Editing City Series:Volume5a Chapter5 (section)

===Beretta’s Journal===

Today, I’m writing this on a bench at a corner of the Arc de Triomphe plaza. I don’t really feel like heading home.

If I had to sum up today, I would say it was the day I learned of my naiveté.

First of all, the librarian is gone. I entered the library while Signing, greeted the librarian at the reception desk like always, and started to return the research materials I had borrowed. But then…

<The library director is standing at the reception desk with a surprised look on his face.

“She won’t be returning here.”

Sure enough, the usual librarian is nowhere to be seen.>

That’s the scary thing about this city. I just Signed my assumptions and thought she was there. And when those assumptions didn’t match reality, a Point threw that reality in my face.

According to the director, the Germans arrived that morning and stole every last one of her possessions and documents from the library. That meant she really had been part of the Resistance.

I stayed in the library for a bit after that, but I couldn’t relax and decided to leave. I had given her a letter to send. What would happen if the Germans got their hands on that?

And what was it that led to her arrest? Was it Heinz Berge from yesterday?

My delivery may have ended up with the Germans and I’ll find a soldier in front of my room when I go home. No, it might not be today. It could be tomorrow too. I was questioned as a female Knight Striker before, but Mallette and the others saved me by faking an alibi for me. But there would be no escape this time. I mean, they would have actual evidence that I had a connection to the Resistance.

I can’t believe this. Since I’m an outsider in this world, I’ll just disappear if I die.

Anyone with even the slightest connection to the Resistance is “welcomed” as a prisoner of war at one of the concentration camps in Germany. And they never come back.

What am I supposed to do now? Because I had been Signing as I walked to think about all this, I had apparently ended up with a discrepancy from “reality”. When I Pointed to prove how calm I was, I found the shoulder of my shawl was a little torn. It may have caught on something while I walked.

So what do I do now? It wasn’t like me to be too afraid to even approach my ''appartement''. But today I was reminded what it meant to be “like me”.

I really am a coward and ignorant of the world.

My mind had been on the Germans all day. Even when I threw a bouquet of flowers into the river for Jack McWild and when I met with Rosetta to tell her I would be picking her up tomorrow.

Phillip was right. Maybe I should lie low for a while.

Before, I Write Bringed into a Heavy Barrel and five people died. And today something had happened to someone else. Today couldn’t have been entirely my fault, but it’s still true the people around me are disappearing.

Why can’t I protect the people around me? Aren’t I supposed to be a Knight Striker?

<The Arc de Triomphe plaza clock says it is 8:32 PM.>

Oh, no. The Germans begin their night patrols at 9. I’ll be questioned if I’m still out then.

I need to get home, but I’m afraid to.

Why does Phillip have to be with the Germans at a time like this? I could have gone and asked to say in his stable.

But, well, I might not be arrested. If I keep Signing, I’ll just depress myself further. I need to make sure to Point on my way back.

I might not be able to sleep tonight. I should probably use this as a chance to write some letters. Those could act as my will. And if I survive to tomorrow, I can pick up Rosetta, have a cooking get-together with everyone, and just have a good time. Once that’s over, I’ll have one less regret even if I am arrested.

It’s time to get home. Going there and getting arrested would feel a little better than staying out and being arrested after a random questioning.