Volker: You've done it!
You stopped them from bringing back the Shadow Lord!?
Cid: What are you talking about, Volker?
They probably defeated him and sent him back where he belongs!
Am I right?
Volker: What? Defeat him? But that's...
Lucius: Impossible? You find it hard to believe that some adventurer could defeat the Shadow Lord, Captain? Have you not heard what the townspeople are saying?
Cid: They're saying the Age of Adventurers has come!
Karst: Hmph. Only historians, in posterity, have the privilege of saying such things.
Karst: And it does not matter if they only stopped the Shadow Lord from returning, or if they actually defeated him.
Karst: The important thing is that they kept the Kindred from gaining power.
And that, I believe, deserves a reward.
Karst: Good work. I am raising your rank.
And here is your well-deserved reward.
Lucius: The Shadow Lord may have been vanquished again, but the Kindred are far from defeated.
I have received reports of strange goings-on in the beastmen's strongholds.
Cid: You've probably heard this too many times, but...we're counting on you.
RANK 6
Cid: So that was who the Shadow Lord was...
Zeid must have known, and that's probably why he went off on his own.
Cid: Don't tell Volker about this. Ulrich's fate should also be kept from him, too. He may not be able to accept it yet.
Cid: He admired his grandfather a lot...that's why it pained him to hear people say that Volker, himself, only became Captain because Raogrimm was gone.
Cid: I know that hiding the truth from him is not a good thing, but most of us are not as strong as you. We need time to heal.
Lucius: Sorry to interrupt. What are you two talking about?
Cid: Uh...just saying that Karst hasn't really changed, even after all of this.
Volker: Yes but I think I understand him better now.
I may have been judging him too harshly.
Lucius: Speaking of which...you still have not told us why you backed President Karst in the last elections, Chief.
Cid: Oh, that. Well... Fifteen years ago, even after I resigned my post as head of the Gunpowder Room, the Senate was still in chaos, trying to find more people to blame for the accident in Palborough.
Cid: But there was one junior senator there who proposed we abandon Palborough and reopen the Zeruhn Mines. That junior senator was Karst.
Cid: The miners stood to lose a lot, but at the time, his proposal was Bastok's best bet.
I'm an engineer, so I respect skill. And I felt that Karst's political skills could be trusted.
Cid: And he's a real Bastoker, too--very ambitious, and real easy to figure out.
I can still remember the eager look on his face when he announced his proposal to the Senate!
|