A hydrogen-filled airship was waiting at the mooring station.

  "I heard your knowledge of Trusen culture and language is native-level. You've also received intelligence training."

  Tyrn said as they boarded the airship.

  "You've received high-altitude infiltration training, of course?"

  "A few years ago... and I did an actual jump during an infiltration operation behind enemy lines last year."

  Karen answered in Trusen. To Tyrn's ears, his intonation and phrasing were flawless.

  Tyrn seemed relieved by his perfect accent.

  The mooring lines were released. The airship ascended.

  Karen looked out the window. Trenches dug here and there were visible. Like scars across the continent.

  The airship rose above the cloud layer. The rattling vibration of the internal combustion engine resonated.

  Tyrn brought a stack of documents from the other side of the airship and sat opposite him.

  "It will take three days to the destination. We have two missions to perform. Destruction and intelligence."

  Karen agreed.

  "The priority is intelligence... meaning stealing technical information, right?"

  "That is correct."

  Karen looked at the documents Tyrn had brought. Most were about geographical information. What stood out uniquely were the maps of the Yonic and Mahaten regions.

  "Is the destination Mahaten?"

  "Yes, it is. Intelligence says they've built a large-scale circular accelerator there and have been conducting experiments for the past few months."

  "What about the contact list?"

  "Once we approach Trusen, the remaining personnel will contact us by radio."

  "I heard the local organization was completely dismantled?"

  "The current personnel are newly deployed agents. They've been rebuilding the organization for the past three weeks."

  Karen clicked his tongue inwardly. At that rate, their situation wouldn't be much different from his.

  "What do you think the chances of success are for this operation?"

  Tyrn said, looking out the window.

  "We must do it, no matter what. This is a mission."

  She clenched her fist slightly.

  Karen felt that Tyrn's inexplicable obsession meant there was something more she hadn't reported to headquarters, or to him. Karen decided he needed to shake Tyrn a little to find out what it was.

  "The local organization will tell us the detailed location. For now, we only know the approximate location."

  "Then assuming the local organization informs us about the target, let's go over the escape route."

  Karen spread a map on the table and pointed to the border area with his finger.

  "After completing the mission, we'll take a detour route through a third country. Crossing the border is the surest way to shake off the Alliance pursuit team right now."

  But Tyrn shook her head. Her long finger pointed to a spot on the map, a civilian house near the border before crossing Harten.

  "No, Colonel. We must wait here for the retrieval team. That is the safest way."

  Karen frowned.

  "The local team are rookies who've only been infiltrated for three weeks. How secure do you think a safe house arranged by them can be? Being stuck in the middle of enemy territory without being able to move is tantamount to suicide."

  Tyrn shook her head again.

  "All wired networks in Harten are already being tapped by the enemy. It means the path to a third country is already in the palm of their hands."

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  At Tyrn's words, Karen raised his voice slightly. Karen thought he should shake her up right here.

  "What are you talking about? That's not in any report. Where did you hear that?"

  Tyrn's skin turned red. She seemed to be gritting her teeth slightly.

  "This is not an official route. It's a diplomatic secret delivered through my family's route."

  Karen let out a hollow laugh.

  "Is your family ahead of the military's official intelligence network?"

  Tyrn's face went beyond red and took on a violet heat. It seemed like steam was rising from her elevated body temperature. It was an emotion beyond simple tension or excitement. Undeterred by Karen's sarcasm, she lowered her voice and got to the point.

  Karen leaned his upper body forward and glared at Tyrn intimidatingly. The engine vibration hovering in the narrow cabin shook the taut air between the two.

  "Major, tell me honestly. Why are you so hung up on that safe house? Don't give me excuses like wiretapping or security, tell me the real reason."

  At Karen's cruel interrogation, veins pulsed in Tyrn's neck, and her breathing quickened as if she were at a high altitude.

  "Was the secret to being the sole survivor of the last operation really because you were luckily 'left behind' at a safe house? The local organization was wiped out, so how is the safe house intact? Why does headquarters have no suspicion about your survival? You weren't left behind, you hid, didn't you?"

  Karen shook her a bit more.

  "No. This is a safe house created by my family."

  Tyrn spat out like a groan. There was a hint of self-loathing in her words.

  "I was left behind due to injury. Given the nature of the intelligence organization, independent action was possible. So I temporarily took refuge in a safe house my family had prepared separately for me. But most of my other colleagues were caught while taking the Harten route."

