Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

Hazel was in the base’s document/post room.

The 10yd room was crammed full of bookcases. The large door to the hallway sat open and stretchers full of small packages were being transferred between the delivery room and the hallway.

The room had four tables and Hazel was using the one directly in front of the counter to write a letter. She only wore a surgical gown, a coat, and slippers, so she stood out like a sore thumb among all the uniformed soldiers.

She had walked here after her chat with Lowenzahn on the roof and she had been sitting here ever since.

She had a stack of books on either side of her letter to help hide herself. They were all research books concerning the Messiah.

…''What did the Messiah do after ending up in the past?

She had been so curious she had continued researching that without bothering to get any dinner. She had noticed one thing about the contemporary paintings and reliefs depicting the Messiah and the one-armed young man.

…''That really is me, Berger, and the Sylphide.

“But almost all of the books say the Messiah was a Buster.”

She stopped writing when she heard an intermittent low noise from the hallway. Those were wheels carrying something heavy.

She had been hunched over her letter, but now she straightened up. She looked back to see several people in white coats pushing in a stretcher loaded with a waterproof wooden box. They saluted when they noticed her.

She quickly nodded back.

Joy filled their faces and Lives and they saluted again before leaving.

She blushed a bit and sighed.

…''They’re so happy just having me here.

She looked down and picked up the pen to continue writing.

“Umm.”

But she stopped. She was suddenly curious about something.

…''How is the Messiah described in ordinary stories, not just these academic books?

“What was her relationship with the Neue Kavaliers and the other people?”

…''Was it like me and those soldiers just now?

She put down the pen and grabbed the thinnest picture book in the pile of books to her right.

It told the story of the Unreif Germaine. She opened it to find the six most common sections of the story illustrated in an old-fashioned style.

She took a breath and read the opening line.

“This is a story of when this country was still in chaos and full of anxiety.”

She flipped through the few pages and read about the Messiah.

“The Messiah gathered the country’s knights and worked to bring order to the people’s chaos and the dragons’ chaos. She worked to bring peace to the anxious land, sea, and sky.”

She gathered and fought alongside the Neue Kavaliers to suppress the rebellions and monsters cropping up all over the land.

Hazel stopped reading there for the time being.

…''This must be what the Geheimnis Agency’s people expect from me.

With that in mind, she silently looked down at the picture book she held.

The illustration showed the Messiah battling several black dragons.

…''They expect me to do this kind of thing, so their commander can’t tell them the truth about me. She can’t tell them I can’t save the world.

Lowenzahn knew what would happen in August and what ruin awaited them.

''But only she and I know about that,'' thought Hazel.

…''It’s the Geheimnis Agency and the Messiah who actually bring ruin to the world.

“And that’s what let the world survive this long.”

Hazel had taken a different path this time, but Lowenzahn was trying to correct for that.

Why was she trying to fulfill the prophecy herself instead of telling everyone the truth?

“No one on this base doubts or suspects me.”

…''This is why Jeanne Schmitt kneeled before me back in ’39.

“I probably should pretend to be what I’m not since they have such faith in me.”

Her words fell to the floor and she eventually tilted her head.

“But is that really what I should do?”

She flipped through the picture book again.

A two-page illustration showed a party held below the starry night sky. The people surrounded a bonfire while they sang, dance, and ate.

At the top of the page, above the fictional night sky, the title “6th Section of the Ending God” was written large in old-fashioned language children would have a hard time understanding.

After unifying Germany, the Messiah and the knights had fulfilled their roles and returned to their homes.

''But,'' thought Hazel, turning the page.

A dark illustration was drawn on the left page. It depicted a path leading from the party to the forest. The path vanished into the darkness and a one-armed man was walking down it with the Messiah’s sword in hand.

“The one-armed young man left a letter telling her to fight no longer and departed.”

The opposite page depicted the Messiah looking up into the blue sky and weeping. Large tears drawn in blue crayon fell from her.

“The Messiah wept.

“She was inconsolable despite the knights’ and the king’s best efforts.”

She turned another page and saw the Messiah stand before the gathered people in a wheat field that spread out around them like the ocean.

“But one morning, the Messiah stopped weeping and gathered everyone.”

The next page showed the Messiah removing a red gem pendant from her neck and placing it around the neck of the youngest Heidengeist girl among the gathered people. She said something to the girl.

“Do not forget who you are. Never forget that and this hill will turn gold every year. And you will never build walls between any people of any background.”

Hazel turned another page. She was already at the final two-page illustration.

The Messiah slept in the darkness with a blue dragon curled around her.

And outside that darkness, the one-armed young man sat with his back to her and her sword in his arms.

''Urge him on and wait / If you wish for something new

::''All hesitation will come to an end up ahead

''Complete the circle or break it / If you desire something new

::''Throw out all hesitation and look back

''The wind is with you, he is with you / Seek out something new

::''All hesitation exists to tear through that wall

“The Messiah said she would sleep for a thousand years at Alfheim and awaken once chaos returned to the world. Once she was asleep in her shrine, the one-armed young man returned. He spent the rest of his days guarding the shrine…until one evening he breathed his final breath.”

After reading the final line, Hazel remembered something.

…''The Alfheim Meteorite Pit in ’39!

Her heart skipped a beat as it came back to her.

Corelle had said the AIF had stolen something excavated at Alfheim.

The illustration before her showed the Messiah surrounded in darkness and protected by the blue dragon while she slept. And she had said she would awaken again in a thousand years.

“What if the darkness here is actually the ground below Alfheim?”

…''Why did she think she could wake back up in modern times?

She thought about it some but shook her head.

