Chapter 351: Intrude, and the Magicraft King.
"And well, like that I managed to make them go back."
I erased the projected video, which was taken by one of the Valkyries who was holding a smartphone, and ended the explanation. (Note: this is a minor point, but he didn't specify whether it's his smartphone or not, so I'll just use "a".)
"Well, there's a good chance they'll try again, so it'd be best to station more troops at the ruins, I'd say."
"A, aah. Got it. I'll do that…"
The emperor of Garudio Empire nodded with an absentminded expression. We were in the courtyard which was somewhat damaged after the owl-type golem, Graux, had rampaged here earlier, where I was explaining about what happened in the old Lowe territories.
"Still, that was pretty… You have no mercy, do you…"
"This is still lenient, you know. I can't be that forgiving towards opponents who came with the intent to kill. If I don't break their hearts, it will just become repetitions of the same thing."
When I have to hit them down, I will without hesitation. Unfortunately, I'm no saint, and I can't do things like sharing a drink with an opponent who punched me just now.
There are no guarantees that I would win the next time as well. Nobody knows what would happen in the future, and I don't want to taste regret from something uncertain. That's why, I'll make sure they never want to pick a fight with me again on the first time. If they don't hit me, I won't be hitting them back, after all.
Still, while I did break the soldiers' hearts, their leader is still perfectly well. What to do from here…
Guess I'll have to break the heart of the top as well? Grandpa taught me in the past that when you fight against a numerical disadvantage, you try to target the other side's leader as much as you can; I've had times back during middle school when some delinquent groups picked a fight with me, and I put that to use then.
In any case, just crush their leader. Make the other side understand completely that picking a fight with me again is not worth their trouble. My opponents are people as well, and surely they don't like pain as much as me. If I deal with them that way, they won't mess with me again.
Then again, in the first place, I don't understand the reason why Eisengard is so fixated on ruins. Judging from the situation, it seems that they couldn't find whatever they were looking for in the [Azure Ruins], and as such set their sights on the [Emerald Ruins] which was discovered later.
They're looking for something in the ruins… A golem? But, a golem that the Magicraft King of Eisengard would go to such lengths to look for, what exactly could it…
"In this kind of situation, I guess it would be the fastest to just go and ask the person in question directly."
"Directly… Don't tell me…"
Sergeant who was listening to me on the side widened his eyes.
"I'll invade Eisengard by myself and meet with that Magicraft King of theirs directly. If I know what the other side wants, there's a chance I can make them pull their hands back, after all."
"Impossible, are you saying you'll willingly jump into the enemy's bosom!?"
The Garudio emperor raised his voice; however, I believe that to be the best method. If I don't do something soon, another army might invade the Lowe territories again.
To speak further, if I'm not here and the small owls' bombardment corps assault the capital again, it would sink into a sea of flames without a doubt. It's best for me to move as soon as possible.
…It's quite likely that, if a full-scale war erupts between the two countries, Garudio Empire would lose. Although I don't think Garudio would lose without a struggle.
For Eisengard, from its aggressive researching of golems excavated from ancient ruins and utilizing of those results to produce new golems and/or weapons, one can glimpse something almost like an obsession.
There's even a trace of madness in their methodology towards the development of new weapons at any cost. Although, I can't tell if that's the national character of Eisengard as a whole, or if that's simply the kind of man the Magicraft King was.
That's the kind of country Eisengard is. One can never know what kind of dangerous weapons it might be hiding. It's possible that whatever they were trying to search for within the [Emerald Ruins] was some kind of unimaginable ancient weapon.
With all that consideration, it's best if I go and directly talk with them.
"Well then, I'm off."
"… It's a very late question, but just who are you? Why are you helping us?"
The emperor of Garudio looked towards me with a complicated expression. Umu, to this person, I'm like an incarnation of mysteries, aren't I.
