86 - Volume 3 - Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 

RUN THROUGH THE BATTLEFRONT 

“—Let’s begin by explaining our current status.” 

The first voice that connected to the Resonance after seven hours of silence was one of a young man Shin had never heard before. 

“The recapturing of the Highway Corridor by the three countries’ armies is at present nearly complete. It’ll take some time for us to have it under our complete control, and the United Kingdom’s army’s advance is a bit behind schedule, but, well, it’s all within permissible range.” 

Sitting within Undertaker’s cockpit as it lay in hiding, avoiding the gaze of the Ameise, Shin didn’t so much as acknowledge he was listening. The patrol unit wasn’t so close by that it could pick up the sound of him talking in the cockpit, but they weren’t far enough away to allow for any distractions, either. 

Perhaps taking the situation into consideration, the person on the other side of the Resonance—apparently, the western front’s chief of staff—didn’t fault Shin or cite it as an act of disrespect. This was, after all, a company officer ignoring the words of a commanding officer. 

“This operation’s secondary objective is therefore accomplished… However, our primary objective of eliminating the Morpho is, sadly, not yet complete. Oh, the fact that we didn’t consider the existence of a second unit was a blunder on the general staff headquarters’ side. You guys on the field aren’t seen as responsible for it.” 

An apathetic silence was exchanged between his comrades, who weren’t participating in the conversation but were connected to the Resonance. No one cared about that anyway. 

“If we fail in eliminating the Morpho, this entire operation will have been for nothing. As such, all forces will continue their offensive. We will limit our sphere of suppression to the areas surrounding the old high-speed-railway tracks and gradually narrow down the range as we march in pursuit of the Morpho.” 

Shin intersected the web of the old high-speed-railway tracks over his map of the area, confirming the route the main force would take as the chief of staff was describing it. They were to advance 150 kilometers south along the old Empire’s border and would then turn east at the fork in the road. 

“You are presently seventy kilometers west of the western army’s main force. The cruise speed of a small unit like you and the corps-size main force is entirely different. That distance will probably only grow from here on out, so I want to confirm this one more time. Are you sure you want to continue pursuing the Morpho?” 

“…This mission never had any support or reinforcements to begin with. Nothing’s changed.” 

“But one thing will change, and that’s the amount of time it’ll take you to regroup with the main force. I’ll be frank. We can’t guarantee the main force will reach your destination or that you’ll survive until it gets there.” 

Shin sighed lightly. What was the point of saying it this late in the game? That had been perfectly clear to them since the beginning. 

“But we don’t have any other way of doing this, do we?” 

The chief of staff seemed to smile bitterly. 

“Saying that leaves us in a bind, you see… Someone has to do it, and even though you said you were up for it, it wouldn’t be fair to not give you the option to back down once the situation’s changed. What I’m trying to say is you can fall back if you’ve changed your minds.” 

“That must be a joke. If we waste time falling back, the Morpho will just retreat that much deeper into the Legion’s territories. It would just make eliminating it that much harder.” 

Shin felt the presence of the chief of staff’s smile deepen. 

“…If you fall back and retreat, the difficulty of the mission wouldn’t matter to you anymore, would it?” 

“Given we’d eventually get killed anyway if the Morpho isn’t dealt with, it’s all the same to us. What’s the point of running away today if we’ll just end up dying tomorrow?” 

“Is that so…? Well, that’s all we had to report. Any questions?” 

“No, sir.” 

Having taken over the surface allowed the Federacy to deploy antiair guns and burn down the Eintagsfliege, which meant aircrafts could be flown to the vicinity of the front lines. 

“Good lord, those kids are dark. Or maybe inflexible would be the right way to put it. I feel bad for them, but at this rate, they’ll die in battle sooner or later.” 

The chief of staff scoffed shortly, handing his RAID Device to a nearby aide. Believing that seeing the situation with his own eyes would be more reliable than relying on reports, he’d come to the front lines, which were currently bustling with preparations and reorganizations for their resumed progress. 

Somehow, they’d finally arrived here, a small hill with a perfect, unobstructed view of old Kreutzbeck City. The place was still full of survivors who chose to remain on the front lines, newly arrived reinforcements, and also the injured and deceased who would be sent back to the rear. The sound of soldiers in charge of supply and reorganization intermingled with the roaring engines of trucks loaded with body bags. Near a smoking, crashed Vánagandr, combat trucks filled to the brim with armored infantry and stretchers loaded with the injured passed one another by. 

He squinted his eyes at the empty lot, which was all that remained of Kreutzbeck’s urban area in the wake of the Morpho’s rampage, pretending not to notice how the armored infantry soldiers stiffened with fatigue when they realized there was a high-ranking officer in their midst. 

Looking over the battered ruins of a Reginleif, he found Grethe, who sat in its cockpit grimacing, nearly unharmed in contrast to her machine. 

Yes, nearly unharmed. They were prepared to accept that she’d died once they lost the Nachzehrer’s signal, but to their surprise, she was fine. The chief of staff considered keeping that fact hidden from the major general, who, despite appearances, was beside himself with concern for her. 

“Exactly who is going to die sooner or later exactly, Willem…? I’m sure the mixed-blood, Republic-born first lieutenant is quite an eyesore for a former noble, a pureblood Onyx like you, but come now.” 

“I’m not that narrow-minded, Grethe. Those of mixed blood have their own grace and appeal. A once-in-a-generation, grotesque beauty.” 

The chief of staff’s lips curled up in a smile. 

“…He wasn’t worried for you. Seems to me you didn’t do a very good job of taming him.” 

“Of course he wasn’t. If I had to have a boy that’s a decade younger worry for me, then never mind the Legion. The shame would kill me.” 

And besides, that was something the Reginleif’s murderous mobility—the fact that they were true to Grethe’s vision and requirements—granted them. 

“I see your skills haven’t diminished one bit, Spider Woman… The Legion-slaying Black Widow, was it?” 

A crease formed over the bridge of Grethe’s nose. 

“Cut that out, Killer Mantis. You know how I got that nickname, after all.” 

The chief of staff let out a lighthearted chuckle. 

“Of course I do. I was the one who made it up, by the way. Brides who have to put on mourning dresses before they even have the chance to wear their wedding dress are rare.” 

“You piece of shit.” 

He extended a hand to Grethe as she swore at him, and he helped her down from the Reginleif. Ten of her subordinates—the beastmen of the Vargus—were climbing up the hill. Exchanging a glance with the young sergeant looking up at them, Grethe shrugged. 

“I did it out of respect for the idiot who died, leaving behind the woman who turned me down a month before she became his bride. Especially when the major general and I were getting ready to pick on both of you by covering the church with roses, you know?” 

“…” 

Out of anger for said idiot, they instead stuffed his coffin—which didn’t even contain his remains, for there was nothing left to collect—full of the damn petals. 

“…I feel nothing for that monster. But I hate the idea of seeing you cry again because of him. So in that regard, I don’t particularly want him to die in battle.” 

They hid their Juggernauts in the tall underbrush of a deserted evergreen oak forest, where they apparently avoided the Ameise’s detection. The faint footsteps of the patrol unit and their moans of suffering gradually faded, and Shin released his stilled breath. Seeing that, Raiden, docking inside Wehrwolf a short distance away, asked him: 

“They gone?” 

“Yeah. But let’s wait a while longer just to be on the safe side… Let’s take a break while we’re on standby.” 

His words made the suspense on the other side of the Resonance loosen a bit. He could feel some of them stretching. The Reginleif’s cockpit may have been preferable to that of the claustrophobic Republic Juggernaut, but it still had comfort and survivability as its lowest priority. In order to minimize the projected area in the machine’s front, a Feldreß’s cockpit was cramped, not taking the stress of its pilots into account. 

Climbing out of the cockpit, they found that the sun, which hadn’t even risen when the operation began, was now almost at its zenith, with sunlight filtering through oak leaves, softly illuminating the shade of the trees. Rays of sunlight intersected, painting an uneven circle over where the five Juggernauts were—accompanied by Fido, which followed after them. 

Now, then. 

All their gazes gathered on Fido… Or rather, on the container it was towing. Before they’d deployed, they’d been so caught up with briefing and checking their rigs that they hadn’t had the chance to check it. And sure enough, they hadn’t seen her that morning. Feeling everyone’s glare on it, Fido beeped a feeble “Pi” and stirred with guilt. The container lacked windows, and yet someone inside felt their gazes and reacted in a panic. 

“M-meow… Meow…” 

“““Are you a moron?!””” 

Everyone but Shin simultaneously quipped back (though Anju had said “Are you an idiot?!” instead), albeit in hushed tones, as they were still in enemy territory. Ignoring the clichéd, over-the-top reactions, Shin spoke. 

“Fido.” 

“Pi.” 

Swiveling its optical sensor aside in a needless display of shame, Fido kicked its front legs against the ground. 

“Open the container. That’s an order.” 

“…Pi.” 

“You mustn’t, Fido, do not open… Ah—” 

At the back of the opened container, sitting in a squat between a fixed magazine of 88 mm shells and an energy pack, was Frederica. Before she could even say anything, Theo reached into the container and grabbed her by the back of her collar and pulled her out as if she were an unruly cat. 

“What are you doing here…?!” 

“Aaah…?!” 

Frederica flinched at the sound of his voice. 

They may have suppressed their voices, but it was a shout of honest rage. 

“Don’t you know we might not be able to come back?! Why did you follow us here?! If anything happens, you’ll just end up dying with us!” 

For a moment, Frederica’s crimson eyes flashed to life. 

“It is that very attitude that unnerves me, you bumbling fools!” 

Taken by surprise, Theo fell silent. Realizing the danger raising her voice could bring, Frederica covered her mouth with both hands. She looked up nervously, and Shin shook his head. The Ameise had gotten some distance away from them, and with the dense foliage mostly dispersing her voice, it seemed they hadn’t heard her. They may have been pretending, but there weren’t movements in their main force, either. 

“Good grief, what do you mean by ‘might not be able to come back’? Do away with that kind of resolve, I say. How long do you intend to hold on to that willingness to die at any time? How long do you intend to remain trapped in the Eighty-Sixth Sector? Ernst ordered you to return at all costs, did he not…? That is the fate you’ve been entrusted with.” 

And so, raising her slender, delicate shoulders, she continued. 

“I am a hostage, meant to ensure that you do not run away. Not from the battlefield, but from your mission to return alive… You do not wish for frail, innocent little me to be involved, correct?” 

With her face still somewhat pale, her lips alone curled into a smile. Returning her glance, Shin sighed. 

“Raiden, if I told you to take her back…” 

“Don’t ask me for the fuckin’ moon, man. The only one who could possibly pull that off is you.” 

It was like Raiden said. They were seventy kilometers away from the main force and heading east; avoiding the Legion was impossible unless one could tell exactly where they were. 

“But we ain’t got a choice. Fine, she can stay in my rig… ’Sides, no one but me can carry her.” 

The Juggernaut’s movements were already fast to the point of damaging the human body, and Frederica wouldn’t be able to withstand riding with vanguards like Shin and Theo and their crazy stunts. A sniper like Kurena couldn’t afford to have her concentration interrupted, and that held true for Anju as well, who specialized in one-against-many combat. Having her ride with Fido, which wasn’t armored, wasn’t acceptable, so by process of elimination, only Raiden was left to carry her. 

“Forgive me.” 

“Don’t pull this crap on us again… Even without you doing this, we weren’t marching to our deaths.” 

“…I understand.” 

Sensing her red eyes turn to him, Shin looked down at her lowered head and said: 

“Frederica.” 

