by SOW
“Wow... That was wonderful!”
Elvin closed the book with an air of satisfaction. He carefully placed the paperback into a drawer as if showing respect to the author, whose name, according to the cover, was Mary Clarissa. Then he turned to face Sophia once more.
“How rude of me when it was I who summoned you, Sophia. Forgive me. This author’s new novel was most interesting. I was engrossed in reading it.”
“No, it’s my fault for arriving earlier than scheduled. Um...”
Elvin raised his palms to tell Sophia, who was fumbling for words, to calm down. Then he suggested that she sit on the sofa.
“Don’t be nervous. If the famous Devil’s Black Spear were to cower before me, I could brag to my eldest boy, but it makes it uncomfortable for us to talk.”
Sophia remembered that Elvin was in his mid-forties. His noble features made him look younger. His warm smile resembled that of any merry gentleman you might see around the city.
But Sophia knew about the marshal. During the Great European War, many soldiers earned the moniker of hero, and Sophia was one of them. But Elvin was considered a hero of a completely different kind.
Normally, the measure of a military hero was skill in fighting, and that was determined by the number of battles that warrior had survived. Elvin was the reason that Wiltia’s army was victorious in the most recent war. He had served as a hero of strategy for that ten-year war. His fame was widespread, and he was admired as the wisest general in history, and as a strategic god. The opposing nation of August deemed him an enemy of the state. In the Greyten Empire, soldiers were so frightened that he was a god or a demon that it was necessary to declare in the queen’s name that he was human.
Sophia wouldn’t tremble before Elvin if he were just famous. This man had mastered the path that she, as a soldier, struggled and risked her life to walk, and she was in awe of him.
“I called you here today in relation to your current duties.”
“My duties... Do you mean guarding the Weapons Development Bureau?”
The Royal Weapons Development Bureau was located northeast of the royal palace, and was responsible for the creation of the Hunter Units, the weapon behind the Principality of Wiltia’s victory. The Bureau was also the lair of an extraordinary scientist and mechanical genius named Daian Fortuner, who was referred to as a sorcerer.
“Am I being transferred to central headquarters?!”
“Huh?”
“F-Finally, I’ll be free of that pervert! Good thing I submitted that request!”
Forgetting her former tension, Sophia shot to her feet and openly displayed her joy.
“Oh... sorry. That isn’t what this is about.”
“Huh? It isn’t?”
Sophia was so disheartened that she almost dropped to her knees.
“About your request... I’m sorry, but it was denied. We would be in trouble if you didn’t continue to tend to that scientist.”
“But why me?!”
Sophia was threatening... No, she was begging him, nearly in tears. Elvin gestured for her to calm down. He stood up and poured lukewarm tea from a heat retention pot in a corner of the room and handed the teacup to Sophia.
“Oh... thanks.”
“Do you really hate him that much?”
“I am a soldier, so I cannot reveal such private opinions.”
As a soldier, mixing private feelings and duty was strictly prohibited, so she could not answer his question.
“Forget about that and just tell me.”
“No, I...”
Elvin asked again as Sophia sought for words.
“As a marshal, I order you. Tell me.”
“I have an instinctive dislike for him!”
Soldiers must obey orders no matter how they feel. As soon as she had received the order, Sophia spoke as if a dam had broken.
“I hate his face, his voice and even his breath! And the pompous, superficial way he talks! When I ask what time it is, why can’t he answer without dancing, too? It makes me want to clout him a good one! But I can’t, so it really ticks me off!”
“Oh... really?”
The force with which Sophia spat out her pent-up frustration overwhelmed even the mighty hero, Elvin.
“What is he thinking?! What isn’t he thinking?! Instead of simply telling me, he drops 49 hints! And I get annoyed when he chuckles and looks at me in confusion! I bet if I used his face for target practice, I’d score a perfect hit rate!”
“Oh, I see... Um... uh...”
Elvin regretted asking her what she thought of Daian Fortuner.
Sophia hated everything about Daian. But there was a reason for that. His true nature awakened in Sophia—as a soldier and as a woman—a strong, instinctive feeling of dislike and distrust.
“It’s like...” Sophia stopped before speaking.
It was like Daian was observing humans but was himself inhuman. Daian always watched people innocently, but as if he were scrutinizing an ant colony in a terrarium. Around him, Sophia grew confused and felt as if she had become an ant... but no. She felt as if the whole human race were no more than insects to him. It was an eerie, frightening feeling.
“Like what?” Elvin questioned Sophia, who had gone silent and stiff.
She realized that her feelings were nonsensical.
“Oh, nothing. In any case, I’m frustrated at how irresponsible he is. The other day, maybe because he was bored, he sang what he called ‘the Bored Song’ and danced ‘the Bored Dance,’ which he had composed and choreographed himself.”
It had been so annoying that she had praised her self-control for restraining the urge to punch and kick him.
“Bored... He’s bored, huh? That’s not good.”
Elvin frowned.
“Sir, um, is that a problem?”
“When Daian Fortuner has time to kill, it’s a dangerous sign.”
