Chapter 16. Dispersion (complete)
“Huh, what do you mean by understanding?”
Not only I, but Camilla was quite embarrassed. But Cassandra even nodded her head as if she had figured everything out now.
“I have seen many cases like John. If you receive too much mental shock, cognitive distortions occur. No matter what someone says next to me, I can’t hear it. Because that too is how the brain processes shock. Like me.”
‘Me?’
She was startled and stamped her foot. Even though she was already on her feet. Her sprained right ankle is starting to hurt again. Fortunately, I guess I wasn’t the only one surprised. Because Camilla cupped her mouth. The one who is calm is Cassandra.
“Okay. ‘Me’. Ophelia Osborne. The only surviving member of the Osborn family, one of the founders of Cybele, and the owner of the syndicate. As if the formulas that seemed like a puzzle solution when I was young were piled up one by one and connected by the Cro virus.
Of course, I’m not the only one who did this. But because I also participated in it, I couldn’t accept it with my head. So you’re hiding behind Cassandra. “Camilla, it’s not even a story for you, right?”
Camilla frowned as she was suddenly pointed out.
“Why me?”
“As far as I know, the name Camilla is also her working name and not her real name?”
Camilla shook her head roughly.
“Let’s speak properly. You’re right. It’s similar to your real name, but it’s not your real name. But that’s the bare minimum insurance to avoid my family suffering because of me. “Although I cover my eyes and say nothing.”
“No matter what, isn’t ‘covering’ something the same?”
Cassandra once again… No, Ophelia? Cassandra? Anyway, it looks different. A person who was a hikikomori and acted like an idiot is suddenly sitting like a strict college professor.
But Camilla shook her head again.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to discuss my name. Besides, you were talking about John.”
“John is a capable and very unique person. More than any person I’ve ever met. Sometimes he acts too confident and confident, but he’s definitely outstanding. He must not have been an ordinary person. But it’s unstable.”
It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Because I was unemployed. More than that, he doesn’t even listen to me anymore.
Camilla has her hand on her forehead and Kasan… Ophelia looks at me with interest, like a virus in a chalet.
“Then what are we going to do? What’s your point? Card… Ophelia?”
“Nothing will change. Just treat it like normal. However, I think it would be better not to interrogate what kind of person he was in the past. Now, John has a very hard mental shell, and if he were to force it off… “It might be like peeling off a turtle’s shell.”
“… “That’s about it.”
Camilla covers her mouth in surprise, but Ophelia remains cool.
“I have seen many cases of mental breakdown while treating infected patients. “This is an expert’s judgment.”
“No, I’m fine.”
I protested, but Camilla nodded her head with a stern look on her face. It seemed like she had ‘resolution’ written on her forehead. She got up and hugged me tightly.
“Everything will be okay now. “Don’t worry.”
I have to say that’s not the case, but with Camilla in her arms, I don’t think anything of it.
I should just stay still.
* * * * *
In the end, it is a recovery practice.
Camilla went out to check on the situation outside her. Sometimes she would send short radio messages like ‘Zombies are scattering.’ Each time, Cassandra said, “Yes, okay. “John is fine,” He answered.
“Ouch.”
Cassandra pinned my right ankle.
“The ligaments have stretched a little. “Don’t use your ankle until you recover.”
“Wouldn’t something like medicine work?”
“It may be a patch, but there is no medicine to reattach stretched ligaments. “It’s not like anything was damaged.”
Cassandra sank down in her chair. She is wearing a white lab coat, a black blouse, and a white skirt that reaches just above her knees. And then she looks at me intently.
She is even smiling slightly.
“Um, why are you smiling?”
No matter what, you can’t help but laugh while looking at people. Cassandra shakes her head gently.
“Hmm. Sorry. “Cassandra was rude.”
‘I’ disappeared again. It seemed like it couldn’t be maintained for long. Seeing that you are back as ‘Cassandra’. If she is aware that she is Ophelia, I think she does this because she feels guilty and doesn’t know what to do.
“I was just in a good mood, so Cassandra smiled without realizing it.”
I pointed to my ankle. Cassandra smiled broadly.
“It’s not because of that.”
“Then?”
“Cassandra was jealous of Camilla.”
It was a bit of a random story. Does Cassandra have any reason to envy Camilla?
“Camilla? Why?”
“She’s pretty, good at shooting, and has a nimble body. “Because Cassandra is a bit fat.”
Well, her breasts are really big and her butt is a little big, so she doesn’t feel fat. If you look at her body alone, she is average to a little thin.
“I don’t think so.”
“… Because, above all, she seems like a sane and normal person. Of course, being fine means that it is relatively so compared to Cassandra.”
“Hey, I wonder if there are any sane people in the world.”
After speaking, I became embarrassed and lay down looking at the ceiling. Cassandra dragged her chair next to my bed.
“Well, that’s true. But it’s rare to see someone walking around with something damaged and broken, right? Everyone covers it with something or decorates it pretty. Rather than running around like Cassandra, dripping with oil.”
“I think it’s because you’re nice.”
Cassandra burst into laughter.
“Cassandra?”
