Godhorn Tech:Volume2 Chapter5

Status: Incomplete

2/5 parts completed

   

Chapter 5, Section 1

The Wicked God horn brought peace.

But it also fueled the next catastrophe.

Night had fully fallen.

They could not relax enough for a strategy meeting inside the ruined Empire covered in the mystery red dust called rusty mana. How could they when it could destroy the Divine Doll when at high enough concentrations? They could not leave Number 8 where he was either. Washing off the red sludge was not enough to rouse him.

That was why Miyabi’s party returned to the ship abandoned on dry land near the Empire’s ruins.

Maybe the wind played a role, but the red had not yet encroached upon the wasteland to the north.

The fact that the mysterious abandoned ship actually seemed comfortable may have shown just how tough they had gotten.

“Phew. Purification magic just can’t compete with some everyday necessities. Like a shower,” said Celina. “I just hope that little adventure didn’t take years off of our lives.”

“Based on the samples the Republic has taken, short-term skin contact has no effect on life,” said Helen. “Assuming it hasn’t been concentrated into that sludge, of course. Long-term oral or mucus membrane intake has been shown to cause abnormal growth in certain Beast Novae.”

“Discriminatory language!!” shouted Alicia. “What are you saying, that my chest is going to grow overnight!? Am I going to have watermelons bouncing around on my chest!? Oh, Alma, they can be so hurtful! Please comfort me!!”

The girls’ voices sounded muffled but not because Miyabi Blackgarden’s mind was elsewhere.

The abandoned ship’s interior remained intact and that included the bath.

That was one of the main reasons they had turned back instead of continuing onward. They had wanted someplace they knew they could rest, but they had also been dying for a bath. And there was still plenty of firewood made from the felled masts.

The radio had been thrown to the deck outside.

Miyabi was sitting with his back to a weathered wood wall and he could hear the girls’ voices through that wall.

He shut his eyes and focused on the fact that everyone was safe.

“These are the moments you live for, aren’t they?”

“Moebius?”

The young man rolled up with a smile.

He had fought using the Lucifer Horn more often than Miyabi and saved many more people. He had fought with entire regions, whole countries, and maybe even the full continent riding on the outcome. How many times had he been able to indulge in the relief of knowing his party members were all safe afterwards?

He was a legend – a fixer who made a living taking jobs that saved entire countries.

“The girls have let their guard down due to the unique mixture of exhaustion and the joy of survival, so now’s your chance to peep!!”

“It scares me that someone like you controlled a Godhorn Tech for even a moment.” The redhead boy breathed a somewhat exasperated sigh. “What are you going to do now? Stick with us?”

“No, giving you the Lucifer Horn would’ve been pretty pointless if I did that. I want to leave the world’s troubles behind and relax. Live that slow life that’s all the rage these days☆”

“…”

Scratch the somewhat.

Miyabi was truly exasperated now. Meanwhile, Moebius Entrance whispered something under his breath.

“(Also, you’ve started down a different path from me. The power of creation, huh? If I helped you out, you’d be right back on the boring-as-hell path of destruction, destruction, and more destruction.)”

“Moebius?”

“It’s nothing.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I’ll be searching for some comfortable place in the middle of nowhere to settle down. Some friendly place with no sign of Godhorn Techs or the fight against the 11th.”

“Then I know just the place.”

Miyabi grabbed the short control sword in both hands and stabbed it into the ship’s deck.

“Lucifer Horn!” he roared before Moebius could say a word. “One-way trip for one!!”

A wire dangling from the heavens caught the grinning young man’s wheelchair.

“Wait, what are you doing!?”

“Oh, right! I forget to mention!!” Miyabi quickly shouted to the wheelchair being yanked from the deck. “The Lucifer Horn can use bombs now! You should have told me it could adapt to new weapons like that! I might never have figured it out!!”

Moebius himself had set up Horn Fortress as a secret base, so he was in no position to refuse.

Moebius Entrance was enjoying a pleasure flight with imminent death as a constant companion.

But while he clutched the wheelchair’s armrests for dear life, a different tension filled him too.

He must have known no one could hear him way up in the air, but he still spoke aloud. Or maybe he said it aloud because he knew no one could hear him.

“Hold on. The Lucifer Horn’s horn extraction system was witchcraft. It should only have that energy beam attack created by injecting a special potion into the horn to forcibly boost its light.”

He looked straight up at the Godhorn Tech carrying him.

The legendary fixer seemed to be complaining directly to his former partner.

“I had no idea you could do that.”

Back on the abandoned ship, Celina Bodenburg had apparently finished her bath. She still had steam rising from her as she poked her head out and saw Miyabi.

“We’re all done in there. Oh? What are you doing out here?”

“Ridding us of a peeping tom.”

Celina gave a start and moved back a few steps when she heard that. Then Alicia Blueforest, also fresh out of the bath, arrived with Alma’s black cat form in her arms.

“There you are, boy. The bath is free. Go soak in our used bathwater.”

“I-in what world is that a normal thing to say!?” protested Celina. “There is something wrong with you!”

The elf usually bathed outdoors, so she could be careless about such things. An unexpected encounter with a defenseless elf was sometimes how an innocent boy got a crash course on the female body.

Helen arrived last and sighed in exasperation.

“This elf might live a wild life of stealing vegetables from people’s fields, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t more civilized. Speaking of which, our next stop is your hometown, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Celina Bodenburg got down to business. “Our next destination is the criminal port city where my company has its headquarters. It is south from here and will take a while on foot.”

Alicia Blueforest gave her a skeptical look.

“I don’t like the sound of that description.”

“Ahem. To make this as simple as possible, I would describe the city like this.” The local actually cleared her throat first. “That place is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad news.”

Wet-haired Helen Clockgear held her head.

“The Republic really does have it marked as ‘visit with extreme caution’. It’s best to assume it isn’t anything like a normal city.”

