Editing Godhorn Tech:Volume2 Chapter5 (section)

===Chapter 5, Section 2===

Night had fallen.

It was finally time for the dangerous criminal city to awaken.

Back in their inn room, Celina Bodenburg placed her hands on her hips and breathed from her nose.

“Asking around during the day would be a waste of time. The outlaws are only out and about at night. Now, let’s track down that pirate who stole my company’s cargo! Then we teach him a painful lesson on why that was a bad idea!!”

Village Boy Miyabi Blackgarden was terrified.

He took a nervous look out from the 2nd story window. For reasons he could not explain, the city was now filled with lights dyed in pinks, yellows, and other colors. The place was so much busier than during the day. He knew he had to be imagining it, but he could have sworn the stench of alcohol was seeping in through the window.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? It looks extremely dangerous out there.”

“She’s the expert, so I’m sure she’ll explain it for us.”

Alicia Blueforest jerked her thumb over toward the bunny girl sans glasses.

“Hello, hello! Venus here, at your service!!”

“Don’t you dare gloss over the fanservice like it’s nothing!! I don’t care how many times it’s happened, you’ve gotta show it all in detail! You can’t forget your embarrassment or the impact it has on your innocent heart!! …Miss Elf, I know this will make you jealous, but you need to place me on the floor. This requires drastic measures, so I need a low angle view of that V-shape between the bunny’s legs!!”

The elf tossed the radio to the floor and the sexy young woman crushed it below her sharp heel. It was reminiscent of stopping a rolling ball underfoot.

The bunny girl ignored any possible damage to the jerk.

“Anyway, this city works differently than a normal one. It’s full of thieves, assassins, and resupplying pirates, so there are wanted criminals everywhere you turn.”

“Wait,” said Miyabi. “Are thieves different from bandits?”

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“Thieves work very differently from the bandits running rampant in the fields. They are experts at working in a city. Although I can’t tell you if it’s the authorities or the criminals who are so picky about the nomenclature.”

However, one of them was not going to let this go without comment.

Someone even more strait-laced than Helen Clockgear was actually trembling. That person was of course Eliza Silverstorm.

“Wh-wh-what?”

“Oh, yeah. Eliza never saw Venus before this. But didn’t she see the black bunny during the day?”

“Why are you waring that highly indecent and utterly insane rabbit costume, you horny titty monsterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!???”

“Really!? You’re actually drawing your lance over this!? I’m not doing this because I want to, you know!?”

Helen preferred not becoming a mutilated corpse while dressed like that, so she paled and shouted a defense.

This was also Celina’s first time seeing it, but she did not seem all that surprised. She picked up black cat Alma in a classy way.

“Oh, is that all? I was expecting something more after everything I heard. Hee hee. You see bunny girls like that all over this city at night.”

“There’s something wrong with a city that has bunny girls walking around! You don’t wear this kind of thing outside!!”

“I was expecting some kind of strange gimmick, like zippers or bows in some risqué places that could be undone to spice things up, or a special fabric that becomes see-through when viewed through a special magnifying glass. Or maybe thick padlocks on either hip to show you can’t take it off on your own.”

“???”

“Ksh! Wh-where can I buy Bodenburg stock! And I’m not talking about making a quick buck off of some day trading! I want the special shareholder treatment! These ideas are brilliant! Ksh, their next manger has a bright future!!!!!!”

The radio was even more excitable than usual, perhaps due to the beautiful woman stepping on it.

The entire discussion went way over Miyabi’s head.

Afraid Celina would smile and offer to customize their bunny to demonstrate what she meant, Venus spoke rapidly and hurried to the door.

“Yes, well, thank you, but I think I’m going to go change! Just a sec!!”

“Sh-she must want to be fully prepared when the fun begins,” suggested the radio as Alicia finally collected it from the floor.

Helen returned in the jacket and tight skirt of her government official outfit. The glasses were back as well.

“Yes, fully prepared,” she said.

“What!? Not so fast! Why did that lousy door not pop open while she was changing!?”

Being stepped on had not slowed the radio down at all, but Alicia was focused on something else.

“Was she in such a hurry she changed out in the hallway?”

“Is everything she does indecent?” muttered Eliza.

The knight’s comment came as a shock to the glasses woman.

“Wait just a second! Is no one on my side!? Miyabi, you know I’m not like that, don’t you? No, don’t blush and look the other way, Miyabiiii!!”

“Mom, try taking some deep breaths!!”

“I’m not your mom! How can I be indecent ''and'' your mom!? Did some Montage magic mess with your mind!?”

