Vol 2 Chapter 1 (1/2)

Chapter 1: Confusion

How've you been?

My school life's busy, but it's ot one of your letters, a few more reached me a feeeks after I don't knohen you'll receive this letter, but I hope it will reach you faster than yours reached iven up the Military Arts You've finally h a lot of trouble! I'd be embarrassed if you made up your mind because of my letter, but I' to be around that interesting person This e is still full of noise and life Father has left the dojo, but he's not teaching the kids at the orphanage; he's gone to teach in a real dojo It's hard work tonearby have enrolled, so we're , so don't worry tooashere, but I think we canover there? Are you sick? Have you been eating well? I'm worried You never pay much attention to the nutrients in your diet

It seems you've made a lot of friends I'm relieved that you're not alone Buthow coirls?

That, I do mind

Perhaps Layfon is a lecher?

That kinda thing ly about you going to Zuellni

Ah, please take it as a joke Right

Oh yes, just to say, I'iven up the Military Arts! But I don't want you to beco with all his concentration on the Military Arts You looked cool But I didn't like the Layfon who became a Heaven's Blade successor Do you understand the difference?

When the letter first ca topic Maybe you'll be surprised, but I won't tell you just yet It'd be great if it can surprise you a bit

I'll write to you again

To my dear Layfon Wolfstein Alseif

Leerin Marfes

Delicate fingers folded the letter along old folds Praying that nobody would discover this, she put the letter back into the correcton the polluted earth, hu on the earth, the citiesto their own consciousnesses and h the center of the traffic network, the Traffic City Joeldem

The netasn't reliable, but it was a way to connect theios were cities of different functions This type of city, specializing in education, athered boys and girls, letting thee

In here, where no adults set foot, children were learners and also teachers

This was the Academy City

And Zuellni was one of the Acadeh into a classroom that was filled with a boisterous at the classroos behind their seats and either joined into different conversation circles or prepared for class So for notes to copy So to the urge to sleep, Layfon bent over his desk

”Oh~~Morning!”

”cough!”

The other person gave his back a heavy hit

”What? What? You look tired!”

”cough! UuMorMorning” Layfon coughed

”Mi-chan, you went over the line”

”Yeah, maybe Layton still hasn't recovered froo?”

Mifi puffed up her cheeks ”As if Layton would get tired just because of that Right?”

”YeahUh, theI'm ok”

”But you look like you wanted to sleep”

”No, really, I' at Meishen's worried eyes, he nodded in a carefree manner Her eyes were always teary He didn't knohat to do about that

”Even so, you look tired What is it? Did you have to work yesterday too?” Naruki studied hiated

”It's alright”

”I see Well, working for days at a ti”

”It's hard work to clean the Mechanism Chamber”

”Yeah If you seriously want to prepare for the platoonjob”

These three girls knew each other before they came to Zuellni

Layfonceremony

And that was also the reason he was transferred into the Military Arts

But these three had nothing to do with his transfer The Student President, Karian Loss, knew fro who Layfon was

A Heaven's Blade successor in Grendan

”NoI' there already,” he said as he s job in the Central Mechanisotten used to it The repetitive body ayhis brain

”Then what is it?” Mifi asked

”AhhahahahUue response

”Are you hiding so?”

”No Definitely not!”

”No, you have a secret! Don't think this can escape et it!”

”Get it”

Her pair of questioning eyes came closer No one could stop Mifi when she was deep in her passion to collect and record any information

”Tell, tell, tell”

”Ah” A troubled srabbed the back of Mifi's unifored her away

”Didn't we have to tell hiin”

”Huh?”

”Ah That's right GeezBecause Mei-chi is always staggering, we alot about it”

”Is it

”Well, Mi's always e ruckus Hurry up, Mei!”

”Oh”

Naruki pushed Meishen Meishen walked forward, facing Layfon, her face a fiery red

”Um”

”Yes?” Layfon sat up

”LunchI ether?”

”Huh?”

”We're always eating out for lunch, so Mei's decided to make us a bento,” Naruki said

Meishen nodded at her, her face so red, it seemed like smoke was about to rise from her head

It was true Since his first day here, he'd always been buying bread for lunch He had helped out in the orphanage so he kne to cook, but because of his late shi+ft in the Central Mechanis

”AhIs that ok?”

