"Did you do all this?"
In the shelter of the second mine, ten Schutzstaffel soldiers were dead as Jacob came out of the storehouse where he had been held captive.
"Affirmative. The most effective way to suppress them was to discontinue their life functions."
The girl answered Jacob and Shylock had red hair and red eyes, and she even wore a red dress. She was covered in red from head to toe.
However, some of the red spots on her red clothes were blood splatters from the soldiers.
"Hold on a second... Who are you?"
Although Shylock was an elderly man, he stepped in front of Jacob as if to protect his grandson from this mysterious girl and shield him from danger.
"I cannot reveal my professional affiliation. However, I have no intention of harming you. So please come with me."
After saying this, she extended her hand toward Jacob.
"-!"
Jacob, however, immediately recoiled from her touch.
That was understandable.
The girl was very beautiful.
In Jacob's experience, only Sven was so pretty.
Nonetheless, he sensed something ghoulish about her.
It was understandable that a vulnerable child would fear someone who had brutally slaughtered ten strong soldiers in a moment.
"..........."
The girl stared at her hand for a moment.
The hand she had offered had been rejected.
It was stained with the blood of soldiers.
"I want you to trust me. My purpose is to escort you to a safe place. That is all."
The girl produced a handkerchief from her pocket and began wiping her hand.
She wiped the blood carefully and neatly-and with determination.
She seemed to realize that the boy would not take her hand because it was bloody.
Perhaps she hoped that if she cleaned her hand and tried again, he would take it the next time.
"My name is Rebecca Sharlahart."
She told them this while wiping her hand.
"I received my name, Sharlahart, from your father. I heard he named me after the woman he loved."
Sharlahart... That was how Charlotte, the name of Jacob's mother, was spelled in the Wiltian Language.
"Do you know my father?"
"Affirmative."
"Did we meet in Saupunkt?"
"Affirmative. You had a very sad expression on your face."
After answering Jacob, Rebecca extended her hand again.
She stared at him at him with the expectation that he would take it this time.
Her red eyes, which had looked blank earlier, now threatened to overflow.
"Okay... I believe you."
Jacob stepped forward and took her hand.
"-?!"
At that moment, Rebecca pulled him close and leapt out of the way.
"What are you-?"
A gunshot rang out.
And a bullet hole appeared where Jacob had been standing.
"They dodged it? But it was a perfect shot from a total blind spot! What fast reflexes!"
It was Third Lieutenant Vanessa of the Schutzstaffel. She was standing at the entrance to the miner's shelter and pointing a gun.
"What were you thinking?! What if you had hit Jacob?!"
Shylock yelled.
"Joseph Shylock, please do not move from that spot. You, too, are a target."
"What...?"
Shylock was standing just inside the storehouse, as Rebecca told him to keep hidden.
"So, you know everything?"
Vanessa said this with a voice that sounded slightly impressed.
"I'm not stupid enough to clash head-on with a monster that killed all our soldiers at once!"
Vanessa was out of sight but had watched Rebecca's battle carefully and waited for a good chance to strike.
"I don't know who you are or where you're from, but you're clearly after the old man and the brat. It was only natural for me to take advantage of that."
Rebecca's combat ability was much stronger than Vanessa's.
However, Vanessa had the gun, so if Rebecca were to attack, Vanessa would not hesitate to shoot Jacob.
"If you move, the boy dies."
Vanessa smiled sadistically.
Her actions would ordinarily be considered cowardly and despicable.
However, she was a soldier.
Her job was to use her limited combat ability to take control of whatever confronted her.
If her opponent prioritized the protection of civilians above all, then she must use that to surmount the difference in their combat abilities. That was a soldier's job.
"Um... um...!"
Trembling, Jacob tried to speak from within Rebecca's grasp.
He wasn't trying to say "Help!" or "Don't abandon us!"
He was trying to say, "Don't worry about me."
Jacob was an intelligent boy.
He understood that as long as Rebecca protected him, she could not overpower Vanessa.
The only way for Rebecca to win was to abandon him.
"D-Don't..."
He was still only 10 years old.
He was so frightened that he couldn't make his mouth form the words.
"Do not speak."
Rebecca stopped him, as if she could predict what he was going to say.