“Koo?”

“Then maybe we should make some preparations before we go there.” Miyabi Blackgarden rubbed his chin. “Do we head straight there, or do we make a detour to a safe town beforehand?”

They ended up choosing the direct route.

Their reasoning was simple: they had to deal with Number 8. They had no idea if he was even fixable, but any chance they had now might go to waste if the vibrations of dragging him around or the wind, rain, and other weather conditions caused further internal damage.

“This would be so much easier if you had the Lucifer Horn take him to Horn Fortress,” complained the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck.

“Wouldn’t we tear that half-broken thing to pieces if we tried snagging him with that wire? Then we would lose any information he has on the 11th.”

Miyabi had exposed an injured man to that exact same treatment, but that was a sign of how much he trusted Moebius Entrance. He knew dropping that legendary fixer from the sky wasn’t enough to kill him.

Helen took charge like usual and spread out a parchment map.

“This is how it looks on the map. Once we arrive south of the Empire’s ruins, we take a curving path southeast to reach the southernmost point of the continent.”

“We can’t just pass through here?”

Miyabi pointed at the actual plains, not the ones on the map. A stone-paved road drew a line across the green grassy ground.

“The map shows a crack there, so no.” Helen shook her head and traced her finger along a sewing needle to magically transform it into a compass. “How it works still isn’t known, but there are impassible deep cracks in the ground at some places. Dangerous miasma flows out, so no one knows what things are like deep inside.”

“There are rumors saying a Wicked God will crawl back out if you throw a nonhuman species inside,” said Alicia.

She went on to explain that those rumors were entirely baseless.

Miyabi’s takeaway was that they had to read the map carefully to avoid dying. They ended up leaving the stone-paved road to travel along a side path of packed-down grass.

It helped to have an experienced traveler in your party.

The color of the sky seemed to have changed. It was now a brilliant bright blue.

The air also carried an odd smell.

It was not quite the same as rot. It was a unique scent, but not a bad one.

“I can finally smell the salt in the air,” said Celina.

“Salt?”

Miyabi pictured the small shaker on the dinner table, but that could not be what she meant.

“Oh? Miyabi, is this your first time to see the sea?”

“See the see? What?”

“Hee hee. Then this might come as a shock for you.”

The rich girl was in a stupendous mood.

Miyabi noticed something else before they arrived. He heard something he did not recognize.

“What’s that? I’ve never heard so much meowing. Does your city have a lot of cats?”

“Ho ho ho. Kitties aren’t the only creature to hunt down fish at the oceanside, Miyabi. Those are seabirds.”

It turned out there were a lot of different seabirds.

There were some crow-sized ones with white wings that were related to swallows and there were even some that looked like scantily-clad girls with wings for arms.

“Gasp, those are harpies!” shouted Helen. “They’re dangerous Beast Novae!!”

No one paid the elf’s cry of “discriminatory language!!” any heed.

“It’s just that kind of city.” Celina shrugged. “And harpies are great. They’re smart enough to do what you tell them and they always return home when you send them out from your window. Both humans and monsters trust them. You can love them as a pet or give them jobs. They’re especially useful as hunter harpies who accompany you on hunting trips or as messenger harpies that deliver letters to distant locations.”

“If you want a clever pet, just get a dog. Why would you start talking about chaining up nonhumans and raising them as pets when you know an elf can hear you?”

“If a dog had the face of a cute girl, it would be a thing of nightmares, you stupid elf. There’s nothing beautiful about them.”

They heard the flapping of wings and then a large form swooped down toward Celina, so she held her arm out horizontally as a perch.

“My Millovannes is very well behaved, as you can see. Hee hee. Now, now, Millovannes, we can love on each other later. Oh, you spoiled thing, you’ll make Miyabi jealous if we do this in front of him. Oh, you☆”

U-um, uh, isn’t it slashing at your face with its thick talons? Um. Miyabi very much wanted to say something, but the more mature Helen and Eliza covered his mouth.

He was not to shatter the friendly girl’s dreams.

Celina was smiling so happily even with something red spurting from her badly-damaged forehead and temple.

“Anyway, you will see plenty of the port’s many seabirds once we are in the city. So, Miyabi, are you a dog person or a cat person. If the former, you can take a look at the well-trained guard dogs and military dogs. If the latter, you can check out the swarms of thieving cats hoping to snag some fish. Welcome to the criminal city where everyone loves their pets☆”

“Hm, so it works on the theory that delinquents have a soft spot for abandoned cats, does it?” said the radio. “It is true the lonely delinquent girl with a damaged heart is something you’ll only find in a fantasy world! I’m hoping for a fashionable and good-looking blonde gyaru!! Especially if she’s handy around the house, loves baths, and looks after any of the gang when they catch a cold!!”

“Oh, no. A big city like this is sure to be crawling with elfphobes!” said Alicia. “Please don’t let me be captured in a giant bug net and sold off at some market somewhere!!!!!”

And.

“Ohh!” shouted Miyabi.

Once they crossed a certain line, the view changed.

A city was built along a gentle downwards slope. All the buildings had white walls and orange roofs and it had a very different feel from his village or Eliza’s Arsenal Kingdom. There was no wall around the city, so it felt a lot more open.

But Miyabi Blackgarden’s focus was elsewhere.

He was not even viewing the city.

His eyes moved past the gentle slope and to the great expanse beyond it.

“What is that? There’s a huge body of water over there!! Is that more than just a lake!?”

“Heh heh heh. That, my friend, is the ocean. Shipbuilding is yet another of the Bodenburg Company’s major industries, so- hey, wait, Miyabi!”

The boy was not listening to her any more than he was viewing the city.

He and black cat Alma rushed off at full speed. They had never seen anything like the ocean before.

“Whoa! Hey, jackass! Watch where you’re fucking going!!!!!”

