Godhorn Tech:Volume1 Chapter3

Chapter 3 Section 1

Upon gaining new power by happenstance, someone was struck by disaster by happenstance.

A disaster that shatters people’s bonds.

There was no avoiding the fact that this was a snowy field in the middle of a blizzard.

Alicia Blueforest held her hands over her extra-pointy ears to warm them.

“It sure is cold out here.”

“K-kyoo…”

“Oh, Alma!! This can’t be easy for someone so young. Come here and I will warm you.”

“What about me!? You already have a mascot!! Don’t think you can take me back once I make my big break and the merchandise is selling like hotcakes!!”

Only the radio had any energy left at all. Was that the benefit of not being alive? And hadn’t Alma’s new Phoenix form provided protection against the cold?

Helen Clockgear breathed into her hands.

“Of course you’re going to freeze if you walk around in the snow dressed like that.”

“Helen, you aren’t much better.”

Miyabi Blackgarden’s thick leather jacket and pants did not provide much warmth, but Helen wore a short tight skirt. Not to mention the open chest and bared midriff.

“How are you even still moving around?” he asked.

“Because a woman’s cleavage and thighs are hot, hot, hot! Now, when are we getting to the mountain cabin where we must keep each other warm with lots of direct body contact!?”

The radio’s nonsense was silenced by Alicia and Helen’s fists.

Helen’s bag was small, but it was packed full of camping gear using the Compress Cargo magic.

However…

“Eh? No, that wouldn’t help. I never thought we would be visiting the Arsenal Kingdom, so the tent and sleeping bags aren’t made for the cold and the lamp’s fire wouldn’t provide much heat in this blizzard. Besides, lighting a fire inside a summer tent with no smoke exhaust will poison you!”

So much for that idea.

But this was not Helen’s fault, so he could not feel disappointed in her. He resisted the urge to give her the nickname “Miss Useless”.

“Koo…”

“Yeah, we need to find a village.”

They would die without some heat.

Warm gear, a blanket, a heater, a stove, hot soup, and hot food – they would accept any of it right now. They missed civilization.

Then something odd happened.

Something fell from the sky and landed near Miyabi. It was a small wooden box wrapped in cotton cushioning. He looked up to see the Lucifer Horn flying by overhead even though he had not stabbed the control sword into the ground and ordered it here.

“Oh? What’s this?”

“It has a signature on it,” noted Helen. “From Victia Magnumfist of Horn Fortress?”

He had nearly forgotten.

Horn Fortress was the hideout where they sent any party members found during their journey. None of them had used it though. Not after seeing how you were carried there by the Lucifer Horn snagging you with a dangling wire.

“Is she taking a support role?” asked Alicia. “You know, making stuff and sending it here?”

“How thoughtful,” said Miyabi. “Could it be a coat? Or some hot food?”

He opened the box and found a strange string. But what in the world was it?

The answer, it turned out, was some kind of clothing made entirely out of a V-shaped string.

“Eh? You’re supposed to wear this? What good is that!? I bet this is like that bunny costume from before, so I say we equip it on Miss Glasses. She is our lewd party member after all! And it might give you a sexy curse when you equip it!!”

“Do you want me to kill you, brat? Where is this Horn Fortress anyway? Is it on a tropical island or something?”

Helen’s icy white sigh was mostly one of exasperation.

The “present” came with a message card: “Victia here! I’m trapped alone on a mysterious island surrounded by cracks in the world or a magical barrier. Escape is impossible and I have to scavenge for food. I want someone to talk with so badly. Are you trying to kill me with loneliness?”

“…”

This was much worse than just a sexy curse. This was as curse of loneliness.

Miyabi neatly folded up the card and put it in his pocket. After seeing it in plays, he had always thought it would be neat to try living on a desert island, but that note was enough to tell him he would crack quickly if he tried it for real.

He swore to himself he would find and send her a friend.

But he could never do that if he collapsed out here in the snow.

“F-finding a town is the correct course of action,” said Celina Bodenburg while holding her shoulders and trembling. “When it’s this cold, we should be able to see the chimney smoke from a distance.”

They were still a long way from the Arsenal Kingdom, but there were small villages along the large road leading there. Those would be meant for travelers. They eventually arrived at a village that felt more like a rest area than anything. It was only a scattering of buildings that doubled as shops and homes.

Alicia hopped around to knock the snow from her hair and shoulders.

“Yay, we made it!”

“I’ve got a simple design,” said the radio. “I don’t need a heavy-duty cooling system like a supercomputer.”

“But…the locals don’t look exactly welcoming,” warned Celina.

“True,” agreed Helen. “All of the doors are shut tight. Even for the inn across the way. Th-they aren’t afraid because we crossed the border without permission, are they?”

For better or for worse, Miyabi was new to traveling, so he could only see one option:

“Let’s ask around.”

Once they took a look around, they found the village was not all that large. The wood and stone buildings had a makeshift look to them and a lot of the roofs were bowing below the weight of the snow.

The place must not have had many people, but they were around if you looked. Closing up too much may have allowed the falling snow to block up the doors and windows.

Miyabi first spoke to a knowledgeable-looking old man.

“On your way to the Arsenal Kingdom, are you? Well, good luck getting there with that blizzard raging. You might be able to make it if that thing were working, though. This year’s snow is enough to freeze the hot spring, so there really isn’t much you can do, I’m afraid.”

It was a strange sight to Miyabi since he had barely ever seen snow before, but some people were working on the roofs. He spoke to one of the snow-shoveling young men.

“We’re a work group that fled the Arsenal Kingdom. But we didn’t have it in us to reach the next country over, so we ended up building our own village here. It’s a nice place and we even have hot spring water piped in from outside the village. Except this winter…”

A girl was dealing with the snow in front of the pub.

The powerful dancer girl was waving a tool that looked more like a sled than a shovel.

“Damn, why is the greatest dancer in the Arsenal Kingdom out here shoveling snow? We wouldn’t even need to if that thing were working, you know? You don’t know what I mean? I’m talking about the snow-melt pipe. With the hot spring water, we could make short work of this snow!”

They asked around for a bit, but they could not last much longer out in the blizzard. They were forced to gather in the village square for a quick strategy meeting.

“I-I’m freezing my rear off out here!” complained Celina.

“Yes, let’s make this quick,” said Miyabi.

Alicia got straight to the point with her teeth chattering and Alma in her arms, hoping to get some heat from the red stuffed animal creature.

“The people here can’t help us because of the snow.”

“It sounds like the device used to draw in hot spring water and melt the snow is not functioning,” said Celina.

“Koo koo!”

“Yes, the snow-melt pipe,” said Miyabi. “What if we destroy whatever’s blocking up the hot spring water? Once the water is flowing, they won’t need to shovel the snow.

“Sigh. Sounds like it is up to us to get them back in business,” said Celina.

From what they had heard, the hot spring itself was located outside the village. Returning to that snowy world now was not a pleasant thought, but sitting around the village would do them no good when all the buildings were closed.

“D-driving us out of the village is a lot like an indirect execution, don’t you think?” asked Alicia.

“It doesn’t count as an exile if we have a plan,” said Helen. “Look, Miyabi. We can follow that.”

A pipe thicker than an arm ran along the ground, elevated by support structures.

He feared it would end up buried below the snow, but it worked surprisingly well as a guide. Trudging through the snow allowed the chill to work its way from their toes to the core of their bodies, but they forced themselves to keep going until they arrived at what looked like a frozen lake. Was that actually the hot spring?

It was not warm in the slightest.

There was no steam at all and Miyabi felt certain they were going to die now.

The hot spring was 50m across and the entire thing was covered in thick ice. They could probably walk across without breaking through.

“It’s frozen solid.”

“It is 10 below out here. Actually, do you even use Celsius here?” hastily added the radio.

Alicia sighed with that annoying thing hanging from her neck.

“Okay, now we need to find some way of breaking through the thick ice.”

“That sounds like a job for Miyabi,” said Helen.

He blasted it with the Godhorn Tech.

An ultra-heavy mass dropped from the sky.

The attack harnessed height and weight to break through the thick ice and trigger an explosion at the bottom of the frozen lake. The white lid looked thick enough to ride a wagon over, but it was fully obliterated.

“Wh-what?”

The blast had knocked Celina over, but her eyes widened and she did not bother brushing the snow from her hair.

Yes, that attack had actual mass. It was not like the previous beam attacks.

“A…shell? Are you copying my Schwarz Schütze!?”

“I’m not that good.” Miyabi yanked the control sword from the ground. “I’m no magic specialist, so I can’t make the Godhorn Tech do exactly what I want. I tried using the Lucifer Horn the way you used Schwarz Schütze’s horn, but I had no idea what it would actually do.”

“…”

“Based on this, I don’t think I can fire on distant targets and blow them away. Ha ha. I think it’s just a bomb I can drop from above.”

He thought this was similar to the Wicked God horn resonance. At the very least, the Lucifer Horn had some way of sensing great powers like the sorcery bomb. It may have figured something out from what it sensed when it destroyed the sealed container and broke the horn within.

In Miyabi’s village, they would cut away a tree’s unneeded branches and check the moisture at the cut to see how healthy the tree was. The Lucifer Horn may have done something similar with the other Wicked God horn.

(I’m also a little curious about that error during the contract transfer. Celina and the Schwarz Schütze were nearby when Moebius gave me the Lucifer Horn, so if the horns can resonate, could something have gotten mixed in then?)

Every part of it sounded suspicious to him.

The Lucifer Horn had been trying to find that resonance between horns from their initial encounter to the moment it destroyed the other horn. It had failed to make a perfect copy of the Schwarz Schütze’s weapons, but had it also created a new form of attack that not even Celina could predict?

But regardless of how it worked, where had this bomb come from? Was it made from repair parts inside the bomber, or had the Lucifer Horn dropped down a wire to snag wreckage from the Schwarz Schütze? It always showed up when he stuck the sword into the ground and summoned it, but he honestly didn’t know what it did when it was away from him.

(Hopefully we’ll figure out how to build and maintain all of this stuff at Horn Fortress. Not much point in having a secret base otherwise. Speaking of, I wonder how things are going there.)

Anyway, the new attack was like a mixture of their magical knowledge.

Almost like a child born from the traits of the two parents.

“Ha ha…”

He heard some quiet laughter.

A moment later, a soft sensation filled his mind. Laughing and overcome by emotion, Celina Bodenburg had hugged him.

She even had tears in her eyes.

“That’s right. The Schwarz Schütze is still alive! It’s taken on a different form, but it’s still there inside you!!”

“A-anyway, Celina. The hot spring is what matters. Let’s take a look at the snow-melt pipe!!”

He blushed and shouted a rushed instruction.

He did not mind it. In fact, he liked it a little too much and was unsure how to respond. He felt like a coward for using the task at hand to avoid having to find a response.

And when they checked on the shattered ice lake…

“Oh, there’s steam rising now.”

“Koo!”

“Wait,” said Alicia. “Aren’t hot springs extremely hot?”

“Usually 90 degrees. About right for making some delicious tea.”

When Helen heard the radio’s response, she very elegantly spat out the contents of her mouth.

“R-run away!!”

Just as they all dove out of the way, a massive pillar of hot water burst up from the icy lake. That was known as a geyser, but the name was fairly irrelevant when it was threatening to kill you.

The pillar rose more than 20m.

That was impressive enough to stare up at it in awe, but then the hot water crashed back down onto the snow and ice before splattering out in every direction. Simply rolling out of the way was risky business. They threw themselves along the snow, forgetting all about how cold they had felt just a bit before.

