86 - Volume 4 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1 

CALL ON DUTY 

The scent of death lingered faintly in the western front’s integrated headquarters’ base. The last operation had cost them the lives of several hundred thousand—four corps and over 60 percent of their total forces. Their transport capabilities couldn’t keep up with the number of corpses that needed to be sent back, and the base had to function as a morgue for some time. 

“The Eighty-Sixth Strike Package.” 

Despite it already being spring, the air was oddly cold as Major General Richard Altner—commander of both the 177th Armored Division and the Republic of San Magnolia Relief Expeditionary Force—spoke the name. 

“An independent mobile strike force that pilots Reginleifs, deployed to suppress the Legion’s core locations. In effect, a foreign force composed of the Eighty-Six… So it’s finally time for them to welcome their queen, is it?” 

After a prolonged glance at the office the “queen”—a guest foreign officer from the old Republic of San Magnolia—would occupy, he met the eyes of his conversation partner from behind the veil of fragrant steam wafting from their coffee substitute. 

“Think it’ll go well?” 

“At the very least, I don’t doubt their combat potential.” 

The western army’s chief of staff, Commodore Willem Ehrenfried, wore a calm expression. His white face, characteristic of one of noble birth, broke into a thin, cold smile. 

“The majority of the Eighty-Six we took under our protection were what they call Name Bearers—veterans who lived through years in the Eighty-Sixth Sector’s battlefield despite the 0.1 survival rate. Even compared to our soldiers, who went through proper combat training, they’re in a league of their own. So from a tactical point of view, not putting them to use isn’t an option.” 

It may have been only coffee substitute, but it was brewed dutifully for them by their aides and served elegantly in porcelain coffee cups. Enjoying the flowery aroma of the coffee as they drank, Willem spoke again. 

“Regarding the Reginleifs, we now have a rough idea of how to practically utilize them. In terms of mobility, they’re more than a match for a Grauwolf moving at maximum speed. And thanks to the Eighty-Six, we no longer need to have the Legion eat up any more of our precious operators.” 

“I was talking about the state of the Eighty-Six themselves, Willem,” said Major General Altner, placing his coffee cup back on its saucer. The characteristically resonant sound of porcelain clinking against porcelain echoed around the room. 

“They know no peace, have no homeland, and stand on the battlefield with nothing to protect… Do you really think they can act as the Federacy’s sword when they cause friction simply by being in the same place as our fighters?” 

The first five Eighty-Six they’d unintentionally sheltered stood as a test case. Even after being given a peaceful life, they’d chosen not to accept it—they couldn’t accept it. Their relentless pursuit of combat scenarios they had little to no hope of returning alive from made the other forces fear them. Even as they accrued achievements that were unmatched in the Federacy military, they were loathed as “the monsters the Republic created.” One thing Willem knew for certain was that if one were to force those who were raised on the battlefield into peace, they would only flounder, hesitate, and eventually suffocate. 

“Good hunting hounds require a vicious disposition. A good owner’s skill is measured by how well they can direct that viciousness toward their enemies, Richard.” 

That overtly aristocratic manner of speech, one that seemed to disavow the very humanity of others, brought a steely glare to Major General Altner’s eyes. Having that gaze fixed on him made the chief of staff shrug in an elegant fashion. 

“…Of course, if they cannot grow accustomed to peace, things may be difficult after the war’s end—not just for them but for us as well. We don’t want criminals in our reserves after the fighting is over, after all.” 

Major General Altner cocked an eyebrow. 

“Color me surprised, Willem. And here I thought you’d say, Our solution will be a single bullet for each of them.” 

“You have to consider the cost of the fuel for burning the corpses as well as mental-health-care fees for the ones doing the deed, not to mention the paperwork it’d take to cover up their disappearance and the hush money for everyone involved. Even then, it’d eventually come to light…just like it did with the Republic.” 

Following the Morpho’s elimination operation, they confirmed the survival of not only the United Kingdom, the Alliance, and the Republic, but several other countries as well. All those countries would know of the atrocities committed by the Republic by now. The Eighty-Six, also known as the Colorata, were the minority in the Republic. Many of them had brethren of the same races and ethnicities in these countries. 

The Republic’s treatment of the Eighty-Six would come to be known as the single most abhorrent account of human persecution in all of recorded history. That tarnished reputation would remain a stain on the Republic’s name for years to come—assuming, of course, that humankind had so many years left. 

“Compared to all that hassle, acclimating them to a life of peace and granting them an education equivalent to that of the special officer academy is more efficient. We may yet have a squadron’s worth of young men and women with bright futures ahead of them… Besides…” 

The chief of staff’s smile suddenly faded away as he looked into the single black eye returning his stare. 

“…with the Morpho’s suppression and the liberation of the Republic, the people may be in a celebratory mood, but the reality is that the war is getting worse. Because of these incredible losses, the western front’s war potential has plummeted, which means taxes will have to increase. We need to make use of these war dogs now, while everyone still has their spears pointed at the Republic… Otherwise, the Eighty-Six may be the ones who find themselves the most uprooted by all this.” 

It was a nightmare she’d seen countless times. 

At the edge of a nameless wasteland, beyond the scorched, desolate battlefield, a handful of headless, sun-bleached skeletons fought against a tidal wave of metallic monsters. Forced into a march, without supplies or any support, the skeletons fell time and time again until they were worn out by the overwhelming number of enemies. One unit was lost in battle, and then another. 

And then the final unit remained—one specializing in melee combat—surrounded by Dinosauria and ruthlessly ripped to shreds. Its broken high-frequency blade stabbed into the ground like a blank grave marker. The tragedy wouldn’t end, and as the Legion tore away the canopy, the cockpit opened to reveal an impossible amount of blood. They then pulled the mangled corpse of a Processor out of it, dangling like a rag doll. The dead had no dignity paid to them; they were merely torn to pieces as their heads were plundered. Lena never knew their faces. So when the silhouette, clad in a desert-camouflage field uniform, was dragged out of the cockpit, she never saw his face. 

To the very end, all Lena could do was watch. Her voice never reached them. She couldn’t fire a single shell to support them. She could only watch their gruesome fate unfold. How many times did she wake up in the middle of the night, calling out that name? How many times did she activate the Para-RAID, trying in vain to contact them, only to have each failed attempt break her heart anew? 

She never saw it happen, so she never knew for sure, but that was reality. They should have experienced a fate more terrible than she could ever have imagined. The thought of it sent a shiver down her spine. 

But she would never have to see that dream again. 

In the Federal Republic of Giad’s western front’s integrated headquarters’ base, Lena got up that morning and made sure her outfit was in order. She fastened the buttons of her starched blouse up to her neck and put on the jacket of her dyed-black uniform. She donned her rank insignia and her gun belt, even put on her regulation cap, and brushed her single streak of red-dyed hair aside. She put these items on one by one, resolutely, like a knight preparing to march into battle. 

She peered into her reflection’s silver eyes—the same color as her hair—in the mirror. Her uniform was painted black to mourn the deaths of the subordinates she’d lost, and a strip of her hair was dyed red in acknowledgment of their shed blood. The hardened visage of the Bloodstained Queen, Bloody Reina, stared back at her, drenched in their colors. 

A knock at the door broke the stillness of morning just as she was tightening her tie. 

