Operation story: 13-16

Operation

Story

Previous 13-15	Next 13-17
Characters
Guard Nine Nowell Percival Red Talulah Angry Infected Desperate Refugee Frightened Refugee Indifferent Infected Nervous Infected Panicked Refugee Reunion? (Mays) Reunion Warrior
Backgrounds
1 2A 2B 3 4

Before operation

“

Guard arrives at a distillery once occupied by the Victorian Reunion, where he discovers the innocent Sarkaz merchant killed by Victorian Infected. His disintegration starts a fire, and Guard dies trying to save lives.

”

Sometimes I think that if there really is a Creator responsible for these lands, he's one cruel bastard. He came up with a really awful disease, where you feel your body being consumed, gradually being replaced by these crystals, helpless to do anything to stop it. You can feel your very self being removed from your body, day by day. You can only accept it. We can only accept it. And this creation of Oripathy is actually one of the gentler ones across the lands. The Infected and the uninfected, Nine tells me our persecution is as old as civilization itself. So... what about poor and rich? Slave and noble? Foreigner and local? Disabled and able-bodied? Even abnormal and normal...? A parasitic disease is scary, sure, but Oripathy is only the most obvious, the most prominent of the terrible diseases out there. The Creator's really awful inventions are poverty, war, bottomless, insatiable greed, the malice and hypocrisy that bring so much suffering, gaps we can never close. But the truth is, we all know, no Creator came up with that stuff. Humans, we invented it all on our own. You and me, we created them.
<Background 1>
Guard	Good news? Or bad news?
Red	The good news is that the workshop is still intact, the forest hid it good. The dukes and the Sarkaz never got to use it as an outpost. The bad news is, someone's living there. We saw lights. I walked up, identified myself, and the lights went out.
Guard	Might be refugees or deserters. But they put out the lights... that means they're wary of us.
Reunion Warrior	Our fighters are ready for anything.
Nine	No, let's not be hasty. They might just be cautious, or fearful. Don't jump to conclusions.
Guard	And anyway, Red's carrying a pretty long blade. Anyone would want to play it safe. Why don't I go? I'll have a word with them.
Nine	By yourself?
Guard	That's enough. The more men we send, the more nervous they'll be. Besides, if they mean us harm, a few more hands won't make a difference. The sky to the south has been red for the past few days. Percival and the others even found an Arts Circle... We need to move fast.
Nine	There's some risk in that.
Guard	I know. But we made it out of Chernobog.
Nine	Fair enough. We'll be ready to provide support on the sidelines, to make a breakthrough.
Guard	This place was some kind of distillery before the Victorian Reunion settled in? I can already smell the booze. Romanich would've loved it.
<Background 2A>
It certainly was a distillery. Secret distilleries like this are common enough in Victoria, dodging around punishing taxes imposed by the lords. They could be used to make crude medication for the Infected. Soaking, mixing, distilling herbs would work, but purification... no way. I'm starting to admire the Victorian Reunion. They found this place and turned it into a distribution center for medicine. When did they start calling themselves Reunion and build all this? I'm not sure. All I know is that the building is just an old house covered in vines now. No movement around, no lights in the house. A figure flashes by the window. Red was right, there are people here, and they've spotted me. I dust of my clothes and fix my hair, trying to look more presentable.
[Guard knocks the door.]
Guard	Hello. Anybody home?
No answer.
Guard	Hi, I'm Guard. I've got a team nearby, I'm pretty sure you saw them earlier? Don't worry, we mean no harm. The Victorian Reunion used to use this workshop to make medicine. It brought hope to a lot of Infected around Londinium. Its medicine even circulated among the workers in the sewers below the city's industrial districts. Whoever you are, you know the war is turning a lot more people Infected. We want to get things going again here, to help them. Since you're occupying the place... We need your cooperation. We can provide medicine or other supplies. We'll trade fair.
Still, no response. The doorknob turns, and I grip the hilt of my sword. After everything we've been through, I know it's pretty likely I'll be staring down a pitchfork or hatchet next. I'm numb to that sort of thing now. The door opens.
Reunion?	Reunion, you said?
Guard	Your clothes... who are you?
Reunion?	Mays.
Mays	Come in.
<Background 3>
There are more people hiding inside than I guessed. And it's quite a group. Some of them are obviously Infected, while others leaning against the wall are probably ordinary refugees from the city. They're all looking over, silently, watching me and the woman in the Victorian Reunion uniform.
