Godhorn Tech:Volume1 Chapter2

Chapter 2 Section 1

Everyone feared the great power of the Wicked Gods.

Humans were the only beings that wanted that power for themselves.

He was a mess.

Back in a room of a simple wooden house, Miyabi Blackgarden could not get out of bed. He felt like his muscles had been replaced with mud.

But the morning arrived despite his protests.

“Please get up.”

It announced its presence with a polite young woman’s voice.

Helen Clockgear was not just inside his house – she was inside his bedroom.

“Miyabi, you need to get up. It’s morning.”

“Ugh,” he groaned, but not because he had low blood pressure.

That young woman provided a little too exciting a visual. Her long black hair and glasses made her look like a stickler for the rules, but then there were her clothes. The chest was left open, the part that was buttoned still left her navel visible, her tight skirt was short enough to show off her thighs, her hair decorations looked like devil horns, and the whip on the back of her hips looked like a tail. He appreciated her waking him up, but this was a little much for his adolescent heart.

He did his best to keep her from noticing his reaction.

“Helen? What are you doing here?”

“I am a Republic official. Managing people is my job.”

“You unlocked the front door with magic again, didn’t you?”

“That is not an abuse of my powers. It is a part of my job. On that note, Miyabi, as peaceful as this village is, you should really use a Jack class or better lock for your outside doors. Anyone can get through a 9 of Diamonds.”

He caught himself before pointing out she would break through that as well.

Then the (busty) glasses woman pointed toward the wooden door.

The cacophony of people working with the lumber could be heard even in here. That meant it was already past 8 in the morning. Miyabi found it easier to tell time that way than using the mechanical clock Helen had brought from the big city.

“I made you breakfast, so please come to the table.”

She left his bedroom and her footsteps creaked down the narrow and steep wooden stairs toward the dining room. His parents were not here, but that was common in this village. When one parent was home, so was the other. When one was gone, they were both out deep in the forest. He knew his boss and the older apprentices better than them.

It must not have been cold enough for Helen to light a fire in the fireplace. The morning chill woke him up before he even washed his face.

The table contained a simple breakfast of toast, salad, and ham and eggs. The simplicity was due to the magic stove and poorly-sealed refrigerator being old and falling apart, not because Helen was a poor cook.

She had apparently expected him to wake up sooner than this, but the food was not cold.

The tableware itself seemed to keep the food and drink warm. That would be more magic. He got to see a lot of convenient magic when Helen was around.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Miyabi had a mug full of hot milk (which somehow had not developed a film on top), but Helen’s cup only contained cold water as she sat politely across from him. But not because she was showing restraint; she really did like the village’s water.

“It recovers so much of your magic. Enough that you don’t even need to stay at an inn. I wish I could fill a bottle with it and carry it around with me, but I go through it so fast.”

“?”

Born and raised in this village, Miyabi had no idea what she meant, but the forest water straight from the well was apparently a rare thing for someone who had lived so long in the capital.

“So why are you cooking me breakfast?”

“I would prefer not to, if I’m being honest.” She was blunt about that. And she was approaching the ultimate decision of whether to put salt or sauce on her ham and eggs. “The Republic has no Godhorn Tech. So what they fear most is what you might do with Alma. For example, you could break off the horn and sell it on the black market. If that found its way into the hands of the remnants of the old monarchy scattered across the land, the country could be in serious trouble. So to ensure their own safety, the Republic wants to ensure all your needs are met and you are never short on money.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“No thanks are necessary. I am only monitoring you for the country’s sake.”

She complained, but she had also refrained from adding carrots to the salad because she knew he didn’t like them. How cute could she be?

“Speaking of, where is Alma?”

The juvenile Wicked God would normally come running at the smell of food, so the curvy glasses woman explained.

“That elf dragged the poor thing outside to play.”

After eating, Miyabi volunteered to do the dishes. He hated working with the cold well water, but Helen warned him not to take it for granted. He still didn’t understand. They could get an endless supply of the stuff from the ground, so why was it so valuable? Washing dishes and his own face was a pain. It was so cold he had to wrap his aching hands in a towel to warm them before heading out to search for Alma. Helen followed him to “monitor” him as usual.

This was a small village.

It was half overgrown by the forest and Miyabi lived in a log house. Everything here was made from wood. But it really was a small village, so the roads were made of exposed brown dirt packed down by feet, hooves, and wagon wheels. Stone pavement was beyond anything they could hope for out here.

“In this village, we make a living cutting down the forest’s trees. We’re the only village out there that’s made a contract with the elves. We’re special!”

Lumberjack (Older Apprentice) was very cheerful for so early in the morning.

He worked accurately even as he smiled and greeted them. He ran his saw along the colorful pattern glowing on the magically-hovering log, rapidly shaping the desired piece of lumber. He worked alone on a tree several times taller than he was and his saw was unnaturally sharp. He had likely added on some water magic to cut with the water pressure. Miyabi could not do any of that yet.

(Special, huh?)

The village prided themselves in being left in charge of the forest by the local Blueforest race of elves. Although Miyabi sometimes wondered if the elves had tricked the humans into maintaining the forest paths, thinning out the trees, and all the other jobs they couldn’t be bothered to do.

Whatever the case, the village was hard at work for another day.

The sorcery bomb had been a very close call and the Celina and Schwarz Schütze problem remained, but he had protected this scene nonetheless.

“Please keep quiet about what happened,” quietly warned Helen, walking alongside him. His heart jumped when he felt her warm breath on his ear. “A single village boy wields a Godhorn Tech when not even the entire Republic has one. If word gets out, you can’t live here anymore. Do you want to be on the run around the clock? The remnants of the old monarchy still fantasize every night about bringing back the slave trade and they would love to get their hands on that thing.”

“So I’m a secret warrior, huh? Heh heh heh.”

“Why does that appeal to you? Sigh, boys never do grow up, do they?”

At any rate, he asked around for information on the long-eared hag.

“Hey, Miyabi! Tell that elf girl she can play in the village if she wants, but she shouldn’t use our lumber as an obstacle course!” (Lumberjack (Middle Aged))

“Sob, all I wanted was to make friends with some cute elves, so how did I end up surrounded by big burly men?” (Lumberjack (Newcomer))

“Ho ho ho. Watching Lady Alicia enjoy herself is so relaxing. Our ancestors agreed to a contract with the elves, giving us permission to cut down the forest’s trees, but it all happened so long ago no one remembers what the exact terms of the contract were. But that smile on Lady Alicia’s face is all we need to know we still have their permission.” (Elder)

None of it was very helpful.

And that old man’s lines were always long. Too long.

“Hm.” Helen placed a finger on the side of her glasses. “That elf isn’t surrounded by tourists like I expected.”

“?”

“The plays always present forests as a home to the elves and Azul Titanio isn’t that far from the Republic’s capital, so it’s known in some circles as a good health resort.”

“Azul what?”

“That’s the name of your village, Miyabi. Wait! Did you forget the name of your own home!?”

“Everyone born here just calls it the first village.”

“That’s sad. But it is a known social problem. When a long and complicated name is added to the official maps, the locals can end up abbreviating it to the point that no one there recognizes the correct name.”

That could explain why the pub and inn did such good business for a small village.

Miyabi had lived here all his life and one of his earliest memories was clinging to Alicia’s back and tugging on one of her long ears, so he had trouble understanding this talk of a health resort and traveling to see an elf. To him, the big city sounded a lot more convenient and comfortable.

And.

“Koo, kwehh!”

“Ah ha ha! Come and get me!”

He heard a joyous voice coming from the edge of the village where the forest had more or less taken over, so he took a look and then sighed.

“Finally found you,” he said.

“What are you two doing here?” asked Helen.

“O-ohh?”

For some reason, Alicia Blueforest froze with her hands in the air.

“Come to think of it, what are we doing here?”

“Koo?”

Seeing the two of them tilt their heads, Helen placed a hand on her cheek.

“Peaceful as always, I see.”

“I’m sweating bullets over here, worried my spot as the adorable mascot is at risk.” The radio complained from the elf’s chest. “Curse that vile beast. No decency at all. There might be a million faces to choose from in this world, but I only get to use one of them as an icon, you know!?”

“I want to hear what that old guy has to say. To figure out what to do next.” With Alicia, Alma, Helen, and the radio here, this seemed like the best chance for this. “What about the rest of you? You can sit this out if it doesn’t interest you.”

“Kyoo kyoo!”

“If the juvenile Wicked God is going, I might as well go too. I wouldn’t have anyone to play with anymore.”

