Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

In Germany’s Black Forest, evening had passed and night was settling in.

The forest was growing even blacker.

A few lights could be found in the very bottom of a valley, which should have been the darkest part of the forest.

The Geheimnis Agency HQ’s fortress base was located there. The well-maintained runway lights and hangars provided enough light to function but not enough to be noticeable from a distance.

The most light could be found at the mess hall on the eastern end of the base.

The large, white mess hall was filled with round tables for four that were currently full of Geheimnis Agents. Two people at a table by the window stood out from the rest.

One was an enormous man in tightly-fitting uniform of the Geheimnis Luftwaffe, the Agency’s air force division. His right arm was a massive metal prosthetic.

The person seated across from him was a tall and pencil-thin elderly man. He stroked a hand through his fastidiously combed gray hair and sighed.

“May I take care of your plates, Master Schweitzer?”

The elderly man began stacking up the plates on the table without waiting for a response.

Schweitzer did not even look up.

His gaze was on the piece of paper he held.

It was a letter.

The envelope sat on the table in front of him. It was a plain waterproof manila envelope. The sender was listed as…

“Eryngium Ilfheim.”

“Was she from the Alfheim region?”

“Ilfheim may be a corrupted version of that, yes. Her father was from a line of Werecats with a long history in Germany.”

Schweitzer looked up from the letter, saw the stacked plates, and frowned.

“I was still eating that.”

“I assumed you had not liked the fried shrimp. Were you saving your favorite for last?”

“Don’t ask that of a man in his late twenties, Bermark.”

“As you wish.”

Bermark set down the neatly-stacked plates and looked to Schweitzer, who realized Bermark’s gaze was on the letter he held.

“It’s from Borderson. Not the original village that was destroyed 21 years ago – the hidden village located near there. You know, the Village of Pardons.”

“That is the one place in Germany where Heidengeists are still allowed to live. Because the Hounds allowed it, as a way of atoning for their killings.”

“And that spirit has continued strong even after the fall of Borderson.”

“According to the intelligence division, all combat is banned there.”

“Yes, it is. Because it is a place of atonement, much like the ancient Greek temples. Attack there and you would earn the ire of every Heidengeist the world over.”

“The military is none too happy about it, though, what with their Wannsee Conference and all. That may be why they insist the place is crawling with Allied spies.”

“You know an awful lot about this,” noted Schweitzer.

Bermark smiled a bit, sighed, and cleared his throat.

“We have a report saying ‘Hardest Wolf’ Pale Horse, commander of the AIF, is in that village. Some mission apparently requires him to contact the local AIF spy leader who is stationed in that Village of Pardons. He has always been an easygoing general”

Bermark searched his pocket for a few seconds, produced paper and pencil, and removed his right glove.

He revealed a right hand made of porcelain, wires, and a protective plastic cover.

“I believe this was the photo air force intelligence took.”

As soon as he held the pencil in that right hand, he drew out a picture with the great speed of a machine. No, he was accurately reproducing the photograph he had seen. He even reproduced the shading, the focus, and the time and date the photo was taken.

It took him no more than a minute to complete.

A photo was now drawn on the paper. It was so complete it looked like you would be able to peel it from the paper with your nails.

Bermark held it out and Schweitzer accepted it and viewed it like nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

The right side showed the roof of a small wooden church.

The angle was somewhat shallow, not from directly above, so the two people standing in front of the church could be seen in full. One was a large man with two prosthetic arms and the other was a young woman.

“Is that Pale Horse on the left?”

“And the woman on the right is the local AIF spy leader. It may be a sarcastic reference to her role as leader, but her Titel is Lehrer. An army division company led by Lady Jeanne is currently deployed around the village in order to gather intelligence and capture Pale Horse when he attempts to escape.”

Schweitzer nodded and noted that, even in the black-and-white photo, he could tell Pale’s short hair was gray and Lehrer’s long hair was blonde. Her hair appeared to fall nearly to the back of her knees.

“She is said to be a Buster…but she is also said to be blind.”

She wore glasses in the photo and she appeared to be facing Pale in conversation.

Schweitzer plainly stated his thoughts.

“Those who work with Tons can read people’s wills. That would be useful in intelligence work.”

“Just like with the Fräulein, women have become a part of war in this age,” noted Bermark, his eyes shut.

Schweitzer chuckled at his lieutenant’s comment.

“The Messiah is a woman too. What do you have to say about that?”

“I believe you should ask that again once the prophecy has been fulfilled.”

Bermark went on to recite the latest prophecy.

''The party begins and the village dances / The dragon roars and the knights gather

''The bride weeps uncrowned / Her words go unsaid and he never arrives

''Thus she is alone / She weeps and sleeps in this land

“The Fräulein finally managed to prophecy this verse a month and two weeks ago. The time has come to capture the Messiah girl and the development division has already completed a few of their Ton bullets extracted directly from Germany’s Tons.”

“A lot of progress all at once, isn’t it? Quite a coincidence that it was just the other day the development division announced their development of an unmanned Sylphide-style aerial warship and research into new Eingeweide devices.”

“I believe the new craft is known as Erlkönig. And following the Sylphide’s example, the new Eingeweide devices will all be aircrafts or Grösse Panzers with a Schreiben system. The development division’s researchers are holed up trying to decode Sir Marsch’s research notes and the Ober Geheimnis diagrams found bellow Munich.”

“A system much like the Sylphide’s, hm? A prosthetic arm or a weapon required a body part to create, but if they base it on a Schreiben system that takes in the entire person, they might indeed be able to create something new.”

