The day after Hesta left the farm, Dangat moved into the house where Stella and the others lived.
The farm became quieter than ever.
Three central figures had vanished at once. It was not just Hesta—Stella and Pakart had left with her. Hesta entrusted Eucali to Victoria, while Victoria, in turn, specifically entrusted her to Tie Xi. She herself took Arevalo riding around the estate, chatting as she brazenly probed into District 12's defenses and noble gossip.
Tie Xi had already been responsible for looking after Eucali, so she did not feel that her work had changed much. However, she developed a strong interest in Dangat—not for any other reason than that Dangat had begun teaching herself the local language from the moment she arrived in District 12.
Among the locals, all of whom avoided Dangat like the plague, Tie Xi became the only one who could barely communicate with her.
Tie Xi liked playing this sort of role.
Dangat.
It was truly an awkward name. Eucali often pronounced it as "Gadan" or "Dantega." At first, Eucali thought the problem might be hers. After all, ever since she began taking medication, remembering strangers' names had become an enormous challenge.
To her, there were too many new faces at the farm: the newly arrived Quicksilver Needles, Stella and her team, Eleven and Kiki's new friends, the attendants who cared for the estate, and Hesta's old friends, her old friends' friends... Eucali had tried to remember their names, but in the end, everyone's names became as blurry as their faces.
She felt an almost tangible barrier standing between herself and real life. It protected her from harm, but in doing so, it also temporarily severed her connection to the outside world.
Tie Xi said it was a normal reaction to the medication