+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++
Ygeian Countryside
November 5, 1538 CE
From serene green forests, winding meadows, hedgerows, and plantations, to high waterfalls in the mountains—Hans and Adelyn passed it yesterday.
Hans and Adelyn both watched as Alizée chased a bunch of butterflies that caught her attention on a sunflower field. The morning sun was still rising, which meant it was a bit warm at least. Especially the smell of the genuine coffee that the two drank and sipped beside their parked mechs.
“I told her to read her books on my trailer wagon,” Adelyn groaned a bit. “Instead, that’s what she’s doing. I swear, if she runs off to that pond to get dirty, I’ll chastise her. That dress of hers isn’t easy to clean!”
“Oh, come on, let the kid have fun,” Hans replied, as he sipped his coffee. “I mean, she’s a child. She wants some playtime. Give her a bit of leeway.”
Adelyn turned to Hans and pouted a bit as she poked his chest.
“Easy for you to say since you don’t dress, wash, clothe, or feed her.”
“H-hey!” Hans turned a bit red. “I just…hey, wait! I cooked last night’s meal. I swear I fed her. You too!”
“Oh, counting the chores now huh?”
“You started it!”
Adelyn retreated with a smug smirk.
“See, that’s why I have to be a bit more strict with her. Especially when we’re in travel mode. I mean, can you even clothe her?”
“I think she can do it herself,” Hans nodded to himself. “The best I can do is wash her dress then toss it at her. Thought I’d probably fumble that part. Those frilly dresses of hers seem a bit too delicate. Hmm…that’s actually troublesome now that I think about it. Wait, how do you even wash it with the crappy soap available in this world?”
Adelyn sighed.
“You’re going to have a hard time being a father someday, Lieutenant.”
She gulped her entire mug down. Hans on the other hand watched as Alizée came running from the flower fields, carrying a bunch of flowers she picked up.
“Lady Adelyn!” She shouted with a big smile. “Sir Hans! Look! Look!”
Hans immediately felt awkward at what he projected to happen soon. And so, he turned to the direction of his mech in a valiant retreat.
“Ugh, you deal with her—” his excuse however was cut short when Adelyn pulled him back.
“Stay, Lieutenant,” the stern words from Adelyn froze Hans into obedience immediately. “She’s going to give something nice to us. At least appreciate it.”
“Roger,” he answered almost by instinct.
Alizée then arrived and handed them a bunch of sunflowers.
“Ohh,” Adelyn swooned a bit. “That’s so cute. Thank you, Alizée.”
“Uhh, thank you, I guess…” Hans said, taking two for himself. He looked at it.
He wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it.
“I want to keep them!” Alizée said. “Maybe I can use them for magic one day. I think I’ve read somewhere about spells that involve flowers.”
“Oh, well, that’s good then,” Adelyn patted her head. Then, suddenly, her smile became a bit more threatening. “Now, why did you decide to run around and get your dress a bit dirty?”
The girl smiled nervously in response.
“Flower collection, L-lady Adelyn.”
“Did that have to involve chasing those butterflies?”
“They were asking for it!”
As the two talked with each other, Hans on the other hand just grabbed his leather journal book from his pocket. Checking the size of the sunflower, an idea popped into his mind. Opening the book binds, he flipped to the end of his journal, and pressed it on one of the pages.
He then closed it hard and closed the binds. He’d probably have to place it underneath the other books he acquired to further flatten it later.
“Oh…” Adelyn looked at what Hans was doing, then smiled teasingly. “Using it as memorabilia, huh?”
“Well, I don’t know what to do with it,” Hans said, quite neutrally. “I’ve never been given flowers before. I guess it’s the first time. So, I’ll just place it here.”
“I’m the first person who gave you flowers?” Alizée innocently asked. Hans just laughed.
“Well, the honor is yours!”
The girl’s eyes shone. She then raised her hands and hugged Hans’ waist.
“Yay!”
Hans was naturally compelled to pat the girl’s hair in response.
“Hmm,” Adelyn looked at her two sunflowers thoughtfully. “I’ve been given a lot of flowers by my suitors over the years. So it’s not exactly new to me.”
“Makes sense. What did you do with them?”
“I threw them in the garbage bin.”
“Harsh,” Hans’ face darkened a bit as he awkwardly continued. “But a bit understandable, I guess?”
Adelyn on the other hand just groaned.
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“Look, it’s a bit weird when like…old noblemen in their forties are dropping me flowers. It’s weird, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, very weird,” Hans replied.
“What about you?” Adelyn asked. “Have you ever given someone flowers before?”
Hans paused, placed his hand on his chin, then looked up at the clouds.
“Ah, one time to my grandmother’s birthday. My mom told me so.”
“...Typical.”
Hans turned to Adelyn with a defensive expression.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Nothing,” Adelyn looked back down at her flowers, then, she smiled a bit. “I think I’ll save this up one day then.”
“One day? But it’s going to dry rather quickly. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Shush, shush. We have to move out now.”
Hans looked back at his watch. It was already seven in the morning.
“Oh! Right. Crap, we still have a lot of ground to cover.”
“Exactly,” Adelyn just smiled at him as Hans rushed back to his mech. “...Exactly…Lieutenant.”
+++
Villiers-Dupont
“You’re just lying to them.”
The voice of the Calamity of Desire. Hans didn’t understand why he could hear her again. Everything was a dark field all around, and he felt as if he was floating.
In front of him, the woman’s face appeared.
“You say it’s just your responsibility. But to destroy yourself for the perfect story for them…”
She pulled away.
“Do you really want to choose this path—and be like me?”