“—Colonel?” 

Lena smiled. She’d never known his face… Never, until now. But she did know his voice. For the past two years, this voice had softly supported her. This serene, peacefully toned voice, with its enunciation and pronunciation pleasant to the ear. Right now, the owner of the voice was at her side, so she would never have to see that nightmare again. 

“I’m awake… Come in.” 

There was a short pause that felt almost hesitant. But in the next moment, the door opened gently, and Shin peeked his face in. Black Onyx hair and crimson Pyrope eyes. It was only yesterday that she learned his coloring was the opposite of Rei’s—his older brother. He was dressed in a fresh Federacy-issued steel-blue uniform but looked as if he had already gotten used to it. His slender form and white face matched the image of the silent boy she’d pictured from his voice, but his hardened physique stood as evidence of the long time he’d spent on the battlefield. 

“Colonel, a transport to the headquarters’ base will go out at 0825 hours. Please get ready until then.” 

“Okay.” 

Lena gave a short reply as she turned around. Then, looking back into the red eyes that reflected her dark appearance, she nodded. 

“I’m ready… Let’s go.” 

The newly erected Rüstkammer base was built in the Wolfsland—a vacant region that bordered the former Empire and the old territories that were once in charge of production and manufacturing. This was the home base for Lena’s new unit, the Eighty-Sixth Strike Package. It was a large base hugged by forests trailing down from the slightly elevated mountains to the west. A river a short distance away separated the base from a nearby city standing in the shadow of the remains of an old fortification. 

Its barracks accommodated nearly ten thousand Processors and enough support personnel to fill a full battalion, as well as roughly a thousand base personnel and several hangars to house the Reginleifs. It also had a runway for the takeoff and landing of transport planes and a training ground spread out on the opposite side that was quite large in comparison to the forest and river. 

While it could be said that the base was set up next to a city for ease of transportation, it was also done to help with the Eighty-Six’s rehabilitation into society. They had lived on the battlefield from such a young age, so this was necessary for familiarizing them with a peaceful environment. The Eighty-Six who had been sheltered six months ago were still in training—the special officer academy, that is—and the other four senior Eighty-Six, like Raiden, retreated to the barracks, saying they needed to handle their paperwork, leaving Shin to act as her guide. 

While on the runway, which relentlessly reflected the sun’s heat, Shin offered to take her trunk and her cat carrier. 

“Let me carry those for you.” 

“Oh, it’s fine. They’re not that heavy.” 

Shin ignored her reply, took her bags, and started walking away just like that. Lena thought it would be rude to take them back after he’d been so insistent on helping, so she decided to indulge him just this once. 

“Thank you very much.” 

“It’s nothing.” 

The curt tone that would immediately create distance with anyone else…felt so nostalgic. Lena looked up at his profile standing a head taller than her and was unable to restrain the smile that found its way to her lips. Her eyes were drawn to the red scar just barely visible beneath his uniform’s collar. The grisly mark traveled all the way around his neck, eerily resembling a decapitation scar, as if his head had been severed and roughly stitched back on. Was this some old war wound? It looked fairly old. 

Since meeting them yesterday at the memorial of the four ruined Juggernauts and the 576 deceased Processors, she hadn’t actually gotten to speak much with Shin and the others. After that, she was accepted into the western front’s integrated headquarters, and since she was technically the representative of the Republic, there were quite a few social matters she had to attend to. That left her with little time to rekindle old friendships. 

She’d gotten to talk to Shin only in the car on the way to the base, so the only thing she’d managed to hear about was what had happened during the Special Reconnaissance mission two years ago and how they’d made their way to the Federacy. She hadn’t had a chance to ask about the scar, but…perhaps it would be best to wait for him to tell her about it on his own. Whatever had left such a horrid scar on his body had likely left a matching scar on his heart. It wasn’t a subject she could broach so easily. 

Perhaps noticing her gaze fixed on him, Shin addressed her. 

“…What is it?” 

“N-nothing.” 

The fact that just looking at him made her happy was…far too embarrassing to say aloud. Shin cast a suspicious glance at Lena as she stared at the floor with reddened cheeks. After a short while, he continued the conversation. 

“By the way, I see you’ve been promoted. Congratulations.” 

“Ah yes…,” replied Lena bashfully, unconsciously touching the rank insignia on her collar’s lapel. 

A promotion to a field-officer position was a hard one to earn, and being promoted to a commander rank like colonel was even more difficult. While it was true that promotions during wartime tended to happen absurdly fast, a soldier reaching the rank of colonel while in her teens was unheard of. 

“It’s all for form’s sake, really. I’m being dispatched to a foreign country, so it wouldn’t do for appearances if I wasn’t at least at this rank.” 

Conversely, only a low-ranking officer had volunteered to become a commanding officer of the relief unit dispatched to the Republic. It had been six months since the Gran Mur’s collapse, and the Republic still had many who were waiting for someone to fight in their place and save them and who had no intention of fighting for themselves. 

The plan was for the Federacy’s relief forces to withdraw after retaking the northern administrative Sectors and to have the Republic’s own forces, which were currently being trained, take over defense at their own expense… But considering the way things were progressing, Lena found it hard to be hopeful. 

“But that’s just as true for you, Captain Nouzen. You only have two years of military experience with the Federacy, but you must have achieved quite a bit to get promoted to captain this quickly.” 

“…All the ranks above me were vacant, which just goes to show how messed up the Federacy is.” 

He shrugged, a slight smile visible. Lena looked up at his face with some surprise. She thought his expressions had softened somewhat, in spite of the fact that she hadn’t known what he looked like before today. Beneath his cool tone, this young man of the Eighty-Six had always suppressed…something; he’d forced it down so violently, it was liable to break at any moment. 

A timer staring him in the face as it counted down the moments until his death. His objective of freeing his brother’s soul from its mechanical prison. The release. At any rate, now that he had been freed from all of that, perhaps he could finally be at peace. Perhaps now he could look back on the memory of the brother he’d been forced to gun down—despite never wanting to fight him in the first place—with some fondness. 

“Now that you’re a tactical commander, I thought you’d have aides and officers working under you, but you’ve come alone.” 

“No one volunteered. But still, I’m scheduled to meet with some Processors who volunteered and…a technical officer… Er, Major Henrietta Penrose.” 

Her tone lowered a bit as she said that name. 

“…? Oh, the Para-RAID technical adviser.” 

Shin nodded after a moment of dubious silence. It seemed he didn’t understand why Lena faltered before saying Annette’s name. 

Lena shot him a sidelong glance. Henrietta, as a given name, didn’t usually get abbreviated as Annette, so she had referred to her by her full name… But maybe when Lena had first met her, Annette had introduced herself with this unusual abbreviation because she didn’t want to remember someone else who’d once called her by a different nickname. A boy—a childhood friend—who she’d hurt and abandoned…and hadn’t seen since. 

“…You really don’t remember.” 

“Remember…what?” 

“Never mind.” 

Lena shook her head, cutting off the discussion. She was an outsider to the situation, after all. If Annette wanted to talk to him about it, she would. They fell into a brief silence that was soon broken by the sudden meow coming from the cat in Lena’s carrier. 

Shin looked down, blinking in surprise. 

“A…cat?” 

“He’s the one you raised in the Spearhead squadron’s barracks.” 