Helen tearfully tried to hide her body, but Eliza was ready to get down to business.

“So we’re up against a pirate?” asked the righteous person. “I am more than willing to punish a villain. We should get started as soon as possible.”

Alicia sighed.

“Yes, but we can’t just obliterate the city with a Godhorn Tech.”

“Onelife Shiftup, a one-eyed pirate with a prosthetic arm.” Miyabi repeated the information to make sure he had it right. “Let’s ask around for some information on him.”



Outside, the city was a deluge of lights.

The red, yellow, and blue gas lights were not limited to the main street. Signs everywhere glowed with strange colored fire, the glass tubes shining from within.

Pure as the driven snow, Eliza read off the glowing signs in puzzlement.

“Bubble Bath Paradise?”

“M-Miyabi? Let’s hurry on to find Onelife. Immediately!!”

Celine shouted and pushed on Eliza’s back with both hands before the reality could sink in.

The streets were aflood with noise.

“Just one! You make just the one order and there aren’t any additional charges to worry about!!”

“Hey there, handsome. Remember the name on this sign, okay?☆ We’re open all night long, so you can stop by after the other places close. I won’t force you to stop by now, but how about ending the night here after you visit two or three other places?☆”

“The information desk? Don’t even bother. If you want to have some real fun, you need to know where the unlisted places are. So if you don’t want your courage and savings to go to waste, stop by the Secret Diviner.”

Miyabi had known it was a large city, but he could not believe how many people were crammed inside. It was on an entirely different level from the daytime. He was surrounded by the smell of alcohol and perfume, cheerful cries calling for customers, little shrieks made mostly in jest, and an unidentifiable scent created by the greasy smoke of all the different grilled and fried street foods. Disinfectant magic made with a purifying silver could not even dent the effect this place had.

Miyabi felt dizzy.

“It’s like a whole other world. I don’t understand half the things they’re saying.”

“Nhhh☆ I’m finally home.”

Meanwhile, Celina stretched her arms up with a relaxed smile.

The city operated under different rules at night and these rules must have felt more like home to her. They were surrounded by garish signs and (practically naked) young women in such skimpy outfits it was unclear if they counted as dresses or underwear, but she had the same look as a country child seeing the rhino beetles and shaved ice after returning home.

“Has no one here heard of restraint?” asked a fed-up Alicia.

However, the city’s overwhelming night was not limited to the outdoors. Once they began entering shops to ask around, Miyabi quickly ran into an obstacle.



For example, the owner of a weapons shop had this to say.

“What are you doing out this late? The night is ''Juicy'', so get your ass back home!”



For example, a grinning customer whispered to him while perusing the products at an item shop.

“Oh, dear. Everyone has been so uneasy at night lately. Maybe because ''Ripped'' has been causing so much trouble. It’s weird I haven’t seen any of his other pirates around lately though.”



For example, the gorgeous woman serving drinks at a bar welcomed him with a smile.

“Oh, welcome! You might go looking for the younger girls, but my skills at ''Hard'' are quite something if I say so myself.”



He had listened carefully, but he had no idea what they meant.

He was stuck blinking in confusion.

“Wh-what? What are they even saying?”

“Oh, dear,” said Celina. “It sounds like some strange new rules have spread across the city while I was away.”

“If it happened recently, it might be related to that celebrity,” suggested Helen.

“Celebrity? You mean that pirate?” Alicia looked bitter. “He isn’t some gentleman thief in a play – he’s an actual criminal. There’s something wrong with a town that lionizes someone like that.”

They found some more unusual people around the city’s night. A young man was drinking at a table outside a bar.

And his long ears were twitching.

Miyabi did not even try to beat around the bush.

“Huh? Are you an elf!?”

“Hm, what gave it away?”

The slender male knight did not seem bothered and did not even set down his mug. He had long blond hair, white skin, and the handsome face of a stage actor, but he was wearing armor and a cape. And instead of deflecting attacks with thick metal, the armor was designed to efficiently and economically spread defense magic across his body. Eliza eyed the armor with a hint of jealousy.

As a fellow elf, Alicia put her hands on her hips.

“What are you doing in this disgusting city? Did you take one wrong step and get sold off by the humans?”

“They finally abandoned that bad habit centuries ago. Modern humans aren’t quite that unreasonable. The world is at peace.”

“Ho ho? I see. So you can look at the world out there and call it peaceful, can you?”

