"...Then you're the witch-king?"
"Correct! That humanoid Gollem over there was a mere doll I used for the
sake of appearances. Ten years ago I had my brain transferred to the
Hecatoncheir, and fled the shackles of humanity!"
I was equally appalled and amazed by what I was hearing. The brain within
Hecatoncheir's forehead jostled and shuddered as it spoke through the
machine.
He'd basically done something similar to Doctor Babylon, but instead of
transferring his mind into a humanoid homunculus, he'd transferred himself
into the mother of all legacy Gollems.
Still, given that he needed like fifty or more artificial brains to control it, it was
clear that Doctor Babylon had him beat in terms of efficiency... Then again, this
was a much larger body.
"Khakaka... Incredible, isn't it? Such a feat like this is impossible to
comprehend, isn't it?"
"Eh... Kinda? Not really."
"Whuh?"
I was pretty surprised by the general appearance of the whole thing, the idea
of his brain just being visible like that was hella gross, but... The tech itself
wasn't too shocking. I was pretty familiar with cyborgs in fiction, and all that.
Though, having one right in front of me was pretty unsettling.
"I mean... it's cool? I guess? But it's kind of whatever." I loaded an
[Explosion]-infused bullet into Brunhild, pointed it his way, and pulled the
trigger without a moment's notice.
A massive detonation went off against Hecatoncheir's forehead, but after the
smoke cleared it was pretty apparent that my shot hadn't actually inflicted any
damage.
"Bah."
"Khaahahaha! You fool! You cannot damage the mighty Hecatoncheir! Its
armor is designed to nullify any and all magic!"
I narrowed my eyes and looked closely, noticing that several runic patterns
were engraved all over Hecatoncheir's surface. It seemed like it had the very
principles of anti-magic armor carved into its very being.
Given that it was supposed to be deployed in an all-out Gollem world war,
that function was likely to defend against Gollem skills. I was kind of getting
pissed off at the old guy, since he was so proudly talking about achievements
that weren't actually his.
"Reload."
I shifted the bullets to regular ones and pulled the trigger again. But alas, a
pinging sound resounded as the bullets hit an invisible barrier before making
contact with the surface.
Just as I'd expected... It was enchanted with something similar to my [Shield]
spell. I couldn't even penetrate it with Brunhild, and I imagined that even Yae
and Hilde would have a hard time getting through. Even if they did, their
momentum would be stopped enough for it to barely do a scrape. It'd be like
taking a shaving razor to a tuna. Not exactly the most efficient method.
The loud rumbling began again, prompting me to look up at the ceiling. Stuff
was falling down from above here and there. I didn't really want to deal with
any more surprises, since it was hard to figure out how to respond.
Even though I was becoming a god, it wasn't like my ability to process
information had increased. If I'd kept [Accel] active on me at all times, I
probably would've been able to respond before getting my magic sucked out...
but there was no point thinking about it.
Plus, it wasn't like I wanted to live life in a constant state of acceleration.
I heard something break and then heard various shattering and snapping
sounds ring out from all over the underground facility.
It became pretty clear that Hecatoncheir was moving around beneath the
ground. It was attempting to break out from the underground and rise up.
"Khakhaha! Time to free myself from this dull prison!"
"H-Hey! We're directly below your castle, aren't we?! What about the people
above?!"
"Does a man take care not to step upon ants underfoot?! Why should I care
for their puny lives?!"
This old bastard... He really isn't human anymore, is he? The large eye in the
middle of Hecatoncheir's forehead, along with the other eyes, all closed all of a
sudden. Once they re-opened, the brain and Q-Crystals were no longer there.
He'd clearly moved them to another area within the Gollem. That made sense,
given he wouldn't want his weak spots out on display.
Hecatoncheir began to shift and move, and the underground workshop was
becoming more of a wreck by the second. If we stayed any longer, we'd be in
serious danger... The ceiling itself was about to cave in.
"[Teleport]!"
I grabbed the girls and warped to a rooftop in Isengard's capital city. We were
on the roof of the tallest building, a tower to the south of the castle. It gave us a
good view of the area.
The building that looked like a battleship's command tower had smoke
billowing out of it, and looked like it was set to collapse. I looked more closely
and saw people fleeing the area en masse.
"Set Targets! All people within Isengard Castle and the surrounding area!"
"Acquiring Targe—"
My smartphone's audio was drowned out by a series of massive explosions
that came up from within the castle. Amidst the sea of flame and smoke, I saw
two massive wings emerge from underground.
The witch-king, in his Hecatoncheir body, was attempting to crawl out of a pit.
