Chapter 2: Mist Blue

Chapter 2: Mist Blue

CHAPTER 2

MIST BLUE

“We got no response yesterday, after all.”

Breakfast was presented buffet-style, as was the case in most hotels in the Alliance. True to the cooks’ boastful claims, the food was delicious. They prepared mountains of potatoes right in front of their diners and served them with molten cheese.

Lena spoke as she brought her last bite to her lips. The sliced potatoes were made from an artificial starch substitute, but the cheese was real and delicious. Confirming the plate opposite hers had the same dish, she nodded to herself in satisfaction.

“We’ve known there’s a chance the Legion sprang traps to draw out elite units from the United Kingdom and the Federacy… That is to say, you and Vika. And if that’s the case, the victims of the attack on the United Kingdom are…”

“If nothing else, I think the voice I heard from that unit matches the archived recordings of her voice,” Shin replied from the opposite seat. “I think it’s too soon to jump to conclusions.”

He had two small mountains of cheese omelets and buttery scrambled eggs laid out before him. Both looked quite appetizing, but while he was attempting to decide which one to try, the chef insisted he was still a growing boy and piled a generous helping of each egg dish onto his plate.

They were in a rest house usually occupied by gluttonous officers, so the cooks were excited to feed a group of young soldiers—that is to say, growing boys and girls with appetites to match.

The cooks were quite pleased after everyone ate heartily the other day. They recommended certain types of breads, gave extra servings of piping hot soup, and were constantly occupied with the contents of their trays.

“Besides, I think it only makes sense she didn’t respond yesterday… I did call out to her with the microphone turned off.”

They decided to start their interrogation by trying something new.

“Leave the lighting as it is for now…,” Vika said. “Nouzen, you try speaking to her with the microphone turned off.”

Standing in the dim light of the interrogation room, Shin furrowed his brows at Vika’s instructions. The fact that he offered no context as to what he was trying to do struck Shin as odd. Similar to how the constraint room didn’t allow anyone inside to see what happened outside, it also didn’t permit them to hear things from its side. If they were to speak to whatever was inside the room, one would need to turn on a designated microphone.

“What do you mean…?”

“Think back to the Dragon Fang Mountain operation. As it drew closer to its conclusion, the Merciless Queen showed herself to you… Considering she’s the commander of a base on the brink of falling to enemy hands, that course of action isn’t just illogical. It’s harmful.”

Shin had been trapped in the magma lake at the bottom of the Dragon Fang Mountain base. He had nowhere to go and was isolated in a tomb of solid rock that even cut off all his communication options.

With him was a Legion commander whose presence there was beyond abnormal, given that its base was on the verge of being taken down. That place led to nowhere in particular, and any orders it relayed from there would do nothing to help.

“It could have been a coincidence. She could have been operating on some kind of logic that’s clear to the Legion but doesn’t make sense to humans. But we can’t discredit the possibility of her intentionally showing herself to you. We must confirm that first, and if you truly are what she’s after, then we have to find out why.”

Was the Merciless Queen being captured by the Strike Package the result of some kind of blunder on its behalf? Or did it intentionally reveal itself to them? And if it did, what was its goal? Would any nearby human nearby have served its purposes, or did it have to be Shin?

If Shin was the one it sought, was it because he was someone it wanted to capture, or was it because he was the one who saw the message hidden in the Phönix? Was it because he possessed royal blood? Or was it because he was the one who ultimately destroyed the Phönix?

Or was it that his voice reached the queen because he could hear the Legion’s wails?

They had to discover the driving force behind the Merciless Queen’s actions and, through that, try to surmise its objective.

“I can hear the Legion’s voice, but I can’t speak to them… I’m sure I’ve already told you that.”

“Yes, I’ve heard. But since you can hear the ghosts’ voices, perhaps the Reaper’s voice can likewise reach the ghosts. I believe that’s a natural assumption to make.”

But the result of that experiment was that the Merciless Queen didn’t respond after all.

“…The Legion seem to be able to hear my voice… There were a few rare cases where they were able to pinpoint my position. But there was never any actual dialogue between them and me.”

“Yes. If you could speak to them, maybe you… Er. You wouldn’t have had to fight your brother. But…”

Lena nodded, gently put her knife down, and pressed a finger to her lips as she remembered what happened the previous day. That white Ameise. For a split second, she thought she saw its moonlike optical sensor…

“She… I think she was looking at you. Even though she shouldn’t have been able to perceive you.”

Sensing his bloodred eyes on her, Lena cocked her head.

“What is it?”

“You refer to this Legion unit the way you might refer to a person, Lena. Other people call them pieces of scrap metal, but I just realized you’ve never called them any names.”

