Chapter 7: The Path to Ending the War

Kouki Arakawa’s Point of View

After leaving the sick bay, I felt like I needed to collect my thoughts, so I went to my room and sat down in a chair with my eyes closed.

While I was thinking, someone knocked at my door, and I told them to come in.

“Pardon me.” Clare entered the room looking somewhat low-spirited.

Did something happen? I wondered. Kon, who was curled up my lap, was also anxiously looking at my face and Clare’s.

“Clare, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“Although we haven’t confirmed it yet, we’ve received intelligence suggesting the Capus Kingdom and the Recule Holy State have begun using ghouls on the battlefield,” she said. “Miki would like to talk to you about it.”

“Okay. I’ll go see Mom in a little while.”

I closed my eyes again and went back to thinking, but Clare looked as though she wasn’t going to leave the room.

I opened my eyes again and asked her, “Is there something else?”

“I’m sorry but... it would be best if you went to her as soon as possible.”

“Lieutenant Colonel Clare! I’ve already acknowledged what you said. If it was urgent, Mom would contact me directly. There are things I need to think about. Could you leave me alone for a while?”

“I-I’m terribly sorry! Forgive my rudeness.”

I hadn’t meant to talk so harshly. Clare left the room looking somewhat flustered.

As the sound of Clare’s footsteps faded into the distance, I sighed and buried my face in my hands. What am I doing? I may have a lot on my mind, but I can’t take it out on Clare. I’ll apologize to her later...

“Hey, Kon.” I looked down at my lap and spoke, as if talking to myself.

“Kon?” he replied, as if to say, “What is it?”

I decided I should share my thoughts with Kon because I knew he wouldn’t tell anyone else about any troubles I shared with him.

“We protected Joachim, didn’t we? It made me think. Do we really need to continue this war? I’ve heard from Joachim’s wife and a Merkava knight how the various countries in the alliance treat demi-humans... I mean, people from different races. Hearing what they had to say made me wonder what this war is all about.”

I glanced down at Kon, and he was urging me to continue with a serious look in his eyes.

“Suppose that our side, the Multi-Race Coalition Force, wins the war. As the victors, how will we treat the defeated Human Alliance Force? At best, they’ll be treated as inferior people, and they might even become slaves. Shouldn’t we keep things how they are? That way, the only races being oppressed would be the ones with low populations. After this war, the number of people being oppressed could increase a hundredfold. That makes me think...”

It makes me think we should stop the war now...

Before I could say it, Kon used his magic to produce text before my eyes. “Master, didn’t we join this war to break that cycle? That’s why we’re cooperating with demonic races and the elf race.”

“That’s right, but it was naïve. I’ve been far too naïve. They’re not just going to forgive and forget several hundred years of oppression. There might be humans like Joachim who can accept a cat sith as their wife, but most humans see non-human races as inferior. And the non-human races see the humans as inferior. The only reason we’re working with the demonic races and the elven race as equals is because we’re visiting this world from another one. Victoria and her kind don’t think of us as ordinary humans.”

Kon used his magic to produce more text. “Does that mean you want to give up now? Mother has said that we can return to the Hakone base. We can leave Noa to deal with all the unsolved problems. But there’s no guarantee this world will be the one you’re hoping for after those problems are solved.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?!” I exclaimed. “You heard what Joachim’s wife and that Merkava knight told me, didn’t you?! The way things are now, if we could somehow have each race agree to live in a different territory, then maybe those different races could tolerate each other. But now the alliance is about to start using ghouls. They may be using them already. How are other races ever going to forgive humans for doing something so stupid?!”

While I was venting my built-up frustration by yelling at Kon, he slowly floated up to the height of my face, and he gave me a powerful slap with his tail.

“Calm down! You may still be young, but in this world, you’re the commander of the northern front forces as one of Noa’s generals. Remember who you are.”

“That hurt, you damned lizard! I never asked to be a general. I didn’t even want to be involved in this war! The only reason I’ve felt the need to get involved in any of this is because my mom doesn’t listen to anything I say! So why do people act like I’m here to save the world? They should have never dragged me into this.”

“Then why didn’t you contact Mother while you were in command? You could have spoken to her at any time using your personal terminal. An email would have been enough. Could it be because deep down inside you thought things would work out somehow? If you really hated your situation, you could have done something. It’s too late to cry about it now!”

I know! I know it better than anyone. Kon is completely right... but I never imagined the humans of this world could be so stupid. Why would they be so desperate to get rid of us that they’d put themselves at risk? Why can’t they join hands with us? It’s so stupid...

I couldn’t hold back my tears any longer and I started crying pathetically. Kon was more sympathetic now. After I cried for some time, I looked up and saw that Kon had produced some text.

“Have you calmed down now?”

“Yeah, sorry. And thanks.”

Kon was pleased to hear me say so, and the text soon disappeared. His tail swished back and forth as if he was thinking about something, and then some new text appeared.

“Master, what type of world would you like this to be?”

“A world where everyone can smile,” I said. “A world where people can protect the things most precious to them.”

The idea may have been laughably childish, but that was the world I wanted to see. A world where everyone was smiling and holding hands. A world where everyone could be happy.

“Well then, let’s make that world. This is no time to be shut up inside your room.”

“Did you listen to anything I said?” I shot back. “It’s impossible. The alliance and the coalition just can’t—”

I was about to go over the whole thing again, but then Kon produced more text, and I couldn’t help but smile when I read it.

