Plus Ultra

by Carlo Zen

  In other words, I’m just one good person doing my duty.

  QED.19

  X-DAY

  Luckily, an army corps commander summoning a mere major is exceedingly rare. But the army corps commander probably had a hard time being happy about the infrequency. Exceptional though it was, it meant there was a chance he might have to summon this monster again someday.

  Telling him it was only a possibility wouldn’t make him feel any better.

  “Rejoice, Major von Degurechaff.”

  “Sir.”

  Doing his best not to look directly at the monster straightening her posture in front of him, the army corps commander accepted that it was for work and met her. As far as he could tell from a normal person’s perspective, mages were more than a little foreign.

  They were humans who could fly by their own power and use magic to interfere with the world. Even if he understood them logically, when he met one face-to-face, his emotions couldn’t catch up.

  But this he could state confidently: The principles behind the actions of this major in front of him were impossible to understand using anyone’s logic or emotions. Her inorganic eyes compelled you to conclude that her thoughts, her frameworks, her way of being were all warped. She may have had blue eyes and a pretty face, which probably gave a gentle impression, but the emotions in those eyes said everything and made her look different.

  “You’ve got a special mission from the regional command.”

  She was commissioned before her age hit double digits.

  When he had heard that, he had laughed and said, “A fabled child soldier, then?” But when he met her, his first impression was combat machine. He immediately corrected his perception of her, but he didn’t begin to think he had understood her. The reputation that had preceded her—for a recipient of the Silver Wings Assault Badge, she looks like a fairy, albeit one who was born to fight—must have been true to the letter. Maybe it was her symmetrical features, but she seemed like the type who might get called a vampire behind her back.

  “The orders will be issued at 1422.”

  When she had been ordered to do some simple field training, she had, unbelievably, taken her recruits on a night raid against an enemy outpost trench. And yet the unit’s loss ratio was surprisingly low. Though they fought hard with dauntless bravery and got results, their loss ratios were lower than that of all the other units. Honestly, if that was all, she would be a great soldier.

  She’s too perfect. There’s nothing about her to criticize; she’s so logical and has achieved so much. So no one can stop her. It makes sense that Lieutenant Colonel von Lergen failed when he tried to eliminate her. Well, the legal specialists letting her go and the Foreign Office giving up are probably bigger factors…

  “Promptly eliminate the enemy mage unit that has penetrated the rear city of Arene. After that, join up with reinforcements and suppress the city. That is all.”

  Republican mages had dropped into the city of Arene in the rear, in a sense, completely outwitting the imperial lookouts. On top of that, the partisan riots were growing. If they couldn’t suppress Arene, they couldn’t use the railway. If they couldn’t use the railway, logistics would get cut off.

  And then, the army corps commander concluded, somewhat self-mockingly, if the logistics got cut off, they would starve. At that rate, even a child would be able to understand where the war was headed.

  For exactly that reason, the brass was not fooling around. No, they had probably already braced themselves. Their determination could be felt in the orders.

  Apparently, if there was no other way, they wouldn’t stop at turning Arene to ashes.

  Evacuation orders had already been issued at this point, as well as a curfew to prevent people going out at night, accompanied by a stern warning. If things proceeded according to the plan he’d been given, if the rebels didn’t obediently surrender, the entire city would be “dealt with appropriately.”

  And she was so trusted to get things done that she would be assisting. Well, she was frightfully capable.

  “Any questions?”

  “If you could tell me what size of enemy force to expect…”

  “At least a battalion.”

  The vanguard would be the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion. They would be sent in to eliminate the mages obstructing imperial suppression of the city.

  Really, the top seemed reluctant to burn Arene. They must have been thinking that resolving things without burning it would be best. The artillery and air units had only just been ordered to prepare to attack, so they weren’t ready to do it at a moment’s notice.

  So is it as an alibi, then, that they’re to issue a warning to surrender after the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion eliminates the mages? The problem was that if the people of Arene didn’t lose their will to fight with that, there would be no options left for the Imperial Army.

  “What kind of troops?”

  “Apart from a small number of Republican mages, they’re militia. Many citizens of Arene have already become casualties.”

  But there was another horrible truth right next to him. The magic major before his eyes had presented striking views on international law at the war college. And these were not your average “striking views.”

  To speak in extremes, she had a brain diabolical enough to foresee today’s situation and come up with a solution.

  After all, I know she’s the one who came up with the justification to sacrifice the people of Arene in this operation.

  General von Zettour in the Service Corps gave me all the details, but I never thought I would regret taking her on this much.

  That bastard, he should be more considerate of his superior’s stomach.

  “How sad. By the way, I overheard a little bird twittering about partisans…”

  “It’s a problem for me if you can hear too well. You must have mistaken some other sound.”

  “So our enemy is the Republican Army, then?”

  Just in case. Yes, she was only checking to make sure their enemy was the Republican Army. Who does that? A normal officer wouldn’t even wonder. On the Rhine lines, “the enemy” meant “the Republican Army.”

