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"They're here! Scatter!"
Before the fighter jets could even fire, the KMFs scattered in a flash, even though there weren't nearly as many birds flying down as they did.
The fighters slowly approached by diving, but Lilizia noticed something—the markings on these fighters, and the white stars on the unfamiliar bombers from before, weren't American. It seemed the British planes weren't as fast as expected.
"Huh? Maybe the British planes aren't as good as the Americans'?" Ypel blurted out again. "That explains why their bombers were late in coming to see us?"
"Then let's begin our tactics."
At the command, the Gloucesters in the squad rolled and turned to the side, clearly intending to get behind the fighters and catch them before they could recover from their dives.
"Okay, then... huh?"
Juliet was also a member of Gloucester, but when she turned around while they were supposed to be circling around and playing tag, she was surprised to find that the fighter jets, which were not flying very fast, had suddenly circled around to the back of them, the Gloucesters.
"Avoid! Avoid!" The Gloucesters immediately scattered in a panic again. The chance to strike first was gone, so...
"Ah!" Before they could say more, the fighter jets flying from behind fired long bursts of ammunition, quickly dismantling the two or three purple figures into a pile of tattered parts of varying sizes, waiting to fall to the ground with the rain.
“Damn it…” Juliet’s plane had a shield that barely blocked several bullets that nearly hit her engine. “Warrant Lieutenant, this won’t work. These British planes seem a bit too agile.”
"Then let's use the same methods as dealing with Soviet aircraft... Everyone, change tactics, quick."
Well, before the words were even finished, two more Sunderland players, slow to react, were shot down by fighter jets amidst a shower of sparks. Looking at the debris and parachutes crashing to the ground, it seemed the outcome of this battle was about to be decided.
"Hey! What's going on?" Ypel managed to get one of her fighter jets upside down, but another plane immediately turned around and decisively slashed down on the legs of her aircraft.
"Watch out!" At the critical moment, Juliet arrived and used her shield to block several shots for her. "Corporal, don't be reckless. From now on, you stay behind me and don't leave my side."
"Oh...oh, okay. Um, Lily, how are you?"
"Focus on the battle, Ypel. Today I'm going to see these new, troublesome beasts for what they are."
Warrant Officer Vincent continued to accelerate to shake off the fighter jets, while busy assembling two double-headed rifles into a cross shape and taking the machine gun off his waist.
"This is a new gift for you idiots!"
In an instant, Lilizia spun Vincent 180 degrees, swung her KMF arm, and threw the MVS cross-shaped dart at the fighter jet. The rolling wheels sliced through the aircraft like a circular saw, leaving a trail of steel dandelions that landed on Vincent's black and white coat.
“Hmm, perfect.” Vincent’s arm glowed, and then the dart flew back into his hand. “Lieutenant Daimler, how are things going?”
"Damn it! Warrant Officer! Please save me! We ran into some weirdo who beat us both up!"
"I'm here! I'm here!" Lily swooped down, looking at the fighter jet whose flight path was almost unbelievably agile, yet whose appearance was unremarkable. "My god... two against one and you can do this? Lieutenant, you're disgracing the Knights..."
The two Gloucesters who were fleeing in panic were still trying to save their lives. She gradually flew closer, preparing to set a trap for the fighter jet by surprise—it was obviously still busy cleaning up the mess and didn't care much about what was behind it.
Daimler noticed that Vincent of Lilizia was getting close, so he signaled to his partner to risk leveling off, which would stabilize the enemy aircraft and allow the warrant officer to take a better shot.
……
Just as Lily was about to fire, an ominous light suddenly flashed from both sides of the plane's nose.
"what?!"
The machine gun fired, but in that instant, the fighter jet unexpectedly and excitedly pulled vertically upwards. Lilizia's machine gun didn't even have time to keep up with this leaping monster—flames faintly filled the sides of the engine. The fighter jet etched its name into the warrant officer's mind in such a magnificent yet terrifying way.
"Phew, we're finally saved... Hey?" Daimler and his partner finally caught their breath and looked back to see that the fighter jet had now become a monkey climbing on Lilizia's head.
