On Friday afternoon, Angel ate dinner early, changed into lightweight clothes, and placed the Magician Pocket Watch, three Slumber Charms, and several sets of spare pistol bullets into different pockets. Her pistol and dagger, staff and Magic Mirror were all where they belonged.
"Looks like you're heading to a battlefield..."
After examining her fully armed self in the full-length mirror, Angel draped on a cloak, retrieved the document bag containing the Difference Engine Manuscript from her study, and left home.
Choosing not to take a rented carriage, she walked toward the home of Dominic and Sonia in the East Borough, partly to digest the dinner she had just eaten, and partly to record the route in detail and understand the surrounding environment.
During the day, the East Borough looked slightly more "peaceful" than at night. Homeless people in the corners of alleys were driven into unseen spots by the occasional patrolling police officer wielding a baton, and storefronts facing the street cleared away piles of stinking trash, making the poverty-stricken East Borough still look somewhat like the capital of the kingdom.
However, once night fell, the omnipresent vagrants would flood out from everywhere once more, searching for any place to rest, anything to eat, anything that could be exchanged for money...
This was Backlund's East Borough. Its population was several times that of Tingen City, yet it resembled a district made up of countless Iron Cross Streets from Tingen City.
No, Iron Cross Street at least had order, and a little hope... Angel recalled Tromi, the young female factory worker living on the lower street. She should still be working as a maid in the Moretti household, learning how to cook. Angel wondered how many dishes she had learned by now...
After passing through streets steeped in despair, Angel felt