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Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Epilogue

2017-07-25T06:12:31Z

Gamerdude13: /* Epilogue: The Snow Thaws */ he -> the

[[Image:Amaryllis377.jpg|thumb]]

==Epilogue: The Snow Thaws==

After the long Ice Age ends, the world finally thaws.

Humans again continue to weave humanity. With the assistance of robots, the few humans who evacuated to the shelters and survived over a long period of time built little villages, developed lands, and slowly moved towards the path of recovery.

And as recovery passes, ‘rescue squads’ are dispatched everywhere to investigate. These rescue squads managed to gain much, and they saved many survivors in isolated villagers or deep underground. In one instance, they managed to save more than a thousand in a shelter, and in another, they found many corpses within.

The discovery of our Cradles happened a long time after the rescue squads were dispatched.

“We found survivors!”

Upon hearing this, the rescue squad members doubted their ears.

“Where…!?”

They run as the leader called out. “Over here!” the young member shouted, and the door of what appeared to be a control station opened.

There were dozens of long-term cryo installations—commonly known as ‘Cradles’ lined up there. Each of them was glowing weakly.

“This is unbelievable…”

The leader looked inside the Cradle, sounding startled. These Cradles were connected everywhere through dozens of cables, and appeared to be eggs in a warm nest.

“Robots?”

The leader kept looking at the Cradles intently.

“Looks like it. Most likely the robots used to manage the evacuation.”

“How’s their condition?”

“Extremely good. Very likely that they can be repaired.”

“Good, move them back to base first. We’ll ask them about the details.”

On the leader’s command, dozens of Cradles were carefully moved out by the members.

“The underground evacuation facility here should have ceased to operate already.”

The leader muttered in shock as he watched these Cradles.

“Leader!”

“What now?”

“What do we do with these?”

“Hmm…?”

And then, the leader finally sensed the two robots lying inside the room.

One of them was a girl with blue hair, and the other was a blond man.

Strangely, there was a cable extending from the man’s chest, and a battery attached to the girl’s chest.

“He definitely tried to save the girl.”

The young member noted sadly,

The leader wiped away the ice on his mustache and muttered, “Most likely.” These two embracing each other tightly appeared to be intimate lovers.

At this moment, the leader recalled his dead wife when the end came. He kept embracing her until the very end to save his wife from being frozen. However, his wife died, and only he lived. He joined the rescue team that faced such perils, all for the sake of making up for being unable to save his wife.

“What do we do? They look really damaged here.”

The young man asked.

“Yeah…”

Then, the leader noticed a little medal hanging on the robot’s neck. ‘108th Grand Prix Winner Amaryllis Alstroemeria and Eisbahn Tricrytis’.”

On a closer look, the two robots were thoroughly damaged due to frostbite. There’s a low chance of fixing them, but their peaceful sleeping faces made them seem alive.

After hanging the icy cold medal to the girl, the leader said,

“Take them away.”

===Mind Circuit=Amaryllis===

I have a dream.

Inside this dream, there’s me, Eisbahn, Viscaria, Götz, Daisy, Gappy, Chief—all the villagers are gathered together.

In this dream, the Prayer Festival’s at its loudest, and everyone’s singing and preparing. Shipping materials, delivering them, discussing the performances on the stage. It’s just a normal day, yet I love it so hopelessly. Thinking about how such days won’t return again, I keep singing as I cry. It’s a strange dream. And then—

“—llis.”

Someone’s calling my name.

“Miss Amaryllis, do you hear me?”

—Who…is it…?

I open my eyes, and sense light. It’s a dazzling light; it’s a warm light.

“Ah.”

There’s a woman dressed in pink nurse uniform. Short hair, large eyes, a young looking nurse.

“Please wait a moment….doctor! Doctor!”

The nurse immediately scampers out to the corridor, and loudly calls for someone.

A minute passes, and the nurse manages to bring the doctor in.

The doctor’s a woman. She’s in a white robe, her long red hair tied behind her.

“Oh my, you’re finally away, sleeping beauty?”

Upon hearing the doctor’s voice, I look at her in shock. This voice is familiar.

“Ohh, you finally noticed? How sharp.” The doctor smiles, “When I was reborn, they modified my face slightly, but at least they managed to preserve the hair color and voice base.”

“Is that you…Vis, caria…?”

“Yes it is.”

That doctor—Viscaria extends her feelers from her fingertips.

“Ahh…ahhh…”

“It’s been a while, Amaryllis.”

I stare at her in shock. Viscaria briefs me on what happened back then. After being found, fifteen years passed, and the Ice Age approached the end. Our masters awoke in the evacuation shelters, and the world’s slowly moving towards recovery.

“Here, have a look.”

Viscaria hands me a mirror.

“Ah.”

I see a girl with long blue hair reflected in the mirror. The skin’s abnormally white, and those the eyes have gone from blue to dark blue, there’s no doubt that it’s me.”

“Ah, ahh.”

I stare at the mirror in shock.

And then, there’s something shining on the chest. ‘108th Grand Prix Winner Amaryllis Alstroemeria and Eisbahn Tricrytis’

That flower medal.

—Eisbahn.

With trembling hands, I raise the medal.

“I duplicated it with a crystal to avoid it from melting. It’s the same inside.”

“Eisbahn…”

I ask, and Viscaria shakes her face with an anguished look.

“I see…”

If there’s only one life, I’ll give it all to you. I shall take away all your love. This shall be a one for one—halving.

I grab the medal firmly, and mutter, “Farewell…my Eisbahn.”

At this moment.”

“Hey, stop pushing!” “I heard Amaryllis has woken up!?” “I wanna meet her—”

The hospital door opens, and a crowd swarm in like an avalanche. There’s probably more than thirty, and I can hear more footsteps on the corridor.

There are some I have never met before. Some are adults, and some are children.

But I can tell on one glance. Their expressions, vibe, familiarity.

“Hey hey, this is a hospital. Settle down now.”

Viscaria shrugs,

“Every, one…?”

“Amaryllis!”

The children swarm in. The first to leap over is a girl with chestnut hair.

“Amaryllis, Amaryllis, waahhhh!”

“Daisy!?”

She rubs her face on my chest as she sobs. The other children too shove each other as they approach me, gathering around my bed.

Looking closely, there’s a little medal on Daisy’s chest too. It’s the flower medal Gappy gave her.

After this little ruckus.

“Everyone, this is a hospital after all, so quiet down!” The nurse from before reminds everyone.

“What do you mean, after all?”

Viscaria pouts,

“The main facility is a research center, and this hospital is just an additional one, so ‘after all’.”

“Goodness, fifteen years old and you’re so cocky…”

Right when I focus on their argument, “Hey!” Daisy lifts her face from my chest.

“There’s a kid I want to introduce!”

“…Eh?”

“Here, introduce yourself.”

With Daisy prompting, the nurse from before arrives before me, giving me a solemn bow.

“Nice to meet you.”

—Eh?

For some reason, nostalgia awakes within me.

“…Did I meet you somewhere before?”

<strong>“Back then, I was still a baby, so you may not know me. I was sleeping inside the ‘Cradle’ though”</strong>

—Ah…!

I have a flashback. The Cradle Daisy carried, and the name on the plate, I remember is—

“Wait, you’re that…?”

“It’s an honor to meet you. I’m Gabriella White.”

The girl looks a little nervous as she lowers her head.

“You’ve grown.”

I reach my hand out and pat the girl’s head gently. The girl looks at me in shock, and shrinks back, seemingly scared of itchiness. Her face is beetroot.”

“Most of the staff in this hospital are the children in the Cradle back then.”

Daisy whispers to my ear,

“I see.”

There are a few young boys and girls smiling at me. I nod and smile back. They all cheer out loud.

The sunlight seep through the window, lighting the room. The wind ruffles the curtains, and outside the curtains, there’s a lush grassy field of the hospital with many people, and robots. I see a nursing robot push an elderly around on a wheelchair, strolling around, and next to him, a child robot’s sleeping soundly on the knees of the human mother. The servant robot holding tea cups are serving drinks. A man dressed in work uniform calls out to a hobbling robot, and fixes him immediately. Humans and robots continue to maintain their personalities, and help each other.

Under the dazzling sunlight, children are playing around on the grassy field. Humans and robots are playing around amicably. One catches the ball, and throws it back. It’s such a simple game, but the children are enjoying themselves.’

—Since both of you want this ball—

Looking up at the ball dancing in the sky, I recall the voice and smile of the Principal.

—I shall ‘half it’.

Again, I clutch at the medal on my chest. Under the sunlight, the petal in the medal is dyed gold, and as the angle of the light changes, the flower appears to be blooming for an instance.

After sending off the long winter, the world shall welcome Spring again.

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| Back to [[Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]
| Return to [[Amaryllis in the Ice Country|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Afterword|Afterword]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses:Volume 2 Chapter 3

2015-12-18T17:27:33Z

Gamerdude13: /* Part 1 */ dude -> due

==Chapter 3：The Weird Coincidence In The Night Street==

===Part 1===
“……Is that so. You were sent away by Zesca huh”

Having heard the story, Ryura nodded in a sad yet somewhat understanding manner. Somewhere in her heart, she somewhat predicted that he could not reestablish his contract with Zesca that easily. Tooi felt the same way too.

An Istar inn called [Fiery Inn].

Remarkably standing out even within the center of the town, this building is a giant inn that is a fusion of a lodging space and a bar. It is filled with goods such as food and bed tools but, of course it comes with a price tag.

Since they were working, they had no troubles with money. Also, since transportation is all done by the motorbike (What’s more its private property of the Schut house), they can move all the money originally for transportation, towards food and lodging.

Having returned from the Aldebaran Company mansion which is at the outskirts of the town, Tooi and Alua explained the situation to Ryura who was waiting in the [Fiery Inn].

“As expected, would it have been better if I had went too? Zesca might change her attitude if she saw that we had a certain amount of power and fighting spirit”

“No, it will give the opposite effect. Because she knows that I was unarmed, that she did not attack due to her high pride”

“I see, so that was your goal”

“Well, Zesca might have saw that coming. Her attitude might have gotten prickly because she found that she did not like calculative ways…………”

The reason why he did not brought Ryura was because he wanted to show that he had no intentions to fight.

In a condition where he could immediately activate his [Dues Alma] to get ready for battle, he probably has no persuasiveness even if he said [I came here to talk].

It’s true that he calculated that the high prided Zesca won’t attack someone unarmed but – the biggest goal is to gain her trust and because he wanted to believe her.

Zesca Aldebaran is a Deity that isn’t his enemy nor is an opponent he wants to fight.

She’s his benefactor and a partner he wants to walk together with from now on.

Because of those '''''reasons''''', he made Ryura, who is currently his only Deity, stay at the inn but……………he does not know how productive that plan was.

The only thing he is certain – is that Zesca’s eyes held strong cautiousness and hostility when she stared at Tooi.

“What are we going to do now, Tooi?”

“Let’s see………..We immediately aimed for the center and failed so I guess we should try attacking the exteriors next. Shoot the horse first if you want to shoot the general. It might be a good idea to hear from the people from the Company a little more”

Aldebaran Company has the label [Company] but, in Japan terms, their activity format is actually kind of like a [Brand Shop].

The head which is Zesca will make the weapons while the company sells them. That’s fundamentally how it works. Trades and purchases done in normal companies are almost not done here.

It’s a specialist shop that only handles Zesca’s weapons – It’s definitely a [Brand Shop].

Now that that is mentioned, apparently, the [Stocking] part in normal transactions is all done by Zesca alone. Maybe because of that, there are little people inside in opposite to the activity scale. It seems that she hires bodyguards and couriers so, there are about 10 people actually affiliated with the Company with Zesca left out from that count.

With that number of people, they can probably find all of their backgrounds.

“I am also curious about the person working with Zesca.

“Oh Tooi. Are you perhaps jealous?”

Tooi awkwardly scratched his nose at Ryura’s teasing smile.

“It’s not like I am jealous…..but, I am just curious. The Zesca I know………isn’t someone that would run a Company”

Tooi pulled out the sword from his hips while mumbling that. He stared at the black sword glowing bewitchingly and lightly touched as if he was affectionate with it.

Deity Sword Zodiac.

It’s a weapon made by Zesca Aldebaran only for Tooi and only one exists in this world.

“She changed huh”

Those words quietly leaked out from his lips.

At first, Zesca gave off a strong image of being an obstinate and stubborn craftsman. She holds pride and responsibility for the weapons she created and would not give her weapons unless it’s people she acknowledges.

That’s why – Tooi could only feel weird about the current Zesca since she opened a shop, is securing trading routes and is distributing large quantities of weapons to people without caring about who it is.

Something happened to her in the 10 years Tooi wasn’t present-----

(…..I guess I am jealous after all)

Jealousy or maybe it’s desires of monopolizing.

He is purely annoyed, and envious about the fact that Zesca is selling her weapons cheaply – the fact that she is making weapons for people other than him.

And also the fact that someone not him changed her viewpoint----

The room’s atmosphere turned a little heavier when Tooi was quiet.

Maybe she felt that, or maybe she was looking for a good timing,

“E-err Tooi Onii-chan”

Alua raised her voice.

“What does the words Zesca Aldebaran said when we left?”

“Un?”

“Wasn’t Zesca-san really menacing looking. Something about not forgiving you…………”

“Ahhh, that”

The extremely foreshadowing sentence Zesca let out.

Tooi has an idea on what it is regarding about that.

“How should I say this…………..i had a little fight with Zesca a little while before we defeated the [Demon King]”

“A fight?”

“Well, it’s not that serious like a fight. It’s just a difference in opinion………..”

With 12 Deities gathered, the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] was established and when they were about to challenge the Demon king – there was an occasion where Tooi and Zesca’s opinion clashed.

The words Tooi said made Zesca really angry.

The problem could not get settled by talking and it turned into a big case but – they knew that it wasn’t the time to be wasting time quarrelling about something boring. The quarrel did not develop more ever since then.

“…………it might have been better if it turned into a fight and we started punching each other. We both read the atmosphere, gave in, left it unsettled and ignored it; and now the only thing that passed was time”

Tooi let out a big sigh as if to release his indigestible emotions. He then stood up from the bed she sat down on and headed to the room’s door.

“I’m going out a little”

“Where are you going? If you’re going out to town to gather information then i………..”

“No need, it’s okay. I just want to be alone for a while”

Tooi left the room after leaving a somewhat lonely sentence.

Alua looked at his back worried but *Pon*, a hand was placed on her shoulder.

“You don’t need to be worried, Alua”

“Ryura-san”

“Let’s leave him alone for a while. Tooi also wants time to calm his feelings”

“……….you’re right”

“It’s okay”

Ryura repeated the same word.

Those eyes had absolute trust towards her master.

“Tooi thinks seriously about the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] more than anyone else. He should be able to come to an understanding with Zesca”

Alua strongly nodded at those words.

Alua also knows that Tooi thinks dearly of the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] as his comrades and benefactors.

And also the fact that he’s feeling apologetic that he revoked his contracts one-sidedly.

It’s because that’s how he is – he should be able to move the hearts of the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}].

For example, like how he did it with Ryura Vega.

It’s okay if it’s Tooi.

He’s definitely wants to relook at his relationship with Zesca after getting alone.

Both Alua and Ryura held deep expectations and trust towards Tooi and decided to wait for him to come back to the room.

It was night time already and darkness covered Istar town.

It might be a town north of the Empire but since this town is not a part of map which Ifnatus used to be on, there were no signs of scars made from the internal conflict like the village that they stopped by in the middle of the journey.

There were many people even though it’s at night, and the bars and restaurants are crowded.

After leaving the [Fiery inn], Tooi was walked alone in Istar at night.

His walking style was particularly special.

His walking speed does not have a set speed; he would sometimes suddenly make a u-turn, then advance back on track again. Even though he’s not drunk, he would dizzily change his directions.

It’s as if he was hesitant yet made up his mind about something.

Moving forward in an indecisive yet slow pace, Tooi soon reached his goal.

“…………I-I am finally here”

Tooi mumbled with a voice oozing with agitation, emotion and slight shyness.

What he is seeing right now – is a world filled with pink glows.

The first thing that entered his view was the shops decorated with flashy colorful Ether lights. It was so bright that the artificial lights almost made him forget about the night and the same time, it was dazzling as if the night filled with colors.

The streets were filled with beautiful women in exposing and sexy outfits. Women making captivating poses in an almost nude outfit. Sensual women seducing men by pushing their voluptuous breasts onto them. Females dressed up beautifully and the men surrounding them.

Yes.

The place Tooi reached – was the back area of the entertainment city.

It’s a place where brothel facilities and the prostitution industry are legal; basically it’s an adult’s playground.

(I-I got here………Uwah, amazing)

It’s an action completely betraying Alua’s and Ryura’s trust but the only thing entering Tooi’s eyes now was the dazzlingly sensual world.

Well, judging by the fact that he is a young man in the middle of his 17 year old puberty, this is a natural reaction and it might be a natural action.

1 year ago, Tooi thought of walking into the brothels several times during his last summon to another world. He found out that it’s possible to use the brothels in Arludea Empire starting at the age of 16 so he tried to boldly start his sex debut without shame.

However, he changed his mind right when he got scared at the end, because of the eyes of his comrades and several situations, he did not start his debut in the end.

Within them, his biggest obstacle was, Laila Schut.

Having traveled with him 1 year ago, she’s sensitive to juicy stories so she’s really sharp sighted. Even if he tried heading there alone, there were many times when she instantly saw through him.

It’s not like Laila stopped him to use the brothels.

She would just grin happily and laugh.

Tooi is not so courage’s to the point where he would go boldly go to a brothel while getting treated like that.

(If I enter the brothels in the Imperial capital, Laila would most likely be informed immediately. It’s about her after all; she probably has connections in those industries too)

However, if it’s a brothel of a city far away from the Imperial capital, then there’s no way Laila’s eye would reach it.

As a man, there’s no way he would let this big chance go.

Tooi reached the entertainment city with his surging curiosity and sexual urges but---

“Kuh………….”

He has not moved from the area’s entrance for 10 minutes.

Even though his knows by his head that all he has to do is enter a random shop, even though he knows that paradise is right there, his legs could not take one more step.

Towards the paradise known as the brothel, Tooi admired it because he is inexperience and at the same time, he felt fear because he is inexperience.

What should he do if he stumbles upon a really fat old lady?

What should he do if he encounters a really scary man?

What should he do if he sucks doing the act?

The discord that everyone feels when they are inexperience about sex, attacked Tooi. However, he has no time to worry about this. Alua will get worried if he is too late………'''''ah, now that I think about it, how does the time system work here, Japan has the system where several minutes costs several yen but, is the whole night standard and normal in this country'''''---

It was at that moment when he was repetitively having delusions and was having agonizing thoughts.

The voices of a man and woman could be heard from the entrance of the nearest brothel.

“P-please stop…….dear customer, this is problematic………….”

“It’s okay, lady. Come with me and let’s have some fun”

Tooi moved in the next instant.

He entered the shop with quick movements as if the indecisive attitude a few seconds ago was a lie.

He had the moved with the image of '''''I can’t leave a woman in trouble but''''', he thought that it suits as a good trigger inside his head.

(…………This is an accident. i had no choice but to enter since it was an emergency. I must not worry about the place if it’s to save someone. It’s just that this was coincidentally a brothel and I must not worry about the details. Well…………I might get thanked from the saved woman or from the shop but…………..it’s not like I am aiming for that……no, I did not say that I would refuse you know? Yup, I’ll feel bad about the refused person and a man must not cause shame for a woman……….)

While instantly performing calculations of world desires and making an incomprehensible excuse to no one inside his head, Tooi ran towards the brothel receptionist.

“St-------“

Stop right there!

He planned to appear gallantly together with that brave sentence – but, Tooi stood stiffly and blankly when he saw the scene in front of him.

At the brothel’s receptionist, the man and woman who were presumed to be the owner of those voices, were standing there. however, their situation was completely different from the scene Tooi drew in his head.

He thought that a prostitute from the shop was being handled badly by a villain but----

“Y-you can’t, mooou…….i am the receptionist……..leave those things, eerr……..to the other girls working in the shop”

Apparently, the person receiving the invitations wasn’t a prostitute but the receptionist. The scene with her twisting her body with her face red, looked as if she’s embarrassed instead of feeling troubled.

“Sadly, I am broke today. I lost all my money from gambling, and I don’t have money to hire a woman. So, keep me company lady”

The person sending a passionate gaze while leaning on top of the reception desk, was a young man around his 20’s.

It’s a handsome man suitable for the word handsome. He’s tall and has long legs. He has a slender body but, his bare shoulders and arms were standing it because it had trained muscles.

It’s a young man with both manliness and beauty so, even the male Tooi felt charmed by him. Since she was called out by a really good looking guy, the receptionist does not look like she hates it.

(…….he came to the brothel, and is hitting on the receptionist?)

If it’s a man with high experience, if it’s a really good looking man, are you saying that this amazing feat is possible? Seeing this overly unexpected scene, Tooi froze into place.

“I-I am not like that at all. There are many women more beautiful than me in our shop……….”

“I am saying I prefer you. Or what, am I not enough for you?”

“No, that’s not true……)

The man’s invitation is about to succeed. While admiring his magnificent skills on bringing down a girl, Tooi started staring at the guy for some reason,

(………..Hmm? That guy………)

Suddenly, something pulled a nerve. He observed at the man again.

His has good looks and his hair is ash colored. Those tribal decorations were standing out on his outfit which has black as the basic tone. On his right arm – were bandages wrapped around to cover his skin.

When Tooi was thinking about that familiar appearance, the man took the receptionist’s hand and smiled happily.

“Okay. It’s decided. Okay then, let’s go lady ----let’s bring on the celebration on this encounter”

At that moment, all the gears in Tooi started engaging.

[Let’s bring on the celebration]

That’s—that man’s catchphrase.

He heard it many times.

From the person who he acknowledge as his [War comrade] in this world----

“Gilf………”

When Tooi mumbled that blankly, the man noticed him.

“Aarrh? Who is it, it’s getting to a good part now, don’t disturb-----“

He annoyingly looked over to him while brushing his ash hair up but, the moment he saw Tooi’s face, he opened his eyes wide.

“……..you’re Tooi?”

The man – Gilfrain said.

Ifnatus’s [Hero] and the man that betrayed his hometown before going missing.

He ran with Tooi in the battlefield and is Tooi’s only war comrade.

Previously a very young boy, Gilfrian has shockingly grown to a gallant young man after 10 years passed.

[[File:The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses Volume 2 Non-Colour 6.png|thumb]]

“………Tooi Onii-chan, hasn’t come back yet”

Having stayed back at the Inn, Alua boringly waited for Tooi’s return, while sitting on the bed which was furnished in the room.

“I knew it, I should…..nono. I mustn’t. I decided to trust him and wait. Even Tooi Onii-chan want some time alone………….and it’s not good to disturb him. He must be seriously thinking about the whole situation, even now”

Alua said that with a passionate trust. If she found out that Tooi headed straight to the brothel when he got alone, just what kind of reaction would she show?

Alua was alone in the room.

Ryura left the room a little while ago.

She said that she temporarily went back to the shrine of [Violent Wind].

'''''“The home for us Deities, the Shrines………..will lose its functions as a Shrine if we leave it alone for too long. In order to preserve the holy attribute at that place, we must periodically return”'''''

The Shrines acts as a castle for the Deities and at the same time, acts as a role of a dungeon to test humans. The interiors are completely different from the structures human creates and it is said that it becomes a dimension that common sense does not work there but – such a mystical place, was created to be treated as a reference point for the Deities existence.

'''''“Err? But, Ryura-san. What about La Shii’s Shrine? I heard that she has been locked up in the underground prison for about 10 years already”'''''

'''''“La Shii’s Shrine is built in a messed up time axis with the concept of time and space destroyed so, La Shii is free from all those types of restrictions”'''''

'''''“……..Is that okay?”'''''

'''''“……….That girl is an existence that live while ignoring all theories and rules”'''''

She once again felt the irregularity of La Shii Fomalhaut. Apparently, she’s called the strongest in the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] for a reason.

Anyways, Ryura returned to her Shrine with that reason.

She would be coming back tomorrow.

No matter how quick-paced, it would take at least 2 weeks from this town to her Shrine but, the concept of distance don’t matter to a Deity like her.

Having left alone in the room, Alua laid down on the bed while feeling bored. When she thought about taking a shower, a knocking sound could be heard.

When the door opened, a female worker of the Inn was standing there.

(…….A visitor for me? Who is it?)

Apparently, there was a visitor that wants to meet Alua.

(That person…….It’s Jebeg-san If I am correct?)

Alua was familiar with him.

While questioning this, Alua dressed herself before leaving the room. She went downstairs and headed to the Inn’s reception desk after passing by the bar which is a joint establishment.

Over there, was a plump male in a tidy attire.

(Why did Jebeg-san come over to us?)

Jebeg deeply lowered his head when he noticed Alua’s presence.

“I am sorry for this late night visit”

A few hours ago when they went to the Aldebaran Company’s mansion, Jebeg was the one that guided them to Zesca. Since he was a gentle and humble person, he did not make any disgusted face towards them because they visited without any notice and would threat them politely.

“………What’s wrong? Tooi Onii……Tooi Cross is currently out though”

“No, it’s okay – The person we have business with, is you Alua-sama”

Jebeg said.

“Please follow me, Alua-sma. Our master, Zesca-sama is waiting”

<noinclude>

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</noinclude>

The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses:Volume 2 Chapter 1

2015-12-18T04:14:13Z

Gamerdude13: /* Part 2 */ quiet -> quit

==Chapter 1:The Normal Days In The Imperial Capital Arcul==

===Part 1===
Alua Schut wakes up early in the morning.

She would get up at the same time with their maids living there and it’s her daily routine to train her sword skills in her mansion’s courtyard.

However for this day, after equipping her beloved Rapier and parry dagger on her hips, she headed straight to Tooi’s bedroom without heading to the courtyard.

It is to ask him to act as her training partner.

(He refused last time but, I’ll make him do it this time………!)

About 2 month ago, around the time Tooi came over to this world, he refused her with the reason of [I can’t be your partner since I don’t have any Contract Deity now].

But now.

Tooi has regained on of the deities within the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] that had obeyed him.

The Deity of [Violent Wind], Ryura Vega.

She rejected Tooi at first because of the complex situation she held within her heart but, after the battle in Fior region, both of them reestablished their contract.

His battle appearance in the later Dean plain caused a huge impact in Alua’s heart.

[{{Furigana|The Divine Punishment of the 12|Nebulosa Nemesis}}], [{{Furigana|The First Chapter|Primera}}]

[{{Furigana|The Sanction of the Violent Wind|Tempesta Sancion}}]

With glowing silver armor worn on his body, Tooi’s valor appearance which she saw when he overwhelmed the Lectar army with disastrous strong wind and elegant sword skills were still scorched inside her eyes.

It was an overwhelming strength worthy for him to be called the Tyrant Slayer.

A mighty warrior that can match a 1000 soldiers.

Having admired the Tyrant Slayer for 10 years, Alua could not suppress her excitement after seeing Tooi’s terrifying strength first hand.

What’s more, there are 11 more deities that possesses equal or more power than Ryura; this is no longer a laughing matter.

It is said that even one of them is able to bring down a castle alone, a high-ranking Spirit – a Deity.

Just how strong was Tooi’s golden age---the Tooi of 10 years ago which had all those 12 Deities serving under him.

Just how strong will he get in his journey to regain back the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}]----

---You kill him.

---Use that sword to stab his back when he walks out the realm of humans.

“Uh!”

Alua froze when her sister’s word resurfaced in her mind.

(………i-it’s okay. it will be okay……….Onee-chan definitely exaggerated those words and it’s still a possibility to the end so it's just a small matter. No matter how strong Tooi Onii-chan gets………he won’t become the enemies of me, Onee-chan and the people living in this country)

Because, Alua thought this.

(Tooi Onii-chan, is Tooi Onii-chan after all)

After reuniting with him after 10 years, he would still give her a smile with a gentle smile which has not changed from before.

To Alua, he’s an existence like a brother to her and at the same time, the hero that save their world. It does not change the fact that he’s someone that she holds aspiration and admiration towards to.

“It’s okay”

After mumbling that as if to tell herself that, Alua slammed open Tooi’s bedroom door to get rid of the complex emotions boiling in her chest.

And she turned speechless.

She could not believe the scene in front of her.

“Ah. Good morning, Alua-chan”

In the room, Tooi greeted her in a carefree manner while,

“Kyaa! Al-Alua-san!?”

Ryura Vega revealed her bewilderment with her face turning red.

Ever since they reestablished their contract, she has been living with Tooi in the Schut mansion.

Although; since she’s a Deity, she is not captured by the concept of living like a human. She would walk around by whim and would follow Tooi from behind while in her Spirit form which does not possess a physical body.

“Ryura-san………..what’s with that look?”

Alua asked while shocked.

She possesses a mystical beauty and usually wears a beautiful outfit that seems as if it would melt into the breeze but, she’s currently wearing an unfamiliar looking outfit.

It’s was a thin cardigan over a white shirt.

It had a grey skirt and a checker patterned tie.

It looks like a uniform at first glance but, the chest area is wide open, and the sleeves were long to the point where it covered her hands; the whole impression it gives off is that it’s slightly untidy and its done so to look stylish.

“E-err, this is………”

[[File:The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses Volume 2 Non-Colour 1.png|thumb]]

“Well, It’s basically JK<ref group ="2B">School girl</ref> fashion”

Tooi answered for Ryura who was stammering in her words.

“Jay, kay?”

“JK. The short form for School girls<ref group ="2B">Joushi Kousei - School Girl</ref>. In a rough explanation, basically it’s a uniform of a females only education institute in the country I lived in. There are many more other types other than this Cardigan style”

“Haa………….Then why is Ryura-san in that so call JK fashion?”

“I explained before that the Deities manipulates the Ether in their body and can freely create their own clothes by will right?”

“Yes”

“Basically, you can say that they are normally naked based on how you think about it”

“………Is there any need to purposely explain that?”

“Yes, they are basically naked based on how you think about it”

“There is never a need to say it twice right!?”

“I thought it would be nice if she could try on more clothes since she can freely control her clothes. But well, this is just for fun”

“For fun…………”

Ryura Vega is one of the 21 Deities existing in this world.

They are owners of a power beyond human intellect and it is said that even one of them is able to take on several thousands of soldiers.

With that said, her very existence is like a myth and she’s a living legend.

(………….that legendary existence is being used as a dress-up doll by Tooi Onii-chan)

Feeling tired and admiration at the same time, Alua was in a complex mental state.

“Err……Tooi”

Ryura fiddled around her fingers while asking him with a somewhat discomposed manner.

“These clothes……….I tried making it according to Tooi’s words but, how about it? Not only is it unfamiliar to me, I am not used to wearing these clothes so, I have no idea what to think………”

“Yup. It looks really good on you. Just like what I thought”

“Really?”

Her expression glowed.

“I am so happy. It really was worth making it”

Ufufu, she smiled happily.

Just a month ago, Ryura looked at Tooi with cold eyes as if to push him away but, ever since they reestablished their contract, her attitude took a 180 degree turn.

Anyways, she’s really faithful and really obedient.

This is most likely Ryura Vega’s real personality.

(………It’s not like I don’t feel that she’s too obedient though)

Alua was not amused about Ryura overly lovey-dovey attitude but, Tooi then urged her for her for her thoughts and opinion.

“You think it suits her too right, Alua-chan?”

“Eh…….Ah, yes. That’s right. I think it looks cute”

It wasn’t lip service and was her honest opinion.

She’s unfamiliar with those weird clothes but, they elaborated the detailed designs and it’s really cute. It’s so cute to the point where she wanted to try it on herself-----

(……..Hn?)

When she stared at Ryura in the JK style, a weird feeling appeared in Alua’s mind. No, rather than a weird feeling, it’s more towards Déjà vu.

(These clothes, where have i………)

She looked into her memories for a few seconds, before noticing it.

Her face instantly turned redder by the second.

It’s because she recalled what the situation was when she saw the clothes in front of her from.

“T-Tooi Onii-chan!? Th-th-these clothes, aren’t these erotic clothes!?”

“………Heh?”

“Because……..within the books Tooi Onii-chan brought over, there were many of them with women wearing these types of clothes on the front cover!”

Around the time he was summoned to this world, Tooi brought a carry case over to this world.

Inside that, were several useful goods that only exists on the other world……..this was supposed to have happened; in a weird twist of fate----Basically a simple mistake, he brought over the case which he had planned on throwing away instead.

Which means, the objects inside were his treasures that he had planned to dispose.

The scene where many half-naked women flung out from the puffed up bag, is still stuck inside Alua’s mind even now.

“Yes………..Yes I am right! I knew it; these are the clothes on that ero magazine!”

“No! Yo-you’ve got it all wrong, Alua-chan! You are having a big misunderstanding! This appearance is not indecent!? It’s a uniform suitable for a female student attending an education institute and thousands of young girls all over Japan are going to school in this appearance!”

“Then why is this appearance on an ero magazine!?”

“That’s…………..”

“It’s clear that there are also people wearing these clothes even though they are clearly over the age of being called a young girl!”

“Th-that’s………..that’ssssssss…….!”

Tooi was amusingly stumbling on his words.

There was one person looking down at him with terribly cold eyes.

“……..Tooi. Don’t tell me…………..you used my lack of knowledge and made me wear perverted clothes!?”

“Ryura……no, you’ve got it wrong! These clothes are not perverted at all………….the clothes itself isn’t the erotic part, the importance part is what the situation the person is in……..how should I say this, rather than the clothes doing the deed, the determination of the level of eros is based on what the viewers feel about it……………”

“Tooi said [I think………….if you take on that appearance, it would tremendously increase the output of the [Deus Alma]], so I believed you………!”

Alua retorted in her heart “I can’t believe you got tricked with that”.

As expected, she does not have the courage to retort a Deity face on.

“Hmph”

Ryura looked to the side as if she was sulking before lightly waving her hands. Ether light then covered her body and her usual magical outfit came back in the next moment.

“Aaah………..”

Tooi was extremely disappointed.

Maybe his depression was too much, he did not noticed Ryura said […….You should have told me that it was erotic clothes from the start] while pouting.

“……….so, Alua-chan. What’s up?”

After saying that, Alua finally recalled back her goal.

“Tooi Onii-chan. I came here to ask you to help with my training today”

“Training? Un, okay. Then, let’s----“

“No”

Alua told him.

“Please fight 1 vs 1 with me”

In the fight with the Lectar’s military, Alua saw Tooi’s tremendous power.

She felt an indescribable excitement after seeing the gallant figure of her admired [Tyrant Slayer] but, on the other hand, she felt an unsolvable sense of regret in her heart.

Even though she’s assigned to be Tooi Cross’s partner, she feels really apologetic that she was given a piggy back during the whole important part.

In the first place……….she felt alienated.

(Err? Did I just become air?)

She thought that plenty of times.

Speaking of Alua’s achievements in the last battle-----

When Tooi and Ryura was exchanging a passionate kiss to prove their re-contract-----She was fighting with the forest Spirits at the sidelines.

After Tooi and Ryura reestablished their contract, he equipped the solemn [Deus Alma] and took on the Lectar’s military from the front------While, she was quietly hiding behind the forest and looking at them from behind.

(…….There should be a limit on how sad it can get)

Which that said, Alua plans to change that regret and sadness into the desire to improve herself so, she requested Tooi for a duel today.

Of course, she knew she couldn’t win.

She’s fully aware that there’s no way someone as weak as her could fight Tooi.

But, but even so.

Alua took on Tooi from the front.

She wants to learn as much as possible by confronting the legendary hero.

By understanding the absolute difference of strength by being beaten down to a pulp, she would grind down her inexperience and use that to improve herself.

However----

“Eh?”

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Kan*

The wooden sword flicked up into the sky before falling onto the courtyard’s lawn.

“I-I give up. I lost”

With the wooden sword poking towards his throat, Tooi raised his hands and surrendered.

A duel was commenced in the mansion’s courtyard.

Even though it’s a duel, it was obviously not a fight with their full strength. It’s still a practice match to the end. Of course for [Deus Alma] and [Ray Alma], any other Spirit techs are prohibited. Their weapons are not real swords but wooden swords. As a result of a discussion, they decided to fight under such restrictions first.

A duel with pure swordsmanship.

Another way to put it, it’s a comparison of individual power without using the power of their Contract Spirits.

As a result, the one who won was Alua.

“No way……….”

'''''Impossible''''', Alua was making that expression. After she pulled away her wooden sword without hiding her bewilderment, Tooi let out a small sigh before making a lax smile.

“Iyaaa, I lost, I lost. Alua-chan, you’re really strong”

“………..Tooi Onii-chan. Are you holding back?”

“I didn’t hold back. I gave it my all”

Tooi easily admitted his defeated without any showing any signs of excusing or regret.

Alua was shocked. She could not believe her own victory.

(Weak……..no he wasn’t. it’s not like he’s weak but……..)

Tooi’s sword skills are about Alua’s level. As a result of getting offensive when she got the chance, she managed to win this time by luck but, she does not know if she could do the same next time.

That’s why it’s weird.

There’s no way that the strength of the man that is told to be the [Tyrant Slayer], that commanded the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}], to be in the same level as her.

“I said this before, all of my power is the power of the Deities I made contracts with. My own power isn’t a big deal”

Alua agreed for a moment there but, she immediately swung her head.

(No. That’s because, Tooi Onii-chan’s movements today were different from that time)

There’s a heaven and earth difference of movements compared to the movements he done when he fought the Lectar’s military while using the [Deus Alma] with Ryura----[{{Furigana|The Sanction of the Violent Wind|Tempesta Sancion}}]. He had body movements like a fairy and the sword skills of a war god but, there were no signs of that today.

(At that time………somehow, it looked so natural and he looked so carefree when he fought)

In response, today’s Tooi---looked somewhat restricted. There’s hesitation in his sword skills and body movements; it’s as if someone borrowed his body, that kind of weird feeling.

“Fufu. You’ve lost, Tooi”

When Alua was in thought, Ryura appeared out from nowhere and made a mischievous smile towards her master that had lost.

“As usual, Tooi can’t do anything without us Deities”

“Haha. No excuse for this”

Both of them laughed. Not only Tooi but even Ryura easily accepted her master’s easy lost.

Alua was getting more confused but, when she’s like that,

“Hey, Alua-chan”

Tooi asked her as if he thought up with something.

“Now that I think about it, are there any new Deity knights that appeared in this 10 years other than me?”

“Eh?”

“No, I am kind of curious. When I was at my world, basically the time when Hadar was rampaging around the continent, it seems that there were no Deity knights other than me……….10 years passed since then so, it’s not weird that someone like that might appear”

Deity knight.

Having succeeded in making a contract the high rank Spirit – the [Deity], only the person that successfully manifest the [Deus Alma] - the Deity weapon created by using their weapon as a medium is allowed to be called by that name in this continent.

There are only a countable number of people with that title in history. In other words, heroic figures that are accepted by the Deity rarely appear.

The people called Deity knights will most definitely be related in the continent’s history—no, they have no choice but to be related.

By using the Deities tremendous powers, the Deity knight will cause a ripple by distorting the existing society, in good or bad ways.

If there are kings and heroes, there are also people with the title [Enemy of the world].

A contract of a human and Deity alone, is treated as a historical event.

“None. There’s no way a Deity knight will appear that easily”

“Ahaha. True”

“……….and, that’s what I wanted to say”

After making a feint, Alua continued on.

“Actually, there is currently only person in the Empire that turned into a Deity knight”

Tooi opened his eyes wide.

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s based on the knowledge gained by the Empire’s military in the end though”

“So we are clear that there is one person……so, what kind of person is that?”

“Sachs Hayern. A former captain of the Empire’s military at the southern HQ”

“Fuuun. I don’t know who that is. If that Spirit practitioner is so good to the point where a Deity accepted him, I think he would be quite famous even from 10 years ago though……..”

In the battle with the Demon king 10 years ago, Tooi was often thrown into the front lines under the Empire military that Laila Schut is associated with. He experienced many fights together with the Empire’s proud elites.

In the first place, that also means that only the Empire’s leading elites are allowed to stand on the same battlefield as Tooi Cross.

“If it’s someone I don’t know then…………he was either hiding his real strength 10 years ago, or, his strength increased exponentially in these 10 years”

“I don’t know which is correct but………..i think it’s the latter one. The former captain Havern, was originally a normal soldier at a remote area after all. In terms of his Spirit knight abilities……….i think he is just below average; I heard this from Laila Onee-chan”

“Below average? How did a guy like that become a Deity knight”

“The details are unknown. From the information told by the central, we are sure that the former captain Havern became a Deity knights 5 years ago. Ever since then, he took a big promotion and reached the status of captain within 3 years”

“A normal soldier became a captain in 3 years……..the Deities power is amazing”

“………….It kind of sounds ironic when Tooi Onii-chan says that”

A male soldier that had no achievements that stands out reached the status of captain after ignoring all the strict rules and theory in the military by a single fact that [He made a contract with a Deity].

Having 12 of those powerful Deities under his command; the legendary existence known as Tooi Cross---that’s basically the man in front of Alua right now.

Even the [Sage of Creation] who is said to be the creator of Spirit techs – The legendary sage that ordered 5 deities, gets overshadowed by him.

“But Alua-chan. Since you said [Former] Captain, it means that he retired?”

“Yes”

“Why? His status is secured even in the military with the power of the Deity. Depending on his actions, he should be able to reach a higher status than captian”

“T-that’s………..”

Alua stumbled her words; something happened at that moment.

A woman’s high-pitched scream echoed from outside the tall walls. It did not end with one. Voices of fears from females and children followed on immediately after that.

After Alua raised her face in reflex, she could hear shouting from a group of male.

“What’s wrong!? What happened!?”

“Th-this is bad! A group of the [Wings of crimson light] that were being escorted to the 1st prison escaped when the guards weren’t paying attention!?”

“What!? Don’t tell me the rebellion army……..sneaked into this sector!?”

“Yes………..and what’s more, the escapees, are all Spirit knights. Apparently skilled weapon users even in the [Wings of crimson light] hidden weapons at their stomach………..”

“………Impossible. There are embassies and mansion of nobles in this sector. If criminals that can use [Ray Alma] snuck into here, who knows what damages will occur…..”

She immediately knew that the emergency voices exchanged outside the wall belonged to the military police. Alua’s face gradually turned pale.

“No way……..people from the [Wings of crimson light] escaped………?””

“[Wings of crimson light]?”

“They are mainly active in the Empire’s northern side. A faction of the rebellion. I heard that a group that got captured was planned to be imprisoned but……I didn’t think they would escape the guards”

Alua clenched her teeth in regret. She then wanted to run towards the mansion’s exit but, Tooi caught her arm to stop her.

“Where are you going, Alua-chan”

“Isn’t it obvious! I am going to help the citizens!”

Apparently all of the rebellion members are all Spirit knights. They are too strong for the city’s police. No one will be able to fight them unless they are able to use [Ray Alma] themselves.

That’s why, Alua wanted to head straight there, but.

“You don’t need to go”

“Wha!? Wh-why!?”

“What’s with the why…….”

“It’s true that………I am still an inexperienced Spirit knight. I don’t know how strong the rebellion is too but, as an officer of the Empire’s military; I can’t keep quiet and watch! I have a job to protect the citizen’s peace!”

“Nope, not that-----“

In response to Alua who was talking passionately about her pride as a military personal, Tooi told her that with a bitter smile.

“---because everything is over”

She did not understand at first. Alua turned speechless after she saw the other arm instead of the arm that Tooi was grabbing her with.

The black short sword was pulled out from his hips before she noticed and was in his right equipped on his right arm.

Deity sword Zodiac.

A one and only legendary sword made only by high-quality [Etherium].

Surrounding the short sword, a shell was constructed from Ether and it formed a silver sword.

[{{Furigana|The Sanction of the Violent Wind|Tempesta Sancion}}]

The beautiful slender sword manifested when he activates the [{{Furigana|Deity Equipment|Deus Alma}}] with Ryura Vega, was brilliantly glowing in his hands.

However, unlike 1 month ago, Tooi’s body was not covered by silver armor. It only appeared on the silver blade extending out from the Zodiac and the gauntlet equipped on his right hand, everything else was normal.

“Partial activation of the [Deus Alma]…….?”

Alua opened her eyes wide in shock.

With the weapon used as the medium to perform the fusion with the Spirit, the technique to materialize them as weapons and armors is given the title, the ultimate battle Spirit tech – [Ray Alma].

The image strongly created by the practitioner and Spirit will manifest in this word as a weapon.

Breaking down the image completed after a long time of training, and using only a part of that part is extremely difficult; it is sad that it is a god move that only veterans can use.

Even though that is the case, Tooi was right now performing that partial activation with ease.

It was done so fluently and so quietly to the point where Alua could not even senses it.

What’s more, the skill he is performing right now is not [Ray Alma] but rather, the partial activation of the [Deus Alma].

The weapon with tremendous energy was not overexerting at all, was not stagnating at all and he was controlling it as if it was a part of his limbs. That probably proves that he has full control of the Deity’s power.

In response to Alua who was staring at him blankly, Tooi mumbled as if it isn’t a big deal.

“…….5 of them. Hey Alua-chan. I stopped the escaped rebellion members so, it’s okay if I beat them up right?”

“Eh? Eeh? Wh-what do you mean? You stopped them…….what’s more, how do you know their numbers?”

“It’s Ryura’s power. If I activate [{{Furigana|The Sanction of the Violent Wind|Tempesta Sancion}}], I can fully grasp the surrounding [Wind flow]. It was easy to find them since they were making a mess. I made a small tornado and sealed their movements”

“Ca-can you really do that?........”

“if it’s 5, then I can manage”

Tooi closed his eyes. He was feeling the surrounding wind with his skin and was probably looking at a world that he and Ryura are the only one in this world that are able to.

“So, what should I do Alua-chan? Can I beat them? Or, I can make it look like a little accident and give the credit to the police?”

“I-it’s okay. Just beat them……”

After Alua told him that, Tooi [Okay] lightly nodded.

He then raised the slender sword in his right hand and sliced the wind 5 times. His sword skills were shockingly beautiful and the sword movements were so beautiful to the point it made her mesmerized by reflex.

He’s a complete person compared to when he used the wooden sword.

“Okay. All done”

After lightly swinging his sword, Tooi finished his sentence and released the partial activation on his right arm. The silver shell creating the slender sword turned to light and dispersed.

“I knocked all of them out and broke their weapons. I moved them to an unpopulated area so; I think the police will settle the rest”

After saying that in a carefree manner while returning his short sword back to his hips, he thanked Ryura who returned back to her normal form. Alua was frozen in place while looking at their peaceful chat.

(Amazing……..)

He suppressed 5 spirit knights in an instant.

It might be a natural result judging by how he overwhelmed an army of 2000 but, to think that he would defeat the enemies scattered in the city without moving from this spot.

(Amazing….but, then, why?)

An intense odd feeling attacked Alua.

The Tooi that performed the partial activation [Deus Alma] so naturally and the uncomforting sword skills Tooi showed just now in the mock battle did not match up inside her.

He is completely treating the Deities power as his own.

But even so, why does it look like his movements were bowered----

(Ah)

Alua suddenly knew.

She remembered it.

The reason why Tooi fought 10 years ago.

(That’s right. Tooi Onii-chan……….fought for his grandmother)

Not for the country and not for the people.

He fought only for his grandmother.

All for his single family, everything was to see her last moments.

(Defeating the [Demon King], is just………….simply a method to Tooi Onii-chan)

That was everything.

Even the contracts with the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] are just a method for that method.

Basically----

(To Tooi Onii-chan……..'''''everything is okay as long as the demon king is defeated''''')

It’s not for world peace and it’s definitely not to become a hero. He just wanted to go back to his world. He had no choice but to go back to his grandmother as fast as possible.

His status in the world after the demon king is defeated, and his individual strength probably means absolutely nothing to Tooi Onii-chan.

---…….That’s overestimating. The deities I contracted are the ones strong and it’s not that I am amazing.

--- If in fighting game terms, I, am kind of like a set character that can only use ultimate skills.

His sentences were not modesty and might be the truth in a certain angle.

Tooi Cross’s [Strength] is too [Biased].

Positioning, body movements, sword skills, Spirit tech……..all of his strength and techniques are created with the condition of the contracts with the Deities.

(In these few months, I saw him training many times but………I feel that Tooi Onii-chan has fixed himself always fighting together with someone from the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}])

10 years ago, Tooi probably poured all his time just to master the [Deus Alma].

That’s the fastest method to defeat the demon king.

Thanks to that, he is able to use the Deities powers like his limbs but in return, he was unable to polish his individual strength.

He scraped off every single needless factor; he even cut off his own self to reach it – a single land and the farthest land by innocently set on one point.

Tooi Cross was completely devoted in using the Deities power--- No; maybe calling it “Soaked in” would be a better choice.

He was using it.

He was soaked in it.

Completely and deep inside it.

What was created from that was an irregular existence known as the [Tyrant Slayer].

The escaped rebellion members were injured by a local unnatural tornado and kamaitachi<ref group ="2B">Japanese Youkai</ref> and were captured again without causing any violence.

Alua took on the role to explain the situation to the police so Tooi returned into the mansion.

After taking a light shower to wash off the sweat, I asked about Laila’s whereabouts from the head maid Cecil who happens to passed by me, and she told me that she has not left her bedroom.

Even though it’s the afternoon, apparently she’s still asleep.

(She’s so weak against the morning as usual)

He was forced to know about how terrible Laila’s sleeping posture and how bad she wakes up during the time travelled the whole continent in his last summoning.

Tooi headed to her bedroom while remembering old memories.

(We need to get her up soon as expected)

It was set that he would be going out with Laila in the afternoon. She’s the type that gets ready quick for a female but, she has to eat lunch so it’s probably best to go over to wake her up.

I went up the stairs and reached Laila’s room.

There was no reply even though I knocked. After I slowly opened the door, apparently this should be expected, she was still on her bed sleeping comfortably.

“I knew it……….and now, how to wake her”

He started coming up with a plan while looking down at the sleeping Laila.

The first thing that came up was to pull away her blanket but, there were plenty of times where Laila would strip off her pajamas in this season. When he looked down, as expected, her pajamas were off the side of her bed.

So pulling her blanket away is a no-----

(---no wait. Shouldn’t that be the reason why I should pull it away. If i pull it away while pretending to not noticed anything, things would settle as an accident…….no but, my conscience will…….no no no but, it’s not every day I get this chance……..)

A fierce war between devil and angel was inside hismy heart. After 10 seconds of agony, Tooi somehow managed to cut down the devil’s invitation.

Since I could not come up with anything, I tried waking her up using the old shaking method.

“Oi, Laila. Wake up”

“Hn…….”

“It’s noon already. We promised to go out after lunch right?”

“Hn~~……..you’re so noisy, Alua”

She only groaned and there were no signs of waking up.

What’s more, it seems that she’s still dreaming and mistook Tooi for Alua who is usually the one that would wake her up.

After Tooi lightly sighed, he shook Laila together with the blanket. She then distorted her expression displeased and----

“Hnn~~……..Shut up”

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Gabaa*

The blanket on the bed opened up like a carnivorous beast.

“……..Heh?”

When he was taken by surprise, *Gulp*

Tooi was swallowed inside the blanket. If this was seen from the sidelines, this scene probably fits the word [Predation]. The person on the bed pulled his arm and forcefully brought him inside the blanket.

(Eh, Ah……Wha!? Wh-what just----)

“Fuhaha, Gotcha, Alua”

Inside the blanket, the mumble from close distance was Laila’s sleepy voice when she is still mistaking Tooi for Alua.

Since he was completely swallowed inside the blanket, Tooi’s view was completely covered in darkness. However, the soft sensation felt around his whole body, was telling him the detailed situation that he was being grappled.

(No good…….this is not good at all)

He was completely glued to her.

Her exposed skin. Warm breath. And the female’s characteristic sweet smell was tickling his nose.

Maybe it’s because he could not see her, he felt oddly excited. Laila’s first class body that he is feeling in the dark is unusually destructive.

Without noticing Tooi’s excitement and panic, the underwear appearance Laila played with his body and hugged him.

“Hahaha. How is it Alua. Give up? This is the punishment for always disturbing my beauty sleep”

You’re the one that told me to wake you up. Tooi had no time to retort that now.

He was stuck in between her rightly meaty thighs while her slender arms invaded into his clothes with seductive movements.

And more importantly – her breasts.

Her overly voluptuous breasts, was stimulating his body because it was squeezing into different shapes. It’s an unescapable prison of pleasure. Tooi could not move at all and had no choice but to stiffen up, in a lot of meanings.

“Hnn~`….? What’s this Alua? Did your breasts turned smaller when I haven’t touched you for a while? There should be a small bump but, it’s as if you have a male’s chest today…….”

[[File:The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses Volume 2 Non-Colour 2.png|thumb]]

“Wa-wait……”

“What’s more, why does it feel as if you’ve gotten bigger…….Your body build is kind of bony”

“St-stop…..muguh”

“Hn? What’s with you? Did you put something between your crotch?”

“uh!?”

“What’s with this rod-like object…….? Un? It’s kind of getting harder the more I grab hold----“

“------TIME OUT! This is bad!”

Having reached his limits in a lot of ways, Tooi shouted with his face red. He swung off Laila’s restraints with all his strength and jumped out from the blanket.

“Uwah, so bright…….”

“How long do you plan on dreaming, Laila! It’s me, ME!”

“…….Hnnn”

After scratching her eyes several times, Laila made wrinkles between her eyebrows and looked carefully at him. She has a serious case of shortsightedness but, she can probably see the person in the same bed as her with her naked eyes as expected.

After carefully observing at close distance,

“U-uwaaaaaaa! Tooi!?”

Laila shouted in shock and jumped up.

“What the hell are you doing!? Di-did you come to jump at me at night!?”

“It’s the afternoon! How can I attack you at this time!...........No, I won’t come at night too though!”

“Then why……….why did you crawl into my blanket?”

“I was forcefully pulled inside!”

“Mu………I see. Un…….so that’s why”

Maybe she recalled her own actions, Lail;a slowly regained her calm.

“Aah. Oh yeah. I mistook you for Alua and made you taste my [Laila Special Hold]”

“Hmm, is that the name of that move………?”

“No wonder I couldn’t find any breasts. It felt odd but, I kind of let it slide after thinking [Well, it’s Alua so this is about it]”

“………Alua-chan will cry if she hears that you know?”

“By the way, about the rod between your crotch”

Laila looked at her hand as if to recall back that feeling.

After that, she directed a mischievous devil smile at him.

“Fuu~~n. I see I see. Looks like you were quite turned on huh. Was my body that charming to you?”

In response to Laila’s expressing her unrestrained fun, Tooi looked down while getting a complex feeling of regret and embarrassment.

“Fufufu. You’re really a closet pervert”

“…….Leave me alone. Every male will become like that. Rather, how long do you plan to be in your underwear? How about covering yourself a little?”

“Fuun. Showing you my underwear after all this time, I don’t feel anything”

Without trying to cover herself, Laila boldly puffed out her chest. Those giant breasts covered only by those light underwear, jiggled a little at that moment.

“In the first place, you might get horny after seeing my underwear appearance”

Laila did not stop smirking.

A woman in her underwear and a man staring at her in it. Even though the male will be sued of sexual harassment in this situation no matter how much thought is put into it, Tooi felt as if he was he was the one endlessly sexually harassed.

1 year ago, during the time he travelled with Laila, there were many times he witness her 17 year old naked body due to accidents but, her charm right now could not even compare to before.

She grew, matured making her body polished glamorously.

“What’s wrong, Tooi. How giving your thoughts on this?”

“………Aah”

Tooi nodded and slowly observed her body carefully,

“You kind of……gotten meaty”

He mumbled that.

He was serious as if he had fully thought about it.

It was not sarcasm nor was it an insult; he had actually planned to praise her in his own way.

Actually, Laila’s body got meatier compared to 10 years ago. It definitely did not meant [Fat] but, it looks like flesh ratio got a bit better.

In slightly substituting the smooth and tight skin texture, she gained the highest quality of fitness and fluffiness; something like that kind of expression.

Anyways, to Tooi, the word [Meaty] is a sort of praise and it is his honest expression from the joyful emotion that was created when he received the [Laila Special Hold] skill.

However, he did not know it.

He did not know that the word [Meaty], would become an discriminative insult no different from [Fatass] and [Pig], depending on how the female takes it -----

“……………”

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Smile*

Laila smiled quietly.

That smile was so scary it would give anyone the chills.

She got off her bed silently and walked off while in her underwear.

“Eh……H-hey Laila? Where are you going looking like that?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I am going to shout as loud as possible outside my room and cry out that I was stripped by you when I was sleeping”

“You trying to kill me!?”

“Fufufu….Fuhahahaha. That’s right. I’ll even add in the fact that I was drugged yesterday. Just you wait, Tooi. I’ll establish the fact that you are a perverted maniac that has a fetish of raping females when they are asleep”

“There should be a limit on fabricating the truth!? I don’t have any fetishes on raping females when they are asleep! Rather, I would prefer the opposite and have the female sneak in when I am the one asle----, No, forget that forget that. Anyway wait for me Laila!”

Tooi has no clue what he did wrong but, he desperately tried to stop Laila to protect his social status and his dignity.

A few hours after the commotion when she woke up.

Laila Schut was walking in the central HQ’s corridor.

With her military uniform worn neatly, her appearance when she’s striding around with her chest puffed out, had the majesty and dignity suitable for someone with the status of a commissioned officer.

However in her case, the more she walked around with her chest puffed out, her already huge breasts looks even flashier.

(Meaty….Aah, I get pissed off each time I remember that)

Laila’s insides were boiling in anger when she recalled the events in the morning.

She had already separated from Tooi who came out from the mansion with her.

Both of them had different matters after the afternoon today. Laila prepared a carriage to attend a conference in the military and Tooi accompanied her half-way there.

(Seriously, I can only describe his lack of delicacy as pathetic!)

Laila was violently enraged.

She’s completely playing innocent after all the sexual harassment she has done.

(In the first place, I am still 26 you know!? I am not drooping from old age……n-nope I am not, I think. I’m not right? Unn, it’s wrong……..right?)

Laila Schut is fundamentally arrogant and haughty and is usually filled with confidence but, as a maiden, she had no choice but to feel skeptical about her own age.

Ever since he reunited with Tooi Cross after 10 years, that trend turned especially stronger.

Tooi who has not changed much at all from before and herself after aging 10 years.

It’s only impossible to not worry about the difference.

Even though she’s military commissioned officer at a young age, she is still a woman.

(I-it’s true that……….i got flabbier compared to before……Ever since I left the site after working in the central, I have done nothing but mental labor and have not been exercising lately……..)

Uuumu, Laila was seriously in thought.

She confirmed her flesh condition by touching her waist and butt before “Hey it’s still okay, no but being careless will be deadly to me”……….thinking that. ---it was at that moment,

“Fuaaaa”

She encountered a man when she turned the corner.

It’s a young man with a tall lean body. He’s wearing the Empire’s military uniform but, the buttons were not put in place and was worn messily. His facial features are well arranged but, he’s eyes are annoyingly narrow.

Laila noticed that he was the one letting out those loud yawns.

“Oh hey there, why if it isn’t major general Schut. Long time no see”

He talked to her in a friendly manner. His expression and voice was gentle and cheerful but, he won’t direct his narrow eyes towards Laila. It was directed towards the light black leather cover notebook in his hands.

“…….Yes, it’s been a long time. Mister Cougar”

Laila’s expression when she replied back was obviously stiff.

That’s the result from somehow subduing the disgust from flowing out.

(Aah…….i see. This man is attending today’s conference too)

To Laila when rising in the military, [Creating expressions] [Hiding her true intentions] is a daily action to her. Sometimes she made a satisfied smile. Sometimes she gets tears by acting in grief. She could freely control her expression to skillfully create human relations.

But even for that Laila, she is unable to perfectly control her expression when it comes to confronting this man in front of her.

She just can’t stop the insuppressible disgust and hatred from oozing out.

The only [Tactician] of the Empire’s military.

That occurs each time she bumped into Astarot Cougar.

“Fuaaaa. Oh sorry. Iyaaa, actually, I didn’t sleep much yesterday. I think I only slept about 2 hours. This is seriously tough. Aah………I envy free people. I am always given jobs to do so I don’t have any free time at all”

“……………….”

“Of course for Military work, I am being chased from my writing profession recently. It’s that, you know '''''that'''''. It’s the so called [Deadline]. Ah, sorry sorry. It’s a feeling that people that has not experienced it will not understand. I said it according to my feeling”

“………………….”

“Should I be happy or said…..oh how problematic, looks like its being sold again, my novel. It’s about time to take a break so, I prayed in my mind [Don’t sell well now] but……….it’s being sold like hotcakes again. I was pestered to continue and now I’m busy. It would be so nice if it didn’t sell well………oops, no good. Saying that sounds kind of like sarcasm. In the world, there’s a mountain full of authors having problems bringing food to the table”

“…………………”

“Even I am often told that I talk too much. Even though I know it’s not good, my true thoughts just can’t help coming out from my mouth. I’m bad with annoying indirect actions like being humble or saving face. Because of that, I end up quarreling with my surroundings……..but, I can’t help it. Because, it’s just who I am”

“…………………..”

So annoying.

Laila maintained her force smile and desperately concealed her true thoughts.

He’s the same-----no, Astarot Cougar is more annoying than usual.

[[File:The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses Volume 2 Non-Colour 3.png|thumb]]

(……..I wish this man would die from some kind of funny disease)

Honestly, Laila hates this man.

Rather than calling it hate, it’s more like physiological rejection.

She cannot cooperate with him at all. She hates everything about him. She does not like his overly self-conscious personality at all. It feels like she would get rashes just looking at him.

Anyways; she completely rejects the human known as Astarot but, the reason why Laila hates him was not only because the incompatibility of their personality.

Even in their current status in the military, to Laila, Astarot is an existence like a bump above her eyes.

“So it looks like Mister Cougar is attending today’s conference too”

“Yep. I was kind of requested to. It’s my bad habit to be unable to reject requests. Honestly, I hate things like meetings and discussions. I just can’t help to feel that a group of humans quarrelling endlessly is just a waste of time. Oh you know, I am the type that likes to decide what I want to do”

'''''I don’t fucking know''''', she swallowed down those words.

“It can’t be helped. Mister Cougar is a talented tactician that the Empire’s military is proud of. Everyone is asking for your opinion”

She gave him a polite compliment.

Tactician.

Such a position did not original exist in the Arludea Empire’s military.

Astarot was a vagrant from another country and lost his way into this country about 10 years ago.

Apparently he was originally living at a nearby village as a [inventor]. The first princess laid eyes on his after observing him to have unique calculative abilities and his special innovative skills before moving him to the imperial capital. Ever since then, he became a supporter of a faction led by the 1st princess and is deeply related to politics and military strategies.

Conclusively speaking – Astaroth is terrifyingly talented.

He has come up with many inventions that would replace existing inventions, suggests several useful strategies, and contributed a lot to the Empire’s military. That talent did not stop only in the military; it has even appeared in all fields such as engineering, architecture, literature, music and art.

After the defeat of the Demon king, basically after Tooi Cross defeated the Demon King Hadar, this man could be described as the one that contributed the most to the Empire until today for 10 years.

With his achievements all acknowledged, the emperor gave Astaroth the title of 1st generation [Tactician].

He would not be controlled by feudal nobles and Military ranks, and would use his free status to give advice/meddle with domestic affairs – this is the special privilege given to the tactician Astorot Cougar.

(……What a messed up success story)

Laila cursed him in her mind.

Even though she grabbed the status of general at a young age of mid-twenties, she felt really irritated and pissed at Astarot’s evident joy of his status which is higher than hers when they are the almost at the same age.

Although Laila is a daughter of Arludea’s prided grand noble – The Schut family, the status which she reached by fully using her house’s authority, was easily obtained by a foreign wanderer only with his own knowledge. It’s only normal that this wasn’t amusing to her.

“Is Major general Schut attending today’s conference too?”

“Yes”

“Now this is joyful. If Major general Schut attends, it will probably end fast. In the higher ups of the Military, I think someone like you is able to keep up to my level”

So annoying.

Laila killed those emotions and made an ambiguous smile. This is the only man Laila’s knows of that would make her so disgusted even though she praised him this much.

His ultimately annoying personality and ridiculous talent.

That’s the reason why Laila is disgusted with Astarot.

“Ah. Now that I think about it, Major general Schut, how’s the 2nd generation doing?”

While looking down at his note, Astoroth asked her as if he recalled that.

2nd generation is referring to Tooi Cross who is currently living in Laila’s house.

He is being referred with titles such as [2nd generation] and [Tooi Cross’s successor].

Of course he’s the hero that defeated the Demon King – basically the same person as the 1st generation but, in order to explain about him who has not aged for various reasons; it was easier to say that he is the 2nd generation instead.

“Even though you asked how……I can only say that he is normal. Just like the 1st generation, he is living in my house. The Deity of [Violent Wind] Ryura Vega is obediently obeying him for the time being”

“That is excellent. But how should I put this……….Major general Schut really is lucky huh. Following with 10 years ago, you added a man that can use the Deities power under your control again. You’re really lucky”

“No no. My luck cannot be compared to Mister Cougar’s”

“I wish you would teach me how to get it. Aah…….but, is it a fun method that males can’t do? If that’s the case then I would like you to teach me that on the bed”

“I’ll take up that offer anytime you want. I think the newspaper reporters would be happy to write an article about the lower half condition of the Empire’s military genius tactician, Astarot Cougar”

Laila responded in a familiar manner to his sarcasms and sexual harassment but, Astorat smiled and pointed towards her before.

“You pass. That’s nice. Things won’t be interesting for me if you don’t reply as much”

He said that.

It’s pretty obvious that killing intent was boiling inside Laila’s chest.

“Well, regardless, this is really interesting. 10 years has passed since Tooi Cross disappearance and a Deity knight that self-proclaimed himself to be the 2nd generation appeared again. Let’s watch what that young man would bring us shall we”

While saying that happily, Astaroth lowered his sights to the note-like object at his hand. He then used the fingers on his other hand to touch the opened notebook many times.

“………I have been wondering this from before but, what meaning does that action holds, Mister Cougar?”

Astarot is always walking around with his small black leather notebook. Whenever he moves, whenever he talks to others, there were many times his sights were directed to that notebook. It’s not like he’s writing on it and sometimes; he would draw cross-like signs on it with his fingers.

“Hn? Aah, you don’t have to worry about this. It’s kind of like a ritual”

“A kind of ritual…….?”

“it’s a religious act told in my hometown. In that country, regardless if we are in a meal or moving around, many people would touch their [Holy book] on their hands with their fingers. It’s weird right?”

“……That’s true”

“But, the people there are not aware of this and won’t question this. That’s basically what you call a group and the same time a country---well then. While we are having this idle chat, I guess it’s about time”

After Astarot finished touching his [Holy book], he closed it and put it into his military uniform’s pocket.

“Can I expect something from you for today’s conference, Major general Schut? That’s because the top for today, is your beloved problems regarding the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}]”

As if to provoke her, or maybe as if to test her, Astarot told her.

“The Deity of [War Empress] – Zesca Aldebaran. The weapon shop built by that deity has grown to a level where he can no longer ignore it. I wonder how you and the 2nd generation Tooi Cross would settle this problem……….”

===Part 2===
“Hnaa~~ But you know Too-kun~~”

The lowest floor of the underground basement of the Imperial capital’s first prison.

Living a lazy life inside the prison, La Shii Fomalhaut let out a characteristic yawn while opening her mouth tiredly.

“I feel kind of complex if you come over to meet me this casually, just because you live nearby~~”

“It’s okay right? I feel like seeing your face”

“You know~~ I want to stay on the position of the last boss. I want Too-kun to fight, fight; fight and fight………get really really strong and would come to challenge the strongest enemy, which is me, kind of like that? That’s why, I kind of~~ feel that everything is messed up if you come over so care freely even though there’s nothing important to discuss”

“I knew you were going to think like that so I came here to play since I am free”

“Aah~~ I see~~. Now that’s one loss. Ahaha~~ I knew it, Too-kun is interesting”

After accompanied Laila to the Central HQ, the place Tooi headed to after getting off the horse carriage half-way was the Imperial capital’s 1st prison where La Shii is living in.

Originally, this place needs several piles of documents to attend to but, since Tooi is well known in the military as the [2nd Generation], he was about to enter the last floor with a face pass.

The Deity of [Time & Space] – La Shii Fomalhaut.

It might be hard to believe from her carefree actions, words and her appearance which can only as be seen as a young girl but, within the deities that possesses tremendous power, she’s the owner of a power that is on another dimension compared to them.

Everyone accepts the fact that she’s the strongest Deity within the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}].

However, since she has terrifyingly lazy personality which is on contrary to her power, she is not active now and is indulging in a life where she sleeps every day.

Days ago, Tooi and La Shii reunited after 10 years with Laila guiding him here.

He received the Zodiac from her and they made a vow to fight with a wager to have their ass licked.

Roughly speaking, they parted with a tension that is kind of like [I will definitely defeat you].

Despite all that, Tooi was currently visiting her naturally.

There was no particular reason for this.

He came over because he wanted to see her face. Able to do something this naturally is the personality of the man called Tooi Cross.

Both of them were inside a cage playing chess. There were various toys in the prison where La Shii lives because of her selfishness.

This chess game started with no particular reason but……….the contents were all crude.

“Alrighty. Okay, Too-kun, checkmate~~”

“No that’s a lie. The knight can’t move there”

“Eh~~ It can’t move like this?”

“………should be”

“Oh let it slide. My knight is a special case~~”

“If that’s the case then, I’m going for castling. Changing the position of pawn and king”

“Eh~~. What’s that, that’s cheating~~”

“It’s not cheating. I am sure that there’s a rule like this in the book. The Book is a manga called [The grand adventures of Dai]”

“Then I change position with Too-kun. Rotating the chess board~~”

“Uwaah, what are you doing, Shii. Aaah, the pieces all fell”

“It’s okay its okay. You just have to put it back out once it falls~~. Just like life”

“Don’t think everything will sound deep if you reference it to life. Oh well. Let’s make a simple fix”

A game between players that have no proper knowledge of the rules, looks boring and messed by a viewer’s perspective but, both of them were having quite fun.

The board is slowly filled with chaos by the hands of 2 novices, and finally they pilled the chess pieces high up and started playing a game similar to Shogi Jenga.

“Now that I think about it, Shii”

While moving the chess pieces without making any noise, Tooi said that.

“I heard this from Alua-chan today but, there is a Deity knight other than me. Something about a former captain of the Empire’s military”

“Hnnn? What, is Too-kun worried about that?”

“A bit”

“Too-kun really is greedy~~. Or calling you flirtatious is more proper here? Even though you have us, you still want more Deities?”

“Not that. I am just wondering about the Deity that person made a contract with. Shii, do you know that Deity?”

“Un~~. Well, I met her several times before I guess~~.

“Fuun. I see”

Tooi nodded and fell into thought.

The Deity of [Celestial poles] – Ilum Elta Sirius.

He heard a little bit of that Deity and the contractor Sachs Hayern from Laila when they were in the horse carriage----

“It means that there are people that do not fight for their desires and ambition with their lives like you and me”

Why did that Hayern quit being a captain? In response to Tooi’s simple question, Laila looked at the passing buildings outside the carriage and answered him uninterested.

“The former captain Hayern took a huge jump in success ever since he made a contract with a Deity but, he apparently thought this half-way through his success. [It’s stupid to work in the military since I have this power]”

“……………….”

“After that, Hayern ignored the voices from his surroundings and immediately quit the military. With the condition that he would stand on the front lines during important matters, he ripped off money and land from the Empire and is having a whimsical leisure vacation around the south border”

“…………Can they even overlook such a crazy story?”

“The power of the Deities is the reason why this crazy story is overlooked”

Laila spat those words out.

“To him, rather than gaining social status or authority, living a life of self-indulgence every day is more important to him”

Tooi was dumbfounded.

(…….It’s kind of like the feeling of winning 3 billion yen from lottery so it’s okay to quit the company I worked in, like that?)

It’s not like Tooi could not understand this story since he has no interest in authority too.

If he can gain money without working, then there’s no need to work. If he has no fixation with social status and his social appearance then, he can devote his life for his hobbies.

(I can understand him----but)

But, he just can’t accept this once he thinks about the money provided to him is the money contrive by the Military organization which is formed by the public’s tax money.

“………..Hey wait a second Laila. If he promised to move when there is an important matters, then what about the problem Ryura caused the other day? Isn’t that called an important matter”

“We called for him many times. But, he refused with many excuses”

“……….He had no intentions to fight right?”

“That might be the case. But, we can’t do anything. If he go on a rampage in worst case scenario and revolt to other countries then it would be a problem. Things will be fine if we can keep him satisfied with a little money. It’s a fortune that we can make a clear decision that, Sachs Hayern is a boring man with no ambition and aspiration”

In contrary to her words, Laila was disgusted.

Laila has a grand goal to reach the top of the Military and is wholeheartedly striving towards that goal without being picky about her methods, from that Laila’s perspective, she has a viewpoint that completely rejects Sachs Hayern’s lifestyle because he desire the stability of his life through authority.

“Former captain Hayern’s thoughts……..Well, it’s not like don’t understand him”

Tooi said that while looking at La Shii and quietly moving the chess piece.

“What I don’t understand is about Ilum Elta Sirius. Why would that deity make a contract with a talentless and goalless man like him…….”

“Who knows~~. It’s useless to try to think about I-tan’s actions. She’s quite a weird one after all. I don’t know what she thinks about at all~~”

“……..Look who’s talking”

“Ahaha~~. That’s true~~”

Shii laughed.

“Well, since I don’t know what I-tan thinks about, I think it will be useless no matter how much Too-kun thinks about --- so, Too-kun should only think about the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] without trying to cheat on us okay?”

La Shii slightly opened her sleepy eyes.

“It’s about time they settled information about Ze-tan right?”

“……….As usual, that’s one heck of a devil’s ear you have. Aah, that’s right. Laila is called to the Central HQ because of that matter. They are deciding the future policies in today’s conference”

“How annoying~~. Ze-tan is making a big commotion so her whereabouts is already known right~~? Then why not just head there alone, convince/fight her? Too-kun already made a contract with Ryu-ran so, you have no reason to borrow the Empire’s power anymore right~~?”

It’s true that he knows where Zesca is.

There was no need to look for her, she’s a well-known existence since she opened a company under her name and is boldly conducting a business.

If he uses Ryura’s power, it’s possible to fly straight to Zesca’s current living spot – the HQ of Aldebaran company.

But----

“I can’t do something that thoughtless”

Tooi said that”

“The [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] will remain a monster if I do that”

Right now in the Renous continent, the name Tooi Cross holds the 2 meanings of hero and criminal.

That’s because many of the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] he let go is causing trouble in the continent.

Because of that, there are many damages caused by the Deities so, the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] are also treated as criminals by many humans just like how they treat Tooi.

No - it’s much simpler to think them as this since they are not human.

And that’s, Monsters.

“…….Ahaha~~”

La Shii was a little silent but, she immediately let out her usual slow smile.

“What are you saying, Too-kun. We are, monsters. We live how we want and the humans that see that would worship us as [God~~] when it’s convenient to them, and once it becomes inconvenient they will start fearing us as [Monster~~]. That’s it~~”

“Aah, I know. But—I hate that”

If---

If Tooi cleared all the unstandardized problems the Deities are causing around the continent by borrowing the powers of the Deities he made contracts with, then what will the world think?

Tooi’s name might spread out as a hero again. The 2nd generation Tooi might be set up as a new hero.

But, the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}]’s name will still be covered in dirt.

As the [Monsters that would have done who knows what, if not for Tooi Cross] they would probably be exposed to the world as the target of fear and target.

They might be treated as monsters like now or even worse.

That’s why-----

“I want to make you all obey me by using positive means as much as possible.

“…….So that’s possible if you have Laila’s help?”

“Yeah. If Laila stands at the top of the military then the military’s thoughts will change too. Once the Military’s thoughts change, the nobles and citizens will slowly change their thoughts too”

“………..”

“Well, it’s [As much as possible] of course. I will refuse if the order is too improper and I would probably be their enemy if I don’t like it. Well, it’s not like everyone is our ally but, there are people like Laila and Alua-chan in the military that would understand----“

“----That’s your ego, Too-kun”

La Shii said that.

She made a cruel smirk as if she was scorning him.

She opened her eyes with a glare and emitted a special pressure.

“We don’t feel anything about being treated as monsters by humans. We don’t want humans to like us nor do we want to blend into human society. We are not going to stay quiet if you do something like that for your own self-satisfactions you know?”

“I know. All of this is my ego – but, I’ll have this ego pass”

Tooi did not back off from her overwhelming gaze and bravely replied back.

“I just know. There are no one the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] comfortable being treated like a monster. There might be some that hates humans but, there is no one that is happy about being hated by humans”

“…..You sound as if you know what you say”

“Let me say at least this”

Tooi said this.

“I am the man that will make you obey me once more”

After Tooi Cross left, La Shii did not move from her spot for a while.

Her eyes were closed but she wasn’t sleeping.

She was carefully pondering.

About the opponent that she faced just now with the board in between them.

About the master who she used to obey.

“……I knew it, Too-kun sure is interesting~~”

La Shii slightly opened her eyes and mumbled to herself.

“He is just so weird~~. After all, he is thinking of trying to protect us for a mere human ~~”

He’s trying to protect the inhuman Deities who are possessors of tremendous powers.

It just like helping a shy little girl who is not fitting inside the circle.

On contrary to the many of people who are desperately extending their hands for the existence known as the Deities, to use their powers for their own goals ---- he was extending his hands to the Deities.

“Is he a big shot, or a simply an idiot, or maybe………greedy to the point it’s helpless. No matter what it is, this is interesting~~. I just can’t get bored watching him – You think so to right?”

Mi-tan?

La Shii said that.

With her eyes sleepy, without being bewildered even for an instant, she naturally said that name.

The word [Tan] is La Shii’s way of respect. She would only call inhuman beings equal to her – the Deities [Tan] to show her respect to them.

“----I see that you noticed me. La Shii Fomalhaut”

A voice.

A quiet and magical voice echoed from everywhere.

Immediately, the outline of a female slowly appeared from a supposedly empty space.

It’s a petite girl in a dense colored robe.

She has arranged facial features that looked like a delicately made doll but, since both her eyes were covered with a wide eye patch, it’s impossible to see her eyes.

With that outfit and both her eyes closed, she gives off a mysterious impression to people who see her. It’s a young woman that has an otherworldly appearance that does not seem real.

She stood at where Tooi was at just now and was looking down at La Shii.

Though with that said, since both her eyes were covered by the eye patch, [Looking down] might not be the right expression here.

“Of course I noticed~~. Who do you think I am? Long time no see~~ Mi-tan”

The deity that appeared in front of La Shii was one of the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] that used to obey the same man.

The Deity of [All-knowing] – Minami Acrux

It’s the Deity that rules wisdom and the future and is told to be able to predict everything in this world.

“Or what, should I call you the 1st pope of the holy land of Sazaria?”

“Apparently, the news about Tooi coming back was true”

Minami did not answer La Shii’s question and plainly continued on.

“I came over after I heard a rumor that there’s a successor to his power but………as expected, it was Tooi in person”

“Information reaches you fast~~. Aah, iyaa……….should I be praising Laila-chi’s information scattering ability? Apparently, spreading a rumor like this was one of their plans to have our contracts reestablish”

[[File:The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses Volume 2 Non-Colour 4.png|thumb]]

“Reestablish our contract…..Fuun. How stupid”

Her tranquil yet strict voice was slightly filled with anger.

“Just when I thought he appeared after 10 years……………to think he was thinking about something like that. So the powers of us Deities, was that dear to him”

“Hnn~~, that’s a part of the reason but, that isn’t all. The reason why Too-kun wants us is not to [Use] us, it’s to [Protect] us It seems”

“Regardless which one, it’s annoyance to me. The reason why I lend my hand to Tooi 10 years ago was because I [Saw] a future with that young man defeated Hadar. Now that the existence disrupting the world’s peace is gone, there’s no reason for me to accompany his self-satisfactions”

“That’s true~~. Everything is Too-kun’s self-satisfactions. But, fully aware that everything is just self-satisfaction and working boldly serious to fulfill that self-satisfaction, that’s just Tooi”

“You look like you are enjoying this, La Shii”

Minami said that. In response, La Shii smiled.

“I am having fun~~. I am having really fun now that Too-kun came back”

An endless innocent curiosity was shown in her half-opened eyes.

Like a pure child chasing after a butterfly for fun, or, a pure child that pulled the wings of a butterfly for fun.

“Is Mi-tan happy that Too-kun came back?”

“I am happy --- obviously not”

Minami arrogantly said that. Her voice was as cold as ice.

“Like I said just now, it’s an annoyance”

“Oh how anti-social~~. Speaking of Mi-tan, you’re the '''''creator''''' of the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}]”

“………………….”

Without replying back, Minami faced her back to La Shii.

“In these 10 years, the foundation of my ideal country is about to be completed. I won’t stand quiet if he does something unnecessary”

“After all, the current Mi-tan is the highest leader of the state although it’s a small country~~. You’ve been working hard for these past 10 years too…….well, I sympathize with your motives”

“La Shii. If you meet Tooi again – Tell him, that the holy land of Sazaria is my dream country I created. If you plan on destroying my [{{Furigana|country|World}}], then I will be ruthless”

“If I remember~~”

Minami’s figure slowly disappeared deep away from the prison. The same time the sounds of the stone floor tapping disappeared, her figure was completely gone.

“Hnaa~~”

Having left alone, La Shii let out a loud yawn.

“I think I talked too much today so I am tired now~~. I think I talked for at least 1 month so, I guess I’ll sleep for 1 month”

With crawling movements, she wrapped herself in her favorite blanket and rolled on the bed. A comfortable sleeping sound started to appear after a few seconds.

This world is definitely moving thanks to the return of Tooi Cross.

Is it to settle the chaos.

Or --- Is it to destroy the stability.

What is the Deity of [Time & Space] La Shii Fomalhaut, thinking about the situation with Tooi and the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}], or maybe she’s not thinking of anything.

The only thing that’s certain is that her sleeping face is extremely cute.

===Part 3===
Right when Tooi came back to the Schut house, the scene he saw was Laila face flat onto her office table which is suitable with the 4 letter word *Slump*.

“………Hey, Alua-chan? What’s going on here?”

“Onee-chan has been like this ever since she got back……..someone she disliked attended today’s conference and that’s the reason why she got tired. Apparently, she got involved with that person one way or another during the conference.”

“Fuuun? There’s someone Laila dislike? There are a lot of people that’s apparently disliking Laila though…….Ouch”

A pen thrown over from the office table hit his head. Even though she is tired, it’s so like Laila to not miss insults towards her.

Alua continued explaining to Tooi who was patting his head.

“Does Tooi Onii-chan know of Astarot Cougar-san?”

“I heard of his name only. He’s the only tactician of the Empire if I am correct”

That’s the name he heard several times when he walked in the city.

It’s a name he does not know when he was summoned to another world last time but – after 10 years, he became so famous that there’s no one in the imperial capital that does not know of his name.

“Laila. Do you dislike him?”

Laila slightly nodded when he asked her.

“Why do you dislike him?”

“…….because he’s annoying”

Laila quietly insulted him before closing her mouth. Looks like her mental state was driven to the corner. Just what kind of man is Astarot Cougar to weaken Laila who has an extremely thick skin and is mentally brash, to this extent.

“Alua-chan, is he really that annoying?”

“Who knows………I don’t often talk to him. Judging by his achievements, he is an excellent person though. His efforts are shown in several other fields other than being a Tactician. For example……….oh yeah, the motorbike was developed under Cougar-san’s idea”

The motorbike is a vehicle newly developed in the Imperial capital a few years ago.

The shape is extremely similar to the motorbike in Tooi’s previous world. But since the fuel is Spirit energy and not gasoline, only people who are skilled in Spirit tech can use it and what’s more since it’s expensive, it’s still not spread out to the public.

“What’s next……..his activities as a writer are magnificent. He brought out many best sellers”

“Hee, it’s an amazing guy then”

“He also wrote many novels with Tooi Onii-chan as the main character. Rather, Cougar-san was the first person who started writing about Tooi Onii-chan and the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] bringing it to the spotlight. So basically, he’s the instigator of the Tooi Cross fad in recent years”

It seems that the existence of [Tyrant Slayer] who defeated the Demon king was a hot topic for all the literature lovers and many creations with Tooi as the theme was published within these 10 years.

Apparently, Astarot Cougar was the pioneer of that fad.

(………….Should I feel happy or embarrassed or disappointed)

Tooi felt complex.

Since the novel with him as the main character was written interesting to the point it became a best seller, well he feels blessed to be the inspiration for tit but------Don’t make me the model by your own accord, rather give me a little bit of the money; he felt that.

Negative and positive about the talented man, was mixing inside Tooi but,

“His latest creation is an original series with setting of Tooi Cross as a female----“

“So that’s the bastard who wrote the female version of me!?”

The moment the impactful truth was confirmed, his heart was immediately colored in hostility.

“I understand Tooi Onii-chan’s feelings. At first even I felt, what’s with this disgusting setting? But when I tried reading it, it was unexpectedly interesting----“

“I am the person in concern so I feel even sicker! Forget that, Alua-chan………are you reading it?”

“I am a big fan of Cougar-san after all. I’ve read all of his works”

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Mufuun* Alua puffed her chest proudly.

Now that she mentioned it, she’s a [Tooi Cross] maniac. She’s really knowledgeable about pictures and literature related to Tooi.

“There are many novels with Tooi Onii-chan as the main character but………..within them, I like Cougar-sensei’s works the best. How should I put this, it feels like he understand Tooi Onii-chan the best”

“……….a guy that turned me into a girl?”

“N-no, it’s not something surface like that, it’s more like, how he written Tooi Onii-chan’s deep view point and views of life, was very good and-----“

“---Don’t read that guy’s book”

An extremely unhappy voice.

Laila finally raised her body from the desk and glared at Alua.

“Books written by a disgusting man like that are obviously rubbish”

“Mu……….don’t say that, Onee-chan. A writer’s personality is not related to how interesting the product becomes”

Alua defended her favorite author but, she has no intentions to defend the writer’s personality.

“So, how’s today’s conference, Laila? Did we get permission to raid Aldebaran company?”

After Tooi asked her, the revived Laila silently nodded.

“We finally settled it. Tooi, Alua. I’ll have you two leave for Istar tomorrow or as soon as possible”

Istar is the name of a village located at the northern side of the Empire.

It’s the village closest to Aldebaran’s company HQ.

“It became clear that the weapons from [Wings of crimson light] were supplied from that company. The higher ups finally decided to lift their ass”

The military fundamentally don’t intervene with businesses with the civilians. Of course, regardless of how many collusions and consultations are done, they require a great cause to publically intervene.

Even if it’s a weapon shop created by an inhuman Deity, if there are customers paying and the business is done legally then------Tooi, who’s affiliated to the Empire’s military by name, can’t do anything to interfere.

The situation is different if the company is assisting the rebellion which is threatening the country.

“The reason why we got permission…….is it perhaps the commotion that occurred during the morning?”

“Good guess. That’s right. It’s thanks to a certain someone doing a good job catching the people from the [Wings of crimson light] that escaped the guards”

“Heeeh. I guess we have to thank that certain someone huh”

“………Eh? Eh? Eh? Wha-what does that mean?”

Tooi made a simple explanation because a question was brought out beside him.

“Alua-chan. How did the people escape the guards this morning?”

“That’s………I heard that they pulled out their assassination tool hidden in their stomach and use it as a medium to activate their [Ray Alma] when the guards were not paying attention and scattered into the city………..”

“Yes, that’s correct. Changing questions --- Can Alua-chan activate the [Ray Alma] with an assassination tool?”

“…..Ah”

Alua finally noticed.

A weapon is definitely needed to be used as a medium to activate the [Ray Alma].

Choosing the medium requires many important factors such as the Spirit’s compatibility and the practitioner’s skills.

The weapon’s material and killing factors are of course important but, factors other than the practicality like the designs such as the shape and ornaments are important too.

It’s preferred if the weapon is more solemn, splendor, and elegant.

If the weapon possesses both efficiency and appearance, it will be able to bring out the Spirit’s maximum power and it’s possible to materialize a stronger [Ray Alma].

However on the other hand, weapons focused on the design – for example assassination tools focused mainly on concealment; many Spirits do not like them and it’s not suited for the [Ray Alma].

“I just thought they were quite skilled but……”

“That possibility is there but, judging by the [Wind] that touched them, they were not a big deal. Which means, there is only one possibility. The medium they used – even though it’s a lame looking assassination tool, it’s still a weapon that still has [Class]”

It’s an impossible territory to reach no matter how much the human tries to reach.

But, if it’s Zesca who is crowned with the name [Weapon Empress], it’s possible for her to create weapons that transcend human knowledge.

“The captured people have not spilled the beans but…….it’s a matter of time now. If that’s the case, it’s better if you all move as fast as possible. A weapon shop that does not choose it’s customers, is no different to a criminal organization to the country”

Laila said it as if to give up.

Tooi raised his face and looked over to the Arludea Empire’s map decorated in the room.

“Istar huh………..It’s probably easy to live there in this season”

“Tooi Onii-chan, you went to Istar before?”

“Uun. But, I traveled over there many times around that northern section. Ah, oh yeah. Since we are going to the north, I guess I’ll show up in the Ifnatus”

Tooi thought that and said it.

Ifnatus.

They are skilled with fighting together with fire Spirits to confront evil Spirits ever since the age of old and would take on occupations such as mercenaries. They are a genuine war tribe filled almost with warriors with excellent battle strength.

The warriors of Ifnatus would fight with special secret spells that only their tribes can use. They would not bring any weapons into the battlefield and would obliterate their enemies with unique techniques; the name Ifnatus is even well known to other countries because of that.

Fighting with heavily guarded secret spells, their battle skills were so powerful that they were authorized to govern themselves even though the village is within Arludea Empire.

The warriors of Ifnatus gave many results even during the Demon king suppression 10 years ago.

“I only went there 2 or 3 times but, I am quite fond of that village. It’s filled with big-hearted and kind people there”

When Tooi went to Ifnatus village, he was given a warm welcome by the prideful warriors there as the Deity knight fighting the Demon king.

He experienced many joint battles with the village warriors when fighting the Demon king’s army.

Even within them – there was one man that has specially remained in his memories.

The Strongest Warrior, who is given the title [Hero] by the chiefs of Ifnatus------

“It’s been 10 years. The children that I used to play with probably grown to my age……Eh?”

After talking about his past memories, Tooi immediately noticed a weird change.

Before he knew it, the room was filled with an indescribable nervousness. Laila was looking down in sorrow and Alua was biting her lips while her shoulders were slightly trembling.

“E-ermm………wha-what happened to you two…..?”

Even though he asked, the heavy silence continued for a while longer.

Soon – Laila opened her mouth.

“Ifnatus was destroyed”

It was a very cold tone.

He can’t feel any warmth from it. It was too plain that, it sounds like a word citation rather than calling it a sentence.

“Eh………What do you mean by destroyed…………”

“3 years ago, the village of Ifnatus officially disappeared. It’s not like there were no survivors but, most of them are dead”

“……..What in the world”

“Internal conflict”

“Internal, conflict……”

“The Empire’s and Ifnatus’s opinions split regarding the rewards from the war with the Demon king 10 years ago. The discussions slowly turned into chaos; both sides were completely antagonizing each other when a group of Ifnatus extremist started terrorizing a government facility. Our goals was to suppress them at first but, it was hard continuing to fight strong Ifnatus warriors, also, since Arludea had no spare strength to continue an unpredictable attritional war – 3 years ago, the Empire Military used its full power, plotted to purge Ifnatus, and annihilated the village”

Laila said it emotionless like she’s reading from a text book.

(……….There’s no longer, a, Ifnatus……..?)

It’s a truth that’s very hard to swallow.

There was a 10 year void that Tooi was not in this world – that is enough time for an internal conflict to occur and end.

“………You’ve got to be kidding, Laila. Something like Ifnatus is destroyed, is that even possible? That village has the strength of a small country you know?”

Ifnatus can be compared to a small scale autonomous region but, it holds many strong warriors.

In the first place, it’s because that using force and the military was too risky that Ifnatus was granted the rights to govern themselves in the Empire.

That’s why; Tooi could not believe the reason why the Empire decided to annihilate them, and the fact that it was actually annihilated.

More importantly----

“…….[Hero]. Yeah, the [Hero]. He should be in Ifnatus right? There’s no way he would quietly let it get annihilated if he’s there”

The memory that resurfaced in his mind was a young man who ran together with him in a battle-filled world 1 year ago.

With the title [Hero] bestowed to him, that Ifnatus warrior is a powerful warrior in a higher class compared to even the warriors of Ifnatus; his strength could even compare to Tooi who commanded the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}].

He’s a prideful warrior loved by everyone in Ifnatus.

To Tooi, the young man who had his back several times, who ran together with him in the battlefield which was side by side with death, was the only existence in this world that he would call [War comrade].

“Him – What was Gilfrain doing!?”

Laila closed her eyes as if to bear with Tooi’s angry shout.

“………..Gilfrain Dulk Lana Merjedra Ifnis”

Laila then slowly opened her eyes.

A cold glint was in her eyes as expected.

“Gilfrain betrayed Ifnatus”

===Part 4===
Around the Lepia lake south of Arludea Empire.

That area has a warm climate throughout the year and is famous resort area. Lines of resort houses by nobles were built at the lake shore and there’s an entertainment street developed nearby.

A little further away from the best line up of giant luxurious houses, there’s an isolated house.

It’s the house of the former captain of the Empire – Sachs Hayern.

Turning 30 this year, he is a [Government servant] by name but is actually [Unemployed], and is living only by the money provided periodically by the Empire. That lifestyle was not like its luxurious nor was it modest; it’s probably the same standard of living as the citizens living in the Imperial capital.

If there are days where he would sleep the whole day, there would be days where he would spend his time on movies or reading. If there are times he went fishing or hunting, then there are days where he would continuously head to the entertainment street at night.

His lifestyle was not as prosper as a grand noble but it was not to the point where he is poor like commoner.

Sachs enjoyed indulging in that lifestyle.

While being a Deity knight which is historically rare, he was not giving his best for the country, he did not need to cause a revolution in the world and was spending his days idly. In a sense, this is a loss in human resource and might actually be a waste but, he realized that being driven by that sense of duty is the root of all evil in recent years.

Originally a normal solder, he suddenly reached the title of Captain immediately since he was chosen by a Deity.

Proportionate to the status and authority, his responsibilities, restraints and more importantly work load increased.

Sachs felt that this boring lifestyle was stupid and chose his current leisure and carefree life. If he threw away his sense of justice and greed for prestige, this life was the best and he did not need to be troubled by money or time.

Tentatively, he gained periodically income by adding a condition of [I will work anytime the Empire demands me to] but, he can play if off by tricking them with frivolous objections. If someday, his income was cut off, then all he has to do is to leave to another country. Any country would welcome him since he is a Deity knight.

He does not need to aim high, he was not being chased by time, and he is living his days in a slightly extravagant way.

That’s the shape of happiness that the man Sachs Hayern thought up – and currently, he is living in the best happiness that he desired.

And tonight-----

Sachs Hayern died in his house’s bedroom.

His corpse tumbled on the floor of the spacious bedroom.

No – It’s more like charcoal instead of calling it a corpse.

Of course for his hairs and clothes, his flesh and bones were even scorched up. There were no traces of how he looked when he was alive. Most of his body was melted down and a part was turned into ash barely maintaining its shape.

His death was in an instant.

He did not even feel that he was [Dead]. He was scorched to death without any torture while he was imagining the events that he would have with the prostitute that is set to come to his house.

Just how high must the temperature be to cause this kind of phenomenon?

“ --- Fumu. The human species is unexpectedly fragile”

That dull and uninteresting voice was not particularly interested or filled with emotions.

The person standing at the corner of the bed room, mumbled without any care while moving towards the window side. During that, Sachs Hayern who turned into charcoal was brutally stepped on but, the person was not particularly bothered by it.

A white slender arm opened the window. The night wind blowing from outside, scattered the charcoal powder which was caused because it got stepped on.

The person in the room was exposed pale moon light.

It had long black hair flowing down the back, and a red outfit was covering its whole body.

It has the facial features of a neuter beauty, it does not look like a young man but it does not look like a young woman either. There were no emotions on her expression and it had a somewhat doll-like atmosphere.

The Deity of [Celestial Pole] – Ilum Elta Sirius.<ref group ="2B">(“It” will be used since the gender is not confirmed (PS: Just imagine that she’s female if you want. If you prefer male then, go ahead))</ref>

Right now, after scorching its master whom it made a contract with to death, the Deity stared at the moon with an unbelievable calm attitude.

“This man was a failure. I did not think that he would be this boring. Since I went through all that trouble to make a contract with you, you should have played something more fun”

Ilum said that in a bored manner.

“So picking someone randomly is a failure. I thought all humans are the same but, unexpectedly, each individual have their own respective personalities. Now then, I hope the next one would be a more amusing one”

While mumbling to itself plainly, Ilum took a step out the window.

“Wait for me – Tooi Cross”

After announcing it towards the moon, the Deity melted into the night and disappeared.

The gentle breeze blows into the room and left a trail of ashes.

Counting Tooi Cross who is a standard exception – Sach Hayern was the only Deity knight in the current Empire.

The curtains of his blissful life suddenly were closed tonight.

It was too fast and was a really sad last act.

However, based on the people’s perspective, he - Sach Hayern who turned into ash believing his [Happiness], died without feeling fear or pain and he did not even need to prepare for his death; in a sense, he might be the happiest man.

<noinclude>
==Translation Notes and References==
<references group="2B" />
{{SimpleNav|e=7}}
</noinclude>

The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses:Volume 1 Chapter 7

2015-11-12T07:50:03Z

Gamerdude13: alaso -> also

==Chapter 7: The Deity of [Violent Wind]==

===Part 1===
The wind was crying.

The wind was not flowing properly, it was clashing everywhere, making creaking, causing twisters and, the wind blew around in rage while making buzzing around like creating a warped spiral.

The whirlwind was screaming.

The Deity of [Violent Wind]---Ryura Vega.

Her mental image turned into raging winds and controlled the world.

“…………………”

Ryura silently descended to the Fior plains.

There were no emotions in her expression. She was covered with a snharp air that would slice apart anything that touches her and her eyes were as cold as ice.

(……….looks like we have to fight again)

She suppressed the hesitation and discord rising inside her.

She had to accomplish her role like a soldier while being emotionless like a doll.

The information of a troop consisting of 3000 spirit knights from the Empire, has already reached her ears.

No matter if it’s Ryura, having to take on that force would be tough for her.

She has no leisure to control the battlefield anymore. It’s possible that she would trip over if she’s considerate about the opponent and hold her strength back so that there won’t be any deaths.

If she doesn’t fight seriously then, there’s enough risk of losing.

(But, I have no choice but to fight. In order to protect this land---)

Ryura closed her eyes, concentrated her consciousness and gathered the surrounding Ether. The wind then covered her body and turned into glowing armors.

After changing to her battle-mode, Ryura swung the rapier held with one hand, causing a great tremor in the air and it played a sound similar to a howl of a wind beast.

As if they were lured by the voices of the wind, the Spirits living in the land appeared.

In order to attack an army of 3000, Ryura made flawless preparations with her as the center.

Soon----the time for war will come.

The wind blowing in the plains, told her about the enemy she had to defeat.

“-----Eh?”

After lifting her face because of the weird feeling she got from the wind’s tale-------she was able to confirm her enemy’s appearance.

There were only 2 humans there.

One of them was a girl in a military uniform. Her age is about 15. She has a rapier on one hand while a dagger on the other. There was slight presence of thunder covering her equipment’s. She’s probably a Spirit knight that uses thunder attribute Spirits to fight.

The other one was-----

“Tooi…………..”

Ryura opened her eyes wide and let out those words.

It was her previous master that was walking together with the military clothed girl.

Tooi and the other girl walked for a while longer before stopping. Only 2 people were confronting the army that Ryura was controlling.

“Why are you here………….”

“You thought 3000 Spirit knights were coming weren’t you?”

“Uh”

“…………seeing that reaction, I guessed correct”

Tooi narrowed her eyes in loneliness.

“I knew it; you have been communicating with the Lectar Republic”

“…………”

“Lectar was also told that the Spirit Knight brigade will be moving out today. Having heard that, you planned on attacking the Empire’s military here right? But well, rest assured. The 3000 Spirit knights’ brigade----was a lie. The Empire gave Lectar false information”

Tooi easily said that.

“Of course, there was no credibility if it’s just false information so there was a lot of work needed to be done. In order to trick the eyes of Lectar, we really had about 3000 military personals gather at a nearby city but, all of them were privates or apprentices, about that level. Apparently they gathered there as military exercise”

'''''Those matters are outside of my control so I don’t know much of it''''', Tooi said that. After that, his expression turned sorrowful and he slightly lowered his head.

“……….I am sorry for tricking you. I feel that you will never meet me again unless I do something like this”

That’s------exactly correct.

Ryura planned to never meet Tooi ever again. With the chance meeting at the spring fountain as the last, she planned to never talk to him ever again.

If she didn’t do that then-----her determination will dull down.

As if he was speaking to himself, Tooi continued talking towards Ryura who was not saying anything.

“The idea that you were communicating with Lectar………….we were having a tough time reaching that. You have no reason to obey after all. I thought they had some kind of weakness against you but, I could not imagine what that weakness was-----but, I finally understood”

Tooi said it.

He did it while looking at Ryura with a passionate gaze.

“It was all for me”

“…………..”

“I remember now………Ryura’s Shrine of [Violent Wind]. The scenery we saw together at the balcony there. Everything in the scenery we saw was glowing-------and this Fior region was included inside too. This region’s plain, river, forest-------everything here, a part of the scenery I loved was burdening you”

The door of memories inside Ryura’s heart opened.

A page of an ended story.

The Shrine of [Violent Wind].

The balcony at the highest floor.

The beautiful scenery she was looking at together with the master she acknowledged.

A scenery that no one else is able to witness other than Tooi and Ryura.

A scenery that only belongs to them.

A time that only belongs to them.

The scenery they saw at that time where the whole world was glowing, was the symbol of the golden days representing the battlefields Tooi Cross and Ryura Vega went through together-----

“………..That is correct”

Ryura nodded powerlessly.

“I, wanted to protect…….the scenery that you said was [Beautiful]”

===Part 2===
1 month ago. In Laila’s office.

“……It’s quite a romantic story”

After Tooi told them about Ryura Vega’s goal (Prediction), Alua made a somewhat entranced expression.

“……..Tooi. it’s going to be embarrassing if you make a mistake on this”

“I-it’s alright, I think”

It’s true that if he get this wrong, then he would be considered as a crazy self-conscious bastard but-----his speculations should be correct.

The Ryura Vega knew, would move for this kind of goals.

She is born gentle, and has a kind of mature personality but, on the contrary, she’s a Deity with a maiden-like romanticist side to her as well.

“Well, if the reason why Ryura Vega is that fixed on Fior region is according to what Tooi said…………..aah, I see. I can see the logic behind this now”

Laila finished thinking after a few seconds and started explaining her reasoning after some fixes.

“Most probably, a deal of [If you continue attacking the Empire military then, we will not agricultural cultivate this land] was done between the Lectar military and Ryura Vega. For the scenery from the shrine, Ryura had no choice but to listen to orders because she wants to preserve the nature in Fior”

“Eh? But, Onee-chan. You said Lectar had no plans to cultivate Fior just now………….”

“Yes. This is basically a threat. Ryura Vega is a Deity that has been living alone without human interactions until she met Tooi. She is ignorant on human agricultural techniques. She probably has no knowledge on whether or not that region is suitable for agriculture. In the first place, she probably has no clue where the Lectar and Empire are located on the border. Using her lack of knowledge, the Lectar military made up a fake story about agricultural cultivation and wanted to use Ryura Vega”

“……..bu-but, why did Ryura Vega listen to the threat? If she wants to protect Fior then she should ignore the demands from Lectar and just fight them. Even if they really went through the agricultural cultivation, that Deity can easily stop them right?”

“That’s because Ryura, hates doing that, Alua-chan”

Tooi interrupted.

“She’s……..a kind one after all. She might not be knowledgeable about agricultural techniques but, she understands that agriculture work and agricultural land is important to humans. That’s why, since she is going to be disturbing Lectar’s agricultural cultivation because of her selfishness, she should have thought about paying something back in return……..ahh, but, I see------“

Tooi mumbled.

His voice was quiet but it was certainly oozing with anger.

“Lectar……….was using Ryura’s kindness huh”

Instantly------Alua, who was standing beside Tooi, twitched her body. Apparently, her body froze up after she was stolen away by his deep dark eyes.

Laila placed her hands on her head.

“Anyways, I now have a speculation on why the Lectar was so fixed on making us increase our personals. Their aim is probably the decline of the Empire’s national power”

“The decline of national power………………..”

“If we mobilize our soldiers several times to take on Ryura Vega, we would naturally, lose man power and we will have financial problems. But, we won’t be able to take down that Deity if we are stingy with our forces because of that reason. Which means, the Empire will sooner or later have no choice but to move a big-scale army to Lectar to maintain our reputation”

“And, that’s what Laila did”

“We would probably fall into this situation sooner or later even if I don’t say it. That’s because the diplomat Gaien, would not lend his ears to any revisions to the pact or allow replacement of other regions, and would constantly request for the increase of soldiers”

“I see. Which means, it’s their aim to make several thousands of soldiers to fight Ryura huh”

Money is needed to move soldiers and damages will occur if the soldier fights.

The national treasury would be pressured just by moving an army consisting thousands of Spirit knights; this is a double-edge sword.

What’s worse, the Empire would not gain any land or money in this fight after defeating Ryura. That’s because the Fior Region already belongs to the Lectar region.

Which means, the enemies plan had succeeded the moment we mobilized our Spirit knights---Tooi thought that.

“No”

Laila swung her head heavily.

“It won’t end there. If I was in their position then-----I will crush them down to bits”

She then lifted the edge of her mouth, making a smile of a crafty tactician.

“Mobilize the Spirit knight brigade and make them fight Ryura Vega. They don’t know who will win but, it’s clear that both sides will suffer great damages. Right when the Spirit knight brigade and Ryura Vega reach their limit of exhaustion, they would move a large army to destroy both sides”

“Wha”

Tooi shouted in reflex.

“Is that even allowed?”

“T-that’s right Onee-chan! That’s completely an act of unethical military actions!”

“Fior Region currently belongs to Lectar region by paper. It won’t be any problem if they move their own shoulders within their own land. If they use the [We judge the Empire to be insufficient to handle this so we will use our own army to take down the Deity] card then, it’s enough reason for them to do this. No matter how many of our soldiers gets killed, all they have to do is say that they were all killed by Ryura Vega”

“……We seriously got profited off while we fought huh”

Tooi got passed his anger and had no choice but to admire it.

He had to admire the Lectar’s military who gave careful thought to this.

And, also to Laila’s cleverness for noticing this.

“As a result, the Empire will lose many skilled Spirit knights, and the national strength will decline with precious assets and military forces gone. Once that happens…………we will become good prey for Lectar and the surrounding great forces”

10 years ago, the countries in the continent formed an alliance and joined forces to defeat the great evil known as the [Demon King].

Even though that’s how things started, it’s not impossible that the relationship formed by the alliance will become a mere shell after time passed. Every country are constantly interested in the land and resources of other countries, and were probably scheming to chip off their opponents fangs once they get their chance to do it.

