Previously on YGTWHV:
“Um, what is a heretic?”
Right then, Anne-Marie who was quietly listening to the discussion, carefully opened her mouth.
“Is what happened at the shopping mall related to the people you call heretics?”
Anne-Marie asked curiously, not knowing that the person who Kalian called a ‘heretic’ and tried to stab not long ago was sitting right next to her.
–
Apparently, the people who were transformed by the ruin’s fragment were not called heretics in the south where Anne-Marie used to live. Then again, even in Carnot where I originally came from, test subjects like me were called ‘mutants’ instead of heretics…
So it was rather natural for there to be naming differences in each region.
I was a little curious as to how the Crawfords would define a ‘heretic’, especially since I myself was one.
Kalian looked somewhat hesitant as he opened his mouth to answer Anne-Marie’s question.
“That…”
“It refers to those who are cursed.”
Dominic spoke first before Kalian could.
The sound of him placing his wine glass on the table rang out softly in the dining room.
A voice with a mixture of dryness and chill kindled a slight sense of dreariness in the quiet dining room.
“Father.”
Kalian called Dominic in a low voice.
From the cold and hardened look on his face, it was obvious he didn’t like Dominic’s words.
I watched the both of them with narrowed eyes.
“Cursed…people?”
Anne-Marie asked, her voice much lower than before.
Her eyes blinked in confusion, as if she had just heard something unexpected.
The words that came out of Dominic’s mouth were more or less related to the supernatural, so she had every right to be confused.
“It refers to the mutations that began appearing around 10 years ago.”
And then, Kalian added an explanation as though he was displeased but couldn’t help it.
“Calling it cursed…is a figurative expression.”
“Well, it’s not completely wrong, is it? That’s what everyone calls it in the East.”
Dominic chuckled at Kalian’s words.
Anne-Marie then asked again in a slightly awkward tone.
“You said mutations, what kind of…”
“Most of them have hideous appearances that distinguish them from normal people and not only that, they are an evil and violent lot that need to be isolated.”
As he spoke, Kalian’s attitude was somehow more forceful than usual.
‘So that’s how they describe it.’
I pierced a piece of meat with my fork, brought it to my mouth and chewed silently.
Kalian seemed to be putting it in slightly nicer terms, maybe because he was in front of Anne-Marie.
Of course, calling it isolation was not totally wrong.
What Kalian did was to ‘isolate’ the heretics from the world, permanently.[1]
Suddenly, I remembered what Kalian said when I met him at the slave market some time ago.
~
‘The heretic shall be eliminated immediately.’
~
And while saying so, he ruthlessly swung his sword at Siren who hadn’t done anything at all. That appearance of his was superimposed on the Kalian who was sitting in front of me right now.
Suddenly, the meat in my mouth felt a little foul.
Dominic and Kalian were Crawfords and the Crawfords were the rulers of the East so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that whatever they said here represented the East in a way.
Honestly, their thoughts and policies regarding the heretics were narrow-minded.
The fact that they designated them as targets for isolation based on their appearance was ridiculous and the fact that they defined all mutants as evil and violent was also ridiculous.
There were many good(?) mutants like myself, so they shouldn’t all be defined that way.[2]
Of course, the difference in appearance meant that people felt a sense of rejection and some mutants had strange powers that transcended human limits, so I understood that it was natural to be wary but…
Still, those guys didn’t become like that because they wanted to, so it wasn’t right to blindly discriminate against them and kill them just because they were a little different from ordinary people.
Honestly, I felt the transformation phenomenon caused by the ruin’s fragment should be declared as a disaster. Especially for the test subjects who were forcibly transformed because of people’s twisted greed, it was more correct to call them the victims.
But that said, the situation right now reminded me of a medieval witch hunt in some way.
Of course…if another mutant was truly involved in the explosion incident not too long ago, then they might not be innocent this time.
“I see…these heretic people, are they that dangerous?”
Anne-Marie wasn’t too knowledgeable about the situation in the East, so she didn’t say much. But her expression seemed a little uncomfortable.
Noticing that, Kalian paused for a moment.
His lips parted slightly then he shut his mouth again.
I watched as Kalian lowered his eyes and oddly faint shadow flashed in his eyes for a moment.
“Dangerous, indeed. They are no different from murderers.”
When Kalian didn’t answer, Dominic who was sitting next to him, glanced at his son’s face before answering.
“Isn’t that right, Father?”
Dominic affirmed Anne-Marie’s words then he turned to Bastian this time and asked as though he wanted confirmation.
Somehow, his tone was bit odd, so I also turned to look at Bastian. Surprisingly, his face had hardened, just like Kalian.
“Such things should not be discussed at the table.”
Bastian cut off the discussion in a voice as cold and rigid as the expression on his face.
“Moreover, we have guests.”
When even Bastian got serious, the atmosphere become more depressing than before.
‘These Crawfords, were they slapped by a heretic before or something?’
