Heavy Object

Volume 6, Epilogue

At first glance, it appeared that all the loose ends had been tied up.

But what ultimately happened to Quenser and Heivia?

“Yawn... The Japanese really know how to smoke.”

In an officer’s room in the maintenance base zone created from the over 100 large vehicles making up the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, Froleytia Capistrano held a narrow Japanese kiseru in her mouth.

She wondered what those two idiots were up to at that moment.

It seemed their pilot Elite known as the princess was very interested in their whereabouts, but Froleytia herself was not too concerned about it.

To be honest, she felt she had overworked them.

She had claimed to be punishing them, but she honestly felt anywhere else would feel like heaven compared to constant battles against Objects. One of them wished to gain Object maintenance skills on the battlefield and the other wished to accomplish heroic deeds befitting of a noble. They would still be able to accomplish those things, so sending them away was not ruining their plans.

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(Not that I would complain if they had their pride broken and became much easier to use.)

The fact that there were still battlefields and duties to which the ideas of the modern clean wars did not apply was partially to leave areas to reeducate those who needed it.

A sense of tension was needed in all things.

If things grew too slack, people would begin thinking about profiting by committing crimes on the battlefield.

(Things have been quite boring lately, but that’s how a war is supposed to be.)

An Object fired along the line she drew on her pen tablet. The expected costs achieved the expected results.

It was a war with no surprises and no sudden reversals.

She yawned while fighting, but then a small window appeared on top of the one displaying the results of the bombardment.

It informed her of an online meeting between other field officers.

Froleytia closed the war report that was merely a tedious part of her schedule and activated the online meeting application.

Such a meeting would normally be held between around 20 people, but only one other person was online. A familiar young female lieutenant colonel was wiping sweat from her brow with a handkerchief.

“U-um... Major Capistrano? You know that topic from before? Well, I wanted to let you know ahead of time that it will be up for discussion again.”

“Lieutenant colonel, you are older than me and outrank me. Why are you speaking up to me?”

“N-no, no! I am nothing compared to you! Without you, I...no, not just me. My entire unit would be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean right now! So please pay no heed to rank...”

Froleytia held her head in her hands, but then she remembered the camera function was on. She frantically straightened her spine instead. That could easily have been taken as disrespect.

But she was too slow.

The lieutenant colonel displayed on the screen was already in tears.

“Lieutenant colonel, what specific topic are you talking about?”

“Oh, um...” The lieutenant colonel wiped her tears away with the handkerchief. “It concerns the Dragon Killers Quenser Barbotage and Heivia Winchell who worked under you.”

Froleytia took issue with that name that had clearly come from the tabloid sites, but she held her tongue because she had a feeling saying something would bring that superior officer to tears.

Instead, she asked, “That is up for discussion again? Don’t tell me they have caused yet another problem requiring they be sent somewhere else.”

“Um, yes. Had you already heard?”

Froleytia really, really wanted to hold her head in her hands, but she desperately resisted.

But the lieutenant colonel’s next words greatly exceeded what she had been expecting.

“It seems they have interfered with the succession of the royal Nikolaschka family. Every unit that is asked says they cannot handle the two, so it seems nowhere can be found to send them. And the higher ups are concerned they will defect to another world power if we discharge them. So could you take them back into the 37th?”