Godhorn Tech:Volume2 Chapter4
Chapter 4 Section 1
People’s fear led to doubt. The have-nots doubted the haves while the haves doubted themselves.
And they all chose the same method of finding peace: to attack.
Moebius Entrance.
Confronting that man required turning back from the snow-covered Arsenal Kingdom and returning to the first village. The Schwarz Schütze had taken them the majority of the way there, but they would have to trek through the cold on the way back. That meant taking time to prepare for the journey in the Arsenal Kingdom.
But the 15-year-old redhead boy with sawdust goggles on his forehead did not remember any of it.
He knew he and the others had walked around the fortress city surrounded by those thick walls, but he did not remember how he had spent his time there.
“S-sorry,” he vaguely recalled a puppy-like chosen knight saying. “Tours of the castle are currently canceled due to all the confusion. But only because everyone is working so hard to fix our current situation instead of insisting someone else do it. In that sense, this is a step in the right direction.”
She wore gorgeous armor, including fine silverwork, a feather headdress, and a miniskirt, but it also possessed excellent magical defenses. She was one of the elite White Seidr Chosen Knights, but she was now running around fixing up the castle town with the ordinary soldiers.
The heat of the riot had faded from the icy city, so everyone was working to gather up the trash and repair the crumbling wall.
“Sorry, but no tours today,” he half-remembered a chosen knight saying with a condescending look. “Nothing good comes of the commoners seeing chaos in the castle. You should leave now.”
The icicles and frozen waterways were likely an intentional part of the city’s design in this snowy land.
“Sigh, the place is finally looking like a city again,” he partially remembered a tomboyish chosen knight commenting. “I have more strength than I know what to do with, so I really wish they would send some jobs my way. I’ll do anything – even lay bricks or paint walls!”
“Eh? You were wondering if all the Arsenal Kingdom’s knights are women?” He must have asked a knowledgeable chosen knight that at some point. “It’s not a requirement, but it is true most are. Hee hee. But we do have male knights. Look around and you might just find one.”
But.
He felt like he was wandering through a dream.
He must have left the Arsenal Kingdom at some point, but he didn’t remember doing it. He would not have questioned it if someone told him the memories were merely implanted in his head.
The shock had left him feeling utterly pathetic.
Betrayals did not just leave the victim brimming with rage toward the traitor. It was more complicated than just hating an enemy. They found themselves unable to trust themselves after trusting the traitor like that. It left a deep emotional scar.
“Moebius.”
“Hold on, boy. I thought you were shopping around to prepare for our journey.”
He did not even hear Alicia Blueforest, an elf who looked 13 or 14.
Instead, he stabbed his thick blade into the deep snow.
That control sword had a short blade for a two-handed sword, but who would believe it had originally been a machete? It was in fact a special control device used to send commands to the Lucifer Horn.
He let his anger take control of his voice.
He felt like he had lost all other emotions.
He shouted the name like he was preparing to tear the man’s throat out with his teeth.
“Moebius Entrance!”
“Wait!! Summoning that thing in this blizzard accomplishes nothing. Snatching yourself up with its wire will only throw you out into the sky!!”
The short elf’s white dress fluttered as she grabbed at Miyabi to stop him. Concluding that was not enough, Helen Clockgear, a young black-haired woman in a tight skirt and glasses, struck the back of the boy’s neck with the pommel of her knife. He collapsed into the snow, and Eliza Silverstorm, a professional fighter of the White Seidr Chosen Knights, grew flustered.
“But why?” shouted blonde Alicia, scooping the boy up from the snow. “Why would he be pulling the strings!?”
None of them had the answer.
Nor would they until they returned to where this journey had begun.
They knew the answer awaiting them would please none of them, but they had to return to the first village. They had arrived comfortably enough in the Schwarz Schütze armored train, but the way back would be on foot, meaning the white snowscape would bear its fangs.
Just one step outside of the gate transformed their surroundings into one of biting cold.
“Are we really headed in the right direction?” groaned Celina Bodenburg, whose black dress left her shoulders bared even in the frigid temperatures. “We aren’t going to end up stranded out here, are we?”
They could not continue traveling through the night.
As impatient as they were, a night blizzard would be fatal. When they spotted a village along the way, they would take a short detour to find an inn. If they did not, they had to camp out in a cave or some other shelter.
Today, they were in a rocky mountain cave.
“Ugh, how many days has it been now?” asked Alicia. “How I miss stretching out in a nice bath.”
“Why is this forest elf only interested in burning trees for warmth?” added Helen. “But to be fair, I’m just as sick of this snowy land as she is.”
