Cold snow, sweltering workshops, a tomorrow with no hope in sight.
She had never thought about how long such a life would last, but this was already the most normal life young Redenia could ever know.
Haynes's winters were frigid. Flimsy shacks were hardly better than paper against temperatures more than a hundred degrees below zero. Ever since she had become capable of forming memories in that life, Redenia's understanding of the human world had consisted of only three words: hunger, cold, and misery.
Long-term starvation had left her and her younger siblings severely stunted, underweight, and malnourished. They were tall but thin as stalks of hemp; from afar, they could be mistaken for skeletons. The lack of carbohydrates meant that the three siblings had never possessed any light in their eyes.
Later, she entered the factory early as a child laborer. After losing a leg in an accident, Redenia's understanding of the human world was reduced to only one word:
Poverty.
Not long after realizing this, she awakened.
It had to be said that fate always enjoyed making jokes with no apparent meaning.
As long as one was willing to endure hardship, there would be endless hardship to endure. But if one rose up in furious resistance, people would be willing to make one suffer less—either ending one's suffering physically, or ceasing their oppression under the threat of one's tyranny.
Looking back over the history of her life, Redenia deeply agreed with that.
In Grand Narrative terms, she had met the requirements to assume office as Speaker of the Hidden Society, and had naturally been chosen, accepted, and made Speaker.
But the premise of that was that, after Leviathan Dahl and the other Three Great Destroyers had been defeated by Lioz, Gaia had seized the opportunity to subdue them,