He didn't care at all about the deaths he could be causing.
"—rgets Acquired."
"Use [Teleport] to displace all targets to the plains three kilometers away!
Apply [Mega Heal] to everyone immediately after transfer!"
"Order Acknowledged."
The moment my smartphone told me it had picked up on everyone, I issued
further commands. But I was too late to save everyone. There was nothing I
could do for those who were already dead or those who might've been wearing
talismans to protect themselves from magic.
As if to mock my failure, the gigantic command tower finally collapsed into
the flames. Those gigantic wings I'd seen before re-appeared, fanning the
smoke and rising upward out of the ground. The earth itself began to split
open... extending beyond the castle grounds and even out toward the town. I
had misjudged its size... It wasn't just buried under the castle. It was buried
beneath the castle town as well. A massive, twisted metal tail emerged from
the splintering earth. There wasn't just one... A second and third appeared. And
then, even more. I couldn't even make out the former castle grounds due to the
sheer amount of smoke billowing out from beneath the soil.
"Khakhakhaaaah! This is incredible... I can't be stopped now! I've gone far
beyond the limits of ancient technology! By my own handiwork, the
Hecatoncheir walks the earth! Khakhaah!"
Smoke continued to plume upward as the witch-king's insane ravings rang out
across the land. The man had completely lost his mind.
From beneath the castle, it finally made its physical debut. Its body was
entirely black, save for the brass lines that ran across it. Atop its head were two
monstrous horns. The eyes lining the sides of its face were open, and its mouth
was twisted into a triumphant grin. Four massive, thick arms sprouted from its
torso, and various other small arms jutted from its body in other areas. Two
ferocious wings were sticking out of its back.
It was hard to describe, but it basically resembled what I'd imagine a massive,
multi-armed demon to look like. It also had various tails splitting off from its
rear end, each tipped with a snake-like head. The tails flicked around like whips
and annihilated the castle walls as if they were nothing. It was clearly packing
monstrous levels of strength.
It was enormous... About the size of an Upper Construct Phrase. I was
surprised that something so large was slumbering beneath the castle town.
Hecatoncheir's tails continued to lash out, reducing the castle to rubble. It
was like something out of a giant monster movie. The magitech fortress,
Isenberg, was slowly devoured by debris and fire. I could hear the townspeople
screaming as they watched the situation unfold.
"T-Touya-dono... We must stop this, we must! Bring out our Frame Gears!"
"Ah... Whoops. My Reginleif is in my [Storage], but yours are in the hangar
right now..."
"Oh?!"
All the Valkyrie Gears were currently in the hangar getting a tune-up. I'd need
to travel back to the regular world and pick them up... But that'd leave the
people of Isengard like sitting ducks. ... Guess there's really nothing else for it,
I'm gonna have to...
"Oopsie-doopsie! Guess you made a little mistakey-wakey! But I'm here now,
you know?! Touya's reliable sister, taking center stage, you know? It's me, Big
Sis Karen!"
"Augh!"
I almost fell off the roof due to the sudden, surprising voice. I turned around
and saw Karen, my sister, puffing out her cheeks and chest with pride. I had
absolutely no idea how long she'd been here for. Everyone else was staring at
her with wide, shocked eyes. Clearly, they weren't used to her stupid-ass
behavior either.
"Karen, what the hell are you doing here?!"
"My big-sis senses were tingling! I sensed that poor little Touya was about to
cry, you know? So I knew I had to come and save you!"
...I don't remember crying. Your senses are totally off... I bet you just realized
something interesting was going down and decided to butt in!
"Anyway, I decided to bring Babylon over here, you know? Look over there!"
"You what?!"
Karen pointed up into the air, but I certainly couldn't see anything.
"...There's nothing there."
"Try looking with your divinity, you know?"
"Oh, right."
I'd forgotten that Babylon had a stealth field around it. I triggered my divinity
and saw the whole fortress floating up there. I was a little shocked and
mortified that Karen had brought the whole damn thing over, though... That
was definitely beyond my capabilities.
I wasn't even sure if she was allowed to do that. As far as I understood it,
using divinity was forbidden if you used it to interfere in mortal affairs. I was
just an exception to that rule due to my trainee status.
"This is fine, you know? It belongs to you, so... It doesn't belong to the mortal
realm, you know?! I can move it around, so it's all good!"
I don't think that argument holds up at all, Karen! You just made that up on
the spot! Well, whatever. What's done is done. If I spend any more time arguing
it'll just be a waste. I sent the girls up to Babylon with [Gate] and turned to look
at Hecatoncheir. It stretched out its wings and took to the skies. It didn't do any
physical movements like flapping, so it was probably just using anti-gravity tech
to make itself airborne.