Helen was soaking a towel in boiled water. When they couldn’t find an inn, even that was a luxury. She had loosened her jacket and tied up her black hair to rub the wet towel against her nape, breathing an alluring sigh. The towel really was their replacement for a bath. Not only did it clean them off, it warmed them and helped them relax, albeit to a limited extent.
“Koo,” cried the stuffed animal creature called Alma.
That juvenile Wicked God was currently in a red phoenix form. It was only the size of a slipper, but its own warmth kept it nice and cozy. It looked a little sleepy.
Celina was passing water through a portable filter the size of a beer mug and using the purified water to cast Aqua Wash magic on her hands, eliciting an exasperated comment from Alicia.
“When did you humans forget how to play in the dirt and vegetation? We are surrounded by water out there. Just fill a pot with snow and place it over the fire. You aren’t going to sterilize our dinner with ethanol and formaldehyde, are you?”
“This may be difficult to understand for a nature-loving elf who thinks bathing in the same natural springs as an elephant or hippo will actually get her clean, but a cute and elegant lady must be ever vigilant when it comes to cleanliness. You should thank me for this kind gift – have some deodorant.”
The wild elf, whose long hair and nape gave off a sweet feminine scent, fled as she was sprayed with a disinfectant magic that used purifying silver as a catalyst.
Miyabi was curled up by the rocky wall and did not join in the horseplay.
His shell was shut tight around him.
Even in the freezing cave, the gloomy-eyed boy only ever brought up one topic.
The passage of time did nothing to remove the roiling mass within his heart.
“I don’t know why he did it.”
Throughout their break, he had been staring out from the cave entrance into the thick curtain of snow while muttering fragments of a conversation with himself.
He seemed to be releasing his doubts in advance in order to escape the nightmare. The pressure building in his heart was so painful he refused to eat.
He felt bad doing this to Eliza.
Starting a journey with this hanging over their heads had to be rough, but he could do nothing to break free of the weight bearing down on him.
“But from the beginning, I only ever did what he told me. He told me to take his Godhorn Tech and he told me to search for the 11th’s sorcery bombs.”
He felt used.
His own words threatened to tear him apart.
“He was even the one who told me to contact Celina and send the armored train to the Arsenal Kingdom!”
He had no real motivation. There was no treasure waiting at the finishing line. But he had to push on. Like it was his penance for being so gullible.
Still, each step brought him closer. If nothing else, the path he took would not betray him.
And before he knew it…
“Wow,” gasped Eliza, her silver ponytail swishing behind her.
The snow had vanished from the ground.
That proved they had left the northern lands where the Arsenal Kingdom held sway and that they were approaching the first village. Their feet trod on dark soil and their eyes fell on sparse green undergrowth. They saw the occasional wooden fence, suggesting this area had once been a ranch.
To the chosen knight in miniskirt armor, the white of snow was the natural color for the landscape, so this must have been an unusual sight for her.
But Miyabi only felt gloom.
He was approaching the person he most wanted to see but least wanted to hear from.
Moebius Entrance was waiting. The better one of them knew him, the more keenly aware of that fact they were.
Celina Bodenburg, only child of a massive company, was the first to address it.
“He was the one who chose that forest for our battlefield and injured himself protecting Miyabi.”
She had known the man before even Miyabi.
It had been a hostile relationship, but still.
“Are you saying he did all that to set this up?”
“You mean he dragged Miyabi into this in order to attack the Schwarz Schütze?” Helen placed a finger on the side of her glasses. “So he could send Miyabi after you, use that letter to have Eliza attack, and then lie in wait in the snowy forest so he could replace a portion of the derailed train with a sorcery bomb!?”
How many times had they discussed it now?
How many times had he seen it in his nightmares?
“Pant, gasp. We’ve finally – finally! – made it back,” said Alicia, her shoulders rising and falling. “I’m taking a bath and sleeping for three days straight.”
Yes.
Miyabi Blackgarden had returned to the first village.
That logging village was half enveloped by the Blue Forest. The rhythmic pounding and sawing of tools on trees was unchanged. The small village of log houses seemed cut off from the world’s changes.
Small.
Miyabi was a little surprised to find that adjective in his head. Had the journey really changed him that much? The place had felt so comfortable and complete when he was living here, but now its peace looked fragile and undefended.
“Oh, you’re back, Miyabi?”
“Your parents just went back home a bit ago. You barely miss each other an inordinate amount of the time.”
Some of the neighborhood workers called out to him, but the redhead boy did not respond.
“Is…?”
“Hm?”
“Is Moebius Entrance still here?”
