Editing Godhorn Tech:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Chapter 2 Section 3===

A powerful, heavy rumbling shook the armored train.

The Schwarz Schütze was traveling even further north. Despite the season, white snow coated the ground outside.

Miyabi had been taught that trains were inconvenient vehicles that could only run on the metal rails already installed through largescale construction projects, but everything had its exceptions.

The Schwarz Schütze laid its own rails as it went.

Alicia used her knowledge of alchemy to explain that the two rollers on the front of the train were laying out short rails like bricks to endlessly construct a track for itself. That left great scars on the ground after it passed through, which infuriated the nature-loving elf, but Miyabi honestly wanted to see it in action from the outside.

“We’re riding it.” Miyabi was weirdly excited for someone in the middle of enemy territory. “We’re riding a Godhorn Tech. Wow, can you believe it? This thing is so weird.”

“If you ask me, it’s weirder for a weapon of this size to leave the user on the outside.” Helen sounded somewhat exasperated. “Not that the Republic knows much about these things.”

Miyabi had only ever played around in the forest’s trees, so he didn’t understand how this product of alchemy worked. Alicia knew enough about alchemy to be shocked by how ridiculously wasteful it was, but only two things really mattered: the Lucifer Horn was strapped to the enormous train’s roof, and Miyabi’s group were onboard the train.

Alma remained the green of the wind-element Quetzalcoatl, so manmade metal and stone must not have qualified as a new environment.

(I’m going to destroy this thing.)

Miyabi still couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

This was a vehicle, but it had a second and third floor.

Just one of its cars could fit five or even ten of his log house inside, but several of those cars were linked together, giving it a worm-like shape. He wondered if all of the village’s buildings, from the homes to the church, would fit inside the train.

(Can I really do this? Moebius has been right so far, but he didn’t give us the next step. Just that we need to find a weakness inside it. He said we were sure to find something if we looked at it from a different angle, but I’m not so sure.)

He had known it was used to transport cargo, so he had expected the cars to basically be crude warehouses on wheels, but he instead found a fashionable bar and lounge. It offered a few trendy games like darts and billiards and a ceiling fan slowly spun up above. The magical oven and stovetop visible in the adjoined kitchen suggested that too was top rate. There was a large magically-powered refrigerator and a specialized icemaker. This wasn’t just nicer than Miyabi’s home kitchen; it may have been fancier than the professional kitchen at the village’s pub.

But it made sense when one of the continent’s richest girls lived here. He noticed a faint sweet scent, reminiscent of a girl’s room.

“Are there no maids or other workers onboard?” asked Miyabi, looking around.

“Or bodyguards. The Bodenburg Company should be able to afford private guards superior to your average country’s knights.”

Helen’s comment was a little concerning, but the rural boy did not know enough about military might to fully appreciate its meaning.

“Then is she alone in here? Does everything here run on magic? Wouldn’t she feel faint having so much magic power sucked out of her?”

“Hmph. She probably uses the Wicked God horn for all that,” said Alicia. “It would provide endless energy.”

The palatial interior covered up all of the thick metal walls and floors.

It all felt so much stranger since he could not get a good grip on the scale of the place.

He ended up repeating the same thing he had said countless times that day.

“W-whoa. It sure does shake a lot. You can really tell it’s moving.”

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

Alma danced happily atop the bar counter. The creature adapted quick, maybe because it was so young. The long-eared elf sat in a nearby bar stool to observe the juvenile Wicked God.

“Alma, you aren’t feeling sick, are you? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You can use this if you need to.”

“Hey, you aren’t opening up my head for use as a barf bag, are you!?”

The hag and the radio started arguing, until…

“Sorry about the wait, everyone.”

A lovely girl’s voice took charge of the scene.

It belonged to Celina Bodenburg.

“The Wicked God horn built into Godhorn Tech might as well be pure energy. Safely removing one is a very different task than simply installing one. Not even our company has reached that level, so we must visit the snowy Arsenal Kingdom far to the north.”

