Godhorn Tech and the 11 Destroyers:Volume 1

Novel Illustrations

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Preface

Color Illustration 1

Miyabi Blackgarden

A perfectly ordinary boy from the first village. In a twist of fate, inherited the Lucifer Horn Bomber and got caught up in some trouble.

Godhorn Tech

Bomber – Lucifer Horn

With a great roar, something massive cut by overhead.

Miyabi had no idea what this meant.

A moment later, all the trees, branches, and leaves in the forest were subjected to a powerful blast of wind. Helen predicted the wind’s direction and pressed her back against a tree and Alicia staggered while holding her skirt down with both hands.

That thing was…not alive.

It had to be several dozen meters long and it resembled a colossal bird or dragon with enormous wings, but the collection of straight and curved lines had the glint of metal and glass not found in nature and something about its design looked artificial. Something built by human hands had instantly stolen the leading role from the natural scenery.

It may have been something like a hanger made from bat wings.

But it was unbelievably large and sinister.

Color Illustration 2

Alma

The only currently known juvenile Wicked God.

Alicia Blueforest

Girl belonging to the Blueforest race of elves.

“B-but not because I climbed too high and am too scared to get back down!”

Helen Clockgear

Venus

Republic official in Miyabi’s village.

“I’m Venus, the most popular girl here. Welcome☆”

Color Illustration 3

Celina Bodenburg

Only daughter of the world-renowned Bodenburg Company.

Controls the Godhorn Tech Armored Train - Schwarz Schütze.

“Raise your control sword, Miyabi Blackgarden!!”

“Celina, what are you doing?”

Terminology

Godhorn Tech

Colossal sorcery weapons built around a Wicked God’s horn. Construction costs are massive, but their sturdiness makes maintenance and operation a breeze.

It is unclear if even Godhorn Tech could achieve victory against a true Wicked God. Godhorn Tech is a collection of human technology with just the horn built in, while the monster is a Wicked God from head to tail.

Wicked God

This world contains life forms known as Wicked Gods that human technology and civilization are unable to oppose. They can possess any number of shapes and natures, including dragons, krakens, and phoenixes, but they all have one point in common: a giant horn on their forehead.

It is theorized nonhumans and monsters become Wicked Gods when they fall into the cracks in the world and resist the miasma long enough to crawl back out again, but this has never been proven. Academics are also split on the etymology of the name. Some say it simply refers to their wicked nature, but others say it refers to them being a god of the wicked because they are too kind to turn down anyone’s request, no matter how wicked it might be.

The 11th

An assumed 11th Godhorn Tech user unknown to the world. Thought to cause mass destruction using sorcery bombs. However, it is also possible that one of the known 10 are calling themselves the 11th.

Their motive is unknown and their next target is always unpredictable. The governments are covering up their presence to prevent unrest among the people, but the information has begun to leak out and the world’s tension is approaching the limit, like a glass of water with surface tension about to break.

Sorcery Bomb

Weapon of mass destruction used by the 11th Godhorn Tech user. The massive power found inside the Wicked God horn is used to create a special bomb indistinguishable from a tree, a rock, etc. The blast is powerful enough to destroy an entire city.

As detonation approaches, a special symbol appears on the sorcery bomb’s surface, and some of the Godhorn Tech users can sense its presence. Can only be detonated via timer, so it can be disarmed if discovered and destroyed before detonation. External impacts present no risk of triggering the explosion early.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Section 1

In that time, cracks had formed in the world.

The contradictory beings known as Wicked Gods soon emerged from that great womb.

My everyday life has just a hint of the mysterious mixed in.

But I only ever thought of it as providing a nice spice to life.

So never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be forced into eating a giant plateful of pepper.

A sudden white beam blotted out the blue of the midday sky.

“How powerful is that thing?”

The boy felt the weight of the blade in his wrists. He also felt an icy chill.

He had wobbled to the side and bumped into the massive boulder that had towered above him like a cliff face. But now it was broken and only rose to his hip height.

Miyabi Blackgarden, a redheaded 15-year-old boy with sawdust goggles on his forehead, just about forgot he was in a deep forest. He gulped, but not from the fear of touching a combat sword for the first time in his life.

The sword was no more than a conductor’s baton.

The actual destruction had been caused by the thing that seemed to cover everything overhead.

“Koo,” groaned the slipper-sized white creature at his feet upon seeing something.

It covered its mouth with small hands(?) and walked on two legs. It had a single round horn on its forehead and its stuffed animal eyes may have been viewing the massive artificial bird formed from countless straight and curved lines. Or maybe it was viewing what little that attack had left of its playground. Dark soil and greenery had been torn up and blasted into the air, so their scent filled Miyabi’s lungs. It was all another scar of destruction.

The scenery itself had been torn apart.

An entire section of the forest had been eradicated without a trace and the dark soil below had been torn up. The trees had to have stood 10 to 15 meters tall and parts of the forest had been too thick to allow much sunlight through, but all of that had been stripped away, exposing the ground to the sun. From a bird’s-eye view, you might have seen the scars of destruction formed a perfect circle.

Miyabi’s mind nearly went blank.

He could not even stop himself from blurting out some meaningless words.

A massive form measuring several dozen meters long soared by overhead. That bomber was an artificial monster with bat-like wings spread.

“No one told me it would do that!”

But the clock was ticking all the while.

Even Miyabi knew what it meant when he heard several whistling noises in quick succession. His was not the only “strongest” on the field. They had provoked something extremely dangerous. If he continued standing there in a daze, he would be blown to bits in only a few seconds.

He was hearing the enemy’s attacks.

And those attacks were meant to take his life.

“Alma, follow me!!”

“Koo koo!”

The bipedal creature could not speak human language. Miyabi gestured forward and they both ran through the deep forest. He had already been told where he needed to go.

“Celina is a Godhorn Tech user just like you are now.”

He recalled the words of that jerk he would much rather forget.

But with death only a step away, he threw open all the drawers of his memory to gather up every piece of information that might help him survive just a little longer.

“That is a colossal sorcery weapon with a Wicked God horn built inside. You need to stay on the move. Standing still will get you killed.”

The control sword he had been given felt so heavy.

It was short for a two-handed sword, but it still had a blade. Yet it did not feel remotely adequate.

He was always playing around in the mottled sunlight of this forest, but now it felt like the green stomach of great monster.

Something poured down from the sky at fearsome speed. But this was not from the bomber. After they whistled sharply through the air, explosions erupted on the ground. Miyabi snatched small Alma up from the ground and dove behind a nearby hill mere moments before a tree trunk thicker than him was transformed into a storm of splinters sharper than Beast Nova fangs and tore horizontally through the air. It might as well have been a solid wall of blades. Without his quick action, the two of them would have been shredded.

They never should have been illuminated by the sunshine this deep in the forest, but too many trees had been torn from the ground.

Who would have believed this was the result of lead masses fired high into the sky from outside the vast forest and allowed to drop back down from there?

It was a terrifying collection of sorcery technology.

It probably involved alchemy. Even a boy from a backwater village knew alchemy could do amazing things with metals and chemicals. Alchemical processing could apparently create massive fires and great heat.

“You okay, Alma?”

“Kyoo…”

He had to interpret any response at all as a good thing given the circumstances.

And that didn’t just apply to Alma. He was just an ordinary boy who had trouble keeping away the beasts of the forest.

However…

“For now, you can put off training your own body to move the way you want it. Learning to cross rivers and climb trees can wait until you have plenty of time to work on it.”

Those things had tremendous destructive power.

But that was not all they could do.

“Because right now, you can already make the terrain itself your ally. There was some weird static back when I transferred the contract to you, so maybe that’s why. …But anyway, learn when to use the creation and when to use the destruction. If you come across a cliff face, you can tear it down. Or if you want to climb over it instead, you can build up the land in front of it. Listen, you need to make everything around you into your ally. That’s a handy shortcut for turning you superhuman.”

(Are you kidding me? So if I keep this up, I’ll turn into one of those monsters too!?)

He heard more whistling.

The enemy shots were flying in from outside the forest, but the magic imbued in these ones did not wait until they hit the ground.

A blinding flash of light burst at a point in the sky and lightning crashed down all over the area. The attack dropped like a suspended ceiling to crush the entire field below.

“Ahhhh!?”

With the deadly blade in one hand and Alma in the other, Miyabi held his breath and scrambled out from behind the hill.

This was well beyond anything he could avoid on his own.

If this had been a wide-open field, a thick bolt of electricity would have crashed down on his head and roasted him. He was only still alive because this was a deep forest and the lightning was diverted toward the trees instead.

And that was not all that happened.

One shell passed over his head and hit well behind him, spreading a white frost in every direction. He had a bad feeling about what would happen if that caught up to him. He would probably be frozen solid in an instant.

“Alma!!”

He tightened his grip on his partner who resembled a white stuffed animal and ran like a bat out of hell. He jumped right over a hip-height stone, circled behind a simple charcoal burner’s hut, and crossed a river using the log lying across it.

The icy wave freezing everything white stopped when it reached the water, but Miyabi did not stop running. He quickly located an area with no bushes or other underbrush and rushed there. The next shell had to have already been loaded, so he had no time to breathe a sigh of relief.

Even with a special power in his grasp, all he could do was run away.

But at the same time, how was he still alive when his enemy was going to such lengths to kill him?

Instead of him parting the grass, he felt like the scenery itself was parting to let him through.

His enemy was using magical artillery.

Those alchemically-made projectiles were falling from the heavens like deadly rain, so the situation had already left “normal” far behind.

There had to be another power at play.

He had a way of fighting back. It did not actually boost his strength or muscles, but just knowing he could fight back allowed him to move the way he normally would instead of locking up with fear.

“Godhorn Tech Bomber – Lucifer Horn.”

He even had it in him to look into the blue sky overhead while he ran through the forest.

He was not just a helpless victim here. He could directly fight back.

“Is that monster really mine now?”

“Koo koo!” wailed the young life in his arm. Strangely, it was that nonhuman creature that reminded him what it meant to be human.

“That’s right. Surviving this comes first,” he muttered under his breath, reminding himself of his primary objective.

His feet carried him further through the green forest.

Even on the receiving end, it took him a bit to realize the density of fire was dropping. His opponent was not attacking as effectively. Instead of concentrating fire on his location, they were scattering shells across a wider area, hoping the target hiding in the forest would make a mistake and reveal his location.

Of course.

If even one of those happened to hit him, he would be killed just the same.

That was when he caught a glimpse of something through the trees.

He saw a gold color.

After a moment of confusion, surprise colored his face. That was blonde hair.

Given all the obstacles found in the deep forest, he had to be literally a stone’s throw away.

The voice he heard was of a lovely girl.

“We both possess Godhorn Tech, so why not cut loose and enjoy this?”

(She’s really close. And not even trying to hide!!)

That reminded Miyabi of a carnivorous beast standing at the top of the food chain. Instead of holding her breath and lying in wait for her prey, she would simply devour her prey because she was feeling a little hungry.

He had assumed she would be standing alongside the colossal weapon. He had assumed he still had a long way to go since it was nowhere to be seen. But there she was. She had left the collection of magical technology outside the forest far behind her while she continued on alone. For improved accuracy, she gave instructions from nearby her target and the alchemy shells would be launched over her head.

The boy cursed his right foot. He had taken the step before noticing her here, but it had still been careless of him.

The girl who reigned supreme had accurately detected his location through the trees.

“Celina, only daughter of the Bodenburg Company, at your service!!”

Several shells whistled down from the sky.

He decided it was fortunate she could not fire the shells directly at him. The arcing trajectory created a lag before they hit. He clenched his teeth and raced forward. The ground was torn up and blasted into the air over a few dozen meters of where they landed. Even trees standing more than 10 meters tall were obliterated like thin glass, so he was dead if he was caught in one of the explosions.

They were close enough for a raised voice to reach, yet the girl did not seem remotely afraid.

(Kh.)

“You okay, Alma?”

“Kyoo.”

Alma was dizzy and for good reason. The explosive blast and metal shrapnel were not the only threat. Even if they escaped the explosion itself, the booming noise was like a solid wall that sapped their strength when it hit them. But Miyabi knew all too well what would happen if he let his shaky legs come to a stop.

“My, my. Playing hide and seek, are we?”

In the near distance, the gold he had glimpsed between the trees slipped away.

Had she put more distance between them, or had she moved behind a thick tree to use it as a shield?

“Did you think that was enough to escape my company’s Schwarz Schütze!?”

That man’s voice played in his woozy mind like from a record player.

“Godhorn Tech does more than destroy. Especially for you with your unusual contract. If the firing is too intense to move in, try creating a Decoy Wall.”

“?”

For the first time, a change came over the girl singing happily deep in the forest.

As the shellfire only grew more intense, Miyabi tossed Alma to the side and held an empty hand out toward an empty patch of land.

The necessary words sprang unbidden from the depths of his mind.

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

Immediately, a green mass rose up with a dull thunk.

It was a wall. Each individual piece was a Palette Die, a piece of the undergrowth packed together into a box-sized mass, and enough of them linked together to grow taller than Miyabi himself.

The girl beyond the forest growth probably had two reasons to panic.

First, the simple fact that the sudden obstacle caused her to lose sight of Miyabi.

And second, a shell that was supposedly under her control suddenly veered off of its perfect arc like an invisible string had tugged on it.

The temporary barrier was obliterated, but that was its purpose.

Miyabi and Alma were out of danger while the enemy’s attacks were focused on the decoy, so they were already running to their next position. They were still on the run, but they could get by using that. And approach their enemy in the process.

“Your imagination is the limit. Right now, you can create anything out of the Palette Dice.”

That should not have been possible.

The power held by the boy and the girl was built for destruction and nothing else.

“Once you create something, you can register it with that control sword to automate the process next time. The materials used cost extra, of course. A momentary delay can mean the difference between life and death in battle, so it can’t hurt to reduce the time spent as much as possible.”

“Okay, let’s get closer to this Celina girl, Alma.”

“Kyoo.”

Miyabi got moving while encouraging the white slipper-sized creature that was feeling dizzy from all the loud noises.

They were still being targeted.

He could just barely avoid the shells by creating a Decoy Wall as tall as himself, but he was no bullfighter waving around a colorful cloth. He felt a squeezing at his heart whenever the dark soil was torn from the ground and the bark stripped from the trees.

He could barely breathe, but stopping was not an option.

Something far worse would happen to him if he did. Running away was meaningless when the entire vast forest was in her attack range. It would be as foolish as trying to run away from the lightning in a storm. But if he moved in close, she would be hesitant to fire shells that caused large explosions. He could taste the dark soil and the crushed grass on his lips, so he wiped them off with the back of his empty hand before taking the next step forward.

This was not a path worn down by animals.

He had to dodge thick trees and the knee-high underbrush and bushes caught at his legs. The squawking of the birds he disturbed made it hard to concentrate. When he stepped on a large rock, his foot slipped. He felt like the entire world was trying to get in his way. His fear was sharpening his senses, but the excess information only wore at his nerves more.

“The Decoy Wall will eventually be destroyed, but the enemy’s attacks will be focused on it while it lasts. You can approach the enemy head on during that time. The trick to survival is placing your next Decoy Wall before the previous one is destroyed.”

He couldn’t be that far away.

As the bird flies, he was literally a stone’s throw away. He had at least caught a glimpse of her blonde hair through the trees.

“Now, a single Decoy Wall isn’t going to gather every enemy’s attention. They can be weirdly picky. But for an enemy in the field, try making a field wall first.”

He heard a voice barely audible over the rustling of the leaves.

“A decoy meant to throw off my aim? You certainly know how to get under my skin.”

But he still tensed. Even though he knew the very simple equation of “stopping = death”.

“But that is meaningless if I just destroy everything in the area. My hail of bullets will crush you beyond recognition!”

Miyabi Blackgarden’s mind nearly went blank.

The rules had changed.

No longer were the massive shells flying high into the sky before dropping back down. One shot past right next to him. The thick forest of 10 to 15 meter trees and the dark soil below were torn away, leaving a massive ditch behind.

The girl herself was in between, but she still fired the weapon from behind her. Even though she would be destroyed if a shot strayed even slightly.

Then Miyabi’s nose detected further danger. This was not a whistling or the bright flash of magic, but he was certain of it.

“There’s something wrong with the air.”

By then, his uncertain concern had become a definite fear.

“Alma, jump into that ditch!”

“Koo!”

The many explosions all blended together at this point.

Destructive projectiles were released in a rapid-fire burst from right to left. These were smaller than the previous projectiles, but there were so many of them. A thousand, if not ten thousand, thumb-sized metal bullets were spewed out in the span of a single breath. He could not sense any human will behind the way the bullets surged and twisted around. He was reminded of the chameleons he had seen in picture books. The fearsome band of destruction struck back, pursuing them like a long tongue seeking its prey.

But just before it could reach them, Miyabi and Alma dove into the absurdly long and 2m-deep trench that had just been torn into the ground (by the girl’s own alchemy shell). Miyabi lived in a peaceful village and was unfamiliar with the idea of trench warfare, but he had known the trench was the only way to avoid having his and Alma’s flesh and blood splattered across the ground along with the splintered tree trunks and branches pouring down all around them.

The destruction was so great he was actually worried about the girl causing it. She could trust her weapon this fully if she wanted, but did she really understand what would happen if it screwed up?

However…

(Can I use this?)

The trench was only a meter or two deep, but that was better than nothing. If he stayed crouched, the rapid-fire sweeps would pass right over his head. He gestured Alma over with his head low and then continued further down the trench.

Dark soil and splinters poured down on him from above.

He looked up curiously and saw a tree trunk thicker than him flying his way.

“Koo!?”

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

He immediately raised a hand and a few cubes of dirt formed a flat panel in midair. He did not bother giving it any girders and just let the panel cross the ditch over their heads. It was a makeshift bridge, but he used it more like a roof. He grabbed Alma and dove beneath it in a panic just before a dull “boom!!” erupted overhead. The tree trunk bounced off the roof and flew in a different direction. The two of them would have been smashed by the giant tree hammer if not for that roof.

(This isn’t even a 1-on-1 fight. Just getting close to her is gonna get me killed.)

“Koo koo!”

“Yeah, I know. We just cheated death there, so I should record what I felt there. I’m not letting any of this get away.”

He recorded it in his control sword.

He decided to name it a Bypass Bridge.

It was said necessity is the mother of invention. Even if he only knew the saying from a major play. At any rate, free use of that bridge would likely come in handy for movement and defense. He wanted to make sure he could instantly construct one just by thinking the name in his head.

His target was the girl named Celina and he could not reach her by following this straight path torn into the ground. But he did have the sword he had been given.

“It’s okay, Alma. This isn’t a dead end. So calm down. Don’t panic.”

He spoke more to himself than Alma while awkwardly stabbing the double-edged sword into the ground, causing a magic circle to appear.

He still didn’t really know how to use it, but he mimicked what he had seen.

“Lucifer Horn, take care of this.”

A massive form cut by overhead.

A thick beam of light dropped from heaven to earth and tore through the familiar forest like it was being dragged after the form in the sky. Up ahead, another trench was drawn perpendicular to the one he was in now.

Or that was the idea anyway.

Blinding light and a sizzling sound became his entire world.

The ground was torn apart.

“Kyah!?”

The girl must have been buffeted by the blast because he heard a surprisingly cute scream in the distance.

Miyabi himself was knocked to the ground and belatedly realized his mouth was full of dirt. After a few seconds, he spat it out. Not daring to get up, he grabbed his sword in one hand and Alma in the other before crawling forward like a slug. He managed to roll down into the straight line of destruction he had just created.

It was deep enough to hide him, making it a path of life. The beam must have melted the dirt or stone because the inside of the path had become smooth as glass.

“Kh.”

He got up, sat with his back against he still-hot wall, and took a deep breath.

“You all right, Alma?”

“…”

No response. It may have been upset with him.

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

He held out his hand in a seemingly random direction.

The scattered glass, dark soil, and splinters gathered together to form a small doll. But this was more than just playing in the dirt. It was as well made as the dress-up dolls found on the item shop’s shelves. Miyabi himself was surprised to find he could make things like this instead of just walls, bridges, and other construction work. Alma accepted the reconciliation gift by hugging the prize in its front legs(?) while Miyabi ducked low and continued through the makeshift ditch.

They could not actually reach their goal this way.

The ditch continued in a straight line, but it did eventually end. If they climbed back up onto the surface, Celina would locate them again and they would be right back in the middle of that hellish hail of bullets.

Recalling the blinding light and deafening booms from before, Miyabi once more stabbed the tip of his sword into the bottom of the hole. It broke through the hardened glass-like ground to reach the soil below.

Doing this scared him.

It scared him a lot, but he needed more.

“Lucifer Horn, get me right over there. Use intersecting strikes to build a connected path!”

His senses were more used to it the second time.

The bomber soared across the sky, dropping a thick beam of light that tore through the ground along its path.

It repeated the process to add a few more ditches at different angles. Was the unseen girl relieved because she assumed the attacks had missed? He hoped so. If she realized this was meant to create trenches for him, then he would be killed like an ant as its colony was flooded with water.

“Let’s circle around toward her.”

“Kyoo.”

He continued through the zigzagging labyrinth built a level lower than the ground and gradually approached that strongest opponent. The depths of the trenches varied. Some were only hip deep, but others had walls that rose well over his head. Not too surprising since they had been created by tearing apart the ground with beams of light.

He continued on not so much because he thought he could win, but because he thought his trembling legs would stop if he did not have a concrete goal to work toward.

“Even Godhorn Tech users are ordinary people. They can be defeated by moving in close and getting a single attack in.”

Yeah, I’d noticed, silently griped Miyabi. That’s how you got injured and forced this pain-in-the-ass onto me.

“I think I can manage from here,” said Miyabi while pressing his thick gloved hands against the dirt wall.

“If you can’t reach the top no matter how much you jump or leap, then try gradually raising the ground to form steps.”

This was just like when he made the Decoy Wall.

He pictured the boxes in his head and held his hand out toward the surrounding dirt.

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

“Godhorn Tech is powerful, so make sure you don’t trap yourself in a massive hole of your own creation.”

Packed soil quickly formed a stairway…or a close enough approximation. The steps were too tall, making it hard to climb, but he would just have to deal with that. And this time, he had deactivated the “lure” effect the Decoy Wall had used. He did not want his stairs to direct Celina’s alchemy shells right into the trench. Deadly metal shards would quickly fill his entire world if that happened.

He now had stairs.

This also looked useful in a wide variety of situations. He had created it out of necessity, but it couldn’t hurt to register it in his control sword. Then again, his opponent might not give him the chance to use it any other situation.

“I should probably give it a good descriptive name. Layer Stairs should work for now.”

“Koo!”

The Decoy Wall, the Bypass Bridge, the doll, and now the Layer Stairs.

He did not know how much he could do with this and he did not have time to test it, but he wondered if he could create an entire house or tower if he knew what he was doing.

(The power of destruction is much simpler and plenty scary, but this creation is disturbing in its own way. For one, how am I moving any of it when I’m not even touching it? I hope it isn’t sucking out my stamina or life force or something.)

Because he did not understand how it worked, he felt a shudder crawling from his fingertips to the core of his body. He forced that down and slowly climbed the pseudo-stairs while staying low. He was moving as cautiously as a lizard.

(It isn’t about distance or direction.)

He used every bit of amateur knowledge he had.

He loathed every single noise he made. The rustling of his clothing and his audible gulping pissed him off.

Alma started moving out ahead, so he grabbed it by the back of the neck to stop it while he tried to find anything he could to give himself hope. He had not even made the actual attack yet, but his heart already felt like it was going to burst from tension.

(I want to get between Celina and that Godhorn Tech in the distance…did she call it Schwarz Schütze? A shell that massive will tear right through me and she won’t want to blow herself up.)

He detected a sweet aroma.

It was more like honey than flowers.

But he consciously held his breath while hiding behind a bush.

He was smelling fancy black silk, an artificial perfume, the starch to get the wrinkles out of clothing, and the beads of sweat appearing on the young girl’s skin.

She was even closer than he had thought.

He and Alma may have been more sensitive to artificial smells because they were on the brink of death and coated in dirt and plant juices, but she was still only 10 meters away at the most.

And she did not seem to have noticed them yet.

Now that he had a better look at her, he really could not believe she was causing so much destruction. She looked 14 and maybe younger. Either way, she was definitely younger than him. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was parted to the sides with pure gold hair clips and every bit of her white skin was smooth and well cared for, giving her the shine of a stage actress. She wore a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems, which was not exactly hiking attire. On her legs and feet, she wore black knee socks and polished pumps. And despite wearing a long skirt, the front was left wide open, leaving her thighs exposed. All in all, her dress looked a lot like a giant jewelry bag.

If that were all, he might have looked like he was hiding in the bushes and plotting to attack a noble girl who had gotten lost in the mountains.

But a stock was pressed casually against a shoulder that looked as delicate as glasswork. That stock was joined by a flintlock mechanism, a gun barrel, and a sinister blade attached below the barrel.

In other words, this was one of the bayonet-equipped hunting rifles preferred by residents of the underground.

“…”

Yes, gunpowder and lead.

In a world run by magic, guns were the symbol of outlaws. Even in forestry villages where encounters with wild animals were common, bodyguards and hunters primarily used bows and arrows enhanced by magic. Guns, on the other hand, were expensive, but required no talent to use and supplied the same deadly force to anyone who used them. They were an uncontrollable weapon that could destroy the order of a village or entire kingdom if enough people had them.

Also, Miyabi recognized the material used for this one.

Without thinking, he glanced down at the double-edged sword he held in his hand. That control sword was made from the same material as that rifle larger than a folded umbrella. That meant the gun was a control device as well. Miyabi and Celina had both been entrusted with an embodiment of destruction capable of tearing apart the scenery in a single strike.

He had already known that.

He could not let his guard down.

“My Bodenburg Company must prove we can provide the world’s greatest distribution.”

The wind carried the girl’s sighing voice toward him.

He doubted the statement was meaningful.

It was an obvious display of confidence, an obvious provocation, an obvious threat.

But…

(Is it only bluster?)

He frowned behind the bushes while close enough to pick up her scent.

(Is she saying that to mask how afraid she really is? Because she’s lost sight of us? Or is she feeling rattled because she can’t seem to defeat us despite supposedly having the strongest power?)

“That is why our prized Schwarz Schütze is here and that is why I am here! Yes, I will defeat you to claim the title of strongest for myself, prove that we can provide the continent’s safest trade route by blowing away any bandits or disasters that might threaten the products en route, and thus establish the Bodenburg Company as the ultimate brand!! Yes, yes, nothing can stop me now.”

Don’t let her get to you, thought Miyabi, shaking his head.

He might have found an unexpectedly human side to her, but he still had to keep moving. He had a goal too. If he let this half-formed empathy stop him, he would be wasting his one and only chance.

