Book 10: Chapter 9: Gerbera
Around Baron Glynn's main planet.
I was sitting in my chair watching the light of the battle happening on the ground.
On the ground, looking down from space, the descending allied units were destroying the Calvinists one after another.
The enemy fleet had been waiting around the main planet, but was now drifting around in debris.
The only fleet around is the fleet that was supposed to have broken away - in other words, the only allies.
The enemy fleet that has gathered and attacked with the allies that have joined it is now watching the ground battle.
"Kurt's really going at it."
While I was watching Kurt's activities on the monitor, Theodore, who was very upset from earlier, repeatedly asked as if she were yelling at me.
"Count Banfield, what is the meaning of this!"
"What do you mean?"
"The game should have already been won! And then you play this trick on us."
It offends me to be called a cheat.
But let's play the fool and tease Theodore here.
"Is that so? Sorry about that. But - now the Calvinists have suffered a major blow. It will also ensure that His Highness Cleo will take the position of Crown Prince."
"What's the problem with this, if His Highness Cleo is going to win?" Theodore turned red in the face and argued with me.
"Even if you win by such tricks, no one will recognize His Highness Cleo! Count Banfield, you will be held accountable when you return."
I looked at Theodore, whose nostrils had grown wide with excitement, and noticed that she had nose hairs.
I look at Klaus, who is waiting by my side.
I have lied about Klaus being removed from the scene.
"I'm being held accountable, Klaus?"
"I'm afraid that if we are ostensibly defeated, it will have to be done."
It's a terrible story. How much I have contributed to His Highness Cleo so far. It's sad for me, too, that you don't recognize my efforts.
The grinning face of Theodore was concerned about Klaus in person.
"Why is Lord Klaus here! I thought I drove him out of this battlefield!"
Let me tell you something, Theodore.
"Oh, that was a lie. I knew you were passing information to the enemy."
"What? No, there is no such thing. That is an accusation! In the first place, I have no motive."
"--that has nothing to do with it. You betrayed me. That's all that matters."
"You've lost your bloody mind, Banfield!"
I can't concentrate on the conversation because of your nose hair.
But still, I can't stand it when she calls me out.
I turned my attention to Klaus.
"You should say something to Lord Theodore, too."
" You noticed that too, Liam-sama?"
Klaus glanced at Theodore's nose, so I guess he was talking about nose hairs?
"Yes, So let me hear your verdict."
Then Klaus, too, thought it was over and made a radical decision.
"I think it should be handled."
I thought Klaus would have advised me to handle it quietly - behind the scenes.
I was surprised by his unexpected decision.
"I'm surprised that you would say that. You're not very happy about it, are you?"
"No, sir, that's not what I meant."
Klaus looks a little puzzled, so he must be thinking that he betrayed us and we should just get rid of him.
He's a bold guy.
He may be unforgiving toward his enemies, but he is a worthy man to be my subordinate.
Klaus is the first knight after all.
"I agree. If you agree, I'll take care of it."
Elysia, who was by my side, hands me my sword.
When I took it, Theodore, sensing what was about to be done to her, showed her back and tried to run away.
"Can somebody stop this bastard?"
Immediately after, Theodore falls to the ground.
I cut the tendons of both limbs.
I get up and approach, and stomp on Theodore.
"I'm far from being in the master's realm, but I can see his back."
We are beginning to see what a master in his prime is capable of.
Theodore doesn't understand what happened, but she seems to have grown up when she sees that I won't kill her.
This woman must have thought I couldn't kill him.
"Do you think you can get away with this? You bowed to His Highness Cleo! Don't think you can get away with this."
You can tease the bullish Theodore, but if you play with her too much, you will dirty the bridge.
"Make no mistake. The only reason I didn't kill you here is because you'd make the bridge dirty. Hey, throw him out of my ship alive."
"W-What are you talking about? If you kill me, you will be forced to pay for what you have done!"
I answered Theodore's words after I carried my sword.
"Don't worry. You've reached the point of no return."
Theodore seemed to understand what I was trying to say.
However, even though she understood - she looked extremely puzzled, as if she didn't think I would go this far.
"A-Ah, you, no way*." [TL/N: Masaka*, I think. But you get the meaning so I won't bother explaining.]
"Take him away."
As the soldiers take Theodore away, I hand the sword to Elysia and sit down.
