I walk through the group of rail units for a bit, trying to find my way to the other side. It's hard since they're so tall. It does look like they distributed all of their robes at some point, so they're all dressed again. Eventually, I manage to it to the opposite wall, near the two doors that lead to the long stairs down. Once there, I sit against the wall. I've walked a lot already today, and even went exploring for a bit, so I'd like to get some rest now, until we get called for whatever's next. Actually sleeping is a bad idea, so I just rest my eyes for now.

Eventually, the handlers start to call out for everyone to get into formation. At least I got to rest for a bit. I feel like I have a little more energy now. I stand again and take my place in the front left corner of the formation. It's a little relieving, they don't notice me individually when we're in formation.

With the room less crowded, I can see about a dozen handlers standing off to the side, near the hall leading to the bath. One of them steps out in front of our formation. He stands tall, and holds a dead serious expression. He isn't even trying to hide it. What a strange handler.

"Units, you will now be heading out to your first battle. We have prepared you as much as we can. Now is the time to fight. Before we go, we will present you to our masters. You are not to say a word or move a step out of line until we leave the city." He sweeps his eyes across the formation.

His gaze snaps back to me a moment later. I think my heart stops. "What is that?" he asks angrily, looking over at the other handlers as he jabs a finger at me.

"Unit 1A, sir. It was damaged some time ago," another handler explains, face stiff.

"Then why is it still here?"

"It can be used for fodder."

The serious one presses his fingers to the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "We are supposed to be presenting this nation's most advanced and powerful superweapons. Not useless, disposable fodder."

"Y-yes, sir," the other handler answers nervously. "But sir... what do we do with it?" The serious man holds his hand to his chin briefly, his eyes making me suppress a shudder. My heart is hammering, but my blood runs cold. I maintain my blank-eyed stare, my last remaining defense.

"What is it carrying, anyway?"

The obviously weaker handler opens his mouth a little, unsure. "I don't know, it just acts weird sometimes." He shrugs and shakes his head a bit. He isn't trying to maintain a blank expression in front of us now either. "Must've picked up some random stuff. It's broken." His boss narrows his eyes at the man and he shrinks away.

But did that handler just say he knows I act weird? They already noticed. But... he didn't care? Because I've hidden most of it? Or do they know everything but ignore it because I'm broken?

"What are you holding?" The boss handler asks me directly, gaze cutting right through me.

Part of me stops thinking. Just obey, do whatever they say and it will be fine somehow. My voice comes out, perfectly flat. "Items for battle."

"Huh?" He stalks over and takes the basket out of my hands to dig through it briefly. "It's just a bunch of random crap, where did it even get this stuff?" He directs a glare at the other handlers, but then then shakes his head and drops it back into my arms. "Whatever, I don't care. We're getting behind schedule. It'll die later anyway, this a waste of time." He speaks while walking back to his place in front and waving a hand in an annoyed, dismissive gesture.

Then he turns back to us and barks, "Unit 1A, Unit 5G, switch places in the formation." Wordlessly, I obey his command. He's ordering me out of his sight. Away from his terrifying attention. I disappear into the formation.

Moving through the rows of rail units, I make myself breathe slowly. Need to calm down. I don't know what spot I'm looking for, but I just go toward the center of the formation. It's easy enough to find the spot 5G moved out of once I'm near the center. Standing in my new place, I cannot see anything at all past the adult rail units all around me. And no one can see me. Safely out of sight.

"Getting back on track now." The serious man says past the wall of rail units, an annoyed grumble in his tone for a moment before he straightens it out. "As I said before, you will not speak. You will not move out of formation. You will not do anything whatsoever, unless commanded to do so, by me and only me." His commands come rapid fire. "Follow all orders immediately. Your first order: Break formation and follow me. We are going to the ceremony."

Without missing a beat, all of the rail units begin to walk. I lurch forward to keep up, glancing to either side, trying to memorize the appearances of the rail units on either side of me. My old position was easy. This new place in the middle will be a lot harder to find later.

Without any time to keep worrying about that, I move with the group. The others all flow around me, moving faster so I slip behind. I can't tell exactly where we're going until they all pass, leaving me at the back again. Looks like the other door, the one we didn't enter through earlier. I stay at the end group and just follow like before.

I make the long climb down the stairs. When I look back, the dozen or so handlers from before are following me. They're hiding their expressions again, but they're definitely all looking at me. It's just because I'm so slow and holding them up, I try to tell myself. That doesn't help the cold sweat that breaks out all over my body.

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I just keep going, as fast as I can. Eventually I make it down and run to catch up with the group. I make a little more fire and lightning mana to help.

It's a much shorter walk than earlier, a fraction of the distance before we hit the stairs upward. It's a long climb, but... definitely shorter than the other ones. Are we not all the way back at ground level yet? The end of the staircase leads into a room just big enough to fit everyone. "Back into formation," the handler calls. Everyone moves easily into their positions, leaving me to eventually fumble my way to the right spot. While I'm still searching for the right gap to slip into, he keeps talking.

