In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 2

Chapter II: The Witch-King of Isengard 

“Well, you see. The results show he is not that couple’s biological son, you see.” I was in the Alchemy Lab, and Flora was plainly telling me her findings. Her busty curves were threatening to free themselves from the strained confines of her nurse outfit, but they remained in their prison nonetheless... The sight was a deadly trap laced with sweet honey for my eyes. 

Almost as if she could read my thoughts, the wicked nurse slowly reached to her breast pocket and pulled out a glass container with a strand of hair in it. It was the hair that Colonel had brought me, the hair from the dead king. Technically it wasn’t just a hair. It also had the hair follicle and roots, because it was a comprehensive sample used for Gollem DNA registration. 
“The child’s sample did match with this one, you see. That means they’re definitely father and son, you see.” 
“I-I see...” I listened to her, but my mind was elsewhere. I had to look away. I decided to focus on the ceiling. The nice, sterile... White ceiling. 
Hmm... That means the Gardio Empire’s prince is not the child of the emperor and the empress... He’s actually the prince of the Lowe Kingdom, which was destroyed. 
“What do I do with this info...” I couldn’t even begin to imagine how this had happened. The biggest question here would be whether the Gardio emperor and empress were even aware. 
The empress surely knew, since she’d have to have given birth... Did she even give birth in the first place? I didn’t understand at all. That meant the emperor might’ve been the only one who didn’t know... Which was honestly kinda sad. By some bizarre fortune, the prince looked pretty similar to the man assumed by everyone to be his father. The prince had the same hair color as the emperor, and his eyes were the same color as the empress’s, for the most part. They definitely looked like a simple family at a glance, and it seemed they got along well. 
Part of me was hesitant to let this go any further, I didn’t want to break up a happy family. 
Ugh... This whole thing sucks. How am I supposed to know what to do here? It’s a little bit heavy a plot point, isn’t it? 
“I’d like to hear out what you guys think about this...” I gathered all my fiancées in my room that evening and explained the findings. Sue was staying over for the night, too. She was wearing cute yellow PJs and sitting as close to me as she could get. 
We were all spread out on the unnecessarily large bed that I brought out whenever I had the girls staying over, all the girls were wearing differently-colored pajamas. 
Whenever Sue visited, everyone stayed on this bed in my room. It had slowly become an unspoken rule. Obviously I didn’t lay a hand on anyone, or anything... I didn’t exactly have the stones to make a move like that... Either way, that was irrelevant to the situation at hand. 
“Hmm... I think that the key information here is whether or not Gardio’s emperor knows if the boy is his son, I do.” 
“I think he doesn’t know. It seems like they’re close, too...” Yae, sitting cross-legged in her purple bedclothes, spoke up. In response, Hilde, sitting around in her orange pajamas, replied to her. 
“I’m not sure of the details, but I think the main issue is how the Prince of Lowe became the Prince of Gardio. If we figure that out, everything else should fall into place.” 
Lu, sitting comfortably in her green pajamas, let out a small sigh as she spoke. She was definitely right. All we knew was that the prince, along with his wet nurse, escaped the ruined nation, and somehow became an imperial prince in the very nation that orphaned him. Knowing exactly how that happened would help answer a lot of other things. 
“...Putting that aside, should we tell Colonel and the others?” Linze turned to look at me, she looked adorable in her light blue pajamas. She had a point, though... I wasn’t sure what to do there either. 
“For now, I think I’m gonna tell them the truth. They have a right to know about the safety of their prince. Given that he’s living safely, it’ll probably be a relief for them.” 
“Sure about that? Their prince is now the heir to the throne that killed their king and people, right? If I was a survivor from Lowe, I wouldn’t know whether or not to be happy or sad.” Elze, wearing red pajamas, spoke casually as she chomped a couple snacks down. Don’t eat on the bed... 
“Doesn’t that mean the best one to ask is the empress? We should just speak with her directly.” 
“Maybe not. It’s possible that her child was swapped out with her own at some point, and she doesn’t know. She might be raising a son she believes to actually be hers.” 
“I guess that’s possible...” Leen nodded along to what I said. She was wearing black pajamas. Kohaku and the other Heavenly Beasts were next to her, asleep. Paula was nestled in with them, sleeping as well... If a stuffed toy could even do that. 
“Grand Duke... Darkness Magic is an option... You could hypnotize her...” 
“...Oh, I totally could’ve done that, huh.” Sakura, wearing pink-ish pajamas, raised a valid point. With my hypnosis magic, I could easily figure out who knew what without raising any alarms. 
All I’d need to do is put one of the royals under hypnosis and ask them if the prince was their biological son. If they answered positively, they’d be ignorant of the truth. If they said no, then they’d know the truth. 
“...Touya, do we need to go to that extent? Perhaps this is a little cruel, but all those three asked us to do was confirm the prince’s location and safety, right? What happens with them from here on isn’t really our concern, is it?” Yumina, sitting nearby in her white pajamas, spoke up with a little hesitation. She wasn’t entirely wrong. If we messed up anything here, we’d be tearing apart what seemed to be a nice family. It might have just been best to leave it all alone. 
But that still left Colonel and the others. We needed to tell them everything. The three of them seemed trustworthy enough, but any other remnants of Lowe might not be so reliable. 
If a group of people randomly popped up and started saying that the Gardio prince was of a ruined country’s lineage, I doubted anyone would actually take it seriously... But it’d be a problem if the rumors ended up reaching the boy himself. I doubted he’d believe it, but he’d probably be hurt by it nonetheless. I didn’t want careless murmurs to cause him any undue stress, or damage his relationship with his parents. 
Ultimately I just wanted Colonel and the others to hear the truth, and maybe leave it at that. I was sure they would want the prince to be happy. 
Sue, who’d been listening so far, climbed into my lap and leaned her head against my chest. 
“This stuff sure is complicated...” 
“I guess so... Sorry, was it boring?” 
“Nah. I just realized how much you seem to like meddling in other people’s business.” ... She was harsh but fair. I couldn’t exactly say anything to refute what she’d said. 
“Still, you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t act that way. And when you’re in trouble, it’s up to us to help you, isn’t it? So don’t worry about boring us. I’m happy just being with you like this. I’m sure everyone is.” Sue smiled and took my hands in hers. She pulled my arms forward until we’d shifted into a position where I was hugging her from behind. G-Geez, Sue... This is a little embarrassing. 
“Sue... You shouldn’t monopolize the Grand Duke...” 
“Mm?” Sakura suddenly stood up and picked up Sue by her underarms. She then moved in to sit on my lap in Sue’s place, facing me and hugging me straight-on. Aaauugh, S-Sakura! This is even more embarrassing than before! 
“H-Hey, Sakura! That’s no fair! I want a turn!” 
“Eep...” Lu untangled Sakura from my front and took her place. G-Girls? Please calm yourselves...! 
“...We must enter the battle, Hilde-dono, we must.” 
“You’re right, Yae. Let us march forward to our victory.” 
“S-Sis, we gotta get in there too!” 
“H-Huh?! O-Okay!” 
“H-Hold it, please!” The girls suddenly started chasing me around the room. The ruckus was quite unreasonable... Where were their manners?! If this was a regular apartment we’d be inconveniencing our neighbors. In the end, Elze used [Boost] to tackle me onto the bed, and then everyone dogpiled me. All I could do was focus on not saying anything like “You’re heavy!” That would seal my doom. 
A-Ah... What’d I just touch?! This can’t keep up, augh... I have no choice here... [Teleport]! “Bwuh! O-Ouch!” 
“Gh... It’s heavy...” Yae and Sakura were directly above me, so they became the bottom layer after I warped out. They cried out in discomfort, casualties of war... 
“Alright, girls. That’s enough. No getting excited just because it’s a sleepover. You’re future world leaders, are you not? You’d do well not to act so childishly.” Leen clapped her hands together and brought them all back to their senses. She’d saved me. It made sense, since she was the oldest... Which made the fact that she looked almost as young as Sue all the more comical. 
After Leen calmed everyone down, everyone started talking about recent events. It was mostly girly chatter, so I didn’t engage too much. But I did want to hear about what everyone had been up to lately. 
“Oh right, Elze. How’s the training going? Has Uncle Takeru been teaching you good stuff?” 
“Yup. He’s a great mentor! We recently went to the nearby mountain range, and there was this huge boulder the size of a Frame Gear, right? He blasted it away with one punch! He also taught us how to channel the Warrior’s Dharma through our body.” 
“The what now?” 
“It’s a way of instilling magic into your body parts and letting it loose as you see fit... Kinda? You remember Sonia? She had an ability that was a form of the Warrior’s Dharma, apparently! If you master it, then you’ll be able to shoot out pure fighting spirit like a fireball! He showed us it in action by knocking a wyvern out of the sky with the ability!” 
... He’s certainly going pretty overboard. Hopefully the mountains are still standing by the time this is over. 
Elze had been devoting herself to training morning and night. She was staying up because she had a day off the next day. According to her mentor, a warrior needed to know when to take it easy, or something. 
“How’s Ende?” 
“He’s fine, probably? He’s better than me at manipulating the power inside him. He kept on having sparring bouts against our mentor over and over again, and he kept getting beaten up really badly! But he was fine after a couple trips to see Flora.” 
“...That doesn’t sound fine at all.” Linze quietly muttered exactly what I was thinking. I was a bit concerned about what kind of meds he’d been getting pumped into him, but it was probably fine... Probably... 
“We’re both getting much stronger, though. If I keep it up, I’ll definitely be able to kill an Intermediate Construct with a single shot!” 
That would be quite the feat, given it took the Red Cats three Frame Gears to take out one of those things. 
Still, Ende killed an Intermediate Construct with one kick around the second time I met him, so it wasn’t impossible. Plus, Elze had [Boost], and she’d become even stronger as my own Divinity influenced her as well. 
I wondered if Ende would be strengthened by Uncle Takeru’s Divinity in much the same way. As I thought to myself, Sue came up from behind me and gave me a big hug again. She seemed to be really snuggly... I was fine with it while she was that age, but it’d maybe be a little more awkward as she grew older. 
“Oh right, Sue. How’s your mother?” 
“Mmm... I think she’s giving birth soon. I want a little brother, but I’d be fine with a sister... What matters most is she gives birth safely!” 
From Duke Ortlinde’s perspective, a son would be better because he could succeed the household. Plus if it was a boy, he’d be around the same age as Yamato. That would mean they’d become friends. Yamato was really growing, too... It was funny to think that such an active little baby would someday become king of all Belfast. 
The new Ortlinde baby would be Yumina’s cousin, and they’d also end up being my sibling-in-law through Sue. “This talk of children is interesting, it is... One day it will be us with pregnant bellies, it will.” Yae muttered something that caused everyone except Sue to turn red and uncomfortable. That included me... I definitely couldn’t wrap my head around what the future had in store for me. 
“According to Babylon’s artifact, eight of us are having girls and one’s having a boy, right?” Hilde laughed awkwardly as she spoke. That was the case... But I still didn’t feel prepared for eight daughters. Frankly, I still wasn’t prepared for nine wives. 
“If we talk from a logistics standpoint, fairies have a very low chance of giving birth to males. Even with a human partner, the child will come out a full fairy. It’s not like half-elves, that are born between humans and elves. So it’s likely I will have a girl.” Leen spoke pretty frankly. I didn’t know that, but I trusted her judgment, so it wasn’t likely she’d have a boy. 
“It’s similar with the overlord’s bloodline... The child would come out a demonkin like me... I hope I have a girl... I do not want to have a hopeless boy who turns out like the Overlord...” Sakura muttered with an irritated expression on her face. Geez... You’re really unforgiving... But I guess it’s the guy’s own fault for always acting like a clown. 
It was a shame, given what a good ruler he was. He clearly just had a habit of losing his mind in front of Sakura. Every time I saw his stupid antics, I promised myself I wouldn’t be that kind of dad. 
“...You know, if he gets a granddaughter, he might end up being even worse.” 
“...I didn’t think of that. That’s bad...” Sakura started rolling around on the bed while grumbling. Personally, I thought she was worrying too much. 
“I-I would be happy if I had a son, I would. I would want to train him with the blade, I would.” 
“H-Hey! I want a son so I can teach him how to be a perfect knight!” 
“A-Actually I was thinking a boy would be good, cause I could spar with him...” Yae, Hilde, and Elze started nervously chattering about their hopes and expectations. ... You guys know you can do all those things with daughters, right? 
“It’s kind of a shame, isn’t it? How we know what our children will be, and how we know there’ll only be one boy.” Linze mumbled something a little sadly, and Yumina spoke up in response. 
“I don’t think we need to worry. Doctor Babylon saw a future where all nine of us had children, and one was a boy, right? She didn’t see beyond that. So we could easily have boys if we get pregnant again.” 
“Ooh! So you’re saying there’s a chance I could have a boy as my second child? That sounds fine to me, then.” Lu smiled and patted her hands together as if she was troubled no more. H-Hold on... You mean to tell me you guys want more kids after popping one out? Forget a soccer team, we’re gonna have enough kids for a rugby field at this rate... Where the hell are we gonna get enough babysitters? I guess the Babylon Gynoids will do... 
There’s a good number of them, too... I could assign one gynoid to each wife, and then... No. Nevermind. Neeevermind. There’s no way I could leave any of my kids to that pervy maid, or that clumsy shrine maiden, or that wannabe diddler researcher... Plus I doubt the bookworm or the narcoleptic could do much to raise my kids, either. 
Guess I need to figure out trustworthy people before my kids are born... But maybe I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. 
“Hey, Touya?” 
“Yeah?” 
“Where do babies come from?” Sue’s innocent question caused the entire room to freeze up. You could’ve heard a pin drop. 
Wh-What was that? 
“Sue... How old are you?” 
“Umm... Twelve, remember? We celebrated my birthday a bit ago!” 
Ahh... Twelve, yeah. That’s right. If this was Earth, she’d be in middle school. 
“Uh... Sue... H-Has Aunt Ellen not taught you about... you know, the birds and the bees?” 
“Huh? Birds and bees? What about them, Yumina?” Sue stared innocently over at her cousin. She looked legitimately confused. 
In any sane place on Earth, sex education was a basic thing taught before the age of ten... It seemed things were a little more backward here. I guess people naturally learn by hearing from their friends, or catching their parents, or seeing something naughty in media... But I guess noble people in this world don’t really have as much opportunity, so they probably learn from parents or educators... 
Then again, Yumina, Hilde, Lu, and Sakura are all royal but seem to have the relevant knowledge. Sue’s the odd one out. 
I then remembered that Ellen was blind and bedridden until I appeared a few years ago, so it was possible she just never learned a thing from her father. 
“...What should we do?” 
“Don’t ask me...” Leen looked at me, her face was slightly red. I did have some... Examples on my smartphone, but those videos weren’t exactly the educational kind. 
“Just as I’d expecteeeed!” The door loudly slammed open, revealing Cesca and Doctor Babylon. What the hell’s with that timing?! Were you guys listening in on us?! “Leave this to us. We’ll teach Sue everything she needs to know about her budding body, and what it’s good for. Hell, we’ll teach all the girls!” 
“Trust us, master. We’ll give them hands-on knowledge.” I grabbed the two of them by the scruffs of their necks and started dragging them out of the room. There’s no way in hell I’m entertaining this! 
“Things only get messy when you idiots show up. Stay out of this!” 
“Oh... Then you’re saying you’ll teach Sue yourself?” 
“Ugh...” 
“You’ll get really in-depth with her, hm?” 
“I suppose if you have it covered, then there’s no need for us then...” The two of them grinned nefariously at me. It pissed me off. My eyes suddenly glanced down at Cesca. More specifically, the book under her arm. 
“What’s this?” 
“Something I borrowed from the library. Educational material.” How the hell were you two so well-prepared? I skimmed over the book and was surprised to see it looked pretty informative. It was basically like a general health education book... Perhaps letting them handle it wouldn’t be so bad. 
I was worried, but it was also true that Sue needed to learn where babies came from. After some mulling it over, I begrudgingly accepted the aid being offered to me. 
“...Just cover the fundamentals, alright? They don’t need to know anything weird. Just teach them regular things.” I wanted to be sure they didn’t do anything weird, so I specifically warned them. 
“Sure, sure... I get it. For anything beyond basic sex ed, you wanna guide their kinks, huh?” 
“That isn’t remotely what I meant!” My head was starting to hurt. After deciding to let them handle it, I left the girls behind and headed to a spare bedroom for some rest. 
... Is this gonna be okay? I have a bad feeling... Maybe I should’ve shown them some softcore videos on my smartphone... Augh... No, that’s no good either... 
I muttered to myself and worried as I drifted to sleep. 
The next morning, during breakfast, Sue was staring at the wall. 
Whenever I tried to talk to her she’d turn beet-red and look away. I caught her fidgeting and looking at me a few times, blushing crimson here and there. She kept doing it over and over. 

“I wouldn’t worry about it. She’s still processing things.” Leen spoke over to me, but for some reason, she was red and fidgety as well. Everyone at the table was acting a little strange. They’d glance at me now and then for no reason, and whenever I looked at them they’d look straight back down at their plates. I heard some weird sighing here and there, and could’ve sworn I heard the words “Kama Sutra” muttered beneath hushed breaths. 
... Just what the hell did they learn last night?! 
It took Sue a few days to return to normal, and I never did find out just what kind of forbidden knowledge she was granted. 
 
