078. False Accusation (1)
078. False Accusation (1)
I picked out alcohol at a black market near Krädel.
For reference, I didn't know much about alcohol.
Maybe I should say I don't like it. I'd barely even tried it before.
You might wonder how that was possible, given that I lived on the streets, but back then I was a child, not a teenager. Delinquent teenagers might get their hands on it, but it's not so easy for a delinquent child to get a hold of alcohol and cigarettes.
Then, right around the time I was about to become a teenager, I was captured by Sion and started being raised by her.
I did not know whether she drank alcohol or smoked, either.
—Remember this. If you so much as lay a finger on alcohol or cigarettes before you're an adult.......
—What, you'll kick me out?
"Then your punishment will be sharing a blanket with me every night until you have properly reflected~"
—......I definitely must never do that.
That was the gist.
Then, right before I became an adult, I entered the Academy, where drinking was prohibited.
I had not even joined the graduation dinner at the Academy. By the time I graduated and received my field assignment, I was already the screwup confirmed for Krädel. Who would have wanted to socialize over drinks with that guy?
I had barely ever had a chance to drink.
I had never even bought liquor as a gift.
Naturally, I also didn't know what kind of alcohol was suitable as a gift.
And to add one more thing, I didn't know Alicia's tastes either.
The clerk said that fruit liquor is good if it's meant as a gift for a woman, and asked what fruit the recipient likes, but nothing came to mind.
More than that, I realized I had rarely seen Alicia eat anything at all.
In the end, the alcohol I chose after much deliberation was [Apple Reminiscence].
A high-quality fruit liquor in a red bottle.
......The reason I chose it was because it was supposedly apple flavor.
It seemed perfect for a birthday gift with an apology attached—an apple for an apology.
I even had the liquor, chosen for that very reason, gift-wrapped, and returned to Krädel.
All that remained was to deliver it to the person in question.
The most straightforward delivery method was, of course, to give it to her at the command-and-control room when I went into work tomorrow.
The problem was that Alicia's birthday was today, not tomorrow.
If I gave it to her tomorrow, the meaning of it being a birthday present would fade.
In the end, I went to Room 204, where Alicia lived, and knocked.
I knocked.
No answer came.
Could she be so angry she would not answer me? Except I had not even called out yet.
So, most likely, she really just wasn't in the room.
......Where could she have gone?
I couldn't think of a single place.
More than that, I had no idea where Alicia went or what she did in her free time.
I found myself wishing there were someone I could ask—when,
"......Euhye? Commander?"
"What's this? Why are you hanging around here, Oppa?"
Conveniently enough, Laika and Rinne appeared.
"I'm glad I ran into you two."
Without even greeting them, I immediately asked whether they knew where Alicia was.
Laika answered as if it were simple.
"Isn't she maybe out running, I wonder?"
"Running?"
"Yeah, yeah. Alicia goes for a run around this time every day, from the base toward the black market."
"......She had that kind of hobby?"
I asked back, dumbfounded.
Then Rinne asked me.
"But Oppa, you didn't even know that? Even after living together for months?"
"......I guess so."
"Huh? What are you doing? If Oppa reacts like that, it stops being WWE."
"What can I do if I genuinely didn't know."
Anyway, I thanked the two of them and headed for Alicia's usual running route.
And there, I was finally able to find Alicia.
She looked nothing like I had ever seen her before.
A sports tank top and military gym clothes. A ponytail.
She was sitting on the ground, drenched in sweat and catching her breath.
For a moment, I just stared.
More than surprise, I felt something close to awe.
Then, Alicia, who belatedly noticed my presence, shot me a look of contempt just like she had in the bathhouse.
"I hope you have not come to give me another unpleasant experience."
I snapped back to my senses at that.
"That's not it. I brought a present."
"Pardon? A present, you say?"
"You. I heard today's your birthday."
Alicia blinked at my words.
"......A birthday, you say. You mean mine?"
"Is it not? Sumire said so. That today is the day you received your first mission."
"I've lived without paying attention to such things......."
Alicia said that and then added as if sighing.
"Anyway, forget it. A birthday present or whatever. I'm not a child. And most of all, knowing your taste, Commander......."
Alicia's words cut off there.
It was because she had finally realized what the present I had been holding in my hand this whole time was.
It was a high-quality fruit wine in a dedicated presentation box: Apple Reminiscence.
"I suppose there is no helping it. In light of your sincerity, I will accept it."
......Isn't her attitude changing way too fast?
Well, as long as she liked it, that was enough.
I added casually as Alicia accepted the present with both hands.
"I am sorry. I went into the bathroom without thinking about how you would feel."
