The Vanishing Border

This is a divided world. Students devote themselves to studying the effects of various spells and the recipes for magical potions. Workers toil night and day, testing the strength of swords and the power of magic orbs. Soldiers form ranks and crush every obstacle to victory underfoot. This is a world of magic. Only the nation in the north has become an exception. It uses coal as its food, oil as the blood coursing through its veins, and steel as its backbone, which will never bend. The war to "purge heretics" has never ended. "This child was different from the others from the very beginning." The child's name was Petes. She was different, and not only because her parents worked in intelligence. When she was a few months old, she was crying and fussing when she accidentally grabbed a red poppy from a vase. At once, she fell silent. Later, no matter how their comrades tried to persuade her, she insisted on throwing away every bouquet. Then, one by one, she planted poppies all around her parents' graves. "Why will war never end?" "Because human desire can never be satisfied, and because there will always be living people who carry the dead's will onward, forever."