"It will be all right. I will take his place in protecting you."
She clasped Jacob, turned her back to Vanessa, and sat down where she was.
It was as if she were protecting the boy with her body as a shield.
"Are you stupid?!"
Vanessa raised her voice in laugher.
She had considered the various tactic Rebecca might try, but this was as foolish as it was unexpected.
Vanessa pulled the trigger without hesitating.
One, two, three... the bullets struck Rebecca's back.
Each time she was hit, her body jerked, but her arms never let go of Jacob. She held him to her breast and shielded him from the gunshots.
Four, five, six... More bullets were fired.
But Rebecca still did not move.
"Impossible..."
Vanessa's face showed her frustration.
The gun she held wasn't a large-bore weapon with great destructive power, but Rebecca could not survive multiple shots from it.
Only one bullet was left...
"Urgh!"
She shifted her aim slightly.
Her chances were slim, but guessing that Rebecca was wearing high-quality bulletproof clothing, Vanessa aimed for her head, which was uncovered.
And she fired accurately.
The bullet struck the back of Rebecca's head, which rebounded as if struck by a hammer.
"What the... What are you?!"
Vanessa was a career soldier.
She had killed many enemies in battle. Something was extraordinary here.
"Why won't you die?!"
The bullet hit Rebecca's head ricocheted with a sharp metallic sound.
It was as if the bullet had struck a curved plate of armor.
"Including those final shots, you have fired a total of eight bullets. And that is all the ammunition your gun carries."
Rebecca stated this as if confirming a fact. Then she slowly stood and turned to face Vanessa.
Her cold, red eyes were narrow and expressionless, like the eyes of a raptor staring at its prey.
"-?!"
Vanessa was terrified and hurriedly tried to reload.
The distance between the two was nearly five meters.
It would take time to close the distance.
Vanessa could reload by then and-
"Too late."
Her opponent was not a typical human who could be killed by gunshots.
Rebecca was beside her before Vanessa even saw her move.
"Aagh!"
It was then, with a cry of fear, that Vanessa finally realized her mistake.
The best course would have been to run as far and as fast as she could before the monster had noticed her. If she had, Rebecca-who was only concerned with protecting the boy and the old man-would have left without paying attention at all.
Vanessa had lost sight of the most important priority a soldier had: to protect herself.
"Die."
Rebecca murmured softly.
At that moment, Rebecca struck out with the heel of her hand.
She didn't strike with the practiced control of martial arts.
The blow sunk into Vanessa's midsection.
"-!!!"
She wasn't even allowed a dying scream.
The blow, which Rebecca had released with all of her strength, sent Vanessa flying. The impact of her body cracked the wall in a radial pattern, like a crater. She looked as crushed as clumsily-collected insect specimen.
Vanessa was no longer breathing.
With that one punch, her ribs were broken, and her lungs, stomach, and even her heart had burst. Her body was now a leaking sack of skin.
"The threat is gone."
Rebecca spoke with a voice as flat as the display on a gauge.
Her name was Rebecca Sharlahart. She was a humanoid Hunter Unit created by the most intelligent scientist of all time, Daian Fortuner, the Sorcerer.
No unarmed living being could defeat her.
* * *
Meanwhile, at the first Baelz mine...
"What's that about?! Ah ha ha ha ha!!!"
Hildegard, riding in her Teepneuen Hunter Unit, laughed at the machine in front of her.
"With that?! You're gonna fight me with that piece of crap, Wolf?!"
Lud was driving the armored machinery.
It was a rundown old model with little armor and no weapons.
"Oh, okay, okay! I was worried that a one-sided match would be too boring. So I will allow this desperate attempt!"
Inside the cockpit, Hildegard laughed maliciously.
Her noble family, the Hessens, had clung so hard to the ideal of combat that the family had fallen.
However, the chance for a comeback had arrived with the new weapon called the Hunter Unit.
Hunter Units weren't tanks, controlled by several soldiers at once, nor were they combat aircraft, whose main battlefield was the sky.
As in the age of knights, as a Hunter Unit marched into battle clad in steel armor, giving it the appearance of the victorious warrior that her family esteemed.
The Hessen family, full of hope, sent Hildegard to military school to become a Hunter Unit pilot.
