Serenitea Pot Quartermaster Warehouse, temporary equipment testing area.
The air was thick with the raw smell of new fabric, mixed with the faint, fishy tang of machine oil. Rows of ash-blue uniforms, styled after Snezhnayan military-issue, hung neatly in a row. The cold, replica Fatui badges on their collars cast a gloomy sheen under the overhead warehouse lights. The finished products, rushed through production by Millelith-appointed textile workers with bloodshot eyes, were now being distributed to a group of people with varying expressions.
Former Fatui, current Knights of Favonius Level 2 Knights Sergei and Vasily formed the core of the operation. Vasily slipped into the crisp uniform, his fingers repeatedly and unconsciously rubbing the badge on his collar. The cold, metal touch pricked his fingertips, as if waking memories he tried desperately to bury beneath the frozen soil of Snezhnaya—the wails of comrades, meaningless sacrifices, and manipulated loyalty. His gaze was complex, a tangle of disgust and an unspeakable trace of nostalgia.
Chapter 158