Unfortunately [Slip] wouldn't work on enemies in the sky, and [Prison]
definitely wouldn't hold something so big. I wouldn't be able to drop it
anywhere with [Gate], either.
"...Fine, if you wanna play it this way..." I moved toward an unpopulated area
within the capital and called down Reginleif, my Frame Gear. I hopped up into
the cockpit, set my smartphone down on the console, and fired that bad boy
up.
Various monitors popped up around me, giving me a clear view of my
surroundings. I locked on to Hecatoncheir and channeled my magic through the
controls, taking off and flying toward the rampaging Gollem.
"Fragarach... Activate!"
"Initializing Fragarach System."
The wing-like structures on Reginleif's back unfolded themselves and broke
off until there were a total of twelve crystal slabs surrounding my machine.
"Switch to Sphere Mode."
The crystal slabs reformed themselves into orbs. All twelve of them
surrounded my mech in a circular formation, like numbers on a clock.
"Launch."
The twelve crystal spheres flew toward Hecatoncheir like several speeding
bullets, but they were blocked by the invisible barrier before they could do any
real damage.
"Hm?"
The witch-king, who was effectively the same thing as Hecatoncheir at this
point, finally noticed me. I flew Reginleif to an area above his head.
Looking at it from above gave me a real appreciation for its size.
"Khakaka... What a peculiar Gollem you have... I wonder where you dug it
up... It's certainly rare, I've never seen anything of its kind before! But there's
no way something so puny can match up to my Hecatoncheir!"
"It's not about size, old man! It's about how you use it!"
"Silence!"
Hecatoncheir's wings shuddered as it started flying upward toward Reginleif. I
dodged its swipes and flew out toward an empty field a bit away from the
capital. I'd deliberately traveled in the opposite direction from the plains I'd
transferred the people to earlier.
I reasoned that so long as I was out of the way of anyone innocent, I'd be able
to go all-out.
"Switch to Dagger Mode."
The twelve crystal spheres around me quartered themselves, then each piece
transformed into a small blade. Forty-eight crystal daggers now swirled around
Reginleif.
"Now lemme just infuse a little divinity, and... Gladius!"
The forty-eight divinity-laden daggers launched toward Hecatoncheir in
unison, assaulting the many-armed demon over and over again.
"Khakhaah! You idiot, that's useless! Hecatoncheir's protective barrier is...
Whaaat?!"
The crystal daggers punctured the barrier like it was tissue paper, moving to
shred the metal monster's body apart.
I definitely would've been able to penetrate it without divinity if I'd tried hard
enough, but I wanted to cut out the middle-man.
"H-How can you be doing this?! My barrier is absolute! Explain yourself at
once!"
"I don't owe you a goddamn thing!"
The crystal daggers targeted the shield generators on the massive Gollem's
shoulders, destroying them. That was the barrier taken care of. They then
continued to rip into Hecatoncheir, punching hole after hole into the massive
thing. Unfortunately, they were too small to cause critical damage, and it
seemed like the Gollem had another trick up its sleeve.
"Repair nodes!"
A lot of legacy Gollems had the ability to repair themselves, so it wasn't
exactly an unusual skill or anything... However, the amount healed wasn't
supposed to be more than surface-level scrapes. Unfortunately, Hecatoncheir
seemed to be regenerating much more efficiently than I'd expected. The
amount of regeneration it was performing was easily on par with Luna Trieste
and her purple crown, Fanatic Viola.
"Is it regenerating so well because of its size?"
My Gladius attack was basically doing nothing at this point, all of the holes
opened up on its outer layer were closing in a matter of seconds, though I
couldn't be sure how well it was repairing itself on the inside. Since it had a
defensive barrier up, I had an inkling that it couldn't regenerate so well
internally.
"Don't think so lightly of me, boy!"
Hecatoncheir raised its arms and released beams of light from its palms. Over
a hundred beams shot out, headed toward Reginleif from myriad angles.
"Switch to Reflector Mode!"
All forty-eight daggers suddenly combined into six massive crystal barriers,
deflecting each and every beam that came toward me. The beams kept coming,
one after the other, but not a single one landed a hit on me.
As the beam assault continued, one of the smaller arms firing the beams was
cut off below the elbow.
"What the?!"
The one to cut it down was a purple samurai mech. It was Yae in her
Schwertleite. Another Frame Gear followed up the attack, slicing yet more arms
off. It was Hilde in her orange Siegrune.
