Chapter 3: Real and Fake

On the third night, at Tockerbrot in Organbaelz...

“Ugh... I’m tired, but this is a nice tired feeling.”

Blitzdonner, who had been known as the top soldier in Wiltia, finished his work and was enjoying a short break. His task today was far removed from fighting on a burning battlefield. He had been kept busy again today with customer service in the bakery.

“This reminds me of old times.”

“Old times?” Sven responded. In the three days since he arrived, she had grown accustomed to him.

“Yes. Back when my family was even poorer.”

Only Sven and Blitzdonner were in the shop. Lud had gone out as usual after the morning baking. Then he returned before lunch to bake bread, and left again to pick up stock and make deliveries. And Jacob, who was a valuable member of the customer service staff, wasn’t there either. Sven was the only one left to run the shop.

She had been vaguely uneasy around Lud. He hadn’t thrown up a wall between them. Instead, he seemed to be avoiding her.

“Your father is Mr. Joseph Shylock, right?”

Perhaps because of that, Sven felt like talking to this problematic and uninvited guest. It helped relieve her stress.

“That’s right. I guess you’ve met him a few times.”

“Yes. Your father set fire to our shop once.”

“I s-suppose... that caused some difficulty.”

Joseph Shylock was Jacob’s grandfather and Blitzdonner’s father. He was one of the most successful businessmen in Wiltia. Just over six months ago, he accidentally ran into Jacob and tried to take him to Wiltia. He had caused a lot of turmoil, and after a number of incidents, a fire completely destroyed Tockerbrot.

“But he did pay the entire cost of repairs.”

“Oh...” Blitzdonner nodded as if that made sense.

“Along with that, we asked him to pay for an extension, new machinery, and a new oven.”

“I s-see...”

Sven hadn’t let Shylock stop at just restoring the shop, and Blitzdonner was taken aback by the way Sven could turn anything into a profit.

“You’re impressive. The whole world would be surprised to know that you pried money from Greedy Shylock.”

“You’ve got that right!”

Old Shylock was known as a monster in business. In Wiltia and around the world, he was known as Greedy Shylock.

“What estranged you from each other?” Sven asked casually, without thinking.

“Huh?” Blitzdonner scratched his head for a moment as if wondering how to answer the question. “Let’s see... I was young, and I guess the old man couldn’t handle it.”

“Huh?” Sven looked dubious at Blitzdonner’s answer, which wasn’t really an answer.

“I don’t know how else to put it.”

Blitzdonner had run away from home just over ten years ago after a fierce clash with his father.

“My mother died around that time, and the old man was difficult after he got so rich, and then a business competitor pressed false charges against him and got him thrown in jail.”

“Is that when you became a different person?”

Blitzdonner was a false name. But, it was his official name according to Wiltian records, which suggested he had obtained someone else’s citizenship through an extralegal measure.

“It was a confused time, before the war, so there were ways to erase one’s history.”

The Principality of Wiltia had been forced to fight a war on two fronts. There weren’t enough soldiers, so the nation used illegal means to compensate. It even gathered starving orphans and trained them as type-three soldiers.

“Even criminals and convicts could obtain new names and registration once they joined the military.”

Some were sentenced to prison time. Blitzdonner was better than those people, at least.

“Back then, I was still around seventeen, and the old man was forty. I didn’t know it at the time, but when you get to the age your parents once were, you start to see some things.”

In order to grow his business, Shylock had undertaken many dirty jobs of which the public would have disapproved. He knew if he wanted to have power and expand his holdings, he couldn’t just stick to jobs that kept his hands clean. Without power, the public wouldn’t hesitate to crush him. And he knew if that happened, it would also crush the futures of his family and employees.

“He scattered money among politicians and bureaucrats, and he got his enemies to cave in by slapping them with wads of bills. He hired tough guys for strong-arm work and found lawyers who specialized in legal manipulation. He would stint at nothing to accomplish his goals.”

However, it was all so he would bear the responsibility for the dirty work, leave everything to his son, and have himself cast down as a scoundrel.