”Hmm”

”Mei-chi loves to cook Just be thankful and accept her goodwill”

Wondering whether the continuously nodding Meishen was beco a robot, Layfon smiled happily

”Then, thank you”

Meishen stopped nodding

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”I' listened to Layfon talk about Meishen's invitation to lunch He was looking at the display

”Thank's for the coreen Dite with a wire connecting one of its ends to Harley's machine

”No, that's not what I meant”

”Uirlfriend!”

Layfon ca and was accosted by Harley to do so in other rooms drifted past the walls and into the boys' ears

Only Layfon and Harley were in the roo! We aren't lovers! She just likes to cook”

Harley sighed and shook his head

”Oh, that's right What's this for?” Layfon had been sending his Kei into the sword

There were two types of Kei, a destructive Kei that flowed externally and an internal Kei that strengthened the physical body They were the skills that Military Artists used

”Well, there's so I wanted to check”

”Um” Layfon continued to extend his Kei into the blade, not knohat he was doing it for The sword eht

The vein of Kei rown a new limb The vein extended into the blade to feel its heat and caressed the wind around it

Harley sighed in admiration ”Your concentration of Kei is incredible! In this case, isn't it better to use a Platinum Dite? That'll increase the conductive rate”

”Really?”

Layfon was actually unsatisfied with it It wasn't as good as the Heaven's Blade he'd used in Grendan

(Now that I think about it, wasn't the Heaven's Blade also a Platinum Dite?)

But it was useless to coht the filth monsters

”So I was able to use the weapon before because ofbefore, the filth s were trapped in a filth monster's nest With Layfon's help that crisis has been resolved

Harley had made a new adjustment to the Dite at Layfon's request

A weapon that could be divided into countless wires

Layfon used that to wipe out the larvae He even stepped outside the city to eliminate the mother

”But they took that weapon Oh, this is fine”

The Student President and Vance had confiscated the weapon It gave too e to Layfon in a platoonwas newly made

”Well, I didn't plan to use that weapon in the platoon matches anyway”

He cut off his Kei flow and lowered the sword The residual heat fro him sweat

”Really? If you used that, it would've been easy to win a platoon h that method?”

”Really?”

”Yes Besides, the captain would never approve of it”

”Ah, true, true” A sour smile appeared on Harley's face

”She wouldn't be happy, winning through other people's strength”

”Yeah,” Layfon nodded and swung the sword

Having released so much Kei, he wanted to exercise his lih to low The re green light of the Dite

He confir that, he adjusted his different ain, focusing his attention to one single point He no longer detected the color of Kei e he had had till now, of the changes in his nerves, slowly extended to the outside, resulting in the feeling that Layfon inging the sword like a machine

And as he concentratedwas pushed outside of his consciousness He had beco else was painted with color

He swung at that color

The point of his blade tore a track through the intangible air This action repeated itself again and again No matter how many wounds blossomed in the air, more air rushed in to fill it He repeated histhe flow of air, was unable to recover

Unenthusiastic clapping sounded

”Ha ha, brilliant!”

Sharnid had been watching at the door

”Seems like it's been cut up to so many pieces that it just died”

”It's not that incredible”

”But it really is! The wind pressure was strong when you first swung your sword, but in that last swing, the wind pressure just vanishedIt was a,” Harley said excitedly

Layfon scratched his head, embarrassed by Harley's child-like excitement

Then Sharnid poured cold water on Harley's emotion ”Harley, have you finished what I asked for before?”

”Oh, yes, yes It's already done”

Harley opened a box beside him and took out two Dites

The two Dites were like rods of charcoal They had curved handles that were ss, hiding a hook like thing

”Are they guns?”

Sharnid's job was to support the teae fire

”It won't do to snipe e have so few fighters on our team Just think of it as insurance,” Sharnid said He used his Kei to restore the Dites

”What a crude appearance!”

The body of the gun looked very heavy There were no blades extending froun was designed with several bulging points Either way, it looked like so weapon

And Layfon could tell the texture was not of Lithium Dite, but the hard Chrome Dite

The same material of the captain, Nina's iron whips

”I used black Dites as requested, but the shooting range isn't as long because of the bad conductive rate for the Kei flow”

”Not bad I don't plan to shoot long distance with this thing As long as it can hit anyone within ten Mei, it's fine withwith his new Dites He reversed the gun barrels

”Is this close-quarters gun combat?”