The two of them were equipped with Vernier thrusters about their waists.
The added gear allowed them to fly in the air.
"Oh, they finished developing those?"
During our battles against the Phrase, and later the mutants, only Linze and I
were able to take to the skies. That meant that only we could handle the
airborne enemies. Well, Yumina, Leen, and Lu could use their long-range attacks
as well.
That was why Rosetta from the workshop came up with the Vernier thrusters.
They could only be used by the Valkyrie Gears and had a limited amount of
operational time before they ran out, but they were definitely helpful.
Siegrune and Schwertleite danced past the beams of light, cutting down arm
after arm with each forward motion. The two of them were doing considerable
damage now that I'd brought the barrier down. It seemed like the Gollem
wasn't able to regenerate its lost limbs, either.
Suddenly, a barrage of bullets was pelted at Hecatoncheir. The source was
Leen's Grimgerde. The endless rain of bullets started to riddle a steady stream
of holes into the great Gollem's armor.
One of its thinner arms was suddenly blasted away at the base by a powerful
sniper shot. Yumina in her Brunnhilde must've been the cause. She'd triggered
her stealth mode, so I had no idea where she was firing from.
"This can't be! Hecatoncheir is the apex of Gollem technology! This is the
culmination of the ancient world's magitech, and my witchcraft! I am the witchking! None can surpass my skill!"
"All you did was tweak something that was already built, you old fart! Why're
you talking so proud, huh?! If you wanna talk so arrogantly, then you should've
invented something like this on your own!"
Elluka was trying to surpass the ancient civilizations too, but she wasn't
relying on their pre-fabricated stuff like this old idiot was.
"Hell, I bet this thing's worse than it was originally designed to be because
you got your grubby mitts on it and modified it poorly!"
"Y-You filthy little barbarian! How dare you talk down to me! I'll never forgive
you for your insubordination!!"
The massive Gollem roared out in anger, I could feel the air vibrating as it
yelled out.
"Let me give you a taste of hell, you urchin! No matter how many Gollems you
send at me, I cannot be defeated! Hecatoncheir is a weapon of mass
destruction, and its unique skill is going to show you exactly what that means!"
Hecatoncheir began emitting a cloud of strange green smoke. It began to drift
around the surrounding area before settling in the air.
What the... Poison?! While regular Frame Gears weren't airtight, the Valkyrie
Gears were fitted with special air filtration units. There'd be no way for poison
to reach the insides of the cockpits. But I still wanted to be safe instead of sorry,
so I called Yae and the others back.
"Are you all okay?"
"I'm fine, yes. No problems I can see..."
"All fine here."
"I am fine, I am."
"No issues here!"
Everyone was okay, which made me wonder just what that smoke was
supposed to be. It was still hanging in the air, swirling around like a thick mist.
"Khakhaaah! How do you like that, hm?! Aren't you going to attack? A little
difficult when your Gollems no longer respond to your commands, isn't it?!
Khakhaahaaa!"
Huh? What's he talking about? Wait... did he see us retreat and completely
misread the situation?
"Khuhuhu... That's right! My smoke can paralyze a Gollem's Q-Crystal! It
inhibits the very brain of your Gollem! No matter the opening, it'll pass through
without a hitch! It'll crawl up the nerve lines of your Gollem and rot the QCrystal from the inside out! Your Gollems are naught but scrap m—"
"Switch to Lance Mode."
I suddenly had the reflector boards orbiting Reginleif converge upon the
Frame Gear's right arm. They then merged together and formed a mighty lance
around the limb.
"Wh-What?! That's impossible! No matter how well-made your Q-Crystal is,
this weapon was specifically designed to disable it! How can your Gollem be
moving?! That isn't possible!"
"I never once said that this thing was a Gollem, old man. That was your
mistake."
"What...?!"
His fatal mistake was assuming that we were operating Gollems. Frame Gears
didn't have anything remotely close to Q-Crystals.
The Frame Gears didn't seem to be affected by the smoke at all, but I decided
to nip this in the bud just in case there were any other adverse effects.
"This doesn't make any sense! How can they be something other than
Gollems?! If not that, then what are those things?!"
"I don't owe you an explanation, old man!"
The girls behind me grabbed onto Reginleif, pushing their Vernier thrusters to
maximum output. In the same instant, I triggered [Accel]. Reginleif became like
a gigantic lance itself, thrusting itself forward and penetrating the massive
Gollem's torso.
