Chapter 381: Iron Machine Soldier Neo, and Trash Cleanup.
"Wha, what is that…!?"
"Huge… T, this is the rumored giant soldier the Brunhild sovereign possesses…!"
It's probably their first time seeing a Frame Gear; Ganossa and Prime Minister Schwein, as well as the Western Forest Marquis, the Northern Mountain Marquis and the Horn soldiers present all solidified as they looked up at Yae's Schwertleite.
I guess they were imagining something around the size of the Iron Machine Soldiers they were sold. Well, they were practically isolated from the world, so there would be no way for them to get concrete information from the outside, only rumors. That's the reason why [Kurau] was able to enact this plan in the first place.
If they had known about the [Gordias] incident, no way would they ever consider buying those suspicious Iron Machine Soldiers. While it's possible for them to hear about it from Ferzen, that incident began from the death of their former king, after all… It's not something they can talk about easily.
Yae jumped up to Schwertleite's cockpit hatch agilely using its knees and waist parts as footholds. You could've just lowered the wire used for boarding… Well, it's faster that way for Yae in any case.
Once Yae got into the cockpit and closed the hatch, a low humming was produced as the various crystal parts on the gear started lighting up.
"I'll be following her. Sakura, there probably won't be anymore attacks aiming at this place, but if they do come, meet them with the Rossweisse."
"Got it."
Sakura nodded once. She also has her exclusive frame, the Rossweisse, inside her engagement ring, and there's her song magic too. It should be fine to leave this to her.
Prime Minister Schwein called out to me who had floated upwards due to [Fly].
"Your Majesty the Sovereign…! Please, the capital…!"
"It's alright. I'll chase them out of the capital soon enough. You should focus on rescuing and evacuating the citizens."
I answered to the prime minister before flying sever dozen meters up into the air in an instant.
"Target lock. The Iron Machine Soldiers inside the capital. Activate [Gate]."
"Understood. Activating [Gate]."
The light of [Gate] magic activating shone here and there in the capital. Using the transfer gates that opened on the ground, I displaced all the Iron Machine Soldiers from the capital to an open field some distance away.
"Yae, we're going."
"Okay-degozaru."
Yae's Schwertleite also fell into a transfer gate. After that, I followed to the same location using [Teleport].
It's easier to use [Teleport] for short-distance transfers. When it comes to transferring a large number or forcefully, [Gate] is a better choice, though.
On the plains I moved them to, the Iron Machine Soldiers were surveying their surroundings. We should be able to go wild here.
…Ah. Couldn't I have used Reginleiv to clean them up like this? Nn… Oh well. Yae's raring to go already, and Reginleiv could change the landscape around here too.
I dropped down onto Schwertleite's shoulder and observed the Iron Machine Soldiers in front of us.
They're slightly larger than the old Iron Machine Soldiers. Around 7 meters, I guess? They have sturdy-looking armor too. It's the same with the older version in how its arms are way longer than its legs and it having no head, but it's different in other places. For one, I don't see a cockpit hatch on the back where there used to be one.
They're totally unmanned, huh. No doubt it's the technology from the Soldat golems they got their hands on. They should be moving while receiving orders from a few commander models.
It's just a guess, but they might've transplanted the core—the G-cube—and the processor— the Q-crystal—of the golems directly into the Iron Machine Soldiers.
I thought there should at least be a manned commander unit, but to think they're all unmanned. Like this, without someone to respond to changes in the situation, they should only be able to carry out simple commands.
While we had tried to combine Frame Gear and golem technology and produced the Over Gear as a result, theirs felt like they just went with what they had.
However, there are still some unclear points. How did they manage to recreate the Iron Machine Soldiers, which are rather sophisticated even if they're just Frame Gear knockoffs?
The main developer, Professor Bowman, had already been executed in Roadmare, and all other technical staffs who were related to its production have been apprehended. And I'm sure we had destroyed all the production facilities as well.
Further, I don't think the engineers in the Surface World can utilize golem technology this easily.
Could it be that a few golem engineers had also drifted over together with the man who held the [Storage Card] I found? Nothing of the sort turned up in the agent's memories, though.
If that person was going to deliver the Soldats to some place like I guessed, then it wouldn't be weird for there to be maintenance engineers following along with him.
