Chapter 25: Parasite

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At lunchtime, Kellerman returned. She came back in great haste, but once she arrived, she did nothing in particular. She merely stayed by Virak’s side, evidently having returned specifically to keep an eye on him.

After lunch, Kellerman went to Virak’s room. Virak was earnestly leafing through the books Fletcher had told him to read.

Since Virak had moved in, she was the first member of the Thomas family, apart from Fletcher and the servants, to enter the house. Kellerman surveyed the residence where her younger brother had once lived. It was just as she remembered it, with scarcely any changes.

“How much do you remember?”

Virak turned to her and set down the book. “More or less everything. For now, I’m simply reading more of the books Mr. Chris read while he was alive, so I can strengthen the disguise.”

“Then I’ll test you.” Bored with doing nothing here, Kellerman decided to examine Virak. “What did my brother hate and fear most?”

“Horseback riding.” Virak answered without hesitation. “When Mr. Chris was young, he went riding with you. The horse suddenly bolted, and he was thrown off. He had to recuperate at home for three months before he could walk again. After that, he never dared to ride another horse, even though it was considered an essential sport in high society, something everyone was expected to know.”

“What did he like most?”

“Listening to music. Every Tuesday, without fail, he attended a classical concert. His bedroom also contains a large collection of records, and he knew countless musicians and performers.”

Kellerman showed little reaction after hearing his answers, and Virak could not tell whether they had satisfied her.

“I’ll tell you something that isn’t in the booklet. It may prove useful someday.”

Virak listened attentively.

“I don’t know whether Chris’s friends knew this. At home, I was the only one aware of it. Chris was deeply enamored of a woman named Elizabeth Bolin. He once told me privately that he wanted to get to know Elizabeth. I never imagined…”

“Elizabeth Bolin?” The name sounded familiar to Virak. “I think I’ve seen it in the newspapers… Wasn’t she a stage actress? She appears in newspapers, magazines, and calendars all the time.”

Kellerman gave a quiet acknowledgment. “She made her stage debut at sixteen. Her extraordinary beauty and superb acting won over audiences and caused a sensation throughout Laizein. From that day on, Elizabeth became a hugely popular star. Any play she appeared in was usually sold out.

“A few years ago, Chris’s friend Colin took him to see one of her performances. Chris had never been particularly interested in theater, but because of Elizabeth, he began attending one of her plays every week…”

Kellerman went on to describe how Chris had fallen in love with the stage actress who had captivated countless people across Brescia, how he had tried to approach her, and how he had attempted to court her.

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This was a part of Chris’s past that even Virak had not known in his previous life. Hearing it now stirred a peculiar feeling within him.

According to Kellerman, Chris’s courtship had progressed rather smoothly. He had even dined with Elizabeth several times—a feat almost no one else had managed. It seemed that Elizabeth had feelings for Chris as well. If things continued that way, they might even have ended happily.

But four months ago, Chris, who had grown exceptionally close to Elizabeth, suddenly severed all contact with her, extinguishing the love that had only just begun to take shape.

Kellerman found it deeply puzzling and felt sorry for her brother.

When Virak heard that point in time, his expression remained unchanged, but a tremendous shock surged through him.

Four months ago had been precisely when Francis died and Chris had resolutely led the rebel organization onward. The timing was too coincidental. There was no reasonable explanation for why Chris had suddenly cut ties with Elizabeth, so Virak could only consider the two events together.

The most likely explanation was that, after Francis’s death, Chris had realized that what he was doing amounted to standing against the entire might of the nation—a path on which he could die at any moment. After he succeeded Francis as the organization’s leader, the danger had reached its peak.

Perhaps he had thought that if he ever met the same fate as Francis, it would not only be his own life that was destroyed. His family and Elizabeth would also be dragged into the turmoil. So he had chosen to distance himself from her and keep her from becoming involved.

Virak did not know whether that had truly been Chris’s reasoning at the time, but that was how he interpreted it. He could not help admiring Chris even more.

In this city lived a group of people younger than Virak, more responsible than he was, and utterly out of step with their age. They had once possessed immense wealth and enjoyed the most privileged lives, yet they had still abandoned the ranks of the beneficiaries of the system for the sake of fairness for others.

Virak remembered a line he had come across the previous day while casually leafing through Chris’s book, The Theory of Equality.

In The Theory of Equality, Chris had written:

“The wealthy who keep the poor firmly under their control, exploiting them without limit and extracting vast profits, are the most repulsive parasites in this society. They dress up their ugly deeds in the robes of righteousness, smear the oppressed poor, and make them despise themselves over time—until the poor come to believe that they, too, are parasites.”

When Fletcher had traveled all the way to Tsward to take Virak and the others away, he had once remarked disdainfully, “It’s hard to imagine that there are more than a thousand of these parasite-like slums in Brescia alone.”

At the time, Virak had felt no urge to argue. Even he had believed that people like them—dirty, uneducated, despised by all—were parasites of society. Chris’s words had awakened him. They earned money through their own labor and worked hard to obtain everything they wanted. Why, then, should they be called parasites?

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Who, in the end, was feeding off whom?

Who, in the end, could not live without the other?

Who, in the end, was oppressing whom?

Virak knew the answers clearly. What he did not understand was why his former self, despite knowing them, had still willingly sunk into degradation, believing himself to be a parasite and lowering himself from birth. Whenever he saw the lofty nobles and wealthy men, he would feel an instinctive fear for no reason at all.

Why was that?

When he began to seek an explanation, the first thing that flashed through Virak’s mind was the title of a book:

The Theory of Equality.

Perhaps only The Theory of Equality, written by Chris, could explain all of this to him—could open the door to his questions and awaken his mind.

“What a pity,” Kellerman sighed. Once she had confirmed that Virak was not suspicious in any way, she could no longer be bothered to stay and watch him. “Just listen to this for now. If one of his friends brings it up, at least you’ll know how to respond.”

“Miss Kellerman, I’ll remember it.” Virak nodded.

“Read your books properly. I’m leaving.”

Kellerman left the room.

Virak shook his head, then took the booklet containing the list from the drawer. But as he prepared to open it, he hesitated. In the end, he decided to read The Theory of Equality first.

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