The morning of the conference had come by quickly. The previous night was spent preparing in the tunnels for weapon positioning and medic station set ups. Armors, guns and swords were being recalibrated and strengthened. Makeshift stretchers were set up in the tunnels. There wouldn’t be enough for everyone, and that was no problem. Only about half of the Black Shield fighters were expected to retreat back into the tunnels after slaughtering as much of the delegates as fast as possible.
Noon was when the first journalists, carrying handheld devices which were able to record voices and capture moving images at the same time—apparently called kameras—came in to set up their equipment. Egon spent those hours making small talk with them, blending in with the society of his birth culture.
A handful of them had stuck their kameras in his face at the entrance to the Linden Manor house.
“I will not be making any comments at this time,” he said. “I have no direct contact with the Military. Anything I have to say will be said in a few hours when the conference is fully up and running.”
Meanwhile in the tunnels, everything had been set up. Cannons which would emit fatal beam laser beams, which Vigdis and Anwen had spent hours stretching into the deepest twilight hours building with help from some new Free Army additions, were ready to fire right behind the paintings at the giving of a signal. Each of them was manned by two soldiers who would maneuver and power them using their Reserve. The cannons were meant to take out as many non-military delegates as possible so that the Black Shield wouldn’t waste valuable energy and could later fight against the Empire’s soldiers.
Anwen stood in behind a cannon, swinging it from side-to-side checking if its pivot was working as intended. After it moved smoothly with almost no noise, she confirmed that it was installed properly. She gave a simple thumbs up to the two soldiers assigned to man it, to which they smiled in appreciation. Words would’ve been pointless. After all, they would likely die in a few hours. There was no point being too friendly towards them.
As Anwen strolled off to inspect the next cannon, she heard footsteps running up to her from behind.
“Hi, Anwen.” Klaudia smiled as she joined the other’s girl’s side.
“Oh, hey Klaudia. How’s it going?” Anwen absentmindedly asked.
“As good as someone can be right now.” Klaudia shrugged with a half-authentic beam painting itself across her lips.
“I get that. I feel that way too,” Anwen pulled one corner of her lips upwards, patting the other girl’s back. “But we’ll make it through. You’re a medic, I’m an engineer. We’ll be safe.”
“This group… after the Anbieter makes his declaration, it won’t ever be the same.” Klaudia said somberly.
“It won’t be. What else are we supposed to do? All we can do is… push on, I guess.” Anwen said.
“That’s the only thing we can do. I’m glad you accept that too. Some of the other medics… they’re feeling pretty gloomy about it all. At the end of the day, though, it’s not my place to tell them what to do. It’s not really my problem to tell them not to feel a little upset.”
“Really? I thought you were the type of person to… I don’t know, yell at people for even looking at you the wrong way.”
“Again, Anwen… I understand now that it’s not my place to be telling people what I want them to do. Sometimes, I just have to put myself first.”
“That doesn’t sound very medic-like of you,” Anwen giggled. “No, I’m the last person to be saying something like that when I—
She was reminded of her last meaningful conversation with Stefan. He hadn’t been wrong when he said that all she did was pass on the Anbieter’s words of instruction. To point out Klaudia’s own harsh ways of communicating was hypocritical.
“Um, you know,” Anwen quickly redirected herself as the two neared the next cannon. “I was eavesdropping on the unit leader’s meeting a couple nights ago. I… kinda felt there was the implication that a lot of them were definitely going to die. Vigdis seemed pretty down after she came back from it. What do you think?”
“What do I think?” Klaudia reiterated Anwen’s question. “Well, the Anbieter’s the leader. If anyone wants to go out in a blaze of glory, wouldn’t it be him? Besides… it’s not surprising. Remember what he said at our last base meeting? He said that if he died, it wouldn’t matter so long as the Black Shield lived on.”
I didn't even mention the Anbieter specifically, Anwen remarked.
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“Oh, I do remember that now.” she said, stopping when the gazes of the two soldiers stationed at next cannon met hers in front of her.
“Hey, Anwen.” Klaudia said, turning to face her.
“Yeah?”
Without speaking another word, Klaudia wrapped her arms around the girl firmly. Confused, Anwen returned the action. After a good five seconds of latching, Klaudia pulled away. Her eyes were wet, but she wasn’t outright crying.
“What was that about?” Anwen asked as Klaudia stepped backwards in the direction she was going in originally.
“I… I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t know, I don’t know. I’m sorry.” Klaudia turned around and darted out of Anwen’s sight suddenly.
“Klaudia, wait!” Anwen cried, wanting an explanation for her friend’s bizarre behaviour, but the soldiers in front of her prevented her from going after her, irritated that she kept them waiting for their cannon inspection.
