Headquarters ahead of the battle was busy. In addition to preparing for war, as well as responding to the enemy who marched to the Alchemy Steel smelter. Even in the middle of the night, the whole base moved like a beehive with a bear infested.
In particular, it was the escaped laborers who gave them a headache.
The laborers I released caused enough confusion. Unidentified workers roaming the area of operation provoked the mental screams of signalmen and staff. It would have been easier if I had killed them all, but I couldn't because there were too many of them, and there were also workers from the smelter that were difficult to replenish.
Meanwhile, a military wagon arrived at the entrance. The soldiers asked for a slogan, and a pink-haired girl in a female officer's uniform answered and got out of the carriage.
A princess in a stiff military uniform moves as stiff as her clothes. The epaulettes that indicate status and the medals on the chest are quite awkward. She has a round, gentle impression, and has soft pink hair and is wearing her military uniform, which is difficult to describe.
The princess saluted in a posture full of power.
“Chuu, loyalty. This is Lieutenant Natalia from the Ministry of Public Safety! I'm on a top secret mission!”
It is difficult to speak and salute. It seems that a young child is desperately following. To the extent that the guard can detain him with a little bit of remorse.
But the opponent was not willing to do that. The officer, who identified his identity by looking at his epaulets, narrowed his eyes and asked.
“The Ministry of Public Safety… Will there be a pension seal?”
“I am here.”
“Check, Lee… . Well. confirmed. medium. This is the main building's mission, so don't worry… .”
First. The fact that he belonged to the Ministry of Public Safety, which said his opponent would drop a star hanging from the sky, was a factor that undermined his will.
“I’m not going to reveal any secrets… . It's a necessary procedure in a quasi-wartime situation, so there's nothing you can do about it… . Where is the lieutenant headed now, and who are behind them?”
“These are laborers who have come into contact with aptitudes. As ordered by Director Sieghrund, we are escorting us to the Ministry of Public Safety for further interrogation!”
“The chief… ?”
Second, she is a descendant of the Grandiomor royal family.
The officer looked at her face and didn't feel very suspicious or dangerous. Doubt begins with hostility to the stranger. The power of the royal family erases even such trivial doubts.
The powers of the monarchs, who began in the distant past, the least powerful but the longest surviving, were exercised even in these trivial places.
“Sorry for taking your time. pass by next… hey! stop! Reveal your affiliation before entering!”
So we passed safely. The princess nodded her head, then changed her salute to a hurried salute, and hurriedly got into his chariot.
The soldiers cleared the way, and the military wagon slowly made its way into the base. The princess patted his chest and sat down.
I took the steering wheel and greeted her warmly.
“thank you for your effort! It was perfect!”
The princess, who was sweating profusely, took off her hat and let out a deep sigh.
“Whoa… I thought my heart was going to explode… .”
“How can you easily deceive that strict military officer? Pretty good right? Please do it again in the future!”
“no… . I can not. It was only possible because he didn't really doubt me… .”
“It has to be. There is also the pension seal of the Public Security Department that Hilde left behind. She also has the powers of a princess.”
And there was a passphrase that I figured out by reading my thoughts. From a procedural standpoint, there are no elements to take.
Of course, that won't be the only end.
“But that will not be the end. It must have been the will of the Command that we got through safely.”
“The will of the command? Did they condone us?”
“yes. If the signalman alerted us that some foe was heading towards the command base, and gave all the officers our impressions, we would have been caught in some way.”
If Tyr and the regressor had been there, they wouldn't have reacted so lukewarmly. The two are too famous, and the military must have been wary of their power and prepared a countermeasure in advance.
But we are not. Of course, Historia is powerful, but her power is in the category of an individual. There she was, until a few days ago, she was also a true soldier who was loyal to the military. If her HQ were tracking her work in Hameln, she would know that rather than Historia hating her militia, she's just following me and Siati.
I don't know how it will turn out, but I know the ideology of the military.
The military is rational.
It is not a war between a country and a country, and the country is being swept away by attacks by only a few disturbing individuals. In addition, Historia is attached to this side, and now even Hilde has separated from the military force, and the military is weaker than ever.
If you don't have a reason to meet, just make it happen. After all, even if you try to solve the problem with words, you have to start with strength.
As I headed down the road as empty as possible, I cracked down on everyone's mouth.
“ruler. You're heading in the right direction for now, but don't be nervous. This is the military headquarters. It is a place where the generals, which are hard to see from the outside, are stung. Be careful because you don't know where the growth character will come from… .”
『Control observation completed. Implementation rate 97.4%.”
“I heard that even a tiger will come when I say it. I think Ji is a tiger.”
In the darkness, a halo of light converges into a single point. A holy light that illuminates the dim headlights of the command center stood in the form of a human. It looked like a shadow made of light.
A helmet worn by the press, a body whose size is difficult to estimate due to the light shining through. A long, slender sword of light.
Thousand Aimeders. The guardian angel of the military.
