Chapter 3: The World Quakes

1548 25.04.921—

“... SIGH...” Inside Tockerbrot, Sven sighed very deeply. Lud wasn’t there. He was procuring wheat in a neighboring town. Milly, the apprentice, was helping him.

“...SIIIGH...” Sven sighed again. At this moment, Sven and one other person were in the shop.

“Hey, Sven? If you sigh that much, happiness will run away.” That other person was Meitzer, who claimed to be Sven’s father.

“I just don’t have the energy to get angry at you...”

Sven was wondering how she got into this situation. Lud probably considered this an opportunity for her and Meitzer to spend time together. She could have cried for joy.

“Don’t make such a forbidding face. I just wanted to talk with you alone.”

“Oh, now I get it.” Sven suddenly realized the truth. She thought Lud arranged this, but it was Meitzer. Perhaps, Meitzer had told Lud that he could leave because Meitzer would take care of the shop.

“What do you mean when you say you’re my father?”

“Hm?” Meitzer looked curious in response to Sven’s question.

“So you admit I’m your father?”

“I don’t wanna play word games! Just explain... And quickly!”

If Meitzer was a fraud, the explanation was simple. However, he had told Rebecca that she wasn’t his daughter. If he had wanted to sneak into Tockerbrot and harm Sven, he would have no need to make such a distinction.

“If you want to talk, do it fast. We don’t have much time.”

Lud and Milly would return in a few hours. And the shop was open for business. Although it wasn’t a busy time, customers could walk through the door at any time.

“What I mean is we share the same blood. And such a relationship is only true for parents and their children.”

“What?” Meitzer’s reply dashed Sven’s hopes for a simple explanation. “Do you know what you’re saying?!”

Meitzer said they were related by blood. And Sven didn’t have blood.

“You still can’t abandon your behavior from your days as a weapon. Don’t just look at what’s immediately in front of you. You must grasp something deeper.” However, Meitzer spoke to Sven like a parent reasoning with a child. “What exactly is blood? It circulates inside the body and maintains life. So, Sven, what is blood for you?”

“It’s... What?!” Sven scrunched her face at the riddle-like question.

No blood circulated inside her body. However, she did have something like blood. Just as humans have blood to convey oxygen and nutrition around the body, Sven had something that conveyed her power to function. It was the rezanium reactor inside her chest.

“No way! That doesn’t even make sense!!” Sven trembled in disbelief.

They shared the same blood? If that meant what she thought it did, it changed everything.

“Are you a humanoid Hunter Unit too?”

Her rezanium reactor was made of a special ore called rezanite. If Meitzer was also equipped with a rezanium reactor made of rezanite, then it would be as though they shared the same blood. In that case, the man in front of her wasn’t human. But...

Given his exceptional strength, it’s possible!

Two humanoid Hunter Units had been unable to even scratch this man, so he might be a humanoid Hunter Unit with stronger capabilities. But...

“No, I’m not a humanoid Hunter Unit.”

“You’re not?!” Sven almost fell over when Meitzer shot down her guess.

“That’s an impressive guess!”

“That isn’t important!!” Sven’s eyes shot daggers as she yelled at Meitzer, who wore a pleased look.

“You weren’t far off. Consciously or unconsciously, however, you’re avoiding one possibility.”

“And you’re playing with words again!” Meitzer’s riddles irritated Sven. Her stomach had started to hurt, and she didn’t even have a stomach.

“Do you know how unique you are?”

“What’re you yapping about now?!”

It wasn’t necessary for him to tell her that. A humanoid Hunter Unit was neither human nor a weapon. It was something in between.

“No, no...” However, that also wasn’t the response her self-proclaimed father wanted to hear.

“I don’t know how many humanoid Hunter Units exist in this world, but you’re unusual even among them.” Meitzer extended his fingers to point at Sven’s chest. “You must be aware of it. You’re special.”

“.........!” Meitzer’s words struck a nerve in Sven. They reminded her of a part inside her that she tried to ignore and couldn’t understand at all.

“I’m sure you’ve considered it.”

“That’s...” Sven had encountered her own surprising strength many times.

