Editing City Series:Volume1 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 1===

'''12/21/1935

Berlin was a city of machines and stone. Anyone walking through its streets was bound to see something inorganic.

However, even Berlin had areas of green. In southeast Berlin, a one kilometer forest stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of the modern city.

The forest was primarily made up of conifer trees. It was December, so the forest of tall cedars was cold.

The midday sun washed over that forest which hid a large pond.

The forest was dark and somewhat misty, but sunlight filled a straight line through it. That line was a stone-paved road. It was a walking path, but not a single dried leaf sat on it. It was a private road.

Two people rode horses down that road and four white breaths floated in the air.

The person on the front horse was a tall girl who wore a skirt in the saddle. The person on the horse behind hers was an elderly man in a thick coat.

A delicate and tense atmosphere surrounded the two of them.

The man’s square face was pointed straight forward.

He looked at the girl’s back where her short-cut blonde hair reached the collar of her thin coat.

He spoke hesitantly toward that back.

“Hey, Else. How has university been going lately? Are your studies going well?”

She did not reply, but he continued regardless.

“When I was your age, the war was drawing close, so there was quite a commotion everywhere. Back then, you couldn’t study even if you wanted to. And that is why-…”

“That’s why you started making weapons and got rich, right?”

The back in front of him finally spoke.

The man briefly frowned at being interrupted, but…

“But, Else, I now have plenty of leeway in life, so I can think about my daughter and her future.”

“In other words, you want to shove me into the university and have me study until I cry.”

“Else.”

“What?”

“Face people when you speak to them!”

“Y’know, dad.”

“Hm?”

“I am not in a good mood. I have a terrible look in my eyes, so are you sure you want me looking at you?”

Her tone was devoid of all emotion.

The man subconsciously pulled on the reins to slow his horse a step.

Once he noticed, he frantically spoke up.

“B-but, Else, you are already twenty and you still haven’t found someone to marry.”

“There you go again treating women like baby-making machines.”

Else gave an exaggerated shrug while still holding the reins.

“I just hate restrictions like that.”

“Else, a girl should not say she hates things.”

“I loathe them.”

“That is not any better!”

“Shut up. You always talk about studying and marriage. You didn’t have this house and all its land to begin with. You may have made a lot of money selling weapons, but why do ''I'' have to do those things for something like this?”

“It is for your own good!”

“Now that I don’t understand. I mean, I do like this forest and the pond over there, but I could always go to a normal park and-…”

She stopped her horse and he followed suit.

“What is it, Else?”

She did not turn around. Instead, she looked up a little.

“…?”

He did the same and noticed a single trail of smoke rising from the forest.

The white smoke stood out in the clear winter sky.

“That’s a fire,” he muttered to himself.

Suddenly, Else’s horse began to run straight toward the smoke.

“Ah! Wait! Else!”

He looked around, unsure whether to head back to the mansion to get word out about the fire or to pursue Else.

As a father, he chose the latter.

He was delayed, but he had his horse run after her. He could see her in the distance ahead and he noticed her pull a rod-like object from below her coat.

Seeing that left him speechless.

What initially looked like a rod was a black submachine gun. It was the newest model of the MP18, a masterwork used by both police and vigilantes.

“She swiped one from the storeroom again!”

His daughter was too far up ahead to hear his groaning words.

Else sped up her horse while resting the five kilogram submachine gun on her shoulder with slight difficulty.

The man pursued and the eight hooves raced across the stone-pavement.