If I remember correctly, this patch of land used to belong to the Edelweiss family.
Ratatos
Right. Nice house, isn't it?
Enciodes
It's in a good location, with a wonderful view. It's a splendid home, indeed.
Ratatos
Generation after generation, the Edelweiss family has been in charge of Kjerag's texts and scriptures, and they've always enjoyed a decent relationship with the three clans. It was my grandfather who ordered this house built as a villa.
Enciodes
I'd heard Luca had an interest in architecture, and judging from the building's design, I dare say that even Victoria's celebrity architects would have plenty of praise for it.
Ratatos
Hahaha, I doubt he'd be so happy to hear your approval.
Ratatos
If you like it so much, though, I could show you its original blueprints.
Enciodes
I will think about it.
Enciodes
Ratatos, now that we're sitting here to share a conversation, do you know what I'm reminded of?
Ratatos
What?
Enciodes
That time seven years ago.
Ratatos
Seven years ago... Oh.
Ratatos
You'd just come back from Victoria. You brought lots of things with you to develop your territory.
Ratatos
Then, you wanted to restore the Silverashes' seat on the Tri-Clan Council and to throw the country's gates wide open, so you came to me.
Ratatos
You told me that once we opened those gates, we'd have business, and the people of Kjerag would get to eat better, dress better.
Ratatos
After that, you and I persuaded Arctosz and the Great Elder together, and so Kjerag's gates were flung wide open, allowing us to do business with the outside.
Ratatos
Those were wonderful times.
Ratatos takes a sip of her cystymilk, her words carrying a hint of nostalgia.
Those were indeed wonderful times. The Silverashes and the Browntails worked together, side-by-side, while Karlan Trade, representing Kjerag, traded with the outside world.
Capital, technology, and skilled workers flowed into Kjerag, and everything seemed to be going in the right direction.
Enciodes
Yet you chose to put an end to these wonderful times yourself.
Enciodes
Ratatos, I used to believe that you were an excellent partner.
Ratatos
You were a disappointment yourself, Enciodes.
Ratatos
Those wonderful times were yours, not mine. Nor was it Arctosz, and much less Kjerag's.
Ratatos
In the end, only Karlan Trade lived the good life. No one else did. How is that in any way wonderful?
Ratatos
Still, it's too late for me to say all this. The match's been decided, and I lost.
Ratatos
The loser has no right to talk so loftily.
Enciodes
No loser would call herself a loser, Ratatos.
Enciodes
Tell me, what do you know about my parents' deaths?
Ratatos
Enciodes, do you think your parents were murdered by my grandfather and Arctosz?
Enciodes
......
Enciodes
The investigation at the time concluded that my parents were killed in a train accident caused by Gnosis's parents.
Enciodes
I never believed it, though. At the time, just like the Tri-Clan Council of today, both Luca and Arctosz's father opposed my parents' industrialization plans.
Enciodes
I find it very hard to believe that these were not connected in any way.
Ratatos
In that case, let me tell you the truth.
Ratatos
The truth is that your parents did indeed die in a train accident. The only difference is that my grandfather framed the Edelweisses.
Enciodes
......
Ratatos
Hold on. I'm not done yet.
Ratatos
My grandfather had actually been planning to have your parents killed.
Ratatos
This house was prepared so that your parents could be burned alive inside during their visit.
Ratatos
Alas, they died on their way here.
Ratatos
And so this place, meant to be their tomb, was spared.
Ratatos
Right, Arctosz's father acquiesced to my grandfather's plan too.
Ratatos
And, as you know, a few years after your parents' passing, Arctosz's old man passed his clan's title over to him and went off somewhere.
Ratatos
Nobody knows if he's still alive.
Enciodes
I assume you didn't invite me here just to boast, Ratatos.
Ratatos
I never imagined this woud happen, you see. I didn't want anything to do with my grandfather's dealings.
Ratatos
Yet, in the end, the house where he was going to murder your parents is now where you and I will die together.
Enciodes
That is indeed ironic.
