Chapter IV: The Puzzling Horn Concerto
The Kingdom of Horn.
It was an agricultural country toward the east of the continent. It had temperate weather and fertile farmland, causing it to develop a unique farming culture. They rarely interacted with other nations.
Their fertile land was one of the main reasons for Yulong targeting them for invasion.
Around a hundred years ago, Horn had additional territory to the north. Unfortunately, it was all seized by Yulong’s greedy hands.
Horn reacted quickly to the attack, closing off all diplomatic relations with the Yulongese, and establishing a defensive pact with Felsen. For the following hundred years, they continued to tend to their land in isolation.
It was nice to say that Horn was unique and pleasant, but isolation also meant cultural stagnation. They didn’t even incorporate any of Felsen’s culture into their own.
The previous king of Horn, Tonam Da Horn, understood the potential dangers of this mindset. As did his son, Kamra Da Horn.
Horn would remain the same unless something changed. Prince Kamra raised these concerns with his father. He asked that they become a more multicultural society, that they incorporate more from the outside world.
Even though the king understood his son’s plight, he did not approve of such radical reformation. A wedge was driven between the two men, one that would lead them to frequently argue. They were both stubborn men with steadfast personalities, and thus neither side yielded.
But then, tragedy suddenly struck the royal bloodline.
The prince died in a tragic accident. One rainy day, he was stolen away at the mere age of twenty-one... tumbling off a cliff with his horse-drawn carriage.
A massive funeral procession was held, and the entire country went into mourning. But salt was to be added to the open wound... As the king himself died only a week after the passing of his son.
Some said that the stress of his job coupled with the loss of his son did him in. Others claimed it was the result of his declining physical health.
Another large funeral was held, and the country mourned yet again. They had been battered and bruised on a national level, twice in such a short span of time.
But the tragedies of the Horn Kingdom did not end here.
The prince was set to inherit the throne once the king died... But that son was already dead. The standard procedure would then say that the prince’s one-year-old son, Kuoh Da Horn, would inherit the throne in his father’s stead.
Of course, a baby couldn’t reign as a world leader. That was why the people expected Schwein Adante, the prime minister, to act as regent until the boy came of age. After all, Schwein was the boy’s maternal grandfather.
But Ganossa Da Horn, younger brother to the late king, raised an objection.
He stated that his brother had always intended to take the inheritance away from the prince, and thus he was the rightful ruler of Horn. His statement came with the accusation that Schwein was attempting to steal away power from the royal family.
But the prime minister stated the king wished to mend the strained relationship with his son, and refuted the idea that he would have appointed the brother instead.
“So neither side backed down, creating a tense conflict between the two opposing sides? The nation is on the brink of civil war, you say?”
“Indeed.”
The king of Felsen nodded at the pope.
We were in Railmin, Horn’s capital city. We’d traveled by carriage from Felsen, and were traveling along toward Horn Castle. We could have traveled by Ether Vehicle, but that would make us stand out too much in a place like Horn.
The carriage was at least comfortable. Her Holiness the Pope sat across from me, next to the king of Felsen.
Yae and Sakura were sitting by my side. They’d agreed to come as my guards.
“Felsen wants to act as a mediator between the two groups. We’re hoping that we can use your power to determine who might be lying.”
“Which means Felsen will work with the honest side?”
“Mhm. Our backing should stop a civil war breaking out.”
That seems pretty fair to me... I don’t exactly know why I’m here, though. I don’t have a role to play.
“Touya, I want you to keep an eye on any magic meddling. I doubt it’ll happen, but there could be those seeking to hurt the prime minister or the king’s brother. Your job is to notice what we might not see.”
That definitely made sense. If Yulong’s old intelligence unit was involved, there could be a serious issue. They even tried suicide bombing me once, so there was no guarantee of safety in any case.
I let out a small sigh as the carriage came to a halt. We’d arrived at the gate.
The castle was smaller than the ones in Belfast and Regulus, it was also pretty plain in its decoration.
If I had to compare it to something, I’d compare it to Shuri Castle without any red coloration and a little less splendor to it.
We continued through to the main compound in our carriage. The gates weren’t nearly as fanciful as the Shureimon, though.
The carriage ahead of us opened up, revealing the Felsen guardsmen within. Similarly, the carriage behind us opened up for the Ramissh Templars. Both groups walked toward our carriage.
One of the guard captains opened up our carriage door. The king of Felsen left first, then the pope, and then me and my fiancees.
“I extend you a warm welcome to the Kingdom of Horn. It is a pleasure to meet with all of you.”
A man stood by the castle’s main entrance. He was around thirty years old and had brushed-back black hair. A pair of glasses rested against his nose. He seemed like a regular civil servant, but he had hawk-like eyes. He wore asymmetrical clothing native to Horn, as well as a sash over his shoulder.
“And you are?”
“Ah, I’m Tauren Hanoi. I’m the east sea marquis, one of the Four Grand Marquis here in Horn. It’s a pleasure.”
“What are the Four Grand Marquis?” I’d never heard that term before, so I voiced my curiosity.
“In Horn, there are four marquis with large amounts of territory. I govern over the land bordering the east sea, hence my title.”
Apparently, Horn had four large territories governed by the Four Grand Marquis. There was the east sea marquis, the west forest marquis, the north mountain marquis, and the south spring marquis.
It seemed that north and west supported the late king’s younger brother, while east and south supported the prime minister. It was a perfect split.
That meant the man in front of me was part of the prime minister’s group.
Marquis Tauren... Or rather, the east sea marquis, guided us into the castle.
“I must admit I did not expect the grand duke of Brunhild and the eminent pope of Ramissh to be joining us.”
“I’ve always wanted to see the famous plains of Horn with my own eyes, as has the Grand Duke. We’re thankful to the king of Felsen for granting our audacious request.”
“Ah, I see. That makes sense, given that our nation hasn’t interacted with any foreigners other than Felsen... Personally, I’m of the opinion we should be branching out more. I’m quite glad we have more witnesses present for the meeting, in all honesty.”
The east sea marquis smiled wryly. Hmm... So he’s in favor of reformation. Wonder if he has any preconceived ideas about what kind of people we are, given that we come from foreign lands...
The marquis walked us along until we reached the conference room.
It was a luxurious room with lines of gold on the support pillars and walls. The ceiling had an enormous dragon carved into it. The castle outside looked extremely simple, so this was comparatively ornate. We sat at the north of the square table, and our guards took their positions behind us.
The east sea marquis left the room to fetch the two representatives we’d be meeting with. I felt a faint trace of magic power in the area, so I glanced around and found the source.
“Hm...”
“Touya-dono, have you found a problem?”
Yae noticed what I was staring at.
“That dragon engraving up there. More specifically, the eye and the gemstone it’s clutching in its hand. They’re both enchanted magical artifacts.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t think it’s anything dangerous, though. Seems like one of the effects is similar to [Silence], which prevents sound from leaving this room... There are two other effects, I think. One’s a magical barrier that blocks teleportation, and the other’s a simple protective shield spell.”
The effects in this room would prevent anyone from teleporting in or out, prevent sound from leaking out, and if anyone were attacked they’d be instantly guarded by a shield. I didn’t really know the power of the enchantments, but they seemed like standard safety measures.
After a short while the doors opened up, and the two representatives entered in unison.
None of them were above us in terms of social status, so we remained seated. Yae and Sakura stood up to nod in acknowledgment, though.
We exchanged greetings after they sat down.
On our left was Prime Minister Schwein Adante with the east sea marquis. Joining them was Nabyteo Schellmin, the south spring marquis.
Prime Minister Schwein was nearing his seventies, but he had a clear determination in his eyes. The patches of white beard on his face, along with his aging wrinkles and pointed nose gave him the look of a strong and determined man. He seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn’t really laugh if you made a joke.
The south spring marquis looked to be in his thirties. A chubby man with sweat dripping down his brow. He kept nervously glancing around and wiping at his forehead with his handkerchief... Whatever was up with him, the guy seemed like a pushover.
To our right we had Ganossa Da Horn, the king’s younger brother. He was accompanied by North Mountain Marquis Hawkes Manius and West Forest Marquis Seylia Swill.
If I recalled correctly, Ganossa was just about to turn forty. He was a very well-built man with a lot of muscle, and his black mustache took a few years off his actual age. All of that combined with his fierce glare made him seem more like a warrior than a diplomat.
The north mountain marquis was an older man. He had to be in his sixties. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who said much, which added to the mysterious air about him. He sort of reminded me of Naito. In short, he seemed like an inattentive kind of guy.
Then there was Seylia, the west forest marquis. She was the only woman in the group and had a luxurious head of brown hair.
She seemed like she was in her early twenties, which made her the youngest of the lot. But the vibe she gave off was an authoritarian one that would make anyone listen to her. I couldn’t exactly tell at a glance, but she gave off the impression of being an obstinate and uncompromising person. She was beautiful, but likely the type who would intimidate men who might otherwise be interested.
Each group had a small unit of guards with them as well.
Thus, we had our gathering of people...
Prime Minister Schwein.
East Sea Marquis Tauren.
South Spring Marquis Nabyteo.
The King’s brother, Ganossa.
North Mountain Marquis Hawkes.
West Forest Marquis Seylia.
We were all gathered at the meeting that may have very well determined Horn’s future as a nation.
“My brother disagreed with Prince Kamra. He was afraid that such radical reform would shatter the foundations of our nation! That was why he promised that I would be king instead of his son.”
“You cannot possibly prove that he promised you such a thing. Perhaps you’d have had a point if Prince Kamra were still alive to be stripped of his succession rights, but as it stands we must follow procedure. That procedure states that Kamra’s son is the rightful heir.”
“You mean to call me a liar, Prime Minister?”
“I did not say that. But it is true the king had a troubled relationship with his son, and I will believe there was a possibility of him saying something reckless when he was burdened with emotional baggage.”
Ganossa and Schwein were constantly fighting each other on different points, neither one willing to back down.
It was possible that the king might have said something like that when he was drunk, or emotionally heated after arguing with his son, even if he didn’t really mean it.
The only issue here would be that if that was the case, then the younger brother truly believed it to be the late king’s will.
“I want to ask you something, Prime Minister. Is it true that on the day of my brother’s death, you argued with him?”
“...That is true, yes. What of it?”
“According to the castle workers, my brother had everyone clear out so you two could discuss something important. Would you mind sharing the topic of your discussion?”
Ganossa narrowed his eyes toward the prime minister, prompting the other man to open his mouth in response.
“...We talked of his dead son’s legacy. At the time of his death, Kamra still believed that Horn needed to open itself up to the world. The king, however, was still opposed to the idea... He was emotional, and we got into an argument on the matter.”
“Oh? Are you sure that was all? Are you sure he didn’t talk to you about his plan to give me the throne? You know, there were many strange things about my brother’s death, Prime Minister. Would you be able to shed some light on any of that?”
“...I’m not entirely sure what you’re implying.”
Is he trying to suggest the prime minister killed the king? Why would he do that? I can’t even think of a good enough reason, but... Oh... Right. If the king died, then the prime minister could have all the power as acting regent for his grandson.
The two of them remained silent, eyes narrowed. Personally, I thought they were both fishy. That was why I had brought the pope with me, though.
Not many people at all knew that she held the power to detect lies. Plus, Horn was already isolated as it was, I had no doubts that it was a complete secret to everyone in the room.
I quietly spoke to the pope by my side.
“Well? Who’s lying?”
“Well...”
She frowned slightly.
“Neither of them are lying...”
“Huh? How does that work?”
“My mystic eye didn’t react at all. Either they’re both telling the truth, or they legitimately believe themselves to be truthful... Though there’s the possibility of there being magical interference with my power.”