“Why is it impossible now? Your mother is known as the greatest genius in all of history, and your father commands the strongest military unit. We also have the demon lord Victoria who rules over demonic races; an elven princess; and Marvelus and Lirin, the highest ranking and most powerful dragons in this world. And you have the respect of every single one of them. How can anything be impossible for you? Haven’t you always found it easy to do things that everyone said were impossible? You used Mother’s Equation to prove the existence of parallel worlds, you opened the moon relic... There are things that people all over the world said were impossible, things that only you could do. You may think it was all by chance, but it doesn’t matter if those things happened as such. You can just succeed by chance again this time, if that’s what you need to do.”

Kon’s opinion didn’t make a lot of sense. But for some reason, it made me think I could somehow lead the alliance and coalition toward peace.

What I needed to do now was think of a concrete plan for dealing with the ghouls. I was certain from their name and nature that these creatures were the zombies I’d seen in movies in my past life.

“All right. Let’s go talk to Mom about dealing with these ghouls!” I said with relief. “I do have a few ideas about that. Thanks, Kon. You’ve really lifted my spirits.”

“Kon!” he happily responded.

He sat in his usual position on my shoulder and coiled his tail around my neck to hold himself in place. He must have been growing, because he felt a little heavy lately. I petted his head as I got up to leave the room. Kon then deftly used his tail to produce some text as if he’d just remembered something.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about the way you’re always calling me a ‘lizard’ or a ‘damned lizard’... I’m biologically female. And when you consider that I was only born recently, you could say I’m a little girl. You could at least call me ‘lizard girl’ or something.”

I stared at Kon, dumbfounded. “You’re joking... right?”

“What? Isn’t it obvious from looking at me? I’m an elegant little lady. Take a good look. I have these delicate white scales! Isn’t their texture amazing?”

I think I’ll ask someone else to bathe Kon from now on... Maybe Mom or Clare.

I was trying not to think too hard about it as I headed for the CIC, where I expected Mom was waiting.

**

Miki Arakawa’s Point of View

I was in the CIC of the Alice studying a map of the surrounding area and developing a strategy for the near future when a pale-looking Clare returned to the room. I’d sent her to fetch Kouki, but she appeared to have returned alone.

I wonder what happened?

I asked her, “Is something wrong? You don’t look very well.”

“N-No. The major general... Kouki yelled at me. I’ve never seen him make a face like that. It was a little frightening.”

Kouki yelled at Clare? She must have said something to upset him. Though even then, I can’t imagine that being enough to make Kouki yell at her. Kouki’s so mild-mannered, and he’s not the type to show strong emotions like that. You could call him reserved, or you might say he’s introverted, but either way, he’s normally easygoing. It’s why he can never turn down his friends’ requests. Though that might change as he gains more life experience. So what could have gotten into Kouki?

Shuuichi, who was operating a terminal beside me, also looked curious.

“What did Kouki say?” Shuuichi asked. “He’s not the type to yell without a reason.”

“All I did was tell him that Miki wanted to see him. Normally he’d come with me right away, but he just sat there on his chair and wasn’t moving. So I urged him on by saying that Miki wanted to see him as soon as possible...”

“And that made him yell at you?”

Clare looked at her feet and replied with a quiet, “Yes...”

This is odd. Kouki wouldn’t normally get upset over something like that.

“Clare, did anything about Kouki seem unusual at the time?” I asked.

Clare replied immediately as if she’d already thought about it. “The only light in the room was from a desk lamp. The main lights were off. Kouki is normally reading a book or watching a documentary, but he was just sitting there on the chair thinking.”

“That’s odd,” Shuuichi said. “I’ve never seen Kouki act like that. I wonder what’s up with him.”

Shuuichi was right. The room we prepared for Kouki aboard the Alice was in the center of the ship and had no windows. For him to sit in that room thinking with the lights off and then yell at Clare when interrupted wasn’t like him.

What could have happened to Kouki? I folded my arms and tried to think of an explanation.

“Please forgive me for interrupting your meeting, but I may be able to shed some light on the matter,” Captain Dylan called up from an area below us.

“What is it?” Shuuichi replied while lighting a cigarette.

“It’s only been five hours since Kouki returned to the Alice after capturing the imperial capital. Kouki wasn’t behaving at all strangely at that time. Do you agree with this assessment?”

I saw Kouki myself when he returned, and he hadn’t been behaving strangely at all. Shuuichi and Clare also nodded to the captain in agreement.

“In that case, I can only think of one thing. Roughly three hours ago, Kouki was speaking with Lord Joachim’s wife and a knight from Merkava. I didn’t think it unusual that he’d talk to Lord Joachim’s wife; Kouki does find human-animal races to be particularly interesting. But I remember thinking it was strange that he’d be discussing things with a knight from the Merkava Kingdom.”

He spoke with a knight from the Merkava Kingdom? And then started acting strangely... Don’t tell me?!

“Clare, Princess Cassis is resting in another room. Contact her and ask her to find the knight that Kouki was speaking to immediately! Issue a formal summons if you must. Hurry!”

If my fears were correct, I’d be justified in using the full weight of my authority to discover the truth.

If the worst of my fears was correct, our only choice would be to confine Kouki to the Hakone base.

I was sure that would be the best thing for Kouki and this world.

**

Ten minutes later, an out-of-breath knight dressed in the armor of the Merkava Kingdom entered the CIC. Princess Cassis looked worried as she entered after him.

“I heard from Lieutenant Colonel Clare that you had some questions for me,” the knight said.

“I believe that you were talking to Kouki three hours ago. Please tell me what you said to him.”

“Indeed. I shared with him some things that are common knowledge in this world that Noa calls G-88. We spoke about the treatment and rights of demi-humans. In particular, I told him how our brethren have been treated as slaves.”

