Wilderness
"You shot down an airship?"
The Bearded Man sat atop the massive Land Fortress, looking coldly at the officer before him.
"In theory,"
the officer lowered his head and wiped the sweat from his brow. "After we announced the military exercise, all nearby flight routes should have diverted around us. This airship seemed to have gotten lost. No idea where it came from—it just happened to fly straight into our line of fire."
"Even a lost airship wouldn't casually descend low enough over the wilderness to be within range of ordinary artillery. Did you use live rounds to test-fire the anti-aircraft Electromagnetic Cannon?"
The Bearded Man looked at the officer with icy eyes.
"Yes. As you ordered, we had to be prepared for air defense."
The officer kept his head lowered as he spoke nervously.
"Do you know?"
The Bearded Man picked up his glass of water and spoke in a hoarse, calm voice,
"that according to federal military exercise regulations, when Mercenary Groups conduct military exercises in the wilderness, anti-aircraft weapons that might attack aircraft on normal routes cannot use live ammunition.
"At such a critical time, any accident will shift public opinion further toward Lynn and make the group's losses even greater."
"I-I know."
Fine beads of sweat kept seeping down the officer's cheeks. He nodded shakily and explained, "But we didn't bring that many blanks. We could only use live rounds for the exercise."
"How is the airship?"
The Bearded Man finally raised his head and looked at the officer.
"It was only grazed. No critical parts were hit. It's making an emergency landing in the mountains now."
The officer answered immediately.
"Did many people see the shell hit it?"
the Bearded Man asked hoarsely.
"Not many. Our air defense unit was stationed at the rear