Chapter 35: Thunder and Swift Rain

“The story begins with a woman making a bet with a man.”
“A bet…” Bronya frowned slightly, but Venti ignored her and continued.

“The man said to the woman: If you can guess the top card of the deck, you win. If you guess wrong, I win, and I’ll take all your possessions.
The woman replied: Understood. But if I win, you must return all the money you swindled from my lover.
The man had no objections. After shuffling the deck, he asked the woman to name the top card. She guessed: Ace of Hearts.”

Venti watched Bronya, who seemed puzzled by the story, and without rushing to explain, he continued.
“Whether by luck or fate, the top card was indeed the Ace of Hearts. As agreed, the woman reclaimed all her lover’s debts.
Her lover asked her: It’s good that you won, but what if you had lost? Why agree to such an unfavorable bet?
In his eyes, the odds of guessing the correct card out of the entire deck were too low to justify risking everything.

But the woman replied: Unfavorable? How so? Isn’t the outcome either a win or a loss, one of the two?”
Seeing Bronya’s thoughtful expression, Venti explained further.
“The divergence in this story lies in the fact that the man spoke of probability, while the woman spoke of fate.
But in my opinion, the brilliance of this story is that—
When you’re faced with a crucial, life-changing decision, there’s no middle ground.
It’s either one or the other. You must make a choice. Trying to please everyone is impossible, and your mother may have chosen the future she wanted in the same way.”

These words stirred some memories in Bronya. She took out the medal of honor that had been bestowed upon her by the Architects and personally pinned on her by her mother. The stone at its center, glowing with a pale blue light, was made from the purest geothermal crystal.
It was both a valuable equivalent to gold and a testament to her past achievements.

Logically, she shouldn’t have brought such an easily identifiable item to the lower district, but it held great significance for Bronya.
It reminded her of her mother’s teachings—
The woman who had taught her since childhood to be tolerant, to protect the kindness in people’s hearts… even if she herself was only a faint light, she should strive to illuminate others.

Once, her mother, who burned like a bonfire, bringing warmth and light to others, had been her greatest inspiration.
But she had overlooked one thing: beneath that overwhelming admiration, she had never truly understood her mother.

Just like Cyrille Rand, who, even as the situation crumbled, remained convinced that Minister Stepan had not deceived her, Bronya had also blindly trusted her mother. She saw others’ advice and suffering as challenges to the Supreme Guardian’s authority, believing that as long as she walked the path she and her mother had charted, she would reach a future where the people were happy.

Now, pausing to reflect, she realized she could no longer see her mother’s back.
She didn’t even know when her mother had started gazing into the depths of the snowstorm, as if everything below the city walls no longer concerned her.
Her people could no longer bring her joy, anger, sorrow, or fear. Her eyes held only endless emptiness.

…With this line of thought, Bronya finally understood something.
Perhaps her mother’s flame of conviction had long been extinguished by the prolonged, bone-chilling despair.
Because she, more than anyone, understood the dire straits Belobog was in, yet could do nothing to change it.
She had grown irritable, quick to anger, and no longer heeded anyone’s advice. She constantly sought to fight against this unjust fate through sheer human effort—
Even if her actions were no longer wise but instead resembled the desperate struggle of a cornered beast.

This unprecedented clarity filled her with regret and self-reproach for her own slowness.

The only consolation was that it wasn’t too late to realize this now—
She closed her eyes and exhaled softly. Her heart was filled with both sorrow and relief, a mix of complex emotions swirling within her, but there was no hesitation.
That’s right, she wouldn’t deny the wrongs her mother had committed, and she would take responsibility for them, seeking to make amends.

When the people finally emerged from the snowstorm, she was willing, like the first Supreme Guardian, to end her life outside the city, declaring that Belobog would not be strangled by the will of a single individual.
But before that—she couldn’t stop. She had to, absolutely had to, fight for a brighter future for her people.

Now, the time for change in Belobog had come. The gloom and snowstorm that had shrouded the city for over seven hundred years were about to be swept away.
This historic moment would be witnessed by her, and she would make the decisive choice!

Just as Bronya was about to share her answer with Venti, he placed a finger to his lips and winked playfully.
“Save that answer, along with the previous question, until we get there.”

Ah, that’s right. Earlier, Venti had asked her what the people of Belobog considered happiness…
Was this what he meant by finding the answer where the question was asked?
How childish, this pursuit of “ritual.”

Bronya simply nodded. She didn’t mind ending this journey there.
…However, halfway through their journey, a figure in light purple rushed over, her scythe unmistakably identifying her.

“Seele? What are you doing here?” Bronya instinctively asked.
Being called so familiarly made Seele shudder, as if she had goosebumps, and she quickly rubbed her arms, looking somewhat disgusted.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you? How did you become so… after just a short while apart?”
She opened her mouth but, due to her limited education, couldn’t find the right words.

The kind-hearted bard whispered a suggestion: “Sentimental.”
“Uh… what kind of ‘mental’? I haven’t learned that word. It’s a bit hard to pronounce.”
After accidentally revealing her lack of education, Seele glanced at Bronya, slightly embarrassed, but seeing no mockery in her expression, she continued.
“Anyway, I came looking for you because I heard from Mrs. Goethe that you went to the mechanical settlement to ask about the sisters living in the Fragmentum. I thought you two were just bored and had nothing better to do than dig into things.”

“It’s ‘digging to the bottom of the pot’…” Bronya corrected softly, but Seele pouted.
“Shut up! In the lower district, it’s ‘digging to the bottom of the sandbag’! And that’s not the point. The point is, you two—one a weak bard and the other a pampered lady—if you actually found something and ran into trouble in the Fragmentum, I’d be the one cleaning up your mess. So I thought I’d come check on you, and sure enough, I found you two idiots.”

Perhaps understanding Seele’s tsundere behavior, Bronya’s initially puzzled gaze softened.
“I see. Thank you for your concern, Seele.”
This made Seele even more uncomfortable. What was wrong with this woman? In such a short time, she had somehow become like an “older sister” in spirit.
Being treated like this and still showing such an expression—could she have some kind of preference for that?

Seele quickly hid behind Venti, feeling that only by his unchanging side could she find some sense of security.
“Maybe this is some kind of fate? At least the three of us can continue this journey together, so it won’t be too lonely.”
Venti was happy to witness the growth of their friendship.

“Let me think, what song should I play to liven up this journey—”
Unfortunately, his two audience members weren’t very cooperative.
Seele still wore a look of disdain, while Bronya tried to do something but was repeatedly dodged, leaving her helpless.

In the end, Venti reluctantly put away his lyre and instead told Seele about the sisters.
“So, someone really lived there?”
Seele frowned, lost in thought.

“They must have had a hard life…” Bronya’s mood darkened.
“Well, that’s because—”
Just as Seele was about to retort and mock the Supreme Guardian of the upper district, Venti gently tugged her hand, signaling her not to provoke Bronya further.

This was the first time Venti had interacted with her so intimately in private, and the overly pure-hearted girl was momentarily stunned, her ears turning as red as if they’d been boiled.
Her heart pounded so loudly it drowned out all other sounds. “Ah…” It took her a while to calm down.

Noticing Seele’s bashfulness, Bronya’s heart also stirred, though the unspoken implications of Seele’s words left her feeling guilty.
But this guilt soon turned into determination.
She had decided to make amends to the people of the lower district and would no longer stand idly by as she had before.
As for her own desires… those were trivial matters.

As they talked, the three of them returned to the silent Rivet Town.