And maybe… . An existence that may be the incarnation of the Command itself.
“Everyone get away!”
Historia, who noticed its presence before anyone else, turned the front of her body toward that, in case Eimeder attacked us.
But Aimeder did not point the sword of light at us. Instead, he glared at us.
A black mouth opened from a dazzling face.
“I will guide you. Follow me.”
Then, without a word, it began to slide across the ground. As if of course we would.
However, it seems that angels do not know the human heart. We, who were taught not to follow strangers from childhood, disobeyed Aimeder's instructions.
Historia asked with a sharp edge.
“guide? Where?”
Aimeder's body creaked to a halt. Our reaction seems unexpected. The pure white angel turned his body again and conveyed his will.
“Isn’t the reason you came all the way here to negotiate?”
“It’s okay to call it a negotiation. Conversation?”
“I will respond to him. However, this aircraft lacks the means for communication. therefore.”
A body that can be replaced at any time in a concise tone to provide only information. Any way you think about it, it's pretty similar.
As expected.
“In a nutshell, are you guiding me to the meeting place? It's nice because it's cool. Let’s go.”
“If you accept it, I will guide you again. Follow me.”
Aimeder turned around again and headed somewhere.
Until now, Aimeder had been close to a monster wielding a sword for question-and-answer dance. It has no sign of life, no mercy in its hands, and its strength is strong enough to stand up to Tyr, even for a brief moment. As such a monster-like angel appeared casually and showed us the way, it felt very foreign. The princess, Shiati, and Historia looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
However, one was an exception.
“Nyaah… .”
A butterfly aiming after Aimeder with its eyes shining.
What is that crazy doing? You look pato before the meeting. Stop it right now… No, it's dangerous if I catch it.
“Ow, catch it! Hold on tight and don't move!”
“bruise!”
“Nyahahak!”
It's not the time yet, not yet. I brought it here just in case they attack from the other side!
With the fluttering butterfly in the backseat, we drove the carriage and followed the angel.
The angel sliding on the ground was quite quick and agile. Maybe it was because it was made of light, and as if there was no concept of inertia, he even changed direction while maintaining speed. It seemed that if I took my eyes off it for even a moment, it would disappear out of sight.
We rushed through the arsenal full of shells, turned right from the container stocked with food, and followed the angel in a big circle around the outskirts where the engineers' equipment was piled up. The image of an angel, a symbol of divinity, walking through a land filled with steel and concrete, seemed like a combination of two disparate pictures.
“… Something is strange.”
On the way, the princess suddenly looked around and murmured.
“why… Can't you see anyone at the command base?”
It feels like half a day has passed, but we followed Aimeder for only about 10 minutes.
But this is a command base. It is said that there are more officers than a stone hit by a foot, and it is the military capital where the military force resides.
That includes the meaning of being so thoroughly managed that it is difficult to find even a rolling stone. No matter how disguised you are, you can't get around so easily… .
If someone hadn't planned.
I said looking around with a squint.
“It looks like you don't want to see us meet at the command. biting people Listen. Even beyond that, isn’t it noisy with the voices of soldiers working?”
“Why? We are a minority, aren't we? Wouldn't it be better to gather a lot of people over there and put pressure on them?”
“Not necessarily. Right now, the military is on the verge of negotiating with a terrorist. As a country, showing a humiliating negotiation process to a single soldier can lower morale.”
The military is rational, but I don't believe everyone is. So, whether it's an officer or a general, limiting information and controlling behavior.
Agreed, the princess came up with a new question.
“How could we have bitten people exactly in the way we were going?”
“It must have been a signal soldier.”
The answer was given by Historia.
“Soldiers absolutely obey the commands of the command, and the signalmen deliver the commands of the command. Perhaps this route we go… The signalmen will be directing the approaching soldiers one by one to avoid heading here.”
“Ahh. Right. There was a carrier… . So, is the signalman the commander?”
“I am not saying that a priest is speaking God’s word on behalf of the priest.”
“But the Command is not God, is it? Someone can take over the signal man, or the signal man can mislead the commander because of my greed, right? Why doesn't anyone doubt that?”
It was a question that pinpointed the blind spot. But Historia had the answer.
“Carriers don’t do that. No, I can't. Because they don't exist .”
“yes? A communicator does exist, right?”
“No one has ever seen them. There are those who sometimes guide outgoing signalmen, but have no idea where they are or what they are doing. What kind of greed do people who don’t even appear before their eyes have?”
There are so many examples of priests corrupted that it is difficult to count them. Priests come in contact with believers every day and rob them of their faith and donations, so there are endless ways to harm them if they are greedy.
However, the signalman does not contact anyone. In a world completely isolated from Insewa, it communicates limitedly only through the golem.
At this point, he's not a priest, he's just a trumpeter of the gods. The tool itself to convey the voice.
“No one knows what a signalman does? You don't even know the musketeer who is the sixth commander?”
