“I’d consider it as a half-decent success, all things considered.”

- Excerpt from Lieutenant Hans Hoffman’s Journal Entries.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Ygeian Countryside

AUG 27, 1538 CE

The battlefield was serene.

Two mechs, parked on a hilly area, separated by hundreds of meters, watched the fallen demon as it slowly disintegrated—the metallic body around it literally melting into a red bloody puddle. There was no more rage nor hatred that emanated from the demon. It was in all manners…silent.

Dead.

And Hans saw what he was waiting for—the rewards of his hard work.

[1 Demonic Entity Liquidated!]

[ASCENDED TO GENERAL TIER II!]

[ATTRIBUTES MECHANIC UNLOCKED!]

[ACHIEVEMENT MECHANIC UNLOCKED!]

[LVL UP! NOW LVL. 1]

[PROGRESS TO LVL. 2: 45%]

[AVAILABLE AP: 950 PTS]

He sighed, looking down at his screen as it showed a number of achievements he completed.

[HEAVY METAL: GRANTED 60 AP]

[LONG ROAD: GRANTED 20 AP]

[DEMON SLAYER: GRANTED 100 AP]

He then checked what they were for.

HEAVY METAL: FIRE 5 APFSDS ROUNDS WITH DIRECT HITS.

LONG ROAD: DRIVE 100 KILOMETERS.

He supposed he finally had another extra AP source at the very last. Goddess, it took me this long. He shook his head. Why was it even locked out from me? And the damned mechanic doesn’t even grant me much. How’s sixty AP going to compensate for losing five expensive APFSDS rounds?

He lamented how little he knew about the elusive [SYSTEM]. It was simply a pain in the arse, Hans thought. But then again, now, with this, his mech was stronger than ever. He was stronger than ever. And well, perhaps he’d get more goodies with the [ATTRIBUTES] mechanic soon.

Body enhancement? Skill enhancement? Maybe he’d even get his own AP regenerated over time. Who knew…

Another long grind ahead of me, I guess.

He sighed.

Another long-ass grind…

Whatever he received from the ‘System’ wasn’t enough, even when it somehow managed to prevent him from dying more than once this time around. He needed more.

“Lieutenant,” his comms suddenly opened up, the voice of his Captain bleeding through his cockpit. “Good job. We did it.”

Hans just chuckled, completely tired of the affair.

“That we did, I guess,” Hans said. “That we did.”

“I knew we could pull it off. Just a good amount of teamwork.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“And as for those tag-a-longs you dragged with us, fine, I see now. They’re useful.”

“Well, one of them is useful.”

He heard Adelyn chuckle.

“Well, I suppose Virtus mages can do certain things we can’t.”

“Are you planning to become one too?”

He heard a tired laugh from her.

“I just opened up a bunch of skill slots now that I reached General Tier II. I think I’d like to be the first Lotharingian mage. It’d very much be an honor, hehe.”

“Yeah, good luck on that, Princess,” Hans sarcastically responded.

“I’m going to slice your tongue one day.”

“Gee, the kid’s with you, right? Have some tact, Milady. That’s not so ladylike of you, now is it, hmm?” Hans teased.

“Ugh, you’re such a…whatever…”

“Anyway, congrats too, your shots were very useful,” Hans said. “Did you use any special rounds?”

“Yeah, the last one was called ‘Anti-Demon Armor Piercing’, so, ADAP APFSDS.”

“Damn, so it enhances the penetration of something already marked as ‘armor piercing’?”

“I guess I just have better upgrades than you,” Adelyn smugly replied. “But yes, it says it enhances the penetration values of my APFSDS by twenty percent, alongside, I assume, it enhances the damage it’d cause. Since the demon was all metal, I thought that would work.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“I guess in the end you got the actual kill again,” Hans thought. “And here I thought it was finally me getting it.”

“Stop moping around, you got to Tier II too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you contributed well enough. The system rewarded that duly well. Again, good work.”

Hans felt his chest become lighter at her words. He had thought that because he didn’t die enough, he failed to maximize the information-gathering work to kill the demon in the most efficient manner. But…

I guess she still counts this as a success.

Even though Hans didn’t get to prevent those deaths.

I guess that’s good enough, for now…

He settled his back on the comfortable, soft seat of his.

The battle was truly over, for now.

+++

The six were huddled together near a large campfire as they ate.

Laura and her team, alongside Hans, Adelyn, and Alizée were all having a blast in the post-battle impromptu feast, which, in Hans’ opinion, all of them more than earned (even the group of civilian youngsters with them).

“Damn, you’re quite a cook, huh?” Hans asked as he took a bite of the seared pork from the wild boar that their resident hunter and archer, Charles Gaubon, killed and cooked. “This is well done, I should say.”

“Cooking was something I studied passionately, alongside magic, in the Grand Academy of Lorraine, good sir.”

“Academy of Lorraine?” Hans raised his eyebrows.

Laura smiled.

“The three of us studied there. It’s a prestigious magic academy of the Duchy of Lorraine. One of the three great duchies of the Ygeian Principality.”

“That’s…cool,” Hans replied. “You know, Adelyn, in Flandria—”

“I know,” Adelyn replied, nodding. “They invaded from there.”

“Mhm…just funny how the name’s the same and all,” Hans clarified.

“The same?” Charles curiously asked.

