Volume 2, 4 − Song of the Starry Sky Part 1

Volume 2, Chapter 4 ? Song of the Starry Sky Part 1

There was a small spiral of light, coiled in the sky.

It was very hard to see, but once you realized it was there, you would see that it appeared to be pulsating in a blue color, looking like the Pleiades cluster.

“Isn’t it time yet… How much longer is this going to take…”

Khalija was looking up at it with a flustered expression.

It had already been more than ten minutes.

She knew that it would take time, but did not expect that an unscheduled 『Activation』 would take such a long time.

“I won’t be able to buy much time if I’m up against Hideo. Every second counts. Hurry up……!”

The spiral of light that Khalija was looking at as if she was praying eventually coalesced into a pillar of light that dominated the heavens, and a small point of darkness opened up in the center.

“Alright! It’s open!”

If anyone saw it from far away, it probably looked like an illuminated christmas tree rising into the sky.

That was the appearance of the Polar Body Advanced Sorcery, the 『Return Path』 of the 『Gate Tower』.

『Grrrrrr! Grrrrrrrrah!』

“……No matter how much you cry out in that low voice, no one will be able to hear you from here. Seriously, having a place like this close by was really convenient”

After being able to calm down a little, Khalija looked around.

She was in a huge park.

Although she had captured the Shii that Shouko Tatewaki had transformed into, she had not thought about what to do after that.

However, Khalija had no other options when she saw that Shouko’s Shii had once again approached the Kenzaki house.

If a single Shii that was only slightly stronger than average was discovered in a place where Hideo, Madoka, and Diana were gathered, they would no doubt destroy it without a second thought.

Besides, this Shii was no ordinary Shii.

Only Khalija knew that Tatewaki Shouko had turned into a Shii while still alive.

If Dianaze or the members of the Kenzaki family destroyed it without realizing that, there was no telling what the consequences might be.

“That said, there’s no guarantee that you can be saved even if I take you back to Ante Lande with me…”

A snake of light was coiled around Shouko’s Shii a little distance above the ground, raising its neck like a poisonous serpent.

“…Looks like it was true after all. As long as they’re not touching the ground…”

If a defeated Shii was left unattended for too long without sending it off, it would be engulfed in a swirl of black flame similar to when it appeared and would get sucked into the the ground.

In that case, to keep a Shii from escaping, you just had to prevent it from touching the ground.

“Should I laugh at the fact that you are so inflexible, or moan at the fact that doing something like this is difficult precisely because it sounds simple?”

After giving a lonely smile, Khalija looked down at her hand.

In her hand was Marfik, which had shrunk down to a size that could fit in her palm.

The 『Snakebone』 Marfik looked like nothing more than a rod at first glance.

However, in reality it was a collection of small, individual units of cylindrical shape, and by controlling each of those units with the power of sorcery, the weapon could be made to take various shapes.

By detaching the individual units and re-attaching them with sorcery, it could be quickly turned into a sorcerous rope like its current form.

Although manipulating it was very easy for her to do, it was extremely difficult for anyone who was not used to handling it. Khalija had first realized this soon after she was assigned to the Research Division.

Marfik was one of the variations of a Techno Weapon created by her father.

After enlisting in the Knights Division and being welcomed into the Research Division with a lot of fanfare, Khalija had held the ambition of wanting to spread the name of this weapon that was notorious for being difficult to use, as well as the name of her deceased father.

However, no matter how much she tried to forcefully make it popular, there was no point if there was no one who could actually use it.

It was then that she had found those blueprints.

The blueprints were drawn up in her father’s style and in his handwriting, but it had been abandoned before being completed. Apparently, it was a design for a new Techno Weapon that was a stripped down version of Marfik, with reduced features and lower production cost.

Its name was Sinistra, the 『Gosetsu』[3].

Apparently, it was capable of taking on different shapes depending on the situation.

She didn’t know at the time why her father had abandoned the design before completing it.

Looking at the date on the blueprints, she saw that he had been working on it just before he passed away, so maybe he had just passed away before he managed to complete it.

At that moment, Khalija had become convinced that completing this Sinistra would be a shortcut to reviving the Marfik.

At that time, there had been a competition by the Research Division to develop the next generation of Techno Weapons. Khalija took over her father’s design, put all her ability into completing it, and turned it in as an entry for the competition.

It cleared many document selection rounds and product tests, and when it was finally selected for combat testing by the military, Khalija had felt proud from the bottom of her heart.

To train a person in using a Techno Weapon like the Marfik which had a high degree of variability, you would first have to train them to be capable of selecting the correct weapon based on the situation, and they would also need to train in using that particular weapon.

In addition, the Magitech Frameworks required by the weapon would increase, which meant that the weapon would not only cost more to produce, but also become more difficult to use. Only a limited number of people would be able to use it.

