"This rain is really like drowning fish in the sea... Marcus, don't you mind chatting with you for a while, do you?"

The man who claimed to be Rhode said this, his body had moved quickly. After stopping to look at me for a brief moment, he passed by me and stepped onto the wooden floor of the house, and placed a clean but simple cotton dress in front of me.

"If I said I mind, wouldn't it seem too unkind?" I smiled slightly, picked up a towel and wiped the water stains on my body, stood against the wall, and looked at the man in front of me.

Mr. Rod probably saw my defense, and walked forward in small steps, standing side by side with me, looking out the window, staring at the stormy night separated by a line of glass, watching the chaotic world where the wind kept pulling and raindrops kept slapping, and spoke gently.

"I didn't expect... to come back to town many years later, and this would be like this. Marcus, what do you think about this?"

I also watched the mottled rain marks on the glass, watching the water droplets slide down quickly and slowly, leaving an indescribable twisted pattern.

"This is not like a town I am familiar with...Mr. Rod, I have never seen such a violent scene in a town. Before I left, this ore town was still a quiet remote countryside. Everyone lived happily together, and it looked no different from the towns in the world..."

At this time, the middle-aged man who claimed to be Rhode quickly raised his head, as if he was attracted by the thunder that grew from the sky, but I found a look of surprise that quickly disappeared in his eyes.

...What was he panicing? For this town? Or for me?

"Mr. Rod, how long has this rain been?" I decided to speak out, and even if I exposed my weaknesses, I would find his weirdness.

The middle-aged man raised his head and sighed: "After the mudslide, Dart and Thomas found me for some reason and told me that something happened to Lilia. So I hurried back to the ranch... After that, this sudden heavy rainstorm has been around for almost a week..."

Something is wrong...

The fastest route from Ore Town to the Federation is three days, and the round trip is six days. The rain fell for another seven days, so the boss and the train went out at most three and a half days. Mr. Rhode, who was mentioned by the boss Dart, had traveled all over the world for a long time, so how could he be found in such a quick time? Is this a coincidence?

My contemplation became the catalyst for the middle-aged man's narrative, and I heard him continue.

"At the beginning, we were worried about other secondary geological disasters, so we decided to evacuate all residents to the surrounding islands. As a result, the thunderstorm continued continuously, causing all ships to be unable to get close to here. We had to do our best to prepare disaster prevention measures..."

"Disaster prevention measures? But I see that it is empty here?"

"The departure of Harris and Gotz is really a loss." Mr. Rod said helplessly: "The rain did not stop until the third day, and it even became more and more intense, led by unknown thunderstorm clouds above the head to lock the town. The lake water on Mount Mades quickly exceeded the warning level, and even a landslide lake appeared halfway up the mountain. In order to prepare in advance, we could only dig out artificial rivers along the route of mudslides and direct the river water to a ruined pasture area..."

"No wonder I returned to the ranch and found that it had become a country of marsh." I suddenly realized.

Mr. Rod said apologetically: "Only this route can reduce the losses of the residents in the town, I hope you don't mind. If I mind, I can apologize to you, because this is not the decision of the town, but my personal behavior."

I shrugged indifferently: "It is useless to keep the pasture that turns into a ruin. It is best to be a flood-releasing river. If it were me, I would have made such a choice, but to play a river from the ruins of mudslides, you must have spent a lot of effort, Mr. Rhodes?"

Mr. Rod shook his head: "Actually, in the first few days, I have been digging and searching there for a long time. After all, I don't believe Lilia...I don't believe she will disappear like this."

Speaking of this, he lowered his head and was silent for a long time, calmed down for a while before continuing, "Marcus, you seem to have a good relationship with Perbri...?"

"Of course, when we first came to the town, Mrs. Lilia and Perbri helped me a lot, and we were good friends." We need to hide more about this relationship, although most of the people in the town are friends with me?

"Can you tell me how you survived? All this is very important to me and Lilia, please!"

Mr. Rhode unconsciously turned the ring in his hand, stared at my eyes, and then said nothing.

I was stared at his eyes and said frankly as I tried to be honest: "Mr. Rod, I regret Mr. Lilia's experience, but my experience was too bizarre. Even I don't know what happened. I really can't give useful clues...so...sorry."

As soon as I said that, Mr. Rod's eyes returned to his initial indifference, as if the heart door that had been opened just now was locked intact again. Everything seemed to be my illusion.

"Marcus, then you can rest early. The nearest town is not very suitable for going out, so let's pray that the heavy rain will end soon."

Mr. Rod blew out the candles brought into the room, picked up the candlestick and signaled that he would leave the room. But I couldn't let him leave so easily.

"Mr. Rod, I still have a doubt and want to ask you for answers." My sudden voice surprised the middle-aged man.

"Please say it's okay."

There were only two shadows confronting parallel in the dim room, as if the tones of the whole world were black and white.

"Where did the rest of the town go? Why are all the houses empty?"

"Well..." Mr. Rod's voice came out slowly, "Due to the power outage in the town, in order to protect the safety of the residents in the town, all residents gathered spontaneously in the church until dawn to return to their own house."

After saying that, he also murmured, "When I left, everyone seemed not so religious to the church..."

I quickly lowered my head and used the water stains on my body as a cover-up. Because I was afraid that under the thunder, the middle-aged man opposite would find a hint of panic in my eyes.

Mistaken that I didn't seem to be talking anymore, Mr. Rod finally told me: "Go and rest quickly. I will prepare breakfast tomorrow morning. The drinking water source seems to be contaminated recently, and the water smells of sea water, but fortunately it has no effect on drinking."

Then I closed my door and said in an inappropriate blessing in a relaxed tone: "In the words that have been popular in the town recently, I hope we can see the sun tomorrow."
Chapter completed!