Chapter 7
United States of North America, New Mexico, suburb of Roswell.
The base Headquarters of STARS.
The STARS were divided into 12 units, and it often happened that a squad received orders and acted separately from the others. In fact, the High Commander, Lina, should know about the missions entrusted to all the units, but in reality there were many missions, details of which were not reported to Lina.
The previous Sirius had full control over STARS, but Lina had not reached this level yet. You could even say she was far from that level.
There were whispers behind her back saying that she was only a symbolic commander, and you couldn’t say that there was no reason for this.
"All the squads should have been here today..."
herself, lying on her bed alone in her private room.
“Unit 3 and Unit 6 were moved somewhere last weekend. And I wasn’t told where to.”
After taking a shower and dressed in her pajamas, Lina talked to herself
"Unit 3 and Unit 6 were moved somewhere last weekend. And I wasn’t told where to."
Lina did not see Arcturus from the 3rd Unit or Bolt from the 6th Unit on Saturday morning and hurriedly asked Canopus where they were.
Canopus knew the activities of each Unit better than Lina, and was more like her commander, but not even Canopus knew where they sent Arcturus and Bolt to.
Although this comforted Lina because she was not the only one being left out of the loop, but then she got depressed when she realized that her status as a High Commander was not being acknowledged.
Though this kind of stress is pushed to the corner of her heart, but it stuck out to her this night and it wouldn’t go away.
Although she tried not to think about it, but these thoughts kept repeating themselves in her head.
(Where did Unit 3 and 6 go, what are they doing?) (Why wasn't she been told about the reason for their dispatch?) She was too annoyed to tell herself not to pay attention to it.
(After all, is the High Commander just an instrument that can use Strategic-Class Magic?)
Power. Not the power that leads to the achievement of a goal, but only the Force* that simply knocks over obstacles. In the end, this was the kind of Force* she possesses... Lina was biting her lips.
[At the Marked "*" places, the author used the English word "Force".]
(That's why, I'm just a 17-year-old girl. I didn’t have the best grades. I wasn't that good in the first place. I haven't received an education on commanding troops. I'm not tall. I have a baby face.) Lina did not notice that this depression drove her mind into a spiral of complaints against herself. Her mind warned her that self-pity was an unhealthy behavior, but she could not stop.
"But couldn’t they have at least told me why they got dispatched? Plans of absence were reported in advance, but when the schedule changes, it usually is communicated to the 'Commander'."
She couldn't stop complaining out loud.
"If they aren’t happy with me, as a High Commander, I'll leave at any time. I understand it isn’t good to have an unreliable Commander. But I didn’t come here on my own accord..."
Lina climbed under the blanket and turned off the light in the room with a voice command. No matter how much she complained, nobody heard her. Besides, she's just tired of torturing herself.
That night, Lina had a nostalgic dream.
The fact is, if you only look on the surface, it isn't a very good memory.
A memory of her infiltration in First High, a memory where Parasites were killed one after another, in the mountains.
Finding a parasite, killing in one shot by piercing it through the back of the neck with Movement-Type Magic, another attacked her and she shot it with a plasma bullet.
Finding a parasite, shooting it with magic, and killing it with the magic.
?
The dream continued to loop.
The attacking parasites were killed over and over. It was like a zombie shooting game.
While slaughtering a parasite, Lina turned her neck
"When will Tatsuya and Miyuki appear?"
In this unique dream, she was both an active person and a spectator, but it was strange to look at herself as a spectator.
At that time, she was fighting against the parasites, shoulder to shoulder with Tatsuya. Lina didn't forget that. Moreover she couldn't forget that.
Although she did not want to be helped, she had the feeling that they are friends who fought together on an equal footing.
He was supposed to be an "enemy", not a "comrade". Besides, she looked down on Tatsuya and did not think he was equal to herself.
However.
Neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki treated Lina like a "teenage girl".
Neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki treated Lina in a special way even though she was an "apostle".