Night had fallen. 
It was quiet out. The moon wasn’t too bright alone, but the pathways nearby were lined with lamps. 
We were in the Reverse World. More specifically, the imperial capital of Gardio. 
We were in the imperial palace’s courtyard, right in the middle of the city. I’d been here before, so it was easy to open up a [Gate]. 
“So this is the place, huh?” 
“This was quite easy, it was...” 
“There’s not much in the way of anti-magic in this world... All we need to do is figure out our next step.” I’d brought Yae and Lu with me. Originally I’d planned on just using [Invisible] and heading straight to the emperor’s bedroom, but... There were a lot more Gollems on guard duty compared to the daytime. 
Invisibility could easily trick humans, but I wasn’t so sure about Gollems. If they had thermal vision, we’d be rumbled in seconds. 
Plus, [Paralyze] didn’t work on inorganic creatures... I wasn’t exactly going to trash them, either. I needed to go about it differently. 
“Search. Emperor of Gardio.” 
“Searching... Search complete.” We hid down in the bushes as the phone projected a map of the local area. 
“What should we do, Touya-dono?” 
“We can probably go there via [Teleport].” 
“H-Hm? B-But, I don’t know...” 
For some reason, Lu seemed pretty hesitant. I wondered what was up with her. “I-I just think that we shouldn’t jump into a couple’s bedroom without any warning... Th-They might be... D-Doing stuff...” Lu turned bright red and looked at the floor. Yae also turned scarlet as she heard Lu’s explanation, and averted her gaze. Dammit! You idiotic perverts have corrupted them already! What kinda shitty sex ed have you been feeding them? I mean... I guess they could be doing it... I dunno if we need to think about that stuff though... I’ll run a search just to be sure... I ran a search and checked where the empress was. She was in the same room. The prince was in another room a bit away. 
“...Guess I’ll use [Long Sense] to peek in first, and then...” 
“Y-You would peek on an act such as that, you would?!” 
“...We don’t even know if they’re doing it...” I was a bit annoyed about being made out as some kind of peeping Tom. 
“...I’ll summon a creature and have them check it out, then.” 
“Th-That’s better.” I used some spellstone chalk to draw a little summoning circle and called out a little rat. The rat vanished promptly into the night. 
I didn’t connect my senses with it, so it didn’t count as peeping. So long as nothing was going on, we’d use [Teleport] and confront them. 
I preemptively cast [Invisible] on all three of us, allowing us to go at any point. 
“...Seems like they’re just resting.” The rat telepathically informed me of the situation, and I gave a thumbs-up to the girls. Both the empress and the emperor seemed ready to nap, so it was a perfect opportunity for us to go in. 
I brought Yae and Lu close to me and held their hands. 
“[Teleport].” In a flash, we were in the middle of a fancy bedroom. There was a Leylight stones in the middle of the room, casting a dim glow over the furniture. The first thing I noticed was a large bed. It wasn’t quite as big as the behemoth-tier bed in my room at home, though. There was also a nice-looking ornate desk. I turned around and saw a fine set of table and chairs, as well as a pretty-looking fireplace. It glinted in the dim light. There were a few subtle differences, but it was kinda similar to my place. Ultimately it was a matter of interior design and taste. I wasn’t as huge a fan of gold as these guys. 
I slowly approached the bed, before remembering to cast [Silence] around the vicinity. I didn’t want any guards hearing anything. 
After I cast the spell, I crept forward toward the bed with the others in tow. One might wonder why we were still creeping around after casting [Silence], and the reason for that was simple enough. It wasn’t a spell that eliminated sound from a space. Instead, it prevented sound from escaping. For everyone in the room, all sounds were still fairly audible. Even if we were invisible, we’d still be heard if we didn’t take care. In an ideal world, I’d be able to use another cast of [Silence] to cover our footsteps, but apparently, the spell couldn’t be stacked like that. 
I made it to the side of the bed and approached the two slumbering people. Alright, now for the hypnosis... 
“...Who is that?” 
“Nh?!” The emperor of Gardio suddenly opened his eyes. He wasn’t looking directly at us, but it was clear he’d sensed our presence. 
“How...?” 
“He noticed our presence, he did... He seems to be a man of keen sense, he does.” Yae whispered to me quietly. Even so, that level of precision was unusual... But we’d only hidden our bodies, it wasn’t like we were masking our breathing or steps. 
Curiously enough, Yae, Hilde, and Elze weren’t easily tricked by people with [Invisible] cast on them. They had strangely sharp senses that allowed them to feel people nearby. Presumably, that meant the emperor was a similar kind of person. 
Crap, what do we do? Should we run, or confront him? This room is enchanted, so if we raise a ruckus, nobody’ll hear... 
“An intruder from Isengard, then? The old man’s still craving even more power?” Hm... He definitely knows we’re here. The empress was awake at this point, and the emperor was fumbling under his pillow for what was presumably a hidden weapon. 
But we weren’t from Isengard, that was an interesting development. 
“...What should we do, Touya-dono?” 
“Nothing else for it. Let’s just talk to them head-on.” 
“That... Could cause them some trouble, couldn’t it?” 
“If it comes to that, I’ll mess with their minds using hypnosis magic and make it so this never happened. That should be enough.” Lu sighed at my response. She was probably baffled by how casually I took the situation. You’d have thought she’d be used to it by now. 
I quickly dispelled our invisibility, and our sudden appearance made the emperor and empress scramble from their bed. 
“Well, who are you?! Are you with Isengard, or not?” 
“We aren’t. If anything, I guess we’d be on business from Lowe.” 
“From Lowe?! It can’t be...” 
“Darling...!” The two of them paled in response to my words. Given their reaction, I could only assume they did, in fact, know about the prince’s origin. 
“Someone, help! We’ve intruders!” The emperor of Gardio pulled a small blade out from his pillow as he cried out for assistance. But nobody came to help them. My [Silence] spell meant his cries would go unheard. 
“That won’t do anything. This room has been sealed off thanks to my magic.” 
“A-A spellcaster?!” The emperor pointed a small blade at me as he composed himself. In response, Yae crawled her hand toward the sheathed blade at her waist. 
They presumably thought we were here to harm them, given Gardio’s involvement in the country’s ruin. 
“It’s been so long, I never expected that we’d be attacked by remnants of the Lowe Kingdom...” 
“We’re not here to attack you. We’re not even from Lowe to begin with. We were just asked by former Lowe subjects to investigate the whereabouts of their missing prince. We didn’t expect that he’d have become your heir.” The empress fell to the floor upon hearing what I said. A look of distress clouded her face as she looked at us. 
“...P-Please... H-He’s our son... I know he isn’t bound to us by blood, but we love him! Please don’t take him away!” The empress broke down and started crying. The emperor merely looked down at her with a miserable expression on his face. 
It seemed that they knew about the boy’s true lineage. I was glad that I hadn’t driven a wedge into their marriage, but I still felt kinda shitty. It felt like I was torturing them, almost. Lu and Yae evidently felt the same way, given the guilty looks on their faces. 
“...Have you come to take our son from us?” The emperor tightened the grip on his weapon as he stared us down, faint traces of contempt in his voice. 
“I’m capable of rapid teleportation magic. If I wanted to take him, he would already be gone. I came here to learn the truth from you. I want to know how the prince of Lowe became the heir to the Gardio empire. I want to know how all this started. We’ll make our decision on how to proceed afterward. I’m sorry to ask like this, but... Could you tell us your story?” It took a few moments for my words to sink in, and the Gardio emperor lowered his weapon. He threw it gently onto the sheets. He reached down and helped his wife up, before pulling her into a gentle embrace. The two of them then sat down on their bed together. 
“...It has long been a fear for me that this day would come. I never wanted anyone to learn our secret, much less threaten to expose it, but...” With a heavy sigh, the emperor looked down at the floor. He then began to speak his tale. 
 
It was ten years ago. 
I was the heir to the Gardio empire. My father reigned as emperor. 
It was the wintertime when I, under my father’s orders, led an army in a charge against the Kingdom of Lowe. 
Gollems couldn’t function efficiently in Lowe’s land, due to the rich mithril ore dotted around their land. The twelve generals of Lowe wielded the beast emperor Gollems, which weren’t affected by this weakness. That was how Lowe had managed to repel all their invaders over time. 
But all that changed when one of the generals betrayed Lowe. After Isengard acquired a beast emperor, the dynamic shifted. 
Isengard developed a device that negated the mithril-induced weaknesses in Gollems. Gardio is a land plentiful in resources, and Isengard needed one of our raw materials to finalize their device. That’s how we became involved in all of this. 
The idea was to fight together against Lowe, and split the spoils afterward. 
I was strongly opposed to this, but my father was emperor, and his word was law. He drew up a strong negotiation that allowed Gardio to claim most of Lowe’s land after everything was over. 
Lowe had repelled Gardio’s invasions many times in previous generations. I can only assume that my father was after the immortalizing glory of being the first emperor to finally defeat them. 
Isengard had only one target, the Azure Ruin within Lowe’s territory. It was a hotbed of legacy Gollems, a site that was rich in ancient technology. According to Isengard, that’s all they wanted. We could have everything else. 
Isengard and Gardio combined to form an army of tens of thousands of Soldats. I commanded Gardio’s military, and the witch-king commanded Isengard’s. Together we ravaged the cities and people of Lowe. 
The twelve, or rather... Eleven generals of Lowe were defeated one after the other by our combined forces. Even though the beast emperors were monstrously powerful, it ended up being a fight of eleven versus several tens of thousands. It was an absolute defeat. 
The capital was crushed, and the entire country was wiped off the map overnight. 
The day after the battle, one of my close assistants discovered a dead body of interest. A wet nurse from Lowe’s royal castle. She held a baby in her arms, one we quickly identified. He wore clothes bearing the royal emblem of Lowe. 
He was the last prince of Lowe. The final survivor of the royal bloodline. 
If a prince of a ruined nation was left alive, it was possible he’d incite rebellion once fully grown. A common fact of war was to kill children like this, in order to prevent future uprisings. 
But... I hesitated and found I could not run my blade through the boy. How could I? 
After all... I’d been informed just a couple of days before... My own son had been born. 
My wife was never especially fertile, and we’d had trouble conceiving a child. Her happy face flashed through my mind. 
Perhaps it was guilt I felt, for being part of the force that killed his parents. Perhaps it was naive elation at having become a father myself... Perhaps it was just softness... But I couldn’t bring myself to snuff out that crying voice. He sounded as though he wanted to live. 
... I was lucky. Only two people knew about the boy. Myself, and the assistant. I entrusted the baby to him and had them sent back to the imperial capital before anyone asked any questions. I burned his clothing, eliminating any evidence he was of Lowe lineage. 
I intended to leave him in an orphanage, and allow him to grow as a normal boy. I thought perhaps I’d keep an eye on him as he grew, and if he showed promise I’d have him join my son’s cabinet as a supportive member of the government. 
But... On the day I made it home, tragedy struck. 
My son had died. It was caused by unknown medical complications. Even though it was nobody’s fault, I still felt as though a knife had been thrust through my heart. And... While dealing with that grief, I began to consider the political implications. 
Due to my wife’s difficulty to conceive, my father had been pressuring me to leave her and have a child with someone else. 
My father had many mistresses, but I’m strictly monogamous. Since I was a young boy, I always felt a deep sense of disgust toward my father. He treated women very poorly and only saw my mother as a way to produce an heir. 
My father used women like tools, and only had a few male heirs. The only one to survive to adulthood was me. 
That was the kind of man my father was. If he learned of my son’s death, he’d have my wife taken from me. He’d likely even have her killed, reasoning that a woman who birthed a weak child was fundamentally useless. I wanted to avoid that at all costs. 
He was busy with Isengard due to the war negotiations and hadn’t seen the face of my newborn son yet. As vexing as it was, his lack of care was a quiet blessing that one time. 
My son’s death had not yet been reported to the emperor. It had happened out of the blue. In fact, my son died only moments before I reached my palace in the capital. 
I stopped it from being reported to my father and considered how I might avoid him learning the truth. 
It was then that I remember the baby. 
I had the little prince brought to me and ensured the silence of everyone who knew. And it was in that moment that the prince of Lowe became my son, the heir to the Gardio empire. 
“About a year later, my father collapsed and never woke up. I ascended to the imperial throne, and we no longer had to fear his foul attitude. But by that point, the little boy from Lowe had truly become our beloved son...” The empress of Gardio finished his story as he gently held his weeping wife. 
That was quite a story... I personally wanted to leave them alone, but I wasn’t sure if Colonel and the others would accept the situation. 
It had become awfully complicated. 
“We only have one desire. We wish for the boy... Lucrecion, to live by our side. We’ll do anything to keep our happy life.” 
“Please, I beg you... Please don’t take our little boy away from us!” The empress and emperor looked at me. H-How the hell did it come to this?! “...This is rough.” 
“For now we should tell the people from Lowe about this, we should. They would not want the prince to be sad, they would not.” 
“Well, they did mention how they didn’t want to see him destitute or anything. They probably just want to make him happy, I don’t think they’re going to start a revolution or anything...” I was kind of speculating there, but I didn’t think they were fueled by vengeance or anything. Yumina’s Mystic Eyes would’ve figured out if they had such intentions. 
The empress looked up at me, resolve flaring in her gaze. 
“...Can we speak with the people from Lowe? I wish for them to understand our perspective...” 
“Are you sure about this, Asteria...?” The empress nodded toward her uncertain husband. 
Guess there’s nothing for it... We’ve been pulled into this mess, so we might as well finish it. I don’t exactly want to see a family torn apart because of me. 
... I hope the situation doesn’t get bad enough that I need to use my hypnosis to rewrite their memories, though. They don’t seem like bad people. I wouldn’t want to use that spell on them... 
 
“...What? You’re telling me that Prince Lufredin is Gardio’s imperial prince? Is this a sick joke?!” First Lieutenant smacked her fist down against the table. The dark-skinned beauty stood up, shaking with fury. 
I understood her feelings. From her perspective, the country that had ruined her homeland had also stolen her prince. 
“I’m afraid it’s no joke. The prince is living as the heir to the Gardio empire’s throne. That’s the truth of the situation.” Sergeant, who usually had a thin smile on his face, looked to the ground in frustration. 
“This isn’t possible! He used our prince?! He used Lufredin as a cheap decoy?! A replacement for his own? What a bastard...” We were in the Red Cats’ main tent, and the mood was rather sour. Nia and Est were sitting off to the side, watching the scene unfold with unease in their eyes. 
“Gardio’s emperor wants to speak with you all. Will you take him up on it?” 
“He wants to speak?! What is there to discuss?! We demand Lufredin be returned to us, immediately! How dare those thieves try to take the moral high ground!” First Lieutenant spewed out her anger. Colonel, on the other hand, had his eyes closed and hadn’t said anything for a while. 
“Why don’t you guys just calm down! Touya isn’t a messenger for you people, understand? Meet the emperor on your own if you want to tell him that.” Lu scowled and started mouthing off toward First Lieutenant. She was probably angry. In response to Lu’s tirade, the dark-skinned woman backed off. 
The situation was simple enough. The Magitechnocracy of Isengard had waged war on the Kingdom of Lowe and dragged in the Gardio Empire. 
Lowe was an isolated nation and didn’t converse much with outsiders. I couldn’t help but feel things might have worked out differently if Isengard had tried to speak with them before the invasion... But it was too late for what-ifs. 
“What kind of talks do they even want to have with us? How do we know they’re not trying to gather us in one place and execute us?” First Lieutenant continued her angry tirade, but Colonel finally stood up and silenced her. 
“I do not believe he’s that kind of person. When the emperor was just a prince... I fought him, one-on-one. It was during the invasion of Lowe, and it was also the battle in which I lost my eye.” Colonel pointed toward his own face as he spoke. First Lieutenant and Sergeant expressed surprise at this revelation. 
“The instigator of that was definitely the witch-king of Isengard. As his Soldats surrounded our royal castle, I was elsewhere... The imperial prince of Gardio had led his army in a pincer movement. He told me to surrender peacefully, over and over, but I paid him no heed. Because I kept on fighting so stubbornly... My attention remained there, and the king I served ended up dying. I also lost my eye... It’s an ironic twist of fate that the man I was trying to kill... Saved our little prince.” Colonel laughed bitterly. He was right. If Colonel had beaten the prince of Gardio, then the king of Lowe likely still would’ve died, and the little prince might’ve died as well. There was no way to say for sure, but it was still possible. 
“Lowe’s territory is mostly under control of the Gardio empire now... But it’s true that they haven’t treated us unfairly. There’s no unjust taxation or oppression of our people. It’s peaceful. At least in the area around our former capital, Laevateinn. That’s the part governed by the emperor of Gardio. The land around the Azure Ruin, governed by Isengard, on the other hand... Isn’t so pretty. Either way, I do not believe the emperor would double-cross us.” 
“That doesn’t change the fact that they took our home from us... I’ll never forgive that.” First Lieutenant muttered under her breath. 
I didn’t think she had to forgive them, either. She was ultimately entitled to her feelings. But I hoped that the hatred wouldn’t carry on to future generations. 
If the chain of hatred was never broken, it would continue to cause misery for many. Teaching your kids stuff like “these guys are the enemy,” or “we can never afford to forgive them” was a wicked thing to do. 
I was an outsider on this situation, though... So perhaps I wasn’t qualified to comment... 
“If you talk with the emperor, I’ll promise your safety. I won’t let them catch you guys out, or do anything sneaky. Obviously, I won’t let you do anything to them, either...” 
“This decision can’t be left to us three alone. Let us confer with our associates first... We’ll need some time.” 
“Alright then. In that case, we’ll give you a week.” 
“Very well.” Colonel then left the tent with the others. 
I heaved a sigh and slumped back in my chair. Lowe and Gardio weren’t any of my business... But I’d still become part of the mess. 
“I wonder if they wanna take the prince away from the empire.” 
“I hope not. I don’t think it’s morally right to take a child and tell him that his parents aren’t his actual parents, and that they sided with the people who killed his real ones.” Est and Nia talked amongst themselves. 
“...I feel sorry for the boy.” 
“But it might be good for him to learn the truth, it might.” Lu and Yae shared their own thoughts. It was a pretty difficult situation. 
“Mmm... I could always use hypnosis on the three of them and tell them we couldn’t find the prince...” 
“...That seems a little cruel and uncaring of their feelings.” 
“You’re right... Sorry.” Est was correct. They’d spent the better part of a decade looking for him. It’d be too cruel for me to crush that dream. 
“Come to think of it... The emperor of Gardio assumed we were attackers from Isengard, right? Do the two countries have a bad relationship?” 
“I wouldn’t call it a good one. Isengard invaded Lowe so they could get their hands on the Azure Ruin, which was a treasure trove of ancient technology. But another site of historical interest, the Emerald Ruin, was later found in the Lowe territory that had been granted to Gardio. Isengard immediately tried to lay claim to it, and they’ve been in a dispute about it ever since. Some fear that Isengard might invade Gardio’s land to try and get it.” Seriously...? They’re going that far just for some ruins? They sound obsessed. “From what I understand, they’ve been searching for something in particular. Given their interest, I can only imagine it’s something left behind by an ancient civilization.” Hmm... So they’re after stuff from the Gollem-creation era... I guess it’s kinda like the stuff you’d find in Babylon’s Storehouse, so I can understand why a country would want to get their hands on it. 
“Isengard rose to power after excavating several ancient Gollem technologies from their ruins. Soldats and Panzers are widespread in this world thanks to them.” 
“Soldats are the Gollems that can be controlled en masse by people, right? What’s a Panzer?” 
“They’re equipment-based Gollems. They’re basically Gollems that take the form of armor or a weapon. Something that can be worn or wielded, or attached. These Gollems often have a will of their own, making them much more reliable than regular weapons or gear.” What?! Like a mechsuit with an AI or something? Est elaborated, explaining that they didn’t have special abilities like Legacy Gollems or anything. 
Isengard began using their technology to expand their territory through military conquest. There were other strong nations, like the Lassei Military Kingdom, or the Kingdom of Strain to the north, but people were still worried Isengard could do anything at any time. That was the kind of reputation it had. 
“From what I hear, the witch-king of Isengard is a deranged old man. They say he even fused a Gollem’s arm to his body.” ... Now we’ve got cyborgs entering the story? This is ridiculous! 
I’d understand if he lost his arm in a fight or an accident, and replaced it... But apparently, that wasn’t what had happened. 
According to the rumors, he simply had his own arm removed and fitted a mechanical replacement because it was capable of more precise motions. That was a little much for me to understand... The old guy definitely sounded like the kind of person you wouldn’t want to invite around for dinner. 
“He likely had Lowe invaded due to his lust for new and strange technologies. His taste for technological understanding is unmatched.” Est’s words made me a little worried. 
We’d fought mutants in Isengard territory not long ago... And we were definitely spotted by villagers. 
That was really bad. I should’ve taken better precautions. 
“It’s still a difficult situation overall, however... Some of the technologies they’ve uncovered have bettered the world on a whole, after all.” 
“That’s right. Isengard invented long-distance communication, but it’s not as good as these devices you gave us, Touya.” Nia casually waved around her smartphone. I made a mental note to never let Isengard get ahold of my technology. 
“Is Isengard the best in the world when it comes to Gollem tech, then?” 
“I’d say so, yes. But in terms of Gollem masters, not so much. They almost exclusively use Panzers and Soldats, so they don’t have any special abilities.” 
“They believe in quantity over quality. They’d rather use regular weapons that can be wielded by many, than special weapons that can be wielded by few.” In other words, they were a mass-production culture. That definitely meant they’d be capable of making a lot of things at once... Quite the industrious nation, even if its leader was a weirdo. 
I wondered what the central government thought of him... He certainly sounded like a whole handful of trouble. 
“And what about the Gardio empire?” 
“They’ve been working on their own infrastructure lately. The former emperor was a bit of a tyrant, and they’d often fight with the Strain Kingdom, and the Steel Nation of Gandhillis. But since the new emperor took over, relationships with both nations have improved a fair bit. On the other hand, its relationship with Isengard has declined...” That made sense. A change in leadership often meant a change in policy. 
That reminded me, it was almost time for the League of Nations to meet. I needed to tell everyone back in the regular world about the existence of the Reverse World. Right now the only country that knew was Palerius. 
A lot of things would change once the two worlds unified... So I needed to explain things in order for them to prepare. I wondered if I should bring them over to the Reverse World for a little look. I couldn’t just bring them to Drakliff Island, though... All they’d see is Shirogane and a bunch of dragons. 
In the end, I decided that Primula or Triharan would be the best bet, if they’d co-operate. If the world leaders from the regular world saw Gollems and Reverse World city streets with their own eyes, they’d probably grasp things a lot better. 
I opened up my smartphone and started flicking through the contacts. 
 
