Herrscher of Reason's Arknights

･･････････

"It's so cold."

An unnamed mine on the northwestern tundra.

It doesn't belong to any city, and there are no settlements around it. Here, there is only white, nothing but white.

The year-round snow washes away all colors here, leaving only a pristine and cold white.

The Ursus guards, in pairs, piled up the bodies of the infected in the mine to one side.

"What number is this?"

"The tenth, or the fifth? I can't remember."

A tall, thin man wearing an old-fashioned military overcoat dragged the child's corpse toward a deep pit not far from the mine.

Another middle-aged man who struck up a conversation was carrying a bottle of liquor, drinking and joking with the tall, thin man in the snow.

He was the guard here, and the keys at his waist jingled as he moved.

"Hehehehe, I wasn't wrong back then, this place is simply heaven! God above."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man reached out and touched the body of the girl who had already died, seemingly still not satisfied.

"Change your damn habits, they're disgusting, and these are all infected people."

Before the middle-aged man could have a chance, the soldier kicked his already mutilated and torn corpse into the pit.

"Let's hurry up and move on, there's still a lot to move."

"Don't worry, they're all infected, so who cares?"

The middle-aged man, holding the bottle of liquor in his hand, was completely oblivious to the fact that he was drunk.

"Would a normal person go to a female dog with smallpox? Disgusting thing, get to work! If you don't hurry up and delay us, the captain will kill us."

The soldier glared at the scum in his eyes and walked toward the transport truck parked outside the mine. There, a large number of soldiers had gathered, all of them carrying corpses.

Inside the vehicle, the thing wrapped in the filthy rags seemed to have woken up, twitching a few times and emitting a faint groan that was swallowed by the wind and snow. However, the tall, thin soldier was already numb to this, and he roughly lifted the rags and dragged the thing inside along the ground toward the pit.

The driver, lying in the cab, was tuning the radio as if it were something that happened all the time, completely oblivious to what was going on in the back of the truck.

This morning, the Colombian federal government officially signed Bill No. 3, declaring it in effect. Colombia will impose sanctions on the Ussas Pipeline No. 2 project...

[Salad, salad, salad...]

Below the vehicle, the captain relaxed his shoulders. This was not an execution ground, and they had no right to kill.

Those infected are not considered people; they do not need to be tried or tested.

In Ursus, no one cares about the life or death of the infected. These filthy, lowly infected, who have no right to occupy any resources, are treated the same as rats.

These matters are not under their jurisdiction without trial; they are only responsible for cleaning up.

Perhaps some people were wrongly accused and not infected, but this is an Originium mine. People here are destined to contract Oripathy without protection. Once infected, they are infected, and no matter how innocent they were before, becoming infected is the greatest sin.

The above means that none of them will be left behind.

Their method was also the simplest and most straightforward: kill all the people who had two legs but were not wearing the same uniform, then blow up the mine and bury all the evil underground.

The man looked at the last remaining infected person in the entire mine.

The adults had all died long ago, and the old, weak, sick, and disabled had already died on the way to the hospital or in the frigid mines.

Only a small number of children remained.

The soldiers carried out a systematic massacre right in front of the children, then dumped the bodies into the pit as if they were hauling away garbage.

But these children had gotten used to it; they were barely clothed and their eyes were numb.

They saw so much death that it filled everything they saw.

Their world may only consist of this mine.

The man waved his hand, indicating that he needed to kill everyone quickly as he was in a hurry.

Suddenly, the man's gaze inadvertently fell on a girl.

Ursus is a nation composed of a single ethnic group, with the vast majority being Ursus people, but this girl is clearly special.

A Castel.

The girl's long, slender ears, standing out against her dry, dull silver hair caused by lack of nutrition and care, made her quite eye-catching.

He was around eleven years old, and his appearance was quite good; at least among the group of children who were ragged and had a very poor mental state, he was one of the better ones.

But what's most special isn't his appearance, but his eyes.

Unlike other corpses draped in human skin, those walking dead, the girl's eyes were alive.

Ironically, the man actually saw... anger in the other person's clear eyes?

ha?

anger?

What are we angry about?

Special things always pique people's curiosity.

Those angry eyes are quite amusing. What are they angry about? Are they angry at what they did?

What a joke. Can an animal feel anger towards a butcher?

It's really fun.

Then the man raised his foot and kicked the girl who looked somewhat different from the others.

anger?

Do infected people have the right to be angry?

She should have been like those mindless, animalistic infected, her emotions consumed by immense fear.

The heavy military boots were still stained with red snow. An adult's kick would be enough to kill a minor child, let alone a child who was starving, severely malnourished, and exposed to extreme cold.

The girl collapsed in the snow and fell silent.

They might be dead, or they might not, but it didn't matter. The captain patted the snow off his gloves and told his men to speed up.

"Ugh...uh..."

Perhaps it was the cold snow that stimulated the wound on her forehead, causing a numbing pain that woke Yelena from her coma. The intense pain throughout her body made the girl only able to let out cries of agony. Her body, already ravaged by hunger and heavy physical labor, was so badly injured that she could no longer even struggle to get up.

It hurts so much... It's so cold... Am I dead?

The girl, who had collapsed in the snowdrift, was gradually regaining consciousness.

