In the first place, Takafumi is a parent with a child. While he has a tendency to prioritize hobbies and company profits in all matters, there’s no father who wants to show his daughter a shameful back.
When returning to Japan, would he report to his wife and daughter that [the business failed because we abandoned a city being attacked before our eyes]? Impossible. As a company president, as a husband, and as a parent, he would refuse.
Additionally, he couldn’t ignore the impression on his employees.
Anyone with common values should feel resistance to abandoning people currently fighting monsters.
Takafumi had pride in gathering such people.
Takafumi wasn’t enlightened enough to make the judgment [it’s not our business, we’ll abandon that place] in front of such people.
Also, there’s a simpler reason.
That is [there’s no guarantee that the ones attacking the city won’t come attacking us].
While they’re about 10 kilometers away in distance, considering wild animals’ sense of smell and hearing, and territorial awareness, 10 kilometers is certainly not a safe distance.
Also, since they’ve noticed, we should assume there are monsters over there who have also noticed.
Therefore, there’s no guarantee that the monsters currently attacking the city won’t recognize us as new prey and turn their spears toward us.
If we’re going to fight anyway, it’s better to coordinate with the forces already fighting in the city from the beginning.
That can be said to be an obvious policy from a tactical standpoint.
“Boss!”
“How is it!?”
“It’s confirmed! No doubt about it! It’s an official distress signal sent from the city hall!”
“Good!”
Even if what Keita caught was really a distress signal, if it was sent by a civilian or a single soldier, it could become problematic later. But if it was sent from the city hall—meaning by the mayor or someone connected to the mayor—there would be no problem.
“Keita!”
“Yes.”
“I’ll state the operation. First, we’ll merge with the forces over there, so I want you to advance ahead to the city.”
“Huh?”
(While they move to merge with other military forces, I should go to the city alone? Am I supposed to charge at a horde of over 1,000 monsters? Are you telling me to die? By what authority?)
To repeat, Keita has enough common sense and good judgment to try to help people dying before his eyes.
However, that’s absolutely conditional on his own safety being guaranteed.
He definitely doesn’t possess the sense of justice that says [I’ll protect citizens even at the cost of my life!].
How much more so when the rescue targets aren’t even his own countrymen, but people from another country?
“I refuse.”
Naturally, Keita’s answer was no. While it would be regrettable to lose his connection with Takafumi, he couldn’t trade his life for it. Moreover, while Takafumi was a sponsor, he wasn’t a superior officer. He was a civilian.
Naturally, Keita wasn’t the type of meek person who would nod obediently when told to [die] by a civilian who held no command authority.
Rather, he was the type of person who would do various things to enlighten the ignorance of any civilian who had the foolish thought that [he would follow such a ridiculous order], to make them understand.
Naturally, there would be no mercy in that.
“I never thought such nonsense would come from Mogami-san’s mouth. How disappointing. It seems we’ll be parting ways here.”
When he returned, there might be various questions, but he could say [they were attacked by monsters while I was infiltrating the city].
In fact, there were over 1,000 monsters here.
The Far East Russian people would testify about the numbers, so there would be no shortage of evidence.
There were some concerns about future maintenance, but… well, there were plenty of forces in the country that thought Mogami Heavy Industries was a nuisance. Even the Second Division should want to embrace him without antagonizing financial conglomerate companies.
(In other words, even if I eliminate them here, I can still survive.)
“Ah! Wait! Don’t misunderstand! There’s a proper reason! I’ll explain it now!”
“……I’ll listen.”
(A proper reason that I can accept, that is.)
Five
“Honestly. You’re too dangerous.”
“This is a battlefield, isn’t it?”
It’s natural to have the spirit to shoot a stupid superior from behind.
“……Well, that’s true too.”
Did he understand that I had harbored clear killing intent?
Mogami-san tries to explain that his earlier order had a reason, but if that’s the case, he should have done so from the beginning.
