Something is unusual about the amount of stationed troops ahead at the carriageway checkpoint.
Fischer
You noticed? I had coincidentally asked them to look out... on the premise of possible incidents that might damage relationships between the Dukes.
'The Brigadier'
Hence your rounding them up before they left County Trent territory, so that your backup plan would be at all effective.
'The Brigadier'
Not a surprise, in whole.
Fischer
Subordinate of Duke Wellington. Commanding officer of the Redsteel Guard. An identity that will cease to threaten you very soon, of course.
Fischer
That said, you understand at the very least that any further pursuit would become a territorial dispute of Duke against Duke. Given Victoria's present situation, I can only say no one would want to see such a clash happen.
Harmonie
My, oh, my, why do you never leave me any room to choose?
Harmonie
Still, it's more than enough for me. My mission is complete as is.
Fischer
You own these repercussions. Your blunder caused them. You have no need to keep your bluff up so dutifully, being the exposed spy you are.
Harmonie
Really? You know, I was hoping from my heart of hearts that we'd strive in common minds to work together someday—
'The Brigadier'
Harmonie.
'The Brigadier'
You've spoken enough.
Harmonie
Ahem...
Fischer
......
'The Brigadier'
All forces, pull back.
'The Brigadier'
This was a losing battle to begin with. We'll let them go.
Fischer
Unf...
Special Forces Captain
I warned you, Fischer... Once your Oripathy progresses past a certain degree, the painkillers don't work anymore.
Special Forces Captain
You're in this state because of your own extended use of Arts.
Fischer
I am patently aware.
Fischer
......
Special Forces Captain
Alright... I apologize if I went too far.
Fischer
No, I was just thinking...
Fischer
I didn't expect the venerable Duke of Caster would send a 'Trilby Asher' here.
Fischer
I haven't even a clue... at which point the Duke's emissary replaced my men.
The people who died... who died because of Dublinn. The Tarans.
Bagpipe
Didn't... Dublinn deceive them?
Reed
I would've... once said that their lives—were no more than fuel for Dublinn's fire.
Reed
That for the greater good—to rebel against the injustice all Tarans face—the fire must burn hot and bright.
Reed
But after... Outcast saved me—and I retraced the paths I walked... I haven't been able to say that anymore.
Reed
In reality—some of those deaths... had to have been avoidable.
Reed
I cannot say that every sacrifice—was a martyr for Dublinn's cause... The Tarans are all people, each of them living, each of them alive.
Reed
I remember the mistakes Dublinn's made... especially the ones by my own hands. I'll make no attempt to conceal these ugly scars.
Bagpipe
There's also... the 'Redsteel Guard.'
Bagpipe
The Dublinn soldiers tryin' to take you away here, they're the Duke of Wellington's men.
Bagpipe
Are you just... the Duke's private army?
Reed
No. Dublinn is manipulated by no power... nor should we be.
Reed
If anything, it'll be... the Tarans, who want a peaceful home, a land they can walk freely, one and all.
Bagpipe
But you're terrified of Dublinn.
Bagpipe
If Dublinn truly is what you say, if it fights for the Tarans, then what is it you're scared of?
Reed
......
Reed
What am I... scared of?
Bagpipe
Your imagination of Dublinn is all well and good, but fact is, it's filled to the brim with rioters, conspirators, people you can't hold control over. They even threw you of all people away for dead, didn't they?
Reed
I won't deny—that what many see in Dublinn's firelight is not a path for the Tarans, but their own future.
Reed
I'm sure... that as the Victorians laid each brick and stone to build their homeland, they wouldn't have thought it was for Victoria as a whole, either.
Reed
But in the end—the Victorians have a homeland. They can build and tend their lands in peace. Yet when the Tarans want to live, they bleed rivers for it.
Reed
I don't want to see anyone bleeding. Yes, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of the bleeding. I'm afraid of death... That's why I always wanted to hide.
Reed
Unthinking, unfeeling, just like... a shadow.
Reed
But does that make things good enough? Why is blood still shed... where I cannot see?
Bagpipe
Reed...
Reed
...Bagpipe. You've been asking me, time and again—where I'm taking these Tarans.
Reed
Let me ask you now. Is Dublinn's dream an unachievable one?
Bagpipe
......
Bagpipe rarely ever feels disappointment.
It's crossed her mind how her reports will never make it to the right person, and how her friends in arms died meaningless deaths in conflicts long premeditated.
It's crossed her mind, should she ever come across Dublinn again, how she'd dismantle their plot, and protect the innocent citizenry within their grasp.
But now, she sees how the County Hillock incident was nothing more than two Dukes testing one another, and she sees how lost and stricken the eyes of the Tarans are, there behind Reed, emerging from the flames of war.
She can't say for sure who it is she's disappointed in.
She doesn't know if she can still get any answers from Reed, for much the same reason she can't give Reed's question any reply.
Bagpipe
...Let's go, Ch'en.
Ch'en
Huh?
Bagpipe
My mission's to investigate the truth behind Dublinn, and now I've heard it from Dublinn's 'Leader' herself.
Bagpipe
And from what it sounds like, Operator Reed won't be comin' back with us to Rhodes Island for the moment.
Reed
......
Bagpipe
She's got her own business to take care of, and so do we.
Ch'en
...Alright.
Fionn
B-Bagpipe!
Bagpipe
Fionn...?
Fionn
This... This is for you.
Bagpipe
The radio?
Fionn
You'll be making through the barrens, won't you? Take this radio with you, you might catch some useful news...
Bagpipe
You don't need it any more?
Fionn
I... haha, the news is always same old for the Tarans, isn't it?
Fionn
Bagpipe, we really are thankful to you, and Ch'en, and the, um... the Rhodes Island. Thank you for your tents, and your assistance all along the way.
Fionn
And, well... farewell.
Bagpipe
......
Bagpipe
Slán leat, Fionn.
The old radio buzzes in Bagpipe's hand. Unconsciously, her grip relaxes ever so slightly.