Of course, they did not treat her like a "teenager", because they were the same age, but still, she was happy.
For Tatsuya, as a user of a Strategic Class Magic superior to "Heavy Metal Burst", there was no reason to treat her in a special way. And even now, having learned about this, her sense of joy had not diminished.
While in Japan, she wasn’t able to admit such feelings.
However, back in an environment where she's only surrounded by
"older subordinates", she comes to obediently accept this reality as time passes. Actually if Tatsuya was in front of her, she would feel that way again.
Miyuki wasn’t here.
Tatsuya wasn’t here.
In an attempt to distract herself, Lina kept repelling the parasites while remembering her feelings of loneliness.
("Can't invade the mind of the High Commander.") ("Did the Commander have aptitude for Lunar Magic?") ("The High Commander should not have abilities in Lunar Magic.") ("Then why can't I penetrate her mind?") ("Why can't I?")
("She repels it.")
("She rejects it.")
("She beats it.")
In the darkness of the night, there is a rumbling sound like that of bees heard from a beehive, though it's not a sound that can be heard by one's ear. It's the exchanging and sharing of the spiritual bodies, a conversation between the Parasites.
("The assimilation with the Commander is difficult.") ("The assimilation with the Commander is impossible.") ("The High Commander is dangerous.")
("She's dangerous.")
("She will be our enemy.")
("This needs to be fixed.")
("Eliminate her.")
After a while, the noise became a single voice.
Tuesday, June 18th. It wasn’t 5 in the morning yet.
No matter how much one is a soldier, this was the time for sleeping unless one were on a mission.
"Is it because of my dream...?" Lina unconsciously muttered this when she awoke right before dawn and was sitting on her bed.
She only vaguely remembered what the dream was about. Although she could not say that it was a good dream, she still felt that her stress had diminished.
At least her mood was better compared to what it was before she went to sleep.
Usually it was hard for Lina to get up in the morning. One of her recent habits was to force herself to drink bitter coffee in the morning to awaken her consciousness.
But today, she did not feel that she needed to do this. Currently it’s June.
At this time of the year the daily temperature exceeds 80 degrees (27
degrees Celsius), and at night time it falls to 60 degrees (16 degrees Celsius). A good time for a walk.
Lina decided to put this idea into practice immediately.
However, Lina was a young girl. Before leaving her room, she had to do a lot of different things. She was not on a mission, and she could not justify her negligence...
The sky was already beginning to lighten up, as she was getting dressed and went out.
However, there were still quite a few people awake in the base. It was impossible to say "No one was there", because there were soldiers at their posts, as well as early awaking service staff. Passing by such busy people, Lina mentally "thanked them for their work". As a result, she walked around the training ground and approached the fence, which is the boundary of the territory of the base.
This was her former home country. The hands of armed insurgents claiming separation and independence hadn't reached this far. Away from a conflict zone, there was no need to worry about a sniper while standing near the fence, at least that's how it was supposed to be.
Murderous intent came without a sound. By sheer coincidence, Lina had unintentionally avoided an invisible sniper.
A high-energy laser burned the fence from the inside and through the illusion of Lina. When Lina independently trains, she uses "Parade". If not for the fact "she" was one yard away from herself, the sniper would have successfully hit their mark, killing Lina instantly.
Lina was shocked but not by the fact that she barely escaped death.
Naturally, she was frightened by death, realizing the fact that the sniper attack had happened, made her feel relief from the bottom of heart that she managed to avoid death. But the thing that shocked her most of all was that the attack came from the base.
"Mutiny!"
Now, Anti-Personnel missiles missed due to Lina’s activation of Movement-Type Magic, and she used a magic barrier to protect herself from the heat and shrapnel. At the same time, she traced the trajectory of the sniper shot and sent a glance to the roof of the warehouse.
"Jack!? I knew it."
There she saw a silhouette of a man at that position shooting with something similar to a rifle.
The warehouse was just over 100 meters away. It was still quite dark and it was hard to see who was there with the naked eye.