She raised her head, and he tossed something haphazardly in her direction. Catching it in surprise, Frederica then widened her eyes when she saw what she was holding. 

An automatic pistol. 

It was the old type used in the Republic, larger than the Federacy’s standard model. 

“You know how to use it, right? If we get wiped out, or you can’t link up with the main force, use it to end yourself. The Legion don’t toy with their prey, but they don’t finish off those who failed, either.” 

He’d seen comrades who were beyond salvation but couldn’t die begging to be finished off more times than he cared to count. And it was this very pistol that put an end to their lives. He had no attachment to his old rig or his Republic uniform, but this pistol was the one thing he refused to part with. 

“Are you certain…? This is the pistol you used to deliver the final blow to Eugene and your other comrades.” 

“…Didn’t I tell you to close your eyes?” 

“Fool. It was your memories that I saw. It’s because you intend to carry everyone with you that…” 

Stopping herself from uttering the very end of that sentence, Frederica embraced the pistol. 

“I will gladly hang on to it, then… But my small hands cannot handle such a heavy device. I shall force it back into your hands once we return to base… So we must return together.” 

It was getting late, and they were unable to move with the patrol unit still skulking about in the vicinity, so they decided to use this time to have an early lunch. They began setting up a small camp, with the exception of Frederica, who didn’t have the first clue about what to do when it came to camping. They couldn’t afford to start a campfire, so they made do with combat rations, which came as part of the Federacy’s standard gear. The rations were filled with packaged, sterilized food and, out of consideration for situations where fire wasn’t an option, came in laminated, water-based self-heating packets. 

As they took the laminated packs, which were emblazoned with the Federacy’s symbol of the two-headed eagle and an explanation of how to use them, out of Fido’s container and spread them out on the gray, urban camouflaged ground, Shin scoffed. 

“I guess they didn’t write what’s in each pack because they wanted to make the meals even slightly more interesting, but at times like this, it’s a little annoying.” 

“True.” 

Raiden, standing nearby, nodded in agreement, but Frederica didn’t understand what they meant. Combat rations came in twenty-two varieties, and there was no way of knowing what you got until you opened it up. It made opening them up feel kind of like unwrapping a present, which was probably the intent here. But when she was handed a ration heated up with the flameless ration heater, she finally realized what they meant. 

“It’s pretty hot, so be careful you don’t get burned.” 

“Hmm.” 

It seemed the Eintagsfliege and the Rabe weren’t deployed above them. There was no telling how long their trip would take this time, so Fido found a spot with some good sunshine and spread out its solar panels as the group opened their packs. 

The laminated packs were to be carried in crates and airdropped, so they were particularly sturdy, but everything besides the external packaging could be opened by hand. After opening her package, Frederica held her breath. The scent of burnt meat leaked out of a hole in the package. 

She’d spent half the day in Fido’s container. It wasn’t pressurized, since it sat in the Nachzehrer, which specialized in low-altitude flight, and didn’t have nuclear or biochemical precautions in place, since a container was never meant to ferry people. As such, for the time she was in there, the scents of the battlefield infiltrated it freely—including the smell of smoke and melted steel, of the heat of bombshells and…the scent of burnt human flesh, which the smell emanating from the pack made her recall in vivid detail. 

Shin, who’d assumed this might happen, noticed Frederica cover her mouth with her hands and posed a question to the other four. 

“Does anyone have a pack that doesn’t contain meat?” 

“Oh, I got trout. Let’s trade, Frederica.” 

Kurena snatched the pack from the girl’s hands, depositing her own ration in Frederica’s arms instead. The characteristic smell of animal meat faded away, and Frederica exhaled in relief. Theo then said, dipping the included spoon into the country-style stew in his pack: 

“It kinda goes without saying, but these things weren’t made assuming a kid would eat them. The portions are pretty big, so eat up as much as you want.” 

“Aye. But…” 

The memory of the smell of charred meat still remained in her nostrils. Stabbing her plastic fork into the brittle, pale fish meat that had the certain blandness that packaged foods often had, Frederica finally said: 

“I’m surprised you can still eat meat…” 

She seemed to instantly regret those words, which almost felt like she was criticizing their ability to remain unchanged in the face of the many deaths they’d encountered. Shin and the others didn’t seem to mind, though. 

“Eh. We’re used to it.” 

“Having to eat after carrying the wounded away wasn’t unusual, after all. We don’t really mind, and our stomachs growl all the same.” 

“At first, you don’t even want to see meat, but you forget about that after a while.” 

As they spoke, the five chewed away at their rations with surprising speed, truly not associating the horrors of the battlefield with cooked meat. This was enemy territory, and they didn’t have much time to idle around. Steeling her resolve, Frederica concentrated on eating her trout and cream stew. She chewed, then swallowed. Kurena snickered as she watched Frederica’s expression stiffen in silent disgust. 

“Is it too harsh on your refined palate, princess?” 

“………Yes.” 

There was some effort put into making the rations palatable out of the understanding that the food’s taste could affect morale, but in the end, caloric value and shelf life were prioritized above all else, meaning flavor was often sacrificed. The Federacy’s combat meals were usually provided by bases’ kitchens or kitchen cars sent out to the battlefield, and these rations were only spares usually placed in storage. 

They were still tasty enough for the majority of rank-and-file soldiers and noncommissioned and junior officers, but for the last empress and the adopted daughter of the temporary president, it was the furthest cry from the rich cuisine she had grown accustomed to. Sadly, it was only natural, given it was meant for exhausted soldiers on the battlefield, but the seasoning was too thick, and it was so soft that it didn’t have a texture to speak of. The unpleasant scent of heated preservatives clung to her nostrils. 

“I apologize for having to say this again, but…I’m surprised you can eat this…” 

Thankfully, they didn’t take it the wrong way and chuckled in response. 

“Apparently, it’s still a step up from the rations they used to serve. Bernholdt says the old rations felt like they were eating starch.” 

“It’s pretty funny how people always compare bad food to something you’d never eat in a million years.” 

Like soap, or a sponge, or clay, or a rag used to wipe away spilled milk… 

“But starch, you say…” 

The Far East apparently had some folk story or myth about how eating the starch of small birds would get one punished by having one’s tongue cut off, but that was probably starch made by crushing rice. The starch Bernholdt was talking about was more likely the kind used to make synthetic glue… Not that Frederica had any interest in eating the kind of corn starch that Far Eastern story told about. 

“Even that’s probably a hundred times better than the trash they gave us in the Eighty-Sixth Sector. You could search the world over, and you’d never find anything nastier.” 

“What did it taste like?” 

At her question, the Eighty-Six all exchanged looks and answered in one voice, including Shin, who’d held his tongue for the majority of the conversation. That made Frederica realize that, yes, it was probably that bad… If even he, who placed no importance on the flavor of his meals, made an incomprehensibly disgusted expression. 

“““Plastic explosives.””” 

“…” 

Apparently, it wasn’t even remotely close to being food. 

“It stopped?” 

Shin narrowed his eyes in suspicion and whispered it just as they were about to set out. Apparently, the Morpho had stopped moving after advancing far to the east and hadn’t budged since. 

“Maintenance… They might be changing its gun barrel.” 

“Probably.” 

Whatever the case, they knew where they had to go now. Their current position was the northwest corner of the old Empire’s borders. Taking the shortest route to the Morpho’s location in the southwestern sector required them to cut diagonally through the Legion’s territories. 

Five Juggernauts and one Scavenger rushed onward through the old forest. This afforded them plenty of natural cover, as the Löwe and Dinosauria could not traverse it due to its many intertwining roots and the undergrowth. As decided at noon, Frederica rode inside Wehrwolf. The Juggernaut’s cockpit had a collapsible auxiliary seat to transport and fix wounded soldiers onto, but it was made for emergencies and wasn’t meant to be in use for prolonged periods of time; in other words, it was extremely hard and small. 

As such, Frederica got up from it soon enough and was currently sitting obediently on Raiden’s lap. According to Shin’s estimate, there shouldn’t be any fighting in the immediate future, and with Raiden’s height, she wasn’t getting in his way, so he let her do as she wished… Though, if the others were to see this, they likely wouldn’t stop teasing him about it for the rest of his life. Thank God real life wasn’t anything like the giant-robot cartoons he’d watched as a kid, and there were no holo-windows that let them see each other’s cockpits in real time, he thought with a sigh. 

“Once the fighting starts, go back to the auxiliary seat. And don’t say a word. You’ll bite your tongue.” 

“I know. Do not treat me like an infant.” 

But as she said that, she kept getting distracted by the outside view of the optical screens, getting excited just as a child would. She may have tried to hide it, but her eyes were glittering with curiosity and excitement. 

“Oh, those were deer! Raiden, there are deer over there!” 

“Yep…” 

Glancing to the side, he spotted two deer in the distance, their black eyes locked onto the unusual intruders in their midst. One had no horns—presumably a mother doe—and the other was a slender, delicate fawn. Realizing that his feelings about how tasty they looked probably wouldn’t go over well, Raiden kept those thoughts to himself. 

Raiden had seen so many dark forests in the Eighty-Sixth Sector that were virtually free of human influence that he had already grown tired of them. But for Frederica, it was a different story entirely. All she knew was the Empire’s final fortress, the city of Sankt Jeder, and the advance bases and their surroundings… So for her, these sights were all new. 

And that in and of itself wasn’t a feeling Raiden was unfamiliar with. It was nearly a year ago, sometime last fall, when they were first sent on their Special Reconnaissance mission. They saw so many new sights back then… Seeing something you’ve never known of before with your own two eyes is truly something special. 

That held true even for Raiden, who’d been kept in the eighty-five Sectors for five years and had the unusual chance to watch television. He could only imagine what it was like for his comrades who’d been thrown to the Eighty-Sixth Sector ten years ago and knew only the battlefield and concentration camps. 

When was it again? They’d stopped at some old, abandoned city somewhere. There hadn’t been a single cloud out that day, and the sunset had filled the sky. The ruins had shone in the light of dusk, which washed over the townscape made entirely out of white stone and reflected on the rows of maidenhair trees with their fallen, autumn-colored leaves, resulting in a golden glow. 

Kurena had frolicked through the ruins happily, tripping over the fallen leaves and tumbling down spectacularly. Shin had broken out laughing when he saw her, and her eyes had instantly gone red. 

Right… Back then. He laughed. So when had it become like this…? 

He then noticed Frederica was looking up at him with her big red eyes. 

“Raiden… You truly are Shinei’s best friend.” 

“Like hell I am. We just can’t get rid of each other.” 

Her overly direct assertion was a statement he would never admit, which made him deny it almost reflexively, but Frederica’s earnest eyes didn’t waver. 

“…You mean since the battle earlier.” 

“No, I mean since the large-scale offensive.” 

Raiden scoffed. That wasn’t the first time she’d mentioned this. 

“None of us had any idea what was going on back then during the large-scale offensive, to be honest… There were so many enemies back then, I thought he’d just lost track of what was around him.” 

The enemies would come time and again no matter how many they shot down. The screeches and lamentations of the ghosts were endless. 

“It was that kind of messed-up situation… Why’d you even Resonate back then?” 

They strictly forbade her from Resonating with them before they went on the offensive because they couldn’t allow for any distraction when things were that bad. And they didn’t want her to hear anyone die, not to mention that the sheer magnitude of the ghosts’ shrieks made even Shin go pale. And he wouldn’t want to see young Frederica’s heart break. 