“Fuun. Although they are the enemy, Bravos to them. They sure made a cunning and effective plan……but, victory is with us. It’s possible to overturn their plans and steal a march on them. We have a special secret weapon with us”

Laila then looked over to Tooi with a provoking gaze.

“They don’t know that Tooi Cross has returned to this world”

===Part 3===
“I, wanted to protect…….the scenery that you said was [Beautiful]”

Tooi felt great pain after he saw Ryura sad expression.

The anger towards Lectar Republic for using her and the guilt that far surpasses that anger was filling his chest.

“10 years ago……Tooi went back to your own world after defeating Hadar. You did not listen to me…….even after I stopped you”

“…………..”

“I will not blame you for that. I know that you’ve been fighting hard to go back to your own world from the start. I knew it…………that should be it but, I lost myself on the spot”

Ryura said that before making a fleeting self-mocking smile.

“……..This is probably fate. Everything went back to its original state. Tooi returned to your own word, I live in my own Shrine again as the Deity of [Violent Wind]”

'''''It couldn’t be helped'''''.

Ryura said that as if she was saying this to herself.

“I could not get to live with you. That’s because, we live in different worlds”

They lived in different worlds.

A resident from a different world.

A summon, from another world.

“That’s why…..i…..wanted to protect……the scenery that you said you loved……the world that we saw together. I don’t want anyone defiling it. I only wanted to remember you…….while looking at that scenery covered by dusk and dawn from my shrine“

Ryura said this.

With eyes filled with overflowing affections, she said it with a trembling voice which sounded as if she was about to cry.

“I, have no other choice but to be with the you from my memories……..”

“Ryura………”

Several unbearable feelings started filling up and it feels as if his heart was about to be torn apart.

He thought he was hated.

He thought that it can’t be helped if he’s hated.

He thought that he was in a position where he could not complain anything at all even if he was showered with abusive insults because of his one-sided abandonment of the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}].

(But even after all that, Ryura was still----)

He was about to be crushed by the guilt and regret.

But---

“Thank you”

The first phrase that came out was his appreciation.

“…………you don’t need to thank me. This is just my selfishness”

In a somewhat slovenly manner, Ryura said that powerlessly.

“Did you listen to the Lectar’s military because of your personal selfishness?”

“…….Yes. They stopped the development of their civilization and canceled their agricultural cultivation which is able to help starving people, just because of my greed. It’s only normal………to repay this much”

“That’s wrong. Ryura”

Tooi clenched his fist, and squeezed those words out.

“Lectar had no intentions to use this place as an agricultural land at all”

“………Eh?”

“The land in Fior is not suited for agriculture. With the Empire’s and Lectar’s cultivation technique, the cultivation and maintenance cost more than the benefits gained by the agricultural land”

“…………….”

“You understand now, Ryura? You……got tricked. You’ve been used for their cause. Lectar’s military aim is to reduce the Empire’s military strength by using you”

Having presented a harsh reality, Ryura was opening her eyes wide while in loss of words.

But----

“…….aah, is that so”

After a few seconds, she made an expression as if she got over something.

“”Is that so”, wait…….don’t tell me, you knew?”

“No. But…….i knew that humans would never tell me the truth from the start. At times we are feared as monsters, at times we are worshiped as gods; we are unreasonable beings far from the realms of humans after all. It’s a usual occurrence that we are used for the convenience of humans, Tooi. Just like how it went with you”

“uh!”

Tooi gasped when he saw that frozen gaze.

“While saying that you love this world with your mouth………you picked your own world in the end”

“No. I----“

“No matter what it is………the action I have to take now will not change. I will protect this land, the scenery seen from my shrine. In order to protect the Tooi of my memories, I will treat you as my enemy”

The light of calm hostility was inside the Deity’s eyes.

As if to respond to that, the Spirits under her command instantly growled and directed their body weight towards their front legs.

Dog, lion, wolf, tiger……many of the Spirits living in the forest took those forms and attacked them all at once under Ryura’s orders.

“---Damn it”

The both of them immediately retreated and ran away from the Spirits who are pointing their fangs at them.

“Alua-chan”

“Yes!”

After making a strong nod, she raised her Rapier and dagger she held forward.

“Come here, Tritnix”

Responding to her call, a thunder coated lion manifested beside her.

The lion instantly exchanged gazes with its master and immediately hopped onto Alua’s Rapier.

[{{Furigana|Spirit Equipment|Ray Alma}}]

With the weapon as its medium, the Spirit covered its master as armors and exteriors. The amor on her shoulders and arms that were covered with raging sparks were glowing brightly.

Formation speed and stability.

They had a drastic change compared to 1 month ago.

“Just like what we planned, I’ll leave the Spirits to you. Can you do it?”

“It’s okay! I trained hard for 1 month for this day!”

After Alua swung down her Rapier, the lighting gushed forward violently.

It fell onto the group of rampaging Spirits as if it was guided. However, the animals instantly dodged it after noticing its presence maybe because of their pure instinct.

The lightning did not hit its target and scattered everywhere after hitting the ground.

However-----

(Okay, just according to plan. Nice work, Alua-chan)

Tooi did not look panicked and Alua took the next steep calmly.

The lightning that pierced into the ground scattered in all directions mercilessly but, its glow did not dim down but instead it kept getting stronger and stronger.

While repeatedly firing lightning, she kept increasing the range.

It was not just a simple scatter, it’s a spark explosion.

“---Haaaaaa!”

Responding to Alua’s voice, the lighting expanded explosively while, *KAAA*causing a bright flash. With a brightness that does not allow the eye even open, the strong light temporarily filled the space.

Yes.

Their goal was a [Flashbang].

Of course for the animals, even Ryura braced herself and covered her eyes with her hands from the sudden blast.

It’s too short to call this a chance, it’s basically a slight error in calculations.

Taking that chance, Tooi ran.

She is completely blinded because she covered her eyes beforehand. He used the Spirit techs he gained 1 year ago and sprinted in the plains by borrowing the powers of the primitive Spirits dwelling in the land.

Even though he was back in his own world, he did not neglect the training which was available for him.

[[File:The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses Volume 1 Non-Colour 8.png|thumb]]

And in this 1 month, together with Alua, Tooi continued his Spirit tech training to regain his senses in the battlefield.

In terms of physical abilities, he has trained it to the point where he is extremely close to his condition when he was called the [Tyrant Slayer].

(………..Ryura)

Of course, no matter how much he personally trains, there’s no way Tooi would reach Ryura Vega in his current state. He has the [Zodiac] which he received from La Shii on his hips but, the legendary sword is just a decoration since he is missing his contract deities.

Currently, Tooi has no means to defeat Ryura. No, forget defeating her, he does not even have the means to defend her attack. In terms of inherent strengths, it’s the deference of an ant and an elephant.

However, Tooi was not feeling any sense of danger towards that.

(There’s no problem. It’s not like I am here to defeat Ryura)

Tooi ran towards her without any hesitation.

Ryura was in view when he first came over to this world.

Her voice was in reachable distance when he met her again at the spring near the Shrine.

That’s why.

It’s time for a distance where his hands could reach her—

“….. Tooi”

Ryura regained her composure from the flash bit the moment she looked over to him to confirm, they were already 200 meter in distance.

He was able to get close in one go thanks to Alua’s flashbang but, on the bad side, he was completely inside his opponent’s firing range.

(It’s okay. There’s nothing to worry)

Tooi believed.

Not towards himself. It was towards his opponent.

He believed Ryura without hesitation that she would not attack him.

(The thing the current powerless me can do now…….is to believe)

He can’t believe his own strength but, he can believe his comrades.

If it’s the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}] which are feared by everyone and is told to be the strongest Deity army.

“How can I believe someone……if I can’t believe my comrades…….!”

He strongly kicked the ground.

“Ryuraaaa----!”

Tooi accelerated and closed the distance.

He wasn’t attacking or defending, he extended his arms to her as he was seeking her.

He was completely oblivious to his opponent’s attacks and counters. There were no thoughts to counter back inside his head at all.

It’s not called aimless, its trust.

It’s not reckless, it’s bravery.

With his absolute trust towards his comrade and a firm bravery held in his heart, Tooi took a step towards Ryura Vega.

When he stepped in, he saw Ryura’s sword which was covered with a strong tornado there.

“Haaaaaa!”

“Guwaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

He kind of took a strong blow.

It was a really really strong blow.

The moment Ryura swung down her sword with a loud shout, the tornado covering the sword attacked Tooi’s body.

He was blown away like a scrap paper since he was not cautious at all. He pulled out the short sword on his hips by reflex and tilted forward but, it was completely meaningless.

“Gofuu”

Even though he fell to the ground, his momentum did not drop and he continued rolling down like a tumble weed from classical western cow-boy movies. By the time he was able to raise his body, Ryura looked over to him with a cold gaze.

“……….Tooi. Err……..what was that?”

“No well……yeah. How should I put this, I was kind of drunk with the “I must believe my comrades” stuff”

While mumbling those words, Tooi stood up.

“But well, I am glad I believed. I was not wrong”

He took a direct hit but, the damage was little. Tooi would be minced up by now if Ryura was serous.

With the fact that she was holding back and having it exposed to her opponent, Ryura made a sour face but, she soon glared at Tooi with a sharp gaze.

“I will be serious next”

“I was serious from the start”

Tooi undauntedly look at his opponent with a strong gaze.

“I will keep on extending my hands until you accept my hands”

Tooi took on a start dash posture again but, this happened at this moment,

“Ryura-san!”

Maybe this was to stop Tooi’s reckless charge, Alua, who was taking on the Spirits, shouted at the Deity.

“Please listen! It’s true that……..Tooi Onii-chan, chose his own world instead of this world 10 years ago. But, Tooi Onii-chan had something he had to do! It was not because he wanted to get rid of you all!”

Alua continued shouting as if to release everything.

“Also, didn’t Tooi Onii-chan come back to this world, and is here! He wants to start all over again with you all! So----“

Her life risking appeal was interrupted by the roaring wind.

Although it wasn’t as strong as what Tooi took, Alua ended up being pushed back after receiving a direct hit from the wind. She somehow managed to block it with the [{{Furigana|Spirit Equipment|Ray Alma}}] she materialized but, her face was covered with fear.

Apparently, she understood the absolute difference of their strength by that attack.

Alua knew it too.

That, the attack she barely blocked with the [{{Furigana|Spirit Equipment|Ray Alma}}] she polished to its maximum potential, was just a bug swiping [Breeze] to Ryura.

“Alua-chan!”

Tooi tried running over to her but----

A sword was swung down in front of him next.

“------uh!?”

He dodged the slash with perfect timing.

Ryura was standing in front of him with her sword prepared. She took only an instant to cover the distance which Tooi desperately tried to close in.

This unreasonable state is because ways of a Deity.

The difference was pure nonsense.

“That girl made some fair points”

While plainly saying that, Ryura swung her sword with a beautiful form.

There’s no way he could take it.

That’s because he would not be able to block the sword of wind coated on her sword even if he blocked her sword.

It’s because Tooi used that power freely before that he was able to perform evasive measures based on his experience but, it would turn out really difficult if he keeps on dodging.

“It’s true that Tooi came back to this world. It’s probably true that……he came back thinking about us. But, we don’t know whether if he would go back to his old world”

Ryura looked at Tooi with a criticizing gaze.

“Would you go back if there’s something you have to do happen again?”

“That’s……”

He stumbled on his worlds.

In this other world summon, Tooi came over to this world with the intentions to bury his bones here.

He felt that this world was more attractive compared to there and felt a reason for existing here.

But----

He might want to go back if [Something] happens over there.

Even though he lost his only family, there were other people that took care of him too. There were many he hated but, there were a small bunch that he liked.

If [Something] happened to the people who fulfilled his world then, Tooi would probably wish to go back and want to save them.

Of course, there’s no way he would now of the circumstances there if he’s in this world.

Because of that, this is a problem of the heart.

Ryura verbally attacked his indecisive weak heart because he could not completely throw away his old world.

The speed of her sword strikes increased and attacked him unrestrainedly like a hurricane.

“That’s the answer, Tooi”

“I said this just now before; I won’t blame you. It’s something that can’t be helped. It’s something natural. That’s why, please don’t deceive me……..anymore”

The eyes shown when she performed a storm of slashes had deep loneliness and despair dwelling within.

The moment he saw those eyes.

Something cleared up inside Tooi.

“In the end……. you are someone from a another world”

Instantly.

The attacks similar to a rampaging wind storm, stopped.

The reason was very simple.

Tooi raised the Zodiac and blocked her sword.

But, the only thing stopped was her sword.

Even though the sword is known to be the pinnacle of strength and quality, it’s just a study sword now since there’s no Deity or Spirits dwelling inside so, naturally, he could not block the wind coating her sword.

In the end, Tooi’s body was covered with injuries as if he was dragged inside the twister of the Kamaitachi<ref group ="1G">Youkai from Japanese folklore</ref>.

“Wha”

Ryura shrieked.

A human would instantly be turned into chunks of meat if they took on Ryura’s wind which could slice apart iron.

The reason why Tooi was safe was because she dispersed the wind by her own will.

His clothes and skin were sliced because she did not make it in time but, she managed to do it before he received critical wounds.

“What are you doing, Tooi…… if I didn’t erase the wind…..you would have died there……”

Ryura’s shout did not enter Tooi’s ears.

That’s because his head was filled up with regret and frustration.

Even though he was distorting his expression from the pain, Tooi told her.

“Someone, from, another world………?”

He repeated that sentence which has been smacked at him many times before as if he was crunching it.

“Don’t say something that lonely, Ryura. I am………..this close to you right now. I am so close to you that we could exchange blades and swords you know?”

He looked at his opponent’s eye through the gaps between the crossed swords.

“It’s true that…….i am not a human from this world. I came here with the intentions of never going back but………..just like what Ryura said, If something happened there, and I managed to get hold of it then……I might choose to go back again, to protect my real world”

“……..i knew it----”

Ryura said that while she narrowed her eyes in sadness but, Tooi covered her sentence with a [But].

“Facing you off like this, is also an action to protect my real world”

“………Eh?”

Ryura pulled her blade away together with a questioning voice. Tooi also pulled away his short sword and started talking fluently.

“This might sound like a stupid story but….. When I was young i thought the world did not exist other than the city I was born in”

The sky and mountains only exists in background settings and papier-mache, the news heard from the television and seen from the newspaper are all random, every adult are liars, and I can only find empty darkness once I took a step out from the city. There was a period of time when he was delusional with thoughts like that.

“I immediately found out that it was just my illusion…….but, I felt that the world I lived in was so small. I was satisfied inside the city and lived in a small and boring world”

His days were filled with trips between his school and house.

Even though I felt bored and closed in, I didn’t felt like going out for some reason.

Just like a fish stuck inside a water tank since birth, he does not know of the world other than there. He didn’t get the idea of [Wanting to come out from there], since he didn’t know.

It was boring but it wasn’t cramped.

Treating it like its normal, treating it as if it was destined, he lived inside a small world without questioning anything.

“While I was going through that, I was suddenly summoned here on one day”

A young man, who lived inside a small city, was not even knowledgeable about the countries in Japan forget overseas, has experienced another world.

“…….it sure is funny right. I came to this world, travelled the whole world by visiting many countries, crossed continents, oceans, and mountains; even though I had no interest in overseas and my country when I was in my own world”

In order to see off his grandmother, in order to return to his world, he defeated the demon king. Because of that important issue, his desire of having fun in another world was little and was completely focused in accomplishing his goal but, he somewhat felt some kind of happiness in his heart.

Inside a fantasy world which he has only seen inside games and mangas; he made contracts with Deities told to be the strongest to drastically increase his powers.

He felt an indescribable thrill off his actions.

However---

“……..But, I noticed something that time. Aah, it’s the same after all”

“The same……?”

“My old world and this world, is the same”

Tooi said that clearly.

“No matter how locked up I am inside a small city, no matter how many countries I traveled around the world, I don’t know of what I don’t know”

He has seen scenes he has seen before but, he don’t know of scenes that he has not seen before.

He has not heard of any news, other than the news he heard before.

He knows knowledge he knows but not knowledge he doesn’t know of.

“The reason why I felt there was no world outside my city when I was young was because, it’s probably fate in a sense. That’s because that’s the only '''''place''''' I knew. When I came over here, I travelled to many places, and experienced many thing so, my knowledge and views increased but…………..even though the world I am seeing increased in scale, it doesn’t mean that the world changed or anything”

And.

Tooi told her.

“'''''I did not come to another world'''''”

The young man that experienced his 2nd summoning to another world was completely denying his own scenery.

“……….what part of [Another] is this world. That does not exist. The world is always and absolutely one. I have been living in my world without changing at all”

--- I can’t fight for people who I have never seen before.

Tooi told Laila that a few days ago.

That was his true feelings.

Because.

People he has not seen before, people he has not talk before, does not exist in Tooi’s world.

Inside the technological revolutionized Japan, anyone can acquire the world’s situation and news with one Smartphone.

Calamities and sorrows spread out in the world, even the tragedies and disasters are all inside their hands.

But, no matter how far it goes, it’s just [News] to the end.

His heart won’t move no matter how many people die in the dark-side of the world.

The children starving painfully, the people crying from the losses from war, the citizens oppressed by a dictator, and the lands visited by natural disasters; all of them are fires at the opposite side of the shore. He feels pity, and it’s not like he doesn’t feel like wanting to lend a helping hand but, it’s not enough to make him want to move.

In the dark-side of the world----no, rather than the number of grand tragedies occurring outside his world, the death of his only family was heavier, sadder and caused a deep pain inside his heart.

“The other world and this world are included in my world. The range my eyes can reach, the range my voice can reach, and the range that my hands can reach, are my precious world…….”

Tooi then let go of the Zodiac which he has been holding on to the whole time. The black short sword fell to the Fior plains.

He then closed in the gaps between him and Ryura before he grabbed her hands.

He grabbed it tightly.

As if to display his existence to her.

“'''''I am here''''', Ryura! So……..stop saying things like I am someone from another world”

As if to appeal to her, as if to wish for her, Tooi said that with his earnest feelings within the words.

“Tooi…………..”

Ryura’s eyes wavered and tear up. The cold iron mask expression she made distorted greatly as if it was melting down.

“I………am not a hero or the savior. I don’t have any reasons to place my life for strangers I have never even met before. But, I will do anything for you”

{{Furigana|grandma|Abuela}} said this.

Heroes save countries.

The savoir saves people

And.

The one that can save the world is none other than yourself.

“It’s my job to save the world and protect the world. And you exist in that world, Ryura!”

While feeling the warmth from the hands he grabbed, Tooi shouted.

“Come with me, Ryura Vega. I want you in my world”

Those burning passionate eyes, pierced through Ryura’s heart.

(Aah----)

Ryura’s body twitched.

He has a sharp gaze brimming with brave Spirit which is unimaginable from his usual calm face. A man that is supposed to be powerless was overwhelming a Deity.

However, the reason why her body twitched was not from fear or anger but instead, it was from happiness.

(………...this is it. This is Tooi Cross)

He has not changed from before. She was treated as a [Monster] because she possesses tremendous and was either feared by many people or a beneficial target but, Tooi was the only one who saw her as a single woman.

He wanted Ryura not her powers of a Deity.

His sincerity is endless and so is his greed.

The only man she acknowledged as her master in this world, desired her once more. His cruel dominance and pulling force won’t let go of her heart.

The farewell from 10 years ago caused a deep scar inside Ryura’s heart. She has been tormented with loneliness the whole time until today. While telling herself that [It can’t be helped since we live in different worlds], she would spend her days consoling herself by running into her memories.

However, he just broke through everything.

She could feel his burning warmth from the hands grabbing her.

She could properly feel the presence of her master.

(……It’s just as what Tooi said)

Tooi Cross is right here at arm’s reach.

For this man, the difference of a world and another world holds no meaning apparently. He crossed 10 years of time, unreasonably stepped over every fences and obstructions, just to regain Ryura.

The part where she rejected her master because she was scared of being hurt again and the part where should could not honestly accept her master’s triumphal return, started to feel really stupid to her.

Ryura let out a soft smile and closed her eyes.

Her armor and sword turned into particles and disappeared. Having turned back to a goddess from a Valkyrie, she released all her weapons and slowly opened her eyes.

The expression she made was the smile of a loyal servant happy for her master’s return.

“Welcome home. Tooi”

Ryura said it.

The words that signifies the happiness of their reunion which she could not say this whole time.

“I’m home. Ryura”

Words were no longer need for them.

Both of them brought their face closer and looked at each other for an instant before, placing their lips together regardless of how initiated it. As if to desire each other, as if to indulge in the moment, they confirmed each other’s existence.

Soon, their surroundings started to glow. Light gathered and formed lines, the lines then joined and formed circles, the circles then joined together to make a formation.

It is need for a Spirit contract; a Contract circle.

The colorful circle of light expanded as if to cover them. While drawing complicated and mysterious patterns, it expanded, rotated and colored the space as if this was a dazzling light show.

[[File:The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses Volume 1 Non-Colour 9.png|thumb]]

The scene was as if the world was celebrating the reestablishment of their contract.

“……Okay. Emergency first-aid done”

“Un. Thanks, Alua-chan”

“No prob”

“……Hey Alua-chan? You like kind of steamy from just now so, are you perhaps mad?”

“Nope, not really”

“Perhaps, you were thinking about the last air blast? No it’s true that you did not have a good role in the ending. But, it’s thanks to Alua-chan attracting the Spirits that I could-----“

“That’s not it! What I was thinking about…..was, well…..the ki-ki kiss you did with Ryura-san………!”

“That’s for the contract”

“Th-there are other ways to do it!”

“No, well, that’s true but…….that’s actually the fastest way”

“………perhaps, the contracts Tooi Onii-chan did 10 years ago were……..”

“Ah………well, yeah”

“Everyone in……the [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}]!?”

“Not all but, most of them”

“………O-obscene! How lewd! You’re a pervert!”

“Even if you tell me that…….but honestly, my first kiss is with your sister you know?”

“………eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Alua showed a magnificent reaction after hearing the crazy news he let out to light.

They returned to the place where they stopped the motorbike.

As for Ryura, she was having a conversation with the forest’s Spirits she commanded. There are probably things she has to explain and apologize for.

“……..Un. The bandage is good to go. I can move easily with this”

Tooi turned his shoulders, twisted his hips to confirm the bandage’s condition.

“Tooi Onii-chan. What are we going to do now?”

While cleaning up the first-aid kit, Alua asked Tooi about future plans, with a carefree attitude he—

“Aah. Alua-chan you can go back first”

He Said that.

“I have a small business I need to take care off”

===Part 4===
In the Lectar Republic region – Dean’s plain.

There was an army formation made by the Lectar’s military at the flat land beside the Fior region.

It’s a Spirit knight brigade formed to destroy Ryura Vega and the Empire’s military which appeared to bring her down.

There are about 2000 soldiers with spears carved with the emblem of the Lectar Republic.

The number is quite unreliable for defeating a Deity and 3000 Spirit knights but, they think that this amount is sufficient once both sides are exhausted after fighting with everything they got.

Adding on, the Lectar military which specializes in spears has a higher advantage than the Empire’s military which specializes in swords because the fight is on a flat land with less hills.

It’s the main style of the Spirit knights affiliated to the Lectar Military to activate their [{{Furigana|Spirit Equipment|Ray Alma}}] using the Military spear as their medium to manifest a full armor set and a charging spear. With giant spears readied at hands of the soldiers, the strategy where the soldiers charging towards their enemy at a single line, will display an unequalled force on the plains.

“…….Kuku”

As the republic’s military captain commanding the Spirit knight brigade --- Gaien accidentally let out a smile at the rear guard which was surrounded by elite members.

When he thought about the results that he was about to gain, his mouth just can’t help but to loosen down.

The reason why he was able to use Ryura Vega was because of several accumulated lucky events. Ryura Vega reached out to the people who were surveying Fior region for the agricultural cultivation and asked [Please don’t mess up this land].

Having heard that, Gaien came up with a plan to use her.

(I don’t know why that Deity is so fixed on Fior but…….i didn’t think it would go this well)

The Empire’s military power will drastically drop if 3000 of their Spirit knights are killed. The power struggle with their rival Lectar will definitely tilt towards Lectar’s side.

Also, Gaien’s name will definitely rise if they take down a Deity that has an attachment to the evil title [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}]. Gaien was about to laugh loudly when he thinks about his bright future but, he was desperately suppressing it down.

He has not noticed this.

The fact that his plan was already foiled by his enemy.

And also the fact that a terrible disaster is about to visit him---

“Captain Gaien!”

The messenger that came from the front lines said it with a panicked voice.

“This is bad! We spotted suspicious shadows coming from the Fior region!”

“What? Is it soldiers from the Empire’s military that ran off?”

“No it’s……”

Turmoil occurred within the soldiers the same time Gaien frowned his eyebrows after hearing the messenger’s report.

The suspicious shadow had already reached to a point where the Lectar’s military was able to see them.

It was a young man. He was wearing the clothes from an unfamiliar country and was holding a black sword.

And the other person was the Deity of [Violent Wind], Ryura Vega.

The beautiful Deity who’s supposed to be currently in cooperation with the Lectar’s Military, was quietly walking behind the young man by one step.

As if she’s trying to show the world that this young man is her true master.

Tooi stopped right when he saw the Lectar army that filled up the plain. Following him, Ryura stopped too and the both of them stood side by side inside the southerly wind.

Even though they were facing an army over 2000, their expression shows no signs of danger.

Rather, they were making a small smile instead.

“It’s been one year”

“Correction, it’s been 10 year”

Both of them said it as if to crush that blank time.

“Let’s do this, Ryura”

“{{Furigana|I follow you to the ends of the world|Yes My Lord}}”

Tooi raised the Zodiac.

At the same time, Ryura melted into the air and possesed the short sword.

Instantly, a hot feeling could be felt on his right hand holding the sword. The rarest metal and the closest material to the Spirits in this world- the Etherium, connected a human and Deity so unbelievably and shockingly well.

The senses when he fought at the [Tyrant Slayer] 1 year ago, resurfaced.

He dived deeply into his consciousness. It gave off a unique feeling as if everything was mixing together, like himself and the world, like himself and a Deity.

There was no need to dive deep into his memories.

His head, body and heart.

Every factors that used to construct his body, remembers this feeling vividly.

Within the unstable and uncertain feeling, he listened to the clear image floating in his mind to create his own personal weapon.

“[{{Furigana|The Divine Punishment of the 12|Nebulosa Nemesis}}], [{{Furigana|The First Chapter|Primera}}]”

Tremendous amounts of Ether gushed out from the Etherium sword. The silver light gradually turned stronger and soon covered Tooi’s body.

With 12 deities under his command, this is the Deity knight that defeated the [Demon King], Tooi Cross.

One of the power he once possesed has manifested in this world once again.

“[{{Furigana|The Sanction of the Violent Wind|Tempesta Sancion}}]!”

Instantly, the wind blew loudly and the atmosphere creaked.

It’s as if the world was screaming from the foreign object that suddenly swooped down or it might be the opposite, it’s as if the world was sobbing from the happiness that a great power has resurrected.

What appeared there was a knight covered with a tornado and adorning armors.

His right arm and both his shoulders were covered with silver armor. An exterior was formed around the short sword to form a long sword with splendid decorations.

Having activated his [{{Furigana|Deity Equipment|Deus Alma}}] after 1 year, Tooi raised his right hand and pointed the long sword towards the Lectar army.

“Message to the Lectar’s military”

Tooi said that while looking towards the 2000 man army.

“What I am going to do now isn’t war. There is no justice and principles; this will just be a meaningless and valueless fight. This is not an invasion nor is this for defense; this is not a purge nor is this for revenge. What I am going to now is plainly to an act to vent out my anger”

He said those words clearly and so coldly.

“You don’t need to surrender or apologize. We will be on a rampage until we are satisfied and trample all over you l. I repeat. This is not a war. This is just an act to vent out my anger”

His eyes had a sharp glint similar to a blade.

“It’s not even worth treating you fuckers as my enemy, because of what you did to Ryura”

The words Tooi proudly said…..actually, the Lectar’s Military did not hear a single thing from him.

His surroundings were loud from the raging wind because he manifested his [{{Furigana|Deity Equipment|Deus Alma}}]. The screaming hurricane erased every trace of his voice.

It’s quite embarrassing that his opponents did not hear the declaration he made with a serious face but, he has not noticed this fact at all.

The line he said with anger sadly disappeared into the wind without even reaching his opponents.

However.

In reality, words weren’t really needed.

The Lectar’s Military did not hear a single word Tooi said but, their hearts were controlled by shock, fear, and astonishment.

His appearance when he’s wearing the [Dues Alma] spoke more fluently of his dreadfulness than words.

An absolute presence that would overwhelm anyone that lays eyes on him.

So adorning, so beautiful and more importantly so divinely.

From the front to the rear, the whole army was equally terrified.

[……O-oi, what the heck is that] [Did he……have a contract with Ryura Vega?] [It’s a lie, how can a brat like that……..] [Because, isn’t Tooi Cross the only person that made a contract with that Deity……] [Wait just a second, then, doesn’t that means he’s----]

Everyone there started letting out words of bewilderment and the moment the army was about to fall into chaos,

“Don’t falter!”

Gaien shouted at the army.

“Tooi Cross defeated the [Demon King] 10 years ago! There’s no way that brat is Tooi Cross! Don’t be tricked by his appearance!”

With no knowledge about the [Tyrant Slayer]’s truth, the army agreed with the commander’s speculation.

“The Ryura Vega we saw is probably just another fake. He probably used a shapeshifting Spirit to make a flashy armor. No matter what, we don’t have the free time to play with that brat!”

With the profits in front of him blinding him, Gaien gave priority to knowledge and common sense instead of the absolute presence released by the young man in front, and made a convenient speculation for himself.

“Front line’s 3rd squad! Mow down the brat that made fun of our military!”

Following orders from their commander, the team on the front lines started taking action.

Their contract sprits possesed their military spears and created their [{{Furigana|Spirit Equipment|Ray Alma}}]’s charging spear and full armor set.

After lining up with swift movements, they started charging at their target the same time their leader gave the signal.

The group of giant spears ran on the battlefield with tremendous speed.

But, a few seconds later.

“----[{{Furigana|Whirlwind|Torbellino}}]

The front line 3rd squad that dashed like an arrow piercing into the air, ended up flying up in the sky like scrap paper next.

Alua Schut was at loss of words when she saw the scenes from the gap of the trees.

She was told that she can go back but, it’s kind of irritating that she has to go back after coming so far and it’s kind of lonely that she’s left outside the comrade circle at the very end. What’s more, she wants to see a [{{Furigana|Deity Equipment|Deus Alma}}] with her eyes so Tooi allowed her to watch the fight but she has to witness from the forest while hiding herself.

[Tyrant Slayer]’s fight.

No.

The event happening in front of her might not be a fight. It was too beautiful and elegant to be called a fight and, it was too one-sided.

The young man covered with silver armor was freely dashing around the battlefield.

As if he’s the gust of wind.

He completely beat down the approaching shouting troops.

“[{{Furigana|Breeze|Brisa}}]”

Countless swords of wind step forth and were dropped to the battlefield like the early-summer rain.

“[{{Furigana|Strong Wind|Ventarron}}]”

The strong wind wrapped around the long sword to form a small storm. The giant sword of wind that has compressed the wind until its limits, easily sliced through the enemies’ equipment.

“[{{Furigana|Tornado|Tornado}}]”

A tornado occurred around Tooi to disperse long ranged attacks such as arrows and bullets fixed with fire and lightning element Ethers; it then blew away the surrounding soldiers all together at once.

“[{{Furigana|Squall|Raafaga}}]”

Wind gathered everywhere in the sky, turned into countless arrows with power piercing effect before it was accurately launched towards the enemies weapons which are located far away from him.

And.

He then jumped into the crowded area with movements like the champion of the wind.

In response to the sudden appearance of a mysterious young man inside the camp, the Lectar military after a slight pause, all went in to attack him like a snowstorm but, the giant sword instantly sliced the air and drew a half moon.

“----[{{Furigana|Violent storm|Tormenta}}]”

The violent wind, raged.

With one sweep.

As if to response to the blade that drew a circle, a torrent of wind danced around Tooi and completely eliminated the crowd.

[{{Furigana|The Sanction of the Violent Wind|Tempesta Sancion}}]

Just like the invisible wind, he nullified every single attack, just like a disaster, he destroyed everything there.

(It’s like a dance……)

Alua let out her admiration unintentionally.

His sword skills were heroic as a war god, and his body movements were beautiful as a fairy. She fell in love instead of fearing their fight which possesed both of those factors.

No matter what powerful moves the Lectar’s Military Spirit knights performed, no matter how perfect they make their formation, everything was useless.

Amusingly enough, the number of soldiers decreased.

One after another fell, as if this was a play with the victor and losers were decided from the start.

(Ah)

Noticed suddenly noticed something.

A weird phenomenon occurred in the battlefield.

The scenery she’s seeing right now was too beautiful to call a battlefield.

Even though it’s exhilarating, it’s not gruesome.

Even though it’s heroic, it’s not sad at all.

There was no hint of brutality and sadness; this was just entertainment of a single young man satisfyingly mowing down an army as if to personify the word 1 against 1000.

Even though he’s trampling over enemy soldiers with a tarrying power describe as the incarnation of violent wind, all of his attacks were all fixated on destroying the weapons. He accurately destroys the weapons which is used as the medium for the [{{Furigana|Spirit Equipment|Ray Alma}}], and would pacify his enemies without causing any bodily harm.

(Tooi Onii-chan, is doing the same thing Ryura Vega has been----)

And.

“Do-don’t moveeeee!”

There was another person that noticed this at the same timing Alua did so too.

“Do-don’t move……don’t move. Do you know what would happen to this person if you don’t………!?”

Gaien pushed the short sword towards the female’s neck while saying that with a voice flowing with anxiousness. The woman that he held by the neck had a frightened expression and let out a shriek.

“………..uh!”

The raging wind stopped at that instant.

Tooi Cross, the incarnation of violent wind that no one could stop, halted his movements.

“………. Now you’ve done it”

Tooi mumbled with a click in his tongue and his expression was oozing with bitterness.

“……….Fu-fu-fuhahaha! I knew it! Fuhah. Hahahaha!”

Gaien laughed loudly while pointing his blade towards the hostage in his arms.

He’s using a hostage as his shield.

It’s not a plausible tactic but, it’s not rare. This is one of the conventional methods used in the battlefield and is too disgusting to even call it cowardly.

However, theirs was something weird in this situation.

And that’s, the choice of his hostage.

The person Gaien was pushing his blade towards to, was his female vice-officer.

To Tooi, she’s just another enemy that he is not acquainted with.

“…..Hii, Cap-captain Gaien…….wha-what are you…….”

Even though the female hostage tried to appeal to him, her superior did not even bat an eye. He was showering laughter of ridicule towards Tooi who’s in front of him.

“Fuhahaha! This is laughable! How can such a weird story like this exist! To think that this hostage would established!”

Of all things, Gaien threatened Tooi with a soldier from his country as a hostage. He pinioned the vice-officer who stood there as if to protect him, from behind and was pressing the blade on her neck.

“Apparently, the stories about Ryura Vega not killing her enemies were true. And, even you, who is able to use that monster’s power, don’t have the bravery to kill the enemy too……fuhahahaha! A brat that don’t have the determination to kill should not enter the battlefield”

He was using a soldier from his military as a hostage.

This is probably a bad plan to bet his ray of hope to, even for Gaien. This is his unavoidable last method since he has no other means to use in front of the incarnation of violent wind.

However, this tactic was displaying tremendous results.

To Tooi, who was controlling the battlefield to not allow any enemy deaths, this was the best tactic there is.

“……….you piece of shit”

Even though he disgustingly said that, Tooi could not do anything and was frozen in place.

“Woaah there, don’t more! I won’t allow you to control the wind! Try and make some weird moves! This woman will die!”

His threat echoed. Gaien pressed the short sword harder. It’s blade slightly cut her skin and caused blood to flow down the girl’s neck.

The no blood shed rule Tooi obstinately tried to prevent was broken in such a manner.

The girl shouted in an uninterpretable tone. Despair was shown in her eyes. However, Gaien did not stop. Blood flowed down and covered the blade as if it was squeezed out.

Or maybe, he might be thinking that it’s okay to kill her off.

There are many replacements even if he kills one.

Everyone in the army he commands can act as his hostage towards Tooi.

“Fuhahahahahahaha!”

Convinced on his victory, Gaien let out an offensive loud laugh.

In response, Tooi,

“………Fuuu”

He let out a small sigh.

It was a really bored sigh.

His eyes were terrifyingly cold.

He had thirsty eyes as if he was bored and completely lost all interest in him.

Those dark eyes were unimpressed and unemotional.

Gaien gasped after he saw Tooi, who looked at him as if he was looking at a really boring animal.

“Wha-what!? D-do you understand, what will happen to this hostage if----“

“I don’t really give a damn”

“Wha……..”

“I don’t care about what will happen to that stranger lady over there. For starters, she was trying to kill me like its normal just now you know. I have no reasons to save her”

Tooi said that plainly.

“Determination to kill……….i don’t have something that amazing in mind but, I don’t feel like protecting someone that tried to kill me”

“……………..”

Gaien became speechless. His expression which was distorted in joy just now was now in despair because the plan that he used to fix this hopeless situation ended in a failure.

“But----“

Tooi said.

Immediately, the [{{Furigana|Deity Equipment|Deus Alma}}] he manifested turned into dusts of light and disappeared.

“This was to vent out my anger, not for war. Can’t help if I feel disgusted when I am venting out my anger”

There’s someone in the audience seat too after all.

Tooi said that after looking back at the forest behind for an instant,

Ryura appeared the same time his silver armor disappeared.

“Sorry, Ryura. About the after taste of this nasty ending”

“I don’t mind. I will only listen to Tooi”

After Tooi placed the Zodiac on his hips, he turned around and Ryura followed him.

As if everything ended, the both of them walked gallantly between the Lectar’s soldiers.

But.

Should this even be considered normal because, there’s no way things would end here.

“…………..D-don’t screw with meee! Oi, you bastards, do something!? Don’t let that brat get away!”

The enraged Gaien threw his rage to the surrounding Lectar soldiers.

A moment of hesitation appeared within the army. In response to how their superior used a vice officer as a hostage, they probably started to feel several doubts.

However in the end, they listened to their commander’s order due to their pride as military personals. They got into formation and formed a formation to capture Tooi from behind.

“You damn brat…… stay quiet and get captured. Try making any funny moves. You know what will happen right?”

Having reconfirmed the usefulness of having a hostage, Gaien send his words elatedly towards Tooi’s back. The blade he held was still pushed onto the hostage’s neck.

He was glaring at the short sword placed on the hip. He’s probably planning to kill the hostage the moment Tooi’s pull out the sword and activate the [{{Furigana|Deity Equipment|Deus Alma}}].

At that moment, Tooi’s right hand moved.

He moved pass the sword on his hips which Gaien was staring at, and directed it to the pocket in his pants.

What he took out was a metallic silver oil lighter.

He opened the lip and lighted the cigarette he held with his mouth.

“Hmm? Did you smoke cigarette before?”

Maybe oblivious to the killing intents coming from behind, Ryura asked him casually. With the cigarette held between his left hand’s fingers, he lightly swung his head.

“Nope, I don’t smoke. Only lighting it. A cigarette won’t light up unless you suck it”

The impatient Lectar soldiers all attacked them while they were having a carefree conversation.

Right after.

Tooi flicked the cigarette he held with his left hand.

The cigarette was flicked off.

This action will probably give him a fine if this was Japan.

The lighted cigarette rode the wind and danced in the sky. While making traces of red, it reached to the space above the approaching Lectar soldiers.

Apparently, the soldiers noticed that too but, no one dodged it in fear of getting burned. Even swinging it away was a waste of time for them and they continued charging on the battlefield towards their target.

While not realizing what Tooi was plotting.

“---[Ignition]”

The Deity of [Violent Wind], Ryura Vega.

The controller of the air and wind flowing in the wind.

Intensity, speed, sharpness…….and density.

Basically, while possessing the power to control the wind in a grand scale to the level of a natural disaster, it is also possible for [{{Furigana|The Sanction of the Violent Wind|Tempesta Sancion}}] to precisely control the wind to atomic level.

He connected to the air as if to melt into it, perceive each and every microscopic sized atoms and controlled them.

He divided the gas from the atom’s property and disassembled the water to hydrogen and oxygen. He gathered and clumped all the combustible gas and further adjusted the oxygen concentration level.

Right before he released the [{{Furigana|Deity Equipment|Deus Alma}}], Tooi set a [bomb] in the air.

All it needs left is a trigger to cause, the whole air to burn down.

{{Furigana|Explosion|Boom}}!

And.

The same time a bright light gushed out, an ear deafening explosion sounded.

The small flame he flicked off, was eaten by the prepared air before it combusted and caused a grand-scale explosion.

A giant explosion painted over the sky.

Since Tooi adjusted the firepower, the explosion did not directly burn the Lectar soldiers below but, they were blown away by the flaming shockwave and that made their formation to crumble miserably.

Of course, Gaien wasn’t an exception.

He lost the leisure to grab hold onto the hostage because of the unpredictable attack, and ended up rolling about the grass plain after being blown away by the sound of the explosion and the heatwave.

“…….uu-guuu! D-damn it……!”

By the time Gain managed to fix his posture and look up, a black sword was pushed onto his neck.

This was probably karma.

Just like how he used the female hostage just now.

“Hii”

Gaien’s expression stiffened up.

His body froze up after he saw the glowing blade and the young man looking down at him.

“…….You, bastard…….”

“You’re the commander right? Err……..hey, bearded old man whose name I don’t know”

“…..Wh-at……….?”

“Uuun…………what was it. I remember hearing your name but, I guess I forgot it. Aah, you don’t have to name yourself. I don’t feel like remembering it. I said this at the beginning but, I guess I’ll say it again since everything is settled”

Tooi told him.

“You guys weren’t even close to being my enemy”

His right arm flickered. He swung the short sword with fluid movements and lightly smacked the back of the man’s head with the handle. Gaien lost consciousness and fell onto the plain.

With a refreshed but still sad filled eyes, Tooi silently looked at the fainted commander.

With their commander gone, the soldiers started running away for their lives.

The army of 2000 Spirit knights, was forced to experience a miserable rout.

By a young man who was venting out his anger.

“……..err, Tooi, this is really hard to say”

After he put back the short sword to his hips and was about to walk off, Ryura got close to him out from nowhere.

“That bearded commander, had his hearing numbed because of the explosion you know”

“…….Eh? Wa-wait…..? Th-then, my voice……..”

“He probably did not hear what Tooi said. The finishing phrase you said with a serious face”

“……………”

“In the first place, the speech you expressed at the beginning of the battle did not reach the Lectar’s military because of the raging wind”

“Seriously!? Wai-wait just a second, Ryura….Then, is this it? The lines I said throughout this fight………..did not reach them at all?”

“Yes”

“………you’re joking”

“Ufufu. It’s okay, Tooi. Completely messing up your finishing phrase like this, is your cute part”

“………no, that’s not helping at all. That’s just pouring salt on my wounds.

Ryura was happily looking at Tooi’s depressed state. It was a gentle and lively atmosphere which seems impossible to imagine after a battle with an army of 2000.

They entered their own world without bothering about enemy and the losers.

Their surroundings were noisy because of the soldiers were busy running away but---to the two of them who remade their contract after a long time, this was none of their concerns.

<noinclude>

==Translation Notes and References==
<references group="1G" />

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</noinclude>

Imouto Sae Ireba ii

2015-11-12T05:38:20Z

Gamerdude13: /* Volume 1 */ Adding the prologue nav

{{Teaser|English}}

[[Image:Imouto.jpg|300px|thumb|Volume 01 cover.]]

'''Imouto Sae Ireba ii''' (妹さえいればいい/If only I had a little sister) is a light novel series written by Hirasaka Yomi and illustrated by Kantoku, it is the latest work of the author that brought you [[Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai|Haganai]]. Currently the series has 3 volume, first published March 18, 2015 under the label of GAGAGA Bunko. The story follows siscon novelist Itsuki Hashima, his perfect sibling Chihiro, obssessed fellow novelist Nayuta, peer/friend Shirakawa Kyoto and other crazy figures from the publishing industry. Though not officially announced yet, an anime adaption is highly likely to be made.

==Story Synopsis==

Surrounded by many different kinds of company, our protagonist: Hopeless siscon Hashima Itsuki.
1st class genius and lover, the high end unfortunate-beauty Kani Nayuta.
Troubled about love, troubled about friendships, troubled even in her dreams, victor of the 3 crowns Shirakawa Miyako.
Brutal tax sabre, Ōno Ashley.
Natural born illustrator, Puriketsu.
Each and every one as hesitant as the next, and each and every one dealing with their own headaches.
This is a busy story of a group of bewildering characters that plays games together, takes trips together, and works together, never a single dull day.
Watching over them is the kind and thoughtful, completely perfect, superhuman little brother of Itsuki; Chihiro, with a huge secret of his own―.
From the author that brought you 'Haganai', Hirasaka Yomi has drawn the curtains for the latest youth love-comedy series!

== Translation ==

=== [[Imouto Sae Ireba ii:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

Those who wish to contribute are asked to first notify a supervisor beforehand.

'''Translators are asked to [[Imouto Sae Ireba ii:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they're working on'''

=== Format Standards ===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
* [[Format guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

=== Feedback ===
'''If you enjoyed the teaser, why don't you tell us in the [ Feedback Thread].'''

== Updates ==

* November 11, 2015: Project Page Created & Prologue Uploaded

=='''Imouto Sae Ireba ii'''==

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==='''Volume 1'''===

*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Illustration|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 8|Chapter 8]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii 1 Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii Afterword|Afterword]]
*[[Imouto Sae Ireba ii Translator's Notes|Translator's Notes]]
</div>
</div>
|}

<br style="clear:both"/>

=='''Staff'''==

*Rishiki

[[Category:English]]

The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses:Volume 1 Chapter 5

2015-11-12T04:04:06Z

Gamerdude13: here -> he

==Chapter 5: Swirling Politics==

===Part 1===
Laila Schut wakes up late in the morning.

She has low blood pressure on the morning, and is mainly a night person. She often sleeps through the afternoon. Even the maids living and working there, would not wake her up unless they were asked to do so beforehand.

When she was a private, she had to move according to the strict schedule as expected but, now that she has the status of major general, she was boldly managing her own attendance at work. Her work station which is the central HQ is nearby; also, since her mansion’s facilities were fully used too, there’s many times where business is done at her own home.

Even within the strict Empire military, those acts of freedom are originally something not forgiven but--since she’s been doing her job perfectly and has been giving above-average results; no one could file a complaint against her.

“………….Hn. Hn~~”

On the day and even the day after they visited La Shii Fomalhaut, Laila woke up late.

Even when the sun was high up in the sky, she could not leave the bed and was continuously rolling around her bed while letting out groans.

She usually give orders to her subordinates with a dignified and resolute behavior but, she looks just like a little girl when she’s hugging her favorite blanket on her bed.

Today, the person who went over to wake her up was-----

“…….nee……..chan, Onee-chan, Onee-chan, Onee-chan!”

It was her sister Alua’s shouting.

The door of her bedroom bust opened and a pale Alua entered.

“Onee-chan wake up! It’s bad! Real real bad!”

“…..Hn~~. Whaaat, Alua…..”

Laila let out a pathetic groan which is impossible to imagine from her usual awe-inspiring behavior. She’s always this low tensioned whenever she just wakes up.

“Come on! Stop covering yourself with your blanket………wait, wh-why are you in your underwear!”

Having pulled the blanket away by force, Alua shouted after she saw Laila stripped off her pajamas and was in her underwear.

“It was hot yesterday.”

“Don’t strip because it was hot!”

“It’s okay. Only I, you and the maids live in this mansion.”

“Tooi Onii-chan lives here too now!”

“………Ahhh, oh yeah. He’s here…………”

Laila mumbled that in a blank sleepy manner.

“Well, I guess being seen in my underwear by him isn’t a big deal anymore.”

“Eeeh!? Wh-wha-what kind of relationship do you two have!?”

“He saw much more amazing places anyway………..”

“Amazing places!?”

“So…..what’s the problem Alua?”

After Laila asked her, Alua was blasted in her world of imagination with a blushing face but, she immediately came back to this world.

“Th-that’s right! This is bad, Onee-chan! This morning, when I was training with Tooi Onii-chan………Corporal Frau came over”

Corporal Frau is one of Laila’s subordinates.

“It’s about the diplomat from the Lectar Republic……”

“Unnn? There’s still 2 weeks left until the diplomat comes right?”

“That’s…………..by their own convenience, they made the planned visit earlier and has already arrived to the Imperial Capital”

At that moment, Laila’s sleepy mind awoke in one go.

The Empire central HQ is related to the palace where the royalties live in.

Arludea Empire is a powerful grand country that has invaded, and seized other countries around its area. Because of that, their military organization is huge. By appearance, the Royal family controls the [Empire] but, seeing the authority that the military possesses, this country is one closer to being a military nation.

The military has always been involved even in domestic affairs and diplomacy with other countries, and if one becomes the marshal which is the top of the military then that person’s voice and influence is known to be equal to the power of the royal family.

Of course, since there are many people from the royal family, people related to the royal family through marriage and nobles in the military army, it’s hard to rule out which is [Better] between the military organization or imperial family.

“Empire military major general, Laila Schut. Now reporting for duty!”

Having reached the HQ’s reception room, Laila was giving off a dignified expression which is so perfect that it was hard to imagine she woke up 30 minutes ago; and while saluting, she looked at the people inside.

The long table in the middle had a table cloth decorated with the Arludea crest laid on top of it and many leaders such as diplomats and officers were surrounding it.

The diplomat from the Lectar republic was already sitting on the seat of honor.

It’s a middle-aged man with a military uniform attire. His shoulders were wide, chest was thick but, his waist and neck were thick, rather than calling his body athletic it’s more towards stern. There’s a thick beard growing around his mouth and his eyes had a strong light that could overwhelm others.

Several vice officers were standing by behind him.

“Sorry for the wait Mister Gaien. I apologize for being late.”

“Yaa. You’re not late, major general Schut”

Opposite to Laila who was lowering her head in respect, Gaien did not even try to stand up. His body was deeply rooted into the wooden chair while he continued talking with that cocky posture.

“Oh, please don’t mind it. It’s our fault making the date earlier by our own whim. Raise your head.”

Rather than calling it tolerant, it’s more towards arrogance.

Gaien has visited the Empire military several times when the Ryura Vega problem occurred at the Fior region but, his rude behavior can be described as, showing the current power relationship between the Empire and Lectar republic.

“You weren’t in HQ so where were you at?”

“While taking the role of patrolling, I headed out to observe the city. It has been dangerous recently in the imperial capital after all.”

“Observation? You, a major general of all people?”

“Yes. Us, the commanders, have been staying at home for far too long. There are many things we won’t understand from the reports heard from our subordinates. By walking with our own feet, by looking with our own eyes and by listening with our own ears. By doing those acts and getting acquainted with the appearance and voices of the streets, it will become irreplaceable fortune for our military.”

“Houu. As expected from Miss Schut. That’s an excellent thought. There’s a good reason why you gained the position of major general at such a young age, I see.”

Laila made such a fluent random speech but, it seems that Gaien did not notice that it was a lie and nodded as if he was admiring it. Having known the reason for her late appearance, everyone was showing an expression with no complaints.

After Laila reached her seat, Gaien refreshed the whole thing and brought up the topic.

“Anyway, I am glad that Major General Schut came. It’s a waste of time with the other people here.”

“And by that you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s related to the Fior region.”

Pressure increased in Gaien’s gazes.

“I have already heard the news but, there isn’t any results brought up regarding the Ryura Vega suppression case.”

“That’s………….”

“This is a problem. If you don’t hurry up and deal with that monster, our countries agrarian reform will lag behind and won’t advance.”

When Laila was finding rejections to reply,

“P-please don’t worry, Mister Gaien”

A member of the diplomat sitting beside him raised his voice in a flattering manner.

“Thanks to the repeated advances of our army, the deity is definitely getting weaker. In response, our army has not suffered any deaths when facing the deity and the battle is advancing on our favor. Next time for sure, next time we will definitely bring down the deity!”

(……….This idiot)

Laila scolded the person in her mind.

This transparent lie won’t work on Gaien. They probably is well aware of the situation with Ryura Vega since the Lectar republic has been sending scouts too.

And more importantly-----

“No deaths? This is a shock. Apparently, the Empire military, has been fighting quite lightheartedly huh.”

The face of the diplomat immediately stiffened up but, it was too late.

“Since it’s an opponent you just can’t win, I just can’t help to think that you lots are just trying to reduce the damages as much as possible. Even if it’s mistakes, I wished you all would show the fighting spirit of wanting to shower the opponent with sword slashes. Are all the soldiers all cowards that have no determination to throw their lives in the battle?”

While making an apologetic expression, Laila clicked her tongue in her mind. Because of one idiot’s unneeded comment, the bad situation turned even worse.

In the battlefield, there’s nothing better than little damages to the army.

However, for this situation----it’s a little different.

In order to free Fior Region to hand over to the Lectar republic, the Empire military is currently sending out their army. This is so that they would fulfill their role in the diplomacy.

Which means, they are just [Compensating] for the unseen circumstances; in an extreme argument, they are moving their soldiers because they are worried about their appearance towards the Lectar republic and other countries.

If they lied that they have a 1000 deaths then, Lectar won’t have anything to say, giving the Empire to maintain their reputation to the minimum standards but, if the opposite happens then, they can’t reply anything back if the other side blamed them for [Cutting corners].

“Is your side perhaps already thinking that this is someone else’s problem now that Fior was handed to another country? If that’s the case, then this is truly unsatisfactory news. We the Lectar republic will have to think of our future relations now.”

“N-nothing of the sort. We are doing our very best too but……….Since our enemy is a deity, we can’t deal with it with ordinary methods……….”

Gaien pressed for an answer as if to intimidate, after hearing such an unreliable response from the diplomat.

“How about increasing your soldier counts if you’re doing your very best? I took a look at previous records but, it looks like only about a 100 to 300 Spirit knights were deployed. If you use the Arludea Empire military strength, 1 or 2 deities is just an easy matter.”

“H-however………we can’t focus our forces towards Foir region. There are many problems within the country such as the west border and the northern bandits………..”

“That is your country’s problem. It is not related to us. In the first place, this is a problem caused because you all hid the fact that a deity would appear at Fior region.”

“It’s insulting to say that we hid her. We have said this many times before in the past but, the appearance of the deity is an unforeseen circumstance even for us------“

Even after that, the same quarrel continued causing this unproductive discussion to continue but, the Empire side was being suppressed by Gaien from start to end.

When the topic was going around in circles, Gaien’s manner of speaking got stricter and,

“We aren’t getting anywhere. Even though there’s no plan to break this deadlock, all of you kept turning down all of our proposals. It’s the same as acting like a child.”

After saying that, he sighed tiredly.

The people from the Empire side hung their heads and could not reply back. Just when the atmosphere in the room turned heavier, Gaien suddenly changed and made a bright smile.

It’s a really bright and scornful smile.

“Well, we sympathize with you all. Ryura Vega is one of the famous [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}]. Which means, if we go look back at the start of all this, this problem occurred because Tooi Cross let those monsters out into this world. There are people calling him a hero in this world but, I think he’s just a thoughtless idiot if I say so myself. He’s just pulling a prank on the world. What a useless sinner, that man called Tooi Cross----“

It was at that moment.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Bam*! A dull sound echoed in the reception room. Laila remained silent the whole time but, she slammed the table with both her hands and stood up vigorously.

“----Understood.”

While she’s being focused with sights of shock and oddness from her surroundings, Laila talked quietly.

“For this matter, it’s clear that it was our fault for overlooking Ryura Vega’s existence. In order to wipe off that embarrassment, we will use our entire military force and present to you the repulsion of Ryura Vega.”

Uproar occurred in the room after she said that sentence with such a resolute attitude. Everyone was opening their eyes wide in surprise while looking at Laila.

Within them, Gaien was the only one lifting the side of his mouth, oozing in joy.

“Houu. Which means, you’re going to increase the number of soldiers?”

“Of course.”

“How many?”

“3000. Of course, it’s a team made focused on Spirit knights.”

The whole room turned noisy.

Within the soldiers affiliated with Arludea Empire military, there are only about 10000 of them can use the [Ray Alma] and is called a Spirit knight.

Those Spirit knights are a scare force only deployed during emergencies.

It’s only natural that her surroundings would feel shaken when 1/3 of it is being thrown in.

“If we keep wasting our time on this fight, we won’t only exhaust our forces, but also the trust from other countries. If that’s the case, it’s a good idea to end this with a short term battle by focusing our forces. I promise you that we will summon our Spirit knights from every parts of the Empire and create knight brigade.”

“…….Fuu. Wahahahaha. How wonderful!”

After showing an excited smile, Gaien clapped his hands and praised her. He stood up from his chairs and walked over to Laila.

“As expected from Major General Schut. Your decisiveness and judgment is amazing. The Empire’s future is bright with you here.”

“Thank you for those kind words.”

Laila bowed deeply. Gaien *Pon* placed his hands on her shoulders before passing by her.

With his vice officers following behind him, the moment he placed his hands on the door on the conference room------

“Aah, I recalled something, mister Gaien.”

Laila raised her voice as if she recalled something.

“I forgot to ask you one question.”

“And what is it?”

“Right after Ryura Vega is dealt with, I presume that your country has plans in developing Fior region into a grand scale agricultural land so, can you please tell me the specifics on what those plans are, if possible?”

Gaien slightly raised his eyebrows for an instant.

“…….Why would you want to know?”

“For future reference. The agricultural techniques of the Lectar republic are famous within the neighboring countries. I personally am interested.”

“I see, how studious of you. The cultivation plan huh…………I am not from that field so I am not very clear but……errr, what was it again………”

Gaien has been putting up a pressuring attitude from the start but, he is now looking away and is searching his words in hesitation.

Laila did not look allow this chance to go.

“By the information I heard from, I think it was something like making water irrigation from the Mythril River flowing from the northern Fior region.”

“Aah. That’s exactly right. I remembered. It’s the irrigation first, the irrigation. We can’t do anything unless we secure the water for the agriculture. Well, I can’t say any more than this over her. Since the cultivation of Fior region is an important agriculture policy to our country, at a moment notice------“

Gaien tried averting the topic but, the atmosphere in the room changed instantly right after.

The people from the Empire brought their eyebrows closer in suspicion and started mumbling to each other, for example [……..That’s weird], [If I am correct, the Myhril river].

Right when Gaien started feeling troubled after looking at the situation-----

“Ah. Oh no. I am very sorry Mister Gaien.”

Laila purposely apologized.

“Oh stupid me, I made such a big mistake. The policy of making a water irrigation from the Mythril River, has already been done by the Empire 30 years ago and is a failed policy.”

“………………..”

“There’s many flat lands at that region and low on the amount of rainfall. Because of that, the dilution and flow of salt inside the soil takes place there; it has been proven that there is a high risk of salt accumulation if an irrigation channel is carelessly built there.”

Gaien’s sights turned grim but, Laila immediately made a mysterious expression and started talking to herself.

“However……this is weird. Your side should be well aware of the risk of salt-air damage occurring in the Fior region. To think that the Lectar republic would repeat a mistake that the Arludea empire caused 30 years ago even though they possess agricultural techniques far more advanced that other countries……..”

“……..Fu-fufu. Sorry. It looks like I was the one who made the mistake. I have been tired recently so, it’s making my memories chaotic. I think I’ll rest for today. I will prepare the documents regarding the cultivation next time.”

While making a stiff smile, Gaien left the room with his vice officers. Strong anger was in the glare he directed to Laila when he left.

The moment the door closed, Laila’s social smile disappeared from her face, before she made an expressionless face mixed with slight tiredness and anger.

She extended her hands to her shoulder and *Pan**Pan* dusted off the place where he touched over-familiarly just now.

Because of Laila Schut’s bold and fearless independent decisions, the high officials fell into chaos in the reception room but, she left the place right before she got dragged into the chaos.

(Well then, what now………..)

While walking down the HQ corridor, Laila was in thought.

She pondered over the behavior Gaien displayed, the condition of Lectar republic of the past few years and the agreements when they handed Fior region to them, for a full on analysis.

(Now that I think back, this matter from the first place is----)

She formed several hypotheses in her mind and while repeating reinforcement of her theories and discarding implausible ones until she was left with the best explainable one.

Like that, after she analyzed future and past events,

“Ah. Major General Schut.”

Her sister Alua came from in front and talked to her.

“How was the meeting with the messenger from Lectar?”

Unlike her usual tone, her current tone was polite and adhered to formalities.

When Alua is working and when other military personals are around, she would correct her speech patterns. No matter if they are sisters, they would set bad examples for others if a superior and subordinate have an overly familiar relationship.

“Alua……….umu. Actually, the situation changed a lot. If possible I want to have a discussion with him but, is he in the mansion now?”

When she meant him, it was obviously referring to Tooi. It’s best to not mention the name Tooi Cross in the public because of its fame in many aspects.

Regarding that point, the will of the sisters are in sync even without an arranged meeting.

“He’s out for a while.”

“He’s out? Did he go to a brothel?”

“There’s no way he would go there! Don’t say such weird things, Onee-chan!”

Alua’s face turned red and she retorted back with her real tone.

“Iyaaa, but you know. He was quite interested in brothels since 10 years ago you know? I saw him many times hesitating on whether should enter the entertainment district or not, and the color of his eyes changed when I told him that it’s possible to enter the shops at the age of 16 in this country.”

“R-really……….?”

“Yeah. He even said [I’m not really interested] with a cool face. He should just honestly admit it. That closet pervert.”

“………………”

Alua looked down while her face was red. The story was a little too stimulating for her.

While exposing Tooi’s embarrassing and making it a little too overly exaggerated, Laila enjoyed looking at the embarrassed Alua before, returning the conversation back to its original track.

“Alua. Stop talking about brothels openly in the daylight and answer my question.”

“You started it Onee-chan! Mouu!”

Alua raised both her hands up and was steaming up.

“So, where did he go? If possible, I want you to immediately call him.”

“Err……..i think it will be quite hard to call him immediately…….”

“Why? Is he outside the Capital-----“

Right when she reaches that far in her sentence, Laila suddenly remembered something.

It was the sentence Alua said when she came to wake her up this morning.

“……….You, if I remember correctly, you said that Corporal Frau came to the mansion when you were training with him this morning right? Did you say what training?”

“Err well, this morning, Onii-chan asked me to---“

After sprinting like slicing through the opposing wind, a motorbike stopped right when it reach a slightly elevated hill. The grasses were pressed down when it passed by and a straight line was formed on the grass plains.

The sun was slightly setting and it’s about time the curtain of night to fall.

“……Fuu. I am tired.”

After getting off the motorbike, Tooi let out a light sigh.

In order to loosen his stiff body caused by long hours of driving, he performed stretches and twisted his hips.

“Unn. Well, it has the same outlines of a scooter once I got the hang of it.”

While mumbling to himself, Tooi parked the motorbike behind a nearby big tree. Apparently there’s no lock but, there’s probably no worries that anyone would steal it in a place like this.

Since it’s a place treated as an off-limits holy land and is steered clear from normal humans.

Once he lifted his face, a soaring castle entered his view.

It has a beautiful white silhouette with the night sky as its background. The castle is not exactly considered big and, it just can’t seem to get rid of the snugly impression but, the exterior is covered with elegance. The sense of solemnity is being brought out by the delicate ornaments placed everywhere and the castle does rival or even surpass the palaces in grand countries.

A pure while castle so beautiful that it made him admire it by reflex.

That’s the shrine that Ryura Vega lives in.

<noinclude>

{{SimpleNav}}
</noinclude>

The Reunion With Twelve Fascinating Goddesses:Volume 1 Chapter 5

2015-11-12T03:53:26Z

Gamerdude13: read -> red

==Chapter 5: Swirling Politics==

===Part 1===
Laila Schut wakes up late in the morning.

She has low blood pressure on the morning, and is mainly a night person. She often sleeps through the afternoon. Even the maids living and working there, would not wake her up unless they were asked to do so beforehand.

When she was a private, she had to move according to the strict schedule as expected but, now that she has the status of major general, she was boldly managing her own attendance at work. Her work station which is the central HQ is nearby; also, since her mansion’s facilities were fully used too, there’s many times where business is done at her own home.

Even within the strict Empire military, those acts of freedom are originally something not forgiven but--since she’s been doing her job perfectly and has been giving above-average results; no one could file a complaint against her.

“………….Hn. Hn~~”

On the day and even the day after they visited La Shii Fomalhaut, Laila woke up late.

Even when the sun was high up in the sky, she could not leave the bed and was continuously rolling around her bed while letting out groans.

She usually give orders to her subordinates with a dignified and resolute behavior but, she looks just like a little girl when she’s hugging her favorite blanket on her bed.

Today, the person who went over to wake her up was-----

“…….nee……..chan, Onee-chan, Onee-chan, Onee-chan!”

It was her sister Alua’s shouting.

The door of her bedroom bust opened and a pale Alua entered.

“Onee-chan wake up! It’s bad! Real real bad!”

“…..Hn~~. Whaaat, Alua…..”

Laila let out a pathetic groan which is impossible to imagine from her usual awe-inspiring behavior. She’s always this low tensioned whenever she just wakes up.

“Come on! Stop covering yourself with your blanket………wait, wh-why are you in your underwear!”

Having pulled the blanket away by force, Alua shouted after she saw Laila stripped off her pajamas and was in her underwear.

“It was hot yesterday.”

“Don’t strip because it was hot!”

“It’s okay. Only I, you and the maids live in this mansion.”

“Tooi Onii-chan lives here too now!”

“………Ahhh, oh yeah. He’s here…………”

Laila mumbled that in a blank sleepy manner.

“Well, I guess being seen in my underwear by him isn’t a big deal anymore.”

“Eeeh!? Wh-wha-what kind of relationship do you two have!?”

“He saw much more amazing places anyway………..”

“Amazing places!?”

“So…..what’s the problem Alua?”

After Laila asked her, Alua was blasted in her world of imagination with a blushing face but, she immediately came back to this world.

“Th-that’s right! This is bad, Onee-chan! This morning, when I was training with Tooi Onii-chan………Corporal Frau came over”

Corporal Frau is one of Laila’s subordinates.

“It’s about the diplomat from the Lectar Republic……”

“Unnn? There’s still 2 weeks left until the diplomat comes right?”

“That’s…………..by their own convenience, they made the planned visit earlier and has already arrived to the Imperial Capital”

At that moment, Laila’s sleepy mind awoke in one go.

The Empire central HQ is related to the palace where the royalties live in.

Arludea Empire is a powerful grand country that has invaded, and seized other countries around its area. Because of that, their military organization is huge. By appearance, the Royal family controls the [Empire] but, seeing the authority that the military possesses, this country is one closer to being a military nation.

The military has always been involved even in domestic affairs and diplomacy with other countries, and if one becomes the marshal which is the top of the military then that person’s voice and influence is known to be equal to the power of the royal family.

Of course, since there are many people from the royal family, people related to the royal family through marriage and nobles in the military army, it’s hard to rule out which is [Better] between the military organization or imperial family.

“Empire military major general, Laila Schut. Now reporting for duty!”

Having reached the HQ’s reception room, Laila was giving off a dignified expression which is so perfect that it was hard to imagine she woke up 30 minutes ago; and while saluting, she looked at the people inside.

The long table in the middle had a table cloth decorated with the Arludea crest laid on top of it and many leaders such as diplomats and officers were surrounding it.

The diplomat from the Lectar republic was already sitting on the seat of honor.

It’s a middle-aged man with a military uniform attire. His shoulders were wide, chest was thick but, his waist and neck were thick, rather than calling his body athletic it’s more towards stern. There’s a thick beard growing around his mouth and his eyes had a strong light that could overwhelm others.

Several vice officers were standing by behind him.

“Sorry for the wait Mister Gaien. I apologize for being late.”

“Yaa. You’re not late, major general Schut”

Opposite to Laila who was lowering her head in respect, Gaien did not even try to stand up. His body was deeply rooted into the wooden chair while he continued talking with that cocky posture.

“Oh, please don’t mind it. It’s our fault making the date earlier by our own whim. Raise your head.”

Rather than calling it tolerant, it’s more towards arrogance.

Gaien has visited the Empire military several times when the Ryura Vega problem occurred at the Fior region but, his rude behavior can be described as, showing the current power relationship between the Empire and Lectar republic.

“You weren’t in HQ so where were you at?”

“While taking the role of patrolling, I headed out to observe the city. It has been dangerous recently in the imperial capital after all.”

“Observation? You, a major general of all people?”

“Yes. Us, the commanders, have been staying at home for far too long. There are many things we won’t understand from the reports heard from our subordinates. By walking with our own feet, by looking with our own eyes and by listening with our own ears. By doing those acts and getting acquainted with the appearance and voices of the streets, it will become irreplaceable fortune for our military.”

“Houu. As expected from Miss Schut. That’s an excellent thought. There’s a good reason why you gained the position of major general at such a young age, I see.”

Laila made such a fluent random speech but, it seems that Gaien did not notice that it was a lie and nodded as if he was admiring it. Having known the reason for her late appearance, everyone was showing an expression with no complaints.

After Laila reached her seat, Gaien refreshed the whole thing and brought up the topic.

“Anyway, I am glad that Major General Schut came. It’s a waste of time with the other people here.”

“And by that you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s related to the Fior region.”

Pressure increased in Gaien’s gazes.

“I have already heard the news but, there isn’t any results brought up regarding the Ryura Vega suppression case.”

“That’s………….”

“This is a problem. If you don’t hurry up and deal with that monster, our countries agrarian reform will lag behind and won’t advance.”

When Laila was finding rejections to reply,

“P-please don’t worry, Mister Gaien”

A member of the diplomat sitting beside him raised his voice in a flattering manner.

“Thanks to the repeated advances of our army, the deity is definitely getting weaker. In response, our army has not suffered any deaths when facing the deity and the battle is advancing on our favor. Next time for sure, next time we will definitely bring down the deity!”

(……….This idiot)

Laila scolded the person in her mind.

This transparent lie won’t work on Gaien. They probably is well aware of the situation with Ryura Vega since the Lectar republic has been sending scouts too.

And more importantly-----

“No deaths? This is a shock. Apparently, the Empire military, has been fighting quite lightheartedly huh.”

The face of the diplomat immediately stiffened up but, it was too late.

“Since it’s an opponent you just can’t win, I just can’t help to think that you lots are just trying to reduce the damages as much as possible. Even if it’s mistakes, I wished you all would show the fighting spirit of wanting to shower the opponent with sword slashes. Are all the soldiers all cowards that have no determination to throw their lives in the battle?”

While making an apologetic expression, Laila clicked her tongue in her mind. Because of one idiot’s unneeded comment, the bad situation turned even worse.

In the battlefield, there’s nothing better than little damages to the army.

However, for this situation----it’s a little different.

In order to free Fior Region to hand over to the Lectar republic, the Empire military is currently sending out their army. This is so that they would fulfill their role in the diplomacy.

Which means, they are just [Compensating] for the unseen circumstances; in an extreme argument, they are moving their soldiers because they are worried about their appearance towards the Lectar republic and other countries.

If they lied that they have a 1000 deaths then, Lectar won’t have anything to say, giving the Empire to maintain their reputation to the minimum standards but, if the opposite happens then, they can’t reply anything back if the other side blamed them for [Cutting corners].

“Is your side perhaps already thinking that this is someone else’s problem now that Fior was handed to another country? If that’s the case, then this is truly unsatisfactory news. We the Lectar republic will have to think of our future relations now.”

“N-nothing of the sort. We are doing our very best too but……….Since our enemy is a deity, we can’t deal with it with ordinary methods……….”

Gaien pressed for an answer as if to intimidate, after hearing such an unreliable response from the diplomat.

“How about increasing your soldier counts if you’re doing your very best? I took a look at previous records but, it looks like only about a 100 to 300 Spirit knights were deployed. If you use the Arludea Empire military strength, 1 or 2 deities is just an easy matter.”

“H-however………we can’t focus our forces towards Foir region. There are many problems within the country such as the west border and the northern bandits………..”

“That is your country’s problem. It is not related to us. In the first place, this is a problem caused because you all hid the fact that a deity would appear at Fior region.”

“It’s insulting to say that we hid her. We have said this many times before in the past but, the appearance of the deity is an unforeseen circumstance even for us------“

Even after that, the same quarrel continued causing this unproductive discussion to continue but, the Empire side was being suppressed by Gaien from start to end.

When the topic was going around in circles, Gaien’s manner of speaking got stricter and,

“We aren’t getting anywhere. Even though there’s no plan to break this deadlock, all of you kept turning down all of our proposals. It’s the same as acting like a child.”

After saying that, he sighed tiredly.

The people from the Empire side hung their heads and could not reply back. Just when the atmosphere in the room turned heavier, Gaien suddenly changed and made a bright smile.

It’s a really bright and scornful smile.

“Well, we sympathize with you all. Ryura Vega is one of the famous [{{Furigana|12 Goddesses|Nebulosa}}]. Which means, if we go look back at the start of all this, this problem occurred because Tooi Cross let those monsters out into this world. There are people calling him a hero in this world but, I think he’s just a thoughtless idiot if I say so myself. He’s just pulling a prank on the world. What a useless sinner, that man called Tooi Cross----“

It was at that moment.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Bam*! A dull sound echoed in the reception room. Laila remained silent the whole time but, she slammed the table with both her hands and stood up vigorously.

“----Understood.”

While she’s being focused with sights of shock and oddness from her surroundings, Laila talked quietly.

“For this matter, it’s clear that it was our fault for overlooking Ryura Vega’s existence. In order to wipe off that embarrassment, we will use our entire military force and present to you the repulsion of Ryura Vega.”

Uproar occurred in the room after she said that sentence with such a resolute attitude. Everyone was opening their eyes wide in surprise while looking at Laila.

Within them, Gaien was the only one lifting the side of his mouth, oozing in joy.

“Houu. Which means, you’re going to increase the number of soldiers?”

“Of course.”

“How many?”

“3000. Of course, it’s a team made focused on Spirit knights.”

The whole room turned noisy.

Within the soldiers affiliated with Arludea Empire military, there are only about 10000 of them can use the [Ray Alma] and is called a Spirit knight.

Those Spirit knights are a scare force only deployed during emergencies.

It’s only natural that her surroundings would feel shaken when 1/3 of it is being thrown in.

“If we keep wasting our time on this fight, we won’t only exhaust our forces, but also the trust from other countries. If that’s the case, it’s a good idea to end this with a short term battle by focusing our forces. I promise you that we will summon our Spirit knights from every parts of the Empire and create knight brigade.”

“…….Fuu. Wahahahaha. How wonderful!”

After showing an excited smile, Gaien clapped his hands and praised her. He stood up from his chairs and walked over to Laila.

“As expected from Major General Schut. Your decisiveness and judgment is amazing. The Empire’s future is bright with you here.”

“Thank you for those kind words.”

Laila bowed deeply. Gaien *Pon* placed his hands on her shoulders before passing by her.

With his vice officers following behind him, the moment he placed his hands on the door on the conference room------

“Aah, I recalled something, mister Gaien.”

Laila raised her voice as if she recalled something.

“I forgot to ask you one question.”

“And what is it?”

“Right after Ryura Vega is dealt with, I presume that your country has plans in developing Fior region into a grand scale agricultural land so, can you please tell me the specifics on what those plans are, if possible?”

Gaien slightly raised his eyebrows for an instant.

“…….Why would you want to know?”

“For future reference. The agricultural techniques of the Lectar republic are famous within the neighboring countries. I personally am interested.”

“I see, how studious of you. The cultivation plan huh…………I am not from that field so I am not very clear but……errr, what was it again………”

Gaien has been putting up a pressuring attitude from the start but, he is now looking away and is searching his words in hesitation.

Laila did not look allow this chance to go.

“By the information I heard from, I think it was something like making water irrigation from the Mythril River flowing from the northern Fior region.”

“Aah. That’s exactly right. I remembered. It’s the irrigation first, the irrigation. We can’t do anything unless we secure the water for the agriculture. Well, I can’t say any more than this over her. Since the cultivation of Fior region is an important agriculture policy to our country, at a moment notice------“

Gaien tried averting the topic but, the atmosphere in the room changed instantly right after.

The people from the Empire brought their eyebrows closer in suspicion and started mumbling to each other, for example [……..That’s weird], [If I am correct, the Myhril river].

Right when Gaien started feeling troubled after looking at the situation-----

“Ah. Oh no. I am very sorry Mister Gaien.”

Laila purposely apologized.

“Oh stupid me, I made such a big mistake. The policy of making a water irrigation from the Mythril River, has already been done by the Empire 30 years ago and is a failed policy.”

“………………..”

“There’s many flat lands at that region and low on the amount of rainfall. Because of that, the dilution and flow of salt inside the soil takes place there; it has been proven that there is a high risk of salt accumulation if an irrigation channel is carelessly built there.”

Gaien’s sights turned grim but, Laila immediately made a mysterious expression and started talking to herself.

“However……this is weird. Your side should be well aware of the risk of salt-air damage occurring in the Fior region. To think that the Lectar republic would repeat a mistake that the Arludea empire caused 30 years ago even though they possess agricultural techniques far more advanced that other countries……..”

“……..Fu-fufu. Sorry. It looks like I was the one who made the mistake. I have been tired recently so, it’s making my memories chaotic. I think I’ll rest for today. I will prepare the documents regarding the cultivation next time.”

While making a stiff smile, Gaien left the room with his vice officers. Strong anger was in the glare he directed to Laila when he left.

The moment the door closed, Laila’s social smile disappeared from her face, before she made an expressionless face mixed with slight tiredness and anger.

She extended her hands to her shoulder and *Pan**Pan* dusted off the place where he touched over-familiarly just now.

Because of Laila Schut’s bold and fearless independent decisions, the high officials fell into chaos in the reception room but, she left the place right before she got dragged into the chaos.

(Well then, what now………..)

While walking down the HQ corridor, Laila was in thought.

She pondered over the behavior Gaien displayed, the condition of Lectar republic of the past few years and the agreements when they handed Fior region to them, for a full on analysis.

(Now that I think back, this matter from the first place is----)

She formed several hypotheses in her mind and while repeating reinforcement of her theories and discarding implausible ones until she was left with the best explainable one.

Like that, after she analyzed future and past events,

“Ah. Major General Schut.”

Her sister Alua came from in front and talked to her.

“How was the meeting with the messenger from Lectar?”

Unlike her usual tone, her current tone was polite and adhered to formalities.

When Alua is working and when other military personals are around, she would correct her speech patterns. No matter if they are sisters, they would set bad examples for others if a superior and subordinate have an overly familiar relationship.

“Alua……….umu. Actually, the situation changed a lot. If possible I want to have a discussion with him but, is he in the mansion now?”

When she meant him, it was obviously referring to Tooi. It’s best to not mention the name Tooi Cross in the public because of its fame in many aspects.

Regarding that point, the will of the sisters are in sync even without an arranged meeting.

“He’s out for a while.”

“He’s out? Did he go to a brothel?”

“There’s no way he would go there! Don’t say such weird things, Onee-chan!”

Alua’s face turned red and she retorted back with her real tone.

“Iyaaa, but you know. He was quite interested in brothels since 10 years ago you know? I saw him many times hesitating on whether should enter the entertainment district or not, and the color of his eyes changed when I told him that it’s possible to enter the shops at the age of 16 in this country.”

“R-really……….?”

“Yeah. He even said [I’m not really interested] with a cool face. He should just honestly admit it. That closet pervert.”

“………………”

Alua looked down while her face was red. The story was a little too stimulating for her.

While exposing Tooi’s embarrassing and making it a little too overly exaggerated, Laila enjoyed looking at the embarrassed Alua before, returning the conversation back to its original track.

“Alua. Stop talking about brothels openly in the daylight and answer my question.”

“You started it Onee-chan! Mouu!”

Alua raised both her hands up and was steaming up.

“So, where did he go? If possible, I want you to immediately call him.”

“Err……..i think it will be quite hard to call him immediately…….”

“Why? Is here outside the Capital-----“

Right when she reaches that far in her sentence, Laila suddenly remembered something.

It was the sentence Alua said when she came to wake her up this morning.

“……….You, if I remember correctly, you said that Corporal Frau came to the mansion when you were training with him this morning right? Did you say what training?”

“Err well, this morning, Onii-chan asked me to---“

After sprinting like slicing through the opposing wind, a motorbike stopped right when it reach a slightly elevated hill. The grasses were pressed down when it passed by and a straight line was formed on the grass plains.

The sun was slightly setting and it’s about time the curtain of night to fall.

“……Fuu. I am tired.”

After getting off the motorbike, Tooi let out a light sigh.

In order to loosen his stiff body caused by long hours of driving, he performed stretches and twisted his hips.

“Unn. Well, it has the same outlines of a scooter once I got the hang of it.”

While mumbling to himself, Tooi parked the motorbike behind a nearby big tree. Apparently there’s no lock but, there’s probably no worries that anyone would steal it in a place like this.

Since it’s a place treated as an off-limits holy land and is steered clear from normal humans.

Once he lifted his face, a soaring castle entered his view.

It has a beautiful white silhouette with the night sky as its background. The castle is not exactly considered big and, it just can’t seem to get rid of the snugly impression but, the exterior is covered with elegance. The sense of solemnity is being brought out by the delicate ornaments placed everywhere and the castle does rival or even surpass the palaces in grand countries.

A pure while castle so beautiful that it made him admire it by reflex.

That’s the shrine that Ryura Vega lives in.

<noinclude>

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</noinclude>

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 2

2015-06-23T01:50:09Z

Gamerdude13: /* Part 2 */ no -> not

{{Incomplete|parts=7|tparts=20}}
==Chapter 2: Guardian Deity of Talent >> Mountain Battle of Lost Angels==

===Part 1===

Long story short, they were back in the run-down Lost Angels motel.

Drawing a board game on the back of some paper seemed like a good idea at the time, but Quenser and Heivia began arguing over whether the paper die was warped or unfair and they ended up in a light scuffle.

Of course, Lost Angels had enough entertainment to last a lifetime (however short that might be), but…

“Oh, screw this! My stress just keeps building up and I don’t feel like heading out for some fun when there are criminals and spies everywhere.”

“This is still better than a Capitalist Corporations safe country. They have constant shootouts between ‘talent trafficking’ kidnappers and school PMCs.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t know? You can make a lot of money selling genius kids to corporations, so there are organizations that specialize in going after elementary and middle school kids. That’s why their school buses and bulletproof and are escorted by armored trucks armed with machineguns. The kidnappers use attack helicopters to go after them from the air. Makes you wonder how that can be called a ‘safe’ country.”

“And the big companies buy the abducted kids!?”

“With DNA tests, you won’t get a 100% match even with a sample from the same person. And when there’s even a 0.1% margin of error, it’s a job for the corporate lawyers. Even if the parents sue them and bring in pictures and hair samples, the lawyers will twist the truth with their words. They’ll make it so the kid is someone else who ‘just so happens to look a lot like them’.”

“Wow.”

“Of course, it helps that the big companies that control the judicial system and administration are the ones doing this. You’ve probably heard how the Capitalist Corporations very nearly completed a long-term civilian space travel project, but there’s talk that those kids were a part of it. Naturally, just like with the moon landing way back when, there are conspiracy theories that it was all a fake to frighten the other world powers. At any rate, the number of geniuses on their payroll is directly related to the technological power of a corporation, so that market isn’t going away anytime soon. It sure is scary to think about.”

That was when the door cracked open and Millia Newburg of the intelligence division entered with a smile.

“Hi there, everyone. I have a new member to introduce! C’mon in, transfer student!!”

“What? Did some idiot get drunk, pull off an officer’s toupee, and get demoted or something?” asked Heivia while removing his hand from his awful friend’s collar.

But Millia shook her head.

“In a way, this is even more interesting. Heh heh. C’mon already! We’re going to be roommates, so don’t be so shy!!”

She tugged on an arm and pulled someone into the dimly-lit motel room.

“…Wait,” said Quenser in a scratchy voice.

It was a brown-skinned girl with her long black hair tied back. From neck to toes, she was covered in a special skintight fabric. That green outfit with a nurse-like silhouette was most likely the same kind of Pilot Elite special suit that the Princess normally wore.

Green was the color the Faith Organization liked to use and Quenser only knew of one Elite who had recently been forced to leave the Object that was like a part of her own body.

“Tah dah!! It’s Putana Highball who piloted the Collective Farming! After we released her, she was placed against the wall and about to be shot for her failure, so I attacked and collected her because it sounded like fun!!”

“I-I’ll kill you!! I’ll slaughter every last one of you who took the Sarasvati, the Faith Organization, and everything from me!! Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!”

When he saw the disgrace of a former Elite starting to struggle and being restrained, Quenser Barbotage grew somewhat blue.

If something happened, he would of course be the first she killed.

“But she’s cute, so who cares!!”

“You’re pretty sinful yourself, you know that, Quenser?”

===Part 2===

However…

“Our job today is in the northern mountains. You each need to secure your own transportation and hurry there. Oh, and Quenser! Putana may be from the city, but I doubt she’s left the Faith Organization base much. Show her around Lost Angels while also teaching her our way of doing things. Teaching the newbies is a job for the old newbie. Heivia did the same for you, remember? Have fun☆”

“ ‘Teacher’, if you’re going to show me the way around Lost Angels, I’d like you to show me a lot more ‘shortcuts’ and ‘back streets’!!”

“Noooooo!! I’d always wanted a girl to invite me into an empty back alley, but not like thiiiiissssssssssssss!!”

In a supermarket parking lot near the run-down motel, Quenser screamed like a girl stopped by an old man wearing nothing but a trench coat.

The city of Lost Angels was as insane as ever. A nearby store was blown up, black smoke rose into the blue sky, and a '''Pizza Deliveryman''' ignored it while riding his scooter down the road.

“By the way, teacher, I have a question.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“Who was it that thought up the plan to steal my Sarasvati? From what I’ve overhead, it was an idea suggested by a normal soldier.”

“Ha…ha ha ha ha ha!! I-I have no idea what you’re talking about. That was a plan to steal a Second Generation Object, right? To think up that, you’d have to be a sexy genius from some new breed of human!!”

“Mhh… Come to think of it, you’re right. A normal person like you wouldn’t know anything about that.”

Anyway, they were not out here to pick up some food.

A clattering sound made it clear Quenser was in the process of stealing a light off-road motorcycle.

“If I connect this…to this… Wow, Heivia was right! It actually started up! I can’t believe it. How cheap is this thing!?”

“No matter how complicated they make it, it’ll still get stolen, so I doubt anyone tries that hard. That motorcycle was probably stolen from another parking lot.

Starting up the engine was one thing, but Quenser could not drive a motorcycle.

After seeing a macho man quickly running over from a store with a handgun at the ready, Putana Highball hopped onto the seat and Quenser clung to her back. She must have made a mistake operating the clutch because the off-road two-wheel vehicle hopped up in a flashy wheelie.

This was a common sight in Lost Angels.

Dry gunshots rang out behind them.

“I see,” said Putana. “So this is why they call it the city of corruption.”

“Eh? What was that!? I can’t hear you over the wind!”

“Lost Angels is a part of the Faith Organization, but it doesn’t look like it, does it? Rumor has it it was a giant experiment to see what happened to people after they lost their faith. …And it’s making my skin crawl, so don’t cling to me like that, teacher.”

“Buhahhh.”

“Why are you sniffing at me so obviously right after I warned you!?”

“Nothing you say will change the fact that I’m in a good position here. So no matter how much you’ll hit me later, I’m gonna do it! Oh, your body is so soft and warm. Girls are the best!!”

That was when Millia Newburg’s familiar voice came in over the radio.

“Hey, there! Looks like you’re going at it already, so I’m glad to see you’re making progress with her training.”

With a deep roar of an engine, a motorcycle pulled up alongside theirs. Millia was driving, Heivia sat behind her with his arms around her waist, and neither of them was wearing a helmet. They had clearly had a rough ride because Quenser’s horrible friend was completely pale and did not seem able to enjoy the warmth of his beautiful commanding officer. He was clinging to her for dear life.

To prevent the wind from drowning her out, Millia was speaking through the radio despite how close they were.

“This is a good opportunity. How about we have a race to our destination in the northern mountains? We both have a guy loaded on the back, so the conditions seem fair to me. Think of it like a welcome party to get to know each other.”

“Your bike is the large kind used in professional races. I can’t hope to match those specs.”

“Finding the best ride is part of the challenge here in Lost Angels. Or are you afraid that a great Elite is going to lose to a normal soldier in a vehicle race because of a slight handicap like that?”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Oh, no!” shouted Quenser. “I think this Elite had too sheltered an upbringing to know when someone’s provoking her!”

The two motorcycles stopped side by side in front of a lowered railroad crossing barrier.

As a rusty freight train slowly passed by, Millia gave a simple explanation of the rules.

“The goal is our original destination and you can choose whatever route you like. The witnesses can be the luggage we have sitting behind us. Any other local rules necessary?”

“Only that we ban gunfire and running each other off the road.”

“Hah hah! Sounds like you’ve figured out how this city works!”

[[Image:HO_v09_091.jpg|thumb]]

The final car of the freight train passed by, a bell sounded like the clattering of an empty can, and the barrier lifted.

Intense acceleration immediately pressed in on Quenser and Heivia’s guts.

The scenery flew by and a blast of wind struck their entire bodies. The two motorcycles passed some cars waiting at a light, did not hesitate to drive right out into the traffic flowing like a river through the intersection, took a sharp curve, and started down the major road. Once again, the world was wasting all sorts of energy and the hands of the World Clock were moving ever faster.

“Abah. Abababababababah!?”

“Teacher, not so loud.”

Despite Putana’s casual tone, Quenser did not have it in him. If not for his overflowing passion for enjoying this girl’s body temperature for as long as possible, he would almost certainly have been thrown off already.

At first, Putana fell behind due to her inferior engine. She kept her position about ten meters behind Millia Newburg and used her superior off-road ability to switch between lanes and take the shortest route, even if by only a meter or ten centimeters. The way she took the inside of every turn to the point of just about hitting things was taking years from the lifespan of Quenser’s heart, so the World Clock was now the least of his worries.

An old man who had apparently been stripped of everything he owned was sitting in a daze on the roadside. He only wore underwear and the luxury car next to him had all of its bulletproof glass broken. Quenser was pretty sure he was the '''Jeweler''' famous for laundering, but from now on, he would have his hands full finding a cardboard box to sleep in.

Millia’s voice arrived over the radio again.

“How about we kill some time by reviewing the mission?”

“…!!”

Suggesting that in her spare time seemed to have stoked Putana’s competitive spirit.

The brown girl violently twisted the throttle lever and Quenser’s scream rose in pitch.

Up ahead, Millia moved into the opposing traffic to get around a slow-moving truck and she spoke calmly with cars zooming by on either side.

“Our job today is to support the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion. Specifically, we’re going to be supporting their Object, the Baby Magnum.”

“The Princess’s?”

“The northern mountains are considered a part of Lost Angels, but the other side of the mountains doesn’t fall into the safe country category. A battlefield country juts sharply in there and there’s someone there just asking for a nice heavy punch.”

While ignoring three lights in a row, Putana continued pursuit, but she was not closing in any.

More than just the difference in engine specs, Millia was a skilled driver.

“Our opponent is a Second Generation Faith Organization Object named the Flyaway.”

“Because it’s frivolous?”

“The name does have a meaning, but not in a good way. That’s why they want the Princess to blow it to smithereens.”

Putana’s control of the handlebars grew a little stiff when she heard the Faith Organization mentioned.

The distance between them opened up, even if by only a few meters.

Millia Newburg passed by a few cars as if shaking her butt in Putana’s direction.

“The simplest way to explain its fighting style is ‘always flee’. As soon as things get dangerous, it releases its main cannon and uses the reduction in weight to escape the battlefield.”

“Its main cannon? But isn’t that full of military secrets?”

“That’s why the main cannon is like a beehive made of large containers. It’s got a ton of large-capacity batteries and bug legs, so it can run around on its own for a bit even after being abandoned. It can’t fire without the reactor, but it can regroup with the Object or be picked up after escaping the battlefield. And if you try to stop it by firing on it, it’ll melt like candy. Either way, you lose your chance to get those secrets.”

“Another pain in the ass…”

“Agreed. The information we’ve gathered says it uses its beehive-like coilgun to scatter eighty percent of its ammunition in the first five seconds, abandons that main cannon, and uses it as a diversion to escape. And if it’s about to be caught, it won’t hesitate to send out the White Flag signal. …It uses that combination of surprise attack and retreat for months at a time while waiting for its enemy to be worn down.”

In an age where clashes between nuke-resistant Objects had become daily topics of conversation, the six or seven billion people on earth had not gone extinct due to a few ridiculous implicit understandings about the battlefield. The White Flag signal was one of those. If one of the Objects was destroyed or unable to continue fighting, that signal would be sent out to avoid a slaughter of the people in the undefended maintenance base.

However…

“The White Flag is supposed to be for emergencies, so if they keep using it like that…”

“Yes. They’ll create a situation where people are so fed up with it that they ignore it. This one idiot could easily ruin one of the rules of the battlefield. That’s why we have to settle this before it happens.”

There were a few different ways to do that.

1. Destroy it with a single attack before it could use the White Flag.

2. Obstruct its propulsion device so it could not escape after abandoning its main cannon.

3. Somehow prevent it from transmitting the White Flag.

Of course, if they could pull off #1 with no real preparation, this enemy would not have been a problem in the first place.

[[Image:HO_v09_096.jpg|thumb]]

“The battlefield is in the treacherous mountains I mentioned before and that’s where the Flyaway works best. It uses its eight legs with a static electricity propulsion device, so it almost seems to slide up slopes as steep as sixty-five degrees. If it wanted to, it could slip back and forth between this side and that side of the mountains.”

The Princess used a multi-role First Generation Object, so it was designed to work just as well in a desert or the Antarctic Ocean. However, that meant it did not specialize in any one environment, so she would be slower than the Flyaway on a mountain slope.

“To put it another way, would the Princess be able to take it out if its legs were dealt with?”

“I’m glad you catch on so quickly. No matter how special its design is, the Flyaway still uses static electricity to float. If we do something to the ground below its feet, we can still interfere with its movement.”

Lost Angels was a city of two million, but as they traveled north, the buildings gradually grew shorter and a wasteland covered in fine, orange sand grew more obvious. Looking down the path of tall metal towers carrying high-voltage lines brought a wall of treacherous mountains into view.

Those were the northern mountains.

The tallest of them was not even two thousand meters and there was no hint of snow.

Instead, a hydroelectric power station and a ropeway were visible on the slope even from the distance.

“We don’t need any mountain climbing equipment. There’s an observatory on the peak, so you can get up by winding road or by cable car. We can easily take our bikes up to the top, so don’t worry.”

“A winding road? So a series of hairpin curves? …That means I still have a chance!!”

Millia likely understood that as well, but she still needlessly opened up the throttle and produced an explosive backfire to provoke the new girl.

But all of a sudden, the mountains up ahead shook.

A great cloud of dust blew down from the mountains and there was nothing the puny humans could do even though they saw the wall approaching.

Their vision narrowed considerably like they were caught in a sandstorm, the bright sunlight itself was cut off, and the area grew as dark as dusk.

A stinging pain ran across their cheeks. They had no helmet visor or goggles to protect them, but they continued the race. After switching on the headlights, Putana opened the throttle despite the limited visibility.

“Ugh. Peh, peh!! What just happened!?”

“Damn, that was sooner than predicted. This must be what they call an unexpected turn of events. It looks like the Princess has run into the Flyaway!!”

===Part 3===

“…”

The Princess took shallow breaths inside the Baby Magnum’s cockpit.

Beads of sweat trailed down her relatively unexpressive face.

The alarms sounded quite distant.

She could hear someone’s voice in her ear, but it took her a while to comprehend the words.

“Prin…cess… Save your confusion for when you return safe and sound! It’s too soon to sit there in a daze!!”

The transmission from Frolaytia acted like a slap to the face and the Princess somehow managed to grab one of the countless levers again.

Her eyeballs and their pupils gave targeting instructions to the machinery.

Her target was the Second Generation Faith Organization Object named the Flyaway.

It looked like a massive eight-legged insect clinging to the steep slope.

Its main cannon was made up of moving containers, so it could be abandoned like a lizard’s tail.

But it was not exposure to that threat which had made the Princess’s heart race.

She felt no real danger from an Object that would have its main cannon crawl around as a diversion and escape after the first attack.

She heard a crumbling sound as the mountain slope broke away below her.

But there was something strange mixed in that was not earthen dust or broken rock. She also saw a curved metal rail and a few pieces of metal that looked like they had burst from within. Before they had been destroyed so spectacularly, they may have been advertised as follows in a Lost Angels pamphlet with some photographs to go along with it:

''Take a ride through the miraculous night scenery of Lost Angels.

''How about a midair stroll in the world’s fastest cable cars?

“…Ugh.”

The Princess clenched her teeth and groaned as she used her gaze to aim.

But before her seven main cannons could roar, the Flyaway crossed the mountain ridge and escaped to the other side of the mountain.

That other side was Lost Angels, a Faith Organization safe country.

Starting from the route it took, the Flyaway had repeatedly violated the rules of war, so it had apparently not cared too much when it fired either.

“Uph!!”

The Princess brought a hand to her mouth and just barely held back the urge to vomit.

No matter how many powerful Objects she had destroyed or gun-wielding soldiers she had killed, that was completely different from killing innocent civilians. This slaughter that left the bounds of what could be called “war” caused her consciousness to flash in and out.

Her eyes turned toward one corner of the large screen.

More than ten seconds had passed since the “accidental shellfire”, but the wreckage of the cable cars continued to fall from the cliff like it was rolling down a hill.

The Princess did not know how many dozens or hundreds of people had been onboard, but that movement made it all too clear that no miracle would allow them to return alive.

===Part 4===

“This is F-F-F-Flashtime News (à la a DJ’s scratch)!! Today’s headline: Legitimacy Kingdom vs. Faith Organization, Mistake in the Mountains? There’s been a great tragedy involving all eighty-nine cable car passengers. Not much investigation has been done since the place is still a battlefield, but the odds of survival are looking grim. And it seems the victims were mostly children here on a trip. Both sides’ PR offices are giving conflicting explanations, so there’s a fear the truth may never be known.”

With their mission put on hold, Quenser and the others had returned to the run-down motel.

Quenser gave an annoyed sigh as he watched the news playing on the old TV in one corner of the room.

“If they investigated the scene, it’d be obvious it was the Flyaway’s coilgun that did it.”

“This guy isn’t a representative of public opinion around the world. There was an '''Ice Cream Truck''' driving by outside, remember? This is a pirate broadcast sent out by that thing, so no one believes it. When he was pissed at the outcome of a race he’d bet on, there was an entire day where every channel was nothing but the asshole of a ‘beautiful’ bulldog. On that day, trying to watch some TV while eating was a mistake.”

“No one here is remotely ecological.”

“You mean that World Clock thing? If they put out a report saying the energy used by safe country wives in the living room had grown to ten times that used by the military in battlefield countries, do you think those virtuous civilians would believe it?”

There was no tension in Millia Newburg’s voice.

Heivia spoke up while sipping on some bland instant coffee that tasted like a chain store’s coffee diluted with muddy water.

“Regardless, we can’t ignore this forever, Quenser. The White Flag was bad enough, but now the bastard piloting the Flyaway has completely forgotten his table manners. If we leave now, the same thing will keep happening around the world.”

“Those mountains are his home turf, so he’s bound to get carried away. If we poke at him, he’ll respond, so it won’t be hard to get a rematch.” Quenser held a hand to his chin as he spoke.
“The Princess will deliver the finishing blow, but the problem is how to mess with the Flyaway’s footing. Also, he can slide along those treacherous slopes with his eight legs, so how can humans like us catch up to or cut him off. If we can’t stop him, not even the Princess can get a shot in.”

That was when a girl raised her hand.

It was Putana Highball who had remained perfectly silent all this time.

“I have an idea about that.”

“Let’s hear it.”

Given Millia’s approval, the Pilot Elite continued.

“I’ve heard of secret tunnels filling those mountains. Lost Angels is a safe country and the other side of the mountains is a battlefield country, so those tunnels allow people to lose any pursuit when they’re transporting weapons, drugs, dirty money, jewels, or anything else.”

“So there’s a network of hand-dug smuggling tunnels? That sounds like something Mustard Cowboy – that is, the Capitalist Corporations – would do.”

“The Legitimacy Kingdom doesn’t have any tunnels?”

“Azul Hive is based in the southeastern commerce port and we get our funding from there. We can bring in as many weapons and people as we want, so there was no need to make any tunnels,” explained Millia. “Now, let’s get back on topic. The tunnels through those northern mountains are probably based on the drug tunnels connecting the Capitalist Corporations’ main country to Central America. I didn’t want to get involved with something so complicated, but I guess we have no choice.”

While making those preliminary calculations, she weighed the risks against the benefits and found the benefits won out.

“It’s only a rumor, but those mountains are supposed to be as full of tunnels as an ant colony. They may be hand-dug, but I hear they’re big enough for a small motorcycle to drive through without issue. But if this is true, it’s one of the cornerstones of their business. They’ll have made it so we can’t easily grasp its full scope. In other words, it would take too long to enter the mountain with surveying equipment now.”

“Then what do we do?” asked Heivia with a frown.

Their bikini commander answered immediately.

“Let’s do this Lost Angels style. We’ll abduct a Mustard Cowboy leader and get the information we need that way. They’ll actually be a soldier eating on the taxpayer’s dime, so there’s no need to hold back. Plus, I happen to know the perfect target.”

She operated one of the military computers filling the walls and displayed what looked like a resume with an attached photo. But to be clear, this file had not been written by the man in the photo. It came from a list of dangerous people created using information gathered by the intelligence division.

“George Coral. Male. Age thirty-six. Five registered homes in this city alone. He’s a former leader of Mustard Cowboy who had made a name for himself in Lost Angels’s western financial district.”

“Former?” asked Quenser.

“He was purged after that incident with the stolen lightship focusing lens.” Millia sounded amused. “Technically, he’s still running around the city. He’s only a poor little lamb who had everything taken from him, but that doesn’t change the fact that he has Mustard Cowboy’s information. Attacking a current leader would mean starting a citywide war, so this should be far easier. It’s the perfect chance to get our hands on an accurate map of the smuggling tunnels.”

“That settles it then. If we sit around, he’ll be killed by Capitalist Corporations soldiers. You can’t get a dead man to talk, so it would be best to nab him ASAP.”

No one opposed Heivia’s opinion and several sets of footsteps moved toward the run-down motel’s exit.

Quenser looked over at Putana.

“What is it, teacher?”

“Well… Whoever’s piloting the Flyaway is a Faith Organization Elite just like you. I thought maybe you could give us a hint there.”

Putana looked like she was spitting on the ground as she answered.

“They’re a disgrace to the Faith Organization.”

===Part 5===

There were piles of trash even among the countless high-rise buildings of western Lost Angels. For example, there was a garbage dump at one corner of an intersection. A bearded man lay face up, practically buried in the piles of black garbage bags that were probably no longer used anywhere else in the world.

His former dreadful and impressive aura was gone. An '''RC Girl''' may have been flying a toy around because she held a remote control while looking up into the blue sky, but not even she paid the man any heed.

The man’s former subordinate gave an exasperated comment.

“You are still in the western area?”

“Shut up… This is my territory, my turf, my domain. Dammit, who’s swimming in that rooftop pool now? Is it Kenny? Or maybe Rob? I’ll find whoever it was that stole my stuff and fill them with holes.”

It may have been this unpredictability that had allowed him to live this long. He had been the boss, so they never would have thought to find him buried in a pile of trash.

That was all it was.

Once they corrected their image of him, he would likely be found by the Mustard Cowboy soldiers before the long hand of the clock made a full circle, receive a bullet between the eyes before it made a second circle, and be thrown out into the ocean before it made a third.

“It would be best if you left the city and quickly,” said his former friendly subordinate.

“Are you mocking me? Listen. I’m putting together a plan for a comeback. I’m not gonna die here. Why? Because it isn’t my time to die yet, goddammit! First, I’ll get my hands on a gun. I can just punch someone around here and take one!!”

“What do you hope to accomplish with a 9mm bullet?”

“If you want to know, then come with me. I’ll show you the kind of luxury you’ll never find in the tax-funded lifestyle of a soldier. C’mon!! If you’re looking for George Coral, he’s right over herrrrre!! If you’ve got a problem with that, then come face meeeeee!!!!!!”

As soon as the man stood on the top of the trash heap and gave a roar, something happened.

“Will do.”

With that casual comment, Heivia crashed a stolen four-wheel drive vehicle into the trash heap by the intersection.

He did so at full speed and without touching the brakes.

With a great crash, the piled-up black trash bags were knocked every which way like bowling pins.

George Coral, the kingpin at the top, flew through the air and slammed heavily into the vehicle’s roof. The group of '''School Trip Students''' crossing a nearby crosswalk in a line of boys and a line of girls all widened their eyes in surprise.

Heivia was filled with excitement.

“Ha ha! That tech-illiterate digital exhibitionist’s smartphone was a lot of help. I never thought we’d find the idiot this quickly!!”

A '''College Girl in a Monokini''' intentionally tripped in feigned surprise and made sure the friction with the ground slide her swimsuit down, but unfortunately, Heivia did not have time to go along with her exhibitionism. After reminding himself he could use the internet to see her changing any time he wanted, he focused on the task at hand.

After all, the man who had fallen on the roof managed to jump down as if rolling off the back of the vehicle and he had started making a run for it as soon as he landed on the asphalt.

He was getting away.

“What the hell!? The guy’s still alive and kicking!!”

“You hit the pile of trash, not him! Backup, backup! Run into him and break his hip. As long as you don’t kill him, we can still get him to talk!!”

Obeying Millia Newburg’s fairly cruel instructions, Heivia threw the vehicle into reverse with the tires screeching against the asphalt.

The shocked bearded man frantically changed direction and climbed onto the scaffolding of a building under construction.

Despite the sound of bending metal and of a heavy impact, the four-wheel drive vehicle missed its target.

George Coral was running up the scaffolding. He was well-built despite being a former leader.

“Oh, honestly! We can’t do anything in this thing!”

“We have to chase after him like monkeys? What a pain in the ass!!”

“No, we can leave this ‘aerial battle’ to the newbie. We’ll grab another vehicle and pursue on the surface. Whether it’s providing support or cutting off his escape, there has to be more we can do.”

As Millia instructed Heivia, she brought the radio to her mouth.

“You heard me, Putana! Chase him down in that off-road motorcycle you like so much!!”

As soon as she spoke, the roar of an engine passed over the four-wheel drive vehicle.

It did not pass “by” it.

The off-road motorcycle used the upward sloping road to make the kind of large jump seen at a circus, passed over the four-wheel drive vehicle’s roof, and landed on the scaffolding.

“Wow. I guess she is a Pilot Elite after all.”

“But why is Quenser clinging to her back?”

“He volunteered to keep an eye on her. He’d be too scared otherwise. He’s the one she would want revenge against, so I bet he doesn’t want to let her out of his sight to prevent any surprise attacks.”

The construction scaffolding was narrow.

The building’s wall and the pillars of metal pipes shot by at tremendous speed only fifty centimeters to either side. They easily drove up the long, narrow metal panels placed diagonally instead of stairs.

“Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god!”

“Teacher, why are you even on my bike?”

They were three stories up.

George Coral had relaxed once he had escaped the vehicle, but he stiffened in shock when he turned toward the engine noise behind him.

Putana Highball showed no mercy.

She safely drove through and blew away the professional soldier who had become a gang leader.

