Why it never ends

Chapter 1276, Part 1
Hester looked away: "...Did you still have contact with the mother city after you lost contact with the First District?"

"No, what's wrong?"

Has anyone ever told you that the Mother City could disappear from this world at any time, perhaps even going into hibernation again?

Victoria chuckled quickly and lightly: "Where did this news come from? Is it because of the First District's loss of contact?"

Hester was silent for a moment, then pouted and said, "You don't believe me?"

“Look at your source,” Victoria said. “Who told you?”

“…Then just pretend I was talking in my sleep,” Hester said. “There’s a second half to this sleep-talking. Do you want to hear it?”

Victoria smiled and shrugged.

“The First District’s loss of contact is due to the triggering of the containment sequence of Mother City 1—and every Mother City is likely to return to the underground at any time, and the containment conditions,” Herstado looked at Victoria, “are a simple value judgment.”

Victoria's expression gradually turned serious: "...What?"

Hester patted his knees and stood up: "We'll discuss it further when you find out what it is—that's all for today."

……

Before arriving at the base, many people thought they had simply moved to a different place and that their lives wouldn't change much.

However, within just the first week of moving in, everyone felt the impact of their new life—Hersta and the school teachers seemed very enthusiastic about taking them out: libraries, museums, parks, botanical gardens... they went to a new place almost every day.

Before the trip, Xia Yixue prepared a route map for everyone, which included the destination and the means of transportation. Everyone then began to learn how to ride the bus.

This is quite a hassle, because most buses in Emmanuela only use the third district language, and most buses don't announce stops in sequence, so it's common for people to board the wrong bus or get off at the wrong stop. It's not just the farm workers and children who are confused; many first-time visitors are also often bewildered by the public transport system.

On their third day here, several workers went to the hospital to visit their companion who was still receiving treatment.

Although there is a direct bus between the base and the hospital, going to the hospital is still something they have to overcome their fear to accomplish. In everyone's past experience, being "sent to the hospital" means never coming back—everyone has their own imagination of what kind of terrifying place it is.

The laborers still receiving treatment in the hospital were facing similar difficulties. Although Worsander had visited them with many people before, they mostly had to support each other. Therefore, when their old friends reappeared, they couldn't help but hug each other and weep.

Several young laborers from the Third District, whose language skills had improved somewhat, began to eagerly anticipate their trip to the Kossy Work Station. They asked Xia Yixue for the station's address, but none of them boasted that they would be going to collect the gift from Hershta. The work station's address quickly spread among the farm laborers, and soon everyone had a copy.

Xia Yixue told Hershta about this, and everyone began to look forward to when the first laborer to obtain citizenship would appear.

Hershta feels happy whenever he thinks about it.

She often pondered this question during breaks when she and Stella visited chamber of commerce members. Was it possible this month? Perhaps the first one wouldn't appear until next month? But in any case, once someone took this difficult first step, the second and third laborers heading to the workstations would quickly follow... there was no doubt about that.

Some courage is gathering, and it's only a matter of time before the chains are broken.

Another evening passed, and Hester sat comfortably in the passenger seat. Stella sighed repeatedly as she drove. Before, Hester would ask why, but now she had observed that Stella would fall into such lamentations after resolving a major stressful event. She wondered if this was Stella's usual habit or if it had only started after coming to District 12.

"The first round of voting is tomorrow," Hester said. "Are you alright?"

“Excellent,” Stella sighed. “Don’t let my appearance fool you, I’m serious… We’ve done everything we could, now it’s just a matter of fate.”

The car stopped at the traffic light. Stella turned her head and asked, "Do you think fate will be on our side this time, Jane?"

“I don’t know.” Hershta, who had been looking ahead, turned his gaze back to Stella. “But this is not a question you would ask… Fate, God, destiny.”

Stella laughed.

The light turned green, and traffic resumed. Stella stepped on the gas: "If fate is on our side, then I believe in her."

……

The following day, the first round of bidding for the International Safety and Industrial Technology Exhibition in District 12 concluded.

The thirty-six committee members cast their anonymous ballots into the ballot box. Twenty minutes later, the committee chairman announced the votes publicly—North Shore Chamber of Commerce 9 votes, Defense Engineering Association 4 votes, Eastern Common Market Advanced Manufacturing 3 votes…

Atsuya Supply Chain Security and Processing Technology Conference received 14 votes, ranking first in the first round of bidding.

As soon as the news broke, everyone in the venue searched for the person in charge of the Askia Technical Conference—the committee members also searched around but couldn't find Hesta. Ernesto immediately called Hesta to congratulate her, but to his surprise, Hesta didn't seem particularly surprised when she heard the news.

“Where are you? There are many reporters here right now, they all want to see you, and I bet they have a lot of questions to ask you,” Ernesto said. “Why aren’t you here on such an important day?”

“This…is truly unbelievable,” Hester’s voice carried a certain indifference, and she even let out a few nonchalant laughs. “I told you last time that our little party just wants to be in the top five…I thought we were just there to make up the numbers today, so I didn’t send anyone over—”

“You’re the main character here,” Ernesto chuckled, glancing at the pale-faced men from the North Shore Chamber of Commerce in the distance. His voice was particularly cheerful. “Where’s your farm? I’ll let the reporters know.”

After hanging up the phone, Hersta looked at Stella, who had been waiting for a long time.

Stella had already gotten the answer from Hester's expression, but she still asked with concern, "How did it go? Did we make it into the top two?"

“We ran twelve people, and in the end we got two more votes.” Hersta’s eyes shone brightly. “Fourteen votes, first place in the first round, Stella.”