Editing Godhorn Tech:Volume2 Chapter4 (section)

===Chapter 4 Section 2===

Miyabi Blackgarden’s party left the first village with just one goal in mind.

“If we’re going to catch up to Moebius, we need to reach that ruined empire.” His voice was clear but somewhat hoarse. “I’m getting that bastard to tell me the truth and then I’m settling the score with him.”

“…”

Alicia Blueforest viewed the boy from the side, but she decided against saying anything.

After traveling a while south, they stopped seeing inns.

Something like scarecrows dotted the weed-covered plains, suggesting these had once been farmlands.

The road was nothing more than brown wagon wheel ruts running along the green plains, but even that grew spotty. In fact, the weeds and grass faded away, leaving nothing but exposed dirt. The only remnants of the road were long, narrow puddles that actually made it harder to walk.

The blonde elf wiped the sweat from her brow and viewed the surrounding wasteland with obvious frustration over the absence of green. There were no cats or rabbits here. Her face lit up when she espied a creature covered in fluffy fur, but she screamed after realizing it was a Plague Rat the size of a small dog.

The desire to rest was written plainly on her face.

“D-damn. I guess we are close to the Empire of all places.”

“Um?”

“It has already been destroyed,” explained Helen. “The entire area has been fully polluted, some say as a reaction to the advanced sorcery technology they used. That has cut off the main road leading north to south, so people and things cannot travel through that polluted land without the use of a monster like the Schwarz Schütze. The lack of shops and homes is just a taste of what is to come.”

“With my company’s armored train gone, the only standard route left has to take a lengthy detour out into the ocean to bypass this area. And we were really hoping to keep costs down since we support so many people’s lives in this region.”

Helen Clockgear and Celina Bodenburg both sounded bitter, but that did not change what they needed to do. The talk of pollution was concerning, but Moebius Entrance and Number 8 had gone to that polluted empire.

They could not expect any more inns during this journey.

There was no guarantee they could find a cave to camp out in every single night and, if a cave happened to be a nest of those giant unclean Plague Rats, any attempt to rest there would only wear down their stamina further. After walking a while longer and feeling a lot closer to that ruined empire, they decided to stop for the night.

They had discovered a run-down sailing ship inexplicably abandoned on the land.

It was more than 50 meters long and the deck stood 7 meters above the ground. They guessed it had been used to sail across the ocean, not just along a river.

“Let’s take a short break there,” smiled Helen Clockgear.

“I can keep going.”

“Miyabi.”

The forceful tone in her voice demanded he obey.

Really, he had simply failed to notice how late it was until she forced him to notice.

The sun had vanished beyond the horizon and it had grown dark. They could not even guess what kind of Beast Novae awaited them in this unknown land, so continuing any longer would be dangerous. The Mobile Fire magic could provide illumination in the night, but it could only do so much. Miyabi had already learned just how thoroughly the darkness grew out in the true nature found outside the villages and cities.

A Godhorn Tech provided the greatest destructive force, but it was not an all-powerful shield. And the darkness was always an ally to the attacker. What did it matter if he was a Godhorn Tech user? If a Plague Rat the size of a small dog snuck up and sank its fangs into his calf, complications from the many illnesses they bore would kill him just the same as anyone else.

“Sigh, okay.”

He sounded uneasy and he held a hand out toward the ship.

“''Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice.''”

Once he recited the incantation, blocks of stone emerged from the filthy ground and rearranged themselves to create a sturdy boarding stairway. He had registered this one under the name Layer Stairs.

Normally, Godhorn Techs could only destroy, but an error in his registration transfer had given him the power to create as well.

Celina looked somehow happy as she raised both hands and stretched her back.

“Good, good. This looks like a merchant ship, not a warship, so if the interior is intact, we should be as comfortable as in any town. Ohhh, I’ve so missed a kitchen and bath!!”

But once up top, the entire ship wobbled, either from the wind or its poor balance. With a structure of at least 50 meters, it felt like an earthquake.

Alicia cautiously reached for the side deck’s rusted railing.

“Hm, I don’t know how it ended up on land, but this does not look safe.”

“It might shake so much you need to hold on for purchase or the entire ship might roll over, but the time to choose is now, Miyabi. Yes, if your face is going to end up in someone’s chest, what size would you prefer!? If you’re in a flat mood, I think that slender and strait-laced Eliza might just be even better than Celina.”