“He said it was all for me, and I hated that idea. I thought he was blaming me for his actions instead of doing it for me.”

Young Blitzdonner had been unable to forgive that. He couldn’t forgive his father for blaming his only son for his own dirty deeds.

No, that wasn’t all. He was also worried about whether he could take over the business his father had created after so much effort.

“In the end, what I did was out of spite against the old man. It was an escape from reality.”

He had run away and after drifting around, he fought in the war as a soldier, eventually becoming a hero with a new name.

“But now I have a son, so for the first time I finally understand how the old man felt. Now I would take any harm upon myself to make sure my son remains unhurt.”

“Is that why you never showed yourself to Jacob?”

“I guess it is.” Blitzdonner replied to Sven’s question with a bitter look on his face.

Sven didn’t know the details about Blitzdonner. However, since he was working with Daian, she guessed he had been appointed to a risky—even deadly—mission.

“When someone who is notorious gets near you, your life is put in danger. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Hearing his answer, Sven remembered something.

During an incident six months ago, Jacob had been kidnapped because he was the grandson of the extremely rich Shylock. Shylock was involved in a lot of shady business, but Jacob was an honest person. He was only in danger because he was the old man’s grandson.

Blitzdonner was a figure of international intrigue, so there was no telling what would happen to Jacob if people found out he was Blitzdonner’s son.

“If being near Jacob would endanger him, I couldn’t reveal myself. That was the best solution.”

“.........”

“At least, that’s what I thought.”

“What?”

Before Sven could agree, Blitzdonner contradicted his own words.

“I suppose part of me was scared. I wondered if someone like me had a right to his son. I won’t deny that I had such doubts.”

That was why Blitzdonner understood Shylock’s feelings. He had used his son as a reason and an excuse.

“I’m so pitiful. This is the true face of the Crimson Hawk. I’m scared of my own son!” After this comment, Blitzdonner laughed self-deprecatingly.

“That’s not true.” Sven wasn’t just trying to cheer him up. It was her honest opinion. “Nothing is worse than a soldier paralyzed by fear on the battlefield.”

“Aw, give me a break.”

“But it’s an important truth.”

Blitzdonner interrupted, but Sven continued speaking.

“Fearless and reckless acts result in harm—not just to the person committing them, but to everyone.”

Once when she was a weapon racing across the battlefield, she saw many machines that were destroyed because their masters acted without fear or caution.

“Perhaps you and my master survived because you were afraid.”

Reckless people, proud of their recklessness, might be considered outstanding but never heroic. A hero is someone familiar with fear. It’s someone who knows fear but presses on anyway. In that way, they win people’s hearts.

“I sort of understand how you feel.” For the first time, Sven felt a strange sympathy for Blitzdonner. “Because I’m scared, too.”

Sven had never told Lud what she was. Was that because she didn’t want to confuse him? Or was it because she didn’t want to involve him in any trouble stemming from her escape as a top military secret?

There were many reasons. And none of them were false. But there was another reason for her fear. What if Lud rejected her when he found out what she was?

“So you haven’t told Langart yet?”

“No.”

From her slight movement, Blitzdonner understood how she felt. She didn’t know if he understood because he was a skilled pilot like Lud or because he was a deft womanizer.

“I envy you and your family.”

“Huh?”

“The same blood runs through your veins.”

Shylock, Blitzdonner and Jacob... They were fathers and sons. They misunderstood each other, but that was because they cared about each other.

“I don’t even have blood. Every part of me is artificial. It’s all fake.”

This time, it was Sven who smiled self-deprecatingly. No, it was a sad smile. She believed her love for Lud was real. But she couldn’t dispel her doubts. Her arms, legs, bones, muscles, organs and every single hair on her head were all artificial. Could her feelings of love actually be real?

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

Blitzdonner’s voice held annoyance as Sven’s head sagged in sadness.

“Why are you saying such dumb things?”