Hans almost choked as he snapped back awake. He looked up at his HUD, as the soft light of the afternoon sun filtered through his displays. Hans frowned as he looked to his side. He checked the books he used to place weight on his journal. He pulled his journal out and placed the rest of the books back in a secure bag.
He flipped the pages open, straight into the sunflower that he placed inside. Looking down at it, Hans remembered the pure smile from Alizée as she handed it to him. Or the innocent look from Adelyn when she asked him about giving flowers.
He took a deep breath and closed his diary. He placed it back in his vest’s pockets.
“Of course…it’s my damned duty,” Hans told himself. “Heh…why should I listen to some lost, corrupted, and dead soul?”
He looked back at the face of the Calamity of Desire when he shot her face.
That content smile. I wonder why she chose that. Hans laughed to himself. Ah, whatever. Lunatics. They’re all strange either way.
He popped his hatch open. Outside was the town that they had stopped in earlier. He yawned to himself, as he jumped down his mech. He looked behind him. Adelyn’s mech too was parked near the entrance of the town. Near the large archway, a squad of soldiers from Captain Strobel’s cavalry was drinking alcohol beside their horses.
Seems like they’re also close too. Hans walked toward the town, still yawning to himself. I wonder where those two went.
The townsfolk looked at him with great curiosity, but Hans just waved their interest off. It was a standard thing wherever they visited. The ‘six-legged’ and ‘eight-legged’ mechs they rode on already had a growing heroic reputation in the Imperium after all. It seemed that everywhere they went, people searched for the ‘six-legged iron beast’ or ‘eight-legged golem’ that could ‘defeat all demons’.
Guess these people are just surprised that we look like normal people. Hans checked his attire for a second. Or probably not.
Soon, he reached the town center. Asking around, he slowly triangulated where Adelyn and Alizée went. Most of the people he asked seemed to be a tad bit nervous when talking to him. Hans found it more and more disconcerting how widespread his reputation was.
Eventually, he entered a local food catering area. It seemed to be beside the cliff that the town was settled on. On the various tables, travelers, merchants, and other people who stopped in the town dined. Hans looked at some of the nearby bakeries and food stores.
Seems like they sell quite the fancy stuff here.
He was quite surprised. Then again, this town was pretty decently big. He looked around at the table like a lost child. Until, eventually, he found them. It seemed that Captain Weibel and Lieutenant Preisner had caught up. Malte seemed to be dealing with Alizée, who was eating a cake and asking him endless questions about his life.
Meanwhile, Adelyn and Captain Weibel seemed to be discussing something while looking at the fields below the cliff. Hans naturally went straight toward Adelyn and Captain Weibel.
“Yeah, it’s been terrorizing the—” Captain Weibel stopped and turned to Hans. “Oh, here he is. Enjoyed your afternoon nap?”
Hans yawned again.
“I just know I’m not going to have a good sleep next time,” Hans replied as he straightened his uniform. “What’s the deal right now?”
“They have intel about a demon active a few kilometers down south from here,” Adelyn said. “We need to deal with it. It already destroyed three towns and villages. And it’s only going to grow in strength the more people it assimilates.”
“Assimilates?” Hans raised his eyebrows. “What the heck are we dealing with again?”
Captain Weibel on the other hand popped a bottle open. He immediately pushed it to Hans’ chest.
“Drink,” he gruffly said. “It’s good shit.”
Adelyn on the other hand narrowed her eyes at Captain Weibel.
“Jonas…” she hissed a bit. “He’s not a drunkard. I paid for that for you to poison yourself. Don’t even think of infecting him with your vices, old man.”
“Well, a man’s gotta share his blessings,” Captain Weibel said, laughing a bit. “Come on, Sir Hoffman. It’s still got half of its contents.”
“Fine…” Hans accepted it and drank it all down. It seemed to be heavy liquor from the stores nearby. It almost knocked Hans down. “Ah…crap…”
Captain Weibel wheezed and took it from Hans’ hands.
“Heh, you’re going to grow out of that one day,” Captain Weibel said, as he plugged the cork back on the bottle. “Anyway, the demon.”
“Yeah, right, the demon,” Hans said, his face still scrounged up from the effects of the demon. “What does it do?”
“Big fat black-colored slime thing,” Captain Weibel said, shaking his head. “They say the slime part is…acidic. And people covered by it either melt or become new slime things. I think we’d have to deal with a few hundred converted slime people. Acidic, black-colored, slime people.”
“Hmm…” Hans frowned, thinking about it. “How fast is it spreading?”
“It appeared four days ago,” Captain Weibel said. “And it already covers…quite a lot of area. I’d say, it’s spreading way too fast.”
“That’s why we’ll deal with it,” Adelyn decided, nodding to herself. “These people need help. I won’t let any of them fall in danger to that thing.”
“You sure?” Hans asked. “But we have to get to Nomos fast.”
“Yes. Besides, if this spreads too far, troop movements here will just get disrupted,” Adelyn reasoned. “That’s why we have to respond, Lieutenant.”
“Alright, alright,” Hans nodded. “Though…it might be a major danger by the sounds of it.”
Just then, Adelyn shook her head confidently.
“It’ll be fine,” she declared, as her halo shone a little bit brighter. “You have my back. I’m sure we’ll be just fine. After all, if we can beat the Calamity of Desire smoothly, what’s a little slime monster going to do?”
Hans fell silent for a second before he forced a smile to his face.
“Yeah, yeah, of course…everything went swimmingly well for us so far,” he answered. “Of course…it’ll be fine again.”
“Exactly!” Adelyn declared. “It’s nice that morale is high amongst us. So long as we’re all motivated and ready to fight, we can do the things that must be done!”