“The Republic… The Gran Mur collapsed. So I wanted to inform you…” 

“…” 

The moron knew and kept it bottled up, didn’t he? Raiden thought bitterly. Shin could discern the movements of the Legion, even from far away, so there was no way he wouldn’t know if the Republic was destroyed. And while Shin didn’t care for the indulgent white pigs slacking off in the Republic… 

We’re off, Major. 

He did care about their final Handler to an unusual extent. 

Frederica curled up her body, hugging her shoulders with her slim hands as if a chill had run through her. 

“But he would not answer me. At that time, Shinei was… He was the same as Kiriya at the end of his days.” 

That was a worse answer than Raiden had anticipated. 

“…That bad, huh?” 

“He was incapable of seeing anything. Nothing but the enemy before his eyes. It was the same as when you were fighting earlier… No, it has become more severe since the large-scale offensive…” 

“Yeah, it was the first time he lost sight of the fact that we were even there.” 

No—there was one other time that had happened. It was back in the Eighty-Sixth Sector, during their final battle in the first ward, when they faced off against the lost head Shin had been seeking for five years: the ghost of his brother. He’d said he would do it on his own, and he’d forgotten they were there… 

…So that’s what this is. 

“Frederica, if…if you were told to go back and leave this moron behind, would you stay here anyway?” 

Her crimson gaze didn’t waver in the slightest as she nodded. 

“Looks like they’ve decided to set out again.” 

The interior of the armored control vehicle, which seemed too boorish to be used by royalty, was dark, with the silhouette of the figure sinking their back to the command seat’s backrest and the girl kneeling at his side barely being visible from outside. The crown prince spoke, standing at the vehicle’s door, dressed in the United Kingdom military’s long-collared uniform. 

“The Federacy Esper leading the pursuit after the Morpho reports that the dragon seems to have stopped at the southern territories, atop Eaglebloom. The Federacy military and the Alliance’s army have begun advancing, gradually gaining control of the route. Our military’s working with another detachment of the Republic’s forces to suppress the northern side of Eaglebloom.” 

As the figure inside the vehicle rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, the girl sitting inside kept her gaze locked onto him, her green, catlike eyes sparkling in the darkness. 

“I’m going to need you to do one more job… Do you have enough spares to compensate for what you lost?” 

“I’ve ordered the rear to send whatever they can our way ahead of time, brother Zephyr. It’ll take a corps-size force until evening to prepare to march again, so we should be finished with our preparations by then.” 

The crown prince smiled elegantly at such a wise response and nodded. 

“It seems the plan is to use our army as a diversion to support the march, but even still, if the Federacy’s main force goes south, the Legion are bound to notice… Do we have a countermeasure for that?” 

“It seems the Alliance military is planning on bringing out an anti-radar weapon they’re developing. It forms clouds of metal-foil particles that blind the Rabe and the Ameise and disrupt the Legion’s communications. It only works for a short period of time, and its range can only cover the southern territories at most, but if they use it all, it should buy our military the time it needs to make its judgment.” 

“Once again, that’s rather desperate of the Alliance. That weapon of theirs will only be effective against the Legion once, given how quickly those mechanical monsters are able to adapt.” 

“It’s the natural decision to make, seeing as if we lose here, there won’t be a next time.” 

“By your will, brother Zephyr… Nevertheless—” 

Finally correcting his dishonorable act of not looking at his brother and of covering his eyes—who was his superior both in heritance of the throne and in military rank—the figure turned his gaze toward the crown prince. 

“They sent out child soldiers on a suicide mission aboard a prototype aircraft that can’t fly on its own… They condemn the Republic’s manned drone but don’t seem to care for appearances, either.” 

“Your little songbirds are just as abominable as that… Things are only going to get tougher from here on out. Think of a countermeasure for that, too.” 

“By your will.” 

A group of planes soared through the red southern sky, leaving white trails in their wake. These were remote-controlled, small UAVs. Moving faster than the Stachelschwein could respond, they self-destructed in midair, scattering a mass of tiny metal-foil particles that reflected that day’s final rays of sunlight, overlapping and forming obstructive black clouds. 

A second wave of UAVs rushed in and self-destructed as well, followed by a third and later a fourth that was exposed to antiair fire. Clouds of metal-foil particles spread out, temporarily shutting down the Legion’s communication network. 

This obstruction didn’t affect the Scout types that lay outside its sphere of influence, however. While this attack pattern didn’t exist in their data banks, they could estimate its origins, and the mechanical ants ravenously gathered data regarding the cloud and the aircrafts that scattered it, reporting it to the wide area network. Their sensitive sensors couldn’t see past the cloud, and all communications with friendly units under its influence were cut off. 

In conclusion—this was an anti-radar weapon that cut off and scrambled all light and electromagnetic waves. Blinding the eyes of the enemy was basic procedure taken before marching on their territory. But however obvious these actions were, the Legion strengthened their defenses both around the metal clouds and in other sectors equally. 

A while later, the United Kingdom’s and the Federacy’s armies began their march in another sector to the north. It was a diversion, after all. The commanders of both sectors sent requests for reinforcements. 

“They’re moving. Looks like the diversion to the north worked; they took the bait.” 

“Two diversions, huh? The guys at the north and south must be getting desperate.” 

Their camp was the remains of a small village in the forest they traveled through over the course of the day. The rose window of the cathedral standing opposite their position cast an intricate shadow over the plaza where they hid their Juggernauts. Raiden shook his head. 

“I guess the main force’ll be moving now, too… They’ll be getting pretty far from us now.” 

“They’re planning to advance by marching all night long, so I think that’ll close some of the distance between us.” 

“Yeah, figures.” 

Unlike the main force, which could take advantage of its size and allow its soldiers to rest in shifts, a small unit like theirs had to stop to rest or else they wouldn’t last. Their Juggernauts needed servicing after a daylong march. They could last a few days without sleep, but their efficiency in everything they did—combat included—would plummet. 

Thankfully, the Morpho seemed to have remained still. That loaned credence to the maintenance theory. It had an 800 mm barrel, so just loading its several tons probably took a colossal amount of effort. Its armor was capable of deflecting even 88 mm shells, so each of its armor modules was exceptionally heavy, and perhaps going into combat immediately after transferring its central-processor structure diagram impacted its need for repairs, too. 

The past residents of this village had abandoned it after it had been attacked by the Legion, or perhaps even much sooner than that, and so its buildings hadn’t been damaged by fighting. There might have still been functional hearths or stoves, so the three girls, Frederica included, went through the houses to check their kitchens. Theo visited the residential houses on the hunt for any good rooms they could rest in, and right now, only Raiden and Shin were near the cathedral. 

“…Shin.” 

Shin directed an indifferent glance at Raiden, and before he could reply with an apathetic what? Raiden cut in with a remark of his own. 

“Take Frederica and go back.” 

There was a prolonged pause before Shin replied. 

“Why?” 

“What’re you asking me why for? I told you at noon, you’re the most suited to do it. You’re the only one who can make it back safely with the Legion skulking around.” 

“But we’re in pursuit.” 

“It stopped moving, and even if it does start moving again, it can only move along the rails, so you can just let us know through the Para-RAID. And thankfully, unlike last time, the others are pulling a huge distraction and drawing the enemy’s sights their way.” 

Shin suddenly scoffed. A smile as sharp as a knife had found its way to his lips. 

Yeah, there was that expression again. 

That smile that was like a blade. Like madness. Like a warring demon about to walk to his death. 

The same smile he’d worn before challenging his brother. 

“You think the Legion will actually have their hands full with the main force’s diversion? If it comes to a direct confrontation, the Federacy doesn’t stand a chance. Crossing through the territories should’ve been evidence enough of that.” 

“It’s still better than towing you along with us… I knew you were fucked in the head from the get-go, but recently, it’s gotten even worse, and that last fight we had settles it.” 

Fighting like he was walking the razor’s edge between life and death, with a savagery that bordered on foolhardiness, was par for the course for Shin. But he had also always maintained a grasp on where the rest of his squad was and had the kind of coolheadedness that let him observe the war situation from a bird’s-eye view. So even if Raiden doubted the guy’s sanity, he was never worried for him, per se. 

But recently, that balance had been steadily falling apart. Shin’s constant dance on the razor’s edge was as reckless as ever, but the only thing his eyes could see was the enemy standing in his way—the fierce, arduous unfolding battle against these slaughter machines called the Legion, who were far more specialized and optimized for murder and war than any man. 

As if he’d been craving what awaited at the end of that battle. 

“You almost got dragged along there… What’s gotten into you?” 

Was it by the ghost of Frederica’s knight, the man he’d never met? Or was it by the madness of war itself? 

“…Nothing in particular.” 

Raiden clicked his tongue. He didn’t want to believe it, but… 

“You really think I’ll believe that, you moron?” 

Or maybe Shin really didn’t notice what had been wavering unsteadily beneath that stone face of his: the conflicted feelings that had been tormenting him for some time now. 

“…What’s not to believe?” 

“Unfortunately for me, I’ve known you for a long time. That means I’m able to notice certain things about you, even when you don’t notice them yourself.” 

You can’t see the expression on your own face. And you don’t have the slightest clue what you look like right now. 

“You’re wavering like a house on stilts… It’s like you’ve regressed back to how you were years ago.” 

When Raiden first met Shin, he seemed distressingly twisted. It was like staring at a powder keg. Shin may not have had much in the way of social skills these days, but it was still a great improvement from how reclusive he used to be. He’d talk to people only during briefings, when there was something to inform, and when it came time to finish off those who fell on the battlefield. 

He hardly spoke to his fellow Eighty-Six squad mates or the maintenance crew. Just like his title implied, he was a reaper who faced someone only when death came to claim them… And in all likelihood, even if he thought of them as his comrades, he never opened his heart to anyone. 

Thinking back on it, it was only natural. He was nearly killed by his brother, and then that brother died without ever forgiving him. He was constantly assigned to sectors where fighting was at its fiercest, and his squad mates always died, leaving Shin behind. 

You… 

You don’t die, even when you’re with me, do you? 

Six months later, after their squad was abolished, they were on a transport plane taking them to their new assignment when he said those words. His voice was a bit higher then—the voice of a child, as it hadn’t changed yet. At the time, Raiden shrugged him off with a “The fuck are you saying?” But back then, Shin probably still thought, somewhere in his heart, that his brother’s death and the deaths of their comrades were all his fault somehow. 

But it ain’t your fault, man. 

It was only recently, after Shin had managed to come to terms with things, that Raiden could tell him those words without him raising any counterarguments. It was only over the last couple of years, when they gained Name Bearer comrades who survived multiple years on the battlefield, like Kurena, Theo, and Anju… When they gained comrades who couldn’t be killed so easily. 

Shin’s crimson eyes wavered as if he were enduring something, and he hung his head as if to hide them. He then said, without looking Raiden in the eye: 

“In that case, you guys should take Frederica back. Better that I go alone than have to carry more burdens.” 

“…What did you just say?” 

“If someone has to stay behind, it should be me and me alone. If you intend to go back, you shouldn’t have to go down a path of no return.” 

“Why, you little…!” 

Raiden’s hand lashed out before he even realized what he was doing. He grabbed the collar of Shin’s panzer jacket and took a step forward, pushing him against the pillar behind them, generating a dull, blunt noise. 

“…That right there. That’s what I’m talking about.” 

When they first met, there was a significant height gap between them, and it was no different now, even after they had grown older. He glared down into those red eyes all the same, the words spilling from between his clenched teeth. 

“Stop thinking that sacrificing yourself will make everything better. ‘If someone has to stay behind’? Stop talking like you’re not coming back from this.” 

“…I don’t intend to die.” 

