Chapter 5: The Day the Devil Hatched

Kouki Arakawa’s Point of View

As I was struggling to break free of the armored capsule, I accidentally hit the button for making the suit roar.

The moment I pressed the button, speakers on the exterior of the Satanachia produced a sound that was similar to a badly tuned violin. My only feeling was regret. I was planning to use the roar to make my descent cooler. It would have been like I was announcing, “Satanachia has descended upon you!” but instead it’d been a total waste.

In the struggle to break out of the capsule, Kon ended up on my head. The whole thing had put me in a bad mood, and I wanted somewhere to vent my anger, so I grabbed him by the tail and put him down on my lap. Kon made a cute “kokyuu...” sound and looked like he was still dizzy, so I petted him while thinking about what to do next.

I suppose I’ll tell Clare what’s happening.

“I’ve successfully broken free from the capsule,” I said. “Next I’ll suppress the enemy’s—”

“Major General, what’s wrong? Is there some sort of emergency?!”

Clare’s words barely registered as she shouted at me through the speakers. I was more focused on the image from an external camera that had caught my eye as I was speaking. I was looking at a group of the Rinkdolfr Empire’s knights surrounding the area of the coast where I landed. Every last one of them was lying on the ground.

Did I knock down all of these knights while I was breaking free? Using a powered suit to hit an unarmored human would cause instant death. I felt cold sweat running down my back as I hurried over to the knights to scan for signs of life.

“They’re breathing... Looks like their hearts are beating, too. I guess they just fainted?”

That was a relief. I took a better look at the area and noticed one of the knights who hadn’t fainted was riding away on a horse-like creature.

I was glad there was someone around so I could ask what happened. I used my suit’s four-legged walking ability to chase after the knight at high speed.

After catching up, I grabbed him in my right hand and asked, “So... what happened here? Is this country at war with the coalition forces?”

“Let me go! Please, I have a wife and child! Please don’t eat me...!”

Oh, right. I can’t understand anything when we’re not using translation magic. Maybe Acatl could interpret for me.

I used my communication device to contact Acatl, who I figured would be in the CIC of the Siren.

Acatl told me what the knight was saying, and then added, “Major General... the human knight is terrified. Forgive me for saying so, but I believe that anyone would expect to be eaten after having a demon charge after them at high speed like that.”

I immediately let go of the knight. He crawled away as if he was too afraid to stand.

Is this suit really that scary?! It’s like people in this world don’t feel any passion. Once this war is over, I’ll have to show everyone how awesome the Satanachia is, starting with the coalition force.

Another transmission arrived; it was from Clare this time. “Major General, the front gate of their fortress has opened, and they’re displaying a flag of surrender. The city has realized that they can’t continue this war any longer. Please return to the Siren and leave the rest to the team following behind. You’ve done a great job.”

A great job? I didn’t even do anything! For some reason, even the captain was saying, “I’d expect no less from the major general.” I spent all that time in front of the mirror practicing the way I’d say, “Go on without me; I’ll hold them off here,” all for nothing. This was supposed to be my chance to look cool! This sucks. I may as well go back and sleep.

Once I was back on the Siren, I decided I’d go straight back to my room and crawl into bed without even visiting the CIC. To protect Kon, who was lying in my lap, from the vibrations, I wrapped an arm around him as I ignited my thrusters.

**

That evening, when the leaders of the empire learned that Asti, the supposedly impregnable coastal city of the Rinkdolfr Empire, had fallen within just a few minutes, they initially called those claims absurd and refused to believe what they were hearing.

But some members of an anti-war faction were concerned enough to send out scouts of their own. They confirmed that the information was accurate based on reports from garrisoned soldiers who had withdrawn from Asti.

The more knowledgeable leaders of the empire became somewhat doubtful about the course of the war, but even they could not have imagined they would be receiving further reports of their forces fleeing from the coalition that same night.

**

Miki Arakawa’s Point of View

A small-scale skirmish was underway along the national border.

Meanwhile, Elise, who was serving as my personal adjutant aboard the Alice, was reporting the progress of the northern front force commanded by Kouki.

“The first attack brigade of the northern front force under the command of the special major general has captured the coastal city of Asti in the Rinkdolfr Empire’s territory. The city is now occupied by the northern front force,” she reported.

I was surprised. “They’ve won already?! That was awfully quick.”

Even with a fleet that includes an aircraft carrier and a battleship, it shouldn’t have been possible to carry out the attack that quickly. I hope they didn’t use live ammunition.

Feeling a touch uneasy, I asked Elise to continue. I soon realized that Kouki had put his genius to work to capture Asti.

“The special major general sortied from the Siren using a unique capsule design for re-entering the atmosphere. After forcing a landing on the coast, he used the roar device. Because he was in the capsule when creating the roar, the sound echoed and produced a sound wave with high directionality that hit a group of knights surrounding him. The shock wave was roughly equivalent to a direct hit from a stun grenade. Every member of the group of knights lost consciousness.”

