Story Reader / Affection / Hanying: Zitherwoe / Story
Hanying: Zitherwoe I
>...How can it be love if one wouldn't die for it when they're alive and revived by it when they're dead?
...How is the love born from a dream any less real?
...
...How does everyone feel about The Peony Pavilion?
You're used to the action-packed performances, but I thought we could try something different on this Double Seventh Festival...
It's not easy to find proper dancers nowadays with all those mechanical puppets out there! Not to toot my own horn, but these dancers today are quite the beautiful and exceptional bunch!
...
~Petals fall on pillows light, sweet sleep on a weary night. Fleeting spring blooms evading our grasp.~
~Summer leaves whisper; cicada calls like a raindrop cascade. A lone shadow remains.~
...
The dancers' sleeves glide with flowers and butterflies around them. A breeze blows by, sending their veils across the guests and the fences into the sky to witness the lavish view and the busy ports of Kowloong's night.
—And the scene pauses.
Analysis on C-973920 complete...
The video data is larger than expected. Even though you have sped up the footage on your terminal, you can still glimpse the extravagance of Kowloong's past.
Now, all you can see here is a decrepit building, its shattered green tiles telling this countryside theater's former glory.
The Construct operating the terminal scans through all the data at lightning speed before shaking his head.
I've roughly looked through all readable data...
Most of them are promotional materials for Kowloong's Golden Age tourist spots and traditional opera. There's nothing about "The Cradle" here.
Understood.
We've also located the source of the unknown signals Babylonia detected.
The Construct points at the fallen mechanoids in the footage.
When the Punishing Virus broke out, the human administrators here quickly evacuated from the hill and left behind the worker mechanoids they couldn't destroy in time.
Those distress signals were sent by the malfunctioning mechanoids by mistake. It's not uncommon.
Babylonia received a bunch of undecipherable signals not too long ago from a hillside tourist spot southwest of Kowloong.
At the same time, the Nighter requested Babylonia's help to investigate it as they were occupied by their own affairs.
The mission naturally fell on your shoulders, given that you are the one who has the most experience dealing with the Nighter.
But after scouring through this area, your team has found nothing at all—there is nothing unusual here apart from the corrupted mechanoids.
We even recovered so much long-lost data on Kowloong Opera. The Quiniu Crew is going to lose their minds.
They've been reassembling their troupe recently and organizing a comeback premiere on the main stage of the Nighter. They even made those... handshake tickets or something.
This mission is like a vacation compared to what we usually get. We didn't even encounter that many Corrupted. I'm starting to wonder if there was really a mystical Lady Conch helping us.
It's escargot, not conch.
...Anyway, we'll be taking stock of our supplies. The transport craft is arriving in two hours. Rest here for a bit, Commandant.
Even with all your years carrying out missions in different parts of Earth, you have rarely seen a view as beautiful as this. And you have nothing to do while your team is taking inventory.
So you start heading into the woods, following a path of pebbles.
Your intel shows that this used to be an ancient temple inside the tourist spot, but there were barely any visitors at the end of the Golden Age.
Passing through the ramshackle doorway, you find an old tree behind a slanted wall. The canopy shakes in the wind, making a rattling sound.
It is no longer the season of blooming flowers, yet you find petals falling before you.
Between the falling flowers is an ethereal dancing figure.
You have seen the Kemuri dancers perform on the Nighter, but the dance before you is nothing from anything you have seen before.
You are stunned as if plunging into a dream older than the Golden Age Kowloong, and your breath slows.
The earth and sky fade away, and all you can see is the dancing figure amidst the flowers.
—You have no idea how long has passed.
The dancing woman suddenly gazes at you from afar. For a brief moment, she seems to lock eyes with you from behind her dancing fan—
Commandant! You're here! I've been looking for you.
A loud voice suddenly interrupts the quiet moment from behind, dragging you away from the serene scene.
What's wrong?
You shush him, gesturing to the area behind you.
Huh? There's nothing there.
You turn around to find that ethereal woman gone. The falling petals and the flying sleeves have vanished, leaving only the decrepit garden and the old tree.
It is as if what you saw was just a dream.
Did you, now? I only saw you here...
It was probably something akin to virtual reality.
Hearing you, the Chaofeng Crew behind the Construct takes apart a device by the road that has been imitating a rock.
Business was poor here at the end of the Golden Age. To attract more tourists, they made a lot of virtual reality environments and performances, as well as bought a lot of puppet dancers from the KCC.
...A lot of them were set up all over this mountain, but the Punishing Virus outbreak happened before they got to use any of them.
You probably saw the footage projected by one of the malfunctioning devices.
This might not be the best comparison, but you should think of it like a dream. After all, what was depicted in the projection was long gone already.
Right. And we've finished taking stock, Commandant. We should head down.
You turn around to look at the ancient temple one last time. It has stood there for a millennium, and it will still stand in the distant future until time erases it all.
Walking down the stairs, you hear the sound of drums from the mountainside. The drumbeats are long and far-reaching, echoing among the green hills.
It's the morning drums. It's a little early... but they insisted on doing it before leaving.
Although there are no humans stationed here anymore, Kowloong mechanoids still follow their preset commands, patrolling this area and performing the morning drums at dawn without exception.
But all those mechanoids have stopped working. There will be no one playing the morning drums after we're gone.
The dream here will vanish after this last echo of the drums.
Has this guy always been so... sentimental?
After everyone is gone, a green figure steps out from a pillar in the ancient temple.
...
They've left.
...Thank you so much. This body is old, and my circuit has amassed quite a number of errors. I even drew all those people here, having failed to hide the signal properly...
I didn't expect to find my own kin responding to my distress signal. Thank you for your invitation... It's unfortunate that I can't go back with you.
The voice coming out of the old audio module is mixed with the coarse shriek of a damaged machine.
...That's okay. Sage understands.
Thank you... My heart is content, having seen the dance of an old friend once more.
Consider those data m-my t-thanks...
The old mechanoid uses its last bit of power to stand up and lean on the door, staring at the empty garden.
...As a machine, I was lucky to live and connect with others... But life is short, and regrets are many...
...I cannot head to the same resting place even in death...
The old machine laments as it ceases functioning.
...
The woman's regretful sigh disappears right as the last hint of smoke from the incense slips away, vanishing into the woods.
