Chapter 6: "Each's Respective Darkness"

Carine ne Britannia had many faults as a human being. For example, her greed, arrogance, and cruelty—. And those faults were also at the same time the disposition that was indispensable to surviving as a princess who was in line to the throne in the royal court of Britannia, where trickery and intrigues whirled around. Among those necessary qualities she possessed, boldness was also included.

Carine was currently fully displaying that boldness. That was because the atmosphere that drifted from the man sitting before her was gloomy and annoying.

Oiaguro Zevon. The current head of the Zevon family, a minor noble family in Britannia—however, that was only his public title. The Zevon family’s true form was the shady-jobs organization Pluton—they were a clan that had, for generations, undertaken various dirty jobs that never appeared on the front stage of history for the sake of the Britannian Imperial Family. Assassinations, kidnapping, blackmail. It was not an exaggeration to say that all of the past emperors of Britannia, without exception, gained their throne due to the blood-smeared hands of the Zevon family.

As Oiaguro stared back at here with an expressionless face that did not reveal what he felt inside, Carine silently threw over a paper folder with various sheets of print-outs inserted inside it. He quickly looked over the contents.

“…Then, I’m to annihilate this organization?”

Oiaguro asked quietly.

“That’s right. These guys oppose His Majesty the Emperor, and have repeatedly performed terrorist activities. Crushing this organization is directly connected to Britannia’s interests in the southeast Asia region.”

The folder that Carine had given to Oiaguro was an investigation report about the details of a certain anti-Britannia militant group. Inside it, it showed that the base of this organization was established within a jungle. If it become known that Carine had annihilated this organization, Carine’s presence in the royal court would surely increase by leaps and bounds. However, instead, she had taken it upon herself to entrust this operation to the Zevon family that existed in the shadows.

“Pardon my impoliteness, Princess Carine, but…if the information on the target is so clear, instead of requesting us to do it, wouldn't His Majesty the Emperor would be more delighted if you drafted and commanded the subjugation operation yourself, Carine-sama?”

“There is no need for you to know of such filthy things.”

It was an open insult, but Oiaguro didn’t mind at all.

“I said something intrusive. Please forgive me.”

“It’s fine, but keep this in mind. Everything I do is for the sake of His Majesty the Emperor, and not for my own gain.”

“I’ll take that to heart.”

“Ah, there’s one thing I forgot to tell. There will be an observer accompanying you on the subjugation operation in order to make sure it is carried out. Dasko!”

A young knight stood in front of Oiaguro.

“Dasko la Clermont. My knight. I won’t have any complaints about this.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The first thing that Oiaguro Zevon started to do was collecting and sorting through the information that Carine had investigated about. The result was that everything was just as Carine had said—except, however, for one point. The important fact that there were people from Britannia’s royal court that were participating in this anti-Britannia militant group’s actions had been excluded from Carine’s report. And then, Oiaguro immediately understood.

“I don’t know who they are, but she’s blackmailing the members who control the group, and is making arrangements so that the succession to the throne will advance in her favor—As expected of a Britannian princess.”

He whispered lightly to himself, ‘Power is a wicked and evil thing because of those who always seek it’. Oiaguro was not an exception to that either. In the past, in order to get his hands on all of the Zevon family, he had murdered his elder sister who had been the family head at the time—. However, Oiaguro hadn’t expected that feelings of guilt over that act would sprout in his heart over time. He spent everyday feeling tormented over what he had done. And then, the situation that dealt the final blow to his tortured self occurred. Pluton had followed their orders and executed some runaways from the Geass Order. The target was his elder sister’s orphaned child, Orpheus Zevon.

Oiaguro hated the act he had committed at that time. Was this the punishment handed done to those like him who were entranced by darkness and had their hands dyed in blood?

