Inside the Dijiang.
Angelina followed behind Jelperta, her steps light—almost like she was dancing. Her curious gaze swept over the cabin doors along the corridor, the signage, and the operators passing by now and then. Every time someone saw her, they would pause, then look at Jelperta beside her, a clear What is going on here? flashing across their eyes.
"Everyone's staring at us," Angelina leaned in by Jelperta's ear and whispered.
Jelperta's ears trembled slightly. Without thinking, she sped up a little. "Mm… because we look alike."
"Not 'alike.' Exactly the same," Angelina corrected, smiling. "But it's fine. I like being looked at. Back on Rhodes Island, sometimes after I finished a delivery and came back, everyone would stare too—because I ran so fast my hair would fly up. They said I looked like a red cloud."
Jelperta didn't answer.
She didn't know how to talk to "herself."
Those fragments in her memories—the alleys she'd cut through on deliveries, the snowy mountains of Kjerag Trade, the night markets of Lungmen with skewers sizzling over charcoal—she had them all. She knew what Angelina meant by a "red cloud," because she remembered it.
"What are you thinking about?"
Angelina's voice suddenly appeared right beside her again. Jelperta snapped back to herself and realized Angelina had somehow moved in front of her at some point. Those amber eyes were fixed on her, attentive and serious.
"N-nothing…"
"Liar." Angelina tilted her head. Her red twin-tails swayed softly with the motion. "That expression is exactly the same as mine when I'm thinking. Mm… no, it's a bit sadder than mine."
Jelperta parted her lips—then found she couldn't refute it.
Angelina studied her for a moment, then straightened and clapped her hands once. "Alright then. Show me around this place—Dijiang, right?"
"Huh?"
"Why, can't you?" Angelina blinked. "It's my first time here. I don't know anything. If I accidentally wander into some restricted area and get arrested, that'd be a disaster."
The sheer casual certainty in her tone left Jelperta flustered. After a long beat, she nodded. "…Okay."
Dijiang was quieter than Rhodes Island.
Of course, it was still lively—just in a different way.
On Rhodes Island, there were always little operators sprinting up and down the halls. On the bridge, there was the occasional spectacle of a certain vampire doctor being hoisted up to "cool off" in the wind. The cafeteria sometimes exploded. The training grounds always had surprises…
But on Dijiang, most of what you heard was the low thrum of machinery, the occasional broadcast, and the steady flow of Endfield staff in uniform—everything orderly, regulated, efficient.
"This way is the living area." Jelperta pointed down the left corridor. "Cafeteria, lounge, dorms—everything's over there. And that side…" She pointed to the other direction. "Work area. Archive rooms, medical bay, and the office Perlica supervises."
"Perlica?" Angelina echoed.
"The chief inspector on Dijiang. One of the Administrator's most trusted people." Jelperta hesitated. "The Administrator is… mm. In a way, she's like the—"
She didn't finish, but Angelina already understood. She nodded naturally.
Then Angelina's eyes landed on a transparent viewport at the end of the corridor. She hurried over, pressed both hands against the frame, and looked out.
And froze.
Outside the window were two planets.
One was a vivid blue, its surface covered in riotous, multicolored patterns—like someone had smeared paint across it with reckless strokes. The other was something entirely different: a gigantic white-and-red whale, suspended quietly in space, as if it were watching the colorful planet.
"This is… Talos-II?" Angelina asked softly.
"Yes." Jelperta stepped up beside her and looked out as well.
Angelina didn't reply. She simply stood there in silence, long hair haloed by the light spilling through the viewport.
After a long, long time, she finally spoke. "It's beautiful."
"…Mm."
"More beautiful than I imagined." Angelina turned, smiling at Jelperta. "I thought another world would be terrifying—war everywhere, disasters everywhere, nothing but despair. I didn't expect I'd get to see something like this."
Jelperta looked at her smile and suddenly felt something loosen inside her chest.
This person… this person who looked exactly like her—when she smiled, her eyes curved into a lovely arc. Light filled those clear pupils, clean and shadowless, as though she'd never truly lived through the darkness inside those "memories."