Alicia grinned at him with some obvious hidden meaning behind the look. Almost like she was sneering at a rich kid who had no idea how the real world worked.

Miyabi tilted his head.

“What, do you know each other?”

“My apologies. I am Cliff Blueforest. I originally guarded the Blue Forest, but I had reason to leave and travel the outside world instead.”

“Blue…?”

Miyabi looked over at Alicia, but she shook her head, looking disgusted.

“No, no. We’re not siblings or anything. We’re just both from the Blueforest race. Every elf born in that forest uses the Blueforest name.”

“I also get the feeling he has his act together a lot more than you.”

“Shut up. I can live my life however I want.”

And then…

“Heh heh. Yes, if only we could all live our lives however we want. That would make things so much easier for me.”

Miyabi gasped.

What was that?

It didn’t seem to be ventriloquism, but it had sounded an awful lot like a seductive female voice had come from Cliff.

Cliff himself grimaced.

“You don’t usually make your presence known in front of others.”

“Get a clue, dullard. You seemed to be enjoying yourself for once, so I was feeling jealous.”

Miyabi was not imagining things.

Two different voices were coming from Cliff, but the female one did not match his lips. He also seemed to be conversing with that other voice.

“Hm? Do you, um, have a crystal radio like Alicia?”

“Oh, is that elf a skilled enough alchemist to create a philosopher’s stone? Yes, elves tend to be exceptionally skilled in magic. For me, that means summoning the Demon Lord. Unfortunately, my ceremony worked just fine for summoning her, but entirely failed to control her afterwards.”

“The Demon Lord?”

“Correct, boy. The very same Demon Lords you see in picture books and plays. Those twelve rulers are said to determine the nature of the world around them with their mere presence. This irritating woman who never leaves me alone is one of those Demon Lords that include the great Philia Shout and Rising Dark. This one claims to be ''Under Lilith''.”

“?”

Miyabi was even more confused now.

He recognized that name. She had been involved in transferring the Lucifer Horn’s contract from Moebius and in the incantation used to control the Palette Dice.

According to Angela Custardmare, the armor-trapped maid he had taken as a party member before, that name showed up in contract ceremonies so powerful they were classified as Super Kingdom level.

“Contract Owner…”

“…Under Lilith?”

Celina and Eliza had also used Godhorn Techs, so their eyes grew wide. They likely recognized the name from the incantation they used to link their control device with the Godhorn Tech itself.

Helen, who had never used one, held a finger to the side of her glasses.

“Well, setting aside issues of strength and compatibility, there are a few legends of beings that act as intermediaries. There’s Freyja who commands the heavenly Valkyries and there’s Legba Atibon who is said to manage the ceremonies themselves. It all follows the basic idea of using them to control something else.”

“Like a giant Beast Nova?”

“Discriminatory language!!” shouted Alicia, red in the face and long ears fully vertical.

But different elves must have had different views on the matter because Cliff did not seem bothered by the term Miyabi had used. His pointed ears kept their horizontal orientation.

Miyabi found this strange.

He had thought the name Under Lilith was just part of the incantation. Even if it was someone’s name, he had assumed they were someone who had lived centuries or even millennia ago.

He had never imagined he would be able to chat with them in a bar.

“But we only have her word to go on.”

When Miyabi thought about it, he realized he did not actually know how old any of these elves were. Cliff himself gave a dismissive wave of the hand not holding his mug.

“Taking a demon at her word is never a good idea. She’s just making stuff up since I lost my memories. Trusting her would end badly.”

“Heh heh heh. Believe what you wish,” said the female voice. “Your mind might not survive full knowledge of the truth anyway.”

The elf knight had just mentioned something else that sounded important. He had a lot going on.

“Um, what was that about your memories?”

“I lost them all. I was lucky to even remember the name Blueforest as a clue to my origins.” Cliff sounded bitter. “I was apparently in love with a human and I dabbled in the dark arts to save her from illness, but that’s why I’m stuck with this evil being now. My memories were the price I paid, so now I can’t even remember what she looked like. That is why I now travel the continent searching for some proof that she survived. No matter how small it might be.”

“…”

Under Lilith (or the voice claiming the name) said nothing.

She had mentioned jealousy before, so maybe this was more of that.

And…

“Oh? When did you find some more drinking buddies?”

“They showed up on their own. Just like you always do.”

Someone else walked up to the table.

She too had long ears.

However, the woman had shoulder-length silver hair and alluring brown skin. Her only clothing were some bandages and dark strips of cloth wrapped around her. What had once been a cape was in tatters. However, the way she carried herself showed no sign of injury, so that may have been her idea of fashion.