I’m sure that was no accident... I pondered. But no ordinary person could have calculated the exact position of the suit and the appropriate volume for the sound needed to create the right echo in such a short amount of time.

Victoria referred to Kouki as the devil. Lately, even I, his mother, had begun to worry that the boy was more than just human. I worried that someday he’d tell me, “Mom! Look! I can use magic now.”

If it comes to it, I’ll just have to learn magic myself and insist that Kouki is a human who inherited his abilities from me. But right now, I need to forget this nonsense and focus on the movement of the Merkava battle lines.

“Elise, what’s the status of the front line?” I asked. “If we can’t break through here quickly, Kouki will be left isolated in the empire’s territory.”

“There are currently two units of knights from the Merkava Kingdom who have been deployed to the front. The enemy is sending demi-human infantry to the front line. They appear to be holding back the main body of their forces to preserve their strength.”

It sounds as though we’ve reached a stalemate. We’re avoiding causing casualties on either side, but it’s proving difficult to change the state of the battle in any real way because we can’t deal a decisive blow. Perhaps we should hit them with an all-out attack?

“What percentage of the land battleships’ ammunition is depleted?” I asked.

“When the sixteenth round of shelling is over, our ships will have used 50 percent of their ammunition. Unit #2 Clare has used the most ammunition, and is down to 32 percent.”

This was unavoidable because the Clare had been in the middle of a supporting attack when the request for support shelling was made. The Clare would soon be useless unless I had it move to the rear to receive fresh supplies.

“Please give orders to the Clare to move to the rear to receive supplies,” I said. “Before they withdraw, have the powered suits aboard the Clare distributed between the people on the Alice and the Miki. Don’t forget to instruct the captain of each ship to give their approval. Also warn the kingdom that we’ll be firing a panjandrum.”

“Understood.”

I returned to my seat and crossed my legs; then I remembered something important. Elise was headed to talk to the communications officer, but I called her back.

“Could I get a cup of tea? No sugar; a little milk.”

“Yes, ma’am. Please wait just a moment,” Elise responded with a smile.

As Elise left, I sat back and began staring at the information displayed on the screens. I was thinking of a plan to break the deadlock in the battle.

**

“Miki, Princess Cassis and General Auguste have requested permission to come aboard the Alice to discuss the state of the war,” Elise said.

“If the captain gives his approval, please guide them to the CIC,” I answered.

I’d been putting together the outline of a plan and drinking my tea when the kingdom’s request for a discussion reached me.

I feared that, rather than a discussion, they wanted to argue that it was impossible to hold the battle lines any longer; but I needed the kingdom’s knights to hold out for at least another ten minutes.

Princess Cassis and General Auguste soon entered the CIC. They were both dressed in armor and looking exhausted.

“Miki, I must apologize for calling upon you so suddenly,” said Cassis.

“No, not at all. I realize your knights won’t be able to hold out much longer,” I said.

Princess Cassis looked ready to cry as she responded. “Yes... Thanks to the efforts of Noa, no lives have been lost, but we’ve exhausted four orders of knights. The remaining knights are just barely capable of defending against another attack from the enemy. If our iron knights were here, we could hold out just a little longer...”

“They have another important duty, so that isn’t an option,” I said. “Even so, you’ve done well to hold out this long. I’d like to thank you on behalf of Noa.”

I bowed to the princess, and she immediately insisted that I raise my head. Unfortunately, I knew I would have to ask that the kingdom’s exhausted knights hold out a little longer. I had to show her my sincerity.

I raised my head to look the princess in the eye, then I told her of the plan I was thinking about. “The empire’s offense will soon reach its limit. The moment they switch from attacking to defending, there’ll be an opening that we can use to break through the enemy formation using our land battleships. I expect we can suppress their main force in one swift movement... but that will require your knights to endure one more intense attack from the enemy. Would that be too much to ask?”

“...I understand,” the princess said, nodding. “I will order the knights to stand ground, no matter what happens.”

The princess was willing to cooperate, and she used a magic item to make contact with the knights. Now that I had her approval, I gave orders to all soldiers under my command.

“Attention all units! All land battleships are to prepare to break through the enemy formation. Powered suit units are to offer support to withdrawing knights of the kingdom.”

“We have a transmission from Unit #2 Clare,” the response came. “They have received supplies and are returning to the front line.”

I couldn’t help but smile at how perfect the timing was. With each battleship standing side-by-side, we were bound to create an opening by holding down the empire’s frontline force. We’d aim for that opening and fire the remaining panjandrums to disperse the knockout gas. This would open up a route to the enemy’s main force. Their main force would then be suppressed by mobile infantry equipped with Noa’s reinforced exoskeletons, and we’d be able to break through the battle lines.

Feeling relieved, I studied the arrangements of the troops displayed on the screen. That was when I noticed that something wasn’t quite right.

