ARC II: ITS LABYRINTH

“Being sent to a world that resembles the past sure is quite something.”

- Excerpt from Lieutenant Hans Hoffman’s Journal Entries.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Unknown

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

Hans was snacking on biscuits from his recently opened rations at the moment, leaning on one of the legs of his parked Wanderfalke. They stopped on their journey mid-afternoon. Beside Hans was Adelyn, who was doing much the same as she sipped tea that she brewed.

Both of them were watching the sunset, as Alizée played with some sort of light magic with her palms near the sunflower field beside the road. Quite frankly, their Wanderpanzers seemed like an unnatural sight on the idyllic natural landscape. An intrusion of modern technology in a world stuck in the past. But…well, they were here now.

“Shame we can’t understand her,” Hans replied to Adelyn. “I mean, it’s magic, so, that’s quite something. Would like to ask her how she does it.”

“Hoping you’ll learn it too?”

“Nah…” Hans shook his head. “Unless it's useful, I don’t need that light party trick coming from my palms. I got night vision equipment, a powerful sensor suite, a flashlight, and a gun.”

“Well, imagine if you have one, you might entertain the locals once we meet them.”

“What? Am I a court jester to you? You’re a fool.”

She laughed. “Well, a court jester would be an appropriate designation for you. I think being a diplomatic representative of Lotharingia is too high of a task to place on your hands. Making funny jokes however would be something on your means, and it’ll help us cooperate with people.”

Hans cracked a quick frown from his Captain’s condescending tone. “Why am I the clown?”

“Fits your theme, I guess? Some call you ‘the Joker’ due to how you weasel your way out of literal encirclements, so I guess throwing smokes and mirrors to anyone that might suspect us in this world would be your specialty?”

“And what are you?” Hans laughed. “A ‘diplomatic representative of Lotharingia’?”

And with that, Adelyn smugly looked up at the skies as that aristocratic pride in her tone finally shined at full force once more. “Of course. I am, after all, the youngest daughter of House Wittenstein. Not only am I a commissioned officer of the Confederacy, I am also a high noble. It’s only natural that my standing will demand such a responsibility. I may not officially represent the nation since I was not appointed here, but I am the face of Lotharingia here, in this new world. And I shall execute that duty with utmost grace expected of a member of my family.”

With that, Adelyn nodded to herself, almost as if she was convinced of her greatness. The fact that her halo shined a little bit brighter and cast some light on Hans further added to the image—an image of someone delusional, at least from Hans’ perspective.

“Yeah, you go get ‘em, Princess,” Hans said. “Just call me up if the locals skewer you in the wake of a Lotharingian-styled diplomatic fumbling.”

“Don’t make fun of me! I’m having my moment here. Can you at least let a woman have her fantasies?!”

“I wasn’t,” Hans said, attempting to look innocent. “Just being a good subordinate is all.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a guy who charges into the fire when I say defend.”

“Sorry, not sorry.”

“As expected of you,” Adelyn sighed. “This is why Lieutenant Wilhelm, or maybe LIeutenant Weizmann should be here. They’re the ones who can deal with you.”

“Yeah, that they are,” Hans laughed. Usually, in E Company, Adelyn would hide behind her two yesmen during problems. Unlike Hans and 1st Platoon, the other platoons were closer to their Captain, which was why they pulled out immediately during the Battle of Haubliz while Hans and 1st Platoon disobeyed. It was Hans’ style under Captain Adelyn.

Independence. Something which he struggled to receive from their previous company commander. Adelyn of course would chastise Hans whenever he disobeyed orders in favor of his preferred tactical options, but, all she would do was nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Thus, she would sometimes use Weizmann and Wilhelm to convince Hans, after all, both of them were his friends.

“You know, I wonder what Lieutenant Weizmann and Lieutenant Wilhelm would do in our stead. Hell, what if they’re here?” Hans asked.

Adelyn smiled. “Well, I have no doubt they’d survive. E Company after all is some of the finest units out there. I’m sure they’d be moving as quickly as possible to find friendlies and regroup, all while surviving, and all while following the rules of the Army.”

