Cold, Only Perceived

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?

The boy in question was his son. Was. His. Son.

It makes no difference if he wasn't.

When that boy comes of age, he'll find you, and he'll take revenge for his father.

Then perhaps you should prepare... prepare for some far-flung moment to take revenge for your own father?

Talulah, the one who killed him is still alive and well, after all.

......

I've given you this answer before. You must be sufficiently trained to the point you are capable of personally avenging him. Mm. And you currently... are not yet so.

...You can shut up, now, Kashchey!

Ah, excepting that, Talulah, excepting your own personal wants, I do have ever higher hopes that you may become an outstanding individual.

An executioner, a lead gendarmerie, a noble officer, a conspirator, a killing machine of a caster?! When you say 'an outstanding individual,' is that what you mean?!

Talulah, Talulah. No.

I long for an heir.

......

I never imagined you'd say something so sickening outright.

But, well, *chuckle* I'm sorry, Duke.

Your hopes are all...

Fruitless.

Hmm...

I can see you've gotten fired up. Tell me, then, Talulah, tell me something. What is it you've done that has you so pleased with yourself?

Half a year ago, I got a hold of a small splinter of Originium ore, and can you guess what I did with it...?

I embedded it in my own arm.

...Oh?

With wonderful results.

I am Infected already.

I'm an Infected now, Duke Kashchey. My life is wound short, and your schemes, your plans, your investments, all for naught. You have no way to use me ever again.

Everything I am was by your own design, wasn't it? And now, no longer.

Ah. Truly... an unforeseen method.

Does it taste good? The flavor of your conspiracy bled dry?

Kashchey, I've already become what Ursus and the world at large most reviles. We most despicable Infected... across the cities, the tundras, the barrens, we most depraved, lowly Infected.

And if your sister saw you like this, would she be happy?

Don't you—!

What is it that made you scheme, rebel against me so, my daughter?

—You.

You deceived me. Lied to me, you said Wei Yenwu masterminded the murder of my father. You never told me they confronted you together, drove you out of Lungmen.

You never told me what role you played in my father's death. Even if Wei Yenwu killed him, even if he is guilty, even if he deserves to die for it—

You can't escape blame either.

On the surface, you treat your subjects well, help with settling the villages around the city, give the Infected stable residence...

But in actuality, you have the Infected and your residents living entirely different lives—you let the inhabitants feed their own egos on the Infected.

You've taken this city plundering its own residents and embellished it into a duty! To the point that they push around the Infected and the nomadic non-dwellers to bring themselves comfort!

Is this your dukedom, then? Is this your city and your rule?

You use inequality to mold a facade, and a facade to expand your influence?

I cannot endure this any longer. Even if I didn't fault your hypocritical means and twisted tricks, your pathological lies and false benevolence already had me at wit's end!

I've taught you this before, Talulah.

I've taught you—'In this period of excessive calm, they cannot accept mutual, equal treatment.'

Not unless we draw this period of mediocrity to an end.

You and I may accept their autonomy, just as the Columbians and Siracusans have. But what of themselves?

They will elect their next consul, and their next lord. Because they do not esteem others. They only fear authority and violence.

Not only that. They don't allow for anyone braver than themselves, smarter than themselves. Kinder. More merciful... Not unless you are their duke, or their emperor.

You sympathize with them. You sympathize with my subjects, sympathize with such residents whose backs are forced against the wall by tax collectors and bureaucrats.

That is wonderful.

Moreover, even you continue to force yourself to spit vile slurs that humiliate the Infected so... I do vaguely recall.

You constantly made revisions to my policies, in ever greater attempts to protect them, so much that you didn't even fear arousing the citizens' wrath.

I have spent a great deal of time ironing their moods out, Talulah.

I'm not sympathizing with them!

You certainly do love them.

Why you...?!

I'm very gratified, Talulah, that you should truly care for them. You've come to resemble me more and more, my daughter.

...Who the hell gave you the right to keep saying this crap?!

But your superficial actions will not, and cannot succeed.

And what makes you think you know what I'm going to do? You don't have the power...

No matter should all people in sum desire to reach one single good outcome——those people, as ever, still may fail.

Talulah, Talulah. It is because that golden outcome of theirs, and your daydreams, are fundamentally distinct.

You have no ability to make differing people endorse some identical action. Their disputes will clash and devolve, and that cannot be avoided.

How can a Sarkaz face a Sankta? How can a soul from Kazimierz face a soul from Ursus? How can a sturdy yet toilsome bear face an arrogant yet impotent hippogryph?

You think to let them know how to act? What an arrogant notion, my daughter! You wish to take this appearance and this rank of yours, and appeal to them to do something?

Ah, of course, this I know. You certainly could do so.

Talulah, in time, you will rule those destined to follow you. You have inherited the Black Snake's knowledge, the Red Dragon's blood flows through you, you walk the Bear's land, and you thumb through the Hippogryph's history.

