Chapter 7: The Saint

“I am God’s bride.” The girl spoke to Lud with a face so sad it was hard to believe she ordinarily wore a smile.

“Bride? What do you mean?” Lud felt a tightening in his chest as he asked.

“Exactly what I said. The True System is the foundation of the empire. It’s the ultimate computerized and synchronized intelligence of all the citizens of the nation.”

The True System was the collective intelligence that provided answers to any question. It gave a reason for living and everyone had to obey it. It told them exactly what they should do.

“God is perfect. It gives perfect instructions. What to eat, what to do, who to fall in love with... It teaches everything.”

“That’s... um...”

She was describing a world he couldn’t imagine. This was understandable. According to her, it was a world where the people of the capital had relinquished the duty of making their own choices; using freedom to abandon freedom.

“They call it God, but it’s their caretaker. And that being wanted a companion.” The girl didn’t know why. She didn’t know why she was chosen. “But no thank you. I don’t want to be that thing’s spouse!”

Another person might have obeyed without questioning. But, she couldn’t accept a life decided according to God’s whims.

“I need to ask a favor. Please, take me away from here!” The girl begged him to help her.

He was the only one she could rely on. Others, unable to understand her suffering, might have considered her strange... perhaps even abnormal.

“Understood. Let’s run away.” He couldn’t refuse her request. He couldn’t simply watch as she lived a miserable life.

“If we leave the capital and go far away, no one will pursue us.”

However, that was a dangerous path. It meant abandoning a paradise blessed by God. They might die within a few days.

“Thank you. Let’s go!”

She knew all of that. In full understanding, she wanted this. She asked to make her own choice even if it meant losing her life.

Lud was attacking fiercely, and Sven was skillfully dodging. She wasn’t just defending herself. She was expertly controlling his attacks. She could do nothing else. She desperately kept at it, waiting for Lud to exhaust his strength.

Lud doesn’t disappoint... If I were a human, I’d have died many times by now!

She realized once again how fearsome Lud was in hand-to-hand combat. Just when she thought he would attack with his muscles and large frame, he accurately determined that Sven was stronger and he switched to using his nimble footwork. That would ordinarily throw off an experienced soldier and create an opening.

As a soldier, he’s such a realist...

She had known that ever since she had welcomed him inside her when she was a Hunter Unit. Even under a surprise attack by the enemy military, he had the decisiveness and adaptability to respond immediately. He was a true soldier with a spirit of steel, unyielding no matter what the predicament.

But...

As she dodged Lud’s fists, she suddenly remembered the first day she visited Tockerbrot. His big round back had been hunched over inside the empty shop.

I could hardly believe he was the same person.

She had reunited with him more than two years after he quit the military. Her chest had tightened at the sight of his sad face. He was feared as a frightening former soldier and ostracized by the townsfolk, yet he continued baking bread no one would eat. Sven had known that she must do something. She had to find a way to ease his suffering, if only a little. And think of something to increase his joy, if only a little.

A lot had happened. They had fought special operations soldiers from August, battled young soldiers and mechanical soldiers from Greyten on an airship, worked together to save their business against a billionaire, almost lost their lives when they were targeted by the Schutzstaffel, baked bread for Thanksgiving and baumkuchen for the Holy Festival... So many things had happened.

“Urgh!” As if vexed at Sven for dodging his ferocious attacks, Lud drew the pistol at his hip.

“—?!”

He pointed the muzzle at Sven. For a moment, the two stopped and silence reigned.

“Unnngh...!!” Lud moaned in agony. Then he threw the gun in his hand aside.

Yes, I should think so!

Relief filled Sven. Lud had said it himself. To eat was to live. Someone who fed others for a living couldn’t kill. For that reason, he had always loathed killers. He had stuck to that belief even when he was in danger.

You haven’t changed.

Sven was relieved because no matter what happened, Lud Langart remained the same.

“Enough... Please, just leave!” Lud spoke as if in pain. “I suspect you’re stronger than I am. You could easily kill me. But you don’t. I think you’re a kind person.”

It wasn’t strange that he noticed how his opponent tried not to hurt him. He was kind. That was why he couldn’t stand to fight any longer. He hadn’t willingly held the pistol. Toolman had probably given it to him.

“You must have something you can’t forsake. I do too. I understand... so... I want you to leave!” Lud suddenly fell to his knees and lowered his head. He bent into a deep bow. He was bowing to the enemy.

