Liberi Reader

Hey, come check this out. We got ourselves a new lackey! You, stop lazing around. Go!

I'm the new craftsman apprentice. My name's El—

Alright, enough talk. Get moving!

Hey, you lot! Use him however you want. He's apparently one of those bookworm types from Columbia, even younger than your kids!

Just treat him like those slaves that got sold to us. As long as it doesn't kill him, that is. It's not like he's got a guardian angel watching his back.

We'll work you to bone, kid.

Alright...

Isin, look!

Oh... What a surprise. Did you weld this together with the steel you stole? What a magnificent piece.

You're exaggerating. It doesn't matter how pretty it is; it's just consumables.

But you must rest. Your broken arm has only just healed...

Don't worry.

Do you know where we can get some refined Originium?

There is nothing that gold cannot buy in the Reefsteep Black Market.

Let's see how this turns out, then...

The black scorpion is dead...

We've done well, haven't we?

Old Isin heard from the fence today... The 'Sand Soldier' is the next ruler of Reefsteep.

Do you think you are? Elliot?

And do you wish me to be, Isin?

I'm not one to forget the kindness others have shown me. If it wasn't for you, I would not have survived these past two decades.

Now you need Old Isin no more...

No... Hardly. We have a special relationship, after all.

But if you wanted to complain, perhaps you should complain to that lady who cloaked herself in all those mysteries.

Kal'tsit...

You still remember her name. You've gotten less and less clear-headed over the years. I thought you'd have forgotten that, among many other things.

Have you looked for her?

Yes, I have, but my attempts have been futile. Not even my most elite intelligence agents could find any information about her in Columbia. Besides, the PMC disbanded not long after that.

The laboratory was taken over by the military, and all of their data were destroyed. I could not find even a single participant... Columbia hid them well.

The Ibuti Lord Ameer will pass through Redhorn next week. Hoh, fate can be a fickle mistress sometimes.

This is an excellent opportunity—Old Isin, are you asleep?

......

Old Isin had a dream...

Another one of your dreams?

It was still the same dream as always... The Kheshig's footsteps went across the tundra and grasslands, at last reaching the land of golden sands.

But, this time, the dream was a little different...

It was a scenery that the padishah never recounted to Old Isin... There was someone there... She looked like... like Kal'tsit... in another form.

Hm.

She was there.

When the Kheshigs' conquest shattered that bygone era all those thousands of years ago... she was there...

Dreams can't explain much, and there are no Arts that allow us to glimpse into our fate across time. You said so yourself.

Yes... This is merely a dream that Old Isin had... a meaningless dream... Lady Kal'tsit could not have had anything to do with them... but it does make Old Isin wonder if there is meaning to this dream.

At the very end, Old Isin saw the padishah.

Oh? And what did your master tell you this time, old faithful?

He...

In my dream... he told Old Isin... where Sargon is...

......

You are planning to ambush the lord ameer's squadron.

Yes.

So you mean to tell me that you, a former faithful aide to a Sargon noble, will stop me from disrespecting a lord ameer so?

—Disrespect?

Hm.

They are rotten and incompetent. They only know to bootlessly harm their kin and drag innocent Sargonians into war...

They stand on Reefsteep's land, doing their dirty work. Why would Old Isin feel respect for men like them?

Old Isin wants them to pay the price. Old Isin wants the glory of Sargon's past be restored, and not by these good-for-nothing clowns!

Old Isin... Right... Old Isin must seek the city of golden sands!

I don't see you get this excited often. Please, calm down—

It's time...

Go, my child. Light a fire, and complete your revenge.

Until the time comes when the winds finally calm and the eternal city rises from the sandstorm... Old Isin will wait... and Old Isin will reach that place...

This is the place...

Very well.

Be sure to knock first.

Don't get any funny ideas. The elite operators here ain't no pushovers.

Now go.

......

......

......

Looks like that gold coin made it to you.

How is Old Isin?

He's lost to the golden sands... It happened one moonlit night three years ago.

Time. Time can put to rest even a Savra like him. I almost thought him to be one of the ancient, elder beings in folk tales and conspiracy theories.

Time has warped me so much, transforming me into a man my past self would have hated.

And you, Kal'tsit?

It looks like... nothing about you has changed.

Are you still the 'Sand Soldier?'

I already said this when I came onboard. That is all in the past. I have a new name now.

You can fool yourself... but you can't fool me.

Perhaps. You've always thought everything you said was absolute, and unfortunately for me, you were quite often right.

You have always had a good memory, Elliot.

Don't call me by that name... Don't we have these codenames exactly for this purpose, to shroud our secrets?

Dr. Kal'tsit—Oh, my apologies. Do you have a visitor?

No matter.

Please, as you were.

Okay...

A Messenger from the field office in Victoria sent us a package. It's pretty strange, too. It's not addressed to Rhodes Island, but you personally. Logistics has already scanned the package. There's an information storage device inside.

The sender's name is... Heidi Thomson. Do you know her?

This is just some intel I needed. Leave it there.

Okay... that is all.

A new conspiracy, I presume?

Watch your mouth. You may not officially be an operator here yet, but you signed a contract.

Exactly what I expected our 'Operations Adviser' to say.

Kal'tsit, you pointed Old Isin to a new direction, and for that he was forever grateful up until the moment he set out on his journey again.

I cannot begin to imagine the glory you two shared, but now that my business in Sargon has been taken care of, there is nothing that binds me to this world anymore...

I suppose you will point me in a new direction as well?

Before that... Let me introduce you to someone.

Here I thought you would keep me close to you. Did you get me a partner?

No.

Your commanding officer.

A Rhodes Island commander? You... Hoh... There is someone whom you trust so deeply here? I look forward to meeting this person, then.

Kal'tsit...

You wandered the world for so long. How long will you stay here this time?

You have no right to ask.

Very well, of course. You needn't answer if you don't want to, as you are now my superior.

But if this is yet another false identity, and this place where you belong is yet again false, then I am afraid it would hardly be meaningful for me to serve this place.

How am I to tell you are not using me yet again?

You have the right to be suspicious...

I need only a little assurance. Will this 'Kal'tsit' who invited me here disappear all of a sudden in a few days, a few months, or perhaps a few years?

Will she again set off on a journey to take care of some business that a bystander could never come to understand, to drift the world for her own purposes?

Will you?

If a simple answer can affect your loyalty to Rhodes Island, then perhaps I must reevaluate this working relationship of ours.

I only need an answer. An answer should not be so hard for you. I'll even accept a lie.

If it is answers that you want, I have thousands of them.

Then, please, pick any one of them.

...

I—

Dr. {@nickname}, here you are.

Closure has finished resupplying, but there seems to be an emergency there that needs your attention. Amiya is heading there already.

Don't keep her waiting. She has been working very hard, and you should be there at her side when she needs you the most.

Of course... That goes for you as well.

Don't push yourself too hard. Rhodes Island needs you.

I have an unexpected consultation to attend to in a moment, so I will leave it to you and Amiya to wrap things up.

If things go well, perhaps we will get to announce to the whole ship before sundown—

—Time to set sail.