Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter2 (section)

===Part 1===

During late summer in Berlin, evening began early – at around 4 PM.

The city was located at a high latitude, so night always came early, even during summer. The amount of people on the streets gradually reduced as time passed.

They left those public areas and returned home as if pursued by the shadows of evening.

This was most evident at the Tiergarten park in the center of the city.

Dark shadows fell over the woods and the entire park was dyed in dark colors. The streetlights came on to hold back that encroaching darkness, lighting up different parts of the park, but they only managed to illuminate the area directly below them.

The park became a place of pure darkness carrying a light summer heat.

The cars on the streets and the hustle and bustle of people heading home could be heard in the distance.

It was time to begin preparing dinner.

Looking up past the wall of darkness formed by the woods gave a view of steam and smoke rising from all over the city to decorate the reddish-black color of the evening sky.

A single person walked through the shadows of the park below those colors.

He was a young man of a medium height and build. Everything he wore was black, his long black hair was roughly parted to the sides, and he wore black sunglasses. A black-dyed lab coat fluttered as he walked and the clothes below that were black as well. He also wore a black glove on his left hand.

The only other colors were the red gem in the pendant worn around his neck and the blue of his eyes.

He was walking quickly, but he suddenly came to a stop and viewed his surroundings. He had been stopping below the streetlights and he turning to view the number plate attached to the streetlight’s pole.

“If this is 15, then A-17 would be…two more down.”

He kept walking. It was a large park, so it took several minutes to cover the distance between two more streetlights.

The darkness grew deeper as he walked, so the streetlights were more or less the only light sources anymore.

He looked up while walking. The sky visible above the cedar trees was still faintly red even at night. That was thanks to the lights shining up at the sky from the ground.

He took a breath, quickened his pace, and looked across the sky with an exaggerated movement.

He could tell Berlin’s sky was lit up red from four directions. The city’s sky was much less busy now that they were so close to war and it was glowing faintly red.

“Hm.”

The trees opened up just enough for him to see more of the northern sky. Humboldt University’s buildings in northern Berlin could be seen against the night sky there, but something else was visible past them.

A single cylindrical structure towered up above that wave of buildings. The stratovolcano-shaped building had a faint slope to it and resembled a thermal power turbine.

It had to be about 120 yards tall. Its white walls were lit up from below to show off its grandeur to the sky. It also looked like a chess piece protecting Berlin.

“A Vaterland ley line acceleration reactor. One piece of the Panzerpolis Project.”

''Why did Marsch have to design this?'' he wondered while coming to a sudden stop.

He glanced toward the streetlight he was beneath to read the plate there.

“A-17. This is the place. What an odd place for my old upperclassman to send me. He had to know Berlin is the second to last place in the world I want to be.”

He took a breath, slowly reached his right hand into his pocket, and pulled out a letter.

“Just when I was really getting settled into my work in the Soviet Union, he calls me back here with a new mission. And why is Berlin the rendezvous point when it’s already being modified into a multilevel city? The AIF shouldn’t be working their hired soldiers so hard when they’re supposed to have their own forces fully gathered by now.”

He opened the letter to check the time, a map of Tiergarten, and the text A-17.

He nodded, closed the letter, and put it back in his pocket. Just then…

“Um, are you Mr. Dog Berger?”

A young male voice spoke to him from behind.

He turned around while slowly sticking his hand in his pocket.

All the colors were faded and hard to make out in the darkness behind him, but he could see a young man wearing a blue uniform. He was a postal worker, so Berger asked about that.

“A postman?”

“Yes, that is correct. My last delivery for the day happens to be…something rather unusual.”

The postman stepped into the light of the streetlight. The bag worn over one shoulder was already open, but there were no more letters inside.

However, he reached into the seemingly empty bag and opened the false bottom installed within. That was where he would store any valuables.

“Much of this world has yet to be developed, so it is our duty as postal workers to delivery anything to anyone. Yes, no matter the person, the location, or the era.”

With that, he held out a small paper envelope.