Mays	Look away, and clear out.
The crowd falls back, and Mays leads me past their collective gaze. These people... are terrified.
Guard	Are you in charge here?
Mays	This place is under my control. Let's find a place to talk.
[Guard follows Mays.]
...Victorian Reunion... Percival is in Victorian Reunion too. Our organization doesn't exactly have franchising procedures and once word of the name spread around, the Reunion flag started popping up in all sorts of places. That also means there have been various acts of violence, acts of revenge, taking place under the Reunion name. The kind of thing that happened in Chernobog. I start looking at this... Mays. She seems nervous, her gait is unnatural.
<Background fades out and in>
We're in the deepest depths of the workshop.
Mays	Here we are. Nobody comes in here. So you're Reunion, the real Reunion. You came from the north? From... Ursus?
Guard	Yes, Ursus, Columbia, and now we're in Victoria.
Mays	That's a ways.
Guard	Your uniform, it's...
Mays	I... used a bedsheet. I ran into a group from Ursus before. They said you dress like this. I think I got the emblem right.
Guard	Looks a bit big.
Mays	Did you come here just to mock my handiwork?
Guard	So you control this place just because you dressed up in the garb of the infamous "Reunion".
Mays	Let's get to the point. I don't have much time. You want to get this place up and running again? To start making medicine?
Guard	Yes, if news got out that Reunion is running the place again...
Mays	No. Things are more complicated than you know. We have all kinds of people here. I'm worn out breaking up the daily fights between Infected and uninfected. And you want to make Infected medicine? You might as well blow the place up. It's hard to keep a balance between them.
Guard	...... You're Reunion, aren't you? At least, you claim to be.
Mays	More or less.
Guard	Who are your people?
Mays	What else would they be? Homeless Infected, war refugees, people who have lost everything. We all need a roof over our heads. I first came here with a few other Infected. We found this ruin. Later, more people came, including some... less than honest folk. We don't take anyone else in anymore. I'm glad to see you, Reunion comrades, but I don't want to worry anyone here.
Guard	Worry?
Mays	That you're conspiring with us to wipe out the uninfected in our midst. Whether or not it's just a pretext to get us to open our doors to you, we can trade supplies. But let's leave it at that...
Guard	There are plenty of uninfected here, so I get what you're saying. But I still think it would be a good idea to talk it over with your people before you come to a decision. As long as we can get back to making medicine here, we can come to a long-term agreement—
Mays	No, no thank you. Now, off with you. It was nice meeting you. If you want to take this place, you're welcome to it. So long as you can take it.
I can't see her expression behind the mask. Maybe she's just bluffing.
Guard	Alright then.
But I turned around, nevertheless, getting ready to leave.
Mays	Hey, Reunion!
Guard	Yes?
Mays	Is Talulah with your group?
Guard	...She is.
Another Talulah worshiper? Sure enough, she's our banner, and that's her cage now too.
Mays	I hear she has a nomadic city. Does that city of hers only take Infected? ...... If you haven't been infected, are you allowed to go there? I've heard... from the passing caravans, I've heard it's a nice place. We—There's some people here in less-than-ideal positions, refugees from the wilderness, orphans without a single relative. Talk of that Reunion city has everyone full of hope. But... you only stand with the Infected, right?
Guard	A... city? There might be a misunderstanding here—
[A refugee runs toward Mays.]
Frightened Refugee	Mays! Do you know what they did? Did you tell them to do it?! Have you gone mad?!
Mays	What are you talking about?
Frightened Refugee	They—Those idiots! He might've been a fighter in the war here! Or some big important figure, here to doom us all! We might be just a couple hours out from a battalion of Sarkaz coming in here to wipe us out!
Guard	What's going on?
Frightened Refugee	You... Are you with Reunion, like Mays? It was you, your people— Those Infected, they killed a Sarkaz in the warehouse!
Mays	— Bollocks!
Frightened Refugee	He... He was Infected too... He's going to explode, right? We need to deal with him!
Guard	...... I'll take a look.
Mays	Go, quickly! You should be able to help!
<Background 4>
On the ground lies the corpse of a Sarkaz. I... know this guy. The Sarkaz who rode a motorbike, he was a junkman, going around selling stuff he took off the dead. He was clearly beaten to death, limbs twisted up in unnatural ways. His hands are tied. He must've tried to break free, judging by his bloody wrists. The gathered crowd is mostly silent. I feel a chill, leaving me briefly speechless.
Indifferent Infected	He... he's dead. The Sarkaz aren't so strong. Here... the medicine he had on him, and some stale bread.