“The troops in the right wing are being pushed back... I’m sure we deployed tanks to that location. Did something happen?”

“We’re receiving conflicting reports,” said Elise. “Please wait while I contact the tank unit directly.”

It was hard to imagine that heavily armored tanks carrying high explosives would withdraw so readily. Only an airstrike could push them back, but our intelligence officers suggested that the empire hadn’t deployed any dragon riders in the battle lines. Even if dragon riders arrived later to offer support, these would have been detected by Alice’s radar.

What’s going on here?

“Urgent transmission from the tank unit! They state, ‘We’ve encountered a large-scale enemy weapon in the right wing. Requesting backup... Requesting urgent backup.’”

Large-scale weapon? I found it hard to believe the Empire had that level of technology, but it was a fact that our tanks had withdrawn. I decided that I’d need to see this large-scale weapon with my own eyes before I could form an effective strategy. I asked for the right wing to be shown on the screen.

“I’m updating the display now,” Elise said. “This image is being transmitted from a tank in the rearguard. This... this can’t...”

Having brought it up on the screen, Elise was at loss for words at the sight of the humanoid giant that was displayed. It was more than five times the size of the powered suits that Noa used. The giant appeared to be twenty meters tall, but it was walking toward us without a hint of clumsiness.

“A giant golem?!” Cassis gasped. “How can the humans make it move?! It can’t be!”

“Princess Cassis, do you know what it is?” I asked.

She turned pale as she described it to me. “It’s an ancient weapon known as a giant golem, ordinarily used to besiege castles. It takes an incredible amount of magic to make them move, so not even demi-human races can handle them, let alone humans.”

“But right now it’s moving and coming toward us,” I said. “Do you have any idea how they’re making it move? Is there a person inside it?”

Princess Cassis frowned and went deep in thought. Eventually, she appeared to reach a conclusion. She grimaced as she shared her conclusion with me. “There is no human inside the golem. Giant golems are a form of automaton. To activate it... magical energy from hundreds of people isn’t enough. It also requires a soul. It would only be able to move if the life force of the living creature was used to activate it.”

I wished I could immediately use an imaginary number bomb to obliterate to the empire’s forces, but I bit my lip and pushed my feelings aside before yelling my instructions to the captain.

“Captain! You have permission to use live ammunition. Take out that hideous giant immediately.”

“Forgive me, but the ammunition on this ship will cause considerable damage to the golem’s surroundings. Is that acceptable?”

I forgot... We assumed we’d be using knockout gas, so we only have ordinary shells, and we aren’t carrying any shells that can be used to destroy a specific target.

“What about our heavy-armored powered suits?” I asked.

“They’re offering support to the kingdom’s knights as they withdraw. They could abandon them, but that might result in unacceptable levels of harm to the knights.”

“How could this happen?!”

I kicked over the admiral’s chair with the high heels I was wearing.

At this rate, we’ll lose the whole right wing. Should we use live ammunition despite knowing how much harm we’ll cause?

Choosing that option would inevitably result in casualties. It would allow us to secure a tactical victory in this battle, but it would also be a strategic failure.

“Miki, the right wing’s withdrawal is close to becoming a disorderly retreat,” Elise warned. “They can’t take any more.”

“Miki, if we don’t stop that giant golem immediately, the empire’s practitioners will lose their lives!” cried Princess Cassis.

I was under pressure to make a decision. I apologized to Kouki in my heart for being unable to keep my promise of ending this war without casualties. I turned to the captain to authorize him to fire live ammunition from our main cannons, but then a transmission filled with noise played through the CIC of the Alice.

“—any... Can anyone hear me? The noise is really bad, so we’re sending a one-way transmission over all frequencies. This is the ground attack aircraft, Odin. We’re heading to your location to offer support under the orders of the special major general. Use infrared strobes to designate units in need of a supporting strike. We will attack the giant until we receive other instructions.”

It looks as though Kouki saved us again.

I watched the Odin slowly descend from the sky to the ground on the screen as I resumed drinking my now-cold tea.

**

Captain Martin’s, of the Odin, Point of View

“Are we on standby today, Major?” the firing officer, Lucas, asked idly. He was straddling a large shell with a cigarette held in his mouth.

Either he’s got some guts to be smoking in an area where sources of ignition are strictly prohibited, or he’s just an idiot. If he wasn’t such a skilled gunner, I’d have him removed from my team.

“Yeah, we need to be on standby and ready to scramble at any time,” I said. “Now get down from there! If you set that thing off, it’ll send you into space.”

“Yeah, all right. But who would care about a bunch of good-for-nothings like us getting blown up? We’re always on standby. We were useless on Earth, and we’re just as useless in this world. I should’ve trained to be a powered suit user.”

I understood why Lucas felt so down. A good number of weapons that had fallen out of use on Earth had been retired from service. But there were two types of weapons that were difficult to retire completely.

