Chapter 3 (1/2)

Chapter 3

Part 1

The hellish night had come to an end

Morning came early for the soldiers…but that did notwoken by an explosive blast from a cheerful idiot with a trumpet, Quenser rubbed his eyes in the top bunk of a triple bunk bed crae nude poster within ar

Unlike an officer like Frolaytia or a Pilot Elite like the Princess, the lowly soldiers and the student (as nearly a freeloader) were crairls were split up and then they had to cli The coreater than a hammock but less than a capsule hotel

He did not have ti shower He finished the bare rabbed the day’s rations from one of the boxes piled up in the lutton to sneak off with more than their share, but since they were flavorless and odorless lumps reminiscent of soap or an eraser, no such trouble had been reported

This was a maintenance base zone located near the coast

Over one hundred large ether Even their barracks were built on top of a giant flat vehicle with at least thirty or forty wheels

“…”

Quenser sat on the stairs up into the vehicle and nibbled on a corner of the rations while looking like he was facing the end of the world He then noticed Myonri, a colleague of his, sneaking around out front

“Hey, Myonri What are you doing out so early? …Are those blueberries?”

“Eek!?”

The girl’s shoulders ju a basket in both arms The basket was filled with s because they still had thin vines and leaves attached

“N-nothing? There certainly isn’t an alliance trying to create pastes because we’re fed up with the flavorless rations And I’m definitely not on my way to boil these to make jam!”

“Wait! You were sneaking around selecting ingredients while so around a hellish battlefield in the ht!? Inexcusable! Share some of those with me Simply inexcusable!!”

“Wahhhh!! My share always shrinks and shrinks like this!!”

According to teary-eyed Myonri (most likely to divert the predator’s attention), there was a rather large group that took issue with the tasteless rations and a nuet salt by boiling down seawater and so the oils from plant seeds

Not only were the completed products tasty, but they could be used to trade for other seasonings

“Ru rapes to make wine”

“The depths of the Legitidom’s darkness know no bounds! Absolutely inexcusable!!”

“Wahh! Quit trying to distract me!!”

Quenser was not going to wait until the jarabbed a few of the blueberries as-is and used their perfect acidity as an accent between the flavorless bites that seemed to sap his will to live

“There’s so much variation in individual preferences that they can’t satisfy everyone Since they don’t want the food to affect people’s co everyone finds tasteless, but there’s got to be so”

“Ah ha ha But taste aside, those rations are supposed to be quite useful They’re nutritious, they preserve well, they’re portable, and so on”

“Really? I’ve seen rumors online that they dry restaurants’ leftover rice into a powder and cook it in the used frying oil”

“C’mon, c’mon That can’t possibly be…wait…”

Myonri rejected the idea with a s so Shewould let other soldiers notice her blueberry basket and thus take everything she had collected, so she said a quick goodbye and left

“Ahh…”

Quenser used his dull s were here in the middle of the battlefield, but…

“Surely that’s just a preposterous ruht?”

He had himself worried now

Part 2

In truth, the Legitidom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion was in a state of limbo

“Eh? We’re not waiting for a one-on-one fight with the Trinity Style?”

Quenser frantically spoke up inside the Object hed, but she was not working on the Baby Magnu the various rer and the arht before

“It’s true the Faith Organization probably wants to take a bite at us, but they’re taking their tiet back at us since we injured them and they’ll also want to silence that Pilot Elite …Skuld Silent-Third was it?”

She sounded disinterested

“But that’s only what they want, so we have no reason to go along with it We coarden with its intentionally conta they use to make Elites There’s no reason to stick around now A unit costs tax money every day it’s deployed like this”

“Then why don’t ithdraw already?”

“By carelessly da it to withdraw, you seeher ups in the safe countries They aren’t sure if we should withdraw i and maybe destroy a 5 billion dollar Second Generation and take its tech for ourselves”

“There’s also so on”

The Pilot Elite Princessbetter to do because she walked over to join thee lined up like a scene froation

“Even under nor attacked while withdrawing, but noe have soto take tierous”

“Yeah, the Trinity Style ran off, but the Faith Organization soldiers were left on the battlefield,” added Quenser “We took them all prisoner, didn’t we?”

