Chaos

East District.

The carriage headed toward that abandoned land.

If the Harbor District was the city's scar, then the East District was its rotting corpse.

This had once been a residential area of Scandia, but a disaster had reduced it to utter ruin.

Once the disaster subsided, the entire city was renamed "New Scandinavia," while the East District was sealed off completely, then slowly forgotten.

Vanessa seemed to have been here before, yet perhaps she had not. She could not quite remember.

Old Razi was right. Perhaps this place no longer counted as part of the city. Even a slum like the Harbor District had at least some basic order on gang territory, and even a market like King's Road.

But in the East District, only utter desolation and chaos remained.

Only those with nowhere else to turn would come here to try their luck. Most of the buildings had been destroyed, and sometimes there were not even roads. Vagrants could only shelter in the abandoned sewers.

"We came following leads on Mad Rat Disease," Dorothea's muffled voice broke the oppressive silence inside the carriage. "We tracked them all the way beneath the East District... but the trail went cold. We couldn't find the core."

"What's the situation now?" Norman asked urgently.

"You're asking me? Shouldn't your Circle of Vitas be giving us an explanation?"

Norman was left speechless and lowered his head awkwardly.

A gentle voice came from beside them. "That's enough. He didn't know either... The Plague Core is in the sewers. Mad Rat Disease broke out in just three waves, covering the entire East District, then stopped. It didn't spread any farther."

"..."

Vanessa sat in the jolting carriage. The arguing around her seemed to reach her through a heavy curtain, muffled and indistinct.

Her mind was utterly empty. Everything seemed distant and unreal.

Winnie was dead.

Her best friend was dead. That fact struck the lake of her heart like a cold stone, yet she could not feel the pain she should have felt, only blank bewilderment.

How could a living, breathing person suddenly die? Not long ago, she had still been smiling at her, the fingers stroking her face warm.

There must have been some mistake.

She felt no sorrow. Only her body trembled faintly beyond her control, while her reason stubbornly curled up in the shadows of avoidance.

She looked around in confusion. Some of the people in the carriage looked familiar, while others did not. Whenever she looked their way, they all averted their eyes.

"Look outside," someone suddenly said.

Vanessa looked out. A group of people in black uniforms stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking the road ahead.

They held guns, their cold gazes sweeping over everyone who approached.

"People from the Public Security Bureau."

The Public Security Bureau?

Vanessa seemed to have some recollection of them. She rarely dealt with these people. They maintained public order in the city, but she never saw them anywhere public order was poor.

A man who looked like an officer stood on high ground, holding a megaphone. His voice sounded hollow and distant through the amplifier. "Citizens, rest assured! The unrest is completely under control! Nothing that threatens your safety will cross the defensive line!"

"Heh, of course it won't. With their defensive line set up here, how could those corpses get across?" Dorothea sneered.

Vanessa blinked. Only then did she notice that they seemed to be at the edge of the Mist Harbor District.

"The Harbor District is up ahead. You have to cross it to reach the East District! They've abandoned the entire Harbor District!"

"Hah, when has city hall ever acknowledged that the Harbor District exists? They'd like nothing better than to leave the slums to rot!"

"Don't they know how many people have died?!"

"They know," Dorothea said coldly. "They don't care."

Vanessa turned to look. The people arguing were several students from Miskatonic University.

Only then did she notice that, besides Dorothea, Doctor Norman, and herself, three students and a kindly-looking old woman were also crammed into the carriage.

Almost all the students were injured, and even the old woman looked sickly.

"Sorry, no passage here." Two Public Security Bureau officers looked the carriage up and down and politely blocked its way.

"We're investigators from Miskatonic University," Dorothea called out.

"Well... we're very sorry..." The officer looked troubled, but his feet remained planted.

Dorothea instinctively looked toward the old woman farther inside the carriage.

Just then, Vanessa stood up.

Gripping a handhold inside the carriage with one hand, she leaned half her body outside and looked expressionlessly at the two patrol officers.

Her slightly worn Trench Coat gave off the smell of corpses and disinfectant. Her gaze seemed to rest on the two men, yet also seemed to pass through them, toward an empty distance.

There was not a ripple in her eyes-no anger, no disgust, only a stillness like stagnant water, as though she were inspecting two pieces of "merchandise" waiting to be processed.

Her left hand had only four fingers and was still wrapped in bandages, yet she slowly raised it, pointed at the two men, and made a shooting gesture.

Although her hand held nothing, her expression as she took aim was utterly serious. The officer she pointed at raised his gun almost instinctively, yet his skin still crawled, and even his hands were shaking.

"What are you doing!" His companion beside him jumped in fright, hastily pushed his gun barrel down, and shouted toward the carriage, "Go through! Hurry!"

The carriage started moving again and crossed the defensive line. Vanessa slowly lowered her hand, but those hollow eyes remained fixed on the two officers until the carriage had gone far away.

"Damn... what was that? Felt like someone had a real gun pressed against my forehead... Who was that?" The officer she had pointed at wiped away his cold sweat.

"A new orderly at the hospital. Supposedly she's crazy... Don't mess with people like that. No telling what trouble you might get yourself into!"

"Hmph, they might just die in there! They say there are plenty of monsters up ahead!"

Vanessa sat back down in the carriage. Everyone looked at her, and for a moment, no one spoke.

After a while, Dorothea finally spoke hesitantly. "You... I know a little psychoanalysis..."

"I'm fine." Vanessa's indifferent gaze turned toward the window. "You should worry about the people outside instead."

They looked out the window.

Crossing the Public Security Bureau's cordon was like passing between two worlds. Everything seemed different. The tidy streets and tense but orderly atmosphere had vanished.

All they could see were countless displaced people fleeing in panic, like a scattered colony of startled ants.

There was no Public Security Bureau, no army. Occasionally, they saw people struggling to maintain a fragile order. Vanessa caught sight of a few familiar, tattooed faces.

"The Wild Dog Gang?"

"The Wild Dog Gang organized people to fight back last night, but..." Dorothea's expression was grim. "Those corpses hid in the shadows. There was no guarding against them all. A lot of people were injured."