by SOW
According to what Sven discovered, the Door wasn’t built underground originally. The whole area had been buried. Perhaps originally this had been some sort of important facility and after it was destroyed they had buried it to hide it away. Those not deemed important might have been buried as they were, without being destroyed. At any rate, it was the legacy of a civilization whose cause of extinction was completely unknown.
“How idiotic! I went through so much to find... something like this!” Without an outlet for his anger, Dolchev’s body began to tremble in rage.
Lud thought about how much time, money, and manpower he must have used to get this far. After all that work, for the punch line to be a kitchen’s cooking equipment, whether you were a professional soldier or a special operations spy, it would be impossible not to be shocked.
But now Lud’s chance had arrived.
“Milly! Don’t move! Just stand still!”
As Lud shouted at Milly, he bounded toward Dolchev. Moving all of his body—his shoulders, legs, arms and waist—with lightning speed, Lud shaped his hands half way between an open hand and a fist, so they looked like the claws of a fierce beast. Then, stepping with the power of the god of war crushing a demon underfoot, Lud drove his palm heel into Milly’s chest as though he was gouging it out.
“Huh?”
An attack by a grown man with the muscular strength of Lud, who trained his body when he was in the military, against a small girl of fourteen would have enough destructive power to rupture her organs. But the sound Milly made wasn’t a scream of pain, but just the befuddled voice of someone who didn’t understand what just happened.
“Gwah?!”
The person who raised an anguished cry of pain was Dolchev, who was standing behind Milly.
“Uckt... Augh... Urgh?! Y—You... What did you do?!”
All the blood vessels in Dolchev’s massive body swelled.
“The martial arts of the east are impressive. It’s a technique that can stop an opponent’s heart through their armor, called ‘The Dragon’s Roar.’”
The Special Forces enthusiastically incorporated many fighting styles in their training, including methods to survive without weapons, for environments without proper support. The Dragon’s Roar was a hand-to-hand martial art, invented by an eastern culture from Europea, known as “bujitsu” in their tongue. Its impact could penetrate the opponent’s shield and armor, and even pass straight through the muscle to their organs.
The attack Lud used went through Milly’s body and directly to Dolchev’s heart.
It was originally used to completely stop an opponent’s heart, but Lud had held back before killing Dolchev. Nonetheless, Dolchev’s heartbeat would remain irregular, and the chaotic flow of blood through his body would be painful.
“Ugh... Augh... Uck... Aaaauuuggh!!” Tearing at his own chest, Dolchev writhed in agony.
He had great strength not to faint from the pain, but because the pain was proportional to the physical power of his body, he was now experiencing hellish torture.
“Milly, are you okay?!”
Despite his strength, Dolchev couldn’t restrain his hostage any longer and Lud rescued the young girl, now freed from Dolchev’s arms.
“You... baker... why...” The fear of being killed still hadn’t left Milly and her body shook.
Lud knew that he had done something reckless, risking Milly and himself. No matter how confused Dolchev had been, Lud’s opponent was still a veteran soldier. His body moved with conditioned reflexes when beset by an enemy. Lud’s attack made use of his opponent’s error in thinking Lud wouldn’t attack the hostage.
He hadn’t used The Dragon’s Roar in two years, and if he had failed, he might have hurt or even killed Milly.
“Sorry, Milly...”
“Why... are you apolo—” Milly was about to reply to Lud, but before she could finish, a shock ran through Lud’s leg.
Lud turned and saw Dolchev pointing a gun at him, smoke trailing from the muzzle.
“It’s your fault... because of you bastards...!”
The shock to both his body and his mind had robbed the man of his cool judgment. He was directing his seething hatred at whatever was in front of him.
“Unh!”
The wound in Lud’s leg was serious.
He wouldn’t be able to run away. Lud only had one choice.
“Fwah?! W-What is this... What are you doing, you damn baker?!”
Lud embraced the young girl tightly, as she spat abuse. He should be able to use his body as a shield to protect the girl.
“Die! Die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die!”
Deranged, Dolchev tried to fire his gun again, with drool dribbling from the corners of his mouth. But there was another gunshot.
Huh?
Lud had been prepared to die, and yet something felt off. The sound of this shot was different.
“Sheesh... Please be more careful, I’m begging you...”
Sven was standing at the entrance. In her hands, she was tightly gripping the liberator, the gun Marlene had been carrying, that was given to the resistance fighters out of pity.
“Ugwah!” Dolchev collapsed.
In the split second before Dolchev fired at Lud, Sven had released a shot from the liberator. The gun that had earlier failed to live up to its name had finally, at that moment, become a true liberator.
“Phew... huff...” Feeling relieved, Lud’s strength drained away.
“U-Unh...”
“Oh, sorry...”
Lud realized that Milly was struggling in his arms and flustered, he released her. By squeezing her tightly to protect her, Lud was hurting her.
“Why... why did you save me... someone like you...” Milly was crying.
“I hate you! If I need to be saved by someone like you... then I’d rather die!”
As far as Milly was concerned, all of her misfortune was because of Wiltia, because of Lud and others like him. Lud was sure she wanted to ask him how he dared to show off and pretend to be an ally of justice when he was the cause of all her problems.
