Chapter 90: Six, now we can have a good talk about the trade.
After some setbacks, Gerard finally returned to his cabin.
And Bai Wei finally got a good look at what kind of place this eccentric old knight lived in. It was pretty much as Bai Wei had imagined, except for a metal frame bed in the corner that could be called a piece of furniture, this not-so-large house was piled up with various kinds of metal utensils.
Parts of weapons, handmade workbenches for creating tools, and a basket full of unidentifiable components.
At first glance, it hardly looked like a living space, more like a scrapyard.
Continuing inside, Bai Wei finally saw something different.
A desk and a rather bizarre machine.
Ignoring the machine for now, Bai Wei turned his attention to the desk because there was a black and white group photo on it. The photo featured more than a dozen Lyra knights, including Gerard, of course. Gerard appeared much younger in the picture than he did now; his right hand was holding a young girl, and his left hand was leading a slightly older boy—all bursting with enthusiastic smiles.
There was also a line of small print on the photo—”Year 232, Night Star.”
Bai Wei instantly understood to whom this group photo belonged.
The squad that Gerard had led into the deepest parts of the Pollution Zone ten years ago and never returned.
The table was covered with belongings of the members of that squad, a variety of photos, but mostly of that pair of young girl and boy.
They looked like they might be his children; the boy was somewhat older than the girl, and it was uncertain where he had gone.
However, their last photo was also from the year 236, by which time the boy had already donned the Night Star uniform, beaming with a radiant smile, while the girl stood beside, looking up at him with eager eyes.
…So, the son was in that squad too?
Bai Wei pondered thoughtfully.
Gerard walked to the desk, then took off his Chainsaw Sword strapped to his back, and the blade separated from the hilt, apparently to clean the dirt inside. Bai Wei was not interested in this, so he continued to examine the items on the desk.
There were some very worn-out old things on the desk, such as an alarm clock, a pipe, a folding knife, all engraved with names and dates. The names must be those of the Night Star Team members—Helmo, Eric, Hun… and the dates must be their manufacturing dates, years 231, 233, 236…
Lyra seemed fond of engraving the production dates on their tools as if recording their “birthdays.”
These old relics were produced before the year 236, which is ten years ago.
Then, Bai Wei observed the other things in the room; everything marked with a date was made no later than the year 236. For Lyra, known for their rapid updating and replacement of tools and equipment, these were truly antique of antiques.
This place was Lyra of ten years ago.
Gerard attached the disassembled Chainsaw Sword to that strange machine next to the desk and finally initiated a conversation with Bai Wei, “How much do you know about me?”
Bai Wei finally turned his attention to Gerard.
After his soul had recovered and he had conversed with Gerard, Gerard had not initiated any conversation with him in the past two days; in fact, he had often deliberately ignored Bai Wei.
But now, it seemed he was not planning to continue like that.
Bai Wei could guess some of Gerard’s thoughts, but he did not expose them, instead slowly saying, “Not too much, but not too little either.”
“Can you share it with me?”
“Of course,” Bai Wei said with a smile, “like I mentioned earlier, what you describe here as the ‘Night Star’ incident, right? Termed by Lyra as the gravest betrayal, that’s the year 236 when you led the most elite Night Star Team into the deepest part of the Pollution Zone without any orders, ultimately leading to the annihilation of the entire team, with only you, the captain, returning alive and claiming to have lost your memory of the events in the Pollution Zone. Since then, you were demoted directly from the Exploration Force to the Guardian Forces, until today… am I right?”
Gerard was silent for a while before saying, “Many people know about this incident.”
“Indeed, but I also know some things that others don’t.”
“Such as… you haven’t lost all of your memory,” Bai Wei said softly, “At least you remember that before setting off, you had received orders from the higher-ups.”
Hearing this, Gerard’s body trembled subtly, though Bai Wei caught it.
But he pretended not to notice and continued slowly.
“You remember, you clearly remember that on that day, the Lyra higher-ups issued you that mission, you were commanded to lead the team into the Pollution Zone. But you don’t remember what the mission was. When you regained consciousness, you had already returned to Lyra, but you were no longer a hero, but a traitor, and the entire Night Star Team was labeled as rebel—because the whole mission had been Erased, with no records, no issuer, all denied by the higher-ups. So, you are the defiant one, am I right?”
Gerard did not respond; he just unconsciously leaned against the wall for support.
“I think, during these ten years you haven’t been doing nothing, you’ve also been searching for answers and truth, but you haven’t found them, so you need my eyes, to see those things you want to see, but can’t see for now,” Bai Wei said, “As the once most distinguished ‘Night Star Knight’, you are very aware of one thing, ‘the past doesn’t lie, but memory does’. Once there is a discrepancy between the past and memory, there is only one possibility… Contamination.”