Monster - Chapter 82
Chapter 82: Silver Stone City - The Ice Breaker
The largest cemetery in Silver Stone City was like most cemeteries, with trees planted around its perimeter. To enter, one had to walk inward under the shade of the trees along the edge. Under the guidance of Miu the crow, Lin Sandie and Lou soon spotted a short, somewhat plump old woman in a small pavilion. She was wearing a white and purple floral dress and black flat shoes, and her hair was in tight curls, like a head of cauliflower. She was sitting in the pavilion, listening to a program on a portable tape recorder while wearing reading glasses and knitting a sweater. When she saw the two identical "twins" walking toward her, she immediately showed a look of annoyance.
"What do you want to ask?" Julian's fingers didn't stop knitting as she glanced up at Lin Sandie. The latter was dressed in a rather formal black suit, white shirt, and black tie, her long pink hair tied up in a bun. She looked so solemn, as if she had truly come to mourn a deceased person.
"Madam Julian, I'm sorry to disturb you." Lin Sandie walked into the pavilion, holding a bouquet of white roses she had just bought at a flower shop next to the cemetery.
"Do you have relatives buried here too?" The white roses were pure and lovely, and Julian's cloudy eyes lingered on them longer than on anything else.
"These are for Madam Lilo." Lin Sandie smiled faintly, a smile as refreshing as a spring breeze. With her good elocution, gentle and polite attitude, and dignified attire, one couldn't ask for more from such a visitor.
Julian sighed, took off her reading glasses, and looked at Lin Sandie, who was sitting on the stone bench opposite her. "It's rare for someone to be so thoughtful, still willing to put on such a show."
"No, I genuinely like Madam Lilo," Lin Sandie's expression was quite serious. "She loved white roses and planted many in her yard. She was full of love, always helping poor women and children. She liked to smoke, only Elephant brand... It's just a pity I never got to meet her while she was alive." At this point, Lin Sandie's mood seemed to drop. "I was in Center City before. When I heard of Madam Lilo's passing a few days ago, I thought I had to come and see for myself, no matter what."
Lou and Miu the crow, perched on her shoulder, stared at Lin Sandie, dumbfounded. The latter showed none of her usual restraint and indifference; the Lin Sandie of this moment was like an enthusiastic and lively insurance salesperson.
"But to be honest with you, I do desire Madam Lilo's poetry collection. Because she wrote it, I will do my utmost to obtain it."
"That's what you readers think. Lilo wasn't as wonderful as you imagine. And that poetry collection isn't her own work; it's a transcription of other poems she really liked." Julian's lips curved slightly, finding Lin Sandie's words somewhat amusing, but her impression of her was quite good. She continued, "Did you know she was an alcoholic in her later years? And after the age of 40, she smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. I'm surprised she lived as long as she did."
If someone else had said these things, it might have been suspected as slander against a celebrity, but Julian had known Madam Lilo since childhood, so her words sounded like casual conversation.
"And on top of writing poetry and lyrics, in her later years she actually became obsessed with divination, muttering nonsense every day."
Lin Sandie and Lou listened quietly as Julian spoke, and the unknown, private side of Madam Lilo was gradually revealed before them through her account.
"Lately, her fans have been swarming in. I don't know if you're a real one, but it doesn't matter." Julian put the half-finished sweater back into the basket beside her, pounded her knees, then stood up and pinched her stiff lower back. "She was very shy when she was alive. Even when notified of winning a poetry award, she wouldn't go if she could avoid it. She never had fans or readers showing up at her door. If she were still alive and saw all of you coming, she'd be scared to death."
As Lou listened, she couldn't sit still. She picked up the basket with Julian's sweater, looked at it, and started knitting where Julian had left off.
Lin Sandie wanted to stop her, but seeing that Julian had already walked out of the pavilion, seemingly to warm her stiff body in the sun, she quickly got up and followed. Miu the crow followed as well.
