The last gear train slowly departed from the terminal station, marking the end of a day's work.
By the ti it returns here, it would be the dawn of tomorrow. During this period, the ancient and dilapidated terminal station wouldn't have any visitors.
"Snap."
The match scraped across the edge of the box, first igniting a few sparks, then quickly turning into a small fla that illuminated the half-bearded chin. The mouth under that chin clenched a cigarette, and the fla licked the cigarette, soon producing a cloud of smoke.
Kude inhaled deeply from the cigarette, and his unnaturally tense emotions gradually relaxed. Then, as if he rembered sothing, he turned his head towards Gerard who was beside him, "Do you want one?"
Gerard shook his head.
"Ah, I forgot, smoking is prohibited in the Pioneer Force," said Kude with a laugh. "I have a friend in the Skeleton Corps who also never touches this stuff."
Watching Kude's skilled smoking gesture, one could tell he was an old hand. Gerard asked sowhat puzzled, "I've never seen you smoke before."
"While it's true that the Skeleton Corps doesn't outright ban smoking like the Devil Corps used to or like Night Star does now, there's a rule that captains should not smoke during dangerous missions," explained Kude. "And every ti you've seen , I've always been on such missions."
Gerard understood and nodded, "Yes, you had to be cautious around ."
"That's right," Kude didn't deny it and smiled again, "It's a dangerous and long mission."
After this exchange, the atmosphere between the two beca much more relaxed—even Gerard squeezed out what might be considered a smile, sothing quite challenging for him, seeing as he hadn't smiled like that in twenty years.
Gerard looked at Kude, a familiar yet unfamiliar junior.
"Familiar" because they had already spent several years together. "Unfamiliar" because during these years, they had never had a conversation like this.
Just as Kude had said, he had always been sufficiently wary of Gerard to the extent of completely relinquishing his beloved cigarettes, making Gerard think he didn't smoke.
"Why?" Gerard suddenly asked.
"You an, why I decided to talk to you?"
"No," Gerard said, "I an, why did you throw your weapons out of the carriage?"
Hearing Gerard's question, Kude's expression showed a mont of surprise, "You're asking that?"
"Because I am really curious," Gerard said calmly, "To talk to , couldn't you have just thrown your weapons at your feet? Why throw them out of the carriage? Does that appear more decisive?"
Seeing that Gerard was serious in asking, Kude couldn't simply fob him off. He seriously answered, "Decisiveness is one aspect, another is, I've heard about the Pioneer Force rules. When a detached mber returns to the squad, they must throw their weapons as far away as possible, to prevent them using those weapons to harm others if contaminated, and only after all their weapons are discarded, do you perform contamination tests… Is that the rule?"
Gerard seed to guess that Kude's actions were related to the old rules of the Night Star, and he nodded, saying, "Indeed, since 'Body Lock' can only lock tallic body parts and prostheses, it can't lock individual weapons, so we need this rule to eliminate potential risks."
"I know, each of Night Star's rules has been bought with blood," shrugged Kude, "So, did I do alright?"
"If this were the Polluted Land, then you indeed did well."
Kude smiled, "No way around it, I made that decision very suddenly. I could tell you were always cautious about my making a move, and I felt the sa. After all, in public eyes, you are the contaminated one, so I wasn't sure if making contact without caution was right."
"Then why did you throw away the weapons?"
"Because as long as those things are near us, we can never take that step forward." Kude gestured with his Chopping Axe, "No matter what I say, you would always be partly focused on whether I would strike you with an axe the next second, and if that Chainsaw Sword were by your side, no matter what you said, I would have to worry about whether you might split in two. We've known each other for a long ti, but for the majority of it, we have been wary and cautious of each other. Maybe you haven't felt so, but I have. Continuing like that isn't right; we now face significant issues and shouldn't be using our energy to guard against each other."
Hearing this from Kude, Gerard finally understood. Earlier on the gear train, Kude wasn't as composed as he appeared.
He was also gambling, gambling that Gerard hadn't gone mad.
And in order to convince himself of his choice, he resorted to the most radical approach, throwing his weapons out of the carriage, leaving no room for regret.
But this seemingly exaggerated action had achieved the best effect, without his all-in gamble, it's hard to say whether they could have had this sincere conversation.
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