326 - The Black Kirin, Lumel
――The Mobile Fortress that had charged into the Central royal palace was half-broken.
However, since it had fulfilled its purpose, no one felt discouraged. Even the creator, old man Ratata, muttered "Well done" while resting his hand against the wall.
Damian Barre――Damian the Puppeteer, pushed his glasses up slightly with his index finger to correct their position, then raised the staff in his right hand.
Stepping outside the Mobile Fortress, he was surrounded by three armed automata providing a solid defense.
"Now then, shall I get to my work? They said if I make this a success, they'll make me the director of the National Research Institute."
Damian had his own reasons for participating in the war. This reward was tied to Lariel's intention to let him conduct the research he loved and to control technological innovation. However, for Damian, who held the ideal of creating the perfect woman with his own hands, Lariel's proposal was the ideal itself.
He would receive research funds without having to deal with other bothersome matters.
"Shall we begin?"
As Damian muttered this, metallic automata emerged from inside the Mobile Fortress. However, they were not humanoid. They were mobile shields. Once they were positioned to protect the Mobile Fortress, they deployed themselves to create a defensive wall.
In an instant, an allied position was established around the Mobile Fortress.
Then, allied soldiers began emerging from the Mobile Fortress one after another. Beside Baldoor, Alette, clad in armor, stepped outside with teary eyes, perhaps having bumped her head.
"Stop the enemy invading the palace! Get into position!"
Following Baldoor's orders, soldiers armed with guns took up attacking positions, utilizing the gaps between the Mobile Fortress and the shields.
Alette led a small elite force.
"If any enemies invade, we will deal with them. Protect our allies!"
Following the teary-eyed Alette's instructions, knights in full armor took their positions to protect the gun-wielding soldiers.
Then, the enemy's dead soldiers charged toward the royal palace.
Large porters also gathered around the Mobile Fortress one after another, deploying defensive walls to solidify the defense in double and triple layers.
From the large porters, the Valkyries descended first and entered the royal palace. One-third remained at the Mobile Fortress to strengthen the defense.
Damian watched these fluid movements.
"Defending while attacking... Lariel's basic tactics are interesting. I wonder if this is what they call a genius?"
Then, Damian's automaton, Number One, spoke.
"Master, there is a reaction approaching rapidly from above. It appears to be heading toward the royal palace."
Damian looked up at the sky, then immediately returned his gaze.
"If they've gone to protect their owner, it's not our job. Let's leave it to Lariel. Now then, I shall get to my work as well."
Then, two large golems appeared from the bed of a large porter. Giants over six meters tall, looking like knights, held two shields and two large swords with their four arms. These were Damian's golems, prepared to deal with the swarming dead soldiers.
The two that leaped outside the position sliced through the approaching dead soldiers in wide sweeps. However, they could not handle all the dead soldiers.
But those dead soldiers who broke through the two golems were met with...
"Fire!"
It was gunfire from the unit commanded by Baldoor. Additionally, perhaps because the inspections were complete, shelling from the Mobile Fortress began to commence.
Since they had the royal palace at their backs, no large-scale magic was unleashed. Damian rested his staff on his shoulder.
"Well, buying time isn't an issue. I just hope Lariel and the others return safely."
He muttered that――.
A sword with an invisible blade.
With a swing, the knight before me was easily cleaved in two. The sharpness wasn't bad. Furthermore, being able to freely adjust the length and having a blade the opponent couldn't see was very convenient.
When the knight swung down an axe, I shortened the blade and used the agility to dodge. Immediately after, I extended the blade toward the enemy knight, piercing the opponent's head and blowing them back to pin them against the wall.
While quickly shortening the blade, I looked around from the bed of the porter.
The enemies filling the surroundings included dead soldiers who had transformed into monsters, which was truly troublesome.
"I don't want to exhaust myself too much here."
The silver weapon left behind by the third generation—which I could call a bladeless sword—was truly easy to handle. However, being surrounded by enemies made for a truly troublesome situation.
Moreover――.
"This is the worst."
Looking up, a girl with long—too long—black hair in human form, with a mouth torn open to her cheeks, appeared before me, having smashed through the ceiling. She had crushed several dead soldiers, but that didn't seem to matter to her.