Elvin sighed and peered at a map of the royal capital and vicinity.
“Have you heard of the Schutzstaffel?”
“Of course! What about them?”
The Schutzstaffel were troops that protected the Principality of Wiltia’s royal palace. But that was only until the Great War ended. After the Great European War, Wiltia proposed the establishment of a Society of Nations.
Nominally, its purpose was to create everlasting peace so that a world war never occurred again, but actually it was a means for the victorious nations to preserve the various interests and lands they had acquired. The winners of the war wanted to ensure that they wouldn’t lose should hostilities ever break out again.
As a first step, military reduction was proposed for each nation, and in order to lead other member nations, Wiltia was the first to begin shrinking its military. It reduced its military budget and the number of its soldiers by 30 percent.
“Winning the war means we gained territory both on land and at sea. We have a broader area to protect, but our budget and military force have decreased in size.”
Elvin sighed at the absurdity.
“As a result, other nations—both allies and enemies—agreed to reduce their militaries as well, and to redirect the revenue into social welfare, thereby benefitting the citizenry, who had suffered during the war.”
Two years had passed since the Great War ended. It had left behind much destruction, even in the victorious nation of Wiltia. A few months ago, Sophia had experienced that destruction herself.
“I heard you took in child soldiers from the Defairedead.”
“?!”
Elvin’s words surprised Sophia.
They were war orphans from Pelfe, a key culprit in that incident. Partially due to Lud’s pleading, Sophia had given protection to children pressed into service by the enemy nation of Greyten, in an almshouse in the Rundstadt family’s domain.
“Don’t worry. I’m not criticizing you. It’s just unusual for you to give anyone special treatment. By rights, the principality should have done that.”
The almsh
ouse was a big improvement over the facility where the child soldiers previously lived, which had been like a jail. The almshouse provided boarding, meals, education and job training. It was a rehabilitation facility that would prepare the children for returning to society instead of to the life of crime caused by poverty. Their freedom was limited for a time, but at least they could lead a better life than they would have in jail with adult criminals.
“It’s better to use the funds saved through reduced military costs for war reconstruction. At least, I wish that were happening, but it isn’t the reality. That man Genitz...”
“Genitz?! What has that rotten lieutenant general done?! Oops... Excuse my language!”
Injecting private feelings and making insulting statements about a superior officer would undermine the organization. Sophia quickly covered her mouth.
“Don’t worry. I too have a hard time checking my desire to beat him to death every time I see him.”
Genitz was a lieutenant general for the Principality of Wiltia. He came to prominence midway through the previous war. He served notably on the western front, but unlike Elvin, he wasn’t popular among the regular soldiers. You might even say they hated him.
And there was only one reason: Genitz didn’t wage war so much as he efficiently shed blood. One of his “achievements,” the destruction of Lapchuricka, was a notable example. He besieged the city with a large force and bombarded guerillas and civilians alike. It was an outright massacre. With that, he erased an entire city from the map.
“What irritates me is how highly effective his tactics are, including Lapchuricka. After that destruction, all rebellions and resistance movements in the occupied territory stopped at once. He prevented the resistance of 10 million civilians by killing 100 thousand.”
That was one way of looking at it. But accepting his methods meant turning war into slaughter and soldiers into butchers. Elvin and other veterans could not accept that.
“But he’s popular among the aristocrats, who have never set foot in battle. They treat human lives as mere numbers for calculation. To them, Genitz’s way sounds clever!”
Elvin’s features, which had remained calm, now showed intense anger and disgust.
“Oh... sorry. I don’t mean all aristocrats. There are exceptions like you.”
“I understand.”
Sophia’s family, the Rundstadts, was among the finest of Wiltian aristocratic families. Elvin had apologized because he knew that.
“But what does Genitz have to do with the Schutzstaffel?”
“He has assumed the post of captain in the Schutzstaffel. Officially, his duty is to protect the royal palace, but the truth is that he wants to take control of central, including the capital city of Berun.”
“What?!”
The Schutzstaffel had just taken the money removed from the military budget, along with 300 thousand troops, for its own use. The Schutzstaffel’s duty was to protect the monarch and his lands. To all appearances, Wiltia had downsized its military. In reality, it was keeping its full force as a private army for a single monarch.
“Looking back, the establishment of the Society of Nations must also be part of Genitz’s plan. He now has the center of the world in his hands.”
There were several other continents beyond Europea. Most were home to nations and colonies dependent upon the powerful nations of Europea. And the most powerful country to rule Europea was Wiltia. With 300 thousand soldiers, Genitz controlled the capital and the core of Wiltia through brute force.
“We regular forces are scattered across territories and colonies. The forces in the capital and at central are so powerful that I don’t even want to think about how disadvantageous it is for us.”
Elvin picked up a cup as he said this. But he wasn’t drinking tea. It was brandy he had hidden in his pocket. The situation was so preposterous that he had to have a drink.
“Um, may I ask something? What does this have to do with my duties?”
Elvin sipped brandy before replying.
“Genitz is scheming to pull that big shot Daian over to the Schutzstaffel’s side.”