However, the Sinistra was a weapon with five, fixed forms that the wielder could choose from, so she had thought that it would counteract the complexities associated with a variable-form weapon, and could be wielded by more users.

It would be possible to develop Magitech Knights and Techno Weapons that could adapt to the ever-changing situations on a battlefield.

To Khalija, it looked like an extremely beautiful form of a soldier who had reached their peak.

“…I thought it was for the best. But it was bad luck. For both of us.”

Khalija looked upwards, toward the sky.

The hole in the sky had opened sufficiently.

With this, it should be able to somehow manage both herself and Shouko’s Shii.

“Wait for me, Father.”

『Gugu…. Grrrrrrr~』

After ensuring that Shouko’s Shii was still firmly restrained by the snake of light, Khalija flew up towards the hole that led to another world, the Gate Tower, guided by a pillar of stardust.

The inside of the Tower was also a space filled with stardust.

“Ugh, so heavy.”

As she thought, the Shii was also being counted as a heavy mass.

No, was it because the original body of the Shii was still alive?

“But it’s okay… Just a little… Just a little more!”

Her speed was less than half of what it had been when she came to Japan.

However, it was fine now. Since she had managed to enter the Gate Tower, she didn’t have to worry about being caught by Hideo and the others anymore.

If anything, the true battle would start once she made it to the other side.

Although she had been charged with the mission of working with Dianaze as her assistant, she was coming back after only a few days. What’s more, instead of Hideo the Hero, she was bringing back a Shii. Of course people would wonder what was going on.

If she was not careful, she could end up imprisoned and stripped of her military rank.

She was ready to face the consequences even if that came to pass, but it most likely would not.

There were plans to capture a Shii to learn more about them from when they had first started to appear, but all attempts to do so had ended in failure.

If she and Marfik were to succeed where so many others had failed, it would surely bring her closer to her dream.

『Grrrrr.』

The growls of the Shii brought Khalija back to reality from her dark desire.

What was I thinking just now?

Get closer to my dream? How idiotic.

Just for the sake of one wish, I was prepared to throw everything away.

I knew that every sacrifice made along the way was necessary.

That is why, if this wish is fulfilled, I cannot hope for anything else.

Once I return to Resteria, I will most probably be arrested, despite the circumstances.

However, I’m sure that 『she』 will make arrangements to get me released from prison in due time.

That was our initial agreement, and it wouldn’t be surprising for 『her』 to have that kind of influence in the first place.

This gift is also meant to ensure that she keeps up her end of the bargain.

Once everything is over and 『she』 grants my 『wish』, I will wipe away all traces of myself.

I will live in poverty in some place nobody knows about and wait for my life to come to an end.

That is what I have decided.

“……I’m sorry.”

After unconsciously touching her circlet once again, Khalija apologized to the girl from a different world, and was about to laugh at herself for her own incompetence, when,

“!?”

All of a sudden, the stardust around her wavered.

Her flight speed dropped.

The mass being transported increased.

Impossible. She had released such a large number of Shii into middle of the city.

There was no way they could have caught up to her so quickly.

Besides, it had already been several minutes since she had entered the Tower. The entrance should have closed long ago.

“!?”

Looking back, she saw a portion of the view of Japan that she was supposed to have left behind, surrounded by the stars of the Pleiades.

The entrance was not closed. It had been anchored in place.

The entrance of the Gate Tower should have closed automatically, but someone had forced it open.

Something was heading towards her at high speed from the open entrance.

There was no need to consider who that was, it was obvious.

“Ugh… A little more. Just a little more, and…”

However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not increase her own speed.

The propulsion force of the entire tower had dropped because of the person who was closing in on her from behind.

“……!”

Khalija gritted her teeth and looked backwards once again, and in that instant, she changed her strategy after seeing that person.

“……I can’t turn back from this path anyways!”

Khalija gave up on trying to run away and descended to stand on the wall of the tower of stars.

Perhaps because gravity was warped, she was able to stand on the wall of the cylindrical tower instead of falling back towards Japan that she had left behind her.

Seeing that, her pursuers also landed on the wall a little distance away from her.

“You came faster than I expected.”

Did her voice tremble when she said that?

While worrying about that, Khalija looked towards Dianaze Krone and Kenzaki Yasuo, who had followed her into the Gate Tower.

“Colonel… Colonel, what is the meaning of this!?”

“What do you mean by ‘this?’ The fact that I’m using the Gate Tower to go back? Or the fact that I’m taking this Shii along with me? Or maybe… the fact that Shii appeared in city right after I started behaving suspiciously?”

“……!”

Diana looked shocked at the manner in which Khalija spoke.

Each of those were questions that Diana had wanted to ask, and she had hoped that Khalija was not involved in any of them.

