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How'd you figure anything out of all their nonsense ramblings these past few days... how'd you figure out the Patrol Unit would be here?

All the villages in the area were planning to move. If a Catastrophe's not coming, then that only leaves one reason.

It's the rotten patrolmen, coming to stay. If it were some army passing through, the villages wouldn't dare think of moving.

It should be because the harvest season's just ended. The Patrol Unit will carry out their routine inspections now, making sure the tax collectors haven't gone into the villages yet.

The nearest city still operating is Shiraziberg. It's mainly light industry. It's only stopped over here to procure resources at most.

Most villages in the vicinity don't have a landholder protecting them, so those rotting patrolmen have flocked in from all over. They must've seen things were ripe for the picking.

...Originally, they were just a ragtag organization of rogues tracking down the Infected. Now they're all old geezers on a rampage who'll stoop to any low.

Then let's wipe them out. Our days here'll be a lot more peaceful if we do. We should.

We don't have the capacity.

Huh? So what the hell are we here to do?

—'Aegis.' 'Aegis' are attacking the sentries here.

...Guerrillas?

Right.

Infected guerrillas? ! Damn, that's... man, Emperor above...

It isn't easy to make contact with them. We've been piling up information for three whole months, and now we've finally scooped an opportunity.

Didn't care much when you said a few days ago we were looking for another group, but if I'd known you were looking for... for guerrilla fighters. Man.

But. Um. You have an easy time linking up with the southern city Infected. Is it really that hard to get in touch with these guys?

If you want to survive in the city, you need to be proactive about your intel and collaborators.

If you want to survive out on the tundra, what you need is solid tactics and a lifestyle that keeps Ursus's spies guessing at all times.

The Infected have plenty of Messengers, and the Infected have their own methods and channels to get the signal out.

The guerrillas? The guerrillas will only ever talk to the tundra Infected.

The guerrillas don't want to be found, that's the thing. Neither do they want to join up with anyone.

They accept the Infected into their own group, and train them to become fighters. They're probably not exactly like I'm hoping, but the guerrillas are still undoubtedly going strong, with no signs of slowing down.

—At the very least, there have been two small guerrilla bands who've exchanged resources with Infected settlements ten kilometers out.

Even if the local Infected won't talk, it wouldn't have been the Army who left those fire pits outside their villages.

Okay, here's what they're here to do: destroy this freshly built sentry outpost, and make sure the patrolmen go down with it.

Everyone, sit tight here. Be on alert. Patrolmen could be fleeing through these parts.

It's a long way out from Shiraziberg, and the sentries have barely set up. They won't hold out.

They'll retreat. As long as they haven't been annihilated by the guerrillas, that is.

Hide yourselves. If we run into two or three Patrol Unit bands at once, we won't be able to take them.

Talulah?! Are you going alone?

Let me. If we want to make contact with the guerrillas, we'll need to show them we're not hostile.

And if we end up skirmishing, you could just as easily escape.

Are you treating us like cowards?!

I've never met people braver than you. And that's why, to your fellow Infected compatriots, you are crucial. If they want to be alive down the line, that's all the more reason they need you.

Which is the better choice: you live, or we sacrifice more for my sake? It should be plenty obvious.

You're still looking down on us.

I've put in a great deal of thought into this decision. And everyone will be better off, by the way.

So don't run your mouth.

You're just pissed, now!

Like we're not all burning inside! If you think we don't understand you, newsflash—it feels like you don't bother getting what we think, either.

A 'decision' means nothing to us. We came back with you all the way from the Northwest... and it wasn't for any 'decision.'

You fight well! You let us all eat, you taught us a hell of a lot more than we knew before.

I don't understand you well, but as far as I'm concerned, you're different from the city-dwellers, or even the Infected in the mines.

You just don't want us to die, right? Talulah, look at us. Think we're scared? We're no cowards!

Bet it never crossed your mind. Compared to drifting endlessly, we're a hell of a lot more prepared to die with you!

What if I told you I saw this coming long ago, and just hoped you wouldn't do it this way?

