I Was Wrong

"Honkai Sickness is a symptom caused by the body being eroded by Honkai Energy, but it is not a disease in the true sense. After reaching a certain stage, Honkai Sickness patients will become new sources of infection and release Honkai Energy outwards. The only way to stop it is to kill them."

Every word Lin uttered was chillingly cold.

"But you said...you would handle it...you would heal them..." Aponia clutched her chest, breathing heavily. Something was pressing on her chest, making it hard to breathe. "You would..."

"You'll help me..."

Lin coldly raised his hand, pointing the knife at her—

I lied to you.

"..."

So, would you be willing to let me fool you just once?

The image of that person reaching out to her like a god under the moonlight cracked open.

"There is no God in this world. No matter how much you expect or pray, no God will come to help you."

Lin threw a pair of handcuffs at Aponia's feet.

"Now, I am arresting you for 'allegedly participating in the Moth of Fire's rebellion,' 'possessing sources of Honkai infection,' and 'crimes against humanity.' You have no right to protest or appeal."

The bright moon overhead casts its cold light, mocking the world.

"Bass."

The assassin plunges a knife into the throat of a sleeping person, covers their throat, and watches them die silently with wide eyes. The entire process is carried out without a single extra sound.

There was no pity in her eyes; any extra emotions had been suppressed in her heart from the start of the mission. All she had to do was to complete the assigned tasks of "arresting suspects involved in the rebellion" and "cleaning up the sources of Honkai infection."

The number of Honkai infection sources in this sanatorium is terrifying. According to the instructions, the owner of this sanatorium is connected with the traitors, and she must complete the "cleaning" of the Poisoned Cocoon.

She did her best to bring them peace while bringing them death, a peace they were forced to bear, not by their own free will, but by the sins of the Honkai, by others, and by her.

Perhaps most of them lived their entire lives in this small Dusk Street, without committing any evil deeds, and were even kinder than her, a killer with blood on her hands.

But the significance of the Poisoned Cocoon created by Doctor Mei lies in this: they are cleaned up and chosen by sinners, regardless of good or evil.

Sakura's two ears twitched, and she took out a small blue flower and placed it on the deceased's chest.

Most of it has been cleared, the rest...

"Why?"

A chilling, stinging sensation crept up Sakura's spine. She turned around and saw "that person" in the shadows.

A twisted, angry, quiet, and terrifying "human" sits cross-legged in the shadows, its Corrugated Paper mask peeking out from the darkness.

When did he arrive here?

A strong sense of crisis made her place her hand on the hilt of the knife.

"It's you..." Sakura remembered. This man was the only one who discovered her and attacked her when she entered the sanatorium, but she remembered that she had stabbed him through the heart with a knife. She definitely hadn't missed. "I didn't miss. Why are you still alive?"

"I'm asking you, woman."

Sakura paused for a moment, then said under the man's gaze, "They are infected with Honkai Sickness, and are the largest source of infection in this area. Only by doing this can more people survive."

"Incurable?"

"There is no cure."

"... So that's what it feels like to be deceived."

Chrono raised his head and looked at the bright moon by the window. Today, it was bright, white, and flawless, so close to the world, as if it were washing away the sins on the ground.

"... Who are they to you?"

Sakura looked down at the dead man on the bed, then at the door behind her.

She has killed more than ten people along the way, including...

Chrono did not answer her.

Yes, who are these people to him? People he lives and eats with under the same roof? People he met by chance and isn't really close to?

The answer doesn't seem to matter.

"I've come to change the towels..."

As the childish voice rang out at the door, Sakura had already raised her sword, and flames had engulfed the entire room.

The battle did not last long. After only a few seconds of probing at the beginning, the full force unleashed turned the entire sanatorium into ruins within tens of seconds.

Sakura kicked Chrono in the neck, ignoring the wound on her right arm, and trampled Qianjie, whose legs and arms were already Chrono, under her foot. She raised the ice blade in her hand and stabbed down—

"Bass!"

The two blades clashed, deflecting the direction of the ice blade, which grazed Chrono's neck.

Sakura gripped the hilt of her sword with a resounding twist and punched the attacker's arm with her backhand.

"Bang!"

The two separated and fell into the rubble.

Sakura looked warily at the man in front of her wearing a ridiculous mask.

But when her gaze shifted to the knife in the man's hand, she paused for a moment.

Is that the standard-issue knife of the Moth to Flame?

"It's me."

She was stunned when she heard the familiar voice.

Chapter Twenty-Four: I Was Wrong

"Is this... all right?"

Sakura emerged from the shadows, hesitantly gazing at the lonely, desolate figure standing alone amidst the ruins, as if standing within a collapsed relic.

"I was planning to do this all along; you just sped things up."

He looked down at Aponia, who was lying in his arms, unconscious after being injected with a sedative.

"You have completed your mission. Take her and Chrono back now."

"... Why not tell them the truth?"

Lin looked around the ruins of what used to be a sanatorium without saying a word.

If there is no hope from the beginning, then the pain will continue until it becomes numbing. And if you lose hope after having it, the pain will be doubled, to the point that you will hate the world that gave you hope, and the people who gave you hope.

But at least they genuinely felt they had hope; it wasn't a false relationship. The only people they needed to hate were those who had deceived them.

Did Sakura do anything wrong? No, she was just carrying out a mission: to eliminate threats and sources of infection, and to arrest suspects.