“Let me make this clear, I wasn’t lying when I said that I was sent to Japan to assist you. I have written orders from Her Excellency Erijna and His Majesty himself. It’s just that I had another, personal, objective in addition to that.”

“A different objective? Colonel, what happened to you all of a sudden!? Going against royal orders and releasing Shii in the middle of a peaceful city, what is so important to you that you would go so far to achieve it!?”

Diana’s shout echoed through the emptiness of the tower of stars.

“I don’t plan of doing anything in particular. I have no intention of rebelling against my country. It’s just that I was weak. I was incompetent. Because of that, a bad person took advantage of me. I didn’t want people to scold me for falling into the clutches of a bad person, so I desperately hid the fact. That’s all.”

“I don’t understand! I don’t understand, Colonel! What are you talking about!?”

“You don’t need to understand. Major Krone. You, who have worked hard and overcome many trials without losing to the pressure from your family’s name, managed to free your father from the terrifying flames of the Shii, and are strong enough to fight alone in a different world will probably never understand. That’s why, if you want to stop me, you’ll have to fight me here.”

“Colonel! That wasn’t because I was strong! People who have died cannot come back to life, that is a law of nature! I had no choice but to submit to that!”

“…Just the fact that you can admit that is proof that you are strong, and I am weak. My aim is to twist that law, after all.”

“I don’t understand what your objective is that requires twisting the laws of nature, but what does Tatewaki-san have to do with any of it?”

It was clear that Khalija had no intention of listening to Diana. Yasuo summoned his resolve and asked Khalija that question.

“So you had already realized, Yasuo? That this Shii is Shouko Tatewaki.”

“……I only realized it quite recently. Tatewaki-san is a person from Japan. I don’t know why she turned into a Shii, but I can’t let you take her away. Please give her back.”

“What do you plan on doing if I give her back? I don’t think you have the ability to do something about this inexplicable phenomenon that caused a living person to turn into a Shii.”

『……』

Shouko’s Shii, which was still bound by Marfik and had been growling and struggling until earlier, now just stared at Yasuo with its red eyes.

“We’ll find a way, back in Japan.”

“Are you implying that Japan has any institutions that are capable of researching a phenomenon like this?”

“Of course not. But I know that it’s still a better idea than letting you take her away. The fact that you hid from us and tried to do things in secret proves that whatever you have planned for Tatewaki-san, it’s nothing good.”

“Hahaha. No doubt.”

Khalija’s eyes were completely serious.

“In that case, why did you come here?”

“Eh?”

“Is it because this girl is your friend? It should have been Hideo the Hero who came after me, or if not, Major Krone should have come alone.”

“That’s because…… Guh!”

That sensation and impact were something he had never experienced until now.

“Y-Yasuo!!!!”

Diana’s scream echoed throughout the Tower.

Yasuo’s body shook violently, and he fell to his knees on the wall of stardust.

Blood flowed out from his body from the side of his body that had been pierced, and spread into the world beyond the wall in the form of a haze.

At some point, Khalija had held up the cylindrical Marfik and was pointing it towards Yasuo like a handgun.

There was a hole on the end of the cylinder. She had fired a magical bullet from there.

She had fired it at Yasuo. A human.

A young man who had intended to risk his life for Resteria.

“Remember what I told you in the beginning? A person who can’t even stand by themselves will only die on the battlefield.”

From his position of kneeling, Yasuo fell over like a rag doll.

“I avoided his vitals. But if you don’t get him to a hospital soon, he’ll die.”

“Guaaaaaah.”

It was not a scream.

However, Yasuo, still lying on the ground, cried out once the pain finally hit him.

His brain could not handle that level of pain.

However, the signals that his life was in danger spread to every cell in his body, and filled his heart with fear.

“You intended to become a Hero with this level of ability?”

Khalija spat out those words as if she was disgusted, and suddenly, a shadow fell across her face.

Diana had closed the distance with Khalija in an instant, after deploying her twin swords at full power.

“Coloneeeeeel!!”

“That’s a good face. That’s what a soldier should look like.”

Khalija manipulated Marfik and blocked both the swords without batting an eyelash.

“!?”

“It was unfortunate.”

Diana’s body wavered for a second after encountering this unexpected defence, and Khalija didn’t let that chance escape as she pointed the finger of her left hand at Diana’s body that was completely open to attack.

As Diana attempted to jump back to avoid getting attacked, something terrifyingly powerful grazed her flank and the shockwave was transmitted throughout her body.

“Ugh… Gah!?”

Something small slammed into Diana from outside her field of view without making a sound as she tried to gain some distance.

“Gah!!!”

Without being able to avoid that hit or even discern its nature, she took the brunt of Khalija’s melee attack and was slammed into the wall of stars.

“Guuhaa!!”

She didn’t take any damage from that as it was not truly a solid wall, but she definitely received a fracture from that last attack.

