Story

All of the stories in Punishing: Gray Raven, for your reading pleasure. Will contain all the stories that can be found in the archive in-game, together with all affection stories.

Festival of Vicissitudes

Dear Selena, I have started work on my story again after receiving your mother's suggestions.

The writing has since been going... smoothly, more or less. I'm afraid I don't have more updates regarding it right now.

To compensate, I've attached a funny thing that happened during the writing process.

If my last letter alarmed you, I hope this one will offer you peace of mind.

Even better if it makes you laugh.

I've seen you smile, but it was always a polite smile before your mother or other guests.

Even I have rarely seen you smile comfortably as yourself.

But I can't forget it, having seen it once.

Not long after you became a Construct and joined the Archaeological Team, you helped restore an opera from a composer in the Golden Age.

You couldn't wait to contact me the moment you finished listening to that old performance.

And when I saw that beautiful, bright smile on your face... that was the real thing.

You smiled as you told me how much you were enjoying the opera, how it still lingered with you.

You were wondering who this composer was and for what reason this person joined the fight.

You were thinking about how you would tell him what his work meant to you.

I'm listening to it right now as I write this.

It's been entered into WGAA's archives. Now, everyone can listen to the story that made you smile.

What kind of image would you conjure up when you hear about this?

If you met that composer in your journey... what would you say?

Selena. Selena?

Umm...

Deep in thought, Selena looks up to see the wilting flowers and ruins that litter the land before her.

This area is too barren to be called a city ruin, but the echoes of past civilizations mean this is no wilderness either.

This is one of the ruins of the Great Evacuation evacuation site. A large battle took place here a few weeks ago.

I'm performing my duty as a member of the Archaeological Team and searching for art data at this evacuation site.

I was just... considering where to start.

She then looks at the colors-covered ground. She is not sure if it is the work of someone or nature, but a sea of flowers has blossomed on the war-ravaged field.

A few of the petals have been crushed, leaving behind small footprints.

...I'm also looking for a girl named Flora. I heard she left the conservation area for a while now. She will likely get infected in this area with a low Punishing Virus concentration.

Selena looks at the small footprints. A girl was running across this field a few hours ago in the night.

Thanks for helping, but just having more boots on the ground doesn't make the search easier.

Searching for missing people from the conservation area is my job and expertise. You're from WGAA. You're here for the commendation, and, I suppose...

Pieter points to the stone wall next to him. Complex and artistic patterns cover the surface, where a faded plate engraved on top vaguely reads "Evacuation Site 184—Acadia Evacuation".

You're right.

In that case, would you allow me to assist you while I carry out my own mission?

Selena smiles, walking forward along the wall Pieter was pointing, looking further beyond where the stone wall lies.

Look. This is a standard pattern you'd find in a large gallery right before the main hall.

Flora would have recognized it and headed for the gallery. And she would...

Selena points to one side of the stone wall.

...Head that way.

You looked into Florance's girl?

I simply asked around among the children. They told me that Flora is a well-known art-lover in conservation area 184.

She has left behind paintings and notes about her dreams and the stories she wants to tell. Clearly, Florance taught her much.

Now that she has "run away"... to somewhere fairly concentrated with the Punishing Virus away from the conservation area and is nowhere to be found.

It was because of what her mother did.

After Flora's mother heard about her husband's death, she threw away most of his work in a moment of grief, while Flora collected them back... again and again. Eventually, she left with those work without anyone noticing.

Flora would have left with complicated feelings, hoping to find a way to save her grieving mother. She might not have a destination in mind... but when she reached here, she must have slowed down for the ruins as an art-lover.

She might be wondering what these places looked like in the past.

This could have been a supple field where wheat, barley, rye, wild beans, and peas flourish.

She lifts her hand to her waist, opening her palm as if the crops she mentioned are really here, and she is touching them.

These could have been the turfy mountains where the sheep nibble, the flat meads thatched with stover, and the banks with pioned and twilled brims.

But this is nothing now.

In an instant, Pieter's words take away the crops and the fields, leaving behind the barren land and the few shrubs that are there.

Right... my apologies.

Pieter takes a few steps toward where Selena pointed, and he indeed discovers Flora's small footprints among some bushes.

Following the footprints and the landscape, Pieter analyzes where the trail leads while advancing.