That explained their journey.

“Okay, that much I get.”

[[Image:Godhorn_Tech_v01_bw16.png|thumb]]

Maybe he was being tactless, but Miyabi couldn’t help but stare. A double take was not enough.

That rich girl was wearing a flirty maid uniform featuring knee socks, a miniskirt, and plenty of cleavage. It was so frilly she looked more like a fairy tale heroine than a housekeeper.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

“Why? Because these are my work clothes.”

The miniskirt maid seemed puzzled by Miyabi’s question, but the radio could not stay silent.

“Damn, we are breaking new ground here. Those gaudy maids handing out fliers in front of the train station are fine, but an airheaded rich girl in an authentic maid uniform takes the cake!”

“Reminds you of a recent nightmare, doesn’t it, Venus?”

“Bwahh!?”

The elf’s attack on the glasses woman must have done considerable damage since she had to cling to the nearby billiards table for support. Miyabi wanted to tell her not to stick her butt out in her tight skirt like that, but he didn’t have the guts to say it out loud.

The strange maid shrugged.

“I don’t like it one bit, but you are important business partners. So until our business is concluded, it is my duty to provide you with the utmost in comfort. I chose this housekeeper uniform out of necessity, so I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

''Is that how it works?'' wondered Miyabi. ''I really don’t understand her obsession with money.

However…

“Nothing…at…all.”

“See, I knew that maid uniform was a step too far!! You don’t have to do this for us!”

The girl blushed and the busty glasses woman shouted a warning at Miyabi.

“Wait, Miyabi! Your kindness is like salt in the wound!! Believe me, I know! I know all too well!!”

But Celina refused to admit defeat. She was red in the face with tears in her eyes, but she managed to keep her voice strong.

“A-after all, a Wicked God horn is worth at least a billion methods. Failure is not an option here. I will do anything to land this deal!”

“Bff!? A b-billion!? But a dozen pieces of firewood only gets you five at the most!!”

“Really, boy?” said Alicia.

“Why not forget all this serious crap and go make yourself an island of nothing but girls, swimsuits, and dreams? Hell, you can use that Horn Fortress thing, can’t you? You can snatch up girls from all around the world to populate your island.”

“You be quiet, malfunctioning radio!”

Something about that exchange made Celina raise an eyebrow, but her suspicions were unfounded.

“What’s this? You aren’t trying to pull a fast one on me, are you?”

“O-of course not! But could we put off all this complicated business talk till later!?”

Miyabi was not trying to make waves here.

They were not at all interested in making a deal with the horn. They were using that as a pretext to infiltrate the Schwarz Schütze and find some way to incapacitate it.

He wanted to avoid a battle between bomber and armored train if it all possible.

“Sounds to me like we can boss her around for now,” said Alicia. “Hey, maid. Could you bring us some tea?”

“You’ve got guts, elf.”

The radio was a piece of junk, but it was generally correct.



“P-please, make yourself at home,” said the girl in the unfamiliar maid uniform.

The Arsenal Kingdom was a long way off, so they had plenty of time.

“Feel free to take a look around our company’s pride and joy – the Schwarz Schütze.”

They took her up on that offer to inspect the interior of the train. And when they split up, Celina could not keep an eye on them all.

“Would you like anything to eat?” awkwardly asked the nervous maid in the lounge. “I will do my very best to prepare something for you. I-I should be able to make some s-sandwiches maybe?”

“No, thanks. This place is incredible, though. So you have everything you need here on the train?”

“Enjoying a trip alone is one form of luxury. Having an army of butlers and maids at your beck and call is nice, but it becomes stifling after a while.”

The truly privileged had apparently figured out how to complain about their own privilege.

Celina smiled in a very upper class sort of way.

“Also, I must travel across the continent expanding our trade routes, but there is a lot a girl needs to keep with her.”

“That’s not what I meant. Why not use your hideout? Y’know, the Horn Fortress.”

“?”

For once, she looked truly puzzled.

Finally, anger silently spread across her face.

