File XX- The Strongest Combatants Serving the Lord
1
The Imperial capital.
The Mechanical Utopia, the center of the Empire, the home of several Imperial bases used in the Imperial forces’ fight against the Nebulis Sovereignty.
Wintertime had come to the capital.
“It’s already the end of the year…”
Imperial forces, Third Base.
Commander Mismis rested her head on the conference room table as she relaxed.
“It’s cold outside because of the winds blowing in from the north, and the department stores are bustling from the year-end sales. What classic winter scenes. Now we just wait for the end of the year.”
“Mismis, I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” said someone by the window.
Risya gave them a strained smile as she took her eyes off the soldiers’ winter training exercise.
“You have two days left until winter holidays start,” she said.
“Yeah, just two more days!”
They were both more or less saying the same words with the exact opposite sentiments. While Risya was still fulfilling her duties as part of the top brass, Mismis was already preoccupied with making holiday plans.
“Right… I got my winter bonus in already. Now all I need to do is enjoy my break to its fullest.”
“You’re acting like you’re already on vacation.” Risya let out an exasperated sigh. “I still have tons of work to do, so I can’t get in the holiday mood yet. By the way, what are your end-of-year plans like, Mismis?”
“They’re perfect this year!”
She seemed very happy to have been asked. Mismis beamed and jumped out of her seat. “First, I’m going to watch all the TV shows I recorded this year! I’ll sit under my heated table and watch them while eating end-of-year BBQ—”
“You can’t!”
“What?”
“Do you think an Imperial soldier is allowed to slack off like that?!” Risya suddenly barked. She charged right up to Mismis, who gaped at her friend. “A winter break is meant for preparing for the coming year. You should be using the time to better yourself!”
“Uh, Risya, even the commanding officers said to use the break to mentally relax…”
“Those were all lies.”
“What?!”
“How you spend this winter break will determine how the rest of the year goes—and that’s no overstatement. This isn’t the time for mental relaxation!” Risya grabbed Mismis’s shoulders. “Anyone can get themselves to work for the sake of others at any time of the year. For example…the people who deliver the New Year’s letters. They keep working through the holidays without going on break!”
“Th-this seems like a different topic entirely?”
“They’re a huge deal. You’re going to send New Year’s letters, too, right, Mismis?”
“Yeah…just a few.”
Now, New Year’s letters were simply postcards sent for the new year. They were meant to reach their recipients on the first day of January. However, they’d increased in popularity lately, which had started causing delivery issues.
“The delivery workers are giving up their breaks to make sure everyone gets their mail. Isn’t that right?”
“……Y-yeah. The delivery workers are amazing. They drive around the entire capital on New Year’s Day in their cars and on their motorcycles without sleeping or resting…”
“Are you grateful for their service?”
“Of course!”
“Do you respect them?”
“Uh, sure…but it’s not respect so much as that I’m just impressed…”
“Then it’s decided.” Risya smiled. “Mismis, how about you do some deliveries, then?”
“…What?”
“Well, you’re grateful for their service, aren’t you? And you respect them—the letter delivery workers, that is.”
“What? Wait, Risya, what’s going on with you?! What’s that look in your eyes…?” Mismis had noticed too late. Even though Risya was grinning at her as she kept a vise grip over Mismis’s shoulders, the smile didn’t reach her eyes.
“R-Risya?!”
“Hee-hee. I have my reasons for this.”
A few hours earlier.
The Lord’s offices.
The windowless building was known as the Lord’s residence. Currently, the most prominent leaders of the Imperial forces were gathered in a room.
First were the top brass from headquarters. Then there were the generals from Divisions I to VI. The most highly regarded of all were the Saint Disciples, who served the Lord directly.
As everyone gathered in the space, the Lord watched the scene from afar through a camera.
They were coming up with plans for next year’s military operations.
“All right.”
Over fifty people were gathered around the circular table.
One of the people in charge of the headquarters’s business affairs stood up while holding a thick stack of documents.
“That concludes the last meeting of the year. See you all next year.”
They’d just finished.
The entire group of fifty headed out to leave. One member of the crowd, Risya, slowly stretched.
“Ahh…I’m so tired. Seven-hour meetings with no break really are suffocating affairs.”
But this was also her final one of the year. The other top brass leaving the hall also seemed relieved, like a weight had been lifted off them upon finishing their last big job.
Then again…
Risya still had lots of things she needed to take care of.
She was the fifth seat of the Saint Disciples and also a special headquarters employee. She had her work cut out for her.