“Yeah, I bet you don’t. But you’re not fully invested in the idea of coming back alive, either, are you?!” 

If you intend to go back, he’d said. Like it was none of his business. Like it would be fine if he died. As if to say that if he alone died, no one would be hurt by it. And it wasn’t something new. It had happened almost a year ago, at the last battle of their Special Reconnaissance mission, when he’d tried to act as a decoy. And even before that, at their final battle in the Eighty-Sixth Sector, when he’d finally faced off against his brother’s ghost. 

The fact that Shin honestly believed it would be fine if everything ended right then and there was painfully obvious. 

“Why did you even take down your brother? Wasn’t it so that you could move on? You didn’t live just so you could kill your brother, did you…? Don’t mix those two things up!” 

“In that case…” 

His voice sounded like it was creaking, but at the same time, its tone was almost akin to a scream. 

“In that case, what was the purpose of it all? What should I…?!” 

Shin cut off the question, blurted out in what bordered on wrath, as if he was frightened. He fell silent, realizing that the moment he asked this question, he would have admitted he didn’t know the answer himself. 

Yeah, that’s right… I finally understand. 

This guy really is…like a blade. He was forged for a single purpose—endlessly sharpened for that one objective. And by the time his objective had been completed, the blade had grown so brittle that it shattered and fell apart. That’s the kind of fragile person he is. 

How did I fail to see it until now? 

“…I don’t want to die. That’s all. And I think that’s enough. I’m sure the others feel the same way.” 

And that was probably the only reason anyone needed to stay alive. But Shin had been assaulted and killed, told that it would be better if he wasn’t around, and he’d fought constantly, until now, to atone for that sin. Having lived like that, Shin probably couldn’t allow himself to live for anything but the sake of living. 

“It’s up to you to decide your own path. But you can rely on us, too, y’know… If you start feeling overwhelmed, we’ve got your back. When it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, you can take your time and rest. So…” 

Like you did during that last battle of the Special Reconnaissance mission, when you chose to act as bait. Just like you did during the final confrontation in the Eighty-Sixth Sector, when we encountered your brother’s ghost. When you acted like we weren’t there… 

“…Don’t try to fight all by yourself.” 

“Y’know, when they leave me out like this, it feels like I’m the one guy in the group who isn’t treated like a man. Well, that sorta thing isn’t my style anyway, so it’s fine, I guess.” 

“Shin and Raiden have known each other for a long time, after all. A lot happened between them before they met us.” 

“I guess.” 

“Truly?” 

“Looks like they had one of those ‘fight their way to friendship’ sort of scenes, like from one of those comics. Ask Raiden about it when he comes back.” 

…Well. 

Hiding behind cover and whispering to one another as they peeked their heads in in height order were Anju, Theo, and Frederica. Their cover, incidentally, was Fido’s container, which had been moved all the way to the cathedral’s entrance. 

The last remaining member of their ensemble, Kurena, had her arms bound behind her back by Anju and a hand clasped over her mouth as she desperately tried to say something but could produce only muffled Mmms and Mhas She’d seen the two fighting and prepared to jump in like an angry puppy, but Anju had caught and pacified her. 

Having confirmed that the talk was over and the two were gone (Shin shook off Raiden’s grasp and walked away after what appeared to be the end of a scuffle), Anju finally let go of Kurena. Suddenly released in the middle of struggling to be set free, Kurena stumbled a few steps forward and turned around with the intent to snap at them, only to be silenced by Theo, who beat her to the punch. 

“You know, Kurena, you butting in wouldn’t have resolved anything. It might have actually made the situation worse. Restrain yourself a little, girl.” 

“Wha—? No… That’s not true!” 

“If you’d have come out, Shin would have totally just up and gone, ending the conversation right then and there.” 

“Boys have this thing where they’d rather die than let a girl see them being vulnerable, you know?” 

“…Ah, yeah, Anju. But when you say it like that, it kind of depresses me, so can you not? Besides, that’s not just a guy thing. Girls have those moments, too.” 

“I guess.” 

She smiled sweetly, to which Theo looked up and heaved a despondent sigh. 

Looks like ever since Daiya died, I ended up getting all the crummy luck that used to fall on him… 

Though that was a thought he didn’t put into words. It was too obnoxious of a joke, and he could never let Anju hear that. They all dragged the shadows of the dead along with them, having seen so many of their comrades die. 

But that said… 

“…He really has been dragging that along. Shin’s been kind of out of it lately.” 

Theo couldn’t really imagine the future, either. But with Shin, it felt like he wasn’t looking ahead at all, like he placed a lid on his thoughts and tried not to think about them. The dead were the past. You couldn’t do anything for them but mourn their remains, as they were simply remnants of someone long gone. So trying to look at the future while still being haunted by the past… That was probably harder than anyone could imagine. 

“…Actually, he was kind of off since that last battle before we even got to the Federacy. Even though he never let us, or himself, head into a battle he knew we didn’t have a chance of walking away from…” 

And that was because until that point, he’d had to make sure he put his brother’s soul to rest. He’d had to survive…for the sake of that goal. 

Kurena grimaced and let out a disgruntled moan. 

“I don’t think that’s true.” 

Theo then said, with his eyes half-closed: 

“…You need to look him straight in the eye, Kurena. You can’t keep chasing his back like this.” 

“That’s…” 

“Shin isn’t really…a reaper for our sake, you know?” 

He isn’t an idol for us to admire, to fawn upon, to depend on. That implication made Kurena fall silent. Her gaze darted here and there before she awkwardly looked away. 

“…Fine.” 

“You’ve always been worried about that, Anju… Did you know?” 

Anju smiled bitterly at the question. 

“It’s the same for me, after all… I know what it’s like to have your own family tell you that they don’t want you. It completely changes how you think the rest of the world perceives you.” 

“…” 

“You just keep thinking everything might be your fault. You know, logically, that it isn’t, but that guilt and self-deprecation never go away… And in Shin’s case, his brother telling him he wasn’t needed didn’t boil down to just words, right? Those sorts of things don’t go away on their own.” 

Kurena dropped her shoulders. 

“So us just being with him…isn’t enough?” 

“In the end, it’s like he’s saying we’re only going to be with him until we die. We’re only relying on him one-sidedly, so you can understand him acting like his dying is none of our business.” 

In a sense, their relationship with Shin wasn’t one of equals. And that’s why Shin didn’t treat him as a fellow man, Theo realized with an internal sigh. He let them depend on him, to have him shoulder their burdens…but that didn’t mean he shared anything with them. 

“…I wonder if we’ll ever feel that way, too, someday. We probably will. We’ve never considered the future, or what we’ll do after this.” 

Looking back on it, knowing that they’d die five years after enlisting was, in its own way, a mercy. They could withstand the horrors of the battlefield and the white pigs’ malice because they could see an end to it just beyond the horizon. If they could just last that long, they would win. They could have fought until the very end and gone off with a smile. At least they would’ve had that small bit of dignity. 

But now they had been told to live on, to fight and come back alive, without an end in sight. And when they thought they would have to live on for an unknown number of years, for unknown decades, for an excessively long period of time…the sheer perpetuity of it all made them freeze up in fear. 

Could they, who had nothing but their pride, sustain themselves for that long now that they had lost that pride? Thinking of that made them lose all desire to think about the future. 

“Shin had the tangible purpose of defeating his brother, and realizing that goal must have forced him to understand that he had no purpose beyond that. And it’s probably the same for us. There’s nothing we really want, nothing to look forward to at the end of the road.” 

They could go anywhere, but that was the same as having no real destination. It was like standing alone in the middle of a wasteland. They weren’t just unable to go anywhere; all they could do was stand in one place, and even if they were to crouch down and wither away, no one would be there to stop them. It would be the same as being someone who could just as well not exist. 

In time, they would eventually succumb to that crippling emptiness. It just happened a bit earlier for Shin. 

Theo sighed bitterly. 

“Just because he’s in the vanguard doesn’t mean he has to handle this before we do, too…” 

That just meant that, however faintly, they could be prepared for the time when they would have to face that simple fact head-on. They had to accept the fact that they couldn’t live the way they did on the Eighty-Sixth Sector’s battlefield, prepared to die on any given day. 

“But I think it’s very typical of Shin to worry about us so much, even if it doesn’t seem that way at first.” 

“Definitely.” 

Nodding, Theo turned a sidelong glance toward Kurena. 

“Just saying, Kurena, but now’s a huge chance for you. You could take advantage of him being depressed, y’know?” 

“Just saying, Theo, but even if it is a huge chance for her, it would take a real nasty woman to take advantage of that. And that doesn’t suit our Kurena.” 

“Figures.” 

“Y-you’re wrong! That’s not how I—” 

“Yeah, yeah. Hearing you say that is starting to get old. I mean, you’re not exactly doing a good job of hiding it.” 

“Besides, you already admitted it yourself, Kurena. What’s the point of saying that now?” 

“That was…” 

Kurena went red in an attempt to argue but then suddenly blushed even harder. She then asked in the thinnest voice they’d ever heard: 

“………………Do you think he’s noticed, too?” 

““…”” 

Theo and Anju exchanged looks despite themselves. The answer to that question would be a terribly cruel one, enough to make them hesitate saying it to her face. 

“…I would presume he realized it a long time ago but sees it as a, shall we say, childish longing and desire to monopolize of sorts.” 

And someone just went and said it. 

“He treats you as a younger sister… A difficult, troublesome sister, at that. In all honesty, he probably does not even acknowledge you as a woman.” 

“…” 

Ah. Did Kurena’s soul just leave her body? 

As Anju faced Frederica with a somewhat incredulous smile and grabbed her by the shoulders, Theo regarded her with a glance as she shook her head with a pale face and tried to salvage Kurena’s shattered psyche. 

“I mean… C’mon. He does see you as a reliable comrade. Isn’t that enough for now?” 

“Y-yeah. I—I am a great sniper, after all! I’m totally reliable!” 

Theo nodded, as that much was true. For an expert in hand-to-hand combat like Shin, who needed someone capable of providing laser-accurate cover fire in the midst of his melee skirmishes, Kurena was a priceless comrade who was hard to come by. 

…Probably. 

“But still… Yeah, um. So the Republic’s fallen, huh…?” 

For a decade, it had oppressed the Eighty-Six with the might and weight of a nation and ordered them to march to their deaths—and it was gone in the blink of an eye. 

“I only saw it through observing Kiriya, so all I could see was the Gran Mur’s fall and the sight of the Legion flooding its ruins. Unlike the Federacy, the front lines were shattered almost immediately. And at the pace things were going… I doubt they would have been able to sustain any semblance of a country in that condition.” 

“Figures. The Republic was willing to sacrifice the Eighty-Six if it meant their survival, and they based their entire defensive strategy around that.” 

“And in the end, we’d have to go down with them… Really, it’s too disgusting for words.” 

The white pigs didn’t care one bit, but to the Alba, who actually saw them as people, as well as their fellow Eighty-Six, the fact that an entire country was forced into this folly only to vanish into thin air… 

They truly couldn’t find anything to celebrate. 

Kurena sighed dejectedly. 

“Shin probably knew it first… Even though he said we’re going on ahead.” 

Those were probably the first words he entrusted to another—the first time there was a person he wanted to entrust something to. 

“The major never did catch up to us, did she…?” 

Hearing the crunching sound of fallen leaves being crushed, Shin turned around to find Fido standing there. Their Juggernauts were enjoying a momentary rest in a corner of the paved square after heavy use over the course of the day. Feeling the gaze directed at him by the round optical sensor, Shin shrugged, standing beside his rig. 

“You don’t have to worry. I won’t run off on my own.” 