“Is that…some kind of super-secret Godhorn Tech feature I am not aware of? Oh, I see what’s going on here now. You’re showing off in an attempt to drag some information out of me. Impressive. You have guts attempting such rhetorical trickery against the only daughter of the Bodenburg Company.”

“Eh? No, um, that’s just something Moebius told me about. It’s apparently a secret base where you can take your party members, create items, and set up magic circles to boost your Godhorn Tech’s power.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about. You can sit here bragging about how special you are if you like, but I want no part of it! Hmph!!”

She seemed legitimately upset, so could she really not do it?

Miyabi himself did not see it as bragging since he considered everything about the Godhorn Tech to be borrowed power.

(And the way that wire snags people looks dangerous, so I’d rather not use it if at all possible. If you aren’t a freak like Victia, you’d probably freeze to death. That bomber isn’t made to gently land and pick you up, so I would honestly prefer an armored train that runs along the ground.)

Anyway.

Letting ''her'' brag instantly put her back in a good mood. She was holding her head high by the time they arrived at the crude cargo hold where wooden and metal boxes (she called them cargo containers) were stacked as high as a three-story building.

“Heh heh. This right here is the world’s safest cargo hold. A horde of bandits and the worst road conditions won’t harm the products in here. Although at the moment, our most valuable item is the Godhorn Tech strapped to the roof.”

There was also a space lined with countless glass lab equipment.

“Alchemy is crucial to the Schwarz Schütze,” she explained. “The many ultra-hard artillery shells and the very rails that support the train are all made with our own exclusive alchemy. Not only can it continue fighting indefinitely, but it can clear even the worst road conditions with its real-time track laying system!”

She then showed off the foremost room, which looked very important.

Thick glass had sealed away a massive piece of metal that looked far more daunting and impressive than the pipe organ in the village’s church.

“This is the very heart of the Godhorn Tech: the sealed container. Our company’s arms division gathered the best of its technology to safely manage the massive energy produced by the Wicked God horn contained within!”

''She’s not a bad girl,'' concluded Miyabi.

She talked on and on with her head held high when bragging about the Schwarz Schütze. He could tell just how much she wanted to show off the Bodenburg Company’s accomplishments. It was just like a child reading an essay they wrote about their parents’ jobs. If you could ignore the dangerous content of her speech, the tone of voice and mannerisms were downright heartwarming.

Money was everything to her, so dealing with her on equal footing would be difficult. The instant their business deal fell through, she would be his enemy. He really wished they could have met under different circumstances.

Since he was her direct business partner in this deal, she generally followed him around.

Like a chick. Or like a child extoling her parent’s jobs to a visiting friend.

Still, his party found a chance to gather alone.

Strangely, things felt much more dangerous the instant their supposed enemy was absent.

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

“Has this vile thing developed a taste for tea? No! It’s trying to use a shared interest to score points with the rich girl. This vile beast is aiming for a harem end!!”

The rest of them ignored Alma and the radio.

Helen got started while seating her tight skirt butt on a wooden barrel labeled “truffles” and crossing her long legs.

“If we’re going to do damage from within, the alchemy ceremonial ground looks like the best candidate to me. She has more equipment and chemicals in there than the capital’s research library. And keeping such fragile equipment in a moving train is absurd enough on its own.”

“Hmm,” said Alicia. “Or we could use the Lucifer Horn to make a pinpoint attack on one of the links between cars. Those are a structural weak link, so an aerial bombing should be enough to slice right through them. That would be devastating while at speed. We only have to leave a marker at the desired point.”

That was technically possible.

For example, a Decoy Wall could draw in a Godhorn Tech attack to accurately divert it from the intended target. So by sandwiching their target between two of them, the falling beam of light would be twisted around so it sliced through both walls with the one attack.

“When do we make our attack?” asked Alicia. “We need to set things up here, but I would also like to escape before the attack begins.”

“…”

Miyabi fell silent, but not just because he was pondering the coming operation. There was an obvious cloud over his face.