"Well, it's fine. It's something that can happen when a man and a woman live together......."
"Besides that,"
I said.
I realized I had not paid nearly enough attention to her overall.
"......Pardon?"
I had spent all this time knowing far too little about Alicia.
Her living conditions outside work, her leisure activities—everything concerning a soldier was something her Commander ought to pay attention to.
In that sense, I know Laika well.
What that kid's hobbies are. What she mainly does to pass the time during her breaks.
I could say the same of Rinne and Sumire.
Even about Eve, who has only been registered as a member of Krädel for a day, I can at least explain where she was living, what she was doing, and what she likes.
But regarding Alicia, I know absolutely nothing.
Only now, barely, did I learn the fact that she was an S-Rank sniper in the past, and even that was through Rinne.
What she likes. What she does during her free evening time. I had never heard a single thing about any of it.
I couldn't make the excuse that I hadn't had the opportunity.
If you think about it, the partner I interacted with the most and spent the most daily time with in Krädel was Alicia.
Alicia had effectively served as my deputy.
While benefiting from that Alicia, I hadn't tried to learn about her.
In that state, I made an unreasonable demand of Alicia.
Although I still did not think of it as sex, I had asked her to do something she herself could experience that way.
Instead of learning about her, I had tried to butter her up.
Where on earth would there be a girl who would entrust her body or heart to such a man?
I had been going about it wrong from the start.
So.
"You said you lost the Telescope you used before, right?"
"Well, I did say so."
"Then let's go find it."
"What are you talking about?"
Alicia asked back as if I were being absurd.
"Do you even know where it is, to be saying that?"
"Of course not."
I did not.
But Alicia did.
......Ah, of course, Alicia would have tried to retrieve the telescope before too.
Considering that despite that, it was still lost, the possibility of recovering the lost item now was almost nonexistent.
Nine times out of ten—no, ninety-nine times out of a hundred—I thought we'd come back empty-handed.
But that didn't matter.
"If we fail to recover it, well, it can't be helped. In that case, just keep working a desk job like now."
Because we could just set a course to detour around the Great Canyon.
We could also look for other uses for Eve. If she's truly useless, we could just use her as a general laborer.
Whatever the case.
I would prioritize the wishes of my soldier, Alicia, above all else.
I recited a grand-sounding plan.
I did, but for some reason.
"......Pfft."
Alicia laughed.
And not just a little.
"Pfft, puhahahaha......! Ahahahahahat!"
She burst out laughing.
At a level I had never seen before.
She clutched her stomach, shoulders shaking.
I didn't think, 'Wow, Alicia can laugh like this?'
I was too stunned to understand what was happening.
Then, Alicia wiped the tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I laughed because you looked cute saying something foolish with a serious voice."
"......What?"
"What of it. Is it not allowed to laugh because someone is cute?"
Of course she was allowed to laugh, but...
Should I say it was a little humiliating.
Seeing her laugh that hard had raised my painfully low understanding of Alicia by at least one percent. Maybe I should take the win.
I only pondered for a moment.
Alicia spoke, the smile still lingering on her face.
"Thank you for the offer. However, as expected, I believe the plan to find the telescope I used before is impossible."
"Well, I also think it's unrealistic to find an item lost years ago now......."
Alicia shook her head at that.
"No. That's not what I meant. The reason I assert it can't be found is because I never lost it in the first place."
......Huh?
"What do you mean. You said so last time. That you lost it."
"That was a lie I made up to get out of the situation. I never expected you to come up with a plan to find it again."
Alicia confessed shamelessly and then slipped in an addition.
"The truth is, it was confiscated by the higher-ups."
Now what did that mean?
"Confiscated, you say. How did that happen?"
"Well, various things happened."
"You're not planning to just gloss over it and move on, I hope."
For a biodroid, parts are their flesh.
Specific parts cannot be confiscated without going through strict procedures.
And what Alicia had taken away was a telescope essential for sniping activities. To confiscate such a part, no matter how high up, certain conditions must be met.
If she said it was confiscated despite that——
"......Did you cause some kind of incident?"
I asked carefully.
But Alicia gave a vague answer.
"Let's just say I did."
"Let's just say you did?"
"Yes. So, well......."
Alicia said.
"I was falsely accused."
The story went back about five years from now.
***
5 years ago.
Around that time, Alicia was assigned to a unit directly under the Command named the 7033 Special Task Force.
The 7033 Special Task Force's missions were diverse. From providing fire support to field units, to assassinating key figures and counter-terrorism.
Roughly a sort of troubleshooter position, dispatched whenever the Command judged a Tier 1 sniper was needed.