  “Isn’t that a given? They don’t follow the Land War Convention. We need to get in there and protect the noncombatants.”

  But he could see why she reconfirmed her definitions. This wasn’t a mission you could perform if you didn’t know what enemy meant.

  “So we’ll get to flex our muscles. You mean that we should buy time cheerfully despite being fatally outnumbered?”

  “Ha, Major. You can choose victory or Valhalla, either one you like.”

  “Is that an order to annihilate them and win, sir?”

  Well, I can see how it could be interpreted that way.

  Cause widespread destruction, theoretically with no legal restrictions. Is there any other way to win?

  It’s like we’re ordering a bloodbath. There won’t even be combat.

  Even if you believed the war college’s interpretation of the laws was correct, this plan was clearly designed with a massacre in mind.

  And I heard rumors she was involved in the plan. This expression, this calm… Maybe the rumors are true. That was how inhuman she was.

  “Yes, and yesterday at 1100 hours Arene was given an evacuation warning. So you can assume the entire city has already been captured.”

  “Which means?”

  “The higher-ups are saying to eliminate everything. Legally, only the Republican Army units are there.”

  I’ll just be frank. There’s not really any reason to hide it. After all, the only thing this war machine soldier needs is permission and orders.

  She adheres to the rules. That is, she doesn’t do anything beyond them. Apparently, she limits herself in a strange way.

  “How awful. It’ll be hell no matter what we do,” Major von Degurechaff said coolly.

  But then why is she smiling so happily?

  What is that delighted smile glowin
g on your cheeks?! What are those fangs peeking out of your mouth?! Why are you happy enough to grin? …You vampire.

  “…A battle to capture a city is a fight against time.”

  I hope no one noticed that I just flinched, thought the army corps commander, sensing that he was distinctly afraid of her.

  “The city is already under enemy control, right? So can’t we lay waste to entire blocks?”

  “Major?”

  “If civilians were there, they would limit us, but if the city has been overrun, then no worries.”

  No worries about what? He deeply wanted to ask what she was planning to do, but he held back. He told himself it was surely better not to know.

  “But this is really too bad.”

  With this, the die is cast.

  For the one responsible, there was probably no die more nauseating.

  “Yes, it’s really, truly awful. But we’re soldiers. If it’s an order, we have to burn even the beautiful city of Arene.”

  You devil. Zettour and Rudersdorf, you wicked men.

  Apparently, they’ll do anything to win the war. They would literally do any and everything.

  They mean to win this war by any means necessary, even if they go insane. Soldiers they may be, but they’re cracked.

  “…No one should ever be a soldier.”

  “You’re right about that. But not everyone gets to live the life they want.”

  That’s right, Magic Major von Degurechaff.

  But there is probably no one more suited to being a soldier than you. Perhaps you feel at home in hell on the Rhine front.

  I was wondering why I was summoned from my standby dugout on the forward-most line to the safe command dugout farther back under the highest-priority orders, and now I have a mission to eliminate enemy mages invading a key location in the rear. Fighting enemy mages is a totally ordinary mission.

  The difference this time is that the “field” will be a city. Not just any city, but Arene, a critical node in the Empire’s rail transport network. According to the orders, we have to be prompt and speedy… Use any means necessary to eliminate the enemy is the missive from my superior’s superior’s superior.

  Having wrapped her head around the situation in her own way, it doesn’t seem so difficult. Her position, in a nutshell, is like being told to crush the Prague Spring.

  The enemy mages are apparently joined by a battalion-sized militia, so it’s a simple order to take care of the uprising along with their tanks—the mages—with our artillery.

  If the order is to crush this mob, Tanya is almost bored, knowing history and how common such orders were. Of course, considering the supply lines are in danger, it’s not a trivial mission. Tanya is well aware of that.

  But that’s all. If a riot starts, just give the order to put it down. She double-checked so many times because she was startled that the local army corps commander had to call her, a frontline officer, over to discuss it.

  Once she realized the orders were simply to deal with a mob, she could barely keep herself from grinning. This isn’t going to be so hard. And it’s a great chance to get away from the front lines.

  Having made that conclusion, she dashed over to her battalion’s headquarters to start getting ready just a little while ago.

  …Then I finally realize that there’s something bothering me about the written orders I was given. We’re legally in the white, but then why do they hint at the possibility of indiscriminate strategic bombardment?

  If the remaining troops don’t surrender after we eliminate the enemy mages, the next steps are terrifying. When Tanya realizes that, she kicks her brain into high gear. Yes, the WTO,20 who crushed the Prague Spring, were the WTO. It’s not as if they were acting under a banner of democracy or anything. In other words, history can denounce it.

  After all, this plan calls for doing as much damage as possible to stone buildings using high explosives and explosion formulas. Militarily, it’s a great idea and will expose the buildings’ flammable innards.

  After that, I guess we just drop mainly incendiary bombs? No, we can probably burn things fine with artillery time bombs. If all the Imperial Army units assembled here concentrate their fire, Arene will end up having something in common with Dresden.