"You…" Jelperta hesitated, but still asked the question that had been circling her heart for so long. "Don't you think those memories… are heavy?"
Angelina tilted her head. "Memories?"
"I mean… those memories that belong to you." Jelperta forced the words out. "The painful ones. The ones that make it hard to breathe. Don't they feel heavy to you?"
Angelina fell silent.
Then she turned and leaned her back against the viewport, looking at Jelperta seriously.
In that moment, she seemed to think of many things.
So many.
Being forced from home after becoming infected… dangers on delivery routes…
"They're heavy," she said, her voice as light as a feather. "So heavy. Sometimes when I remember them, my chest still feels tight—like something's pressing down on it."
Jelperta stared.
"But," Angelina continued, the corners of her mouth lifting gently, "not everything inside those memories is pain."
She raised a hand and began counting on her fingers.
"There's Kjerag Trade's snow mountains. There's a little shop up there that sells the best milk tea—every time I deliver there, I take a detour just to buy a cup. There's Lungmen's night market, and the skewer uncle knows me. He knows I like it extra spicy."
"And there's everyone on Rhodes Island. Someone—he's always up late—but every time I bring back midnight snacks, I'll run into him in the corridor. Later I found out… he was waiting there on purpose."
She paused, then looked straight into Jelperta's eyes.
"And one time, during a delivery, I got caught in a blizzard and ended up stuck in a small village. They didn't know me, but they cleared a room for me, lit a fire, and brought me hot soup. When the snow finally stopped the next day and I was leaving, the old grandma who brought the soup held my hand and said, 'Come again next time, girl.'"
Jelperta listened, stunned.
She had all of those memories.
The taste of milk tea. The sting of chili on skewers. The silhouette in the corridor. The rough warmth of an old woman's palm—she remembered it all, as if it had truly happened.
But hearing Angelina say it out loud made her realize something, suddenly and sharply:
Those memories weren't beautiful because they were extraordinary.
They were beautiful because the person who lived them chose to remember the beauty inside them.
"I…" Jelperta swallowed. Her voice came out dry. "…You feel that way? But those things… feel unfamiliar to me."
Angelina didn't speak. She simply listened.
Jelperta lowered her head, voice dropping softer and softer. "When those past 'me' moments keep rising up… when I try to recall them, it always feels like there's a layer of fog between me and them. I'm scared of that feeling—like I'm forgetting."
She lifted her head. The rims of her eyes were red, but no tears fell. "These memories feel like they don't belong to me, but I still remember them. I'm afraid to lose them, because… they seem to be what makes me, me."
The corridor went quiet, leaving only the deep hum of machinery.
Angelina looked at her with a softness like sunlight filtered through leaves.
Then she reached out and gently took Jelperta's hand.
"Does it hurt?"
Jelperta blinked. "…What?"
"I'm asking you." Angelina's gaze didn't waver. "Does it hurt? When you say 'these memories don't belong to me'—does it hurt?"
Jelperta opened her mouth, but no sound came.
Does it hurt?
Of course it does.
Every morning she woke up to memories that weren't hers, yet somehow were hers. Every night she fell asleep wondering: if one day those memories disappeared, what would she have left?
It wasn't a sharp pain like a cut.
It was a dull ache—endless, lingering, impossible to shake.
Watching Jelperta's expression change, Angelina sighed softly.
"You," she said with helpless affection, "are exactly like I used to be."
"Huh?"
"When I first became a courier, I was like that too." Angelina let go and leaned back against the viewport, eyes drifting toward the blue planet outside. "I kept thinking: Am I good enough? Do I deserve this job? Will I disappoint everyone? Every time I finished a delivery, I'd hide somewhere alone and check everything over and over, terrified I'd made a mistake."
She turned and smiled at Jelperta. "Later, one day, someone said something to me."
"What did they say?"
"'Angelina, you're an amazing courier—not because you deliver faster than anyone, and not because you're exceptionally talented.'"
"'It's because on the road, you'll stop to help an old grandma carry things. You'll show a lost child the way. You'll share your last piece of rations with a little animal on the roadside in a blizzard.'"