Did Aponia do anything wrong? No, she simply spread her kindness and cared for the sick and children.

He was the one who made a mistake.

He is the one who forced Aponia to become a "suspect" and also the one who forced Sakura to kill.

He was even the one who caused Chrono to become like this.

"What color are those flowers over there?" Lin asked, pointing to a flower that was gradually turning to ash in the flames.

Sakura pursed her lips. "White."

"..."

White...

He remembered why the flowers on Dusk Street looked familiar. Although his consciousness was hazy at the time, he still had some impression of them. Those were the Abyss Flower that the Sixth Herrscher had spread throughout the city with her Creation Authority before she died. They continuously absorbed all the vitality of that land, turning it into a dead land.

So that's how it is... The reason Honkai Sickness in Dusk Street are so special, and their condition deteriorates to the point of death in a short period of time, is not because the concentration of Honkai Energy here is too high, but because this place has been "contaminated".

During the Sixth Herrscher's activities, the number of Honkai Sickness worldwide increased dramatically, and the rate of deterioration far exceeded that of normal conditions, as if they had been infected by the Sixth Herrscher's Withering Authority, causing the disease to mutate.

Some of the patients in Dusk Street may have contracted the disease at that time, but due to the exclusive and closed nature of the area, it was not discovered by the Fire Moths, which eventually led to the spread of Honkai Sickness, allowing this rapidly fatal Honkai Sickness to spread throughout Dusk Street.

Sakura is right.

If he had been more decisive and disposed of those infected children and adults instead of giving them hope only to take it away again, he would have just been an assassin carrying out a cleanup mission. He wouldn't have let Aponia and Chrono become what they are now, nor would he have let Sakura slaughter ordinary people.

Because... he didn't want those people and those children to suffer the same pain he had endured.

"Forest..."

Sakura stepped forward, but the next second Lin's dodging movement made her freeze in place.

His face was turned away from hers, he wore a mask, and he was cautious and extremely indifferent.

Lin left Aponia and Chrono behind and walked away without looking back.

Sakura opened her mouth, but said nothing. She slowly lowered her raised hand and silently covered the strange ears on her head with her hat.

Lin returned to the base, which was the property the speaker had purchased, to pack his things and prepare to leave.

This has gone on for far too long; it's a farce, a game of make-believe, a script he orchestrated that was never meant to end well.

He was not the children's gentle teacher, he was not Chrono's interesting friend, and he was not Aponia's confidant pen pal.

He's just an ugly, foul-mouthed, cunning, and despicable masked man.

When Lin pushed open the door, the room was lit up.

... bright?

"Teacher!" Daniela hugged Lin's waist excitedly, her body trembling, whether from fear or cold, she didn't know.

Lin looked around blankly and found that most of the children in the sanatorium were here. They all looked at him as if they were people in the ice field seeing a campfire. There was even a seriously ill child with Honkai Sickness.

Why...

His body acted before his mind; he knelt down and hugged Daniela, and the other children, moved by his actions, rushed over, formed a circle around him, and burst into tears.

"Teacher..." Daniela choked up as she recounted what had happened, "I... I was going to see Xiao Ke... but suddenly I heard... I heard Chrono Brother shouting upstairs... and then the whole building started shaking... I remembered what you taught us... so I told everyone to cover their faces... and we ran here..."

Was Sakura neglecting these children who were covering up the signs of Honkai because she was fighting Chrono at the time?

He played with these children, taught them how to take refuge, and brought them here. Little did he know that this would become the opportunity for these children to survive.

But...

Lin suddenly pushed them away, stood up, and said in an indifferent tone, "The sanatorium is gone, and I will take Chrono and Aponia with me. I was lying to you. My accomplices and I just planned to get rid of the sick people. Your illness is incurable."

This unexpected turn of events left all the children stunned and bewildered, standing there speechless.

"I want to take him with me too." Lin pointed to the seriously ill child. Judging from the symptoms, this was the only one left in the group suffering from acute Honkai Sickness. The others had already been cleared away by Sakura. If he left him alone, it would cause the others to also accelerate the process of Honkai Sickness erosion.

His hesitation had already led to something irreversible, and he could not repeat the same mistake.

Without saying a word, Lin separated the group of children, stepped forward, picked up the unconscious child, grabbed the helmet from the table, and turned to leave.

"Teacher! Why..."

"There's no reason why. It's because I'm bad, and because you're stupid, so I'm just messing with you." Lin stopped at the door, facing more than a dozen pairs of incredulous eyes, and said calmly, "You're not allowed to go back to the sanatorium. Just live here. I won't be coming back."

Don't become an adult like him who is full of lies.

Daniela asked tremblingly, "Teacher... then what you called... those things outside Dusk Street, are they all...?"

"Yes, it's all fake. Whether it's what Aponia said or what I said, it's all a lie. Don't yearn for the outside world." He answered decisively.

Lin casually tossed the card and mask he had given to Aponia at his feet, then picked up the child and walked away without looking back.

"Teacher!" Daniela chased after him, her face streaked with tears as she cried out to Lin's retreating figure, "Don't go... Teacher... I knew you were lying to me all along... Please... even if you're lying to me... don't go..."

"Don't go..."

But those fragile words ultimately failed to reach the man's ears.

"Teacher..."

Perhaps it was the jolt that woke the seriously ill child. He saw Lin's face and gave a weak, relieved smile.

Then he looked around; this was a place he had never seen before, a completely unfamiliar place.