Speaking of which, do you know what the most famous painting among these ruins was?

This used to be a gallery, and that painting used to be hung here.

Deep within the ruins, Selena suddenly stops and gestures toward an empty wall next to her.

It was a long painting of a starry sky. It could have stretched from this end to the other, covering the whole wall. The artist painted it while threatened by hunger and cold.

Selena touches the wall, her fingers gently gliding over the rough surface as if the painting is still there before her, meeting her fingertips.

I still remember how shocked I was when I first saw it.

The sun above our head has been shining upon us for billions of years.

Who knows how many lightyears those stars had to travel to arrive here?

This planet is like an eye... and wherever it looks, it is enveloped by the light from the sun.

That's a good point.

Selena smiles, seemingly having found a rare person who understands her.

A correction, then. There isn't just an eye in the universe—there are also gazes. Perhaps one day in the future, ours will meet the gaze of another star.

When that happens, we could very well communicate with each other, but the method might be unconventional and ineffective... like writing letters?

What do you think? Pieter?

That is all Pieter says before leaning down and continuing his search in the field for Flora's footprints, but then he turns around again.

Pieter

But I must correct you on one thing—aliens might be a little too far away from us. Even if we could establish communication, it would take too long. We wouldn't have time to translate their language before our civilizations are gone and vice versa.

The distance of time, is it? Right... it is a shame, then. But even lost civilizations leave behind traces. They would have a long time to appreciate the marks we left behind.

I believe those lives would have expressed their light despite the pain and the loss, leaving behind their marks—and we would call those marks art.

Right, isn't expressions a fundamental part of art?

Whether it's done through brushes, words, or other media, that expression offered to the world is art.

—Just like how the starry night was expressed in the painting even when the artist was starving and freezing.

Artists work tirelessly to leave behind these marks to share their thoughts with others, even across time itself. Hunger and cold would not stop them when they would sacrifice themselves for art.

For that, art might be as crucial to humankind as food or sleep.

Don't you think?

...Ha.

What Selena receives is a dismissing chuckle.

So, according to you, the lives we lost on the battlefield in those merciless slaughters would think about art as well, huh?

Selena pauses for a moment, nodding slightly before shaking her head.

Hmm... I might seem too arrogant if I said "yes."

But... I think it is art as long as it is expressed truthfully, whether it is from a mother who gives her life to her child or soldiers who deliver a message to their comrades.

As for someone who thinks about art on the battlefield... I'd say that would be you, sir.

Pieter raises a brow.

Actually, I didn't think of this myself. I learned about it... from a scene in an opera.

Selena places her hands before her abdomen and begins to sing quietly.

～Imagination and the freedom it offers, I hope it takes you beyond the ferryman's river.～

～Elysium-bound you will be, in the future days when you are free.～

"A Hero's Farewell", Act Three, Scene Six.

Written by none other than you, sir, I believe.

Its ending shook me to my very core, juxtaposing death and the power of imagination.

I can talk to you about my juvenile fantasies only because I've seen your work. You are far more creative than I am, sir.

I didn't think someone would still be talking about that work today.

The work you left behind during the Golden Age has influenced a lot of people in WGAA. Although you have refused to join us, we all consider you to be our pioneer.

Selena curtseys to Pieter.

I appreciate it, but please forget about it. Phony is what it is.

Ha...

Selena hears the veteran chuckling wryly.

You're good at expressing your feelings.

That's what art should do.

The veteran falls silent.

Selena, all the words you say, you just want to find Florance's girl and ask her about something, don't you?

After his long silence, his altitude suddenly shifts, and Pieter changes the topic, calling Selena by her name.

...Indeed. I was hoping to get permission from you... to talk to her directly.

In that case... what if I tell you that his ending wasn't how you think it was?

You looked into the dead soldiers here and sang for them... that's great. The departed souls will thank you for your efforts, but no more than that.

The bravado and lofty promises couldn't stand the last bullet that took them.

Do you actually believe that they sacrificed themselves for the greater good, as they said?

Please tell me if there's something I don't know...

Pieter answers her with a low hum.

Selena thought he was clearing his throat for what he was about to say. Instead, Pieter is preparing to sing. He has gone through this story in his head again and again, only waiting for someone to listen.

Time is of the essence. We'll walk and talk.

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