Slowing down as she approached a makeshift medic station, Klaudia was unsure herself of what she said and done. She didn’t know if she had truly meant it. After all, she was just so different from everyone else at the Black Shield. She wasn’t supposed to make any connections there, yet she had. Despite the rough exterior, traces of amity managed to slip through its cracks. Coming into the Black Shield, her only friend had been Meinrad but coming out…
“Umm… Detlef?” she said, as the boy was sitting against the wall, resting his tired forehead against his knees.
“Klaudia?” Detlef groggily picked up his head, his short length of rest coming to an end. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at your station?”
“Well… I didn’t have anything to do, so… I guess I just decided to stroll around the tunnels a bit.”
She dropped next to him as he relaxed, crossing his legs. Detlef’s face became warm as her knee touched his.
“I… have had a question ever since we left the base.” Detlef said.
“Go ahead.” Klaudia allowed.
“Where are you and Meinrad from? Us Glacial Landers are really well connected, and my Ma says she didn’t know of any kids who joined the Shield since I did. And, now that I think about it… I probably would’ve met you at some point when we were really small, you know, going on trading trips and such. But I don’t remember doing so.”
“Where I’m from…” Klaudia muttered, her heart banging against the inside of her chest. Why did Detlef ask such a question? Why now? “Right. The truth is… Meinrad and I, we technically aren’t from the Glacial Lands.”
“Y-You aren’t?” Detlef’s pupils grew with astonishment.
“Technically,” Klaudia said, her heartbeat slowly returning to normal as she registered that Detlef was not angry with her. “Our parents were all from the Glacial Lands originally, and the two of us were born there. But we grew up all around the north since our parents are traveling merchants. We barely lived there, but the Glacial Lands… that’s the closest thing we have to home.”
“Well, things make a lot more sense now.” Detlef smiled.
“They do?” Klaudia asked, puzzled.
“Yeah. You two hardly have the accent! I’ve only just recently noticed that but…”
“Detlef,” Klaudia said as the boy trailed off, placing her palm on his knee. “You’re a good guy. A really, really good guy. I’m sorry for all the times I teased you or made you feel uncomfortable. You don’t deserve it. I should've been better to you.”
“Hey, hey,” Detlef said, gazing her right in the eyes with a reassuring look. “There’s no need for apologies, it’s oka—
The boy was cut off as a pair of lips collided with his. Initially surprised but relishing it regardless, his heart pounded as Klaudia pulled away from him.
“I know that you like me, Detlef. I’ve always known. And to be honest, I feel the same. I like you a lot, Detlef. Like, really.”
Detlef stared at Klaudia's lips, completely lacking any anticipation of her sudden move. His cheeks felt hot. Hotter than they'd ever felt.
“You don’t know… how long I’ve waited for that…” Detlef said, as Klaudia quickly rose to her feet.
“You’re good, Detlef. Out of everything and everyone in this damned organisation, you’re the purest of them all. You’re the one with the cleanest heart,” she said, the tears streaming down her cheeks quite apparent. “And no matter whatever happens, you have to stay that way.”
--
Nearly all attendees of the conference had already arrived at the Linden house. Guards were spaced out evenly across the entire perimeter of the property, watching over the 200 or so military officials, nobles and members of the media invited to the conference.
The Frei Squad were not among them, however. Their role was merely handing out refreshments to the guests. After all, it appeared more proper than to have southern servants passing them around.
As Lucia walked through the rows with a smile, offering plates of biscuits or glasses of juice to seated guests, she noticed Malin with an empty tray in her hands.
“Well, you’re fast.” Lucia giggled softly, attempting to appear as professional as she could.
“The quicker I get this done, the quicker I get to sit down. I still have five more trays to go.” Malin said nonchalantly.
For a Terran whose parents were from there, she really doesn’t seem to be interested in it at all.
Joakim was on the other side of the hall from the girls, doing his best to calmly hand out the refreshments. The eyes of many judgmental, bigoted Titanians seemed to follow him, even though he was in the military. It was either because they believed a mere private did not deserve to be at one of the most coveted events of the past decade—or that a human had no reason to be there. But Joakim realised something for the first time. There was absolutely no way he could destroy them. Not alone, not head on.
“Come on, Terran boy, don’t let these eyes scare you,” Sindri whispered from behind him. “Wouldn’t want them to see your piss dribbling all over the floor.”
Joakim ignored him, aware that he was trying to mock him. However he did not give in. Instructor Gerlachus approached them while giving friendly waves to nobles and media members on her way to them.
“Lance Corporal Fabricius, Private Holt, gather with the girls towards the entrance. The guest of honour will be arriving very soon.” she guilelessly ordered. They offered curt nods in response and crossed over to the other side to convene with them.