So.

He grabbed the sword’s grip in both hands and burst from the bushes.

“Ah! When did you get-!?”

Celina turned toward the sound of feet on the grass, looking just like a girl who thought she saw a ghost while out at night. Even though her sinister rifle was aimed accurately his way with the stock against her shoulder.

And…

“Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, obliterate him!!”

The metal giant waiting outside the forest could be heard moving even here. It had to be aiming all of its many cannons his way.

He thought his heart was going to freeze.

Yes.

Miyabi was borrowing a power. His dull machete, which could not even slice through thick branches, had been replaced with a sharp-edged control sword, he could create any number of tools or obstacles just by holding out his hand, and Lucifer Horn could perform aerial bombings with destructive light.

He had thought he could somehow get by if he only had to face the rifle.

So his extreme tension came from something else.

“Are you stupid!? You’ll hit yourself too!”

“An acceptable result. My goal here is absolute victory.”

Her voice was cold.

His eyes met hers as she peered at him through the gun sight next to a large half-rotted tree.

“You must die here to prove this is the strongest Godhorn Tech!!”

Time seemed to stop inside Miyabi. Only that man’s voice echoed through his head. His mind focused solely on the goal he had set for himself.

“I’m leaving my Godhorn Tech with you, so don’t you forget this one thing.”

“You have just one task here.”

“And that isn’t to defeat Miss Celina!!”

How had this happened?

Answering that requires rewinding time a little.

Chapter 1 Section 2

My everyday life has just a hint of the mysterious mixed in.

But I only ever thought of it as providing a nice spice to life.

So never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be forced into eating a giant plateful of pepper.

“Kwehh.”

A silly-sounding cry echoed through the forest.

The sun managed to penetrate the treetops, so this forest was not all that dark and dank. Technically, it was only that way because people had cut down some of the branches. The biggest of the trees were so thick you could have made a decent-sized boat by felling them and hollowing them out, the plentiful underbrush filled the small herbivores’ stomachs, and lovely flowers colored the gaps between it all. The wide variety of the forest’s vegetation made it a valuable resource to Miyabi and the other villagers. They loved and looked after the forest just like a fisher loved the ocean and a potter loved the earth.

Miyabi Blackgarden wore enough clothing to protect his skin from the sharp branches and stiff leaves and something lay at his feet. It looked a lot like a white slipper-sized stuffed animal, but it was actually a living thing. It was covered in white fur, it walked on its hind legs, and it could skillfully operate its front legs like hands. Its most notable feature was the single round horn growing from the center of its forehead.

“Eh? Are you tired, Alma?” Miyabi looked down at the mysterious creature that had lay down on its back to say it had given up. “We’re here for your food because you always eat through everything I get you. C’mon, let’s go.”

“Koo!”

They knew this forest well. It might look wild at first glance, but the people who frequented it knew it had paths for people to follow and anything blocking out the sunlight overhead could be cut away with a machete or saw.

Miyabi was only an apprentice. He had grown up in a foresting village, but he was only now able to travel through the forest without a guide leading the way. His master knew exactly how to use your blade to make the mountain happy, but he had not reached that point himself.

(Now, then.)

He trudged onward through the underbrush (while dreading the thought of angering his master by stepping on a rare herb or bud) and he came up with a mental list like he was preparing to go shopping.

(I need to find something I can feed Alma with. Let’s start with the deep forest.)

“Koo koo!”

The ground at his feet was growing awfully noisy.

“What? You don’t smell anything tasty in here?”

Alma could not speak human language, but Miyabi could get the gist of it from the creature’s gestures and expressions. It helped that Alma was bipedal and used human gestures with its front legs.

“I’m looking for firewood. Hm, I guess I could cut off this thing’s branches.”

“Koo!?”

“You can’t eat firewood? Yeah, I know. But I can sell the firewood and use the money to buy you food. A dozen of these will probably get me around 5 methods.”

“Koo?”

Bipedal Alma put a hand (leg?) on its mouth and tilted its head. That gave the same “koo” a different nuance.

He was only an apprentice, but he could be patronizing when he had someone who would listen to him.

“Then you can eat bread, fish, or whatever you want,” he said with an air of smugness.

“Koo koo!!”

“I could charge even more if I made charcoal out of it. Then you could have some dessert too.”

“Kyooi☆”

“That’s right. We can do anything as long as we’ve got this forest and its trees. They’re what puts dinner on the table.”

Alma began hopping up and down at Miyabi’s feet while he pointed this way and that.

A few thinner branches were sticking out relatively low down on the tree trunks. Their presence did not seem quite natural, so the adults may have intentionally left them behind for the apprentices.

Miyabi drew a large machete from its sheath.

The goggles on his forehead were meant to protect against sawdust, but he rarely had a chance to use them. They distorted his vision enough to cause dangerous mistakes in his work.

Growing up in this peaceful rural village had left him much more familiar with blades than his peers in the cities. Despite what the plays would have you believe, cooks and carpenters knew a lot more about blades than legendary heroes.

“Let the trees grow wild and the dirt will rot, so cutting them back is an important job.”

(Not that they let me look after the trees much since I’m still in training.)

For today, he limited himself to only cutting away the lower branches that got in his way. He used the large machete he wore at his hip. It could be used to cut back the flora and to repel the smaller forest fauna. But it was not meant for actual hunting, so it would only discourage the animals from approaching. Even with that self-defense, he knew he needed to make a quick escape if he ran across any of the Beast Novae whose heads came up above his hips.

In fact, he was thoughtlessly swinging that machete when it bounced back with a dull clang. But it had not been bested by the tough scales of a legendary dragon. It had simply failed to cut through a thicker branch.

“Ow!?”

“Koo koo!”

Alma’s cries were not out of concern. Its eyes were bright as it urged him to hurry up with the branches so it could be fed.

Miyabi shook his hand, grimacing at the tingling coming from the machete’s grip.

“It’s no use. I can’t cut through that. You would need a really nice blade or one with a magically-enhanced edge.”

This was all he could do.

A machete found lying around the village was not going to be all that sharp and an apprentice like him could not use any real magic. With the Search Sign magic, the trees he could and could not cut through would have glowed different color, making the difference obvious at a glance. But only because the adults had marked them in advance.

Just then, he heard a lovely girl’s voice from above. But instead of a tree trunk or branch, it came from the top of a boulder.

“Hold it right there, human. What do you think you’re doing in the territory of the proud elves!?”

She spoke in a way more reminiscent of a wrinkly old woman or a muscular and mustachioed military commander, but she was in fact a lovely girl. She was an old hag who had spent an eternity at the age of 13 or 14.

Miyabi looked up at the figure in a white dress holding a wooden staff.

“Just when I thought I might get some peace and quiet today.”

“Wha-?”

She had distinctive long ears parting her long blonde hair and they rose in indignation.

He didn’t care, so he ignored her.

“C’mon, Alma. Let’s give her a wide berth. Slowly now.”

“Koo…”

“Get your human butt over here!”

The elf had a garland of flowers on her small head and tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“B-but not because I climbed too high and am too scared to get back down! Just climb up here now!”

It could be hard to believe, but Alicia Blueforest there was the ruler of the forest.

If he was cruel to her, she would…no, the village elders would be angry with him and they might just begin a strange ritual where they presented offerings to her. So Miyabi sighed and walked toward the sharp boulder.

It was about three times his height, but that was difficult enough since he could not use much magic. He tried to avoid cliffs whenever possible, but he had learned firsthand how to move through the forest. You could even say the forest had been his playground since he was little. He viewed the entire boulder, spotted the handholds, and arrived at the top only a few minutes later.

Alicia sat down in relief when he arrived. She was only equipped with a white dress thin enough for light to pass through, a garland of flowers on her head, and a wooden staff, so he imagined it had to hurt to sit on the rough rock.

“Phew, finally made it. Okay, let’s get down from here, elf hag.”

“Oh, no!?”

The hag lifted her small butt a bit from the rock and held down her dress with both hands.

“Y-you saw, didn’t you? Thanks to that miraculous low angle!?”

“Do I have to shove you off to get you down?”

“Oh, Alma! I knew you would valiantly come to my aid!”

The instant she saw the slipper-sized thing scramble up to the top with its little arms(?) and legs, Alicia was all smiles. She sat back down and spread her arms to welcome it with all her might.

Then she drooped an extreme bombshell.

“Yes, a juvenile Wicked God just has a brighter soul than some filthy kid.”

A Wicked God.

That was a terrifying term, but neither Miyabi nor Alicia seemed bothered by it.

And when she hugged it and rubbed her cheek against it, Alma only looked like a stuffed animal that had learned to resist. It pushed back at Alicia’s cheek with its small front legs. Using a surprising amount of strength.

“It is truly tragic that this average face was the first thing you saw upon hatching. It could have been any face, so why this bland and average one?”

“Alma, leave her here. It’s time we got going.”

“Don’t! You! Dare!” The profoundly aged elf began to throw a tantrum. “I am going too! You are taking me with you! I hate that you must always be with Alma due to that blasted imprinting effect, but it is not everyday you get to observe a real live Wicked God! Hmph!!”

Alicia was ready to do this, but Alma slipped from her arms and clung to Miyabi’s leg. It looked a lot like it was peeking nervously out from behind a pillar or tree. It was seriously turned off by her behavior.

“K-koo…”

“Agreed. Let’s get down from here.”

Miyabi slid down the 5 or 6 meters of rock, leaving Alicia behind, but then she more or less rolled off after him. She had been terrified of that height, but now she dropped down in an instant. An elf’s bodily structure was different enough to make her much sturdier than a human. Afterwards, Miyabi was left wondering about the mismatch between the fancy, transparently-thin dress and the thick cotton underwear.

Since climbing up or down the boulder did nothing to fill Alma’s stomach, Miyabi got to work chopping down some branches that were in the way, but it was really awkward with Alicia, ruler of the forest, right there. The more serious he tried to look, the more he felt like she was going to erupt at him about how bad his technique was. She even gave him a look of supreme confidence.

If she wanted to, she could learn anything she wanted about the forest’s health. And without using the Search Sign magic that would cause any small scratches and marks to glow. She knew the forest better than anyone, so she knew the state of the greenery without relying on the codes used by the human workers.

She walked out ahead but looked back after noticing something.

Her mischievous smile suggested she had read something on his face.

“Ga ha ha. Build up that experience and you’ll make it eventually, boy. I’ll keep you company until you do. Because if there’s one thing elves have to spare, it’s time.”

“…”

That was disappointing.

It depressed him to know just how pathetic his skills apparently were. He felt so stupid for acting patronizing with Alma earlier.

But regardless…

“Okay, that should about do it.”

“Hey, you’re in trouble.”

A male voice interrupted out of nowhere.

The oddly scratchy voice initially surprised Miyabi, but he jumped for real once he realized it had come from the thing hanging from the strap around Alicia’s neck.

“Koo!?”

“What’s that box? It just talked!”

“This is no box, ignorant human.” The idiot triumphantly put her hands on her hips. “It is a crystal radio built around a philosopher’s stone. You could call it a fount of wisdom.”

“Well, this is nothing like the radios we have,” added the radio itself. “No headphones, for one.”

“This is the ultimate objective of alchemy. Everything in the world is stored in here, but the true stroke of genius is how it takes that silent crystal of wisdom and converts it into a form anyone can understand!”

“That’s not for you to get smug about, Miss Overgrown C-cups. Tall or short, all elves are supposed to be flat as a board. This is basic stuff here.”

“Hm. That, however, is utter nonsense. Is it picking up some other signal?”

“???”

Miyabi could only tilt his head.

Was that a highly technical discussion you needed extensive knowledge of alchemy to understand?

He could not decide whether that was a high-level or low-level conversation.

The radio was not done, though.

“Hold on, I sense the pheromones of an oppressive adult teacher. It’s her. No doubt about it.”

Miyabi’s shoulders shook at the way the radio said “adult”.

He could guess who it meant: Helen Clockgear.

That adult woman was not someone he wanted to get caught by, but for a different reason than with Alicia. Behind her back, the village’s small children had nicknamed her Lecture Lady and Glasses Boobs, which should be sufficient to make a decent guess what she was like.

“You’d better hide fast or you’ve got a looong lecture in your immediate future. You can mash the button all day and the scene never ends. You can put up with it for ages without any choices popping up! So unless you get off to a beautiful woman dressing you down, I’d get running!!”

Sneaking was their only option at this point.

Luckily, the forest provided plenty of hiding places. Beyond the tall trees and giant boulders, there were also curtains of vines hanging down thick enough to use in a game of hide and seek. That could end tragically if there happened to be a swarm of bugs in the vines, however.

They could hear the woman clearly.

Turning around now would make too much noise of their own, so they crouched down in pursuit of cover while moving in a large, slow circle around her.

Her voice reached them on the wind.

“If you ask me, Wicked Gods themselves are frightening enough as giant dragons and krakens, but they pose an even greater threat than that since their horn can be broken off and built into a machine to create those things that even major kingdoms fear. I am not monitoring you because it’s my idea of fun. The Republic has deemed it a necessary measure given the risk. Alma might look small and adorable now, but it is still a Wicked God and will eventually grow larger than a mountain. You took it in without knowing what you were doing and what’s done is done, but do you have any kind of plan for the future there, Miyabi? You certainly don’t seem to! Ahem, um, where was I? Oh, right.”

“Wh-what the hell? Is she rehearsing her lecture for me!? We’re this deep in the forest and she’s talking to yourself!?”

“Sh! If she finds us here, the lecture will be ten times worse. She will use our attempt to hide against us, so just wait it out!!”

Alicia was pushing against him from the side to fit behind the same bush. Miyabi’s primary takeaway was how painful her long ear felt stabbing into him.

That glasses woman had taken her lectures beyond the level of a job. It was more like a way of life for her. She took everything too seriously and may have even been addicted to it.

The worst part? She was a government official sent from the Republic’s capital.

Miyabi and the others fled that cursed area of forest like they had just witnessed an overstressed person sticking nails into dolls night after night.

Or they thought they had.

But just as they breathed a sigh of relief, they heard a rustling in the bushes behind them.

“Oh, there you all are!”

Miyabi’s breath just about caught in his throat, but he suppressed that and turned around with a smile.

Helen Clockgear looked like a beautiful black-haired young woman in glasses. The chest of her top was left unbuttoned, the button below her large chest was actually fastened yet her navel could still be glimpsed below that, and to top it all off, the shortness of her tight skirt was a source of endless fascination for Miyabi. Now, if he were to express that fascination, the strong-willed young woman was liable to answer him with a slap, but her appearance at least would undoubtedly earn a 5 out of 5 score. Assuming the judges were teenage boys, anyway.

If Alicia was a carefree angel, then Helen was a stickler of a demon.

Also, Helen was not an elf.

She had round human ears. She claimed to be an observer sent by the Republic.

“Out preparing to feed Alma again? I will accompany you. The Republic wishes to know everything that Wicked God does, after all.”

“Hot damn! Now that’s what I call jiggle physics. Where’s this world’s controller? Shaking it might make those things go wild.” The pervert of a philosopher’s stone then turned to complain to the elf. “See, if you were willing to take it that far, I might forgive your lack of flatness. That in-between crap isn’t gonna make anyone happy.”

“Silence, stray signal. All breasts have their own unique charm.”

“Whoa!? Did that box just talk!?”

The young woman showed off her intellectual nature by holding a finger to the side of her glasses as she jumped in surprise, but the tiny elf decided to pick a fight with her.

“Anyway, you Republic people are only interested in Alma’s horn.”

The horn.

Miyabi sensed a greater stir over that word than anything else. Even more than a mention of the juvenile Wicked God itself.

(…?)

“The Republic hopes to construct one of those with a Wicked God horn, don’t they?”

“…”

“…”

The big and little ladies silently glared at each other until they were interrupted by the most tactless individual present.

“Excuse me. I do hate to interrupt two lovely ladies getting worked up over nothing, but I must insist.”

“What is it, scrapbox?” Alicia grumbled down at the radio hanging from her neck.

“You might want to take a look at the sky. I’ve been detecting some faint noise in the signal for a bit now.”

That thing never seemed to take anything seriously, but its skill (function?) was real. The elf had said she used her (near limitless) spare time to create a crystal with alchemy.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I sense one of those horns you two are so obsessed with. Trouble always has a way of finding you, doesn’t it!?”

With a great roar, something massive cut by overhead.

Miyabi had no idea what this meant.

A moment later, all the trees, branches, and leaves in the forest were subjected to a powerful blast of wind. Helen predicted the wind’s direction and pressed her back against a tree and Alicia staggered while holding her skirt down with both hands.

That thing was…not alive.

It had to be several dozen meters long and it resembled a colossal bird or dragon with enormous wings, but the collection of straight and curved lines had the glint of metal and glass not found in nature and something about its design looked artificial. Something built by human hands had instantly stolen the leading role from the natural scenery.

It may have been something like a hanger made from bat wings.

But it was unbelievably large and sinister.

“Koo!”

“Hyah!? …You didn’t see, did you?”

“Didn’t see a thing, Cotton Elf Hag.” Miyabi kept a straight face. “Anyway, what was that huge thing!? A ship? A castle? This isn’t making any sense!”

“Godhorn Tech,” muttered Helen Clockgear.

The Republic official had a cold look on her face.

“…?”

“It is a symbol of humanity’s insatiable appetite for destruction,” said Alicia. “The supposedly untouchable Phoenix, Kraken, Fenrir, and more have their Wicked God horn broken off and used as the core for a giant sorcery weapon. The weapons are powerful enough to destroy an entire empire singlehandedly.”

She spoke like she had firsthand experience in the matter.

There was even a touch of anguish, like she was struggling to keep the memories sealed away.

“You’ve got a freaking flying wing bomber in a swords and sorcery fantasy world?” said the radio. “Everything about those Wicked Gods is crazy. How’s the thing even fly without producing any lift?”

“Th-this is serious. What is one of those doing inside the Republic!?”

“Koo…”

“Are you kidding?” The small elf sounded more exasperated than anything as her long ears twitched and she stared into the distance. “I don’t think that one in the sky is the only one.”

A heavy metallic boom shook the air, but this was different from that thing the radio had called a bomber. Another dark mass of metal sat on the ground far, far in the distance. It had to be more than 400m and maybe even more than 500m. Either way, it was large enough to see from within the deep forest. It appeared to rise up like a mountain.

It was a train.

Miyabi had never left this small village and had only ever seen that vehicle in picture books, but this one had sinister tools of killing installed all over it. Namely, cannons. It was like a cross between a train and a warship (another thing the mountain boy was unfamiliar with), but some people would have known the proper name for it: an armored train.

Helen had always been the capable glasses woman in front of Miyabi, but now her mouth flapped like she could not find any oxygen.

“T-two…users?”

“A duel? A deathmatch? Damn, are they really about to pit those huge-ass things against each other???”

The philosopher’s stone’s overly carefree (and baffling) comment must have gotten through to the Republic official because her eyes widened behind her glasses.

“P-pit them against each other? Do they have any idea how much damage a clash between Godhorn Tech will do to this area!?”

Just then, Alma’s head jerked up.

Miyabi should have been paying more attention.

“Koo!!”

Alma took off running, but not away from the conflict. It ran further into the forest.

Had that juvenile Wicked God sensed something?

“Ah. Hey, Alma!!”

Miyabi ran after it, but then he felt a shudder crawling up his spine.

Stop there.

Have Alicia and Helen stop as well, warned some instinctual part of him.

“Um, Alic-”

Immediately afterwards, the world split apart.

Quite literally.

Just as he looked back to have those two stay put, a powerful impact hit him from below and he flipped over. The ringing in his ears was bad and his vision blurred, so he initially thought the problem was in his own head.

The ground was gone.

The flat forest he had just been running through was now audibly cracking open like a broken cookie. The cracks continued to grow even now. That kept him from even standing on the edge to see what things were like at the bottom.

“Whoa!?”

He had his hands full just not falling in himself.

The cracks raced out and he had to crawl on all fours to scramble away from the newly slanted land. Approaching the edge would only men sliding off and being dumped down with all the dirt.

“Miyabi!!”

Helen called out to him from the other side of the newly-formed chasm.

He thought she was going to give him some clever solution. Or maybe come to his rescue by throwing him a rope or building a makeshift bridge.

But the adult woman did nothing of the sort.

“There’s nothing I can do for you here, so just stay away from the edge! Don’t even think about trying to cross it. The cracks might continue to spread, so it’s too dangerous!!”

“Wait, how far do these cracks go? How deep!?” shouted Alicia. “There had better not be any miasma seeping out from the depths to corrupt my sacred forest!!”

Not even the grownups could help.

His world felt a lot smaller all of a sudden. A great pressure weighed on him like the scene around him was ready to collapse in on him at any moment. He felt like he had been thrown from the box labeled “safety” before he had time to grow up. He could not meet back up with Alicia and Helen even though they were right there. He did not know what was happening, but the ground had shaken violently a few times already. He had to stay away from the edge.

But that was no guarantee of his safety.

He had to keep himself alive now. That basic rule of life weighed on him more than ever before.

(Where’s Alma?)

He looked around and spotted the color white.

The creature was using its small body to slip below some bushes.

“Get back here!!”

“Oh, hey, Miyabi!” called Helen. “Where should we regroup!?”

“We can’t do it anywhere around here,” said Alicia. “Those kids are nothing but trouble. We need to find somewhere to circle around all this damage!”

“Got it. Let’s see, where did I put my map of the forest?”

“I don’t need you to guide me. I know this forest like the back of my hand, so follow me!!”

As expected, the impacts and shaking did not stop. The ground quaked from time to time.

Something was happening.

Miyabi felt certain he would be happier in the long run if he never saw whatever this was.

“Koo koo!”

“Wait, Alma! Dammit, I hope the others managed to get away!”

Alma was unusually quick today. It kept slipping between rocks and below bushes, so he had to pay careful attention to avoid losing sight of it.

(I don’t believe it. The thing’s heading further and further in.)

They kept moving farther away from Alicia and Helen. Those two had said they were finding a way around that large crack running side to side, but how far had they gone?

“Godhorn Tech,” muttered Miyabi while chasing after Alma.

Those massive sorcery weapons were built around a Wicked God horn so humans could wield a Wicked God’s power.

“What do I do if I run across someone who controls something like that?”

Alma’s stuffed animal body came to a sudden stop.

Miyabi finally managed to snatch it by the back of the neck, but Alma flailed all four limbs to struggle. The forest’s trees thinned out up ahead and he sensed someone there. Shocked, he hid behind a thick tree before peeking out at the scene.

“There they are.”

“Koo.”

“I’ve never seen them before, but those have to be the Godhorn Tech users, right?”

One was a girl.

Her shoulder-length blonde hair was tied on either side and she wore a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems, which was not exactly hiking attire. But she was given a sinister appearance by what she held in her hand: a hunting rifle with one of those bayonets the nobility loved so much. Miyabi lived in the forest, but even his village only used bows to keep animals away. The only guns he had ever seen were wielded by the gangs in plays. The girl holding the strange flintlock rifle was unfamiliar to him. She was an outsider, not one of the villagers.

The other was a young man older than Miyabi.

He had long red hair and he wore a fancy jacket and pants. But he did not have the look of a nobleman. He would have looked more at home hunting down pirates aboard a warship. The term “prodigal son” fitted him to a tee.

He held an enormous double-edged sword.

Miyabi doubted he would even be able to lift the thing.

“I can’t believe this.” The young man was the first to speak. “I don’t want to battle you to the death, you know?”

“Maybe you don’t, but I do.”

The girl was undaunted.

She must have been relying on more than just that glistening rifle. Some deeper, more fundamental part of her being remained unshaken. Even though she was all alone deep in the forest and confronting a man wielding a sword large enough to smash through armor.

“I, Celina of the Bodenburg Company, shall defeat you, Moebius Entrance, and take the title of strongest Godhorn Tech!”

In fact, the young man called Moebius seemed taken aback.

“That’s all?” He looked like he very much wanted to believe he had misheard. “You’re going to split the continent apart in a Godhorn Tech battle for nothing more than that?”

“Oh? Reputation is everything in business.” The blonde girl – Celina? – laughed and did not hesitate to reply. “Especially when it comes to the trust the Bodenburg Company would earn if we could wield the strongest power to construct safe trade routes where not a single thief can approach the products.”

“Is that so? But I don’t see how this area could possibly survive that.”

Miyabi’s shoulders jumped while he pressed his back against the other side of the thick tree.

He might not understand the situation, but he could not let that statement slide. These people were very clearly talking about his village and the forest around it. Without giving the villagers a say.

“And I’m not just talking about scorched earth or a crater. The terrain itself will be altered. Got anything to say about that? Once it’s done, it’s too late to start feeling a pang of regret in that promising chest of yours, young lady.”

“I will ignore your incessant rudeness for now.” The blonde girl’s smile was unbroken. “It is true I would prefer to avoid profitless environmental destruction, but we are talking about an undeveloped forest in the middle of nowhere. No one even lives here. In fact, if you think of this as me going out of my way to develop it into something more…”

They were making assumptions.

Without getting any of the locals involved.

“Once I blow this entire forest away…yes, I know. My company can take responsibility and remake it into one of the finest resorts on the continent. Will that be acceptable?”

“Not on your life, you idiot!! We live here!!”

Miyabi and Alma rushed out without considering the consequences.

Time ground to a halt.

“Ah.”

“You…”

He moved in between the two monsters.

The foolish action seemed to catch Moebius by surprise even more than it did Celina. He took his eyes off his enemy and shouted wide-eyed at the boy.

“You’re the idiot here!”

Miyabi honestly did not understand what happened next. To him, they were both invaders threatening to take away everything he had ever known.

Which was why it came as such a surprise.

Moebius Entrance shifted his position to protect the boy who was so out of his element.

The blonde girl grinned and moved her rifle.

She would grasp this opportunity, no matter how it had come about.

But instead of raising it to aim, she stabbed the bayonet into the ground.

And she sang.

“Armored Train – Schwarz Schütze: Tactical Open.”

A giant magic circle appeared at her feet.

Pressure followed.

This pressure was much “sharper” than what Miyabi felt when he encountered a wild animal in the forest. The invisible wall was so solid even an amateur like him could tell he was sensing the killer intent coming from a human being.

But the epicenter of the tremor was not the girl or the magic circle. It came from much, much further away. From something waiting outside the forest far behind the girl.

She laughed loudly while carrying that intense pressure.

“My, my. Thinking you can look after an amateur while facing down Godhorn Tech? Maybe you really are the strongest…if you can pull it off, that is. Ohhh ho ho ho!!”

He never heard the end of her laughter.

His vision was dyed white.

He did not hear anything for quite a while afterwards.

He had no idea how long it lasted.

Alchemy.

That word wavered in the back of the boy’s hazy mind as he lay on his back.

