Chapter 1: A Gamble with Long Odds

Lud and Sven were married. The two became husband and wife and chose to spend the rest of their lives together. That was why Sven wished for something else to change. She wanted to replace her mechanical body with human flesh and blood and to grow old and die with Lud. To make that wish come true, she decided to turn to Meitzer, the man who claimed to be her father.

Then... In a room of the small bakery Tockerbrot in Organbaelz...

After the wedding ceremony, Sven and Lud left the banquet early and returned to the shop, which was also their home. It felt like the first time they had been together in a long while. Meitzer had arrived days before, immediately followed by Sophia, Daian and Blitzdonner. Tockerbrot was a shop, but it was possible to have too many visitors.

“Master...”

But they were alone tonight, of course. The residents of Organbaelz weren’t so insensitive to not allow the newlyweds privacy on this special day and night.

“Sven, you don’t have to call me that anymore. Now we’re, um...”

“Oh... right.”

The two looked down in embarrassment.

Th-this isn’t good...

Sven was a maelstrom of emotions. When Lud had proposed and they swore their love for each other, she had been excited, but also surprisingly calm. As time passed and she returned to her senses the pounding of her heart wouldn’t cease.

They say one never knows what will happen in life, but until a few years ago, Sven had been the artificial intelligence inside a military weapon, so she had never imagined she would become an artificial human and marry her former pilot.

It’s a little late to realize it, but I’ve done something incredible...

She had no regrets. Zero, zip, zilch. She was just thankful for her happiness, a joy that was more than she deserved. That’s why she was afraid to tell him. She was afraid the iron hammer of God would fall to condemn her greed and foolishness in hoping for more.

“Um... uh... it’s a little sudden, so... let me call you Master for a little while longer.” She was stalling for time.

“Yeah, I see.” Lud scratched his head in embarrassment.

He’s precious to me...

Sven’s emotion was so intense she nearly wept. Everything about him was precious to her. That was why she couldn’t turn away from a certain reality.

“Master... I may be able to become human.” She had to tell him about this possibility.

“What?” Lud was at a loss for words.

It was understandable. He had sworn to accept everything about her, whether she was machine or human, and he had committed his love to her on that basis. To tell him this on the very night they fulfilled those vows overturned previous circumstances.

“Become human... You mean your body?”

“Yes. My body is a machine frame encased in synthetic flesh, with pseudo body fluid running through it and no organs that resemble the human heart or brain. Instead, as you know, my source of power is a rezanium reactor.”

Sven and her sister machines Rebecca and Lillie were categorized as humanoid Hunter Units. They were weapons reduced to the size and shape of human beings. Like a human being, Sven laughed, got angry, cried and loved, but she was pure machine.

She didn’t need to eat, sleep or even breathe. She didn’t age, so she didn’t grow. Sven didn’t know exactly how many years she would remain operable. Dying meant all her functions would stop and she would not restart, but she would stay as she was until then.

“I want to be a human being, the same as you.”

“Sven...” Lud spoke with great kindness at her touching determination.

“You don’t need to force yourself.”

“Master...”

Aw, this guy...

Sven could tell what he was thinking. Even among the people who had celebrated with them today, only a handful knew she was a machine. Those who knew or might have guessed included Daian from the Royal Weapons Development Bureau; Jacob’s father Blitzdonner, an intelligence agency operative; and Lud’s former superior officer Sophia, who was like a sister to him. No one else knew.

However, the day would come when the world would notice. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but what about in five years? Even when the young apprentice Milly and the boy Jacob grew into adults, Sven would remain unchanged. Someday they would notice. They would see she wasn’t human. Then people would look at Lud with suspicion.

He was worried about that, so... No, she thought he worried about that so he was reassuring her that she didn’t need to force herself.

Master is sensitive when it comes to these things.

Yet again she was impressed by how perceptive her partner was.

“Master, you don’t understand. I’m not saying this for the reason you think.” She didn’t want to be human out of fear of what people might think. “It’s because I saw Major Blitzdonner and Charlotte together.”

Charlotte was Jacob’s mother and Blitzdonner’s wife.

“They parted over ten years ago, but when they were finally reunited, they were as comfortable with each other as if they were together yesterday.”

The two had been estranged and Charlotte hadn’t even known whether Blitzdonner was alive or dead. Nonetheless, Charlotte had welcomed Blitzdonner home as if it were only natural. She had smiled with joy, despite the intervening time and even though they both had changed.

“I was envious. They are living their lives and aging together... and I realized that I want that too.” Sven took a step closer to Lud. She took his arm and they sat together on the sofa. “When you become an old man, I want to be an old woman by your side so we can stay together like this.”

