Tiat dreamed a short and nostalgic dream.
In the dream, she was hiding behind the corner of a hallway, watching the two people she idolized the most. One was a young black-haired male Technical Officer, and the other was a faerie soldier with sky-blue hair.
The two were in love with each other! Or…at least, that was what Tiat had believed wholeheartedly at the time.
The leprechaun race only had female members. Due to that, in the small world of the faerie warehouse the only exposure to romance for Tiat and the other children came from video crystals. Watching those two attempt to bridge the gap between each other felt like a scene taken straight from a recording crystal and transformed into reality.
“Like I said, why me? Even if you girls don’t know much about the wider world, there are tons of decent guys out there, you know?”
“That might be so, but there’s only one of you.”
“Well, yeah, but why are you so focused on me?”
“Actually, that’s what I wanted to ask about. Do you really think you can replace the person in a girl’s heart with just any random guy?”
“…Flexibility is an important trait that can be applied to any battlefield?”
“It’s not a good habit to pull out some platitude whenever you’re driven into a corner.”
The two of them looked like they were arguing, but also getting along naturally with each other. Maybe neither observation was true, or perhaps both. In any case, it was a style of emotional communication known only to the couple Tiat saw in her mind’s eye.
This is what love between a man and woman is. Longing often took hold of her heart as the young faerie watched the two. Someday, maybe we too can…
Thinking of someone and being thought of. Getting closer, clashing, and steadily building a relationship.
That was…the dream I had.
“…It’s impossible, after all.”
As she woke up, Tiat felt the urge to laugh.
Her dreams as a child had been innocent, simple, and utterly lacking in comprehension of her place in the world. As the years went by and she grew more aware of herself, she’d slowly come to realize just how fanciful her dreams had been.
She could not be like the senior faerie she respected so much, whether in maturity or her capacity as a weapon. That was why such a wonderful love was probably impossible for her.
If I don’t get this off my mind, the others will start calling me love-addled again.
Stifling a yawn, Tiat looked around the room. She saw the other faeries sleeping in varied positions. Collon, normally the earliest riser, was oddly still fast-asleep—probably due to how long it’d taken her to get to sleep last night. There was still time before breakfast, so she’d let Collon sleep a little longer.
Tiat herself didn’t feel like going back to sleep. Quietly getting out of bed, she changed her clothes, slipped on a thick coat and left the room without drawing open the curtains.
She felt cold, clear air envelop her body. It seemed the rain had stopped overnight. Tiat headed to the well to wash her face. As she splashed its icy-cold water onto her face, she felt the sleepiness clinging to her eyes and mouth fall away.
She raised her head with a short gasp, then shoved her face into a towel and wiped it dry.
“…Huh.”
Looking across the street, she could see a round figure all wrapped up in exercise gear jogging. When she looked carefully, she could see the figure was an armado. Looking even more carefully, he was specifically the armado serving as the Division Commander of the Winged Guard’s 5th Division.
The armados’ whole bodies were covered in a durable shell, with short limbs poking out. One might consider their features to be carefree, even cute. In other words, they gave off the appearance of being slow-moving in body and mind. This was the first time in Tiat’s life that she’d seen the bizarre sight of one such armado breezily running down a street.
“…He gets up early too, huh…?” Tiat muttered, her eyes unfocused. While she was still in a daze, the round shape in exercise clothes ambled up to her.
“Morning… What’s the matter? You look as if you’ve just seen something unbelievable.”
“Eh? A-ah, no, it’s nothing! Good morning!” Flustered, Tiat couldn’t look him in the eyes.
“It’s pretty early. Couldn’t sleep?”
“That’s…well, you might say that’s almost on the mark, or that you barely missed the mark, it’s something like that…”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The Division Commander made a show of cooling off his skin (or shell?) with the water he was drawing from the well. “Oh, right. You’ll hear about it anyway, so I might as well tell you now. First-class equivalent soldier Lakhesh hasn’t been found yet. It looks like we’ll end up searching for a while, so we’ll need to be patient about proceeding with the search.”
