"The world has never been simply black and white; it is a profound shade of gray. Justice and evil are merely matters of different standpoints. Is what you consider justice truly justice? Is what you consider evil truly evil?"
"Those who fall into extreme fanaticism are never accepted by the world. Disgust, aversion, and contempt are their inevitable ends."
Ariel closed the book and let out a sigh. "I rather like those two sentences."
Lyle said, "You're not even that old, yet every day you act like you're seventy or eighty."
Ariel said, "Mind your own business. Let's not talk about this—did Keira say when we're heading to the Farm?"
Lyle said, "She didn't say, but it should be soon."
Ariel said, "I see. Well, alright then. Muse still has classes, so we need to schedule around them; we can't let them overlap."
Lyle said, "Speaking of which, I don't think I've ever heard you mention how Muse actually came to be with you. You only ever said she caught your eye and you brought her into Peregrine."
Ariel said, "Strictly speaking, Muse was adopted by me, not just casually spotted and brought into Peregrine."
Lyle said, "Huh?"
Ariel said, "I found Muse while clearing the site after an operation. At the time, she was covered in bruises, skin and bones, and practically on her last breath—she might have given up the ghost the very next second. Seeing her looking so pitiful reminded me of my own childhood, and my heart softened, so I brought her back. I got into a huge argument with the other team members over it. But that's no surprise; our relationship wasn't good to begin with, and we were bound to part ways sooner or later. I suppose I was just being a bit too much of a saint. Later, with my careful care, Muse's condition finally improved. After three or four months, she recovered to look like a normal person. Still, me raising her on my own was ultimately a problem. There was no telling when I might die out in the field on a mission, leaving Muse with no one to look after her and letting her get bullied to death. Because of that, I chose to build a squad of my own. That way, at least there would be people to protect her."
Lyle said, "Well... how should I put this? I certainly didn't expect that."
Ariel said, "Still, Muse's personality now is a far cry from how timid and scared she was when we first met."
Lyle said, "That's true. The Muse we have now even dares to lift up your shirt and crawl inside to bite you."
Ariel said, "Stop right there, let's not bring that up." (Changing the subject) "What are your plans for your sister?"
Lyle said, "To be honest, I don't want her to walk the same path as me, becoming a mercenary who might die in some ditch any given day. I still hope she can go to school, test into a good university, and find a decent job—living a stable life instead of having to risk her neck everywhere every single day like her big sister."
Ariel said, "If my sister were still alive, she certainly wouldn't have wanted me to walk this path either."
Lyle said, "That goes without saying. After all, the danger level of this kind of work is through the roof. That time Randall was driven out of Beishan by Fred, at least a few dozen people died. And during that operation at the Farm, even though the ones dying were death row inmates and heavy felons, by the end they were running out of them entirely. If it hadn't ended soon, they would've had to drag petty thieves in to fight. By then, their families wouldn't have stood for it, and they'd be coming over to cause a scene every single day."
Ariel said, "I have a hunch that in the future, we're going to end up fighting one of the bosses in the Dark Zone, and the losses won't be small."