Alicia Blueforest had gotten hooked on the subject to make use of her extreme surplus of life. It apparently involved the research of metals and medicines, but he was pretty sure one specific application was “alloys”, a mixture of multiple metals. And researching medicines required methods of heating and cooling.

Yes.

Heat and metal.

It had not even felt like the attack was thrown in from a great distance. It had felt more like a lightning bolt of orange-glowing metal had dropped from the sky.

The instant it had hit the ground, the world had gone white and exploded.

That kind of destructive power was not possible with the large cannons seen in picture books. Alicia’s devotion to alchemy had resulted in that talking radio(?), so this felt like a different type of alchemy altogether.

At any rate, that was not something to be directed toward someone even on accident.

Miyabi wondered if that scorching blast could fight on equal or greater footing than an actual Wicked God.

He was glad Alicia and Helen had not come with him. He had not been directly hit, but all his joints still ached. All his organs were writhing and he was burning up, but he could not stop sweating. He was so very thirsty.

(Where’s Alma?)

The first thing he noticed was the unpleasant sensation of dirt in his hair. When he tried to get up, he found his head was heavy, but he forced himself to move regardless.

There was a cliff face in front of him.

Looking up from the ground, he could see it rose for probably 10m.

The thing was…he didn’t recognize it. The forest was basically his backyard, yet he could not figure out how he had found himself at the bottom of a cliff in an open field.

“Ow, ow…”

He still felt woozy, but he decided to take it as a good thing he could feel pain. His body had not been torn apart.

That was actually a surprise.

(This isn’t one of those stories where I’m dead but haven’t noticed yet, is it? I’m amazed I wasn’t hurt worse.)

“Alma, are you okay? Good, you don’t have any bumps.”

“Koo…”

“But where are we? The forest didn’t have a cliff like this, did it?”

Lying nearby, Alma looked up at the cliff as well. It was tall. It was also fragile, made from dark soil. He doubted he could climb that without special equipment. That meant he had to walk alongside it. He had been hoping to find a gentler slope up to the top, but the further he walked, the stranger he found this. Where was he? He was painfully reminded of his inability to use magic like a real expert. He was sure one of the village’s workers would have immediately known where they were.

But before long, the truth dawned on him. A painful and unwanted truth.

“Wait…is this new? One blast from that dumb-looking Celina girl did this!?”

The terrain had changed.

The scenery had fallen apart.

This was far more power than any individual should ever wield. His mind was focused less on how exactly she had done it and more on how terrifying it was for this much power to be at the whim of someone’s emotions and personal interests.

Then he heard something.

“Ugh…”

He initially did not interpret it as a voice, so it slipped past his notice. He was not expecting to find anyone here.

But when he viewed the cliff face made from the crumbled, torn, and transformed terrain, he saw a young man groaning on his back with his torso trapped below a boulder embedded in the bottom of the cliff.

“Don’t call her dumb where she can hear you. She won’t go easy on you just cause you’re an amateur.”

“Who are you, old man?”

“Old…”

Moebius seemed more bothered by that than any crisis to the world, but Miyabi was too busy viewing the boulder and the dirt on top to notice.

“Are you trapped under that thing? D-damn, we’ve gotta do something!”

He was afraid touching it would cause the cliff of dirt to collapse, but he could not wisely give up when there was someone suffering.

However…

“Arrrgh…it won’t budge.”

“Koo.”

“Give it up. There’s nothing you can do.”

Moebius actually got after him for trying.

“But you protected us just now!”

“(You really should have been obliterated even with my protection.)” The young man muttered something under his breath. “(Was something interfering with Celina’s horn?)”

“Koo?”

Moebius looked to Alma who only tilted its head.

He sighed below the boulder.

“Anyway, I’m a goner, as you can plainly see. There’s just no way I can move now, so you two need to scram.”

“But…isn’t there anything I can do!? I know, I can find you some healing flowers.”

Paling, Miyabi looked around at the ground, but the young man smiled bitterly.

“I appreciate the thought, but there’s nothing you can do.”

“So you expect me to leave you to die!? When that monster of a girl is still wandering around!?”

“She’s not the problem.”

That made no sense.

Celina Bodenburg was an embodiment of destruction and the greatest threat.

She could transform the terrain in a single attack, she wanted him dead, and he was trapped below a boulder. Once she found him, he would either be obliterated right away or slowly tortured to death. An outsider like him would put his own life first. He wouldn’t care what happened to Miyabi’s village or the forest they had protected for generations. Had that pompous asshole even bothered to figure out that Alicia, Helen, and the others were in the forest? A single stray shell would be the end of them all.

Those Godhorn Tech users had waltzed in and decided to destroy everything for their own selfish reasons, so what else could there be? What could possibly be a greater problem?

Did something like that really exist and was that why the trapped man was putting himself second and staring up at Miyabi???

“It isn’t about the little lady. She isn’t even aware of it.”

Moebius’s gaze was calm but powerful.

As if to say he could not afford to die before he said this.

“So I wanted to get her to escape if I could.”

“What…?”

“This forest has been rigged with something far worse.”

“Rigged?”

That was an odd word choice.

Almost like some malicious person had been sneaking around and up to no good. It was a very different concept than the Godhorn Tech that, for better or for worse, was very in-your-face about the threat it posed.

“What’s this about the forest? And the village too? What are you talking about!?”

“Listen. I’ll explain it all.” Moebius could not speak all that loudly while collapsed on his back, but his words carried a strength that silenced panicking Miyabi. “Including my Lucifer Horn, there are currently 10 Godhorn Techs in existence. Different countries and companies built them for the prestige they bring,” he explained. “We know the number because they’re so dangerous there’s a registration system in place to keep track of them all. Each of the 10 is equipped with a Wicked God horn, so their energy can’t be denied.”

“Koo…”

“But a certain rumor has been going around among us.” He glanced over at worried Alma. “There’s an 11th somewhere out there.”

Even ignorant Miyabi felt like it was worth ignoring the pressing situation to hear this out.

“The 11th is completely unregistered and exists as a ‘shadow’ lurking below the surface.”

“There’s a monster on this level.” The boy felt faint. “Without any country managing them?”

“They stay hidden, causing devastation whenever they feel like it. And unlike the other 10, their Wicked God horn is not built into a weapon. They use the energy flowing from that horn to create massive sorcery bombs.”

That alone left the boy speechless, but the young man’s next statement only made it worse.

“And these bombs are made to look identical to trees, rocks, or whatever else.”

“…”

“Once the time comes, they go boom. Using the power of Godhorn Tech. In a way, it’s even worse because this power isn’t controlled. A castle town built of thick stone would be obliterated if it was in range of the blast.”

“But…”

If that was true, this open forest and remote village didn’t stand a chance.

Miyabi had already seen enough destructive power to literally rewrite the map and he could not think of any reason why Moebius would be lying now.

“Where is it? What does it look like?”

“They’re an artist.” That word felt terribly out of place. “You’ve seen those pâtissiers who can make sugar sculptures indistinguishable from real shoes or gems, right? This is the same. It might be a brick wall and it might be a wagon wheel – anything can be remade into a weapon of war.”

“…”

“We’re talking about a formless Godhorn Tech. In a way, that makes it the most dangerous of them all.” The man breathed a heavy sigh. “The only good news is that the sorcery bombs are not delicate things. Simply put, you could throw one in the fire or run it over with a wagon and it wouldn’t go off. That means you can stop it from detonating by attacking and destroying it once you locate it. The complexity of the trigger condition works in our favor there. So as long as you know where it is, even an amateur can deal with it.”

“But why here!? What did we do to deserve this!?”

Still pinned below the boulder, Moebius shook his head.

He looked sincere for once, so he may have been ashamed of his inability to stop this.

“Like I said, the 11th is a shadow lurking below the surface. If we knew their reasons and could predict their next target, we would’ve stopped them by now. You can’t predict this person with any motive as simple as money or resentment.”

He finally got to his main point.

This expert wielded the strongest power and had pursued his foe this far, but now he had to raise the white flag.

“So run away. You might just survive if you run full speed away from the forest right this instant.”

“What?” Miyabi shook his head. He knew he was being unreasonable, but he could not stop himself. “You want me to what!? You yourself said the sorcery bomb thing is hidden somewhere in the forest, didn’t you!? How can I run away and leave that here!?”

“I’d agree with you, except for one thing: how do you plan to find it on your own?”

That shut him up.

Unlike the boy, Moebius was facing the reality of the situation.

“Like I said, even an amateur can deal with it once you know where it is, but that’s the trick. Locating it is the hardest part. Not even I could do it without borrowing some power from the Lucifer Horn flying up there.”

“…”

“So run away. The 11th’s sorcery bomb is bad enough, but the ignorant little lady’s Schwarz Schütze is a Godhorn Tech too. If she fires again on a whim – maybe just to be thorough – everything from here to the horizon will be irrevocably changed. So you need to run away before that happens. Got that?”

Miyabi could find nothing to say.

If he stayed, he would die. Trying to play the hero would accomplish nothing. He bit his lip, hesitated, exhaled, and turned toward Alma. Alma said nothing, simply staring up at him. He stopped there, like he was trying to keep his eyes off of Moebius.

“…”

At the last second, he stopped himself.

“What will you do?”

“I’m not exactly flush with options at the moment.”

“My village is here! And Celina will die once the time comes, won’t she!?”

Silence followed.

He had intended to spur Moebius to action, but he received the last response he had wanted.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t enough,” he spat. “Hey, you control that crazy Godhorn Tech weapon, right?”

“Yes, and?”

“Lend it to me.”

Moebius could not believe his ears.

Miyabi may not have understood what he was really asking here.

“Then I can move that boulder off of you, have Celina escape, and rescue Alicia, Helen, and the others still in the forest.”

Moebius’s know-it-all mask slipped. Or maybe Miyabi had shattered it.

The mere boy thought this was the right thing to do. If innocence was the only way to keep going and if knowledge would only make people freeze up with fear, then he was fine with not knowing anything here.

It was true that knowledge would help in the creation and destruction. It was a lot like knowing how to select and arrange firewood. But all the knowledge in the world still needed an initial spark to start the fire.

Miyabi did not know how to explain it in words, but he felt like anyone watching him would understand as long as he did not lie to himself.

He calmly looked up.

He told himself to face forward and create a path for himself.

“And lastly, I’ll destroy that sorcery bomb in the forest and save the entire village.”

Without warning, a beam of light dyed the blue sky pure white.

Miyabi was caught off guard.

Celina’s armored train had taught him that Godhorn Tech’s destruction could upturn the terrain and tear apart the scenery, but he still wasn’t prepared.

“I only wanted to destroy the boulder on top of that old guy.”

He had wobbled to the side and bumped into the massive boulder that had towered above him like a cliff face. But now it was broken and only rose to his hip height.

He stood atop a small hill.

No, that hill had not existed a moment before. The flat forest now had several steep drop-offs. The route of the mountains had entirely changed.

He had only wanted to get rid of all the dirt on top of Moebius. He had succeeded in that much, so the man was now freed.

But that was not all he had done.

The village had protected the forest for decades and centuries. The experienced workers had carved countless marks and signs into the branches and trunks of the trees. None of it meant anything anymore. Nothing would glow after using Search Sign magic. Miyabi had taken it all away. He had blatantly transformed the land itself.

He held a double-edged sword.

That was the control sword.

It was more compact than the one Moebius had used, but it still required two hands to use. It was a deadly tool clearly designed to kill. It carried a chill not found by the machetes and knives used to provide sustenance. No one would believe that his usual machete had twisted and transformed into this when he made the contract.

“How powerful is that thing?”

“Koo.”

“No one told me it would do that!”

The atmosphere was shredded as a giant winged shape passed by overhead.

That was the Lucifer Horn.

But he could not let it shake him. Moebius had dragged himself out from under the shattered boulder, but he was too badly injured to escape on his own. And if Celina was still in the forest, she would have seen Miyabi’s attack. Once she realized her enemy was alive and could fight, she would strike back.

To finish the job.

And not even Celina Bodenburg knew about the extra-large bomb hidden in the forest. If he screwed this up, then Moebius, Celina, Alicia, Helen, the forest, and the village would all be lost.

“Koo, koo.”

“You’re right. We saved Moebius, so now we need to find the 11th’s sorcery bomb.” Miyabi used his words to focus on his goal. “I need to save them all without dragging Celina into it.”

The only thing he had to rely on now were the things Moebius had told him. He had been thrown into the thick of it without any practice or training, so he might even destroy himself with this borrowed power.

“He said my Wicked God horn will resonate with the powerful energy.”

The horns resonated.

Or so Moebius had heard from a philosopher’s stone he had met before. Moebius himself understood it more by instinct, though.

(That means there’s more than one of those philosopher’s stones. To think there’s another alchemist out there weird enough to want to create such an annoying tool.)

Miyabi’s thoughts turned toward the radio hanging from Alicia’s neck, so he may have been trying to ignore the reality of his situation.

He was about to enter hell.

Each of the armored train’s shots could destroy the terrain itself and they would soon be raining from the sky. He would have to achieve his goal while running through that deadly downpour.

He did not know who had set up the sorcery bomb, but he could not allow it to detonate.

“The sorcery bombs can be disguised as anything, but there is a way to locate them.”

He focused his mind.

It felt like gathering strength between his eyes.

He ignored the explosive blasts, imagining himself in a tranquil cave.

And he focused on his ears.

“It’s a lot like a sound. Pay attention for a high-pitched ringing in your ears that never goes away. That means there’s one in your area. The shorter the gaps between sounds, the closer you are. It might be a stump or a boulder, but you need to destroy it once you find it. The blast won’t trigger it early, so just focus on destroying it.”

He heard a high-pitched whistling.

He ran away, just barely getting out of the blast radius, but the cracks in the ground caught up to him and Alma. The two of them fell to the bottom of the crater.

That had not just been a mass of metal.

Magical shells made with alchemy came in many forms, including lightning and ice.

But he had still managed to approach his target.

He could hear something else, but not with his ears. It seemed to come from the center of his body. It was precise as the ticking of a clock and higher pitched than the previous whistling.

He had finally found what he was listening for.

He sighed in relief at this step in the right direction, but this also meant it really was here. If he did not track it down and destroy it, his home village would be destroyed.

“I doubt Miss Celina knows it’s there.”

Moebius had sounded certain and his voice had carried something other than anger or resentment.

“She’s doing everything she can to protect the organization created by her parents. …Please. Will you save her since I’m too useless and stupid to do it myself?”

After climbing out of the crater, Miyabi held out his empty hand. He packed together a bunch of undergrowth to create a Decoy Wall. It drew Celina’s fire to divert it away.

“So with this contract, I can make a request to the Wicked God horn using Demon Lord Under Lilith as an intermediary?”

“Koo?”

“And he said I can only use it like this because of an error in the contract transfer. I think he said it unnaturally expanded the abilities normally used for maintenance and repair of the Godhorn Tech.”

The whole thing creeped him out.

The power to destroy was frightening enough, but this change was something not even Moebius understood.

But right now, he had to recite the lines whether he liked it or not.

“And if it gives me an edge, I’ll take it.”

He left the Decoy Wall behind, jumped into the trench created by Celina’s straight-line blast, and used the bomber’s support to send sharp beams of light tearing through the forest. He crossed that labyrinth of interconnected trenches to gradually approach the strongest girl while avoiding the machinegun fire.

The ringing in his ears changed.

With every step he took, the space between the high-pitched noises shrank.

He was closing in.

This had to be the correct direction.

He looked up from his improvised trench. That did not actually give him a view ahead, but his ears picked something up.

Something other than the inner response to the sorcery bomb.

“Father, mother, please wait for me.”

Celina did not know.

She stood confidently on the ground one level above, oblivious to the danger she was in and unaware that her whispered words were overhead by the person sneaking up on her.

“I will achieve victory here and prove that Schwarz Schütze is the strongest. That will create the trust needed to provide the safe trade routes needed to further grow our Bodenburg Company.”

She was selfish, willful, and unbelievably dangerous.

She preferred to wield a gun, a symbol of outlaws, and she would undoubtedly bring disaster to this village and forest.

But.

Miyabi felt the sorcery bomb was much more despicable. The unseen 11th remained hidden, not even willing to accept people’s ire.

“I too am a part of the family, so I am prepared to do whatever it takes to protect the company you have built. So this does not scare me in the slightest. I can handle this just fine.”

“It has to be close.”

The phantom ringing in his ears was nearly a solid tone now, which should have been a good thing.

But he felt more panic than anything. For a simple reason.

“Is she right next to the sorcery bomb!?”

He held his hand toward the dirt within the trench and lined up the box-sized Palette Dice to create his imperfect Layer Stairs. There was no looking cool climbing those. He scrambled up them like a lizard and then found the sweet scent of a girl instead of the stench of torn plants and soil.

But that was not his focus.

A large, half-rotten tree stood right next to Celina Bodenburg.

The warning tone in his mind rang with such intensity the scenery around him seemed to gain wild new colors.

“Ah! When did you get-!?”

The girl spun around and raised her fancy rifle, but her movements were painfully slow. No, was it the speed of Miyabi’s own mind that was out of whack?

“Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, obliterate him!!”

He still could not see it.

But something like a pressure drew out straight and curved lines. Something wriggled along the surface of the rotted tree, like a coiled snake or a slug. It was definitely what you would call a magic circle.

(Is that it?)

He was sure of it, even though he had never seen one before.

He knew for sure that thing was meant to bring an end to this world.

(That’s the 11th’s sorcery bomb. I can protect everything if I destroy that!!)

“Koo!”

He flipped his sword around and stabbed it into the ground, creating a giant magic circle at his feet.

The sorcery bomb was not a delicate thing. It would not detonate early, so he could attack it however he liked to destroy it.

So he chose to use the strongest power he was currently borrowing.

“Bomber Lucifer Horn!! Please, protect everyone for me!!”

Blinding beams and deafening explosions filled his senses.

The thick beam of light sliced through the ground along a straight line shifted to the side of the bomber’s path. The beam’s path would only barely miss him.

But more importantly, Miyabi noticed what the bomber was aiming toward. He grabbed the grip of his control sword again and squeezed tight without pulling it from the ground.

“No!!!!! I said everyone. You don’t get compromise by giving up on or abandoning Celina!!”

He could not see or hear anything, but he still felt the wind blowing against his cheeks. While the giant device passed by overhead and tore through the ground with its beam, it forcibly altered its course, like the zigzag of a lightning bolt, to avoid the girl and skillfully blow away just the tree.

(It…heard me?)

His view was blocked by the light and smoke, but he still felt like everything had opened up before him.

(And it actually listened?)

That was due to the beam launched from the Lucifer Horn and it was also due to the explosion blasting all that smoke into the air. He only had his hearing to go on, but not his external hearing. He focused on the alarm in his head.

“The ringing is gone?”

He felt a need to say it out loud.

The tree had been blown away.

But what happened then? There had been an explosion, so could that have been the bomb going off?

He thought he would die if he did not confirm for himself that the sorcery bomb was destroyed. The anxiety was going to crush him.

“Did I…do it? Did I destroy the sorcery bomb and save the village!?”

He knew he had survived here in the cloud of smoke.

That should mean it had not detonated.

“Oh, right. Where did that Celina girl go!?”

Suddenly and silently, the thick curtain of smoke parted as if split, revealing a girl in a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems.

She appeared directly behind Miyabi.

Close enough for a heated breath to reach his ear and something soft to touch his back.

“I see. That control sword must mean you are the next user.”

“!?”

(I can’t move. Dammit, she completely snuck up on me!)

That large rifle would be hard to use at such close range, but he had not forgotten about its bayonet – that is, the thick knife attached to the end.

“Your name,” she bluntly stated. Her cold voice was polite but made it clear disobedience would be punished with death. “Please state your name.”

“M-Miyabi…”

“Very good, Miyabi. Your honest response is praiseworthy in a way. An unusual name, but that is all I need. The Bodenburg Company’s power surpasses that of every major country on the continent and I will pour it all into researching your full name and other personal information. Oh, and if that was a fake name, you will come to regret the decision.”

She sounded exasperated.

But also impressed.

“This is a surprise, but Moebius need not be my opponent. I only wish to prove that I am the strongest by defeating the Lucifer Horn. I must prove that no Godhorn Tech can surpass the Schwarz Schütze.”

Even gulping could lead to death here.

The pounding of his heart rang far too loud in his ears.

“You are a lot like him in one way, though: that arrogant concern for your enemy.”

He noticed a subtle change to the temperature of the breaths on his ear.

Was she truly exasperated now?

“But never mind that. From now on, you shall be an enemy of Bodenburg.”

He felt a soft touch on his cheek and then a gust of wind blew through the surrounding smoke.

“Was that her lips!?”

He looked back but found she was already gone.

He knew it was silly of him, but his emotions were in turmoil. He was losing track of just what feelings were running wild in his heart.

Even though her message was clear: I could kill you right this instant if I wanted to, but I will not. For now.

However, he did hear a voice somewhere in the forest.

It had a teasing, singsong quality to it.

“From the control rifle to the horn core – tactical close. Schwarz Schütze, disarm and await further orders.”

A low metallic rumbling came from outside the forest.

“Trains are meant to move. I was only using 30% of its true power, so make no mistake about your chances.”

Miyabi looked around with the double-edged sword in hand, but he could find no glimpse of that conspicuous blonde hair or dress. Yet she was not shouting in anger, so she could not be far.

“Also, I had set this stage with Moebius in mind. I, Celina Bodenburg, shall withdraw for now and set aside some later time especially for you. This crucial event shall prove the Bodenburg Company possesses the strongest power, so I need to put on the best show possible, don’t you think? So I will prepare the finest stage on which to kill you.”

The gap in skill level was simply too great.

Miyabi Blackgarden had only been a target to the very end.

“Farewell, my fated enemy. Please await the next available opportunity.”

And with that, she really did disappear.

Her voice, her presence, and her piercing pressure were all gone.

“…”

Left behind, Miyabi stood in a daze.

The most he could do was mutter to himself.

“She never did notice the sorcery bomb. Is she more careless than she lets on? Is that all-knowing thing just an act?”

“Koo.”

“Hm? What is it, Alma?”

“Koo koo!!”

“Ow! You don’t have to bite me! Especially not repeatedly!”

The mystery creature was in a bad mood, so Miyabi had to guard his own legs.

“Anyway,” he said before a rustling of the undergrowth interrupted.

Some familiar voices followed.

“Hey, what in the world happened?”

“A-are you really still alive, Miyabi!?”

It was Alicia the elf and Helen the government official. Either they had found the end of the giant crack and walked around or they had thrown a rope across and used that. He was relieved to find no stray shots had hit them, but he also felt deeply exhausted.

“First, I have to explain all this to them.”

A sketchy young man’s voice reached him from a different direction.

“H-hey, you’re not just going to leave me out here, are you?”

“And I have to deal with that old man.”

Miyabi held his head in his hands.

“Sigh. How did I end up with all this extra work on my plate?”

The Lucifer Horn roared by overhead.

That ultimate sorcery weapon was built around a Wicked God horn.

Character Profiles

Miyabi Blackgarden

Age: 15

Sex: Male

Height: 165cm

A perfectly ordinary boy with a friendly nature and a tendency to get involved in everything. Yet he keeps finding himself caught up in very non-ordinary problems, like Alma growing attached to him after hatching from a Wicked God egg and receiving the Lucifer Horn Godhorn Tech from Moebius.

Alma

Age: Unknown

Sex: Unknown

Height: 25cm

Probably the only juvenile Wicked God currently known to humanity. Miyabi was the first person it saw after hatching from its egg, so it tends to view him as its parent. Sometimes and during certain circumstances, it grows larger, but the sample size of 1 makes it impossible to say if that is a trait of all juvenile Wicked Gods or if it is unique to Alma.

Alicia Blueforest

Apparent Age: 13 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Female

Height: 140cm

An elf of the Blueforest race. Elves have always been a friendly species with a fair amount of contact with humans, but Alicia is especially friendly and regularly visits the human village. She is interested in human techniques and has picked up alchemy as a hobby, so she wears a radio-shaped philosopher’s stone around her neck.

Helen Clockgear

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 168cm

A Republic official who was sent from the central capital primarily to observe Alma, the juvenile Wicked God. She calls herself a government official, but her actual position is closer to being a spy tasked with infiltration, intel gathering, and sabotage. But on a personal level, she is starting to accept Miyabi and Alma who have grown so innocently attached to her.

Moebius Entrance

Age: 22

Sex: Male

Height: 185cm

The most powerful of the fixers, those who accept “personal requests” to resolve any trouble that the rich and powerful do not want becoming public knowledge. His skill can be inferred from the crazy fact that he possesses a Godhorn Tech despite not belonging to any specific country. And his skill extends beyond using that Godhorn Tech.

Godhorn Tech Bomber: Lucifer Horn

Pilot: Miyabi Blackgarden

(Previous Pilot: Moebius Entrance)

Affiliation: None

Size (LxWxH): 30m x 50m x 5m

A Godhorn Tech shaped like a giant bomber. Generally unmanned. Contains a lab for the creation of chemicals from plants. Injection of the chemicals is used to activate the Wicked God horn so it can fire powerful energy blasts. Extremely powerful, but the excessive tune-ups of the already high-power Wicked God horn cause it to overheat and stop firing if used too much. Design motif: witchcraft.

Celina Bodenburg

Age: 14

Sex: Female

Height: 155cm

Only daughter of the world-renowned Bodenburg Company. She was raised to believe money can solve all problems, giving her a domineering personality. But her skill is real and she was left in charge of the Schwarz Schütze, foundation of the company’s shipping routes.

Between the Lines 1

This is a story about Celina Bodenburg.

It takes place a few days before she arrived at the Blueforest forest.

Every age of every world has its villains.

A free and open world still gives power to villains.

It gives them as much power as it gives anyone else.

“Man, talk about easy money,” said Dake Grassland, the large bearded man who led the group.

The stone-paved roads between large cities were crucial infrastructure for bandits as well. Especially in the endless expanses of plains where the knights’ attention was lax and the patrolmen could be bought off. That “prime real estate” would naturally be caught up in turf wars between bandits, but that was not a problem for this group.

There was a reason why they could so easily monopolize this artery of trade.

“Hey, Professor. You sure this is all you want for your share?”

“I am.”

“I’m not complaining about paying out less since our expenses have gone way up as our group’s gotten so big, but you could really stand to ask for more. It’s honestly weirding us out that you’re not.”

Dake kept a jocular tone, but he noticed the other person did not do the same.

A gloomy girl looked back at the bandit leader. Her name was Airi Downerzone. She wore a thick cloak pulled up over her head, but below that she only wore a negligee so thin the color of her skin showed through. The outfit was unusual for travel or for sleeping. She almost looked like a grim reaper wearing nothing but a cloak.

The teenage girl known as the Professor said little.

