Look, white bread. You don't see it much outside the cities.
Hawley
......
Nikto
*sigh*...
<p=1>Far North Tundra, Ursus</>Far North Tundra, Ursus
<p=2>Three days ago...</>Three days ago...
Nikto
Huh?
Nikto
They've started singing...
Jolly Miner
Nikto! Found you at last.
Jolly Miner
Come on, Nikto, oddball, city-dweller, professor and cynic. Let's dance. It's just the right kind of music.
Nikto
Now's not the time for dancing.
Nikto
The bonfire is going to draw attention in this darkness.
Jolly Miner
But we found a tractor and a bunch of supplies. Not much, but enough to get us further away from the blasted place. Isn't that worth celebrating?
Jolly Miner
Unchipped, out of the mines, beat the Patrol Units, and now we have a tractor and supplies. It's beyond my wildest dreams.
Nikto
Where are Vetochki and Rankin?
Jolly Miner
You're always looking for them. It's not like you're bound to each other. It's okay to give them a little breathing room, you know.
Jolly Miner
I do happen to know where Rankin is, though. Beside that bonfire that you don't like. Want to join us?
Nikto
Last question. Who's playing the accordion?
Jolly Miner
You'll find out, if you come with!
Nikto takes the gloveless hand offered to him. The palm is rough but warm, different from any other in those memories that he has intentionally forgotten.
They walk in the direction of the bonfire and music.
Nikto
He...
Jolly Miner
I said he was here.
Yes, he is here.
Many times Nikto saw him clench his hands into fists, or swing a weapon.
Nikto could not imagine how those hands, knotted with scars and thick with veins, could operate something as delicate as an accordion.
Nikto
He plays the accordion?
Jolly Miner
Yeah. What about it?
By the fireside, Rankin's callused fingers leap across the keyboard, as he gently pulls and presses the bellows.
Music fills the air.
Jolly Miner
See? I told you.
Jolly Miner
Come, don't just stand there. It's not like we get to relax every day!
Nikto
I...
She catches him like a hunter catches prey. As he is brought into the crowd, his feet instinctively begin to step in rhythm.
Nikto was once an excellent dance partner. He tried to stop thinking about 'once' when he came to the mining district.
Jolly Miner
Get that frown off your brow and everything off your mind. Just dance, let your body move and rid yourself of all your troubles.
Nikto
......
The crowd moves and sings to the beat, responding to the rhythm with every joint in their bodies.
It is the simplest, most primitive form of dance.
Nikto
...Hah.
Nikto exhales and begins to move, bending his knees, kicking and spinning, every movement animated and rhythmic.
Jolly Miner
I knew it! You can dance!
Jolly Miner
See? I figured no one could deny the energy here.
Nikto does not answer, continuing to kick and turn mechanically, unemotionally.
Step forward and step back, jump and turn, until the next downbeat.
He takes the hands of his dance partner, and begins to lead the dance.
Jolly Miner
Wow—
Nikto
No need to thank me.
Jolly Miner
No humility in you, is there? But...
Jolly Miner
It's clear that you're really good at dancing, even to an untrained eye. Your speed, and this 'magic' under your feet... it's almost like flying.
Jolly Miner
What do they call it? Pas? E-Enchainement?
Nikto
Call it the pathetic instincts of an ornament.
Jolly Miner
What do you mean—
There is no explanation. Stepping energetically in time, Nikto pulls his partner towards him, then pushes her in the opposite direction.
Laughing, she runs into a young man without a partner, but eager to try, and so Nikto lets go and hands her over to her new partner.
By the time the dance has ended, Nikto is standing very near Rankin. Take one step back, and he would be sitting by Rankin's side.
But Nikto does not do so. Before he opens his mouth, he reminds himself: Do not press. Ask Rankin about the truth calmly, gently. Do not cause a commotion.
Do not interrupt this rare moment of joy.
Nikto
I didn't know you played the accordion.
Rankin
I didn't know you danced.
Nikto
I guess we're not close enough to share everything.
Nikto
But there is something you must tell me, if you really consider me a friend.
Rankin
You went to see Hawley. Is he still not eating?
Nikto
What did you expect?
Nikto
We need to talk, Rankin...
Rankin sighs, brings the melody to a close, and hands the accordion to a nearby miner.
Nikto recognizes the face of Pavel, Bogina's brother. Is Bogina still running a fever? He does not know.
