The little girl paused and looked up. "What is anthropology, Director?"
"It's a discipline, Hesta," Elma said gently. "I know very little about it myself. I only know that its subjects of study involve human culture, social structures, moral systems, and so on... Before the Great Blackout Era, it was a very flourishing branch of the social sciences."
"Is that so?" Hesta's gaze returned to her book. "Then what did they do every day?"
Elma thought for a moment. "...I suppose, just as the cover says, they went into the wilderness."
Hesta blinked. "Like us? To gather wild vegetables every day?"
Director Elma shook her head. "They sought out ancient tribes and lived and spoke with people in the jungles, trying to understand their cultures. Sometimes, anthropologists also visited cave sites inhabited by primitive people... They were people who tried to explain where human civilization began and where it would end."
Hesta eagerly flipped through the old book before her. "Did they find an answer?"
"Well... how should I put it?" Elma smiled. "That isn't something that can be explained in just a few words."
"But Miss Gerdin said that only lies are complicated and tedious. The truth is always simple and needs no excessive embellishment." Hesta looked up again. "Is that true?"
Elma chuckled again. "Yes, Jane... Miss Gerdin is certainly right."
The old woman reached out and quickly flipped the book back to the appendix at its end. "But I read an answer just this morning. It may not be quite so simple... Would you like to hear it?"
"Yes!" Hesta answered loudly.
The old woman picked the girl up again so that the restless child would not slip from her lap. She took Hesta's fingers in hers and guided her through the words in the book, one by one.
The book's obscure, lofty vocabulary made young Hesta furrow her brow. Her finger crawled slowly across the page like a snail.
Elma read softly, "Many years ago, someone asked the anthropologist Mina Delid which clue among all modern archaeological discoveries best marked the birth of human civilization.
"People expected her to mention stone tools, cave paintings, or wheat-grain fossils bearing signs of cooking, but Ms. Delid did not.
"She said that the first sign of civilization should be a broken femur that had healed."
Hesta tilted her head back. "What is a femur, Director?"
"It's the thigh bone." Elma gently patted Hesta's thigh. "Right here."
Hesta lowered her head again and began reading the next passage on her own. "Ms. Delid said that, in the wilderness, an... an animal that breaks its leg will always die very quickly... It will either die of thirst or hunger, or quickly become a meal for other beasts. And if it has to search for food while also avoiding danger, then... the injury to its femur cannot heal.
"Yet we truly found a femur that had once been broken and then healed, which means... someone spent a long time... caring for him.
"They stopped his bleeding... set his wound, brought him to a safe place, and... shared their food and water with him.
"When we... are in... difficult circumstances, yet... can still... help one another, that is... the beginning of civilization."
"Yes, Jane." Elma smiled and hugged Hesta tightly. "When we are in difficult circumstances, yet can still help one another, that is the beginning of our civilization."
Hesta felt herself wrapped in a warm embrace, and she smiled too.
But everything around her suddenly changed—the warm afternoon sunlight rapidly faded, the neat desk gathered dust in an instant, and daylight dimmed. A familiar fear welled up inside her. Hesta lowered her head and saw that Director Elma's hands holding her were, somehow, once again wrapped in bandages.
"..."
"Eat." The familiar voice turned cold. A bandaged hand suddenly thrust into Hesta's mouth. "Eat it—"
At the peak of her terror, everything came to an abrupt stop.
She suddenly felt a profound pain, as if every joint and every inch of skin on her body were being tortured by searing flames—Hesta finally realized that she had been immersed in a dream. In that dream, she had returned to an afternoon years ago, reading with Director Elma.
The images of the loving old woman and the Chelated Being intertwined in her mind... Which one had been the dream?
She adjusted her breathing slightly and tried to sit up, but quickly found it difficult—her eyes were covered at the moment. Though she could not see, Hesta could still sense bright white lights overhead, along with the smell of disinfectant.
"Are you awake?" A woman's voice suddenly sounded beside her ear. "Don't move. Don't open your eyes. You're in a hospital now. You're safe."
Hesta's body trembled—
"Relax. Breathe," the voice said again. "Don't be afraid. This pain is normal. That Chelated Being's blood splashed into your eyes, so we performed some treatment. The gauze over your eyes will need to stay on for a while."
Hesta wanted to speak, but the sound that came from her mouth was a murmur too faint even for herself to hear, followed by equally intense pain in her throat.
"Do you want to speak? If you do, move your fingers."
All ten of Hesta's fingers twitched slightly.
The woman laughed. "The doctors said your throat suffered slight acid corrosion, perhaps because you bit the Chelated Being. They've already applied medicine. It should return to normal by tomorrow."
Hesta listened quietly.
This woman's voice was unlike Elma's or Miss Gerdin's—she spoke quickly, her tone always flat. Every sentence from her mouth ended short and crisp, without any drawn-out notes or unnecessary changes in intonation.
Hesta heard a chair scrape beside her, and the woman sat down by her bed.
"I know you probably have a great many questions. Once you've fully recovered, I'll come answer them for you. But could you answer a few questions for me now? Of course, you only need to answer yes or no—if it's yes, don't move; if it's no, move your fingers. Have I made that clear?"
Hesta did not move.
"Good." The woman smiled. "Then let's begin... Your name is Jane Hesta?"
"You were born in the wilderness south of Tanyi City, around Duanming Alley?"
"You were born in 4612. You are eleven years old this year. Sister Gurdin entered Saint Anne Abbey in 4620—when you were eight years old. Is that correct?"
"And..." Chiba suddenly paused for a moment. "You are one of the Hesta people from District 14?"
Hesta's fingers suddenly moved.
The woman glanced at Hesta. "Do you want to answer 'no' or 'I don't know'? If it's no, move your fingers again. If you don't know, don't move."
Hesta fell still—"I don't know."
The woman waited for quite some time. Seeing that Hesta did not move, she lowered her head and laughed. "Haha, there really isn't much suspense in that question. Other than the Hesta people, who else would have hair this red? But if you don't even know whether you are Hesta, who gave you that surname?"
Hesta could not answer. There was only silence.
"Then I understand. Those are about all my questions." The woman spoke softly. The room was left with only the scratch of her pen. After a while, she spoke again. "Oh, right. There are some things about the abbey that I can tell you now. Do you want to hear them? If you do, move your fingers."
Before you continue