Below the podium, Tulan and Ligo's pupils contracted almost simultaneously.
Beside them, Zoe frowned as she asked Ende, "What did she just say? What Free Front?"
Ende was equally uncertain. After thinking back for a moment, she still could not quite place it. "As... As what...?"
"Askia," Victoria said in a lowered voice. "It was a wasteland in District 3 that had once been ravaged by Chelated Disease."
"Was Jane from there?" The moment the question left Zoe's mouth, she denied it herself. "No, that's not right. I remember she came from some convent."
At that, Zoe and Ende instinctively looked toward Ligo and Tulan—those two had once stayed at the same Reserve Base as Hesta, so they presumably knew what that place name meant. Yet both Tulan and Ligo were now staring intently at the podium, as if they had lost all interest in everything else.
Hesta's speech continued.
"Earlier, we discussed the benefits of freedom as a gift. Now, let us discuss the price each of us must pay to preserve such freedom.
"My dearest friend, Liz Fletcher, who ultimately gave her life to protect the peace of the Habitable Zone—Lieutenant Dona once said that justice would not fall from the sky in this world. People had to pave the way for it with sweat and blood. If none of us rewarded the good and punished the wicked, then the order we hoped for would never exist.
"Justice, freedom, equality, dignity... Every beautiful-sounding word in this world comes with its own price. If we want them, we cannot place our hopes in good fortune or anyone's charity. They require you and me to take concrete action every day, to fight those enemies who plunder and trample them.
"You must give your time and devote your limited energy to