Chapter 557: Improvements

Speaking of the Rising Phoenix Guild, with it being positioned on the border of the southern residential and southern market districts, and it seeing so much foot traffic from orphans and masters alike, it too had a huge positive impact on the poorest citizens of Misty City.

More investment led to better conditions, which attracted more business, which led to more investment, which led to even better conditions...

Now, along a small tributary river in the far south which fed into the Lorren, several more warehouses and factories were being built. Many of these were still owned by Lucas and the Balfour Family, but there were also some entrepreneurs who saw potential in this place and who were willing to put down a bit of money to start up new enterprises.

Safety has also massively improved in the district, as the city guard now patrolled here more frequently and merchants who patronized the area always traveled together with strong escorts who deterred petty criminals.

If that wasn’t enough, powerful Snow Spirit Foxes and officers from both the Balfour Family Guard and Raging River Legion could often be seen wandering through the district, escorting small children home from the Rising Phoenix Guild after classes when work was done for the day.

There was still a long way to go, mind you.

The southern residential district was still the place where the poorest of the poor lived. Decades of neglect and silent acquiescence to the idea that ’there had to be somewhere for the poor to go’ had left this place in a deep deficit when it came to all things related to housing and infrastructure.

Crime had certainly gone down, but while the local gangs and troublemakers had reigned themselves in so as not to draw too much attention, it wasn’t like they had just disappeared altogether.

Eris, having seen reports of theft, drunken brawls, and even more serious offences occurring not too far from her Guild had wanted to crack down on these criminals even harder, but everyone around her had cautioned her against acting too forcefully.

There was no way for these small underworld organizations to challenge the might of the Balfour Family, but even a mouse would strike back at a cat when pushed to the edge.

These criminals were also deeply embedded into the fabric of the southern district and had their fingers in many workplaces necessary to keep the local economy going. Suddenly dislodging such elements, while probably a good idea from the long-term perspective, would almost certainly cause chaos in the short term.

The way Lucas explained it was that the southern residential district was a sick and ailing patient that needed both time and carefully applied treatment to heal. If one tried to rush things, they could wind up doing more harm than good.

Eris, though reluctant, was willing to defer to her Senior Brother’s expertise in this regard, especially after her Master and the other smart adults around her agreed with Lucas’ strategy.

Besides, while he had said as much, Lucas was hardly taking things slowly in regards to the southern district when it came to other matters.

The run-down condition of the southern district provided the boy’s Urban Development Team with plenty of opportunities to test out some their new ideas, like dedicated drainage systems, septic fields, and homes made from pre-fabricated parts.

This was different from what the UDT was doing in the brand-new Maple Town, where most of the effort was being put towards just getting the settlement up and running.

Still, no matter how much money and manpower were thrown at the problem, it didn’t change the fact that it would take time to bring the southern district up to par with the rest of Misty City.

However, after so many years of not seeing any improvement at all, the progress which had been made over the past 3 months was nothing short of miraculous in the eyes of both the Balfour Family and the city administration.

It was rumoured that when he toured around this area recently, Mayor Gavin Faller had actually shed tears of joy at the sight of young children running and playing in the streets with big smiles on their faces.

Whether those rumours were true or not, the man in question would neither confirm nor deny.

.....

"It really has gotten much better around here, hasn’t it?" Eris commented idly as she helped pull the handcart carrying the group’s borrowed tools.

"En!" Becky replied cheerfully, seemingly both happy and proud that her neighbourhood had become so much brighter in recent days.

The group of 6 were headed towards one of the warehouses on the far side of the southern residential district, in an area that was quickly becoming known as the southern industrial district.

They had left the Rising Phoenix Guild about half-an-hour ago and thanks to the good road conditions, they were nearly there.

Many of the side-streets here were still little more than dirt paths, but the most traveled thoroughfares, which they had taken to get this far, had been freshly upgraded, much to the glee of the locals.

10-minutes later, after leaving the main road and zig-zagging through a bunch of smaller alleyways, Eris checked the small map which had been included in the guild request to confirm they were in the right spot before nodding, "Looks like we’re here!"

Taking a look around, however, the warehouse they were supposed to help clean up today was hardly in what Eris would describe as ’good’ condition.

The request might have come from a ’new’ business, as in recently established, but the building itself was much more run-down than she had been expecting.

That wasn’t too odd, though.

This area was filled with old, broken-down buildings, many of which had previously been used as storage places for a small port which used to sit on this tributary.

According to what Eris had been told, that port had been washed away in a flood a few decades ago but had never been replaced. As for why that was, Eris vaguely recalled Lucas saying something about ’opportunity costs’, then launching into a longwinded explanation she had mostly tuned out.

In any case, Eris wasn’t surprised that there was a run-down warehouse here that someone bought in hopes of starting a business, what she did find odd was just how out of the way this particular warehouse was.

Glancing around, Eris noticed that they were now at the very western edge of the southern district, away from where all the new roads and infrastructure were being built.

There were also no other occupied buildings nearby, just more ruins.

Still, that could be explained by whoever it was who bought this building not having enough money to afford anything else; prices for buildings in this area were going up quite a bit, after all.

What really stood out, however, was that there didn’t seem to be anyone here to greet them.

No merchant, business owner, or even a manager of any sort could be seen.

There weren’t any signs that people had been here recently, making it all the stranger.

Something about this wasn’t right, Eris could feel it, and so could the other girls.

"A-Are you sure this is the right place, Big Sister Eris?" Becky asked hesitantly, her eyes darting around suspiciously.

The other girls were also now huddling a bit closer to Eris, their gazes becoming vigilant.

They may have been young, but they had grown up under harsh conditions in the southern district, so they had all learned to act cautiously when they found themselves in potentially dangerous situations.