On his third step down the gentle slope, someone cussed him out.

It would have been one thing if the culprit was a rough-looking young man, but unfortunately, this was what looked like a lovely flower seller girl. And this was her reaction when he only almost ran into her.

Seeing the boy tearfully curled up on the side of the road and trembling, Celina put a hand on her hip and smacked her forehead with the other hand.

“How many times do I have to tell you this is a criminal city? C’mon, having your bittersweet fantasies about girls shattered isn’t that big a deal. And word to the wise? Always watch where you’re going in this city.”

“Ohh. Ohhhhhhhh…”

“Leave him be!!” For some reason the radio sided with the depressed boy. “The shattering of your dreams is a rite of passage – a baptism of blood – we all must go through! He just had his soul shredded, so let him mourn!!”

“Oh, dear. That hit him pretty bad, so it might take a while before he recovers. Fine, then. I will help refuel his fantasies. Look, Miyabi, do you see this slight gap between my miniskirt and black socks? Now watch as I lift my skirt and make it grow☆”

“Oh, there is good in the world after all.”

“Dammit, Miyabi! I defended you! And now you don’t even know the difference between pure and lewd? I swear, the young have no taste at all. If you want that obvious junk food sexiness, you already have Curvy McGlassesTits over there! She’s only pretending to be so mature, so if you go crying to her, I guarantee you she’ll hug your face right into her chest!!”

“Don’t drag me into this silly nonsense!!” protested a blushing Helen, her attempt at being an uninvolved observer failing miserably. She did not want to be viewed in the same category as the skirt teaser (who had miscalculated and accidentally lifted the skirt enough to see everything).

The bright sun shined down through dry air, so even a light breeze felt like a great treasure in this memorable tourist destination.

The way the sun reflected off the white walls and orange roofs made it look like the entire city was sending out welcoming rays of light.

However.

Now that the unintentional panty flasher had guided him back to reality, Miyabi took his time to observe the city more carefully.

While the lit areas were indeed bright, that accentuated the darkness of the alleys between the homes and stores. When he peeked inside one of those, he saw the sharp light of several eyes glaring back at him. He got the feeling they belonged to people who did not take kindly to intruders on their turf. In fact, he was pretty sure some of the lights were the glint of sharp blades.

Helen looked around in fear, clutching her bag in both hands. Compress Cargo magic made travel easier since you could fit so much in a small bag, but that also meant you would lose everything if that one bag was stolen. Easy to carry was also easy to steal.

“U-um, where are the knights or guards in this city? I haven’t seen a single one out on patrol.”

“Sigh, we don’t have any of those wet blankets here. We’ve long since driven out anyone who use their supposed ‘justice’ to attack anyone who criticizes their own illicit actions. Order here is preserved by the private troops of the Bodenburg Company!”

“Sounds like the South American and Eastern European cities were the gangs make the rules. She really does hold all the power here, doesn’t she?”

Even the radio was dumbfounded.

If what they saw here was the result of those private troops “preserving order”, they could guess just how effective that really was. It also explained why the Bodenburg Company was so successful. With no government officials to monitor or crack down on their dirty business practices, they were free to go hog wild.

But if you ignored the frequency of encountering crime, the quality of life here did not appear all that bad. The roads were all paved with perfectly smooth and sparkling stones, the white-walled and orange-roofed homes and shops were clean, and the street stalls had plenty of fresh fruits and fishes to go around. The Bodenburg Company apparently brought plenty of benefits to its hometown, so the locals never went hungry. People’s fashion was a lot more refined than at Miyabi’s home village. Befitting the hometown of the girl who was willing to tease a view of her underwear to cheer someone up (while oblivious to the fact that she was actually doing more than just teasing), there was no shortage of exposed skin in the criminal port town. Bare midriffs and exposed underwear straps were apparently the norm here.

Miyabi looked around in a mixture of interest and fear.

“I don’t get how a city can run on crime. How does that work?”

“Wait, Miyabi! Looking down alleys is a good way to get yourself into troub-!”

The local girl tried to stop him, but it was too late.

He had already found some trouble.

A blonde girl around his age or a little older was accompanied by several people dressed all in black. She wore a coat with the hood up…but what was that? Two thick belts hung down from the back of the coat and those belts had several knife blades sticking out. They almost looked like wings made from sharp saws, but letting them flutter in the wind had to be dangerous.

Also, she was not wearing a skirt or pants below the coat. Other than the protectors on her legs, she only wore thick belts around her chest and hips. She was certainly easy on the eyes.

Celina Bodenburg groaned loudly when she peeked into the alley. Seeing this person was enough to make you “a witness”, especially when you knew who she was. The rifle-wielding girl was especially tense because she knew the proper etiquette in this criminal city.

“Geh, why did it have to be the Neverjudge Family? Worse, it’s Phobia, the big boss’s only daughter! You have the worst luck imaginable, Miyabi!”

“What, is she a friend of yours?”

“Miyabi, this is a serious issue. She is from an unbelievably brutal gang. Any ordinary person who gets involved with them is rumored to either end up feeding the fish out at sea or finding themselves at the bottom of a special sort of bath.”

“The fish? A bath?”

Celina cleared her throat with her face somewhat red.

Suddenly finding herself left all alone to explain this to him, the precocious girl spoke more quickly than normal.

“While our company buys and sells goods and information with money, they are a professional criminal group that makes money renting out ‘violence’ as a product. They will do threats, kidnappings, robberies, murders, revenge assistance, eliminating false charges, bodyguarding, rescues, and anything else that can be accomplished through violence. And they do not ask many questions about the ethics of the job. They might attack or defend the same person depending on the specific job they receive.”

“Huh? You mean they do good things too?”