The whip at her hip looked like it was made from a rose vine and she toyed with it in her fingers as she spoke.

“I am Lillian Greenforest. As you can plainly see, I am a dark elf.”

“Green…?”

Alicia was dumbfounded and the brown woman responded with a bewitching laugh.

“Yes, I come from that forest ''that was burned to the ground.'' The survivors are few but we are around. And we have not forgotten what was done to us.”

That last line sounded plenty ominous.

Alicia even had some unnatural beads of sweat on her forehead.

But Miyabi was fixated on another detail.

“D-dark?”

“Hm? Do you need something?”

“A dark elf!? That’s a thing!? That sounds so cool! And the dark part makes you sound rare!!”

“Eh? Huh?”

Lillian was taken aback when he approached with eyes aglitter. The look on her face made it clear she was not accustomed to compliments.

“Boy,” interrupted Alicia. “You need to stop talking about our noble species like a rare collectible. It’s insulting.”

“Oh, did you say something, ordinary elf?”

“Ordinary elf!!!??? That’s even worse!! It is high time I took you aside and taught you just how noble elves are. I never should have let you get away with lifting my skirt and tugging on my ears when you were little!!”

Cliff sighed and provided some advice.

“Be careful around Lillian. She looks cute and all, but her lifelong goal is to destroy humanity.”

“Eh?”

“Oh, you have nothing to worry about. You don’t seem interested in ''that sort of thing''.” Lillian snapped her lithe fingers to call over a waiter and accepted a pink cocktail, the name of which Miyabi could not even imagine. “I consider myself a ‘passive avenger’. My primary targets are sorcery researchers. They make so much progress when I let them use my body as a specimen. ''Progress on developing magic that will destroy them all.'' Godhorn Tech is not enough. One day, humanity will create some truly uncontrollable magic that will send them straight down the path to extinction. That is my idea of revenge.”

“…”

“There are so many excellent potential triggers: the aerosol ballistic missiles developed by the Republic’s old monarchy, the Necromancer…oh, and let’s not forget Holy Gate who it’s said truly mastered alchemy. Unfortunately, all those people are half legendary, so contacting them is no easy task.”

Miyabi was unsure how to react to her thin smile.

He could not even tell if she was deadly serious or if she was teasing him. The cocktail glass she was toying with made it even harder to judge.

“By the way, what has you out this late?” Cliff reached for the bar nuts. “You look a little young to be drinking.”

“Solving a riddle.”

“?”

Cliff looked puzzled but curious.

Miyabi hoped he would know what ''Juicy'' or ''Hard'' meant, but no such luck.

Cliff did have some advice, though.

“I see. I would recommend finding multiple people who use the same term.”

“Why?”

Miyabi frowned and Cliff gave an exaggerated nod.

“For example…yes, let’s say one of the words is ''Hot''.”

“Okay.”

“If a customer at one table orders a ''Hot'', you have no way of narrowing down what kind of dish it is. But what if you also hear a fisherman at the port saying he caught a lot ''Hot''s today? And what if a small child pouts and complains that ''Hot''s are good but removing all the little bones is a pain? Then you can conclude that a ''Hot'' is a fish, right?”

“Hee hee. And this goes beyond codes. Multiple sources is crucial when researching any kind of information,” added Lillian. “Conversely, the key to tricking someone is to isolate them, cutting them off from any information outside of yours.”

Miyabi thanked the two elves and prepared to brave the city’s night once more, but then he turned back and asked them a question.

“Oh, right. What are you two planning to do after this? Will we meet again somewhere?”

“Hard to say. I don’t really have any solid plans.”

“I don’t want to search the entire continent to find you again, so I think I’ll call in the Lucifer Horn and have you join my party. I’d love to borrow your wisdom again, but more than that, I feel like we get along well.”

Cliff smiled a little.

Lillian looked seriously exasperated. She had announced her intentions to destroy humanity, so she was unsure what to make of this human saying they got along well.

But she also looked amused.

“Yes, I am searching the entire world for signs my lover once lived there. I want to be thorough and avoid missing anything, but I can’t reach that Horn Fortress through normal means, can I? Then accepting your invitation seems the best course of action to me.”

“A Godhorn Tech, you say? That sorcery technology is a little too small-scale and – worse – manageable for my use, but I might be able to direct its evolution in a more malicious direction. Besides, I have more lifespan than I know what to do with, so it can’t hurt to take a short detour and check out a new possibility. Hee hee. And the 11th’s sorcery bombs might also make an ''interesting'' trigger.”



