Meanwhile, somewhere on the town, a tank was running on its fastest gear, heading straight into the middle of town. The tank looked old, but the appearance itself on this small town was out of ordinary, especially after the First European War. Inside the tank, a girl tried her best to drive the tank while pushing through the vehicle's limit.

"You can't go any faster, Isara!?" asked a man sitting on the gunner seat, his hands holding a binocular aimed at the green hills around them.

"Sorry, but Edelweiss couldn't go any faster, Welkin," said the driver, her dark-bluish hair covered her sweaty forehead. A Darcsen.

At times she looked back to the passenger seat, observing the condition of a pained old woman. No, this was not caused by injuries or the like, but the baby on her stomach seemed ready to get out. In another word, she's experiencing a labor inside the tank.

"Martha, hold on! We'll try our best to get some help, so please stay strong for us as well," Isara said before looking back to the road.

The old maid back on their estate tried to place herself better on her seat to reduce the discomfort when the contraction occurs, but the pain never subsided no matter how she tried.

Welkin closed the hatch of the tank and positioned himself beside Martha, his hand placed on her's stomach.

"Martha, can you hold it for a little bit longer?" William asked, his face stiffened for the third time on this hasty travel.

"Urgh, Welkin... S-seems like I could endure for a bit longer, but i-it's better for you two to run as we—URGH!" Martha threw her hand inside her mouth, the pain almost caused her to bit her tongue off unconsciously.

"Hey, Isara! Do you have anything to help or the sort inside here!?" Welkin shouted to her adoptive sister.

Without glancing back, Isara seemed to realize something. "Ah! Try to look into the first aid box on the wall over there," she said as she pointed on the corner of the tank.

A black, iron box was hanging on the wall where she directed his attention. When Welkin tried to pry it open, some of the bandages inside fell off. Without giving any second thought, he rummaged through the box, finding a bottle of sedative pills. He tried to open the cap, but as it was tough, all the pills fell out when he managed to pry it open.

"S-sorry, Martha! Hang on!" Welkin looked even more worried, now crouching down in search of those pills in the darkness of the tank.

Isara could only pray from her seat for the safety of everyone involved in the matter, whether the two behind her as well as the town watch. "Please, survive!"

Another Imperial soldier fell on the street. Behind a wall nearby, Hardt reloaded his sniper rifle, the barrel's still piping hot from the shot.

"There are so many of them," he murmured as he knelt beside the body, his hands scraping any ammo he could find inside the soldier's pocket.

Alicia immediately positioned herself behind the old Darcsen, followed by William who looked all over their surroundings, especially the second floor of each houses he passed by. His clothes, already dirty thanks to the firefight, now soaked with his sweat all over it.

"Perimeter's clear. We should be close with the main squad any time soon," Alicia said, tapping Hardt's shoulder lightly, signaling him to get ready to move once again.

"While we're at it, how are they doing these days? The town watch, I mean," asked Hardt while he tried to stand, earning a surprised glance from the girl.

"Not so many volunteers these days. Is that bad?" Alicia replied.

"Heh, depends on how do you see it. Good enough for me."

William couldn't help but to frown hearing his remark, but kept his mouth quiet, but Hardt was quick to catch his reaction before William erased any emotion within his face.

Hardt gripped his trusty rifle harder while shooting a glance to William. "Holding guns as a fighter for far too long makes you wish for peace, son. The less of us, the better it will be for the society."

"I... I don't understand, sir. What do—"

"In time," Hardt clapped William's shoulder for a bit, "you will understand what I mean. Now, we fight."

Unable to muster a reply, William nodded slightly. Alicia and her squad was already running toward the noise, leaving both of them behind. Chasing them as fast they could, Hardt and William emerged from the dark alleyway back to the main road where they saw the majority of Bruhl's town watch earlier on their standoff against many Imperial soldiers. The attacker's number seems dwindled a bit than before.

Alicia and her friends was already on the offensive behind the enemy lines, catching them off guard. It was a perfect pincer attack, more or less.

"Our back! Our back!"

"Shit, behind us too!?"

The remaining Imperial soldiers looked distraught over the squad which Alicia commanded. Unable to spare any more personnel to hold their flank, defeat looked imminent. As they could not keep up the offensive, some of their soldiers started to scatter toward the nearest alley, escaping from the skirmish.

"H-hey, Alicia! You guys letting them go!?" William shouted as Alicia paid no attention toward their escapees.

Alicia ducked behind the sandbags close to William, reloading her rifle. "Our job was to buy time, not subdue them all. Our defense won't hold much longer if we divert our power."

"W-well, that's... true, I guess," was all William could muster in reply, leaving Alicia back to the fray.

The realization hits him after he actually took a closer look at her guns earlier. It was something of an old and battered model he sometimes repaired back at Palazet, maybe coming from the First European War, a rifle named "Gallian" dedicated to its own nation. Only by a stupid miracle somehow those weapons haven't experienced any critical issues like jamming and stuff they were taught back on mandatory military training at their schools. It's a mistake thinking old relics like those could withstand prolonged firefight, especially if they tried to chase their enemies.

'That gun would be two or three decades old, eh. Damn,' William thought to himself.

In over a minute, the winner was decided. The remaining Imperial soldiers were either routed or retreated into the other part of the town. The latter didn't really matter as long as they were unable break through the fortified gate behind the town watch's defensive line. This could be considered the only lifeline left for the civilians, whether they would taste another day to live or not.