Pavel takes the accordion and begins to sing an unfamiliar song.
Lively, soaring, yet sad.
Soft Singing
'Sweet soft fragile flower, lean against the oak tree...'
Soft Singing
'Hang not your head, nor sway with the wind...'
Rankin
(Hushed) Let's talk over there.
Rankin gets up, and they leave the crowd and commotion behind.
Nikto
You didn't need to do that.
Rankin
......
Nikto
You could have done it yourself, like you usually did. I would have praised you for your kindness, if you had sent Hawley away on some sort of pretext when you did the deed.
Nikto
But why did you make Hawley do it?
Rankin
......
Nikto
'Rankin the Noble.' 'Rankin the Hero.' Is it not enough that you've triumphed over the foe? Did you need to torture your own comrades like that?
Nikto
Does it make you happy? Make your victory more glorious? Why did you—
Rankin
Because I was angry.
Nikto
......
Rankin
Yes... I won't make excuses, pretend that I expected Hawley to let his son go. This was what I wanted. I'm happy about it.
Rankin
Should I be calm? Should I be merciful? End his pain like you said? Why should I?
Rankin
Did you think the people who were loaded into their containers did not beg for mercy? Beg for someone to end their pain?
Rankin
You accuse me of being unkind. Who would accuse those beasts on their behalf?
Rankin
I do not understand them. They look human and they speak the language of humans, but their deeds are more monstrous than any monster.
Rankin
How could they prey upon their own kind like that, so calmly, so coldly?
Rankin
This difference frightens me. It's as though... as though we never shared the same human dignity with them. If they're not the monsters... then it must be me who is the monster.
Rankin's words are clear, his tone impassive, as he gazes into the black night. Nikto wants to turn Rankin's head around and make him say it to Nikto's own face.
But he does nothing.
Silence.
Rankin
But you were right. I didn't need to do that.
Rankin
It's pointless...
Nikto
You're torturing yourself, Rankin.
Nikto
You shouldn't pretend to be as strong as you think you are, and you shouldn't demand that others be as strong.
Rankin
......
Nikto
It's not my place to accuse you. You carry the responsibility of everyone on your shoulders. You must become the hero. It's a remarkable thing.
Nikto
But you can't pretend that the fear and hesitation in your heart don't exist... you're trying to hide from yourself.
Nikto
The result is what happened today... you lost control. It's dangerous. You don't know what you might do, the next time your emotions get the better of you.
Rankin
Thank you for the warning... I'll remember it.
Nikto
......
Nikto
Let's gather the others and put the bonfire out. It's time to go—how far until the next village?
Rankin
...Let's wait a while longer.
Rankin
They're happy. They haven't been so happy for a long time. We found a vehicle, and we're one step closer to the Kazimierzian border... let them enjoy themselves a little longer, and warm themselves up a bit.
Rankin
You enjoyed yourself when you danced just now, didn't you?
Nikto
What about Hawley? Do you still care about how he's feeling?
Nikto
He won't eat anything, and he's not responding to people talking to him.
Rankin
He'll come around.
Nikto
You can keep thinking that way, if it makes you feel better.
Rankin
......
Rankin turns around, takes a few steps towards the campfire, before stopping in his tracks. He turns back around and walks in the other direction, until he leaves behind the friend with whom he has developed differences, and the comrades still enjoying themselves.
Nadia... why are you here? Is Vetochki not with you?
Old Woman
I came to find you... Rankin.
Rankin
Why... is there something I can help with?
Old Woman
No... I would like to help you.
Rankin
Oh...
Old Woman
You killed that thing. It became your revelation, to carry the burden of all.
Old Woman
I understand your pain... it is painful to carry the burden of the life and death of others, to carry the burden of duty... how could it not be?
Old Woman
I witnessed how your soul became torn and tattered. But I do not have the cure. I could not compliment your courage, for it was the source of your pain...
Rankin
Thank you for your understanding.
Rankin
But there is no need to pity me. I chose this duty for myself.
Rankin
Besides... no, I never believed in revelations. I've always done what I thought was right.
Old Woman
Yes. You chose it yourself. Poor boy... no one can save you, except yourself...
Old Woman
I can only send you my sincere blessings, that one day... one day, you will find salvation from pain, and the peace that you desired...