  …It’ll be a massacre even if we don’t screw up. Ehh, but we’ll basically be substituting artillery for carpet-bombing, so it’s like in the Warsaw Uprising; it is within the realm of the typical.

  One regrettable thing is the gray zone where those bombings will be evil for the country that loses, but the ones the winning country conducted don’t even get questioned, much less written off as a result of said nonexistent questioning. One wrong move and I could end up nominated as a war criminal. I refuse to put myself in such danger.

  But wait, that’ll only happen if the Empire loses. Which means that supposing we don’t lose, if I refuse to follow orders at this point, I’ll be shot for insubordination, fleeing before the enemy, et cetera.

  After all, orders are orders. And at this point, there is nothing wrong with the ones I’ve received. I have no grounds for refusing them and no reason to worry. I don’t even know if my superiors would listen to me if I tried to talk to them. Well, there may not be time for that, anyhow.

  On the other hand, I could devote myself to actions with no legal issues now, but given that laws were retroactively enforced in the Military Tribunal for the Far East, I’ll definitely need to be humane. And on top of that, I have to act in such a way that a bunch of people won’t accuse me of things later? You mean I have to pretend to be nice?

  In that case, obeying the laws to the best of my ability won’t cut it. What the heck? But I guess my life is in danger unless I act humanely? I’d like to take it easy on the people, but doing that for no reason and ending up low on achievements will be problematic…

  No, wait. I have a reason. I have a bunch of burdensome new recruits with me, don’t I? With them slowing me down, the other units will probably arrive by the time we finish eliminating the enemy mages. At that point, we can say we have casualties and withdraw.

  Then I don’t have to get my hands dirty. At least, if the battle takes some time to unfold, maybe I can pull my punches without anyone thinking poorly of my abilities. Ah, if this was going to happen, maybe I should have been more understanding of the recruits.

  Hmm? Ugh, but the commander is the one held liable. What would happen if one of the new recruits accidentally shot a civilian? It goes without saying that I, their leader, would either face a tribunal or a kangaroo court. But I guess if the Empire wins, the tribunal wouldn’t be so bad.

  If I’m lucky I can expect to be acquitted. Of course I can. It’s a question of how much responsibility I can really be expected to take for these newbies. But if we lose, I’ll probably end up the victim of revenge. That would suck. I thought this was a good idea, but now it seems like it’s not going to work.

  For a moment, she considers a way to keep it a secret. Should I just eliminate all the witnesses? But she immediately puts a lid on her indiscretion, as even massacres have survivor testimonies.

  Almost zero is not zero. And with a look at history, you can see that any number of witnesses can be created. How many countries would hesitate to create a witness where none existed?

  “…I’m so not keen on this,” murmurs Tanya, because that’s all she can do in this situation. There’s not even much time left until the sortie. And her talented unit is such a bunch of war nuts that when they heard there was a sortie they assembled right away.

  We can probably already transition into sortie readiness. If this was going to happen, I shouldn’t have had them get prepped ahead of time.

  With eyes like a dead fish’s, her pleasant features distorted, Tanya has mixed feelings watching her subordinates as they ready themselves with an irritating briskness. She wonders what she should do.

  People might think I’m hard-line imperialist just because I received that superficial decoratio
n. No, they must. If that’s the case, the life waiting for me will be pretty unpleasant. Just take a look at Germany. No one who was a zealous Nazi during the war met a good end. People still give the SS a rough time. About the only ones who got decent treatment were the ace pilots. Even so, after the war, albeit for a brief time, many of them were interned by the communists. Is there no loophole? I can’t get interned like Hartmann.

  …No, wait a minute. There was one guy. There was a soldier named Rudel21 or something. He was hard-core—we’re talking reinforced concrete—anticommunist and pro-Nazi. But after the war, he even managed to enjoy his life pretty well. Him. I’ll emulate him!

  To Second Lieutenant Grantz, it sounded the same as usual.

  “Okay, battalion, we’re going on a picnic!”

  From readiness level two, they were assembled, and he’d run so as not to be late. When he arrived, he was met with the commander, a displeased frown painted across her entire face. She wasn’t just irritated, she was furious, apparently, with nowhere to vent her anger.

  This can’t be good.

  The other day they’d been made to follow a unit of enemy mages fifty kilometers past the enemy lines in what was called parallel pursuit.

  He had to at least be ready to venture out to the enemy trenches by night.

  “Those idiots in the air let enemy mages slip past, and they’ve invaded Arene.”

  But the words that came out of her mouth would have hit him hard even if he had been expecting them. He’d heard whispered rumors, but having it confirmed by a superior officer was demoralizing.

  The disheartening truth was that a major supply relay point had fallen.

  Anyone who learns the trains that bring them their food won’t be functioning after the next day can understand how huge an impact on logistics that will have. Even a private can comprehend that war without supplies is a strategic nightmare.