Why?

Because I won't die.

It's okay. Let me go. Less casualties this way, too. Besides, I'm—*chuckle* 'the Deathless.'

In the words of a repulsive monster.

Wait... Talulah, like hell we let anyone look down on us! We don't want them to think we're begging for them. Just let us come with you!

No!

Only executioners rank people by the murder in them. You've already won respect for the fact that you stepped forward.

If anyone looks down on you, that's the one who truly deserves to be scorned.

Fine.

—Wait, Talulah! You're seriously going with just a single sword?!

A list of names and a book of frequency numbers, too!

Remember, my friends! These are far more important than my sword!

Talulah regretted it a little.

She didn't run into the stomach-dropping terror that was the guerrillas. She didn't catch sight of their iconic aegis. She never so much as glimpsed a single worn-out Ursus armament. Nor any of the fabled towering Sarkaz who walked with the guerrillas, even.

For better, or for worse... she encountered the Yeti Squad.

And it was cold.

She lit a fire, and jumped into the last of the Patrol Unit's watchtowers, out of the startled, certain gaze of a white-wrapped group of Yetis.

Careful the list doesn't burn. It's so cold, though. Too cold, she thought.

Need to warm this place up a little.

It was what left the deepest impression on her current self.

It was the day her 'noble life' came to an end.

You're back.

I thought you weren't fond of that sword. Why carry it on your person?

Just may as well.

Oh.

The smell of mud is stuck to your clothes. No smell of blood, though, nor anything singed. Your maidservant mentioned you were in a rush to meet me, so much so you did not bathe, nor change. Let me hazard a guess. You haven't done anything.

Did you find a better way, Talulah? Of dealing with this thorn in our side? You found a better way, and thus did not do as I told you to, is that it?

You didn't just want me to eliminate Major Antonio. You tried to trick me into killing a child.

Kashchey... a child. Antonio was taking his son on a trip, and you had me frame him so the Gendarmerie would beat him to death on his way to the next city over. His son would've had no chance of escaping.

Antonio makes an art of covering himself. You should easily have been able to tell that that young boy was not his son.

*Sigh*...

I've taught you this. In times when we have greater goals, we cannot avoid making sacrifices in our morality and resources.

Given you've let Antonio go, the next time he surfaces may well be in the residence of some Victorian secret service official.

Those horrid Felines would then surely make a fine point of our four neighboring cities' shipping routes for the whole year...

...and take it as a pretense to identify our trading partners, investigate our resources, draw an outline of our import and export itineraries, and produce a clear grasp of our defense arrangements.

I've already destroyed the files.

Wonderful! Very well done. You are quite capable, aren't you?

But, Talulah, how do you intend to certify... to at all assert, that Antonio 'had never' seen in those records before?

If he did not know their contents, why take them with him?

And how would you prove that he'd betray your dukedom? Betray Ursus? Why didn't you go to question him, or seize him? Why go straight to eliminating him?

I do not need to give proof. Questioning him would grant him the opportunity to dispute his charges and escape punishment. His conduct cannot be pardoned.

If he may have possibly done so. Then. As far as I'm concerned, as Ursus is concerned, as the laws and decrees are concerned, that is sufficient.

He cannot. He is not allowed to have 'possibly done so.'

—Antonio has already been dealt with. After you destroyed the files, my Scales cleaned up the remainder for you.

I knew it. I just knew... you wouldn't let him go.

I've only been training you ceaselessly so that you may step by step become ever better. Now, you see that you have once again failed my expectations. You did not work as well as you did last time, Talulah.

Your performance at the Shuvata Conference was outstanding, Talulah, and you ought to admit, too, that you revel in how it feels.

How it feels to stand on a peerless summit.

Don't ridicule me. Everything about you only stokes the anger in me to a roar.

Then you must surely revel even more in the feeling of perfection.

I'm very clear on your misgivings, and I understand how you think, too. That is why...

The Scales let that boy acting as his son run free.

How about that, Talulah? That wasn't something out of reach of your lone capability, is it?