When you considered that mystic eyes were basically a Null spell embedded into the body, it stood to reason that they’d be able to be nullified. I remembered that the prince of Gardio was wearing an item that inhibited his own mystic eye.
I couldn’t sense anything like that, though.
“You’re the grandfather of Prince Kuoh, Prime Minister. If you became regent in the boy’s stead, you could exercise power to your heart’s content. But of course, with Lord Ganossa in your way, it poses a bit of an issue for you, doesn’t it?”
“What are you trying to say, North Mountain Marquis?” The east sea marquis glared over at the man who’d spoken his thoughts.
“Oh, not much. But I must say that... on our way to the castle, Lord Ganossa’s carriage had a malfunction and lost a wheel. He almost suffered injuries, even. Had it gone any worse, he may have died.”
“Excuse me?”
The prime minister’s faction voiced their concern.
“I thought perhaps it was a simple mishap due to the age of the carriage, but I have to wonder... Prince Kamra died in a carriage accident, did he not? I wonder if you’d know anything about that, Prime Minister.”
“I know nothing of the sort. I’m baffled you’d even raise this subject with me.”
“Whatever you say...”
The north mountain marquis grinned slightly as he trained his eyes on the prime minister. I wondered if it really was an accident or not...
I turned to the pope once more, but she just gave me a small shrug of her shoulders. There was no real reason I could think of for the prime minister to kill prince Kamra. After all, that was his son-in-law.
“...Let’s take a small recess for now.”
The king of Felsen spoke up, and the other parties filed out of the room in response. I leaned back and let out an irritated sigh. The mood was way too tense for my liking... It was just glare after glare during the discussions.
The Horn maids, or who I assumed were maids despite their odd attire, poured us all some tea. It was pretty nice and refreshing. Similar to Eashenese tea, but slightly different. I looked over and saw Sakura munching on a cookie.
“It’s good... Try some, Grand Duke.”
“Oh? Sure... Mm... You’re right.”
“Mhm. We should bring some back...”
Sakura smiled softly. The tense air that had previously flooded the room suddenly dissipated. I was glad to have something soothing after all of that nonsense.
The king of Felsen grumbled quietly to himself as he sat with his arms folded.
“Grand Duke, what are your thoughts on what just happened?”
“I can’t say. Both sides seem to believe what they’re saying, but there’s also weird stuff that feels a bit off.”
“Mmh... I feel as if we’re just walking in circles.”
“I’m sorry about this. It seems like I’m not much use here...”
“Now, now, your Holiness... This isn’t your fault.”
The king of Felsen reassured the pope. I was about to console her as well, when...
“EEEEEEEEEKKK!”
We heard the sudden sound of a woman screaming from outside. There was a soundproofing magical barrier around the room, but sound could still come in from outside.
We charged out the door, then headed to the location the sound came from.
There was a large gathering of people down the hallway. They were crowded around a pale-looking woman who was kneeling on the ground. She was probably the one that had shrieked.
I flung open the door next to her and was met with the sight of a man face-down on the ground. A puddle of blood oozed on the carpet next to him, and I got a little closer. It was none other than the south spring marquis, Nabyteo Schellmin. He was dead.
The meeting was put on pause, and we asked Prime Minister Schwein to prevent anyone from leaving the premises.
The room showed no signs of a struggle. Given that there was a teacup on the ground near the corpse, one could assume he was poisoned. This was also driven in by the fact that the victim had blood around his mouth and chin. He’d vomited up the blood that I’d seen on entry.
“[Search]: Toxic Substances.”
My spell got a positive reaction from the liquid in front of me. I had suspected as much.
The nearby table had a basic serving tray, along with a teapot and a porcelain pourer.
“Who made this tea?”
“The prime minister asked that tea be delivered to everyone before the meeting. The rooms don’t have locks, so anyone could’ve entered while we were busy.”
The king of Felsen gave me a prompt answer. In other words, this could’ve been done by anyone. Obviously, the people who had been in the meeting were absolved directly for the time being, but they could’ve easily ordered a subordinate to do the deed. That even included the prime minister.
What I found strange was the fact that guards had been posted outside his door, so how could it be that they hadn’t heard him collapse?
I pondered that before looking up and noticing a familiar dragon engraving on the ceiling. That explained it. The room was soundproofed.
I decided to call Flora from the alchemy lab to run an analysis on the tea. Finding out what kind of poison it was could give us a crucial clue.
“But why would someone wanna kill the south spring marquis? I don’t wanna sound rude, but he’s not exactly the most important fella here.”
The king of Felsen grumbled as he pondered. He raised a fair point. Perhaps it was to intimidate someone, or to send a message.
“U-Uhm, actually...”
As we thought about the issues, a female servant timidly raised her hand.
“Th-This room was actually meant to be the prime minister’s...”
“Huh?”
“The prime minister arranged a room with a window facing the south for the south spring marquis, but the marquis insisted he take this room instead... He said he preferred smaller spaces.”
The servant pointed at another door down the hall as she spoke. Once she pointed it out, I noticed that this room was north-facing, while the other guest rooms faced the south.
“That means that the prime minister could have died, he could.”
Everyone froze in shock after Yae spoke up. It was possible that the prime minister was the intended target, but the sudden room switch meant the south spring marquis died instead... I thought that was a sound explanation for the time being. Though it was still possible the marquis had people after his life.
The faction that supported the king’s brother would obviously look at the prime minister and his allies as potential enemies, so it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to try and kill the south spring marquis... But if they could pull that off, then they’d have been better off killing the prime minister himself.
The room was reasonably sized. It had a table, a couch, a closet, and a north-facing window. There was also a string by the door that rang a bell to summon servants.
I checked the closet, but it was empty. I wasn’t too surprised, since this was more like a relaxation room than an actual place people would stay overnight.
I realized that I could probably bring the marquis back to life if I cast the [Resurrection] spell on him...
It was high-tier magic that could only be used on fresh bodies. If you waited more than an hour, it’d be impossible to bring the person back. It also voraciously ate at one’s magic and even risked the life of the caster.
Typically, the spell was only used by people who were really close to the deceased, because the spell could potentially kill the person casting it.
It wasn’t uncommon for the one casting it to die, and for the whole thing to just fail entirely. There were barely any records of successful revival cases throughout history. From what I understood, the success rate was lower than twenty percent.
I figured I’d be able to handle it without any risks, but after asking Karen about it, she told me that there was a risk of me overloading the target with too much life energy. I could end up warping the person beyond recognition.
She had said, “If you refreeze a melted ice sculpture, it’ll be ice again, but not the sculpture... You know?”
“I pray mercy for his soul, for his spirit to find peace in the lands above. God Almighty, please watch over him and grant him repose.”
The pope spoke a small prayer for the deceased. The souls of the dead didn’t go toward the divine realm where gods lived. They ended up settling in the heavenly realm just a little bit below.
Souls were purified in the heavenly realm before being incarnated into new bodies, though souls with sufficient pollution could only reincarnate as animals... Hopefully, this guy wasn’t poor of heart.
I rifled through the dead man’s pockets and belongings in a search for possible clues.
There was nothing that really stood out to me. There was a pen, a pocket watch, some tobacco leaves, and a little case with a tobacco compactor inside, along with some matches and a pipe. That was everything.
I figured I’d ask Flora to investigate the body as well, just in case.
“Grand Duke, here...”
Sakura motioned for me to follow. I wondered what it was she wanted. I left the room and went after her, Yae was there as well.
“Something up?”
“Sort of... Uhm... Sometimes I can hear better than usual.”
“Huh?”
What does she mean by that?
“I can hear people talking from really far away sometimes... Karen said it was because of your influence...”
“Huh, seriously?!”
“Sakura-dono... You have awakened a Touya skill thanks to his divinity, you have. I am quite jealous, I am.”
Yae seemed surprised by the sudden news.
Wait, huh? A Touya skill?! Don’t go making up names!
“Do you not know, Touya-dono? Yumina-dono also awakened such a skill, she did. With her visions.”
“Yumina did? Oh... You mean that power she got after receiving my divine protection?”
Those blessed by the grace of the gods ended up awakening to unique powers. Yumina manifested a form of future sight in her eyes, though it only let her see a few seconds ahead.
Seemed like Sakura’s ears had been blessed. Given that she often sang to Sousuke’s musical accompaniment, and Suika would dance to their music as she drank. It was possible that she’d received some of their grace too.
Yae often trained with Moroha, but so did Hilde... It was possible that their progress was slowing due to sharing a secondary source.
“Um, well... I heard something falling in the room where the man died... It was like... fwump... so I started focusing my hearing on the room...”
“Huh? But isn’t the room soundproofed...? Oh, wait...”
Since their manifested powers were rooted in divinity, it made sense that regular magic wouldn’t be able to interfere with them. The fwump sound was probably the guy falling over.
“And then... I only heard a little bit after that... But I heard latching sounds, and then a window being opened...”
“Hold on... That’s a little odd, isn’t it?”
“Mhm... That’s why I mentioned it...”
What does that mean, though? Assuming he died after falling, then there shouldn’t have been any other noises. Does that mean there was another person in the room with him?
Or maybe the poison was slow-acting, and he moved around after feeling the effects and falling down... But that doesn’t sound right. If I wanted to kill someone, I’d use a fast-acting poison.
“Are you sure you didn’t mistake the rooms?”
“Yes... I can use [Teleport]... I know spatial locations...”
Oh, right. I guess I understand, since I can use [Teleport] too.
But there were still some confusing aspects to all of this. If the culprit was using poison, then why would he bother being in the actual room? Unless of course he just wanted to watch his victim die.
But if he wanted to do that, then he should’ve just stabbed him or something. The south spring marquis wasn’t exactly a physically able man, so it would’ve been a lot more straightforward.
But if the culprit was in the room, then that completely threw out the idea that the prime minister was the intended target. It would mean that the south spring marquis was the guy who was supposed to die.
“Ugh...”
I scratched at my head and grumbled slightly, much like a certain famous hakama-wearing detective. I don’t understand this at all!
I walked back into the crime scene, and opened up the window. The window opened to a contained courtyard full of trees. There was nobody out there.
“The window wasn’t locked, so this is the only place a person could’ve escaped to.”
I hopped through the window. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see any footprints. I considered the culprit could’ve leaped toward the trees, but there’s no way that could’ve been the case. There were five meters between the window and the nearest tree... I could’ve made the jump, but I couldn’t imagine many others being capable of that.
Elze, Yae, Hilde, Homura, and the other intelligence corps members probably could, too...
“The ground here’s soft, though. So why aren’t there any footprints?”
So how did the culprit escape? Unless they had some kind of teleportation magic... No, the room has an enchantment preventing that. It’s possible they could’ve flown away like me, though.
...Wait, all of this is lining up so the perfect culprit is me! I never thought about that.
Pff... Obviously, that won’t hold water. I have an alibi. I should stop messing around and look for clues. I looked down and noticed something below the window outside.
“...Wood shavings?”
There were a few two-centimeter long wood shavings. They’d probably come from the window frame.
Just as I was pondering, Yae came running in.
“Touya-dono! There is a problem with the east sea marquis and the west forest marquis, there is!”
I hurried after Yae to the meeting room and found the two people staring each other down.
Prime Minister Schwein wasn’t around, neither was Ganossa. But the north mountain marquis was there, standing off to the side with crossed arms.
“I won’t tolerate these accusations! Why would we want him dead?!”
“The culprit targeted the prime minister, not the south spring marquis. He ended up dying in our prime minister’s stead due to the last-minute room change. Now tell me, who was it that considered the prime minister to be a thorn in their sides, hm? Who?!”