She had tackled the challenge with a fierce determination to save her family and restore its name.
She worked hard to obtain the medal known as the Panzer Cavalerie, which was only given to the highest rank of Hunter Unit pilot.
However, the Great War ended soon after she began her training.
Hildegard had completely missed her chance to achieve glory in war.
She heard about the Hunter Unit pilot who left the military after declining the Panzer Cavalerie.
That man was Lud Langart, the Silver Wolf.
Defeating Lud was the only way for her to compensate for the honor she had not received.
"Wolf... I will kill you! There's no way you're better than me! I was born into the Hessen family of warriors, so I deserve the Panzer Cavalerie!"
Hildegard summoned all her fighting spirit.
A voice spoke through the external speakers of the armored machine in front of her.
"Attention, approaching Hunter Unit pilot!"
It wasn't Lud's voice.
It was the voice of Avei, who was once again Lud's partner.
"Stop fighting immediately and retreat! This is a warning!"
The warning said, "If you run away now, we'll let you go."
"What...?"
For a moment, Hildegard was stunned.
The tone of voice was so dignified and yet condescending that she thought she had misheard.
"I repeat: Retreat immediately, I am showing humanitarian consideration out of respect for your life."
Avei repeated her warning to retreat.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!! You idiot! Who do you think has the advantage here?!"
Not to be outdone, Hildegard replied with contempt through her own speakers.
Her opponent was piloting an old decommissioned unit, while she had a far superior model, updated for military use.
The Teepneuen had higher quality weapons, armor, power and speed.
It was difficult to find any way in which it was inferior.
"Understood. You intend to fight, no matter what."
The armored machinery ignored Hildegard's decision, and just replied, slowly and clearly, as if confirming her intentions.
"I have ascertained that you are an inexperience soldier who cannot understand the difference in our battle capabilities. Thus, I shall educate you."
Avei's tone held no arrogance, ego or haughtiness.
She expressed only the desire to teach a lesson in prudence to a foolish child, drunk on the power she thought she wielded.
"Silence!!"
Hildegard was furious.
Without hesitating, she fired the machine gun housed in the Teepneuen's forearm.
Ratta-tatta-tatta! The high whine of gunfire resounded throughout the mine.
However, before she could take aim and fire, the armored machine was long gone.
"Huh?!"
A warning beeped inside the cockpit.
The search sensors indicated that the enemy had evaded to port.
"This is not a battle between multiple combatants. This is one-on-on, when firearms may carry a disadvantage."
The Teepneuen's external microphones picked up Avei's voice.
"A firearm has a straight trajectory of attack, It's easy to determine the angle and range of fire from the direction of the gun muzzle, Furthermore, firearms built into the vehicle's arms are incapable of turning in small radiuses, making swift maneuvering difficult."
Avei's detailed explanation clearly means, "I'll teach you a lesson."
"Don't patronize me!!"
Hildegard screamed and tried to follow Avei with her machine guns, but it was just as Avei had said. Instead of maneuverable handheld firearms, her built-in guns forced her to move the Teepneuen's entire body to point the muzzle.
"Impatience is not calm. And lack of calm breeds carelessness, Just like now."
As a result of straining to point its muzzle, the Teepneun was slightly off-balance. Something was stretched across its path.
"W-What's this!?"
By the time Hildegard recognized the danger, it was too late.
That "something" was an industrial wire winch that was attached to the armored machinery.
Its special steel-fiber wire could hold the weight of one Hunter Unit.
It was stretched across the Teepneuen's legs and was being reeled in fast, entangling the Hunter Unit's body and toppling it.
"Aagh!!"
At eight meters, a Hunter Unit was four to five times taller than a human being.
When it fell, it could deliver a shock to the pilot that was several times stronger than the fall of a human body.
Of course, the Teepneuen was equipped with a compensatory function to withstand sudden impact, but it would still break the pilot's focus.
"What?!"
The armored machinery was attacking the fallen Teepneun.
The machine's right arm was equipped with something like a knife...
Skrank! A screeching sound rang out, like the furious scrape of metal against metal.
Attached to the arm of the armored machine was in industrial mining shovel.
The shovel mas more than four times bigger than a regular shovel. It was designed to break rocks and now served as a powerful weapon, striking at the Teepneuen.
