Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 20 - Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: The Jester and the Dragon

About Curtis Eldona

To end the reign of the false imperator, Reinhard—that was the goal of the Dryfe Legitimate Government, and it was also the goal of Curtis himself.

He was driven by a grudge against Reinhard for killing his cousins, among many others, and by a conviction that it was his duty to bring down the warmongering usurper who ravaged his homeland. Such feelings—especially the latter one—were shared by many of those in the DLG.

However, those weren’t the only things driving him. The grudge and sense of duty were matched—if not surpassed—by something else.

That was an emotion called “love.”

◆

Six years ago, Curtis Eldona fell in love.

Before the increase in Masters, he was participating in a ceremony to celebrate those who’d taken part in defeating a UBM that had been ransacking the outer reaches of Dryfe.

On the dais stood the elderly, but still living, Imperator Xanafald as well as two more people. One of them was SMTF Captain Gifted Barbaros. As the adopted son of Marquis Barbaros, he had seen many battles and was already considered to be a pillar of Dryfe’s military might despite his young age.

There was nothing strange about him defeating a UBM.

However, the person standing by his side was a girl who could not have been more than thirteen years old—and surprisingly, she clutched a red crystal, seemingly the MVP reward, in her hands.

That meant that despite her age, she had contributed to the battle more than Gifted.

“Claudiah Reinhard Dryfe, I commend you.” In Dryfe, it was common for twins to each bear the other’s name as their middle name, which resulted in the girl’s masculine middle name. That combined with the surname Dryfe made it obvious that she was part of the imperial family.

Indeed, she was the daughter of the late third prince and the granddaughter of the imperator bestowing the award upon her.

Though still young, Claudiah already held the title of The Ram.

“Beautiful...” The girl standing on the stage left Curtis enchanted. He himself was extremely talented and had already acquired a Superior Job, so he found himself strongly attracted to her.

Curtis continued to think about Claudiah long after this ceremony was over.

He intently and excitedly followed her activities by newspapers and word of mouth, and he spent many nights thinking how he might approach her and talk to her.

Curtis was like a fan and a young man in love all at once—his heart had nothing but Claudiah in it.

That didn’t change even after Masters came to the world en masse and began to reshape it.

When she became old enough to marry, he began wondering how they could be together. Although of less importance, she was still royalty. The first prince’s mother came from Curtis’s own family—Eldona—and they were fairly powerful as far as nobility went. He was, however, only the second son, so he didn’t know if he would be welcomed into the royal family itself.

That was why, instead of relying on his rank as a noble, he chose to prove his worth another way—by becoming Dryfe’s field Marshall.

The current field Marshall was elderly and would soon need to be replaced, and there were several candidates for the position.

First was Curtis himself. He had come from an important noble family and was the commander of the First Armored Battalion.

Next was the commander of the Second Armored Battalion. He was another man from a strong noble background who was known as a more skilled commander.

The second prince’s faction also had soldiers who, while not as renowned as the two commanders, were still put forth as candidates.

Some also suggested Gifted Barbaros—the stepson of another important noble—but he was already in SMTF, and it was believed that he wouldn’t take the role of field Marshall and lead the entire army instead.

Thus, Curtis’s biggest hurdle remained the commander of the Second Armored Battalion.

Just like Curtis, he was in the first prince’s faction and was no doubt an excellent commander. That might have been the reason that the important diplomatic role of performing joint training with Altar was granted to him instead of Curtis himself.

With many UBM defeats under his belt, Curtis was by no means less skilled than his rival, but that achievement and the power involved was his alone. A field Marshall, however, had to be someone who could manage and lead the army, and even Curtis himself had to admit that wasn’t exactly his strong suit.

But just when Curtis began to worry he had no chance at the title, the situation completely changed.

The Second Armored Battalion was completely destroyed.

This was accomplished by the SUBM, Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria. The fiendish golden beast had attacked the kingdom and eliminated Curtis’s rival along with his entire battalion.

