“Who are... you?”

  “Shut up! There’s no need for someone devoted to her master to tell you her name!”

  Red eyes and silver hair—the waitress of Tockerbrot, the Humanoid Hunter Unit Svelgen Avei, boiled with intense rage, looking not like a gallant warrior maiden, but like an angel of destruction, revealed to mankind at the end of days.

  Now Sven had released almost all of the limiters inside her body. If she wielded any further power, she would be one small step from breaking the artificial skeleton inside her.

  Sven’s hair wasn’t just for decoration. It was also a radiator. The Rezanium reactor, her source of power and the home of her heart and soul, radiated immense thermal energy, and unable to completely discharge, the energy rose in waves from her body.

  “I’m going to kill you... I’ll erase you from this earth!”

  At Sven’s angered cry, Dreadnought no longer recognized the person in front of him as a young girl. Dreadnought thought to himself that even he, who was all machine below the neck, was still more human than this girl.

  “Damn you!”

  Raising his fist, Dreadnought attacked Sven. It was dangerous to wait for her to attack. He feared that the battle would be decided by Sven’s slightest move.

  “............!”

  Dreadnought lunged with his powerful arm, but Sven easily dodged it with inches to spare. The charge ended with nothing to show for it.

  Despite this, Dreadnought felt a certain relief. The fact that she felt the need to dodge meant that he could still damage her. Dreadnought was beginning to believe that this girl was an embodied demon raised from the depths of hell, so the fact that he could injure her gave him hope, however small it might be.

  If I can launch a series of attacks on her and keep her from countering, then... I can at least bring it to a draw!

  Dreadnought began a follow up attack, but as he was about to release his punch, it happened—

  “Wha—?!”

  Dreadnought’s right arm, the arm that had launched his first attack, disconnected from the joint, and fell to the floor.

  “Impossible... What in the world...”

  “Quite a noisy tin can, aren’t you?”

  Sven gripped a machine part as she coldly answered Dreadnought.

  “When I dodged, I broke off one of your joints, that’s all.”

  “——————?!”

  She held the piece of Dreadnought’s right arm that connected the joints.

  He had misunderstood. She hadn’t felt the slighted threat from the previous blow. She had evaded the attack because she wouldn’t let any man other than Lud touch her. Then, she had easily deprived this repulsive man of his arm.

  “You’re a mechanical soldier? You’re a foolish bunch. You possessed the one thing I will forever wish for, yet you threw that away to become a halfhearted tin doll.”

  Sven considered Sutherland and Dreadnought’s mechanical existence to be the height of folly. In the past, when she was still a Hunter Unit, no matter how much she yearned for it, she couldn’t give the one she loved a tender touch of her hand.

  “What a miserable man you are! If you had your human body, you could have fought my master as a man, and your battle decided as men. But you gave up your humanity. You’ve destroyed yourself to become nothing more than a weaponized monster.”

  Like Sven, he had become inhuman.

  “Because of that, I’ll give you what you want. Not defeat, not death. I’ll demolish you instead!”

  Saying this, Sven drew back her right hand, and getting into her stance, launched herself forward with a sharp, sword-like palm, as though she was propelled from a catapult.

  “G-Gaaaaah!”

  Dreadnought braced himself. The heavy armor encasing his body wasn’t just for intimidation. No matter how many stabs or rifle shots he took, his armor would not be pierced. However, Sven’s chopping hand cut through his metal body easier than a knife slicing a piece of cake.

  “Gaaaaaaah!”

  Sven’s attacks didn’t stop there. Putting her strength into the assault, Sven tore away Dreadnought’s armor, as if she was rending flesh. The steel armor removed, the exposed inner machine parts were violently torn away, along with the equipment inside.

  The Rezanium reactor, from her time as the Hunter Unit, Avei, was transplanted into Sven’s body. She couldn’t channel all that power into her current body, but this fragile frame still harbored the colossal power of an eight meter-tall metal giant. Even if she only used half that power, concentrated in her human-sized hand, it was enough to turn rocks into sand and tear metal apart.

