Epilogue: Shop Closed

At the Weapons Development Bureau in Berun, the royal capital...

After a single gunshot, it wasn’t Sophia who fell.

“You bastard!!”

The one who fell was Daian Fortuner.

“Aw, man... I’m not this heroic... am I?”

Sophia had stood up, making a good target. Genitz’s bullet should have struck her chest, but Daian shielded her at the last moment.

“Why... did you do this? You idiot!!”

In the past, Sophia had yelled and called him an idiot countless times. But she never expected to call him that in a moment like this.

“Yeah... I surprise even myself.”

To Daian, Sophia was a luxury item.

“Well, I was feeling whimsical!”

Even suffering in pain, Daian answered in his ridiculously theatrical way.

“I’m surprised. I thought you were more logical, Daian.”

Still holding his gun, Genitz approached slowly.

“Logical? What is the point of this? Soon, some very scary troops will come and rescue us!”

“No problem. As long as I open the Door, I will have power that prevents anyone in this world from threatening me.”

“You know about the Door? But how do you intend to open it?”

Wiltia had forced open a Door, analyzed the technology inside, and created the Hunter Units that altered the balance of world power. For that, however, Wiltia had to pay reparations for destroying an entire city.

“Do you intend to erase Berun from the map? You don’t have that much power.”

“You say the strangest things. All I have to do is use the key to open it.”

“Surely, you don’t...”

Finally, Daian understood Genitz’s true intention.

Genitz’s main goal wasn’t the Door. He wanted to open the Door, but the reason he had mobilized his forces was to secure the Door while simultaneously gaining the “key.”

And the key was Sven.

“Oh, so your goal was to acquire the emergency control code?”

As if those words had expended what remained of his strength, Daian slumped and was still.

“Daian! Hey! Damn it!!”

Sophia was going to avenge Genitz’s violence, but soldiers silently appeared and immediately restrained her.

“Urgh! What the... You goons!!”

Sophia was a master of army battle techniques, but she couldn’t make a move.

“They are Werewolves. In other words, they are my faithful minions.”

“Werewolves... You keep these guys like you did Lud?”

Sophia knew about the Werewolves. She knew that Lud was once a member, and that Genitz had ordered the slaughter of Lapchuricka.

“Silence. You’re hurting my ears.”

Genitz would exchange no further words with Sophia. Under orders, the Werewolves struck Sophia with their fists and she lost consciousness.

“Now then, they caused a great deal of trouble.”

Having lost Sophia and Daian, the security forces would no longer be able to resist Genitz’s forces. The development bureau had fallen.

“Mop up any remaining guards and thoroughly search Daian’s lab. Information on the code must be there.”

“...!”

In silence, the Werewolves nodded and moved to carry out their orders. The remaining security soldiers died with no chance to resist.

“L-Lord Lieutenant General... Um...”

The soldier speaking timidly from behind Genitz was Captain Delz, commander of the siege troops.

“I didn’t think you would come all the way here, Lord... But, anyway, splendid work!”

He was so fawning, as he wrung his hands, that he looked more like a merchant than a military officer.

He was afraid. He had mobilized over one thousand soldiers that night alone. And, in the end, Genitz was forced to come and finish the job.

“You did well. Good job.”

But Genitz did not criticize the captain.

Delz was incompetent. And because he was incompetent, he was useful.

Even allowing for differences in geographical advantage and weaponry, and in the quality of the respective soldiers, against a security force of fifty guards, Delz had lost the lives of hundreds. The soldiers’ resentment—their hatred—would fall on Delz, their incompetent commander.

Running an organization required a clear object of hatred. It was necessary to have someone incompetent who could be sacrificed.

“My apologies, Captain Delz, but would you be so kind as to arrange air transportation?”

“Hm? You’re not going anywhere, are you?!”

Troops had mobilized in the capital. Considering what would come next, Supreme Commander Genitz couldn’t leave the royal capital.

“Ah ha ha! Of course not. Someone else is leaving.”

Genitz wasn’t the one leaving. The corporal in the iron mask was leaving.

“If they start searching now, they will find what I seek by tonight. And with that, he will head for Organbaelz.”

At last, sunlight was visible in the eastern sky. But it was already too late.

With the defeat of the development bureau, the royal capital would fall under martial law. Now, even if regular army headquarters learned of the situation, there was nothing it could do.

The curtain dropped on this battle, enacted on the stage of the development bureau, twenty-four hours before Thanksgiving in Organbaelz.

Back in the present...

“HUFF... HUFF... HUFF... I m-must hurry!”

Helpner Canyon was a short distance from Organbaelz. Vertical cliff walls carved by the river spread beneath Sven’s eyes.

“If I fall from here...”

Sven was about to cast herself to the canyon floor.

Genitz had activated the emergency control code. It did more than simply stop a Hunter Unit. It issued compulsory directives to the rezanium reactor that powered and controlled the Hunter Unit, thereby placing it under the direction of the person who input the code.

Originally, the program was developed to stop rampaging Hunter Units. However, the program had a different function for humanoid Hunter Units.

“No... Like this... I’ll...”

She could tell that she was being rewritten with alarming speed. Her deep love for Lud was being redirected toward the man who had punched in the code.

“I must hurry!”

Her legs, which had carried her this far at full speed, wouldn’t obey, as if they were no longer her own.

If she took one more step, she could cast herself over the cliff. If she did, she would undoubtedly break apart and be destroyed.

She must do that. Otherwise, that man would use her to harm Lud. She had to destroy herself first.

“You are about to learn what a robot is supposed to do.”

“—!!”

She heard the voice of the man who surpassed demons.

“A robot must protect itself. Only humans commit suicide, Svelgen Avei.”

Genitz appeared. He had stolen Sven’s heart, the most important thing to her.

“Get... the hell out of here!!”

If she couldn’t die, then she would kill this man, so Sven spun around and tried to throw a hand chop.

“Urgh...!”

But she couldn’t.

“Robots must never hurt a human being.”

Genitz said this cruelly, but also as if he were enjoying himself.

Sven could not kill herself or defy the man who now possessed her. Then she lost the final remaining part of herself.

“And robots must obey humans.”

“Noooooooooo!!!”

Sven’s cry of desperation echoed throughout the canyon.

A few moments later, silence fell again. A sudden silence, as if the world had changed.

“Who are you?!”

It was Genitz who asked this.

“Svelgen Avei... SS-6R1...”

Her voice was the same, but it sounded like an automated mechanical voice.

“And who am I?”

“Lord Lieutenant General Maximillian Genitz... my master.”

“Very good! Most splendid!”

Genitz laughed with immense satisfaction.

“Thank you.”

The rewritten automaton bowed deeply.

“Now, let us go back to our home in Berun.”

There is a small bakery in the small mining town of Organbaelz. The bakery’s name is Tockerbrot. The owner looks frightening, but he’s serious and skilled.

The bread he served at the Thanksgiving festival the day before had won much praise. But, the next day, a sign reading “CLOSED” hung at the shop’s entrance. No one was inside.

In the afternoon and that night, the closed sign was still hanging. And no one was inside. Neither the owner with the scary face, nor the cute, silver-haired waitress.