The bearded man’s arms and legs flailed wildly, but doubt and fear filled him as the shock of landing never came.

His muscular body had flown over the scaffolding and into empty air. He had broken through the net meant to keep people from falling, slowed down because of it, and finally fell to the ground below.

After confirming that, Putana opened the throttle of her off-road motorcycle and unhesitatingly jumped down from the building’s scaffolding.

A three-story freefall began.

As Quenser flew through the air, he felt a chill on his spine when he saw a '''Worker''' clinging to a telephone pole at eye level. That had reminded him just how high up they were.

The pressure in his stomach from the fall was different from that of simple acceleration, so the student let out a scream.

Putana pressed the back wheel down as she accurately landed the motorcycle right next to George Coral’s head where he had fallen ahead of them and did not get back up. She forcefully swerved around to turn the light motorcycle’s front wheel toward the bearded man’s head. With fine control of the brakes, she stopped at the last second as if lightly biting his head between the tire and the ground.

At this point, it was no different from pressing the muzzle of a gun against his forehead.

“Do as I say,” calmly instructed the girl. “Otherwise, I will splatter your brains on the ground here.”

“…”

Tears filled George Coral’s eyes and he heard two short horn blasts.

A station wagon stopped nearby.

He heard several doors open and close and then a woman in a bikini top and baggy cargo pants walked up with a smile on her face.

“There technically are Faith Organization police in this city, so hurry and load him up. …Now, then. How long a day this will be is entirely dependent on how patient you are, Mr. George Coral.”

“Uhh… You pieces of shit…”

The bearded man breathed out, his limbs went limp, and his eyes squeezed shut.

It seemed his return to stardom in Lost Angels was still a long way off.

===Part 6===

Quenser, Heivia, Putana, and Millia reported on their progress while taking the station wagon randomly down the large Grape Street.

“This is the microchip hidden in his necktie pin. He was also quick to talk since he feels no obligations to a group that threw him out. Thanks to that, we didn’t have to put on a raincoat and go stand in the bathroom with a knife in hand.”

Their information source, George Coral, was no longer in the station wagon, but not because they had fired a bullet into his head and chucked him from the speeding vehicle.

“What did he ask for in return?”

“An instant fake ID and a Capitalist Corporations brand handgun. I’m sure he’ll be found out within three days, but he probably plans to do something by then. And it’s hardly a problem for us if some infighting breaks out within Mustard Cowboy.”

Abandoning one’s morals brought a lot of possibility.

That was the best part about Lost Angels.

At any rate, they now had an accurate map of the smuggling tunnels through the northern mountains.

If they could take a shortcut through those mountains, even they could cut in front of the Flyaway’s path as it slid along the slopes.

They could strike back against that insane Second Generation that had blown away so many civilians.

Quenser spoke up while fiddling with his radio.

“Hi, Frolaytia? Our preparations are complete. How’s the Princess?”

“A little longer and I would have mixed a sedative into her tea. She’s about ready to give into her anger and start Armageddon. In other words, her head is boiling over. She’ll rush in the instant I remove the leash, but I have no intention of sending her in without a plan. Do you have an actual idea as to how you’ll trip that thing up?”

“Let’s meet and talk sometime.”

“What? Have you been so dyed by the intelligence division’s ways that you’re worried about someone intercepting the signal?”

“(No, that isn’t it.)”

“(Why are you whispering?)”

“(How should I put this? Um… There’s this girl real nearby who wants revenge on the level of a murdered parent, so I’m a little afraid of revealing any clever ideas around her.)”

“(In a way, you really are living the life of an intelligence operative, Quenser.)”

He gave a nervous look to the side received a puzzled look from the girl in a green special suit modelled after a nurse uniform.

===Part 7===

Even Lost Angels had the karaoke boxes that had originated in the Island Nation.

Of course, since they were essentially soundproofed, private rooms that could be rented by the hour, they were mostly used by the customers of the women who stood on the street corners in dresses that did not cover much of anything.

And that was why Frolaytia was in an extremely bad mood after meeting up there.

“Quenser… I don’t see an ashtray, so could you hold out your hands? Yes, like you’re scooping up water.”

“If you’re stressed out, why not sing a song!? This is a karaoke box, after all!!”

“Why did you bring me to this love hotel?”

“If a fancy officer showed up at the run-down motel, we’d be advertising that it’s an intelligence division hideout. The place would be blown away by a rocket or bomb the next day.”

Incidentally, Legitimacy Kingdom bodyguards had rented the two neighboring rooms while disguised as customers and a bulletproof SUV was casually waiting in the alley closest to the emergency exit. The defenses put in place for an officer were on an entirely different level.

Frolaytia grabbed a pitcher, poured a carbonated drink into a glass, and grabbed some fried chicken from a large plate of greasy foods.

“What are you planning to do here in Lost Angels?”

“As I said, we got an accurate map of the smuggling tunnels the Capitalist Corporations use. If we use them, we can sneak up on the Flyaway.”

After asking permission, Quenser reached for the same large plate as his commander and munched on some fries.

The onion rings must not have been very good because neither of them took any.

“He uses a static electricity propulsion device just like the Princess, so it’s possible we can stop him from moving using a weakness there.”

“Specifically?”

Frolaytia must not have liked how salty the fried chicken was because she dipped it in a small plate of mayonnaise.

If they used a giant charged sheet commonly known as a Floor Heater, they could pump in a whole bunch of power to mess with the static electricity letting the Object float.

However…

“We can’t rely on a large system like the Floor Heater. The tunnels were hand-dug and only a light off-road motorcycle can get through. They were made to let unregistered guns and drugs through, so we can’t hope for much.”

After Quenser shoved several fries into his mouth, Frolaytia took a sip of her carbonated drink and then spoke to the boy.

“Then what will you do? The battlefield covers the entire mountain range, so it’s a large area. Also, I’m sure he’ll be worried about his own footing. Is there really a way to trip him up without getting caught by his many sensors?”

“It’s only a theory, but yes,” said Quenser.

Frolaytia grinned and urged him to continue.

“Let’s hear it.”

“There’s something that can mess with his static electricity while also affecting a wide area. All we have to do is transport it through the tunnels and onto the mountain slope.”

“But what exactly is it? You already told me you can’t use the Floor Heater.”

“The tunnels are narrow, but if we aren’t transporting a ‘solid’, we can send quite a lot through at once.”

“You don’t mean…”

Frolaytia was surprised and Quenser placed a handheld device on the table.

It displayed a satellite photo of the mountains.

The slope was covered by several metal pipes that looked like water slides enlarged several dozen times over.

“There’s a hydroelectric power station…in other words, a dam. We just have to use a large pump to draw out the water and send it through the ant colony of smuggling tunnels. Static electricity propulsion devices can’t directly cross rivers or oceans, so they have to attach naval floats first. As the Flyaway gets carried away, we’ll create a fountain of water at his feet and turn the entire slope into a giant waterfall. That’ll stop him.”

“And if the Princess keeps enough distance to not get caught too, she just has to fire one of her main cannons…”

“That will be an issue of speed. After the first attack, the Flyaway will remove its main cannon to lighten itself. That means the Princess won’t have to think about evading anymore. If she can blast him before he realizes what’s going on and sends out the White Flag signal, we’ll win.”

It was nothing but a theory.

If the Princess and the intelligence division creating the waterfall could not work together, it would all go up in smoke, so it was a risky gamble.

However, a definite chance for success was beginning to form.

They would be able to strike back against the bastard who had sacrificed so many civilians.

“I leave the decision up to you.”

“Of course you do. I’m the maintenance base commander.”

Naturally, if the report was submitted under the name Quenser Barbotage, a battlefield student and therefore an amateur, the higher ups would not take it seriously. The Collective Farming incident had been a special case.

However, things would be different if it had the name of Major Frolaytia Capistrano.

“I hope you will ‘consider’ it.”

“Understood. I’ll give it some ‘thought’.”

===Part 8===

===Part 9===

===Part 10===

===Part 11===

===Part 12===

===Part 13===

===Part 14===

===Part 15===

===Part 16===

===Part 17===

===Part 18===

===Part 19===

===Part 20===

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 1|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 3}}</noinclude>

This title is too long!:Volume1 Chapter1

2015-06-13T05:35:48Z

Gamerdude13: Added Navigation Bar

==‎I'm a High School Boy and a Bestselling Light Novel author, strangled by my female classmate who is my junior and a voice actress Volume 1 Chapter 1 - April 10, I met her==

===Part 1===

‎I'm a High School Boy and a Bestselling Light Novel author, strangled by my female classmate who is my junior and a voice actress.

This is my current predicament.

I'm lying on the floor, my back stuck to the hard floor, and there's slight quivering and sounds felt on the icy floor.

This girl, who's my classmate, a year younger than me, and also acting as a voice actress, is seated on my belly, crouched over.

She's dressed in a thin blue sailor uniform as she reached her hands out at my neck. Her slender fingers are wrapped around my carotid pulse, seemingly stopping the blood flow.

Her hands are extremely cold.

They feel like a muffler locked around my neck.

Within my sights were black curtains on both left and right sides.

That's because her long, black hair is draped straight down. It's like a flower from the Southern countries, probably because of the conditioner. It's a nice smell.

And then, what I see in the middle of the curtains is her face, slightly dimmed due to the backlight.

She's crying. Her tears are dripping to the inside of the cell frame glasses lens. Her white, pretty teeth can be seen from her tight lips.

“Why!?”

She yells as she grabbed me by the throat, choking me hard.

I heard that humans are able to exert more strength when they're shouting. I never tried it before, but I can say that that's the truth after experiencing this for myself.

My throat's behind strangled from left and right, but I don't feel any pain.

And in contrast, ringing inside my head--

A drip of black ink lands silently. That black stain begins to spread gradually.

“Why!?”

She yelled again.

Why did it end up like this?

That's what I want to know.

===Part 2===

The first time I met that girl was--

About a month and a half ago.

It's April 7th , the first Monday of this month, and the first day of the new High School year.

It has been a year since I went to school.

During that prior year, I took leave from school. I should be in the second year of high school from my 16th to 17th spring, but I was unable to attend school the entire time.

Now, I'm finally in my second year of high school.

And with the return to school, I transferred schools, from the Public High School I studied in year 1, to a private High School.

In this new school, the school won't question me on the lack of attendance as long as I've an appropriate reason and pass the exams.

And from this moment onward, I have to take leave from school once every week.

On that morning.

I stepped into the school for the second time ever since I completed the transfer. I found my name on the large class allocation board, and entered the classroom for the first time.

Naturally, I don't know anyone in this classroom.

This school's a co-ed, with an equal percentage of boys and girls. I heard that there'll only be a rearrangement of classes when entering our second year, so it's not a rarity to see people unfamiliar with others, sitting alone, like me here.

Soon after, the form teacher who's going to take care of us for 2 years entered. He's a middle-aged male teacher.

The opening ceremony's viewed from the television installed in the classroom.

And the principal conveyed his message through the footage. I think that this method of not requiring students to move to the gym really is comfortable and good.

Following this, my classmates begin with their self-introductions, which is not to be omitted.

I'm seated at the right side of the blackboard, the row closer to the corridor, and the second seat from the back. After waiting for a long time, it's finally my turn.

Once the girl sitting in front of me finished her line, she sat down.

I stand up, state my name, and the foods I like, something I definitely had to say.

There are a lot of foods I like, and I chose coffee in this case. It's ordinary, but the other students did mention stuff like Ramen or Sushi, and the girls mention sweets. It's really ordinary.

Most of the students would add on, saying some things about their club activities or hobbies to spice up the atmosphere in class. It seems everyone has a hidden understanding that they could not let it end up this.

As for me, there's nothing much I could say. Once it's my turn to speak up, I ponder seriously for a brief moment, but was still unable to think of anything to talk about.

And so, I accidentally,

Blurted out what I should not have said.

“Well...I transferred into this school during this semester, and it's my second time wearing the uniform and entering the school. It feels like everything seems so new, like a new student.”

It's still fine till this point.

I feel that my classmates are starting to show concern for me, and I think I hear some voices of the heart, like ''I see'', ''so you're a transfer student'', ''that's rare''.

And what I said next was inappropriate,

“I took leave from school for a year before this, so I'm very happy to be able to return back to a high school life.”

These were my true thoughts.

However—

My classmates start to rumble.

“Eh? Older than us?”

“A retainee?”

This time, what I heard was not the voices of the heart, but actual whispers I could hear from my ears.

Even though I realized it was a bad situation, it was all too late.

The atmosphere in class changed from the understanding of ''there's a transfer student' to a 'so there's a senior who's supposed to be our upperclassman'.

It was only a while later did I realize that there were no retained students in this school, that there were as many goldfish that could speak as there were classmates older than them.

I've left school for a year, and during this time, I was always in contact with people older than me--

I have already lost the natural feeling of 'a year difference' for a high school student.

I felt that I said something I should not have.

This was the wish I set for myself when I arrived at this school, and the promise I made with my mother.

That I have to handle my studies well, make good friends even if they are few, and enjoy the high school life I will only have once.

In other words, being a 'high school student'.

But—

I ended up grounding myself regarding this matter. I made a miscue right from the first day.

“...That's how things are. Please take care of me...”

What's with that ' That's how things are. Please take care of me' line? That's ridiculous.

I was the one who said 'I'm a year older than you!'. Wasn't I the one hiding this fact until a while ago?

After ending this greatest failure in my life, I slump weakly on the chair, feeling myself to be so foolish that I don't have the strength to sigh.

“Hm, well, next. You must be the last one, I suppose?”

The teacher did not follow up with this, but this was probably to prevent the wound from expanding any further.

“Yes!”

And then, I hear a cheerful voice from the girl seated behind me, coupled with both the sound of her pulling her chair back and standing up. At this moment, I realized that she's a girl.

[[File:Toolong012.png|thumb]]

I didn't have the strength to look back, so I continued to maintain this position, despite it being rude to her.

“Eri Nitadori. My given name and family name both rhyme with 'ri'.”

Her voice was intriguing.

She surely wasn't loud, but I can hear her clearly. The voice seems to pass through my ears and reach the brain directly.

“I transferred into this school last Autumn, and I was in the second class. My favorite foods are basically all kinds of them, but the one I really want to eat for all 3 meals a day is—”

I begin to guess her answer.

Is it a sweet befitting a girl? Cake or parfait? Or was it some ordinary curry or ramen? Maybe some unexpected katsudon with sauce on it?

I started to challenge her.

And I began thinking all sorts of possible dishes she could mention before she answered.

What she said next was,

“Horse sashimi!”

She said.

I lost.

This was overwhelmingly, or I should say, something not many would say to be a favorite food, and so my classmates laughed heartily. Even the teacher laughed.

It's splendid.

She was able to blow aside the unnecessary heavy atmosphere caused by the carelessness of the student right before her.

Even though this prefecture is the producer of horse sashimi, I really couldn't fathom a second year high school girl eating horse sashimi for every meal.

“I'm not good at sports, so I'm not in any club activity. However, I do bring my dog out every single day. Our dog's called 'Gonsuke' (TN: Basically means 'manservant'), 3 years old—”

I continued to hear her chat happily about her pet dog, curious as to how this 'horse sashimi girl' looked like, and so, I slowly turned my head around.

And then, I look up.

I saw a bespectacled girl who's rather tall, and had quite long hair.

She's probably about 1.7m tall, I guess? For a girl, she's really rather tall.

She's definitely not plump, but for some reason, she doesn't seem delicate either. She said that she's not good at sports, but I thought she should be a talent heavily recruited by the volleyball or basketball club.

The evenly long black hair of hers is so long it passes her chest and reaches her abdomen. Her bangs are in evenly straight, and to summarize, it's a long bob haircut, and on both left and right side of her hair are button-like hairpins, probably made of felt?

Her skin's white, her facial features are distinct, the face lines and nose bridge are rather straight, and she has quite the pretty face.

She's wearing cell-framed glasses, colored pale blue-green like the haoris of the Shinsengumi. The face lines behind the lens were not contorted in any way, so maybe it's either a decoration or that the spectacles degree isn't that much. The irises in those large eyes were a thick brown.

If she's a character in a novel, this is probably how I would describe her.

She's blessed with a fine body figure and face, a plain Yamato Nadeshiko hairstyle, one who looked so unbalanced, and yet befitting of her.

That was what I thought.

She was a beauty.

One of these days, I'll take that saying and 'make use of it'.

This classmate of mine called Nitadori adjusted her sights moderately as she continued to chatter about her pet dog Gonsuke. It is clear that everyone in class is paying attention to the cute episodes.

If it it were me, I probably won't end up doing such stupid miscues. I wondered as I heard her words. We're seated rather close, so Nitadori wasn't looking at me. If she's looking at me, I probably will be looking away.

Nitadori ended her proud introduction of her dog at the opportune time, and then said that anyone who wished to see the photos could check out her smartphone. This really is a wonderful appeal.

And looking at this—

Anyone who likes dogs, no matter whether boy or girl, can talk to her regarding that. From there, she would be able to converse with others. Her self introduction's a stark contrast to a certain somebody before her, a classic sample.

And in the end, she adds on, “Please take care of me for the next two years”.

She lets her long hair dangle to a side of the chair's backrest, and slowly sat down.

At that moment, she was right in front of my sights, and our eyes met for the first time.

I intended to look away, but I couldn't.

“Eh!”

For the earnest face she showed till this past suddenly froze, and she let out a soft shriek. She turned her face to the corridor, seemingly evading my sights.

This action was ostensibly one of somebody who saw something she should not have. It felt to me that she would not be this petrified even if she saw a ghost.

After seeing her actions, I slowly turned to the front, and sighed in my heart.

I wondered that if my first day was going to be like this, I might as well not repeat my year after all.

That was why—

“Can I sit beside you?”

I was really shocked when that Nitadori suddenly spoke to me so earnestly.

It was April 10, a Thursday, 3 days after the opening ceremony.

I was seated on the Limited Express back then.

From the town where I live in, this train ride allows me to reach the metropolis in about 3 hours. I was seated at the last row of the free seating carriage car, at the left side, leaning by the window.

It's the evening, and the train carriage is still empty after having left the station, so there shouldn't be a need for anyone to sit beside me. Even if the reason of wanting to sit at the back row is 'my luggage's too big for the rack', or 'I want to adjust my reclining chair', there is still the right side of the aisle that's empty

That's why I was surprised to hear the meaning of those words, despite not knowing who it was. I lift my head up from the printouts of the drafts, and when I found it to be Nitadori, who's seated behind me every day, I was further taken aback.

“Hi! Good afternoon.”

“...”

I remain silent as I stare blankly at this taller girl standing on the aisle.

Naturally, Nitadori's not dressed in a uniform, and I'm not really sure of the details, but I could clearly see that it's a posh looking one-piece dress.

Nitadori seemed to have assumed that I may have forgotten about her,

“Erm, we're in the same class. I'm Eri Nitadori, seated right at the back.”

And so, she introduced herself again.

“Ah...y-yes—”

I barely managed to force out a reply somehow. And then, I slowly spoke,

“I knew that, actually.”

I knew about all those till this point. What I didn't know what why she would talk with me.

Nitadori then gave an amused snicker,

“Hm? Honorific language? Even though you're an upperclassman?”

“Ah, no...it's nothing, Miss Nitadori.”

“Adding a 'Miss'? Eve though you're older?”

“...”

I took a breath to calm my heart down.

“No...erm, is 'Nitadori' fine?”

And then, I pretended to remain as calm as possible while conversing with her normal. I wondered how many years it had been since I talked to a girl of a similar age, but having realized that I may need a long time to derive that answer, I gave up.

“Of course. Can I sit beside you then?”

At that time, I had my backpack on the seat beside me. Inside it were my favorite laptop, books, change of clothes.

My backpack was wide open inside, so while reaching out to zip it with one arm, I blurted my honest opinion,

“Well, I'm fine with that...but why here? Aren't there empty seats everywhere?”

It might had been rude of me to say that, but that was what I truly thought. I had no idea at all why Nitadori insisted on sitting beside me.

It had been 4 days since school started, but I never conversed with her in class. Rather, I never spoke to anyone in class.

Everyone in class viewed me as 'an older classmate', and treated me with caution, so naturally, there wasn't any who would speak to me. I guess they were all wondering if they should be using honorifics with me. If one were to do so, so would the rest, and vice versa. However, nobody dared to be the first one up to the challenge.

I too was worried if my classmates would shun me if I tried to approach them, and never did so in the end. The gap of a year was too large for me, who's already ineffectual at communicating.

I felt It is merciless of me to be saying 'there are still other seats' to a person wanting to sit beside me. While pondering that it was expected of her to be angry, I awaited her answer.

“I want to talk with you.”

And then, she said this. She was not smiling, but it did not seem like she was angry.

“Erm...talk about what?”

I place my backpack on my thighs as I asked this, dumping the rolled-up manuscript into my back. It was just information I printed from home, so it was fine for me even if it was wrecked.

“Thanks.”

Nitadori tied her long hair to the back of her neck in a polite manner, and let it drape from her right shoulder to her chest, quickly sitting down beside me.

She turned to the left, and with our shoulders practically touching each other, she stare at me right in the eyes, and answered my question with a hushed voice,

“I want to talk about work.”

“Huh? Whose?”

“Whose? Ours.”

“...?”

I did not understand what she meant at all. What work was there for two high school students to talk about? I placed my bag at my feet.

And then,

“Sorry but I don't understand what you're saying here.”

I answered honestly.

Nitadori then showed a serious look immediately.

“I see...I thought you would have realized it already.”

“...Realized what?”

“About me.”

“...”

“I seem to be mistaken about something. Sorry.

I stare at Nitadori, who looked to be a little disappointed.

“...”

I started to wonder if she was an ill-natured girl after all.

Perhaps she wanted to tease this 'older' classmate she coincidentally met, and would leave the seat with a cackle.

I had that image flashing through my mind at that instant, and I even had the image of her saying some harsh, sharp words at the end.

Even if that were the case,

“Hey, hold it there! What do you mean by that? Explain to me!”

I probably would not be raging and chasing after her with such amazing manliness.

I probably would feel a little hurt, and would probably end up being 'used' by her

“But I'm not trying to tease you here, you know?”

Nitadori said, completely denying my thoughts. I wonder if she's an esper.

And so, what she said next,

Caused my heart to stop in shock.

“Are you going for the After Record for 'Vice Versa' tomorrow, sensei?”

Normally, the slight quiver and tremors on the fast moving Limited Express feel comfortable. I did at times treat the carriage car as a cradle and slept soundly on it.

But at this point, I felt that the sounds and tremors were akin to a massive earthquake.

It was rumbling away, and I felt it was trying to throw me out of my seat.

This was the first time in my life that I wondered why there was no safety belts on the train. My hands were grabbing onto the armrest.

“Wh-why...ho-ho-how...?”

I stare right into Nitadori's eyes as I barely eke out these words, and the rest ended up as gibberish.

I actually wanted to say,

“How did you know about this?”

“Ah, I guess from your expression that you want to ask 'how did you know', right?”

I was unable to say anything, dumbfounded for 5 seconds like a doll, and Nitadori took the initiative to speak up.

I nodded.

“How, did you know...?”

And then, since it did not matter at this point, I said this line.

“Pfft!”

Nitadori let out a little chuckle, and I forgot my current predicament as I saw the smile of the pretty girl up close. However, there was no way I could forget about that. I immediately got up from my seat, and surveyed the carriage.

There were 5 heads I could see.

Two of them were seated at the front-most, side by side. They definitely must be the middle-aged couple waiting for the train behind me a while back, and from their hiking getup, I suppose they went to the hills visible from my room, and were on their way back. There was a lot of snow on the hilltops as the weather was still cold.

A young man, probably a salaryman, was seated a few seats behind them at the window side. Seated at the row behind him at the right window side was a college male who seemed to be traveling. I did see them on the platform.

Closest to me was a young female seated alone near the aisle in the middle of the carriage car, dressed in gray pants and suit. I did not see her on the platform, and she seemed to be of the working class who just finished a dispatch job.

Since there was no one else nearby, I did not have to worry about others eavesdrop if I were to speak at with a normal audible voice. It seemed Nitadori realized my thoughts as she said,

“You're really worried about other people noticing it? Don't worry. I'll make sure that nobody else will overhear us.”

“Thanks...”

I sit down as I listen to her slightly hushed voice, and turn my face to the right, seeing Nitadori's face that was extremely close to me, and asked,

“How did you know?”

“Well then, what do you think?”

She answered my question with a question.

“It's easy for me to tell you the answer, but that's no fun now, isn't it? You'll soon know, so think about it.”

[[fFile:Toolong013.png|thumb]]

That definitely was what she meant.

And so, I began to ponder, carefully listing out all the possibilities I could eliminate, and the possibilities I could consider.

I spent 2 minutes on that. I didn't know whether that was too long or too short.

And during this time, I continued to stare at the back of the seat in front of me, not knowing what sort of expression Nitadori was showing. Perhaps she was enjoying herself, maybe she was bored, or maybe she was surprised.

“I see...”

After staring at the back for two minutes, I let out these words,

“So that's what it means by 'our work'."

“What do you mean?”

Nitadori asked. Clearly, what she meant was,

“Please look at others in the eyes when talking to someone.”

I slowly turn my face to Nitadori.

And so, I stare at Nitadori, the bespectacled girl—

Giving me a victorious smile.

I spoke up,

“Nitadori...you're a voice actress, participating in the animation of my light novel.”

===Part 3===

I'm a professional author.

I wrote a novel titled 'Vice Versa'--

Currently, it's lined in the Pocket Book (Bunko) section of the bookstore.

This work is the first work I published in my life, and currently, I'm continuing this work.

'Vice Versa' is classified as a 'light novel'.

Now, what is a light novel? What kind of novel is considered a light novel?

There are some who say that it's a novel with a large number of anime-styled illustrations on the cover, color illustrations, and insert illustrations.

Most of the light novels I see in a bookstore are the same, and I do think that this definition explains a characteristic, appearance-wise; however, there are light novels without any illustrations.

There are some who say that any books sold under (apparent) light novel publishers can be considered as light novels.

I do think this viewpoint is easy to understand. However, there are cases of books printed under a light novel imprint before, only to have their illustrations removed and sold as contemporary literature works.

There are some who say that the age group of light novel readers is higher than children literature, that the main viewership derive from high school students.

As a purchasing consumer, this is what I think. However, despite the advancement in age, many will continue to read light novels, including the many numbers of college students and adult readers. Thus, light novels need not necessarily be limited to 'a work targeted at high school students'.

Then, do we classify the story according to the genre? Not necessarily.

Light novels practically encompass all kinds of genres, like fantasy, comedies, action, mystery, history, romance, youth, Of course, there is an exceptional number of works like fantasy and romcom.

In the end, there is still not a single person able to give a clear definition for light novels.

I feel that most of us, including me--

Are already calling it 'light novels', or a portmanteau 'ranobe', a term that is defined incompletely, and will continue on like this.

'Vice Versa' is published and sold by 'Dengeki Bunko'.

Currently, there are more than 10 light novel publishers in the market, and the largest of them is Dengeki Bunko.

The company 'ASCII Media Works' (Used to be called 'Media Works') established the company 'Dengeki Bunko' in 1993. That was before I was born.

Strictly speaking, the company 'ASCII Media Works' no longer exists,, for it is bought and absorbed into the mega corporation Kadokawa Group. The name sticks however because the name 'Brand Company' is too vague to define a purpose, so with this nostalgic feeling, I continue to use the term 'ASCII Media Works'.

In over 20 years of history, Dengeki Bunko has published big-selling works from my colleagues.
Whenever there is a bestseller made, sales revenue will increase, and the brand will gradually expand in the shop.

What this 'gradually expand in the shop' means is basically increasing the capacity taken up in the shop, allowing customers to see the works of this company more easily.

The following year since its inception, this Dengeki Bunko brand holds an annual 'Dengeki Novel Prize'. (Before 2003, it was titled the 'Dengeki Game Novel Prize')

Any author can debut with Dengeki Bunko as long as they win this Newcomer Novel award (there's an illustration award held at the same time.)

It was said this is the driving force behind Dengeki Bunko's rapid development, discovering authors through the contest, and promoting popular works.

It is a very popular imprint, so there were increases in participation every year. At this point, there are thousands of them.

It was about 3 years ago when I took part in this, hoping to enter the gateway to success.

Back then, I was just a 9th grader.

The annual Dengeki Novel Prize deadline was April 10th (In other words, this day).

It was the previous day 3 years ago, April 9th, right after the new school semester started

I submitted the long novel I wrote to the post office on the day right before the deadline.

And then, I failed.

There were too many people registering for the Dengeki Novel Prize, and so, the judging was long as a result.

After the submissions before the deadline, there was a first judging to pick out hundreds out of the thousands of entries. At the second judging, there would be approximately one-third left. At the third judging, dozens of them.

And so, at the fourth judging, there would be 10 or so picked for the final judging.

Once the final selections are read by the judging committee, the grand prize, gold prize, silver prizes and so on would be decided at the end of September, and the results would be announced on October 10.

The award-winning prizes would be published in February the following year. At that instance, the participating authors from the prior year would be recruited as professionals. Dengeki Bunko would release its books on the 10th, and the brand 'Mediaworks Bunko', under the some editorial group but released as a contemporary label, releases its books on the 25th.

If it were an ordinary newcomer contest, there would be any debuts for those that failed to make the cut. This would mean “Too bad. Try again next year, okay?”

However, in this Dengeki Novel Prize, there are chances for those who did not make the cut to become an author.

First off, most of the entries that can make it to the final selections can make debuts starting March.

Also, even if there were entries that failed to make it to the final selections, they can be put under an editor-in-charge as long as their works are recognized, before they finally become authors (naturally, there aren't many of these people).

These people will continue to hold meetings with the editor-in-charge, either to fine-tune the works to improve its completion, or to rewrite the work into something completely different.

My entry failed to make the cut.

But right now, it's being published.

Now then, did my work make it into the final selections and had a chance to be published? That wasn't it.

My journey was a little complicated.

First off, my entry failed to make the cut at the fourth selection, not even one of the final selections.

I learned that I failed to make the cut through the announcement on the official website.

I was really delighted when I saw my name appearing on the third selection results. If I could make it to the final selections, I would basically be able to debut as a professional. Thus, I was waiting anxiously for the results.

However, my work failed to get to the end.

Finding it regretful, I felt that it was a proud accomplishment for me to be able to make it all the way there.

Feeling encouraged, I intended to continue registering the following year, or take part in another newcomer contest.

The editorial branch would write some feedback to those that made the second round, so I would take reference and encourage myself.

While I was thinking about these and preparing for my examinations in October—

The phone in my house rang. It was a number from Tokyo.

Harboring some hope, I picked up the phone, and found that it was from the editorial department of Dengeki Bunko. The one calling was the editor-in-charge who really took care of me later on.

While I was extremely tense in my response, the editor-in-charge spoke,

“Are you really a 9th grader? There is something I wish to talk to you about. If possible, do you mind asking your parents along to the Tokyo editorial branch? Otherwise, I would be fine with paying you a visit instead.”

On that day, one week after the phone call.

My mother and I arrived at the editorial branch of ASCII Mediaworks, and there, I learned of the facts.

The reason why my novel did not make the final selections was due to my age.

The delightful thing was that my entry was highly rated. All the committee members felt that the story was really interesting, and that alone would have undoubtedly ranked me as one of the final selections. On a side note, all the editors at Dengeki Bunko took part in the fourth selections.

But if this work was to be part of the final selections—

I would have to wait for my book to be released in the earlier half of the next year, no matter whether I won or not.

If I did, the work would be released on the following February. If I did not, it would be during March or April earliest. The author has to first consider this, and 'edit' the entry manuscript.

While I know of this very well, I didn't know back then that the entry manuscripts would never be released directly. There had to be editorial work where the author and the editor-in-charge vet through the novel to varying extents.

Light novels will typically continue to form a series, and this would help increase sales figures (unless the ending of the story is done splendidly). Thus, it would be highly beneficial for me to write continuations and establish the story before I can officially debut. Thus, it is necessary to continue writing.

If I was stuck in such a predicament, it would not be hard to imagine how much it would affect my preparations for the exams.

“If I'm going to debut as an author the next year, I'm not going to high school!”

I might say such a thing.

This newcomer award is held to recruit outstanding authors. For an enterprise, it is upright to publish interesting and popular books, but this should not compromise a person's future.

Thus, the editorial branch judged this with caution, causing me to fail at the fourth selections.

Upon hearing those words, my mother was really worried.

As for me, my heart was basically swinging by the scale.

“No! I'll write this even if I have to prepare for the exams at the same time!”

I was feeling frustrated.

“Thank you for thinking so much about me.”

And at the same time, feeling gracious. Even the me back then understood that being an author only meant that the publisher would promise to publish a book for me, and would not guarantee that the earnings would be enough to continue maintaining my livelihood.

No matter what I thought, it was an established fact that could not be overturned. I tried my best to change my thinking and harbor grateful thoughts.

But the story did not end like that.

The editor-in-charge gave a proposal on the spot.

The work itself was really amazing, and if I was willing, they would publish this in a paperback a little later on.

However, there was no need for me to be anxious. For that purpose, the work would definitely start only after I was done with my examinations.

And so, we would contact each other once my high school entry examinations were ended.

Lastly, they assured that they would not reveal about this.

Naturally, it was a given that I devoted myself wholeheartedly to preparing for the examinations.

I intended to high school, but in this situation, there is a large carrot dangling in front of me,

'Once I enter high school, I can debut as an author at Dengeki Bunko. In other words, the bookstores will sell my created work, and people will read it'.

This carrot was glowing brightly, like the sun out of a sunrise.

Either way, I could not mess up on the examinations. I devoted my entire time to studying, while secretly writing some manuscripts. This was easily exposed however.

The following Spring, or in other words, 2 years ago.

I was eligible to enroll for my first choice public school.

On the day I learned that I passed, I gave a call to the editorial branch.

“I passed! Can I go over to you the following Monday?”

Now that I think about it, I really was rude and forceful.

I really am grateful for the editor-in-charge who could only smile wryly and make time for an appointment with me.

And so, I decided to become an author.

I devoted most of my Spring break on meetings, finishing my edits, and finally managed to finish my manuscript in mid-April.

The first volume of 'Vice Versa' was released on August 10.

That was approximately 2 years ago, and I was just 16 years old, a 10th grader.

The award-winning works were released on February, and those that failed to win awards but made the final selections had their works published between Aprill and July.

As aforementioned, it is not a rarity in the Dengeki Novel Prize contest to see entries published even though they failed to make the final selections.

In other words, my works were of that type, but a release date in August during the same year was really too early.

'Vice Versa' was published to the world as a result, becoming a major hit.

The delightful fact is that the comments for the first volume were good, and there were decent sales. With the second volume released in October spurring things, there was a record high in sales when the 3rd volume was released the following January.

The editor-in-charge did say that I was one of the faster writers under the Dengeki Bunko flagship. Of course, I was not the fastest.

I continued to attend high school as I continued writing the manuscripts, editing—

When the 3rd volume was released, I completed the manuscripts for the 5th volume.

At the same time, it was 3 months before the first year of high school ended, and there was talk about 'Vice Versa' becoming an anime.

This really was a delightful proposal, but I knew that if it becomes an anime, the original author would have a lot of work to do. If I have to assist in the anime, I will have to help with the settings and scenarios, and check the scripts, so whatever I have to do will increase dramatically.

I can choose to provide the bare minimal inspection, but I really wanted to help out as much as I could.

At the same time, I wanted to continue writing this series. My passion for writing became more intense than before.

With this sudden spike in workload being anticipated, I began to brood.

I'll just drop out of high school.

The moment I proposed this, the editor-in-charge immediately answered me,

“No can do.”

The editorial branch would only permit me to provide the bare minimum in assistance, even if it was against my wishes.

Of course, my mother had the same view, even though she did not tell me off.

And then, like a three-way talk, I again discussed matters with my mother and the editor-in-charge—

And thus, the idea of 'absence from school for a year' was born.

There was no doubt I would be busy throughout the entire year, so I might as well take leave from school.

And during this time, I could work any much as I wanted.

And then, we agreed that I would definitely repeat my year at a private school, where attendances was not so strict. I would then study for 2 years, and I had to graduate from high school no matter what. If there was nothing stopping me, I was to also aim for college.

And so, I worked hard as accordingly to plan,

From the previous April to March this year, which was last month.

I continued to write continuations for 'Vice Versa'.

During the previous year when I took leave, there were 5 volumes released, and they were released in April (fourth volume), June (fifth volume), August (sixth volume), October (seventh volume), and December (eighth volume).

The ninth volume was released this January, and the manuscripts for the tenth and eleventh volume, expected to be sold in July and September, were already completed. At this point, the twelfth volume, planned for release in November, is in the editing phase.

At the same time, I provided assistance to the animation team, taking part in every single script meeting, and checked through a massive amount of setting information.

I really enjoyed myself.
After ending this one tumultuous year, I transferred to a private high school as planned.

I never revealed any personal information, and there were few who knew my true identity.

And thus, I intended to hide my identity as an author in the new school. I felt that this would not be revealed unless I said so myself.

And then—

All these were exposed within a few days.

“Nitadori...you're a voice actress, participating in the animation of my light novel.”

“That's correct!”

Nitadori raised her right index finger in response to my words.

Right, it's almost impossible to think of any other possibilities.

I guess it was too long spending two minutes thinking about this

The anime 'Vice Versa' is planned to be aired on broadcast television this July. This news was already announced before.

And the audio recording for this anime, the so called 'after record', first began last week.

It was Friday, April 4th.

The editor-in-charge and I were headed to the recording studio in the city for the first time. As the author, I intended to attend all the after records every Friday.

'Vice Versa' is a story with lots of characters, and there were some differences in the story's timeframe when adapted to the anime, so there ended up being lots of characters appearing in the first episode.

And thus, there were so many voice actors in the recording studio that there weren't enough chairs to sit. There were also famous voice actors any fan worth their salt would know of.

And so, before the recording began,

“Now then, I will like to introduce the original author here! His real identity isn't revealed however, so please treat what you see and hear as a secret! Okay, now sensei, come in!”

The producer suddenly said these words, and dragged me into the recording booth.

I assumed I was to sit at the control room where the recording instruments were, and I was so nervous it would be one of my top 3 anxious moments in my life. To be honest, I really wanted to run away.

After I tottered into the room like a captured rabbit, the producer began to introduce me to the voice actors.

I was on hiatus from school, but the voice actors had all kinds of reactions when they learned that I was a 17-year-old high school student.

“Wow! So such people exist...?” (A veteran male voice actor with a rough voice)

“So young!” (A young handsome voice actor who's very popular with the ladies.)

“Amazing, isn't it?” (A pretty voice actress who acted as many heroines and released many CDs).

I was never this embarrassed upon hearing these words.

And the producer demanded that I record some 'original author's greetings'.

I don't remember what I did say back then, but I guess it's probably Japanese, since I don't know of any other languages.

After the recording, I asked the editor-in-charge of his opinion regarding my words,

“Well...hm...it's fine...I guess?”

As he ended his reply with a question, I didn't dare to ask any further about that.

It was that kind of situation during the previous after record—

And naturally, there was no way I could have remembered the faces of so many voice actors.

“Sorry, I didn't remember your face.”

But even so, I apologized to Nitadori.

“There's no need to.”

And she answered so simply.

“Only a superhuman can remember that many faces in that kind of situation.”

And she even excused me.

“But that greeting was interesting.”

I really hoped that she forgot about it. And while I look up at the heavens,

“Hey, were you shocked by all these things?”

Nitadori asked, seemingly enjoying herself here.

“Of course I am!”

I let out a voice louder than I assumed, probably because of relief. And then, I lowered my voice immediately,

“...I was nearly shocked to death.”

“Is there really anyone who died due to shock?”

“Eh? Erm...I guess?”

Since it's a logical question, I thought I had to investigate it afterwards.

And so, I was first shocked by her, and then relieved after clarifying the reason—

I felt the difficulty of talking with her has lowered somewhat, and it's not like I'm conversing with someone I'm unfamiliar with.

“I see...so you're a voice actress, Nitadori...did you deliberately keep it a secret at school?”

Even I, unused to conversing with others, felt at ease when talking with her. Maybe it's because of that that I took the initiative to ask her.

Nitadori smiled, and nodded,

“Yeah, I don't feel the need to brag about it. But since this is the name I'm using, it'll be revealed as long as anyone wants to check up on me. Well, we'll just see how it goes when it happens though.”

“I see.”

It's a little weird to hear the words 'this is the name I'm using', but I didn't mind since I knew what she was trying to say. More importantly, I feel that 'I have to protect her secret no matter what'.”

“Hey, sensei—”

“Wait! ...Are you going to call me that?”

I interrupted Nitadori's words in surprise, and she simply answered as a matter of fact,

“But you're the original author, aren't you? And you're a year older than me. Logically, I should be addressing you with proper honorifics.”

“No, just call me normally...if possible, please don't use honorifics with me. Also, I don't mind you calling me by my real name.”

I requested as I asked, but Nitadori immediately replied,

“But it's not a good thing if I'm to call you at at the studio, right? It'll be bad...for me too.”

“Ahh, I guess...”

With that, my real name will be revealed to everyone who only knows of my pen name. It's not a particularly damaging thing to me, but it's really improper for Nitadori. She probably doesn't intend to say that we're classmates, I guess.”

“It's fine. I'll pay attention to the situation. I promise that I won't call you sensei at school, and I definitely won't reveal your real identity. I swear.”

“Thanks. It's really great that you're willing to do that.”

“Or rather—I won't say anything to you in school!”

Nitadori said some words that appeared really harsh on first glance with a smile on her face.

“Erm...well, I guess that's good enough...”

And this time, I quickly realized that if I was to casually talk with Nitadori at school, our secrets will be revealed.

Since I couldn't think of any situations where there wouldn't be any people around us, or when only the both of us would be alone, it would be wise to not say anything at school.

“I understand. I'll do the same too to avoid letting slip.”

I agreed, and inadvertently blurted out my true thoughts,

“You're amazing, Nitadori.”

“Amazing? How?”

I then said to the startled her,

“You're already a professional voice actress at such a young age.”

And she immediately answered,

“There are many young people in both the acting world and the voice acting world. Besides, aren't you the same too, sensei?”

The Limited Express dashed on smoothly.

Entering April, the sunset felt later than usual, and it was still bright outside the window.

“Sensei, are you going to continue riding this train?”

In response to Nitadori's question,

“I plan to.”

I nodded hard.

The after record that I, no, we would be attending begins every Friday morning at 10am. This schedule would not change unless there were exceptional circumstances.

Thus, I have to take this Limited Express to Tokyo every Thursday and spend the night in the hotel, or in other words, spending the night there. There are 13 episodes for the anime in total, so the after record would take 3 months.

From this moment forth, I would continue to request absence from school on Fridays. Of course, I did explain the reasons to the school, and obtained permission to do so. Or rather, it was the opposite. I did transfer to this school because I would be allowed to do this.

“I can take the night bus...but to be honest, I don't think I'll be able to sleep.”

And once I said this, Nitadori nodded,

“Right right! I think this is the case too! It's hard at 10A, right? If the Shinkansen's ( bullet train ) around, we could have made it in time if we leave early.”

The 10A Nitadori spoke of is the simplified term of the after record that begins at 10am (though I only knew of this recently).

This is the earliest time slot possible, but many of the voice actors are nocturnal folk, so this seems to be tough for them, and really unmotivating as a result.

“It's true. But I—”

I really like to take the Limited Express of the non-Shikansen train lines. The cars are mostly empty, and since the I always start my rides at the first stop of each line, there's definitely seats for me to take. The train ride is long, and I can do what I want to do; the scenery is beautiful too when the weather's fine.

When I expressed my true thoughts, Nitadori answered,

“Maybe I might like this train after this.”

Back then, I didn't notice the meaning behind these words.

While conversing, the train conductor came to check the Limited Express tickets.

Sometimes, the train conductor of this train was a young woman, and this is the case here.

I don't know what sort of ideas this conductor lady would have after seeing us seated side by side in the empty carriage.

But surprisingly, after inspecting my ticket, her face showed a flash of surprise when she continued on with Nitadori. I didn't know why that was so.

After the conductor left, Nitadori asked,

“Sensei, where do you plan to stay once you reach Tokyo?”

And then, she said,

“Maybe...the editorial branch? Are you going to...sleep under the table with a sleeping bag...?”

“No, that's not it.”

I said while giving a slight smile.

Nitadori doesn't seem familiar with the editorial branch and the publishing industry., and while thinking that this is an ordinary person's response, I answer,

“When I have to spend the night in Tokyo due to work, the Dengeki Bunko editorial branch will book me a hotel room near Idabashi station.”

“Heh? Where?”

Thinking that this wasn't something that needed secrecy, I answered by telling her the name.”

That beautiful hotel's located between Idabashi and Suidoubashi stations, and I'm rather satisfied with the hotel, which has the option of a late checkout time at 12pm, and was a walking distance away from the editorial branch. Certain rooms were positioned such that the 'Kadokawa 3rd Tower Building' could be seen.

“Hm....”

Nitadori didn't react in any way, showing an expression that showed she did not hear of this before.

And so, thinking that she would have known about it somehow, I quipped,

“But during the end-of-year party the previous two years—”

At that time, I was living at a hotel that was named the same as a large dome stadium.

It was a round stadium akin to a large balloon. People will normally use it as an example of large, but most who had yet to see the real thing themselves would not have an exact idea to that (maybe it's easier to understand by comparing it to the Blue Whale or the Yamato battleship).

That 43 storey tall hotel is located right beside the dome.

“Ahh!”

This time, Nitadori exclaimed in happiness,

“If it's that hotel, I've been there a few times! That one's amazing, right! The high-rise view's really great!”

“Yeah, it was the mid-winter, so it's a nice scene.”

The scenery back then was really great.

Looking down at the white dome roof, I could see the theme park beside it and the streets that continued on. I could see Mount Tsukuba far away, and the the lighting decorations which would only appear at that time were really pretty.

I can also see the tallest electrical tower from the glass elevators facing the east, standing tall as if it is the resting place of a final boss in a roleplaying game.

I wondered about the scenery I saw as I answered her, and wondered if Nitadori's family was rich if she was able to stay there a few times.

That hotel was located in the middle of Tokyo, but the flair varied from the usual business hotels. The guest rooms were spacious and luxurious, there were speakers installed in the bathroom, and I could hear the sounds from the television. Speaking of which, it felt more like a resort hotel instead (though I never lived in on).

Was it really fine of me to live there without paying a single cent? This apprehension and excitement rendered me sleepless.

“What about tomorrow? Are you going back after the after record's done?”

Nitadori continued to fire questions at rapid-fire.

To be honest, she really helped me out here. I really was bad at conversing, but simple questions would help me to relax somewhat, and help me out.

“Yeah, the Limited Express and normal tickets come with a return trip, so when there's a trip back, I'll take the free-seating ride back. There are times when I have to hold meetings after the after record's done. During those moments I'll go to the editorial branch at Idabashi with the editor-in-charge, and then I'll stay there for another night.”

“I see.”

While conversing, the Limited Express stopped at the next stop. 2 passengers entered, one seated rather upfront, while another was seated 5 rows in front of us.

Leaving aside the quiet moments when the train has stopped, I supposed we didn't have to worry about being eavesdropped on once the train began to move.

Once it started moving, Nitadori asked the next question,

“You were staring at some printed materials there. Is it the manuscript of the novel?”

Nitadori's next question was not a difficult one for me to answer.

“Yeah. That's the manuscript for the next volume of 'Vice Versa' that's to be published, though I can't say when.”

“Wow...amazing...like an author.”

Nitadori clenched her little fists as she said this.

“Well...I am an author though.”

It's rather embarrassing, but I couldn't say that wasn't the case, so I could only answer that way. This definitely is the only time I would describe myself using the 'I'm an author'.

“I can't disturb you then, sensei...”

“It's fine. This isn't that important.”

This manuscript doesn't need to be inspected by today.

I had taken this Limited Express countless times, and I did all sorts of things while on the ride. Sometimes, I would check the manuscript like I did on this day. Other times, I would be writing on the laptop, or reading a book I brought along.

There were also moments where I would listen to music while viewing the scenery, thinking of new ideas, or emptying my mind.

Either that, or I would do all of these together, or sleep throughout the ride and not do anything.

“Thanks.”

For some reason, Nitadori thanked me quietly.

And then,

“Actually, I got some things to do too. I want to read the script thoroughly.”

“Oh, I see.”

The script obviously referred to the one used for the next day, the second episode of 'Vice Versa'.

“So...I'm going back to another seat later. See you at the studio tomorrow.”

Nitadori spoke with a very normal voice. She doesn't seem to feel pity about this, and doesn't seem very happy either.

“Of course, I won't talk to you in the studio, since I'm just a rookie in the voice acting world who's finally able to get a named role. You're the original author of this anime too! How can I be that haughty?”

She then said that. I didn't know whether she was joking or being serious.

I didn't feel that Nitadori and I had that sort of senior-junior relationship, but thinking how it might be serious if anyone's to overhear our conversation at such a close distance, and how difficult it would be to cover up, I said,

“Got it. I won't talk to you in the studio either. There will probably be trouble for us if our secret's discovered, and I'm bad at talking, so I can't hide this.”

After hearing this, Nitadori smiled as she narrowed the eyes under the glasses.

“Got it. Are you taking this train next week, sensei?”

I nodded.

“Can I sit beside you if I'm not going to disturb you? I never seen an author before, so I'm very interested in you...I got lots of questions to ask. Can I?”

I had no reason to refuse.

To me, it's a rare experience for me to talk with a girl like Nitadori, even if I'm just answering questions.

I suppose that in the near future, I'll be 'using this experience' for my novel.

But at that moment, do I write it out plainly and get her to agree being the basis of the character, or do I hide her completely?

“Yeah sure. I'm always sitting at this seat in this car.”

“Great! Now I can level up and improve my acting!”

“Improve by 'level up'?”

“You're really particular like an author, huh?”

“But...I'm an author.”

This was the second time in my life that I said this. Was this exchange going to be a cliché?

“Alright, see you next week then!”

Nitadori's eyes were staring at my face when she said this, but I felt that she was not saying this to me, but to herself instead.

She got up from the seat, pulled her long hair behind, and nodded slightly at me.

“Bye then.”

I waved my hand slightly as I watched the black hair of Nitadori's back walk down aisle.

It was embarrassing to watch a girl's back without looking away, so I averted my eyes out of the window when she was halfway past the car.

And then, when I placed the bag that was leaning at my calf onto the seat Nitadori sat on,

“Ah...”

I was suddenly intrigued by something. I didn't ask what sort of role Eri Nitadori was acting as.

Once I knew I missed the chance to hear that, I was suddenly curious about it.

“...”

If Nitadori was still seated in this car, I thought I would want to ask about this. And so, I stood up immediately.

My eyes continued to search hard, but there was no sight of her. I couldn't be chasing her down to the car in front either.

And I sat down.

That night, I found out 3 things at the hotel.

First, the laptop contained the information I got from the producer previously, with the character names and the voice actors listed inside.

Second, Nitadori said that she'll be staying overnight like me, and that she'll be checking the script, but she wasn't carrying any baggage.

Third, the gray suit woman too was nowhere to be seen at her seat when I stood up to look for Nitadori.

The next day was a Friday, April 11th.

I saw Nitadori at the after record of the second episode of the anime 'Vice Versa'.

Not that I 'met Nitadori', but 'saw her' as the words implied.

It was at a certain recording studio in Japan.

The editor-in-charge and I entered the control room at 9.40am, and by then, Nitadori was already inside.

She was dressed in plain clothes that were easy to move it. I heard that voice actors would choose to wear clothes that would not make much sounds if possible.

She tied her long black hair in a bundle to prevent it from being an obstruction.

She continued to greet the senior voice actors that came in as her hair swayed about, her bow akin to a sports club member.

The recording began.

Nitadori practically didn't have a chance to appear.

It was to be expressed. Looking at the time frame, the second episode of the anime was just the beginning of the story, and took up about 30 pages of the original first volume.

The ones with lines were mostly the main characters of 'Vice Versa'. Nitadori's character would not appear at all until the 5th episode.

So why did Nitadori appear?

Could she not appear at the studio like those famous voice actors who didn't have any roles on this day?

After pondering about it, I finally got an answer.

She was present to help act out one or two lines from the unnamed characters, like the protagonist's female classmate, a passer-by woman, and so on. Also, she would be taking part in 'background' scenes where many people would talk.

She was being very attentive no matter whether she was at the chair furthest from the microphone, or during the short scenes she had, never relaxing a little as she gave a serious look.

Her expression was as sharp as a blade, like a 'real Japanese sword'

Luckily, I didn't have a chance to talk to her. I didn't know how I was supposed to converse with her during that situation.

After the 4 hour long recording ended, I had no reason to stay behind.

I greeted the anime supervisor, sound supervisor and producer, and informed them that I intended to depart.

The voice actors too left the studio booth in a single file, greeted the control room briefly, and left.

Before I left, I glanced at the booth, and saw Nitadori greet the departing voice actors, with her hair swaying again.

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[This_title_is_too_long!:Volume1_Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[I%27m_a_High_School_Boy_and_a_Bestselling_Light_Novel_author,_strangled_by_my_female_classmate_who_is_my_junior_and_a_voice_actress|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[This_title_is_too_long!:Volume1_Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}

Leviathan:Registration Page

2015-01-16T03:11:54Z

Gamerdude13: Creating Registration Page

Owari no Serafu:Registration Page

2014-12-06T07:36:58Z

Gamerdude13:

Owari no Serafu

2014-12-06T07:32:19Z

Gamerdude13: /* The Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe series by Kagami Takaya */

{{Teaser|English}}

[[Image:Seraph_v01_000a.jpg|200px|thumb|Cover for Owari no Seraph Vol 1]]

'''''Owari no Serafu - Ichinose Glen, Jyuurokusai no Catastrophe (Seraph of the End - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe)''''' (終わりのセラフ一瀬グレン、16歳の破滅) is a Japanese light novel series written by [[:Category:Takaya Kagami|Kagami Takaya]] (鏡貴也), who is also the author of the following notable series:
::伝説の勇者の伝説 ([[Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu|Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu/The Legend of the Legendary Heroes]]) series,
::いつか天魔の黒ウサギ ([[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi]]) series,
::黙示録アリス ([[Mokushiroku Arisu|Mokushiroku Arisu/Apocalypse Alice]]) series

With illustrations by Yamamoto Yamato (山本ヤマト), "Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe" is published under Kodansha light novel label.

==Story Synopsis==
Those screeches are annoying. I'll crush them all!

"Hey Glen. We'll still be together even after becoming adults right......?"
It was the last spring before the world got destroyed, when the surface got controlled by the vampires.
The school that the 15-year old Ichinose Glen enrolled in was a sorcerer-nurturing school in Shibuya.
It was filled with elite girls from famous lineages in the sorcery world.
Even when he was full of aspirations, Glen, who was born of a lowly branch family of his clan, spent his days being ridiculed as trash.
However, in the midst of all that, appeared a girl whom he had made a promise to a long time ago, a classmate who called herself his fiancee.
In a world that was getting destroyed, the young man sought power, and so did the girl.


==About the Light Novel & its Related Manga==
"Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe" is a prequel and narrates the series of events that occurred years before the start of the manga version of Owari no Seraph, in which Yuuichiro is the protagonist. It primarily tells the background story of what happened before the world became the way it is in the manga. Glen is the protagonist in this light novel series. Both the light novel and manga started within a few short months of each other and are running concurrently at almost the same speed. The manga manuscript is also provided by Kagami Takaya and the manga artist Yamamoto is also the illustrator of this prequel light novel series. Please read the manga to find out about the sequel.

An anime adaptation of the manga version is also in the works: http://owarino-seraph.jp/

Official series website: http://owarino-seraph.com/index.php

== Translation & Editing==

<span style="font-size: 120%;">'''The series is currently seeking aspiring translators. Please see [[User:Larethian#Translator_Recruitment_for_My_Existing_Projects|here]] for more info.'''</span>

Editing of typos and grammar is welcome. If you want to contribute to more serious editing, you must first seek permission in the forum and also give examples on what and how you intend to edit.

=== [[Owari no Serafu:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

The series is not currently seeking any translators (this may change in future). You can still view contribution credits and possible progress through the [[Owari no Serafu:Registration Page|registration]] page.

===Format Standards===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

==Updates==
* '''5-Dec-2014'''
**Volume 1 Chapter 1 completed.

* '''3-Dec-2014'''
**Volume 1 Prologue completed.

==The ''Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe'' series by Kagami Takaya==

===Volume 1 ===

::*[[Owari no Serafu:Volume 1 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
::*[[Owari no Serafu:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue - About the Spring of this World]]
::*[[Owari no Serafu:Volume 1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - Enrollment of a Hated One]]

==Project Staff==

*Supervisor:
*Project Manager:

===Translators===

===Editors===

==Series Overview==
*Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe Vol. 1 (January 4, 2013 ISBN 978-4-06-375279-3)
*Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe Vol. 2 (July 2, 2013 ISBN 978-4-06-375311-0)
*Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe Vol. 3 (January 31, 2014 ISBN 978-4-06-375354-7)
*Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe Vol. 4 (July 2, 2014 ISBN 978-4-06-375396-7)

[[Category:Kodansha]]
[[Category:Takaya Kagami]]

Owari no Serafu:Registration Page

2014-12-06T07:31:32Z

Gamerdude13:

Owari no Serafu:Registration Page

2014-12-06T07:30:18Z

Gamerdude13: Creating Registration Page

Owari no Serafu:Volume 1 Illustrations

2014-12-06T07:22:25Z

Gamerdude13:

==Volume 1 ==Volume 1 Color Pages==

<gallery>
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_000a.jpg|'''Cover'''
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_000b.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_000c.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_000d.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_016.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_036.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_058.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_088.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_107.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_116.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_142.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_161.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_190.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_210.jpg
Image:Owari_no_Serafu_v01_234.jpg
</gallery><noinclude>

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[Owari_no_Serafu|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Owari_no_Serafu:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Owari no Serafu:Volume 1 Illustrations

2014-12-06T07:22:06Z

Gamerdude13: Making the Illustration page

Owari no Serafu

2014-12-06T07:18:06Z

Gamerdude13: Making the Illustration page

{{Teaser|English}}

[[Image:Seraph_v01_000a.jpg|200px|thumb|Cover for Owari no Seraph Vol 1]]

'''''Owari no Serafu - Ichinose Glen, Jyuurokusai no Catastrophe (Seraph of the End - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe)''''' (終わりのセラフ一瀬グレン、16歳の破滅) is a Japanese light novel series written by [[:Category:Takaya Kagami|Kagami Takaya]] (鏡貴也), who is also the author of the following notable series:
::伝説の勇者の伝説 ([[Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu|Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu/The Legend of the Legendary Heroes]]) series,
::いつか天魔の黒ウサギ ([[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi]]) series,
::黙示録アリス ([[Mokushiroku Arisu|Mokushiroku Arisu/Apocalypse Alice]]) series

With illustrations by Yamamoto Yamato (山本ヤマト), "Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe" is published under Kodansha light novel label.

==Story Synopsis==
Those screeches are annoying. I'll crush them all!

"Hey Glen. We'll still be together even after becoming adults right......?"
It was the last spring before the world got destroyed, when the surface got controlled by the vampires.
The school that the 15-year old Ichinose Glen enrolled in was a sorcerer-nurturing school in Shibuya.
It was filled with elite girls from famous lineages in the sorcery world.
Even when he was full of aspirations, Glen, who was born of a lowly branch family of his clan, spent his days being ridiculed as trash.
However, in the midst of all that, appeared a girl whom he had made a promise to a long time ago, a classmate who called herself his fiancee.
In a world that was getting destroyed, the young man sought power, and so did the girl.


==About the Light Novel & its Related Manga==
"Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe" is a prequel and narrates the series of events that occurred years before the start of the manga version of Owari no Seraph, in which Yuuichiro is the protagonist. It primarily tells the background story of what happened before the world became the way it is in the manga. Glen is the protagonist in this light novel series. Both the light novel and manga started within a few short months of each other and are running concurrently at almost the same speed. The manga manuscript is also provided by Kagami Takaya and the manga artist Yamamoto is also the illustrator of this prequel light novel series. Please read the manga to find out about the sequel.

An anime adaptation of the manga version is also in the works: http://owarino-seraph.jp/

Official series website: http://owarino-seraph.com/index.php

== Translation & Editing==

<span style="font-size: 120%;">'''The series is currently seeking aspiring translators. Please see [[User:Larethian#Translator_Recruitment_for_My_Existing_Projects|here]] for more info.'''</span>

Editing of typos and grammar is welcome. If you want to contribute to more serious editing, you must first seek permission in the forum and also give examples on what and how you intend to edit.

=== [[Owari no Serafu:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

The series is not currently seeking any translators (this may change in future). You can still view contribution credits and possible progress through the [[Owari no Serafu:Registration Page|registration]] page.

===Format Standards===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

==Updates==
* '''5-Dec-2014'''
**Volume 1 Chapter 1 completed.

* '''3-Dec-2014'''
**Volume 1 Prologue completed.

==The ''Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe'' series by Kagami Takaya==

'''[[Owari no Serafu:Gallery|Gallery (Spoilers)]]'''

===Volume 1 ===

::*[[Owari no Serafu:Volume 1 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
::*[[Owari no Serafu:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue - About the Spring of this World]]
::*[[Owari no Serafu:Volume 1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1 - Enrollment of a Hated One]]

==Project Staff==

*Supervisor:
*Project Manager:

===Translators===

===Editors===

==Series Overview==
*Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe Vol. 1 (January 4, 2013 ISBN 978-4-06-375279-3)
*Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe Vol. 2 (July 2, 2013 ISBN 978-4-06-375311-0)
*Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe Vol. 3 (January 31, 2014 ISBN 978-4-06-375354-7)
*Owari no Seraph - Ichinose Glen, a 16 year old's Catastrophe Vol. 4 (July 2, 2014 ISBN 978-4-06-375396-7)

[[Category:Kodansha]]
[[Category:Takaya Kagami]]

Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume 1

2014-07-29T03:49:45Z

Gamerdude13: Added Nav

{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Illustrations}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Prologue}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Chapter_1_A-Part}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Chapter_1_B-Part}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Chapter_2_A-Part}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Chapter_2_B-Part}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Chapter_3_A-Part}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Chapter_3_B-Part}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Interlude}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Epilogue}}
{{:Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume_1_Afterword}}

==Translator's Notes and References==
<references/>

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day|Main Page]]
|[[Shiinamachi-senpai's Safe Day:Volume 2|Volume 2]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Samayou Shinki no Duelist:Registration Page

2014-06-29T17:43:01Z

Gamerdude13: /* Samayou Shinki no Duelist */

Samayou Shinki no Duelist:Registration Page

2014-06-20T07:20:48Z

Gamerdude13: /* Samayou Shinki no Duelist */

Madan no Ou to Vanadis:Volume 09 Chapter 2

2014-06-11T14:25:54Z

Gamerdude13: /* Chapter 2 – Before Dawn */ extra space

== Chapter 2 – Before Dawn ==

To the north of Pardu, there was a slight elevated hill where trees grew sparsely.

The Bydgauche army of 3000 led by Ilda Krutis was on that hill. About 50 horsemen looked out every direction from the hill and the remaining soldiers were resting at the foot of the hill.

As Urz thought, they did not go through the highway; they were advancing through the mountains and hills using sleds.

Far overhead of them, the white, dim winter sun was slowly descending to the western sky. The almost cloudless sky was watching over the sun with a bleak blue.

“Still one koku and half until the day falls, huh…”

Ilda who was standing at the vanguard of the soldiers looked up at the sky and muttered with a difficult face. He wore armor on his tall figure, held his helmet under his arm and a sword was hung on his waist. Though his suntanned, finely chiseled face was filled with a preternatural anger and determination, fatigue could also be seen.

Since he left Bydgauche ten days ago, he let his soldiers diligently rest, but Ilda himself hardly took a rest. He was originally the owner of such a stouthearted disposition that he could sleep soundly even in a battlefield, but this time he had not slept that much.

The sense of grief and guilt towards his attendant who lost his life, the anger towards Earl Pardu and the distrust to the King. All those melted together, combined and overexcited Ilda’s emotions.

While looking at the sun which feebly illuminated the ground, Ilda pondered over something.

''---If we advance to the south like this, we will enter Pardu.''

So far, they were able to march without anyone standing in their way. However, it would not go so well from here on. Eugene’s soldiers should block their way in order to protect their lord.

In addition, there was no doubt that the neighboring nobles who were commanded by the King would appear leading soldiers in order to stop them. Actually, the soldier sent on reconnaissance had seen the troops going through the highway nearby.

''---According to the soldier’s report, those troops seemed to have raised the {{furigana|Black Dragon Flag|Zirnitra}} and the battle flag of Lebus.''

There was no one among his soldiers in the northern part of the Kingdom who did not know Lebus’ battle flag which drew a golden curve on a vivid purple ground. So, he did not think that the soldiers made a mistake.

''---Then, it means that it’s Vanadis-dono who is chasing me, huh.''

At this time, Ilda had not noticed the existence of the LeitMeritz army led by Ellen.

Seeing the campfire and smoke of cooking from above the mountains and hills, he grasped the rough number of enemies and their position, but he thought that all of them were only the Lebus army. He misled his judgment about the fact that there were as many soldiers of LeitMeritz army as the Lebus army.

If the reconnaissance unit had approached the enemy troops nearer, they might have seen LeitMeritz’s battle flag which drew a silver sword on a black ground.

But, Ilda, rather than gathering information about the enemy, gave priority to the fact that he had to hurry and not be discovered by the enemy. In addition, the current him got tired and was somewhat lacking composure, too.

He did not even consider the fact that other than Elizavetta, another Vanadis would come with her army.

Ilda ordered his attendant who was beside him and he called three subordinates. Each of them, while having enough skill as one warrior, also possessed the ability to be able to command 1000 soldiers. Ilda had divided the soldiers under him into three squads and entrusted them with each.

When the subordinates gathered, Ilda told them the plan from here on.

“We will camp out here today. When the day breaks, we will head to the closest highway and from there we will aim at the town of Litomyšl where Earl Pardu is.”

In order to avoid an encounter with the enemy until now, they dared to deviate from the highway and went ahead through the mountains and hills. But, as expected the March to the maintained highway was faster. There, the soldiers would also advance without getting too much tired.

Besides, near Litomyšl where Eugene’s mansion was, there were no conspicuous mountains and hills. They had to go towards the highway somewhere.

“Your Excellency, shouldn’t we advance through here throughout the night? We have come so far without drop-out soldiers and we aren’t that much tired, either. We shall display our will to the cowardly bastard who used poison.”

One of the subordinates expressed an assertive opinion in a powerful voice. The fact that their march did not get dull and they did not get dropouts soldiers while daringly going ahead through the mountains and hills would also display the high level of Ilda’s capability.

Ilda turned his gaze towards the other two. Receiving it, one of them opened his mouth.

“I agree with him. Although we are all from Zchted, this neighborhood isn’t as cold as the north where we live. I think that we can advance even if the day set.”

The last one remained silent, but he clearly nodded his head. This meant that he was of the same opinion as the other two.

However, Ilda shook his head to his subordinates’ advice.

“Keep in mind that here is already the Earl’s territory. We are unfamiliar with the geography. We shouldn’t act recklessly.”

“But, I heard that Earl Pardu is a person who lacks experience in war. Even if he has devised some kind of trap, there is no way we will fall for it.”

“The enemy is not only Earl Pardu.”

To Ilda’s sharp voice, the subordinates were startled and gasped. The Lebus army led by the {{furigana|Flash Princess of the Thunder Swirl|Isgrifa}} Elizavetta Fomina was near.

Just by looking up to the Ilda with high honor in bravery as supreme commander, the soldiers of Bydgauche were used to fighting. Regardless of whether the enemy was the Lebus soldiers, they had the mental attitude to fight without drawing back even one step.

But even for them, the existence called ‘Vanadis’ was great. The figure of the Vanadis standing at the vanguard of the soldiers, freely wielding her {{furigana|Dragonic Tool|Viralt}} and mowing down all enemies was the object of awe and aspiration.

Similarly, Ilda knew only too well Elizavetta’s strength. This was because he had taught her the basics of sword before.

He did not doubt the fact that Vanadis of {{furigana|Rainbow Eyes|Laziris}} alone could be a match for a thousand soldiers. Even the soldiers led by her would probably display more power than before. Although her army was one third of the number of his army, she was an opponent against whom he could by no means be careless.

“I understand that you are impatient. Pardu is just around the corner after all. But, it’s precisely for this reason that we must move carefully.”

Ilda’s words seemed to be persuading himself rather than admonishing his subordinates.

“Start with the preparation for camping at once. And then, send reconnaissance units in every direction. We must confirm whether there is no enemy nearby before the day falls completely.”

When the three subordinates simultaneously bowed, they left by running in order to execute the supreme commander’s orders.

Then, it was after a half koku that there were reports from the reconnaissance units. It was about when the Bydgauche army finished the installation of their camp. Ilda received the reports in the tent for supreme commander use.

“I state! From here to the north at about five Belsta, we discovered troops of about 1000 soldiers. They are flying the {{furigana|Black Dragon Flag|Zirnitra}} and Lebus’s battle flag!”

“So Vanadis-dono already came up to there…!”

A shiver ran down Ilda’s spine. He quickly drew the map of the surroundings in his head.

Five Belsta (about 5 Km). If there were cavalry, it was a distance of less than a half koku.

As Ilda stood up, he left the tent with calm steps. In order not to worry the soldiers, too, he had to endeavor a composed speech and behavior.

The sky which he looked up at started to be dye with sunset. An indigo blue and vermillion bisected the sky; the bright red was dazzling to the eyes as it went towards the west and darkness thickened as it went towards the east.

The ridgeline of the mountain ranging farther to the west was brightened in golden, but the mountain itself was black like a shadow picture. When shifting the gaze to the east, the plain covered with dry grass basked in the setting sun and looked reddish.

“Isn’t it a quite beautiful sky? It’s a shame that the person we both admire is only a man.”

To Ilda who spoke of a poor joke, the subordinate who was beside him promptly cracked a joke.

“With all due respect, Your Excellency. I deem the women who will think to admire a sunset to be very few. What most women think seeing the sunset will probably be dinner and tomorrow’s weather.”

“That’s why you are still celibate even though you are 30 years old.”

Ilda shrugged his shoulders and laughed. The soldiers who heard their exchanges nearby also laughed without reservation.

There was no one among them who was dissatisfied towards this dispatch of troops. There were only people who held Ilda in high esteem and would gladly follow him if he gave orders. Therefore, they had pushed their way to the mountains and hills even in this season.

While looking at the soldiers’ conditions, Ilda was thinking about something completely different in his head.

''---After a little less than a half koku, the day will sink completely. Even if the Lebus army shortens the distance, they will no longer in a state in which they can fight. But…''

It was troublesome that the Lebus army was in the north. If the Bydgauche army was going to go towards Pardu as planned, they would found themselves in the situation where they had their back turned to the Lebus army.

''---If Earl Pardu is to organize his troops and leads them towards here, we will be caught in a pincer from the front and back. I must avoid it.''

Ilda immediately drew a conclusion. His back to the soldiers’ laughter, he gave orders to his attendant while returning to the tent.

“Send a messenger to the Lebus army. Prepare the soldiers so that they can fight at any time.”

<center><big>◎</big></center>

It was four days after the war council with Ellen that the Lebus army caught the back figure of the Bydgauche army. By the way, they had found the Bydgauche army several hours earlier than the Bydgauche army discovered them.

“To think that they came until such a place. I should say as expected of Ilda-sama.”

Elizavetta who heard the report of the reconnaissance unit muttered with admiration. If they were another one day later, the Bydgauche army would have probably entered the Pardu territory. It was a close one.

“It’s your merit, Urz.”

On horseback, Elizavetta looked back at Urz was on the side. The youth only bowed. Since they were the soldiers’ eyes, he avoided an outstanding reaction. Elizavetta also understood it. She then faced forward not caring about Urz more than necessary.

''---At any rate.''

It occurred to her when he was working as a stable boy. Urz said so, but was it true?

''---Tigrevurmud Vorn is the man who killed Duke Thenardier and won Brune’s civil war. Even if he loses his memory, that ability might not be lost.''

Elizavetta violently shook her head and denied that thought.

''He is not Tigre. It is Urz.''

If she herself did not think so first of all, then she would probably not be able to make others believe it.

“Vanadis-sama. Do we send a messenger to His Excellency the Duke’s place?”

“Not yet. There is something that can be done first.”

As she was asked by Naum, Elizavetta answered so. Adjusting her army’s ranks, she ordered to dispatch reconnaissance units at the surroundings and investigated the geographical features.

“Will it become a war?”

“I don't know.”

With a stern look, Elizavetta answered Naum’s question.

“I don’t know what will happen. And it won’t also be strange even something happens. It’s a battlefield, isn’t it?”

No matter what kind of past she had, even if she had a face suitable of her age, Elizavetta was after all a Vanadis. Naum turned his horse and issued instructions to the soldiers.

Seeing the grizzled knight off, Elizavetta muttered in her mouth.

“If it’s the usual Ilda-sama, it will be good even without thinking about such a thing…”

According to what she heard from the royal palace’s messenger who requested this from her and from Ellen, it was when Ilda was in his mansion in the capital that he was given the poisoned Vodka. And he, who lost his attendant, returned to his territory Bydgauche in a hurry, gathered soldiers and prepared weapons, food and fuel.

''---I wonder how many days it takes from the capital Silesia to Bydgauche. Assuming it’s ten days on horse back and forth, if one prepares substitutes horse and hurries, it’s likely to be reduced up to three or four days.''

The highways which connected the territories of those with the Duke rank and the capital should be maintained. Ilda excelled at horse-riding and he also had stamina. He even had the assets which could supply multiple horses immediately. If he felt like it, he might also keep riding on horse all day and night.

As for Elizavetta, the question was why Ilda purposely returned to his territory while being in the capital. Wasn’t the best thing to do to either go in Earl Pardu’s mansion and blame him or appeal to the King who was in the capital?

But, Ilda chose neither of these.

He returned to his territory, gathered soldiers and right now was going to attack Earl Pardu’s territory. It did not take only time and effort. No matter what kind of results it turned out to be and assuming that the kingdom would be confused, Ilda would not escape from criticism.

''---Was he unable to make a proper judgment or was there another reason?''

Elizavetta did not know in what kind of state of mind Ilda was. She should also take into consideration the fact that he could judge her to be an enemy and suddenly attack.

Since she did not understand, Elizavetta was watching the Bydgauche army’s situation while keeping the distance of five Belsta. While preparing so that they might break into a battle at any time.

It was about a little less than a half koku after until the day set that the messenger of the Bydgauche army showed up under the Lebus army.

It was the very time when the Lebus army was setting their camp. If a war occurred, it would get in the way, so they had postponed the setting of camp until the very last minute; but looking at the sky which began to darken, they reluctantly started the work.

After the messenger gave his weapon into custody, he was let go through in front of Elizavetta, still straddling his horse.

“Man of Bydgauche. I am glad that you have come.”

Under the sky which gradually increased darkness, overlooking the messenger on horseback, Elizavetta gorgeously smiled. By the way, Urz was hanging up a torch with fire next to her. That Naum did not do so was because it was his duty to wield a sword when push comes to shove.

The Bydgauche’s messenger respectfully bowed and conveyed Ilda’s demand after expressing formal greetings.

“Our lord, His Excellency the Duke wants a discussion with Vanadis-sama. Please, I would like you to grant it…”

After Elizavetta generously nodded, she set two conditions. That both of them could only bring two attendants and that they had the discussion at a place exactly in the middle of both armies.

Once the messenger returned to the Bydgauche army, he showed up again before Elizavetta after a half koku.

“His Excellency the Duke has agreed about the discussion’s place. But, about the attendants, he say that he would like both of you to come with at least 50 cavalrymen.”

In the tent, Urz who was beside Elizavetta stared wide eyes. He thought that the Duke was surprisingly wary. However, Naum who was standing next to the youth remained calm as if expecting that demand and the Vanadis whom they served also answered with a graceful smile.

“Yes. I don’t mind it.”

When the Bydgauche army’s messenger went back, Elizavetta looked back towards her two attendants.

“Urz. Naum. Only you two will accompany me.”

“Will you try to persuade His Highness the Duke?”

As Urz asked so as to check, fluttering her red hair to the wind tinged with cold, the Vanadis of {{furigana|Rainbow Eyes|Laziris}} floated a lonely smile.

“I would like it if possible. Judging from the fact that he came up to here at this speed, Ilda-sama’s determination is firm. So, it would better not to expect too much.”

The discussion was carried out exactly in the middle of both armies. They did not set a tent like at the time of Elizavetta and Ellen’s war council. The light was only the flame of torches held by the soldiers and the brightness of the moon and stars inlaid in (by) the night sky.

Elizavetta, accompanied only by Urz and Naum, went there. There were of course a lot of soldiers who raised an objection to this, but the red-haired Vanadis personally persuaded them.

“Ilda-sama will surely bring 50 cavalrymen. If I was to take the same number as him, there will definitely be people who will not be able to bear the tension and will rampage. Therefore, so as not to stimulate the enemy, only the three of us will go. If you understand it, calmly see us off.”

Even so, several soldiers held on saying “take at least only me” unanimously, but as she stared at them with her eyes of different colors, they became quiet. Rather than a persuasion, it was more like coercion.

When Elizavetta and company reached the agreed place like that, Ilda accompanied by 50 cavalrymen was already waiting. The flame of torches which they were holding let the shadows of 50 horsemen emerge within the darkness.

To Urz who unintentionally hardened his body, Naum casually brought his horse near him and whispered.

“Do you remember what Vanadis-sama had said before coming here?”

Urz moved only his eyes towards Naum and nodded. ''I don’t mind if you escape if compelled''. Elizavetta said so to Urz and Naum. She also said that be it fifty or one hundred soldiers, she could handle them by herself alone.

Urz thought that it was probably not a lie. The figure of Elizavetta, who mowed down most of the pirates in an instant at the time when they met for the first time, vividly remained in his memory.

Naum put his mouth close to his ear and continued talking.

“Listen. If something were to happen, you should run back to the camp without looking aside. You don’t need to worry about Vanadis-sama or me.”

“But, I…”

“If you don’t run away first, I won’t be able to escape. Depending on the situation. Besides, it’d be better that there is no ally around in order for Vanadis-sama to wield her whip.”

Naum said in a tone which posed as a joke. While Urz was wondering to what extent he was serious, the distance Elizavetta and Ilda was shortening.

“Vanadis-dono. I thank you for accepting a discussion in spite of such time. I would like to ask without delay, but why are you here?”

The Duke’s gaze was wearing sharpness as to cut. But, Elizavetta received Ilda’s gaze without flinching and answered back.

“You should know why, right Ilda-sama? It’s in order to stop you.”

“…Do you know the circumstances?”

After a short pause, Ilda asked. Elizavetta nodded.

“I understand your feelings.”

When Elizavetta asked Ilda the name of his attendant, she prayed to the gods for the dead’s soul to rest in peace. Ilda deeply bowed with a sad look.

“I thank you for praying for my attendant.”

Both eyes of Ilda as he said so and raised his face were filled with an intense fighting spirit.

“Vanadis-dono. You said that you came to stop us. Taking it into account, I would like to ask. Can’t you pretend that you didn’t see us?”

The Duke in his prime shouted, his voice shaking.

“I finally came until here! I won’t attack villages or towns which have nothing to do with it. I will defeat those who stand in my way, but do nothing to those who doesn’t resist. I promise on my name. So––”

“I refuse.”

With no room for consideration, Elizavetta immediately replied.

The atmosphere became filled with tension and got heavy. Behind Ilda, several sounds of armors resounded in succession. The 50 Bydgauche cavalrymen were showing signs that they were likely to attack at any moment.

Urz swallowed his saliva. He exchanged glances with Naum who was next to him. Though Naum frowned, he immediately gave up and they nodded to each other.

Elizavetta said that she would not mind even if they ran away, but neither Urz nor Naum felt like running away leaving their lord. Grasping a torch, Urz stared straight at the 50 cavalrymen.

Suddenly, Ilda raised his hand. As he looked back at his soldiers, he roared with a sharp voice.

“Is the reason why you are here in order to threaten a youth who doesn’t even have a weapon? Just because Vanadis-dono trusted us, only the three of them came! How will the military art of Bydgauche, which the leaders and comrades-in-arms have built up, be regarded as?”

It was by no means loud, but it was a well-projected voice filled with dignity. The cavalrymen stiffened their bodies as if being struck by thunder. The dangerous fighting spirit which they were wearing disappeared at once.

As Ilda turned towards Urz, he bowed.

“I apologize for my subordinates. They are irritated due to the long journey. It’s not something which can be resolved with just an apology, but please can’t you forgive them?”

Urz did not immediately answer; he was fixedly staring at Ilda with a surprised face.

Elizavetta aside, he was only a servant. Nevertheless, this Duke bowed his head to him and apologized.

''---Why is such a person…?''

As Urz fixed his breathing, he slowly opened his mouth while carefully choosing his words.

“Um, May I say something to His Excellency the Duke? I am called Urz and I serve master… Vanadis-sama.”

Ilda nodded silently and urged Urz. The youth swallowed his saliva once again. He felt not only Ilda’s and the soldiers’ glances, but also those of Elizavetta and Naum around his cheeks.

“With your permission, I would like to ask. Shouldn’t His Excellency the Duke’s anger be directed to the royal palace in the capital? His Majesty the King was also troubled to the point of sending Vanadis-sama here. How about you first call out to the Earl to come to the royal palace, and in case that he don’t move, with the soldiers again––”

“I can’t do that.”

Ilda rejected Urz’s desperate appeal with a short sentence.

“…If you don’t mind, could you tell us the reason?”

“I can’t also do that.”

This was probably what it meant to be unapproachable. Ilda’s expression was so stark that the attitude he showed a little while ago was unthinkable, and his tone was cold, too.

''---Why?''

Urz felt impatience and irritation. Ilda did not look like someone who liked to fight. However, it seemed that he did not feel like choosing a way other than fighting.

Still, Urz tried to hold on, but before that a hand was stretched and restrained the youth.

“Enough, Urz. You did well.”

It was Elizavetta’s. As Urz stepped back, the Vanadis of {{furigana|Rainbow Eyes|Laziris}} glared at Ilda and his soldiers with a haughty smile.

“If you don’t want to retreat no matter what, we will have no other choice but to fight against you, Ilda-sama.”

In the Vanadis’ high-handed attitude, Ilda certainly felt her thought “please, I want you to retreat”. Moreover, he responded like a lump of ice with calm and coldness.

“I said it before, Vanadis-dono. We took sword and spear, wore armor, rode horses and came here in order to fight. We will defeat all those who stand in our way. Even if it is you.”

“…Even after hearing that not only my troops, but another 5000 soldiers are heading towards here?”

To Elizavetta’s words, Ilda opened his eyes wide. As expected, 5000 was a number that he could not ignore. But, he immediately regained a calm expression.

“Be it 5000 or 10000, it won’t change what I have to do.”

Silence fell. Words to talk any further did no longer come out for the two people’s mouth. This silence was to confirm it. Only Urz held his irritation and was watching the two.

It was Ilda who opened his mouth first. He floated a smile and said.

“Good luck. Vanadis-dono.”

“Thank you. I will get victory from you without holding back.”

Elizavetta also answered with a smile. Then, she turned her horse.

“Let’s go, you two.”

Urz and Naum followed after their lord. While feeling on their back gazes as to feel pain.

Thus, the discussion ended without crop.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

Ilda who saw off the trio returned to his camp followed by the 50 cavalrymen.

On the way back to his camp, the Duke in his prime made a bitter face all along. It was Urz’s words which made him make such a face.

''---Tell the reason, huh. There is no way I can say it.''

About the fact that he doubted the Zchted King Victor.

What Urz suggested, Ilda had also thought about it long ago. But, the enemy was Eugene whom the King chose as the next King.

Even if he appealed for him, the King would definitely cover up for Eugene. Even if he marched into Eugene’s mansion, the result would not change that much.

Driven by such a doubt, Ilda hurriedly returned to his territory Bydgauche. This was because when he decided to attack Pardu which was Eugene’s territory, he intended to settle things before King Victor intervened.

Ilda who returned to his camp called three subordinates in the tent for supreme commander use. As he made them prepare a table and a map, he told them that they would fight against the Lebus army.

“Against that {{furigana|Flash Princess of the Thunder Swirl|Isgrifa}}…?”

Although the three subordinates were by no means cowardly, they shivered as if they bathed in the night wind. Ilda laughed so as to ease their strain.

“It’s me who will fight against Vanadis-dono. You may rest assured.”

“Your Excellency, do you say that you will stand at the vanguard?”

One of the subordinates opened his eyes wide. He shook his head as he wanted to say that it was something outrageous.

“Your Excellency. Our purpose should only be Earl Pardu. If you can leave the fight against Vanadis-sama to us––”

“You guys have no chance of winning against Vanadis-dono.”

Interrupting the subordinate’s fervent speech, Ilda plainly said. However, his expression was serious.

“I don’t know whether or not even I can win. I’m confident in a sword fight, but…”

Elizavetta’s weapon was a whip. And a {{furigana|Dragonic Tool|Viralt}}, which only a Vanadis was allowed to wield, at that. Even if it was wielded by her thin arm, it displayed power to easily break a shield, cut a helmet and to blow off armor together with its contents.

Ilda’s sword was a sword of steel which he placed an order to a blacksmith master renown even in the Sachstein Kingdom. It was a hard sword whose blade would not be nicked even if it bisected an armor. Even so, considering that the opponent was Elizavetta, it did not look like he could be completely confident.

“Anyway, Vanadis-dono’s opponent will be me. In return, I want you to devote yourself to command the soldiers.”

As one of the subordinates prepared a map, Ilda explained the plan.

“When midnight comes, we will let the camp intact and we will march towards the south –– towards Pardu.”

Looking around at his subordinates’ faces, Ilda continued.

“This will be a diversion. The Lebus army came in order to prevent us from going to Pardu. If we go towards the south, they will definitely move, too.”

The purpose of leaving the camp as is was so that the Bydgauche army would march under cover of night darkness while making the enemy think that they were still camping.

On the map, Ilda described an arc with a finger.

“When the Lebus army moves, we will make a big detour so as not to be noticed by them and we will sneak around behind them.”

“Do we launch a night attack?”

One of the subordinates let tension fill all over his face and stared at his lord. The Bydgauche army had marched throughout the night several times as part of their training. They were used to take action within darkness.

But, Ilda shook his head.

“It is regrettable, but we will attack at the daybreak.”

If possible, Ilda wanted to launch a night attack. However, the Bydgauche army was unfamiliar with the geography of the vicinity.

Aside of if it was only moving, when it came to attacking, it would be easy to create confusion. Especially a night attack, in a situation when they were uncertain of where they go, was more likely to fail. Let alone being found by the enemy and being repelled, stories about people who lost their way and met an accident or stories of self-destruction by killing each other by mistake were hardly few.

“Assuming that the first squad, second squad and third squad move separately, we will attack the Lebus army with two squads. The remaining squad will stand by as reserve forces.”

“Reserve forces?”

The subordinates frowned respectively. Ilda nodded with a difficult face.

“Earl Pardu’s army may appear in the middle of the battle. Besides, the enemy might not be limited only to the Lebus army and Earl Pardu’s army. Vanadis-dono said that 5000 soldiers were heading towards here, but…”

“Isn’t it a bluff in order to stop Your Excellency?”

Elizavetta’s duty was to prevent Ilda from going to the territory of Pardu. Issuing a threat like “we have a large army” by such negotiations was an old trick.

“I think so, too. But, I can’t deny the possibility of reinforcement or a detached force. Though the number 5000 is an exaggeration. Our purpose is, to the bitter end, Earl Pardu. Vanadis-dono and the Lebus army are powerful enemies, but I would like to carry out; if I can keep a military power, I would like to do it.”

As if encouraging his subordinates, Ilda continued in a bright tone.

“Still, against the 1000 soldiers of the Lebus army, we will have 2000. While I will draw Vanadis-dono’s attention, you will defeat them. If the army is partially destroyed, even Vanadis-dono will withdraw.”

The three subordinates bowed (in salutation) to their lord. Since Ilda decided as supreme commander how to fight, they only followed. Besides, they also had the pride that they would not lose against the Vanadis’ army.

In order to advance the preparations of war, they left the tent at a quick pace. Since they would march at midnight, they had to let soldiers rest by turns without delay. Other than, they were also a lot of things that they had to do.

Ilda who was now alone in the tent was quietly looking at the map on the desk.

When the moon rose high in the sky, the Bydgauche army promptly finished the preparations.

They braced horses with board and their hooves were also wrapped with clothes. They smeared armor and spear with dirt so as to prevent them from glittering by the moonlight. The soldiers had put on a dirtier overcoat on their dirty armors.

In addition, they had one long rope every ten people. Since there was no light, they disarranged their formation and were walking while grasping a rope so as not to get lost.

Leaving a small number of scouting party behind, a little less than 3000 soldiers moved. Several people were wistfully staring at the campfire which continued burning brightly.

Under the moon and starlight, the soldiers of Bydgauche quietly walked the meadow while pulling their horses. However much they walked, the moon and stars did not change their forms. The shadow of mountains seen in the far distance did not change, either.

The reins which they held in their right hand and the feel of the rope which they grasped in the left hand. A dim breathing and footsteps were all concerning them.

Whenever it counted five hundred soldiers, the Bydgauche army stopped once. Not to take a rest. But only to adjust their lines and quietly take a deep breath. And then, they advanced again.

It was not as if the lines were disordered so frequently. It was something which Ilda thought of in order not to paralyze the soldiers’ sense within the night darkness.

When they repeated March and stoppage, and kept walking only a half koku while inserting rest. Near Ilda who went at the vanguard, a reconnaissance unit showed with a report. They were on foot, but because the Bydgauche army’s march was slow, they were able to catch up immediately.

“The Lebus army has begun to move.”

Ilda’s eyes shone and were tinged with fighting spirit. But, he could not yet be pleased.

“Did they leave their camp?”

“No. It remains as is.”

''---It can also be thought that they have noticed our movement and hurriedly ran after us without even moving out their camp but...''

It might have been kept as is in order to make them think so.

“Anyway, the Lebus army has moved.”

As Ilda stopped their march, he made them rest while also changing the formation. They had been advancing towards the south until then, but now they must head towards the northwest. It was the place where quite the confusion would arise if it was an army which was not used to moving within the darkness, but such a thing did not happen.

“We will raise the speed. After all, our bodies might have gotten warm and our eyes should have got used to darkness, too.”

Gradually drawing an arc, the Bydgauche army walked in the meadow. Spending nearly one koku, they arrived at the targeted place. It was the Lebus army’s camp.

Ilda first sent a reconnaissance unit to the Lebus army’s camp. At the same time, he prepared another reconnaissance unit and dispatched it to the south.

It was the reconnaissance unit which went towards the Lebus army’s camp that came back first. They reported that there was no soldier in the camp.

“They seem to have moved without cleaning up anything; the fence around the camp is not removed and all the tents are also stretched as is. There are also many campfires which continued to burn.”

After that, the reconnaissance unit sent towards the south came back.

“I discovered the Lebus army marching. They are at a distance from about two Belsta in the south from here.”

Ilda looked up at the sky. The darkness which covered up the eastern sky was fading.

As he called his three subordinates, he ordered them to give a break of a quarter koku to the soldiers.

“Make then abandon useless things and adjust the ranks. It’s almost dawn.”

<center><big>◎</big></center>

Elizavetta saw through the fact that Ilda intended to attack them from the rear.

It was also in order to make the enemy think that they fell for the fact that they had let their camp as is and gone towards the south at midnight. He told like that to the commander of each squad.

“The Bydgauche army will not take us head on. They will probably sneak around to our back. If they catch the enemy’s figure, they will turn around and intercept them. They will intend to go with such a plan.”

Therefore, when the eastern sky began to turn bright, even when she received the report that the Bydgauche army appeared behind her army, she was not surprised or did not panic. At least outwardly.

''---I should say as expected of him.''

She inwardly leaked a mutter of shiver. Even in the downtown that she knew by sight, her sense of direction and sense of distance went amiss when night came. If they moved in a large number of people, then all the more.

They marched at midnight in a ground where they should have come for the first time and arrived at their destination before the day broke. To Ilda who accomplished it, Elizavetta couldn’t help feeling admiration.

However, it was not time to feel admiration. She ordered the turning around to the whole army as planned. Elizavetta was standing at the army’s vanguard and advancing her horse up to there, but due to the turning around, she found herself giving directions in the rear.

It was then that confusion occurred in the Lebus army.

Darkness made the soldiers’ movement get out of order. Soldiers and horses collided here and there, and weapons and armors rubbed against each other. One pushed aside someone before him, and another thrust away the one who was behind. The voices appealing in pain and the sounds of falling to the ground occurred all over, the chorus of noises resounded through the meadows.

“Oh God…”

Elizavetta, amazed, stared at the disastrous scene before her eyes. Urz and Naum swallowed their voices with faces which turned pale. Though not to the extent of the Bydgauche army, the Lebus army should have also been used to move within the night darkness.

But, their formation now was greatly disordered and they were too preoccupied to think about the preparations for the battle.

On horseback, Elizavetta desperately gave instructions. Naum also sent the soldiers around as messengers and tried to settle the situation.

While feeling frustrated as himself who could not help those two people, Urz was silent at Elizavetta’s side. He inwardly persuaded himself that he also had a duty. He should not do unnecessary things which could hinder her.

Within the darkness, the Lebus army somehow managed to rearrange their formation and finished their turning over. The ability of Elizavetta who rebuilt the formation in a short time was admirable, but the Bydgauche army had already approached immediately nearby.

In the meadow where darkness lurked, a lump of black horsemen shadows appeared letting the sound horses’ hooves roar. Ferocious battle cries blew about the cold of before the daybreak.

Elizavetta looked back toward Urz.

“Urz, send the signal!”

As the youth nodded, he got Naum to help him and set fire on the three arrows which he had prepared. A cloth soaked with oil was wrapped on the sickle and blazed up with a popping sound.

It was the duty that Elizavetta gave to Urz.

As Urz tightly grasped the bow which he was carrying on his shoulder and nocked the fire arrows, he shot them one by one towards the sky. The fire arrows reached a surprising height, and disappeared while drawing a parabola and falling.

When the third fire arrow was shot in the empty sky, the Bydgauche army started attacking.

Tearing apart the gloomy atmosphere, hundreds of stones poured into the Lebus army like hail. It was the stone-throwing by the Bydgauche army.

The stones were a size smaller than a clenched fist, but the sound which returned when they hit shields and helmets made the soldiers tense. Dozens of persons crouched down as they received stones on their faces or hands, or they broke their posture and fell from their horses. Of course, the stone-throwing also attacked horses; the horses shook off their rider as they were surprised and the horses which struggled in pain appeared one after another.

There, the Bydgauche soldiers who changed their weapon to spear charged.

Violent emotions and wild excitement superseded tension and fear. Spear and spear crossed, horse and horse collided, and angry roars and jeers flew about. The Lebus army endured the Bydgauche soldiers’ strong charge. They held shield, stuck out spear, raised a roar and held their ground there while encouraging themselves.

To the impact, bloodshed continued. They thrust spear from a close range, beat with a shield, unsheathed sword and slashed. Horses collided with each other and made each opponent fall from his horse. The grass which covered the ground was stained with fresh blood before getting wet in the morning dew. The cold earth mercilessly took away heat from man and horse which fell in a heap.

What was driving them was not hatred or hostility. It was the enemy’s whitish eyes, the sound of weapons and cries as to hurt the ears. It was the weight of the sword or spear which they held in their hand, the neigh of horses and the smell of blood and mud. Those were madness generated as a whole.

The vanguards of both armies were jumbled together with enemy and ally and it displayed the aspect of a melee. The Bydgauche army which inflicted the preemptive blow was not able to kick about the enemy, and the Lebus army which received their charge was not also able to force them back.

In a situation where ebb and flow (seesawing) continued, a change occurred. As a detached force of the Bydgauche army appeared from the east and attacked the Lebus army’s right side while raising a war cry.

This was the second squad of the Bydgauche army; they started moving after waiting for the first squad to open hostilities with the Lebus army. Though the daybreak was near, the sky was still dark, to the point that one could not know the face of the person who was nearby, but it was possible to generally grasp the enemy’s position by voice and sound.

The Lebus troops which found themselves being attack from two directions as expected fall into a numerical inferiority. Elizavetta had sensed such a change of the war situation even earlier than the messenger’s report.

''---As expected, he came with that move, huh.''

The Bydgauche army was in numerical superiority. The Vanadis of {{furigana|Rainbow Eyes|Laziris}} had anticipated that they would at least naturally divide their soldiers and attacked.

''---Let’s go, Valitsaif.''

As she tightly grasped the black whip roundly bundled and hung on her waist, Elizavetta on horseback told.

“Naum, I leave the command to you.”

“Master. I will also––”

The {{furigana|Flash Princess of the Thunder Swirl|Isgrifa}} shook her head and held back Urz who tried to ride his horse and follow her.

“You stay with Naum.”

When she finished saying it, Elizavetta advanced her horse between her allies. Urz unwillingly saw her off and shifted his attention to the distant battlefield. It felt a little bright even before the battle began, but even so the impression that black shadows were wriggling in the darkness did not change.

“Naum-san. I have a request.”

After a little thought, Urz called out to the grizzled knight as he made up his mind.

When she appeared in the space in which friend and foe was jumbled together, Elizavetta was already grasping the Thunder Swirl. In response to his master’s fighting spirit, the black whip wore a black light which harked back to lightning.

“––Vanadis!”

That was the last word of the Bydgauche soldier who shouted so. The whip of thunder which was mowed down blew off the Bydgauche soldier’s head along with his helmet and spread dark red blood mixed with gray matter in the thin air. Ignoring the body which fell to the ground, Elizavetta struck the Thunder Swirl towards the swarm of enemies.

The light danced boisterously and burnt the soldiers’ eyes. Lightning ran through within the very dim light whenever Elizavetta let her whip flash, and the Bydgauche soldiers became bodies which no longer talked and fell down.

The Bydgauche soldiers attacked Elizavetta by two or three, but the Vanadis’ whip was much faster than their swords and spears. Moreover, it held destructive power to the extent that just by grazing the chin, the jaw was blown off from the mouth.

It smashed the head along with the helmet, blew off the arm along with the shield, crushed armor and knocked them down from the horseback. The whip freely changed its trajectory just like the pattern of lightning and there was no one who could avoid it. Let alone cut her, it was not easy even to stand in her way.

The Bydgauche soldiers were wrapped in a stir of shiver and fear, and the Lebus soldiers raised shouts of joy. Elizavetta splendidly restored their morale which was about to collapse. It was indeed a Vanadis like activity.

Elizavetta was going to jump into the enemy’s camp with that momentum, but there was a horseman shadow which fiercely jumped out from among the Bydgauche soldiers earlier than that. Elizavetta stared wide-eyed.

“Duke Bydgauche!?”

That knight who set up his sword was unmistakably the supreme commander of the Bydgauche army Ilda. The flash of the Thunder Swirl that brushed away darkness and shone white was a sign of appearance for Ilda who aimed at Elizavetta.

Showing no signs of fear towards the Vanadis of {{furigana|Rainbow Eyes|Laziris}} and the Thunder Swirl, Ilda drew his horse closer and let out a sharp slash with a cry of spirit.

“Iron Whip!”

In response to its master’s cry, the whip in Elizavetta’s hand changed to a rod-shaped weapon.

The {{furigana|Dragonic Tool|Viralt}} and the hard sword clashed, and sparks and flash scattered. Both Elizavetta and Ilda instantly realized that the opponent before their eyes was a formidable enemy against whom they were not allowed even a moment of inattention.

Elizavetta dodged the sword thrust out aiming at her face by twisting her body. On the other hand, The Iron Whip wielded by Elizavetta was eluded by Ilda’s sword.

Either of them not being able to deal an effective blow to the opponent, the exchange of strikes and slashes reached more than ten combinations. Although Elizavetta was superior in the weight of a blow, as expected Ilda was above in sword skill. Elizavetta switched her way of fighting to defense.

A color of the doubt flashed on the face of Ilda who noticed that.

Ilda’s intent was to hold Elizavetta. This was because if he extracted the factor “Vanadis” and brought it into a battle between armies, the Bydgauche army would be advantageous with the number. A situation where a one-to-one fight would drag on was convenient for Ilda.

Elizavetta understood that, too. But, she also understood that showing an attitude of hurriedly settling the fight was what the opponent also expected.

At that time, battle cries suddenly arose in the western direction

“It’s an enemy!”

The shout which was similar to a scream was that of a Bydgauche soldier. The group of cavalrymen who appeared from the west sharply broke through the Bydgauche army’s right side. Ilda groaned low with the face which thawed a doubt (question).

“Were you waiting for this, Vanadis-dono?”

Elizavetta did not answer. There was no need to answer.

The identity of the group of cavalrymen who attacked the Bydgauche army’s right side was of course the LeitMeritz army led by Ellen. More precisely, LeitMeritz and Pardu allied troops. It was a group which consisted of about 1000 LeitMeritz cavalrymen and 30 Pardu cavalrymen.

Standing at the vanguard was the silver-haired Vanadis endowed with beauty and dignity.

After finishing the war council four days ago, Ellen sent a messenger to Eugene to explain the situation and borrow 30 cavalrymen. Afterwards, they regularly sent a messenger with the Lebus army and confirmed each other’s positions, and they exchanged information.

Ellen thought whether the Bydgauche army might have considerably approached Pardu, and they were trying not to be so far away from Pardu, but her reading proved right.

It was at midnight that she was told by the messenger of the Lebus army that Elizavetta failed to persuade Ilda. Ellen accepted Elizavetta’s request being that she wanted the LeitMeritz army to join in from the middle of the fight; Ellen left the camp as soon as Elizavetta conveyed the means of signal and carefully advanced within the darkness.

When the battle began, the three fire arrows which Urz had shot towards the sky were the signal to Ellen’s army lurking in the west of the battlefield. By the way, it was Ellen who had thought of this signal.

And now, the LeitMeritz army hung onto the Bydgauche army’s flank.

Whenever the Silver Flash in Ellen’s hand drew a white track in the very dim light, the Bydgauche soldiers fell from horses while being covered with their own blood, and never got up again.

Swinging her sword right and left, Ellen proudly advanced her horse while creating wind mixed with spray of blood. The Bydgauche soldiers challenged her in high spirits, but none of them crossed blades more than twice with Ellen and fell off from the horseback as she cut them one after another.

The LeitMeritz soldiers and also the Pardu soldiers who jumped into the battlefield following her wielded sword and spear and knocked down the Bydgauche soldiers.

The LeitMeritz army broke through with a momentum like a storm, and at last greatly scooped out the side of the Bydgauche army’s first squad.

“––Rurick.”

Without resting her hand wielding the Silver Flash, Ellen called the baldhead knight. Rurick was also fighting as hard as his lord. The spearhead in his hands was dyed with blood and his armor got wet with spurt of blood.

“I leave it to you for a while. Just be careful about the enemy’s reserve forces.”

“Understood!”

Receiving Rurick’s words with her back, Ellen speeded along the battlefield while cutting down the enemies crowding around. Before long, she discovered Elizavetta’s figure. The {{furigana|Dragonic Tool|Viralt}} in Ellen’s hand vaguely told her the position of Elizavetta’s {{furigana|Dragonic Tool|Viralt}}.

“Well done, Arifal.”

When looking, the red-haired Vanadis was unfolding a fierce battle with one knight. As Ellen brushed blood stained on her sword blade with one swing of the Silver Flash, she rode her horse.

Noticing the existence of Ellen who was approaching, Elizavetta and Ilda looked her way. The silver-haired Vanadis asked Ilda with a bright smile unbecoming to a battlefield.

“Are you Duke Bydgauche?”

“Yes, I am. And you? ––A Vanadis?”

He caught on quickly. Ellen brightened her red eyes with fighting spirit and nodded in admiration.

“Lord of LeitMeritz. Eleanora Viltaria. Let me be your opponent.”

“You are that {{furigana|Wind Princess of the Silverflash|Silvfrahl}}, huh. I have heard rumors.”

The last words were drowned out by the blades sounds. The collision of the two swords scattered sparks in the thin air and the swords blades reflected and glittered it. A violent metallic sound struck the ears of the people who were there.

Finding out the presence of a powerful enemy before their eyes, both Ellen and Ilda stared wide-eyed. The darkness was getting thinner to the extent one could only see from their expressions.

The Vanadis and the Duke made the bodies of their horses leap and exchanged strikes with drawn swords. Ellen’s sword power was sharp like a gale and Ilda’s slash was strong.

Elizavetta tried to assist Ellen, but she noticed that the battle formation of her allies collapsed in a distant place. The Bydgauche army’s reserve forces –– the third squad began to move.

Ellen also noticed the change in the enemy’s movement. The red Eyes and {{furigana|Rainbow Eyes|Laziris}} met only for an instant.

“Go!”

“I leave here to you!”

The two girls’ shouts were exactly at the same time. Elizavetta turned her back on Ellen and Ilda, raised her {{furigana|Dragonic Tool|Viralt}} and rode her horse. Meanwhile, the offense and defense of Ellen and Ilda continued. Several silver hairs of Ellen danced down and a new crack was chopped on Ilda’s armor.

The fight which seemed to drag on was however quickly settled.

Ilda’s sword had broken from the middle of its length. The sword blade danced in the air while rotating and disappeared in the battlefield.

“It’s a good sword.”

While panting, Ellen sent words which were not ironical, but purely those of praise. He crossed with Elizavetta’s Thunder Swirl, and then clashed with Ellen’s Silver Flash. An ordinary sword would have shattered long ago.

Ellen was about to thrust the tip of the Silver Flash at Ilda, an unexpected hindrance broke in here. From the flank, a Bydgauche soldier raised a spear and attacked Ellen.

“Your Excellency, please escape!”

It was not only one. Other Bydgauche soldiers broke in between the Vanadis and the Duke, built up a thick wall of flesh and iron. There were also those who went towards Ellen with the force of bumping their horses into her.

Ellen reluctantly wielded the Silver Flash and cut down the Bydgauche soldier, but while becoming covered with blood, they stretched their hands to the silver-haired Vanadis and clung to her horse’s leg even when falling on the ground and tried to block the horse’s movement.

“What a great loyalty.”

As Ellen muttered with irritation, she challenged them and mercilessly killed the enemies who stood in her way. But, when she ensured the freedom of his movements, Ilda was far away.

Looking around at the battlefield, the Bydgauche troops were collapsing everywhere. They were eagerly holding their ground, but it was a matter of time.

“It looks like I did well to leave it to Rurick.”

Ellen kicked the horse’s belly and went after Ilda.

Ilda, protected by his soldiers, returned to the Bydgauche army’s second squad, but even here, he was advised by his subordinate to escape.

“Your Excellency. We will apply you about ten horsemen as escort. Please escape while we are holding back.”

“Don’t say stupid things!”

As expected, Ilda’s complexion changed and he shouted.

“It’s me who brought you until here. If we are to withdraw, it’s to me to give that order…”

“If you die, you will not be able to prove your justice. If you return to Bydgauche, then you will be able to prepare new soldiers. Please, for now consider your life.”

The subordinate was stubborn and did not also yield. He was desperate, too. The terrifying fact that there were two Vanadis mentally cornered the Bydgauche army.

If they did not let their lord escape here, the doubt that they might definitely come to kill him was swirling in their minds. After all, Ilda had already shaken off the hand which Elizavetta held out.

“Your Excellency. Although it is hard to say, our troops are outnumbered.”