The one who did the killing doesn't look well. He indifferently breaks off a piece of bread and hands it to someone beside him.
Angry Infected	He deserved it.
Someone spits on the ground. One of them notices me, approaching me while chewing a piece of bread taken off the dead man.
Angry Infected	You! You're with Reunion, aren't you? Mays never told us how we could join you!
I remain silent for a while, calming myself down. I lower his hands for him, spotting the Originium crystals growing on his arm.
Guard	Why did you do it? Did he threaten you? Try to hurt you?
Angry Infected	Huh? Why?
It's as if he suddenly loses interest, stumbling over to a nearby crate and taking a seat.
Angry Infected	When the Sarkaz burned our farm and humiliated my daughter, did anyone ask why?
Guard	He wasn't a soldier. He wasn't a murderous devil from Kazdel. He was just a wandering hawker, selling his wares on the battlefields. He... even helped you.
Indifferent Infected	Huh, what does he mean? Was he Reunion too?
Guard	I am Reunion. You lot must know what it is Reunion fights for.
Indifferent Infected	Sure, you're fighting for all the Infected!
Guard	This man that you tortured to death, the one who never even got a chance to share his name... Wasn't he an Infected?
Angry Infected	But he was Sarkaz.
Guard	......
"Medicine and compassion cannot help the Infected in a way that matters, but solidary and strength can."
Solidarity... solidarity. Infected have no homeland. We share the same fate, the same sorrow. These people don't understand... they've never thought about it. But, what about us? Will the veterans from Ursus on the team treat the Infected from Kazimierz well? Can Sankta Infected coexist with Sarkaz? Even at Rhodes Island, I... ...... What about the future? If we succeed one day, and the Emperor of Ursus vows to stop massacring the Infected, if he agrees to grant us land and cities... In this beautiful, seemingly impossible future... Will Reunion, will the Infected, start killing each other? Will we fracture, collapse, and give them another chance to butcher us?
Mays	Hey, Guard, his corpse... it's glowing, he's about to disintegrate!
Guard	—
I had no idea his condition was so serious. Or did he really not leave any medicine for himself, trying to save money for some future that would not be his own?
Guard	Get out of here! Now!
Indifferent Infected	Run! Run!
[Anyone but Guard and Mays quickly run out of the room.]
Guard	Mays! How do you process the Infected here?
Mays	That room, the innermost one! Hurry, we have to throw him in there! Damn it, damn it all... I need a second, protection... for the nose, mouth, and wounds...
<Background black>
Mays and I lift the Sarkaz's corpse and kick open the door. Upon opening it, my personal Originium monitor started beeping incessantly. I've never heard the alarm going so intensely before. Just... Just how many Infected were processed here? Every inch of the room is covered with a thick layer of Originium dust, crystal clusters forming in the corners. "Danger" is no longer sufficient to describe the urgency of the situation. I don't know when things are going to get out of hand for this place, but... putting a disintegrating Infected in there is definitely not a good idea.
<Background fades out and in>
Guard	No good, move, move!
Mays	What are you doing?! Why is the body—
Guard	There's too much Originium in here. How many Infected have been processed in this room?
Mays	I... Well... it was years they were being processed in there!
Guard	There's Originium dust in the air, the place won't survive a violent disintegration! Get everyone out, now!
<Background 3>
Frightened Refugee	Wh-What?
Guard	Don't you get it? The Originium environment here is extremely unstable. The place could blow at any minute!
Frightened Refugee	So we leave? And go where? Everything out there is—
Mays	There's no time! We're talking about Reunion here! They have an entire bloody nomadic city!
Guard	Run, get them all moving! I've contacted some of our teams on the outskirts, they'll take some of you in!
Mays	Ugh, there's still some booze left in the distillery. If there's an explosion, the whole place is going with it! And that—
[Mays run off...]
Guard	Hey, Mays, where are you going?
[...and Guard follows.]
<Background fades out and in>
The woman dressed in a Reunion uniform is struggling with the machinery in the deepest depths of the workshop.
Mays	What are you doing here? I'm... Hngh... Help me pull that lever...
Guard	Did you work here before? But you're not Infected!
Mays	Thanks for not exposing me! Hngh... pull harder!
Guard	Where did you get that Reunion outfit? This used to be a Reunion base, and so many died here... Don't test my patience!
Mays	I... I didn't do anything!
Guard	That's what they all say.
Mays	I was... a worker here. That Reunion lot took over the distillery, and they needed hands to run the machines for them. I... it's just, the mercenaries hired by the lord attacked, and I ran... I'm not Infected, why should I die here with those Reunion?!
