by SOW
“I don’t know.”
Lud had no answer to Charlotte’s worried question. She believed Blitzdonner’s promise that he would return to her someday, so she would not give up on him. However, the situation was more complicated.
Blitzdonner had suddenly disappeared just before Lud had become a Hunter Unit pilot. He hadn’t necessarily been killed. Officially, he was missing. He had abandoned his beloved Hunter Unit during a battle, and disappeared somewhere. According to various theories, he had defected to another country or had been purged, but none of those explanations were convincing.
Usually when a pilot went missing, the battleground would be searched, and if the pilot’s survival couldn’t be confirmed after six months, the determination was that the pilot was killed in action. But the death of Blitzdonner, the best of Wiltia’s ace pilots, would have a negative effect on the whole armed forces, so he was, to this day, considered missing.
“Oh...”
Charlotte looked dark at this answer, but it wasn’t enough for her to embrace disappointment or sink into despair.
It was uncertain whether Blitzdonner was alive or dead. However, one thing was certain. Charlotte and Jacob were both significant family to Blitzdonner.
“For the sake of a fellow former Hunter Unit pilot, I must save Jacob.”
Lud repeated his decision.
“But where did they take him? Since they summoned Shylock, it must be nearby, but we have no idea where!”
“Since they’re in the military, it could be an army base in the area, but I doubt their commander would allow such a thing. Hmm...”
As Lud pondered, he heard a cry that seemed to say, “Did you forget about me?!”
“Meow!”
It was Ellis, the white cat that Tockerbrot kept as a pet.
“Oh, Ellis... You’re safe, too!”
“Meow!”
Ellis issued a sound as if making some point and pressed against Lud’s leg.
“What’s this silly cat doing? Wait a bit for your food! We don’t have time for— Huh?”
Sven scolded the cat but then stopped when she saw the cat’s neck.
“What is that?”
Sven had made Ellis a red collar so no one would think the cat was homeless. A piece of paper was stuck in the collar.
“It says, ‘Father and son. Baelz Mine. Guards.’”
Sven raised her voice in surprise after reading the message. The handwriting was rough, as if dashed off in a hurry. There were also incomprehensible lines of numbers and letters.
“Does father and son mean Shylock and Jacob? And they’re at Baelz Mine? And the culprits are... the Schutzstaffel?”
Someone had provided Lud and the others with Jacob and Shylock’s whereabouts. Was someone with different goals a part of this? Or was this some kind of trap? The different possibilities further confused the situation.
“Master, we gotta go to Baelz Mine!”
Sven appeared to have no doubts as she urged Lud, but he saw her give Charlotte a serious look.
“Understood!”
Lud judged that it was better not to ask for a more detailed explanation and agreed.
The second of the two Baelz mines was where there had once been fighting against Augustan special forces. It was here that Shylock came after receiving threats from First Lieutenant Hildegard of the Schutzstaffel. And, he had immediately fallen prisoner.
“What are you doing?! I came, so release the boy!!”
Shylock protested, but Hildegard silenced him by wielding her gunstock like a hammer and hitting him in the face.
“Shut up, Degas scum! Don’t get above yourself!”
Hildegard then ordered Vanessa to take Shylock to a nearby miners shelter.
“First Lieutenant, isn’t our mission over?”
It was the masked corporal who hesitantly inquired.
The Schutzstaffel’s objective was the capture of Shylock. In the royal capital of Berun, the Schutzstaffel would have to worry about people seeing any attempt to capture Shylock, and his guard would have been tighter. Shylock’s trip to inspect the annexed area of Pelfe had provided a unique opportunity.
“We have successfully captured Shylock, and his grandson too. Now Shylock has to obey us. We can make him promise to finance the Schutzstaffel rather than the regular military.”
Their methods may have been violent, but once a contract was concluded, they would win. The Schutzstaffel was attempting to control the nation. It had a strong influence over judicial systems, so Shylock wouldn’t be able to get out of it even if he objected later.
“What’s your point, Corporal? You’re getting on my nerves.”
“Let’s go back. We have done our duty.”
When the corporal said this, Hildegard glared at him with hatred.
Right now, there were ten Schutzstaffel soldiers present, in addition to Vanessa and the corporal, who were adjutants to Hildegard. They had requisitioned materials and facilities from a nearby base, but they hadn’t borrowed soldiers. If the commanding officer, Colonel Bardenbelger, learned of the Schutzstaffel organizing a kidnapping for ransom, he wasn’t likely to remain silent.
“If Marshal Elvin learns of this mission, he may dispatch a punitive force on grounds that the Schutzstaffel has smeared the name of the monarch.”
“That is impossible. As soon as that half-breed from the common folk ordered it, he would put himself in danger. The royal capital, where he is situated, is under the Schutzstaffel’s control.”
“But Pelfe, where we are at the moment, is under the regular army’s control!”
Their mission was complete, so staying here any longer only increased the danger. It would only be right for the commander to order an immediate withdrawal. Nonetheless, Hildegard kept the soldiers on standby, as if she were waiting for something.