If he had said something like [lives are at stake, so move without saying this and that!] here, I would have fired without hesitation.
“First, you haven’t done coordination training.”
“That’s right.”
Since this time we prioritized the growth of my mecha and powered suit, I needed to monopolize the prey, and moreover, due to firepower and performance differences, it’s true that we couldn’t do coordination training with the unit Mogami-san brought.
“You probably don’t know this yet, but coordination becomes surprisingly fragile when even one foreign element enters.”
“……Is that so?”
Indeed. It’s military common sense, so I understand the logic, but I don’t have a real sense of it.
“Moreover, the powered suit you’re currently equipped with is a new model, and you’ve already defeated two medium-sized and over thirty small-sized monsters, right?”
“Yes.”
“So, the ability of the powered suit you’re currently equipped with, combined with your own magic crystal, is outstanding even within this merchant caravan. At least if you fought small monsters, you wouldn’t lose in a one-on-one fight.”
“That might be true.”
I want to say isn’t that normal? But apparently ordinary powered suits aren’t that strong. They can’t even generate magic barriers. So whether you’re somewhat compatible with magic crystals or not makes a quite significant difference in combat power.
“So, if you, who have individual performance differences and haven’t done coordination training, move together, you’d end up hindering each other.”
“So I advance ahead?”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm.”
I understand he has his own reasons. But my danger level hasn’t decreased one bit, has it?
“I’m not saying you should fight 1,000 monsters simultaneously by yourself. Target isolated ones or twos, or maybe you could handle even ten simultaneously?”
“It’s a tricky situation.”
I could probably win against one or two, but what about ten? I might be able to do it, or I might not.
But I understand what he’s trying to say. It’s that thing where one against 100 would mean the 100 win, but one-on-one 100 times is a different story.
Actually, even though there are [over 1,000 monsters], they’re not forming squadrons or gathered in one place. Mogami-san probably thinks I should target and eliminate the scattered ones throughout the city.
I understand that. But hey. While this could be interpreted as confidence in the performance of the powered suit he made and trust in me, you do realize that you’re still trying to send me to a dangerous place, right?
(Well, that’s fine this time.)
If there’s a reasonable reason and chance of victory, that’s fine.
However, I have no intention of dying for Mogami-san’s business.
“If things get bad, I’m running away, okay?”
I’ll run even if you say no.
“Of course. In the worst case, you can abandon the powered suit and use the Mikage-type.”
If that’s allowed, then well, I won’t die, I guess?
“……Hmm.”
Yeah. If permission goes that far, I’ll accept this situation for now.
If we keep talking endlessly, even people who could be saved won’t be saved.
“Well then, let’s move soon. I’ll give a separate signal for operation completion. If you encounter an unexpected situation, as I said earlier, bring out the Mikage-type or escape from the city. Ah, of course, when that happens, make sure to properly store kokuten in the magic crystal.”
“……Understood.”
The opponents are mainly numerous small ones. I can freely choose the place, opponent, and timing to attack, and I can run away if I judge it’s impossible.
In other words, I can ambush any opponent I like as much as I want.
Good. Let’s switch gears.
“I’ll earn my keep to the extent that I don’t die.”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
“Has he gone? ……Man, that’s scary. Did you see? That guy earlier. He was seriously trying to kill me.”
“Of course he was. Even we would harbor some killing intent if we were suddenly told something like that.”
“……Really?”
“Really. If even we, who have some relationship with the boss, would feel that way, then it’s even more so for a kid who hasn’t even known you for a year.”
“……I see.”
“That’s right. So boss, while being at a loss for words is unavoidable, please build a proper relationship of trust before giving such dangerous instructions. Otherwise, you’ll really be killed, you know? By us.”
“By you guys!?”
“Yes. We don’t want to die as collateral damage.”
“Honest bunch. Well, fine. Preparations?”
“Complete.”
“Good. Then let’s go too. We can’t let a kid fight alone.”
“Roger!”
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