While feeling reasonably suspicious, I downed the glass of water next to me to moisten my throat.
“It looks most of us are done eating to some extent.”
Still, a smile quickly arose on Bastian’s face and he tried to brighten the atmosphere in his own way.
“I had the chef make a special cake for you guys. I’ll have them bring it out now so you can try it.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
I played along and responded positively to his words.
“It’s nice to sit around and have a meal together like this. Eating with others definitely makes the food better.”
“You’re right, Grandpa. I think so too.”
Anne-Marie also smiled and agreed with Bastian.
“Ever since I became an old man in a back room, I’ve been stuck in this stuffy mansion with nothing to see, so I felt like life had lost its flavor. Still, thanks to you two, I definitely feel like I’ve been living properly these days.”[3]
Bastian said in a voice that felt sincere.
His face was covered with gratefulness and a glance showed the obvious passage of time on his face. Perhaps he was reflecting on what just happened, because an emotion that seemed to be regret flashed in Bastian’s dim eyes.
“I hope I get to see you two for as long as possible.”
“If you see me for a long time, that’s not good though? You have to get better quickly.”
Hearing Anne-Marie’s playful words, Bastian laughed and agreed that she was right.
Meanwhile, Dominic was sipping his wine again with his mouth shut while Kalian’s eyes had a shadow over them, and he was alternating glances between me and Anne-Marie but it was impossible to know what he was thinking.
Still, the atmosphere in the dining was much more relaxed in the second half unlike the beginning, so I was able to have an okay time.
* * *
‘Unlike what I expected, there was nothing much.’
I thought indifferently and walked out of the dining room.
Bastian had been excited throughout the dinner and drank even though the people around him tried to stop him, so he eventually got drunk.
Anne-Marie who was beside me, had a serious expression and as his caretaker, she kept advising him not to drink excessively but he laughed like he was facing his cute granddaughter and claimed it was okay.
In the end, he dozed off on his seat and had to be taken to his room with the help of his servants.
Following that, Dominic also left the dining room, saying he had other things to do.
When he stood up and glanced at me, I initially thought he was going to say something to me. But he just told us to have a good time then he turned around and walked out the door. Seeing as he stood up as soon as Bastian left, I was now sure that he had come to the dinner tonight to check on me. Somehow, I felt like he would either come looking for me again or call me sooner or later.
However, I still didn’t know what Bastian was trying to offer me. When Bastian opened his mouth earlier, he was definitely about to bring it up, but Kalian intercepted it, although I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not.
Either ways, after Bastian and Dominic left the dining room in turn, Kalian, Anne-Marie and I were left in an somewhat awkward and uncomfortable mood.
Then just when I was thinking ‘I’ve stayed long enough to be polite’, the three of us stood up at the same time as if we had planned it beforehand.
“Can I check on Grandpa’s condition for a bit?”
Perhaps her professionalism as a caretaker was triggered because Anne-Marie asked that once she came out of the dining room.
Her face was filled with concern.
“Go ahead.”
Kalian readily agreed.
Anne-Marie’s face brightened then as she was about to leave, she suddenly looked at me.
“Ms. Yuri…”
“I’ll wait for you at the door.”
Since I wasn’t a caretaker like Anne-Marie, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to enter Bastian’s room this late in the evening, so I decided to just to wait for her at the front door.
“I’ll be quick!”
Anne-Marie looked delighted when I said I would wait instead of going home first.
Did she think I would leave her and go back first?
We were heading in the same direction anyways so if I were to go alone, it wouldn’t exactly be nice.
“Ms. Yuri. I’m sorry but can I talk to you for a second?”
After Anne-Marie walked to the stairs and her footsteps disappeared, Kalian and I were the only people left.
And then, Kalian posed me a question in a quiet voice.
I was a little puzzled since I didn’t know what he wanted to say to me, so I looked at the face standing before me.
Kalian was looking at me, and I still couldn’t tell what he was thinking about from his gaze. He had his back against the candle on the wall and the shadows from it made his eyes look almost pitch-black.
“Sure, I don’t mind.”
Since I was going to wait for Anne-Marie, I had nothing to do anyways. And I had no reason to ignore Kalian when he wanted to talk about something, so I accepted. Only
Besides, I was also curious about what Kalian had to say to me.
“It won’t take long so we can talk while we walk to the front door.”
And so, Kalian and I began walking along the quiet hallway, and there was no one else coming through.
Translator’s Corner:
[1]In the raws, isolate isn’t emphasized with ‘’ but I thought it would make it clearer to those who don’t understand what she means. If they are killed then naturally, they are isolated from the world forever.
[2]The (?) is from the raw so it’s on purpose. That said, the [good] here can also be translated as ‘law-abiding’ or ‘decent’.
[3]OMFG. I googled ‘old man in the back room’ because I was confused and the results…Well, I think it means a retired old man, google must be drunk.
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