"What are your thoughts on her last words?" Julian asked Lin Sandie, who was supporting her as they walked toward a group of tombstones not far away.
"Previously, we speculated whether Madam Lilo had an unmentionable love affair, either with you or with Mr. Charles."
"Haha, nine out of ten people who come looking for me think that. I don't know if she loved Charles, but she definitely didn't love me. Every time we met, I'd nag her about smoking too much. She was sick to death of me," Julian said with a chuckle.
"But in the few words Madam Lilo left behind, you and Charles were still her most important friends," Lin Sandie said. To complete this mission, she had done all the homework she possibly could.
"You just said 'previously.' So you have a new idea now?"
"If Madam Lilo didn't have some inexpressible feelings, I think... what she wanted was for the person who solved her last words to announce something?"
"Announce what?"
"Why people mutate." Lin Sandie looked at Julian with a serious expression. Julian was a rare case—a person who hadn't mutated into a monster.
Julian looked at Lin Sandie in silence for a long time before continuing to walk forward. "Go on."
"In the sonnet Madam Lilo left behind, despair is revealed everywhere. Before coming to Disorder Land, my friend was investigating why the people of Leviathan turn into monsters. They reached a conclusion: it's because the people of Leviathan are falling into despair. Despair breeds and turns people into monsters. I was thinking, could it be that Madam Lilo also knew this, and she wanted to give the poetry collection to someone who could reveal this truth?"
"...What's your name?" After hearing Lin Sandie's words, Julian seemed to realize she hadn't yet asked the young woman's name.
"Lin Sandie."
"Are you from the Rose Society?" Julian asked, looking Lin Sandie up and down again.
Lin Sandie's heart stirred. She sensed that Julian might not be the ordinary old woman she appeared to be.
Just as Lin Sandie was weighing whether to admit or deny it, Julian continued, "Hmm, members of the Rose Society must be B-rank to travel alone. You don't look like one. Are you a preparatory member who left the Rose Society on your own?"
"Something happened. I was abandoned, so I joined up with that woman in the pavilion."
"Now that you mention it, I remember something. Is the person knitting my sweater an Outsider?"
"Yes. She's also investigating the truth about why people in Leviathan turn into monsters."
"I understand. I'm in contact with Sui Xi. Do you know Sui Xi?"
"Lou mentioned Ms. Sui to me. She's the one assisting with the investigation into why people turn into monsters." Lin Sandie answered Julian's questions cooperatively. This stemmed from a kind of sixth sense; if she could find an ally in Disorder Land different from the Rose Society, Lin Sandie was willing to make an attempt to expand her network.
Julian hummed in acknowledgment. The two arrived in front of Madam Lilo's tombstone, and Lin Sandie placed the white roses she had been holding in front of it.
"The theory you just mentioned, was that your own idea or the Outsider's?"
"It occurred to me by chance. Madam Lilo was very enthusiastic about social welfare activities. I thought that perhaps before she died, she still wanted to do a good deed that she had wanted to do before but couldn't due to various pressures."
"If it's something even someone of Lilo's social standing didn't dare to do, would you dare?" Julian asked with a smile.
Lin Sandie fell silent, wondering who she would offend by revealing that people turn into monsters because of despair. As far as she knew, everyone was already aware that people were turning into monsters; they just didn't know the reason.
"Do you know what society is like during a dynastic change, or when a ruling system is altered?"
"Chaos and disaster," Lin Sandie answered subconsciously.
"Now, looking at the matter of Leviathan's people turning into monsters from a historical perspective, hasn't the time come for a change of species, a change of dynasty, a change of ruling system?" Julian's voice was old and flat, but to Lin Sandie's ears, it was like a clap of thunder.
"Yes..." Lin Sandie knew that change meant chaos and disaster were about to descend, or were already descending. Tens of millions of people would disappear in the waves of historical change—an unavoidable consequence of every dynastic or political transition.