The first were nuclear powered attack submarines carrying missiles. After advances in missile defense technology, several nations kept a small number of submarines simply because it was better to have a few than to have none at all.

The second were strategic bombers, which were what we were trained to operate. The abolition of nuclear weapons wasn’t the only reason for their lack of use. In an age where powered suits could bring down planes, it was thought that bombers, which were slower than fighter planes but could cause damage over a wider area, might be better to have than to be without. This meant they were considered even less useful than nuclear submarines.

Despite this, Lucas had been assigned to the bomber unit after entering the air force. It was easy to see why he was so frustrated, but I wished he would take his duties more seriously.

“Lucas, what happened to John?” I asked.

It was unusual for John not to be smoking together with him.

“John? He went off to the toilet with a magazine in his hand about thirty minutes ago. Link is over there, manicuring her nails.”

I get that there’s no work to do, but this is a bit much! The Tolstoy’s captain and his crew were in the exact same situation a while back, except they spent that time training hard. Now they’re operating a land battleship!

There was suddenly a sound from the main communication terminal inside the aircraft, and a lamp lit up to indicate that a transmission was incoming from outside the base.

It’s probably just the ground unit, planning to make fun of us as always, I thought as I jabbed the button to receive the transmission.

“Major Martin, captain of the Odin here. What do you want?”

As I waited for the caller to make the same old joke (“What? You mean this isn’t a pizza delivery service?”), I thought about what my comeback was going to be. But then a woman appeared on screen, looking less than amused.

“I am Lieutenant Colonel Clare Dauntless, adjutant to Special Major General Kouki Arakawa, supreme commander of the northern front force. The major general wishes to speak with you directly. You seem like an insolent lot.”

What kind of prank is this? Kouki Arakawa? Isn’t that Shuuichi’s son? He should be commanding Noa’s main forces right about now and suppressing the Rinkdolfr Empire. Why would he want to talk to a lowly field officer like me?! Anyhow, I’d better apologize before I end up court-martialed.

“I’m terribly sorry! We’ve become careless after so long on standby.”

“I’d normally give you a lecture on how to talk to a superior officer... but let’s put that aside. I’m transferring the call to the major general. Make sure you don’t speak to him so rudely.”

Lieutenant Colonel Clare disappeared from the screen, and in her place appeared a friendly-looking boy. Our respect for Shuuichi led us to join Noa. The rest of my unit and I had never seen Kouki’s face, but I knew this boy was Kouki immediately because his face was similar to Miki’s.

“This is Major Martin Achenbach, Captain of the Odin!” I declared. “It’s an honor to speak with you, Major General.”

“This is Kouki Arakawa. You don’t have to be so formal. Please be at ease.”

I stood completely still with my back straight.

Behind me, Lucas called out, “Try sitting down with your legs crossed.” I promised myself I’d punch him later.

“Am I right to think that you’re in command of a new type of land attack aircraft, Major?”

“Yes. I am in command of the land attack aircraft, Odin.”

This seemed to please Kouki.

He must just want to see what sort of person was using this aircraft he designed, I supposed. But then, the boy on the screen gave me an unbelievable order.

“I’m using my authority as major general to give you the following orders, Major Martin,” he said, still smiling. “Immediately sortie the land attack aircraft, Odin. Please give support to the Kingdom Rescue Unit fighting at the Merkava Kingdom front. Based on intelligence from dragon riders dispatched by the Ursna Empire, a large-scale siege engine is expected to appear at the front. Your objective is to destroy the siege engine using the Odin.”

“That’s such a great responsibility, and we’re just...” I said before I could stop myself.

If I question the supreme commander at a time like this, I’ll have to listen to a lecture from Lieutenant Colonel Clare. But I can’t understand why such an important responsibility would be given to us. Kouki must have enough authority to sortie every powered suit and tank unit on standby on Noa Island.

He just grinned and said, “You don’t think it’ll be cool? If our ultra-large land-attack aircraft appears and makes Swiss cheese out of the enemy siege engine, I think that’d be awesome! Besides, you must be getting tired of being on standby all the time. I was stuck on the island just recently, so I know how it feels. Think of it as a change of scenery.”

For a moment I was speechless, but I soon came to my senses.

When he says it’s going to be awesome, I guess he means this is our chance to get one over on the other units. They won’t be calling us good-for-nothing behind our backs anymore if we can pull off this rescue operation.

Lucas must have realized it, too; he’d already started the equipment check. John and Link overheard the conversation as well, and now they were running off to fetch enough flight gear for everyone from the hangar.

After a brief look at my unit, I straightened myself up again and replied to Kouki with a salute. “I promise to make this rescue operation a success. We will destroy this large-scale siege engine, whatever it may be!”

I wasn’t sure whether Kouki would be pleased with that response, but he nodded twice and said, “I’m counting on you,” before lowering his head to me, even though I was a lowly major. Then he ended the call.