Well whatever. First is neutralizing these things in front of me. I've still got to deal with that army that's pressing down from the north after this too.
"Try to target only the limbs for a few of them, keep them as intact as you can. The professor and Dr. Elka would probably want a few to dissect later."
"Got it-degozaru."
At the same time as I got off Schwertleite's shoulder, the Iron Machine Soldiers, who had recognized us as enemies, charged in this direction with lances in their hands.
Their movements were coordinated, with five machines forming a V-shaped formation as they charged at us. As expected, they're using technology from the Soldats.
Soldats generally have lower performance than other golems. In exchange, they make up for it in numbers. For that, they need good coordination with each other. Their ability to fight in groups is higher than normal golems. However—
"Kokonoe Shinmei-ryuu Ougi: Hien Reppa."
With the boosters on its feet increasing its speed, Schwertleite clashed head-on with the V- shaped charging formation the Iron Machine Soldiers took.
Together with a huge boom, four of the Iron Machine Soldiers were sent flying.
The Iron Machine Soldier in the lead, on the other hand, was pierced through by Schwertleite's katana and became a skewer. An unmanned model as expected. Long-distance operation… Or not, it's closer to being pre-programmed. I guess the orders would be something along the lines of "Destroy Horn's capital" or "Kill all enemies who fight back"?
The one Yae had pierced through was probably the commander; the other four suddenly lost all forms of cohesion, and started attacking randomly.
They're no longer a threat. One by one, they fell under the blade of Schwertleite.
The other Iron Machine Soldiers formed groups and attacked with group play as well, but every one that came forward was bisected and fell down to the ground as rubble.
"They are a notch above the Iron Machine Soldiers from before. They're pretty sturdy too. The last one had parts falling out just by hitting it once, after all."
I should probably call them Iron Machine Soldier Neo or something. Well, they're still far below a Frame Gear, though.
A few more minutes later, all the Iron Machine Soldiers were cut down, and their remains laid all around the field we're on. All of them were unmanned, in the end. I can see a G-cube inside one of them from a crack in the chest armor. Now I've gotten solid confirmation that golem technology was used on these things.
I've also confirmed something similar to ether liquid from the wreckages. It's a cloudy brown- colored liquid, and I can feel only a very small amount of magic power from it. If ether liquid is carbonated water, this would be the same carbonated water, shaken up so much that almost no gas is inside. With it being so degraded, I can't even call it a copy of the original anymore. In a sense, I guess you can call it something original?
It's probably used to channel the magic signals from the G-cube to the rest of the body, but this is far too incomplete a work.
The thing they're trying to do is similar to the professor's approach, though.
While storing the wreckages into [Storage], I opened up a map of the capital, and started searching.
"What are you looking for-degozaru ka?"
Yae, who had returned Schwertleite to her ring, stood behind me and looked at the map.
"Since these Iron Machine Soldiers are using golem technology, they must have a master who is somewhere nearby. Judging by the number of Iron Machine Soldiers, around six to seven people… If they're members of [Kurau]… There."
Given the fact that they would have to give orders remotely to the commander units, they shouldn't have protective talismans on themselves… Well, I was right. They're all holding onto those masks of theirs like it's a treasure. It's funny how that's the thing that brought disaster to themselves in the end.
Seems like they're riding a carriage or something similar; they headed out of the capital's north gate, and are running away as fast as they could. Like I'll let you do that.
"Let's go, Yae."
"Acknowledged."
Holding Yae's hand, we used [Teleport] to move to the fields north of the capital instantly.
***
(Note: change in perspective.)
The covered wagon sped under the morning sun, away from the capital as fast as it can.
Everyone inside the carriage was confounded by how the plans they worked on had collapsed one after the other.
They were supposed to take a few months to carefully guide Horn Kingdom into civil war, but were forced into directly mounting an attack on the capital, and on top of that, their trump card, the Iron Machine Soldiers, had all disappeared.
Everything began going out of order the moment their hated enemy, the Brunhild sovereign arrived in Horn Kingdom.
"Didn't I say it!? To kill that sovereign no matter what before we begin moving into Horn!"
"Don't say the impossible! Just how many assassins do you think we've sent to that country!? Not a single one of them returned, you know!"
Contact with the assassins would all disappear before they even reached the sovereign. The rumors that a hidden guard unit exists in Brunhild had already spread within [Kurau] so much that they believed it's true.