“Frolaytia wasn’t happy about that,” said the old maintenance lady “Even POWs need clothes, food, and shelter and that costsabout how you don’t even need to develop a neeapon to end the war She said you just need to have a billion of your people surrender to the enemy in order to apply financial pressure”

“Hold on That doesn’t et even worse, does it? I’m not sure I want to see how that’s even possible”

The Princess looked up at Quenser while she crouched down and poked at the wreckage

“But those are good,” she said innocently “They’re like a special treat”

“What the hell!? Are you one of those people who thinks hospital food is soe andof our suffering!!”

“I’ers There’s no surprise in the flavor…”

“Kiiii!!”

“Stop that, boy Overwheler is no reason to strip”

At any rate, the entire battalion had nothing to do until their next orders caht not happen very quickly due to the Faith Organization POWs inflating their numbers

(Well, I don’t really care as long as I can study Object design here)

Then a transmission from Frolaytia reached the old lady’s tablet

“Any luck analyzing that Dvergr?”

“The individual tech isn’t anything special It looks more suited to a space station or a reh”

The old lady glanced over at the crushed robots

“Then there’s the tech used to link theether into a solid fifty meter, two hundred thousand ton mass I haven’t a clue what kind of pattern they use These crushed ones aren’t enough I’d need quite a few ‘living’ samples to even knohere to start”

“So it’s like the difference between pencil lead and carbon nanotubes even though they’re both carbon?”

“I’lad you understand The electronic si it, but we’ll see if that gets anywhere”

“Thattime over there, doesn’t it? Could you send him over here? I think I have a more important lesson for him”

(What’s this, what’s this? Is busty silver-haired Frolaytia going to be loosening her collar to give me solasses when in teacher mode!!)

Quenser started straining his ears to listen in, but Frolaytia’s explanation led elsewhere

“Now that she’s had a night to recover her energy, I think it’s tianization Pilot Elite If you’re interested in eney, then come watch, Quenser”

Part 3

Quenser left the Object , but he ran across a vehicle having engine trouble on the way

“What’s this about, Heivia? Did the thing stall out inside the base?”

“Oh, shut up …Goddaain!? I already opened up the hood and dealt with this!!”

“That’s unusual Did soet lax with the maintenance?”

He glanced inside the hood and saw so from within

“No, it’s bugs” Heivia sounded utterly disgusted “I don’t kno they’re getting in, but they rill is the perfect bed You kno you’ll find a ton of the with the engine and burning onto the thing”

“Ugh”

“And that s that are burned onto the pipes and stuff Experiht to hell These strange bugs are everywhere”

“Well, Heivia, Frolaytia called ation, so I’ll catch you later!”

“You coldhearted bastard!! And what’s this about interrogating a girl!? Is it gonna be sexy? And how far are you going? Is it gonna be one-on-one between that busty coag!? As your ation!!”

Since his awful friend would not stop coer and continued on to the facility where Frolaytia and Skuld awaited

The detention barracks were normally used to hold soldiers who had screwed up and it nor much use, but the problem was how indispensable it was at times That may have been why Frolaytia seeainst the ith her arms crossed

“Are you ready?” she asked

“Well, I’, so I’m ready when you are This place really is packed full of Faith Organization people, isn’t it?”

“There are 203 including the Elite, so it’s like a sroup cells and the upper level has the individual cells”

Still leaning against the wall, Frolaytia used her chin to gesture down a corridor blocked by metal bars and doors at a few points One wall contained a row of doors with peepholes and the other wall contained a ros covered with a thick wire ns painted on the walls and floor indicated there was a stairway at the end

The cells behind the bars had originally been individual cells, but they had been left with no choice but to throw up to about ten people into each one While they had air conditioning, they had to share the blanket and toilet, so it was not exactly a co space

“Skuld has her own cell, but the others are all in there together Of course, asking for funding to expand the detention barracks would be an embarrassment to our unit”

Frolaytia opened a nearby door

Instead of Skuld’s interrogation roo room One as a one-way mirror and the rest of the room was filled with flat screensoldiers were already in there Theythe veracity of a statement based on the speaker’s expression and eye movements