Machines don’t age or die. Humans fear aging and death. Sven wasn’t human, and she desired both. Because there is death, there is also life. Because there is aging, there is growth. Wanting to be human and eventually die also meant she had a craving to live as a human being.

“Do you?” Lud’s reply was brief.

That was enough for Sven to understand what he thought.

“Yes.”

Lud had sworn to accept everything about her, so he also accepted her desire to be human.

“But how can you do it?”

“Well, about that...”

Even if he understood she wanted to be human, the problem of how to accomplish it remained. If machines could simply become living organisms, tomorrow trucks would turn into cows.

“That man... The one claiming to be my father...”

“Meitzer?”

“He asked me if I wanted to be human.”

“He did?”

Meitzer had asked her as they said goodbye. That was why he had unexpectedly visited Tockerbrot. He wanted to confirm her desire to become a human being.

“I couldn’t answer right away. The question was too big. But now I can answer, so...”

“Who is Meitzer?”

“Well...”

Meitzer had known the truth about Sven from the start, and he even understood parts of her that she didn’t understand herself.

The name Douglas Meitzer was false. He used that name as the commander in chief of the army in Noa, a nation on the new continent. Sven and Rebecca had superhuman combat abilities, but when they had faced Meitzer together, they couldn’t even scratch him.

“He, uh... took a direct hit from a grenade and remained unharmed.”

Lud’s face contorted as he remembered what had happened a few days ago. Tockerbrot had suffered extensive damage during the battle. Meitzer had stopped the blast with his own body, partially saving the shop.

“He wasn’t unharmed. He was destroyed and then immediately revived.”

For one moment, Sven had seen it. His body was broken, torn, and burned, but then miraculously healed.

“That man is a combination of the uncanny and bizarre. Having seen that, it seems quite likely that I can become human!”

“Yes, I see what you mean.”

While they had no idea exactly what Meitzer was, and despite the fact that he was dangerously invulnerable, he had put himself at risk to protect Lud and Jacob that day.

“I don’t know who he is, but he doesn’t seem ill-intentioned.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Yes.”

Lud thought back. Meitzer had helped Lud find the courage to accept everything about Sven. He might be a problem for Sven, but the way he looked at her was the way a true father would.

“Is there still time?” He looked at the clock on the wall.

“I’m not sure.” Sven followed Lud’s gaze. It was very late at night, but he might still be awake.

A short time later, Lud and Sven visited the church atop the hill. They wanted to consult someone else about what to do. But...

“Bring more alcohol!”

After the two central participants had left the wedding celebration, the attendees had set about drinking and singing.

“Stop her! Stop that woman!”

“I can’t watch any longer!”

The children Jacob and Milly had left, along with Charlotte, who had to work the next day. Only the adults fond of drinking and partying remained.

“Gueh!”

“Sh-she can hold her liquor!!”

“What?! Is that all you got?! Did I win?”

Amidst the guests now rambunctious with drink was Lud’s former superior officer Sophia von Rundstadt, who was wildly swinging around a bottle.

“Hey, Langart! What’s up? Why’d you come back?” Blitzdonner called out to the two from a distance, where he was guzzling liquor as if the tumult didn’t concern him.

“What’s going on here, Major?”

“Hmm?”

Blitzdonner hadn’t lost control of himself, so Lud thought the major could explain why Sophia was so out of control. Instead, the man responded with a face and voice that said, “Do you really need to ask?”

“Master, Major Rundstadt must have, um, strong pent-up feelings about everything that’s happened.”

“Oh... well, she is a responsible person.” Lud responded in agreement with Sven.

Blitzdonner looked exasperated.

“Your husband doesn’t get it.”

“Yes, he’s slow that way,” Sven replied with a resigned look.

Ever since she was a small child, Sophia had had a crush on Lud. But in the military, she was his superior officer. Allowing her emotions to disturb military order would have placed the two of them in danger, and others as well. She had thoroughly hidden her feelings, and had missed her chance to let Lud know how she felt about him. In the meantime, Lud met and fell in love with Sven.

“My master can guess what’s in another’s heart, but when he’s personally involved, he’s as thick as a brick.” She leaned close to Blitzdonner and whispered so Lud wouldn’t hear.

“Yup. That’s about right.”

Sophia was drinking because the crush she had nursed all these years had clearly ended and she was unable to stand it while sober.

“Just leave her alone. Sometimes a woman has to rely on a bottle to get things out of her system before she can move on.”

Blitzdonner looked young, but he was father to the eleven-year-old Jacob. He dispensed wisdom like someone much older.