“Vile beast! I belong at the chest of this real elf! Don’t you dare steal my position!!”

The philosopher’s stone created a staticky noise resembling grinding teeth, but Helen ignored it.

She might as well have been the village guide at this point.

“I believe Mr. Moebius is being treated at the clinic.”

Rural villages like Miyabi’s “first village’ tended to have small clinics instead of big hospitals. There was no end to careless accidents with sharp blades in the logging industry, but most any illness could be treated here. With the number of wagons carrying heavy lumber out of the village and the proximity of the Republic’s capital, any patient with a serious enough injury or illness could be transported elsewhere, weather permitting.

For that reason, rural Azul Whatever-It-Was’s log house clinic was very well equipped. It had a simple design, but it was kept extremely clean with magic. Miyabi did not like the feel of the place. It was clean, but in an unnatural way.

A creaking of metal sounded in the village’s lifeline.

It came from the axle of a wheelchair.

The tall-redheaded man wore a coat that made him look more like a pirate than a noble, but that wild impression was ruined by just the one item.

“Does that mean…?”

“Don’t worry about it. I was already planning to retire at some point.”

Miyabi was struck speechless, but Moebius Entrance himself did not seem to mind.

This world had no recovery magic.

Magic could sterilize a room or mix a medicine, but it could not directly affect the human body. It could create a medicine to heal a cold or boost the healing power of a cast holding together broken bone, but it could not heal a rare disease or serious injury that lacked a corresponding White Sorcery Item. So as destructive as a Godhorn Tech was, the user could not cheat death or serious injury. They would have to groan in pain while using magically-boosted medicines and bandages just like everyone else.

“This gave me the chance I needed.” Moebius smiled. “Passing the Godhorn Tech onto you is a burden off my shoulders.”

“…”

“Let’s get down to business.” He still sounded lighthearted. Maybe he always did. “The Sorcery Doc said I can’t talk for long. Ow…”

“And I can see why!”

“Looks like he needs medicine and water.”

On Helen’s instructions, Miyabi handed Moebius some water and medicine to drink.

“Phew. There’s no point trying to show off here, so let’s just get this over with.”

“Is this about the 11th?”

“That’s an important issue, but they’re only a shadow. They’ll have gone into hiding and we won’t see hide nor hair of them for a while. They attack on a whim, so they don’t seem to get fixated on a single target when their attack fails.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t predict what they did.”

“And a fixation on a single target would make them really easy to predict. But the 11th doesn’t make it that easy. Anyway, keep them in a corner of your mind, but you have a more immediate threat to deal with.”

“More immediate?” Miyabi looked Moebius in the eye. “Do you mean Celina Bodenburg and Armored Train Schwarz Schütze?”

“Ha ha. Memorized both of those long names already? I guess imminent death is a good teacher.”

The term “armored train” must have sounded odd coming from the carefree forest boy. Moebius sank down into his wheelchair with a mischievous smile.

“Now that the Godhorn Tech is yours, you’ll be her new target. You’ve got an idea of how she does things now, right?”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t hesitate to attack just because we’re in the village.”

“Koo…” Alma worriedly cried at his feet.

Moebius nodded.

“But unlike the 11th, Miss Celina is easy to predict. She wants to secure the continent’s safest trade route using an unbeatable power no one else dares even attack. That way she can increase trust in the Bodenburg company and raise its value. So she will not allow any other Godhorn Tech to fight on the same level as hers. That’s all she’s fighting for.”

“She really thinks money is everything, doesn’t she?”

Miyabi sounded exasperated and Moebius sighed.

“It’s not her fault. She was raised to think that way.”

Raised.

That was a simple word, but it had a somehow ominous ring to it here.

“And we’ve all benefited from it. Take a look around you. That company’s logo is everywhere.”

Shocked, Miyabi picked up some items around the clinic. The bandages, medicine bottles, and examination and treatment equipment all had the logo. So did the bed, the shelves, the cups, and the pitcher. He had never paid any attention to it, but now that he did…there it was.

The Bodenburg Company.

With the exception of the furniture made with wood, hammers, and saws, the hand-mixed medicines made from local plants, and the White Sorcery Items, almost all of the clinic’s equipment had been brought in from the big city and bore that logo.

“It’s everywhere…”

“That is a frightening level of market penetration,” commented Alicia, viewing a cylindrical package of chocolates with a frown.

“Pretty much any magical product is from them these days,” said Moebius. “And this village is more self-sufficient than most. You have that forest and the carpenters to thank for that.”

“And me,” added the elf. “You need to thank me for the forest’s blessings, boy.”

“?”

Miyabi was not sure why, but Alicia placed a hand on her chest and proudly winked at him.

Moebius continued on, whether he knew the reason or not.

“There are a lot of cities on the continent that can’t even get food and water without the company’s help. They own all the fishing rods and nets at the lakes and they control all the firewood and blankets in the snowy areas. They gain customers by offering enough convenient services for the local industries to deteriorate.” He smiled as he continued. “But you can make use of that. You know why Miss Celina fights, so you can set the perfect stage for her and guide her there. That means you can move the battle outside the village.”

“…”

“Still afraid of attacking another person? This would’ve been so much easier if you had only seen the Schwarz Schütze, but unfortunately you saw Miss Celina first.” The young man displayed his injured body in the wheelchair. “But don’t forget you already wielded the Lucifer Horn in battle and others saw it. You need to assume both Miss Celina and the 11th see you as a Godhorn Tech user. You can’t back out of the fight now. Not after asking me to lend you that power so you could save me.”

Sometimes having the power to fight caused a fight to happen.

But the boy had lived his whole life in this peaceful village and only ever thought of blades as something to cut through grass and trees, so he couldn’t be blamed for not realizing that.

Nevertheless, only his friends would listen to his complaints. His enemies would show no mercy. Celina and the massive Bodenburg Company that supported her were more powerful than the average country and they had poured everything they had into building that Godhorn Tech. That weapon’s cannons were now aimed squarely at Miyabi.

He may have been fortunate he had not known what he was doing.

If he had truly understood the threat, he might have fainted.

“Sometimes, options present themselves to you, but you won’t gain anything by sitting around until you’re out of time.”

Moebius then doubled over and groaned.

He had already taken some medicine, so blindly giving him another kind would be dangerous. And he appeared to know that.

“Okay, I’ve hit my limit.” He wiped sweat from his brow. “If you want some more details…yeah, you can come see me again tonight.”

Miyabi said nothing, but it was still up to him to choose.

“This is your life, so choose your own path through it.”

The village grew quiet at night.

Miyabi Blackgarden was lying in his bed staring up at the ceiling, but traversing the wood grain labyrinth with his eyes was not making him feel sleepy.

“…”

He couldn’t stand it anymore.

He held a hand to his head and sat up in bed.

In a village alongside the forest, the people were very careful with fire, but putting out the fire in the fireplace had still been a mistake. The chill of the night had crept into his room before sleep took him.

He doubted he was getting to sleep now.

“I should go ask that old guy what he can tell me.”

“Koo,” agreed Alma, squirming in the same bed.

He got dressed, left his house, and found a familiar face waiting with her back against a nearby tree. That familiar face had long ears.

“Hi,” she said.

“What are you doing?”

“Did you think you were the only one who had business with that Celina girl? The elf village might be safely tucked into an alternate dimension, but she more or less burnt the entranceway. I don’t see why I shouldn’t give her a piece of my mind.”

Alicia Blueforest gave a grumpy snort and Alma wobbled as the white stuffed animal thing nearly drifted off on its feet.

“Zzzkoo…”

“Mh, why are you so sleepy, Alma? I suppose this is late for a child, even if you are a Wicked God. If you need someplace to sleep, just leap into my chest and I will carry you around.”

“Another threat to my position!?” protested the radio hanging from the elf’s neck.

Miyabi smiled bitterly.

“Whatever the reason, I appreciate the company.”

“Y-yes, the village feels very different at night,” said the radio. “And thorough exploration is the key to adventuring. You might just find that annoying person blocking the way to the mysterious door is absent at night.”

“Now, ignoring the usual stray signal,” started Alicia.

“But don’t even think about leaving the village! You might run across more powerful monsters that only appear at night or on the full moon! Always make sure to train your party to a decent level before straying from the main story path! Don’t assume you’ll be safe just because you’re still in the early stages! And make sure to stock up on antidote items and sleep-prevention accessories before attempting to fight the alternate enemy forms!! Once those status effects get started, they come for the entire party!”