Even within that 7033, Alicia was decidedly the best sniper.
Especially in terms of shooting precision, she achieved unprecedented results.
[Total Training Shots Fired: 30,589 rounds]
[Total Training Hits: 30,010 rounds]
[Total Live-Fire Shots Fired: 1,128 rounds]
[Total Live-Fire Hits: 1,087 rounds]
About a 99% accuracy rate for 3 years after being first manufactured and assigned to 7033.
Especially in the case of friendly-fire accidents, she had never caused a single one, in training or live combat.
Even with phase-energy enhancement and a biodroid's superhuman body, maintaining a ninety-nine-percent hit rate in live combat was not easy.
It's normal for one out of dozens of shots to miss, and for a friendly-fire accident to occur about once in several hundred shots.
The reason Alicia could achieve record-breaking results despite that was the nature of her Telescope, Asterisk Green.
With Asterisk Green equipped, its user could create an "Absolute Ballistics" trajectory.
Once the user formed an Absolute Ballistics trajectory in a straight line, the fired bullet would certainly follow that path.
Furthermore, within that trajectory, all environmental factors such as gravity or wind were completely nullified.
Therefore, within the Absolute Ballistics trajectory, the bullet flew in a perfectly straight line, just like a bullet in a classic FPS game with a clumsy physics engine.
In other words, if Alicia, who pulled the trigger, didn't make a mistake, there was absolutely no chance of missing due to accidental factors.
Not just anyone could use such an amazing Asterisk Green. There were various stat restrictions, and once equipped, it couldn't be used immediately.
Only after applying a complex optimization process, so-called 'tuning', to properly fit the user's brain and other body parts, could the Asterisk Green finally be used.
Of course, Alicia had completed that tuning work perfectly as well.
And so Alicia believed she would never cause an accident.
Until that day.
It was a day near the end of her 3rd year of service.
The Commander of the 7033 Special Task Force came down and recommended a body inspection, saying a "special order" had arrived.
They never explained exactly what kind of inspection it was. The story was vague and kept changing—something about a recently discovered defect, something about needing to check several components.
Right after receiving the inspection without knowing what was what, an urgent mission order came down again.
The explanation was that intelligence had warned of an assassination attempt against an influential person's daughter, and they needed long-range protection including counter-sniping.
Alicia was selected for the operation immediately.
In the case of a sniper, they are generally not deployed into live combat right after work has been done on their body.
Because the possibility of a minute impact on the body, even from a simple inspection, could not be ruled out. The general principle was to conduct a round of practice shooting before deployment.
Even so, the Commander deployed Alicia, saying, "There is no one else we can send immediately."
Of course, because such things had happened a few times before, Alicia didn't let it show too much.
But something felt strange that day.
The changes were so subtle that only after reaching the scene did Alicia begin to suspect something was wrong.
Her vision was strange.
Alicia reported the anomaly, wondering whether the Telescope's tuning had been disturbed during the inspection.
But the Commander said there were no issues in the data and ordered the mission to continue.
Around that time, the escort target had already entered Alicia's field of view. Alicia was on standby to fire from the balcony of a nearby building secured in advance.
By then the escort target had entered Alicia's field of view, and Alicia was standing by to fire from a secured balcony nearby.
Rather than dwell on that one-percent possibility, Alicia waited for the operation to end so she could return to base and be inspected again.
The order came over the radio.
—A-32 ventilation duct. Enemy sniper phase power detected. Fire immediately.
Before the order was even finished, Alicia turned toward ventilation duct A-32.
The duct rose from the floor opposite Alicia. It was an easy shot.
The problem was that the escort target was positioned right to the left of the path to that ventilation duct.
The separation distance was roughly 13 meters.
At this time, the A-32 ventilation duct that needed to be hit was 1500 meters away, and the escort target was located in the middle, at 750 meters.
If the angle of the muzzle twisted just 1 degree to the left, the bullet would embed itself in the escort target, not the assassin beyond the ventilation duct.
Normally, she wouldn't have hesitated.
And perhaps, that hesitation was the problem.
Alicia hesitated for an instant that felt longer than eternity.
At that moment, the Commander spoke kindly.
—Don't worry. This Unnie will take full responsibility.
The Commander at that time had been appointed around the same time as Alicia, and had particularly cherished Alicia.
Alicia trusted the Commander completely and even called her Unnie outside duty hours.
Alicia could not doubt Unnie's order.
So Alicia finally pulled the trigger.
The bullet veered one degree to the left as if by some impossible trick and struck the girl Alicia was supposed to protect squarely in the chest.