The first squad was wounded all over by the LeitMeritz army and the second squad also retreated repeatedly unable not endure the Lebus army’s offensive. As for the third squad of reserve forces, they supported the second squad and were desperate to hold back its (second squad) collapse.

Even so, it was the screams of soldiers he heard from a distant place that made Ilda who was still reluctant give up.

“Enemy in the rear!”

Ilda and his subordinates gasped almost at the same time. The enemy was not only the Lebus army and the LeitMeritz army. Even the Duke in his prime finally compromised (yielded).

Since he had lost his favorite hard sword, Ilda said while receiving a spare sword.

“Listen. When you saw that I seceded from the battlefield, surrender immediately.”

“I understand. After all, I did not also intend to die in a place like this.”

Under ultramarine sky, Ilda seceded from the battlefield with ten horsemen.

The ground was still dark even though the dawn would break soon, and the battlefield was still in maelstrom of angry roars and screams. As he succeeded in escaping safely under their cover, Ilda immediately noticed the presence of people who came chasing him.

Within the very dim light, many flames seemed to be torches were flickering.

When they were going to hurry his horse, they heard the sound of arrows which approached cutting the wind.

It sounded like an awfully fresh sound. This was because both armies did not use bow and arrow in this battle. In the first place, the Bydgauche army did not prepare bow and arrow in order to reduce their baggage, and the Lebus army was too preoccupied to use bow and arrow. The LeitMeritz army also refrained to use bow and arrow for fear of hit friendly troops.

An arrow pierced through the horse of the Bydgauche soldier next to Ilda. The horse neighed in pain and turned sideways while throwing up the rider to the ground. Three other cavalrymen fell from their horses as they were caught in it.

Ilda who looked back by moving only his head felt a chill down his spine. Did the arrow just now hit by chance or was it what was aimed at?

There was a distance of 300 Belsta (about 300 meter) between them and the group of torches which were chasing them. Furthermore, there was no way that the aim would be determined as both groups were riding horses. It should have only hit luckily.

But, Ilda was not able to suppress his fear and tension. He felt like the archer who was among the group of torches was aiming at his back.

As they held the same feelings, the remaining six horsemen turned their horses.

“Your Excellency. We will hold them back. In the meantime, please…!”

At this time, Ilda tried to stop them as he felt a sense of incongruity. But, the cavalrymen uttered their voices earlier and went towards the pursuer.

A second arrow came flying, and immediately after pierced the buttocks of Ilda’s horse.

The horse stood erect due to the sudden pain and Ilda’s view raced. During an instant when he was thrown out from the horseback, the Duke in his prime noticed the real nature of his sense of incongruity.

Why did only one arrow come flying? Was it because there was only one person who could fly an arrow to this distance? The best hand in this case was to scatter the seven people including him, was the enemy not perplexed by this?

Be flung against the ground from the horseback, Ilda groaned. Although he rose immediately, the sounds of the horseshoe approached before he could even advance ten steps. He was surrounded.

“Duke Bydgauche, right?”

The youth standing in front of Ilda called out to him in a voice with Brune accent. He remembered him. It was the youth who was at the time of the discussion with Elizavetta.

“Master… Could you come to Vanadis-sama’s place?”

That youth who tightly grasped a bow in his hand was Urz.

What Urz requested to Naum was to borrow 30 horsemen. He thought that one horseman should hang up two torches with the intent to disturb the enemy by appearing behind him.

“In this situation, 30 horsemen are precious, you know? Besides, if something was to happen to you, I might be strangled to death by Vanadis-sama.”

Naum prepared 30 horsemen while scratching his grizzled head about and sighing.

And, Urz made a great detour to the east side of the battlefield and appeared behind the Bydgauche army’s second squad. As he confirmed that the enemy was confused, Urz was about to pull up, but he changed his mind after seeing about ten horsemen shadows rushing from the Bydgauche army.

The Bydgauche army had not yet reached the state of rout. The enemy withdrawing the battlefield in this situation was limited.

“…And then, he said that when he caught him later on, it was a big shot.”

While hearing Naum’s report, Elizavetta’s eyes were turned to the battlefield.

The Lebus soldiers who received her instructions were running the battlefield while crying out that they caught Ilda as a prisoner.

Mixed with the sounds of weapons, those words gradually reached the ears of the Bydgauche soldiers. One, another one threw away their swords, spears, and there were those who went down from horses and surrender.

While looking at the spectacle, Elizavetta said to Naum beside her.

“Honestly, I’m lost at whether I should scold him or praise him.”

“If you want to scold someone, please scold me. But, could you please praise Urz?”

“There is no way I can do that.”

Elizavetta made a sour face and turned her face away from Naum. After a pause, she asked.

“Do you think that it was just lucky?”

“Even if I were to do to the same thing as Urz, to surprise the enemy will the utmost I could do.”

Naum answered indifferently. He was not being humble, it was a fact.

Even Ilda’s subordinate carefully considered so that his lord might not by caught by the enemy and let his him escape. Both Ellen and Elizavetta did not notice that Ilda had left the battlefield. Even for Urz and the others who discovered Ilda, they could not catch up only with horses.

“Forgive my way of saying it, but he is a monster in bow skill.”

Urz was able to succeed precisely because of the bow and arrow in his hand.

What marked the end of the battle was when the sun showed.

The Bydgauche army had a little less than 400 deceased and the number injured persons were the double of that number. On the other hand, the deceased of the Lebus army and LeitMeritz were less than 100, respectively. However, there were a lot of injured persons. This was because there was the melee in the darkness and there were many people who fell down and were trampled down by enemy or ally during that melee.

The three armies respectively build their camp and they were busy with the burial of deceased and medical care of injured persons.

And in the tent for supreme commander use of the Lebus army, Ellen and Ilda were facing each other.

“I give you my greetings once again, Duke Bydgauche. I am the Vanadis Eleanora Viltaria of LeitMeritz.”

The silver-haired Vanadis courteously bowed as salutation to Ilda. Next to her, Elizavetta made a wary face. Since Ellen insisted, she let her meet Ilda under her presence, but she was not able to wipe the anxiety about what Ellen intended to say.

Although Ilda was not tied with a rope, his weapons up to dagger were taken away, and he was not wearing armor, either. A smile without hostility was floating into his face. Since he was defeated, he intended to behave graciously and fairly.

“Sorry for my discourtesy in the battlefield. I am Ilda Krutis and was granted the territory of Bydgauche by His Majesty. Eleanora-dono. Your sword skill was more than what the rumors say.”

“I am grateful. By the way, Duke. I wanted to ask, but why did you move your soldiers? If it is someone of you caliber, it would have been fine if you had lodged a complaint to His Majesty the King.”

It was exactly the same question that Urz threw at him last night. Ilda gave a sarcastic smile.

“I am sorry, but you will not hear any answer from my mouth. However, it will be clarified sooner or later.”

“…Duke. I will say this knowing that it might get you angry, but as far as I know, Earl Pardu is not someone who would do something mean. I am not saying that I want you to understand, but I want you to know only the fact that I am thinking that way.”

It was as to declare that if Ilda intended to attack Pardu someday again, she would become his opponent. As for Ellen, she intended to protect Eugene depending on his interaction, but if it backfired, she would judge and change her policy.

The Vanadis’ military fame would be enough to keep the other party in check.

“Is Vanadis-done close to Earl Pardu?”

“He is a benefactor.”

“Understood. I will keep that in mind.”

Without being perturbed by Ellen’s immediate reply, Ilda deeply nodded. As if to say “I will be careful next time”.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

After having buried the deceased on the foot of the hill, Ellen left Ilda and the Bydgauche army to Elizavetta and parted from them.

“Won’t you meet Earl Pardu?”

Ellen proposed just in case, but Elizavetta shook his head.

“Unlike you, I am suspicious of the Earl. Besides, I came here only to stop Duke Bydgauche.”

“Understood. But, I will tell the Earl about you.”

As Ellen said so, Elizavetta snorted in displeasure and left with the Lebus army and the Bydgauche army. Ellen quietly saw off her retreating figure.

Afterwards, while giving instruction to vacate the camp, Ellen gathered approximately 30 applicants from the soldiers. In the place where she finished preparations for withdrawal, the silver-haired Vanadis called Rurick.

“Rurick. I will go to report to Earl Pardu. I have to return the borrowed soldiers. Go back to LeitMeritz with the other soldiers.”

When they entered the Pardu territory, the soldiers following her were so many that they would make beholder become anxious. Today, there was just a bloody battle.

In addition, from here she had to stop by in Litomyšl where Eugene was, and moreover she also had to prepare food for the soldiers while returning the Imperial Palace of LeitMeritz. It was better that she took only the minimum number of soldiers, and that the remaining soldiers quickly returned.

“…Understood.”

After Rurick answered so, he stared at his lord’s face with a face which wanted to say something. But, he probably thought “shouldn’t we talk about that story now?”. He did not say anything.

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Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration Page

2014-05-07T22:55:51Z

Gamerdude13: /* Volume 13 */

To reiterate a little of the registration procedure:

*"First Come, First Served": Please register your intended chapters here.
*This is not some binding contract of "I must do the work that I had requested here". Requests are negotiable between translators (including their own selves who signed up for them).
*State the source language of translation next to your name if it isn't Japanese.
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*If possible, mark pages with <nowiki></nowiki>, these make referring and checking a lot easier.
*Focus primarily on accuracy, it's the only thing editors can't fix. No shortchanging the readers!
*Also, refer to [[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Names_and_Terminology_Guidelines|this]] for term standardization.

==The ''Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance'' series by Shimizu Yuu==

===Volume 1===

::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Kira0802|Kira0802]] & [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] & [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 2===

::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 3===
::*Prologue - [[User:RikiNutcase|RikiNutcase]]'''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 Part 1 - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 7 Part 2 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]]'''*completed*'''

===Volume 4===
::*Prologue - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]], [[User:ArchmageXin|ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Delacroix01|Delacroix01]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Chancs|Chancs]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed'''*
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 5===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 6===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 7===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 8===
::*Prologue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - The Dusk Witch - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - Team Inferno - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 9===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 10===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 11===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 12===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 13===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

<noinclude>
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| Return to [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Registration Page]]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration Page

2014-05-07T22:16:30Z

Gamerdude13:

To reiterate a little of the registration procedure:

*"First Come, First Served": Please register your intended chapters here.
*This is not some binding contract of "I must do the work that I had requested here". Requests are negotiable between translators (including their own selves who signed up for them).
*State the source language of translation next to your name if it isn't Japanese.
*Do not register for more chapters than you can commit (preferably not more than 3)
*If possible, mark pages with <nowiki></nowiki>, these make referring and checking a lot easier.
*Focus primarily on accuracy, it's the only thing editors can't fix. No shortchanging the readers!
*Also, refer to [[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Names_and_Terminology_Guidelines|this]] for term standardization.

==The ''Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance'' series by Shimizu Yuu==

===Volume 1===

::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Kira0802|Kira0802]] & [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] & [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 2===

::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 3===
::*Prologue - [[User:RikiNutcase|RikiNutcase]]'''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 Part 1 - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 7 Part 2 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]]'''*completed*'''

===Volume 4===
::*Prologue - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]], [[User:ArchmageXin|ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Delacroix01|Delacroix01]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Chancs|Chancs]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed'''*
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 5===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 6===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 7===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 8===
::*Prologue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - The Dusk Witch - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - Team Inferno - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 9===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 10===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 11===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 12===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 13===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue -
::*Afterword -

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Registration Page]]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration Page

2014-05-07T03:51:30Z

Gamerdude13: /* Volume 13 */

To reiterate a little of the registration procedure:

*"First Come, First Served": Please register your intended chapters here.
*This is not some binding contract of "I must do the work that I had requested here". Requests are negotiable between translators (including their own selves who signed up for them).
*State the source language of translation next to your name if it isn't Japanese.
*Do not register for more chapters than you can commit (preferably not more than 3)
*If possible, mark pages with <nowiki></nowiki>, these make referring and checking a lot easier.
*Focus primarily on accuracy, it's the only thing editors can't fix. No shortchanging the readers!
*Also, refer to [[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Names_and_Terminology_Guidelines|this]] for term standardization.

==The ''Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance'' series by Shimizu Yuu==

===Volume 1===

::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Kira0802|Kira0802]] & [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] & [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 2===

::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 3===
::*Prologue - [[User:RikiNutcase|RikiNutcase]]'''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 Part 1 - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 7 Part 2 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]]'''*completed*'''

===Volume 4===
::*Prologue - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]], [[User:ArchmageXin|ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Delacroix01|Delacroix01]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Chancs|Chancs]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed'''*
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 5===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 6===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 7===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 8===
::*Prologue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - The Dusk Witch - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - Team Inferno - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 9===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 10===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 11===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 12===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 13===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 -
::*Chapter 8 -
::*Epilogue -
::*Afterword -

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Registration Page]]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration Page

2014-04-29T21:27:29Z

Gamerdude13: /* Volume 13 */

To reiterate a little of the registration procedure:

*"First Come, First Served": Please register your intended chapters here.
*This is not some binding contract of "I must do the work that I had requested here". Requests are negotiable between translators (including their own selves who signed up for them).
*State the source language of translation next to your name if it isn't Japanese.
*Do not register for more chapters than you can commit (preferably not more than 3)
*If possible, mark pages with <nowiki></nowiki>, these make referring and checking a lot easier.
*Focus primarily on accuracy, it's the only thing editors can't fix. No shortchanging the readers!
*Also, refer to [[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Names_and_Terminology_Guidelines|this]] for term standardization.

==The ''Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance'' series by Shimizu Yuu==

===Volume 1===

::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Kira0802|Kira0802]] & [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] & [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 2===

::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 3===
::*Prologue - [[User:RikiNutcase|RikiNutcase]]'''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 Part 1 - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 7 Part 2 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]]'''*completed*'''

===Volume 4===
::*Prologue - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]], [[User:ArchmageXin|ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Delacroix01|Delacroix01]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Chancs|Chancs]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed'''*
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 5===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 6===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 7===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 8===
::*Prologue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - The Dusk Witch - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - Team Inferno - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 9===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 10===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 11===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 12===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 13===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 -
::*Chapter 5 -
::*Chapter 6 -
::*Chapter 7 -
::*Chapter 8 -
::*Epilogue -
::*Afterword -

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Registration Page]]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration Page

2014-04-28T03:48:20Z

Gamerdude13: added volume 13

To reiterate a little of the registration procedure:

*"First Come, First Served": Please register your intended chapters here.
*This is not some binding contract of "I must do the work that I had requested here". Requests are negotiable between translators (including their own selves who signed up for them).
*State the source language of translation next to your name if it isn't Japanese.
*Do not register for more chapters than you can commit (preferably not more than 3)
*If possible, mark pages with <nowiki></nowiki>, these make referring and checking a lot easier.
*Focus primarily on accuracy, it's the only thing editors can't fix. No shortchanging the readers!
*Also, refer to [[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Names_and_Terminology_Guidelines|this]] for term standardization.

==The ''Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance'' series by Shimizu Yuu==

===Volume 1===

::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Kira0802|Kira0802]] & [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]] & [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 2===

::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 3===
::*Prologue - [[User:RikiNutcase|RikiNutcase]]'''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 Part 1 - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 7 Part 2 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:‎Vermiculo|Vermiculo]], & [[User:Sniper221|Sniper221 (Editor)]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:‎ArchmageXin|‎ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Afterword - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]]'''*completed*'''

===Volume 4===
::*Prologue - [[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]], [[User:ArchmageXin|ArchmageXin]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese Source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Delacroix01|Delacroix01]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Chancs|Chancs]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:‎Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed'''*
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 5===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Alight|Alight]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 6===
::*Prologue - [[User:Florza|Florza]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 7===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 8===
::*Prologue - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - The Dusk Witch - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::**Interlude - Team Inferno - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''
::*Epilogue - '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]] '''*completed*'''

===Volume 9===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 10===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 11===
::*Prologue - [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] '''*completed*'''
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 12===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 2 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 3 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 4 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 5 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 6 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 7 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 8 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 9 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 10 - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Epilogue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Afterword - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)

===Volume 13===
::*Prologue - [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] '''*completed*''' (Chinese source)
::*Chapter 1 -
::*Chapter 2 -
::*Chapter 3 -
::*Chapter 4 -
::*Chapter 5 -
::*Chapter 6 -
::*Chapter 7 -
::*Chapter 8 -
::*Epilogue -
::*Afterword -

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Return to [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Registration Page]]

Madan no Ou to Vanadis:Volume 08 Chapter 4

2014-04-12T04:32:39Z

Gamerdude13: /* Chapter 4 - Behind the Scenes */ he->she

== Chapter 4 - Behind the Scenes ==

It was the evening of the day when the signs of winter also crept in the Brune Kingdom that a messenger of the Zchted Kingdom visited Brune and had an audience with Princess Regin.

Tigrevurmud Vorn fell into the sea and went missing.

When she heard so, Regin became speechless, and she asked the messenger again because of too much shock. If she was not sitting on the throne, she might have fainted. The Prime Minister Bodwin who was by her side was troubled for a moment as for whether he should stop the audience.

“What do you mean?”

While letting her graceful face turn pale in anger, it was a short time after the messenger expressed the Zchted King’s words that she inquired, holding down the shaking of her voice. Her light golden hair trimmed around her shoulders faintly shook. The messenger, no showing signs of faltering to Regin’s attitude, answered back.

“It is just as I said. His Excellency Earl Vorn was attacked by a {{furigana|sea dragon|Badva}} on his way back from Asvarre and fell into the sea. I cry more than I express the truly regrettable course of events…”

“It is actually the first time that I hear about the fact that he went to Asvarre.”

“Since it was something which had to be carried secretly and immediately, His Majesty Victor and also Lord Tigrevurmud had said that they are very sorry for being unable to report it to Her Highness Princess Regin beforehand.”

Although the latter half of the words was completely falsehood, the messenger, without changing his complexion, really spoke as though he personally heard it. If he did not do so, he would not be fit for a messenger bearing such a duty.

Regin thrust her fingernails in the armrest of the throne and held back the anger welling up within by strongly grasping it. If she did not do so, she might have shouted at the messenger. Since the day was about to set, the surroundings of the throne were dark, and such a reaction of Regin was not seen by the messenger.

“Mr. Messenger. Did you know?”

As expected, it was impossible for her to smile right away, but Regin said under the guise of calm.

“Lord Tigrevurmud was not only the hero who saves this Brune from the hands of the villains, but he is also the man who saves my life.”

“I am aware of that.”

The messenger was still undaunted. This man understood the importance of his duty.

After all, he was directly ordered by King Victor, and what’s more, he was told the life of his family who was in the Capital would also be secured. When he left the royal palace, he was already prepared for death.

That’s why he was able to take Regin’s strong gaze head on without taking a servile attitude. Even so, the messenger’s back had already got soaking wet with a lot of sweat.

Brune and Zchted were in a relationship of equality. Although it borrowed Zchted’s power for the settlement of the civil war, Brune did not become a vassal country (dependency) of Zchted as compensation.

Even Tigre was only entrusted to them as a guest General with a time limit. In case of such a situation, even excluding Regin’s personal feelings, it was more than enough to fly into a rage.

''---He seems to have been prepared.''

Regin’s blue pupils wore a cruel coloring only for an instant. Nearly one year had passed since she came to live as a princess. While borrowing the strength of the Prime Minister Bodwin and Massas who acted as an aide, she was also learning various things.

“For the friendship between our country and Zchted, I have to give my thanks to King Victor who tried to use Lord Tigrevurmud.”

Regin who sweetly smiled continued.

“However, it will be rude to King Victor with just conventional words of thanks, right? Until we return the favor, I would like you to stay to the royal palace. All right?”

Though Regin’s voice was bright, the messenger felt a strange fear. While unconsciously stroking around his stomach with his hand, he deeply bowed his head.

“I will gratefully receive Her Highness the Princess’s consideration. By the way, about when may I receive your words?”

“Since such things require time, I will call you when I will be able to do it.”

“…When you will be able to do it?”

“Yes. When I will be able to do it. Please, rest at ease. I will nominate a messenger and send him to King Victor after all.”

If she would send a messenger, then shouldn’t she let this person convey the words of thanks?

As he could not, of course, speak his mind, the messenger was caught left and right by the imperial guards who stepped up. He was forced to leaving.

When the messenger’s figure could not be seen, Regin turned her gaze to Bodwin.

“––I will rest for about a quarter koku. The continuation of the audience will be after. Meanwhile, please let the others take a rest, too.”

As Bodwin bowed, he ordered the bureaucrats and imperial guards who were there to take a rest. Regin who confirmed it stood up from the throne. She headed towards the balcony opened from behind the throne.

Under the vermillion sky, only the ramparts surrounding the Capital and the meadows which spread to the other side could be seen from the balcony. Looking up at the sky, Regin who shook her shoulders desperately endured the urge to burst into tears. Bodwin appeared there.

“You were able to endure it well.”

He briefly said so. This old Prime Minister with a cat face had noticed Regin’s feelings towards Tigre. In fact, it was most recently that he noticed them though.

Letting her pale golden hair rustle in the wind, Regin looked back at Bodwin. At that time, she was even floating a smile.

“Thank you. Prime Minister.”

Although the other party was an experienced elderly, taking a polite attitude towards a retainer was probably Regin’s virtue. Bodwin thought of some words of comfort and encouragement, but the old Prime Minister confined them in the depths of his heart.

It was not his duty. It was the duty of the one who could step deeper in Regin’s innermost thoughts; what Bodwin should do now was to confront this young Princess with a more realistic problem.

“As for the answer to the Zchted’s messenger of earlier, I give you a passing mark. After all, we must ask him in detail about what really happened. There are definitely still some hidden parts.”

Regin nodded to Bodwin’s words and put on a serious expression.

“What do you think we should do from now on?”

“We should grasp the situation as accurately as possible. We shall send messengers respectively to Zchted and Asvarre and gather more detailed information. I would especially like to find out those who happened to be present at the scene where Lord Tigrevurmud fell.”

Even in case that Zchted did tell lies, it might hide the inconvenient truth. They need to gather information themselves.

“And then, we must keep a close watch within the country.”

Regin looked puzzled at Bodwin’s words.

“Do you mean to say that there are people who would see this as an opportunity and begin to move?”

“There might be those who would interpret that Zchted’s support will be lost due to Lord Tigrevurmud’s disappearance. In addition, whatever will be Her Highness the Princess’s reaction regarding this matter, there would surely also be those who will use materials which blamed Her Highness.”

“Understood. I will leave it to you. And, how shall we explain it to Earl Rodant?”

Regin who was carefully listening to Bodwin’s words until then suddenly showed a timid side.

Massas Rodant was a man who was the best friend of Tigre’s late father Urz. He also took care of Tigre in various ways and he had also kindly cooperated when Tigre suppressed the Brune’s civil war in the past year. After the civil war, he began to serve as an aide due to Regin’s request.

He was currently 56 years old. Although he still stood up on the scene, it would not be strange even if he was to think about retirement. When Regin invited him in the Imperial Court probably also because of that, Massas did not seem to be enthusiastic about it.

Regin visited him who was staying at his mansion in the Capital, persuaded him by saying “then, you shall serve while thinking of it as your last duty”.

“I will tell him myself. After all, I intend to have him cooperate, too.”

Massas surely loved Tigre like his own son. He would probably investigate about this matter more eagerly than anyone else. Even Bodwin thought that he was trustworthy.

As she nodded at Bodwin’s words, Regin waved her mantle with a smile.

“It is still a quarter koku early, but we shall return soon.”

At the Prime Minister who answered “understood!”, Regin chuckled.

“Prime Minister. I was certainly surprised, but I do not think that that person died.”

Though Bodwin frowned at these words, Regin’s expression seemed to have settled down.

“Although he became Zchted’s prisoner, he borrowed soldiers and came back. He repelled the Muozinel army which has an overwhelming number. Even after being caught in the collapse of the {{furigana|Sacred Caverns of the Palace|Sangroel}}, he survived. It might be exaggerated for me to say this, but that person has the power to create a miracle. It is what I think.”

“A miracle, huh.”

Bodwin could only say that. A miracle. Bodwin wondered since when he had stopped believing in miracles. He had not believed in miracles when he accumulated achievements and became the chief vassal of the Kingdom. It was natural. There was no way a person engaged in political affairs would believe in such things.

However, Bodwin did not reprove Regin. If it became this princess’ support, then it was fine. Besides, Tigre’s activity was certainly something which could only be regarded as a miracle.

“Let’s do what we should do for now.”

Saying so, Regin suddenly turned her gaze to the sun which went down in the end of the west. Without voicing it, she prayed to the gods.

''---Please, protect Lord Tigrevurmud.''

The Princess and the Prime Minister returned for the audience.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

It was about ten days later from the day he received Elizavetta’s hospitality that Ilda Kurtis crossed the large river Valta and arrived at Silesia, the Capital of the Zchted Kingdom.

“Even though it’s already winter, it is really lively.”

While wrapping his well-trained tall figure in a thick overcoat and walking down the street at a quick pace, Ilda leaked a mutter of admiration.

Highways extended innumerably from this Capital where more than one million of people lived; in other cities, in winter when the traffic of merchants would normally sharply decrease, many merchants and craftsmen showed their figure in the street and people’s enthusiasm was not lost.

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When the carts which piled up various articles passed through the Capital’s gate, black tea, spices, wine, vodka and furs of animals were lined up in front of people, and the merchants raised their voices.

To get income in order to pass winter, minstrels played harp and clowns fluttered colorful clothes in midair.

Taking a side glance at such hustle and bustle, Ilda headed straight to the royal palace. When looking up, the sky color was transparent blue and the position of the sun was in a place where it was still slightly early to call daytime.

When he entered the royal palace and gave his name, the concierges immediately called the one who was on standby inside. And then, the Grand Chamberlain showed up before long. With the official position of managing the state affairs overall, he was the chief of all the civil officials.

“You came well, Your Excellency Duke Bydgauche.”

The Grand Chamberlain in his mid-fifties deeply bowed his head. Ilda also straightened himself and returned a bow. Guided by the Grand Chamberlain, he set foot in the royal palace.

“It has been quite a long time that His Excellency the Duke came to the palace.”

“It is because I had been bustling about the land of the north. Speaking of which, I heard this name several times by the time I arrived here, but Grand Chamberlain, do you know the man called Tigrevurmud Vorn?”

While looking at the walls and pillars on which magnificent ornaments were applied, Ilda asked.

“You do know that last year, a civil war occurred in the Brune Kingdom, right? At that time, it is Lord Tigrevurmud who saved the princess and defeated Duke Thenardier’s army. He seemed to have been a prisoner of Vanadis-sama of LeitMeritz, but it is an interesting man who borrowed soldiers from her and returned to his native land.”

And then, after the Grand Chamberlain told him “not a word to anyone”, he made a quick rundown about the fact that the King made Tigre head to the Asvarre Kingdom by a secret order, that his ship was attacked by a {{furigana|sea dragon|Badva}} on his way back, and that he fell into the sea.

Regarding that, Ilda could only keep nodding and avoided to comment. This was because if he were to say something uncalled-for, it might be interpreted as judgment and dissatisfaction towards the King.

As they walked for a while, Ilda noticed that they were not heading to the audience room.

''---Are we heading to His Majesty’s office?''

Ilda who had many times visited the palace immediately understood. As expected, the King’s office came into view, but one man was standing there. With a slim figure, he was probably older than Ilda. His face which turned to look back towards Ilda was slim and grew a gray beard under his chin.

Ilda knew him. He was Earl Pardu Eugene Shevarin. For Ilda, he was the husband of his younger sister and an older brother-in-law somewhat hard to deal with.

“If it isn’t Earl Pardu. I think the last time we met each other was during the last year’s {{furigana|Sun Festival|Maslenitsa}}, and I see you are as healthy as always.”

When Ilda bowed, Eugene also bowed with a surprised look.

“You also seem to be healthy, Duke Bydgauche. I have also heard about your activity in the north.”

“It was not that much, though. By the way, is my younger sister well?”

For Ilda, this was a question attached to the social etiquette. He did not meet his younger sister for already more than 15 years. Partly because his father took good care of Ilda who was the heir and did not gave much interest to his daughter; even if it could not be said that they did not get along with each other, it was not also a relationship in which they were particularly close.

“Yes. She is loved by the territory people, and I was also helped by her in various ways. Upon my return, I shall ask her to send you a letter.”

And then, the two men threw a questioning gaze at the Grand Chamberlain. However, the Grand Chamberlain pretended not to notice their gazes and exaggeratedly bowed his head.

“Both of you, please wait a little.”

The Grand Chamberlain turned around at the door of the office. He lightly knocked on the door and told the person who was inside that Ilda and Eugene had come.

After confirming the reply in a low voice, the Grand Chamberlain once again looked back at Ilda and Eugene.

“His Majesty is waiting for you.”

Saying so, the Grand Chamberlain moved back to the side of the door. Ilda knocked on the door, waited for the reply of the King who seemed to be inside and opened the door.

As might be expected from the King’s office, it was a big room. Though the ornament of carpet and curtains looked simple, Ilda knew that even just one silk embroidery cost an amount of money enough to buy a mansion.

On the walls of both sides, there were shelves where letters and scrolls were put away and the {{furigana|Black Dragon Flag|Zirnitra}} which was Zchted’s symbol was hung on the front wall.

The documents were hardly piled up on the office desk, and two chairs were put on the front. Not only were they sturdily made, but cushions were also laid out. Ilda thought that they were apparently prepared for them.

And, King Victor Arthur Volk Estes Tsar Zchted was on the opposite side of the office desk.

He was 61 years old this year. His hair and beard were dull gray. His skin turned dark and his blue eyes lacked vitality. His silk clothes which used gold and silver threads abundantly were relaxed, but his arms which extended from there were so thin as to hark back to a dry wood.

Both Ilda and Eugene went down on their knees and bowed their head down.

“Raise your heads, both of you. We are not in the audience room here.”

As King Victor said so, he recommended the two men to sit on the chairs. Ilda and Eugene deeply bowed to the King once again and sat down on the chairs. They waited for the King’s words.

When time of about ten counts passed, the King slowly opened his mouth.

“I caught a cold the other day.”

Though the two men were facing him across the office desk, those were words which they did not expect at all.

“Has your condition improved now?”

Eugene timidly asked. The King nodded.

“I slept for about a few days though. Now, it is as you see.”

“It is good to hear, but please take good care of yourself.”

Though Ilda said after recovering from surprise, Victor shook his head.

“It is not for that that I call you. It is to speak about the future.”

The aged King’s voice was tinged with cold. The two men straightened their posture. About the future –– in other words, it must be about whom to make King of the next era.

The throne of Zchted was not particularly different from that of other countries. It was hereditary and gave priority to the elder boy. In addition, the nomination by the King gave priority to inheritance. Though women were also given the rights to the throne, even thinking about the fact that there was no queen so far, it could be said that the hope<ref> hope for a woman to become King, that is </ref> was very small.

First in line of succession to the throne. Prince Ruslan who was the King’s son suffered from heart disease a few years ago. He set fire to the royal villa which was on the outskirts of the royal palace. What the palace guards who noticed smoke and rushed saw was the prince’s figure holding a torch in the background of the royal villa wrapped in fire.

Several days later, the prince was confined to a certain shrine under the pretext of medical treatment of his disease. He was not deprived of the rights of succession to the throne because his father clung to the hope that he might recover some day.

About the cause of his heart disease, nothing was yet clarified. It was said that it was because he lost the woman who loved him by illness, but there were also up to rumors such as he encountered a case to the extent of suffering from heart disease in state affairs, or he was poisoned by someone, or when he did something bad, he was possessed by an evil spirit, and the like.

The prince, even before suffering from heart disease, was knowledgeable about both political and military affairs, and even the chief vassals were relieved with the thought “if this person becomes the King of the next area”.

The second in line of succession to the throne was Prince Ruslan’s son, who was also King Victor’s grandchild. Though he was still nine, there was no doubt that he was King Victor’s direct descendant.

This boy was living in one room of the royal palace, and it was said that he was leading a life close to confinement. Since Prince Ruslan’s matter, this boy had not come out in public.

The third in line of succession to the throne was the husband of King Victor’s eldest daughter. The eldest daughter’s rights to the throne were given to her husband by marriage. However, this husband became blind due to an accident several years ago. Though he could lead a daily life thanks to the devoted support of his wife and daughter, it was probably impossible for him to rule a country.

The fourth in line of succession to the throne was the daughter of the King’s daughter and her husband. However, she was 11 years old this year, thus young to be thought as the next King.

The fifth in line of succession to the throne was King Victor’s younger brother. It was Ilda’s father and also Eugene’s father-in-law. He was six years younger than his older brother, that’s 55 years old. He was awfully hurt to the waist and he spent around half of the day in bed. Other than that, he was healthy in general, but he would be tough for him to stand in the front line of political affairs.

The sixth in line of succession to the throne was King Victor’s younger sister. She had married twice so far, but because she was bereaved those two times, the rights to the throne returned to her. She had no child.

King Victor who sympathized with his younger sister recommended her a remarriage several times, but she declined them all and calmly lived in Osterode where her second husband was born and raised. Osterode was the land located in northeast and governed by the Vanadis Valentina Glinka Estes.

Both Ilda and Eugene knew the aforementioned circumstances.

Then, Ilda was seventh line of succession. And Eugene eighth.

It would be fair to say that those two were currently the closest to the throne.

“Earl Pardu.”

Victor called the name of the thin man in his mid-forties.

“I nominate you as the next King.”

A shock soundlessly ran within the room. King Victor did not choose Ilda, but Eugene as the next King.

“…Your Majesty. With all due respect, please can you explain your decision?”

Breaking the silence after a little less than ten seconds, Eugene opened his mouth. Even for him, who would not be perturbed by ordinary things, it was not easy to regain his presence of mind for the sudden change of fate which suddenly came.

“Why me?”

King Victor shortly asked back with a speed as he anticipated his question.

“Do you have any objection?”

“Far from it. It is just that I do not have the blood of the royal family.”

“Your wife is my niece. And her daughter has inherited the royal family’s blood.”

“Your Majesty. Please, could you allow me to hear only a part of what made you arrive at this decision? Because this body is incompetent, I am just confused about how I should answer.”

While Eugene stated repeatedly like that, Ilda who was next to him remained silent without a slight movement. After an interval of about two breaths, Victor said.

“Earl Pardu. You have enacted the duty of negotiations with Brune for nearly ten years, right? I made my decision based on it.”

It was the time when Eugene worked as King Victor’s close aide.

Though he was still 20 at that time, he was a man who was not daunted even before the King. That attitude did not change even when the other party was from another country; his quiet, yet pushy behavior and his stance, which was resolute and would not back if necessary, were also highly evaluated by Brune.

Due to the tenacious and steady diplomatic negotiations of Eugene, Zchted was able to conclude some contracts including a non-aggression treaty with Brune.

Afterwards, even if small confrontations and quarrels occurred with Brune, the messengers of both countries kept in touch and they were finally able to settle them by talks (negotiations).

Until the fight of Dinant where Tigre and Ellen met for the first time, both countries substantially gathered soldiers and battles of scale on which they crossed swords did not occur.

The fact that King Victor nominated Eugene as the next King meant that he sought friendship with Brune, and it was also to show Zchted’s policy in the future. Though Ilda was a man who had influence in the northern part of Zchted, he had never gone to Brune.

Eugene was making a face showing that he could not yet understand, but as expected even he could not inquire any further to the King. It was a talk different from an advice.

“I do not say that you should wear the crown and sit on the throne tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. It is for when I will no longer be from this world. Though it is not so far, I guess.”

“So that that day does not come quickly even a little, I shall exert myself much more.”

And then, King Victor finally looked at Ilda.

“Lord Bydgauche, I ask for your assistance. On the occasion when Earl Pardu will become King, please support him.”

“I understand.”

Ilda calmly bowed his head.

However, his fists were strongly grasped at an angle not visible from the King, and he was faintly shaking.

''Why'', he was repeatedly shouting so many times over in his mind.

It would be a lie if one was to say that Ilda had not thought about the throne until now. He was the child of the King’s younger brother, young in his thirties; he excelled in military arts and was also blessed with the ability as a ruler. He also knew the tragedy which attacked Prince Ruslan.

And, he had never once thought of Eugene as a rival.

It was not that he was looking down on him. He heard about the fact that Eugene gave advices without flinching even if the other party was the King, and he had even thought that he should follow his example.

However, Ilda was seventh in line to the throne. And Eugene was eighth.

Even if there was no difference in the ability as ruler, compared to Eugene who was 40, Ilda was 30. In addition, a lot of people acknowledged that Ilda was excelling in bravery. As for Eugene’s achievements for nearly twenty years ago, there was only the nonaggression pact conclusion with Brune.

Ilda’s position in succession to the throne was above, he had future and he also had ability in military arts and had a lot of achievements. Above all, although favored by the King, it was public knowledge that Eugene had no ambition.

Ilda had no reason to have a competitive spirit towards him, and he also had no reason to be wary of him.

It was that much great a shock.

It was as if he was struck by thunder. He would have still been able to hold down his surprise if another person’s name such as one of the King’s grandchildren’s rose.

''Why'', the inner voice which asked so did not disappear within Ilda, and rather increase its size. Why was it not him? Why was it Eugene?

Between Ilda and Eugene, there was no discord whatsoever.

Since there was a kinfolk’s relation, he naturally knew the other party’s face and name. However, Ilda was estranged with his little sister, and did not even try to assertively have an interaction with her.

Each other’s sphere of influence did not also overlap at all. Bydgauche which was governed by Ilda was in the northern part of Zchted, and his activities also centered on the north.

In contrast to this, Pardu governed by Eugene was in the southern part of Zchted. And, Eugene even rarely visited the Capital in consideration for the King.

If their spheres of influence were different, there would also be rarely interest conflicts. And thus, no discord could be born.

However, now Ilda was strongly conscious of Eugene for the first time.

“I think that both of you understand, but this is confidential. I will observe an occasion to announce it. Right, it can even be at the next {{furigana|Sun Festival|Maslenitsa}}.”

The {{furigana|Sun Festival|Maslenitsa}} was celebrated from the end of winter to the coming of spring, and it was a festival held in Zchted since ancient times.

Coming with the spring arrival, the Capital was crowded with many people.

Local feudal lords and nobles of the surrounding countries who came to greet the King, those who came over all the way from towns and villages to enjoy the festival, mercenaries in search for negotiations on which they could earn, trade merchants and minstrels who set their eyes on them, the clowns and the like showed up, and it was said that during the festival, even the night became as bright as the daytime.

If the King were to make announce about the next King at such a place, the effects would be immeasurable. Eugene’s name would instantly be known to the surroundings countries. And, the King’s words also meant that the necessary preparations, also including the mental attitude by the {{furigana|Sun Festival|Maslenitsa}}, would be finished.

When that time came, Eugene would part from the mansion and the territory in which he got used to living and would move to the Capital. He would have to pack up his loads and look for a person to whom he would leave the territory after leaving.

Ilda, similarly to Eugene, would also live in the Capital depending on the situation.

Like that, the audience in the office ended.

As he left from the office, sweat suddenly trickled from Ilda’s face. He was stifling and his body was hot. Blood was also rushing to his head. Like when one gulped down strong vodka in one go.

“Duke Bydgauche?”

Probably because he noticed that Ilda was strange, Eugene called out to him as he was worried. When Ilda turned towards Eugene in slow movement, while wiping the sweat on his face with his hand, he said with a smile.

“Earl Pardu. My sincere congratulations. I was surprised when His Majesty said it, but the throne would certainly be suitable to you.”

“Thank you, Duke Bydgauche.”

Eugene deeply bowed his head without destroying his placid expression.

“Because I was far from the royal palace for a long time, I hope that you will help me as much as possible.”

“Yes. It is also an order from His Majesty. I will support you with all my energy” While answering so, Ilda could not help but feel hypocrisy in his own words.

The strange feeling which was not there before entering the office was lurking between the two men.

Ilda who parted from Eugene before the office was silently walking down the corridor.

He understood that he was irritated. He wanted to leave this palace as soon as possible.

From the unusual atmosphere, even those who knew him seemed hesitant to readily call out to him. If King Victor saw this scene, he might evaluate it was no use since he put out such attitude.

Why was it Eugene? And not him?

''--- Earl Pardu is His Majesty’s favorite. However, His Majesty would never choose him only based on it, either. Although he highly evaluates his negotiations with Brune, that was twenty years ago…''

He suddenly recalled the existence of the youth named Tigrevurmud Vorn whom he heard from the Grand Chamberlain. Due to the fact that the hero, who ended Brune’s civil war, died by a blunder of Zchted, let alone their relationship growing worse, it would not be strange even if they were warring.

''---However, Brune is exhausted from the previous civil war, and I have heard that the influential feudal lords also fell down. Is there the need to consider up to there?''

In fact, Ilda had not that much knowledge regarding Brune. He immediately came to a deadlock.

''---About Brune and Earl Vorn, it would better to ask someone well-informed in the near future. Besides, the reason may not necessarily be limited to Brune.''

Ilda worked out his thinking. For example, might he not have some faults?

What immediately came to his mind was the matter with the barbarian subjugation of this time. Ilda who was proud of his military prowess had been forced to a hard fight; not only had he spent more days than expected, he also took substantial damages. It might be thought that a shadow arose to his military prowess.

He came out of the corridor. The walls in which ornaments were given continued on the left side, but there was no walls on the right side; the pillars stood in a row at equal intervals and one could enjoy the outside scenery.

At the time that he entered the royal palace, the sun should not have yet reached the zenith; but now he was passing the zenith. The clear blue sky was irritating.

“Ara, if is not the Duke.”

Suddenly, a cheerful woman’s voice sounded from behind, and Ilda stopped. When he looked back, a beautiful woman around 20 years old was standing. Ilda knew her.

“Vanadis-dono, huh. To think we would meet in such a place.”

The woman called Vanadis-dono bowed with a smile. Her bluish black hair which reached to the waist and her pure white dress which treated red and purple roses everywhere gave a neat and clean impression.

Those who looked at her would first leak a sigh of admiration before her beauty and graceful appearance, and then shift their attention to her long-handled scythe carried on her delicate shoulder.

It was because this jet back and deep crimson scythe seemed to mysteriously adapt itself without discomfort that their attention did not face there at the very beginning.

However, it might also be natural. After all, this scythe was a {{furigana|Dragonic Tool|Viralt}} for Vanadis.

Her name was Valentina Glinka Estes. She was the Vanadis with the nickname of “{{furigana|Illusory Princess of the Hollow Shadow|Shervid}}”.

Though there were seven Vanadis in Zchted, Ilda was only close to her, who governed Osterode in the northeast and Elizavetta.

“It has been a long time. I did not think that I would see the Duke in the royal palace.”

“I do think that I come to the royal palace much more than you though. Is the condition of your body good?”

Ilda had heard that Valentina had a weak body and thus rarely went out from Osterode which she governed. Actually, it had been a while that he met Valentina in the royal palace.

“I like Osterode, but the Capital is warmer at this period.”

As Valentina replied with a carefree smile, she knitted her brows as she noticed something. Stepping about a half step forward, she looked up at Ilda with a worried face.

“You, too, Duke, you do not seem to feel well, but… did something happen?”

The innocent girl who knew nothing was purely worried about the person in front of her. In Valentina’s gesture and expression at this time, there was something which made the other party think so.

Ilda was embarrassed to give an immediate reply. He understood that it was confidential. However, there was definitely the conflict of wanting someone to hear him out.

“No, it is not a big deal.”

However, Ilda hid his inner thoughts and shook his head with a smile.

“After going to greet His Majesty, I hear that he caught cold. He said that his condition has improved now, but as one who was told, as expected the liver got cold.”

Valentina stared in wonder and raised a small voice saying “oh my”.

“When I also gave my greetings to His Majesty, I was surprised to observe the same thing.”

“It was hard for both of us.”

At the black-haired Vanadis’ reaction, Ilda unintentionally burst into laughter. And then, he remembered that she also had the rights of succession to the throne. By having laughed, a part of his thinking which was curdling might have been untied.

“Vanadis-dono. Have you not heard anything of His Majesty?”

Was it because that question was too abstract? Valentina bent her head slightly to the side as to say that she did not understand. Was she not told because her rights of succession to the throne were too low? Or was that after all told only to Eugene and him?

“For example––”

Valentina suddenly muttered. In a voice small enough to be called a whisper.

“Was it about something along the line… who is it who will succeed the ‘wolf’?”

Ilda was startled, and unintentionally ran his gaze around. Other than them, there were only imperial guards in the grand corridor of the royal palace. They were also carrying through standing at attention without leaving their posts.

Partly because Valentina lowered her voice, there was probably no one who heard what she said.

The “Volk” in the name of Victor Arthur Volk Estes Tsar Zchted was a word meaning “wolf” and was a nickname which the late King gave to his son.

It was due to a certain old custom of Zchted that the King gave the name of a beast as the Prince’s nickname. By the way, in case of the princess, there were many cases where the name of a flower was given to her.

The one who would succeed the wolf. In other words, the one who would succeed Victor. It was about the next King. Judging from her tone hesitating about the surroundings, there was no doubt that Valentina knew.

“…I will ask just to be sure, but from whom did you hear it?”

“From His Majesty. He said that it was confidential, but it looked like he told it to some other people after all.”

Ilda agreed by saying “that is also right”. If he had really spoken only to Eugene and him, then the government would not just get confused. He should have told this to those near the center of the Kingdom.

He could only think of something of that level, and he himself had probably not yet recovered from the shock.

“By the way, Duke. I will change the topic, but...”

As she withdrew half a step which widened the distance, Valentina broadly smiled.

“I received vodka from an acquaintance of mine. How about it? Why do you not come to my mansion tonight? I hope to talk with you after such a long time.”

Even excluding talks about the throne, it was a happy invitation for Ilda. This was because strong drinks were his favorites, and several months had passed since he met Valentina.

“Then, after a half koku, may I visit you before the day set?”

Thinking from each other’s position, Ilda suggested so. The day had just slightly passed. Even if she sent a messenger to the mansion now to make preparation to welcome Ilda, There was enough time.

Besides, if a single young man visited a single woman at night<ref> single here as in celibate, unmarried </ref>, who knows what kind of backbiting gossipy people would be engaged in.

“Understood. I will wait for you, Duke.”

As he parted from Valentina, Ilda once again walked down the corridor. His face became a bit bright.

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In an area where the residences of nobles gathered, there was Valentina’s mansion.

The mortar plastered to the walls was brand-new white, the brown roof tinged with black did not get dirty; one could understand that it was carefully maintained. But the mansion itself was small and the decoration was also old-fashioned. The garden was also snugly made and it even looked like it was hidden by other towering mansions in the surroundings.

In fact, since the place where Valentina should originally be was Osterode, this was enough.

Besides, there was no many Vanadis who had a mansion in the Capital. When Ellen and Mira stayed in the Capital for a long time, either they would borrow a room in the royal palace or they would use hotels available for royalty and titled nobility and wealthy merchants.

As Ilda said himself, he visited when the blue of the sky darkened. Valentina personally came out to receive him. She guided him to the drawing room.

The fire was already lighted in the fireplace of the room, and the room was sufficiently warm. There were two big sofas and a small round table put between them.

Though the curtains were two layers with white and black, Ilda quietly spilt a smile at the fact that embroidery of roses was applied on either of them.

A bottle of vodka, silver cups and two plates were put on the table. Fruit was served on one side, and on the other side, there were cheese and thinly sliced bread.

Waiting for Ilda to sit down on the sofa, Valentina poured the strong drink into the silver cups with her own hands. And then, she herself sat down on the sofa, too.

“Speaking of which, I heard that you safely ended the barbarian subjugation. Congratulations.”

Valentina said so and raised her silver cup. While Ilda smiled wryly, he also raised his silver cup at the same timing as her. He did not think to be not proud of his military gains, but he was not so tactless as to voice it out in a place like this.

Ilda who put the silver cup on his mouth opened his eyes wide. He drank various things so far, but this was quite a first-class drink.

Transparent (clear) like a clear stream, it went through his throat with almost no bitterness. His body was warmed from within and his mood rose.

Fatigue of the journey to the Capital seemed to fall with the heat emitted.

“I am glad that it is to your liking.”

Valentina broadly smiled. She had already put her silver cup on the table and picked up an apple.

“Pease, drink without withholding.”

As he was told so, Ilda drank one cup after another. While occasionally gnawing cheese, he amused himself with friendly chat with Valentina.

Ilda talked about the barbarian subjugation, the events which occurred in his territory and the gossips which he heard from the minstrels, and Valentina, while also talking about what she experienced in the Capital and her territory Osterode, basically took the listener’s role. Ilda thought that she was a good listener as usual.

Duke Bydgauche did not feel boredom. The black-haired Vanadis asked questions such as “Duke, how did you do afterwards?” at the key points of the talk, and kept drawing out words from Ilda. Valentina devoted herself to the listener’s role before one knew and was hardly talking.

As he would be thirsty when he talked too much, he piled up more wine cups. Ilda was slowly drinking the vodka in order to savor it, but when about a half koku passed, the vodka in the bottle had decreased to less than half.

“––Speaking of which.”

[[File:Madan no Ou to Vanadis V8 p0960.png|thumb]]

In the place where Ilda’s talk was interrupted, Valentina asked as if she recalled.

“What do you think about the royal palace, Duke?”

At the term “royal palace”, Ilda recalled about the daytime. If he was composed, he might have asked her to be clear regarding her vague question.

However, his thinking which got drunk by the strong drink immediately ended up bringing about words and memory. Although his consciousness as a vassal immediately recalled the words “this is confidential”, he reconsidered that Valentina also knew. He answered in a slightly violent tone.

“It is an order of His Majesty. That I shall support Earl Pardu… No, King Eugene as his first retainer. Right, I must get used to that way of calling him from now on.”

Anyone who worked in the royal palace knew the order of rights to the throne. When Eugene would sit on the throne, Ilda who was once above him (in rank to the succession) would rather have to take the initiative and go down on his knee.

“So, the Duke will serve as the next King’s “uncle”<ref> sorry if it’s a little difficult to understand, but I just translated how he should be </ref>. Speaking of the King’s uncle, I remember “Efram and Ivan”.”

With an air as if not noticing at all Ilda’s distress, Valentina spoke of the title of a fairy tale. “Efram and Ivan” was a fairy tale transmitted in Zchted since ancient times.

The wise Prince Efram who was driven out of the royal palace by the hateful Grand Chamberlain Ivan defeated him (Ivan) with the cooperation of an uncle secluded in the depths of the forest and made a triumphant return to the royal palace. Afterwards, the uncle became the Grand Chamberlain and devoted himself to Efram’s reign.

It was said that there were more than 50 ways of narrating “Efram and Ivan” in Zchted. Probably because the plotline was very simple, the minstrels added dramatization and exaggeration on a whim, and thus each region had its own version of “Efram and Ivan”.

In a certain region, it was something like: Efram was not driven out, but he rather left for a journey looking for a woman who would become his wife. In another region, it was a plotline where all was the uncle’s scheme and the Grand Chamberlain Ivan was in reality a good person.

It was also said that Efram’s story was a dream of one night of a villager named Efram.

“––“Efram and Ivan”, huh. How nostalgic.”

Though Ilda laughed, he could not be quite calm inwardly.

''---It was probably out of kindness that Vanadis-dono mentioned “Efram and Ivan”.''

Ilda also knew about “Efram and Ivan” since the tale was also transmitted in Bydgauche which he governed. In the so-called Bydgauche version, Efram’s brother-in-law appeared instead of the uncle. He was the older brother of Efram’s wife.

Efram and his brother-in-law opposed against each other whenever there was something and sometimes crossed swords, but every time Efram’s wife remonstrated both of them, they reconciled and reluctantly re-sheathed their swords.

“It can’t be helped since it’s you who ask it. Even such a man is important to you, I guess.”

Both Efram and his brother-in-law spoke word by word exactly the identical lines.

The conclusion was the same as other stories. The two men joined forces and won, and the brother-in-law became the Grand Chamberlain.

Ilda had heard that Valentina had a weak body since she was child, so she was confined in the mansion and was absorbed in reading various stories. She must have daringly given that name surely because she knew the contents of the Bydgauche version.

''---But, my younger sister and I haven’t the same relations as the uncle and the younger sister in that story.''

Valentina did not probably know up to that extent. No wonder. Unless they were very close or he did not say very dangerous things, he would not told her about their relations between siblings.

“––Why?”

He unintentionally spoke his inner thoughts. Why did he have to go down on his knee before Eugene?

Even though he should be the one to sit on the throne. On earth where was he inferior to Eugene?

“Duke.”

A very kind voice struck Ilda’s earlobe. It was Valentina’s voice.

“Why don’t you try to trust Earl Pardu for the time being?”

Within the dim light, the black-haired Vanadis smiled.

“I understand your feelings, Duke. His Majesty would not hand over the throne to Earl Pardu with only the reason that he was his close aide before. Disregarding the order of rights to the throne, the individual achievements, anything and everything.”

“…I also consider such a thing.”

“There are only the Duke and I in this room. Neither His Majesty nor Earl Pardu are there.”

Ilda’s weak rebuttal disappeared in the warmed atmosphere.

“But, maybe, there is a thought which does not depend on His Majesty himself and he hands over the throne to Earl Pardu.”

Valentina’s words were accurately expressing word for word Ilda’s innermost thoughts.

Ilda, as a retainer of the King, wanted to consent.

If there was such a reason, he would also understand why not him, but Eugene was chosen as King. Although it was possible to think so, he wanted it.

“I think there might be that. I also do not understand though.”

Discouragement and disappointment spread through Ilda’s heart. Valentina continued.

“So, how about trusting him?”

The consciousness of Ilda who was absentminded due to the strong drink took about three seconds and somehow recalled Valentina’s words of a little while ago.

“…Hmm. You are right.”

Although a relation between brother-in-law and younger brother-in-law, there was no interchange which seemed like interchange until now. Ilda knew both Eugene’s face and name. He also knew about the fact that he had served as the King’s close aide, and that he was not hesitant when giving advices.

However, He only knew that.

If he were to trust him and interacted more with him, he might find the reason which could make him consented.

“It is as Vanadis-dono said. Aside from strong drinks, it seemed that I have a precious thing.”

Exhaling a hot breath mixed with alcohol, Ilda muttered so.

Then after a half koku, Ilda left Valentina’s mansion when the sky was covered with a very dim light. With his attendant, he headed towards his mansion. Though the ill feeling did not naturally disappear, he had felt inclined to consider her words positively.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

It was at noon of the next day when she treated Ilda to a strong drink that Valentina sent a messenger to Eugene’s mansion in the Capital. The messenger of the black-haired Vanadis, though brief, conveyed his lord’s words after expressing his greetings according to the etiquette.

“I have heard that it is extremely rare that His Excellency Earl Pardu shows up in the Capital. I assume that you are busy, but can you allow me at least to greet you?”

Though Eugene was acquainted with Valentina, they had almost never spoken. This was because there was no opportunity of interaction with her, who governed Osterode to the northeast. That said, since there was no discord between them, he had no reason to decline. Besides, he thought that it might be recreational.

Actually, Eugene intended to return to his territory Pardu as soon as he finished the audience to the King. He had also gathered up the baggage on the day when he arrived at the Capital.

However, the words conveyed by the King were far beyond his expectations.

Therefore, he changed his schedule and had thought to stay another several days to the Capital and put his thoughts in order. He gave several silver coins to the only attendant who accompanied him and told him that he could even do the Capital sightseeing.

The attendant also guessed that his master was given a mission which he could not tell him. As he obediently received the silver coins, he said that he would be back before the day got dark and left the mansion.

As such, with no plan to meet someone, he thought to walk even the Capital’s main street. Valentina’s visit was just right after he left.

“Understood. If it is fine with you, let’s meet today when the day got dark.”

Then, when the evening came, Valentina Glinka Estes wearing a pure white dress decorated with roses visited Eugene’s mansion. She left her {{furigana|Dragonic Tool|Viralt}} Ezendeis to an attendant as she went through the mansion’s gate.

“It has been a while. Earl Pardu.”

“Likewise.”

Exchanging simple greetings, Eugene led Valentina to the drawing room.

They began to discuss about the King’s condition, and then followed with talks about the territories which each of them governed. As the atmosphere became friendly, Valentina suddenly changed the topic.

“By the way, I am worried whether or not I may say it in such a place, but… since pretending not to know would be rather rude, I wish to congratulate you. Really, congratulations to the matter of succession to the throne.”

The gray-haired Earl openly frowned. Because his usual expression was calm, when he made such a face, there was enough strength to make those who saw it flinch. To Valentina which returned a wink as surprised, Eugene asked in an unusually harsh voice.

“Where did you hear about that?”

Though Valentina held her tongue with a startled face, she soon broke the silence and answered.

“…From Duke Bydgauche.”

Eugene’s expression grew in severity. He inwardly resented him.

''---Didn’t His Majesty say that this was confidential?''

“Valentina-dono. This is said to be confidential. I should assume that you did not talk about it to other people such as the attendants and maids who serve you.”

Valentina nodded her head with a depressed expression.

“I am sorry.”

“…No, if it is only you knowing, then I do not mind.”

Eugene consented by saying “I see”. As for Valentina, since she got to know, it was natural to think that she should give her greetings. Otherwise, as she said, it might rather be taken as disrespect.

“You knew that I would become King, but did not come for greetings even though you were in the Capital at this time, huh.”

If it was cross-examined so by Eugene later, an excuse would no longer stand. Though unreasonable, it was frightening since it was acceptable.

''---Throne. Power. His Majesty held it well so far…''

While massaging his own forehead with a finger, Eugene sighed. He, who had been King Victor’s close aide, had seen the power of a King immediately nearby. But at the same time, he had also seen the hardships, troubles and despair of a King.

He had no intention to pity Victor. However, he only decided at least to say what needed to be said and served him. At that time, Victor was not married, and he had also lost his parents.

Though King Victor was slightly quick-tempered and irascible on that subject, Eugene sincerely took the trouble to deal with it when he judged that he should lend him an ear.

He thought that it was worth serving him. He kept advising him.

Afterwards, he was really appreciated. When he was recommended the marriage, he was very surprised. Although he gladly accepted it, he thought that he could no longer serve as an aide. This was because it might be thought that the existence of his wife who was from the royal family would give influence to Eugene’s advices.

Eugene was afraid of becoming ‘a maternal relative who wielded power’. As King Victor surmised that thought of Eugene, he gave him a title and a territory.

And, now. King Victor was going to give something enough to overshadow what he once gave to Eugene.

The crown, the throne and the whole land of the country called Zchted.

Eugene thought that he could not refuse it. This was not because it was the King’s order.

Victor thought that if it was Eugene, he would value these; and thus he handed it over to him. Like when he gave him a wife, a title and a territory before. He could not ignore those feelings.

''---But, Duke Bydgauche does not seem to appreciate.''

While looking at Valentina who looked apologetic, Eugene felt bitter.

However, those feelings of Eugene stopped in an unexpected form (way). Valentina opened her mouth with a resolved face.

“Um, Earl. With all due respect, there is something I want to say.”

Eugene nodded.

What Valentina asserted was that Ilda did not say it clearly. That she had just guessed when he spoke ambiguously.

“Duke Bydgauche-sama did not disobey His Majesty’s order which said it was confidential.”

''Speaking of which'', Eugene remembered. Valentina, as her name and family name showed, was from a branch family to the royal family. Which meant that her knowledge was more abundant than other people’s.

If so, then it could be not helped even if she noticed it.

Valentina vehemently argued more.

“Besides, the Duke was awfully disappointed… I thought to comfort him by at least hearing his story.”

Now that she mentioned it, even Eugene could not remain angry at him. After all, Eugene himself repeatedly tried to find out why it was not Ilda, but him who was chosen as the next King. Since it was even so for him, the degree of disappointment and indignation was probably stronger for Ilda.

“Earl. If possible, would you once talk with the Duke?”

“With Duke Bydgauche?”

Even without Valentina saying it, Eugene planned to arrange an opportunity to talk with only the two of them (with Ilda), but he urged ahead before her sincere look.

“At the same time that the Duke was disappointed, he felt uneasy about the danger of his position. About the fact that he would become the King’s brother-in-law.”

Eugene was not disgusted at Ilda, but rather he could not help but felt sympathy towards him. The King’s maternal relative who could wield power if things went well, but one wrong move and you would be regarded as dangerous and immediately judged. That was the position in which he was put in the future.

“Thank you, Vanadis-dono. By the way, do you know what Lord Bydgauche likes?”

“If we speak about the Duke’s tastes, I would say strong drink (vodka).”

Valentina explained as much as possible about Ilda’s tastes, and proposed Eugene about how he should send a strong drink before they met and spoke. She said that it was better for Eugene to meet Ilda after his anxiety and wariness had dispelled to some extent.

Eugene also nodded to this and said that he would do so.

Afterwards, the two talked about various things, and Valentina left Eugene’s mansion before the night came.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

Ten days had passed since Urz became a stable boy in the Imperial Palace of Lebus.

From the time that there was still no sunrise, Urz got up and left the bed while shaking his body at the drifting cold air within the lodgings. His breath was white. However, he woke up thanks to that.

Until his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he desperately rubbed his body to warm it up, and he came out of the lodgings in almost fumbling. This was because there was almost no light.

When he went out, the sky was still dark. After washing his face in a well near the lodgings, he headed to the stable. He met other stablemen there.

“Good morning.”

As he said so, a short answer “yeah” came. On the first day, they were only looking at him with suspicious eyes and could not even greet him, but recently, they finally began to reply to his greetings.

He even headed to the stable with a companion. It was stinking as usual early in the morning, but as getting used to it was awful, Urz hardly worried about it.

As usual, he began to deal with horse dung and urine. He scooped them with a special plow and carried them to a specified place. Then, he cleaned the stable, replaced water and carried out food.

Urz had adapted on his daily life as a stable boy.

In fact, it did not become so just by getting used to it. For example, it was about the time when he fed the horses for the first time, being asked by the stableman head. As if his body remembered, he was able to do it with natural hand movements. He also knew how to handle the stirrups and saddles before being taught.

''---It seemed that the me before losing my memory was taking of horses.''

In the fishing village where he was found, it was also so the first time when he touched a bow. Urz was recalled a nostalgic feeling by various works in the stable.

''---Though I don’t know why I was made a stable boy…''

Both the place to sleep and the meal were guaranteed. He even got pay. Though even now, Urz thought that all of that was great, he came to think that he would work here for a while.

Found in that fishing village, even when he understood that he could remember nothing, Urz not feeling that much anxious, optimistically took the stance “I will somehow managed it”. The villagers were very amazed when he said so.

As that stance did not change even when he became a stable boy, he even came to think that either the him before losing his memory probably had quite a carefree character, or his instinct might have realized that it was dangerous to move randomly.

As he finished all his work, Urz returned to the lodging with his companion stablemen. It was to take breakfast.

When he passed through the door of the lodging, he passed by one of the stablemen. It was a man two or three years older than Urz. As he saw Urz’s face, he floated a nasty smile.

“Hey, Urz. I heard that you were taken over by Vanadis-sama, is it true?”

“Yes. That's right.”

Not even thinking to hide it, Urz honestly answered. The next moment, the smile disappeared from the stableman’s expression and his face was dyed with surprise. After the man glanced at Urz with unpleasant eyes, he snorted and walked away. Urz saw off the stableman’s back with an absentminded face.

“What was that…?”

Although Urz was dubious about the stableman’s sudden change of attitude, he was very hungry due to the fact that he woke up early in the morning and worked. Rather than running after him and hearing him out, he gave priority to breakfast.

As he finished the breakfast of hard bread of rye and soup which cooked together potato and cabbage, he had to start his next assignment immediately.

Then, it was about when the day would soon grow dark that Urz returned to the lodging. He dragged his body tired from work and headed to his room.

Although his room, of course it was not a private room. It was a room used by four people. Each bed was put in one of the four corners of the room which was not that much wide, and there was a little space in the center. Each person had all his personal belongings put on his bed and it had been decided that one must not use another person’s bed selfishly (without his permission?).

Urz had no personal belongings. If one had to say, when it was decided that he would work as stable boy, he was provided two clothes, two pieces of thick blankets and one stiff pillow. Of course, all of those were put on his bed.

When he opened the door and entered the room, Urz opened his eyes wide in surprise.

In the empty room, his bed was turned upside down. His clothes and blankets were thrown out on the floor, and the clothes were torn off to shreds. The pillow as well.

“What, is this…?”

Only those words came out as he thought that that was too much. It was too mean to call it a prank. Nothing was done to the beds of the other three people, so it was obvious that the one who did it aimed at Urz.

As he remained standing in utter amazement, footsteps were approaching. Mark, a stable boy who used the same room came back as he finished his work.

Though Mark was 17 years old, he was so short that one would think he was two years younger, he had a pale skin and his limbs were also thin. More than physical works, he was good at works which asked for the dexterity of hands such as the mending of harness; among the people using this shared room, he was the friendliest to Urz.

Though Mark put on a wondering face when he saw Urz’s attitude, he looked into the room and understood immediately.

“Do you know who did this?”

Urz who recovered from stupor, asked Mark without being able to hide his irritation. But, Mark looked at Urz with a sidelong glance and shook his head.

“You should give up on searching the culprit.”

“Why?”

“Because you won’t find him.”

As Mark entered the room, he put his hand on Urz’s bed.

“Hold there.”

Being said so, Urz approached his bed with slow steps. The two returned the bed which was turned upside down. To Urz who fixedly stared at the clothes and blankets which he picked up, the stable boy of small stature turned a sympathetic look.

“It seemed that you were picked up by the current Vanadis. It had been secretly talked about between everyone.”

Urz raised his flipped face and looked at Mark. There was a small window in the room, and the vermillion evening sun came in from there. Its light made a mysterious shadow on his face.

“In short, it’s something like that. Because there had never been a precedent where the current Vanadis made someone directly work in the Imperial Palace. And, I don’t know whether or not you noticed yourself, but you have good skills at work. You have never been called by the head, right?”

The head here referred to that unsociable stableman head. As the puzzled Urz nodded, Mark shrugged his shoulders and smiled wryly.

“That person doesn’t scold anyone in presence of others. After the work of the day is over, he would call him in his room and made a short sermon. Among the stablemen who are in this stable, there is no one who was not yet called since the beginning of work within a few days. Except you.”

Now that he said it, certainly Urz had never seen a scene where the stableman head scolded someone. He selfishly thought that he was a person who did not get that much angry, but it seemed that he was wrong.

In other words, this meant that this treatment<ref> the fact that his bed was turned upside down, well in short, bullied </ref> was out of jealousy. Urz strongly chewed his molars and tightly grasped the blankets and clothes which he held. It was too much irrational. To Mark who sat down on his bed, Urz asked in an unbearable thought.

“What should I do?”

“Consult with the stableman head. I’m sorry, but I can’t be of help.”

What was returned was a clearly and very distant answer of someone apparently wanting to avoid getting involved. He even thought that the ten days after he became a stable boy were denied.

''---I guess there’s no helping it.''

Urz inwardly sighed. As he once again confirmed the damages which he received, it was natural to think of not wanting to be involved. Besides, putting it another way, after Urz began to work as stable boy, only ten days had passed.

''---However, I don’t think that I can’t let it be.''

Urz calmly began to think about a method of counterattack.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

Several days passed since the day when he first received harassment. It continued as usual.

This morning, an insect was put in his soup. He finished the early morning work and was called by the stableman head in as he was on his way to take his meal, and it was a mistake to have left the dining room at a short amount of time.

Because he was annoyed, he drank up the soup after throwing away the insect.

He had already consulted with the stableman head. Although the latter apologized that his management was not thorough, even he did not seemed to come up with a solution. He called each stableman and interrogated, but the culprit was not yet found.

While Urz held down his anger within, outwardly, he was indifferently handling his work. He did not know whether or not he could say that it was fortunate, but there was no harassment related to his work at all.

''---It’s probably because they would easily be found by the stableman head.''

About this work, the stableman head exactly grasped when and where everyone was. If one were to get away from where he worked, it was more likely to be found.

Urz finished the unpleasant breakfast and returned to the stable, but he was shortly called by the stableman head. He hurried to the lodging while thinking “what may it be?”. When he arrived at the lodging, the stableman head and Mark were standing there.

“Go shopping with Mark today.”

They went to buy necessary things in the town. Mark went with him because if Urz was to go alone, he knew neither the way nor the place of shops.

Like that, as he confirmed the contents of the shopping to Mark, the stableman head walked away to the stable. Only Urz and Mark were left after.

“Then, shall we go?”

Mark timidly said. After the harassment to Urz started, he did not talk very much with Mark. Thus, Mark was feeling guilty and Urz, on the other hand, was thinking that it would be better that if he was not getting him involved.

“Hey, Mark.”

Probably for that reason, Mark shook his shoulders startled as Urz called out to him. While Urz smile wryly, he continued his words.

“Can I ask you a favor?”

Three stablemen set foot in the room, which Urz used, in the afternoon. They hurriedly came back at the break of the interval of work.

“That guy went shopping, right?”

“Yes. I confirmed that he left the ranch. What do we do today? Do we throw away the bed?”

One person asked his friend with a nasty smile.

“We will use this today.”

While another one pinched his nose with his left hand, he raised the bag which he held in his right hand. The other two understood what the contents of the bag were with the smell. It was the horse dung. He probably prepared it during his work.

“I will rub this. So that the smell won’t go even if he washes.”

After looking around just in case and checking whether or not there was no one watching, the three people entered the room used by Urz. They immediately knew which Urz’s bed was. Though there were personal belongings on the other stablemen’s beds, there was not on Urz’s.

When they threw out the horse dung in his bed and blanket, they came out to the corridor with satisfied faces.

However, it was so far that they could exult.

“––Have you already finished?”

Urz was standing in front of them. The three people’s faces completely changed to fright, and they remained standing stock still.

“Y-You didn’t go shopping…”

One of the three spoke up to there while his voice was shaking, but he swallowed his words as he noticed something. Urz calmly answered.

“Yeah. I dropped it.”

During the day before yesterday, Urz asked the stableman head. To make him do something which would make him go outside in a very natural way, several days later.

The reason why he daringly put it the day was to catch the culprit red handed. Since he was harassed, Urz thought that there was the possibility that he was watched.

Even if he went shopping for today, he would go outside the ranch with Mark, and when he confirmed that there were no people following them, the left the shopping to Mark and hurriedly returned to the lodging. And, he ambushed them in the shade of the corridor.

Although the stable boys also checked up to the fact that Urz left the ranch, they could do no more than that. This was because they would definitely be found if they were too far away from their workplace.

“Did you also hide there more than two koku?”

One of the stable boys panted. It was not that it was difficult to hide, but hiding oneself without moving for two koku was not something one could easily do.

However, Urz also responded to this as if it was nothing.

“It’s far easy compared to an ambush when hunting. And there is also neither obstructive grass nor insect and snake…”

Saying up to there, Urz suddenly cocked his head in puzzlement.

Just now, the word ‘hunting’ popped out very naturally from his mouth. When thinking about the fact that he was good with the bow, he wondered whether the him before losing his memory wasn’t a hunter after all. From the scars remaining on his boy, he also thought that he might have been an archer.

One person cursed Urz and threw a fist at him. As if getting hooked by his movement, the other two also attacked him from right and left.

However, Urz did not flinch at all, calmly saw through their movements and dodged their fists, or blocked them. As he judged that the stable boys were not that much familiar to fighting, he quickly sneaked around the back of one of them and twisted his arm. A groan of pain leaked out from the stable boy’s mouth.

“I will report on everything to the stableman head so that he deals with you. Okay?”

When Urz said and released the man’s arm as he thrust him away, he kicked him. The man who was pushed forward rolled up the other two and fell down flashily.

The harassment to Urz ended on this day.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

It was the evening on the day when Elizavetta ordered her close aide Naum to report about how Urz’s work was going.

“About 15 to 16 days passed, right? If possible, I would like to hear about the report tomorrow.”

Elizavetta, who let her golden and blue pupils brighten with expectation, said so and Naum was perplexed.

“Isn’t the work of stable boy the repetition of the same thing no matter how much time passed?” Naum thought.

That said, having witnessed Urz’s ability with the bow, for Naum who knew that he seemed to have lose memory, he was interested about how Urz would live in a new environment. As there was also Elizavetta’s order, Naum asked the stableman head and heard him out on the night of that day.

The next day, Naum visited the office a little before daytime came and reported to Elizavetta.

“He caused brawling.”

Though Elizavetta put on a surprised face, her expression got cloudy as she heard Naum’s report.

''---I should have asked for the report much earlier.''

She breathed a sigh of regret. She did not do so because first, she wanted to avoid the sarcasm of civil officials, and second, she thought that she should accumulate the reports to some extent.

Though not as much as Naum, Elizavetta did not also think that the stableman’s work would be rich in daily change.

“Naum. Do I still have to let Urz continue working as stable boy?”

“Excuse me, but… Will it not be instead more difficult to make him work other than as a stable boy?”

While stroking the wrinkles carved on his face by hardship, Naum answered as if admonishing her.

“Whatever the reason, Urz has caused a fight. A man who has not even yet worked one month as stable boy. It could not be helped even if he was driven out––”

Saying up to there, Naum shut his mouth. He noticed that flames of anger were burning in Elizavetta’s pupils.

“Urz should have silently endured whatever was done to him. Do you want to say that?”

“I am sorry for incurring Vanadis-sama’s anger, but it’s what I mean.”

Naum took head on the red-haired Vanadis’ gaze and continued his words.

“It has already been widely known in the Imperial Palace that it was Vanadis-sama who personally called out to Urz and brought him along. Most of the people will probably see in it that Vanadis-sama took a liking to him. It is also a situation where Vanadis-sama’s honor will be affected.”

Elizavetta dropped her shoulders as she could not return words at all. While painfully seeing his master depressed, Naum continued.

“Even if you were to change Urz’s work to something else, as long as he works in the Imperial Palace, jealousy will probably follow him around.”

It was not just the stablemen who harbored jealousy and prejudice.

“In that case, it would be preferable to let him continue working as stable boy. At least, he proved to the stablemen that he was a man who did not yield to harassment.”

“But, won’t he be isolated?”

Elizavetta’s expression did not clear up. The red-haired Vanadis softly closed her left eye.

As she soon opened her left eye, she closed her right eyes this time. She had a habit to watch something only with one eye in some rhythm.

When she was small, Elizavetta was bullied by the villagers due to her {{furigana|Rainbow Eyes|Laziris}}. She encountered Ellen when she was 10 and came to have the will to confront the bullying, but her dark past up to there was even now recessed in the depth of her memory.

“I would say that isolation is also better though.”

Though Naum said so, Elizavetta could not immediately draw a conclusion. She put it on hold for the time being and continued to hear the report about Urz’s work.

To the report that he seemed to have experience of taking care of horses, Elizavetta tilted her head to the side. Not only that, it was said that he was also used to tend the harness.

“I wonder if he can ride a horse.”

After a little thought, Elizavetta asked. Whether or not he could ride a horse was an important clue to learn Urz’s identity. This was because unless one was either a knight class or a noble, he would not do training of horsemanship.

She thought that it was a good thought. After all, even Urz himself did not know what he could do. If she were to know his ability, she could give him a more suitable post.

“If Vanadis-sama wants, shall I make him do a trial?”

Naum said. Just now, he just said that he would better to let him keep working as stable boy, so this could be considered as a passive suggestion to his saying of earlier. Naum was also thinking that there would be nothing better if Urz could do some other works, and that led to the breakthrough of the status quo.

Above all else, if it could improve his master’s mood, then it was worth doing that much.

“You’re right. I also want to let him try various other things. Despite the fight, he won in a three-to-one, right? We shall also let him try weapons. And then, I wonder if he can read and write. We will first let him try these three, and change his treatment depending on the results.”

“Understood.”

Though Naum respectfully bowed with a smile, he did not forget to add a few words.

“However, Vanadis-sama. Urz is a, to the bitter end, a newcomer. In case that you change his treatment, please take that into account.”

He meant that if she were to give him too good a treatment, he would stir more jealousy and antipathy than now. Though Naum was taking interest in Urz’s existence, he knew that it was not so for the other close aides.

In addition, Naum had a different concern. Elizavetta was young, as well as Urz.

If she was too much into Urz, he could not help feeling uneasy about the fact that those looking from a witty viewpoint would appear.

Elizavetta halted Naum who finished the report and was about to leave.

“I really hate the kind of bullying.”

To Naum who made a dubious face, the red-haired Vanadis said with a tone which especially emphasized the word “hate”.

“Can I have you convey that within the Imperial Palace? I understand the human’s way of the world, but it will be effective temporarily.”

As Naum deeply bowed once again to show respect to his master, he quietly left.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

It was about three days later after Naum had visited to report to Elizavetta. To this, the red-haired Vanadis was half surprised, half amazed; and she said to her close aide who had a face harking back to a pessimistic nature.

“It’s quite early, eh.”

“It’s because I test him yesterday and the day before yesterday and very interesting results came out.”

Naum answered with a really happy face.

“I will move from the conclusion. I was also present myself at the scene and confirmed it, but I can only say that he was admirable at handling horses. On the other hand, he handles sword and spear like an amateur to the extent that you wonder if it is the same person. I also let him try using the battleaxe and the mace, but he’s really bad at handling them. However, only his archery is exceptional.”

“Specifically?”

“I test him in form of a game, but he held down all the skillful bow users of this Imperial Palace.”

The game which Naum planned was as followed.

They would shot and hit distant targets. He let them freely decide how far away they would be from the targets.

They would shoot the arrows while riding a horse, hit five targets lined up in a row.

They would compete on how high they could fly an arrow by aiming at the top of the rampart.

“I didn’t know that.”

To Naum’s report, Elizavetta pouted as she was sulking. If she knew it, even if she was in the middle of state affairs, she would have probably come to see under the pretense of taking a break. Of course, Naum had expected it, so he did not tell her. But, when he was asked why he did not tell, he answered like this.

“It was good above all that Vanadis-sama did not show. If you had come to watch, some of the soldiers of the Imperial Palace would have never again touched a bow.”

“…Was it that overwhelming?”

Urz’s bow skill was to the extent that if Elizavetta had witnessed that scene, the honor of the bow users would have been soaked.

Thus, Naum nodded with a deadly serious countenance.

“I let him shoot and aim an arrow from a distance of 300 Alsins, and he hit all the targets when he shot the arrows while riding a horse, and so shot an arrow which reached on top of the rampart. If such a person suddenly appear and comes forth, it will become so<ref> here to mean that if someone come out of nowhere with such bow skill, it would be no strange that some bow users would think of give up on archery</ref>.”

Elizavetta was also dumfounded by his words.

From the fact that he had shot down seabirds flying high in the sky, shot arrows from a shaking boat and killed pirates, she understood that it was an owner of an uncommon ability.

However, this far exceeded Elizavetta’s expectations. Even looking around the whole Zchted let alone Lebus, there was probably no bow user like Urz.

At that time as if he recalled, Naum, with a deeply move face, tightly grasped his fist and emphasized.

“The civil officials do not seem to know yet, but Urz’s bow skill is more than a bargain. With that, any noble would spend a large sum of money and try to employ him.”

“––Naum. Have you heard rumor about an owner of that much bow skill?”

Elizavetta also thought that what Naum said was not wrong.

But then, it might have been talked more.

Urz encountered Elizavetta ten days after he was saved by the people of a fishing village. About twenty days had passed since he came to this Lebus and began to live here as stable boy. Adding the number of days taken to move from the fishing village to this Imperial Palace, it exceeded forty days.

Or, it had probably made a great uproar in Brune who was probably the land where Urz was born and raised, but did it mean that it had not reached here?

Naum cocked his head in puzzlement at Elizavetta’s question and answered while stroking the wrinkles on his face.

“Speaking of which, I have heard that a person named Tigrevurmud Vorn, who suppressed the civil war in Brune Kingdom, is an unmatched bow user.”

“––If it is that man, he died.”

Elizavetta swayed her red hair and shook her head.

“It seemed that he was attacked by a monster and a {{furigana|sea dragon|Badva}} and fell into the sea. Even that Sophia Obertas has searched, but has not found him, so there is no mistake.”

Now, Elizavetta also knew the existence of the Demon called Torbalan. The story of the {{furigana|sea dragon|Badva}} that Sophie had told was probably not wrong. If so, Tigrevurmud Vorn must have died.

“Anyway, I understood about the bow and the horse. Is there something else?”

When Elizavetta asked, Naum straightened himself as he remembered.

“He is quite cultivated. He can read and write both Brune’s and Zchted’s languages and he also knows how to count (calculate). About the reading and writing, as expected he’s more adept with Brune language. Maybe Urz is a noble from Brune.”

“But, Brune despises the bow, right? Is there any noble from Brune skilled in archery? Would it not be at least Tigrevurmud Vorn whom you just spoke earlier?”

At Elizavetta’s pointing out, Naum made a startled face.

“It is certainly just as Vanadis-sama says.”

Although Naum answered so, he made an expression showing that he was not completely convinced. Excluding the point about the “bow”, Urz was without a doubt from Brune, and it was also more than certain that he received training.

“Is there anything other than that? Was Urz able to remember something?”

“About his memory, he seems to have the feeling to fragmentarily remind something…”

Naum shrugged his shoulders.

“He said that it seems that things such as the scenery of hunting, scenery of a battlefield and a certain mansion floated into his head, but he cannot remember his name at all, the details also became blurred, and he does not properly recall anyone’s face, too. Rather, how about we take Urz to Brune and search for his home?”

“…Even if you say “Brune”, it is very large. I will think about it if Urz remembers at least something which can serve as reference. There will be a personnel selection of those to attend and there is also the expense (to take into consideration).”

Though Elizavetta took a liking to Urz, as expected, she could not become that soft-hearted a person to make preparation up to there.

“But for the time being, I have decided.”

Elizavetta said with a smile and told with a proud look and attitude to Naum who made a wondering face.

“Take Urz under you. I will add him as one of my close aides.”

Naum became speechless. It was more than a great promotion. He wondered what was the use of the exchanges they had a few days ago?

“Vanadis-sama, you must not. Even I object to this.”

“You said that any noble would spend a large sum to employ him, right? Won’t I be a laughing stock if it is known that I let a user with that much bow skill work as stable boy?”

“It is as you say, but it does not change the fact that Urz is still a person with uncertain identity…”

“Don’t make the identity’s matter a reason to reconsider!”

Elizavetta openly glared at Naum with indignation. Although she, who was abandoned by her father who was a noble and have lived in a poor village when she was young, understood that it was natural to be wary of someone with unknown identity, she hated to be wary more than necessary.

In addition, Urz was the first person whom Elizavetta chose as her subordinate. It was by coincidence that the two met, it was not human. She also knew the feeling of wanting to be accepted.

Naum frowned. The wrinkles on his face increased their depth. But even so, he did not say “understood”. The factor “unknown identity” was that much dangerous<ref> for him, at least </ref>.

Waiting until the red-haired Vanadis calmed down, Naum opened his mouth.

“Can you give me at least one more reason?”

At Elizavetta who made a suspicious face, Naum continued as to add.

“I understand Vanadis-sama’s feelings. With all due respect, I also think in the same way on a certain degree. However, if you rashly make an exception, you will definitely cause unnecessary confusion in the future.”

As he explained up to there, Elizavetta seemed to have guessed Naum’s thought.

“…You want me to prepare one more strong point for the fact that it can only be Urz, and assume it an exception as it is not applicable to anyone other than him. Is it what you mean?”

Naum deeply bowed as to show that that was exactly what he thought. To give Urz a special treatment, bow skill alone was not enough. Another push was necessary.

“As long as it is approvable, I will persuade those who oppose.”

Opposition was especially expected from the civil officials. So that their negative feelings did not turn towards Elizavetta, she must carefully proceed.

As Elizavetta crossed her shapely leg, she removed her gaze from Naum, turned her eyes of different colors towards the ceiling and lost herself in thoughts for a while. Naum, while waiting the words of his master, was himself also thinking, but in the end he could not come up with something which could persuade the civil officials.

“––Brune.”

Suddenly, the red-haired Vanadis muttered as if something came into her mind. Crossing the other leg, Elizavetta returned her gaze at Naum.

“I am seeing that the friendship between our country and Brune, even if short, will continue from three to five other years. Eleonora of LeitMeritz will probably intend it to continue for a longer time.”

Her voice sounded with mixed feelings when she voiced out Ellen’s name, but it was a change small enough that even Naum did not notice.

The number “three to five years” was something she estimated considering the time that it would take to Zchted in order to completely stabilize the land of Agnes, which was cut out from Brune, as theirs and the time necessary until Brune recovered their exhausted power

“This Lebus also wants to extend the association with Brune from now. Duke Thenardier who had interactions from the time of the previous Vanadis was defeated in the civil war, and Duke Ganelon is missing. Tigrevurmud Vorn also fell into the sea and died.”

Regarding Tigre, Elizavetta kind of showed friendship by sending goods. It was at the time when he repelled the Muozinel troops.

In doing so, Elizavetta who stepped on the stage intended to deepen interchanges with Tigre, but he had become useless.

The current Elizavetta did not have a partner who had an effective connection in the diplomacy with Brune. Therefore, it was necessary to hurry up and make a new connection, but it could be said that Urz who could speak the Zchted’s and Brune’s languages was just the ideal talented person.

But, Naum who heard it put on a difficult face.

“An outstanding bow skill. Reading and writing the words of the Brune language. –– Slightly unreliable, but I will live on it for the time being.”

And several days later, Naum visited Elizavetta. His expression was exhausted and moreover, it was not bright. The red-haired Vanadis was seized with uneasiness.

''---Was it impossible after all?''

These several days, Elizavetta had met face to face with the civil officials. This was because their cooperation was indispensable in order to handle the daily state affairs

But beside the state affairs, even though Elizavetta asked about this matter, the civil officials only unanimously said as followed.

“We are conferring with Naum-dono. Please, wait for the answer.”

The civil officials probably wanted to prevent a situation which would be intervened midway by Elizavetta. Since she left it to Naum, even Elizavetta was not to interfere until the answer came out.

''--- If it was impossible, I will have to think about the next move…''

However, Naum said this.

“There is apparently posed only one condition.”

Elizavetta brightened her pupils of different colors and urged him to continue by nodding.

“If he is that much skilled with the bow, they would like him to present one clear achievement he has with that bow. It is the condition that they gave. They said that as long as it is achieved, they will have no objection to let you make Urz a close aide. ––Any than this is unacceptable.”

Spitting out a sigh filled with feeling of fatigue at the end, Naum finished his report. Elizavetta swayed her red hair and tilted her head to the side.

“By achievements in this case, is it something like bandits subjugation?”

“I think that it is. But, if it is not on a certain scale, it will be impossible for them to acknowledge him.”

“I think that Duke Bydgauche just accomplished large-scale barbarian subjugation the other day though.”

Thanks to that, recently there was no petition that bandits came out in the field. There was just a report that winter would probably be spent safely this year the other day. Naum indignantly nodded.

“They probably knew it and thus give this condition.”

Even pirates would not appear in winter. This was because there were hardly merchant ships which would become spoils of war<ref> I understand this as such: in winter, merchant ships hardly traveled, thus pirates also hardly had prey to attack </ref>.

Elizavetta spontaneously stood up and slammed her palm on the office desk before her. Valitsaif which was hung on her waist was tinged with a slightly white light as if responding to its master’s anger. While nervously staring at it with a sidelong glance, Naum said as to cheer her up.

“Bandits will definitely appear in the early spring. It is the person’s way of the world after all.”

“So, must Urz keep working as stable boy until then?”

“If we think about his identity, it is necessary to let him work as stable boy for two or three years. And it would be shrunk to less than half a year.”

Elizavetta indignantly reseated herself on her chair. She thought that it couldn’t be helped. It was also not as if she did not know about the civil officials’ opposition. The compromise was probably around there.

Suddenly, Elizavetta thought of a certain thing. She thought that coming from her, it was a very good and floated a smile, but Naum who saw it bedaubed color of anxiety on his whole face, and timidly asked as if probing into the mood of a wild beast.

“…Is there something?”

“If I remember correctly, Urz had no personal belongings.”

Naum nodded. It was soon the day when salary would be paid, but Urz did not have even one piece of copper coin until then. In the report of the stableman head, the person himself did seemed to feel that much inconvenienced about it though.

“Give a bow and arrows to Urz. I won’t hear complaints this time.”

Though Naum inwardly thought that it somewhat became like a child’s quarrel, of course even if it showed on his face, he did not put it into words, and respectfully bowed.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

A silver bracelet, on which a hunter was carved, decorated a corner of the office desk of the Imperial Palace of LeitMeritz.

It was the souvenir that Tigre bought in the Asvarre Kingdom for Ellen. When this was given to her by Sophie, Ellen was honestly greatly perplexed about how she should treat it.

Though she also thought about putting it on every day, she reconsidered because she would look like a widow wearing a mourning badge. On the other hand, she also felt awkward to close it within a shelf of her private room.

After being troubled, she ended up putting it here. When she suddenly moved her gaze to the side the state affairs, she remembered Tigre’s face.

By the way, Lim who received a {{furigana|porcelain doll|Sera Doll}} of bear as souvenir displayed it in her private room.

Dozens of days had passed since Tigre went missing. The trees in the courtyard let their leaves fall and winter was also arriving in LeitMeritz.

“There is nothing at all recently.”

The afternoon of one day, Ellen said as she stopped her hands processing the documents. She leaned against the back of the chair and stretched herself with all her might. Lim who was helping with the state affairs at her side also went along with her lord. This was because the matter which must be dealt with within the day was almost over.

“It can’t be helped since it is winter. The construction of the mountain road also stopped after all.”

It was about the construction of the mountain road connecting LeitMeritz and Alsace. The ground was frozen and became hard during winter, and it was interrupted in order to stop the progress from other seasons. Even if one was to force, it would be ineffective, and moreover, because it involved wood materials, the increase of burden was intense.

“It seems that the 100,000 of Muozinel also ran back without even doing one battle. Ludmira said that they ran away in fear of her military power, but perhaps ,the army of Muozinel were in fear with looks of disbelief on their faces that it was her(Ludmila) people.

“Avoid quarrel as much as possible. I remember you said so.”

Lim reproved her in a light tone. Ellen shut her mouth with an awkward face. It was the day when she came back from Legnica. Lim talked about the fact that Ellen tended for Sasha’s death and the last conversation she exchanged with her.

“I will be careful.”

Saying so curtly, Ellen suddenly shifted her attention to Lim as if she remembered something.

“Speaking of which, Eugene-dono came here when I wasn’t there, right?”

Lim seemed to remember now she mentioned it. She wonderingly tilted her head to the side. Afterwards, Eugene did not visit LeitMeritz.

“Since he went to the Capital, I thought that he will also drop here on his way back.”

“Maybe he is still staying to the Capital.”

“No way” Ellen laughed and shook her head.

“Eugene-dono does not seem to dislike the Capital, but he also seemed to be careful as much as possible not to stay too long. He had probably returned to Pardu in a great hurry. It is already winter after all.”

Ellen suddenly shifted her attention to the window. The sky was white and the sun was feeble.

“Teita said that she was troubled that the laundry was hard to dry, so I already taught her how to dry them in the room. It is her first winter in Zchted after all.”

“It is already one year, eh.”

Lim, similarly to Ellen, turned her blue eyes towards the outside of the window. It was the early spring which put an end to the traces of winter everywhere that Tigre, as a guest General, and Teita, as his maid, came in this Imperial Palace.

Silence fell in the room. As they thought about the size of what they lost, the leisure to enjoy the change of season disappeared. Neither of them returned to the state affairs.

''---Winter just ends.''

While putting the documents in order, Ellen thought such a thing in a corner of her mind.

Just this year, she lost her best friend and an important man. At the very least, she wanted to spend her daily life peacefully until spring.

But, such a wish of Ellen was quickly dispelled.

Early morning of the next day, a messenger from the Capital showed up. As he seemed to have ridden the horse desperately to come here, though the piercing wind of winter was blowing, he was sweaty all over his face.

“Since recently, every last one of the messengers from the Capital don’t say anything good, I don’t want to meet him.”

Ellen, who was told by Lim about the messenger’s visit, said so without even hiding a tiresome expression. Of course, she knew that such a thing was not suitable.

“If it’s urgent, I don’t mind seeing even dressed like this. Please tell Teita to prepare sake and hot water.”

As she said so, Ellen headed to the drawing room with her blue military clothes as is.

The messenger from the Capital hurriedly asked Ellen after greetings.

“Vanadis-dono. Do you know Earl Pardu Eugene Shevarin-dono?”

Ellen nodded. The messenger asked once more.

“Then, what about Duke Bydgauche Ilda Kurtis-dono?”

“The name at least.”

Ellen answered so while wondering about the question of the other party. He was a famous man on the northern part of Zchted. Excellent in military arts, he was also good at commanding the soldiers. The messenger said while fixing his breathing.

“It is said that that Duke Bydgauche has moved his soldiers. In order to kill Earl Pardu.”

Ellen opened her eyes wide. She unintentionally leaned forward. Honestly, she couldn’t care less about Duke Bydgauche, but if a danger was approaching Eugene who had taught her the etiquette, then it was another story.

“What do you mean?”

“I will explain only what I know…”

Though both Eugene and Ilda had stayed in the Capital until about ten days ago, it was said that Eugene gave a present to Ilda at a certain time.

“The present was apparently a strong drink. Duke Bydgauche is someone who likes strong drink. It was said that he gladly drink it with his attendant.”

On that occasion, his attendant offered to taste for poison just to be sure, and Ilda, while smiling wryly, let that attendant drink first.

However, the attendant could only drink about half of a cup. He dropped the silver cup with the remaining contents, fell down to the floor and died as he went into convulsions. There was poison.

“Impossible…”

Ellen muttered so unconsciously. The Eugene Shevarin, who she knew, was not the kind of man who would think of poisoning someone even if he awfully hated him no matter what the reason.

To Ellen who became speechless, the messenger continued.

“Naturally, Duke Bydgauche flew into rage. According to those who saw the Duke, it was in a terrifying state to the extent that one was horrified to make eye contacts with him. The Duke left the Capital on that day and returned to Bydgauche. And then, he appealed for revenge and began to gather soldiers…”

“Isn’t it some kind of mistakes? If it is Earl Pardu, I know him well.”

“Vanadis-dono.” Interrupting Ellen’s words, the messenger said.

“It is no longer at the level of asking whether it is a mistake. ‘I want you to protect Earl Pardu’. His Majesty the King said. And he added ‘please’.”

Ellen narrowed her eyes and looked back at the messenger.

“Does it mean that he don’t care even if I have to cut Duke Bydgauche?”

Saying so, Ellen stood up. She looked down at the messenger and continued.

“Messenger. Depending on your answer, I will pretend that I didn’t hear the talk just now and I intend to wield my sword only to protect a benefactor.”

While floating sweat on his face, the messenger greatly panted.

Ellen’s eyes of ruby fixedly stared at the messenger.

“Your answer?”

“He said that if possible, it would be preferable to capture him alive.”

“Definitely as the words literally say?”

She asked to confirm. The messenger nodded as if he succumbed to the drive. On the other hand, Ellen floated a smile filled with fighting spirit.

It was a feeling she had not tasted for a long time. While walking towards the door, Ellen called the messenger with an unusually cheerful voice.

“Time is precious! I will hear the further details while walking!”

Then, after 2 koku, Ellen finished the formation of 1,000 soldiers.

In the limited time of two koku, this number was the limit due to the problem of equipment, food and fuel. As for the breakdown, there were 200 cavalrymen. Which meant that there were 800 infantrymen. The adjutant was not Lim, but the knight with bald head Rurick.

She had Lim remained in the Imperial Palace, and she entrusted two tasks to her. One was the organization of the reinforcements. This was because depending on the forces led by Lord Bydgauche, Ellen would devote herself in buying time.

The other was to dispatch someone in Pardu, and hear about the details from Eugene.

If possible, Ellen wanted to first go herself in Pardu, but as far as she heard the story of the messenger, it seemed that Ilda was going south at a considerable speed.

I did not want to make the ground of Pardu into the battlefield. In that case, she could do nothing but hold back Ilda in the north, so there was no composure to stop by in Pardu.

“First of all, to the east. Send reconnaissance over again, also ask the towns and cities in the vicinity and locate Duke Bydgauche’s army. I don’t know how much military power he has, but if they see us, they will probably stop their march for the time being.”

When the sun of that day set halfway in the western sky, Eleonora Viltaria and the one thousand soldiers whom she led left the Imperial Palace. The air was already cold and the humans firmly matched the neck (collar) of a thick overcoat put on their armor.

<center><big>◎</big></center>

King Victor did not ask only Ellen for the duty to stop this clash.

Around the same time, a messenger from the Capital had also visited the Imperial Palace of Lebus.

“…Duke Bydgauche (did that)?”

Elizavetta, who heard the circumstances, blurred suspicion and doubt in her pupils of different colors.

As far as she heard the story, it was no wonder that Ilda got angry. After all, Earl Pardu completely intended to kill Ilda. And, one of his attendants died. Instead of Ilda.

“So, do you tell me to stop His Excellency the Duke? Not to cooperate with His Excellency and kill the unscrupulous unjust Earl Pardu.”

Facing the messenger of the Capital in the drawing room, Elizavetta floated a provocative smile. The messenger who had a round face and body like a snowman made by a child, while wiping cold sweat, but still kept his calm and answered.

“His Majesty Victor does not wish for the country’s powerful nobles to lead the soldiers, shed blood, and devastate the country. Should you not first talk in His Majesty’s presence once?”

“He tried to kill. He was about to being killed. Is there anything to say other than that? Honestly speaking, I have no confidence to stop him. Have you heard about Duke Bydgauche’s fame?”

“Precisely for this reason, the task has been given not to anybody, but Vanadis-dono. Another messenger has also been sent to ask Vanadis-dono of LeitMeritz, but I have not yet received a good answer…”

''---Eleonora?''

It was not certain whether or not the messenger intended it, but these lines strongly stimulated one point in Elizavetta’s heart. Even so, she did not immediately agree; after making him promise to let the Kingdom bear the reward, food and fuel by letter, Elizavetta finally accepted.

“I also have my hands tied here, but I am in His Excellency the Duke’s debt. I cannot become a robber who betrayed a royal order.”

As she saw off the messenger who hurriedly left the Imperial Palace, Elizavetta called her aides. She talked about what was told a moment ago.

“We go to the front. How many soldiers can we prepare by two koku?”

“I would say about 1000 soldiers” one of the aides answered.

Elizavetta nodded and ordered the organization. Because they had served from the time of the previous Vanadis, they will do it well even if they were just given instructions. And then she hailed Naum and told him to call Urz.

“Do you take Urz along?”

To Naum who opened his eyes wide, Elizavetta nodded as if it was a matter of course.

“You remember the calm attitude of Urz at the time when we chased the pirates, right? He should not be confused.”

“I am not that much worried about that, but…”

Elizavetta looked puzzled at Naum who frowned.

“If you have something to say, say it clearly. I highly evaluate that part of you, too.”

As the Vanadis of {{furigana|Rainbow Eyes|Laziris}} urged him, Naum opened his mouth while hesitating.

“About the matter of this time, it is not sure that we will definitely fight, it is something which will be solved if we can persuade Duke Bydgauche. I understand Vanadis-sama’s feelings, but is it not a little hasty? Being seen that you are favoring, would be bad for Both Urz and Vanadis-sama…”

“Precisely for this reason, it is necessary to show results as soon as possible.”

In the tone which believed her rightness, Elizavetta answered.

“Depending on the situation, we may also have to fight against Earl Pardu’s army, leaving the north aside, they may also be bandits from the center to the south. After seeing Urz’s bow skill, nobody should think that I favor him (I am partial).”

“…If you say up to there.”

Naum respectfully bowed.

And, after two koku, Elizavetta left the Imperial Palace with 1000 soldiers. Near her carrying a bow on the shoulder and hanging a quiver of arrows on the waist was Urz’s figure.

The youth was staring at Elizavetta’s back with a somewhat troubled face.

Although it was naturally grateful towards her who took over him while she did not even know his identity, Urz was harboring the feeling that he was picked up by an extraordinary person<ref> extraordinary here in the sense that she was unpredictable </ref>

''---Her first subordinate, huh…''

He remembered the words of the knight called Naum who taught him various things. He said that, of course, Elizavetta set her eyes on Urz because she highly evaluated his bow skills, but it was only that; it was also because he was the first subordinate that she chose by herself.

Suddenly, the figure of an old man with a small stature vaguely floated in Urz’s mind. He felt like he was said by that old man “don’t you remember of having done something similar?” Strangely, Urz was able to easily accept that indication. The ill feeling<ref> feeling of antagonism </ref> towards Elizavetta also faded.

Though a troubled person, he was in her debt. It did not mean that he dislike her.

Urz decided to follow her and do his best for now.

The LeitMeritz forces led by Ellen were carefully advancing to the north while repeating reconnaissance as planned. Three days had passed since they left the Imperial Palace. They went along the highway, and partly because they could buy food and fuel in cities and towns, there was no problem with the march at present.

The sky was white, the sun was hidden by the clouds and the wind was cold. After leaving the Imperial Palace, such weather had continued all long.

“It may finally snow around today.”

Rurick who was by Ellen’s side said so. Ellen responded without even smiling.

“It would be troublesome if it get colder. I want to clear it up before it snows.”

That Ellen was making a sullen face was not only because she hated snow as a commander, there was also another reason.

Last night, the soldier who heard the story from Eugene galloped the horse and came up to Ellen. Although they advanced without deviating from the highway and she precisely showed their location, Ellen did not think that he would come this much early, and she gladly met the soldier.

But, what she heard from that soldier was not something pleasant.

“According to what Earl Pardu says, he has certainly bought a strong drink in order to deepen his friendship with Duke Bydgauche and sent an attendant to give it to the Duke’s mansion, but even he does not know why this happened.”

“…Is it the truth so far?”

“I keep the letter addressed to Vanadis-sama by His Excellency.”

The soldier handed the leather package which he was holding in his hand to Rurick who was at Ellen’s side. Rurick who received it removed the leather package and handed over the letter inside to Ellen.

The silver-haired Vanadis broke the seal and quickly took a look at the contents, but the sentences of the content that was almost the same as what the soldier reported was written with Eugene’s handwriting.

While being a letter addressed to Ellen, she felt Eugene’s nature<ref> which means, it was the proof that the letter is from Eugene (that it was a faked letter) </ref> around beginning from one sentence mourning over the death of Ilda’s attendant, but from Ilda’s perspective, it was very obviously that he flew into rag.

“I know that Eugene-dono isn’t the kind of man to do something like that. Leave to us the territory of Pardu and the people living there.”

Ellen also wrote such a letter, handed it to the soldier and made him go to Pardu, but the situation was clearly against Eugene. She was irritated because of that.

In addition, there was one more thing; there was an element which put Ellen in a bad mood.

“––What is hidden behind this?”

It was about one thing that Ellen wanted to know in the letter from Eugene; it was not written why he suddenly intended to have friendly relations with Ilda.

Eugene and Ilda were brothers-in-law. Thinking about it, it was not strange to try to have interactions. But, why did it come now?

“Besides, according to what Lim said, Eugene-dono was summoned by King Victor and should have gone to the Capital.”

Ellen thought about it all the night, but like that without her finding a clue in the end, the day dawned and they resumed their march as they were searching for Duke Bydgauche’s troops. But, somehow her mind was distracted and she was not able to concentrate.

It was about the time when the sun, hidden by white clouds slightly covering the sky, was about to reach the zenith that one of the cavalry squads, which were sent for reconnaissance, returned with an unexpected report.

“We have discovered a group which is fluttering the banner of Lebus.”

Ellen was stunned. She knew that Elizavetta was going south from Lebus with also 1000 soldiers. So, it was not strange in itself that they met them.

''---Then, where is Duke Bydgauche’s army?''

As Ellen stopped the march and ordered the soldiers to rest, she asked Rurick to prepare a map.

Seemingly, Duke Bydgauche’s army was not going south straight somehow.

“I wonder if they made a detour.”

Ellen asked for Rurick’s opinion. But, Rurick did not agree.

“Maybe, they are unexpectedly lying hidden near here.”

“Why do you think so?”

“As far as I hear the story, it seemed that the man called Duke Bydgauche is not that much familiar the geography of the south of the Capital. Make a detour would take much more time, right? Would they not somehow try to let us and the Lebus army go past?”

“I see.”

Ellen nodded as she was impressed. Though it was not a man who would think like this about the enemy movement before, he seemed to have unwittingly grown.

“What do we do?”

As Ellen snorted at Rurick’s question, she flipped of point of the map with her fingertip.

“I’m reluctant, but we will join with the party of Lebus. They might have grasped the enemy movement.”

Afterwards, as Ellen and Elizavetta mutually advanced their soldiers, they agreed to join before the day went down. The place was a small meadow called Radom, and there was an intermediate distance from each other’s position.

When she decided to head to Radom, Ellen released the cavalrymen as a scouting party. Just to be sure, she made one party head to Pardu. Moreover, she resumed the march leading only the infantry.

When they entered in less than one koku, the silhouette of the Lebus army and its banner could already be seen. Under the white sky, a golden band, which described an arc reminiscent of her Valitsaif, was shining in the purple flag. At the vanguard, there was the figure of Elizavetta straddling on horse.

Ellen stopped her troops, and she approached Elizavetta accompanied only by Rurick. Elizavetta likewise headed towards her along with a youth who seemed to be an attendant.

Cold wind blew and something flickered within the field of vision. It was the snow. It was snow which seemed to melt in the atmosphere before touching the ground, but it certainly fell from the sky.

When each side approached until a distance of about dozens of step, Ellen noticed.

“…Tigre?”

Seeing the youth on horseback following near Elizavetta, Ellen opened her eyes wide.

Though he was wearing a padded undershirt in fur of the Lebus style, the darkish red hair, black eyes, features which mixed calm and gallantry, the medium stature and the figure which carried a bow on his shoulder and hung a quiver on the waist was unmistakably that of Tigrevurmud Vorn who she knew.

Rurick who heard Ellen’s murmur and doubted it also turned his gaze there, and glared in surprise. Words did not seem to come out right away.

“Tigre!”

While being moved to tears and shouting the youth’s name, Ellen rushed her horse. However, she immediately harbored suspicion. Even though their eyes met, Tigre only stared back at himself with a wondering face. Then, Ellen finally arrived at a basic question.

Why was Tigre riding a horse next to Elizavetta? Like a servant.

“What’s the matter? Suddenly shouting.”

In the place where they approached until a distance of about ten steps, Elizavetta said with an amazed face. But, Ellen paid no heed to it.

“Elizavetta. I would like to hear the man’s name.”

Without even greeting her, she frankly demanded. Elizavetta frowned.

“He is Urz. My subordinate.”

The youth called Urz bowed to Ellen with an expression like that one which met someone for the first time.

Ellen held her breath. Her shoulders shook; she was burst into tears at any time, but endured it desperately. As she made her voice calm as much as possible, she said.

“Where did you hire him?”

“…Why are you curious about such a thing?”

Elizavetta’s expression and tone was tinged with wariness. Ellen who glared at her answered.

“From interest. I don’t mind even if you don’t tell me.”

“…I don’t see the need to answer.”

There was a pause until the refusal. It was obvious that she was apparently hiding something.

“More importantly, let’s begin the war council quickly.”

Elizavetta said so, but Ellen ignored it and turned her gaze to the youth.

“Tigre! Tigrevurmud Vorn!”

Urz was staring at Ellen with a blank face. Ellen still kept appealing to him.

“What‘s wrong? We did not meet each other for just about 100 days, and you have forgotten about me? Did you forget Eleonora Viltaria? I, who allowed you to call me Ellen!”

“…Ellen.”

