Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 4===

And so they headed out for the attack on Amazon City.

However, Froleytia was not commanding the operation from the front lines. She was in the maintenance base zone constructed in a location far from the battlefield. With the kiseru in her mouth, she checked on the progress of the unit on a monitor.

Froleytia liked things in the Japanese style, but the interior of her room was relatively lacking in such things. This was due to the maintenance base having been almost completely destroyed by the Mass Driver conglomerate Object in the Iguazu district. She was having a new collection brought in with the additional supplies, so she must have had quite a bit stored away in the European home country.

(…The stage this time is a jungle ghost town filled with buildings. It’s the perfect environment for hidden soldiers.)

That would not be an issue in a battle between Objects. After all, an Object was simply too large. With the exception of mountainous regions like in the Iguazu district, those giant machines could not be hidden by the terrain.

However, using one of those monstrous weapons to search for puny humans hidden in the jungle was a different story altogether.

Of course, Objects had various forms of sensors, so they could search for hidden people via body heat or magnetism. However, the jungle was filled with living things, so a massive number of objects would be found even when searching for human-sized living creatures.

(Now then. Can we solve that problem by having foot soldiers work with the Object? Or should we focus on trying to pick up on human noises such as voices and footsteps?)

With the sensors on full power, the presence of allied soldiers could actually get in the way. The specific method could be handled by the people on the scene, but Froleytia had to take care of any problems that might arise because of that.

To make sure that she did not overlook even the smallest sign, Froleytia stared intently at the monitor once more. However, she then received a transmission.

It was from the princess who was piloting the Baby Magnum.

“I have a question for you,” said the princess.

“Has the situation changed since the strategy meeting?”

As far as Froleytia could tell, nothing had changed, but she asked to make sure. As expected, the princess denied that possibility.

“No, it is nothing like that. I suppose this is a more private sort of question. Is that okay?”

“?”

[[Image:HO v02 284.jpg|thumb]]

(This is unusual for her.)

Before Froleytia could realize what was odd about the princess, the princess herself cut to the chase.

“…Is it true you were groped by Quenser?”

“Bfh!?”

It felt like the long, narrow kiseru almost shot from her mouth.

However the princess had interpreted that response, she fell silent.

“…”

“Wait, don’t just fall silent. Don’t tell me you feel like your mental condition has dropped because of that! You know just how much the mental state of the Elite can affect the outcome of a battle, right? If we lose the war here, it will end up in textbooks. If that happens due to whether someone was groped or not, the higher ups of the military will faint and the history buffs will laugh their asses off!”

“…Oh, dear. You aren’t even trying to deny that you were groped.”

Froleytia wiped an unpleasant sweat from her brow as she felt a dangerous tension in the princess’s oddly low tone of voice. Froleytia felt like something had been off about herself ever since that incident.