The knight continued to stand at attention as he confirmed my worst fears.

“How could you?!” Princess Cassis said to the knight in a voice that was close to a scream. “Were you not told that Kouki was never to hear of this?! It was the first article of the alliance treaty that binds the kingdom and Noa. Your actions are a blatant violation of our treaty!”

The knight replied, “I heard nothing about that.” The color was draining from his face as he gave excuses for his unintentional but devastating blunder.

The Merkava Kingdom doesn’t have reliable information management systems like we do, I thought frantically. Failures of communication and instructions arriving too late are problems that are bound to happen once in a while, but I never imagined it would happen over something so important. At any rate, we need to act fast...

“Clare. Please disable the activation system of Kouki’s suit, the Satanachia. Don’t do it on a software or systems level. He’ll find some way to override it and activate the suit. Physically remove the main thrusters and piloting unit.”

“Understood.”

“Shuuichi, would it be too much to ask your subordinates to remain fully armed and on standby? We can’t rule out the possibility of Kouki breaking through the alliance forces in an ordinary powered suit.”

“All right,” my husband said. “How many men will you need? The landing unit assigned to security inside this craft has only ten personnel capable of being mobilized immediately.”

“If Kouki made a serious attempt to escape and it was me trying to capture him, I’d want to have one powered suit brigade and three infantry divisions ready. You should be ready to prepare a force on that sort of scale.”

I overheard a crew member operating the radar quietly say, “That’s a little much,” to himself. But he hadn’t seen what I saw.

Soon after the Hakone base had become fully operational, around the time powered suits had been able to start using the training area, Kouki and I went to see it for ourselves. Kouki ended up trying out a mass production model of powered suit used by ordinary military units.

I remember seeing how happy Kouki looked in the footage sent from the camera inside the powered suit he was using. I happily watched the test along with everyone else who was present, but after a few seconds, I hadn’t been able to believe what I was seeing.

He was performing three-dimensional maneuvers in a suit equipped with only jump thrusters. He was launching himself into midair off the structures in the training ground as if wall jumping, and he was using the jump thrusters to accelerate to speeds that wouldn’t normally be thought possible.

When Shuuichi saw the video footage, he warned me, “Don’t tell anyone about this video. It would be a major blow to the confidence of most of our powered suit pilots if they saw this.”

As his wife, I understood Shuuichi’s excellence better than anyone. If someone like Shuuichi thought so highly of Kouki’s abilities, it would take a lot for us to be able to pin him down.

“Ha, what now, I wonder?” I felt I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation.

I pushed aside naïve thoughts like, Kouki is very understanding, so I’m sure he’ll listen if we just talk it over.

What I actually thought was, No matter how gentle he might be, there’s no way he’ll forgive the humans of this world.

I looked back at the desk and saw that Shuuichi left behind a pack of the cigarettes he was always smoking. I stopped smoking completely when I became pregnant with Kouki, but now the urge to smoke was so strong that I couldn’t resist. By coincidence, Shuuichi and I had always preferred the same brand of cigarettes. I picked up the pack and found there were several cigarettes left inside, so I put one to my mouth and lit it.

“That’s odd. It doesn’t taste good at all. Did they always taste like this?”

Everyone was looking at me with concern; they didn’t know how to react to me talking to myself.

That reminds me. Shuuichi is the only one who knew that I used to smoke. I’m sure everyone is surprised.

I felt the calming effects of the nicotine for the first time in a long while. When roughly half of the cigarette had been reduced to ash, Kouki suddenly entered the room, his eyes looking swollen.

He must have been crying. I stood up from my chair and Kouki walked toward me looking full of determination.

“Kou, what took you so long?” I said to him.

Kouki simply shook his head in response. He walked over to the desk where everyone was gathered and looked at the face of everyone present in turn before asking, “Mom... I have a favor to ask. Lend me your strength.”

“What?”

The atmosphere was tense. No one spoke, and the only sound was the working of the CIC’s instruments. Everyone was waiting for Kouki to speak.

“I want to rescue civilians from areas threatened by ghouls.” My son spoke with conviction in his voice. “Lend me your strength so we can save all races, regardless of whether they’re part of the coalition force or the human alliance. There’s no point in continuing this war.”

Kouki’s words brought a smile to the face of everyone in the room. Kouki had matured more than I expected. I knew it was a foolish idea, but I agreed and decided we’d aim for a brighter future.

“Of course we’ll cooperate!” I said. “You can always count on your mom. Did you have a plan in mind?”

“Yes, I have a plan. But you’re getting too close! Move back. You smell like cigarettes.”

Kouki stepped back looking disgusted. It came as a shock, and I didn’t know what to do. I realized that the room was too cramped for a strategy meeting and that I’d have to get more people involved.

“Clare, contact everyone involved and tell them that a strategy meeting will commence in Consultation Room A ten minutes from now. I’m going to go brush my teeth.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw everyone begin to move. I picked up Shuuichi’s pack of cigarettes that had been the cause of Kouki’s disgust and crushed them in my hand before throwing them into a trash can. I had to hurry so that I’d have time to brush my teeth before the meeting began.

I trotted off in the direction of the bathroom.

**

Shuuichi Arakawa’s Point of View

A card on the desk that read “no smoking” caught my eye as I entered the conference room and took my seat.

I guess Miki asked someone to put that here. Did it really bother her that much when Kouki asked her to move away? Well, it says no smoking, so I can’t light up here. I pulled out a pack of nicotine gum from my pocket and threw a piece in my mouth.

“Commander, will our unit be deployed?” asked Louis, who was sitting by my side.

How should I know?

“No idea. Just make sure everyone under your command is ready to sortie at any time.”