However, the emitted Psion waves, undoubtedly, belonged to a member of the STARS familiar to Lina.
STARS Unit 3, First-Class Star, First-Lieutenant Jacob Regulus.
Nickname Jack.
The magic Regulus was proficient in, was a high-energy infrared laser bullet and it was called "Laser Sniping". The magic was released using an armed device resembling a rifle.
And he attacked Lina with "Laser sniping".
"Jack! Why did I become your target?"
There was no reply.
Sensing the signs of magic activation, Lina used magic that reflects electromagnetic waves called "Mirror shield".
"Mirror shield" reflected the light bullet created by "Laser Sniping". This magic is perfectly suited for snipers because it is silent and does not leave a bullet. Its drawback is that before its launch, there is a small gap in time before firing. This time is not used to activate the magic, but instead is used to amplify the light. That is why she was able to deploy the shield and repel the attack, after sensing signs of magic activation.
"Mirror shield" reflects all electromagnetic waves coming into the shield from the outside. This also applies to the light.
Therefore the area inside of the shield is not visible, thus making it invisible to the enemy.
When "Mirror Shield" was released, Regulus could no longer be seen on the roof of the warehouse. Lina raised her magic detection to the highest level and ran towards the warehouse.
Flying objects using magic were caught by her detection. She noticed that it's "Dancing Blades", a magic shared among the combat magicians of STARS.
"Alec!"
The Psion waves of these "Dancing blades" belonged to Alec, Captain Alexander Arcturus. Lina’s magical sense told her such.
Lina activated her Zone Interference. But she didn’t focus the area around her. Instead she focused on the area around the four flying blades and it overlapped with them.
The knives that approached her went around in a circular swirl, dropping to the ground and losing control.
"Don’t tell me that even the Commander of the 3rd Unit, Alec is involved in this mutiny!? Or..."
(Or is it his personal hatred towards me?)
Lina couldn't say this aloud. Although she was talking to herself, it was difficult for her to say it aloud as a seventeen year-old girl.
She knew she was jealous. However, Lina tried to treat her friends at STARS well. Vega and Deneb from the 4th Unit at least showed her their dislike, but she had the impression that this was not serious hatred.
But now she didn't have time to worry about this. New "Dancing blades" were approaching.
But this time there weren’t 4 of them, just 1. But it was much bigger.
"Tomahawk!?"
She couldn’t stop this attack with her Zone Interference.
Arcturus was a hybrid of white, black and Native American descent, being exactly a quarter Native American. So with this blood he also inherited their characteristic magic.
In Ancient Magic, it is possible to magically strengthen a weapon by focusing one's "senses" into it. Although such a technique isn't accepted as magic by others, it's widely seen worldwide. It's a technique that uses the magic of the Native Americans.
Arcturus uses a one-handed axe, reinforced by such a spell, making it his trump card against magicians. It's also used as a weapon in melee combat, where fighting with it is exclusively done with Movement-Type Magic. Lina’s Zone Interference could not stop his Tomahawk attack.
Lina knew this and dodged by moving horizontally. She moved nearly 22-meters, as if she slid from the air to the ground. Upon landing, she simultaneously redeployed "Mirror Shield" and started running.
Although there were many obstacles and targets for shooting, but the fact that this was shooting ground with a good overview made her an easy target.
She ran into a warehouse that contained special vehicles. Even if she entered one of the special vehicles, they didn't have any heavy armor and there wasn't a tank. Using magic, there was a self-propelled vehicle that can float in the sky, or a wagon car that can transform into a riding suit with a reinforced exoskeleton. The warehouse stored experimental weapons that have been neglected due to them being impractical.
Lina would be testing the long-distance self-propelled vehicles flight functions. The door to it was open so that the attendants could enter and leave.
"This is Major Sirius! Everyone inside this warehouse needs to leave this place!"
When she ran into the warehouse, Lina was wearing the disguise of
"Angie Sirius".