No person should be born to be ruled by another.

But they crave your rule. For all their lives, they've been awaiting someone like you to rule over them. Ursus may well tremble for you, my daughter.

Those who rule others will inevitably be ruled themselves by the stronger, Kashchey.

Ah, now that is a concept close to me, Talulah. Let me give you your final lesson, then.

...Hm?

Talulah, we will come to transcend this sort of transient, worldly rule.

The last Emperor is dead, yet his shadow is still cast upon these great lands of ours. His will, his force of mind, have already passed beyond that era.

He inherited the true Empire of Ursus, sustains Ursus's flourishing lands, lets the people of Ursus live.

Should we lose the sun, the luxuriant branches and stems that Ursus grows will at once wither away, and all that will remain across this world is inferior creatures, ever more putrid, sucking the nutrients from each other.

These people you have seen—

They take pleasure in savagery, widespread slaughter, masochism, and are at once fearful and selfish...

You dream of education and ideology to draw them in, enlighten them. But you don't know that they bear not the slightest interest in what you have to say... Talulah, you deserve to know this.

They have survived across this world of ours for countless years, and have become accustomed to a certain deep-rooted way of life. You are merely but a stranger, crashing in on it.

So-called rulers, so-called nobles, so-called armies... merely the people of strength, the people lapped in luxury, the people who withstood training.

Domains can shift, armies can rebuild, rules can fall to ruin...

No rule can endure, except where the voluntary will of Ursus's people follows. They will never be ruled. They only press forth, forever.

—The small charity you make is exchanged for obedience. For unrealistic expectations.

And how the hell would you know what they're meant to be? It was Ursus that ravaged them to this point!

I am very clear about it. Ah, I am all too clear about it.

And this is why you think they will go with you? For their bread, their potatoes, their clean water and bonfires? Is this how you would promise them?

They will. And then, once they starve, their first thought will be to make a meal of your corpse.

If you carry such unrealistic fantasies of them, you will hate them. You will surely hate them.

Kashchey, I am not you.

I am nothing whatsoever like you.

Yet you are already the same as me. You simply have not been roused from your daydreams yet.

In truth, you can and may leverage all you have at hand.

If you have some goal, then go. Use terror to destroy terror. Use life to rule life. Use sacrifice to guide sacrifice. Use ignorance to breed ignorance. Use suffering to manufacture suffering.

You have learned all of these methods. They are already your arms. All that's left is to learn to make use of them... to get used to them.

Until your beloved people understand, in the truest sense of the word, their country, and the significance of their existence.

I can't even tell what you're spouting all this hell-ridden doctrine for, if anything.

All this is fact. All this, you will confront.

How about this, my daughter. You don't trust me.

So I wish to make a wager with you.

In these many years, the Originium Arts I have cultivated in you have long since budded. Their time to fruit is already now.

...What... did...?

In your life to come, you need only raise doubt of all you persist in, you need only raise the slightest hatred of the ones you proclaim your compatriots, and those who you think ought to be free...

And you will immediately settle this wager between us. It is whether, in that moment, you will walk the path I taught you.

Perhaps, in these coming years, you will be fortunate enough to avoid those conditions yet. You may, with sheer luck, be living within a fairytale land.

Perhaps the people before you will chance to have secret sorrows. They can be understood, explained—oh, they were forced into helplessness...

I can wait. This country can wait. Be it three years, five years, a decade, a century, you will only arrive at the same answer. Though you will not live an Infected's life for long, I know that day will come.

The Empire of Ursus finds itself in a period of repeated ailment. Crops will not grow on the soil of the barrens. Soil in shadow can only bear forth flowers of corruption.

You may be betrayed by those you adored. You may witness the moments in which your friends die for you. You may realize the expectations you held for the future have lost all meaning.

Because all that you do, in other people's eyes, still cannot make up for the pressure you bring about with your appearance, your status.

You will realize it all can be sacrificed. You will realize that they all love themselves more than their neighbors. You will come to know that your proud struggle symbolizes nothing at all.

You will come to see. These great lands you threw yourself to do not want you.

You will see your thoughts, your actions, become nonexistence. You will see them spurn all you revered, your life, your dignity and philosophy void of all significance.

Because these people, who you suppose to call noble, are but ambling corpses.

All I have encountered, you will encounter too.

You want... You want me to... surrender...!

No, no. I truly am using these Originium Arts. This is no deception, nor a threat.

Oh, that said, my Arts are utterly feeble. All I have taught you constitutes the foundations of these Arts.

These Arts, in the moment you reject me, will carry no impact whatsoever.

But should you recognize me, should you have understood me, should you realize just the sort of world you're standing in...

—Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Chime. Chime. Chime.

You will become me.

