Chapter 11! And here's the answer for the review, isolono:

I have PMed you, but I have to change the plan after checking the timeline. So yeah, Kuro IS STILL in the fight, but not really outstanding moves will be performed, from him.

Observers, remember? Uni does have that. Those things are like universal now for Gamindustrians.

The rest is in the PM.

With that out, let's get to the main story!

Location: Gallia Militia Base, War room

"You're not going to join us in this operation?" Welkin asks in surprise, not expecting that Kuro is not helping.

"It's not that I don't want to help. However, there's a matter that would happen too fast that I must intervene. I will call for someone else to help... or not, if Uni thinks she could handle things for herself." The man answers, causing the girl to glare at him.

"I know you would call someone for sure."

"... Anyway, I better head out now. See you all in the future." Dodging that statement, Kuro stands up and walks out of the room, closes the door and, everyone knows without being able to look through the door, teleports to somewhere.

"That guy, giving us details then leaving." Uni sighs, knowing how Kuro 'works'. She then looks at Varrot and says: "Sorry about that."

"No need to apologize. Anyway, he has warned us about those 'huge mortar cannons' in Dillsburg. I will send a message about that to the front line. We will also immediately head there to support them as well. Any questions?"

"We also need to clear Squad 422's charges as well." Welkin says. "According to Kuro, they're labelled as rebels after the events in Barious Desert. We have met them before, and we could say they're not like what those reports gave us."

"I agree." The Captain nods. "Everyone, dismiss."

Time skip

Location: 10 kilometers away from Dillsburg Bridge. Gallia Militia Camp

"Now I'm surprised. No signs of Kuro, nor his 'calls for help'." Rosie comments, as everyone's resting after the long travel. "Uni, are you sure that..."

"Either that 'help' drops into our base literally, or that help is going to show up in the most unexpected way." Uni frowns, as she picks up Alicia's freshly baked bread and takes a bite. "But, I can't figure out who he's asking for help."

Largo: "Not sure, huh? Meaning there are multiple choices?"

"Afraid so. My first guess is his own son, but Kuro's children don't want to take a life unless it's a must, and I'm sure Kuro would do most of that. The others are the mercenaries he has befriended with, but none comes to my mind as the best to bring, considering we're in a gun war."

Welkin: "Most of them use swords?"

"Some use guns, but... they're not cheap to hire..." Uni says, remembering how much Kuro had to pay for those guys when he needed to use them for whatever ridiculous reasons he had back then.

Marina unconsciously turns to a direction... and with her sharp eyes, she sees that 'help' coming to them. "Uni, is that your friend?"

"Hm?" Having the bread in her mouth, the goddess turns to where Marina is looking at... and rubs her left temple. "... How did he manage to convince her?"

"One of the mercenaries?" Rosie asks, kind of expected a 'yes', but not really expected of the outfit and how young the 'help' is... then again, look is deceiving in this case.

"No... Give me a moment." Finishing up the bread, Uni stands up and starts waving her arms up to make the 'help' to notice. When the 'help' walks closer, Uni starts asking: "Nice to see you here. When did you get here?"

"It's good to see you as well, Uni." The girl giggles. "Kuro gave me the coordinate-fixed teleporter, so I just had to use it, and I ended up in front of the camp. I asked them for your name, and they just let me in."

Uni sighs. "I will try to get behind that..." She then turns to the rest of Squad 7. "Everyone, this is K-Sha, a gun expert of Lastation. You could say that her skills are on par with a general here." Note, her age is at least plus 10 compared to the original.

Welkin smiles. "Well I could say." He salutes to K-Sha and introduces himself: "Hello Miss K-Sha, my name is Welkin Gunther, the leader of Squad 7."

After the introduction being done, K-Sha bows to greet everyone. "It's nice to meet all of you." She then looks at Uni and says: "Noire sends her regards to you, and hopes that you would return unharmed."

Uni smiles nervously. "I'm sure she meant it to you. Remember last time you tried to kill me?"

The girl giggles again. "Oh don't worry. Let's keep it in the past, okay?"

"Yeah, save the bullets for the enemies." Rosie says, not wanting to hear the story. "Miss K-Sha, what kind of weapons you use?"

K-Sha pulls out the weapons, which are a pair of compact machine guns. "This is my main type of weapons. I will be helping the Shocktroopers, if Kuro said the name right."