“Pant, pant! D-did we survive?” groaned Celina while lying on her stomach.

She did not seem aware that her fancy dress’s skirt had worked its way up, revealing that even her underwear was covered in jewels. Miyabi had heard that fancy dresses and accessories were a form of liquid asset you could carry around with you, but where was she planning to sell that particular article of clothing?

The layer of ice was gone and white steam rose from the giant hot spring, but if a human so much as soaked their feet in it, their feet would soon look like boiled chickens.

Miyabi touched the metal pipe and then flinched back.

It was pretty hot already. Painfully so.

“The hot water is running through the pipe. Let’s get back to the village.”

The village felt like an entirely different place.

The snow on the roofs and streets had melted and the people were freed from their unending labor.

Alicia’s long ears twitched as they picked up the hustle and bustle.

“Oh, the place has come alive.”

“L-l-let’s get to the inn,” said Celina. “Before we freeze!!”

The village was still pretty rundown, but it looked like an enjoyable place now that it had livened up.

Celina was holding herself and shivering while her lips turned blue.

A cheerful dancer girl was twirling in front of the pub.

“I’m free! Free from that awful snow shoveling!! Eh? You were the ones who fixed that thing? Then I’ll have to give you a special reward. Stop by when you have some time☆”

Based on what the snow shoveling young man, the overly-friendly maid, and some others said, everyone here had fled from the Arsenal Kingdom. Miyabi was curious about that, but they really would die if they did not warm up soon.

They entered the village’s only inn.

It was small enough that their party just about took up all the vacant rooms themselves. But not because it was all that much warmer inside; the building was sloppily made. The boards on the walls and floor had gaps between them, the nails were crooked, and the connections between stone and wood were poorly done, so the place was practically made out of drafts. Thanks to his woodworking background, just seeing the place filled Miyabi with anxiety.

But someone else was even more concerned: the daughter of the Bodenburg Company.

“W-we’re staying here? We have to share the bath with the other guests!? The entire building is more cramped than the Schwarz Schütze’s walk-in closet! To say nothing of the rooms!”

“Miyabi, if the selfish girl doesn’t like it here, kindly kick her out for me,” said Helen with a smile.

She was the one paying for their journey and the presence of another travel companion was enough to place pressure on their living expenses, so the look on her face said she would leap at an opportunity to not have to pay for the girl.

Miyabi parted with the others to check on his dreary wood-floored room.

“I really want to get to sleep right away, but I might not wake up again if I don’t warm up in the bath first. Alma, what are you gonna do?”

“Kyoo!” cried Alma while nestling between the bed and pillow where it stirred restlessly despite being so tired. With the inner warmth of the Phoenix form, the beast did not need to take a bath.

The rooms did not have their own baths. There was one shared bath, so he left his room again.

He checked Alicia and Helen’s rooms on the way and saw light escaping from below the door. They were in their rooms. The building’s poor craftsmanship worked in his favor here. He would not have to worry about opening the door to the bath and running into the elf or busty glasses woman in the middle of changing. His stamina was at its limit, so if they attacked, he might just end up the victim of a murder.

But this way, he felt comfortable opening the door to the dressing room.

Inside, he found a complete stranger. She was naked.

He was so confused time seemed to freeze.

The girl turned toward him with her removed clothing held in front of her to cover up the best she could. The white cloak and dark reddish-purple habit suggested she was some kind of priest. But she had an ephemeral look to her and four will-o’-the-wisps colored red, blue, yellow, and green floated around her.

He gulped.

And when the scream came, it came from him.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? A-a real ghost!? This bath here is haunted!?”

“No, wait!” she shouted. “It…it isn’t what it looks like!!”

Time unfroze and the girl with long pink hair started waving her hands wildly, but Miyabi was too freaked out to notice.

He hung his head, his eyes rolled in his head, and he addressed the crux of the issue.

“Wait, hold on. Why do I feel so lucky for stumbling onto this? I mean, she’s dead. Am I so exhausted that I’ve gone insane and developed a thing for dead girls? Nooo, say ain’t so! What did I do to deserve becoming a necrophile!? Whyyyyyy!!!???”

“C-c-c-calm down and look at me! Um, uh, don’t look too hard, but still look at me!!”

A soft hand covered his mouth.

But wait. The stooped ghost was working so hard to cover her nudity, but her hand was awfully soft and warm for a ghost. She also gave off a faintly sweet aroma.

She was warm and had a physical body.

Did that mean she wasn’t a ghost? Was this a teenage (and very naked) girl leaning against him and pressing her soft skin against his lips? Was this a perfectly normal thing to be turned on by?

“Mghfgh.”

“My name is Sophia. Sophia Calamity-Jinx. I am a well-known Curse Cleaner who travels the continent performing exorcisms.”

“Pwah. Exorcisms?”

“I defeat ghosts for a living.”

Oh, that explains it, thought Miyabi. The colorful will-o’-the-wisps were not because she was a ghost. She was an expert ghost buster and she was in the midst of defeating the baddies. Learning that ghosts were real should have scared him, but it was comforting to know he was with an expert. And when that expert was a naked girl, he could find no reason to complain.

So was she just another traveler?

But wait.

“Um, is it just me or are the ghosts a lot livelier than you?”

“Eek. W-well, these people are not ghosts haunting the bath. They follow me around everywhere I go because of the embarrassing charm, so, well, um…”

“Eh? They follow you into the bath?”

“…”

She blushed and froze up.

This girl taught some dangerous lessons. Learning that he could still enjoy life after death was cratering the value he saw in his own life.

“Hm? Oh, right,” she said. “I was meaning to ask: Are you one of those ruffians they call a peeping tom?”

“Lucifer Horn!! We’ve got ourselves a new party member, so take this girl away!!!!!”

“Hyahhh!? P-please! At least let me get dressed first!”

The wire hanging from the sky entered through the dressing room window, wrapped around Sophia Calamity-Jinx’s belly, and swept her away to Horn Fortress.

Coverup complete!!

Miyabi had a feeling that girl was pushed around by the ghosts a lot too. She was the kind of person who made him want to poke her here and there to see how she reacted.

You’re in luck, Victia.

You have a friend now.

Once night fell, they all gathered in Miyabi’s room, which was filled with the distinctive smell of a tallow lamp and a wood-burning stove. Alma, Alicia, and Celina were all visiting him tonight, but not because he had grown inexplicably popular.

“Ugh, what is keeping her?” complained the elf.

The others concurred.

The cheap wooden flooring was abysmal. In a snowy place like this, they would have loved a proper fireplace. The small stove was terribly insufficient and sipping at mugs of hot milk or tea was not enough to forget about the chill seeping in from the walls and floor.

Helen (who was still wearing her tight skirt in the cold) finally knocked at the door and entered the dimly-lit room.

“S-sorry about the wait.”

“Ah! You were out gathering information without telling us, weren’t you!?” accused Alicia with her butt seated on the side table.

“And I was so hoping I could see Venus at work,” lamented the philosopher’s stone.

“Why do you think I didn’t tell anyone I was going where all the action is!? C’mon, Miyabi, talk some sense into them!!”

“Ehh? What was that, mom?”

“Miyabi, I can tell you’re so tired you’re barely aware of your surroundings, but I must have misheard what you called me there.”

“Oh, shut up. What are those boobs if not motherly? Those things are too big to just be ‘womanly’, mama.”

“You’re not thinking straight, Miyabi. Are you freezing to death in this cold!? Don’t die on us!!”

The older girl next door was trembling from something other than the cold, but the boy failed to notice.

“Ugh.” He held his own body to fight the cold. “When the instructor teaching you to use the hammer or saw is a woman, you end up calling them that sometimes, right?”

“Hold on. If I’m the mother of the party, then why are you forcing me to dress up as the bunny!? Not that I’m accepting that role, mind you!!”

Helen blushed and made a rebuttal, but then she took a deep breath to fill her (large) chest with oxygen and regain her adult confidence.

She did not see anywhere to sit, so she leaned against the wall and cleared her throat.

“Ahem. Anyway, I managed to gather some information on the Arsenal Kingdom.”

While restlessly sitting on the bed with Miyabi, Celina tugged at his jacket and asked a question while giving him the puppy dog eyes.

“I-is her ‘Venus’ form really that entertaining?”

“Do you want me to tell you what I found or not!? Hmph!!”

“Oh, no!” exclaimed the radio. “It’s always bad news when an adult starts to sulk! It can last for ages! When a cosplayer starts getting up there in years, the grow more and more reliant on their position as the circle’s princess!!”

“Whoever said I’m ‘getting up there in years’, step forward.”

The radio was very nearly dismantled. By Helen’s bare hands.

Celina jumped and hid behind Miyabi’s back (without noticing she was pressing her growing chest against him).

“Why would you provoke her further!?” she asked.

“Ksshhh, she must be cold after walking through the snow at night. Someone serve her some tea!”

Static ran through the radio’s voice as its destruction neared and Miyabi reached for the tea set on the side table. They could not afford to have her sulk. As cute as it was.

“U-um, would you like some nice hot tea?”

He forced an ugly polite smile and she sighed mostly in exasperation.

“That just reminds me of what I went through out there. Ugh.”

“So what did you find out?”

Celina winked and patted on the bed next to her, so the redheaded boy sat back down and asked that fundamental question.

“That the Arsenal Kingdom may have been behind the destruction of Celina’s armored train.”

“…”

The Bodenburg girl gasped and Alicia grinned from the side table.

“Oh, you picked up on that, did you? Excellent.”

“I get the feeling the Arsenal Kingdom is in a state of political instability. We can head there now, but we need to assume there will be trouble,” warned Helen.

“We’re already caught up in their trouble,” added Alicia, half joking.

There was the sorcery bomb, but it was also worrying how the villagers here said they had “fled” that kingdom. The kingdom past the blizzard sounded dangerous, so Miyabi tried to mentally work through what they knew.

“The Arsenal Kingdom has that Godhorn Tech. The, um…”

“The Icicle Bullet,” supplied Celina.

He stole a glance over at her in the tallow lamp’s light, but he still could not tell what emotion her voice carried.

“That ice weapon is controlled by Eliza Silverstorm of the kingdom’s White Seidr Chosen Knights.”

“I want to hear what she has to say,” said Miyabi. “It was true the train had a sorcery bomb in it.”

“That anonymous letter is something of a mystery,” added the philosopher’s stone swaying from Alicia’s neck. “Including if it even exists.”

“You mean Eliza might be friends with the 11th? Or she could have some secret connection with them. Hell, she might be the 11th herself.”

“Koo.”

Whether Alma understood the situation or not, the red creature gave a worried cry with its small hands around the pillow. Helen beckoned toward it while stating her conclusion on the matter.

“We can reach the Arsenal Kingdom by traveling west from here. But like I said, make sure you’re ready for trouble.”

Chapter 3 Section 2

The blizzard was still raging outside after they spent the night at the village’s inn.

But Miyabi Blackgarden’s party had to brave the storm if they were to meet White Seidr Eliza Silverstorm who controlled the Icicle Bullet.

Alicia Blueforest breathed a very elderly-sounding sigh while trudging through the snow first thing in the morning.

The heavy sigh was colored white.

“This is horrific. My toes are already going numb. Do the people of this kingdom end up with soaked shoes every time they go outside?”

“The locals wear shoes that do not sink into the snow and can slide along the ice. They spread out the edge for increased friction or balance up on the edge to skate on it.”

Celina Bodenburg had visited in the past, so she knew a lot about the place.

