Chapter 546.1: Formless? Tangible?

Thanks to the relief supplies and professional personnel from the New Alliance, the new committee in Boulder Town were able to alleviate their most urgent crisis and stabilize the lives of over 500,000 survivors.

Causing a huge scene wasn’t hard, especially when the person sitting in the chair was a pig. All they needed to do was to beat its head hard with a stick.

However, operating a settlement of several hundred thousand people was not something that could be solved with a few sticks.

The merchants had fled, and all the residents in the inner city left behind for the victors was a gigantic mess.

If the new authorities couldn’t solve the problem of bread and fuel, it wouldn’t be long before a crowd of cry babies would be crying out the names of their former masters.

The instinct to survive was inherent to all animals. There was nothing wrong with that.

However... To imagine relying on people like Sid was simply looking for trouble.

Once a stable society formed, its operation followed inertia under established order and rules. That was not the achievement of any single person, but the contribution of every participant.

If Sid had done absolutely nothing, the broken pot that was Boulder Town might have still been usable for a while.

But unfortunately, that fool couldn’t stop tinkering, constantly shaking the pot like a dice cup, slapping on some chewing gum to cover the chipped corner, fooling himself, then continuing to shake it again.

In the end, the pot was finally broken, just like the collapsed Boulder Grand Building.

The established rules and order had been shattered, and the first problem the new government had to face was to form itself and to build a new order.

The New Alliance would offer some help, especially when it came to food.

Thanks to the administrator’s generosity, after making some compromises with reality in the name of unity, the committee no longer had to compromise the moral bottom line of humanity just to stay alive.

They no longer needed to resort to cannibalism to survive the winter and could give the dead proper burials.

But to get life back on track and preserve the fruits of victory, they ultimately had to rely on themselves.

No one else could help them.

...

That night, in an office within the city hall.

To finish tallying Boulder Town Bank’s ledgers as quickly as possible, Elisa had added a single bed to the room and simply moved her bedroom there.

The comrades from the Worker's Union had initially intended to return Malvern’s mansion to her, since she had indeed helped them a great deal.

Trying to do the things Bore would have done wouldn’t unite everyone. Fighting for an eight hour workday wouldn’t either, but fighting for a constitution that everyone abided by was enough to raise this banner of justice.

Elisa accepted their goodwill but didn’t take the mansion. She only picked out some clothes she liked, daily necessities, and a few items full of memories to take with her.

As for the rest, she asked the Worker's Union to distribute them to girls of similar height who didn’t have any nice clothes to wear.

"My father always bought me pretty dresses, but I only wore many of them once and never again. They look lovely hanging in the wardrobe, sure, but I’d be even happier if they could help someone who needs them."

Elisa's eyes were a little puffy, but she still forced a heartbreaking smile.

Lorette felt a pang of sorrow when he saw the expression on her face.

After everything that had happened in her family, he knew she had to have cried a lot when no one was around.

Many in the Worker's Union, including himself, had secretly thought of her as their own daughter, but they weren’t truly her parents.

"You didn’t have to go this far. We agreed we wouldn’t do things just for appearances. We only take what’s ours."

The clothes were being sorted by the union’s female workers, most of them worked at the textile factory, while some were night-shift workers at the Goodtaste Food Processing Factory.

They all felt the same. It was impossible to resent Elisa.

What made Lorette feel conflicted was that Bore hadn’t robbed Stephen’s wife or daughter’s wardrobe, and accepting those items gave him a faint sense of shame.

Elisa shook her head and said seriously, "My father’s property should belong to all residents of Boulder Town. There's no room for debate. Maybe one day I’ll save up enough to buy it back, but not now. If I turn a blind eye to myself, then Boulder Town has truly only replaced one group of nobles with another."

Lorette blurted reflectively, "How could that be? We have a constitution now!"

Elisa stared straight at him. "Only by following it do we truly own it. Otherwise, people will say we’ve only replaced the old group of nobles. There are plenty of Kens in our ranks, aren’t there?"

Lorette froze, opened his mouth, and was about to say he should let those fools say what they want, but then suddenly realized something even more surprising. "You... You’ve read it too?!"

He had assumed that someone like her who was young and cultured, would prefer romantic poetry.

In fact, it wasn’t just her.

Commander Joey had zero interest in Bore’s story and loved to argue, claiming that no awakener could ever defeat an exoframe in battle.

Lorette suspected Joey had actually read a little in secret, and saw himself in Bore’s rival.

Spielberg certainly didn’t like the militia. After all, Phyllis was the one who had thrown him in jail back then.

But none of that stopped them from being comrades.

Looking at the astonished Lorette, Elisa smiled softly. "I just started. Once I’m done with things here, I plan to read it properly from the beginning."

"Incredible!" Lorette’s eyes widened. He rambled on, "I can’t believe you’d be into that kind of thing... But you’re right, we do have opportunists in the ranks. Maybe once everything settles, we should clean house a little."

He hadn’t finished his sentence when Elisa interrupted him. "No, we can’t!"

Seeing her serious expression, Lorette froze and frowned. "Why not?"

He hadn’t really intended to go through with it. It was just a random comment.

Elisa pressed on seriously, "Do you remember when the Worker's Union started growing?"

Lorette thought hard. "When Spielberg was arrested."

"Yes, when Spielberg was arrested. And the second time was when you all believed he had died." Elisa looked at him earnestly and continued, "A person’s heart can simultaneously house Bore, Stephen, Ken, and other countless roles. You cannot destroy formless power with tangible force."

“Stephen locked Bore away, and so countless Bores appeared. Now that we won, of course we could silence the Kens using Stephen’s methods, but they wouldn’t disappear. They would multiply in the shadows, and someday, they would replace us. The casinos would reopen."

That was something she had only come to understand that morning, after speaking with her brother.

They had to bring the settlement back on track using institutional means, not just by keeping idealists in the ranks.

Ideology could be faked.

House was a prime example. He could tell lies nonstop for over 10 years and make even the most absurd things sound flawless. If they hadn’t won, no one would’ve doubted that he was the kindest man in Boulder Town.

Lorette murmured, "They’ve become the ghost that will haunt us... So that’s what it means."

Elisa paused, then gently nodded. "Yes. All we need to do is what Bore would’ve done, bring everyone together."

She suddenly felt they were truly remarkable.

They weren’t highly educated and didn’t fully understand Bore’s every word and deed, yet somehow, they had accomplished it through sheer faith.

Bore’s story was like a piece of straw floating on water. Everyone who had been thrown overboard grabbed it, none letting go. Together, their arms became a bridge.

After seeing Lorette off, Elisa returned to her office and sat once more at her desk.

Her work for the day was done. She had promised Lorette she would rest early, but before going to bed, she still wanted to write a letter to thank the New Alliance’s administrator for his timely assistance.

The spark of a miracle was faint, so faint that a breeze could extinguish it, but he had not ignored it. The endless footsteps imprinted in the snow bore witness to the friendship between the new New Alliance and the new Boulder Town.

Thinking back to the story of the Bore the Awakener, Elisa started to regret it slightly.

Word had it that Spielberg was currently drafting the script for The Great Revolution. At a time when the conflict between the Worker's Union and the inner city residents had reached a fever pitch, the Bore the Awakener had been thrown into prison by the nobles on charges of desecrating the black card, a non-existent crime, given that no one had ever dared snap that card in over a century.

The story was approaching its climactic finale, and it looked like Bore wouldn’t end up with the girl from the noble family after all.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

But why?