Ch.113Chapter 15. Dead Man Blues (4)

“…Ah. That’s… I mean… Ah, so…”

She mutters to herself distractedly, staring at the screen as if being pulled in. A state of trance. Immersion… but it didn’t last long. 5 minutes. Or maybe 10.

“I think I understand a bit now.”

Eventually, Cassandra leaned back in her chair. She must have been very tired, as her body went limp.

“There were patients like this in the early stages, but no one considered it a bacterial infection. They thought it was delirium or drug side effects. Cassandra probably came across these cases in passing but didn’t connect them with this.”

That means the Disease Control Bureau doesn’t know about the relationship between the goddess statue, the Limos virus, and Cybele.

“But Cybele must have known what this virus was. High-ranking government officials would have known too.”

“…Neither side knew the details.”

“That’s impossible. They couldn’t not know.”

But Cassandra was adamant.

“No. They didn’t know. Cassandra knows. She knows they didn’t know.”

“How do you know that?”

Cassandra lowered her head. After a long silence, she clenched her fist and exhaled before speaking.

“…There was a foolish girl. She was smart, but her father, her only blood relative, had little interest in her. He only showed interest when she solved complex formulas.”

I had a feeling I knew who she was talking about.

“The girl’s father gave her tasks without explanation, saying, ‘I’m trying to recombine this virus like this, how should I do it?’

He didn’t seem to expect much, but the girl somehow solved it. It was a simple cell recombination problem. Her father patted her head once and kept bringing new tasks.

Then one day, he brought a white lab coat. He placed her among people wearing identical coats and told her to solve problems with them.

Those people did what the girl’s father had done. They gave her problems without explanation, and when she got the answers right, they gave her treats.

Then one day, they stopped giving her problems. ‘It’s all done. Thanks to you.’ That day, they just ate all day.

Someone sang, someone stroked the girl’s hair saying, ‘You’re a genius. You’ll become someone great. But I guess you don’t need to worry about your future. Your father is one of Cybele’s founders, what could you possibly lack?’

But the next day, soldiers stormed in. They accused them of treason. They hid the girl in a cabinet, but couldn’t save their own lives.

The girl returned home, but her father had been taken away and the house was burned down. Her father’s lawyers abandoned his defense, and people she thought were her father’s friends rubbed their thick fingers together.

The last time she saw her father, he looked haggard. He looked at her with his usual emotionless eyes. ‘I have no inheritance to leave you.’ He moistened his lips once and continued.

‘They took everything from me. If I transfer shares to you, they’ll kill you and take all the shares. I can’t even pass on my name to you. Instead, you’ll be given a new name.’

That’s how the girl’s father left this world. Fortunately, the people who worked for her family had prepared contingency plans and carefully explained to her what had happened.

Her father was one of Cybele’s founders and renowned in biotechnology. He owned many shares and was particularly interested in artificially enhancing humans. It was profitable research.

But he also made money through dishonest means.

‘That’s what it means to do business in Elza. The state doesn’t protect companies. You have to protect yourself. That’s why your father was a good man. He taught us how to protect ourselves and our property.’

The girl hated all of it, so she decided to live with a new name and identity. Everything she had done in the past was erased. As if she had disappeared from the world for a certain period or been abducted by aliens.

But she wanted to know what had happened. Why had her father died like that? Why had Cybele been handed over to the country of Elza, not to someone else?

So she began to look for the puzzles her father had given her. They were all fragmentary and broken, making it impossible to see the whole picture.

But eventually, the girl discovered that what her father had made her and the researchers do was the reconstruction of the Limos virus.”

Did Camilla tell me? That Cybele was a company created by nobles who were driven out of the eastern country of Römer.

Cybele grew insanely, as if to take revenge on the homeland that had abandoned them. They gripped almost every industry, from spoons to tanks.

Römer had no particular reason to dislike them, so they gave full support, and eventually established them as the parent company of Elza. Even if it was money brought by an abandoned child, money is money.

Probably, Cassandra’s father was in one of the highest positions. And he must have been carefully skimming money on the side.

I don’t know if that’s what irked them or if there was some other reason. Looking at how they took away his shares once Cassandra and the researchers finished their work—putting hunger-inducing components in Cybele’s canned food—it seems likely.

“What the girl did was combine the Limos virus with beneficial bacteria. She changed it to be like gut microbes that aid digestion, so the body would accept it without rejection.

But such a disguise couldn’t last long. So she made it continuously mutate to evade the immune system. It was like constantly presenting fake IDs…

She solved the most difficult part, and the other researchers completed the rest.

That’s how the girl’s father handled things. He distributed work in pieces to his subordinates, and only he knew the whole picture. That’s why they had to kill all of them.

Then the zombie outbreak happened. The girl was shocked when she saw the structure of the Cro virus. It was similar in many ways to what she and the researchers had spent all day pondering, molding, and fighting over.”

It was Cassandra.

The person who created the virus was Cassandra. Of course, she didn’t make it all by herself. But no one could deny that she played a crucial role.

“…I just believed that solving this would mean people wouldn’t go hungry anymore. Both the girl and the researchers who worked with her. If that counts as an excuse.”

“So the ‘girl’ joined the Disease Control Bureau?”

At my question, the girl—Cassandra—nodded.

“Because she thought she needed to atone for the sin she had committed without knowing it was a sin.”

“Is this what you talked about with Camilla?”

“I apologized. Said I was sorry.”

“And then?”

“She didn’t know what to do, then just gave me a tight hug. That was it.”

Camilla must have been complicated in many ways too.

And she would have known it wasn’t just Cassandra’s fault. Their relationship doesn’t seem particularly good or bad, but this kind of confession must have been heavy.

Cassandra now looked at me.