He threw open the door to the clinic, but the place was empty. The wheelchair was gone too. He only found the stillness unique to an empty space.
No…
“Yikes!?” cried Helen after casually peeking below the bed, a habit she had picked up as a “government official”. “That’s Iris, the dancer who was looking after Moebius. …Good, she’s still breathing.”
Miyabi checked too and saw a silver sparkle. It was the dancer’s braid. She had been laid on her side and shoved under the bed in a pose that could not have been comfortable.
If Moebius had nothing to hide, he wouldn’t have had to run off or harm the person so kindly nursing him back to health.
Miyabi tried to fight the dizziness as anger swelled out within him. He now knew that bastard had done more than just trick a gullible fool like him. Moebius had even attacked someone doing him a favor.
“Goddamn it! It really was him.”
He had to shout.
If he did not use that as an outlet for his anger, he was certain he would collapse on the spot.
This new revelation weighed on him that heavily.
“Moebius really was the 11th!!”
“…”
“He set up the sorcery bombs, he had us pit our Godhorn Techs against each other, and he made sure Celina’s was destroyed. Why would that scumbag do all that!?”
Just then, Alma started hopping up and down on the windowsill.
“Koo? Koo, koo!!”
“What is it, Alma?” asked Alicia. “Oh…boy, set your wailing aside and take a look out the window. I see a wheelchair out there, so this is your last chance to catch him!!”
He seriously considered breaking through the wall to get at Moebius faster.
But he stopped himself at the last second and used the door instead. Maybe he wanted to prove that he, unlike that man, was still human.
He had already drawn his control sword and readied it in both hands.
He wanted to vomit remembering that this power was borrowed from that man.
“Moebius!!”
He spotted the distinctive wheelchair in the middle of a public square where anyone could see it. He also saw the man seated in it. He saw the long red hair and the thick coat that could have belonged to a noble or a pirate. He could not see the man’s face, but his mind’s eyes still saw the grin he knew would be plastered on the man’s face.
He could no longer view that smile the same way. Even if the movement of the eyes and lips was identical, it would only look cruel and mocking now.
But Moebius had his back turned.
He had to have heard Miyabi shout his name, but he said nothing.
A powerful tremor shook the entire village.
“Whoa!? Wh-what is that!?”
Celina had seen something while struggling to keep her footing.
Something had just stepped in from outside the village.
But what was it?
It almost looked like a thick castle wall, but…no. It appeared to be a colossal suit of bipedal armor, but its excessively wide torso was more reminiscent of a stretched accordion than realistic body proportions. It could likely create a crater in the ground with a single punch, but its size was not the only unusual thing about it. Its shoulders and chest appeared to be crammed full of as many projectile weapons as the Schwarz Schütze and the Lucifer Horn. It leisurely crossed the village’s border, crushing the fields and fences underfoot, and ignored all the surrounding chaos and confusion. It never hesitated, even when a house stood in the way.
No one could remain standing.
The boy heard piles of logs crashing to the ground.
His party and all the villagers struggling with the logs could only stay on all fours as they bore with the terrible shaking. Attempting to flee may have actually increased the risk of injury.
“Is that…a Godhorn Tech!?”
Helen’s eyes bugged. The Republic had no Godhorn Tech of its own, so not many people there had seen as many as she now had.
Moebius did not so much as glance back at them.
Were Miyabi and his control sword not even worth his attention?
“Took you long enough, Number 8.”
Was that someone’s name?
“So what’s the plan? Hoping to take me away with you?”
Someone stood at the feet of the giant armor.
He looked like a young man with half his face covered by black hair. He wore a tailcoat the color of the night, making him look like a butler. The source of the tremors had to be even more badly shaken, but he used motions as precise as clockwork to negate it, allowing him to stand tall without the slightest waver. He seemed cold and unfeeling, making him seem just as unshakeable as ever-grinning Moebius, but in a different way.
“…”
“Is the Divine Doll hard to operate even for one of you?”
The young butler never responded.
The Divine Doll crouched down and then its massive hand approached the wheelchair. It could have crushed Miyabi’s house with those fingers, but it instead grabbed and lifted just the one person. The butler also hopped onto the giant hand.
Miyabi immediately squeezed his control sword tight.
“Wait, Moebius!!”
“You mustn’t, Miyabi!!” Eliza stepped forward to stop him. “Think of the damage a Godhorn Tech battle would cause this village!!”
“Kh!!”
They were not the only ones in the village. The loggers and hunters who made their living in the forest had yet to get back up from the ground.
Meanwhile, the Divine Doll turned 180 degrees.