He knew there was no avoiding a battle with Celina at this point. And if they lost their advantage, his home or village might be razed to the ground by the armored train’s firepower.

But still.

Celina was not with them because she was working with the oven. A look through the glass door showed her focused on baking the food she planned to serve them. She generally ate frozen and preserved foods, but she claimed to specialize in baking sweets because she refused to compromise with them.

Alicia Blueforest sighed when she noticed.

“Snap out of it, horny boy.”

“What?”

“That miniskirt maid outfit isn’t distracting you from our goal here, is it?”

“I know it’s all ''I’m'' thinking about,” said the radio, earning it a solid blow from the elf’s small fist.

“We came here so we could defeat Celina,” she reminded Miyabi.

“Failure is not an option now that you’ve used your Godhorn Tech as bait.” Helen calmly chimed in. “It will be dismantled once we arrive in the Arsenal Kingdom, so we have to settle this before then.”

“I know that,” grumbled Miyabi.

Down at his feet, Alma noticed something and began crying.

“Kyoo, kyoo!”

Celina Bodenburg was returning with her miniskirt maid uniform fluttering around her.

“Oh, you’ve all gathered in here? The cookies will take a while longer to bake, so why not head in there to talk? Don’t worry. I will accompany you.”

Helen slipped away and Alicia picked Alma up from the floor with a look that said “you deal with her”.

Celina guided Miyabi back to the lounge. The wonderful sweet aroma likely came from the oven.

Once they were alone together, Miyabi spoke his mind.

“This feels weird.”

“Yes, it does for me as well.”

She pinched the frills of her maid uniform and smiled bitterly.

“Um, I don’t really understand how your family does things.”

“?”

“But I don’t see why you need to do all this just for money.”

She did not immediately respond.

She sat on the edge of the billiards table and sighed first.

“Because money is so simple.”

“Is it though?”

“Hee hee. How about an example?” She ran her finger along a table in the lounge and then did the same with the counter. “This table is obviously not worth much, but this counter is of the finest quality. Now, Miyabi, destroy one or the other.”

He hesitated, but he could tell not choosing was not an option.

He drew his control sword.

The Lucifer Horn was in sleep mode, so he was barely receiving any power from the horn. Still, it was far sharper than the average blade.

He chose one of the options and a crash of destruction echoed through the lounge.

“See?” She smiled with just a hint of loneliness mixed in. “People either sacrifice the cheaper one, or they destroy the more expensive one because they can. Either way, they make their choice by ranking the options based on monetary value.”

“…”

“Money is simple.”

She sounded like she was speaking to herself more than him.

“My father always says so. As does my mother.”

Hadn’t Moebius Entrance said she was raised to think this way?

“With money, people will accept you. With money, you can grow. With money, you can do anything you want. With money, you can even protect people’s lives.”

She listed them off like lines of a lullaby.

But the lonely girl whispered one last line.

“With money…your parents will call you a good girl.”

“Wait…”

“The money itself is meaningless. The possibilities that money opens up for you are what matter.”

There was a gentleness to her voice.

Like this was a mantra driven into her day after day as far back as she could remember.

''“Enjoying a trip alone is one form of luxury. Having an army of butlers and maids at your beck and call is nice, but it becomes stifling after a while.”

When he first heard her say that, it had disgusted him. It had sounded like the privileged complaining about their own privilege.

But looking back, he realized she had never mentioned her family or any friends.

“And that is enough reason for me to fight to the best of my ability. Feeling disillusioned?”

He started to say something, but he was cut off by a high-pitched ringing.

His heart skipped a beat because he initially thought it was the sign of a nearby sorcery bomb, but apparently not. Celina also looked up toward the ceiling.

“What was that?” he asked.

“A transmission is coming in.”

Celina approached a box on the wall behind the counter. Several thick pipes had covers over them, but this looked different from the speaking tubes he had seen in plays.

“Oh?”

“Kssshhh.”

“It appears to be from outside, but the signal quality is poor.”