Rosie: "Yeah, that's our role. One of them, anyway... but I'm curious. Why did he ask for a Shocktrooper, when we're dealing with mortar cannons? Shouldn't he just call someone similar to a Lancer?"

K-Sha answers: "That's what I thought as well. I even suggested B-Sha, but for some reasons he shrugged that off..."

"I don't think she could stand against blood, though." Uni says. "Remember the time you overthrew us? She wasn't able to face against the monsters without that mask."

"... You're right." K-Sha remembers that detail. "Although, she could just stand out of the range and shoot based on the others' coordinate calls, right?"

"Strange, indeed." Welkin now sees why the girls are questioning Kuro's choice of help. "However, I think this is a serious war, and Kuro wouldn't want to put someone who's inexperienced of it to join in."

"... I was about to complain about her being inexperienced..." Largo chuckles. "But, looking at Uni and Kuro, I have to pull it back, considering they have pulled out stupid stunts before."

Uni shrugs. "And that can't even top what he has done before. Anyway, we appreciate all the help. K-Sha, I'm currently working with the Snipers, so you can work with Rosie on the Shocktroopers."

With that, Rosie raises her hand forward to greet the Lastation gunslinger. "Welcome to the club, K-Sha."

Time skip

"OKAY GUYS! ANY IDEAS?" Rosie shouts, after she peaks out and shoots a few shots then ducks behind cover, which is a dense bush.

"With Edelweiss stuck, we can't push forward!" Uni shouts after knocking down a Sniper from the watchtower of Imperial Camp. "We have literally no covers between us and them!" She then calls out for the Gunslinger: "Any lucks so far, K-Sha?"

"Sorry Uni, I can't push no further." The girl calls back, as she hides behind what remains of a fallen Gallia tank while shooting anyone trying to bypass her. "Can't we have anything that could cover their vision?"

"We lost that sooner than we thought." Welkin replies. He then asks the tank driver: "Is the tank out of the position yet?"

"Not at the moment." Isara replies. "Largo, can you try to blast those mortar cannons with Javelin?"

"I tried! But that only caused a dense to the surface!" The Lancer shouts back, clearly pissed off that the weapon didn't manage to reach the core of the weapons. "And it could be shot down at any moments!"

"This is not good!" Uni says, as she takes down two more Scouts. "Even though we could stop them from locating our position, they could still shoot blankly at the forest and eventually get us in no time."

"Wait, Uni." K-Sha calls. "I saw a flick of light from the mountain. Can you check what it is?"

"Hm? Marina, cover the front line a bit." After hearing confirmation from the other Sniper leader, she aims her gun at said location... and starts seeing those light flicks, and the one doing so, being a guy with blond hair, using a strange kind of binocular who's focusing on the enemy's location while flashing the light like some kinds of codes... "Wait, isn't that Morse Code..." Once the light stops a bit, she aims back at where the mortar cannons are and compares the coordinates with the codes that guy just sent. "...Welkin!"

"What?" Welkin shouts back, not wanting to turn his attentions away.

"Can our tank shoot towards those cannons?"

"We tried before, remember?"

"How about now?"

"What would make..." He pauses a bit, as he turns to Edelweiss... as its main cannon is pointing towards the sky... "Isara! Does the main cannon still work?"

"Still ready!" Isara replies.

Uni pats Marina's shoulder to inform her to move. After the duo jumps down, the other snipers have also changed their positions. Uni moves towards the tank and calls Isara: "We have a pointer from the mountain! A 422 one if I checked his uniform right!"

"Wait, 422 is here?" Edy shouts, before ducking to dodge a stray bullet. "Could it be..."

"Who else could find them?"

Flashback

Location: Aslone, other side of mountain

"The fog is clear." Number 7, Kurt Irving, says, as his squad is going over a hill. "And the sun has showed up..."

Number 21, Felix Cowley, stretches his arms up before saying: "We finally have some refreshes, and we don't have to be afraid of..."

Any words he's about to say get cut off, as the whole squad suddenly hears gun sounds coming from downhill. Kurt immediately orders: "Everyone, follow me!"

With their weapons ready, they start heading where the gun sounds are from. However, the deeper the forest they go in, the lesser the gun sounds can be heard. Then, a few moments later, no more can be heard. On high alert, the squad walks slowly forward... and they start finding corpses of the Imperial Soldiers, either being shot to the head or being slashed in half. Some even got decapitated as well.

