The Kitchen

Lee stood and picked up his stolen paper, ink, and brushes, deciding to carry them with him to explore the rest of the mansion.

He was done with the office. It was beginning to feel like he was intruding on a tomb or a memorial. His skin felt cold and as if something slimy was sticking to him.

He looked back from the doorway and shivered, before closing the door behind him again, leaving the room.

Lee decided to walk down the other branch of the manor to explore what was in the other wing of the building, honestly not expecting too much.

If one side was industrial production, mostly made up of those that the manor's residents were wealthier than, then it would be natural to clump the staff of the manor along with them in the other wing, all of this occurring at the side of the building, particularly placing the servants at the back, and the artisans at the front, closer to the main entrance.

Lee had to wonder, though, where all the residents of the town went. The desk was littered with unfinished paperwork and the board game was incomplete, as Zhang Yuan had simply run out of his place of work one day for no particular reason, and then never returned.

The entire town looked like its residents had done the same thing.

And then, there was the business of the underwater hotel. The best explanation for its transferral would be by flood, but the structure remained mostly undamaged, with even the restaurant chairs and tables exactly in place. The only real damage was the missing roof, along with too many other buildings in the town, with no above water evidence of a flood.

The bottom of each and every building was also remarkably immaculate, the exact opposite of what one would expect in the aftermath of a flood.

The God of Strength had called this town 'The Ghost Town' for a reason, and its current state certainly pointed to why it was named as such, but at the same time, why were they here?

Lee was wandering around almost lawlessly trying in investigate the town's history, while the God was filling up sand bags for some reason.

There was no reason to use them other than if they were to keep water out of homes, but that was a futile venture considering the holes in all the rooves of the buildings. They would be flooded whenever it rained.

Unless the lake water was different somehow...

Lee had been yelled at for venturing into the lake. It's water may have some sort of mystical properties or may even just be poisonous, making it imperative that the insides of the houses needed to be protective.

There was one flaw with that theory though: nobody lived here in the town.

Lee stopped walking, closed his eyes, and shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

His thoughts felt fuzzy and his stomach was rolling.

He felt as if he was about to be sick, his brain stubbornly refusing to properly think and cooperate with him.

Lee supposed that it must be time for lunch, looking out one of the windows and at the sky. There had been no trace of food so far, so it would almost be natural that there would be no food in the kitchens.

Sliding the door open, Lee saw that he was correct.

The kitchen worktops were littered with the gouges and burn marks of effort with the knives, spoons, ladles, chopsticks, and all sorts of other items, bowls, plates, cups, platters, scattered about in a sort of ordered chaos.

Work tops ran around the edges of the room with a large central table sitting in the middle. Each cooking utensil occupied its own place, with cupboard draws underneath the counters flung open to reveal a variety of pans, with a woodfire tucked away at the side.

The central table was laid out with all sorts of platters and trays, each individual one set up with an assortment of plates and cups in their own decorative sets, all primed and ready to be served to the lords and ladies of the manor.

All coated in a thin layer of dust.

Lee's stomach rumbled and he felt it tighten.

Swallowing down on his own saliva, he turned to leave, sliding the door shut behind him as he walked out to go and eat another steamed bun for lunch.

Lee wondered when this hazy fog entered his brain and was beginning to turn off its functions and silence his thoughts.

The water of the lake could have done such a thing, but Lee was sceptical of whether it was true. It certainly did make sense for the townsfolk to leave after they learned that their main water source was poisoned, with the water altering their minds and restricting the capacity of their actions a plausible reason for leaving so many of their belongings behind in the manor, while leaving their homes completely empty.

The skeleton sat in the underwater hotel could also function as the source of the resentful energy which had transformed the lake into becoming what it was now.

However, it was highly unlikely for no looting to have occurred between the four years that the people had left and now, and it was even more unlikely that the collective town, all at once picked themselves up and left.

There was no records of any kind of migration though in Zhang Yuan's office. There weren't any resignation letters and there wasn't any evidence of stragglers as well.

Lee would need to go and investigate more to try and learn more.

Everything was hurting as well.

He felt so tired as well.

His stomach felt as if it was beginning to eat itself and he threw out an arm to steady himself.

Lee hobbled back to his base to feed himself, uncaring of whether the God of Strength saw him or not.

He had to close his eyes, the sun too bright for him.