She opened her large mouth, drooling lavishly.
"It doesn't seem like she's open to conversation. Just as May said."
Just as I was thinking of dealing with the Black Kirin before me first, May and Marina climbed onto the bed.
May stretched and looked at the girl who was the Black Kirin.
"Marina and I will handle this one. A one-on-one would be tough, but if the two of us do it, we should be able to manage this girl even if she's berserk."
I shifted my gaze to May and Marina-san; both seemed motivated. I wanted to keep them as combat strength for the battle with Celes. However, time was of the essence.
I spoke to May.
"I'll leave it to you. Come back safe."
"It's a promise. Well, promises have to be kept, so I'll come back."
I turned my gaze to Marina-san.
"Marina-san, please come back as well."
"I'm just an afterthought, aren't I? Well, that's fine. She looks strong. She's a fitting opponent. I've been shivering since a moment ago. I even have chills down my spine. Telling me that this one is strong. Right now, I feel like I could jump straight to the third stage."
The armor on her hands and feet had been reforged by old man Ratata. Apparently, she would beastify using a skill, but even then, the armor would protect her from being blown away.
May looked at the Black Kirin.
"...Now, the surroundings are in the way."
Then, multiple reactions approached from behind. Smashing through the walls, the Valkyries, weapons at the ready, charged into the room crowded with enemies.
May watched this.
"Perfect timing. Now... shall we go?"
Then, May was enveloped in purple lightning. I shielded my face with my left hand, and beside me, Marina-san was enveloped in flames.
May, having grown into an adult form, had blue scales appearing on both her hands and feet. She was checking the feel of her hands.
Beside her, Marina-san, who had grown a size larger, had taken on a form that could be called a beastman. I had heard about it before, but this was the first time I had seen the two of them in their serious combat forms.
Then, as if provoked, the opponent opened her large mouth and bit into the surrounding dead soldiers. I thought it might be friendly fire, but after eating several dead soldiers, the Kirin before us changed into a form similar to May's. Generating black lightning, the form that emerged was even closer to a beast than May. Both legs were the legs of a kirin. The hands were human, but they were abnormally large.
Sinister thorns grew from them. The mouth opened even wider, and she looked closer to a Sahagin than a kirin.
"How prickly."
When I said that, May crouched slightly.
"How pitiful. I'll have to end this for her quickly――"
Immediately after, May kicked off the ceiling of the porter and charged at the Black Kirin before her. Marina-san followed May.
"Ahahaha, this is getting funnnn!!"
Thinking that they were far too much like battle maniacs, the two of them collided with the Black Kirin, smashing through the wall and flying straight outside.
Around them, the Valkyries were dealing with the dead soldiers and others. As the porter swung its large arms, the dead soldiers were blown away. The porter advanced, carving its own path.
Then, a knight leaped onto the bed of the porter.
"Out of the way!"
Extending the blade to slash upward from a diagonal angle, I cut the opponent. Then, the opponent knight's helmet flew off, revealing their face.
Orange hair――and I felt I had seen it somewhere before. The young knight who had once gone Griffon hunting with me was looking at me with hollow eyes. He slowly fell from the bed of the porter.
"Marcus-san..."
Of the Sarkrai family. Miranda's younger sister's... and the lover of one of Shannon's older sisters. He had become a dead soldier.
――Monica threw away the broken drill she held in her left arm.
Switching the hammer in her right hand to a two-handed grip with her left, she swung it down at the opponent.
"I'll drive this right into that smug face of yours!"
However, the automaton who was Monica's opponent, the butler-type Bart, dodged elegantly and threw a knife held between the fingertips of his white-gloved hand at Monica.
Monica took a tray from her apron and used it as a shield, then swung the hammer horizontally.
Bart jumped and dodged that cleanly as well, performed a mid-air flip, and then pulled two pistols from his inner pocket and pointed them at Monica.
Monica abandoned the hammer and leaped back from the spot. Then, lines of light emerged from the pistols, and the floor melted from the heat.
"A fake distributed among civilians in the end. You are no match for the real thing, which is me. After all, I was designed to be capable of guarding important persons."