“...Slow down, Touya my lad... This story’s a little much...” 
“I understand. I know it’s hard to believe. But I promise you I’m not taking you for a ride here.” The world leaders were looking at me like I’d just flipped their entire worldview on its head. Because I had. 
Projected on the conference room monitor was a map of a world much like the one we were in. The only difference was, it was flipped. 
I’d also invited Relisha to this meeting as a representative of the guild, and I’d brought in Pam as a representative of the Sea of Trees, too. 
Of the roughly twenty or so countries in the world, the vast majority were participating in the League of Nations. I wasn’t really counting ruined places like Sandora and Yulong, though... And the Sea of Trees barely qualified as a country. 
The following countries were represented at my meeting: 
 The Kingdom of Belfast 
 The Regulus Empire 
 The Refreese Empire 
 The Kingdom of Mismede 
 The Ramissh Theocracy 
 The Roadmare Union 
 The Lestia Knight Kingdom 
 The Kingdom of Lihnea 
 The Divine Nation, Eashen 
 The Demon Kingdom of Xenoahs 
 The Kingdom of Palouf 
 The Magic Kingdom of Felsen 
 The Kingdom of Elfrau 
 The Kingdom of Ryle 
 The Kingdom of Hannock 
 The Kingdom of Egret 
 The Kingdom of Palerius 
 The Duchy of Brunhild 
I’d assembled representatives of all these listed nations to tell them about the Reverse World. 
Not only that, but I told them all about the future event that would merge the two worlds together. 
To be honest, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they thought I was crazy. But on the other hand, everyone here had a faint understanding of the concept of other worlds. That was all thanks to the Phrase, extradimensional invaders they’d seen with their own eyes. 
“Even though the worlds are merging, I can promise that nothing cataclysmic is going to happen in terms of the environment. I’ve already made the necessary precautions.” 
“Then... Tell us. When this other world joins ours, how exactly will that work?” The Queen of Elfrau raised her arm and spoke directly to me. 
“I’d compare it to discovering a new landmass across the sea. Nothing in terms of our existing environment will change. We’ll just be bridged to a new one over the water.” 
The worlds were joining together, they weren’t overlapping with each other. Thankfully, the landmasses weren’t going to fuse or anything, they’d just be connected via the sea that already exists in both worlds. However, it was possible for some level of underground overlap as far as land beneath the waves went, so it wouldn’t have been too unusual to see new islands appear here or there. 
“I can’t wrap my head around this... Touya, what are the people of this other world like?” 
“I haven’t visited many countries over there, so I can’t tell you how they are across the board. But for the most part, they’re similar to us. The only difference is that magic isn’t all that established over there. It’s not like they don’t have it at all, but they don’t really need it.” 
“How can they not need magic? What is that supposed to mean?” The king of Felsen looked at me in sheer confusion. Given that magic was central to Felsen’s society, it was obvious a statement like that would worry him. 
“They have more of a focus on magitechnology than magic. Do you guys remember the ether vehicle I showed you guys a while back? They have things like that over in that world, that kind of thing is more commonplace, if not a bit expensive.” 
“Then their society is more advanced than ours?” 
“Mm... No, I wouldn’t say so. For example... if there was a job that we could take care of in under a day with a couple Earth mages, it’d probably take them about a week using their Gollems. Oh right, Gollems are kinda like little golems that can do a variety of things for people. There are different areas where they excel and fall behind in.” I began sharing all that I knew about the implications of the merging worlds. It was in motion now, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. And given that we’d be a fresh world, that also meant attacks from the mutants would increase until the wicked god was dealt with. 
“...I don’t get it. Sea of Trees won’t be affected, right?” 
“Other than the mutant attacks, no.” 
“Fine by us, then. If Touya needs help, Touya gets help from we tribes. Just ask us and we’ll come.” Pam shrugged and smiled in her chair. Seemed like the tribes really didn’t care about international matters. To them, the world might as well have ended at the woodland’s border. 
“Central-dono, you went to the other world, did you not? How would you describe it?” The Mikado of Eashen, Shirahime, turned to the Queen of Palerius and posed her question. 
“I was only really in a castle of this country called Primula, so I’m not sure... It wasn’t really all that different to the world I’ve seen here. Even their food was pretty ordinary.” Millie, who’d come along as an escort for Central, ended up taste-testing the food for poison. It was all pretty standard over there, really. There wasn’t much of a difference between the worlds when it came to cookery. 
“Touya... I’m a little concerned about the other world potentially taking military action against us. Would they use those, uh... Gollems? Against us?” The King of Lihnea’s remark was met by nods and muttering from the other leaders. That was a natural fear. 
“There’ll be a large ocean separating us, so I don’t think they’ll be able to mobilize. If they did, I wouldn’t just sit around either. Neither would anyone else. That’s the purpose of our alliance.” In truth, I hoped the Reverse World would join our League of Nations as well. All the other member-states seemed to agree with that sentiment. Ultimately it was down to the Reverse World’s co-operation. 
If they didn’t want to interact with us, I’d be fine leaving them alone. If they came trying to fight, I’d put a stop to it. I wanted the two sides to get along, I didn’t want either side being oppressed by the other. 
“Well... It is Touya we’re talking about here.” 
“I hope for their own sake that the other world has smart leaders.” 
“Yeah... I wonder how many countries he’ll wipe from their map when this is all over?” 
“Hm... Hard to say... Over here it was just two countries, but you never know...” The leaders of Belfast, Regulus, Mismede, and Refreese all started talking amongst themselves. It was annoying. I wasn’t the one that destroyed Yulong! And I hardly took down Sandora all by myself, either... 
They weren’t wrong that I had some negative feelings about Isengard, though. 
I didn’t think it was good to judge them solely based on hearsay, so I wanted to meet the witch-king myself. For all I knew, he could just be a ditzy old man... Though the idea of a ditzy old man having full national authority was concerning too. 
It was entirely possible that just the head of state was bad, while the cabinet was okay. It’d be bad if they were completely rotten all the way through, like Yulong or Sandora... But then again, if they weren’t corrupt, then surely they would’ve stopped the old guy’s crazy stuff. 
“The world merge isn’t coming any time super soon, so don’t worry for now. Even when it does happen, not much will change in terms of our landmass. I think for now, we shouldn’t tell the general public, either...” 
“That’s fair. I think it’ll only confuse people. Actually, wait... Do we want to bring Nokia and Horn in on this?” The Doge of Roadmare spoke up. 
I’d definitely been thinking about that. 
The Kingdom of Horn and the Kingdom of Nokia were the only two nations left in the regular world that hadn’t joined the League of Nations. 
Horn had been in contact with Felsen fairly regularly, however. They had an excuse. 
The nation was currently undergoing a struggle for leadership. There was presently no head of state available to lead them into the alliance. The old king had died without naming an heir, and several arguments erupted about who’d be the new ruler. Until all that died down, the country wasn’t making any treaties with the outside. 
As for the Nokia Kingdom, Xenoahs had tried several times to make contact... To no avail. 
Nokia was built up by people who’d escaped from Yulong’s oppression, and they were dug deep inside a mountain range. They kept to themselves, mostly. Xenoahs was pretty isolated until recently as well, so there wasn’t much precedent for contact between the two lands. It was kind of a pain. 
“We’ll leave Horn and Nokia for the time being. Even if we told them, it’s not like they’d be able to do much.” 
“That’s true. It’s not like we can even do much with this information, either.” The Doge nodded slowly. If they didn’t wish to communicate with us, I wasn’t going to force them to. 
“Does this other world have a guild connecting it?” 
Guildmaster Relisha raised a question of her own. Knowing her, she was probably thinking of expanding the guild already. 
“Not in the countries I’ve been to, no. Monsters exist in that world, but they’re usually taken care of by the state and their Gollems. Villages also pool their resources to buy Gollem guards. There are also a few Gollem masters who make money by roaming around and killing monsters for people.” 
“Hm... Interesting...” Relisha was already planning something. I could practically see her drawing up intense calculations in her mind. She was an elf, so she had a long life ahead of her. That meant it’d be easy for her to make a slow, crawling plan to get the Reverse World to adopt the guild structure. 
I was fine with that, personally. After all, I was an adventurer. 
Small villages didn’t have the luxury of buying efficient Gollem security or even any at all. So it’d be good to make that world a bit safer. 
Even the villages that did have guard Gollems weren’t guaranteed to be safe. It wasn’t like one or two Gollems could fight back against an entire horde of goblins or anything. 
In terms of fighting power, the regular world had the edge over the Reverse World. The people over there relied on technology and Gollems to do the fighting for them, so there weren’t as many people with individual or special talent. 
“Hm... I’d like a chance to go to this other world. Is that possible?” 
“I mean, you could... But it’d be dangerous. You wouldn’t be protected by your reputation, as you wouldn’t be considered a king over there.” 
“...Come on now, lad. You can handle most threats no problem, right?” 
“...I guess.” The Beastking grinned widely in my direction. He was counting on me a little too much. To be fair if I cast a [Prison] around us, we’d be safe from just about anything except the wicked god. But I would need to take care to avoid poisons or natural hazards. 
I decided to ask Triharan or Primula to act as hosts for the royals at some point. Having them all go at once would be bad, but I could definitely take them in groups of three or four. Though once you factored in their escorts, the party would be pretty big... 
After the meeting, we all moved to the game room, and the various world leaders unwound together. Now and then we’d get small disputes between countries that I’d merrily mediate in person, as well. 
I sincerely hoped that I’d be able to deal with issues like that in the Reverse World in a similar way. 
At this point in time, I only had connections with Primula and Triharan... Although there was also that guy from Panaches, too... He was the weirdo prince who had the blue crown... Frankly, he was too freaky for me to handle. 
But still, he’d be able to introduce me to his parents. 
Please, please let his parents be normal people... Please... 
 
