“Director Daian, will you be all right?” Lud asked as he kept an eye on the crimson duo’s fight.
Lud knew Daian was a genius, but the man’s combat ability was practically nonexistent.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get by. You should get going!” As he spoke, Daian handed him a bundle of papers. “This is...!”
It was a sketch of the Penmunde test site’s layout. There was a circle around one area.
“That seems to be where Meitzer is. Go quickly.”
It was impossible to understand what Daian was after. He didn’t act like an ally, but he had taken care of everything up to this moment.
“After all, if something happened to you, Sophia would be very sad.” Daian sighed as if this was regretful.
“Director, I’ll pay you back someday!”
“Yes, I’ll hold you to that.”
Lud and Sven bowed once to Daian and then raced off in the opposite direction.
“Now, if my expectations are correct... it’s about time for some action.”
Amidst the roar of battle, Daian flourished his cape.
Lud and Sven ran to rescue Meitzer. Penmunde Test Site was originally a feudal lord’s castle. There had been renovations and additions, but although it looked reconstructed, inside it was concrete instead of stone. It was camouflaged to escape the notice of foreign spies.
“This way, Master!”
Meitzer was being held prisoner in a renovated storage area beneath the original castle.
“This is a test site, but it has a prisoner containment facility.”
“I suspect it was originally a room for storing sensitive documents so they wouldn’t be discovered.”
“I see...”
In that case, getting Meitzer out might not be terribly difficult. Conventional containment facilities were designed to prevent escapes from within as well as attempts from the outside to break prisoners free. However, sensitive documents couldn’t escape, so that changed matters. For example...
“Who goes there?!”
Three soldiers appeared up ahead.
“............!!”
Lud sprang forward, defeating the first soldier with a strong punch to his stomach. Before the second soldier could raise his gun, Lud struck his chin with the heel of his hand, and he fell unconscious.
“You guys stink.”
From behind, Sven delivered a blow to the third soldier, knocking him out.
“Well, that makes sense.”
Detention centers and prisons often contain wide, straight corridors so escapees can be spotted from a distance. This building was a castle, and used as a residence, not a fortress. The halls were narrow and winding, with lots of turns, thereby reducing visibility. Enemies could come close before the guards were able to respond.
“They’re young,” Lud thought as he looked at the fallen soldiers.
Lud also looked like a young man. However, the faces of these soldiers were even younger. They were probably in their teens, the age when they should have been attending high school.
“Oh, I see...” When he guessed the situation, Lud made a sour face.
They were like Lud and Hilde. At the time of the Great War, they both had been very young, without any military experience. However, they had lost their guardians in the war and didn’t have any place to go. The Security Department had taken them in as very young recruits.
“In war, they send the kids they steal off to fight in the war.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Good question. It makes sense to wonder.”
Lud’s reply to Sven was bitter. He had once faced a similar situation as a type-three soldier. That’s why he understood.
“They’re a generation that was stolen by war. This time, however, they’re being used unfairly to steal back what was taken from them.”
“That doesn’t make sense!”
“No, it doesn’t. But, that’s the way it is.”
Adults had started a war and children had been taken. They lost their families and the happiness that should have been theirs. The children grew up, the war ended and there was peace.
“Compared to war time, things don’t move as quickly during peace. Once you assume your station in life, you stay there.”
The poor stay poor for life. The resulting resentment forced them to make a choice.
“If war happens again, they could do the stealing this time.”
It was an awful way to think.
“It’s even worse than the relationship between Genitz and Hilde. They’re being fooled as well as used!”
Lud raised his voice in indignation. He suspected that he had actually been happier than they were. After the war ended, they had nothing, so they hoped for more war. Lud had met many good people and found a new life.
“Urgh!”
The difference between them was slight. This awareness caused him great pain.
“Sven, I have a favor to ask. Please try not to hurt them.”
Lud’s voice was strained as he asked.
Try not to hurt them... Not killing their opponents was something he no longer needed to ask.
It was an unrealistic request on the battlefield. However, Sven accepted it.
“Understood, Master. I mean... of course I won’t!”
“You won’t?”
“We’re just a rural baker and his employee! We’re not vicious soldiers! Right?”
Sven would have grumbled before, but now she felt differently. If the person she had decided to walk beside asked something of her, she would gladly do it. That wasn’t all. There was a time when she would not have shown mercy to anyone who harmed Lud, even a child, but she no longer had the desire to kill such people, even complete strangers.
“All right, let’s go. Victory goes to the first to strike! Soldiers prize haste!”
Now that she felt this way, she was happy.
Blitzdonner and Rebecca had held the soldiers back so Lud and Sven could get away.
“Oh my!”
Blitzdonner’s four limbs were made of steel. His fists were harder than hammers and his arms were more bulletproof than shields. Nonetheless, the number of opponents had them at a slight disadvantage.
“Major, reinforcements are coming from beyond—about ten soldiers.”
“That’s still no problem!”
“Fifteen will come in two minutes. With rifles.”
“That isn’t good...”
Listening to Rebecca’s warning, communicated via sonic sensors, even the Crimson Hawk began to lose his smile.
“Major, I have a suggestion. We shouldn’t hold back.”
Blitzdonner had given Rebecca an order as the battle began. “Don’t kill them,” he had instructed her. “They’re not even real soldiers. They barely have any combat experience. They have almost no discipline, so if we use persuasive methods against them, some will flee.”
Persuasive methods meant savage killing. It meant methods such as ripping off limbs, jabbing out eyes and tearing open guts.
“They don’t even know what they’re doing. That’s why they’re willing to fight us. So let’s teach them a lesson in how fearsome their opponents are.”
It was like crowd psychology. There is an illusion that if more people attack, the pain and death will be divided among that number of people. This wasn’t like that. A bullet means death on a ratio of one to one. Even if your army wins the battle, your own death cannot be undone. Younger soldiers have little understanding of this truth.
“Give the order and I won’t hesitate to—”
Rebecca was capable of such killing. She looked like a fragile young girl, but she had the strength to rend iron. It would be easy for her to break a human being apart.
“No.” Blitzdonner refused her offer.
“But, Major! This is war!”
“No, we’re at peace.” Blitzdonner contradicted her. “We have to keep the peace. We can’t let fools do anything crazy.”
“But this enemy doesn’t think like that!”
“Then we don’t have to play by their rules, do we?”
Those who want to start wars enjoy fighting those wars more than anything else. Blitzdonner and Rebecca had to make them realize that a war is what they were fighting. Blitzdonner hated that. Shielding these inexperienced young soldiers only had meaning if he treated them as minor criminals. That’s what he believed anyway.
“Stay with me here, partner!”
“Urgh... That’s cowardly!”
Rebecca could not understand Blitzdonner’s scruples. She couldn’t understand them, but if that was what the man she loved wanted, behaving accordingly would make her happy.