Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter6 (section)

===Part 10===

The bridge suddenly felt even more cramped.

Corelle moved to the captain’s seat and Pale sat in the seat next to Hazel, but that was enough to feel like a new wall had been erected in the bridge.

Hazel glanced over while waiting for the ship to take flight.

Pale returned the look from far above her.

“Hm? You need something?”

“No, um, uh.” She hesitated. “You’re really big.”

“This is average height for a Hard Wolf. It’s not really worth mentioning.”

“Don’t believe his lies,” called Corelle from the up front. “Rumor has it he was so big he was always the prime target for the machineguns during the Spanish Civil War.”

“Don’t come out and tell her I’m lying, Corelle. I was trying to be adorably modest.”

“I think modesty and lying are two different things,” said Hazel.

“Don’t sweat the small stuff, miss. …Hey, Corelle! Hurry it up. I was hoping to get home sometime this century.”

“I’m not your chauffeur, you know?” sighed Corelle. “Besides, the commander isn’t supposed to be the first one back home.”

“I came up with a strategy and saw them all off. The rest is up to them. …M. Schrier said he wanted to see how well everyone could carry out this mission, but I never promised to fight on the front line myself.”

“Do you have any idea how much work went into preparing for this mission? We acquired some German Grösse Panzers and a wyvern even sacrificed itself to get this transport ship in.”

“Are more sacrifices a good thing? Hm? Pretty sure it’s the opposite, Corelle. If it was, my side in Ethiopia was the best damn army in the world.” Pale clicked his tongue. “Real soldiers can carry out their mission once they’re given orders. This will all work according to plan as long as the battle has no last-minute surprise guests.”

After having his say, Pale smugly leaned back in his seat.

Hazel thought of something as she watched him.

“Um…”

“Yeah? What is it, miss?”

“You mentioned what it means to be a real soldier.”

She thought back to what Berger had said the previous day and asked about it here.

“Is wanting to do something not enough to fight? Is wanting to save someone…not enough? Do you need something more?”

“…”

“Two years ago, someone from the Geheimnis Agency told me that to run away is to survive. So if you don’t want to run away and you want to fight…does that mean you want to die?”

“You saying you want to fight, miss?”

“Stop, Pale,” said Corelle. “She’s Berger’s favorite.”

“Eh?”

Hazel’s eyes widened.

Corelle’s voice was the only thing she could hear over the shaking and rumbling bridge.

“Everyone in the AIF wants to bring her in. Get her and you’ve got a much better chance of snagging Oscar Mirildorf, after all. But no one tries. Partially because she doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for a female AIF member…but more because Dog Berger is against it and he’s close to M. Schrier.”

Hazel stood up a little to ask a question.

“Wh-why? Why would Mr. Berger do that?”

“He says you would definitely agree if we recruited you, but he wonders if that’s what you really want. He wonders if you really want to be a soldier.”

“…”

“He thinks there might be another option for you. …It’s a lot like my cards. When the time comes and you make your choice, you’ll have your answer. It isn’t a question you can answer in advance.”

“I see.” Pale nodded sagely. “That’s far too complicated for me.”

“Quit teasing, you idiot. This is a serious issue for her.”

Hazel did not nod, but she did hold her new card close and then slowly stuck it in her breast pocket. She placed both hands over the pocket and slowly sighed.

“What do I want to be?” she whispered to herself with a smile. “Two years ago,” she said loud enough to be heard. “At school, we were told to think about our plans for the future. We all had to fill out a simple form with our name, species, and a few other fields. We were all discussing it in the middle of class.”

She looked over at Pale and found his one eye was looking down at her. There was no excess force in his gaze – he was simply watching.

“Did you do that in class way back when, Mr. Pale?”

“Huh? W-well, yes, I suppose I did.”

He smiled in a resigned sort of way and scratched his head as she watched him.

“But forget about me. What did you write for yours?”

“I never filled it out.” She smiled. “But there was something I wanted to write down.”

The thing is…

“I wanted to write it down, but I didn’t know what would happen if I did. The Glossolalian girl sitting next to me said she wanted to study in America to be a fashion designer. When I saw that…”

“…”

“I thought it was ridiculous and she was dreaming if she thought that would ever happen. But…but…”

She realized the hands on her chest had stiffened and she could not relax them. Her right hand was still clutching the Wheel of Destiny in her hand and refused to let go.

“But then the soldiers barged into the classroom and approached us. When one of them picked up that girl’s form, laughed at her, and tore it up, I couldn’t just let him do it, so I-”

“Time to go!!” cut in Corelle.

The sharp voice felt like a slap to the face, so Hazel’s head snapped up, a single tear dripping down her cheek. She saw the sky was red out the front of the bridge.

Another color was shooting up into that red sky.

It was a bluish-white flare.

“It’s an emergency. Pale, the battle might have had one of those surprise guests you mentioned. …Time to fly, Hazel! I see now you’ve given this all a lot of thought. But you know what?”

“What?”

“No one’s dumb enough to turn the wheel backwards. The past ends tonight.”

“Okay!”

She wiped away the tear.

The floor felt like it was pushing up from below and the view out the window dropped away around them. The craft had begun to ascend.

The engine’s roar grew higher pitched and the bridge shook and swayed.

The shaking and the noise joined together as her viewpoint grew ever higher and she had to look down to see the river they had left. The scarlet color of the sky shined into the bridge, illuminating all their faces, and Corelle turned around to shout to her.

“It’s about time to choose, Hazel! To choose how the Wheel of Destiny will turn!”

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