“Understood.” Louis used his personal terminal to send instructions to his subordinates.

Having nothing to do, I looked around the room and noticed that Miki and Kouki were having a discussion by the side of the screen. Every time Kouki asked a question, Miki pulled a face and became absorbed in using her terminal. Despite that, she somehow looked as youthful and beautiful as always.

Behind them, I saw Clare and Elise setting up a large display screen. That would probably be used so that personnel who were on the island could participate by video link.

“Kon!”

I was surprised when I suddenly heard a voice by my feet. I looked down and saw Kon looking up at me.

“What is it?” I asked. “You want me to pick you up?”

Kon nodded in response and reached out toward me with two small front legs. I couldn’t help but smile as I picked up the dragon. Kon agilely leapt out of my hands and onto the top of my head.

Is Kon coming to me because he couldn’t see Kouki? It made me feel a little sad as I closed my eyes and waited.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I heard Clare say. “We’re about to begin our anti-ghoul strategy meeting. Could everyone please take their seats?”

I opened my eyes and saw that the lights had already been dimmed in the conference room and Kouki stood waiting beside the podium. It looked as though the meeting was about to start. I sat up straight in my chair.

Clare began, speaking as the facilitator. “Our policy will now be explained by Special Major General Kouki Arakawa, who is the author of the materials on ghouls that has been distributed to everyone’s terminals.”

Clare stepped down from the podium and Kouki took her place. He appeared tense as he looked at the audience gathered in front of him.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Kouki Arakawa. The war started on October 5th, five days ago, and since then, we’ve continued fighting up until the capture of the imperial capital this morning. I’m truly grateful to everyone for their efforts so far. There are many people with injuries both major and minor, but so far, no member of the coalition forces has died. This is in part because you’ve all shown a high level of skill, but it wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t have multiple races working together. I hope that there will be even stronger unity between us in the future.”

Kouki stopped speaking to take a drink of water from a glass before continuing.

“We, the Multi-Race Coalition Force, have been successful in accomplishing one objective after another. But if we continue to progress in this way, it will likely result in the collapse of the major nations and satellite nations that make up the human alliance. Roughly half of this continent is now under control of that coalition. After we began our operation to capture the imperial capital, the alliance started using a biological weapon known as a ghoul as a last resort to repel the coalition force. As I predicted, these ghouls are now rampaging through the outskirts of the Recule Holy State and the capital of the Capus Kingdom, causing tremendous harm.”

It was as Kouki said. Just from looking at the footage that the intelligence department had sent us, it was obvious the alliance didn’t have the ghouls under control. They were like a plague of flesh-eating locusts.

“Noa is in possession of state-of-the-art weaponry,” he said. “It wouldn’t be impossible for us to continue advancing while exterminating those ghouls. Cities destroyed by the ghouls would be much easier to occupy than cities where garrisoned alliance soldiers would need to be eliminated first. All we’d have to do is kill anything that moves. Future historians would say that the loss of human life was the price that had to be paid to save the continent from ghouls. But would that really be enough?

“We’d be saving ourselves by killing blameless people who we could’ve saved. Wouldn’t that make us no better than the alliance?

“I don’t like that idea. I don’t want us to be like the alliance. At times like this, the coalition has to prove that we’re different from them. We have to stand up against the terror of ghouls! It doesn’t matter what race we are, we all need to cooperate!”

Kouki took a deep breath.

“Thus, I’m proposing a large-scale evacuation operation: Operation Future.”

Just as Kouki finished speaking on the podium, my terminal vibrated to inform me that I received an email. I noticed it wasn’t just me; everyone in the conference room had received an email.

I opened the email and started reading through an attached file that contained a description of Operation Future. I only got as far as the first line before I felt the need to object.

“This makes no sense... You plan to evacuate ten million people?! And in just 24 hours? It can’t be done!”

Louis, sitting by my side, looked equally surprised.

What’s Kouki thinking? I thought incredulously.

As the conference room became filled with the expressions of disbelief, it was Clare who was the quickest to come to her senses. She spoke loudly to calm down those around her.

“Silence! Please remain silent. Major General, please continue.”

This made everyone focus their attention on Kouki once again.

“This operation involves three stages,” he said. “In the first stage, we evacuate civilians from regions that we expect have been damaged by the ghouls. Based on information from our satellite and the intelligence department, we expect that there are between six million and ten million civilians in those regions. The full power of the coalition should be used to transport those civilians to safe areas. Once 50 percent of these people have been moved to safety, the operation will enter the second stage.

“In the second stage, we’ll capture the leaders of the Recule Holy State, the Capus Kingdom, and the Ragille Principality. The captured leaders will be put on trial by countries who didn’t participate in the war once the war is over. It’s important that they’re captured alive.

“By that time, we should have evacuated 90 percent of the civilians. Regardless of whether the evacuation was a success or failure, we’ll move to the third stage after confirming that all of our forces have returned safely.

“In the third stage, we’ll use an imaginary number bomb to completely destroy an area with a 2,000 kilometer radius covering all of the regions where ghouls have appeared. The operation should take 24 hours. Those 24 hours will change this world completely. Are there any questions?”

This needs more than just a Q&A session! I have so many questions, I don’t even know where to begin!

The more I read about this operation, the more uneasy it made me feel. The food, medicines, and shelters for the evacuees would all come from Noa’s supplies. And the refugee shelters were going to be in the Merkava Kingdom’s territory with the army of the Ursna Empire keeping the peace.

This is just too much. It’s like...

“Kouki! How is this any better than a defeat for the coalition?” Princess Cassis burst out.

