The Republic citizens who’d fled to the Federacy were scattered around several evacuated towns in the western-frontier production territory of Monitozoto, with their government functions being stationed in the wintry health resort of Laka Mifaka.
A large hotel in the city center was devoted to the government building, while the remaining hotels and the villas in its suburbs were allotted to Celena high officials and former nobles. Despite them being refugees who’d evacuated here, they lived in high-class residences. However, since the people related to the wiretaps were arrested, a strange tension hung over the area. The Federacy didn’t arrest just the low-ranking military officials operating the wiretaps, but also the high officials who’d given them the order to do so, as well. Whenever someone else was discovered to be related to the matter, the Federacy military police would show up to arrest them, too, and so the upper classes weren’t able to enjoy their luxurious lives.
The leader of the Bleachers, Primevére, was one person who was very much on tenterhooks over the possibility of the military police coming for her. She wasn’t involved with the wiretaps, but the lieutenant colonel who was arrested was a comrade of hers. Since she’d lost much of her influence, she was given a relatively small villa, and eventually, the military police would likely come to question her, too.
“…What?”
But that day, Primevére went pale for a reason entirely unrelated to the military police. The Federacy’s news programs reached Laka Mifaka as well. One of her colleagues saw the program and called her attention to it—a mugshot of an escaped Eighty-Six girl.
“The Actaeon survived…and escaped…?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Among the Federacy army, many soldiers only received minimal education and didn’t have detailed information about the nature of nuclear weapons. The vague news of the commotion in the second northern front’s 37th Armored Division was received by the rest of the northern front and the other fronts as well with a degree of misunderstanding.
A dangerous nuclear weapon nearly destroyed the second northern front, and it was the Strike Package that stopped it from happening. Or the Fleet Countries’ people summoned a monster called a leviathan that protected the second northern front from the nuclear weapon. Or nuclear weapons could destroy the Legion, but traitors tried to hide it. Or the Federacy was meant to win using this powerful superweapon called a nuke, but the leviathans got in the way. Or the traitors tried to cooperate with the Legion with the nuclear weapons, only to be stopped by the Strike Package.
Their stories didn’t make it clear what the Strike Package even was anymore, but they did know it was an elite unit of amazing Eighty-Six heroes. And so the soldiers continued embellishing and exaggerating their stories until what they said didn’t resemble the truth at all.
✦ ✦ ✦
“—If they’re supposed to be heroes.”
Looking at the mire that spread on the other side of the Roginia line’s currents, Vyov Katou, an armored infantryman, whispered in shocked amazement. Despite having fallen back, the second northern front’s battlefield was still within the confines of the combat territories. Though many of its soldiers and field officers were former citizens of those territories, they weren’t from here specifically. Even so, the outcome the Strike Package brought to this place came as a terrible shock for the soldiers.
There was no flour to be grown in this sea of mud. No sheep or cows or pigs to herd here.
Many of the territories’ people were farmers. To them, the sight of the water and mud destroying this agricultural land and bringing it to a state that would take a long time to repair struck them as terribly cruel.
Vyov gritted his teeth. This wasn’t a solution. This wasn’t a success, or a victory. This wasn’t the future or salvation he was looking forward to!
“What the hell is the Strike Package doing…?”
They were heroes. Elites. Weren’t they supposed to save Vyov and the second northern front?!
“But you didn’t do anything! Aren’t heroes supposed to save everyone?! You good-for-nothings!”
✦ ✦ ✦
It was sudden.
The faces of the boys who died before his eyes, young men just slightly older than him, their enraged expressions, and the sound of shouting wafted up in his mind like soap bubbles. It made Shin’s breath catch in his throat.
The memory resurfaced, still fresh in his mind. An outrageous and yet terribly heartfelt shout.
It was the memory of the moment when those young men were torn to bits by gunfire.
They all had the same faces. Even though they all should have looked different from one another, when they completely discarded their individuality and moved in perfect tandem, when they spoke the same words, had the same thoughts, and were dyed in the same emotions—their faces all became the same to him.