“You have quite the high opinion of a unit of miscreants, huh,” Hans said. “I honestly wonder why you refuse to look at the crimes each of us committed. That should shake you up quite quickly.”

“I know more than half of E Company was convicted of nonviolent crimes,” Adelyn said. “But, the reason why I don’t want to look it up, is as I’ve said. I’m not here to judge. The courts already did that. And they already gave you this position as a punishment. All I’m doing here is to lead you all into redeeming yourselves off your sentences by keeping you all alive until the war is over.”

“Quite a tall, and naive mission to give to yourself,” Hans said. “But whatever, you do you.”

+++

“A farm…” Hans said. Just ahead of the road they were in, were endless fields of wheat. They were already mature, but it was just so damned massive that Hans was a tad bit surprised. For a supposed technologically backward world, this place seemed…more well off agriculturally than he expected.

“Lieutenant, please dismount then,” Adelyn ordered. “Let’s try to make contact without scaring them first. Our vehicles aren’t exactly the most friendly-looking types…”

“Copy that,” Hans replied. “What about Alizée?”

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“She’s coming, of course,” Adelyn said. “I mean…we can’t understand their language, now can we?”

“You have a point.”

Their Wandpanzers stopped on the road, making sure that they were some distance away from the settlement. Naturally for Hans, he immediately took his SMG as he dismounted. Quite frankly, he didn’t know how friendly the locals would be. Not that he would be starting any trouble, but having a good boom-stick to scare them off would come in handy during extreme situations.

He watched as Adelyn and Alizée dismounted as well, with Adelyn still encouraging Alizée to come out of the hatch. He sighed…hopefully, Alizée would speak well about them once they made contact. That would certainly make things easier, by a huge margin.

“Lieutenant, you’re carrying your gun?” Adelyn asked. Unlike him, she wasn’t holding anything (although, he knew she had her pistol concealed). Hans nodded.

“Look, we can just say I’m your guard or something. That’d make sense anyway. Plus, we traveled through hostile lands. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Just don’t do anything stupid,” Adelyn said. “Unless I say so, you’re not flicking that safety off. Okay?”

“Rog, Captain.”

The three of them advanced through the road, with Hans leading a few meters ahead. He made sure to keep his gun lowered, as they finally saw two men meandering about around what appeared to be a bunch of pack mules. Unlike Alizée however, these two didn’t have anything special on them. Not even a halo similar to Adelyn’s case. They were like him, very much human in appearance. They turned their attention to the trio before they returned to conversing with each other.

Almost as if they were nothing special.

But what surprised Hans was…

“And those damned merchants raised the price of the powder!” A bearded man said to what appeared to be a farmer. The other man merely nodded exasperatedly.

“Damn that company. I knew it, being dependent on their new crap wasn’t going to be good. Okay, it helped with the yields. But look at some of my field laborers, they snort the damned thing! Rumor is, the damned thing makes you go crazy—”

Wait, they speak Lotharingian?

“Sir, can I have a word for a moment, please?”

The bearded man groaned. “Just go straight on that road young lad. If you wanna get to Rousselot, it’s straight ahead. Ain’t no point asking ‘round a bunch of oldies.”

“You both speak Lotharingian?”

The two of them reacted emptily upon his mention of that word. “Is that some funny place in the East? I dunno mate, I’m speaking continental.”

“Didn’t know they changed the name of our language,” the farmer said.

“Ah, damn those stupid academics or mages and their fancy nothing. I’ve seen them a lot in the city. Always going on and on about this and that.”

“Ain’t that their entire thing though?” The farmer asked. “Ponder about the world and all?”

“Doesn’t matter to me unless it's pondering how to stop the bugs pestering on my goddamned farm.”

Adelyn and Hans looked at each other, as the two of them continued rambling about everything else. It seemed that the two really spoke the same language. And “continental”? What the hell did that even mean? Why would an entire damned continent speak one language?

Wait, why did they not understand Alizée then?