There's a group within the Brunhild Knight Order that consists of "shinobis" from Eashen.
Brunhild is the enemy that they would never allow to live, and yet at the same time, it's an existence they mustn't oppose.
Normally, they should've taken over Horn without letting the other side notice, and move the people of Yulong into the land to form the foundation for a new Heavenly Empire. Yulong's people are large in numbers. As long as they move to that piece of land, everything afterwards would come naturally.
However, Yulong had obtained "golems".
It had appeared in front of [Kurau] suddenly, as if it had come to guide Yulong.
They had even felt that, with this power, one day they wouldn't need to fear Brunhild anymore as well. Now that they thought about it, they might've been led around by those bunch formerly from [Gordian].
They were fixated on making the Iron Machine Soldiers stronger than the giant soldiers possessed by Brunhild. That had been the wrong thing to do. Our objective had been to make Horn into the new Heavenly Empire. Defeating Brunhild's giant soldiers is not important to that end.
"I knew we shouldn't have used those Iron Machine Soldiers…! That had been the thing that called that demonic sovereign here!"
"There's no point talking about something that had already been done! Right now, we must return to the main unit as soon as…"
"Nu!?"
A single girl stood in the middle of the road in front of the approaching wagon.
Seeing the girl, instead of stopping the wagon, the driver brandished his whip and increased the speed.
He remembers the appearance of that girl. A swordswoman from the east, and a relative of their hated enemy. No need to hesitate, kill her right here. His brethren would surely say that if they were in his place.
The four horses raised shrill neighs as they charged at the black-haired girl.
The next instant, the figure of the girl disappeared, and everything besides the horses spun into the air.
***
After Yae jumped into the air and cut the harness connecting the horses to the wagon, they ran down the street with great momentum. The horses have no sin, after all.
On the other hand, for the wagon that lost its pulling force, I drove a bullet from Brunhild into its front wheel.
The wagon, which lost one of its front wheels like that, pitched and rolled forward before slamming itself into the street surface. I've already confirmed the fact that everyone inside was someone from [Kurau] who held a mask each.
From the wagon, which had collapsed sideways, black-clothed men wearing Chinese opera-esq masks came out.
"Did you think you can actually escape?"
"The Brunhild sovereign…!"
One of the men who came out threw something that looked like the kunai used by Tsubaki-san towards me. That's a dart, isn't it?
"[Shield]."
Blocked by the invisible shield, the arrowhead-shaped metal piece fell to the ground. That thing apparently came with poison as well; how prepared.
"Shyyaaaaaa! You shall know the wrath of Yulong—!"
"How many times have I said to stop hating me for that? Are you guys idiots? Oh, right, you are, sorry about that."
There's no doubt in my mind that these guys have some sort of filter installed on their ears that block out anything they don't want to hear.
They only take in twisted truths to their liking, and spread baseless rumors around them to justify their standpoints. Getting rid of everything undesirable; they call it patriotism, but it's just a show of their arrogance.
I fired a paralysis bullet into the men who jumped at me, sealing their movements.
During that time, with each flash of Yae's katana, the men who were hit by the back of her blade fell to the ground unconscious.
I took the masks off the fallen ones and burned them with magic. It'll be trouble for me if they pulled off more of that suicide bombing stunt. They'll properly receive judgment back in Horn.
"Just like how you guys will never forgive me, I'm sure Horn Kingdom will never forgive you guys as well. This foolish plan of yours will be spread around and bring shame on all of Yulong. You guys will probably be abandoned by your fellow countrymen as well."
"Gu…"
I gripped the man's head and, using [Hypnosis] + [Recall], extracted the needed memories. There's no way I'd want to see his private memories.
...Tch. So there was a factory under the direct supervision of the Golden Order's leader, Galzeld, left. Galzeld was summarily executed in Ferzen after having his mind broken with that box from hell, after all… It was an oversight. Also…
"How is it-de gozatta?"
"Un. There really was a golem engineer who drifted over from the Reverse World. He's been put to work forcefully with a Collar of Subordination."
I talked to Yae about the memory fragments I took. It's probably that engineer who combined golem and Iron Machine Soldier together to create a new piece of technology. He's probably a skilled one.
Even though he cannot understand the common language here, he was able to establish conversations with others, albeit rough.