“…Pi.” 

“Though, I’ll admit…going out alone would make things easier.” 

That way, he wouldn’t have to dig any more graves. 

The only one to hear the Reaper mutter those words was the obedient mechanical Scavenger that always followed in his footsteps. 

Running through velvety-green fields glittering with specks of white flowers, Kiriya rushed along, scattering petals in his wake. The massive mechanical dragon sped through the Legion’s territory with nothing to stand in its way. Escaping the woodlands, he crossed the bridge, cutting through a river and across hills that were like the waves of a surging sea, and eventually stopped at the edge of his assigned sector. 

While he was capable of single-handedly annihilating a fortress, his current body came with the disadvantage of requiring long cooldown periods. Firing a mere few hundred shells rendered his barrel useless, and replacing that alone took over half a day… This aspect would never cease to be an inconvenience. 

That white Feldreß’s cruising speed may have equaled Kiriya’s, but unlike him, who traveled unimpeded through friendly territory, they had to break through enemy lines. They wouldn’t catch up to him that soon. 

He spared a glance at the maintenance units beginning their work, then his gaze settled on the great gray shadow standing on the horizon. 

<Pale Rider to No Face. Reporting arrival at appointed sector. Bombardment will recommence after maintenance work is complete, forty hours from now, at first light.> 

<Acknowledged.> 

Now, then. 

His unexpected reunion and showdown with his kin or the fireworks display that would herald the beginning of the end for the human race. Which would come first…? 

“Major General, it’s time to get up.” 

While the three countries’ fighting lasted through the night, that merely meant that the combat units alternated. The military personnel still managed to get some sleep. Be it inside combat jeeps or in the cargo spaces of their Vánagandrs, the combatants slept atop makeshift beds. This held equally true for the officers at HQ, which advanced farther into the battlefield in accordance with the changing of the front lines. 

The major general frowned at the chief of staff, who stood in the corner of the canvas tent that served as HQ. He was dressed impeccably, even at this ungodly hour, and wore a disgruntled gaze. This man had stayed up late with him last night, working on today’s operation plan, and had probably gone to sleep even later than he had, but he looked none the worse for wear. 

“It’s the difference in our ages, Richard… Or so I’d like to say, but you’re still only thirty, aren’t you? If you’re not careful, your gut might start sticking out.” 

“Still cheerful, aren’t you, Willem…? Being young allows you to do things that are beyond your means. You’ll be like me before you know it.” 

“Will I, now?” 

“You can keep talking a big game. It’ll all catch up to you before you know it when you hit your thirties.” 

Maybe it was because he’d only just gotten out of bed, but the major general’s voice reverted to his tone from years ago, when they were still in the military-staff college. He shook his head, trying to shrug off the grogginess the mere three hours of sleep had failed to do away with, and put on the jacket the chief of staff threw his way. Focusing on their primary objective, he asked straightaway: 

“What is the status of the Eighty-Six?” 

“We finally managed to Resonate with them just a short while ago… The Republic’s technology does come in handy… Not that I’d want the Empire’s laboratories to do anything like it.” 

He gave a thin smile, presenting the metallic collar known as the RAID Device. It was communication that linked the consciousness of one human and another, which meant animal experimentation was pointless. He could imagine the number of people—or to borrow the term the scum in the Republic used, pigs in human form—who had to be sacrificed to complete it. 

From the major general’s perspective, he’d have preferred to not rely on the fruit of the theory and technology established over such inhumane conduct, but the chief of staff didn’t seem to share that sentiment. He may not condone those terrible crimes against humanity, but since they were available to him, he’d still make use of them if they were useful as a tool. 

But, that aside… 

“You finally managed to Resonate?” 

“This thing requires both sides to be conscious, so it won’t connect if they’re asleep. I find it hard to believe they can sleep when they’re crossing enemy territory with a small force of just five units, but…” 

For the Eighty-Six, who’d lived in the battlefield before they’d even reached puberty and who’d survived for a month in the Legion’s territory, it probably felt like nothing more than an extension of their everyday routine. So they were used to it. 

He recalled the exchange they’d had two months ago. The major general had been in service for over twenty years, if one included his time in the military academy, and had been on the front lines for ten, since the war with the Legion began. And even for him, the stress of combat weighed heavily on his mind and body. 

But this was their routine, their day-to-day life. And what registered as normal for the Federacy seemed abnormal from their perspective. It made sense, then, that they didn’t have enough time to get used to living in peace. 

It took her five years to tame that thing… And how did she tame it? 

The chief of staff’s following words brought his speculation to a screeching halt. 

“Where do you suppose they are right now? One hundred and twenty kilometers west of the old national border. When we had to march the whole night just to get this far. Isn’t it infuriating?” 

Realizing what the chief of staff was getting at, the major general cocked an eyebrow. 

“Now, this is a surprise. I thought you intended to use those kids up in this battle until there was nothing left of them.” 

The chief of staff gave a detached shrug. 

“You seem to be misunderstanding. All I want is for this sharpened sword to be put to good use. If we can make it last for a bit, even better… But if they end up being assimilated by the Legion, it’ll be more than just trouble. We need them retrieved as soon as possible.” 

Having spent so long running through the battlefield with their machines, first Vánagandrs and then Reginleifs, waking up to a morning without either of those by their sides was off-putting for the Vargus. As they were preparing to set out again on their march, Bernholdt sat in a circle with his comrades in the corner of the camp. His assault rifle, the sole thing he took back from his abandoned unit, sat by his side as he raised his head, noticing Grethe’s approach. 

“We’re setting out at second dawn, everyone. Are your preparations complete?” 

“Affirmative, Lieutenant Colonel. We’re ready to go whenever… I mean—” 

He brandished his stock, collapsible Feldreß-pilot assault rifle. 

“—we’re traveling as light as possible here.” 

It was a 7.62 mm assault rifle with enough punch to blow off an adult male’s limb, depending on where it hit, but against the Legion it was still insufficient. Grethe smiled at the infantry, who still stood on the battlefield even if the most they could do was fight off the Ameise or Grauwolf. 

“Are you worried for the first lieutenant, Sergeant?” 

“I’ll be directing that question right back at you, Lieutenant Colonel. Are ya worried about ’em?” 

“I’ve done everything I can. All that’s left is to believe in them.” 

“Yeah, I’d say ya did. You got the boys over at maintenance to bring spare Reginleifs and repair parts just in case. Y’even twisted the big bad chief o’ staff’s arm into letting you get that transport plane o’ yers ready.” 

And she made that appeal with a desperation tantamount to unconditionally surrendering any impression of being a sharp, coolheaded officer. 

“My, but you chose to stick around even though I allowed you to retreat to the rear since there’s not much more you can do here.” 

“Well, we’ve still gotta keep up appearances. If these kids come back from hunting that huge centipede, we can’t let ’em see us geezers sitting on our asses gettin’ drunk, can we? Wouldn’t be able to live that down, y’know?” 

That felt like just about the worst future possible. Heaving a long sigh, Bernholdt continued. 

“…It’ll be hard with an army o’ these bulky tanks, but we should hurry. Your Juggernaut ain’t half-bad, Lieutenant Colonel, but it doesn’t have any experience running operations this long. We don’t know what kinda issues might pop up.” 

“Right.” 

Not just the Reginleif but all Feldreß required maintenance time equal to their operation time. They weren’t so fragile that they’d stop functioning immediately due to lack of maintenance, but the Reginleif was only recently deployed into live combat. There could still be some undiscovered defects. 

Grethe nodded, and then she suddenly scowled. 

“But it would seem even you lot call it the Juggernaut…” 

“Reginleif’s a name for a pretty Valkyrie. Doesn’t fit a bunch of rowdy mercs like us.” 

He raised an eyebrow at the lieutenant colonel’s disgruntled expression. 

“Or for a bunch of brats who keep pulling crazy stunts no matter how many times you tell ’em off.” 

“Ah, shit.” 

Hearing Theo mutter that from the other side of the Resonance, Raiden turned his attention to Laughing Fox, ignoring the flaming wreckage of the Ameise in front of him. The sound of gunfire traveled far. It wasn’t as audible in the contested zones, where shots were exchanged all the time, but the Legion’s uninhabited territories were a different story. 

For this reason, the Nordlicht squadron avoided combat as much as possible and, in cases where it was unavoidable, went on surprise attacks using melee weapons to dispatch their opponents quickly. And as Laughing Fox tried to jump over the remains of one Grauwolf they dispatched in such a fashion, it suddenly froze in place. 

Apparently, its right front leg got caught in the Grauwolf’s armor, and when he tried blowing it off with gunpowder, the pile wouldn’t retract, effectively nailing him down. 

“Can you get it off, Theo?” 

“No can do. It won’t budge… I’ll have to purge it.” 

Using the actuator’s output to forcibly extract the pile that was submerged into the thick metal armor put a great strain on the Juggernaut’s joints. A moment later, the detonation bolt activated, and Laughing Fox got off, leaving the detached pile driver behind. 

“So now Laughing Fox is damaged, too, huh…? I didn’t think the damage would rack up this fast.” 

“…Anju and I got hit with shrapnel during the fight yesterday, and one of your machine guns broke when you got blown back…” 

They’d each lost a machine gun, a wire anchor, or a pile driver, and they all had damages in the form of broken armor or bent frames. As they looked at the status window, they saw that Fido’s remaining magazines, energy packs, and spare parts were starting to run low, too. The operation was expected to take less than half a day. They stocked up since there was a chance of them being isolated, but they didn’t have enough for an operation lasting several days. 

“I think Shin’s the only one who hasn’t taken any damage… Though we’re all out of spare blades.” 

“…No.” 

Raiden raised an eyebrow. He and Shin hadn’t really spoken since the fight they had last night. His tone was the same as always, and Shin wasn’t one to strike up conversation for no reason to begin with, so it didn’t feel like he was avoiding him. 

“My propulsion system’s been in bad shape since yesterday. I think I overburdened it in the first fight.” 

“…You still keep screwing up the suspension system after all this time?” 

He’d still had an excuse when they were piloting the Republic’s walking coffins, but how far did he push his rigs if even the Reginleif’s propulsion system, which was built to be sturdy even when considering high-mobility battle, couldn’t keep up with him? 

“For the time being, I think I might be able to make do with some maintenance. It’s not bad enough to stop it from moving.” 

“Yeah, but if you go too crazy with it, it’ll fall apart before you know it. Don’t pull any crazy stunts for now.” 

“…” 

So this is the one request you can’t respond to? What are you, a brat? 

“Judging by our remaining ammo and energy packs, we have enough for a full day’s pursuit tomorrow, and then that’s it. We’ll probably catch up to it before that happens, but we should conserve what we can until then anyway.” 

Hearing that terribly roundabout answer, Raiden dropped his shoulders with a grumble. He was still saying that bullshit. 

Until we “catch up to it.” Not “Until we regroup with the main force.” 

“…Roger that.” 

Sitting in Wehrwolf’s cockpit, Frederica opened her “eyes.” Her special ability allowed her to view those close to her and their surroundings, as if she were standing by their side. When viewing the present, she saw what they were seeing at the moment, but when it came to their pasts, she could see what that person was currently remembering, even if only subconsciously. 

It seemed someone was recalling last fall, when they were forced by the Republic to march into the Legion’s territories even at the risk of death. That was the beginning of their journey to freedom, which wasn’t even supposed to last a month. 

Where was this? The scenery was dyed with deciduous colors; standing nearby was a damaged four-legged Feldreß that looked brittle, even to her unknowledgeable eyes, and was covered with battle dust and a flash of a desert camouflage uniform. It was likely near the end of their journey, when they realized they probably wouldn’t be able to advance much farther. 

