by Carlo Zen
“Oh, the tea showed up at just the right moment.”
“Thank you.”
The orderly delivers properly brewed tea poured into a cup warmed to just the right temperature.
She had almost forgotten this rich, blossoming fragrance. Though amber in color, tea is nonalcoholic; having some after finishing a job on the eastern front makes her almost obscenely happy.
“The friendly Ildoan or whoever has great taste.”
“Biting commentary from a neutral country, perhaps. No…I doubt our mutual friend is that sort of man.”
Setting aside the character of the supplier, there’s no doubt about the fact that he knows his stuff. Understanding the temperament of the supplier—that is, Colonel Calandro—it was a social gift presented half-kindly and half-calculatingly.
Tanya would also do well to remember that Zettour is the type to bring tea leaves to the forward-most line on the eastern front. Is that half-eccentricity, half-sophistication? It’s definitely revealing of a civilized temperament.
“Kindness is truly delicious.”
“To be sure. But goodwill can also be awful. And sometimes ill will does the most good.”
“Oh?” Tanya raises her head and observes Zettour’s expression. “You’re saying that bad intentions are sometimes better than good ones? I beg your pardon, but if you’re saying that from the purview of your position…I fear I might read into it and get some strange ideas…”
“You’re free to think what you like. Use your common sense to decide what’s right.”
“You mean sense that is common in the homeland will apply on the eastern front?”
Tanya is laughing as though she’s heard a fantastic joke.
“Watch what you say, Colonel. Surely that’s going a bit far.”
“Yes, sir—I’ll be careful.”
“Do that. I think nothing of it, but words of that nature are liable to get twisted and find their way into unexpected places.”
I don’t know what the goodwill of the homeland looks like, but I should probably be grateful for the ill will Zettour has shown me. Honestly, as someone in the field, he’s been a great help. Although in the long term, he may affect things in other ways…
Furthermore, Tanya didn’t expect to be given such candid advice. What is compelling him to reprove me more than I expected…?
“I had no idea it was so careless.”
“There are reasons… Once you hear the bad news I received just prior to our meeting, I’m sure you’ll agree with me.”
Tanya braces herself, and Zettour lobs the word bomb at her so simply.
“I don’t mean to rain on your victory parade, but it’s not good… Andromeda’s hit an impasse.”
The bomb explodes smack in the center of Tanya’s mind. She just barely manages to remain calm but fails to hide her shock.
An impasse? So it failed?
“W-we couldn’t get past the southern cities?”
“We didn’t even get that far. After advancing to Josefgrad with blinding speed, the offensive ground to a halt due to supply line chaos. As a result, Federation defense tightened up, and there’s no way to advance any farther… The troops are too busy trying to protect their vulnerable flank at the moment.”
“So”—it’s not a question as much as a confirmation—“the resource area?”
“We can’t reach it, Colonel.”
The news is disappointing enough for an argh. We’ve failed to secure the resources that are the foundation of a war economy.
All I can think is that this mistake is—like dissolving what little money you earn in the forex market—one of those that you should absolutely not make, yet the Empire has done so on a national level.
“I’m surprised. It’s not like General von Rudersdorf to slip up.”
“Matériel mobilization not happening in time must have been the main factor. Lieutenant Colonel Uger is in charge of that; it’s unusual for him to make mistakes, but…”
“But?”
“If you take another look at the situation, a new answer appears on its own. If the supplies can’t be transported, then part of the responsibility must lie with the railroad people.”
“So it has to do with the rails?”
The Empire and Federation have different rail gauges, so we can’t simply jump tracks, which results in a bottleneck for traffic in several places. That’s a well-known fact.
If anything’s problematic, it must be that.
“The issue of unifying the standards is difficult, but Colonel Uger and his team are no slouches.”
Zettour snaps off the update that the technical issues have been solved. “It’s quite the juggling act, but they’re working magic to convert the gauge on part of the trunk line and, in the meantime, keep supplies moving with captured rolling stock.”
In other words, though it was a problem with the railroad people, it also wasn’t a problem with the railroad people.
“So the distance was too great, then? Or did the Council for Self-Government fail to preserve the rails?”
“No, the council is doing a good job. It has even developed its internal administration to the extent that it is in the process of organizing the self-governing bodies at the village level.”
“In that case, only the worst-case scenario is left…”
“Yes, it’s the absolute worst.”
The significance of Zettour affirming her fear is tremendous.
…There’s a path.
But supplies aren’t coming down it.
The reason is simple.
“We’re short of supplies themselves?”
“We must be.”
“Excuse me for asking, but how did you make things work, then?”
“I was scraping the bottom of the barrel and committing limited resources in a concentrated way to maintain production volume. And as the chief coordinator, I knew how to apply the right kind of pressure on the correct places.”
And now he’s been flung to the eastern front.
He doesn’t have to say it; even someone with paltry powers of imagination could easily grasp what kind of confusion that would cause at the working level.