As a soldier, Curtis was overcome by grief and saw it as a major loss. But as a man, a part of him that was filled with glee that his biggest competitor was gone.

The golden dragon that had brought about so many disasters had actually done him a favor.

Whether it was a blessing or a calamity overall, the fiendish dragon had greatly changed the course of his life and Dryfe as a whole.

And in order that he might never forget this fact, he christened his new unit with a name based on the creature.

With that, the only barrier between Curtis and the seat of the field Marshall was gone. There were some candidates in the second prince’s faction, but they were not a problem.

The next imperator was going to be selected soon, and the most likely candidates were First Prince Gustav and his son, Hallon. Regardless of which one it would be, though, Curtis would be the highest-ranking soldier in their faction, and would be given the title of field Marshall.

And once he had that, he would be able to take Claudiah as his wife.

Thus, while the next imperator was being decided in the Imperstand—the pre-ancient civilization fortress at the heart of the imperial capital—he merely waited for the future he expected to arrive.

However, it never came—for the throne was taken by the son of the late third prince—Reinhard.

And with the exception of Reinhard’s younger twin sister, Claudiah, the imperial family all ended up dead. During the meeting to determine the imperial inheritance, both the first prince’s and the second prince’s factions were massacred.

The means by which this was accomplished were nothing short of vile. As the Superior Job of the mechanic grouping, King of Machines, Reinhard had been put in charge of maintaining the Imperstand—a position he’d used to transform the fortress meant to protect the country and the royal family into the weapon that killed them.

It was as though he’d been planning all along to take the throne by violence.

And to make matters worse, he’d given the role of field Marshall to his relative and confidant, Gifted Barbaros.

This outcome was so unexpected and terrible that it left Curtis at a loss for words.

His cousin had died, his future had fallen apart, his country was now in danger... There were so many things on his mind, but once he finally collected his thoughts enough to process what had happened, the first thing he felt was rage.

“What kind of joke is this?! Reinhard...what have you been doing all this time?!” While your sister was out in public, fulfilling her role as a noble and fighting monsters all over the country, you didn’t even bother to show your face! You spent all your time messing around with machines! he thought.

Reinhard had pushed his sister into dangerous roles and used dirty tactics to claim the throne for himself. To Curtis, as well as everyone else who knew as much as he did—in other words, most of the other nobles—Reinhard was scum of the worst kind.

“This...this is unacceptable!” Most of all, Curtis felt awful for Claudiah, who had been born alongside this filth of a brother. Reinhard had used her as his pawn, forcing her to commit vile deeds against her will. Merely imagining how Claudiah must have felt in her heart during all this brought Curtis to tears.

Even if she would never choose him, he silently swore that he would do anything to at least set her free.

And so, he stood with many nobles and military men to bring down Reinhard.

Thus began the Dryfean Civil War. In it, he defeated many soldiers who’d sided with Reinhard, as well as Masters with Superior Jobs that the usurper had hired. The only thing Curtis feared was the vile Reinhard sending his beloved Claudiah against him—but for better or worse, this never happened.

As a single unit, Curtis weathered the civil war without suffering a single defeat.

However, his side was the one that lost.

Many of the nobles were defeated, the all-or-nothing operation by SMTF had failed, and even his own family—his elder brother—gave up after their father was defeated.

The Civil War ended with Reinhard’s side victorious.

However, Curtis didn’t—couldn’t—accept this defeat.

Still burning with a desire to bring down the imperator and free Claudiah, Curtis left for another country to gather strength so he could one day try again.

But even now that it had come to this, there was still something that he didn’t know.

Completely unbeknownst to Curtis, Reinhard and Claudiah were actually the same person. This was Claudiah’s greatest secret, known only to her and the Marquis Barbaros family.

Curtis couldn’t possibly have known this, for he had never met her when she was “Reinhard.” Perhaps if he had, his love for “Claudiah” might have helped him realize who Reinhard really was.

