The Federacy government didn’t stop the free press. Calls demanding the Actaeon be hunted down were projected freely over the airwaves, reaching all over the Federacy. Even to the front lines, where the soldiers originally there mingled with troops from the frontier areas.
Isolate the frontier evacuees who come from areas infested with the new self-propelled-mine virus. Don’t let the useless serfs, who only eat away at our food, threaten the people’s safety anymore.
The soldiers from the capital area were incensed. They were out here, fighting and putting their lives on the line, while the ingrateful serfs threatened their families back home.
The soldiers from the frontier areas were incensed… They were out here, fighting and putting their lives on the line, while the invaders in the capital tried to expel their families.
And despite all that, they—we still have to fight to protect the serfs, the invaders.
✦ ✦ ✦
Ever since the tragedy in the market, Shin had been hearing of increasingly worrying events, both on the front lines and on the home front. This made him all the more annoyed that he couldn’t demand Lena’s release.
The Federacy military was fracturing from internal discord. The split and enmity didn’t target just the Republic people, but everyone from every direction. And if that enmity was to become violence—like, for instance, Lena getting hurt by the effects of it—the Federacy military as a whole would go out of control and lose all its order and integrity as an organization.
So to maintain the Federacy military’s structure as an army and a fighting force, they couldn’t return Lena to the front lines.
He wanted to end the war with her. But if Operation Overlord was to be carried out for certain, they couldn’t afford to let the Federacy’s military fall apart. And considering her safety, it was better to have her stay on the home front instead of sending her to the front lines, where it wasn’t unthinkable for one of their own soldiers to aim a gun at her for being from the Republic.
But even knowing this, Shin couldn’t restrain his anger. After all, this was being done against her will, her freedom was being infringed upon, and he could only idly look on. Lena wasn’t the kind of person to want to be one-sidedly protected, and he didn’t want to be deprived of her presence this way, either.
If it wasn’t for his duties as commander—if him slipping away wouldn’t affect the command and morale of the Strike Package as a whole—he’d have rushed over to take her back as soon as possible… This sense of responsibility weighing on him so heavily annoyed him the most. The fact that he had to act the part of the responsible, understanding adult and couldn’t go help her made him outraged with himself.
And on top of all that, he was angered that the only thing he could do was sit there and deal with his conflicted emotions.
“Dammit…!”
✦ ✦ ✦
At this point, the reporting on the Actaeon was no different from the kind of news they saw in the Republic back in the day, when the Eighty-Six were blamed, excluded, and sent to the internment camps.
This scared Dustin.
If every show on the news and every civilian regarded them as enemies, it seemed increasingly likely the Federacy wouldn’t try to save Citri and the others; instead, they would actually hunt them down and kill them. They would do what the Republic did: deem them as criminals and cattle, then murder them all.
With that thought in mind, he pored over a map of the battlefield, examining the route Yuuto had told him. Niva Nova to Noidafune, then Niantemis, and then to the Republic territory of Neunarkis.
“…Ha.”
A smile of self-derision spread over his injured, scratched lips. The estimated path Yuuto had told him… He couldn’t make sense of it.
From the Vesa territory to the combat territory of Niva Nova. Then south to the combat territory of Noidafune, then west to the combat territory of Niantemis, and further west from there to their destination at Neunarkis.
Dustin and Amari would have to slip through both opposing armies to get there. It was doubtful they’d arrive on schedule, but Amari did tell him the waypoint they were headed for. But still, he couldn’t see the route they’d take to get there. Even accounting for any detours available along that route, and the predicted positions of the Legion patrol units, which they would have to sneak past.
With just those instructions, Dustin couldn’t meet them. He didn’t have the navigation skills required to guess Yuuto’s route.
“Ha-ha, right… All I can do is follow the path he gave me. Even if she asks me to come help her, I can’t find my way…”
—How long will this continue?
Just shouting those words wasn’t enough. It was never enough, but all he did was shout them. He did nothing else, simply blaming everyone else. He was all talk and incapable of action.
He lacked the means to reach her, the skill to survive the trip. And even if he did find them, how was he going to save her? Dustin didn’t have the medical knowledge to extract the Dear cells.
—How long will this continue? How long will I stay like this? So powerless? So blind to how powerless I am? Blind to how I think like I’m doing something, but I haven’t achieved anything?
He clenched his hands, the sound of the map crumpling in his grip resonating in his ears like mocking laughter.
✦ ✦ ✦
As she stood in the dark, empty meeting room, looking at his back—which was hunched over in what appeared to be silent wailing—Anju finally made up her mind.
“…Dustin.”
Dustin wouldn’t return alive on his own. Then she’d simply have to take him along with her. To guide and protect him as they headed to the place he sought, where his childhood friend was waiting. With her skills cultivated through her many years as a Processor, Anju could do it.
Cheat for me. Don’t die.
Those words were poison for Dustin. Those words bound him like a curse, and as the one who put that curse on him with the face of love, Anju knew it was up to her to lift that curse.
“Dustin, listen…I’ll come with you. I’ll guide you there.”
They’d be treated as deserters, but she didn’t mind. It wouldn’t cause their comrades much trouble, either. She felt bad for Shin, who was torn between his feelings for Lena and his duties as commander, but in the end, she was just one platoon’s captain. Her leaving wouldn’t impact the entirety of the Strike Package’s morale and fighting potential as much as his would.
She knew it. This was cheating. And not something as harmless as Dustin’s modest, all too pure wish—but genuinely unfair cheating. It was betrayal, the kind there could be no going back from. But if nothing else, this would protect Dustin’s heart.
“We can still make it, I’m sure. If we go there together now…let’s go save her.”
Dustin didn’t turn to face her for one long moment. But then he turned his cold, argent eyes to look at her.
✦ ✦ ✦
—Together. Let’s go save her.
You told me…to not die. To return alive, even if I have to cheat to do it… You put the curse on me, ordering me to abandon Citri. And yet…
“You’re telling me that? This has nothing to do with you, Anju.”
Yes, if he accepted Anju’s help, he’d probably get to Citri in time. An Eighty-Six Name Bearer, and one of the most veteran of them all, could slip through the Legion forces and reach Citri’s whereabouts.
Unlike Dustin, she could do that.
Unlike Dustin, she was strong.
And that was why this had nothing to do with her. His weakness, his frustration at how powerless he was, was something Anju was utterly detached from. And so if nothing else, her words—I’ll guide you there—were like her holding his weakness and sloth up for display. He didn’t want her to direct those words at him.
“I’m tired of having the witch’s curse on me… Just leave me alone.”
And only once he said that, he finally realized it. Only when he heard the sharp intake of breath behind him did the meaning of what he just said register in his mind. What letting his emotion and anger getting the better of him made him say.
He hurriedly spun around, only to find Anju had turned her back and run off. The sight of her long bluish-silver hair trailing behind her like an afterimage lingered in his eyes. And for this reason, Dustin couldn’t see what expression she made in that moment.
He could only stand stock-still until Frederica hurried in to take Anju’s place—having “seen” this, or perhaps simply realizing something was wrong—and angrily and aggressively called him a fool.