View source for City Series:Volume1 Chapter 5

===Part 8===

The night was beginning to fill with a deep chill as well as darkness. It was 10:30 PM.

The front entrance of the Breuer mansion opened a little.

The light extending into the yard was blocked by a human shadow. It was Else’s shadow.

She carried a rucksack over her shoulder and closed the door behind her.

No one was there to see her off and no one watched her from the house. After making sure the door was closed, she faced forward and began to walk.

“…”

After a few steps, she came to a sudden stop.

She had noticed someone standing in the darkness.

It was a man wearing a plain-colored coat.

His blond hair had blended into the darkness, but it began to shine dully once the moon came out.

The young man was revealed below the moonlight. He was a soldier. Specifically, he was the man who had left the mansion when Else had arrived.

His breath appeared white as he spoke.

“Did you fly down to Berlin in the dp-XXX?”

[[Image:City_v01_187.png|thumb]]

“Yes, I did.”

As she answered, she pulled a submachine gun from her rucksack and aimed it at the soldier. She had already released the safety.

“I used it to escape. So what are you going to do? Arrest me?”

The young man gently raised his hands.

“I only waited here because I wanted to talk.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Isn’t the fact that I waited alone without calling for reinforcements enough proof?”

“Would you believe me if I said this submachine gun can’t fire? This is the same.”

“Then I will believe what you say.”

Mayer stepped forward with his hands still raised. He slowly took step after step toward Else.

She watched him with her finger still on the trigger.

“Stop there.”

By the time she said that, he was only two or three steps away from her.

“You have guts.”

She sounded surprised and she did not lower the gun. He approached no further and nodded.

“Can the dp-XXX fly again?”

“Eh?”

“My upperclassman and teacher built that ship, so I want to know if it will fly again.”

Else met Mayer’s gaze when she heard that. She saw a powerful light in the young officer’s eyes. He was truly worried about the dp-XXX.

“I see. You must be Mayer, Walter’s underclassman that piloted that black fighter.”

She smiled bitterly and nodded.

“The Kaiserburg will be fully repaired within three days. I can even guarantee it with the skill of the Breuer Company.”

Mayer breathed a sigh of relief. Noticing his hands starting to lower, Else re-aimed the submachine gun and he raised his hands again.

“Why are you trying to fly the dp-XXX again? Wouldn’t you be satisfied with a normal life?”

His tone had a hint of testing her and she suddenly smiled in the darkness.

“Satisfied with a normal life?” She took a breath. “I suppose it would be nice to live a normal life without all this. I could take it easy in university, get married, have two or three kids, and play with those kids by the lake here. …That ''would'' be a happy life.”

“Then…”

Before he could ask why, Else shook her head.

“But I don’t want that! If I chose that life, I could never look up into the sky again. Would you be fine with that?”

What did she see in those words?

“I see.”

Mayer sighed, closed his eyes, and nodded.

“You really do want to go to space, don’t you?”

“You don’t?”

It took a moment for him to answer.

“I…do not want to go to space.”

“Why not?”

“Because that is what my upperclassman and you want, not what I want.”

“Then why did you ask if the Kaiserburg would fly again?”

Her question seemed to bite back at him and he answered in tone that said not even he could believe what he was saying.

“Because I want to fight all of you.”

That was a quiet declaration of war.

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