However, the only things he knew about Reinhard were his name, his appearance in photos, and his actions. Thus, he had no means of knowing that his two goals were at odds and that his actions and desired future were utterly contradictory.

And that was why Curtis Eldona was truly a jester with no equal.

◆◆◆

Eltram, Power Block

“Engine deactivation completed.”

“We will proceed to remove it from the vessel.” DLG soldiers clad in armor-type Magingears were hard at work in front of the core installed in Eltram.

Watching over them were two Marshall IIs and a golden unit with a dragon’s head.

“Make haste. It appears that the situation is shifting against us.”

From his cockpit, Curtis silently but firmly urged his soldiers to rush.

Their situation was growing dire. The comms devices suddenly blared an emergency signal with no one to respond and give reason for it, and the ones they’d sent to occupy the special ballroom—a key location—were now unreachable. They’d also lost the unit that had jammed the standard frequencies and hosted their secret comms bypass.

It was clear that they had enemies here, and furthermore that they would soon come to this area.

But those weren’t their only problems—before their secret comms were rendered unusable, they’d suddenly become unable to contact the soldiers in the passenger cabin and the cargo areas. Before commencing the operation, they’d also tried contacting Lieutenant Colonel Berlin outside, but received no response.

It was obvious that their situation wasn’t good.

“Major General, completely removing it will require at least ten minutes... Wouldn’t it be better for us to retreat?”

Curtis received this message from one of his accompanying Marshall IIs.

In this situation, a tactical retreat to prevent even more casualties could not truly be considered a mistake, but...

“Why not give up on the core and kidnap passengers to demand a ransom for them instead?”

This question from the pilot of the other Marshall II present made Curtis wince a little.

“A foolish suggestion. Never make it again.”

With those words, the golden unit thrust its lance into the Marshall II unit.

“Aieee...?!” The tip of the lance had only missed the pilot’s head by around 10 centimetels. Curtis had missed on purpose, since it was only meant as a warning, but there was more to his attack than just that.

Besides the hole in its chest-armor, the Marshall II was completely undamaged.

The attack didn’t trigger any shocks throughout the rest of the unit—it only punched a small hole through the mech’s body, missing anything vital to place the tip of the lance into the space right beside the pilot’s head.

Such a strike required unimaginable precision as a pilot, yet Curtis had enough skill to do it as though it was nothing.

“Neither a change of plans nor a retreat are viable options for us.”

Tactically, a retreat wasn’t a mistake—but strategically, it was something Curtis would never do. If they didn’t secure this energy core, this assault would have all been for naught. They would have accomplished nothing except losing most of their forces. At that point, their hope of making a comeback would be as good as gone. They would need at least a decade to recover, if not longer.

Delaying Dryfe’s liberation and Claudiah’s salvation by that long was something Curtis could never accept.

“The forces we’ve already lost make it even more vital that we secure the core to make up for them. If we don’t, Dryfe’s Legitimate Government will be over here and now. Do you understand?”

He pulled out the lance and calmly but firmly posed that question to the other pilot.

There was only one way the soldier could respond.

“S-Sir, yes, sir!”

“Good. Continue to keep an eye out.”

Curtis then cut the external speakers and let out a sigh.

Curtis’s thoughts drifted to his old rival, the commander of the Second Armored Battalion. “He probably could’ve led them without any threats or deception,” he said with self-derision. Though he had once been Curtis’s biggest hurdle on his path to becoming field Marshall, Curtis had deeply trusted him as a soldier. Perhaps they would’ve won the Civil War if he’d been alive for it. And even if they’d lost regardless, Curtis was certain that the DLG would be in a different, better state than the one it was in now.

As a man driven mad by love, Curtis was happy the Second Armored Batallion’s commander had died—but as a soldier, he felt the loss heavily.

