Over the Sky | Image Gallery | Artbooks | Fam Aerial Log | 063
"Or maybe, have you heard anything about him from somewhere else, maybe? Claus, I mean..." But Lavie's voice didn't reach Dio.
"Lu... cci ... o ... la."
To Lavie, Dio seemed to be acting like a broken music box, his feeble breaths resembling the last dissolving notes of a metallic-sounding musical scale.
It hurts ... my head ... it feels like it's going to explode...
"I ... I have to go ... to look for Immelmann..." Dio coiled his arms around himself, trembling.
The curses echoed in his head, never disappearing, commanding him ... "ki ... ll..."
No ... I don't want to ... I don't--
"... Kill."
"I ... wasn't ... supposed to ... come here." The anxious looking figures of Lavie and Alvis began to blur and fade away in Dio's gaze. "I don't want to!" he cried, before running out of the room. And before the repeating words of the curses completely took over his consciousness, Dio disappeared into the darkness.
Claus and Lavie's hut had been built on top of a crossbar that passed over the waterway, and bore an old hole in the ceiling. The bed was still broken from the starfish attack, and there were square marks on the wall, outlines of where pictures had once been. The smell of the kitchen, of the ham, bread and mayonnaise that Lavie would always make was almost ingrained in the house itself. Claus' most important times were spent in this house with Lavie. The sound of the water flowing gently below could be heard.
Illuminated by nothing but the light of the lamp in the hangar, the silver vanship Claus was given was resting its wings. Where the navi seat should have been, there was a vapor pressure lever and a claudia pressure adjustment lever that he could control from the pilot's seat. Claus had finished removing all of the bulletproof plates to even out the additional weight from two steam mounted machine guns he had gotten from a crashed unit, and decided to equip on it.
Even if it's by myself, I'll fight with that white vanship.
That white vanship piloted by a Principal.
I might die. As if to cancel out his worries, Claus turned off the lamp and wrapped himself tighter in his blanket.
Immelmann?
The question was asked by the movement of slender fingers.
"Yeah, you remember him too, right Lucciola? Immelmann." Smiling broadly, Dio used his hand to mimic a vanship, mirroring a halfroll off of a somersault. "I've never seen such a beautiful turn!" The boy's palm changed direction to turn 180 degrees before leveling off from the back.
Did something happen to Immelmann?
"I'm going. Yeah. I'm going to find Immelmann!" Getting up and bouncing from the sofa, Dio bolted for the bridge.
That smile is really ... so bright.
The girl smiled as he took off. Though once he was gone, a voice spoke from nearby nearby. "So is the Principal a friend today? Or a murderer?" Leaning over the back of the sofa, Coccinella smiled.
Huh? How long was he behind there?
"He'll listen to anything you request of him, Ros of Aspis."
"You really do look just like Lucciola."
"Yes, very similar."
The face of the girl named Ros was stiff. Sitting by the window, Apis looked up from a book he was reading.
They're scary, scary, always appearing like this without any warning.
The girl's thin fingers trembled with fear.
"Everything we have done so far as been for nothing else but the sake for Queen Delphine. Just like true young brothers."
"Scary, scary, scary..." Apis turned the page of his book with shaking fingers. "Yet sometimes, she could be gentle." Coccinella curled a trembling hand around Apis' shoulder to hug him from behind, as Apis placed his hands over that arm. "This time we'll avenge our Delphine."
"Yeah, let us return the favor to the woman who killed our precious {older sister}."
"Princess Sophia."
Chapter 6
It's been one year and six months since the final battle with Delphine. In that time, the Exile had traveled three times between Prester and the mother planet. Little by little with each journey, the newly settled people had sent information back to those still on Prester of the climate and the environment of the land. There were other nations that had returned to the mother planet earlier than they had, and there were even some nations who, left behind on the planet during the age of calamity, have survived and tenaciously endured that entire time.
"Admittedly, the information brings a mix of 'relief' and 'anxiety' at the same time." Nestor Messina, one of Sophia's most trusted aides summarized the widespread feelings of the people for her.