The room beyond the special mirror had a table and two chairs just like a scene from a police drairl in one chair had her arms handcuffed to the top of the table

It was Skuld

She was the Trinity Style’s Pilot Elite Or rather, she was one of its Elites

On the other hand, the interrogator sitting across froence division

The woman wore her uniform perfectly by the book in a different way than Frolaytia did She had long black hair, thin-fraiant breasts

“daht accidentally call her ‘Class Rep’”

“Quenser, the intercom is active”

He quickly began to cough, but the blushi+ng glasses woman beyond the one-way

Frolaytia casually spoke into theon top of the equipment

“Sorry about killing your enthusiasm like that, Second Lieutenant Elfily, but duty is duty Please get this started”

“Understood …Now, let’s try this again Nice toto the 37th’s intelligence division and e of your interrogation”

“…”

“Now for some jabs How about we start hat is protected by international law? What is your na me that should not qualify as treason”

After her nae, blood type, birthplace, height, and weight It was all personal infor into one’s privacy and coentle and sometimes rude It was all so varied that Quenser could not tell what the point of the questions was

“She called these jabs, reirl’s reactions”

“?”

“This room is filled with two million euros’ worth of equip body temperature, perspiration, eye es in breath volume, and really just any kind of reaction people make when they lie That said, an expert can fool all of that, so we like to fine-tune the equip to the questions that truly matter”

As the boring(?) questioning continued, Quenser finally heard a topic he cared about

“I would like to ask about the Trinity Style”

“Are you going to injectthe mucous membrane of the nose is the latest trend It leaves less of a mark after all”

“The Object in question uses three Pilot Elites at once I have a report saying you yourself adood here?”

“Curse him and his loose lips…”

Even through the one-way mirror, her low voice made Quenser’s heart skip a beat It was iht at him

Meanwhile, the Class Re-…no, the second lieutenant in glasses continued speaking

“This concerns your own safety in addition to our technological investigation and understanding of our eneanization will tell us how likely they are to target you while you are restrained here If we do not understand that, we cannot continue to the next stage That reanization or to defect to the Legitidom”

“…”

Skuld fell silent for a while, but she finally rattled the handcuffs holding her arether and slowly provided the desired information

“Our Norn always uses three pilots The Elites are Skuld – that’s me – as well as Verdandi and Urd You knohere those names come from, don’t you?”

“Three Goddesses froy They were the Goddesses of fate or of time”

“Not only do ork together, but we really are blood-related sisters And that’s why I doubt they’ll show any mercy”

“Meaning?”

“Did you think we got along just because we’re sisters? Once the disappointment starts to spread, the faer as they go on abouta blot on the family name”

“You mean they will not consider you expendable and leave you here because they have multiple Pilot Elites?”

“They’ll couarantee it”

Skuld gave an exasperated shake of the head

“As you know, the Norn’s design and specs can change That changes who the Object’s main pilot is …That previous one was Urd’s, but if Verdandi takes over, the Object’s traits will change entirely What you did last tiain”

Frolaytia spoke without using the microphone

“That also means Verdandi is the only card still up their sleeve We don’t knohat Skuld’s mode is, but they can’t use it with her here Maybe it would be safer to make an attack and reveal that card”

“No, not necessarily,” reflexively replied Quenser “We can’t coht have been Skuld’sthem both Urd and Verdandi’s modes in reserve It’s also possible all three sisters can use all three modes and they’re just better with their own than the others If so, that’s three Objects times three people for nine patterns overall With one person out of the equation, they still have six battle patterns left”

“Perhaps On top of that, we have no guarantee each sister only has the one mode If each one has three or four, the corows indefinitely”

“My sisters will kill ation room

The scratchy, resigned voice sounded out-of-place coirl

“They will come to kill me no matter what Fate is absolute to the Norn, so they honestly believe that throwing off our plans for victory is a violation of our proper behavior That is why they will kill me”

“We have heard that the Faith Organization has developed a unique process for converting belief into a fighting spirit Is that what this is?”