The soldier's kick knocked the girl unconscious.

She has never met her parents.

The girl only remembered being held in the arms of a man and a woman. The man died protecting a woman by shielding her from a crossbow bolt, and the woman used her spine to block a second wave of bolts.

After that, I came here.

As for the days that followed, the girl spent her time in a cycle of being awake, in pain, exhausted, and starving to the point of unconsciousness, only to be woken up by ice water.

Constantly subjected to the harsh environment, the cold, and the abuse from the guards, the relentless mental, physical, and emotional torment made life unbearable...

Was she having a nightmare? The biting cold wind seemed to be deliberately reminding the girl that this was reality. Her drowsy mind couldn't maintain full clarity in the face of the cold wind; she only knew that she was about to die.

If this is a dream, I really hope I can wake up soon and go find my grandmother.

Grandmother always talked about how warm their old home was, how they could see all seasons except for heavy snow, how there was a warm fireplace, and how they could hunt venison. If this is a nightmare, then wake up quickly and go find the "home" that Grandmother talked about. This is Yelena's only dream.

However, before the dream could fully take flight, it was shattered in the dark, snowy night.

The boots that had been pressing down on her were gone, and the voices of the men were growing louder. Her ears, already damaged, could no longer make out what they were saying, but her intuition told her that danger was approaching.

The child's body was too weak; it was a miracle that he even woke up, let alone escape.

Her eyes grew heavier and heavier, the icy wind robbing her of her last bit of sensation, her vision blurring, but even so, the girl struggled to wave her arms, trying to crawl out of there, to get to some home, to escape this nightmare—

"thump."

Her legs were roughly dragged up, and the thin rag could no longer provide any protection from the wind and snow. The icy snow irritated her skin, pulling at her healed and infected wounds with tremendous force. The old wounds constantly stimulated the girl's sensitive nerves. Rather than waking up and enduring endless pain, the girl would rather continue to sleep, at least she wouldn't be in so much pain.

The snow in Ursus completely buried the girl in it. She tried to get up, but with the adults dragging her, she could only slide her arms aimlessly.

His limbs were frozen stiff, and the large crater in the distance was shrouded in shadow, as if death itself had opened its arms...

Am I going to die...?

So cold... so hungry... so painful...

So sleepy...

I miss my grandma...

I miss my parents... And what about other siblings my age...?

But Grandma is gone. Will I ever meet her again...?

I don't want to die...

The girl struggled to turn her head, stretching out her arms and hands. The door in her empty vision seemed within reach; if she could just go through it, run along the road, and surely she could run into a passing car, then call for help, and perhaps she could be saved.

If I am not infected.

My increasingly confused mind even started imagining my escape routes...

The gate is just a short distance away, practically within reach...

Resentment, pain...

Why me...?

Why do they treat themselves like this...?

I don't want to die...

I don't want to die...

I don't want to die!!

Whether it was a final burst of energy before death or the will to survive, her previously weak legs suddenly began to struggle! Caught off guard, the man lost his grip, and the girl broke free of his control. The door was just a short distance away!

Just run there.

The girl struggled to her feet, her limbs, almost numb, still working hard to obey her brain's commands, just to get there!

However, reality is cruel. The girl, tormented by hunger, will not get up quickly, and the men around her will not abandon their online personas and wait for the protagonist to erupt in retaliation. The villainous passersby simply kick the frail girl down with a single kick.

Then came the retaliatory kicking and punching. Yelena couldn't remember how long it lasted. All she could do was reach out, staring at the door so close yet forever out of reach, straining to see it as if it represented her fading hope...

I don't want to die... I... don't want to die, anyone will do, anyone will do... someone... please save me...

An eerie light.

Accompanying this was a strange sound as if the sky was being torn apart. Just as Yelena's consciousness was about to fade away, a blinding light illuminated the earth, turning the sky, which was nearing dusk, white. Everyone unconsciously looked up to search for the source of the strange change in the sky.

However, what greeted them was a towering pillar of light and an intense heat that seemed to burn their retinas!

That was a torrent of light descending upon the small mine.

Section 3, Chapter 3 [Emergency Food.jpg]

The mine disappeared, literally disappeared.

The moment the light and heat arrived, everything around was melted by the high temperature.

In the instant death loomed, Yelena seemed to awaken her Originium Arts, perhaps due to a strong will to survive or a final act of mercy from heaven.

It was an extreme cold, as if reflecting this world covered in white, explaining what winter truly is.

Extremely cold temperatures, even colder than winter itself, radiated outwards from the girl!

It was as if a snow lotus bloomed in mid-air, colliding with the scorching flames.

As a result, Yelena survived, but the mine and the others in it did not fare so well. Those who were swallowed by the blast were instantly vaporized, and those who were farther away were also swallowed by the impact of high temperature and pressure. The entire pit reeked of a burnt smell. Only Yelena, who was on the edge and had awakened her abilities, was lucky enough to escape.

Perhaps it was divine retribution, or something else entirely, but Yelena didn't understand what it was. She only tasted blood, smelled the stench of burning human flesh, and saw a hellish scene.

This wave not only turned the mine into a huge crater, but also overturned the surrounding vehicles. The rations that the guards were carrying were also blown everywhere, and most of them were ruined.