Once Cliff Blueforest and Lillian Greenforest had been sent to Horn Fortress by the Lucifer Horn, Miyabi’s party resumed their investigation.

They had to find the one-armed pirate Onelife no matter what it took.

“Miyabi, the plan was to ask around some more and find a pattern to the codewords, wasn’t it?”

At Eliza’s prompting, they patiently gathered even more information. They even found a sketchy old man who claimed to be selling a list of codes, but they had no way of knowing if it was legit until they bought it. Celina knew the city best and she advised they refuse.

Still, they managed to find some patterns. They regathered below the colorful gas lamps to discuss their findings.

Alicia counted off on her fingers.

“Um, they said you can find ''Joy'' in the ''Creepy''…”

“Koo koo!”

“Hold on, Alma. I’ll get confused if you interrupt!” shouted Miyabi.

They were going to be at it all night at this rate. The city was so different at night, so they wanted to find their answers before dawn. They continued walking around the city gathering information for a while longer.

And eventually…

“''Joy'' is money…''Juicy'' is dangerous…hm, this is actually working.”

“Let’s share what we know so we won’t forget it. And this doesn’t mean I’ve given up on figuring it out on my own!!”

On Celina’s suggestion, they wrote down all of their findings on a piece of paper to compare it all.

“Umm, let’s go with what we know for sure. ''Tight'' is the port, ''Creepy'' is the back alleys…and ''Ripped'' is Onelife himself.” Miyabi went over his thoughts under his breath. “Does that mean he isn’t at the port and is hiding somewhere in the back alleys?”

“Let’s go, Miyabi. Let’s show him exactly whose cargo he decided to steal!”

Celina was liable to charge in on her own, but her rifle was too scary for them to claim she couldn’t handle herself. Their only choice was to rush after her.



They found a dark, narrow alleyway.

Even the moonlight seemed to steer clear of the place.

This underground side of the city would be hidden in shadows during the day and people like Miyabi would never get close, but strangely, it actually brought his guard down once night fell. He felt some relief when he stepped into the alleyway. The gentle shadows seemed to protect him from the garish lights of all the signs.

But that may have been why real tragedy seemed to coat the walls and ground.

“So he’s here?”

The darkness seemed to absorb Miyabi’s question.

The Mobile Fire magic lit at the end of Celina’s bayonet was nowhere near sufficient.

There was only one path with no side paths branching off. All of the windows were boarded up. Almost like whoever was inside wanted to ''preemptively'' ensure their safety by ensuring they could never witness something they shouldn’t have.

The boards were like a sign saying “we allow any and all criminal acts here”.

“This is exactly where I would expect to find a criminal,” said Eliza while observing her surroundings.

“Koo?” cried the creepy Greymalkin walking at Miyabi’s feet.

No, Alma was grabbing at the boy’s leg to say it had found something.

“Koo koo!!”

And not just from one direction.

Miyabi looked out ahead and behind him.

“Damn, an ambush!”

Young men wearing rough shirts and bandannas stepped out to block the back alley’s exits.

Even without a ship, they were clearly pirates.

There were of course several of them.

“We know you’re looking for Onelife, so don’t bother pretending to be searching for a lost cat. You’ve left tracks everywhere. Did you never think we’d get wind of what you were planning?”

One of the pirates spoke in a deep voice while creeping closer to lay on the pressure.

Why did outlaws care so much about internal rules and hierarchies? Then again, they probably didn’t care if Miyabi’s party understood. They were essentially waving a cat toy in the party’s faces, hoping they would take a step too far. They hoped to lure the party into confirming they were after Onelife.

“With that look in your eyes and the weapons, I get the feeling you aren’t just some tourists hoping to hitch a ride on a wagon,” said the bandanna pirate. “So here’s a word of advice: old-fashioned swords and sorcery aren’t everything in this city. And if you need proof, we’re more than happy to oblige.”

The pirates looked like they belonged on a theatre stage, but with one crucial difference.

They did not use swords or sorcery. Miyabi expected them to draw guns like Celina’s, but even that was wrong.

They pulled out strange bottles with a silver foil pasted all over them. The two wires sticking out from the lid at the top were connected by the intermittent flashing of brutal electricity.

Informed Celina Bodenburg’s eyes widened.

“Leyden jars!? Thugs are making electric toys these days!?”

“Electric?”

Miyabi had no idea what that meant, but the crackling noise was enough to scare him.