The first was during the fight against Augustan special ops soldiers who came to Organbaelz. The next was during the Defairedead incident. And then it had happened during the rebellion in Berun, the royal capital.

“A rezanium reactor is the brain and heart of a humanoid Hunter Unit. At the same time, it’s a power source with a pre-existing high-quality calculating machine.”

Rezanite could magnify a weak electrical current to achieve many times more energy. Certain gemstones could increase the quantity of light heat a few thousand fold by internal refraction. A rezanium reactor was said to have the same effect. And that effect could function as both an energy amplifier and a calculating machine.

“Do you know about quartz? It’s used in clocks. Rezanite is on a whole other level, but the way it functions is similar.”

Quartz is the crystal used for oscillation in clocks. Applying an electrical current to quartz crystals results in a fixed number of oscillations. Based on the number of oscillations, a quartz clock can keep time more accurately than a spring clock.

“Your rezanium reactor is your power source and brain. And its artificial intelligence results from a specific number of vibrations determined by the rezanite.” Meitzer was explaining cutting-edge science. And it was top secret technology held by the Wiltian military.

“Daian Fortuner... I don’t know where he obtained the knowledge, but this was the most secret technology ever created by the ancient European Empire.”

Meitzer and Sven didn’t know that Daian had told Sophia about it the other day.

Human beings are what they are because of the vibrations of a single strand of the strings that are the smallest component of all things. Daian had created technology that used vibration to simulate a human heart. That was the true nature of the artificial brain and heart inside Sven and the other humanoid Hunter Units.

“Daian was able to create waves from vibrations, but he couldn’t generate the vibrations themselves. Only God could do that. To artificially create vibrations, someone has to transmit them. And that someone is the one you call Master.”

Such transmission could only happen in the extreme state of war, which revealed the true nature of human emotion. The Great Europea War had lasted over ten years, but to Daian, even that calamity was only a huge, dreadful experiment for completing his theory.

“Who are you? Why do you know such things? What do you know about me?!” Sven was too upset to maintain her usual voice. She was so upset that she returned to the voice she had used when she was Avei.

“Your vibration... It was reproduced from a human being’s. And that surprised me. I hadn’t expected the family to be reborn in such a manner.”

“—?!” After hearing these words, Sven finally remembered. Why hadn’t she remembered sooner? “You’re that voice!”

She remembered hearing Meitzer’s voice before. She heard it soon after coming to Organbaelz. And after Genitz had stolen her soul, Lud activated a reset code intended to erase her memories and thereby release her from that control. She had heard Meitzer’s voice then, too.

“At last, you remember. And, finally, we meet.”

“Father...” Sven was in a daze, but the word slipped from her mouth.

What did I just say?!

After uttering that word, she was greatly troubled. She didn’t know anything about Meitzer. Nonetheless, her mind recognized him as her father. Her mind, drawing upon instincts that extended beyond reason, told her he was her father.

“Who are you really?!” Sven had never known such fear. Because she couldn’t understand her own mind. What now showed on her face was fear more desperate than when Genitz had controlled her.

“........................”

“Answer me. Who are you? No... who am I?!”

Meitzer stared at Sven silently as her body shook and she fired a string of questions.

“W...”

“W...?”

“Welcome!”

“What?!” When Meitzer finally spoke, Sven doubted her ears.

“Look! We have a customer. We can talk later!” At Meitzer’s words, Sven turned to see an elderly woman entering the shop.

“Oh my! Welcome to Tockerbrot, Ma’am! What would you like today?” Meitzer’s serious expression vanished. In an instant, he switched to his business smile to welcome the elderly woman.

“My teeth are bad, so I want bread that’s soft!”

“All right! We have just the thing! This bread right here is as soft and cushy as your cheeks!” Meitzer showed the woman around with dedication fit for escorting a queen.

“Why you...!” Sven was speechless watching Meitzer’s quick transformation.

The more she tried to figure Meitzer out, the more unknown he remained. An unusual type of static, a disruption completely different from the kind that characterized her feelings for Lud, was playing with her emotions.