Their breakfast was hot sandwiches filled with plenty of heavily-seasoned wild animal meat. Just like their desperation to find shelter the night before, they were afraid they would freeze to death without getting something to eat on a regular basis. The snowy land wore them out a lot faster than they expected.

The glasses woman did not look pleased with her food.

“Ugh, how can they call this breakfast? Did they ban vegetables here?”

“Hee hee,” laughed Celina. “Every child on the continent wishes they could live in this land of hamburger steak and sausages.“No, Miyabi.”

The boy jumped at Helen’s comment.

How had she known he was suddenly excited about visiting the Arsenal Kingdom!? Maybe the kind of young woman that demanded you eat your veggies had a special 6th sense for that kind of thing.

Celina sighed as she nibbled at the edge of her hot sandwich.

“Munch, munch. With all this snow, their cuisine is primarily focused on the meat they can hunt, while vegetable and other crops are a luxury item for those wealthy enough to look after their health. That is why most of those crops were shipped in by my company.”

They followed a path half-buried in snow until a massive castle wall came into view. The stone wall was tall and thick. The height alone made it as unapproachable as the Schwarz Schütze.

That was the Arsenal Kingdom.

A fortress state of metal and smithing. The castle, the castle town, and all of its limited land were surrounded by the thick castle walls, providing an impregnable defense. It was a safety measure, but was there really a need to reject outsiders to quite that extent? Miyabi was only familiar with his home village, so it felt downright bizarre to him.

And something happened before they even passed through that wall.

“?”

Miyabi could hear a rumbling in the distance. No, were those voices? So many people were shouting so loudly that none of the individual voices could be made out.

As cold as it was, he still came to a stop outside the gate and frowned.

“What’s going on? That’s a lot of noise.”

“Koo…”

“I do not like the sound of this,” said Alicia. “Alma, hide behind me.”

“Don’t say that while holding me out in front! If you ask me, you should use a smithing skill to increase my defense stat!! That’s this kingdom’s specialty, isn’t it!?”

“Shh!!”

Helen forbade the radio from speaking. And in an act very unlike a classy adult lady, she shoved her hot sandwich in her mouth. She had no idea when they would get more food. It may have been a ritual to help her focus on the battle at hand.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Helen Clockgear. “Tension is hanging in the air.”

Miyabi tried to follow the capable young woman’s example and set his throat on fire with the seasoning. He started choking on reflex, so the elf hag rubbed his back with an exasperated look.

“Why isn’t there a single guard at their front gate?” asked Alicia.

“Have they withdrawn inside?” speculated Celina.

No one had an answer.

The gate…was not locked. The thick double doors were sitting half open. They could twist their bodies to slip through – no Godhorn Tech necessary. The castle wall was supposed to be the border between countries, yet no one was monitoring who passed through.

“Sh-should we really be doing this?”

As a government official, Helen was getting cold feet, probably because of the small bag she carried. When crossing a border, any Compress Cargo magic had to be deactivated so everything within could be checked over by the guards. Anything else would make your country a smuggler’s paradise.

This was concerning.

There should have been people here, but there were not.

It was like wandering onto a ghost ship from a picture book.

“Koo…”

Alma cried anxiously while standing atop the snow at Miyabi’s feet without sinking down. Curious what was going on, Miyabi stuck his head through the half-open gate.

His face was immediately slapped by a wall of sound.

At first, he was unsure what had happened.

The limited land within the wall was crammed full of stone houses and shops, making for a unique type of city. The several towers jutting into the frigid air in the distance had to be the king’s castle. That was a castle town, something he had only ever seen in picture books. After a lifetime in that forest village, the stone-paved roads, bridges, and perfectly straight aqueducts had to be a strange sight for him.

But he failed to notice any of it.

His eyes widened as the voices rushed in at him with such terrible density.

“Drag that incompetent king from the throne!!”

“No more military expansionism! We demand peace!!”

“Why are we paying to fight foreign enemies when we can’t put food on our tables!? The taxes are the real enemy!!”

People, people, people, and more people.

Men, women, boys, and girls were boiling over with anger and rioting. They were packed in so tight it was hard to tell who they were angry with or who they were trying to get at.

Plus, Miyabi had never seen so many people at one time. So when they were all too furious to think straight, it was enough of a shock to rattle his very soul.

He initially thought they had to be using magic to amplify their voices, but they weren’t.

Since when were humans such violent creatures?

The public square immediately inside the gate was packed full, so he didn’t want to even think what the central castle area was like.

The village boy was frozen in place, unable to take a single step.

“What in the world!?”

“I’d heard there was unrest, but this is a full-on riot!”

Helen was a Republic official, but her eyes widened too.

Alicia winked and rubbed her index finger against her temple like she was viewing this human foolishness from a more detached viewpoint.

“That explains the lack of guards at the gate,” she said.

“If the border guards were dragged into an internal conflict, their chain of command must have fully collapsed,” said the philosopher’s stone, sounding exasperated.

“L-look over there!”

Celina pointed toward a woman running beyond the wall of people. Her equipment was too delicate to call armor. She wore a feather headdress and a shortish skirt. Several of the rioters appeared to be pursuing her. Her long silver ponytail was swimming behind her.

Her armor stood out, but so did her giant lance which resembled a control device. Was that part of the local knight gear? She might as well have been waving a torch and yelling for the rioters to attack her.

Celina was the only one who recognized her, so the girl explained.

“Eliza Silverstorm is one of the Arsenal Kingdom’s chosen knights. I do not know what has the people so riled up, but if their ire is directed at the monarchy, then the White Seidr Chosen Knights would be the most obvious symbol of its political and military might. The angry mob will attack her first!”

That settled it.

Helen responded with a bitter look.

“If she dies, we lose any information she has on the 11th.”

“Or we could hide among the rioters and throw stones from afar. If we intentionally push her to the limit, she might just use one of those rumored sorcery bombs.”

Alicia’s sly suggestion made Miyabi click his tongue.

Not even he was sure why, since the idea itself was sound.

But he couldn’t help but ask who would decide where “the limit” was? How could they be so confident that their calculations were correct and Eliza was in no risk of actually dying?

And what if she was innocent? No, even if she had some guilty secret, what if some remaining sliver of a conscience prevented her from using the sorcery bomb?

Could they really hold their heads high and say they had done the right thing just because it was the “the most logical choice”?

(No, now isn’t the time to make Alicia into a villain. She only made that suggestion because she knows no one else will. Simply listing it as a possibility isn’t wrong.)

Would they save her or kill her? Creation, or destruction? The cards had all been laid out on the table.

But it was Miyabi’s job to choose one.

No matter what anyone else said, this was Miyabi Blackgarden’s adventure. He could not force someone else to do it for him and he was not obligated to accept someone else’s choice. He was free to choose. So his real task here was to find an option he would not regret taking later on.

He had to reach for a version of himself he could be proud of.

“Koo!!”

“Yeah.” He clenched his teeth and nodded. “None of that matters. I can work through all these vague doubts later on. For now, I’ll go with what I know! If we don’t help Eliza get away, she’ll be killed!!”

He was afraid.

Of course he was.

This was different from Celina’s Schwarz Schütze or the mysterious 11th’s sorcery bomb. It was a group. Instead of a single powerful threat, this filled him with the same disgust as seeing a swarm of spiders covering a window.

However.

If he did not act now, she would be overwhelmed by the crowd. If that happened, he would lose all faith in humanity. Including in himself.

He wanted to believe there was more to humans than violence and thoughtless rioting.

And doing that required proving it himself. Right here and now.

“Hold your horses, boy,” said Alicia.

Even if he did charge right into the crowd, he would have a hard time weaving through the gaps. And clearing a path by blowing the rioters away with his Godhorn Tech was out of the question. He, Alicia, and Helen discussed what they had noticed, like that the cold wind indicated an area with fewer people and that Eliza could not enter just any alleyway carrying that big lance. Afterwards, they circled around using the relatively deserted back alleys.

“!?”

They appeared to catch her off guard.

Eliza Silverstorm’s eyes widened when she ran across them. She may have recognized Celina.

“What are you doing here!?”

“Watch out!!”

Miyabi tackled her to the ground just as an imagined red color filled his vision. The rusty flavor had to be his imagination as well, not something coming from his senses. The actual pain was minimal. Even though a thrown rock had definitely struck his temple.

“Gh!!”

“Wh-why do this!? What are you after!?”

Eliza grew suspicious after he knocked her to the ground, so Celina breathed an exasperated sigh.

Eliza talked a lot.

He had imagined her as being cold as ice, so this came as a surprise.

But he was also glad she had the energy to yell like that. He was also proud of himself for being glad that the suspect was unharmed.

His rattled head noted this may have cut off the quickest route to the answer they wanted, but he knew this was the correct answer for himself.

“I can’t believe you. And so soon after that nauseating pickup line about becoming my strongest.”

Celina had lost everything when her armored trained was destroyed.

But she appeared to have gotten over it. She smiled as if to say she had a new goal in sight and was intent on accepting the challenge fair and square.

She rested her rifle-shaped control device on her shoulder while gathering his attention.

“The strongest must hold their head high with pride. Yes, this could make for an excellent advertisement in its own way. Now, Miyabi, we do not have time to mess around.”

The air stirred.

The danger was growing.

“That guy’s protecting the arrogant knight!”

“They’re trying to steal our money too! Why else would they be helping the White Seidr!?”

“String them up! Wring out everything they’ve stolen from us!!”

Miyabi was already woozy after the blow to his temple, so he and Eliza ended up propping each other up. That appeared to anger the rioters. Their yelling never ended and they all reached out as one.

Celina aimed her flintlock rifle skywards and fired once.

The rioters would only flinch back for a moment.

Once they realized she had not fired toward them and once they detected any fear or hesitation at all, they would rush in with double the intensity. The blonde girl used the time she had bought them to load more powder and another bullet into the muzzle with the long, skinny rod, all while shouting at Miyabi.

“Both ways out of here are blocked by rioters. If you aren’t willing to kill them, then you need to create a new escape route!”

“!”

He drew his control sword.

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

First, he lined up enough boxes of packed snow to form a wall blocking the wide street. Blocking the main thoroughfare led more people into the back alleys, so the rioters packed themselves in too tightly to move. But that would not last forever. Miyabi held his hand out toward another location, arranging snow blocks to form roughly-made Layer Stairs. He even created a landing supported by a building’s wall to build the stairs up to the roof of a three-story apartment.

“Hurry!!”

He gestured them all on and the snow wall blocking the street was forced down just as they climbed to the dark stone roof. Just before the rioters could rush toward the makeshift stairs, he swung his control sword to “cancel” it. The white Layer Stairs crumbled before the mob’s eyes.

Celina could not believe what she was seeing far below them.

But not because of the rioters filling that space.

“I-I-I know I asked for it, but that creation ability really is something else. All I have is the destruction side of things.”

“Still upset about that?”

“Not at all. You said you would become my strongest, so that means all of this actually belongs to me.”

The roof put them well above the rioters, but that was no guarantee of safety. Most of the roofs were sharp and pointed, presumably to keep snow off of them, so they were not easy to navigate. The tall and skinny apartment building had a flat roof, but it was coated with hardened snow and they could easily slip and fall.

Plus, humans were not animals. They might throw stones or fire bottles from the street. Someone might even construct a large slingshot or bow using the tools at hand. His imagination informed him of many unpleasant possibilities. The angry rioters might not have lost their creativity.

The ponytail woman who was even mores strait-laced than Helen shouted at Miyabi while they still supported each other.

“Creation? A-are you saying you used a Godhorn Tech’s power in the city!? Are you insane!?”

“Maybe so, but that insanity just saved your life!”