“Because they’re true.” Sven looked in Blitzdonner’s face as she spoke. His expression didn’t suggest he was trying to cheer her up. The face and voice of the man in red expressed something closer to anger.

“Do you mean to say that everything man-made is fake?”

“But...” Sven was throwing up an emotional wall as if to say, “You’re human, so you wouldn’t understand!” But...

“Look.”

Sven stopped talking when Blitzdonner removed the gloves he always wore.

“That’s...”

“And it’s not just my hands. Both my arms are like this.”

He showed her his mechanical arms. They weren’t like artificial limbs. They were more than replacement body parts. They were made with the same technology used for the arms and legs of Sven and the other humanoid Hunter Units.

“Half of my body... 54 percent, to be precise... is mechanical.”

There were mechanical soldiers. Sven had fought against some from the Greyten Empire. Blitzdonner’s body was like a more precise and sophisticated mechanical soldier that Wiltia made using technology from the development of the humanoid Hunter Units.

“What happened to you?”

Officially, all nations—including Wiltia—were forbidden from using mechanical soldiers in the military. That was a matter of course. It would be crazy to use a human being as a weapon. But there was another reason.

Mechanical limbs made with Hunter Unit technology offered hope to people who had lost body parts to accidents, sickness or congenital problems. However, if such technology were openly used in weaponry, it would become the target of regulations. For that reason, mechanical soldiers were a transparent secret in the military.

“I guess I’ve been through a lot.” Blitzdonner’s reply was vague.

Since it was an open secret, the government could disguise it if—in the worst case—something happened to the mechanical soldiers. In fact, the Greytenite government insisted to this day it had no involvement in the Defairedead airship incident, in which mechanical soldiers were deployed. Greyten acted as if the special ops mechanical soldiers who swore loyalty to the nation had never existed.

“So... does this body mean my feelings toward Jacob are half fake?”

“No, not at all!”

“Why not? According to your reasoning, the feelings of an artificial object are fake, and half my body is artificial.”

“But you’re...”

“What’s the difference, huh?”

Sven took a step back from Blitzdonner’s ferocity, which allowed no argument. Was that because he was the Crimson Hawk, the top ace pilot in the Principality of Wiltia? No. It was because he was a father who cared about his son.

“Because only my arms, legs and organs are mechanical? Because I have my own brain? Because I was born human? Rubbish! There’s no difference between us at all.” Blitzdonner stood up and stepped closer to Sven, who had just taken a step back.

“There are people we care about, and our heads are filled with those people. Their laughter makes us happy and their tears make us sad, and we would do anything to stop their suffering. When you have such feelings, fake and real don’t apply!”

Blitzdonner took another step closer. “Tell me, Miss Intelligent Pilot Assistive A.I. What clear standard separates fake from real when it comes to love?”

Sven couldn’t step back any farther. The intense will of the man in front of her washed over her and stopped her from moving.

“It’s...” Sven tried hard to find an answer. But she couldn’t come up with anything. It was impossible to draw such a distinction.

“Do you get it now, Svelgen Avei? Fake and real have nothing to do with love.” Blitzdonner’s face had worn a severe expression, but now it loosened. “All you can do is believe. In yourself and in the person you care about the most. That’s what changes rock into diamond.” After these words, Blitzdonner tapped Sven over her sternum.

“Didn’t a great man long ago say you have to believe or you won’t be saved?” Blitzdonner broke into a carefree smile.

Oh...

Seeing him smile, Sven noticed it again. Blitzdonner’s smile resembled Jacob’s. And it wasn’t because their features were alike. They resembled each other in the way they both communicated a mysterious friendliness when they smiled.

I’m so jealous...

For some reason, Sven envied that smile.

“Um, wasn’t it something like, if you ask, it shall be given to you?”

“Aw, don’t fret over details. It doesn’t really matter, so take your pick.” Blitzdonner laughed away Sven’s question.

I see. So this is...