“Think of it like mini-lightning,” explained Helen. “When combined with ocean spray, it can knock people out over a wide area, so be careful. I imagine these thugs have them to capture runaway sex workers without leaving any kind of scar.”

“…”

“M-Miyabi? Um, uh, why are you turning away with such a wounded look? N-no! This isn’t about me!! It’s about the enemy!!”

“Mom…”

“Please stop confusing me for your mother whenever you panic!!!!!!”

“Stepmom?”

“What difference is that supposed to make!!!???”

Anyway, if what she said about those bottles was true, they were in trouble.

Even a boy raised in a village of swords and sorcery understood that lightning could travel through water.

The alley was straight and narrow. If they filled the entire space with some kind of spray and then released the electricity, the entire party would be knocked out regardless of how strong any of them was individually.

“The codes spread throughout the city may have been a trap meant to lure us here,” said Alicia.

“I can’t believe how popular that Onelife crook is!” roared Celina.

None of the pirates even flinched.

In fact, they continued to creep closer from both directions.

Eliza’s enormous lance must have been a poor match for the narrow alley because she whispered a question.

“What now? Will you use your Godhorn Tech?”

“…”

“Hey, what now!?”

“…”

The pirates moved even closer, maybe to be absolutely certain. At this range, a pistol or even a blade would be a threat.

But then…

“Hold it right therrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!”

A voice boomed out like an explosion.

Then booming footsteps and a booming impact sent a few of the pirates crashing into the wall.

The culprit was a muscular macho man.

He had wild hair and an equally wild beard and he wore a thick coat and a distinctive tricorn hat. Instead of an ordinary eyepatch held in place by string, he had a golden metal plate embedded in the eye socket itself.

He was about as piratey as pirates came and he was extremely fit despite being on the borderline between middle age and old age.

“I appreciate the attempt to protect me!”

A scream was drowned out by another loud impact.

The large man had punched another pirate and the Leyden jar he held.

“But I never asked you to dirty your hands for me!!”

The gust of wind created by his massive fist was enough to blow away the sea spray that would carry the artificial lightning. The target of the punch flew even further than that.

The strangely metallic sound of the blow led Miyabi to realize the man’s arm was a prosthetic.

Then that heavy metal fist dropped down toward him.

The one-eyed old man raised an unintelligible cry.

“Whoa, watch out!?”

“Hm? Oh, my bad. I’ve got a bad habit of losing control in battle.”

Miyabi had held his control sword in both hands to block, but his fingers were still throbbing with pain from the force of the impact. The man laughed it off like it didn’t matter, but without the link to the Godhorn Tech, Miyabi would have been helplessly engulfed in a storm of blows.

Mostly taken aback, Helen listed off some observations to make absolutely certain.

“A pirate. A prosthetic arm. Says they were protecting him.”

“You mean this filthy guy is him?” The radio sounded upset. “Why!? Where’s my eyepatch girl with a miniskirt and cutlass!?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then why respond at all!?”

Everyone ignored the radio’s laments.

The large man pointed at his own chest with his metal thumb.

“I am indeed Onelife Shiftup, the great pirate whose reputation extends out into the ocean since the continent wasn’t enough to contain me.”

He was at least willing to have a conversation, so they explained their situation to him.

“So the automaton parts we need should be within the cargo you stole.”

“I see.” Onelife leaned back against the dark alleyway’s wall, crossed his arms, and groaned in thought. “First, I would like to apologize for what happened here. Nhh, my immense popularity is usually a good thing, but some of them look up to me so much they get a little carried away. But they were acting out of concern for me and meant no harm, so please forgive them.”

“Look up to you?” asked Miyabi with a tilt of the head.

“This guy’s the real deal. He even called himself immensely popular,” added the radio, sounding impressed.

Did this mean those bandanna pirates were not part of his crew?

Celina was of course the one to argue back.

“Don’t you have something more to apologize for? All of that cargo belonged to my company! Return it all this instant!!”

“I already said I was sorry and a true man among men knows how to let bygones be bygones. Still, this is a problem. I need those automaton parts myself.”

“For your arm?” asked Helen.

The one-eyed pirate shook his head.

“No. Well, it’d be faster to just show you. Come with me to the port.”

He gestured them over. He could never be a king or a knight captain, but his actions had a way of drawing everyone’s eye.

He did in fact gather a lot of attention in the city.

There was a clear change as they exited the damp back alley and entered the alcohol-smelling street.