The old woman puts a withered hand on Rankin's chest, and he feels his chest filled with warmth.
Since you asked, let's start with the crackdown in the mining district.
It began with people who had too much time on their hands, who discovered a new substance deep within an exhausted mine shaft.
Of course, we began to study it.
Worried Researcher
The Infected are one thing, but why can't we leave the mining district either?
Worried Researcher
There's nothing coming out of the mines. The miners are being shut inside their quarters, unable to go to work. Who knows if the Originium veins inside have really dried up?
Ksenia
Let's sit and wait. The Grand Duchess won't abandon us.
Worried Researcher
Wait? What's the point of waiting? They're not issuing our salaries, just supplies. Why not just let us leave, then? Not everyone's so carefree like you. I've got a mother to provide for.
Excited Researcher
We've got news! The mines haven't been exhausted!
Ksenia
What? Really?
Excited Researcher
Guess what we found at the bottom of the mine?
Worried Researcher
The Originium's grown back?
Excited Researcher
No! You don't have any imagination.
Worried Researcher
Imagination leads to futile hope, which leads to death. I don't want to die yet.
Ksenia
So, what exactly did you find?
Excited Researcher
Geologists from Bresk say that it's a geological fault, not exhaustion! Faults cause shifts in rock formation, resulting in Originium ore seemingly disappearing, when in fact it's been transformed.
Worried Researcher
Can you explain it in a way that a non-geologist could understand?
Excited Researcher
Meaning that the Originium ore is gone, but something new has appeared.
Excited Researcher
Look at this! Fresh out of the hole. I'm taking it to the lab for analysis. Here's your chance to help!
The excited researcher takes out a flask of black liquid, the surface of which is smooth as a mirror, and shakes it gently.
Worried Researcher
Are you sure? I'm no geologist, but I don't think faults turn rock from solid to liquid...
Worried Researcher
Are you sure they didn't make it up just so that we'll have something to do?
Excited Researcher
I went down myself, alright? The stuff's everywhere. It's like an underground river. The miners said the Originium ore was gone, but it's only been transformed into this stuff.
Excited Researcher
You have a chance to be a co-author on my paper! You should be more grateful!
Worried Researcher
Fine, fine I'll come. Like I don't know you just wanted to use my lab.
Excited Researcher
And what about it? Yours is the tidiest...
Ksenia
......
Indeed. How could a fault turn Originium ore from solid to liquid?
But there was no need for us to doubt the truth that was plain as day. After swift analysis and comparing the results, we confirmed that it was a substance the likes of which we've never seen before, and we named it 'Oka'.
Then, the Grand Duchess' orders came.
Ksenia
Go straight into human testing? Who ordered it, the director?
Ksenia
No, not even on the director's orders. We don't understand its nature, and we haven't even begun animal testing or energy testing. We're being too hasty. I'm going to find him—
Worried Researcher
There's no point talking to the director. The volunteer quota has already been filled, and Lakoda is moving forward with the tests.
Worried Researcher
Besides, this comes directly from the Grand Duchess. She wants results in two weeks.
Ksenia
Two weeks? That's not even enough to find out its half-life.
Ksenia
I don't like this. I—
Worried Researcher
If you don't like it, you can leave the Oka research.
Ksenia
I was in charge of extracting the active component of Oka, and I worked with Lakoda to develop the animal testing reagent. Of course I want to continue!
Ksenia
I just—I just don't think this is right, to go straight to human testing with zero idea about what might happen.
Worried Researcher
The sooner we get results, the sooner the Grand Duchess lets me go home. That's my only concern right now.
Worried Researcher
Like I told you, not everyone is as carefree as you are.
Ksenia
But—
Ksenia
I...
The human experiments began regardless. I was excluded and did not have access to the experiment data.
I wanted to figure out the nature of Oka and why it appeared in the mines. So...
The experiments on lab musbeasts showed no progress. At my wits' end, I even thought about experimenting on myself.
I never did, of course, because I learned that those so-called volunteers were not volunteers after all.
Raidian
You need to get out of here, Ksenia.
Ksenia
Serafina? How did you get in here? I thought there were guards at the door. Are there new volunteers from the miners—
Raidian
Listen to me, Ksenia. Those miners never volunteered!
Raidian
Even the patients who were in our medical post were forcibly conscripted. Your colleague was such a smooth liar that I didn't detect she was lying at first, when she said they volunteered.