“Eh? Wha-?”

She must not have expected him to shout right back at her because her voice caught in her throat and her eyes wandered uncertainly.

He kept going regardless.

He wanted to preserve his faith in people, so he worked to get closer to this person here.

“Your armor and control lance are too conspicuous! We need to escape outside the castle walls. That way we can avoid this crowd!”

“No, wait! I cannot do that!”

Even the radio sounded exasperate by that.

“Cut the ‘cool as a cucumber’ act, you blushing tsundere. It’s a little late for that.”

“Tsun…what? What is that box saying?”

Her enormous lance must have been difficult to use at close range because Eliza used her hand to push Miyabi’s face away while he held her close.

“Anyway, I belong to this kingdom’s White Seidr Chosen Knights. I must protect the king!”

She even bowed at the end.

How strait-laced could you be? Was she trying to OD on it?

“You have my thanks for your concern, but I cannot flee and leave my king to fend for himself!!”

“Tch.”

“U-um, Miyabi?” asked Helen.

He was intrigued.

He was willing to laugh it off if someone like this manipulated him into providing assistance.

Helen sensed the dangerous idea growing inside him and she tried to nip it in the bud, but…

“Then what choice do we have? Let’s hurry to your king.”

“Miyabiiii!? W-we can’t! Any chance of survival is evaporating fast!”

“Hah hahhh hahhh!!” rejoiced the radio at Alicia’s chest. “Now this is more like it! In a swords and sorcery fantasy, no one’s looking for clever tricks. They want pure freedom. When you see a girl in a bind in a setting like this, why would you even need to think twice!?”

“(God, has he completely forgotten we’re here to figure out who placed the sorcery bomb in the crashed train?)”

“Alicia?”

“Nothing, boy. The grownups will protect you, so go have your fun.”

Looking down from the roof, the rioters looked like a single massive organism – a sea anemone spreading throughout the city. Miyabi never wanted to go down there again. Especially not with a primary target like Eliza.

That meant it would be best to travel between rooftops.

The roofs were dangerous enough with the snow and ice, but there were no routes between them, no matter how closely packed the buildings were. Fortunately, Miyabi had the power of creation.

“A Bypass Bridge should do the trick.”

The redhead boy packed the snow together while picturing boxes in his head. He lined up those Palette Dice to form a white bridge between this rooftop and the next. That allowed them to stay off the ground despite the main street blocking the way like a ravine. Still, the bridge support extended down to the road, so it might be brought down if they were not quick.

And the rioters were not the only threat.

Some squawking cries reached them from the sky.

“Kyah!?”

Frightened, Celina grabbed at Miyabi from the side, but now was not the time to be excited by the softness reaching him through that dress that was too revealing for such a snowy climate. His feet nearly slipped down the steep angle of the roof.

“Isn’t this the royal castle town?” he shouted, wide-eyed. “What is a Beast Nova doing in here!?”

“You know that classification counts me as a Beast Nova and Alma as a Wicked God, don’t you!?”

Alicia was upset, but his question received an answer from an unexpected source – the richest of the rich girls: Celina Bodenburg.

“Wh-why, that’s Millovannes! My messenger harpy! I used her to send our entrance request to the Arsenal Kingdom!!”

“Hey, that cheeky thing is keeping her distance and firing projectiles at us,” said Miyabi. “We should shoot her down just to be safe. We can’t afford to be pinned down halfway across the bridge. If the makeshift Bypass Bridge goes down, we’d fall right into the rioters’ hands.”

“Got it, Miyabi,” said Helen. “I’ll use some Lure magic to keep her focused on me.”

“No, stop!! Millovannes might as well be part of my fam-”

Something grazed Celina’s cheek.

It came from the messenger harpy squawking atop a roof a short distance away. That monster looked like a human girl with wings for arms. Millovannes had gone feral and was using her toes to grab sharp-edged metal disks with the company logo on them. And she appeared to be enjoying herself.

Celina lowered her shadowy face.

Her shoulders were shaking. From laughter.

Her head sprang up again and she aimed the very black control gun adorned with gold.

“Heh, eh heh heh. Very well. If that is how it must be, I will label this beast feral. I was growing sick of the greasy meat in this snowy region’s cuisine anyway, so tonight we can feast upon some healthy grilled chicken!!!!!!”

“There is something severely wrong with your human-nonhuman relations,” sobbed a trembling Alicia with fiery Alma in her arms.

Meanwhile…

“Everyone is so focused on the internal conflict no one is thinking about external threats,” bitterly replied Eliza, her massive control lance in both hands. “I apologize, but prepare yourselves. We must fight our way through!”

Bizarre creatures with bat wings were clinging to the roofs and chimneys while will-o’-the-wisps swooped through the sky on their own. None of them was a match for Miyabi with his Godhorn Tech. Celina no longer had the horn’s power, but she still had her bayonet-equipped rifle, so the two of them eliminated all of the monsters before they could even get close.

Eliza Silverstorm even had time to look down to the ground.

The chosen knight whose armor included a feathered headdress and a miniskirt pointed at the stone bridge across a river using the tip of her control lance.

“I apologize again, but please take care of that as well!!”

“?”

“The rioters can use that bridge to gather into a single mob large enough to break through the king’s gate.”

“Sure, but it looks more like they’re gonna topple like dominoes at this rate,” added the philosopher’s stone.

Eliza nearly clung to the boy as she asked a favor.

“My Icicle Bullet cannot take aim at such a precise target. Please destroy that bridge to keep the rioters separated!”

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the roof.

A magic circle opened at his feet and he sent an instruction to the Lucifer Horn flying overhead.

Immediately, a thick pillar of light dropped from the sky and tore across the ground.

The colossal winged Godhorn Tech flew along the path of the river.

The stone bridge was more vaporized than simply destroyed.

“I still can’t get used to that. Both the power and the accuracy are impressive. I’m not sure even my Schwarz Schütze could have attacked with such precision.”

Eliza grimaced at the brightness of the light, but she clenched her fist in triumph after noticing the rioters were separated by the river.

“Yes, thank you. Yes!!”

She was their #1 target, but she sounded delighted that no one had been hurt. Celina put a hand on her hip in exasperation.

“There is no end to the world’s troubles, is there? Argh, we need to paint the company name on the Lucifer Horn’s wings ASAP! This charity is going to waste! Miyabi, let’s get this over with. The central castle is our goal, isn’t it?”

She was right about the world’s troubles at least.

The city was overrun by human rioters, the Beast Novae who had gotten past the walls…and there was more. Something else was beginning. What looked like giant muscular stone sculptures were extracting themselves from the pedestals in the public squares or the walls of cathedrals and slowly approaching the rioters. Their strength was an unknown, but the weight of those 3m stone figures would be enough to kill a human.

“The security gargoyles are activating in error?” frowned Eliza.

“Gar-what?” asked Miyabi.

“Manmade autonomous traps.” Celina brushed her hair back from her shoulder. “I see no simplification in the design, so these must not be from our company’s factories. Did a local craftsman make them? Either way, we cannot allow military-grade weapons to attack those people. Miyabi, I will snipe them, so you support me. Move around on the rooftops to draw the attention of the gargoyles!!”

The gargoyles apparently would not crush the rioters if their attention was on the fighters safely up on the roofs. After a moment’s thought, Miyabi dropped a cube of snow from the roof and had it burst from within before it reached the ground. It functioned like a low-temperature firework.

As expected, that gathered the attention of everyone on the ground.

Bat wings grew from the gargoyles’ backs.

Wait. How were they storing those wings in their stone bodies!?

Concern rapidly filled Miyabi and he asked a worried question.

“U-um, Celina? They just grew stone wings, so, um, I was wondering…”

“Sigh. They’re gargoyles. Of course they grew wings.”

“How was I supposed to know that!? You have to tell me these things! And what happened to the roof being safe!?”

“My, my. Ho ho ho. Silly boy. When you make a deal with a professional company, you need to read the terms of the contract with utmost care!! Ohh ho ho ho ho!!”

“Miyabi, I just dumped some Lure Powder on her head,” coldly stated Helen in her assassin mode. “They’ll all be focused on her, so stay away from her.”

Celina’s newfound popularity forced her to tearfully fire her rifle-shaped device over and over. The gargoyles’ stone bodies must have been coated with a special wax that could deflect a certain amount of magic. When the red lines of light imbued with a flame effect came in contact with the stone surface, they burst into a spray and scattered behind the gargoyles.

Celina clicked her tongue while peering down the sight.

“I had a feeling my control gun wouldn’t be enough. Miyabi! Let me link with your horn!! Then I can fight with the level of power I’m used to!!”

“Hold on, what happens if you register two control devices with the same Godhorn Tech? You aren’t trying to hijack the Lucifer Horn, are you?”

“…”

She was unwilling to answer, so he was unwilling to give her access.

But that did not mean she was unable to fight. She made a subtle adjustment to her aim. She knew her shots would be deflected, so she aimed for the airborne gargoyles’ hands or the ends of their wings. The attacks did not pierce through, but they could not brace themselves in midair. The impacts knocked them off balance, buying some time.

She used that time to load her next powder and bullet in the span of a breath and fire again, the bullet flying right past the gargoyle.

No, it hit the clocktower behind the gargoyle, bounced off, and hit the stone statue in the back.

She used the ricochet.

The gargoyle twisted around, falling into an uncontrollable tailspin.

There was a round hole on the gargoyles’ backs. It may have been a socket for inserting the tool for winding up their spring, but when the magical bullet accurately flew into that hole, this one trembled and ceased to function. It spiraled down to the surface where it crashed into a frozen river.

“Hmph, who needs a Wicked God horn to fight?” Celina pulled the skinny rod from the muzzle and took aim again. “I can still promise eternal prosperity to my Bodenburg Company. I only need to invent new ways to fight when the need arises.”

Just as she began her next ricochet sniper shot, the gargoyle hopped to the side. No, someone had soared through the air to hit it with a flying kick. With an elderly masculine cry of effort.

“Nwohhhh!!”

“Out of the way, commoner!! What is wrong with you!?”

Celina shouted in frustration at having her timing thrown off.

What was happening, anyway?

Anyone could use magic these days, but kicking a gargoyle out of midair still seemed superhuman. Those were hunks of rock, after all. If magic could give people that kind of leg strength, Miyabi’s party would not be at all safe up on the roofs. The countless rioters would have just jumped up to surround them.

Alicia did not look pleased when she saw the small old man.

“Is that a dwarf, by any chance?”

“Eh? So he’s a Beast Nova?” asked Helen. “Be careful, Miyabi. He’s a new enemy!!”

“Discriminatory language!! And don’t go all ‘A Monster has Appeared’ and calculate out the money and item drops the instant you see someone from another species! It’s legitimately terrifying!!”

The elf bristled and protested, but then strait-laced Eliza spoke up.

“Oh, is that Sir Garret?”

“Hm?”

“Garret Goldcave. He is a craftsman with a royal warrant. The Arsenal Kingdom is supported by our superb smithing techniques, so human or dwarf makes no difference as long as they have the skills we require. In fact, dwarves like him have established metalworking techniques found nowhere else.”

“Tch, so he’s your pet.”

“Don’t look so disappointed you can’t attack him!

The elf was truly in tears now as she grabbed at the glasses woman and made a plea for nonhuman rights.

As a businessperson, Celina coldly weighed the pros and the cons.

“Interesting. Get him on our party and we would never want for equipment, Miyabi. He appears to be attacking those gargoyles, so we can easily convince him using the classic ‘the enemy of your enemy is your friend’ argument☆”

“No, Sir Garret is-”

Eliza hesitantly began a response, but she never managed to finish.