She lived in her own world. Time seemed to move at a different speed for her.

“I only need enough to survive off of.”

“Really?”

“But you did say I could take the ‘trash’ you have no use for yourself, didn’t you?”

She made it sound like she was doing them a favor by disposing of some defective items and trash, but the pressure behind her words would not take no for an answer. The pressure was all the more powerful because she herself was not aware of it.

There was something else she wanted far more than the obvious treasure.

Something the bandits could never imagine a use for.

Dake Grassland was honestly curious, but in an unusually perceptive moment for a bandit, he could tell that getting greedy here would end badly.

That girl had singlehandedly given them complete control in this area.

In this world of swords and sorcery, the sorcery side of the equation was incredibly powerful. The bandits had failed to master the sword but also lacked the guts to go for something as new as a gun, so they had been left with axes and hammers that relied on simple weight. Even as a group, they could not hope to face someone like that.

Airi had annihilated anyone who attempted to intrude.

But it was no more than coincidence that the gloomy grim reaper girl had joined this group in particular. If another organization would have helped her gather “trash” more efficiently, it was this group that would have been blown away while her magic tore into the ground.

“So what kind of ‘trash’ was there this time?”

“You mean the Beast Nova, right?”

Dake Grassland jerked his bearded chin toward the toppled wagon.

The grim reaper girl walked over with her thick cloak dragging behind her. Yes, she was clearly dragging the cloak, yet she moved in complete silence. That was enough for the bandit leader to shudder since he had failed to make it sneaking into mansions as an urban thief, so he had been forced to accept the outdoor life of a bandit where they only had rum to drink and dried meat to eat and never got to take a proper bath.

A change came over Airi when she peeked behind the wagon.

She smiled.

She had not batted an eye while blasting other bandit groups with powerful magic and converting them into fertilizer, so this smile was even more chilling than when she had calmly crushed and killed.

“Excellent.”

“Really?”

“That is a harpy. Flying Beast Novae are ideal because you can easily restrain them by breaking their wings.”

The figure seated on the ground trembled.

She could apparently understand human language.

“Couldn’t you just catch one of the wild monsters out there?”

“Capturing them alive is the hard part. My magic is so powerful I end crushing them instead.”

They were talking about a girl with giant falcon wings instead of arms. She was probably meant to keep away other monsters instead of as a product to be sold. Just like how people would wear a tuft of wolf fur on a necklace to ward off animal attacks. By taming a powerless Beast Nova and living with it, the hope was its smell would rub off on you and others of its kind would choose not to attack. Merchants who made long journeys by wagon often used that trick.

Then again, that was why they were often targeted by humans instead of monsters. Only wealthy merchants had the money to spare to tame a Beast Nova, so they might as well have been walking around with a sign saying “attack me, I’m rich”.

“There are several cracks in this continent,” said Airi Downerzone with her sticky smile intact. “A dark mist known as miasma rises from deep below the surface. Humans cannot fly over it or descend into the cracks to investigate, so these create what are known as World Barriers.”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“I am researching them. If a Beast Nova falls into the depths of those cracks and manages to crawl back out alive, they break past the limits of their own species, becoming a Wicked God. …Now, that is only an old legend without any real reason to believe it, but I want to see it happen.”

The harpy started shaking her head.

Was she calling that story a lie, or was she protesting the idea of having the experiment run on her?

If it manages to crawl back out alive.

I want to see it happen.

Airi had no guarantee of the subject’s survival, nor had she ever seen it work. Even though she had tested it several times. In plays, throwing someone alive into the miasma-filled cracks in the continent was a standard way for gangs to execute traitors.

Just then, a subordinate interrupted.

“Dake, there was a kid hiding in the wagon. What do we do with him?”

The bandit leader glared at his subordinate more than necessary because he was worried the youth had overseen the pathetic look on his face a moment earlier.

“Tch. A young boy?” he growled at the terrified youth. “What do you even do with that? We can’t sell him to a brothel or to the mines.”

“If you have some ‘trash’ needing disposal, then give it to me. I can toss it into the crack along with the harpy.” The cloaked girl smiled thinly. The smile seemed to split across her face. “Hee hee. Ee hee hee. I’ve thrown a few Beast Novae into the cracks, but never a human. Who knows, maybe the legend grew distorted over the ages. Maybe it really needs to be a hum-”

Before she even finished her sentence, a massive shape plowed into Airi Downerzone from the side.

“Hm? Hmm?”

Celina Bodenburg made some puzzled noises inside the Schwarz Schütze.

That mass of alchemy was 500m long, yet it broke the rules of trains by not needing a fixed track. The armored train constantly created new metal rails and constantly laid them out on the ground using the two rollers lined up on the front car, allowing it to travel across sand, snow, or whatever other terrain the continent threw at it. Now, the metal rails were so solid not even the average illegal diggers could remove them. That left ugly marks on the land, so she had a personal rule of avoiding roads, campgrounds, and other areas where people would see the result.

(What a pain. These small negatives really add up, so you can’t ignore them. Maybe I should invest a bit more in environmental protection before it influences our brand image.)

She was the queen of land travel.

The bandits had been out of luck the moment she encountered them. But the tragedy was only going to get worse for three primary reasons.

First, the Schwarz Schütze was a Godhorn Tech, a sorcery weapon so massive it towered over people, but it was by no means slow. The sensors installed all over the train searched its surroundings and accurately picked up even the smallest oddity.

Second, Celina Bodenburg was obsessed with money, but she was also a young girl with a lot to learn about business. That meant she would still get involved in issues with no chance of profit, calling it philanthropy or advertisement.

“Oh?”

And third, she had noticed the emblem on the side of the toppled wagon.

“Now that is a problem. They might be a tiny regional company, but we do business with them.”

With a dull roar, an unseen power grabbed at the girl and tugged her to the right.

The massive armored train had taken a wide curve to make a U-turn while the many alchemy cannons on its roof accurately rotated. That weapon could fire over a mountain range dividing two countries and crush the battlefield on the other side, so it was extreme overkill for protecting a trade route.

Instead of horses, the bandits were riding on the backs of giant six-legged ants made of metal. They had likely stolen those Slaughter Ants. They were 5m long and they might have been nigh untouchable with 1000 of them at their disposal, but their opponent this time proved why the “nigh” was necessary.

In this world of swords and sorcery, the sorcery side of the equation was incredibly powerful.

Especially when that sorcery was a 500m mass of alchemy equipped with a legendary Wicked God’s horn as a direct power source.

(Fools. Those are the parliament defense troops we sold to the Republic. They’re our products. Some official must be selling near-new malfunctioning ones in the name of research.)

“From iron to copper, from copper to lead, from lead to tin, from tin to mercury, from mercury to silver, from silver to gold, and from gold back to iron. Metals grow through the cycle of combination, death, and resurrection. Oh, great serpent, create a closed spiral and construct eternal stability. Here I choose seven-groove rifling with a right-hand twist.”

Of course, the Slaughter Ants coming her way had to be disposable decoys.

Schwarz Schütze’s crystal sensors danced gently along the river surface to accurately detect the other group trying to sneak from the field. That group was using the fancier winged model of Slaughter Ants.

After attacking one of the glorious Bodenburg Company’s business partners, they had realized they stood no chance, abandoned their weaker subordinates, and made a run for safety to ensure they did not lose everything.

“Set the Knight of Wands warhead – that is, fire in fire.”

She knew exactly what they deserved: death.

“Swiftly eliminate all worldly obstacles to our expert work, Schwarz Schütze.”

With a deafening boom, the world was compressed.

But it was not the swarm of gray-shining Slaughter Ants that was blown away. The green ground covered in weeds was torn up and the dirt blasted into the air became a storm that shredded the air and the bandits like a shotgun blast. A single attack changed the course of the river and created a new lake.

A second and third attack followed.

This would continue until the girl was satisfied.

This army of bandits was using illicitly-obtained military weaponry to arm themselves like a national cavalry, but such a minor threat was shredded like wet paper.

A criminal organization’s value came from their ability to remain hidden.

The more legendary the criminal, the less was known about them. For example, not even the national intelligence agencies knew if the top-class assassin known as Shadow Crack was a man or a woman.

So it should have been plain as day what would happen to bandits who carelessly revealed their presence like this.

“Calcination, coagulation, fixation, dissolution, digestion, distillation, sublimation, separation, incineration, fermentation, multiplication, and projection. From the 12 operations found in the 12 constellations, I choose the 1st – the Ram’s calcination.”

Trains were meant to move.

The Schwarz Schütze’s greatest selling point was the combination of its simple mass with its ability to act as the continent’s greatest ceremonial ground for alchemy. When combined with a technique capable of breaking all matter down at the smallest level, it became a deadly weapon that would crush any obstacle in its path, no matter the strength or size.

“I offer one final tribute. Those lives would normally be worth no more than the ashes you leave behind, but today is special. I will have our research division reveal your identities and send a small monetary gift to your families. Although I imagine they disinherited you long ago if you are out here working as bandits.”

No one ever heard their filthy pleas for their lives, but they only had themselves to blame. They were out here in the middle of nowhere to ambush and kill their targets.

Unlike the first pass, the train did not even shake when it hit them.

The alchemic operation of calcination referred to exposing a specimen to such intense heat that the solid was reduced to a powder.

“Hm, that should about do it.”

The countless sensors on the exterior of the armored train picked up footage of a harpy and small child staring in a daze. The ground had been torn up, the path of a river changed, a new lake created, and the entire map rewritten just to save those two. They may have felt their lives were not worth all that.

(And that is the correct conclusion as a businessperson. Advertisement and marketing are only given such large budgets by the companies large enough to have begun the cycle of money making money. If you want to avoid driving yourself into bankruptcy with unprofitable philanthropy, then don’t try this at home.)

“Now, then.”

After plowing that land without batting an eye, Celina Bodenburg threw out her cold tea and made some more.

If she wanted to call this the strongest power, she needed to create enough legends that everyone already knew what she could accomplish.

That also meant she could not allow anyone else to reduce the quality of her efforts.

She already had a target in mind.

“I will destroy you next, Moebius Entrance.”

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Section 1

Everyone feared the great power of the Wicked Gods.

Humans were the only beings that wanted that power for themselves.

He was a mess.

Back in a room of a simple wooden house, Miyabi Blackgarden could not get out of bed. He felt like his muscles had been replaced with mud.

But the morning arrived despite his protests.

“Please get up.”

It announced its presence with a polite young woman’s voice.

Helen Clockgear was not just inside his house – she was inside his bedroom.

“Miyabi, you need to get up. It’s morning.”

“Ugh,” he groaned, but not because he had low blood pressure.

That young woman provided a little too exciting a visual. Her long black hair and glasses made her look like a stickler for the rules, but then there were her clothes. The chest was left open, the part that was buttoned still left her navel visible, her tight skirt was short enough to show off her thighs, her hair decorations looked like devil horns, and the whip on the back of her hips looked like a tail. He appreciated her waking him up, but this was a little much for his adolescent heart.

He did his best to keep her from noticing his reaction.

“Helen? What are you doing here?”

“I am a Republic official. Managing people is my job.”

“You unlocked the front door with magic again, didn’t you?”

“That is not an abuse of my powers. It is a part of my job. On that note, Miyabi, as peaceful as this village is, you should really use a Jack class or better lock for your outside doors. Anyone can get through a 9 of Diamonds.”

He caught himself before pointing out she would break through that as well.

Then the (busty) glasses woman pointed toward the wooden door.

The cacophony of people working with the lumber could be heard even in here. That meant it was already past 8 in the morning. Miyabi found it easier to tell time that way than using the mechanical clock Helen had brought from the big city.

“I made you breakfast, so please come to the table.”

She left his bedroom and her footsteps creaked down the narrow and steep wooden stairs toward the dining room. His parents were not here, but that was common in this village. When one parent was home, so was the other. When one was gone, they were both out deep in the forest. He knew his boss and the older apprentices better than them.

It must not have been cold enough for Helen to light a fire in the fireplace. The morning chill woke him up before he even washed his face.

The table contained a simple breakfast of toast, salad, and ham and eggs. The simplicity was due to the magic stove and poorly-sealed refrigerator being old and falling apart, not because Helen was a poor cook.

She had apparently expected him to wake up sooner than this, but the food was not cold.

The tableware itself seemed to keep the food and drink warm. That would be more magic. He got to see a lot of convenient magic when Helen was around.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Miyabi had a mug full of hot milk (which somehow had not developed a film on top), but Helen’s cup only contained cold water as she sat politely across from him. But not because she was showing restraint; she really did like the village’s water.

“It recovers so much of your magic. Enough that you don’t even need to stay at an inn. I wish I could fill a bottle with it and carry it around with me, but I go through it so fast.”

“?”

Born and raised in this village, Miyabi had no idea what she meant, but the forest water straight from the well was apparently a rare thing for someone who had lived so long in the capital.

“So why are you cooking me breakfast?”

“I would prefer not to, if I’m being honest.” She was blunt about that. And she was approaching the ultimate decision of whether to put salt or sauce on her ham and eggs. “The Republic has no Godhorn Tech. So what they fear most is what you might do with Alma. For example, you could break off the horn and sell it on the black market. If that found its way into the hands of the remnants of the old monarchy scattered across the land, the country could be in serious trouble. So to ensure their own safety, the Republic wants to ensure all your needs are met and you are never short on money.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“No thanks are necessary. I am only monitoring you for the country’s sake.”

She complained, but she had also refrained from adding carrots to the salad because she knew he didn’t like them. How cute could she be?

“Speaking of, where is Alma?”

The juvenile Wicked God would normally come running at the smell of food, so the curvy glasses woman explained.

“That elf dragged the poor thing outside to play.”

After eating, Miyabi volunteered to do the dishes. He hated working with the cold well water, but Helen warned him not to take it for granted. He still didn’t understand. They could get an endless supply of the stuff from the ground, so why was it so valuable? Washing dishes and his own face was a pain. It was so cold he had to wrap his aching hands in a towel to warm them before heading out to search for Alma. Helen followed him to “monitor” him as usual.

This was a small village.

It was half overgrown by the forest and Miyabi lived in a log house. Everything here was made from wood. But it really was a small village, so the roads were made of exposed brown dirt packed down by feet, hooves, and wagon wheels. Stone pavement was beyond anything they could hope for out here.

“In this village, we make a living cutting down the forest’s trees. We’re the only village out there that’s made a contract with the elves. We’re special!”

Lumberjack (Older Apprentice) was very cheerful for so early in the morning.

He worked accurately even as he smiled and greeted them. He ran his saw along the colorful pattern glowing on the magically-hovering log, rapidly shaping the desired piece of lumber. He worked alone on a tree several times taller than he was and his saw was unnaturally sharp. He had likely added on some water magic to cut with the water pressure. Miyabi could not do any of that yet.

(Special, huh?)

The village prided themselves in being left in charge of the forest by the local Blueforest race of elves. Although Miyabi sometimes wondered if the elves had tricked the humans into maintaining the forest paths, thinning out the trees, and all the other jobs they couldn’t be bothered to do.

Whatever the case, the village was hard at work for another day.

The sorcery bomb had been a very close call and the Celina and Schwarz Schütze problem remained, but he had protected this scene nonetheless.

“Please keep quiet about what happened,” quietly warned Helen, walking alongside him. His heart jumped when he felt her warm breath on his ear. “A single village boy wields a Godhorn Tech when not even the entire Republic has one. If word gets out, you can’t live here anymore. Do you want to be on the run around the clock? The remnants of the old monarchy still fantasize every night about bringing back the slave trade and they would love to get their hands on that thing.”

“So I’m a secret warrior, huh? Heh heh heh.”

“Why does that appeal to you? Sigh, boys never do grow up, do they?”

At any rate, he asked around for information on the long-eared hag.

“Hey, Miyabi! Tell that elf girl she can play in the village if she wants, but she shouldn’t use our lumber as an obstacle course!” (Lumberjack (Middle Aged))

“Sob, all I wanted was to make friends with some cute elves, so how did I end up surrounded by big burly men?” (Lumberjack (Newcomer))

“Ho ho ho. Watching Lady Alicia enjoy herself is so relaxing. Our ancestors agreed to a contract with the elves, giving us permission to cut down the forest’s trees, but it all happened so long ago no one remembers what the exact terms of the contract were. But that smile on Lady Alicia’s face is all we need to know we still have their permission.” (Elder)

None of it was very helpful.

And that old man’s lines were always long. Too long.

“Hm.” Helen placed a finger on the side of her glasses. “That elf isn’t surrounded by tourists like I expected.”

“?”

“The plays always present forests as a home to the elves and Azul Titanio isn’t that far from the Republic’s capital, so it’s known in some circles as a good health resort.”

“Azul what?”

“That’s the name of your village, Miyabi. Wait! Did you forget the name of your own home!?”

“Everyone born here just calls it the first village.”

“That’s sad. But it is a known social problem. When a long and complicated name is added to the official maps, the locals can end up abbreviating it to the point that no one there recognizes the correct name.”

That could explain why the pub and inn did such good business for a small village.

Miyabi had lived here all his life and one of his earliest memories was clinging to Alicia’s back and tugging on one of her long ears, so he had trouble understanding this talk of a health resort and traveling to see an elf. To him, the big city sounded a lot more convenient and comfortable.

And.

“Koo, kwehh!”

“Ah ha ha! Come and get me!”

He heard a joyous voice coming from the edge of the village where the forest had more or less taken over, so he took a look and then sighed.

“Finally found you,” he said.

“What are you two doing here?” asked Helen.

“O-ohh?”

For some reason, Alicia Blueforest froze with her hands in the air.

“Come to think of it, what are we doing here?”

“Koo?”

Seeing the two of them tilt their heads, Helen placed a hand on her cheek.

“Peaceful as always, I see.”

“I’m sweating bullets over here, worried my spot as the adorable mascot is at risk.” The radio complained from the elf’s chest. “Curse that vile beast. No decency at all. There might be a million faces to choose from in this world, but I only get to use one of them as an icon, you know!?”

“I want to hear what that old guy has to say. To figure out what to do next.” With Alicia, Alma, Helen, and the radio here, this seemed like the best chance for this. “What about the rest of you? You can sit this out if it doesn’t interest you.”

“Kyoo kyoo!”

“If the juvenile Wicked God is going, I might as well go too. I wouldn’t have anyone to play with anymore.”

“Vile beast! I belong at the chest of this real elf! Don’t you dare steal my position!!”

The philosopher’s stone created a staticky noise resembling grinding teeth, but Helen ignored it.

She might as well have been the village guide at this point.

“I believe Mr. Moebius is being treated at the clinic.”

Rural villages like Miyabi’s “first village’ tended to have small clinics instead of big hospitals. There was no end to careless accidents with sharp blades in the logging industry, but most any illness could be treated here. With the number of wagons carrying heavy lumber out of the village and the proximity of the Republic’s capital, any patient with a serious enough injury or illness could be transported elsewhere, weather permitting.

For that reason, rural Azul Whatever-It-Was’s log house clinic was very well equipped. It had a simple design, but it was kept extremely clean with magic. Miyabi did not like the feel of the place. It was clean, but in an unnatural way.

A creaking of metal sounded in the village’s lifeline.

It came from the axle of a wheelchair.

The tall-redheaded man wore a coat that made him look more like a pirate than a noble, but that wild impression was ruined by just the one item.

“Does that mean…?”

“Don’t worry about it. I was already planning to retire at some point.”

Miyabi was struck speechless, but Moebius Entrance himself did not seem to mind.

This world had no recovery magic.

Magic could sterilize a room or mix a medicine, but it could not directly affect the human body. It could create a medicine to heal a cold or boost the healing power of a cast holding together broken bone, but it could not heal a rare disease or serious injury that lacked a corresponding White Sorcery Item. So as destructive as a Godhorn Tech was, the user could not cheat death or serious injury. They would have to groan in pain while using magically-boosted medicines and bandages just like everyone else.

“This gave me the chance I needed.” Moebius smiled. “Passing the Godhorn Tech onto you is a burden off my shoulders.”

“…”

“Let’s get down to business.” He still sounded lighthearted. Maybe he always did. “The Sorcery Doc said I can’t talk for long. Ow…”

“And I can see why!”

“Looks like he needs medicine and water.”

On Helen’s instructions, Miyabi handed Moebius some water and medicine to drink.

“Phew. There’s no point trying to show off here, so let’s just get this over with.”

“Is this about the 11th?”

“That’s an important issue, but they’re only a shadow. They’ll have gone into hiding and we won’t see hide nor hair of them for a while. They attack on a whim, so they don’t seem to get fixated on a single target when their attack fails.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t predict what they did.”

“And a fixation on a single target would make them really easy to predict. But the 11th doesn’t make it that easy. Anyway, keep them in a corner of your mind, but you have a more immediate threat to deal with.”

“More immediate?” Miyabi looked Moebius in the eye. “Do you mean Celina Bodenburg and Armored Train Schwarz Schütze?”

“Ha ha. Memorized both of those long names already? I guess imminent death is a good teacher.”

The term “armored train” must have sounded odd coming from the carefree forest boy. Moebius sank down into his wheelchair with a mischievous smile.

“Now that the Godhorn Tech is yours, you’ll be her new target. You’ve got an idea of how she does things now, right?”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t hesitate to attack just because we’re in the village.”

“Koo…” Alma worriedly cried at his feet.

Moebius nodded.

“But unlike the 11th, Miss Celina is easy to predict. She wants to secure the continent’s safest trade route using an unbeatable power no one else dares even attack. That way she can increase trust in the Bodenburg company and raise its value. So she will not allow any other Godhorn Tech to fight on the same level as hers. That’s all she’s fighting for.”

“She really thinks money is everything, doesn’t she?”

Miyabi sounded exasperated and Moebius sighed.

“It’s not her fault. She was raised to think that way.”

Raised.

That was a simple word, but it had a somehow ominous ring to it here.

“And we’ve all benefited from it. Take a look around you. That company’s logo is everywhere.”

Shocked, Miyabi picked up some items around the clinic. The bandages, medicine bottles, and examination and treatment equipment all had the logo. So did the bed, the shelves, the cups, and the pitcher. He had never paid any attention to it, but now that he did…there it was.

The Bodenburg Company.

With the exception of the furniture made with wood, hammers, and saws, the hand-mixed medicines made from local plants, and the White Sorcery Items, almost all of the clinic’s equipment had been brought in from the big city and bore that logo.

“It’s everywhere…”

“That is a frightening level of market penetration,” commented Alicia, viewing a cylindrical package of chocolates with a frown.

“Pretty much any magical product is from them these days,” said Moebius. “And this village is more self-sufficient than most. You have that forest and the carpenters to thank for that.”

“And me,” added the elf. “You need to thank me for the forest’s blessings, boy.”

“?”

Miyabi was not sure why, but Alicia placed a hand on her chest and proudly winked at him.

Moebius continued on, whether he knew the reason or not.

“There are a lot of cities on the continent that can’t even get food and water without the company’s help. They own all the fishing rods and nets at the lakes and they control all the firewood and blankets in the snowy areas. They gain customers by offering enough convenient services for the local industries to deteriorate.” He smiled as he continued. “But you can make use of that. You know why Miss Celina fights, so you can set the perfect stage for her and guide her there. That means you can move the battle outside the village.”

“…”

“Still afraid of attacking another person? This would’ve been so much easier if you had only seen the Schwarz Schütze, but unfortunately you saw Miss Celina first.” The young man displayed his injured body in the wheelchair. “But don’t forget you already wielded the Lucifer Horn in battle and others saw it. You need to assume both Miss Celina and the 11th see you as a Godhorn Tech user. You can’t back out of the fight now. Not after asking me to lend you that power so you could save me.”

Sometimes having the power to fight caused a fight to happen.

But the boy had lived his whole life in this peaceful village and only ever thought of blades as something to cut through grass and trees, so he couldn’t be blamed for not realizing that.

Nevertheless, only his friends would listen to his complaints. His enemies would show no mercy. Celina and the massive Bodenburg Company that supported her were more powerful than the average country and they had poured everything they had into building that Godhorn Tech. That weapon’s cannons were now aimed squarely at Miyabi.

He may have been fortunate he had not known what he was doing.

If he had truly understood the threat, he might have fainted.

“Sometimes, options present themselves to you, but you won’t gain anything by sitting around until you’re out of time.”

Moebius then doubled over and groaned.

He had already taken some medicine, so blindly giving him another kind would be dangerous. And he appeared to know that.

“Okay, I’ve hit my limit.” He wiped sweat from his brow. “If you want some more details…yeah, you can come see me again tonight.”

Miyabi said nothing, but it was still up to him to choose.

“This is your life, so choose your own path through it.”

The village grew quiet at night.

Miyabi Blackgarden was lying in his bed staring up at the ceiling, but traversing the wood grain labyrinth with his eyes was not making him feel sleepy.

“…”

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

He held a hand to his head and sat up in bed.

In a village alongside the forest, the people were very careful with fire, but putting out the fire in the fireplace had still been a mistake. The chill of the night had crept into his room before sleep took him.

He doubted he was getting to sleep now.

“I should go ask that old guy what he can tell me.”

“Koo,” agreed Alma, squirming in the same bed.

He got dressed, left his house, and found a familiar face waiting with her back against a nearby tree. That familiar face had long ears.

“Hi,” she said.

“What are you doing?”

“Did you think you were the only one who had business with that Celina girl? The elf village might be safely tucked into an alternate dimension, but she more or less burnt the entranceway. I don’t see why I shouldn’t give her a piece of my mind.”

Alicia Blueforest gave a grumpy snort and Alma wobbled as the white stuffed animal thing nearly drifted off on its feet.

“Zzzkoo…”

“Mh, why are you so sleepy, Alma? I suppose this is late for a child, even if you are a Wicked God. If you need someplace to sleep, just leap into my chest and I will carry you around.”

“Another threat to my position!?” protested the radio hanging from the elf’s neck.

Miyabi smiled bitterly.

“Whatever the reason, I appreciate the company.”

“Y-yes, the village feels very different at night,” said the radio. “And thorough exploration is the key to adventuring. You might just find that annoying person blocking the way to the mysterious door is absent at night.”

“Now, ignoring the usual stray signal,” started Alicia.

“But don’t even think about leaving the village! You might run across more powerful monsters that only appear at night or on the full moon! Always make sure to train your party to a decent level before straying from the main story path! Don’t assume you’ll be safe just because you’re still in the early stages! And make sure to stock up on antidote items and sleep-prevention accessories before attempting to fight the alternate enemy forms!! Once those status effects get started, they come for the entire party!”

“Again, ignoring the stray signal!!”

After silencing the radio’s incessant chatter, Alicia crouched down, picked up sleepy Alma, and held it to her chest.

“Personally, I’m surprised we haven’t seen Miss Busty Glasses.”

“Let’s just get to the clinic. I want to hear what Moebius has to say.”

