A peaceful life was fleeting.
So thought Kyouhei Nanbu.
As far as he was concerned, it was something that could be destroyed by any number of tiny little things. An accident, mistake, illness, disaster, or... violence.
People living in Japan might not feel that way, but life was nothing more than a huge house of cards, waiting to topple down, as far as Kyouhei was concerned. He’d seen it happen time and again.
Boredom was unthinkable. Exactly because Kyouhei thought of it as something he might lose at any moment, he immersed himself in an unchanging, everyday life, and was so particular about being normal and ordinary.
However...
“...What a dilemma.”
The person speaking, looking down at him, was the embodiment of the abnormality he couldn’t escape from. Appearance-wise, he was a typical middle-aged man. He was wearing a military outfit, though, and had a dozen or so men armed with automatic rifles at his disposal, smashing Kyouhei’s beloved normalcy to smithereens.
They were in Japan, a country with a rule of law. It was a country that could turn away unsanctioned military action and diplomatic interference. This armed force being right in the middle of such a country was, of course, a violation of international law.
Still...
“If you will not tell us Princess Pamil’s whereabouts, then we shall have to resort to more forceful measures,” the middle-aged man—Colonel Walser—said.
They were in the Nanbu house—or rather, the warehouse that went by that name. Countless boxes and containers were piled high, and formed a maze-like warren of paths. Kyouhei and his schoolmate Sanae Murata were both tied to an iron pillar in a corner of the warehouse.
At a rough estimation, there were around 20 soldiers—enough for a platoon—standing guard, armed to the teeth. Judging from their equipment and uniform, they were a special forces squad; men who would kill military and civilians alike if it accomplished their objective.
And right now, their objective was Pamil.
Pamil Terrill Karl Bergmann, the princess of the abolished Bergmann Kingdom, a girl who claimed that she was a body double for the real princess, and a walking supernatural phenomenon that wielded lightning, fire, and other powers. ...And she was Kyouhei’s sister, legally speaking.
Apparently, the soldiers thought her to be the real Princess Pamil.
“I just thought I’d let you know, just in case,” the colonel said, purposely affable. He was speaking in Japanese, incidentally, so Sanae, bound with Kyouhei, could understand him as well. Of course, this wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart—quite the opposite. “Don’t assume you can stand up to torture. Wolfgang Lotz said the same: most people cannot keep secrets under torture. There are rare cases of people dying before saying anything, but that is usually assumed to be because the torturer went too far and killed them before they talked.”
Kyouhei glared silently at him. That was all he could currently do. That, and wonder who Wolfgang Lotz was.
However, the colonel continued, cold-blooded: “The methods have changed over the past five years. Crude blows and needles under the nails aren’t the only forms of torture. Well, they are certainly a curious spectacle, and quite effective too.”
“You mean you’re not going to leave marks?” Kyouhei said.
“Not at all,” Walser said, happy with Kyouhei’s response. “Whether we leave marks or not... it’s such a trifling matter. Why concern ourselves with it?”
In other words... he had no intention to let them leave alive, and he’d dispose of their bodies such that they’d never be found. They got an entire special forces squad into the country without notice; a body bag or two wouldn’t pose much more difficulty.
“She’s got nothing to do with this,” Kyouhei said, switching to English. Speaking in Japanese was just making Sanae more scared for no reason.
“Oh, ‘nothing to do with it,’ hmm?” Walser mockingly wondered, purposefully continuing in Japanese. The conversation itself could be called a form of torture. “How chivalrous. Young lady, he’s asking me to let you go because you have nothing to do with this. To worry about someone else when he himself is in danger... My, my! He certainly is worthy of respect.”
“Why... Why are you doing this?” Sanae asked as she shuddered. “The country is already under your government’s control, isn’t it...?”
“It is as I explained earlier,” he said. “The revolution was successful, and the monarchy was abolished. The country has now been reinstated as a Commonwealth, but, little lady,” he said, looming over her, “you might not feel it in a peaceful country like this one... but our country isn’t so stable as to just go along with a new government.”
There hadn’t been a revolution in Japan for a long time. The last would have been the revolution that changed the government about 100 years ago with the demise of the Edo Shogunate and the return to Imperial rule. The bloodless surrender of the Edo Castle had become symbolic, and was far removed from a civil war involving the whole country.
“As long as all offices are not fully stabilized, it’s easy for discontent to flourish among the citizens,” he continued. “There are of course backward-looking people who say the last government was better. If a member of the royal family, the center of that previous government, were to come to light, they would elevate them and possibly establish the monarchy once again.” He then let out a sigh. “The royal family... didn’t just sit atop the country maintaining their own interests and traditions.”
Sanae and Kyouhei remained silent.
