Chapter 311 : To the Battlefield
Chapter 311: To the Battlefield
“……What did you just say?”
“I-I’m sorry! I have no excuse!”
A middle-aged man in Powered Armor bowed his head before Maria.
Even though the massive armor made him nearly 30 centimeters taller than her, he could only appear insignificant in Maria's presence. Major insignia rested on his shoulders.
“This is not a situation that can simply be dismissed as a ‘mistake.’ If Mr. Chairman were to find out what happened…….”
“I’m sorry! I’ll fix this somehow, so could you please give me a little more time?”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Maria bit her lip.
An administrative error.
Because of someone’s mistake, Iri, who should have been assigned to another safe location, had instead been transferred somewhere completely different.
Fine. Given the circumstances, everyone was under pressure. A mistake like this was understandable.
But looking at it another way, making such a mistake in an already disastrous situation was completely unacceptable.
Especially because Iri was one of the students Aaron cherished the most. If something went wrong and Iri was injured—or worse, if she died—
Maria did not even want to imagine how Aaron would react.
'I hope nothing has happened to her…….'
At least there was one small blessing.
Everyone else in the Special Class, except for Iri, was safe.
Even under these circumstances, secretly pulling their prized students away to the rear without the other corporations or scholarship students noticing had been no easy feat.
Furthermore, even if Iri had been assigned somewhere strange because of the administrative mistake, finding her should not be difficult.
No matter how much they had been conscripted to stop the Monster Wave, they were still student soldiers, so the principle was to deploy them inside the defensive walls.
If she searched throughout the interior of the walls, she should find her without much trouble.
More importantly, Iri's distinctive white hair made her easy to spot even from afar.
'……The sun is beginning to set.'
The weather was already terrible due to the highest-level Anti-Rain pouring down.
Once darkness fell, visibility would become even worse.
Moreover, many species of [Mystics] became significantly stronger at night, meaning the battle would truly intensify after sunset.
She had to rescue Iri before then.
“……So, have you confirmed our student's current location?”
“W-We’re dispatching personnel immediately—”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Maria turned around immediately.
“I’ll handle it myself.”
Making sure not to be seen by anyone else, Maria quietly slipped out of the City Defense Force headquarters.
She immediately boarded a Flying Passenger Car and started the engine.
'I have to find her.'
Before it truly became too dangerous.
At the same time.
Sector C Wall Observation Post No. 356.
“Why is this humble monk stationed in a place like this!? And not even at the Sector D wall, but the Sector C wall!? This is a place where the enemy won't even come into view unless two defensive lines have already been breached!”
“[Calm down already, will you?]”
“How can I possibly stay calm!? The city is on the verge of falling into the hands of those insolent monsters! Yet the elite students of Trinity Academy... among them, the Militech Special Scholarship Stu—”
“[We're not Militech. We're Stingray.]”
“You've been here for quite a while now. How are you still getting that wrong, Junior…….”
“……A-Anyway! Why are the so-called Stingray Special Scholarship Students merely watching from here?”
“[Quit lying, you battle maniac. You just can't wait to fight.]”
Silence pointed it out mercilessly, and Guardian awkwardly smiled, as though he'd been struck right where it hurt.
As Silence had said, he simply wanted to fight.
Saving the city had been nothing more than an excuse.
Leaning against the wall, Silence spoke indifferently to his still immature junior.
“[What can we do? This is the military. When you're told to do something, you do it. We've been assigned here, and if we leave our operational zone without new orders, we'll be punished for disobeying orders.]”
“Grrr…….”
Guardian eventually slumped down like a dejected bulldog.
Watching him with a bitter smile, Raina spoke.
“But, Senior. Doesn't this still seem strange?”
“[Strange? What do you mean?]”
“When I looked at the scholarship students from the other corporations, they all seemed to be assigned regardless of affiliation. Even the regular Stingray scholarship students were deployed to the front lines. So why are we the only ones here?”
“[Because our sponsor arranged it that way.]”
“Mr. Chairman Aaron?”
“Whaaaaat!?”
“[Ah! Calm down, Junior! Please! Damn it, I shouldn't have said that. I should've known he'd react like this.]”
Consumed by betrayal and fury toward Aaron, Guardian began rampaging, and Silence hurriedly tried to restrain him.
Unfortunately, because his module setup focused more on stealth than combat, he was slightly overpowered by Guardian's physical strength.
Thankfully, Raina stepped in and helped him subdue Guardian with ease.
Using a nearby iron chain—for reasons neither of them understood why such a thing was lying around at an observation post—they wrapped him up tightly and even gagged him before resuming their conversation.
“[Anyway, you know how much that man treasures us. That's why he did everything he could to keep us in the rear.]”
“But isn't Stingray practically at war with this city right now? Then how could…….”