“Why would we kill him?! That’s utterly barbaric!”
“Well, perhaps you wouldn’t have opted to, but what about the others on your side?”
The north mountain marquis unfolded his arms in response to those words, glaring over at the east sea marquis.
“...Well now. Are you perhaps referring to myself?”
“I know your type, old friend. You’re the kind who’ll take any method at hand if it benefits him.”
“Well, you’re not entirely wrong. My northern mountains bordered Yulong, so I’ve always had to act as harshly as possible, lest I risk my own life. Anyone would be hardened by living so close to foreign danger, though I must thank the grand duke of Brunhild for dismantling Yulong for me.”
The north mountain marquis grinned in my direction. It seemed like he misunderstood my intentions in dealing with Yulong.
“I didn’t dismantle Yulong or anything, alright? They had a few chances to rebuild, but they were too rotten from within. It’s not like I had an active hand, I just left them to their own devices and they died on their own.”
“...Did you not destroy their capital city, Grand Duke?” The east sea marquis probed at me with another misunderstanding.
“The Phrase did that, not me. The people of Yulong have been making outlandish claims like I destroyed them, or that I brought the crystal invasion to them... but that’s all nonsense. If I hadn’t intervened, then every last man, woman, and child in Yulong would be dead right now. There wouldn’t have even been a country left to collapse.”
“...I see. So really the people of Yulong owe you a debt of gratitude. Is that what you’re saying? I can’t say I’m surprised by this knowledge, Grand Duke. You’re truly a commendable man.”
The east sea marquis smiled and brought his hands together.
Hrm... That felt a little backhanded... He didn’t seem this rude when he was showing us into the area earlier on. Did he maybe have family in Yulong or something?
“Well, Grand Duke. Have you perhaps figured out the culprit already?”
“No, I haven’t... Right now, we can’t even rule out that it was a suicide.”
C’mon, man... Don’t raise your expectations that high. We still don’t have enough to go off.
The east sea marquis cleaned off his glasses before turning to glare at the west forest marquis once more.
“This may seem disrespectful to his memory, but it is better that the south spring marquis died than the prime minister. Even with Prince Kuoh on our side, if the prime minister was dead, we’d have lost our cause in an instant...”
“So you’ll continue to assume we’re to blame?”
“I’m not explicitly implicating you, of course. There may be others on your side that did this without telling you.”
The two were about to start another glaring match when Prime Minister Schwein came back into the room, along with Ganossa.
“We’ve just got done explaining the situation to the south spring marquis’ men. Apologies, but we’ll have everyone stay in the castle until this is dealt with. Your rooms have been arranged.”
“Lord Ganossa, is this okay?”
After the prime minister finished talking, the north mountain marquis turned to his leader for reassurance. The royal castle was considered home turf for the prime minister’s group, so it was natural for them to be concerned.
“It’s quite fine, we have nothing to hide. I’m certain this’ll be dealt with promptly.”
Ganossa answered casually. He was either completely innocent or completely confident there was no evidence to his crime.
We honestly didn’t have anything to go off. It was possible that nobody here was involved at all, and it was some kind of separate plot done without permission.
“Well then, we’ll show you to your quarters. I apologize for this mess, King Felsen. We’ll have guards take you to your room posthaste.”
“Ah, before that... I’d like to have your attention for a moment.”
Her Holiness the Ramissh Pope raised her hand. I wondered what she was doing.
“With god as your witness, you must swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Were you responsible for the death of the south spring marquis, either directly or indirectly? Can you in good conscience say that you had no involvement in the man’s death?” Everyone answered the same, that they were in no way related to his death.
The prime minister left the room, followed by the king’s brother and the marquis. After a short time, some soldiers came along to take us over to the royal guest room.
I looked up at the ceiling and saw the dragon engraving again, which meant it had the same enchantments. I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.
“[Silence].”
I cast a secondary layer of soundproofing magic over the room, just in case. That would mean there was no chance of anyone outside learning about this. If someone was hiding in the room they’d still be able to hear it, but I couldn’t sense anyone else.
I turned to the pope.
“So, what are your findings? Did your mystic eye detect a liar?”
“It did, yes. One person told a lie in response to the question.”
The question’s terms had been so specific that anyone lying was involved with the murder of the south spring marquis.
“Who was the liar, who was it?”
Yae asked the pope, and the older woman turned to answer.
“The liar was none other than East Sea Marquis Tauren Hanoi.”
“This is a poison called yuloneifred, you see. It is synthesized from the yuloneisha plant... A rather potent one, you see. It resonates with a person’s internal mana source after making contact with the mouth and utterly annihilates the internal organs, you see.”
Flora had come by from the research laboratory and gave us her analysis of the poison.
“And that plant you mentioned...”
“It mostly grows in the mountains of north Yulong... You can rarely find it in Xenoahs, though...”
Sakura answered instead of Flora. She was certainly more knowledgeable than I’d have expected.
“The poison has been used in Xenoahs before... It’s a really nasty way to kill people, so it’s usually used to send a message...”
That made sense. Sakura was the overlord’s daughter, so she’d have probably been informed of those kinds of risks. Still, given that the plant was mostly found in Yulong, I had definite reason to believe that those bastards were at it again.
“Could the east sea marquis be an agent of Yulong, could he?”
“It’s more likely he hired Yulongese assassins, I think.”
Even if he was a scumbag, he was still one of the Four Grand Marquis of Horn. It wasn’t likely he’d be working on behalf of Yulong... If anything, he’d be the one using them.
“Master. From the report I ran on the body, there’s something else. There were heavy traces of sleeping medication in his bloodstream, you see. It seems like he was put to sleep first before being made to ingest the poison, you see.”
“What?”
Why would they go to the trouble of doing that? As far as I get it, the sequence of events was like... The meeting ended, the south spring marquis asked to be put in the new room, he then fell asleep, he was poisoned after falling asleep... And then he died. But that means someone would’ve been in his room to administer the poison after putting him to sleep.
Was the culprit hiding in the closet and waiting for him to come back from the meeting? But that wouldn’t make much sense...
Oh, maybe... Maybe he was waiting in the closet for the prime minister, but found the south spring marquis instead. So he put him to sleep, but killed him afterward because his face had been seen... Or something?
“...I’m lost here.”
This makes no sense. It’d be less convoluted just to use a knife. Why poison? Is it a calling card, maybe?
“The culprit is already determined as the east sea marquis, it is. We should simply have him confess, we should.”
“That sounds like something out of a bad police mystery drama.”
“I do not know what you mean, I do not.”
I sighed quietly at Yae’s puzzled expression. Obviously she wouldn’t know, but more importantly, I didn’t know anything about this case. The fastest way probably would be just to interrogate the guy...
But that method had its own slew of issues, too. We didn’t have much diplomatic clout with Horn, so suddenly accusing one of their top seats of government would be brash of us.
If we had permission from the leader of the country it’d be one thing, but this country didn’t technically have a leader right now.
Not to mention the fact that the pope’s mystic eye wasn’t conclusive evidence either. I certainly knew she wouldn’t make anything up, but that didn’t make it admissible proof.
Ultimately, we needed to find hard proof. I left the room and saw the king of Felsen walking down the hall.
“Ah, Grand Duke. There you are. I just got done speaking with Ganossa and the prime minister. We’ll be talking more about succession rights tomorrow, so we’re staying here tonight. What about you?”
He was basically asking if I was going to use my magic to warp home. It was tempting, but I didn’t want to run the risk of something happening while I was away. Even though we had alibis and no real motives, the girls and I were technically suspects as well... So we’d need to stick around.
“Where are the other marquis at?”
“They all have private homes in the capital, but obviously we won’t let them go back. They’ll all be staying here tonight as well... And we’ll be keeping a close watch on that east sea marquis.”
The king of Felsen murmured that last part. Bah, I still don’t really know anything. Why would the east sea marquis have the south spring marquis killed? Maybe it’s something completely unrelated to this issue and is just a personal matter or something.
But still... the south spring marquis seemed like a harmless guy. He sure didn’t look like the kind of guy that would upset anyone, but I guess being a noble can put you on certain shitlists just by virtue of being one.
Honestly, Yae’s plan is starting to sound a little tempting. We could sneak into the east sea marquis’ room tonight, then have him confess to everything... Then I could just wipe his memories. No... No, I need to save that as a last resort.
Ultimately, things were uncertain but still stable. So long as we didn’t let the guy get away, everything would be just fine.
“...You gotta be kidding me.”
“We let him get away, we did.”
Yae and I sighed slightly, our mouths agape at the sudden sight. The east sea marquis got away from us... He’d gone and escaped to the next life.
At our feet, evening sunset washing over him, was the corpse of the east sea marquis. Obviously we weren’t the perpetrators.
We’d been discussing our plans when the king of Felsen suddenly burst in to give us the bad news.
Apparently the east sea marquis had closed himself off in his room about two hours prior, saying he wanted to have some rest. A maid had entered the room to see what he wanted for dinner, and it was then that the body was discovered.
This was definitely not a suicide, either. He lay face-down by the side of his bed, a scarf bound tightly around his neck.
“At least the method was simple this time, strangulation.”
“Was he betrayed by the assassin he hired, was he?”
“That’s definitely possible.”
Hmm... That scarf doesn’t look cheap... It’s silky and smooth, definitely a luxurious item. It also seems to have a coat of arms sewn into it.
Everyone gradually turned around and focused their gaze on a woman in the room.
“West Forest Marquis... Why does this scarf bear your coat of arms?”
Prime Minister Schwein glared at the west forest marquis. Apparently the coat of arms on the scarf was the Swill family crest.
The west forest marquis went pale, shaking her head from side to side.
“I-I... That scarf is indeed mine, but... I thought I had misplaced it yesterday, I assure you! I have no reason to lie!”
“You were involved in an argument with the east sea marquis earlier, weren’t you?”
“Y-Yes, but I wouldn’t kill him! And how could I have even made it past his guards?!”
That was a fair point. Also, using a scarf with your family crest on it as the murder weapon would be both incredibly brazen and incredibly stupid. Even if she had done it, she’d have taken it back with her to hide the evidence.
Flora leaned in and used a few magical devices to scan the corpse. She had a portable device that had been enchanted with the [Analyze] spell. It vaguely resembled a certain item used by medical staff in a particular sci-fi TV drama that was popular in the west.
Flora frowned slightly as she looked at the device’s readings.
“What is it?”
“This is quite strange, you see.” I asked Flora to elaborate.
Once she explained it to me, I agreed. That made no sense at all.
“Is the analyzer busted, maybe?”
Once I asked her this, Flora made a few manual confirmations on the body itself, turning over limbs and checking key points of the body.
“The closer inspection matches the analyzer’s results, you see... There’s no mistaking it.”
“Then that means he was...”
Did they use magic, perhaps? Or maybe an artifact... If Flora’s right, this changes everything. But if the perpetrator is capable of magic like that, we can’t let him escape. Given that nobody’s left the castle yet, he should still be here.
Welp... Guess we’re gonna have to do what Yae suggested. The old-fashioned bad police mystery drama method...
Well, I’m hardly what people would call a great detective, anyways. In the end, this isn’t a mystery drama. It’s a story where bad guys get punched until the plot moves along. In the end, there’s no reason for me to hold back when it comes to merciless assassins, anyway. Let’s get this over with.
I channeled divinity through my eyes and triggered my divine sight, then I glanced at everyone in the room. Prime Minister Schwein, Ganossa, West Forest Marquis, North Mountain Marquis... It’s not them. And obviously, it’s not the king of Felsen or the pope, either.