Miyabi did not need the radio to warn him about the dangers of the night. In the logging industry, working at night was like asking for an accident. You never wanted to enter the forest or operate a saw in the dark.

The village was quiet (except for the one establishment that served alcohol) as they walked to the clinic. With the sole exception of the pub’s lights, the starlight was the only thing illuminating their path. The clinic was wrapped in tranquility.

But something wasn’t right.

It was too quiet.

“Huh? There’s no one here.”

“Koo?”

“But could he really leave the village in that wheelchair?” asked Alicia. “The forest ground is covered in tree roots and rocks and that Celina girl just dug the place up, so I doubt he could have gotten far with that injury.”

“Assuming he isn’t endlessly going for random encounters in the hopes of finding a pink-haired succubus in a slingshot swimsuit, silver-haired brown-skinned apsaras covered only by a vanishingly thin cloth, or some other sexy night-exclusive mid-boss, then wouldn’t he be somewhere inside the village?”

Most of the philosopher’s stone’s line was incomprehensible, but Miyabi frowned at the ultimate conclusion.

Yes…

“Somewhere in the village?”

“That’s still running this late?”

“…”

“…”

The boy and girl fell silent and Alma tilted its head.

“Koo?”

The place had an entirely different aura.

The instant Miyabi hesitantly opened the door, the darkness of the night was swept away by colorful magic lights very different from his lamp at home. The din of excitement and mirth hit him like a physical blow. The young woman with her silver hair tied back in a single braid at the center of the pub appeared to be a dancer. She was wiggling her bare navel to the applause of the drunk crowd.

A full-on bunny girl greeted Miyabi with a smile. A young woman with long black hair wore a white and pink costume, including decorative long ears that, unlike the elf’s, extended vertically.

“Hello☆ Welcome to- eek!?”

Miyabi’s group looked around the noisy pub with its bunny girl and dancer.

“Now, where is that complete moron?” asked Miyabi.

“Hmm, I doubt he could have faked an injury like that,” said Alicia.

“That just means he’s such a moron that he decided to join in the festivities despite his injury.” Miyabi sounded exasperated. “Is he actually out drinking?”

“Heh.” The radio hanging from Alicia Blueforest’s neck interrupted in an unusually subdued way. “Sometimes a man gets so caught up in searching for the finest videos available that the dawn sneaks up on him. It can happen the day before an interview and it can happen the nervous night before a major surgery.”

“I’m not sure what that means, but I suddenly want to disinfect this piece of junk.”

Meanwhile, the busty white-eared bunny was muttering to herself.

“Th-they haven’t noticed. They don’t realize it’s me? G-good!!”

She clenched her fists and gave a snort of triumph before speaking up with a renewed smile.

“I am Venus, this the most popular girl you’ll find here. Welcome☆ Then again, you two look a little young for this kind of-”

“By the way, what in the world are you doing, Helen?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!?”

Her scream sounded like it was tearing apart her large chest.

Had she thought they wouldn’t recognize her without her glasses?

She just about fell backwards on the booze barrel behind her and her eyes wandered while she sweated profusely.

“Cough! Cough, cough! Wh-who is this Helen? My name is Venus.”

“We don’t have time for your comedy routine, slutty exhibitionist,” said Alicia. “Just tell us where Moebius is.”

“Koo?”

“Stop it, vile beast. Honest questions like that can be like a sharp knife in the gut at times. Like when you’re using energy drinks to fuel an all-night online gaming session and you’re riding that midnight high when an ignorant elementary school kid logs on.”

The radio’s comment somehow felt like a finishing blow.

The sexy young woman (sans glasses) tried and failed to say more in her defense.

“…!?”

I swear I’m not doing this because I want to and I haven’t had a drop to drink. This is a traditional Republic method of intel gathering. You see, statistics have proven that drunks have loose lips and I can’t ignore an order from the higher ups. Ahh, why did you have to come here!?

If they could have read her flapping lips, they would have found something along those lines, but no voice ever made it out.

Miyabi’s group spotted the wheelchair they wanted among the swaying drunks and the dancer(?) sitting on the edge of the stage instead of doing her job.

Moebius Entrance raised a hand in greeting from a round table, showing no sign of guilt.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here?”

“My wound hurt like hell, so I wanted some way to forget the pain☆”

“You know that’s like warming a bump on the head with a compress, right? There are always these idiots who sprain their ankle and try to reduce the swelling by soaking in a hot spring.”

No one was listening to the philosopher’s stone’s pointless trivia.

“If you ask me, alcohol is a disinfectant for the soul.” Moebius waved his empty glass. “Veeenus! Bring me another bottle o’ this tasty stuff! Or maybe I should get some water. Man, everything’s so tasty I can’t stop drinking!!”

“Eek!? U-um, I really don’t want to go back to that table…”

The bunny jumped enough for her large chest to jiggle vertically, but Miyabi was coldhearted.

“Helen, this guy’s being a pain, so get over here.”

“At least call me Venuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!”

The tearful bunny rushed over.

Moebius hummed while pouring more amber-colored liquid in his glass. He would probably be here till morning if they let him.

“If I recall.” Miyabi got down to business. “You said you would tell me some secret plan to lure Celina away from here if I came to you tonight.”

“Finally worked up the nerve, huh?” The man took a teasing tone. “Well, she might be a sheltered girl, but that Godhorn Tech’s power is the real deal. You can’t hope to search out the 11th with her after you.”

“I get that, but still…”

“What, don’t like the idea of fighting a girl?”

“…”

“Oops, I’m outta snacks.” He made it sound like that was more important than any mysteries of the world. “Sorry, but could you grab me a cheese plate? At Mach speed! Oh, do you know what Mach speed is?”

This seemed like a job for sexy Venus, but Miyabi glanced over to see her slumped over with her soul halfway out of her mouth. She apparently had her hands full already, so he had no choice but to get up and do it himself.

He approached the counter.

“Here is your snack plate.”

“Thanks?”

It came out as a question because the large plate made from the village’s wood was handed to him by an unfamiliar young woman with her navel showing. She gave off a sophisticated aura, or maybe refined was the better word, but he doubted she was native to the village. She was the dancer with her long silver hair tied back in a single braid, yet her behavior was surprisingly elegant now that he met her face to face. She had the same upper class feel as Celina, yet here she was working in a pub. She seemed so mysterious and rare.

A faintly sweet aroma reached him whenever her long braid swished behind her, but that would be due to a type of seduction magic, not perfume. It was the same basic idea as when Helen had pushed her large breasts together while clasping her hands in apology after breaking a plate at his house. It worked its way to the forefront of his mind despite the mixture of smells from the food, drink, sweat, and heat filling the pub.

She waved a hand with a smile.

“My technical job title is waitress. My name is Iris Tempinvy. If you’re interested, make sure to ask for me☆”

The teenage boy was very interested but was short on guts and money, so he grew red in the face and froze up. A woman of the night was too high a hurdle for him.

He took the large plate and returned to Moebius’s table with movements stiffer than a clockwork doll.

“Can we please get down to business now?”

“It’s nothing fancy.” Moebius’s words dripped with confidence. “First of all, the Bodenburg Company is the world’s largest company. They judge everything based on its business value. Even Celina’s attack on me was only to advertise her own Godhorn Tech.”

“Advertise?”

Miyabi frowned.

That girl lived in a completely different world from him, but he had to try to understand it. He wanted as much information as he could get. Especially when this could mean the village’s destruction as soon as tomorrow.

“Having a Godhorn Tech is just that big a deal.” Moebius smiled, rocking side to side in his wheelchair. “The Bodenburg Company was built up in a single generation, but that causes some people to underestimate it. Especially by the royal, nobles, priests, and priestesses who tend to cling to musty old tradition.”

Miyabi only looked more skeptical since none of the people on the list sounded like anyone he would ever meet, but he grasped that there was apparently a world out there where people worried about that kind of thing.

“That’s why the company is rumored to have spent a fortune getting a Wicked God horn. They wanted power that the rest of the world would pay attention to.”

“So they have a Wicked God horn and Godhorn tech for business purposes?”

“But what does that matter?” asked Alicia.

The elf surreptitiously reached for a glass full of amber-colored liquid, so Miyabi slapped the back of her small hand. He didn’t know her actual age or her alcohol tolerance, but she looked younger than him and he had felt like he needed to stop her.

“The customer is always right, hm?” said the radio hanging from her neck.

“Exactly.” Moebius’s smile vanished there and they could only hope that was not just part of being drunk. “I’m sobering up now. Hey, grab me some water.”

Helen was still out of order, so Miyabi was stuck with the task. He made a mental note to avoid this position in the future.

The highlight of last time found him again.

The dancer named Iris winked at him from near the counter and even leaned against him this time.

“What’s this? Stuck running errands again?”

“Hyah!!”

“Ah ha ha. You sound even girlier than me! Anyway, what are you discussing all serious-like over there? Is it about magic? Well? Is it!?”

She had apparently heard an awful lot over the pub’s noise. Maybe it was true what he had heard about people who worked with alcohol tending to well informed. But there was a sharpness behind her cheer that suggested she only danced and had not had a drop to drink.

He somehow managed to shake free the temptation of the dancer blowing him a kiss and he returned to the man with a glass of water in hand. It wasn’t often the world felt quite this unfair.

“Now.” The young man looked surprisingly calm after drinking down the cold glass of water. “As hostile as the company can seem, they will shake your hand with a smile if you can work out a deal with them. And that includes the company’s young heiress. Take advantage of her professionalism and you should find a way out of this.”

“Heh heh heh.”

Venus laughed weakly with her head hanging limply back. What was she even looking at? She may have been staring at the magic-powered ceiling fan in an attempt to hypnotize herself and erase the night’s unpleasant memories.

However, the shiny white and pink bunny actually had something to add to the conversation.

“But that only works if you have something valuable enough to draw the interest of that giant company. No offense, but I don’t think this city’s lumber is going to cut it.”

“Oh, he has something,” stated Moebius. “Something Celina would be desperate to get her hands on. Something that would directly influence the world’s power balance.”

“Koo?”

“Wait…”

Miyabi could not believe it.

It did fit the conditions, but could he really make that choice?

“You’re telling me to sell her your Lucifer Horn!?”

“Don’t forget, it’s yours now.”

That correction did not sit well with him.

“When you write her the letter to lure her away, you only have to tell her you have a Wicked God horn for sale. The company already has the one Godhorn Tech to show off, but with all their influence, they still could only build just that one.”

It had the power to change the world, but that did not have to be done with direct violence.

Miyabi Blackgarden held that power in his hands.

Moebius winked and smiled.

“So not even the Bodenburg Company could ignore a chance at buying another, right?”

Chapter 2 Section 2

The forest had maintained its overall silhouette even after all the ripping and tearing it had undergone. Several masses of a dark metal were linked together outside that forest.

That was the armored train known as the Schwarz Schütze.

It was 500m long and more than 20m tall, it was as sturdy as a decent-sized castle, and it carried enough firepower to break through the front gate of an old-fashioned stationary fortress.

It looked like someone had taken a giant train and a warship and combined them in a flask. The train itself was in fact made using alchemy. A girl in a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems stood alongside the swiveling main cannon equipped on its roof.

“An anonymous letter.”

She was Celina Bodenburg.

A quiet crinkling came from the object the high-class girl held in both hands.

“No signature, no seal, and no documents to lend it any credibility? Someone does not know how this business works. Yet it was wiped clean to prevent me from reading the writer’s residual thoughts. I would never normally agree to something so suspicious, but with such dangerous merchandise, I can see why they would be cautious.”

She smiled a little as she spoke to herself.

“Another Wicked God horn would be nice. If this a trap, I can teach them a lesson with the untouchable Schwarz Schütze. And if it is real, I reap the benefits. Hee hee.”

A group had gathered at the boy’s house during the day.

Miyabi, Alicia, Helen, and Alma were there.

They could not bring Moebius along because of his wheelchair. Plus, he seemed to think of himself as retired, so at the moment, his hangover was probably turning him into a puke machine.

“Okay.” Miyabi Blackgarden got them started. “Let’s set out for the designated location.”

“That would be the inn town to the north. There is a major landmark there, so I doubt we will get lost. If all goes well, it should only take a few days.”

There was no point in asking why they had chosen somewhere so far away.

Their top priority was keeping any largescale battles away from Miyabi’s village, so choosing somewhere closer for travel convenience would defeat the purpose of the entire charade. Helen knew a lot about the outside world, so he had let her choose the location.

That selfish girl would be happily on her way to the designated location right about now. It was kind of cute to imagine.

“Curse that Celina,” said Alicia. “She takes care of everything once you’re her business partner, doesn’t she?”

They left the simple wooden house and cut across the village that was half overgrown with greenery. On the way, Miyabi glanced over at the pub. The rules of day and night were reversed there, so it was entirely silent now.

There was a notice posted on the door: Our dancer is sleeping. Don’t wake her!

“What, hoping to see Venus again?” teased Alicia.

“P-please just forget that!!”

The glasses woman grew red in the face and flustered. That apparently qualified as a nightmare for her.

As for the clinic…he decided it was best not to take a look inside.

But the curtains at one of the windows parted and Moebius greeted them as casually as if he were simply delivering a forgotten item.

And for some reason, the dancer from the night before, Iris Tempinvy, could be seen through the window next to him.

“Hee hee. Don’t worry about Moebius. I will be taking very good care of him.”

…Why?

Miyabi looked legitimately confused.

Her pretty navel was so bright he felt like it would bring tears to his eyes if he was not careful.

Where had this come from? Had they engaged in some adult form of communication that an adolescent like him could not hope to understand or even imagine!? A bare-navel dancer was too much for him! How did you even go about getting to know someone like that!?

But…

“Hee, hee hee, hee hee hee hee. After losing my position as guest magical researcher in that snowy kingdom, I began a life as a dancer, showing off my body night after night to earn enough to fund my research, but now I’ve stumbled upon a guinea pig who won’t break so easily. The authorities will never notice a thing in this backwater village, so I should make real progress with my research into supposedly impossible recovery magic.”

(Okay, yeah. I’m not getting anywhere near her.)

Even naïve Miyabi could figure that much out.

Maybe Moebius was oblivious to her intentions and maybe he was into that, but for now he spoke down from the window.

“Oh, right. One other thing.”

“?”

“There’s something you need to watch out for now that you have a Godhorn Tech. Using that much power can sometimes distort space-time and you’ll find someone who looks exactly like you challenging you to fight.”

Was that a joke, or was he serious?

Miyabi was not sure, but Moebius had one last thing to say.

“It will keep happening as long as you hold onto your Godhorn Tech – even after 100 challengers or 1000. It’s like a curse to punish you for being the strongest.”

A wide open world awaited him outside the village.

He had often entered the forest, but he rarely went the other way.

This had to be an insignificant plain in terms of the entire continent.

The road was not paved with stones, so the brown path meandering all the way to the horizon looked like it was made out of nothing but wagon wheel ruts.

Still, the rolling green hills of the plain and the horizon below the blue sky felt like a new world entirely for Miyabi Blackgarden.

He wished none of this had happened to him.

But if none of it had happened, he knew he may never have thought to leave the village.

“Koo,” cried Alma at his feet.

But Miyabi blinked.

“Hey, what’s with you? Where did you get those clothes???”

Alma had looked like a white stuffed animal, but it looked different now. First of all, it was colored a bright green. Its texture also looked a little different. It appeared to be wearing a raincoat with a snake motif.

But when he picked the creature up and tugged with his fingertips, he felt a springy resistance. That appeared to be fur.

“Hmm.” Alicia put a hand on her hip. “Alma must change form based on the environment. That form is similar to the Quetzalcoatl, a wind element Wicked God. Maybe Alma can feel the wind more in this open field than when surrounded by trees in the forest. But I never knew Quetzalcoatl was so round and adorable. Ah ha ha!”

“Changed form? Like a tree frog???”

“It may be less like a frog or chameleon’s colors and more like what happens inside an egg or chrysalis. Alma is a juvenile, so their entire body is still developing. I expect they will slowly figure out what form to take after learning more from their surroundings. Oh, Alma! You transform and you’re still cute as can be!!”

The hobbyist researcher elf only seemed to care about observing this one subject. She held it tight and rubbed it against her smiling face, forcing Alma to push her face away with its small front legs.

Then there was the young woman who had a firm grasp on reality and how to survive there.

Helen used a magic called Magnet Search to transform her sewing set’s needle into a weak magnet by running it over the tip of index finger.

“Let’s see, that way is north, so based on the map of the area…”

“Huh? Helen, that metal railroad running to the horizon is the path Celina took, right? Wouldn’t it be faster to follow that?”

“She isn’t taking the shortest route. Not to mention that those are the very obvious footprints left by our enemy. We already know she wants to fight you, so she’s probably left at least one trap for you. For example, she could have buried an alchemy shell with the fuse swapped out for one that will only detonate after detecting the approach of your control sword.” Helen could be scarily cool-headed at times and she shrugged here. “Either way, the standard method is to search out a safe path by comparing what you see around you to your map. But do keep an eye out. A wild Beast Nova could attack after sneaking up on us.”

“Hm. A Beast Nova, huh?”

“Why do I get the impression you don’t appreciate the threat there. Also, simply losing your way is dangerous enough. Getting lost out here is a very different experience from getting lost in the safety of your village.”

Miyabi thought about a number of things while walking on and on toward the northern inn town. There was a world out here that he never would have seen if he had not taken this step. Same for the animal and carnivorous plant Beast Novae they occasionally encountered. He would not have seen any of it if he had not set out to do so.

Meanwhile, the elf was half in tears.

“Can you two please stop using that discriminatory language!? Beast Nova might be technically defined as any lifeform not in your traditional encyclopedias, but you humans just use it as a catch-all term for everything that isn’t you! Which means you’re calling us elves ‘beasts’!”

“Shut up and fight! Do you want to die!?”

“I could tell you were panicking, but nice job slaying that Beast Nova, Miyabi!” Helen shouted, stabbing her thick short sword into a giant carnivorous plant rustling around on the ground.

These attacks were hindering their progress a lot. They had barely moved at all on the parchment map. Why did that distance of about three clips never seem to shrink any? Was it the scale? As they walked onward with weapons always at the ready, the sun was soon about to set.

The orange blaze in the sky was so bright Miyabi could only stare in bewilderment.

“How many more monsters are going to show up come nightfall?”

The elf used a different term, which was apparently acceptable to her. Perhaps Beast Nova was too broadly defined, whereas there was a clear distinction between a monster and an elf.

“Well, we were never going to cover this distance in a single day anyway,” said Helen.

“But if we sleep here, we’ll be surrounded by monsters!” protested Alicia. “I just know it!!”

Miyabi listened to the irritated voices while tracing his fingers along the sword he wore over his back.

That was the Lucifer Horn’s control sword.

“Moebius did mention some kind of hideout we could use. He called it the Horn Fortress. It’s a small island surrounded by magical barriers or cracks in the world or something.”

“You mean we would ride the Lucifer Horn there?” asked Helen. “Now there’s a scary thought.”

The idea of flight was unfamiliar to them since they had lived their entire lives on the ground. Anything beyond climbing a tree sounded terrifying. Traveling at high speed through the sky was downright unimaginable.

Maybe it was possible, but they did not have to test it out now. Nothing would be quite as foolish as attempting a potentially dangerous challenge and then actually dying when there had been no real need to do it at all.

So they took a more realistic option.

“Let’s search out a body of water before it gets dark. We can set up camp there.”

“Hell yes!! Now we’re setting the stage for a bathing scene with the moonlight shining on bare skin!! What kind of fantasy story doesn’t have some nudity in it!?”

The radio raised its voice while swaying back and forth at Alicia’s neck.

But this was not as simple as a kid’s sleepover party. They were out in the middle of the plains – that is, nature. This was nothing like the maintained village, so they could not find anywhere that would shelter them from the elements.

“Helen, don’t you have some magic to shelter us from the rain?”

“And let you leech off of my magic all night long? I don’t think so. Besides, the tent has some weak monster-repelling magic.”

“Hold on. That won’t make Alma or me feel ill inside it, will it?”

On capable Helen’s sharp instructions, the others cleared the tent’s planned location of rocks, but it was plenty cold even before the sun had set. They only had a fabric tent waterproofed with a wax coating, so it had no heater and Miyabi was worried if they would survive the night.

“Wh-what do we do once night falls?”

“Gathering food comes first,” said Helen.

There were no fruit trees around and the lack of food for animals meant none of them either.

In fact, any location without Beast Novae would naturally have no other animals either. Alicia Blueforest belatedly paled at that realization.

“W-we’re in serious trouble, aren’t we!?”

“Just kidding. Tah dah! I brought 4-5 days’ worth of preserved food just in case. The meat and fruit are dehydrated, so they’ll stay good for a while.”

Their somewhat early dinner was tough.

The extreme focus on preservation meant the oblong bread was so hard Miyabi thought he was going to dislocate his jaw chewing it. He could probably equip it as a weapon. The same went for the dried meat and fruit. Eating was supposed to be refreshing, but the more he ate, the more it dried out his mouth. The stuff was pretty awful without a cup of soup to go with it. The novelty was winning out this time, but eating this same thing for days on end would drain your spirit.

“I should probably prepare a trap tomorrow,” said Alicia. “Or catch some fish if we come across a river.”

They were going to spend the night there, so it was time for the tent.

“Let’s do this.”

Helen opened a small bag on the ground and something large expanded from within. The movement looked similar to popup book, but the end result was clearly too large to fit in the bag. The contents included a tallow lamp, a metal grilling plate, a barrel, a water filter full of pebbles and activated charcoal, a large wooden bucket, a washboard, and the rolled-up tent they were actually interested in. And beyond the camping items were a set of small spice bottles, makeup, a toothbrushing kit, some bath products, and more.

How had that all fit in there?

Miyabi’s dazed stare earned him a puzzled look from Helen as she grabbed the tent bag. This was so ordinary to the sexy glasses woman that she had never imagined someone would question it.

A moment later, it hit her and she explained.

“Oh, this? It’s just magic. Compress Cargo is a must for any trip☆”

“Wait! If that exists, why do I always have to carry all that heavy work equipment and firewood on my back in the forest!?”

“Nothing good comes of taking the easy way out before you build up sufficient strength,” said Alicia, sounding exasperated.

“That’s right. And,” added Helen. “Compress Cargo is far from perfect.”

Had she decided he would start making impossible requests if he got it into his head that magic was all-powerful?

“No matter how much you train, there is always a two second delay between accessing the items and selecting one, so keeping your combat gear stored like that can be a deadly mistake. Plus, the magic can only store so much. The size compression ratio is only around 100:1 at the most.”

He was a little curious what kind of past Helen had lived if a two second delay could be deadly, but Granny Alicia said something more attention grabbing.

“Technically speaking, it is not compressing the matter through application of an external force. The shape of the Palette Dice is wound up for storage and then extended again once you pull it out.”

“Palette Dice?”

“That is the smallest unit of all the world’s matter. They used to call them ‘elements’ way back when.”

Alicia winked in a needlessly smug way as she showed off her alchemy knowledge.

According to the little elf who was trying to act the big sister, examples included rock, metal, and snow. There were as many Palette Dice as their were types of matter and what looked like sand or soil was actually made of particles too small to see even with a magnifying glass.

“This stone here is actually made of countless particles. There are so many of them that you would see spiraling ribbons expanding in every direction if you could take a peek into that miniscule world. But that means there is a lot of wasted space there. By winding and folding up those ribbons, you can reduce the apparent weight and size. Think of it like a leaf versus a leaf bud.”

Miyabi couldn’t make any sense of it.

“Hmmm. I don’t get any of this alchemy stuff. It’s like reading a poem while trying to do math.”

“This is not limited to alchemy. The operation of Palette Dice is crucial for a witch’s cauldron and the empire’s magic automata. Honey and chicken seem like their flavors would clash, so why is honey chicken so delicious? Because of the bond that forms within the hot frying pan. …Anyway, because this magic packs things in by reordering them at the lowest level, anything too complex ends up a jumbled mess and can’t be restored to its original form. Yet the magic can only be used to put things in and bring them out, not to intentionally mix them together. It’s really just a quick help while on a trip, so it has a lot of flaws. For example, authenticity is everything for art and antiques, so their value would plummet if you used this on them.”

“Hm? That actually sounds kind of dangerous to me.”

“It is very dangerous. Which is why the magic is made to forcibly expel anything alive. Life cannot be made lighter or smaller. Well, with the exception of the legendary alchemist’s Holy Gate.”

“So you see, Compress Cargo won’t work on a house or castle because they are too complex and have too many parts,” said Helen.

“The same goes for firewood. As you should know from the technique of grafting, cutting down the forest’s trees does not fully kill them. But you can use Compress Cargo to get ticks out of a filthy blanket.” Alicia winked in an exasperated way as she gave an explanation for the boy who had never traveled before. She then lowered her voice to make one more addition. “You can say the same thing about the Wicked God horns that give off such great power even after being broken off.”

Once the sun had fully set, the radio started to celebrate in the moonlight.

Under the much-appreciated guidance of Outdoor Expert Helen Clockgear, they had set up just the one tent.

“Ha ha ha!! Too bad, Miyabi. As the only boy, you’re stuck with a lonely night outside. Kids at home, are you sick of this G-rated dreck, yet? Well, you’re in luck because a very adult night is about to begin! And Miyabi? Don’t feel too bad. While I spend my night resting between four amazing breasts and awash in the sweet scent of the girls, I will make sure to enjoy it enough for the both of- ahh!!”

The radio was the one casually tossed out into the cold.

“Yawwn. Okay, let’s get to sleep, boy,” said Alicia. “You too, Alma.”

“Eh? What?”

“Miyabi, scoot in closer,” said Helen. “The tent isn’t very big.”

“~ ~ ~!!!???”

He was dragged inside the tent, which had no walls or partitions of any kind.

When people gathered in a single space, heat also gathered. Especially when those people were an elf and a young woman. So it had not been too cold to sleep.

Nevertheless, Miyabi Blackgarden did not get a wink of sleep.

He was pretty sure they didn’t have to put him in the center…but that was not the reason.

“Hey, um.”

“Yes?”

It was still before dawn, but Alicia responded when he addressed her on his right. Her distinctive long and pointy ears were twitching. They were picking up this threat too, so Miyabi paled in the darkness.

“They’ve come to play, haven’t they? I can sense something outside the tent! Is that the radio’s curse or something!?”

“Sh! Be quiet, Miyabi!”

Helen was also awake on his left. He did not hear her rummaging around, so she must have still had her glasses on. Did that mean none of them had gotten any sleep?

There was good reason for that.

The wax-coated waterproof tent was thick, but still only a single layer of fabric, and they could hear a deep growling from the other side. The clacking footsteps told them whatever this was had thick claws capable of tearing through the tent in a single strike.

