If that was the case, then there was only one thing Milanor should do.
"Wil, pal… How far is this apartment of yours? Or is she working at that clinic at this hour?"
Surprised, he jolted his head back up. "S-She should still be at the clinic… She got the afternoon shift today, so… Mi-Milestone, are you saying what I think it is…?"
"I don't know how this would go, so don't go expecting too much from me. But I think I wanna help you," he patted the mechanic on his shoulder. "Besides, you've been helping us out a great deal. We've made great progress on our goal all thanks to you, so… You know, I felt like I should repay you."
And also… Milanor just simply hated those criminals. They were always ruining the beautiful sea of stars that he had admired for as long as he remember with their hideous acts. He wanted to erase them.
Milanor kept the last parts to himself. Didn't want to weird them both.
"…Thank you. Thank you so much, Milestone. I swear I won't forget this debt."
"You're exaggerating. So? Where should we head to? We need to meet up with Miledi first, but you can tell me where to go now."
Wilfred turned away and looked around toward the west side of the city. The cityscape over there was blanketed with smoke from both the fires and factories. It was hard to see much in the distance.
"The main avenue is out of question… Then, fourth street? No, that's too much detour…" He seemed to be planning for a route for them to use.
"Preferably small streets that could provide many covers, Wil. We don't want to be caught in the middle of crossing the road."
"Y-Yeah… Then in that case the best one would be…"
As the captain listened to his mumbling, he kept watching the burning landscape.
'21 hotspots… It's going to be hard to recover. What's more, I'm pretty sure the government has completely collapsed. If they couldn't fix that… I think this city is finished.'
As he pondered the fate of the city, a thought occurred in his head. It was something he briefly wondered when they just came out from the depot.
He examined their surrounding view once again. East, south, north, west… They were all the same.
'But that… doesn't sound right. Before, I thought maybe it was too early… I know from hearing what Wilfred and that pirate said that they're here but…'
Milanor turned on his PAW and checked something. It was a satellite image he took earlier when they were about to enter the atmosphere. 'The 21 hotspots… I thought they were picked at random, but were they actually…?'
"Hey, Wil. I wanna ask something."
"Hmm? What's wrong?" He showed him the satellite image and then voiced his suspicion.
"That's… Actually, now that I think about it… It's indeed strange."
"Do you know their locations? Can you pinpoint it on this map?"
"I-I'm not sure I know every spot… But, I know some—"
"What!? Get down!" Milanor shoved Wilfred aside with all his might without waiting for him to finish. A blast from a high-energy bullet tore at the ground he was just standing.
'That's a high-powered sniper!'
"Wahh!?!"
"Kuhh!!"
He shoved Wilfred so hard that he rolled away a few times, but Milanor could think about him later. A single Stern Kavallerie had shown up through a gap in the building in the distance while he was talking with him, and Milanor spotted a large barrel pointing at them from its open airlock.
Struggling, the captain managed to keep his balance after shoving Wilfred and jumping away. "Naya!!" he screamed her name. She quickly ran to his side.
Milanor put himself in front of her protectively.
'Shit. Now we're the ones without cover.'
If it was him alone, he would have run straight into the closest thing he could hide himself with, but Milanor had a responsibility of protecting this girl. He couldn't just leave her to fend for herself.
'No, calm down. They're not serious. They aimed at the ground beneath Wilfred's feet, not he himself. They also didn't make any effort to mask their approach.'
Or rather, if the assailant really wanted to kill them, they could have just used the guns installed on that ship. It was clearly a warning shot.
"Kehehe!! Not bad, not bad! That's hella amazing that you reacted to that so perfectly, fella!" A shrill voice accompanied by raucous laughter emerged from the Kavallerie as it approached closer and closer. At around 50 meters from them, they stopped and someone jumped from the hovering craft into the ground below.
It was the guy holding the rifle that almost destroyed Wilfred's leg just now.
"So you're the funny fella that clapped ol' Gajiza lying over there, eh? Good, very good." The man was skinny with long black hair trailing down his head. The aramid vest he wore underneath his robe looked of higher quality than the others Milanor had seen. He could also see that familiar faint distortion caused by a molecular barrier coming from the vest.
Rather potent if he could detect it this far away. The nodes must be interwoven along his body armor.
The sniper seemed to be a leader type, seeing his rather advanced gear compared to the rest of his ilk.
"Gajiza who?" Milanor casually asked. He had to take advantage of the lack of hostility coming from the guy to think of a way out of this situation.
"That stinky man-bear over there, of course. By the stars, had he ever tried to bathe even once?" The sniper theatrically pinched his nose and waved his hand in front of it. Milanor took a note in his mind that he was the kind of guy that exaggerate everything he did.
"By the by, was I surprised when I received his horrifying distress signal. Traumatic, I'd say! I had to rush straight over and be the darling to the rescue. …Although, I admit I would prefer the damsel to be a pretty lady instead of a smelly old man."