“Is…that so…”
She’d had a feeling that might be the case. Perhaps because of her late-night conversation with Collon and the others, she didn’t feel too disappointed. “Um…” Tiat straightened herself and went on in a stiff tone. “Could I ask you a few things about something else?”
The Division Commander didn’t reply for a few seconds as he dried his head with a towel. “You sound serious. Are you asking as a first-class equivalent soldier? Or just as yourself, Tiat?”
“Erm…” she thought for a bit. “I’m not sure which, exactly.”
“This feels like it’ll be troublesome,” the Commander grumbled. He glanced over his shoulder, then pulled a cigar from somewhere. “This fine?” he asked Tiat, and without waiting for her reply, struck a match to light it.
After a long drag, the Commander nodded. “Ask away.”
“It’s about Fourth Officer Feodor Jessman.”
“Ahh, him. What about Jessman?”
“Do you know why he became a soldier?”
“That kind of question, eh?”
He slowly breathed in and exhaled. The smoke escaping his mouth wafted about in thick ropes, gradually melting into the air. “Well, of course I know. I investigated his past and mentality when he was appointed to his position as an officer. But I’m not going to tell just anyone about it, you know?”
“No matter how I look at it, that guy doesn’t have any intention of protecting Regule Aire, does he? Actually, isn’t he plotting the exact opposite?”
“Oh?” The tip of the Commander’s cigar shook slightly with amusement. “Why do you think that?”
“He told me himself.”
Tiat remembered that night, right after Croyance swallowed up the Utica, when she’d crossed swords and words with Feodor. “He said Regule Aire is home to too many things that aren’t worth protecting, and if we were going to sacrifice ourselves to protect them, then we’d be his enemies.”
“Oho…?” The Commander widened his eyes. “Making such a radical statement seems uncharacteristic of him.”
“Well, he’s…” Tiat hesitated. “He’s probably a really good guy, just way too twisted. Deep down, he’s kind, but also pretty mean. He’s really really shady, but he’s also a reliable and sincere sort of person.”
“That description is all over the place, but it fits Jessman perfectly,” the Commander nodded deeply. “Go on.”
“I guess I just don’t get why he cares about us so much. He doesn’t seem to like the idea of fighting for the sake of other people.”
“It’s not too unusual for people to dislike that. Most just don’t outwardly show it. But, well…in his case, he’s in a unique position. I can understand why he’d be so emotional about you all.”
Tiat swallowed. “Could you tell me why, then?”
“Hrm…” the Commander tilted his head, taking his time to think. “Why are you so curious?”
“Well…” Now it was her turn to consider the question. She felt it was something she had to know. Given how much he knew about the faeries’ situation, it felt unfair if she didn’t learn just as much about him.
No, but that’s not a good reason. In the first place, they were first-class equivalent faerie soldiers while he was a proper(?) imp Fourth Officer. It was perfectly natural for their relationship to be unfair, and it’d actually be strange if it wasn’t. But then why was it that she still wanted to know?
“Because…it’s unfair, sir.” Although she’d taken so much time thinking, in the end she couldn’t think of any other real reason, much less any lies. She didn’t understand why she herself was saying it and felt like bursting into tears over her stupidity and ineptitude. “I’m sorry, this reason’s no good, isn’t it?”
“Hm… I see.”
The Commander raised a stubby finger to his mouth. “Well, I’ll tell you then. There’ll be problems if this gets out, so keep it to yourself, okay?”
“Eh?”
“That guy grew up in the Elpis Collective.”
Memories surged through her like bolts of electricity. “El…pis…”
“His brother-in-law was a bigshot in Elpis’ army. He was one of the ringleaders in that incident, as a matter of fact.”
Her breathing stopped.
The Elpis Collective.
Of course she remembered. There was no way she’d ever forget that name. They were the monsters who, six years ago, had brought the Beasts into Regule Aire and caused a horrible disaster. At the time, Tiat had been too young to grasp all the details of the incident, but she’d participated in the front lines at Collina di Luce right after finishing her tuning and becoming an adult faerie soldier.
And there…she’d gone through a battle that made her heart clench painfully even now.