The day of the meeting between the Gardio emperor and the remnants of Lowe had come. 
The air in the room was tense from the start. 
We were in the Gardio empire’s imperial palace. The room we’d chosen had been secured by my [Silence] spell, so nobody outside could hear what was going on. 
I sat on a little chair in the corner of the room with Yumina and Leen. Paula was also nearby. 
There were two sofas in the middle of the room, each facing the other. On one was Colonel, First Lieutenant, and Sergeant. They were here representing Lowe. On the other couch was the emperor, Falchion Lig Gardio, and his wife Asteria. To their left sat the prime minister of Gardio, Lancelo Olcott. 
Lancelo was actually the man who originally found Prince Lufredin and reported it to the emperor way back. 
It’d be wrong to say that things would’ve gone better had the little prince died, but it was also true that the small action made by that man on that day spiraled outward into the future and created this messy situation. 
“...To think I’d meet with that knight again after all this time. Tell me, that eye wound...” 
“It was war. I have no grudge surrounding my lost eye. I’m alive, so that’s all I care about.” I couldn’t imagine what Colonel and the Emperor must have been feeling, meeting with an old foe like this after so long. I was, however, pleased to see they were being cordial. 
“Goodness... Even so, I must extend my apology to you... For so much more than your injury.” The emperor lowered his head to the trio, expressing his profound apologies. His wife followed suit. 
“I beg your forgiveness. For the loss of your homeland, for my weakness in stopping my father... For the fact that I took the child, you’d been so faithfully searching for... This was all brought about by my own weakness...” 
“You dare ask us forgiveness?!” First Lieutenant glared at the bowing couple before standing up. Her body was tense. 
“How could we forgive you?! You took our home! You killed the people we love! You took away our honor, our happiness, and then took away our very hope! How could we think to forgive you?!” 
“...I know you can’t just forgive us as if nothing happened. But I still wish to say I’m sorry. Even if you don’t forgive me, I am sorry. I wish I had the courage to stand up to my father... If I’d done things differently this wouldn’t have come to pass.” 
His fervent apology fell on deaf ears. No matter how he phrased it, the truth was still that the three had lost their home for petty reasons. I could understand their feelings. 
Prime Minister Lancelo suddenly opened his mouth. 
“The Empire intends to liberate all former Lowe territories and grant it independence.” 
“What?” 
“Ex...cuse me?” Sergeant and Lieutenant stared in disbelief, while Colonel’s eyebrow raised slightly. 
Huh... Independence? It’d kinda be like Brunhild, then? A small country with start-up backing from a larger one? Colonel glanced toward Lancelo and spoke up. 
“Would everyone in Gardio’s government really be fine with that decision? That place is fulla riches, you know.” 
“Ever since the previous emperor died, Lowe’s former territory has been placed under direct imperial authority. The resources and revenue taken from that area has only ever been used for the betterment of that area. Therefore I have no reason to believe anyone would oppose the decision, as it wouldn’t affect the rest of the empire. However... Isengard still owns the territory around the Azure Ruin, and we would be unable to return that plot of land.” Isengard had taken control of all territory around the Azure Ruin, but that land barely made up twenty percent of Lowe’s total territory. I’d also heard that many of the people living there had fled to Gardio after being unable to handle the Magitechnocracy’s oppressive practices. 
“Then... Lowe can come back?” First Lieutenant muttered quietly to herself, but Colonel ignored it and spoke directly to the emperor. 
“We appreciate your offer. Reviving Lowe is a generous act. But we serve our kingdom, we are not fit to stand at the top. We recognize only one ruler. Prince Lufredin.” 
“But...” The empress started to speak, but quickly stopped herself. Colonel was effectively asking them to return the prince to them... But I didn’t think that was something the empire would easily agree to. I decided to interject. 
“...Is it fine to talk like this without him being here? I feel like since this concerns him, he has a right to be involved in the decision.” 
“How is this even a decision? Why would he refuse to rebuild his homeland? The only one fit to be King of Lowe is Prince Lufredin. Hell, why would a prince without imperial blood inherit the empire anyway? That’s ridiculous!” First Lieutenant suddenly butted in, complaining about my request, but the emperor simply turned to Prime Minister Lancelo. 
“...Bring the boy here. We shall hear what he decides.” 
“Your Highness?” 
“It’s okay, Lancelo. It’s his life, in the end. My sin was interfering in his destiny to begin with.” The prime minister seemed like he wanted to argue against that, but he simply sighed and got up. 
After a short while, the prime minister returned with the young prince. He seemed a little confused to see outsiders, but walked over regardless. 
I could sense the emotion welling up from Colonel and his friends. They were probably remembering their old king as they saw his son in the flesh. 
“Father, mother? Did you need something?” 
“...Aye. We have something important to discuss.” The emperor walked toward the prince and knelt down so the two were at eye level. He then reached out and placed his hands on the boy’s shoulders. 
“What I’m about to tell you is entirely truthful, okay? It will affect the rest of your life, so please understand...” 
“...Okay.” The emperor began telling the entire story. He spoke of what happened ten years ago, of Lowe, of Isengard, and of the former emperor... 
The young boy continued to calmly listen throughout. I was honestly a bit surprised at how well he was taking it. 
This kind of thing would shock me to the core if I were him, but he seemed amazingly understanding. Even hearing that he wasn’t the biological son of his parents didn’t faze him, which made me wonder... 
After the emperor finished speaking, the prince looked back at him and spoke up. 
“...I already knew. I knew that I wasn’t your son. But I knew you still thought of me as one and loved me all the same.” 
“You... Knew?” 
“Eh? Lucrecion...? How?” The emperor and his wife went pale in the face. Even the prime minister and Colonel’s group seemed shocked into confusion. 
I had a feeling... That explained his calm demeanor, at least. He already knew the story, so it was no surprise. But I wondered how he’d learned. “Father... Please look here.” The prince raised his arm, flashing the golden bracer he wore. It was the suppressing bracer, the one that prevented his Mystic Eyes from manifesting. 
I looked closely and noticed it had a crack running through it. It was broken. “Oh...” 
“I was training about a year ago and received a blow to my wrist. That’s when it broke. I was told to treasure it, so I didn’t want to upset anyone by mentioning it... And then I started seeing strange things.” Prince Lucrecion went on to say that ever since his bracer broke, he’d see visions of the past when he touched objects. Apparently it was unstable and random. Not every object granted him visions, and sometimes it wouldn’t trigger more than once on the same object. 
He gradually came to realize that the source of his visions were his Mystic Eyes. His eye could see into the past. He couldn’t control the power, but it was a real power nonetheless. His eye wasn’t extremely strong or anything, but it allowed him to see things even dating back ten years. 
“Psychometry... He has Mystic Eyes that allows him to sense lingering memories associated with objects.” Leen commented casually. It’d probably be called the Mystic Eyes of Memory Perception. Even though it was a power that triggered randomly, it allowed the prince to learn the truth of his situation through sheer chance. He’d always admired his father’s sword from a young age, and he’d been given a vision of what happened in Lowe after picking it up without his father’s knowledge. 
“...When I learned I wasn’t your birth son, I was incredibly sad. I didn’t want to see it as true. But I also knew that you loved me. The love I felt from you was real, and I know I love you too. I may not be your biological son, but you are still my parents.” 
“L-Lucrecion...” Tears welled up in the emperor’s eyes as he embraced the child in front of him. The empress started to loudly weep as she walked over to hold her son. 
“Father. I do not have the blood of Gardio’s imperial family. If I ascend to the imperial throne, it would be a betrayal of our people. I know it’s hard, but you must find a more appropriate successor.” 
“...If you wish it...” The emperor, still teary-eyed, nodded. The emperor did have several sisters, so there were still candidates to succeed the throne. But I wondered what that meant for Lucrecion... 
“Then... Does that mean you’ll become the new king of Lowe once it’s rebuilt?” Yumina posed the boy a question, and he shook his head. 
Oh? 
His non-verbal response triggered visible frustration on the Lowe trio’s faces. 
“...I don’t have memories of them, but I am thankful to my birth parents for letting me come into this world. I feel sorry for your plight, but I am a boy who grew up within the Gardio empire. I want to continue living as Lucrecion, and become a man who lives within this empire. My parents are these two people, right here. I don’t expect my feelings to change, I’m sorry.” 
“But... What about the people of Lowe?! We’ve all been waiting for our prince!” 
“I can’t live up to those expectations, I’m sorry. Please try to find a way to elect a new leader, one that can lead a new Lowe.” 
Pity flashed in Lucrecion’s eyes as he answered First Lieutenant. For a ten-year-old, he was incredibly well-spoken and emotionally mature. What the hell were they feeding him? 
The boy had chosen his path in life, and I didn’t think anyone could put a stop to that. 
“Lucrecion... Are you really fine with this?” 
“I am. There are ways I can help make the empire great, even without ruling it. I wouldn’t want to disgrace our family, after all. I am your son.” 
“You’re... Ridiculous, you know that?” The emperor seemed like he couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry. In response, the young prince smiled widely and embraced the older man. 
Colonel slowly walked over toward them and knelt down in front of the prince. His expression formed a soft-looking smile, unbecoming of a man as scary-looking as him. 
“...Stubborn as a mule. Headstrong, and unwavering... You’re exactly like your birth father... He’d be proud to know his blood flows through you.” 
“...Were my parents from Lowe... Were they good people?” 
“Yes. The best. They were warm, trusting people. They treated others so very kindly. That’s why... I’d like you to keep their ideals in your heart as you forge your own path, too.” 
“I... Of course... I’m sorry...” The prince looked down at the floor in response to Colonel’s words. Even if he didn’t remember them, they’d still loved him when they were alive. It would be sad if he didn’t carry any of that in his own heart. 
Alright, now we just need to see what’s gonna happen with Lowe... 
As I mused to myself, the nearby windows shattered. Several metallic-looking feathers had shot through the glass panes and embedded in the ground near the emperor, the prince, and Colonel. 
I stared at the metallic-looking things in confusion, but Colonel seemed to recognize them. A horrified expression dawned on his face as he tackled the young prince and pushed him away from them. 
“Get down!” The feathery things suddenly expanded and burst. The room, enchanted with [Silence] broke out into a series of deafening explosions. Nobody outside heard a thing. 
The sudden attack took me by surprise, so I barely managed to react in time. 
The best move would have been to activate a [Prison] around each individual explosive, but in the end, I created a [Prison] that contained me and the others. Or more specifically, I created a [Prison] that centered around me and expanded until every other living person in the room was caught inside. 
Nobody was harmed by the feather-bombs, but they ended up taking out an entire wall. It gave us a good look at the courtyard below. 
“Ghh... That was close.” 
“That it was...” 
“Good save, darling... We could’ve died.” 
Leen wasn’t kidding. If I’d screwed up there, we definitely would’ve lost somebody. I was just glad we were all safe. 
“Oh my, oh me... Nobody dieeed? I faiiiled? No waaay! That’s super duper sucky... Geez.” 
A weirdly inappropriate high-pitched voice came from above. I looked up and saw a man floating above the courtyard. He was in his late thirties and wore some basic armor beneath a gray cape. There was a rapier hanging about his waist. Given his blonde hair and round glasses, I’d have assumed him to be a bookworm if I’d seen him under any other circumstances. 
He was floating in midair atop a flying disc, which I assumed to be some kind of artifact. Either way, that was what was keeping the skinny guy airborne. However, what caught my eye was the Gollem by his side. It was about one and a half meters tall. It had wings on its side instead of arms, and sharp talons at the ends of its feet. And its face was that of an owl’s... 
It was some kind of strange human-owl hybrid Gollem. It was dark gray, much like its master’s cape, and stood stationary in the air. It was afloat despite the fact that its wings weren’t moving. 
Wait... a Gollem with an animal head? Does that mean...? 
“You dare show your face here, traitor?! I’d recognize you anywhere, Gien Greed!” Colonel, who had stumbled to his feet, glared up at the man. 
“Hooh? Oh my, oh me... Landinner, is that you?! Dorf Landinner! Ahaha! You’ve been alive all this time? Goodness, what a touching reuniooon! Who’d have thought I’d meet one of my old companions here! Ehe!” 
“Don’t you dare call me your companion, bastard!” 
“Heeeh? You’re still flustered about thaaat? It’s been ten years, you big silly. Water under the bridge!” 
“How dare you say that, you worm! You’re the reason we lost our home to begin with! If you hadn’t sold us out to Isengard, then...” Colonel gnashed his teeth. He was seething. That meant this guy was the traitor who turned his back on Lowe and gave the secrets of the beast emperor Gollems to Isengard. 
“It was naive to think that the beast emperors would be your guaranteed ticket to safety, you big silly! Our king was toootally too old-school. He wasn’t thinking of expanding our territory, so things were oh-so-boring over there! Why would I wanna continue serving a tiny little country? Hm? How selfish of you, not to think of me and my prospects!” 
“You turned on us for a petty reason like that?!” 
“I just threw the baby out with the bathwater, silly! I’d considered killing the king myself and taking over, but I didn’t think I’d be able to hold my own against the other beast emperors, you knooow? But oh my, oh me... I can’t believe there was a survivor!” Gien grinned widely, prompting all three of the Lowe survivors in the area to stare the man down. 
Colonel took out his storage card and summoned his Gollem, Leopard, to his side. 
“...Meeting you here is no coincidence, you scumbag! It must be divine intervention or a message from the fallen... I’ll avenge them, here and now, by sending you to the grave!” 
“Hmm? The last of the beast generals wishes to face meee? I appreciate the invite, but I have something else to do right now! The witch-king has ordered me to kill Gardio’s emperor, okaaay? I gotta finish that first!” 
Several feather-shaped projectiles were launched by the Gollem at the man’s side. They were all launched in the direction of the Gardio emperor. The metallic feathers expanded and detonated, but my [Prison] prevented any of the damage from reaching its target. 
“Hmhm...? How weiiird, I don’t remember Leopard having any Gollem skills like that...” 
I used [Teleport] to warp behind Gien and rested my hand on his shoulders as I floated in mid-air. 
“Let’s ground this talk, okay? [Slip].” 
“G-Gyaaah!” 
I cast my spell on the floating disc’s surface, causing the man to stumble off it. He plummeted toward the courtyard. The owl Gollem quickly swooped down toward its master. 
“Eek!” 
At the last possible second before impact, Gien was caught by his Gollem and dropped gently to the paved ground. 
My attention turned from Gien to his flying disc. I stepped onto it and found myself pleasantly surprised. It felt pretty stable as far as surfaces went. 
“H-Hey, you meanie! That’s not yours!” Gien was yelling at me from below, but I didn’t care all that much. I just knew it’d be bad if he got access to the disc again. 
I shoved it into [Storage]. I had a feeling Doctor Babylon would appreciate it. 
“What?! Glaux, knock him down from up there!” 
The owl Gollem’s wings let loose barrage after barrage of feathery projectiles. I wondered if all of them were set to detonate once they hit me... 
“Come forth, Fire! Crimson Duet: [Fire Arrow]!” I used magic to call forth a surge of flames and burned all the feathers out of the air before they could detonate. All the feathers ended up blowing up before they could even get halfway to reaching me. 
“How did you do that...?!” 
“...Sure you’re fine paying attention to me? I’m not your foe here, buddy.” 
“Huh?!” 
The other beast emperor, Leopard, suddenly charged forward from the hole in the wall and moved to strike Gien. It had several long claws extended from its front paws. 
“Guh...! Glaux!” 
“Caw!” The owl Gollem morphed its wings into blades and leaped in front of its master, parrying Leopard’s strikes. 
In the west, owls were often seen as a symbol of wisdom, but in Japan and China, they were considered wicked animals that would consume their own family or masters to grow stronger. 
It was such an ingrained idea that the kanji for “owl” (?) could also be found in menacing compound kanji words. For example, the word for a person who rose to power through bloodshed was created by taking the word for “hero” (?, which means great. And ?, which means strong. Together forming ??,) and replacing the “great” with “owl,” creating ??. Or that was what my grandpa told me, at least. 
As I watched the clash between the two Gollems, I was strongly reminded of that little fact. Gien had betrayed his own homeland in his thirst for power, much like the owls of my homeland’s legend. 
Apparently, the compound kanji for a decapitated criminal’s head on display was made by adding the “owl” kanji to the front of the kanji for “neck” or “head” (?), creating ??. It was based on the idea of nailing the bird’s corpse to a tree, so all could see its crimes. 
“Gieeen!” 
“Wuh?!” 
Colonel, who had made it down to the courtyard, slashed at Gien with his saber. Gien dodged it just barely and drew his rapier. He then lunged towards Colonel. 
Gien’s movements were startlingly deft. He managed to graze Colonel’s face in no time at all. A small stream of blood ran down the man’s face. Despite his strange looks, he was clearly a talented swordsman. 
I was about to support Colonel by casting a spell, but he turned my way and narrowed his eyes. 
“Don’t! He’s mine!” 
Damn... Now I can’t exactly do anything... 
Seemed like things were personal here, so there’d be no point in me assisting... Even Yumina and Leen weren’t doing a thing. 
I looked back and found First Lieutenant and Sergeant watching Colonel without moving themselves. Seemed like there was really nothing for me to do. 
The room we’d been in had been enchanted with [Silence], but the courtyard wasn’t. The knights around the palace would surely be converging on us soon. So long as we took out the owl Gollem, Gien would have no means of escape. 
“Bwahahaaaaaah! Sure brings back memories, huh?! Remember how I’d train you in combat back in Lowe?! Ahahaaah! I don’t seem to remember you ever managing to beat me, come to think of iiit!” 
“Ghh!” 
Strike after strike bore down on Colonel, and wound after wound was carved into his body. Colonel had been forced into a defensive battle. He could barely get a single counter in. 
In a similar way, Glaux was running circles around Leopard as well. Glaux seemed to have lost its ability to fly once it morphed its wings, but it was still extremely mobile on the ground. 
Leopard was hardly a slow Gollem, but he was still just outmatched enough to be losing the exchange badly. 
Gollems and their masters tended to exhibit their best abilities when they were together... so maybe things would’ve been different if Colonel and Leopard were fighting alongside each other. Then again, if Glaux and Gien were fighting alongside each other, they’d probably be fiercer. 
“Take this, and this, and this! And thiiis! Is this really all you’ve grown in ten years?! You’re slow! You’re pathetic! I can read all your motions, brat!” 
“Gah...!” 
Gien sped up his strikes, causing Colonel to lose sight of the attacks entirely. New cuts were being opened all over his body. He’d been brutalized to the point where I was honestly shocked he was still standing. 
“Now then... I think I’ve played around enough, right? Time to put an eeend to you, boy! Why don’t you go say hi to the king of Lowe for me?!” 
Gien’s rapier slid along Colonel’s saber, and then flicked upward until the man’s weapon was thrown from his hands. It flew into the distance, spiraled into the air, and then landed blade-side-down in the dirt. 
“Thanks for the dance, kiddo. Goodbye.” 
Gien grinned broadly, stepped forward, and thrust his rapier straight through Colonel’s belly. 
“Hngh...!” 
“No!” 
“Colonel!” 
First Lieutenant and Sergeant called out in sheer horror as blood dribbled from Colonel’s mouth. Gien looked at him with a smug look on his face, but then one of Colonel’s burly arms grabbed onto Gien’s hand. 
Even though the rapier had been thrust into Colonel so deeply that it came out the other side, the wounded man had still found the strength to disable the hand Gien used to wield it. 
“Got you, fucker.” Colonel’s bloodied, beaten face curled into a triumphant grin. His free hand curled into a fist. It trembled, but stayed firm. 
“...I want you to savor this... I want you to feel Lowe’s pain, you piece of shit!!” 
“E-Eek?!” 
Colonel mustered all the remaining strength in his body and focused it on his fist. He then smashed the blunt force of his knuckles into Gien’s jaw. 
“Bwaugh!” 
Gien was hit so hard that it looked like his head was about to spin around backward. He slumped to the ground, unconscious and oozing blood from most of the orifices on his face. 
The rapier was still embedded in Colonel’s stomach, but he happily looked down at his fallen foe. Then, his duty done, he fell to the ground himself. 
 
“[Prison].” 
Glaux was still fighting against Leopard, so I trapped the enemy Gollem with my magic. I didn’t want it picking up Gien and getting away. 
Then, I immediately ran over to where Colonel had fallen and yanked the rapier out of his guts. Even though he was unconscious, the motion still made him wince. I wasn’t too sympathetic, though... He’d just done something crazy. 
Nothing I couldn’t patch up with recovery magic, though. 
“Come forth, Light! Calm of the Goddess: [Mega Heal].” 
A gentle light wrapped around Colonel’s body, and the open wounds on his body rapidly closed up. Colonel then rose to his feet. He was still shaky, though. My spells couldn’t replenish the blood he’d lost. 
“...You’re crazy, man. If I wasn’t here, you might’ve died from that.” 
“Gien’s a sadistic freak who likes to torture his enemies before letting them die slowly. I knew he’d avoid my vitals. Even if he’s a monster, he’s still the second-strongest person I ever knew in Lowe... That was the only way I could get him.” 
He was definitely strong, that was for sure. He wasn’t quite on Hilde or Yae’s level, though... And frankly, I thought he was below Brunhild’s Lain, Norn, and Nikola as well... 
If I wanted to be brutally honest, I had a feeling Gien might have lost to some of Brunhild’s normal knights, too. I kept that part to myself, though. I didn’t want to hurt Colonel’s pride. 
It was pretty wrong to compare ordinary people to the people of Brunhild, anyway. It wasn’t like everyone got to be trained regularly by the god of swords or anything. 
“Besides, I had to keep Gien’s attention away from the prince...” 
I looked up at the blown-up room we’d come from, and noticed that First Lieutenant and Sergeant had the prince safely kept in a corner. But... 
“Seems like there was no point to that, eh? You made it, right? That weird protective barrier? Still, thanks to that I got to fight without worrying about his safety, so thank you.” 
Seemed like he’d noticed. I’d released it at this point, but during the conflict, I kept a [Prison] up around the guest room. Since he said he’d come to kill the emperor of Gardio, I couldn’t have discounted the possibility of Glaux launching more feather-bombs up there. 
“Your Majesty, is everything okay?!” 
The royal knights finally arrived in the area. They saw us and immediately tensed up before drawing their blades. 
“Who are these people, Your Majesty?!” 
“Fret not, they’re friends. They just saved my life. There was an assassin, the man on the ground over there.” 
The knights relaxed around us immediately and moved to take Gien into custody. 
“...Is it fine for them to take him?” 
“He wanted to kill the emperor, so... He’s probably gonna get executed for that. Public guillotine, I imagine. The remnants of Lowe will finally have their justice published.” 
Colonel quietly spoke as he watched Gien’s unconscious body get dragged off. Having him brought into custody was for the best. He’d be able to implicate Isengard before they killed him. 
Glaux, still sealed by my magic, was rampaging around like a wild animal as it watched its master get taken away. Even though its master was so rotten, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for his Gollem servant. 
“[Gravity].” 
“Caw?!” 
I used weight magic to immobilize Glaux. It struggled for a few moments, then shuddered and stopped moving entirely. It had probably entered sleep mode, like a computer. 
I released the [Prison] and placed my hand on the Gollem’s chest. 
“Open.” With a hissing sound, a hatch on the machine opened up. 
I stuck my hand into the gel-like substance and took out the Gollem’s heart, its G-Cube. 
That would prevent Glaux from ever waking up again unless we wanted it to. I decided to pass the G-Cube over to Colonel, but found him pondering something with a worried look on his face. 
“...What’s up?” 
“No, it’s just... Why would Isengard send Gien to assassinate the emperor? It’s not their style at all... That old man... the witch-king... he’s more the kind of man to raze an entire city... so I’m confused why he went all subtle this time...” 
“Wh-What is that?!” 
Just as Colonel was muttering his thoughts, a nearby knight cried out loudly and pointed towards the sky. There were several small dots lining the horizon far off in the distance... I had no idea what I was looking at. 
“[Long Sense].” 
I projected my sense of sight over to the horizon. What I saw made my blood run cold. Dozens upon dozens of little Gollems, miniature versions of Glaux. A massive amount of owls, heading en masse to the imperial palace. 
As they flew, the owls dropped things down onto the area around the imperial palace. Small, oval-shaped objects that detonated once they hit the ground. Grenades. 
“Isengard...! They... Don’t tell me they mass-produced Glaux-variant Soldats!” 
Soldats. They were simplistic Gollems that could be easily controlled in groups by one person. It was a type of Gollem that I’d been told Isengard used in their armies. 
If you wanted to overwhelm your enemy with sheer numbers, then that was the way to do it. It seemed that Isengard had reverse-engineered these ones from their analysis of Glaux. That was pretty amazing. 
But this was no time to be amazed at their technology, they were attacking the city. 
“Spiral forth, O Wind! Raging, Sweeping Gale: [Cyclone Storm]!” 
“Come forth, O Storm! Million Blades Borne of Air: [Tempest Edge]!” 
Before I could act, Yumina and Leen invoked advanced magic directed toward the mass-produced owls. 