“Either way, their exorbitant fees and the rapidly snowballing interest send all of their clients to hell eventually. Our private troops will work to ‘mop them up’ from time to time, but we never can get rid of these morally-bankrupt loan sharks.”

The gang was surrounding a very different sort of person.

She was wearing a shiny black…was it called a high-leg leotard? Anyway, a very revealing leather thing plus a vest, bunny ears, fishnet stockings, and stilettos. The curvy young woman with her long red hair in twintails was exactly what she looked like.

The radio gave the correct answer.

“Take it all in, Miyabi, and take one step closer to adulthood!! That is an orthodox tuxedo-style bunny girl, one of the classy ladies who work at casinos!!!!!!”

“Could you not imply that I’m a fake one!” cut in Helen.

She would prefer to not transform into Venus, but she also did not want her efforts to go unappreciated.

Meanwhile, a conversation was underway in the back alley.

Celina stayed by Miyabi’s side and leaned forward. She seemed very curious what was going on here.

The first to speak was the gang daughter named Phobia Neverjudge.

She addressed the bunny girl her gang had surrounded.

“Work as our magician.”

“Ugh.”

“Our previous magician was trash. Terrible at following directions, no real skill to speak of, and never covered things up properly. So if you take over that position, we will overlook all that cheating at our casino.”

“Um, and if I say no?”

“You get the usual treatment. We have a special brand for cheaters. Burns an appropriate message onto their face: ‘I’m a filthy cheater. Keep an eye on me, everyone.’ D’you think any casino’ll let you in with that covering your entire face?”

“Ha ha ha, yeah. But I think half the fun in gambling is seeing how long it takes before my cheating is found out.”

“Then your life is already a failure. Interested in buying it back?”

“Ha ha ha, yeah.” The bunny girl’s laughter was weak, but she did have a reason to be laughing. “But, but. It might be miniscule, but I still have a chance. Gambling is so much fun because everyone has a chance to turn things around.”

She had noticed the newcomers and she was very hopeful.

The hope was practically radiating from her.

Miyabi’s mouth formed a small triangle and Celina slapped her forehead.

“Oh, god. Really? Fine, Miyabi, which side are you going to take? The gangsters or the cheater? Neither one is exactly a good person, so just choose whichever one strikes your fancy. Oh, but keep in mind that pretending you never saw anything counts as siding with the Neverjudge Family.”

Miyabi Blackgarden nodded deeply.

The decision was an easy one.

“Why wouldn’t I choose the sexy bunny!? I mean, she’s sexy!!”

“Sigh, is that all Miyabi sees when he looks at me?”

The bespectacled version of Venus looked like she was witnessing the end of the world.

“Tch.”

The born gangster clicked her tongue.

Phobia had also noticed the people at the alleyway entrance. When up to no good, such as when surrounding a target, the gang would naturally be focused on the entrance whether there was someone there or not.

The blade wings shook behind her as she turned to face them.

“Well, well, well. If isn’t the new money girl that thinks she’s a fairy tale knight by sending in private troops she’s paid to fight for her! How badly did you rip off that country bumpkin there when you hired him? Scratch that. I don’t care. Your forces might be more powerful, but the Family is second to none when it comes to pinpoint urban assassina-”

“Lucifer Horn!! Take her away before she can attack!!!!!!”

The Lucifer Horn roared by overhead and its wire snagged the gang daughter, whisking her away. Probably all the way to Horn Fortress somewhere out in the ocean.

The gangsters in black stared blankly now that their boss’s only daughter had vanished before their eyes.

“Ha ha.” Celina burst out laughing while aiming her flintlock rifle at the gangsters. “Ah ha ha ha ha ha!! Miyabi, you are the absolute best! So what now? We have your gang’s heir. And since she’s our new party member, you’ll want to start this new relationship off on the right foot, right?”

“…”

“March on back to whatever hideout that greedy old geezer is rotting away in and pass on a message for me. If he doesn’t want his gang torn apart over some new succession issues at this late stage in his life, he needs to start accepting only the moral jobs that come in and to be a lot more flexible in the payment plans he accepts for the people trying to pay back their loans. And convey it all verbatim. It would be a shame if any miscommunication here led to a misunderstanding that bred unnecessary ill will between us☆”

The several shadowy figures clicked their tongues and left. Miyabi’s peaceful rural upbringing left him unprepared to note the significance of them setting aside their pride and turning their backs on Celina.

Then the shiny black bunny girl collapsed limply to the ground. She ended up with her legs splayed out beneath her in an oddly sexy way. She was around the same age as Eliza and Phobia, but she had an entirely different feel to her.

“Ohhhh, ohhhhhhhh!! You saved me. What even are the odds of turning that one around? Ahh, I’m all tinglyyyyy.”

However, he got the impression she had not collapsed from relief once the fear faded away.

After enjoying some kind of sensation that sent an alluring tremor up her spine, she finally looked up at the others from the ground.

“I’m Eluné. Eluné Jackpot. FYI: professional gamblers almost never give you their real name when you first meet them☆”

“What now? People who go by fake names are almost always up to no good.”

“I did warn you, Miyabi: neither one is exactly a good person. The same applies to anyone in this city.”

Celina sounded exasperated, but was she aware that applied to her too since this was her hometown?

Eluné smiled with her round-tailed butt still pressed against the ground.

“I need to repay you for this. Boy, is this your first time in the city? Then I can introduce you to the absolute best places here.”

“You want him to take information from someone who forgot to check who owned the casino she was cheating in and got dragged into a back alley? That can only end badly.”

“But I want to repay him.”

“Ugh, enough of this,” said Alicia. “Miyabi, why not let her join the party?”

“Fine, but what can a bunny girl do for the party?”

“She can give Venus a few pointers, making her even sexier. And I’m talking about things too indecent for the daylight hours.”

“That is not happening!!” protested the glasses woman, but no one was listening.

The real bunny girl’s face lit up.