Still, they were smiling. Even with their faces pale and tired, they exchanged jokes and chatted and laughed. From Frederica’s perspective, the black-haired boy stood with his back to her, but the smile playing on his lips was etched into her gaze. 

Shin was smiling after having simultaneously accomplished and lost his objective of burying his brother, yet still saw the path to tomorrow spread out before him. 

Why did he lose that smile…? 

Shaking her head, Frederica closed her eyes. 

One hundred and twenty kilometers away from old Kreutzbeck City, an Ameise on patrol found it in the evergreen oak forest. Something two meters in height had passed by earlier, crushing the twigs. It was the footprints of a four-legged weapon that wasn’t of the Legion. 

Scanning the vicinity for further traces with its multipurpose sensor, the Ameise sent a report to the main force. 

<Foxtrot 113 to tactical data link. Existence of a hostile element infiltrating the territories confirmed.> 

The Reginleifs rushed through the abandoned battlefield, tearing across the eastern horizon and leaving it behind, chasing the setting sun toward the south. The United Kingdom’s army successfully kept the Legion’s main force at bay, as did the joint forces of the Federacy and the Alliance along the high-speed railway of the southern route of the Eaglebloom. Even with Shin’s ability, being able to avoid engaging the enemy with the exception of the first battle was impressive. 

Cruising through the oddly peaceful battlefield, Frederica found herself mesmerized time and again by the sights of the Legion’s territories displayed on the optical screen. Clusters of blue flowers bloomed magnificently, growing en masse in the forest. Sunlight shone through the foliage growing between pillars, making the sky-blue petals sparkle like gemstones. 

She saw a town overrun with greenery. The grass grew uninhibited, penetrating the flagstones and enveloping the roadside, the abandoned automobiles, the flag posts, and a statue of a saint. Vines coiled around the neglected residential houses. Atop those rusted remnants bloomed gentle flowers of autumn. 

She saw an abandoned village. Perhaps owing to the quality of the land there, the houses were formed of bricks in soft, colorful pastels, making it seem like a place taken straight out of the land of picture books and fairy tales. In the center of a grassy thicket—once a wheat field—that grew wild and up to the height of an adult stood a thin, faded scarecrow. There it remained, as if patiently awaiting someone’s return. 

At noon, they look a long break in the ruins of an abandoned city. They chose to settle down in a church that seemed to be designed in the style of a gothic cathedral. It was a grand, solemn sight. The subtly designed stained glass that reached up to the ceiling sparkled in its transparency, casting a colorful shadow on this deserted sanctuary and granting its eternal blessing even without anyone being there to receive it. 

By the time the sun reached its zenith, any forests and cities they could take cover in had all been left behind them, and they were forced to run along an open shore of a large lake despite the risk of detection. An abandoned castle loomed in the distance, casting the reflection of its white spires and ramparts into the water alongside the blue sky as crimson petals soared overhead. The wind blew through the crumbling arrow slits, and the shadow of a black bird of prey soaring in the sky flew above them. Its wings seemed tattered even from afar, and yet, this lone bird rode the winds to parts unknown. 

It was serene. And beautiful. 

Frederica thought that maybe now she understood a bit why the Eighty-Six’s values were so detached from the Federacy’s—and even humankind’s fate. If they could regularly witness such spectacles reclaiming the settlements people once inhabited, it would only be natural to feel that way… 

This world was a beautiful place. Even without the presence of humans, the world was serene and beautiful. There wasn’t a single place in this world that required the presence of human beings to flourish. 

This world really didn’t need humans. 

There’s no such thing as a “place to belong.” Not anywhere, nor for anyone… No matter who. 

Eventually, the sun dipped below the horizon. The final rays of sunlight for that day blazed over a cloudless sky, etching long shadows into the plains below. A large, distant mountain range cut out the sky to the south with its black spires as the Juggernauts sped through a sea of grass dyed in red light, dragging shadowy silhouettes in their wake. 

Looking at the fields that were awash with red sunlight on one side and flooded with black shadows on the other, Frederica finally parted her lips to speak. It was like a sea, they said. It was a trite metaphor, but its movements were like receding waves. 

“…Have any of you seen the ocean?” 

It was neither a question nor a monologue, and as such, no answer came from anyone, including Raiden, who shared the unit with her. 

“I have not. Such a sight is unknown to me… There are far too many things that remain unknown to me. What of you?” 

Her crimson eyes narrowed sadly as she gazed at the optical screen with longing. 

“I wish to see the sea. And I would like to try swimming. Ernst showed me pictures of his honeymoon, from some sea in the south. There were so many people… It was lovely, I’m sure.” 

The Federacy didn’t have an ocean in its borders. During the Empire’s reign, it had a single connection to the sea, a naval port in the northern border. If one wanted to go swimming, one would have to go to a neighboring country, such as the Republic of San Magnolia’s southern shore or farther south to the Alliance of Wald, and currently, neither of those were accessible to the Federacy with the Legion standing in the way. 

After a short pause, Kurena said: 

“The sea… I never did get to see it.” 

“None of us really ventured too far from where we lived. Being taken to the internment camp was probably my first time traveling. I think I saw the sea one time when they took me to a new sector on a transport plane, but looking back on it, maybe I’m remembering wrong.” 

“It wasn’t a beach, but they did let us play around in a nearby lake once when I was little… It was fun, I guess. Lots of good people came from all over.” 

“I think elementary schools had an event like that every few years, but then the war started… And that was that. Never seen the sea myself.” 

Shin could feel a small, almost childish chuckle come from the Resonance. He couldn’t tell who it was. 

“The ocean, huh…? I would like to see it. Let’s go there together, once the war’s over.” 

“If we’re on the topic, a southern island sounds like a nice idea. Y’know, white sands, coral reefs, palm trees, the whole shebang.” 

“Or we could go to the north. See the frozen sea, maybe. I hear that when it gets really cold, you can walk over the ice. That’d be pretty cool.” 

“Guess we can make do with the sea of stars, for now. Kujo kept talking about watching the moon. We should make preparations next time.” 

They were marching cautiously enough, but there was no sight of the enemy for the moment. Before long, the suspense wore off, and they started chatting about whatever came to mind. But there was one among them who didn’t participate. It was something everyone noticed but decided not to address. 

For their second camp of the day, they chose an elaborate exhibition hall sitting in the center of the ruins of a large city. Before it got too dark, they sped through their Juggernauts’ maintenance—after an entire day’s march. Once the sun had set and dinner was finished, all that was left was to get some sleep. 

After they had retrieved the collapsible beds from Fido’s container and drawn blankets over themselves, Raiden and the others were asleep in the blink of an eye. It wasn’t a comfortable sleep by any means, but the Eighty-Six were no strangers to resting in harsh conditions. In the Eighty-Sixth Sector, it wasn’t unusual to spend some nights out with nothing but a thin blanket for warmth. 

But it was certainly hard on Frederica, who up until now had spent every night of her young life on a soft mattress. She was lying down in the pitch-black darkness, unable to fall asleep even with her eyes shut, and eventually gave up. Crawling out from her blanket, she rose from the pipe-and-canvas contraption that was a bed only in name and slid her feet into her small military boots. 

The bed’s makeup was such that the canvas hung low to the ground, making it as cold as the concrete beneath it. Near the bed, she noticed some insect, the likes of which she’d never seen before, crawling about like it owned the place. She recoiled slightly from this strange creature. Sleeping without the stuffed toy she’d spent every night with for the last six months made her anxious. 

They were in an atrium on the top floor, which they had accessed through a wide corridor that connected to several halls of differing sizes comprising the exhibition hall. The atrium’s canopy was torn, with starlight pouring into the room. 

They were in the farthest depths of the battlefield, without a single artificial light in sight, and Frederica didn’t realize true darkness could be so…dark. At the end of the corridor sat a Juggernaut with its limbs folded in. And standing next to it, watching over the others as they slept, was Shin, serving as the first person on night watch. He raised his head to look at her sharply. 

“…Can’t sleep?” 

He regarded her not like he might a Legion on patrol but, rather, with the caution he might reserve for a wild animal. 

Animals born after the Legion took control of this land over a decade ago had never seen humans and, as such, didn’t fear them, either. They didn’t distinguish between people and animals, or rather, homeothermic mammals of a similar size, but they did fear the Legion: beings capable of massacre far beyond the scope of what humankind could ever hope to accomplish. As such, they tended to shy away from the scent of metal and gunpowder, but one still needed to stay vigilant. 

When they spent the night back when they had to cross the territories and were unable to light bonfires, they took shifts like this. They kept watch for a few hours per rotation, and the others probably assigned him the first shift (the easiest) out of consideration. The voices of the Legion reached Shin even as he slept, and no one else could help him shoulder that burden. So if nothing else, they wanted to let him sleep the longest. 

“Aye. Forgive me; I’m here despite not having been appointed to the sleepless vigil like you. I simply cannot fall asleep…” 

Receiving a mug of instant coffee, she sat down next to him on his collapsible bed, which served as a makeshift chair. Their combat rations came with enough solid fuel to boil instant coffee. They’d boiled it earlier during dinner, so it was now only lukewarm—and sweet due to all the sugar they mixed in to compensate for the calories they burned during battle. Frederica gulped it down. 

“Don’t let it bother you. If we were going to let someone who can’t hold a rifle handle night watch, we’d be better off letting Fido do it.” 

“Pi.” 

“…Fido. Didn’t I tell you to stay in standby mode until we woke you up tomorrow because staying activated eats up your energy-pack charge?” 

“Pi.” 

“………Fine. Do whatever you want.” 

Its optical sensor flickering as if to signify a nod, Fido made no sign of moving. It probably intended to stay there until Shin’s shift was over and he could go to sleep. Seeing Shin sigh at it following him around like a faithful—if stubborn—attendant made Frederica crack a smile…and then suddenly frown. 

It was probably due to them being on the battlefield, but the Eighty-Six—Shin included, of course—often tended to stand close to their Juggernauts. The other four slept as if snuggling up to their rigs. Shin, meanwhile, entrusted his back to Undertaker as it was bathed in starlight, standing on night watch with his assault rifle propped against his shoulder. Like a child afraid of going to sleep without his favorite stuffed animal. 

The warped circumstances in which they grew up—between the threat of the Legion on one side and the persecution at the hands of the Republic on the other—attributed to them living like this. Their only true home was a battlefield where tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed, and they were unable to look away from the deaths staring them in the face. 

Perhaps, in a way, they were far younger than they looked. 

“…What?” 

“It’s nothing.” 

Frederica was just as warped. She looked to the night sky, as if trying to flee from his familiar crimson eyes. 

In contrast to how the cold of winter seemed to sharpen the starlight, the stars of autumn twinkled peacefully like a silent whisper. The glow of countless distant stars filled the heavenly sphere. The vivid scent of grass she’d enjoyed throughout the day died down. And the aroma of flowers played against the starlight, resulting in a sweet and gentle darkness. 

But to Frederica’s eyes, this sight was as cruel as it was beautiful. This aroma of the flowers and starlit darkness could exist only because there had been no people to sully their presence. If there had been people here before they showed up, the lights and commotion of the city would have corrupted this transient spectacle. A scorching desert, an infertile wasteland, ruins polluted to the point of being uninhabitable, and this picturesque view, in a sense, were all fundamentally the same thing. 

Desolate. 

Looking away, she faintly made out the lonely form of a worn-out, abandoned rabbit doll lying in the corner of the large room. 