A change occurred on Urz’s expression. The youth removed his gaze from Ellen as if pondering on something.

“Ellen. Ellen…? No… Where have I…”

“Stop it!”

Elizavetta shouted, and advanced her horse so as to break in between Urz and Ellen and the others.

“Urz has lost his memory! Do not confuse him!”

“Hou, lost his memory, you say?”

Sneer floated in Ellen’s lips.

“Then, should you help him regain his memory?”

“It’s up to me to decide. I want you to stop throwing strange words and confusing Urz.”

“What do you mean by strange words? I have only said my name and Tigre’s name.”

At Ellen’s words, Elizavetta flinched. Her hand stretched to the black whip to her waist.

Ellen likewise put her hand on the long sword to her waist. The wind arose from the long sword and gently brushed her silver hair.

The {{furigana|Wind Princess of the Silver Flash|Silvfrau}} lightly chuckled.

“Even Arifal said it. That person isn’t Urz. It’s Tigre.”

“…Stop your false accusation. Tigrevurmud Vorn fell into the sea and should have died. I have heard that even though Sophia Obertas desperately searched, even his body was not found.”

Elizavetta glared at Ellen with her eyes of different colors, and pattered. However, Ellen, not even showing a slight sign of hesitation, eluded it with a composed attitude.

“I was told so, too. I believed that. I will ask once again, Elizavetta. That man you are calling Urz, where did you find him?”

“It doesn’t matter where I found him!”

Elizavetta flew into rage. She cried like a child and vigorously shook her head.

“Urz is my subordinate. I don’t know someone called Tigrevurmud Vorn!”

“I don‘t know someone called Urz, too. No, speaking of which, I remembered. Urz was the name of Tigre’s father.”

Elizavetta’s face turned pale. At this time, the red-haired Vanadis understood the situation almost exactly. What Ellen was saying was probably correct.

Urz was definitely Tigrevurmud Vorn. There was no way that two persons with bow skill to that extent would exist.

“Lord Tigrevurmud!”

Rurick who finally came to his senses advanced his horse and raised a sad cry.

“If you are really Tigrevurmud Vorn, then we would like you to respond to the voice of our lord! There’s no helping it even if you have forgotten about me. However, they are a lot of people around you whom there is no way you would ever forget!”

To Rurick’s angry look, Urz just merely opened his eyes wide in wonder. Rurick spoke further vehemently.

“Teita-dono was always at your side! Don’t tell me you also forget the name of Batran-dono who died! Earl Rodant!? Viscount Augres and his hateful son!? It was us who saved Princess Regin from Muozinel, right?”

[[File:Madan no Ou to Vanadis V8 p1082.png|thumb]]

Not giving even one name of a person from Zchted, Rurick gave only the names of the people from Brune.

“Enough, already!”

With her pupils of different colors, Elizavetta stared at Rurick. The bald knight was being overawed by her terrifying gaze, but he put power into his belly looked straight again. As he painfully exhaled, he opened his mouth in order to call him (Tigre) again.

But, Ellen stretched out her hand before him and stopped him.

“Step back. You did enough.”

“It would be meaningless even if you said any more than this”, Ellen judged. There were also Eugene and Ilda. It was necessary to end it quickly.

She unsheathed the long sword and thrust the point at Elizavetta. Feeling her preternatural fighting spirit with her skin, Elizavetta likewise put on a serious look, and tightly grasped her black whip.

“I will have you return Tigre, Elizavetta.”

“Don’t make me say it many times. It’s not Tigre. It’s my Urz.”

The wind swirled and white sparks scattered. The silver-haired Vanadis, in order to take back her important thing, and the red-haired Vanadis, in order to protect her important thing to the end were going to cross weapons.

Under a white sky tinged with loneliness, snow and wind began to increase their strength.

<noinclude>

==References==
<references/>

{{SimpleNav}}
</noinclude>

Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut

2014-03-30T03:36:50Z

Gamerdude13: /* Format Standards */

'''Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut''' (最弱無敗の神装機竜《バハムート》), also known as '''Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle''', is a light novel series written by ''Akatsuki Senri'' and illustrated by ''Kasuga Ayumu''.

==Story Synopsis==

''Synopsis (Taken from Volume 1)''

Lux, who was a prince from the Empire that was destroyed five years ago due to the revolt, met with the princess of the new Kingdom, Lizsharte, by accidentally breaking into the bathroom of the girl’s dormitory.

“……How long are you planning to stare at my body, you fooooool!”

The ancient weapons found from the ruins, the Drag-Ride. Lux who was called the strongest Drag-Knight in the past was now known as the “Weakest Undefeated”, a Drag-Knight who doesn’t attack at all. After the duel that started by the challenge from Lizsharte, Lux ended up entering the girls’ school that raised Drag-Knights……!

Lux’s story where he is surrounded by the noble girls from the academy is about to unfold.

The “ultimate” academy fantasy battle where the right and the might cross passes now begins!
(''Story Synopsis taken from Volume 1 cover.'')

==Series Information==
*Genre: Mecha + Fantasy + Harem + School Life
*Original Title: Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut
*Author: Akatsuki Senri
*Illustrator: Kasuga Ayumu
*Series Status: Ongoing

==Translation==

===[[Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Registration Page|Registration Page]]===
'''Translators should ask the supervisor on the chapters they want to work on.'''

===Format Standards===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

===Feedback===

==Updates==
*March 30, 2013 - Teaser created (Prologue + Episode 1(Part 1))

==Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut series by Akatsuki Senri==

===Volume 1===
:*[[Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
:*[[Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
:*[[Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 1 Episode 1|Episode 1]](Incomplete)
:*Episode 2
:*Episode 3
:*Episode 4
:*Episode 5
:*Episode 6
:*Episode 7
:*Afterword

==Project Staff==

:*Project Administrator:
:*Project Supervisor:

==Series Overview==

*Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut 1 (August 12, 2013)
*Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut 2 (November 15, 2013)
*Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut 3 (March 17, 2014)

[[Category:Teaser (English)]]

Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 1 Prologue

2014-03-30T03:34:04Z

Gamerdude13:

==Prologue: The Black Hero==

The girl looked up to the sky.

As if she was being absorbed by the deep dark sky, the girl was looking up as if she was enchanted by it.

However, the lower region of the sky was red.

The red flames that was slowly wavering within the whole surface.

The powerful country that controlled one fifth of the world. The castle of Acadia Empire was burning in flames.

A castle made from thick rock build up high as if it cut itself from the outside world.

Being surrounded by it where the sparks fell down to courtyard, the girl simply looked up the sky.

There were Dragons dancing within the sky.

The battle of the Drag-Knights with their life on the line where they wore dark grey ancient weapon over their body.

Hundreds of Dragons danced within the sky that was lit by the flames as they made their howls, had their wings torn off, and fell.

“Aren’t you going to run away, brat?”

The girl turned around due to hearing a voice from behind her.

There was a youth standing there.

A handsome face with silver hair and ash coloured eyes.

That man who wore the cape with a refined design imprinted on it acts in a manly manner like that of a noble, but he looked at the girl with his sparkling eyes that made you think of a hungry beast.

However, the girl cladded in black dress who had no emotion in her eyes didn’t get scared and instead gazed the youth with her eyes.

“……Were you the one that killed them? The people of this castle—”

“I did. …….If I say that, will you avenge them? Fine then, bring it.”

Instead of trembling at the question thrown at him, he drew his sword out with joy.

It was a beautiful blade that had multiple silver lines on its surface.

A divine weapon that was the key to activate the Drag-Ride and control them—the sword device.

“……If you did, then kill me right here as well.”

“What……?”

The youth twitched his eyebrows at what the girl muttered.

“If the Empire is going to fall, then I don’t have any other place left where I belong to—.”

“…………”

The youth made an uncanny look, and stared at the girl for a while.

“……Kuhahahaha! Oh I see! So you were that kind of girl! One of those kinds of people! This is a masterpiece! Hahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

He suddenly put his hand on his forehead and laughed as if he broke.

Despite that, the girl didn’t show any response.

“This is boring…… I’m not going to kill you, idiot. What will I benefit from by killing someone amusing like you?”

As the man said that, he took off the other sword that was hanging on his hip along with its sheath and threw at towards the girl.

On the sheath that sunk down on the grasses while it made a heavy sound, it had beautiful ornaments carved into it.

“I’ll give that to you. The “power” that will change fate—that sword device that is. So flee while taking that with you. This castle will go down very soon, lady.”

The man said that while putting on a smile that didn’t carry any craziness he had till just now.

“…………”

The girl picked up the sword silently.

She embraced the sword which was too big for a young small body like hers along with the sheath.

After the youth smiled fearlessly seeing that, he turned around and walked into the castle.

“Wait.”

“What’s wrong?”

The silver haired youth stopped due to the girl’s voice, and he turned around reluctantly.

“What is that……?”

The girl pointed at the sky.

What was there was a devil that was destroying the Empire that was known as the absolute undefeated myth.

It flew in many directions at the sky where there was sparks. A single grey coloured Dragon that was causing havoc by destroying Drag-Rides that belonged to the Empire one after another.

It was a giant jet-black Drag-Ride that had the same colour as the sky.

“Kukuku. ……No idea. Except, for the majority of the people in this town, you can call it the great hero that took down the horrible Empire.”

“A hero……?”

The man disappeared during the time the girl looked up once again.

She didn’t get any answers.

That’s why, the girl wished to live on until she find the answer.

Even the hot wind that came from inside the castle got violent and caused the sparks that were falling down on the courtyard to make a swirl.

“…………”

The girl went inside the water well while embracing the sword that was given to her by the youth.

When she went down the well using the hanging rope, there was a blocked hole near the water surface.

She used the key she was hiding inside her pocket. The girl stopped right before entering the passage.

She looked up very high to the night sky which was a battlefield as if she was being absorbed by it.

“Father…… I—”

The girl muttered as if she was dead.

Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Registration Page

2014-03-30T03:25:50Z

Gamerdude13:

Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Registration Page

2014-03-30T03:25:33Z

Gamerdude13: /* Volume 1 */

==''Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut'' series ==

To re-iterate the registration procedure:

*You are required to register which chapters you wish to work on. One portion of text per translator, please.

*Registration is on a "First Come, First Served" basis. Please register your intended chapters on the project's registration page.

*Maximum number of translators per volume is two, unless the volume is a collection of smaller stories. Another way to interpret this is no more than two translators should be working on the same "story arc".

*Translators may only register for portions of one volume at a time within each project. This is to prevent "biting off more than you can chew".

*The Registration page is not a binding contract, and translators are encouraged to negotiate between themselves which portions to register for.

*Anonymous Translated Contributions are required to inform [[User:Thelastguardian|thelastguardian]] and the designated Project Supervisor of the intend Chapters as shown on the corresponding Registration page before any major contribution.

*Portions that are not updated for a significant time may be taken over by another translator after getting permission from the Project Supervisor. The new translator is encouraged to start over to maintain consistency, but the old translation will not be deleted at least until the new translation is finished (and probably not for some time after that). More information is available [http://www.baka-tsuki.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1433 here].

==''Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut'' series ==

===Volume 1===
::* Prologue - [[User:Code-Zero|Code-Zero]] - '''Complete'''
::* Chapter 1 - [[User:Code-Zero|Code-Zero]]
::* Chapter 2 -
::* Chapter 3 -
::* Chapter 4 -
::* Chapter 5 -
::* Chapter 6 -
::* Chapter 7 -

Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Registration Page

2014-03-30T03:21:31Z

Gamerdude13: just helping out the page

==''Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut'' series ==

===Volume 1===
::* Prologue -
::* Chapter 1 -
::* Chapter 2 -
::* Chapter 3 -
::* Chapter 4 -
::* Chapter 5 -
::* Chapter 6 -
::* Chapter 7 -

Talk:Mokushiroku Arisu

2014-03-21T23:38:35Z

Gamerdude13:

'''Pending project'''

this light novel is very good...but can someone tell me why its still in pending project mode?
there is main page and registration page..there is also a hole volume translated..then the only think i can think is the lack of communication..plz do something about it...i would hate to see this deleted.

It most likely to become a apart of the light novel section but it takes time really... - Gamerdude13

Talk:Mokushiroku Arisu

2014-03-21T23:34:06Z

Gamerdude13:

'''Pending project'''

this light novel is very good...but can someone tell me why its still in pending project mode?
there is main page and registration page..there is also a hole volume translated..then the only think i can think is the lack of communication..plz do something about it...i would hate to see this deleted.

It will become a apart of the light novel section but it takes time really... - Gamerdude13

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 3

2014-01-20T07:42:26Z

Gamerdude13:

==Chapter 3: Police are a Means of Stopping War >> Liberation Battle in Oceania==

===Part 1===

“The military scandal shows no sign of ending. The council has made the rare decision to treat the plan to use an Object for a military assassination as attempted murder. The brigadier general thought to be the primary individual behind the plan has been called back from Oceania for…”

The princess sat on a metal staircase of a building near the Object maintenance area. She may have been bored because she was staring blankly at a 1seg TV program on her handheld device. The maintenance base zone was made up of over one hundred large vehicles and their tires measured over two meters in diameter. Stairs were needed simply to enter them.

In the dry desert, merely stepping into the shade felt much cooler. The princess had the front of her special suit open so the wind could reach her skin. As someone who spent long periods of time in an air-conditioned cockpit, her upper limit for heat appeared to be rather low.

A short distance away, the two idiots were using shovels to dig everywhere they could in the hot sand.

“Quenser, you idiot! You don’t remember where you buried them, do you!?”

“I marked it last night! I secretly stuck a stick into the ground.”

“When Myonri dug there, she found a ton of dead cicadas and almost passed out! Damn… What is going on? Where did we dig the hole we put the canned foods and packaged foods leftover from the victory party!? I thought we were going to be freed from those eraser-like rations for a while!!”

“Hurry, hurry! This maintenance base is mobile, remember? If the entire unit decides to move, we’ll lose all those cans! There was beef stew in there. If we lose that, it’ll traumatize me!!”

“What are those two doing?”

An old woman stuck her head out of the Object maintenance area and spoke to the princess.

The princess looked up from the screen and toward the old woman.

“It looks like a treasure hunt.”

“You aren’t going to join them?”

“I’m not in the mood for food. And I just finished building a cicada grave.”

“???”

The old maintenance woman did not quite understand, so she decided to ask them directly.

“Hey, slacking student.”

“Eeee!! One of the lecturers has locked onto us!”

“As long as she doesn’t tell that huge-breasted commander, we’re fine! Seduce her or something to bring her onto our side!! I’ll go dig over there!!”

“No fair! Don’t run off on your own!!”

“What are you doing out here?”

The old woman’s words seemed to nail Quenser to the ground.

She was asking what he was doing “out here” because he was not in the Object maintenance area.

He slowly and stiffly turned toward her.

“W-would two cans of lunchmeat be enough for us to come to an understanding? Or maybe peaches or pineapple!?”

“I’m not asking about that. Have you forgotten why you came out to the battlefield in the first place? I thought it was to spend as much time observing the Object as possible so you could learn as much as possible.”

“Are you seriously saying that?” Quenser sounded surprised as he continued digging around randomly. “They’re repainting the Object in there. They’re using tons of organic solvent in a closed space and I didn’t dodge bullets to end up high on paint thinner.”

“It is true painting an Object does not use any specialized technology. I admit that.”

“It’s the same as a normal warship. The Object’s onion armor is made from special metal plates that have high-heat resistant and reactive elements mixed in like a katana, but that also means the armor will rust when exposed to the elements. We can’t have the pride of our nation rusting, so they’re careful to use techniques of keeping it from rusting, right? They’re not mixing in ferrite to give it high-level stealth ability and they’re not using camouflage patterns based on psychology and research into human cognizance to hide it from the human brain. There’s nothing in it for a student like me.”

Those sorts of techniques had been used for the fighters and tanks of the previous age.

This had been due to the high risk of being shot down or destroyed. But that effort was unnecessary with the colossal Objects which could withstand a direct hit from a nuclear weapon.

Also, it would be exceedingly difficult to hide a 50+ meter armored weapon from radar or the naked eye.

“The technical issues are a factor, but the paint job has more to do with the desires of the higher ups in the military and government.”

“They don’t want their hero sneaking around?”

“When sending an obviously overpowered weapon into battle, they need a tricky argument to silence the pacifists. That’s why they like the symbolism of a hero that defeats an abominable enemy in a fair fight. The Objects have brought an end to the nuclear age by force, so they want to maintain the freshness of that impression for as long as possible. Letting it fade into history would be a waste.”

“I suppose they need a simple commercial to gain the massive military budget they need for them. That’s why they want the Objects to always be polished up bright like an exhibit at a motor show. They even have a lovely pilot Elite by its side to play the role of the companion girl. …But none of that is a job for the designer I want to be. Get a PR guy for that.”

Quenser shrugged.

“Let me touch the more…well…sensitive parts at the core. Like the JPlevelMHD reactor or the targeting sensor control system.”

“Don’t be silly. You aren’t touching those. Before you even think about it, you need to pass at least fifteen international exams.”

As the princess sat on the metal staircase and stared blankly up into the blue sky, she called out to Quenser.

“Qu-Quenser?”

“??? What is it?”

“Did something happen with that Information Alliance Elite? She said something I didn’t like about what she was going to do with you.”

“Um, that can apply to a lot of Elites. Which one are we talking about?”

“…There are a lot of them?”

The princess’s expression made it clear he had stirred up unnecessary trouble.

Quenser, however, did not understand what she had been trying to ask.

“Anyway, princess, I hope you haven’t forgotten about the karaoke!! During the battle with the Simple Is Best and the Hornet Storm, you had the nerve to say idols were worthless because anyone can sing!!”

“Uuh… I-I remember.”

“Good. These days, you can run a karaoke place anywhere using internet download services. There are even some here in Oceania. During our next day off, I demand to see if you have the skills to back up your bragging!!”

The old maintenance woman let out a quiet sigh.

This arrangement was actually almost exactly what the princess had expected to happen and wanted to happen, but she did not seem to know what to do now that things were going more smoothly than expected.

It was an example of a plan coming back to bite her.

The two youths compared their schedules to set up a date and Quenser suddenly spoke up once they had finished.

In that instant, he became a true idiotic designer.

“Oh, right. I need to ask you too, princess. The reactor may be too dangerous, but can I check out the targeting sensor control system or somewhere else that will help me study Object design?”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Do you not trust me at all?”

“It’s not an issue of your skill,” said the old woman in exasperation. “There are different types of people who work with Object design. There are those who build up virtual models based on theory, there are academic types that materialize and realize those models, there are inventor types who have a single idea and go beyond their primary field to gather everything they need to realize it, and there are craftsmen who use their experience and unexplainable instincts in their fingertips to produce results greater than precision manufacturing equipment. The targeting sensor control system you’re talking about is a black box that complexly combines all of those together. Not even the princess or I will touch it without reason.”

“So you entrust your life to something no one touches?”

“That is not what she meant,” said the princess. “It is maintained in sessions including more than fifty people. You can think of it like exchanging our opinions to find the right flavor for a cocktail we do not know the recipe to. Bringing in someone who doesn’t know the flavor would distort our opinions and raise the likelihood of the final drink not matching the perfect flavor.”

“An Object has over one hundred cannons, both big and small,” continued the old woman. “Each of those has multiple sensors and the entire Object has its primary radars and sensors. Coordinating all of those is beyond human ability. Most of it is handled by computers, but there are some situations where that doesn’t cut it. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

“Laser weapons?”

“That’s right. Those move at the speed of light, so they can’t be avoided after seeing them fired. What matters is predicting the attack by observing the minute movements of the enemy’s cannons and sensor lenses. You can’t leave that to a computer both when attacking and when defending.”

In a battle between Objects, one could not simply continue to evade. One had to attack and hit.

If an enemy would predict the attack before it was fired, one had to predict where they would evade to and fire there instead.

“Ultimately, the whole system only works when you combine the precise sensors, the high-spec computers, and the fearful fingertips of a human. It seems the Information Alliance is researching completely automated targeting algorithms, but they have a long way to go towards making it practical. Then again, they’re more skilled than anyone when it comes to using information, so who knows how much we can trust what our intelligence division has gathered on them.”

“I won’t lose to something like that.”

This seemed to have worked up an odd sense of competition in the princess because she pouted her lips and took a sip from her drink’s straw.

Quenser then heard an electronic tone from the small radio in his uniform.

When he pulled it out and brought it to his mouth, Froleytia’s voice spoke to him.

“Study time is over for the moment, Quenser. Head over to the briefing room with the others. A pre-mission briefing is about to begin.”

“What do we have to do now?”

“That’s what I will explain to you. But it’s a simple mission. I’m not asking you to make a charge at a cutting-edge Object or anything.”

“I beg you to never ask me to do that!! I haven’t been doing it because I want to!!”

“Toward the end of the incident with the Simple Is Best and the Hornet Storm, a large underground structure was discovered when the ground collapsed. That was from your report, Quenser.”

“W-well, yes.”

“Today, you will be investigating the abandoned facility. This is simple post-battle cleanup. I suppose the police would call it a crime scene inspection. I honestly doubt it has anything to do with the war, but we have to control everything in the vicinity of the battle. I will be the one writing the annoying report to the higher ups, so you all can help me out a little.”

“So no other military is involved this time? There aren’t going to be any firefights?”

“That’s right. Unless you’ve heard reports of the Capitalist Corporations or the Information Alliance living in holes.”

“Wait. Wait just a minute. Are you saying you want us to carefully check over this place, but nothing – nothing at all – is going to happen? We just have to drive across the desert as if having a picnic, snap a few photos of these strange ruins, and that’s it? You promise?”

“And surprisingly, you actually get paid. With the people’s tax money, no less.”

“Woo hoo!! Oh, god! I can’t wait!! Please fill my team with a ton of female soldiers! This is perfect for Operation North Wind and the Sun. Partway through, our tension is sure to drop and then they’ll strip down to their thin inner clothing!! Hooray! Hooray!!”

“Yes, yes. I get it. You will be in your usual filthy guy team with Heivia. Have fun in your sweaty world of little clothing.”

“Hah hah hah. If you really do that, I’m starting a coup.”

“Hah hah hah!! Do you really think I’m the type to joke about this?”

The transmission ended with a click.

Since Froleytia said it, there was no doubt that he would end up surrounded by men. However, Quenser was not about to give up. He still had hope.

“On a boring investigation, the investigation team, guard team, and transport team will all move as one big group. Even if my team looks like a boys’ school, there’s still a chance of cute young girls in the other teams!! I haven’t lost yet!!”

“Sigh. Are you sure it will turn out that well?” asked the old woman.

“I am!! After all, the end of February is getting towards the end of the fiscal year!! The top levels of the military need to use up their extra budget or the defense budget will be lowered next year. Sending out tons of unnecessary soldiers for a boring mission could easily happen now!!”

“Why are you only this good at calculations at times like this?”

That was of course because this topic was the most compatible with the pink brain cells of adolescence.

At any rate, Quenser raised his hands in an expression of joy.

“Fwa ha ha ha ha ha!! I won’t let our commander win this time! The amount of girls in skimpy, wet, and see-through clothes would surprise a soft drink commercial! Paradise awaits me!!”

===Part 2===

[[Image:HO_v07_260.png|thumb]]
“…Ah!?”

Quenser suddenly opened his eyes.

His recent memories were fuzzy. He could not see anything properly. The blue sky of the desert spreaded out before his eyes. He seemed to be lying on his back, but he could not feel the burning of the hot sand.

He felt an unpleasant cold sweat as if he had anemia.

He detected a burning smell mixed with a rusty metallic smell.

…A rusty metallic smell?

“Gah!? Gfh! D-dammit. I just remembered. Our helicopter crashed. Then what was that dream I just had…? Don’t tell me my life was flashing before my eyes! Cough cough!!”

The surface of the desert was not flat. It had large undulations similar to a stormy sea and some areas had height differences of several meters. He was lying in a position to use one of those sand dunes as a shield.

But what was he being shielded from?

The answer was obviously the attacks being fired their way.

Seemingly never-ending sounds of bursting gunfire made him think of a fireworks show gone wrong. Quenser’s group was not on the attack. They were unilaterally being fired upon. The storm of steel was so great they would have been torn to pieces in just a few seconds if not for the dune.

Heivia had his back pressed against the dune while sticking just his rifle’s sensors up over it.

“Are you finally awake, you bastard!? I was beginning to think I wasted an adrenaline cartridge!!”

“Seriously? You mean one of those thick needles you stab directly into the heart!? I was in that bad a state!?”

“I thought this would be best. If you were hitting on an angel, I apologize.”

“Oh, right! I saw my life flash before my eyes! It seemed so real!! Um…huh? I couldn’t quite remember what happened. I remembered seeing the princess, Froleytia, and the old maintenance woman.”

“Right, right. I already knew how little fidelity you had, but it’s good to know you’re the same as ever!”

As his blood flow returned to normal, the data in Quenser’s head gradually fell into the proper order.

(Oh, that’s right.)

He had been sent on a mission by Froleytia.

They were to investigate the underground structure he had come across during the battle with the Simple Is Best and Hornet Storm. Even if it was not a very important building, she had needed detailed information on anything in the combat zone for a report to the higher ups.

Quenser and the others had been loaded into the large transport helicopters and were sent to the area of desert in question.

Nothing but cream-colored sand had continued in every direction, so it had been a frightening sight to look down on. He had wanted to avoid getting lost here. Even a South American jungle would have more opportunities for survival techniques.

The only landmarks were the remains of the rusty pipelines that travelled here and there like blood vessels of the planet. But if one was stranded, it would probably be impossible to tell a rescue team where one was using them. After all, they would continue in a straight line for 100 or even 1000 kilometers.

“It doesn’t matter how intently you stare down there, you aren’t going to find an oasis or a girl in a micro bikini,” Heivia said. “More importantly, can you believe we’re travelling over a battlefield in a helicopter? Sure, we aren’t directly dealing with an Object, but one of them may suddenly decide to go on a hunt.”

But if they had been crammed into military trucks to travel along the rough desert under the hot sun, they would have been struck by the double-punch of heat stroke and motion sickness before even arriving at the site.

After the formation of large helicopters had travelled for a while, they had spotted the remains of the terminal facility where several old pipelines gathered. That facility had been used to gather water from deep underground rather than oil.

But then they had soon spotted a few trucks with canopies parked near the old facility.

Quenser had frowned.

“Are those scavengers trying to gather anything of value?”

“There can’t be any proper machinery left. And look at the canopies. That’s the Blue Cross. They’re the world’s largest medical humanitarian organization. They head to Antarctic and the jungle to find samples of deadly bacteria, they give money to groups researching nanotech medicine, and all sorts of other things. They’re probably providing food.”

“Nanotech? Oh, you mean the techniques taken from military science where it can be used as a new method for regulating Elite’s bodies? They place drops of medicine in a membrane like a small bubble, get that bubble past the filters to the brain or kidneys, and provide the medicine directly to the target. They use ultrasonic waves to break the outer shell at the desired point, right?”

“You get excited about anything that has even the slightest connection to Objects, don’t you? Can you stop breathing so heavily? It’s creepy.”

“Anyway, what’s the Blue Cross doing at these abandoned ruins?”

At that point, Quenser’s memories suddenly lost coherency.

As he laid on his back with a hand on his sweaty brow, he let out a groan.

“That’s right. Those bastards weren’t the Blue Cross at all. Someone painted up their trucks to trick us. They removed the canopies and there were missiles inside.”

“Are you the type that needs coffee and toast to wake up in the morning? If not, get moving!! We’re gonna be surrounded!!”

The burnt smell was coming from the remains of their crashed helicopter.

The whirl of bullets was not coming from just one direction. They were partially surrounded by a C-shape.

It was unclear who the enemy was or how many of them there were.

Their group had to be at least two or three sizes larger than Quenser and Heivia’s group. More than twenty people were lying behind the sand dune like Quenser. They all had their arms or legs bound with bandages to stop their bleeding, some had the removed stock of a carbine used to set a broken bone, and a lot of them were unconscious. The area had become a makeshift field hospital.

Quenser looked up at the blue sky that seemed to continue forever.

“Where are the other helicopters? Where’s our way out!? We’ll just be worn down bit by bit like this. We can’t fight in the desert without a means of mobility!”

“All of the functioning helicopters have temporarily withdrawn! We can’t exactly overcome their surface-to-air missiles with the power of friendship. If they hover around here to pick us up, they’ll be shot down! No help is coming until we silence those!!”

“They may be transport helicopters, but they have machineguns attached to the door, right? Firing down with those will make a huge difference!!”

“In this clean age, no one wants to start a Western-style quick draw using heavy weaponry. We won’t get anywhere wishing for something that isn’t coming. Focus on reality!!”

Nothing but sand as far as the eye could see lay in every direction.

There was no escape without some kind of vehicle. Even if they began to flee on foot, they would be quickly overtaken and riddled with holes. Falling back would not improve their situation and most of those injured in the crash were in no state to walk on their own.

The enemy was advancing.

Once the enemy surpassed the sand dune, they would only sink into a puddle of blood.

“Screw this. You’ve gotta be kidding me. I thought this was supposed to be an easy mission.”

As Quenser complained, he rolled over onto his stomach. He then climbed up the dune and stopped next to Heivia.

“How many are there?”

“Somewhere between 50 and 60. Only a samurai or ninja can defeat that many in a straight fight. It will be a different story if we have support from the helicopters, but we need to silence those armored vehicles to do that.”

“Who are they anyway?”

“I don’t know. But knowing that they’re bastards who don’t deserve to live is good enough for me,” spat out Heivia. “But their equipment is relatively new. It looks like they gathered downgraded weapons that the Capitalist Corporations and the Information Alliance sell to gather foreign currency. Their ability may be intentionally lowered, but they’re expensive. I doubt a gang or slum residents who are strapped for cash can get their hands on that stuff.”

The repeated sounds of gunfire caused Quenser to grimace.

“Are you saying those are trained soldiers? They’re firing around almost at random. If they were aiming each shot, we would have already been filled with bullets.”

“Listen, skinny boy. Have you never heard of sounding out your enemy? When you don’t know where they are, you fire all over the place and wait for them to react. …It’s all over once they find out where exactly we are. They have tons of machineguns and missiles on their trucks. Specifically, they have more than ten trucks. This shield of sand is meaningless. They may be surface-to-air, but a few of those missiles will blow the terrain to smithereens.”

Quenser let out a long, slow breath.

And then he asked another question.

“Then what exactly are we supposed to do?”

“Well done getting your mind in gear.”

Heivia pulled back the rifle sensors he had been peering over the dune and used the sand to write out the information he had risked his life to collect.

“They have their machinegun and surface-to-air missile equipped trucks set up to protect the terminal facility that pumps water up from underground. They’re between five and six hundred meters away. Their rifles and machineguns can reach us from there, but fifty or sixty soldiers armed with carbines and light machineguns are slowly approaching. Once they cross a certain line, we’ll be slaughtered. We need to do something before they can manage that.”

“We can’t win if we fight? Are there too many of them?”

“As I said, we could annihilate their infantry with our helicopter machineguns, but those helicopters can’t approach right now. We need to silence those surface-to-air missile containers sitting up on their trucks.”

“But…”

Quenser glanced over at Heivia.

He carried a shoulder-fired missile launcher over his back. That could be used to blow up the armored trucks, but there was one major problem.

“That’s right. I only have one shot and there are over ten of them. This isn’t going to work.”

“…”

Quenser remained silent for a moment.

He stared at the rough map his friend had drawn on the sand.

“Heivia, my memories aren’t perfect due to the shock, so I need to ask you something.”

“I’m not your fiancé from before your memory loss if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“It’s about when they attacked our helicopter with their missiles. I knew I could’t expect a large transport helicopter to evade, but we weren’t shot down without putting up any kind of fight, right?”

“What? Well, I remembered a siren blaring as it scattered chaff and flares to trick their radar. I thought we might have activated an infrared jammer as well, but you could see how well all that worked. We were shot down and the other helicopters were forced to withdraw.”

“In other words, we had countermeasures, but they were completely ineffective,” said Quenser while emphasizing each word. “They had some large radar equipment supporting their targeting. That’s how they saw through our deceptions and shot us down. But what if all of their anti-air weaponry were reliant on it? We could take out their ‘net in the sky’ by destroying just the one piece of equipment. Guns and missiles are essentially the same. Without a means of aiming them, they won’t cause any damage.”

“It does make sense,” groaned Heivia. “All of the trucks have oddly large antennae attached. It’s definitely possible they’re using accurate data from a command vehicle that specializes in gathering intelligence. But…”

“But?”

“Where is it?” Heivia stabbed his rifle’s stock into the center of his map on the sand. “You heard me, right? There are more than ten of their armored trucks and we only have one missile. If we don’t hit the command vehicle on the first shot, it’s all over. Once we lose our trump card, we have nothing left!! Is there any way to tell which one it is!?”

“That’s a good question.”

Quenser folded his arms lightly and traced his index finger over his mouth.

He looked like he was contemplating the dinner menu.

“Heivia, how many assault rifle and handgun bullets do you have left?”

“What?”

“If it isn’t enough, gather some more from those too injured to move. They won’t do them any good anyway.”

“Wait, wait! They may have been disguised as the Blue Cross, but their trucks probably still have handmade plate inside. You can’t fight armored trucks with normal bullets!!”

“I’m not trying to destroy the trucks. I have no interest in the bullets themselves.”

“???”

Quenser ignored Heivia’s confused look and gathered a few assault rifles and carbines.

He disassembled them without any tools and removed the barrel which resembled a long, narrow pipe.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Make some giant fireworks.”

Quenser bent and crushed one end of the long, narrow tubes, removed the rifle bullets from the magazines, and scattered them across the sand.

“A long time ago, they would actually use this kind of simple rocket weapon in Asia. They were meant to set fire to castles or ships. …You said the distance is five or six hundred meters? Cramming in this much intelligent military powder should reach even with the plastic explosive and fuse attached to the front.”

“Are you saying we can oppose all those armored trucks if we go to this extra trouble?” Heivia looked displeased. “Have you forgotten what matters most with weapons, Quenser? Targeting. Reaching them and hitting them are two very different things! A simple fireworks rocket made by stuffing powder into a tube and attaching it to a stick for stability isn’t going to hit!!”

“It doesn’t have to hit.” Quenser readily overturned Heivia’s assumption. “They think they’re perfectly safe over there, so if bombs start bursting too far away to have been thrown, they’ll definitely panic. They’ll try to evacuate the most important thing first. I don’t know how stupid they are, but they are smart enough to know they can’t afford to have their radar vehicle destroyed. While they’re busy secretly moving their most important card away, you just have to blow it up with your missile.”

Heivia was dumbfounded, but Quenser continued his cunning explanation.

“You mentioned sounding out your enemy, remember? Let’s show them how it’s really done.”

===Part 3===

As planned, the makeshift rockets were fired into the Oceanian sky.

Heivia fired his shoulder-fired missile into the command truck with the large-scale radar antenna attached and the Legitimacy Kingdom’s unilateral counterattack began.

Once the threat of anti-air weapons was removed, the large transport helicopters were able to return.

They had large caliber machineguns bolted directly to the floor near the door.

As the sound of those firing exploded overhead, Quenser covered his mouth with one hand.

“Why do people like to root for the underdog? Where did my hatred for them go?”

“I think you’re actually looking down on them with a sense of superiority. But don’t worry. You’re enjoying your life well enough.”

Quenser and Heivia laid face down on the slope of the sand dune while the sounds of destruction continued.

The handmade armored trucks had been relatively well modified, but they were filled with holes, their gasoline tanks and weaponry ignited, and they violently exploded. The intense destruction of the machineguns rained down evenly on the group of infantry who had tried to corner Quenser and the others. There were no screams. Instead, a dark red sauce was splattered across the giant frying pan of the desert.

Quenser entered a philosophic mood.

“What is peace?”

Heivia picked his nose with his little finger.

“It’s when we’re still alive.”

After about ten minutes, the sounds of gunfire completely stopped.

A few of the transport helicopters remained at the ready in the air while a few others slowly descended to collect the injured.

One soldier who stepped out of a helicopter shouted over the noise of the rotors.

“Thanks for your work!! We have permission to bring back all of your injured. Leave them with us and they can recover in a bed that reeks of disinfectant!!”

“Yeah, yeah. We get it! But take a look behind you before you say that. The helicopters aren’t at all ready to leave. We can’t leave until the investigation is done!!”

Quenser and Heivia watched as the investigation team and their guards started for the pump facility that connected to the giant underground structure.

The ceiling of the underground structure had collapsed during the previous battle, so it was open to the surface. However, no one would rappel down a ten meter cliff when a perfectly safe staircase was available.

Quenser used his uniform’s sleeve to wipe sweat from his brow and looked up at the roasting sun that felt like the end of the world.

“What do we do now? I don’t want to sit around here. We would dry up before they finished.”

“There’s a pipeline over there. It’s rusted and falling apart, but we can rest behind it. The humidity should be lower and it’ll block the sun.”

The pipeline was a tube with a diameter of over two meters, so it produced enough of a shadow to sit in. The two boys walked over and found most of the other soldiers already leaning up against the rusted metal pipe like a line of ants.

“This is awful.”

“Are you sure it’s cooler here? I feel like gathering together would concentrate the heat.”

Quenser pulled out the water bottle attached to his uniform and took a gulp. It had been warmed by the sun and his body temperature, so he spat it back out.

“Yuck! It feels like I’m drinking my own sweat!!”

“Use your head, student. You need to cool the water bottle with the icing spray used for machineguns. Medic!!”

Heivia’s joking shout let Quenser know the danger had truly passed.

“So what was that? This pump facility is in ruins and all the usable equipment was removed. Missiles cost 10,000 euros each. Why would they defend this place with their lives?”

“Look over here, Quenser.”

Heivia peered inside a broken portion of the pipeline. The pipe was over two meters wide, so it looked more like a metal tunnel.

In fact, it was one.

“There’s sand gathered at the bottom and there’s a thick line down the middle. It looks like a tire track. From the width, I’d say a motorcycle.”

“A tire track?”

With a confused look, Quenser peered inside the broken pipe.

And then it hit him.

“This abandoned pipeline network stretches across the entire desert. No water or oil is being sent through it, so it’s a safe empty space. You don’t mean…”

“When the military government ruled Oceania, secret funds, weapons, and drugs travelled across the country like ghosts were transporting them. They slipped right past the military checkpoints and satellite surveillance. It was said they did it by bribing or threatening the local soldiers, but this might be it.”

“A secret tunnel? So as easily as heading underground through a manhole, they could freely move across Oceania without being checked?”

It was not the pump facility or the giant underground structure that mattered.

Someone was trying to hide the large-scale smuggling network that used the pipelines.

“People armed with the latest military equipment were fighting to protect a smuggling network? That smells fishy to me. Is it an intelligence agency raising funds by selling drugs or something?”

“But who exactly were they?” Heivia looked annoyed as he glanced over at the corpses which had been almost completely destroyed. “Their equipment looks like a collection of Capitalist Corporations and Information Alliance stuff. And it’s the downgraded versions sold for foreign currency rather than the official military equipment. They announce they’re lowering the quality, but still keep the price high. I doubt a local gang or mafia would want to use them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure. Were they soldiers or were they people hired to help out? Well, either way they would mix in a few pros to take command.”

Suddenly, an infantryman guarding the exterior of the pump facility spoke to Quenser and Heivia.

“If you’re discussing conspiracy theories, you might want to check this out.”

“What?”

Heivia sounded puzzled as the man tossed him a small rectangular handheld device.

However, this was not the type issued to Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers. It also had dark red stains in places.

The soldier shrugged.

“I was scavenging. Those thugs out front were splattered everywhere, so I gathered whatever I thought I could sell.”

“Seriously? You really set foot in that poisonous swamp?”

“And in exchange, I found some interesting data. It looks less like official data and more like someone at the bottom gathered some data to figure out what he was involved in.”

“…”

Quenser turned on the device and it was not even locked with a password.

Some of the data files were filled with numbers about ten digits long. He could not read hexadecimal off the top of his head, so he could not tell anything from just that.

“Wait a second,” said Heivia as he peered in from the side. “The first four digits are all the same. I thought these looked familiar. They’re bank account numbers, aren’t they? I think these belong to a major Information Alliance one.”

“Why does a Legitimacy Kingdom noble know that?”

“Don’t be stupid. In this age of wars, you never know what levies will be imposed. Do you really think a greedy noble is going to keep all his money in a single account? We have tons of ways of spreading out our assets. My family has a group of specialist accountants working for us.”

Quenser tilted his head as he scrolled through the iron-smelling device.

There appeared to be over one hundred bank account numbers.

“So what is this list of bank accounts?”

“Probably a deposit list. In other words, these connect to the names of the people cooperating with the people running things from the shadows. Look, the numbers at the end of the account numbers are the same too. That probably refers to a branch in a tropical island tax haven. They’re probably using secret accounts to launder their money.”

“The people running things from the shadows? We still don’t know if this is really a conspiracy.”

“If we dig up the names and identities of this week’s MVPs here, we might find a connection. They disguised their trucks as the Blue Cross and loaded them with machineguns and missiles to hide the secret passageway through the pipeline. They’re definitely up to no good.”

The mischievous infantryman shrugged in utter exhaustion.

“These are secret accounts in the Information Alliance. They aren’t going to give us the information if we ask.”

“Quenser.”

“Do I look that smart to you? Do you think you can just throw any problem my way?”

Quenser looked irritated, but he begrudgingly agreed after the soldiers around him tossed some icing spray his way.

He sprayed it across his water bottle and spoke.

“Knowing the account numbers is a start. How about we leak the entire list onto the internet while making it look like they were hacked? With secret tax haven accounts, trust matters most. If information has been taken straight from the servers, the clients and managers will both panic.”

“Yes, but will that accomplish anything other than causing a commotion?”

“We can quickly open a fake website claiming to check whether your account number was stolen. If we add in some spyware to snatch the IP of anyone entering their number, we should be able to determine who entered what number. And the shadier the person, the sooner they’ll respond.”

In that instant, everyone resting in the shade of the pipeline stared silently at Quenser.

He squirmed under the pressure of the strange silence.

“Um, what is this? Is this any way to react after I give you what you want?”

“This settles it. Nothing good would come of letting him leave the military.”

They contacted the maintenance base zone’s intelligence division via radio, but they said it would take several days to create a proper fake website.

Heivia stuck out his tongue.

“Damn those desk workers. Do clocks move at a different speed over there? Are they using a vacation clock or something?”

“Either way, I’m jealous.”

“They aren’t on board with this. It’s a pain, but you heard them. Everyone, give any idea we can use to steal the credit from the intelligence department since they refuse to play along.”

Long story short, they ended up with the following ideas: “Different computer viruses are compressed and saved on a certain foreign server”, “I know a collection of templates for scam sites”, and “As long as you have the basic template for the site, you can use a cloud service to edit the details and create a false site in only a few minutes.”

“Why do all of you know about this kind of thing?”

“As a future engineer, I think you should gladly welcome useful nerds. Otherwise, your organization will end up as a dinosaur fossil.”

As they had announced, the bored helpers completed the false website in only a few minutes. Rather than building it from the ground up, they chose a template from a database containing thousands of templates for scam sites and added the necessary decorations. They did the same for the spyware.

“Where should we spread the address? Just on any major message board?”

“For the Legitimacy Kingdom, there’s Blue Blood which only nobles with bloodlines continuing back for 300 years can enter. For the Information Alliance, there’s Rank Literacy which can only be used by people who run sites with over half a million hits a day. There are sites for elitist people from the other two world powers as well.”

“Those are all closed SNSs. We can probably manage with Blue Blood, but you aren’t using my ID.”

“I don’t need to. Everyone uses different identities online. A refined noble will let off some steam by shouting insults on anonymous message boards like it’s a masquerade party. If we spread the information there, the tainted information will make its way into the closed SNSs. They’ll ruin their own attempts to seal it off.”

“It sounds like the insecticide used for roaches. It’s made to look like delicious food so they’ll take it back to their nest where it kills all of them.”

A male soldier had been curled up and fiddling with a handheld device, but he now made an OK sign with his hand.

The others peered curiously at the small screen.

“This virus site is a lot like creating a robot from an empty box and tape, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but it’s already gotten a few pieces of personal information.”

First, they had leaked the list online and let the emergency information spread. Once the clients grew uneasy, they were lured to the false site where they entered their account number. It was unclear when exactly the different waves of attack began.

“We have a few names and identities to go with numbers on our list. About ten so far. Let’s try to find a link between them.”

“Wait.” Heivia pointed at one of the names. “This is an international satellite TV executive. He claims to bring laughter and the truth to the blank regions and dictatorships where information is being controlled. Oceania’s mass media has begun to recover, but it’s still unstable. Satellite TV still has a lot of credibility and influence here.”

He pointed at another name.

“This is a blog king. He’s known as Oceania’s leading source of sarcasm.”

He pointed at another.

“This is an entertainer famous for volunteer work.”

And another.

“An executive for an international canned drink maker. They have ads during all sorts of shows.”

As each name was described, Quenser saw a common theme.

“Are they using the media to influence people’s impressions?”

“Their impressions of what?”

“No matter how much they’re being paid, I doubt they would say something that strays too far from their ideologies and beliefs. The money is nothing but the trigger giving them the final push. In that case, what do these people believe in?”

Heivia grimaced when he heard that.

He had been the one describing the names, so he had a general understanding of the people.

“This might be a major headache for us.”

“Why?”

“They want true independence for Oceania by having the ‘thugs’ leave. They’re a bunch of people who refuse to do any real work while pretending to be pacifists. They think they’re the most important no matter what.”

“Even the corporate executives?”

“Sitting arrogantly in a leather chair isn’t normally referred to as ‘work’.”

A mysterious group in Oceania was spreading intentionally biased information to create a tendency toward hating the coalition military.

The current problem was the pipeline they were using to secretly transport something across the desert. They had even started a firefight with the Legitimacy Kingdom in order to hide it.

This was more than a newspaper editorial.

This mysterious group was prepared to use legitimate violence.

“This pipeline is being used as a secret transportation network and massive amounts of money are being given to influential people to manipulate the opinions of the Oceanian people. What are they trying to do here?”

“Hey,” spoke up the soldiers who had helped them earlier. “I checked a few more of their handheld devices and there’s a net storage site they access frequently. They may keep their larger data there.”

“Does it have a password?”

“Just like online banks, it uses a one-time password. …But this was outsourced and the company in charge of security has slipped past the firewall a few times. We might be able to use the maintenance master key.”

“Would they really use the same key for several weeks or months?”

“No, but if we find a pattern to the changes in the periodically updated alphanumeric key, it might be possible to determine what the current key is. It will take some time, though.”

“Try working on it,” said Quenser as his radio emitted an electronic tone.

Froleytia was calling them.

“I have a question for all of you. You aren’t performing unauthorized electronic warfare against an Information Alliance tax haven bank, are you? The intelligence department has detected a fascinating flow of data.”

(Shit!!)

Everyone there straightened their spines.

The Legitimacy Kingdom and Information Alliance were at war, but wars had rules known as treaties. And as Heivia had said, secret tax haven accounts were unofficially used by nobles and royals so they could secretly divide their assets up between false names and dummy corporations. Even if this was an enemy nation, some higher ups might not want them messing with it. Someone might be placing pressure on Froleytia.

But when no amount of apology would fix the situation, Quenser did not want to continue speaking for long.

He responded casually while looking around for help.

Heivia pointed toward the pump facility with his thumb.

“(That thick concrete might cut off the signal!!)”

“Okay, okay. Eh? What!? No, no. That isn’t what we’re doing!!”

While Quenser stalled for time, he and Heivia ran toward the remains of the pump facility.

They circled around the lake of dark red sauce and continued toward the building which contained stairs leading underground.

The armored trucks disguised as the Blue Cross were still burning and smoking. They would no longer function, but the two idiots circled well away from them because the bombs or missiles could suddenly burst.

The inside of the building was a large space.

It had originally been a facility to draw up unused water from underground and send it to grain-producing land, but all of the equipment had been removed when it was abandoned. It was now a movie theater-sized space made of reinforced concrete. It was essentially empty. Broken metal stairways and passageways could be found here and there and they appeared to be built around large machinery that was no longer present.

But that did not matter.

“(Heivia! The signal’s still going strong!! Froleytia’s completely pissed!! We can’t escape like this!!)”

“(Let’s head down the spiral staircase and underground!!)”

The two idiots descended the spiral staircase and ran out into a narrow tunnel. Static finally began to fill the radio signal.

This was the moment they had been waiting for.

“Ksshhh. Wait, what is… Explain yourse-…kssssshhhhh!!”

“Eh? What? I can’t hear you! I can’t hear you at all!! Over!!”

With that, he ended the transmission and switched off the radio altogether.

Heivia leaned up against the concrete wall.

“If we hang around here, the investigation team will see us and force odd jobs on us. Let’s go pretend to be working.”

They were doing nothing more than extending their suffering, but they took an extremely positive stance and viewed it as a chance to arrange the excuses they needed to weasel out of it.

They passed through a straight corridor and arrived at the underground structure.

However…

“Wow. There really isn’t a ceiling. It feels like the world’s biggest convertible.”

The ground above had completely collapsed during the previous battle, so the blue sky was perfectly visible even in the “underground” structure. They were over ten meters down, so they were not about to climb up or down rather than using the stairs.

A lot of sand had poured in, so it looked a lot more cluttered than the pump facility.

The piles of wooden boxes may have added to that impression.

“It looks like they’ve finished investigating here. Otherwise, we never would have been allowed in.”

“What are these boxes? Surely they aren’t empty.”

After receiving permission from a man on the investigation team who was taking photographs, Quenser and Heivia removed the nails from one wooden box and opened it.

“There’s some kind of powder packed in plastic.”

“But it doesn’t look like something with a high street price.”

The bags had some kind of label, so Quenser used his handheld device to snap a photo.

They opened a few more boxes and found reels of fiber optic cable as well as nuts and bolts packaged by size.

“Did someone’s father make a secret base for his home improvement projects?”

“Wait. I think I know what that powder was,” muttered Quenser.

Suddenly, the two idiots heard the noise of something falling over.

And when they turned toward the noise…

===Part 4===

In the name of war recovery, many different types of construction had begun at a fevered pitch across Oceania: houses, shops, roads, water and sewage, etc. The coalition of the four world powers claimed bringing order to the country was their top priority, but they could not utterly eliminate anyone who was even slightly suspicious. Specialists who did not look right in a suit or work uniform and guards who carried guns could not be distinguished from actual bad guys.

If those suspicious-looking people were let into the same space as rich foreign tourists, it could lead to a situation similar to a hamster that mistook another hamster’s sex.

To keep some separation, a hidden side to the city was created for those suspicious-looking people. Drawn by the flow of money, violent restaurants, marriage scam artists who were always crying in a bar, and people from various other occupations would gather there. These were the people who had gone too far in their original country. Like a snowball rolling down a snowy mountain, the strength of these dark cities slowly but steadily grew.

A certain bar in one such place was quite cheap but it was best not to think about what corners were cut to make it that cheap. In a dimly lit corner of that bar, a small group sat around a table cut off from the rest of the bar by curtains.

“They have failed.”

A young man wore a black suit and hat that looked out of place in the summertime desert. His sunglasses looked more like they were hiding his face than protecting his eyes from the sun.

“Terminal 52 has been taken by the Legitimacy Kingdom. The men we hired were wiped out.”

“We knew they would lose from the beginning.”

He was not the only one in such a conspicuous outfit.

A woman sitting at the same table wore all black, down to her necktie.

“Even if they could temporarily drive them back, they are a world power and thus they have an Object. If the problem grew too large, they would have sent it in. Those men were doomed to lose.”

But it was not just the two of them. Everyone at the table was wearing all black.

“Their loss was planned for. We all understand that. In that case, could you tell us one thing? Did they die before or after achieving their goal?”

“If not, I would be a little more concerned.”

“Whatever gets in the way, no one can reach us as long as all evidence is destroyed in the end.”

Everyone turned toward the young man who had spoken first.

No, they were technically looking behind him.

A blonde woman stood there wearing the exact same suit and sunglasses. She also held the same type of handgun the rest of them possessed.

“Are you saying the objective was achieved?”

The young man slowly raised his hands in response.

The tip of the silencer was already pressed against the back of his head.

He smiled thinly and responded quietly.

“Yes. And let me add this: it was nice knowing-…”

A muffled gunshot interrupted his words.

He collapsed face-first onto the round table. The others slowly stood up and took the necessary measures. They gathered the empty shell casing from the ground, used a rag wet with alcohol to wipe down anything that might have their fingerprints or saliva on it, and cleaned up the floor with a roller of sticky tape to pick up any fallen hair.

They made sure it was the same as if nothing had happened.

“Case #022 complete. Supervisor Alaska 49’s death has cut off the trail. Case #023 will now begin. The supervisor will be me, Texas 28.”

The blonde woman spoke quietly while pulling a brand new tablet computer from her bag. The others all focused on her.

They did so exactly as they had focused on the young man who had just been killed.

It was as if it were a ritual that had begun long before that young man.

“Fortunately, Case #022’s objective was fulfilled. A link with the scene has been secured. As planned, we shall continue to the next situation.”

“In other words?”

“We shall bury it in an explosion.”

They remained in the shadows.

Even when they won and when they were superior, they would kill their allies to suppress all information.

In that case, they were not going to hesitate to kill their enemies.

===Part 5===

“Not good,” muttered Quenser.

He had seen what some kind of impact had knocked over within the underground structure.

“Not good!! Heivia, everyone else! Get out of here now!!”

“What’s the matter, Quenser?”

A 1.5 meter cylindrical container similar to a propane tank lay before them. However, it was made of transparent reinforced glass and it was filled with some kind of liquid. The center of the cylinder had a donut-like hollow area which was filled with an explosive.

“That’s an acid bomb. Militaries use it to destroy evidence!! When the explosive detonates, it destroys the container and the blast sends a thorough shower of powerful acid in every direction. In just a few seconds, it reacts with the air and a vaporized acid cloud expands out. It’ll swallow up five hundred to eight hundred meters in no time! If you get caught in that, you’ll end up in a photograph at an exhibit on the horrors of war!!”

“Seriously? Are you kidding me!? Then were those guys here to set this thing up!? There might be something hidden here!!”

“With something that large and heavy, they couldn’t transport it by motorcycle, so they couldn’t use their secret pipeline. They were forced to use a truck and that’s when we ran across them.”

“But it’s just a bomb, right? Can’t you defuse it!? Bombs are your specialty!”

“There’s no time. There’s only ten minutes left! It’s waiting for a passcode in case it was accidentally activated, but that isn’t enough time to analyze it!! If you want to live, start running! We need to get back to the helicopters!!”

Quenser and Heivia did not hesitate to flee the underground structure and they made sure to bring the investigation team and their guards with them.

As they ran through the long, narrow corridor, Quenser turned his radio back on, hit the switch, and explained the situation to the helicopters so they could leave immediately.

But that might have been a mistake.

“Ahhhhhh!! Shit!!”

As soon as they ran up the spiral staircase and out of the pump facility, Heivia swore.

They could see multiple helicopters taking off.

“Wait, dammit! Wait!! If we hadn’t told you, you would’ve been surrounded by the acid cloud! We saved your lives!!”

“Sorry, but rescuing the injured takes precedence! Can you steal one of the enemy’s trucks and escape on your own!?”

“Do you really think any of them are still running!? You were the ones that blew them up!!”

“Heivia, they aren’t coming back! More importantly, everyone who’s left needs to gather here. Anyone who makes a mistake here will be melted by acid!!”

Quenser heard a deafening sound resembling an amplified version of a shaken can of beer being opened.

A strange white cloud began to spread out not far away. It grew to the size of an Object in no time.

“That’s the acid cloud,” said Heivia as his face paled.

The giant cloud burst up from the underground structure like cotton candy. It exited the hole from the collapse and spread out across the desert. At the same time, it was likely entering the pump facility through the stairway leading up. That death had no gaps. Everyone would be wiped out.

“That thing spreads faster than a forest fire. Sixty kph was it!? It’ll overtake us if we try to escape on foot!!”

“We can escape.”

“How?”

“Through the pipeline! The thick metal should hold it off temporarily! If we can escape beyond its effective range of several hundred meters before it dissolves the metal pipe, we can survive. It’s a chance at least!!”

Quenser began running as he shouted his instructions to Heivia and the others using his radio.

“Wait, Quenser! That pipeline is falling apart. What if the pipe is completely broken partway down? The acid cloud will enter there and trap us!!”

“Would you rather stay here? Bye bye, Heivia. You can stick with 0%, but I’m going to bet on 1%. Even your dog tags will probably be dissolved, so we won’t gather your remains!!”

“I get it! I get it, goddammit!!”

The pipe was rusty and falling apart. Cracks and large holes existed in places.

Quenser and the others ran inside that empty and sandy tube as quickly as they could.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me. You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!!”

The acid cloud will hit in less than thirty seconds! Seal up the holes as best you can!! Use body bags or whatever to cover them and keep the acid cloud out!”

[[Image:HO_v07_300.png|thumb]]

They knew it was not going to be perfect.

After some quick work, they ran down the two meter tunnel with all their strength.

They were soon surrounded by a sound resembling stir-frying.

“The acid cloud has caught up!!”

“It won’t break through the pipe right away! Keep running!!”

The pipeline had been created to carry over ten tons of liquid every second, so it had been built quite thick to withstand the internal pressure. But the sound of the metal being eaten away still squeezed at their hearts so much they forgot how thick it was.

“It’s only going to last two or three minutes.”

“We just have to make it a few hundred meters. That isn’t a marathon. We can escape to safety if we run as quickly as we can!!”

“Damn them, whoever they are! What do they want to hide so badly that they’re willing to ruin the environment like this!?”

“We can think about it after we survive!!”

Strange sparks seemed to explode in their heads and it became impossible to think about anything unnecessary.

They just ran and ran and ran and ran.

As they ran, the outside world had long since vanished from their minds. They began to feel like their goal had been filled with the acid and that the acid cloud had covered the entire world.

“Hot!?”

“There are cracks here and there. Keep running while covering your head with some kind of cloth! Stopping will only eat away at our skin!!”

Fortunately, the cracks were small and not much of the acid cloud seemed to be getting in.

But Quenser and the others did not have time to objectively evaluate the situation.

They could not tell if the dampness inside their uniforms was their sweat or their melted skin.

Even so, they continued running.

It was not exactly out of stubbornness. They were simply losing themselves in the simple action of running so they could avert their gaze from the certain death closing in on them.

“Quenser,” Heivia finally called out.

Quenser could not imagine why he was calling out to him.

“Quenser! It’s over. The sizzling sound is gone. We’ve left the range of the acid cloud.”

“Ah? Eh?”

“We survived! We don’t need to run any further. Do you want to destroy your own heart!?”

It took him a while to truly realize he had survived.

He eventually collapsed to a sitting position and could tell his lips were twitching.

After a few seconds, he finally realized he was smiling.

===Part 6===

Somewhere in Oceania, the muffled sound of a gun with a silencer could be heard.

Another young man looked down at a blonde woman with a bullet hole in her forehead.

“Case #023 complete. The objective was not achieved and it has been deemed a failure. To recover, Case #024 will now begin.”

===Part 7===

Quenser worked hard to calm down Heivia who was seriously planning to punch the pilot of the slowly descending helicopter. Surprisingly, the intellectual-looking investigation team seemed to agree with Heivia. They were only human and anyone would be angry when their supposed comrades unreasonably abandoned them in an acid cloud.

“Calm down. If we all flip them off, they might fly away without us. We need to give them a smile with the kindness of a younger sister and the dependability of an older sister.”

“Got it, Quenser. You’re saying we act like a carnivorous plant, right? Once they open the helicopter door, their life is over.”

The helicopter team must have felt bad because, when they opened the door, they handed out bottles of carbonated drinks they had found somewhere. The bottles were ice cold thanks to the icing spray for machineguns. There were some enticements one’s senses could not resist. After running around in the 50 degree desert, this was more than enough to quiet them down.

The middle-aged male pilot explained the situation.

“The acid cloud is spreading out higher in the sky like a cumulonimbus cloud. We checked the weather map for the wind and there is a danger of running into it on our way back to the maintenance base. We want more accurate information if possible.”

“If that’s the only reason you picked us up, I really will shove you out.”

Growing stubborn was not going to accomplish anything.

The helicopter team’s decision had not been wrong given all the injured they had and Quenser’s group had indeed managed to hold on to their lives.

In that case, they needed to use their brains for something more important.

“So what do you think they were trying to destroy?” asked Quenser as the movements of the helicopter shook him. “Do you think it was those wooden boxes in the underground structure? Y’know, those fiber optic cables, the bolts, the nuts, and that strange powder.”

Quenser stared at the photographs he had taken on his handheld device, but then he heard someone give a sudden cry of surprise.

It came from one of the intellectual infantryman who had helped them create the fake site for the bank account numbers.

“What is it?”

“I was searching for the master key to the net storage we discovered using those thugs’ devices, remember? Well, I think I found something bad.”

Everyone gathered around the slender infantryman.

All of the stern men stared at the small screen.

It had recorded phone calls, graphs showing the exchange of money, and documents on the group’s projects and external cooperators. The infantryman displayed a summary file that looked like the minutes of a meeting.

'''“Concerning war recovery in Oceania and the influence that recovery provides within the country. A list of important infrastructure and how to drive a wedge into the provisional rule using the foundation of that infrastructure.”

“Wait, wait, wait. This contractor, this one, and this one are all major construction companies doing a lot of work toward Oceania’s recovery. Does this mean they’re all helping out this group or being unwittingly used by them?”

“Well, even the large contractors are using local people to pave roads and lay pipes. To promote employment, they’re actively seeking Oceanian personnel. These shady thugs could probably slip in there.”

“No matter what plans those at the top make, the project will be delayed if the people at the bottom secretly don’t do their job.”

“Electricity, gas, water, schools, hospitals, phones, and internet. All of them are vital pieces of infrastructure.”

“Delaying them will do a lot of damage to the provisional rule here. After all, that rule is really nothing more than a verbal promise. The people will lose faith if those promises aren’t met.”

“So either this group is actually causing this damage or they’re using it as a threat.”

“Either way, someone is definitely gaining great influence over the rulers of Oceania.”

'''“It is necessary to remove the coalition made up of the four world powers and it is necessary that we then intervene as rulers.”

“Someone’s trying to secretly shake up the provisional rule until it’s powerless. They want to swap out the structure of the nation so they can bring their interests to the forefront.”

“Does that mean it’s us, the coalition force, that’s in the way?”

“Dammit. That must be why they’re paying off that international satellite TV executive, that blog king, and the others! They’ve brought the Oceanian people’s anger to just under the boiling point using the failed infrastructure maintenance. What if they now release baseless rumors about the coalition from multiple influential sources? That will create an outlet for their pent up anger and large-scale riots will begin!!”

“We’re stationed here in Oceania in the name of preserving order, so they’re trying to guide international opinion to believe our presence is causing frequent riots that hurt or kill innocent people.”

“Then they can do whatever they want. Our higher ups are only spending the military budget on this because the image of a savior hero is useful in politics and diplomacy. Once it isn’t worth it anymore, the military might really leave.”

“And then a new oppressive dictatorship will begin. This group will be able to hide behind a puppet leader.”

'''“How to freely rearrange the national structure in the name of creating a modern justice system.”

“The Oceanian military nation had the country working on a completely flawed rulebook. Giving the country proper laws will definitely be necessary.”

“But when you remake the country’s rules from the ground up, it’s a lot easier for black-hearted people to work in loopholes than if they have to rearrange the system bit by bit.”

“Is that like how it’s easier for a baby than an adult to learn a foreign language?”

'''“Regarding the basic geographic conditions for a powerful nation.”

“Oceania has massive amounts of land and underground resources. If they can secure the water resources needed for large-scale agriculture, they don’t have to worry about food. Simply put, they have what it takes for an advantage in a long, difficult war.”

“Almost the entire continent is made up of a single power and they’re surrounded by ocean. Compared to countries that directly border a lot of other countries, they’re a lot harder to invade. The conditions are similar to what North America once was and a nation known as the world police once existed there.”

“If they create something similar here, it will cause problems in the world’s military balance. Of course, that’s what this group is probably trying to do.”

Quenser and the others read the document while discussing its contents, but a fundamental question caused Quenser to frown.

“But what are they going to do with this new dictatorship? The Oceanian military nation did something similar, but they were stopped by the combined attack of the coalition force. No matter how many conspiracies they weave together, they’ll be broken up as soon as the coalition notices them.”

“The military nation is a great example of that. I doubt any conspirator would want to meet the same fate as the leader there.”

“And the people here have to be the same. No one is going to think a riot can push back a fifty meter Object. Even a child would know that. Riots are meant to push with great numbers. If their front lines would be mowed down the instant they gathered, no one would gather.”

“They need some kind of symbol of rebellion. But what possible symbol would people think could defeat more than twenty Objects?”

“…”

Quenser glanced down at a handheld device.

This was not the one from the thugs. It was Quenser’s own that the Legitimacy Kingdom military had issued him.

It contained a few photographs he had taken in the underground structure attached the remains of the pump facility.

The photos were primarily of the wooden boxes’ contents.

One photo showed nuts and bolts divided by size.

One showed reels of fiber optic cable.

One showed bags of powder.

“Don’t tell me…”

“What’s wrong with a photo of nuts and bolts? You can buy those at home improvement stores the world over.”

“But not the fiber optic cable. This is the type that greatly raises signal stability by injecting argon gas into the tube. The price per meter is ridiculous, so it isn’t used in normal homes. It’s a military product that’s known as the nervous system of certain colossal weapons.”

“Wait… A military product? The nervous system of colossal weapons? You don’t mean…”

“And there’s this powder.”

Quenser gulped, zoomed in on the photo, and repeatedly read the bag’s label. No matter how many times he read it, it still said the same thing.

“This is the substance that gives Object armor its high-heat resistance and reactive ability. It isn’t used in anything else.”

“Then that’s the symbol of rebellion this group has built?”

When they thought about it, it was obvious.

Only one thing could pick a fight with the monstrous weapons that could withstand a direct hit with a nuclear missile.

They were synonymous with war.

They were 50+ meter masses of overwhelming military might.

“Were they using the pipelines spread out across Oceania’s desert to slowly gather the parts for an Object!?”

===Part 8===

The group of helicopters taking Quenser and the others back to the maintenance base zone was not far from arriving.

But they could barely stand to wait even that long.

“We don’t actually know when the Oceanian military government’s 0.5 generation Object was built. If it was built by smuggling the parts through this network of pipes and this group took over all that, it’s perfectly realistic to think they’ve completed an Object!!”

“Quit analyzing and report this, Quenser! Damn, I bet our huge-breasted commander is still mad. I just hope she’s willing to listen!!”

After they explained their thoughts over the radio, Froleytia responded bitterly.

“I have not forgotten about dealing with you two, but this isn’t good. It explains why things have been getting noisy outside.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have received a few troubling reports from the base’s sentries. It seems a two or three thousand of the local people have gathered. They’re only shaking the fence around the base and throwing small rocks, but we will have to forcibly make them leave if they do anything more. I want to avoid that while the journalists’ cameras are here. Also, I didn’t know what caused the commotion.”

People’s opinions varied, but the Legitimacy Kingdom military had not been all that hated by the Oceanian people.

“So they’ve already started delaying the infrastructure maintenance and pointing the people’s anger our way.”

“If they’ve already begun, that means it’s really damn likely they’ve finished their new Object! I don’t even feel like joking about this!!”

“But it takes nearly three years to build an Object from the ground up,” said Froleytia. “There hasn’t been enough time for a conspiracy thought up after seeing news of the Oceanian military nation’s collapse.”

“Wait a minute. Froleytia, you can’t mean what I think you mean!!”

“We just have to calculate backwards. If they started this project three years ago, it started before…ksshhh…military nation’s destruction…ksshh. That ridiculo-…ksshh…also part of their plan…ksssssshhhhhh!!”

“Froleytia? Hey, Froleytia!? Can you hear me!?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me. The military line has been jammed? By who? That alone qualifies as opposing us!!”

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance.

Suddenly, a new voice came over the staticky radio.

It was a young man’s voice.

“Welcome to our nation of Oceania.”

“Really? We have to deal with this? I don’t see how this could lead to anything good.”

“I hear you have stubbornly survived the acid bomb and thus approached quite close to the truth. Even so, it is too late to do anything about it.”

“We at least know you were involved behind the scenes of the military nation and their 0.5 generation Object.’

“Yes. They never had the money and technology needed to construct an Object on their own. As you probably know, that was built based on a downgraded version of the design data for an Information Alliance model known as the Gatling 033...no, I suppose you refer to it by the codename of Rush.”

“Rush?”

Quenser frowned and recalled the “oh ho ho” laughter of that Information Alliance pilot Elite.

“But why did all of you so innocently believe that they had only constructed that one? If they can build one, they can build two. With the pipeline spread out across the entire desert and the one hundred terminal facilities connected to it, anything is possible. Our project had begun years and years before the fall of the military nation, so how many Objects do you think we have stocked up in that ant’s nest?”

He used the plural.

That was enough for a chill to run down the spines of everyone in the helicopter.

Just one of those monsters was more than enough.

“You’re lying. Objects are brand-name items that cost a billion dollars each. A single group can’t build that many!!”

“Money can buy something even better. Money is meant to be spent, so there is no reason to hold back. Am I wrong?”

“Something even better?”

“The world police,” said the young man over the radio.

That term was the symbol of an era.

“The world may have changed, but a North American superpower once had complete control of the world’s military balance. That was an era of peace. But that exemplary nation was smashed to pieces by the flow of time! The home countries of the Capitalist Corporations and Information Alliance now exist there. It is not realistic to resurrect a single superpower there.”

“You can’t mean…”

“In that case, the only option is to find another area with similar conditions. A vast land surrounded by ocean. A single nation with plenty of food, underground resources, and population. All we need to do is supply information on high-level technology. …And there was only one candidate.”

“Are you saying your goal is to remake Oceania into a second ‘world police’!?”

“Is there any better way to recover from a war? If we succeed, we will put an end to the ‘clean wars’ spreading throughout the world. We will combine the different world powers into a single world power. And Oceania will rule at the center of it all. This continent was overrun with unreasonable war and then crushed by the different world powers afterwards, so it is the perfect symbol for the new world police.”

“This is ridiculous,” spat out Heivia. “All the dark history from the creation of the Oceanian military nation was your doing, wasn’t it!? The new world police? An era truly without war? A world created by people as heartless as you would be a horrible place! You just want to create a world where you can kill as many people as you want!!”

“I have only one thing to say to that: are you aware that history is something created by someone and recorded by someone?”

The young man’s voice remained calm.

He was used to being accused of doing horrible things.

“And no matter how much of a commotion you cause, you can no longer change the current course of events. Look at the city below you. The angry cries of the crowd should reach you up in the sky. Do you know what that rumbling noise is? Those are the footsteps of the rioters marching through the streets. Can you pacify all of those people?”

“…”

Quenser stopped breathing for a moment.

He could hear a low, low sound resembling distant thunder. He peered down from the helicopter’s open door and saw something filling the desert city. The sight of countless human heads filling every inch not taken up by buildings was quite chilling.

He saw something white here and there.

They looked like placards or banners, so Quenser naturally reached for his binoculars.

But Heivia grabbed his wrist before he could look through them.

“You should stop.”

Heivia was looking up from his rifle’s scope.

It seemed he had just looked through it.

“It’s better to not see that. It’s like a fishing hook. You’ll try to pretend it’s nothing at first, but you’ll realize the small hook won’t come out. It’ll leave a wound.”

Quenser could not imagine what would cause such a negative reaction.

Earlier that day, he had seen true enemy soldiers shot to pieces by helicopters and he had almost been killed by an acid bomb. Compared to that, what could words do? Thinking that, Quenser’s curiosity led him to look through the binoculars.

And…

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

He felt like he heard the words “I told you so” coming from a long distance away.

His arms hung limply down and the magnification left his vision, but what he saw left a hole in his chest.

He felt as if all the bloody vomit and crawling through the mud in Oceania had been made meaningless in a single moment.

This was not something one or two people could easily cause.

This was a powerful current.

Like a fad or a trend, something unseen was influencing people’s lives.

Normally, only the advertising firms that created commercials were aware of that current, but it now created an obvious wall before Quenser and the others.

“What is this commotion?” asked Quenser as he stared blankly down at the city from the sliding door.

He received an answer from the young soldier messing with a handheld device they had received from the enemies.

“Wait. This isn’t good. This is really bad!!”

“Did you find another document?”

Quenser turned around and the soldier tossed him the device.

He caught it in both hands and finally realized what the small screen showed.

It was a completely normal video sharing site.

However…

“Ha ha ha. Have you discovered what everyone’s talking about?” laughed the person on the radio.

But Quenser was not listening.

His mind had left reality as his eyes focused on the video playing on the screen.

It showed a few minutes of a human trafficking incident that had occurred at an international harbor in Oceania.

It had been uploaded only half an hour earlier.

The view count had already reached ten million. It was on a site used worldwide, but the video was a bit choppy as if it was having difficulty loading.

“The news is nothing but entertainment. They complain about the depressing incidents, but that does not stop people from searching for them. TV and newspapers used to have a lot of influence, but nowadays one will never learn anything without searching for themselves. And that gives people a certain enthusiasm.”

The incidents and battles that were supposedly resolved were now being used for something else.

“And in Oceania where their infrastructure is being rebuilt, they lack the resources for entertainment. The people are starving for entertainment. Yes, they want to enjoy themselves. Merely opening a small hole in the dam leads to the result before you. The overwhelming deluge will sweep across the continent.”

The young man on the radio spoke as if singing a lullaby that hid a cruel origin.

“The night sky. This world is a night sky.”

It almost sounded like the lyrics to a song.

It sounded nice, but it seemed removed from reality.

“The starless night sky presses down on everyone from above and prevents them from seeing ahead. Someone must change this. Fortunately, that is not hard to do. Those who rule this dark era have merely convinced everyone that it is difficult.”

The one who made it had to know that.

And the ones listening most likely knew it deep down.

“By raising stars onto the starless night sky, we can make a single flag. At first, our symbol will be pure indigo like the night sky. A single star is enough. If a single star can shine in the starless indigo night sky, we can begin to gently guide this dark era. Will you stand here in the center of the world or will you be forever driven to the edges of the world? Decide for yourself.”

Even so, they would fall for it.

But why?

Was someone simply using the dissatisfaction of the Oceanian people?

Or was even that initial dissatisfaction something someone had input within them?

The video showed a few minutes of a large-scale clash between Objects in the desert night which had all been meant to kill a single soldier.

“Thank you. We put together many different plans and you ruined a few of them, but you provided us with an even greater tool,” said the voice. “Truth Theater. That is the name of the video. When you take something formless, give it a name, and place it within a frame of your choosing, it provides a certain impression. That is the basic method of influencing people’s impressions. After that, you only need to provide them with a specific direction. For example, you can create a flag that they take as their own symbol without anyone forcing them. They will then spread the word of their existence around the world. The trick is to skillfully mix in the proper ideals and desires. The night sky flag is pure indigo, so it can easily be made by throwing a can of paint on a curtain. If you create a complex and cool-looking symbol, no one can create it for themselves. This is an application of influencing people’s impressions.”

There were no lies in the materials they had used.

However, the timing of the editing was extremely malicious. By showing only a few minutes in the video, it only showed the beginning of the problem and the growth of the chaos it produced. There were likely people watching it who did not even know these problems had been resolved.

“The stage has already been set. If it had not, I would not have so calmly contacted you. The indigo flag of the night sky could cover the entire continent at any time. When faced with this overwhelming maelstrom of people, both military and civilian, the military officials who are obsessed with clean wars will hesitate. That time lag will prevent you from ever catching up. Farewell. You have lost. Once only our victory remains, the world will greatly benefit and rejoice in its newfound peace.”

“Tell me your name.”

“Why?”

“I need something to write on your gravestone.”

A short silence came from the radio.

The young man may have been laughing.

“You may call us the Company, Langley, or the Pentagon. When the former world police was lost, our true name lost its power and meaning.”

“Do you mean…?”

“We are the ghosts of a bygone era. But if you wish to refer to us, there is a name you can use. We are the strange shadows dressed in black who are whispered of in every corner of the world. We are MIB.”

At that moment, the transmission ended.

But not because Quenser or the MIB man had switched off their radio.

The transport helicopter shook violently as it was enveloped in an explosion.

“Wah!?”

“What is it, pilot!? What happened!?”

The helicopter’s door was open, so Quenser had to cling to the handrail on the inner wall with all his might so as not to be thrown out.

The pilot’s reply was tense.

“We were attacked from the surface! It was probably a cheap mortar.”

“A mortar!? Those are used to fire shells farther than a grenade can be thrown. How are they using it for an anti-air attack!?”

“I don’t know, but one just hit us! They forcibly used it beyond its intended use. Unlike a missile, it isn’t guided, so they won’t be able to reliably hit us!!”

“This is the hatred of the people,” said the young man on the radio. “Those shells cost twenty dollars each. There is a reason they have long been a best seller in this world of never-ending wars.”

“Here it comes! I just heard one being fired on the surface!! Avoid it, dammit! Move to the right!!”

“I don’t have proper control after that last explosion!”

They did not escape in time.

As the helicopter shook, Quenser worked to close the door.

As soon as he did, the next explosion hit.

The steel door bent in and stabbed into the opposite wall. However, closing the door had not been meaningless. Without the door acting as a cushion, the blast and small pieces of shrapnel would have filled the helicopter.

Nevertheless, that blast settled it.

The helicopter did not break apart in midair, but it began to spin as it lost control. Their altitude was clearly lowering. The mass of steel was obviously falling toward the ground.

“What do we do!? Hey, what do we do!? I don’t want to crash twice in one day! Can’t you recover!?’

“I’m trying! But does it look like it’s going well!?” shouted back the pilot.

Quenser felt dizzy as he braced himself so he was not thrown out of the reopened door.

The young man spoke from the radio as if to provide the finishing blow.

“Ha ha ha. Soldiers surrounded by a bloodthirsty mob. A tragedy like this might work as another symbol to drive out the coalition.”

“Is this it!?”

Heivia forcibly switched off the radio and looked out the door.

He then shouted toward the cockpit.

“Hey, which way are we pointed!? I hope it’s somewhere without any people!”

“It is! We’re headed for a trash dump. The trash is piled up in hills and my sensors aren’t picking up anyone!!”

“Good.”

Heivia seemed to have made up his mind about something, so Quenser spoke to him.

“What are we going to do now?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

The helicopter continued to fall while almost scraping the roof of a crude five-story building.

Heivia leaned into the cockpit, used his knife to cut the seatbelt of the pilot who was still intently focused on the controls, and dragged him away.

“We jump out.”

The screaming would not stop.

As if they were jumping out of a car headed for a cliff, Quenser and the others jumped out onto the flat building roof. The drop was only a few meters.

After a few seconds, the helicopter crashed into a giant pile of garbage and exploded.

They no longer had a means of returning to the base.

===Part 9===

The transport helicopter crashed into a city garbage dump. After a giant explosion, toxic-looking black smoke rose toward the heavens. Quenser stared at the sight as he rolled along the old concrete rooftop of a five-story building.

“Damn this hurts!! I didn’t break any bones, did I!?”

“If you broke one or even cracked one, you’d be crying in pain, student! Quit giving in to the placebo effect and stand up. We need to get out of here!!”

“Is this place that bad?”

“Who do you think shot us down? It wasn’t trained soldiers. Remember when we discussed this chaotic period of recovery in Oceania? Things are so bad people carry around weapons for self-…”

Heivia suddenly stopped speaking.

They heard a rumbling noise. It sounded like the cheers in a stadium after a hat trick. They worriedly looked down and saw a gold-colored tsunami rushing toward the helicopter which was still spewing black smoke.

The wave was made of people.

The gold was their hair. A group of hundreds or even thousands was approaching to drag out the crew of the helicopter. They were all waving indigo flags. They must have painted or dyed something on hand because they were all bright and not entirely dried.

That starless night sky was the symbol of their dissatisfaction toward this dark era.

“Handguns, assault rifles, rockets, mortars, and more. If we don’t leave while they’re focused on the helicopter, we’ll have nowhere to run,” complained Heivia. “They’re worked up enough that there’s a real possibility of being dragged out and publicly executed.”

Quenser gulped when he saw the other boy prepare his assault rifle.

“Wait, Heivia. Why are you preparing that?”

“This is no time to be idealistic!! Battle regulations mean nothing here. Order hasn’t been restored in Oceania yet, so even housewives and office workers walk around with guns for self-defense. Those people with their night sky flag could start shooting at any time, so we need to defend ourselves!!”

“You can’t. You can’t do that!!”

Despite the danger of a secondary explosion from ammunition or fuel, the enraged crowd surrounded the helicopter and peered inside. They resembled ants crowding around a sugar cube. If they noticed Quenser and the others on the rooftop, they would obviously surround the building.

Quenser understood that.

He really did.

“There are hundreds if not thousands of them with the flags!! With that much of a difference, it doesn’t matter if they’re pros or amateurs. They’ll ignore all their allies in every direction and fire on us. If that happens, we’ll be more than just riddled with holes!!”

“But…!”

“But some of them aren’t armed? We’ll still meet a tragic end even if they catch us. In fact, the lack of deadly weapons will just make our grotesque fate last longer! Do you really think these people will be able to stop at just almost killing us!?”

They then heard a scraping noise.

Quenser looked over and saw the helicopter pilot scraping at the inside of a ring with a metal rod. The rod may have originally been a television antenna.

“What are you doing?”

“My wife’s name is engraved in my ring. I am prepared to do what it takes no matter what happens, but I don’t want to cause any trouble for my family!!”

The atmosphere was not normal.

Quenser was suggesting the obvious choice of “not fighting”, but the others were treating that as strange.

They were being affected by the state of the nation.

If one side had guns, the other side had to have guns as well. That logic could only lead to a negative chain reaction, but it had begun to affect non-Oceanians like Quenser and the others.

Truth Theater.

They were being sucked into the world of that video.

The night sky.

That dark and hopeless era that the MIB had created was eating into Quenser and the others.

Heivia and the others who could use rifles took the lead as they moved from the rooftop and into the building. The stairway and corridors were deserted. The glass was covered in dust and sand, so the inside was dim. Several symbols had been left on the walls, so it may have been an abandoned building which was scheduled to be demolished.

What would happen if they ran across someone here?

What if someone lived here to escape the sand and rain? What if someone who lived nearby used it as storage space?

Quenser found it hard to breathe as he saw Heivia and the others unhesitatingly pointing their rifles around.

There was something wrong with it all.

Their enemy was not the people of Oceania. It was the “ghosts of a bygone era” known as the MIB who were laughing as they manipulated everyone. Getting into a firefight here would only delight them. They could use it to bring about their desire to drive out the coalition which was seen as the enemy of the Oceanian people.

Quenser understood the situation, but he could not suppress his instinctual fear.

The high-pitched sound of audio feedback struck his eardrums from outside the building.

It came from a cheap megaphone.

“Drive them away!! Don’t allow their oppression any longer! The Legitimacy Kingdom helicopter crashed right next to a hospital. They are only thinking about their own interests! They don’t care about our lives!!”

“Goddamn them! They’re the ones who shot mortars at us!! And we went out of the way to crash into a garbage dump!!”

“Don’t respond!! It won’t solve anything if we get angry too!!”

“Then what are we supposed to do!? Do you think the cavalry is going to show up if we sit around long enough!?”

Suddenly, something else happened.

They heard a distant rumbling cheer similar to when a decisive goal was made in an international soccer match.

Quenser could not check outside the window.

There was a risk of being spotted, but it had more to do with his own fear.

He and the other seven continued running down the stairs.

Once they reached the first floor, Heivia reached for the back door near the stairway. He slowly turned the knob and cracked the door open.

The wall of people had already reached about thirty centimeters away.

They were so close that Heivia could almost smell their breathing and sweat.

The scent of the paint used to make the indigo flags was mixed in.

He desperately suppressed a groan.

They were almost all focused on the person speaking through the megaphone, so they were not facing toward the building.

With the delicacy of defusing a landmine, he took plenty of time to close the door that was only opened a few centimeters. He instinctually wanted to lock the door too, but that would make too much noise. He used his reason to desperately fight that temptation.

“It’s no good. They’re everywhere outside.”

“You mean we can’t escape?”

Meanwhile, the megaphone voice continued.

“The cavalry is here! Our cavalry has arrived!! Open a path for the grim reaper to reach them!! Once this vehicle enters the plaza, they are done for!!”

Unpleasant sweat began to pour from Quenser’s back.

If that was not a bluff…

“We will pursue our enemy no matter where they run! The sensors equipped on this .50 caliber heavy machinegun will ensure that! Whether it’s wood or concrete, no shield will protect them!! We will search for them, find them, and then destroy them!! …What did you see in the Truth Theater? What did you feel as you waved the night sky flag? That is the truth!! That is the information that has not been altered by the media!!”

As Quenser stepped back from the back door, he frantically made use of his nearly panicking mind.

“(This is bad. Something different is approaching!)”

“(Has the MIB arrived after allying with the people? Now this interesting! We just have to destroy this machinegun-equipped off-road vehicle or whatever it is!!)”

“(But the people watching won’t know where the line between pro and amateur is drawn! Once a single gunshot is fired, the people will attack us without end!!)”

Fortunately, the vehicle in question was apparently having difficulty approaching due to all the people filling every inch of the roads. It would not arrive immediately, but it was only a matter of time. This did not actually solve the problem.

Would they remain and fight?

Or would they leave and hide somewhere?

They had to make up their minds.

“(We can’t run, Quenser! They said the heavy machinegun can shoot through building walls and it has sensors. No matter where we hide, we’ll be killed. And the weapon’s great penetrative power will bloody the angry mob as well!! We have to fight!!)”

“(But we can’t survive if we fight! Also, there’s no reason to fight!! Once a fight begins, it means we’ve lost!!)”

“(Then you can go run off on your own. Make a bet with me if you want, but I guarantee you I’ll survive longer than you!!)”

Ultimately, there was no right answer.

No matter what they chose, they could not defeat the MIB. Eventually, the building would be surrounded and they would be filled with holes or torn limb from limb.

Reinforcements from the maintenance base zone would not arrive in time.

They were completely surrounded, so they would not find a convenient opening.

Once a single shot was fired, it was all over.

But was there any chance left of convincing these people without force?

“…”

The tension had made Quenser’s breathing extremely shallow and he felt as if he would die from dizziness before the actual threat even arrived.

And…

And…

And…

The situation took a decisive turn.

A change that affected their survival occurred without them even knowing it.

===Part 10===

At that time, a certain girl looked up at the instigator mixed in with the crowd. The man stood on the roof of a European van parked on the road. He was making a loud announcement with the kind of cheap megaphone used at construction sites.

“Drive out the Legitimacy Kingdom! Get rid of the entire coalition!! They create nothing. They protect no one! Good citizens should take up arms and fight against these invaders!! Let the cavalry into the plaza so we can begin the bloodbath!! With its sensors, we can find them wherever they hide!!”

The girl was not caught up in what the man was saying.

Quite the opposite.

She knew that there were lies in the speech given by this man standing on the van and holding up an indigo flag. She had seen “them” firsthand, so she knew the rumors spreading through the city had definite malicious intent.

And so…

“…?”

A pause came in the enthralling speech.

This was because a small stone had flown at the man.

Everyone there turned from the man with the megaphone to the girl.

“I know the truth,” said the girl. “I know it isn’t true that they don’t protect anyone!! They saved me. I was taken by bad people, but they came and saved me!! There wasn’t any chaos like in Truth Theater!! There was more to it than that!!”

“Do not make such baseless claims!!”

Triggered by the man’s angry shout, several nearby people grabbed at the girl’s hair and began to drag her away.

She let out a high-pitched scream.

Some of the people accepted this as natural.

But some did not.

“Hey…”

“Yeah.”

It started with a few young men.

They stood in the way of the men trying to carry away the girl.

One of the men holding her hair spoke.

“What do you think you are doing?”

“Y’see, I don’t really understand all this complicated stuff about good and evil or the coalition and invaders.” The main young man shrugged. He moved his face in and spoke from close range. “But is this justice of yours something that lets bastards like you drag crying little girls around by the hair? If so, I can’t go along with it.”

The men holding the girl’s hair prepared to silence this minority with their fists.

But then they realized the overwhelming majority was staring intently at their backs.

Which side had the backing of the majority was beginning to change.

At that time, an old woman named Dorothy opened an outdated laptop computer on a luxurious passenger ship away from Oceania. She logged in to an SNS site her grandchild had insisted she sign up for but she had not used since then.

She had noticed a commotion.

She had noticed great enthusiasm.

The short anonymously-uploaded video named Truth Theater had already been picked up by TV stations around the world. They seemed to have lost the pride in taking footage with their own cameras because the grainy video was being used as-is with the newscaster’s voice playing over it.

On the internet, people could not see each other’s faces or grab at their collars when they were angry, so it was filled with more extreme and hostile words than reality. One side supported Oceania slaughtering the coalition and declaring themselves independent. The other side said the riots would bring about oppression in their own lives, so they supported immediate military intervention.

But none of them knew the truth of Oceania.

They only knew what the few minutes of Truth Theater had showed them.

“I know the truth.”

After giving it some thought, the old woman began slowly typing on the unfamiliar keyboard.

She was acting to protect the honor of the youths who had saved her.

She was beginning to fight back.

“I know the good and the bad of that country. You daydreamers want a convenient villain that lets you feel like you are watching a movie, but rethink what you say once you hear what I have to say. I promise that you will be ashamed of yourselves.”

At that time, Sewax the battlefield cameraman sat within a box-shaped metal tent in arctic Siberia. He was checking over the photos he had just taken with his single-lens reflex camera. Just like heat, extreme cold could cause malfunctions in precision equipment. Before his hard-won images could be lost, he began sending a backup to his online storage via a small satellite communications device.

His guide, who was closer to being a child then a youth, stared interestedly at the device.

“Hey, can you use that internet thing on there? No one bothers running lines out here. If they did lay hundreds of kilometers of fiber optic cable, a bear would just dig it up. And power lines would collapse under the weight of the snow.”

Sewax had a sudden thought as he worked.

He had just trapped a piece of the truth in a rectangular frame and sent it out to the world, but how many people would it reach? And would that truth reach them accurately without someone twisting it?

Some intentionally twisted information was currently causing a frenzy on the internet, that information network the guide wished he had. As a professional photographer, Sewax had immediately noticed how much malice was contained within the few minutes of Truth Theater. A film specialist would likely have found two or three times as much as he had.

The truth could easily be twisted.

Rather than adding in lies, one only had to maliciously edit footage to give a certain impression.

But an athlete cheating with steroids was overwhelmingly powerful. Setting aside the ethical issues, that power was an objective fact. In the same way, the impact of manufactured footage could easily blow away a photograph showing the actual truth. In the end, the people wanted stimulation. The truth was but a single means of acquiring that stimulation and the original purpose of the truth had been done away with.

How much meaning did the world see in being “correct”?

The metal tent’s walls had two layers so the air between could insulate it, but Sewax still felt a chill run down his spine.

It was then that the guide asked an innocent question.

“Hey, where were you before? You haven’t been here for long, right?”

The question brought a slight smile to Sewax’s face.

Because of the state of the world, there was something he could not easily give up on.

Little by little, he would sow the seeds of truth. They would outlast the long winter and eventually bud. It was true people sought simple stimulation, but the ring of truth was another form of stimulation.

People were cruelly honest.

Even if hundreds of thousands of lives were dependent on a photograph, people would look right past it if it was boring. If it seemed preachy, some would even insult it. At the same time, people from all over the world would view a video of someone’s perfectly normal pet.

But the people also loved fairness to a surprising extent.

If it was an interesting story, they would flock to it whether it was true or not. And so Sewax decided he would aim for that. Simply saying one had the truth was not enough. The proper way to compete was to present an overwhelming true story that had enough interest and appeal to break past the empty entertainment.

No matter what anyone said, the more interesting story would win in the end.

He swapped out the micro memory for his digital single-lens reflex camera and slowly spoke as he displayed photos of the previous battlefield he had traversed.

“These photos are from the country of Oceania. What do you think happened there?”

At that time, a female soldier missing an arm appeared at a court martial in a European safe country. The court martial had entered a short recess, but the media’s cameras would not leave her.

These cameras did not merely belong to this one safe country. Large news stations were broadcasting this to many different countries and regions.

“A hero? You may say I exposed corruption, but I was closer to being someone who carried out dirty work for the military. I believe the title of hero should be given to someone else.”

She used the accurate movements of her prosthetic arm to pick up a paper cup of iced coffee and smiled thinly on a bench in the corridor outside the court room.

“Setting aside issues of good and evil, I was certainly a nuisance within the military. In fact, I may still be. But even amid a conspiracy to assassinate a nuisance like me, someone still jumped into the line of fire to save me. In the end, he even stood before an Object. People like that are what soldiers should be. My way of returning the favor is to guide the military toward accepting people like that.”

She spoke slowly as if recalling something.

“There are definitely people who should be called heroes. But unfortunately, those people rarely refer to themselves that way. I wish to show my respect for all the soldiers working in Oceania. Even if they will not name themselves heroes, I hope the day will come when everyone else will.”

At that time, an Information Alliance pilot Elite, who the two idiots referred to as the “oh ho ho”, was speaking to the world via a large-scale internet concert.

“The Information Alliance fights for the proper use of information and for a better future, so we have received some unwelcome news. The MIB? The world police? World domination using an unknown Object made with new technology?”

By usurping the continent of Oceania, they would begin to change the world’s military balance.

“Normally, I would manipulate your impression of this incident by reading off a predetermined script with a perfect smile.”

[[Image:HO_v07_347.png|thumb]]

But that did not mean only someone at the center could have an influence.

The world had grown smaller.

The overwhelming electronic network allowed people to influence the other side of the globe in real time.

“Who is right and what is accurate? Try thinking for yourselves for once☆ Oh ho ho.”

It started as a small wave.

But it slowly worked its way deep into the hearts of the people whose impressions had been manipulated.

It was similar to the difference between a natural diamond and an artificial one.

Which one would draw people in the most?

The answer was revealed by their actions.

“What?”

As they glanced around from within the abandoned building, Quenser and the others quickly picked up on that difference.

“The atmosphere has changed. The burning anger is being directed elsewhere.”

The powerful emotions of anger and intent to kill would stab into one’s heart. Some martial arts had honed it into an actual technique to throw of an opponent’s timing, Quenser and Heivia were not martial arts experts, but the level of emotion surrounding them was on a tremendous scale. Despite being used to clean wars, they could detect the change in the situation.

The crowd never broke down the door and rushed in. The MIB vehicle equipped with a machinegun was stopped as if something blocked its way.

“How odd… Something isn’t right outside.” The windows were boarded up, but Heivia peered through the gaps between boards. “I don’t see any of those indigo night sky flags. Did everyone throw them away?”

That was when a slender hand poked out from a corner of the corridor.

It was beckoning to them.

“You can escape this way,” whispered a female voice.

At first, no one moved.

They thought it was a trap.

If they approached, they suspected they would have a bag placed over their head and be taken away.

But doing nothing would not improve their situation.

Quenser was the first to step forward.

“Wait, Quenser! Are you really trusting her!?”

“Something happened while we waited here without firing a shot, so we need to go with this change. It can’t hurt to take advantage of the opportunity we won for ourselves!!”

Heivia glanced down at the assault rifle in his hands.

He uncomfortably clicked his tongue as if he had only just remembered what it was and who he was aiming it at.

“Damn, I can’t believe Heivia, the transcendently handsome, genius, and rich noble, lost track of what he was doing. When a lady calls out to you, you don’t point this at her!!”

The overall atmosphere changed once Quenser and Heivia approached the door.

Heivia was a private and Quenser was a student while most of the other surviving soldiers were ranked higher. There was no reason for them to follow.

But the helicopter pilot spoke up.

“I was told to follow the infantrymen’s lead if I crashed, so I’ll leave it to you. Anything’s fine as long as we make it back to the maintenance base alive!”

One of the middle-aged soldiers who had to be ranked higher than Heivia shrugged as well.

“As the ranking officer here, I’ll say I made the decision based on a suggestion from a soldier under my command. This situation is so far outside the norm, I can’t keep up! You can take the lead!!”

All of the soldiers, including the injured, ran toward the corner of the corridor.

A brunette woman was waiting for them and she led them through the building. They arrived at what looked like a dead end due to large piece of trash, but she found gaps leading through it and to a small door. The door led to a narrow back road that the crowd did not cover.

“Is this a shopping district?”

“All of them are old stores that sell tools for craftsmen. They all have trash filling the front like that, so only the regular customers ever visit.”

They thanked the woman and cautiously continued along the road. As they did, the owners of the various small shops called out to them.

“I only have ointment and bandages, but do you want some?”

“I was just watching TV and it looks like you’re doing some cool stuff. If we help you, you’ll crush that conspiracy, right? I don’t really understand, but do what you have to!”

“Don’t make yourself ill by drinking old water! Here, have these sports drinks!!”

“Do you have enough ammo? If you can use 5.5mm, take as much as you want!!”

Some of the offers were rather dangerous, but Quenser and the others did not hesitate to accept. They had yet to resupply after an unexpected battle, so they had no reason to refuse if they could replenish their ammunition here.

“Hey, Quenser, where do we go now!? Do we return to the maintenance base!?”

“They’re surrounded by their own mob, remember? And we don’t know how far this miracle has spread. We should defeat the MIB behind all this and return once everything has calmed down!”

“I agree with that, but do you know where their secret base is? They’ve set up their conspiracy all across Oceania!! I doubt they’ll conveniently show up right in front of us!!”

“I disagree,” declared Quenser. “If you think about it, it doesn’t make sense. Our helicopter was a top-priority target, so would they really leave its destruction to an angry mob? It would be safer to mix in with the crowd and fire the mortar themselves. Also, mortars fire a shell in a long arc toward their target. No amateur could do anything as tricky as hitting a flying helicopter with one. And don’t forget the heavily armed vehicle that was on its way to the plaza.”

“Are you saying the MIB’s headquarters are nearby?”

“They used the desert pipeline and the terminal facilities it connected. Heivia, where’s the closest facility? It can be for oil, underground water, or whatever else.”

“It’s nearby. It’s less than three kilometers away! No one felt any need to pay attention to some old ruins.”

“That must be it. And their headquarters are probably where their Object is!”

Heivia’s expression stiffened.

“Wait. Are you suggesting we battle that monstrous weapon in a group with lots of injured!? I doubt we could win and it’s pointless anyway. The MIB have more than one Object, remember? What good is it to risk our lives to destroy just one!?”

“Do they really have that many?” Quenser grinned. “They are an ideological group that came from a spy organization of a former superpower. They must be experts at manipulating information. Would they really reveal the entirety of their plan like that? Would they really just brag about everything? Not a chance. They wouldn’t make a mistake like that.”

“Then…”

“Once the acid bomb failed to kill us and part of their plan was about to leak out, they panicked. Completely erasing leaked information is hard, but that’s why they chose to distort it by overwriting it with new information. That allows them to hide the overall outline of their plan.”

The mortar attack had shot down their helicopter immediately after the chat with the MIB.

Quenser and the others’ first action would be to contact their maintenance base by radio. They would be afraid of dying without passing on the information they had gained, so they would report everything without thinking about its veracity.

As a result, the decoy information would be passed to their superior officer.

That false fear would spread from Quenser’s group and to the entire military.

“It may be true they are developing Objects, but they can’t use that many at once! Hell, if they did have that great a fighting force, they wouldn’t be sneaking around! They could just challenge the coalition to a direct fight!! This is the age of numbers. In a one-against-three battle, a unit will not hesitate to send out the white flag signal and withdraw. Those are the rules yet they didn’t do that. That means they lose when it comes to numbers!!”

Quenser was guessing the MIB had only one or two functioning Objects at present. If the coalition’s ten or more Objects surrounded them, they would be destroyed in the blink of an eye.

“But they’re trying to become the world police! Their plan is to take over Oceania because it has the ideal geographical position. They need more than one Object to protect such a vast area of land. They want to conquer, rule, and control the world, so they need a ton of Objects!!”

“Their preparations aren’t ready yet. That’s why they tried to make us believe they can readily attack with several Objects. They’re trying to buy time! Once the time comes, tons of new Objects really will appear across Oceania!!”

“If you’re right, the first thing they’ll want to do is give credibility to their claim. Will they use their one Object to provide an effective demonstration? Even if that one is destroyed, they can buy the time they need as long as it scares the coalition enough. Then they can finish preparing the rest.”

“I don’t know what scale their plan is on, but they won’t have gone this far if they knew they would lose. Whether it’s through sheer numbers or some kind of trick, they definitely have something we can’t let them finish.”

“Wait a second. The coalition has over ten Objects stationed here. Are you saying they’re preparing something that can defeat that?”

Battles without Objects tended to become long and drawn out.

But this was different.

This would become a long, drawn out battle between Objects.

If that happened, it was impossible to say just how much apocalyptic destruction would spread across Oceania. The distinction between battlefield and city would vanish. The combatants would not have the leeway to make the distinction. It was possible that all life on the continent could be wiped out.

“That’s why we need to crush it,” said Quenser. “We’ll make the MIB’s demonstration completely fail and nip this problem in the bud. There’s no other way to save everyone.”

===Part 11===

Atomic number 79.

Atomic weight 196.96655.

Atomic symbol Au.

In other words, pure gold.

That was supposedly the source of their massive amounts of money.

The world had shattered to pieces in the past. The collapse of the UN and the appearance of Objects were the symbols of the existing national structure coming to an end. Amid the confusion, they had stolen a massive amount of gold bars from a certain country which had possessed more than any other nation.

Normally, this would have been immediately exposed and they would have been ganged up on, but the world had been in a state of complete chaos. They had taken advantage of a situation in which no one could determine what was stored where and in what quantities.

That thought brought a twisted smile to the lips of a young man wearing all black.

In the past few years, his smiles had become very different from what they had once been.

“Such a terrible lie. Even a child could see all the holes in it if they thought about it.”

“That is why we must ensure they do not have time to think about it,” said another young man sitting next to him. “We have plenty of money. We have the power to move the world. As a rite of passage for joining our secret community, we take half of their assets as collateral. …That is the trick to securing the funds we need. A single lie provides the money and connections we need to truly change the world.”

“The truth will eventually come out.”

“We simply have to change the world before that happens. We just have to make the lie into the truth.”

That was how they lived.

It was no different from how their predecessors had used information as a weapon to protect the peace of a superpower.

Even before the internet had become common, back when information was only passed through letters and phone calls, they had cut out newspaper articles, recorded radio programs, and otherwise analyzed everything so they could classify the complicated state of humanity around the globe. …Even the internet had begun as a single nation’s military network. Spreading that information network around the world had been their accomplishment and its influence plainly proved how much influence they had shown upon the vague concept of the “era” or “history”.

“The preparations are complete.”

That report was given by and to someone wearing a black suit, a black hat, and black sunglasses.

They had no individuality.

It was unnecessary and, more importantly, they themselves did not see any use in it.

“I see.”

The Company, Langley, the Pentagon.

They were called many different things, but they never used the three letter acronym that began with C.

They preferred to use the one beginning with M that had its origin in inaccurate urban legends.

Yes.

The MIB.

That was the name of the intelligence agency in the deepest depths of the world police which had been rumored to suppress the truth by threatening witnesses of UFOs and aliens.

“Is the enemy coming?”

“They were not torn limb from limb in the public square, so they must have made their way out somehow. In that case, they are on their way here. Being so cautious as to thoroughly investigate even innocent citizens is our way.”

There was a simple reason for purposefully using that inaccurate name.

They were not yet worthy of using the true name. Their goal was to gather together the world which was broken like stained glass and once more rule it as the world police. Only once they accomplished that would they return to their true form.

The C at the beginning of their name stood for “central”, but they currently had nothing to be at the center of. An egg would not function with only the yolk. For that reason, there would be no meaning in using their true name at the present.

They would wait until it was all over before they proudly used those three letters as they gave their name to the world.

“Then let us begin the final preparations.”

“You can begin at any time.”

They were trying to do the same thing that had been left behind more as legends than actual history.

Rather than standing on the stage themselves, they would use money, information, weapons, and political power to quietly contact and build relationships with people connected to other nations. At times they would invite them in, at times they would threaten them, at times they would kill them, and ultimately they would manipulate the fate of that country.

“I know. Leave the rest to me. If I can buy enough time to activate the other two and the approximately five hundred amplification facilities, we can announce our victory to the world.”

“We have been expecting this, but are you sure you can handle it?”

“It is true I am not an Object pilot Elite.”

A young man smiled thinly.

He wore all black just like the others, but his aura was sharper.

“But that is what gives this meaning,” he said. “So…”

His last word seemed disconnected at first.

But then he pulled out a handgun with a silencer attached.

“Leave the rest to me. Case #024, the attempt to use the rioters to kill the soldiers who had grasped the truth, is now over. Nevada 36, it is time to begin Case #025. That will be handled by me, D.C. 0.”

===Part 12===

Quenser, Heivia, and the rest of their small unit somehow managed to leave the confused streets that were overflowing with people.

Once they left the city, they entered the desert, but this was the cracked and sand-colored land of the wastelands seen in westerns. Some cacti and a run-down bar would have made it perfect, but those did not seem to be common sights in this desert.

Instead, they found train cars lying around with their insides removed. The electronics, doors, windows, chairs, and lights were all missing. This appeared to be a “graveyard”. Originally, the unusable cars had been carried to the end of the rails and dismantled, but even the guiding metal rails and railroad ties had been stolen at some point.

“I can see it now. In fact, it would be impossible to miss. Do they have any idea how to hide?”

The terminal facility which had several rusty pipelines connected to it appeared to have originally drawn oil up from the ground. The exterior was a bit more cluttered than the underground water pump facility. They were both ruins which had been left to rot and this facility clearly would not function any longer.

Quenser looked around with a binoculars-like device.

“I don’t see any obvious traps. There aren’t any mines, alarms, or cameras, but I doubt conspirators like this would simply be careless.”

“Setting up traps would just end up blowing off the leg of an unrelated civilian or kangaroo. They aren’t trying to protect this spot at all costs. Explosives aren’t a good idea when you want to keep anyone from knowing you’re there.”

Even so, there were landmines made from wood or glass that a metal detector would not catch. Quenser’s group remained cautious and used the chaotically abandoned train cars as cover as they slowly approached the terminal facility.

“There aren’t any scavenging hyenas around, are there? Heivia, even you might shoot if someone surprises you right now.”

“There’s nothing but fried chicken bones here. They were left here because there’s nothing left to eat.”

Just as there was no sign of traps, there was no sign of people.

The old oil facility was about five hundred meters away, but their confidence in that being the MIB’s headquarters began to waver.

“Is this really the logical way for them to handle this? Some kids playing hide-and-seek could wander into the terminal facility and they wouldn’t stop it.”

“Or maybe they no longer care if they’re found out,” ominously suggested Heivia.

Immediately afterwards, the remains of the oil facility were easily blown to pieces from the inside.

They first detected an intense shaking in the cracked ground. Next, they saw a massive cloud of dust spreading out. They could see it happening, but there was nothing they could do. The sea of dust spread out in every direction for kilometers and it swallowed up Quenser’s group.

The phenomenon itself was similar to a sandstorm.

A thick gray wall hid even the sunlight over a limited area. The brightness of the sky dimmed as if evening or dusk had fallen.

“Cough cough!! What the hell is this? Concrete!?”

“Grab a handkerchief, a bandage, or whatever you can find! Just cover your nose and mouth! That old building was from the time of the military nation, so it wasn’t built up to safety standards. It might have used asbestos. Protect yourself now if you don’t want to regret it later!!”

