"What was the ending of that novel, Lieutenant Colonel Jaeger?"
Sydney asked.
She was asking what had become of that fictional nation, so endlessly similar to the United Kingdom of the present.
Max gave a light nod, then calmly recited the ending.
"The moment the nation's leaders signed the papers to preserve their own lives, that country was erased from the map. Thoroughly dyed red, it was reduced to a satellite state of another vast empire."
"……."
Unfortunately, the ending of this nameless novel did not answer her hopes. Sydney quietly bit her lip. It felt far too cruel. Though it was only fiction, a corner of her heart felt uneasy.
Charlotte, too, was left with a bitter taste in her mouth. The process by which radical communists slowly encroached upon a nation had been so vivid that Charlotte had found herself listening as though it were her own affair.
And in her heart, she had hoped. Hoped that the citizens and the nation's leaders would join forces and fight against those unjust usurpers.
But a novel was still a novel.
They did not win. They did not unite, and they could not even mount a proper resistance. It was, in the truest sense, a dreadful bad ending. The sort of third-rate novel that would not find even one or two readers if placed in a bookstore.
"Ah……."
It was disappointing. And the fact that she was so shaken by nothing more than a story in a novel made her feel all the more wretched.
"However."
The one who spoke, as if in passing, was Max. As though he had seen right through her, he recited the next line.
"There is a great difference between the nation in that novel and the United Kingdom as it stands now."
"……A difference, you say."
Meeting Charlotte's gaze, Max continued.
"The weak leader in the novel obediently picked up the pen before the muzzle of a gun. Your Majesty did not."
"Ah……."
"Your Majesty cast aside the comfort of remaining a puppet of the revolutionary government, and willingly chose the path of walking through this foul gutter. And here beside you, alive and well, are agents and Guardsmen who would give their lives to protect Her Majesty the Queen."
Life gradually began to return to Charlotte's eyes.
"…Yes. We are not finished yet. Though we have temporarily yielded the mainland, we still have loyal colonies and a fleet."
Minister Josef did not miss the shift in the atmosphere and added his voice.
"The international community, with the Empire at its head, will never recognize an illegal puppet government established by red rioters. Above all else, His Imperial Majesty would never stand by and watch this terrible state of affairs unfold."
"Ah, my father's cousin……."
At Josef's words, Charlotte recalled an important fact.
The royal families of nations were bound together by intricate ties of blood. Had not the younger sister of Charlotte's grandmother, the late Queen Victoria, been the birth mother of the current Emperor Ferdinand IV?
From Charlotte's perspective, her father's cousin through his mother's line reigned as Emperor of the Empire. Charlotte briefly thought back to the past. When her father had still been alive, he and Ferdinand had been close enough to call each other by affectionate nicknames. Perhaps that was why she, too, had been intimate with Princess Eilit, her second cousin, calling one another elder sister and younger sister.
Of course, that was a story of the past.
These days, diplomatic affairs were governed more by rivalry between nations than by friendship between royal houses. The rivalry between the Empire and the United Kingdom had also persisted for a long time.
But in this crisis, with the United Kingdom overturned, her blood ties to the Imperial House came as a reliable diplomatic asset. All the more so if that bond was with Emperor Ferdinand, who styled himself the guardian of the old order.
When her thoughts reached that point, Charlotte's gaze naturally turned to Max.
'I see.'
The miserable end of a minor power. The ending of the novel Max had told them about had certainly concluded there. But Max had not stopped the story at that point.
The leader in the novel, who had given up and submitted, and Charlotte, who had not given up and continued to resist.
By comparing the ending of the novel to her, he had led their party to view the situation a little more objectively.
A gentle smile spread across Charlotte's lips. The addendum this blunt officer had attached pleased her greatly. It was rough, as befitted a soldier, but within it lay warm consolation and insight.
As the brief ten-minute rest was drawing to an end, Charlotte pushed herself away from the wall and asked.
"So, what is the title of that novel? If I one day return to the royal palace, I should like to place it in my study."
At the Queen's question, Max faintly raised the corners of his mouth and answered.
"The title of that novel is……."
*
At the same time. In front of Sluice Gate No. 1 of the large discharge facility leading to the mouth of the Londinium River.
This was the vast underground retention basin supporting the foundations of Londinium. Designed to temporarily hold tens of thousands of tons of rainwater and sewage, it was a space larger than two football fields combined.
The height to the ceiling was a full fifteen meters. Across the dome-shaped concrete walls, rusted catwalks were tangled like spiderwebs.
Viktor, the chief of the Federation's infiltrators, had set up camp in the middle of it. It was the optimal place to catch the rats that would come crawling out of the sewers.
"…Annihilated, you say?"
But his expression was anything but pleasant as he slammed the radio down.
"Yes. Contact with the three platoons we had ambushed midway through the waterway has been completely lost. There were no survivors, nor any signals of engagement."
"Damn it……."
It was a report that defied common sense.
Three platoons, lying in ambush in a narrow sewer with the advantage of terrain, had been wiped out without a trace by fleeing remnants.