"Fool!! That work tool can't do anything against this thing's armor!"
Shovel's made excellent weapons for foot soldiers.
Soldiers on long-term active duty would say that shovels were easier and more effective than knives and bayonets.
However, the Teepneuen's heavy armor had been designed to withstand attacks from tank cannons.
Its armor was fifty percent thicker than the Cyclops series that was in use when Lud was still on active duty. I was similar to a knight's heavy armor and even the penetrating power of the shovel could not pierce it.
"How long are you going to keep that up?"
Hildegard used the vehicle's auto balancer to force the Teepneuen back upright.
At the same time, she shook off her opponent and pointed her gun muzzle for the third time.
From this position, her opponent couldn't escape.
She pulled the trigger, certain for victory.
"What?!"
Instantly, the Teepneuen's right arm exploded.
"What? Why?! How did this happen?!"
Poor maintenance? Operation failure? Or...
As Hildegard broke out in a cold sweat, she heard Avei's voice.
"In battle, the kind of weapon you have isn't important. What's important is how you use that that weapon."
The Teepneuen's right arm was demolished and scattered. The pieces were so disfigured it looked as if the arm had detonated from the inside.
"No... An explosion! Impossible! What did that shovel do?!"
The attack from the armored machinery wasn't intended to penetrate the Teepneun's armor.
It had smashed the gun muzzle built into the Teepneun's right arm so the bullets wouldn't eject.
When fired in such a condition, the gun had exploded.
"I'll warn you again. If you retreat now, we won't pursue you."
This was the third warning.
The robotic voice held no emotion.
However, Hildegard's was overcome with frustration, so even that neutral tone infuriated her.
"You... You... How dare you?!"
Even though the Teepneuen had lost an arm and its firepower, it still possessed devastating combat strength.
"One attack is all I need to finish off armored machinery with little armor!!"
Hildegard was about to perform a full-power tackle.
"In battle, the word 'defect' doesn't exist, It's just the flip side of an advantage."
Avei's lecture echoed around Hildegard.
Reduced armor meant the armored machinery didn't have extra weight.
And lightness was its own kind of weapon.
The armored machinery didn't retreat to avoid the looming Teepneuen. It ran as if to engage the enemy, but that sprang up at the last moment.
It used the Teepneuen's head as a platform for launching itself even higher.
"Ugh!"
Hildegard's Teepneuen lost its balance and fell again.
"When your opponent is stronger, use that strength. If you then add your strength, you can release an even more powerful attack. Just like this..."
The armored machinery jumped again, and as if it came down, it plunged its shovel in once more, adding it velocity and weight to the attack.
This time, Avei aimed at the front of the Teepneuen's head, where the face would be on a human being.
The shovel struck deep and destroyed the Teepneuen's sensory camera used for vision.
"Not yet... Not yet!... Destroying the camera isn't enough to... Not yet! Not yet!"
Inside the cockpit, Hildegard tried to calm herself in front of the now dark monitors.
I'll stand up the body and switch to the spare camera... No, I should just open the hatch and use my own eyes.
Words swirled inside her head.
"What...? No way... Why am I shaking?"
She had finally noticed.
Her teeth were rattling loudly. And her hands were visibly shaking.
She was smothering in fear that the enemy could defeat her with power several ranks higher, no matter what she said.
"That can't happen! Never!"
She gripped the levers tightly and tried to again to stand.
However, the Teepneuen's leg joints just made an unpleasant and wouldn't move.
"What the... Why? W-What's wrong?!"
The display panel indicated a malfunction in the unit's legs.
"Something is entangling the joints... So the legs can't move?!"
Hildegard left utter confusion, but the thought "No way!" crossed her mind. And then, with perfect timing, Avei spoke.
"I told you, impatience makes you tread carelessly."
The wire that Avei had used to ensnare the Teepneuen's leg joints now immobilized the machine.
"No... Up to this moment... They had it all planned!"
Hildegard was desperate.
Avei had used the wire to surprise her opponent early on, After making Hildegard believe the attack was over, Avei went after the upper body to divert attention from the machine's legs.
The Teepneuen was stronger than the armored when it came to durability and power.
Hildegard had thought she could win with just one hit or by overpowering her opponent.