1202 26.04.921—

There was also confusion in the royal capital of Berun.

“How did this happen?!” Sophia was mumbling in a daze. “My life has always been this way. After my two older brothers died, I was forced to become the head of the family, so I had to leave him. And when we met again, he only saw me as his senior officer. Then, after the war, I had to watch over that weirdo.”

Looking exhausted, Sophia complained about her past frustrations. “Then I was assigned to provide security for this event... and look what happened! What did I do to deserve this?! Grar!!”

“Calm yourself, Major Rundstadt!” Hilde did her best to stop Sophia from shouting.

They were in the waiting room on Noa’s side of the venue for the goodwill ceremony. The scene in front of them looked, in a word, horrifying.

“This is brutal... One attack killed almost everyone. What kind of weapon did this?” Lillie was the only calm one among them. She was carrying General Douglas—the penguin—and examining the corpses on the floor.

General Douglas’s attendants should have occupied the waiting room. However, they were now silent, bloody corpses littering the floor.

“These people were more like animal caretakers than diplomatic messengers.”

They were attendants to the penguin. Their job had been to care for General Douglas. Perhaps some of them had been recruited only for this event.

“Do you mean someone killed them even though they were unfamiliar with national secrets?!” Hilde couldn’t restrain her anger.

She despised death. When she was a member of the Schutzstaffel, she had a sense of privilege and treated life carelessly. However, that attitude disappeared when she witnessed a man’s death. No, to be precise, she learned the obvious but often overlooked fact that life, once lost, never comes back.

“This is terrible!” Her eyes brimming with tears, Hilde mumbled and ground her teeth.

“Yes, it really is.” Sophia was next to Hilde. She had been ranting and raving, but now had returned to herself and was speaking calmly.

It’s not true that excellent soldiers never lose their cool. Their place of work is the battlefield, where the unexpected happens. Yet soldiers were taught to manage their panic.

“I threw a fit, but now it’s time to do my job as a soldier.”

When powerful emotions overflow, it’s best to release rather than suppress them. Then, Sophia could face and focus on reality. That was her method.

“Your work as a soldier? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to capture the assassin.” Sophia answered Hilde’s question as if it were obvious.

Her duties were to provide security and serve as a guard at the ceremony. No matter what, she couldn’t allow any problems. If problems arose, then she must handle them.

“This is a diplomatic issue between two nations. We have to catch the killer or the relationship between Wiltia and Noa will collapse!”

She could not kill the assassin. It was crucial that she take the killer alive. Otherwise, people would think Wiltia had killed a national guest from Noa and then invented—and eliminated—the assassin to cover it up.

“But... how?”

Many people had gathered at the venue. And the killer may have already escaped.

“I never thought his parting present would prove useful.” Sophia sighed.

When Daian, the director of the Royal Weapons Development Bureau, had heard Sophia would be in charge of security, he gave her a small present. At first, Sophia had refused, saying, “I don’t need it! Whenever you get involved, everything goes to pot!”

But Daian insisted. “When everything goes to pot, unnecessary things come in handy.” So she had accepted it.

“What is that?”

Sophia pulled a small device from her pocket. It looked like a radio but had a small monitor.

“I’m not entirely powerless. There are only three entrances to the venue—the front entrance, the back door, and the service entrance. I’ve stationed subordinates at each location.”

All other entrances had been closed, and grates welded over ventilation shafts. The preparations before the event were the main concern when it came to security, and she had performed her duty diligently over the last few days.

“I required everyone on site to wear a pass. And I’ve ordered the capture of anyone who isn’t wearing one.”

“Everyone” included invited guests, honored visitors and staff.

“Is this the pass?” Hilde was, of course, wearing one on her chest.

“Yes. There’s a special transmitter inside it.”

“Huh? Where?”

The smallest transmitter that science and technology was currently capable of creating was the size of a thumb.

“I know an eccentric scientist who made a transmitter the size of a scrap of paper, like a thin sticker.”

That was the present Daian had given Sophia. It was an ultrathin transmitter, and Daian had given her hundreds.