“Again, ignoring the stray signal!!”

After silencing the radio’s incessant chatter, Alicia crouched down, picked up sleepy Alma, and held it to her chest.

“Personally, I’m surprised we haven’t seen Miss Busty Glasses.”

“Let’s just get to the clinic. I want to hear what Moebius has to say.”

Miyabi did not need the radio to warn him about the dangers of the night. In the logging industry, working at night was like asking for an accident. You never wanted to enter the forest or operate a saw in the dark.

The village was quiet (except for the one establishment that served alcohol) as they walked to the clinic. With the sole exception of the pub’s lights, the starlight was the only thing illuminating their path. The clinic was wrapped in tranquility.

But something wasn’t right.

It was too quiet.

“Huh? There’s no one here.”

“Koo?”

“But could he really leave the village in that wheelchair?” asked Alicia. “The forest ground is covered in tree roots and rocks and that Celina girl just dug the place up, so I doubt he could have gotten far with that injury.”

“Assuming he isn’t endlessly going for random encounters in the hopes of finding a pink-haired succubus in a slingshot swimsuit, silver-haired brown-skinned apsaras covered only by a vanishingly thin cloth, or some other sexy night-exclusive mid-boss, then wouldn’t he be somewhere inside the village?”

Most of the philosopher’s stone’s line was incomprehensible, but Miyabi frowned at the ultimate conclusion.

Yes…

“Somewhere in the village?”

“That’s still running this late?”

“…”

“…”

The boy and girl fell silent and Alma tilted its head.

“Koo?”

The place had an entirely different aura.

The instant Miyabi hesitantly opened the door, the darkness of the night was swept away by colorful magic lights very different from his lamp at home. The din of excitement and mirth hit him like a physical blow. The young woman with her silver hair tied back in a single braid at the center of the pub appeared to be a dancer. She was wiggling her bare navel to the applause of the drunk crowd.

A full-on bunny girl greeted Miyabi with a smile. A young woman with long black hair wore a white and pink costume, including decorative long ears that, unlike the elf’s, extended vertically.

“Hello☆ Welcome to- eek!?”

Miyabi’s group looked around the noisy pub with its bunny girl and dancer.

“Now, where is that complete moron?” asked Miyabi.

“Hmm, I doubt he could have faked an injury like that,” said Alicia.

“That just means he’s such a moron that he decided to join in the festivities despite his injury.” Miyabi sounded exasperated. “Is he actually out drinking?”

“Heh.” The radio hanging from Alicia Blueforest’s neck interrupted in an unusually subdued way. “Sometimes a man gets so caught up in searching for the finest videos available that the dawn sneaks up on him. It can happen the day before an interview and it can happen the nervous night before a major surgery.”

“I’m not sure what that means, but I suddenly want to disinfect this piece of junk.”

Meanwhile, the busty white-eared bunny was muttering to herself.

“Th-they haven’t noticed. They don’t realize it’s me? G-good!!”

She clenched her fists and gave a snort of triumph before speaking up with a renewed smile.

“I am Venus, this the most popular girl you’ll find here. Welcome☆ Then again, you two look a little young for this kind of-”

“By the way, what in the world are you doing, Helen?”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!?”

Her scream sounded like it was tearing apart her large chest.

Had she thought they wouldn’t recognize her without her glasses?

She just about fell backwards on the booze barrel behind her and her eyes wandered while she sweated profusely.

“Cough! Cough, cough! Wh-who is this Helen? My name is Venus.”

“We don’t have time for your comedy routine, slutty exhibitionist,” said Alicia. “Just tell us where Moebius is.”

“Koo?”

“Stop it, vile beast. Honest questions like that can be like a sharp knife in the gut at times. Like when you’re using energy drinks to fuel an all-night online gaming session and you’re riding that midnight high when an ignorant elementary school kid logs on.”

The radio’s comment somehow felt like a finishing blow.

The sexy young woman (sans glasses) tried and failed to say more in her defense.

“…!?”

I swear I’m not doing this because I want to and I haven’t had a drop to drink. This is a traditional Republic method of intel gathering. You see, statistics have proven that drunks have loose lips and I can’t ignore an order from the higher ups. Ahh, why did you have to come here!?

If they could have read her flapping lips, they would have found something along those lines, but no voice ever made it out.

Miyabi’s group spotted the wheelchair they wanted among the swaying drunks and the dancer(?) sitting on the edge of the stage instead of doing her job.

Moebius Entrance raised a hand in greeting from a round table, showing no sign of guilt.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here?”

“My wound hurt like hell, so I wanted some way to forget the pain☆”

“You know that’s like warming a bump on the head with a compress, right? There are always these idiots who sprain their ankle and try to reduce the swelling by soaking in a hot spring.”

No one was listening to the philosopher’s stone’s pointless trivia.

“If you ask me, alcohol is a disinfectant for the soul.” Moebius waved his empty glass. “Veeenus! Bring me another bottle o’ this tasty stuff! Or maybe I should get some water. Man, everything’s so tasty I can’t stop drinking!!”

“Eek!? U-um, I really don’t want to go back to that table…”

The bunny jumped enough for her large chest to jiggle vertically, but Miyabi was coldhearted.

“Helen, this guy’s being a pain, so get over here.”

“At least call me Venuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!”

The tearful bunny rushed over.

Moebius hummed while pouring more amber-colored liquid in his glass. He would probably be here till morning if they let him.

“If I recall.” Miyabi got down to business. “You said you would tell me some secret plan to lure Celina away from here if I came to you tonight.”

“Finally worked up the nerve, huh?” The man took a teasing tone. “Well, she might be a sheltered girl, but that Godhorn Tech’s power is the real deal. You can’t hope to search out the 11th with her after you.”

“I get that, but still…”

“What, don’t like the idea of fighting a girl?”

“…”

“Oops, I’m outta snacks.” He made it sound like that was more important than any mysteries of the world. “Sorry, but could you grab me a cheese plate? At Mach speed! Oh, do you know what Mach speed is?”

This seemed like a job for sexy Venus, but Miyabi glanced over to see her slumped over with her soul halfway out of her mouth. She apparently had her hands full already, so he had no choice but to get up and do it himself.

He approached the counter.

“Here is your snack plate.”

“Thanks?”

It came out as a question because the large plate made from the village’s wood was handed to him by an unfamiliar young woman with her navel showing. She gave off a sophisticated aura, or maybe refined was the better word, but he doubted she was native to the village. She was the dancer with her long silver hair tied back in a single braid, yet her behavior was surprisingly elegant now that he met her face to face. She had the same upper class feel as Celina, yet here she was working in a pub. She seemed so mysterious and rare.

A faintly sweet aroma reached him whenever her long braid swished behind her, but that would be due to a type of seduction magic, not perfume. It was the same basic idea as when Helen had pushed her large breasts together while clasping her hands in apology after breaking a plate at his house. It worked its way to the forefront of his mind despite the mixture of smells from the food, drink, sweat, and heat filling the pub.

She waved a hand with a smile.

“My technical job title is waitress. My name is Iris Tempinvy. If you’re interested, make sure to ask for me☆”

The teenage boy was very interested but was short on guts and money, so he grew red in the face and froze up. A woman of the night was too high a hurdle for him.

He took the large plate and returned to Moebius’s table with movements stiffer than a clockwork doll.

“Can we please get down to business now?”

“It’s nothing fancy.” Moebius’s words dripped with confidence. “First of all, the Bodenburg Company is the world’s largest company. They judge everything based on its business value. Even Celina’s attack on me was only to advertise her own Godhorn Tech.”

“Advertise?”

Miyabi frowned.

That girl lived in a completely different world from him, but he had to try to understand it. He wanted as much information as he could get. Especially when this could mean the village’s destruction as soon as tomorrow.

“Having a Godhorn Tech is just that big a deal.” Moebius smiled, rocking side to side in his wheelchair. “The Bodenburg Company was built up in a single generation, but that causes some people to underestimate it. Especially by the royal, nobles, priests, and priestesses who tend to cling to musty old tradition.”

Miyabi only looked more skeptical since none of the people on the list sounded like anyone he would ever meet, but he grasped that there was apparently a world out there where people worried about that kind of thing.

“That’s why the company is rumored to have spent a fortune getting a Wicked God horn. They wanted power that the rest of the world would pay attention to.”

“So they have a Wicked God horn and Godhorn tech for business purposes?”

“But what does that matter?” asked Alicia.