"W...What's going on here?" Number 1, Imca, asks the commander, uncertain of what she's seeing. "I'm expecting some stabbing wounds, but straight up getting cut down? Shin, have you ever managed to do something like this?"

"If the sword is sharp enough, yes." Number 58, Shin Hyuga, answers. "But, we normally aim for the arms or legs. A perfect vertical cut from the head, we only do it for a show or so, since it's too risky."

"Look at these bullet wounds." Number 16, Ada Ansorge, flips a body over and observes the wounds. "They look as if they're fired with pistols, but the shots went through the bodies, and yet there's no evidence that the bullets were shot at point-blank."

"Now that's disturbing." Kurt replies. "Who could have..."

"Hey guys! Sorry for the mess!" Someone suddenly shouts up, causing everyone to point their guns at the direction. The rifle of Number 45, Serge Liebert, gets triggered, and a bullet heads right towards the mysterious person, causing said person to swing his sword up to deflect, avoiding getting shot to the head. "Holy quick trigger! That nearly got me!"

Now that sends everyone over the edge, as they grab on their weapons tighter. Their distance to the person is just about ten meters, and the guy is also definitely not expecting the sudden bullet, but to deflect that in an instant would indicate him to be a danger to them.

"Woah now, I'm friendly." After sheathing the sword, the person throws his arms up, showing the sign of surrendering. "No need to point the weapons towards me like that."

"... Walk closer, slowly." Kurt commands, not wanting any risks. The person complies and starts doing so. The moment the person's in the light, Kurt immediately can say the person being a complete stranger. However... that kind of strange did happen to be told to them from a certain squad. "Wait a second... you are Kuro, right? Why are you in here?"

"Well thanks for recognizing me. Our squad is kinda stuck at Dillsburg, as we're trying to deal with the mortar cannons. A little bird then told me that you're nearby, so I came here to seek for your help."

'A little bird? Someone in our squad sent him our location?' Kurt temporarily looks back at his squad and tries to think of anyone possible, but ends up with none. So he turns back to Kuro and asks: "Okay then... why didn't you help them, like when in Kloden Wildwood?"

"Against mortar cannons, I have no equipment to protect the whole squad." Kuro simply replies. "Anyway, can we talk in a better place? It's starting to get hot in this forest."

...

"Start speaking." Imca orders, completely ignoring the fact that Kurt is actually in command.

"Don't speak like that, Ace." Kurt says, then turns to Kuro. "Sorry about her attitude. She tends to not speak friendly towards strangers."

"I understand." Kuro nods. He then points towards the local map. "Anyway..."

"Hold on." Felix interrupts. "Who had said that we're going to help?" That earns subtle nods from everyone. He then turns to Kurt. "Seven, we're dead if we meet either side. We can't just waltz in there and show our faces to either army!"

"Uh... did I miss some..." He plans to ask Number 13, Riela Marcellis, then remembers and smacks his face with his right hand. "Sorry about that. I forgot you're being labelled as rebels before we threw Borg into prison."

"Yeah, it's not like everyone kn..." Felix says, then stops himself after registers what Kuro just said. "What was that? Borg? As in, Maurits von Borg the Prime Minister?"

"Yeah... you haven't checked any newspaper, have you?" Kuro says, 'surprised' that the news hasn't reached them.

"Hey young man, we're on the run. We didn't have any 'fancy times' to stop and update stuffs." Number 3, Gloria Durrell, says, shaking her head at how 'airhead' this guy is.

"... You have a point. Anyway, we have found the files about your 'rebels', and I have to say that, the guys in squad 7 and whoever that are sensible enough are quite pissed at how some of the higher-ups work. So we're also on the way to find you and help you getting off those charges. And Borg was sent to prison due to his attempt of trying to get Cordelia kidnapped and brought to the Federation land. Also Damon is being the same, to whoever that's despite of him."

"Good." Imca states blankly.

"But... I don't think you could prove us being innocent." Kurt says, seeing the situation too unreal to be true.

"Kinda easy, considering we have told Cordelia and she agreed to do so, if you're willing to help Gallia again." Kuro says.

"...How... did you... do that?" Riela asks in surprise.

"Just some stuffs you can find in the news once you get back to safety. So uh, can you help now?"

"Of course." Kurt says, gaining glares from the others. "What? The fact Kuro could prove us innocent, and we're fighting for the innocents, this is the perfect chance for us to clean our names."