“His brother-in-law put his life on the line to try and change Regule Aire. Even if your position and methods are totally different, what you faeries are doing aren’t all that different… I suppose that’s why that meddlesome guy couldn’t leave you alone.”
“That’s…” Tiat’s mouth felt bone-dry. Somehow, she managed to cough out a question. “Doesn’t that make him a dangerous person?! Was it really okay to make him a ranking officer?”
The Commander shrugged his shoulders. “No reason to refuse him. Of course, it’d have been impossible if he’d said he wanted to follow in his brother-in-law’s footsteps. But you know, he said things like ‘My brother-in-law was wrong, I want to fix his mistake,’ and ‘I want to create a better future for Regule Aire.’ On top of that, there’s no question about his competency…”
Tiat couldn’t agree. “Weren’t those obviously lies?! He’s an imp, you know!”
“Well, you’ve got me there. I can’t deny he’s good at lying.”
“Then why—?!”
“But he’s also a terrible liar.”
What does that mean? Tiat’s outraged spluttering petered out for a moment. The Commander continued. “He’s a good guy at heart. When he tells you a lie that’s clever enough, he even tricks himself—you can’t help but be swept up in it as well. But if he tries to lie in such a way that only certain people would believe it, he’s so bad at it that nobody would ever buy his lie. With that personality of his, what he told me showed that he cared about the future of the islands. That’s why I’m inclined to take him at his word in this case.”
“That’s…”
She knew he was right. Feodor was a good guy. She’d even thought at one point that he might be a good lover for Lakhesh. Putting aside the stuff he said, she thought she could trust his heart.
But even so—no, because of that—she couldn’t help but be worried about his true intentions and desires.
Of course, she couldn’t say anything about that.
“…I understand.”
“So then, is this enough to feel fair to you?”
“Well…I don’t know yet…but…”
“What’s with the vagueness?”
“Sorry, sorry. I feel like I understand a lot more…now.”
“Really?” The Commander nodded. “Well, good then. I can understand being worried about your superior being suspicious, but worrying about that is the job of his superior. You all can go on having fun bickering with each other.”
An armado’s head was as charming as a stuffed animal’s. Being reassured by someone with his appearance didn’t feel quite right, or rather, it wasn’t reassuring at all.
“I’m not having fun with him,” Tiat protested weakly.
Her thoughts were a mess. After the Commander finally moved on, she washed her face with cold water again, but it wasn’t enough to settle her mind.
“…The Elpis Collective.” Tiat mouthed the name again.
Of course, Feodor himself had no fault in what’d happened. But still, he’d been so close to an unbelievably enormous crime. He must have known about it.
Tiat wanted to be alone to sort out her thoughts. Her feet naturally led her out of the Winged Guard’s base, towards the abandoned theatre with the good view where she’d first met Feodor. As far as she knew, that was the best place for thinking.
“…Hm?”
She saw a familiar figure in the distance. Even if he was in plainclothes, there was no mistaking him. It was Feodor.
Perfect. There were tons of things she wanted to ask him about, plus tons of things she wanted to tell him. She could catch him, take him somewhere with a nice view, and barrage him with questions.
Tiat was about to run up behind him when a sense of uneasiness struck her. Feodor was acting strangely. He kept glancing around restlessly, seemingly afraid that someone might be watching him. In addition, he was walking quickly like he was in a hurry to get somewhere. And, like Tiat, he seemed to be heading outside the Winged Guard’s base.
“What’s with that?”
Since he was supposed to be looking for Lakhesh, she could understand why he’d be going off the base. But then why was he acting so weirdly? It puzzled Tiat.
She tugged at her hair a bit. It was bright green; the kind of hair that’d likely stand out in a town of dull colors. She pulled up her hood to hide it, then started running, muffling her footsteps.
“It’s your fault, you know,” she muttered darkly. “You idiot. You shouldn’t be acting so suspiciously at a time like this.”
Feodor’s senses were sharp. If she got too close, he’d notice her right away. So she darted from shadow to shadow, keeping her distance as she followed him.
About ten minutes later, he entered a labyrinthine section of the city and Tiat quickly lost sight of him.