“The signals from all these transmitters appear on this terminal.”

However, the terminal showed more. The transmitters were thin and didn’t have much range. Their signals wouldn’t reach the terminal from outside the site.

“I knew it. The number of signals hasn’t changed.”

But the terminal was able to indicate any increase or decrease in the number of signals received in the past few minutes.

“The killer is—probably—still on site.”

Sophia looked at General Douglas as Lillie carried him.

“The killer didn’t know the target was a penguin.”

The unexpected circumstances must have confused the assassin. However, the killer hadn’t abandoned the mission. Wiltia’s inability to protect a national guest from Noa, whether human or penguin, would be enough to produce the desired effect.

Then who is the killer? August? Filbarneu? Greyten? Or a domestic militant faction?

There were plenty of possible culprits.

“Our country has too many enemies!” Sophia spat the words bitterly.

“Can you identify the killer from those transmissions?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t.” Sophia was regretful as she answered Hilde. If she had used the full potential of Daian’s device, she might have prevented the deaths. She regretted putting her pride first. “But the assassin doesn’t know about the transmitters, or even that such a thin model exists.”

Which was why this killer was still on site. The assassin must have been confident of eluding discovery even after committing the crime.

Think! Who did this?!

“Um... Major?” Apologetically, Lillie tapped Sophia’s shoulder.

“I have determined the identity of the killer.”

“What?!”

“Repeat: I have determined the identity of the killer.” Lillie spoke as if she was revealing who had swiped and scarfed down a cookie hidden in a cupboard.

“No other person is capable of using such a weapon.”

“What was the weapon?”

“Of greater importance is how the killer obtained it.”

Understandably, all the participants were searched upon entry. And no bags were allowed in. Security guards even supervised preparation of the flower bouquet General Douglas received from Hilde.

“The general told me.” Lillie patted General Douglas’s head.

She was able to understand what the penguin said because Daian had implanted within her a translation device allowing limited communication with animals. The device could only convey simple internal states, such as hunger. It couldn’t convey the name or the face of the killer.

“The killer is...”

It could, however, provide a significant hint.

“I see...” After hearing Lillie’s revelation, Sophia thought it over.

“Um, Major? Is Lillie really trustworthy?”

“What? That’s not a very nice thing to say, Hilde!” Hilde openly showed her doubt, and Lillie looked insulted.

“I can’t help it. I believe you, but I don’t know if others will.”

It was intel from a penguin, so would anyone else take it seriously? Even if they apprehended a suspect, they still didn’t have evidence.

“No, that’s not quite true.” Sophia laughed as if to dispel all worries. “What’s crucial is that Lord General Douglas has already given us the answer. Now all we need to do is prove it. If we know what we’re looking for, there are plenty of routes to take.” As soon as she spoke, Sophia wheeled around and left the room.

“General Douglas, in return for this, I’ll feed you anything you like! So think about what you want!” Sophia made a promise to General Douglas.

“Skwawk!”

“He would be pleased with fresh fish.” Lillie provided simultaneous translation for General Douglas’s answer.

1630 26.04.921—

Meanwhile, Blitzdonner was in the corner of a nameless valley in a rural area of Haradin.

“Well then...”

This was where August had cooperated with Genitz in researching the Door.

“There certainly isn’t anyone here!”

The location was far from the nearest town, but it wasn’t entirely unpopulated. Although it had been neglected, there was a road nearby. Nonetheless, people rarely visited and the area didn’t even have a name. According to Apuvea’s research, the people around here simply called it “that place.” It was as if they were afraid of recognizing its existence.

“I wasn’t certain, but it’s real.”

The Door stood deep in the valley as if hidden behind countless rocks.

“Oh dear. What’s wrong Crimson Hawk?” Fianna, the genius scientist with the beautiful face, spoke to Blitzdonner as he stood there.

“I told you to stop calling me that.” Blitzdonner responded to her with a tired sigh.

He knew that no matter how many times he told her, it would have no effect. Daian and Fianna were both egotistical. They didn’t even want to listen to what others said.

“That name is too grand for me.” Blitzdonner had to tell her anyway because he had his own feelings about the matter.