And because that was what she believed, it had defeated her.
It was a tactic used in card games.
No matter how good the cards in your hand may be, or what kind of combination you have, your opponent can still win by knowing your hand.
The fight ended in victory for Lud and Avei-the Silver Wolf.
* * *
Inside the cockpit of the armored machinery, Lud was consumed by self-loathing.
"Not a problem! The opponent possessed greater power, so we had no choice but to bluff."
But Avei cheered him up.
"Since our machine's combat abilities were so much weaker, taking advantage of our opponent's inexperience was the best way."
"But still... your sharp tongue really hasn't changed."
By clearly and rationally pointing out their opponent's inexperience, she had rendered her fearful and powerless.
"I don't get your point."
"I didn't think so. You really haven't changed!"
Lud attempted a slight smile.
It was the same old conversation with a very good friend.
"Well, Colonel... I should go, Good bye."
"Understood. Thanks, Avei. See you later."
"All right."
After a while, the light inside the cockpit dimmed.
"She's gone..."
The rezanium reactor had stopped and Avei didn't reply.
Lud opened the hatch of the cockpit and began to climb down.
A gunshot rang out.
"Come down, Silver Wolf!! One-one-one! Let's fight one-on-one!!"
There stood Hildegard, who had escaped from her cockpit and now wore the face of a devil as she pointed a gun at Lud.
"I won't lose to you! I'm from a family of warriors! Why don't you get that?! Are you an idiot?!"
Reason wouldn't work on her.
She was now a girl possessed by the demon of war.
Hildegard pointed the barrel at Lud.
In that tense moment, someone came from behind her and seized her.
"Stop this instant, First Lieutenant!"
It was the Schutzstaffel corporal who wore a mask over his head.
He was also a warrior who honestly acknowledged their defeat.
"Let me go, Corporal! Why are you touching me?! This is contempt for a superior officer! I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!!"
Even the corporal's admonishment didn't work on Hildegard, who cried and screamed like a child having a tantrum.
"Excuse me!!"
"Oof!"
The corporal's fist drove into Hildegard's stomach, and she started to lose consciousness.
"No way... Damn it... Damn it!"
Hildegard continued cursing until she frothed at the mouth fainted, her eyes rolling back in her head.
"I know this is an unreasonable request, but will you let us retreat now?"
The corporal asked Lud as he picked Hildegard up in both arms, knowing that the time for a ceasefire agreement had long passed.
"Understood. But never come close to Organbaelz again. Never harm my friends. If anything like this ever happens again..."
"Would you kill us despite your convictions?"
There was no way of knowing what kind of emotion the corporal's eyes held under his mask.
However, one thing was certain.
Who is this guy?!
The corporal's drive and force, even standing still, as now, suggested a powerful savagery.
He had a fierce power and determination that surpassed Lud's and surpassed even that of his superior officer, Sophia, His ferocity could only have been obtained by fighting through Hell.
This man is just a corporal? He must have hidden his abilities!
Lud hadn't just agreed to the corporal's request because he didn't want to continue a fruitless battle. He was also frightened by the man's disquieting inscrutability.
"Pardon me, I spoke too bluntly. I will do as you ask, We will never come here again. Farewell."
Still carrying Hildegard, the corporal turned his back, leaving himself defenseless as he left.
Lud found a gun lying on the ground.
Perhaps Hildegard had dropped it.
What if he picked it up and shot the corporal in the back right now?
What am I think?!
Lud's instincts as a soldier were warning him, "If you don't kill him, something much worse will happen later."
And yet, Lud stopped himself.
He wasn't a soldier anymore, so there was no need for that.
* * *
Meanwhile Sven was running the path to the second Baelz mine.
After the battle with Hildegard, she had removed the connector from her body and was no longer Avei. She was Sven once again.
She went to rescue Jacob and Shylock.
"This is awful... Now I have a hole in my chest!"
Forcing a connection between the rezanium reactor in her chest and the armored machinery had ripped her artificial skin, and her pseudo skeleton was exposed.
The hole was big enough to reveal that she wasn't human.
There was no way she could let Lud see her like this.
"Well, it's under my clothes so he won't notice..."
Unless she was taking off her clothes, and even her underwear, the hole wouldn't be revealed.