Quenser heard a low rumbling as if distant thunder clouds were approaching.

A giant shadow was visible through the gray world that cut off their vision.

It used static electricity for propulsion. It had two straight floats lined up parallel to each other. They were reminiscent of the treads on construction equipment.

Its silhouette was somehow different from a normal Object. It did not have the one hundred or so cannons extending from its spherical body like a sea urchin. It looked like a soccer ball with uniform protrusions attached or perhaps like the sea mines placed to destroy warships. The protrusions looked more like giant barnacles than cannons. It looked like the Object had volcano craters attached. It was unclear what they were meant to do and that uncertainty weighed on Quenser’s mind all the more.

His instincts turned toward the giant structure and all his senses grew more focused.

His thoughts grew clear.

The scorching heat, the dryness stabbing at his throat, and unpleasant dust clinging to his cheeks were all driven out of his mind.

His soul was shouting that he did not have even a second to worry about such trivial things.

“There it is,” muttered Heivia while forgetting to cover his mouth amid the dust cloud. “We were right! The MIB really did build one! They sacrificed the Oceanian military nation to build an Object completely independent of the world powers!!”

“Get down. Everyone, get down. …Has it noticed us? Why did it destroy its hiding spot and make an appearance?”

The gray curtain prevented them from judging the distance. The giant shadow looked both close and distant. At the very least, they could tell it was not performing the light footwork of a boxer or mixed martial artist like the princess’s Baby Magnum would. It appeared to be perfectly still.

“What is it doing? Surely they know revealing it like this is a huge disadvantage for them. So why isn’t it doing anything? They wouldn’t make an appearance like that for no reason.”

It was not that an obvious attack would have put them at ease.

Their hearts were filled with an uncanny feeling similar to viewing a newly discovered insect under a magnifying glass.

That was when an electric tone came from Quenser’s radio.

Froleytia was contacting them.

“Where are all of you!? It seems you vanished from the crashed helicopter.”

“Wow, a lecture now!? I don’t feel like explaining everything. What should we do, Quenser!?”

“Don’t press the button! Once everything is over, we can destroy the radio on the way back to the base.”

“If you don’t respond, I’ll write a report saying you died.”

“We’re alive!! We’re doing just fine!!” shouted the two idiots as loudly as they could.

Froleytia clicked her tongue.

“Where are you? What appears to be an unidentified Object has appeared three kilometers from the city. Does that have anything to do with you?”

“We happen to be right in front of it.”

“Move five hundred meters away. You’ll be killed if you’re caught in the bombardment.”

“What!?”

Suddenly, another voice cut in.

But they did not recognize this one. The transmission was not coming from the Legitimacy Kingdom military.

“Can you hear me, dogs of the Legitimacy Kingdom? I am monitoring the situation via satellite.”

“Who is this?”

“A lieutenant colonel who saw what your battalion can do during the Simple Is Best battle. My name is Wraith Martini Vermouthspray. You can ignore everything but the first name. A lot of people have the other names thanks to a ridiculous genius girl project. Over a hundred, I think.”

Quenser brought a hand to his forehead.

“I remember now. I saw you in that VIP Information Alliance armored vehicle in the desert night. You’re that officer who’s young enough to still be in her rebellious phase.”

“Are you the type of soldier that never forgets a lady’s face? I see. How horribly shallow.”

Quenser was actually a student, but explaining the details to someone from an enemy nation would only increase his danger.

That member of the Martini Series spoke with scorn filling her voice.

“The four world powers have managed to work together long enough to help with Oceania’s war recovery. Our coalition will not allow anyone else to possess an Object. I hate to release one of the Information Alliance’s cutting edge machines to protect your pathetic lives, but I am calm enough to keep my priorities straight. You can rest easy now, but do not forget to bow down before me in gratitude.”

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance.

“The coalition…?”

“Does that mean multiple Objects have been sent out to hunt down the MIB?”

Their response came from Froleytia Capistrano rather than Wraith Martini Vermouthspray.

“The Legitimacy Kingdom has sent the Baby Magnum, the Information Alliance has sent the Catapult Cargo, the Capitalist Corporations has sent the Desert Scorpio, and the Faith Organization has sent the Mirror Bowler. They will surround this unknown Object and destroy it.”

“Refer to our second generation Object as the Cannon 256. Hearing your codename makes me want to vomit.”

“Quenser, Heivia, and everyone else there, listen up. The real problem comes after the unknown Object is destroyed. There is a possibility the four coalition Objects will begin fighting afterwards. Keep your guard up if you don’t want to be crushed by a stray shell.”

Those were frightening words.

With four against one, the outcome was readily apparent. That was how modern wars worked.

Which meant…

[[Image:HO_v07_369.png|thumb]]

“Hey, Quenser,” said Heivia. “We came here hoping to be heroes, but there’s nothing for us to do. Let’s use this confusion to get the hell out of here. I don’t want to be here once the bombardment begins.”

“It’s too late for that,” replied Wraith instead of Quenser. Her lovely voice showed no mercy. “It has already begun.”

When the great roar arrived, they sensed it in their guts more than their ears. The gray dust obstructing their view was blown away like a popped balloon. Quenser initially thought it was the sound of a shell being fired, but he quickly realized he was wrong. It was the shockwave created by the car-sized shell travelling at five or ten times the speed of sound.

He could not simply brace himself and grit his teeth.

He had gotten down on the ground, but he began rolling across the wasteland as if he had been ripped from the ground.

He brought a hand to his ear and felt something wet.

He saw red blood on his hand.

“Cough!! What the…hell was…that? Was that a railgun or coilgun they fired from long distance!?”

“It’s the same either way!!”

“No, a coilgun uses electromagnets while a railgun uses Fleming’s…”

“I’m glad to see bleeding from the ears doesn’t slow down your design obsession!!”

The MIB’s Object was sitting in place. If an ultra high speed shell was sent in, it would not have time to evade. While Quenser and Heivia’s puny human bodies trembled from the damage caused by the shell merely passing by, they checked to see what damage the Information Alliance had accomplished.

A giant cloud of dust filled the air.

More attacks flew toward the Object as if stabbing a sword into an unmoving corpse. The types of attacks and the directions they came from were different. Laser beams left orange afterimages as they fried the air and low-stability plasma cannons burned bluish-white lines of light into their eyes.

It was a slaughter.

The Object was simply being disposed of.

“Wait, wait, wait! Goddammit! Cough cough! This is going too far!! You’re going to kill us too!!”

“No, wait.”

They then saw something unbelievable.

“What the hell?”

“Don’t ask me.”

The countless attacks blew away the dust as they focused on a single point.

That tore away the filthy veil.

And on the other side…

“The MIB’s Object hasn’t been touched! And it doesn’t look like it’s moved either. Did the Information Alliance miss!?”

“I’m not a psychic girl, so I don’t have the answer to everything!!”

The speed, mass, and force had all been sufficient. It was hard to think they had deflected all of the attacks with just the Object’s armor.

The Information Alliance had not given advance warning of their attack.

They continued firing the same massive shells toward the MIB Object.

As they roared through the air, they possessed so much destructive power that Quenser and the others thought they were going to be crushed as they watched on.

But this time, they clenched their teeth and saw what happened.

“It missed?”

“What? How did it land there!? It couldn’t have landed there unless its path twisted like a crank. I’ve heard of lasers bending due to mirages, but can that happen with metal shells too!?”

The dust cloud had not been created by the destruction of the target Object. It had come from the metal shells and laser beams veering away and striking the ground.

But was that a coincidence or not?

Escaping into optimistic thought was not going to help, so Quenser voiced the worst possibility.

“It has some kind of defense system. It has some kind of tech that lets it turn aside and neutralize approaching attacks!!”

The sound of someone clicking their tongue came over the radio.

Next, multiple beams of light were fired. The burning orange beams likely came from laser beam cannons while the bluish-white beams that resembled welding likely came from low-stability plasma cannons. These were not metal shells. Light and ions were completely different, so a defense system meant for metal shells would not work.

And yet…

“You’re kidding.”

“It doesn’t matter how powerful your attacks are if they can’t hit. I don’t know what it’s using, but any Object loses all of its cards if this almighty one can repeatedly turn aside any attack!!”

It did not matter.

It did not matter if it was a metal shell, a band of excited light, or a plasma weapon given directionality with tremendous magnetism.

Each Object present was a crystallization of its world power’s technology. Their concept had been honed to the extreme.

One of them primarily used metal shells but could use many different types of attacks using the container structure filled with powerful acid and the gas that created low-stability plasma.

One of them would intentionally fire laser beams at the ground around the target to turn the sand to glass and then use that glass to complexly reflect its main laser beam cannon.

One of them scattered several electron beams like firing a shotgun to constantly cause light damage while using high-quality sensors and boosters to continually avoid the enemy’s attacks.

The MIB’s Object dealt with all of them in the same way.

It had perfected turning aside attacks.

Rather than evading, it caused the approaching attacks to miss.

And it did not stop there.

“The Capitalist Corporations’ Desert Scorpio is damaged!” came a report over the radio. “For some reason, the Faith Organization’s Mirror Bowler fired on it!!”

“Don’t get mad, Legitimacy Kingdom. We may be surrounding the unknown Object, but our positions make damage from stray shots impossible. That means there must be another explanation for this damage.”

“Are you saying the laser beams the unknown Object turns aside are being targeted at our Objects?”

This time, Quenser felt as if an invisible hand were squeezing at his heart.

“This is more than a means of defense. It isn’t just turning them aside! What kind of technology lets it accurately target someone else with an attack coming in at the speed of light!?”

“Tch.” Wraith clicked her tongue. “If long-distance bombardments are out, our Cannon 256 has lost its usefulness. Your outdated first generation can take the lead role. Move in close and fire on it at point blank range.”

“Tell that to our princess!!”

“Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Keep firing shells at it!! Even if you can’t hit, try to keep them focused on defense!!”

Before he had even finished speaking, Quenser’s mind was shaken by a terrifying roar.

But this was not supporting fire from the Information Alliance’s Cannon 256.

The MIB’s Object had started to do something.

At first, Quenser, Heivia, and the others had difficulty concluding what it was trying to do.

A ring of bluish-white light with a radius of around 200 meters had appeared around the Object’s spherical main body. As time went on, more and more rings appeared. Eventually, they formed what looked like a semispherical dome that covered the entire main body except for the very top.

The bright light completely hid the giant Object.

“You have got to be kidding.”

Quenser finally realized what was happening.

As soon as he did, he felt like his heart was being wrapped tightly in wire.

“Are those laser beams or low-stability plasma cannons? No, it must be electron beams.”

“How can you tell!?”

“Anything else would have blinded us.” Quenser continued to watch on. “That bastard is bending his own attacks into a shield. Like a large particle accelerator, it’s constantly adding electron beams and accelerating them, so the speed and energy grows as time passes!”

“Ha…ha ha. The European particle accelerator out in the middle of nowhere is buried deep underground, right? Isn’t that to stop the electromagnetic waves and radiation that leaks out when the beam bends around the curves? Is it really safe to accelerate stuff in the middle of the air?”

[[Image:HO_v07_378.png|thumb]]

“Do you really think that monster is up to safety standards!? These people didn’t hesitate to use an acid bomb, so they aren’t going to care about the safety of enemy troops! And more importantly…!!”

As Quenser tried to shout, an electron beam shot by overhead after being accelerated to the limit. The principle was not all that different from the hammer throw. However, the speeds were too great for the human eye to follow, so Quenser and the others were suddenly presented with the result.

And that result was the distant roar of the Information Alliance Object being destroyed.

“What the…hell?”

Heivia looked over his shoulder even though there was no way he could see it.

His voice was trembling as much as it ever had.

Unlike a normal low-stability plasma cannon or laser beam cannon, this attack was not limited to an instant.

It continued.

It continued on and on.

It was less a projectile and more a giant sword extending beyond the horizon.

And that “sword” was swung to the side.

It swept by horizontally.

This destruction was on a scale of greater than ten kilometers, so the fear Quenser and the others saw with their eyes did not produce real fear in their brains.

As they watched in a daze, they heard the urgent “truth” over the radio.

“E-e-eeeeeeeee!? Wh-wha-what…?”

“Do not panic, analyst!! Provide an accurate report!!”

“Y-yes, major! The Information Alliance’s Catapult Cargo has been destroyed. The Faith Organization’s Mirror Bowler has been destroyed. The Capitalist Corporations’…”

“Hey, wait! I can’t move! E-eject! Ksshhhhh!!”

“…Desert Scorpio has been destroyed. The Legitimacy Kingdom’s Baby Magnum…”

It was like a cruel stroke of a pen.

No matter what technology was used to skillfully evade, the never-ending electron beam sword swept across the world. Once it caught up, it sliced the Object apart.

“…can continue fighting! The Baby Magnum is our only Object still functioning!!”

“No way…”

The princess’s survival most likely had nothing to do with her own skill.

She had simply been chosen last.

The attack had only lasted for a few dozen seconds and it had died out before reaching her.

Once it was fired again, she would be vaporized along with her metal machine.

“What do we do? What do we do, Quenser!? It’ll have the next one charged in only a few dozen seconds! What’s going to happen then!?”

The Information Alliance’s “oh ho ho” could fire along a line using her continuous beam Gatling gun, but her range was short.

The closer one was to the cannon being fired, the easier it was to avoid the attack by moving around it. But when it was pulled off at the extreme long range of ten kilometers, the speed and distance needed to evade increased dramatically.

Imagine a fan shape.

The distance to the side of the fan was not far at the base, but the closer one got to the upper edge, the greater that distance grew.

However, a future designer like Quenser saw another threat on top of that.

“The real problem isn’t the destructive power.”

He gulped.

An unpleasant sweat covered his brow, but he did not have time to worry about it.

“Objects can avoid laser weapons that move at the speed of light by predicting when they will be fired by monitoring the minute movements of the cannons and the targeting lenses. But this main cannon directly bends electron beams in midair to accelerate them via centrifugal force. There’s no hint to when it will be fired. You can only start evading once the actual beam has been fired!!”

“No one can do that!!”

“That’s why they were destroyed! Currently, no Object can evade its main cannon. None of our attacks can hit and all of its will. The MIB have created a single system that does that!!”

Only silence came from the radio.

The Information Alliance officer had either decided to withdraw or had no time to worry about Quenser’s group.

It did not matter which it was.

Quenser wiped his cheek to get rid of a liquid that might have been sweat or tears.

“Heivia, let’s find a way out of this on our own.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let’s find a way of defeating that goddamn Object before it fires again. If we don’t, the princess will be blown to pieces!!”

“Screw that!! You can go be pretend to be a hero on your own. That thing destroyed three cutting-edge Objects in an instant. It was outnumbered, but it didn’t matter! It might even be able to destroy all twenty Objects on the continent!! This isn’t something flesh-and-blood humans can handle!!”

“She’s our final hope. If the Baby Magnum gives up, who will retrieve us from the battlefield!?”

A disturbing noise came from Heivia’s throat.

If the Baby Magnum was destroyed, there would be no one left to save them. Of all the Objects belonging to the Legitimacy Kingdom or the coalition, no one else would risk losing those massively expensive machines. Even if the MIB would eventually exterminate them, they would decide to watch from afar, analyze the situation, and try to find a way of winning in the long run.

Meanwhile, the MIB’s Object would continue its arrogant rampage and the first victims would be Quenser’s group.

“If you want to live, we have to continue forward,” said Quenser calmly. “We need to at least find a way to let the princess accomplish something here. Otherwise, we’ll be the soldiers who never returned in some tragic news story.”

===Part 13===

As Quenser and the others hid at ground zero while sweating and almost wetting themselves, an armored vehicle with lots of antennae attached was parked behind some rocks about fifteen kilometers away. It was a commanding officer’s VIP vehicle.

Those special vehicles practically announced that someone important was inside, so they rarely operated on their own.

And the same should have gone for the Information Alliance lieutenant colonel inside.

“I don’t like it,” quietly said Wraith Martini Vermouthspray.

She was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl of about twelve, so the uniform of a high military officer that she wore impeccably and the number of medals on her chest seemed out of place. She was well known for using her army boots to kick anyone who jokingly mentioned the tradition of Shichi-Go-San from a certain island nation.

Inside the armored vehicle, she sat atop a sofa bed with her legs crossed. The vehicle was quite large because they would normally carry a large number of infantry, but this officer had it filled with the equipment she needed to relax: a refrigerator, a sofa bed, a dart board, a simple shower, a secret satellite internet line not connected to the military network, a laptop, and a home theater screen that took up one entire wall.

“I don’t like it.”

“The Cannon 256 was destroyed, but the pilot Elite managed to eject. We had a later model from the same line prepared, so the overall situation should not change much.”

These flowing words came from a young man in his late twenties.

He was always waiting behind the girl while she travelled across the battlefield. His rank was second lieutenant, but he looked more like a skilled secretary than a highly-trained killing machine. He was well known for immediately sending a punch toward anyone who mentioned that a certain country had once been filled with people who rejoiced at having an overbearing tsundere call them a dog.

Together, they were known as the “stopgap grim reaper”.

When a military officer committed a scandal, these two were sent in to swiftly bring that officer’s battalion back into battle. In this case, the Cannon 256’s maintenance battalion had apparently been involved in human trafficking within Oceania. For that reason, the two of them had little attachment to the Cannon 256. In fact, they had never once cared all that much for the soldiers under their command.

Wraith waved a hand in annoyance.

“Not what I meant. I don’t like what they’re claiming.”

“What the MIB are claiming?”

“They’re making the announcement around the world. They hit the top of every video site’s rankings a while ago, but this is different. I think they’re panicking a bit because the Oceanian people’s emotions have taken an unexpected turn.”

She took a sip from the soda can on the side table and displayed the screen of her laptop on the home theater screen.

This is what it said:

'''“By reducing the amount of thick onion armor which is an Object’s most unique feature, the cost can be reduced by five billion dollars.”

'''“The durability of the armor is of little importance. We have overturned what everyone thought they knew about Objects by introducing a new system which can distort any attack.”

[[Image:HO_v07_387.png|thumb]]

'''“This is the Flyby Collider.”

'''“This technology eliminates the need for repeated extreme evasive actions, so a specially selected and developed pilot Elite is no longer needed.”

'''“The selection, development, and protection of the Elite traditionally accounts for one-tenth of an Object’s cost, but we have reduced that to zero.”

'''“We will prove in Oceania that this is enough to win.”

'''“Our Early States will destroy any Object that opposes it while using a normal soldier rather than an Elite. If you think you can win, then try to destroy it, coalition. We will equally destroy everyone that wishes to preserve this era and then celebrate the arrival of a new era.”

'''“We will destroy the giant hand holding down all normal soldiers. This is a day to remember. We will regain equal possibilities for all of mankind and use that equality to produce fair competition.”

'''“Whenever someone rises up, someone else is pushed down.”

'''“Now, what will everyone do? How long will you be fooled into thinking a lifetime of being trampled on and squeezed dry is one of ‘stability’?”

'''“Before you grow sick of it all and press a gun against your head, try standing up on your own two feet.”

'''“Do not curl up on the edge of this horribly twisted world. Stand tall and walk boldly forward. We will achieve the victory needed for that. Come stand in the center of the world along with the night sky flag!!”

The young man smoothly tilted his head.

He mentally searched for the response his commander would most want to hear.

It did not matter what he himself thought.

“They are bluffing.”

“Of course they are,” spat back Wraith.

She was so irritated that she began spinning a ballpoint pen in her hand.

She was lost in thought.

(The Oceanian people are leaning toward the apes in the Legitimacy Kingdom. Even so, this much destructive power could frighten some of them into siding with the MIB. This is a conflict between emotions and interests. If the scales tilt in one direction, those idiots and their uncontrollable weapon could be invited into Oceania as heroes.)

“Mh…”

When she noticed her subconscious habit, she threw the pen away.

Spinning a pen was a mental stabilization action driven into her during the genius girl project she had gone through. There were thousands of girls with the exact same habit.

The fact that there were replacements for her had driven the girl toward bold actions. By grasping all of the dangerous opportunities that no one wanted to reach for, she had quickly risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel. However, it was not unusual for a sense of superiority and an inferiority complex to go hand in hand.

The young man achieved his stabile position by possessing the flexibility to accept oppression (yet he would grow angry the instant someone pointed it out), so he picked up the pen without changing his expression.

The girl officer pouted her lips and spoke to the young man.

“It doesn’t really matter if it’s a bluff, second lieutenant. What matters is how many people will believe it. You need to learn how the Information Alliance does things.”

Froleytia Capistrano, base commander of the Legitimacy Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, was also frowning in displeasure.

'''“We will exterminate each and every one of our enemies, but we will fully support any who help bring about our new world.”

'''“Specifically, we will supply you with this brand new technology.”

'''“In wars and any other form of competition, whoever is fastest wins. The first condition is that you possess the intelligence gathering and management ability to locate and contact us. We are always waiting for some close friends.”

A young female operator cautiously spoke to Froleytia.

“Wh-what should we do? We might be able to identify who posted the video…”

“Leave that to the deskwork groups who have nothing better to do back in safe country bases. I just hope they don’t make any strange deals in the hope of acquiring technology.”

She had no way of knowing, but that was another side of the world police.

Simply wielding a great power would only make one a feared dictator.

To be accepted by the world at large, one had to supply a great merit that made up for the risk.

“Were they originally connected to some country’s intelligence agency? I see parts of their text that is meant to work up people’s emotions. …I hope the monkey-brained higher ups can see that much.”

The information itself had been spread across the normal internet, so anyone could easily read it.

'''“We will rebuild the former world police here in Oceania.”

'''“We will bring order back to the world and fix this twisted era in which war has become constant.”

'''“We do not insist that you participate in this.”

'''“The world police will not hesitate or hold back when it comes to protecting the innocent people of the world. We wish to make that system very clear.”

'''“Listen carefully. All good people can simply rejoice at the coming age while all evil people should tremble and await its arrival. No matter what anyone might think, we of the MIB will once more release the world police and then take back our former name.”

The Legitimacy Kingdom and Information Alliance officers who were separated by a great distance muttered the exact some words:

“I don’t like it. How about I rub some mud on your face?”

===Part 14===

“Heivia, what should we call that thing? In fact, who decides on an Object’s name?”

“How should I know!? Why should we give any real thought to that annoying bloodbath weapon? Let’s just call it the Son of a Bitch!!”

Quenser, Heivia, and the others had crawled under the remains of a train. They did not know if the enemy had located them or not, but when faced with attacks even Objects could not avoid, they wanted to hide no matter how useless it was. Once they were targeted, they could not escape on foot.

“Something about this is bothering me.”

“What a coincidence! I was just wondering why a group of guys has to cram themselves into such a small space. Quenser, why aren’t you a beautiful girl!?”

“Railguns and coilguns are metal shells, lasers are light, and it worked on plasma and ion as well. Is there really a technology that allows them to bend all of those? And if they were using something like that, why can we see the Son of a Bitch in front of us?”

“What? …Come to think of it, you’re right. If it was constantly bending all light, it might appear and disappear like a mirage.”

“There isn’t some invisible wall evenly diverting all incoming attacks. It uses something else.”

Also, the MIB’s Son of a Bitch had remained motionless the entire time. It may have simply felt there was no need to evade.

However, that in itself was odd.

“After it destroyed the terminal facility from the inside, it sat there doing nothing for a while. Why? Was it waiting for the dust to clear up? Or did it need to boot up its mystery offense and defense system.”

While lying on the ground, Quenser increased the magnification of his binoculars and observed around the MIB’s Son of a Bitch.

Rubble had scattered about from the destruction of the terminal facility that the Object had been built inside. He saw boulder-like pieces of concrete, hunks of metal that had lost their original shape, and crushed plastic boxes.

But they all had one point in common.

“They’re all melted?”

“That thing’s been sending electron beams around it to accelerate them. That has to create a huge amount of energy. …But shit. That means the energy it’s releasing is enough to melt concrete. If one of those hits us, we’ll truly vanish from the face of the earth!!”

“…”

Quenser pointed his binoculars in several different directions.

He quickly found what he was looking for.

A beer bottle was mixed in with the rubble. It had likely been brought in by a member of the MIB.

The brown bottle was broken down the middle and the jagged edge glittered sharply.

“No, wait…”

“What is it, Quenser? Wait a second! Why are you crawling out from under the train!?”

“The Information Alliance’s first attack was a huge metal shell. It was forced off track and hit the ground instead of the Son of a Bitch. That’s the best piece of evidence. If I’m right, there should be traces left there.”

“You’re kidding. We don’t need to go on a walk right now!! Sure, our odds of survival if we hide are almost zero, but… Dammit, Quenser! Wait up!!”

Either way, it was all over once the MIB’s Son of a Bitch began attacking the Baby Magnum which was observing from afar without knowing what to do.

No one would try to rescue Quenser’s group which was isolated on the front lines.

They would either be killed by a giant hunk of metal or die of thirst in the desert.

Either way, a happy ending did not await them.

After crawling out from under the train, they circled around as far from the Son of a Bitch as they could while moving to where the shell had landed. The scattered rubble of the terminal facility acted as cover. They continued on while pressing their backs against chunks of concrete larger than cars.

“We’re gonna die. We’re definitely gonna die. The biggest mistake of my life was meeting someone with a death wish like you.”

“It’s called going for broke, Heivia. If you don’t see adversity as an opportunity, you’ll never make it anywhere in this shitty world.”

“Yeah, but an opportunity for who!? No matter how much I work, the son of the famous Winchell family will be ignored and some black-hearted fat ass will take all the credit. And yet I came to the battlefield so that position could be mine!!”

Even as impatience and tension shortened their lifespans, they made their way through the rubble and toward the metal shell. Their throats were oddly dry and the air stung them, so their water bottles quickly grew empty.

Their path took a C-shape as they avoided the Son of a Bitch.

About three hundred meters behind the enemy Object was a crater with a radius of thirty meters.

“There it is. We found it.”

“Seriously? You’re climbing down? That thing flew at Mach who-even-knows. The friction might have heated it enough to light your hand on fire the instant you touch it. Ah, wait! Are you even listening!?”

“…”

Quenser ignored Heivia. Or rather, his curiosity won out and he did not even hear the other boy. He slid down to the center of the crater and the helicopter pilot and the other middle-aged soldiers followed him.

Once he was left behind, Heivia clicked his tongue and started down into the crater.

They found the metal shell.

It was larger than the average passenger vehicle, but its shape was not all that different from the squashed bullets commonly seen at shooting ranges. It had likely originally been a cylinder with one end tapered off like a stake, but the front half was crushed into a round shape while the back half retained its form. It looked like a distorted umbrella.

“What is this? It looks like more than just a hunk of metal.”

“It’s one of the Catapult Cargo’s container-style shells. That Object can put whatever it wants inside. It can use a powerful acid spray to dissolve an Object’s armor, it can use a low-stability plasma cannon’s gas and a large scale battery, or it can use a COIL combination.”

“This thing really is dangerous! Was it a dud!? If it goes off now, not even our bones will be left behind!”

But that was not the important part.

Quenser looked at the rear half of the shell.

Specifically, he focused on the damage to the side.

“I was right. It has some odd damage. That caused it to lose its balance and veer off course. It was a deviation in air resistance.”

“What? You mean the Son of a Bitch didn’t do anything to this shell and it was just a design error on the Information Alliance’s part?”

“It doesn’t appear to be that simple.” Quenser gave a bitter look. “If the Son of a Bitch has the technology to accurately and systematically cause damage to shells in midair, it would be able to intentionally send metal shells off course.”

“Are you serious? Objects do usually have laser weapons to defend against ballistic missiles, but are you saying it can precisely alter shells flying toward it!?”

However, Quenser rejected that possibility.

But not in a good way.

“This is something simpler and more dangerous.”

“…?”

“The concrete scattered around the Son of a Bitch had melted. Same with the metal, the plastic, and everything else. But that wasn’t because of the residual energy of the electron beams. The one thing that wasn’t melted was a glass bottle. Even the sharp broken edges were fully intact.”

“What are you trying to-… Wait. You don’t mean…!?”

“It was acid,” spat out Quenser. “The Son of a Bitch is scattering a bunch of acid mist around itself! Just by entering the acid zone, the shells are damaged enough to veer off course. The laser beam weapons and the like are turned aside using that mist like a mirage!!”

“Wait. That doesn’t make any sense, you idiot!! Object armor is essentially steel made to resist high heat. If it was scattering acid everywhere, it would melt its own armor. And what about its main cannon? Its electron beams aren’t being randomly bent. It’s accurately and precisely controlling them to emulate a particle accelerator! How do you explain that with your acid theory!?”

“The acid particles are probably encased in a capsule that’s just slightly bigger. Those small capsules are what make up the mist. If they can control the density and friction, they might be able to electrically control the plasma and electron beams as well.” Quenser sounded as disgusted by the idea as Heivia. “Heivia, remember the medical nanotech I mentioned in relation to the Blue Cross? This probably uses that. The acid is wrapped in a safe outer shell and made to remain in the air as a colloid, but a signal sent at the necessary timing causes the outer shell to pop like a bubble. Once the acid inside touches the air, it rapidly vaporizes. That lets them control the location and density of the acid reacting to the air. It wouldn’t be difficult to build an accurate device like a particle accelerator.”

“That theory is insane…”

“After the Son of a Bitch destroyed the terminal facility and revealed itself, it just sat there for a while. Why? Because it takes time to disperse its acid armor around itself to set up its invincible shield!!”

“But if that’s the answer, we’re in trouble!” wailed Heivia while ignoring all logic. His words came straight from his exposed emotions. “You’re saying the Son of a Bitch uses a bunch of acid? You’re saying it has scattered a chemical that can melt through metal and concrete on contact!? We don’t have any equipment to handle chemical weapons! If they destroy the environment like this, there’s nothing we can do! This is just like the acid bomb! We’ll be melted down to our bones!! I don’t want that!!”

“Don’t worry. It’s okay! Think back to the Son of a Bitch’s main cannon. The rings from its electron beams only reached two hundred meters, remember? That must be the edge of its range. If we stay that far away, we don’t have to worry about the acid armor being activated around us. Any further than that and the remote control of the outer shells won’t work!!”

“You can’t know that! The wind could send the acid toward us after it bursts from the capsule. Or maybe the Son of a Bitch is holding some of its power in reserve!! No one can say where the safe line is. Oh, no. I drank all my water because I was oddly thirst. Don’t tell me…”

Falling victim to self-made fear and imaginings severely reduced one’s chance of surviving on the battlefield. A sharp eye for even the smallest hint could lead to imagined dangers if one took it too far.

“Heivia! No matter how bad the situation is, you can’t overcome it if you don’t accept it! Why did the metal and concrete melt but the glass didn’t? This wouldn’t happen with just heat. You may not want to accept that nanotech is being used without a microscope to check on it, but the Son of a Bitch clearly has some means of freely controlling the acid! And the nanotech capsules is the only theory I have for how they can spread an acid mist and freely switch it on and off!! Heivia, do you have any other ideas!? Well, do you!? Yes or no!?”

“God damn you…”

“That isn’t what I asked! Yes or no!?”

“No, you idiot!! I admit it. You may be insane and forget about the danger when faced with an Object, but I admit that insanity gives you a sort of cleverness!! So what do we do now, future mad scientist? Let’s say it is using nanotech. Let’s say the area two hundred meters around it is filled with acid capsules. What can we do!? It can melt metal shells fired at Mach 4 or 5!! We can’t even get close!!”

“True.”

Quenser looked up from the bottom of the crater and toward the Son of a Bitch that towered up amid the rubble.

And he thought while aware that their survival relied on their next actions.

“I noticed something odd in the moment just before it fired its main cannon.”

“What?”

“It almost entirely surrounded itself with the electron beam rings, remember? The afterimage made it look like a giant dome. It has to release the acid to bend its own beams, so it had to have been almost entirely surrounded in an acid mist.”

“What about it?”

“If it bends both light and the electron beams, how does it target so accurately? Even infrared and radar would be distorted as it passes through the acid armor.”

“Wait. Are you saying it has a separate targeting system!? Infantry, a UAV, a satellite, or anything really. It just needs some kind of external eyes linked to it!!”

“It might have a targeting lens attached to a tentacle-like cable that directly connects back to it.” Quenser slowly focused his mind and calmed his breathing. “Whatever it is, we don’t have to worry about its powerful main cannon as long as we destroy that ‘eye’. The princess’s attacks still won’t reach it, but it will at least eliminate the threat of instant destruction. We’ll have more time to think!!”

“Thinking is your job. Give me something to actually do! If I keep worrying over this, I’m going to go crazy with fear!!”

“Okay, Heivia. It’s time to search. We need to do a thorough search for a camera, a sensor, a radar, or anything else that can be used to target. This is no different from when enter your first love’s room and she leaves to make some tea.”

“Um, Quenser… I don’t quite follow.”

“Eh? Really? Doesn’t it make you restless!? Don’t back away now!! Wait, the helicopter pilot is looking away too!? And everyone else!? Was that really such a weird thing to say!?”

Either way, the Son of a Bitch’s invincible defense system would not last forever. If a metal shell was coated with reinforced glass or pure gold, it might pierce through the acid armor without interference.

But they did not have time to implement any such theories.

For the moment, they needed to take the initiative in whatever way they could.

“I-I’m not suggesting anything perverted like looking around for her underwear or tampons. I just meant looking at the bookshelf to see what she reads! Everyone does that, right!?”

“We get it! We can argue about this all night once we get back alive, so stop clinging to me with those bloodshot eyes! Also, a bloodline-focused noble can’t get into a girl’s bedroom so easily!!”

They used their binoculars, rifle scopes, and the other sensors on their weapons to silently scan the area.

The time it took wore at their nerves.

“There’s nothing. Nothing at all! There are a few pieces of scrap metal lying around, but nothing is giving off an electromagnetic or infrared signal. Or are they sticking to passive sensors!?”

An active sensor would send out infrared rays or ultrasonic waves and measure the reflection, but passive sensors would only detect the light and sound that came to them naturally. The latter type sent out nothing themselves, so they were less sensitive but harder to detect.

“There has to be something. The Son of a Bitch can’t target accurately while surrounded by that acid armor that bends light and warps objects!”

“How long has it been since it fired? Shouldn’t the princess have arrived by now!?”

“Wait, look over there! Something’s shining in a gap in the rubble. Is it a lens!?”

“My sensors aren’t picking anything up.”

“It might be a passive sensor like a digital camera. Either way, it won’t hurt to check it out!!”

Instead of heading directly toward it, they once again cautiously circled around in a large C-shape. If it was what they were looking for, the glass lens was the Son of a Bitch’s eye. If they were detected, they would be attacked by that electron beam cannon that easily melted through Objects.

Approaching it wore at their nerves more than handling a landmine or unexploded ordnance.

“Oh, this reminds me of the teapot.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When I was at school in my safe country, I had a hands-on lesson in handling manufactured metals and explosives. To disarm an unexploded plastic explosive, we used hot water to melt the explosive.”

“Say something ominous like that again and I’m throwing you in front of the lens.”

They were checking to see if this was a sensor or lens, but they could not simply look at it from the front. They would be killed once it caught sight of them.

And so they circled around to the side and back of the rubble it was hiding under and began to search for a cable.

“This is no different from searching for a landmine. Stab your knife blade shallowly into the sand to check for something underneath.”

“Wouldn’t you use your rifle’s sensors to search for mines?”

“Not in all this rubble. There’s too much metal to trust a positive reading.”

“Just like oil pipelines have sensors to detect oil leaking out, the cable might be covered in sensors, so don’t damage it. If you find it, don’t pull it out. If it has gyro sensors, it might react to a slight change in tilt.”

The helicopter pilot and middle-aged soldiers helped Quenser and Heivia slowly search through the sand. With sweat covering their faces, they stuck their sharp blades into the soft sand and searched along millimeter by millimeter.

“Isn’t there a toy from that island nation that’s a lot like this? You stick toy knives in the side of a barrel and the pirate inside pops out.”

“When he pops out, does it mean you win or lose?”

“If it happens here, we’ll all be turned to ash, so it isn’t funny at all. The pressure is on an entirely different level.”

Suddenly, the helicopter pilot formed a twisted smile after finding something with the broken piece of rebar he was sticking into the sand.

“There’s something here! It’s long, skinny, and it bent a bit.”

“Wait, don’t move. I’ll check with my knife.”

Heivia slowly walked over to the pilot, stuck his knife in from a different angle, and made a displeased look of his own.

His expression was that of someone who had opened a door and saw a grenade fall to the floor after being activated by the turning doorknob. Rather than pure fear, it was the oddly relaxed expression of someone trying to look away from reality.

“Dammit. There is something here. It’s a long narrow tube of some sort.”

“It travels from the pilot to you, so let’s try slowly removing the sand in between.”

Quenser and the others carefully removed the sand like they were excavating some ruins. A few centimeters below the surface, they found something that resembled a snake. They had expected to find it, but it still squeezed at their hearts to see it.

However…

“Hey, Quenser. What is this thing?”

“Can’t you tell?”

“It just looks like a rubber hose to me!!” shouted Heivia now that his tension was gone and the dam of his emotions burst.

He circled around the pile of rubble and did not hesitate to reach for the location of the supposed lens.

He tossed something over.

It was the bottom half of a broken glass bottle.

“There was never a wired sensor or lens here! There’s nothing to help us here. What do we do now!? Is there really any way of keeping the Son of a Bitch from firing!?”

“Wait. In that case, how does it get targeting information? The acid mist filling the air around it bends laser beams and electron beams. Any sensors inside the shield will pick up distorted readings because…”

Quenser trailed off.

Heivia had been criticizing him, but it bothered him when Quenser stopped speaking mid-sentence. He frantically spoke up.

“What is it? Did you have an idea!?”

“It can freely bend even light,” blankly muttered Quenser. “That means it might be able to repeatedly bend the light it wants like a periscope. It doesn’t need a cable. What if it can use the acid mist in the place of an optical fiber?”

“You have got to be kidding,” cut in Heivia as if saying he did not want to hear any more. “That would mean the Son of a Bitch truly has no weaknesses. That means it can achieve offense, defense, and targeting all with that acid mist!! What can we possibly do!?”

“…”

“Please… Please don’t fall silent!! Thinking up ways to resolve this is your job! If you’re silent, there’s nothing we can do. Please come up with some crazy idea!!”

They heard a low rumbling noise.

What looked like the rings of Saturn colored bluish-white appeared around the Son of a Bitch.

“Not good. That’s the MIB’s main cannon,” said the helicopter pilot while forgetting to blink. “Is it targeting the Baby Magnum or us!? Either way, all hope of survival is gone as soon as it fires!!”

“We need something…anything! Is there any more information that might help us find a way out of this!?”

“Of course there isn’t,” said a middle-aged soldier in a dejected tone. He had a blank look in his eyes. “What will looking around tell us? There’s nothing but piles of rubble and an overwhelmingly powerful Object. What can we find with our radios and handheld devices? We’ll only find the announcement the MIB are sending over the internet.”

But that caused Quenser to frown.

“Announcement?”

“They’re triumphantly proclaiming their victory to the world! They have to be pretty confident of their victory. There’s no way we can defeat this Object!!”

Quenser stared at the screen of the handheld device the man held out.

The MIB. The ghosts of a former superpower. No need for onion armor. A normal soldier instead of a specialized pilot Elite. Drastically reduced costs. A new defense system known as the Flyby Collider. The geographical requirements for the world police. The creation of a new superpower and the construction of a peaceful world by having a single military rule. A battle with existing Objects to proclaim the coming of a new age. The Early States.

“Hey, Heivia.”

“What?”

“The container-style shells fired by the Catapult Cargo should be located around here. Those never went off. If we swap out the fuse, we can detonate them, right?”

“So what if we can!?” asked Heivia in an irritated voice.

“We might be able to win,” said Quenser before he had finished.

A silence fell as the others held their breaths.

Quenser repeated himself.

“We might be able to defeat that goddamn Son of a Bitch. Do you want in on this gamble?”

===Part 15===

Fortunately, Quenser and Heivia were not alone. With the helicopter pilot and other soldiers sharing their fate, they had a total of about eight people.

They had no time.

More and more bluish-white rings were appearing around the Son of a Bitch. They surrounded the Object like a glowing cocoon. Once it accelerated enough, it would release a long and continuous electron beam to sweep across like the stroke of a pen. The Baby Magnum would be unable to escape and Quenser’s group had no chance at all. The fate of the target would be sealed.

And so Quenser gave quick instructions.

He pulled out several pen-like electric fuses and handed them out to the soldiers.

“Everyone, pry open the Catapult Cargo’s container-style shells which landed around this area. Swap out the fuses with these! Once you’re done, escape outside the blast range of the shell. I don’t know when exactly this will begin and I don’t have time to wait! If you don’t want to be blown to pieces, protect your own life yourself!”

“What about me, Quenser!?”

“Use your radio to perform a random search of frequencies. Find one that will reach that Son of a Bitch’s cockpit. Anywhere with an unnatural amount of noise should be on the band they’re using!”

“You’re kidding, right? Are you really going to communicate with it!? Once it traces the source of the signal, it’ll blow you away!”

“That’s why I’ll route it through several radios so the source can’t be determined. The electric fuses can receive and transmit radio signals and I’ll be using all of your radios as well. Just scatter them over a wide area!”

“What will you do?”

“Make some rockets,” spat out Quenser. “I want to make a few giant rocket fireworks like we did before. I need to borrow every single rifle bullet all of you have! Also your water bottles and cooling spray. You won’t need them if you die, right?”

“What? Why do you need water for a rocket?”

“The rocket is just a vehicle. It’s what the rocket is carrying that matters. Anyway, just do as I say. This is the only way to fight back!”

It was a race against time.

They quickly scattered and began their work.

As seen in gun malfunctions, the explosive within rifle bullets could easily kill their owner if handled incorrectly. However, Quenser was an explosives specialist. Even without an electronic scale and specialized tools, he accurately and precisely repacked the explosive with the equipment on hand. Fortunately, the area was covered in rubble, so he was able to procure the containers and stabilizing rods he needed.

The worst part was the fuse.

As he twisted tissues into a string, he mixed in a small amount of explosive. If he did not add in enough, the flame would die out, but too much would cause it to explode partway through. Adding it in evenly required the most careful attention.

“I’ve swapped out the fuse in the shell. After this transmission, I’ll throw away my radio!”

“I’m done, too. I’m just going to run away now!!”

“You’ll be using my radio as a decoy, so I won’t be able to contact you. It doesn’t mean I’m dead, so don’t forget to pick me up afterwards!”

Quenser monitored the progress from the radio in his hand.

He then heard Heivia shout his way.

“I found the frequency! It’s 10.1 GHz. Are you really going to contact the Son of a Bitch!?”

“We can’t win if I don’t. Anyway, you go hide somewhere safe!”

“And where would that be!? Not even a nuclear shelter can protect you from that thing!”

Quenser could not spend any more time waiting.

The handmade rocket fireworks were the size of a 1.5 liter bottle. He stuck them into the ground, carefully adjusted the angle, and lit the fuses.

With an explosive roar, the rockets flew diagonally up toward the Son of a Bitch.

Before arriving, they veered off course.

“What are you doing!? They’ve gone off course and those toys can’t even scratch an Object!!”

“They don’t have to hit!!”

Quenser’s strange comment was immediately followed by the rockets reaching their limit above the Son of a Bitch.

They burst and scattered their contents everywhere.

===Part 16===

In that instant, a young man of the MIB known as D.C. 0 frowned a bit within the cockpit of the Object officially known as the Early States and that Quenser and the others had been calling the Son of a Bitch.

A large number of errors had just appeared on the screen.

The Early States had no onion armor, and its only means of offense and defense, the Flyby Collider, had become unusable. Control had been lost of the electron beam being accelerated and it had flown off into the distant desert without reaching its full power.

“What? It’s frozen over? Was it those rockets? Did they create a thin layer of ice to seal the ejection points for the nanotech capsules!?”

It seemed those had been more than simple toys made with gunpowder.

They had scattered water above the Early States and then instantly froze it. The MIB man initially thought of coolant, but then he came up with a much simpler answer.

(I was just cooling spray and water bottles, wasn’t it? Such a childish trick, yet it has temporarily stopped the Flyby Collider!!)

Some static came from his radio.

Someone was cutting in on the band used by the MIB. It was not encrypted, so it arrived in the cockpit as a voice.

“Hi there, MIB. Did that surprise you a bit? I know your special weapon uses nanotech acid capsules. And to efficiently spray them out, you would do so from the top of the Object. I thought a thin but wide layer of ice would seal up all of them. Was I right?”

“You idiot,” muttered the young man while pressing a few buttons with his index finger.

He tried to scan for the source of the radio signal, but he detected quite a few. And the Early States only had its main cannon, so it could not attack all of them at once with secondary cannons.

“Did you really think you could stop the Early States with such a childish trick? To create our new superpower, we have been secretly planning this since before the Oceanian military nation was even formed! It will never lose to a trick you thought up on the spot!!”

There was a slight humming noise as if from a bug zapper powering on.

Normally, the electron beam weapon which acted as the Early States’ main cannon would achieve its maximum power by accelerating in rings with the help of the Flyby Collider, but it provided plenty of heat even without the acceleration.

The ice had been meant to cover a large area, so it was only a few millimeters thick. Even if the weakened cannon would not function as a weapon, it could melt the ice.

And once it was melted, the Flyby Collider could activate once more.

The perfect armament for offense and defense would return.

“Ha ha ha!! We still have two more Early States equipped with Flyby Colliders. You have no idea where they are, do you? And we won’t give you the time to find out. This one Object can buy enough time for them to be activated. After that, the difference in strength will only continue to grow!!”

“Is that so?”

“And in addition to the Objects, we have hundreds of amplification facilities. Since you temporarily sealed off the Flyby Collider, can you guess what those do? They scatter the nanotech across the entire continent. The Flyby Collider will cover the continent and the three Early States will control it!! You know what that means, don’t you!?”

“You will be able to freely bend those high-output electron beams over the entire continent and send long-distance attacks against our Objects from any direction. The horizon will no longer be a restriction. But did you forget about attenuation in the air?”

“This is nanotech. By regulating the location and amounts of the acid, a space similar to a vacuum can be created. Like a whirlwind, it will be incredibly short lived and only exist in an exceedingly small area, but we have the technology needed to accurately pass the electron beam through that narrow tube!! In other words, we can almost entire ignore attenuation!!”

“I see. And as the ‘flyby’ in the name suggests, I suppose you can greatly increase the output by passing the electron beam between each Son of a Bitch and reaccelerating it. What a convenient age we live in. This wonderful tech lets you overturn the simple differences between Objects. …And in exchange, acid will eat into over half the continent.”

It was similar to expanding the current local conditions over the entire continent of Oceania.

None of the Objects in range would be able to hit with their attacks and the Early States would be able to destroy any enemy by freely bending their electron beams.

It was not a long, drawn-out battle or one-on-one fight based on an implicit understanding.

They were assuming zero losses on their part.

The completely unilateral destruction would lead to all the losses being on the other side.

“The smallest system is used to rule the largest area! This is the perfect system for the new world police!! Once we succeed in Oceania, we need only expand the range bit by bit. In less than a decade, this new system will cover the entire surface of the earth. And Oceania will be at the center. Anyone who cannot keep up will be swallowed up by the new era and die!!”

“Do you really think you’ll have time for that?” mocked the enemy soldier over the radio.

But the young man’s gaze did not waver.

“Are you referring to the first generation Object waiting in the distance? It will not make it in time. This ice is only a few millimeters thick. In less than ten seconds, control of the Flyby Collider will-…”

“That isn’t what I meant.”

That declaration was immediately followed by a great roar and vibration passing through the thick sides of the Object. The noise assaulted the young man’s eardrums.

“What!?”

“Did you forget about the Catapult Cargo’s unexploded ordnance? Those are the true main weapons of an Object. What do you think is inside them? The gas for a low-stability plasma cannon? A battery filled with power taken directly from the Object’s reactor? Or maybe a COIL set? Well, it doesn’t matter what. It will all damage you just the same,” said the enemy soldier. “After all, you eliminated the expensive craftsman-made onion armor because you could rely on your Flyby Collider. Without that defense system, you only have armor which is inferior to the average Object.”

“…!!”

(Did they swap out the fuses so they could use them!?)

The young man in black looked around the cockpit once more.

There were over ten levers and hundreds of buttons. Those controls would normally be used in conjunction with a system that read eyeball movements with a laser, but he could not use that very well without the training of a pilot Elite.

Yes.

He was not a pilot Elite.

Destroying the existing style of Object with a normal soldier had held ideological meaning for them.

They would hold the most powerful position by deploying large numbers of cheap yet effective weapons.

That was their first step toward being the same as that ideal nation that had once existed.

“You aren’t an Elite! The reason you’ve just been sitting there wasn’t because disseminating the acid capsules took time. You didn’t understand the extremely complex piloting system, so a high-speed battle was out of the question for you!! You planned to remain motionless and crush any Object that approached. It makes for a nice performance, but that was your only option!! And that means one thing!!”

He could not avoid the large explosions bursting up from the ground.

If those tremendous explosions produced by the infantrymen reached the Early States before the thin ice melted, its inferior armor would be destroyed.

“Kh…”

The young man in black reached his hands toward two of the many levers.

He grabbed them.

And he pushed them forcefully forward.

“You idiot!! We knew from the beginning a normal soldier would be piloting it! We have a way of letting the computer handle as much of the piloting process as possible. Even if it is not enough for a battle against another Object, I can still move this Object! I can even move at high speeds, so I will not be caught in your explosions!!”

An explosive noise burst out.

More than one burst out.

But these were not caused by the explosions the enemy soldier had caused.

They were the sounds of the recoil as the Object moved in a lightning-like zigzag to escape the explosions.

“I’ll crush you.”

The young man in black smiled.

The thin layer of ice covering a portion of the Early States had melted.

He had his main weapon back.

“I’ll crush you!! I’ll show you how irreverent it was to think that was enough to oppose the MIB and the return of the world police! I will crush you into a cruel symbol of what happens when someone opposes us!!”

Everything turned red.

The young man’s intense anger caused his the color crimson to seep in from the edges of his vision.

And…

===Part 17===

“What are you doing?” blankly muttered Heivia. His voice quickly grew to a shout. “What in the hell are you doing!? Provoking him only made the Son of a Bitch move more quickly! This is no different from committing suicide by agitating the enemy!”

“No.”

Quenser grinned.

They had no hope.

They would be smashed to pieces if the Son of a Bitch simply gave into its anger and charged forward, but he still smiled in assurance of his victory.

“We’ve won. He’s the one that committing suicide.”

“What?”

“Objects are over fifty meters tall and weigh over twenty thousand tons. They’re as massive as two nuclear aircraft carriers, but they rule the battlefield while moving faster than five hundred kilometers per hour.” He paused to take a breath before continuing. “The inertial Gs felt by the pilot are much greater than those of a supersonic fighter. Those Gs are resisted with a special suit filled with cutting-edge technology and thoroughly altering the Elite’s body. And do you know what that means?”

“If a perfectly normal soldier is forced through those actions…”

Heivia gulped.

Quenser gave the answer with the cruelty of stabbing in a knife.

“If they’re lucky, not enough blood will reach their brain and they’ll black out. If not, a major blood vessel or organ could burst, killing them instantly.”

With a great rumbling noise, the Son of a Bitch moved off in an odd direction. It passed right by Quenser and the others. As it forced its way through the piles of rubble, it gently continued in just that one direction. That mindless action showed the one piloting the Object had lost control.

“You…gwah…aaaaaaahh!”

The voice coming from the radio seemed to be cursing them.

Quenser smiled and brought the device to his mouth.

“What’s wrong? Did the capillaries in your eyes burst? You sound like you’re having trouble because your entire vision is being dyed red.”

“You…idiot…” The young man’s voice was intermittent as if he was having trouble breathing. “This was…the last chance…to correct this world…that was broken like stained glass… The world desires…the return of its former police…. Do you…love war that much…?”

“Are you serious?” spat back Quenser. “The collapse of the UN symbolizes the destruction of the world map, but how many decades ago was that? At the very least, it was before the time of someone who sounds as young as you. The old maintenance woman is about the only person I know who is just barely old enough to have experienced it.”

“Ah…gh…”

“You didn’t know anything, did you? It was just easier to fool the people if you had some kind of historical background. For example, I could say I am a well-known noble and that I found some old documents related to an ancestor’s sunken ship that disappeared in the stormy sea long ago. Then I would go on to ask you to help fund the mission to salvage any valuables. What you MIB did was similar to that.”

It was possible the former world police had performed a useful role.

The age ruled by a superpower may have been much more peaceful than the modern age.

As a member of the younger generation, Quenser had no intention of denying something he knew nothing about.

However…

“Are you really the successors of that superpower?” spat out Quenser. “If you can say yes with a straight face, I’ll clap my hands and laugh in your face.”

At the very least, these MIB had no connection to the world police.

They were villains who were merely using that name in the distant future.

“I think you’re mistaken about something. This isn’t your country or a colony ruled by the Legitimacy Kingdom. This country belongs to the people of Oceania and no one else!! We are merely intruding for the time being. As soon as you forget that simple fact and begin taking this land because you like it, you can’t call yourselves police!! You’re nothing but invaders who look up to a former ideal!!”

“Gh…gbh.”

The sound of someone coughing up blood came over the radio.

But the Son of a Bitch still came to a stop.

It seemed that comment was something the young man could not overlook.

The movements of the Object grew more human.

“Gbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The machine quickly turned toward Quenser.

The Flyby Collider activated and the bluish-white main cannon began accelerating in rings around it.

But Quenser did not even turn toward it.

What sounded like a water balloon bursting echoed hollowly from the radio.

“That finished it.”

As if a thin thread had finally snapped, the Son of a Bitch came to a complete stop.

“That’s pretty cruel.” Heivia grinned bitterly. “You knew the more he moved at high speed the more damage would build up inside him, but you kept provoking him.”

“What else could I do? I had no other way to attack him.” Quenser shrugged and raised his middle finger. “I manipulated that bastard with my words. A perfect end for a conspirator, don’t you think?”

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 2|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Epilogue}}</noinclude>

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 3

2014-01-07T04:36:58Z

Gamerdude13: /* Part 1 */

{{Incomplete|parts=1|tparts=17}}
==Chapter 3: Police are a Means of Stopping War >> Liberation Battle in Oceania==

===Part 1===

“The military scandal shows no sign of ending. The council has made the rare decision to treat the plan to use an Object for a military assassination as attempted murder. The brigadier general thought to be the primary individual behind the plan has been called back from Oceania for…”

The princess sat on a metal staircase of a building near the Object maintenance area. She may have been bored because she was staring blankly at a 1seg TV program on her handheld device. The maintenance base zone was made up of over one hundred large vehicles and their tires measured over two meters in diameter. Stairs were needed simply to enter them.

In the dry desert, merely stepping into the shade felt much cooler. The princess had the front of her special suit open so the wind could reach her skin. As someone who spent long periods of time in an air-conditioned cockpit, her upper limit for heat appeared to be rather low.

A short distance away, the two idiots were using shovels to dig everywhere they could in the hot sand.

“Quenser, you idiot! You don’t remember where you buried them, do you!?”

“I marked it last night! I secretly stuck a stick into the ground.”

“When Myonri dug there, she found a ton of dead cicadas and almost passed out! Damn… What is going on? Where did we dig the canned foods and packaged foods leftover from the victory party!? I thought we were going to be freed from those eraser-like rations for a while!!”

“Hurry, hurry! This maintenance base is mobile, remember? If the entire unit decides to move, we’ll lose all those cans! There was beef stew in there. If we lose that, it’ll traumatize me!!”

“What are those two doing?”

An old woman stuck her head out of the Object maintenance area and spoke to the princess.

The princess looked up from the screen and toward the old woman.

“It looks like a treasure hunt.”

“You aren’t going to join them?”

“I’m not in the mood for food. And I just finished building a cicada grave.”

“???”

The old maintenance woman did not quite understand, so she decided to ask them directly.

“Hey, slacking student.”

“Eeee!! One of the lecturers has locked onto us!”

“As long as she doesn’t tell that huge-breasted commander, we’re fine! Seduce her or something to bring her onto our side!! I’ll go dig over there!!”

“No fair! Don’t run off on your own!!”

“What are you doing out here?”

The old woman’s words seemed to nail Quenser to the ground.

She was asking what he was doing “out here” because he was not in the Object maintenance area.

He slowly and stiffly turned toward her.

“W-would two cans of lunchmeat be enough for us to come to an understanding? Or maybe peaches or pineapple!?”

“I’m not asking about that. Have you forgotten why you came out to the battlefield in the first place? I thought it was to spend as much time observing the Object as possible so you could learn as much as possible.”

“Are you seriously saying that?” Quenser sounded surprised as he continued digging around randomly. “They’re repainting the Object in there. They’re using tons of organic solvent in a closed space and I didn’t dodge bullets to end up high on paint thinner.”

“It is true painting an Object does not use any specialized technology. I admit that.”

“It’s the same as a normal warship. The Object’s onion armor is made from special metal plates that have high-heat resistant and reactive elements mixed in like a katana, but that also means the armor will rust when exposed to the elements. We can’t have the pride of our nation rusting, so they’re careful to use techniques of keeping it from rusting, right? They’re not mixing in ferrite to give it high-level stealth ability and they’re not using camouflage patterns based on psychology and research into human cognizance to hide it from the human brain. There’s nothing in it for a student like me.”

Those sorts of techniques had been used for the fighters and tanks of the previous age.

This had been due to the high risk of being shot down or destroyed. But that effort was unnecessary with the colossal Objects which could withstand a direct hit from a nuclear weapon.

Also, it would be exceedingly difficult to hide a 50+ meter armored weapon from radar or the naked eye.

“The technical issues are a factor, but the paint job has more to do with the desires of the higher ups in the military and government.”

“They don’t want their hero sneaking around?”

“When sending an obviously overpowered weapon into battle, they need a tricky argument to silence the pacifists. That’s why they like the symbolism of a hero that defeats an abominable enemy in a fair fight. The Objects brought an end to the nuclear age by force, so they want to maintain the freshness of that impression for as long as possible. Letting it fade into history would be a waste.”

“I suppose they need a simple commercial to gain the massive military budget they need for them. That’s why they want the Objects to always be polished up bright like an exhibit at a motor show. They even have a lovely pilot Elite by its side to play the role of the companion girl. …But none of that is a job for the designer I want to be. Get a PR guy for that.”

Quenser shrugged.

“Let me touch the more…well…sensitive parts at the core. Like the JPlevelMHD reactor or the targeting sensor control system.”

“Don’t be silly. You aren’t touching those. Before you even think about it, you need to pass at least fifteen international exams.”

As the princess sat on the metal staircase and stared blankly up into the blue sky, she called out to Quenser.

“Qu-Quenser?”

“??? What is it?”

“Did something happen with that Information Alliance Elite? She said something I didn’t like about what she was going to do with you.”

“Um, that could apply to a lot of Elites. Which one are we talking about?”

“…There are a lot of them?”

The princess’s expression made it clear he had stirred up unnecessary trouble.

Quenser, however, did not understand what she had been trying to ask.

“Anyway, princess, I hope you haven’t forgotten about the karaoke!! During the battle with the Simple Is Best and the Hornet Storm, you had the nerve to say idols were worthless because anyone can sing!!”

“Uuh… I-I remember.”

“Good. These days, you can run a karaoke place anywhere using internet download services. There are even some here in Oceania. During our next day off, I demand to see if you have the skills to back up your bragging!!”

The old maintenance women let out a quiet sigh.

This arrangement was actually almost exactly what the princess had expected to happen and wanted to happen, but she did not seem to know what to do now that things were going more smoothly than expected.

It was an example of a plan coming back to bite her.

The two youths compared their schedules to set up a date and Quenser suddenly spoke up once they had finished.

In that instant, he became a true idiotic designer.

“Oh, right. I need to ask you too, princess. The reactor may be too dangerous, but can I check out the targeting sensor control system or somewhere else that will help me study Object design?”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“Do you not trust me at all?”

“It’s not an issue of your skill,” said the old woman in exasperation. “There are different types of people who work with Object design. There are those who build up virtual models based on theory, there are the academic types that materialize and realize those models, there are the inventor types who have a single idea and go beyond their primary field to gather everything they need to realize it, and there are the craftsmen who use their experience and the unexplainable instincts in their fingertips to produce results greater than precision manufacturing equipment. The targeting sensor control system you’re talking about is a black box that complexly combines all of those together. Not even the princess or I will touch it without reason.”

“So you entrust your life to something no one touches?”

“That is not what she meant,” said the princess. “It is maintained in sessions including more than fifty people. You can think of it like exchanging our opinions to find the right flavor for a cocktail we do not know the recipe to. Bringing in someone who doesn’t know the flavor would distort our opinions and raise the likelihood of the final drink not matching the perfect flavor.”

“An Object has over one hundred cannons, both big and small.,” continued the old woman. “Each of those has multiple sensors and the entire Object has its primary radars and sensors. Coordinating all of those is beyond human ability. Most of it is handled by computers, but there are some situations where that doesn’t cut it. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

“Laser weapons?”

“That’s right. Those move at the speed of light, so they can’t be avoided after seeing them fired. What matters is predicting the attack by observing the minute movements of the enemy’s cannons and sensor lenses. You can’t leave that to a computer both when attacking and when defending.”

In a battle between Objects, one could not simply continue to evade. One had to attack and hit.

If an enemy would predict the attack before it was fired, one had to predict where they would evade to and fire there instead.

“Ultimately, the whole system only works when you combine the precise sensors, the high-spec computers, and the fearful fingertips of a human. It seems the Information Alliance is researching completely automated targeting algorithms, but they have a long way to go towards making it practical. Then again, they’re more skilled than anyone when it comes to using information, so who knows how much we can trust what our intelligence division has gathered on them.”

“I won’t lose to something like that.”

This seemed to have worked up an odd sense of competition in the princess because she pouted her lips and took a sip from her drink’s straw.

Quenser then heard an electronic tone from the small radio in his uniform.

When he pulled it out and brought it to his mouth, Froleytia’s voice spoke to him.

“Study time is over for the moment, Quenser. Head over to the briefing room with the others. A pre-mission briefing is about to begin.”

“What do we have to do now?”

“That’s what I will explain to you. But it’s a simple mission. I’m not asking you to make a charge at a cutting-edge Object or anything.”

“I beg you to never ask me to do that!! I haven’t been doing it because I want to!!”

“Toward the end of the incident with the Simple Is Best and the Hornet Storm, a large underground structure was discovered when the ground collapsed. That was from your report, Quenser.”

“W-well, yes.”

“Today, you will be investigating the abandoned facility. This is simple post-battle cleanup. I suppose the police would call it a crime scene inspection. I honestly doubt it has anything to do with the war, but we have to control everything in the vicinity of the battle. I will be the one writing the annoying report to the higher ups, so you all can help me out a little.”

“So no other military is involved this time? There aren’t going to be any firefights?”

“That’s right. Unless you’ve heard reports of the Capitalist Corporations or the Information Alliance living in holes.”

“Wait. Wait just a minute. Are you saying you want us to carefully check over this place, but nothing – nothing at all – is going to happen? We just have to drive across the desert as if having a picnic, snap a few photos of these strange ruins, and that’s it? You promise?”

“And surprisingly, you actually get paid. With the people’s tax money, no less.”

“Woo hoo!! Oh, god! I can’t wait!! Please fill my team with a ton of female soldiers! This is perfect for Operation North Wind and the Sun. Partway through, our tension is sure to drop and then they’ll strip down to their thin inner clothing!! Hooray! Hooray!!”

“Yes, yes. I get it. You will be in your usual filthy guy team with Heivia. Have fun in your sweaty world of little clothing.”

“Hah hah hah. If you really do that, I’m starting a coup.”

“Hah hah hah!! Do you really think I’m the type to joke about this?”

The transmission ended with a click.

Since Froleytia said it, there was no doubting that he would end up surrounded by men. However, Quenser was not about to give up. He still had hope.

“On a boring investigation, the investigation team, guard team, and transport team will all move as one big group. Even if my team looks like a boys’ school, there’s still a chance of cute young girls in the other teams!! I haven’t lost yet!!”

“Sigh. Are you sure it will turn out that well?” asked the old woman.

“I am!! After all, the end of February is getting towards the end of the fiscal year!! The top levels of the military need to use up their extra budget or the defense budget will be lowered next year. Sending out tons of unnecessary soldiers for a boring mission could easily happen now!!”

“Why are you only this good at calculations at times like this?”

That was of course because this topic was the most compatible with the pink brain cells of adolescence.

At any rate, Quenser raised his hands in an expression of joy.

“Fwa ha ha ha ha ha!! I won’t let our commander win this time! The amount of girls in skimpy, wet, and see-through clothes would surprise a soft drink commercial! Paradise awaits me!!”

===Part 2===

===Part 3===

===Part 4===

===Part 5===

===Part 6===

===Part 7===

===Part 8===

===Part 9===

===Part 10===

===Part 11===

===Part 12===

===Part 13===

===Part 14===

===Part 15===

===Part 16===

===Part 17===

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 2|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Epilogue}}</noinclude>

Kenshin no Keishousha:Registration Page

2014-01-04T19:24:23Z

Gamerdude13: /* Kenshin no Keishousha series */ filling in the rest

To re-iterate the registration procedure:

*You are required to register which chapters you wish to work on. One portion of text per translator, please.

*Registration is on a "First Come, First Served" basis. Please register your intended chapters on the project's registration page.

*Maximum number of translators per volume is two, unless the volume is a collection of smaller stories. Another way to interpret this is no more than two translators should be working on the same "story arc".

*Translators may only register for portions of one volume at a time within each project. This is to prevent "biting off more than you can chew".

*The Registration page is not a binding contract, and translators are encouraged to negotiate between themselves which portions to register for.

*Anonymous Translated Contributions are required to inform [[User:Thelastguardian|thelastguardian]] and the designated Project Supervisor of the intend Chapters as shown on the corresponding Registration page before any major contribution.

*Portions that are not updated for a significant time may be taken over by another translator after getting permission from the Project Supervisor. The new translator is encouraged to start over to maintain consistency, but the old translation will not be deleted at least until the new translation is finished (and probably not for some time after that).

==''Kenshin no Keishousha'' series ==

===Volume 1===
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]] '''Completed'''
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 1 Chapter1|Chapter 1]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]] '''Completed'''
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 1 Chapter2|Chapter 2]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]] '''Completed'''
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 1 Chapter3|Chapter 3]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]] '''Completed'''
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 1 Chapter4|Chapter 4]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]] '''Completed'''
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 1 Epilogue|Epilogue]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]] '''Completed'''
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 1 Afterword|Afterword]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]] '''Completed'''
<br style="clear:both"/>

===Volume 2===
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 2 Prologue|Prologue]] - [[User:hayashi_s|hayashi]] '''Completed'''
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 2 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]]
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 2 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]]
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 2 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]]
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 2 Epilogue|Epilogue]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]]
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 2 Afterword|Afterword]] - [[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]]
<br style="clear:both"/>

===Volume 3===
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 3 Prologue|Prologue]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 3 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 3 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 3 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 3 Epilogue|Epilogue]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 3 Afterword|Afterword]] -
<br style="clear:both"/>

===Volume 4===
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 4 Prologue|Prologue]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 4 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 4 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 4 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 4 Epilogue|Epilogue]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 4 Afterword|Afterword]] -
<br style="clear:both"/>

===Volume 5===
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 5 Prologue|Prologue]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 5 Chapter 1|Chapter 1]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 5 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 5 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 5 Epilogue|Epilogue]] -
::*[[Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 5 Afterword|Afterword]] -
<br style="clear:both"/>

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|-
| Return to [[Kenshin no Keishousha|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Registration Page]]

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 2

2014-01-04T08:30:24Z

Gamerdude13: /* Part 4 */

{{Incomplete|parts=5|tparts=9}}
==Chapter 2: My Job is to Transport Paint >> Intelligence Battle in Oceania==

===Part 1===

“The situation is quite simple,” began Major Froleytia Capistrano in the pre-mission briefing room which was filled with soldiers. “The Information Alliance is turning false accusation against us and the Legitimacy Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion intends to respond in full force. Beginning now, the entire battalion will prepare our response. They will be sending a second generation Object, so if you don’t want to die, help the princess score as many points as possible.”

Froleytia stood on a large platform and the white wall behind her was being used a projector screen.

Their greatest threat at the moment was displayed there.

“Our only confirmed enemy at the moment is the Information Alliance’s second generation Object named Simple Is Best. Its main cannon is a low-stability plasma cannon and its propulsion method is an air cushion for both naval and land use, but its most unique features are the pointed beak-shaped armor added to the front and the countless high-output ion thrusters attached for auxiliary propulsion.”

Several documents were displayed at once.

The intelligence division’s research and analysis of the Object had made enough progress for that much information.

Heivia leaned over and whispered to Quenser.

“(What were those high-output something or others?)”

“(A type of ion engine. Normally, ion engines are attached to space probes to provide weak but lengthy effects in zero-gravity, but this thing uses the energy of an Object’s reactor to forcibly produce an insane output. You can think of it like a space shuttle sitting on its side.)”

“(Why would they use such a pain-in-the-ass method?)”

“(There are several rumors about that. Some say the Information Alliance is trying to build a flying Object. Others say they’re trying to develop a perfect circulation system to search for habitable planets outside the solar system. Either way, the Simple Is Best is a project being used as a starting point.)”

“(What? I thought it was the Faith Organization that was desperate to make a flying Object. Wasn’t it called the Sky Castle Project or something? Instead of going with the more scientific-sounding ‘outer space’, they wanted a more religious-sounding ‘kingdom above the clouds’.)”

“(It’s nothing but a reckless project for the moment, but if another world power completes that great desire of theirs ahead of time, it would break the hearts of the Faith Organization’s people.)”

“(I see. Attacking at their weak spot like that does sound like the Information Alliance.)”

“(But I hope it all ends up as a pipe dream. A flying Object would be hard to shoot down and shooting it down might cause an impact on the level of an asteroid and cause an ice age.)”

Looking over the diagram told them the Simple Is Best had a V-shaped board-like part at the bottom and a long straight part extending from the back. Overall, it had an arrow-like shape. The spherical main body was essentially attached atop the three lines making up the arrow.

The V-shaped part was used to regulate the horizontal direction and the straight line on the back was used to provide space for the aforementioned high-output ion thrusters. Atop that long board like float, several cylindrical thrusters were attached at an angle. Each and every one of them was over twenty meters long.

“As the name suggests, the Object’s strategy is very simple. It does not try to evade at all. It ignores any damage, approaches its target along the shortest and fastest route, and fires its main cannon at almost point-blank range. Despite being an Object, its top speed reaches the sound barrier. Once targeted by it, your average Object cannot escape.”

“The sound barrier,” muttered Quenser who had become just one of the crowd. “But that thing’s a 200 thousand ton hunk of metal. Can it really maintain control while moving along the surface at the speed of sound?”

“Keep your comments to yourself, war criminal.”

“I can see that nickname sticking, so please stop calling me that!!” cried Quenser with tears in his eyes.

Froleytia ignored him and continued speaking.

“The beak-like armor on the front is a collection of extremely thin metal leaf. You could call it a crystallization of the best aspects of reactive armor technology. Whenever it detects an effective attack such as from a low-stability plasma cannon or railgun, the thin armor is detached to reduce the damage. If you keep at it and continue fire, it will eventually run out like a roll of toilet paper, but that is where its speed comes into play. While you are taking your time doing that, it will reach point-blank range. In other words, it will not take evasive actions. It will trust in the strength of its shield and charge in from the front, no matter what kind of main cannon it is up against.”

Its specs could make one think otherwise, but the enemy’s greatest feature was its armor rather than its speed. Even the Legitimacy Kingdom was already developing Objects that focused on speed and tried to approach within close range of the target. However, it was something else entirely to not take any evasive actions and stick to the shortest course no matter what.

This direct weapon would charge in on a straight line and endure any attack to the front.

And based on the difference in speed, the Baby Magnum could not escape.

Being targeted by that Object would essentially mean the end of the match.

“The aforementioned toilet paper is only equipped to the front of the Object. Attacks from the side, back, or above will get through just fine. …But the Simple Is Best will of course be aware of its own weakness. If the Baby Magnum tries to circle around, it will likely anticipate the action and adjust its position to compensate. The situation would be different if we had more than one Object as well, but we only have one at present. It will be extremely difficult to get behind the Simple Is Best due to its superior speed.”

Heivia had been casually listening, but then he frowned.

“Wait a sec.”

“What is it, war criminal #2?”

“At least make me #1! Being ranked under him is the biggest insult!!” he shouted before getting to his question. “Did you just say if we had more than one Object ‘as well’?”

“Oh, that.” Froleytia brushed up her bangs in annoyance. “According to some information the intelligence division got their hands on, the Information Alliance is trying to use the false accusations against us to contact the other world powers. They are suggesting they work together to defeat a common enemy. I do not know who will go along with it, but we might have to deal with more than one Object if someone wants to use this as an opportunity to damage the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

Quenser and Heivia grimaced.

The current age was known as one of clean wars fought by Objects. Objects influenced everything in those wars. The funds and technology poured into the opposing Objects was important, but the number of Objects was even more important. If it came down to one-against-three, the result was immediately obvious, so it was best to retreat as soon as possible.

“But any newcomers will simply be trying to take advantage of the situation. The Simple Is Best is the main pillar of the enemy force, so destroying it could easily convince the remaining Object or Objects not to stick around and bring even more damage to themselves.”

In that case, their primary target was the Simple Is Best.

To escape a disadvantageous battle against multiple Objects, their only option was to swiftly destroy that central pillar.

===Part 2===

In the true desert away from the city and devoid of the asphalt and concrete that gathered heat, the nights grew cold quickly.

Quenser’s military uniform was made to handle the cold, but his teeth were chattering as he watched a 1seg broadcast on his military handheld device. The backlight dimly lit up his face as if he was holding a flashlight below his head.

“Oh ho ho. Welcome to the New York Miracle Net Festa! All of you around the world in front of your monitors, be charmed by this enchanting song and dance!! Yay!!”

“Yay!” shouted Quenser. “Bouncing breasts and a shaking ass!!”

“Quenser, you idiot! What are you watching in the middle of our night mission!?”

“It’s called escapism! I came to the battlefield to learn about Object design, so why was I am I freezing to death out in the desert!?”

“Just turn it off, you idiot! Do you want to die!? …No, wait. Let me see it before you turn it off!! Come to think of it, why do you have an invitation code to that net concert!?”

“I don’t know why, but I get emails from her a lot. She can monitor whether the code was used or not and she said she’d shoot me on the battlefield if I didn’t watch it.”

Suddenly, Quenser’s radio emitted a quick electronic tone.

The princess’s voice soon followed.

“Quenser, explain further.”

“Wow! I don’t know what’s going on, but the princess is pissed! Since she hasn’t realized her request to explain further contradicts that, she must be the type who doesn’t realize how angry she is. But why!?”

Quenser frantically asked Heivia for help, but his friend gave the wonderfully gentlemanly response of raising his middle finger and shouting “How should I know!! Maybe it’s divine punishment!!”

“All military transmissions are checked in the server, you know? What do you think you are doing there?” asked the princess.

“Wow!! Are you mad because I’m watching an Information Alliance idol’s ass on a mission against the Information Alliance? I didn’t realize you were such a stickler for the rules.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Comments of “this is very bad” started coming from the other soldiers spread out across the desert whose names Quenser did not know.

“If you’re gonna go with divine punishment, keep it to him!! If you use your main cannon, you’ll blow me away too!!” shouted Heivia without even trying to hide his self-centered fears.

“Honestly, why are boys so easily manipulated by girls who sing? Anyone can sing.”

“I can’t let that comment go, princess. I hope I can expect great things of your singing ability. If you aren’t aware, a certain island nation has this thing called karaoke!!”

“(Twitch) …Y-you’re on.”

“You can kill me!! As long as he dies, I don’t care if you fire the Object’s cannons!!”

Quenser ignored Heivia’s shouting and pulled the night vision goggles down from his forehead.

His vision was digitally corrected and filled with green light.

But he continued to make desperate jokes.

“So it’s finally come to this. I’m dressed in all black and wearing night vision goggles.” In the moonlight and the chill that seemed to stab at him through the darkness, his breath was white. “All right! Now I’m part of the special forces! I’m the same as the Capitalist Corporations’ Hollywood movie stars. You can shake my hand at an amusement park!!”

“Hey, Quenser. Could you quit being so annoying and get down? If one of their snipers blows your head off, I’m not gathering your remains. They’d be too heavy.”

Heivia was dressed in an all-black uniform as well. He was lying face down on the fine sand while complaining to his rotten friend who was approaching the limit of what Heivia could put up with.

The desert was cold at night.

Some deserts were made of cracked earth and some were plains with a few weeds growing at about the thickness of a filthy middle-aged man’s half-grown beard, but the ones seen in sightseeing pamphlets that were covered in nothing but sand had a large temperature difference between day and night. Because it was midsummer, the temperature did not drop below freezing, but Heivia still clicked his tongue after stabbing an electric thermometer into the sand and reading the display.

“Six degrees. It’s six degrees Celsius. You could throw some fish out here without needing to refrigerate it. What the hell is going on?”

“I think the distance is a bigger problem,” said Quenser as he lay down on the sand. “We’re ten kilometers away. Why did we have to get off the truck so far away? This isn’t a carefully maintained sports field. Walking there and back is going to shorten my life.”

“Shut up. Don’t act like you could even run a city quarter marathon with plenty of water stations,” spat out Heivia. “At ground level, you can only see about five kilometers away. The earth is round, so the horizon covers up everything beyond that. But this is the empty desert. If the tires disturbed the sand and created a dust cloud as we travelled, it could poke up above the horizon.”

“I know what you’re trying to say, but shouldn’t the dedicated scouts handle these long-range reconnaissance missions? This doesn’t make sense. Everyone may have forgotten, but I’m only a student who wanted to learn about Object design on the battlefield.”

“And I’m a radar analyst! That’s an indoor job!! I’m supposed to have a cool intellectual position in an air conditioned room and a bottle of mineral water in hand, so how did I end up on this hellish picnic where I’m freezing my ass off in the desert!?”

Their commanding officer then contacted them over their radio.

Froleytia seemed to be as annoyed as them.

“Quiet down, war criminals. Do you really think you are in any position to choose your job? You should be thankful we actually need you.”

“Wow. I’ve been wondering. Shouldn’t we add a monitor to our radios? Then we could be supplied with someone – anyone – in a micro bikini.”

“You don’t get it, Heivia. This is the world of imagination. If everything is out in the open, it isn’t as arousing.”

“Okay, war criminals. Keep in mind that I can dock your pay for disrespect at any time.”

Quenser and Heivia solemnly prostrated themselves in front of the radio.

However, their apology was cheaper than a movie theater hot dog.

“(Quenser, this is because of your creepy comment about the world of imagination!)”

“(Are you sure it isn’t because of your comment about wanting ‘anyone’!?)”

“Sorry, but I can hear everything the two of you are saying.”

After having that pointed out, the two of them travelled through the desert night while keeping close to the ground.

The desert reflected the moonlight, so it was a bit brighter than a thick forest. However, Quenser had not undergone the basic training to receive the benefit of that. He had been relying solely on the overall greenish image produced by his night vision goggles.

“My eyes hurt. You aren’t supposed to have light shining on your eyes from so close. Are you sure this isn’t going to ruin my eyesight? Is the blue light really okay?”

“You’re complaining about that on a battlefield where you could be blown to pieces in one second? More importantly, we need to keep following the remains of the pipeline. We’re surrounded by nothing but desert, so we’d lose our way even with a map.”

Heivia pointed toward a two meter thick metal pipe a few hundred meters away. It continued in a straight line from the horizon behind them to the horizon in front of them. However, it was brown and rusted, it had large holes in places, and it simply disappeared for a while at some points.

“Is that a remnant of the old Oceanian military government?”

“Yeah. It was a pipeline that drew water up from deep underground and carried it to large-scale farms.”

“It isn’t for oil?”

“It’s what you call water resources. These days, the trendy thing to do is add ‘resources’ to something and find a way to make money off of it. As long as it makes money, it could be anything. Water resources, underground resources, power resources, food resources, human resources, sightseeing resources, living resources, forest resources, IP resources, and so on. It feels like they wouldn’t worry about endangered species if they didn’t have a price tag.”

“Sounds like something the Capitalist Corporations would love.”

“The Faith Organization would probably love this too. There are rumors of ghosts appearing at the ruins of the purification facilities and water gathering facilities the pipeline is centered around.”

“Are you sure it isn’t people searching for anything of value?”

“Honestly, I don’t know why I even mentioned it. There’s no point in a test of courage when there isn’t a single girl around.”

The desert was not level. It undulated like a stormy sea. When they did not choose their route carefully, they were forced to walk up and down large hills again and again. To avoid exerting unnecessary energy, they tried to choose the most level route possible.

“I feel like I’m lost on Mars.”

“This is better than that. I hear there’s tungsten buried below our feet.”

“Tung…what?”

“Just to be clear, this isn’t gonna make you any money. It’s spread out too thinly for that. If this area had a valuable vein, the old military government would have dug it all up in search of funds.”

After continuing a little longer, they saw some faint light beyond the desert horizon.

Heivia crouched down even lower and whispered to Quenser.

“That’s gotta be it. They’re really going all out.”

“What is the Simple Is Best doing right now?”

“It is preparing to charge in from a position thirty kilometers from our maintenance base,” cut in Froleytia. “That’s much further out than that light you can see. It’s hiding beyond the horizon.”

There was no sign of any enemy soldiers, but the closer they approached their destination, the higher the risk of cameras and sensors. Quenser and Heivia hurried on while checking for those things using their night vision goggles’ sensors.

“This is insane,” said Quenser as he walked across the cold sand. “We haven’t heard anything back from the intelligence division team that went in ahead of us, right? Would you normally send a student somewhere that dangerous?”

“You are not the only one involved in this,” answered Froleytia.

“Still…”

“We are both professionals, so we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. But if you run across the intelligence division team that screwed up there, take them back with you. Over.”

“I am ''not'' a professional! I’m a student!!”

Once they arrived within three kilometers of their destination, even those two idiots stopped speaking as much.

They began to crawl slowly across the undulating sand dunes. Once they arrived at the top of one dune, their vision opened up.

[[Image:HO_v07_155.png|thumb]]

“Ow…”

The night vision goggles’ display filled with fluorescent green.

Feeling a slight pain in his temples, Quenser raised the goggles to his forehead and used his naked eyes.

The dark and calm desert landscape had completely changed.

The brightness had come from countless lights, both large and small.

“Yeah, it’s just as we thought,” groaned Heivia.

The scene several kilometers ahead of them resembled a temporary supply base. What stood out the most were the twenty large truck-like vehicles. They also saw prefab lodgings for over one hundred soldiers, gondola-equipped cranes in place of watchtowers, a communications facility, and defensive weapons ranging from tanks to mobile surface-to-air missile vehicles.

The lights ranged from large searchlights held by cranes to vehicle headlights and military flashlights. The one common factor was the complete lack of concern about hiding the light in the darkness.

While lying on the sand, Heivia pointed at one of the large truck-like vehicles.

“That’s one of the Capitalist Corporations’ mobile barricades. Were they called Ex. Walls? This confirms it. Another world power has joined in to crush us along with the Information Alliance’s Simple Is Best.”

“That vehicle is a barricade?”

Instead of a container on the back of the truck, it had what looked like a cylinder lying on its side. Both the front and the back of the vehicle had what looked like a driver’s compartment. Overall, it was reminiscent of a train.

Heivia bluntly answered Quenser’s question.

“You’ll see soon enough. C’mon, let’s get moving.”

As soon as he spoke, the driver’s compartments on both sides of the vehicle began moving in opposite directions. The metal cylinder in the middle expanded like an accordion. In no time at all, it formed a giant spring-like barricade that was seven meters thick and three hundred meters long.

Quenser expressed his understanding with a displeased look.

“Oh, I get it now.”

“Stupid, isn’t it? By lining up two rows of ten of them, they can form three kilometer barbed wire walls on either side.”

“Are they planning to stop our princess with those so the Simple Is Best can crush her?”

Barbed wire was most often viewed as a tool to prevent intruders, but it could also be laid out on the ground in coils to wrap around tank treads and armored vehicle tires.

But Quenser frowned as he lay on the sand.

“Are the Capitalist Corporations really thinking that? Forget barbed wire. You could surround the world in walls made from the same reinforced concrete as nuclear shelters and it would mean nothing against an Object’s main cannon.”

“Look closely and think about it. Why do you think their toys are called Ex. Walls?”

“What?”

“The Ex. stands for explosion. Change the magnification and look more closely. That coil of barbed wire is made to break into pieces if it receives a powerful shock such as from a bombardment. And each individual piece functions as an anti-personnel mine. That one truck probably has somewhere between two and three thousand.”

“Why? Scattering landmines isn’t going to stop the princess.”

“It would still be a problem concerning the image of clean wars using Objects.” One corner of Heivia’s mouth twisted up in a smile. “The war treaties forbid indiscriminately laying or scattering mines. But they can weasel their way out of it in the international conference room by saying their enemy was the one that scattered them. In other words, the princess could end up being labelled the bad guy for pulling the trigger. It would be awkward to be accused with that while stationed in Oceania to help with the war recovery. That weapon is meant to stop her with that threat.”

“That’s ridiculous. It’s a weapon that ignores its actual ability and plays word games? It sounds like the stupid games nobles play.”

“You should avoid saying that in a Legitimacy Kingdom safe country.”

Froleytia then spoke up over the radio.

“Those mobile barricades form a block three kilometers across. They are being prepared simultaneously in eight places to surround our maintenance base and the Baby Magnum. Once that is complete, they will approach to tighten the circle. If we grow impatient and send out the princess, the Simple Is Best will charge in at supersonic speeds.”

The missing intelligence division team had snuck into one of those eight places, but they did not know which one.

“Those barricades are mobile, so they can connect to their military network and move to match the Object’s location. Once they have sealed off the princess’s actions as best they can, they will create a path for the Simple Is Best to charge in. To be honest, this could be bad if they are able to work together well.”

The Simple Is Best’s strategy was quite broad. It used its thick front armor and the acceleration of its high-output ion thrusters to ignore the damage done to it and charge in close enough for an extreme close range main cannon blast.

The princess’s only chance was at the moment of intersection.

The Simple Is Best had a monstrous top speed, but that meant it could not make tight turns. And to reduce weight, its additional armor was only on the front. If its charge was evaded by moving quickly to the left or right, it would be the princess’s turn. If she fired on the Simple Is Best when its backside was showing, there was nothing it could do to avoid destruction.

Effectively sealing off the left or right evasive routes using the barricades could be called a fatal means of hindering the princess.

“And that’s why the intelligence division tried to do something about it. But they failed. I don’t know if it’s the Capitalist Corporations or the Information Alliance behind this, but they aren’t stupid.”

“They’re connected by their military network. Even if someone can’t hack in from outside, that link can be cut off by sneaking a virus directly into one of the barricade’s communications facilities. A single 25 euro chip can bring an end to this.”

“And that’s what we’re on our way to do?”

“If we weren’t needed, we wouldn’t have been called out here. Also, all eight sites are being infiltrated at the same time. As long as the virus gets in at one of them, we win.”

“That means there isn’t a problem if seven of the groups fail. Doesn’t that make us expendable?”

Quenser was relatively useless in normal combat unrelated to Objects, so Heivia ignored his whining and double-checked the layout of the barricade facility they were about to swiftly attack. He checked the arrangement of people, the patrol routes, the directions and strengths of the lights, the presence of various types of sensors, and so on. When his life was at risk, it looked like a treasure chest of information that he never got tired of looking at.

“I see an unfamiliar armored vehicle. Is that one not from the Capitalist Corporations?”

“Does that make it from the Information Alliance?”

“I’d say so. It’s probably an Information Alliance officer’s vehicle. He’ll be here in order to make sure the Capitalist Corporations goes along with their secret arrangement. It has a lot of antennae on it too. It’s probably for a VIP.”

“A VIP? So does it have 24/7 air conditioning, a fridge full of sodas, a microwave to reheat fried chicken, a home theater system, internet access, a simple shower, and a sofa that turns into a bed?”

Despite Quenser’s comments, his expression showed no jealousy.

“Even if he has a bodyguard team, I can’t believe an officer would head alone into the middle of an enemy nation’s unit like that. If the Capitalist Corporations changed their mind and decided to get some information from this powerful officer, he could end up on the receiving end of torture and truth serums.”

“He was probably ordered here. As we know all too well, if a higher up orders you to do something ridiculous, you can’t fight it. …As a student, you may be unaware, but the military is a constrained and harsh place.”

“I would never guess that from looking at you.”

The two idiots began a light fistfight, but then the hatch for the VIP armored vehicle opened. They frantically resumed observation.

“Wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait! What the hell? She looks twelve. That girl is about the same age as the one we saved from the human traffickers, but she’s arrogantly wearing a military uniform.”

“As I said, the military is a harsh place.”

“Yeah… She’s a young Information Alliance officer, so she might be a product of their genius girl project. I don’t know the official name, though.”

“Why is it limited to girls? Some old man’s tastes?”

“You joke, but that might actually be the reason.” Quenser’s expression was perfectly a serious. “It’s an issue of the symbolism. There’s a lot of difference in nuance between a manly hero standing before the people and a feminine saint standing before them. By showing a delicate, weak, lovely, and fair maiden working towards the war, the people will confuse their desire to protect her with a desire to fight.”

“I want to send my applause and a bomb to the person who seriously thought that up. How long will the people continue to be innocently moved by some child actor hired with money?”

“That ‘oh ho ho’ is a popular idol back in the Information Alliance safe countries. It’s no different from that. I hear one’s status in the Information Alliance changes based on your ability to insist that clearly deviated justice is correct. Supposedly, a popular dog from some commercials gets better medical care than your average office worker.”

Quenser glanced toward the assault rifle hanging from Heivia’s shoulder. It was primarily used as a mid-range weapon, but its various sensors allowed it to be used for sniping to a certain extent.

“So are you going to do it? I bet you could shoot her right in the head or heart from here.”

“She’s just the poor overseer the Information Alliance sent here. She’s unrelated to the surrounding barricade, so shooting her won’t stop them.”

“That’s good.”

“Tell me about it. We need to thank god that we can actually choose our enemy.”

Also, causing a commotion before injecting the virus would ruin any chances of their plan succeeding.

After checking over the entire enemy formation, Heivia slowly stood up.

“Okay, let’s get this horrible job over with.”

“Are we really going to sneak in there? They’ll spot us immediately with those lights everywhere. Shouldn’t we at least get an invisibility coat, an infinite health recovery first-aid box, and a charged particle bazooka? It’ll be impossible otherwise.”

“Shut up. Didn’t you know human beings can defeat a demon king with only cotton clothes and a wooden stick?”

Heivia led the way and Quenser followed. Rather than heading straight in, the two of them circled wide to the side as they travelled through the darkness.

The massive amount of light seemed to cut off the barricade facility from the rest of the desert, but that created a large gap between the lit areas and the unlit areas. And because it was an outdoor facility, the lights did not illuminate everything evenly.

In other words, there were still dark areas.

“(Do you really think we can sneak through the darkness without being noticed? What if there are a ton of sensors that you can’t see?)”

“(I’m being careful. But you don’t set up traps along animal trails. No one wants the alarm going off all throughout the night because of every little boar and rabbit. While preparing to set up the barricade so quickly, they don’t want delicate sensors everywhere. Their own people would be setting off the alarm all the time.)”

Quenser tilted his head, wondering if that was how it worked.

This was hardly the first time, but it was still quite thrilling to entrust his life to something he did not understand himself. However, he did not want to be left behind by Heivia while so close to enemy territory.

“(We can’t hide our footprints in the desert.)”

“(They’re working all over the place. There are already footprints everywhere.)”

But just as they took the first step, they stopped.

“What?”

Quenser looked around in confusion with his goggles still on his forehead.

He was focusing with his ears rather than his eyes.

“I hear an odd rumbling noise.”

“!?”

Heivia immediately pushed Quenser to the ground. While getting down on the cold sand himself, Heivia whispered to Quenser.

“(Hey, you idiot! Turn off all your sensors! Goggles, binoculars, everything!! Don’t answer your radio even if our huge-breasted commander calls. We’ll be blown to pieces the instant we send out any radio waves, infrared rays, or anything else!!)”

“(What?)”

“(This is no time to be clueless, Quenser. Unless this rumbling is being caused by a legendary dragon, there’s only one thing big enough to cause it!!)”

“(Wait a second!!)”

An unpleasant sweat covered Quenser’s body in an instant.

But time was not going to wait.

While lying on the sand, he dug through his coat pocket. He pulled out an electric thermometer and stabbed it into the sand.

“(7.5 degrees!)”

“(You’re kidding. It was six degrees earlier. Damn, have all these lights raised the ground temperature!?)”

As they whispered back and forth, they reached for a different pocket. What they pulled out was nothing special. It was a cold spray used for wrist sprains and such.

Quenser stabbed the thermometer into his uniform and sprayed the cold spray over his entire body. He sprayed it enough to bring it to 7.5 degrees just like the ground.

“(Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!! It’s all over if its sensors pick us up!!)”

“(We can do this, but will it really fool that collection of cutting-edge equipment? It has tons of sensors to detect people other than thermo!!)”

“(From what I’ve heard, it’s the type that can detect a mole using a combination of body temperature and electromagnetic field disturbance. All the iron sand in the desert should keep that from working perfectly!!)”

Quenser’s ears were slammed by a sound like the roar of the wind or like the air being crushed.

He could not move a finger any more.

[[Image:HO_v07_168.png|thumb]]

The countless stars and the faintly colored moonlight in the cold desert sky should have spread thinly across the entire area, but a giant shadow seemed to devour one area of that. It was an artificial device. It was a colossal weapon. It was the synonym for war that had brought an end to the nuclear age and still reigned as strongest.

It was an Object.

This was a 1.5 generation Object from the Capitalist Corporations.

“It’s just as the final transmission from the missing intelligence division team said.” His voice sounded truly unhappy. “That’s the Hornet Storm from the Capitalist Corporations. Completely unlike any other Object, that demonic machine was developed to attack large cities.”

The giant spherical main body that was the symbol of Objects appeared to be supported by an air cushion propulsion device. The back of the Object was covered by several giant metal panels that looked like a rounded version of peacock feathers.

However…

The biggest oddity about Hornet Storm’s design lay elsewhere.

“It’s an Object without a main canon,” muttered Quenser. “It only has 100 anti-personnel laser beam cannons. When fighting another Object, it uses its peacock feathers to refract and reflect all of its lasers to create a concentrated attack on a single point of the enemy’s armor.”

The princess’s Baby Magnum also had its main cannon distributed over seven cannons that could be used to cut off the enemy’s escape and use the opening to focus an attack on a single point.

However, it was rare to take it to this extreme.

This was similar to tearing everything down to the ground in order to distribute and focus the attacks.

“That weapon wasn’t made for a clean war,” groaned Heivia. “When a dictator uses all the people in a large city as a shield, that Object can kill him without leaving room for negotiation. This modern day grim reaper can ignore the hostages, charge into the city, and accurately fire on only the target. Once that thing has you located, it can kill you as easily as entering a name into a search engine. It’s specialized toward human targets, so you could call it our natural enemy.”

Even if its weapons were known as “small” laser beam cannons, that was in reference to Object-sized weapons. A single shot had the destructive power to easily melt a tank or shoot down a fighter.

Each of the 100 cannons could accurately target anything in a five kilometer range and it could penetrate any obstacle to utterly destroy its target. And a flesh-and-blood human could not evade a laser beam cannon that approached at the speed of light.

In a single action, it could accurately and precisely eliminate 100 enemy soldiers.

And what if, with only a few seconds of lag for cooling and re-aiming, it could repeat that action indefinitely?

What if, no matter how many hostages were gathered as shields, it could slip its attack through the gaps and hit only the target?

What if any human counterattack could be completely ignored thanks to the thick armor unique to Objects?

That would no longer be a fight. It would be divine punishment unilaterally poured down on them. In a way, the overwhelming intimidation this brought was more than that of a second generation Object that fought a war in a distant country. That Object could be sent to battlefield or safe country alike. It opposed the idea of the clean war and it was a nightmarish existence for guerrillas and terrorists hiding in cities.

And that Object was calmly crossing the battlefield as its air cushion blasted sand into the air.

Unpleasant sweat covered Quenser and Heivia’s bodies as they held their breath and tried to hold onto their lives. It travelled extremely close by the Capitalist Corporations soldiers working to prepare the barricade in the artificial lights.

The countless cannons attached to its spherical main body moved slightly in the darkness and its targeting sensors constantly scanned the ground.

This was the king of the food chain.

It did not run or hide. It simply travelled the world searching for prey.

As Quenser was forced to lie on the ground when faced by its arrogance, he could not even feel frustrated by it all. He could only wait as time passed. He dreamed of the moment when he could think in the past tense that it had left. He wanted to shout out and run away, but he had to desperately suppress that desire.

For five minutes, the Hornet Storm moved slowly as if evaluating its surroundings.

That must have been its standard procedure because the Object did not find any prey and it quickly accelerated away from the barricade facility.

Quenser felt like he could not breathe.

Even after its giant form disappeared beyond the horizon, he did not immediately get up.

“It must be going around to the eight barricades in order like that.”

“Yes, but it is estimated to have a top speed of over 550 kph. If the alarm goes off somewhere, it’ll be there in no time. We can’t use this cold spray forever and there’s nowhere to run in the middle of the desert. Once it detects us, our lives are literally over.”

“So when will it be back here?”

“If it uses that same pattern for all eight spots, I’d say a little under an hour. Of course, that’s assuming we don’t trigger the alarm.”

They did not want to meet that monster again.

The two of them both wanted to finish their business here as quickly as possible.

The real mission was still to come.

===Part 3===

In and of itself, their task was simple.

Their enemy was a unit made up of both the Information Alliance and Capitalist Corporations. This unit had the second generation Simple Is Best, the 1.5 Generation Hornet Storm, and the multiple Ex. Wall mobile barricades that would keep their own Object from moving.

It would be difficult for the princess’s Baby Magnum to deal with it all on its own, so Quenser, Heivia, and the others were secretly infiltrating the communication facilities for the mobile barricades. By directly injecting a virus into the hardware, control of the barricades could be stolen at the crucial moment.

The mobile barricades would remain within the enemy unit until the battle began. At that point, they would be used to block the movements of the Simple Is Best and Hornet Storm.

Normally, they could be easily blown away with the overwhelming firepower of the Objects, but this would occur in the middle of an Object vs. Object battle. When an instantaneous decision could influence the direction a war was headed, a lag of a few seconds could be fatal.

The primary target was the Information Alliance’s Simple Is Best.

The Capitalist Corporations’ Hornet Storm was simply trying to take advantage of the situation, so they were likely to swiftly retreat the instant that advantage disappeared. But if it did not, the princess would then have to defeat that 1.5 generation Object.

Even with two Objects attacking at once, the princess had a decent chance of winning as long as they set up the battlefield so she could fight them separately.

“As usual, this is one hell of a blueprint. Was this really simulated on a super computer?”

“Try to think more positively. If they could draw up this blueprint, that means there’s at least that much hope left. And complaining isn’t going to change anything.”

Heivia took the lead and Quenser followed through the moonlit desert. They were already within the grounds of the barricade facility.

The facility itself was meant to allow the preparation of the large truck-like mobile barricades and provide access to the military network, but it had many other buildings and vehicles.

“Why did they prepare such a large area? The barricades are mobile, so they’re just going to approach our maintenance base once they’re set up. I can understand a convoy, but won’t the prefab lodgings be left behind?”

“The barricades are going to gather around an Object to stop it from moving. Staying away from the front lines is safer. They can retrieve the other things once the battle is over.”

There were a lot of lights. The gondola-equipped cranes used in place of watchtowers had their own spotlights, the vehicles parked around had headlights, and the large halogen lights usually used for stages and construction sites were set up on large stands here and there.

Heading out into the light would have been suicide and cutting in front of a light would cause a giant shadow.

But the lights were not set up to provide even light and there were spots they missed. By circling behind them and mixing in with the shadows, Quenser and Heivia’s silhouettes were hidden by the bright backlights. Lights that produced a lot of light and heat also helped fool different types of sensors.

Even when they were less than ten meters from enemy Capitalist Corporations soldiers, the soldiers could not see them behind the lights.

While walking across the sandy ground, they spoke quietly to each other.

“We have to inject this virus into their system. Where’s the communications facility?”

“That’s it fifty meters ahead. That small prefab building. The one with a lot of antennae on the roof.”

“Will it also be left behind when the barricades close in?”

“I’m sure they have separate armored vehicles for command control. By dividing the system up, there is less of a risk of being cut off from the military network. Of course, that provides more ways into the system for people like us.”

The communications facility was the cornerstone of the mobile barricades, so it had strict security and a lot of lights. They would not be able to reach it by walking through the darkness.

Heivia pointed at a line of military trucks parked nearby.

“Hey, Quenser. Let’s hide under those to get close. It’ll be harder to spot us than if we walk around with our heads down.”

He got down on the fine sand and slid under the back of the nearest truck. That left Quenser with no choice. He imitated Heivia and crawled under the tuck without knowing the right way to do it.

He smelled something that resembled demi-glace.

“Damn them. What do they have loaded in this truck? Why does the enemy get to eat such nice food?”

“They have over 100 people working to set up the barricade. They’re probably busy supplying soap and toilet paper too.”

Suddenly, they heard footsteps on the sand.

And from more than one person. An unpleasant sweat appeared on Quenser’s cheek as he hid under the truck and pressed against the sand.

“(Three, four…no, five. Dammit. This is pretty much up to chance now.)”

As Heivia complained, he pulled his handgun from its holster and attached the suppresser. Quenser’s eyes opened wide.

“(If they notice something’s wrong, the Hornet Storm will rush over here, remember!?)”

“(I’m not preparing this because I ''want'' to use it, you idiot!)”

Meanwhile, multiple military boots were clearly headed their way. Not only could they hear the footsteps, they could feel a kind of pressure. These soldiers were not simply walking around the trucks. They were obviously walking toward the trucks.

Quenser squeezed his eyes shut when he saw Heivia holding up his handgun in the cramped space below the truck.

He waited for a while.

But nothing happened.

“…?”

He heard the sound of truck doors opening and closing. The truck above them then creaked like a bed. He doubted it would actually happen, but he felt as if it were going to crush him from above. They were on soft sand rather than hard asphalt, so the space between the bottom of the truck and the ground might not remain the same.

Finally, he realized there was something else he had to focus on instead.

“(Hey, hey! Quenser, you idiot! Pull yourself together!!)”

“(Eh? Ah?)”

“(They just climbed into the truck. Why do you think that is? Unless they’re planning to kill some time with some rural car sex, they’re going to drive the truck away!!)”

The engine rumbled to life.

As Quenser’s lungs filled with the unpleasant smell of exhaust, he desperately suppressed the instinctual urge to cough.

If the truck drove away, Quenser and Heivia would gather more attention than a birthday cake.

Heivia had already started to crawl to the next in the line of parked trucks.

“(Hurry up, Quenser! If you stupidly get caught, it’ll put me in danger too, so hurry!!)”

“(Wait, wait, wait! The truck’s about to drive off. If I move now, I could be crushed by the tire!)”

“(That’s better than having your head filled with holes by tons of bullets bought with the money from the donation boxes next to convenience store registers, isn’t it? Quit panicking and get over here!!)”

Quenser felt like he was choosing the better of two deaths as he desperately began to move. He crawled out from under the ominously vibrating truck, passed right by the tire supporting a weight of several tons, and managed to reach the next truck.

He just barely made it out when the truck drove off.

But it was too soon to breathe a sigh of relief.

They once again heard the sound of an engine starting from overhead.

“(What the hell!? What the hell!? What the hell!?)”

“(They’re sending out each truck in turn. They might be forming a convoy to drive across the desert!)”

“(What? Was eating all that delicious-smelling food not enough!? A noble like me can’t even hope for dessert after a meal!!)”

Quenser and Heivia could not have themselves brought into the open, so they rolled along the line of trucks as the trucks drove off, one at a time.

More than ten trucks left and only two remained.

“(What the hell was that? Is it finally over?)”

“(No, wait a second.)”

In addition to the drivers of the trucks, there had been some soldiers who had helped load wooden boxes and other things into the trucks. They were scattering as they returned to their normal posts.

But…

“Hm?”

A single pair of boots stopped.

The boots had their heels pointed toward the two boys, but they quickly turned 180 degrees. The toes were now pointed their way. The ground had been made of soft sand and the trucks had created tire tracks when driving away, but this soldier may have noticed another unnatural trail as if something large had crawled along the ground.

The legs bent as if the solider were crouching down.

A soldier about their age poked his head down to peer under the truck.

Without hesitation, Heivia fired his suppressor-equipped military handgun into the soldier’s face.

Quenser instinctually covered his eyes with his hands.

“(Do you have a death wish!?)”

“(Shut up. If I hadn’t done anything, he would have caused a commotion! More importantly, Quenser, you cover up the blood with sand. I’ll drag the body under here!!)”

“(You could at least let me be the one to shoot him. The last thing I want is to get killed while cleaning up after you.)”

A shot to the brain did not create as much blood as to the heart. Heivia hid the body under the truck as if moving a sack of flour while Quenser did as instructed and hid the blood with the desert sand.

“Either way, they’ll find him as soon as they move the truck. Let’s get this virus in the system and get the hell out of here.”

While ignoring the blood on their hands, Quenser and Heivia crawled out from under the truck and approached the nearby single-story prefab building. To keep sand out, the floor was elevated like with buildings along the beach. Quenser hid under the floor while Heivia pressed up against the door. Heivia removed the parabolic microphone from the front of his rifle and tossed it underhand to Quenser. Quenser caught it and pressed the microphone against the floor above him.

(One set of footsteps in each corner save the east. Also, one hard sound. Chair legs maybe? It’s near the center.)

After acquiring the necessary information, he jotted down a general diagram, folded the memo into a paper airplane, and threw it to Heivia.

Heivia checked it, jammed a large military knife into the gap of the door, and forcibly destroyed the lock.

Quenser hid under the building for a dozen or so seconds and then approached the door.

He peered inside and saw Heivia had already cleared the room.

“Ugh. There’s blood everywhere.”

“I’m not planning to send this image into people’s living rooms. More importantly, it’s time to get to work, Quenser,” said Heivia as he swapped out his handgun’s magazine.

The prefab room had tables chaotically lined up within. Many different pieces of electronic equipment were placed on top, but there were only two obvious computers. The others were mostly old audio equipment and phantom equipment that radio enthusiasts would pursue within an electronics district.

“Ahh, ahh. Everything’s soaked. They’re covered in so much red I can’t read the displays.”

“Don’t complain, student. I went to some effort to keep my bullets from destroying the machinery.”

Quenser ignored the specialized radio equipment and approached one of the computers. The Legitimacy Kingdom had given him a postage stamp-sized chip with the virus on it. Once he infected the system with it, their job was done.

“Huh? Where’s the Shift key on this thing? This one’s Esc, right?”

“This is a Capitalist Corporations machine. It isn’t gonna be exactly the same.”

“It does have a chip slot though, right?”

The two idiots exchanged a glance and frantically looked around at the outside of the computer. Fortunately, the media type used here seemed to be common between systems. There was a small slot for inserting the stamp-sized chip.

“Hey, Quenser. Can you actual hack?”

“If I could, I’d be working somewhere that pays better. I just have to leave all the work to the program here.”

As he spoke offhand, Quenser typed on the unfamiliar Capitalist Corporations keyboard.

“Let’s see… If I just insert the chip in normal mode, it’ll be rejected, so I ignore this. I need to reboot, spam the function key to bring up the BIOS screen, and switch the boot device priority so it’ll boot up from the external media.”