"'Your kindness is what makes you shine.'"
Jelperta froze.
Angelina straightened, then reached out and tapped Jelperta lightly on the forehead.
"Jelperta. The reason you are you isn't because of those memories, and it isn't because you look like me."
"It's because—"
Her smile brightened, radiant as morning.
"When you saw Mr. Bai Ling nearly trip at Supply Ridge, your first instinct was to run over and catch him. When you saw workers lost at the Hub Center, you offered to guide them. Every single thing you've done under the name 'Jelperta'—those were Jelperta's own choices."
"Those choices have nothing to do with 'me.'"
Jelperta stared at her, and the redness in her eyes finally turned into shimmering tears.
Angelina opened her arms. "Want a hug?"
Jelperta didn't move.
Angelina didn't rush her. She just kept her arms open, smiling at her.
A long time passed—so long that footsteps sounded from the far end of the corridor.
Jelperta finally took a step forward.
Then she threw herself into Angelina's embrace, burying her face in that curtain of red hair, shoulders trembling.
Angelina wrapped her arms around her, resting her chin on Jelperta's head. Her voice was gentle.
"There, there… it's okay. Crying is good. Just cry it out."
—
The footsteps stopped a short distance behind them.
Bai Ling stood at the corner of the corridor with two bottles of soda in his hands. Seeing the two red-haired figures holding each other, he halted.
Behind him, Eldera peeked out and whispered, "Senior Bai Ling… should we… come back later?"
Bai Ling was silent for two seconds. Then he quietly set the two sodas down on the bench along the corridor wall.
"Let's go," he whispered. "We'll check if Xiao Chen is done over there yet."
The two of them turned and walked away lightly, retracing their steps.
Sunlight streamed through the viewport, making the glass bottles sparkle.
Angelina tilted her head, watching the two figures disappear around the corner. The faintest curve lifted at her lips.
"Jelperta."
"…Mm?"
"Do you want to deliver a letter with me sometime?"
Jelperta lifted her head from Angelina's shoulder. Her eyes were still red as she stared blankly. "Deliver… together?"
"Yeah." Angelina blinked. "Two 'me's delivering letters—would we be twice as fast? Just thinking about it sounds fun."
Jelperta looked at her bright, glittering eyes and suddenly let out a small laugh.
"…Okay."
When they finally loosened their embrace and walked over to the bench, Angelina spotted the two sodas at once.
"Huh?" She bent down and picked one up. Coolness clung to the glass. "This is—"
"Mr. Bai Ling left them," Jelperta said softly. "He came by just now… and left."
Angelina paused, then smiled.
She twisted the cap open and took a huge gulp.
"Mmm—so sweet!"
Jelperta watched her, then picked up the other bottle and took a careful sip.
The bubbles popped on her tongue—sweet and cold—making her want to smile without meaning to.
Angelina leaned against the viewport, soda bottle in hand, looking out at the two planets.
"Jelperta."
"Mm?"
"If you've really looked through your memories carefully," Angelina said, her tone edged with teasing meaning, "you should know who that 'someone' I mentioned is, right?"
"It's pretty interesting."
Jelperta's hand paused mid-motion. The tips of her ears turned quietly red.
Angelina glanced sideways at her, the curve of her smile growing even more suggestive.
"Oooh—"
"Don't get any ideas!"
"I'm not getting any ideas. I just said 'oooh.'"
"You're obviously getting ideas!"
The two red-haired figures laughed and bickered in front of the viewport, their voices drifting through the quiet corridor.
Sunlight spilled over them, stretching their shadows long, long across the floor.
Those two shadows almost perfectly overlapped—
and yet, each carried its own distinct outline.
Just like Angelina and Jelperta.
Similar—
but ultimately different.
Meanwhile…
At the other end of the corridor, Bai Ling and Eldera sat on a bench near the entrance to the living area.
"Senior Bai Ling… is it really okay to just leave the sodas there?"
"It's fine." Bai Ling looked up at the ceiling, smiling faintly. "They'll drink them."
Eldera thought for a moment, then smiled too. "Yeah… they will."
....
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