“As I said earlier, they have abnormal abilities. You could call them superpowers. There was a large variation in their scope, but they could lift boulders single-handedly, call down lightning and fire... Those abilities are a real threat. Many of the citizens still see the royal family, blessed with those abilities, as living gods.”
“So what?” Kyouhei demanded. If he could get the colonel talking, it would buy them time—time for Shuuhei to notice the issue or for him to think of something. “You still overthrew them, didn’t you?”
“Hmm?”
“Even if they can stop a truck on their own, they wouldn’t win against an army, would they? What has you so worked up—”
“Indeed, that’s the thing,” Colonel Walser agreed with a satisfied nod. “That is, in fact, the greatest fear the highest echelons of the government hold, and is also the reason behind them being called ‘saviors.’”
“Huh?”
“Despite being a small country in northern Europe, there are areas in which the Bergmann Kingdom was more advanced than even America or Japan. Why do you think that is?”
It was the first time he’d heard that. Actually, no, he had a feeling Shuuhei had said something similar. The Bergmann Kingdom was scientifically advanced, so its exports to other countries were important...
“Currently,” Walser continued, “scientific progress is a matter of trial and error. Spending more money and time, and performing more experiments, advances science. Consequently, there should be limits on scientific progress relative to how much territory a country has, along with its population and economic power. So a small country in northern Europe... would normally never be able to catch up with leaders in scientific fields.”
“...What? Are you saying that the royal family are all geniuses?”
Pamil certainly had far greater recall than the norm. Regardless, scientific development and the creation of new things required a different ability: inventiveness. Of course, they might have been supported by vast knowledge and intelligence, but even then there were still limits.
Honestly speaking, Kyouhei didn’t think Pamil’s talents lay in that direction. Inventiveness was a significantly individual skill, so the entire royal family being geniuses of technological inventiveness and scientific advancement seemed unlikely.
Which meant...
“Not at all,” Walser said, shaking his head. “There certainly are many intelligent people in the family, but that’s not all; they have another huge advantage.”
“...Quit messing around and tell me already,” Kyouhei groaned, glaring up at him.
“No, any more would be a state secret,” was Walser’s reply, however. “There are some things that even I cannot simply say.”
Kyouhei started thinking. There must therefore be a reason they were still alive.
They probably wouldn’t have gone so far as to kill Pamil just to stabilize the new government. If they wanted to kill her, they could have sniped her, poisoned her, or any number of things. Abnormal abilities or not, she wouldn’t be able to stand up to a hypersonic bullet from a distance. She also ate normally, so adding poison to her food or drink wouldn’t be hard. It was indeed illegal, but more efficient than sneaking a whole black ops group into the country, more reliable, and less likely to draw attention.
And yet, they had done exactly that, and considered the possibility of needing to face Pamil’s superpowers head-on.
Kyouhei and Sanae would be hostages to deal with her. If they knew about Kyouhei, there was no way the colonel wouldn’t have had her daily life investigated. They’d know the places she would stop on her way home too, so trying to persuade him to reveal her location wouldn’t result in much—at worst, it was just killing time.
Therefore, we’re hostages so he can get that ‘other reason.’
In that case, their lives wouldn’t be taken until Pamil came back. While guaranteed survival was good, they might have a bone or two broken...
Pamil...!
Whatever the case, it was for the best that Pamil wasn’t here. Shuuhei returning first would be their most valuable card if he noticed something was wrong. At least, with the military-level security system being broken, he would definitely have been alerted.
Regardless of his personality—or actually, because of it—Shuuhei shone in desperate situations like this. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to hum his way along the tightrope of the boundary between illegality and legality while doing his trading.
At any rate...
Pamil... don’t come back, he prayed—the only thing he could do.
● ● ●
Meanwhile, with Pamil.
Completely counter to Kyouhei’s hopes, she was racing through the shopping district like a girl possessed.
“Kyooooooouuuuuuuheeeeeiiiiii!” she yelled more energetically than her usual laid-back—or less politely, airheaded—disposition. “I won’t allow it! Snu-snu with Sanae while Shuuhei is out...”
And so she went, sprinting along as she ran her mouth in a way that would surely draw questions.
Her normally nonchalant mind had short-circuited in a single millisecond at Shuuhei and Kaoruko’s instigation.
Let us examine that process:
‘Sanae loves Kyouhei and confessed, asking him to go out with her.’
↓
‘That is a sign of the most affection possible.’
↓
‘Close men and women in Japan engage in snu-snu (so to speak) when alone.’
↓
‘Shuuhei isn’t even at home now; he’s having a drink in the Corvette.’
↓
‘So when they get home, Kyouhei and Sanae will be alone.’
↓
‘Therefore Kyouhei and Sanae will be snu-snu-ing at home!’
...
Well, there were a lot of extreme assumptions being made in her reasoning, like whether Kyouhei would take her home, the ‘in Japan’ part, and so on that would create a lot of questions, but...