“Join your party? I accept, I accept! I can just tell you’re on some exciting adventure! If I let this opportunity pass me by, I might as well retire as a gambler. I’m in, I’m in, I am so in!!”

“Um, okay then. I’ve got another one for you, Lucifer Horn!!”

Another wire arrived to collect the black bunny girl. She was such a risk junky that she actually managed to blow him a kiss while she was swept away into the sky.

After a bit, Eliza tilted her head.

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

“Well…sending that gang daughter – Phobia was it? – to Horn Fortress was fine, but you just sent Eluné there as well. Won’t that just lead to Round 2 once they encounter each other there?”

“…”

“And isn’t that a remote island surrounded by powerful barriers? Sh-she’s trapped there with Phobia.”

They all fell silent. The Lucifer Horn was no longer visible in the sliver of blue sky seen from the narrow alley.

Eventually, Miyabi nodded.

“Well, she seemed to like high-stakes gambles.”

“I just hope this doesn’t end with a dead body in the ocean over there,” said Alicia.

Miyabi’s party had already received an initiation into how the criminal city worked, but they could not let that scare them away.

The only way to make use of the city’s unique resources was to get used to the city’s ways.

They needed to repair the imperial automaton and ask him about the 11th who had pretended to be the emperor to command him.

Eliza glanced around while carrying Number 8’s limp form on her back.

“There is so much here my kingdom lacked. For one, the city is not lit by fires and tallow lamps.”

“Yes, these are cutting-edge gas lamps you see alongside the road. Hee hee. You are in for a surprise tonight. Metal foil is used to color the fires red, yellow, and blue. Each and every shop appears to be shining.”

“Hm. I had noticed glass tubes bent into letters like balloon art, but are those made to be illuminated? That explains why all the signs are transparent and hard to read. For example, what is that shop supposed to be?”

“…”

Celina sealed her lips shut and refused to answer.

She must have been unwilling to speak the name Bubble Bath Paradise out loud.

Helen the hall monitor placed a finger on the bridge of her glasses and stared like she could not believe her eyes.

“The bars are garish, the casinos have no rate limits and are buddy-buddy with loan sharks, I’m willing to bet the pawn shops are full of stolen goods, and those ‘theatres’ look more like the kind of place where the performers take their clothes of for tips. Wow, there’s even a battle arena where people actually lose their lives. Nothing on this street would be legal in the Republic. And the other street at this intersection appears to be nothing but hotels.”

“You’re awfully good at recognizing such establishments for someone who doesn’t approve of them,” said Alicia. “Got more of an interest in some of them than you’re letting on, perhaps?”

“Th-that information is necessary for working undercover!!”

Alma was looking all around from Miyabi’s feet.

“Koo…” said the black cat creature with a shiver.

“What’s wrong, Alma?” asked Alicia. “If you’re scared, then I’ll make a hammock out of my skirt for you. Ha ha ha. Yes, just jump on in!”

“Country Girl Limited Edition Strawberry Picker Chef’s Special Elf! Lift that skirt a little higher! Yes, even higher than that!! Wait, but how am I ever supposed to see that glorious fabric triangle when looking down from your neck!?”

The radio made a ruckus, earning a punch from Eliza and Helen both.

The pure knight was still having trouble reading the signs, but even she was starting to pick up on the indecent atmosphere. She had more doubt and caution in her voice while she carried the deactivated magical automaton around.

“Where is the Bodenburg Company? Don’t we need to visit them to fix Number 8 and get his information on the 11th?”

Celina winked and raised a finger.

“It’s the biggest building of them all. It’s impossible to miss.”

They were walking along the widest and most conspicuous road, but Miyabi still caught glimpses of a world he had never known.

For example, he peeked inside a weapon shop along the way.

“Welcome…except I would recommend against shopping here, kid. Carrying a weapon only makes it more likely you’ll be stabbed.”

For some reason, the shop’s owner firmly turned him away, which seemed like a terrible way to stay in business. The gloomy maid tending to the sharp and blunt weapons in the shop gave him a thin smile.

“Oh? Were you not expecting to find a maid here?” she said. “Hee hee. As a mercenary, I happen to be another of the products for sale. Stop by again if you have a job for me.”

Out of curiosity (a curiosity mostly directed toward the darker side of society glimpsed in this city), Miyabi nervously peeked inside all the stores they passed by. Either they refused to sell to first-timers, or they appeared to have all the more interesting items unlisted so they had to be requested by name. The major port had to be a starting point for a lot of journeys, but the place was not made for tourists.

“The food looks good, though,” said Miyabi, watching some sweets being cooked at a street stall.

“That is known as a crepe, Miyabi. People call this a criminal city, but it actually values freedom more than anywhere else on the continent and people from all sorts of backgrounds end up here. We are second to none when it comes to culture and the arts. Food is no exception.”

But their destination was the Bodenburg Company.

They had the most powerful card in their deck for that. Celina was the company’s only daughter. She was right about it being impossible to miss. The biggest building was visible from any part of the city.

As they approached, they came across a large iron gate. They could see a garden with rose hedges and fountains past the sturdy bars. It was too large to even call a park. Miyabi thought his entire village might have fit inside it. Maids and gardeners were coming and going within and they even saw a carriage driving by. The grand white mansion was enough to leave even Helen of the Republic and Eliza of the Arsenal Kingdom speechless. It was fancier even than the residences of their heads of state.

Miyabi gasped just from looking through the gate.

“That’s incredible.”

“Heh heh. It is, isn’t it?”

“Why is there a naked statue of you in the middle of that fountain? Was it some kind of punishment?”

“Th-that is of my mother when she was younger! And it was not some bizarre form of punishment!!”

Celina had clearly corrected exactly this misunderstanding on more than a few occasions.

She approached the gate with a bright blush on the face that took after her mother.