The person who jumped up to the rooftop in a single bound was a short old man. But his back was not stooped and he was far more muscular than Miyabi. He reminded Miyabi of the older men who worked in the forest. So while he looked intimidating, Miyabi felt an affinity toward him. When backed by excellent skills, stubbornness could feel reliable.

He wore a dark jumpsuit and wore a rucksack filled with hammers, saws, and other tools. He had knocked a gargoyle out of the air with a flying kick, so how powerful would he be with his weapon of choice?

Once he navigated the labyrinthine rooftops to reach them, Garret had this to say:

“Nwoah!! Are you the ones attacking my adorable traps!?”

“You’re on their side!?” exclaimed Celina. “Did you kick that gargoyle aside to keep me from sniping it!?”

Eliza held a hand to her forehead and spoke quietly, like she was revealing her own shame.

“Um, Sir Garret is a truly skilled craftsman, but he has the unfortunate flaw of adoring his autonomous traps like his own grandchildren.”

“Miyabi, if he is protecting the gargoyles, he is on their side. He is an enemy,” coldly concluded Helen. “Kill that Beast Nova and nab the money and item drops as a reward for risking our life here.”

“Why can’t you tell that’s nothing more than robbery, human!?” screamed Alicia. “A-an excellent craftsman would make a useful party member, Miyabi. So summon the Lucifer Horn and collect our new party member!!”

A wire snagged the nonhuman old man’s back collar and the bomber flew off to the farthest reaches of the world.

“D-did you just abduct a national treasure and a living treasure trove of military secrets!?” shouted Eliza.

“Not even you view him as a person? And it’s even scarier with you because you take everything so seriously I know you aren’t joking.”

Alicia wrapped her arms around her shoulders and trembled with fear in her eyes. Elves may have been susceptible to losing all trust in humans.

And things were not over quite yet.

“Ah!” shouted Celina while looking into the distance.

Black smoke was billowing into the sky. It was much too dark to be coming from a chimney.

Alicia’s eyes widened more than anyone’s, perhaps because she lived in the forest.

“There’s a fire burning!”

“The firefighters can’t possibly get past the rioters.” Eliza held her head up on the rooftop. “This fire will be devastating!”

Meanwhile, the radio spoke to Miyabi.

“Hey, herbivore boy. Water isn’t the only way to extinguish a fire. If there’s nothing more for it to burn, it burns itself out.”

“…”

The boy made a split-second decision.

He could save people with the destruction as well.

“Let’s destroy the surrounding homes to keep the fire from spreading!”

“God, it’s not that simple, you know!?” said Eliza.

“Making it work is a job for us grownups,” said Helen.

Those two nimbly jumped between rooftops to check inside the windows from the rooftops across the road. After confirming the homes were empty, they gestured to Miyabi and he stabbed his control sword into the roof at his feet.

He sent the Lucifer Horn another command.

The giant form flew by above the fortress kingdom once more.

A beam of light dropped from the sky and it was dragged across the ground. Several straight lines of destruction were carved into the city to draw a square around the fire. As all the burnable empty houses and roadside trees were destroyed, the fire began to wane. With a blizzard still raging, the fire rapidly lost strength without any new fuel.

Once she had regrouped with them on the black stone rooftop, Eliza Silverstorm looked ready to collapse. Miyabi supported her from the side and found her to be unexpectedly light.

In this sense, she was just a girl.

She seemed more concerned for the rioters flooding the streets than her own safety.

“D-did that stop the fire?”

“Ha ha! Fires and fights are the flowers of Edo!!”

The radio was shouting nonsense again, but Alicia stood on the packed-down snow and placed a hand above her eyes to look out from the rooftop.

“We’re pretty close to the castle now. Let’s get in there while we can.”

Entering the castle should have been an entire ordeal in itself, but security had collapsed from the chaos and Miyabi kept making them bridges between rooftops.

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

White boxes of packed snow linked together to create a Bypass Bridge with a support below it.

After placing a large bridge up to the wall separating the city from the castle, he built some Layer Stairs down from the wall. They moved from there to the castle garden. But this garden was always buried under snow, so they did not plant any grass or roses there. Instead, something like wires were strung up in an orderly fashion to artificially design how the snow and ice formed there. Glittering transparent ice fences took the place of hedges, so it felt like entering a botanical garden made of clear crystal.

They were in the castle.

The residence of an entire kingdom’s king.

And without permission. Did he have his Godhorn Tech to thank for this? Miyabi had pulled it off so easily it actually made him nervous.

“Is this really the most strictly guarded place in the kingdom?”

“Sorry about this! I am in your debt!!”

Eliza Silverstorm had a habit of bowing whenever she said anything and the philosopher’s stone had some thoughts on the matter.

“Hm, she isn’t quite a tsundere, but she isn’t really a kuudere either. Her athletic side obscures it, but I think I would categorize her as the strict class rep type.”

A few more girls in armor similar to Eliza’s approached them. Did that make them more of the White Seidr Chosen Knights? They carried large lances and they initially looked cautious, but their faces lit up when they saw Eliza.

“Lady Eliza!!”

“W-what should we do now!?”

The armored girls gathered around Eliza and awaited instructions, suggesting they were not just perfect warriors. But Miyabi appreciated seeing that human side of them.

The younger chosen knights glanced over at the others.

“Um, who are these people?”

The girls appeared to be Eliza’s subordinates, not her companions. She also looked more relaxed and smiled now that they were with her.

“That is hard to explain, but I can assure you they are not our enemy. Anyway, is our king safe? That is our top priority!”

They entered the castle from the garden.

The inside was all white marble floors, red carpets, oppressive crystal chandeliers, and portraits of what appeared to be kings of different generations. It was a spacious building, but it did not feel chilly like the inn had the night before. Miyabi doubted the air was heated with nothing more than fireplaces.

He did a double take when someone passed them by.

“Wow, that was a real maid. I’ve never seen a professional court worker before. They must be the best of the best.”

“I am offended you did not react that way when you saw me, a real knight.”

“And you already saw and were served by a maid: me! W-working up the nerve to do that wasn’t easy, so why didn’t it count!?”

Eliza and Celina took issue with his comment, but the younger knights guided them through the resplendent castle. Now was not the time to worry about appropriate etiquette in the presence of a king. Everything was polished to a shine, the air was warm, and a sweet aroma reminiscent of roses or lilies hung in the air. Were their flowers in vases, or had the entire place been turned into a greenhouse? It felt like walking into a fairy tale. Then again, that may have been part of what inspired so much anger in the people freezing outside.

They were shown to the central hall.

By swapping out the furniture, this core of the castle could be converted into an audience chamber, a dance hall, and more.

It was large enough to hold a sports match inside and every surface was decorated with bright and shining artwork.

An old man in gorgeous clothing was accompanied by many chosen knights who wielded giant lances and whose armor included the same feathered headdress and miniskirt as Eliza’s.

“I have much to report, my king!”

The silver ponytailed servant bent her knee and lowered her head, but then she noticed something wasn’t right.

Eliza Silverstorm’s head snapped back up.

“!?”

The others remained standing.

If her bow was what etiquette demanded, then the other knights were all in violation. They refused to pay him the honor due a king and they instead surrounded him and looked down on him.

Eliza stared in disbelief and her lips trembled as she questioned her fellow White Seidr knights.

“What the hell do you think you are doing? This is your king!”

But none of them moved.

The air seemed to have grown solid. An awkward silence hung in the air, like Eliza was the one who had stepped on a magic circle landmine.

One of the chosen knights shrugged like she was sick of hearing those by-the-book responses.

“What are we doing? We are having the king fulfill his duty to the people. By offering up his own head.”

Eliza appeared fully stunned. She did not even show any anger on her face.

“The people’s anger comes from his failure to lead.”

“Don’t you dare!!”

“Do you have any idea how much money was poured into the Icicle Bullet!?”

Eliza’s shoulders shook.

She was saying all the right things, but she could not silence the others. In fact, they argued back with twice the intensity.

The values she believed in meant nothing to these other knights.

Her values rang hollow in their ears.

She had bowed her head with everything she said, she had rejoiced at finding a way to avoid killing the rioters trying to take her own life, and she had refused to escape to safety when her king could be in danger, so the impotence of those values hit her like a powerful blow to the heart.

The person wearing identical magic armor instead criticized her.

Using another set of values.

“The heavy taxes needed to pay for it have left the people starving. Our noble knight’s spears are rented out to other countries like lowly mercenaries and thugs!! Acquiring foreign currency? We’re supposed to be the noble chosen knights, paragons of our kingdom’s virtues! But even you’ve lost count of how many times you’ve bloodied your hands with that dirty work, haven’t you!?”

“But…”

“No one wanted that Godhorn Tech! No one but this king here!!”

Their raised voices were indistinguishable from those of the rioters outside.

Was that because the knights were human too?

Or was this the true ground zero of the uprising?

“He is a poison to our great kingdom, so we cannot afford to show mercy! This will never end until he has been hanged for all the people to see. He must be torn to pieces or this kingdom will be!!”

“…”

Silence fell.

Eliza clenched her teeth before speaking quietly.

“It is true our king may have been led astray by the Godhorn Tech’s power. His lust for its power may have caused him to neglect the people’s wellbeing.”

“Exactly our point!”

“But I am his knight.”

She used her words to cast out those careless feelings.

She stared straight at the other knights and raised her voice to a roar.

“Whatever might happen, I, Eliza Silverstorm, was appointed a White Seidr Chosen Knight by the king!! So I shall dedicate my life in service to the king who gave it meaning. I will never abandon him. I might correct his mistakes, but I have been granted no power to judge him guilty!!”

The other chosen knights stared blankly back at her and their representative finally responded with exasperation in her voice.

“You are a fool.” She looked at Eliza like she was garbage lying on the road. “The people out there are not the only ones angry about this. Everyone serving in the castle feels the same.”

With a scraping of metal, they moved toward Eliza.

All the other chosen knights in their magic armor and wielding their lances began to surround her.

Eliza sought no assistance from anyone. Not even from the younger knights who had led her here.

“My surname was a joyous gift granted me by the king. I will carry that proof of my knighthood until the day it is carved into my gravestone.”

She would have her way even if she had to do it alone.

She directed her control lance toward her colleagues’ many lances as if to say she needed no companions.

“Come. I may be the last one with any loyalty, but I will fulfill my duty as the king’s lance!!”

However, Eliza Silverstorm was not the only one faced with the situation.

“…”

Miyabi Blackgarden was too.

He smiled.

He wanted to believe in people.

He did not want to think of them as foolish, violent creatures that resorted to thoughtless anger.

So he would prove they weren’t by using all the power at his disposal.

“Heh.”

The smiling redhead boy had already stabbed his control sword into the floor.

“Uh, oh,” said the government official in glasses.

A deafening boom and blinding flash filled everything as the seemingly sturdy castle’s wall was mercilessly torn down. It looked like a giant claw had slashed diagonally through the stone. The many chosen knights had seemed so untouchable, but not even they could shrug off the shockwave of a Godhorn Tech blast.

They collapsed all around Miyabi as he smiled with control sword in hand.

“Have a little more faith in the world’s generosity.”

“What…did you do?”

Eliza’s voice was scratchy as she looked up at him.

She had shown him a world out of a fairy tale.

She had shown him values he could get behind.

So he only had to act on it. He raised his control sword and announced his intentions with a smile.

“I’m in too. How I use this strongest power is up to me. Eliza Silverstorm! I refuse to let you make this last stand all on your own!!!!!!”