Miyabi gulped while lying motionless in the tent.

“That sounds like more than just one.”

“This isn’t a cheap tent,” said Helen. “What happened to the safety features? The outside should be covered by a monster-repelling magic circle while we sleep.”

“Oops.”

The two humans glared coldly at the elf.

Her long ears twitched and she poked her index fingers together in front of her medium-sized chest.

“Funny story about that. Um… (I’m sorry, but those beast-repelling spells are so imprecise they would also repel a pretty elf like me from the tent and I figured there wouldn’t be any real monsters this close to the village anyway, so…ah ha ha.)”

“Miyabi, on the count of three.”

“Got it, Helen. We can chuck this moron out of the tent as a diversion. What’s the point of an immortal elf if she’s dumb as a brick?”

“I’m sorryyyy!!” sobbed Alicia while clinging to Miyabi.

The green stuffed animal creature only now rubbed its sleepy eyes and gave them a puzzled look.

But even if they did use the elf as an offering to nature, Miyabi and Helen had nowhere to escape to. This was a wide-open plain, so there were no walled cities or cliffs that would stop a beast from pursuing them. They knew they could not outrun a legit beast, so the elf’s noble sacrifice would be in vain. They would all die soon enough.

“Miyabi, Miyabi.” The glasses woman, whose skillset included cooking and assassinations, beckoned him over. “Assassination magic includes the Sleep and Confusion spells. Let’s take some random food – yes, like this leftover soup in the pot – enchant it, and throw it outside. On this part of the plain, we’re probably dealing with Shadow Hyenas, a type of Anti-Zombie that will eat just about anything. They aren’t very smart, but they’ll go straight for any tasty-looking food.”

“Oh, this is sounding like a real plan. What can I do to help?”

“Kick that stupid elf outside to buy me enough time to finish the incantations.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am. But wouldn’t it be faster to just enchant her?”

“I said I was sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

The boy only said “yes” or “right away” to every instruction, so he seriously prepared to kick Alicia out. But then…

“Ahhhh ha ha!! Could you travelers use a hand!?”

A strange voice came out of nowhere.

It spoke human language, so it probably wasn’t the Beast Novae. And sure enough, they heard several explosions and shockwaves outside the tent, followed by the cries of the monsters.

And these cries were all pitiful whines and shrieks.

The group in the tent exchanged a glance.

“Wh-what now?” asked Alicia. “I think something’s happening out there.”

“If we can communicate with whoever this is, it’s a step up from before,” said Miyabi. “I get the feeling that approaching them like a normal person won’t get us anywhere, though.”

“But if they have even half a brain, they’ll probably check inside the tent if we don’t say anything!”

Miyabi slowly opened the tent flap and poked his head out.

Monster corpses littered the ground.

They had black fur and red eyes (were they Shadow Hyenas?) and Beast Novae like that would be terrifying to run across. In fact, any wild animal bigger than a large dog would be. Yet these had fallen by the dozens.

Someone stood at the center of the KO’d beasts.

She stood proud and tall.

The beautiful woman of around 20 wore a red dress and had her long black hair parted behind her head with the ends braided. But the bight leg showing from the bold slit in her skirt and the gloves over her hands were too aggressive to simply describe her as alluring and sexy. Not to mention the humongous axe taller than she was with its blade scraping against the ground.

When their eyes met, she grinned like a child and gave him a peace sign. She was a very different kind of beautiful young woman than Helen. For example, Helen’s tight skirt provided the hope of seeing something without ever quite providing a glimpse, but the wide slit in this woman’s skirt was very generous when it came to glimpses of her black underwear. Which was a problem. Especially when they were black! But she didn’t seem to care at all.

“Hello, travelers. That was a close one, huh?”

“Oh, maybe she isn’t that weird after all. No one with an axe could be a bad person.”

“(Miyabi,)” whispered Helen. “(I know you grew up in a logging village, but you have to know that reasoning is absurd. If you saw a masked serial killer, would you walk over to shake their hand!?)”

“(The poor fool has fallen for the Curse of the Shadow Panties,)” added Alicia. “(You need to break free!)”

But the red dress martial artist (with black underwear) showed no intention of attacking them. Still smiling, she pointed here and there.

“If you don’t mind, could I borrow that firewood? You lucked into a whole lot of Beast Nova meat, but you can’t eat it all before it rots, can you?”

“D-don’t talk about eating Beast Novae in front Alma and me. That’s discriminatory language! And that bright smile only makes it worse!”

Alicia held green Alma in her arms and trembled. The stuffed animal creature only looked sleepy.

The red dress woman ignored that, held a hand over the remains of their campfire, and magically started a new fire. Something like smoke burst out and then then the collapsed beasts were transformed into meat on the bone in no time at all.

That was the meat processing magic called Target Cooker.

It only worked on dead animals, so it had no effect on living targets. It eliminated the painstaking processing of draining the blood and removing the organs, but the fur, fangs, and any other “inedible” parts would vanish into thin air. The professional hunters in Miyabi’s village avoided using it for that reason.

Since it worked on anything “dead”, it could also be used on the rotting Undead type of monster, but that was forbidden.

“I’m Victia Magnumfist.”

“Are you?”

“I’m working to establish a self-defense style I’ve developed so anyone can travel safely and comfortably, but I haven’t had much luck so far. So how about it? Learn my techniques and you’ll never find yourself in that sort of trouble again.”

“That sounds wonderful, but how long does it take to learn these techniques?”

“Ah ha ha! Don’t be so cautious. I’ve designed my training methods with beginners in mind. Anyone can learn it with ease after only three or so broken bones and about half a year living on the border between life and death!”

“…”

“And I’ve been feeling pretty lonely, so I would love an apprentice. How about it? You’d be Apprentice #1, so I’d make sure to give you extra TLC!”

Miyabi was sorely tempted by those large boobs, that bared thigh, and the black underwear, but he caught himself. Could he really keep up if he was asked to play with bears or tigers? He also had to wonder what exactly her idea of TLC was. He would be all for it if it meant learning some pinning techniques that involved a lot of close body contact, but he had a feeling it would not be anything that fun. The instant he agreed, he just knew something bad would be coming his way. Something real bad.

“(Hey, Miyabi,)” whispered Alicia. “(We need to neutralize her. Do you think you could convince her to give up that axe?)”

“Oh? You have a sharp eye, Miss Elf. Your suspicions are correct: I am even stronger in barehanded combat. The axe is a handicap to slow me down. Ah ha ha!!”

“…”

They all fell silent this time.

This was extremely bad.

She was harmless now while she was laughing, but they knew they could not afford to make her mad. In fact, they had heard a few explosions outside the tent, but did this mean she hadn’t used any magic for that?

Miyabi laughed with the ugliest smile he had made that day.

“Ha ha ha. Today’s not a good day for me, so maybe next time?”

“Ah ha ha. Let’s do it now.”

“Today’s a bad day. Next time?”

“Ah ha ha.”

“Today bad.”

“Now good.”

No matter how ugly he made his smile, he couldn’t get through to the smiling dress woman. They all realized this was never going to end unless he said yes. Worse, her fist was clenching tighter and tighter even though she was still smiling. Her limit was fast approaching.

Helen whispered with worry coloring her face.

“(Miyabi, Miyabi. Why not test out that thing here?)”

“What thing?”

“(That small island surrounded by magical barriers or cracks in the world. Was it called Horn Fortress? Anyway, that hideout only you can use. Why not call in the Lucifer Horn, scoop her up, and carry her off as an inactive party member? We need to put as much distance between her and us as possible. I don’t think she means any harm, but keeping her around will only lead to trouble.)”

That idea hadn’t occurred to him.

This was a journey of firsts for Miyabi Blackgarden and now he stabbed his control sword into the ground.

“Lucifer Horn, do the thing Helen just described!”

It flew in.

“Okay, everyone! How about we start with the basics? Don’t worry, I’ve gone through it all myself. When you break your first bone, your body will figure out on its own how to heal it as good as new!! …Oh?”

The woman finally noticed something was amiss.

A long, long wire dangled down from the Lucifer Horn, which caught Victia Magnumfist’s red dress on the back of the neck.

Then it flew off.

“Ohh? Wait, what is this? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Her scream vanished into the night sky.

Miyabi’s eyes widened at what he had done.

“Ehh!? That’s how it retrieves party members!? I never want to fly like that! I want something fun, like riding on a broom or on a dragon’s back!”

Apparently, the Lucifer Horn could not slowly descend for them.

They had acquired a reliable new party member, but Helen was staring off into the distance.

“I-is she even still alive after that?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Alicia Blueforest showed no mercy. “It’s basically impossible to kill a moron.”

After a few heart-pounding nights camping out, it was the third day of their quest.

They were all exhausted by the time they arrived at the northern inn town.

“Ughhh. I-I never did catch a single fish,” complained Alicia. “I’m so sick of those dried foods! Give me something hot to eat!!”

“…”

“Oh? What’s wrong, Miyabi?” asked Helen. “Hee hee. Feeling homesick already?”

The capable glasses woman failed to realize how he felt after getting so little sleep. Unbeknownst to her, she tossed and turned in her sleep a lot, so his face had been violently attacked by her boobs time and again during the night. And to turn that seduction into a finishing blow, she had a bad habit of reflexively jabbing a knee between his legs whenever he stirred. It was all well beyond what he would consider a reward.

There were several rusted railroad tracks left on the ground, but they all had developed gaps in places. Miyabi could not imagine why the trains had stopped traveling through here. The town itself had a lot of windmills and water storage tanks. He could tell the people left here had stubbornly clung to life even after they were cut off from the outside world.

There were a lot of people.

Were they from the village, or were they here to buy some junk? Miyabi had grown up in a village where everyone held the same values, so he found it strange to see such a mixture of people wearing different clothes and eating different foods.

“I don’t like the air here.” The elf sounded sick as she looked to the gray metal houses and stores made from gathered junk. “I miss my forest.”

But they had no time to rest.

A dark colossus already towered above them.

It was 400m long…or was it 500? And it had to be at least 20m tall.

That was the strongest power that worked to keep the trade routes safe and secure. The train was loaded with boxes and barrels, but did those use the Compress Cargo magic that had fit so much inside that small bag? If so, how much cargo was it carrying across the continent?

Helen consciously calmed her breathing before speaking.

“So that’s the Schwarz Schütze. It really is big.”

“It’s more conspicuous than the entire inn town,” said Alicia.

But this meant the girl waiting for them was surprisingly faithful to her promises. They had made sure they could complete the trip with time to spare, but would she have kept waiting even if they were late?

“You think that thing’s conspicuous? Then check this out: a real life high-class girl. That’s the thing about a fantasy world – all the girls belong to some rare type or another!”

The radio was right.

One of the many side doors silently opened. She must have decided they were approaching the train to meet her, not just gawking from afar.

“So you have finally arrived.” Celina Bodenburg, the rich girl who valued money above all, brushed her blonde hair back from her shoulder. “Punctuality is a crucial part of running a business, so even if you have a Wicked God horn to sell me, I don’t have all day to-”

Her words stopped.

They caught in her throat.

“…”

Her eyes bulged out.

She looked like she couldn’t even breathe as she pointed at them.

“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Y-you!?”

She even had tears in her eyes.

What kind of connections was she making in her head?

“So the new horn in the letter was…no, the entire letter was a lie, wasn’t it!? Of course it was! What ‘new horn’ could anyone have found other than the one in the odious Lucifer Horn!?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her fists, and lightly pummeled Miyabi’s chest. Even though she had a Godhorn Tech right there. Miyabi was dumbfounded.

“Argh, enough of this!”

The short-tempered elf brought her fist down on the new money girl’s head.

“Ughh.”

Celina Bodenburg sobbed for a bit, but then the wiring in her brain seemed to reconnect. Without warning, she grabbed her bayonet-equipped hunting rifle – the control gun for the Schwarz Schütze.

The boy stared in shock.

If she stabbed that into the dry ground or the rusty and incomplete tracks, then the world would be destroyed around them.

“So this was a trap, was it? Control gun, connect to the horn core. Tactical open!!”

“Wait, wait!” shouted Miyabi. “I really did bring a Wicked God horn for you. Just hear me out!!”

“You…what?”

Her surprise was overwritten by his proof.

With an explosive roar, a colossal form cut by overhead.

“Bomber Lucifer Horn.” He spoke the name of his card. “I ended up with it by pure happenstance and it’s honestly too much for me! But I can’t just throw it out. I want an expert to take it off my hands. Is that so hard to believe?”

“…”

Silence followed.

Was she taken aback, or suspicious?

“A Godhorn Tech is extremely powerful. That doesn’t seem like enough of a reason to get rid of one.”

“Even thought it means having people like you after me all the time? I don’t want to go on some rampage across the world; I just want my normal life back.”

Yes. In Celina’s money-focused worldview, there was no advantage to giving up a Godhorn Tech. But what about the disadvantages of keeping it? Calculating risk was a part of business.

“And Moebius agreed to this?”

“He neglected to mention how dangerous it would be.” Miyabi shook his head like he was washing his hands of all this. “If he can pass it off to me and escape, then I should be allowed to do the same! Please, just give me my life back!!”

“…”

More silence.

But the temperature was different this time. She seemed to be assessing him.

“Well, I can do that for you if you want. Have the Lucifer Horn land according to my instructions.”

“You mean it!?”

“But there is an etiquette for such things.” She winked. “Just continue to follow my instructions.”

Chapter 2 Section 3

A powerful, heavy rumbling shook the armored train.

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

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

The Schwarz Schütze laid its own rails as it went.

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

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

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

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

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

(I’m going to destroy this thing.)

Miyabi still couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

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

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

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

The hag and the radio started arguing, until…

“Sorry about the wait, everyone.”

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

It belonged to Celina Bodenburg.

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

That explained their journey.

“Okay, that much I get.”

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

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

“Why are you dressed like that?”

“Why? Because these are my work clothes.”

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

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

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

“Bwahh!?”

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

The strange maid shrugged.

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

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

However…

“Nothing…at…all.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Really, boy?” said Alicia.

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

“You be quiet, malfunctioning radio!”

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

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

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

Miyabi was not trying to make waves here.

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

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

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

“You’ve got guts, elf.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celina smiled in a very upper class sort of way.

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

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

“?”

For once, she looked truly puzzled.

Finally, anger silently spread across her face.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She’s not a bad girl, concluded Miyabi.

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

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

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

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

Still, his party found a chance to gather alone.

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

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

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

The rest of them ignored Alma and the radio.

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

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

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

That was technically possible.

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

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

“…”

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

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

But still.

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

Alicia Blueforest sighed when she noticed.

“Snap out of it, horny boy.”

“What?”

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

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

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

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

“I know that,” grumbled Miyabi.

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

“Kyoo, kyoo!”

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

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

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

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

Once they were alone together, Miyabi spoke his mind.

“This feels weird.”

“Yes, it does for me as well.”

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

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

“?”

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

She did not immediately respond.

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

“Because money is so simple.”

“Is it though?”

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

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

He drew his control sword.

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

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

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

“…”

“Money is simple.”

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

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

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

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

She listed them off like lines of a lullaby.

But the lonely girl whispered one last line.

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

“Wait…”

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

There was a gentleness to her voice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What was that?” he asked.

“A transmission is coming in.”

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

“Oh?”

“Kssshhh.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celina must have been through this process before.

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

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

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

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

He had a bad feeling about this.

Celina grabbed the metal pipe more firmly.

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

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

Miyabi was close to panicking at this point.

“Wait, what’s going on here?”

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

“What!?”

Miyabi felt his throat go dry.

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

Why were they bringing up sorcery bombs now?

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

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

“I wish I knew,” said the voice.

“…”

Miyabi was even more confused than those two.

What was happening here?

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

The rhythmic rumbling continued.

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

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

“Koo koo!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She also knew nothing and was starved for information.

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

And…

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

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

“Koo?”

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

But was she really thinking about this clearly?

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

She unfurled a large parchment map atop the billiards table.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Celina.”

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

She shook her head and glared down at the parchment.

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

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

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

“That isn’t what matters right now!”

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

“In that case…”

That was when another transmission arrived.

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

“Stop, Schwarz Schütze!”

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

It was coming.

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

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

A violent tremor ran through the train.

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

“Kyah!?”

“It directly…hit us!?”

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

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

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

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

Eliza was right.

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

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

The maid girl paled.

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 2 Section 4

Strangely, he did not feel cold.

Which scared him.

“Ow…”

Miyabi Blackgarden was lying on his back and he had to extract each of his limbs from the deep snow before he could slowly get up. Nothing seemed to be broken, but where was he? He was surrounded by a raging blizzard and an unfamiliar pointy type of tree jutted up into the frigid sky. A portion of that forest had been brought down by a scattering of metal rails, wooden boxes, and more detritus.

And by colossal train cars.

(I-I was thrown outside?)

Glass shards and wooden splinters were everywhere. Fancy truffles spilled from a broken barrel and he did not even want to think about how much those had to be worth. The kind of cutting-edge phonograph and film projector never seen in his village were smashed and half-buried in snow. The entire area would have looked like a treasure trove to the scrap collectors who had gathered in that inn town full of sheet iron and rusted rails.

With this much of the contents spilled, the armored train’s exterior could not have survived intact.

The links between cars had broken and they had rolled onto their sides. They were spread out over a wide area, so they and the scattered cargo containers built a strange 3D labyrinth as far as the eye could see.

Miyabi found himself outside.

What had happened to the giant front car? The entire car may have been torn asunder instead of just having the link to the next car broken.

“Are the others okay?”

Miyabi saw the others lying nearby and half-buried in the snow, so he called out to them. His body was number than he had thought. He experienced a general lack of feeling more than any pain from the impact of being thrown clear, but that was no reason to relax. Not feeling the biting cold could easily mean he was close to death.

“K-kyoo…”

“Are you all right, Alma?” asked Alicia. “Even for a Wicked God, that must have been rough at your age. But it’s okay now.”

“It turns out the body you made for me is sturdy, but a little concern would be nice.”

Alma and the radio seemed unharmed and Helen Clockgear mostly looked exasperated.

With a quiet popping sound, Alma’s coloration changed again within Alicia’s tight grasp. The creature was red now. The burning red seemed at odds with the snowy kingdom.

“Ohh!? Is that supposed to be the fire element Phoenix? You’re just so cute!!”

“At least you won’t blend in to your surroundings like with the green of the fields,” bluntly stated Miyabi, noting that this new form did not look any more useful in combat than the last one.

Was this meant to fight the cold rather than function as camouflage? But despite the fiery appearance, the elf was not burned as she held Alma close and rubbed her cheek against it. He tried snatching Alma up (to Alicia Blueforest’s protests), but he felt no warmth at all from the useless thing.

Miyabi held the juvenile Wicked God up out of the short elf’s reach, causing her to hop up and down trying to grab the one member of their party protected from the cold, but his little game was interrupted.

Celina Bodenburg appeared to be having trouble with the blizzard in her flirty miniskirt maid uniform. Her movements were stiff and slow as she got up.

A deep tremor ran through the white land and clumps of snow fell from the conifer trees.

“Eliza’s Icicle Bullet has left.”

That white giant was several dozen meters long. It was designed for ramming attacks, making it look like a spindle-shaped artillery shell with two icy blades attached below it in parallel. It would stab and pierce or crush and flatten. The sorcery weapon felt more specialized than Miyabi’s Lucifer Horn or Celina’s Schwarz Schütze, making it a true oddity. It was so specialized for ramming that the cannon at the center of the top looked puny by comparison. Even though that cannon was enough to obliterate Miyabi’s party on its own.

However, it seemed the still-unseen knight had only been interested in stopping the dangerous train’s approach. She had left without finishing off the survivors. The Icicle Bullet was departing through the blizzard, blasting white snow up from the ground along the way.

But Celina still could not believe what she had seen or what had been done to her.

“What was that about?” she asked. “We never did find a sorcery bomb.”

“…”

“…”

Alicia and Helen maintained poker faces.

(Did those two do something?)

Miyabi was curious, but he could not ask in front of Celina.

And there was a problem with that idea.

(No, you need a Wicked God horn to make one of those. Only the 11th can create a sorcery bomb, so it couldn’t have been them.)

But that thought was cut off by the sudden arrival of the real issue at hand.

A high-pitched, evenly-spaced alarm rang in his head.

His horn was resonating with a sorcery bomb.

“!?”

The ringing was loud and constant. It was terribly distracting when he could not turn it off. But Celina noticed the way his head sprang up to look into the frigid white sky.

“Is something…wrong?” she asked cautiously.

“I can hear it.” He gulped. “It’s just like that other time. I’m detecting a sorcery bomb!?”

They could not ignore this. This was a remote snowy forest, but if the sorcery bomb were to detonate without warning, it could reduce a village or two to ashes. Or so he had been told. He only had Moebius Entrance’s word to go on, but he felt that was better than having seen it for himself. However, the scope of the blast meant running away was not a good plan. With the deep snow hindering their movement, they would never escape the range of the blast in time. They would be swallowed up and blown away.

They had to do something about it themselves.

After the Schwarz Schütze derailed and rolled over, it had spread metal rails, wooden boxes, cargo containers, lab equipment, and furniture everywhere. The twisted remains of the giant cars themselves could be seen further in the distance. Nature and the artificial combined to create a deadly labyrinth in this forest.

“Oh, that’s my clothing bag.”

Celina happily reported a find while shivering in her maid uniform. A sleeve was sticking out of a boxy trunk. It did not appear to use the Compress Cargo magic that allowed so much more to be packed inside. But since that magic wound up the Palette Dice – or folded them up? He could not remember exactly – it apparently reduced the value of art or antiques where authenticity was so important.

“Please wait a moment.”

She circled behind a squashed container and rummaged around for a bit.

“What I wouldn’t give for some camera controls right about now,” lamented the radio.

“What in the world are you talking about?” asked Alicia.

It could not have taken more than 10 minutes in all.

“Thank you for waiting.”

Celina emerged in the black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems that she had worn before. It did not appear to use any heat insulation magic.

“That doesn’t look much warmer to me,” commented the elf.

“What is this about a sorcery bomb?” asked Celina. “You said there wasn’t one earlier! Are you saying that anonymous letter was right!?”

Her armored train had been destroyed over this, so he understood why she was upset.

“I can’t explain it either,” was all he could say. “But I can sense it now. If we don’t find the bomb and deal with it, we’ll be blown away along with the entire snowy mountain!”

The distance was all he could sense, so he wanted to walk over a wide area to figure out a general area where the bomb had to be.

It did not have a set form. The previous one had been transformed into a half-rotten and broken tree, so this one could be a box, a barrel, a container, a metal wall piercing into the ground, twisted metal scraps, a billiards table, or a chandelier. Any of the debris strewn across this area could be it, so they could not hope to spot it from a distance.

They walked deeper into the forest, where the remnants of the cars and furniture were. The forest’s trees had been torn down, the cars lay oin their sides with connections broken, and the containers and boxes had fallen in precarious piles. No straight path through lasted for long. They even had to duck below a train car blocking the way and walk along an oblong cargo container spanning a ravine.

Celina did not appreciate navigating a vast labyrinth made from her own possessions.

The contents of the containers and boxes had expanded to their original size when the Compress Cargo magic wore off, making it look like a giant’s toybox had been overturned.

“This feels like one of Strange Guide’s deadly dungeons.”

“?”

“That is a mysterious individual rumored to host death games as a form of entertainment for the immoral members of the wealthy class. I have never seen one for myself, for better or for worse.”

“Hm? The immoral members? Are you saying you’re not like that?”

“Hmph. I will leave that up to your imagination.”

But they were soon interrupted by a low rumbling.

No, a group of Beast Novae passed by close nearby. They were covered in white fur to survive the harsh blizzards and the appeared to be Abominable Snowmen, Werewolves, and the like.

“Kyoo!?”

“Watch out, Alma!”

Alicia moved to protect Alma and then lurched backwards.

“Gh!?”

“Alicia!”

“I-I am fine. I would have died without this hanging from my neck, though. (Grin)”

“What she means is, the claw or fang struck me instead!”

The pervert radio’s legitimate complaint was brushed aside.

Helen cautiously viewed their surroundings with her breath white and a finger on the side of her glasses.

“What is this? Are the Beast Novae afraid of something?”

“Damn, why don’t they focus on running and leave us alone?”

Miyabi had never seen snow monsters before.

They looked a lot more dangerous than the animals in the well-maintained forest of his village. Did the harsh cold environment mean they had to fight harder to survive? Those masses of powerful muscle would normally bring despair to any traveler who encountered them, but now they were fearful and panicked.

Miyabi heard what sounded like the snow and the ground below it tearing apart.

It came from a boar so massive he had to look up at it. The boar must have been agitated because it showed no sign of trying to flee like the other creatures. It was kicking its hind legs at the snow in an attempt to fight.

The philosopher’s stone noted the thick curved tusks.

“Oh…oh dear. Now those things would make short work of me, wouldn’t they?”

“Heh. Is that a fellow forest ruler I see?” said Alicia. “I get what’s going on here. He’s the rear guard, allowing the others to escape!!”

Miyabi’s party would gain nothing from defeating the ruler of this forest. In fact, spending time on it would give them less time for the sorcery bomb.

“My point is that he does not really want to fight. Now, set aside your prejudices, stop insulting him with terms like ‘Beast Nova’, and approach with a smile. I am sure we can work this ou-”

The ruler of the forest charged.

Miyabi swung his control sword to protect the elf who had frozen with a smile on her face. Specifically, he slammed the grip into the boar from the side.

The entire space was shaken by what sounded like a thunderclap.

The enormous boar had to weigh four times Miyabi’s weight, but it spiraled through the air, knocking the trees down along the way. It lay there twitching on the ground after it landed.

What was that?

It had not felt like simply saving his party member.

He stared blankly at his hands on the sword for a while.

This felt so different from when he had been cowering from Celina’s shellfire and searching for the sorcery bomb in the forest, or when the Shadow Hyenas had surrounded their tent that first night out camping. He had only struck the thing with the grip. Only? Since when was Miyabi Blackgarden the kind of person who violently intervened like it was nothing?

Celina looked exasperated by his response while holding a control gun made of the same material.

“Oh? I see you’re getting the hang of it now.”

“…”

“The more experience you gain, the more efficiently you can wield your own power. It acts as the fuel needed to draw out more strength than you knew you had. Do not forget that you possess one of the world’s strongest powers. Is that only now sinking in?”

That meant Celina was the same.

No, she would have even more experience than him.

This went beyond the Godhorn Tech itself. Its wielder grew more inhuman the more they fought.

Combat alone could change people. Even if they were only fighting to protect their everyday life. Alicia and Helen were able to keep up with the battle despite no control sword or Godhorn Tech of their own, so did that experience affect everyone in his party? The rich girl gave a self-deprecating smile and declined to answer any of his questions.

