vvana

The Viviana Droste I know has a light in her eyes when she decides to embark on a little rebellion.

You've always been so sensitive to subtle emotions.

Perhaps you could have been a poet, if the Rose Paper Union still published poems.

Nonsense. I should be thanking you for helping me understand the value of poetry.

And I should thank you for your concern.

I'm fine. It's just that I don't quite understand everything yet. First, I need to finish this letter.

There was no need for you to deal with them on your own... We could have saved this workshop, even all of Ognisko, together.

Glorious Shield is being short-sighted. It won't take long for people to start asking why all of these so-called legendary weapons are coming from the same city.

The fate of a city that fades back into obscurity is even darker than one that never had its day in the sun.

You appreciate Ognisko's beauty more than Glorious Shield's surveyors, and beauty is eternal... so long as you can bring it out.

You said you couldn't write poems in Kawalerielki, but Ognisko is the birthplace of freedom, the land of poets. Is it not?

Write a poem about Ognisko, and we can develop this place in a different manner.

Everyone will have better lives, without having to change their way of living.

And why are <i>you</i> doing this? You've only been here for a few days.

But you've lived in this city, and found a peace that you've never known before. Isn't that what you said?

I would think that would be reason enough.

Just because I find comfort here?

Of course, Madam Droste.

Most knights assigned to 'recuperate' in remote towns can't wait to leave them.

You, however, have repeatedly visited Ognisko. Is there another reason, other than this being a place of comfort for you?

A place of comfort...

The birthplace of freedom.

But we need a way forward.

The land of poets.

Then you know that to forge <i>was</i> our way forward, <i>is</i> our way forward, and will always be our way forward.

Viviana's place of comfort.

I'm at the end of my wits here. Help me, Candle Knight.

I'm sorry.

My place of comfort is a place of comfort for Viviana alone.

Just because I like the shade of the trees, and the songs of the fowlbeasts, the furnaces and the sparks, just because...

Just because I like how the people here don't care where I came from, who I am, and where I'm going.

You know this, and so does Obina.

That's why you proposed to protect Ognisko 'for me', and why she felt so guilty about asking for my help.

She feared that even saying the words 'Candle Knight' would destroy my place of comfort.

She didn't want to ruin my hopes for her because of her powerlessness.

Even if I'm the very cause of her dilemma.

Even if you never came to Ognisko, all of this would still have occurred eventually.

McKee...

Thank you for the kind offer.

But I can't accept it.

I, and only I, am responsible for Obina's changes.

She thought that seeking my help would ruin everything she meant to me. She was ashamed of it, and suffered so much from it...

...As if she weren't my master or my friend, but just a tool to give me comfort.

If so, is there really any difference between my poetry and Glorious Shield's film studio?

If that's what my poems are...

Then I will write no poems for Ognisko.

Henceforth, Viviana's poems shall only be of herself.

As always, your resolve is... surprising.

And there I was, thinking I'd finally come to know you after all these years.

You already know me quite well, McKee.

It's Obina whom you don't know, although even I've only started to know just her moments ago. Far too late.

...Hm. I guess even <i>your</i> thinking can change.

It's like chasing after the horizon. Every time I take a step forward, it takes a step back.

My thinking so far has mostly been naive, and not nearly worth the effort of understanding. I simply fear that what happened to Obina will happen to you too.

Maybe I just wanted some kind of salvation. I can't help but feel that I'm constantly sinking, even as the Rose Paper Union's stock prices continue to rise.

Well, if you're still seeking 'salvation' from me... then allow me to borrow your name.

My name?

Most of my assets in Kazimierz are frozen under the Nova Knightclub name, but there may still be enough to purchase a small nomadic platform.

So if you're willing to help, it may be more appropriate to make the purchase under your name.

What do you need a nomadic platform for?

To take Ognisko away, or at least the people who still see her as a furnace.

...Very well.

Let's go. The furnace that was born on the plains shall return to the plains.

Is everyone here?

Everyone who still wants to hammer iron rather than play along with that farce.

Good! There's hope for Ognisko yet. The flames yet burn in the furnace of the great plains.

We're about to sail, Master McKee! There's no issue, is there?

From the deck of the nomadic platform, McKee casts his gaze towards the wilderness in the distance.

A faint flame flickers in the darkness. In its light, Viviana's green cape looks like a ghost, drifting in the wind.

At least, that is how he would describe it, if he were writing a poem.

She's gone.

She'll be back.

Her outfit...

I had someone make it for her when she was living in Ognisko. A knight's garb isn't exactly for everyday use.

I thought she would disassociate herself completely from Ognisko.

Before she left, she asked me whether I truly felt happy when we were hammering iron together by the forge.

I was happy. Of course I was.

She said she was too. And she said that was enough.

Then, she asked me to take out that outfit and help her put it on.

'Henceforth, Viviana's poems shall only be of herself'...