Blog 05-10-22

Some new guests invited into town, but seem to refuse to be admitted to any of the feasts. When the mass violence in the Saadiem district took place last month, the cartel complained to us that several of his orders delivered much later, when the crowd thought that street gangs had looted the supplies; then those guest allowed to command some factories, and we understood what was going on.

It seems that they can only be seen regularly in the Saadiem district & the nearby ports of entry and exit, which is exactly why, as I said, they have not yet found a place for themselves. Although Londinium is now almost blocked, they come in & out as usual. They are easily identifiable by their attire, call themselves “Dublinn”, are reluctant to talk to other citizens, intimidating, as if others will hate them. Their anger is a bit more overt than the silent Sarkaz. I’ve heard some members speak Tara to each other, but when I try to greet them in Tara, they seem even more furious, like they can’t accept other Victorians using their dialect.

Visited Leo today. Leo likes to watch the action and ended up getting caught up in a confrontation between Dublinn and the citizens, supposedly getting a few flesh wounds from the blast. He describes in graphic detail how the members of the Dublinn carried knives and spoke harshly to the citizens, how he walked his own path without fear and caught in the crossfire by the scoundrels who did not recognize his identity. Finally, he vowed to use his ancestor’s title of steam knight, in terms of combat skills, Steam Knight was never a scattered soldier gathered in the wilderness, I think the only thing that makes it plausible is that he did learn the Victorian army’s drill style in his childhood, so he could distinguish the formally trained warriors.

Where is the Victorian army today, and where are the highly decorated generals, which everyone avoids talking about. In addition, the need for new sources of supply is iron.

Since the invitations were sent, Count Philip changed the time & address of two more gatherings. They dared not leave their courtyard lit up at night anymore for fear that the patrolling Sarkaz would not like the light.

The Baileys and the Laurens were also ready to leave, and René promised to give them a hand. He had already sent many nobles out of town and had acquaintances in both security and logistics. It was rumored that in a few days Sarkaz would close its gates completely, so the most heated topic of every recent gathering was which city would be slightly comparable to Londinium in terms of life. The crowd expects not only the bustling streets, but more importantly, the company of so many intelligent minds and elegant conversation, as in Londinium, to be able to talk about the value of their collections of masterpieces rather than about potatoes and corn. I came to the city with no status or family fortune, just to listen and concur.

Reggie had been driving for the Baileys for several years, but this time he wasn’t going to follow them out of Londinium. As we chatted in the courtyard, he said it was more fun to drive around the underground of this mobile city in his little rickety car, delivering some daily necessities to his friends. I guess every Londinium citizen has a different love affair with the city. I talked to him about the anti-inflammatories, and he promised to help me figure out how to get two cases. Nora showed up at the party again today, as if the experience of being taken into custody by the Sarkaz police hadn’t affected her much, except that when we went aside for a private chat, she rolled up her sleeve and showed me the bruises on her arm.

She was supposedly the only one of the citizens arrested with her the other day who was considered innocent and so was quickly released, and she was distracted by this and worried about those still locked up inside. She also said that there was always talk among Sarkaz about the walls lately, and that even the Sarkaz General visited the walls from time to time, so maybe they were really going to put the whole of Londinium under lockdown.

Also, a stack of newspaper clippings and unsigned letterhead was received, but a quick glance at the handwriting told me who wrote it. I jokingly told her a few times not to write to me with the same red pen she uses to correct student work, but she seemed more enthusiastic about it. The letter said that a friend of ours who was previously unaccounted for had finally been heard from, and now we had to go and help him. The notes are scattered and not yet organized, so if I can’t make any more notes after that, you who receive the notebook should be able to find the parts that interest you, right?

Second meeting with that Sarkaz, or rather, being stopped by him for questioning. Such an interrogation was not uncommon, and he quickly let me go, but I still sensed that his attitude was different from the other Sarkaz.

Previously I had been informed that perhaps a group of Sarkaz mercenaries would get in touch with me, only so far I hadn’t found the smell of gunpowder or blasting fires inside Londinium that matched that code name. Today I inquired about the name of this Sarkaz mercenary, and he acted a little oddly, possibly mockingly. “You don’t have to bother remembering a Sarkaz, Sarkaz all die quickly and are soon forgotten.” That’s what he said, while showing me the originium crystals on his face.

I didn’t know if I could work with Sarkaz. The more stories I learned in this city, the more difficult it was to make a judgment. The term old acquaintance can be almost overused among the Sarkaz in the city of Londinium. Most of them had met in the civil war and later reunited by chance in different battlefields, and the deepest friendship is knowing that they must not trust each other. Friends who have lived and died together for nearly a decade will one day cut off each other’s fingers gripping the edge of the ship in order to keep themselves from sinking. The Sarkaz did not shy away from showing their attitude like this, they are always at war.