Guard	So why did you come back?
Mays	...... Why? Because I had nowhere else to go, dammit! What other reason would I end up trading my life for a secret distillery?! I'm not Infected, but sometimes I feel like I'd rather be with Reunion! At least they have something to fight against, they have a purpose! Pull harder! It's stuck! First, open the switch for this unloading port. Reunion left behind a whole lot of material! The doctor said this was the cheapest painkiller formula, they were working on it for a long time. It only relieves pain, but that's enough, right? With this... can I be a genuine part of Reunion? That is... I might be allowed a home in your nomadic city?
Guard	......
A nomadic city... I take a deep breath and throw out a kick. It makes me sore. The lever finally loosens. The machine comes to life. The giant hopper tilts to one side and what falls out of it is countless... petals. She hurriedly picks up the herbs scattered across the ground and carefully piles them in her arms. If I don't consider where exactly I am, I feel like this could be... a beautiful sight. Just like that city.
Guard	We don't have a city.
Mays	But, those Reunion guys all said— But, you... but... ...Ahah... well... I mean... a nomadic city... a city, you know, we...
People without a home, people with nowhere to go, the Infected across the world are growing more and more numerous. It's not that the disease is becoming more virulent, it's just that the world is becoming more cruel. The great worthies have so much to say about the "modern" era we live in, an unprecedented era of high-speed battleships, nomadic cities, of industry— How enlightened our era is— How tragic our era is. "Stand together." Can the Infected really stand together, naturally? Who do we stand with? Is it just the Infected? That... nomadic city we're dreaming of, does it have a place for them? Is a city enough to accommodate everything?
Guard	Take the herbs, we need to leave. There is no application to join Reunion. If you're willing to fight side-by-side with us, you're already Reunion.
Mays	But... I'm not Infected.
Guard	It's not only the Infected who want to resist. And besides, I need you to help me figure out who killed that Sarkaz man. They need to be punished.
[Explosions are heard.]
Guard	Now come on, let's go!
[Guard and Mays quickly run away.]
<Background fades out and in>
We make our way quickly through the gigantic tanks, some places have already started collapsing. The air is full of the pungent scent of alcohol, with smoke floating in from somewhere. This workshop, where the Victorian Reunion began, is about to go up in flames.
Guard	We're almost there, quickly now.
The waves of intense heat hit, Mays struggles to stay standing, the herbs in her arms are lifted by the hot air.
Mays	Agh! My—
[The machinery starts to fall apart.]
<Background black>
Above our heads roars the sound of buckling metal. Well, alright, I push her away. Then, I jump up with all my strength, and gather up the petals.
A collapse. It's hot. The sun is burning. I'm burning. Is that the exit? A few steps further. But they're watching behind me. Those eyes... are they judging me? Or just judging my insignificant death? What did they expect of me? I can't think about it... I can't. Maybe I let them down with their deaths. They should hope for a more meaningful end for me. Like, I don't know, dying on the steps of the palace in Deity Grypherburg? Anyway, not here, not dying for an uninfected woman I just met, holding some broken petals in my arms. How could I face them here? But I still need to face them.
Guard	Take them... and go. The exit is right ahead, don't lose them this time, I might've... crushed some of the petals, give them to a woman named Nine, she knows what to do. Don't dawdle, move.
It's hot. It burns. I remember the afternoon when I first learned I had Oripathy. What was it exactly that caused my infection? I still don't actually know. Maybe it was the time I fell in the river and something scratched my leg. Might've been an active Originium crystal instead of a rock. Maybe it was the dust I inhaled in the mines. Maybe it was industrial waste from the factories. Maybe.
<Background black>
But when I got home, the smell of smoke in the room hadn't dissipated. My luggage was packed and placed on the table where we usually ate together. I found a salt lake, but I wasn't lucky. Maybe I chose the wrong place, there was no boat at the time. I owe a lot to the Rhodes Island operator who came over and talked to me when I was sitting by the lake.
[Guard, knowing that his fate is sealed, starts a recorder and speaks his final message:]
Guard	Nine, Red, Percival, Talulah, guh... I'm not sure if I'll be burned to cinders by the time you find me, but I hope this recorder survives. You ask— Are we fighting for all the "Infected"? Whether they're despicable, upper class, or even... royalty? Or... are the people we unite with, the people we want to fight alongside— Only the Infected? Only... them?