“Anyway, this is the headquarters of our company. Rudolf!”

“Oh?”

A gray-haired old man – presumably Rudolf – approached from the other side of the gate, but he did not bow. Powerful old men were in no short supply in a logging village, so for Miyabi, this muscular old-timer was like a point of familiarity in an otherwise strange city.

The air was dry, the sun was bright, and Rudolf wore black dress clothes, yet he was not sweating.

“Rudolf, I would like to discuss the company’s inventory. I require a list of all imperial automaton components we have in stock. I have reason to repair this automaton named Number 8.

Rudolf was smiling.

And he continued smiling as he responded.

“And why would I give you that?”

“Surely you aren’t going to say you do not recognize me.”

“I am afraid I must. The Bodenburg Company is run by the wealthiest family at Galletfron Trade Port. Being known far and wide comes at a price. Just the other day, a girl who looked exactly like the young lady rashly stopped by to scam us out of some travel expenses, so the master has ordered us to be stricter in our dealings with anyone, even if they appear to be family.”

“Even your family is turning you away, rich girl?” asked Alicia.

“(Kh!!)”

After the world-famous girl gave the elf one hell of a look, Rudolf made a suggestion.

“You might be a well-disguised fake, but I know I would recognize the real young lady’s exceptional business acumen. Let’s see…this city uses guns more than swords or sorcery, so why not acquire a Divine Crystal Bullet? Yes, just one will do. Bring that to me and I will be able to tell at a glance that you are the real young lady.”

“Hm, that isn’t much info to go on,” said Alicia.

The intellectual glasses woman gave a start.

The elf grinned and turned toward the woman, ready to boss her around.

“Heh heh heh. This sounds like a job for Venus, don’t you think?”

“L-let’s go take a look around, Miyabi! We’ll go over the city with a fine-tooth comb!!”

Thus, Operation Fine-Tooth Comb began.

“We’ll be asking around?”

Miyabi gave a thoughtful look toward Eliza.

Armor and weapons were a common sight in this criminal city full of thugs, so the problem was the thing she was carrying as their “muscle”.

“Then shouldn’t we find some place to keep Number 8? He looks so realistic people might think we’re carrying around a corpse.”

“But people carry drunks out of bars all the time here.”

The local girl sounded casual enough, but Miyabi wondered worriedly why she hadn’t specified where the drunks were being carried to.

They were in front of Celina’s mansion, but they were not allowed inside. Helen was in charge of their finances and she fell to her knees at the thought of renting out an inn room large enough for them all when a party member’s home was this very city.

“The corner room is open right now. I could move you there.”

“No, thank you!! I refuse to even consider any further expenses!!”

For some reason, Helen’s refusal elicited a quiet tongue click from the innkeeper.

The party gathered in a 2nd floor room where they were finally able to lay Number 8 down in a bed.

They needed to speak with him to get information on the 11th.

Miyabi nodded.

“Okay, let’s go find that Divine Crystal Bullet thing.”

“Yes, we cannot get the repair parts without convincing Rudolf.”

Would they find a bullet at a weapon shop?

They discussed the possibilities while descending the stairs, but they received a hint much sooner than expected.

A filthy middle-aged man wrapped in old rags spoke to them as soon as they stepped out of the inn.

“Hee hee hee. I’ve got some information you might just be interested in.”

“If you were that well informed, you wouldn’t look like you crawled out of a trash heap,” said Alicia.

“Now, now. Just hear me out.”

The elf’s exasperated comment was not enough to get him down.

“It’s about that inn you just left. Hm, so you managed to avoid the corner room, did you? That’s good to hear. Wanna know why the place is always empty but always makes a killing? Anyone who stays in the corner room is put to sleep by the special spores or insect scales rubbed onto the pillows and blankets. Once you’re out, they can steal everything of value. The innkeeper’s vault is crammed full of rare prizes.”

“…”

Normally, that would scare them enough to find a different inn.

In fact, this man was probably working for a different inn to guide customers that way. Those rags were a type of uniform. They looked filthy, but the sour smell was more reminiscent of watered-down vinegar than human body odor. It even had a touch of apply sweetness.

But Miyabi’s party had a goal in mind.

“(That means the innkeeper might have some rare weapons. Like the Divine Crystal Bullet that Rudolf guy asked for.)”

“(Even if he doesn’t have one, he might have done some research into potential targets that would have one. When a customer looks like they probably have a lot of valuables, he must try to get them to take the corner room.)”

So it was time to turn right around.

When they brought up the corner room, the innkeeper looked troubled.

But not because he was begging for mercy.

“50 thousand methods.”

“Huh?”

Celina had thought they had him dead to rights, so her eyes widened.

With a solid thunk, he placed a crystal smaller than his thumb down on the counter. The shadow cast by the clear crystal contained a colorful band of light just like when light shined through a water tank.

He grinned and leaned forward.

“For the Divine Crystal Bullet. Believe me, that’s a bargain. You should really be thanking me.”

The criminal city was indeed a criminal city.

Celina’s mouth flapped wordlessly a bit before she got her voice out.

“You expect me to pay 50 thousand methods for a sketchy item with nothing to prove it’s legit!? You could build a house with a decent garden in a rural village for that! You do understand you’ll be out of business if we reveal your misdeeds here, don’t you!?”

“Um, isn’t it wrong to let him get away with it just because we get what we want out of him?” quietly commented Helen, but no one was listening.

The innkeeper had the upper hand here and he was not letting go. He almost seemed to be enjoying it like a game.

“I stole this inn and its land with a forged title deed, so it’s no skin off my nose if I have to move elsewhere. There are tons of poorly-managed vacant buildings around here. Now. I believe the real issue here is that you need this Divine Crystal Bullet for some reason or another.”

“…”

“50 thousand and not a method less. If you’re short on cash, then sell that jewel-encrusted dress of yours. And if that isn’t enough, your underwear too. We can talk after that.”