She said the very words I was thinking. The princess was glaring at Kouki and trembling with rage, though it made me smile a little because she reminded me of Miki when she was angry.

“You’re not happy?” he asked.

“My happiness is irrelevant. If I announce this plan to my people, there will be an uprising!”

“Then be ready to quell an uprising. You are royalty, aren’t you, Princess Cassis? That problem is your responsibility.”

“...Gah!”

Princess Cassis had no idea how to respond, so she bit her lip and sat back down.

This is no good. I realize there’s sense in what Kouki’s saying. These were always the coalition’s ideals. It makes me a happy father to see how much he’s grown. In any other situation, I’d go over there and hug him right now. But he needs to think more about the feelings of others around him. He won’t win anyone’s cooperation by acting so high-and-mighty. He’s a smart boy, so I’m sure he knows this. And why isn’t Miki intervening? I found my wife’s behavior suspicious.

“This is more than I can endure.” It was empress Victoria who objected next. “Is the alliance to go unpunished for invading my territory?”

“Punish them? What good would that do?” Kouki demanded. “Do you want to go through this all over again? Yes, if they were punished, there’d be a short peace after the war, but I’m sure history would repeat itself. And then it’s going to be our children and grandchildren fighting. Victoria, do you want to put your children through that? You’d prolong this foolish battle for future generations to inherit?”

“I suggested no such—”

“As I said, we’ll use an imaginary number weapon. We’ll launch it from a special missile launching system. And my suit, the Satanachia, is the only one in this world equipped with the right kind of launching system.”

“Do you mean to say...”

“If the civilians of the alliance aren’t evacuated or if they haven’t gotten out of the evacuation area after a given time limit, I’ll detonate the weapon to protect the coalition. Victoria, you need to be ready for that, too.”

I couldn’t help but cover my face with both hands. Now I understood why Miki wasn’t stopping Kouki. It wasn’t just her; nobody here could stop my son.

To carry out this operation, he had to be prepared to kill ten million people.

**

Kouki Arakawa’s Point of View

“If the civilians of the alliance aren’t evacuated or if they haven’t gotten out of the evacuation area after a given time limit, I’ll detonate the weapon to protect the coalition,” I said. “Victoria, you need to be ready for that, too.”

Victoria opened her mouth to speak, but she had no words. She probably expected me to say something naïve like always.

The idea that I might have to kill ten million people made my palms sweat with fear, and my legs had been trembling uncontrollably for some time already. But I couldn’t turn my back on this war.

Without meaning to, I looked in the direction of Kon, who was sitting on Macho Man’s head, and I saw her looking right back at me.

Don’t worry, Kon... I listened to what you said. I won’t run from my responsibilities anymore. I’ll take on the worst tasks myself.

“Very well. You have the cooperation of the Ursna Empire,” she said at last. “If my subjects protest, I shall deal with that as it happens.”

Victoria finished speaking, sat down, and began to discuss something with the maid beside her.

It was my mom who had the power to make final decisions for Noa. And I could leave Kon to oversee Marvelus and the others. The remaining problem was the Merkava Kingdom, which was controlled by Princess Cassis.

Isn’t there a way to get her cooperation? Feeling stuck, I looked to my mom for help.

Mom had been silent until now, and when I looked at her, she stood up and spoke to Princess Cassis.

“Princess Cassis, I realize that the heaviest burden will fall on the kingdom. Your concerns are well-founded: providing us with space for refugees also means maintaining public order and distributing supplies. But please think of the advantages. If this operation is successful, the kingdom will hold a great amount of political influence on this continent despite being such a small nation. Whatever happens, you’ll have saved the continent from crisis. Provide Noa with the space we need to tackle this crisis, and we’ll never forget the kingdom’s brave decision to stand with us.”

I’m not surprised the head of the three witches of Noa is talking Princess Cassis into it so skillfully, but I wonder if now is really the time to make that kind of promise, I thought. Well, I guess she’ll make it work. This is my mom, after all.

“Do you mean it?” the princess asked.

“Yes. As long as you uphold the ideals of the coalition, the kingdom will always have Noa’s full support.”

“Very well. The Merkava Kingdom will cooperate with Noa.”

Mom nodded to me, and I faced the attendees once again so I could give my orders as the special major general.

“The operation will commence in eleven hours. Your instructions will be constantly updated, so please remember to check them periodically. Meeting adjourned.”

I breathed a sigh as I watched everyone leaving the room. Macho Man then walked over to me with Kon still sitting on his head. He placed a hand on my head and ruffled my hair.

“Dad... that hurts,” I complained. “What do you want?”

“I was just thinking that you’re becoming a good man. You sure you’re ready for this?”

It was rare for him to praise me so directly, so I nodded silently, feeling a little embarrassed. Kon then climbed into her usual position on my shoulder and grabbed on to my neck.

Macho Man grinned at the sight of the two of us. “We’ll be gearing up to head out as soon as we’re done checking our equipment. I don’t think we’ll meet again until this operation is over. Leave the second stage to me. I’ll make sure it succeeds.”

“Okay. If you mess up, the whole operation will fail. Make it work, no matter what.”

Macho Man said, “Got it,” and left the conference room together with Cote.

All that remained for me to do was load the missile onto the Satanachia and remain on standby. Though I’d have to visit Noa Island so I could pick up the missile.

I turned to Mom, wondering if my suit was finished being inspected and refueled. “Mom, is my suit ready to go? I want to fetch the missile from Noa Island.”

Mom turned around and checked something on her terminal before answering. “Yes, it’ll be ready to leave in a moment. Once the thrusters and piloting unit have been reinstalled, it’ll be ready to go at any time.”