Ratatos
Two bargaining chips for your life. I'd say it's a fair deal.
Ratatos pulls the handle by her right hand.
A chorus of mechanical sounds can be heard from beyond the ceiling and walls.
After all these years, his trap still worked perfectly.
Enciodes
I thought your next move would be to escape while I was distracted.
Ratatos
If I was could run, wouldn't that mean that you could get away too?
Ratatos
There's no way out in this room. Once it's activated, everyone inside is as good as dead.
Ratatos
It won't be easy for anyone outside to break in and help, either.
Ratatos
Please, I beg you, Enciodes. Die with me here. You'll have me go out with you.
Enciodes
It's my time to wonder, Ratatos.
Enciodes
What is it that drove you to go this far just to stop me?
Ratatos
Everyone always says that, just like Old Luca, Ratatos looks cares for nothing but profit. Sure, I am his granddaughter, how could I not?
Ratatos
I started working with you because I had my eyes on the riches that trade with the outside world could get us. In the end, you and Karlan Trade gobbled up all the profits.
Ratatos
That's why I was going to crush Karlan Trade through the Great Elder. That way, I could take the lucre for myself.
Ratatos
That's what everyone thinks. That's been my reputation the past couple years.
Ratatos
And you think the same way.
Enciodes
I won't argue that.
Ratatos
My grandfather always wanted to make the Browntails the greatest clan in Kjerag.
Ratatos
That's what separates the two of us.
Ratatos
Right before he died, he summoned me to his deathbed, and loudly mocked Arctosz's old man for being a coward.
Ratatos
Then, he told me to swallow both your family and the Paleroches whole.
Ratatos
The way I see it, Arctosz's dad was a more decent human being.
Enciodes
I agree.
Ratatos
And I also think that even if the Browntails became the only clan in Kjerag, the people wouldn't call themselves Browntails anyway.
Ratatos
Kjerag is called Kjerag is because Kjeragandr herself named this place so.
Ratatos
Because our faith stood in these lands for over a thousand years.
Ratatos
But, look at us now. It's been several hundred years since the clans started to manage their own lands.
Ratatos
Before you came back, all the Tri-Clan Council ever discussed was each year's events and which family would foot a bigger portion of the ceremony's bill.
Ratatos
We stand on the same lands, we speak the same language, eat the same food, and believe in the same Goddess...
Ratatos
Yet we grew further and further apart because we belonged to different clans, and the truth is that's how we differentiate ourselves.
Ratatos
Kjeragandr's still in the people's hearts, but the Kjerag name is slowly being forgotten.
Ratatos
When you came back to Kjerag and told me about your plans to open the borders, I was really happy.
Ratatos
I was happy because you told me that not only will the Silverashes trade with the other countries, you wanted the other clans to join. I thought that could bring all three families together.
Enciodes shifts his posture. Anyone who knows him knows this means he is listening attentively.
Enciodes
Karlan Trade trades with the outside world as the Silverash family business. It's naturally a different beast from operating it as Kjerag's window to the outside world.
Enciodes
And I've actually considered uniting the three clans myself.
Ratatos
You have? *Cough*.
Ratatos
I studied up on economics quite a bit to figure out what it is you were doing.
Ratatos
You lowered the tax rate to lure foreign capital and gave them special treatment.
Ratatos
To keep the money flowing, you signed all kinds of unequal trade agreements with those big corporations.
Ratatos
And, you should know, I knew you were building factories to shore up the military. You were never going to be able to hide that from me.
Ratatos
Do you think I called it quits because I had my eyes on your money?
Ratatos
I was scared.
Ratatos
I couldn't see anything that suggested you were going to unite the three cans. All I could see was you trying to turn Kjerag into something of your own. That, or somebody else's.
Ratatos
If the choice is between you and the Great Elder, I choose the Great Elder every time.
Enciodes
......
Enciodes
I have to admit that I have misjudged you, Ratatos.
Enciodes
If you're opening up to me, I may as well tell you a little about this.
