Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter1 (section)

===Part 5===

<The room is dark and silent.>

<Bookcases line an unlit and deserted library.>

Hazel sat alone in the valley of bookcases with the blanket over her head.

She had emerged onto the floor here less than a minute ago.

After Berger had thrown her out into a dark space, she had realized he had no intention of opening the door behind her. She had groped around in the darkness, trying to walk until she found some stairs leading up. Soon after climbing those, she had bumped her head against the ceiling.

Holding her aching head, she had groped at the ceiling and found it moved. Pushing up had opened an exit for her.

The entrance to the stairs sat open by her feet. She sat on the edge of the stairs and peered down into the darkness where she had left Berger.

“Maybe I teased him too much.”

She pressed her knees together, held the blanket around herself, and sighed with the Wheel of Destiny in hand.

She thought back on what had just happened. She recalled Berger’s pale face when she had let him touch her chest.

Then her shoulders shook and quiet laughter left her throat.

…''He’s surprisingly cute.

With that in mind, she decided to become a cat. She knew he would emerge from that darkness in a bit. If she was already a cat by then, she could ignore any complaints he made about what she had done. Because cats couldn’t speak.

She pulled the blanket over herself and gently rubbed her right eye with her right hand.

The High Organ eye’s Beweisen let her take control of other High Organ devices.

…''I don’t know what its Ober Beweisen does, but I can’t help that.

She had left the country shortly after having it implanted, so she didn’t know how to use it or why it had been built. All those answers had died along with its creator – Marsch Gant.

“The only other person who might know is that Geheimnis Agency Commander.”

…''She said I was a tool for them when I met her last year.

The phrase “Wheel of Destiny” stuck in her mind. That was the name of the card Corelle had given her and that she held now.

The card’s image hadn’t changed.

She still carried that destiny of ruin. She used that thought to let her pulse take over. But then…

“Eh?”

She looked up.

She had heard footsteps inside the supposedly deserted and silent library. Two sets of them.

One set came from the darkness below. They were rushed and running.

The other set came from the aisle behind her. They were calm and walking.

Since she had been letting her fear take over, she chose to first turn toward the danger behind her.

The dark blue shadow cast by a bookcase contained an even darker silhouette approaching her.

The tall, slender man carried a sword in one hand. He spoke without bothering to hide the sharp light in his eyes.

“I believe this is our first time meeting when I wasn’t Schreibened.”

He stopped about four yards in front of her.

When she met his eyes, she realized his gaze carried the red color of killer intent.

She couldn’t move.

He might just cut her down if she moved in the slightest. She simply squeezed the blanket tighter in her hands.

She heard the footsteps from below. Berger was running up the stairs.

Only after hearing those footsteps kicking off the hard stairs did she manage to get her voice out.

“The Kaiser’s pilot?” she asked, looking at the man’s sword.

“Correct. I am ‘Kaiser Schwert’ Alfred Maldrick. I am a descendant of the Maldrick family, one of the four knight families that fought for the Messiah a thousand years ago.”

His words were drowned out by a shout from the darkness below. A shout made with Berger’s familiar voice.

“Hazel, it’s a trap! Those orders were fake!!”

“Now, enough words. Now is the time for strength. You are coming with us whether you want to or not.”

Alfred grabbed her right arm through the blanket and tugged her to her feet.

Her fight and flight instincts warred with each other, causing her to hesitate and freeze up.

That was when Berger burst from the darkness below.

He poured on his full strength from the start.

<Destiny severs connections.>

Hazel saw him draw Gelegenheit at five steps down from the top of the stairs.

The dark blade trying to slice horizontally through the dimly-lit library was 3 yards long. It took a curving path, slicing through the bookcases on its way to Alfred’s hand on her arm.

Gelegenheit could sever the threads of fate. If that black blade swung through them, it wouldn’t harm Alfred’s hand or her arm, but it would rewrite reality to say her arm was not restrained.

She let it happen.

But the man holding her arm did not. He turned his eyes toward Gelegenheit’s blade.

<Not even destiny could stop the powerful current of reality.>

First, she heard something like shattering glass. Then she saw a spray of darkness.

Gelegenheit’s blade had shattered.

“!?”

All Hazel had seen was Gelegenheit’s blade suddenly break as it passed through a nearby bookcase on its way to her and Alfred.

“Aerial Words?” she muttered, confused.

…''That makes no sense.

“Aerial Words are more formulaic and always include the High Organ name.”

Alfred answered her with a bark of laughter.

“Ha. Did you forget what city you’re in. Thanks to the Panzerpolis Project, this city contains the world’s most advanced Eingeweide devices. You could call it a city of concept weapons.”

He pulled Hazel away and turned toward Berger.

“I’ll show you something neat. Just for fun.”