The elf surreptitiously reached for a glass full of amber-colored liquid, so Miyabi slapped the back of her small hand. He didn’t know her actual age or her alcohol tolerance, but she looked younger than him and he had felt like he needed to stop her.

“The customer is always right, hm?” said the radio hanging from her neck.

“Exactly.” Moebius’s smile vanished there and they could only hope that was not just part of being drunk. “I’m sobering up now. Hey, grab me some water.”

Helen was still out of order, so Miyabi was stuck with the task. He made a mental note to avoid this position in the future.

The highlight of last time found him again.

The dancer named Iris winked at him from near the counter and even leaned against him this time.

“What’s this? Stuck running errands again?”

“Hyah!!”

“Ah ha ha. You sound even girlier than me! Anyway, what are you discussing all serious-like over there? Is it about magic? Well? Is it!?”

She had apparently heard an awful lot over the pub’s noise. Maybe it was true what he had heard about people who worked with alcohol tending to well informed. But there was a sharpness behind her cheer that suggested she only danced and had not had a drop to drink.

He somehow managed to shake free the temptation of the dancer blowing him a kiss and he returned to the man with a glass of water in hand. It wasn’t often the world felt quite this unfair.

“Now.” The young man looked surprisingly calm after drinking down the cold glass of water. “As hostile as the company can seem, they will shake your hand with a smile if you can work out a deal with them. And that includes the company’s young heiress. Take advantage of her professionalism and you should find a way out of this.”

“Heh heh heh.”

Venus laughed weakly with her head hanging limply back. What was she even looking at? She may have been staring at the magic-powered ceiling fan in an attempt to hypnotize herself and erase the night’s unpleasant memories.

However, the shiny white and pink bunny actually had something to add to the conversation.

“But that only works if you have something valuable enough to draw the interest of that giant company. No offense, but I don’t think this city’s lumber is going to cut it.”

“Oh, he has something,” stated Moebius. “Something Celina would be desperate to get her hands on. Something that would directly influence the world’s power balance.”

“Koo?”

“Wait…”

Miyabi could not believe it.

It did fit the conditions, but could he really make that choice?

“You’re telling me to sell her your Lucifer Horn!?”

“Don’t forget, it’s yours now.”

That correction did not sit well with him.

“When you write her the letter to lure her away, you only have to tell her you have a Wicked God horn for sale. The company already has the one Godhorn Tech to show off, but with all their influence, they still could only build just that one.”

It had the power to change the world, but that did not have to be done with direct violence.

Miyabi Blackgarden held that power in his hands.

Moebius winked and smiled.

“So not even the Bodenburg Company could ignore a chance at buying another, right?”

Chapter 2 Section 2

The forest had maintained its overall silhouette even after all the ripping and tearing it had undergone. Several masses of a dark metal were linked together outside that forest.

That was the armored train known as the Schwarz Schütze.

It was 500m long and more than 20m tall, it was as sturdy as a decent-sized castle, and it carried enough firepower to break through the front gate of an old-fashioned stationary fortress.

It looked like someone had taken a giant train and a warship and combined them in a flask. The train itself was in fact made using alchemy. A girl in a black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems stood alongside the swiveling main cannon equipped on its roof.

“An anonymous letter.”

She was Celina Bodenburg.

A quiet crinkling came from the object the high-class girl held in both hands.

“No signature, no seal, and no documents to lend it any credibility? Someone does not know how this business works. Yet it was wiped clean to prevent me from reading the writer’s residual thoughts. I would never normally agree to something so suspicious, but with such dangerous merchandise, I can see why they would be cautious.”

She smiled a little as she spoke to herself.

“Another Wicked God horn would be nice. If this a trap, I can teach them a lesson with the untouchable Schwarz Schütze. And if it is real, I reap the benefits. Hee hee.”

A group had gathered at the boy’s house during the day.

Miyabi, Alicia, Helen, and Alma were there.

They could not bring Moebius along because of his wheelchair. Plus, he seemed to think of himself as retired, so at the moment, his hangover was probably turning him into a puke machine.

“Okay.” Miyabi Blackgarden got them started. “Let’s set out for the designated location.”

“That would be the inn town to the north. There is a major landmark there, so I doubt we will get lost. If all goes well, it should only take a few days.”

There was no point in asking why they had chosen somewhere so far away.

Their top priority was keeping any largescale battles away from Miyabi’s village, so choosing somewhere closer for travel convenience would defeat the purpose of the entire charade. Helen knew a lot about the outside world, so he had let her choose the location.

That selfish girl would be happily on her way to the designated location right about now. It was kind of cute to imagine.

“Curse that Celina,” said Alicia. “She takes care of everything once you’re her business partner, doesn’t she?”

They left the simple wooden house and cut across the village that was half overgrown with greenery. On the way, Miyabi glanced over at the pub. The rules of day and night were reversed there, so it was entirely silent now.

There was a notice posted on the door: Our dancer is sleeping. Don’t wake her!

“What, hoping to see Venus again?” teased Alicia.

“P-please just forget that!!”

The glasses woman grew red in the face and flustered. That apparently qualified as a nightmare for her.

As for the clinic…he decided it was best not to take a look inside.

But the curtains at one of the windows parted and Moebius greeted them as casually as if he were simply delivering a forgotten item.

And for some reason, the dancer from the night before, Iris Tempinvy, could be seen through the window next to him.

“Hee hee. Don’t worry about Moebius. I will be taking very good care of him.”

…Why?

Miyabi looked legitimately confused.

Her pretty navel was so bright he felt like it would bring tears to his eyes if he was not careful.

Where had this come from? Had they engaged in some adult form of communication that an adolescent like him could not hope to understand or even imagine!? A bare-navel dancer was too much for him! How did you even go about getting to know someone like that!?

But…

“Hee, hee hee, hee hee hee hee. After losing my position as guest magical researcher in that snowy kingdom, I began a life as a dancer, showing off my body night after night to earn enough to fund my research, but now I’ve stumbled upon a guinea pig who won’t break so easily. The authorities will never notice a thing in this backwater village, so I should make real progress with my research into supposedly impossible recovery magic.”

(Okay, yeah. I’m not getting anywhere near her.)

Even naïve Miyabi could figure that much out.

Maybe Moebius was oblivious to her intentions and maybe he was into that, but for now he spoke down from the window.

“Oh, right. One other thing.”

“?”

“There’s something you need to watch out for now that you have a Godhorn Tech. Using that much power can sometimes distort space-time and you’ll find someone who looks exactly like you challenging you to fight.”

Was that a joke, or was he serious?

Miyabi was not sure, but Moebius had one last thing to say.

“It will keep happening as long as you hold onto your Godhorn Tech – even after 100 challengers or 1000. It’s like a curse to punish you for being the strongest.”

A wide open world awaited him outside the village.

He had often entered the forest, but he rarely went the other way.

This had to be an insignificant plain in terms of the entire continent.

The road was not paved with stones, so the brown path meandering all the way to the horizon looked like it was made out of nothing but wagon wheel ruts.

Still, the rolling green hills of the plain and the horizon below the blue sky felt like a new world entirely for Miyabi Blackgarden.

He wished none of this had happened to him.

But if none of it had happened, he knew he may never have thought to leave the village.

“Koo,” cried Alma at his feet.

But Miyabi blinked.

“Hey, what’s with you? Where did you get those clothes???”

Alma had looked like a white stuffed animal, but it looked different now. First of all, it was colored a bright green. Its texture also looked a little different. It appeared to be wearing a raincoat with a snake motif.

But when he picked the creature up and tugged with his fingertips, he felt a springy resistance. That appeared to be fur.

“Hmm.” Alicia put a hand on her hip. “Alma must change form based on the environment. That form is similar to the Quetzalcoatl, a wind element Wicked God. Maybe Alma can feel the wind more in this open field than when surrounded by trees in the forest. But I never knew Quetzalcoatl was so round and adorable. Ah ha ha!”

“Changed form? Like a tree frog???”

“It may be less like a frog or chameleon’s colors and more like what happens inside an egg or chrysalis. Alma is a juvenile, so their entire body is still developing. I expect they will slowly figure out what form to take after learning more from their surroundings. Oh, Alma! You transform and you’re still cute as can be!!”

The hobbyist researcher elf only seemed to care about observing this one subject. She held it tight and rubbed it against her smiling face, forcing Alma to push her face away with its small front legs.

Then there was the young woman who had a firm grasp on reality and how to survive there.

Helen used a magic called Magnet Search to transform her sewing set’s needle into a weak magnet by running it over the tip of index finger.