Sven had developed a heart after meeting her master Lud. At the same time, Blitzdonner’s Hunter Unit had also gained a heart through encountering him. Blitzdonner’s personality was rough and unrestrained, while Lud was reticent and sensitive. They were hardly alike at all. But they were similar in some way.

“Anyway...” Sven suddenly spoke again. “If you’ve got such a bold philosophy, why are you so clumsy in dealing with Jacob, Major?”

“Remember this, mechanical doll... Humans are blind to their own shortcomings, so they talk big.” His former solemnity had disappeared. The man in red covered his head and crouched down right there.

Then...

Tockerbrot was half-demolished, with collapsed walls, so voices inside were clearly audible outside the shop. Jacob, who had snuck in through the back door, heard the whole conversation between Sven and Blitzdonner.

“........................” The boy pressed against the wall in silence. “Why...?” Jacob didn’t know who he was mumbling to.

Jacob didn’t feel hate or anger toward Blitzdonner. He was angry about Blitzdonner leaving him and his mother alone. But there was another reason behind his rejection of his father, who had suddenly appeared.

Yes, he did feel those feelings of anger. But he had another feeling in equal measure. Fear. He was indescribably afraid of getting closer to his father. He was afraid of what would happen if his father rejected and denied him. And he would never have experienced those feelings if he had believed from the start that he had no father.

“We’re the same...” He mumbled again and walked away.

He thought as he walked. His father was scared of Jacob, just as the boy was scared of him. Blitzdonner was afraid of getting close because if his son rejected him, he might never recover.

“......”

Jacob couldn’t find a way to approach his father, especially since their relationship was so unusual. He kept walking.

“Jacob?” The girl in the red dress, who made him think of his father, was in front of him. “Aren’t you going to see the major... I mean, your father?”

“I don’t need to.” Jacob replied spitefully to Rebecca’s question.

“Jacob, I don’t have a parent.” Rebecca spoke sadly to Jacob. “So will you teach me? Do parent and child only meet when it’s necessary?”

“.....................”

She wasn’t asking sarcastically. Both Blitzdonner and Jacob were important to Rebecca. It was painful for her to see the miscommunication between them. Nonetheless, if they claimed they didn’t mind, then she didn’t intend to interfere. Her duty was to fulfill their wishes, even if it meant she was tormented by feelings that tore her to pieces. So...

“Are you sure?”

She needed to make sure his answer was really the right choice.

“That’s, um...”

The boy mumbled and Rebecca handed him a small bag.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a roche.”

A roche was a baked sweet. Its name meant rock. It was baked with egg whites and sugar mixed with almonds and other nuts.

“Former Captain Langart told me you like these.”

Roche was a common bakery sweet. Baking bread required lots of eggs, with the yolks often used for glazes. The leftover egg whites were whipped into a meringue for making the roche that were lined up in a corner of the bakery.

“This is all I can do.” Rebecca’s shoulders shook in frustration at her powerlessness. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Jacob felt hopeless as he replied to the red girl, who was crying.

“I...”

What should he do?

All of a sudden, someone else spoke to the boy, who was looking away as if he didn’t know how to fix his mistake.

“What’s up, you two?” It was Milly, the apprentice at Tockerbrot.

“What? Why is the red girl crying? Did you do that, you jerk?!”

“No!” Usually, Jacob would reply with a joke, but now he wasn’t emotionally capable of any smooth talk.

“Anyway, Marlene told me to find you.”

“Marlene wants to see me?”

“You and... What a coincidence! You too, red girl.”

“My name is Rebecca. What does she want me for?”

Rebecca and Marlene had met during the recent rebellion in the royal capital.

“Will you come to the church tonight? Red girl... you too, please.”

“Huh?”

Then Milly said she was busy and hurried off.

“What the...?” Rebecca had just been thinking that she had missed her chance to see Marlene. But she couldn’t help tilting her head at how unexpected this was.

About 130 years ago, there lived a man called the Lion Emperor. He ended the hierarchical system of the Holy Empire—which then still existed as the world order, though a mere shell of its former self—and he almost achieved the first continent-wide rule since the European Empire. Even after his death, his name lived on and became a byword for “revolutionary.”