“Have you heard the term ‘berserker’?”

“Doesn’t that pri foot soldiers’ fear before e?”

“It’s based in mass hysteria Just like a rock star’s enthusias a concert We act as an areater our enthusias the berserkers That atreater explosion of emotion Then the process repeats”

“In that case…”

“Our base zone is probably filled ar cries right about now They’ll be yelling for the traitor’s head Whatthe heat die down They will be keeping the engine running no matter what it takes”

“…”

It was not a pleasant conversation

Quenser decided to ask Frolaytia a question

“What’s going to happen to Skuld now?”

“That depends on what she wants and what the higher ups are willing to allow It’s possible she will defect to our side or she ht be treated as a hostage and used in a prisoner exchange to settle some troublesome diplomatic issue or another”

What she was saying sounded simple, but there was no emotion in Frolaytia’s voice

She then changed the subject

“Anyway, that’s about as much as we can ask about her personally Quenser, if you have any questions about the Trinity Style, tell Elfily through her intercoood mood, she’ll ask about it”

“U-um, then…”

Quenser thought for aso

“Miss Elfily, if you have the chance, can you ask about so? The Trinity Style is composed of a bunch of siant Object? If they have spare robots, they should be able to make a second identical one If it’s about the reactor, they could always put in a prototype one Just thin out the arht have been able to use two at once”

Beyond the ed the flow of conversation

“Miss Skuld, I have a question so your relationshi+p with your sisters The Trinity Style is composed of small robots…”

“Oh? I thought she , but it looks like she actually likes you, Quenser Maybe that Class Rep has a thing for baby faces”

“Frolaytia, the intercom is still on”

Frolaytia started coughing, but it was too late It was becoation or enjoying how erown

Regardless, Skuld answered the question presented to her

“The Object only hasan Object”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You don’t get it? It’s true we could reat number of them if they were on the level of tanks or arless No one would fear that The battle begins before a weapon is used Only a second-rate weapon does not strike fear in the heart of the enemy before it is ever used That is e have no interest in anything but the most powerful Object If ered the specs to split it into two or three, the enemy would just pick them off one by one”

That was indeed one aspect of the clean wars touted by the world powers

It was not enough to say you could never know until you tried

When facing norhters, it was best toto use the another Object, you had to make sure the enemy knew their specs were hopelessly inferior before the battle began That prevented wars fro on, that kept them clean, and that preserved world peace

That was the modern trend

And that was exactly why Skuld had reached her conclusion

“My sisters will kill me”

She had returned to her initial claim

The danger she sensed was finally co into view

“The Norn must be the most powerful All elseits special position at the top The Elite being captured alive will end’ That is why Urd and Verdandi will do whatever it takes to resurrect that legend The first thing they need to do is make a bloodbath out of the one who harest”

Part 4

They left Skuld in the interrogation room and took a coffee break

A ti the prisoner through the one-way mirror

“Hey, no fair! The intelligence division gets coffee!? All we get is soap-like rations and lukeater!”

“This is a strategy to let the scent reach the restrained Elite and shake her heart by res in life More ito work!?”

Quenser and Frolaytia both began coughing

At any rate, Quenser used the confusion to grab soan the discussion as if si

“Man, that was soly heavy stuff back there”

Quenser was a little disheartened, but Frolaytia and Elfily must have been used to it The Class Re-…no, Elfily smiled his way

“With Elites, it isn’t uncommon to find they were taken into theor family environment If the military feels like the et any unwelcoiven the modern system of clean wars settled by one-on-one battles”

“(Hm, she really does look happy Maybe she’s less a class rep than she is a gentle liberal arts teacher)”

“Major, do not forget that I belong to the intelligence division which excels at gathering information!”

When Frolaytia started to cough on reflex, some ashes burst from the end of her kiseru like a tiny eruption

Quenser was sitting across from her, so he was hit full in the face

“Hot!? Wait! Low te, but I think pipe ashes are a little too advanced for me!!”

“Ah! What are you two doing!? C-colass of iced coffee …U in this survival kit I can use?”

“(She really does like to take care of people Could it be…?)”