“Be quiet! Do not speak!”
“Gagh!”
Hildegard’s kick sank into the corporal’s belly.
“I have satisfied my orders, but only boring generals merely obey orders. Who do you think I am?! I’m the next head of the illustrious Hessen family! Hildegard von Hessen, who will someday be the right hand of the lord lieutenant general and carry the Schutzstaffel!”
Again, Hildegard kicked the corporal, who hunched, gripping his belly.
“What are you... trying to do?”
“I’m going wolf hunting! I’m going to present to the lieutenant general the head of a silver-coated wolf!”
As she grinned, her eyes glowed with insanity.
“The Hessen family... It is a well-known family. They contributed to the building of Wiltia, and it is a military family of ancient and honorable origin!”
Shylock mumbled as they yanked him along.
“Oh... how knowledgeable you are!”
This impressed Vanessa, whose smile betrayed a subtle sneer.
“I had to memorize the family trees of nobility for my job.”
“But it can’t be very useful to remember the names of fallen nobles, can it?”
The members of the first generation of the Hessen family had been masters of the pike known as the Tigers. Generation after generation, the family had produced famous soldiers. But that was a story of the past.
Modern warfare, in which soldiers with rifles and tanks and fighter planes comprised the main forces, provided little opportunity for traditional warriors.
The new form of war required someone like Elvin, who was capable of advanced information processing and effective administration. Nonetheless, the Hessens still chased acclaim as traditional warriors because that was all they had left. As a result, their name had swiftly fallen. They found it necessary to survive by selling ancestral lands and assets, but in the end, all they had left was their pride.
“That’s no way to talk to your superior officer!”
“It can’t be helped. It’s the truth.”
Vanessa’s smiling face didn’t hold the slightest respect for Hildegard.
With people like this
around, no wonder she went crazy...
Her environment had nurtured her elitism and conceit.
“Well, you can continue this conversation with your grandson.”
After entering the shelter, she pushed Shylock to the storehouse in the back. The door was shut and locked with a click.
“Who’s there?”
Jacob’s voice emerged from the dim light inside the storehouse.
“Jacob? Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
“They kicked me, but it’s nothing serious. I cut the inside of my mouth, though.”
Faint moonlight was shining through a small window with iron bars. It was impossible for Shylock to check his own grandson’s injuries.
“Who are they? Soldiers?”
“No. They’re called the Schutzstaffel. They’re slightly different from other soldiers.”
While Shylock was carefully choosing his words, not knowing how to explain, Jacob answered with a sigh.
“Never mind. I don’t care who they are. At least there’s no mistake about you being the cause.”
“That’s... I’m sorry.”
Many complicated issues were involved, but Shylock would have to say no if asked whether this would have happened to Jacob if the boy hadn’t been his grandson.
“Well, what do you want me to do?”
Jacob mumbled softly.
“Your son ran away... And in place of my father, you want me to inherit your company?! Give me a break! You couldn’t succeed with your son, so you want a do-over with your grandson?! Who do you think you are?!”
Shylock ignored what others wanted and forced his affairs on them as if he were assembling people like parts. No matter how much he smiled or how much money he offered, nothing was more insulting to other people.
“That’s why your son ran away from you! You didn’t change, and now you’re trying it on me, his son! Well, I won’t stand for it!”
“Hold on, Jacob... Please, hear what I have to say.”
“No!”
The dangerous situation had put Jacob even more on edge. He was attacking Shylock as the cause of all the recent disastrous events.
“Please!”
Shylock begged Jacob again. He bowed on his knees, until his forehead touched the floor.
“What are you...”
Shylock’s behavior stopped Jacob from speaking further.
Greedy Shylock... Man-Eating Shylock... This man’s name had spread throughout the economic world—in Wiltia and beyond—and now he was begging for something from his young grandson.
“What I want... is for you to inherit Billions Trading, which I built.”
“I knew it!”
“But...”
Before Jacob could raise his voice in accusation again, Shylock delivered his true desire.
“But before that, I want you to kill me.”
“What...?”
Shylock’s words silenced Jacob.
Meanwhile, Lud and Sven arrived at Baelz Mine, and proceeded cautiously.
“I wasn’t expecting to come back here like this...”
The second mine was still half-closed. The reason was unclear but apparently because of something located deep in the tunnels.
“This is the perfect place for ne’er-do-wells to hide... Be very careful, Master.”
“Yes, I know. Anyway, it’s really dark here.”
Right before dawn was the darkest time of the day, and this was an unused mine. However, they couldn’t use lights without revealing their presence. Lud was trained and somewhat experienced with night maneuvers.
“Master... Um, if you wish, I could hold your hand?”
Sven could sense light invisible to the human eye. This wasn’t even what she would consider dark.
“Oh, maybe that’s a good idea.”
But just as Lud reached out to her, moonlight shone through the clouds.
Why now?!
Sven was about to rant against the moon floating in the sky when a much bigger light suddenly appeared.
“What’s that?”
It was a military searchlight, but it was nothing like the light from the watchtowers on a military base. It was the light used for night maneuvers that was typically attached to the shoulders of a very particular weapon.