“G-Grand Duke? What is it?”
The pope, who was likely growing uneasy at the sudden silence, called out to question my behavior.
“Sorry about that. Just checking something.”
I smiled at the pope before heading outside and glancing over the nearby staff. I gazed at the maids and the guardsmen who were either standing or walking around. Then I saw who I was looking for, and made a beeline for him.
The man in front of me was the kind of generic guard you’d see in a video game. He had short brown hair and didn’t stand out in any way at all. He had a soft, non-threatening face, and was clad in the armor of Horn. He had a standard-issue sword about his waist, and a standard-issue spear in his right hand. At a glance, he was just another castle guard.
“C-Can I help you?”
The guardsman forced an awkward smile as he glanced around. I smiled back as I placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Too bad, man.”
“H-Huh?”
“[Gravity].”
“Gaugh!”
The man crumpled to the ground under the force of the additional weight I’d pulsed into him. He couldn’t move a muscle, but he stared up at me, eyes filled with a mixture of malice and confusion.
“G-Grand Duke, what is the meaning of this?!”
The prime minister came running over in a panic. Obviously he’d be concerned, given that one of Horn’s castle guards had just been assaulted by the leader of another nation.
“Don’t worry, I’m just peeling back the skin on the snake in our midst. Give me a moment.”
I used [Storage] to bring out some metal wiring, which I used to firmly bind his limbs. What I was about to do would remove the effects of [Gravity], so I didn’t want him getting away.
“Alrighty then... [Absorb].”
“Wh-What?!”
My spell sucked up any and all magic surrounding the soldier, immediately undoing the [Gravity] spell I’d cast on him. But more importantly than that, it decloaked the disguise that I’d already seen through with my divine sight.
His appearance shifted almost instantly. His brown hair lengthened and turned a dark black. His plain face morphed into one with narrow, foxlike eyes. His rounded features vanished, replaced by a stubbled, sharp chin. He no longer resembled a young man, but an older well-built man. His muscles were distinctly more visible as well.
“Wh-What in the world?”
Ganossa stared in absolute shock. The one on the ground was no longer taking on the form of a harmless and surprised young man. He was now a suspicious-looking fellow with furious eyes.
“Magic that lets you change how you look, huh. Not bad. Was it an artifact, or perhaps a Null spell? Either way, it was perfect for undercover operations. You almost had me fooled.”
“...Bastard. How did you know?”
“The time of death didn’t match up, you see.”
Flora came over to give her response. She was right. It was all thanks to that one piece of information that I managed to make it all come together.
“Magic in the body depletes after death, you see. The amount left in the body we found suggested that he had died five or six hours ago, you see.”
“Which means that the east sea marquis died around the same time as the south spring marquis. Which got me to wondering... Just who was the east sea marquis I spoke to? Who was the one that shut himself in his room? Obviously that meant there was an imposter. One with a powerful magic disguise at his disposal, too. Since nobody had yet left the castle, I assumed you were still here, just disguised as someone else since they’d found the east sea marquis’ body... And then I found you.”
“Grrgh!
Given that he was still sticking around, I could only assume it was to kill more people. Otherwise, he would’ve just run away.
The man gritted his teeth and glared up at us. I could sense hatred in those eyes of his, but it was a much deeper hate than just having been found out. Clearly, he had a personal problem with me.
“I knew it. You’re with Qulau, aren’t you.”
“What?!”
His frenzied glare turned to shock for a brief moment. I leaned down and fished around inside the man’s clothing before producing a black mask that resembled the kind you’d find in Beijing opera. Just as I’d suspected, he was one of them.
“Tell me, now. What are Yulong’s former black ops squad doing in Horn? Are you trying to kick off a civil war?”
“Heheheh... Qulau will always exist, no matter how you oppress us. I have no words for you, murderer. Feel free to end my life right now, but this country is already finished. We’ve made sure of that. Soon enough, Yulong’s wrath will come for you, and it w—”
“Yawn. Boring. Who gives a shit? Let’s get your confession already. [Hypnosis].”
“Gwuh?!”
I cast a spell that immediately rendered the assassin unconscious. He definitely should’ve had some anti-magic charms or something. What a dumbass.
Alright, mister spy. Time for you to let me prod around your brains.
The assassin, who wasn’t protected at all by any anti-magic countermeasures, immediately became susceptible after I cast [Hypnosis]. I did realize a bit later that had he worn anti-magic equipment, his disguise wouldn’t have worked... so that was just a risk he had opted to take.
Either way, we got the following information out of him:
The south spring marquis had been rendered unconscious and put in the closet before the meeting.
The south spring marquis who had showed up at the beginning of the conference was therefore the imposter in disguise.
When we took the break later on, he immediately asked the prime minister to swap rooms, so that it would look like a failed attempt to kill the prime minister.
After securing the room, he dragged the sleeping south spring marquis out from the closet and used the poison to kill him, which made him puke up blood. This also caused the sound that Sakura ended up hearing.
He escaped to the roof through the window afterward, using a rope and hook to clamber upward. That was also what caused the wood shavings I noticed.
From the rooftop, he made his way to the east sea marquis’ room and strangled the man to death with the scarf he’d stolen from the west forest marquis. He then changed his appearance to that of the east sea marquis.
The magic he used was called [Mimicry]. It was a Null spell exclusive to him that allowed him to copy the features of others.
This spell was completely different to my illusions, as it actually reformed his body. Others wouldn’t even be able to tell through physical contact that it wasn’t the real person there, and the vocal cords were also identically mimicked.
There were a few drawbacks, though. You couldn’t use the spell on anyone smaller than you, which meant short people and children couldn’t be mimicked.
The caster also had to make physical contact with the target, and the target needed to be alive at the time of mimicry.
Also, the maximum duration for the spell was just six hours. Once the spell wore off, the caster needed to touch the target again in order to assume their form.
Regardless of its limitations, it was still an incredible spell.
He used this spell to disguise himself as the east sea marquis, deliberately raising tensions between the prime minister’s faction and the king’s brother’s faction. After he retired to his room, he put the corpse of the east sea marquis in a visible area and made his escape.
After that, he transformed into a regular guard, but I caught him. And that was that. The real guard that he’d mimicked was found unconscious in a cleaning closet elsewhere in the castle.
But the most disturbing thing I found on him... was a storage card.
The storage cards were items I had believed to be unique to the Reverse World. They didn’t freeze time for things kept inside them, but were useful for transporting money, objects, and Gollems.
He’d been using that to store the corpse of the east sea marquis while he mimicked the man. Apparently the south spring marquis was left unconscious in the closet because the poison used to kill him was fast-acting, and the assassin didn’t want anyone suspecting he’d died too soon.
After all, unlike my [Storage], time would have still passed for the corpses in the storage card.
When I asked where he found the card, it became clear that Qulau discovered a lost refugee from the Reverse World, tortured him to death, and stole all of his magical tools.
Either way, we’d solved who was behind the murders. Now we could all live happily ever after... Well, maybe not quite. The interrogation revealed something even worse.
“The spy infiltrated Horn well over a year ago. He’s been seeking to cause discord here the whole time. He’s the one responsible for your conflict.”
“What?!”
“Impossible!”
Prime Minister Schwein, along with Ganossa, looked taken aback. It was already nearing dawn, and the two of them were clearly exhausted, but they were still awake and attentive.
The Qulau agent confirmed that he had mimicked the late king, and used that form to promise Ganossa succession rights. The goal was to then kill the king, and have the king’s brother conflict with the king’s son. The ultimate goal was a civil war. But the prince ended up dying in a completely random accident, which nearly screwed up Qulau’s plans. He considered abandoning that plan entirely, but then Prime Minister Schwein began making preparations to have the late king’s grandson ascend to the throne. That was when the spy decided to carry on with the plan and kill the king while making it look as though sickness claimed him.
So instead of the original plan, which was the prince’s faction being pitted against the king’s brother’s faction, it instead became the prince’s son’s faction being pitted against the king’s brother’s faction.
“S-So you’re saying we’ve been played like a damn fiddle...”
Ganossa trembled gently as he sat down in a chair, shocked. Prime Minister Schwein offered him a sympathetic nod before opening his mouth.
“What is their aim, here?”
“Hear me out here, but... if civil war broke out... Is there something the two of you would end up using in combat?”
The two of them looked at me in shock. They hadn’t expected me to know about it, but I did. Slowly, they glanced at each other before I opened my mouth again.
“You have a Steel Battalion here, don’t you.”
The two men flinched at the mention. The Steel Battalion was the name given to a platoon of Steel Soldiers invented by Bowman, a scientist from Roadmare. It was more plagiarism than an invention, though, since the man just ripped off the Frame Gears to the best of his abilities. He’d had backing from the secret golden order, Gordian.
They were different from the dwarven-made Dverg in that the Steel Soldiers were constructed entirely as weapons of war.
“You’ve been importing Steel Soldiers into your country, haven’t you? Both sides, right? You both received an offer from a mysterious third party to supply you with Steel Soldiers that you could use to fight the enemy.”
Both men remained silent. This all came back to the storage card I’d seen earlier. The original owner, a drifter from the Reverse World, was killed by Qulau... and his belongings were all conveniently stored within this card. Including something that Qulau found extremely interesting... Gollems.
Based on the information I got out of the spy, the drifter from the Reverse World was probably a high-clearance worker in a Gollem factory.
His storage card contained over three-thousand military Soldat Gollems, the kind you’d find employed in places like Isengard.
A single person holding that many Gollems meant he had to be an important guy in the sales or manufacturing sector. No single person could stand against an army of that many, even if they were mass-produced models. The man was probably delivering them to a customer when he was spirited away to Yulong’s territory.
But it got even worse. Remnants from Gordian had joined ranks with the remnants of Qulau. Two groups that hated Brunhild the worst had joined forces under one banner.
Qulau now had Steel Soldiers at its disposal, as well as thousands of Gollems. Their plan was to sell hundreds of these things to both the prime minister and the king’s brother, marketing them as the thing that could win the civil conflict if it came down to it.
Of course, their motivation wasn’t financial at all.
Their plan was to wear down Horn using the civil war, and having Steel Battalions fighting on both sides would devastate the national infrastructure. The largest battles would be around the capital city, leaving the borders relatively unmanned and unguarded. That included the territory to the north, which was the territory governed by Ganossa and the north mountain marquis... The territory bordering Yulong.
These new Steel Soldiers weren’t quite the same as the old ones... They had Gollem technology incorporated into them.
As the civil war in Horn kicked into full swing, a full Steel Battalion would start invading the country from the north.
While that happened, the Steel Soldiers that were ostensibly serving the side of the prime minister or the king’s brother would begin to operate autonomously as their Qulau programming set in. They would attack soldiers belonging to Horn and conquer the land for Qulau, which would then allow them to establish a new Yulong dynasty.
“That’s how I think it would’ve gone, at least. Well, there are parts I can’t say for sure... But something to that effect.”
It may have been rude to say out loud, but Horn was relatively less advanced when it came to other nations. They were stagnant in their understanding of magic and tech. They only used things that they knew worked for older generations, and Qulau took full advantage of that gap in their knowledge.
To be honest, before they got their hands on Gollem tech, they were probably planning on invading Horn anyway. They just would’ve done it more subtly, by weakening the country through subterfuge and replacing people with their own. Gradually, they would’ve had people from Qulau invade high positions of power in Horn, in order to turn it into a Yulongese-controlled government over time.
That was probably the initial plan before Gordian got involved. A gradual plan based on slow encroachment. Before they knew it, the people of Horn would be replaced... That was mostly conjecture on my part, but I could totally imagine them doing that.
