86 - Volume 12 - Chapter Ep

EPILOGUE

WELCOME TO MARY JANE’S NIGHTMARE, BELOVED DEER HUNTER

Based on the information gleamed from listening in on the Federacy’s surviving forces, intelligence indicated that the Strike Package was once again stationed in the western front. But instead, they appeared far away in the second northern front, which alerted No Face to the fact that they’d been fed false information. He didn’t know when the Federacy had seized the Republic targets they’d been listening in on and replaced them. He had to praise the enemy’s graceful handling of the situation.

However.

…That will only cause a new disturbance for the Federacy, No Face thought coldly.

The communications network hadn’t simply been crushed; it’d been taken over by the Federacy. And in that case, the Federacy recognized the Republic’s betrayal. And that, on its own, would prove a source of trouble. Since the Legion lacked life and emotions, they never tired, felt hatred, or experienced fear. Not of battle, death, or anything.

But that didn’t hold true for humans and their uncontrollable emotions.

Citri’s boots and body were so dirty because apparently, she’d mostly walked all the way to the capital from her house in the territories. Despite having gotten a sizable allowance from her stepfather and there being long-distance buses and trains to the capital, she’d gone on foot, except for when she snuck onto a freight train to leave her town.

She couldn’t use public transportation. In fact, she actively avoided coming anywhere near it whenever possible. She tried to stay away from any place where people gathered.

Yuuto asked her why.

He’d turned his back on his duty as a soldier by not reporting her to the Federacy military. But there was no way he could report this. He knew informing the military about her was the right thing to do, but if he did, this girl would be captured by the Federacy military and likely never see the light of day again.

She didn’t have much time, and so she steeled her resolve and turned to her Eighty-Six brethren. Even if they had never fought together, she knew they would be hard-pressed not to sympathize with her, and if forced to choose between her and the Federacy, they would betray the military in favor of her, even if they didn’t feel comfortable doing so.

And they would escort her on her and her comrades’ journey.

“Are you sure, Yuuto? Us Actaeon, we—”

“Yeah. You’re trying to avoid people as much as possible. But that means you’ll need someone to procure food for you until you leave the Federacy. And then you need someone to guide you through the Legion territories.”

He only told Amari the details. She wanted to come along, but he was able to talk her out of it. They needed someone to report to the Federacy military. This was the minimal bit of respect and gratitude they owed the Federacy army after everything, so he had her report them around the time they left Sankt Jeder.

He snuck out of the hospital wing under the guise of going out on a walk, bought a thick coat and shoes suited for long treks, as well as the minimum necessities they’d need, and made his way to where Citri and her comrades were hiding. His military coat was warm, but too conspicuous. He couldn’t use the credit card he’d been provided upon enlisting after this shopping trip, since it was traceable. But he did have plenty of cash on hand, in addition to what Amari had given him.

He was used to camping out during winter and long treks on foot from his time in the Eighty-Sixth Sector. As Citri walked alongside him, she huddled her shoulders, trying to make herself seem as small and inconspicuous as possible.

“I’m sorry. For getting you involved,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it… I’ve heard people make the same wish many times before, but I never had a chance to grant it.”

He heard it many times back when he was trapped in the Eighty-Sixth Sector with countless others. In that hellish battlefield, where everyone was fated to die after five years but ended up dead before those five years had even elapsed.

What so many wished for on death’s door. The modest wish so many made, which always went ungranted.

Yuuto thought back to that wish. The wish Citri and the other fawns—Actaeon—made.

I want you to show us how to get home. To the Republic—to the town we were born in.

And he thought back to the other thing Citri said—the name she’d asked him about.

Also, I’m not sure if you’d know him, but…among the survivors from the Republic…

…have you heard of a man called Dustin Jaeger?