Reinstalled? Why would they take it apart for an inspection? I guess my suit is such an important part of this operation that they had to inspect it extra carefully...

“All right. I’m off to Noa Island,” I said. “I’ll be back after I’ve picked up the missile.”

Then I left the room and headed to the hangar.

**

It had been an hour and twenty minutes since I launched from the land battleship Alice, and now the sun was beginning to set.

Come to think of it, I haven’t slept at all since capturing the imperial capital with Lirin and the others last night...

I rubbed my tired eyes with my right hand as Kon began growling and gesturing toward the monitor with her tail.

“Kon! Konkonkon.”

“What is it? Have you found something?”

I let my suit hover while I aimed the main camera in the direction Kon was pointing to and zoomed in. The shape of a person was displayed on the monitor, but the area was too dark for me to make anything out. I switched the camera to night vision mode using an instrument panel to my side.

“It looks like a person. What’s that behind it...? That’s a ghoul! I can’t believe they’ve spread so far already.”

The enlarged image showed a man holding a child and frantically running from the ghoul behind him. I immediately disengaged the safety on my weapons and was about to shoot the ghoul, but Kon produced some text in front of me before I could open fire.

“Master, there are more ghouls between us and the people headed this way.”

Damn! If they get any closer, the ghouls in front will notice them. There must be something we can do. Should we shoot now? No, we can’t. Bullets passing through the ghouls would injure the people behind. I need to warn them, but I don’t know how to do it.

Oh, that’s it! I’ll use the roar.

After accidentally using it that one time, I totally forgot I had it equipped. I jabbed the button full force and began firing my rifle into the air.

“GYRAAAH!”

A roar that sounded just like a distorted violin rang out across the evening sky. At the same time, a muzzle flash was produced from the rifle making me visible to everyone looking in my direction.

Don’t come this way! The fearsome Satanachia is here. Go somewhere else, I prayed as I watched the monitor screen.

Thankfully, the people seemed to decide this monster was more terrible than the ghouls behind them, and they changed direction.

“Great. Now we can open fire on the ghouls safely.” I breathed a sigh of relief before landing and aiming my rifle.

I started up the unfamiliar firing system, got the targeting reticle into position, and was about to pull the trigger. But something didn’t feel right, so I took my finger away from the trigger.

“What’s wrong?” Kon questioned.

I ignored the message. I needed to think with all of my concentration.

Why did the ghouls in front of me stop? They were chasing after the humans at full speed, but now they’ve suddenly stopped. There has to be a reason. What happened just before they froze?

“...I made the roaring sound and fired my rifle.”

If they reacted to the light of a rifle, they would react similarly to things like magical explosions. If it hadn’t been the light, the cause could only be the cry the Satanachia produced when I used the roaring device.

Could this be a way to control the ghouls?

“Kon! Use my terminal to search through the intelligence department’s databank. Try to find footage that includes the sound of ghouls and then extract that sound.”

“Konn!”

Kon followed my instructions and used her tail to operate my terminal. I watched her from the corner of my eye as I extracted the noise used by the roar device from the Satanachia’s information system. If one coincidence had been followed by another, then by some string of coincidences it was possible that the roar of the Satanachia and the voice of the ghouls...

“Master! I’ve found it. Here’s the audio data.”

I took the data that Kon gave me and loaded it onto the suit’s main terminal so I could view the sounds made by the Satanachia and the ghouls as waveforms.

I knew it! These two waveforms are virtually identical.

I couldn’t believe how quickly Kon had been able to separate out the sound of the ghoul from the other creatures that were found together with the ghouls. It really demonstrated how skilled an ancient dragon could be.

“Good work, Kon. Thanks to you, this won’t take long at all.”

I petted Kon’s head as I began programming some new basic sounds for commands to congregate, advance, retreat, disperse, and more into the roar device.

I’m so glad I got Shingo to teach me the basics of programming! When I get back to the Hakone base, I’m buying him whatever food he wants.

“All right. Let’s try it. We’ll start with a retreat, followed by an advance, and then stop.”

I flicked the switch on the device to create the sound, and the ghouls moved according to my instructions. I wanted to study their reactions to figure out how to create more precise instructions, but before that, I needed to contact Mom.

I used a terminal to the side of the monitor to send a transmission to the CIC of the Alice.

“Alice, do you read me? This is call sign Goetia, Kouki Arakawa. I’m transmitting from the Satanachia. Could you please relay this transmission to the personal terminal of Miki Arakawa?”

“Understood. Please wait a moment.”

I waited some time before getting a response. Then I heard Mom’s voice together with some background noise. “Kou, it’s me. What’s wrong?”

“Um... I figured out how to control the ghouls.”

“.........Oh. I see. Sorry, could you give me a moment?”

“Okay.”

Mom forgot to put me on hold and ran off somewhere. I heard the sounds of footsteps running through a corridor followed by a loud slam of a door being thrown open. Then I could hear her talking to someone.

“My son found a way to control the ghouls.”

“Huh?!”

“I need to confirm this. Have the reconnaissance satellite ready within five minutes.”

“Wha?!”

Mom, five minutes is asking a little much. Give them a little more time than that. I’ll bet the personnel of the engineering department are used to my mom giving them unreasonable requests... I’ll have to do something nice for them.

I waited, imagining the crew changing the angle of the satellite with tears in their eyes. Then I heard my mom’s voice again.

“Can you hear me? I can see you right now in the satellite image. Try making the ghouls back off, then call them back toward you.”

I made the ghouls move just as she said.

Mom was silent for a while, as if deep in thought. Finally she sighed and asked, “Is there a limit to how many you can control? And are you sure you’re not in any danger?”