“Grand Duke... My elder brother, he... Was he really killed by their hand?”
Ganossa glared down at his feet. I could see his clenched fists shaking, the whites of his knuckles plain as day.
The king of Felsen and the pope gave a curious glance my way. I figured it was probably best to make things clear.
“...I have no doubt that’s the case, yes. Producing real evidence would be hard given how long ago it happened, but...”
I began projecting a video into the air in front of Ganossa and the prime minister. I’d forcibly extracted memories from the spy using a combination of [Hypnosis] and [Recall], and then projected them into the air with [Mirage].
The scene showed a servant in the castle of Horn mixing a tiny amount of poison into the tea leaves that the king would have brewed daily. Obviously, the servant was the spy himself.
The other servants, the ones that brewed the tea and then brought the tea to the king, were innocent. The spy had simply disguised himself and contaminated the leaves pre-brewing. The tea leaves were long gone, given that it was over a year ago... so there was no way we had conclusive evidence.
“There’s nothing else than this memory taken from the man’s mind. I’ll understand if you think this is some parlor trick, but I assure you it isn’t.”
[Recall] wasn’t exactly a well-known spell, so I could understand why they might be suspicious of me showing them something like that.
Suddenly, Ganossa stood up and began marching toward a nearby room, the room holding the captured spy. He had a glint of fury in his eyes.
Oh crap! I chased after Ganossa and saw the spy laying bound on the carpet. I’d also cast [Paralyze] on him to prevent him from biting off his tongue.
There were multiple guards posted inside the room, along with Yae and Sakura. Ganossa ignored the shocked guards as he stomped into the room. He reached to his waist, unsheathed his blade, and brought it swooshing down toward the bound man.
“Grgh!”
Just before it could make contact with the man, the sword deflected off the [Prison] I had cast around him.
“Why stop me from exacting vengeance?!”
“I don’t really think he deserves to live, but I think you should consider how he needs to die.”
Ganossa might have been the king’s brother, but he wasn’t the king himself. That meant he didn’t really have the right to kill, even in retaliation for regicide. At the very least something like that would require the consent of the prime minister. He was also guilty of other crimes, not just the killing of the king. I deactivated the [Prison] around the man.
“...You raise a valid point. We must have him executed in public, his crimes exposed for all to see.”
“Grh...”
Ganossa furrowed his brow as the prime minister spoke.
Even from a foreign standpoint, it was obvious that the people of Horn would be wary of the government due to all the recent tension.
Revealing that it was all due to the machinations of an evil group would allow the country to direct their hostility on a united front. Man, I just hope the people don’t take it as a half-assed excuse or something... Huh?
Even though the man was under the effects of my [Paralyze] spell, he was still glaring harshly in my direction. Even though I could see hatred burning in his gaze, I sensed a glimpse of self-satisfaction behind his face.
“[Recovery].”
I undid his paralysis. If he bit his tongue off while I was in the room, I’d just use my magic to make him grow another back.
“Something on your mind, assassin?”
“Hehheheheh... Horn is done for, you fool. There’s a contingency in place. If I didn’t report back in time, Qulau would begin its next move. A Steel Battalion of three-thousand Steel Soldiers, along with three-thousand armor-fitted Wooden Golems will be marching on this country from the north as we speak. The New Yulong Dynasty will rise, with this ravaged nation as its first claim!”
“No way, I can’t believe this!”
“Seriously?!”
Ganossa and Schwein cried out in a panic. That was definitely an intimidating number... If the Steel Soldiers had been modified with Gollem-based tech, then they wouldn’t need as many pilots anymore. The Wooden Golems didn’t even need pilots to begin with, either.
If the total was six-thousand, then the number of controllers would be around a fifth of half that amount... so roughly six-hundred. Just about a tenth.
I had no idea that the Wooden Golems would be making a comeback... They probably created them based on information from Gordian... I had no doubt that Yulong’s territory had no shortage of submission collars.
“We can’t just stand here! I’ll head to the north immediately!”
Ganossa began storming out of the room, but he bumped into a soldier who was himself running into the room.
“You whelp, what is your name?!”
“F-Forgive me sir, but I have an urgent warning! Several enormous metal giants are destroying the capital city! We need an immediate response!”
“What?!”
Prime Minister Schwein stared in horror at the bowing soldier’s words.
“Hehehehh... Ahahahaa! Too late, now! You should probably make a run for it, fools. After all, you don’t want to risk the life of your dearly departed prince’s son, do you?”
“Bastard!”
Ganossa charged toward the spy, gripping him by the collar and hoisting him into the air. Even in the throes of the large man’s grip, the Yulongese man’s grin remained steadfast.
“Horn was always meant to belong to Yulong. Felsen just happened to interfere and prolong the inevitable. You imbecilic little dolts, too ignorant and genetically inferior. You should have taken our heavenly emperor’s generous offer and agreed to submit. It’s disgusting that lesser creatures like you get to live in peace while we’ve lost our home...”
“So you did this because you were jealous? That’s pathetic.”
I grinned slightly, prompting the man to glare at me.
“Silence, impure filth! You’re the one who destroyed our glorious homeland to begin with! Have you never stopped to consider what you put those innocents through?!”
“I already told you. The Phrase are what destroyed Yulong, not me. Cry me a river.”
“Silence! Did I not say to be silent! If you had obediently handed over your mechanical weapons to our glorious Heavenly Emperor, then Yulong would have survived! You scum, you insipid, arrogant filth! You alone condemned the people of Yulong to the eternal flames!”
This guy... He’s completely deranged. That’s the issue when it comes to dealing with drunk people or ignorant people, they’re just incomprehensible at times. Obviously not everyone in Yulong is like this, but it sure seems like a lot of them are.
“You’re only saying stuff that supports your narrative. What exactly is so glorious about what you’re doing now, huh? I wonder if there’s a person from Yulong out there right now, trying in earnest to bring his country back. What would he think of your despicable methods, huh? All you do is take, take, take. You can’t talk about glorious dynasties or the good things you deserve, because it’s all nonsense. You act like petty thieves. You’re nothing but a goddamn parasite.”
“You scum!”
“Guess Qulau was nothing more than a group of petty, jealous little losers. You’re disgusting. Let me tell you now, I’m not the one sullying the image of Yulong. You are.”
Yulong still existed as a region because neighboring countries didn’t want to become involved in Yulongese politics, and the people of Yulong were still clinging on to ways to rebuild their country. If nobody was trying to reform the country, the territory would’ve probably been split between Hannock, Xenoahs, Roadmare, Felsen, and so on.
“I don’t care about the pride of petty thieves, at the end of the day. Qulau is going to be destroyed, and I’m the man for the job. Don’t think I’ve just forgotten that you guys tried to kill me and people that I care about. Run search. Steel Soldiers in the Horn capital.”
The map projected into the air and displayed several pins.
Yae jumped through the air and cut the reins on the horses, freeing them. The horses were innocent in this, after all.
I fired a bullet from Brunhild into one of the covered wagon’s front wheels.
This caused the wagon to lose control and slam into the ground on its side. Thanks to my magic, I’d already confirmed that everyone aboard was a member of Qulau. Didn’t want to hurt any innocents, after all.
A group of men wearing those goofy-ass black masks emerged from the fallen wagon.
“Do you guys really think there’s any getting out of this?”
“I-It’s him!”
One of the men suddenly launched a dart my way. At first I thought it was a kunai, like the kind Tsubaki used, but it was much simpler.
“[Shield].”
The projectile was instantly deflected. As it fell to the ground, I noticed it was tipped with poison.
“SHYAAAAAAH! Taste the wrath of Yulong, you miserable little wooorm!”
“How. Many. Times. Do. I. Have. To. Say. It? I did not have anything to do with Yulong getting wrecked. Are you guys idiots? You know what, don’t even answer that. I know you are.”
These assholes clearly have selective hearing. All they do is spread fake propaganda, twist the truth until it fits their narrative, and use it to justify whatever the hell they want. Even more disgustingly, they call it patriotism. It isn’t. It’s self-serving arrogance designed as a moral justification for bigotry.
I fired a few paralyzing rounds at a couple of the men. Yae handled the rest of them, knocking them unconscious with the blunt side of her blade.
I took all the masks away from the men and used magic to dispose of them. I was not in the mood for any more suicide bombing crap, they’d be taken back to Horn and judged for their crimes.
“You guys’ll never forgive me, huh? Well, Horn’s never gonna forgive you for this. Good job slandering the name of the precious Yulong you love so much, idiot. Once news of your plan gets out, I wouldn’t be surprised if even your fellow Yulongese countrymen denounce you.”
“Gruh...”
I grabbed one of the paralyzed men by the head, and used a combination of [Hypnosis] and [Recall] to forcibly extract memories containing the information I needed. Obviously I didn’t give a damn about his personal memories, but he was a valuable information source.
Goddamnit. So Gordian’s leader left behind one final production facility, huh...? I guess it was hasty of me to torture him to the point of insanity with that foul-smelling box... Ah well, he’s dead now anyway. But still, the rest of the information is worrying too...
“Did you learn something bad, did you?”
“Yeah. There was a Gollem technician from the Reverse World, Qulau has him set up with a submission collar. The poor bastard’s been put to work this whole time.”
I quickly explained to Yae about what I’d seen in the memories. He was probably quite the skilled technician, especially if he was the one who managed to fuse Gollem tech with the Steel Soldiers.
Apparently he could roughly communicate with his captors, even though he didn’t really have a grasp on the language spoken in this world.
“That is terrible, it is... If he had not landed in Yulong, then he would have been taken home, he would.” It would’ve been bad if he landed in Sandora, too... I heard that place had basically turned into a free-for-all area.
Still, it was largely populated by liberated slaves, so at least there wasn’t a lot of oppression going on.
I’d already asked the world leaders in contact with me to report in if they found any people who’d drifted in... But they didn’t emit wavelengths like the Phrase, so it was hard to pick up on them as soon as they appeared. When the two worlds merged together, it’d stop happening... But it remained to be seen whether or not the long-lasting repercussions of the union would be worse or better than the current situation.
I tied up the Qulau perpetrators, and used [Gate] to return us all to the castle courtyard.
“Oh, Grand Duke!”
“Ah, hey. These guys were controlling the attack on the capital. They’re Yulongese, and members of Qulau.”
Prime minister Schwein glared down furiously at the bound men. The soldiers by his side looked equally as angry.
“To the dungeons with them! Be sure they have healers on standby. We won’t let them kill themselves before their executions.”
The Horn guardsmen dragged away the unconscious and paralyzed men. Now all I had to do was take care of the invaders from the north.
I wondered how well they’d be moving together if they didn’t have smartphones to communicate amongst themselves, but when I thought about it more, I realized that they’d definitely have wireless communicators thanks to the Reverse World tech. Even Nia and the other members of the Red Cats had those. I’d know how organized they were if I used a search spell.
“Run search. How many Steel Soldiers and Wood Golems toward the northern region of Yulong.”
“Search complete. Displaying results.”
Red pins started falling down on the map here and there. They’d clearly begun their move.
It was hard to tell the Wood Golems from the rest, since all the markers were red.
“Change the Wood Golems’ pins to yellow.”
“Acknowledged. Performing change.”
...That didn’t really help at all. Now the screen’s just red and yellow mushed together... Kinda hurts my eyes, yeesh.
“How many in total?”
“Three-thousand-and-twenty-one Steel Soldiers, three-thousand-one-hundred-and-twenty-two Wood Golems. Six-thousand-one-hundred-and-forty-three in total.”
That was around what I expected. Seems like there’s no Qulau members mixed in there, though.
