"General Foch has fallen in battle."
"What?!"
Paris. Inside the E.U. Joint Army Headquarters, a fortified isosceles-triangle fortress under tight guard. In General Smilas' office, a young blonde girl in an E.U. blue-and-red officer's uniform—her features delicate, her rank already Lieutenant Colonel despite her youth—stood stunned. She was Leila Malcal, commander of the WZERO Unit.
The first thing she heard upon entering the office was such terrible news?
The situation on the Eastern Front was grim…
After the Narva retreat operation succeeded and the Raphael Knights were heavily damaged, she had withdrawn to Warsaw with the army and there had been fortunate enough to meet that energetic, fierce, and unyielding soldier.
Because of WZERO's desperate charge, General Foch had admired Leila, knowing it was she who had proposed the formation of the unit.
In conversation, though he had shown deep contempt for Elevens, his genuine love for his homeland and his unique view of Napoleon had left a deep impression on her.
Who would have thought that after parting in Warsaw…
Her heart sank like lead.
Tall, broad-shouldered, with brown-green hair, brown eyes, and a thick full beard under a stern mustache, General Gene Smilas let out a heavy sigh. Watching the shocked and sorrowful expression of the blonde girl before his desk, he said slowly: "It is confirmed."
"We must abandon the Baltic theater. Just now, the Council of Forty has formally recognized the report and passed the proposal to posthumously award General Foch an honor medal and hold a state funeral."
Unlike the centralized Britannian Empire, the E.U. was highly decentralized, run by three presidents at its core and the democratically elected Council of Forty as the center of its operations.
The latter held both legislative and executive powers.
Pausing, Smilas continued with grief: "The body was returned by special envoys sent from the Britannian Empire's Third Princess. The Lithuanian front has lost the initiative. Our mobile field forces are nearly gone."
"The Third Princess?"
Hearing this title, Leila's violet-blue eyes widened.
She remembered her parents. Not her Malcal foster parents—but her birth family, the von Breisgau name.
Exiled from Britannia, once vassals of the Germanic aristocracy, retainers of the Hohenzollern family—the maternal house of Princess Vela vi Britannia—and now branded traitors.
According to her fragmented investigations over the years, there were rumors that her true parents had not been killed by anti-aristocratic European radicals, but assassinated by agents of the Hohenzollerns.
For this so-called Third Princess, Leila actually felt little.
One of the three favored heirs to the throne? A grand noble? Those were just labels.
What had struck her most in recent times was something else entirely—
Imitating the E.U.'s use of Japanese child soldiers in suicide units, Vela had countered by forming the 11th District Expeditionary Corps, composed of Honorary Britannians drawn from Japan, already several times the size of WZERO and still expanding.
It was said even Kururugi Suzaku, son of Japan's last Prime Minister, had been conscripted to the Eastern Front…
Every time she thought of it, Leila clenched her fists, bit her lip, the redness of her lips seeming ready to bleed.
Guilt filled her heart.
Luring the conquered Japanese with the promise of citizenship, only to send them to die—that was wrong.
Too shameful.
And she was the one who had first proposed the WZERO project, only to be forced to carry it out.
Even though her original intention had been to select elite soldiers from Europe's regular forces, the politicians in Paris had different ideas. Wanting to reduce casualties among E.U. troops, they had stuffed her with Japanese refugees.
After the hard training was complete, when it came time to deploy, another foolish superior had insisted on fitting their machines with heavy self-destruct systems.
Thus, by chance, the kamikaze charges were born.
The surprise effect was undeniable. Caught off guard, the Raphael Knights had suffered.
Naturally, the credit for victory was given to the kamikaze attacks.
In the eyes of the media, the WZERO Unit had from then on become synonymous with suicide squads. Even Britannia spread such propaganda. Princess Vela seized the chance to draft large numbers of Japanese from Area 11, creating the momentum for a so-called "mutual suicide war" between them and the E.U.
No matter the original intention, Leila knew very well.
She was an accomplice.
The already suffering people of Area 11 were once again subjected to torment because of her.
Still, it was misfortune within fortune.
Because of Vela's increasingly aggressive stance and the unceasing bold moves of Euro Britannia, the Council of Forty had, for once, acted with rare efficiency.
Leila's request for WZERO's expansion and additional funding had been approved. The new model [Alexander], researched and built at Weisswolf Castle specifically for WZERO testing, entered mass-production trials.
Although they still forced on her a group of Japanese youths to fill the gaps as "ill-matched soldiers," at least the unit was expanded.
After all, in the eyes of the E.U. military, the deaths of Elevens hardly mattered.
Fortunately, Leila had connections. After losing her biological parents, she had been adopted by the wealthy Malcal family of Europe.
Thus, Commander Arnaud—the one who had clamored for strapping bombs to every Japanese refugee in Europe, vowing not to surrender until every last drop of their blood was spent—had been kicked by her into logistics for retirement duties.
The fact that regular soldiers had even volunteered was an unexpected joy.
"According to the battle reports we have, Foch was correct."
General Smilas, unaware of the turmoil in the mind of his friend's daughter, continued kindly. As a close friend of Leila's late father, he added: "His counterattack struck precisely at Britannia's weakness at the time. If his forces had succeeded in reaching the Riga encirclement, or in striking and crippling the enemy's field command, Latvia might have been saved."
"Unfortunately, he ran straight into Vela's personally led Northern Army Group strategic reserve. The Ninth Knight of the Round was with her. After a desperate fight, seeing no hope of victory, Foch ordered his rear to retreat, while he himself led the battered remnants of his center and vanguard to cover the withdrawal."
At this point, Smilas rested his elbow on the desk, gazing deeply at the distracted Leila opposite him. "What is it? You look troubled."
"So, General, about my Plan 145-A assault operation."
Leila's violet eyes rippled with impatience, eager for an answer. She asked: "Will the WZERO Unit be deployed?"
This eagerness was not like the earlier days, when she had pleaded for funds to create WZERO. This time, she hoped for delay—to be given more time to train and hone her subordinates.
The so-called assault plan, in short, was to dispatch Knightmare units by special transport methods to strike deep into enemy lines for decapitation operations.
But—
"Leila, just yesterday you were exceptionally promoted to Colonel."
Smilas pulled out a commission certificate from his desk drawer.
"The Council of Forty approved it, to commend your outstanding leadership and insight. The 'Alexander' models developed at Weisswolf have earned high praise on the front. This is yours by right. Congratulations."
Saying so, he rose, walked to the front of the desk, and solemnly handed the certificate to her.
A promotion before battle…
Leila's eyes hardened.
Silently, expressionless, she accepted the commission. Not until Smilas pushed forward an external hard drive did she look up again. "This is?"
"Data on Britannia's new Knightmare frames, gathered at the cost of General Foch's life. Along with some battlefield footage from Eastern Europe. You'll need it. Leila, you and your team must quickly come up with counter-strategies."
After speaking, Smilas did not sit back down. Hands clasped behind him, he stood gazing quietly at the aquarium-like virtual wall in his office, then slowly spoke:
"Vela of the Britannian and Hohenzollern houses has already watered her horses at the River Niemen. She is about to return to Königsberg in East Prussia."