“[You mean those rumors that Stingray fired missiles first at the corporations it was hostile toward?]”
“They don't really seem like rumors anymore…….”
“[I know. But do you know all of that has already disappeared from the internet?]”
“Huh? Seriously!?”
As Raina stared in shock, Silence shrugged.
“[Stingray wouldn't have thrown the first punch without thinking. At the very least, they're definitely fighting a massive public opinion war right now. Somewhere in a secret hideout, they've probably gathered a bunch of Wizards and are tearing through the city's entire data network, manipulating every piece of evidence one by one.]”
“N-No way…….”
“[Well, maybe not. But if I had to guess, the government can't exactly label the entire Stingray Group as a ‘terrorist organization,’ and Militech can't afford to wage all-out war against Stingray when they're busy dealing with the monsters. So the war has started... but at the same time, it hasn't.]”
Roughly sixty percent of New Valhalla City's security was handled by the City Defense Force under the authority of the city government.
The remaining forty percent came from services provided by corporations like Stingray and Militech.
In a situation like this, no one in their right mind would choose to wage a corporate war.
In other words, Stingray had struck first, but before Militech could retaliate, a completely different enemy had appeared, preventing any proper counterattack.
“[That's why the Stingray Group's authority is still intact, and the City Defense Force can't help but tread carefully. More importantly, the organization managing us is the Stingray Foundation, right? Technically it's a separate organization from the Stingray Group, so the Chairman's influence hasn't really changed. Thanks to that, we're sitting safely back here.]”
“Hmm…….”
After hearing Silence's explanation, Raina looked outside the observation post with concern.
The sky, which had still been tinged with the golden hues of sunset just moments ago, had now become pitch black.
Far away, Railgun turrets continued raining artillery upon the approaching enemies.
For hours now, they had fired without pause.
They were reassuring weapons, certainly.
But everyone knew they could not maintain that pace much longer.
Once those turrets exhausted their ammunition, it would finally be time for the city's Adaptees to enter the battle in earnest.
Their classmates, who had trained and attended classes alongside them, would all be fighting those monsters out there.
“We…….”
Raina spoke with difficulty.
“Is it really okay for us to stay here? Even if it's the Field Commander's order... this is basically... a ‘special privilege,’ isn't it……?”
“[And what exactly are you planning to do if we leave?]”
Silence answered bluntly.
Raina pouted slightly.
If they were dating, couldn't he at least speak a little more kindly? Did he really have to sound that harsh?
“[In war, the moment soldiers start ignoring their commander's orders and acting on their own, that's when they lose. The tactics for winning a battle are different from the tactics for winning a war. We're here because we've been given a mission. For all we know, standing here and quietly observing might actually be an incredibly important task.]”
“That's sophistry.”
“[I know.]”
“I…….”
Raina spoke with great effort.
“I honestly don't know why I was selected as a scholarship student... especially a Special Scholarship Student. I did become the Student Council Vice President, but that was only because of my connection with Iri, the president. I myself am not particularly outstanding compared to the other ordinary students. So staying here in a safe place like this, doing nothing but waiting... it feels so shameless.”
“[…….]”
“Most importantly, Iri isn't even here. Why are all of us gathered here while she's the only one missing? What if something happened to her? Shouldn't we go help her?”
“[You're worrying too much. Do you know how strong she is? There must be some reason she's not here. Instead of worrying about her, you should worry about yourse—]”
“B-But still.”
Raina looked at Silence with desperate eyes.
Nothing appeared on his LED Mask, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
After a long silence, he finally let out a deep sigh.
“[Yeah... damn. Since when were we ever the type to follow orders? I used to sell Junk Chips, for crying out loud. Orders like this can go to hell.]”
Then Silence suddenly removed the iron chains that had tightly bound Guardian.
Shrugging once toward the two of them, he spoke.
“[There's no Field Commander here watching us anyway, so it doesn't matter. From this point onward, I'm commanding our squad. I'm the oldest here, so that's only natural. Got it?]”
“What are you planning to do, Senior?”
“[I'm getting to that. Starting now, our squad is leaving our assigned position without reporting due to ‘unavoidable circumstances.’ You inexperienced first- and second-years simply complied because your senior pressured you into following his orders.]”
Neither Guardian nor Raina was dense enough to miss what Silence was implying.
The two immediately picked up the weapons they had neatly arranged in one corner of the observation post.
Click. Clack.
After finishing their equipment check in an instant, they stood side by side before Silence.
Silence also holstered his pistol and dagger before placing a hand on his waist.
“[Everyone ready?]”
“Yes!”
“[Good. Then from this moment on—.]”
A smiling emoji appeared on Silence's LED Mask.
“[We're heading to the battlefield!]”