“Meow!”
Tockerbrot was a little bakery in a corner of Organbaelz. Ellis, a white cat that found a home in the shop, welcomed Lud at the back door as he returned from a delivery.
“Thanks for the welcome!”
Lud sat down and scratched the narrow throat of the cat with his thick fingers.
“Meow!♪”
That was all it took for Ellis to meow happily.
“Hm? Aren’t you a little dirty?”
“Meow?”
Ellis’s white fur was spotted with mud.
“Is that my fault?”
Lud looked back to where his truck was parked. The tires were resting in a puddle from the previous day’s rain, so apparently his truck had splashed mud onto Ellis’s fur.
“Sorry about that... Come here, I’ll wash you.”
Keeping a small animal at a place that serves food, such as a bakery, is troublesome. It has to be kept clean to avoid ticks, and must be trained so it will stay away from goods for sale.
Sven, the ace waitress, handled all that, but Lud had brought the cat home.
“It would be wrong to make Sven take care of you all the time.”
Lud picked up Ellis and walked to the well beside the shop.
“Master is home!”
Inside the shop, Sven stood up when she heard the truck.
“How do you know?”
“Tee-hee-hee! I’m confident I can recognize the way he breathes within a 500-meter radius!”
Jacob was impressed.
“I guess... you really can.”
“Tee-hee-hee!”
Sven beamed a victorious smile at Jacob, who stopped himself from jeering at her claim. For Sven, a humanoid Hunter Unit created by the smartest scientists in the Principality of Wiltia, identifying an individual anywhere in the vicinity of Organbaelz was possible when using her auditory sensors at full power.
“I’ll brief Master on what we were talking about!”
Sven wanted to see Lud as soon as possible, so she dashed out. She opened the back door with a broad smile... only to encounter a startling sight.
“Hey, Sven. I’m back.”
“Um...Master?”
Lud was washing the cat, Ellis. Since he had sweated a little during the delivery, he was topless and washing himself, too.
“Oh... um... waaah!! Pardon me!”
Blushing, Sven rushed back to the shop, but she was in such a hurry that she tripped and fell.
“Guh! Gwah?!”
With a loud bonk, her face struck the floor.
“Hey, are you all right, Sven?!”
“What was that noise?!”
Jacob and Milly, who had been at the oven, poked their heads out.
“Mwa ha ha ha ha!”
Jolt!
The two were worried about Sven, but she merely erupted in mischievous laughter.
“Uh-oh! I caught Master with his guard down! Mwa ha ha! I shall store this precious sight within the safest reaches of my memory for all eternity!”
She was so excited that she blushed all the way to her ears. If she had been human, the thrill might have caused bright red blood to spurt from her nose. In fact, the artificial body fluid that circulated inside her was coursing so quickly that it might have flowed from every pore. If her pulse beat any faster, she could have exploded.
“I don’t know what happened here, but I can imagine.”
“Aw, man!”
Jacob and Milly were watching Sven in astonishment, but she just continued to laugh.
A few minutes later...
“A sales trip?”
Sven announced her new idea after Lud had finished washing and changed clothes. Her cheeks and ears were still bright red.
“Yes! Tockerbrot’s business is going well, but given the limited population of this town, sales are going to hit a peak.”
Ther
e was no other bakery in Organbaelz. They basically had a monopoly on the market, but that meant their customer base couldn’t expand beyond the residents, no matter how hard they tried.
“We should sell your bread in nearby towns and bring in more revenue!”
“Hmm... I never thought about that.”
The plan hadn’t occurred to Lud because he was still trying to figure out how to get the townsfolk—beyond Jacob—to enjoy his bread.
“I understand expanding our market, but we don’t produce enough bread for that.”
At present, Tockerbrot was delivering bread to the mine, local schools, and the city hall cafeteria, in addition to sales in the shop. It would be difficult to bake more bread with their current production capacity.
“If we need more products, we need more ovens, and I doubt we can get another loan.”
“I have an idea about that, too! But before revealing it, I want to run a recon-in-force op.”
Reconnaissance-in-force is an aggressive maneuver that involves launching an attack and observing an opponent’s reaction to determine its military capacity. It’s a time-tested tactic.
“And that means I need to ask you a favor, Jacob.”
The Royal Weapons Development Bureau was in the northeast quarter of Berun, the capital of the Principality of Wiltia. Nearly hidden all the way in the deepest part of the building, was the office of Director Daian Fortuner.
“I’m booored... I’m booored... And when you’re bored, you’re... booored! Yo-ho-ho and a yahoo!♪”
And inside, the genius scientist was singing and dancing the Bored Song and Dance that he had written, composed, and choreographed.
“What are you doing?!”
“Yipes!!”
Bureau Security Force Commander Sophia von Rundstadt—who was also Daian’s watchdog—was standing in the doorway, having opened the door without Daian noticing.
“Sophia, you scared me! When did you get here?!”
Sophia had taken Daian by surprise since she hadn’t kicked open the door and shouted “Major Sophia von Rundstadt!” as she usually did.
“You look... bored.”