  “Stop! Stooooop!!”

  Dreadnought shouted. He had no way to sense pain. But, seeing Sven silently tear apart his body made him terrified of being devoured alive. It was as if he was looking at the mythical silver wolf, Fenrir, who feasted on the entrails of the gods.

  “Uh... ugh...”

  As he awoke, Lud wondered how long he had been unconscious, and he saw that everything was over. Everyone was still alive, and he hadn’t yet entered the world beyond. Dreadnought had been defeated, and Sven was in front of him, bawling her eyes out.

  “Master! Thank goodness, you’ve woken up... I was worried you’d stay asleep forever and I didn’t know what to do... Ten years, twenty years or all eternity, I would stay at your side and take care of you, but to no longer be able to hear your voice would be just... just too... waaaaaah!”

  With a wave of emotion, Sven sobbed as she imagined the tragic scenario.

  “I’m fine... I’m fine already... Ow, ow, ow!”

  “Don’t push yourself!”

  Just being alive after battling the mechanical soldier, Dreadnought, was a godsend, but a few of his ribs were now cracked. He also couldn’t move the arm that had taken Dreadnought’s attack.

  “Did you beat him?”

  Lud asked Sven, looking at Dreadnought, with his arms ripped off and his dismembered body looking like nothing more than a pile of scrap metal.

  “Um, well... Yes.”

  Sven had a hard time answering Lud. She almost looked like a young child, quivering in fear of her mother after breaking a flower vase.

  “But, um... He made master suffer so much... that I... well...”

  “I know.”

  Sven had lost her temper at Lud for always disregarding his own life, and pleaded with him to value it more.

  “But you know, this time... I was scared of dying.”

  “Master?”

  If there was even an instant when Lud accepted his own death, then Sven had gotten there just in time.

  “It looks like I had to almost die to realize it, but I guess I’m the same idiot as always. I... I want to live. I want to live, and think more and more how happy I am to be alive.”

  On the verge of death, he realized for the first time his strong yearning to live. Lud’s face broke into a troubled, but slightly happy smile.

  “That’s okay. Master... Wanting to live is a normal and natural desire that all human beings have.”

  Looking at Lud’s expression, an overjoyed smile came to Sven’s face.

  “Jeez, I always end up causing trouble for Avei, don’t I...”

  “It’s okay. That’s my mission, after all............ Eh?”

  Sven nodded in satisfaction at Lud’s murmuring, but after a few moments, her eyes widened in surprise.

  “Um, Master...”

  “Sven... Sorry but, can you bring me over to him? My legs... I still can’t really stand.”

  “O-Of course...”

  Lud continued talking as if nothing had happened, and Sven carried him on her shoulder over to where Dreadnought lay, having lost her chance to question Lud about what he had just said.

  “Are you still alive?”

  Had Dreadnought been human, he would already be dead if his body was torn to shreds and his arm ripped off, but a mechanical soldier could survive such damage.

  “Just, barely...”

  Dreadnought’s voice was faint. Every part of him below the neck was machine. Lud suspected that his internal life support systems that had been replaced with machines, were beginning to shut down.

  “Tell us... where is the last bomb?”

  “I can’t... tell you.”

  This was Dreadnought’s final will. If Lud had defeated him with only his human strength, he might have told him the location of the bomb out of sportsmanship.

  However, Sven had looked down on him for being a halfhearted machine, and had said that was the reason he would lose. Once her prediction came true, he decided to wipe the bitterness from his heart and engulf everything around him in flames to compensate for the disadvantage he had during their battle.

  “No matter what, you have to make the Defairedead crash, is that it?”

  “Yes, I must sink this ship. I must return even a little of the pain to Wiltia for the slaughter of innocent Greytens...”

  “My parents were killed by the Greyten Empire.”

  Lud informed Dreadnought quietly.

  “What?!”

  “Huh?”

