Chapter 11: Persuasion Room .

The prisoner tried to talk to me, but I ignored him.  My problems are enough, and time has taught me to focus on myself. Every extra person increases his problems with you.  If I hadn't tried to help the villagers and harnessed that stone and my alchemy to make myself happy, I would have been in a house fighting imagination.  It seems that traces of this gas are still lingering.  I started to feel dizzy and eventually fell asleep.  All I hear now is the sound of keys and soldiers banging on bars.  In an authoritative voice they say, "Rise up, you dog that refuses to help his town."  And who is not the dogs of the country surrounding me, strangely dressed as if they are taking honey from bees, they are indeed trying to eat honey for something worse than food and medicine.  They covered my face and laid me on what looked like a plank, similar to those on which they carry the wounded.  Most people won't understand why, but if I walked with them, I might be able to determine the location by counting steps and memorizing turns and paths.  The state seems to be taking my case very seriously.  When they took me away, I heard some of the prisoners say, "Is this the extraordinary doctor you told me of? It seems he will endure endless torment until he surrenders."  All the soldiers are tired and weary with the problems he has left them.  After hearing this, I truly realized my importance to the state.  In fact, after all this betrayal, I began to feel the weight and responsibility of this stone.  I am tired of these problems (what do I gain from all this? No money, no power, but cooperation with the state against me).  My belief in preserving this stone is beginning to waver, but there is no turning back now.  I don't have to break down in front of these dogs.  They may take my life.