However, Orpheus hadn’t died. Having survived the attack by Pluton, Orpheus joined the anti-Britannia mercenary organization Peace Mark, fought as one of its members, and swore revenge against Pluton and his uncle Oiaguro Zevon. Learning of this, Oiaguro hid his history and supported the activities of Peace Mark as the mysterious sponser Wizard. All the while expecting that these actions would lead to his own destruction one day—.

“There’s been a request from Wizard.”

Miss X said.

“Britannia is trying to crush an anti-Britannian organization in southeast Asia using Pluton. He wants you to prevent it. Here are the details.”

Miss X distributed documents to Orpheus and the others. It was a skillfully processed version of the documents that Carine had handed to Oiaguro, but of course none of the members of Peace Mark had any way of knowing that.

“All right, we’ll accept it.”

Orpheus answered promptly without even touching the documents.

“Hey, hey, wait a minute, Oz. I know that there is no reason for you to be informed about Pluton, but…I’d like to hear a bit more about it at least once.”

Ze said.

“That’s right, there are still things you haven’t told us, right? These fellows we're rescuing are certainly in the same anti-Britannia business as us, but they don’t have that much of a connection with us, do they?”

Ganabati looked up from the documents at Miss X in his hands with a look.

“That’s exactly why we accepted the request.”

“What does that mean?”

In response to Ze’s question,

“It means it’s not bad to put them in our debt here.”

Miss X answered with a smile. Ganabati prodded Orpheus’ shoulder.

“Hey, do you see that, Oz…That demon woman is definitely laughing at us with such a face.”

“Either way, our lives are merchandise for sale. Don’t worry about it.”

Orpheus said.

Six Knightmares were hiding themselves in a tropical jungle. Five of these frames were Sutherlands of Pluton that were given a jet-black coloring. The remaining one frame was the vividly red-colored Gekka Custom—the Knightmare that Dasko was piloting. This frame was a Japanese-made Knightmare Gekka that was captured in Area 11 and remodeled according to Dasko’s orders. Once before, Dasko had test-piloted the Japanese Knightmare Guren Isshiki for a test. Impressed by its performance, Dasko chose to pilot his new favorite kind of frame that was developed by the enemy, rather than Britannian-made Knightmares. Among the many knights that existed, not many made such a choice.

With the sun having set a long time ago, the light of the moon that rose over their heads outlined their complexly contrasting silhouettes.

Eventually, one of the Pluton pilots came out from within the shadows of the jungle’s leaves. He used his hand to signal his comrades, told them that there was nothing abnormal in their path, and then returned to his cockpit.

The six Knightmares quietly rose up and started advancing forward.

However, they didn’t know. That their movements were already being observed by Orpheus and the others.

“They’ve started to move.”

Ze said that while watching the movements of the six Knightmares of Dasko’s group displayed on his Knightmare’s monitor. Following their strategy this time, Ze was using a Glasgow with a strengthened electronic military system.

“What should we do, Oz?”

Ze called out over the comm. line to Orpheus, who was remaining on stand-by at a location further away. Since the repairs to the Byakuen still had yet to be completed, Orpheus was piloting his customized white Glasgow this time as well.

“You don’t need to even ask.”

In response to Orpheus’ answer,

“Okay. Then first, shaped charge anti-Knightmare landmine-chan, you’re up!”

Ze flipped a console key.

An explosion occurred when the Pluton Knightmare squadron, who were advancing while circumventing around the dense trees, reduced their advance speed as they passed in between two deep groves of trees on both their sides. It was set off in the middle of the six frames that were advancing in a straight line. The anti-Knightmare landmine exploded at the feet of the third Sutherland in the line. The following plasma, which was created from the explosion of liquid Sakuradite that detonated on contact, became an intense metal jet according to the Neumann effect and instantly pulverized the Sutherland’s leg drive mechanism.

“A landmine!?”

The reactions of the four Pluton Sutherlands that escaped damage were so quick that Dasko was involuntarily impressed. But they still couldn’t escape from the shots fired by Ze’s Glasgow.

The Sutherland who was at the front of the group had its head pierced and it fell where it stood, closing off the forward path of its allies.