But…

“It all goes back to the Sylphide, doesn’t it? …It makes me curious about what happened three years ago. Namely, how those involved claim it was the Sylphide they excavated from the Alfheim Meteorite Pit. And Lowenzahn said the Kaiserburg’s development was sped up by two years when P. Wagner discovered that beneath his lab. But…”

“But?”

“Why was the Sylphide found in a place sealed up a thousand years ago? Is it Ober Geheimnis? So many mysteries. Besides, will the Messiah girl even return to this land?”

His question was answered by an unexpected source: a female voice from behind him.

“She will. Have faith, okay?”

He turned just his head to see a waitress standing there.

Her long brown hair was tied back and she directed a powerful gaze his way.

She crouched down to place her hands on his broad right shoulder and gave him a cold look.

“Or do you not trust my prophecies, Captain Schweitzer?”

He responded to her whispered admonition with an exasperated whisper of his own.

“I do hope they will prove accurate, Lowenzahn.”

“Really? Glad to hear it.”

“Do you understand why I am whispering?”

Schweitzer turned toward her and looked her in the eye.

“Remember what I told you? If the Messiah girl agrees to be our leader, then I will step forward and openly act as our commander.”

She narrowed her eyes with the ends of her eyebrows somewhat lowered.

She looked away from Schweitzer to look across the mess hall.

“Working like this is fun, but it does feel wrong at times.”

“You do kick the snot out of someone about once a month. Does life without that sound too boring for you?”

“Don’t be mean. …But taking it too far wouldn’t be fair to my stepdad. Working here instead of marrying after college is bad enough on its own. But…”

“?”

[[Image:City_v06c_059.jpg|thumb]]

“As commander, I could leave his family and live openly as a Naylor.”

The two men said nothing to that.

After a beat, she breathed a sigh of relief.

And she lowered her gaze to the letter Schweitzer held.

“What’s that?”

“A letter from…an acquaintance who lives in the Borderson Village of Pardons. It is a wedding invitation.”

“Sounds like a cause for celebration to me, so why the long face?”

“Even if this acquaintance shouldn’t know who I am?”

“Eh?”

Schweitzer nodded.

“She lost her memories. Eryngium Ilfheim lost all her memories of herself, of me, of Alfred, of Marsch, of her own father, and even of Berger. And they can never return, no matter what. It was the permanent sort of memory loss.”

“Maybe some kind person told her about you.”

“Then why did the letter arrive at our HQ, which should require passing through the Post Office. Yet our address through the Post Office is top secret, so she and the general public shouldn’t know it.”

“Hey, don’t take it out on me.” Lowenzahn was still smiling as she took a closer look at the letter. “That’s a woman’s handwriting. Since it reached you, there must be some woman out there who knows about this place. Since it’s at the Borderson village, maybe she asked some ancient Heidengeist about the place.”

And…

“I see the wedding is midday on the 30th, so…five days from now? Let’s go together.”

Schweitzer paused before responding.

“What? Why would I go with you?”

“Bermark hasn’t told you? Pale Horse is in that village, so I’m going to oversee the capture operation. If he’s driven to Cologne and captured there, I’ll meet with him.”

“That is too dangerous.”

“Jeanne while have him safely inside a prisoner transport vehicle. There is a lot I want to ask ASAP. …And if Pale is captured, we’ll have to hand him over to the military after he’s been transported.”

“We really need to work things out with the military…”

“But I don’t want to use the ‘have Heiliger pull some strings’ card too often. Since I’ll be working openly before long, I want to do everything I can on my own.”

Bermark nodded in response.

“You have grown up so much.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She sighed. “Even the great Pale Horse should give in if we shoot him with a Ton bullet. He’ll have no choice but to be captured. …I’ll admit it’s a little violent, but I want to hear for myself what happened with the Messiah girl and the Babel Cannon the UK was constructing.”

“Let me go in your place.”

“No. We’re going together. Rose, Graham, and Lieutenant Maldrick are working so hard with the Gard-class in Cologne, so I want to pay them a visit. You’re the driver and I’m the VIP. Got it?”

“Are you saying this has already been arranged?”

“I’ve spoken with my stepdad, Air Force Division Chief Müller. He praised your idea to use the second Gard-class being constructed to provide air defense for Germania.”

“He wanted to reward you with three days of field work instead of more dreary deskwork,” added Bermark.

Schweitzer looked back down at the photograph Bermark had drawn out earlier.

“Bermark, you drew this for me because you knew I would be visiting that village, didn’t you?”

“I did. You simply never asked the reason.”

Bermark held the stack of plates toward Lowenzahn and she took them.

“Oh, you didn’t finish your fried shrimps. You shouldn’t be a picky eater.”

“He apparently saves his favorite for last and I rudely cleared the plate away before he was done,” explained Bermark.

“Oh, I see,” said Lowenzahn, staring down at Schweitzer. He frowned, but that didn’t slow her down. “Is that why you don’t want to go on this trip with me? You’d prefer to save the best for last?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, if you go with me…” She held the plates in her left hand and pressed a finger of her right hand to her lips. “We’ll effectively be taking the honeymoon before the wedding.”

This time, she did not at all whisper. Everyone in the mess hall froze and all eyes gathered on them. The sounds of cooking ceased and the only sound was the water running in a kitchen sink.

“Oh, whoops,” said Lowenzahn lowering her head.

Schweitzer frowned further and made one simple statement in the silence.

“She is only joking.”

Everyone immediately exploded