The commander of Miel’s orphanage was a beacon of kindness. He led the children, who were both foreigners and slow to run, even as soldiers from the front line were fleeing for their lives. But that kindness was the military police officer’s undoing.
They were in the plains of the Montizoto territory. With the retreat of the front lines happening faster than expected, the howitzers of the long-ranged Skorpion units sporadically reached as far as there. And then suddenly, the military police officer’s head—vanished.
“Huh?”
What did him in was the fragment of a shell, whose impact Miel and the other felt from afar. A 155 mm shell’s killing range was seventy-five meters—meaning that they almost certainly killed anyone within that range, but of course, its fragments could reach even farther than that while maintaining their force.
The officer’s head had been blown off instantly, reducing him to a corpse that crumpled limply to the ground. One of the girls in his group froze, splattered over with the mist of flesh, blood, and bone.
Miel and his group all stopped in their tracks as well, having lost the adult who’d been guiding them.
Abandoned on a battlefield where howitzer fire occasionally hit, left behind by the other refugees because they were slower, Miel and the other children were isolated and trapped.
✦ ✦ ✦
Since he’d lived there for a few months, it was only natural to call Theo over to confirm the floor plan for Ernst’s estate—which made him bitterly realize that they were planning on storming in. So Theo thought as he stood in the temporary command post set up in the base’s barracks module.
They intended to go in and swiftly eliminate the insurgents without regard for the hostage’s—for Ernst’s—life. The ones who’d called him, sectioned off part of the base, and were using the military’s barracks module were the army, not the police. Even if the military was in a state of emergency, with all the fronts in a state of crisis and the capital in a state of political upheaval, the army had moved in to resolve the incident at Sankt Jeder despite not having the authority to do so.
The command post was full of red-haired, red-eyed Pyropes, as were the troops and noncommissioned officers sectioning off the base, and their unit insignia was that of a burning leopard. This was one of the armored divisions stationed near the capital, the Flame Leopard unit. The Brantolote archduchy’s elite unit, made up solely of personnel affiliated with them.
They were intent on a nighttime operation, so as to hide the fact that they were effectively abandoning the president to his fate. They evacuated all the civilians from the high-end neighborhood and kept the media away from the area.
The maid, Teresa, had escaped soon after the insurgents occupied the place, thanks to Ernst. Theo became angry upon hearing an officer say that things would have been easier if it was the other way around, but he wasn’t allowed to so much as speak, much less share his opinion.
Once they were done with him, they drove him out of the command post like a dog. He stood in the hall, full of frustration and alarm. What was he going to do? He had to come up with something. He didn’t want to just stand by and let this happen, just idly let someone he knew die.
His phone vibrated. It was a message from his current superior officer—it said to put on his RAID Device and remain on standby.
“…Roger.”
He wondered what this was about, considering the state of the capital, as he put on the silver ring he’d brought just in case. Someone instantly Resonated with him and spoke, panting.
“Theo…! Oh, what a godsend! You’re near Ernst’s estate, are you not?!”
Frederica’s power to see the present state of those she knew. Just like she said, this was a godsend. Perfect timing!
“Frederica, good timing. Help me out!”
If they knew the state of the estate, where Ernst was, and what the Bleachers were doing, it might be possible to take control of the place without Ernst getting caught in the cross fire. Of course, he couldn’t risk having the Flame Leopards and, by extension, the Brantolote archduchy learn of Frederica, but he could just say this was thanks to Shin’s or His Highness’s ability.
He could feel Frederica nod enthusiastically through the Resonance.
“Yes, correct, we must help each other, Theo. We must go inside—”
But what she shouted next caught Theo entirely by surprise.
“—and stop Ernst!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Fighting as they retreated, all the units made their way to the gathering point in Nakiviki City. Each unit moved in order from the defensive line set up in the Lyskiv Forest northeast to the Kashine Foothills. After preparing their next defensive line in the abandoned city of Ruvokiv on the Kashine Foothills, Shin’s 1st Battalion finally moved out of the Rishikiv Woods with their covering fire.
They moved north, avoiding the highways full of infantry, and made way to the eastern city of Farekiv. But then the 4th and 5th Battalions deployed along the foothills disappeared along with the hills themselves.
Immediately following that, Shin looked up through his optical screen to the gray sky. Just as his radar systems detected something approaching, he felt the impact. A high-speed projectile with intense firepower.
“A Morpho?!”
“The Kampf Pfau…probably got destroyed.”
In order to destroy the Kampf Pfau in the back of the Federacy defensive line, the Morpho had moved to the very rear of the Legion’s 1st Echelon. There was no way Shin would be able to discern the moment a Morpho attacked with the wailings of countless Shepherds and Sheepdogs assaulting his senses.
Following that, more areas got bombarded—Farekiv City, where the 7th Battalion just arrived; once again in the Kashine Foothills; the Rishikiv Woods, which the 1st Battalion just left; and the highways the infantry marched on. As 800 mm shells rained down like divine thunder, the Legion armored unit charged at the 3rd and 4th Battalion in the Ruvokiv City defensive line while they were still rattled from the shock waves and fragments hitting them.
“Tch. 5th Battalion, Mitsuda is unresponsive. Taking command as vice captain!”
“4th Battalion, survivors are all prepared to attack. Fire once you have them in your sights!”
Covering fire launched from within the smoldering wreckage of the Kashine Foothills aimed at Ruvokiv City. Armored weapons fought while in motion, and that was the forte of the Reginleif, built for high-speed combat. They moved around rather than fortifying in one spot, so despite how heavy the impact on the area looked, they apparently weren’t damaged much.
“Michihi from the 3rd Battalion here. I’m unharmed—1st Battalion, keep up your retreat! We’ll support you until you’re done!”
“7th Platoon, likewise, we’ve got Farekiv City secured. Focus on building the def— Whoa!”
Another bombardment. These were long-range unguided missiles with low accuracy; meaning they hit both the key terrain and unrelated areas just the same, meaning the Reginleifs had nowhere to run. Between the shock waves and fragments, large amounts of sediment rained down from the collapsing hills, washing away and splitting up any units and squadrons unfortunate enough to get caught by them.
—They’re aiming at this escape route.
Shin narrowed his eyes. This retreat road stood out because of the countless infantry moving through it. There was no point in taking out the Legion’s forward observer units because they would get substituted by other Ameise, and there was a good chance a Rabe was observing this battle. It wouldn’t take long before the 2nd Echelon joined the fight. So before that happened—
“All units, prioritize disengaging from the bombardment zone. Make your way to—” He called up the map, looking for a place the evacuating troops wouldn’t choose. “North, to the Tohfar Mountains. Don’t deploy for an ambush and try to keep engaging any enemy armored units to a minimum.”
The armored units they were seeing now were just disposable pawns to keep the 1st Armored Division pinned down in the bombardment zone. So while they couldn’t altogether ignore them, they could use the Morpho’s own bombardment to beat them.
The staff officers commanding the 1st Armored Division made an addition, updating the map with several rendezvous points. They weren’t telling each battalion to gather there, but for each unit to prioritize evading enemy fire rather than focusing on moving as a platoon or battalion.
As he listened to First Lieutenant Canaan Nyuud and the Longbow squadron reply over the staff officers’ voices, Shin closed his eyes for a moment. The retreating 2nd to 4th Armored Divisions were spread out between the escape route along the Blanc Rose combat territory to Roitich City—in other words, it was probably that they’d also been hit by the Morpho bombardment. The Kampf Pfaus had likely been eliminated, and all the Morpho units that appeared fired all over the Harutari strip.
“Shit…”
White snow began to flutter down from the dull-colored sky.