Ursus's future will from then on be in your hands.

...What are you talking about?

What do you... what do you mean by all this?

Conscious manipulation? Thought suggestion? Have you gone insane? It was you who taught me to withstand these Arts! It was you who taught me how to break free from the psyche's Originium Arts!

Stop.

Why would I use such contemptible, destructive Arts on my own heir?

My Arts only expedited a course of events. Expedited your recognition of this great world of ours, your questioning yourself, doubting yourself, loathing yourself and seeing clearly, anew, your own course.

Sans these Arts, all this still would have happened. They were just to get you there a little faster.

Everyone in the city, living a make-believe normal life, has learned to hypnotize themselves.

They are skilled in escaping from the facts, taming themselves with rules and morals. Using the lowly shell of the loser to hide just how easily harmed they are by cruel reality...

But I have supplied you a set of armor, a sort of arms, and an ego.

These can save you your self-doubt and self-harm, in the course of it all. Save you your distress, your struggle. Conserve your time. You will stand up ever faster than you were kicked down by reality, and you will be reborn.

You needn't spend too much of your life denying your own self.

All I have taught you will once again bear anew within your mind, and you will, as if spinning silk from the cocoon, weave anew the knowledge.

You will rid yourself of your superstitions, and in your well-rounded garden of wisdom, find a path winding yet with certain end.

Talulah, Ursus's destiny breathes as one with you.

The Black Snake shall walk with you. This immortal will shall never die.

—You—

Are you cursing me?

Are you trying... to use yourself... to mold me?

No, Talulah, this is not a curse. This is a blessing.

I bless you, my daughter.

The moment you wake from your unrealistic fancy of human nature, you will be conscious. Of why we struggle so for this land's most beautiful future.

(Yan language) Just shut it! You're... full of such utter shit!

I never taught you such inflammatory Yan vernacular. But it may serve you to learn some. That's the role you'll be playing soon, after all.

Hah. Obviously. You didn't let me talk like this in public, so I'd maintain my so-called image—

—It was to cover you.

I calculate so as to make you think of others, but you denounce my proposals, profane my language. You've remembered all I've taught you, and now want to flee, Talulah...

But I'm not worried. Because, in the end, you will come back to this path.

The space between people is filled with hatred, and by that hatred, they are ruled. Love births hate. Indecision births hate. Admiration births hate.

Hatred is the inevitable outcome of interaction. It takes as little as two people to facilitate a sort of rule. Unless they are like me, and love all people equally.

Will you hate me, Talulah? For what I have done, this world will do to you. That is all.

What you do has nothing to do with me... nothing at all.

I'll have no part of it! None!

Ah... good. Truly splendid.

To not inherit the name, to not harness the authority, to not exploit the position. Wonderful, my child. You have great resolve.

Go and establish your cause by your own hand. If you don't wish to inherit my domain and political resources, my wealth and my power, then by all means.

You may seize them yourself. That you could do so would still fulfill my greatest dreams.

No one told you you could define my aspirations!

No, no, of course I wouldn't dream of doing so. But know well, no Kashchey would be willing to accept such a 'present.' To our diligent, prideful selves, it would be an insult!

I have already taught you everything I can.

As for all your goals from here on, they will be your own.

My daughter... you truly are outstanding.

You break off from all you've known without a second thought, in exchange for a new, novel path...

The Infected will open up a very different sort of territory for you. Your actions upon this land we call Ursus will be unprecedented.

(She unsheathes her sword.)

I only came face-to-face with you today for one thing. I didn't think I'd be forced to sit through your wicked, venomous sermon.

Ah. Have I been waiting for this day?

I often wondered if Wei Yenwu missed the chance to kill me and instead would send one of his hands to do it? So it was you, it was—always going to be you.

To be an executioner for the one who murdered your father, and in place of him who you bear hatred, to kill who he hates. Oh, what a beautiful outcome.

Your slaughter testifies to my point of view. I shall gladly give up resistance, and die by your hand, my daughter. This action will form your bridge towards truth, and allow my death to forge your foundations.

I'm not your daughter... I'm not.

I'm killing you to put a stop to your evil, once and for all.

And then, Talulah, you. You will do evil.

I've heard enough.

And then you will do good. And you will recognize all the good I did.

Ah. This sword. I never had the housekeeper confiscate it... I'm not fond of this sword. You use Arts much more than you use swords... but you were still allowed to carry it.

It will remind you where you came from...

(A great roar.)

...and it will witness our path, yours and mine.

Do you hate me, Talulah?

I won't be taken in, you rotting, putrid snake! You're a villain beyond all else! Your life ends here!

*hiss*, *cough*, *hiss*, *hiss*...

Only the lobe... of my lung... *hiss*...

Your strike... was not... accurate.

I won't hate you, Kashchey.

I may hate your endless, long-winded, rancid sophistry, but you yourself haven't earned my hate.