To the princess's question, Historia hesitated for a moment before answering.
“okay… . As an adult, I too.”
Suddenly feeling bad, Historia quickly turned her head and shut her mouth.
'okay. I don't know anything. He was loyal to the military to help his friend, but neither friend nor military knows neither. I… Is it a useful tool that only gets used without knowing anything?'
Historia, who was once a member of the headquarters, was skeptical and watched the scene pass by.
The carriage rolls in an uncomfortable silence.
“Arrived.”
Before long, Aimeder stood under a large wall.
It was a seamless wall. There were no windows, no doors, not even a small vent. It looks more like a box than a building.
have seen When Tantalus turned the ground upside down, it looked like a small, crushed steel box protruding from the ground. The only difference was that it was several times larger than that.
Eimeder raised his white sword and stabbed it against the wall without hesitation.
Historia watched Aimeder silently.
'There was a gap. very fine. I put the blade in there with no error.'
It was my mistake that there were no seams. A pure white sword pierced through the invisible cracks. It seemed to me that it had penetrated the wall at all, but Historia noticed the niche's existence with her keen eyes.
Thanks to you, I also read the thoughts and found out. Huh, I would have been embarrassed if I pretended to know.
“Walls, I'm cutting down the walls! Like cutting a wall of steel tofu!”
uh huh Here's another person with a bad eye. tt Don't open your stupid eyes
“Hey, there’s a tiny gap between the walls. He pierced the sword of light through that gap.”
“yes? gap? Uh, it looks like there is… ?”
There's only one reason to put a knife in the crevice of a box. to open the door.
Historia could only see through the cracks, but I, having robbed the safe over and over again, roughly predicted the structure of this building.
“A gap that needs to be about the size of a light to get through. Maybe there's a lock on it. I will unlock the lock on the inside with the sword of light and open the door.”
As I said, Aimeder raised the sword he had thrust into the crevice. There was a thud and the sound of something unraveling.
Immediately afterward, light poured out from a tiny crack in the wall.
ghg play.
The tightly closed wall cracked. The sound of the cogwheels turning around echoed along the wall, and the square door swung inside.
Aimeder, who had fulfilled the role of the key, stood still. Like inanimate objects that have maintained their place for hundreds of years, without even the slightest movement that a living thing should have.
okay. Aimeder was the key. A windowless room that you can never enter unless you break it. The signalman asked how to get in there and how to lock it… .
“And, there must be no other being who wields a sword made of light other than Eymeder. A door that can only be opened by Aimeder, the angel of the military. What does that mean?”
“It means that those in this are those who call or control Eimeder… ?”
That's right. Because the princess is worthy of asking questions.
Aimeder said in a hoarse voice.
“Come in.”
“Can I all go in?”
“Does not matter.”
And as if he had become a door, he turned at an angle to open a hole for us to pass through. I sent the butterfly reaching out to Eymeder and Aji holding the butterfly in her arms first, and then beckoned to the princess and Shiati.
After letting the two beasts in, who never knew when they would crash, I strode inside. One of the greatest secrets of the military is to show me the inside.
Standing through such a narrow gap, I was faced with a strange space.
There was a large round table filled with papers. There were countless sheets of paper on the table, and the walls on all sides looked like they had been torn from books and used as wallpaper. There were countless small letters written on them, but all of them were documents containing confidential military information.
piles of documents. Lots of information in it. By itself, it is a chaotic sequence of letters, but if anyone with the relevant knowledge sees it, it creates tremendous value.
And the beings that create that value.
“A call. Due to the destruction of the Alchemy Steel smelter, it is requested to adjust the supply quantity.
『Invented 89,400 units. Estimated retention period of 38 days. After that, the stock is completely exhausted.」
『Requirement for increased production is 3,200. 0.72% probability of achieving the status quo
“It requires a value judgment. As a meeting agenda.”
Dozens of communication magic golems.
It's like coming to a toy country. Is it to increase the floor area ratio? All the magic golems here are small or microminiature. There are even golems as big as the palm of your hand, and the largest ones do not go beyond the waist.
Various miniature magic golems are busy walking around in all directions, reading and dictating letters. There are golems that write with their fingers, there are golems that use a typewriter for golems to strike one by one, and there are golems that put their heads on a loudspeaker and shout. None of the golems resembled humans, so they were more fairytale and cute.
Aji desperately stopped the butterfly that had found the toy from attacking. okay. Because the king of the beast needs two. A butterfly that will make a fuss, and an idiot who will stop it when it gets excited.
While the two beasts were rolling on the ground, I found a door in the other wall.
Steel doors are equally spaced apart. The gap is narrow. If I stretch out my arms, I will reach from one door to the next. One such door, two… twenty six.
It is clear that the door is not used very often. Otherwise, there would be no way there would be a pile of papers on the doorstep.
I read the letters on the small plaque above the door in succession.
『The Communications Headquarters directly under the Inner Circle Command. Module Eye (I).
Phew