Глава 6

Afraid it's poisoned?

Maybe you don't like candy, but you can try it. You can't get this kind of candy in Lungmen.

It's an Ursus specialty. Eat one, and there's one less in the world.

Consider it payback for helping me with the candy. Try it.

Oh? Looks like you've got a taste for snacks after all.

Just a warning, the sugar may be completely different from anything you've ever had before.

But life is short. You should try something new, right?

Then what?

Please put the candy in my mouth. Careful, not to touch my skin.

It's not right, is it?;........;Like this?

From my fingertips to my neck, I'm paralyzed. I can only move from the neck up.

But I can still freeze you instantly with even the slightest movement of my tongue.

So don't worry. If you offend me, you'll be dead soon enough.

(Give FrostNova the candy)

Thank you.

(Eat the candy);(Eat the candy);(Eat the candy)

It tastes very spicy.

It tastes extremely spicy.

It tastes horrifically spicy.

The look on your face....

Hehehe....

Sorry, couldn't resist teasing you a bit.

I've made that joke so many times that no one falls for it anymore.

And now at last..... I saw a chance. Sorry, I just.... couldn't help myself.

Why do you eat this stuff?

Because I'm cold.

I told you to be careful, because even if you touch just the tiniest bit of my skin, you'll get severe frostbite.

If you had touched me before, I would have been able to tell by your reaction. You didn't. You didn't try to kill me.

This phenomenon is beyond the accounts of extant academic sources.

My cold goes even beyond winter itself.

The heat from the outside world cannot penetrate the bitter cold that surrounds my body. I love hot drinks because I can feel the warmth of the drink as the hot stream slides down my esophagus and into my stomach....

Sadly, my insides get burned by hot drinks.

The only pleasure I have left is this mix of alcohol and stimulating spices, with a little candy, if you can call it that.

This warm feeling, even if it's only a brief illusion, brings me a bit of comfort.

Sorry for teasing you earlier.

So, you just said it was cold because....

Oripathy created this horrible body of mine.

At that moment, however, Buldrokkas'tee held my ice cold body that had never known warmth close to his chest.

He didn't care at all that I'd frozen his unarmored arms to the point of partial necrosis.

I'm not sure if it was the emotions he was feeling at the time that infected me or not.... But I stayed awake and survived in the end.

So Buldrokkas'tee became your father....

He's my whole family. As a young child, he was all I had.

Like I said, I don't remember much about my birth father.... Subconsciously, I did indeed thought of the huge beast as my real family. Hard to say.

It's just that, despite his appearance, he's sentimental and stubborn in places, and isn't it funny that such a man used to be a killing machine for Ursus?

It's not funny, is it? I can't laugh either.

He was once a war hero of Ursus, who retired to a certain city-state in his old age.

As a soldier of Ursus, but fighting for the Infected?

If you don't take Ursus at their word, you'll see that he's in good company. Although, there is only one that the Infected call 'Patriot'.

His wife died young and he is survived by his son.

By the way, he's a Sarkaz. From the most vicious Sarkaz clan at that. Still, his son became a scholar, a Wendigo scholar.... Perhaps the first in the history of Ursus.

Buldrokkas'tee contracted Oripathy during his last battle.

His men helped him hide his illness, and he had even hidden everything from his own son. He didn't want to drag his son down with him, only to die in some dark corner of the world with the disease.

However, during the 'Great Rebellion', his son was campaigning for the rights of the Infected. Long out of touch with his father, the son still sees him as an Ursus puppet.

And he was. They commanded him to keep order in his own ranks at all costs. He allowed the soldiers to use their weapons, conflict erupted, and corpses piled in the snow drifts.

That's who he was.

Then he saw his son on the street, his body by then completely cold.

I wonder if he thought of his son when he hugged me?

His son fought for the Infected in his own way, and Buldrokkas'tee believed he had killed his own son.

His team left with him. Since then, the Northwest Tundra has had a guerrilla force that strikes fear into the hearts of Ursus who dare to abuse the Infected.

The old beast never said a word of any of this to me.

He probably does think of me as his daughter. But I also want him to tell me this stuff, in his own words, to me.

I learned it all from his men. But Buldrokkas'tee himself won't speak to anyone.

That monster of a stubborn old man with a fragile and porous heart.

His team had passed through four mines before saving us children.

The kids in those four camps weren't as lucky as us. They found their bodies buried in the collapsed mines, and the company of soldiers that carried out the executions were nowhere to be found.

What did he find in me? Affection? Redemption? Or a little psychological comfort? I'm not sure.

........*Cough*.

Is coughing and internal bleeding also a symptom of your.... infection?

Probably, maybe. Probably just the result of me overusing my Arts.

It got pretty intense today. This sort of thing has only happened once before.

Unconsciousness, general paralysis, and the inability to move around even when conscious, have all happened. I know my own body.

You can't use your Arts again.

Oh are you going to fight for me now?

Rhodes Islander.... What do I call you?

You can call me what the Rhodes Island operators do.

Dr. {@nickname}?

Dr. {@nickname}.

...I admit that you Rhodes Islanders can fight. But I still don't trust you. Not to mention the fact that you're supposed to be a pharmaceutical company.

Rhodes Island does a lot of things.

What happens outside of combat is none of my business.

I watched you fight in Chernobog. You have a strong stance, something I confirmed with my own eyes, but I couldn't judge your character.

...I heard that Alex died at your hands. It makes me doubt your path.

Now, I can't let you leave Chernobog and cause more harm to Reunion's Infected.

But you're willing to listen to so much of my crap....

I'm going to assume you're not exactly as the other Infected describe.

They're just scared.

Who wouldn't be afraid of the one who brings death?

Dr. {@nickname}, are you scared, right now??

Yes.;I'm not sure.;No.

It's normal to feel fear.

It means you still have attachment to the world, and you still have much to do.

Do you really feel fear?

I doubt it.

If you look so peaceful in the face of death, then I think maybe you really have no attachments at all.

Interesting. You are not scared?

I guess those who do not fear death have little love left for the world.

A question I think about all the time....

'Am I afraid of death?'

I've heard that the Ursus garrisons call me the Yeti Princess, the Wintry Death....

The truth is, we were just a few ragtag squads wandering the tundra, barely scraping by.