A silence moment... and Felix sighs. "We can't really change your mind, can we? Alright, we're in." And with that, everyone else agrees.

"Thanks." Kuro says, then points to the map. "I can guide you. There's a route that we can avoid the Imperial units..."

"Not necessary." Earning a 'huh?' from Kuro, Kurt points his finger towards a different location. "We're using the mountains."

"Wait a second!" Number 63, Carisa Contzen, shouts disapprovingly. "The ways on the mountains are impossible for a tank to cross!"

"I did check before." Kurt explains as he points on the map. "If we're careful, we could get within the one-meter narrow pass."

"... Guess I have to help you in that." Everyone turns to Kuro as he says. "I could create a temporary way just next to the pass so the vehicles would have no troubles getting in."

"You can do something like that?" Riela asks in surprise, not thinking such things could be possible.

"Then I guess it's settled." Kurt nods at Kuro's offer. "So do you..."

"Mind I interrupt?" Kuro speaks up. "But, we saw some troops with black outfits in Imperial base. Do you know who they could be? Elite Troopers or such?"

"...The Calamity Raven?" Kurt asks in surprise.

"I don't know. But, that name kinda fits, somehow." Kuro 'ponders'.

"Then we should move on now. Everyone, get ready."

Time skip

Location: Dillsburg, on a steady surface on the mountain

"How... did... that... work?" Carisa expresses her utter disbelief at what they just achieved. Or more like, how Kuro CREATED A PATHWAY BY USING UNUSED ROCKS IN THE MOUNTAIN AS THE NEW PATH!

"I just could. Anyway..." He's interrupted as a mortar shoots into the sky and lands into the forest where the Gallia troop is in. "Okay, that's not good. Can we run faster now?"

"Of course." Kurt nods. "Everyone, pick up the pace!"

...

"Okay, too quite..." Kurt says, seeing a 'free road' ahead.

"You think those black guys are planning something? Because the Imperial units would have placed something here to guard the place." Kuro comments.

"Could be... could be not."

"Okay then." Holding the katana in his left hand, Kuro starts running ahead. "I'm going to be a decoy. Try to see if..."

"Don't move!" Kurt orders, stopping Kuro in track. "It seems to be a landmine just next to you."

"Oh?" Kuro looks down at the possible place, then sighs. "Okay, Kurt. You told your squad to slowly head back."

"What about you?" Kurt asks, uncertain of what Kuro is planning.

"It's okay, I will be fine." Kurt reluctantly nods and orders his squad to back off. Once they're clear, Kuro kneels down and moves the dirt a bit, revealing the landmine. "Dia loi, dua nhau a?" He then stands up and...

At the same time

Location: Imperial Barricade

"So you truly came, Kurt." Gusurg says to himself as he looks through the binocular and sees his former leader... and someone he doesn't recognize. "Hm... doesn't look like a uniform of Nameless..." He then sees Kurt slowly backs away, but the other kneels down and starts checking the ground. "So they found out the landmines." Then, the person stands up and, to both sides' surprise, stomps on the landmine with his right foot, causing the thing to explode, creating a blast and dirt flying up, covering the man in the explosion. Gusurg raises his eyebrows in surprise. "What the? Did that person just... suicide?"

"Um... sir? May I have a word?" A Calamity Raven Scout suddenly speaks up. "Should we, uh, retreat?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" A Lancer asks back in surprise, temporarily gaining everyone's attention. "We have them right there!"

"I'm not scared of the Nameless." The Scout explains. "But... the man who triggered the landmine... didn't he remind you of someone?"

"Who are you talking about?" Gusurg asks in confusion.

"Well, there is a rumor about a man who managed to win against the Valkyria of Prince Maximilian..." The Scout starts explaining, then he turns back to the explosion, and shouts: "DUCK!"

Unconsciously, everyone follows, and thankfully they do, because a second later, a barrage of machine gun bullets start flying over them. A Shocktrooper asks the Scout: "What did you just see?"

"I saw an armor person who pointed a heavy machine gun right towards us! Did that give you enough warning?" The Scout shouts back.

"That's a clear sign alright." Gusurg accepts the answer. He then peaks out a bit to see the man in the armor slowly walking towards them, with the machine gun firing at them nonstop. "What kind of help has Kurt found this time?"