“Let’s see, that way is north, so based on the map of the area…”

“Huh? Helen, that metal railroad running to the horizon is the path Celina took, right? Wouldn’t it be faster to follow that?”

“She isn’t taking the shortest route. Not to mention that those are the very obvious footprints left by our enemy. We already know she wants to fight you, so she’s probably left at least one trap for you. For example, she could have buried an alchemy shell with the fuse swapped out for one that will only detonate after detecting the approach of your control sword.” Helen could be scarily cool-headed at times and she shrugged here. “Either way, the standard method is to search out a safe path by comparing what you see around you to your map. But do keep an eye out. A wild Beast Nova could attack after sneaking up on us.”

“Hm. A Beast Nova, huh?”

“Why do I get the impression you don’t appreciate the threat there. Also, simply losing your way is dangerous enough. Getting lost out here is a very different experience from getting lost in the safety of your village.”

Miyabi thought about a number of things while walking on and on toward the northern inn town. There was a world out here that he never would have seen if he had not taken this step. Same for the animal and carnivorous plant Beast Novae they occasionally encountered. He would not have seen any of it if he had not set out to do so.

Meanwhile, the elf was half in tears.

“Can you two please stop using that discriminatory language!? Beast Nova might be technically defined as any lifeform not in your traditional encyclopedias, but you humans just use it as a catch-all term for everything that isn’t you! Which means you’re calling us elves ‘beasts’!”

“Shut up and fight! Do you want to die!?”

“I could tell you were panicking, but nice job slaying that Beast Nova, Miyabi!” Helen shouted, stabbing her thick short sword into a giant carnivorous plant rustling around on the ground.

These attacks were hindering their progress a lot. They had barely moved at all on the parchment map. Why did that distance of about three clips never seem to shrink any? Was it the scale? As they walked onward with weapons always at the ready, the sun was soon about to set.

The orange blaze in the sky was so bright Miyabi could only stare in bewilderment.

“How many more monsters are going to show up come nightfall?”

The elf used a different term, which was apparently acceptable to her. Perhaps Beast Nova was too broadly defined, whereas there was a clear distinction between a monster and an elf.

“Well, we were never going to cover this distance in a single day anyway,” said Helen.

“But if we sleep here, we’ll be surrounded by monsters!” protested Alicia. “I just know it!!”

Miyabi listened to the irritated voices while tracing his fingers along the sword he wore over his back.

That was the Lucifer Horn’s control sword.

“Moebius did mention some kind of hideout we could use. He called it the Horn Fortress. It’s a small island surrounded by magical barriers or cracks in the world or something.”

“You mean we would ride the Lucifer Horn there?” asked Helen. “Now there’s a scary thought.”

The idea of flight was unfamiliar to them since they had lived their entire lives on the ground. Anything beyond climbing a tree sounded terrifying. Traveling at high speed through the sky was downright unimaginable.

Maybe it was possible, but they did not have to test it out now. Nothing would be quite as foolish as attempting a potentially dangerous challenge and then actually dying when there had been no real need to do it at all.

So they took a more realistic option.

“Let’s search out a body of water before it gets dark. We can set up camp there.”

“Hell yes!! Now we’re setting the stage for a bathing scene with the moonlight shining on bare skin!! What kind of fantasy story doesn’t have some nudity in it!?”

The radio raised its voice while swaying back and forth at Alicia’s neck.

But this was not as simple as a kid’s sleepover party. They were out in the middle of the plains – that is, nature. This was nothing like the maintained village, so they could not find anywhere that would shelter them from the elements.

“Helen, don’t you have some magic to shelter us from the rain?”

“And let you leech off of my magic all night long? I don’t think so. Besides, the tent has some weak monster-repelling magic.”

“Hold on. That won’t make Alma or me feel ill inside it, will it?”

On capable Helen’s sharp instructions, the others cleared the tent’s planned location of rocks, but it was plenty cold even before the sun had set. They only had a fabric tent waterproofed with a wax coating, so it had no heater and Miyabi was worried if they would survive the night.

“Wh-what do we do once night falls?”

“Gathering food comes first,” said Helen.

There were no fruit trees around and the lack of food for animals meant none of them either.

In fact, any location without Beast Novae would naturally have no other animals either. Alicia Blueforest belatedly paled at that realization.

“W-we’re in serious trouble, aren’t we!?”

“Just kidding. Tah dah! I brought 4-5 days’ worth of preserved food just in case. The meat and fruit are dehydrated, so they’ll stay good for a while.”

Their somewhat early dinner was tough.

The extreme focus on preservation meant the oblong bread was so hard Miyabi thought he was going to dislocate his jaw chewing it. He could probably equip it as a weapon. The same went for the dried meat and fruit. Eating was supposed to be refreshing, but the more he ate, the more it dried out his mouth. The stuff was pretty awful without a cup of soup to go with it. The novelty was winning out this time, but eating this same thing for days on end would drain your spirit.

“I should probably prepare a trap tomorrow,” said Alicia. “Or catch some fish if we come across a river.”

They were going to spend the night there, so it was time for the tent.

“Let’s do this.”

Helen opened a small bag on the ground and something large expanded from within. The movement looked similar to popup book, but the end result was clearly too large to fit in the bag. The contents included a tallow lamp, a metal grilling plate, a barrel, a water filter full of pebbles and activated charcoal, a large wooden bucket, a washboard, and the rolled-up tent they were actually interested in. And beyond the camping items were a set of small spice bottles, makeup, a toothbrushing kit, some bath products, and more.

How had that all fit in there?

Miyabi’s dazed stare earned him a puzzled look from Helen as she grabbed the tent bag. This was so ordinary to the sexy glasses woman that she had never imagined someone would question it.

A moment later, it hit her and she explained.

“Oh, this? It’s just magic. Compress Cargo is a must for any trip☆”

“Wait! If that exists, why do I always have to carry all that heavy work equipment and firewood on my back in the forest!?”

“Nothing good comes of taking the easy way out before you build up sufficient strength,” said Alicia, sounding exasperated.

“That’s right. And,” added Helen. “Compress Cargo is far from perfect.”

Had she decided he would start making impossible requests if he got it into his head that magic was all-powerful?

“No matter how much you train, there is always a two second delay between accessing the items and selecting one, so keeping your combat gear stored like that can be a deadly mistake. Plus, the magic can only store so much. The size compression ratio is only around 100:1 at the most.”

He was a little curious what kind of past Helen had lived if a two second delay could be deadly, but Granny Alicia said something more attention grabbing.

“Technically speaking, it is not compressing the matter through application of an external force. The shape of the Palette Dice is wound up for storage and then extended again once you pull it out.”

“Palette Dice?”

“That is the smallest unit of all the world’s matter. They used to call them ‘elements’ way back when.”

Alicia winked in a needlessly smug way as she showed off her alchemy knowledge.

According to the little elf who was trying to act the big sister, examples included rock, metal, and snow. There were as many Palette Dice as their were types of matter and what looked like sand or soil was actually made of particles too small to see even with a magnifying glass.

“This stone here is actually made of countless particles. There are so many of them that you would see spiraling ribbons expanding in every direction if you could take a peek into that miniscule world. But that means there is a lot of wasted space there. By winding and folding up those ribbons, you can reduce the apparent weight and size. Think of it like a leaf versus a leaf bud.”

Miyabi couldn’t make any sense of it.

“Hmmm. I don’t get any of this alchemy stuff. It’s like reading a poem while trying to do math.”

“This is not limited to alchemy. The operation of Palette Dice is crucial for a witch’s cauldron and the empire’s magic automata. Honey and chicken seem like their flavors would clash, so why is honey chicken so delicious? Because of the bond that forms within the hot frying pan. …Anyway, because this magic packs things in by reordering them at the lowest level, anything too complex ends up a jumbled mess and can’t be restored to its original form. Yet the magic can only be used to put things in and bring them out, not to intentionally mix them together. It’s really just a quick help while on a trip, so it has a lot of flaws. For example, authenticity is everything for art and antiques, so their value would plummet if you used this on them.”

“Hm? That actually sounds kind of dangerous to me.”

“It is very dangerous. Which is why the magic is made to forcibly expel anything alive. Life cannot be made lighter or smaller. Well, with the exception of the legendary alchemist’s Holy Gate.”

“So you see, Compress Cargo won’t work on a house or castle because they are too complex and have too many parts,” said Helen.