The fierce surge of weather pelted the owls, knocking several of them off-course and destroying a good chunk of them. 
Welp. Guess I can’t fall behind here. 
“Come forth, Dark! I Seek the Shining Warmaiden: [Valkyrie]!” 
I invoked a large summoning circle in the middle of the courtyard, and several beautiful Valkyries emerged. Their pure-white wings spread out as they soared into the air. 
They wielded silver blades and were clad in silver armor, giving them the appearance of angelic knights. 
“Wh-What the...?” 
“It’s a Summoning spell. You guys, I need your help!” 
The warmaidens raised their blades and took the skies. 
They intercepted the owls, slicing them to ribbons with their blades. 
The owls obviously attempted to counterattack, but they were nowhere near as powerful as Glaux was. That was the ultimate weakness of Soldat Gollems. They could only carry out simple orders and weren’t particularly adept in any other instances. 
They were likely given the mission to bombard the palace, and whoever sent them hadn’t considered the fact that they might have been intercepted in mid-air. 
The last owl finally fell to my Valkyries, and a series of cheers erupted from nearby. 
I cast [Area Heal] across the areas that were hit by the grenade drops. I also called down some rainstorms to prevent the spread of fires. 
Later, I found out that the people of the city believed they had been saved by a god who sent his angels down to fight off the attackers. Oh well. 
“To think you could wipe out that many Gollems so quickly...” 
Colonel was completely bewildered, but I had no time for that. I pulled out my smartphone and projected a map into the air. The map was the area bordering Isengard, the old territories of Lowe. 
“Run search. Isengard-affiliated soldiers and Gollems.” 
“...Search complete. Displaying.” 
Thudthudthudthudthud. 
Several thousand pins landed on the map. Just as I’d thought. 
“Isengard’s army has invaded Gardio. See here?” 
“What...? They’d do such a thing without a formal declaration?!” Gardio’s emperor looked up at my map before yelling out in disbelief. 
“Perhaps that irritating man was here to declare war on you before we unceremoniously defeated him?” 
Leen had a point. We’d knocked Gien out before he had a chance to really say anything. 
“But look... aren’t they going in a strange direction?” Yumina pointed at the map. The enemies weren’t headed toward the imperial city. 
“They’re likely after the Emerald Ruin. Luckily, there aren’t many townships in that area. But we do have a forward group of soldiers stationed there, as well as our expedition corps...” 
That would explain things. They were probably going to crush whoever was stationed there and occupy it first. 
Isengard had the upper hand in terms of raw numbers. If we didn’t do anything, it’d only be a matter of time before they took over. 
“Hmm... Guess I’ll go stop them.” 
“Huh?!” 
The emperor seemed surprised by my casual musing. I didn’t really want Isengard to keep doing as it pleased. Plus, they’d pelted us with grenades, and I didn’t feel as if Yumina and Leen would want us to leave without helping. 
Not to mention the fact that repelling an invading army would curry favor with Gardio. 
“What exactly do you intend to stop?” 
“The Isengard army, duh. I’ll fly over and have a word with them. Ideally, they’ll listen, and then leave.” 
That all depended on who was in charge over there. If they were reasonable, maybe we could end this without a fight. Even if the leader of Isengard was an insane old guy, it’d be wrong of me to assume everyone under him was equally bad. 
“H-How do you plan on stopping them?! There are tens of thousands... I-I know you’re talented in matters of magic, but...” 
“I’ve had a few experiences with massive armies at this point. If it comes to blows, then the surrounding landscape might get scuffed up a bit. I’ll fix it afterward though, promise.” 
“Uh...” 
The emperor was simply dumbfounded by my nonchalant talk. 
“Yumina, you coming?” 
“In ordinary circumstances, I’d join you. I’d rather avoid flying, though...” 
“I agree on that front, darling.” 
The two of them didn’t exactly like taking the scenic route, which I couldn’t blame them too much for. 
I used [Fly] and grouped up with the Valkyries, but quickly doubled back when I realized I’d forgot something. 
“Those Gollems from before were probably controlled by undercover agents from Isengard in your city. I’d tighten security if I were you.” 
“O-Of course...” 
“Alright, then. Be back in a bit.” 
Given what I’d seen on the map, I didn’t exactly have much more time to waste. And so, I accelerated through the air above Gardio. The Valkyries followed close behind, but I was slowly outdoing their speed. 
In hindsight, I should have just unsummoned them and then summoned them back once I’d gotten there. But in the end, it wasn’t that huge of a deal. 
The Emerald Ruin was located in a small forested area to the south of the Isengard/Gardio border. 
There was a large plain by the forest, and I could see several tents erected across it. I assumed that was the base used by the survey corps and the group of soldiers stationed there. That meant the large group of people approaching it was the Isengard army. 
The fighting hadn’t begun yet, so I’d just barely made it in time. 
There were a hell of a lot of people there. They had at least twenty times as many men as Gardio’s side. Only about a quarter of those forces were human, though. The rest were Soldats. 
The number they’d brought made sense if they were planning to march on the capital after securing the ruins. Their plan had likely been to use the owl Soldats to weaken the city in terms of infrastructure, and then take advantage of the chaos to swoop in with their army. 
The Isengard army took note of me and the Valkyries and immediately began acting uneasy. Then again, anyone who saw a man flying down from the sky with a group of angel-like beings would be confused. 
“F-Fire!” 
Several bolts of lightning suddenly rained down upon us. Or rather, they flew up at us from below, which was the opposite of raining. 
The Gollems seemed to be equipped with magic guns, spellcasters. I didn’t expect them to attack immediately. I’d hoped that we could at least talk a bit first. 
I sighed, then cast [Ice Needle] in return. Several thin hunks of ice intercepted the incoming bolts and passed through in the direction of the Isengard army. 
“E-Eep!” 
The men all cowered and braced for impact, and none of them were lethally hit. I stood my ground... or air, and used [Speaker] to address everyone. 
“Attention, Isengard army. Withdraw immediately. Report to the witch-king that your attempt to take the ruins and the capital was a complete failure. If you continue any further, I’ll humiliate you so harshly that your ancestors will cringe.” 
“D-Don’t give in, men! This is simply a bizarre strategy by the enemy. They’re bluffing in an attempt to intimidate us!” 
The soldiers were thrown into disarray by my message, but the commanding officers attempted to recoup their morale. That was irritating. I did want to intimidate them, but it wasn’t a bluff. 
I had brought the Valkyries along to freak them out with the idea they were gonna get attacked by angels, but they didn’t seem too afraid of that. 
“I’ll say it one last time. Lay down your weapons and retreat. I hope that I can appeal to your calmer side, and—” 
“Fire! Fire, fire, fire! No mercy for pigs! Isengard’s guns are the strongest! Wipe out these inferior fools!” 
Apparently there was no calmer side to be found. An old man with a mustache, riding atop a quadrupedal Gollem, barked orders to the soldiers. He was likely the lead commander of the army, and unfortunately for all of them, he was an unreasonable old guy. I could tell that he wasn’t the type who’d stop and have a discussion over tea. He was needlessly hot-blooded. 
I used [Prison] to defend against the next volley. 
They didn’t seem to want to chat, which was fine by me. 
“[Slip]... And just for good measure, [Paralyze].” 
“Hngh... Gah... Gwaugh!” 
A massive thud rang out as several thousand men fell over at the same time, and then found themselves unable to move. I wondered if I’d done enough to create a small earthquake. It was probably the most I’d ever knocked down in a single go. 
Several of the Soldats moved to help up the fallen men, but I knew how to deal with them. 
“[Gravity].” 
“Bzzt...” 
If you increased a Gollem’s body weight to a certain amount, then the sudden excess pressure made their automated safeties trigger. That sent them into sleep mode. The sleep mode was exactly how so many of the ancient legacy Gollems could be reactivated safely nowadays. 
I’d successfully neutralized the army, but I wasn’t going to let it end there. 
“Ooze forth, Dark! I Seek a Grotesque Form: [Green Slime]!” 
I landed and called forth several thousand slimes from a summoning circle. One after the other, the slimy creatures emerged from thin air. 
Slimes came in all shapes and sizes. There were those that were harmless and those that were extremely deadly. Some were cowardly, and some were unreasonably brash. There were rare ones, and there were common ones too... There were just all kinds of Slimes. 
And the Green Slimes? They were a common Slime species that could be found almost anywhere. They were generally harmless, but they were also hated for a particular reason... One that I’d had a first-hand viewing to a long time ago... 
Green Slimes ate and digested fibers found in clothing. Any adventurer unfortunate enough to be attacked by one would find their clothing digested and consumed. They only ate clothing, though. They didn’t harm people or digest armor. 
And now, this massive wave was headed right for the fallen army... They had their hungry eyes set not on the men, but their clothes. 
“E-Eeh?!” 
“Ooauugh?!” 
The men had been paralyzed, but they were still completely conscious as the Slime horde descended upon them. I could only assume that they were absolutely terrified. Unable to speak or move as their bodies were coated in living goop. 
I scooped up a little Slime and walked over toward the commander. The older man who had been sitting on the quadrupedal Gollem. 
“Didn’t I tell you that I’d humiliate you so badly your ancestors will keep on cringing?” 
“M-Mff... Mffh?!” 
I dropped the little slime atop the panicked man’s chest. The gooey creature immediately started melting down his clothing. 
“Ahahaha... Gonna continue fighting me buck-naked? I mean, you’ll still have your armors and your chest pieces, right? How about it? I’m sure Isengard’s nude invasion will go down in the history books.” 
“M-Mffh... Mfffh!!” 
The mustached man glared at me. I could still sense defiance in his eyes, so I leaned in closer. I knew what I was about to say would break his spirit entirely. 
“Normal Green Slimes only eat clothes, but these ones are a special variant of that species. I had them engineered based on some notes I found in a castle a long time ago. See... these Slimes also melt certain types of fiber found on the human body.” 
“Hhohh?!” 
The mustached man paled as I continued talking. 
“Don’t worry, you won’t die. But every last hair on your body is gonna get melted down and digested. I wonder how you’ll look without that mustache... And without your eyelashes, too. Ahaha... I bet the name of Isengard’s smoothest army will go down in history, too.” 
“Fhhhh?! Aah... Aaaaaah?!” 
After an hour, the feast finally ended. The soldiers, who were now smoother than the smoothest smoothie in a smoothie store, all ran home in a frantic panic. 
Their outfits made it even funnier. They had light armor around their chests, but nothing at all covering their lower bodies. They didn’t even have any hair or eyebrows. It was goddamn hilarious. 
A bunch of baldies with fully-exposed privates running all the way home... I was sure the sight would be burned into the brains of anyone they passed by. 
I didn’t know if the hair loss was permanent, since I never bothered looking into whether the Slimes ate the hair follicles too. 
In the end, it wasn’t my business. But if they were lucky, they’d grow their hair back... 
 
“Anyway, that’s basically how it went down.” 
One of the Valkyries took a video with my smartphone, so I had just finished playing back the events of the battle for the people in the room. 
“They’ll probably try again after this, so put some more troops down at the Emerald Ruin.” 
“R-Right... Of course... Y-Yes, I’ll do that...” 
The emperor of Gardio nodded along slowly. We were back in the courtyard at his castle, and I was explaining what had happened. 
“...You’re not one for mercy, eh?” 
“A-Actually, Colonel, I think that was him being merciful...” 
“They came in with the intention of killing others. If you don’t break their spirits, then they’ll just continue acting as they wish.” 
Yumina and Leen spoke my mind. I wasn’t about to sit down and break bread with an enemy that struck me first. I had to hit them hard enough for them to stay down. 
There was never a guarantee I’d win, even if I was overpowered. The future was an uncertain thing, so I didn’t want to just hope things worked out for the best. That was why I tried to make it so my enemies never challenged me a second time. After all, this wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t shoot first. 
Still, even if I handled these guys, their leader was still fine. I wondered what to do about that... 
Ideally, I wanted to break and humiliate the witch-king of Isengard. My grandpa always told me that when you were outnumbered, you needed to aim for the head. 
Back in middle school, I had a lot of issues with delinquent gangs, but they always fell along with their boss. 
So basically, cut the head off and the body should die. I needed to make the enemy realize that picking a fight with me would never, ever yield them good results. After all, they were people, and no person ever liked being hurt. If I did that, then it was likely they’d avoid me for fear of that pain. 
To begin with, I didn’t even know why Isengard was so hellbent on those ruins. If I had to guess, they probably couldn’t find what they wanted in the Azure Ruin and must have assumed it was in the Emerald Ruin instead. 
If they were looking for something in the ancient ruins... then maybe it was a Gollem. But I couldn’t think what kind of Gollem would be worth going to such insane lengths for... 
“I think I need to ask their leader face-to-face.” 
“No way...” Sergeant stared at me, wide-eyed. That was amusing for such a narrow-eyed man. 
“I’ll infiltrate Isengard and speak with their witch-king. If I figure out what it is they’re after, it’ll make things a hell of a lot easier for all of us.” 
“You would willingly charge into enemy lines?!” Gardio’s emperor yelled out in disbelief. I personally thought it was the smartest thing to do. If I didn’t act, they’d just send another army anyway. 
If I wasn’t in Gardio, and Isengard sent more of those owls, then the place would definitely be screwed. That was why I wanted to get things over and done with as soon as I could. 
In truth, I felt that Isengard would crush Gardio if it came to all-out war. Gardio would definitely give them a mean fight, but Isengard would win. 
Isengard’s leadership almost seemed obsessive, and that obsession resulted in all manner of technological advancements for their military. They seemed hellbent on developing new things no matter the cost. I couldn’t tell if that was a national creed unique to Isengard, or if it was simply the way the country had been twisted under the witch-king’s control. 
Ultimately, Isengard was an unstable nation. Nobody could know for sure what kind of weird stuff they were hiding up their sleeves. It was highly possible that the thing they wanted so badly from the ruins was some kind of ancient superweapon. That was why I just wanted to cut out the nonsense and go visit them. 
“Mm... Touya certainly is a man of bad habits... Always charging headlong into the business of others...” 
“Well, that’s just how Touya is.” Leen shook her head, and Yumina answered with a shrug and a wry smile. 
...Am I really that bad? 
“Well, whatever. We’re off.” 
“...This may seem a little late for me to ask, but... who are you? Why are you even helping us?” 
Gardio’s emperor looked at me with an incredulous expression. I guess from his perspective, I was just this mysterious guy who appeared and started doing a bunch of weird stuff in his life. 
“You won’t believe me, but I’m royalty just like you. I’m a grand duke from another world. I’ve been traveling through this world in search of friendly nations I can co-operate with.” 
“A... Another world?” 
My words only seemed to confuse the man further. I couldn’t blame him for that, but the day in which the truth would be revealed was fast approaching. And then, he’d be forced to accept my words as truth. 
Just as I was wondering whether to open a [Gate] or use [Teleport], Yumina spoke up. 
“I think we should make a brief detour home. Yae and Hilde would be useful here.” 
“She’s right. You should learn to be a little more reliant on our power, darling.” 
Mm... I guess. I’ll head back to Brunhild and pick them up. 
“Well, see ya.” 
I left behind the utterly shell-shocked and confused group of people and headed back to my own world. 
 
“Wh-Who are you?! How did you come down from the sky like that?!” 
Isengard’s castle was pretty much a steel stronghold. It had an incredibly unique style to it, looking like a large fort cobbled together from junk parts. 
Pipes and valves ran amuck all over the place, giving the hallways and walls a very steampunk feel. There were strange levers and measurement meters sticking out of things all over the place. It kind of made me feel like I was on the inside of a submarine, not that I’d ever had any experience in that regard. 
We’d descended from the sky and came down right in the middle of the place, where we immediately met several spear-wielding guards. In a matter of moments, we were surrounded by both person and Gollem alike. 
“What should we do, Touya-dono?” 
“Yae and I should be able to deal with this many on our own...” 
Yae and Hilde brandished their blades as they asked me what to do next. Yumina and Leen had ostensibly brought them as extra muscle, but I knew they were here to stop me from doing anything too extreme. 
The two of them looked like they were ready to leap into action, but I wanted to take it a bit slower. 
I cast [Eternal Coffin] and sealed all the Gollems in the area within inescapable pillars of ice. 
“E-Eep! They’re frozen solid!” 
The human guards slowly started to back off. My tactic had been to strike fear into their hearts. 
That particular spell was a little bit dangerous when dealing with human foes. If a person was encased in the ice, and then the ice was shattered, well... I didn’t really want people to associate me with cruel and unusual murder. 
“Please point me to the witch-king. I want to speak to him.” 
“Wh-What do you want with His Industriousness?!” 
“Just a casual chat. It’ll seriously save us both a lot of hassle if you just tell me where he is.” 
I punctuated my point by drawing Brunhild and shooting at an empty pillar of ice. 
The bullet, which was enchanted with [Explosion], detonated at the base of the pillar. The entire thing then collapsed into teeny tiny fragments. One of the terrified guards suddenly pointed toward a nearby building. 
I looked over and saw a crude-looking tower made out of metal. Nothing about it stood out or looked remotely regal. 
It looked like a command tower, the kind you might see on a battleship. It definitely didn’t seem like the kind of place you’d find a king. 
There were a few turret areas jutting out as if it was built with heavy fortification in mind. Part of me wondered if they’d actually built a battleship and just jammed it into the ground to make this castle. 
We turned and started walking towards it. 
“Touya-dono... You have certainly gotten more talented at threatening people, you have.” 
“...D-Don’t say it like that, it sounds bad... It’s not threatening, it’s advanced negotiation.” 
“...I’m not so sure that was a negotiation at all.” 
The girls were right to think that, but they wouldn’t have let us through if I’d just approached them normally. 
We suddenly heard several gunshots ring out from behind us. 
In a flash, Yae and Hilde turned with katana and sword drawn. I could see their motions, but any ordinary human would have found it imperceptible. They moved like lightning, slicing apart the bullets that were headed our way. Their phrasium weapons sliced through the bullets like butter and the split debris flew off in various directions. 
The group of soldiers who’d fired upon us stared at the sight with a dawning look of horror on their faces. 
“Th-That’s not possible!” 
“The only ones who should shoot are those who are prepared to be shot.” 
I raised Brunhild and aimed it at the men. Then, I shot a single [Cyclone Storm] bullet into the ground at their feet, and the men were carried off into the distance. 
“These people are troublesome in groups, they are.” 
“Mm... They’re a pain to deal with. If a hundred of them had shot at us, I’m not sure we’d have been able to handle it.” 
Hilde said a couple dozen would be their limit, but I wasn’t so sure. I thought they could probably do better than that. 
They were students of the god of swords and received perks from my and Moroha’s divinity. In terms of the Reverse World and the regular world, they were definitely among the best of the best. 
Yae fought with her Kokonoe Style, and Hilde used the special arts passed down in Lestia for years. But through Moroha’s training, they’d basically created their own unique styles with those as the mere foundations. 
Moroha didn’t have a defined style to the way she wielded the blade. One of the teachings of Chiba Shusaku Narimasa, the greatest samurai in history, was “May you be swift of mind, still of heart, low of body, clear of sight, and fierce of action.” Moroha’s philosophy was more “Don’t think, feel.” 
It was more about letting instinct take over, rather than any particular method of teaching. Logical techniques didn’t work against Moroha at all, so it made sense enough to me. 
Yumina and Leen were far inferior to Yae and Hilde in terms of physical strength, but they were absolute powerhouses in terms of magic. The soldiers here simply didn’t have a chance. Either way, we couldn’t afford to be off our guard. There was always a chance the enemy had some kind of trump card they wanted to pull. 
“So, assuming that’s the command tower... that little part off to the side must be the bridge.” 
“Are we going to scale it from the inside, are we?” 
“Nah. That’s a pain in the ass. Let’s go up from the outside. I think I have a helpful little tool, anyway.” 
I opened up [Storage] and took out the metal disc I’d taken from Gien when he attacked the emperor of Gardio. It was a fairly standard artifact, that I’d already scanned thoroughly with [Analyze], and rewritten with [Cracking]. 
“Hop on.” 
The disc wasn’t huge, but it had enough room for the five of us. I could’ve used [Levitation] and [Fly] for the same effect, but the girls hated being floated around. Seemed they didn’t like not having their feet on anything solid. 
The disc didn’t wobble or anything, either. It was a pretty level and sturdy surface, which made it feel a lot safer. 
We all stepped onto the disc and huddled up, and I made it slowly rise into the air. It was basically like an elevator without walls. Frankly, it was a little scary to me. I wouldn’t have gotten on it if I wasn’t able to fly in an emergency scenario. 