She would only take her clothes off with someone else if she...
"No, no, no, no! What am I thinking?! Seriously! I'm so embarrassed!♪"
When she thought about the person with whom she might have intimate relations, the person who appeared in her mind was Lud.
"What an embarrassing state you're in, Svelgen Avei."
"-!"
Sven stopped running when she heard the voice.
Night was over and the sun was rising in the eastern sky.
Ahead in the murky dawn, Sven saw something like a human figure approaching.
Svelgen Avei was Sven's name as a humanoid Hunter Unit.
The person who knew that name was...
"Is that you, Rebecca?!"
Sven stiffened as she faced the girl with red hair and red eyes, wearing a red dress.
"If you've come here, then... Have you come to get me?!"
Sven knew about Rebecca.
She was a sister machine created shortly after Sven.
However, they didn't share family bonds.
It was impossible that she had come to restore their old friendship.
"Do not get the wrong idea. The director... Daian Fortuner doesn't want that. My mission is not to capture you and take you back."
Rebecca answered with no expression or emotion on her face or in her voice.
"You're not here to take me back? Then, what..."
"I cannot discern the will of that man."
Rebecca had no other response to Sven's question.
"I see. That makes sense," Sven understood.
The thinking of this man, who used weapons disguised as girls, was outside the realm of common sense.
No one knew what he would do and nothing he did-no matter how strange-was impossible.
"I am here to protect Jacob Rosso and Joseph Shylock. That is all. And I have secured their safety, so by now they are back in town."
"That's..."
Sven noticed multiple gunshot holes in Rebecca's dress.
"Why did you do this? No... Surely you're not..."
Rebecca had no obligation to Jacob or Shylock.
Rebecca would never act without specific orders.
However, there was one exception.
"Were you Blitzdonner's private machine?"
"Affirmative."
Rebecca agreed with a quiet voice.
The letter in Ellis' collar had been from Rebecca.
Sven had noticed something odd about the message.
It had mentioned a "father and son", but Shylock was Jacob's grandfather. However, Blitzdonner was Shylock's son and Jacob's father. So Shylock and Jacob were "his father and son".
"Those numbers were Major Blitzdonner's identification number. You thought that if I was those, I would know it wasn't a trap. Is that right?"
"Affirmative."
Rebecca nodded in response to Sven's question.
"The major... Where is Major Blitzdonner now?"
That was what Shylock, Charlotte and Jacob wanted to know.
"Unknown. Even I do not know. After the last battle, the major disappeared. But... he cannot be dead... That man cannot be dead."
Rebecca voice was still quiet, but she was pressing her lips together.
"I am sure he will come back someday. So I protected them for him. That is all."
"Rebecca, you..."
Sven was slightly surprised.
The Rebecca she knew showed no emotion. She behaved like a mechanical doll.
Sven had assumed that Rebecca didn't have a "heart".
"I'm glad for you."
But Rebecca did indeed have a heart.
It was the heart of a bold girl who waited patiently for the man she loved, no matter when he returned.
"You have no right to say that."
Rebecca scowled and she looked a little embarrassed. Then she handed a small box to Sven.
"What's this?"
"This is a first-aid kit. To repair our body parts. Use it to patch the hole in your chest."
This was Rebecca's way of apologizing for involving Sven in this incident.
"I appreciate this."
Sven took the kit with a slightly bitter smile.
Then, as if she had no other reason to stay, Rebecca turned to leave, but then paused.
"Oh... right. Svelgen Avei. I have one thing to tell you."
"What is it?"
Rebecca squinted her eyes in a faintly sarcastic expression.
"I don't know how much you admire the former colonel, but my master is a much better man."
"What?!"
Sven was stunned that Rebecca would suddenly say such a thing.
"What are you saying?! What do you mean by that?! Don't look down on my master! Stop right here!"
Sven was so furious that sparks could have shot from her head, but Rebecca left without saying anything further.
"Oh, man! When someone who rarely speaks finally opens her mouth, it's nothing but trouble!"
Despite her anger, Sven chuckled.
"Urgh... We both have complicated natures."
They were similar machines, but they didn't view themselves as sisters.
Nonetheless, Sven felt a little closer to that unfriendly redhead.