✦ ✦ ✦
“You...” The Saint’s eyes widened further when she saw his disguise.
“How do you like my new rubber mask? I bet you can’t tell it from a real human face!”
It was the face of the staff member who had asked to take Sven’s body when she lost consciousness during the Saint’s occupation of the control room.
“You treat human beings like insects, so you don’t pay attention to the ones you don’t care about. You let down your guard.” Daian continued speaking as he removed the mask.
“That’s why you didn’t notice. Humans can be tricky, and you underestimated us!”
Someone else stood beside Daian. It was Marissa Haven. She was the Security Department spy who had trapped Meitzer, but she had another role to play.
“She’s a double agent I employed.”
“Uh... hi.” Unable to grasp where the camera was, Marissa was flustered. She looked like a small panicked animal.
“She cooperated with me. She fed me important information and prepared a hiding place for Svelgen, Rebecca and me. Oh, and she delivered a message from Meitzer.”
From the Saint’s point of view, Meitzer was not worth a glance. She had relaxed her guard, which gave rise to an opening.
“At last I get to strike back at you.” Daian’s smile was sarcastic but satisfied.
No one else knew the story. Daian was the lone remnant of the European Empire. His very existence had been forgotten and he had been raised by a mechanical doll, but he was here, alive in the world one thousand years later. He quite liked the present.
“Guaaahhh!” Enraged, the Saint drove her slender arm into the monitor. “Humans abandoned by God shouldn’t get haughty!” She screamed and shouted in a rage.
This was one of the few times she had openly shown anger in the last one hundred... No, the last one thousand years.
“Huff... huff... huff... Not so fast! Not yet! I’m not finished! A little thing like this can’t beat me!”
The Saint made her remaining move.
In the large hall...
“Wow... I can’t believe that fraud is at it to the very end!”
Everyone had heard the exchange between Daian and the Saint through the transmitter. Sophia’s expression was unreadable.
“I didn’t know how talented Marissa is.”
Sophia had known Marissa was a double agent.
Or rather, when she found out, Daian had forced her to be his accomplice in a tricky way.
“Major Rundstadt, she’s capable of whatever she sets her mind to.” Rebecca spoke proudly to Sophia.
Rebecca had fingered Marissa for a spy infiltrating the development bureau. When she later became a double agent—right after she joined the development bureau—Rebecca had become one of her few friends in the organization.
“Anyway, is it all over?” Blitzdonner couldn’t use either of his arms and they hung motionless at his side as he asked. The Saint’s plan had certainly ended in failure. “But what’s that girl from August going to do with us?” He looked over at Mary Ville.
“I’m still a Greytenite. And they’ve removed their insignia.” Mary Ville pointed at the soldiers’ chests. “I have no reason to seize you. However, I must take custody of that woman. She tried to attack the capital of August, so she must stand trial.” She spoke with authority.
The Saint needed to face judgment and receive punishment. That was a matter of pride for Mary Ville since she was also a lawyer.
“No, not yet.” Everyone seemed to think the incident was over, but Meitzer corrected them. “The Saint still has one option.”
“No way... The program was overwritten and Verne 1’s target has changed, hasn’t it?”
Daian’s countermeasure had foiled the Saint. That seemed certain. Meitzer answered Sven’s question.
“Verne 1’s flight system uses rezanium.”
“—!!”
Meitzer’s words were enough for Sven to understand everything.
“What does he mean?” Rebecca asked Sven, who had turned pale.
“Red girl... Or rather, Rebecca... This man and the Saint defeated you, right?”
“Why? Yeah, they thwarted me with some strange power.”
“He tampered with the rezanium reactor that’s the main generator inside us.”
The Saint and Meitzer could control the rezanium fragments.
“In other words, if she can directly interfere with Verne 1 and control its power, she may be able to reset it!”
“What?!” Rebecca realized how dire the situation was.
“The Saint is probably headed for Verne 1 right now.”
“That’s right.” Meitzer sighed tiredly.
“Everyone must leave here now. I’ll handle this.”
Whether the Saint’s plot succeeded or not, the blast from the launch of Verne 1 would sweep through the test site. If they remained, their lives were in danger.
“That’s right. Everyone, evacuate right now! Red girl! Take Major Blitzdonner and get out of here! Your responsibility is to get him safely back to Jacob!”
“Wait, Sven. You yourself have to—”
“Major Rundstadt, recover Director Daian and the others. There’s a possibility he hasn’t thought about his own escape.”
“Yeah... but Sven!”
Sven was briskly giving orders. Meitzer looked uneasy.
“You have to run too! You don’t plan to come with me, do you?!”
“Of course I do! I still have something to ask you!”
She had come here to ask Meitzer how she could become human.
“In that case, I’ll tell you right now! It’s not hard!” Meitzer looked troubled as he spoke, but Sven raised one hand to stop him.
“I’ll ask after this is over. Otherwise, I’d have a bad conscience.”
“Sven?”
She couldn’t desert the man who claimed to be her father and was going to face possible death. That was how Sven truly felt. She had never had a parent or even known what a parent was, so she couldn’t explain this irresistible impulse in her heart.
“Then it’s decided. Sven and I will go too, Meitzer. We’re involved.”
“Yes, that’s right so—Master?!” Sven was aghast as Lud announced he would accompany them. “No, no... You must evacuate, Master! Leave the rest to me and the old guy!” Now it was Sven’s turn to be troubled.
“I can’t let you go alone. You’re my... um... wife, so...”
“Whah?!”
Sven could resist no further. On the contrary, she was a little happy.
“Huh? Wife? What’s this about now?” Mary Ville looked dismayed when she heard the word wife.
“Yeah, those two got hitched just three days ago.” Sophia didn’t consider Mary a stranger, so she explained.
“Oh, okay... um... uh... th-that’s fine! It doesn’t bother me at all!”
“You know... I think we could be good drinking buddies.”
“What do you mean?!” Mary Ville lost the serious attitude she had shown toward the Saint, and shouted with a red face.
“Aside from that...” Collecting herself, Mary Ville addressed Lud again. “Are you in your right mind, Lud? You don’t need to save the world. You’re a baker, aren’t you? Leave this to the soldiers!” Mary Ville reminded him of his resolve.
She was pointing out that he was no longer a military man, this man she had once hated because he had pretended to be a baker and deceived her family.
“Thank you, Mary.” Lud’s heart was filled with gratitude for her clumsy kindness. But there was no changing his mind now. “It isn’t a big deal. This is typical.”
“Stopping a missile launch is no big deal?”
“No, not that.” Lud wasn’t putting on a show of courage. He wasn’t acting out a grand plan to save the world.
“It’s sort of like meeting my wife’s parents.”
Mary Ville was astounded, but Lud really meant it. This was a matter he had to settle. That’s all it was.