Ramscal Pathogen shows symptoms sooner than Stairmount expects. Only after an hour since he injected the pathogen into his body, he started to feel pain, in his head. Soon afterward, his whole body was shivering with cold. And now, it isn't only his head; his whole body is in excruciating pain.

"Is it because of the conversation I had with Daphne just now..." Deciding to lie down on his bed, Stairmount is holding his throbbing head. "It's really beyond my expectation, she can get acquainted with Enigma. As a member of an elite organization I have been informed about some very top-secret espionage agents, but for Enigma, the information they can gather is really so few, I can even say it's almost zero... then she, who is an ordinary person, can know one of Enigma agents, even gets acquainted with her. How do they get acquainted, anyway? And more, she wants to ask Enigma to help me. Even Saturn government is antipathy to me, moreover Neptune government. If it was Neptune who pointed the electron guns in the meeting room at that time, they would not just use it as a threat, but the lightning bolt would have been shot at us straight away... they won't offer help for sure... My God, Daphne is really something... thinking about her just makes my head more painful..."

But the pain he suffers from doesn't reduce even though he has been in a lying position. He tightens the blanket so that there is absolutely no vacant area for the cold wind to penetrate in, but still, the chill hitting him is unbearable. In fact, the more the clock ticks forward, the more intense the agony of pain he feels.

Copyright ©️ by boundless_universe 

Under normal circumstances, he is able to spend time in solitude and doesn't feel lonely at all, but now unexpectedly he really wants someone to accompany him on his side, the more people besides him, the better. But the reality is, he must be seperated from any kind of human beings. Having transformed into a patient who is labeled as the patient getting infected by the new-type pathogen, he is placed in a special room which is far away from patients with common diseases. If the voices of the visitors for patients or hospital staff from the hospital hallway can creep inside the general wardrobe, now he heard absolutely nothing.

Absolutely silent.

Everything is silent. Quiet.

In the midst of the pain which wracks his head, Stairmount feels his vision blur, and as time goes by, everything becomes dim, turns into a mere gray mist. His heart is beating harder and harder. More and more cold sweat drips from his body. It really makes him suffer a lot.

Stairmount stares up at the ceiling of his isolated room. He's been really exhausted in recent times. He studied specimens of the Ramscal Pathogen without break - perhaps he's got infected by the pathogen from that time, but at that time it infected him indirectly, different from this time when he gets it directly - but the indirect and direct pathogens have accumulated and combined in attacking his body. Not to mention the stress he bears mentally, which is much more severe. Bringing Daphne and her mother flee from Sapphire to Jupiter, the threats from Mr. Landlord, his compulsion to carry out that cursed Chrono mission, the suspicion and hatred of the Saturn government - all of them, have culminated to this stage. It makes his immunity very weak, and finally, becomes vulnerable to any kind of pathogen attack.

" ... They want to use you to beat Saturn..."

" ... And even if it's true... why should you care? What matters, is power. We are Jupiter people, not Saturn people!..."

"... We know, you are the perpetrator who spread all of these terrible pathogens, with the aim of weakening us, so as to make the dominance of your country be kept well-maintained. We know about that very distinctly, and because of that, for the safety of our citizens, we ask you to get out of this country, immediately..."

" ... So cruel... so savage... how cruel they are, force me to fight against my own ancestral country!..."

Blood, Status, Ethnicity, and Nationality.

He has been tired of all this.

He wants to be free from all of the suffering in this world.

His vision suddenly darkens. He seems to have fallen into a very deep abyss.

" ... You have become the real Saturn people, Schynn!"

He falls deeper. And deeper.

This is the time, when I must die because of the sin I have made. Since I have created a pathogen that will exterminate millions of people. And annihilate those who are of the same blood as me.

And this is the punishment for me. Killed by a pathogen emerging from this country of my blood origin.

This is the punishment for me.

Copyright ©️ by boundless_universe