"You will now follow me. You are to stay in formation while walking. Move when I command you to move, stop when I command you to stop. Do nothing else. Now, move." Silently, we all obey. After a few paces, all the rail units move in sync. It's only me, at the center, who has to take three steps for each of theirs, that has trouble staying in place. It's really good I'm in the center where they can't see me...

I have no idea where we are or where we're going. It takes most of my focus to keep in my place and avoid getting tangled up with the other rail units around me. Beyond that, I can't see anything anyway. So when we hit a staircase, I stumble up the first step as it seemingly appears out of nowhere. Thankfully, they are long and shallow like that one staircase back in the last building. Otherwise, this would be impossible for me. I quickly run up the stairs, a few awkward steps on each one to keep in position. We finally reach the top of the stairs, the ground underfoot changing from smooth stone to somewhat more rough cobblestone. I try to look around, but can't see anything, and end up running into the rail unit next to me when they all begin turning to the right without warning. I stagger, but manage to keep my feet and fall back in line.

We keep going for a short distance, before I spot the church high overhead. We're going there? Isn't it Shanaday? Won't there be tons of people at church around this time of day? Thoughts tumble through my head even as I fight to keep up. No, I don't really know what time it is, we left the rail unit building at the first bell, but did all sorts of things since then. Is it third bell? Sixth? I look up again, but we're entering the church, so I can't even try to guess based on the position of the sun.

The shiny stone floor echoes loudly underfoot as all of the rail units move together. Even just my out of sync footsteps worry me. What if there are lots of people around? I can't afford for anyone to recognize me, it's a miracle that I ended up on the inside of our formation instead of my normal position. Well, I guess that may have been inevitable since I'm a broken failure. Like the handler said, why would they ever want to show me off?

"Stop!" I hear the handler command, and slide to a quick stop. I still can't see anything, but I can hear all sorts of low voices murmuring. All together, they add up to quite a bit of noise. So I guess there are people here. As long as I stay hidden... "Sire, I present you our finest weapons, the autonomous rail units. Ready to do glorious battle for king and country, before the eyes of the mighty Rostor himself." I hear the handler speak very eloquently. I know most of the difficult words, even if I'm not too clear on what he means. Glorious battle?

"Hear me, good people!" says a new, boomingly loud man's voice. "With these mighty weapons, we shall do battle and taste victory. We shall bring our foes to heel. Raise your voices now. For the king!"

"For the king!" Hundreds, thousands of voices cry out all at once, the sound echoing immensely inside the cathedral. I flinch, but only have one free hand to shield my ears from the deafening noise. Thankfully, it passes quickly.

I hear the same man's voice continue on. "We pray now, for Rostor to favor us and allow our weapons to strike down all enemies who stand before us!" What sort of ceremony is this? It's like he's praying, but it also sounds like he's trying to get a crowd excited. But with so many voices before, the crowd must be a ton of people from town. Not being able to see anything makes it much more difficult to get a grasp on the situation, but my best guess is that they brought us in during the church service. But then who is talking? He doesn't sound anything like the head priest. If I assume he's the 'sire' referred to by that handler, maybe he's the ruler of the city? I still can't recall his name though... "Now, go forth! To battle!"

"Yes, my liege!" respond numerous voices. Clearly not the crowd, there were only maybe a dozen of them. It sounded like they came from around our formation, so probably the handlers.

Then one voice follows, the handler boss again, "Rail units, move!" At his command, the units around me all start to walk, and I hurry to keep pace once more. The crowd begins crying out and cheering as we go. It's deafening inside of the echoing church, but even more, I don't understand why.

It has to be the townspeople here, right? Don't they hate rail units? Why would they cheer for us? Just because we're going to go fight for them? Do they really care about the war that much? I hardly know anything about it outside of my role, so I can't even imagine why they would be excited about it. All I really understand is that we're supposed to go fight other rail units. It's terrifying for me since I'm so weak, but what do they think about it? With my complete lack of information, I have nothing to go on.

We pass out of the church, smooth and shiny floors turning to a well constructed stone pathway, the cheers of the crowd thankfully fading behind. My ears continue ringing for a bit after all of that noise.

Even without seeing anything, I recognize this walk. We're heading north through the city. We go quickly, much faster than I'm accustomed to walking through town. I have to maintain a slow run the whole time, converting more fire and lightning mana to make sure I can keep up the pace.

We walk and walk and walk. We don't make any turns, clearly heading straight up North Main Street. We continue on, right up and out through the North Gate. Once outside, I notice the road changes from the mix of stone inside the city, to a dirt path with a few bits of rock mixed in.

When we are a short distance outside of the city, the handler calls for us to stop. I pant lightly as we stand. Even with some mana to help, jogging all the way through town takes some work. Not to mention, I have all of my metal in my basket, which weighs me down a lot on such a long walk. My arms are a little tired from carrying it. I'm starting to worry about what to do if it takes too long to get to the battle. I don't want to end up tired out before then.

"We will now continue to walk north. We will cross the northern bridge and a scout will be waiting on the other side. You are dismissed from the formation. Now move out!" he finishes with a shout.

Not missing a single beat, the rail units all begin to move forward, even faster than before, while I rush to keep up.