“Looks like it’s another day of overtime… I still need to go over those strategy documents.”
It seemed she would be welcoming the new year while working—yet again. She was on a strict schedule—a death march, really. If only she had a secretary to keep her organized through her brutal itinerary.
“Oh, I know! Hey, Shuri!”
“What is it, Ms. Risya?”
A bespectacled office worker turned around when Risya called her name. She was the budget officer of headquarters, Shurilia. Though she was new and had been assigned to headquarters only recently, she was busier than anyone else at that moment because it was the time of year for fiscal budgeting.
“You look so relieved, Shuri,” Risya said to her.
“That’s because I am…” The woman, who was young enough to look like a college student, let out a sigh. “For the past month, I’ve been putting together the documents we need to create the budget. I’ve spent night after night on the base… I haven’t even had time to take a proper bath, and I eventually stopped doing makeup. My suit was full of wrinkles, too, and I barely felt like a woman while I was living like that. But it’s all over with today.”
“Uh-huh, sure. Sounds like you can rest easy and welcome the new year.”
“Yes!”
“So I’ve got a favor I need to ask you.”
“Which would be…?”
“Could you put in a teeny, little correction for me in my budget?”
Crack. As soon as Risya said that, Shurilia froze over.
“See, I’ve just drowning in work. It’d help a ton if I had a secretary to help me manage my schedule. Even more so if they could make me tea and meals.”
Shurilia was completely silent.
“I’m sure someone with as much say as you could fiddle with the budget numbers a little to fit a secretary in for me. Right…huh, Shuri?”
“Oh? Wh-what was I doing?!” Shurilia seemed to come back to her senses. “I-I’m sorry. I’ve slept so little that I must have blacked out for a moment. It sounded like you were asking for the budget for a secretary last-minute, but I’m sure I was just mishearing things. A smart person like yourself would never request something so ridiculous…”
“No, I did.”
“Please tell me you’re joking!” The documents in her hands fluttered to the ground. “I can’t! It’s impossible! Completely impossible! We just got the budget approved, too!”
“But I just remembered it now. You can do it, can’t you?”
“I can’t put more strain on myself! Even for a special employee of the headquarters! So I’ll be going now. I still have a mountain of work to do today.”
She quickly gathered all the papers on the floor and turned to leave. But as she tried to get away from Risya…
“Yo, Shu, I’ve got a little request for you.”
“Ms. Mei?” Shurilia stopped in her tracks as another officer approached her from the side.
This person was another Saint Disciple, just like Risya. She was the third seat of the Saint Disciples, the incessant storm Mei. She’d come from Special Division V, which the Empire dispatched to underdeveloped lands.
As such, she had honed her skills in merciless environments and roughed it out for her training. Her long hair was a tangled mess, and her skin was sunbaked, giving her the appearance of a wild lion.
“Um, Ms. Mei, this might be rude of me, but…”
“Hm? What is it?”
“You’re rarely the last one around at these meetings.”
It wasn’t odd for Shurilia to be suspicious. Mei’s hatred of meetings was infamous. She couldn’t stand sitting still and would practically dash out of the room as soon as one was done. So why was she lingering in the hall?
What for?
“That’s because I have something to ask you, Shu.”
“Me specifically?”
“Yeah. So, Shu, I actually have a favor to ask you.”
“Huh?!” The budget manager flinched and shivered. And little wonder. Risya had just said almost the exact same thing. “Y-you’re not going to ask…”
“Could you bump up Division V’s funds a bit? And if you could keep it a secret from the other departments, that’d be great.”
“You too?!”
“Aw, I wanna buy a huge tank for next year. One that’s just for me.”
“You want it all to yourself?!”
“C’mon, it’ll only cost a little.”
“It most certainly won’t be just a ‘little’! First there was Risya and now this. Why didn’t you ask during the meeting?!”
“I was asleep.”
“You were what?!” The budget officer staggered. “M-my precious meeting…that I spent a month preparing for…”
“Oh, c’mon, Shu. If you look at page eighteen, Division VI is getting twice the budget per head of Division V.”
“Oh, so you did go through those.”
“So why do they have twice as much? If you can give a wad of cash to those sneaky guys skulking in the shadows where nobody can even see their work, why can’t you give us a little—”
Someone interrupted Mei before she could finish.
“What a funny joke.”
A man was standing directly behind her. He wore a strange, dull-colored, suit-like outfit that covered him from head to toe.
“So, Mei, what was it that you were saying about Division VI?”
“Eep!” Shurilia turned around in shock when she realized someone had approached her from behind without a sound. “M-Mr. Nameless!”
