Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 140 Old Kohler

Another day without finding work.

Just after dawn, old Kohler returned from the dock, head down, walking slowly.

September had ended, and October had just begun, yet Backlund had instantly become bitterly cold. Even though it was morning, the air was thick with a choking, damp haze, making it impossible to see anything more than a few meters ahead.

Old Kohler tightened his coat, trying to retain his body heat with his tattered overcoat.

He hadn't found work for several days, and all he had left was a few pennies, not enough to rent even the cheapest bed. The only place he could afford was a rope bed—which, as the name suggests, was a horizontal rope that you clung to and slept on for just one penny a night.

But old Kohler wouldn't even pay for that kind of bed because he needed to eat. Without food, he wouldn't have the strength to take on the dockworks, and he'd just be waiting to die.

He walked slowly along the stone steps of the Tasok River, his vision obscured by a white mist.

In a daze, old Kohler seemed to see his past days.

At that time, he was a skilled shoemaker with a wife, children, and a house to live in. However, an illness took away his family, and he himself became critically ill, spending a long time in the hospital before surviving—but as the price of survival, he exhausted all his savings and went bankrupt.

In Backlund, it is almost impossible for the poor to rise above their circumstances; they will only gradually weaken in their continued poverty until they quietly die.

People die every day in the East End; old Kohler has seen it all. People starve, die of disease, get run over by carriages, have their arms or legs crushed in factories, and sometimes even whitish corpses float to the surface of the pungent-smelling Tasok River.
Just then, his body suddenly jolted.

In the distance, at the end of the gray-white smoke, a blurry figure was floating down.

It was early morning, and the surroundings were eerily quiet. The thick smoke obscured his vision, making it seem as if he were the only person left in the world, accompanied only by the thing that had drifted down.

A storm is brewing! Seriously? Am I having such bad luck today? Am I going to run into a corpse again?!
Old Kohler was on the verge of tears. He was about to hide somewhere further away when he suddenly noticed that the figure was struggling and splashing in the water.

It doesn't look like a dead person!

He mustered his courage and took a few steps forward, looking more closely. Sure enough, what was in the river was not a corpse, but a young man. He was struggling in the water, being carried downstream by the current.

"There are steps over there, grab onto them!"

Old Kohler called out.

In the canals of Backlund, there is a gentle slope at intervals. Old Kohler didn't know what the purpose of this design was, but it just happened to provide a way to climb ashore.

The young man followed his advice, reached out and grabbed the protruding edge of the riverbed, stabilizing himself.

The temperature was very cold in the early morning, and he was shivering.

"Hurry up and climb up!"

Old Kohler shouted.

However, the young man merely glanced at him and made no move. Instead, he seemed about to let go. Upon closer inspection, his clothes were not those of a typical laborer in the East District; rather, they exuded elegance, like something from a high-end shop.

"Hurry up and get on! What are you waiting for?"

Old Kohler urged him on, already almost reaching the young man. But the man remained rooted to the stone steps, his face showing numbness and pain.

"Please don't worry about me, I jumped down on my own."

He spoke with pale lips and his teeth chattering.

Did he jump down by himself?

"why?"

Old Kohler asked in surprise.

"It's because he wants to die, isn't it?"

From the mist nearby, someone spoke softly. Old Kohler looked in the direction of the voice and saw a person dressed in white sitting on the bank, legs dangling naturally over the water, looking quite relaxed. Because the mist was so thick, he couldn't see the person's face clearly, only his blue eyes.

"You can't possibly want to practice swimming, can you? The water quality of the Tasok River is not suitable for this sport."

He made an inappropriate joke.

wanna die?

Old Kohler was stunned. He looked into the river again. The young man in the water heard his words, his lips pressed tightly together, and he said nothing.

No, don't do anything rash.

Old Kohler offered his dry advice. The other man was well-dressed and seemed to be a wealthy person, which made it completely incomprehensible to him, a poor man from the East End, why the other man would want to die.

"What do you know!"

The young man was enraged by the two men's attitude, his fingers gripping the stone steps tightly. "Everything I have, my hopes and my future, are ruined!"

No, you are still very healthy.

Old Kohler said awkwardly.

He desperately wanted to tell the other person about all the terrible things he had suffered: the death of family members, bankruptcy, serious illness. Even now, he was struggling to survive, hoping only to live a few more days. But he was terrible at speaking and didn't know where to begin.

Why do you say your hope has been destroyed?

The young man on the riverbank asked with great interest, seemingly not intending to persuade the other person, but simply wanting to hear their story, "Since you're already planning to die, why don't you share your experiences with us?"

"It's all because of those damned noblemen in Parliament, they repealed the Corn Act!"

The young man in the water became agitated, his eyes filled with a mixture of excitement and despair. "Thanks to it, our family is bankrupt! Our company is finished!"

It turned out that the young man's family had originally owned a grain company. His father bought grain from farmers across the country and then resold it in Backlund. After the Corn Act was repealed, grain prices plummeted, and their company quickly went bankrupt. His father was so devastated by the blow that he soon collapsed and died.

All his efforts in the first half of his life were aimed at inheriting his father's company. However, the repeal of a single law rendered all his hard work futile, and he felt as if his entire world had collapsed.

"What do my efforts and sacrifices even mean!"

He shouted in the icy water, angry and desperate.

"Oh, I see. I understand, I understand. No wonder you wanted to commit suicide."

The young people on the shore nodded in agreement, as if they understood the sentiment.

Old Kohler was dumbfounded. What was this person doing? Not only was he not saving people, but he was even going along with his words and urging him to die.

"Don't listen to him!"

Old Kohler quickly stepped forward, wanting to pull the man up, but hesitated when he saw the icy river water.

If he falls into the water, and the weather is so cold, he'll likely catch a cold. With his current physical strength, catching a cold could really kill him.
"hehe."

As if he had seen through old Kohler's thoughts, the young man gave a mocking laugh and then tried to let go, letting his body sink into the water.

Just then, they heard the young man on the shore speaking.

"However, it would be better if you died, but your mother is still alive, right? Have you thought about what will happen to her? At her age, if she goes out to stand on the street, I'm afraid no customers will want to patronize her, will they?"

The two were stunned.

The young man in the water, whose face had initially shown despair, was first replaced by astonishment, and then quickly filled with anger. He thrashed about, seemingly about to climb ashore!
(End of this chapter)