  Both Dreadnought and Sven were surprised by Lud’s disclosure. Lud didn’t often speak about his childhood as a soldier, and he had almost never spoken about his life before that. However Lud started to reveal it all to Dreadnought.

  “My parents were merchants, and despite what I may look like, we were a pretty rich family.”

  Langart & Company, managed by Lud’s father, was a large and prosperous business, with clients among the nobility, and it traded both inside Wiltia and internationally.

  “But when the war started, right after Greyten issued their declaration of war, my parents made a mad dash back to Wiltia, and on their way home, their boat was sunk.”

  Generally, when a war breaks out between two countries, the citizens are given a period of time to return to their own country. According to international law, during that period, if boats pass through the other country’s territorial waters, they can’t be attacked.

  But, Lud’s parents were in the Kingdom of Alhadra, on the western edge of Europea, and available boats were limited. If they didn’t leave immediately, they were at risk of being sent to a concentration camp.

  In a frenzy to get home, people chartered their own boats. Lud’s parents boarded a boat that wasn’t registered as neutral, and when they entered territorial waters, the Greyten navy fired with no warning and sank their ship.

  “Between the passengers and crew, over one thousand people died.”

  “T-That’s...”

  “I know. That ship hadn’t applied the paint that would indicate it was neutral, so there was no way to prevent it from being attacked. But, the fact remains that the people on that boat were all innocent, and just trying to return to their homeland.”

  There was no reproach in his voice. Lud sounded like he was simply stating the facts.

  “After that, their fortune was swindled, I became a vagrant, the military picked me up, and I became a child soldier... just like those kids in there.”

  Lud still harbored a grudge against Greyten. But, that wasn’t the reason he joined the military. He had been desperately trying to survive, one day at a time, and didn’t have time for resentment or anything like it.

  “So you’re saying to let it go? Because we’re similar... you think that kind of logic will make it all right? For me, or for you?!”

  “No, that’s impossible... Saying that one hundred people dying on one side means it’s okay for another hundred on the other side to die—that has nothing to do with it.”

  No one would agree to exchange the lives of his precious family, lover, or close friend for the lives of a stranger.

  “But, I became a soldier. You did too, right? We killed people, and our government sanctioned it. That’s how we earned our keep... People like us can’t go and kill someone out of resentment... am I wrong?”

  Under the pretext of war, soldiers kill people, and of course, it isn’t considered a crime. Killing was allowed, and went unpunished. Lud’s parents were killed by Greyten. But, Lud was sure that among the men he had killed on the battlefield, there were some who had kids of their own, waiting for them back home.

  “Severing the chains of hatred... It’s not something clean or beautiful... But, only we can protect that fine line, or we’re no better than murderers.”

  Lud was still burdened with the guilt of the mass slaughter that he had participated in as a child soldier. He feared that if he let go of that guilt, he would truly become something inhuman.

  “Is that... Is that how you intend to live the rest of your life?”

  “It might be easier if I died, but... I still want to live.”

  Lud and Dreadnought stared at each other. A silence fell between them. One was a man who gave up his humanity to reverse the past and clear away his hatred. The other accepted his hatred, and bore his regrets to continue living as a human.

  “Tea...”

  Suddenly, Dreadnought broke the silence.

  “Could I have a cup of tea?”

  “Huh, but...”

  Sven was puzzled by Dreadnought’s request. His body was nothing more than a machine from his neck down. With neither a heart nor lungs, he would not have digestive organs either. It was no longer possible for him to eat or drink.

  “Sven, can you make him some?”

  Yet, Lud complied with his request.

  In the corner of the parlor, there was a counter for serving light food and drinks. Sven made tea, still perplexed. Using the highest quality leaves and the proper brewing method, Sven poured the tea into a cup.

  “Do you want help?”

  “Don’t be insulting. A gentleman of Greyten can’t allow such a breach of etiquette. I’ll drink it properly, on my own.”

  Replying to Lud’s offer with a dry laugh, Dreadnought clumsily brought the cup to his mouth with his barely functional left hand.