“Oh.” 

There was no trace of emotion in his features, but that was typical of him. The cat, on the other hand, seemed to recognize the voice of its favorite person and was meowing excitedly. 

“What did you name it?” 

“Thermopylae.” 

Or TP, for short. Shin fell silent for a moment. It was, incidentally, the name of a battlefield where a small army had faced a much larger one in a battle of overwhelming odds, ending with the soldiers from the smaller army dying an honorable death. 

“…Not Leonidas?” 

“That’s right.” 

“You’re surprisingly terrible at picking names.” 

“You’re one to talk, Captain. This little guy saw you off, so he can’t be Leonidas. He didn’t suffer an honorable defeat in battle, did he?” 

“I suppose, but ‘Thermopylae’ is just…” 

“Well, what did you call him before the Special Reconnaissance mission, then?” 

The Spearhead squadron’s Processors didn’t have a set name for the cat, since it wasn’t one of their comrades in arms, and Shin tended to call it the name of the author of whatever he was reading at the time. 

“I think it was…Ougai?” 

“…Don’t tell me you were reading ‘Takasebune’ at the time…! That’s even worse…!” 

Lena groaned in exasperation. It had a different subject, but the crude summary was that it was the story of a young man who killed his younger brother. Given that Shin went on the Special Reconnaissance mission to face Rei—his brother, who had been turned into a Dinosauria—with the knowledge that they would likely kill each other or that one would turn the tables on the other and kill him, reading that particular story went beyond bad taste and right into the realm of straight-up masochism. 

“I just happened to pick it up. There wasn’t any deeper meaning to… Oh…” 

Shin trailed off. They were in front of the base’s largest hangar, which connected to the first barracks, where the classrooms and Lena’s office were. The Feldreß it would come to house were still in the transport, and the shutters were open, revealing the place to be empty. The ceiling was high and set with multiple gantry cranes, and the part that would be considered the second story of the hangar was set with catwalks. 

“…Colonel.” 

“…? What is it?” 

“I understand that you’re about to be very angry, but please, direct your anger only at me.” 

“I beg your pardon?” 

Suddenly, a thick voice bellowed out like a tank turret’s fire. 

“Take aim!” 

Lena braced herself as she turned to see… 

“Fire!” 

…not guns aimed at her… 

…but a large amount of water falling toward her head. 

“Hwaaaaaah!” 

And of course, splashdown. 

Hit by such a large amount of water that it felt as if someone had tipped a full bathtub over her head, Lena was soaked in the blink of an eye. Looking around, she saw a group of boys and girls in uniform and work clothes, each holding an empty bucket. Evidently, they’d held the water she had been splashed with. 

That was as much as Lena could gather at the moment, and Shin—who had run out of the hangar the moment he heard “Take aim!”—returned to her side. Apparently, this was why he’d insisted on taking her luggage. Maybe there’d been some kind of slipup, or perhaps he really did feel guilty, because his expression was rather awkward and uncomfortable. The cat, incidentally, didn’t even acknowledge its mistress’s plight, still meowing in an attempt to get Shin’s attention. 

“Er… Well, it’s only water, so don’t worry… Right, Master Sergeant Bernholdt?” 

“Sir! We got it from the nearby water supply!” 

A soldier in the prime of his life walked to the front of the catwalk with his chest stuck out (not out of pride, but out of military discipline) and answered. 

“There were also two idiots who brought buckets of paint, but I had it dashed over them as punishment!” 

“Oh…” 

That explained the two soldiers painted red and white standing in the corner. After paying them a sidelong glance, Shin spoke up. His voice wasn’t as rough as the master sergeant’s, but his commanding tone traveled with surprising ease. 

“You’ll clog the drain, so go wash yourselves off in the water supply outside before going in the shower. And be sure to take care of the mess you made on the floor.” 

““Yes, sir!”” 

Their replies, booming and desperate, were acknowledged by a dispassionate nod from Shin. Lena was still in shock. 

“…Is welcoming new officers this way some sort of Federacy tradition…?” 

“It isn’t. The Federacy was formed only ten years ago, so it hasn’t had enough time to develop these kinds of tradi—” 

“Captain Nouzen, spare her the pointless trivia. There are more important matters at hand.” 

A young female officer approached them, a bundle of bath towels in hand. Lena turned around to face her with a start. It was the Eighty-Sixth Strike Package’s commander, Colonel Grethe Wenzel. Put simply, her commanding officer. 

“C-Colonel Wenzel?! M-my apologies…!” 

“Oh, you can do away with formality, my dear. I might be your superior in the pecking order, but we’re the same rank.” 

Placing a towel over Lena’s head, she used another to dry Lena’s wet uniform. The towels were likely freshly laundered, as they were warm and smelled as if they had been dried by the sun. 

“There’s a change of clothes in your room, and the bath is ready for you… At least Captain Nouzen had the decency to make them get you towels.” 

“…I’m sorry.” 

“But that lack of consideration proves you’re still a boy, Captain Nouzen, and that’s cute in its own way. But from now on, if you don’t start acting like a proper escort, she might grow to dislike you.” 

“Colonel—” 

“Oh, have I said too much? But I’d reckon it’s your fault for having such a juicy personal conversation in a Feldreß that archives all communications on its mission recorder.” 

Shin growled in annoyance. Grethe giggled and left, taking the wet towels with her. The master sergeant on the catwalk rushed over in a hurry. 

“We’ll handle it, Colonel.” 

“My, Master Sergeant Bernholdt, whatever are you planning to do with a towel a young woman just used?” 

“Don’t even joke like that! Especially not in front of the captain! Hell, she’s almost the same age as my kids! She probably doesn’t even have hair down there yet!” 

“…‘Hair,’ you say?” 

“Aaaaaaah, nothing, it’s nothin’! Just pretend you didn’t hear anything!” 

This lively exchange, which one wouldn’t imagine a field officer was having with a noncommissioned officer subordinate, slowly died down. Watching them leave, Shin spoke in a worn-out tone. 

“For now, you should change out of your uniform… I’ll show you to your quarters.” 

Lena’s private quarters, located on the top floor of the first barracks, consisted of two rooms: her office-cum-reception room facing the corridor, and the interior chamber serving as her bedroom. It may have been a military base, but it was in a safe zone over a hundred kilometers away from the front lines. It was a spacious room that prioritized creature comforts over defense—fitting for a commanding officer—and the gentle pearl-white furniture, perhaps chosen with the young lady occupant in mind, was quite lovely. 

Shin placed her bag and the cat carrier on the floor and left the room, and the black cat promptly began its cautious first exploration of this new place. The four walls were covered with colored glass, and the office’s large window gave an unobstructed view of the city on the other side of the river. 

There was a newly erected school in one corner of the city. It was a special facility meant for the Eighty-Six who’d been taken to the internment camps before they had a chance to get elementary education. Usually, a squad-size unit had only one mental health squad appointed to it, but this unit was given two. Even though providing that care should have been the Republic’s responsibility… 

Shaking her head, Lena made her way to the bathroom attached to her bedroom. Steam clung to the colored tiles of the bathroom walls, and apparently some flower essence had been applied to the water, because a pure, pleasant fragrance filled the room. She washed off her light makeup and turned the stylish faucet, letting the hot water wash over her. 

