Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 2===

Quenser and Heivia stepped down from the open back of a cargo plane and onto icy land.

They were at a hastily constructed airfield on the Arctic Victoria Island in the northern portion of the Alaska district.

“I can’t believe they can land somewhere this frozen. Is this supposed to be a runway? You could play ice hockey on it,” said Heivia in shock, but he frantically moved out of the way when a truck horn blared.

Several large military vehicles were driving down the lowered cargo door and onto the runway.

Quenser held his arms around his body for warmth even with his heavy coat on.

“Where’s the princess?”

“She got here long ago. We came later to construct the maintenance base. We don’t get sent to the front lines every time,” said Heivia before bringing a hand to his forehead and staring straight up. “I thought the Indigo Plasma was doing some crazy things, but I never thought that was the infamous Prizewell City Slicker’s unit. I hadn’t heard much about him for 2 or 3 years now. I wonder when he was scouted and secretly started heading down the path of an Elite.”

“Who is he?”

“A hardcore lineage advocate. Basically, he’s the stereotypical example of the kind of noble you don’t want to have to deal with,” cut in Froleytia from the side with her long, thin kiseru in her mouth. She must not have had much to do until the maintenance base was constructed because she looked bored. “Basically, he’s an idiot who has mistakenly decided his ultimate objective should be to ensure a set group of people centered around him controls the wars and government. He advocates reinstating the slave class that was utterly abolished a few decades back. He claims the stagnation of the Legitimacy Kingdom economy is due to a lack of a working force.”

“He is trying to use language to bring about this reform in social classes. City Slicker is an ardent language preservation activist.”

“You mean he discriminates based on whether you can speak the language or not?”

“Yes. City Slicker fears the decay of the Legitimacy Kingdom’s official language more than anything else. He is rumored to have been behind a few terrorist attacks involving things such as assassinations of foreign language band members and bombings of foreign language schools. There was never enough evidence, though,” said Heivia.

Quenser frowned and said, “It is true that you occasionally hear about languages dying out because not enough people used it and it was not passed on to enough people, but this is the Legitimacy Kingdom’s official language City Slicker is talking about, right? It’s the official language of one of the major world powers. It isn’t going to die out so easily.”

“The Legitimacy Kingdom’s official language is primarily based on French with influences from the languages of the other European cultures added in. You know that much, right, Quenser?” With a smile, Froleytia tapped her shoulder. A few letters were written on the unit insignia there. “But what language is used on the military’s unit insignias?”

“…English.”

“Things like military jargon, internet tags, and programming languages are often based around English even now. It is a relic of an age before the arrival of Objects, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t easier to just keep using the existing terminology. But City Slicker will not allow that. Unless everything down to the last restaurant menu is in the Legitimacy Kingdom’s official language, he will not be satisfied.”

“It sounds more like he’s the one destroying a linguistic culture. So did that bastard Nutley shoot us in the back over that?”

“If you add in some clever seasoning, language preservation activism can seem like quite a beautiful thing,” Heivia said, grinning. “If nobles and commoners spoke the same language, everyone could get along. Men could get along with women, adults could get along with children, and people of every skin color could get along. If we could just speak to each other in the same language, everyone could smile together. Isn’t that just wonderful!? …Their sales pitch is something like that.”

“Of course, they don’t bring up the reverse side of the coin. That worldview shows that you have no intention of smiling together with those who cannot speak your language. In fact, it shows you do not even intend to treat them like fellow human beings.”

“Nutley was black.”

“True, but Cookman was black, too. And Myonri was Asian. The Legitimacy Kingdom may be based on the culture of a bygone era of kings and knights, but black nobles are not exactly rare these days. There doesn’t really seem to be a foundation for those words to work off of and lead him astray.”

“It does not matter if the foundation actually exists or not. As long as Nutley had even the slightest doubts along those lines, Prizewell City Slicker just had to find them and use them.”

“But you also said City Slicker was a lineage advocate…”

“Yes. Just like with the mafia, he surrounds himself with blood relatives. Deep down, he will never trust a stranger. He uses language when choosing his ‘pawns’.”

That talk left a bitter taste in Quenser’s mouth.

City Slicker may have seen it as nothing more than using tactics from his field of expertise.

“He does not care about anyone besides himself,” muttered Froleytia in an evaluation of the leader of the 24th. She gently blew out some smoke. “That is why he did not fit in even among the nobles. That made him feel the need to rush things. This entire incident seems to be his attempt to gain more of a right to speak within the Legitimacy Kingdom through his military contributions. Then, he can continue with his language preservation activism. …But you saw what happened. His slaughter of the Faith Organization civilians was stopped and he failed to create the spark he wanted. His information manipulation that was meant to take advantage of the confusion also failed. His political maneuvering was exposed and his influence has plummeted. Before long, his position as a noble will likely be officially revoked and will be treated as a pitiable ‘fallen noble’.”

“But he took action before that could happen,” muttered Quenser.

Froleytia shrugged lightly and said, “He might be hoping to cross the Atlantic, threaten the Sovereign Parliament, and correct his political trajectory, or he might be hoping to attack an Information Alliance city in eastern America to restore his influence. Whatever he plans to do, it is nothing but a nuisance and the higher ups of the military do not want any of it to happen. After he came so far, I almost feel sorry for him. Not that I intend to hold back,” she said offhandedly. “Prizewell City Slicker’s goal is not to overthrow the Legitimacy Kingdom. He simply wants to retain his position within the current system. From there, he wants to obtain a position that gives him overwhelming military force that he can use to prod the Sovereign Parliament in the direction of his own views.”

“They only have the Indigo Plasma, right?”

“Yes, but this area is something like Prizewell City Slicker’s manor. Rumor has it he privately owns an unofficially operated weapons factory somewhere around here. It is possible they were resupplied while on the move and that the Object is now equipped with weapons not in the diagrams we have. If we let our guard down, we could run into a most unwelcome surprise.”

“But we have three Objects while they have just the one,” said Heivia to Quenser in a joking tone. “Whatever equipment they may have gained, the numbers are just too different. Our victory is ensured. The only real problem is the bad taste shooting fellow Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers will leave in our mouths.”

“Yes, we will almost assuredly achieve victory in the end,” agreed Froleytia. “But do not forget that we could take damages in the process. The son of the Winchell family does not intend to get killed by a stray bullet with victory before his eyes, does he?”

Heivia’s jocular expression froze in place at Froleytia’s cold tone.