Sweet Faction and Savory Faction

"Miss Victorique, what are you thinking about?"

After the conversation ended, Gavial and Tomimi ran off to the side again. The Doctor turned around and saw Bai Ye walking silently, seemingly lost in thought.

"Me... I was just thinking about something... For example, perhaps a very, very long time ago, the circumstances of the Infected weren't all that different from here... What happened afterward that made people treat them more and more unfairly?"

Bai Ye felt that this trip had truly been worthwhile. It was his first time seeing a place on this land where the Infected were not met with hostility.

"How should I put it..." The Doctor wiped the sweat from their forehead before saying, "Maybe it was because, long ago, some Infected used their abilities to cause trouble..."

The Infected could use Originium Arts without relying on casting staves, and sometimes their power was even greater.

"Also, the treatment technology back then was inadequate. The bodies of dead Infected were not properly handled and became new sources of infection. That probably led to the Infected being demonized, seen as harbingers of misfortune, and eventually created the ingrained prejudice of excluding them..."

"The longer it went on, the deeper that divide became. In the end, it could no longer be repaired."

"Every person's malice toward the Infected is like a brick. Even those with good intentions are blocked behind the barrier built from those bricks... That's probably what it means..."

The Doctor sighed and spoke slowly.

"What about you, Doctor? What do you think?" Bai Ye pressed on.

"Me... For certain reasons, I don't have much of a personal sense of it... But now, I do think Rhodes Island has a rather good atmosphere..." The Doctor only answered after a moment of silence.

"By the way, Miss Victorique,