If First University was like the noon sun, brilliant and radiant, and the Silent Forest like an eternal black hole, dark and profound, then Beta Town, the little town wedged between the academy and the forest, was the color between black and white. Like the color of its streets, it was gray.
That afternoon, walking through the bustling streets of the North District, Zheng Qing gained a deeper understanding of those words he had heard before.
As the famed "Hollow District," Beta Town North District was home to the largest concentration of tricksters in the entire Wizarding World, and naturally, the Wizarding World's largest impoverished population as well.
Nothing reflected this more clearly than the clothes worn by pedestrians on the street.
At school, most students wore robes made of materials like ice silkworm silk and dragonhide. Some wealthy families even used Mermaid Silk or wyrm hide as fabric. But in Beta Town North District, these ordinarily common materials were rarely seen. As far as the eye could see, almost all the clothing Zheng Qing saw was made of linen—regardless of gender or age.
The sort of dull gray, coarse linen that even pricked the hand when touched.
At First University, only some of the people at Atlas Academy who championed an ascetic lifestyle could tolerate that sort of material.
This discovery gradually silenced the group of three as they walked. Especially because while they observed the passersby, the people of the North District were assessing them with probing gazes as well—those looks held timidity and unease, but no shortage of malice and furtive scrutiny. They were not reassuring looks.
"I think maybe we should find an inn in another district, right?" Fatty Xin lowered his voice and quietly offered his opinion to his two companions.
Zheng Qing immediately agreed.