Chapter 448: You've Let Me Down
What Talulah described was something Steven truly hadn't considered.
After all, in this world, people only ever tried to disguise themselves as non-Infected. Almost no one would willingly pretend to be an Infected.
And yet, Talulah was clearly one of those rare exceptions.
To be precise, she had once been an Infected. But after meeting Steven, she'd been forcibly—almost outrageously—cured by him.
No one could have imagined that someone could actually completely cure Oripathy. And before she even had time to process that fact, Talulah had been pushed into the position of leader of Reunion.
The problem was obvious: if the leader of an Infected movement turned out not to be Infected at all, then no matter how eloquently she tried to explain herself, it would be meaningless once the truth came out.
That was the real source of Talulah's anguish.
Her identity alone shouldn't have been an issue—but Steven's "help" had landed her in an extremely awkward position. The Infected were a group that fundamentally struggled to trust others. If she wanted to continue leading them forward, she simply couldn't abandon the identity of being Infected.
"But detecting Oripathy isn't that easy, is it?" Steven frowned slightly. "As long as you don't say anything, and with all the past evidence, no one should really suspect you."
Most of Reunion's members were Infected who had followed Talulah for a long time, people she had personally helped in the past. They fully accepted her former status as an Infected—there was no reason for anyone to even think in that direction.
"Yes," Talulah replied softly, "but that only holds true if no one deliberately reports me… or spreads rumors within the ranks. Or rather—spreads the truth."
The conflict in her eyes deepened. She knew Steven was right, and she had no room to argue. After all, she truly was no longer Infected.
What she couldn't be sure of was why someone would do such a thing. Was it to expose a hidden danger within Reunion? Or was there some other motive behind it?
"So this is the choice you made?" Steven looked at her intently. "Don't you feel even a little bit sorry toward me? What if curing Oripathy actually costs me a lot of effort?"
Just from her expression, Steven already knew the answer. In fact, the moment he returned, he had noticed the changes in the Draco girl before him.
He reached out, grabbed Talulah's arm, and rolled up her sleeve.
Embedded in her skin was a familiar orange-yellow crystalline mineral.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
"It couldn't be helped," Talulah said with a faint smile, as if she were talking about something utterly trivial. "This was the best way to resolve everything. In the tundra, other things are hard to find—but Oripathy-grade Originium? That's everywhere."
Her smile was calm and gentle, completely at odds with the reality that Oripathy was a disease akin to a slow, merciless cancer.
And yet, she spoke of infecting herself as though it were nothing more than a scraped knee.
How much courage did it take…?
How much resolve did it require to endure that inhuman pain and willingly contract such a terminal illness all over again?
Steven took a deep breath before silently meeting Talulah's silver-gray eyes.
He had never denied that she was an absolute idealist. And today, once again, she had proven her determination to him. For the sake of helping and protecting the Infected, this woman was truly willing to give up everything.
"So that's your justification for ignoring what I did for you?" Steven said with a sigh. "I finally cured you, and then you had to go and get infected again, huh?"
Though his words sounded like scolding, his fingers were filled with tenderness as they traced over the newly formed Originium crystals on her arm. She was good in every way—except when it came to caring for herself. In that regard, she was far too careless.
"I even told you before—you already belong to me. And this is how you treat the body I cherish so much?"
Steven's expression grew unusually serious. "Next time, I won't agree so easily. I'm serious."
"Mm… we'll talk about it later."
Talulah stuck out her tongue playfully, showing a side of herself that was rarely seen—bright, girlish, and almost mischievous. She knew very well that on this land, if there was anyone who cared about her more than she did herself, it was probably only Alina… and the boy standing in front of her.
"By the way," Steven continued, "you still haven't told me—who exactly was trying to expose you? Who was spreading that information among the Infected?"
Judging by her reaction, he knew she hadn't really taken his warning to heart. He had already decided that if something like this happened again, he'd definitely punish her properly. But for now, there was something else that concerned him more.
Everything she had gone through clearly pointed to someone deliberately targeting her. And the real source of her distress most likely lay with that person.
After all, the opponent's biggest weapon was the fact that she wasn't an Infected. Now that she had once again become one, those rumors collapsed on their own.
Perhaps even that person was shocked—after all, who would expect someone like Talulah, someone who would willingly infect herself for the sake of the Infected, to exist at all? Now that she had proven herself, it wouldn't be difficult to identify who was behind it.
The real question was how to deal with them afterward.
Of course, if this little fire dragon kept hesitating over it, Steven wouldn't mind stepping in and giving that guy the ending he deserved.
"…That's exactly what I've been struggling with," Talulah said, pressing a hand to her forehead. "If it were just jealousy, or someone trying to frame me, that would be one thing. But I know Brull's well. He's someone who genuinely devotes himself to the Infected. It's precisely because he cares too much that he can't accept anything that exists outside of the Infected."
She finally spoke a name that sounded faintly familiar to Steven.
If he remembered correctly, this should be the leader of one of the earliest groups of Infected who followed Talulah.
Judging from her description, though…
'Ah,' Steven thought.
'So he's one of those extreme, borderline fanatical, exclusionist Infected types, huh?'
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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