Sharnid whistled ”As expected of someone from Grendan You do know a lot”

”Ah, I think even people not froun combat?” Harley asked

To put it sie with long range coers, they were slow in terun skill was invented to overcoun combat

”AhSharnid senpai kno to use it?”

”Well, people who kno to use this are either stupid people that try to look cool, or ahtersAnd I' s the truth or not, Layfon looked at Harley, who only shrugged

”I'm late”

Came the clear and small voice It was Felli

Her for off a pressure as if to freeze everything in her vicinity, but Layfon and the guys were already used to this

”Felli-chan's cute today too,” Sharnid couns in his hand, and sat down on the long bench in a corner, already losing interest

Harley checked Felli's Dite and said ”Nina's the only one not here”

”Meaning she's the last!”

”Seethen the 17th platoon She was always the first to arrive for training, but today, she hadn't shown up yet

”I re to do”

”I think she's not keen at all,” Sharnid yawned

And just as he said, a lazy at what to say, Layfon gazed at his sword

(A lot has happened after the th in the first platoon match was a setback for Nina

This time, he kept hiht seriously

But in the end, they lost the less to hide his strength anyreed with Nina that they had to protect the city Even so, he tried to fight with so his all in the fight was because the platoon match wasn't the real Military Arts coth would be needed after the platoon matches

At soht for territory

In reality, it was the people living in the city who fought

And warred

The reason behind the fight was the fuel source for the Regios – seleniuainst the same kind of city To reduce the number of casualties, Academy Cities had introduced the Military Arts coe the reality that the losing city ht die

Zuellni once had three selenium mines When Layfon came to study, it only had one mine left

If they lost in the next Military Arts competition, Zuellni would have lost its one and only mine, and face death

At first, Layfon didn't understand what this had to do with hiive up Military Arts

Despite that, it didn't feel bad to do what he could for the city

But

One of the key people who changed his way of thinking, Nina, was not happy

Against her parents' wishes, Nina ran away from home and came to Zuellni – Without money, she had to work in the Core Mechanis

He always bumped into her at work Recently, they'd earned the trust of their supervisor and were assigned together to clean a larger area

Layfon had been working froht till dawn beside the wordless Nina

(This is tiring)

Thinking back, he felt he had never been through such a long night Anyone could see the unhappiness on her face

(Is it really because we lost the ht

But if he was the causeThat part he didn't understand

Speaking of which

(Shouldn't I speak with her?)

He was being indecisive about it And time passed as he brooded

”If there's no practice, can I go back?” Felli said listlessly

”Just wait a little bither Dite, and he had nothing to do Sharnid was leaning against the ith eyes closed Perhaps he really was sleeping Felli squinted at Layfon beneath her long eyelashes, her sharp gaze reproaching hi”

Nina's voice saved hiaze

Nina was in her third year, a junior, but she had become the captain of a platoon

”You really are slow, Nina What've you been doing? I almost fell asleep!” Sharnid yawned To hier, so he didn't call her captain

”I had to look into so, and it took so rooave off metallic noise as she moved

Doubt rose in Layfon

The sound that was usually reliable and convincing now felt unnatural

The sound of the Ditesshowed she wasn't walking norht have sustained wounds in the previous match, but she didn't look injured She didn't walk carefully so as not to jar a wound

”It's late We won't be training today”

”Why?”

Everyone was shocked Even Felli widened her beautiful eyes, watching Nina with suspicion

Layfon felt the sa back to Zuellni It was because of her passion that he felt it was okay for him to step back onto the path of Military Arts And it wasn't just her Meishen, Mifi, NarukiThey followed their drea that really encouraged him was the letter from his childhood friend, Leerin

”So, why?” Sharnid said

Layfon wasn't just surprised at her canceling the training, but today's Nina see off the Dites in her harness So of changing the training ”

”Sure”

”Go do individual training if you want Dis room

Layfon watched her back

The two Dites buainst each other

It really was an uneasy sound

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