"A drifter-degozaru ka… If he didn't land in Yulong, he would've been put under protection by now…"
Sandora would've been bad as well, now that I think about it. It's become quite the lawless area these days too.
Well, that place still has a lot of the liberated slaves, so there isn't much of people oppressing others going on there, apparently.
I've asked the leaders of the other countries to shelter the drifters if they find any. Since
they're not like the Phrase, which releases a special resonance sound when they appear in the world, it's basically impossible to shelter them as soon as they appear, which is a point of frustration.
If the two worlds merge together, such things will stop happening; however, is that a good thing, or bad…
We tied up the ringleaders of the attack on the capital, and returned to the inner courtyard of the royal palace using [Gate].
"Ohh! Your Majesty the Sovereign! These guys are…!"
"Yes. They're the group who tried to sink the capital into a sea of flames. They're also part of [Kurau]."
Prime Minister Schwein, who rushed here after seeing us arrive, glared at the men rolling around on the floor with fire in his eyes.
The Horn soldiers on standby behind him also showed expressions of rage.
"Bring them to the dungeons! Station some users of healing magic next to them; don't let them kill themselves before they're sent to the gallows!"
The Horn soldiers took away the ones who are paralyzed and unable to move and the others who have been knocked unconscious by Yae.
Now, all that's left is the army that's said to be assembling in the north of Horn.
Can they really move that quickly when they don't have smartphones like we do?
No, if the technologies of the Reverse World have been leaked to them, then it wouldn't be strange for them to have a communication device or two. Nia and the others in [Red Cats] also had those. Well, I'll know if I search.
"Search. In the north of Horn, around the border with Yulong, Iron Machine Soldiers… Ah, also search for wood golems."
"Searching… Search finished. Displaying."
Red pins fall down on the map one after another. So they've begun moving.
Still, it's hard to tell things apart when everything's red.
"Change the color of the pins for wood golems to yellow."
"Understood. Changing display."
…Didn't change much. The screen's just turned into a mix of red and yellow instead. My eyes feel weird.
"How many are there in total?"
"3021 Iron Machine Soldiers, 3122 wood golems, for a total of 6143."
Around the predicted number, huh. Although, almost no [Kurau] members are actually among them.
"This time, I go?"
Sakura asked me while looking at the map. In the past, she had almost died at the hands of assassins from [Kurau] once. That was the trigger for my meeting with her; it seems that she has already gotten over it as well.
Well, the Sakura of now would win easily against those assassins even if they attack her all at once, after all.
Still, as expected it's impossible for Sakura's Rossweisse to deal with 6000, right? If you add in Yae's Schwertleite, each of them still has to deal with 3000; add in my Reginleiv and it's 2000 per person. While we can probably beat them with enough time…
Can't help it. Guess I'll call the guys from the knight order. Since the location is at Yulong, we won't need permission to sortie anyway.
Oh, that reminds me.
I took out my smartphone and made a call. Will she pick up? It's early in the morning. If I'm lucky, she should still be awake after burning the midnight oil.
"Yes… Hewwo…"
"Professor? Are you awake?"
"I'm awake… I finally finished it, so I was just about to sleep…"
"So you finished it? Sorry. Can it be used in actual combat immediately?"
"Nn? Use that? Well, I did prepare it to be used at any time, but what's this about?"
The professor, probably having finally snapped out of her sleepiness, asked back. I explained the situation over on my side concisely.
"Hoho. It's turned into quite the interesting affair over there, hasn't it. True, they would make great opponents for the test run. There's no need to hold back since they're unmanned, too. Got it. Black and red, I'll make 'both' ready to be used. You go ahead and contact the drivers."
Ah, right. There's that.
Those two both seem like they'd be bad-tempered in the morning… In the worst case, they might not even pick up the call.
Can't be helped. I shall rely on the reliable person this time. They're all in the same inn, anyway.
I opened the contact list and called that person from my smartphone.
"Ah, hello, Est-san? Sorry to bother you this early in the morning; I have something I want to ask you to do… Yes, well…"
I'm sure she can wake both of them up just fine. She is the vice chief of a group of chivalrous thieves, after all.
Now then, I should go get the knight order group who's probably doing their morning practice.
I feel kinda bad to ask them to do trash cleaning this early in the morning, though. Should I give them some bonus this month?