It's good that I wore my training clothes, Lina murmured in her mind when she was shouting inside the warehouse, not checking whether someone was actually there.
If it wasn't for the girl's clothes she bought under Sylvia's guidance, she wouldn't have looked very serious at the moment.
Lina didn't have time to check if any people had escaped from the warehouse. She sat down on one knee at the edge of the entrance and cautiously looked around.
She sharpened all her senses to miss nothing, and cautiously examined the neighborhood in search of enemies, trying not to get caught by a sniper shot.
Lina’s reaction to this incident seemed calm. But in reality her mind was far from being tranquil.
When she left her room, she accidentally brought along her information terminal that's for private use. It is also used by non-commissioned officers but having done so was inevitable. Due to the time being outside of normal operations and with the current situation, she couldn't possibly make contact with the base headquarters.
However, the fact that she did not notice the phone on the wall right above her head, said that she had no time to be distracted.
Asking for help from the base's management. If she could do this, the current events might evolve in a completely different way.
Lina’s attention was directed to the neighborhood around the warehouse.
However, she was not able to locate Arcturus from the very beginning.
In addition, the enemies were probably not limited to just Regulus and Arcturus.
The fact that she was able to react to a hand grenade aimed at the back of her legs was a pure coincidence.
The hangar wall survived the explosion. For this reason, most of the shrapnel coming from the grenades and the explosive wave were directed to Lina.
Lina, surviving the explosion and its aftermath inside the Magic Shield, unfolded and found the culprit of the explosion.
“Leila! You too!?”
She’s from the Unit 4, a First-Class Star. Second-Lieutenant Leila Deneb. A tall, glamorous women of Northern European decent. She glared at Lina with hatred.
"Don’t call me by my name. You, traitor!"
"Who did I betray!? What are you talking about?"
"Stop trying to act stupid and just quit while you’re ahead!"
Deneb swung over Lina’s head with the knife that was in her right hand.
Immediately after that, a woman that was about 10 centimeters taller than Lina (and the size of her chest and hips were bigger too) appeared right in front of her.
The hand with the combat knife swung down at her.
Lina reflexively activated Movement-Type Magic and moved to the opposite side of the entrance to the warehouse. Bullets were fired from a silenced pistol and hit Lina’s shield and she fell to the floor.
For Deneb, the combination of a knife and a pistol was her favorite tactic. Lina remembered this, so she deployed a magic shield simultaneously with the Movement-Type Magic.
"I'm not faking it. When and how did I betray anyone!?" Lina shouted, without removing her shield.
"How shameless. Okay, then I'll tell you. Even though you were the High Commander, you were seduced by that man, and then you sold the 6th Unit out to Japan!"
"The 6th Unit? What happened to Randy and his guys?"
Looks like you haven't really thought about what you did."
That voice came from behind Lina. Lina turned around hastily.
Deneb immediately shot her in the back, but the bullet was also reflected by the anti-object barrier. This was due to the fact that her magic event interference of her shield was stronger, so Deneb’s magic could not penetrate it.
But the attack of the new participant came from an unexpected direction.
Lina was thrown in the air together with her shield.
Lina did not apply any Movement-Type Magic to herself. It was the result of gravity inversion magic. In a circle with a radius of 1 meter around Lina, the gravity was rotated in inverted and heavily strengthened.
Lina hit the warehouse ceiling, with a speed that is 10 times that of normal free fall acceleration.
She didn’t hit the ceiling heavily. She was only slightly shaken, and the sound that came from her sounded like it wasn’t a heavy impact. Lina had managed to instantly neutralize her inertia just in time. And it helped.
However, it was not perfect. Lina still received some damage from the collision and she then began to fall back down. This time enhanced acceleration worked in the opposite direction.
However, Lina applied deceleration magic and endured the pain. She returned to the floor without taking any more damage.
But falling wasn’t the only thing she was doing. During the fall, bullets of compressed air were thrown at her. Although they did not possess lethal force, they were able to contain her.