All Squad 422's members are hanging their mouths in shock, as the armor soldier just walks straight towards the enemies, ignoring the landmines exploding right under his feet while firing his seem-to-be-unlimited-bullet machine gun. Kurt heard the stories of Kuro's absurd feats from Welkin, but to see it right before his eyes...

"Oi! I can't deal with them alone!" Kuro's voice shouts in Kurt's radio. "Mind moving forwards please?"

Snapping out of shock, Kurt orders his squad: "Everyone! Start covering fire for Kuro! Carisa, drive the tank towards and detonate the landmines!"

Location: In the forest, Gallia Troops

Everyone then starts seeing explosions from afar, with sounds of constant firing. Uni immediately taps into her radio and calls for specific person: "KURO! You found 422?"

"Yes, and we're creating some distractions here! Start moving towards!"

"Um, kind of impossible here! Edelweiss is still stuck! But we could shoot the mortar cannons from here!"

"Hm... did you see Number 11's flash?"

"Number... on the top of the mountain? Yes." She was planning to ask why he called the number instead of the name, but due to the problem ahead, she shoves the question aside.

"Try to deal with the mortar cannons. We will try to create as much troubles as possible."

"Roger!" Turning off the radio, Uni turns to Isara and asks: "You got it?"

"I saw him!" Using the binocular, Isara finds the guy on the mountain. "Welkin, can you aim the cannon with the coordinates?"

"I got it!" Welkin shouts from inside Edelweiss, as the main cannon starts moving to fit with Isara's introduction.

"Okay... K-Sha, we're heading out! Activate your Gold Third Form!" With that, Uni turns into Black Sister and starts flying out of the forest and heads towards the mortar cannons.

"I heard it!" With her other personality switched, K-Sha activates her gadgets in Gold Third Form and rushes into the clear battlefield. Thanks to her enhanced vision in this form, she could easily predict where the bullets could fly, so she dodges the Imperial Infantry and Tanks' shooting with no problems. Firing her submachine guns to kill the Infantry, she stops a bit and pulls out a rocket launcher and blasts an Imperial Tank with one shot direct to the main cannon.

With Black Sister, she flies up high to the sky and aims her gun down at the back of the barricade, shooting down all soldiers caught in her sight. Charging energy in her weapon, she uses EX Multi Buster and aims it right at the Ragnite cores of the tanks, taking them down in one shot. Some Snipers notice her and try to take her down, but she constantly moves in the air so they have no chance to shoot, and in the end, they are shot down with the watchtower they're in with an accurate XMB: Empress.

With Squad 422 and Kuro, they have breached into the Imperial parameter, though, while the former is running in the trenches, the latter just walks on the surface to draw most of the attentions to him. Dropping his machine gun which disappears immediately, he raises the shield in his left arm up and pulls the sword with his right hand to go for the melee fights. During that, he taps into the Imperial's radio and receives a dial for another mortar shot, so he calls through his earpiece: "Uni, aim at the left cannon! I'm sending you the signal!"

"Alright!" Black Sister starts focusing on the left cannon, while hearing the countdown to calculate her shot. The moment the shell is about to go out, she shoots right at it, making it detonate right inside the barrel, making the whole artillery to blow up as well.

Meanwhile, K-Sha also reaches Kuro's location and helps him fending off the soldiers. And then, tank shells start dropping down to the second artillery, and eventually manage to get a clear hit. "Two down." K-Sha flatly comments.

"Don't celebrate too soon. The third one is going out soon. Three, lead your group to the third warehouse, the last mortar cannon is there." Kuro calls to 422 after stabbing a Scout right at the head.

"Got it! Ace, Three and Twenty-Three, you three start rushing towards that warehouse! We will cover!"

"Okay!" The three nod and start rushing out, while the rest of 422 fire their weapons out. However, reaching halfway, the trio faces the reinforcement of Imperial Units, so they have to hide behind a stack of boxes. One bullet hits Leila Peron's shoulder, making her drop the satchel charge in the clear view. Thankfully, Kuro and K-Sha arrive in time and the former covers for the latter to receive the item before they also hide behind a stack of barrels. However, that gives the Imperial enough time to deploy three tanks to stop their tracks, and the third artillery starts coming out of the warehouse.

"Any ideas?" Kuro shouts out, before ducking further into the cover to avoid getting shot to the head.

"You have anything dealing with those tanks?" Imca asks, while firing out her gun to take out some soldiers.

"I have one laser shot to deal with one tank." K-Sha answers.

