first commandment

Srain Troyet had a dream.

He knew it was a dream, because the people in the dream were his lost companions from the past.

In the secret garden behind the castle, a happy party is going on.He stood outside the white fence in the garden, and the scorching sun behind him was very real.

He was hesitating whether to go in, when suddenly someone patted him on the shoulder from behind.

Slein turned his head and saw Hakulet smiling.His image is so clear, more than ten years have not left even the slightest trace on him.

"What are you doing standing here? Master Slein, everyone is waiting for you."

After that, he pushed Slein and walked in.At the white table in the middle of the courtyard sat the same unchanging Earl Zazbarum.Seeing Slein approaching, he raised his hand and showed a casual smile.Sitting next to him was Remulina. The serious girl saw him, and a smile bloomed from the bottom of her heart.

Slaine stopped.Even though the sun was so dazzling, he was cold all over.

"Can I go there?" He heard himself asking, his voice trembling, "Am I still entitled to go there?"

Harkulet stepped past him and joined the two at the table.They looked at him together, smiling without answering.

"I think it should be impossible," Slein bowed his head deeply, "I have betrayed your trust. You clearly believe in me and support me, but I... only think about myself, so selfish, only I want to satisfy my ambitions and desires."

"...You must hate me very much, right?"

He raised his head as he spoke, eager to see a slight change in their smiling faces, whether it was resentment or sternness, but there was none.The three phantoms in the dream still smiled without answering, the fresh greenery in the courtyard was lush and the dazzling sunlight remained unchanged.His smile faded.

"It's not going to help now to say 'sorry'...I get it."

"Before I met you, I was always... lonely and helpless. It was not until you gave me a world that I had partners and friends I could rely on."

"These are the things I've always dreamed of, but when I actually got them, I forgot that's what I really wanted..."

sorry.Thanks.

He whispered in his heart, every beat of his heart was accompanied by a burst of unbearable sorrow.His heart was still beating, and he was still living in a world that had lost all meaning.

If given the chance to do it all over again...

He often had this idea, both when he was in deep trouble during the war, and when he was thrown into prison after the war.He often imagines, if he could choose again, what he would do to avoid this series of tragedies in the future.But to this day, he still hasn't been able to come up with a complete answer.War cannot be avoided, and sacrifices will not stop. He does not know how to choose to protect Atheram's heart and his companions at the same time, and finally only comes to a helpless and self-defeating conclusion:

"...I would rather die myself."

He was only willing to say such cowardly words in his dreams.If he wakes up from the dream, he will still be the same him, insisting on living in despair, just for atonement.

He looked at his companions standing at the white table, the lost treasures never came back.He looked at each of them hesitantly, and said what he had kept in his heart for a long time:

"Earl Zazbarum...Father, thank you for being my relative, thank you..."

The earl in red looked at him with a gentle face, as if he didn't know what he was talking about.

"Hakulet, thank you for your loyalty and trust, you are my best subordinate and friend..."

His subordinates, dressed in neat military uniforms, smiled respectfully.

"His Royal Highness Princess Remulina, thank you for treating me as a reliable and important person, sorry for leaving you alone to face loneliness again..."

The sitting girl folded her hands on her knees, and tilted her head in confusion after hearing what he said.

"Sorry……"

……

Perhaps they would hear, would know the remorse in his heart.He spoke, as if speaking to them, but also as if speaking to himself.In the end, he was so heavy with guilt that he couldn't lift his head up. Without the courage to look at the three of them, he closed his eyes tightly, unable to support himself to continue standing, and slowly fell to his knees on the ground.

He covered his face with both hands, and murmurs and sobs leaked from between his fingers.

"sorry Sorry……"

……

After a long time, with the sound of the trigger being pulled, something cold touched his forehead.He let go of his hand slightly, raised his face, and saw Atheram standing in front of him.

The courtyard under the sun, together with the three phantoms, disappeared without a trace at some point. At this moment, only infinite darkness enveloped them.

Tears of remorse rolled down his cheeks, and Slein looked at her cold face with a self-deprecating smile on the corner of his mouth.

Am I doomed to lose everything?

As he asked himself, he suddenly lost all strength to resist.Laughing in a low voice, his hand grabbed the muzzle of her gun, and then pressed it firmly between her eyebrows.

"Shoot," he said, looking up at her, as if begging, "you should have shot then, shouldn't you?"

Atheram in the dream smiled, as if laughing at his antics.

Then in the next second, the smiling girl's face suddenly changed into Flora's.

Her figure miraculously merged with that of her mother.Just like then, the blond girl pointed a gun at him, looking at him as if she were looking at a stranger.

"I don't need you anymore, Slein."

In the dream, she was full of smiles, announcing the news in a nonchalant tone, which made his chest hurt from the cold.

……

His heart stopped for a moment, he took a quick breath and opened his eyes.

Looking at the metal silver-gray ceiling, he has some doubts:

Did the dream end there, or would it continue?

He hadn't been able to keep his energy up that morning, and his mind wandered countless times while Jung was talking to him.Jung's attitude towards him was quite respectful, but in the end he couldn't bear it and showed a displeased expression.

