Councilor was essentially the highest position in the Legitimacy Kingdom.

The true top of the Legitimacy Kingdom was the Sovereign Parliament which was made up of the monarchs of the various cultures and civilizations making up the kingdom. However, before making any decisions, those monarchs would listen to the opinions of a council made up of otherwise employed people. Those Councilors held the highest position that an elected official who had no royal blood could attain. In some cases, they could indirectly alter the monarch’s views, so they truly were seen as rulers.

One of those rulers, Councilor Flide, was sweating profusely as he wondered how someone of his position had been so thoroughly cornered.

He was in one of the most advanced of the advanced nations known as safe countries. More specifically, he was within a skysc.r.a.per that gained a special tax reduction due to being registered as a military facility while actually being his private office.

“This has become quite a problem,” said a soldier named Froleytia from within the same room.

She may have had a position high enough to put together military operations and command her subordinates on the battlefield, but to a Councilor like Flide, she was nothing. Or so it should have been. However, Froleytia was showing no respect to him. In fact, she was glaring down on him with a look of scorn. She played with the long, narrow hairpin modeled after a j.a.panese kanzas.h.i.+ in her silver hair, and she held a j.a.panese-style kiseru in her mouth despite the entire building being a no smoking area.

A few doc.u.ments were lined up in front of Flide.

They detailed the plan he had advanced in secret within Oceania.

“It seems you wanted to create a world where the result of any battlefield was solely decided by the quant.i.ty and quality of the Objects, but I’m not so sure that method can be called ‘smart’. The transmission you sent when our Object was about to head back to the Tanami Desert from the Great Sandy Desert clinched it. You say it was to ‘conveniently’ kill Quenser and Heivia, but sending a false order that would save the Oceanian Object and put our troops in a state of confusion sounds like treason to me. My only advice is that ‘I thought that information was correct at the time’ isn’t going to cut it in a military trial.”

“I had my reasons. Also, I was given authority to carry out that operation by the Sovereign Parliament. I did nothing that warrants the criticism of a soldier like you. It was nothing but a military operation.”

“Yes, you’ve come up with that excuse, and it may have held up had this only involved our military. However, you made a mistake when you sent the transmission out to all of the coalition forces and tried to command them as well. The Sovereign Parliament only holds authority over the Legitimacy Kingdom. They hold no authority over the Information Alliance military or the rest of the coalition. The other forces seem to be rather upset over that false information. Now, what do you think the Sovereign Parliament is going to do? Saying it was a secret Legitimacy Kingdom operation isn’t going to convince the Information Alliance or the others of anything. If the Legitimacy Kingdom gives no official announcement regarding this issue, it could cause some political sparks that could light some unwanted fires.”

“What do you know about this, anyway?” said Flide, sounding like he was squeezing out his voice. “We are only able to advance wars smartly because of the overwhelming firepower of the Objects. Those two have destroyed that balance!! This world needs the pillar of support the Objects provide!! I acted to protect my country, no, to protect the world!!”

“Yes, and I’m sure the others on the Council and the Sovereign Parliament have a similar opinion. They see Objects as wonderful weapons that allow them to end wars smartly. However, your actions were still ill advised. If Quenser and Heivia had been killed by the Oceanian Object, it would have gone on and slaughtered villagers. Your actions would be seen as a leader of the Legitimacy Kingdom aiding that slaughter for the advantage of his own country. For those who wish to keep our image as one of a country that uses its Objects to end wars cleanly, that would be very, very bad. In fact, that may have left us in a worse political position than where we are thanks to Quenser and Heivia destroying the enemy Object.”

“So you’re saying it’s over for me? For me!? After all I’ve done to solidify the Legitimacy Kingdom’s place in this world where the power balance is decided by Objects!?”

“You can complain all you want,” said Froleytia. Her voice then dropped and her gaze grew deadly cold. “But I am the type who takes care of the children the families of our country leave under my care. Whatever the situation may be, I feel I must finish this for them. So we can finish this in the trial. Don’t think you can recover from this.”

“Heh heh heh. I see. In that case, I suppose I must bring out my trump card.”

“?”

“Do you know why I took control of the military’s Elite training division? That way, I can train an Elite in secret to use for my own purposes.”