“The same goes for firewood. As you should know from the technique of grafting, cutting down the forest’s trees does not fully kill them. But you can use Compress Cargo to get ticks out of a filthy blanket.” Alicia winked in an exasperated way as she gave an explanation for the boy who had never traveled before. She then lowered her voice to make one more addition. “You can say the same thing about the Wicked God horns that give off such great power even after being broken off.”

Once the sun had fully set, the radio started to celebrate in the moonlight.

Under the much-appreciated guidance of Outdoor Expert Helen Clockgear, they had set up just the one tent.

“Ha ha ha!! Too bad, Miyabi. As the only boy, you’re stuck with a lonely night outside. Kids at home, are you sick of this G-rated dreck, yet? Well, you’re in luck because a very adult night is about to begin! And Miyabi? Don’t feel too bad. While I spend my night resting between four amazing breasts and awash in the sweet scent of the girls, I will make sure to enjoy it enough for the both of- ahh!!”

The radio was the one casually tossed out into the cold.

“Yawwn. Okay, let’s get to sleep, boy,” said Alicia. “You too, Alma.”

“Eh? What?”

“Miyabi, scoot in closer,” said Helen. “The tent isn’t very big.”

“~ ~ ~!!!???”

He was dragged inside the tent, which had no walls or partitions of any kind.

When people gathered in a single space, heat also gathered. Especially when those people were an elf and a young woman. So it had not been too cold to sleep.

Nevertheless, Miyabi Blackgarden did not get a wink of sleep.

He was pretty sure they didn’t have to put him in the center…but that was not the reason.

“Hey, um.”

“Yes?”

It was still before dawn, but Alicia responded when he addressed her on his right. Her distinctive long and pointy ears were twitching. They were picking up this threat too, so Miyabi paled in the darkness.

“They’ve come to play, haven’t they? I can sense something outside the tent! Is that the radio’s curse or something!?”

“Sh! Be quiet, Miyabi!”

Helen was also awake on his left. He did not hear her rummaging around, so she must have still had her glasses on. Did that mean none of them had gotten any sleep?

There was good reason for that.

The wax-coated waterproof tent was thick, but still only a single layer of fabric, and they could hear a deep growling from the other side. The clacking footsteps told them whatever this was had thick claws capable of tearing through the tent in a single strike.

Miyabi gulped while lying motionless in the tent.

“That sounds like more than just one.”

“This isn’t a cheap tent,” said Helen. “What happened to the safety features? The outside should be covered by a monster-repelling magic circle while we sleep.”

“Oops.”

The two humans glared coldly at the elf.

Her long ears twitched and she poked her index fingers together in front of her medium-sized chest.

“Funny story about that. Um… (I’m sorry, but those beast-repelling spells are so imprecise they would also repel a pretty elf like me from the tent and I figured there wouldn’t be any real monsters this close to the village anyway, so…ah ha ha.)”

“Miyabi, on the count of three.”

“Got it, Helen. We can chuck this moron out of the tent as a diversion. What’s the point of an immortal elf if she’s dumb as a brick?”

“I’m sorryyyy!!” sobbed Alicia while clinging to Miyabi.

The green stuffed animal creature only now rubbed its sleepy eyes and gave them a puzzled look.

But even if they did use the elf as an offering to nature, Miyabi and Helen had nowhere to escape to. This was a wide-open plain, so there were no walled cities or cliffs that would stop a beast from pursuing them. They knew they could not outrun a legit beast, so the elf’s noble sacrifice would be in vain. They would all die soon enough.

“Miyabi, Miyabi.” The glasses woman, whose skillset included cooking and assassinations, beckoned him over. “Assassination magic includes the Sleep and Confusion spells. Let’s take some random food – yes, like this leftover soup in the pot – enchant it, and throw it outside. On this part of the plain, we’re probably dealing with Shadow Hyenas, a type of Anti-Zombie that will eat just about anything. They aren’t very smart, but they’ll go straight for any tasty-looking food.”

“Oh, this is sounding like a real plan. What can I do to help?”

“Kick that stupid elf outside to buy me enough time to finish the incantations.”

“Aye, aye, ma’am. But wouldn’t it be faster to just enchant her?”

“I said I was sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

The boy only said “yes” or “right away” to every instruction, so he seriously prepared to kick Alicia out. But then…

“Ahhhh ha ha!! Could you travelers use a hand!?”

A strange voice came out of nowhere.

It spoke human language, so it probably wasn’t the Beast Novae. And sure enough, they heard several explosions and shockwaves outside the tent, followed by the cries of the monsters.

And these cries were all pitiful whines and shrieks.

The group in the tent exchanged a glance.

“Wh-what now?” asked Alicia. “I think something’s happening out there.”

“If we can communicate with whoever this is, it’s a step up from before,” said Miyabi. “I get the feeling that approaching them like a normal person won’t get us anywhere, though.”

“But if they have even half a brain, they’ll probably check inside the tent if we don’t say anything!”

Miyabi slowly opened the tent flap and poked his head out.

Monster corpses littered the ground.

They had black fur and red eyes (were they Shadow Hyenas?) and Beast Novae like that would be terrifying to run across. In fact, any wild animal bigger than a large dog would be. Yet these had fallen by the dozens.

Someone stood at the center of the KO’d beasts.

She stood proud and tall.

The beautiful woman of around 20 wore a red dress and had her long black hair parted behind her head with the ends braided. But the bight leg showing from the bold slit in her skirt and the gloves over her hands were too aggressive to simply describe her as alluring and sexy. Not to mention the humongous axe taller than she was with its blade scraping against the ground.

When their eyes met, she grinned like a child and gave him a peace sign. She was a very different kind of beautiful young woman than Helen. For example, Helen’s tight skirt provided the hope of seeing something without ever quite providing a glimpse, but the wide slit in this woman’s skirt was very generous when it came to glimpses of her black underwear. Which was a problem. Especially when they were black! But she didn’t seem to care at all.

“Hello, travelers. That was a close one, huh?”

“Oh, maybe she isn’t that weird after all. No one with an axe could be a bad person.”

“(Miyabi,)” whispered Helen. “(I know you grew up in a logging village, but you have to know that reasoning is absurd. If you saw a masked serial killer, would you walk over to shake their hand!?)”

“(The poor fool has fallen for the Curse of the Shadow Panties,)” added Alicia. “(You need to break free!)”

But the red dress martial artist (with black underwear) showed no intention of attacking them. Still smiling, she pointed here and there.

“If you don’t mind, could I borrow that firewood? You lucked into a whole lot of Beast Nova meat, but you can’t eat it all before it rots, can you?”

“D-don’t talk about eating Beast Novae in front Alma and me. That’s discriminatory language! And that bright smile only makes it worse!”

Alicia held green Alma in her arms and trembled. The stuffed animal creature only looked sleepy.

The red dress woman ignored that, held a hand over the remains of their campfire, and magically started a new fire. Something like smoke burst out and then then the collapsed beasts were transformed into meat on the bone in no time at all.

That was the meat processing magic called Target Cooker.

It only worked on dead animals, so it had no effect on living targets. It eliminated the painstaking processing of draining the blood and removing the organs, but the fur, fangs, and any other “inedible” parts would vanish into thin air. The professional hunters in Miyabi’s village avoided using it for that reason.

Since it worked on anything “dead”, it could also be used on the rotting Undead type of monster, but that was forbidden.

“I’m Victia Magnumfist.”

“Are you?”

“I’m working to establish a self-defense style I’ve developed so anyone can travel safely and comfortably, but I haven’t had much luck so far. So how about it? Learn my techniques and you’ll never find yourself in that sort of trouble again.”

“That sounds wonderful, but how long does it take to learn these techniques?”

“Ah ha ha! Don’t be so cautious. I’ve designed my training methods with beginners in mind. Anyone can learn it with ease after only three or so broken bones and about half a year living on the border between life and death!”

“…”

“And I’ve been feeling pretty lonely, so I would love an apprentice. How about it? You’d be Apprentice #1, so I’d make sure to give you extra TLC!”

Miyabi was sorely tempted by those large boobs, that bared thigh, and the black underwear, but he caught himself. Could he really keep up if he was asked to play with bears or tigers? He also had to wonder what exactly her idea of TLC was. He would be all for it if it meant learning some pinning techniques that involved a lot of close body contact, but he had a feeling it would not be anything that fun. The instant he agreed, he just knew something bad would be coming his way. Something real bad.

“(Hey, Miyabi,)” whispered Alicia. “(We need to neutralize her. Do you think you could convince her to give up that axe?)”

