was like inside. He had heard that the prisoners were forced to work in the stone mines beyond the gates, so he wanted to see what it was like.
Beyond the gates, he could see a long stretch of land with a few people walking through before seeing another stretch of empty land, which surprisingly have multiple large indents on the ground.
From what he could see, that area had been warded off with metal posts and wires going around the area.
“What’s that for?” Stanley couldn’t help but ask. “Are people restricted from going into those areas?”
“Hmm?” George looked at what Stanley was pointing at. “Oh, that’s just the danger zone that people have to be wary of here. You have a chance of dying if you stand there at the wrong time.”
“The wrong time?” Freddy couldn’t help but ask. “What is considered a wrong time?”
George pointed up. “When the crawlers fall from the cliff and land,” he said.
“WHAT?!” both Stanley and Freddy were surprised at the same time. “What do you mean by that, brother George?”
“Huh? Are you two that unaware?” the man asked. “Do you not know that there are crawlers lurking around the top of the cliff?”
“We know that,” Stanley said. That was something they were taught from a very young age. The Ink Crawlers weren’t just outside the veil, but also on top of the cliffs. However, unlike the veil, the ones on top of the cliff never came down.
It also meant that one couldn’t try to climb their way to the top of the cliff, but that was something anyone would be willing to give up to not die immediately to the crawlers.
However, now he was hearing that they actually fell from the top of the cliff too. Just what was going on?
“The cliff is over a kilometer high,” Stanley said. “If the crawlers really do fall, then they must kill anyone that is caught beneath them instantly.”
“They do, that’s why that area has a clear warning. It’s so that the people who have to go through it know that they have to hurry their way out of the danger zone. Multiple people have died from the crawlers falling on them in just the 3 years I have been a Defender. Many more must have died before that,” George explained.
Stanley still couldn’t get over his surprise. “I don’t think anyone in our batch knows about this,” he said. “Why aren’t the Defenders stationed here then? They should be stationed on the other side too, don’t they?”
“There’s no point in stationing anyone here at all,” George said. “After all, every crawler that falls from such height dies the moment it crashes onto the ground. Those indents you see are from the crawlers falling and usually, they disappear just seconds after falling so not many even get to witness the Crawler’s death.”
The two 3rd year trainees were more than amazed at the information they had acquired. As they were busy being amazed, the man from before returned back with a bunch of papers in his hand.
George took the papers and looked through them. “Is everyone’s information here?” he asked.
“All but the 4 people that were brought here 2 days ago,” the man said. “Their information isn’t confirmed, so they are listed as blanks. But since they are prisoners, that shouldn’t matter.”
“Alright, that works for me,” George said and turned around to leave. However, Stanley spoke up at the same time.
“Wait, 4?” he asked. “If these are the people that were brought here from the 2nd quadrant 2 days ago, there should have been 6 here.”
“Huh? Oh yeah, there were 6 before,” the man said. “But since 2 of them had powers we couldn’t handle, they were taken away from here to a more secure prison.”
“Where is that?” Stanley asked.
“That’s none of your business,” George quickly interjected. “Now stop this nonsense and let’s go.”