To avoid thinking about it, he focused on the more pressing issue.

The resonance continued to ring in his mind. The sorcery bomb was out there, but he had not yet tracked down its location. Their only options were act now or sit around waiting for it to detonate.

The fleeing Beast Novae demonstrated no intention of fighting, but their fear and desperation were still dangerous. The more panicked they were, the harder it was to predict where they would charge. They could only aim their weapons toward any noises they heard.

“C-can you summon other partner members from Horn Fortress?” asked Helen. “Victia’s obscene strength would come in handy right about now!”

“Where even is that Horn Fortress?” replied Alicia. “How long does it take the Lucifer Horn to travel there and back again!?”

Miyabi swung his control sword this way and that.

“Why do you use a gun? Those things scare me. I’ve seen the plays, so I know those are what gangs use.”

“Sigh. Don’t let the royals and nobles trick you with their jealous lies, Miyabi.”

“?”

“Unlike magic or swordplay, guns are a next-generation all-purpose weapon that provides power equally to all, regardless of intellect or size. However, the powder must be treated with care, something the countries caught up in musty old tradition have a hard time with. They will carelessly let their armory grow too damp or blow up the entire room after an accidental ignition. So while those hardheaded countries dislike guns, they are spreading through newer, more openminded groups. Like, for example, our Bodenburg Company!!”

None of that seemed to address his fears, but he could not say a word more after seeing how she held her (small) chest out proudly.

She would occasionally aim the gun toward a noise and pull the trigger, but it looked like she was trying to frighten the Beast Novae away with the noise, not kill them.

The muzzle-loading rifle was not made for rapid-fire.

She had to stuff powder and a bullet in through the muzzle and cram it down with a long rod after every shot, but she was still fast. It only took the span of a breath. At the very least, she seemed quicker than someone could raise a large two-handed axe and swing it down. He could tell just how much she had used the gun.

As they trudged through the snow in their search, they came across an entire enormous train car. Wires thicker than Miyabi’s arm had snapped and the other Godhorn Tech loaded on its roof was now jabbed into the snow.

“That’s it.” Celina sounded like she had made a discovery. “There was no sorcery bomb on my Schwarz Schütze, so what if the sabotage was on your Lucifer Horn!?”

“Why would it be!?”

“It’s the only logical conclusion!”

She was adamant about this.

She may have been under more pressure than even she was aware.

“You knew you could never defeat my armored train in a fair fight, so you planned an underhanded trick. It all fits!”

The dark-hearted elf could not look the girl in the eye.

“(Ugh. It’s hard to argue when that was more or less our plan.)”

Miyabi took a deep breath.

It irritated him that his exhalations were visible. It felt like he was giving her a way to read his mind.

“Then we would be reduced to ashes along with you. How is that logical!?”

“But.”

“And the reading is coming from further back. It isn’t here.”

Miyabi could sense it.

Without that, he may have had no way of convincing her.

She still looked skeptical, but…

“Oh, right. You said you could somehow sense a sorcery bomb’s location.”

“It’s weird that you can’t.”

His sample size was too small, but since Moebius had gone out of his way to explain how it was done, he could only assume the man could do it too.

Moebius had said he was using the Godhorn Tech’s power to search, so detecting sorcery bombs may have been exclusive to the Lucifer Horn. And if only Miyabi could do it, then it was up to him.

“Just follow me. I’ll show you where the real sorcery bomb is.”

He gave a random swing of his control sword and frowned, noticing something off about it.

The power of the sword clearly weakened when the tip was aimed toward the Lucifer Horn lying on the ground.

“?”

“Obviously you can’t destroy your own Godhorn Tech with your own control device. Where did you think you were drawing that power from?”

But now was not the time for chitchat.

As they continued into the woods, the warning sounds sped up, showing they were getting closer. This was the right direction. There were no wild Beast Novae around here. They had all fled in fear, but from what?

Most of the trees had been toppled here.

At the farthest reaches of the strewn wreckage, the Schwarz Schütze’s front car lay half destroyed on its side.

The ringing was painful at this point.

“It’s here,” he said, his empty hand holding the side of his aching head.

“Kyoo?”

“Here?” repeated Celina, not sure what he meant.

Thick glass covered a mass of metal far more daunting and impressive than the pipe organ in the village’s church.

The girl’s voice wavered as she looked back and forth between Miyabi and the bomb.

“But that’s the Wicked God horn’s sealed container. Are you saying the sorcery bomb was placed on the horn!? Could someone really replace a component here!?”

“It explains why I didn’t notice it before.” Miyabi grimaced from the deafening noise no one else could hear. “My horn or its energy resonate with the bomb, but there was a more powerful reading than the bomb here.”

“Yes, that does make sense,” said Alicia. “This horn was creating too much interference, but now that it has stopped, the bomb’s reading rises to the forefront.”

They continued the conversation without the person who should have been at the center of it.

“W-wait! Are you saying…?”

“Yep,” confirmed the philosopher’s stone. “The only way to stop it is to destroy that thing.”

“Silence, box!! …Box?” Celina tilted her head at what she had just said. “Anyway, we can rebuild the train as long as that survives. But if the sealed container is destroyed, the horn will be destroyed as well and it can never be repaired! Are you telling me to abandon my Schwarz Schütze!?”

“B-but if we don’t do it, the explosion will kill us all!” shouted a flustered Helen.

But Celina still could not bring herself to do anything.

That showed just how valuable the Godhorn Tech was to her. It was enough to hold her back and restrain her.

No one was telling her to protect the train she was so proud of.

They were only telling her to rob the Bodenburg Company of that power.

The time had come for her to become just a girl once more.

So.

“…”

So.

So.

“…”

So.

So.

So.

“Control gun, connect to the horn core. Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, tactical open!”

Several things moved all at once.

The train had derailed, the links between cars was broken, and it could no longer move, but the many cannons on the roofs and walls turned their heads to answer their master’s call. Just like a mortally wounded beast raising its head for one last threat.

It was an undeniable sign of hostile intent.

Miyabi was flustered.

“Celina, what are you doing!?”

“I cannot give up my Godhorn Tech.”

At first, he thought her face looked flat and emotionless.

“Without this, I lose my strongest power,” she said, her flintlock hunting rifle’s bayonet stabbed into the snowy ground. “I lose the continent’s safest trade routes and the trust in my company.”

But she was far from emotionless.

With each word, the mask crumbled further, revealing the true face hidden below.

“And I lose all hope mother and father had in me.”

She looked just like a lost child.

“Celina!!”

“Laugh and call me a fool if you must.”

Her face crumpled into a tearstained smile, but she refused to let go of the rifle. She now aimed Schwarz Schütze’s control gun toward Miyabi.

“If I must lose it, then I will take the title of strongest for myself and go out in a blaze of glory. I will create a legend no one can ever hope to match. That is sure to increase the company’s value.”

She spoke only of becoming the strongest for her business brand name, but she had not chosen that path so she could bathe in riches herself. All she wanted was her parent’s approval. Yet that simple desire had been twisted beyond recognition.

The boy clenched his teeth.

Slowly but firmly.

“Ready your control sword, Miyabi Blackgarden!!” roared the lonely girl. Her courage was misplaced to the very end. “I will use you to decorate my death!!”

Deafening roars tore through the air in multiple directions, seeming to drown out all other noise.

These were not something you could dodge by sight. If Miyabi had not swung his empty hand to create a Decoy Wall, they all might have died to the very first blast.

It was a fragile wall made from packed snow.

Helen Clockgear had fallen into a sitting position right next to the crumbling white obstacle. Even the capable Republic official had never seen Godhorn Tech destruction up close before.

Yes, the Republic had no Godhorn Tech.

“W-we’re alive?” she asked.

“Assuming you aren’t a ghost,” replied the elf.

But no wall was better at diverting enemy fire. Not even an array of the thickest fortress walls would have helped against this opponent.

“Hey!” shouted Alicia Blueforest, pale in the face and holding her long blonde hair down against the cutting wind. “What now, boy!?”

“Change of plans.”

A thick layer of snow could be heard falling from somewhere.

They all knew what it had to be.

The bomber had instantly reacted to the boy’s thoughts by snapping its bonds and taking flight.

He had thought his senses of hot and cold had been numbed away by the icy blizzard, but this heat he felt.

He did not fight the throbbing he felt in his chest.

There was no need to fight it.

“I can’t just watch this happen. I will break Celina’s bonds!”

“Heh hee hee. Now we’re talking! If your strongest character isn’t hot-blooded deep down, what the hell are you even doing!?”

The radio responded before Alicia herself could.

The philosopher’s stone may have had some issues with its attitude, but its answers were accurate.

“The main problems here are Celina and the surrounding cannons. Take out one or the other and this silly mess is over. The choice is yours!!”

“Got it!! She’s as good as saved!!”

The choice was obvious.

He could solve this by destroying either the derailed armored train’s countless cannons or the girl wielding her control gun as she raced full speed toward self-destruction. It could not have been more obvious whether a mass of alchemically-strengthened metal or a flesh-and-blood girl would be easier to cut down.

But Miyabi had already made up his mind.

He would save Celina Bodenburg no matter what it took.

“Ooooaaahhh!!”

“!?”

Celina was caught off guard.

She had been so certain he would charge at her, but he suddenly changed direction before reaching her. Before she could recover, he had used his control sword to forcibly smash a nearby cannon. She frantically gave commands to the other cannons, but he just barely got a Decoy Wall up in time. But not to protect himself. It was positioned to redirect the shells from one train car toward the cannons on another car.

The shells must have used a flash freeze magic to add even more cold to this icy land, so the car on the receiving end shattered like a sugar sculpture dropped on the floor and then exploded from within.

“Curse you…Miyabiii!!” screamed Celina with tears in her eyes.

That train was the only thing supporting the lonely girl’s heart.

She quickly readied her dark control device once more, but Miyabi used that moment to dive behind a large boulder. That cut off her direct line of fire, but that was all it did. That gun used alchemical flint to create a spark and guided that into a metal tube where it reacted with a dark powder to provide explosive acceleration. However, magical bullets did not always travel in a straight line. As she repeatedly shoved a long rod in through the muzzle to load the next powder and bullet in the span of a breath and then fired, several lines of light arced over the boulder to stab down behind it, erupting into explosions where they fell.

The paths of light had a variety of colors.

The wind bullets robbed the area of air once they hit and the fire bullets would rapidly fry the lungs of anyone who attempted to breathe in once it erupted.

But there was no one behind the boulder to be destroyed.

Miyabi had already moved elsewhere.

To the next cannon.

(Did he dig a tunnel below the deep snow!? Creating obstacles with that bizarre creation ability was bad enough, but is he also creating spaces by hollowing things out!?)

“Fight me, Miyabi!!”

“No, thanks!! I’m not giving you your blaze of glory!!”

The boy’s voice shouted back at her from near a toppled train car.

With a dull explosion, another of the cannons was blown away.

“Tch.”

Realizing even her rifle’s bullets were being diverted by the Decoy Walls, Celina clicked her tongue, kicked at the snow, and moved forward herself. She was intent on stopping Miyabi’s destruction even if it meant stabbing him with her bayonet or walloping him with the stock. Or was she willing to let Schwarz Schütze’s attacks blow her slender body away along with him if that was what it took?

However, she failed to get anywhere near the boy.

Because two other figures rushed in to stop her.

Helen wielded a thick dagger and Alicia wielded a gnarled tree branch staff.

“What!?”

“Don’t assume Miyabi is the only one…”

“…who doesn’t want you to die!!”

The attacks came simultaneously from either side, so Celina prioritized Helen’s knife. The blade shined with the purple light of a sleeping magic called Over Sleep, so even a nick could prove devastating in the middle of battle. She swung her rifle’s stock around to hold it back, but that left her open to the elf’s wooden staff.

An explosion of light burst from the staff’s head as it blossomed into a flower larger than the girl’s head.

“There are several schools of alchemy, but every one of them belongs to one of two categories: the transformation of matter or the alteration of living bodies. Thanks to your obsession with money, you were fixated on transforming metals to alter their value.”

“You’re an alchemist too!?”

“I needed some way to create the medicines and White Sorcery Items to look after the short-lived villagers. I know the human body inside and out, so appearances can be deceiving with my attacks. The lightest strike will rattle you to the core!!”

Impossibly, the blow from the staff felt like an explosion.

Alicia had swung the staff horizontally, slamming it into Celina’s side with all her might. Raising her arms to block the knife with her rifle had been a mistake. Her breath burst from her throat, like her bent ribs were squeezing at her lungs. Not only had Alicia aimed for a weak point, but she had likely used an alchemy potion to temporarily boost her physical strength.

“Gah!?”

Time seemed to freeze for Celina and her eyes landed on Miyabi Blackgarden stabbing his control sword into the last of the cannons.

“Koo!!”

Hearing red, glowing Alma’s cry, Miyabi’s party dove down onto the snow.

They got down to prepare for what came next.

After a moment’s delay, the cannon exploded. A thick shockwave spread out in a ring, compressing space itself. Only Celina Bodenburg remained standing, so she took the shockwave at hip height, sending her crashing down onto the snow.

“Ahh!?”

She could not get back up.

Her body was trembling and ignoring her commands, like she had taken a solid fist to the gut.

Someone else stood before her.

“Stop this, Celina. It’s meaningless.”

The Schwarz Schütze’s front car lay ahead of collapsed Celina.

The sealed container and the Wicked God horn within were there.

Nothing stood between it and the boy now.

The pitiful girl tried and failed to crawl toward him, so she settled for reaching a trembling hand out toward the destroyer’s back.

“Please.” Her voice was a mixture of entreaty and resentment. “Please wait. If I lose that…if I lose the strongest power, I’m worthless.”

She was willing to lick his shoes if it would protect the Schwarz Schütze.

But not for the money.

What she really wanted had never changed.

“I want mother and father to look my way…to say I did a good job.”

This was the true curse placed on her.

The root of her complex spilled out.

“But do this and they…they won’t love me anymore.”

She was not just crying anymore.

She was desperately begging the boy who stood facing the great mass within the broken train car.

“So…”

She felt pathetic.

And greedy.

But she could not stop her longing for the strongest power that so clearly bound her.

“So please!!”

Miyabi Blackgarden did not look back.

He faced the sealed container, but he did speak to the lost girl.

With a somehow gentle voice.

“I won’t take anything from you.”

“?”

“This isn’t the only Godhorn Tech.”

He said this while he prepared to destroy the Schwarz Schütze.

Only a Godhorn Tech could destroy a Godhorn Tech.

“I will become your strongest.”

“Ah.”

Celina’s mouth hung open, but nothing more came out.

“But not for Bodenburg. I will become the strongest for you.”

So instead of words, clear drops spilled from her eyes.

“Wahhh!!”

“So can I get started now?”

His choice was a cruel one, but it created a new contract that fulfilled all of the girl’s demands.

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

He stabbed the sword into the ground and a sinister magic circle appeared atop the snow.

“No one needs this strongest anymore, so let’s dispose of it.”

A white beam dropped from the sky above and shattered the girl’s chains.

The danger was over for now.

Alicia and Helen stood on the snowy plain. If Miyabi’s senses could be trusted, the sorcery bomb had been safely destroyed, so there was no need to flee the area as fast as their legs would take them.

Dark metal wreckage was strewn everywhere.

All of it contained secrets that could easily start a new conflict.

“Good grief. That boy cut it awfully close,” said Alicia.

“I wonder if he’s even aware how close that was.”

“We can only hope he isn’t that dumb.”

They shared a sigh and the visible breaths were soon swept away by the cold wind.

Helen was the first to resume speaking.

“A third party would have had a very hard time approaching the fully-equipped Schwarz Schütze and sabotaging it en route.”

“That means someone already knew where it would be derailed and was lying in wait to swap in the sorcery bomb after it came to a stop.”

“And they had it replace a piece of the Schwarz Schütze.”

“It would be simplest to assume that was the 11th.”

“…”

“…”

After a short silence, the two young women who watched over the pure and innocent boy shared another sigh.

The cunning displayed by that bastard made this their territory.

“I can’t believe this,” said Helen.

“Agreed,” said Alicia. “Whoever this is must be a lot shrewder and more dangerous than I expected.”

Character Profiles

Iris Tempinvy

Age: 17

Sex: Female

Height: 159cm

Originally invited to the magically-weak Arsenal Kingdom as a guest magic researcher, but in her desperate attempt to research the theoretically impossible recovery magic, the kingdom decided she was using public funds to fund a hobby and she lost all national support. She currently earns enough as a dancer to fund her own personal research.

Victia Magnumfist

Age: 20

Sex: Female

Height: 163cm

Female martial artist working to develop a simple-to-learn form of self-defense that provides peace of mind to women and children on long journeys. However, her idea of “normal” is terribly skewed by her unnatural physical strength that could be called a form of inborn talent.

Godhorn Tech

Armored Train Schwarz Schütze

Pilot: Celina Bodenburg

Affiliation: Bodenburg Company

Size (LxWxH): 100m x 25m x 20m (per car) x 5 cars

A massive black train stretching for hundreds of meters. The entire train is covered in thick armor and each car is installed with multiple cannons. Can be controlled from within or remotely and the interior living space is decked out with its pilot’s fine tastes. Uses alchemy to lay out steel rails in real time, allowing it to move freely. Can also produce as many shells from ultra-hard alloys like orichalcum, meaning it never runs out of ammo. Design motif: alchemy.

Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 1

“Heh heh. Yes, that’s right. Today has not been a productive day. I thought some shellfish would be simple enough, but that big wave dashed those hopes pretty quick.”

The black-haired martial artist grinned while seated with her arms around her knees.

Victia Magnumfist spoked up into the night sky.

“Sigh…another wasted day.”

She collapsed backwards.

She had stripped off her red dress, leaving her entirely nude. She knew she was alone here. Walking the circumference of the small island took less than a day. The ocean and forest provided plenty of resources, but there was no civilization to speak up.

It was a desert island.

And there was no hope of a ship happening by either. The horizon was not at all normal. That straight line dividing ocean from sky would occasionally blur with rainbow colors. This may not have been an ordinary location. Maybe it was surrounded by the miasma-belching cracks in the world and maybe it was separated out by some kind of magical barrier.

It was apparently known as Horn Fortress.

It was meant for the Lucifer Horn and its user’s logistical support. Tools could be made here and sent to the battleground or magical facilities could be built here to boost the Godhorn Tech’s power.

How did she know that? Because it was written here.

She had discovered it after climbing the island’s tallest tree to take a look around. Orderly text was written out on the ocean surface shining in the light of the setting sun.

But the text had vanished after she blinked in surprise.

She figured it was some kind of magic. Maybe the ocean currents had been manipulated and maybe the ocean floor had been moved around.

“His name was Miyabi, wasn’t it? Goddamn that boy! Nwohhhh!!”

This place was freeing yet stifling.

She had stripped naked in an attempt to break the mold, but…

(It didn’t do a thing.)

Her stay on this desert island was like trying and failing to work up the urge to do anything at all in your own room. She could not find any motivation inside herself. It all felt so hollow. When the loneliness pushed in, she felt like crying.

In a harsher environment, where even fresh water was hard to come by, she might have been too busy surviving to feel this way, but this island had the plentiful resources of the ocean and a forest. She had not needed to travel far into the forest to find a pure spring, river fish she could catch by hand, wild bean sprouts growing in the shade, and colorful vegetable flowers. With a fire to cook it all, she could survive just fine.

But the ease of survival provided enough free time for the poison that was dissatisfaction.

She caught a mosquito between her fingertips while lying naked on the beach.

(I should stop moping around and complete today’s last round of stretches. Think of it like becoming a mountain hermit.)

The naked idiot sat back up, failing to realize she would be more of a beach hermit.

But then an impossible sensation pierced her.

She sensed someone’s gaze on her.

“?”

She covered her bare chest with one arm and turned her head on reflex.

There she found her peeping tom.

A bear taller than her was picking up and stretching her black underwear!?

She was indeed a martial artist.

She rolled and hopped to her feet instead of reaching for the axe stabbed into the beach. She calculated how much the sand would absorb the force of her feet as she kicked off of it. Then she loosely clenched her fists and moved to perfect striking range. All while barefoot and bare everything else as well.

The bear stood on its hind legs, but that was not what scared her.

“Really? A Shadow Treading Parasite!?”

A pair of yellow twinkles moved toward her across the ground.

This was an Undead type of Beast Nova that entered a large animal’s shadow to take control of its body. Its weakness was salt, the standard for purification. The thing crawled like a slug and could not leave the ground, so it could be defeated by luring the shadow toward some salt on the ground or pushing the host into the ocean using a series of attacks that would not directly damage the parasite. In that sense, a bear weighing more than 500kg was close to a worst-case scenario. Martial artists who tried to train as a mountain hermit would often lose their lives after deciding to test their skills on a bear like this. And the parasite did not care what happened to the host, so she could never win if she simply fought the animal.

(Blue Starting Pistol, Red Gale, and Yellow Wrath. I have several options for knockback moves, but this is still bad. If I start off focusing on that, it really limits my attack patterns. If I can’t end this quick, I’ll start looking pretty predictable.)

She also sensed a more personal crisis here.

Yes, wild bears did not wear black underwear. The item the bear was stretching between its front paws was the one Victia had abandoned on the beach. She felt silly for thinking she didn’t need clothes earlier. If those tore on this desert island, she was in serious trouble.

This may have been some kind of divine punishment.

A full smile spread across her face as she crouched low and moved in.

“Heh. Eh heh heh. There are so many tastier things out there. If you like, I could treat you to some plump river fish or juicy honeyco-.”

The beast stuffed the panties in its mouth.

When it began to chew, Victia Magnumfist snapped.

“You’re dead meat now! That was the one and only pair on the entire islaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!!!”

When she rushed in, her opponent gave a joyous roar and raised its front legs.

But it was reacting to her long black hair, not the martial artist’s bouncing and jiggling flesh (raw meat?). It was more interested in the fluttering movement than any flavor or smell. But she could not afford to have any more of her clothing stolen from her for that reason.

She was stronger when not weighed down by the enormous axe.

The naked meathead worked her brain while using her clenched fists and flying kicks to forcibly knock the great mass of muscle toward the crashing waves.

(This can’t be the only Shadow Treading Parasite here. I need some kind of decoy to draw their attention, but what little cloth I have left is precious. If I want to live a wholesome, fully-clothed life here, I need to use as little cloth as possible on the decoys.)

A flash of insight came to the idiot.

“That’s it!! I’ll make swimsuits! The sexiest swimsuits I can think of! I can even make them out of shells, jewels, leaves, or caterpillar silk! I can defeat those monsters by mass-producing sexy swimsuits with materials found on the island!!!!!!”

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Section 1

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

A disaster that shatters people’s bonds.

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

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

“It sure is cold out here.”

“K-kyoo…”

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

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

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

Helen Clockgear breathed into her hands.

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

“Helen, you aren’t much better.”

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

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

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

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

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

However…

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

So much for that idea.

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

“Koo…”

“Yeah, we need to find a village.”

They would die without some heat.

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

Then something odd happened.

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

“Oh? What’s this?”

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

He had nearly forgotten.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yay, we made it!”

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

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

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

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

“Let’s ask around.”

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

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

Miyabi first spoke to a knowledgeable-looking old man.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Koo koo!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was not warm in the slightest.

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

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

“It’s frozen solid.”

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

Alicia sighed with that annoying thing hanging from her neck.

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

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

He blasted it with the Godhorn Tech.

An ultra-heavy mass dropped from the sky.

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

“Wh-what?”

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

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

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

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

“…”

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

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

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

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

Every part of it sounded suspicious to him.

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

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

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

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

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

“Ha ha…”

He heard some quiet laughter.

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

She even had tears in her eyes.

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

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

He blushed and shouted a rushed instruction.

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

And when they checked on the shattered ice lake…

“Oh, there’s steam rising now.”

“Koo!”

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

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

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

“R-run away!!”

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

The pillar rose more than 20m.

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

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

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

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

Miyabi touched the metal pipe and then flinched back.

It was pretty hot already. Painfully so.

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

The village felt like an entirely different place.

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

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

“Oh, the place has come alive.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

They entered the village’s only inn.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He was so confused time seemed to freeze.

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

He gulped.

And when the scream came, it came from him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A soft hand covered his mouth.

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

She was warm and had a physical body.

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

“Mghfgh.”

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

“Pwah. Exorcisms?”

“I defeat ghosts for a living.”

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

So was she just another traveler?

But wait.

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

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

“Eh? They follow you into the bath?”

“…”

She blushed and froze up.

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

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

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

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

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

Coverup complete!!

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

You’re in luck, Victia.

You have a friend now.

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

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

The others concurred.

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

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

“S-sorry about the wait.”

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

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

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

“Ehh? What was that, mom?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“So what did you find out?”

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

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

“…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The Icicle Bullet,” supplied Celina.

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

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

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

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

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

“Koo.”

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

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

Chapter 3 Section 2

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

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

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

The heavy sigh was colored white.

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

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

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

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

The glasses woman did not look pleased with her food.

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

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

The boy jumped at Helen’s comment.

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

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

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

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

That was the Arsenal Kingdom.

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

And something happened before they even passed through that wall.

“?”

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

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

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

“Koo…”

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

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

“Shh!!”

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

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

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

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

“Have they withdrawn inside?” speculated Celina.

No one had an answer.

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

“Sh-should we really be doing this?”

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

This was concerning.

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

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

“Koo…”

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

His face was immediately slapped by a wall of sound.

At first, he was unsure what had happened.

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

But he failed to notice any of it.

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

“Drag that incompetent king from the throne!!”

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

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

People, people, people, and more people.

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

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

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

Since when were humans such violent creatures?

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

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

“What in the world!?”

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

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

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

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

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

“L-look over there!”

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

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

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

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

That settled it.

Helen responded with a bitter look.

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

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

Alicia’s sly suggestion made Miyabi click his tongue.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it was Miyabi’s job to choose one.

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

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

“Koo!!”

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

He was afraid.

Of course he was.

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

However.

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

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

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

“Hold your horses, boy,” said Alicia.

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

“!?”

They appeared to catch her off guard.

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

“What are you doing here!?”

“Watch out!!”

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

“Gh!!”

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

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

Eliza talked a lot.

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

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

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

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

Celina had lost everything when her armored trained was destroyed.

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

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

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

The air stirred.

The danger was growing.

“That guy’s protecting the arrogant knight!”

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

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

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

Celina aimed her flintlock rifle skywards and fired once.

The rioters would only flinch back for a moment.

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

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

“!”

He drew his control sword.

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

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

“Hurry!!”

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

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

But not because of the rioters filling that space.

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

“Still upset about that?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Eh? Wha-?”

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

He kept going regardless.

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

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

“No, wait! I cannot do that!”

Even the radio sounded exasperate by that.

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

“Tsun…what? What is that box saying?”