His consideration toward his subordinates reminded me of Shuuichi. My heart began racing at the thought of entering actual combat for the first time in so long.

**

“Major, we’ll reach the airspace over the battlefield in a little while.”

“‘In a little while’?” I shouted. “Give me an accurate time!”

I wasn’t happy with the sketchy report from the operator, Link, but the bigger problem was that we couldn’t establish communications with the ground units. We tried sending many transmissions at once, but that had caused our main terminal to go down briefly because it couldn’t handle the amount of information.

“To be more accurate, we’ll be there in two minutes or so,” he said. “Headquarters on Noa Island say there’s no way to contact the ground units right now. What do you want to do?”

I didn’t know. This wasn’t a precision bombing assignment, so we wouldn’t know where to attack without hearing from the ground units first.

Should we remain in the air on standby until we establish communications?

Before I could think it over, the gunner, Lucas, began shouting. “I’ve sighted the large-scale siege engine that was expected to appear! Let’s just start shooting it instead of messing around. Our orders were to smash up their big weapon, so let’s just do it.”

“Wait! We can’t destroy the thing if some of our soldiers are standing near it.”

Lucas continued gazing down the targeting scope while complaining under his breath about not having permission to fire. There was nothing else we could do in this situation.

If we could just inform the ground units of what we were about to do, we could start firing... That’s it! I learned how to deal with this exact situation back when I was in officer training school.

“Link, let’s transmit on all of the frequencies being used in the battle zone. A one-way transmission is good enough.”

Link began operating the Odin’s computer system, which included an airborne early warning and control system. Then she gave me the thumbs up. “Can anyone hear me? Can anyone hear me? The noise is really bad, so we’re sending this as a one-way transmission over all frequencies. This is the ground attack aircraft, Odin. We’re heading to your location to offer support under the orders of the special major general. Use infrared strobes to designate units in need of a supporting strike. We will attack the giant until we receive other instructions.”

That’ll do. Now the enemy’s infantry just needs to move away from the giant’s feet. We can use relatively non-lethal rubber bullets to destroy the siege engine, but they could cause a lethal wound if they hit a human directly.

It was going to be difficult to get their fighters away from the siege engine, but I gave orders to my co-pilot, John, with a grin. “Let’s reduce our altitude and fly as low as possible close to the siege engine. The Odin is 100 meters long. If we fly five meters above the ground, we’ll scare the empire’s forces and send them running.”

“Understood! I’ll show you what I can do.”

First, we flew in a large circle around the airspace over the battlefield, then we lowered the nose and accelerated as if aiming to collide with the ground. Once we gained enough speed, we flew horizontally at 1,000 kilometers per hour, Mach 0.8, five meters above the ground. I checked using the external cameras that the shock wave and the thunderous sounds from the fuselage shocked the empire’s soldiers and caused them to run away in panic.

But we weren’t finished. We were considered elites among strategic bombing specialists. And this aircraft was the Odin—an aircraft designed by the genius, Kouki.

“Link, Lucas, are you both tightly strapped in?” I called. “We’re about to do a somersault!”

“Major, I’ve been meaning to say this to you for some time,” Lucas interjected. “Are you stupid?! This is a bomber. There’s no way you can pull off aerobatic stunts in this aircraaaaaaaah!”

I ignored Lucas and pulled up the nose swiftly. We somersaulted by ascending vertically and flying upside down with the ground and several tanks visible below our heads. I turned on the mic and yelled at the tank unit who were always making fun of members of my unit.

“Take a good look, you tank-operating morons! You’re always laughing and pretending we’re a pizzeria, but we’re the ones who’re gonna take out that giant!”

Once the Odin went back to flying normally, there were various objects scattered throughout the aircraft’s interior as a result of our aerobatics, but nobody even noticed. We were all so focused on defeating the opponent that caused all of our tanks to withdraw.

“Lucas, be ready to destroy the enemy siege engine using the rotary cannons. Don’t hesitate now. It could be some time before we see active combat again. Use all twenty cannons to smash the thing to pieces.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lucas peered down the targeting scope to secure his aim, then prepared to fire.

In addition to a 120-millimeter cannon and missile launch systems, the Odin was also fitted with twenty 36-millimeter-caliber rotary cannons. These were no big deal compared to tank cannons and the powerful heavy cannons that could be fitted to powered suits, but they had one big advantage over those other weapons.

Even with an autoloader, a tank cannon could only fire about six shells per minute, eight at the very most. A rotary cannon was capable of firing 3,900 shells per minute. And with 20 cannons... some basic math put that at 78,000 shells per minute. Imagine what that would do to the target. Strong magical barriers were capable of repelling shells from a tank gun, but what if shells continuously hit the barrier in the same spot? We were about to find out.

“Start firing!”