'Was it the work of the Royal Intelligence Bureau? No, those bastards have no means of producing that kind of overwhelming breakthrough force.'
No matter how many simulations he ran in his head, the numbers simply did not add up. The Queen's unit, which should have been slowly whittled down inside the sewers, was instead advancing while annihilating his own forces.
Of course, in terms of objective strength alone, Viktor's unit still held an overwhelming advantage.
Right here in this retention basin, an entire elite company had taken up positions. On top of that, there were two armored vehicles and a killing field established with heavy machine guns. It was an ironclad defense line, far more than enough to catch a few fleeing rats.
And yet, in one corner of Viktor's chest, an inexplicable foreboding was growing.
"……They said they still hadn't dealt with the Imperial bastards either."
His intuition stirred. His adjutant wiped away his sweat and answered.
"Yes. Ever since they fled the ambassador's residence, we have failed to track them down. Judging by their route…… there is a high possibility that they have linked up with the Queen's royalist remnants."
"Those goddamn bastards."
His intuition had been right. Viktor ground his teeth.
Wherever it was, the damned Empire was the problem. In the Republic, and here in the United Kingdom as well. They were the ones throwing cold water on the flames of the great revolution.
Especially the man included in this diplomatic mission. A war hero whose fame was slowly spreading across the entire continent.
If Max Jaeger had joined them, then it made sense that three platoons had vanished without a sound.
That damned man who, wherever the Federation and communism advanced, blocked their path with uncanny precision.
It was that man who had crushed Valerie's Revolutionary Committee in Elancia, and it was that man who had suppressed and then turned against them the revolutionary network they had barely managed to build in Soissons. If not for Max Jaeger, a vast Commune would have stood in place of the Republic.
"Comrades, do not let your guard down."
Viktor began moving between the positions himself.
"Check the blind spots of the heavy machine guns again! Not even a single ant is to slip through!"
"Keep the armored vehicle guns fixed on the main sewer no matter what! The moment the signal is given, fire at once!"
"Understood, comrade!"
"The corpses of those damned imperialist bastards…… we bury them all here……!"
The soldiers moved in perfect order, checking their weapons. The clack, clatter of metal echoed ceaselessly through the vast space.
It was then.
From deep within the waterway, beyond the pitch-black darkness, a faint sound rang out.
"They're here! Everyone, prepare for battle!"
The rebels all completed their preparations to fire.
The searchlights of the armored vehicles brightly illuminated the sewer exit.
*
"Stop."
Just before turning the corner, I halted my steps.
Several hundred meters ahead, from beyond the bent passage, a blindingly intense searchlight was pouring in.
I swept my gaze over the [Minimap] at the edge of my vision. Bright red dots were packed tightly in front of the sluice gate.
"Lieutenant Colonel……."
Hanna reported.
"Ahead is a massive underground retention basin. There are barely any places to hide, and there are armored vehicles holding position at twelve o'clock and two o'clock. And……."
Hanna closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated before speaking.
"12.7 mm heavy machine guns have been deployed."
12.7 mm.
An anti-materiel caliber that could not only tear the human body apart but even pierce most cover. If we carelessly began an engagement, we would be turned into minced meat in an instant.
I fell into thought as I looked at the [Minimap] to one side of my vision. A densely formed defensive line, the disadvantageous terrain, the overwhelming gap in numbers. And an inferiority in firepower that did not even need to be mentioned.
'A frontal assault has no chance of success.'
But it was also impossible to detour around this place and escape to the river mouth. As the [Minimap] showed, there was no way to reach the mouth of the Londinium River without crossing through here.
'Lay down smoke and force our way through?'
No, that was insane too. Two 12.7 mm heavy machine guns. If the enemy gunners ignored the smoke and sprayed fire blindly, we would be shredded without a trace.
'And using [Material Conversion] to its limit is……'
Images of rockets and anti-tank weapons surfaced in my mind, only to disappear at once. My mana circuits had already been forced open as it was. If I created something capable of piercing an armored vehicle's thick plating, I would cough up blood and die before I even fired at the enemy.
'We can't turn back either.'
Every method that came to mind was blocked one after another.
I could see no answer at all. My lips went dry. Hundreds of enemies and two armored vehicles. As for allies, all I had were subordinates exhausted to their limits. Even those once-reliable cheat skills could not provide a clear breakthrough in the face of this overwhelming gap.
'Fuuuck.'
[Skill 'Indomitable Mind' is active.]
[Suppressing unnecessary agitation and guiding the most efficient thought process.]
Even in a situation where curses came out on their own, the skill forcibly held on to my reason. My mind spun so fast it felt like it would burst.
That, if anything, pissed me off even more. No matter how much I thought and thought, there was no answer, and yet I had to continue this meaningless deliberation like a hamster wheel that never stopped turning.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck.'
We had to live. We had to break through. I had to save them.
[Skill 'Indomitable Mind' is active.]
[Skill 'Indomitable Mind' is active.]
After agonizing madly enough for the skill [Indomitable Mind] to activate over and over again for a while.
I began to see a faint "line" drawn on the [Minimap].