He had started as a petty officer born on a small rural island, but rose rapidly in status by taking advantage of the troubled times. The Lion Emperor was a powerful and invincible general, almost god-like, and he possessed a demonic wisdom as a politician.

Not many people knew that he was also a keen archaeologist. When he was a petty officer, he joined a mission to explore ancient ruins. There was no record of what ruins he investigated or where they were. However, all the members of that mission died mysteriously, except the Lion Emperor. Some said the deaths were due to a curse from the old royal families. And those who spread such rumors also died mysteriously.

The Lion Emperor tried to maintain his success, and started calling himself the emperor, but the expeditions he sent to the Greyten Empire and northern nations met with successive failure, and gradually his rule weakened. This was the sad fate of a man who had risen to such heights in one generation. His rule through absolute power instantly collapsed the moment that power faltered.

In the end, attendants betrayed him—or more accurately, those he believed to be his attendants—and he was imprisoned on the small rural island of his birth.

“Why?!” The Lion Emperor roared and snarled inside a shabby mansion on the small rural island. He no longer had the lion-like dignity signified by his title. His howls were those of a wild dog that has been beaten.

“Why must I suffer like this? The fools! They shouldn’t underestimate me! This is poppycock!” He hurled a chair against the wall, breaking it and ripping the wallpaper. The wine bottle on the table shattered. “How did this happen? Why? I did everything just as you told me to!!” The Lion Emperor’s eyes were wild as they stared at the girl in the corner of the room.

No public documents recorded her name. Only a history book that was more like a cheap novel made slight reference to her. It said, “The Lion Emperor always had a girl with unchanging features by his side.”

“Calm down, Master. Tee hee hee...”

The girl was as beautiful as an angel. Anyone who saw her would think she really was an angel. She was beautiful enough to suggest that angels don’t really have wings.

“You didn’t make any mistakes, Master. You are playing all your roles to perfection.” The girl spoke to the Lion Emperor in the voice of an angel.

“I am? Do you jest? How can that be? I was stripped of my title, exiled from the country and ordered to live on this puny island for the rest of my life!! People will laugh as I rot here until I die!!”

“Oh dear...” The girl laughed as if uncomfortable at the sight of her furious master.

Since ancient times, throughout many dynasties, the final days of those stripped of their royal titles were miserable. Some were not even allowed poison to kill themselves, and one emperor had been strangled to death.

In comparison, it was a rare show of mercy to send the Lion Emperor home with the assurance of his life as long as he did nothing for the rest of his days.

“Every one of them is looking down on me! But I am the Lion Emperor!!” His reasoning made little sense.

People are emotional and do not always see from a rational perspective. As they climb higher and higher, they cling to the view from their elevated station. Those accustomed to drinking expensive wine—one bottle costing as much as feeding a commoner for a whole year—will turn up their noses at an offer of the cheap wine they used to love.

“Master, you impressively accomplished what was required. I am absolutely sure of that.” The girl maintained her gentle smile toward the Lion Emperor.

And that smile put out the flame of the Lion Emperor’s rage. It wasn’t that her smile calmed him. Rather, he wondered what she had meant.

“What are you talking about?”

“Because of you, the continent was almost unified. Each nation shared technology and knowledge, and new technologies were developed.” The girl continued smiling as she talked.

“Also, this colossal international coalition presents a threat to the surrounding nations, spurring military buildups and weapons development, resulting in further scientific progress. More progress has been made during the less than ten years of your rule than in the preceding one hundred years!” The girl’s cheeks were red with excitement, and she spoke with passionate admiration.

“What are you talking about?” The Lion Emperor still couldn’t understand.

When he was a young officer on an archaeological dig, this girl had appeared from the ruins. And as soon as she appeared, she picked him out among the stunned members of the excavation team, as if carelessly choosing one potato from a pile in a basket, and she had said...

“Do you want to be king?”