And at such times, the Outsiders would arrive, like reapers, like witnesses.
Vaguely, Lin Sandie seemed to have glimpsed something.
"Lilo had the sensitivity unique to her kind of person. She was the first to notice the changes in her body. At that time, she had fallen for a married man. After giving up on that relationship, she numbed herself with alcohol day by day. Later, she gradually saw her body changing. After a period of chaos, she began to explore the reasons for her own transformation. I really admire her for that. If it were me, I could never have been so calm." Julian stopped talking about change and switched to the details of Madam Lilo's monsterization. Seeing Lin Sandie listening intently, she asked, "Do you know why I'm telling you all this?"
Lin Sandie pondered for a good while before replying, "My guess about Madam Lilo's last words is most likely correct. She wanted to tell the world the reason why people turn into monsters."
"Yes."
"And by publicizing the reason people turn into monsters, those who haven't mutated yet will have more ways to deal with the monsterization, or at least they won't be infected without knowing. But the person who makes the announcement will become a public target. They will face retaliation from those monsters who are taking advantage of this period of ignorance to establish a new order in advance. The consequence could be a gruesome death, and you..." Lin Sandie paused, then sighed, "You want me to be that Ice Breaker."
The undercurrent beneath the ice had reached an uncontrollable level. Madam Lilo couldn't bear the disaster her friends and family would face after the ice was broken, so she resorted to using a Remnant to find an Ice Breaker.
"An Ice Breaker... that's a fitting metaphor. But actually, I wasn't looking for you," Julian smiled faintly. "We wanted to find that Outsider."
This was one of the reasons Lou was able to come to Disorder Land so smoothly. Sui Xi had pulled Lou into some of the plans she was promoting. Lin Sandie connected the dots. She felt that some things weren't necessarily conspiracies, yet they were still interlinked, leaving no one with a way to escape.
"And it's not that we lack the resolve to be the Ice Breaker," Julian took the initiative to link arms with Lin Sandie, letting her continue to support her as they walked back. "It's just that right now, our power system is still the same as that other faction's. We are all subject to certain ancient constraints."
"The Tree?"
"The Outsider told you?" Julian's eyes widened.
"Yes. What is the Tree infected with?"
"...I didn't expect she'd even tell you that. But it's better for you to pretend you don't know. This is a very dangerous matter. Many people have already died because of it." Julian's brow furrowed slightly. "As for what the Tree is infected with, I can't say for now, nor do I dare to. As I just said, as long as we are within the same power system, the more constraints we are under."
"Mm."
"Alright, let's leave it at that for now. Are you two willing to be the Ice Breaker?" By now, they had returned to the pavilion. Julian looked at Lin Sandie and Lou and asked. Although she had told Lin Sandie many things today, it seemed she was unwilling to reveal some of the more important information.
Lou, who was enthusiastically knitting the sweater, looked up at Lin Sandie, indicating that the decision was hers. She had already learned the content of their conversation through Miu the crow.
"The significance of being the Ice Breaker is to allow people to adjust more quickly and adapt to the impact of monsterization. The monsters will rebuild order, and the humans will maintain it. The importance of this is self-evident." Lin Sandie was no longer warm and friendly, but rather like a fox. "If we are the ones to reveal the reason people turn into monsters, the risks we'd face would be far greater than the value of the item we'd receive."
What was this about solving the last words to get Madam Lilo's Remnant? It was nothing more than asking someone to risk their life for a pittance.
"I'll give you another B-rank wondrous item with minimal negative side effects, plus 5,000 points." Julian was a bit speechless. Now she wasn't sure who was scheming against whom.
"Aren't you human too? Why can't you make a sacrifice?" she asked Lin Sandie, pulling rank with her age.
Lin Sandie pressed her lips into a fake smile, her eyes narrowing slightly. "I have one more question for you."
Though her actions were not respectful, she still used a respectful tone.
"Do you know who the Legislator γ brooch belongs to?" (Note 1)
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