I suppose I cling to a plan like this exactly because I know I lack the ability to keep up with him otherwise, he thought.

This plan to steal the core had been suggested to him by a collaborator. This engineer had taught Curtis the structure of the vessel, how to handle the core, a way to sneak his soldiers inside, and even promised to use the stolen core to build a large mobile weapon for them.

It was a suspicious offer that seemed too good to be true. This collaborator clearly had some ulterior motive. However, Reinhard’s forces were so strong that Curtis had no choice but to accept it.

That was why Curtis had to win—to make this operation a success.

“They’re here.” And with that, the sensor eye on his unit’s draconic head moved at high speeds before focusing on the door leading into this area, where it picked up something behind it.

“This size and pattern of magic use... It’s another Magingear!” Almost as soon as Curtis said it, the door was broken down, and a pure white Magingear covered in frost rushed in.

“La Porte de l’Enfer!”

Upon hearing that skill activation, Curtis quickly assumed a defensive stance. However, the skill produced no attack, and instead of an impact, he heard screams from one of his accompanying pilots and the soldiers working to remove the core.

The camera on his unit’s back saw men equipped with armor-type Magingears panicking as most of their bodies were encased in ice.

A wide-area freeze skill? But there’s been no significant change in ambient temperature. One of the accompanying units is unaffected too.

The only one of Curtis’s pilots who was screaming was the one whose armor he’d punched a hole through.

Curtis hummed questioningly, but as he did, he pressed something on the panel next to the control column and activated one of his unit’s extras.

A moment later, the golden mech’s sensor eye—the attached Epic MVP reward, Glaring Third Eye, Drac-Sight—modified its vision and observed the surroundings for changes.

By doing this, Curtis noticed that there was some sort of energy being released by the enemy unit, and that heat energy was flowing toward it from his Frozen soldiers.

The unit is generating a strange energy field. It seems similar to the power of the Scorchdragon King that I felled—the incineration skill that only worked on living beings. I suppose that must be what’s causing the freeze.

He looked at one of his accompanying units and saw that the strange field was flowing into its cockpit through the hole in its chest. However, for his own unit and the other one accompanying him, it only flowed on the armor’s surface, not making its way in.

The difference lies in...the airtightness.

◇

“Tch...!” The result might have been expected, but Hugo clicked his tongue in irritation nonetheless. They’re not freezing...!

After hearing Eldridge’s hint, Hugo had been able to guess why La Porte de l’Enfer hadn’t worked on the Magingear in the mall.

It had something to do with airtightness.

The infantry outside the unit had become Frozen, but the pilot within had not. However, the pilot had succumbed as soon as Hugo had broken the Magingear’s armor.

That meant that his targets had to actually come into contact with air that had been affected by La Porte de l’Enfer in order for the skill to be effective.

Hugo could guess the reason for that.

Cyco’s La Porte de l’Enfer not only Froze its targets, but also accumulated the lost heat energy within Cyco herself. That heat was meant to be used in her second skill, Purgatorial Slash, but that made it necessary for the heat energy to actually move.

And Cyco had no ability to absorb heat without consideration of the intervening space. She wasn’t a Type Territory, after all, and could not bend spatial laws. Instead of influencing the surrounding space, she transferred the heat energy from the enemy to her using the air as the conduit.

Thus, her skill couldn’t reach anyone who was completely separated from the outside air.

As long as Cyco and the target shared a common air, she could even steal the heat of someone like Bishmal when he transformed into fire—but if they didn’t, she would never be able to affect them.

And I know exactly why I haven’t realized this until now, Hugo thought. Back when he had still been a member of The Triangle of Wisdom, Hugo, with Franklin’s supervision, had taken part in various experiments related to La Porte de l’Enfer. Among these tests were a handful done on people inside Marshall IIs.

Since it had worked on the pilots back then, both Hugo and Franklin had assumed that La Porte de l’Enfer always worked against Magingears, as well.