It was a terrifying moment. People who couldn’t become masters of their own fate, people who harbored no fear whatsoever. Even people as powerless as that could still blame others.
I can’t. I won’t decide. They would say that and still try to place blame. They could still step over someone else.
They were different from the Eighty-Six who’d been made into Shepherds. People who, even through hatred, could not achieve anything. And for some reason, it terrified Shin.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sensing Shin sink into thought, Lena blinked once.
“Shin? Is something wrong?”
“Huh?”
“Something upset you just now.”
“Oh…” After a moment’s thought, Shin shook his head. “No, don’t worry about it. I don’t quite understand it yet myself.”
“Well, if you say so…”
What’s wrong? As that thought lingered in her mind, Lena returned to the topic at hand. She was curious about that anxious, almost fearful silence, but if Shin himself didn’t fully understand it, there wasn’t much point in pressing him on it. She did know that, as he was now, Shin wouldn’t simply look away from a problem or try to bottle it up and take it solely upon himself.
“Halloween. I’m disappointed I can’t be there this year, but next year, I’ll definitely participate. And I want you to participate with me.”
“Well…I don’t mind, but this year, it’s mostly people wearing sheets to play around as ghosts, so a lot of people want to go all out next year.”
In place of a farewell party, the second northern front threw a slightly delayed Halloween party, but since it was difficult for the supply line to provide an entire brigade’s worth of costumes given the war situation, everyone had to improvise using their personal clothes and whatever materials they had handy. For the most part, that meant sheet ghosts, drawing stitch marks on their faces, using handkerchiefs to make werewolf ears, or putting on thick makeup to look like witches.
Lena paused to think. Sheet ghosts were easy enough to make, but they couldn’t very well cut holes in the sheets.
“Could they see what was in front of them with those sheets on?”
“Apparently not. Most of them decided to change classes to witches, werewolves, or monsters.”
One example that stood out for how simple it was: A few of the Orienta members, Michihi included, put paper talismans on their foreheads to pass off as Far Eastern ghosts—a pretty successful idea. Marcel also got a lot of credit for writing the word ghost on his forehead and walking around with it with a straight face.
“What did you dress up as, Shin?”
“…I put an eyepatch over one of my eyes, and they had me hold a mop, saying it was a spear.”
Like a chief deity and god of death from a certain mythology, apparently.
“That’s cool!”
“Rito, who came up with it, laughed, and Raiden, Anju, and Kurena all snickered at me, too… Rito had a pumpkin drawn on his face, and Raiden wore grease camouflage paint to look like a zombie. Anju used blue makeup to look like a snow queen, and Kurena put on red lipstick to look like a vampire princess. It felt unfair that they laughed at me.”
Shin grumbled tiredly. Apparently, he didn’t appreciate it.
“Yes, but I can understand wanting to take that chance to be cute.”
“What would you wear, Lena? Like, for next year.”
Lena paused and considered this. Being a sheet ghost didn’t seem too appealing.
“…How about that magical girl Frederica likes?”
“Does that count? That’s not really a monster, it’s just a costume.”
“I think it counts as a witch.”
“Isn’t it more of a fairy…?”
Lena thought it didn’t really matter. More crucially—
“How about you dress up as a werewolf next year? With well-made ears, not handkerchiefs.”
“Shouldn’t that be Raiden? He’s the one piloting Wehrwolf.”
“But I want to see you with puppy ears, so I can rub your ears. And a tail, too!”
She then concluded that black cat ears with a tail like TP’s would work as well, and if Raiden being a werewolf was decided, they could put fox ears and a tail on Theo. That way, she’d be able to pat everyone.
Lena’s excited suggestion, however, only resulted in a very disgruntled voice from Shin.
“Ugh…”
Hearing Shin heave an exasperated groan, unlike anything she’d ever heard him make in the Eighty-Sixth Sector, Lena burst into laughter.