"I have one anti-tank shot right here." Gloria replies.

"Uni, you got a moment?" Kuro calls in his ally from above.

"Which one do you want me to deal with?" Black Sister hears the call and aims towards the tanks.

Kuro peaks out again to look, before calling the shot: "Okay, Three, you take the left. Uni, you take the right, and K-Sha will blast the middle. Agree?"

The plan executes flawlessly.

Kuro throws the satchel charge to Imca while raising up his shield. "We're covering you. Let's go!"

With the shield in front, he manages to block most of the bullets coming to the group. K-Sha follows him closely while taking down the Infantry with her grenades and machine guns. The moment he reaches the sand barricade, Kuro retracts the shield and calls out both of his swords and goes in for the close-range slaughter.

With that distraction, Leila and Imca run forward and kill any soldiers aiming their guns at them with the help of Black Sister from above. Gloria follows quickly behind and shoots a normal Lancer shell towards a core of one tank, making it explode on impact. Once they're close enough, Gloria hooks the satchel charge right on the last shell and aims the lance right at the artillery and shoots. With that, everyone retreats as the shell impacts and explodes, detonating the charge as well, blowing up the artillery in the process.

Pulling out the helmet, Kuro looks at the explosion and the retreating Imperial Units, and says to himself: "Well, one more down." Then he turns to K-Sha, who has turned back to normal. "You have any fun?"

"It's not like fighting monsters, Kuro." K-Sha frowns at him. She then turns to Gloria and asks: "Are you unharmed?"

"Thanks to you, we are." Gloria replies. "Although, some of our guys sure need some treatments from stray shots."

"Well that's easy enough. Let's return to your group first before getting back to Squad 7, shall we?" He then calls in his earpiece: "They're all retreating?"

Uni replies: "Yeah, and the Regular Army starts coming out now."

"...Well that's them for us. Alright, let's go back. Our job is done here."

Far away from battlefield

"So Dillsburg has fallen." Dahau says, earning nod of Zig.

"I knew it. That Munchhausen was really incompetent." Lydia says, completely expected the result.

"At least, thanks to you, we managed to get out unharmed." Gusurg says, gaining others' attention. "However, we now have another problem." Pulling out a newspaper, he gives it to Dahau, and Lydia leans at it to read. "Apparently, that stranger is a huge helper of Gallia, who's producing more effective weapons for them. And there's a record that he managed bested Selvaria in a one-vs-one match in Barious."

"Oh really?" Lydia asks in surprise. She then remembers: "Right, we saw a scar on her back a few days ago!"

"An interesting fella..." Dahau comments. "Well, it doesn't matter much. Let us return to our own fight."

Time skip

Location: Gallia Camp

"They are WHAT?" After returning with Squad 7, Kurt was asked to go and talk with Varrot, so he, Imca and Riela went to where the captain was. Varrot explained the current situation to them, and: first, they're thankful that their actions were justified, and at the same time, surprised at what they heard about the mercenaries.

"I'm not joking." Varrot replies. "You can read reports about what they have done during this time. There are no exaggerations in them, and that's us trying to mitigate them to an acceptable level."

"Those girls... and that man... are Deities?" Riela asks again, not believing her ears.

"Well that could explain how Kuro built those roads before." Kurt says, remembering the 'rock road'. "And they claimed to protect Gallia's independence... Can we trust those words?"

"It's more than that. They would go and protect anyone who is deemed 'worthy to live' to them. And that even included General Selvaria Bles as well."

"That damn woman?" Imca outbursts. "Didn't he know what she has done?"

"Yes. We have asked the same question. and he replied with: 'Would you be the same if you're her?' He knew what happened, and he knew more about Selvaria than us. He must have found something wrong in Imperial, and he's trying to weaken them with minimum fighting from them." Varrot replies.

"And prey tell, how did he do that?" Kurt asks, starting to lose some trust in Kuro.

"He actually has gained one of Maximilian's General's subtle help, by him ordering his soldiers to not operate any attacks on us. In exchange for the General's home country's independence."

"..." That makes the trio fall in silence.

"Well, I think it's best to ask them directly." Varrot speaks up. "You're dismissed."

...

Later

Location: A random table

"One more operation?" Uni asks K-Sha.

"Yeah. Kuro said that we're going to a labor mine, right? And save people there?"

"... Yeah, that's a better reason to call you."