"Hey, Sergeant Julie! Your warrant officer is in trouble!"
The battle in the sky continued, with KMFs and fighter jets constantly moving back and forth among the wisps of clouds. Some were forced to retreat from the airspace, trailing black smoke, while others were sawed apart and turned into shattered leaves by the passing ammunition belts, going ahead to nourish the lifeless earth.
In the midst of this chaos, the battle between Vincent and the Spitfire fighter seemed less impressive. Black figures and gray eagle shadows intertwined in the sky like ivy vines, neither firing first nor lagging behind in their rhythm.
This is a duel of patience and courage.
Juliet and Ypel tried to help, but they weren't the only ones trying; nor were they the only ones flying in humanoid knights. They could only watch as Lilizia and her fighter jet disappeared into the chaos of the sky.
What's even more worrying is that Lily's Vincent is increasingly showing signs of fatigue from flying.
"No...no...I..." The white-haired warrant officer in his cockpit gradually felt overwhelmed by this entanglement. "I...shouldn't be like this..."
A gust of turbulent air swept by, and as her wrist twisted, the skin hidden beneath the fabric was revealed, and the needle marks vaguely seeped into her eyes.
"Oh no, oh no, I completely forgot..."
The girl's heart was pounding wildly. Just then, the Spitfire fighter jet, aimed at the top of her plane, finally reached the finish line first.
"what!"
……
"Oh my god... Lily!"
It's over, completely over. Juliet's trembling hasn't even subsided yet, and Lilizia's Vincent has already been placed on the loom by the fighter jet—how so? Just look at that agile Gray Eagle.
The black KMF, still baring its fangs and barely maintaining its speed, became increasingly agile, swooping down from above, then skillfully turning and climbing back, only to roll again, weaving around Lilizia like a noose. Every time Vincent met Hispano's gun, after the crisp, melodious twang of gunpowder, he was met with a chaotic shower of sparks and broken bones.
The Knights' emblem on the aircraft clearly made them prime targets, leaving them helpless as Vincent of Lilizia was slowly torn apart, waiting for the girl's heart in the cabin to be ripped apart as well—just like the Sunderlanders who died under the Spitfire fighters at the beginning.
"Get out of here! Get out of here!"
At that moment, Daimler's plane unexpectedly rushed over recklessly, disrupting the Spitfire ace's pace, and grabbed Lily's plane to quickly dive away and break free.
"second lieutenant?"
"Everyone! Retreat! Retreat! We've done enough!"
"What, retreat? No, I can't..."
"Calm down, okay, Warrant Officer? We have no reason to just watch you die like this!"
Juliet led the others out, and the fire-breathing creatures seemed to be packing up to leave—they had already jettisoned their auxiliary fuel tanks before coming down to fight them.
"Let's go." He caught the two long spears in mid-air from Lily's aircraft and went to catch up with the crippled giant that Gloucester was holding.
……
The sky darkened, along with the newly rising smoke from Berlin—the roaring aircraft broke through the air traffic control network, rampaging over the fake buildings disguised as scaffolding and canvas, and then tearing everything apart with a torrential downpour of bombs.
"Hey, hey, hey, there are still living people here."
Griffin, Angelina, and a bunch of KMF members including Cishian were still helping to clean up the mess in the street, moving walls, removing stones, and the flight wings on their planes hadn't even been taken off yet.
“It seems the existence of the railway gun has indeed made them take it seriously.” Angelie couldn’t help but stop and stare in disbelief. “The underground bunkers are still a long way from being completed…”
"Hey, honey, can you vent when you're sleeping with me? Let's get on with these things first..."
“Wait a minute, Captain.” Shisian interrupted the conversation. “I’ve received a communication signal from Lieutenant Daimler.”
"Huh?" Before he could answer, the video call page was displayed on his screen.
"Hey, Daimler? Aren't you in the west?"
“Hey, Griffin, I need to tell you something.” There was a bit of a commotion behind the lieutenant. “Warrant Lieutenant Lütjens was injured in an air battle. It’s not a serious injury, but she’s still not in a good mood, I don’t know why.”