He raised his arms up high as if in despair. "Alas! Woe is Sir Gajiza—rest his soul—for that I am truly late! How could this be!? Truly, I must prepare for severe genuflection once I catch up with him in the afterlife! …Hmm, would there truly be an afterlife, believers?
"No… perhaps what these wayward souls are heading into is not anything vague like hell or heaven… Nay, perhaps it is a parallel universe! Indeed, the ever-abundance negative energy would guide these lost souls to their next destination! Oh, how marvelous!!"
'What's with this guy, seriously? Is he insane?'
The way he spoke was rather unhinged. It sounded like he got some screws loose.
"Ahem! My apologies for the outburst. You there. Are you perhaps… not among the fine populace of this city? I have never seen you before," the weirdo addressed Milanor, thrusting his long rifle into the ground beside him and using it like a cane.
"You look rather… peculiar, if I do say so. Foreign. Surely I would have heard of you at some point were you to live in this city."
'So he wanted conversation, not confrontation. Considering I just killed five of his comrades, this guy was pretty blasé about this.'
"Just a visiting freelancer," Milanor replied. The whole time he kept his focus on him and had readied the hand gripping Noctilucent so it could fire at any moment. "This is my first day here, actually. It's quite chaotic, isn't it? There are fireworks everywhere and all the people are so energetic. It's an unusual sight."
"Ahaha!! Perhaps so!" He cackled once again. "It seems my merry band's behaviors have caused your first impression of this world to be… fairly extraordinary, yes? Rest assured, normally this was much a quieter world… Tranquil, if rather smoky. I would appreciate it if you could give this world a second chance to redeem itself."
He paused. Then without seemingly giving any concern to Milanor's obvious hostility, he turned around and spread out his arms. "After all, since I frequented this world myself, it would be a shame if far-out offworlders give it less than 'good' opinion. I do like it here if I'm allowed to be honest."
All his actions gave away the overwhelming confidence he had in himself. Milanor wasn't sure if he actually consider them—or rather, the captain himself—as a threat or not. His exaggerated speech made it hard to get a read on him.
'The others with him… I can only see one other man in the flyer's back compartment. The cockpit… only a single pilot as well.'
It was too much. The Kavallerie's guns were pointed at him, so even though the guy didn't give them any hostile intention, there was no doubting the danger they were in.
"Ouch… Aww… M-Milestone... h-he's…" Wilfred finally picked himself up from the ground, moaning all the while. He took an uneasy look at the flamboyant guy.
"You know him?" Milanor whispered.
"I-it's only a rumor, but I think—"
"Ah!! How uncouth of me! Indeed, I have not yet introduced myself, have I? A billion apologies. I am one that is called The Lannister," the sniper interrupted as if he heard them.
'Huh? The Lannister?'
"Oh, no no no. Not The Lannister. Yes, it's the Lan… Delan Lannister. Delan Lannister! Yes, that is I!"
'What…? He's confusing the heck out of me.'
"H-He's called Delan… of the Lannister family," Wilfred painfully elaborated. "The rumors called him one of the best fighters in the Grimmseiter. He's also the leader of the major raid two years ago…"
As he said the last part, Wilfred's expression changed from one of anxiety into one of anger. The grim look in his eyes gave Milanor an uncomfortable feeling.
"Two years ago…? Ah… yes, I remember. Oh, I was not the 'leader' or anything of the sort. Dear Val was the one who planned it all, and I was just a humble supervisor," Lannister said with a creepy grin on his face.
'And who's this Val…? Too many new names for one day.'
"Y-You think that's any different…? You keep attacking us, stealing from us, pillaging us… for all these years since as long as I can remember!" Wilfred shouted. "You think any one of you could be out of the blame!? No! All of our sufferings were because of you!"
"I see… So unlike those two, you are a native of this world… It is a shame that I would be looked at with such scorn." He shrugged as casually as before. "But isn't it simply the rule of this universe, young man?"
"Huh?"
"The strong take from the weak, and your people are part of the weak ones. You did not have functioning protectors, your government is ignorant and corrupt, and the ordinary masses never cared too much about it." For once, Lannister looked at them not with that jokey attitude but with a serious one.
He continued, "They all accepted it as if it was all par for the course. My friends and I often went here as ordinary people and no one questioned us. You do not have the resolve to protect yourselves. You all have given your fate up to chances. That is why you suffer."
Milanor was stunned. He too had given up on this city not that long ago. "This city is finished," that was what he thought. He couldn't refute what Lannister said.
Still…
Lannister turned away from them once again as if he had lost interest. "This is our might. This is our way of life. We use what we have to the fullest, and that is why we won. This is why… we prosper." He tried to walk away.
"Don't—"
"Wil—!!"
"—you dare!!"