She sighed and started fiddling with the device on the wall. He realized it must be difficult for just the one person to look after the entire armored train. And while he knew she was fixated on her work, he really wished she would stop bending over and sticking her small butt out toward him. He was only trying to see what was going on, yet the shortness of her maid uniform’s skirt kept giving him some very distracting glimpses!

“Excuse me, but would you mind helping out? Giving it a solid whack here should do the trick.”

After a loud “thwack!”, the static vanished.

The Schwarz Schütze lived up to its reputation. It seemed his solid control sword could only destroy the wooden furniture.

At any rate, the device was working again. The static coming from the ceiling was replaced by a cool female voice.

“This is Eliza Silverstorm of the White Seidr Chosen Knights. I have identified you as the Bodenburg Company’s armored train.”

“From the Arsenal Kingdom? Thank you for your cooperation.”

Celina must have been through this process before.

Miyabi had been nervous simply leaving his village, but she traveled across the continent to make business deals that rivaled national budgets. She could handle this just fine.

“I assume you have received the entrance request I sent. Surely you won’t claim my messenger harpy got lost along the way.”

“That form is just that: a request. You have no guarantee it will be accepted.”

But even the country boy could tell this was not going well.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Celina grabbed the metal pipe more firmly.

“The Arsenal Kingdom is a northern kingdom buried in deep snow. You might have meat, but I believe your average vegetable production is well below the self-sufficiency rate. Making an enemy of our company will only mean starvation after trade slows to a crawl.”

“You have guts gathering our internal information in the name of business. But this is an emergency. Do I sound like I want to pick a fight with you?”

Miyabi was close to panicking at this point.

“Wait, what’s going on here?”

“We received another letter. An anonymous letter,” responded the female voice. “It alleges that a portion of your train has been replaced with one of the 11th’s sorcery bombs.”

“What!?”

Miyabi felt his throat go dry.

“It also said you may be unaware of this fact.”

Why were they bringing up sorcery bombs now?

“We cannot possibly let you in under those circumstances. We are a fortified kingdom with thick walls surrounding our limited land. A blast of that magnitude within the walls would blow away the castle town where our people live and could do the same to the king’s castle as well. The king gave me my orders once the letter arrived, so this is the entire kingdom’s decision. If you wish to disregard that decision, then provide proof that your train is safe.”

“What is the meaning of this?” asked Celina.

“I wish I knew,” said the voice.

“…”

Miyabi was even more confused than those two.

What was happening here?

“The Arsenal Kingdom’s king is a good friend of my father’s.” The girl weighed things on unseen scales. “I doubt he would make a meaningless bluff here. So is it true?” She spun around. “Miyabi, I need your help to locate the sorcery bomb.”



The rhythmic rumbling continued.

The Schwarz Schütze continued on its way. The fear filling the girl’s chest may have told her that stopping would be admitting to the worst-case scenario here.

Not only was the train long, but it was multiple stories tall as well. But since Miyabi and Celina split up to search the train, he had a chance to speak with his party without her noticing.

“Koo koo!”

“Sorry, Alma, but it’ll have to wait!”

Young Alma was toddling along by his feet, but speaking with it would not help at the moment. That meant he had to contact Alicia or Helen.

Any alchemist would want a chance to check out someone else’s lab, so Alicia was absorbed in the alchemy ceremonial ground. The radio hanging from her neck didn’t have a care in the world.

“Hm? Is that the time limit lighting? Do we have enough time to open some treasure chests???”

“(H-hey,)” whispered Alicia. “(I don’t see anything set up in the alchemy lab, so did you set the marker on the car connection after all? Either way, you should have told us the plan before you got started!)”

Her question told him she had no idea what was happening. She had not even heard about the sorcery bomb.

He also tried asking Helen after finding her in the cargo hold full of wooden and metal boxes.

“I-is something wrong, Miyabi?” She approached close enough to whisper. “(What’s our escape route? We can’t just jump out at this speed, but I hope you aren’t planning to scoop us up with the Lucifer Horn!)”

