Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 238

Chapter 238: Hideout
The little streets were bustling with life, as vendors stationed behind the occasional stands shouted as if it were a fish market:

Holding up a good-looking black leather corset, a middle-aged man was yelling:

“Come on! Take a look! I’m selling the last piece of clothing equipment made from the black lizard which took over the shopping mall a few kilometers from here just a few days ago!

Make sure you don’t miss out on the last one!”

And then, just beside him, a few meters to the man’s left, a woman who couldn’t be called young anymore was waiving in the air a portion of a string, holding the rest of it in her other hand.

“The spider’s queen silk is resistant to venom and corrosion!! Quickly come and purchase it as soon as you can! You can use it to move around your daggers or to sew a nice piece of clothing! With the quality of these materials, you might even be able to obtain a rare-ranked piece of clothing.”

And then on and on, one beside the other, they yelled out their products and their incredible deals.

All of their voices resounded throughout the little streets and fused, making it difficult for people to clearly understand what they were saying from afar.

Of course, some of them also remained silent, just patiently waiting for some clients to see the merchandise they displayed.

Even if it was the middle of the night, the atmosphere seemed that of a usual day at a market.

People passed through the quite crowded streets, and as they walked their eyes scanned some of the stalls, and even the uninterested visitors often found themselves stopping by a stand and buying something they needed.

Hans’s eyes were wide open and his mouth slightly agape as he observed the scene… that place was not something that could ever exist in the big and tidy cities in the US…

He jolted awake as Emma grabbed his wrist and dragged him forward.

Still confused, he didn’t oppose her, instead, he followed right behind her as he observed the surroundings, the people all around them were awakened, apart from a few, who seemed to be interested in special materials even if they weren’t.

Turning left… then right, right again, then left then right, and left and left and right…

Hans, whose orientation was pretty good, had a hard time remembering where they came from in the midst of those little, crowded, messily arranged streets.

After five minutes, Emma suddenly stopped, she turned around and looked at Hans, she smiled at him as she said:

“We’re here, it should be impossible for anyone to track us down even if they decided to venture inside the night market”

‘Yeah… I bet she’s right, this place’s a mess’

Hans couldn’t help but comment inwardly.

“You see that door over there?”

Emma asked, pointing with her eyes at a relatively little wooden door a few meters away from them.

Hans nodded before asking back:

“What about it?”

“As soon as you find a chance, slip inside, don’t let anyone see you, it’s annoying if people misunderstand and think it’s a bar or something.”

Hans nodded once again.

He turned his head and observed the situation around him, a man carrying a pretty big barrow loaded with cranes was directed their way, Hans took a second to analyze the situation and then said:

“I think it should be safe to enter while that guy’s passi-”

He stopped as he noticed… Emma was already gone.

‘Sigh…

How damn high is her dexterity stat?’

Hans couldn’t help but comment.

A few seconds later, the guy carrying the barrow passed, shielding him and the entrance from all the people, and Hans disappeared while no one was looking.

As he entered and closed the door which was similar to a shutter, Hans was greeted with a dark room, which he couldn’t quite see through.

The only source of light came from behind the door, and being shaped like a shutter, the green wooden door let through just a few days of light, which made it impossible for Hans to see the whole place even with his heightened vision.

He looked around the place, he seemed to be in a room, not too little, not too big, in front of him he could barely spot a counter, as if he had entered a hotel or a restaurant, then, a few meters from the exit, both on the left and on the right, the room was connected with two other spaces, but Hans couldn’t even figure out the outline of the items in those two rooms because of the insufficient lighting.

The few rays of light that penetrated the door allowed Hans to see a great amount of dust in the air, hinting at the fact that the place was probably old and abandoned.

“Emma?”

He called out.

“Yes?”

The girl’s voice came from one of the two rooms, Hans couldn’t really discern which one.

“Hold up, I’ll turn on the lights in a moment.”

The sound of someone messing with a lever and an electrical panel could be heard.

Hans wasn’t exactly worried, but he was still wondering why Emma had brought him here.

After a few seconds, the lights began flickering before stabilizing and allowing Hans to see the place properly.

Then, Emma appeared from the room to the left, she had a bright smile on her face and a couple of dark stains on her clothes, probably because she had touched a lot of things covered in dust.

“You look like you’ve fought a war”

Hans said chuckling.

And half offended half-jokingly, Emma replied:

“I did, you don’t want to know the number of cobwebs down there”

“Down… where?”

“Oh… I forgot, welcome to my house.

well my… twenty… fourth, no! Fifth… was it sixth?”

The woman was counting on her fingers, but she eventually gave up.

“Whatever, welcome to one of my hideouts!”

“This is one of the incredible Money Maven hideouts?”

Hans asked with a wry smile on his face as she watched the girl pass by him.

“Yes, yes it is!”

She said smiling.

She picked up a metal pipe and stuck it in the door’s lock, it was like a homemade slide bolt.

“Okay, but… why am I here?”

He asked curiously as he walked around the place.

Hans entered the room to the right.

As he turned to the left, he spotted a bed with a wooden frame and old but seemingly clean sheets, a wooden desk coupled with a wooden chair with arm and backrests, and in the corner further away from the original entrance, another door that seemed to lead somewhere else.

‘A bathroom probably’

He guessed.

While he watched the room, Emma’s reply came back:

“You are being watched, meaning we should hide, isn’t that common sense?”

“Is it now?”

“I mean… probably”

Hans’ deadpan expression accompanied him as he watched Emma with seemingly disappointed eyes…

‘This… is what a world-class leader should be like?… How didn’t the night market crumble… how did it even get built?’

The woman’s face turned angry as she watched Hans.

“You just thought badly of me didn’t you?”

Hans retaining his ’emotionless’ expression replied blatantly:

“No, no”

“Yes, you did!”

She insisted.

“How could I ever”

He said, with the same expression on his face.

“Aghh! Whatever, just go to sleep we’ll talk about it tomorrow morning, that’s your room, and that’s your bed”

She quickly walked to him and pointed at the furniture before returning to the other side.

There were no doors in the place apart from the ones in the corners of their rooms, so when they both lay in bed, they were basically in the same room… only with a wall in between because of the room’s shape.

Hans wasn’t tired, but he didn’t feel like unpacking his things, he just opened up his bag that he had painstakingly carried even through that crowd of people and let out his little friend.

Hans caressed the snake’s forehead and apologized:

“Sorry Ember, I could only keep you there because the driver would’ve just straight up called the police on me if he saw me going around with a snake wrapped around my neck.

Ember wasn’t so little anymore, she couldn’t go unnoticed just by hiding inside Hans’ pockets.

With the snake resting on him, and the calm place, it didn’t take long for Hans to close his eyes after his head touched the pillow.

Emma remained silent the whole time, apparently, she had already fallen asleep.

The following morning, Hans was muttering something, his voice was muffled because he didn’t properly open his mouth.

“Aaahh!!!”

Hans immediately jolted awake, standing up as he observed the room around him in search of danger.

Adrenaline pumped into his veins, as he watched the quiet apartment.

“W-what the hell’s a monster doing in my room?!”

The screams didn’t stop, Hans hurried to the other side of the house and saw Emma already awake.

In front of her, on the floor, Ember was watching the human with a curious look on her face.