Come to think of it, she still hadn’t gotten an explanation as to why this had happened to her. She opened the bathroom door and put on the RAID Device resting on top of her towel, activating the Para-RAID. The target was, of course, Shin, who was waiting in the corridor outside her private quarters. 

“Er, Captain…” 

The call was shut down wordlessly. She reconnected the Resonance and asked as soon as the call was connected: 

“Why did you hang up?” 

His response came in a disconcerted tone. 

“If anything, why did you Resonate now of all times?” 

“We were in the middle of a conversation.” 

“…We can finish it later. At least wait until after you shower, please.” 

Lena refused to back down. 

“Why can’t we do this while I’m in the shower?” 

“What do you mean, ‘why’…?” 

There was an exasperated pause between them, which Lena broke by persistently pressing him. 

“You were fine with it before. When you told me about the Black Sheep and the Shepherds, two years ago in the Spearhead squadron’s barracks, you, er…you were connected while you were in the shower.” 

“Yes… But you don’t seem fine with it, so you don’t have to force yourself.” 

That’s… 

Well, yes, she was quite embarrassed about this. 

Only their sense of hearing was being Resonated, but it gave the impression that they were face-to-face. Lena realized that this meant that her feeling of embarrassment over the situation was being directly transmitted to Shin, which left him feeling restless. 

And to top it off, the sounds of the running water and her breath, leaking out from the heat and the steam, as well as the sound of the water dripping from her long, satin-like hair, were also being transmitted. 

“But this time we can’t— Ah…” 

The Sensory Resonance ended again, and this time it seemed that he’d removed his RAID Device, since she couldn’t reconnect. 

*   *   * 

Making his way to the top floor to deliver paperwork to Grethe’s office, Raiden stopped in front of Shin, who was sitting powerlessly on the corridor’s carpet, which was patterned with white flowers on a blue background. He was standing in front of their tactical commander’s—Lena’s—office, probably waiting for her to change after that little “welcome” she’d been given. But for some reason, he was down on his knees. 

“…What’s up with you?” 

“…………………Nothing.” 

Shin answered with a groan, belying his actual response. 

In the end, Shin didn’t respond until she’d left the bathroom, put on a blouse and skirt, gone out to the office, and knocked on the door to the corridor to call for him. 

“…This probably goes without saying, but you do have clothes on right now, don’t you…?” 

“O-of course I do…!” 

“All right, then…” 

It was hard to hear him through the oaken door, which was made thick to prevent eavesdropping. She’d also gone back to the bathroom to dry her hair and fix her makeup, so they continued their conversation over the Para-RAID. 

“…About what happened earlier…” 

They both felt a bit awkward, so it took them a while to kick off the conversation again. Putting down the hair dryer, Lena listened to him as she picked up the brush. 

“…Most of the Strike Package’s combat personnel were Eighty-Six who volunteered, but not all of them. The others are Federacy soldiers who are following orders…and some among them had acquaintances in the Republic.” 

That addendum made Lena catch her breath. Roughly ten thousand Eighty-Six were sheltered by the Federacy—enough for a large squadron. But that number was far too small compared to the millions of Colorata who’d lived in the Republic before. Those ten thousand were the only ones who’d survived the atrocities. Everyone else had died, be it in the internment camps, during the construction of the Gran Mur, or on the battlefield of the Eighty-Sixth Sector. The Republic had reduced them to livestock in human form, without graves for their remains, and slaughtered them. 

Prior to the outbreak of the war with the Legion, the Republic’s people had mingled with those of the neighboring countries. Of course some of them had relatives and friends across the borders. So once those people had learned of the ways in which their loved ones had been massacred… 

“Orders are absolute for a soldier, but that doesn’t mean their qualms about having a Republic officer as their superior are going to dis appear. When you were appointed to your posting, we—Master Sergeant Bernholdt, Colonel Wenzel, and I—received complaints and objections to the decision.” 

She recalled the Federacy soldiers on the catwalk, all of different ages and races. Their different-colored eyes all glaring at her with equal coldness. 

“That kind of dissent doesn’t go away just by keeping a tight lid on things. If anything, trying to repress it would just bring everything to a head later down the line. So I allowed them to exact ‘retribution,’ only once, upon your arrival. It was I who decided the details, I who brought it up with Colonel Wenzel and had her approve it. Hence why I said earlier, if you’re going to be angry, direct your anger at me.” 

Lena shook her head. This “retribution” amounted to nothing more than buckets of water. There had probably been more extreme ideas of what to do, and Shin had likely shot them all down. He’d probably had a lot of faith in his aides’ supervision. And in so doing, he’d spared Lena from more severe, unrestrained retribution, despite Shin being one of the Eighty-Six, who had every right to exact revenge on the Republic’s citizens. 

“…This is well-deserved punishment for me. I can’t get mad…” 

“That’s not true.” 

Shin cut down Lena’s self-deprecation plainly, with a hint of annoyance in his voice, a discomfort that came the moment before indignation. 

“The only ones allowed to demand retribution against the Republic are us, the Eighty-Six. Even if they aren’t unrelated, the Federacy’s citizens are not part of this and have no right to exact revenge… Regardless of what they might think, what they did was blatant absurdity under the guise of justice and sanction.” 

“Captain—” 

“In the end, the Federacy is only a country of humans. They can hold up justice as their national policy… But that doesn’t make them any more just or ideal.” 

His dry, desolate tone was full of something like indignation, like sadness… Like some resignation that went beyond those two emotions. 

“And…I believe I’ve said this before already, but the situation in the Eighty-Sixth Sector wasn’t something you caused or had the power to rescind on your own. It’s not your responsibility, Colonel, and not something you alone need to be blamed for.” 

And that’s why, Shin continued plainly as Lena remained silent. 

“The retribution earlier was unjustified violence against you. This treatment was uncalled for, and you still willingly accepted it. So there’s no need for you to feel like any smaller of a person for it. If anyone treats you with disrespect going forward, punish them in accordance with Federacy military regulations. You have the authority and responsibility to do so.” 

Responsibility. That choice of words was so very much like him. Had he said only “authority,” Lena would have hesitated to employ it even after hearing this explanation. But if it was her responsibility, she’d have to do it. There was no intent to change Lena’s sentiments there; it was only to protect her from thoughtless retribution and, at the same time, to prevent her from being ensnared by her own guilty conscience. 

He may have had the face of a coldhearted Reaper and a blunt, indifferent attitude… But Shin was so wonderfully, awfully kind. So much that it hurt. 

“…Thank you.” 

The fresh outfit on her bed was the Republic military’s deep blue. Naturally, they didn’t have anything in black readily available. Putting on the uniform that bore the colonel-rank insignia and even affixing her armband, she turned around in front of the full-length mirror to check her appearance before moving to the door leading to the corridor. 

“Thank you for waiting, Captain.” 

It seemed he wasn’t exactly sitting there twiddling his thumbs, as he closed the electronic document he was reading on some sort of device before turning around, blinking in surprise as he inspected her new state of dress. Come to think of it, this was the first time Shin was seeing her in this uniform. When they reunited yesterday and met again today, she had been wearing her black one. 

…She now realized why she’d been so nervous about her appearance earlier. She had made absolutely sure that there was nothing off about the way she looked…just like a girl about to go out on a first date. She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks as Shin stared at her with the utmost curiosity. 