“Hey, how much longer? They’ll discover the dead soldiers from the lack of periodic reports. We need to get ready to leave.”

“Wait, wait. I just need to reboot again! Okay, done!! The virus has begun to overwrite the system before the military security can catch it. We can just leave it now!”

After seeing the blinking of the access light move from the stamp-sized chip to the HDD, Quenser removed the chip from the slot.

He moved over to Heivia who had the door cracked open to check outside.

“We just have to leave now. What’s our escape route?”

“We can’t just walk out.”

Quenser and Heivia had slipped past the guards by crawling under the line of military trucks, but all but two of those trucks had left. They could not use that same route.

“Then what do we do?”

“Let’s climb into the back of one of the remaining trucks. I doubt they’re going to stay here all night.”

As soon as he had finished speaking, Heivia crouched down and ran toward canopy-covered back of the truck. Quenser followed and Heivia pulled him up into the truck.

Half of the truck was filled with wooden boxes, but they did not have the warnings about flammability and shaking that boxes of weapons would have.

“Goddammit! It’s bananas and milk! Are they preparing a nice healthy breakfast!?”

“Should I go see the base counselor if that combination sounds dirty to me?”

The two idiots opened one of the boxes and quenched their thirst with some of the milk inside refrigerated containers.

Then they waited.

A few footsteps approached the military truck. One toward the driver’s seat and two or three toward the back. Heivia hid behind the boxes and used his knife to silently attack them when they had fully climbed into the truck.

After making sure they were all dead, Quenser approached the front of the truck. He knocked twice on the metal panel dividing the driver’s compartment and the back.

The driver mistook it for a sign that they soldiers were all onboard, so he smoothly drove off.

“We need to have a serious discussion about our pay. There’s definitely something wrong with you getting paid the same as me.”

“If you have a complaint, go talk to the people that pay us.”

That was when they heard an unnatural clunk in the back of the truck.

“!?”

“!!”

[[Image:HO_v07_186.png|thumb]]

Quenser immediately took a defensive stance but was unable to do much of anything. Heivia used an arm and a leg to knock Quenser to the ground and used his other hand to draw his military handgun. He had seen movement behind one of the wooden boxes. Whoever it was must not have thought the box would function as a shield because they swiftly moved to eliminate Heivia.

The two of them held their handguns toward each other at a distance of less than a meter, but they both suddenly stopped moving.

Heivia frowned.

“What? Is that a Legitimacy Kingdom handgun?”

“You aren’t from the Capitalist Corporations?”

The person who uttered that confused comment and moved from behind the box (without lowering the gun) was a blonde-haired woman a bit older than Quenser.

Her uniform had a different camouflage design than theirs, but it was a Legitimacy Kingdom format.

The uniform had an unfamiliar emblem sewn into the shoulder.

While lying helpless on the floor, Quenser spoke up.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t there an intelligence division team that went in ahead of us and disappeared?”

===Part 4===

Enough time had passed that the mobile barricade group had likely noticed the dead soldiers. However, the military truck Quenser and the others were aboard had already left the area.

After Heivia decided they were far enough away, he fired a few times toward the driver’s seat.

The truck immediately swerved to the side and crashed into a sand dune.

Heivia climbed out of the back of the truck, forced open the driver’s side door, and dragged the body out onto the sand.

The blonde woman checked over the body for ammunition, rations, and the like.

“My name is Lisa Deauville. My rank is second lieutenant. I would appreciate it if you would help me handle my team’s mistake.”

“I’m impressed you managed to escape. What about the others?”

“They were not so fortunate,” the intelligence division soldier named Lisa said.

Quenser did not try to ask for further details. There were people at the maintenance base zone who would do that. Right now, he needed to rejoice that even one of them had survived.

He pointed at the truck with his thumb.

“Our vehicle is about ten kilometers ahead. We’ll head there, switch vehicles, and return to the maintenance base.”

“I’m sure I’ll be stuck driving. Hey, Quenser! You sit in the passenger seat to navigate. I’m not gonna let you get a head start on flirting just because you’re useless.”

After sitting in the driver’s seat, Heivia operated the shift lever and freed the truck from the sand dune it had run into. Before the truck even came to a full stop, Quenser grabbed onto the passenger side, opened the door, and tumbled inside.

And then blonde-haired Lisa also sat in the passenger seat by sitting on top of Quenser’s lap.

At this point, Heivia pulled out his military knife.

“Quenserrrrrr!!”

“Ask her what’s going on, not me!! (I won’t deny I like it, though.)”

Even through the thick military uniform, Quenser could feel the unique softness and warmth of a woman.

Lisa, however, showed no sign of being bothered by the situation.

“There are only two seats in here and I cannot assist you from the back of the truck. If I sat in the driver’s seat, I would get in the way, so the only possible place for me is the passenger seat.”

“Quenser, swap seats with me!! You don’t have a license? There’s nothing but desert as far as the eye can see. You just have to step on the accelerator and turn the steering wheel. Anyone can do that!!”

They would be spotted regardless with any cutting-edge sensors, but they still did not have the guts to drive through the desert night with the headlights on.

But as previously stated, the desert was not flat. It had sand dunes with height differences of several meters. It may have been similar to stopping time and driving over the stormy ocean.

And so…

“Ohh, ohhhhh, ohh. Th-this is a very bumpy road. Hey, boy. Stop squirming below me. And why has something been pressing up against my butt for a while now?”

“Don’t underestimate adolescence, officer cadet! We can fill the time waiting for the elevator by talking about nothing but a large tree that looks a lot like a woman’s waist. You need to be prepared for this kind of thing before you choose to sit on my lap!!”

“At least look at the map, you idiots!! You’re pissing me off! Do you want to frighten everyone away by bringing tears and snot to the face of Heivia, the super genius, beautiful, wealthy, athletic noble who will infiltrate enemy territory, rescue hostages, or anything else you need!? Is that what you want!?”

However, there were some things one did not give up even after such a desperate plea.

Quenser was in the same mindset as someone refusing to hand over the bit of ice cream stuck to the bottom of the lid, so he began contemplating pulling out a Hand Axe plastic explosive to stop Heivia from switching seats with him. He also feared the possibility of Lisa alone sitting in the driver’s seat. If it came to that, he would bite his own tongue.

“Huh? Wait, Heivia. We need to contact the maintenance base and the princess to tell them we injected the virus and what our escape route is. Once we have control of the mobile barricades, the Baby Magnum can begin its attack and we need to make sure this truck isn’t destroyed in the process.”

“Don’t be stupid!! As soon as the virus took effect, it sent a log from the enemy server to our electronic simulation division! Also! My hands are full driving!! If you need something done, do it yourself!!”

At any rate, they needed to give a report.

There were eight mobile barrier locations. A dangerous infiltration mission had been carried out at each one. If they reported their success, the other teams could abandon their dangerous mission and leave. He doubted it would happen, but if another team managed to infect the system at the same time (or slightly slower), Quenser did not want them to make the first report and take the credit.

And so Quenser reached for the radio.

“Huh? Damn, I can’t reach.”

“Of course not. Your arms are wrapped around me like you are holding a log. Do you need a radio? You can use the one in my pocket. It is in the chest pocket.”

“Ngh… So it’s near your chest? …Is this it? Huh? This is awfully soft…”

“Stop that! Why are you touching my-…no, don’t make me say it!”

“Why can’t this truck divide down the middle and leave a bike for just me?” grumbled Heivia in the driver’s seat.

After some difficulty and some occasional squirming from Lisa, Quenser finally managed to remove the radio from her uniform.

He held it in front of her, set the frequency, and entered the encryption key. Once he secured a mission bandwidth, he brought the radio to his mouth while his face was covered by the blonde hair flowing down Lisa’s back.

“This is Team A. Mission complete. The virus has infected the system. We are, um…”

“We’re the Capitalist Corporations Steel Father 8-ton truck travelling down route 32 with no lights on. Tell them to make sure the Object doesn’t fire on us,” supplied Heivia in annoyance.

Quenser began to repeat the information.

“Um, we are the Capitalist Corporations Steel-…”

But then another transmission cut in. It came from one of the teams infiltrating one of the other mobile barricade facilities.

“This is terrible! HQ, can you hear me!? Please respond!!”

“Team F, this is HQ. We can hear you just fine. If there is a problem, it lies in your ability to speak. Simply put: calm down.”

“How am I supposed to stay calm!? What the hell is going on?”

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance. Lisa reached over from Quenser’s lap and used a hand to point Heivia’s head back toward the road.

(Did one of the teams screw up and get spotted?)

The virus had already been injected into the Capitalist Corporations military network. There was no reason to continue the infiltration mission any further. Quenser adjusted his grip on the radio to make sure they did not die for no reason.

But then he stopped.

Team F continued their report from another mobile barricade facility.

“We found the missing intelligence division team. We counted, and this is all of them! They’re all dead!! Damn them. They gathered all the captured soldiers in one place and ‘prepared’ them. They ignored all the war treaties and tortured the prisoners!!”

Quenser felt a chill run down his spine.

He felt like he had just learned the cute kitten sitting on his lap was a strange carnivorous beast.

Heivia immediately slammed on the brakes as hard as he could.

As the truck came to a sudden stop as if it had caught on something, Heivia drew his handgun.

But before the boy could aim, Lisa had already accurately pressed her own handgun against his temple.

Unlike Quenser and Heivia, she was not held in place by a seatbelt and the sudden stop could have easily knocked her through the windshield, but she still moved more quickly.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Heivia while almost dumbfounded.

Lisa was obviously more skilled. Heivia must have sensed that fact because he began to sweat.

Lisa showed no sign of caring about Quenser who was held down beneath her butt. She must have thought she could immediately handle any movement he took.

“That report said Team F found the bodies of the intelligence division team. They said they counted them. Then who the hell are you!?”

“I am a Legitimacy Kingdom soldier. I did not lie when I gave you my name and rank.”

“Hah! Are you serious? If you weren’t up to no good, you wouldn’t have pretended to be who we thought you were. There was something you didn’t want us to know, wasn’t there!?”

“Even if you checked the military database, you would not find any data on me. That is the sort of unit I belonged to! If we had remained back there, we would have been found by the Capitalist Corporations and Information Alliance who were protecting the mobile barrier. I intended to tell you the truth once we reached safety!!”

“Yeah!? And what is that truth!?”

“I…My unit was-…!!”

Lisa – or the blonde woman going by that name – began to tremble as she started to speak.

But then a giant shell landed near the truck.

It landed to the left from Quenser’s perspective.

They were struck by a tremendous impact.

Quenser thought the reinforced glass on the door would shatter instantly, but the entire door came off. The heavy military truck was a mass of metal protected by bulletproof equipment, but the entire thing floated up into the air. In all seriousness, it spun horizontally in midair twice. It landed on the tires, but its momentum caused it to roll on its side.

“Gh…bh!?”

Quenser could not breathe as he was practically hung by his seatbelt. But it was not strangling his neck. The pain came from the pressure to his ribs and lungs.

“What…the hell?”

Quenser heard the high-pitched sound of something breaking. Once he focused on his unsteady vision, he saw Lisa Deauville breaking the windshield. She bent her supple body, slipped through the hole, and escaped into the desert night.

“Get…back here!!”

Heivia broke the windshield and made his way out as well. Quenser was left behind, struggling with his seatbelt.

“Damn… What even happened!?”

Because of the unusual weight on it, the seatbelt would not come undone even once he pressed the button. He searched through his uniform and pulled out the survival kit. There was a small cooking knife inside.

(That was an explosion from a shell… A shell!? It wasn’t targeting the truck, but I doubt there’s another target in this empty desert. So was it a stray shot? But from who!? Wait… It can’t be!!)

He received his answer almost immediately.

A giant form passed by in front of the truck. It was on such a large scale that it could flatten the several meter tall sand dunes. It was a mass of metal and weapons. A massive amount of military budget had been brought together to construct that symbol of war.

It was an Object.

“The princess!?”

It was not just the Baby Magnum. The Object was making constant organic movements to the left and right as if taking the small steps of a boxer or mixed martial artist. Those were evasive actions. And there was only one thing that an Object had to fear taking damage from.

Another giant form was moving quickly through the desert night as if performing an intense dance on a scale of hundreds of meters.

This was the assistance from the Capitalist Corporations.

That urban invasion Object had no main cannon and was deemed generation 1.5.

“The Hornet Storm.”

An Object’s main cannon could easily hit at a distance of ten kilometers, so seven or eight hundred meters was extremely close range.

At that point, Quenser came to his senses.

“And I’m in the ring with them!!”

He frantically pulled the cooking knife out of his survival kit, but he did not have a chance to use it.

Before he could, the darkness of the desert night was split apart.

He had not seen the attack itself. He had seen the afterimage of the dust and moisture in the air being instantly fried. Several dozen thin orange lines of light gathered together and landed near the truck Quenser was struggling within.

The landing spot produced intense light as if from welding.

But he did not have time to complain about the sudden headache. The massive heat caused the surrounding air to expand, so what resembled a blast of wind struck the truck. The 8-ton truck had already rolled on its side, but this rumbling wind caused it to roll like a plastic bottle. The latch for the seatbelt finally gave out and Quenser was freed from his bonds. He was then slammed into the driver’s side door.

“Gbh!! Damn…it…”

The truck was lying on its side again, so Quenser crawled out the broken windshield.

The two Objects were continuing to fire their giant shells while taking relatively small evasive movements.

Quenser did not know what had triggered the direct conflict.

The Legitimacy Kingdom’s electronic simulation division might have noticed the virus was in the system and sent the Baby Magnum out before Quenser and Heivia could report. Or the Hornet Storm might have gotten too close to the maintenance base zone and the Baby Magnum had been sent out without knowing if they could win.

Either way…

(Wait, wait, wait!! We’re supposed to be attacking the Simple Is Best that is waiting for a chance to charge in from a distance. If it charges in at supersonic speeds now, the princess will be attacked from two sides at once. Can she really win even with control of the barricades taken!?)

Also, the Legitimacy Kingdom’s plan had been to use the mobile barricades to stop the Simple Is Best and have the Baby Magnum destroy it. They would then watch the Hornet Storm and attack it if it decided to continue fighting.

That plan was no longer going to work.

Two back to back battles against a single Object was different from fighting two Objects at once.

“Well, sitting around isn’t going to help. I need to contact Froleytia and see if there’s anything I can do.”

However, he was on the verge of passing out from the intense pain assaulting his entire body. He lay on the cold sand that almost felt frozen and pulled out his small radio.

But then something else happened.

Lisa had escaped and Heivia had pursued her, but the two of them were running back to the truck.

“…?”

Quenser grew cautious even as he lay on the ground.

It was unlikely they had gotten completely turned around in the empty desert. He could only think something had happened. For example, Heivia could have lost his gun, so Lisa was now pursuing him.

(But Heivia had more than just his handgun. Whether his gun jammed or he had it shot out of his hand like a movie villain, he would just have to switch to his assault rifle.)

But Quenser did not have time to think.

He did not know who Lisa Deauville was, but she was likely an enemy.

As tension ran through his body, he pulled out a Hand Axe plastic explosive and a ballpoint pen-shaped electric fuse, but then something unexpected happened.

Heivia ran right past Quenser.

And just before doing so, he frantically shouted to his terrible friend.

“You idiot!! How long are you going to sit there!?”

“…?”

He wondered if the other two had agreed to flee to safety due to the two Objects.

He was partially right and partially wrong.

After a few seconds, Quenser finally realized what Heivia and Lisa were running from.

The ground was disappearing.

A strange sand waterfall had appeared maybe 100 meters away and more and more of the ground was disappearing into the depths. The region was expanding and it was approaching where Quenser lay.

“Wh-what is that!?”

“How should I know? There must have been something under the desert and the Object fight caused it to collapse!!”

Surprisingly, it was Lisa who answered his question.

Not only that, the blonde beauty stopped in front of him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to his feet.

“Are your legs hurt? I can’t escape the collapse while carrying you. If you don’t want to be caught in the middle of it, then run! Right now!!”

Still not knowing what was going on, Quenser retreated along with Lisa.

The collapse of the fine sand continued behind them. They had no idea how far they would fall if it caught up to them, but it was certainly more than a few meters.

“What is this!? Did a natural cave start to spread!?”

“I said I don’t know! It might be manmade, but this is no time to worry about that!!”

“Dammit. I thought it was supposed to be tungsten below our feet!”

“What are you talking about!?”

In a desert of nothing but fine sand, there was no meaning in making maps with detailed contour lines. The desert was commonly compared to a stormy sea and the strong wind continually changed the terrain just like one. Dunes several meters tall were easily formed. It was possible a warehouse or factory had been completely hidden below the sand.

“Heivia, wait up! Don’t escape on your own!!”

“Shut up!! This is divine punishment! The crime of flirting deserves death! Don’t get someone as cool and stoic as me involved in your punishment!!”

The coldhearted boy’s back was a long way ahead.

Suddenly, the two Objects continuing their battle beyond the collapse sent a frightening stray shell in their direction. The shell landed over three hundred meters to the side, but it was still enough to send Quenser’s entire body into the air. For an instant, he had difficulty breathing. He rolled across the ground and Lisa tried to pick him up.

But that was a mistake.

The maw of the collapse caught up. He felt the ground disappear below him. It was less a vertical waterfall and more of a steep waterslide. Quenser and Lisa were mercilessly dropped into the abyss that light could not reach.

===Part 5===

Quenser had passed out, so he did not know how much time had passed.

“Gh…”

[[Image:HO_v07_205.png|thumb]]

He groaned and brought a hand to his forehead. He did not know how far he had fallen. He was lying on some kind of floor, but he still did not feel stable. It felt like being on a small rocking boat. He had a strong urge to vomit.

He had no intention of suffocating on his own vomit, so he ignored his aching head and forced himself to sit up.

Lisa Deauville had the top of her uniform removed and was wiping her underarm with a wet towel.

“…Hm?”

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!? Why am I the one screaming and why are you the one staring in confusiooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!?”

“Is your mind still muddled? You still have your memories, I hope. I do not want to explain everything from the beginning.”

Lisa did not seem to care that Quenser had seen her. She finished wiping the sweat and sand from her upper body and put her uniform back on.

Quenser began to back away from her as he did not know who she truly was, but he stopped when an intense urge to vomit rose up from his stomach.

He could not suppress it, so he turned his head aside and vomited profusely.

“It looks like you hit your head. If you have the rations to spare, you should wait until you finish vomiting and then consume the nutrients your body needs to stabilize itself. You should also make sure there is no blood in your vomit, just to be safe.”

“Wh-who…”

Quenser reflexively reached for his plastic explosives and realized how odd it was his weapons had not been taken from him.

“Who are you? Why did you save me back there?”

“I am Lisa Deauville, a second lieutenant in the Legitimacy Kingdom military. Those two facts remain unchanged. In which case, do I need a special reason to save a fellow soldier? I think abandoning you would cause more problems later on.”

She referred to him as a soldier, so she did not know that he was a battlefield student.

There were at least a thousand people in the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, so not everyone knew about Quenser. There were a lot of soldiers Quenser had never seen and did not know the name of. It was too soon to jump to any conclusions.

“But I am from a different type of unit than yours,” she continued. “It is not registered in the standard military database. Without access privileges above a certain level, there is no way for me to prove my identity right now.”

“Only the people who believe in the UFO development unit would believe such a suspicious story.”

“I hear that a lot.”

Lisa shrugged and leaned her back against a broken pillar. Quenser looked around once more and found they were in some kind of giant warehouse that had completely lost its roof due to the sand.

“July: western Indian Ocean. October: the underground resource extraction plants in the Greenland Sea. November: the Alaska region. January: the Southern Atlantic Ocean region.”

“?”

“You’re a soldier, right? Haven’t you memorized the battlefields where we have lost?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That is where I work.”

Lisa picked up a water bottle she had likely used to wet the towel from earlier and took a gulp.

“My mission was to bring paint into Oceania.”

Quenser had heard of peaceful missions to bring teaching materials, art supplies, and picture books into battlefields to provide humanitarian aid.

But Lisa was talking about something completely different.

“I was part of the Stalk Killer Unit. You could say I was an expert in withdrawing from the battlefield. Once a battle was deemed lost, someone like me would be secretly sent in. My objective was to keep the enemy army from capturing high-ranking officers, pilot Elites, or important technology related to Objects. In other words, it was a disgusting dirty job of choosing my allies and helping them escape,” she spat out.

Quenser frowned.

“Withdrawing from the battlefield? But this is the age of clean wars fought with Objects. The wars are fought between Objects and once the result has been reached, you send out the white flag signal and leave. We shouldn’t need a unit specialized in withdrawing from the battlefield.”

“If you seriously believe that, you are quite a naïve boy. Real wars are made so they will occasionally destroy all rationality. It’s no different than the certain percentage of defective electronics created in factories.”

“…”

When he thought about it, Quenser realized that had been the case when the Water Strider had pursued them in the Alaska region. The white flag signal only worked if there was mutual trust between both sides. And what Quenser and the others were fighting was a war.

“The military has to lose their pursuers. Simply hiding your tracks is not necessarily enough. You lay countless traps to crush the pursuing hunters. For example, we might set up one or two thousand bombs while cutting across an abandoned city. And they are not set up so anyone can see them. That is where the ‘paint’ comes in.”

“You camouflage them?”

Quenser pulled out the hand axe plastic explosives that he normally used.

If it was shaped with a spatula and colored with paint, it could be made to look like a stone on the road, a piece of broken asphalt, or a piece of styrofoam. If it was made to match the situation and had shadows and stains added on, it could blend into the landscape even for high-quality cameras. That made them no different from the props used for TV and movies. Just like a beer bottle made from candy or a wound made from red food coloring and bandages, no one would notice the bomb set up right next to them.

They would not suspect a thing until it actually detonated.

Lisa let out a heavy sigh.

“A foolish noble decided to make a quick visit to Oceania to gain popularity. The information got out and a group of local guerrillas or possibly disguised Information Alliance soldiers surrounded them. The Stalk Killer Unit was sent into a hellish battlefield as usual. It would have been difficult to escape with any normal means, so our leader said we would pass through a complicated urban area and escape to the nearest Object maintenance base. …And we would of course be laying tons of traps and bombs to lose our pursuers.”

“You don’t mean…”

“I advised him to reconsider.” Lisa placed a hand on her head as if grabbing at her blonde bangs. “The traps are effective, but they do not choose who falls for them. Even if the area was still going through war recovery, life had returned to the city. The people living there were forced to gather anything rare or valuable so they could sell it. It was obvious what would happen if we set up one or two thousands bombs that perfectly blended into the scenery. The city that was finally recovering its smile would be filled with blood and screams. Our real enemy would step over the writhing victims and safely pursue us through the path that was now free of bombs. I told our leader it was meaningless.”

Had they settled on that inhumane means of withdrawal and succeeded?

That thought entered Quenser’s mind for an instant, but he denied it himself.

If so, Lisa would not be here.

“I do not remember what exactly pushed it over the edge, but our argument crossed a certain line. I swear to you, it was our leader who pulled his gun first.”

But it was Lisa who was alive here now.

Quenser did not know how hopeless her situation was and how many “allies” she had been surrounded by, but if what she said was true, she must have won that nightmarish firefight.

That action had not had an obvious merit.

It had not even been based around the honor that was so popular in the Legitimacy Kingdom.

Lisa had simply stopped her unit from going too far and protected the many civilians who would normally have not been in any danger of being lost.

And to do so, she had shot and killed many allies who had trusted her.

“Then why had you infiltrated the Capitalist Corporations’ mobile barricade facility? That doesn’t make sense.”

“I was not trying to infiltrate it. As I travelled through the desert to reach a Legitimacy Kingdom base, they set up their unit in my path. …In fact, your maintenance battalion is pretty much the same.”

“?”

“As you said, this is the age of clean wars. There are people who do not want it to get out that there are constant inhumane missions that ignore the white flag. There are high-ranking members of the military who do not want it to get out that they have been sending out a unit like mine while also claiming to be fighting a clean war. That would be admitting that they have been lying about the clean wars. In the end, I have become an inconvenience to both my enemies and my allies.”

Her enemies were the Information Alliance and the Capitalist Corporations.

Her allies were the Legitimacy Kingdom.

“There is a contradiction in the structure of the wars and I am a symbol of that contradiction. By taking actions that show I have left the military’s control, I have made those high-ranking officials scared, so it seems they will do anything to kill me. By killing me, they can avoid having my information get out.”

Quenser thought about what Lisa was saying.

“You mean the Ex. Wall barricades here and the battle beginning tonight are nothing more than preparations for a single goal?” muttered Quenser blankly. “You mean it’s all to assassinate you? Not just the Baby Magnum, but the Simple Is Best and Hornet Storm, too? This entire battle including three Objects was set up to make sure a single runaway soldier is killed!?”

Three Objects was a large enough force to start a large-scale war.

What she was saying was similar to attacking a country with a nuclear weapon in order to kill a single individual.

“That isn’t something a base commander could do. Only someone directly involved in a much larger power balance could bring together multiple world powers like that. The local commanders are unaware that I, the true target, am on the battlefield. They will simply carry out the camouflage mission given to them. So do not doubt any of the superior officers that you have actually met. That would be meaningless.”

She was implicitly covering for the princess and Froleytia.

But Quenser had never thought either of them were the type to be involved in that kind of conspiracy.

“What are we supposed to do?” groaned Quenser. “You say you’re a survivor of a withdrawal unit not in the military database. And this battle between three Objects is all to kill you and you alone? That’s crazy. Is there any way for a flesh-and-blood soldier to survive that?”

“Are you actually willing to believe me now?”

“I have no objective proof,” immediately spat out Quenser. “But that was not an act when you tried to help me from the collapse earlier. Even Heivia was abandoning me in that situation. If you were from the Capitalist Corporations or Information Alliance and pretending to be an ally, you wouldn’t need to do that.”

“I see,” muttered Lisa under her breath.

That was when the underground structure rumbled ominously.

The deadly Object battle was continuing up above.

“We can take our time to see if you’re telling the truth once we get back to the maintenance base zone. The problem right now is how to survive this battle!! The Baby Magnum is still battling the Hornet Storm. To take advantage of that situation, the Simple Is Best will charge in faster than the speed of sound! If that happens, it’s all over. I doubt our princess can withstand an attack from two sides at once and everything will be blown away if she’s defeated! I will, you will, and everyone in the maintenance base will!!”

“…”

Lisa remained silent for a moment as she thought.

But she soon raised her head.

“No, it isn’t over yet. I won’t let it end like this.”

“What?”

“Come with me. Whatever happens, we need to get out of this underground structure first.”

Lisa led the way and Quenser followed her through the strange abandoned building.

It was a giant space that was over three hundred meters long.

“It looks like some kind of storage base. It may have belonged to the old military government,” said Lisa as they cut across the sand-filled structure without a light.

After a while, they found a rectangular corridor that led to a rusty staircase leading up.

They carefully climbed the stairs while making sure they did not break through them.

Once they reached the surface, Quenser finally realized where they were.

“This belongs to the pipeline cutting across the desert.”

“I think this was originally a terminal facility for drawing up water from unused water veins and sending it to food supply bases. You could call it an extremely forceful and large-scale well. Even if this is a desert, weren’t they afraid of the ground sinking down?”

This facility was rusted and falling apart and the ceiling had caved in. Heivia had joked about ghosts, but that building could easily collapse on its own at any time. Heivia had not been entirely wrong because it could be called a “mass producer of ghosts”.

Once they left the abandoned facility, they saw a large cloud of sand rising into the air.

It was 500 to 700 meters away.

“That’s them. That’s the Baby Magnum and Hornet Storm!!”

“You said another one was coming, right? Was it called the Simple Is Best?”

Suddenly, static came from Quenser’s radio.

Froleytia’s shouting voice followed.

“The Simple Is Best has begun to move! It is travelling south from Route 09 to 37!! If our calculations are correct, it will reach the princess in less than three minutes!! All soldiers in between, make sure you are not caught in the middle!!”

“It’s begun,” muttered Quenser. “Once the Hornet Storm and Simple Is Best are both attacking her, it’s all over! Dammit. I want to support the princess, but we don’t even have any information on a weakness!!”

“…”

Lisa then took an odd action.

She crouched down and pulled something from the ankle of her uniform’s pants.

What she now held in her palm was not a small handgun or knife.

Neither of those would be any help when an Object was attacking.

She held a cylinder about as thick as a coin and as long as a ballpoint pen.

“Boy, you do not need a sign. Just run as quickly as you can from here right this instant. Get as far from me as you can.”

“What are you-…?”

“Weren’t you listening?”

Lisa’s voice grew firm as she removed something like a lid from the cylinder. But the cylinder was not a container and so it was not accurate to call it a lid.

It was an abrasive surface.

Or perhaps it could be called a means of ignition.

“This entire battle was set up to kill me and prevent my information from getting out. The people actually fighting here do not know that, but the schemers behind the scenes should give some clever instructions once they see their true target. …And if they target me, it will cease to be a two-on-one battle!!”

A solid sound rang out.

At the same time, an unnaturally red flame as if from a firework burst from the end of the cylinder. It was hard to tell because it was night, but a lot of chemically colored smoke had likely burst out as well.

“A flare!? You idiot! If you use that here-…!!”

“You’re the idiot!! It’s not too late, so get as far from me as you can!! Right now!! Save yourself!!”

As she shouted, Lisa ran toward the intensely fighting Objects.

There was nothing Quenser could do.

The military satellites, the Objects’ sensors, and the sensors on the guns of the soldiers that might be lurking in the darkness would all have picked up the heat and light from the flare.

Through some route or another, that information reached someone.

A moment later, the state of the battle rapidly changed.

It was like watching an obvious farce or a fixed match.

The Hornet Storm fired countless laser beams chaotically into the desert night. Those attacks were little threat to the Baby Magnum, but it still moved slightly to evade them. Once the orange beams of light missed their target, they struck the desert. With a flash of light as if from welding, the air explosively expanded and a frightening shockwave spread throughout the entire area.

Quenser’s human eyes were not enough to view everything that happened.

But he saw one thing for sure: a puny blonde human was tossed into the air like a poorly made paper airplane in the wind.

“Goddammit!”

The color white filled Quenser’s mind.

The Baby Magnum had been placed in a situation formulated to be difficult, but Quenser threw away the situation that gave her a way out. He also threw away what Lisa herself had just said. The next thing he knew, he was running.

“Goddammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttt!!”

He ran toward the battlefield.

He ran toward the intense fighting.

He ran toward Lisa as she was slammed into the sand like a broken toy.

He felt a stinging pain in his throat. The air was oddly dry. All the sand in the area was glittering as it reflected the moonlight. That was due to the laser beams the Hornet Storm had fired into the ground. Their overwhelmingly high temperature and not only explosively expanded the air; they had also melted the silicon in the sand. Exposure to the night air had re-cooled the silicone, forming a thin glass coating.

Quenser half-slid up to Lisa and crouched down.

He frantically picked her up and found she was oddly light. This was not due to his mental state. A physical change had come over her.

“Run…”

The smoke and flames from the flare had vanished.

But not because its effective time had ended.

“The ones behind this have lost control of themselves…after seeing the prey…they want so badly. This irregularity…will be quickly fixed. Once their rotten rationality recovers…systematic destruction will cover…this entire area.”

It was gone.

It had been destroyed.

Both the flare and the entire arm that had been holding it were gone. The point from which the arm had been torn had twisted around like a rag being wrung. For better or for worse, this had prevented too much blood loss.

“Is there any meaning to this?”

Quenser frantically pulled out his survival kit. He could not close up the wound with a needle and thread, much less with a bandage. He rethought his plan and realized his only choice was to wrap the bandage under her arm and around her entire body. By tying it tightly, he could constrict the thick artery.

“Is there any meaning to this!? This won’t even buy 20 seconds. The slight wave will quickly be smoothed out! The princess is struggling against the Hornet Storm and the Simple Is Best is charging in at faster than the speed of sound!! That situation isn’t going to change. Throwing a float to someone out in a storm isn’t going to save them, so why did you throw your own life out into the water! Do you want to drown that badly!?”

“The Stalk Killer Unit said the same thing.”

Lisa smiled weakly with blood splattered on her cheek.

It was unclear if she could even see Quenser in front of her.

“But it seems this is my nature. There are times…when I suddenly hate that kind of logical thought. Ahh, maybe I’m not suited…to being a soldier.”

Lisa had not done anything wrong.

She had simply been the single person to give the correct answer among the majority who agreed to the wrong answer.

“And there ''was'' meaning.”

“What meaning?”

“I was able to speak with you. I told you that the Stalk Killer Unit brought a lot of paint into this country… I may not have escaped the ones behind all this, but I was able to tell the truth to one person. That makes this…my victory. This was enough.”

This was the result.

She had tried to protect the civilians from being indiscriminately slaughtered by countless booby traps and she had tried to protect Quenser and Heivia’s unit after running across them on the battlefield. She had always been the only one to reach the correct answer and she was going to breathe her final breath while all alone like this.

Was that okay?

Could Quenser accept a world like that?”

“Promise me.”

“…?”

“Once this battle is over and you somehow – it doesn’t matter how right now – managed to survive, promise me you will appear at a court martial. Use that official stage to reveal everything that you’ve seen!! Tell everyone about the special unit for withdrawing, tell them everything the Stalk Killer Unit has done, and tell them about the people working to hide that truth!! Tell them everything. Can you promise me that!?”

“What difference will it make…?”

“I’ll make a promise, too. I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to get you to that courtroom!!”

Lisa’s mind was muddled by the intense pain, but her eyes opened slightly.

Quenser placed her back on the sand and slowly stood up.

He had made up his mind.

In the current situation, he could not save Lisa.

Forcibly cutting off the artery under her arm to stop the bleeding would only last for fifteen minutes. If she was not brought to the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion in that time, she would die. There would be no miracles or coincidences; she would simply die. But the base could not send a helicopter for her due to the Object loaded with the absolute anti-air weapons that were lasers. Given the distance, there was not enough time for a military vehicle to drive out to them. There was a huge difference between a helicopter that could move at 300-400 kph and a vehicle that could only travel at 150 kph. And the vehicle’s speed would be cut in half or even more in the desert.

In other words, the situation had to be resolved in only a few minutes.

The Baby Magnum and the Hornet Storm were close by and the Simple Is Best was approaching from afar. He had to end that nightmarish battle between three Objects.

“Can you hear me, princess?” As he spoke quietly into his radio, his blond hair blew in the cold wind of the desert night. “Don’t think about the Simple Is Best. Do everything you can to defeat the Hornet Storm in a one-on-one battle. If you’re fearing an attack from two fronts, you can’t use your full potential and you can’t defeat the Hornet Storm. That’s an irregular Object designed to attack large cities. It can be used against other Objects, but that isn’t its main purpose. It should be easier than battling a second generation Object.”

“Of course I will win. What is your point?”

“I’m saying we can distribute the work,” he stated as if spitting out the words. ”You handle the Hornet Storm and I’ll destroy the Simple Is Best that’s at the root of it all our problems here.”

===Part 6===

===Part 7===

===Part 8===

===Part 9===

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 1|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 3}}</noinclude>

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 2

2014-01-04T08:13:40Z

Gamerdude13: /* Part 2 */

{{Incomplete|parts=5|tparts=9}}
==Chapter 2: My Job is to Transport Paint >> Intelligence Battle in Oceania==

===Part 1===

“The situation is quite simple,” began Major Froleytia Capistrano in the pre-mission briefing room which was filled with soldiers. “The Information Alliance is turning false accusation against us and the Legitimacy Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion intends to respond in full force. Beginning now, the entire battalion will prepare our response. They will be sending a second generation Object, so if you don’t want to die, help the princess score as many points as possible.”

Froleytia stood on a large platform and the white wall behind her was being used a projector screen.

Their greatest threat at the moment was displayed there.

“Our only confirmed enemy at the moment is the Information Alliance’s second generation Object named Simple Is Best. Its main cannon is a low-stability plasma cannon and its propulsion method is an air cushion for both naval and land use, but its most unique features are the pointed beak-shaped armor added to the front and the countless high-output ion thrusters attached for auxiliary propulsion.”

Several documents were displayed at once.

The intelligence division’s research and analysis of the Object had made enough progress for that much information.

Heivia leaned over and whispered to Quenser.

“(What were those high-output something or others?)”

“(A type of ion engine. Normally, ion engines are attached to space probes to provide weak but lengthy effects in zero-gravity, but this thing uses the energy of an Object’s reactor to forcibly produce an insane output. You can think of it like a space shuttle sitting on its side.)”

“(Why would they use such a pain-in-the-ass method?)”

“(There are several rumors about that. Some say the Information Alliance is trying to build a flying Object. Others say they’re trying to develop a perfect circulation system to search for habitable planets outside the solar system. Either way, the Simple Is Best is a project being used as a starting point.)”

“(What? I thought it was the Faith Organization that was desperate to make a flying Object. Wasn’t it called the Sky Castle Project or something? Instead of going with the more scientific-sounding ‘outer space’, they wanted a more religious-sounding ‘kingdom above the clouds’.)”

“(It’s nothing but a reckless project for the moment, but if another world power completes that great desire of theirs ahead of time, it would break the hearts of the Faith Organization’s people.)”

“(I see. Attacking at their weak spot like that does sound like the Information Alliance.)”

“(But I hope it all ends up as a pipe dream. A flying Object would be hard to shoot down and shooting it down might cause an impact on the level of an asteroid and cause an ice age.)”

Looking over the diagram told them the Simple Is Best had a V-shaped board-like part at the bottom and a long straight part extending from the back. Overall, it had an arrow-like shape. The spherical main body was essentially attached atop the three lines making up the arrow.

The V-shaped part was used to regulate the horizontal direction and the straight line on the back was used to provide space for the aforementioned high-output ion thrusters. Atop that long board like float, several cylindrical thrusters were attached at an angle. Each and every one of them was over twenty meters long.

“As the name suggests, the Object’s strategy is very simple. It does not try to evade at all. It ignores any damage, approaches its target along the shortest and fastest route, and fires its main cannon at almost point-blank range. Despite being an Object, its top speed reaches the sound barrier. Once targeted by it, your average Object cannot escape.”

“The sound barrier,” muttered Quenser who had become just one of the crowd. “But that thing’s a 200 thousand ton hunk of metal. Can it really maintain control while moving along the surface at the speed of sound?”

“Keep your comments to yourself, war criminal.”

“I can see that nickname sticking, so please stop calling me that!!” cried Quenser with tears in his eyes.

Froleytia ignored him and continued speaking.

“The beak-like armor on the front is a collection of extremely thin metal leaf. You could call it a crystallization of the best aspects of reactive armor technology. Whenever it detects an effective attack such as from a low-stability plasma cannon or railgun, the thin armor is detached to reduce the damage. If you keep at it and continue fire, it will eventually run out like a roll of toilet paper, but that is where its speed comes into play. While you are taking your time doing that, it will reach point-blank range. In other words, it will not take evasive actions. It will trust in the strength of its shield and charge in from the front, no matter what kind of main cannon it is up against.”

Its specs could make one think otherwise, but the enemy’s greatest feature was its armor rather than its speed. Even the Legitimacy Kingdom was already developing Objects that focused on speed and tried to approach within close range of the target. However, it was something else entirely to not take any evasive actions and stick to the shortest course no matter what.

This direct weapon would charge in on a straight line and endure any attack to the front.

And based on the difference in speed, the Baby Magnum could not escape.

Being targeted by that Object would essentially mean the end of the match.

“The aforementioned toilet paper is only equipped to the front of the Object. Attacks from the side, back, or above will get through just fine. …But the Simple Is Best will of course be aware of its own weakness. If the Baby Magnum tries to circle around, it will likely anticipate the action and adjust its position to compensate. The situation would be different if we had more than one Object as well, but we only have one at present. It will be extremely difficult to get behind the Simple Is Best due to its superior speed.”

Heivia had been casually listening, but then he frowned.

“Wait a sec.”

“What is it, war criminal #2?”

“At least make me #1! Being ranked under him is the biggest insult!!” he shouted before getting to his question. “Did you just say if we had more than one Object ‘as well’?”

“Oh, that.” Froleytia brushed up her bangs in annoyance. “According to some information the intelligence division got their hands on, the Information Alliance is trying to use the false accusations against us to contact the other world powers. They are suggesting they work together to defeat a common enemy. I do not know who will go along with it, but we might have to deal with more than one Object if someone wants to use this as an opportunity to damage the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

Quenser and Heivia grimaced.

The current age was known as one of clean wars fought by Objects. Objects influenced everything in those wars. The funds and technology poured into the opposing Objects was important, but the number of Objects was even more important. If it came down to one-against-three, the result was immediately obvious, so it was best to retreat as soon as possible.

“But any newcomers will simply be trying to take advantage of the situation. The Simple Is Best is the main pillar of the enemy force, so destroying it could easily convince the remaining Object or Objects not to stick around and bring even more damage to themselves.”

In that case, their primary target was the Simple Is Best.

To escape a disadvantageous battle against multiple Objects, their only option was to swiftly destroy that central pillar.

===Part 2===

In the true desert away from the city and devoid of the asphalt and concrete that gathered heat, the nights grew cold quickly.

Quenser’s military uniform was made to handle the cold, but his teeth were chattering as he watched a 1seg broadcast on his military handheld device. The backlight dimly lit up his face as if he was holding a flashlight below his head.

“Oh ho ho. Welcome to the New York Miracle Net Festa! All of you around the world in front of your monitors, be charmed by this enchanting song and dance!! Yay!!”

“Yay!” shouted Quenser. “Bouncing breasts and a shaking ass!!”

“Quenser, you idiot! What are you watching in the middle of our night mission!?”

“It’s called escapism! I came to the battlefield to learn about Object design, so why was I am I freezing to death out in the desert!?”

“Just turn it off, you idiot! Do you want to die!? …No, wait. Let me see it before you turn it off!! Come to think of it, why do you have an invitation code to that net concert!?”

“I don’t know why, but I get emails from her a lot. She can monitor whether the code was used or not and she said she’d shoot me on the battlefield if I didn’t watch it.”

Suddenly, Quenser’s radio emitted a quick electronic tone.

The princess’s voice soon followed.

“Quenser, explain further.”

“Wow! I don’t know what’s going on, but the princess is pissed! Since she hasn’t realized her request to explain further contradicts that, she must be the type who doesn’t realize how angry she is. But why!?”

Quenser frantically asked Heivia for help, but his friend gave the wonderfully gentlemanly response of raising his middle finger and shouting “How should I know!! Maybe it’s divine punishment!!”

“All military transmissions are checked in the server, you know? What do you think you are doing there?” asked the princess.

“Wow!! Are you mad because I’m watching an Information Alliance idol’s ass on a mission against the Information Alliance? I didn’t realize you were such a stickler for the rules.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Comments of “this is very bad” started coming from the other soldiers spread out across the desert whose names Quenser did not know.

“If you’re gonna go with divine punishment, keep it to him!! If you use your main cannon, you’ll blow me away too!!” shouted Heivia without even trying to hide his self-centered fears.

“Honestly, why are boys so easily manipulated by girls who sing? Anyone can sing.”

“I can’t let that comment go, princess. I hope I can expect great things of your singing ability. If you aren’t aware, a certain island nation has this thing called karaoke!!”

“(Twitch) …Y-you’re on.”

“You can kill me!! As long as he dies, I don’t care if you fire the Object’s cannons!!”

Quenser ignored Heivia’s shouting and pulled the night vision goggles down from his forehead.

His vision was digitally corrected and filled with green light.

But he continued to make desperate jokes.

“So it’s finally come to this. I’m dressed in all black and wearing night vision goggles.” In the moonlight and the chill that seemed to stab at him through the darkness, his breath was white. “All right! Now I’m part of the special forces! I’m the same as the Capitalist Corporations’ Hollywood movie stars. You can shake my hand at an amusement park!!”

“Hey, Quenser. Could you quit being so annoying and get down? If one of their snipers blows your head off, I’m not gathering your remains. They’d be too heavy.”

Heivia was dressed in an all-black uniform as well. He was lying face down on the fine sand while complaining to his rotten friend who was approaching the limit of what Heivia could put up with.

The desert was cold at night.

Some deserts were made of cracked earth and some were plains with a few weeds growing at about the thickness of a filthy middle-aged man’s half-grown beard, but the ones seen in sightseeing pamphlets that were covered in nothing but sand had a large temperature difference between day and night. Because it was midsummer, the temperature did not drop below freezing, but Heivia still clicked his tongue after stabbing an electric thermometer into the sand and reading the display.

“Six degrees. It’s six degrees Celsius. You could throw some fish out here without needing to refrigerate it. What the hell is going on?”

“I think the distance is a bigger problem,” said Quenser as he lay down on the sand. “We’re ten kilometers away. Why did we have to get off the truck so far away? This isn’t a carefully maintained sports field. Walking there and back is going to shorten my life.”

“Shut up. Don’t act like you could even run a city quarter marathon with plenty of water stations,” spat out Heivia. “At ground level, you can only see about five kilometers away. The earth is round, so the horizon covers up everything beyond that. But this is the empty desert. If the tires disturbed the sand and created a dust cloud as we travelled, it could poke up above the horizon.”

“I know what you’re trying to say, but shouldn’t the dedicated scouts handle these long-range reconnaissance missions? This doesn’t make sense. Everyone may have forgotten, but I’m only a student who wanted to learn about Object design on the battlefield.”

“And I’m a radar analyst! That’s an indoor job!! I’m supposed to have a cool intellectual position in an air conditioned room and a bottle of mineral water in hand, so how did I end up on this hellish picnic where I’m freezing my ass off in the desert!?”

Their commanding officer then contacted them over their radio.

Froleytia seemed to be as annoyed as them.

“Quiet down, war criminals. Do you really think you are in any position to choose your job? You should be thankful we actually need you.”

“Wow. I’ve been wondering. Shouldn’t we add a monitor to our radios? Then we could be supplied with someone – anyone – in a micro bikini.”

“You don’t get it, Heivia. This is the world of imagination. If everything is out in the open, it isn’t as arousing.”

“Okay, war criminals. Keep in mind that I can dock your pay for disrespect at any time.”

Quenser and Heivia solemnly prostrated themselves in front of the radio.

However, their apology was cheaper than a movie theater hot dog.

“(Quenser, this is because of your creepy comment about the world of imagination!)”

“(Are you sure it isn’t because of your comment about wanting ‘anyone’!?)”

“Sorry, but I can hear everything the two of you are saying.”

After having that pointed out, the two of them travelled through the desert night while keeping close to the ground.

The desert reflected the moonlight, so it was a bit brighter than a thick forest. However, Quenser had not undergone the basic training to receive the benefit of that. He had been relying solely on the overall greenish image produced by his night vision goggles.

“My eyes hurt. You aren’t supposed to have light shining on your eyes from so close. Are you sure this isn’t going to ruin my eyesight? Is the blue light really okay?”

“You’re complaining about that on a battlefield where you could be blown to pieces in one second? More importantly, we need to keep following the remains of the pipeline. We’re surrounded by nothing but desert, so we’d lose our way even with a map.”

Heivia pointed toward a two meter thick metal pipe a few hundred meters away. It continued in a straight line from the horizon behind them to the horizon in front of them. However, it was brown and rusted, it had large holes in places, and it simply disappeared for a while at some points.

“Is that a remnant of the old Oceanian military government?”

“Yeah. It was a pipeline that drew water up from deep underground and carried it to large-scale farms.”

“It isn’t for oil?”

“It’s what you call water resources. These days, the trendy thing to do is add ‘resources’ to something and find a way to make money off of it. As long as it makes money, it could be anything. Water resources, underground resources, power resources, food resources, human resources, sightseeing resources, living resources, forest resources, IP resources, and so on. It feels like they wouldn’t worry about endangered species if they didn’t have a price tag.”

“Sounds like something the Capitalist Corporations would love.”

“The Faith Organization would probably love this too. There are rumors of ghosts appearing at the ruins of the purification facilities and water gathering facilities the pipeline is centered around.”

“Are you sure it isn’t people searching for anything of value?”

“Honestly, I don’t know why I even mentioned it. There’s no point in a test of courage when there isn’t a single girl around.”

The desert was not level. It undulated like a stormy sea. When they did not choose their route carefully, they were forced to walk up and down large hills again and again. To avoid exerting unnecessary energy, they tried to choose the most level route possible.

“I feel like I’m lost on Mars.”

“This is better than that. I hear there’s tungsten buried below our feet.”

“Tung…what?”

“Just to be clear, this isn’t gonna make you any money. It’s spread out too thinly for that. If this area had a valuable vein, the old military government would have dug it all up in search of funds.”

After continuing a little longer, they saw some faint light beyond the desert horizon.

Heivia crouched down even lower and whispered to Quenser.

“That’s gotta be it. They’re really going all out.”

“What is the Simple Is Best doing right now?”

“It is preparing to charge in from a position thirty kilometers from our maintenance base,” cut in Froleytia. “That’s much further out than that light you can see. It’s hiding beyond the horizon.”

There was no sign of any enemy soldiers, but the closer they approached their destination, the higher the risk of cameras and sensors. Quenser and Heivia hurried on while checking for those things using their night vision goggles’ sensors.

“This is insane,” said Quenser as he walked across the cold sand. “We haven’t heard anything back from the intelligence division team that went in ahead of us, right? Would you normally send a student somewhere that dangerous?”

“You are not the only one involved in this,” answered Froleytia.

“Still…”

“We are both professionals, so we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. But if you run across the intelligence division team that screwed up there, take them back with you. Over.”

“I am ''not'' a professional! I’m a student!!”

Once they arrived within three kilometers of their destination, even those two idiots stopped speaking as much.

They began to crawl slowly across the undulating sand dunes. Once they arrived at the top of one dune, their vision opened up.

[[Image:HO_v07_155.png|thumb]]

“Ow…”

The night vision goggles’ display filled with fluorescent green.

Feeling a slight pain in his temples, Quenser raised the goggles to his forehead and used his naked eyes.

The dark and calm desert landscape had completely changed.

The brightness had come from countless lights, both large and small.

“Yeah, it’s just as we thought,” groaned Heivia.

The scene several kilometers ahead of them resembled a temporary supply base. What stood out the most were the twenty large truck-like vehicles. They also saw prefab lodgings for over one hundred soldiers, gondola-equipped cranes in place of watchtowers, a communications facility, and defensive weapons ranging from tanks to mobile surface-to-air missile vehicles.

The lights ranged from large searchlights held by cranes to vehicle headlights and military flashlights. The one common factor was the complete lack of concern about hiding the light in the darkness.

While lying on the sand, Heivia pointed at one of the large truck-like vehicles.

“That’s one of the Capitalist Corporations’ mobile barricades. Were they called Ex. Walls? This confirms it. Another world power has joined in to crush us along with the Information Alliance’s Simple Is Best.”

“That vehicle is a barricade?”

Instead of a container on the back of the truck, it had what looked like a cylinder lying on its side. Both the front and the back of the vehicle had what looked like a driver’s compartment. Overall, it was reminiscent of a train.

Heivia bluntly answered Quenser’s question.

“You’ll see soon enough. C’mon, let’s get moving.”

As soon as he spoke, the driver’s compartments on both sides of the vehicle began moving in opposite directions. The metal cylinder in the middle expanded like an accordion. In no time at all, it formed a giant spring-like barricade that was seven meters thick and three hundred meters long.

Quenser expressed his understanding with a displeased look.

“Oh, I get it now.”

“Stupid, isn’t it? By lining up two rows of ten of them, they can form three kilometer barbed wire walls on either side.”

“Are they planning to stop our princess with those so the Simple Is Best can crush her?”

Barbed wire was most often viewed as a tool to prevent intruders, but it could also be laid out on the ground in coils to wrap around tank treads and armored vehicle tires.

But Quenser frowned as he lay on the sand.

“Are the Capitalist Corporations really thinking that? Forget barbed wire. You could surround the world in walls made from the same reinforced concrete as nuclear shelters and it would mean nothing against an Object’s main cannon.”

“Look closely and think about it. Why do you think their toys are called Ex. Walls?”

“What?”

“The Ex. stands for explosion. Change the magnification and look more closely. That coil of barbed wire is made to break into pieces if it receives a powerful shock such as from a bombardment. And each individual piece functions as an anti-personnel mine. That one truck probably has somewhere between two and three thousand.”

“Why? Scattering landmines isn’t going to stop the princess.”

“It would still be a problem concerning the image of clean wars using Objects.” One corner of Heivia’s mouth twisted up in a smile. “The war treaties forbid indiscriminately laying or scattering mines. But they can weasel their way out of it in the international conference room by saying their enemy was the one that scattered them. In other words, the princess could end up being labelled the bad guy for pulling the trigger. It would be awkward to be accused with that while stationed in Oceania to help with the war recovery. That weapon is meant to stop her with that threat.”

“That’s ridiculous. It’s a weapon that ignores its actual ability and plays word games? It sounds like the stupid games nobles play.”

“You should avoid saying that in a Legitimacy Kingdom safe country.”

Froleytia then spoke up over the radio.

“Those mobile barricades form a block three kilometers across. They are being prepared simultaneously in eight places to surround our maintenance base and the Baby Magnum. Once that is complete, they will approach to tighten the circle. If we grow impatient and send out the princess, the Simple Is Best will charge in at supersonic speeds.”

The missing intelligence division team had snuck into one of those eight places, but they did not know which one.

“Those barricades are mobile, so they can connect to their military network and move to match the Object’s location. Once they have sealed off the princess’s actions as best they can, they will create a path for the Simple Is Best to charge in. To be honest, this could be bad if they are able to work together well.”

The Simple Is Best’s strategy was quite broad. It used its thick front armor and the acceleration of its high-output ion thrusters to ignore the damage done to it and charge in close enough for an extreme close range main cannon blast.

The princess’s only chance was at the moment of intersection.

The Simple Is Best had a monstrous top speed, but that meant it could not make tight turns. And to reduce weight, its additional armor was only on the front. If its charge was evaded by moving quickly to the left or right, it would be the princess’s turn. If she fired on the Simple Is Best when its backside was showing, there was nothing it could do to avoid destruction.

Effectively sealing off the left or right evasive routes using the barricades could be called a fatal means of hindering the princess.

“And that’s why the intelligence division tried to do something about it. But they failed. I don’t know if it’s the Capitalist Corporations or the Information Alliance behind this, but they aren’t stupid.”

“They’re connected by their military network. Even if someone can’t hack in from outside, that link can be cut off by sneaking a virus directly into one of the barricade’s communications facilities. A single 25 euro chip can bring an end to this.”

“And that’s what we’re on our way to do?”

“If we weren’t needed, we wouldn’t have been called out here. Also, all eight sites are being infiltrated at the same time. As long as the virus gets in at one of them, we win.”

“That means there isn’t a problem if seven of the groups fail. Doesn’t that make us expendable?”

Quenser was relatively useless in normal combat unrelated to Objects, so Heivia ignored his whining and double-checked the layout of the barricade facility they were about to swiftly attack. He checked the arrangement of people, the patrol routes, the directions and strengths of the lights, the presence of various types of sensors, and so on. When his life was at risk, it looked like a treasure chest of information that he never got tired of looking at.

“I see an unfamiliar armored vehicle. Is that one not from the Capitalist Corporations?”

“Does that make it from the Information Alliance?”

“I’d say so. It’s probably an Information Alliance officer’s vehicle. He’ll be here in order to make sure the Capitalist Corporations goes along with their secret arrangement. It has a lot of antennae on it too. It’s probably for a VIP.”

“A VIP? So does it have 24/7 air conditioning, a fridge full of sodas, a microwave to reheat fried chicken, a home theater system, internet access, a simple shower, and a sofa that turns into a bed?”

Despite Quenser’s comments, his expression showed no jealousy.

“Even if he has a bodyguard team, I can’t believe an officer would head alone into the middle of an enemy nation’s unit like that. If the Capitalist Corporations changed their mind and decided to get some information from this powerful officer, he could end up on the receiving end of torture and truth serums.”

“He was probably ordered here. As we know all too well, if a higher up orders you to do something ridiculous, you can’t fight it. …As a student, you may be unaware, but the military is a constrained and harsh place.”

“I would never guess that from looking at you.”

The two idiots began a light fistfight, but then the hatch for the VIP armored vehicle opened. They frantically resumed observation.

“Wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait! What the hell? She looks twelve. That girl is about the same age as the one we saved from the human traffickers, but she’s arrogantly wearing a military uniform.”

“As I said, the military is a harsh place.”

“Yeah… She’s a young Information Alliance officer, so she might be a product of their genius girl project. I don’t know the official name, though.”

“Why is it limited to girls? Some old man’s tastes?”

“You joke, but that might actually be the reason.” Quenser’s expression was perfectly a serious. “It’s an issue of the symbolism. There’s a lot of difference in nuance between a manly hero standing before the people and a feminine saint standing before them. By showing a delicate, weak, lovely, and fair maiden working towards the war, the people will confuse their desire to protect her with a desire to fight.”

“I want to send my applause and a bomb to the person who seriously thought that up. How long will the people continue to be innocently moved by some child actor hired with money?”

“That ‘oh ho ho’ is a popular idol back in the Information Alliance safe countries. It’s no different from that. I hear one’s status in the Information Alliance changes based on your ability to insist that clearly deviated justice is correct. Supposedly, a popular dog from some commercials gets better medical care than your average office worker.”

Quenser glanced toward the assault rifle hanging from Heivia’s shoulder. It was primarily used as a mid-range weapon, but its various sensors allowed it to be used for sniping to a certain extent.

“So are you going to do it? I bet you could shoot her right in the head or heart from here.”

“She’s just the poor overseer the Information Alliance sent here. She’s unrelated to the surrounding barricade, so shooting her won’t stop them.”

“That’s good.”

“Tell me about it. We need to thank god that we can actually choose our enemy.”

Also, causing a commotion before injecting the virus would ruin any chances of their plan succeeding.

After checking over the entire enemy formation, Heivia slowly stood up.

“Okay, let’s get this horrible job over with.”

“Are we really going to sneak in there? They’ll spot us immediately with those lights everywhere. Shouldn’t we at least get an invisibility coat, an infinite health recovery first-aid box, and a charged particle bazooka? It’ll be impossible otherwise.”

“Shut up. Didn’t you know human beings can defeat a demon king with only cotton clothes and a wooden stick?”

Heivia led the way and Quenser followed. Rather than heading straight in, the two of them circled wide to the side as they travelled through the darkness.

The massive amount of light seemed to cut off the barricade facility from the rest of the desert, but that created a large gap between the lit areas and the unlit areas. And because it was an outdoor facility, the lights did not illuminate everything evenly.

In other words, there were still dark areas.

“(Do you really think we can sneak through the darkness without being noticed? What if there are a ton of sensors that you can’t see?)”

“(I’m being careful. But you don’t set up traps along animal trails. No one wants the alarm going off all throughout the night because of every little boar and rabbit. While preparing to set up the barricade so quickly, they don’t want delicate sensors everywhere. Their own people would be setting off the alarm all the time.)”

Quenser tilted his head, wondering if that was how it worked.

This was hardly the first time, but it was still quite thrilling to entrust his life to something he did not understand himself. However, he did not want to be left behind by Heivia while so close to enemy territory.

“(We can’t hide our footprints in the desert.)”

“(They’re working all over the place. There are already footprints everywhere.)”

But just as they took the first step, they stopped.

“What?”

Quenser looked around in confusion with his goggles still on his forehead.

He was focusing with his ears rather than his eyes.

“I hear an odd rumbling noise.”

“!?”

Heivia immediately pushed Quenser to the ground. While getting down on the cold sand himself, Heivia whispered to Quenser.

“(Hey, you idiot! Turn off all your sensors! Goggles, binoculars, everything!! Don’t answer your radio even if our huge-breasted commander calls. We’ll be blown to pieces the instant we send out any radio waves, infrared rays, or anything else!!)”

“(What?)”

“(This is no time to be clueless, Quenser. Unless this rumbling is being caused by a legendary dragon, there’s only one thing big enough to cause it!!)”

“(Wait a second!!)”

An unpleasant sweat covered Quenser’s body in an instant.

But time was not going to wait.

While lying on the sand, he dug through his coat pocket. He pulled out an electric thermometer and stabbed it into the sand.

“(7.5 degrees!)”

“(You’re kidding. It was six degrees earlier. Damn, have all these lights raised the ground temperature!?)”

As they whispered back and forth, they reached for a different pocket. What they pulled out was nothing special. It was a cold spray used for wrist sprains and such.

Quenser stabbed the thermometer into his uniform and sprayed the cold spray over his entire body. He sprayed it enough to bring it to 7.5 degrees just like the ground.

“(Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!! It’s all over if its sensors pick us up!!)”

“(We can do this, but will it really fool that collection of cutting-edge equipment? It has tons of sensors to detect people other than thermo!!)”

“(From what I’ve heard, it’s the type that can detect a mole using a combination of body temperature and electromagnetic field disturbance. All the iron sand in the desert should keep that from working perfectly!!)”

Quenser’s ears were slammed by a sound like the roar of the wind or like the air being crushed.

He could not move a finger any more.

[[Image:HO_v07_168.png|thumb]]

The countless stars and the faintly colored moonlight in the cold desert sky should have spread thinly across the entire area, but a giant shadow seemed to devour one area of that. It was an artificial device. It was a colossal weapon. It was the synonym for war that had brought an end to the nuclear age and still reigned as strongest.

It was an Object.

This was a 1.5 generation Object from the Capitalist Corporations.

“It’s just as the final transmission from the missing intelligence division team said.” His voice sounded truly unhappy. “That’s the Hornet Storm from the Capitalist Corporations. Completely unlike any other Object, that demonic machine was developed to attack large cities.”

The giant spherical main body that was the symbol of Objects appeared to be supported by an air cushion propulsion device. The back of the Object was covered by several giant metal panels that looked like a rounded version of peacock feathers.

However…

The biggest oddity about Hornet Storm’s design lay elsewhere.

“It’s an Object without a main canon,” muttered Quenser. “It only has 100 anti-personnel laser beam cannons. When fighting another Object, it uses its peacock feathers to refract and reflect all of its lasers to create a concentrated attack on a single point of the enemy’s armor.”

The princess’s Baby Magnum also had its main cannon distributed over seven cannons that could be used to cut off the enemy’s escape and use the opening to focus an attack on a single point.

However, it was rare to take it to this extreme.

This was similar to tearing everything down to the ground in order to distribute and focus the attacks.

“That weapon wasn’t made for a clean war,” groaned Heivia. “When a dictator uses all the people in a large city as a shield, that Object can kill him without leaving room for negotiation. This modern day grim reaper can ignore the hostages, charge into the city, and accurately fire on only the target. Once that thing has you located, it can kill you as easily as entering a name into a search engine. It’s specialized toward human targets, so you could call it our natural enemy.”

Even if its weapons were known as “small” laser beam cannons, that was in reference to Object-sized weapons. A single shot had the destructive power to easily melt a tank or shoot down a fighter.

Each of the 100 cannons could accurately target anything in a five kilometer range and it could penetrate any obstacle to utterly destroy its target. And a flesh-and-blood human could not evade a laser beam cannon that approached at the speed of light.

In a single action, it could accurately and precisely eliminate 100 enemy soldiers.

And what if, with only a few seconds of lag for cooling and re-aiming, it could repeat that action indefinitely?

What if, no matter how many hostages were gathered as shields, it could slip its attack through the gaps and hit only the target?

What if any human counterattack could be completely ignored thanks to the thick armor unique to Objects?

That would no longer be a fight. It would be divine punishment unilaterally poured down on them. In a way, the overwhelming intimidation this brought was more than that of a second generation Object that fought a war in a distant country. That Object could be sent to battlefield or safe country alike. It opposed the idea of the clean war and it was a nightmarish existence for guerrillas and terrorists hiding in cities.

And that Object was calmly crossing the battlefield as its air cushion blasted sand into the air.

Unpleasant sweat covered Quenser and Heivia’s bodies as they held their breath and tried to hold onto their lives. It travelled extremely close by the Capitalist Corporations soldiers working to prepare the barricade in the artificial lights.

The countless cannons attached to its spherical main body moved slightly in the darkness and its targeting sensors constantly scanned the ground.

This was the king of the food chain.

It did not run or hide. It simply travelled the world searching for prey.

As Quenser was forced to lie on the ground when faced by its arrogance, he could not even feel frustrated by it all. He could only wait as time passed. He dreamed of the moment when he could think in the past tense that it had left. He wanted to shout out and run away, but he had to desperately suppress that desire.

For five minutes, the Hornet Storm moved slowly as if evaluating its surroundings.

That must have been its standard procedure because the Object did not find any prey and it quickly accelerated away from the barricade facility.

Quenser felt like he could not breathe.

Even after its giant form disappeared beyond the horizon, he did not immediately get up.

“It must be going around to the eight barricades in order like that.”

“Yes, but it is estimated to have a top speed of over 550 kph. If the alarm goes off somewhere, it’ll be there in no time. We can’t use this cold spray forever and there’s nowhere to run in the middle of the desert. Once it detects us, our lives are literally over.”

“So when will it be back here?”

“If it uses that same pattern for all eight spots, I’d say a little under an hour. Of course, that’s assuming we don’t trigger the alarm.”

They did not want to meet that monster again.

The two of them both wanted to finish their business here as quickly as possible.

The real mission was still to come.

===Part 3===

In and of itself, their task was simple.

Their enemy was a unit made up of both the Information Alliance and Capitalist Corporations. This unit had the second generation Simple Is Best, the 1.5 Generation Hornet Storm, and the multiple Ex. Wall mobile barricades that would keep their own Object from moving.

It would be difficult for the princess’s Baby Magnum to deal with it all on its own, so Quenser, Heivia, and the others were secretly infiltrating the communication facilities for the mobile barricades. By directly injecting a virus into the hardware, control of the barricades could be stolen at the crucial moment.

The mobile barricades would remain within the enemy unit until the battle began. At that point, they would be used to block the movements of the Simple Is Best and Hornet Storm.

Normally, they could be easily blown away with the overwhelming firepower of the Objects, but this would occur in the middle of an Object vs. Object battle. When an instantaneous decision could influence the direction a war was headed, a lag of a few seconds could be fatal.

The primary target was the Information Alliance’s Simple Is Best.

The Capitalist Corporations’ Hornet Storm was simply trying to take advantage of the situation, so they were likely to swiftly retreat the instant that advantage disappeared. But if it did not, the princess would then have to defeat that 1.5 generation Object.

Even with two Objects attacking at once, the princess had a decent chance of winning as long as they set up the battlefield so she could fight them separately.

“As usual, this is one hell of a blueprint. Was this really simulated on a super computer?”

“Try to think more positively. If they could draw up this blueprint, that means there’s at least that much hope left. And complaining isn’t going to change anything.”

Heivia took the lead and Quenser followed through the moonlit desert. They were already within the grounds of the barricade facility.

The facility itself was meant to allow the preparation of the large truck-like mobile barricades and provide access to the military network, but it had many other buildings and vehicles.

“Why did they prepare such a large area? The barricades are mobile, so they’re just going to approach our maintenance base once they’re set up. I can understand a convoy, but won’t the prefab lodgings be left behind?”

“The barricades are going to gather around an Object to stop it from moving. Staying away from the front lines is safer. They can retrieve the other things once the battle is over.”

There were a lot of lights. The gondola-equipped cranes used in place of watchtowers had their own spotlights, the vehicles parked around had headlights, and the large halogen lights usually used for stages and construction sites were set up on large stands here and there.

Heading out into the light would have been suicide and cutting in front of a light would cause a giant shadow.

But the lights were not set up to provide even light and there were spots they missed. By circling behind them and mixing in with the shadows, Quenser and Heivia’s silhouettes were hidden by the bright backlights. Lights that produced a lot of light and heat also helped fool different types of sensors.

Even when they were less than ten meters from enemy Capitalist Corporations soldiers, the soldiers could not see them behind the lights.

While walking across the sandy ground, they spoke quietly to each other.

“We have to inject this virus into their system. Where’s the communications facility?”

“That’s it fifty meters ahead. That small prefab building. The one with a lot of antennae on the roof.”

“Will it also be left behind when the barricades close in?”

“I’m sure they have separate armored vehicles for command control. By dividing the system up, there is less of a risk of being cut off from the military network. Of course, that provides more ways into the system for people like us.”

The communications facility was the cornerstone of the mobile barricades, so it had strict security and a lot of lights. They would not be able to reach it by walking through the darkness.

Heivia pointed at a line of military trucks parked nearby.

“Hey, Quenser. Let’s hide under those to get close. It’ll be harder to spot us than if we walk around with our heads down.”

He got down on the fine sand and slid under the back of the nearest truck. That left Quenser with no choice. He imitated Heivia and crawled under the tuck without knowing the right way to do it.

He smelled something that resembled demi-glace.

“Damn them. What do they have loaded in this truck? Why does the enemy get to eat such nice food?”

“They have over 100 people working to set up the barricade. They’re probably busy supplying soap and toilet paper too.”

Suddenly, they heard footsteps on the sand.

And from more than one person. An unpleasant sweat appeared on Quenser’s cheek as he hid under the truck and pressed against the sand.

“(Three, four…no, five. Dammit. This is pretty much up to chance now.)”

As Heivia complained, he pulled his handgun from its holster and attached the suppresser. Quenser’s eyes opened wide.

“(If they notice something’s wrong, the Hornet Storm will rush over here, remember!?)”

“(I’m not preparing this because I ''want'' to use it, you idiot!)”

Meanwhile, multiple military boots were clearly headed their way. Not only could they hear the footsteps, they could feel a kind of pressure. These soldiers were not simply walking around the trucks. They were obviously walking toward the trucks.

Quenser squeezed his eyes shut when he saw Heivia holding up his handgun in the cramped space below the truck.

He waited for a while.

But nothing happened.

“…?”

He heard the sound of truck doors opening and closing. The truck above them then creaked like a bed. He doubted it would actually happen, but he felt as if it were going to crush him from above. They were on soft sand rather than hard asphalt, so the space between the bottom of the truck and the ground might not remain the same.

Finally, he realized there was something else he had to focus on instead.

“(Hey, hey! Quenser, you idiot! Pull yourself together!!)”

“(Eh? Ah?)”

“(They just climbed into the truck. Why do you think that is? Unless they’re planning to kill some time with some rural car sex, they’re going to drive the truck away!!)”

The engine rumbled to life.

As Quenser’s lungs filled with the unpleasant smell of exhaust, he desperately suppressed the instinctual urge to cough.

If the truck drove away, Quenser and Heivia would gather more attention than a birthday cake.

Heivia had already started to crawl to the next in the line of parked trucks.

“(Hurry up, Quenser! If you stupidly get caught, it’ll put me in danger too, so hurry!!)”

“(Wait, wait, wait! The truck’s about to drive off. If I move now, I could be crushed by the tire!)”

“(That’s better than having your head filled with holes by tons of bullets bought with the money from the donation boxes next to convenience store registers, isn’t it? Quit panicking and get over here!!)”

Quenser felt like he was choosing the better of two deaths as he desperately began to move. He crawled out from under the ominously vibrating truck, passed right by the tire supporting a weight of several tons, and managed to reach the next truck.

He just barely made it out when the truck drove off.

But it was too soon to breathe a sigh of relief.

They once again heard the sound of an engine starting from overhead.

“(What the hell!? What the hell!? What the hell!?)”

“(They’re sending out each truck in turn. They might be forming a convoy to drive across the desert!)”

“(What? Was eating all that delicious-smelling food not enough!? A noble like me can’t even hope for dessert after a meal!!)”

Quenser and Heivia could not have themselves brought into the open, so they rolled along the line of trucks as the trucks drove off, one at a time.

More than ten trucks left and only two remained.

“(What the hell was that? Is it finally over?)”

“(No, wait a second.)”

In addition to the drivers of the trucks, there had been some soldiers who had helped load wooden boxes and other things into the trucks. They were scattering as they returned to their normal posts.

But…

“Hm?”

A single pair of boots stopped.

The boots had their heels pointed toward the two boys, but they quickly turned 180 degrees. The toes were now pointed their way. The ground had been made of soft sand and the trucks had created tire tracks when driving away, but this soldier may have noticed another unnatural trail as if something large had crawled along the ground.

The legs bent as if the solider were crouching down.

A soldier about their age poked his head down to peer under the truck.

Without hesitation, Heivia fired his suppressor-equipped military handgun into the soldier’s face.

Quenser instinctually covered his eyes with his hands.

“(Do you have a death wish!?)”

“(Shut up. If I hadn’t done anything, he would have caused a commotion! More importantly, Quenser, you cover up the blood with sand. I’ll drag the body under here!!)”

“(You could at least let me be the one to shoot him. The last thing I want is to get killed while cleaning up after you.)”

A shot to the brain did not create as much blood as to the heart. Heivia hid the body under the truck as if moving a sack of flour while Quenser did as instructed and hid the blood with the desert sand.

“Either way, they’ll find him as soon as they move the truck. Let’s get this virus in the system and get the hell out of here.”

While ignoring the blood on their hands, Quenser and Heivia crawled out from under the truck and approached the nearby single-story prefab building. To keep sand out, the floor was elevated like with buildings along the beach. Quenser hid under the floor while Heivia pressed up against the door. Heivia removed the parabolic microphone from the front of his rifle and tossed it underhand to Quenser. Quenser caught it and pressed the microphone against the floor above him.

(One set of footsteps in each corner save the east. Also, one hard sound. Chair legs maybe? It’s near the center.)

After acquiring the necessary information, he jotted down a general diagram, folded the memo into a paper airplane, and threw it to Heivia.

Heivia checked it, jammed a large military knife into the gap of the door, and forcibly destroyed the lock.

Quenser hid under the building for a dozen or so seconds and then approached the door.

He peered inside and saw Heivia had already cleared the room.

“Ugh. There’s blood everywhere.”

“I’m not planning to send this image into people’s living rooms. More importantly, it’s time to get to work, Quenser,” said Heivia as he swapped out his handgun’s magazine.

The prefab room had tables chaotically lined up within. Many different pieces of electronic equipment were placed on top, but there were only two obvious computers. The others were mostly old audio equipment and phantom equipment that radio enthusiasts would pursue within an electronics district.

“Ahh, ahh. Everything’s soaked. They’re covered in so much red I can’t read the displays.”

“Don’t complain, student. I went to some effort to keep my bullets from destroying the machinery.”

Quenser ignored the specialized radio equipment and approached one of the computers. The Legitimacy Kingdom had given him a postage stamp-sized chip with the virus on it. Once he infected the system with it, their job was done.

“Huh? Where’s the Shift key on this thing? This one’s Esc, right?”

“This is a Capitalist Corporations machine. It isn’t gonna be exactly the same.”

“It does have a chip slot though, right?”

The two idiots exchanged a glance and frantically looked around at the outside of the computer. Fortunately, the media type used here seemed to be common between systems. There was a small slot for inserting the stamp-sized chip.

“Hey, Quenser. Can you actual hack?”

“If I could, I’d be working somewhere that pays better. I just have to leave all the work to the program here.”

As he spoke offhand, Quenser typed on the unfamiliar Capitalist Corporations keyboard.

“Let’s see… If I just insert the chip in normal mode, it’ll be rejected, so I ignore this. I need to reboot, spam the function key to bring up the BIOS screen, and switch the boot device priority so it’ll boot up from the external media.”

“Hey, how much longer? They’ll discover the dead soldiers from the lack of periodic reports. We need to get ready to leave.”

“Wait, wait. I just need to reboot again! Okay, done!! The virus has begun to overwrite the system before the military security can catch it. We can just leave it now!”

After seeing the blinking of the access light move from the stamp-sized chip to the HDD, Quenser removed the chip from the slot.

He moved over to Heivia who had the door cracked open to check outside.

“We just have to leave now. What’s our escape route?”

“We can’t just walk out.”

Quenser and Heivia had slipped past the guards by crawling under the line of military trucks, but all but two of those trucks had left. They could not use that same route.

“Then what do we do?”

“Let’s climb into the back of one of the remaining trucks. I doubt they’re going to stay here all night.”

As soon as he had finished speaking, Heivia crouched down and ran toward canopy-covered back of the truck. Quenser followed and Heivia pulled him up into the truck.

Half of the truck was filled with wooden boxes, but they did not have the warnings about flammability and shaking that boxes of weapons would have.

“Goddammit! It’s bananas and milk! Are they preparing a nice healthy breakfast!?”

“Should I go see the base counselor if that combination sounds dirty to me?”

The two idiots opened one of the boxes and quenched their thirst with some of the milk inside refrigerated containers.

Then they waited.

A few footsteps approached the military truck. One toward the driver’s seat and two or three toward the back. Heivia hid behind the boxes and used his knife to silently attack them when they had fully climbed into the truck.

After making sure they were all dead, Quenser approached the front of the truck. He knocked twice on the metal panel dividing the driver’s compartment and the back.

The driver mistook it for a sign that they soldiers were all onboard, so he smoothly drove off.

“We need to have a serious discussion about our pay. There’s definitely something wrong with you getting paid the same as me.”

“If you have a complaint, go talk to the people that pay us.”

That was when they heard an unnatural clunk in the back of the truck.

“!?”

“!!”

[[Image:HO_v07_186.png|thumb]]

Quenser immediately took a defensive stance but was unable to do much of anything. Heivia used an arm and a leg to knock Quenser to the ground and used his other hand to draw his military handgun. He had seen movement behind one of the wooden boxes. Whoever it was must not have thought the box would function as a shield because they swiftly moved to eliminate Heivia.

The two of them held their handguns toward each other at a distance of less than a meter, but they both suddenly stopped moving.

Heivia frowned.

“What? Is that a Legitimacy Kingdom handgun?”

“You aren’t from the Capitalist Corporations?”

The person who uttered that confused comment and moved from behind the box (without lowering the gun) was a blonde-haired woman a bit older than Quenser.

Her uniform had a different camouflage design than theirs, but it was a Legitimacy Kingdom format.

The uniform had an unfamiliar emblem sewn into the shoulder.

While lying helpless on the floor, Quenser spoke up.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t there an intelligence division team that went in ahead of us and disappeared?”

===Part 4===

Enough time had passed that the mobile barricade group had likely noticed the dead soldiers. However, the military truck Quenser and the others were aboard had already left the area.

After Heivia decided they were far enough away, he fired a few times toward the driver’s seat.

The truck immediately swerved to the side and crashed into a sand dune.

Heivia climbed out of the back of the truck, forced open the driver’s side door, and dragged the body out onto the sand.

The blonde woman checked over the body for ammunition, rations, and the like.

“My name is Lisa Deauville. My rank is second lieutenant. I would appreciate it if you would help me handle my team’s mistake.”

“I’m impressed you managed to escape. What about the others?”

“They were not so fortunate,” was all the intelligence division soldier named Lisa said.

Quenser did not try to ask for further details. There were people at the maintenance base zone who would do that. Right now, he needed to rejoice that even one of them had survived.

He pointed at the truck with his thumb.

“Our vehicle is about ten kilometers ahead. We’ll head there, switch vehicles, and return to the maintenance base.”

“I’m sure I’ll be stuck driving. Hey, Quenser! You sit in the passenger seat to navigate. I’m not gonna let you get a head start on flirting just because you’re useless.”

After sitting in the driver’s seat, Heivia operated the shift lever and freed the truck from the sand dune it had run into. Before the truck even came to a full stop, Quenser grabbed onto the passenger side, opened the door, and tumbled inside.

And then blonde-haired Lisa also sat in the passenger seat by sitting on top of Quenser’s lap.

At this point, Heivia pulled out his military knife.

“Quenserrrrrr!!”

“Ask her what’s going on, not me!! (I won’t deny I like it, though.)”

Even through the thick military uniform, Quenser could feel the unique softness and warmth of a woman.

Lisa, however, showed no sign of being bothered by the situation.

“There are only two seats in here and I cannot assist you from the back of the truck. If I sat in the driver’s seat, I would get in the way, so the only possible place for me is the passenger seat.”

“Quenser, swap seats with me!! You don’t have a license? There’s nothing but desert as far as the eye can see. You just have to step on the accelerator and turn the steering wheel. Anyone can do that!!”

They would be spotted regardless with any cutting-edge sensors, but they still did not have the guts to drive through the desert night with the headlights on.

But as previously stated, the desert was not flat. It had sand dunes with height differences of several meters. It may have been similar to stopping time and driving over the stormy ocean.

And so…

“Ohh, ohhhhh, ohh. Th-this is a very bumpy road. Hey, boy. Stop squirming below me. And why has something been pressing up against my butt for a while now?”

“Don’t underestimate adolescence, officer cadet! We can fill the time waiting for the elevator by talking about nothing but a large tree that looks a lot like a woman’s waist. You need to be prepared for this kind of thing before you choose to sit on my lap!!”

“At least look at the map, you idiots!! You’re pissing me off! Do you want to frighten everyone away by bringing tears and snot to the face of Heivia, the super genius, beautiful, wealthy, athletic noble who will infiltrate enemy territory, rescue hostages, or anything else you need!? Is that what you want!?”

However, there were some things one did not give up even after such a desperate plea.

Quenser was in the same mindset as someone refusing to hand over the bit of ice cream stuck to the bottom of the lid, so he began contemplating pulling out a Hand Axe plastic explosive to stop Heivia from switching seats with him. He also feared the possibility of Lisa alone sitting in the driver’s seat. If it came to that, he would bite his own tongue.

“Huh? Wait, Heivia. We need to contact the maintenance base and the princess to tell them we injected the virus and what our escape route is. Once we have control of the mobile barricades, the Baby Magnum can begin its attack and we need to make sure this truck isn’t destroyed in the process.”

“Don’t be stupid!! As soon as the virus took effect, it sent a log from the enemy server to our electronic simulation division! Also! My hands are full driving!! If you need something done, do it yourself!!”

At any rate, they needed to give a report.

There were eight mobile barrier locations. A dangerous infiltration mission had been carried out at each one. If they reported their success, the other teams could abandon their dangerous mission and leave. He doubted it would happen, but if another team managed to infect the system at the same time (or slightly slower), Quenser did not want them to make the first report and take the credit.

And so Quenser reached for the radio.

“Huh? Damn, I can’t reach.”

“Of course not. Your arms are wrapped around me like you are holding a log. Do you need a radio? You can use the one in my pocket. It is in the chest pocket.”

“Ngh… So it’s near your chest? …Is this it? Huh? This is awfully soft…”

“Stop that! Why are you touching my-…no, don’t make me say it!”

“Why can’t this truck divide down the middle and leave a bike for just me?” grumbled Heivia in the driver’s seat.

After some difficulty and some occasional squirming from Lisa, Quenser finally managed to remove the radio from her uniform.

He held it in front of her, set the frequency, and entered the encryption key. Once he secured a mission bandwidth, he brought the radio to his mouth while his face was covered by the blonde hair flowing down Lisa’s back.

“This is Team A. Mission complete. The virus has infected the system. We are, um…”

“We’re the Capitalist Corporations Steel Father 8-ton truck travelling down route 32 with no lights on. Tell them to make sure the Object doesn’t fire on us,” supplied Heivia in annoyance.

Quenser began to repeat the information.

“Um, we are the Capitalist Corporations Steel-…”

But then another transmission cut in. It came from one of the teams infiltrating one of the other mobile barricade facilities.

“This is terrible! HQ, can you hear me!? Please respond!!”

“Team F, this is HQ. We can hear you just fine. If there is a problem, it lies in your ability to speak. Simply put: calm down.”

“How am I supposed to stay calm!? What the hell is going on?”

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance. Lisa reached over from Quenser’s lap and used a hand to point Heivia’s head back toward the road.

(Did one of the teams screw up and get spotted?)

The virus had already been injected into the Capitalist Corporations military network. There was no reason to continue the infiltration mission any further. Quenser adjusted his grip on the radio to make sure they did not die for no reason.

But then he stopped.

Team F continued their report from another mobile barricade facility.

“We found the missing intelligence division team. We counted, and this is all of them! They’re all dead!! Damn them. They gathered all the captured soldiers in one place and ‘prepared’ them. They ignored all the war treaties and tortured the prisoners!!”

Quenser felt a chill run down his spine.

He felt like he had just learned the cute kitten sitting on his lap was a strange carnivorous beast.

Heivia immediately slammed on the brakes as hard as he could.

As the truck came to a sudden stop as if it had caught on something, Heivia drew his handgun.

But before the boy could aim, Lisa had already accurately pressed her own handgun against his temple.

Unlike Quenser and Heivia, she was not held in place by a seatbelt and the sudden stop could have easily knocked her through the windshield, but she still moved more quickly.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Heivia while almost dumbfounded.

Lisa was obviously more skilled. Heivia must have sensed that fact because he began to sweat.

Lisa showed no sign of caring about Quenser who was held down beneath her butt. She must have thought she could immediately handle any movement he took.

“That report said Team F found the bodies of the intelligence division team. They said they counted them. Then who the hell are you!?”

“I am a Legitimacy Kingdom soldier. I did not lie when I gave you my name and rank.”

“Hah! Are you serious? If you weren’t up to no good, you wouldn’t have pretended to be who we thought you were. There was something you didn’t want us to know, wasn’t there!?”

“Even if you checked the military database, you would not find any data on me. That is the sort of unit I belonged to! If we had remained back there, we would have been found by the Capitalist Corporations and Information Alliance who were protecting the mobile barrier. I intended to tell you the truth once we reached safety!!”

“Yeah!? And what is that truth!?”

“I…My unit was-…!!”

Lisa – or the blonde woman going by that name – began to tremble as she started to speak.

But then a giant shell landed near the truck.

It landed to the left from Quenser’s perspective.

They were struck by a tremendous impact.

Quenser thought the reinforced glass on the door would shatter instantly, but the entire door came off. The heavy military truck was a mass of metal protected by bulletproof equipment, but the entire thing floated up into the air. In all seriousness, it spun horizontally in midair twice. It landed on the tires, but its momentum caused it to roll on its side.

“Gh…bh!?”

Quenser could not breathe as he was practically hung by his seatbelt. But it was not strangling his neck. The pain came from the pressure to his ribs and lungs.

“What…the hell?”

Quenser heard the high-pitched sound of something breaking. Once he focused on his unsteady vision, he saw Lisa Deauville breaking the windshield. She bent her supple body, slipped through the hole, and escaped into the desert night.

“Get…back here!!”

Heivia broke the windshield and made his way out as well. Quenser was left behind, struggling with his seatbelt.

“Damn… What even happened!?”

Because of the unusual weight on it, the seatbelt would not come undone even once he pressed the button. He searched through his uniform and pulled out the survival kit. There was a small cooking knife inside.

(That was an explosion from a shell… A shell!? It wasn’t targeting the truck, but I doubt there’s another target in this empty desert. So was it a stray shot? But from who!? Wait… It can’t be!!)

He received his answer almost immediately.

A giant form passed by in front of the truck. It was on such a large scale that it could flatten the several meter tall sand dunes. It was a mass of metal and weapons. A massive amount of military budget had been brought together to construct that symbol of war.

It was an Object.

“The princess!?”

It was not just the Baby Magnum. The Object was making constant organic movements to the left and right as if taking the small steps of a boxer or mixed martial artist. Those were evasive actions. And there was only one thing that an Object had to fear taking damage from.

Another giant form was moving quickly through the desert night as if performing an intense dance on a scale of hundreds of meters.

This was the assistance from the Capitalist Corporations.

That urban invasion Object had no main cannon and was deemed generation 1.5.

“The Hornet Storm.”

An Object’s main cannon could easily hit at a distance of ten kilometers, so seven or eight hundred meters was extremely close range.

At that point, Quenser came to his senses.

“And I’m in the ring with them!!”

He frantically pulled the cooking knife out of his survival kit, but he did not have a chance to use it.

Before he could, the darkness of the desert night was split apart.

He had not seen the attack itself. He had seen the afterimage of the dust and moisture in the air being instantly fried. Several dozen thin orange lines of light gathered together and landed near the truck Quenser was struggling within.

The landing spot produced intense light as if from welding.

But he did not have time to complain about the sudden headache. The massive heat caused the surrounding air to expand, so what resembled a blast of wind struck the truck. The 8-ton truck had already rolled on its side, but this rumbling wind caused it to roll like a plastic bottle. The latch for the seatbelt finally gave out and Quenser was freed from his bonds. He was then slammed into the driver’s side door.

“Gbh!! Damn…it…”

The truck was lying on its side again, so Quenser crawled out the broken windshield.

The two Objects were continuing to fire their giant shells while taking relatively small evasive movements.

Quenser did not know what had triggered the direct conflict.

The Legitimacy Kingdom’s electronic simulation division might have noticed the virus was in the system and sent the Baby Magnum out before Quenser and Heivia could report. Or the Hornet Storm might have gotten too close to the maintenance base zone and the Baby Magnum had been sent out without knowing if they could win.

Either way…

(Wait, wait, wait!! We’re supposed to be attacking the Simple Is Best that is waiting for a chance to charge in from a distance. If it charges in at supersonic speeds now, the princess will be attacked from two sides at once. Can she really win even with control of the barricades taken!?)

Also, the Legitimacy Kingdom’s plan had been to use the mobile barricades to stop the Simple Is Best and have the Baby Magnum destroy it. They would then watch the Hornet Storm and attack it if it decided to continue fighting.

That plan was no longer going to work.

Two back to back battles against a single Object was different from fighting two Objects at once.

“Well, sitting around isn’t going to help. I need to contact Froleytia and see if there’s anything I can do.”

However, he was on the verge of passing out from the intense pain assaulting his entire body. He lay on the cold sand that almost felt frozen and pulled out his small radio.

But then something else happened.

Lisa had escaped and Heivia had pursued her, but the two of them were running back to the truck.

“…?”

Quenser grew cautious even as he lay on the ground.

It was unlikely they had gotten completely turned around in the empty desert. He could only think something had happened. For example, Heivia could have lost his gun, so Lisa was now pursuing him.

(But Heivia had more than just his handgun. Whether his gun jammed or he had it shot out of his hand like a movie villain, he would just have to switch to his assault rifle.)

But Quenser did not have time to think.

He did not know who Lisa Deauville was, but she was likely an enemy.

As tension ran through his body, he pulled out a Hand Axe plastic explosive and a ballpoint pen-shaped electric fuse, but then something unexpected happened.

Heivia ran right past Quenser.

And just before doing so, he frantically shouted to his terrible friend.

“You idiot!! How long are you going to sit there!?”

“…?”

He wondered if the other two had agreed to flee to safety due to the two Objects.

He was partially right and partially wrong.

After a few seconds, Quenser finally realized what Heivia and Lisa were running from.

The ground was disappearing.

A strange sand waterfall had appeared maybe 100 meters away and more and more of the ground was disappearing into the depths. The region was expanding and it was approaching where Quenser lay.

“Wh-what is that!?”

“How should I know? There must have been something under the desert and the Object fight caused it to collapse!!”

Surprisingly, it was Lisa who answered his question.

Not only that, the blonde beauty stopped in front of him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to his feet.

“Are your legs hurt? I can’t escape the collapse while carrying you. If you don’t want to be caught in the middle of it, then run! Right now!!”

Still not knowing what was going on, Quenser retreated along with Lisa.

The collapse of the fine sand continued behind them. They had no idea how far they would fall if it caught up to them, but it was certainly more than a few meters.

“What is this!? Did a natural cave start to spread!?”

“I said I don’t know! It might be manmade, but this is no time to worry about that!!”

“Dammit. I thought it was supposed to be tungsten below our feet!”

“What are you talking about!?”

In a desert of nothing but fine sand, there was no meaning in making maps with detailed contour lines. The desert was commonly compared to a stormy sea and the strong wind continually changed the terrain just like one. Dunes several meters tall were easily formed. It was possible a warehouse or factory had been completely hidden below the sand.

“Heivia, wait up! Don’t escape on your own!!”

“Shut up!! This is divine punishment! The crime of flirting deserves death! Don’t get someone as cool and stoic as me involved in your punishment!!”

The coldhearted boy’s back was a long way ahead.

Suddenly, the two Objects continuing their battle beyond the collapse sent a frightening stray shell in their direction. The shell landed over three hundred meters to the side, but it was still enough to send Quenser’s entire body into the air. For an instant, he had difficulty breathing. He rolled across the ground and Lisa tried to pick him up.

But that was a mistake.

The maw of the collapse caught up. He felt the ground disappear below him. It was less a vertical waterfall and more of a steep waterslide. Quenser and Lisa were mercilessly dropped into the abyss that light could not reach.

===Part 5===

Quenser had passed out, so he did not know how much time had passed.

“Gh…”

[[Image:HO_v07_205.png|thumb]]

He groaned and brought a hand to his forehead. He did not know how far he had fallen. He was lying on some kind of floor, but he still did not feel stable. It felt like being on a small rocking boat. He had a strong urge to vomit.

He had no intention of suffocating on his own vomit, so he ignored his aching head and forced himself to sit up.

Lisa Deauville had the top of her uniform removed and was wiping her underarm with a wet towel.

“…Hm?”

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!? Why am I the one screaming and why are you the one staring in confusiooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!?”

“Is your mind still muddled? You still have your memories, I hope. I do not want to explain everything from the beginning.”

Lisa did not seem to care that Quenser had seen her. She finished wiping the sweat and sand from her upper body and put her uniform back on.

Quenser began to back away from her as he did not know who she truly was, but he stopped when an intense urge to vomit rose up from his stomach.

He could not suppress it, so he turned his head aside and vomited profusely.

“It looks like you hit your head. If you have the rations to spare, you should wait until you finish vomiting and then consume the nutrients your body needs to stabilize itself. You should also make sure there is no blood in your vomit, just to be safe.”

“Wh-who…”

Quenser reflexively reached for his plastic explosives and realized how odd it was his weapons had not been taken from him.

“Who are you? Why did you save me back there?”

“I am Lisa Deauville, a second lieutenant in the Legitimacy Kingdom military. Those two facts remain unchanged. In which case, do I need a special reason to save a fellow soldier? I think abandoning you would cause more problems later on.”

She referred to him as a soldier, so she did not know that he was a battlefield student.

There were at least a thousand people in the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, so not everyone knew about Quenser. There were a lot of soldiers Quenser had never seen and did not know the name of. It was too soon to jump to any conclusions.

“But I am from a different type of unit than yours,” she continued. “It is not registered in the standard military database. Without access privileges above a certain level, there is no way for me to prove my identity right now.”

“Only the people who believe in the UFO development unit would believe such a suspicious story.”

“I hear that a lot.”

Lisa shrugged and leaned her back against a broken pillar. Quenser looked around once more and found they were in some kind of giant warehouse that had completely lost its roof due to the sand.

“July: western Indian Ocean. October: the underground resource extraction plants in the Greenland Sea. November: the Alaska region. January: the Southern Atlantic Ocean region.”

“?”

“You’re a soldier, right? Haven’t you memorized the battlefields where we have lost?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That is where I work.”

Lisa picked up a water bottle she had likely used to wet the towel from earlier and took a gulp.

“My mission was to bring paint into Oceania.”

Quenser had heard of peaceful missions to bring teaching materials, art supplies, and picture books into battlefields to provide humanitarian aid.

But Lisa was talking about something completely different.

“I was part of the Stalk Killer Unit. You could say I was an expert in withdrawing from the battlefield. Once a battle was deemed lost, someone like me would be secretly sent in. My objective was to keep the enemy army from capturing high-ranking officers, pilot Elites, or important technology related to Objects. In other words, it was a disgusting dirty job of choosing my allies and helping them escape,” she spat out.

Quenser frowned.

“Withdrawing from the battlefield? But this is the age of clean wars fought with Objects. The wars are fought between Objects and once the result has been reached, you send out the white flag signal and leave. We shouldn’t need a unit specialized in withdrawing from the battlefield.”

“If you seriously believe that, you are quite a naïve boy. Real wars are made so they will occasionally destroy all rationality. It’s no different than the certain percentage of defective electronics created in factories.”

“…”

When he thought about it, Quenser realized that had been the case when the Water Strider had pursued them in the Alaska region. The white flag signal only worked if there was mutual trust between both sides. And what Quenser and the others were fighting was a war.

“The military has to lose their pursuers. Simply hiding your tracks is not necessarily enough. You lay countless traps to crush the pursuing hunters. For example, we might set up one or two thousand bombs while cutting across an abandoned city. And they are not set up so anyone can see them. That is where the ‘paint’ comes in.”

“You camouflage them?”

Quenser pulled out the hand axe plastic explosives that he normally used.

If it was shaped with a spatula and colored with paint, it could be made to look like a stone on the road, a piece of broken asphalt, or a piece of styrofoam. If it was made to match the situation and had shadows and stains added on, it could blend into the landscape even for high-quality cameras. That made them no different from the props used for TV and movies. Just like a beer bottle made from candy or a wound made from red food coloring and bandages, no one would notice the bomb set up right next to them.

They would not suspect a thing until it actually detonated.

Lisa let out a heavy sigh.

“A foolish noble decided to make a quick visit to Oceania to gain popularity. The information got out and a group of local guerrillas or possibly disguised Information Alliance soldiers surrounded them. The Stalk Killer Unit was sent into a hellish battlefield as usual. It would have been difficult to escape with any normal means, so our leader said we would pass through a complicated urban area and escape to the nearest Object maintenance base. …And we would of course be laying tons of traps and bombs to lose our pursuers.”

“You don’t mean…”

“I advised him to reconsider.” Lisa placed a hand on her head as if grabbing at her blonde bangs. “The traps are effective, but they do not choose who falls for them. Even if the area was still going through war recovery, life had returned to the city. The people living there were forced to gather anything rare or valuable so they could sell it. It was obvious what would happen if we set up one or two thousands bombs that perfectly blended into the scenery. The city that was finally recovering its smile would be filled with blood and screams. Our real enemy would step over the writhing victims and safely pursue us through the path that was now free of bombs. I told our leader it was meaningless.”

Had they settled on that inhumane means of withdrawal and succeeded?

That thought entered Quenser’s mind for an instant, but he denied it himself.

If so, Lisa would not be here.

“I do not remember what exactly pushed it over the edge, but our argument crossed a certain line. I swear to you, it was our leader who pulled his gun first.”

But it was Lisa who was alive here now.

Quenser did not know how hopeless her situation was and how many “allies” she had been surrounded by, but if what she said was true, she must have won that nightmarish firefight.

That action had not had an obvious merit.

It had not even been based around the honor that was so popular in the Legitimacy Kingdom.

Lisa had simply stopped her unit from going too far and protected the many civilians who would normally have not been in any danger of being lost.

And to do so, she had shot and killed many allies who had trusted her.

“Then why had you infiltrated the Capitalist Corporations’ mobile barricade facility? That doesn’t make sense.”

“I was not trying to infiltrate it. As I travelled through the desert to reach a Legitimacy Kingdom base, they set up their unit in my path. …In fact, your maintenance battalion is pretty much the same.”

“?”

“As you said, this is the age of clean wars. There are people who do not want it to get out that there are constant inhumane missions that ignore the white flag. There are high-ranking members of the military who do not want it to get out that they have been sending out a unit like mine while also claiming to be fighting a clean war. That would be admitting that they have been lying about the clean wars. In the end, I have become an inconvenience to both my enemies and my allies.”

Her enemies were the Information Alliance and the Capitalist Corporations.

Her allies were the Legitimacy Kingdom.

“There is a contradiction in the structure of the wars and I am a symbol of that contradiction. By taking actions that show I have left the military’s control, I have made those high-ranking officials scared, so it seems they will do anything to kill me. By killing me, they can avoid having my information get out.”

Quenser thought about what Lisa was saying.

“You mean the Ex. Wall barricades here and the battle beginning tonight are nothing more than preparations for a single goal?” muttered Quenser blankly. “You mean it’s all to assassinate you? Not just the Baby Magnum, but the Simple Is Best and Hornet Storm, too? This entire battle including three Objects was set up to make sure a single runaway soldier is killed!?”

Three Objects was a large enough force to start a large-scale war.

What she was saying was similar to attacking a country with a nuclear weapon in order to kill a single individual.

“That isn’t something a base commander could do. Only someone directly involved in a much larger power balance could bring together multiple world powers like that. The local commanders are unaware that I, the true target, am on the battlefield. They will simply carry out the camouflage mission given to them. So do not doubt any of the superior officers that you have actually met. That would be meaningless.”

She was implicitly covering for the princess and Froleytia.

But Quenser had never thought either of them were the type to be involved in that kind of conspiracy.

“What are we supposed to do?” groaned Quenser. “You say you’re a survivor of a withdrawal unit not in the military database. And this battle between three Objects is all to kill you and you alone? That’s crazy. Is there any way for a flesh-and-blood soldier to survive that?”

“Are you actually willing to believe me now?”

“I have no objective proof,” immediately spat out Quenser. “But that was not an act when you tried to help me from the collapse earlier. Even Heivia was abandoning me in that situation. If you were from the Capitalist Corporations or Information Alliance and pretending to be an ally, you wouldn’t need to do that.”

“I see,” muttered Lisa under her breath.

That was when the underground structure rumbled ominously.

The deadly Object battle was continuing up above.

“We can take our time to see if you’re telling the truth once we get back to the maintenance base zone. The problem right now is how to survive this battle!! The Baby Magnum is still battling the Hornet Storm. To take advantage of that situation, the Simple Is Best will charge in faster than the speed of sound! If that happens, it’s all over. I doubt our princess can withstand an attack from two sides at once and everything will be blown away if she’s defeated! I will, you will, and everyone in the maintenance base will!!”

“…”

Lisa remained silent for a moment as she thought.

But she soon raised her head.

“No, it isn’t over yet. I won’t let it end like this.”

“What?”

“Come with me. Whatever happens, we need to get out of this underground structure first.”

Lisa led the way and Quenser followed her through the strange abandoned building.

It was a giant space that was over three hundred meters long.

“It looks like some kind of storage base. It may have belonged to the old military government,” said Lisa as they cut across the sand-filled structure without a light.

After a while, they found a rectangular corridor that led to a rusty staircase leading up.

They carefully climbed the stairs while making sure they did not break through them.

Once they reached the surface, Quenser finally realized where they were.

“This belongs to the pipeline cutting across the desert.”

“I think this was originally a terminal facility for drawing up water from unused water veins and sending it to food supply bases. You could call it an extremely forceful and large-scale well. Even if this is a desert, weren’t they afraid of the ground sinking down?”

This facility was rusted and falling apart and the ceiling had caved in. Heivia had joked about ghosts, but that building could easily collapse on its own at any time. Heivia had not been entirely wrong because it could be called a “mass producer of ghosts”.

Once they left the abandoned facility, they saw a large cloud of sand rising into the air.

It was 500 to 700 meters away.

“That’s them. That’s the Baby Magnum and Hornet Storm!!”

“You said another one was coming, right? Was it called the Simple Is Best?”

Suddenly, static came from Quenser’s radio.

Froleytia’s shouting voice followed.

“The Simple Is Best has begun to move! It is travelling south from Route 09 to 37!! If our calculations are correct, it will reach the princess in less than three minutes!! All soldiers in between, make sure you are not caught in the middle!!”

“It’s begun,” muttered Quenser. “Once the Hornet Storm and Simple Is Best are both attacking her, it’s all over! Dammit. I want to support the princess, but we don’t even have any information on a weakness!!”

“…”

Lisa then took an odd action.

She crouched down and pulled something from the ankle of her uniform’s pants.

What she now held in her palm was not a small handgun or knife.

Neither of those would be any help when an Object was attacking.

She held a cylinder about as thick as a coin and as long as a ballpoint pen.

“Boy, you do not need a sign. Just run as quickly as you can from here right this instant. Get as far from me as you can.”

“What are you-…?”

“Weren’t you listening?”

Lisa’s voice grew firm as she removed something like a lid from the cylinder. But the cylinder was not a container and so it was not accurate to call it a lid.

It was an abrasive surface.

Or perhaps it could be called a means of ignition.

“This entire battle was set up to kill me and prevent my information from getting out. The people actually fighting here do not know that, but the schemers behind the scenes should give some clever instructions once they see their true target. …And if they target me, it will cease to be a two-on-one battle!!”

A solid sound rang out.

At the same time, an unnaturally red flame as if from a firework burst from the end of the cylinder. It was hard to tell because it was night, but a lot of chemically colored smoke had likely burst out as well.

“A flare!? You idiot! If you use that here-…!!”

“You’re the idiot!! It’s not too late, so get as far from me as you can!! Right now!! Save yourself!!”

As she shouted, Lisa ran toward the intensely fighting Objects.

There was nothing Quenser could do.

The military satellites, the Objects’ sensors, and the sensors on the guns of the soldiers that might be lurking in the darkness would all have picked up the heat and light from the flare.

Through some route or another, that information reached someone.

A moment later, the state of the battle rapidly changed.

It was like watching an obvious farce or a fixed match.

The Hornet Storm fired countless laser beams chaotically into the desert night. Those attacks were little threat to the Baby Magnum, but it still moved slightly to evade them. Once the orange beams of light missed their target, they struck the desert. With a flash of light as if from welding, the air explosively expanded and a frightening shockwave spread throughout the entire area.

Quenser’s human eyes were not enough to view everything that happened.

But he saw one thing for sure: a puny blonde human was tossed into the air like a poorly made paper airplane in the wind.

“Goddammit!”

The color white filled Quenser’s mind.

The Baby Magnum had been placed in a situation formulated to be difficult, but Quenser threw away the situation that gave her a way out. He also threw away what Lisa herself had just said. The next thing he knew, he was running.

“Goddammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttt!!”

He ran toward the battlefield.

He ran toward the intense fighting.

He ran toward Lisa as she was slammed into the sand like a broken toy.

He felt a stinging pain in his throat. The air was oddly dry. All the sand in the area was glittering as it reflected the moonlight. That was due to the laser beams the Hornet Storm had fired into the ground. Their overwhelmingly high temperature and not only explosively expanded the air; they had also melted the silicon in the sand. Exposure to the night air had re-cooled the silicone, forming a thin glass coating.

Quenser half-slid up to Lisa and crouched down.

He frantically picked her up and found she was oddly light. This was not due to his mental state. A physical change had come over her.

“Run…”

The smoke and flames from the flare had vanished.

But not because its effective time had ended.

“The ones behind this have lost control of themselves…after seeing the prey…they want so badly. This irregularity…will be quickly fixed. Once their rotten rationality recovers…systematic destruction will cover…this entire area.”

It was gone.

It had been destroyed.

Both the flare and the entire arm that had been holding it were gone. The point from which the arm had been torn had twisted around like a rag being wrung. For better or for worse, this had prevented too much blood loss.

“Is there any meaning to this?”

Quenser frantically pulled out his survival kit. He could not close up the wound with a needle and thread, much less with a bandage. He rethought his plan and realized his only choice was to wrap the bandage under her arm and around her entire body. By tying it tightly, he could constrict the thick artery.

“Is there any meaning to this!? This won’t even buy 20 seconds. The slight wave will quickly be smoothed out! The princess is struggling against the Hornet Storm and the Simple Is Best is charging in at faster than the speed of sound!! That situation isn’t going to change. Throwing a float to someone out in a storm isn’t going to save them, so why did you throw your own life out into the water! Do you want to drown that badly!?”

“The Stalk Killer Unit said the same thing.”

Lisa smiled weakly with blood splattered on her cheek.

It was unclear if she could even see Quenser in front of her.

“But it seems this is my nature. There are times…when I suddenly hate that kind of logical thought. Ahh, maybe I’m not suited…to being a soldier.”

Lisa had not done anything wrong.

She had simply been the single person to give the correct answer among the majority who agreed to the wrong answer.

“And there ''was'' meaning.”

“What meaning?”

“I was able to speak with you. I told you that the Stalk Killer Unit brought a lot of paint into this country… I may not have escaped the ones behind all this, but I was able to tell the truth to one person. That makes this…my victory. This was enough.”

This was the result.