Almost like the worms crawling on the ground meant nothing to it.
Moebius did not look back even once. Miyabi could imagine the man’s look of scorn for Miyabi’s inability to actually fight.
The tremors resumed.
The Divine Doll made the ground quake when it walked. It leisurely left the village with Miyabi’s party pinned by the shaking. Its slow movements made one wonder if it even saw this as “running away”, but each step covered a great distance.
“Hm? It’s headed south,” commented Alicia, sounded exasperated. “That leads to the ruined Magic Empire.”
“Come to think of it, I had heard of an automaton that continues to protect those ruins,” said Eliza.
“Koo?” groaned Alma with a head tilt.
The creature may have been responding to the word “automaton”.
Miyabi felt a fire lit inside him as he listened to them speak.
He squeezed the control sword’s grip tight and muttered under his breath.
“Moebius and Number 8.”
But his power was borrowed.
And it was so insignificant that Moebius had not even tried to retrieve it.
Miyabi understood that, but he still could not bring himself to abandon it.
“He toys with us all without ever wiping that damn grin off his face!”
Chapter 4 Section 2
Miyabi Blackgarden’s party left the first village with just one goal in mind.
“If we’re going to catch up to Moebius, we need to reach that ruined empire.” His voice was clear but somewhat hoarse. “I’m getting that bastard to tell me the truth and then I’m settling the score with him.”
“…”
Alicia Blueforest viewed the boy from the side, but she decided against saying anything.
After traveling a while south, they stopped seeing inns.
Something like scarecrows dotted the weed-covered plains, suggesting these had once been farmlands.
The road was nothing more than brown wagon wheel ruts running along the green plains, but even that grew spotty. In fact, the weeds and grass faded away, leaving nothing but exposed dirt. The only remnants of the road were long, narrow puddles that actually made it harder to walk.
The blonde elf wiped the sweat from her brow and viewed the surrounding wasteland with obvious frustration over the absence of green. There were no cats or rabbits here. Her face lit up when she espied a creature covered in fluffy fur, but she screamed after realizing it was a Plague Rat the size of a small dog.
The desire to rest was written plainly on her face.
“D-damn. I guess we are close to the Empire of all places.”
“Um?”
“It has already been destroyed,” explained Helen. “The entire area has been fully polluted, some say as a reaction to the advanced sorcery technology they used. That has cut off the main road leading north to south, so people and things cannot travel through that polluted land without the use of a monster like the Schwarz Schütze. The lack of shops and homes is just a taste of what is to come.”
“With my company’s armored train gone, the only standard route left has to take a lengthy detour out into the ocean to bypass this area. And we were really hoping to keep costs down since we support so many people’s lives in this region.”
Helen Clockgear and Celina Bodenburg both sounded bitter, but that did not change what they needed to do. The talk of pollution was concerning, but Moebius Entrance and Number 8 had gone to that polluted empire.
They could not expect any more inns during this journey.
There was no guarantee they could find a cave to camp out in every single night and, if a cave happened to be a nest of those giant unclean Plague Rats, any attempt to rest there would only wear down their stamina further. After walking a while longer and feeling a lot closer to that ruined empire, they decided to stop for the night.
They had discovered a run-down sailing ship inexplicably abandoned on the land.
It was more than 50 meters long and the deck stood 7 meters above the ground. They guessed it had been used to sail across the ocean, not just along a river.
“Let’s take a short break there,” smiled Helen Clockgear.
“I can keep going.”
“Miyabi.”
The forceful tone in her voice demanded he obey.
Really, he had simply failed to notice how late it was until she forced him to notice.
The sun had vanished beyond the horizon and it had grown dark. They could not even guess what kind of Beast Novae awaited them in this unknown land, so continuing any longer would be dangerous. The Mobile Fire magic could provide illumination in the night, but it could only do so much. Miyabi had already learned just how thoroughly the darkness grew out in the true nature found outside the villages and cities.
A Godhorn Tech provided the greatest destructive force, but it was not an all-powerful shield. And the darkness was always an ally to the attacker. What did it matter if he was a Godhorn Tech user? If a Plague Rat the size of a small dog snuck up and sank its fangs into his calf, complications from the many illnesses they bore would kill him just the same as anyone else.
“Sigh, okay.”
He sounded uneasy and he held a hand out toward the ship.
“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice.”
Once he recited the incantation, blocks of stone emerged from the filthy ground and rearranged themselves to create a sturdy boarding stairway. He had registered this one under the name Layer Stairs.
Normally, Godhorn Techs could only destroy, but an error in his registration transfer had given him the power to create as well.