“My turn now...?”
Sakura looked up at the map and asked if she could fight. She’d once nearly died at the hands of Qulau assassins, which took her a while to recover from. That was also how I came to meet her, come to think of it.
Sakura was strong enough at this point to kill a whole group of assassins, even if they all attacked her at once. But still, it was impossible for her Rossweisse to kill six-thousand enemies by itself. Even if we factored in Yae’s Schwertleite, that’d be three-thousand each. If we factored in my Reginleif that’d be two-thousand each, too... I doubted we’d be able to take care of all of them with enough time to spare.
Guess there’s one thing for it, I’ll call in the knight order for this one. Since it’s up on the Yulong border, it shouldn’t cause any real issues if we engage.
Oh, right... I took out my smartphone and started to make a call. Hopefully the person on the other side would be awake. It was early, but she usually stayed up pretty late anyway.
“Hewwo...?”
“Doc, you awake?”
“I’m schweepy... I just finished my project, so I was about to go nap...”
“Wait, you finished it? Sorry to bug you, but can we deploy it immediately?”
“Huh? Immediately? I mean, sure... but what’s the situation?”
Doctor Babylon snapped out of her sleepy stupor, so I explained the situation to her.
“Ohoho. That’s quite the conspiracy, hm? They’ll definitely make good enemies for our test, you were right to call me. Plus, they’re unmanned, so we won’t have to hold back. Roger that. I’ll have both black and red units ready to go in a flash. You get their pilots ready.”
And that was that.
The two people I needed now were kind of cranky, though... I imagined they hated being woken up early, and could possibly even ignore my call.
That was why I opted for another path. I simply called a reliable individual with connections to both of them. After all, they were all staying in the same inn.
I went down my contact list and dialed the number.
“Oh, hey, Est? Sorry to bother you at this time, but I need you to do something for me. And, well...”
I was certain she’d be able to wake up both pilots without too much hassle. She wasn’t the second in command of the Red Cats for no reason.
Now all I had to handle was getting the knight order together. They were probably already in the middle of their morning training.
I did feel a little bad about calling them out to clean up so early, so I made a mental note to put a bonus in their pay packets.
“Can’t say I expected to ride this thing so early...”
A grumbling voice rang out from the enormous black lion that stood along the Yulong border.
Leo Noir. It was a mechanical beast built from the same base as Frame Gears, only it had Gollem technology at its core. We called those types of machines the Over Gears.
Since this Over Gear was exclusive to the black crown, Noir, it was only natural that its pilot would be that Gollem’s master, Norn.
Though she didn’t sound all that thrilled to be piloting it so early in the morning.
“Really? But I’m totally ready for this!”
Opposite to the black lion came the voice of Nia, leader of the Red Cats and master of Rouge, the red crown.
She was seated inside a massive, deep-red tiger. It was our newest Over Gear, Tiger Rouge.
It was about the same size as Leo Noir. A few silver metal lines ran across its body, reflecting the sun. Its phrasium parts also glimmered in a similar fashion.
“The problems from earlier were fixed, right?” Norn switched the broadcast channel, allowing her voice to come out of the doctor’s smartphone.
“Sure were. Shock absorption and general resistance is much higher. You can also freely adjust the power controls from within. There should be a gear lever on your right for that.”
In our earlier test, the amount of power was so intense that she could barely control it, and got really sick afterward. Thankfully, that had been fixed.
It was Nia’s first time in an actual Over Gear, but she’d been training a ton in simulations, so I had no doubts that she’d be okay. Well, so long as she didn’t get full of herself...
I opened up comms to speak with the Black Knight Frame Gear nearby.
“Est, be sure to keep an eye on Nia.”
“Roger. If she doesn’t behave, then I’ll force her to wear half-dried underwear for a week.”
“Hey! Quit talking about me like that!”
Est spoke over the common channel, so Nia responded with some irritation.
Ten members of the Red Cats were also participating in this fight. They were all using Chevaliers that had been painted a deep red, aside from Est who was piloting a Knight Baron. Naturally, her Frame Gear was also red.
Hmm... I guess I can’t really refer to it as a black knight if it’s painted red... Maybe Red Baron? Nah... I like Red Lynx. Sounds cooler.
Forty members of our knight order would also be joining the fray. The commander and her second-in-commands were also participating, but we didn’t have many troops fighting this time. Counting Yumina and the others, that brought us all up to about sixty combatants.
Given that the enemy was six-thousand strong, it would mean a hundred enemies to a single unit. That was certainly doable.
“Sue, you focus on the Wood Golems.”
“I gotcha! It’ll be fun!”
Sue merrily spoke from her Ortlinde, which had already transformed into Overlord form.
Wood Golems were much bigger than Frame Gears. If an average Frame Gear was ten meters, then a Wood Golem would usually be fifteen or sixteen meters. In some rare cases, they could even get as tall as twenty meters. But Sue’s Ortlinde was over twenty-five meters tall in Overlord mode.
It wasn’t known as the gold giant for no reason. It was so big that friendly fire was hard to avoid, so it had a special alert installed in the cockpit for when friendly units were too close by. But this wasn’t a protection mission like the kind we might have during a Phrase attack. Instead, it was just a simple extermination. I was sure she could freely go all-out.
“Touya. They’re coming in hot.”
Yumina spoke through comms from her silver Frame Gear, Brunnhilde. It was perched on a nearby rocky outcrop. Given she was our sniper, Yumina’s job was to look at range for enemy sightings.
I used [Long Sense] and projected my vision northward. Yumina was right as ever. A whole trash heap of shitty stuff was headed our way.
They shouldn’t be able to see us yet.
“Wait, actually...”
I looked up at the massive golden giant standing next to me, and let out a little sigh. There’s no way they’d be able to miss a landmark like that.
That meant they were charging toward us with the intention of fighting. That made things simpler.
“Grand Duke, what shall we do?”
Commander Lain spoke through the comms from her Shining Count. The answer was obvious.
“It’s time for combat, everyone. We’ll have the two Over Gears lead the charge. Knights, you pair with the Red Cats and take out the Steel Soldiers. Yumina, Sakura, offer support to whoever needs it. Elze, Linze, Yae, Hilde, Lu, Leen, Sue... focus on the Wood Golems.”
Yumina and Sakura could fight at a distance, so they were better suited to support roles. Leen’s Grimgerde had plenty of distance attacks, too... But they were area-of-effect, and would hit our targets if she went that route. It was better for her to target the Wood Golems.
Rossweisse began broadcasting Sakura’s singing voice across the battlefield... I recognized the song immediately.
It was a song performed by a Jamaican singer, and a cover of it had been used in a movie’s end credits before. That movie was pretty funny. It was about a panda who did kung fu.
The song was... sort of appropriate for a battle, I supposed.
“Alright Rouge, let’s roll!”
“Understood.”
“Shall we, Noir?”
“Confirmed. Booting.”
The black beast and the red beast dashed forward at the same time. They were fast. But the Red Cats charged after them, doing their best to keep up.
Leo Noir and Tiger Rouge sped up toward the enemies in a flash, taking out a whole group of Steel Soldiers with a speedy charge.
“Wow... They went flying that easily?”
I was surveying the battlefield from a distance through my smartphone, and found myself quite surprised at how easily the Steel Soldiers went down.
“Over Gears can project magical barriers around themselves while they’re running. They can also be used offensively to knock enemies away.”
Elluka, Norn’s older sister, quickly explained. Her hair was messy as ever, but she also had big bags under her eyes. She clearly hadn’t slept a wink last night.
But I could see a smile of satisfaction on her face as she watched the Over Gears effortlessly pulverize their foes. Her Gollem, Fenrir, didn’t quite seem so enthused. He simply looked up at his master with an expression that seemed to signify exasperation.
Magic barrier, huh...? Kind of like how I put a shield up around myself when I go flying, I guess.
Tiger Rouge’s fangs sank into a Steel Soldier, crushing it to bits. Meanwhile, Leo Noir’s claws tore a nearby Wood Golem to ribbons.
Neither the Wood Golems nor the Steel Soldiers could compete with the Over Gears in terms of speed. It was clear as day just who was predator and who was prey over there.
“They’re real idiots. They’re completely wasting the utility of soldat technology. But what do you expect? They’re all unmanned drones.”
“Hm?”
I was curious about what Elluka meant, but doctor Babylon stepped in to explain.
“There isn’t a human commander out there with them, so they’re a mob of useless mooks. Soldats typically work in units of five. Those fives can then group up with other fives for maximum results, but they can’t do that here because each one is unmanned. All they can do is listen to the commands they were given, and not evolve beyond that. Soldats are supposed to be able to co-ordinate to gang up on their enemies in groups of up to a hundred, so this seems like a needless waste to me.”
If there were three human commanders called A, B, and C... Then the three would control five soldats each, creating a unified team that could work well together.
But in this case, A, B, and C just gave out a basic order to kill the enemy, and then sat back and waited for things to happen. Without any active commands on the fields, they couldn’t efficiently co-ordinate at all.
“There’s no way in hell victory would shine upon cowards and losers like them.”
The doctor grinned a bit before taking out a small cigarette. She puffed on it a few times and continued watching the carnage. Aren’t you a little girl? Is that okay?
“Hm? What’s with that face? Oh, this isn’t tobacco. It’s an Ether Cigarette, I had Flora make it. It’s nice, calming, and not really addictive. Wanna try?”
Even if there’s no nicotine in that thing, I can’t shake the feeling that there’s probably something equally as nefarious. I won’t be puffing the devil’s pipe today, thank you very much.
“Oh, right... That person over there, cutting the Steel Soldiers one after the other. Isn’t that your sister?”
“What?!”
I looked at the little display that Doc Babylon pointed to... and saw Moroha swinging a big crystal blade around. Karina was there too, swinging a crystal ax.
...Well, that cements it. Our win is a hundred percent guaranteed.
I was convinced we had no chance of losing now.
“Hm... I expected to see one more eager fighter out there, though.”
“Right here!”
“What?!”
Uncle Takeru appeared behind me with a broad grin and folded arms.
Ack, that scared me! When’d you start appearing out of nowhere like Karen does? His honed body, worn-out uniform, and red hairband stood tall. Thus, the god of combat descended.
Karen wasn’t here, and I had a feeling she was napping elsewhere. This battle had nothing to do with romance, after all.
I wondered how Takeru found out about this, but I was even more concerned about the dead-eyed guy standing next to him.
“What brings you here, Ende?”
“Don’t bother asking, Touya... I’m not allowed to refuse...”
Ende stared at the ground with resignation in his eyes. The situation was pretty clear. Takeru somehow found out about this and dragged the poor guy over to fight.
“Well, what brings you guys here?”
“Hoho. Ain’t it obvious? We don’t need to fight these machines, we should mete justice out to the ones who sent them. You were thinking of going, right?”
Uncle Takeru let out a big laugh. Ah, now I see.
He was right, I was planning to leave the Steel Soldiers and Wood Golems to everyone else while I went to crush the guys behind Qulau on my own. I’d already figured out their base thanks to the memories I’d stolen, and I also sensed the presence of people watching the battle from afar. They were probably extremely worried due to how hard their side was getting bodied, though.
There weren’t many, though... so it was obvious all of the Qulau members weren’t right there. It was likely that they were either back at their base, or out on a separate mission.
Either way, they were done for.
“Don’t kill them, alright?”
“Perish the thought, my boy! Today’s lesson is all about non-lethal takedowns! Ain’t that right, Ende?”
“Wh-What?! Me?! What about you?!”
“I’ll watch from afar, of course! And I’ll decide on what to do with you next based on how well you perform!”