But the reason it didn’t work on the DLG units now was...

“...because our units weren’t completely airtight.”

Hugo recalled the day he’d left The Triangle of Wisdom.

The pool they’d used for experiments was occupied by an experimental amphibious unit. It had sunk to the bottom, its cockpit had filled with water, and everyone around thought it was a complete failure. If they couldn’t ensure an airtight seal on an amphibious unit, there was no way they could’ve done it for units meant only for use on dry land.

The Triangle of Wisdom was a group of Masters, many of whom were engineers and the like in real life as well. They had even achieved something that had previously been thought impossible, creating the first humanoid Magingears.

But in the grand scheme of things, when it came to Magingears, they were still amateurs.

On the other hand, the DLG—the First Armored Battalion—were pros at handling power armor and tank-type Magingears. In terms of the knowledge of magic technology, they were true veterans—the absolute elite—and if they wanted to make their units airtight for desert environments, they could do it flawlessly.

While they may not have had the same creativity, the DLG were unmatched when it came to technical prowess.

And compared to the data I saw...that golden unit has been modified too.

With the exception of the one that already had a hole in it, it looked like the pilots of the other two units weren’t freezing. However, unlike the battle in the mall, Hugo had anticipated this result.

“What now?” Cyco asked.

“We do as we planned!”

A moment later, a hole opened up in the body of the Marshall II that was still unaffected.

“Hit.”

The sound sensors of the machines picked up a faint voice from behind them. It belonged to Niala, who was lying on the floor as she aimed an extra long gun.

The weapon in her hands was a magic sniper rifle.

Unlike gunpowder guns, which didn’t change in power no matter who wielded them, magic guns grew stronger according to the amount of magic put into them and the skill level of the user. When charged with enough MP and fired using an appropriate skill, they could break through Demi-Dragon carapaces—and that included the armor of Demi-Dragon-tier Magingears.

Niala was doing exactly as she and Hugo had planned while they were making their way here to the power block. If the enemies didn’t freeze immediately, they decided they would simply have to do as Hugo had done in the mall and puncture the mechs’ armor to let the skill through.

Niala had assumed the sniping position and prepared to fire before White Rose had even broken through the door.

“Ngh...!” The pilot of the unit Niala had fired at tried to groan in pain, but before he could do so, the second tick of La Porte de l’Enfer came, Freezing his entire body. He must’ve had a higher kill count for other humanoids than the other pilot.

The second tick also finished Freezing those who were only partially Frozen.

And thus, silence fell over the power block.

The energy core was deactivated, now surrounded by ice sculpture and two units that weren’t moving an inch. Nearby stood the pure white unit that had done this, and outside the area Niala was still taking aim.

And finally, there was the golden unit that had stood still and focused on observation. Despite witnessing his soldiers being functionally eliminated, Curtis himself had never moved.

“Well...I have a question.” This had to be emphasized—it wasn’t that he couldn’t move; he simply didn’t. “Since you didn’t attack me first...is it only the two of you?”

The moment he said that, Niala’s second shot hit the golden unit’s chest armor. However, her eyes widened as the bullet only made a faint metallic clink as it was deflected.

“I assume this Freeze requires you to break the cockpit’s airtight seal. The reason the sniper didn’t aim at me first was because you didn’t know how tough this armor was. Thus, you used the first shot on the Marshall II, which was more likely to break.”

Curtis verbalized almost exactly what Niala had been thinking.

“If there were another sniper or a different attacker with you,” Curtis went on, “you would not have missed the chance to ambush us all at once. The fact that this did not happen makes it clear the only ones here are you, with your Freeze power, and the sniper behind you.”

Curtis matter-of-factly described the extent of the opposing forces.

“Now, another question,” he said. “Why did you not ambush me when you had the chance?”

Hugo said nothing in response, but Curtis himself already knew the answer. “It’s because you know this. When you broke through the door and saw this unit, you instantly realized what it was. You are the kind of person who knows my Imperial Glory...in other words, you must be from Dryfe.”