Elysia's face was tense.
"Did you have to hold the sword?"
"I can't unleash a precise, delicate One-Flash* without hands. If I shred that woman, you'll have a hard time cleaning her up. -Well, it's time to go. Klaus, attack the SS. Exterminate them all." [TL/N: Issen style/Issenryu/Isshinryu*, you know I think it would be cooler if the name is in Japanese. But I guess that's just my opinion.]
When I gave the order, Klaus was hesitant, unlike before.
"Is there something on your mind?"
"Are you sure you want to attack the SS?"
There is no turning back when you kill Theodore.
No, you can give all kinds of reasons to do so, but - if you destroy the SS here, you will have no excuse against Cleo.
- but so what?
"Tell them who they've turned against."
"Yes, sir."
Klaus was inwardly impatient.
(You wouldn't think they'd kill me after I told them about her nose hairs!)
As the story went, Klaus expected Liam to tell Theodore to take care of the nose hairs.
He did not expect that he would kill Theodore, who is an ally in one way or another, on the spot.
Besides, the order was to destroy the SS.
This is not good. No, the other party had betrayed us, but if we do this in the first place, we will really have no choice but to fight with His Highness Cleo. No, but--ah, I can't do it anymore)
No matter how much I think about it, I can't come up with an answer.
After all, the fact that the SS had betrayed us from the beginning - means that Cleo had betrayed us.
(Even if we let them go here, a confrontation with His Highness Cleo is inevitable. --I guess we're out of the woods now.)
Klaus, who is only worried about the future, carries out Liam's orders for now.
Around that time.
The guide was in the hangar of th
e battleship that was destroyed by Kurt.
The guide, who has regained his human form, is rescuing number 3588, which was buried in a pile of rubble.
"Noooooo! My trump card in a place like this!"
The hangar was a mess, and sparks were coming from various places.
It was a place where an explosion could have occurred at any time.
However, the mass-produced Avid - named Neo - and other aircraft are safe.
One of them is a special machine number 3588 and is painted red, but the machine with artificial intelligence was painted white.
All three aircraft are intact, but unfortunately, only 3588, who was checking the physical body, is injured.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mr. Hat. I got hurt."
"Haha" laughed the number 3588 powerlessly.
The guide thinks.
"Don't worry about it. Now, Liam is here. Let me take you to your aircraft."
(Really! Why the hell would you get hurt! If that's true, I thought I could at least make Liam suffer some damage, even if I couldn't beat him.)
From the beginning, the guides did not think Calvin and Cleo's plan would work.
Nevertheless, they cooperated with Liam if he was going to be harmed.
However, the trump card, the girl - only a few months old and now looking around 15 years old - has been injured and her abilities have been reduced.
Even at her best, she was no match for Liam, but this was hopeless.
(Tsk! We have no choice. Let's just let this thing stall the ground troops and hit Liam's fleet with the artificial intelligence-equipped model.)
Thinking this, the guide tells the girl about the plan.
"In that state, you can't move the mobile knights satisfactorily, can you? Then you should be on the ground to stall the enemy."
"Stalling?"
"We are going to hit Liam with the Artificial Intelligence model. If you're stuck on the ground, you'll have more time for the enemy to detect and respond."
"Yeah, all right, Mr. Hat."
"Good girl. Now, off you go."
The girl enters the cockpit and sits on the seat, and the red avid glows its twin eyes.
The other two aircraft also start up, and they destroy the surrounding walls as they are pushed aside.
"--Mr. Hat asked me to do this, so I'm going to make sure it works."
As the red Avid soars into the sky from the space created by the two aircraft, the Cleoist army notices and begins its attack.
As beams and missiles flew at them, the Red Avid pointed the shields mounted on both shoulders to the front.
The missiles explode before they hit directly, and the optical weapons are bent and unable to hit.
"You guys are in the air!"
As the two remaining Neos speed up to leave the atmosphere, the girl looks away and then takes aim at the approaching enemy.
A bewildering transmission is heard from the enemy.
"Is that Count Banfield's aircraft?"
"The data says so."
"The enemy also prepared the same type of aircraft?"
The approaching mobile knights were fitted with wings to fight in the air on the ground.
They flew around the red Avid, which the girl was riding, and attacked her, but all of their attacks failed to reach her.
All of them exploded or were twisted before they hit the red Avid.