“…Colonel?” 

“N-no, it’s nothing.” 

She squeaked out her reply in a small voice that certainly didn’t make it seem as if it was nothing. 

Becoming mindful of this made her exceedingly aware of all sorts of subtle details she hadn’t noticed until now—or maybe she had unconsciously tried to ignore them. For starters, it was entirely likely that this situation was overstimulating for her, given that their unexpected reunion came after their entire communication had been through the Para-RAID, always separated by several hundred kilometers. His voice was so close, and most of all, due to the height difference, Shin’s mouth was the same height as Lena’s ear. 

She couldn’t help but be hyperaware of how much taller he was than her. She could feel the warmth of his body heat, which made it all too clear that he was standing right next to her without her needing to look. She hadn’t known that a boy’s body heat could be so warm, and for some reason, that made her extremely giddy. Placing her hands over her chest to calm herself down, she took a deep breath and managed to stifle the blush on her cheeks before saying as if nothing had happened, “You were going to show me around the base, yes? Let’s go.” 

…Her voice was still squeaky, though. 

Lena tore her eyes away from the smile Shin was unable to restrain and started walking away, her heels clicking against the wooden floor. She felt his presence quietly following her, half a step behind. The realization that he had a habit of moving without making a sound also made her oddly excited. 

“…What are those two doing?” 

The lower-ranking officers were crammed into two shared rooms equipped with beds, desks, closets, and a shared bathroom. Frederica pouted with puffed-up cheeks as she sat on a bed, her legs dangling as her bloodred eyes stared into space. 

“It was one thing when they met Grethe and the staff officers together, but now they’re loitering about the briefing and meeting rooms. It’s like watching a couple of newlyweds! How can they take advantage of their positions as officers for such—” 

“…Uh, Frederica.” 

Leaning his elbow against the half-open door, Theo spoke up dejectedly. 

“What are you doing? Eavesdropping again?” 

Her red eyes turned to him in a heartbeat. Theo wearily noted that whenever her power to peer into the past and present of those close to her was active, her red eyes seemed to shine. 

“I’m not eavesdropping, you imbecile! I’m merely remaining vigilant in case that woman tries anything odd while she leads him by the nose.” 

“Chill—he’s just showing her around. The colonel only just arrived at the base today, and Shin’s her direct subordinate, so there’s nothing weird about it.” 

“……That may be true, but…” 

“Besides, you were there when Shin embarrassed himself, so you know already.” 

Federacy Feldreß were equipped with a mission recorder that recorded all the changes in the sensors, gun cameras, and armaments, in addition to the conversations the pilot had over the intercom. Which of course included the conversation Shin and Lena had with each other—albeit without knowing who was on the other line—after the Morpho’s elimination. Incidentally, the data files of that conversation were the first footage of the Republic in ten years, as well as the record of the first contact with a Republic survivor, and were replayed before the western front’s army commanders…much to Shin’s dismay. 

“That’s right! And having it placed before one’s eyes only makes it harder to accept! After all, did we not spend so much more time fighting by his si— Aaah?!” 

Frederica suddenly raised her head. She was surprised by something only she could see, and she started smiling malevolently. 

“…Theo, it appears I’ve worked up an appetite.” 

Theo smiled brightly. 

“Oh, sure. It’s nice out today, so let’s grab some food at the PX and head outside.” 

The PX was a shop of sorts within the base’s premises. Frederica began to panic. 

“N-no, I did not mean that, um…” 

“Lemme guess. Shin and the colonel are going to the cafeteria now, and you’re plotting to get in the way. It’s obvious.” 

He could hear Kurena yelp out an “Aaaaaah!” before speeding off like a dog that had just caught sight of its master. The window in the corridor offered a view of the cafeteria, and Frederica probably saw it, too. 

“Hup!” 

But before Kurena could take off at full speed, Anju tackled Kurena and knocked her down. 

“Ouch! What gives, Anju?! Let go!” 

“This is as far as you go, missy. You know it’s impolite to butt in, Kurena.” 

“Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow, my joints! Y-you’re gonna break something, Anju! Ow-ow-ow-ow-oooooouch!” 

After witnessing this heartwarming exchange, Theo turned back to the room. He’d meant to smile, but apparently his intent was naked on his face, because Frederica took a frightened step back. 

“We’re. Eating. Outside. With Kurena, Anju, and Raiden.” 

“…Okay.” 

The Federacy base’s dining hall served the same food to everyone, regardless of rank, but allowed a person to control the size of their portions by way of a buffet-style cafeteria system. After clumsily filling her tray up with dishes while Shin and the personnel in charge of setting tables tried their hardest to be a bit too helpful, Lena found her way to an open table. 

This base was occupied mostly by Processors in special officer training, and Lena was currently in the first officers’ dining hall, which happened to be the largest one. The kitchen personnel, a mixture of supply workers and military personnel, worked over a steaming pot that was large enough for Lena to sit in comfortably. 

Owing to the Federacy’s and the Republic’s different culinary cultures, Lena’s tray was filled with a curious combination of foods: the Federacy’s unique thick black bread, a cream soup with the appetizing aroma of mushrooms, a salad of cooked vegetables, a red-pepper stew that was apparently common in the Federacy’s southern regions, coffee, and an apple tart. At the center of her tray was a steak served with gooseberry sauce that had a fragrant aroma rising from it. 

Lena cut it excitedly and carried it into her mouth, and her silver eyes widened with surprise. 

“It’s delicious…!” 

Shin smiled rather happily at Lena’s adorable outburst. 

“Glad you like it.” 

“I haven’t had real meat in so long… Is this deer?” 

Throwing all ladylike mannerisms aside, Lena ate to her heart’s content. 

“It is… Raiden told us that all food within the walls of the Republic was synthetic, so I thought you might like to try something different. It was worth it gathering the members to go hunting in the forest out back.” 

“…Did you do this just for me?” 

“No, everyone just happened to be free that day.” 

As he spoke, Shin shoveled his own food into his mouth with startling speed. Shin was still a young man with a healthy appetite to match, after all. It was a pleasant sight to see him clean his tray—which had almost twice the amount of food as Lena’s—so quickly. He’s such a boy, Lena thought as she held back a smile. 

“Combatants need things to occupy themselves with when there isn’t any combat. Back in the Eighty-Sixth Sector, we’d go out to hunt and fish together on the safe days.” 

“…” 

Lena thought that it sounded rather fun, but she immediately shook off that impression. Shin smiled bitterly, apparently noticing her conflict. 

“You don’t have to make that face. Even the Eighty-Sixth Sector had its own brand of fun.” 

The Legion had been in their forward path, and the Republic had cut off their avenue of retreat. And they’d known that at the end of their five years of persecution, ridicule, and forced conscription, they would undoubtedly die. It had been that kind of desperate battlefield, and yet… 

“We wouldn’t do something as pathetic as hanging ourselves just because our deaths were predetermined, nor would we sit idly by, counting the days until the end. If we have to die, we’ll live each day without regrets—always smiling in the face of death. That was our one and only form of resistance.” 