She had managed to pull off a surprise attack, but could not do anything against Marfik at all.

“You’re a hundred years too early to try and beat Marfik and me with such an ordinary attack and such an ordinary Techno Weapon.”

Khalija grabbed Diana by the hair as she lay on the ground and pulled her upright.

“Can you see it? This is the true essence of my Marfik.”

After being pulled up, what Diana saw were over thirty small cylinders.

Each one of them glowed when receiving the light of sorcery from Khalija’s hand, connected with each other, and moved about freely.

This is what had hit Diana from a place outside her field of view earlier.

Khalija had controlled one of the units with a magical tether and slammed it into Diana.

If she wanted to, she could probably use each one of those units as bullets that could even break through rock and shred an opponent to pieces.

“You can still stand, right? Take Yasuo and go back right now. Even though I avoided his vitals, he’s an untrained civilian. If he loses even a little blood, he will die. If you’re too late, then none of your wishes will come true.”

“……Why are you doing this?”

“You want to hear my reasons right now? Is hearing the cause of my madness more important to you than Yasuo’s life?”

“Colonel…!”

“Making an expression like that won’t stop me, and won’t save Yasuo either. Disappear from my sight. I will also disappear, and will never meet either of you again.”

Khalija released Diana’s hair and started to walk back towards the snake of light that was still restraining Shouko’s Shii.

“…Why?”

“Hmm?”

However, she was stopped by a voice that was distorted in pain, and turned around with a annoyed expression.

“Why are you doing something like this?”

Yasuo, while drenched in sweat, had still raised his head and was looking at her.

“……Yasuo. Do you realize what kind of situation you’re in right now? You’ll die. A magical bullet blew right through you, and there’s a hole in your body where holes should not exist. Or has the fear made you go insane?”

“Shut up, I already know. But Khali… you’re not the sort of person who would do something like this.”

“Actually, I just did.”

“You must have a reason. Let me know what it is. Don’t make me ask you so many times.”

Khalija smiled charmingly in a manner that was no different from the smile she had shown Yasuo during the past three days when she had been teasing him, and lowered her shoulders.

“Is it one of those ‘My last request before I enter the abyss’ things? Well, fine. The abyss is the realm of the dead, right? My story is related to that, in a way. If things end like this, Major Krone won’t have much to put in her report either.”

“Gu… ahh.”

Diana lifted herself up and prepared to leap at Khalija, but,

“I won’t let my guard down. Listen to me quietly.”

With a slight motion of her finger, she transformed one of the units of Marfik into handcuffs and pinned Diana against the wall of the Tower.

“Have you heard about the fact that my father was a Techno Weapons craftsman? He passed away before I grew up, but among my sisters I was the one who inherited his talent to the greatest degree. My father also imparted all the knowledge and skills that he could to me. He was an incorrigible drunkard and, with his age being what it was, he probably knew his time was near. In any case, because of the knowledge of Techno Weapons and the skills I inherited from my father, I was able to have a successful career in the Knights Division after his death. Her Excellency Erijina also kept an eye on me because she got to know my father through their work on the Regulus of 『Lightning』. I used to stand in front of my father’s grave and say that I was proud. I was such an idiot.”

Khalija crouched in front of Yasuo and her shoulders shook as she laughed quietly.

“But you know what? No matter how much skill you have, and how many things you learn, you will never be able to make a good Techno Weapon if you still have the heart of a child. If the craftsman does not understand 『the beauty of the weapon』, then it will never be transmitted to the person who wields it. By the time I realized that fact, many things had already passed the point of no return. Hey, Dianaze Krone.”

At first, Diana’s ears could only register that as a sound.

“What would you do if I told you that the underlying cause of General Alexei Krone’s death lies with me?”

“…Ha?”

Diana’s motions of trying to desperately break out of Marfik’s restraints suddenly stopped.

“If not for my thoughtless actions, your father might not have died.”

“………What… are you…”

“There were many things going on at the national level when General Alexei was sent on that mission during which he died. Along with the General, that expedition had many veteran Magitech Knights as well. It had been thirty years since the world entered an era of peace. As nobody expected to find monsters like the Shii, that expedition force was tasked with carrying out many 『experiments』. Now that I think of it, that expedition was also your first battle, right?”

Images of that incident which she had never forgotten flashed through Diana’s mind.

She had been in the tent with the other surveying officers, the people who were tasked with surveying the land, comparing what they saw to the topographical maps that had been prepared in advance, and determining what direction the expedition force would travel in.

Diana had been struggling with her paperwork inside that tent.

Neither her senior Magitech Knights, nor the veteran surveying officers expected to have to fight.

The Techno Weapons on her waist were pretty much just a decoration. There were even people who had no Techno Weapons within reach because they got in the way when drawing maps.

