In this line of work, I had seen the deaths of my subordinates countless times.
Even so, whenever I saw my men die, rage boiled up inside me.
It felt like it was all my fault as their commander.
If it had been someone other than me, wouldn’t they have lived?
Wouldn’t those guys have wanted to live, too?
I drove them to their deaths.
“The wind’s damn cold today.”
Now I was even starting to wonder.
Whether it was all right for me to feel cold just because of the wind.
When my subordinates had grown cold, submerged in the terror called death.
Just as I was about to sink deep into self-reproach, I heard footsteps approaching.
“Are you here falling into self-loathing again?”
It seemed my adjutant knew me far too well.
Had I let him too close?
No, thanks to that, I was still standing here.
“Try to think positive, sir. If it had been someone else, they might’ve gotten everyone killed.”
“Hold on, you—”
“I can see exactly what you’re thinking. You were about to ask how I knew, weren’t you?”
That was how well he knew me—what I was thinking, what I was about to say.
“Haa, must be nice knowing everything, you bastard.”
“That’s enough. Come down already. How long are you going to waste time up here?”
“Don’t ask. I don’t know either.”
The thick smoke I exhaled scattered away.
But guilt did not disappear so easily.
It was pressing down hard on my shoulders.
“You’re impressive, sir. In a different sense.”
The adjutant took something from his pocket and brought it to his mouth.
“You. Since when did you smoke?”
“This is my first time.”
The moment he took one drag, the reaction came.
The adjutant started coughing.
He was even retching, his face twisted into a deep grimace.
“Seriously, I still don’t understand why anyone does this.”
“Hoo. Don’t you go learning this kind of thing.”
“Wow, General, your good days are all gone too. You’ve become an old man.”
“Don’t get cocky. I’m still hale and hearty.”
“You sound even more like an old man when you say that.”
When the adjutant gestured for me to get on his back, I nearly kicked him.
Damn it, I really must have gotten old.
I wasn’t the kind of person who got worked up over things like this.
“You’re a terrible man, sir. To think a subordinate has to go this far just to cheer you up.”
“I’m fucking grateful, really, that you’d roll around just to make a sorry old man laugh.”
“As you should be.”
Ah, right.
I had made it this far because of that bastard.
There was something I had promised myself.
That I would one day kick that arrogant nose of his down a peg.
Until I made that happen, I couldn’t collapse yet.
“You’re thinking of screwing me over somehow, aren’t you?”
“This is why I hate quick-witted bastards.”
“I’d appreciate it if you added ‘smart’ while you were at it.”
No point talking.
Just for today, I had no confidence I could beat him.
“The wind is cold. We should head in soon.”
“Yeah, we should.”
Now it was time to start on the work I had been putting out of my mind.
I couldn’t stay trapped in despair forever.
“Ahh, if only they’d just beat each other to death among themselves. How convenient would that be?”
“…What?”
“Pardon?”
“What did you just say?”
“Uh, that it’d be convenient if they fought among themselves and died. Something like that.”
Hold on. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
A troublesome bastard could be handled by another troublesome bastard.
Of course, in theory, that was how it worked.
But let’s set aside the fight between humans and Unknowns for a moment.
A fight between Unknowns would be far more effective.
There had to have been someone who had come up with this insane idea before.
But I was probably the first human being who would actually try it.
“Gather the kids and prepare a briefing. I’ll be there soon.”
“No, where are you going after dumping work on me?!”
“I’ve got something to do! Go ahead and set things up for me!”
The adjutant pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed.
“Ugh, where the hell is he going after throwing more work at me again?”
+++
“So, there was a really huge Gate?”
Chongchong.
“And armed people went inside, but they all died?”
Chongchong.
“Then, did the Gate close?”
Chongchongchong.
“Mm, I see.”
This was driving me crazy.
It was not easy getting answers to every question through only affirmation or denial.
It would be nice if I could see what Chongchong had seen for myself.
Had it noticed that I did not quite understand?
Chongchong tilted its head, then climbed up onto my shoulder.
“Hm?”
Chongchong flew into my mouth.
As expected, Chongchong was swallowed once again.
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
Then, all of a sudden, a sensation began to brush past me.
A memory I had not experienced, yet somehow knew.
Could it be a memory related to what Chongchong had seen?
Soon after, I was able to obtain information related to the Second Gate.
“Tss. It has more variables than I expected.”
Conditional activation, vision manipulation, and decent intelligence on top of that.
What a pain.
Of all things, I had to get an entity packed only with troublesome conditions.
Talk about bad luck.
It was an entity that could not be stopped by a pursuit team in the first place.
Naturally, the pursuit team had been wiped out.
There probably had been a way to avoid sending in a pursuit team from the start.
However, from the Second Gate’s perspective, there would have been no reason to refuse.