“~ ~ ~!!!!!!”

Being outdone in a business discussion must have been unforgivable for Celina. She tugged on panicking Miyabi’s sleeve, guiding him away from the counter, and then whispered in his ear. With her bayonetted rifle held close.

“(Let’s rob him.)”

“This escalated quickly!!!”

“(Shh. Let’s teach that fucker the meaning of freedom in this criminal city. There’s no use haggling with him. I have a sixth sense for deals that aren’t going to work out. We’d be here for a century without making any progress.)”

“Says the girl who was all over us when we said we would sell our Wicked God horn.”

Celina glared over at the elf.

As for Miyabi…

“We do need that thing to convince Mr. Rudolf…”

“(This innkeeper is clearly taking advantage of us. That Divine Crystal Bullet is no more a piece of glasswork!)”

“But what are we supposed to do?” asked the pure boy.

Celina rubbed a finger against her temple.

“(Well, if we aren’t just going to blow his brains out…oh, I know. We can create our own. You saw what it looks like, right? We can counterfeit ourselves one!)”

The Lucifer Horn connected them to Horn Fortress.

The wire dangling from the bomber could carry people and things to and from that island. They did not know how developed Horn Fortress was at this point, but they did know they had a useful party member there.

The dwarf named Garett Goldcave was an Arsenal Kingdom blacksmith skilled enough to be considered a national treasure.

“That might just work. If we did the work here, someone might notice and word might reach Rudolf.”

They had approval from the glasses woman who preferred to follow the rules but still excelled at conspiracies.

They left the dumbfounded innkeeper behind and returned to their room in his inn. Their only option was to send a letter via the Lucifer Horn and trust in Garett’s skill.

It was complete before sunset.

The dish called pizza turned out to be a controversial choice. Helen and Celina were arguing over whether garlic shrimps were an acceptable topping when the Lucifer Horn delivered a small box wrapped in cushioning.

“Is this it?”

“Miyabi, you don’t know a thing about how guns work, from the firing mechanism to how the lead deforms on impact, do you?” said Celina. “I will give you a thorough lecture later on, but for now, let’s get back to Rudolf.”

They walked to the Bodenburg residence and found Rudolf waiting in the same place as before.

He had not given them a time limit, so had he been waiting there the entire time?

“That was fast. Do you have the Divine Crystal Bullet?”

“Who do you think I am?”

“I would like to see it, if you don’t mind. Excuse me.”

Miyabi had trouble looking the man in the eye, so Celina surreptitiously stomped on his foot with a smile.

“…”

“…”

“Interesting,” said Rudolf with a nod.

Was that a yes or a no? It was a tense moment. Miyabi did not know how things worked in this city, but he was worried they would be subjected to some very creative punishments if it was discovered they had given the man a fake.

“It really is you, milady.” Rudolf smiled. “I knew you would never pay such an absurd price.”

“It was such an obvious setup. That wasn’t even worth haggling over. I bet you knew it was me and decided to have some fun!”

“Ho ho. That is the Bodenburg way.”

Then I’ll never understand it, thought Commoner Miyabi. He could never stand living in a home where everyone made such stomachache-inducing jokes.

“You wished to discuss an imperial automaton, correct?”

“Wait, we’re just going to chat out here? Invite us in already.”

The elf’s complaints did nothing to wipe the smile off of Rudolf’s face.

He continued standing perfectly still in front of the gate.

“I apologize, but the master is in a bad mood within.”

“What’s upset father this time?”

“Pirates,” replied Rudolf. “The loss of the armored train required the company to switch to ocean shipping routes, but a pirate took advantage of the shipping fleet’s poor coordination during the confusion of the switchover. Their defenses should have been sufficient, but they were gathered in a hurry and thus unable to work together so soon.”

“…”

The girl fell silent.

This was a complicated issue, but she may have felt responsible for losing the Schwarz Schütze.

“Only the cargo was targeted, so the crew and mercenaries were unharmed. …However, the pirate was very thorough, almost to the point of mockery. The magical automaton parts you want were no exception. Items from the ruined Empire are rare, so it will be difficult to find replacements on such short notice. Your only option may be to attack the pirate and take back what was stolen.”

“Um, a pirate?”

Miyabi had grown up in the mountains, so the word only vaguely rang a bell.

Rudolf shook his head.

“This one is quite famous, sadly enough.”

He identified the pirate.

“Onelife Shiftup, the one-eyed pirate. He is known to use a special prosthetic arm, so he may have need for imperial technology.”

“Hm.” Eliza brought a hand to her chin. “Does he use a high-tech automaton arm?”

“But not even our company has managed to track him down. People say he is a gentleman thief and that he singlehandedly defeated a Wicked God and broke off its horn. It is hard to say how much of it is a coincidence and how much of it is an intentional strategy on his part, but all the unconfirmed rumors have confused our attempts to find real information on him. We know he is somewhere in this port city, but not his exact location.”

“…”

“We do know, however, that he possesses a powerful Godhorn Tech: the King Knot pirate ship. Unfortunately, that part is undoubtedly true because it is registered as one of the continent’s 10 Godhorn Techs.”

Chapter 5, Section 2

Night had fallen.

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

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

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

Village Boy Miyabi Blackgarden was terrified.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The bunny girl ignored any possible damage to the jerk.

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

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

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

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

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

“Wh-wh-what?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“???”

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

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

The entire discussion went way over Miyabi’s head.

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

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

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

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

“Yes, fully prepared,” she said.

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

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

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

“Is everything she does indecent?” muttered Eliza.

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

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

“Mom, try taking some deep breaths!!”

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

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

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

Alicia sighed.

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

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

Outside, the city was a deluge of lights.

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

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

“Bubble Bath Paradise?”