“I don’t think there’s any limit. They probably consider the Satanachia to be the leader of the pack because it has the loudest voice, so I think it’s just limited by how far the Satanachia’s cries reach. There’s no danger. Ghouls can’t break through a powered suit’s armor.”

“...Okay. Here are my orders as the chief executive of Noa. We’re changing Operation Future. Special Major General Kouki Arakawa is to use the Satanachia to take control of all ghouls on the continent. I’ll determine which route you should take and where you’ll receive fuel and food.”

“Understood.”

“Good luck,” Mom said before ending the call.

With changes being made to an operation that had already been running on an unreasonable timescale, I was sure that the Alice would be so busy, it would be something like a battlefield.

I used an instrument panel to bring up the new route that had been plotted for the Satanachia.

“Looks like we’ll start by heading to a town in the east. All right! Let’s go, Kon.”

“Konn.”

It made me smile to see how enthusiastic Kon was, and I made the Satanachia begin walking east.

**

An electronic beeping sound woke me up and I was a little surprised to find myself in the dimly lit cockpit of the Satanachia.

That’s right... I decided to take a nap at the fifth supply point.

I looked down and found Kon curled up into a ball and sleeping on my lap. “I’m hungry... Let’s see what food we have. Wake up, Kon. It’s time to eat.”

Kon awoke with a yawn and produced some text that floated in front of me. “Just give me a can of peas.”

Wow, what a weird choice.

I rummaged through the bag of food that had been dropped by a transport aircraft at the second supply point. I found the can that Kon wanted and a can of seasoned rice for myself. I removed the tops from both and gave Kon’s to her.

I watched Kon greedily stick her head into the can while I ate mine with a fork. Naturally, the food was cold.

“I wish we could eat something hot,” I said to myself.

“I’d love to eat some of your mother’s stew right now,” Kon responded with some floating text.

Stew would be nice, but Mom’s curry is good, too.

Next, I picked up a chocolate bar to eat for desert, but as soon as Kon was done eating her own food, she leapt up and grabbed the chocolate out of my hand.

“Hey! That’s mine! What kind of lady snatches food away from other people?”

The self-described little lady on my lap ignored me and began chomping at the chocolate bar while clutching it in her little paws.

Okay, fine. That’s our only chocolate bar, but I guess she can have it.

I didn’t feel like snatching it back from Kon after seeing her happily munching on it with narrowed eyes. I gave up and drank from a pack of water using a straw.

“Are you going to drink some?” I asked. “Do you know how to use a straw?”

Kon nodded. She had no trouble putting the straw into her mouth to suck up the water. Her paws and the area around her mouth were still covered in chocolate.

She really is a lot of trouble... I took a wet tissue from the same bag and wiped Kon’s mouth and paws.

“Don’t move while I’m trying to clean you. Didn’t you say you were a girl? You shouldn’t let yourself look so messy.”

“Gruu...”

It wasn’t a threatening “Gruu”; it was more like a sound a cat might make when it’s enjoying the attention. Kon appeared to be happy. It was the noise she always made when Alice was spoiling her.

After reminiscing about how Alice would always smile as she wiped Kon’s mouth, I decided it was time to face the image on the main monitor of the Satanachia.

“Okay, time to face reality. Let’s activate the main monitor.”

I turned on the monitor while trying not to imagine what was happening outside. The scene that was displayed made me want to go punch whoever it was from Noa’s engineering department that raised the image quality of these cameras to the absolute limit.

I was surrounded by countless ghouls. It was nighttime before I went to sleep, so the image hadn’t been as clear. Now that the sun had risen, I could clearly see the ghouls that were standing all around me.

“...How many of those things are there?”

Kon answered my question: “I used the linked satellite to count them. There are about 30,000.”

That many?! Well at least they won’t keep multiplying, since we’re about to move them to an uninhabited area and set off an imaginary number weapon.

The missile had already been lowered down to me with my supplies before I took my nap, and it was now loaded into the missile launching system of the Satanachia. I was heading north as instructed.

“Kon, we’re headed for the final point on our route,” I told her before sounding the “advance” roar.

We traveled north for two hours before Kon turned away from the terminal she was using and happily swished her tail to produce some text. “Father’s unit has succeeded in capturing the leaders. It looks as though the whole operation is a success, Master!”

“Dad actually pulled it off? That’s great. That means the war is over. A lot of people were injured and a lot of bad things happened, but now...”

I trailed off as an unidentified armed unit came into view on the monitor. They were positioned in front of me and carrying flags with the image of a pair of scales and a wolf on a white background, as well as some plain red flags.

What is this? I didn’t know what to make of it so I sent a transmission to the CIC of the Alice.

“Alice, do you read me? I’m sure you can see it already, but there’s an armed force ahead of me. Who are they?”

“We are currently investigating. Please wait a few moments.”

Clare was the one who replied from the ship. When I apologized for yelling at her before leaving the Alice, and said I wanted her to continue acting as my personal adjutant, she’d forgiven me with a smile. Even now, she was taking good care of me.

“We have confirmed that this force is the regular army of the Conet Federation. The red flag is a warning flag meaning, ‘approach and we will attack.’ Please change course without approaching them. The point where you’re currently standing is the border between the Recule Holy State and the Conet Federation.”

“Clare, has the federation issued any statements about the harm caused by the ghouls? And which side of the border is the army positioned on?”

“No, the Conet Federation hasn’t issued any statement, and isn’t on the list of nations that have offered to provide aid. Strictly speaking, the place where the army is standing is the territory of the Recule Holy State.”