We heard the characteristic whirring sound of the rotary cannons, then the 36-millimeter shells began to strike the siege engine. For the first three seconds, there was a purple light given off as each shell hit, but after five seconds, there was no resistance and a rain of shells had carved away one of the shoulders from its human form.

“The legs! Aim for the legs so it can’t move! We can take our time carving it up once we’ve got it down on the ground.”

Lucas moved the sight down to the legs without ceasing to fire, leaving the upper body of the giant in tatters. The legs were then ripped apart and the giant fell flat on its face. We used this opportunity to rain shells down on it from above. The giant’s human form was no longer recognizable by the time the ground forces were able to contact us.

“This is the commander of the rescue force, Miki Arakawa. Thank you for saving us from a difficult situation. Do you think you could stop firing now? Princess Cassis and the staff here in the CIC are starting to look worried. It could cause problems for us in future negotiations if you overdo it, so now would be a good time to stop.”

I calmed myself and ordered Lucas, who was still firing even now, to stop.

“Understood,” I added, speaking to Miki, the commander of Noa. “Now that the siege engine is destroyed, will you require further supporting attacks?”

“That won’t be necessary. Thanks to you, we have enough time to reorganize. More importantly, the empire’s forces lost their will to fight the moment the giant fell, and now they’re withdrawing. If you have enough fuel remaining, I’d like you to fly over to the northern front force. My son recently contacted me to say that it would boost his fighting spirit if he could see the Odin. Would this be possible?”

“Understood! The Odin will continue flying north and we’ll perform an aerobatic demonstration over the northern front force.”

I saluted and made sure the call had disconnected before giving John instructions to take us north. Kouki had said that dragon riders had been dispatched from the Ursna Empire. I couldn’t wait to see how they’d react to the sight of this aircraft flying alongside them.

**

Miki Arakawa’s Point of View

I felt relieved to see the Odin flying north.

If they continued attacking the enemy with that brutish attitude (“The legs! Aim for the legs so it can’t move! We can take our time carving it up once we’ve got it down on the ground.”), it would have given the wrong impression to Princess Cassis and the Ursna Empire’s officers, who had been listening to the transmission with me.

Kouki is the one who designed that ridiculous aircraft, so it’s only fair that he should look after its crew, I thought, not wanting to take responsibility myself.

“How does the Odin fly?” Elise asked. “It must be 100 meters long.”

“I don’t even know. We built a mockup by carefully following one of Kouki’s designs from the creation program. The mockup was able to fly, so I ordered the engineering department to create the Odin. We did find that it won’t work if any of its twelve engines were moved even slightly, but the whole thing is a technological mystery.”

Elise listened wide-eyed, and for a moment, she was lost for words. “I don’t see why you didn’t just ask Kouki how the thing flies.”

“I did, but he won’t tell me. He said, ‘It happened by chance! It’s pure luck that it can fly. I didn’t think it would be possible, either.’ I suppose he’s at that rebellious age.”

Elise didn’t seem to know how to respond. Small wonder, since I’d been letting my parental concerns slip out.

She must be feeling sorry for me because I don’t know how to handle my son...

I decided that I’d talk things through properly with Kouki once this war was over. Then I gave the order for the high-speed powered suits on the battlefield to pursue the enemy.

**

Shuuichi Arakawa’s Point of View

“Commander, we’re in trouble. The enemy has broken through the arachne women in the left wing.”

“Support them with machine-gun fire! The enemy attacked using their ground dragon unit, didn’t they? We can use full metal jackets instead of rubber bullets. Anything goes as long as no one dies.”

The battle between the Ursna Empire and the Ragille Principality that had started this morning tilted in the Ursna Empire’s favor at first. But Ursna’s main unit crossed the border to pursue an enemy reconnaissance team, and it was surrounded by the main body of the enemy force. Ursna’s main unit was attacked from high ground, leaving them in disarray.

Fortunately, my powered suit unit just barely succeeded in rescuing their main unit, but we hadn’t had enough time to reorganize. All we could do was gradually withdraw while using defensive delay tactics.

“Commander... I think we should completely withdraw so we can regroup,” my adjutant, Louis, suggested with his face covered in dirt.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t something we had time for.

“Noa units might be able to do that, but what about Ursna’s fighters? They can’t withdraw as quickly as we can. And if we completely withdraw now that the enemy has broken through the left wing, Ursna’s forces will be routed— Not now!”

I emptied a rifle magazine to incapacitate a soldier from the principality as he attempted to dive at Louis before my eyes.

The enemy soldier was showered with rubber bullets that knocked him unconscious by a combination of the impact and a high voltage current generated when each bullet struck. He wouldn’t be getting up for a while.

“Louis, let’s abandon this defense line,” I said. “Let’s gradually withdraw to the third line trenches made by the centipede field engineers. We can plant claymore mines here to stop the advance of the enemy. And... remove the pin from a stun grenade and leave it wedged under this principality soldier! It’s a dirty trick, but it works.”