Why had he believed her? No, he hadn’t believed her. He had just been attracted by her mysterious beauty and nodded his head. Since then, he had lived according to her instructions.

He had fought the way she asked, and he had won just as she predicted. He had made friends with those she told him to befriend, and he had rejected those she told him to avoid. He shunned the friends she told him to abandon, sometimes even taking their lives. The next thing he knew, people were calling him a hero and penning songs in his praise. Then he became a king, just as she had said, and he took the throne as emperor.

However, at some point, things started to go awry. The fights she suggested he start ended in utter defeat. As a result, campaigns that began with one million soldiers ended with only five thousand. The Lion Emperor’s myth of invincibility crumbled, and now he found himself here.

“Are you saying you planned all this? My loss and downfall were just what you expected?!”

“I made you a king as promised, didn’t I? Even more, I made you emperor.” The girl replied boldly. She didn’t think her actions were the least bit wrong.

“The continent of Europea must not unify yet. The nations need to become more suspicious of each other, seek greater power, and achieve further progress. So... Master? You played your role. Good job!” After these words, the girl smiled appealingly.

But that smile felt exceedingly cruel to the Lion Emperor.

“What do you take humans for?! I’m no mere puppet!!”

“Excuse me, but I know that.”

At his words, the girl looked exasperated. She didn’t think humans were puppets. She just thought there was very little difference between puppets and humans.

“Well then, thank you for your hospitality. But now I must go.” Politely and respectfully, the girl bid him farewell.

“Go where?”

“Since you came here, a competition for leadership has been raging on the continent. I have to carefully stimulate it and usher in another war.” Her tone sounded as if she were talking about grocery shopping for tonight’s dinner.

“Master... Oh, whoops. You’re not the master anymore. Mr. Leon, please don’t get any ideas about escaping from the island. Just live the rest of your life in peace. Well, see ya!” The girl left the room.

When the girl was gone... the Lion Emperor, or rather, Leon... now a middle-aged man like any other, stood there stunned and speechless.

“Ha ha ha...” After a little while, Leon laughed dryly. “Give me a break!! Who does she think I am?! I won’t die in a dump like this!!!” He sprang to action.

Leon escaped the island and returned to the continent. Before too long, he reclaimed the title of emperor and seized power. The Lion Emperor fought for hegemony over the continent against allied national forces created specifically to defeat him. And he lost.

For a man considered to be a strategic genius, it was an extraordinarily swift defeat. His administrative power hadn’t lasted one hundred days. He was caught, but he wasn’t executed. If he was killed, his name would be deified and he would be remembered as a hero. So, once more, he was exiled to an island. This time, it was a tiny, faraway island in the middle of the ocean, where even the birds didn’t visit. There was no need for a jail. There was no hope of escaping the island. After a decade, the man who had called himself the Lion Emperor grew haggard, withered and finally died.

While he lived, he spent his days raving. His few guards watched with pity, thinking he had gained glory but lost everything and went mad. “That girl! Everything is that girl’s fault!!” They watched as the former emperor shouted as if spitting blood.

“What’s wrong?” The Saint realized she was being asked a question and turned around.

“I was just remembering the good old days.”

She was called the Saint. No one knew her real name. She was a singular being in this land. Names are for distinguishing among members of the same group. But there was no one like her, so she had no need of a name.

“That man who was here before was a hoot. I warned him, but he insisted on tomfoolery.”

Time passes differently for every person. When young people use the phrase “a long time ago,” they mean about ten years ago. But when an elderly person says it, it means half a century ago.

No one could know that this girl, who looked only eighteen years old, meant over 130 years ago when she said “not long ago.”

“He was helpful, so I gave him a peaceful life, but...” Her voice didn’t sound regretful. She sounded as if she were talking about a sheepdog that was no longer able to chase sheep, so, reluctant to kill it, she decided to keep it alive, only to have it escape and get run over by a car.

“It doesn’t really matter. Did you need something?” The Saint turned to face Mary Ville Mehl, the woman who had spoken to her.

