บท 20: Introducing soldiers
Luster finished his talk to veteran soldiers. Sunny sitting near on his Shadow Chair just making sure Luster didn't misspoke. He didn't like to take the effort to talk to many people so he made someone else do that for him. It seemed to work fine.
*laugh*
"Yes, what's the problem?"
Luster asked innocently. What followed was a wave of complaints.
"What a bullshit! This... excuse me."
Luster was confused so Sunny decided to take it from here. He sat up from his chair silencing the audience, and pursued the matter.
"Care to elaborate the question?"
"I mean... look at you! You went through the Nightmares many times, and you probably know many Awakened who did that as well. You probably also went across tens of Awakened during those trials, didn't you?"
"Yes, we did."
The soldier didn't sound happy.
"I didn't mean that as a question... nevermind. I have just one thing to tell you."
"And what do you think it is? Our lives are some kind of joke?"
"I don't know why this could escape the attention of the entire community of Awakened. I'm sorry. Really. There were many occasions when we could get the answers. Many of us could. I could. What we did instead is we ignored that possibility. We're inexcusable. We failed you. I did."
"I'll take that apology, Sunless. Do you still want to Awaken my comrades? Even though how mean I am to you?"
Sunny again felt a headache. Usually he doesn't have to answer many questions, especially from random people, who should buy almost any propaganda that institutions would sell to them. This was unusual.
"Master Sunless, do you know what the Government did when Europe was overtaken by the abominations?"
"I heard they used some special bombs..."
"But they were wrong. What an irony."
"That's how it goes when you think you know a thing, and you don't. Something unforeseen is bound to happen."
"Is there another point?"
"I don't know yet. It depends on how much soul shards it takes, but I didn't have anyone to test this. You can test that for me. I also want to see how many Awakened we can make with five thousand shards. Just for the start."
The guy fell to the ground.
"What's wrong with that guy? Is he sick or something?"
"Is it safe? I mean absorbing soul essence."
The veteran started crushing dormant shards using his knife, one after another. Sunny was counting them silently.
"1, 2, 3... 24... 56..."
There was a worm of doubt drilling inside Sunny. Not literal one. If something like this was able to eat him from the inside that would be a serious problem. Looking how his fortune was crushed like was also kind of painful. Each one had to be dug out of a walking horror, and was disgusting. But there weren't many uses for them. Many pieces of spell tech required soul shards to function. Sunny wasn't very interested in spell tech. It has too many limitations, and conditions to work properly.
"If you crush 500 soul shards, and you still haven't awakened your essence, I consider it a failure."
"It hurts me more than you so don't complain. Just crush more shards, and count them. We need some estimation."
The rest grew impatient, and soon he could hear them chatting. Sunny was doing the same. He could share some of his incredible adventures from the Antarctica Center, and much more. Some, not only Kim, and Luster, were there with him during the defense of Falcon Scott. Those people went directly to NQSC. But many came from different battlefields. All had personal stories of their own.
Sunny had a problem with sharing his stories though. The world forbade them from remembering him, a war hero. Nonetheless while they couldn't remember him he could easily show them he was there, an opportunity he would gladly take.
Fate was strong, slippy, and very flexible, much more than shadows, but also it wasn't unbreakable. Nothing is. If it could resist one blow, then hit it with two. If hundred is not enough, then hit it with hundred and one. In Sunny's case it means making it impossible to not realize he is. He is, and he cannot be looked down on.
"How much did you crush?"
Sunny procured some machines meant to brew tea, also pretty fine tea leaves from. He imported them from Bastion using Aiko's connections. Some bought snacks to brighten the mood, and he could keep them around. While goods from there were still expensive, because of relatively low costs of transportation he could use less money.
"Luster, call for Kim. I want her to see this."
...
"Here's a weakness. You should have interlace it with connecting threads there, and there."
"That's good. I don't see any glaring problem."
"How do you want to..."
Kimmy was switching between apprentices, and highlighting their mistakes. She was borrowing their vision for a short time, then pointing out their mistakes.They had to come up with the reason why things were wrong. She could mostly only share her revelation, but she could appear like she's a bit more knowledgeable than she is.
However somewhere along the way she indeed gained some understanding why the weakness of the so-called 'Diamond Weave' is a weakness. Especially when the boss let her use his own insights to see normally invisible enchantments they had to imitate.
There was something off about his vision. It was seeing much more than a human should perceive, and by perceiving she really meant perception. Even Saints don't have to face so many sensual assaults. They were coming from everywhere. Numerous shadows 'wanted' to catch his attention. It was also a perception of someone who learned to ignore such assaults, and sometimes even lock his own senses.
Her aspect wasn't based on senses alone. Her thing was... perception, probably visual one, but still perception. Perception is something that appears in the consciousness after processing sensations into something manageable for the mind.
"Kim, boss calls you!"
"Tens already, honey. But this is important. He's about to do this!"
"Do what?"
"This thing he promised?"
"Yes, this."
"I'll return soon. Continue weaving. I have to check on something. You can't follow me. In case I won't come back, do as usual."
When they began this embroidery club there were some problems she had to solve in advance. It was up to her to find a way to establish functioning plumbing. Due to lack of access to clean water the hygiene of those people left objections while the nature of this spatial storage made it barely possible to apply normal plumbing. It turned out that she, and Luster had to order sanitary containers. It was that or having them leave every time they felt 'the call of nature'.
She was skeptical about how it's going to turn out. Once a man falls into a cycle of poverty... he also gets problematic tendencies. It's even worse when people have to depend on government provisions. But they also have no one to turn to. There's no resources. Even if there were, they would be claimed by the government or transferred to some company in the form of a concession. Even these hives they live in are not theirs as properties, and they can be kicked out if authorities deem it convenient.
'I can feel pity, but that's what shaped these people. I don't know what he's counting for by taking them. It doesn't seem effective.'
"He circulates essence, but he's not Awakened. He doesn't resemble a Sleeper either."
"We don't know yet the consequences of awakening naturally so I guess it's okay. By the way, you let someone in."
"Huh?"
"I guess you'll have a lot to explain."
"Master Jet!"
"Saint Jet, you're welcome, despite how you appear to be. Sneaky as if wanted to take me by surprise."
"Sounds bad, Saint Jet. You may be a Saint, but some decorum should still apply. Did you knock on the doors?"
"..."
'I'll be damned. Boss is going to be mad at me.'
"Well, I'm sorry to disturb you with my manners. However I believe we have something important to discuss."
"It happens that I wanted to contact you on this matter anyway so we're more than fine."
"You know?"
"Your friends? Yes. I'll explain as much as I can another time. This situation is not good for telling such things. For now I would like to make a proposal."
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