The Swordmaster, Alexei Krone, was present, and he was in command of veteran officers and the companies under them. In ordinary conditions, the surveying officers should have never found themselves in combat.

However, the result was that the expeditionary force fell apart after the raid by the Shii.

Unable to properly carry out even half of the retreat plan that had been set up in advance, the expeditionary force fell into a rout and Alexei had been killed.

Diana couldn’t really remember what she had been doing back then.

All she could remember was obeying the orders of her superior, and running desperately to the designated point without breaking formation.

She hadn’t been worried about her father’s safety.

The series of events that happened that day were a source of never-ending repentance for Diana.

“That expedition was also tasked with the official combat testing of a new generation of Techno Weapons. A few of the Magitech Knights were ordered to submit reports on the new model Techno Weapons after the mission was completed. Based on their results, the plan was to deploy the new Techno Weapons in a few selected divisions of the army. There were three new types of Techno Weapons to be tested, with fifty people testing each type. A total of one hundred and fifty people in that expedition had been assigned new Techno Weapons. Of the three, one of them was the the 『Gosetsu』, Sinistra, that I had developed. It was a variable Techno Weapon that could take five forms, namely a polearm, a longsword, a bow, twin swords, and twin pistols. I wanted to take this Techno Weapon that my father left unfinished and make it popular around the world, and someday increase the number of Knights who would be able to use Marfik.”

Her smile turned dark.

She was using that Marfik to kidnap a girl from another world.

『Grrrrrrr.』

Khalija continued to speak while turning around to look at Shouko’s ferociously growling Shii.

“All fifty people to whom my Techno Weapon was assigned, died. Not a single one of them made it back.”

“!!”

“……Seriously?”

“When testing new weapons, you need to be prepared to face unexpected situations. General Alexei was also aware of this, so he stationed the hundred and fifty people who had volunteered to test the new weapons close to himself. Apparently, he said that even should some of the new weapons fail against the mysterious new enemy, he would be able to protect them. However, you know the result. Instead of protecting their wielders and the General, my weapons presented their hearts to the Shii on a silver platter. Of course, there were other companies that fell into rout as well. However, all fifty people who used my weapon died, and the reason for that was simple. Sinistra was completely unready to handle the reality of the battlefield.”

“……What happened?”

“A deficit in durability due to the complicated shape-changing mechanism built into the weapon. Magitech Frameworks that demanded delicate control of sorcery for shifting the forms even in emergency situations. There were several other flaws that we don’t have the time to go into. Don’t you think it’s funny? Of the new generation weapons that were recovered on a later date, more than half of the 『Gosetsu』 were not in any one of the five standard forms.”

The weapons had failed in the initial steps of transformation, or the wielders had been killed while the weapons were in the middle of changing forms, or they had completely failed to change form in the first place.

However, the recovered weapons all had the same story to tell; their wielders had been killed before they could put up any sort of resistance at all.

“I ended up in a sorry state, like a snake that doesn’t know where to go and ends up tying its own body into knots.”

For a craftsman who had been told that beauty is strength, this was a very difficult sight to withstand.

“Since ancient times, weapon craftsmen have known that their creations were meant for the purpose of hurting other people. Even so, they took pride in the fact that that the weapons would protect their wielders, and the country that stood behind them. But what about me? I was conceited because of my skills and my father’s fame, and ended up causing the deaths of the people who wielded my weapons and the Hero who protected the nation. I was immature, and the weapon that I created for the sake of winning a stupid competition ended up taking the lives of fifty people!!”

“……Ugh!”

As if responding to Khalija’s rage, Marfik bound Shouko’s Shii and Diana even tighter.

“I finally realized the reason why my father had left Sinistra unfinished. Even five forms is still too much. In battle, there is such a thing as an optimal disposition of troops. There is no point putting your troops armed with longswords in the same place as your archers. What use is a bow to a soldier who fights on the front lines? My father realized that half-baked versatility does not give more options, but instead reduces the level of each available option. That is why he abandoned Sinistra before it was completed, even though he came up with the idea. If you want to wield Marfik, then you have to wield it from the start.”

Khalija’s words came from her mouth without any hesitation.

She had probably had the same conversation with herself many times, many dozens of times, maybe hundreds of times.

Neither Yasuo nor Diana could say anything to interrupt her regret that had been refined to this extent.

“Nobody blamed me. It was the responsibility of the Research Division that had approved the design for combat testing, and moreover, there hadn’t been any problems in the earlier tests. That’s why my superior at the Research Division just told me to keep working hard. However, I wasn’t mentally strong enough to go back to my research just like that. Fifty Magitech Knights. The Swordmaster, Alexei Krone. Even though the Research Division knew just how huge the loss caused by me was, they just told me that. Remember what I said, Yasuo? The current Resteria is completely different from the land that Hideo traveled through thirty years ago.”