“…Is this sight…” 

Those mechanical monsters were originally created to be ruthless instruments of slaughter, but some, even if not by choice, carried the souls of what were once humans. 

“…the world the Legion wish for?” 

Frederica’s words were less of a question and more of a soliloquy, but after a moment of pondering, Shin shook his head. 

“Who can say?” 

Shin could only speculate as to what the Legion were thinking from the voices of the dead trapped within them, repeating their final thoughts. The cries of the mechanical ghosts reaching his ears all seemed to wish for the same thing—to go home. 

“…They might not be wishing for anything.” 

They were originally weapons—tools to facilitate the wishes of others. 

“They’re ghosts. Both those that took in the dead—and those that didn’t. And the dead…don’t wish for anything.” 

“How can you tell?” 

“…Because I’m just like them.” 

He had been strangled, but he had cheated death. But in a way, he probably had died. And ever since that night, he truly hadn’t wished for anything. Having killed his brother, he had nothing left. Not a thing he wanted to do nor a place he wanted to see. He never could think of the future. 

He purposefully did not meet the crimson eyes staring up at him. But even if he ignored them, he remained just as conscious of them. 

“The ocean…” 

It was a sight the Legion stole away from them. One that Shin—who was born in the Republic’s capital of Liberté et Égalité and then sent to the concentration camps, which he couldn’t leave—never got to see. 

“I can’t honestly say I want to see it. There’s nowhere I want to go or anything I want to see, and that doesn’t particularly bother me, either… But I do understand that not having something you want to try, as they mentioned earlier, is strange.” 

Truly not having any desires that could be summed up into such trivial little wishes was all too strange. But last autumn, when they were crossing the territories from the other direction, he truly did enjoy it… Yes, he thought it was fun. The sights of nature no one but they could see, the customs of the many different cities and villages they visited. Sometimes they stopped to rest, and other times they passed through, but whatever they did was of their own choosing. 

It was their first taste of true freedom. And at the time, Shin truly did enjoy himself, as his companions did. And that was because he knew it would end. Someday, at the end of his journey, he would die in the embrace of his aluminum coffin in some remote corner of the battlefield, without having reached anywhere or achieved anything, with no one to tell his tale. 

And that’s how it should have been. But his brother saved him, and the Federacy sheltered him. He survived longer than he expected and was suddenly faced with a future that was longer and more uncertain than he could have ever imagined. 

For Shin, who was prepared to die at a moment’s notice, it was far too long a future and far too distant a destination. The future they obtained was far too vast, and without kin or country to serve as their guides, that emptiness was far too…terrifying. 

His friends would have been the same, but somewhere along the road they found other things to keep them going. Other things to live for. And having nothing to live for was the same as not being alive. Having nothing to live for meant you weren’t even trying to live. And so he remained the only one who was not yet alive. 

“I’m not your knight.” 

Once again, he repeated the words he’d spat at Frederica a month ago, when the operation had just been decided, and sighed slightly. 

“I knew that, and yet… I’m sorry. I used your knight as an excuse.” 

An excuse to return to the battlefield when he had nowhere else to go. 

“I’m heading toward my final destination all the same, but my brother isn’t there anymore. So I needed something to take his place.” 

Frederica scoffed. 

“I believe there’s more to it than that.” 

“…?” 

“You should be aware that the way you observe your reflection in the mirror is wrong. You are not as coldhearted nor as cruel as you might believe yourself to be. You would even cast aside salvation if it meant bringing peace to another. Even for a mere ghost… You truly are a kindhearted reaper.” 

Staring far into the distance, she whispered. 

“If nothing else—thanks to you obliging my request, I will set Kiri free.” 

Shin turned his attention to the far horizon, where her knight continued to wail. 

“I pitied him, trapped as he is in the battlefield, lamenting his fate for eternity. I wanted to set him free… I wanted to set myself free from his anguish. What of you?” 

“…No.” 

He may have wished to soften the voices crying out from the depths of the battlefield, but not once did he wish to silence them completely. 

“Even I…” 

At that moment, Frederica smiled, looking to be on the verge of tears. 

“…am afraid of ending Kiri.” 

She was afraid of losing anyone else… 

“I am an unwanted child in this Federacy. Now that it has become a federal republic, my being alive could become the spark that ignites turmoil. I am a child of calamity… My absence would only benefit everyone.” 

The Federacy had gone from a dictatorship to a federal republic, but some of the former nobles, who had once held power and monopolized all authority, still maintained some latent political influence. Even Shin, who had only been in the Federacy for less than a year and spent the majority of that time in the military, noticed that fact. Once he examined things more closely, he noticed those in the higher ranks were almost exclusively those of pureblood noble birth. The majority of the generals were either Onyxes or Pyropes. 

If those among them with ambition were to learn that an empress—a just cause to subvert the government—still lived… 

“And yet, I lived on, believing that I would one day have to put an end to my knight… But once I do end Kiri, I will have lost that reason. And that…frightens me.” 

“…” 

And yet. 

If she didn’t bury him… If she didn’t make things right, she wouldn’t be able to move on. 

“…The reason the way forward makes you shudder so much is because you’re properly looking to the future. Because you realized you’re walking an untrodden path. There’s no shame in that, and even in such times of doubt, you should rely on those walking by your side for support. That is why comrades exist. That is why…people stick together.” 

“…Raiden told me that, too.” 

But cold thoughts stabbed their icy daggers into his heart. 

Even if they’re with me now, at this moment…even those who call me “our Reaper”…will one day, certainly… 

“Leave you behind…?” 

“…?” 

“…Never mind.” 

The seemingly ambiguous statement was left at that, and it faded into the darkness of night. 

It was first light. The sun peeked out over the horizon in the wee hours of morning. Detecting the first rays of light just barely illuminating the surrounding area, Kiriya awakened from standby mode. Like swords serving as grave markers stuck into the ground, countless bent and burnt-out cannon barrels littered the battlefield as dawn broke. His countless extensions, having covered the ground like a filament, also awoke and rose into the air with a flutter of their wings. 

It was time to begin the sweeping operation. The Eintagsfliege that had helped keep him under the cover of night retreated, and the Legion under his command began moving from several dozen kilometers away. There were no signs of movement from the enemy forces yet. Attacking at dawn was a relic of past eras when radar and night-vision devices didn’t exist. But such tactics were still effective against an enemy who could employ neither. 

The Ameise’s observational data transmission arrived. Using this, he observed the armor-plated concrete structure in his optical sensors. Capable of seeing only a few dozen meters ahead, he could just barely make out the summits of the horizon. 

<Pale Rider to No Face. Commencing sweeping operation.> 

The unsleeping combat machine’s reply arrived immediately. 

<No Face, acknowledged… A transmission arrived from the wide area network.> 

…Mm? 

<Traces of an enemy unit that had infiltrated the territories were discovered. Given the situation, it is hypothesized they are in pursuit of you. As such, commence search activities in sectors adjacent to your location.> 

<…Acknowledged.> 

So you did come after me, kinsman. 

The fireworks display is starting soon. So before it does…make it to me. 

“Let’s go.” 

It was the third day of the operation. Regardless of the outcome, today would be its final day. Within the blue darkness of dawn, the Juggernauts slipped through city ruins, moving in a modified platoon-wedge formation. They moved through a main street, where a faded, tattered, five-hued flag flapped noisily. They rushed over the shards of glass littering the pavement and passed over the fallen statue of a woman. 

Suddenly, the skies to the west flashed, and the sound of impact echoed from afar. As concentrated fire rained from the sky, a thick cloud of dust rose up in the horizon. 

“That’s…not the Morpho. This is Skorpion fire.” 

“They’re pretty much off the mark, though… That’s not where the Federacy’s main force is. What are they trying to shoot at…?” 

And just as Anju said it, everyone—herself included—held their breath in unison. In the wake of the dust clouds, raging flames dyed the sky over the impact point a deep crimson. 

“Incendiary bombs…?!” 

Those were shells that had fuel mixed with thickener injected into them, which would spread out and ignite during impact. The intent was to set the enemy ablaze. Since both the Republic and the Federacy employed stone architecture that didn’t ignite easily, the Legion rarely used them, but they were a vicious type of bombardment. 

The viscous fuel inside the shells was capable of clinging to its victims as it burned, and it couldn’t usually be extinguished by water. Should a human be splashed with it, the only fate awaiting them was an agonizing death. 

The sky flashed again. From between the buildings, they could see the treetops of the forest in the horizon catching fire within seconds. 

“God dammit, they’re trying to smoke us out!” 

The Legion probably found traces of their infiltration of the area. Even state-of-the-art Reginleifs weren’t able to march through a sea of burning flames. They lacked the coolant necessary to do so, and with all the oxygen in the air burning, the pilots would eventually suffocate. 

A third bombardment. An even closer spot caught fire. They were systematically destroying every hiding spot in the area. 

“Shin!” 

“We’ve got no choice. Let’s go. All units, prepare for combat. We’ll make contact with the first enemy line in three hundred seconds.” 

Confirming the positions of the Legion in the area, they rushed through the ruins by way of the path of least resistance and kept going until they reached the plains. 

When the Skorpion types roared again, and their bombardment rained from the heavens, the city ruins finally entered the range of their fire. A shell impacted nearby, and the street was engulfed in flames almost instantly. Live trees didn’t normally burn as easily, but when exposed to fuel with a combustion temperature reaching as high as 1,300 degrees Celsius, that didn’t matter. 

The area was doused with muddy fluid time and time again, turning into a sea of fire within moments as tongues of flames licked the vaporizing surfaces. The ruins turned into an inferno under the cover of dawn, black-and-red shadows dancing across them. As old buildings crumbled under the tyranny of those flames, the group barely made it out of the city. 

“Ah, they found us!” 

Shin made out the silhouette of an Ameise standing near the horizon, its sensors pointed right at them. In the next moment, Gunslinger sniped it down. But the data transmission likely traveled through the data link before her 88 mm could even finish its roar. The surrounding Legion units had already been alerted to their presence. Then they crossed over the horizon and were faced with a massive army that spread out before them like a veil of black clouds, making even Raiden’s breath stop in his throat. 

“What are those numbers…?! How do they always keep coming out in droves like this…?!” 

“Just goes to show that the Morpho is extremely important to them… The left wing is the thinnest. Break through at maximum combat speed.” 

“…Roger.” 

Flames danced on the wind. The waste and debris left in the wake of the burning rode the updraft into the heavens, absorbed water, and became rain. The Juggernauts crossed the plains as black rain, thick with soot, washed over them, rushing through the low, thorny mountainous road. Having accomplished its objective, the onslaught of incendiary bombs came to an end. A shower of howitzer shells took its place as the silent metallic shadows peeked through the shadows of the trees. 

The mountain’s steep formation made the tree trunks and roots intertwine, preventing the heavyweight Löwe and Dinosauria from entering. But the Ameise, which were in a similar weight class to the Juggernauts, remained in hot pursuit. Through the gaps in the branches, a formation of Löwe could be seen closing the gap by way of a relatively calm riverbed. They were kept up-to-date with their targets’ position thanks to a data link. The children caught a glimpse of a cliff beneath them. 

“Shin, how far to the target?” 

“Fifteen thousand meters, straight ahead. It moved forward for a bit before stopping again… I can’t tell what they’re planning, but let’s take advantage of this and close the distance.” 

Frederica then said: 

“It looks like he’s aiming at something… But I cannot tell where he is. He’s got fixed cannons lined up; he should not be able to provide covering fire to the front lines…” 

Having said that, she gulped nervously. Her silence suggested there was a development she couldn’t make sense of, but there was no time to confirm. 