Celina looked somehow happy as she raised both hands and stretched her back.
“Good, good. This looks like a merchant ship, not a warship, so if the interior is intact, we should be as comfortable as in any town. Ohhh, I’ve so missed a kitchen and bath!!”
But once up top, the entire ship wobbled, either from the wind or its poor balance. With a structure of at least 50 meters, it felt like an earthquake.
Alicia cautiously reached for the side deck’s rusted railing.
“Hm, I don’t know how it ended up on land, but this does not look safe.”
“It might shake so much you need to hold on for purchase or the entire ship might roll over, but the time to choose is now, Miyabi. Yes, if your face is going to end up in someone’s chest, what size would you prefer!? If you’re in a flat mood, I think that slender and strait-laced Eliza might just be even better than Celina.”
The crystal radio (containing a philosopher’s stone) hanging from the elf’s neck was trying very hard to earn a punch from one of the girls.
“Don’t those sails only make the problem worse?” Celina sighed while wiping off her hand with a handkerchief. “They catch the wind and raise the center of gravity.”
“This ship is not sailing anywhere, so it might be safest to tear down all the masts.”
Eliza may have been the type to take any task to its extreme.
The job was simple but hard work.
Miyabi used the knowledge from his logging village where everyone made a living growing and felling trees. Plus, he had the control sword and Godhorn Tech at his disposal.
He used the thick blade to slice through the base of the masts like he was cutting an opening in a bag and then let them fall so they tumbled off of the ship. Great clouds of dust rose each time. It was his upbringing in the logging village that let him so accurately control the direction in which they fell.
The task took enough focus that it distracted him from everything else. But he felt like garbage once he realized he was distracting himself like that.
“…”
“He was important to you, wasn’t he?”
Once all the masts were down, Eliza wiped off her mouth with a handkerchief and asked him that.
He slowly looked up from the weathered deck.
“What do you mean?”
“I only knew Moebius Entrance through his letters and his legends as a fixer, so I never really knew him. But you did, didn’t you?”
He shook his head. The action made him wobble, so he pressed his back against the wooden wall.
“I didn’t.” He was speaking from the heart. “I’m not even sure what I saw anymore.”
“Koo…”
“He gave me his Godhorn Tech.” He slid down to a sitting position. “He asked me to do something about the 11th’s sorcery bomb. I just happened to be there and it could have been anyone, but during that journey, I thought I had come to understand who I wanted to be.”
He clenched his teeth and hung his head. There was no hiding this, so he just let the words spill out.
“But I was in the palm of his hand the entire time. I thought I was saving someone, but he was using me to make everyone I met suffer.”
“Boy…” said Alicia, sounding different from normal.
“It can be…hard when someone breaks a promise between men,” said the radio, also differently.
“I never would have left the village without that. I never would have met anyone. He gave me that opportunity. Without him, I wouldn’t be who I am now. Nothing can change that.”
His breathing was heavy.
He so desperately wished to deny the reality sneering at him from the back of his mind. He covered his face with his filthy hands.
“Or I thought nothing could!!”
“…”
Celina stared silently down at the boy.
But she finally spoke.
“No.”
“?”
“Maybe Moebius was manipulating you. And maybe that led to the destruction of my Schwarz Schütze.”
He did not even want to contemplate that possibility.
He had thought he was hunting down the 11th to prevent any further harm from those sorcery bombs, but he had only been spreading that very harm.
But strangely, he saw no anger or resentment on Celina’s face. There was a gentleness in her eyes.
“But you don’t need to disparage yourself like this.”
“Even though I more or less destroyed your Godhorn Tech?”
His own words stabbed into his chest like tiny thorns.
Hurting Celina would change nothing. Was he trying to make everyone else feel the same pain he was? He curled up in a ball of self-hatred.
“Even though. Because I also gained something from that.”
But she did not hesitate to respond.
She was even smiling.
Smiling in a way she had not when he first met her.
“Look around you, Miyabi. You too have gained something from all this.”
He raised his head.
His view expanded. He was surrounded by people worried for him while he curled up and trembled.
“Yes, the people.” Celina placed a hand on her flat chest. “None of this changes that you met all of them. You have made some new, and unparalleled, business partners.”
“Correct.” Eliza nodded, shaking her long silver ponytail. “Your destruction of our Godhorn Tech opened a new path for my king, my kingdom, and myself. None of us would have been saved without you there.”
“…”
“You may have been following the path Moebius laid out for you, but the bonds you built with the people you met were not part of that,” she stated. “What if Moebius never imagined destruction could be beneficial?”