“ ”
He was Saint Disciple of the eighth seat, Nameless. Like Mei and Risya, he was the Lord’s guard. He came from Special Division VI, which operated from the shadows, conducting covert missions that their coworkers, much less the general populace, wouldn’t have any way of knowing about. In other words, they were the assassin unit.
Nameless was also one of the top soldiers from the division.
“So, Mei, which unit exactly is ‘sneaky’ and ‘skulking’ in the shadows?”
“Ha-ha. Don’t get all knotted up about it, Names. Unless this is your way of telling me I hit the mark?”
The tall man looked down on Mei, towering over her. She snickered as though she was enjoying that.
“You’re always sneaking around the base and battlefields; meanwhile Division V is roughing it out there. That’s what I’m talking about.”
“Oh?”
“Besides, we aren’t just going up against witches in our division. Have you ever sunk into a bottomless swamp in the savage jungle? Or gotten surrounded by a gang of basilisks while lost in the desert? Only the top 7 percent of those who take the forces test to get in are allowed into Division V. We’re the true elite forces.”
“Ah yes, Division V, which only requires a physical test to get in.” Nameless pulled no punches. “In mission performance, Division VI seeks soldiers with a variety of abilities: physical prowess, learning ability, and adaptability. But you just want soldiers who are physically strong? That’s all Division V specializes in? You might as well have gorillas fulfill your missions.”
“How dare you!”
“Division VI is an independent unit that no other department can meddle with. We are tasked with protecting a large number of state secrets and making sure nothing leaks. We can’t allow for even a single mistake in our missions. And you think your division could compare to us… Hah!”
Nameless laughed. He wasn’t just adding fuel to the fire at this point—this was throwing dynamite into an oil field.
“How can you even say you’re putting your lives at risk when all you do is wander around places where no one lives?”
“Well, now you’ve done it, Names.” Mei daringly stared at him. “In that case—”
“P-please wait!” Shurilia quickly broke into their dispute. She pushed up the bridge of her glasses. “Really, now… It won’t do to fight in a place like this. We can’t have discord between Divisions V and VI. HQ wouldn’t want that. Please bury the hatchet.”
“So you’ll increase my division’s budget?”
“Only under certain conditions.” A glint flashed in the timid woman’s eyes as her attitude reversed. “We’ve received budget increase requests from all three of you. I can’t simply give you extra funds, but I could pay you for a part-time job.”
“A part-time job?”
“Making the New Year’s letter deliveries this year. I was going to ask another department to help, but I can request that you do it instead.”
She pulled three pieces of paper from her thick stack of documents.
Then she handed the sheets of paper to the three of them.
“Take a look at this graph that tracks the number of letters sent each year. We’ve seen a sevenfold increase in the last four years. This is partially a result of giveaway cards that include the opportunity to win luxurious prizes, like a brand-new car or a mansion and vacation home. There are so many cards being sent out these days that over three hundred million are delivered in the capital alone.”
“Hey, Shu,” Mei said as she looked up from the document. She also sighed. “You’re not telling us to deliver these cards ourselves, are you?”
“That is exactly right,” she said.
“Then it’s just a regular old part-time job! Why would you ask us to do that…?”
“What if I said that the team that delivers the most cards will get a special bonus?”
“Huh!” Mei’s eyes twitched. “…I see. So that’s how we’d get our budget increase.”
“Please be careful with your phrasing. HQ can’t give out budget increases, but we do have some leeway when it comes to compensating part-time work.”
“I’m in, Shuri!” Risya thumped Shurilia on the back and nodded enthusiastically. “So if I win, I’ll get a secretary. That’ll be easy. Most of Division V isn’t even in the capital, and there aren’t many members of Division VI anyway. All I’ve got to do is use my personal connections to overwhelm the competition with numbers.”
“Geez, Risya, don’t act like you’ve already won.” Mei grinned, her canines glinting. “You forget it’s the end of the year. Some of my people are back in the capital right now. All I’ve gotta do is get them mobilized, and this win is in the bag for me.”
“Hee-hee. Do you really think that, Ms. Mei?”
Risya and Mei glared at each other. Meanwhile, the man representing Division VI didn’t bother to hide his sigh.
“How foolish…”
He left the paper on a desk and turned his back to them.
“I have no desire to wag my tail for headquarters. Mei, Risya, you do what you want—”
“Oh, Names?”
“Scared of losing, are you?”
“Heh-heh.”
The two Saint Disciples whispered loudly so he could hear.