Just then, Adelyn stepped forward, clearing her throat.

“Gentlemen, would you warrant me to ask a few questions, please?”

The two of them looked at her, up and down in surprise. They seemed to have focused on her halo. “Crap, she’s a Virtus…”

The bearded man smacked the other man, and their surprise turned into submission, almost bowing in the presence of Adelyn. As if they just saw someone important walk in front of them.

“I…I apologize, lady…this guy’s just a nut head. Please, ask away.”

“Wait, wait, no need to bow—”

“But you’re a noble,” the bearded man said. “Sorry, your guard blocked the way, and we didn’t see. We dearly apologize…”

Adelyn looked back at Hans, who merely shook his head. He too had no idea what they meant by that. Did that mean that people of the Virtus race were widely considered as nobility in this land? Well…he supposed her summoner made sense in turning her into one then. She sure as hell was cut for that role.

“Alright then. I would like to ask, where are we?”

The two of them looked at each other strangely. The bearded man soon answered, a bit unsure. “Um, we’re in Ygeia. The westernmost Principality of the continent, and of the Holy Empire. Shouldn’t you…know that?”

Adelyn smiled, shaking her head. “I apologize, sir. But an accident happened, and we three have been very lost. I would be very pleased if you could perhaps tell me more about this land.”

“Oh…you three got into a situation…?” The bearded man looked at Alizée, who began hiding behind Hans. “A Vanus child? Silver haired? Hmm…I swear, I saw her once…”

“Oh, on that note, she seems to be speaking…something…different? Do you two perhaps understand her?” Adelyn asked.

The bearded man shook his head. “Probably just another sheltered Vanus noble. They have their own language they keep to themselves. I think there are a few of them in Rousselot who can help you understand her. But we cannot.”

Adelyn nodded. “We saved her from the forests over there,” she pointed in the direction that they came from. “There were two villages there that seemed to have been attacked. We were wondering why no one is there to…um, help. The place also seemed deserted. No merchants…no nothing…”

“Oh…the Vanus villages over there,” the two turned shifty. Especially the bearded man. “Sorry, lady, but we don’t want to associate with them. The authorities already warned us not to trade with the rebels over there. Can’t get on their wrong side nowadays.”

“Rebels?”

“Eh, you know what they keep doing since their Republic lost,” the bearded man said.

“To be fair, I think they ruled us better,” the farmer said.

“Ah, shut up old man. Virtus. Vanus. The Republic. The Holy Empire. It doesn’t matter. We humans are below the totem pole. If anything, it’s nice that these Vanus folks are having the suck handed to them with the change in management. Especially when there’s rumors that the damned bastards keep turning into monsters for no reason…”

“Hey,” Hans whispered to Adelyn. “They’re back on it again.”

“It’s like they forgot about my existence,” Adelyn said. She however smiled. “Well, at the very least, now we know that humans exist in this world too. And there is civilization. Look at them argue.”

“It’s almost comical,” Hans said. “Though, I don’t get that man’s problem with the Vanus race. Like her. Or…well, me, apparently.”

Adelyn shook her head. “Come on, Lieutenant. They can’t distinguish you from a human anyway. Only I have a distinctive identification of being not human. And it works for my benefit, as demonstrated here.”

“Or not, and you end up getting skewered for having the blood of the ruling elite.”

“Your pessimism in everything…”

“That, and Alizée is clearly a Vanus girl. If this world has some sort of hatred of her kind for being the previous elites, we’re in hot water…well, especially her. And, probably me too.”

Adelyn shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll protect her if need be.”

“I know that. I’m just saying…I feel like there’s more danger going forward in this path. We can’t get too sloppy with this one.”

Adelyn nodded, before turning back to the two arguing men. “Thanks for helping us out, sirs! We appreciate it.”

Damn it.

That was all that was left in Hans’ mind, as he looked back at Alizée, who was doing everything to make herself look small behind Hans.

Damn it.

This entire thing just turned even more complicated for him going forward. Then again…why did he even hope that his problems would end there?