Ende stared ahead. I looked into his soulless, hollow eyes. I turned to Takeru, partly out of concern.
“If he fails, what’ll you do?”
“Hm... Something basic, I guess? Oh, how about a one-hundred-and-sixty hour running marathon?”
Ende started to shiver violently. What?! That’s a full week! Ende can’t run non-stop for a week!
Ende seemed to be having a pretty bad time, so I threw out an olive branch to the poor bastard.
“W-Well, how about giving him a rest day as a reward if he does well? All fighters need their rest, don’t you think?”
“Hmm... You raise a fair point there. Alright! That sounds good!”
Ende quietly walked over to me, tears streaming down his face as he pulled me in for a hug. Hey, hey, knock it off... I don’t like that kinda stuff.
Now all we had to do was take care of the enemy. I left Elluka, Fenrir, and Doc Babylon behind as I headed out.
There was a group of roughly three-hundred hiding nearby. We’d deal with them first. Uncle Takeru said to leave them all to Ende, and I said that seemed fair enough. Anything that meant I had to deal with less crap was fine in my book.
We all used [Teleport] to reach the area, surprising the horse-mounted masked men.
“Wha... Who?! Bastards!”
“[Prison].”
I shrugged slightly and cast a barrier around us. Didn’t want anyone getting out, after all.
It was cast over a broad area so it was weaker than my usual ones, but it was still about as dense as steel armor.
“Rest’s up to you. Go get ’em, tiger.”
“Tch... You can’t even help a little bit?”
Ende grumbled a bit. Now, now... It’s your training session, not mine.
“Three minutes, Ende. You have three minutes to take them all down. If you go even one second over that, then you’ll fail the lesson!”
“What?! Master, that’s wild!”
Uncle Takeru simply shook his head and folded his arms. He was no god at all. This man was a true demon.
Man, that’s an average of ten people every six seconds. Good luck.
“Ghuh!”
“Gwuh?!”
As I started running numbers mentally, Ende leaped right into action.
“Wh-What’s with him?!”
“It’s just one man, stop him!”
“Sorry, guys! But you gotta stop running. This is a timed mission!”
He leaped from horse to horse, effortlessly smashing the masks each man wore. I could sense his desperation. Honestly, I understood it, given that he had a potential day of rest on the line. If he lost, it’d be a living hell.
Ende continued to leap from horse to horse, never once touching the ground. Who the hell are you, Minamoto no Yoshitsune?
They thrust spears up at him as he leaped, but he just balanced on top of them to gain even more mobility.
“Damn... That’s pretty cool.”
Ende kept spinning around and around, blasting away each enemy he approached. His long scarf trailed behind him, almost acting as an echo of his motions.
I’d only set the barrier to prevent humans from escaping, so the horses scattered and eventually left the area.
Some dumbasses tried to escape, but they promptly ran into the walls of the barrier and fell from their horses.
Before long there were only half the men left. He was keeping a surprising pace.
“One minute left!”
Uncle Takeru yelled out all of a sudden. Oh damn, already? Guess it’s harder to fight while holding back than you’d expect.
“He still hasn’t perfected the art of holding himself back against human enemies. But I’m not surprised. He might be untrained, but he’s still a formidable fighter. He’s certainly a genius in the classical sense.”
“A genius, huh...? I dunno... Maybe you should make him run for a week straight even if he passes.”
“Hey, I heard that!”
The alleged genius known as Ende yelled out to us with fear in his voice. Hey, don’t waste time listening in, you have enemies to beat!
“Here’s... The last one!”
Ende delivered a fearsome roundhouse kick to the final enemy standing, shattering his mask to bits.
There were corpses all over the place. Actually, none of them were dead. So it was just unconscious men all over the place. I briefly wondered if we even needed to fight if we weren’t going to kill them... But some beating would probably do them a world of good anyway.
“What’s my time?”
“Two minutes, forty-seven seconds.”
Uncle Takeru looked up from the timer app on his smartphone. Luckily for Ende, he seemed to have avoided a grim fate. He brought a hand to his chest and let out a relieved sigh.
“But...”
Ende and I glanced at Takeru, concerned. Huh? But what?
“The man you just kicked. He’s dying, rapidly.”
“Huh?! Wait! Hold on! Don’t die, man! At least not now! Die later instead!”
Ende shook the man’s shoulders. He was bleeding profusely from his face. That dumbass was probably just making things worse, so I promptly cast [Mega Heal] on the wounded guy. I didn’t want to let Ende lose all hope whatsoever, after all. I wasn’t cruel.
“Gwuh...? I...”
“Oh thank goodness! You’re not dead, thank goodness! Now I’ll just bash you a little softer in the face.”
“Gwuh?!”
Ende quickly punched the man in the nose, a bit weaker than his kick form before.
...Wow.
“What’s my time, Master?!”
“Two minutes, fifty-nine seconds. You passed. Good job.”
If the master was so nonchalant about beating people up so savagely, then his student was truly not far behind... I worried about the effect they could have on Elze.
I looked over at the battlefield. It had only been three minutes, so obviously it was far from over. The knights and Over Gears focused on the Steel Soldiers, while Elze and the others focused on the Wood Golems.
I saw Elze’s Frame Gear, Gerhilde, waltzing across the battlefield with similar motions to the ones I’d just seen from Ende. Its left pile bunker smashed a hole through a Wood Golem, knocking it down. She followed that up with an uppercut, piercing the core through with the pile bunker on the right. She was merciless.
“Hah... Smash!”
I wondered if they’d had an influence on her already, or if she’d always been like this.
Either way, it was time to get all these unconscious people back to Horn’s castle. I imagine they’d all be tried and either executed or sent to the mines for life.
I wouldn’t let the ones at the hideout escape, either. I also had an innocent Gollem technician to save.
“I’ll be fighting at the hideout, alright?”
“Fine by us. We’re the ones tagging along, anyway.”
I looked behind uncle Takeru and saw Ende breathing a huge sigh of relief. It was a little pitiful.
“So, where is it?”
“Northward... Right there.”
I pointed to it on the map I’d projected into the air. It was pretty close to the city where I’d taken out the fake emperor of Yulong a while back. There were about three-hundred people there, in a small fortified area.
It was definitely a hard-to-find place, surrounded by hills and boulders. If the memories I’d stolen from that guy were right, there was also an underground production facility there too.
We didn’t have any time to waste, I didn’t want a single guy escaping. We had to go in, and we had to go in hard.
After confirming the location, we all teleported to our destination.
The base was surrounded by steep, jagged rocks, much like the ones from the famous Hollow Needle novel. It was a masterwork of engineering. The building fitting snugly inside a fissure in the earth.
I saw a man on a guard tower in the distance. He stared at us as we appeared out of nothing, his eyes wide. Before us was a massive, sturdy door. It was the only thing keeping us from getting inside.
“Kablam!”
The sturdy door was rendered useless by just one of uncle Takeru’s mighty punches.
“Don’t you think we could’ve gone about this a bit sneakier?”
“Fool! A man must always charge ahead! Anything else is a waste of time!”
...You’re a pretty simple guy. But I can’t really say anything, I was about to destroy it too.
“E-Enemies! Enemies at the gate!” The lookout started to bash a hammer against a loud bell. A large group of mask-wearing, black-clothed men poured out of the base in response.
Hm? These guys have gold tints on their masks. Are they the elites of Qulau?
“Well, trash is trash at the end of the day.”
I took out my gunsword and began peppering the men in front of me with paralyzing bullets.
Takeru and Ende leaped into the fray, knocking down man after man.
I could’ve handled them all at once using my smartphone’s target lock, but I didn’t want to run the risk of letting any non-mask-wearing guys escape. Plus, Ende needed more practice.
“Bring out the Steel Soldiers!” I raised an eyebrow as large summoning circles appeared near us. Two gold-tinged Steel Soldiers rose out of them. Yep, this is Gordian’s doing alright.
One of the unnecessarily shiny Steel Soldiers took a step forward... before immediately being smashed into a cliff face and torn to pieces. I was taken aback for a moment. I turned to look at the other Steel Soldier, and witnessed the figure of uncle Takeru rising upward, his fist held high as it uppercut the machine.
I looked upward as the Steel Soldier was catapulted far off into the sky.
Eventually, it landed on the ground, clattering to pieces.
F.
“...Seeing that really is frightening...”
Ende muttered quietly. I could understand why. It was how I felt whenever I fought against Moroha. The very idea of comparing ourselves to full gods was a mistake, though.
“A-A monster!”
“Run! Run away, everyone!”
Those idiots didn’t know that I’d already cast a wide-scale barrier around the area to prevent their escape. A Steel Soldier could probably muster up enough power, though. Still, even if I felt it break, I could instantly repair it.
“Whoopsie.”
I turned my body, narrowly avoiding the dagger that had just been hurled my way. I hadn’t even noticed it until it was about to hit me.
I turned and saw a man wearing the blackest mask I’d seen yet. I’d sensed the smell of death on the other men, but this guy reeked of it the most. He was clearly a man who survived on the suffering of others.
“Are you Qulau’s leader, then?”
“You would be correct... I am the shadow lurking within Yulong’s memory, I am the... Gaugh?!”
“Oh.”
As the leader began to monologue, Ende suddenly came in from the side and punched him. He flew off a short distance with his body bent in a sideways V-shape.
“...Hey.”
“Oh, sorry. Did you want to listen to his whole speech?”
“Nah, I was actually gonna shoot him halfway through.”
“Oh, then it’s all good then.”
I mean, sure it’s good, but... I kinda wanted to beat him!
I grumbled a bit, spitefully shooting the fallen, squirming leader with a paralysis bullet. I restrained him and then pulled off his mask. He just looked like an ordinary guy in his forties.
I figured the whole point of being an assassin was to blend in, though... so it seemed reasonable.
“Sorry, pal. Your plans all come to an end right here. If you really wanted to rebuild Yulong, you should’ve put those daggers down and picked up a farming tool.”
I left the leader behind to wallow in anguish, regret, pain, or whatever it was... and headed deeper into the fortress.
I beat back numerous small-fry enemies before finding the teleport sigil that would take me underground. This hideout was originally built by Gordian, who intended to create a magical imperium and rule over the world. As such, the fort had several magical items littered around it.
I poured my magic into the sigil and teleported underground, leaving Takeru and Ende to mop up the stragglers outside.
The place I ended up in looked like a massive underground cave. There were building materials scattered around here and there. It kind of reminded me of a hangar. I looked around and clearly saw a few items that had their origins in the Reverse World.
There were a few Steel Soldiers here as well, though none were completely assembled. There were no doubts now. This place was where they were making them. Given that there were only incomplete ones down there, it seemed like they’d deployed all their usable ones.
After a few moments, ten men wearing Qulau masks surrounded me.
“Back off, idiots.”
“Guh?!”
“Gyuh!”
I took them all out with my gun. I didn’t care about those guys. Instead, I cared more about the group of ragged-looking men near the Steel Soldiers.
They weren’t wearing masks, but tattered clothes. They clearly weren’t Qulau members. Not only that, but they had submission collars around their necks.
An elderly man walked toward me. He was clearly well into his sixties. He had a scraggly white beard that flowed freely down his chin, and he wore a little pair of glasses. I could sense the determination behind his eyes, even if he seemed unsteady on his feet.
“We. Go. With. You Not Kill. Please.”
He spoke in broken sentences, almost pleading with me. I thought they only had one guy from the Reverse World, not this whole group.
Not kill, huh? Guess they’re scared I’ll use my gun.
I quickly cast translation magic on all the men before me. I decided talking would be best here.
“Are you guys Gollem technicians?”
