Yuuto brought back all sorts of foodstuffs, as well as a rechargeable radio he’d acquired ahead of time. He bought it to stay up to date on the state of the war, but thanks to that, everyone was able to listen to song programs and drama readings when they took breaks from their long trek on foot.
Listening to the radio while Yuuto went out at mornings to get food from nearby towns was a small, simple pleasure for Citri. Last night, they slept in an old, unused tunnel. It was off the road, meaning people weren’t going to pass by even during the day, and so they were able to stay put even after the break of dawn. Imeno, who was chubby and always reminded Citri of a chiffon cake, leaned in and asked a question of Ran, who was more serious and interested in the responsibility of watching over the radio in the mornings.
“Say, Ran, can’t we change to the drama reading like always?”
Ran agreed and reached out to change the station. Right then, the news broadcast that was playing at the time moved to the next topic.
And hearing the broadcaster’s words, Ran, Imeno, and Citri all froze. Because what they just heard was the news they feared most.
“An explosion…incident…”
“…In Garenike City.”
“Isn’t that…near the house that took Saya in…?”
Saya, one of their friends from the laboratory—one of the Actaeon. The last one they’d called to join them on this journey, who didn’t join them in the end.
Citri covered her face in grief. She’d called her so this wouldn’t happen. She knew Saya, out of everyone, didn’t want this to happen.
“We didn’t make it…!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You’re new around these parts, boy. Must be one of the evacuees from the territories, yes? You sure bought a lot.”
“Yeah, my little sisters are tired and cold, but they get hungry just the same, so I have to do the shopping.”
“Ah-ha-ha, being the big brother of the family must be rough. Gotta take care of your kid sisters, though, eh?”
The lady running the fried-bread stall didn’t doubt Yuuto’s made-up story, and he stuffed some of her freshly baked bread into his rucksack. Some had sea trout and mushrooms in cream, while others had sugared fruit. Feeling their heat through the bag, he made his way back to the tunnel on the city outskirts where Citri and the rest were waiting.
Though his steps were fast, he didn’t walk so quickly so as to arouse suspicion. The abandoned tunnel was far enough that people wouldn’t normally approach it. But he wanted to deliver the buns while they were hot, both because he didn’t want to waste the stall lady’s goodwill and because keeping everyone’s stamina up in the cold weather was the natural course of action.
And besides any common sense during winter, Citri and the girls were especially thankful when he brought back hot food, and it put him in a very…strange mood. Warm, plain food from a stall and heated-up canned meals made them incredibly grateful—somehow, despite sleeping outdoors for so long, no one in Citri’s group knew how to start a campfire.
…They were different. The wiretap children were all different from Yuuto and the other Eighty-Six, who were tempered on the battlefield. Unlike them, who survived by stepping over the corpses of their comrades, their hands were unsullied by blood and death.
“…Mm.”
He stopped in his tracks, hearing the news broadcast from a radio in the street. An explosion in a city in the capital’s area. What made him frown wasn’t the incident in and of itself. Citri had already told them there were more Actaeon than the seven who set out on this journey. And of the many Actaeon, not all of them necessarily met their ends in secret—like Totori, who had sneaked away in secret the other day, did.
It was possible one of them could end up dying in front of people—and at worst, those people could be caught up in their fate. This was something Citri and the girls never said out loud, but Yuuto suspected as much. This was why he’d entrusted Amari with reporting the situation to the Federacy military.
What drew his suspicion were the reporter’s words: unexplained explosion. He had Amari report the Actaeon to the army, so this shouldn’t have been “unexplained,” like no one knew anything about the Actaeon.
“Did they not get the report? Did anything happen to Amari—?”
No.
“—They’re doubting my words.”
He may not have fled from the front lines, but going missing without approval would be considered desertion. And they wouldn’t take a renegade soldier’s testimony seriously.
…It was all for nothing.
Shaking his head once, Yuuto walked away.
✦ ✦ ✦
“—One of the eastern countries must have fallen, then.”