If the same kind of war as in the days of Kazdel burns in Victoria, what kind of face will we become?

In addition, not only is the supply channel of foreign iron broken, several other common industrial manufactured goods are now gradually disappearing from the market, if even these materials are not available, Rockrock can hardly continue to work. But even if we enlist the support of those few companies, there is no reliable transportation channel at the moment. The railroad company has confirmed to me that currently the cargo trains can only be used to transport industrial materials to the Central District, while other private transportation methods require approval.

If I don’t make it out of here, please go to Golding for the messenger job afterwards.

The handwriting may be a bit scribbled, bad news came out of nowhere and I didn’t have much time to make notes. According to Amiya, the Sarkaz spies hiding in the self-help army have a Originium Arts technique similar to disguise, and thus easily disguise themselves as our people. There is really no way to prevent this type of originium arts technique, and my biggest concern is that this will cause mutual suspicion among the Self-Help Army.

Feist and Rockrock blamed themselves for the incident, that person was rescued by them with a lot of effort, they were once the closest comrades. I can understand this feeling, afterwards if there is a chance, I want to go to comfort them a little. Some of the SDA soldiers know that I have made similar mistakes.

The most important thing at the moment is to keep everyone sane. It wasn’t easy to establish this base in the Sa’dien district, and many people have their homes nearby, but now it’s all going to be thrown at us by the bombardment of the city’s defense guns. Our improvised defensive weapons are toys compared to the barrage that can melt down the structural layers of a moving city, but everyone is still silently equipped.

I would like to write this one down: we had nothing else, and nothing more, and the vast majority of SDA fighters were most concerned with getting medicine for their wounded companions, and how to continue doing the work they knew so well underground in Londinium, and nothing more. They had never speculated on the truth of the cloud hanging over Londinium, nor could they imagine how appalling the Sarkaz royal court was.

But the truth is that no legendary story of the Sarkaz civil war is an exaggerated fabrication, and the very breath of the ancient royal court is enough to roll away the lives of us commoners. We are fighting such an enemy, and whether they know it or not, the truth is here.

– about the mistake I made, when we were trying to make contact with the Carden District and I trusted the wrong person. That contact was caught and under interrogation confided everything he knew to Sarkaz. In order to keep more intelligence agents from being discovered, our messenger decided to go to the joint as usual with a letter without substance, pretending that we had not learned of the arrest of the joint …… Little Ella was a child who would have loved anyone who saw her.

But we could only move forward. It was time to go.

We were on the train to the Shard and were very lucky to have more surviving companions than expected. It happened so suddenly that I haven’t had time to contact Aleda, but the messenger from Rhode Island has long asked her for help, and there should now be a temporary place for us to settle down there.

As the daughter of the Duke of Cumberland, Aleda has a cohesive power in the central district where the nobility is concentrated that no one else in the Self-Help Army can have. Being under the eyes of the Sarkaz court, the members of the SDA in the Central District were limited in what they could do, but it was a good thing that Aleda kept her stance of resistance clear and inspired her less confident companions. Few nobles can admit as frankly as she did months ago that the Council no longer exists, and that now it is only Sarkaz who speaks out under the guise of the Council.

The SDA and Rhodes Island have different goals, but have now converged as one team, and many citizens who were hostile to Sarkaz in the Rhodes Island ranks have been able to talk to Sarkaz side by side on this train.

W came back with another Rhodes Island Sarkaz woman who, while refusing to put a friendly face on it, is indeed actively cooperating with us at the moment. She told me that the Sarkaz mercenary I was concerned about seemed to have died a few days before. I remembered his name, Schwab, whom I had seen once on a factory patrol after I had been captured. By this point I was convinced that he had been the one to put a line between W and me, so that W could arrive in time to assist in the Rhodes Island rescue operation that day. I owe him a debt of gratitude.

There are others among Rhodes’s operator who are being closely watched, such as the banshee, whose very presence seems to put some of the Sarkaz spirits on edge.

The surveillance network of the Sarkaz court is always particularly keen when it comes to searching for fellow clansmen. I will be ready to receive him if needed.

Kal’tsit has arrived in the Central District in the last two days, but she will not be moving with the SDA. I haven’t seen her in many years. I’m even curious …… Have I grown to be her height now?

Rockrock cried so hard that I tried to comfort her, but I think tears are necessary at times like this.