Quenser and Heivia had returned to the most powerful of the nations known as safe countries. It was an advanced nation that belonged to the Legitimacy Kingdom and that was often referred to as the home country.

After the end of the war in Oceania, they had fully intended to retaliate against Councilor Flide, but approaching one of the leaders on the Council was not such a simple task. Froletyia had a different means of attack, so she had told them to let her deal with it and then disappeared into the office building owned by Councilor Flide.

“I can’t believe we got all our previous achievements taken from us as punishment for disobeying orders and heading to the Tanami Desert. We ended the war! All the honor and medals are just gone. It’s like having your life savings disappear in an instant.”

“You should be glad that was all that happened. Normally, we would have been court martialed.”

“Even though we ended the war? If we hadn’t headed to the Tanami Desert, that Object would have attacked the nearby villages and then disappeared again. The war might have continued for years!”

“It doesn’t matter. If they admitted that, they would be justifying any kind of attack that people felt they had a just cause for. They would be condoning people ditching the military and carrying out independent attacks.”

“We wanted to leave the military after our commendation for Alaska. They’re the ones that kept dragging us back to the battlefield.”

“They may have wanted it to all even out in the end.”

The two then fell silent.

Before them was Councilor Flide’s private office that Froleytia had disappeared into. As it was officially a military base, the large building sat in the middle of a wide open area within the city.

“Oh, did you receive an email from the princess like usual?”

“Yeah, but I also got one from that ‘oh ho ho’ of the Information Alliance. How did she get my address? Did I get marked by their spies for trying to ask about their Object?”

“Perk up. This could be the start of history’s first lover’s quarrel that involves Objects.”

“?”

Quenser frowned slightly.

“Froleytia certainly is taking her time. She already has the summons, so doesn’t she just have to order some soldiers to drag that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Flide out of there?”

“Uh, oh. I have a bad feeling about this,” said Heivia as his expression stiffened.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling surrounded them.

A portion of the wide open area around the office building started to crumble and a giant Object appeared from below.

The two exchanged a glance and then they received a transmission from Froleytia over the radios they had never expected to use in the home country.

“Dammit! Quenser, Heivia, you have a new job!! I had wondered why that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Flide had his office in such a wide open area, but I never expected it was for this!!”

“You can’t be serious. We have to fight in a city now!?”

“We get the general gist of the situation, but we’re actually going to have proper support from an Object this time, right!?”

“You idiot! If we called the princess in here, half the capital would be rubble before we had time to send out an evacuation warning!! You two will have to do something on your own! You wanted to deal with Flide yourselves, right!?”

“Well, yeah.”

“We can kill him, right?”

“By the way, he is only a pa.s.senger aboard the Object. The Elite is a 12 year old girl. If possible, I want you to recover her without killing her. I can justify taking that risk because a Legitimacy Kingdom Elite is quite valuable, but the real reason is I’d rather we saved the girl. Can you do it!?”

“Why does this always have to be so complicated!?”

“Well, we can’t exactly say no if it’s a 12 year old girl, now can we!? Now that he’s used someone like that as a s.h.i.+eld, we definitely have to kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d!!”

“Hey, let’s see if we can find a way to activate the evacuation device. That way we can stop the Object without killing the little girl!!”

Quenser and Heivia ran toward the s.p.a.cious base as the Object appeared from within a cloud of dust and prepared for its desperate attack on the city.

As he headed toward the h.e.l.lish battlefield, Quenser said, “Looks like we’re back to square one. I need to at least regain the academic background and authority of a battlefield student at the end of his deployment! Actually, will we get a new commendation if we resolve this!?”

In response Heivia said, “It should all work out. After this is over, let’s quit the military for good. I’ve had enough of fighting Objects!! I’ll take over my n.o.ble family. I’ve fought in wars against Objects, so if my family complains, I’ll bring the war to them!! When I think about it, that should be way easier than this!! What the h.e.l.l have I been doing all this time!?”

“You’ve got a point. I probably would have had a much easier time of taking normal entrance exams rather than going for the battlefield student route!!”

“Hey, don’t cry!! We can finish this discussion after saving the little girl and killing Flide!!”

As they spoke, the two boys charged into the battlefield.

Before them stood a fifty meter Object.

They had only tiny explosives and a rifle.

That had become a normal day for them.

The two special combat engineers had another monster to fight.