"I don't think you'll believe me, but I'm a king too, actually. In a world different from this one. And, well, I've been travelling around this world and looking for friendly countries to form ties with, or something like that."
"A, another world…?"
I unintentionally formed a wry smile on my face while watching His Majesty the Emperor who seemed to have become more confused by my words. Well, at the moment it can't be helped. However, one day, the fact that that isn't a lie will become apparent to him. Whether he wished for it or not.
I opened a [Gate]. Since I can go to the location within Eisengard territory where we fought with the variants last time, I'll fly from there. Ah… Right, I should probably get in touch with Yumina and the others as well. I'd like to be spared from them getting angry at me doing things by myself again.
"Alright, I'm off for real this time."
Leaving everyone else who's still standing there with absentminded expressions, I went through and then closed the [Gate].
"Y-you guys, who are you!? You who suddenly appeared from the sky!"
Eisengard's castle was a stronghold-like fortress of steel. The unique design, which looked like junk parts being pieced together, stood out flashily.
Like a steampunk-themed attraction, things like pipes and valves run in messy clusters all over the place, and measuring meters and levers were installed at various locations. It almost makes me feel like I'm in the middle of a battleship or a submarine. Although I've never gotten on either one of them before.
The moment we descended from the sky in an open space in the center of the castle, soldiers wielding spears immediately appeared. And without wasting a breath, we were surrounded by them as well as guard golems.
"What should we do, Touya-dono?"
"With this number, me and Yae-san are enough to deal with them but…"
The swordswoman combination, Yae and Hilda, who were standing behind me asked while scanning their surroundings. The surface reason why these two came was that fights may occur this time; however, they were, as usual, actually here to restrain me from doing anything too excessive.
Well, although the two of them looks like they're itching to go, let's go the slow and steady way this time.
"[O Ice envelop, an everlasting sarcophagus, Eternal Coffin]."
Aiming at only the guard golems, I imprisoned them within ice coffins. The innumerable icicles that grew from the ground up enveloped the golems, and completely froze their movements.
"Hii!? T-they're frozen!?"
Seeing that sight, the soldiers surrounding us backed off a little. They must be thinking about whether they would get encased in ice like that as well.
Unfortunately, this magic is a bit too strong in terms of fighting a human opponent. If a person encased in ice were to get hit and shatter while in combat, it'll be a bit… No, quite dangerous in a lot of ways. I'd like to be spared from getting involved in the site of a bizarre murder case.
"Excuse me, but do you know where can I meet the Magicraft King?"
"W-what do you want with His Majesty!?"
"Just a bit of talk. It'd save me a lot of trouble if you would honestly tell us."
While saying that, I pulled out Brunhild and shot the base of an icicle which didn't contain a golem within.
The small [Explosion] enchanted on the bullet activated, and with a loud bang, the base of the icicle was blown away. Having its balance destroyed, the ice pillar fell onto the ground and shattered into tiny pieces.
Among the soldiers who saw that and turned white, one of them pointed towards the building in the center with a shaking finger.
When I looked up, over there was a sturdy-looking tower that looked like a huge chunk of iron, with absolutely no elegance or majesty whatsoever to speak of.
It stood tall like the command tower of a warship, and possibly in preparation for potential attacks, turrets jutted out of it at various locations. Did they actually bury a warship in the ground to make this place or something…?
We turned our feet towards the imposing tower which stood in the center of the castle.
"Still, Touya-dono has sure gotten better with his threatening-degozaru na…"
"Th-that makes it sound like I'm a villain… Call it high-leveled negotiation techniques."
"I find it quite hard to call that just now a negotiation…"
Un, I feel that way too. But well, if we talked with them normally, they probably wouldn't have let us past.
Suddenly, from the backs of us who had started walking towards the tower, several gunshots resounded.
Before the sound had even reached us, however, Yae and Hilda had already turned around and drew their katana and sword, respectively, with lightning-fast motions.