“I’ll admit it.”
Finally, Miyabi got some more words out.
He was hesitant, but he felt like he could let his weakness show around these party members.
It was slow, but he stood back up.
“It was a shock. I didn’t know him long, but Moebius meant a lot to me.”
“…”
“He gave me the chance to leave my village. He was irritating and questionable, but he shined so bright. I could tell at a glance he had something I didn’t. Yeah, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at all happy when he gave me his Godhorn Tech or when I protected everyone from the sorcery bomb.”
Helen said nothing, but the look in her eyes was kind.
“But that’s why I have to get the truth,” grumbled Miyabi. “I have to know why he’s spreading those sorcery bombs as the 11th.”
Chapter 4 Section 2
Miyabi Blackgarden was used to camping out now.
He stretched his arms on the abandoned ship to help wake his sleepy body in the morning sun.
He stepped out onto the weathered deck.
He found long-eared Alicia Blueforest munching on some bread for breakfast. The open deck probably made for a more enjoyable meal than the indoor dining hall where a permanent musty smell had settled in. He used a knife to cut a slit in an oblong piece of bread, smeared butter inside, stuck some jerky within, and then cooked it until it was nice and crispy. It was only possible thanks to the firewood they had secured by breaking up one of the masts he tore down yesterday.
“Not far to the ruined Magic Empire now,” said Alicia.
They left the ship.
The ground was still nothing but dark soil.
They had spent all night afraid those dog-sized Plague Rats would attack, but the things were nowhere to be found now. However, that was no reason to celebrate.
“This means not even the Plague Rats dare approach this place, doesn’t it?” cautiously concluded Helen.
After walking a while longer, an odd color joined the scenery: red.
As Miyabi wondered what it was, it overtook everything.
A red and shining dust covered the land as far as the eye could see. All of the buildings had collapsed, melted, and sunk into the ground, so it was hard to even imagine the city that must have once stood there.
“Is this…the pollution!?”
Miyabi started to take a step back and nearly stepped on an apple lying on the ground.
He managed to avoid it, but then a thought occurred to him.
“Wait, how long has this apple been here?”
There was no fruit tree nearby for it to have fallen from and not many travelers came through here.
Had one of the few eccentric travelers dropped it?
Or had it been here ever since the Empire fell?
The apple would have been exposed to the elements on the ground there, yet it still shined bright. It was unnaturally pristine. Even a wax sample’s colors would have faded in the sun.
It was almost like the entire fruit had been submerged in a special chemical to preserve it.
“I-I definitely want to avoid eating that,” groaned Celina Bodenburg, staying as far away as she could while poking at it with her rifle’s bayonet.
It was just as concerning as hearing a salesman insist a little too hard that “This milk is fresh. Don’t believe the lies. It’s as fresh as can be.”
“Rusty mana,” said Alicia who was self-taught in alchemy. The entire view here was covered by that scarlet dust that even dyed the rising sun as it floated into the air. “Mana is the natural power at the root of all magic, but when it deteriorates, it transforms into a nuisance that clings to all things. It surrounds everything, effectively isolating everything from everything else. It even repels and kills the ‘invisible things’ needed to make bread or cheese.”
“That explains the lack of Plague Rats.” Eliza Silverstorm placed a handkerchief over her mouth to avoid breathing in the red dust in the air. “This place is not dirty. Quite the opposite. It is so clean nothing can live here. It may be similar to a river of undiluted bleach.”
It was possible to be too clean.
This place took purity too far.
They could see red quagmires dotting the ground. Was that the result of the dust concentrating, or of it growing wet? It definitely had to do with the dust, but the exact requirements were unclear.
The wind blew a cloud of red dust from the ground up ahead of them.
Celina’s eyes widened.
“Hey, um, does anyone have any magic for protecting the mouth and nose!? Maybe called Toxin Away or something!?”
“Does the Bodenburg Company name everything like it’s athlete’s foot medicine?” complained the radio.
That girl was enough of a clean freak to carry around a portable water filter and silver-catalyst disinfectant magic, but even she could tell this was overdoing it.
“I wish you could create specialized magic like that,” Alicia sighed. “Besides, I thought a perfectly sterile world was exactly what you wanted? Ugh, a handkerchief over the mouth is about all we can do, isn’t it?”
“Wow,” said Miyabi as he appreciated just how complete the Empire’s fall had been.
“Kyoo…”
Hearing an odd cry, he looked down to find Alma had already transformed into a sort of black cat.
“Ohh, the shadow element!?” exclaimed Alicia. “Is that supposed to be a Greymalkin?”
