Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter2 (section)

===Part 4===

A low-ceilinged room contained the murmurs of a hundred people.

This was the mess hall at the Geheimnis Agency’s Hamburg Base. Most of the tables were full even though it was well into the afternoon.

None of the people in black Geheimnis Agency uniforms were up and walking around. They all remained at the tables, whispering to each other.

Empty plates sat in front of them all. They had finished their meals but not gotten up. The reason they hadn’t left could be found at the center of the mess hall. Everyone tried to feign indifference, but they were all stealing curious glances over their shoulders.

The mess hall’s center table was rectangular and seated eight. Currently, just two people were seated across from each other there: Heiliger and Hazel.

Heiliger wore a black uniform, had gray hair and a gray beard, and crossed his prosthetic arms atop the table.

Hazel wore the kind of surgical gown found at hospitals with a black Geheimnis Agency coat draped over her shoulders. The Wheel of Destiny card in the breast pocket was her only personal possession.

She had done nothing but talk without touching the meat pasta on her plate.

She gesticulated and made sure to direct her entire face upwards so she wouldn’t have to direct her eyes up at the man who was looking down at her.

She wiggled her right arm to indicate a flowing river and caught sight of something like a small brown stain on the inside of her elbow. That was a medical charm. She frowned when she saw it.

“Does that bother you, Miss Mirildorf?” asked Heiliger. “The injection of German Tons, I mean.”

Hazel quickly raised her head again.

“No,” she said, but did hang her head a little, her eyes landing on his chest. “Well, it does a little.”

“Have you been chattering away to distract yourself from that?”

His tone made it clear his question was only rhetorical. She raised her head to find him looking back at her without any shift in posture. His expression remained calm too.

…''This man effectively commands the Geheimnis Agency right now.

“General Karlsruhe?”

“Yes? Shall I regale you with tales of your father as a change of pace? Just like you told me all about my daughter who happened to be a classmate of yours.”

“No…I doubt my father would want me to intrude on his past.”

“That sounds like him. Tell me, does he still raise his right hand like this when he has to think about something and finally gives an answer?”

Hazel recognized the way Heiliger twisted and raised his prosthetic right hand.

She even laughed a little and held a hand over the Wheel of Destiny card in her breast pocket.

“Thank you for your concern. I feel a lot better now that I’ve laughed some.” She kept her smile. “But should the Agency’s second in command really be showing me around the base and sharing a meal with me? You’ve more or less told me where I need to go to escape.”

“It’s perfectly fine. You are free to go wherever you like in the base and even send letters to your parents. The letters will be censored by the base’s post room I showed you earlier, of course.”

“Why are-”

Heiliger cut off her question.

“You were injected with German Tons in this base’s medical room while you slept last night.”

“So you think I can’t escape? What about the serum I brought with me?”

“You expect me to believe you would save yourself with the serum you brought for someone else? And if you did try to share it with him, its effectiveness would drop and the German Tons would be back in just a few weeks. Then you would be forced to return.”

“…”

“We have already finished examining that serum and it will be transported to the bottom level of our Germania HQ for storage by the end of the day. You have nowhere to run, so we simply expect you to make the intelligent choice.”

“And if I still try to run?”

“We will do everything we can to stop you. You are our pet cat, not a stray.”

When she grasped his meaning, Hazel’s shoulders drooped and some resignation entered her voice.

“But I think it’s wrong to give your pet an injection while she’s asleep.”

“After capturing you, we slipped a sedative into your food to help you relax. The doctor said you ate well and slept right through having your clothing changed and receiving your injection.”

This was the first she had heard of that, so she cleared her throat and straightened the position of her butt on the chair.

She wasn’t wearing anything other than her choker below the surgical gown she had worn for her examination that morning, so she felt vulnerable. She pulled the collar of the coat together.

Heiliger sighed when he saw that.

“After your examination tomorrow, you will be sent back to Germania and I can show you around Tristan. That enormous fortress will be your new home.”

That turned Hazel’s focus toward the site of the injection on her right arm.

She still felt a stiff pain when she bent the arm, proving that something critical had been done to her.

…''I didn’t even know it was happening.

If she left Germany now, she would automatically Ash.

She wasn’t sure what to think about that.

…''It still doesn’t seem real.

But there was one thing she could believe in.

…''Berger.

She couldn’t believe it took her this long to remember.