In addition to the conclusion and advice about the command base, Shin informed Joschka about the increase in Legion numbers on the western front. Joschka grumbled over the Resonance.
“The pressure on the western front as well as the adjacent fourth southern and fourth northern fronts has increased. Likewise to the nearby first northern and southern fronts. Legion attacks on the second and third northern and southern fronts are getting more frequent, too. We can probably assume they sent any remaining forces there as reinforcements.”
Shin narrowed his eyes. Things were worse than expected. In the Republic, his ability could extend as far as the former Imperial territories, but it wasn’t vast enough to cover the entire land surface of the largest nation on the continent. He did expect the enemy’s numbers would grow on one or two of the other fronts, though.
Joschka growled in a troubled manner. “We really have to move up the operation, no matter how difficult it might be. At the rate the Legion are going, we won’t have four months of time to spare.”
If any of the surviving human nations were to fall, the Legion forces fighting that nation would join the fight against other fronts. And if that country was already stretched to its limit, the reinforcements would end up pushing them over the edge, destroying that next country and leaving the remaining Legion forces free to take to another battlefield. If that cycle were to repeat enough times, the Federacy’s fronts would collapse. And even if not, they wouldn’t have available forces to send for Operation Overlord, leading to its defeat.
“We’ll have to go for conscription after all.”
“Maybe, as a desperate measure. We wouldn’t want to end up scraping the bottom of the barrel, but it will at least give us the numbers to make up for the armored units we don’t have during the operation.”
Scraping the bottom of the barrel—in other words, soldiers without stamina or talent, who weren’t counted on to complete any operations. They were expendable troops who could only be expected to stand up straight, walk, and maybe squeeze the trigger a few times.
Still, with enough numbers, they’d make for a fighting force. A bullet’s efficacy wasn’t influenced by morale or skill, and having enough people shooting could even compensate for low accuracy. Expendable soldiers also didn’t require any selection processes, and high numbers meant there was no need to spend time training them, either…but of course, anyone sent out to fight was expected to die.
It would mean that even if the Federacy invoked a draft only for the duration of Operation Overlord, they would have to expect vast casualties.
“So your extra information about the base is appreciated. Oh, and ask the prince if he can provide us with some Sirins. We’d like to send them on recon runs around the base.”
“I’ll let him know.”
“…Between this and tracking the enemy’s movements, I’m sorry I have to ask you for so many errands.”
Shin made to respond but was briefly distracted by a memory. The one who’d call the final shots on Operation Overlord wasn’t Joschka but someone much higher, and yet…
“That’s fine by me, so long as we get to keep custody of her for the duration of the operation.”
He sensed the suggestive smile behind Joschka’s reply. “I don’t mind personally, but…she better not mysteriously disappear once it’s all over. The battlefield’s a chaotic place, so if she happens to go missing, we can’t go looking for her.”
Shin keenly picked up on the implication he made. If she went missing during combat, she wouldn’t be pursued anymore… No. They wouldn’t let her be pursued anymore. If nothing else, the only value Joschka—or rather, Marquess Maika’s house—had for Frederica was as a tool to put a stop to the Legion War, and they had no interest in giving the Brantolote archduchy any further authority.
“Of course. And if she were to die in battle, that would just cause irreversible damage.”
“That would be the worst. I know one mean, screeching auntie who’d cry nonstop if that happened. So you better be careful, Big Brother.”
Be very careful and prepare thoroughly, so that Archduchess Brantolote won’t see through your plan—you need to fake a clear, undoubtable death for her. Even burning her unit would leave behind a corpse, so better to have a tank shell blow it to bits.
Shin thought back to the many terrible sorts of deaths he’d seen in the Eighty-Sixth Sector as Joschka brought up a question.
“Oh, and while we’re on the topic of running errands, I have one more thing to ask. There haven’t been any Legion that sneaked into Sankt Jeder’s surroundings, be it self-propelled mines or anything bigger, right?”