I could’ve just made the girls get on the disc while I flew alongside it, but it was a bit late for that. 
We flew up to the approximate area where the bridge would be, and Yae sliced a hole in the steel wall. The sliced-off bit fell inward, and we hopped through the newly-created entrance. I gathered up the floating disc, as well. 
We found ourselves in a large hallway, and there were a few guard Gollems around. 
“[Shield].” 
I created a shield that filled the space of the entire hallway, and then after that... 
“[Power Rise]!” 
I enhanced my physical strength and punched the [Shield] down the hallway toward the incoming Gollems. The massive force knocked them all down and held them in place. 
“Touya-dono! I have found stairs, I have!” 
Yae found a little stairway to the right, and we all followed after her. 
I didn’t know if the stairs would take us to the witch-king, but typically, the leader was usually in the highest room. 
The stairway led to a pair of thick iron doors, but Yae easily sliced through them again with her blade. Kind of felt like cheating, really. 
The metal thudded to the ground and we walked, quite literally, through the door. We came out into a wide hallway padded with red carpet. At the end of the hall was another pair of doors... and a man stood in front of them alongside a Gollem. 
The man wore heavy armor and a helmet with horns jutting out of each side. His face was grizzled and older-looking, and he had a thick beard. 
The Gollem was bronze. It was huge, but its actual body wasn’t all that big. Instead, it just had particularly thick arms and legs. It seemed pretty different from most of the Gollems I’d seen so far. 
“You dare infiltrate the Isenberg, His Industriousness’s inner sanctum?! You reckless fools... I’ll decorate the town plaza with your desecrated corpses!” 
The man was likely the gatekeeper to the throne room, which meant the witch-king was behind him. 
“Look... would you mind letting us through?” 
“Impudent whelp! If you wish to pass, then you must pass me!” 
The man yelled and then leaped into the air. The Gollem next to him suddenly split itself into pieces and flew toward him. Bit by bit, the Gollem began wrapping itself around the man like a huge mechanical suit of armor. It was what I’d been warned about earlier. The equipment-based Gollem, known as the Panzer type. I remembered that Nia from the Red Cats had told me about them. 
The man was now fitted with powerful Gollem parts all over his body, and he landed on the ground with a mighty crash. It was definitely an impressive sight. 
It wasn’t exactly full body armor, since his head, torso, and thighs weren’t properly covered. However, he already had his regular armor covering those parts anyway. 
“TAKE THIIIIIIS!” 
The very room shook as the man charged towards us like an amped-up American footballer. 
Yae and Hilde braced for impact and put their hands at their hilts. Yumina and Leen stood in the back, ready to chant the right incantations... 
“[Gate].” 
The girls all called out in confusion at my sudden word. 
A gate of light appeared in front of the charging bull of a man, and he ran straight into it. 
“AAAAAARGH?! WHAT?! I’M FALLIIIIIING!” 
We then heard a faint cry from the outside, followed by a heavy impact. And maybe a hint of a crunch. 
“...Where did you connect that gate to, Touya-dono?” 
“The hole you made when we first entered the place. I didn’t wanna waste time with that moron.” 
“...I think we would’ve been okay.” 
The Panzer looked tough, so the guy survived the fall... Probably... 
“I feel a little sorry for him...” 
“Me too... But I suppose he was the enemy...” 
Leen and Yumina sighed softly. I decided to hurry onwards. It’d be awkward if he survived and came back because we were waiting around. 
The heavy doors at the far end of the hallway creaked open. 
We walked through into an open room that looked like it was at one point a royal chamber. It didn’t really give off that vibe, though. There were pipes sticking out all over the place, rusted cogwheels spinning here and there, and construction materials all over the floor. 
I saw various screws and tools scattered about, springs and cogs strewn atop benches. The place felt more like a workshop than a place where a king would greet guests. 
There were several large windows lining the walls, showing the smog-filled skyline of Isengard’s capital. At the far end of the room was a rusty, steel throne. It didn’t look very regal at all. 
Atop the throne sat an old man. He looked over at us with a smile on his face. It was clear at a glance that both of his arms had been completely replaced by mechanical ones. Though, I’d initially thought he’d only replaced one. 
There was no mistaking it. This was the man himself. The witch-king of Isengard, Gibram Thine Isengard. 
 
The old man, who I assumed to be the witch-king, sat on his throne. He grinned down at us. His brass mechanical arms whirred faintly, like electrical motors. The sound was so very faint that the average human would be unlikely to hear it. 
He looked like he had to be at least seventy years old. He wore a monocle over one of his eyes, and his withered hair was brushed back. I could see his teeth, or at least what remained of them, they were all gold. 
He definitely gave off the vibe of a stereotypical creepy old man... But I also knew I couldn’t underestimate him. He was old, which meant he had a lot of experience, and probably a lot of wisdom. 
“The witch-king, I presume?” 
“Correct. At least, that’s what they call me. For what is witchcraft if not a craft? It’s true that I care little for true magic, but the technological applications have always come naturally to me... And what should a master of that craft be called? The witch-king was originally a name granted to he who had proven himself a master of magitechnology, but none have come close to my capabilities, so I’ve held the title since I was but a prince.” 
Huh... So it’s not what the king is normally called? Didn’t expect it to be an ability-based title. I don’t really like the way he’s looking at me from behind that monocle, though... He’s staring me down like I’m some kind of rare item. 
“So, Mochizuki Touya... what brings you to my fine land?” 
“Wait, how do you know my name?” His words caught me by surprise. 
There were few people in this world who knew me by name, and as far as I knew, none of those people had ties to Isengard. 
The old man grinned wide and let out a dry laugh when he saw my confusion. 
“Isengard has a nice little information network itself. Not quite as sophisticated as the Black Cats, but still rather good. I know that you placed a curse upon the former leader of Papillon and that you halted a conflict between Triharan and Primula. And of course, I’m also aware that you used several gigantic Gollems to defeat those strange, metallic creatures that appeared within my borders... I suppose I should thank you for that.” 
He let out another laugh after he finished talking. I could feel the condescension seeping from his words... It wasn’t like I’d killed the mutants for his sake or anything, they just happened to appear in his territory. 
“A most proficient mage, and an owner of many giant Gollems... Tell me, boy... Which ancient ruin granted you access to this bountiful strength, hm?” 
He narrowed his eyes, staring at me up and down. He was a little off the mark in some places, but that made sense. I didn’t expect him to know I was from another world. 
“I’d always seen such witchery and magic as beneath me... Something that was simply a catalyst for technology, but... Perhaps I had underestimated it. I’d even decided to erect a magical barrier around my workshop, but it seems you saw through that as well.” 
“Actually, that kinda worked. It ended up blocking my spell that I use to track things, so I had to directly storm the castle and find you the old-fashioned way.” 
To be honest, it hadn’t really stalled us all that much though. It was a little annoying that this world had magic, even if it was inferior to the magic of the regular world... If the Reverse World didn’t have magic at all, things would’ve been a lot easier for me. Then again, it was possible that if the Reverse World had no capability for magic then I wouldn’t be able to use it either. 
It was highly possible that the regular world and the Reverse World both had similar beginnings to their civilizations. 
“So, then. Why are you here?” 
“I’ll be blunt. I want you to leave the Gardio Empire alone.” 
“Have Gardio hand the Emerald Ruin to us, and we will cease hostilities. We’ve asked for the ruin several times in the past, you know... But they always skirted around the issue. That’s why I really had no option but to take it by force.” 
The ancient ruins of the Reverse World were basically full of loot waiting to be found, they weren’t things countries could just pass off to others with no consideration. But personally, I felt that the emperor of Gardio probably didn’t want to hand over any more of the land that was once the birthright of his son, Lucrecion. 
“What’s in the Emerald Ruin, anyway? Some really strong Gollem?” 
“...A strong Gollem? Mm... You aren’t quite wrong, I suppose. Tell me, what do you know of the Great Gollem War?” 
The witch-king leaned back, as his grin twisted into a broader smirk. 
“...Do you mean that ancient conflict that almost destroyed the whole world? The Gollems that were used in the war are still asleep today, right? You guys call them legacy Gollems.” 
“Hoho... Seems you aren’t a dullard. But you aren’t correct entirely, actually. It’s the Gollems that specifically weren’t used in the war that we dig up nowadays. Most of the ancient ruins across the world are remnants of factories, hospitals, research facilities, and so on. That’s why the Gollems we find there are usually in such good condition.” 
The witch-king reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar. He reached out his index finger, which transformed into a blade, and cut the tip off. He then lit the cigar with a small flame that came from his thumb. That arm of his seemed pretty useful to me, it certainly wasn’t short on gimmicky uses. 
The witch-king continued to talk as he puffed away on his cigar. 
“So, as the Great War continued, a bunch of countries started working on superweapons that could put an end to the conflict. One country created a series of giant artillery cannons. One country created a floating fortress that remains lost in the sky. Another country developed a bomb that could obliterate an entire city in a single blast. But all these weapons were only spoken of in texts, and I took them to be mere folk stories... After all, nothing of the sort had ever been found in any of the ruins we’d uncovered... Until...” 
“What...?” 
The witch-king grinned madly. 
“Until I found one. A weapon of mass destruction, one created as a last-ditch effort by an ancient nation. The ultimate culmination of ancient magitechnological prowess! I call it the Hecatoncheir, the hundred-handed one!” 
The... What? Wait, but if he already has one of those things then why did he even want the Emerald Ruin? 
“Ahaha... You know, it’s rare that I have guests. Where are my manners? Let me properly treat you to an audience.” 
The old man let out a dry laugh as he pushed a button on his throne. I suddenly heard creaking and whirring, and the very room began moving downward like a massive elevator. 
“Th-The room is sinking, it is!” 
“T-Touya? What is this?” 
The elevator-like room continued to sink until a loud thud rang out and we finally stopped. I couldn’t say for sure, but it felt like we were underground. 
“Just what is this?!” 
We were in the middle of a vast area so wide that I couldn’t even make out anything in the distance. It was barely even lit up... The place looked like some kind of secret underground factory. I saw a few worker Gollems milling around in the area. But in front of us stood the most peculiar thing of all. It had a few spotlights centered on it. A massive, black metal structure accentuated with brass highlights. 
“...Is that a Gollem?” 
It certainly looked like a Gollem’s head... But it was far too big for me to accurately tell. If it was a Gollem’s head, then it’d have to be a pretty goddamn big Gollem. It seemed like everything from the neck-down was buried in the ground, which meant the body hadn’t been properly excavated. 
Regardless, it was the biggest Gollem I had ever seen. The lighting was still poor, so I couldn’t properly make it out. If I’d activated my divinity and focused it around my eyes then I’d have been able to get a better look, but the sheer scale of the thing made me forget I could do that. 
The head looked almost demonic, with two curved horns jutting from the sides. There were also several spherical attachments on either side. Given the horizontal lines in the middle of each sphere, I could only assume it was a row of closed eyes. There was also a single large sphere right in the middle of the forehead, in the stereotypical position of a psychic’s third eye. 
“...That’s Hecatoncheir?” 
“Correct. Isengard has long protected this weapon, but over time the people forgot it was even buried down here. The nation developed as it slept below, abandoned by its protectors. If I hadn’t uncovered it, it likely would have slept forever.” 
It was a grisly remnant of the Great War, something that could’ve destroyed the world... I had no idea such a thing was buried beneath Isengard. It was kind of like an Upper Construct Phrase, but it was far rougher due to its artificial nature. It was a weapon designed to blindly murder all in its path. 
“All Gollems have the G-Cube at their core and the Q-Crystal to compose their brain. But the Q-Crystal slot for Hecatoncheir was left incomplete. It needed a replacement. For over thirty years I tried to awaken it with various Gollem Q-Crystals, but only recently did I find my answer.” 
The witch-king walked over toward Hecatoncheir’s head and slid two of his machine fingers into a console nearby. Several beeping sounds rang out as the spheres lining the enormous Gollem head began to slowly open. 
“What the...” 
Each of the eye-like openings were actually hemisphere windows, and inside each were brain-like structures connected to tubes. All except the main eye in the middle was open. They were all floating within an emerald-green liquid, like preserved brains you might find in a medical laboratory. 
They weren’t exactly biological brains, just crystal structures carved into an angular brain-like shape. There were even circuits carved into them, resembling the wrinkles one might find in an animal’s brain. These were the Q-Crystals, the data centers of a Gollem. 
Even though I knew they were man-made, I was still grossed out looking at them through the glass. 
“Fifty Q-Crystals. That’s how many we have lining its head right now. They aren’t normal, either. They’re all exceptionally high-grade Q-Crystals taken from legacy Gollems. But even after that, we still need to be sure it’s under our control, which brings us to the last piece...” 
Even though the room was dimly lit, I could still make out the witch-king’s sinister smile. 
“Gollems are powered through light and magic. Those two factors combine within a Gollem’s internal reactor, granting it the ability to move and think. But to move a Gollem of this size, we’d need unfathomable amounts of magical power. It was around ten years ago that I learned an artifact with that amount of magical power was within the Lowe territory.” 
“Ten years ago... Then you orchestrated the invasion of Lowe to get your hands on that artifact?!” 
“Correct. It was all to find that last piece. Well, we also managed to cannibalize the Q-Crystals from the beast emperor Gollems we defeated. They’re inside Hecatoncheir’s head right now! But I digress... The artifact I sought was not located within the Azure Ruin.” 
That made sense. Since he only knew it was in Lowe’s territory, there was no guarantee it’d be in those particular ruins. And as it happened, the Emerald Ruin was discovered around the same time... Which probably meant the artifact he needed was in there, and he’d do anything to get it. 
“So what do you want to do with it once you trigger it? Take over the world?” 
“Pfft. Don’t be stupid, boy. I am doing this for myself. To prove that I have taken magitechnology to its utter apex. I wish to show the world that I have gone beyond even the ancient civilizations! I cannot allow the fools of this world to waste such beautiful technology anymore! All of the ancient secrets are mine to wield, do you understand? Mine to know, and pull apart! Who cares about conflict and war? All I want is to push science to the absolute limit! All who get in my way can die for all I care!” 
Though the light was low, I could see glints of madness in his eyes. I knew that he’d stop at nothing to pursue his goals. 
“Nia was right... You’re crazy.” 
“Khahaha! All humans are crazy in some way, it’s just how we’re wired! Most aren’t even aware of their own neuroses, and think they’re sane! You say that I’m crazy, me?! But from my perspective, you’re the insane ones! You, who seek to impede magitechnological progress!” 
The old man started cackling like an idiot. I could feel another wave of condescension coming from him. My grandpa always told me to respect my elders, but I didn’t really think this guy was the kind of person I could afford to respect on any level. 
“...Guess you’re beyond negotiating, huh? Sorry, old man... But I’ll be turning that tacky old thing into scrap metal. It’s way too dangerous to leave unchecked.” 
“Khaha! You think I’d let you do that?! Why do you think I brought you into my secret lab?! Why do you think I’ve been monologuing this entire time?!” 
“What?” 
All of a sudden, a glass cylinder shot up from the ground and fell down from the ceiling until I was completely sealed in a clear tube. All the strength began draining from my body. I felt like I was going to vomit. The sensation was so intense that I fell to my knees and started gasping for air. 
Gh... M-My magic...?! He’s draining my magic?! 
“Touya!” 
“Darling?! Yae, Hilde! Get him out of there!” 
“Yes, Leen-dono!” 
“We’re on it!” 
Yae and Hilde charged sent their blades dancing through the air, slicing the cylinder around me to ribbons. 
Even though I’d only been affected for a few seconds, I’d lost roughly forty percent of my entire mana pool. If I was an ordinary person, I’d have been drained instantly and probably died. Given that it was enough to make me feel woozy, it must’ve been some seriously scary tech. 
“Guhuhu... Khahahaha! Thanks for your generous donation, friend! This is more than enough to fire up the reactor! Khaaahahaha!” 
“You...” 
Even though my head was still reeling, I understood what the old man had done. He’d expected me to come see him. He was aiming for my magic power from the start... And had used me to activate the Gollem. 
After all, he didn’t need the artifact if he had a living conduit of magic like me. I was basically a human sparkplug! 
“You wretch!” 
Yae leaped forward to the witch-king and, in the blink of an eye, sliced off his right arm at the elbow. Just as Hilde prepared to follow up with her own attack, something grotesque happened. 
The witch-king’s face split open horizontally, and his jaw extended by at least twenty centimeters. The muzzle of a gun then poked out past his golden teeth and fired several rounds in our direction. 
“What the...? [Shield]!” 
The rain of bullets was soaked up by the sudden appearance of an invisible barrier. I watched in horror as the old man stood up. His entire back split apart, revealing several extendable arms that were tipped with sharp blades. 
“T-Touya-dono?! D-Did he replace his entire body with mechanical parts, did he?!” 
“No! That’s not it at all! He’s a Gollem! He was a humanoid Gollem this entire time!” 
How could I have not noticed? He was never a human to begin with, he was a humanoid-type Gollem like Ruby, Saph, and Emerl... Elluka had mentioned that humanoid Gollems that looked identical to human beings were rare, but definitely existed... And now I knew that this guy was one of them. Yae and Hilde began frantically slashing apart the arms as they came jabbing toward us. Fortunately, humanoid Gollems didn’t have much in the way of combat strength, because their design was more oriented around deceiving people through disguise. Even though it had weapons, that was never the primary focus of its design. 
“Guh!” 
“Hyah!” 
Yae’s katana gleamed as it sliced off the witch-king’s head, and Hilde followed that attack up by cleaving its body in half entirely. Various mechanical parts spilled out of its inside, and the thing that once was the witch-king fell to the ground. 
“...What could this mean?” 
Yumina stared down at the witch-king’s remains in disbelief. ...Was he a Gollem his entire life? Did he get assassinated and replaced at some point? But then, who was controlling him? This raises way too many questions. 
As I mulled over the situation, a rumbling began to permeate the ground and walls. Everything in the underground factory began to shake. At first, I thought it was an earthquake, but then I realized the truth. 
“Khakhahaha! Amazing... Wonderful...! I can feel the power coursing through my entire body! Ohh... With this... I’ve truly become transhuman, ohh... This is incredible!” 
The witch-king’s voice rang out through the entire area, but I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. 
“T-Touya-dono! Over there!” 
Yae pointed toward the gigantic Gollem head. The large eye-like window in the middle of Hecatoncheir’s forehead had opened, and I looked in utter disgusted shock as I realized what was inside. 
Floating inside the emerald-green liquid, much like the Q-Crystals I’d seen through the other hemispherical windows... was a human brain. 