“Thank you for coming, Colonel Lud Langart. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am First Lieutenant Hildegard von Hessen.”
An Iron Giant, the driving force of Wiltia’s victory, was before them and Hildegard was inside.
“A... Hunter Unit!?”
L-Arms, Type Gigantes. It was the most recent model owned by the Wiltian military, model number LS-9, Teepneuen.
“And now... it’s wolf-hunting time!”
She spoke to Lud and Sven through the Teepneuen’s external speakers. Inside the cockpit, Hildegard was feeling a heady sense of exhilaration.
“Bring it on, Silver Wolf! Let’s go all out with a one-on-one fight! And if you don’t like the odds, you can ask that girl next to you to lend a hand! Because I’m that magnanimous!”
She was delighted at the prospect of using devastating power to smash her enemies.
“What the heck? We don’t stand a chance like this!”
Sven possessed more power than a human being. Even the mechanical soldiers of Greyten, modified so that 90 percent of their bodies were replaced with machines, weren’t strong enough to destroy her. However, those opponents were at least her size. Her power couldn’t defeat this new, improved Hunter Unit, which was equipped with the latest technological advancements.
“There’s nothing to do but run!”
Even worse, Lud was a human being. He was trained in martial arts, but he could not fight back against this.
“Ah ha ha ha! Are you fleeing? Okay! Let’s play tag! I’ll count to a hundred, so run!”
They had come to the mine to rescue Jacob, but Lud and Sven now had no choice but to run for their lives. Hildegard laughed as if she found endless amusement in their predicament.
“What should we do, Master?! If this keeps up...”
Sven was thinking as she ran. She racked her cognitive functions desperately, calculating from every angle, to search for a way to turn the situation to their advantage.
Nope! Our best chance would be for lightning to strike and fry all electrical devices!
The cruel reality was that they needed a hundred miracles for even a chance of winning, given the difference in combat capability between a Hunter Unit and an unarmed human being.
Only a Hunter Unit can defeat a Hunter Unit. I know that better than anyone...
Sven found herself wishing that she could turn back into what she used to be, if only for a moment. She couldn’t believe the day had come when she actually wished to be a machine again, after gaining a human body of her own will. Sven ground her teeth in frustration as she heard Hildegard counting over the speakers.
“... 93... 94...”
It was impossible to escape a Hunter Unit’s range in two minutes.
Even if they made it as far as a kilometer away, that was no distance for the legs of a giant.
If we had a Hunter Unit, even an older model, Master would never lose to this creep!
She had a sudden idea.
“Of course! There is one!”
A few days ago, when Lud returned from a delivery to the mine, he told her about his chat with the head miner, Laurel. If they could make use of that...
“Master! Let’s go to the first mine!”
She tugged Lud’s hand and picked up the pace.
Aw, man... I always dreamed of a stroll holding his hand, but this isn’t what I had in mind!
Sven fervently cursed the deity of fate who wouldn’t just let her be a girl in love.
Chapter 7: One Layer
“What do you mean that you want me to kill you?”
Shylock and Jacob were talking inside the storehouse, and Jacob was shocked to hear his grandfather’s true thoughts.
“This involves you,
too. I carry blood from the Degas Clan. Have you ever heard of them?”
“I think that was a desert tribe, wasn’t it?”
Long ago, there was the European Empire, for which the continent was named, and the Degas Clan had been a nomadic race that lived in the remote desert.
“I guess that’s the only way to describe them.”
They were called the Degas Clan, but they hadn’t displayed any particular ethnic characteristics. Anyone born to the Degas was considered part of the clan, but on the continent of Europea, the Degas Clan became the target of contempt.
“Apparently, about one thousand years ago, the ancestors of the Degas were from a nation that the European Empire had defeated, and then confined to the desert. It’s a strange story from a millennium ago, and there aren’t many records about the empire.”
People will often find reasons to scorn others, even with no basis.
People threw rocks at the Degas, calling them the “failed tribe” and “descendants of war criminals.”
Since they didn’t have their own territory, they drifted around the world, but wherever they went, they were treated as an inferior caste.
“My great-grandfather put roots down in Wiltia. He was your great-great-great-grandfather. Ha! I guess you could say he was your ancestor! But...”
After the Degas were settled in Wiltia for over a hundred years and had become naturalized, obtained citizenship, paid taxes, and fulfilled their obligations, people still treated them like outsiders. Shylock wanted Jacob to understand his family background, painful as it was.
“It was terrible. When I was a child, people threw rocks at me. And if something went missing in the neighborhood, the police would come to my house before searching anywhere else.”
The excuse for discrimination against the Degas may go back one thousand years, but the true reason is something much darker. As the Degas Clan received unkind treatment everywhere, the connections among its members grew stronger, and they overcame many hardships.
As a result, over a long period of time, the Degas established an extensive tribal network across borders and spanning the continent. And as it progressed with the times, their network became a formidable weapon in business and finance. People looked down on the Degas as an inferior caste, but some among them grew even wealthier than the nobility.