Everyone focused on the one-armed pirate and cleared a path for him in the colorful light of the gas lamps. But not out of fear. Their eyes contained admiration.

The calls for customers ceased entirely and were replaced by heartfelt cheers.

It was like an outlaw parade.

Everyone gathered on the side of the road to see the legendary pirate.

“Everyone looks up to Captain Onelife!” A kleptomaniac girl’s eyes shined bright. “Even groups that never get along will work together for him!”

“He even owns a Godhorn Tech. Rumor has it he broke off a Wicked God’s horn and installed it in his own ship.” An assassin lurking in the shadows truly believed the rumors. “His greatest weapon has to be that powerful presence that makes such a crazy story sound so plausible.”

“A monster who can break off a Wicked God horn and the King Knot pirate ship,” whispered an assassin disguised as a flower seller girl. “Not someone I want to be on the wrong side of.”

The one-eyed pirate led them down the city’s gentle slope until they arrived at the port bordering the ocean.

Seeing the ocean after it absorbed the dark color of the night sky was more of a shock than Miyabi had been expecting. It was so dark, deep, and terrifying. The lamplight grew sparser here and could not hold the darkness at bay and the noise of the city faded into the background. The place seemed cold.

He felt like he was approaching the realm of the dead.

Several wooden piers jutted out from the stone coast of the port. Those appeared to be docks for the ships that stopped here, so many large sailing ships could be seen. They all had large symbols on their sails. Miyabi did not know what any of them meant, but Helen’s jaw dropped as she viewed them.

“That one is from the Empty Fleet that hints at a baseless legend of a sunken ship to trick people into buying fake treasure maps, and that one is from the Blind family of smugglers. A-are none of the ships here legal!?”

“The best thing about this city is how it will let any villain resupply and stay the night as long as they can pay,” said Celina.

“Oh? That’s the same mark I saw on the Schwarz Schütze,” noted Miyabi. “So is that why the Bodenburg Company uses the city so much?”

Celina puffed out her cheeks and kicked him in the shin for that observation, but he had not yet earned enough experience to consider that a reward.

However, the ships were not their biggest problem.

“Hmm. You said his name was Number 8?”

“Have you heard of him?” asked Miyabi.

Surprisingly, the larger-than-life pirate nodded.

“I do own some similar products, after all.”

“No, you stole them from our company!!”

Miyabi was fairly certain the Bodenburg Company had gotten them by paying criminally low prices for items stolen from the Empire’s ruins, but he held his tongue to avoid another kick to the shin.

“The Number Whatever series were special automatons built to have direct audiences with the emperor…or so I’ve heard. A useless privilege now that the Empire itself is gone,” said Onelife. “That one was probably even more special since he was chosen to protect the vast Empire on all sides, but he would have used the same basic design. They would have taken the standard core and reinforced all the external parts to make their strongest model yet. By using ordinary automaton parts, you might just be able to repair him ''for the time begin''. But…”

“But what?”

The man had trailed off for some reason.

He answered Miyabi’s question by jerking his chin over toward some wooden boxes stacked up on the wharf.

“As you can see, all the imperial automatons are packed up already.”

“In those boxes!? Where?”

Miyabi was surprised, but Celina was incensed.

The boxes were stacked up to twice her height, creating a small mountain.

“You stole that much from us, you crook!?”

“Not again!? All those inconvenient facts slipped my miiiiiiiiiiiiiiind!!”

“How can a criminal be so pure!?”

He further proved himself by not letting Eliza’s comment faze him.

“Anyway, the automatons are packed up because I was planning to ship them out.”

“To where?” asked Miyabi.

“This might be hard to grasp for someone from the continent, but there are islands out at sea.”

“At sea? So you’re sending them to a remote island country?” asked Helen.

When Celina noticed Miyabi and Eliza both looking out to sea, she quietly stopped them.

“They’re not close enough to see from here, you idiots.”

“Meh heh heh. I’m talking about a proper monarchy. They’re a lot more peaceful than here.” Onelife needlessly crossed his arms, but he did not look particularly cheerful. “But their king died of disease recently and a boy of only 12 was placed on the throne. They have people who question the succession, others who want to bring down the monarchy altogether, and then there are external forces to worry about. Since they have Godhorn Tech, there’s no end to people after the Wicked God horn. …It’s left a giant mess on the young king’s plate. It’s so bad he can’t even trust his own aides.”

“That’s sad and all, but why are you supporting him?” Alicia gave him a skeptical look. “I doubt you were born and raised there and criminals don’t follow the rules anyway.”