 
“...Then you’re the witch-king?” 
“Correct! That humanoid Gollem over there was a mere doll I used for the sake of appearances. Ten years ago I had my brain transferred to the Hecatoncheir, and fled the shackles of humanity!” 
I was equally appalled and amazed by what I was hearing. The brain within Hecatoncheir’s forehead jostled and shuddered as it spoke through the machine. 
He’d basically done something similar to Doctor Babylon, but instead of transferring his mind into a humanoid homunculus, he’d transferred himself into the mother of all legacy Gollems. 
Still, given that he needed like fifty or more artificial brains to control it, it was clear that Doctor Babylon had him beat in terms of efficiency... Then again, this was a much larger body. 
“Khakaka... Incredible, isn’t it? Such a feat like this is impossible to comprehend, isn’t it?” 
“Eh... Kinda? Not really.” 
“Whuh?” 
I was pretty surprised by the general appearance of the whole thing, the idea of his brain just being visible like that was hella gross, but... The tech itself wasn’t too shocking. I was pretty familiar with cyborgs in fiction, and all that. Though, having one right in front of me was pretty unsettling. 
“I mean... it’s cool? I guess? But it’s kind of whatever.” I loaded an [Explosion]-infused bullet into Brunhild, pointed it his way, and pulled the trigger without a moment’s notice. 
A massive detonation went off against Hecatoncheir’s forehead, but after the smoke cleared it was pretty apparent that my shot hadn’t actually inflicted any damage. 
“Bah.” 
“Khaahahaha! You fool! You cannot damage the mighty Hecatoncheir! Its armor is designed to nullify any and all magic!” 
I narrowed my eyes and looked closely, noticing that several runic patterns were engraved all over Hecatoncheir’s surface. It seemed like it had the very principles of anti-magic armor carved into its very being. 
Given that it was supposed to be deployed in an all-out Gollem world war, that function was likely to defend against Gollem skills. I was kind of getting pissed off at the old guy, since he was so proudly talking about achievements that weren’t actually his. 
“Reload.” 
I shifted the bullets to regular ones and pulled the trigger again. But alas, a pinging sound resounded as the bullets hit an invisible barrier before making contact with the surface. 
Just as I’d expected... It was enchanted with something similar to my [Shield] spell. I couldn’t even penetrate it with Brunhild, and I imagined that even Yae and Hilde would have a hard time getting through. Even if they did, their momentum would be stopped enough for it to barely do a scrape. It’d be like taking a shaving razor to a tuna. Not exactly the most efficient method. 
The loud rumbling began again, prompting me to look up at the ceiling. Stuff was falling down from above here and there. I didn’t really want to deal with any more surprises, since it was hard to figure out how to respond. 
Even though I was becoming a god, it wasn’t like my ability to process information had increased. If I’d kept [Accel] active on me at all times, I probably would’ve been able to respond before getting my magic sucked out... but there was no point thinking about it. 
Plus, it wasn’t like I wanted to live life in a constant state of acceleration. 
I heard something break and then heard various shattering and snapping sounds ring out from all over the underground facility. 
It became pretty clear that Hecatoncheir was moving around beneath the ground. It was attempting to break out from the underground and rise up. 
“Khakhaha! Time to free myself from this dull prison!” 
“H-Hey! We’re directly below your castle, aren’t we?! What about the people above?!” 
“Does a man take care not to step upon ants underfoot?! Why should I care for their puny lives?!” 
This old bastard... He really isn’t human anymore, is he? The large eye in the middle of Hecatoncheir’s forehead, along with the other eyes, all closed all of a sudden. Once they re-opened, the brain and Q-Crystals were no longer there. He’d clearly moved them to another area within the Gollem. That made sense, given he wouldn’t want his weak spots out on display. 
Hecatoncheir began to shift and move, and the underground workshop was becoming more of a wreck by the second. If we stayed any longer, we’d be in serious danger... The ceiling itself was about to cave in. 
“[Teleport]!” 
I grabbed the girls and warped to a rooftop in Isengard’s capital city. We were on the roof of the tallest building, a tower to the south of the castle. It gave us a good view of the area. 
The building that looked like a battleship’s command tower had smoke billowing out of it, and looked like it was set to collapse. I looked more closely and saw people fleeing the area en masse. 
“Set Targets! All people within Isengard Castle and the surrounding area!” 
“Acquiring Targe—” 
My smartphone’s audio was drowned out by a series of massive explosions that came up from within the castle. Amidst the sea of flame and smoke, I saw two massive wings emerge from underground. 
The witch-king, in his Hecatoncheir body, was attempting to crawl out of a pit. He didn’t care at all about the deaths he could be causing. 
“—rgets Acquired.” 
“Use [Teleport] to displace all targets to the plains three kilometers away! Apply [Mega Heal] to everyone immediately after transfer!” 
“Order Acknowledged.” 
The moment my smartphone told me it had picked up on everyone, I issued further commands. But I was too late to save everyone. There was nothing I could do for those who were already dead or those who might’ve been wearing talismans to protect themselves from magic. 
As if to mock my failure, the gigantic command tower finally collapsed into the flames. Those gigantic wings I’d seen before re-appeared, fanning the smoke and rising upward out of the ground. The earth itself began to split open... extending beyond the castle grounds and even out toward the town. I had misjudged its size... It wasn’t just buried under the castle. It was buried beneath the castle town as well. A massive, twisted metal tail emerged from the splintering earth. There wasn’t just one... A second and third appeared. And then, even more. I couldn’t even make out the former castle grounds due to the sheer amount of smoke billowing out from beneath the soil. 
“Khakhakhaaaah! This is incredible... I can’t be stopped now! I’ve gone far beyond the limits of ancient technology! By my own handiwork, the Hecatoncheir walks the earth! Khakhaah!” 
Smoke continued to plume upward as the witch-king’s insane ravings rang out across the land. The man had completely lost his mind. 
From beneath the castle, it finally made its physical debut. Its body was entirely black, save for the brass lines that ran across it. Atop its head were two monstrous horns. The eyes lining the sides of its face were open, and its mouth was twisted into a triumphant grin. Four massive, thick arms sprouted from its torso, and various other small arms jutted from its body in other areas. Two ferocious wings were sticking out of its back. 
It was hard to describe, but it basically resembled what I’d imagine a massive, multi-armed demon to look like. It also had various tails splitting off from its rear end, each tipped with a snake-like head. The tails flicked around like whips and annihilated the castle walls as if they were nothing. It was clearly packing monstrous levels of strength. 
It was enormous... About the size of an Upper Construct Phrase. I was surprised that something so large was slumbering beneath the castle town. 
Hecatoncheir’s tails continued to lash out, reducing the castle to rubble. It was like something out of a giant monster movie. The magitech fortress, Isenberg, was slowly devoured by debris and fire. I could hear the townspeople screaming as they watched the situation unfold. 
“T-Touya-dono... We must stop this, we must! Bring out our Frame Gears!” 
“Ah... Whoops. My Reginleif is in my [Storage], but yours are in the hangar right now...” 
“Oh?!” 
All the Valkyrie Gears were currently in the hangar getting a tune-up. I’d need to travel back to the regular world and pick them up... But that’d leave the people of Isengard like sitting ducks. ... Guess there’s really nothing else for it, I’m gonna have to... 
“Oopsie-doopsie! Guess you made a little mistakey-wakey! But I’m here now, you know?! Touya’s reliable sister, taking center stage, you know? It’s me, Big Sis Karen!” 
“Augh!” 
I almost fell off the roof due to the sudden, surprising voice. I turned around and saw Karen, my sister, puffing out her cheeks and chest with pride. I had absolutely no idea how long she’d been here for. Everyone else was staring at her with wide, shocked eyes. Clearly, they weren’t used to her stupid-ass behavior either. 
“Karen, what the hell are you doing here?!” 
“My big-sis senses were tingling! I sensed that poor little Touya was about to cry, you know? So I knew I had to come and save you!” 
...I don’t remember crying. Your senses are totally off... I bet you just realized something interesting was going down and decided to butt in! 
“Anyway, I decided to bring Babylon over here, you know? Look over there!” 
“You what?!” 
Karen pointed up into the air, but I certainly couldn’t see anything. 
“...There’s nothing there.” 
“Try looking with your divinity, you know?” 
“Oh, right.” 
I’d forgotten that Babylon had a stealth field around it. I triggered my divinity and saw the whole fortress floating up there. I was a little shocked and mortified that Karen had brought the whole damn thing over, though... That was definitely beyond my capabilities. 
I wasn’t even sure if she was allowed to do that. As far as I understood it, using divinity was forbidden if you used it to interfere in mortal affairs. I was just an exception to that rule due to my trainee status. 
“This is fine, you know? It belongs to you, so... It doesn’t belong to the mortal realm, you know?! I can move it around, so it’s all good!” 
I don’t think that argument holds up at all, Karen! You just made that up on the spot! Well, whatever. What’s done is done. If I spend any more time arguing it’ll just be a waste. I sent the girls up to Babylon with [Gate] and turned to look at Hecatoncheir. It stretched out its wings and took to the skies. It didn’t do any physical movements like flapping, so it was probably just using anti-gravity tech to make itself airborne. 
Unfortunately [Slip] wouldn’t work on enemies in the sky, and [Prison] definitely wouldn’t hold something so big. I wouldn’t be able to drop it anywhere with [Gate], either. 
“...Fine, if you wanna play it this way...” I moved toward an unpopulated area within the capital and called down Reginleif, my Frame Gear. I hopped up into the cockpit, set my smartphone down on the console, and fired that bad boy up. 
Various monitors popped up around me, giving me a clear view of my surroundings. I locked on to Hecatoncheir and channeled my magic through the controls, taking off and flying toward the rampaging Gollem. 
“Fragarach... Activate!” 
“Initializing Fragarach System.” 
The wing-like structures on Reginleif’s back unfolded themselves and broke off until there were a total of twelve crystal slabs surrounding my machine. 
“Switch to Sphere Mode.” 
The crystal slabs reformed themselves into orbs. All twelve of them surrounded my mech in a circular formation, like numbers on a clock. 
“Launch.” 
The twelve crystal spheres flew toward Hecatoncheir like several speeding bullets, but they were blocked by the invisible barrier before they could do any real damage. 
“Hm?” 
The witch-king, who was effectively the same thing as Hecatoncheir at this point, finally noticed me. I flew Reginleif to an area above his head. 
Looking at it from above gave me a real appreciation for its size. 
“Khakaka... What a peculiar Gollem you have... I wonder where you dug it up... It’s certainly rare, I’ve never seen anything of its kind before! But there’s no way something so puny can match up to my Hecatoncheir!” 
“It’s not about size, old man! It’s about how you use it!” 
“Silence!” 
Hecatoncheir’s wings shuddered as it started flying upward toward Reginleif. I dodged its swipes and flew out toward an empty field a bit away from the capital. I’d deliberately traveled in the opposite direction from the plains I’d transferred the people to earlier. 
I reasoned that so long as I was out of the way of anyone innocent, I’d be able to go all-out. 
“Switch to Dagger Mode.” 
The twelve crystal spheres around me quartered themselves, then each piece transformed into a small blade. Forty-eight crystal daggers now swirled around Reginleif. 
“Now lemme just infuse a little divinity, and... Gladius!” 
The forty-eight divinity-laden daggers launched toward Hecatoncheir in unison, assaulting the many-armed demon over and over again. 
“Khakhaah! You idiot, that’s useless! Hecatoncheir’s protective barrier is... Whaaat?!” 
The crystal daggers punctured the barrier like it was tissue paper, moving to shred the metal monster’s body apart. 
I definitely would’ve been able to penetrate it without divinity if I’d tried hard enough, but I wanted to cut out the middle-man. 
“H-How can you be doing this?! My barrier is absolute! Explain yourself at once!” 
“I don’t owe you a goddamn thing!” 
The crystal daggers targeted the shield generators on the massive Gollem’s shoulders, destroying them. That was the barrier taken care of. They then continued to rip into Hecatoncheir, punching hole after hole into the massive thing. Unfortunately, they were too small to cause critical damage, and it seemed like the Gollem had another trick up its sleeve. 
“Repair nodes!” 
A lot of legacy Gollems had the ability to repair themselves, so it wasn’t exactly an unusual skill or anything... However, the amount healed wasn’t supposed to be more than surface-level scrapes. Unfortunately, Hecatoncheir seemed to be regenerating much more efficiently than I’d expected. The amount of regeneration it was performing was easily on par with Luna Trieste and her purple crown, Fanatic Viola. 
“Is it regenerating so well because of its size?” 
My Gladius attack was basically doing nothing at this point, all of the holes opened up on its outer layer were closing in a matter of seconds, though I couldn’t be sure how well it was repairing itself on the inside. Since it had a defensive barrier up, I had an inkling that it couldn’t regenerate so well internally. 
“Don’t think so lightly of me, boy!” 
Hecatoncheir raised its arms and released beams of light from its palms. Over a hundred beams shot out, headed toward Reginleif from myriad angles. 
“Switch to Reflector Mode!” 
All forty-eight daggers suddenly combined into six massive crystal barriers, deflecting each and every beam that came toward me. The beams kept coming, one after the other, but not a single one landed a hit on me. 
As the beam assault continued, one of the smaller arms firing the beams was cut off below the elbow. 
“What the?!” 
The one to cut it down was a purple samurai mech. It was Yae in her Schwertleite. Another Frame Gear followed up the attack, slicing yet more arms off. It was Hilde in her orange Siegrune. 
The two of them were equipped with Vernier thrusters about their waists. The added gear allowed them to fly in the air. 
“Oh, they finished developing those?” 
During our battles against the Phrase, and later the mutants, only Linze and I were able to take to the skies. That meant that only we could handle the airborne enemies. Well, Yumina, Leen, and Lu could use their long-range attacks as well. 
That was why Rosetta from the workshop came up with the Vernier thrusters. They could only be used by the Valkyrie Gears and had a limited amount of operational time before they ran out, but they were definitely helpful. 
Siegrune and Schwertleite danced past the beams of light, cutting down arm after arm with each forward motion. The two of them were doing considerable damage now that I’d brought the barrier down. It seemed like the Gollem wasn’t able to regenerate its lost limbs, either. 
Suddenly, a barrage of bullets was pelted at Hecatoncheir. The source was Leen’s Grimgerde. The endless rain of bullets started to riddle a steady stream of holes into the great Gollem’s armor. 
One of its thinner arms was suddenly blasted away at the base by a powerful sniper shot. Yumina in her Brunnhilde must’ve been the cause. She’d triggered her stealth mode, so I had no idea where she was firing from. 
“This can’t be! Hecatoncheir is the apex of Gollem technology! This is the culmination of the ancient world’s magitech, and my witchcraft! I am the witch-king! None can surpass my skill!” 
“All you did was tweak something that was already built, you old fart! Why’re you talking so proud, huh?! If you wanna talk so arrogantly, then you should’ve invented something like this on your own!” 
Elluka was trying to surpass the ancient civilizations too, but she wasn’t relying on their pre-fabricated stuff like this old idiot was. 
“Hell, I bet this thing’s worse than it was originally designed to be because you got your grubby mitts on it and modified it poorly!” 
“Y-You filthy little barbarian! How dare you talk down to me! I’ll never forgive you for your insubordination!!” 
The massive Gollem roared out in anger, I could feel the air vibrating as it yelled out. 
“Let me give you a taste of hell, you urchin! No matter how many Gollems you send at me, I cannot be defeated! Hecatoncheir is a weapon of mass destruction, and its unique skill is going to show you exactly what that means!” 
Hecatoncheir began emitting a cloud of strange green smoke. It began to drift around the surrounding area before settling in the air. 
What the... Poison?! While regular Frame Gears weren’t airtight, the Valkyrie Gears were fitted with special air filtration units. There’d be no way for poison to reach the insides of the cockpits. But I still wanted to be safe instead of sorry, so I called Yae and the others back. 
“Are you all okay?” 
“I’m fine, yes. No problems I can see...” 
“All fine here.” 
“I am fine, I am.” 
“No issues here!” 
Everyone was okay, which made me wonder just what that smoke was supposed to be. It was still hanging in the air, swirling around like a thick mist. 
“Khakhaaah! How do you like that, hm?! Aren’t you going to attack? A little difficult when your Gollems no longer respond to your commands, isn’t it?! Khakhaahaaa!” 
Huh? What’s he talking about? Wait... did he see us retreat and completely misread the situation? 
“Khuhuhu... That’s right! My smoke can paralyze a Gollem’s Q-Crystal! It inhibits the very brain of your Gollem! No matter the opening, it’ll pass through without a hitch! It’ll crawl up the nerve lines of your Gollem and rot the Q-Crystal from the inside out! Your Gollems are naught but scrap m—” 
“Switch to Lance Mode.” 
I suddenly had the reflector boards orbiting Reginleif converge upon the Frame Gear’s right arm. They then merged together and formed a mighty lance around the limb. 
“Wh-What?! That’s impossible! No matter how well-made your Q-Crystal is, this weapon was specifically designed to disable it! How can your Gollem be moving?! That isn’t possible!” 
“I never once said that this thing was a Gollem, old man. That was your mistake.” 
“What...?!” 
His fatal mistake was assuming that we were operating Gollems. Frame Gears didn’t have anything remotely close to Q-Crystals. 
The Frame Gears didn’t seem to be affected by the smoke at all, but I decided to nip this in the bud just in case there were any other adverse effects. 
“This doesn’t make any sense! How can they be something other than Gollems?! If not that, then what are those things?!” 
“I don’t owe you an explanation, old man!” 
The girls behind me grabbed onto Reginleif, pushing their Vernier thrusters to maximum output. In the same instant, I triggered [Accel]. Reginleif became like a gigantic lance itself, thrusting itself forward and penetrating the massive Gollem’s torso. 
Reginleif tore through the Gollem’s interior, and I transformed the lance, unfolding it like an umbrella as we ripped through. After a short while, we burst out of Hecatoncheir’s back, leaving untold destruction inside the Gollem behind me. 
“I-Impossible...!” 
After Reginleif tore its path, the massive Gollem began swaying unsteadily. I’d apparently destroyed the gravity-manipulation unit inside it. 
And, just like that, Hecatoncheir fell to the ground. The multi-armed demon was brought back to earth, flailing as it kicked up debris. 
 