“Spoken like a true playboy. But don’t go targeting desperate women!”

“I wouldn’t think of it!!”

Blitzdonner was the ace pilot once called the Crimson Hawk, but he was also known as a skirt chaser.

“Seriously. If I did that, Charlotte would... But it’s not just her! Jacob would never look at me the same way again!”

Jacob was finally treating him like a father, so he couldn’t afford to mess that up.

“Well, that doesn’t matter. Where is Director Daian?”

Daian had attended the wedding, so Sven and Lud assumed he had stayed for the banquet afterward. The two had come to speak with the genius scientist Daian Fortuner, also known as the Sorcerer. He might be able to explain what Meitzer meant about Sven becoming human.

“Oh, the science guy? The top brain we in Wiltia are so proud of?”

“Yes. Did he already leave?”

Daian wasn’t staying in Organbaelz. His hotel was in the neighboring town. Sven looked around but didn’t see him.

“Svelgen, look where I’m pointing.”

“Huh? Um... hey!”

Blitzdonner was pointing to where Daian was serving as a chair for the drunken Sophia.

“What are you doing, Director?!”

“H-Hi, Svelgen. Nice night, eh?”

“How can you make small talk in that position?!”

Daian had tried to stop Sophia from drowning her sorrows but had failed miserably. He had not only been unable to stop her from running off the rails but found himself trapped under her rump.

“I’d like to talk, okay?”

“Oh... you came back to talk on your wedding night? Then it must be important.”

“It is.”

“In that case, help me out of here.”

The world’s foremost brain, a genius scientist whose influence extended even to national war strategy, was in a woeful predicament. They pleaded with Sophia to calm down and eventually resorted to dumping a bucket of water over her head, successfully freeing Daian a few minutes later.

“I almost made peace with harsh reality and achieved enlightenment,” Daian sighed.

“No, it looks like you’re a total wreck!” Sven countered.

They moved to a back room of the church. The roof leaked, so the room couldn’t even serve as storage, but there was no fear of anyone overhearing their conversation.

“I’ll leave you alone.”

The nun Marlene, had taken them to the room. She had sensed without being told that they wanted to speak privately.

She’s quite admirable...

Marlene had once strayed in life, and Lud had saved her from the brink of death. She had special feelings for him, but unlike Sophia, she maintained her composure and had not fallen apart. Marlene wasn’t actually a nun, but she was as much a woman of God as a real clergywoman.

“Now what’s all this about? Meitzer said something about you becoming human?”

“Yes, that’s right. I thought you might know something.”

Daian had brought Sven into this world. His prodigious brain had earned him the nickname Sorcerer, so he was an object of fear both inside and outside Wiltia.

“Um, Svelgen? When people call me the Sorcerer, it’s just a metaphor. But what you’re talking about is like real sorcery and transcends science.”

Apparently, even the genius of the century thought turning a machine into a human being was fantasy rather than reality.

“But isn’t a certain someone fond of saying that advanced science is difficult to distinguish from magic?”

“This is why you amateurs are so difficult. Science is founded upon the distinction between what is possible and what is impossible.”

Blitzdonner had asked the question, but Daian shook his head in denial.

“Science begins with knowledge of the world’s laws. In other words, knowing what’s written on the cards God has dealt.”

Scientific thought examines how to use those cards to create something greater.

“Are you saying we can’t do that with the cards we have now?”

“Transforming a machine into a human being is on a whole different level. It’s like playing chess with cards. They’re completely different games.”

“Urgh...”

That’s how extraordinary the proposition was.

“But...”

Nonetheless, Lud didn’t want to rule it out, so he spoke up.

“Playing cards have a king and queen like in chess. So there are common points.”

“That’s just playing with words, Langart.”

Daian covered his face with his hands as if troubled, but he continued pondering the matter. Science could not judge with absolute certainty. There was always a possibility, because altering unknown conditions will generate new results.

“However...”

Daian had created Sven mechanically using technology. The origin of her mechanisms lay in technology from the ancient European Empire, which had fallen to ruin long ago. There were products of science infinitely close to magic—even though those weren’t Blitzdonner’s own words.

“I didn’t analyze every last bit of the ancient empire’s technology. Even now, there may be parts of it I don’t know.”

It was said that the ancient civilization built a tower to the heavens, crafted vessels capable of traversing the stars, and even conquered death. Some of those wonders were sealed inside relics called Doors. Discovering just a fraction of that technology had resulted in rapid scientific and technological advancement.

“Perhaps Meitzer has accessed that knowledge somehow. It’s possible.”

It was a problem for a scientist to fall back upon uncertainty, but that was all Daian could say at the moment.