The crystal radio (containing a philosopher’s stone) hanging from the elf’s neck was trying very hard to earn a punch from one of the girls.

“Don’t those sails only make the problem worse?” Celina sighed while wiping off her hand with a handkerchief. “They catch the wind and raise the center of gravity.”

“This ship is not sailing anywhere, so it might be safest to tear down all the masts.”

Eliza may have been the type to take any task to its extreme.

The job was simple but hard work.

Miyabi used the knowledge from his logging village where everyone made a living growing and felling trees. Plus, he had the control sword and Godhorn Tech at his disposal.

He used the thick blade to slice through the base of the masts like he was cutting an opening in a bag and then let them fall so they tumbled off of the ship. Great clouds of dust rose each time. It was his upbringing in the logging village that let him so accurately control the direction in which they fell.

The task took enough focus that it distracted him from everything else. But he felt like garbage once he realized he was distracting himself like that.

“…”

“He was important to you, wasn’t he?”

Once all the masts were down, Eliza wiped off her mouth with a handkerchief and asked him that.

He slowly looked up from the weathered deck.

“What do you mean?”

“I only knew Moebius Entrance through his letters and his legends as a fixer, so I never really knew him. But you did, didn’t you?”

He shook his head. The action made him wobble, so he pressed his back against the wooden wall.

“I didn’t.” He was speaking from the heart. “I’m not even sure what I saw anymore.”

“Koo…”

“He gave me his Godhorn Tech.” He slid down to a sitting position. “He asked me to do something about the 11th’s sorcery bomb. I just happened to be there and it could have been anyone, but during that journey, I thought I had come to understand who I wanted to be.”

He clenched his teeth and hung his head. There was no hiding this, so he just let the words spill out.

“But I was in the palm of his hand the entire time. I thought I was saving someone, but he was using me to make everyone I met suffer.”

“Boy…” said Alicia, sounding different from normal.

“It can be…hard when someone breaks a promise between men,” said the radio, also differently.

“I never would have left the village without that. I never would have met anyone. He gave me that opportunity. Without him, I wouldn’t be who I am now. Nothing can change that.”

His breathing was heavy.

He so desperately wished to deny the reality sneering at him from the back of his mind. He covered his face with his filthy hands.

“Or I thought nothing could!!”

“…”

Celina stared silently down at the boy.

But she finally spoke.

“No.”

“?”

“Maybe Moebius was manipulating you. And maybe that led to the destruction of my Schwarz Schütze.”

He did not even want to contemplate that possibility.

He had thought he was hunting down the 11th to prevent any further harm from those sorcery bombs, but he had only been spreading that very harm.

But strangely, he saw no anger or resentment on Celina’s face. There was a gentleness in her eyes.

“But you don’t need to disparage yourself like this.”

“Even though I more or less destroyed your Godhorn Tech?”

His own words stabbed into his chest like tiny thorns.

Hurting Celina would change nothing. Was he trying to make everyone else feel the same pain he was? He curled up in a ball of self-hatred.

“Even though. Because I also gained something from that.”

But she did not hesitate to respond.

She was even smiling.

Smiling in a way she had not when he first met her.

“Look around you, Miyabi. You too have gained something from all this.”

He raised his head.

His view expanded. He was surrounded by people worried for him while he curled up and trembled.

“Yes, the people.” Celina placed a hand on her flat chest. “None of this changes that you met all of them. You have made some new, and unparalleled, business partners.”

“Correct.” Eliza nodded, shaking her long silver ponytail. “Your destruction of our Godhorn Tech opened a new path for my king, my kingdom, and myself. None of us would have been saved without you there.”

“…”

“You may have been following the path Moebius laid out for you, but the bonds you built with the people you met were not part of that,” she stated. “What if Moebius never imagined destruction could be beneficial?”

“I’ll admit it.”

Finally, Miyabi got some more words out.

He was hesitant, but he felt like he could let his weakness show around these party members.

It was slow, but he stood back up.

“It was a shock. I didn’t know him long, but Moebius meant a lot to me.”

“…”

“He gave me the chance to leave my village. He was irritating and questionable, but he shined so bright. I could tell at a glance he had something I didn’t. Yeah, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at all happy when he gave me his Godhorn Tech or when I protected everyone from the sorcery bomb.”

Helen said nothing, but the look in her eyes was kind.

“But that’s why I have to get the truth,” grumbled Miyabi. “I have to know why he’s spreading those sorcery bombs as the 11th.”