"Excuse me?" The two look at Riela and Imca, as the former asks. "Do you have a moment? We want to talk a bit."

"Sure." After the two sit down, Uni asks: "I'm Uni, and this is K-Sha. May we ask for your name?"

"Well... you can call me Thirteen, and her Ace or One." Riela doesn't want to reveal their real names yet. "Varrot told us that you're... goddesses? And Kuro being a God? Is that true?"

"Eh, that's true in their cases, not me." K-Sha replies. "I'm just a normal human..."

"Who could call you one after seeing you like that, K-Sha?" Uni jokingly says, earning a playful punch to the shoulder. "So yeah, we are except K-Sha. You're surprised, right?"

"We are." Riela smiles nervously. "So, should we address you as 'Lady' or so..."

"Don't worry. Just call us normally, we're not into that stuff."

"Is that so..." Imca says. "Might I ask if you know Selvaria personally?"

"Eh, no. Why?"

"We heard from Varrot that Kuro is planning to spare her life..."

"That..." Uni's smile drops. "Only Kuro knows exactly what happened to the General. Though, he did tell me that the General is misguided."

"Misguided? She wiped out villages in cold-blooded!" Imca shouts. "And you called that misguided?"

"Everyone under Kuro's protection was killed in one day." Uni's dead tone shuts her up. "And yet, when he killed the person responsible to that, after hearing the truth, he has forgiven her instantly. Kuro knew Selvaria must have been the same, and that's why he's trying to pull her out of the Imperial's control."

"..." That drops Imca in silence, not knowing how to continue.

"But, surely there would be different, right?" Riela tries to ask more.

"Kuro's situation was even worse than now. And he could remember it even after hundreds of years."

"..."

"..."

"Um, how about we change the subject?" K-Sha breaks the silence. "So your team now is justified?"

"...Yeah. Thanks to you all." Riela is the first one to reply.

"Oh, right." Imca then remembers a strange part with Kuro's talk. "He said that someone found us nearby..."

"Yeah no, that's him already knowing your moves."

"Huh?"

"*Sigh* That's Kuro for you. You might learn more in the future, or ask Squad 7's memebers for confirmation. Oh and..." Uni then focuses on Imca. "Can I see our weapon design?"

"Well, I left it at our camp..." And with that, Uni stands up and pulls Imca to said camp. "Wait, wait! I can walk on my own!"

With that, K-Sha and Riela are left behind. The former giggles. "Here she goes with the unique weapons." The Gunslinger then asks Riela: "Thirteen... you are a Valkyria, right?"

That question shocks Riela. "H...How did you..."

"Alicia is one as well." That surprises the Scout. "However, Kuro said that she didn't know herself, yet. And don't worry, we won't say anything, but... eventually everyone will know."

"...Yes, I am." Seeing that she couldn't hide, Riela answers. "And... how did people find out that Kuro and Uni..."

"They just told them." Giggling at Riela's stupefied face, K-Sha continues: "That's just Kuro for you... also, we're going to Fouzen next to save people there. Are you going to come?"

"Of course! But..."

"But?"

"There is another squad out there, Calamity Raven, who tried to save the Darcsens and promise them a nation and independence." Riela says, expecting to fight against them again.

"Um... I thought it's a good thing?" K-Sha asks, not understanding the situation.

"By pure violence."

"...Okay, that's bad. If it's Kuro, he would just try to make peace first."

"Exactly."

"..."

"..."

"So, you and Ace have some interests in your commander?" K-Sha suddenly changes the subject that catches Riela off guard.

"WWWWHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

"I saw you and Ace with him like every time... kinda like Isara and Alicia with Welkin..."

"WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING! WE'RE JUST COMRADES!" Riela's face is red in embarrassment, not wanting to say anything more about it.

"*Giggle* I'm just joking. But, at least the mood is lightened up now, right?"

"... *Pout* It's not so nice to do that."

"*Giggle again* I know."

Chapter 11 end!

My friend and I have some discussions on the events of Fouzen and Dillsburg, about when it happened first since they didn't have specific dates. So, I decided this one will be the sooner, and Fouzen the later.

I picked K-Sha because of the reason IN the story. If you have questions about it, re-read the story please.

Imca's ending made me chuckle in its cuteness. Riela's ending... Gloria, why XD. And Imca's smile... actually unsettles me, that's one Yandere sign right there XD.

That's all for me to say. See you all in Fouzen!