“Um, you saved me from the Wiltian soldiers who wanted to kill me. Then you took me to August and made me a member of the Soviet Six.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“For what purpose?”

Someone had attacked the train carrying Mary Ville. She had narrowly escaped death, but soldiers had appeared to finish her off. They were Wiltian soldiers. And the Saint saved her.

“I knew about your activities, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want to be queen?” The Saint spoke as if accustomed to asking this question. “Actually, you’d be chief secretary. But it amounts to the same thing.”

“Are you asking if I want to be the leader of August?”

It was wildly unbelievable. August was a superpower spanning the continents of Europea and Aesia. It had lost to Wiltia in the recent Great War, but that only meant its invasion had failed. Its national territory had never come under threat. In fact, ever since the time of the Lion Emperor, 130 years ago, August had thoroughly repelled its enemies. And that was true even now, after it changed from an empire to a republic.

“Yes. You show promise and seem perfect.”

For some reason, Mary Ville didn’t think, “Can you actually do that?” She had no doubt that the pretty girl before her could easily accomplish what she promised. After all, she brought her here, and on that very day, placed her in Chair Five of the Soviet Six, August’s highest decision-making body.

“The other five are getting along in age, so it’s a good time for renewal. Besides, you’re well known.”

Mary Ville was born in Lapchuricka, a city in Haugen that was controlled by Wiltia. She then went to the Greyten Empire and fought against the power structure backed by that nation’s aristocracy.

“Don’t you know? You have many fans inside August as well.”

“Well, um...” Hearing this, Mary Ville stammered.

Fans didn’t just mean followers. It meant supporters who would secretly remove opposition through the use of information, funding, materials, manpower, and sometimes organized activity.

“I’ve been in contact with them a few times, but...”

“Yes, entering an enemy nation and sowing confusion in the guise of a social movement is a common occurrence.”

Sometimes national and personal interests clash. To take an extreme example, what if there is a house in the spot where the government wants to build a fortress to prevent an enemy invasion? And what if the individual who owns the house refuses to vacate the premises?

It might have been difficult to drive out a private individual one hundred years ago when recognition of human rights was weak. But difficult doesn’t necessarily mean impossible. And yet, what if citizens raised their voices in protest against the infringement of an individual’s rights? If they gathered public opinion and pressed ahead behind a shield of righteousness, it would be hard for the government to use brute force.

At the very least, such a movement would inhibit the politicians, who would fear for their chances in the next election. Accelerating such activity would give rise to mistrust between the citizens of enemy countries and the nation, thereby making it difficult to govern. Such means were used repeatedly over the long arc of history.

“Your philosophy is good for August. Who cares if you’re from a foreign country? You might become a warrior for liberation—a hero! No... you will.”

“..................”

The Saint’s words awakened a mysterious feeling in Mary Ville.

As a matter of political ideology, August disparaged imperial rule and aristocracy. Those systems allowed pernicious but powerful people to rule over others, so freeing the masses from those forces was a matter of national policy. To August, invading other nations wasn’t an act of aggression. It was a war of liberation.

“What do you stand to gain from having me do this?”

“I love it when someone gets right to the point!”

The Saint pulled a piece of paper from a nearby case.

“What’s this?”

It was a technical drawing. It looked like an airplane or a cannon—or both—but Mary Ville had never seen anything like it before. It looked like the spindles for spinning yarn that Mary Ville had seen in her childhood.

“This is Verne 1. Anyway, that’s what I’m calling it for now. It’s one heck of a weapon!”

“Weapon? This is a weapon?”

Mary Ville wasn’t a soldier or affiliated with the military. But, she had a fair knowledge of weapons, although she was just an amateur. Nonetheless, she had never seen or heard of a weapon with such an odd shape.

“Your reaction is understandable. This has never been used in human history, or at least not in the past one thousand years.” Seeing Mary Ville’s confusion, the Saint explained. “This weapon can fly through the air with enormous speed and across great distances.”

