Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 12 Episode 4 (section)

===Part 4===
In the sky of the New Kingdom’s western territory, the seventh Ruin Moon was awaiting.

In the sky where no one was noticing it due to the optic camouflage applied to it, a great turmoil was occurring.

「Aah geez, what to do desu!? If Soffice is captured, then everything is futile desu! Even though I had warned her so much to be careful when she went to collect Airi──」

A small girl abandoned the control of Moon and made a ruckus.

The Automata girl which was the Gear Leader.

Re Plica with mechanical fox ears growing from her head was there.

「What? Even though she said that we will guard her when going to liberate Garden, could it be she is tearing up the contract?」

There, a woman wearing black clothes and light armor like a bandit──Dragon Marauder’s Human Dragon division commander Drakkhen Megistri, showed up and spoke.

「Shut up desu. I want you to not forget who is the one offering hideout to all of you who have no more place to go desu.」

「Certainly you’re right. Our subordinates have also decreased considerably in number from the recent fighting. It will be just one or two more times that we will be able to exchange blows with those guys properly.」

「Then, quickly go and recover your employer desu! You know the place already desu.」

「That’s impossible you know, Automata-san.」

Drakkhen shook her head with a somewhat exasperated smile.

「Previously my comrades rescued me when I was locked up in the Academy’s jail. But this time the situation is different. There are only two Ruins remaining that haven’t been liberated, so the enemy force is concentrated there. Whether it’s that Academy or the royal capital, there is always one or two Seven Dragon Paladins staying there. Even we won’t be able to just march in there.」

「You’ve got a lot of excuses before doing anything even though you are just a mercenary desu. Someone like that is called incompetent desu!」

Re Plica, who was anxious because of the absence of her master, Soffice, scowled and hurled abuses.

Then, at that timing a knocking sound *kon kon* came from outside the control room.

The door was left open, so it was only a signal to inform of the visitor’s arrival.

The one who entered from there was a man with tanned skin and a masculine face.

It was Dragon Marauder’s Heaven Dragon division commander who led the Wyvern force, the young man named Gatouhan.

He was formerly a mercenary Drag-Knight who was employed by the Turkimes Confederation. He was a survivor of indigenous people who got persecuted and chased away from their living place.

He was in the latter half of his twenties, approaching the age where his experience and stamina were taking balance.

「Is it okay for me to join the conversation too? That guy Vine is away so I’m bored.」

「Oh, isn’t this the right moment for you to come helping me? Do you have any ulterior motive?」

「I don’t need a woman with bad habit like you. More importantly, employer-dono, I want you to correct your statement there a bit.」

Gatouhan avoided Drakkhen’s talk and spoke to Re Plica.

「If you want me to correct me treating you as incompetent, then come after achieving results desu. Specifically speaking, after taking back Soffice──」

「It’s about that matter though, won’t you stop trying to save her already?」

「Ha……?」

Re Plica’s eyes opened wide at Gatouhan’s question and she went stiff.

「What are you saying desu!? Has even your brain turned stupid desu!? What are you planning to do, abandoning your employer like that desu!?」

「Calm down now. I only mean that it’s impossible to do it right away.」

Gatouhan smiled bitterly while telling that to soothe Re Plica.

「Honestly speaking, our situation was nearly checkmate by the time your master failed to secure an Arcadia. That failure itself was due to the trap of the Seven Dragon Paladins’ captain, Magialca Zen Vanfrick.」

「…………」

「Your master being captive also turns it into a trap that could even get us rounded up all at once if we go to save her. If more time passes, the other side will surely come to negotiate using her as a hostage. It will be better to move at that time.」

「What are you going to do if Soffice is killed before that huh!? Everything will be over then desu!」

「If she becomes a captive, then at the very least that won’t happen. Those guys are also not that stupid.」

「Then you guys are unnecessary so you all are fired desu. It is a really short relationship, isn’t it desu.」

Re Plica was impatient with Dragon Marauder that didn’t change their stance of wait-and-see till the end and said that. Hearing that, the leader Gatouhan silently smiled.

「Don’t be so hurried like that. I didn’t say that we won’t go to save her right?」

「That’s right. Even though we look like this, we are famous for completing the duty that was requested of us.」

「……What do you want desu?」

Re Plica was vigilant toward Drakkhen’s bright tone and scowled.

Then Gatouhan also pressed the Automata girl with a calm smile.

「It’s not like I’m telling you to increase the reward. I only want you to cooperate in order to save your master.」

「…………」

「For the advance payment, apply Baptism on us. That’s possible if it’s now after we have been administered with minute amounts of Elixir several times right?」

「……From where did you guys learn that knowledge desu?」

Re Plica strengthened her wariness hearing Gatouhan’s proposal and said.

「We are merely wishing to always pick the choice with higher possibility even if just for a little.」

Even the Earth Dragon division commander Vine had come and listened to the talk from an unknown point in time.

He was a young man with a face that still had a trace of childishness in it, but his bearing that had no openings gave him the air as a mercenary.

「The world alliance and the Seven Dragon Paladins are strong. Especially the users of Divine Drag-Rides at that Academy──the lot called Syvalles aren’t your average Drag-Knights. Even if we invest all our remaining forces including the Abyss, we won’t be able to contend with them easily.

The young man began with that while straightening his back once more and stared at Re Plica.

「You too, if you are the tool of your Xfer master then you should do that, choosing the option that raises the possibility to save her even by ten percent. Am I wrong?」

「…………」

Re Plica couldn’t reply to Vine’s question.

It was a completely sound argument.

As an Automata, she had to take back her master Soffice no matter what method she had to use.

When she was awakened, she thought that she should act by obeying that kind of manual.

But, Soffice didn’t demand her to act as a subordinate.

『Living here forever gives nothing but free time, so become my talking partner.』

Toward Re Plica who was the existence who woke her up, Soffice was looking for an equal relationship from her along with her little sister.

However, could she believe in these mercenaries who lived all this time only by rewards from other people in the end?

In any case, there were not much choices and time remaining to save Soffice.

She could be sure of that if nothing else.

「It can’t, be helped desu. However, it’s better if you all don’t think that you can do anything with Avalon without Soffice desu. Also, I won’t care even if you die because the Baptism failed desu.」

「Agreed, our master of this time. Then, I ask you to grant Baptism upon us using the functions of this Moon.」

Gatouhan calmly nodded without even showing any delight.

That calmness was even more eerie for Re Plica.

It was as though even this flow of event might be a part of their prearranged plan──she thought.