"The 4th Unit too..."
Landing firmly on her feet, Lina looked at the 4th Unit Captain Charlotte Vega, who had launched her to the ceiling.
"Heh... I thought that would kill you, but as expected of a Sirius. Well, at least that magic power of yours does the name justice."
After their exchange of attacks, Lina canceled Parade. In comparison with her previous appearance, the pretty blonde, blue eyed beauty was breathing heavily. Vega was proud of herself when she saw that Lina had changed back.
"But I thought it would be pretty painful. A good combination of treachery, seducing that man, and betraying your subordinates."
"I'm telling you! I don't know anything about any betrayal! I don't know what happened to the 6th Unit. And who is 'that man' who you keep talking about?"
"Still going to keep on lying?" Deneb snarled at Lina who was trying to proclaim her innocence.
"Okay, fine. Let me tell you."
However, Vega had stopped Deneb and then turned to Lina with mocking look.
"You have a secret relationship with a Japanese spy who tried to carry out the Micro Black Hole. Three people of the 6th Unit were sacrificed in that experiment and turned into parasites, and the spy originates from Japan. That's what we're talking about. You were seduced by a Japanese Strategic Class Magician, Shiba Tatsuya!"
"Tatsuya!"
This explanation was completely unexpected to Lina, and she could not suppress her thoughts about it. However, to Vega and Deneb, it looked like she had fallen into their trap, and was nothing more than proof of her betrayal.
"Yes. Three people, Rigel, Ian and Sam, lost their minds, were turned into parasites even though they were placed under your protection. So it’s your fault they were turned into parasites!"
?
Rigel, Captain Orlando Rigel.
Ian is Second Lieutenant, Ian Bellatrix.
Sam is Second Lieutenant, Samuel Alnilam.
Naming the three members of team Orion with a tragic voice, Vega stared at Lina with a sharp stare.
"Parasites...?"
Lina’s reaction, being frozen in shock, seemed like a pure acting game to Vega.
"Death to all traitors! I'll provide you with the same fate as the people you executed as Sirius!"
Lina instantly recovered and returned to her combat stance. However, she had lost too much composure when she heard that people from the 6th Unit had been captured by parasites.
Lina rotated her face to Vega, which had appeared from the depths of the warehouse. And then she rotated back the exit.
And once again a spinning tomahawk was coming towards Lina.
Arcturus’ attack penetrated the warehouse from the outside.
But the magically reinforced tomahawk was cut down by "Molecular Divider".
"Commander! Are you okay!?"
A figure of a man of large physique appeared at the entrance to the warehouse.
"Ben!"
"Major Canopus..."
Lina and Vega said the name of the person that had appeared, each in their own way.
"Major, are you on the side of this traitor?"
"The High Commander didn't betray us. Captain Vega, you were deceived by the parasites." Without moving, Canopus replied to the condemnation of Vega.
"What? How could you say that about Rigel and his team?"
"I'm not talking about them! Those parasite..."
Canopus had to interrupt his speech. Because he needed to repel a sniper shot and a new tomahawk flying at him.
Canopus had to interrupt his speech. Because he needed to repel a sniper shot and a new tomahawk flying at him.
Suddenly, a screeching sound was heard in the warehouse. The experimental car, which was to be tested today, suddenly started and moved towards Lina and Vega.
Lina and Vega jumped away in different directions. The car came to a halt near the Lina and its right front door opened.
"Commander, get in!"
"Hardy!?"
In the front passenger seat she called out the name of Second Lieutenant Ralph Hardy Mirfak. Lina reflexively jumped into the vehicle.
Mirfak drove to the left using the management console. In this experimental vehicle, the management console could move the vehicle from both the left and right side so that there would be no inconvenience both in the left-handed countries, such as the USNA, and in the right-hand countries such as Britain. And the front seat was in the form of a continuous bench without gaps. There were no pedals either.
When Lina closed the door, the car moved immediately.
"Commander, we are temporarily leaving the base!"