Everyone had their own way of fighting it, but Alma had decided to be the opposite of the “deadly purity” of the red dust. If that was meant to repel the dust to remain safe, then the form may have been more aggressive than it looked. And either way, it was unlikely to protect Miyabi and the others.
“I-it’s a good thing I was using Compress Cargo,” groaned Helen while holding her small bag close. “Otherwise, this might have ruined all of our water and food. I bet that red dust gets in everything while it blows in the wind. Ugh, I thought my hair was feeling gritty. Not to mention my chest…”
The red ground crumbled and something came into view further down.
The objects lined up along a stone wall appeared to be bookcases. The parchment plans spread out on a desk resembled the design of a Godhorn Tech. It was unclear how valuable that would be, but there was no retrieving it anyway. Not only did a chemical-smelling red waterfall flow inside, but some of it bubbled up before crawling around on its own.
That caught Miyabi by surprise.
“I-it’s moving like it has a mind of its own?”
“Its movement is simply modeled after such things. Mimicking an animal’s movements is an efficient way of searching its surroundings and capturing its target.”
But that did not explain why the red slime was so intent on surrounding everything around it and turning the former imperial land into a red wasteland.
Maybe it was designed to do so, but that just led to further questions.
Also, the crawling red slime was not the only thing here.
“Are those the Empire’s famous magic automatons?” asked Celina, biting her thumbnail at seeing treasure she could not get at.
“Automatons?”
Come to think of it, that term had come up in reference to Number 8.
“Something that looks human but is not. Their specs and sizes can vary, so the Empire used colossal ones for military and construction purposes and miniature ones for medical purposes. I have heard they would send automatons smaller than a flower’s pollen into a patient’s body so they could directly cut away the disease from within. This is all a thing of the past, of course.”
The ones in the underground space below were all ordinary human size.
They had no hair, clothing, or even skin. The ball-jointed dolls were struggling within the red quagmire.
It all produced the sizzling sound of a caustic chemical at work.
“They’re fighting the red sludge. Have they been doing this the entire time?”
“Huh? Celina, haven’t you been through here before? On the Schwarz Schütze, I mean.”
“Why would I want to look outside in such a dreary area? Enjoying a good book and some delicious tea was a much better use of my time.”
That was not all. When they peered down into the split ground, they saw the bookcases rattling as thick magical tomes took flight like butterflies or birds and crashed into the lit candles. This was a purely inorganic conflict with none of the usual rats or roaches in evidence. A human like Miyabi had no way of telling how many sides there were or how they determined who was on what side, but they were doing it all on their own and he figured the party could avoid it all if they avoided provoking those things.
Alicia shut her eyes and muttered to herself.
“To think this is the massive Empire that came so close to conquering the entire continent not too long ago.” The words were bitter in her mouth. “It hasn’t even been a full year since it fell, yet these piles of rubble are all that remain. Even this scarlet mana was originally the all-purpose experimental material they had artificially created with their advanced technology.”
“Cough, cough!”
“Are you okay, Alma? Hmm, this red dust must be rough on a juvenile, even in that shadowy Greymalkin form. …If only I had a cloth to cover your mouth. Oh, how about you take shelter in my clothes?”
“You dare enter that unexplored zone kept off limits even to me!?” roared the crystal radio hanging from the elf’s neck.
Helen of course ignored it.
“The Empire once controlled a third of the continent. They were a major threat to the Republic. Not that we could focus on a foreign war when our primary city was embroiled in a civil war against the old monarchy,” she said. “Their military might was supported by advanced magic technology and even their Godhorn Tech was left in the hands of a special magic automaton, not a human. To ensure their strongest power was never used in error.”
“And that’s Number 8, huh?” Miyabi viewed the shocking scenery of red, red, and more red. “He’s continued protecting this place even with no one left to protect.”
“The Arsenal Kingdom could not ignore the Empire either. You could even say the Icicle Bullet was built as a defensive Godhorn Tech as a direct response to our fear of the Empire,” confessed Eliza, her large lance resting on her shoulder. That snow sleigh’s ramming attack had packed a punch, but since it required snow on the ground to move, it indeed could not be used to invade other countries. “We viewed them as our greatest enemy, but only because we admired what they had accomplished.”
Miyabi was honestly afraid to keep going, but he knew Number 8 and the Divine Doll were up ahead. Which meant Moebius would be as well.
He pulled his shirt’s collar up over his mouth as he trudged on through the red world.
“Urp, this is awful,” groaned Alicia.
That elf had been born in a filthy forest teeming with life, so this excessive purity had her long ears drooping.