These words made Hugo’s eyes widen. Indeed, Hugo knew of this golden, dragon-headed unit that went by the name of Imperial Glory. He knew it as the strongest unit ever built by The Triangle of Wisdom—a Magingear created at the Dryfean army’s request and equipped with an energy core. And it was because Hugo knew how powerful it was that right upon seeing it, he failed to implement the planned ambush.

“And you have ties to The Triangle of Wisdom as well. I can tell by your Magingear—it’s an experimental unit that isn’t mass-produced. The quirks in the structure and the inadequate construction makes it obvious that it’s their work.”

Hearing his opponent disparage The Triangle of Wisdom’s work—the work of Hugo’s own sister—made Hugo slightly irritated, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. He had a feeling that if he did, it would only make the situation worse.

“Based on its toughness, I assume it’s made of Mythical metal. No—Hihi’irokane is scarlet, and your unit is white. It’s an alloy with mical ore, then. In Dryfe, both are mined solely within the borders of the Barbaros March. I see how it is... Damn you, Reinhard.”

Despite not even touching or attacking White Rose, Curtis had gotten everything right. He spoke to himself and arrived at an answer, which made him click his tongue.

“This means he provided it back when Glory was being produced—he knew we would be enemies even back then? Was he planning to claim the throne for that long? That filth...”

The way he was vehemently cursing someone who wasn’t even here made Curtis look as though he’d dropped his guard.

“Now is a good time to attack,” Cyco told Hugo telepathically. “His kill count’s high enough for him to Freeze with a single tick.”

Hugo nodded in response. He didn’t have to destroy the unit—he would win the moment he broke its airtight seal. A slight distortion in the armor was all it would take.

Thus, Hugo rushed White Rose toward the golden unit...

“Ohh, if this is as fast as you can go, you made the right choice by not ambushing me.”

...and was instantly stopped.

The lance had pierced through White Rose’s right elbow and reached all the way to the floor, pinning the arm down and rendering it immobile.

Shock overcame Hugo. Curtis had thrust the lance into his unit with movement reminiscent of a martial arts master—except it was done not by a nimble human, but a bulky, humanoid giant robot.

It was a sight too outlandish to be written off as merely the result of skilled piloting. Moreover...

“How did he break through Rose’s armor?!” Made of a Mythical metal alloy, White Rose had the highest defensive power of any Magingear that existed.

How could anyone have pierced through that with such ease?

“This lance is an MVP reward of mine. It’s called Pinning Death, Drac-Stinger. I can reduce the diameter of its tip to as small as 0.1 millimetels, and it never breaks. It’s a weapon I find very useful.”

Curtis casually revealed information about one of his weapons—the MVP reward he’d received from the Pindragon King. He did this because Hugo had ties to The Triangle of Wisdom, and because he believed Hugo already had information about Imperial Glory and Curtis himself.

However, that didn’t seem to answer Hugo’s question. So what if he could change the diameter of the lance’s tip? How did that enable him to pierce through White Rose’s armor?

As though anticipating that question, Curtis let out a sigh.

“As I said, the construction is inadequate.” First, Curtis repeated himself...

“There’s a large 0.2 millimetel gap in the elbow joints.”

...and casually said that he’d easily pierced through a hole smaller than the eye of a needle.

Blind to reality and unwittingly pursuing contradictory goals, Curtis Eldona was no doubt a jester.

However, if that was all he was, Curtis would not be standing here today.

He was the man who’d hunted down countless landdragons and Dragon Kings that approached Dryfe from the neighboring Harshwinter Mountains.

He was the continent’s strongest pilot, Curtis Eldona the Dragon Kingslayer, and he piloted a unit named after the most fiendish dragon of all—Imperial Glory.

Hugo was now facing the strongest pilot in the world, riding the world’s most powerful Magingear.