Helen, meanwhile, was apoplectic.

Pale in the face, the government official yelled at him.

“You- you can’t just- international incident!”

“Wh-what just happened?” groaned one of the collapsed chosen knights, trying to get up from the floor.

But then she saw the massive form leisurely flying through the frigid white sky visible through the crack in the castle wall.

That was the Lucifer Horn.

“Eek!? A G-Godhorn Tech!?”

“I honestly have no clue how this happened either.” Eliza Silverstorm sighed before continuing. “But this is over. Lower your lances! I must demand our king changes his ways and pacifies the people! Or do you intend to fight against a Godhorn Tech!?”

Celina and Alicia approached Miyabi and whispered to him.

Nothing was as delightful as a secret conversation while on course to win.

“(Heh heh heh. Miyabi, they’re scared, so go ahead and finish them off!)”

“(Eh heh heh heh! She’s right. Smash a column or wall with your sword to scare them more!!)”

He only had to swing the control sword.

The power from the horn gave it the edge needed to break right through any of the columns in the central hall.

Now, how much were those marble columns worth?

The village-raised incarnation of destruction showed no mercy.

“Eek!”

The already intimidated chosen knights slowly crept backwards. This was working. Or so Miyabi thought.

But the woman who had made herself leader of the enemy knights forced a smile.

“Do not take us for fools.”

“What do you mean?”

This was not the victory he had envisioned. Eliza’s question may have summoned some unseen defeat. Whatever the case, the enemy knight continued speaking.

“We chose to rebel against the king to save the people. Because it is our duty as the White Seidr to protect them. And we will use even this kingdom’s greatest power to achieve that.”

“This kingdom’s greatest power?” parroted Eliza in confusion, but then her face stiffened. “You don’t mean…!?”

The chosen knights all used the same standardized equipment.

That included the beautiful and intricately designed armor and miniskirt that relied on magical defenses.

But it also included the lances that were much too large for them.

Yes.

Was there more than one control lance?

“That great firepower was granted to the White Seidr Chosen Knights as a whole. You happened to be the most compatible, but it was not your personal possession.” The enemy knight had regained enough confidence to scoff. “Even that control lance is just for show. We were always choosing its actions by a majority vote and kindly voting your way every time.”

It was now Eliza’s turn to groan.

“Are you insane?”

“Behold the true will of White Seidr!”

The younger knights had fear in their eyes.

They had guided Eliza here and had not been influenced to same extent as the others, but they still lacked the courage to risk their lives here. Some of the girls even squeezed their eyes shut.

So none of them protested that announcement.

“The will of every last one of us, save you!!”

“Again, are you insane!? You can’t ram that thing into the labyrinthine castle town!!”

“Control lance, connect to the horn core. Tactical open.”

There was no stopping it.

The mistaken majority was about to destroy the king’s kingdom.

“Icicle Bullet.”

The devastating trigger was pulled.

“Shoot down that unidentified Godhorn Tech and offer the foolish king’s head to the people!!”

Between the Lines 2

The Independent Militaria Material Kingdom.

Commonly known as the Arsenal Kingdom.

That fortress state trapped in deep snow was also one of the continent’s greatest military powers. They were once threatened by the Empire, but their icy land was never taken and they successfully repelled the Empire’s forces with a direct defense. Their metalworking skills combined human and dwarf techniques, making them second to none in that field.

On the other hand, the kingdom wanted for much.

For one, the year-round snow prevented much in the way of crops. The kingdom did not starve thanks to the wild animal meat they could hunt, but all grains and vegetables had to be imported and a balanced diet was viewed as a luxury only afforded to the wealthy class.

Then there was magical technology.

As a contrast to metal equipment, they were starved for magical equipment.

The Arsenal Kingdom’s swords and armor were known for being made of solid tempered steel. They could crush with their solid weight and block or parry with their smooth movable parts. But Eliza Silverstorm knew all too well that the other countries joked they could be immobilized by magnets.

The White Seidr Chosen Knights were an oddity among the Arsenal Kingdom. They wore elegant and slim armor with a feather headdress made of precious metals and a miniskirt.

By keeping that elite unit’s numbers down, they could equip themselves with the kingdom’s limited amount of magical equipment. They were mostly just for show – a unit marched down the street in a parade or sent to other countries to make the kingdom as a whole look wealthier than it really was.

Then there was the Icicle Bullet.

That Godhorn Tech was an even more extreme example.

After the Empire collapsed on its own, it no longer threatened the rest of the continent and there was no real need for such a monstrous weapon. It was especially difficult to maintain for the magically-weak Arsenal Kingdom, so the expenses placed a lot more pressure on their finances than for the other powers. The ideals of knighthood were not enough to fudge the finances.

And this was the inevitable result.

“Here they come,” whispered Eliza Silverstorm, lying in the snow and removing binoculars from her eyes. “That’s five snow wagons that replaced their wheels with sleds. They have Slaughter Ants leading and trailing them for protection. This must be the traders. If our information is correct, they are loaded with amplified silver and crystals soaked in liquid magic.”

“Roger that. Time for another day’s work, huh?”

She heard the rustling of forest vegetation.

She was not alone. More knights appeared seemingly out of nowhere, forming a large unit.

Instead of their pretty parade armor, they now wore dazzling leather assassin outfits. They were hiding their identities and affiliation because this mission was far removed from her idea of what a knight should be doing.

Expert fighters trained to be their kingdom’s elite were attacking ordinary traders, even if those traders had hired bodyguards.

Of course, their objective was not to steal the magical materials.

The assets carried by some traders would be a drop in the bucket to an entire kingdom. Once it was done, a man wearing a black robe pulled up over his head approached Eliza.

He wore a mask over his face, his shoes had raised soles, and he kept his hips bent at all times. He was even masking his true height.

Eliza did not know who he really was.

“Excellent work. You wiped them out without any casualties on your end. I can see why they call you chosen knights.”

She had grown accustomed to the feel of the cold leather clinging to her body and she carried one of the large machetes they had bought at the market to ensure the wounds on the corpses did not give away their kingdom’s involvement.

“Are you here to mock us?” she asked with a hard look on her face.

“Far from it. The Arsenal Kingdom should be set for a while now, don’t you think?”

She felt like she could see the icy smile hidden below his mask.

He could see the big picture here, but Eliza could not.

“The preparations are complete. Now that their business rivals have met an ‘unfortunate accident’, the Bodenburg Company will have an easier time reaching this region. If you construct a stronger and more stable business partnership, you can purchase all the fruits, vegetables, and magical materials you want. Not long now until you are freed from your starvation. Hold your heads high because you have saved the people of your kingdom.”

“…”

“And here is your reward for this job.”

He snapped his fingers and another shadowy figure stepped forward to set down a mountain climbing rucksack stuffed full of something. It had to be filled with foreign currency, but Eliza did not reach for it.

The right thing was not always pretty.

But her own values refused to accept that.

If she accepted this as the right thing to do, she was truly lost. She had to at least view it as a dirty job.

“Are you from the Bodenburg Company?”

“No, I am merely someone who benefits from their rise.”

He was not going to identify himself that easily.

And she knew the people who hid their appearance and identity were rarely good people.

“I will be contacting you again shortly. Until then.”

“What is your name!?”

“Strange Guide. No, think of me as one of their underlings.”

The masked men left.

She had not expected an honest answer to her question, so she was left with no solid facts, no way of finding the answers, and a rucksack stuffed full of dirty money. Well, that and a pile of corpses surrounded by toppled wagons.

Would the knights in the picture books she grew up reading have done something like this?

Wasn’t this the work of mercenaries…if not bandits?

“Hey,” called one of the other chosen knights wearing red leather assassin outfit.

The shine of the leather felt like a cruel mockery of the gorgeous knight armor they were meant to wear.

This companion was gritting her teeth and glaring down at the rucksack full of foreign currency.

None of them wanted to touch it, but as much as it disgusted them, they would have to grab the shoulder straps and take it back with them. A knight served her king, no matter how much she disliked her orders. They were all weary. They might be rich in materials and money, but their minds were near collapse. They were so worn down mentally that their bare souls were leaking out.

The people of their kingdom were ignorant of it all, the knights were sick of it all, and only the king rejoiced at the influx of money.

Like a con artist, they were barely getting by from one job to another, but it always worked out in the end, preventing them from ever letting go of the Godhorn Tech draining their resources.

They all understood the problem, so they would whisper amongst themselves when they knew the king could not overhear them.

This was the knights’ resentment.

Or maybe it was the complaints of those never allowed to complain.

“Hey, Eliza. How many more times must we sell our souls?”

Eliza Silverstorm was their leader, but she had no answer for them.

Which may have been why it turned out the way it did.

Chapter 3 Part 3

The central hall, currently an audience chamber, was falling apart.

The din outside was fading away and a painful silence was sneaking in.

Or so it seemed.

“The Icicle Bullet is coming,” said Eliza Silverstorm, ignoring the biting chill entering through the large crack torn in the outer wall as if by a diagonal slash of a claw. “It left its border patrol to come here, to the center of our kingdom.”

“Y-you must be joking!” Celina Bodenburg could not believe what she was hearing. “That ice weapon derailed my Schwarz Schütze just by crashing into it from the side! Do you have any idea what happens if that breaks through the outer wall and plows through the closely-packed homes and shops of the castle town!?”

“Wait, wait, hey, wait!! Can’t you attack that sexy knight to get her to stop?”

The radio’s suggestion was rejected by Alicia Blueforest.

“Those White Seidr knights said the decision comes from a majority vote and we simply don’t have enough time to deal with all of them!”

“This kingdom is done for if the Icicle Bullet makes it here,” shouted Helen Clockgear in alarm. “The castle walls, the castle town, and the castle itself will all be swept away, along with every rioter in between!”

Miyabi thought quietly about the issue.

“…”

“Koo,” sadly cried red Alma with a hand(?) on its mouth.

Eliza bit her lip, but she did not hesitate.

That knight had lost her order, her companions, and her lance, but she was unbroken as she lowered her head here. Lowered it toward a simple boy with no official title of his own.

“Please.”

Receiving support took courage too. Plus, she did not have the power to stop him if he did betray her here. But she took this step regardless, using her great willpower.

“Stop the Icicle Bullet. Please use your power to protect the Arsenal Kingdom!!”

“Heh. If I was gonna say no to that, I wouldn’t’ve gotten involved in the first place.”

That settled it.

Miyabi Blackgarden rushed out through the tear in the castle’s wall.

“The Icicle Bullet is on its way.”

From this height, he could see it on the snowy plain stretching out beyond the castle town and castle wall.

Waiting here at the castle would mean sacrificing everyone in the castle town. The people there were packing the streets and speaking out against their poor treatment, oblivious to the approaching danger. If the snow sleigh was allowed to reach the castle town, it would result in an uncountable number of dead.

Miyabi looked back and spoke to Alma, Alicia, and the others.

“We can start by crossing the roofs to reach the wall outside the castle town. We can discuss a plan then!”

They practically jumped from building to building.

He created Bypass Bridges and Layer Stairs to make shortcuts and occasionally passed directly above the rioters covering the surface. The rioters were half drunk on rage, so they had failed to notice the danger. Although noticing it would only lead to a panic.

Miyabi’s party ran back to the gate they had initially entered through.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I was so exhausted after the first time, but it’s going so much faster now.”

“Experience makes people grow,” said Celina. “This shows just how much of it you have accumulated.”

They rushed out through the thick gate.

The boy jabbed his control sword down into the snowy ground and a large magic circle floated up at his feet.

