Editing City Series:Volume6a Chapter5 (section)

===Part 7===

Hazel started to say something when she heard him call her name. Her eyebrows lowered and her mouth opened.

“…”

But she shut her eyes instead. She could tell her breathing was heavy.

Unlike the night before, she was not just being asked to run away. She was caught in the middle of a real battle.

A force trying to keep her in this country and a force trying to take her from this country were clashing.

…''But I still…

Berger spoke, as if to say he understood what she was thinking.

“Hazel, you still don’t know what you should do, right?”

She reflexively tried to say something in response, but the words would not come.

He was right. She could not find the thoughts necessary to make a decision.

So she hung her head, lowered her gaze, and expressed herself with a simple action.

She nodded.

…''I don’t know.

That she did know.

She moved just her eyes to look up at Berger and found him looking back at her.

“Last night, you said you wanted to stay in Germany,” he said. “That is certainly an option thanks to that eye of yours. It looks like the Geheimnis Agency will make you quite comfortable here. …But is that really what you want, Hazel Mirildorf? You know what that means, don’t you? Do you want to stay here so badly that you’re willing to let them shelter you?”

She responded to that quietly and almost on reflex.

“Then…what are you suggesting?”

“That we leave here, Hazel. Leave the country. Once we’ve done that, you can take all the time you need to figure out what it means to not run away.”

Schweitzer immediately shouted over from behind her.

“Quite the silver tongue, Berger.”

She turned back toward him.

The large man from the Geheimnis Agency was calmly walking over to her. The thump thump of his boots matched the pulse of her heartbeat.

And Berger’s voice from behind her drowned out those footsteps.

“Give it up, Schweitzer. You understand what’s going on here, don’t you?”

“What might that be?”

“The Eingeweide eye named Messiah was created from Marsch’s eye, but why was it implanted in her and not one of you? That wasn’t your decision, was it? You wouldn’t be making such a fuss over it if it was.” He smiled bitterly. “The Messiah was implanted into her in Berlin’s general hospital, right? I bet it was done in secret by some doctors who received it from Marsch.”

“So what if it was?”

“Don’t play dumb, Schweitzer. You know full well why Marsch would have felt the need to keep that hidden.”

Schweitzer continued forward in silence and Berger’s quiet laughter echoed down the hallway.

…''Is he laughing at himself?

For some reason, Hazel heard an emotion other than anger or joy in that laughter.

And Berger spoke to the approaching man in the exact same tone of voice.

“Schweitzer, Marsch gave up on your Geheimnis Agency. He knew his knowledge would be used for war. With Germany the way it is, he knew it wouldn’t be used to develop the country. So,” he continued. “Ironically enough, he told the doctors to implant the Messiah in a Heidengeist. A Heidengeist can never join the German army or the Geheimnis Agency and they’re more compatible with prosthetics to boot. …Quite the ironic betrayal. Marsch wanted the Messiah to leave the country.”

Schweitzer responded with a very simple thought.

“Do not view everything from a single point of view, simpleton,” he spat out while coming to a stop.

He was only 5 steps away from Hazel and he continued speaking from there.

“Most of what you say is admittedly true, but you have said nothing of justice.”

“Then enlighten me. What is your idea of justice here?”

Schweitzer responded to Berger’s question by looking to Hazel for the first time.

She read the question in his eyes: do you want to know that as well?

…''I…

She hesitated for a moment between the two of them, but she finally looked Schweitzer in the eye.

“Please tell me.”

“Very well.” He pointed his biological left hand toward her. “Two weeks ago, M. Schrier contacted one of the doctors left with the Messiah and thought up a way to acquire it: implant it in a patient and have them leave the country.”

“So he could later contact that patient and swap it out for another prosthetic eye?”

“Correct, Berger. And chance would have it, a former officer’s daughter – and a half-Heidengeist at that – had taken a turn for the worse after being blinded at a Heidenheim. M. Schrier made arrangements behind the scenes, so-”

Before he could finish, Hazel shouted her speculation from between the two men.

“The girl was given a prosthetic eye even though Heidenheim residents would normally never receive that kind of treatment!?”

“Yes, that is the truth of the matter.” Schweitzer took a breath. “Do you see now? Whether or not you are the Messiah, everyone inside and outside this country are after your Messiah eye so they can use it for their own ends. You have no escape. This is your destiny.”

The meaning carried by that final word briefly blanked her mind, but…

…''!

She punched her hand against the wall behind her and used the light sound and pain to help her look back.

Toward Berger.

He was seated on the motorcycle and looking at her with no readable expression.

She spoke to the blue eyes visible past his sunglasses.

“That means it’s all the same whether I run away or not, doesn’t it? I can’t become the Messiah and all I have is this prosthetic eye bearing that name.”

Her eyebrows drooped, but Berger tilted his head and questioned what she had just said.

“Hey, don’t you two leave me out of this. …You can’t become the Messiah? Says who?”

“Says the 9th Section of the Ruling King, Berger.”

''The one-armed youth holds the Messiah

''The moonlit pair returns to the earth

''The dragons gather and dance tonight

''Every last thing returns home

Schweitzer recited the verse in question.

“The letter sent to you was in fact a prophecy spread throughout the Geheimnis Agency three months ago.”

“What? The 9th Section of the Ruling King is a prophecy?”

“That is correct,” said Schweitzer. “Our leader told us the Messiah is sure to arrive and save Germany when that prophecy is fulfilled.”

“But I’m not that. I’m just an eye socket to carry the prosthetic eye around,” muttered Hazel while letting her head droop.

But then she heard Berger speak with a sigh.

“Cut the childish narcissism, Hazel. It’s boring.”

“!?”

She froze and looked up while he placed his hand on the accelerator.

“The Messiah? Just an eye socket? Who cares? Only one thing matters here, Hazel. You said it yourself: you don’t want to run away.”

“But…but that doesn’t matter anymore! If it’s the same no matter where I run, what does it matter what choice I make now!?”

“Find an answer for yourself, Hazel. That answer will be your true destiny.”

With that, he engaged the clutch.

The motorcycle shot toward her while the engine roared.

By then, she had also noticed Schweitzer running toward her from behind.