Глава 16

I finally see that you were right!

You were right, absolutely right! But where are you? Where have you gone?

I tried my best, tried so hard! But in the end, it didn't even matter!

I wanted to look for you all. I wanted to. But now, all I can do is take everything away. Take it all... away.

Then...

I will find you.

The woman stretches out her hand, bringing a sheet of paper up to the candle's flame.

The fire soon consumes half of it. She watches it burn with an insatiable gaze, completely unaware of the company by her side.

Ksenia!

You're Ksenia, right?

Mon3tr rushes up to crush the burning paper, extinguishing it with her bare hands before it can grow into an inferno.

She is surprised to find that the slumped-over woman is surrounded by a tangle of wires.

Where do these wires lead? If they had not intervened in time, what would the ensuing blaze have led to?

Did she just say 'Ilia'?

She did, I heard it too!

Is that you, Ksenia? You've grown, you look different from before...

Why didn't you leave with everyone else?

No apparent response to sound. She may have entered a dissociative state.

Move her to the side, keep calling her name.

Ksenia! We—

I...

I will...

Find you...

These papers on the ground...?

You gather up all the sheets that were by her feet, flipping through them by candlelight.

They are not what you imagined, not failed formulae or blank sheets of paper. The words written on them are clear, and are in grammatical Ursine.

What I am about to write is not meant to be known by any living soul.

For there is no meaning in leaving behind words about me, or the things I love. What I write here is merely my recollection and repentance, for me to take to my grave.

I believed researching the Sarcophagus was a grand undertaking, with clean energy for the Ursine people close at hand. But the ember of that hope was ultimately snuffed out by our own divisions.

I was fortunate enough to escape that unjust massacre due to my ignorance, but my good fortune was itself unjust, for the price I paid was being forced to live the rest of my life in panicked mediocrity.

I have nowhere to go, no home to return to. The talent I was so proud of is useless. My life has amounted to nothing.

...Ksenia.

I'm Mon3tr. Do you remember... Do you remember Kal'tsit? I'm...

Ksenia!

It seems that whenever we are given the opportunity to advance, we always find a reason to hesitate.

This interminable failure of a life has made me truly understand those words I read many years ago in a book, words I once scoffed at:

'The reason why Ursus is constantly flooded with sorrow and injustice is because we lag behind other nations in many aspects.'

'No matter how many truths we discover or accomplishments we make, this backwardness will ruthlessly extinguish the fires of our inspiration.'

This appears to be a suicide note.

Still no reaction from her. Does it say where the Sarcophagus ended up after it left Chernobog?

No, but it mentions researching some kind of material.;I think it's describing mutations in Ursine Infected.

Oka should have been a chance to turn things around, but just like every other opportunity that passed me by, it was fleeting...

Was my research wrong yet again? Or is this inexplicable, miraculous substance from the mines truly nothing out of the ordinary?

It clearly contains no energy, yet it so callously tortures those patients who are already suffering from disease, driving them mad, making them act in unusual ways, even allowing them to accomplish the impossible.

I do not know, but I am unwilling to be the one who inflicts even more pain on them! Fortunately, I need not continue... That is all I have to say. Now, all I can do is make guesses using metaphysics, like some sort of poet:

Oka may simply be a part of Ursus's essence buried deep in the ground. It revels in the suffering of those it abhors, all behind a mighty, harmless countenance.

Enough. Stop heaping your egotistical, unfounded learning upon this man-made calamity, Ksenia.

Once more, you are a despicable survivor. You should have died twenty years ago at the hands of those soldiers, or here, at the hands of angry Infected.

But now, it all comes to an end.

Ksenia...

We know for sure that she's Ksenia.

What is 'Oka'?

Oka...

Ksenia?

...can kill... the Royal Guard...

It's dangerous.

<p=1>Central Far North Mining District Laboratory, Ursus</>

Did she just say... 'Royal Guard'?

I heard her say...;Kill the Royal Guard, even.

So she means... the substance called 'Oka' killed the Royal Guard?

Is that possible? A sort of demonic product even scarier than their Dominion?

An unidentified substance discovered from the mines.;Used by researchers to experiment on both Infected and non-Infected.

Results proved to worsen Oripathy symptoms.

Maybe, it's just a special name for a substance? We can't come to a conclusion before we've seen it ourselves.

Ksenia, Ksenia! Look at me, can you remember anything?

I... you're...

Mon3tr thinks this attempt will be as fruitless as the last, but the woman's glazed eyes suddenly pop wide open.

She immediately clutches the clothes before her, pulling Mon3tr close.

You're—the Director? Director Kal'tsit?

Did you come here for me? I want to go back, I want to see the professor—

I want to see Professor Ilia... and Lyuda... ugh...

But they... I don't think they'll want to see me, right? A coward like me who couldn't do anything... Do I still deserve to see them?

Uwa...ahhh—aaaahh!!!

I... I—

However, the woman does not wait for Mon3tr to respond before releasing her grip, and returns to her prior position on the floor.

No, something's off...

You're not the Director. I never saw her again, just like the others. She wouldn't be here.

I even saw those who came after her, and they... they...

They? Who did you see? Was one of them a short Liberi who's always smiling?

Liberi... yes, I've seen her.

Where did she go?

I don't know...

The group that killed the Royal Guard... She was with those Infected.

They'll die! Everyone will die!

Ugh... I don't know—I don't know...

She needs a sedative.;She's dehydrated.

So the information we've been getting—

The miners' escape is related to the Royal Guard.;Mantra mentioned that the contamination caused by the Royal Guard' is spreading south.

So the answer is obvious.

But... did the Royal Guard really get killed? By a bunch of miners? How's that possible?

Perhaps we should consider...;What it means if it is indeed real.

The Grand Duchess actually locked the mines down to cover up the fact that a Royal Guard died in her domain?

But that's impossible! Be it the Tsar or the Armies, they won't let the matter die so easily. If she was really trying to cover it up, she wouldn't have agreed to let us in from the start.

Does that Imperial Guard know about this too?

That's right...;That is exactly what we need to consider.

Let's contact Mantra and Amiya first.

Roger, Doctor.

Likewise, we have made progress here that coheres to your information.

There are traces of fighting, and some medical equipment lying around.

Rhodes Island standard issue.