“Master...” Immense sadness and frustration welled inside Sven.

This man hadn’t changed. He would never change. He would reject the option to kill even if it meant feeding his pride to the dogs. He was that kind of person. She knew that better than anyone. However...

“Why?!”

“What?”

Sven’s shoulders were trembling. An unknown feeling was growing inside her. It was anger, intense anger. She had known intense anger many times. She had let her iron fists fly at anyone threatening her beloved Lud. This time was different. This was a first. She was angry at Lud.

“Just three days ago, you swore you would love me forever!!”

“W-What are you talking about?”

From Lud’s point of view, a woman whose name he didn’t know had suddenly started sputtering nonsense.

“But some woman from who-knows-where overwrote your memory and you forgot all about me!!!!”

His response only fueled the flame of Sven’s anger.

“Master, you... you...”

That anger pushed her over a line she had never been able to cross.

“You’re a dummy, Lud!!!!”

A terrible sound—smack!—echoed through the castle. Sobbing, the humanoid Hunter Unit, who had vowed to lose her own life protecting her master, slapped the cheek of the man she loved.

“What was that?”

Blitzdonner and Meitzer came running. What they saw was Sven, frozen and wearing an expression that said “Now I’ve done it!” and Lud, knocked unconscious against the wall.

“What have you done, Svelgen? You’ve...!” Blitzdonner gawped.

“N-No, I haven’t!! Well, I did, but... I didn’t kill him!”

Lud was unconscious but his arms and legs were twitching. Sven had sworn absolute loyalty to Lud. No matter how distraught, no matter how angry, she had always stopped short of crossing this line.

“I j-just... slipped... I couldn’t control myself. What have I done?!” Sven looked at her hand, the one she had used to slap Lud, as if it were a monster.

“Well, um... it couldn’t be helped. This time, it was his fault.” Blitzdonner scratched his head as he spoke. He wasn’t consoling her. He was just stating a fact.

“His fault?! He’s a victim!”

“That’s not true.” Sven had argued back, and Blitzdonner tried to reassure her. “Langart was to blame the moment he made you so unhappy.”

“What?” Sven didn’t notice she was crying until Blitzdonner told her.

“This has been hard for you, Sven.” Meitzer looked at her as he spoke.

“You’re safe? I’m glad.”

“What? You were worried about me?”

“No! It’s just... without you, we can’t return Master to normal.”

“Oh, I see.” With a wry laugh, Meitzer approached the unconscious Lud. “I see... This?” He picked something up. “What is that?”

“It’s a small transmitter.”

The transmitter was so small it was unnoticeable inside Lud’s ear.

“She... The Saint was speaking to Langart with this. That’s how she was controlling him.”

It was a tiny transmitter that neither August nor Wiltia had developed yet. The Saint had made it with the knowledge she possessed from the ancient empire.

“It’s a dirty trick.” Meitzer crushed it in his hand.

“So, since he isn’t wearing it anymore, Master will return to normal?”

“No. She has overwritten Langart’s memory and changed his feelings about the girl he calls Sven. That has to be corrected.”

“How do we do that?”

Meitzer looked at Sven.

“You have to do it. The only way is for you to enter his heart and destroy any remnants of the Saint.”

“Enter his heart?”

That was easier said than done.

“There is a faint trace of rezanium in Langart’s body.”

Lud had died once. It was around the time Sven first visited Tockerbrot. A relic of the ancient empire had been kept behind a Door, and she had used it to mediate with rezanium in order to revive him.

“Sven, you have the power to control all the rezanium vessels in this world.”

“I have that power? Why?”

Rezanium was a red crystal said to be a natural generator and a calculation device. Under a certain amount of pressure, it would generate electricity, and at a specific voltage, it would release vibrations. It was structurally the same as the oscillators of quartz built into small clocks. However, its output was much more powerful.

The rare genius Daian Fortuner had used that principle to create the artificial intelligence in the power reactors of Hunter Units.

“It’s possible because you have rezanium inside you and rezanium is what God left on the surface of the earth as a final blessing.”

“God... The voice that spoke to me. What is that? What’s your relationship to it?”

Sven had long thought the two were the same. However, the voice had denied it.

“I’m like an avatar. God can no longer intervene in the world so God created me as a representative of his will.”

Meitzer called himself the Devil. According to some religions, the Devil was born from God’s shadow. The Devil had committed the unforgivable sin of imitating God.

