Глава 13

Now come on, let's go!

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.

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.

Agh! My—

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Hurry, get everyone out of the building and as far away as possible!

My stuff's still inside! It's all my family has!

What stuff?

Pillows... and a mattress! The last of the belongings I took from my home!

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!

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.

It... It was an Infected who started the fire! Some infected exploded, so that distillery—

What's that got to do with us?!

Wasn't it you lot who brought that Sarkaz here?

Not us!

It's all because of you Infected! We could have hidden here for so much longer if it weren't for you!

What the bloody hell did you just say?

Did you already forget who took you all in?!

You dare strike me?!

You—

Enough!

Incessant bickering.

Endless verbal abuse.

If you don't want to move, I can send you back into the fire.

R-Reunion... you and Mays are the same gang!

If it weren't for the infected... if it weren't for you Infected...

And what if we <i>weren't</i> 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.

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?!

'Why?' Because we don't want to remain enslaved in those chains.

No one ever said you couldn't fight against it.

I...... I—

There's... no way I could do that, I don't have your Originium Arts.

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?

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.

I got it!

I'll help. I'm familiar with burns and respiratory blockage.