3 3 301 As the bass' song quiets down, drowning in the sound of the crumbled stones, Selena cannot help but raises a hand and salutes the veteran before her.
4 4 301 Then it hits her that she was not watching an opera in the audience seats. The story she just heard was not fictional.
5 5 301 The bass singer has steadily recited a mission report—except Pieter sang it with his old yet flexible voice as if he was performing a solo in a historical epic.
6 6 301 It was a story about the moments before a soldier died.
7 7 301 In that intense battle, the soldier activated the wide-area search radar alone for the decapitation operation on a corrupted signaling device. The search attracted the Corrupted to the soldier's location, leading to his demise.
8 8 301 This is more or less the same as what Selena has read in the reports.
9 9 301 —Except for the gruesome scene Pieter is showing her in his terminal of the soldier's fate.
10 10 201 1 500428
11 11 301 1 Pieter I watched Florance die before my eyes to send me the location of the device. 1
12 12 301 Pieter Then the call was terminated. 1
13 13 301 The terminal shows a set of coordinates, followed by a string of garbled codes. It is almost as if the soldier was shouting out the coordinates in the comms before his voice was dispersed by corrupted signals.
14 14 301 Pieter Your expression tells me that you can imagine how he looked the moment he died, right? 1
15 15 301 Pieter I suppose there's nothing I can say that will describe how he looked. 1
16 16 301 Pieter His tear ducts probably burst from the volume of tears, and those tears would land on the pool of his vital fluid on the ground. You could grow a crystal out from his pain if his regrets were mixed in that pool of water. 1
17 17 301 Pieter His expression was frozen on the terminal as his call ended, branded on the monitor, staring straight at me until I received the coordinates. 1
18 18 301 Pieter If expressions are art, then he used his life to show me this artwork of regret and hate. 1
19 19 301 Pieter How affecting this art is that I wanted to hate as well. 1
20 20 301 Pieter I've seen so many men and women like him entering the service with enthusiasm, only to end in the same way. 1
21 21 301 Pieter The expressions and mourns before their deaths are all so similar, like a play performed over and over again. 1
22 22 301 Pieter How can a performance like that not make you angry and regretful? 1
23 23 301 Pieter turns his eyes toward Selena, his gaze heavy with pain.
24 24 301 Pieter Or perhaps what I should regret is writing that opera. Had I been a more mature writer... 1
25 25 202 1 1
26 26 301 He does not finish because that possibility is too far-fetched.
27 27 301 Selena sighs lightly.
28 28 301 She recalls Pieter's earlier chuckle.
29 29 301 It was not just dismissiveness... but helplessness as well.
30 30 301 That helplessness weighs heavier on her heart than how she was dismissed.
31 31 301 No—that chuckle is not that heavy. What really weighs her down comes from herself.
32 32 301 Before she decided to look for Flora, she had conjured an answer she would like to hear, the perfect image of Flora's father in her head.
33 33 301 She often imposes what she thinks onto others, applying her ideas and values to these sculptures that she shapes.
34 34 301 Now, this sculpture is shattered. Her pride and expectation have sunk her heart, making it difficult for her to breath again.
35 35 301 The veteran before her is carrying the same burden, but he has traveled much, much further. He feels powerless, seeing the same aspiration in her.
36 36 201 1 500430 4
37 37 301 1 Selena ...I have to see her. 1
38 38 301 Selena finally speaks after a long time.
39 39 301 1 AniZhuanchangBegin Selena Florance's daughter. I have to see her. 1