Reginleif tore through the Gollem's interior, and I transformed the lance,
unfolding it like an umbrella as we ripped through. After a short while, we burst
out of Hecatoncheir's back, leaving untold destruction inside the Gollem behind
me.
"I-Impossible...!"
After Reginleif tore its path, the massive Gollem began swaying unsteadily. I'd
apparently destroyed the gravity-manipulation unit inside it.
And, just like that, Hecatoncheir fell to the ground. The multi-armed demon
was brought back to earth, flailing as it kicked up debris.
◇ ◇ ◇
The many-armed demon had fallen, but it was desperate to get back up. Its
body writhed and strained as it attempted to right itself, but that only caused
the cracks running along its armor to spread and widen. It brought itself back up
to its feet, and then immediately fell down again.
Eventually, it stopped moving, and we simply stared at it.
"...Honestly, this thing's pretty terrifying. If we were using Gollems, we'd have
been completely screwed."
Using gas to indiscriminately corrode Q-Crystals was a seriously horrifying
power... The gas probably wasn't composed of anything inherently scientific, it
was probably just the unique makeup of the Gollem's skill. I doubted we'd be
able to replicate it, and I didn't think it'd affect Hecatoncheir itself, either.
Frankly, it was way too overpowered in a world so reliant on Gollems. If we
didn't have our Frame Gears, it was highly likely that nobody would have been
able to stop the rampage.
Suddenly, a hissing sound emanated from Hecatoncheir, and its head
detached from its body. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at. Six leg-like
structures jutted out from the head, and it began scuttling away.
Something resembling a spinal cord slipped out of the body as the head
detached, forming a kind of tail. The six-legged head began scuttling at a high
speed and, once it found a soft patch of earth, started attempting to drill
underground.
"[Slip]."
"Gweh?!"
The head fell on its side and started spinning around in a circle. It was kind of
hilarious.
I piloted Reginleif and had it pick up the Gollem head by the dangly spine-tail.
"R-Release me! The very heavens will refuse to forgive you if you kill a genius
like me here!"
"...Dude, you're so delusional you've gotta have some kind of sickness."
I'd had quite enough of this geriatric lunatic.
"Your body's basically gone, old man. How about you repent? You're basically
on your way out."
"Silence, cretin! You really think I can die here?! I'll simply take over another
body! A better body, and come back stronger than ever before!"
"Quit your yapping. [Analyze]."
I activated a spell and scanned Hecatoncheir's head.
"There it is."
I maneuvered Reginleif's hand into the back of Hecatoncheir's head and
plucked something out from within. It was a human brain floating in a clear
cylinder.
"This can't be! Hecatoncheir is the apex of Gollem technology! This is the
culmination of the ancient world's magitech, and my witchcraft! I am the witchking, none can surpass my skill! E-Enough! Put me down! D-Do you understand
that losing my genius would be a detriment to our entire planet?!"
"Are you sure about that...?"
I was surprised that the brain capsule had a voice speaker on it, too. I set it
down on the ground and then hopped out of Reginleif's cockpit.
The cylinder was around two meters tall and had a diameter of about 60
centimeters. It was filled with that emerald-green fluid I'd seen earlier. There
was a weird device on top of it that ran several tubes inside. The tubes then
hooked themselves up into the witch-king's brain. Presumably, that was what
kept him alive.
Honestly, the brain seemed a little larger than a human's... I wondered if he'd
always been so big-brained or if it had become engorged after the transfer.
"Y-You're going to destroy my pod?! Reconsider!"
"Actually, I'm not. I'm going to make it unbreakable."
With that, I enchanted the entire thing with [Shield] to prevent physical
damage, and [Protection] to prevent it from ever degrading over time. I also
filled up the magic-powered life support to maximum capacity.
"Wh-What are you playing at?!"
"You mentioned it earlier, didn't you? How I cursed that one guy? Funny thing
about curses is they're varied... For example, you can create curses that trigger
pain..."
"N-No... Please..."
"Brand, O Dark. Sinful Brand: [Guilty Curse]!"
When you really got down to it, the sensation known as pain was simply a
series of electrical signals transmitted to the brain. All I needed to do was use
magic to make it so anything done to the capsule would then be transmitted to
the brain within as pain-based information.
To demonstrate my point, I gave a swift kick to the object in front of me.
"Gyaaaugh!"
"Looks like it works. Neat."
"Th-This can't be...! I shouldn't be able to feel pain... How?!"
I scraped the gunblade tip of Brunhild against the capsule's glass. Thanks to
the strengthening I'd given it, the pod itself remained unscathed.
"Argh!"
