Suddenly, Calvin stopped walking.
Shawn took a few more steps. When he realized Calvin had not followed, he turned back. "Why'd you stop?"
Calvin's gaze passed over Shawn and settled on the distant lawn—they were standing on the semi-open corridor bridge on the library's third floor, with an unobstructed view of the greenery below.
Shawn faintly heard an accordion. Following Calvin's gaze, he saw several girls sitting in a circle on the grass.
Liz was in the middle of the group, holding the accordion, but Shawn spotted red-haired Hesta at once as well. She sat quietly beside Liz with her arms around her knees, her hands empty. He did not recognize the others immediately, but he was certain they were not the other two girls from 403.
Liz was teaching them the battle song of the Quicksilver Needles.
The corner of Shawn's mouth curled up. He leaned both elbows against the corridor railing and listened for a while. "No matter what it is, once you pair it with an accordion, it gets that Askia flavor... strong stuff."
Calvin said nothing. He listened to the women's voices drifting in on the wind and watched them.
After a while, Calvin suddenly spoke. "Why Hesta?"
Shawn did not understand. "Why what?"
"I wanted to ask you that the morning after that, but Liz burst in then." Calvin shifted his gaze from the distance to Shawn. "Why have you been giving Hesta a hard time ever since she entered the base? Do you like her?"
Shawn tucked in his neck, forcing out a double chin.
Calvin tilted his head. "No?"
"I like them like this." Shawn cupped two imaginary balls in front of his chest. "Is she?"
"Then why—"
"I don't know if you remember," Shawn said, propping up his face as he looked back toward the girls. "Back in '19, someone sent word to Hekla that people in the Habitable Zone were offering high prices for red-haired Hesta Tribe women."
Calvin frowned. "Was that a thing?"
Shawn shook his head. "Your memory is really something... You had long hair back then too. One day, I got hold of some dye and said we should see if we could make the kind of red hair they wanted. I ended up bleaching your hair orange-red by accident... Remember now?"
"Oh, maybe."
Shawn smiled. "That was when I started wondering what women born with hair as red as flames were like."
"So that was why you stole her files some time ago?"
"Yeah, that was the reason at first." Shawn looked into the distance. "But after I saw her basic records, I got even more curious—from being born in 4612 to entering Saint Anne Abbey in 4620, she spent a full eight years in Duanming Alley... How did she manage that? She said she had lived alone the entire time before entering the abbey. Do you believe her?"
A burst of laughter drifted over from the girls in the distance. Calvin remained silent.
"And have you seen the recent reports? The ones from outside?" Shawn asked.
"A little."
"Don't you think it's ironic?" Shawn said softly. "Everyone wants to praise Hesta to the skies. They're practically calling her the Virgin Mary reborn—just to snatch away a Quicksilver Needles recruit, these people would rather fabricate a saint who never existed."
"How do you know it's fabricated?"
"Isn't this exactly like when we first came here?" Shawn countered. "As long as someone thinks a person is bad, that person has to be rotten to the core. If they think someone is good, then that person has to be perfect in every way—how many rumors did those newspapers make up about us back then? Duanming Alley and Hekla are no different. What kind of decent people could come out of places like ours?"
"...People are different."
"They only seem different." Shawn gave a small laugh and lightly tapped his temple. "Karl, fundamentally, everyone is about the same—as long as you look long enough and deep enough."
Calvin glanced sideways at Shawn. This was not the first time he had felt it: he could not say when it had begun, but Shawn seemed to have retreated behind a shell no one could reach.
He stood there quietly watching everyone, keeping others out while shutting himself away as well.
"So what exactly do you want to do?" Calvin asked flatly.
"Nothing much. I just think this person is pretty interesting." Shawn stretched lazily. "Just wait. I'll definitely expose the real Hesta..."
Shawn turned toward him, his expression teasing. "What do you think those citizens outside will do then?"
Liz began singing again in the distance. Her voice was melodious and winding, but the language she sang in was unfamiliar to both Shawn and Calvin. After listening for two lines, Shawn recognized it as Askia.
"Let's go. My legs are tired from standing." Shawn yawned and turned to walk on. "We need to find somewhere to sit. I've got to catch up on sleep."
"Shawn."
"Hm?" Shawn turned around and saw Calvin still standing there, his expression complicated. Suddenly, Shawn felt that something was off with his brother today. "What's wrong with you?"
"If you keep acting this recklessly, you might eventually be stripped of your combat qualifications." Calvin frowned. "You don't care about that either?"
Shawn smiled and deliberately lowered his voice. "I don't care, Karl. I never planned to go into battle."
Calvin froze, then clenched his fists. "What?"
"I've been looking for a chance to tell you what I think too—actually, once we finish learning what we need to learn here, there'll be no need to risk our lives for them."
"...It hasn't even been that long." Anger simmered in Calvin's voice. "You've already forgotten everything that happened in Hekla."
"No, Karl, I haven't forgotten." Shawn's expression turned serious too. "I never will—"
"Then what the hell are you talking about?"
"Fine, let me put it this way, Karl." Shawn drew a deep breath. After thinking for a moment, he continued, "I just don't want to risk my life for AHgAs, but we can still use these abilities to do other things—there's no need to put our lives on the line. We should live for ourselves."
Calvin raised his voice. "Like cowards?"
"No, like people." Shawn cut him off. "Real people."
"I don't want to hear your excuses—"
"You have to listen!" Shawn's voice rose despite himself, but he quickly calmed down and looked ahead and behind them—fortunately, on a Sunday morning, hardly anyone would pass through here.
"Karl, Karl..." Shawn took a deep breath, steadied his emotions, and stepped closer to Calvin. "Maybe I'm a coward, an asshole, a liar full of bullshit, but I've never lied to you—"
The moment the words left his mouth, Shawn vaguely felt something was wrong. He immediately added, "I mean, at least not about anything important—I've always been honest with you."
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