Just who was the scorn in her voice aimed at?

Was it the whole world, or perhaps at herself?

“It was only later that I found out that the Research Division had a hostile relationship with Her Excellency Erijina, who was carrying out Techno Weapon research on her own. In that peaceful world, the Division was just carrying out erratic research while being kept afloat with tax money, after all. Apparently, they didn’t see eye to eye with the country’s Heroes, the Krone couple, who expected constant innovation and integrity. There are records saying that when Her Excellency Erijina created the Regulus for General Alexei, the Research Division protested. They said that they would lose face in front of the citizens and other Magitech Knights, and that more consideration should be given when selecting the General’s weapon. Don’t you think that’s hilarious?”

“Something… Something like that…”

“From my perspective as a journeyman craftsman of Torjesso working on getting my Meister title, I could only see Resteria’s Techno Weapon Research Division as a rotten organization filled with bureaucracy. More than half of the contents written in the research process documentation were flimsy excuses to get a larger budget. Even the process of handing down skills to the next generation was perfunctory. All they did was to gauge the mood of the top brass and carry out trivial upgrades to trivial Techno Weapons, and they were using Magitech Frameworks that were several generations behind what other countries in the world were using. A country like that told me that I shouldn’t worry about getting fifty Magitech Knights and one of the country’s Heroes killed. It was insane.”

Khalija’s anger was burning as dark as that of the Shii’s, but the tone of her voice suddenly dropped.

“But the most insane person there was me. Fifty people—no it was far more than that if you count the number of people who were involved with them—died because of my arrogance, and here I was still living on like nothing had happened. I misappropriated a design that my father had already discarded and stained the name of Welleger as well. That was why I left the Research Division and moved to being a front line fighter. So that I could make up for the large hole in our defences that I had created, even if just a little. So that I could run away from my sins… but I would still see it every night, in my dreams.”

Khalija’s blue eyes wavered and she looked down at her own hand.

“In my dreams, the ghosts of the dead would torment me for continuing to live in spite of creating Techno Weapons that killed their wielders instead of their enemies. Behind the eyes of every Shii I faced, I saw the appearance of the Magitech Knights whose faces I had never seen. That’s right. I didn’t even know what the Knights who died using my weapons looked like. After some time passed, I had a thought. What would my father, a Meister, do at a time like this?”

Khalija’s father, Claudius, who was a citizen of the Grand Duchy of Torjesso, had escaped from the invading hordes of Demon King Kaul’s armies and sought refuge in Resteria. Back then, when Techno Weapons still did not exist, he was a weaponsmith who delivered a fixed number of arms and armour to Torjesso’s Knights Division from his own workshop.

“I only inherited my father’s knowledge and his techniques, I did not inherit his heart. I did not learn what beauty means. I had reached a certain level in knowledge and technique, but my father passed away before he could teach me to train my heart.”

Her fellow craftsmen, and rival researchers at the Research Division. Or even the weapon craftsmen who worked on the streets.

There were many people from whom Khalija could have learned the proper mindset required to craft weapons.

However, the Techno Weapon craftsman named Khalija Welleger had been replicating her father’s work for so long that she was incapable of adjusting her feelings based on the opinions of strangers.

“Would my father have scolded me for using designs that he had discarded to further my own ambitions? Or would he have talked to me about his own experiences of weapons he made failing to protect their wielders? Or would he have pushed me away without saying anything, and told me find the answer myself? I had no way to find out. Even so, I didn’t even know how to carry the sin of indirectly causing the deaths of fifty Magitech Knights and the country’s Hero without my father’s advice that was impossible to obtain. Major Krone. You praised someone like me for inheriting the title of Meister, didn’t you? Can you still say the same thing about me after hearing this? A failure like me who stole the name of her father, dirtied it, and yet could not help but cling to it!?”

Khalija looked at Diana who was pinned to the wall of stars.

“……You were given the mission to summon Hideo the Hero, Major Krone, and when your first report made its way back to Resteria, that woman appeared before me. She gave me this circlet and said something to me.”

“Woman?”

In spite of having an agonized expression due to the pain, Yasuo furrowed his eyebrows.

“She told me that the Shii are just the dead people who are coming back to life. She said that they are still just incomplete expressions formed from the dregs of the spirits left over in this world, but that it would someday be possible to bring the dead back to this world… She said that she would be able to bring my father back to this world.”

“Did you actually believe something like that!? A person like you, Colonel, believing that the dead can come back to life!?”

When it was discovered that the Shii had the same appearance as the people who died during the war with Demon King Kaul, there were quite a few similar theories that said the same thing.

However, because of the Shii’s bizarre appearance, and their cruel tendency to steal the hearts of the living, such theories quickly lost traction.