“Y-You understand us? Yes! We’re all Gollem technicians. We were on our way to Isengard, bringing a delivery to the witch-king, when we found ourselves in this strange place... We were forced into servitude by those masked men!”
The witch-king? Holy shit. If they don’t know that he’s been defeated then they must have been here a long time.
“I’ll hear the rest later. How many of you are there?”
“E-Eighteen to begin with, but fifteen now. Three of us were tortured to death when we were captured... Could you tell me where we are, exactly? The technology and language here... It’s almost like we’re in another world.” He was exactly right, but I wanted to save the explanations for later.
I took off their submission collars and freed them of their confines. Some of them even wept with happiness when I did that. They must have suffered quite a lot.
“We’re leaving this place. Anything you need to bring?”
“Ah, excuse me a moment.”
The old man dug a little hole nearby, and eventually produced a tiny card.
“What’s this?”
“It’s my own personal storage card. I didn’t want them to take it away, so I buried it there when I first got here.”
Pretty smart, old man. I guess it’s true what they say. Wisdom comes with age.
I decided to bring them to Elluka, since she was a fellow denizen of the Reverse World. And so, I used [Gate] to connect us all to the location she and Doc Babylon were sitting at.
The two of them turned their attention from the battlefield to us as we came through, but Elluka’s eyes went wide as she ran over to the old man.
“Professor, is that you?!”
“Wh-What?! Restore Queen, is that actually you?!”
The two of them just started pointing at each other and making vague noises.
“You guys know each other?”
“Ah, yeah... This man’s an incredibly famous Gollem technician in my world. Does that mean that his whole team got caught?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s his whole team.”
“Lass, what’s going on here? Where even are we? This is a bit hard to follow.”
“Um... How should I put this...”
I decided to leave the explaining to Elluka, and promptly returned to the fortress.
Takeru and Ende had almost completely taken out everyone there by the time I got back. I teleported all those guys to Castle Horn, as the officials there would take care of the rest.
I definitely had to be sure I didn’t miss anyone. If I didn’t completely pull them out at the roots, then these weeds would just keep coming back.
I used [Search] to confirm nobody was left, and we walked out of the front gate again.
Takeru said he was going to finish the job, whatever that meant.
“Now listen up. Wherever there’s life, there’s chi. Chi is found in the air, the earth, and in the sun’s light. If you want to master chi, you must master nature itself. Properly controlling it will allow you to do things like this...”
Takeru thrust his arms forward, wiggling his hands like he was grasping for something. After a short while, a ball of energy I could tell was distinct from magic gathered in his hands.
Slowly, the mass grew until it was the size of an exercise balance ball, and the very air around it began to oscillate and shimmer.
“Haaah!”
Takeru yelled, thrusting his arms forward and firing out the mass.
The orb sailed forward before it suddenly detonated, creating a catastrophic explosion akin to a nearby bomb blast.
When the dust settled, the fort we’d just cleared out was completely gone. All that remained was a smoldering crater... Even the nearby cliff faces were eradicated.
The power was on the level of an Upper Construct-tier Phrase firing off its railgun attack. I couldn’t believe what I’d seen.
I was amazed that such a power was possible, even without the use of magic or divinity.
Thus, the Qulau hideout, along with the underground facility, were completely wiped out.
“I-I suppose I have a long way to go in my training...”
“...Honestly I don’t know if I want more people doing attacks like that...”
I replied to Ende’s blank-faced mutterings with a dumbfounded comment of my own.
The Qulau members were all handed over to the Horn government. The army of Steel Soldiers and Wood Golems were taken out without a hitch, too. With that, the plot to take over Horn had failed.
Qulau’s leader and all of its elite members were publicly executed. The rest of Qulau were given the lifelong sentence of hard labor in the mines. They would never see the sun again.
A few days later, a new king of Horn was crowned. Kuoh Da Horn, the one-year-old boy.
As that happened, Prime minister Schwein Adante announced his resignation, and recommended Ganossa Da Horn, the late king’s former brother, as his successor.
Thus, the uncle became regent for his nephew, ruling as king until the boy came of age. This was the best outcome from the start, really.
The Kingdom of Horn decided to join the rest of the world, and end its long-imposed isolation. They started an exchange program for their young academics, sending them out to learn about the world.
Thus, Horn would enter a golden age of cultural growth, learning more about other nations and how to improve their own as a result. They would work hard to be a shining example, the opposite of the Yulongese who had clung to the past so desperately and shamelessly.
It was fine to be proud of one’s past, but you could not hinge your entire existence around it. Otherwise, you’d be someone trapped looking backward all your life.
I had to hope that the new generation in the remnants of Yulong would grow up to understand that.
As for the rescued Gollem technicians...
All of them except one worked at a factory in Isengard. The one in charge of the factories in Isengard was the witch-king.
Unfortunately, as far as the public knew, the witch-king was missing, and none knew if he was alive or dead. Isengard ended up devolving into chaos as a result, and currently stood fragmented without a leader.
Even after I told them that, the majority of the men still wanted to return home, so I took them back.
I could understand why. They had families and stuff back there. But it had been so long since they went missing that they were considered dead in Isengard, and their jobs had been filled up. I was also worried that they might be treated poorly by authorities because they lost the three-thousand Gollems they had with them. Frankly, it would be dangerous to have them live in Isengard.
That was why I went to speak with the former prince of Gardio, Lucrecion. He was now in charge of Lowe, after all, so I asked if he would take the men and their families in. Thankfully, he accepted. Though I knew he would. They were all exceptionally talented men.
Thus, the men decided to live a new life within Lowe’s territory.
Only one man stayed behind...
“So, that old man... or, uh, professor? What’s he gonna do?”
“He said he wanted to travel this world and see all the countries.”
Elluka grumbled a bit as she chewed a straw in her mouth. The ice cubes inside her glass of orange juice clinked around as the straw moved.
“Isn’t it a little risky for him to be roaming around alone? He’s pretty old.”
“He made a few basic Gollems using dwarven tech before he left. Apparently he had some G-Cubes and Q-Crystals on him. At a glance, they’d look like five armored knights walking with him, so I imagine he’ll be fine.”
Damn, he really made that many Gollems in such a short time? He really must be pretty famous.
“I wanted him to help me out a bit, but he said he wanted to see the sights first and foremost. I guess he probably wants to forget the harrowing experience he had building those crude machines.”
That was fair. At the very least, the fact that he willingly built some on his own meant the trauma wasn’t too deep. He probably just didn’t want to do any intensive Gollem building for a while.
“Hey, dumbasses! Your break’s like, totally over and stuff! You should help out already.”
“Geez... You’re so mean, Monie...”
We were sitting and having a drink during our chat, which prompted Monica to come out and yell at us.
The two Over Gears were behind her, awaiting a diagnostics report.
Elluka grumbled quietly before getting up and walking toward them with Fenrir.
Just as I was about to leave, my smartphone began ringing.
Hm? Oh, God Almighty, huh? How rare.
“Heyo!”
“Ah, young Touya. There is something I wish to speak of. Could you come to my realm for a spell?”
I had no plans, so I said that wouldn’t be a problem before ending the call. I wondered what he wanted from me. Ah, I think I should swing by the kitchen and get him something before going, though... I don’t wanna show up without a treat.
Crea had made some tasty yokan desserts, so assuming Karen hadn’t eaten them all, they’d be good to bring along.
I was in luck. Karen’s greedy gaze had not yet fallen upon the tasty treats, so I managed to bring some to the divine realm with me.
I found myself in that familiar room that floated amidst a cloudy backdrop. There were no walls nor ceiling, it was simply us.
“Hey there. I brought you a gift. Here you go.”
“Ah, lovely. I shall make some tea to go with it.”
God took out some plates and a knife, then placed them down on the table with some tea. Tea along with yokan was a very nice combo indeed.
“So, what’d you wanna discuss?”
“Ah, yes. It is happening in three days.”
“Huh?”
God spoke quietly as he sliced up the yokan into smaller pieces.
What’s happening in three days?
“What do you mean, exactly?”
“The two worlds are going to complete their overlap. They will fuse into one new world in exactly three days. That is when they will leave my jurisdiction, and be guarded only by you.”
“WHAAAT?!”
I blurted out my confusion. I knew you’d tell me in advance, but isn’t this a little short notice?! I didn’t even hold the multidimensional summit yet! Agh... I mean, I guess this could be a positive. Somehow. If it actually happens, then nobody’ll be able to deny it, so they’ll have to listen to me. That way the leaders of the Reverse World might be more inclined to listen to me, too.
“I do apologize. It was rather hard to predict, you see. This world was supposed to be destroyed due to its unpredictability, after all. It grows yet more unpredictable by the day.”
“Hm... I see... Three days, huh?”
Wonder what I can do in such a short time.
“What about cataclysmic events and stuff?”
“That is likely to happen in most cases, but you recently attained dominion over spirits, did you not? I am sure if you speak with the relevant spirits, you can mitigate the potential damage. There may be some small earthquakes here and there, but I am sure that the worlds will join simply enough. At the very most, the maps of both worlds may be slightly altered.”
Landmasses being altered is kinda scary, but as long as I can avoid disaster-movie type scenarios, I’ll be fine. The people would definitely freak out way too hard if really bad stuff happens.
“Once the merge begins, the world will be out of my hands. Since I do technically owe you for the short notice, I will use my power to make both worlds speak the same language. Or rather, I will simply make them believe they are all speaking the same language.”
Holy cow, that’s something else... You’re basically casting translation magic over the whole world. I don’t think I could do something like that.
Well, maybe I could... but it’d definitely take my smartphone well over a week to lock on to that many people.
“Is that okay? I thought it was against the rules to interfere with lesser realms.”
“Well, that is true... But in this case, I think the advent of a wicked god is cause for this one little cheat. Plus, this world is about to be out of my hands anyway, so it matters little.”
I guess it’s like tossing away a troublesome book that was once in a library. Once it’s tossed, it isn’t owned by the library anymore so they have no obligation to keep it checked on. After that it’s just a matter of whoever gets their hands on the book next.
“This is your job now, young Touya. You must exorcise that wicked god from the newborn world. Once you do that, the world will earn its right among other worlds, and the god of destruction will be satisfied as well.”
“Man, this sure is a problem...”
“Now, now... You are a beneficiary of my own power. The enemy is spawned from a failure of a god. By all rights, you have no reason to worry about losing. However, that wicked god is a tricky one. There is no telling what they might do. Keep your wits about you.”
“Sure thing.”
I guess it’s like me taking over a project or something. I’m the newbie entrusted with the workload by the veteran, or something like that...
“You have seven gods supporting you right now. I am quite sure you will prevail.”
“...I feel like they treat it more like a vacation than anything else, though...”
I had the god of love, the god of swords, the god of agriculture, the god of hunting, the god of music, the god of alcohol, and the god of combat on my side. They weren’t exactly like the seven lucky gods of Japanese folklore, though... They were mostly just pains in the ass.
“Well, even if they enjoy themselves, they help in their own way. Sometimes, it is simply the way of things. Though, if I am quite honest, I would not be surprised if that world became some kind of resort for the gods after you take full management.”
I’m not sure how to feel about that... Surely there are better vacation worlds out there in the vast cosmos... Well, whatever. I don’t need to worry about that stuff yet. This’ll all come after the wicked god’s dealt with.
I need to go speak with the spirits, then meet with the other world leaders. No idea what’ll happen from here-on, so we’ll need to stay as alert as we can...
I quietly ate my yokan and sipped my tea, resolving to make things go as smoothly as possible.
But, three days later... An entire country was wiped off the map of the newly-joined world.
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