  “Awful... Wiltian tea is truly awful.”

  “What are you talking about? These are the highest quality leaves made in Mughal and—”

  “That’s not what I mean.”

  Dreadnought gave a laugh at Sven’s objections. He had no sense of taste. The taste of the tea wasn’t what prompted his statement.

  “A cup of tea in my house, brewed by my wife, was much, much better.”

  Dreadnought’s body was now a machine, but his memories of human sensation had not died.

  “Wiltian soldier... You said your name was Lud Langart, is that right?”

  Dreadnought stood up. He was no longer in any condition to fight. Raising his colossal frame to stand on one knee, screws flew from his body, left and right, and oil gushed out like fresh blood.

  “Yeah, but now I’m just a baker.”

  “That’s right, you did say that, didn’t you... Forgive me for implying it was a disguise.”

  Dragging his leg behind him, little by little, he turned in front of the glass wall.

  “I have a deal... Those children, my soldiers... I used their hatred as a tool, so I ask you to please give them back their humanity. In exchange, I will disarm the bomb.”

  There was a hole in the glass wall from Dreadnought’s fight with Lud, and countless cracks extended from it. On the other side of the glass, the empty sky stretched for miles.

  “.................. I understand.”

  “I’ve put you through a lot of trouble.”

  As Lud nodded deeply, accepting his deal, Dreadnought gave a satisfied smile, swung up his left arm, and with all of his strength, drove his fist into the glass wall. The entire wall shattered, leaving a gaping hole in the ship.

  “Goodbye, Baker of Wiltia.”

  Saying this, Dreadnought jumped from the craft.

  “Dreadnought?!”

  Lud staggered toward the window. Although they were slowly descending, the airship was still over one thousand meters up in the air. Dreadnought’s body grew smaller as it fell, and soon dropped out of sight. Suddenly, there was flash of red light, and with it, a tremendous explosion.

  “Augh!?”

  The shockwaves spread in all directions, and rocked the massive Defairedead. If the explosive had gone off inside the ship, it would have engulfed it entirely.

  “That’s... a Zeihombomber... right?! That’s what his plan was...”

  Straining the Rezanium reactor that powered his suit so it would blow up—the final bomb had been the “end bomb” as well.

  “So he risked his life... No, he planned from the start to exchange his life for the mission’s success.”

  Lud was reminded of Dreadnought’s vindictive spite once again. At the same time, Lud quietly closed his eyes and mourned the death of Dreadnought, who in his final moments had put aside his desire for revenge and his resolve to take the ship down with him.

  Less than an hour later, the Defairedead touched down in Ponapalas. Under the circumstances, the hovering airship ignored the usual landing sequence, but it touched down slowly, and the damage was insignificant. Compared to the damage that would have resulted if the ship had exploded above the center of the city and fallen in a mass of flames, the actual amount was minuscule.

  Since communications from the ship had broken off, the Wiltian troops in Ponapalas suspected an emergency, and rushed to the ship to conduct rescue and relief efforts. The causalities included more than eighty people, from the captain and the control room staff, to the security personnel, the guests in the party hall and those who died in the panic on the lower levels. There were over one thousand injured, some severely. This was still minimal compared to the number of deaths if the ship had been destroyed, but Wiltia’s prestigious, celebratory event had been ruined.

  “What’s going to happen to us?”

  The child soldiers were captured when the military boarded the ship, and they were now held in a vacant area beside the Defairedead’s landing spot.

  “It’s obvious, ain’t it? We’re traitors, you know. They’ll kill us...”

  “Mr. Dreadnought’s dead, too... So we’re going to die with him...”

  Imagining their fate, the faces of the twelve boys and girls clouded over with gloom. They had been used by the Greyten Empire’s special forces, and participated in the sabotage of the ship and the seditious acts against Wiltia. Now that the plan had failed, Greyten would be informed that the children were held as prisoners. However, Greyten would not acknowledge their existence.

 

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