Eliza had sworn she would show the king the error of his ways and save the rioters and other knights who were throwing stones and directing their weapons toward her. And she was not just saying that; she had risked her life to fight that fight all on her own.

Miyabi thought that made her super cool, so he was intent on doing this her way.

The kingdom was foolish, but he would protect it for that proud chosen knight.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Lucifer Horn, tactical open.”

Speaking the words was all well and good, but how could he actually stop this thing?

“What am I supposed to do now!?”

“That thing’s ramming power knocked over the supposedly impregnable Schwarz Schütze.” Celina best understood the gravity of that statement and she tried to express the threat with her gestures and body language. “I doubt your laser or bombs will be enough to stop it. You might hit it with several blasts, but as long as its basic shape remains, its momentum will keep it sliding across the snow!!”

“You need to work smarter, not harder,” said Alicia. “Fortunately, we know what direction the Icicle Bullet is coming from. You can create several walls and trenches to block its path.”

“Even thin paper can block a bullet with enough layers. And several used stockings together can make a good substitute sink strainer in a pinch,” cackled the philosopher’s stone. “So stay focused and build a solid wall!!”

That dreadfully white weapon looked so distant.

It was charging toward them. The white mass growing near the horizon had to be all the snow being knocked into the air.

This was a battle between Godhorn Techs.

It was creation versus destruction.

It was a head-on clash.

Noticing something, Eliza Silverstorm shouted “Watch out!!”

A great boom shook their surroundings.

The Icicle Bullet had yet to reach them, but it had weapons other than ramming. The explosion spread sharp spines of ice rather than flames. The blast was big enough to freeze mammoths by the dozen, not to mention humans.

“The Icicle Bullet’s greatest attack is the full-speed ram using its own weight,” explained Eliza, its original pilot. “So to ensure that attack hits, it rules the battlefield with the support of its many other weapons. That freezing magic is a good example. It is used to hold the target in place long enough for the ram to hit. It can also use divination to take aim…so…it…can…”

Miyabi bristled and shouted back when she trailed off like that.

“If it’s got some kind of secret, you’d better tell us now!! The fate of your kingdom is on the line!!”

“It has…”

“Yes? It has what?”

“That Godhorn Tech includes a Perfect Divination Slide Rule that uses Seidr magic! So it will never miss!!”

He stared blankly for a moment.

She had squeezed her eyes shut and blushed to make this confession, but he had no idea why it had been so hard for her. Was this some great secret of the knights? But Seidr was in their name.

Then he noticed Alicia and Helen refusing to look him in the eye either.

There was more to this.

“Th-the thing is, Seidr magic is an extremely accurate form of divination, but…”

The glasses woman fidgeted and poked her index fingers together in front of her large chest.

She said the rest as quickly and quietly as she could.

“Seeing a vision of the future requires detaching your mind from reality, but letting the spell song take over and guide you into a trance makes it very hard to restrain the, uh, feelings that naturally occur in the body, so um, uh, it is a very dangerous form of divination with an unavoidable side effect of being left in a mood that, shall we say, makes it hard to get to sleep at night, so as strait-laced as this knight might look, she must actually be filled with barely-contained unfulfilled desires!!”

Miyabi stared into the distance, entirely forgetting their dire situation.

He recalled what the chosen knights in the castle had said.

“The Icicle Bullet was granted to the White Seidr Chosen Knights as a whole.”

“Uh.”

“But it was left in Eliza’s care because she was the most compatible???”

“~ ~ ~”

Eliza blushed and tearfully clutched her large lance as this secret was revealed. She could no longer even get her voice out. But with the Godhorn Tech stolen, her mood would not change for the time being.

And now was not the time to be thinking up a new nickname for her.

“Enough!!” shouted the Knight of Masked Horniness. “The Arsenal Kingdom itself is being targeted this time. It might not matter as much against a stationary target, but don’t assume the ramming is the Icicle Bullet’s only weapon. Even its secondary weapons can splatter a human across the snow easily enough!!”

Helen knew all too well that no blade small enough to fit in a human hand was going to help, no matter how skilled its wielder was with swords or magic, so she was growing increasingly anxious.

“W-we’re running short on time!” she shouted.

Miyabi knew that.

He had sworn to himself he would never abandon this knight who was strait-laced in the extreme, so he raised his hand and spoke quietly.

“Lucifer Horn…take care of this.”

What they needed was an obstacle.

Preferably, a large one made of several layers.

He stepped in front of the others, stabbed his control sword into the ground, and gave the command. The Lucifer Horn’s massive form swooped by overhead and its laser tore across the ground behind it.

It flew sideways to tear a few cliffs into the ground.

It also melted the snow to create a muddy marsh. The Icicle Bullet was designed to slide across the year-round snow, so this could actually help slow it down.

But not stop it. He looked back and raised his voice.

“Hey, Eliza! The Arsenal Kingdom is a kingdom of steel, right!? And with those huge walls around everything, you must have plenty of stone too.”

“Y-yes. But we are weak when it comes to magic. What of it!?”

“I’ll be borrowing that.”

He slowly inhaled and then spoke.

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

Giant obstacles appeared in rapid succession, weaving through the gaps left by the straight trenches and deep marsh.

Metal spikes more sinister than a rose vine’s thorns curled around to catch at the Godhorn Tech.

Countless upside-down anchors jutted up from the deep snow to tear at the bottom of the ice weapon.

Chunks of stone formed ramps that would send the snow sleigh airborne, throwing off its balance.

It was like an athletic obstacle course or a brutal off-road horse-racing track.

He created more and more, building up their power little by little, but none of it helped relieve his anxiety!!

“Here it comes, Miyabi!!” warned Helen.

It had begun.

The colossal Icicle Bullet charged in with fearsome acceleration. Bright lights flashed across it and the explosive booms arrived a moment later. Explosions of ice erupted much too close for comfort and a few of the makeshift walls were shattered. Ironically, the delay between the light and sound when the Icicle Bullet fired its weapons told them its distance, just like midsummer lightning and thunder. The massive Godhorn Tech seemed like an artillery shell itself.

Alicia shouted over at him while holding her bangs down against the blowing wind produced by the snow blasted into the air.

“It broke right through your trenches! Don’t fail to recalculate, boy! Thoughtlessly creating more cliffs and marshes won’t be enough to slow it down!!”

“Kh.”

A direct hit from this would literally break through an entire kingdom, bring down the central castle, and physically destroy everything.

The rolls of metal thorns were torn and the forest of anchors was crushed.

It even froze the marshes of thawed snow with its magic, all so it could continue onward at full speed.

“Miyabi!! Um, uh, look!”

He heard Celina shouting to him.

And that was not all.

Just as he was preparing to send snowmelt into a crater to create a new marsh, his peripheral vision noticed Alicia doing something.

But it was too late.

Why?

Because the color white filled his vision as the Icicle Bullet grew closer.

“Ah.”

Only once it was this close did he truly grasp that it was made of ice. The Icicle Bullet was a giant sleigh. The true core of the device were the two blades keeping contact with the ground, but they were made of ice. It really was a gigantic sorcery weapon. Every part of it was supported by magic.

Time seemed to have stopped.

But he did not have time to get his voice out.

It hit him.

The Godhorn Tech’s ramming attack crashed into Miyabi Blackgarden from dead ahead.

A dreadful cracking sound filled Miyabi’s mind, but he felt no real pain in his head. He was past even thinking about what had happened to his body. His torso may have been torn in two for all he knew.

No.

He had apparently gotten caught on the Icicle Bullet after it hit him. It was a colossal sleigh and its blades were made of jagged ice. The ice blades looked like frozen conifer trees laid on their side and he was caught on one of them. It must not have been made to attack a target as small as a human.

But this was still deadly. More than half his vision was dyed red.

My adventure didn’t last long, thought Miyabi.

He was just some village boy, not a legendary hero. When people died, they just died. He was no more than a rookie, so there was only so much he could accomplish when the Lucifer Horn was simply plopped down in his lap. He may have already known that deep down.

He had not wanted to learn this.

He wished he had been killed instantly, so he could avoid this realization.

And yet…

“…yabi…”

He heard a voice.

It was so weak that he normally might have thought he was imagining it, but it was very real.

A voice was calling his name.

“Miyabi, wait.”

It was falling apart.

It was a desperate thing, stripped of all pride and vanity.

It was the awkward voice of someone who had cast aside her image of a powerful knight to bet everything on this boy.

The girl, Eliza Silverstorm, was crying.

“Don’t leave me all alone! Please don’t give up on everyone in my kingdom!! Miyabiiii!!!!!!”

With a dull cracking, Miyabi Blackgarden gathered all his strength to force his eyes back open. He had been hit by the Godhorn Tech and caught on the mass of ice that formed the sleigh’s blade, so he could not even imagine how much damage his body had taken.

But the control sword remained in his hand.

When he looked down at that limp and bloodstained hand, he just about laughed at his own foolishness. His body had regained its focus before his mind had.

Fight.

Fight to the end so you can wipe away her tears.

He could finally hear his own inner voice.

You were about ready to give up on everything after nearly dying just the once, but this girl risked something even more important than her life to bet it all on you. And you’re just going to die without living up to that trust?

She protected her king.

She was separated from the rioting citizens and from the other chosen knights in identical armor.

Didn’t you decide you weren’t going to abandon her to the isolation she found after staying true to her values? She put all of her hopes in you, but you run into one little setback and you’re ready to give up on life and move on to the afterlife, leaving her behind here?

How can you do that?

Can you really let yourself be that selfish? Miyabi Blackgarden, what kind of person do you want to be!? You carry the powers of destruction and creation and that lets you do just about anything, but you’re going to let this world restrict you!? You aren’t even going to try to destroy the barriers and you’re just going to accept the limits placed on you!!!???

“Ugh.”

So.

He jabbed with the control sword in his hand. But not into the ground. He jabbed it into the Icicle Bullet’s ice blade.

Hence the dull cracking sound.

“Again…Lucifer Horn.”

The Lucifer Horn bomber was undoubtedly the strongest as it harnessed the unbelievably brutal power of a Wicked God horn. But it was up to Miyabi Blackgarden to decide how that power was used. That was a “power” that came from the boy himself.

First, he would destroy.

Destroy the horrific conclusion caused by the misunderstandings between the king, the knights, and the people, even though they had all wished the best for the kingdom and happiness for its people.

Then he would create.

Create a world that this girl, who was weeping after abandoning her pride and status to stand up for what she believed in, could face with her head held high.

If he could accomplish that, the boy would accept this crystallization of humanity’s lowly sins, which included building a weapon out of a Wicked God horn. He would accept this incredible power that could even destroy the world.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Lucifer Horn, tactical open.”

So he forcibly opened a control magic circle on the surface of the Icicle Bullet where his control sword had stabbed into it.

And he roared toward the heavens to become the person he hoped to be.

“Here’s your target, Lucifer Horn!! Attack here nowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!”

Something separated from the Lucifer Horn’s wing up above.

It was a massive bomb.

But something happened before the bomb could drop to the snowy ground and detonate and before the Icicle Bullet could attempt to defend against it.

A thick beam of light dropped down to follow after the bomb.

That was the sorcery weapon loaded on the Lucifer Horn from the beginning. It pierced right through the falling bomb, detonating it in midair.

A thick shockwave dropped down like a suspended ceiling.

The entire Icicle Bullet sank down into the snow.

Then another beam of light tore across the ground from the side. The snow sleigh’s massive suspension had already been compressed to absorb the previous impact, so now it audibly snapped.

The snow sleigh’s right side sank even further.

Conversely, the left side sprang upwards, breaking Miyabi’s bond to the jagged ice blade.