She had tried to protect the civilians from being indiscriminately slaughtered by countless booby traps and she had tried to protect Quenser and Heivia’s unit after running across them on the battlefield. She had always been the only one to reach the correct answer and she was going to breathe her final breath while all alone like this.

Was that okay?

Could Quenser accept a world like that?”

“Promise me.”

“…?”

“Once this battle is over and you somehow – it doesn’t matter how right now – managed to survive, promise me you will appear at a court martial. Use that official stage to reveal everything that you’ve seen!! Tell everyone about the special unit for withdrawing, tell them everything the Stalk Killer Unit has done, and tell them about the people working to hide that truth!! Tell them everything. Can you promise me that!?”

“What difference will it make…?”

“I’ll make a promise, too. I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to get you to that courtroom!!”

Lisa’s mind was muddled by the intense pain, but her eyes opened slightly.

Quenser placed her back on the sand and slowly stood up.

He had made up his mind.

In the current situation, he could not save Lisa.

Forcibly cutting off the artery under her arm to stop the bleeding would only last for fifteen minutes. If she was not brought to the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion in that time, she would die. There would be no miracles or coincidences; she would simply die. But the base could not send a helicopter for her due to the Object loaded with the absolute anti-air weapons that were lasers. Given the distance, there was not enough time for a military vehicle to drive out to them. There was a huge difference between a helicopter that could move at 300-400 kph and a vehicle that could only travel at 150 kph. And the vehicle’s speed would be cut in half or even more in the desert.

In other words, the situation had to be resolved in only a few minutes.

The Baby Magnum and the Hornet Storm were close by and the Simple Is Best was approaching from afar. He had to end that nightmarish battle between three Objects.

“Can you hear me, princess?” As he spoke quietly into his radio, his blond hair blew in the cold wind of the desert night. “Don’t think about the Simple Is Best. Do everything you can to defeat the Hornet Storm in a one-on-one battle. If you’re fearing an attack from two fronts, you can’t use your full potential and you can’t defeat the Hornet Storm. That’s an irregular Object designed to attack large cities. It can be used against other Objects, but that isn’t its main purpose. It should be easier than battling a second generation Object.”

“Of course I will win. What is your point?”

“I’m saying we can distribute the work,” he stated as if spitting out the words. ”You handle the Hornet Storm and I’ll destroy the Simple Is Best that’s at the root of it all our problems here.”

===Part 6===

===Part 7===

===Part 8===

===Part 9===

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 1|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 3}}</noinclude>

Talk:HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 2

2014-01-04T08:08:22Z

Gamerdude13: Change temperature number

7 degree seems wrong in the desert at night since I am from Canada and 7 degree is still normal weather. -Gamerdude13

HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 2

2014-01-04T08:04:07Z

Gamerdude13:

{{Incomplete|parts=5|tparts=9}}
==Chapter 2: My Job is to Transport Paint >> Intelligence Battle in Oceania==

===Part 1===

“The situation is quite simple,” began Major Froleytia Capistrano in the pre-mission briefing room which was filled with soldiers. “The Information Alliance is turning false accusation against us and the Legitimacy Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion intends to respond in full force. Beginning now, the entire battalion will prepare our response. They will be sending a second generation Object, so if you don’t want to die, help the princess score as many points as possible.”

Froleytia stood on a large platform and the white wall behind her was being used a projector screen.

Their greatest threat at the moment was displayed there.

“Our only confirmed enemy at the moment is the Information Alliance’s second generation Object named Simple Is Best. Its main cannon is a low-stability plasma cannon and its propulsion method is an air cushion for both naval and land use, but its most unique features are the pointed beak-shaped armor added to the front and the countless high-output ion thrusters attached for auxiliary propulsion.”

Several documents were displayed at once.

The intelligence division’s research and analysis of the Object had made enough progress for that much information.

Heivia leaned over and whispered to Quenser.

“(What were those high-output something or others?)”

“(A type of ion engine. Normally, ion engines are attached to space probes to provide weak but lengthy effects in zero-gravity, but this thing uses the energy of an Object’s reactor to forcibly produce an insane output. You can think of it like a space shuttle sitting on its side.)”

“(Why would they use such a pain-in-the-ass method?)”

“(There are several rumors about that. Some say the Information Alliance is trying to build a flying Object. Others say they’re trying to develop a perfect circulation system to search for habitable planets outside the solar system. Either way, the Simple Is Best is a project being used as a starting point.)”

“(What? I thought it was the Faith Organization that was desperate to make a flying Object. Wasn’t it called the Sky Castle Project or something? Instead of going with the more scientific-sounding ‘outer space’, they wanted a more religious-sounding ‘kingdom above the clouds’.)”

“(It’s nothing but a reckless project for the moment, but if another world power completes that great desire of theirs ahead of time, it would break the hearts of the Faith Organization’s people.)”

“(I see. Attacking at their weak spot like that does sound like the Information Alliance.)”

“(But I hope it all ends up as a pipe dream. A flying Object would be hard to shoot down and shooting it down might cause an impact on the level of an asteroid and cause an ice age.)”

Looking over the diagram told them the Simple Is Best had a V-shaped board-like part at the bottom and a long straight part extending from the back. Overall, it had an arrow-like shape. The spherical main body was essentially attached atop the three lines making up the arrow.

The V-shaped part was used to regulate the horizontal direction and the straight line on the back was used to provide space for the aforementioned high-output ion thrusters. Atop that long board like float, several cylindrical thrusters were attached at an angle. Each and every one of them was over twenty meters long.

“As the name suggests, the Object’s strategy is very simple. It does not try to evade at all. It ignores any damage, approaches its target along the shortest and fastest route, and fires its main cannon at almost point-blank range. Despite being an Object, its top speed reaches the sound barrier. Once targeted by it, your average Object cannot escape.”

“The sound barrier,” muttered Quenser who had become just one of the crowd. “But that thing’s a 200 thousand ton hunk of metal. Can it really maintain control while moving along the surface at the speed of sound?”

“Keep your comments to yourself, war criminal.”

“I can see that nickname sticking, so please stop calling me that!!” cried Quenser with tears in his eyes.

Froleytia ignored him and continued speaking.

“The beak-like armor on the front is a collection of extremely thin metal leaf. You could call it a crystallization of the best aspects of reactive armor technology. Whenever it detects an effective attack such as from a low-stability plasma cannon or railgun, the thin armor is detached to reduce the damage. If you keep at it and continue fire, it will eventually run out like a roll of toilet paper, but that is where its speed comes into play. While you are taking your time doing that, it will reach point-blank range. In other words, it will not take evasive actions. It will trust in the strength of its shield and charge in from the front, no matter what kind of main cannon it is up against.”

Its specs could make one think otherwise, but the enemy’s greatest feature was its armor rather than its speed. Even the Legitimacy Kingdom was already developing Objects that focused on speed and tried to approach within close range of the target. However, it was something else entirely to not take any evasive actions and stick to the shortest course no matter what.

This direct weapon would charge in on a straight line and endure any attack to the front.

And based on the difference in speed, the Baby Magnum could not escape.

Being targeted by that Object would essentially mean the end of the match.

“The aforementioned toilet paper is only equipped to the front of the Object. Attacks from the side, back, or above will get through just fine. …But the Simple Is Best will of course be aware of its own weakness. If the Baby Magnum tries to circle around, it will likely anticipate the action and adjust its position to compensate. The situation would be different if we had more than one Object as well, but we only have one at present. It will be extremely difficult to get behind the Simple Is Best due to its superior speed.”

Heivia had been casually listening, but then he frowned.

“Wait a sec.”

“What is it, war criminal #2?”

“At least make me #1! Being ranked under him is the biggest insult!!” he shouted before getting to his question. “Did you just say if we had more than one Object ‘as well’?”

“Oh, that.” Froleytia brushed up her bangs in annoyance. “According to some information the intelligence division got their hands on, the Information Alliance is trying to use the false accusations against us to contact the other world powers. They are suggesting they work together to defeat a common enemy. I do not know who will go along with it, but we might have to deal with more than one Object if someone wants to use this as an opportunity to damage the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

Quenser and Heivia grimaced.

The current age was known as one of clean wars fought by Objects. Objects influenced everything in those wars. The funds and technology poured into the opposing Objects was important, but the number of Objects was even more important. If it came down to one-against-three, the result was immediately obvious, so it was best to retreat as soon as possible.

“But any newcomers will simply be trying to take advantage of the situation. The Simple Is Best is the main pillar of the enemy force, so destroying it could easily convince the remaining Object or Objects not to stick around and bring even more damage to themselves.”

In that case, their primary target was the Simple Is Best.

To escape a disadvantageous battle against multiple Objects, their only option was to swiftly destroy that central pillar.

===Part 2===

In the true desert away from the city and devoid of the asphalt and concrete that gathered heat, the nights grew cold quickly.

Quenser’s military uniform was made to handle the cold, but his teeth were chattering as he watched a 1seg broadcast on his military handheld device. The backlight dimly lit up his face as if he was holding a flashlight below his head.

“Oh ho ho. Welcome to the New York Miracle Net Festa! All of you around the world in front of your monitors, be charmed by this enchanting song and dance!! Yay!!”

“Yay!” shouted Quenser. “Bouncing breasts and a shaking ass!!”

“Quenser, you idiot! What are you watching in the middle of our night mission!?”

“It’s called escapism! I came to the battlefield to learn about Object design, so why was I am I freezing to death out in the desert!?”

“Just turn it off, you idiot! Do you want to die!? …No, wait. Let me see it before you turn it off!! Come to think of it, why do you have an invitation code to that net concert!?”

“I don’t know why, but I get emails from her a lot. She can monitor whether the code was used or not and she said she’d shoot me on the battlefield if I didn’t watch it.”

Suddenly, Quenser’s radio emitted a quick electronic tone.

The princess’s voice soon followed.

“Quenser, explain further.”

“Wow! I don’t know what’s going on, but the princess is pissed! Since she hasn’t realized her request to explain further contradicts that, she must be the type who doesn’t realize how angry she is. But why!?”

Quenser frantically asked Heivia for help, but his friend gave the wonderfully gentlemanly response of raising his middle finger and shouting “How should I know!! Maybe it’s divine punishment!!”

“All military transmissions are checked in the server, you know? What do you think you are doing there?” asked the princess.

“Wow!! Are you mad because I’m watching an Information Alliance idol’s ass on a mission against the Information Alliance? I didn’t realize you were such a stickler for the rules.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Comments of “this is very bad” started coming from the other soldiers spread out across the desert whose names Quenser did not know.

“If you’re gonna go with divine punishment, keep it to him!! If you use your main cannon, you’ll blow me away too!!” shouted Heivia without even trying to hide his self-centered fears.

“Honestly, why are boys so easily manipulated by girls who sing? Anyone can sing.”

“I can’t let that comment go, princess. I hope I can expect great things of your singing ability. If you aren’t aware, a certain island nation has this thing called karaoke!!”

“(Twitch) …Y-you’re on.”

“You can kill me!! As long as he dies, I don’t care if you fire the Object’s cannons!!”

Quenser ignored Heivia’s shouting and pulled the night vision goggles down from his forehead.

His vision was digitally corrected and filled with green light.

But he continued to make desperate jokes.

“So it’s finally come to this. I’m dressed in all black and wearing night vision goggles.” In the moonlight and the chill that seemed to stab at him through the darkness, his breath was white. “All right! Now I’m part of the special forces! I’m the same as the Capitalist Corporations’ Hollywood movie stars. You can shake my hand at an amusement park!!”

“Hey, Quenser. Could you quit being so annoying and get down? If one of their snipers blows your head off, I’m not gathering your remains. They’d be too heavy.”

Heivia was dressed in an all-black uniform as well. He was lying face down on the fine sand while complaining to his rotten friend who was approaching the limit of what Heivia could put up with.

The desert was cold at night.

Some deserts were made of cracked earth and some were plains with a few weeds growing at about the thickness of a filthy middle-aged man’s half-grown beard, but the ones seen in sightseeing pamphlets that were covered in nothing but sand had a large temperature difference between day and night. Because it was midsummer, the temperature did not drop below freezing, but Heivia still clicked his tongue after stabbing an electric thermometer into the sand and reading the display.

“Six degrees. It’s six degrees Celsius. You could throw some fish out here without needing to refrigerate it. What the hell is going on?”

“I think the distance is a bigger problem,” said Quenser as he lay down on the sand. “We’re ten kilometers away. Why did we have to get off the truck so far away? This isn’t a carefully maintained sports field. Walking there and back is going to shorten my life.”

“Shut up. Don’t act like you could even run a city quarter marathon with plenty of water stations,” spat out Heivia. “At ground level, you can only see about five kilometers away. The earth is round, so the horizon covers up everything beyond that. But this is the empty desert. If the tires disturbed the sand and created a dust cloud as we travelled, it could poke up above the horizon.”

“I know what you’re trying to say, but shouldn’t the dedicated scouts handle these long-range reconnaissance missions? This doesn’t make sense. Everyone may have forgotten, but I’m only a student who wanted to learn about Object design on the battlefield.”

“And I’m a radar analyst! That’s an indoor job!! I’m supposed to have a cool intellectual position in an air conditioned room and a bottle of mineral water in hand, so how did I end up on this hellish picnic where I’m freezing my ass off in the desert!?”

Their commanding officer then contacted them over their radio.

Froleytia seemed to be as annoyed as them.

“Quiet down, war criminals. Do you really think you are in any position to choose your job? You should be thankful we actually need you.”

“Wow. I’ve been wondering. Shouldn’t we add a monitor to our radios? Then we could be supplied with someone – anyone – in a micro bikini.”

“You don’t get it, Heivia. This is the world of imagination. If everything is out in the open, it isn’t as arousing.”

“Okay, war criminals. Keep in mind that I can dock your pay for disrespect at any time.”

Quenser and Heivia solemnly prostrated themselves in front of the radio.

However, their apology was cheaper than a movie theater hot dog.

“(Quenser, this is because of your creepy comment about the world of imagination!)”

“(Are you sure it isn’t because of your comment about wanting ‘anyone’!?)”

“Sorry, but I can hear everything the two of you are saying.”

After having that pointed out, the two of them travelled through the desert night while keeping close to the ground.

The desert reflected the moonlight, so it was a bit brighter than a thick forest. However, Quenser had not undergone the basic training to receive the benefit of that. He had been relying solely on the overall greenish image produced by his night vision goggles.

“My eyes hurt. You aren’t supposed to have light shining on your eyes from so close. Are you sure this isn’t going to ruin my eyesight? Is the blue light really okay?”

“You’re complaining about that on a battlefield where you could be blown to pieces in one second? More importantly, we need to keep following the remains of the pipeline. We’re surrounded by nothing but desert, so we’d lose our way even with a map.”

Heivia pointed toward a two meter thick metal pipe a few hundred meters away. It continued in a straight line from the horizon behind them to the horizon in front of them. However, it was brown and rusted, it had large holes in places, and it simply disappeared for a while at some points.

“Is that a remnant of the old Oceanian military government?”

“Yeah. It was a pipeline that drew water up from deep underground and carried it to large-scale farms.”

“It isn’t for oil?”

“It’s what you call water resources. These days, the trendy thing to do is add ‘resources’ to something and find a way to make money off of it. As long as it makes money, it could be anything. Water resources, underground resources, power resources, food resources, human resources, sightseeing resources, living resources, forest resources, IP resources, and so on. It feels like they wouldn’t worry about endangered species if they didn’t have a price tag.”

“Sounds like something the Capitalist Corporations would love.”

“The Faith Organization would probably love this too. There are rumors of ghosts appearing at the ruins of the purification facilities and water gathering facilities the pipeline is centered around.”

“Are you sure it isn’t people searching for anything of value?”

“Honestly, I don’t know why I even mentioned it. There’s no point in a test of courage when there isn’t a single girl around.”

The desert was not level. It undulated like a stormy sea. When they did not choose their route carefully, they were forced to walk up and down large hills again and again. To avoid exerting unnecessary energy, they tried to choose the most level route possible.

“I feel like I’m lost on Mars.”

“This is better than that. I hear there’s tungsten buried below our feet.”

“Tung…what?”

“Just to be clear, this isn’t gonna make you any money. It’s spread out too thinly for that. If this area had a valuable vein, the old military government would have dug it all up in search of funds.”

After continuing a little longer, they saw some faint light beyond the desert horizon.

Heivia crouched down even lower and whispered to Quenser.

“That’s gotta be it. They’re really going all out.”

“What is the Simple Is Best doing right now?”

“It is preparing to charge in from a position thirty kilometers from our maintenance base,” cut in Froleytia. “That’s much further out than that light you can see. It’s hiding beyond the horizon.”

There was no sign of any enemy soldiers, but the closer they approached their destination, the higher the risk of cameras and sensors. Quenser and Heivia hurried on while checking for those things using their night vision goggles’ sensors.

“This is insane,” said Quenser as he walked across the cold sand. “We haven’t heard anything back from the intelligence division team that went in ahead of us, right? Would you normally send a student somewhere that dangerous?”

“You are not the only one involved in this,” answered Froleytia.

“Still…”

“We are both professionals, so we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. But if you run across the intelligence division team that screwed up there, take them back with you. Over.”

“I am ''not'' a professional! I’m a student!!”

Once they arrived within three kilometers of their destination, even those two idiots stopped speaking as much.

They began to crawl slowly across the undulating sand dunes. Once they arrived at the top of one dune, their vision opened up.

[[Image:HO_v07_155.png|thumb]]

“Ow…”

The night vision goggles’ display filled with fluorescent green.

Feeling a slight pain in his temples, Quenser raised the goggles to his forehead and used his naked eyes.

The dark and calm desert landscape had completely changed.

The brightness had come from countless lights, both large and small.

“Yeah, it’s just as we thought,” groaned Heivia.

The scene several kilometers ahead of them resembled a temporary supply base. What stood out the most were the twenty large truck-like vehicles. They also saw prefab lodgings for over one hundred soldiers, gondola-equipped cranes in place of watchtowers, a communications facility, and defensive weapons ranging from tanks to mobile surface-to-air missile vehicles.

The lights ranged from large searchlights held by cranes to vehicle headlights and military flashlights. The one common factor was the complete lack of concern about hiding the light in the darkness.

While lying on the sand, Heivia pointed at one of the large truck-like vehicles.

“That’s one of the Capitalist Corporations’ mobile barricades. Were they called Ex. Walls? This confirms it. Another world power has joined in to crush us along with the Information Alliance’s Simple Is Best.”

“That vehicle is a barricade?”

Instead of a container on the back of the truck, it had what looked like a cylinder lying on its side. Both the front and the back of the vehicle had what looked like a driver’s compartment. Overall, it was reminiscent of a train.

Heivia bluntly answered Quenser’s question.

“You’ll see soon enough. C’mon, let’s get moving.”

As soon as he spoke, the driver’s compartments on both sides of the vehicle began moving in opposite directions. The metal cylinder in the middle expanded like an accordion. In no time at all, it formed a giant spring-like barricade that was seven meters thick and three hundred meters long.

Quenser expressed his understanding with a displeased look.

“Oh, I get it now.”

“Stupid, isn’t it? By lining up two rows of ten of them, they can form three kilometer barbed wire walls on either side.”

“Are they planning to stop our princess with those so the Simple Is Best can crush her?”

Barbed wire was most often viewed as a tool to prevent intruders, but it could also be laid out on the ground in coils to wrap around tank treads and armored vehicle tires.

But Quenser frowned as he lay on the sand.

“Are the Capitalist Corporations really thinking that? Forget barbed wire. You could surround the world in walls made from the same reinforced concrete as nuclear shelters and it would mean nothing against an Object’s main cannon.”

“Look closely and think about it. Why do you think their toys are called Ex. Walls?”

“What?”

“The Ex. stands for explosion. Change the magnification and look more closely. That coil of barbed wire is made to break into pieces if it receives a powerful shock such as from a bombardment. And each individual piece functions as an anti-personnel mine. That one truck probably has somewhere between two and three thousand.”

“Why? Scattering landmines isn’t going to stop the princess.”

“It would still be a problem concerning the image of clean wars using Objects.” One corner of Heivia’s mouth twisted up in a smile. “The war treaties forbid indiscriminately laying or scattering mines. But they can weasel their way out of it in the international conference room by saying their enemy was the one that scattered them. In other words, the princess could end up being labelled the bad guy for pulling the trigger. It would be awkward to be accused with that while stationed in Oceania to help with the war recovery. That weapon is meant to stop her with that threat.”

“That’s ridiculous. It’s a weapon that ignores its actual ability and plays word games? It sounds like the stupid games nobles play.”

“You should avoid saying that in a Legitimacy Kingdom safe country.”

Froleytia then spoke up over the radio.

“Those mobile barricades form a block three kilometers across. They are being prepared simultaneously in eight places to surround our maintenance base and the Baby Magnum. Once that is complete, they will approach to tighten the circle. If we grow impatient and send out the princess, the Simple Is Best will charge in at supersonic speeds.”

The missing intelligence division team had snuck into one of those eight places, but they did not know which one.

“Those barricades are mobile, so they can connect to their military network and move to match the Object’s location. Once they have sealed off the princess’s actions as best they can, they will create a path for the Simple Is Best to charge in. To be honest, this could be bad if they are able to work together well.”

The Simple Is Best’s strategy was quite broad. It used its thick front armor and the acceleration of its high-output ion thrusters to ignore the damage done to it and charge in close enough for an extreme close range main cannon blast.

The princess’s only chance was at the moment of intersection.

The Simple Is Best had a monstrous top speed, but that meant it could not make tight turns. And to reduce weight, its additional armor was only on the front. If its charge was evaded by moving quickly to the left or right, it would be the princess’s turn. If she fired on the Simple Is Best when its backside was showing, there was nothing it could do to avoid destruction.

Effectively sealing off the left or right evasive routes using the barricades could be called a fatal means of hindering the princess.

“And that’s why the intelligence division tried to do something about it. But they failed. I don’t know if it’s the Capitalist Corporations or the Information Alliance behind this, but they aren’t stupid.”

“They’re connected by their military network. Even if someone can’t hack in from outside, that link can be cut off by sneaking a virus directly into one of the barricade’s communications facilities. A single 25 euro chip can bring an end to this.”

“And that’s what we’re on our way to do?”

“If we weren’t needed, we wouldn’t have been called out here. Also, all eight sites are being infiltrated at the same time. As long as the virus gets in at one of them, we win.”

“That means there isn’t a problem if seven of the groups fail. Doesn’t that make us expendable?”

Quenser was relatively useless in normal combat unrelated to Objects, so Heivia ignored his whining and double-checked the layout of the barricade facility they were about to swiftly attack. He checked the arrangement of people, the patrol routes, the directions and strengths of the lights, the presence of various types of sensors, and so on. When his life was at risk, it looked like a treasure chest of information that he never got tired of looking at.

“I see an unfamiliar armored vehicle. Is that one not from the Capitalist Corporations?”

“Does that make it from the Information Alliance?”

“I’d say so. It’s probably an Information Alliance officer’s vehicle. He’ll be here in order to make sure the Capitalist Corporations goes along with their secret arrangement. It has a lot of antennae on it too. It’s probably for a VIP.”

“A VIP? So does it have 24/7 air conditioning, a fridge full of sodas, a microwave to reheat fried chicken, a home theater system, internet access, a simple shower, and a sofa that turns into a bed?”

Despite Quenser’s comments, his expression showed no jealousy.

“Even if he has a bodyguard team, I can’t believe an officer would head alone into the middle of an enemy nation’s unit like that. If the Capitalist Corporations changed their mind and decided to get some information from this powerful officer, he could end up on the receiving end of torture and truth serums.”

“He was probably ordered here. As we know all too well, if a higher up orders you to do something ridiculous, you can’t fight it. …As a student, you may be unaware, but the military is a constrained and harsh place.”

“I would never guess that from looking at you.”

The two idiots began a light fistfight, but then the hatch for the VIP armored vehicle opened. They frantically resumed observation.

“Wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait! What the hell? She looks twelve. That girl is about the same age as the one we saved from the human traffickers, but she’s arrogantly wearing a military uniform.”

“As I said, the military is a harsh place.”

“Yeah… She’s a young Information Alliance officer, so she might be a product of their genius girl project. I don’t know the official name, though.”

“Why is it limited to girls? Some old man’s tastes?”

“You joke, but that might actually be the reason.” Quenser’s expression was perfectly a serious. “It’s an issue of the symbolism. There’s a lot of difference in nuance between a manly hero standing before the people and a feminine saint standing before them. By showing a delicate, weak, lovely, and fair maiden working towards the war, the people will confuse their desire to protect her with a desire to fight.”

“I want to send my applause and a bomb to the person who seriously thought that up. How long will the people continue to be innocently moved by some child actor hired with money?”

“That ‘oh ho ho’ is a popular idol back in the Information Alliance safe countries. It’s no different from that. I hear one’s status in the Information Alliance changes based on your ability to insist that clearly deviated justice is correct. Supposedly, a popular dog from some commercials gets better medical care than your average office worker.”

Quenser glanced toward the assault rifle hanging from Heivia’s shoulder. It was primarily used as a mid-range weapon, but its various sensors allowed it to be used for sniping to a certain extent.

“So are you going to do it? I bet you could shoot her right in the head or heart from here.”

“She’s just the poor overseer the Information Alliance sent here. She’s unrelated to the surrounding barricade, so shooting her won’t stop them.”

“That’s good.”

“Tell me about it. We need to thank god that we can actually choose our enemy.”

Also, causing a commotion before injecting the virus would ruin any chances of their plan succeeding.

After checking over the entire enemy formation, Heivia slowly stood up.

“Okay, let’s get this horrible job over with.”

“Are we really going to sneak in there? They’ll spot us immediately with those lights everywhere. Shouldn’t we at least get an invisibility coat, an infinite health recovery first-aid box, and a charged particle bazooka? It’ll be impossible otherwise.”

“Shut up. Didn’t you know human beings can defeat a demon king with only cotton clothes and a wooden stick?”

Heivia led the way and Quenser followed. Rather than heading straight in, the two of them circled wide to the side as they travelled through the darkness.

The massive amount of light seemed to cut off the barricade facility from the rest of the desert, but that created a large gap between the lit areas and the unlit areas. And because it was an outdoor facility, the lights did not illuminate everything evenly.

In other words, there were still dark areas.

“(Do you really think we can sneak through the darkness without being noticed? What if there are a ton of sensors that you can’t see?)”

“(I’m being careful. But you don’t set up traps along animal trails. No one wants the alarm going off all throughout the night because of every little boar and rabbit. While preparing to set up the barricade so quickly, they don’t want delicate sensors everywhere. Their own people would be setting off the alarm all the time.)”

Quenser tilted his head, wondering if that was how it worked.

This was hardly the first time, but it was still quite thrilling to entrust his life to something he did not understand himself. However, he did not want to be left behind by Heivia while so close to enemy territory.

“(We can’t hide our footprints in the desert.)”

“(They’re working all over the place. There are already footprints everywhere.)”

But just as they took the first step, they stopped.

“What?”

Quenser looked around in confusion with his goggles still on his forehead.

He was focusing with his ears rather than his eyes.

“I hear an odd rumbling noise.”

“!?”

Heivia immediately pushed Quenser to the ground. While getting down on the cold sand himself, Heivia whispered to Quenser.

“(Hey, you idiot! Turn off all your sensors! Goggles, binoculars, everything!! Don’t answer your radio even if our huge-breasted commander calls. We’ll be blown to pieces the instant we send out any radio waves, infrared rays, or anything else!!)”

“(What?)”

“(This is no time to be clueless, Quenser. Unless this rumbling is being caused by a legendary dragon, there’s only one thing big enough to cause it!!)”

“(Wait a second!!)”

An unpleasant sweat covered Quenser’s body in an instant.

But time was not going to wait.

While lying on the sand, he dug through his coat pocket. He pulled out an electric thermometer and stabbed it into the sand.

“(7.5 degrees!)”

“(You’re kidding. It was six degrees earlier. Damn, have all these lights raised the ground temperature!?)”

As they whispered back and forth, they reached for a different pocket. What they pulled out was nothing special. It was a cold spray used for wrist sprains and such.

Quenser stabbed the thermometer into his uniform and sprayed the cold spray over his entire body. He sprayed it enough to bring it to 7.5 degrees just like the ground.

“(Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!! It’s all over it its sensors pick us up!!)”

“(We can do this, but will it really fool that collection of cutting-edge equipment? It has tons of sensors to detect people other than thermo!!)”

“(From what I’ve heard, it’s the type that can detect a mole using a combination of body temperature and electromagnetic field disturbance. All the iron sand in the desert should keep that from working perfectly!!)”

Quenser’s ears were slammed by a sound like the roar of the wind or like the air being crushed.

He could not move a finger any more.

[[Image:HO_v07_168.png|thumb]]

The countless stars and the faintly colored moonlight in the cold desert sky should have spread thinly across the entire area, but a giant shadow seemed to devour one area of that. It was an artificial device. It was a colossal weapon. It was the synonym for war that had brought an end to the nuclear age and still reigned as strongest.

It was an Object.

This was a 1.5 generation Object from the Capitalist Corporations.

“It’s just as the final transmission from the missing intelligence division team said.” His voice sounded truly unhappy. “That’s the Hornet Storm from the Capitalist Corporations. Completely unlike any other Object, that demonic machine was developed to attack large cities.”

The giant spherical main body that was the symbol of Objects appeared to be supported by an air cushion propulsion device. The back of the Object was covered by several giant metal panels that looked like a rounded version of peacock feathers.

However…

The biggest oddity about Hornet Storm’s design lay elsewhere.

“It’s an Object without a main canon,” muttered Quenser. “It only has 100 anti-personnel laser beam cannons. When fighting another Object, it uses its peacock feathers to refract and reflect all of its lasers to create a concentrated attack on a single point of the enemy’s armor.”

The princess’s Baby Magnum also had its main cannon distributed over seven cannons that could be used to cut off the enemy’s escape and use the opening to focus an attack on a single point.

However, it was rare to take it to this extreme.

This was similar to tearing everything down to the ground in order to distribute and focus the attacks.

“That weapon wasn’t made for a clean war,” groaned Heivia. “When a dictator uses all the people in a large city as a shield, that Object can kill him without leaving room for negotiation. This modern day grim reaper can ignore the hostages, charge into the city, and accurately fire on only the target. Once that thing has you located, it can kill you as easily as entering a name into a search engine. It’s specialized toward human targets, so you could call it our natural enemy.”

Even if its weapons were known as “small” laser beam cannons, that was in reference to Object-sized weapons. A single shot had the destructive power to easily melt a tank or shoot down a fighter.

Each of the 100 cannons could accurately target anything in a five kilometer range and it could penetrate any obstacle to utterly destroy its target. And a flesh-and-blood human could not evade a laser beam cannon that approached at the speed of light.

In a single action, it could accurately and precisely eliminate 100 enemy soldiers.

And what if, with only a few seconds of lag for cooling and re-aiming, it could repeat that action indefinitely?

What if, no matter how many hostages were gathered as shields, it could slip its attack through the gaps and hit only the target?

What if any human counterattack could be completely ignored thanks to the thick armor unique to Objects?

That would no longer be a fight. It would be divine punishment unilaterally poured down on them. In a way, the overwhelming intimidation this brought was more than that of a second generation Object that fought a war in a distant country. That Object could be sent to battlefield or safe country alike. It opposed the idea of the clean war and it was a nightmarish existence for guerrillas and terrorists hiding in cities.

And that Object was calmly crossing the battlefield as its air cushion blasted sand into the air.

Unpleasant sweat covered Quenser and Heivia’s bodies as they held their breath and tried to hold onto their lives. It travelled extremely close by the Capitalist Corporations soldiers working to prepare the barricade in the artificial lights.

The countless cannons attached to its spherical main body moved slightly in the darkness and its targeting sensors constantly scanned the ground.

This was the king of the food chain.

It did not run or hide. It simply travelled the world searching for prey.

As Quenser was forced to lie on the ground when faced by its arrogance, he could not even feel frustrated by it all. He could only wait as time passed. He dreamed of the moment when he could think in the past tense that it had left. He wanted to shout out and run away, but he had to desperately suppress that desire.

For five minutes, the Hornet Storm moved slowly as if evaluating its surroundings.

That must have been its standard procedure because the Object did not find any prey and it quickly accelerated away from the barricade facility.

Quenser felt like he could not breathe.

Even after its giant form disappeared beyond the horizon, he did not immediately get up.

“It must be going around to the eight barricades in order like that.”

“Yes, but it is estimated to have a top speed of over 550 kph. If the alarm goes off somewhere, it’ll be there in no time. We can’t use this cold spray forever and there’s nowhere to run in the middle of the desert. Once it detects us, our lives are literally over.”

“So when will it be back here?”

“If it uses that same pattern for all eight spots, I’d say a little under an hour. Of course, that’s assuming we don’t trigger the alarm.”

They did not want to meet that monster again.

The two of them both wanted to finish their business here as quickly as possible.

The real mission was still to come.

===Part 3===

In and of itself, their task was simple.

Their enemy was a unit made up of both the Information Alliance and Capitalist Corporations. This unit had the second generation Simple Is Best, the 1.5 Generation Hornet Storm, and the multiple Ex. Wall mobile barricades that would keep their own Object from moving.

It would be difficult for the princess’s Baby Magnum to deal with it all on its own, so Quenser, Heivia, and the others were secretly infiltrating the communication facilities for the mobile barricades. By directly injecting a virus into the hardware, control of the barricades could be stolen at the crucial moment.

The mobile barricades would remain within the enemy unit until the battle began. At that point, they would be used to block the movements of the Simple Is Best and Hornet Storm.

Normally, they could be easily blown away with the overwhelming firepower of the Objects, but this would occur in the middle of an Object vs. Object battle. When an instantaneous decision could influence the direction a war was headed, a lag of a few seconds could be fatal.

The primary target was the Information Alliance’s Simple Is Best.

The Capitalist Corporations’ Hornet Storm was simply trying to take advantage of the situation, so they were likely to swiftly retreat the instant that advantage disappeared. But if it did not, the princess would then have to defeat that 1.5 generation Object.

Even with two Objects attacking at once, the princess had a decent chance of winning as long as they set up the battlefield so she could fight them separately.

“As usual, this is one hell of a blueprint. Was this really simulated on a super computer?”

“Try to think more positively. If they could draw up this blueprint, that means there’s at least that much hope left. And complaining isn’t going to change anything.”

Heivia took the lead and Quenser followed through the moonlit desert. They were already within the grounds of the barricade facility.

The facility itself was meant to allow the preparation of the large truck-like mobile barricades and provide access to the military network, but it had many other buildings and vehicles.

“Why did they prepare such a large area? The barricades are mobile, so they’re just going to approach our maintenance base once they’re set up. I can understand a convoy, but won’t the prefab lodgings be left behind?”

“The barricades are going to gather around an Object to stop it from moving. Staying away from the front lines is safer. They can retrieve the other things once the battle is over.”

There were a lot of lights. The gondola-equipped cranes used in place of watchtowers had their own spotlights, the vehicles parked around had headlights, and the large halogen lights usually used for stages and construction sites were set up on large stands here and there.

Heading out into the light would have been suicide and cutting in front of a light would cause a giant shadow.

But the lights were not set up to provide even light and there were spots they missed. By circling behind them and mixing in with the shadows, Quenser and Heivia’s silhouettes were hidden by the bright backlights. Lights that produced a lot of light and heat also helped fool different types of sensors.

Even when they were less than ten meters from enemy Capitalist Corporations soldiers, the soldiers could not see them behind the lights.

While walking across the sandy ground, they spoke quietly to each other.

“We have to inject this virus into their system. Where’s the communications facility?”

“That’s it fifty meters ahead. That small prefab building. The one with a lot of antennae on the roof.”

“Will it also be left behind when the barricades close in?”

“I’m sure they have separate armored vehicles for command control. By dividing the system up, there is less of a risk of being cut off from the military network. Of course, that provides more ways into the system for people like us.”

The communications facility was the cornerstone of the mobile barricades, so it had strict security and a lot of lights. They would not be able to reach it by walking through the darkness.

Heivia pointed at a line of military trucks parked nearby.

“Hey, Quenser. Let’s hide under those to get close. It’ll be harder to spot us than if we walk around with our heads down.”

He got down on the fine sand and slid under the back of the nearest truck. That left Quenser with no choice. He imitated Heivia and crawled under the tuck without knowing the right way to do it.

He smelled something that resembled demi-glace.

“Damn them. What do they have loaded in this truck? Why does the enemy get to eat such nice food?”

“They have over 100 people working to set up the barricade. They’re probably busy supplying soap and toilet paper too.”

Suddenly, they heard footsteps on the sand.

And from more than one person. An unpleasant sweat appeared on Quenser’s cheek as he hid under the truck and pressed against the sand.

“(Three, four…no, five. Dammit. This is pretty much up to chance now.)”

As Heivia complained, he pulled his handgun from its holster and attached the suppresser. Quenser’s eyes opened wide.

“(If they notice something’s wrong, the Hornet Storm will rush over here, remember!?)”

“(I’m not preparing this because I ''want'' to use it, you idiot!)”

Meanwhile, multiple military boots were clearly headed their way. Not only could they hear the footsteps, they could feel a kind of pressure. These soldiers were not simply walking around the trucks. They were obviously walking toward the trucks.

Quenser squeezed his eyes shut when he saw Heivia holding up his handgun in the cramped space below the truck.

He waited for a while.

But nothing happened.

“…?”

He heard the sound of truck doors opening and closing. The truck above them then creaked like a bed. He doubted it would actually happen, but he felt as if it were going to crush him from above. They were on soft sand rather than hard asphalt, so the space between the bottom of the truck and the ground might not remain the same.

Finally, he realized there was something else he had to focus on instead.

“(Hey, hey! Quenser, you idiot! Pull yourself together!!)”

“(Eh? Ah?)”

“(They just climbed into the truck. Why do you think that is? Unless they’re planning to kill some time with some rural car sex, they’re going to drive the truck away!!)”

The engine rumbled to life.

As Quenser’s lungs filled with the unpleasant smell of exhaust, he desperately suppressed the instinctual urge to cough.

If the truck drove away, Quenser and Heivia would gather more attention than a birthday cake.

Heivia had already started to crawl to the next in the line of parked trucks.

“(Hurry up, Quenser! If you stupidly get caught, it’ll put me in danger too, so hurry!!)”

“(Wait, wait, wait! The truck’s about to drive off. If I move now, I could be crushed by the tire!)”

“(That’s better than having your head filled with holes by tons of bullets bought with the money from the donation boxes next to convenience store registers, isn’t it? Quit panicking and get over here!!)”

Quenser felt like he was choosing the better of two deaths as he desperately began to move. He crawled out from under the ominously vibrating truck, passed right by the tire supporting a weight of several tons, and managed to reach the next truck.

He just barely made it out when the truck drove off.

But it was too soon to breathe a sigh of relief.

They once again heard the sound of an engine starting from overhead.

“(What the hell!? What the hell!? What the hell!?)”

“(They’re sending out each truck in turn. They might be forming a convoy to drive across the desert!)”

“(What? Was eating all that delicious-smelling food not enough!? A noble like me can’t even hope for dessert after a meal!!)”

Quenser and Heivia could not have themselves brought into the open, so they rolled along the line of trucks as the trucks drove off, one at a time.

More than ten trucks left and only two remained.

“(What the hell was that? Is it finally over?)”

“(No, wait a second.)”

In addition to the drivers of the trucks, there had been some soldiers who had helped load wooden boxes and other things into the trucks. They were scattering as they returned to their normal posts.

But…

“Hm?”

A single pair of boots stopped.

The boots had their heels pointed toward the two boys, but they quickly turned 180 degrees. The toes were now pointed their way. The ground had been made of soft sand and the trucks had created tire tracks when driving away, but this soldier may have noticed another unnatural trail as if something large had crawled along the ground.

The legs bent as if the solider were crouching down.

A soldier about their age poked his head down to peer under the truck.

Without hesitation, Heivia fired his suppressor-equipped military handgun into the soldier’s face.

Quenser instinctually covered his eyes with his hands.

“(Do you have a death wish!?)”

“(Shut up. If I hadn’t done anything, he would have caused a commotion! More importantly, Quenser, you cover up the blood with sand. I’ll drag the body under here!!)”

“(You could at least let me be the one to shoot him. The last thing I want is to get killed while cleaning up after you.)”

A shot to the brain did not create as much blood as to the heart. Heivia hid the body under the truck as if moving a sack of flour while Quenser did as instructed and hid the blood with the desert sand.

“Either way, they’ll find him as soon as they move the truck. Let’s get this virus in the system and get the hell out of here.”

While ignoring the blood on their hands, Quenser and Heivia crawled out from under the truck and approached the nearby single-story prefab building. To keep sand out, the floor was elevated like with buildings along the beach. Quenser hid under the floor while Heivia pressed up against the door. Heivia removed the parabolic microphone from the front of his rifle and tossed it underhand to Quenser. Quenser caught it and pressed the microphone against the floor above him.

(One set of footsteps in each corner save the east. Also, one hard sound. Chair legs maybe? It’s near the center.)

After acquiring the necessary information, he jotted down a general diagram, folded the memo into a paper airplane, and threw it to Heivia.

Heivia checked it, jammed a large military knife into the gap of the door, and forcibly destroyed the lock.

Quenser hid under the building for a dozen or so seconds and then approached the door.

He peered inside and saw Heivia had already cleared the room.

“Ugh. There’s blood everywhere.”

“I’m not planning to send this image into people’s living rooms. More importantly, it’s time to get to work, Quenser,” said Heivia as he swapped out his handgun’s magazine.

The prefab room had tables chaotically lined up within. Many different pieces of electronic equipment were placed on top, but there were only two obvious computers. The others were mostly old audio equipment and phantom equipment that radio enthusiasts would pursue within an electronics district.

“Ahh, ahh. Everything’s soaked. They’re covered in so much red I can’t read the displays.”

“Don’t complain, student. I went to some effort to keep my bullets from destroying the machinery.”

Quenser ignored the specialized radio equipment and approached one of the computers. The Legitimacy Kingdom had given him a postage stamp-sized chip with the virus on it. Once he infected the system with it, their job was done.

“Huh? Where’s the Shift key on this thing? This one’s Esc, right?”

“This is a Capitalist Corporations machine. It isn’t gonna be exactly the same.”

“It does have a chip slot though, right?”

The two idiots exchanged a glance and frantically looked around at the outside of the computer. Fortunately, the media type used here seemed to be common between systems. There was a small slot for inserting the stamp-sized chip.

“Hey, Quenser. Can you actual hack?”

“If I could, I’d be working somewhere that pays better. I just have to leave all the work to the program here.”

As he spoke offhand, Quenser typed on the unfamiliar Capitalist Corporations keyboard.

“Let’s see… If I just insert the chip in normal mode, it’ll be rejected, so I ignore this. I need to reboot, spam the function key to bring up the BIOS screen, and switch the boot device priority so it’ll boot up from the external media.”

“Hey, how much longer? They’ll discover the dead soldiers from the lack of periodic reports. We need to get ready to leave.”

“Wait, wait. I just need to reboot again! Okay, done!! The virus has begun to overwrite the system before the military security can catch it. We can just leave it now!”

After seeing the blinking of the access light move from the stamp-sized chip to the HDD, Quenser removed the chip from the slot.

He moved over to Heivia who had the door cracked open to check outside.

“We just have to leave now. What’s our escape route?”

“We can’t just walk out.”

Quenser and Heivia had slipped past the guards by crawling under the line of military trucks, but all but two of those trucks had left. They could not use that same route.

“Then what do we do?”

“Let’s climb into the back of one of the remaining trucks. I doubt they’re going to stay here all night.”

As soon as he had finished speaking, Heivia crouched down and ran toward canopy-covered back of the truck. Quenser followed and Heivia pulled him up into the truck.

Half of the truck was filled with wooden boxes, but they did not have the warnings about flammability and shaking that boxes of weapons would have.

“Goddammit! It’s bananas and milk! Are they preparing a nice healthy breakfast!?”

“Should I go see the base counselor if that combination sounds dirty to me?”

The two idiots opened one of the boxes and quenched their thirst with some of the milk inside refrigerated containers.

Then they waited.

A few footsteps approached the military truck. One toward the driver’s seat and two or three toward the back. Heivia hid behind the boxes and used his knife to silently attack them when they had fully climbed into the truck.

After making sure they were all dead, Quenser approached the front of the truck. He knocked twice on the metal panel dividing the driver’s compartment and the back.

The driver mistook it for a sign that they soldiers were all onboard, so he smoothly drove off.

“We need to have a serious discussion about our pay. There’s definitely something wrong with you getting paid the same as me.”

“If you have a complaint, go talk to the people that pay us.”

That was when they heard an unnatural clunk in the back of the truck.

“!?”

“!!”

[[Image:HO_v07_186.png|thumb]]

Quenser immediately took a defensive stance but was unable to do much of anything. Heivia used an arm and a leg to knock Quenser to the ground and used his other hand to draw his military handgun. He had seen movement behind one of the wooden boxes. Whoever it was must not have thought the box would function as a shield because they swiftly moved to eliminate Heivia.

The two of them held their handguns toward each other at a distance of less than a meter, but they both suddenly stopped moving.

Heivia frowned.

“What? Is that a Legitimacy Kingdom handgun?”

“You aren’t from the Capitalist Corporations?”

The person who uttered that confused comment and moved from behind the box (without lowering the gun) was a blonde-haired woman a bit older than Quenser.

Her uniform had a different camouflage design than theirs, but it was a Legitimacy Kingdom format.

The uniform had an unfamiliar emblem sewn into the shoulder.

While lying helpless on the floor, Quenser spoke up.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t there an intelligence division team that went in ahead of us and disappeared?”

===Part 4===

Enough time had passed that the mobile barricade group had likely noticed the dead soldiers. However, the military truck Quenser and the others were aboard had already left the area.

After Heivia decided they were far enough away, he fired a few times toward the driver’s seat.

The truck immediately swerved to the side and crashed into a sand dune.

Heivia climbed out of the back of the truck, forced open the driver’s side door, and dragged the body out onto the sand.

The blonde woman checked over the body for ammunition, rations, and the like.

“My name is Lisa Deauville. My rank is second lieutenant. I would appreciate it if you would help me handle my team’s mistake.”

“I’m impressed you managed to escape. What about the others?”

“They were not so fortunate,” was all the intelligence division soldier named Lisa said.

Quenser did not try to ask for further details. There were people at the maintenance base zone who would do that. Right now, he needed to rejoice that even one of them had survived.

He pointed at the truck with his thumb.

“Our vehicle is about ten kilometers ahead. We’ll head there, switch vehicles, and return to the maintenance base.”

“I’m sure I’ll be stuck driving. Hey, Quenser! You sit in the passenger seat to navigate. I’m not gonna let you get a head start on flirting just because you’re useless.”

After sitting in the driver’s seat, Heivia operated the shift lever and freed the truck from the sand dune it had run into. Before the truck even came to a full stop, Quenser grabbed onto the passenger side, opened the door, and tumbled inside.

And then blonde-haired Lisa also sat in the passenger seat by sitting on top of Quenser’s lap.

At this point, Heivia pulled out his military knife.

“Quenserrrrrr!!”

“Ask her what’s going on, not me!! (I won’t deny I like it, though.)”

Even through the thick military uniform, Quenser could feel the unique softness and warmth of a woman.

Lisa, however, showed no sign of being bothered by the situation.

“There are only two seats in here and I cannot assist you from the back of the truck. If I sat in the driver’s seat, I would get in the way, so the only possible place for me is the passenger seat.”

“Quenser, swap seats with me!! You don’t have a license? There’s nothing but desert as far as the eye can see. You just have to step on the accelerator and turn the steering wheel. Anyone can do that!!”

They would be spotted regardless with any cutting-edge sensors, but they still did not have the guts to drive through the desert night with the headlights on.

But as previously stated, the desert was not flat. It had sand dunes with height differences of several meters. It may have been similar to stopping time and driving over the stormy ocean.

And so…

“Ohh, ohhhhh, ohh. Th-this is a very bumpy road. Hey, boy. Stop squirming below me. And why has something been pressing up against my butt for a while now?”

“Don’t underestimate adolescence, officer cadet! We can fill the time waiting for the elevator by talking about nothing but a large tree that looks a lot like a woman’s waist. You need to be prepared for this kind of thing before you choose to sit on my lap!!”

“At least look at the map, you idiots!! You’re pissing me off! Do you want to frighten everyone away by bringing tears and snot to the face of Heivia, the super genius, beautiful, wealthy, athletic noble who will infiltrate enemy territory, rescue hostages, or anything else you need!? Is that what you want!?”

However, there were some things one did not give up even after such a desperate plea.

Quenser was in the same mindset as someone refusing to hand over the bit of ice cream stuck to the bottom of the lid, so he began contemplating pulling out a Hand Axe plastic explosive to stop Heivia from switching seats with him. He also feared the possibility of Lisa alone sitting in the driver’s seat. If it came to that, he would bite his own tongue.

“Huh? Wait, Heivia. We need to contact the maintenance base and the princess to tell them we injected the virus and what our escape route is. Once we have control of the mobile barricades, the Baby Magnum can begin its attack and we need to make sure this truck isn’t destroyed in the process.”

“Don’t be stupid!! As soon as the virus took effect, it sent a log from the enemy server to our electronic simulation division! Also! My hands are full driving!! If you need something done, do it yourself!!”

At any rate, they needed to give a report.

There were eight mobile barrier locations. A dangerous infiltration mission had been carried out at each one. If they reported their success, the other teams could abandon their dangerous mission and leave. He doubted it would happen, but if another team managed to infect the system at the same time (or slightly slower), Quenser did not want them to make the first report and take the credit.

And so Quenser reached for the radio.

“Huh? Damn, I can’t reach.”

“Of course not. Your arms are wrapped around me like you are holding a log. Do you need a radio? You can use the one in my pocket. It is in the chest pocket.”

“Ngh… So it’s near your chest? …Is this it? Huh? This is awfully soft…”

“Stop that! Why are you touching my-…no, don’t make me say it!”

“Why can’t this truck divide down the middle and leave a bike for just me?” grumbled Heivia in the driver’s seat.

After some difficulty and some occasional squirming from Lisa, Quenser finally managed to remove the radio from her uniform.

He held it in front of her, set the frequency, and entered the encryption key. Once he secured a mission bandwidth, he brought the radio to his mouth while his face was covered by the blonde hair flowing down Lisa’s back.

“This is Team A. Mission complete. The virus has infected the system. We are, um…”

“We’re the Capitalist Corporations Steel Father 8-ton truck travelling down route 32 with no lights on. Tell them to make sure the Object doesn’t fire on us,” supplied Heivia in annoyance.

Quenser began to repeat the information.

“Um, we are the Capitalist Corporations Steel-…”

But then another transmission cut in. It came from one of the teams infiltrating one of the other mobile barricade facilities.

“This is terrible! HQ, can you hear me!? Please respond!!”

“Team F, this is HQ. We can hear you just fine. If there is a problem, it lies in your ability to speak. Simply put: calm down.”

“How am I supposed to stay calm!? What the hell is going on?”

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance. Lisa reached over from Quenser’s lap and used a hand to point Heivia’s head back toward the road.

(Did one of the teams screw up and get spotted?)

The virus had already been injected into the Capitalist Corporations military network. There was no reason to continue the infiltration mission any further. Quenser adjusted his grip on the radio to make sure they did not die for no reason.

But then he stopped.

Team F continued their report from another mobile barricade facility.

“We found the missing intelligence division team. We counted, and this is all of them! They’re all dead!! Damn them. They gathered all the captured soldiers in one place and ‘prepared’ them. They ignored all the war treaties and tortured the prisoners!!”

Quenser felt a chill run down his spine.

He felt like he had just learned the cute kitten sitting on his lap was a strange carnivorous beast.

Heivia immediately slammed on the brakes as hard as he could.

As the truck came to a sudden stop as if it had caught on something, Heivia drew his handgun.

But before the boy could aim, Lisa had already accurately pressed her own handgun against his temple.

Unlike Quenser and Heivia, she was not held in place by a seatbelt and the sudden stop could have easily knocked her through the windshield, but she still moved more quickly.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Heivia while almost dumbfounded.

Lisa was obviously more skilled. Heivia must have sensed that fact because he began to sweat.

Lisa showed no sign of caring about Quenser who was held down beneath her butt. She must have thought she could immediately handle any movement he took.

“That report said Team F found the bodies of the intelligence division team. They said they counted them. Then who the hell are you!?”

“I am a Legitimacy Kingdom soldier. I did not lie when I gave you my name and rank.”

“Hah! Are you serious? If you weren’t up to no good, you wouldn’t have pretended to be who we thought you were. There was something you didn’t want us to know, wasn’t there!?”

“Even if you checked the military database, you would not find any data on me. That is the sort of unit I belonged to! If we had remained back there, we would have been found by the Capitalist Corporations and Information Alliance who were protecting the mobile barrier. I intended to tell you the truth once we reached safety!!”

“Yeah!? And what is that truth!?”

“I…My unit was-…!!”

Lisa – or the blonde woman going by that name – began to tremble as she started to speak.

But then a giant shell landed near the truck.

It landed to the left from Quenser’s perspective.

They were struck by a tremendous impact.

Quenser thought the reinforced glass on the door would shatter instantly, but the entire door came off. The heavy military truck was a mass of metal protected by bulletproof equipment, but the entire thing floated up into the air. In all seriousness, it spun horizontally in midair twice. It landed on the tires, but its momentum caused it to roll on its side.

“Gh…bh!?”

Quenser could not breathe as he was practically hung by his seatbelt. But it was not strangling his neck. The pain came from the pressure to his ribs and lungs.

“What…the hell?”

Quenser heard the high-pitched sound of something breaking. Once he focused on his unsteady vision, he saw Lisa Deauville breaking the windshield. She bent her supple body, slipped through the hole, and escaped into the desert night.

“Get…back here!!”

Heivia broke the windshield and made his way out as well. Quenser was left behind, struggling with his seatbelt.

“Damn… What even happened!?”

Because of the unusual weight on it, the seatbelt would not come undone even once he pressed the button. He searched through his uniform and pulled out the survival kit. There was a small cooking knife inside.

(That was an explosion from a shell… A shell!? It wasn’t targeting the truck, but I doubt there’s another target in this empty desert. So was it a stray shot? But from who!? Wait… It can’t be!!)

He received his answer almost immediately.

A giant form passed by in front of the truck. It was on such a large scale that it could flatten the several meter tall sand dunes. It was a mass of metal and weapons. A massive amount of military budget had been brought together to construct that symbol of war.

It was an Object.

“The princess!?”

It was not just the Baby Magnum. The Object was making constant organic movements to the left and right as if taking the small steps of a boxer or mixed martial artist. Those were evasive actions. And there was only one thing that an Object had to fear taking damage from.

Another giant form was moving quickly through the desert night as if performing an intense dance on a scale of hundreds of meters.

This was the assistance from the Capitalist Corporations.

That urban invasion Object had no main cannon and was deemed generation 1.5.

“The Hornet Storm.”

An Object’s main cannon could easily hit at a distance of ten kilometers, so seven or eight hundred meters was extremely close range.

At that point, Quenser came to his senses.

“And I’m in the ring with them!!”

He frantically pulled the cooking knife out of his survival kit, but he did not have a chance to use it.

Before he could, the darkness of the desert night was split apart.

He had not seen the attack itself. He had seen the afterimage of the dust and moisture in the air being instantly fried. Several dozen thin orange lines of light gathered together and landed near the truck Quenser was struggling within.

The landing spot produced intense light as if from welding.

But he did not have time to complain about the sudden headache. The massive heat caused the surrounding air to expand, so what resembled a blast of wind struck the truck. The 8-ton truck had already rolled on its side, but this rumbling wind caused it to roll like a plastic bottle. The latch for the seatbelt finally gave out and Quenser was freed from his bonds. He was then slammed into the driver’s side door.

“Gbh!! Damn…it…”

The truck was lying on its side again, so Quenser crawled out the broken windshield.

The two Objects were continuing to fire their giant shells while taking relatively small evasive movements.

Quenser did not know what had triggered the direct conflict.

The Legitimacy Kingdom’s electronic simulation division might have noticed the virus was in the system and sent the Baby Magnum out before Quenser and Heivia could report. Or the Hornet Storm might have gotten too close to the maintenance base zone and the Baby Magnum had been sent out without knowing if they could win.

Either way…

(Wait, wait, wait!! We’re supposed to be attacking the Simple Is Best that is waiting for a chance to charge in from a distance. If it charges in at supersonic speeds now, the princess will be attacked from two sides at once. Can she really win even with control of the barricades taken!?)

Also, the Legitimacy Kingdom’s plan had been to use the mobile barricades to stop the Simple Is Best and have the Baby Magnum destroy it. They would then watch the Hornet Storm and attack it if it decided to continue fighting.

That plan was no longer going to work.

Two back to back battles against a single Object was different from fighting two Objects at once.

“Well, sitting around isn’t going to help. I need to contact Froleytia and see if there’s anything I can do.”

However, he was on the verge of passing out from the intense pain assaulting his entire body. He lay on the cold sand that almost felt frozen and pulled out his small radio.

But then something else happened.

Lisa had escaped and Heivia had pursued her, but the two of them were running back to the truck.

“…?”

Quenser grew cautious even as he lay on the ground.

It was unlikely they had gotten completely turned around in the empty desert. He could only think something had happened. For example, Heivia could have lost his gun, so Lisa was now pursuing him.

(But Heivia had more than just his handgun. Whether his gun jammed or he had it shot out of his hand like a movie villain, he would just have to switch to his assault rifle.)

But Quenser did not have time to think.

He did not know who Lisa Deauville was, but she was likely an enemy.

As tension ran through his body, he pulled out a Hand Axe plastic explosive and a ballpoint pen-shaped electric fuse, but then something unexpected happened.

Heivia ran right past Quenser.

And just before doing so, he frantically shouted to his terrible friend.

“You idiot!! How long are you going to sit there!?”

“…?”

He wondered if the other two had agreed to flee to safety due to the two Objects.

He was partially right and partially wrong.

After a few seconds, Quenser finally realized what Heivia and Lisa were running from.

The ground was disappearing.

A strange sand waterfall had appeared maybe 100 meters away and more and more of the ground was disappearing into the depths. The region was expanding and it was approaching where Quenser lay.

“Wh-what is that!?”

“How should I know? There must have been something under the desert and the Object fight caused it to collapse!!”

Surprisingly, it was Lisa who answered his question.

Not only that, the blonde beauty stopped in front of him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to his feet.

“Are your legs hurt? I can’t escape the collapse while carrying you. If you don’t want to be caught in the middle of it, then run! Right now!!”

Still not knowing what was going on, Quenser retreated along with Lisa.

The collapse of the fine sand continued behind them. They had no idea how far they would fall if it caught up to them, but it was certainly more than a few meters.

“What is this!? Did a natural cave start to spread!?”

“I said I don’t know! It might be manmade, but this is no time to worry about that!!”

“Dammit. I thought it was supposed to be tungsten below our feet!”

“What are you talking about!?”

In a desert of nothing but fine sand, there was no meaning in making maps with detailed contour lines. The desert was commonly compared to a stormy sea and the strong wind continually changed the terrain just like one. Dunes several meters tall were easily formed. It was possible a warehouse or factory had been completely hidden below the sand.

“Heivia, wait up! Don’t escape on your own!!”

“Shut up!! This is divine punishment! The crime of flirting deserves death! Don’t get someone as cool and stoic as me involved in your punishment!!”

The coldhearted boy’s back was a long way ahead.

Suddenly, the two Objects continuing their battle beyond the collapse sent a frightening stray shell in their direction. The shell landed over three hundred meters to the side, but it was still enough to send Quenser’s entire body into the air. For an instant, he had difficulty breathing. He rolled across the ground and Lisa tried to pick him up.

But that was a mistake.

The maw of the collapse caught up. He felt the ground disappear below him. It was less a vertical waterfall and more of a steep waterslide. Quenser and Lisa were mercilessly dropped into the abyss that light could not reach.

===Part 5===

Quenser had passed out, so he did not know how much time had passed.

“Gh…”

[[Image:HO_v07_205.png|thumb]]

He groaned and brought a hand to his forehead. He did not know how far he had fallen. He was lying on some kind of floor, but he still did not feel stable. It felt like being on a small rocking boat. He had a strong urge to vomit.

He had no intention of suffocating on his own vomit, so he ignored his aching head and forced himself to sit up.

Lisa Deauville had the top of her uniform removed and was wiping her underarm with a wet towel.

“…Hm?”

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!? Why am I the one screaming and why are you the one staring in confusiooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!?”

“Is your mind still muddled? You still have your memories, I hope. I do not want to explain everything from the beginning.”

Lisa did not seem to care that Quenser had seen her. She finished wiping the sweat and sand from her upper body and put her uniform back on.

Quenser began to back away from her as he did not know who she truly was, but he stopped when an intense urge to vomit rose up from his stomach.

He could not suppress it, so he turned his head aside and vomited profusely.

“It looks like you hit your head. If you have the rations to spare, you should wait until you finish vomiting and then consume the nutrients your body needs to stabilize itself. You should also make sure there is no blood in your vomit, just to be safe.”

“Wh-who…”

Quenser reflexively reached for his plastic explosives and realized how odd it was his weapons had not been taken from him.

“Who are you? Why did you save me back there?”

“I am Lisa Deauville, a second lieutenant in the Legitimacy Kingdom military. Those two facts remain unchanged. In which case, do I need a special reason to save a fellow soldier? I think abandoning you would cause more problems later on.”

She referred to him as a soldier, so she did not know that he was a battlefield student.

There were at least a thousand people in the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, so not everyone knew about Quenser. There were a lot of soldiers Quenser had never seen and did not know the name of. It was too soon to jump to any conclusions.

“But I am from a different type of unit than yours,” she continued. “It is not registered in the standard military database. Without access privileges above a certain level, there is no way for me to prove my identity right now.”

“Only the people who believe in the UFO development unit would believe such a suspicious story.”

“I hear that a lot.”

Lisa shrugged and leaned her back against a broken pillar. Quenser looked around once more and found they were in some kind of giant warehouse that had completely lost its roof due to the sand.

“July: western Indian Ocean. October: the underground resource extraction plants in the Greenland Sea. November: the Alaska region. January: the Southern Atlantic Ocean region.”

“?”

“You’re a soldier, right? Haven’t you memorized the battlefields where we have lost?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That is where I work.”

Lisa picked up a water bottle she had likely used to wet the towel from earlier and took a gulp.

“My mission was to bring paint into Oceania.”

Quenser had heard of peaceful missions to bring teaching materials, art supplies, and picture books into battlefields to provide humanitarian aid.

But Lisa was talking about something completely different.

“I was part of the Stalk Killer Unit. You could say I was an expert in withdrawing from the battlefield. Once a battle was deemed lost, someone like me would be secretly sent in. My objective was to keep the enemy army from capturing high-ranking officers, pilot Elites, or important technology related to Objects. In other words, it was a disgusting dirty job of choosing my allies and helping them escape,” she spat out.

Quenser frowned.

“Withdrawing from the battlefield? But this is the age of clean wars fought with Objects. The wars are fought between Objects and once the result has been reached, you send out the white flag signal and leave. We shouldn’t need a unit specialized in withdrawing from the battlefield.”

“If you seriously believe that, you are quite a naïve boy. Real wars are made so they will occasionally destroy all rationality. It’s no different than the certain percentage of defective electronics created in factories.”

“…”

When he thought about it, Quenser realized that had been the case when the Water Strider had pursued them in the Alaska region. The white flag signal only worked if there was mutual trust between both sides. And what Quenser and the others were fighting was a war.

“The military has to lose their pursuers. Simply hiding your tracks is not necessarily enough. You lay countless traps to crush the pursuing hunters. For example, we might set up one or two thousand bombs while cutting across an abandoned city. And they are not set up so anyone can see them. That is where the ‘paint’ comes in.”

“You camouflage them?”

Quenser pulled out the hand axe plastic explosives that he normally used.

If it was shaped with a spatula and colored with paint, it could be made to look like a stone on the road, a piece of broken asphalt, or a piece of styrofoam. If it was made to match the situation and had shadows and stains added on, it could blend into the landscape even for high-quality cameras. That made them no different from the props used for TV and movies. Just like a beer bottle made from candy or a wound made from red food coloring and bandages, no one would notice the bomb set up right next to them.

They would not suspect a thing until it actually detonated.

Lisa let out a heavy sigh.

“A foolish noble decided to make a quick visit to Oceania to gain popularity. The information got out and a group of local guerrillas or possibly disguised Information Alliance soldiers surrounded them. The Stalk Killer Unit was sent into a hellish battlefield as usual. It would have been difficult to escape with any normal means, so our leader said we would pass through a complicated urban area and escape to the nearest Object maintenance base. …And we would of course be laying tons of traps and bombs to lose our pursuers.”

“You don’t mean…”

“I advised him to reconsider.” Lisa placed a hand on her head as if grabbing at her blonde bangs. “The traps are effective, but they do not choose who falls for them. Even if the area was still going through war recovery, life had returned to the city. The people living there were forced to gather anything rare or valuable so they could sell it. It was obvious what would happen if we set up one or two thousands bombs that perfectly blended into the scenery. The city that was finally recovering its smile would be filled with blood and screams. Our real enemy would step over the writhing victims and safely pursue us through the path that was now free of bombs. I told our leader it was meaningless.”

Had they settled on that inhumane means of withdrawal and succeeded?

That thought entered Quenser’s mind for an instant, but he denied it himself.

If so, Lisa would not be here.

“I do not remember what exactly pushed it over the edge, but our argument crossed a certain line. I swear to you, it was our leader who pulled his gun first.”

But it was Lisa who was alive here now.

Quenser did not know how hopeless her situation was and how many “allies” she had been surrounded by, but if what she said was true, she must have won that nightmarish firefight.

That action had not had an obvious merit.

It had not even been based around the honor that was so popular in the Legitimacy Kingdom.

Lisa had simply stopped her unit from going too far and protected the many civilians who would normally have not been in any danger of being lost.

And to do so, she had shot and killed many allies who had trusted her.

“Then why had you infiltrated the Capitalist Corporations’ mobile barricade facility? That doesn’t make sense.”

“I was not trying to infiltrate it. As I travelled through the desert to reach a Legitimacy Kingdom base, they set up their unit in my path. …In fact, your maintenance battalion is pretty much the same.”

“?”

“As you said, this is the age of clean wars. There are people who do not want it to get out that there are constant inhumane missions that ignore the white flag. There are high-ranking members of the military who do not want it to get out that they have been sending out a unit like mine while also claiming to be fighting a clean war. That would be admitting that they have been lying about the clean wars. In the end, I have become an inconvenience to both my enemies and my allies.”

Her enemies were the Information Alliance and the Capitalist Corporations.

Her allies were the Legitimacy Kingdom.

“There is a contradiction in the structure of the wars and I am a symbol of that contradiction. By taking actions that show I have left the military’s control, I have made those high-ranking officials scared, so it seems they will do anything to kill me. By killing me, they can avoid having my information get out.”

Quenser thought about what Lisa was saying.

“You mean the Ex. Wall barricades here and the battle beginning tonight are nothing more than preparations for a single goal?” muttered Quenser blankly. “You mean it’s all to assassinate you? Not just the Baby Magnum, but the Simple Is Best and Hornet Storm, too? This entire battle including three Objects was set up to make sure a single runaway soldier is killed!?”

Three Objects was a large enough force to start a large-scale war.

What she was saying was similar to attacking a country with a nuclear weapon in order to kill a single individual.

“That isn’t something a base commander could do. Only someone directly involved in a much larger power balance could bring together multiple world powers like that. The local commanders are unaware that I, the true target, am on the battlefield. They will simply carry out the camouflage mission given to them. So do not doubt any of the superior officers that you have actually met. That would be meaningless.”

She was implicitly covering for the princess and Froleytia.

But Quenser had never thought either of them were the type to be involved in that kind of conspiracy.

“What are we supposed to do?” groaned Quenser. “You say you’re a survivor of a withdrawal unit not in the military database. And this battle between three Objects is all to kill you and you alone? That’s crazy. Is there any way for a flesh-and-blood soldier to survive that?”

“Are you actually willing to believe me now?”

“I have no objective proof,” immediately spat out Quenser. “But that was not an act when you tried to help me from the collapse earlier. Even Heivia was abandoning me in that situation. If you were from the Capitalist Corporations or Information Alliance and pretending to be an ally, you wouldn’t need to do that.”

“I see,” muttered Lisa under her breath.

That was when the underground structure rumbled ominously.

The deadly Object battle was continuing up above.

“We can take our time to see if you’re telling the truth once we get back to the maintenance base zone. The problem right now is how to survive this battle!! The Baby Magnum is still battling the Hornet Storm. To take advantage of that situation, the Simple Is Best will charge in faster than the speed of sound! If that happens, it’s all over. I doubt our princess can withstand an attack from two sides at once and everything will be blown away if she’s defeated! I will, you will, and everyone in the maintenance base will!!”

“…”

Lisa remained silent for a moment as she thought.

But she soon raised her head.

“No, it isn’t over yet. I won’t let it end like this.”

“What?”

“Come with me. Whatever happens, we need to get out of this underground structure first.”

Lisa led the way and Quenser followed her through the strange abandoned building.

It was a giant space that was over three hundred meters long.

“It looks like some kind of storage base. It may have belonged to the old military government,” said Lisa as they cut across the sand-filled structure without a light.

After a while, they found a rectangular corridor that led to a rusty staircase leading up.

They carefully climbed the stairs while making sure they did not break through them.

Once they reached the surface, Quenser finally realized where they were.

“This belongs to the pipeline cutting across the desert.”

“I think this was originally a terminal facility for drawing up water from unused water veins and sending it to food supply bases. You could call it an extremely forceful and large-scale well. Even if this is a desert, weren’t they afraid of the ground sinking down?”

This facility was rusted and falling apart and the ceiling had caved in. Heivia had joked about ghosts, but that building could easily collapse on its own at any time. Heivia had not been entirely wrong because it could be called a “mass producer of ghosts”.

Once they left the abandoned facility, they saw a large cloud of sand rising into the air.

It was 500 to 700 meters away.

“That’s them. That’s the Baby Magnum and Hornet Storm!!”

“You said another one was coming, right? Was it called the Simple Is Best?”

Suddenly, static came from Quenser’s radio.

Froleytia’s shouting voice followed.

“The Simple Is Best has begun to move! It is travelling south from Route 09 to 37!! If our calculations are correct, it will reach the princess in less than three minutes!! All soldiers in between, make sure you are not caught in the middle!!”

“It’s begun,” muttered Quenser. “Once the Hornet Storm and Simple Is Best are both attacking her, it’s all over! Dammit. I want to support the princess, but we don’t even have any information on a weakness!!”

“…”

Lisa then took an odd action.

She crouched down and pulled something from the ankle of her uniform’s pants.

What she now held in her palm was not a small handgun or knife.

Neither of those would be any help when an Object was attacking.

She held a cylinder about as thick as a coin and as long as a ballpoint pen.

“Boy, you do not need a sign. Just run as quickly as you can from here right this instant. Get as far from me as you can.”

“What are you-…?”

“Weren’t you listening?”

Lisa’s voice grew firm as she removed something like a lid from the cylinder. But the cylinder was not a container and so it was not accurate to call it a lid.

It was an abrasive surface.

Or perhaps it could be called a means of ignition.

“This entire battle was set up to kill me and prevent my information from getting out. The people actually fighting here do not know that, but the schemers behind the scenes should give some clever instructions once they see their true target. …And if they target me, it will cease to be a two-on-one battle!!”

A solid sound rang out.

At the same time, an unnaturally red flame as if from a firework burst from the end of the cylinder. It was hard to tell because it was night, but a lot of chemically colored smoke had likely burst out as well.

“A flare!? You idiot! If you use that here-…!!”

“You’re the idiot!! It’s not too late, so get as far from me as you can!! Right now!! Save yourself!!”

As she shouted, Lisa ran toward the intensely fighting Objects.

There was nothing Quenser could do.

The military satellites, the Objects’ sensors, and the sensors on the guns of the soldiers that might be lurking in the darkness would all have picked up the heat and light from the flare.

Through some route or another, that information reached someone.

A moment later, the state of the battle rapidly changed.

It was like watching an obvious farce or a fixed match.

The Hornet Storm fired countless laser beams chaotically into the desert night. Those attacks were little threat to the Baby Magnum, but it still moved slightly to evade them. Once the orange beams of light missed their target, they struck the desert. With a flash of light as if from welding, the air explosively expanded and a frightening shockwave spread throughout the entire area.

Quenser’s human eyes were not enough to view everything that happened.

But he saw one thing for sure: a puny blonde human was tossed into the air like a poorly made paper airplane in the wind.

“Goddammit!”

The color white filled Quenser’s mind.

The Baby Magnum had been placed in a situation formulated to be difficult, but Quenser threw away the situation that gave her a way out. He also threw away what Lisa herself had just said. The next thing he knew, he was running.

“Goddammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttt!!”

He ran toward the battlefield.

He ran toward the intense fighting.

He ran toward Lisa as she was slammed into the sand like a broken toy.

He felt a stinging pain in his throat. The air was oddly dry. All the sand in the area was glittering as it reflected the moonlight. That was due to the laser beams the Hornet Storm had fired into the ground. Their overwhelmingly high temperature and not only explosively expanded the air; they had also melted the silicon in the sand. Exposure to the night air had re-cooled the silicone, forming a thin glass coating.

Quenser half-slid up to Lisa and crouched down.

He frantically picked her up and found she was oddly light. This was not due to his mental state. A physical change had come over her.

“Run…”

The smoke and flames from the flare had vanished.

But not because its effective time had ended.

“The ones behind this have lost control of themselves…after seeing the prey…they want so badly. This irregularity…will be quickly fixed. Once their rotten rationality recovers…systematic destruction will cover…this entire area.”

It was gone.

It had been destroyed.

Both the flare and the entire arm that had been holding it were gone. The point from which the arm had been torn had twisted around like a rag being wrung. For better or for worse, this had prevented too much blood loss.

“Is there any meaning to this?”

Quenser frantically pulled out his survival kit. He could not close up the wound with a needle and thread, much less with a bandage. He rethought his plan and realized his only choice was to wrap the bandage under her arm and around her entire body. By tying it tightly, he could constrict the thick artery.

“Is there any meaning to this!? This won’t even buy 20 seconds. The slight wave will quickly be smoothed out! The princess is struggling against the Hornet Storm and the Simple Is Best is charging in at faster than the speed of sound!! That situation isn’t going to change. Throwing a float to someone out in a storm isn’t going to save them, so why did you throw your own life out into the water! Do you want to drown that badly!?”

“The Stalk Killer Unit said the same thing.”

Lisa smiled weakly with blood splattered on her cheek.

It was unclear if she could even see Quenser in front of her.

“But it seems this is my nature. There are times…when I suddenly hate that kind of logical thought. Ahh, maybe I’m not suited…to being a soldier.”

Lisa had not done anything wrong.

She had simply been the single person to give the correct answer among the majority who agreed to the wrong answer.

“And there ''was'' meaning.”

“What meaning?”

“I was able to speak with you. I told you that the Stalk Killer Unit brought a lot of paint into this country… I may not have escaped the ones behind all this, but I was able to tell the truth to one person. That makes this…my victory. This was enough.”

This was the result.

She had tried to protect the civilians from being indiscriminately slaughtered by countless booby traps and she had tried to protect Quenser and Heivia’s unit after running across them on the battlefield. She had always been the only one to reach the correct answer and she was going to breathe her final breath while all alone like this.

Was that okay?

Could Quenser accept a world like that?”

“Promise me.”

“…?”

“Once this battle is over and you somehow – it doesn’t matter how right now – managed to survive, promise me you will appear at a court martial. Use that official stage to reveal everything that you’ve seen!! Tell everyone about the special unit for withdrawing, tell them everything the Stalk Killer Unit has done, and tell them about the people working to hide that truth!! Tell them everything. Can you promise me that!?”

“What difference will it make…?”

“I’ll make a promise, too. I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to get you to that courtroom!!”

Lisa’s mind was muddled by the intense pain, but her eyes opened slightly.

Quenser placed her back on the sand and slowly stood up.

He had made up his mind.

In the current situation, he could not save Lisa.

Forcibly cutting off the artery under her arm to stop the bleeding would only last for fifteen minutes. If she was not brought to the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion in that time, she would die. There would be no miracles or coincidences; she would simply die. But the base could not send a helicopter for her due to the Object loaded with the absolute anti-air weapons that were lasers. Given the distance, there was not enough time for a military vehicle to drive out to them. There was a huge difference between a helicopter that could move at 300-400 kph and a vehicle that could only travel at 150 kph. And the vehicle’s speed would be cut in half or even more in the desert.

In other words, the situation had to be resolved in only a few minutes.

The Baby Magnum and the Hornet Storm were close by and the Simple Is Best was approaching from afar. He had to end that nightmarish battle between three Objects.

“Can you hear me, princess?” As he spoke quietly into his radio, his blond hair blew in the cold wind of the desert night. “Don’t think about the Simple Is Best. Do everything you can to defeat the Hornet Storm in a one-on-one battle. If you’re fearing an attack from two fronts, you can’t use your full potential and you can’t defeat the Hornet Storm. That’s an irregular Object designed to attack large cities. It can be used against other Objects, but that isn’t its main purpose. It should be easier than battling a second generation Object.”

“Of course I will win. What is your point?”

“I’m saying we can distribute the work,” he stated as if spitting out the words. ”You handle the Hornet Storm and I’ll destroy the Simple Is Best that’s at the root of it all our problems here.”

===Part 6===

===Part 7===

===Part 8===

===Part 9===

<noinclude>{{HEAVYOBJECT Nav|prev=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 1|next=HEAVY OBJECT:Volume7 Chapter 3}}</noinclude>

Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha Registration Page

2014-01-03T01:08:28Z

Gamerdude13: Filling in the registration page

HEAVY OBJECT:Registration Page

2013-12-23T21:05:40Z

Gamerdude13: added vol7

To re-iterate the registration procedure:

*"First Come, First Served": please register your intended chapters here

*The maximum number of chapters you are recommended to work on is no more then half of any given volume

*Maximum number of Translators per volume is two

*Maximum number of volumes you may be active on is one

*This is not some Binding Contract of "I must do the work I put down here". Choices put down here are negotiable between translators (including their own selves who signed up for it).

== The "''HEAVY OBJECT''" series ==

=== HEAVY OBJECT ===
:*Prologue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 1 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 2 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 3 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Epilogue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''

=== HEAVY OBJECT: Adoption War ===
:*Prologue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 1 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 2 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 3 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Epilogue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''

=== HEAVY OBJECT: Shadow of the Giants ===
:*Prologue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 1 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 2 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 3 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Epilogue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''

=== HEAVY OBJECT 4===
:*Prologue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 1 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 2 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 3 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Epilogue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''

=== HEAVY OBJECT 5===
:*Prologue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 1 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 2 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 3 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 4 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 5 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Epilogue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''

=== HEAVY OBJECT 6===
:*Prologue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 1 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 2 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Chapter 3 - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''
:*Epilogue - [[user:Js06|Js06]] - '''Completed'''

=== HEAVY OBJECT 7===
:*Prologue -
:*Chapter 1 -
:*Chapter 2 -
:*Chapter 3 -
:*Epilogue -
<noinclude>
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[[Category:Registration Page]]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance

2013-12-06T21:45:41Z

Gamerdude13: /* Translators */ removing that statement due to vol 12 XD

[[Image:STnBD V01 001.jpg|250px|thumb|Volume 1 Cover]]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (精霊使いの剣舞 / ''Bladedance of Elementaler'') is a light novel series written by Shimizu Yuu. The illustrations are done by Sakura Hanpen. Published by MF Bunko J, the series currently has 11 volumes. An anime adaptation was announced on the 28/7/2013 on official Twitter account for the Comic Alive magazine's editors. [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-07-28/seirei-tsukai-no-blade-dance-light-novels-gets-anime See Here]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Tiếng Việt|Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)]]
*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Indonesia|Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)]]
*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (Français)|Français (French)]]

==Story Synopsis==

Only a pure maiden can have the privilege to contract with a spirit. At Areishia Spirit Academy, trained maidens of noble families are gathered and given an elite's education to become elementalists. The protagonist, Kamito, accidentally peeped on a bathing girl, Claire, and ended up making a contract with the spirit she wanted. Indeed, as a male elementalist, Kamito is an irregularity whose existence was hitherto thought impossible. "You stole...my spirit...you have to take responsibility for it!" "Huh?" "You have to become my contracted spirit!" Where will Kamito's destiny lead to? (From FairGame)

==Updates==
{{:Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Updates}}

More [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Updates|here]].

== Translation ==

===[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration_Page|Registration]]===

Those who wish to contribute are asked to first notify a supervisor beforehand.

'''Translators are asked to [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration_Page|register]] which chapters they're working on'''

===Format Standards===
'''Every chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]
*[[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Names_and_Terminology_Guidelines|Project-Specific Guidelines: Format, Names, and Terminology]]

=== Feedback ===
'''Discuss this series in the [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4633 forum]'''

'''You can find the PDF, EPUB and MOBI version of the Volumes in the forums [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4964 here]'''

==The 'Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance' series by Shimizu Yuu==

===Volume 1 - The Sword, The Academy and The Hell Cat Girl ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 1|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V01 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - You Are My Contracted Spirit!]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Areishia Spirit Academy]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - My Classmate is a Princess]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - The Wolf, the Cat and the Knight]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Claire's Feelings]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - The Blade Dance at Midnight]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Contracted Spirit Est]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - The Strongest Blade Dancer]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Afterword|Afterword]]
<br />

===Volume 2 - The Lost Queen ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 2|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V02 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Prologue Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Team Battle]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter1 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - The Young Ladies' Afternoon]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter2 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - The Lost Queen]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter3 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Cat Fight]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter4 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - The One Who Will Succeed the Demon King]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter5 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - The Morning of the Departure]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter6 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - The Abandoned-Mine Battle]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter7 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Fianna's Confession]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter8 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Team Scarlet]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter9 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Epilogue|Epilogue]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Epilogue Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 3 - Pledge of the Wind ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 3|Full Text]]) ===
[[Image:STnBD V03 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - The Ojou-sama Who Woke Up Early]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Team Scarlet's Dash]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Claire's Birthday]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - A Knight's Sincerity]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Sylphid Knights]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Security of Academy Town]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Valentia Holy Festival]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Ellis' Determination]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - The Strongest Elementalist]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 4 - The Blade Dance ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 4|Full Text]]) ===
[[Image:STnBD V04 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Travel Preparation]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Sky Voyage]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Dracunia's Dragon Princess (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Floating Island (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Water Play (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Cracks (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Darkness Spirit Girl (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Ball Dance]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Brand of Darkness (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter10|Chapter 10 - Showdown with the Past (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Epilogue|Epilogue (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Afterword|Afterword (TLC Needed)]]

===Volume 5 - Demon Slayer ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 5|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V05 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - The Broken Sacred Sword]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Triple Date]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Dragon Princess's Allurement]] 
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - The Laurenfrost Sisters]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - The Princess Maiden of the Grand Shrine]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - The Sacred Sword's Memories]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - The Real Battle Begins (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - The Temptation of Darkness (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Demon Slayer (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Epilogue|Epilogue (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Afterword|Afterword (TLC Needed)]]

===Volume 6 - The Reminisced Darkness Spirit ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 6|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V06 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - The First Dawn]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Emissary from the Principality of Rossvale]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Nepenthes Lore]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Milla Bassett]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Their Respective Nights]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Night Assault]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Return]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - The Demon Sword Revived]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - All-Out War]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 7 - The Strongest Blade Dancer ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 7|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V07 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Declaration of War]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Claire's Suspicions]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Ellis' Questioning]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - The Approaching Snake]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Four Gods]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - The Imperial Princess Kidnapped]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - The Witch's Strategy]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Fiery Encounter]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Pandemonium]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter10|Chapter 10 - The Strongest Blade Dancer]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 8 - The Night Before the Finale ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 8|Full Text]]) ===
[[Image:STnBD V08 001.png|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Prologue|Prologue (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Victory Celebration (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - The Witch and the Assassin (TLC Needed)]]
::**[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Interlude1|Interlude - The Dusk Witch (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - The Ice Demon and the Hell Cat (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Date with a Dragon (TLC Needed)]]
::**[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Interlude2|Interlude - Team Inferno (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - The Night Before the Finale (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Epilogue|Epilogue (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Afterword|Afterword (TLC Needed)]]
<br />

===Volume 9 - Cross Fire ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 9|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V09 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Entrusted Promise]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Blade Dance of the Night]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Sparks Scattered Across the Battlefield]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Demon Sword of Darkness]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Spirit Weapon]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Scarlet Valkyrie]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Cross Fire]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Afterword|Afterword]]
<br />

===Volume 10 - The Awakening of the Demon King ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 10|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V10 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Muir Alenstarl]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - The Darkness Beckons Invitingly]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Captive Claire]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Iseria Seaward]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Scarlet's Secret]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Lost Cathedral]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Blade Dance of the Dragon Princess]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Laevateinn]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - The Awakening of the Demon King]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 11 - Elemental Lord Assassination ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 11|Full Text]])===
[[image:STnBD V11 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Calamity Queen]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Dance of the Dual Swords]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - The Closure of the «Blade Dance»]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - The Truth Three Years Ago]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Rinslet's Resolve]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Back to the Abandoned City]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - The Seal-Breaking Ritual]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - The Freed Elemental Lord]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - The Last Night]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 12 - Releasing the Sealed Sword===
[[image:STnBD V12 000ab.jpeg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Amnesia]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Escape]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Theocracy Upheaval]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Demon King's Burial Chamber]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Invader]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Numbers]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Great Festival's Eve]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Great Festival of the Spirits]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Academy Attacked]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Chapter10|Chapter 10 - Releasing the Sealed Sword]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Afterword|Afterword]]
<br style="clear:both"/>

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor: [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]]

===Translators===
For information on what chapter each translator is working on, please consult the [[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Registration_Page|Registration Page]].

<u>Supervisor's Notice</u>: Translators are to get '''approval''' from [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] before registering.

'''ACTIVE'''

'''INACTIVE'''

:*[[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] (Chinese Translator)
:*[[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]]
:*[[User:Alight|Alight]] (Chinese Translator)
:*[[User:Vermiculo|Vermiculo]]
:*[[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]]
:*[[User:RikiNutcase|RikiNutcase]]
:*[[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]]

===Translation Checkers===
'''Currently looking for translation checkers, just post a sample of the 'before' & 'after' [[User_talk:KuroiHikari|here]]. Just a page or 2 from any volumes posted here would suffice for approval.'''

===Editors===
:*[[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]]
:*[[User:Royaloyalz|Royaloyalz]]
:*[[User:Asiorx22|Asiorx22]]

==Series Overview==

*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 1 - 剣と学院と火猫少女 (December 24, 2010) ISBN 978-4-8401-3675-4
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 2 - ロスト・クイーン (February 25, 2011) ISBN 978-4-8401-3824-6
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 3 - 風の誓約 (May 25, 2011) ISBN 978-4-8401-3930-4
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 4 - 精霊剣舞祭 (August 25, 2011) ISBN 978-4-8401-4202-1
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 5 - 魔王殺しの聖剣 (November 25, 2011) ISBN 978-4-8401-4299-1
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 6 - 追憶の闇精霊 (February 24, 2012) ISBN 978-4-8401-4386-8
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 7 - 最強の剣舞姫 (May 25, 2012) ISBN 978-4-8401-4580-0
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 8 - 決戦前夜 (August 24, 2012) ISBN 978-4-8401-4684-5
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 9 - クロス・ファイア (November 22, 2012) ISBN 978-4-8401-4874-0
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 10 - 魔王覚醒 (February 25, 2013) ISBN 978-4-8401-4983-9
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 11 - 精霊王暗殺 (July 25, 2013) ISBN 978-4-8401-5225-9
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 12 - 封剣解放 (November 25, 2013) ISBN 978-4-0406-6075-2

[[Category:MF Bunko J]][[Category:Genre - Harem|Harem]]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance

2013-11-07T01:13:12Z

Gamerdude13:

[[Image:STnBD V01 001.jpg|250px|thumb|Volume 1 Cover]]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (精霊使いの剣舞 / ''Bladedance of Elementaler'') is a light novel series written by Shimizu Yuu. The illustrations are done by Sakura Hanpen. Published by MF Bunko J, the series currently has 11 volumes. An anime adaptation was announced on the 28/7/2013 on official Twitter account for the Comic Alive magazine's editors. [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-07-28/seirei-tsukai-no-blade-dance-light-novels-gets-anime See Here]

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Tiếng Việt|Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)]]
*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Indonesia|Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)]]
*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (Français)|Français (French)]]

==Story Synopsis==

Only a pure maiden can have the privilege to contract with a spirit. At Areishia Spirit Academy, trained maidens of noble families are gathered and given an elite's education to become elementalists. The protagonist, Kamito, accidentally peeped on a bathing girl, Claire, and ended up making a contract with the spirit she wanted. Indeed, as a male elementalist, Kamito is an irregularity whose existence was hitherto thought impossible. "You stole...my spirit...you have to take responsibility for it!" "Huh?" "You have to become my contracted spirit!" Where will Kamito's destiny lead to? (From FairGame)

==Updates==
{{:Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Updates}}

More [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Updates|here]].

== Translation ==

===[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration_Page|Registration]]===

Those who wish to contribute are asked to first notify a supervisor beforehand.

'''Translators are asked to [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Registration_Page|register]] which chapters they're working on'''

===Format Standards===
'''Every chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]
*[[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Names_and_Terminology_Guidelines|Project-Specific Guidelines: Format, Names, and Terminology]]

=== Feedback ===
'''Discuss this series in the [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4633 forum]'''

'''You can find the PDF, EPUB and MOBI version of the Volumes in the forums [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4964 here]'''

==The 'Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance' series by Shimizu Yuu==

===Volume 1 - The Sword, The Academy and The Hell Cat Girl ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 1|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V01 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - You Are My Contracted Spirit!]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Areishia Spirit Academy]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - My Classmate is a Princess]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - The Wolf, the Cat and the Knight]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Claire's Feelings]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - The Blade Dance at Midnight]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Contracted Spirit Est]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - The Strongest Blade Dancer]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Afterword|Afterword]]
<br />

===Volume 2 - The Lost Queen ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 2|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V02 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Prologue Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Team Battle]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter1 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - The Young Ladies' Afternoon]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter2 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - The Lost Queen]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter3 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Cat Fight]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter4 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - The One Who Will Succeed the Demon King]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter5 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - The Morning of the Departure]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter6 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - The Abandoned-Mine Battle]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter7 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Fianna's Confession]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter8 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Team Scarlet]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter9 Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Epilogue|Epilogue]] ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Epilogue Draft|Draft]])
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 3 - Pledge of the Wind ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 3|Full Text]]) ===
[[Image:STnBD V03 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - The Ojou-sama Who Woke Up Early]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Team Scarlet's Dash]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Claire's Birthday]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - A Knight's Sincerity]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Sylphid Knights]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Security of Academy Town]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Valentia Holy Festival]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Ellis' Determination]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - The Strongest Elementalist]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 4 - The Blade Dance ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 4|Full Text]]) ===
[[Image:STnBD V04 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Travel Preparation]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Sky Voyage (TLC Needed)]] '''(Pending TLC)'''
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Dracunia's Dragon Princess (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Floating Island (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Water Play (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Cracks (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Darkness Spirit Girl (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Ball Dance]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Brand of Darkness (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter10|Chapter 10 - Showdown with the Past (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Epilogue|Epilogue (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Afterword|Afterword (TLC Needed)]]

===Volume 5 - Demon Slayer ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 5|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V05 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - The Broken Sacred Sword]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Triple Date]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Dragon Princess's Allurement]] 
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - The Laurenfrost Sisters]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - The Princess Maiden of the Grand Shrine]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - The Sacred Sword's Memories]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - The Real Battle Begins (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - The Temptation of Darkness (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Demon Slayer (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Epilogue|Epilogue (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Afterword|Afterword (TLC Needed)]]

===Volume 6 - The Reminisced Darkness Spirit ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 6|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V06 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - The First Dawn]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Emissary from the Principality of Rossvale]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Nepenthes Lore]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Milla Bassett]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Their Respective Nights]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Night Assault]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Return]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - The Demon Sword Revived]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - All-Out War]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume6 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 7 - The Strongest Blade Dancer ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 7|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V07 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Declaration of War]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Claire's Suspicions]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Ellis' Questioning]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - The Approaching Snake]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Four Gods]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - The Imperial Princess Kidnapped]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - The Witch's Strategy]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Fiery Encounter]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - Pandemonium]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Chapter10|Chapter 10 - The Strongest Blade Dancer]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume7 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 8 - The Night Before the Finale ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 8|Full Text]]) ===
[[Image:STnBD V08 001.png|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Prologue|Prologue (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Victory Celebration (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - The Witch and the Assassin (TLC Needed)]]
::**[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Interlude1|Interlude - The Dusk Witch (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - The Ice Demon and the Hell Cat (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Date with a Dragon (TLC Needed)]]
::**[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Interlude2|Interlude - Team Inferno (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - The Night Before the Finale (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Epilogue|Epilogue (TLC Needed)]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Afterword|Afterword (TLC Needed)]]
<br />

===Volume 9 - Cross Fire ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 9|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V09 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Entrusted Promise]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Blade Dance of the Night]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Sparks Scattered Across the Battlefield]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Demon Sword of Darkness]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Spirit Weapon]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Scarlet Valkyrie]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Cross Fire]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume9 Afterword|Afterword]]
<br />

===Volume 10 - The Awakening of the Demon King ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 10|Full Text]])===
[[Image:STnBD V10 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Muir Alenstarl]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - The Darkness Beckons Invitingly]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - Captive Claire]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - Iseria Seaward]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Scarlet's Secret]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Lost Cathedral]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - Blade Dance of the Dragon Princess]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - Laevateinn]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - The Awakening of the Demon King]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume10 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 11 - Elemental Lord Assassination ([[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume 11|Full Text]])===
[[image:STnBD V11 001.jpg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Prologue|Prologue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter1|Chapter 1 - Calamity Queen]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter2|Chapter 2 - Dance of the Dual Swords]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter3|Chapter 3 - The Closure of the «Blade Dance»]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter4|Chapter 4 - The Truth Three Years Ago]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter5|Chapter 5 - Rinslet's Resolve]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter6|Chapter 6 - Back to the Abandoned City]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter7|Chapter 7 - The Seal-Breaking Ritual]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter8|Chapter 8 - The Freed Elemental Lord]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Chapter9|Chapter 9 - The Last Night]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume11 Afterword|Afterword]]

===Volume 12 - Release the Sealed Sword===
[[image:STnBD V12 000ab.jpeg|thumb|x200px]]
::*[[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume12 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
<br style="clear:both"/>

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor: [[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]]

===Translators===
For information on what chapter each translator is working on, please consult the [[Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Registration_Page|Registration Page]].

<u>Supervisor's Notice</u>: Translators are to get '''approval''' from [[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] before registering.

'''ACTIVE'''

The ''Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance'' project is currently caught up.

'''INACTIVE'''

:*[[User:Zzhk|zzhk]] (Chinese Translator)
:*[[User:Mizuho|Mizuho]]
:*[[User:Alight|Alight]] (Chinese Translator)
:*[[User:Vermiculo|Vermiculo]]
:*[[User:Nikuniku|Nikuniku]]
:*[[User:RikiNutcase|RikiNutcase]]
:*[[User:Black Dust|Black Dust]]

===Translation Checkers===
'''Currently looking for translation checkers, just post a sample of the 'before' & 'after' [[User_talk:KuroiHikari|here]]. Just a page or 2 from any volumes posted here would suffice for approval.'''

===Editors===
:*[[User:Thatsjustpeachy|Thatsjustpeachy]]
:*[[User:Royaloyalz|Royaloyalz]]
:*[[User:Asiorx22|Asiorx22]]

==Series Overview==

*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 1 - 剣と学院と火猫少女 (December 24, 2010) ISBN 978-4-8401-3675-4
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 2 - ロスト・クイーン (February 25, 2011) ISBN 978-4-8401-3824-6
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 3 - 風の誓約 (May 25, 2011) ISBN 978-4-8401-3930-4
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 4 - 精霊剣舞祭 (August 25, 2011) ISBN 978-4-8401-4202-1
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 5 - 魔王殺しの聖剣 (November 25, 2011) ISBN 978-4-8401-4299-1
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 6 - 追憶の闇精霊 (February 24, 2012) ISBN 978-4-8401-4386-8
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 7 - 最強の剣舞姫 (May 25, 2012) ISBN 978-4-8401-4580-0
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 8 - 決戦前夜 (August 24, 2012) ISBN 978-4-8401-4684-5
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 9 - クロス・ファイア (November 22, 2012) ISBN 978-4-8401-4874-0
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 10 - 魔王覚醒 (February 25, 2013) ISBN 978-4-8401-4983-9
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 11 - 精霊王暗殺 (July 25, 2013) ISBN 978-4-8401-5225-9
*Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Volume 12 - 封剣解放 (November 25, 2013) ISBN 978-4-0406-6075-2

[[Category:MF Bunko J]][[Category:Genre - Harem|Harem]]

Log Horizon

2013-11-05T06:22:50Z

Gamerdude13: Remove unnecessary spacing

<br/>
[[Image: Log Horizon manga vol.01.jpg|420px|thumb|right|Log Horizon manga cover volume one]]
The light-novel series '''Log Horizon''' (ログ・ホライズン, romanji "Rogu Horaizun") is written by Mamare Touno, illustrated by Kazuhiro Hara and published by Enterbrain. It was initially posted on the user-generated content site Shōsetsuka ni Narō in 2010 and subsequently published by Enterbrain since March 2011. The series follows the strategist Shiroe and the other players of the long-lived MMORPG Elder Tale after they find themselves whisked away into the game world following a game update. Log Horizon is an ongoing serial with seven light online novel releases. The online versions serve as the source for commercial adaptations of commercially printed light novels, a manga series, and an anime adaptation airing on NHK Educational TV starting on October 5, 2013.

==Story Synopsis==
By its eleventh expansion pack, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Elder Tale (エルダー・テイル Erudā Teiru?) has become a global success, having a following of millions of players. However, during the release of its twelfth expansion pack: Novasphere Pioneers (ノウアスフィアの開墾 Nōasufia no Kaikon?), thirty thousand Japanese gamers who are all logged on at the time of the update, suddenly find themselves transported inside the game world and donning their in-game avatars. In the midst of the event, a socially awkward gamer called Shiroe along with his friends Naotsugu and Akatsuki decide to team up so that they may face this world which has now become their reality along with the challenges which lie ahead.

==Updates==
::* October 30th, 2013 - '''Log Horizon Teaser Page started'''

:: '''More updates''' can be found '''[[https://drive.google.com/?authuser=1#folders/0BwVt0m2ZeUEAeG5qUzFyWVlGdjA here]]'''.

==Translation & Editing==

===Registration===
Those who wish to contribute are asked to first notify a supervisor beforehand.

'''Translators are asked to [[Log Horizon Registration Page|register]] which chapters they're working on.'''

::* '''[[Log Horizon Registration Page|Registration Page]]'''

===Format Standards===
'''Every chapter must after editing conform to the general format guidelines.'''

::*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]
::*[[Log Horizon Specific Guidelines|Log Horizon Specific Translating/Editing Guidelines]] (TBA)
<br />
==The "''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_Horizon Log Horizon]''" series by Mamare Touno==
If you enjoyed the story, why don't you tell us in the [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6001 Log Horizon Feedback Thread]?
<br/>
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===Volume 1: The Beginning of a Different World (Isekai no Hajimari, 異世界のはじまり)===
<div style="float: left; width:400px;">
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 1 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: Catastrophe]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Small Assassin]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 1 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Battle of Roka]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 1 Chapter 4|Chapter 4: Deep in Palm]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 1 Chapter 5|Chapter 5: Escape]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 1 Afterword|Afterword]]
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<div style="float: left; width:200px;">
[[Image: Log Horizon light novel vol.01.jpg|right|thumb|x200px|Volume 1]]
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===Volume 2: Knights of Camelot (Kyamerotto no Kishi-tachi, キャメロットの騎士たち)===
<div style="float: left; width:400px;">
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 2 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 2 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: Return to Akihabara]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 2 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Determination]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 2 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Sunflower and Lily of the Valley]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 2 Chapter 4|Chapter 4: Knights of Camelot]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 2 Chapter 5|Chapter 5: Grab Your Future]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 2 Annex|Annex]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 2 Afterword|Afterword]]
</div>
<div style="float: left; width:200px;">
[[Image: Log Horizon light novel vol.02.jpg|right|thumb|x200px|Volume 2]]
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />

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===Volume 3: The End of the Game 'Part I' (Gēmu no Owari [Jō], ゲームの終わり【上】)===
<div style="float: left; width:400px;">
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Prologue|Prologue]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: To Summer Camp]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Forest Ragranda]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Negotiation in the Ancient Cour]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Chapter 4|Chapter 4: World Fraction]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Chapter 5|Chapter 5: Attack]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Annex 1|Annex 1]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Annex 2|Annex 2]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 3 Afterword|Afterword]]
</div>
<div style="float: left; width:200px;">
[[Image: Log Horizon light novel vol.03.jpg|right|thumb|x200px|Volume 3]]
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />

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===Volume 4: The End of the Game 'Part II' (Gēmu no Owari [Ge], ゲームの終わり【下】)===
<div style="float: left; width:400px;">
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: The Return of The Goblin King]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: A Lazy, Coward Princess]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Expeditionary Force]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Chapter 4|Chapter 4: Chase that back]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Chapter 5|Chapter 5: Contract]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Annex 1|Annex 1]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Annex 2|Annex 2]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Annex 3|Annex 3]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Volume 4 Afterword|Afterword]]
</div>
<div style="float: left; width:200px;">
[[Image: Log Horizon light novel vol.04.jpg|right|thumb|x200px|Volume 4]]
</div>
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<br style="clear: both;" />
<br/>

==Web Version==

===The Beginning of a Different World Part 1 (Isekai no Hajimari[Jō], 異世界のはじまり（上）)===
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 8|Chapter 8]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]

===The Beginning of a Different World Part 2 (Isekai no Hajimari[Ge], 異世界のはじまり（下）)===
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 15|Chapter 15]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 16|Chapter 16]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 17|Chapter 17]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]

===The End of the Game 'Part I' (Gēmu no Owari [Jō], ゲームの終わり【上】)===
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 19|Chapter 19]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 21|Chapter 21]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 22|Chapter 22]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 23|Chapter 23]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 24|Chapter 24]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 25|Chapter 25]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 26|Chapter 26]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 27|Chapter 27]]

===The End of the Game 'Part II' (Gēmu no Owari [Ge], ゲームの終わり【下】)===
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 28|Chapter 28]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 29|Chapter 29]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 30|Chapter 30]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 31|Chapter 31]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 32|Chapter 32]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 33|Chapter 33]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 34|Chapter 34]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 35|Chapter 35]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 36|Chapter 36]]

===Sunday in the District of Akiba (Akiba no Machi no Nichiyōbi, アキバの街の日曜日)===
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 37|Chapter 37]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 38|Chapter 38]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 39|Chapter 39]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 40|Chapter 40]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 41|Chapter 41]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 42|Chapter 42]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 43|Chapter 43]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 44|Chapter 44]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 45|Chapter 45]]

===The Stray Child of Daybreak (Yoake no Mayoigo, 夜明けの迷い子)===
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 46|Chapter 46]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 47|Chapter 47]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 48|Chapter 48]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 49|Chapter 49]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 50|Chapter 50]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 51|Chapter 51]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 52|Chapter 52]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 53|Chapter 53]]
:* [[Log Horizon: Web Chapter 54|Chapter 54]]

==Project Staff==
*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor:
*Project Leader:

===Translators===
- [[User:Rozenbach|Rozenbach]]

===Editors===
- [[User:Rozenbach|Rozenbach]]

==Commercial Light Novel Series Overview==
*Log Horizon 1 ログ・ホライズン1 異世界のはじまり 343 pages (March 31, 2011) ISBN 978-4047271456
*Log Horizon 2 ログ・ホライズン2 キャメロットの騎士たち 344 pages (May 30, 2011) ISBN 978-4047272989
*Log Horizon 3 ログ・ホライズン3 ゲームの終わり（上） 335 pages (August 31, 2011) ISBN 978-4047274136
*Log Horizon 4 ログ・ホライズン4 ゲームの終わり（下） 363 pages (September 30, 2011) ISBN 978-4047275430
*Log Horizon 5 ログ・ホライズン5 アキバの街の日曜日 371 pages (November 30, 2011) ISBN 978-4047276697
*Log Horizon 6 ログ・ホライズン6 夜明けの迷い子 318 pages (March 30, 2013) ISBN 978-4047282353

==More Information==
===Wikis===
* [http://www26.atwiki.jp/loghorizon/ Log Horizon Info & Database (Japanese)]

===Wikipedia Articles===
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_Horizon Log Horizon main Wikipedia article]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Log_Horizon_episodes Log Horizon anime episodes]
* [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B0%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9B%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BA%E3%83%B3 Japanese Log Horizon Wikipedia article]

===Other Info===
* [http://mamare.net/works/loghorizon/ Author Mamare Touno's personal website]
* [http://ncode.syosetu.com/n8725k/ Author's publicly released Japanese light novels]
* [http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/loghorizon/index.html Official Log Horizon anime website]
* [http://www.animecharactersdatabase.com/source.php?id=102804 Log Horizon character database WOW WOW]
* [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=15118 Log Horizon entry at ANN's encyclopedia]

[[Category:Teasers]]

Log Horizon Registration Page

2013-11-05T06:15:07Z

Gamerdude13:

Log Horizon Registration Page

2013-11-05T06:12:51Z

Gamerdude13:

Log Horizon Registration Page

2013-11-05T06:10:14Z

Gamerdude13:

Log Horizon Registration Page

2013-11-05T06:08:21Z

Gamerdude13: following how the other registration pages format layout is

===Volume 1: ===
<div style="float: left; width:400px;">
*[[Prologue]]- [[User:Rozenbach|Rozenbach]] '''0%'''
*[[Chapter 1 -]]
*[[Chapter 2 -]]
*[[Chapter 3 -]]
*[[Chapter 4 -]]
*[[Chapter 5 -]]
*[[Afterword -]]

===Volume 2:===
*Chapter 1 - [http://pastebin.com/u/skythewood skythewood] '''Completed'''
*Chapter 2 - [http://pastebin.com/u/skythewood skythewood] '''Completed'''
*Chapter 3 - [http://pastebin.com/u/skythewood skythewood] '''Completed'''
*Chapter 4 - [http://pastebin.com/u/skythewood skythewood] '''Completed'''
*Chapter 5 - [http://pastebin.com/u/skythewood skythewood] '''Completed'''
*Annex - [http://pastebin.com/u/skythewood skythewood] '''Completed'''
*Afterword

===Volume 3: ===
<div style="float: left; width:400px;">
*[[Chapter 1 -]]
*[[Chapter 2 -]]
*[[Chapter 3 -]]
*[[Chapter 4 -]]
*[[Chapter 5 -]]
*[[Annex 1 -]]
*[[Annex 2 -]]
*[[Afterword -]]

===Volume 4:===
<div style="float: left; width:400px;">
*[[Chapter 1 -]]
*[[Chapter 2 -]]
*[[Chapter 3 -]]
*[[Chapter 4 -]]
*[[Chapter 5 -]]
*[[Annex 1 -]]
*[[Annex 2 -]]
*[[Annex 3 -]]
*[[Afterword -]]