“Where we come from, we have this enemy nation, the Empire of Flandria,” Adelyn explained. “One of their borderlands of the Empire was the Grand Duchy of Lorraine. It was a fortified border region, part of the so-called ‘Lorraine Line’ by the enemy. Except, during the war, they never used it for defense. They used that place to invade our nation, Lotharingia.”

Laura narrowed her eyes.

“I thought you two were from the West,” the Virtus woman said. “Like…you know, my father. From the Holy Empire. And what even is Lotharingia?”

“We’re foreigners,” Hans explained. “And, well, we’re stuck in this continent until the foreseeable future. So, yeah, I suppose we are in the employ of the Imperium. No other choice, you know?”

“My question though, is why you three,” Adelyn pointed at them. “Seemingly children of the nobility, or the clergy, would be traveling like buffoons in a dangerous land. It’s dangerous! You three can die roaming around this place, you know?”

“Because it’s our duty!” the swordsman named Mathieu Appell replied. “Besides, how will we hone our skills and magic without adventuring? It’s how we gain experience. To travel and fight for the people.”

“Technically, he could have just sat in his family’s estate and relaxed,” Laura jested with a laugh.

“And you could have just stayed yourself in that church you work at!”

“Well, as I’ve said, I have more than enough of a reason to kill the Calamity,” Laura said, looking down. “So you understand why I’d leave my homeplace. Praying won’t cut it.”

“I…well…yeah…” Mathieu, a bit ashamed, slackened and turned away, retreating to his food. Hans found it amusing how cocky and forward Mathieu was. He definitely is that kind of a dumbass dude who’d sign up for some distant expeditionary war. Hans shook his head a bit as he ate his pork. In Terra or here, really. There’s always those kinds of people.

“Charles here though is really doing this for practical reasons,” Laura said. “His family had been stripped of their noble rights by Imperial Authorities.”

“That’s why I travel,” the normally silent hunter said. “To find employment. Maybe become a Knight. Or a mercenary. Whatever works. My home is decrepit. There’s no funds nor future there.”

“Well, that’s dangerous,” Adelyn said. “But I guess I can’t judge you. The magic you place on your bow and arrow seems impressive.”

The mage-archer bowed a bit.

“Thanks for the good words, Lady Wittenstein.”

Adelyn chuckled.

“Alright, alright, I was just joking when I introduced myself that way to you three,” Adelyn said. “I’m not that stiff. Just call me Adelyn.”

“Do you feel benevolent with that?” Hans shot from her side. “But here I thought you were one and above these fellows as a high Lotharingian aristocrat?”

“Just shush.”

Hans just chuckled at her expense as he returned to his meal.

+++

“So…” Laura sighed as she held her arm. The rest of their group was already asleep in the hastily set up camp they made near their mechs, leaving Adelyn, Hans, and Laura as the sole ones awake. “I think I’ve proven myself enough to you two that I can tag along, right?”

“I really don’t understand why you did that in the town,” Adelyn shook her head in disapproval of the younger woman. “It just made you look sketchy.”

“Well, again! I had to take your attention.”

“Teenagers…” Hans chimed beside Adelyn. “Maybe they are that you know…special.”

Laura pouted a bit at Hans.

“I think your use of the word ‘special’ isn’t a very positive description of me.”

Hans grinned.

“Though she is quite perceptive.”

The young woman pouted even more at Hans’ teasing.

“Alright, alright, fine. I get your moves. I did literally ignore your claims quickly,” Hans admitted with a shrug. “I get that you’d feel the need to go the extra mile to gain our attention.”

“At least you can understand that,” Laura said, as she deflated.

“Anyway, now that it’s behind us,” Adelyn uncrossed her arms. “Speak. What really is happening? Why are you so adamant about chasing the Calamity of Desire?”

“And that’s where her claims go funky,” Hans said to Adelyn.

“My mother was the one who turned into that thing,” Laura explained. “It was years ago. I was still but a helpless child. But my mother was saddled with many problems with my Virtus father.”

“Ah…crap…” Hans said, his frown now becoming genuine. “Is that why she’s called that way? Shit, she probably snapped.”

“Yeah, that’s what happened,” Laura started tearing up. “It was an awful night. They were arguing hard while I hid in the bedroom. Until…until it happened…”

“Okay, stop now,” Adelyn said, distressed at how Laura began genuinely crying.

“W-when I went out…everything was…and he was just…blood and guts…”

“Okay, just stop!” Adelyn shouted, holding the woman close. “Calm down, no need to explain further. It’s okay now. We understand. You don’t need to relive it.”

“Goddess…” Hans said, backing down a bit, as Adelyn tried to soothe Laura. “I guess it’s starting to make sense then. Something…something extreme happening to people corrupts them.”

“I suppose,” Adelyn said, as she tried to pat the girl’s head. “That’s also Father Olbrich’s main running theory right now. And…and Daniel Specke made a few detours to that idea as their potential origin.”

“The problem is, no one knows because encountering them almost always means certain death,” Hans said. “When they turn, they must…”

He remembered the failed loops where Alizée turned into one of them.

“They kill everyone and everything around them in a rampage,” Hans concluded.

“I was lucky,” Laura sobbed. “I was just lucky.”

Slowly, it now really made sense for Hans.

And as it did, he felt his gut turn upside down once more.