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

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

She even bowed at the end.

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

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

“Tch.”

“U-um, Miyabi?” asked Helen.

He was intrigued.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Alicia?”

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

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

That meant it would be best to travel between rooftops.

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

“A Bypass Bridge should do the trick.”

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

And the rioters were not the only threat.

Some squawking cries reached them from the sky.

“Kyah!?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Something grazed Celina’s cheek.

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

Celina lowered her shadowy face.

Her shoulders were shaking. From laughter.

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

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

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

Meanwhile…

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

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

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

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

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

“?”

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

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

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

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

Miyabi stabbed his control sword into the roof.

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

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

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

The stone bridge was more vaporized than simply destroyed.

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

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

“Yes, thank you. Yes!!”

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

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

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

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

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

“Gar-what?” asked Miyabi.

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

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

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

Bat wings grew from the gargoyles’ backs.

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

Concern rapidly filled Miyabi and he asked a worried question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celina clicked her tongue while peering down the sight.

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

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

“…”

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

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

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

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

She used the ricochet.

The gargoyle twisted around, falling into an uncontrollable tailspin.

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

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

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

“Nwohhhh!!”

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

Celina shouted in frustration at having her timing thrown off.

What was happening, anyway?

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

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

“Is that a dwarf, by any chance?”

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

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

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

“Oh, is that Sir Garret?”

“Hm?”

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

“Tch, so he’s your pet.”

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

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

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

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

“No, Sir Garret is-”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And things were not over quite yet.

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

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

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

“There’s a fire burning!”

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

Meanwhile, the radio spoke to Miyabi.

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

“…”

The boy made a split-second decision.

He could save people with the destruction as well.

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

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

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

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

He sent the Lucifer Horn another command.

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

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

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

In this sense, she was just a girl.

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

“D-did that stop the fire?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They were in the castle.

The residence of an entire kingdom’s king.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Lady Eliza!!”

“W-what should we do now!?”

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

The younger chosen knights glanced over at the others.

“Um, who are these people?”

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

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

They entered the castle from the garden.

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

He did a double take when someone passed them by.

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

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

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

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

They were shown to the central hall.

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

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

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

“I have much to report, my king!”

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

Eliza Silverstorm’s head snapped back up.

“!?”

The others remained standing.

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

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

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

But none of them moved.

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

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

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

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

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

“Don’t you dare!!”

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

Eliza’s shoulders shook.

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

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

Her values rang hollow in their ears.

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

The person wearing identical magic armor instead criticized her.

Using another set of values.

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

“But…”

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

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

Was that because the knights were human too?

Or was this the true ground zero of the uprising?

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

“…”

Silence fell.

Eliza clenched her teeth before speaking quietly.

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

“Exactly our point!”

“But I am his knight.”

She used her words to cast out those careless feelings.

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

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

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

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

With a scraping of metal, they moved toward Eliza.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…”

Miyabi Blackgarden was too.

He smiled.

He wanted to believe in people.

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

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

“Heh.”

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

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

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

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

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

“What…did you do?”

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

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

She had shown him values he could get behind.

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

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

Helen, meanwhile, was apoplectic.

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

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

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

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

That was the Lucifer Horn.

“Eek!? A G-Godhorn Tech!?”

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

Celina and Alicia approached Miyabi and whispered to him.

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

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

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

He only had to swing the control sword.

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

Now, how much were those marble columns worth?

The village-raised incarnation of destruction showed no mercy.

“Eek!”

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

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

“Do not take us for fools.”

“What do you mean?”

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

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

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

The chosen knights all used the same standardized equipment.

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

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

Yes.

Was there more than one control lance?

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

It was now Eliza’s turn to groan.

“Are you insane?”

“Behold the true will of White Seidr!”

The younger knights had fear in their eyes.

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

So none of them protested that announcement.

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

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

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

There was no stopping it.

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

“Icicle Bullet.”

The devastating trigger was pulled.

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

Between the Lines 2

The Independent Militaria Material Kingdom.

Commonly known as the Arsenal Kingdom.

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

On the other hand, the kingdom wanted for much.

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

Then there was magical technology.

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

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

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

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

Then there was the Icicle Bullet.

That Godhorn Tech was an even more extreme example.

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

And this was the inevitable result.

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

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

She heard the rustling of forest vegetation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eliza did not know who he really was.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…”

“And here is your reward for this job.”

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

The right thing was not always pretty.

But her own values refused to accept that.

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

“Are you from the Bodenburg Company?”

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

He was not going to identify himself that easily.

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

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

“What is your name!?”

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

The masked men left.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This was the knights’ resentment.

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

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

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

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

Chapter 3 Part 3

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

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

Or so it seemed.

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

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

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

The radio’s suggestion was rejected by Alicia Blueforest.

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

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

Miyabi thought quietly about the issue.

“…”

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

Eliza bit her lip, but she did not hesitate.

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

“Please.”

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

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

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

That settled it.

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

“The Icicle Bullet is on its way.”

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

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

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

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

They practically jumped from building to building.

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

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

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

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

They rushed out through the thick gate.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What am I supposed to do now!?”

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

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

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

That dreadfully white weapon looked so distant.

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

This was a battle between Godhorn Techs.

It was creation versus destruction.

It was a head-on clash.

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

A great boom shook their surroundings.

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

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

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

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

“It has…”

“Yes? It has what?”

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

He stared blankly for a moment.

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

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

There was more to this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Uh.”

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

“~ ~ ~”

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

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

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

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

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

Miyabi knew that.

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

“Lucifer Horn…take care of this.”

What they needed was an obstacle.

Preferably, a large one made of several layers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’ll be borrowing that.”

He slowly inhaled and then spoke.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It had begun.

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

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

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

“Kh.”

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

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

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

“Miyabi!! Um, uh, look!”

He heard Celina shouting to him.

And that was not all.

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

But it was too late.

Why?

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

“Ah.”

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

Time seemed to have stopped.

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

It hit him.

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

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

No.

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

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

My adventure didn’t last long, thought Miyabi.

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

He had not wanted to learn this.

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

And yet…

“…yabi…”

He heard a voice.

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

A voice was calling his name.

“Miyabi, wait.”

It was falling apart.

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

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

The girl, Eliza Silverstorm, was crying.

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

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

But the control sword remained in his hand.

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

Fight.

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

He could finally hear his own inner voice.

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

She protected her king.

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

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

How can you do that?

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

“Ugh.”

So.

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

Hence the dull cracking sound.

“Again…Lucifer Horn.”

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

First, he would destroy.

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

Then he would create.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a massive bomb.

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

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

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

A thick shockwave dropped down like a suspended ceiling.

The entire Icicle Bullet sank down into the snow.

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

The snow sleigh’s right side sank even further.

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

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

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

It was too soon to relax.

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

“Miyabi…”

He heard a sobbing voice.

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

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

Miyabi noticed her legs were trembling.

(Yeah, of course she’s terrified.)

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

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

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

But after a second, he laughed.

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

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

“Gasp, pant.”

He was sticky with blood.

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

“The Icicle Bullet…stopped?”

That thought finally occurred to Eliza Silverstorm.

Before even thinking about her own survival, she felt relief that the king, her colleagues, the kingdom’s people, and the companions she had fought alongside were all safe.

Miyabi swore to himself he would call her an idiot later on.

“I-it really stopped? Sniff, sob. Everyone’s…safe now?”

“No, not yet.”

But Miyabi had reached a different conclusion.

The tall stone wall was vibrating along with an ominous rumble. Needless to say, this came from the Icicle Bullet with its head buried inside that wall.

This was not over yet. The battle had not been won. Any headpats or rebukes would have to wait.

“Koo!” cried red Alma while rubbing against his leg.

“It’s only stopped for now. The knights’ majority vote is still in effect and it hasn’t been given a stop order. It will resume moving if left like this.” He spat some blood into the snow and lifted his control sword. “I have to deliver the finishing blow. Is that okay?”

Celina bitterly looked away. This may have reminded her of the agony when it had been her.

Finally, Eliza got out a scratchy voice.

Her eyes were already red and a tear dripped from one of them as she threw out her own pride.

“Yes.” Strength filled her voice as she overcame this final barrier. “Yes, go ahead! If that will protect the king and the people!! If it will remove the discord between the king and the knights and allow us to stand up as a unified kingdom once more!”

She likely had something she wanted to protect even if it meant tearing herself to pieces, so she could keep going no matter how injured she was.

She was stronger than anyone, so she would never lose her shine, even without the Godhorn Tech.

She faced forward and spoke with conviction.

“Do it. That knight’s lance deserves to be broken now that it has lost its luster!!”

“Got it.”

He stabbed his control sword into the snow.

A magic circle opened and he faced the colossal weapon once more.

Was this destruction?

No, he was creating a new path for this girl and her kingdom.

“Sorry, Icicle Bullet.”

He felt like he had to say this.

Even if this was the embodiment of destruction that had left him so badly injured.

“This wasn’t your fault. Thank you for listening to everyone’s commands all this time. You did a great job.”

That monster had faithfully obeyed without once breaking its promise, but now it vanished into the white beam of light that dropped from the heavens.

Character Profiles

Sophia Calamity-Jinx

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 158cm

Started out as a Curse Cleaner who purifies malicious residual thoughts, but accidentally showed an interest in an “embarrassing charm” contract found when collecting items from an abandoned house and is now constantly targeted by vengeful spirits. There is a way to remove the charm, but the method is too embarrassing for her to tell anyone what it is. She is pursuing Under Lilith whose knowledge of magic and contracts may be able to remove the charm.

Eliza Silverstorm

Age: 18

Sex: Female

Height: 160cm

A member of the White Seidr, an all-female group of chosen knights within the Arsenal Kingdom. She was given command of the Icicle Bullet Godhorn Tech due to her excellent compatibility. She is an honest but inflexible person, so even if it is at her king’s command, she does not enjoy the mercenary-like dirty work she performs while loaned out to other countries.

Garret Goldcave

Apparent Age: 50 (actual age unknown)

Sex: Male

Height: 120cm

A dwarf craftsman who creates the traps used to protect royal and noble tombs. Specializes in “soul possessing” traps disguised as treasure chests, money bags, gargoyles, etc. Upon learning his carefully-created traps were being removed from royal tombs and being misused for Strange Guide’s death games, he began traveling the world to “retrieve” the traps.

Godhorn Tech Sleigh: Icicle Bullet

Pilot: Eliza Silverstorm

Affiliation: Independent Militaria Material Kingdom

Size (LxWxH): 50m x 20m x 10m

A giant sleigh made of ice. Fires magic shells that freeze its target in place and then runs them over with the giant sleigh itself. As powerful as that attack is, the real problem is how it predicts its target’s next move to always hit with its attacks. If an opponent cannot avoid that seemingly prophetic aim, victory is an impossibility. Design motif: seidr magic.

Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 2

“Oh?”

Victia Magnumfist, a martial artist in a red dress, was staring into the distance.

Something was headed this way. The Lucifer Horn passed by, its enormous wings spread, and something was dumped onto the island.

It was a naked girl. With big boobs.

“And now the perverts are attacking? Nice. An excellent test of my skills. I’ll show you what my training here has taught me!!”

“Oh, god, what now!? C-can you at least let me put my clothes on first!?” screamed Sophia Calamity-Jinx while gathering a thick cloth in front of her.

The tearful girl viewed the island to find only the bare minimum of civilization. She saw a few tents made of what looked like the hide of a large animal and a campfire situated on the ground. A branch was suspended above so a pot could hang over the fire, but the pot itself appeared to be made from a large animal’s skull.

“C-clothes. Clothes, clothes.”

“Hm? This island’s only got sexy swimsuits.”

“What- but- how does a civilization like that even develop!?”

Sophia blushed and even shed tears as she slowly squirmed her way into her own priest clothing. Meanwhile, she received an explanation from the extreme optimist who insisted that this remote island was the perfect place to train.

“Um, so you’re saying we have joined the party of this person called…Miyabi was it?”

“I think so, yeah,” said Victia. “I think when someone scares him bad enough, he snags them with a flying trap to recruit them! Ah ha ha. He’s got a great eye for talent, but once he’s got his eye on you, there’s no escape!!”

“Don’t people usually call that kidnapping or abduction? And why take us away against our will and then not even use us? Is he just holding onto us just in case!?”

The downer of an indoorsy type had a lot of questions about this, but rolling around and flailing her limbs was not going to change anything. If you wanted to avoid dying on the beach, you had to actively work toward survival.

“First, I’d like a room to myself. You have a few tents already, so can I borrow one of them?”

“Oh, those are my cheesemaking tents. The sun will ruin the whole process, after all. But humans are made of tougher stuff, so you’ll get used to it. Just strip off your clothes, lay them down on the sand, lie naked on top of that, and it’ll be morning before you know it!”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………I’m afraid to ask, but you do have a bath, don’t you?”

“Ah ha ha. That’s a silly question. The whole island’s surrounded by water, so why would I need to make a separate bath?”

The busty, stooped-over, downer girl began to tremble. She doubted she could get along with someone who was willing to wash her body in saltwater just because it kept food from spoiling. Did this island carry a curse that continually reduced one’s femininity values the longer you stayed there?

And all while living in such a wild environment.

“U-umm.”

“Need something?”

“D-does that animal skin and bones mean what I think it does?”

“Yup, we lucked out and the place has a thriving ecosystem. I don’t have the patience for fishing, so it’s great that I can get as much meat as I want with just my fists!”

“Nooo!! How is this place a battlefield and an extreme survival environment at the same time!?”

Sophia was a Curse Cleaner, which made her a specialist in fighting the Undead, but she was powerless against forest creatures. In fact, the ordinary animals scared her more. Especially if she was staying in a tent on the ground. She could be killed in her sleep if a nocturnal animal approached while she was too deep asleep to notice.

“Wh-what if a dangerous animal approaches while you’re asleep?”

“You wake up before it reaches you.”

“And what do you do then? I-i-i-if it actually attacks, I mean.”

“You beat it up before it attacks. Or put it in a chokehold. Your choice. Once you get used to it, this the best place in the world! You gain experience at all times – both night and day!”

“…”

Something about this felt very wrong to Sophia. Why was Victia acting like a naked human would be able to defeat a wild beast’s fangs and claws?

This was a desert island, but they could improve their lives here by creating new tools, equipment, and facilities. Fortunately, the ocean and forest provided plenty of materials. That meathead had even made sexy swimsuits on her own, so it felt like anything was possible if you put your mind to it.

“Oh, right. You’re strong against Undead, right?”

“Yes, I suppose. Not that my Curse Cleaner power is going to be any help on a desert island.”

“Don’t be so sure. This place is a den of Beast Novae, including Undead ones. Ah ha ha! See, you had nothing to worry about.”

Sophia shrieked in fear.

At the same time, a dark form poked its head out from between the trees of the forest. But its position was unusual. The head looked child-sized, but it was poking around the tree at a height of more than 3m.

Also, it had countless legs and a glistening black exoskeleton.

A massive centipede was curled around the tree trunk, but the face of an adorable human child was embedded at the front end. Sophia decided that was about the last thing she would want to be reincarnated as.

Victia licked her thumb.

“There you are, you Undead bastard!! We’ve gotta crush that unclean thing before it gets to our food and water!!”

“Wait!!” shouted Sophia, the expert on this subject (who was still only half dressed). “Attacking it and driving it away won’t solve this. The Undead are fueled by any power that ‘sends people to death’, so driving them away with punches and kicks will only give them more power for when they attack again.”

“Is that how it works?”

“This is a Hellbug. When a child dies lost at sea or in the mountains and they refuse the judgment of the dead, they are punished by being stranded in this world until their body is discovered. And they are remade into a hideous form. This just means they were never given a proper burial, so they haven’t done anything wrong themselves.”

As Sophia rattled off her explanation, her face was stern but her eyes were oddly compassionate.

“Even vengeful spirits were once human like us. No one ends up wandering this world after death for no reason. If you discover their reason and resolve the issue, they will return to their rightful place all on their own. In this case, we only have to ask them where they lost their life and search out their remains. No punching necessary.”

“Huh, neat. And what about Shadow Treading Parasites?”

“Those are plant spirits. It is the result of a plant growing too accustomed to manipulating animals with its flowers or fruit. But it is all for naught. The more they make their controlled host shine, the more pathetic they grow while hiding in the host’s shadow.”

A Curse Cleaner was a type of healer, not a knight or warrior.

The colorful will-o’-the-wisps following her around may have been the result of a certain type of popularity.

Just then, a massive form passed by above the small island. The Lucifer Horn dropped a new party member from its wire.

This one was an old male dwarf.

Sophia Calamity-Jinx, whose jiggliness was still only partially concealed, blanked her expression.

“Die, die! This insolent man must diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!!!!!!”

The pure and bashful girl showed no mercy.

Victia Magnumfist assessed her handiwork.

“Your punches aren’t half bad. With a little polishing, you could really shine.”

Epilogue

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.

After a few days, the chaos in the city had entirely settled down.

The white clouds above the Arsenal Kingdom blocked out the light of the sun. Miyabi Blackgarden slowly rotated one of his shoulders in the bed of a castle town inn.

It was a hesitant movement.

“Somehow, this scares me more.”

“Why?” asked an exasperated Alicia Blueforest as she removed the White Sorcery charm bandage from him. “You had 13 broken bones, 2 ruptured organs, and innumerable burst veins and arteries. That normally would have left you partially paralyzed if you were lucky, and dead if you were not.”

“Yeah, here I am good as new after only a few days! What did you do to my body, you enigmatic elf!?”

“Sigh. I said I know some alchemy, didn’t I? Your village rarely received supplies, so who do you think mixed the medicines there?”

The serpentine writing on the bandages turned to golden particles and disappeared, starting from the end she had undone.

White Sorcery Items were powerful, but they were also single-use no matter how much time went into preparing them. Their effects could not be used as easily as waving a wand like with magic. Just like with a dropped plate, restoring something to its original state was much harder than destroying something old or creating something new. Especially when that something was a living being.

Miyabi realized just how blessed he had been without even knowing it, but then something else occurred to him.

That village clinic had been surprisingly well-stocked with White Sorcery Items, yet Moebius had still needed a wheelchair. Just how badly had he been injured?

After a final check over his body, the redhead boy stepped outside to find the snowy castle town was full of laughter and joy.

“Hey☆ Stop that, Millovannes. Hee hee hee.”

Celina Bodenburg was in a good mood. She had been safely reunited with the delivery harpy after their separation during the riot. Celina herself was happily holding out a hand like she was keeping the summer sun off her face, but…

“I-is it just me or is that harpy trying to scratch at Celina’s face with her talons?” whispered Miyabi.

“Sh! I don’t think Celina has noticed. You wouldn’t want to ruin the dream for her, would you?” replied Helen.

Instead of the harpy suddenly going feral and rebelling, this appeared to be the general state of things between those two. At any rate, they had no reason to remain here now that Miyabi had recovered.

They met Eliza Silverstorm at the city gate where the scars of the battle were still not fully healed.

“Some unrest remains, but the kingdom should be fine now.”

She was smiling.

It was a bashful smile, like she had finally accepted her own sense of shame.

Miyabi was a little surprised to find she could smile like this.

Seeing it made him glad he had risked his life for her.

“My king has come back to his senses and is accepting advice on how to resolve our crisis. Now that the Godhorn Tech is gone, you would think he had recovered from a demonic possession.”

“I see.”

Miyabi’s response was short, but that did not mean it had no meaning.

“If you are willing, I would like to join you on your journey.” The ponytail knight scratched her cheek in a somewhat bashful way. “The Arsenal Kingdom has given up its Godhorn Tech and stopped lending out its military might. We must find a new pillar for our finances, so I have been given a secret mission to travel the world and report back with any possibilities I discover.”

Miyabi did not initially understand what he had just heard.

And…

“Ha ha.”

“Miyabi?”

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!”

Before she could protest, he hugged the chosen knight.

The gate guards awkwardly looked the other way.

“Of course we’re willing!! I couldn’t ask for a better party member. Having you around is sure to be useful. I mean, we don’t have a knight who can wield a sword or lance as a dedicated fighter. I end up using anything like a machete, you know? You’ll fill a pretty basic gap in our party!! Ha ha ha!!”

“…”

The ponytail girl never did get any kind of complaint out.

The look on her face said she could not even feel angry when he was this delighted.

“Now, we have something to ask you as well,” cut in Alicia.

The knight herself looked puzzled.

“?”

“Th-that’s right! About my Schwarz- achoo!!”

“Your Schwarz Achoo?” accurately repeated the strait-laced knight.

“U-ugh, this kingdom is much too cold,” complained Celina.

“Maybe if you wore something that covered your shoulders,” pointed out Alicia.

“But that dress is great!! The more skin showing the better, if you ask me!! I recommend 30% at the very least, but I will praise the courage any who go for the full 100%!!”

No one even bothered listening to the radio’s nonsense anymore.

Eliza breathed a white sigh.

“How about we get something hot to drink while we discuss this?”

Miyabi feared that would be a tall order in this frigid kingdom, but the local knew what she was doing. She used a simple lamp and small pot to prepare some lightly-flavored tea in no time.

Celina Bodenburg held the cup between her hands and looked hesitant to actually drink it. She must have been very cold indeed.

“Ahh, that’s much better.”

“You’ll die in your sleep like this,” said the elf.

“Anyway, what did you want to ask?” asked Eliza, her head tilted.

“Oh, right!” Celina leaned forward again. “It’s about my armored train! The Schwarz Schütze!”

Eliza had refused them entrance to the Arsenal Kingdom and used the Icicle Bullet to derail the Schwarz Schütze because a sorcery bomb had been set up on the armored train, but something about how it had played out seemed odd to them. They explained it all, with plenty of gesturing, but the ponytail knight only tilted her head at a greater angle.

“I don’t know anything about that.”

“What do you mean?”

Helen’s sharp question did nothing to change Eliza’s attitude.

“I am saying I was not colluding with the 11th to destroy the company’s Godhorn Tech.”

“B-but! One of my train’s components was only swapped out with the sorcery bomb after it had been stopped by you. That means the 11th knew in advance the time and location that would happen!!”

That was the only way to explain the timing.

But would someone like Eliza really use trickery of that sort?

Miyabi sighed.

“One of us might be misunderstanding something here. I don’t care how trivial it seems – can you give us all the details about how you ended up attacking us?”

“There isn’t much to tell.”

Now that she knew them, Eliza seemed reluctant to remember that attack. She was ridiculously strait-laced through and through.

“I received an emergency notification and moved to stop Celina.”

“An emergency notification? You mean the anonymous letter?” asked Miyabi.

“Yes,” she concisely replied. “But while it was anonymous, letters can be identified from the handwriting and method of sealing.”

“Y-yes, contracts would be fairly useless if appraisal like that was impossible.”

Celina puffed out her cheeks at having to agree with Eliza right now, but determining the veracity of this information was her top priority.

At any rate, that letter would have allowed the sender to push Eliza to attack and then estimate the time and location well enough to lie in wait.

And once the Schwarz Schütze had been derailed, they could sneak up to it and replace an internal component with the sorcery bomb.

“His identity is an open secret, but that is why I felt I could trust him,” continued Eliza. “He is a legendary fixer who is allowed to possess a Godhorn Tech as an individual because he uses its power to resolve any trouble that crops up between countries.”

Yes, she had a clear answer.

“The letter was from Moebius Entrance.”

Afterword

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

It took a while and it was very nearly locked away without a release, but here it is at last: Godhorn Tech!

This story is set in a pastoral swords and sorcery fantasy world but with colossal sorcery weapons that tear up the terrain itself as they battle it out. There is nothing the protagonist, Miyabi, cannot destroy, so I remember having fun coming up with conversation patterns for the scenarios where he destroyed a shop or town. (But that would only get him kicked out of town or thrown behind bars, not create a major branch in the story.) I hope I managed to get some sense of that across in the novel version as well. The advertisement for the game focused more on the creation side, but it really all began with the idea that you were free to do whatever you wanted with the destruction side.

In that sense, I am pretty attached to each of the dungeons, like the derailed train or the castle town rooftops, but I think I put the most care into the initial forest. While being mercilessly bombed from afar, you need to send instructions to your borrowed bomber to tear apart the ground to form trenches, effectively creating the dungeon you need to survive. A lot of trial and error went into putting together an engaging tutorial with the two users talking to each other while you learned about the fear, destruction, and creation of the massive sorcery weapons.

I put a lot of my personal tastes into the characters this time, like the hag elf who uses a philosopher’s stone as a toy or the assassin young woman with black hair and glasses who is strait-laced but will also transform into a bunny girl if necessary. I even had a rare battle with Haimura-san over whether elves are supposed to wear green or white. I guess we all have something we refuse to back down on, huh? B-but a green elf would definitely have to be the main heroine, right!? After much fierce fighting, we gave Alicia an angelic design with the ring of flowers on her head and gave Helen a demonic design with her hair decorations and the tail.

A lot of progress was made on the Godhorn Techs, but it’s funny how I remember the ordinary handheld weapons causing a lot more trouble. Games have their own rules, so you can’t do some things that I take for granted with novels. And you can’t fudge certain things in 3D games in particular. For example, if your character carries a huge sword on their back all the time, they can’t sit in a chair with a back. And if they wear a wide-brimmed hat, their hands will clip through the brim when they raise their arms.

The 11th’s sorcery bombs was an idea for a multiplayer mode. You would try to obstruct the other players while using only the sound to locate a bomb randomly placed somewhere on the field so you could be the first to safely destroy it. There were other “game-like ideas” we came up with while trying to create some cohesion between the scenario and the system. A dungeon where you slip through the gaps between a derailed train’s cars and cargo and a dungeon where you move between the rooftops of a rioting castle town were both ideas we came up with while trying to make an enjoyable game. Now that you have read the novel version, I hope you will think up your own ideas along those lines.

Fitting it all back into a novel format was surprisingly difficult. Yet when writing the scenario, I remember trying to avoid some things that simply wouldn’t work in a novel. I wasn’t trying to switch to another writing mode, but I guess the circumstances influenced me more than I thought. I hope I learned some useful skills from this.

The character designs were done by Haimura-san and Tabata-san, and KeG-san was involved in designing the characters’ alternate outfits. Tabata-san drew the novel version’s illustrations. Thank you all! I also want to thank Square Enix, everyone else involved in the game’s production, and my editors Miki-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. This one starts with a traditional fantasy world and then it works to tear that world apart, so the illustrations can’t have been easy. Thank you so much!

And I want to thank the readers. We finally released Godhorn Tech in some form or another. Whether you were looking forward to the game or you only learned about the game here, I think it is thanks to all of your support that Godhorn Tech avoided being an untold tale. Thank you!!

And I will end this here.

It’s unusual for me to tell a story where the characters travel all around their world, isn’t it?

-Kamachi Kazuma

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