Ksenia
What?
Raidian
All those 'volunteers' who participated in the experiments never volunteered! They never came back! Whatever's happening here goes against all scientific ethics.
Raidian
You remember Vetochki? The bell toller, the one who stammers a little?
Raidian
Good girl. She remembers everyone in the mining district, and she told Rankin, the foreman, as soon as she noticed that people had gone missing.
Raidian
First, the Infected miners, then their non-Infected families...
Raidian
Rankin went missing for a while too, reappearing with the bodies of a few miners who had gone missing.
Ksenia
Gosudar-batyushka... so when Lakoda said that the experiments were paused because of 'equipment theft'...
Raidian
I don't know the details about your situation, but the miners have left their quarters and are coming to the lab. They want an explanation.
Raidian
The miners are mostly Infected, and they have the strength of numbers. The guards can't stop them if they're determined to force the issue. There will be blood.
Ksenia
But... but I've never heard about any volunteers showing rejection symptoms, much less death—
Raidian
Are you sure?
Ksenia
I... no, I'm not.
Raidian
Do you have the experiment data?
Ksenia
No. I've been looking for the director all day to request access, but I haven't been able to find him.
Raidian
I don't know what you're researching here. Ultimately, the worst that can happen to the Infected is to be incinerated.
Ksenia
......
Raidian
If this place still retains the function of a hospital, as His Imperial Majesty hoped, you can check the incinerator or morgue.
Raidian
After that, you can come to the medical team's camp if you want to come with me.
I didn't accept Serafina's invitation.
But she was right.
Clothing without owners was stacked haphazardly in the basement. The incinerator was still running. The last person keeping watch over the place had left, leaving behind bodies that had not yet disintegrated scattered like the clothes.
The volunteers who participated in the experiment died en masse in the span of just two weeks. The impact of Oka on the human body was beyond doubt.
<p=1>Central Far North Mining District Laboratory, Ursus</>Central Far North Mining District Laboratory, Ursus
Ksenia
As was the case with the human experiments, I was excluded from the evacuation.
Ksenia
The lab was empty by the time I went to the basement, learned the truth, and put all the still-intact bodies in cold storage.
Ksenia
In fact, I can only guess that there was an evacuation. I don't know where they went—the director, Lakoda, or anyone else.
Ksenia
Thinking back on it, it was just like Chernobog, except this time I was the one in the lab.
Mon3tr
You were too young at the time, and you were on the project as a student intern. You were not on the list of core staff.
Ksenia
H-How did you know?
Ksenia
Were you—
I understand.
We found 'Dominion' pollution in the mining district.
Ksenia
The Royal Guard was here. Not anymore.
Before you passed out, you said that Oka could kill a Royal Guard.Then you said the miners killed a Royal Guard.
Which one is true? Or are they both true?
Ksenia
(Mutters) ...Chyort.
Ksenia
I don't think there's anything to talk about.
Ksenia
How does an ordinary person who was born and raised in Ursus describe the sudden collapse of the violence that had dominated her life for so long?
Ksenia
The Royal Guards are the stuff of nightmares to the children of Ursus. They watch your every word and action, so you are cautious and careful, so you are well-behaved and obedient.
Ksenia
They are invincible, undefeatable.
Ksenia
When you suddenly witness the death of one... it only means that something even more terrible has appeared.
The miners touched by Oka killed the Royal Guard.
Ksenia
No, no... I don't know anything about it. Forget I ever said anything.
Ksenia
I didn't see anything, and you didn't hear anything. Just leave.
Ksenia
I've told you everything you wanted to know, everything that I can tell you.
Even if all it does is accelerate the deaths of the Infected...It would be an unimaginable disaster if it got out.
Leave aside the question of who killed the Royal Guard, or even if anyone killed him at all.We don't know if the fleeing Infected miners came into contact with the substance.
Mon3tr
If they did, and it is contagious, they would not have allowed the researchers to leave.
Ksenia
The changes brought about by Oka are not necessarily contagious. At least, based on the experiment data that I managed to find, they haven't begun comparative observation yet—
Do you still have a sample of Oka?
Ksenia
No... What would you intend to do with it?
It's not about what we intend to do. It's about what we can do.
We'll have to get our hands on a sample to find out.
Ksenia
But all the samples are... you're going into the mines?! Now?