“For the top brass at Cybele and the Elza government, knowing that ‘hunger-inducing components were added’ would have been enough. They either didn’t know or didn’t care about anything else.

They wouldn’t have known about the original state of the Limos virus either. Only a very small number of people knew its identity, like my father and the dead researchers. Including Cassandra.

But since no one would listen to Cassandra, it’s as good as no one knowing anymore. That’s why Cassandra wants to speak through results. Even if it means sacrificing her body.”

I look at her hands and arms. The needle marks are clear. I recall her inexplicable strength and terrible stamina.

“What happened to your body?”

“An experiment deemed a failure. It was meant to make the body recover even after abnormal impacts. Father was obsessed with it because my body was weak since childhood.

But I don’t know if it was because he loved his daughter or because I was a good laboratory specimen. Well. In the end, it did help identify the components of Cybele’s treatment drugs and culture solutions.

That’s why Cassandra can handle having the virus injected into her body. Because she can endure it. But it couldn’t become universal. I heard another child who received a similar procedure died. But…”

“But?”

“…No. Nothing. It doesn’t seem important.”

She got carried away and went too far. I didn’t think she would answer again even if I asked. And I wasn’t particularly interested either.

What matters is the present.

“Anyway, you didn’t create the Cro virus.”

“No, I didn’t. I don’t even know how it was created. My guess is that the cultured meat nutrient solution was infected, combined with some stem cells, and was exposed through some pathway.

The result was a monster. It keeps the infected constantly hungry, while healing and nurturing the host so it can spread and transmit itself widely. It numbs judgment and enhances instincts. Because that makes them eat more.”

Cassandra manipulated something again. The Limos virus and Cro virus appeared on the screen. As she fast-forwarded, the number of Limos decreased, but Cro increased.

“In places with high Limos virus contamination, like unprotected zones, the two viruses compete to consume people. But in the end, Cro will win. Even if Limos self-destructs from its own anger, Cro survives.”

“…Is there a solution?”

“I don’t know. There’s no original sample of the Limos virus, and the Cro virus keeps mutating. If we could create antibodies for Limos, maybe, but even that would be meaningless because the toxicity is too strong.”

“So there’s no answer?”

At my words, Cassandra’s eyes became clear.

“No. I’ll find one. If you think there isn’t one, there isn’t. If you think there must be one, there is. Whether it takes a year or ten years. I’ll find it. It’s a variation of a problem I’ve solved before. I can solve it somehow. I have to. If only I can survive until then…”

If only we can live until then.

What’s the way to swim among a school of sharks without getting bitten?

“Cassandra.”

“Yes?”

“Actually, I’ve been conducting an experiment without you and Camilla knowing.”

“…Experiment? What kind?”

“Zombies don’t usually attack each other. Not unless they perceive each other as food. So I wondered what would happen if zombies didn’t think of us as food.

It’s like with animals, right? You can make them track by smelling certain scents, but familiar scents can lower their aggression.”

Cassandra was perplexed.

“…That’s bold. So… what happened?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been doing it for about two weeks, but it doesn’t seem to have much effect. There was one good specimen, a zombie chained to a utility pole. But it got loose from the chain.”

I told her about the military police zombie. Cassandra listened quietly to my story.

“Cassandra thinks it wouldn’t move elsewhere if food is abundant. Just because the chain is loose doesn’t mean it would go far seeking freedom.”

“Then it should still be there. I roughed it up a bit before coming here. If it thinks of me as a friend or something. Do you think this is possible?”

Cassandra still looked perplexed as she tapped the desk. But soon she shook her head.

“I haven’t heard of such cases. And I can’t tell just from hearing about it. I’d need to see it directly. But if we go there, that zombie doesn’t know Cassandra’s scent, so it might show aggression. And you said it’s still unfamiliar with Johan’s scent?”

So this won’t work either.

“…Or.”

Cassandra’s sentence seemed unfinished.

“Or?”

Her finger poked my chest firmly.

“Your pheromone. It’s not exactly a pheromone, but anyway.”

“The one produced by the Cro in my and Camilla’s bodies?”

“It’s weak, but if it’s effective enough on dog zombies… there might be unexpected results. If it hates you, it will go berserk trying to kill you; if it develops a liking, its aggression might decrease; and in the rare case it actually likes you… well, it might behave like a dog in heat.”

“I don’t like that.”

“It might not necessarily pounce on just you. Like how hungry zombies don’t ‘specifically’ try to eat you. They eat what’s nearby. Threats are a different story, but… theoretically, it seems valuable.

If your pheromone becomes stronger, and if it can just soften hostility and wariness, then something might work out somehow. If it’s possible for zombies not to be hostile, that is.

But as I said before, Johan’s component is too weak. It’s like sniffing perfume from a passerby. It needs to be stronger.”

“How can it get stronger?”

“Well. If the virus needs to get stronger, putting some kind of strain on your body would be good. Camilla’s exercise is quite excellent.”

That training program where you go in on two feet and crawl out wriggling.

“And… um… fighting off mild external infections. For that, you’d need to go out and fight more.”

Fighting actively. That sounds good too. I happen to have a good excuse.

The notebook from the heretics we fought recently. It contained information about the goddess statue excavation plan, expected locations, and what measures to take when collecting the statues.

So in that area, there should be many hungry, starving zombies that are relatively easy to deal with. Maybe we could even find a contaminated goddess statue.

But that means I could be exposed to the Limos virus. It would be a very dangerous journey unless I’m well-protected.

And I don’t particularly want to engage in unnecessary physical fights with zombies.

“But I can’t fight zombies all the time.”

“Well, there’s one more thing…”

Strangely, Cassandra turned her face away. But with one hand, she clutched her clothes tightly. What could be making her so embarrassed?