Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

"Malin, what do you want to do when you grow up?"

I still remember the matron of the orphanage asking Malin about his future path. At that time, Malin had absolutely no idea.

What was the future, what was tomorrow? These questions were far too remote for Malin, more distant even than pondering what he would eat that evening.

"Malin, remember what Granny says, this country needs us. I’m old, you will grow up, so the future is yours."

She could have never imagined that her Malin, in a far distant future, would be struggling to survive for this calamity-ridden planet under their feet.

All that once was had vanished, leaving behind only an unrecorded history, so trivial and pitiable compared to the vastness of the planet beneath their feet.

But that Chapter of history was still alive because Malin was convinced that an era only became history once all its people died out. As long as Malin lived, the era from eight thousand years ago remained alive, and all those people he knew and didn’t know hadn’t yet turned into history because Malin remembered them. As long as the era didn’t perish, those who lived in it would remain eternal.

Perhaps all this was nothing more than Malin’s self-consolation, but... but no one, no one had the right to profane the vow Malin kept, whether it be the ideology of the North or the one Malin held dear. They might have their flaws, might not fit in the present... perhaps they would be vilified. Malin understood this well because an ideology couldn’t unite everyone. They would curse, they would slander, they would even distort history.

But they were still people at the end of the day, even if they opposed everything, they remained living, breathing humans.