“Oh dear... You’re Wiltia’s greatest hero but admirably humble!”

Fianna’s face didn’t suggest she was teasing. Was she simply being honest?

“After all, look at the state I’m in.” With a self-deprecating grin, Blitzdonner removed a glove, revealing a mechanical hand. It wasn’t just an artificial hand. His arms were replaced with machinery from the shoulders to the fingers.

“No one who is defeated so shamefully can be called a hero. It’s too much of a burden for me.”

Wiltia possessed the technology to create mechanical soldiers, but so did the Greyten Empire, the Filbarneu Republic and the August Federation. However, Wiltia’s technology was much more advanced. And it was Daian himself, the genius of their time, who had performed Blitzdonner’s operation. It was extremely well done, so the machinery made almost no sound.

“It was... eight years ago, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, about that long.”

Blitzdonner had been a powerful combatant early in the Great War. In August, they had feared him as an “enemy of the people” and placed a bounty on his head. But he suddenly disappeared from the battlefield.

“Even rebuilt as I am now, I doubt I could beat that monster.” A deep, dark shadow crossed Blitzdonner’s face as he remembered the day that had marred him.

“Well! That’s certainly gloomy!”

“Don’t expect me to apologize. You started this.”

“Hmf!” Fianna returned a smile that said she wasn’t sorry at all.

“Ugh...” Seeing her expression, Blitzdonner shook his head and changed the topic as if talking to her was a waste of time. “And...?”

“And what?”

“You know what!”

Daian was now inside the Door taking a look around to analyze the interior. Fianna had accompanied him and just reappeared from inside.

“Did he find anything? Treasure? Anything?”

“Well...” Fianna smiled wryly at Blitzdonner’s question.

“Why in the world did I bother coming all this way?”

Now it was her turn to heave a deep sigh. “Surely you don’t mean...”

“Allow me to explain.” Daian, the Sorcerer, stuck his head out through the Door.

“Oh... Daian. I gather you didn’t find much?”

“Um... no.” Daian was usually relaxed no matter how dark the situation, but now he wore a serious expression. That alone was enough to suggest that things had not progressed as expected. “To get to the point... But first, Major? No one has been inside, have they?”

“What? I don’t know about the Augustans, but agents from Apuvea have held the location since they left, and no one went in.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I see...” Having confirmed that fact, the apparent disappointment on Daian’s face grew darker.

“Then we really are screwed. There isn’t anything inside!”

Usually, it required technology from the ancient empire to break the seal and open any of the Doors. It was impossible to destroy them. There were examples of Doors that had been opened, but no one could just casually get inside.

“This Door has already been opened, and there’s nothing inside. Our efforts have come to a big nothing.”

“Are there signs of anyone removing the contents?”

This would explain why the Augustan researchers had left.

“No. I’ll have to investigate closely to know for sure, but I think the Door was opened quite some time ago.”

A Door should be so thoroughly sealed that the interior would give no indication that hundreds of years had passed. But that was only if the Door had been completely sealed.

“There may have been a small crack allowing in air. Some places inside show rot from mold, moisture and so forth. There’s very little left, and what remains is of no value.”

It was all junk, such as rotten cords and rusty bolts. Even though study might produce worthwhile results, Daian had already found similar remains in better condition inside other Doors.

“In other words... we came here for nothing?”

“That is correct, Major.” Blitzdonner sought confirmation, and Daian answered with a shrug.

“Aw... this is stupid!” Then, as if she could hold it back no longer, Fianna raised her voice. “Do you know how many days it took by ship from Noa to Europea? Seven days! Then I rattled by steam train for three days! Then I spent a whole day in an automobile! After all that... nothing?!”

Fianna raged in disbelief. “Did you know? Life doesn’t last forever! Now I have to spend the same amount of time going back! You’ve made me waste too many precious days of my beautiful youth!”

Fianna was the rare person willing to describe herself as beautiful.

“Hey, don’t blow your top. You saw inside yourself? There’s nothing there and there’s nothing we can do about it!”