After a while, they noticed some patterns in the red ruins. The rows of trees that looked frozen in time while surrounded by their fallen leaves showed the outlines of a major road. The foundations of angular stones and bricks showed where buildings had once been. They even spotted some dry fountains. A broken metal fence surrounded a large section of land, suggesting a considerable building had once stood there.
“They apparently called it a university,” said Eliza. “I never visited it myself, but instead of an apprenticeship or tutoring system, the Empire filled a large building full of hundreds or even thousands of people to provide them all with the same high-level magic education. And over a short period of time, too. Yet they were not trying to master a form of group action, like with knight or soldier training. I have even heard they competed among themselves over the tests and their standing in the class. They would keep their head down on their desk and choose to be alone within a room full of other people, something I have trouble imagining myself.”
That sounded like it would exclude the people who were not a good fit for that education format, but the Empire must not have cared if they had some dropouts as long as enough people succeeded. In Miyabi’s village, people would study as an apprentice at their own pace so they could learn the logging business while also pursuing their own dreams, so the Empire’s way of writing off some percentage of the population as “acceptable losses” sent a chill down his spine.
It might sound noble for the Empire to treat their automatons just like they treat their people, but what if they achieved that by reducing their people to the level of the automatons? The people were like no more than cogs in the machine.
Helen sighed.
“They covered a third of the continent, so I guess they decided they had people to spare.”
Then they heard a scraping metal sound.
Were more magical automatons fighting their endless battle somewhere in this red world?
Miyabi pulled his jacket’s collar over his mouth as well and turned toward the noise.
“The hell is that?”
He saw something odd there.
Was it some kind of confrontation?
On one side was a girl in an octopus-like mask. Why was he so sure she was a girl when he could not see her face? Because she wore her red hair in a side ponytail and because her skintight leather outfit revealed the shape of her figure.
“Oh, baby!! Black leather with a high-leg design!? What’s she supposed to be, a phantom thief? Or a sexy dominatrix? That bulging chest and indecent crotch are exactly what I’m looking for in a fantasy setting!!!!!”
The radio rejoiced, but Miyabi was not quite sure what he was looking at. Why cover her face and barely cover anything else?
And.
On the other side was a giant suit of armor standing two meters tall. The mass of steel was almost entirely round, but it was running away with its hands held protectively over its head. It behaved surprisingly feminine. Almost like the heroine in a children’s book.
Celina reflexively aimed her flintlock rifle from a short distance away and then spoke with her eyes on the exhibitionist in the weird mask.
“She might be a salvage hunter.”
“A what?”
“Basically, they are professional thieves who recklessly visit this dangerous ruined land and dig up old lab equipment and books. …That look tells me you are wondering how I know. Because my company buys more of their finds than anyone else.”
That business was so greedy it sounded borderline criminal.
Also, if that creepy octopus mask was what the experts wore, was it indeed dangerous to walk around this scarlet territory with their faces exposed?
The party was feeling a lot more anxious now.
“B-boy!! Hand me your goggles!! You aren’t using them, so you don’t mind, do you!?”
“Shut up, these are mine!! Hey, don’t just snatch them away! Noooo fairrrrr!!”
Eliza sighed at the idiots’ petty conflict.
The way the rusty mana could keep an apple fresh and shiny for years was certainly disconcerting, but if an expert thief was willing to operate with so much skin exposed, it must not have been deadly on contact or anything.
“Then what about that giant armor?” asked Eliza.
“That I can’t say,” said Celina. “Her next target perhaps?”
Anyway, finding an actual person here changed things significantly.
Number 8 and Moebius Entrance could use the Divine Doll and the only way of combating that Godhorn Tech was the Lucifer Horn, but that would mean a clash between two of those colossal sorcery weapons. A simple stray shot was of course a threat, but just the red dust blown into the air from an explosive blast or shockwave would be bad enough.
Even if this girl had special equipment, Miyabi stilled wanted to give her a chance to escape first.
But when he approached her to warn her, she was focused on something else entirely.
He heard two voices.
“Fshoo shoo shoo!! Now this is a find. The more human a magic automaton acts, the better its parts must be☆”
“No, really, please! I’m just an ordinary maid!”
Make no mistake.
The “fshoo shoo shoo” came from the octopus mask exhibitionist and the “I’m just an ordinary maid” came from the giant armor.
Miyabi’s eyes widened.
“What the hell!? Why does the magic automaton sound like the normal one!?”
“Fshoo? What’s this, some competition? You’ve got guts trying to steal from the great Marietta Diggrave.”
End of preview. The full novel will be released on February 10.