“Sorry...” Lud apologized again.
“But I’d be really put out if you died. I want you to eat the bread I make.”
“Huh?!” Milly’s voice held both surprise and disgust.
“Apples. Those are your favorite right? That’s why, next time... I won’t bring leftovers, but freshly baked ones! I want you to have apple danish... So that’s why...” Lud couldn’t seem to express what he was trying to say.
He didn’t want Milly to feel indebted to him, and as he tried to convince her that she wasn’t saved by her most hated enemy, Lud piled excuse upon excuse until Milly looked thoroughly confused.
“W-Wha...” Milly’s face grew red.
Lud was sure she was thinking, “Idiot, don’t be stupid!”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, jerk!”
It seemed Lud was right. Milly ran over to Marlene who was standing with Sven at the entrance.
“What is with that child! If she doesn’t behave, she’ll get what she deserves! Completely without charm,” Sven muttered in annoyance, rushing past Milly to Lud.
“No, it’s fine. I’m fine with that.”
Even though Lud had saved her life, Milly still felt the same as before.
And in a way, her capture was the fault of Lud and military people like him. Lud actually felt a little relieved that Milly was unchanged toward him.
“Master! We need to do something about your wounds!”
“This isn’t anything to worry about. It just grazed me.”
A hand-to-hand battle would be difficult, and he wouldn’t be able to run, but it wasn’t anything too important. On the battlefield, this kind of wound was routine.
“Humans can suffer severe damage to their bodies without being aware of it!”
“Huh?” Lud couldn’t believe his ears when he heard Sven’s response.
“For example, during t
he Great War, a Sparian on the southern front might say ‘you can cure a wound like this just by washing it with the leftover pasta water,’ and then after a few days he might get tetanus... Master?”
“Avei...” In spite of himself, Lud said the name of his dear partner.
Hearing Sven use the same words Avei had used when admonishing Lud for being too reckless on the battlefield, he was stunned.
“Um, Master... what are you saying? I’m Sven...”
If Sven had given Lud a look that said she had no idea why he was questioning her word-for-word, identical choice of words, Lud would have simply taken back what he said.
Instead, Sven plainly appeared flustered. Despite the fact that it seemed impossible for the AI installed in his Hunter Unit from long ago to appear before him as a young girl.
“Are you...” Lud began to ask Sven again, but then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye and stopped.
“Where’s Dolchev?”
The soldier, who had been unconscious moments before, was nowhere to be found. The only thing left behind was the gun he had been holding.
Rumble, rumble.
Lud could hear the ominous sound of an engine as if it was the low growl of a demon.
“That couldn’t be—”
Before Lud could finish, there was a blast of artillery fire.
Chapter 7: You Are the One Who Made the Covenant
It was a story from a country that had passed out of existence: Long ago, there was a beautiful young girl. The silver-haired girl with bewitching red eyes had captured many men’s hearts, but none held the girl’s interest. The girl’s reputation reached up to the heavens and even God came down to court her.
God presented her with a variety of treasures to win her favor: a beautiful jewel from the floor of the deepest ocean; a golden flower from heaven that would never wilt; a magnificent dress, woven with the light of the sun. But no matter what treasures God presented, she would not show him favor. Finally, God said, “If you become my companion, then I will give the entire world to you.”
Finally, the girl accepted God’s courtship. The young girl’s name was Europa.
“The Motherland is great! The principles of the Motherland are just! Hence, the orders of the Motherland are just!” Dolchev was screaming wildly.
“The Motherland is not wrong! It cannot be wrong! If it is wrong, then it is right! Mistakes should be smashed and erased from this world!”
After Lud’s attack, Dolchev should have been unable to move, let alone yell at the top of his lungs, and yet, as if his fanaticism for his homeland gave him new strength, he spewed bloodied spit as he shouted.
Sven shook her head, furious with herself. Why hadn’t she finished Dolchev off while she could? Why did she run to Lud instead? Was it because confirming his safety was the utmost priority? No! After Lud told her that he didn’t want to kill again, if she took a life, even the life of a man like Dolchev, he might hate her. Sven thought that, if only for a moment.
I did it again, I didn’t think about the Captain at all, I just wanted to be the person he would want me to be.
How could she have made such a mistake? How could she have put herself and him in this situation?
“Sven... I’m glad... you... are okay...” Even while he was spitting up blood, Lud’s hoarse words were entirely concerned with Sven’s safety.
“Master... why? Why?!”
In that moment, Dolchev found an opening and escaped into the T-3 II outside the Door and fired a shot at Lud and the others. If the Door had been closed, the shot would have hit a huge rock wall, but instead, the artillery shell destroyed most of the antiquities that had disappointed Dolchev, and shattered the room.
The structure came down on them. Milly and Marlene were only knocked out and escaped serious injury but Sven and Lud weren’t as fortunate.
“Sven, look out!” Lud shielded Sven, and half his body was trapped beneath a giant boulder.
This is backward! Sven thought.