If I had to guess, the witch-king was likely feeling pain equivalent to having
one's flesh punctured with a needle.
"Wh-What are you going to do with me?!"
"Heh... That's not actually my decision, old man. You have a lot to answer for,
after all."
I felt like the Gardio emperor and Colonel's men would have questions for
him. Now that I'd granted him the ability to feel pain, we'd be able to grill him
for information.
I couldn't guarantee that they'd let him off with a simple bit of torture,
though...
◇ ◇ ◇
After being interrogated for a while by the Gardio Empire, the witch-king's
pod was passed over to Colonel and his group. He hadn't just destroyed one
nation in his mad quest for Hecatoncheir's revival, he'd also committed several
atrocities along the way.
The worst of it was the fact that he'd done a massive amount of human
experimentation while he was refining the brain transfer process. He'd scooped
out the brains of men, women, and even children... The number of victims
ended up being in the hundreds. I was sickened just hearing about it.
After the witch-king was removed from Isengard, the resulting power vacuum
meant that any and all efforts to invade Gardio had been called off.
The witch-king didn't have any children, or direct students, so there was a
succession crisis going on. Everyone was desperate to be the new leader.
The whole thing reminded me of what happened during the dissolution of
Yulong. I made a mental note about the importance of clear succession rules.
After they were done interrogating, the Gardio Empire did offer the witchking's pod back to the government of Isengard. They said they didn't know what
Gardio was talking about, and refused to accept him.
In the end, they all seemed to agree that the witch-king failed to activate
some kind of ancient weapon, which resulted in his death and the destruction
of their castle. They also reached out to Gardio and said that the invasion was
squarely the old man's decision, and they didn't support it. I didn't really think
they were lying there, either.
Personally, I didn't know how much the central government of Isengard knew
about the old man or his misdeeds, but I had a feeling they were happy to be rid
of him.
Regardless, it seemed like the reforming government of Isengard was willing
to pay reparations to Gardio for all that had happened.
After the pod was passed on to Colonel and the others, I didn't care enough
to ask what would happen next. It'd take about a year for the life support
system to run out of energy, and I didn't think anyone would be strong enough
to break it before then.
In a best-case scenario, he'd live out the last year of his life repenting for the
horrors he'd inflicted upon so many.
In Gardio-related news, Prince Lucrecion renounced his claim to the throne,
and the emperor retired on the same day. A new leader had already been
chosen.
The new emperor was a man named Lancelet Rig Gardio. Before his
ascension, his name was Lancelet Olcott.
He was the son of the prime minister, Lancelo Olcott, who happened to be
married to the former emperor's younger sister.
The new emperor was basically Lucrecion's cousin, even if not connected by
blood.
The first thing the new emperor did was relinquish the former Lowe
territories, and grant direct authority over them to Lucrecion.
Lucrecion Rig Gardio then changed his name to Lucrecion Gran Lowe.
There'd be a stand-in ruler administrating the area until he was an adult, but I
had no doubt he'd be a great leader eventually. He also had his parents by his
side.
Colonel and his people were also dedicated to reviving Lowe properly under
Gardio's protection.
And that was basically everything.
"And that's what happened!"
"Hmm... I didn't know the old man had gone that far, even if I knew he was a
creep."
"Agreed."
I was in Brunhild, recounting my story. Specifically, I was in the Silver Moon,
talking to Elluka's sister Norn, and Chronos Noir.
"You knew him?"
"Mmm... Sorta. We met in the past when I was looking for my sis. He kept
probing about Noir and then demanded I hand him over, so I picked a fight with
him and then left."
The girl blabbered about something intense pretty casually, as per usual. I
wondered if she realized that picking a fight with a head of state was generally a
bad idea... Not that I had much room to talk. I looked over at Noir, who seemed
just as startled as I was that she'd speak of something that serious so regularly.
Crowns were definitely more emotive than regular Gollems.
"Still... it's interesting that he was a humanoid Gollem. I'm surprised I didn't
notice when I met him."
"Well, he basically looked completely human. Except for his arms, I guess...
But otherwise, it was virtually impossible to tell the difference. I didn't know
they made them that well."
The only other humanoid Gollems I'd been acquainted with were Ruby, Saph,
and Emerl back on Drakliff Island. They were certainly human-like in shape, but
still resembled dolls. They gave off a heavy 'android' kind of vibe.
According to Elluka, humanoid Gollems were mostly used for nursing care,
child-minding, or mental health work. So, in theory, it wouldn't be too unusual
to have a Gollem that was almost identical to a regular human, but it was
surprising.