This went on until after lunch, when Flora found him.

"You look bad, what's wrong?"

Her hands are behind her back, and her thin shoulders are slightly raised.

Slein looked at her, and it took him a while to adjust his emotions.Not to mention the dream this morning, what happened on her birthday still haunted him.She didn't mention the kiss after that, as if it was just a spur of the moment return gift, unimportant.He was too embarrassed to ask, and this matter was so far-fetched that it was ignored.

"I had a nightmare..." After some consideration, he avoided the important point and told the truth lightly.

Flora frowned, as if seriously doubting the authenticity of this answer.She thought about it for a while, and finally decided not to ask him any more.

So she grabbed his wrist instead and led him away:

"I'll take you to a place."

Slein, who was in a trance, couldn't help staggering when he was pulled suddenly by her.Due to the height difference, he had to turn sideways to reach her hand, and his hunched back couldn't help but look a little embarrassed.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

The girl turned her head and smiled brightly at him, her blond hair raised slightly with the movement, revealing the silver chain at the neckline of her dress.She carried the amulet he had given her.

Flora said to him in a mysterious tone:

"Secret base."

The secret base she mentioned is a country of weapons with a tight structure.

After the two-person-high metal door opened, Flora was the first to pass through the protective membrane and enter the huge armory where gravity was weakened.

She jumped up lightly, turned around in mid-air, and stretched out her hand to Slein, as if to say "come here".

This scene seems familiar.Long ago, Remulina was like this too, flying like a light butterfly in the arsenal of violence and blood.Being protected, she doesn't know the cruelty of the external war, just like a naive god, who doesn't know what kind of bloody storm she will cause in the skinny reality with the divine power in her hands that can activate countless mechas in the library.

"Slein, I like it here," Remulina in memory said to him with a smile, "because I can walk on my own two feet here."

The corners of her flicked skirt span time and space, once again creating a weird tension with the cold metal.The current Flora looks the same in his eyes.

Then he thought of her at the ball a few days ago, when she was wearing a champagne-colored delicate dress, spinning slowly under the flickering crystal lights, beautiful and dreamy, like a creature in a fairy tale.

With a light leap, he caught up with her, grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the ground.

Seeing the princess, the workers in the armory stopped their work and saluted her.Flora smiled kindly and nodded to them:

"Don't worry about me, keep busy."

"Yes."

While she was doing these things, Slein at the side silently took in the sight of the entire arsenal.This place is much bigger than he imagined, not even losing the scale during the war.While he was amazed, somewhere in his heart was also faintly ignited with worry.

"Your Highness, may I ask where is..."

As Flora showed him around, he couldn't help but speak.

She who was explaining the size of the army was interrupted and stopped.She wasn't unhappy in any way, but the expression on her face was a little more serious:

"Frankly speaking, this is the military team that Jung and I slowly built without telling my mother."

Slein's astonishment did not make her hesitate at all, and she continued:

"Not just armored cavalry, but also other weapons, as well as well-organized auxiliary troops."

"...When did it start?"

"Five years ago, not too long." She curled her lips and said.

Although it has not been a long time, in Slein's view, this is already a military force of considerable size.

They passed by several black mechs that were being debugged, and then a white shadow crossed his line of sight.He turned his head, and what caught his eye was an extremely familiar white machine.

"Tarsis?"

He said its name inadvertently, and he looked at Flora in disbelief.

"This is the No. [-] machine." Her answer was tacit, "Since I have its blueprint, I tried to rebuild one... The army needs a high-performance machine."

Her eyes moved away from Tarsis, and the moment she raised her eyes to look at him, her eyes were sharp and cold, which stung him.

The girl was different from her previous lively and cheerful appearance, and she looked very strange in his eyes.Leaping lightly, she floated towards the icy weapon, and after touching a point of strength, she jumped up again and climbed to the top of it.

The dress on her body was the same white as Tarsis, and it looked a bit dazzling under the bright light of the armory.

Slein looked up at her, not knowing how to react for a moment.

"Your Highness, please forgive me, considering the current tense situation, once this place is discovered..."

"Don't say that, come up first." She said, "I have something to tell you."

Then Flora stretched out her hand to Slein, as if inviting, but in fact she had an attitude that could not be refused.

After Slein obeyed Flora's command and entered the cabin, she also jumped in and landed on him lightly.

Flora sat on his lap and started the Aldnoah drive without showing any restraint.

The cabin was lit up, and she turned to look at him with a more serious expression than he had ever seen before.

"You have seen the force at the disposal of old Freiburg," she said. "If you don't do this, you can't stop his troops."

Slein hesitated when he recalled the situation at the launching ceremony that day.

"Since he has it, I can't live without it. It's very simple," she clasped her hands on her knees and lifted her chin slightly, "maybe it sounds childish to you. But then again, Jung As one of the orbital knights, it's normal for the count to have his own troops, isn't it?"

He noticed that she said "Count Jung" instead of "Edgar" as usual.