It was old.

The paper had grown brown and the wax seal had crumbled away, leaving only a round white mark where it had been. The edges of the envelope were a little torn and some oil paper and dried parchment could be glimpsed within.

“A Verlsten Brief?” asked Berger while accepting it with his black-gloved left hand.

“Yes, every post office in the world has some of these undelivered documents from the past and this one comes from the German Post Office’s storage. This one is addressed to Dog Berger in Berlin’s Tiergarten A-17 at 5PM on July 27, 1939.” The postman smiled a bit. “So I’m right on time.”

“Indeed you are. …But why is this addressed to me? I sure hope it doesn’t have a razor blade inside.”

“I can’t deny the possibility. Based on where it was stored, this one is from around a thousand years ago, but our storage and management were not perfected until the 12th Century. To avoid the mistakes made in the Obstacle Era, we make sure to hire technicians from the Postal City that developed the Verlsten Brief system in the first place.” The postman closed his bag. “But a Verlsten Brief carries the thoughts that someone in the past wanted to convey to someone in the future. Since they are being delivered to Germany as we prepare for war and modify this city, I can only imagine-”

“Hold on.” Berger held up the old letter. “Since ''they'' are being delivered? There’s more than just this one?”

“I can’t give you the details, but the German Post Office is currently in a state of chaos. According to the 1939 Verlsten Brief Management Register that was unsealed this year, we have been instructed to deliver more this year than the past hundred years combined.”

“Does that mean someone in the past had a lot to tell us here in the present?”

“Yes, to you, to others, and outside the country as well.” The postal worker tapped his closed bag. “I will be going then.” He saluted and turned around. “I notice you aren’t sitting down this time.”

He laughed and then vanished into the darkness.

He did not turn around as Berger watched him go with a bitter smile. Berger finally waved his hand goodbye.

He viewed the letter held in that hand. The black ink on the back of the envelope had grown blurry.

“D – O…B – E – R…R.”

He read the letters he could actually make out and then sighed. He could not read anything written after the name.

“Is this really addressed to me? This world never ceases to surprise me.”

After a moment of hesitation, he opened the envelope.

He pulled out the parchment. It was held between oil paper for protection and it had grown dry and stiff, but the writing had not blurred.

It was written in clear handwriting.

His facial expression changed as he read it. The composure vanished from his face.

His mouth seemed to move automatically to read it aloud.

''In the deep darkness of the Black Forest

''Born from the abyss

''The wheel emerges

:''It whips up the wind and speaks with the dragon

:''It reads the wind and weeps

:''It carries power in its hand and hesitates

“That’s from the Unreif Germane – the 3rd Section of Daily Life where the Messiah is born into this world.”

He stared at the parchment.

But that was all it said and it did not tell him anything more.

He scratched his head, clicked his tongue, and stuffed the parchment back in the envelope.

“––––?”

He heard a quiet footstep from the dark woods to his right.

Just as he looked that way, he heard the underbrush parting and saw a small form run out into the light.

It was a kitten. A golden-furred kitten wearing a black choker around its neck. After entering the light, it tripped, fell, rolled two or three times, and finally stopped after hitting his foot.

It shook its head and got up.

“?”

He crouched down to see what this was about and his eyes met those of the kitten.

The kitten had a curious trait.

While its left eye was an ordinary brown cat’s eye, its right eye was a blue human eye.

Before his surprise at that observation could show on his face, the cat gained an obvious look of relief and mewed once.

“–––––!?”

Then white steam rose up from the cat and exploded in midair.

After the explosion, a girl appeared in front of Berger.

The leftover movement of the air caused her shoulder-length blonde hair to flutter.

She had a friendly face with eyes identical to the cat’s. The left one was a brown cat’s eye and the right one was a blue human one.

She was not wearing any clothing. Unless you counted the choker around her neck, that is.

The wind whipped around her and her eyes focused in on Berger.

“I’d say you’ve grown, but your chest sure hasn’t, Hazel Mirildorf.”