I looked over at Noir again, and let out a soft shrug. He certainly wasn't
human-like other than his emotive capabilities. I glanced over at the maid, Frau,
and noticed she was making a strange expression.
"Something wrong?"
"Not exactly, but... I think it's funny that barely anyone noticed about me.
Doctor Babylon did, and your sisters did as well... There was also that fiancee of
yours with the mismatched eyes, but the others didn't seem to notice at all."
"Huh? Notice what?"
I don't get it. What does she mean? Wait... Wait, hold on...
"Oh, Frau here's a humanoid Gollem."
"...Hold up. You're joking, right? There's no way."
"Show him, Frau."
"Very well." At Norn's command, Frau brought her hands below her chin and
pushed up. Then, with a small hissing sound, her head popped right off her
body.
"Auuugh!"
Everyone stared at me because Frau had reattached her head before anyone
else noticed. From their perspective, I just started randomly screaming in the
corner of the room.
Some of the patrons stared at me in confusion for a while, but most of the
regulars just shrugged and went back to their food. Even Micah peeked her
head out from the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about, before realizing it
was just me and going back to work.
"I am a humanoid Gollem. Designation GM-172. But my name is just Elfrau,
and my contractor is Lady Norn."
"High-grade legacy Gollems can sometimes look almost identical to humans.
Didn't you hear about this from my sister?"
"Your sister just works with Doctor Babylon all day and pours everything into
research, I haven't really had much time to talk to her about things like that."
Norn didn't know about the Babylon facility. As far as she knew, Elluka
worked with Doctor Babylon inside my castle, and that was all she needed to
know.
"That sounds like her... Just so long as she's eating properly. Force-feed her if
necessary, because she can go days without eating if she forgets. Though I'm
sure Fenrir will remind her, so it should be okay."
I agreed there. I felt like Elluka would probably be dead if she didn't have that
wolf Gollem.
"Elluka's been kinda worried about you, you know."
"...Tell her to knock it off, then. Geez... I don't like being treated like a kid!"
...I mean, you look like a kid. Even if you're fifteen, you look six. I can see why
your sister would be concerned.
I didn't say that part out loud, I didn't want to set her off on me again.
"I'm making money just fine, so tell her to lay off."
"Hm? You got a job?"
"Sure did. I'm an adventurer now! Check out my guild card."
Oh damn. I took a look at the card she showed me. It was legitimate. She was
already a blue-rank adventurer, one step away from basically being one of the
best.
"How'd you even get the card to begin with..."
There wasn't a strict age restriction for adventurers or anything, but a general
rule of thumb was no guild cards for kids, and she definitely looked like a kid.
Even Yumina was only barely accepted, and she couldn't go on solo missions.
Basically, younger people needed guardians.
"I just mentioned you and they let me pass right away."
"Now hold on..."
"It's fine, I showed off my strength too. I beat up a couple of annoying bluerank guys, and then this nice elf lady gave me a card."
It seemed that Relisha had something to do with this. She was a guildmaster,
so I trusted her judgment. I knew that she'd have given Norn a membership for
her strength, not just for flashing my name.
"I've been visiting those dungeon islands a lot. Adventurers certainly make a
lot, huh?"
"Pretty much, yeah. High risk and high reward."
After I spoke, Norn stopped eating for a moment.
"That reminds me... You're pretty much the top rank for adventurers, right?
Do you still get missions now and then even though you're royalty?"
"Mhm, sometimes. Now and then I'll take on quests that silver-ranks have
screwed up on, or I'll take care of monsters that could threaten entire nations,
stuff like that."
"Why do you take those jobs, though? You hardly need the money."
She was wrong about that. It was true that national income from the dungeon
islands and taxes were used to run the country... But stuff like Frame Gear tech
development and even the knight order were paid right out of my own pocket.
Even though they were known as the Brunhild knight order, they were
technically my privately-funded army. It was kind of funny thinking of it like
that, that Brunhild was basically defended by contractors... But I figured it
wasn't that huge of a deal in the end. They still did the same thing.
I also earned cash for myself from my various ventures with Olba, the
Mismede merchant. But developing Frame Gears was definitely not cheap, so I
needed to keep the cash flowing in.
That was why taking on well-paying quests was always an option for me. That
being said, there were some in my government like Kosaka who believed that
taking on jobs like that distracted from my administrative duties... Hence why I
just kept it hush-hush.
I turned around, since something was on my mind. My eyes were fixed on the
little black Gollem nearby.
"I wanted to ask you something, Noir."
"Intention recognized."
"Do you know anything about the white crown?"