After operation

“

Nine finds the recording Guard left behind, and makes up her mind as to what Reunion should truly fight for. She banishes the Infected Victorian for killing the innocent Infected Sarkaz, and also bids farewell to Guard.

”

When I was still in the L.G.D., I used to spend my afternoons going around the city. I knew very well my duty, what I was expected to fight against. We wielded law and order as our weapons to curb chaos, resolve disputes, fight crime, and right wrongs. Back then, I thought people were just so... easily corruptible. All of us are born pure and without flaw, but evil creeps in with age, like how mold corrodes every branch and leaf on a plant. I used to think this land could be rid of evil, if we were strong enough, selfless enough. I held that belief, until I became Infected, until I went to Lungmen's slums. And I realized that "justice" is even weaker than men are. When mutated plants grow from dirty soil, are the flowers in the greenhouse qualified to critique their twisted forms? Do they have the authority to cut off their branches? There is no way we can talk about the same kind of justice until we share the same soil.
<Background 2B>
[As the brewery burns to the ground...]
Nine	Hurry, get everyone out of the building and as far away as possible!
Desperate Refugee	My stuff's still inside! It's all my family has!
Nine	What stuff?
Desperate Refugee	Pillows... and a mattress! The last of the belongings I took from my home!
Percival	Are you mad?! Follow me to the back where it's safe! You haven't gotten Infected yet, right? Better count yourself lucky for that!
Nowell	The crowd's so chaotic, there's so many people running out from there we don't know who's Infected and who isn't, and there might even be some wanted fugitives among them. We don't know where they even came from. And this fire... we're not far from the battlefield. Who knows what kind of attention we'll attract. We could leave right now! We're not responsible for this fire! Nine! Make your decision!
People are screaming, crying, falling into the mud, and crawling back up to their feet. The fire burns a rosy red behind them.
Panicked Refugee	It... It was an Infected who started the fire! Some infected exploded, so that distillery—
Nervous Infected	What's that got to do with us?! Wasn't it you lot who brought that Sarkaz here?
Panicked Refugee	Not us! It's all because of you Infected! We could have hidden here for so much longer if it weren't for you!
Nervous Infected	What the bloody hell did you just say? Did you already forget who took you all in?!
Panicked Refugee	You dare strike me?! You—
Nine	Enough!
Incessant bickering. Endless verbal abuse.
Nine	If you don't want to move, I can send you back into the fire.
Panicked Refugee	R-Reunion... you and Mays are the same gang! If it weren't for the infected... if it weren't for you Infected...
Nine	And what if we weren't Infected? Open your eyes. We're not the ones who caused you to lose everything you owned and made you huddle together in an abandoned distillery with nothing but the clothes on your back. We're no different, except for the stones in our bodies. We had everything taken from us by this disease, but you? You haven't experienced how hard it gets, and yet here you are in the same wretched plight as us. Hmph.
Panicked Refugee	What—What'd you know?! Ever had a finger chewed off by a machine on the assembly line? Been thrown out of a factory? Had your house burned down by some lord?! You yell about the injustices you suffer, but you're not the only ones who live unfair lives! The viscount who burned down my home? Everyone says his son actually has Oripathy, but so what? A bigwig like him can just send his son to a fancy hospital in Columbia! But us? Me? He burned down my house with my two children inside it, just because I couldn't pay my taxes, just because I talked back to him! And no one dares to care, because he's high and mighty while I'm disabled and poor! You're not the only ones enslaved by your fates, so why does it seem like you're the only ones who can actually stand up to those bullies so brazenly, and even kill them?!
Nine	...... "Why?" Because we don't want to remain enslaved in those chains. No one ever said you couldn't fight against it.
Panicked Refugee	I...... I— There's... no way I could do that, I don't have your Originium Arts.
Percival	Don't make excuses for yourself. It's not like every Infected comes with powerful Arts. Nine, we're already grouping up, are we evacuating?
Nine	Tell Red to bring a few of his men to monitor our surroundings. The battlefronts near us are currently at a deadlock, so the warring parties might be unable to spare any manpower to inspect a distant fire. Percival, help me calm down the people who just escaped, and get their names as you examine and provide medical treatment. We'll stay here for one more day at most, to be safe.
Percival	I got it!
Nowell	...... I'll help. I'm familiar with burns and respiratory blockage.