  Her focus slowly blurred, as if she were recalling that time.

  "I am not a coward or someone who uses their family's power. But I will do anything to complete the mission."

  Karen's brow furrowed deeply.

  "A safe house prepared by your family? Are you saying there's a traitor inside the Alliance colluding with your family, or is your family playing a double game with the Alliance?"

  "I cannot tell you that. It's a matter for the upper echelons, beyond the family and even the military."

  Karen asked bluntly.

  "What is the reason you are going back there?"

  Tyrn clenched her fist quietly.

  "It's an order."

  "Even if the military ordered it, that's not enough. Why did your family build a safe house there?"

  Silence flowed.

  "That is..."

  "Why do you keep hiding things from the person going into the middle of enemy lines with you? Do you have a hidden lover or something?"

  Karen asked accusingly.

  Tyrn sighed and answered.

  "There is intelligence that the Alliance, specifically Trusen, has discovered something. In the process of finding out what it was, nearly half of my colleagues were captured."

  "Something?"

  "This is content reported to the military top brass but ignored."

  Karen knew this type of person. A very dangerous type.

  "Four years ago, Trusen discovered something in the desert."

  "What?"

  "It is usually referred to as a disk. More precisely, it is an object that does not seem to be from Garen."

  Karen's ears pricked up.

  "Are you saying something came from the sky... no, how should I say it. You mean there's an object from somewhere outside this planet?"

  The story was becoming more and more absurd.

  "Precisely, it is said to be a medium containing information. Disk-shaped."

  Tyrn spoke calmly. But her hands trembled minutely.

  "We have been tracking it for three years, and I believe the result is the current circular accelerator."

  Karen was dumbfounded.

  "Are you saying Trusen achieved something with technology from outside Garen? A circular accelerator is fully possible with our technology too!"

  Tyrn was silent as if agreeing with that statement.

  "But the concept wasn't. No one had such a bold idea."

  Karen sighed.

  "Most technological leaps come from war. The fluid computer, a miracle of modern engineering, was also developed during the last war. Are you going to say that concept came from outside the planet too?"

  Tyrn's lips quivered. But she didn't speak.

  "Let's say everything you said is true. Why would another planet send such military technology?"

  "I cannot know that part. Because I don't know what content is actually on that disk. What's more terrifying is the possibility that inside it are concepts we cannot realize because we lack the technology. More than half of our personnel died chasing that recording medium. I must uncover its true nature."

  Karen's eyebrow twitched.

  "Are you saying Trusen has discovered something that surpasses our technological prowess? Stop talking nonsense."

  "It is not nonsense, Colonel."

  Tyrn's voice suddenly became calm. It was the eerie calm peculiar to those possessed by madness. She continued as if possessed.

  "Mass accelerator? That's just a trivial shell. It is certain that inside that disk lie the principles of a world we have never once imagined."

  Karen felt goosebumps rise. The woman in front of him was neither a soldier nor a spy. She was a worshiper chasing a nonexistent god, or a dreamer chasing an invisible ghost.

  "You're crazy."

  Karen shot back in a low voice.

  "Not content with collapsing the intelligence network by chasing an unconfirmed phantom during a war, you are now upholding that error in judgment like a religion? We are not going there to reveal the true nature of some unknown illusion. We are going to perform a military mission to destroy enemy facilities and steal information. Get a grip, Major Tyrn. This is an order from a superior officer."

  He ordered coldly.

  Time passed. She blinked about twice. Her skin, which had been heating up with excitement, slowly regained its stability. Then she raised her head slightly.

  "I will keep that in mind."

  Tyrn answered.

  The night sea, twisted by Luna's tidal force, was rough.

  'They say war and misfortune are blind.'

  With a heavy heart, Karen fingered the photo of his parents in his pocket. The airship quietly cut through the night sky, and Karen began to fear this dreamer sitting next to him more than the enemy.

  The airship continued to ascend. As it rose above the clouds, the sunlight was blinding.

  The airship's orderly prepared a meal. Being a military airship designed for minimum volume, there were no cooking facilities. The meal was simple. But it looked better than the food he had eaten in the trenches for the past three months.

  Moonlight shone on the clouds. Somewhere down there, the war continued. And he was going into the middle of enemy lines with a subordinate who had paranoia about something unknown.

  With a complicated mind, he took the small photo out of his pocket.

  He looked at it for a moment and put it back in his pocket.

  The airship flew on. The stars above the cloud layer in the night sky were brilliant.