“Say, Risya, that doesn’t sound like something a real man would do.”
“You’re completely right. What Saint Disciple would run from a fight? Right, Ms. Mei?”
“ ”
The Saint Disciple of the eighth seat remained silent. Eventually, he let out a second sigh.
“Fine. If you insist on blatantly provoking me, then I’ll take you up on your challenge.”
Thus, the battle between headquarters, Division V, and Division VI started.
“So there you have it. It happened a few hours ago.” Risya nodded to herself. “Basically, it’s a chance for me to get the budget I need for a secretary. Now let’s talk strategy. Mismis, you’ll be on First Street in the capital.”
“I haven’t said I’d accep—ngh?!”
“Listen, Mismis!” Risya clapped her hand over Mismis’s mouth. “This may seem like a fight over the budget at first glance. But it’s not. This is bigger than that. It’s a dispute between the factions in the Imperial forces. A standoff between Division V, VI, and headquarters. And the results will be merciless. Our pride is on the line!”
“That’s way too dramatic!”
“It really isn’t. We’re deciding which faction is the most competent. The one that wins will have a lot to be proud of. I need to win this before the year ends!”
“Can’t you just have a normal New Year’s?!”
As Risya became more impassioned, Commander Mismis deflated.
As for the audience watching the whole thing…
“I agree with Commander Mismis,” Iska said.
“Me too,” Nene added.
“Looks like we’ve got no choice anyway…,” Jhin also said. The three of them glanced at one another.
It was right before the end of the year, and every unit in the Imperial forces was prepping for the coming year. They’d wondered what why Risya was dropping by for a visit when she should have been busy, too.
“Do you think she’s going to drag us into it, too…?”
“You’ve got that right, Isk! When you’re in the 907, you’re in it together!” Risya spread her arms out. “When a commander’s in a predicament, she needs to be supported by her troops! That’s the beauty of the forces! We all support one another!”
“But you’re the reason why I’m in a predicament, Risya!”
“Hmm. So I think I’ve got about two hundred people now.”
Apparently, Iska and the others were already helping out in Risya’s mind. The fact that she’d drafted two hundred soldiers into her service during what should have been a break was also a surprise.
“Ms. Risya, even if you want a secretary really badly, I don’t think you can just order the troops around like this willy-nilly…”
“Hee-hee. It just goes to show how popular I am, Isk.” Risya didn’t hesitate at all to admit it. “I’m sure Nameless and Ms. Mei are going about delivering postcards the wrong way. The right way to do this is to overwhelm with sheer numbers by sending in a huge wave of people. The person who gathers the most people—”
“I don’t think it will go as smoothly as you planned.”
“Waaah?!” Mismis fell off her chair.
Suddenly, an assassin in a suit appeared directly behind her. She was sure no one had been there a second ago.
“Hm. I wondered who you all were. So it’s your unit.”
He turned off his optical camouflage. Nameless stared at Iska and the others.
They had met before.
Iska’s unit was from Special Division III. On the other hand, Nameless had worked his way up from Division VI into becoming a Saint Disciple. Though they were in different divisions, they had once worked together when trying to strategize to steal a vortex.
“So you’ve decided to become Risya’s dogs. Well, it’s the same as if she’d recruited anyone else.”
“Hey, Risya, I’m here to see what the enemy’s up to.” The door opened, and a feral-looking female soldier took long strides into the room. As soon as Risya saw the woman, she gave her a strained smile.
“Oh, now even you’re here, Ms. Mei?”
“Looks like you’re still plugging away at scouting, Risya. I heard you collected over a hundred…hm?”
Mei turned to look at Mismis, Jhin, and Nene until her eyes finally landed on Iska. She was the third seat of the Saint Disciples, and Iska had once been a Saint Disciple, too. They’d never spoken before, but they knew of each other.
“Who’re you again? Oh, right, you’re Aska.”
“It’s Iska.”
“So they released you, huh? Or did Risya get you out? Hey, Risya, did you really go that far just for some letter deliveries?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with getting him acquitted, and that happened a long time ago.”
“Oh? Well, who cares?” Mei really seemed to have come by just to see what was up. She nodded with satisfaction and turned right around. “Unfortunately for you, Risya, no matter how many people you recruit, Division V is still going to win.”
“One hundred? Two hundred? In the end, you just have a random assortment of people, and no teamwork to speak of.”
Nameless made his exit after Mei. Iska and the others watched them both leave.
“No way!” Risya held up her fist and yelled back, “I’m going to be the one to win! Mismis promised me I would!”
“Don’t bring me into this!”
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