The organization is learning through experience that coordinators earn high salaries because without their leadership in overseeing smooth unified operations, the organization can’t function. Only an idiot who has no idea what work on the ground is like would take that leadership away, throw everything at the working-level personnel, and expect operations to continue without a hitch.
“Allow me to say one thing.” Tanya chimes in with an awful headache gnawing at her. “Even if we’re talking about a capable guy like Colonel Uger, isn’t that a bit too much to put on him? This is a lieutenant colonel versus a lieutenant general. Those ranks have different authority, jurisdiction, and powers of intimidation.”
“The military organization should be made up of people who can stand in for each other…or I suppose I should say ‘should have been.’ Now then, Colonel, I’ve done enough learning on the eastern front.”
“Yes, sir.”
“This won’t work.”
Tanya nods.
“We can’t go on like this.”
It’s impossible to deny, so Tanya nods politely in response to his soliloquy.
“My conclusion is simple.”
“I’m eager to hear it.”
“…This…at this rate, our current path is no good.”
“Sir?”
“Somewhere in my mind, it’s possible that I…thought that maybe if we kept following this path, we might find a way out.” Zettour wears an expression of regret as he shakes his head, which has noticeably more gray hairs. “It was a fleeting dream.”
The Imperial Army has stabilized the vulnerable portion of the eastern lines. On the surface, that’s a great step forward that makes up for the offensive’s setback in the south.
But for anyone aware of the full domestic situation of the Empire, a different side of
things comes into view… Even if you don’t want to see it, you can’t help it.
We step forward, we extend our legs, we even stretch out our arms, but they don’t reach anything we want them to.
But what exactly is the general referring to?
“In our current situation, the setback in the southeast is fatal. We need some propping up… Eventually, I’m sure your unit will be sent down there to fight.”
“We’re going to leave this delicate balance and concentrate all our forces in the south? That doesn’t sound sane to me. Launching a direct attack on Moskva while we tidy up the lines here would be more realistic.”
“The General Staff would probably agree with your view.”
Tanya’s spine stiffens at the words that seem to imply too much.
“I heard recently that our nice chat with Ildoa didn’t go so well. Was that also…?”
“On the army’s orders. Do you understand now, Colonel?”
She stares back at him, astonished. On the army’s orders? So the army intends to do the opposite?
Does that mean…? Wait, the Supreme Command is the only entity with the authority to give orders. Is the army under attack by some formal rubber-stamping gone wild or the monster known as public opinion?
“The fatherland has become dependent. Colonel, it’s sad how bad it’s gotten.”
“Dependent on victory?”
“Exactly.” He nods, expressionless. “‘All our problems can be fixed with victory.’ In other words, we’re sorely addicted. If we can’t envision tomorrow without a victory, we’re simply doomed.” He says this with a quiet but clear tone of voice as his eyes crinkle in a smile. “The fatherland wants to dream. It’s a grand dream. Everyone hopes for a great victory for the great Empire to be reality.”
“Then our only choice is to shatter that dream. We’ve got to throw out their comfortable bathwater and open these idiots’ eyes with ice-cold reality.”
“That sounds like treason, Colonel. Are you calling the fatherland a bunch of idiots?”
“Unfortunately, I’m a soldier. I was taught in academy that anyone who can’t see reality for what it is should be called an idiot.”
In an army at war, it’s utterly natural to call an idiot who can’t face reality an idiot.
One of the nice things about the army is that you can call a son of a bitch a son of a bitch. It’s wonderful to not have to say things in a roundabout way.
“Most importantly,” she says, “I love the peaceful days in the fatherland. If a bunch of blind, reckless patriots or whatnot are going to destroy that tranquility, I can’t even consider them real patriots. We’ve got to string them up like pigs and obliterate them.”
Tanya von Degurechaff is a utilitarian pacifist to her core. She’s against war on principle. She’s especially against any war that isn’t an easy win and won’t end with their finances in the black.
If it isn’t a winnable, low-cost war with guaranteed returns that can be obtained in a safe way, then there’s no way she counts it as a viable investment.
Basically, anyone who recommends that sort of venture is either a crook or a numbskull—in any case, criminally inept.
“Patriotism has nothing to do with taking bad advice. In the first place, if you love your country, you should be protecting its peace—and to go a step further, it’s precisely a patriot’s duty to prevent their country’s ruin.”
“Certainly. That’s the definition of a true patriot.”
His amused murmur makes Tanya realize their conversation is veering into strange territory. I didn’t mean to act so patriotic… Why did he take it that way?
“So, Colonel von Degurechaff. As a patriot in this situation, how do you define victory? Is it a victory for the Empire? Is it the victory the Empire dreams of?”
She’s not really a patriot, but she knows that denying it will offend him. Only a numbskull would declare to an officer—a high-ranking officer at that—that they haven’t got so much as a milligram of patriotism in their heart.
Not saying things that don’t need to be said is like a little bit of lube to keep society running smoothly. Silence is an expedient for suggesting friction to the whole of society.