“Understood.”

I sent a transmission to the destroyer Oort flying over us to check the current situation.

“Oort, do you read me? The right wing is withdrawing to the third line. How are Ursna’s fighters doing?”

“The Ursna Empire is currently unable to engage in any organized defensive combat because the enemy has broken through its left wing. We are continuing to provide shelling support, but I think it’s only a matter of time before the left wing is in complete disarray.”

Damn! Looks like we’re not the only ones with a fight on our hands. If the Oort uses napalm bombs to burn away the enemy’s front line, that would buy time for Ursna to withdraw, but... I had no idea how difficult it would be to fight without killing. I lit the cigarette held in my mouth using a lighter that Kouki had given me as a birthday present, and drew on it deeply before making a decision.

“Oort, I’ll take full responsibility. Drop tear gas bombs on the left wing and center formations. If they’re not organized enough to defend themselves, then let’s stop the enemy from advancing, even if it means taking out our allies.”

“Understood. It will take 30 seconds to prepare the tear gas bombs.”

After the call with the Oort ended, I opened a line to all of my subordinates scattered around the battlefield and yelled into the mic.

“All personnel, lower your reinforced exoskeleton visors! The Oort is about to start dropping tear gas bombs indiscriminately.”

I lowered my own exoskeleton visor and lay face down on the ground waiting for the tear gas bombs to hit. I looked up and saw the Oort circling and targeting this area with its main cannons.

An instant later, flames erupted from the main cannons of the Oort as the bombs were fired. I heard the bombs burst open as the battlefield became covered by white smoke.

**

“Sorry to bother you while you’re eating,” Louis said. “We have finished assessing the wounded.”

“Right.”

After the Oort provided aerial support by dropping tear gas bombs, we watched both armies fall into disarray as we withdrew from the battlefield. Then we went back to the shuttle just as the Ursna soldiers had left the area so they could regroup.

The principality’s forces had also withdrawn from the battlefield for a while, probably because they were left weakened by the tear gas bombs. It was now evening, and the fighting hadn’t yet resumed.

“More than half of Ursna’s fighters are unable to go on fighting?” I reflected. “Well, at least no one died.”

The information on my terminal’s screen showed that out of the 150,000 members of the Ursna Empire’s army, more than 80,000 were heavily wounded. It was fair to say that the Empire’s army was already defeated. It was hard to imagine how their remaining 40,000 members and 500 soldiers from Noa could attack and break through the principality’s army.

“Isn’t there any good news?” I replied as I put away my terminal.

Louis replied while lighting a cigarette. “Your son’s fleet was able to bloodlessly occupy Asti in just five minutes. Miki’s unit has prevailed over the Rinkdolfr Empire’s army, and they are advancing.”

So, Kouki and Miki are doing well despite being beginners, while the professionals are stuck here... This is an embarrassment. I finished eating and threw the empty can of cold beef stew to the ground before turning to my tired-looking subordinates.

“The sun’s about to set. Anyone got any good ideas? We need a way for 40,000 fighters to break through a 200,000-strong enemy army.”

“We should just blow them away with nuclear weapons,” Johnathan suggested. “There’s no antinuclear pact in this world, so Miki could throw some warheads together and BOOM, problem solved.”

Everyone laughed at his joke. They all seemed to agree.

“All right, all right. Let me rephrase that. By some magic, our 40,000 fighters need to break through a 200,000-strong enemy army, without killing anyone.”

Everyone stopped laughing and fell quiet. The chewing of food was the only sound in the tent.

This is no good... The way they’ve stopped smiling shows how low their morale is right now.

When we fought in Afghanistan, we’d been in a similar state, and a string of small mistakes brought the unit to the verge of collapse. I was trying to think of some way to increase morale when the tent door was suddenly folded back and a group of beautiful women entered the tent.

“Hi, everyone! We’re the members of the fairy race from the logistics team. We’re too weak to take part in the fighting, but we can bring you warm food! Does anyone want some soup?”

“Ooooohh!!”

These idiots had been eating quietly with their heads hanging down, but suddenly everyone was in ridiculously high spirits at the sight of these fairies. Everyone began handing over plates and cups to receive drinks and warm food.

I forgot how simple these guys are. A little encouragement from a beautiful woman is enough to send them charging into an enemy camp.

I felt stupid for having tried so hard to think of a way to raise morale. I lit a cigarette as I looked over the group of morons. Cote’s head poking through the entrance to the tent caught my eye. He took a good look at what was going on inside, then he nodded in satisfaction before leaving.

I quickly ran after him. “Cote, wait. Are you the one who called the fairies?”

“Yes,” Cote replied. “And not just fairies; I’ve asked for all the beautiful races from the Ursna army to visit each tent. I knew how low morale was. These beautiful young women are going to bring them back to life. By the way, Empress Victoria says ‘No touching.’”

With that, he headed off to “check on the other tents.”