"Uh, I guess she lost the battle and is still not convinced, it's her old problem..." Griffin vaguely understood that behind him were Ypel and Juliet blocking Lily, who was wrapped in bandages, seemingly preventing her from grabbing the medicine on the cabinet next to her.
"Judging from what she said, if she hadn't forgotten to take performance-enhancing drugs before the competition today, she wouldn't have lost to that plane... So what should we do, buddy? This young lady of yours can easily take down five young men."
"You're a military doctor, right? What are you thinking if you don't use anesthesia to forcefully subdue him at this point..."
Sorry, dear readers, I had a moment of folly a few days ago… I reluctantly took a sales job, thinking it would be good for my skills, but the work was incredibly stressful, and I couldn't overcome my psychological barrier—I barely made a few calls… After thinking it over, I realized I wasn't cut out for this, so I quit. Sigh, I don't know if it's a natural disadvantage or if my mindset is becoming unhealthy. Either I can't do a job that anyone can easily make a living, or no company wants me for jobs I could do based on my abilities. Now I don't even know how to explain this to my family…
Chapter 190, Section 260: Carrots Cast into Iron Bars
“Send all these people from Area 11 back.”
In a corner of the Tokyo Concession, in a refugee camp where a dispute and fighting had just taken place, a group of Britannian soldiers were busy herding a large group of civilians away from the open area. There were only sporadic shouts and reprimands, but no gunfire or bloodshed.
Caronville stood there feeling rather troubled; the blazing sun was hardly enough to dispel the cloud of worry on his forehead—of course, the District 11 people he had ordered to be driven away were not there to cause trouble for him, much less to stage an armed uprising.
……
"That's so creative..."
Several steel bars had been erected on this open ground at some unknown time, one end stuck into the pile of cement rubble. As for what was on the other end pointing upwards, be prepared.
Several bodies with Asian features, possibly bearing bullet holes, their necks tightly impaled on steel bars, stood there lifelessly and terrifyingly, like clothes racks, atop these blood-soaked "execution instruments."
As for the instigators of all this, the lieutenant colonel only needed to look back to understand—it was still those same few German soldiers, still with the same unrepentant attitude, but beside them, there was an additional civilian from District 11, guarded by the soldiers, kneeling on the ground with his hands stained with blood, looking around in fear and trembling.
However, he did not kill anyone; his work was written on those impaled on steel bars: these poor wretches who were executed, except for one who was stripped naked and had a black knight's uniform tied around his head, had a tattered sign picked up from the roadside casually hung around the necks of the others, and the words written in blood on the sign were what he had been forced to do by the German soldiers.
I supported the Black Knights.
"I'm gonna join the rebellion."
Below each entry is a Japanese translation corresponding to the English text.
……
"They're not going to stop, are they...?"
After finishing up at the refugee camp, the lieutenant colonel and Mr. Guilford returned to the city hall in the Tokyo concession and headed to an office.
"They rushed into the refugee camp in a frenzy, stated their reasons and charges, arrested and executed the people, and then forcibly summoned all the people from District 11 in the refugee camp to watch... The speed of this process was too efficient, and most importantly, they actually found Black Knights uniforms..."
"Sigh, I don't know what to say, child. I'd like to hear how you will treat them in the future."
"As a vassal army acting in loyalty to Britannia, they are competent, but too competent... Given the various events that occurred in the Tokyo Concession last year, the actions of these German soldiers will likely further strengthen the Black Knights' popular support."
"I apologize for my incompetence, Your Excellency, but I truly do not know what to do. Perhaps I am simply too accustomed to dealing with surrendered soldiers of different nationalities and ethnicities?"
As they were talking, the two of them went into the office in front of them, only to find that there was someone already inside.
"Huh? And you are?" Guilford couldn't immediately recall the name of this count-like man.
"Oh, Your Excellency, do you really have a bad memory?" The count smiled contemptuously. "I'm sorry, I didn't greet you two much before I came here. I'm here to see you two to bring you the assignments from the capital."