“My second coming into the world was fifteen years ago, about the time Wiltia opened a Door and started developing weapons powered by rezanium. I had died once in battle against the Saint, but when God learned that rezanium was active in the world again, I was reborn to arbitrate with and protect the human race.”

“W-Wait a second. I can’t keep up with this.” Sven was growing surprised and afraid at Meitzer’s tale, which was starting to surpass her understanding and imagination. “What is rezanium?! It’s not just some rare ore?!”

Even though it was a foundation for the world’s military, science and technology, mysteries remained. According to traditional myth, the red stone was the mineralized heart of an ancient dragon.

“Anyway... here’s what it is...” Meitzer paused before revealing a secret about the origin of the world. “It’s God. The ancient empire made the True System, an enormous crystallized calculation device. It broke apart and pieces scattered across the continent of Europea. Those pieces are rezanium and they are pieces of God.”

The True System was a god manufactured by the ancient empire. It was a crystal calculation device made up of giant rezanium crystals. The empire had synchronized and bound the brains of ten million citizens. By combining all into one, it created a world of eternal tranquility, as well as the True System to manage it.

“But a slight disturbance emerged in God—the being who was all for one and one for all—and that was his ego.”

You might say it was God’s will. God desired someone. God wanted someone to look upon him. He desired an other upon whom he could gaze.

“God learned of a girl in the imperial capital of Europea, the only citizen refusing computerization and not included in synchronization. He wanted to know more about her. Wanting her to know him, his first spontaneous desire was to make that girl his bride.”

The girl detested the idea of being included in the system, so she would never agree to become “the Saint.”

She would sometimes slip out of the imperial capital and had become friends with a young man living in the slum outside. She fell in love with him and decided to abandon the imperial capital.

“The Saint rejected God’s affection. That is a truth the world doesn’t know.”

“Hey, that’s...”

Meitzer spoke the truth of the old world. Blitzdonner had once heard the same story from Daian.

“Saint Europa rejected God’s advances, so he got mad and destroyed the world.”

“According to God’s contract with the Saint, he would grant her every wish. The Saint could control everything that contained rezanium.”

The events Meitzer was relaying were absurd and too unimaginable for Sven to accept. However, she couldn’t dispel one doubt about herself.

“I’m not the Saint!” She was Svelgen Avei. She had once been an assistive A.I. in a Hunter Unit, and now she was a humanoid mechanical doll.

“Yes, that’s right. However, you are the Saint.” Then he revealed an even more unexpected truth. “You are the deceased Saint brought back to life with a synthetic soul and synthetic body.”

Using blood from the Saint’s remains, Daian Fortuner created synthetic flesh and pseudo body fluid. Sven was born when he transplanted the rezanium reactor from the Hunter Unit known as Avei into the mechanical doll he had created.

“Your heart is like the strings of a musical instrument. The fluctuations it produces... the waves... Anyway, something like that artificially recreated the Saint’s fluctuations.”

Human beings do not understand the structure of their own spirit. European science defined the human spirit as composed of three parts. The soul, the spirit and the heart. Avei’s soul and Sven’s heart recreated the ancient Saint’s spirit.

“Didn’t God say so?”

At Meitzer’s question, Sven remembered. She recalled his first words to her.

“It seems you were born a slightly different way.”

This was utterly absurd. However, if it was true, it made sense. Rezanium powered August’s autonomous tanks and the airship Defairedead. Sven had been able to control both, if only temporarily.

“You once almost opened a Door beneath Berun.”

“You know about that too?”

Threatened by Genitz during his rebellion, she had opened a Door. That had incurred God’s wrath. The power coursing through the open door turned Genitz into a pillar of salt.

“That same thing happened to ten million people. That’s the truth of the destruction of the European Empire.”

Hardly anything remained of the empire that existed one thousand years ago. That might also have been due to God’s wrath. The nation’s capital, the central government, the energy source and countless citizens... all destroyed in an instant because God willed that the flourishing empire must disappear.

“It finally makes sense. That’s why that woman called me a fake.” Sven now understood why it felt as if she were seeing herself when she met the Saint. “Is that woman the real Saint?”

This absurd story continued. Sven was about to say that it would be very strange if someone from one thousand years ago was still alive. But Meitzer said no.

“She isn’t the Saint.”

“What?” Sven was puzzled, but Meitzer said no more.

“For now, you must rescue Langart. That’s something only you can do.”

“No, wait! First—” Having listened so far, Blitzdonner jumped in. “Svelgen, first there’s something I want you to do.”