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

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

The streets were aflood with noise.

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

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

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

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

Miyabi felt dizzy.

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

“Nhhh☆ I’m finally home.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He was stuck blinking in confusion.

“Wh-what? What are they even saying?”

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

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

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

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

And his long ears were twitching.

Miyabi did not even try to beat around the bush.

“Huh? Are you an elf!?”

“Hm, what gave it away?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miyabi tilted his head.

“What, do you know each other?”

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

“Blue…?”

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

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

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

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

And then…

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

Miyabi gasped.

What was that?

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

Cliff himself grimaced.

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

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

Miyabi was not imagining things.

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

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

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

“The Demon Lord?”

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

“?”

Miyabi was even more confused now.

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

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

“Contract Owner…”

“…Under Lilith?”

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

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

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

“Like a giant Beast Nova?”

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

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

Miyabi found this strange.

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

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

“But we only have her word to go on.”

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

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

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

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

“Um, what was that about your memories?”

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

“…”

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

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

And…

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

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

Someone else walked up to the table.

She too had long ears.

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

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

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

“Green…?”

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

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

That last line sounded plenty ominous.

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

But Miyabi was fixated on another detail.

“D-dark?”

“Hm? Do you need something?”

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

“Eh? Huh?”

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

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

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

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

Cliff sighed and provided some advice.

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

“Eh?”

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

“…”

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

Miyabi was unsure how to react to her thin smile.

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

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

“Solving a riddle.”

“?”

Cliff looked puzzled but curious.

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

Cliff did have some advice, though.

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

“Why?”

Miyabi frowned and Cliff gave an exaggerated nod.

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

“Okay.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cliff smiled a little.

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

But she also looked amused.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alicia counted off on her fingers.

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

“Koo koo!”

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

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

And eventually…

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

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

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

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

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

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

They found a dark, narrow alleyway.

Even the moonlight seemed to steer clear of the place.

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

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

“So he’s here?”

The darkness seemed to absorb Miyabi’s question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Koo koo!!”

And not just from one direction.

Miyabi looked out ahead and behind him.

“Damn, an ambush!”

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

Even without a ship, they were clearly pirates.

There were of course several of them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Informed Celina Bodenburg’s eyes widened.

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

“Electric?”

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

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

“…”

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

“Mom…”

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

“Stepmom?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

None of the pirates even flinched.

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

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

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

“…”

“Hey, what now!?”

“…”

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

But then…

“Hold it right therrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!”

A voice boomed out like an explosion.

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

The culprit was a muscular macho man.

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

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

“I appreciate the attempt to protect me!”

A scream was drowned out by another loud impact.

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

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

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

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

Then that heavy metal fist dropped down toward him.

The one-eyed old man raised an unintelligible cry.

“Whoa, watch out!?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Then why respond at all!?”

Everyone ignored the radio’s laments.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celina was of course the one to argue back.

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

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

“For your arm?” asked Helen.

The one-eyed pirate shook his head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was like an outlaw parade.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

However, the ships were not their biggest problem.

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

“Have you heard of him?” asked Miyabi.

Surprisingly, the larger-than-life pirate nodded.

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

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

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

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

“But what?”

The man had trailed off for some reason.

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

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

“In those boxes!? Where?”

Miyabi was surprised, but Celina was incensed.

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

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

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

“How can a criminal be so pure!?”

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

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

“To where?” asked Miyabi.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miyabi looked up at the pile of boxes.

“And that means sending automatons?”

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

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

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

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

“Eh?”

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

“W-well…”

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

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

“…”

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

It was like a battle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dawn had arrived.

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

In the end, their efforts went unrewarded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m a pirate! What’d you expect!?”

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

Celina flinched back, but Miyabi sighed.

“Hmm. But in that case…”

“Zzz…koo?”

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

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

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

“?”

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

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

“But then what happens to that island kingdom?”

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

Profiles

Phobia Neverjudge

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 157cm

Only daughter of the Neverjudge Family, which accepts any job requiring an armed solution. They do bodyguard, rescue, kidnapping, and assassination jobs, all without asking too many questions. With the presence of Wicked Gods harming the Family’s reputation, she is working to slay the Wicked Gods herself. She has failed to discover the identity of the legendary assassin Shadow Crack and she suspects they are an elf, making them impossible to track down when viewing only the human side of the equation.

Eluné Jackpot

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A gambler who constantly tests how far she can push her luck. After trying more and more crazy gambles, she has reached the point of seeing if she can survive a direct confrontation with a real Wicked God. When she speaks of luck, she includes how long it takes for her cheating to be discovered. Rumor has it she has even used her incredible luck to cheat her way into a contract with Under Lilith.

Cliff Blueforest

Apparent Age: 18 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 185cm

An elf knight who once risked his life binding a contract with Demon Lord Under Lilith to save his human lover from a deadly illness, successfully saving her life. As payment, all his memories of that lover were erased and he now travels the world in search of any proof that she lived a happy life. All elves of that forest use the surname Blueforest, so he and Alicia are not related.

Lillian Greenforest

Apparent Age: 18 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 162cm

One of the dark elves who were forced to scatter across the land after their sacred forest was destroyed. A ‘passive avenger’ who offers up her own body as a specimen for magical research to advance human military technology, hoping all the humans will kill each other with the results. She is searching for the alchemist named Holy Gate to advance humanity’s doomsday clock.

Onelife Shiftup

Age: 56

Sex: Male

Height: 200cm

The legendary pirate who once slayed a Wicked God with just the one arm, broke off its horn, and remade his own ship into a Godhorn Tech. His larger-than-life personality and refusal to sweat the small stuff gives him a powerful charisma. His popularity allows him as much notoriety as the entire Bodenburg Company that controls the criminal port city. He is more frightening when directly attacking with his prosthetic combat arm than when using a control device or Godhorn Tech.

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