With sword strokes that a normal person would probably not perceive at all (although I could properly see them), the two cut down the several bullets heading this way easily.
The blades wielded by the two, which were made from crystal materials, cut through the bullets as if they were tofu; the split pieces flew off in random directions without being able to harm anyone.
In front of the two, several soldiers who were aiming at us with guns solidified with shock on their faces.
"I, impossible…!"
"Since you shot at us, you must be prepared to be shot as well, right?"
I proceeded to aim Brunhild at the soldiers who had tried shooting at us from the back. As I drove one bullet into the ground below their feet, the enchanted [Cyclone Storm] blew the ten-odd soldiers high up into the sky.
"It really is troublesome to have to deal with them one after another-degozaru na."
"As expected, if they shot several hundred rounds at us simultaneously, we wouldn't be able to handle them."
Hilda was saying something like how she can probably deal with it if it's several dozens instead, but I honestly think they might be able to manage a higher number.
These two have already become existences close to dependants of god, and are also disciples of the Sword God. Without a doubt, they should be in the top five in terms of swordsmanship even if you consider both the Surface and Reverse worlds.
The two of them had their foundations in their sword schools, namely [Kokonoe Shinmei-ryuu] and [Lestia-style swordsmanship]; however, through the guidance of Moroha nee-san, they had already turned that foundation into completely different things.
In general, Moroha nee-san's swordplay has no definite form. One of the teachings in the Hokushin Itto-ryuu, founded by Chiba Shusaku, was "Let your mind be fast, your heart be still, your body be low, your eyes be clear, and your actions be fierce"; compared to that, nee-san's teaching is probably a lot closer to "don't think, feel", if anything.
For everything it was instinct, a style which used reflex and natural sense to swing the sword over actual techniques… Well, she herself was someone whom logical ways of fighting won't work against, so I guess it's natural.
"Still, it really does look like a crow's nest on a ship. If that area around there is the bridge, then is that place there the throne room, I wonder?"
As I was looking up at the crow's nest and trying to figure out its dimensions, Yae spoke up.
"Are we going to climb up from the inside-degozaru ka?"
"It's troublesome, so might as well go from the outside. I have something nice here anyway."
I took out a Chinese wok-like disc from [Storage]. This was the one Gian used when he attacked the Garudio emperor. I've already inspected it with [Analyze], and rewritten its commands with [Cracking]. I'm glad it's just a simple artifact.
(Note: so back in the original TL for 348, I thought Gian was using some kind of small discs, one on each of his foot. Well, as you can see, that was a wrong interpretation and it was actually one large disc. Soz.)
"Here, get on."
The disc wasn't that big, but it's enough for three people if they squeeze themselves a bit.
I could've just used [Levitation] and [Fly], but the two of them seemed to hate the floating sensation of [Levitation] very much.
On that note, since this disc doesn't wobble around while floating, it should be better for the two. This one actually feels safer due to that reason, really.
We got onto the disc with the three of us leaning on each other, and I made it slowly ascend. It's like an elevator, except one without walls; it's quite scary, actually. I would never get onto something like this without flying magic.
To be honest, I could've made the two of them ride the disc while I flew alone… Well, it's fine, I guess.
When we flew up to a height somewhere around where the bridge would be, Yae drew her katana and sliced a square hole in the thick steel wall. As the cut-off part of the wall fell into the building, we followed it and jumped inside. Of course, I properly retrieved the disc.
In front of us, who had ended up in some kind of wide passageway, were again guard golems.
"[Shield]!"
I manifested a shield that covered up the entire passage. From there—
"[Power Raise]!"
I used my increased physical strength to push the golems away altogether using the [Shield] I just made. The golems which were being pushed by the [Shield] fell down and started rolling from the pushing force.
"Touya-dono, there are stairs over there!"
Yae, who had found stairs ahead of the passage to our right, headed towards that direction. I left the [Shield] as is and chased after Yae together with Hilda.
