Triiffic-Soul: Can I Be In Control?-Chapter 192 – Talk with the Printerman

Chapter 192 – Talk with the Printerman

“Hello, Havier.” Said Luna as they walked into the room. It was the small office of Havier at the manor, in the corner of the top floor, so that no one would disturb him while he worked. Even entering the room required opening the door, then closing it, to move down the short walkway that was blocked when the door was opened. A place that was an absolute pain to get to, and even possible for someone who didn’t know it existed to completely miss it.

From the small round window at the top of the room, the sight of snow begins to fall. The season had begun to shift, but Luna was surprised to see snow. She had heard it snowed a little bit here from reports and from what Eva had told them, but Eletscoep didn’t feel that far from the other countries to the north that didn’t snow. The mysteries of weather evaded her.

Havier swirled his hot coffee. Memories of time long gone were reflected within it. How many times did he drink this drink during the good and the bad times? “Thank you for coming. There is information you wish to know.” He said with calm certainty.

He had been thinking a lot over the past day about their previous quick conversation. It was quite a surprise. He hadn’t thought anything would cause his heart to jump this much since Mary was found to be alive.

Luna replied, “If you indeed know the answer, I would like a proper recap of what happened from someone who experienced it.”

[...] (Eva)

“Time changes people, and secrets can't be hidden forever...” His eyes held a deep melancholy. “Originally, it was called the great shame, an idea to hide our incompetence, to not speak of the event at all."

[...] Eva felt a lot of emotions, but a great one was disgust. Information, knowledge, and history were locked away because people were upset by a failure. It was a colossal failure, one that likely wouldn’t be replicated in near history, but she was deeply disgusted. People’s memories were tossed to the wayside just so the people living could feel a little better about themselves. The victims were already dead; was it necessary to spit on their graves as well?

[We are here for you, Eva.] (Syrus)

[Thank you.] (Eva)

“But times have changed,” said Eva.

“Yes...” A small, sombre smile rested on Havier’s face. “Certain people would discuss with their young ones a family member or friend who would pass. Not everyone did, but everyone did have someone close to them. There was a period of about eighteen years when the great shame prevented people from speaking, but as new people were born into the world, as people of this country, they were born curious; they had to know what happened.”

He placed his empty cup on the table.

“So, word spread. Stories told. People listened. Many tried to stay quiet to not bring up bad memories, but many children were also named after someone who was lost... heh... perhaps it was impossible to keep the information hidden from public spaces forever. Private discussions were never going to be enough forever.”

“So, you are saying it was just a simple case of people being too curious about the information to be kept hidden?”

“In the end, yes.” He sighed. "It was that simple. Even if we removed it from the schools, the papers, and the records, if the information no longer existed, then it just had to be found again.”

“If that is the case.” Eva shuffled forward. “Have people attempted to rediscover what caused the issue?”

He began with a tangent. “At the time, there was a rumour that only people with exotic attributes were affected, but that hasn’t held up to be true. Many doctors and people involved with the support efforts of the time eventually passed.” He paused. “All the corpses were burned to prevent further infections.”

“Were none kept for studying?”

“No. It was deemed too dangerous.”

Eva paused. “Nothing is too dangerous for a researcher.”

He pushed against the wrinkles on his hand. “...You really are someone whose roots trace back to here.”

“Were you in doubt?”

“No.” He waved his tired hand. “I believed your family did come from here; however, when a new tree grows, usually its roots form where it was planted.”

“An interesting idiom,” Luna then asked. “You say all that about people only recently being interested in the past, but based on the evidence, you had been looking into the events and people since that time.”

“...” Havier paused. “It merely was an act of collecting stories from people who had already lost too much. Even those who were willing to participate in the great shame gave the information after some pushing. Forgetting is truly a painful act, and for some, it helped them participate in it, as perhaps one day the lost ones would be remembered.”

“What a touching display.” Luna’s eyes closed. “So, did you figure anything out about the plague itself?”

She immediately drilled into the core of the matter.

“No.” Havier breathed out. “I wasn’t able to find anything.” His hands shook as he gripped the table, and the anger directed towards himself was quickly contained. “My efforts were only able to keep records of people’s last days, but even with the accounts that talked about the final moments of the victims… There wasn’t anything we could go on.”

“I see.” Anlesa chose to believe him for a moment, but she planned to review some of those on-death’s-door recounts.

There was another important question that Luna wanted to ask. “Has anyone with exotic attributes been born in the city since then?”

“...” He didn’t answer. Havier didn’t expect the blunt shift in questions.

Syrus pushed, “They have, haven’t they? Did they die if they stayed here?”

“...The chances someone is born with an exotic are lower than if neither parent has one.”

“That is the worst misdirection I have seen in a long time.” Luna leant back again and rolled her eyes. “What has happened to such people?”

“...They have been born within the city, but any that remain don’t stick around.” His eyes were hollow. “We failed to protect the royal family, and now we have all been cursed for our sins. Anyone who stays here or stays in contact with the city, their children are doomed to die.”