After all, a group of entities weaker than itself would only be laughable.
Because even if that group appeared, it knew they could not put a scratch on its body.
In the end, they had been reduced to its playthings.
‘If we try to catch it in earnest, the Gate itself won’t respond anyway.’
The Second Gate might be intelligent, perhaps too intelligent.
There was no way it would permit the entry of a corps too much for it to handle.
Whether one entered the Gate or not was something the Gate decided.
‘If something like that had existed in the sector where I worked… ugh.’
I did not even want to imagine it.
“There really are all kinds of bastards out there.”
My admiration lasted only a moment.
I immediately lay down on the floor.
That was that, and this was this.
As if I would ever run into the Second Gate.
Unless I escaped, that would never happen.
At least, that was what I thought while I was lazing around.
‘Hm?’
At the sound of someone running over, I glanced over and saw Major General Chester.
Eh.
Wait, why had the Major General suddenly come here?
And at a full sprint too, as if it were incredibly urgent.
Huk.
Had I been lazing around too much like a person?
Yeah, for a monster, I probably had been lying there far too much like a person.
Wait, but was that a reason to run over like this?
It wasn’t as if today was the first day he had seen me lying down.
Was there another reason?
After confirming that I was in the containment room, the Major General called someone in.
The people he called in were the agents of Sector 469.
‘W-what? Why is everyone suddenly gathered like this?’
When the Major General gestured, the agents aimed their gun barrels at me while fully armed.
Soon after, the containment room door opened, and a shock restraint was fastened around my neck.
“Take it away quickly. We don’t have much time.”
I considered breaking the restraint and escaping right then and there.
But for now, I decided to hold back.
Why?
To be honest, even with this body, getting hit by shock rounds gives me a bit of a jolt.
Obviously, not the pleasant kind of fizz you get from drinking soda.
Mm, it feels like actual electricity running through me.
It hurts more than you’d think.
But where am I being dragged off to?
Did they suddenly find a way to kill me?
That would be a problem.
+++
An ominous feeling came over me.
If Chongchong’s memories were correct, we were definitely heading straight toward the Second Gate.
No way.
They weren’t thinking of making Unknown entities fight each other, were they?
That was something even the large facilities had only considered and never actually executed.
Yeah, yeah, of course Sector 469 would never do something that insane.
‘Haha, right?’
Fuck.
Is this for real?
The Second Gate’s containment room was visible right ahead.
These crazy bastards.
They had really put it into action.
As if to drive the nail in, the door to the Second Gate’s containment room began to open.
No, no, you bastards!
I don’t want to fight that thing either!
No!!! Way!!!
+++
“Wow, whose idea was that?”
“Who else? Either the General’s or the adjutant’s.”
“It’s possible because this is here, right?”
“If they did this anywhere else, it probably wouldn’t end with just writing an incident report.”
“But doesn’t the scrap-metal doll seem kind of noisy today?”
“Looks like it’s protesting because it doesn’t want to go in.”
“Oh, is that what it is?”
“As if. What would that thing know? It’s doing that because it’s trying to escape.”
“Aha!”
+++
“General, are you really going to do this?”
“Why, did you come up with a better idea?”
“No, but… no, still, I don’t think this is right.”
“How long are we going to keep throwing our understaffed personnel in there as food? Let’s at least try it.”
The adjutant looked deeply displeased, but in the end, he accepted it.
“But how are you going to deal with the Second Gate’s condition in the first place?”
“The condition that you have to enter second, you mean?”
“Yes, that one.”
“We just have to send that thing in once, somehow.”
“Ah?”
The adjutant began to stare at the Major General with a frown.
As though disappointed by the fact that this was the man he served.
“Don’t worry. I’m not saying this without thinking.”
“Ugh, do as you like. If it works, great. If not, too bad.”
“Ha, I knew you’d understand.”
“No, in the first place, there’s only one person I can trust, so who would I trust if not you, General?”
“I’m relieved you seem to understand that well.”
“Just give me a rough explanation. I’ll relay it.”
The Major General searched for something, then brought it to the table.
“Now, this is the scrap-metal doll. First, we push it into the Gate’s containment room.”
“And then?”
“First, we observe the reaction. Whether it reacts to the Gate.”
“To check whether the Gate is trying to let even another entity enter?”
“It doesn’t matter even if the Gate doesn’t react. In that case, we push it in ourselves.”
“Mm.”
“After that, we watch the situation through the internal cameras, and when it comes back, we push it in again.”
“Uh, is this really right?”
“I told you earlier, didn’t I? Better ideas are always welcome.”
The adjutant merely clicked his tongue, then soon nodded.
“I’ll go relay it to the others for now.”
Whether it would work or not, I did not know.
Success or failure.
Either way, the odds were half and half.
In that case, it was more than worth trying.