“Oh? You have a sharp eye, Miss Elf. Your suspicions are correct: I am even stronger in barehanded combat. The axe is a handicap to slow me down. Ah ha ha!!”

“…”

They all fell silent this time.

This was extremely bad.

She was harmless now while she was laughing, but they knew they could not afford to make her mad. In fact, they had heard a few explosions outside the tent, but did this mean she hadn’t used any magic for that?

Miyabi laughed with the ugliest smile he had made that day.

“Ha ha ha. Today’s not a good day for me, so maybe next time?”

“Ah ha ha. Let’s do it now.”

“Today’s a bad day. Next time?”

“Ah ha ha.”

“Today bad.”

“Now good.”

No matter how ugly he made his smile, he couldn’t get through to the smiling dress woman. They all realized this was never going to end unless he said yes. Worse, her fist was clenching tighter and tighter even though she was still smiling. Her limit was fast approaching.

Helen whispered with worry coloring her face.

“(Miyabi, Miyabi. Why not test out that thing here?)”

“What thing?”

“(That small island surrounded by magical barriers or cracks in the world. Was it called Horn Fortress? Anyway, that hideout only you can use. Why not call in the Lucifer Horn, scoop her up, and carry her off as an inactive party member? We need to put as much distance between her and us as possible. I don’t think she means any harm, but keeping her around will only lead to trouble.)”

That idea hadn’t occurred to him.

This was a journey of firsts for Miyabi Blackgarden and now he stabbed his control sword into the ground.

“Lucifer Horn, do the thing Helen just described!”

It flew in.

“Okay, everyone! How about we start with the basics? Don’t worry, I’ve gone through it all myself. When you break your first bone, your body will figure out on its own how to heal it as good as new!! …Oh?”

The woman finally noticed something was amiss.

A long, long wire dangled down from the Lucifer Horn, which caught Victia Magnumfist’s red dress on the back of the neck.

Then it flew off.

“Ohh? Wait, what is this? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Her scream vanished into the night sky.

Miyabi’s eyes widened at what he had done.

“Ehh!? That’s how it retrieves party members!? I never want to fly like that! I want something fun, like riding on a broom or on a dragon’s back!”

Apparently, the Lucifer Horn could not slowly descend for them.

They had acquired a reliable new party member, but Helen was staring off into the distance.

“I-is she even still alive after that?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Alicia Blueforest showed no mercy. “It’s basically impossible to kill a moron.”

After a few heart-pounding nights camping out, it was the third day of their quest.

They were all exhausted by the time they arrived at the northern inn town.

“Ughhh. I-I never did catch a single fish,” complained Alicia. “I’m so sick of those dried foods! Give me something hot to eat!!”

“…”

“Oh? What’s wrong, Miyabi?” asked Helen. “Hee hee. Feeling homesick already?”

The capable glasses woman failed to realize how he felt after getting so little sleep. Unbeknownst to her, she tossed and turned in her sleep a lot, so his face had been violently attacked by her boobs time and again during the night. And to turn that seduction into a finishing blow, she had a bad habit of reflexively jabbing a knee between his legs whenever he stirred. It was all well beyond what he would consider a reward.

There were several rusted railroad tracks left on the ground, but they all had developed gaps in places. Miyabi could not imagine why the trains had stopped traveling through here. The town itself had a lot of windmills and water storage tanks. He could tell the people left here had stubbornly clung to life even after they were cut off from the outside world.

There were a lot of people.

Were they from the village, or were they here to buy some junk? Miyabi had grown up in a village where everyone held the same values, so he found it strange to see such a mixture of people wearing different clothes and eating different foods.

“I don’t like the air here.” The elf sounded sick as she looked to the gray metal houses and stores made from gathered junk. “I miss my forest.”

But they had no time to rest.

A dark colossus already towered above them.

It was 400m long…or was it 500? And it had to be at least 20m tall.

That was the strongest power that worked to keep the trade routes safe and secure. The train was loaded with boxes and barrels, but did those use the Compress Cargo magic that had fit so much inside that small bag? If so, how much cargo was it carrying across the continent?

Helen consciously calmed her breathing before speaking.

“So that’s the Schwarz Schütze. It really is big.”

“It’s more conspicuous than the entire inn town,” said Alicia.

But this meant the girl waiting for them was surprisingly faithful to her promises. They had made sure they could complete the trip with time to spare, but would she have kept waiting even if they were late?

“You think that thing’s conspicuous? Then check this out: a real life high-class girl. That’s the thing about a fantasy world – all the girls belong to some rare type or another!”

The radio was right.

One of the many side doors silently opened. She must have decided they were approaching the train to meet her, not just gawking from afar.

“So you have finally arrived.” Celina Bodenburg, the rich girl who valued money above all, brushed her blonde hair back from her shoulder. “Punctuality is a crucial part of running a business, so even if you have a Wicked God horn to sell me, I don’t have all day to-”

Her words stopped.

They caught in her throat.

“…”

Her eyes bulged out.

She looked like she couldn’t even breathe as she pointed at them.

“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Y-you!?”

She even had tears in her eyes.

What kind of connections was she making in her head?

“So the new horn in the letter was…no, the entire letter was a lie, wasn’t it!? Of course it was! What ‘new horn’ could anyone have found other than the one in the odious Lucifer Horn!?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her fists, and lightly pummeled Miyabi’s chest. Even though she had a Godhorn Tech right there. Miyabi was dumbfounded.

“Argh, enough of this!”

The short-tempered elf brought her fist down on the new money girl’s head.

“Ughh.”

Celina Bodenburg sobbed for a bit, but then the wiring in her brain seemed to reconnect. Without warning, she grabbed her bayonet-equipped hunting rifle – the control gun for the Schwarz Schütze.

The boy stared in shock.

If she stabbed that into the dry ground or the rusty and incomplete tracks, then the world would be destroyed around them.

“So this was a trap, was it? Control gun, connect to the horn core. Tactical open!!”

“Wait, wait!” shouted Miyabi. “I really did bring a Wicked God horn for you. Just hear me out!!”

“You…what?”

Her surprise was overwritten by his proof.

With an explosive roar, a colossal form cut by overhead.

“Bomber Lucifer Horn.” He spoke the name of his card. “I ended up with it by pure happenstance and it’s honestly too much for me! But I can’t just throw it out. I want an expert to take it off my hands. Is that so hard to believe?”

“…”

Silence followed.

Was she taken aback, or suspicious?

“A Godhorn Tech is extremely powerful. That doesn’t seem like enough of a reason to get rid of one.”

“Even thought it means having people like you after me all the time? I don’t want to go on some rampage across the world; I just want my normal life back.”

Yes. In Celina’s money-focused worldview, there was no advantage to giving up a Godhorn Tech. But what about the disadvantages of keeping it? Calculating risk was a part of business.

“And Moebius agreed to this?”

“He neglected to mention how dangerous it would be.” Miyabi shook his head like he was washing his hands of all this. “If he can pass it off to me and escape, then I should be allowed to do the same! Please, just give me my life back!!”

“…”

More silence.

But the temperature was different this time. She seemed to be assessing him.

“Well, I can do that for you if you want. Have the Lucifer Horn land according to my instructions.”

“You mean it!?”

“But there is an etiquette for such things.” She winked. “Just continue to follow my instructions.”

Chapter 2 Section 3

A powerful, heavy rumbling shook the armored train.

The Schwarz Schütze was traveling even further north. Despite the season, white snow coated the ground outside.

Miyabi had been taught that trains were inconvenient vehicles that could only run on the metal rails already installed through largescale construction projects, but everything had its exceptions.

The Schwarz Schütze laid its own rails as it went.

Alicia used her knowledge of alchemy to explain that the two rollers on the front of the train were laying out short rails like bricks to endlessly construct a track for itself. That left great scars on the ground after it passed through, which infuriated the nature-loving elf, but Miyabi honestly wanted to see it in action from the outside.

“We’re riding it.” Miyabi was weirdly excited for someone in the middle of enemy territory. “We’re riding a Godhorn Tech. Wow, can you believe it? This thing is so weird.”

“If you ask me, it’s weirder for a weapon of this size to leave the user on the outside.” Helen sounded somewhat exasperated. “Not that the Republic knows much about these things.”

Miyabi had only ever played around in the forest’s trees, so he didn’t understand how this product of alchemy worked. Alicia knew enough about alchemy to be shocked by how ridiculously wasteful it was, but only two things really mattered: the Lucifer Horn was strapped to the enormous train’s roof, and Miyabi’s group were onboard the train.