“…” 

He could be right… Two years ago, Lena would Resonate and speak with the Spearhead squadron every evening, and every evening, they always seemed to be having so much fun. There had been something charming about the distant sounds of them chattering with one another, poking fun at one another, and arguing loudly over silly trifles. They’d greedily sought out these precious moments during the lulls between one battle and the next. Even without anyone to praise them, even without anything to protect, they’d tried to live their lives to the fullest even if the only thing waiting for them at the end was a meaningless death. 

“…I’d like to try fishing, too, sometime.” 

Shin’s expression turned a bit impish. 

“Then you should start by catching bugs for bait.” 

“Bugs.” 

Like most girls her age, Lena hated bugs. Especially the way they wriggled and skittered. 

“Catching them and digging them up is a bit…” 

“It’s not too hard. Just turn over any rock by the river, and you’ll find more bugs than you could ever want.” 

“…………I’ll do my best.” 

In that moment, Lena’s tragic, pained expression was too much to witness. Shin—for the first time Lena could remember—laughed out loud. Lena grimaced, realizing she was being teased. 

“…You’re more of a bully than I took you for, Captain.” 

“Sorry, your expression was just so stiff, I couldn’t help myself,” said Shin, still chuckling. “If you’re bad with bugs, maybe it’d be better for you to try hunting. Butchering aside, you know how to handle a rifle.” 

“Well, yes, an assault rifle…” 

A sudden memory floated up in Lena’s mind, prompting her to put her cutlery aside. 

“…During the retaking of the First Sector, the military police in charge of the shelter went out to hunt to serve the Republic’s citizens some meat. They thought they might get bored with synthesized food…” 

On top of acting as the police organization within the army, the military police’s duties included the construction and management of shelters for refugees and prisoners of war. Due to the nature of the war with the Legion, there were no refugees or POWs, so they seemed quite enthusiastic to fulfill that duty for the first time in a long while. 

“Some of the older Republic citizens were very happy about that, but…the children threw the meat away without eating a single bite. They said it smelled like blood.” 

“…” 

The war with the Legion had started eleven years ago, which was the same amount of time the Republic had taken shelter within the eighty-five Sectors. Children born within that time frame had never eaten food prepared with natural ingredients, least of all meat. 

It was said that one’s sense of taste developed at a young age and was largely shaped by the flavors one was exposed to at that time. Consequently, one would assume that those children would never be able to appreciate any food not made in a production plant for as long as they lived. They would never be able to enjoy the cuisine of other countries outside the Gran Mur. 

Sensing Lena’s concern, Shin spoke up. 

“That’s in the same vein as them never having seen any other race but the Alba… They might not be able to recognize anyone who isn’t an Alba as a fellow human being…right?” 

Lena nodded. “This unit’s first operation is set to be the retaking of the Republic’s northern administrative Sectors. I’m honestly…a little worried about sending you to fight in the Republic the way things are now.” 

The ostracism and aversion of the Republic’s citizens would likely be made apparent to the Eighty-Six, be it by words or other means. 

“It’s not all that different from when we fought in the Eighty-Sixth Sector… But still, the Republic really had nothing but synthesized food? Even if keeping a steady flow of livestock was too hard, there must have been rabbits or pigeons.” 

“…We didn’t have the technology to capture animals, and hardly any people knew how to properly butcher them. There probably wasn’t any consciousness of the fact that we could catch and eat them.” 

Compared to the dull, tasteless synthetic food they provided the Eighty-Six, the food inside the Republic was still worthy of being called food. There wasn’t much of a demand to eat anything better than that. 

“Well, I don’t know how to cook, so I’m not really one to talk…” 

The Milizé family was once a house of nobles, after all, and Lena was their sole heiress. The idea of her dirtying her hands meant that not only did she never cook, but she never had to do any housework. Shin calmly sipped coffee substitute from his mug. “I’m not good at cooking, either.” 

“Huh?” 

Lena found herself staring back at him. He looked nimble fingered, as if he could do pretty much anything, so she had just figured there wasn’t anything he wasn’t good at. 

“That’s…surprising.” 

“Well, it’s not like I can’t cook at all. But from what Raiden says, my sense of taste is a little…” 

Placing the mug back on the table, Shin gestured toward his mouth. 

“…dull.” 

Judging by the slight hesitation in his tone, he was probably unaware of just how dull his sense of taste actually was. Perhaps that was only natural, since unlike eyesight and hearing, taste wasn’t a sense that had measurements to quantify it. Also, however Raiden described Shin’s sense of taste, it likely wasn’t anything as restrained as “dull.” 

“I won’t deny that I’m not very good at seasoning, but even if I do feel bad for doing things like leaving some eggshells in the food, it’s not like it’s the end of the world. I think it’s still perfectly edible that way.” 

“…” 

That clumsy way of thinking made it clear just how inept he was, even to someone like Lena, who didn’t know the first thing about cooking. However… 

“Eggs, hmm…? How does one open them, though?” 

She’d heard that the shells were very hard. Did one need a hammer to open them, perhaps? 

“…” 

This time it was Shin’s turn to be struck silent for several seconds. 

“…You know how the school has a class on the fundamentals of cooking as one of its elective courses?” 

“Yes…?” 

“It covers basic techniques, like how to properly hold a kitchen knife, but for the time being, the only one taking that course is Frederica…our squad’s Mascot. Maybe you should take it, too, Colonel.” 

“…Only if you take it with me.” 

“I’m good.” 

“What? Why?” 

The nearby intelligence-staff officers had to hold back from laughing at the sight of this ridiculous back-and-forth. 

In the end, their roundabout argument continued even after they finished their meal and Shin got himself a second mug of coffee substitute. Shin refused to back down, which only made Lena determined to become good at cooking so she could rub it in his face. Shin then went on to follow her with a dubious expression as she walked toward the hangar with an oddly enthusiastic stride. 

The hangar had been completely abandoned just a few hours ago but was now full once again with the Feldreß it was meant to house, and the two soldiers who’d been drenched in white and red had also finished their cleanup. These were the Reginleifs, the new mobile weapons Shin and his friends piloted, which now slumbered in the spring sunlight with their long legs folded beneath them. 

The sight of those Feldreß, weapons far more refined and optimized than the Juggernaut, made Lena’s heart tremble. These white Feldreß, the color of polished bone, had a cold, vicious beauty to them but also gave the ominous impression of skeletal corpses wandering the battlefield in search of their lost heads. 

She remembered this. She’d seen it from the Gran Mur’s interception cannon’s command room, a white flash cutting through the blue darkness of dawn, facing off against the giant, draconic form of the Morpho. She recalled hearing that the Reginleif had been developed using a Juggernaut the Federacy had recovered when they rescued Shin and his group as a reference. 

Which meant that her hunch about it being similar to the Juggernaut was right on the mark… So in a way, Shin and his group had saved her life as early as back then. Of course, the greatest contributor to that had been the Processor piloting that Reginleif, but had it not been for the machine’s mobility, he wouldn’t have been able to pursue and destroy the Morpho. Which reminded her that she still needed to find that officer and thank him. 

She beheld each of the five Reginleifs standing in an orderly fashion, each with its own unique armaments. She then stopped before one of them, one which stood out from the rest. Shin’s unit: Undertaker. Its fixed armaments were four pile drivers, a pair of wire anchors, and the standard 88 mm smoothbore gun. But in contrast was Shin’s almost signature weapon of choice, a high-frequency blade. Lena turned to face Shin, its rider. 