“So the only way to know is to ask him.”

Without thinking, Sven expressed her disappointment.

“You’re surprisingly unhelpful.”

“Don’t be so mean.”

“Well, it’s true!”

Sven tried, but she couldn’t hide her dismay. Perhaps it was her nature as a former pilot-assistive A.I., but uncertainty made her more uneasy than it did human beings.

“No, it isn’t true.”

As if guessing how she felt, Lud placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Daian didn’t absolutely rule it out. Knowing that alone is enough. At the very least, you won’t be worse off than you are now, so it’s a gamble with good odds.”

“Master...” Lud’s reasoning was forced. Even though Sven knew that, it still soothed her. “I guess you’re right.” Sven replied with a smile.

She remembered that it was always this way. In war, a world fraught with uncertainty, Lud often said, “It’ll work out somehow,” and then had gone on to save her many times, ensuring their survival.

“Ha ha!” Blitzdonner laughed in amusement, as if guessing how their hearts communed.

“Why is everyone laughing?” Daian asked.

“Rundstadt treats you with scorn because you’re so clueless!”

“What?!”

The genius scientist had little understanding of the human heart, and none about relations between men and women, so he exclaimed in confusion.

“Now... in that case, it’s better to act soon. Shall we set out tomorrow?”

The proposal came from Blitzdonner. Ordinarily, they would have waited until the day after the wedding or even longer, but some circumstances require immediate action.

“I’m back!” Another voice joined theirs.

“Oh my! Where have you been, red girl?”

The new arrival was Sven’s sister machine Rebecca, a young girl who was entirely crimson, from her hair to the clothes she wore.

“I was on patrol.”

“What do you mean?”

Daian explained.

“Svelgen, I’m not bragging, but I’m a pretty important person. Enemy nations target me even when I’m at home, but if I leave my own country without informing anyone, Wiltia comes after my life!”

In the recent European War, the Hunter Units that Daian created led Wiltia to victory. Daian “The Sorcerer” Fortuner was influential in world affairs. Various organizations monitored his activity every day. Allies watched to make sure he wouldn’t betray them, while enemies sought an opportunity to kill him.

“This science guy leaves the royal capital and it’s a major happening.”

Blitzdonner stayed by Daian’s side because he was on a mission for the organization Apuvea to guard him.

“Due to certain circumstances, Blitzdonner and I were transported to Organbaelz, but a professional intelligence organization wouldn’t find it difficult to locate us in a few days.”

Daian had not immediately returned to Berun. Time in transit was perfect for assassination. If Daian traveled by train, blowing up one bridge would be enough.

“I was waiting for backup from the royal capital, but...”

As a safety precaution, he had sent Rebecca to scout the surrounding area. Not many human soldiers could surpass her ability to sniff out the enemy.

“I did not detect any spies,” Rebecca reported.

“That’s strange. I can’t imagine that my value would have suddenly plummeted. Nevertheless, given the facts...”

He could only come up with one answer: Both Wiltia and her enemies were involved in something so momentous they couldn’t bother with Daian.

“The only thing that could light a fire in the royal capital right now would be Meitzer. If he did something... or if something happened to him...”

There was no time to waste.

“No backup is coming. Which means the royal capital can’t make a move until the disturbance is over. There’s no point in waiting. It’s about time for us to make a move.”

“I see...” Sven pondered Daian and Blitzdonner’s words.

Some kind of trouble, and something fairly momentous, awaited them in the capital. For a moment, she considered giving up. Going would endanger not just her, but Lud. However, Lud spoke as if to ease her worries.

“Let’s not hesitate, Sven. You’ve decided, haven’t you?” He also wanted to reinforce Sven’s wavering determination.

“Yes!” Sven answered, her resolve returning.

“Understood. Let’s go home for tonight and make preparations. We’ll regroup early in the morning.”

Then...

“Wait! What’re you planning without me?!” Another voice joined in. It was Sophia. She had sobered up after being doused with several buckets of water, but she was soaked.

“If you’re going to the capital, I’m going with you! I won’t let you say no!!”

“We didn’t mean to cut you out, Sophia.”

Daian was holding his head in exasperation.

“Well, if Langart, Rundstadt and I go, it should be fine.”

There weren’t many of them but if they ran into trouble, they packed a lot of power.

“Major, I’m going with you. Don’t forget that!”

“Yeah, I hear you.”

Rebecca held on to Blitzdonner as he reassured her.

“Now...”

Sven looked nervous as she sensed they were walking into something more dangerous than she expected. It was the fifth day of what would later be known as the Earthshaking Nine Days.