She also knew nothing and was starved for information.

Regardless, now was not the time for conspiracies and attempts to outwit each other. All of them gathered in the lounge just in time for Celina to return from her search with her maid uniform’s short skirt fluttering.

And…

“You can’t find it?” he asked, feeling dazed.

That was the only possible conclusion when she too had completed a circuit of the train and returned to the lounge.

“Koo?”

“But I doubt the snowy Arsenal Kingdom is picking a fight with our company. They are reliant on our imports for food.” Celina responded immediately, showing how confident she was in that fact. “My father has built a strong connection with them and they are a major business partner, so there must be something to this warning.”

But was she really thinking about this clearly?

To Miyabi, it looked more like she was simply grasping at her trust in her family in her panic.

She unfurled a large parchment map atop the billiards table.

No, it was the armored train’s internal design.

She glanced over at Miyabi and hesitated for just a moment, suggesting she should not be letting outsiders see this, but she finally pushed past her doubts.

Then she grabbed a small box from the edge of the bar counter. It gave off a sweet aroma, so it may have been made from pieces of an aged fruit wine barrel. She poured the darts it contained onto the billiards table.

“Miyabi, stick a dart in the areas you checked. All of them.”

“Um, here, and here, and then here…and here I think?”

“I checked here and here. What about the rest of you? …??? I don’t know what to think now. This covers everything from the cargo hold to the alchemy ceremonial ground!! Then where could it-?”

“Celina.”

“N-no, it’s nothing. That couldn’t be.”

She shook her head and glared down at the parchment.

“Again.” She looked ready to chew on her thumbnail. “We need to search it all again!! Yes, that’s it. It might be mixed in with all the boxes and barrels containing the Compress Cargo items.”

“It’s no use, Celina.” Miyabi shook his head. “I already looked around everywhere beforehand, but I didn’t sense the horn resonance. That means we aren’t going to find it anywhere!”

“''Resonance''? Are you saying you can sense a sorcery bomb’s location!? But I can’t do that…”

“That isn’t what matters right now!”

She started to veer off track, so he verbally forced her back. She seemed aware they did not have time for an extended questioning session because she went along with it and placed a hand on her slender chin.

“In that case…”

That was when another transmission arrived.

But this time, the knight named Eliza sounded much more violent.

“Stop, Schwarz Schütze!”

An icy sensation pierced Miyabi’s heart. His head shot up and his eyes met with Celina’s rather than Alicia’s or Helen’s. They had both been on the receiving end of this great a threat in the past, so they could sense it on an instinctual level.

It was coming.

Something equal or greater to their own power was on its way.

“Approach any further and I will stop you with my Snow Sleigh Godhorn Tech – the Icicle Bullet.”

A violent tremor ran through the train.

Impossibly, it shook side to side, along with the scream of straining metal.

“Kyah!?”

“It directly…hit us!?”

He gasped. Celina lost her balance and he tried to catch her, but then both of them were slammed against the wall.

Even if it had come as a surprise, a single attack had done this to ''the'' Schwarz Schütze.

“Kh! Schwarz Schütze, respond with a direct attack of our own!! Immediately activate calcination of the 12 operations!!”

“It is no use. I am more powerful when it comes to pure tackling force. You might have managed a draw in a head-on collision, but you should know I have won from the moment I scored a hit on your side.”

Eliza was right.

Celina had done something, but it did nothing to stop the disconcerting noises.

The armored train was massive enough to forcibly take the star position no matter where it was and it could plow through anything standing in its way, yet it was clearly sliding to the side.

The maid girl paled.

“B-but not even crashing a great mass into the side should be able to-”

“I have derailed you,” curtly stated the ice knight before correcting herself. “Correction, I have overturned you.”

With a great roar, Miyabi’s vision tumbled and his mind was shattered into a million pieces.

Even if the armored train could lay its own track, there was nothing it could do once it rolled onto its side.

The knight’s iron will to keep the sorcery bomb away from her kingdom had rejected their entry.