Swaying his red hair, Bart repeated his attacks on Monica while landing and pointing his guns. However, Monica talked back.
"Fake, fake... I'm tired of hearing that kind of provocation. Besides, while we imported maids and butlers, we developed automata first. If you're talking about fakes, isn't that you?"
Monica exchanged words with the opponent while predicting and dodging the attacks. Since they were both automata and had no connection, they were engaging in analog communication.
Bart pointed the pistols in both hands at Monica, who was hiding behind a pillar, and melted the pillar. But Monica was no longer there.
"No elegance, no history. What is so wonderful about an existence created by perverts who were simply lusting after the surface? To claim it has far more value than an automaton intended for sexual services!"
When Bart looked up, Monica had come charging at him with a broom-like weapon. When he blocked it, his gun was destroyed. However, Bart did not panic.
Monica said,
"What about sexual gazes? I can respond to your requests at any time, so what? I'd like you not to force your values on me. Besides... you lot can respond to sexual demands too, can't you!"
When Monica kicked Bart away, Bart slashed at Monica with knives in both hands. Monica blocked with the broom, but her clothes began to be torn. The opponent's movements were faster.
"What you call maids are not maids. They are nothing more than prostitutes in cosplay. They are existences that lower our value. They are existences to be spat upon!"
"What a noisy fellow. That's just the culture now. Why don't you look at your own country before always complaining about other countries? I'd like you not to blame us for your own low value."
When Bart kicked Monica away, Monica leaped backward. Landing while rotating vertically so that the inside of her skirt wouldn't be seen, she glared at Bart.
The reason they held hostility toward each other wasn't just because they were a maid and a butler. The countries they were produced in, and various circumstances, had made them incompatible.
Then, the Valkyries arrived at the place where Bart and Monica were fighting. Those who arrived were Number One, who had the same face and hairstyle as Monica, and Number Two and Number Three.
All three had custom-made bodies. The binders on their backs were finished to look more like wings.
"We've come to help, you piece of junk."
When Number One said that, Monica, without taking her eyes off Bart, replied.
"...I'll thank you for now. However, the opponent's output is too high. He's producing performance beyond the data. There's a possibility he's absorbing a considerable amount of his master's power."
Monica took a test tube from her pocket, removed the cap, and drank the red liquid inside. It was magic ore liquefied, used to replenish magic power――energy.
(And here I am, trying not to put too much burden on the chicken coward)
Then, Bart began to smirk. He revealed the inside of his jacket. There, precious gems called magic ore were sewn in as many as possible.
Bart took one of those gems in his hand and crushed it. As the fragments sparkled and dissolved into the air, the damage he had received in the battle with Monica was repaired.
"I was told to take as many as I liked from the Banseime Royal Family's treasury. I serve a master I dislike, and I do so reluctantly... but well, he has more generosity than your master."
Monica's eyebrow twitched.
"I can't let that slide. The only person in the world allowed to disparage the chicken coward is this Monica. Besides, serving your own master reluctantly? Have some shame. You have no right to speak of elegance or value. Furthermore... there is a certain pleasure in serving someone without generosity. As expected, you have a lazy way of thinking."
At Monica's provocation, Bart's expression distorted. It was an exchange that made it hard to believe they were both automata.
Number One, Number Two, and Number Three also spoke.
"So this is all you're capable of."
"A butler boasting about his master's gems. I see."
"How pitiful. The master who has a butler like you, that is."
At the provocation of the three, a vein popped on Bart's forehead. I wonder if it's necessary to reproduce that much in an automaton.
Bart took several gems from the inner pocket of his jacket and destroyed them. Then, Gatling guns appeared on both arms.
"I'll blow you to pieces and make regeneration impossible. You fake-looking eyesores... vanish!"
Monica and the others moved away from the spot in different directions and attacked Bart. The weapons they held were all cutting-edge for this era. However, from Bart's perspective, they were nothing but obsolete weapons.
Monica thought,
(And here I am with energy restrictions, yet he's running wild. ...It's becoming doubtful if I can buy time. If worst comes to worst, I'll have to steel myself. I'll end up making the chicken coward cry again)
In her heart, she apologized to Lariel――.