It was her duty to protect him. Until two years ago, it was also like that on the battlefield. Being his shield and his armor had been her duty. And yet...
“Sven... Look... at this...”
The amount of blood that was flowing from Lud’s lower body, crushed beneath the boulder, exceeded the minimum amount of life support necessary to continue. Lud reached into his pocket with a trembling hand and took an envelope from his breast pocket.
“Look at this... it’s funny... isn’t it?”
Written there was an order for Lud to supply bread for two hundred people a day, starting tomorrow. On the next page, there was a letter from Laurel, the foreman at the mine.
All he had written was one sentence: “It was good.” Laurel had overcome his prejudice toward Lud for being a Wiltian soldier, and saw him as a baker.
“It’s going to be even busier from now on... because... I can’t... run the numbers... or haggle prices...” Lud coughed, spitting up thick clots of blood.
“Stop... Master... don’t talk...” Sven covered her eyes.
But the tears didn’t come. She didn’t have the ability to discharge liquids unless it was to moisten her eyes.
“That’s why... if anything... happened to you... the shop would be in trouble... our... precious... wait... ress...” Lud’s voice stopped.
“Master...”
Lud’s heart had stopped. His brain had stopped. All of his vital information told Sven that Lud Langart was dead.
“Next shot! Load the thermite rounds! Burn everyone inside alive!” Lud’s killer was once again shouting in his rasping voice.
Thermite rounds were a type of incendiary shell that would ignite the impact area in flames.
Burn them alive? These men were going to ignite the body of Sven’s master?
Don’t make me laugh!
Sven could hear the shells being loaded into the gun barrel of the T-3 II. She picked up the giant rock that had crushed Lud.
No human could pick up a boulder that size. But Sven could. Because she wasn’t human. Sven’s real name was Svelgen Avei. She was Lud Langart’s partner. She shared the moniker “Silver Wolf” with him—an android born from among hundreds of Hunter Units, whose soul had formed inside the Rezanium reactor that was both its brain and its engine—who yearned for her former master too much, and had escaped from the Weapons Development Bureau to chase after him.
“You damned sorcerer, this junk you made is seriously defective!”
Created by the Principality of Wiltia’s Royal Weapons Development Bureau in preparation for the next war, the Autonomous Humanoid Hunter Unit lifted up the boulder, and turning to face the artillery shot that had just been fired, threw it. With an explosion and deafening roar, Sven and Dolchev’s attacks neutralized each other with a blast of fire and light.
“What?!”
Sven rushed in front of the flustered Dolchev, who was stunned by the sudden situation. Sven had to kill him. She had to crush him. She had to kill the man who had killed Lud—no, she had to kill the man who made him give up his life to protect her.
If she was Avei, and Lud was piloting her, this T-3 II wouldn’t have been a challenge. But now she was in a human body. All she could do was warp the tank’s cannon as much as possible. Nevertheless, Sven was confident that she would win. Inside her dwelt an entirely different kind of anger.
You dare to wrong me, you insolent vermin!
Who was “me?” Who was the “insolent vermin?” Her anger was directed not at Dolchev, but at something else.
Its sensor lights were blinking and it was taking aim at Sven for its next attack. Her anger was directed at the T-3 II itself.
“Stay yourself, swine!” Sven’s two red eyes sparkled as she cried out.
T-3 II’s movements stopped. Its sensors and engine were still on, but weren’t functioning. It was as if it was terrified of the light that overflowed from Sven’s red eyes, and had frozen.
“W-What is this?! What happened?!
”
“I don’t know! All of a sudden it stopped responding to my inputs...”
Sven could hear Dolchev and his subordinates shrieking to each other. But she wasn’t finished.
“If you have any shame, then die!” Sven shouted.
Her words were like a proclamation that she was bestowing the final gift of suicide to a group of criminals who had gone against the king. As if responding to Sven’s voice, the crude crane-like arms of the T-3 II began to move. But it was not Dolchev and his men inside the tank controlling its arms. The tank was moving of its own will. Then—
“What’s up with this, what in the world is it...”
The T-3 II stabbed at its body, as if to cut open its stomach and squash the passengers inside. The flowing oil splattered like fresh blood. Sven hoped that the blood of Dolchev and the others inside was mixed with the oil.
“Phew... whew... what did... I...”
Breathing heavily and unable to understand how she was able to do what she had, Sven was perplexed. But a sensation rose inside her that told her this was right. Sven didn’t understand that either but it didn’t matter right now.
“Master...”
Even if Sven had killed a million August Federation soldiers, it wouldn’t matter. She hadn’t been able to protect the one person who was most dear to her, and nothing else was important.
What are you saying? With the unbelievable power you hold, that should be something.
There was something inside her. Was it her soul speaking to her?
Huh?
Sven responded to the voice in amazement.
Everything has been entrusted to you, in accordance with the covenant of blood. That’s why this is yours to use as well.
A voice was trying to tell her something but Sven couldn’t understand its meaning. But something strange was happening. Suddenly, the rock walls of the mine were giving off light. The sleeping veins of Rezanite emitted a red glow, and became a multitude of lines that converged at the altar that Sven had told Lud was an ancient oven.