Which is why Tanya thinks for a moment about what the appropriate thing to say as a patriot would be.
It’s not as if I intend to share the Empire’s fate, so I don’t really care whether it wins or loses, but if my life and assets aren’t protected, I’ll have problems. Major problems.
“I don’t acknowledge any difference between the former and the latter. How could I? Military regulations don’t allow it.”
She seems to have tapped Zettour’s funny bone; he grins slightly. It’s amazing he’s able to smile in the middle of this exchange.
“That’s quite the honor student outlook… I’ve given up on the old ways.”
“You gave up? That’s surprising.”
“I’ll do whatever’s necessary. In the end, you can’t compensate for poor strategy with superior tactics. We have no choice but to chime in on the strategic level, don’t you think?”
There’s no way Tanya can say she thinks that. Her face starts to cramp up, but she interrupts with self-preservation in mind.
“General, I think you know this, but…we’re soldiers.”
Career soldiers—that is, officers. In other words, our job descriptions are set out clearly in the associated laws and regulations.
The bare minimum requirement for control of the instrument of violence is civilized use of force.
Deviation would surely be harshly punished, and it’d be a breach of contract, so it’s hard to even bring up an objection.
“The role of a soldier, who is subject to military orders, is to do only that which is clearly defined as military service. Our jobs don’t include politics.”
“In an ideal world, perhaps. I see no flaws save the one issue of it being sadly unrealistic.”
I’m starting to really hate this debate, sighs Tanya internally. It’s not that she has no idea what Zettour is thinking, but…if she shows that she gets it, she might end up being pulled into the same boat as him.
“Colonel von Degurechaff, ultimately, morale is like salt. Without salt, your only choice is to die, but neither can you live on salt alone.”
He speaks with so much gravity, but what he says is the most banal common sense.
Tanya doesn’t understand what he’s getting at.
“Do excuse me, but that’s pretty much self-evident, isn’t it? There aren’t any dishes you can cook with just salt. Even a child knows that. There’s no reason for us to get all excited about it.”
“Colonel von Degurechaff, don’t you know the upcoming trends? In the imperial capital, alchemy using salt is all the rage.”
“…Everyone in the capital wants to transform salt into gold? Like trying to make a philosopher’s stone?”
Unable to hold back, Tanya bursts into mocking laughter. Alchemy! It’s not as if we’re some unenlightened society from the time before the science of magic was standardized into the system we have today.
Frankly, even if it’s a metaphor…it’s not a very good one.
She wonders if she should swallow her unnecessary What kind of fool would do a thing like that?! remark or blurt it out.
“Some think it’s possible. Yes, they have a blind faith that no matter how great a fortune they wager, they’ll make it all back.”
“Is there a chance of succeeding?”
“None. They’re going to fail disastrously and pickle the whole Empire.”
Sodom and Gomorrah, the city of salt.
Horrible words cross Tanya’s mind, but she dismisses them at once. She’s not living in the unenlightened world that begot mythology. Though it’s vexing that I can’t completely deny that, having confirmed the presence of an evil deity like Being X… Was it careless to be relieved that she hasn’t been interfered with lately?
“…General. Is Supreme Command in th
e rear so useless?”
“Extremely sensible people are being ruled by the dead.”
The words appear so suddenly, Tanya fails to grok the context. She asked about the situation inside high command, and he replied, “Extremely sensible people are being ruled by the dead.” Tanya doesn’t have enough info on what’s been going on in the rear to grasp his meaning there.
“Colonel von Degurechaff?”
“Huh? E-excuse me, sir, what do you mean ‘ruled by the dead’?”
How uncomfortable it is to honestly admit you don’t understand something. It’s the painful moment that, vexingly, she realizes she’s been on the front lines for too long.
“Have you heard people talk about ‘the sacrifices we’ve made so far’?”
“A bit. From Colonel Uger.”
“That’ll make this quick. What did he say?”
I remember, at a table in the homeland, insisting that we cut our losses. Uger’s counterargument was that we’d already made too many sacrifices, so the desire for reparations would be too strong. It’s a sentimental argument that reeks of the Concorde effect, and frankly, it’s difficult for me to comprehend. After squandering so much sacred human capital, choosing not to minimize further casualties is practically tantamount to murder.
I’d like to ask them what they think a human life is, exactly. To be told such a thing by someone who should know better, like Uger, makes her want to shout that it can’t be.
“Honestly, I don’t intend to slander Colonel Uger behind his back.”
“Ha-ha-ha. He probably claimed that a powerful, unreasonable, emotional argument had taken hold, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
Tanya failed to understand what Uger said.
Or rather, she felt he was exaggerating. Surely, he’s not that idiotic! Though she’s perfectly aware that some people become idiots, she’s not so sure about turning into super-dreadnought-class idiots.
Does that actually happen?
“As someone who has seen the innermost workings of the Imperial Army, allow me to state with certainty: Colonel Uger is speaking the truth. If there was any issue with what he said, it’s that he may have been underestimating the situation.”