"But it's different if you increase the number of troops under your instruction..." Slein continued, "Earl Jung has always been regarded as the main fighter. You not only support him on the surface, but also secretly fight with him." Assembling an army, he will be seen by Earth as having hostile intentions..."

"And then started the war at the instigation of Freiburg?" she continued.

"..."

That nonchalant tone sounded harsh to Slein, and he didn't answer.

His silence seemed to irritate her a little.

"...I understand what you mean, and it's not that I haven't considered this possibility. To be honest, as you said, this situation is very likely to happen.

"But think about it the other way around? If Edgar and I don't have an army, what will happen?

"I know that war is cruel, although this understanding is not very deep, because I have never seen the flames of war with my own eyes. But if the situation continues to deteriorate like this, I will see it one day... The war will not stop. Isn't it ?”

Slein couldn't answer her on the grounds that he had said the same thing himself.Although after the war he finally understood how serious his mistakes were, knowing that what he sacrificed everything for Atheram was exactly what she didn't want to see.But he could not categorically deny this idea of ​​war.

Seeing that he was lost in thought, Flora didn't ask him for his opinion, and continued:

"I didn't do this to start a war, but just so that when the war came, I would not rely solely on the power of orbital knights mixed with fish and dragons to protect my subjects.

"I have never seen flames of war, blood and death, but I have seen human nature, betrayal, selfishness and weakness... The superior life enjoyed by the Weiser royal family is all in exchange for the labor of the people. Once the war starts, the people who will go to the battlefield are They, who will consider their wishes? The war is over, but they are still not the ones who benefited... You have seen all this. Today, the little resources left after the collusion between government and businessmen are not enough to improve people's lives."

Her tone was trembling with excitement, her green eyes were shining, and when she said affectionately, she was a little moist.

"As a princess, I don't have the ability to protect my country and people. Instead, I want to bring them together to become puppets of desire? That kind of life will indeed be much simpler, but it is not the life I want."

When she finished speaking, her lips trembled uncontrollably.She was waiting for an answer from Slein, whether it was approval or disapproval, she was willing to accept it.But he just looked at her fixedly, and he was able to give an answer after hesitating for a long time.

Flora could see that he was moved by her, but not why he hesitated.

She really resembles her mother.Slein thought quietly.Also a lot like himself.

That firmness and courage were vibrant but extremely fragile, and he didn't want to see the day when her twinkling eyes lost their light.He didn't even want to see her like he used to be, like a moth rushing towards the fire source without hesitation, losing all precious things, and then ushering in the tragic end of being burned to death.

"Do you know what that means?" he asked.

"I don't know," she answered her firmly, "I can't predict what will happen in the future, but I will do whatever it takes. I must, because the power..."

She murmured and raised her head, like a child looking at the stars in the night sky, looking around at the lights of the instruments in the cabin, which were lit by her.A beautiful thought in Flora's heart was also lit up, she said in a slightly intoxicated tone, trying to describe a distant and fragile dream:

"...my mother once told me that the emperor, that is, my great-grandfather, said before he died, 'Aldnoah is a dream technology that can make human beings happy'... I hope that one day it will really become that technology, Rather than blindly triggering power struggles and senseless wars."

Slein understood.

She had to do it, because no matter how she escaped with the activation of Aldnoah, she would always end up being drawn into the center of the vortex of struggle.Atheram, Remulina, and the current Flora are all victims of Aldnoah. They bear heavy responsibilities, and they don't even have the right to give up everything and choose an ordinary happiness.

"People often say that the light of Aldnoah is the light of miracles, but in fact there is no miracle?..."

The little girl sat on his lap, turned her back to him and raised her head, looking at the huge screen of the cold machine.At this time, like an ordinary girl trying to catch the starlight, she stretched out her slender arms to the display light, letting the green artificial light flow on her fair skin.

……

Don't go any further, there is endless darkness ahead.

He listened to her laughter and rested his head on her back weakly.

Her laughter stopped suddenly.

"...Slein?" Flora called him in confusion.

...I don't want to lose anything.

He thought pessimistically and didn't answer him.Recalling the dream in the morning, he felt a soreness in his heart, and his fists were clenched unconsciously.

Flora, who didn't get a response, didn't intend to break the silence, she just turned around and gently hugged Slein who was pensive with downcast eyes.

Not feeling his resistance and stiffness, she hugged his broad shoulders slightly harder, and a comfortable sense of security enveloped her body and mind like the winter sun.She leaned on his shoulder, showing a fearless and indifferent smile.

"I know very well that miracles cannot happen."

For a long time, she whispered in his ear.

The author has something to say:

/0_1774998338/

Did you see the cover change?I drew it myself!If you look closely, you will find that there is sweetness! (Hold your face

As for why I haven't updated it for so long?Because I've been really unlucky lately, and I'm not in a good mood.It's related to emotional issues, so I don't want to say more.

By the way, just in case some people don't understand, I like her without Black Remulina.

Political, military, etc. These abilities are limited, please understand.

Please leave a message and collect it politely.