For some reason, he pushed his chest out proudly and grinned.

“The previous king valued the freedom of the ocean. If someone fell overboard or was shipwrecked, he would save them even if they were a foreigner or a pirate. He saved my own men on more than one occasion.”

“In other words, even a pirate can feel indebted to his savior?” cautiously asked Eliza.

“He accepted you regardless of your background. That’s much easier said than done. Especially for someone who has to rule a kingdom. But he did it. I shared his view of a free ocean, so if the new king is having trouble, I’m willing to help out a little. At least until he can find his footing and carry the weight himself.”

Miyabi looked up at the pile of boxes.

“And that means sending automatons?”

“Like I said, he’s surrounded by chaos and confusion and can’t even rely on his own aides. But an automaton army never betrays its master. They’d make decent bodyguards while he solidifies his position. We pirates don’t want any unneeded conflict out on the ocean, so I’m sending a gift to the new king!”

“S-stop acting like the good guy when you stole all of this! B-besides, we only need one of those boxes! We only want to repair Number 8 and hear what he has to say!!”

That ''Celina'' was sounding reasonable may have been the biggest sign of how larger-than-life Onelife was.

“Hmm. Okay, what parts do you need to repair him?”

“Eh?”

Flustered, Miyabi turned to Celina for help, but she was little better.

“W-well…”

“How are you going to find the parts you need when you don’t even know what they’re called or what they look like? And let’s not forget there isn’t much light to search by at night.”

Onelife pointed at the “mountain” with his powerful fake thumb and Miyabi had no rebuttal.

“…”

“T-to hell with it!” shouted Celina. “No point in backing out now. We just have to find some automaton parts even if it means opening up every last one of those boxes!!”

It was like a battle.

They had to pull the nails from the wooden boxes, remove the lids, and pull out the contents. The first contained completely unrelated cookware. The next one had books and the one after that had bottles of fruit wine cushioned by balled up cloth. The work never seemed to end and they quickly lost track of how much they had already done.

“U-ughh,” groaned Alicia. “I can’t keep going. I need sleep.”

“Stay awake, you useless elf!” shouted Celina. “We haven’t even opened half of them yet!!”

“S-sorry,” said Eliza. “I did not expect the journey to have worn me out so much. Zzz…”

“You too, Miss Muscles!? How are we supposed to finish with these boxes if our strait-laced and high-horsepower knight gives up!?”

The black sky gradually grew navy blue and then orange. The ocean appeared to be burning.

Dawn had arrived.

Onelife yawned and Alma was curled up asleep nearby, but Miyabi was still working since he always liked to be helpful. He had started to drift off a few times, but he had refused to give in after seeing Celina biting her lip and giving him a tearful but wordless look. The way she tugged at his sleeve and gave him the puppy dog eyes felt like a threat. Curse that younger girl. What did she think she was, his little sister?

In the end, their efforts went unrewarded.

Once even Helen fell asleep, her boobs resting on a box (and her tight skirt butt sticking out toward Miyabi), Celina finally snapped.

“Pant, gasp, pant. Kh, we still haven’t found anything at all!!”

The radio spoke up from around Alicia’s neck as the elf lay face up on the wooden pier.

“It’s like the black hole that forms in a messy person’s room. You end up buying multiple copies of a manga volume because you completely forget you already own it.”

“Argh!! We don’t have time for this!” shouted Onelife. “The new king could be violently dethroned by a conspiracy at any moment!!”

“Th-this is your fault!! You’re the one that stole this stuff and then didn’t even bother organizing it!!”

Celina’s very high-class teeth-grinding did not faze Onelife.

“I’m a pirate! What’d you expect!?”

“Ugh, that shouldn’t be as convincing as it is!!”

Celina flinched back, but Miyabi sighed.

“Hmm. But in that case…”

“Zzz…koo?”

“If we fix Number 8, the 12-year-old king is doomed. If we save the new king, we lose our only clue to the 11th.”

He weighed two terrible options against each other, but then the one-eyed pirate grinned.

“There is one way of having it both ways.”

“?”

“First, I’ll give you the automatons contained in these boxes. No problem with that, I assume?”

“You’d better! They belong to me!” griped Celina, but Miyabi was interested in something else.

“But then what happens to that island kingdom?”

“Oh, that’s simple enough. I wanted to send him some fighters who would ''never'' betray him. Emotionless automatons were one option, but outsiders with nothing at stake work just as well. So I just have to give you the job instead. …Assuming you can save 12-year-old King Kananka Fulpen, that is.”