Percival	Oh, we haven't been able to contact Guard yet either! We're not sure if he made it out!
Nine	Don't worry, I'll find him. We both made it out of Chernobog after all.
Nowell	Nine, the concentration of Originium dust particles—
I was already rushing towards the burning distillery. I've entered a scene like this before, back in Lungmen. Multiple times. As an L.G.D. officer, and as a slum resident.
Fire means loss, and also destruction. I always see tears falling upon charred remains. Sometimes they're from Infected, and other times they're regular citizens. And at moments like these, rumors will spread through the spectating crowd. The casualties were a few Infected. Or perhaps they were regular citizens. Maybe it was an Infected exacting revenge on his neighbors who had harassed him, or maybe his uninfected neighbors were fed up with all the sick people hiding just next door. But no one has ever questioned why fires uptown are always extinguished as soon as possible. While the big blazes that destroy several buildings and cause an unclear number of casualties always happen in the slums.
<Background 2B>
I burst through the distillery's doors, and I witness a portion of the building fiercely collapsing not far from the exit. A single hand extends from the metal and debris. Holding onto Guard's recorder.
<Background 1>
"Or... are the people we unite with, the people we want to fight alongside—" "Only the Infected?" "Only... them?" "We Infected are just the culmination of all the decay there is... we gather as one because of our shared experience." "But what unites us... is not just disease." "Let's say we meet a... noble, abusing his power to exploit the people. How would we treat him?" "If he was actually... an Infected?" "We can't use our infection as... our sole criterion and slogan." "Our companions must share the same belief... we will not only retaliate against the humiliation we've suffered, but also liberate the same people who have caused us pain." "We're not the only ones enslaved across the lands... so we should stand with them, together." "We need to get them... to stand with us." "We... can't just fight against disease." "What should we actually be fighting against?" "What are we building here?" "I——" *rustle* "Many years ago, when I had just become an Infected, I really... loved drinking. Back then, Ace warned me that if I carried on with that... hobby of mine, I'd die with my drink someday." "...Haha." "And here I am... in a distillery." "——"
[The recording abruptly ends.]
Nine	......
Talulah	Nine, you've replayed it so many times now.
Nine	I know. Talulah. I've been wondering... if we really did manage to build a city for the Infected, what would it look like? Are you sure it wouldn't be... a hospice at its core? All we'd do in that city is to wait for everything to be covered in a blanket of disintegrated Originium dust, for our deaths to come one by one.
Talulah	...... Yes.
Nine	We... can't just wait for our ends to come like this.
[Nowell joins in.]
Nowell	Nine, Talulah.
Nine	What is it?
Nowell	I'm... thinking of leaving your group for a bit. Yesterday, I met some people among the refugees who escaped from Londinium. They mentioned some... matters I'm very concerned about, that maybe someone I've been seeking this whole time is still hiding in there. So I'll be heading over.
Nine	Londinium isn't safe at all right now.
Nowell	I think Talulah already told you about me.
Nine	You're a long-lived.
Nowell	Yes. There's no way for me to die. I've become more and more sick of this reality of mine.
Talulah	...You want to kill yourself? How did you get your "longevity" in the first place?
Nowell	Longevity, heh. How did I first come to realize the joke that fate played on me? I had my share of happy days too. I came to know the one and only wife I've had, had children, a family, devoted my heart and soul to Originium Arts research... of course, I was the primary focus of my studies. My children grew up while we grew old. Everything was going as natural order of things. Until my wife died in an accident, war broke out, and I was forced to leave my children. I suddenly realized in the years I spent as a refugee that I hadn't changed at all. The emperors started a war, a king was hanged years later, and then the dukes' conspiracies came to light. Afterwards the Sarkaz... I didn't change a single bit in all those years, until today. I have nightmares everyday, and in them I hear a voice I don't recognize... or maybe it's every voice I recognize calling out to me together. "Pain makes you live forever, and only happiness can kill you." Actually, I was already aware of this early on, but what can I even do to feel happiness and relief? Especially after witnessing death after death, and experiencing tragedy after tragedy? We're in an era of suffering and despair...so I shall go look for those hiding behind the curtain.
Nine	...... I have no right to make you stay. But there's no need to say your goodbyes so quickly. If you wish to return to the nexus of the war... we might not have to go our separate ways.