“They’re shooting at us from below!” 

One of the Löwe below swerved its turret, turning its 120 mm barrel in their direction. Folding its segmented front legs, it forced itself to fire from an inconvenient angle of elevation. 

“…!” 

It impacted the face of the cliff, crumbling the ground between Laughing Fox and Snow Witch as they advanced in the wedge formation. Mud and dirt flew into the air as a Skorpion shell impacted nearby, as if to make doubly sure they were hit. A 155 mm shell, capable of reducing sturdy trenches into piles of sediment, burst upon hitting the ground, uprooting the trees that supported the muddy hill. 

“Ah…?!” 

Caught in the landslide, Snow Witch slipped down the hill. 

“Anju?!” 

“Nng… I’m fine. The unit isn’t damaged, either. But…” 

Having slipped roughly ten meters down to flat ground, Snow Witch pulled her legs out of the dirt and turned her head. The red optical sensor surveyed the crumbled cliff face, then shook left and right. The Juggernaut’s optical sensor operated by tracking the pilot’s line of sight, which meant Anju probably shook her head. 

“No good. I don’t think I can climb up. I’ll try to hold them off here… Fido, leave me all the spare missile pads you can!” 

Fido hit the emergency brakes, pitched forward, and deployed the container behind it, sliding all the missile pads it had down the crumbling cliff face. Sparing this sight a parting glance, the remaining four Juggernauts moved along the solid ground, rushing forward. The Ameise in pursuit of them spread out to avoid the Skorpion fire but still came after them from another route. They couldn’t afford to stay put. 

As Fido struggled to keep up with the rest of the group on the winding road, they could hear explosions coming from the riverbed behind them. They fired anti-armor explosive shells into the air, their fuses going off as they crashed down onto the Löwe, specifically the weak points on their upper armor. They heard roars echoing a second and third time, from different directions, but the Juggernauts—traveling at a cruising speed of over one hundred kilometers per hour even on the unsteady mountain road—left those explosions behind them before long. 

The Ameise, despite not comparing in terms of cruising speed, could move along the road just as easily, but having the benefit of a data link led them to drop the pursuit and request that another unit take over. Shin could sense the Legion patrolling several kilometers ahead of their current position switch directions, moving to block their expected path. 

Hearing the same voices through the Sensory Resonance, Theo scoffed. 

“They’re still coming, the persistent bastards… Only ten thousand meters till we reach the target. If they cling to us like this, they’ll get in our way while we’re fighting the Morpho.” 

Escaping the clouds of ink-black rain, they got off the mountain by skidding down an incline. They dug their feet into the steep foothills as they slid and rushed toward the stone structures of the small city ahead. 

As soon as they entered the main street, Laughing Fox moved to the rear and turned its bearing. It fired a wire anchor into a building as it turned in a half circle and then mowed it down with another revolution of its fuselage. The building collapsed with a crash, nine years of exposure to the elements taking their toll, on top of having its supporting pillar destroyed with pinpoint precision. The rubble collapsed, as if to cut Laughing Fox, who stood at the rear of the formation, away from the remaining three Juggernauts. 

The Legion, noticing the collapsing building’s vibrations and reverberations, began rushing toward the center of the commotion. Hearing their voices close in on him, Theo laughed sharply. 

“It’s all flat land ahead of here, right? Well, I’m not really useful outside of a place like this, so I’ll stay here and play decoy! I’ll do what I can to distract them, so you guys handle the rest!” 

The numbers of the small invading force seemed to have been reduced by two, and both seem to have been caught and are currently engaging surrounding friendly units. 

<Acknowledged.> 

Receiving the report from the wide area network, Kiriya withstood the urge to sigh in exasperation. Not that he had the lungs or mouth to do so even if he wanted to. It seemed a few small fry were detected on one of the mountains. Such a blunder was unbecoming of someone who had Nouzen blood coursing through his veins. And yet, Kiriya applauded the coolheaded judgment that allowed him to leave his comrades behind to serve as decoys while he advanced, even at the cost of their sacrifice. 

Contrary to the report, his own radar—which boasted high fidelity and a wide range for antiair-defense purposes—had already detected the approaching enemy force. It was separate from the enemy engaging the Löwe in the mountains and the one running around in the ruins; it was a third detachment that wasn’t recognized by the wide area network. It was a total of four units, and judging by their reactions, three of them were the new Federacy Feldreß model. 

<Pale Rider to wide area network.> 

It was his chance encounter with his kin. He couldn’t let the rank-and-file weaklings get in the way. 

<Executing bombardment schedule as ordered. Henceforth, all communications until objective completion will be blocked.> 

Choosing not to transmit the information he’d acquired, he sent that single transmission and shut off his connection. But with that said, the other side was bringing its own share of nuisances. So for starters, he would have to separate him from them. 

“Get away! He’s shooting!” 

Frederica shouted to Shin from the Resonance at almost the same moment as the Morpho’s cries increased in magnitude. A moment after he reflexively pulled back the control sticks, a shell impacted near the point Undertaker had leaped to. Having traveled at supersonic speeds, the shell’s shock waves sent his unit flying as sediment and earth bashed against its fuselage-like bullets. 

“…!” 

A second blast. The barrage that fell on the dusky hills, undulating like waves in a stormy sea, was almost like a barrage of machine-gun fire—no, it truly was a barrage of shells, making the three units spread out almost like they were scattered away by the force of its shots. 

How can it fire so precisely…? Wait, no. 

“It’s his close-range armaments.” 

What they’d seen in the Republic’s first ward and right before they’d entered the Federacy’s territories, as well as the concentrated fire that had destroyed the western front’s FOBs—all were far weaker bombardments than what the Morpho had fired directly at them the last time they’d engaged it. Shin’s support computer calculated the shells’ initial velocity to eight thousand meters per second. Rather than using its main armament as is, it probably reduced the warheads’ mass using an autocannon with a lower aperture that granted it a rapid-fire function. Even the antiair-defense system it had installed to shoot down approaching missiles was configured around the Morpho’s railgun. 

Having Frederica accompany them turned out to be a good thing, after all, Shin noted with a bitter smile. It seemed that when it came to this knight of hers, Frederica was faster to pick up on the Morpho’s attacks than he was. The relative difference between them and the Morpho was seven thousand meters, which meant the Morpho’s shells would impact within less than a second of firing. In these conditions, having her around was a definite advantage. 

The shower of tungsten shells, charged with monstrous kinetic energy from its high-speed propulsion, decimated the battlefield in moments. Leaping, strafing, and rolling around, the three Juggernauts had to employ every bit of technique and intuition at their disposal in order to keep evading. If an armor-piercing shell was to impact one of them at this speed, a Vánagandr wouldn’t be able to withstand it, to say nothing of a Juggernaut’s aluminum armor. Their only choice was to keep dodging. 

“You little…!” 

Clicking her tongue as she took advantage of the several-second pause the Morpho needed in between attacks to prevent its gun barrel from overheating, Kurena deployed her sniper rifle. Aiming beyond the hills with an accuracy none of the others could imitate, she fired, forcing the target to flinch and pause its attack. 

“I’ll distract it, so go! It was a buckshot, so it didn’t do much damage!” 

She fired a few more restraining shots, then leaped a short distance from the direction Undertaker and Wehrwolf were dodging in just as she fired her last one, putting even more distance between them. Another barrage of shells rained from the heavens, obliterating her former position, and the resulting line of fire moved in pursuit of Gunslinger. 

“Hurry!” 

“Sorry.” 

Shin could feel the pride in Kurena’s smile. 

“I’ll handle this.” 

The enemy unleashed an endless spray of bullets at Kiriya from beyond the hills. It seemed to be coming from a single unit. It disappeared from his radar once it took cover in the hills, but there were still four units in the position it was last sighted. At this rate, uninvited guests may end up coming here, and engaging the enemy while this sniper kept firing on him would be irritating. It would have to be eliminated, promptly. 

He lifted his upper half. Twisting his body, he turned his rear optical sensor, and in the next moment, bolts of blue electricity began slithering like serpents at the base of his gun barrel. 

White noise suddenly crackled over their optical screens. 

“What’s going on…?” 

“This isn’t electronic jamming. It looks like it’s just some electromagnetic waves in the air.” 

And as soon as he said it, he realized. A railgun was a projectile weapon that employed vast amounts of electricity to accelerate and launch spherical projectiles. So whenever it attacked… 

…it scattered powerful electromagnetic waves in its vicinity. 

The Morpho’s roar intensified. 

“Kurena, that’s enough; get away from there!” 

A bright light flashed from beyond the hills, and a thunderous roar echoed overhead before landing behind Undertaker and Wehrwolf. 

“Kurena!” 

“Aaaaaaaaaah!!” 

They could hear the sound of something slicing the wind—like the fragments of a massive shell that exploded in midair and violently rained shrapnel—and then the sound of impact. Gunslinger’s blip disappeared, and Kurena’s Para-RAID shut down. 

For a moment, both of their minds ground to a halt. Taking advantage of this momentary pause, the Morpho resumed firing its close-range armaments. A fan-shaped firing line ravaged the earth. The arrow of metal traveling at supersonic speed painted the blue skies over with the color of metal for a moment before the shower rained down on them diagonally. 

They didn’t have the presence of mind to dodge. The most they could do was crouch and reduce the surface area exposed to the shells. And still, the bombardment grazed against the side of Shin’s unit, blowing off Undertaker’s front left leg. 

“…!” 

“Raiden!” 

That moan of subdued pain and Frederica’s scream made Undertaker freeze in place halfway through its attempt to get up. Looking onward, he saw that Wehrwolf was also crouching on the ground, unable to get up. 

“…You’re injured.” 

It wasn’t a question, but a confirmation. His Para-RAID was still connected, but the damage to his rig was severe. Both of its right legs were blown off, and the cracks in its armor clearly extended all the way to the cockpit. And from the looks of things, the ones sitting inside couldn’t have gotten away unscathed. 

“Y-you covered for me.” 

“It ain’t bad enough to kill me, but…sorry, this is where I’ll be dropping out of the race.” 

Multilegged units had the advantage compared to treadmill units in that they were able to keep moving to some extent even after taking damage. But with all legs of one of his sides gone, that was impossible. 

…A thought occurred to Shin. 

I guess that would still be better than leaving her with Wehrwolf, now that it’s completely incapable of fighting. 

“Fido. Let Frederica ride you.” 

Fido approached with a clatter. Because it kept a certain distance away from them, it wasn’t exposed to the shelling, but there was still a wobble to its gait. Its legs had probably gotten damaged by shell fragments or the shock wave. Shin realized that in this condition, his order was too much for the unarmed scrap-collecting robot. 

“If I don’t make it, take Frederica and retreat. Don’t bother recovering the others, either. Bring her back to the Federacy, no matter what.” 

“Pi.” 

“Shinei!” 

Fido beeped back in what felt like a solemn nod, and Frederica cried out in protest. Shin continued, ignoring her voice. 

“You’re afraid of losing him, but you still want to save him, right? Then live on so that you can accomplish that.” 

“…” 

He could feel Frederica nodding as she bit her lip. Wehrwolf’s canopy flung open, and a small shadow climbed out of it and then ran into Fido’s opened container. Shin nodded at the tall shadow, raising a hand to him from the cockpit, despite knowing he couldn’t see it. 

“Don’t die on us.” 

“…Yeah.” 

Whispering under his breath, Undertaker, the last remaining unit, rushed onward. Only three thousand meters remained. He sped around the final hill, and… 

…a layer of pure, boundless blue spread out before him.