There were whispers of a heretical cult that worshipped the Shii and claimed that they were lost souls who were coming back to life, but those rumors were not even at the level of becoming an urban legend; they were just on the level of being scary stories that kids told to scare each other.

That was why Diana couldn’t believe that Khalija took such idle gossip at face value.

“I believed her.”

“Why!!?”

Khalija’s reply was brief.

“She came to me, accompanied by fifty Shii who were equipped with Sinistra. What more reason would I need?”

““…!!””

Both Yasuo and Diana were lost for words.

Just imagining the sight of fifty Shii was enough to make a chill run down their spines, and on top of that they were all equipped with the 『failed experiment』 that Khalija regretted more than anything.

Perhaps that was the sight that Khalija had kept seeing in her dreams.

Moreover, that 『woman』 had chosen those fifty Shii equipped with Sinistra, knowing that it would pave the way for darkness in Khalija’s heart. At the very least, she certainly seemed to have the ability to 『selectively choose from amongst the dead』.

However, in spite of that.

“I thought that they had appeared to kill me. Part of me hoped that was true, and it was even something I had seen in my dreams. However, she said it wasn’t like that. She said that it was would be possible for me to apologize to them directly, and even receive judgement from them directly. However, there was still something that was lacking to reach that stage. She told me that a 『latch』 was required.”

“……A latch?”

“Yeah. She said that right now it was only possible to summon a shadow of their previous existence like the Shii, but if she could open the door fully, then it would be possible to summon a more complete existence. And she needed a 『latch』 for that purpose. I was still in a daze from seeing the fifty Shii before me, and I asked her what she meant by a latch. If she wanted to open a door, shouldn’t she be searching for a key instead? But she insisted that it was a 『latch』. Ever since the Shii appeared, she had been releasing them all over the world to try and find this latch. However, she had reached the limit of what she could do by herself, so she gave me this circlet. Apparently, it is possible to seal a certain number of Shii into the crimson stone embedded in this circlet and carry them around. She told me to use them to search for the latch…. But I never expected to find it in a different world, while on a mission that I just happened to recieve.”

Khalija slowly turned around.

Yasuo and Diana followed her sight and froze.

A latch to summon the dead back into the world of the living.

“It is a living person who harbors one of the dead.”

“Colonel! Please, stop this! Dead people cannot come back to life! People have no choice but to accept the pain and suffering that even the gods cannot do anything about…!”

The heartfelt cries of Diana, who had lost her father twice, failed to reach Khalija.

“What power do the gods have? If what I am doing is heretical, then it is their fault for making a world where people can lose their way.”

After declaring her scorn for the entire world, Khalija stood up, as if signalling that the conversation was at an end.

“Killing the two of you here would be simple, but I don’t want to do that. After all, I am the kind of person who would believe a story that ordinary people would laugh at, and betrayed all of you and my country because of that. The two of you don’t need to forget about my betrayal, it’s better if you hate me for it. I stayed here for this long talking about my past, because I don’t want you to struggle to come up with excuses for my behavior. I will never appear before you again. I might be dead in the near future. Once word of my pathetic death reaches you, I would be happy if you feel relieved.”

Saying that, she turned around and walked towards Shouko’s Shii.

“Colonel… Colonel, please wait.”

“I will leave that unit to you. You can use it as evidence during my trial. Goodbye.”

Khalija ignored Diana’s cries, waved her hand casually, and made to leave, when,

“Wait.”

Someone grabbed her wrist and forced her to stop.

“!?”

“I haven’t given you permission to leave yet.”

What Khalija saw when she turned around in shock was,

“For starters, return my tracksuit.”

It was the face of Kenzaki Yasuo.

The match was decided in an instant.

“Gah!!”

An intense pain ran through her wrist, and Khalija lost her balance.

Not only that, more than half of Marfik’s units that had been floating suddenly lost their support and scattered across the surface of the tower of stars.

“Kuh!!”

Diana’s restraints were fully undone, and the restraints binding Shouko’s Shii almost came undone.

Diana, who had recovered some stamina after being forced to kneel for so long, hurriedly jumped towards Yasuo and Khalija, but Khalija had already shaken off Yasuo’s hand, moved away from him, and prioritized maintaining the bonds restraining Shouko’s Shii.

“There’s no point in doing all this if you get away!”

『Grr…. Grrrrrrrr.』

“Yasuo!? Yasuo, are you okay!? What just happened…”

“W-Why!? Why can you still stand!?”

For both Diana and Khalija, just the fact that Yasuo was able to stand was enough of a shock, but they were unable to suppress their astonishment at the fact that he had also used some unknown magic to nullify more than half of Khalija’s Marfik.

“……I’m probably not cut out for it after all. The kind of magic used to attack other people, I mean. I’ve never even been in a serious fight.”