The Saint was waiting quietly in the castle’s office. Events were proceeding in a slightly different direction from her calculations. That was not a problem. Her expectations included even this variation. She knew what humans were like. No matter how carefully you led them, they were foolish and headstrong. That was why God had forsaken them. There was no need to lead the blockheads any further, so he had erased them with his own hands and departed.

The Saint was different. She needed to be loved. If her plan worked, she would be one step closer to God.

“Just you wait. I shall reach you.”

Svelgen went inside Lud’s heart. It was surprisingly easy. She poured her spirit through the trace of rezanium inside Lud. The next thing she knew, she entered his world. However...

“Where am I?”

It was a grassland. Was it an imaginary landscape? She had never been inside someone’s heart, so it was a world she didn’t understand. If Sven had been human, she might have described it as a dream world.

She saw people running in the distance. One was Lud. Another was the woman called the Saint. They were being pursued by a group of men wearing masks and wrapped in black robes, like priests in a heretical religion.

Who are they?

Sven ran toward them. Gradually their voices became audible. The two fleeing were eventually driven to the edge of a cliff.

“Why won’t you leave us alone?”

“I don’t want to be God’s companion.”

“I want to stay married to this person for life.”

Sven could hear the distraught girl’s cries. However, the masked men in black would not listen to her.

What is this? Is it familiar?

Her chest felt constricted as she ran closer. The sound of firing rang out as she was about to reach them. A gunshot. Something like a small firearm had been fired. Lud collapsed, blood spurting from his mouth.

“That’s good.”

“The fool. He played with the Saint.”

“He’s merely a Shepherd!”

The men in black showered Lud with abuse. Crying and screaming, the Saint clung to Lud. But, he was dead. No matter how much they shouted, he would not wake up.

“Let’s go back, Saint.”

“God is waiting for you.”

The men in black seized the Saint, ready to drag her if they must.

No, stop! You mustn’t!

Sven tried to shout, but could make no sound. She knew... She knew what was about to happen.

“I won’t do what you want!”

“My life is my own! I will live the way I want!”

“My heart lies with him!”

Raising her voice in determination, the Saint clasped Lud’s body and jumped from the cliff.

“What has she done?!”

“This is awful!”

The men in black raised a commotion in their panic.

“What will we tell God?!”

“We’ll prepare a replacement.”

“Yes. If we make him a copy, God will understand.”

The men in black turned on their heels and left. They behaved as if the two corpses at the bottom of the cliff didn’t exist.

No... This is bad.

The scenery changed before her eyes. It was now a city. It was a world so closely resembling a heavenly temple that it made the royal capital of Berun look like a country village. Several tall castle-like towers rose overhead and the geometrical cityscape looked like a work of art.

Suddenly the city crumbled. Light from a giant red crystal floating in the center of the city destroyed every building, like sand exposed to ocean waves. Nothing remained. Everything faded and disappeared.

“God, why do you treat us like this?!”

“We did everything for you!”

“Please, pardon us! Forgive us!”

She saw the men dressed in black. They were desperately begging for forgiveness, but the red light showed no mercy. They too disappeared.

That is... God.

The brilliant red crystal did not look the way humans envisioned their God. But, it certainly wasn’t human and it wielded overwhelming power, so it must be God.

I see... This is Europea’s imperial capital.

Meitzer spoke of this. He said the Saint used her memories to control Lud’s spirit. This world was her memory.

Hm?

However...

Didn’t the Saint just die at the cliff?

The moment this question arose, the scenery changed once again. A grass field again. Lud and the Saint were standing in the middle. The two were on their knees and offering thanks.

Did time turn back? No...

She heard a voice. The voice wasn’t Meitzer’s but she recognized it. It was the voice of God.

What did you say?

Sven doubted her ears. God spoke...

“I am sorry.”

An apology from God was unthinkable. In the first place, this god was created by the European Empire for their “perfect world.” God was perfect yet had admitted a mistake and apologized.

Oh my...

Then Sven noticed something. She had sensed a strangeness about Lud. She felt something was missing. At last, she saw what it was.

His scar isn’t there!

His face had no large scar. She knew that scar well. During the Great War, they had tried to protect friendly forces from enemy fire and the cockpit was nearly destroyed. His face was stabbed by the debris and he was left with that awful scar. She knew it well because it had happened inside her.

What is going on?