He was thrown from the Godhorn Tech and rolled along the snow for dozens of meters.

He heard the castle wall breaking, but that was all. The Icicle Bullet failed to pierce through, only managing to partially embed itself in the stone.

It was too soon to relax.

(What happened to that absurdly strait-laced girl?)

“Miyabi…”

He heard a sobbing voice.

Of all things, that ridiculously honest girl was standing in front of the gate all on her own.

She had her arms spread to act as one final barrier.

Miyabi noticed her legs were trembling.

(Yeah, of course she’s terrified.)

At this point, it actually angered him. She might be a chosen knight or a White Seidr or whatever, but how had she still not figured out that her strait-lacedness had long since reached lethal levels? What would she have done if he hadn’t managed to divert the Icicle Bullet’s path a little right at the end there? Her slender body couldn’t possibly defend against a ram from that Godhorn Tech.

He honestly did not even care what state his own body was in.

He only wanted to give that ridiculous girl a piece of his mind. He wanted to tell her to at least try to look after her own life. Because seeing her do things like this was why he had felt the need to join the fight himself.

But after a second, he laughed.

…He realized she must have felt the same way he did.

They were both reckless in the extreme. He had refused to give up even after the Icicle Bullet hit him head-on, so he was probably the very last person she wanted to hear criticizing her actions here.

“Gasp, pant.”

He was sticky with blood.

He was certain this had taken years off his life. He did not even want to know how many bones he had broken. But he had never let go of the control sword. That effort had meant more wounds and a strong blood flavor filling his mouth, but he had refused to let go. He slowly stood up, unable to keep his body straight.

“The Icicle Bullet…stopped?”

That thought finally occurred to Eliza Silverstorm.

Before even thinking about her own survival, she felt relief that the king, her colleagues, the kingdom’s people, and the companions she had fought alongside were all safe.

Miyabi swore to himself he would call her an idiot later on.

“I-it really stopped? Sniff, sob. Everyone’s…safe now?”

“No, not yet.”

But Miyabi had reached a different conclusion.

The tall stone wall was vibrating along with an ominous rumble. Needless to say, this came from the Icicle Bullet with its head buried inside that wall.

This was not over yet. The battle had not been won. Any headpats or rebukes would have to wait.

“Koo!” cried red Alma while rubbing against his leg.

“It’s only stopped for now. The knights’ majority vote is still in effect and it hasn’t been given a stop order. It will resume moving if left like this.” He spat some blood into the snow and lifted his control sword. “I have to deliver the finishing blow. Is that okay?”

Celina bitterly looked away. This may have reminded her of the agony when it had been her.

Finally, Eliza got out a scratchy voice.

Her eyes were already red and a tear dripped from one of them as she threw out her own pride.

“Yes.” Strength filled her voice as she overcame this final barrier. “Yes, go ahead! If that will protect the king and the people!! If it will remove the discord between the king and the knights and allow us to stand up as a unified kingdom once more!”

She likely had something she wanted to protect even if it meant tearing herself to pieces, so she could keep going no matter how injured she was.

She was stronger than anyone, so she would never lose her shine, even without the Godhorn Tech.

She faced forward and spoke with conviction.

“Do it. That knight’s lance deserves to be broken now that it has lost its luster!!”

“Got it.”

He stabbed his control sword into the snow.

A magic circle opened and he faced the colossal weapon once more.

Was this destruction?

No, he was creating a new path for this girl and her kingdom.

“Sorry, Icicle Bullet.”

He felt like he had to say this.

Even if this was the embodiment of destruction that had left him so badly injured.

“This wasn’t your fault. Thank you for listening to everyone’s commands all this time. You did a great job.”

That monster had faithfully obeyed without once breaking its promise, but now it vanished into the white beam of light that dropped from the heavens.

Character Profiles

Sophia Calamity-Jinx

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 158cm

Started out as a Curse Cleaner who purifies malicious residual thoughts, but accidentally showed an interest in an “embarrassing charm” contract found when collecting items from an abandoned house and is now constantly targeted by vengeful spirits. There is a way to remove the charm, but the method is too embarrassing for her to tell anyone what it is. She is pursuing Under Lilith whose knowledge of magic and contracts may be able to remove the charm.

Eliza Silverstorm

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A member of the White Seidr, an all-female group of chosen knights within the Arsenal Kingdom. She was given command of the Icicle Bullet Godhorn Tech due to her excellent compatibility. She is an honest but inflexible person, so even if it is at her king’s command, she does not enjoy the mercenary-like dirty work she performs while loaned out to other countries.

Garret Goldcave

Apparent Age: 50 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 120cm

A dwarf craftsman who creates the traps used to protect royal and noble tombs. Specializes in “soul possessing” traps disguised as treasure chests, money bags, gargoyles, etc. Upon learning his carefully-created traps were being removed from royal tombs and being misused for Strange Guide’s death games, he began traveling the world to “retrieve” the traps.

Godhorn Tech Sleigh: Icicle Bullet

Pilot: Eliza Silverstorm

Affiliation: Independent Militaria Material Kingdom

Size (LxWxH): 50m x 20m x 10m

A giant sleigh made of ice. Fires magic shells that freeze its target in place and then runs them over with the giant sleigh itself. As powerful as that attack is, the real problem is how it predicts its target’s next move to always hit with its attacks. If an opponent cannot avoid that seemingly prophetic aim, victory is an impossibility. Design motif: seidr magic.

Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 2

“Oh?”

Victia Magnumfist, a martial artist in a red dress, was staring into the distance.

Something was headed this way. The Lucifer Horn passed by, its enormous wings spread, and something was dumped onto the island.

It was a naked girl. With big boobs.

“And now the perverts are attacking? Nice. An excellent test of my skills. I’ll show you what my training here has taught me!!”

“Oh, god, what now!? C-can you at least let me put my clothes on first!?” screamed Sophia Calamity-Jinx while gathering a thick cloth in front of her.

The tearful girl viewed the island to find only the bare minimum of civilization. She saw a few tents made of what looked like the hide of a large animal and a campfire situated on the ground. A branch was suspended above so a pot could hang over the fire, but the pot itself appeared to be made from a large animal’s skull.

“C-clothes. Clothes, clothes.”

“Hm? This island’s only got sexy swimsuits.”

“What- but- how does a civilization like that even develop!?”

Sophia blushed and even shed tears as she slowly squirmed her way into her own priest clothing. Meanwhile, she received an explanation from the extreme optimist who insisted that this remote island was the perfect place to train.

“Um, so you’re saying we have joined the party of this person called…Miyabi was it?”

“I think so, yeah,” said Victia. “I think when someone scares him bad enough, he snags them with a flying trap to recruit them! Ah ha ha. He’s got a great eye for talent, but once he’s got his eye on you, there’s no escape!!”

“Don’t people usually call that kidnapping or abduction? And why take us away against our will and then not even use us? Is he just holding onto us just in case!?”

The downer of an indoorsy type had a lot of questions about this, but rolling around and flailing her limbs was not going to change anything. If you wanted to avoid dying on the beach, you had to actively work toward survival.

“First, I’d like a room to myself. You have a few tents already, so can I borrow one of them?”

“Oh, those are my cheesemaking tents. The sun will ruin the whole process, after all. But humans are made of tougher stuff, so you’ll get used to it. Just strip off your clothes, lay them down on the sand, lie naked on top of that, and it’ll be morning before you know it!”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………I’m afraid to ask, but you do have a bath, don’t you?”

“Ah ha ha. That’s a silly question. The whole island’s surrounded by water, so why would I need to make a separate bath?”

The busty, stooped-over, downer girl began to tremble. She doubted she could get along with someone who was willing to wash her body in saltwater just because it kept food from spoiling. Did this island carry a curse that continually reduced one’s femininity values the longer you stayed there?

And all while living in such a wild environment.

“U-umm.”

“Need something?”

“D-does that animal skin and bones mean what I think it does?”

“Yup, we lucked out and the place has a thriving ecosystem. I don’t have the patience for fishing, so it’s great that I can get as much meat as I want with just my fists!”

“Nooo!! How is this place a battlefield and an extreme survival environment at the same time!?”

Sophia was a Curse Cleaner, which made her a specialist in fighting the Undead, but she was powerless against forest creatures. In fact, the ordinary animals scared her more. Especially if she was staying in a tent on the ground. She could be killed in her sleep if a nocturnal animal approached while she was too deep asleep to notice.

“Wh-what if a dangerous animal approaches while you’re asleep?”

“You wake up before it reaches you.”

“And what do you do then? I-i-i-if it actually attacks, I mean.”

“You beat it up before it attacks. Or put it in a chokehold. Your choice. Once you get used to it, this the best place in the world! You gain experience at all times – both night and day!”

“…”

Something about this felt very wrong to Sophia. Why was Victia acting like a naked human would be able to defeat a wild beast’s fangs and claws?

This was a desert island, but they could improve their lives here by creating new tools, equipment, and facilities. Fortunately, the ocean and forest provided plenty of materials. That meathead had even made sexy swimsuits on her own, so it felt like anything was possible if you put your mind to it.

“Oh, right. You’re strong against Undead, right?”

“Yes, I suppose. Not that my Curse Cleaner power is going to be any help on a desert island.”

“Don’t be so sure. This place is a den of Beast Novae, including Undead ones. Ah ha ha! See, you had nothing to worry about.”

Sophia shrieked in fear.

At the same time, a dark form poked its head out from between the trees of the forest. But its position was unusual. The head looked child-sized, but it was poking around the tree at a height of more than 3m.

Also, it had countless legs and a glistening black exoskeleton.

A massive centipede was curled around the tree trunk, but the face of an adorable human child was embedded at the front end. Sophia decided that was about the last thing she would want to be reincarnated as.

Victia licked her thumb.

“There you are, you Undead bastard!! We’ve gotta crush that unclean thing before it gets to our food and water!!”

“Wait!!” shouted Sophia, the expert on this subject (who was still only half dressed). “Attacking it and driving it away won’t solve this. The Undead are fueled by any power that ‘sends people to death’, so driving them away with punches and kicks will only give them more power for when they attack again.”

“Is that how it works?”

“This is a Hellbug. When a child dies lost at sea or in the mountains and they refuse the judgment of the dead, they are punished by being stranded in this world until their body is discovered. And they are remade into a hideous form. This just means they were never given a proper burial, so they haven’t done anything wrong themselves.”

As Sophia rattled off her explanation, her face was stern but her eyes were oddly compassionate.

“Even vengeful spirits were once human like us. No one ends up wandering this world after death for no reason. If you discover their reason and resolve the issue, they will return to their rightful place all on their own. In this case, we only have to ask them where they lost their life and search out their remains. No punching necessary.”

“Huh, neat. And what about Shadow Treading Parasites?”

“Those are plant spirits. It is the result of a plant growing too accustomed to manipulating animals with its flowers or fruit. But it is all for naught. The more they make their controlled host shine, the more pathetic they grow while hiding in the host’s shadow.”

A Curse Cleaner was a type of healer, not a knight or warrior.

The colorful will-o’-the-wisps following her around may have been the result of a certain type of popularity.

Just then, a massive form passed by above the small island. The Lucifer Horn dropped a new party member from its wire.

This one was an old male dwarf.

Sophia Calamity-Jinx, whose jiggliness was still only partially concealed, blanked her expression.

“Die, die! This insolent man must diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!!!!!!”

The pure and bashful girl showed no mercy.

Victia Magnumfist assessed her handiwork.

“Your punches aren’t half bad. With a little polishing, you could really shine.”

Back to Chapter 2

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