Enciodes
Kjerag may be rich in minerals and other raw resources, but, crucially, we lack any technology of our own.
Enciodes
This places us at a disadvantage when it comes to technological trade.
Enciodes
Some technologies can be bought with money, while others cannot.
Enciodes
Do you know what that means?
Ratatos
......
Enciodes
For example, the rights to operate the Mount Karlan trade route bought us an entire set of last generation railway signals, as well as the right of first offer for soon-to-be-retired railcars.
Enciodes
Without these, we'd have to rely on what my parents left us with. The old tracks and a railcar fleet over a decade old. They were practically useless for both industrial or civilian transportation.
Enciodes
As another example, we traded the collaborative mining rights to the eastern mines for Rim Billiton's ore smelting technology and equipment.
Enciodes
Do you know how much more efficient our processes became thanks to this technology?
Ratatos
I don't care what you managed to trade, Enciodes. I care about what you gave them.
Enciodes
We are out of time, Ratatos.
Enciodes
Be it Victoria, Minos, Columbia, or Kazimierz.
Enciodes
The only reason they haven't yet laid their fingers on Kjerag is that they don't have to.
Enciodes
In earlier times, before nomadic cities were invented, when men were sent scrambling across the world by Catastrophes, the different cultures that had been broken up all across the lands knew little about one another.
Enciodes
Modern nations had yet to be established, and there were no communications or contact between them.
Enciodes
Then, the age of innovation came two hundred years ago. It was still a time when everyone focused only on their own development, rarely making contact with one another.
Enciodes
However, fast forward to a few decades ago, the nations in the world gradually began making contact and clashing.
Enciodes
With Gaul's support, Columbia declared its independence from Victoria.
Enciodes
However, barely a decade after that, the Battle of the Four Emperors led to Gaul's destruction.
Enciodes
Columbia and Leithanien's war over Bolívar continues to this day.
Enciodes
Not only that, but the conflicts between nations sped up their communications with one another. Countries began to enter into trade agreements, establishing trading companies in each other's territories...
Enciodes
None of them could keep themselves isolated anymore, and they all began to find ways to get along with the other nations.
Enciodes
And when all of this was happening, Kjerag was completely oblivious.
Enciodes
And now that the danger is at our doorstep, we're still oblivious.
Enciodes
Victoria is busy with its own mess. Columbia's pioneering efforts are nearing its western mountain ranges.
Enciodes
For a long time, Kjerag has been nothing but a barren, impoverished territory not worthy of occupation.
Enciodes
But if Victoria solves its internal problems, if Columbia has any ideas about Victoria, or even if Kazimierz wants to head south.
Enciodes
When the time comes, do you think Kjerag will still be able to enjoy peace?
The flames are spreading throughout the room, engulfing everything in their path.
Yet the room's two occupants seem completely unconcerned about what's happening around them.
It is as though they can't feel any of the heat, or perhaps they themselves are burning even hotter than the flames around them.
Enciodes
I have to admit that I never expected you to feel this way about Kjerag.
Enciodes
If our conversation had happened sooner, things would not have come to this.
Enciodes
But it seems this must have been inevitable.
Enciodes
Were it not for the situation we are in, we would never have had this heart-to-heart.
Ratatos
Hmph, you got that right.
Ratatos
Inevitable.
Ratatos
Right, inevitable.
Ratatos
And if it's so inevitable, we might as well go meet Kjeragandr together.
Ratatos is starting to feel exhausted. Her vision begins to cloud.
In a trance, she sees her young self, playing with her baby sister and a boy.
She sees herself amazed by the wondrous sight of railroads and factories.
They are all moments to which she can no longer return. She shakes her head. Enciodes, sitting opposite her, has maintained his posture throughout. Be that as it may, she is no longer able to clearly make out his face.
Sure enough, he'll act so calm even at a time like this.
Even so, he'll die here all the same. Heh.
Her consciousness is slipping further and further. Just as she is about to slip away completely, she hears a thunderous roar.