That hen Quenser and the toreat nu the wall Quenser initially thought of rain blowing in the wind, but it had been sunny outside More iation room had no s The walls were too thick to hear the rain so clearly even during a cyclone

“Hm? What is that?”

Asking was not going to help, so Quenser walked to the door with the glass of iced coffee still pressed against his forehead He could see as going on through the corridor hich were covered ire

At first, he had no idea as going on

It was coation roohts were kept off during the day Even so, it should not have been as dark as a school or hospital at night It was al completely blocked off

“The…s?”

The rown much louder

When the boy looked over, the situation finally dawned on him

It took a er before the intense revulsion and terror assaulted him

Black bugs were covering every inch of the s

The outside world had become a stored insects

Part 5

“A-ahh…”

He did not knohat to do

He could not even tell if he had decided to step back Whatever the case, he fell back onto his butt and screamed the only syllable that came to his blank mind

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

His screa room They too were shocked when they saw it

And by this point, Quenser had realized how strange this was

“Wh-where are the guards?”

They were in the detention barracks, the prison that one’s oar criminals or captured enemy soldiers were thrown into Unlike the other facilities, it had strict security, but no one showed up when Quenser screas They had not even received a radio transmission

What was going on outside?

Were those bugs really so violent that they could bring down soldiers equipped heavily enough to deal with escapees or rioters?

“Wh-what is this…?”

Elfily was dumbfounded by this threat that went beyond mere bullets or knives Her mind’s ability to face a threat may have short-circuited Quenser understood all too hat that was like

The only one with any real guts was Frolaytia

She narrowed her eyes and observed the black bugs covering the entire surface of the s

“They look like a type of bell cricket I don’t know the exact nah”

“Bell?”

“Because their chirping sounds like a bell These look a lot like the ones I saw in a pet shop that specialized in the Island Nation”

Frolaytia blew smoke from her seductive lips, but it did not reach the insects on the other side of the

“But this ht be bad”

“Why? When raising crickets, you feed theht? Then this isn’t as bad as wasps or scorpions”

“Bell crickets are o each other if they aren’t given some occasional animal protein like dried sardines or ham So with this many… Take a look at that, Quenser”

“I-I’d rather not look at that disgusting mess!!”

“Just do it Besides, bell crickets are nocturnal, so it isn’t norenerally can’t fly despite having wings, so it isn’t nor theMost of all,pure black Do you knohat that means?”

“You don’t mean…”

It was busty Elfily who answered, not Quenser

“Their instinctual behavior and color are ht? So if they’ve abandoned that effort…”

“This s’ When a swar coloration and begin attacking other animals and plants This must be a similar phenomenon with the bell crickets”

Frolaytia brushed up her bangs with a hand

“And bell crickets are o carcasses and they wouldn’t think about actively preying on other creatures like this, but as you can see, things change when there are tens or even hundreds of thousands of them Even we could be bitten to pieces if they swarmed us”

“…”

“…”

It was not a nice death to think about

Their focus naturally turned toward theEven the group that had been carefully observing Skuld through the one-wayout into the corridor

So on the wire mesh installed on the outside of theand so out Was that because they were squishi+ng each other under their co on each other?

This was different fro attacked by a lion or tiger The thought of being brazenly eaten by creatures lower on the food chain brought feelings of huust The worst part of all was the cruelty of how they could not be communicated with, how they could not be killed easily, and how they were entirely indiscriminate

They knew all that, but ere they supposed to do now?

“I can’t believe this It doesn’twe can do We’ll use up all our ammo in no time and then they’ll swarm us,” said Quenser “But if we ask the Princess to deal with thenum, she would just bloay the maintenance base zone with us inside …Hm? Come to think of it, what happened to the Princess!?”

He quickly pulled out his radio, but no aot any response

He only heard even static

“You’re kidding, right? Don’t tell s took out a colossal weapon that can survive a nuke!”

“No, they wouldn’t be able to do that ineer, you should know a lot of rando used to predict unexpected tornados?”

“When the radar picks up the bugs that are caught in the supercell, they know a tornado is probably co …Hold on”

“Yes Insects reflect electro deal, but when his many of thenal”