“…May I touch it?” 

“…? Go ahead.” 

Shin nodded, perplexed, as if wondering what the point of the question was, but this was the partner he’d entrusted his life to. It wasn’t something for someone else to touch without permission. She ran her hand over the cold metal roughened up by countless scars. Shin had been in the Federacy military for only two years. The fighting must have been incredibly intense for it to accumulate so many battle scars in such a short amount of time. 

Thank you for saving him, for keeping Shin safe on that battlefield. 

It bore the name Undertaker, just as Shin’s Juggernaut had in the Republic. If weapons had anything resembling souls, this unit had inherited that Juggernaut’s soul, without question. Her fingers traced the unit emblem of a spearhead emblazoned beneath the canopy. As her eyes wandered to what looked to be his Personal Mark—a headless skeleton carrying a shovel—Shin spoke with a wry smile. 

“You read up on the Juggernaut’s data before being stationed here, right? All its equipment is standard, so I don’t think you’ll find anything too unusual here.” 

“That’s true, but…um, it was the first model that came to aid the Republic, so…” 

For some reason, she hesitated to tell Shin the details of how another Processor had saved her, and instead, she trailed off vaguely. She then suddenly remembered something and, after excusing herself for a moment, walked over to the head of the maintenance team. She exchanged a few words with them, received something, and walked back with the parcel in hand. An acquaintance she’d happened to meet yesterday in the integrated headquarters’ base had left her with this package, along with a message. It was a dangerous item, meaning she couldn’t carry it in her luggage, so she’d had it carried over in a munitions container, along with other ammunition. 

“…What’s this?” 

“Well, er, I don’t really know, either…” 

It was a plastic case that had remained unopened since leaving the gunsmith. She lifted the lid and said after presenting the contents: 

“I believe this belongs to you, Captain.” 

The case contained a somewhat large 9 mm automatic pistol with a double-feed magazine, the kind of gun the old Republic’s ground forces had used in the past. With the ground forces gone from the battlefield, the Eighty-Six Processors often carried these. Shin looked down into the case suspiciously…and, in the next moment, stiffened noisily. 

“Captain?” 

“…Colonel, where did you…find this?” 

“Outside the Gran Mur, when the Federacy came to rescue us.” 

“……” 

Shin fell silent, his face becoming somewhat pale. It was hard to tell, since his expression rarely changed, but she could sense some uneasiness behind his expressionless face. Lena didn’t know the reason behind it, though. To begin with, this pistol was something Shiden—the captain of the Queen’s Knights—had found in the sea of lycoris flowers after the Morpho’s destruction and their linking up with the Federacy’s rescue forces. 

When they met for the first time in a while yesterday, Shiden had had the expression of a child who had thought up a nasty prank to pull, and she’d told Lena to hand the pistol over to the Strike Package’s captain (in other words, to Shin). Shiden had said Shin had dropped it, with the smile of a starved crocodile facing a delectable meal. 

The pistol hadn’t seemed as if it’d been discarded for that long, so Lena had assumed it belonged to that Reginleif’s Processor, who she figured was the Strike Package’s captain… But to think Shin had happened to be there, too. That shouldn’t have been possible. After all, there had been just the one Reginleif there. She remembered that from their conversation. 

She remembered the blunt, youthful voice speaking to her from beyond the transmission crackling with noise. He never did give her his name, but she did remember the Personal Mark on the damaged armor… A headless skeleton shouldering a shovel. Realizing she’d seen that same Personal Mark only a moment ago, she turned her eyes to Undertaker again. 

The same headless skeleton shouldering a shovel didn’t quite return her gaze, because of its missing head, but it was there all the same. The Personal Mark of a reaper burying the dead. A reaper… 

…It can’t be. 

Shifting her attention back to Shin—to the Processor who piloted that Reginleif—she gawked at him, which only resulted in Shin averting his gaze. Shin obstinately refused to look Lena in the eye. And that made Lena sure of it. 

“It was you…?!” 

Shin’s eyes darted around for a moment, as if looking for a way out…before he dropped his shoulders in resignation. 

“…Yes, it was.” 

In contrast to Lena’s eyes lighting up, Shin looked away awkwardly. 

“I’m sorry…for back then.” 

“Huh?” 

“I mean…I didn’t know who you were, but I said some rather rude things at the time…” 

“Um…” 

Sorry… Sorry? What did I tell him at the time, come to think of it? Actually, I…can’t remember at all…! 

“N-no, I was desperate at the time… I actually don’t quite remember what happened, but did I perhaps say something rude myself? I was, um, quite exhausted and a bit out of it at the time, and I feel like I said all sorts of things in the heat of the moment…” 

She tripped over her flustered apology. Thinking about it, saying she didn’t remember what had happened was that much ruder, but having come to that realization only after saying it, Lena became even more flustered. 

Shin only seemed relieved, though. “No… You actually saved me back then.” 

That was one thing she did remember. At that time, the Federacy’s Processor—Shin—had been like a lost, defeated child with no idea of where to go next. She didn’t know what battles he’d lived through over the two years since the Special Reconnaissance mission and reaching the Federacy, but he’d found himself going on a suicidal charge through the Legion’s territories to face off against the Morpho. The fight must have been quite terrible for the Federacy for it to order him to do this. So if she could help him, even a little bit… 

“Thank goodness. In that case…I’m glad.” 

She presented him with the gun case once more, and this time, Shin accepted it. 

He couldn’t carry around a handgun that he hadn’t tested yet, so Shin went back to his room to put the gun case down. 

“—By the way, how did you know the gun was mine? Did someone give it to you?” 

“That’s right. Yesterday at the integrated headquarters, I ran into Cyclops—Captain Iida. That’s when I got it.” 

“…Cyclops?” 

“The captain of the squadron I was assigned to after your Special Reconnaissance mission.” 

“…” 

That exchange soured Shin’s mood for a moment (which was, once again, quite hard to notice given how little his expression changed). As he tossed the gun case on the desk with particular crudeness, Lena peeked into his room from the doorstep, wondering if it was all right to do so. Compared to Lena’s room—one for a higher-ranking officer—Shin’s was the rather plain quarters of a Processor. 

Two years ago, she’d gotten the impression that he was a bookworm, or rather, an indiscriminate reader, and apparently, she was right on the money. The only thing adorning the cold, tidy room was a small, cluttered shelf crammed full of books. As she perused the titles on the shelf, which included philosophy books, technical manuals, paperback novels, and for some reason picture books, Lena asked, “…Why didn’t you tell me until now, though? I realize the Federacy military has confidentiality clauses, but you could have at least contacted me…” 

It was understandable during the Morpho’s elimination operation, since they hadn’t seen each other’s faces, but Shin had definitely known Lena was going to become the Strike Package’s commanding officer. He regarded her question with an annoyed expression. 

“I’m sorry. During the rescue operation, we were always on the front lines, and when the Strike Package was being organized, the confidentiality became that much stricter for some reason. We weren’t allowed to contact anyone from the outside.” 

