Editing City Series:Volume6a Chapter4 (section)

===Part 2===

The morning sun shined into a room where Hazel sat across a table from Schweitzer. The table had a tablecloth over it and a simple but nutritionally-balanced breakfast was laid out on top.

It included brot, gemüsesuppe, wurst, fried eggs, a variety of fruits, and kaffee with cream floating in it.

Hazel slowly ate that while viewing the man in front of her.

Schweitzer ate with just his left arm and he did not look at her at all, but the way he moved his arm seemed awkward.

…''He’s going out of his way to eat with me.

With that on her mind, she moved her gaze to view the room. It was a large room with 6 yard walls. The ceiling had beautiful wood paneling, the wallpaper had an arrowhead pattern, and the high pile carpet felt nice even with bare feet.

The bed affixed to the wall was large too. Overall, the room was brown and warm.

She suddenly glanced to the bed.

The end of the blanket was a mess because she had dressed while sitting on top of it. She had been laid in the bed in her cat form, so she had woken up naked.

“…”

She looked back to Schweitzer, but his interest was not in the bed.

She breathed a sigh of relief and looked around the room again.

The air conditioning had formed condensation on the window that overlooked the interior of Tempelhof Air Base. When Bermark had arrived earlier to ask if she needed any daily items, he had explained that this was the 5th floor of the officer barracks and that she had been given a vacant room.

…''This certainly is a warm welcome.

That thought entered her mind while she saw a transport plane finish taxiing and begin taking off outside the condensation-covered window. It shook the atmosphere, creating a roar of air.

The plane looked like a small toy at this distance as it accelerated along the other side of the brown winter grass. It moved from the right side of the window and vanished off the left side. And then…

“Do you like aircraft?”

She turned toward the voice to see Schweitzer was indeed still eating.

His gaze was lowered toward the wurst he was slicing in two with his fork, so he was not looking at her.

“Do you like aircraft?”

“Not particularly.”

She answered promptly, but he did not look up.

She realized her expression had grown stiff as she continued her answer.

“If not for aircraft, my dad probably wouldn’t have had to ‘regretfully retire’. Um, do you know what happened after that Armored Hammer of God Incident? The German military used that chaos as an excuse to oppress the Heidengeists in the country. They declared without evidence that the Heidengeists had been behind the incident.”

“That was in fact a witch hunt meant to extract all the foreign wealth held by the Heidengeists.”

“Yes, it was. You knew?”

“The Geheimnis Agency was tasked with that job at the time. That was my third year in the Agency.”

Schweitzer still did not look her way.

She tilted her head while he resumed eating in silence.

“Then why aren’t you hunting me down? Um, I am a Heidengeist.”

“That was made clear yesterday. And like I said before breakfast, your eye is crucial for the protection of Germany and that Messiah implant began to adapt to your body last night.” A breath. “It is no longer possible to simply remove the prosthetic eye. Normally, we would be searching for someone who can accept that eye now that it has made itself a part of your body.”

“Um,” she said while rolling that idea around in her mind. “And if you do find a compatible person?”

…''Will they gouge out my eye and send me to be made into a Phlogiston Platte like the other Heidengeists?

She could not ask that part out loud, but she did hold a hand to her shoulder. The shoulder which bore a branded number.

He must have known what she was thinking because he responded in a deep voice.

“I said ‘normally’, remember?” He was speaking with his eyes still lowered toward his food. “Germany refuses to accept anyone with Heidengeist Tons as a citizen. We reject Heidengeist to ensure our racial superiority. Thus…we will not find anyone compatible with an eye that has been tainted with Heidengeist Tons.”

She looked up at the ceiling when she heard that.

She thought about it and scratched at her hair for a mere three seconds before finding an answer and looking back at him.

“Thank you.”

“I have done nothing deserving your thanks.” He continued as if restating that. “Listen, we must research that eye of yours and that requires preserving your physical and mental health. We cannot allow you to come to harm.”

She listened to him, but then she removed her hand from her shoulder.

“What power does this eye – the Messiah – hold that makes it so important?”

“From what I have been told, its Beweisen can apparently resonate with and control any Eingeweide device. That makes it the foundation of all Eingeweide devices.”

“Then…what did you mean last night about me becoming or not becoming the Messiah?”

He seemed to choose his words more carefully when answering this question.

“We believe that a Messiah will appear to become our leader and save us when Germany faces a crisis in the near future. …Our Geheimnis Agency is currently leading the country, but a Neue Kavalier is meant to serve a leader who guides them.”

“And that’s the Messiah?”

“However, certain conditions must be met to become the Messiah. You were a likely candidate, but destiny did not fulfill those conditions when we secured you last night. …You carry the Messiah implant, but you failed to become the true Messiah.” A breath. “However, that does not make your Messiah implant any less important.”

“If I had fulfilled the conditions to become the Messiah, would I have received an even warmer welcome?”

She smiled a little and ate a spoonful of soup now that steam had stopped rising from it.

And she asked something else purely out of curiosity.

“But why are you working so hard to make all this happen?”

He finally looked up upon hearing that.

He started to say something, sighed, and spoke more quietly.

“I once promised I would live a life that protected this country.”

He looked down again before answering and Hazel looked to him after hearing it. Her eyes landed on the woman’s earring he wore on his left ear. She kept her eyes on that as she asked something else.

“Was that promise with…Eryngium?”

Schweitzer stopped moving altogether.