"Huh?"
Of course, this was unexpected for Lina.
"This is the order of Commander Canopus!"
Lina's objections stopped when she heard that it was the Canopus’
command, whom she trusted the most.
Besides, she didn't have time to argue now.
This car was shaped like a pickup truck. And a sound could be heard from the side of the vehicle after receiving a strong impact.
"Don’t move!"
Deneb, proficient at Movement-Type Magic, jumped onto the body of the pickup truck using pseudo-teleportation.
"Don’t stop!"
However, Deneb was immediately forced to jump off the car. A man that had hid himself jumped at her.
"Ralph!"
The man who kept Deneb company when she jumped on the car, was the Second Lieutenant Ralph Algol, a member of the Second Class in STARS, the same as Mirfak.
"Let's leave this place to Second Lieutenant Algol! Watch out, this can be a rough ride!"
After Mirfaka said this, Lina hurriedly buckled her belt.
The pickup then took off.
They escaped and headed to Albuquerque.
"Hardy, what's going on here?"
When the base went beyond the horizon, Lina recovered her composure and asked Mirfaka to explain the situation.
"The exact time is unknown, but at about 5 o'clock in the morning there was an uprising led by Captain Arcturus and the First Lieutenant Regulus from the 3rd Unit. Other currently established members of the uprising are: Captain Vega, First Lieutenant Spica and Second Lieutenant Deneb of the 4th Unit, Captain Bolt, Second Lieutenant Bellatrix and Second Lieutenant Alnilam of the 6th Unit, as well as Major Antares and First Lieutenant Sargas of the 11th Unit."
"Wait! Charlotte said that Randy and his crew were infected by the parasites. So that was a lie!?"
"...Unfortunately, it appears to be true. And the three people of the 6th Unit weren’t the only ones effected. Presumably, the parasites also infected two of the 3rd and two of the 11th Unit."
"How did that happen?"
"We received this information from the Second Lieutenant Shaula from the 11th Unit. She noticed anomalies in Major Antares and First Lieutenant Sargas’s behavior, and came to Commander Canopus for instructions."
The 11th Unit was filled with magicians good at Mental Interference Magic, but Second Lieutenant Shaula was exceptionally good at sensing Pushion waves, and in protection from Mental Interference Magic.
It was quite convincing that she was not invaded by any parasites and was the first to notice the strange activity.
"She went to Canopus because the High Commander didn't seem to be in her room." Mirfak added with an apologetically tone. He thought that Lina wouldn’t be happy when she heard Shaula didn’t come to her, the Commander, but to the commander of the 1st Unit, Canopus. But Lina didn’t complain about it, because she just hadn’t noticed.
"Immediately after I and the Second Lieutenant Algol arrived at the Office of the Commander on an urgent call, Major Antares 'Hypnos Garden' was activated. We were able to avoid any difficulties with the help of Second Lieutenant Shaula’s 'Lunar Eclipse', but all other people in the residential sector were neutralized.
Major Antares used 'Hypnos Garden', which is an extraneous magic that makes people within a certain area fall asleep. The efficiency of the magic depends on a few factors, the number of people targeted and the mental activity of the target(s). The more people that are targeted, the weaker the magic becomes, in addition to their mental activity. If someone is in the middle of a battle, they wouldn’t fall asleep. But for someone that is resting or already sleeping, it is a very effective way to put them to sleep or keep them from waking up.
On the other hand, Shaula’s "Lunar Eclipse" is a kind of shield magic that disables what is called "Lunar Magic" in the USNA, by hiding targets from mental attacks.
She escaped the assimilation with the parasites due to the reflective properties of "Lunar Eclipse".
"...What are we going to do now?"
Lina couldn’t do anything to stop her voice from trembling with anxiety. She always acted with the support of STARS. And in the present situation she could not rely on them. It was the exact opposite: she had no gear, no money, and her enemies, most likely, are the magicians of STARS.