Hm... So they’re just watching over the continent’s crisis without speaking out or doing anything to help? I suppose that much is forgivable. They might not have the strength to offer any aid, and they could have their own internal problems to deal with. But to top it off by transgressing the border of their neighbor and declaring that they’ll attack if approached? They must be feeling quite confident. Those guys are just asking for trouble.

“I’m not changing course,” I replied while trying to contain my anger. “I’m going to continue heading forward, and I’ll change direction at the point we already agreed on.”

“Major General?! That would be... No, I understand. In the worst-case scenario, make sure they fire the first shot. Ensure we’re not the aggressors.”

“Understood.”

After Clare gave her warning, I ended the call. Of course, I had no intention of attacking them, but the federation needed to be taught that their behavior could have consequences.

I moved the Satanachia until it was just in front of the federation. I stopped 500 meters away from them.

The 30,000 ghouls that I brought just stood quietly behind me.

The members of the federation stood there looking at each other as time passed, and eventually, they lowered the red flags.

“That’s right. You’ve made the right choice. Go back to your own nation,” I muttered angrily to myself.

Kon grabbed onto my arm as if she was concerned.

Don’t worry. This won’t escalate further...

I smiled and made the “advance” roaring sound before hurrying toward the area where we’d activate the missile.

**

When we arrived at the activation point, we worked together to make the final preparations. The ghouls were densely packed together so that the explosion range could be kept to a minimum. Once I finished my share of the work, I rolled up the activation code for the warhead, and turned to Kon.

“Kon! I’ve done my part. The blast radius will be the minimum of roughly three kilometers, and the missile will detonate in 120 seconds. Have you finished setting up the escape boosters?”

“I’ve finished. We can make our escape at any time.”

I was reassured by the floating text that Kon produced. I took another look at the ghouls.

These ghouls are the victims of this war...

I would never forget this scene. I’d make sure this story was passed on to future generations so nothing like this could ever happen again. For the sake of a future where everyone could live and smile.

“Kon... let’s go.”

I buckled myself in and ignited the boosters. The Satanachia started to rapidly accelerate as we began our escape. The vibrations were incredible as we broke through the sound barrier. As I endured the G-forces, I watched the image on the rear main camera and saw a sphere of black light produced by the detonation of the missile warhead. This was probably the miniature black hole that Mom had told me about.

I watched it gradually grow larger as it engulfed the surroundings, then I closed my eyes and prayed that the ghouls would find happiness in the next life.

**

Miki Arakawa’s Point of View

I watched the satellite image of Kouki leading the ghouls to the detonation point.

How must he feel right now? By pure chance, Kouki has a huge number of ghouls under his command. There’s no way to protect him from feeling the misery of war. I worried about what that might do to Kouki’s mental state.

Shuuichi had recently returned from the battlefield. “Even so, it’s an incredible sight,” he said. “Together with the appearance of the powered suit Kouki’s using, it’s... I don’t know how to put it, but it’s, you know.”

Shuuichi was struggling for the words, but there was no way to sugarcoat it; what we were witnessing looked just like an army under the command of a demon. The other personnel in the CIC were watching the screen with wry smiles.

“You’re right. I had the same thought myself. But I worry. By chance, it was Kouki who had to see these ghouls close up. I hope this doesn’t affect him too much.”

“Miki, do you really think he was able to command the ghouls just by chance?”

“What are you suggesting?”

I didn’t know what Shuuichi was trying to say.

If he could control them for any other reason besides chance, Kouki would have told us so from the start. He’s not the type of boy to stand back and watch while people are pointlessly sacrificed!

I angrily defended Kouki to Shuuichi, but he replied with a calm and serious look on his face. “You believe that he knew about their weak point, but he hadn’t come up with a plan for handling them? And even before the war started, he was trying to hurry you into installing that roar device. Why would he do that? Don’t you suspect that he predicted this whole thing?”

“He can’t have... I won’t believe it. It’s not possible.”

“Kouki was shaking while we were talking in the conference room. At the time, I thought he was worrying about the possibility of sacrificing ten million people, but what if he was just angry? What if he was angry at this world and at us because we stopped moving forward? If his only concern was our ability to prosper here, then perhaps his plan was to use those ghouls to lay the world to ruin if we weren’t willing to keep moving forward.”

That’s not possible. That’s absurd nonsense, and I won’t believe it. But this is Kouki... How long has he been preparing for this? Since before the war? Since we first visited this world? From the moment he opened the moon relic? Could it be that he really can see the future?

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I sometimes wonder how much he can see.”

“Who knows? But whatever he can see, that doesn’t change the fact that he’s our precious son.”

“That’s true.”

He’s exactly right. No matter how much other people fear him, Kouki is our precious son. Even if no one else understands him, we’ll try to understand him. I firmed my resolve.

Clare then informed me of a new development while she was operating a terminal. “We have word from the alliance via the Merkava Kingdom. They are willing to surrender.”

“What are the surrender conditions?”

“None. Unconditional surrender.”

“Very well. Please accept.”

Clare received my instructions and began sending out instructions to various places. It looked as though the war was finally over. We’d been so busy lately that I suddenly felt ten years older.

When I looked back to the screen, the imaginary number weapon had been detonated and a black hole appeared. It was working exactly as the theory predicted, and Kouki had escaped the danger zone safely.

I know! I’ll make his favorite stew to improve my mood. He’ll be tired when he gets back, and I’m sure it’ll make him happy.

I told the personnel from the political department that I had work to do elsewhere. They desperately tried to stop me, but I ignored them and headed to the kitchen.

I was known for being a workaholic, but even I needed to take a break once in a while to stop myself from breaking down.