He seemed to lose his strength at the same moment Diana moved to support him, and almost fell over. However, there was still strength in his gaze as he looked at Khalija.

Diana unconsciously looked at the part where the magical bullet from Marfik had pierced Yasuo.

It was his left flank.

Even though Khalija had avoided damaging his internal organs, Yasuo’s body was far weaker than that of any Magitech Knight. There was no way that he could be alright after having his body pierced through.

But what was happening here?

The blood had stopped flowing and was clotted, and the wound was in the process of closing.

“Everyone wants to become like the person they admire, and if there is someone close by who is brilliant, they want to become like that person, but they can’t. They cannot win against people with talent. If that talented person is also hard working, then it feels like there’s nothing that can be done.”

What was running through Yasuo’s mind was the sight of his little sister, who was also a student facing exams like himself, born from the same parents, managing to use flame sorcery after just listening to explanations from the sidelines despite the fact that Yasuo was unable to do it, no matter how carefully he was instructed.

Born with talent, knowledgeable about worldly affairs, and has good grades.

That was his talented little sister, who unhesitatingly called him useless to his face.

“But just because I don’t have talent, I can’t just keel over and die. In that case… I have no option but to do something that I am at least reasonably good at, and somehow stay alive… In the first place, I might feel that the grass is greener on her side, but I have no idea how she herself feels about it.”

“……No way, Yasuo, that wound…”

“If my Dad could do it, I just thought that I would be able to do it too… I might not be as good as a cleric, but Khalija-san also showed it to me, didn’t she? She showed me that Magitech Knights could use it as well.”

Healing magic.

It was a type of magic used for things like treating external wounds, alleviating disease to a certain extent, and removing poison from the body.

It was one of the few miracles left that could not be replicated by the Magitech Frameworks in Techno Weapons, and could only be performed by humans using 『Magic』.

After the fight against William, Hideo’s healing magic had even fixed Diana’s broken bones.

Khalija had also used the same power to heal the cut on Yasuo’s throat.

“I, too, want to look cool while fighting. I want to be like Diana and Khalija-san, like my Dad and Mom, taking down enemies without breaking a sweat and protecting my family. But I’m probably useless at things like that. I’m not cut out for that. Moreover, I’m so frightened that I can’t even keep myself standing firmly. In spite of that, it was you who told me that there was something I could do better than anyone else, Khalija-san… When I tried it, I was surprisingly able to do it. Although it still hurts quite a bit.”

“……I’m regretting ever telling you that. Although I don’t remember telling you the location of the main unit.”

“Hehe, I heard that from you as well. Don’t you remember, Khalija-san? You told me that Sorcery Circuits are weak against electricity. Such a small 『main unit』 probably has no durability to speak of. Sorry for breaking it.”

The bangles on Khalija’s wrists. One of them had been fried by Yasuo’s lightning magic.

Those bangles were the main units of the Snakebone, the control towers, so to speak.

“How did you know about them?”

“It was because you weren’t touching any of the other units. The reason why Castor and Pollux are specially made to be used by the right and left hands respectively is because they absorb magical energy from the portion of the grip that is in contact with the palm, right? In that case, I assumed that you wouldn’t be able to control the units without some mechanism to supply the magical energy, and kept watching while healing myself. And then I saw that the threads of magical energy that extended from the units closest to you were concentrated not at your palms, but at your wrists instead.”

“……You got me there.”

Perhaps it was painful, as Khalija fingered her wrist while smiling.

“I had completely let my guard down. I didn’t expect that you were such a quick-witted person who was capable of looking at things so calmly.”

“Despite my appearance, I’ve come close to dying once. You know about that, right?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. If it’s about numbers then I’ve experienced it far more times than you.”

“So you’re losing to beginner’s luck… being exprienced must be scary as well.”

“…Damn brat.”

Khalija’s expression lost all traces of being laid back.

Seeing that, Diana once again raised Castor and stood in front of Yasuo.

“Sorry, Diana. The healing worked pretty well, but the lightning was bad. I feel like I’m about to throw up.”

Despite the fact that he couldn’t even make a proper flame, he had generated an electric current strong enough to destroy a Techno Weapon.

Yasuo was assailed by a sense of energy loss and dizziness like he hadn’t eaten for three days, and collapsed to the ground, feeling like vomiting.

“Please don’t worry… I won’t be defeated this time. We don’t have much time either. I’ll settle this quickly.”

“Major Krone. Do you think that you can defeat me now, just because half of Marfik is gone?”

“Yes, I believe I can. No, I will defeat you.”

“……Very well. But I can’t hold back this time either. You will die.”

“Prepare yourself.”

While Yasuo was collapsed on the ground, the two beautiful Magitech Knights faced each other with their lives on the line.

“………”

However, Yasuo was no longer looking at them.

『……』

He was only looking at Shouko’s Shii, that kept staring at him.

※