Joachim Iyamur

• Graphic depictions of wartime violence. Episode 2.

A high speed combat craft flew east from Olympias in the west. The pilot is Joachim Iyamur—who had received a request from Cainan.

“Once I’m done with this mission, I’ll finally be able to retire. Hehe, I gotta get fired up!”

Joachim was in pursuit of Solo, the orphan of Saint Bathsheba, as well as Zephyr, Solo’s attendant.

According to information Cainan had received through his own channels, the two had stolen an aircraft in Ephes and were headed east.

Joachim made a guess based on that information.

To the east of Perses was a large defense network constructed by the Machines—making it near impossible to slip through.

It was also unlikely they would head south, where Sargon’s forces were engaged in combat with the Machines.

“So naturally, the only place to go is north.”

Joachim smiles in reverie. Once this mission was complete, his rosy life would begin.

“I can finally get out. My life of being hated and resented is over. What’s not to laugh about? Wait for me, my prince!”

—The way our generation was treated was incredibly heartless.

What was so heartless about it? From the moment we were created, we were sent off into battles we were destined to lose.

With the sudden death of the Saint who had been directing the fight, the chain of command became a mess. The Machines took advantage and launched a counterattack—forcing us to retreat.

It was… Hell. It was hell itself.

There were corpses everywhere you looked. People started to turn on eachother, others ran away screaming. Some of them even took their own lives.

Even in such a shitty situation, it was the barrier troop’s mission to provide encouragement.

I worked so hard in that hellscape.

The job of the barrier troops is to encourage the troops, but that was just a pretense. In reality, our job was about beating them, threatening them, and controlling them with fear to turn them into fighting machines.

But our job wasn’t just kicking back and watching it happen. We were soldiers too.

Sometimes you had to fight the Machines out on the front lines.

There wasn’t any time to retrieve them, so the corpses were left scattered all around. It was a miserable sight.

If I stayed in a place like that for too long, I’d go crazy. There was only one trick to continue working there.

Suppress your emotions. That was it.

Well, there are some people who couldn't do that.

But I was different. It was easy to make the distinction.

No matter how much abuse they hurl at me, it doesn't matter. I just do my job.

Oh, right. I forgot to mention—I had a dream. I was going to escape that hell and get my freedom. 

My dream came true sooner than expected.

When I returned from hell, I was greeted by a bunch of big shots from headquarters. They gave me a useless medal and superficial praise.

Well, thanks to that, I was able to leave my unit.

With a little patience, I thought I’d be able to enjoy the rest of my life freely—without being bound by anyone. But that didn’t turn out to be the case.

Medals were troublesome things, and a troublesome job had come my way.

I was an independent mercenary—just a puppet of the big shots.

My new “duty” was to destroy anything that got in their way.

“Yeah, some freedom…”

Still, it was a step forward.

As long as I was still alive, as long as my spirit didn’t break, then someday…

Even after several years of becoming a mercenary, I hadn't made a single step forward.

Then, I received a strange request from Lord Cainan—a key leadership figure.

The request was as follows:

Bring back the Saint’s orphan, “Solo Monia” and his attendant “Zephyr Nialde”. They have both escaped Olympias. The higher-ups are all in a frenzy right now. If something like this were to come to light, it would cause an uproar.

Additionally, I was to “Protect Solo’s life”.

Seemed like Solo was a popular guy—being targeted by both anti-Bathsheba factions and the Machines alike.

Normally, I’d refuse a job that didn’t pay well.

But hey, my master had dangled the bait right in front of me.

“...What if I told you the reward for this request is a comfortable estate in Syracuse and upper-class freedom?”

Of course, I immediately said yes.

—Solo Monia, the Saint’s orphan.

I thought he was just a spoiled brat, but he was actually pretty interesting.

I was planning to give him a quick walloping, but that thought flew out the window the second I saw him.

…What the hell, he’s just like me.

It would have been a piece of cake to drag him back home. But hey, I had a dream about this kid.

Maybe at the end of this dream, there might be true freedom—

With Joachim’s help, Solo’s group reconfirmed their route to the northern region. 

“So, if we’re heading north, what’s the plan, Niania?”

“Knock it off with the Niania… From this point, we’ll cut straight through the Caspian Rift Valley.”

“You wanna cut through there? Are you for real? The war with the Machines has totally changed the landscape, you know?”

“Really?”

“I didn't know that either…”

Joachim sighed at their lack of familiarity, and he continued as Zephyr and Solo exchanged glances.

“If the ship falls, we’re dropping straight to the bottom of the valley. It’s the end of the line for us if that happens, right? I’m not gonna lie, it'll be safer to take a detour.”

No matter how combat ready the aircraft was, that didn’t necessarily guarantee they would be able to take a hit. Especially in the Caspian Rift Valley, where there would be no escape route.

“If that’s the case, then we should take a detour through the east and go through the city.”

“Although, that’ll take some time.”

Joachim brushed up his hair, struck a strange, dated pose, and pointed a thumb to his chest.

“Leave it to me, I know the area well.”

Joachim quickly picked out the most reasonable route among their possibilities. The shortest was to head north along mountains via Bactria—once the site of a clash between Saint Bathsheba and a large Machine force.

The group loaded their supplies into the aircraft and quickly left Alvir behind.

The unknown battleship that appeared before them was operated by a Machine.

The word “Machine” put everyone on their guard, but a girl with long black hair descended among them

As soon as the girl saw Solo, she came running towards them.

“Hey, are you alright!?”

“A woman…? Zephyr, is she a Machine too?”

“No, she’s probably…”

“You’re Paragons, right? That’s gotta be it!”

The girl expresses her joy with her entire body, and Zehpyr and Solo look at her in bewilderment. With a sidelong glance, Joachim mutters to himself.

“Never thought I’d see a Returnee is a place like this.”

“A Returnee!?”

Solo braced himself at the mention of the word, but it seemed the black-haired girl had no intentions of instigating a fight. She waved her hands in a desperate appeal. 

“I won’t attack you. I just wanna talk, okay?”

“...You think I can just believe that!? What could you have to say when you’re responsible for making the world this way!”

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be nice if the world was filled with smiles?”

“Huh?” the three of them voice in unison at the girl's unexpected reply.

“I’m Mithra! Mithra Tercera!”

“Ha, even if you say that, the world is gonna end up trampled again anyway!”

Solo wasn’t able to contain his emotions, and Joachim calmly stepped between him and Mithra.

“Thanks for the help, young lady. But I don’t think anything good will come out of getting any more involved with us, you feel? We might have to deal with those guys again.”

As he speaks, Joachim urges Solo to hurry along.

Mithra lowers the corners of her eyebrows and points in the direction they’re heading.

“The aircraft parked over there is yours, right? It was burning up pretty bad, you know?”

“What!?”

As if on cue, a large explosion rang out. It seemed the aircraft Solo’s group had been using had been blown to smithereens. 

Zephyr muttered helplessly as she watched the pitch black smoke stretching into the sky.

“No way… What are we going to do now…?”

“Hey, do you want me to give you a ride? It might be a little tight with four people, but…”

A Returnee girl had appeared by chance during their escape—dark clouds hanging in the sky above her.

No one could have known that this impossible encounter between the two species would dramatically change the fate of the world in the years to come.