As she wondered, the scenery shifted. It was a town. This world wasn’t glorious like the imperial capital. It was a town lined with hovels and tent shops as if erected amidst ruins. Lud, still without the scar, was here with the Saint. However, they had changed.

“You always...!”

“Shut up! Don’t say anything about my methods!”

“I will speak up! That’s my role!”

“Shut up! You’re a fake!”

Their atmosphere between them was tense and hostile. What in the world was happening? As the two quarreled, they ripped bits off a chunk of bread they were sharing.

“Argh! Isn’t there anything that tastes better than this?!”

“If you’re gonna complain, don’t eat it!”

“What an awful thing to say!”

They were so grumpy that they couldn’t seem to talk without bickering.

“What’s going on?” Without thinking, Sven spoke. Then...

“What?” The Saint turned toward Sven as if looking into the distance.

“—?!” Surprised, Sven braced herself.

This was Lud’s spirit world. The scene was a memory. It was like a scene in a movie. However, the characters were aware of a spectator who had spoken out, which was impossible.

“Oh, you made it this far? Did that Devil put you up to this? This fake doesn’t know her place!” The Saint approached Sven with anger and contempt. “Get lost!”

“Uh-oh!!”

By the time Sven realized, it was too late. The Saint released her power and cut off the lower half of Sven’s body.

“Aagh!”

It was a single blow capable of killing a human. Sven collapsed to the ground.

“This is perfect. Now sink. Fall into spiritual mud and disappear in soul and spirit!”

The ground turned to mud and began swallowing Sven.

“Urgh... Darn it!”

Sven flailed both arms and desperately tried to crawl out, but the more she struggled, the more her body sank.

“It’s no use.” The Saint sneered.

Her face was so hateful that Sven clenched her teeth and struggled with more determination. However, she could not free herself. On the contrary, she sank further.

“Master... Master!!” Sven desperately called to Lud.

“It’s no use, no use at all.”

As Sven struggled, the Saint continued to taunt and sneer.

“I’ve locked him in a world of memories. He cannot sense you. That’s the way I designed it.”

Sven was buried up to her neck. Her hands, with nothing to seize onto, grabbed only air. The Saint may have expected this and planted her pseudo self in Lud’s spirit world in case Sven intervened.

Everything goes the way she plans...

Struggle as she might, Sven didn’t expect to survive. There was nothing she could do. Her heart would be sealed in the Saint’s memory and Lud would forget himself forever.

“No!” That was too sad and too hard. Too difficult to bear. “Master! Master!” Desperately, she begged for Lud’s help. He didn’t have to help her. It would be enough if he looked at her, even without recognizing her. Sven couldn’t stand to just disappear from his world.

“I told you it was futile, didn’t I?” The Saint spoke coldly.

Lud didn’t turn around. He didn’t even glance her way. Her words didn’t reach him.

“Master!” Nonetheless, Sven cried out. “Master, Master... Lud!!”

Then a miracle occurred.

“What?” The smug smile disappeared from the Saint’s face.

Something appeared on Lud’s left cheek. It was his scar, the cross-shaped war scar. The scar he got fighting alongside Avei.

“Master...”

Then something appeared on his right cheek as well. It was a handprint. Sven’s handprint from when she slapped Lud earlier.

“Whaaat?!”

Sven was astounded as Lud slowly turned toward her. Then he spoke.

“Sven...?”

He was looking at her, seeing her, Sven, and he had said her name.

“Impossible!” The Saint was shocked.

Her expression clearly said that she thought what just happened was absolutely impossible. Yet it had happened. Sven’s beloved Lud had just said her name, so... She was no longer afraid of anything!

“Graaaaahhh!”

With an explosion, the muddy bog imprisoning her was blown away. Her severed body was healed. She pushed with both feet against the ground and her red eyes glared at the Saint.

“No... Impossible! Why?!”

Sven ran toward the thunderstruck woman. Then...

“How dare you attempt to seduce my master! Take this!!”

This wasn’t a slap like she had given to Lud. This was a steely fist that bashed into the Saint’s face.

“Gugh!!”

The Saint made a sound as if being crushed and her apparition split apart. In that instant, the world began to crack. The world of false memories the Saint had generated began to crumble.

“Let’s go, Master!”

“Sven... What did I...?”

“It’s okay! Everything is fine!”

Lud was bewildered, but she gripped his hand and they started running. Nothing mattered now. Lud remembered her. He had said her name. Now that she was sure that she existed inside him, there was nothing to contend with. The two had returned.