As the squad regrouped with the main branch of the remaining town watch, William started to feel uneasy with what his eyes saw. Those injured from the skirmish were piling up on a nearby house, medics were running all over the place trying to treat the combatants with whatever they had left at hand. The remaining ones were busy replacing the sandbags around the perimeter, while some scouted their surroundings, wary of another attack by the Imperial soldiers.

A certain town watch member noticed Alicia's presence and scooted closer, a male seemed to be on his twenties wearing a cap. The expression on his face gave William the impression he got something nasty to say, but there's a slight relief as well when he looked at Alicia.

"Alicia, thanks for the sudden help earlier," he said before he grabbed Alicia by her collar. "But what the hell was that!? Don't act without consulting the superiors first! They chewed me for covering you and your absence!"

Hardt interjected the sudden rise in tension, putting himself between the two. "Whoa, whoa, calm down! She saved us, so please forgive her for whatever she did, young lad!"

William turned to the guy and bowed. "Forgive us for the harm we indirectly caused." Hardt, looked a bit surprised as he saw this, reluctantly followed along.

"Well... My bad, Noce. I should've acted properly back then." The girl in question looked down to the ground. For a second, William could believe she winked at him.

"Erm... Well, that... Eh, j-just don't do something stupid next time!" The guy named Noce turned around before running off to the crowd.

Stroking his short beard, Hardt sighed as the guy was finally away from sight. "He a friend of yours, girl?" Hardt said.

"Yeah. A team captain of another squad, too. I admit I jumped the gun too early when I felt something wrong on that skirmish earlier," Alicia responded, showing a playful smile on her face.

"O-oh, okay," William said before turning away for a bit.

'Damn, she's cute with that smile!'

Patting his cheeks to hide his blush, William felt like following the guy earlier, but he managed to suppress his emotion before looking back to them.

Sensing the situation had softened for a bit, Alicia gave the two of them a salute. "William and sir Hardt, thank you for your help. We, the remaining Bruhl's town watch, will try our best to buy more time to the civilians. Please evacuate as well through the gate," she said as she motioned toward the gate.

Both William and Hardt looked hesitate hearing her. "Eh, w-we can help too, y'know... We got guns, a veteran sniper, military training stuff, and—"

"No buts! It's our duty to protect you people, no matter which race are you or how well you are right now. As you can see, we suffered some casualty from the recent skirmish, and we cannot let the same thing happen to you two. Please proceed through the gate." Alicia stood strong on her statement, unwavering toward their hesitation.

"Come, William. Let's go," Hardt was the first to gave up, raising his hands to the air while heading toward the gate.

William didn't move. "Alicia! You guys need more firepower, right!? I hate to do this too, but we can definitely—"

Alicia cut off his sentence by putting her finger on his mouth. "No. We will survive, William. Trust us for a bit, okay?" she said as she smiled.

Hardt went back and pulled William by the hand. "If they say so, leave them be, William. Let's go." His grip was strong, stronger than William expected from the old man as he pulled him to the gate.

"Sir, you're going away just like that!?" William managed to form his feelings into words before realizing Hardt pulled him into an alleyway close to the gate, out of sight from everyone. "E-Eh?"

"Nah, we're not helping them, anyway. We're helping ourselves. Let's search for a good vantage point." Hardt looked back, grinning to the young male behind him.

"W-Well," William shrugged before he hastened his pace. "Okay, yeah, let's go. That house looked good," he continued while pointing to an empty three-story house overlooking the road.

The battle was not going well for the remaining combatants from Bruhl, yet they insisted they could take their enemies on. It was a foolish decision, one that would cost unnecessary lives. Did they realize how pointless their sacrifice would be if they were to get wiped out here? Who would protect the defenseless civilians all the way until safety is ensured?

"So foolish...," William muttered to himself, his voice trailed off as he closed the door to the house after entering.

"William." Apparently heard the low murmur, Hardt turned around to look at him squarely in the eye.

"Never, and I mean it, never, let pride consumes you. It would cost you... a certain regrettable decision... someday..." A single glint of tears fell from the old Darcsen's eye.

"Uh, yes sir..." William could sense the tenseness of his words, but he decided not to probe any deeper for now.

Parting his gaze, the old man jogged up the stairs, heading directly to the perfect window he spied from outside earlier, suited with clear visibility of the surroundings and well hidden thanks to the dark drapery.

William silently followed behind him, the only thing he could think of at the moment was to barricade any possible entry points. Heavy lifting was one of William's everyday problem, so his feet were quick to act, pushing or pulling any makeshift blockade he could scour around the house. Tables, shelves, beds, he managed to cover half of the entry points before he felt the earth shook under him.

...No. Shook would be an overstatement. It's only a low rumble, but he definitely could feel the ground under him. What could possibly caused this?

"Shit! William, c-come over, quick!" Flustered over his poor choice of words, Hardt shouted downstairs, summoning William to his side after he blockaded the door to their room.

"What is it?"

"That thing!"

William could see it, too. He saw it quite a lot back on the class he attended, even mesmerized by it as well, though merely a paint on a book. Now, he gets to see the vehicle of his admiration pretty close, although it came with full intent of killing them.

It's an Imperial tank.

Alright, folks, the update's gonna slow down for quite a bit starting from this part because the chapters before this was an early drafts I prepared before posting at once here. Please understand that writing takes time, and I often procrastinate :p

-Etro