He picked up the document, his face cold yet determined.
“Mr. Guilford, from this moment forward, you will no longer serve as the acting governor of District 11. I will make arrangements for your affairs before the new, official governor takes office. Oh, and this young lieutenant colonel, I'm sorry, you may have to part ways with your old unit.”
“Separate…separate ways.” Caronville said somewhat anxiously, “You mean I can’t even take my own adjutant and key members of the regiment with me?”
"Well, I can only say that it's possible. Let me explain the gist of it to you. In the very near future, you will step down from your position as the commander of the Tokyo Concession Armed Security Corps. Your new post will be to be in charge of the Imperial Army Groups and Legions from all over the world. Before their junior and middle-ranking officers go to the 45th District for combat, you will be in charge of them."
"what?"
"No matter what method you use, no matter what angle you take, as long as you don't get beaten to death by those officers in the classroom, and you don't beat them to death either. If you perform well, you can take your adjutant or something when you officially leave your post in the future, even some key veterans are fine."
"Oh, of course. I must remind you, you can take anyone you want. If you take the surrendered American and Soviet soldiers, you only need to worry that others will think you are trying to turn them. As for those Germans? Sorry, you must leave them behind unconditionally."
"This? What do you mean, sir?"
"Well, how should I put it?" The Earl sighed quietly. "Lieutenant Colonel, do you know why the Security Force doesn't need you anymore? I could tolerate you not knowing how to deal with those stubborn old men from District 11 who commit crimes, but the Black Knights? Your enthusiasm for mass executions of civilians, of 'better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free,' is not even as high as that of an ordinary person from District 45. You're quite a failure as a leader, aren't you?"
"As for Mr. Guilford, well, do you want to know what everyone's opinion of you is after the Babel Tower incident? Driving the Gloucester, so obediently discarding the machine gun and MVS, just holding a long spear and letting ZERO escape? Oh dear, really, if the Knights of the Round Table didn't think your personal strength was a sharp blade against the Black Knights, I really don't know what you would have kept it for."
Caronville and Guilford felt as if they had been fed a mouthful of sand, and neither of them knew how to refute it. Although the latter might recognize the count, he really couldn't remember him becoming so bloodthirsty.
"Alright, alright, you probably think my stance is different from yours, huh? Well then, let me tell you two my thoughts: An enemy who surrenders can only become a friend in the short term, and that can only be superficial; but the enemy of my enemy is a true friend. The United States and the Soviet Union are our enemies, and the Black Knights are even more so. The Germans are different. Yes, they are very cruel, so what? But they share the same interests as us, don't they? If we share the same interests, why not give you more support?"
"Your Excellency, what do you mean?"
"Ah, maybe you can't afford to give them something like Vincent or Skyship, but at least give them someone else to change their clothes, okay? Do you know what that means? Making our friends and surrendering enemies wear the same clothes and sleep in the same bed. Besides, I asked that German Major Karlstadt, and the six-pointed star you gave them to make metal badges is like a quarantine label that allows them to be slaughtered in the German Empire. You really failed in your hospitality."
"Alright, enough said. I don't think we need to waste any more time on these important matters. How about we deal with some unexpected events?"
……
After standing there blankly for a while, the count suddenly heard a radio wave sound coming from his body. He calmly took out a walkie-talkie from his pocket.
"Hey! Your Excellency! Can you hear me?!"
"Hmm? Lefel?" Caronville realized that the female voice came from his adjutant.
"Our soldiers and police have now taken the criminals into custody in a warehouse near the Kimizu City dock. I would like to ask what your next steps are?"
"Have all soldiers stand by, Major. Also, regardless of the instigators' intentions, execute them immediately if they attempt to leave the building."
The count put down the radio and continued his conversation with the two men.
"Ah, excuse me, Lieutenant Colonel. I heard from your subordinates that a group of people with Area 11 blood and a bunch of Britannians who shamelessly sided with them unexpectedly hijacked a military truck. The situation is unusual, so I had the Major contact me directly. I don't care what's inside the truck for now. If you were in my shoes, what would you do?"