Although I don't know whether those stairs would lead us to the Magicraft King, common theory dictates the leader would always be at the highest place.
The end of the stairs was blocked by a pair of heavy metal doors, but once again, Yae slashed through them easily. That's cheating, isn't it…
Together with the *dotsun!* sound of the thick metal plates falling to the ground, we stepped into the space beyond the stairs.
A wide passageway with red carpeting stretched from our position towards another pair of sturdy-looking doors, in front of which stood one man and a large golem.
The man was wearing thick armor like a soldier, and a helmet with two horns jutting out of its sides. A stout face with beard glared at us from below that helmet.
The golem, with a bronze coloring, was rather large as mentioned; however, its actual body wasn't that big, it was its limbs which were disproportionately thick and long. It gave off a different feeling compared to the other golems I've seen before.
"To have invaded His Majesty the Magicraft King's seat of power, this Eisenburg, you lot sure think rather lightly of your lives. Be thankful for our consideration to at least display your corpses in the castle town's main square!"
This heavy infantry-like man is probably the gatekeeper. As I thought, beyond him would probably be where the Magicraft King of Eisengard waits.
"I'll ask just in case, but could you let us through without raising a fuss?"
"Foolish talk! If you want to pass no matter what, defeat myself first!"
When the man finished shouting, he jumped upwards; following that, the golem behind him suddenly split itself into pieces and flew towards the man before equipping themselves onto him piece by piece. Like a sophisticated piece of armor, the man's arms and legs were enveloped by the golem's enlarges ones. This is…!
Equipment-type golem. I'm pretty sure it's called Panzer or something. It's the golem that the Red Cats members told me about.
The soldier, now equipped with the sturdy-looking golem parts on his body, landed back on the ground with a heavy thud. It sure looks fitting to be called an equipment-type.
Since the head, torso and thigh areas aren't covered by the golem, it can't be called a full-body golem armor; but since those areas already had normal armor covering them, the overall figure is still extremely close to a fully-armored state.
"Here I comeeee!!"
With a pressure several times that of an American football forward, and while sending large tremors through the floor, the soldier who had equipped the equipment-type golem charged at us with a momentum akin to a mad bull.
Yae and Hilda placed their hands on their katana and sword handles respectively.
"[Gate]."
""Eh?""
My voice overlapped with Yae and Hilda's.
The American football mad bull man, who couldn't stop his own charge, ran into the gate of light which appeared between him and us by himself.
"Owaaaa—aa!? F, falling, I'm fallingggaaaaaaa—!?"
The next moment, a faint cry could be heard somewhere outside, followed by the dull sound of something hitting the ground.
"… Where did you connect that gate to-degozaru ka?"
"The hole in the wall which Yae made and we entered from. It's best to not fight against someone troublesome like that, right?"
"We didn't really mind, to be honest…"
Since that equipment-type golem looked pretty tough, he should probably live through that… Probably.
In any case, let's get a move on. If he was actually alive and well, and came back up again, that would be troublesome as well.
We proceeded to open the heavy doors, accompanied by dull sounds of hinges, at the end of the red carpet.
Inside was a wide room, which gave off the feeling of being an audience chamber. No, this most likely was indeed an audience chamber; however, due to the profusion of things like pipes and cogwheels in the room, as well as some blackboard-looking things which had writings on them, it really did not give off the feeling of being a proper audience chamber.
Things like work tools and screws were scattered all over the place, and small cogwheels were rolling around; it doesn't feel like a room the king of a country would greet his guests in at all.
Directly in front of us were several large windows, from which dull-colored clouds and the royal capital of Eisengard could be see. In front of that was a steel throne without decorations.
And on top of that throne sat a single old man. That old man, who was looking this way with a smile, had golem-like mechanical appendages for both of his arms instead of flesh-and-blood ones.
There's probably no mistake. This man in front of us is the Magicraft King of Eisengard, Gibram Zain Eisengard.