"...Insufficient data for meaningful answer. Memory unavailable."
"There's no point in asking him that. Noir doesn't remember anything from
before meeting me. The memories aren't exactly deleted or anything, but
they're sealed."
If that was the case then they were probably locked or encrypted in the QCrystal, which was basically the Gollem's brain.
"What do you want with the white crown anyway?"
"I told you already. The boundary that defends this world from external
invasion is all shredded up. I think the white crown has a power that could
repair it." I also had a feeling that the boundary of Norn's world was in danger,
too.
"Those Phrase things, right? Those other-worlders?"
"Yeah... Sort of. The regular Phrase are actually okay now. I made peace with
their leadership... But a group of them splintered off and mutated into a
dangerous faction. Even your world's in danger now. They've been causing a lot
of trouble over there." I reached out to grab my drink, and it began shaking. The
whole table suddenly began rattling and rumbling.
"...An earthquake?"
"Looks that way." It was about a magnitude three quake... Pretty
uncomfortable, but nothing terrible. It continued for a short while before
stopping.
Nothing in the restaurant was damaged, so none of the patrons seemed all
that bothered about it. I wondered how earthquakes actually happened in the
world I'd found myself in.
It could've been the result of tectonic plate shifts, like back on Earth... Or
perhaps it had something to do with the Pillar Spirit of Earth. Maybe
earthquakes happened when she sneezed or something... It'd be pretty sucky if
she ended up having hayfever.
"There've been a lot of earthquakes lately. Is this another effect of the
otherworldly invasion?"
"Wait, there've been a lot of earthquakes? When?"
"...Aren't you supposed to be the ruler of this nation? How can you be this out
of the loop?"
Oof... It's not my fault I've been spending so much time up in Babylon and in
the Reverse World!
"I've even been feeling quakes within the dungeons, you know... It gets a little
scary when the walls around you begin shaking."
Wait... at the dungeon too? Those things might be accessible from Brunhild
but they're in the south of where Sandora used to be... That'd mean they're
happening globally.
Is this maybe something to do with our worlds merging?
...But I told the spirits not to have any elements freak out or anything, hmm...
The fact that the dungeons were affected was pretty bad, I didn't want them
collapsing. If it got any worse I'd have to consider restricting the [Gate] portals
that led there.
That reminded me.
"...What's this?"
"Nothing major."
I'd opened up [Storage] and took out a little pendant. It had a small blue gem
embedded in it.
Let's see here... [Teleport], [Program], and [Gate]... That should do it.
"Alright, here."
"Hm?"
"If you find yourself in danger out in the dungeon, pour some magic into this
thing. It'll bring you back to the castle immediately. You can also bring anyone
within a three-meter range. It's basically an emergency option."
"Hmm..."
She took the pendant from me and looked it over uneasily. I wondered if she
didn't like it or something.
"...Are you sure you aren't into little girls?"
"Prffff?!"
I spat out the water I'd been drinking. I had no idea what this brat was trying
to say.
"What the hell are you saying?!"
"I mean... You just randomly gave me such a pretty present, didn't you? I've
heard rumors that the leader of this country is a womanizer, after all."
"That's slander!"
Who the hell's spreading rumors like that?! Bring them to me!
"Don't you have a ton of fiancees, though? Don't you take different girls out
all the time? You have maids, a little girl in a white coat... and even this girl with
thick glasses... Actually, the last one is probably my sister."
"Ghh... That's technically true, but it's not like that."
Even putting aside Yumina and the others, I don't like that people think Cesca,
Babylon, and Elluka have that kind of relationship with me... Especially not
Doctor Babylon!
"You just can't stop yourself, hm? Seems like you don't care how young your
targets are..."
"I just said that's not how it is. Quit it already. A lot of the people I walk
around with are just my staff. It's business."
There's no way I'd be interested in seducing anyone with the body of a sixyear-old!
"Suggestion: Report to relevant authorities."
"No!" I glared at the little Gollem, and then explained to them exactly what
my relationship with Babylon and the gynoids was. I got them to understand
that, at least, but they pointed out that by the time I had nine fiancees it was
too late for me to avoid the label of womanizer. They weren't wrong, sadly...
A while later, I heard that Micah from the Silver Moon had seen me hand over
the present to Norn... Gossip about me giving jewelry to a little girl then spread
through the town until it even reached Elluka.
She came up from behind me and smiled, but it was the scary kind of empty
smile... Then she said "Let's have a little chat about my sister, Touya..." and a
chill ran down my spine.
It's a misunderstanding! Please!