After showing Leon and the others her arm covered in blood spots, amidst the female journalist’s horrified gaze, Bandit Younger Sister quietly explained:
“I was born a child in the floating crystal mines. Even before I was born, my whole body was already full of these powders; they’re part of me.
Grandma said that floating crystals have an attraction property. Once activated, these tiny powder particles gather towards larger pieces of the same source. Every year in the mine, people get close to operating float carts and have their internal floating crystal dust sucked out, leaving their throats and lungs completely destroyed.
And those floating crystals in Crocodile Kingdom are always in a low-intensity activation state. The closer I get to them, the more pain I feel in my body. So, if I try enough times, I can definitely find the location of the Crocodile Kingdom Royal Palace.”
So this is how she does it…
Even after preparing himself mentally, after hearing Bandit Younger Sister’s method for finding the Crocodile Kingdom Royal Palace, Leon couldn’t help but fall silent.
Although Bandit Younger Sister never deliberately talked about her life before escaping from Cheshire with Bandit Older Brother, from the occasional bits and pieces she let slip, it wasn’t hard to imagine what kind of life they had led.
“I still have a few questions I need to confirm.”
After a brief silence, Leon spoke up again:
“Crocodile Kingdom has over eight hundred districts, each one embedded with floating crystals underneath. How can you be sure that the ones attracting you are beneath the Crocodile Kingdom Royal Palace?”
“By the mine numbers.”
Bandit Younger Sister calmly replied: “Because floating crystals have attraction properties once activated, to avoid interference, the floating crystals under those districts are mined in different ways – different explosives ratios, mining equipment, and washing materials all vary.
So theoretically, every mine produces different floating crystals. My family were all from Mine No.1. Grandma heard the mine supervisor say that the floating crystals from Zone 1 are specifically supplied for use by the royal family.”
I see…
After listening to Bandit Younger Sister’s explanation, Leon nodded slightly. The female journalist, who had finally recovered from her shock, suddenly stepped forward, gripping the skinny, rather frightening arm, and somewhat incoherently asked: “How could this happen?! Those floating crystals are actually… Do you… do you feel pain?”
“Not too much.”
Upon hearing the female journalist’s question, Bandit Younger Sister shook her head and said:
“I’m young, so my body can still grow a bit more. As long as I eat more, I can endure the effects of these powders. It’s probably when my bones stop growing longer and my organs stop increasing in size that they’ll start wearing down my body.”
“Wear down?”
“Rotten.”
Pointing at the blood spots on her arm, Bandit Younger Sister answered steadily: “Uncle Mazbi told grandma that when my body grows and the cell replacement rate slows down, if it’s not fast enough to replace the cells in these parts before rejection occurs, then these blood spots will grow from the size of rice grains to the size of beans.
Then the skin, unable to maintain due to underlying rejection, will suffer large-scale ulcers. After about a year, when these ulcers grow to the size of pigeon eggs, my internal organs will also begin to ulcerate, and within half a year, I’ll die.”
“…”
That means, from the time my body stops growing until being tormented to death by these powders, there’s only one and a half years? Looking at the girl in front of her whose expression was unnaturally calm, as if she were talking about someone else, the female journalist couldn’t help but tightly clench her hands.
“So… how old are you?”
“Fourteen.”
Fourteen…
Even if nutrition keeps up, the rapid growth phase for most people usually ends around seventeen or eighteen, and girls mature earlier than boys, some even stop growing at fifteen or sixteen.
If this child is like that, then her life has entered its countdown. She might have less than a year left before she begins to be tormented by pain, followed by full-body ulcers and death.
So although she looks underage, her life is actually ticking away, just like many elderly people on their last legs, soon reaching the end of her life…
“So… you…”
Stunned by the cruel reality, the female journalist, after saying “that,” couldn’t continue and instinctively covered her mouth. Beside her, Leon took over the questioning:
“You’ve left the mine. Can’t the dust inside your body be metabolized out with medicine or other methods over time?”
“Uncle Mazbi tried, but it didn’t work.”
Bandit Younger Sister shook her head:
“The way to activate floating crystals is through some form of energy, and Uncle Mazbi said that human bodies also contain energy that floating crystal dust can directly absorb.
Kids like me, whose flesh and internal organs contain dust, are actually lucky. If the brain and nerves contained floating crystal dust, we wouldn’t even be able to control our bodies and would die right after birth.”
No mistake in any content in 69 Book Bar!
“Who is this Uncle Mazbi you mentioned?”
“Uncle Mazbi is a scholar from Crocodile Kingdom.”
When mentioning Crocodile Kingdom, Bandit Younger Sister’s eyes slightly hardened, but then became complicated:
“He originally came to treat the supervisors, but after seeing our condition, he caused a commotion and then stayed in Cheshire, treating many miners for free. Both my brother and I were able to escape thanks to his help.”
“And him now?”
“Don’t know, maybe dead.”
Bandit Younger Sister’s expression darkened somewhat: “His health wasn’t good either, and he was grazed by the mine’s floating cart. His lungs were worse than grandma’s. When my brother and I ran away, he was already coughing up blood daily.”
“…”
Hearing this, Leon involuntarily closed his eyes briefly and fell silent again. The female journalist, having calmed herself, said with reddened eyes:
“What if you two don’t go down the mine? What would the overseers of Crocodile Kingdom do, attack you directly?”
“They won’t. The overseers of Crocodile Kingdom only care about whether the mine operates normally and that no one leaves without permission. They don’t interfere with anything else.”
Bandit Younger Sister clenched her teeth: “But although they don’t lay a hand on us, plants cannot survive in Cheshire and the other large mines, and there are almost no animals. Everything, including food, must be exchanged for mined floating crystals!”
So if you don’t want to starve to death, you have no choice but to mine floating crystals? Understanding the “operation” mode of Cheshire, the female journalist’s lips were bitten deeply white, while Leon sighed inwardly beside her, then took out a silver knife and cut the ropes binding the bandit siblings.
“I accept your deal.”
(End of Chapter)