I pity you. Your death only testifies to your loneliness, your vain attempt to turn yourself into a mirage.

I'll let you know the sheer absurdity of all you espoused. Not that you'd be able to know, now.

Hah, hah... wonder... ful...

With my death, Wei may feel... a weight off him, too...

I look forward... to when... you bare... your regret... your... hate...

...Remember this...

And so you came all the way to where we were.

All of that was years ago, now.

...After Kashchey died, did anything happen in the city? Did you run into any trouble?

If anything else happened, I probably wouldn't have ever reached your village.

The city... After I left, I heard Kashchey's domain and wealth were quickly carved up amongst the Fourth Army.

And as far as I go, nobody cares. Who'd care about some... *chuckle* city girl? Not when she made herself scarce.

I did wander too far, though. I only came to my senses once I was already at the old couple's place.

Trust me, back then, my brain was the picture of a mess. I can barely even remember what I encountered along the way.

Ma'am said that the day you came, you were bloody, tip to tail. It was half a miracle she could still wash those clothes clean.

Did you ever wonder, if maybe our village would secretly kill you?

Wait, where's this coming from?!

Well... I'm just guessing, you must've thought of it.

You wouldn't do that. Your harvests were good, you'd just put out the evening dance's bonfire, you had fenced burdenbeasts, and decorations hung outside on the walls...

Your lives might've been tough, but you still enjoyed how you lived.

You wouldn't have killed me. After that, not even the dance would feel right anymore.

Who kills someone and stays calm as a lake? Only vicious monsters would. And they're not common at all.

Don't you think you're too optimistic about people?

I've seen too many bad things. In so many cases, they were done by those without another choice.

If they had the choice to make, I know that the vast majority of people, across the whole wide world, would choose to be good people.

...And nothing like what Kashchey said.

He said that all people were disgraceful, that you'd hate them and their evil in the end, all because you were so kind-hearted.

...What a horrible curse to want to make. It's about as poisonous as words can get.

And that's why I'm sure I'll never hate anyone. Everything they do has a reason behind it.

Do you want me to watch over you?

Maybe that wouldn't be so bad.

But what about after I'm gone? You'd have to figure things out on your own then.

It's bad luck to be so ominous, you know.

We'll always have to confront it. Us little Infected sooner or later have to make our exits.

Taking the little time we have left, and doing something that makes the fact we live worthwhile... there's nothing bad about that.

*chuckle*. I think the same way.

It might not be easy, Alina, it might not be easy, but I still believe the Infected should reunite as one.

We should find where we belong again in Ursus. If possible, this world should in turn examine its own deeds.

After that, it's not just the Infected... not just the Infected.

Whether Ursus, Victoria, Leithanien, regardless of country, regardless of race, regardless of your background... we'll sear away all these things that divide us.

We should all have lives where we deserve to be equally loved. If someone stands in the way of that life, then we'll take back what's rightfully ours.

If you want to do it, you could give it a trial run first.

We'd probably be wiped out to the last.

Wasn't your first step to challenge Ursus, anyway?

No matter what we do, it's all a challenge to Ursus.

But when we give some, we gain some. Despite the fact the return isn't certain to be for us.

I can't call to mind things as wicked as you could... but my impression is that things in this world might not be as good as you often suppose.

You mean?

Talulah, do you only give so that you can gain?

......

...Alina, no. That's not right. What you're asking for is... too...

I know. But you need to think that way.

I won't. I—I definitely won't.

I believe all we've done will bear good fruit, and the reason is simple to match. Because they deserve that result. Because the creatures of this world deserve that fruit.

...Mm. Okay. Let's go.

Are you going to join with the guerrillas?

I need them to approve of me first.

It'll be difficult.

It'll take more than difficulty to slow me down.

FrostNova! Here's the... person who helped us back there!

Keep your bolts nocked.

*Phew*... *huff*.

You're just like the rumors say. So cold, you Yetis. Cold enough to outstrip this awful winter weather.

Are you their commander?

Infected?

Yes.

You need to explain, then. Why are you wearing an Ursus military officer's uniform?

I've come up with a lot of lies for that. Any preference?

Fire.

Wait! You just don't do humor, do you? Are you the Yeti Squad's leader?

Why haven't you fired?

She really... did just... help us now, Sister. Promise.

It's true, Yetis. I came here to seek assistance, as well as to assist you.

...Assist us?

Let's shake on it, Captain Yeti! When conveying sincerity, I always hope to go the equal and dignified route.

I hope we can both have ourselves a dignified, tranquil, level dialogue.

No.

...Try it. I think I've pegged who you are.

Those Originium crystals they're carrying have your Arts, don't they?

Heh.

If I'm able to melt your ice, would you be willing to hear me out for a bit?

—Dream on. You couldn't.

Let's try it.