Lena blinked a few times at that statement. Now that he’d mentioned it, that was true. But the same held true for Shin.

“…Be honest. Did it bother you?” Lena asked.

Calling them scrap metal. Hearing those mechanical ghosts being referred to as something so base. Did having his brother, who was assimilated by the Legion, treated as a monster offend him?

“I wouldn’t say it bothered me, but…” Shin paused to think.

He tried to put the emotions and thoughts he didn’t quite have a handle on into some sort of order. He’d apparently decided to stop leaving things vague by saying he didn’t know. Back on the Eighty-Sixth Sector’s battlefield, he didn’t have the time nor the leisure to confront these feelings, and he couldn’t deny that part of him was running away from doing so, too.

If there was anything he didn’t want to think about or come to terms with, he’d simply ignore it. Pretend it wasn’t there. Because forcing himself to think about it or understand those things wouldn’t change anything anyway.

One day, sooner or later, he would fall on the battlefield. Such was the fate of all Eighty-Six. Or at least, so he thought… But he survived. And even after he was liberated from the shackles of fate, he still lived while being keenly aware of the looming threat of death.

He had to come to terms with it, but he continued to avoid it. And that led to the chaos that overtook him in the United Kingdom. And he didn’t want to have that happen again.

“…I think you’re right. I didn’t want them to be called by those names. Even after he became a Legion, I could only see Rei as my older brother. And Kaie and the others, they were all people I had to take along with me. I couldn’t call the Legion, who were just like them, ‘hunks of scrap metal’ or ‘mechanical ghosts.’”

Both the Legion who assimilated the war dead and the few units that were still purely mechanical ghosts didn’t strike him as any different. Spirits who wandered for eternity, howling and lamenting all the while. Their cries all sounded the same to him.

“You’re kind, Shin,” Lena said, cracking a faint smile.

“…You’ve been saying that a lot lately, but do you think just telling me that is enough, Lena?” he asked with a teasing tone.

Lena pouted at him.

“I’m only saying that because those are my honest feelings… And because you never seem to realize it.”

“Because I don’t think it’s true.”

“Geez…”

It was the way he kept grinding himself to dust like this, unconsciously, without even meaning to do it, that worried her so much. Watching him wear himself out pained her heart.

“…Oh, and about the new equipment we need to check. It looks like the Merciless Queen’s interrogation is going to take some time, so you can focus on the test while Raiden and the rest help…”

Shin suddenly fell silent, which made Lena chuckle.

“Shin, you look like a kid who just had his toy taken away.”

Watching from a few tables away as their operations commander and tactical commander spoke like they were in a world of their own—like a pair of lovebirds—Raiden summed things up.

“…So in short, it looks like that moron finally made up his mind.”

He’d told them about how Shin was lost in thought in his room the previous day. It was painfully clear by now what he’d been thinking about, of course.

“For how obvious it is, it’s kind of amazing it took him this long to decide. Or, well, that he wasn’t even aware of it until now,” Theo remarked, resting his chin on his hand rudely as he carried a fork with a piece of greasy meat to his mouth.

“I haven’t known them that long, but even I can see it, with both of them. It’s that obvious.” Dustin nodded as he tore a piece of substitute bread.

A chef left her position behind the counter and walked between the tables with a large plate of sausages (made partially of synthesized meat), offering second servings. At her proposal, they all made space on their already full plates and accepted an extra sausage each.

Marcel bit into a fresh sausage, which had a satisfying snap to it. It was also quite hot, so he huffed and puffed a bit before chewing, then joined the conversation one gulp later.

“I’ve gotten used to seeing it by now… But I wouldn’t imagine him like this back at the special officer academy.”

“Don’t worry; we feel the same way,” said Rito, munching on a fried potato.

“Given how he was in the Eighty-Sixth Sector, forget being surprised. I never would have guessed the captain could make that kind of face…,” Yuuto said, putting aside an empty bowl of cream soup.

“What do we next, though?” Dustin asked.

“What do we do…?” Raiden let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “Well, having him blow his chances would be annoying.”

“For sure.” Theo nodded.

“Honestly, this is starting to annoy me,” Yuuto added.

All four sighed in unison.

“Guess we’ll have to back him up.”

The same exchange was taking place from Lena’s side. Anju, Shiden, Annette, Michihi, and Shana were whispering among one another, their table as loaded with dishes as all the rest.

There were two others who had no desire to take part in this conversation. Kurena was reverently cutting into three layers of pancakes topped with berry compote while Frederica was stuffing her cheeks with honeyed toast, their expressions rather mixed and unsatisfied with the whole affair. The other girls felt bad for them but decided to leave them be for now.