It was supposed to be my job to check on how everyone was behaving, but without Clare’s help, I wasn’t sure how to go about it.

Kouki would know how to be a more effective commander in this situation... Though if Kouki was here, we wouldn’t have lost the battle in the first place.

I returned to the tent to find my unit exchanging ideas with newfound enthusiasm.

“What if we were deployed to the front where we could attack the enemy, while the Ursna army strikes the enemy’s main unit from the side?”

“That won’t work. The principality knows we don’t want to kill them. They’ll send wave after wave of fighters to pin us down.”

“What if we strike at night? Once the sun goes down, our superior equipment gives us a major advantage. If a small number of us could take out the enemy’s main camp, that would give us a chance.”

Hm... a night attack, I mused. If we moved around the enemy using night vision gear and then invaded their main camp, we’d have a chance of victory. If only we had enough mobility.

From my pocket I took out a chart, given to me by Empress Victoria, that showed all the different races making up the Ursna army.

**

Aboard the Siren, Clare’s Point of View

Now that the fighting was over, only the necessary personnel were on standby in the CIC of the Siren, which was lit by a minimal level of lighting.

I glanced at the watch on my wrist; it was 7 PM. The sun was already setting, and both the northern front force where I was assigned and the Kingdom Rescue Unit under Miki’s command had concluded their major battles.

Meanwhile, the special powered suit brigade—the unit I was ordinarily assigned to—that had been dispatched to the Ursna Empire, was the only unit still fighting. The battle against the principality’s army was ongoing, and it wasn’t going well.

“Headquarters, do you read me?” I called. “What is the status of the ghost unit?”

“The fighting has temporarily ceased. A recent report states that the Ursna army has been defeated, and the ghost unit is attempting to defeat the principality’s army alone.”

The information made my heart skip a beat. How are my fellow unit members going to break through the principality’s army without being harmed? Are they capable of proper intelligence management without me or Elise?

They were probably resting or reorganizing right now, but I felt lonely knowing they were fighting somewhere far away without me.

Although I wasn’t unhappy about being assigned to the Siren, I hoped no one would blame me for sighing.

“Kon!” a voice barked.

“Wha?!”

I was categorizing information about the Ursna battle lines that I received from headquarters on my terminal when the sudden sound of Kon’s voice made me jump and turn around.

After I turned to face him, Kon showed what he’d written on the communication card hanging from his neck. “Are you worried about my father?”

“Yes. I can’t help but worry when I think about my unit fighting somewhere far away.”

“I have an idea,” Kon wrote. “There’s a transportation device that my mother made for me. Could you use it to send me to the Ursna battle lines?”

What’s this dragon planning? It seemed highly unlikely that sending Kon to their rescue would affect the state of the battle. But at the same time, some part of me believed it just might be possible for this little dragon.

“I’ll give the order from my terminal to prepare the transportation device,” I said. “I’m counting on you to save everyone in my unit.”

Kon puffed out his little chest as far as he could and grabbed onto me with paper in his mouth. The writing on the paper made me smile. “Leave it to me! I want to show my master how amazing I am. Everyone is always calling my master amazing, but I’m an amazing dragon, too!”

Seeing Kon so determined despite being so small made me want to stroke his head as we walked toward the stern of the Siren, where the transportation device was being prepared.

**

“Are you okay, Kon?” I asked. “I can see you have oxygen. You’re not uncomfortable at all?”

“Kon!”

I checked that Kon was inside the transportation device wearing his specially-made helmet and was breathing normally. He seemed to be comfortable enough.

We were calling it a transportation device, but its construction was no different from a cruise missile, except there was an oxygen canister inside the warhead and enough space for Kon in the center. Rather than landing, the body of the missile was designed to be broken apart by a release mechanism 100 meters above the target. Kon would then descend to the ground without a parachute.

This method had been chosen because Kon told us, “I can handle falling to the ground, though falling 1,000 meters might hurt a little,” and he’d asked for the device to be as simple as possible.

“Kon, could you give this to the commander?” I asked. “It’s just a chart that I came up with for reorganizing the unit, but he might find it useful.”

“Kon, kon.”

Before closing and bolting the lid shut, I petted Kon one last time as he clutched the paper I’d given him to his chest.

I moved over to the launch control device a short distance away and began the countdown so that Kon, listening through an earpiece, would know when to expect the shock of the launch. “Prepare for launch in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1. Launching now!”

The device rapidly accelerated to a speed of Mach 12 within just a few seconds. It was more than any human could have withstood. The transportation device soon flew over the horizon and disappeared from view.

I sent a transmission to the commander. “Commander, do you read me? It’s Clare. Kon is heading your way to offer support. He’s carrying a unit organization chart. Please make good use of it.”

After sending my transmission to the commander, I made a wish upon the three moons floating in the night sky. Please let the cute little dragon riding aboard the missile save my unit.