Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 2===

“So even our Christmas break went exactly as the higher ups had planned.”

Quenser and Heivia were speaking within the Baby Magnum’s maintenance area.

The princess was listening in with as little expression on her face as ever.

“This Cardinal Oldnick had contacted Hyena from the Loyauté district. Some data we found in their headquarters after blowing them away made that clear enough.”

“But why? I would think a cardinal would insist on keeping things clean. Would he really contact a group using the restoration of Oceania as a chance to rob people?”

“We still don’t know what he’s after. He’s causing quite an uproar, but we still can’t figure out what he hopes to achieve in the end. It’s possible he’s just fleeing to save his own skin,” pointed out Heivia offhandedly. “It’s possible he wanted to use them against the Faith Organization’s Valkyrie. Those grim reapers are quite something, but they’re still flesh-and-blood soldiers. There is a chance he was planning to use Hyena to deal with Valkyrie.”

However, Quenser and the rest of the Legitimacy Kingdom had eliminated Hyena before they and Valkyrie could cross paths.

Since Oldnick himself had not been turned to ash, he must have detected some kind of harbinger of the bombardment and fled.

“We know Valkyrie was lurking around the Loyauté district, but I guess he must have escaped them.”

“He must have. After escaping the island, Oldnick likely tried to escape to Oceania where he could slip in amongst the confusion of restoration. With the coalition force confusing everything, a single organization has a harder time moving around than elsewhere. He probably hoped to escape to somewhere else of his choosing after losing Valkyrie in Oceania,” said Quenser as he leaned up against a large piece of machinery. “But before he could, our unit came to rest at the north end of Oceania…and that was exactly where Oldnick was expected to land. That meant he couldn’t land without being blown out of the water, much less disappear into the confusion. Since we had already crushed all of Hyena after he contacted them, Oldnick would have been cautious about approaching us. Just as the higher ups hoped, he had no choice but to head north by sea.”

Roybelz Oldnick was currently using a civilian charter boat to head to the Solomon district which was north of both Oceania and Loyauté.

“The reason he isn’t using an airplane is likely that he is afraid of being targeted with anti-air lasers, but that changes little. Objects can travel at over 500 kph on the sea. Even if the charter boat is a high-speed hydrofoil, he can’t escape.”

The princess then cut in.

“By the way, Quenser.”

“What?”

The princess pointed at one wall of the maintenance area and asked her question while still expressionless.

“Why is Heivia writing curses on the wall while speaking with you?”

“I honestly couldn’t tell you…”

“Like hell you don’t know!!” shouted Heivia while he glared at and grabbed Quenser. “I heard what happened!! I know what you were doing while I was struggling to save Oceania and our unit! You were keeping all the best parts to yourself!! Why do I keep hearing about a huge-breasted miniskirt bikini Santa!?”

“…That was a type of hell in its own way.”

“You and your damn ‘let them eat cake’ attitude!! You monster!! Are you asking for a fight!?”

Heivia then realized that all the yelling in the world would not get rid of the empty feeling within him, so his mood dropped to a point three times lower than before.

The princess also seemed slightly miffed, but those two idiots were completely oblivious to that fact.

“I honestly think I was the hero this time. I was shining in the spotlight. That cruise missile targeting the maintenance soldiers was similar to our idea of destroying the computer in the Loyauté district to make the Object unusable. The Deep Optical’s unit from the Capitalist Corporations had to be behind it somehow, so I felt like I was opening the first page of some grand epic of a story!! But now that I think back on it, something wasn’t right about the whole thing! Why wasn’t there a single beautiful girl in that story!! All I got was some middle-aged guy named Royce! What the hell kind of miscasting is that!?”

Suddenly, an electronic tone came from one of their radios.

However, it did not come from Quenser or Heivia’s.

It came from the smaller, more expensive one used to inform the princess it was time to scramble the Object.

“What?”

“The situation has changed. Our plan was to intercept that troublesome old man as he headed north through the ocean in the Solomon district, but a Capitalist Corporations Object has appeared cutting off our route.”

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance.

“It is the Deep Optical, a Second Generation Object from the Client Security company. I had a feeling we would be engaging it in the near future, but this timing is odd. It is possible Roybelz Oldnick has some connection with them.”

“What exactly is the change to the plan?” asked the princess.

“We had planned to simply have you pursue Oldnick, but we will now have you face the Deep Optical. A separate group will head after Oldnick, but I will explain it all in more detail at the pre-mission briefing.”

Quenser had a question, so he simply asked it.

“Froleytia, do you think the Deep Optical is standing in our way for more than a personal grudge against us?”

He then heard an odd clattering noise come from over the radio.

It sounded like Froleytia had tried to draw back from the radio but had failed as she was sitting down. As a result, she had fallen back in her seat.

“…Qu-Quenser…You were there?”

“Um, Froleytia? Is there a prob-…”

“No!! Don’t say anything!!” 

For some reason Froleytia shouted back at him before he could finish speaking.

“Forget everything that happened yesterday!! I don’t remember a thing, so I have no idea what I may have said, but I can tell it was something horrible from the reaction of those around me!! So don’t say a single thing about it!!”

Something had been said that was causing Froleytia to blush out of delighted embarrassment. When Heivia heard that, his self control finally reached its limit and he punched Quenser.