“What do I care?! You shouldn’t have invited me unless you knew something was there! Argh! I am so done with this!” After shouting, Fianna turned on her heels and strode away.

“Where are you going?”

“Home!” She answered Daian with a shout. “Anything’s better than hanging around here until the next train! You made hotel reservations in a nearby town, didn’t you? If I don’t take a bath and find a cold beer, I’ll go crazy!”

Daian had invited her to inspect the heritage of the ancient empire because she had an excellent brain. But the object of their study was gone. Having expended great effort for nothing, she could only rant and rave.

“..................”

“..................”

Daian and Blitzdonner said no more to Fianna as she left. They just watched her back.

When she disappeared, Blitzdonner spoke. “What’s going on, Daian? What happened?”

“As expected, the heroic veteran understands immediately.” Daian wore a dark expression, but he answered in his customary tone, derided as clownish. “I can’t believe it. There wasn’t a thing inside, and that’s a good thing. It suits my purposes nicely.”

Fianna had misunderstood. Daian’s objective had been to confirm that nothing was inside the Door. If nothing was inside, then there was no problem.

“If something had been there, it would have been fine, as long it was something inconsequential and worthless for Fianna to take home as a souvenir.”

Daian had brought Fianna along to preserve diplomatic relations between Noa and Wiltia.

“I do rate her highly, but that’s the only reason I invited her. Apparently, she didn’t know that.”

The joint military development Genitz had been planning was also a scheme of Wiltia’s upper echelons. But their partner wasn’t August. It was Noa.

“Like August, Noa is a continental nation with plenty of natural and human resources. If Wiltia were to share technology with Noa, it could form an alliance that would determine the course of world affairs for a hundred years. But... that doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Wiltia had approached two large nations, saying to each one, “We’re only mentioning this to you.” In other words, it was two-timing them both on an international scale.

“If I remember correctly, some military big-shot from Noa is visiting the royal capital right now. I think Rundstadt—whom you’re so fond of—is handling it.”

Blitzdonner knew that. “Yes. Apparently, it’s a general named Douglas. I don’t know what kind of person he is, but if we showed him the contents of the Door and sent him home with that, it would lead to some kind of deal.”

Fianna had come to investigate inside the Door without any preconceptions to confirm that Wiltia was not hiding anything. That was her intended role, even though she hadn’t known it.

“There shouldn’t have been anything here. Without a doubt. That’s why Genitz halted research and rebelled with his own military force.”

He had intended to occupy the capital. Then, with Sven’s power, he would open the Door beneath the Development Bureau to achieve his real aims. But Lud prevented that and then re-awakened Sven, whom Genitz thought he controlled. All his plans ended in failure and Genitz had departed this world.

“I don’t understand. What have you learned?” Blitzdonner was a military man, so he couldn’t fathom the mind of a scientist like Daian. He didn’t know what Daian had observed.

“What I’m saying is...” And Daian knew that. He decided to convey the gravity of the matter in easy-to-understand terms. “Um... it’s empty inside the Door now, but that doesn’t mean there was never anything in there. Nor does it mean that someone went inside and made off with the contents. Furthermore, it doesn’t mean that the Door was opened causing the contents to waste away over time.”

“What are you driving at?”

“Whatever was inside opened the Door on its own and left.”

“?!” At last, Blitzdonner understood.

The empire had fallen to ruin a millennium ago. It possessed technology that far surpassed that of the present world and equal to the power of a god. Then, one day, the phantom country suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. And someone from that time was at large in the world.

“When... did that happen?”

According to Daian’s estimations, it had been some time since the Door opened.

“Not 200 years. At most, 150.”

“That’s during the Lion Emperor’s time.”

The Lion Emperor was a man who proclaimed himself emperor about a hundred years ago after nearly uniting the entire continent. But his empire died after one generation and disappeared from history. And yet, his appearance and the disturbance he caused had advanced the rapid militarization of the world and, as a result, science and industry made significant progress.

“Isn’t that right, Mother?” Daian whispered. And he remembered the words his “mother” had left behind. She said that the Saint and the Devil had caused the fall of the empire.