She had gotten so worked up talking, but now her mind rapidly cooled.

“Are you not feeling well?” asked Heiliger.

“It’s not that. Um…do you know what happened to Berger after all that?”

He froze in place for a moment.

He clearly wasn’t sure why she would be asking. The Lives she saw coming from him were the yellow of confusion and had a quick staccato tempo.

But he managed to respond after taking a breath.

“You mean the one-armed young man who is always with you? The Wild Hund?” He had a troubled but somehow relieved look on his face. “What if…what if the Geheimnis Agency were to capture him? He too has been injected with German Tons, so he cannot leave the country. So our commander hopes to convince him to join us. Most likely, she will try that when he comes to rescue you.”

“Because you think I’ll join you if Berger is with you?”

“We must do whatever we can in the month until the ruin arrives in August.”

She did not see the color of falsehood in his words. He was serious.

…''There is only one month until then. But on the other hand…

“Do you really think you can capture him?”

“Like I said while showing you around the base, the Allies will not help him. When he comes to rescue you, he will be on his own. But this base is defended by Neue Kaiser, Der Held, our commander’s Neue Erde, and the Fünf Leithammels leading the air force and army divisions. What can a single Wild Hund do?”

“What if I work to help him?”

“The Kaiser Schwert will try to kill you. He told me as much when he brought you in last night.”

Her heart skipped a beat and she straightened her back while looking around. She saw no sign of the young man who had grabbed her arm in the library last night. Heiliger must have realized what her action meant.

“He is in the sky right now. He said we need to be prepared to save the world on our own.” He took a breath. “He wouldn’t listen if I told him to stop, so I must ask that you do not try to escape. And…I also hope I can convince you to fight alongside us when destiny comes to rescue you.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

She was surprised at how reflexively the answer came from her.

She paused for a moment, wondering if she should say the rest.

…''But…

“If I did that, he would call me spineless.”

“This divinely-named man sounds like trouble.”

“He is, but so am I. I mean, I can’t seem to figure out how to look at this from your point of view.”

She took another look around.

The men in black uniforms were all looking her way, but they would briefly look the other way when she turned toward them.

She heard a wave of surprised gasps and groans as she cast her gaze around the mess hall.

“Why am I the Messiah?” she asked.

This was one thing she didn’t understand. The question was more directed at herself than at the others here.

….''Are they saying I have the ability to lead all these people?

She pulled on the coat and gripped the Wheel of Destiny card through it.

“I can’t be your puppet ruler. I’m no more than a Tuner.”

“Do you know what your Messiah eye’s Ober Beweisen does?”

His question kept her from saying more.

She saw him resting his prosthetic arms on the table with the fingers intertwined.

His eyes were closed and his expression blank.

“You should still have a power you aren’t aware of. The power of your Ober Beweisen.”

“And I can become the Messiah by using that power? Are you saying the Messiah eye’s Ober Beweisen can save the world from the ruin the newspapers keep talking about?”

“We trust in the prophecy saying as much.”

Heiliger’s deep voice rang through the mess hall. At some point, all the other whispering had stopped.

Amid that heavy silence, a single unified movement shook the air.

Everyone in the mess hall nodded in response to Heiliger’s claim.

Hazel almost failed to regulate her breathing.

She held her right hand up to her right eye – the Messiah eye.

“In that case, I will be faced with a choice when I learn what that power is. I will have to choose between being the Messiah or being a simple AIF soldier.”

“The choice should be obvious. The Messiah will save the world, but what can a simple AIF soldier save?” asked Heiliger. “Will you choose the Allies or Germany? No, the real question is whether you will choose yourself or the world.”

They were interrupted by a pair of hands clapping twice.

That set the mess hall’s air in motion and led Hazel to turn toward it.

A skinny person stood in the mess hall’s entrance behind her.

Hazel recognized the woman in a Geheimnis Agency dress uniform.

“The Geheimnis Agency Commander.”

“Yes, the name is Lowenzahn Naylor. The prophet has come for you, Messiah Hazel Mirildorf.”

Lowenzahn’s eyebrows were angled just a smidge in anger, but there was still a smile on her lips as she beckoned Hazel over.

“Being here will only cause unnecessary anxiety. Come with me alone. I have something important to tell you. Then I will place my role on your shoulders. …So come.”

She beckoned and continued without the smile.

“Hurry.”