The many-armed demon had fallen, but it was desperate to get back up. Its body writhed and strained as it attempted to right itself, but that only caused the cracks running along its armor to spread and widen. It brought itself back up to its feet, and then immediately fell down again. 
Eventually, it stopped moving, and we simply stared at it. 
“...Honestly, this thing’s pretty terrifying. If we were using Gollems, we’d have been completely screwed.” 
Using gas to indiscriminately corrode Q-Crystals was a seriously horrifying power... The gas probably wasn’t composed of anything inherently scientific, it was probably just the unique makeup of the Gollem’s skill. I doubted we’d be able to replicate it, and I didn’t think it’d affect Hecatoncheir itself, either. 
Frankly, it was way too overpowered in a world so reliant on Gollems. If we didn’t have our Frame Gears, it was highly likely that nobody would have been able to stop the rampage. 
Suddenly, a hissing sound emanated from Hecatoncheir, and its head detached from its body. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at. Six leg-like structures jutted out from the head, and it began scuttling away. 
Something resembling a spinal cord slipped out of the body as the head detached, forming a kind of tail. The six-legged head began scuttling at a high speed and, once it found a soft patch of earth, started attempting to drill underground. 
“[Slip].” 
“Gweh?!” 
The head fell on its side and started spinning around in a circle. It was kind of hilarious. 
I piloted Reginleif and had it pick up the Gollem head by the dangly spine-tail. 
“R-Release me! The very heavens will refuse to forgive you if you kill a genius like me here!” 
“...Dude, you’re so delusional you’ve gotta have some kind of sickness.” 
I’d had quite enough of this geriatric lunatic. 
“Your body’s basically gone, old man. How about you repent? You’re basically on your way out.” 
“Silence, cretin! You really think I can die here?! I’ll simply take over another body! A better body, and come back stronger than ever before!” 
“Quit your yapping. [Analyze].” 
I activated a spell and scanned Hecatoncheir’s head. 
“There it is.” 
I maneuvered Reginleif’s hand into the back of Hecatoncheir’s head and plucked something out from within. It was a human brain floating in a clear cylinder. 
“This can’t be! Hecatoncheir is the apex of Gollem technology! This is the culmination of the ancient world’s magitech, and my witchcraft! I am the witch-king, none can surpass my skill! E-Enough! Put me down! D-Do you understand that losing my genius would be a detriment to our entire planet?!” 
“Are you sure about that...?” 
I was surprised that the brain capsule had a voice speaker on it, too. I set it down on the ground and then hopped out of Reginleif’s cockpit. 
The cylinder was around two meters tall and had a diameter of about 60 centimeters. It was filled with that emerald-green fluid I’d seen earlier. There was a weird device on top of it that ran several tubes inside. The tubes then hooked themselves up into the witch-king’s brain. Presumably, that was what kept him alive. 
Honestly, the brain seemed a little larger than a human’s... I wondered if he’d always been so big-brained or if it had become engorged after the transfer. 
“Y-You’re going to destroy my pod?! Reconsider!” 
“Actually, I’m not. I’m going to make it unbreakable.” 
With that, I enchanted the entire thing with [Shield] to prevent physical damage, and [Protection] to prevent it from ever degrading over time. I also filled up the magic-powered life support to maximum capacity. 
“Wh-What are you playing at?!” 
“You mentioned it earlier, didn’t you? How I cursed that one guy? Funny thing about curses is they’re varied... For example, you can create curses that trigger pain...” 
“N-No... Please...” 
“Brand, O Dark. Sinful Brand: [Guilty Curse]!” 
When you really got down to it, the sensation known as pain was simply a series of electrical signals transmitted to the brain. All I needed to do was use magic to make it so anything done to the capsule would then be transmitted to the brain within as pain-based information. 
To demonstrate my point, I gave a swift kick to the object in front of me. 
“Gyaaaugh!” 
“Looks like it works. Neat.” 
“Th-This can’t be...! I shouldn’t be able to feel pain... How?!” 
I scraped the gunblade tip of Brunhild against the capsule’s glass. Thanks to the strengthening I’d given it, the pod itself remained unscathed. 
“Argh!” 
If I had to guess, the witch-king was likely feeling pain equivalent to having one’s flesh punctured with a needle. 
“Wh-What are you going to do with me?!” 
“Heh... That’s not actually my decision, old man. You have a lot to answer for, after all.” 
I felt like the Gardio emperor and Colonel’s men would have questions for him. Now that I’d granted him the ability to feel pain, we’d be able to grill him for information. 
I couldn’t guarantee that they’d let him off with a simple bit of torture, though... 
 
After being interrogated for a while by the Gardio Empire, the witch-king’s pod was passed over to Colonel and his group. He hadn’t just destroyed one nation in his mad quest for Hecatoncheir’s revival, he’d also committed several atrocities along the way. 
The worst of it was the fact that he’d done a massive amount of human experimentation while he was refining the brain transfer process. He’d scooped out the brains of men, women, and even children... The number of victims ended up being in the hundreds. I was sickened just hearing about it. 
After the witch-king was removed from Isengard, the resulting power vacuum meant that any and all efforts to invade Gardio had been called off. 
The witch-king didn’t have any children, or direct students, so there was a succession crisis going on. Everyone was desperate to be the new leader. 
The whole thing reminded me of what happened during the dissolution of Yulong. I made a mental note about the importance of clear succession rules. 
After they were done interrogating, the Gardio Empire did offer the witch-king’s pod back to the government of Isengard. They said they didn’t know what Gardio was talking about, and refused to accept him. 
In the end, they all seemed to agree that the witch-king failed to activate some kind of ancient weapon, which resulted in his death and the destruction of their castle. They also reached out to Gardio and said that the invasion was squarely the old man’s decision, and they didn’t support it. I didn’t really think they were lying there, either. 
Personally, I didn’t know how much the central government of Isengard knew about the old man or his misdeeds, but I had a feeling they were happy to be rid of him. 
Regardless, it seemed like the reforming government of Isengard was willing to pay reparations to Gardio for all that had happened. 
After the pod was passed on to Colonel and the others, I didn’t care enough to ask what would happen next. It’d take about a year for the life support system to run out of energy, and I didn’t think anyone would be strong enough to break it before then. 
In a best-case scenario, he’d live out the last year of his life repenting for the horrors he’d inflicted upon so many. 
In Gardio-related news, Prince Lucrecion renounced his claim to the throne, and the emperor retired on the same day. A new leader had already been chosen. 
The new emperor was a man named Lancelet Rig Gardio. Before his ascension, his name was Lancelet Olcott. 
He was the son of the prime minister, Lancelo Olcott, who happened to be married to the former emperor’s younger sister. 
The new emperor was basically Lucrecion’s cousin, even if not connected by blood. 
The first thing the new emperor did was relinquish the former Lowe territories, and grant direct authority over them to Lucrecion. 
Lucrecion Rig Gardio then changed his name to Lucrecion Gran Lowe. 
There’d be a stand-in ruler administrating the area until he was an adult, but I had no doubt he’d be a great leader eventually. He also had his parents by his side. 
Colonel and his people were also dedicated to reviving Lowe properly under Gardio’s protection. 
And that was basically everything. 
“And that’s what happened!” 
“Hmm... I didn’t know the old man had gone that far, even if I knew he was a creep.” 
“Agreed.” 
I was in Brunhild, recounting my story. Specifically, I was in the Silver Moon, talking to Elluka’s sister Norn, and Chronos Noir. 
“You knew him?” 
“Mmm... Sorta. We met in the past when I was looking for my sis. He kept probing about Noir and then demanded I hand him over, so I picked a fight with him and then left.” 
The girl blabbered about something intense pretty casually, as per usual. I wondered if she realized that picking a fight with a head of state was generally a bad idea... Not that I had much room to talk. I looked over at Noir, who seemed just as startled as I was that she’d speak of something that serious so regularly. Crowns were definitely more emotive than regular Gollems. 
“Still... it’s interesting that he was a humanoid Gollem. I’m surprised I didn’t notice when I met him.” 
“Well, he basically looked completely human. Except for his arms, I guess... But otherwise, it was virtually impossible to tell the difference. I didn’t know they made them that well.” 
The only other humanoid Gollems I’d been acquainted with were Ruby, Saph, and Emerl back on Drakliff Island. They were certainly human-like in shape, but still resembled dolls. They gave off a heavy ‘android’ kind of vibe. 
According to Elluka, humanoid Gollems were mostly used for nursing care, child-minding, or mental health work. So, in theory, it wouldn’t be too unusual to have a Gollem that was almost identical to a regular human, but it was surprising. 
I looked over at Noir again, and let out a soft shrug. He certainly wasn’t human-like other than his emotive capabilities. I glanced over at the maid, Frau, and noticed she was making a strange expression. 
“Something wrong?” 
“Not exactly, but... I think it’s funny that barely anyone noticed about me. Doctor Babylon did, and your sisters did as well... There was also that fiancee of yours with the mismatched eyes, but the others didn’t seem to notice at all.” 
“Huh? Notice what?” 
I don’t get it. What does she mean? Wait... Wait, hold on... 
“Oh, Frau here’s a humanoid Gollem.” 
“...Hold up. You’re joking, right? There’s no way.” 
“Show him, Frau.” 
“Very well.” At Norn’s command, Frau brought her hands below her chin and pushed up. Then, with a small hissing sound, her head popped right off her body. 

“Auuugh!” 
Everyone stared at me because Frau had reattached her head before anyone else noticed. From their perspective, I just started randomly screaming in the corner of the room. 
Some of the patrons stared at me in confusion for a while, but most of the regulars just shrugged and went back to their food. Even Micah peeked her head out from the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about, before realizing it was just me and going back to work. 
“I am a humanoid Gollem. Designation GM-172. But my name is just Elfrau, and my contractor is Lady Norn.” 
“High-grade legacy Gollems can sometimes look almost identical to humans. Didn’t you hear about this from my sister?” 
“Your sister just works with Doctor Babylon all day and pours everything into research, I haven’t really had much time to talk to her about things like that.” 
Norn didn’t know about the Babylon facility. As far as she knew, Elluka worked with Doctor Babylon inside my castle, and that was all she needed to know. 
“That sounds like her... Just so long as she’s eating properly. Force-feed her if necessary, because she can go days without eating if she forgets. Though I’m sure Fenrir will remind her, so it should be okay.” 
I agreed there. I felt like Elluka would probably be dead if she didn’t have that wolf Gollem. 
“Elluka’s been kinda worried about you, you know.” 
“...Tell her to knock it off, then. Geez... I don’t like being treated like a kid!” 
...I mean, you look like a kid. Even if you’re fifteen, you look six. I can see why your sister would be concerned. 
I didn’t say that part out loud, I didn’t want to set her off on me again. 
“I’m making money just fine, so tell her to lay off.” 
“Hm? You got a job?” 
“Sure did. I’m an adventurer now! Check out my guild card.” 
Oh damn. I took a look at the card she showed me. It was legitimate. She was already a blue-rank adventurer, one step away from basically being one of the best. 
“How’d you even get the card to begin with...” 
There wasn’t a strict age restriction for adventurers or anything, but a general rule of thumb was no guild cards for kids, and she definitely looked like a kid. 
Even Yumina was only barely accepted, and she couldn’t go on solo missions. Basically, younger people needed guardians. 
“I just mentioned you and they let me pass right away.” 
“Now hold on...” 
“It’s fine, I showed off my strength too. I beat up a couple of annoying blue-rank guys, and then this nice elf lady gave me a card.” 
It seemed that Relisha had something to do with this. She was a guildmaster, so I trusted her judgment. I knew that she’d have given Norn a membership for her strength, not just for flashing my name. 
“I’ve been visiting those dungeon islands a lot. Adventurers certainly make a lot, huh?” 
“Pretty much, yeah. High risk and high reward.” 
After I spoke, Norn stopped eating for a moment. 
“That reminds me... You’re pretty much the top rank for adventurers, right? Do you still get missions now and then even though you’re royalty?” 
“Mhm, sometimes. Now and then I’ll take on quests that silver-ranks have screwed up on, or I’ll take care of monsters that could threaten entire nations, stuff like that.” 
“Why do you take those jobs, though? You hardly need the money.” 
She was wrong about that. It was true that national income from the dungeon islands and taxes were used to run the country... But stuff like Frame Gear tech development and even the knight order were paid right out of my own pocket. 
Even though they were known as the Brunhild knight order, they were technically my privately-funded army. It was kind of funny thinking of it like that, that Brunhild was basically defended by contractors... But I figured it wasn’t that huge of a deal in the end. They still did the same thing. 
I also earned cash for myself from my various ventures with Olba, the Mismede merchant. But developing Frame Gears was definitely not cheap, so I needed to keep the cash flowing in. 
That was why taking on well-paying quests was always an option for me. That being said, there were some in my government like Kosaka who believed that taking on jobs like that distracted from my administrative duties... Hence why I just kept it hush-hush. 
I turned around, since something was on my mind. My eyes were fixed on the little black Gollem nearby. 
“I wanted to ask you something, Noir.” 
“Intention recognized.” 
“Do you know anything about the white crown?” 
“...Insufficient data for meaningful answer. Memory unavailable.” 
“There’s no point in asking him that. Noir doesn’t remember anything from before meeting me. The memories aren’t exactly deleted or anything, but they’re sealed.” 
If that was the case then they were probably locked or encrypted in the Q-Crystal, which was basically the Gollem’s brain. 
“What do you want with the white crown anyway?” 
“I told you already. The boundary that defends this world from external invasion is all shredded up. I think the white crown has a power that could repair it.” I also had a feeling that the boundary of Norn’s world was in danger, too. 
“Those Phrase things, right? Those other-worlders?” 
“Yeah... Sort of. The regular Phrase are actually okay now. I made peace with their leadership... But a group of them splintered off and mutated into a dangerous faction. Even your world’s in danger now. They’ve been causing a lot of trouble over there.” I reached out to grab my drink, and it began shaking. The whole table suddenly began rattling and rumbling. 
“...An earthquake?” 
“Looks that way.” It was about a magnitude three quake... Pretty uncomfortable, but nothing terrible. It continued for a short while before stopping. 
Nothing in the restaurant was damaged, so none of the patrons seemed all that bothered about it. I wondered how earthquakes actually happened in the world I’d found myself in. 
It could’ve been the result of tectonic plate shifts, like back on Earth... Or perhaps it had something to do with the Pillar Spirit of Earth. Maybe earthquakes happened when she sneezed or something... It’d be pretty sucky if she ended up having hayfever. 
“There’ve been a lot of earthquakes lately. Is this another effect of the otherworldly invasion?” 
“Wait, there’ve been a lot of earthquakes? When?” 
“...Aren’t you supposed to be the ruler of this nation? How can you be this out of the loop?” 
Oof... It’s not my fault I’ve been spending so much time up in Babylon and in the Reverse World! 
“I’ve even been feeling quakes within the dungeons, you know... It gets a little scary when the walls around you begin shaking.” 
Wait... at the dungeon too? Those things might be accessible from Brunhild but they’re in the south of where Sandora used to be... That’d mean they’re happening globally. 
Is this maybe something to do with our worlds merging? 
...But I told the spirits not to have any elements freak out or anything, hmm... 
The fact that the dungeons were affected was pretty bad, I didn’t want them collapsing. If it got any worse I’d have to consider restricting the [Gate] portals that led there. 
That reminded me. 
“...What’s this?” 
“Nothing major.” 
I’d opened up [Storage] and took out a little pendant. It had a small blue gem embedded in it. 
Let’s see here... [Teleport], [Program], and [Gate]... That should do it. 
“Alright, here.” 
“Hm?” 
“If you find yourself in danger out in the dungeon, pour some magic into this thing. It’ll bring you back to the castle immediately. You can also bring anyone within a three-meter range. It’s basically an emergency option.” 
“Hmm...” 
She took the pendant from me and looked it over uneasily. I wondered if she didn’t like it or something. 
“...Are you sure you aren’t into little girls?” 
“Prffff?!” 
I spat out the water I’d been drinking. I had no idea what this brat was trying to say. 
“What the hell are you saying?!” 
“I mean... You just randomly gave me such a pretty present, didn’t you? I’ve heard rumors that the leader of this country is a womanizer, after all.” 
“That’s slander!” 
Who the hell’s spreading rumors like that?! Bring them to me! 
“Don’t you have a ton of fiancees, though? Don’t you take different girls out all the time? You have maids, a little girl in a white coat... and even this girl with thick glasses... Actually, the last one is probably my sister.” 
“Ghh... That’s technically true, but it’s not like that.” 
Even putting aside Yumina and the others, I don’t like that people think Cesca, Babylon, and Elluka have that kind of relationship with me... Especially not Doctor Babylon! 
“You just can’t stop yourself, hm? Seems like you don’t care how young your targets are...” 
“I just said that’s not how it is. Quit it already. A lot of the people I walk around with are just my staff. It’s business.” 
There’s no way I’d be interested in seducing anyone with the body of a six-year-old! 
“Suggestion: Report to relevant authorities.” 
“No!” I glared at the little Gollem, and then explained to them exactly what my relationship with Babylon and the gynoids was. I got them to understand that, at least, but they pointed out that by the time I had nine fiancees it was too late for me to avoid the label of womanizer. They weren’t wrong, sadly... 
A while later, I heard that Micah from the Silver Moon had seen me hand over the present to Norn... Gossip about me giving jewelry to a little girl then spread through the town until it even reached Elluka. 
She came up from behind me and smiled, but it was the scary kind of empty smile... Then she said “Let’s have a little chat about my sister, Touya...” and a chill ran down my spine. 
It’s a misunderstanding! Please!