“I don’t know if I can say this, but if it were me, I think she would just ignore it and say, ‘What can I do, did I do it alone?’ You weren’t the only one responsible. And how many people act with full knowledge of the future repercussions of their actions?”
Cassandra gently wrapped her arms around me. Her hands are pretty cold.
“It would have been nice if Cassandra’s father had said that. I said exactly the opposite. ‘You are the one who should lead Erza. ‘Every single thing you do will lead to something irreversible.’
And it really happened that way. However, when it comes to breaking something, you’re right… When I try to turn it back, it doesn’t work. “Is it because Cassandra doesn’t listen to her father?”
“Well? People say it was luck, a coincidence, or it just happened to be like that… I guess you would say that? And you, it seems like you’ve put a lot of pressure on your shoulders, but you don’t owe the world anything. The world doesn’t owe you anything. “What do you want to know?”
What was so funny about this story that Cassandra laughed, even shedding a few tears.
“Ha. Under. I don’t know how long it’s been since I laughed like this. “It feels strange to hear this from John and not someone else.”
“What do you mean?”
“John is the one moving the zombies now. “He is the most unusual person Cassandra knows.”
There really is a lot to say about this.
“I don’t listen to what those guys say. What does listening to… “
“But really, as John said, you whistled into a loudspeaker and a zombie wrapped in chains came running to you, right?”
I briefly told Cassandra what happened with the chain zombie. How hard he was scratching my insides and how he wouldn’t do what I wanted.
“Hmm… “
However, Cassandra is not just listening intently, but appears to be thinking deeply about something.
“I’ve never thought of it in a way like John. No, no one else has taken that approach. Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Most people, including Cassandra, tried to analyze zombies. To be precise, I only focused on the virus in the zombie body.
But Yohan focuses more on the zombies themselves. Therefore… I think I have a knack for reading and manipulating zombies’ emotions. Can you see when you can make a zombie angry? “I guess that’s what I’ve heard from what you’ve told me so far.”
Well, that’s true. I know very well how to provoke. But what special ability is that?
“John. Emotion is a very powerful language. There is even a theory that animals that move in groups have evolved to be better at reading the emotions of other individuals. “There’s a saying called herd instinct, right?”
“Is it that important?”
“It is much faster and more intuitive to point to the riverside with a scared face and trembling hands than to verbally convey the information that a predator has appeared across the river.
Emotional transmission is a matter of life and death for a group. Some researchers even said that emotional language can spread to up to 10,000 people. The same goes for humans. Emotions are language. A language that can be communicated even across different species. “Think about the relationship between humans and pets.”
I’ve heard many stories that animals other than humans also feel emotions. But can the same logic apply to zombies?
“But zombies only have instincts. Hmm, I think I feel a little angry too. When I see a flock of zombie birds flying away, I feel a bit of fear when I see them running away. But… “
“John, that’s a theory. A theory can break at any time. Until now, it was known that communication with zombies was impossible. Cassandra thought so too. And I have a really cool counterexample in front of me.”
… Should I like this or not? Saying, ‘Here is a man who will shake the hearts of fans and haters’ and ‘Here is a man who will touch the hearts of zombies.’ Have very different weights.
But it seems Cassandra is not finished yet.
“More than anything, this is important in that it has nothing to do with the by-products of the Cro virus. If you can strengthen your abilities here and further strengthen the power of a certain ruler… “
“What, are you saying I’ll be the leader of the zombies?”
Cassandra neither confirmed nor denied. She laughed and asked me again what kind of joke she wanted.
“No, right?”
Cassandra still has nothing.
“Uh… “It’s not right, right?”
“Not even Cassandra knows that. I’ll have to do some research to find out. For now… Let’s start with the blood test again. “I need to find out what’s changed since the last time I was scratched.”
The wound was completely healed after applying Cybele medicine, but the germs that entered my body are a slightly different problem. I rolled up my sleeves without any hesitation. Cassandra neatly collected her blood.
“Would you like to open your mouth? “Scrape out some of the epithelial cells.”
Just lightly wiping the inside of your mouth with a cotton swab. Well, it’s not a difficult test. Cassandra saved that too.
“Is there more?”
“Yes. “I want to get some semen out too.”
“Uh, huh? What?”
Cassandra put disposable latex gloves on her hands. She even pulled it a couple of times to make it sound like, mate.
“Why is that?”
“Huh? We need to find out the extent of bacterial infection. For research and medical purposes. “What are you hiding from the doctor?”
If you come out so shamelessly, it seems like I’m the real customer.
“Or should I take the beaker and visit you and Camilla when they are in the same room?”
“I don’t think so… No, how do you know that… “
Did you act so obviously? Cassandra’s eyes narrowed. “After.” She sighed heavily and threw down her doctor’s gown with her non-gloved hands.
“Uh, huh?”
Then he came close to the side of the bed and bent his upper body towards me. It seems like just one of her breasts covers her face. He takes my hand and pulls me toward the bra hook.
“Because I’ve tried Jomuljomul… Now, do you want to give it a try?”
It’s too big and white to refuse.
“If it’s for research…” “
That’s right, it’s only for research John so it’s not cheating