Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter6 (section)

===Part 5===

A large field existed in the mountain night. It had once been covered by the forest that still surrounded it, but the trees had been cut down and cleared away. It stood atop a flat hill about 100 yards across, a few stumps remained, and an unmaintained mountain road led to it.

At one corner of the field, a large silhouette kneeled below a large tree sticking out from the forest.

A pair of wings grew from its moonlit black back. It was the Grösse Panzer named Schwarz Löwe.

Schwarz Löwe was at the very edge of the forest where it wouldn’t be noticeable from the sky at night.

Two people could be seen in the grassy area next to Schwarz Löwe. Hazel was seated atop a sundried stump, sobbing and wiping away her tears, and Berger was healing her foot.

He had concluded the cotton in the first aid kid wasn’t enough and instead wiped her foot clean with a pile towel and disinfectant. He commented on the cut to her right big toe.

“It is healing, but your tension and the freshness of the wound are the only reasons you aren’t feeling any pain. Once it dries, it will hurt every time you move your foot. …Hey, don’t get scared and pull your foot back.”

She shrugged and gave in, sticking her right foot out toward him.

He once more grabbed the bottom of her foot about halfway up and cleaned off each of her toes. There was an occasional stiff pain, telling her she had several smaller nicks on her foot too.

But beyond that, it also felt ticklish to have a cloth rubbing at her nails and toes with more strength than she could have managed. She had been crying a moment before, but now she was afraid she would start laughing.

“First you suppress tears and now you suppress laughter? It’s always something with you, isn’t it?”

“B-but…but Lehrer…”

“Come to think of it, I’ve been in this position before.”

She thought about it and quickly realized what he meant, but he gave the answer first.

“When we first met, I put some sandals on your feet. Did it tickle then too?”

“No, it didn’t back then. …I’m surprised you still remember that.”

“You remember it too.”

She nodded just once. She did indeed remember it well.

…''I wonder if Lehrer remembered it?

“Um, Berger?”

“What?”

“Why did the Messiah sleep for a thousand years?”

“Why do you think?”

Before she could consider it, Berger finished cleaning off her foot.

“Your hand,” he said and she held out her right hand.

Her coat’s sleeve was rolled up to the elbow and the arm was stained red from when she had bandaged her foot. He rubbed with the towel to clean off the dried blood. It smelled of disinfectant alcohol and she felt the chill of it taking effect.

While he cleaned off her right arm in what felt a lot like a massage, she thought about his question and spoke her thoughts aloud.

“According to the Geheimnis Agency…the world continues to repeat the last thousand years and hasn’t made any progress.”

“And it sounds like keeping that loop going is your job, Hazel. According to Lehrer anyway.”

They exchanged a glance at this first exchange of information. They both looked a bit surprised.

…''Did she tell him everything?

“I see.” He nodded. “Sounds like we both know Lehrer’s identity and most everything else too.”

“Yes. The only thing I don’t know is why Lehrer chose to sleep for a thousand years.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, his left hand grabbed her jaw.

“Don’t move. You have blood on your cheek.”

That was from Lehrer’s slap.

Him rubbing that dried blood off with the towel reminded her of Lehrer, which nearly made her cry again. But she couldn’t even open her mouth with his firm grip on her jaw.

He responded to her with a look of disinterest.

“So the thing that baffles you most is yourself? Join the club, Hazel.”

She gave him a puzzled look as he finished cleaning off her cheek and tossed aside the towel.

Then he grabbed both her cheeks.

“~!”

He tugged on them and they stretched surprisingly far. He even moved his hands up and down.

“So you want to know why she slept for a thousand years to wake up in our time?” He took a breath. “Remember what her Titel is, Hazel Mirildorf.”

She gasped.

…''Oh.

“Isn’t that all you need? Besides, we don’t even know if she’s really dead.”

He tugged down hard on her pinched cheeks, forcing her to nod.

“I see. So my answer was good enough for you. Makes sense since I’m the second best advice-giver in the world.”

He let go and her cheeks snapped back to normal.

“Hyah!”

She held her cheeks and poked at them, feeling how heated and elastic they were. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to have been stretched out permanently.

She felt a tiny prick of pain on the inside of the right elbow she had bent to touch her cheek.

She cocked an eyebrow curiously and straightened out her right arm to see the medical charm on the inside of the elbow had come off. The injection site below was a bit red and swollen from all her running around.

She noticed his eyes on that spot.

“Did you bring the ampules?”

“Yes, but only one.”

They both spoke at once after she gave that answer.

“Then you take it, Hazel.”

“So let’s each take half.”

They both felt confident in their answers, but then they noticed what the other had said.

After a moment, Berger frowned in the moonlight.

“What possessed you to give the world’s stupidest answer?” he asked.

“Because we both need to leave this country. I’m not wrong.”

“I’m the one who isn’t wrong. Do I need to strip you and make you cry again?”

“You’re welcome to try, but I warn you I will win in the end.”

She looked him dead in the eye with eyebrows raised.

He started to say something, stood up, and said something else instead.

“Hey.”

“What is it?”

“The effect would be greatly weakened if we only took half. Maybe we could leave, but we might end up in a coma or have half our body blown away. Why do you want to leave that badly?”

“So I can return again.” She pulled the Wheel of Destiny card from her coat pocket and showed it to him. “I don’t think Sylphide is dead, so I will leave the country and then return to Germania with Pale, Corelle, you, and the rest of the AIF.”

She thought of Lehrer and the Geheimnis Agency commander as she continued.

“I’ve made up my mind. No matter what happens, I will not let anyone go through such an unpleasant experience again.” She gave a deep nod, more to convince herself than anything. “I won’t let anyone think they have no choice but to endure it.”

She stopped there. She could see Berger tilting his head.

He sighed, looked away from her, and brushed a hand through his hair.

“There’s no convincing an idiot they’re wrong, is there?”

But he held out his right hand.

“Give me the ampule. I’ll go first and you can have the rest.”

“Are you serious?”

She was legitimately surprised by this and he gave her a cold look.

“Why do women get so suspicious when you do what they want? Would you prefer I refused?”

“S-sorry.”

She remained seated with her knees up as she pulled the ampule case from her coat pocket. He took it from her outstretched hand, opened it, and let the moonlight shine on the contents.

“Not broken this time. Good job.”

He pulled the syringe out with his right hand, removed the cover from the tip, and artlessly injected half of the contents into his neck.

He quickly pulled it out to ensure no blood flowed back into the cylinder that still contained half the serum.

“Here.”

He placed it in the ampule case and handed it back to her.

“It’s kind of creepy seeing you do what you’re told,” she said.

“Do I need to inject it into those needlessly big boobs?”

“No, thanks.”

She politely refused and then injected the ampule’s contents into her inner right elbow.

She suddenly felt a tremor running along her spine. Her body tensed for just a moment and the needle wouldn’t come out.

“–––––”

But then it came out. She frowned a bit.

“Seems like it works.” Berger wiped the sweat from his brow. “We’re both carrying only half of it in us. If we leave Germany, there will be some kind of change to our bodies.”

“But we can both leave, right?”

“We can. And then…we can give this all a lot of thought and return to Germania with the AIF.”

He sat down in the grass, placing his eyes a level below Hazel on the stump.

“Hey, Hazel. Can you do one thing for me?”

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

“Fix your gown.” He tugged on the bottom of the hospital gown she wore. “If you don’t hold it in the back of your knees when sitting with your knees up, people can see-”

She knew what he was getting at, so she hit him in the face with the ampule case she was holding.