Erich sighed. "That is where everything began to change. My job was horrible. Criminally low pay for such hard, menial work..." He rubs his forehead, setting his near-empty lager aside. "Then I would hear about the 'record profits' of Republican and that sort of thing, you know".
He pauses a moment, before beginning to speak again; evidently his making eye contact with Freya is a luxury. "My final graduate thesis was to be on the 'terrorist movements' of Rheinland, particularly the Hessians and the Bundschuh. I researched all that I could on the topic... But I clearly did not write it the way that the college expected me to."
"So I was expelled, placed on a watch list, along with my family. I have never been so frightened and afraid in my life. I suppose that fear may have ended up coralling me into the Bundschuh. And at last I had seen the truth."
"I haven't heard a single word from my family since that day. I don't know whether they are still on New Berlin, or if they are at Vierlande, Omega-Eleven, or elsewhere. I prefer to keep that deep down inside, though."