Not a scratch on the armor was left by the live ammunition weapons, showing the same performance as the former Avid.
"The performance appears to be close to that of a fake habit."
When the enemy slashed at her, the girl had the red Avid hold a substantive sword - a blade that resembled a sword - and slashed at him.
"It's not a fake. I have a name for this child. I call her that on my own. --This girl is [Gerbera]. Remember her name."
Immediately thereafter, the surrounding mobile knights are cut to pieces and explode.
"I went to the trouble of telling you my name."
The girl holds her injured side with her hand and looks up at the sky with a bloodied face.
"I wish someone would call my name too."
A red avid appeared.
And hearing that it was using One-Flash, it was Kurt's unit that went to the scene.
Some had originally been waiting nearby, but Kurt was dispatched because his allies were being destroyed at every turn.
As he approached, Kurt squinted at the red Avid.
"The details are different, but it is definitely the same model as the Avid," he surmised. "What the hell did they do to reproduce even One-Flash?"
Is it possible that he is a user of One-Flash, the same as Liam?
Judging this to be the case, Kurt instructs his allies not to approach it carelessly.
'Keep your distance and work on long-range attacks! Never get too close!"
"I'll be right with you."
However, if they keep their distance, a number of magic circles will appear around Avid, from which the muzzle of a gun will be pointed at them.
Live ammunition.
Optical weapons such as beams and lasers.
Kurt gritted his teeth as these weapons struck.
(They've reproduced this much?)
He marvels at the enemy, who not only resembles his own friend, but also comes as close to his own performance as possible.
The Avid is a maneuverable knight that Liam had made with a huge budget, and it is not a machine suitable for mass production.
Just preparing it would be a challenge, but there are two more of them left.
"Three of such aircraft have been prepared, and the other two are at Liam's place?"
He regrets not being able to stop the enemy from heading toward the main force, but if the opponent is Avid, he gives up somewhere that it can't be helped.
However, the red Avid forcefully closed the distance to those who were keeping their distance.
"Did they even make the performance of the aircraft similar to ours?"
When Kurt saw an allied aircraft next to him shattered by a body blow, he decided that if he did not take it on himself, he would be smashed to death, so he had his knight maneuver and grabbed his sword.
When he slashed at the enemy, the enemy caught him with his sword.
Kurt wonders about this, but soon realizes.
"I may not have the same skill set as Liam. But this one will work!"
The opponent throws a flash, but Kurt, who has known Liam for a long time, senses it.
"So the pilot is just a look-alike?"
Kicking the red avid, he heard the pilot's voice.
Upon contact, the line opens and he can see the other person's face.
"You can't be fucking kidding me with that face!"
They look too much alike.
So Kurt immediately realized what the enemy had gotten into.
And he also immediately sees that he is injured and in a bad way.
"It's not a fake. And this one is Gerbera!"
Kurt is surprised to hear the girl's voice.
"A girl!"
"Number 3588--my purpose is to stall you."
The red avid--Gerbera tries to forcefully destroy Kurt's aircraft with its power.
However, Kurt, who had fought Liam many times in practice, anticipated and avoided the movement of One-Flash, which was too crude for him.
"How come it doesn't hit him?"
Kurt responds with pity to the girl who looks like Liam, who wonders.
"Your One-Flash and piloting skills are nowhere near Liam's."
"It's a lie. I learned it well! I practiced a lot and got praised for it!"
I had guessed what the Calvinists had done to the girl by her behavior and attitude, which were younger than she looked.
(Did they violate the taboo in order to win against Liam?)
Kurt's mobile knight avoided Gerbera's attack, which unleashed slashing blows, but there was no decisive blow against the rare metal-armored enemy.
So, she buys as much time as she can.
In the meantime, the pilot is ruined first.
Gerbera's movements became choppy, and it was unable to fly, falling and struggling.
When Kurt lowers the aircraft near it, the girl is crying.
"I've got to work a little harder, too, or I won't get--Mr. Hat's--praise."
She was desperately calling someone's name.
As Kurt closes his eyes to watch, his allies surround Gerbera and point their weapons at her.
Kurt had to stop them.
"Stop."
"But!"
"It's no use. The weapons in your hand won't hurt her. Besides, in my condition, I can't afford to move again."
Kurt thinks for a moment and then speaks to the girl.
"If you want to live, I suggest you open the hatch."
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