(An ambush, huh. They’ve made the first move.)

Dasko clicked his tongue within his mind.

“Oz isn’t the only one good at sniping, you know?”

Ze whispered quietly as he surmised the result of his sniping and watched the enemy’s confusion using his sensors.

Despite having lost 1/3 of their force in an instant, Pluton’s movements hadn’t weakened.

At the same time as they quickly deployed themselves, they went into a counterattack formation against the Glasgow. But, Pluton’s expectations were betrayed here as well.

The next attack was not a bombardment from out of range, but instead a close-range attack from a white Glasgow—from Orpheus.

The Glasgow jumped over one of the disabled Sutherlands, and advanced without stopping while piercing forward with its drill machine gun “Minch-Maker”.

“Fall back! Fall back!!”

Dasko overstepped his role as a mere observer and reflexively shouted out. This enemy was strong.

The front tip of the Minch Maker held by the white Glasgow penetrated the cockpit of the second Sutherland while rotating at high speeds. Orpheus fired the machine gun while in that same position, and then pulled out the Minch Maker from the Sutherland by using the firing recoil.

Panicked by Orpheus’ quick work of that Sutherland, the fourth Sutherland hurriedly turned around, pushed aside his comrades and Dasko’s frame, and tried to escape from there.

But, before its Landspinners could start up, an artillery shell that came flying from within the dark jungle pierced through its back.

“If you show me your back, I’m going to shoot you, you know?”

Ze confirmed that his target exploded over the monitor.

“Out of the way!”

Dasko quickly passed by the last remaining Pluton Sutherland and sprang towards the front of the white Glasgow. They couldn’t escape from this trap. The only way they could survive this situation was by beating the enemy before them.

The red Gekka Custom’s weapon was the EM Lance that was Dasko’s specialty weapon. With skilled and quick hands, he made many lunges with it at the Glasgow in rapid succession. But, the enemy displayed a dance-like step-work and dodged the point of the lance at paper-thin distances. Dasko recognized those movements.

“This guy…was in that Knightmare at Hong Kong!”

At the same time, Orpheus recognized the movements of the red Gekka.

“To think we would meet again here. It seems that we’re connected by fate…”

Orpheus repelled Dasko’s lance with the Minch Maker. An intense metallic sound resounded, and a flash and sparks tore through the darkness of the jungle.

Dasko called out to the only remaining undamaged Pluton Sutherland.

“Go! I’ll hold him here. You go ahead and complete the mission!”

After saying that, Dasko rammed the Glasgow into a wall of thick trees.

“You have my thanks!”

The Sutherland quickly passed by the back of the Gekka Custom and advanced forward.

“!”

Orpheus tried to push back, but because of his unstable posture from the thick trees in his way, he couldn’t push back against the Gekka Custom’s full power dash very well. But—.

Through his Factspheres, he heard the sound of an explosion from the darkness of the path ahead.

“I’ve disposed of the last Sutherland, Oz.”

Ze’s voice flowed over the comm. line.

“You should hurry up and finish that guy off as well.”

“Yeah…I’ll tear off his throat with my fangs!”

At the same time as Orpheus said that like a growl, he pierced the Minch Maker through the ground at his feet.

“What?”

Dasko unconsciously muttered as he watched the white Glasgow’s unexpected movement. Then, the next instant—the Glasgow spun around at high speed using the drill piercing the ground as its axis, and threw a strong kick at the Gekka Custom.

“Uooh!”

The Gekka Custom was knocked down by the impact and its posture was destroyed.

“Here’s the finishing blow!”

The Glasgow drew the Minch Maker out from the ground and lunged it at the Gekka Custom. But, the ejection system activated an instant faster, and the cockpit containing Dasko flew away deep into the dark jungle.

“So he got away, Oz?”

Ze said.

“Yeah. But—”

Orpheus muttered quietly towards the endless darkness.

“—I’ll probably meet that guy again somewhere.”