The Saint spoke with a voice filled with rapture. “Direct attacks by aircraft and high-altitude airships can’t compare to this. It can level cities in enemy nations across seas and mountains.”

“Such a thing exists?!”

This weapon would make it possible to attack enemy strongholds from a special launch facility at the flip of a switch and without advancing an army. It was a weapon that could change the very fundamentals of war.

“Is human science capable of creating it?”

In the past century, human science and technology made enormous progress. Giant vessels crossed the vast oceans, aircraft flew through the sky, and railroads crossed continents. Nonetheless, Mary Ville doubted humanity had the knowledge to make such a weapon.

“Yes, it is.” The Saint unhesitatingly answered that question. “Even if we can’t now, we will.”

“Do you... mean...” An idea occurred to Mary Ville.

It was a rumor, little more than an urban legend, but spoken about as if it were true. There were Doors containing relics of the old empire of Europea. It was said that the technology for the Hunter Units, which Wiltia relied on as its main source of military strength, came from one of the Doors.

If we could revive the ancient empire’s technology or...

But her guess was wrong.

“No, that’s not it.” The Saint shot down Mary Ville’s silent speculation. “There is no need for that.”

The Saint’s back was turned, so Mary Ville couldn’t see her face, but her voice was different. It sounded darker.

“I’m going to have Wiltia make this.”

“What?!” Mary Ville was speechless.

Wiltia was going to develop this weapon? The Saint was going to have August’s greatest rival create a weapon capable of directly attacking a distant enemy base without the need of an army?

“Why would you do that?!”

“Why indeed. After all, it presents an existential threat to August.”

August had been able to avoid war for so long because of the mountains that protected it from invasion by a large army, and because of its long and frigid winters. The Lion Emperor invaded with a force of one million, but that unrelenting winter 130 years ago, said to freeze people in midstride, broke the invasion and it ended in losses nearing total annihilation.

“The mountains and dreaded winters, said to be August’s shields, won’t hinder this weapon.”

“But why do this?! If you do...”

“Yes?”

Mary Ville finally understood the Saint’s intentions. “You want to start a war. And not just any war. You want to instigate another Great European War.”

“Correct.” The Saint laughed with a charming grin. “If an enemy nation has a weapon that it can use against your nation, there’s only one way to handle it. You must strike first.”

There was no way to successfully block all missiles attacking from the sky. And whether nations sign treaties, prattle about harmony, or form alliances, as long as it’s impossible to see into the other’s heart, fear and doubt will remain.

“Possession of this weapon is a military deterrent to other nations. At the same time, it’s a threat and provocation. All I need is a little stimulation to set off a massive explosion.”

The previous Great European War erupted because a young man from a nation supported by Greyten and Filbarneu shot and killed a prince from a nation allied with Wiltia. A single bullet had caused a large-scale war that lasted a decade.

In contrast, this new weapon could wreak destruction upon a whole city. It might kill one hundred, one thousand, or even ten thousand people. This weapon was certainly capable of sparking a war.

“No way...”

Chills coursed across Mary Ville’s back. She didn’t understand why the Saint would do such a thing. She didn’t know, but she had a guess.

“Were you also behind the assassination that started the last Great War?”

“You human beings have smartened up. All I needed back then was a pitiful boy and a single bullet, but now I have to concoct something much more elaborate.” The Saint laughed with delight.

She had filled an innocent and foolish child with malicious intent and placed a gun in his hand. And that had altered history. She was responsible for countless tragedies and hellish scenes.

“.....................”

“As for what I want from you... I want August, as a free and progressive nation, to defeat the evil, tyrannical Wiltia that has developed a weapon of mass destruction, a deed equivalent to a hostile act. And I want you to lead that holy war.”

The Saint continued explaining her plan to Mary Ville. “Don’t worry. I don’t care who wins. I just want it to be long and catastrophic.”

The Saint’s smiling face remained as lovely as ever. She sought a destructive, drawn-out war that would kill millions as if she were asking for a beautiful flower, a pretty gem, or a cute stuffed animal.