When Mirfak wanted to answer the question of Lina, the ringtone of an incoming message was heard from his chest pocket. Mirfak switched the car controls to autopilot and took the terminal out of his chest pocket.
His fingers were moving around the screen for a long time, apparently, to decrypt a message. The cipher seemed to be quite complex.
Finally, after deciphering the message, Mirfak read it seriously. Having finished reading it, he handed over the terminal to Lina.
"High Commander, these are the instructions from Colonel Balance."
Passing the terminal to Lina, Mirfak turned the car back to manual control.
"Immediately after the Commander (Canopus) learned of the attack on the High Commander, he asked Colonel Balance what to do next."
With bated breath, Lina looked at Mirfaka’s terminal screen. While reading the message of Balance, Lina’s eyes rounded.
"...To Japan!?"
In the instructions Balance sent, it said that Lina should flee to Japan and get the protection of the Yotsuba family there.
"... Why... This is..."
"Why should I leave the States and go to Japan?" Mirfak deciphered from Lina’s muttering.
"Apparently, Colonel Balance is concerned about the conspiracy against the High Commander. I can’t even listen to such nonsense as assassinating the High Commander, a Strategic Class Magician, but the Commander can be brainwashed and used for their purposes."
After hearing Mirfaka, Lina recalled the "military secret", which she witnessed on board of the super-aircraft carrier "Enterprise".
Magicians who have become fuel for a generator and are forced to use magic.
"...They'll try to use me as part of some military machine like those guys...?"
"Indeed, the loss of 'Heavy Metal Burst', this idiocy is on par with trying to destroy your own country. However, if you would only look on the side of military power, then brainwashing Lina and turning her into an easily used tool is not completely impossible..."
"But then I will be considered a deserter..."
"I think everything will be fine if you look at it like this. High Commander, check out the attached file."
After these words, Lina hurriedly moved her finger on the screen of the terminal. The attached file had already been decrypted, as is the bulk of the message. Lina opened the file.
"This order!?"
Inside was an order to infiltrate Japan for the secret inspection of the officers residing there.
"I think the Colonel did everything within her power to make this happen."
Colonel Balance was the number two in the Inspection Department that focuses on misconduct in combat of military personnel. This meant that Lina was sent to Japan to inspect the officers working in the embassies and consultants. Although there were a lot of problems in terms of the command system, it could be said that this is somehow within Balance’s powers.
"Please use this terminal for now. Don't worry, it doesn't have my personal information. The password is the same as the one I used back in the 1st Unit."
As High Commander, Lina had the authority to view the documentation of any of the units. However, these powers were largely ignored within STARS. Lina never made a problem out of it. Only Canopus and Major Capella from the 5th Unit honestly reported to Lina every time they changed their password.
"The bag on the back seat contains everything that is necessary for the mission, things such as a passport, credit cards and various other equipment. Given the way we’re traveling, there are no weapons.
Unfortunately, I did not have time to take a spare set of clothes, so please buy them yourself at the airport. Colonel Balance prepared a ticket for you."
After listening to Mirfaka, Lina once again glanced at the terminal. On it was the data on the ticket.
"We are now heading to the airport in Albuquerque.
"I think there will be no prosecution because the Commander controls the situation on the spot. However, just in case, I used a shield that obstructs detection, so, High Commander, I beg you to refrain from using any magic."
"... I got it."
Mirfak possesses magic that prevents being detected and he is the best at using it in the entirety of STARS. Being detected will be extremely problematic especially when Team Orion from the 6th Unit is involved as they specialize in prosecution missions. Lina obediently followed Mirfaka’s advice.
Lina arrived safely in Japan on the 19th of June at around noon local time. She immediately called the phone number she had received from Balance, and under the order of Maya, she went under the protection of the Kuroba family.
At the same time, at the STARS Headquarters base, it was decided that Canopus, Algol, and Shaula would be sent to a military prison for magicians on Midway Island as the result of a summary trial.
Mirfak did not return to the base and fled towards the West coast.
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