Nowell	Is that so? I thought you would return to Columbia after gathering up enough hands...
Nine	Running to another place will never put a stop to anything.
Nowell	Fair enough. Perhaps the foes we're facing are fundamentally similar. Also... leave a bouquet of flowers for Guard on my behalf.
Nine	I will.
<Background fades out and in>
Percival	Nine...
Nine	Percival, you...
Percival	I'm fine! I just... got some smoke in my eyes. We're done registering the third batch of Infected, and all seven of them have gotten medicine from this workshop before. They told me many Infected used to gather and live in a tiny village near this forest to access the workshop. When the workshop was destroyed, most of them left, or died... but some still remained close by. They were all drawn here by the huge blaze.
Nine	Indeed.
I look at the petals given to me by the person they called Mays. The Reunion doctor here spent their life here for these herbs, and according to her, Guard also died for them. I recognize most of these plants. The Infected used to chew them for pain relief before modern pharmaceutical companies were a thing. Perhaps the effectiveness of our crude drugs can improve by referencing these, even if just by a little... We can't simply wait for our end, watch ourselves wither away. There's more work to be done.
Nine	Guard... we didn't manage a clean conclusion on our last discussion, but I have to make a decision on my own now.
Percival	Um, Nine. We want to hold a little farewell rite for Guard, and it won't take much time to do so.
Nine	Right. I'll make some flowers bloom here.
<Background fades out and in>
The enormous blaze burns throughout the night. We finally abandon our efforts to recover Guard's body. Red finds a beautiful sturdy tree, its trunk perfectly pointing up toward the sky. He digs a hole and buries that cute towel of Guard's in it. Flowers grow around the freshly dug soil. The floral patterns on that towel were too crude. A garden like this suits him better.
Red	...... I'm done questioning everyone that came out from the workshop. The Sarkaz who died in the underground warehouse... the one who rode the motorbike. He was murdered, by a few Infected Victorians. They were driven out of their homes by the Sarkaz. Some of them lost their loved ones too, so they felt rightfully furious, and I, uh, calmed them down a little. What's the plan?
Nine	...... Back in Ursus, everyone used to think it was through the power of unity that Reunion managed to fight together with the patrol units, taxmen and mine guards. That wasn't the case. We simply had no other choice left to break the knife pointed at our throats. Reunion used to act on our enmity, but our targets of hate have both become increasingly vague and broad. The Infected have no homeland... no identity, no bloodline. We can't just carry on with just a provocative slogan. We need to set clearer guidelines and principles. Guard and I... discussed about this before. He said to ignore the Infected in positions of power, because they still enjoy exploiting others with their authority and see disease as only a tool. And that we should also grant the same kind of liberation to any oppressed people, and not just our sick brethren. Because they can fight alongside us, and we'll need their strength to put up a fight. Chernobog has taught us enough.
Red	He was always thinking so much about this, I thought... I thought he could really take us to achieve some great feats.
Nine	He will, even if he's dead. He merely died when he was still seen as insignificant and deplorable.
Red	What about those murderers?
Nine	People who violently vent their grievances unprovoked cannot join us. It was war that turned them to brutality, even if they were just Victorians before. If we let this slide... what will happen to our group next? Ursine, Columbian, Victorian, Leithanian. Feline, Perro, Liberi, Caprinae, Sarkaz. Power should be distinctly directed towards a common goal than become cracks of resentment that give others a chance to dismantle us from within. Buldrokkas'tee and Ursus should have taught us this lesson.
Talulah	......
Nine	They will be banished. They will have to find their own paths by themselves. Reunion will make sure of it.
Red	I understand. I'll relay that to everyone, and... I'll handle those murderers too.
[Red leaves.]
Talulah	......
Nine	...Talulah. There's an Infected I used to know, who comes from a eminent lineage and held a distinguished position. But she threw it all away, in her quest for "fairness". You know her.
Talulah	......
Nine	Everyone here has heard of your ideas. Reunion's earliest vision, exaggerated, distorted. But what we want is not a nomadic city for the infected. What we want is to send a message to all the aristocrats, and oppressors, those trying to divide, suppress, and eliminate us— The blade they so despise hangs high above their necks. Our goodbyes... have already been said. This isn't the first, nor will it be the last. Let's go. Our work in Victoria isn't done yet.