act13d0

中秋 四月

Phew, that mission got me all sweaty.

I'd better hurry home and shower.

Oh, who's that over there...?

Alright, that's the letter and every last cent accounted for.

Thanks a lot.

Hah, don't worry about it. You're a very good customer. Pretty much your whole family knows me by now.

But you haven't been back in a while, huh? Why not take a trip home? Your uncle's gonna ask me to drag you back to Rim Billiton as soon as he sees me.

Not that I'm one to talk, the way I've been running around for a year and change. But you know all the letters in the world can't compare with you going home in person.

...I know. It's just, there's still patients here who need me.

When I have some free time, I'll go back.

Well, I think you've got a handle on it, so I'll leave it here for now.

Anyway, I'll check over the letters again and then head out.

Need any goodies? Or just the usual?

Yes, get a box of those peppermint candies from the shop below my home.

Sure.

Sorry, Uncle...

So they've got Messengers at Rhodes Island too.

Have we been introduced...?

I'm new here, codename's April. But you can call me April.

Nice to meet you, April. I'm Ansel, from Medical.

There are lots of Messenger at Rhodes Island. And Messengers like the one just now aren't our operators, they're Messengers who exclusively serve us Rhodes Islanders.

What's the difference?

We have some Messengers who do become operators. Oh, like Angelina. Do you know her?

Yeah. She's a Messenger girl, about my age?

Right. A lot of Messengers get sick and end up working for us as operators to offset the cost of treatment. That's what happened with Angelina.

Oh, me too.

Yes. So you know the cost of Oripathy treatment is by no means low. There are all kinds of people from all walks of life here on the ship for more or less the same reason.

Isn't that pretty much the same as becoming a Messenger here though?

Ahaha. I guess it is kind of confusing, but no.

Because Messenger work doesn't involve much contact with other people, and you're always traveling all around, you can still do it even after becoming Infected.

Basically, most people aren't going to know if the person bringing them their mail is Infected or not...

The point is they can keep doing their work same as they always were, as long as they come to Rhodes Island for regular treatment.

Huh. So they can just like, do their own thing?

Exactly. We usually give operators like that some long-term field work missions.

And they tend to use Rhodes Island as a waystation for their work. And if they happen to be going near some friends or relatives of our operators, we'll usually ask them to bring a letter or something.

But for someone like me, who writes home regularly, I need something more predictable.

With very few Messengers from Rim Billiton at Rhodes Island right now.

Whew, it all feels so loose... I couldn't imagine anything like that at my old company.

Anything like what?

The employees having so much freedom! There must be some folks who come by once and never come back, right?

You're a sharp one. That does happen sometimes, and we do follow up on it. But no matter what happens, you can't leave a patient unattended.

You're a real good person, Dr. Ansel.

Thanks. I'm just here to help people.

But that means Rhodes Island definitely needs some dedicated Messengers.

I never thought about this stuff before.

Say, April, you're from Rim Billiton too, aren't you?

Yep. I'm from the south side of Iron Carrot City.

Oh, I know that place. Your hometown always tops the annual charts in ore production.

Yeah, that's home. We're supposed to be really proud of that productivity, but I can't say it does much for me.

I'm from Iron Fist City. Do you have any relatives back home you need to contact?

Nope.

My parents died in a mine accident when I was little. The company raised me.

When I grew up, I worked for them as a hunter. It didn't pay great, but I got by, until I caught Oripathy...

...I'm sorry.

Nah, it's fine.

I've heard that Rim Billiton's companies actually treat the Infected pretty decently?

Because of how important the mining industry is, people back home end up coming into contact with Oripathy a lot more than in other countries...

That's what I thought at first, but after living through it, I was so, so wrong.

They like to talk about all the benefits they offer, but down in the fine print they have all kinds of deductibles and copays. And once they know you've got Oripathy, you'll suddenly find all your work drying up.

Oripathy sufferers on their own, like me, just can't survive.

Oh... I had no idea.

No wonder so many of my old workmates who caught Oripathy just disappeared...

Anyway, I lost my company ID and the lease on my room, so there's nothing for me back in Rim Billiton anymore.

Hey now, don't you give me that look, Dr. Ansel. I can't stand pity.

I made it to Rhodes Island, didn't I?

I guess you did.

Anyways, I thought you looked kinda sad when you were sending that letter. Did something happen?

Oh, but you don't have to tell me if it's something really personal. And I won't tell anyone either!

April, did you have lunch yet?

No, I just got back from a mission. I was about to go take a shower.

Let me buy you lunch. This is a pretty long story.

Huh? Okay.

Wow, Dr. Ansel, you sure eat healthy.

It comes with the job, I guess. And you can drop the 'doctor', just Ansel is fine. We're pretty much the same age, right?

Okay~

Eat up, first. We'll get into it after we've taken the edge off.

Sure.

...I always say I wish I could see my family, but the truth is I don't really want to go back.

Why?

There's some stuff I don't want to deal with.

I have three older brothers and one baby sister, but my parents are long gone. Mom, to lung disease. Dad, overwork.

But I had it better than you. By the time they went, my brothers were old enough to work.

I was the only one still too young. So when he died, my dad had me sent to live with my uncle, his older brother. My sister went to his younger brother.

Yeah, that happens a lot. If I had any relatives, I'd have ended up like that.

My dad once told me all our relatives went to other cities.

So you don't wanna go back because your uncle was bad to you?

No. My uncle was a manager at a small company. He was serious and strict, but he treated me well, really just like his own son.

It's just...

He didn't want me to become a doctor.

Oh.

When I was little, I helped out at Uncle's company. He was grooming me to take over his job.

I didn't listen to him. I decided to become a doctor, and went far away to Rhodes Island.

Woah. So you're a runaway, Ansel?!

Ahaha, no, I wouldn't go that far.

There was some time between my decision to study medicine and me actually coming to Rhodes Island.

I talked it over with Uncle many times. Sometimes our conversations got pretty heated.

But in the end, he respected my choice, and agreed I could become a doctor.

I get where he's coming from. I never got the impression it was easy to practice medicine in Rim Billiton.

Right. First, it's tough to get started. Then, it's tough to keep going.