The old man tells the story of the citizens from this rundown town,"It all started with the construction for the city-"
"City?" Sven asks curiously.
Annabelle answers the unknowledgeable boy,"The city just south of here, Yume."
I think the rest of the group already realized which city it was, because their expressions remained unchanged when Annabelle said the name of the city.
The boy still looks confused but the old man ignores it and continues,"This town was used for the construction workers and their families... then the war broke out. The workers were expected to keep building the city, many were killed each day, but the families were never given any compensation since they were killed by enemy solders, but they weren't solders themselves, only unfortunate civilians caught in the crossfire."
At this point, the entire room was rendered silent. Some seemed to be recalling painful memories, others seemed to speechless and at a loss for words, some looked frustrated, and a couple even had a light haze of killing intent and menace. It seems they haven't given up on life, they were forced into this situation without any other options.
The elderly sighed before continuing,"About half a year passed, that was when it happened. The enemy nation created a new bomb...and used the almost finished, newly built city to test it. ...Everyone was killed and the whole city was destroyed. All the workers died. Only the women, children, elderly, and men who happened to be in town that day survived. Because the city was destroyed before the construction was finished, the higher-ups said that, according to the rules of the contract, they didn't have to pay for the construction work, instead using the money that should have been given to us for war supplies. In the end, we received no money, our family members died and the leftover aren't able to work, so now we're wasting away in this town, waiting to die."
"..."