“Bullshit.” Syrus replied, “Curses exist, but none like this.”

“I used to think that... but perhaps the realm of curses has been out of study for far too long, and our knowledge of the topic simply wasn’t enough.” It was an answer appropriate for someone from Eletscoep; the topic required more investigation.

Eva closed their eyes and tried to ‘calm down’. “Perhaps you are right, but that line of thought also denies many other possibilities.”

“The other possibilities have been explored.”

“I don’t think so.”

“...If you have any plans to bring your relatives who have traits of Exotic attributes, then don’t, for all your sakes.” Havier had his own questioning for the group previously, long before this meeting, and he had learned many details about each member of the group. One of which was that Syrus had a relative who had strong, visible Exotic Attribute signs.

“They have their own plans; I have mine.” That was all Anlesa was going to say on the matter.

“Neither you nor Maca should’ve entered this city…”

“Why? Did you tell me this information willingly because you felt I might die?”

“That isn’t the reason, but if you do have an Exotic attribute, then please leave before the remnants of the curse reach you.” Havier had already spoken to Maca, Mary, and Max about leaving the country, but they hadn’t budged. The trio also hadn’t let Anlesa in on that fact, mostly due to thinking that Havier said that message to all of them.

Havier hadn’t originally assumed Syrus to have an Exotic attribute. She already had two, after all, but she did manage to enter his office without alerting anyone, so he decided that it could be a possibility. It was a leap in logic, but at this point, the possibility made him worry for her safety. It was also a reason for him that he could understand Syrus’s goal in investigating the past.

“Do you have any more enlightening words for me?” Luna asked.

“No, that is all, and if you may, I beg you to listen to my advice and leave this city with Mary and her child.”

[Do we push him for more?] (Syrus)

[No, I don’t think we will get any more information from him in his current state.] (Luna)

[We have enough…] (Eva)

[If that is so, I am happy to wrap this up.] (Syrus)

Luna stood up. “I will think about it, Mr Havier. I hope you have a pleasant rest of the day.”

“...Thank you.”

Leaving the office of Havier, the trio had a lot to think about and for Eva, every sliver of information he provided played in his mind. Entering their room and closing the door behind them, there was no one around to cause trouble.

While he didn’t seem to provide a lot of information, there were a few tidbits he had given them that were deeply valuable. The information he didn’t give was also valuable, as he helped them narrow down what was truly unknown. Perhaps he was hiding more, but that was for them to discover.

Eva ominously mused, “How did the doctors die...” Within his speech, he mentioned that doctors and people involved in supporting the infection suppression had died. From all the sources they had read, this information hadn’t been mentioned before. Most studies spoke about the loss of lives of the Exotic attribute people, and maybe a doctor's death here or there. But how Havier worded it and the tone of his voice made it sound like many more people died.

[They caught the infection?] (Syrus)

[That makes sense, logically, but no one else was infected. Well, more accurately, so few other people were infected.] (Eva)

[Isn’t it because of quarantine that the infected?] (Luna)

[But still, is it wrong to say that too few people died? So, what if it was slower to develop in non-exotic-attribute individuals? That would make it more deadly, as it would’ve been spread around unknowingly.] It had been bugging Eva; something hadn’t been adding up. Many had the same question as her. How did the infection spread?

It was a simple question, but the difficulty of the answer varied by disease.

When the infection spread thirty years ago and brought disaster to the kingdom, people were studying how it spread but weren’t able to come to a conclusion in time. Even the royal family had gotten infected... Sure, they interacted with people, but they would’ve been placed under tight control to ensure their safety.

The only person they could ask about the conditions of the time was Mary, but whether her memories would hold was a different story. It had been thirty years since then.

“It should’ve been a massacre,” Eva said with an ominous assurance. “The hospitals, the houses, the streets should’ve been full of corpses.”

[Lilly...] (Luna)

[People had the blood. Anyone could’ve awakened an exotic attribute after the fact.] Eva's words hardened. To her, it didn’t make sense. Perhaps everyone was convinced of the idea that it only infected people with Exotic attributes, but to her, that sounded stupid. Exotic attributes may be passed down through blood, but that was also true for all other attributes. [And now apparently people are still dying? What bullshit is that! If people are still dying, then nothing has been solved! Perhaps anyone who leaves the country is just assumed dead, as I don’t know how they would track everyone. If someone gave birth to an obvious sign of Exotic attributes, then it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to sneak out of the city.]

Eva took a breath before simplifying her thoughts. [We may not be able to find anyone who left the city, but I am betting if someone did, then there is a good chance they are alive if they made it out quietly. We, Maca, Mary and Max have been inside the country all this time, and not a single sign of infection. Even if the plague was quiet before the deadly aspects of it jumped out, Syrus would’ve noticed something with how perfectly she has the body memorised.]

[The fact that all the key researchers of the time died is a true loss… they were the ones with the knowledge, and now we are only left with their scraps…] Eva looked towards the window in their room at the city that moved by. The fire of determination was burning brighter than ever. She made an oath to herself that she would find the source of this plague.