“…” 

Lena had asked the relief expeditionary force several times about the headless skeleton’s Processor and hadn’t been given an answer, because of confidentiality clauses. But now she recalled the commander, Richard, holding back laughter and his adviser, the chief of staff, Willem, showing an amused smile. She’d asked for the Processor’s personnel file, which would usually have their name, but curiously, the procedure was continually held up, and she hadn’t seen it until now. Lena got the feeling they had all been in on it and had conspired to not let the two of them get in contact… 

“And besides, I never once doubted that you would catch up to us, Colonel.” 

“Huh…?” 

“I never doubted that you’d reach our final destination. I worried that contacting you or coming to see you would make it seem like I didn’t believe you could do it on your own.” 

“You remembered.” 

“Of course I did.” 

Shin said it with his usual placid tone, as if it was nothing at all, but there were no other words in the world that could have made Lena happier. He’d remembered—he’d believed in her and that she would catch up to them someday. Lena bit her lip. If there was ever a time to say what needed to be said, it was now, and if she didn’t take the opportunity, she’d likely never be brave enough again. 

“Shin.” 

She called his name firmly. Shin turned to face her, closing the door to his room. Lena gave a dry cough before continuing. 

“Can we…can we call each other by our names? In public places there are appearances to keep up, so that’s not acceptable, of course, but whenever we’re not…” 

Major. 

The Eighty-Six had called her by her rank before as a sign of their reservations. To signify their relationship as the oppressor and the oppressed. One was a white pig sitting safely behind the wall, and the others were proud Eighty-Six fighting outside it. An invisible line had been drawn between them, marking the fact that they weren’t close enough to pretend to be friends by calling one another by their given names. 

But she was finally outside the wall, even if she didn’t stand beside them on the battlefield. 

“For these past two years, I’ve fought my own way, even if it doesn’t compare to yours. And even if I couldn’t make my dream come true, at the very least, I never ran away. So could you treat me like you do the others…” 

Like Raiden and Theo and Kurena and Anju. Like his comrades in arms… 

“…and call me by my name…? Could you please call me Lena?” 

Shin looked at Lena with surprise, seemingly taken aback—as if he’d called her by her rank out of habit and not out of any ill will—and suddenly smiled. 

“I don’t mind. But only on one condition.” 

“There’s a condition?” 

“Yes.” 

As Lena steeled herself, Shin said: 

“Please stop making that tragic face.” 

His words struck Lena like a knife through the heart. 

“…I’m not making a tragic face.” 

For some reason, her voice came out awkwardly, as if her nose was stuffy… As if she was on the verge of tears. 

“Yes, you are. To be honest…it’s kind of been irritating me for a while now.” 

Even as he called her face irritating, his tone and gaze were filled with concern. 

“When I said I wanted you to remember us, it wasn’t so you would remember our deaths. I didn’t tell you to live on just so you could spend every day trying to atone for your sins… I didn’t leave you with those words as a punishment, so that you would wear such a tortured expression…” 

As if to say he wasn’t accusing her of anything… 

“…So stop wearing that macabre uniform. It doesn’t suit you… And neither does this hair.” 

After a moment of hesitation, he gently scooped up a strand of Lena’s long, silken hair. The lone streak was dyed red, meant to represent the blood of the Eighty-Six. 

“You don’t have to do this anymore. You have no sins to atone for. No one’s condemning you, so please stop—stop trying to bear a cross that doesn’t exist.” 

Lena slowly shook her head. 

It wasn’t a cross… It wasn’t guilt. It was armor. The uniform dyed black. The hair dyed red. They were the armor I needed to fight all alone in the Republic, where everyone else forgot how to fight. 

“…But…” 

The words spilled from her pink lips before she knew what she was saying. 

“…there was no one left… You and the others, everyone I took command of after you left, they all went ahead and left me behind.” 

A calm voice in her head ordered her to stop, but the bitter whispers slithered out all the same. 

Your side is the one that cast them out, the side that sent them to their deaths. You have no right to say anything, no right to weep your loneliness to him. 

“No one believed me. No one would fight with me… No one stood beside me.” 

Even though I begged them… “Don’t leave me behind…” 

“Both my uncle and mother passed away, and I was left all alone… So if I didn’t pretend to be strong, I would never have lasted. If I didn’t call myself the Bloodstained Queen, if I didn’t believe the lie that I was Bloody Reina, then I would have…” 

“…Yeah…” 

…broken and fallen apart a long time ago. 

Shin quietly affirmed Lena’s vulnerability. Maybe he identified with some of what she said. Maybe this boy, the same age as her, carried the name of the Reaper so he could survive that battlefield of certain death… 

“But you don’t need that anymore. You’re not alone anymore… You have me, Raiden, and the others by your side.” 

The warmth of his body, slightly warmer than her own, had made her restless earlier, but now it felt comforting. It gave weight to his words and filled her with hope. 

“Didn’t you want to fight together—with us?” 

“…!” 

And there was her limit. Lena clung to the person who stood by her side—at long last—and wept like a child. 

“…Those two are really, how d’ya say it…? A troublesome pair?” said Theo, one hand clamped over Frederica’s mouth as he carried the struggling girl with the other hand. 

“Didn’t think we’d have to cover for them getting stalked by these two the entire day,” replied Raiden, carrying the equally muffled, equally miffed Kurena. 

They were on the bend of the corridor where Lena was currently clinging to Shin, weeping loudly. Raiden and Theo were tucked in the shadows behind the wall, hidden from view, whispering as quietly as they could so Shin’s keen ears and senses wouldn’t pick up on their presence. 

Anju, who was sitting on the opposite side of the corridor and successfully eavesdropping on Shin and Lena with a hand mirror, cracked a fox’s smile. 

“If anything, Kurena and Frederica need to learn to restrain themselves a bit. I know you don’t like seeing your big brother getting snatched away by another girl, but at least let them have today.” 

Kurena and Frederica both let out muffled, annoyed groans in response—some exclamation of protest and objection that more than likely meant He’s not my big brother!—which everyone tacitly ignored. 

The record of Shin and Lena’s conversation after the Morpho’s destruction was one Shin didn’t want others to hear at all costs, but Theo was glad they’d heard it. He was the Reaper who fought by their side and took their dead comrades to their final destination. But that crybaby of a Handler had told him the words they’d always wanted to say but couldn’t, since it was them that made Shin carry that burden. 

“…I’m glad the colonel didn’t die.” 

“Agreed.” 

Anju snapped her hand mirror shut. 

“He’s gonna notice us any minute now. Let’s get out of here.” 

“Okaaay.” “Rogerrrr that.” 

She’d gone to all that trouble to reapply her makeup, and now it was running again. Lena spoke, still with a bit of a hiccup in her voice. 

“I’ll change my hair back to the way it was before, then.” 

Shin smiled faintly. 

“I think that would be for the best.” 

“My uniform, too.” 

“Yeah.” 

“…However, until a spare uniform arrives, I’ll keep wearing the black one…” 

“Couldn’t you just wear the Federacy uniform until then?” 

No, that’s a bit too much, or so Lena was about to say before changing her mind. Yes, she’d been on the receiving end of his teasing for long enough, so her next retort served as a bit of petty revenge. 

“Would that be more to your…liking?” 

“Huh…?” 

Shin stared at Lena, taken aback. Unsure how to answer that, he froze in place with his mouth hanging open. Seeing this usually detached boy so uncharacteristically flustered, Lena couldn’t help but burst out in laughter.