It was too soon to reach any conclusions. ''It’s just a picture book,'' she told herself.

“Urge him on and wait / If you wish for something new / All hesitation will come to an end up ahead.”

She repeated those words and closed the book. Then she hunched over, faced her letter, and picked up the pen.

She wrote out the rest of her letter so intensely you would think she was trying to tear a hole in the table. The tapping and scraping of pen on paper surrounded her as her hand moved rapidly left to right across the paper. Finally, she signed her name.

Just as she finished, some ink flew out and formed a splotch on the letter.

She reflexively wiped it up with her left thumb, staining the finger black.

“Oops,” she said and looked around, wondering what to do. She finally gave up and wiped it off with the sleeve of her surgical gown.

Then she sighed and folded the letter. She made sure it was folded straight and then grabbed the envelope she had placed nearby.

After some hesitation, she wrote the recipient’s name on the envelope.

“Dog Berger.”

She stood up, slipped the letter in the envelope, and placed it on the table.

She had to put away her stacks of books before handing the envelope over at the counter.

She had a total of 27, so she got to work putting them back where they belonged on the shelves.

The hem of her gown and coat fluttered around her legs as she moved quickly enough to have all but one of the books returned in only 7 minutes and 32 seconds.

Moving her body helped clear her mind. There was only one thing on her mind.

…''I want out of this place.

She had a single reason for that.

“There must be a way to avoid needing to tell those kind lies!”

She held the last, and biggest, book in her hands and let out a determined snort when another stretcher arrived.

It carried a large waterproof box and a large plastic wrapper.

The writing scrawled on the side of the box said “to Germania”.

The men in lab coats placed it on the counter and asked the receptionist behind the counter to seal it and prepare it for shipment before they pushed the stretcher back out. They said they had another box to bring by soon.

The elderly receptionist gave the box an annoyed look. He pulled a packing slip and pen from his vest and began writing out the necessary information. Hazel watched it all.

…''Geheimnis Agency bases are always so busy.

''The AIF HQ was a lot more relaxed,'' she thought before turning toward the items on the counter.

She recognized the thing wrapped in clear plastic next to the wooden box.

“–––––!?”

It was her own bag.

She gasped. The bag stolen from the train station locker at Potsdam had been brought here and now it was right in front of her. Since men in white coats had brought it here…

“They must have removed the serum and examined its contents.”

In that case…

…''Is the serum in that box?

The box hadn’t been sealed yet and the top was sitting somewhat open.

She clutched the book tight and held the top edge against her forehead so it covered her face.

“Um.”

…''This is a gamble.

She nodded.

…''But if the serum is in that box…

“I need to get out of here.”

…''It’s my duty to deliver that to Berger.

She nodded again, deeper this time, which filled her body with strength. She faced forward.

She walked over to the elderly receptionist holding some cloth tape behind the counter so he could seal and waterproof the box. She interrupted just as he stretched the tape out and reached his arms around the box.

“Excuse me.”

Her voice cracked a little and he turned his gaunt face toward her in surprise.

“Do you need something?”

“Um, well, could you send this letter for me?”

She held out the unsealed envelope and he quickly rolled up the tape.

He set the tape down, brushed off his vest, and politely accepted the envelope.

“To Germania? That will require domestic censorship. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes,” she confirmed, slowly reaching out her empty left hand to the lid of the wooden box.

He turned his back to place the letter in a stack indicating it needed to be inspected and censored.

Her fingers hesitated on the box in that moment.

…''Should I really look inside?

Something made up her mind for her.

An alarm rang throughout the base and a voice came over the speakers.

“Alert! Night Security Team to active interception posts! An unidentified Grösse Panzer is approaching from the south!”

The phrase “unidentified Grösse Panzer” sent a tremor through her body.

The alarm continued to sound, seeming to soak into her trembling body.

She heard hurried footsteps and shouting voices from the hallway.

“Could it be?”

She reflexively lifted the lid in front of her.

She gasped when the wood creaked far louder than she had expected.

But she was through hesitating and continued lifting it. She checked inside.

Her hand was already reaching inside and pulling out what lay inside.

And…

“That’s not it.”

The box held four bottles of some kind of chemical. Even an amateur could tell this had nothing to do with her ampule.

She sighed, her shoulders drooping while the alarm drowned out all other noises.

…''I was too optimistic.

She tried to force a smile, but then the wind blew in from the hallway.

“Eh?”

She looked back to see a new stretcher entering the room. This one carried a different 2ft box. That would be the other box the men in white coats had said they would bring by.

“Could it be?” she repeated, running over on reflex and yanking open the box in front of everyone.

A plastic case wrapped in a plastic bag was packed in with sawdust.

She smiled.

She reached out with her eyes on the men in white coats, the receptionist, and everyone else in the room.

“U-um, please wait for me! I swear to you I will someday – but probably soon! – come back for you as a Messiah no one can twist to their own purposes and then I will fix everything. I swear I won’t run away.”

She took a breath.

“So tell everyone to please wait for me!”

She grabbed the plastic bag, pulled out the case, and opened it with one hand.

It contained an ampule with only a small amount of its contents missing.

After confirming that, she shut the case.

She turned toward the group that was frozen in shock and she bowed.

“I’m sorry, but can you please put this back for me?”

She tossed one of them the book she held in her left hand. The man in a white coat caught the heavy book and staggered back a few steps, at which point she was already running out into the hallway.

She stuck the ampule case in her coat pocket and lightly held the card in the breast pocket.

She ran down the hall, slipping past people who turned to see what was happening.

She was now convinced that destiny could be changed.