Alma remained the green of the wind-element Quetzalcoatl, so manmade metal and stone must not have qualified as a new environment.

(I’m going to destroy this thing.)

Miyabi still couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

This was a vehicle, but it had a second and third floor.

Just one of its cars could fit five or even ten of his log house inside, but several of those cars were linked together, giving it a worm-like shape. He wondered if all of the village’s buildings, from the homes to the church, would fit inside the train.

(Can I really do this? Moebius has been right so far, but he didn’t give us the next step. Just that we need to find a weakness inside it. He said we were sure to find something if we looked at it from a different angle, but I’m not so sure.)

He had known it was used to transport cargo, so he had expected the cars to basically be crude warehouses on wheels, but he instead found a fashionable bar and lounge. It offered a few trendy games like darts and billiards and a ceiling fan slowly spun up above. The magical oven and stovetop visible in the adjoined kitchen suggested that too was top rate. There was a large magically-powered refrigerator and a specialized icemaker. This wasn’t just nicer than Miyabi’s home kitchen; it may have been fancier than the professional kitchen at the village’s pub.

But it made sense when one of the continent’s richest girls lived here. He noticed a faint sweet scent, reminiscent of a girl’s room.

“Are there no maids or other workers onboard?” asked Miyabi, looking around.

“Or bodyguards. The Bodenburg Company should be able to afford private guards superior to your average country’s knights.”

Helen’s comment was a little concerning, but the rural boy did not know enough about military might to fully appreciate its meaning.

“Then is she alone in here? Does everything here run on magic? Wouldn’t she feel faint having so much magic power sucked out of her?”

“Hmph. She probably uses the Wicked God horn for all that,” said Alicia. “It would provide endless energy.”

The palatial interior covered up all of the thick metal walls and floors.

It all felt so much stranger since he could not get a good grip on the scale of the place.

He ended up repeating the same thing he had said countless times that day.

“W-whoa. It sure does shake a lot. You can really tell it’s moving.”

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

Alma danced happily atop the bar counter. The creature adapted quick, maybe because it was so young. The long-eared elf sat in a nearby bar stool to observe the juvenile Wicked God.

“Alma, you aren’t feeling sick, are you? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You can use this if you need to.”

“Hey, you aren’t opening up my head for use as a barf bag, are you!?”

The hag and the radio started arguing, until…

“Sorry about the wait, everyone.”

A lovely girl’s voice took charge of the scene.

It belonged to Celina Bodenburg.

“The Wicked God horn built into Godhorn Tech might as well be pure energy. Safely removing one is a very different task than simply installing one. Not even our company has reached that level, so we must visit the snowy Arsenal Kingdom far to the north.”

That explained their journey.

“Okay, that much I get.”

Maybe he was being tactless, but Miyabi couldn’t help but stare. A double take was not enough.

That rich girl was wearing a flirty maid uniform featuring knee socks, a miniskirt, and plenty of cleavage. It was so frilly she looked more like a fairy tale heroine than a housekeeper.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

“Why? Because these are my work clothes.”

The miniskirt maid seemed puzzled by Miyabi’s question, but the radio could not stay silent.

“Damn, we are breaking new ground here. Those gaudy maids handing out fliers in front of the train station are fine, but an airheaded rich girl in an authentic maid uniform takes the cake!”

“Reminds you of a recent nightmare, doesn’t it, Venus?”

“Bwahh!?”

The elf’s attack on the glasses woman must have done considerable damage since she had to cling to the nearby billiards table for support. Miyabi wanted to tell her not to stick her butt out in her tight skirt like that, but he didn’t have the guts to say it out loud.

The strange maid shrugged.

“I don’t like it one bit, but you are important business partners. So until our business is concluded, it is my duty to provide you with the utmost in comfort. I chose this housekeeper uniform out of necessity, so I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Is that how it works? wondered Miyabi. I really don’t understand her obsession with money.

However…

“Nothing…at…all.”

“See, I knew that maid uniform was a step too far!! You don’t have to do this for us!”

The girl blushed and the busty glasses woman shouted a warning at Miyabi.

“Wait, Miyabi! Your kindness is like salt in the wound!! Believe me, I know! I know all too well!!”

But Celina refused to admit defeat. She was red in the face with tears in her eyes, but she managed to keep her voice strong.

“A-after all, a Wicked God horn is worth at least a billion methods. Failure is not an option here. I will do anything to land this deal!”

“Bff!? A b-billion!? But a dozen pieces of firewood only gets you five at the most!!”

“Really, boy?” said Alicia.

“Why not forget all this serious crap and go make yourself an island of nothing but girls, swimsuits, and dreams? Hell, you can use that Horn Fortress thing, can’t you? You can snatch up girls from all around the world to populate your island.”

“You be quiet, malfunctioning radio!”

Something about that exchange made Celina raise an eyebrow, but her suspicions were unfounded.

“What’s this? You aren’t trying to pull a fast one on me, are you?”

“O-of course not! But could we put off all this complicated business talk till later!?”

Miyabi was not trying to make waves here.

They were not at all interested in making a deal with the horn. They were using that as a pretext to infiltrate the Schwarz Schütze and find some way to incapacitate it.

He wanted to avoid a battle between bomber and armored train if it all possible.

“Sounds to me like we can boss her around for now,” said Alicia. “Hey, maid. Could you bring us some tea?”

“You’ve got guts, elf.”

The radio was a piece of junk, but it was generally correct.

“P-please, make yourself at home,” said the girl in the unfamiliar maid uniform.

The Arsenal Kingdom was a long way off, so they had plenty of time.

“Feel free to take a look around our company’s pride and joy – the Schwarz Schütze.”

They took her up on that offer to inspect the interior of the train. And when they split up, Celina could not keep an eye on them all.

“Would you like anything to eat?” awkwardly asked the nervous maid in the lounge. “I will do my very best to prepare something for you. I-I should be able to make some s-sandwiches maybe?”

“No, thanks. This place is incredible, though. So you have everything you need here on the train?”

“Enjoying a trip alone is one form of luxury. Having an army of butlers and maids at your beck and call is nice, but it becomes stifling after a while.”

The truly privileged had apparently figured out how to complain about their own privilege.

Celina smiled in a very upper class sort of way.

“Also, I must travel across the continent expanding our trade routes, but there is a lot a girl needs to keep with her.”

“That’s not what I meant. Why not use your hideout? Y’know, the Horn Fortress.”

“?”

For once, she looked truly puzzled.

Finally, anger silently spread across her face.

“Is that…some kind of super-secret Godhorn Tech feature I am not aware of? Oh, I see what’s going on here now. You’re showing off in an attempt to drag some information out of me. Impressive. You have guts attempting such rhetorical trickery against the only daughter of the Bodenburg Company.”

“Eh? No, um, that’s just something Moebius told me about. It’s apparently a secret base where you can take your party members, create items, and set up magic circles to boost your Godhorn Tech’s power.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about. You can sit here bragging about how special you are if you like, but I want no part of it! Hmph!!”

She seemed legitimately upset, so could she really not do it?

Miyabi himself did not see it as bragging since he considered everything about the Godhorn Tech to be borrowed power.

(And the way that wire snags people looks dangerous, so I’d rather not use it if at all possible. If you aren’t a freak like Victia, you’d probably freeze to death. That bomber isn’t made to gently land and pick you up, so I would honestly prefer an armored train that runs along the ground.)

Anyway.

Letting her brag instantly put her back in a good mood. She was holding her head high by the time they arrived at the crude cargo hold where wooden and metal boxes (she called them cargo containers) were stacked as high as a three-story building.

“Heh heh. This right here is the world’s safest cargo hold. A horde of bandits and the worst road conditions won’t harm the products in here. Although at the moment, our most valuable item is the Godhorn Tech strapped to the roof.”

There was also a space lined with countless glass lab equipment.

“Alchemy is crucial to the Schwarz Schütze,” she explained. “The many ultra-hard artillery shells and the very rails that support the train are all made with our own exclusive alchemy. Not only can it continue fighting indefinitely, but it can clear even the worst road conditions with its real-time track laying system!”

She then showed off the foremost room, which looked very important.

Thick glass had sealed away a massive piece of metal that looked far more daunting and impressive than the pipe organ in the village’s church.

“This is the very heart of the Godhorn Tech: the sealed container. Our company’s arms division gathered the best of its technology to safely manage the massive energy produced by the Wicked God horn contained within!”

She’s not a bad girl, concluded Miyabi.

She talked on and on with her head held high when bragging about the Schwarz Schütze. He could tell just how much she wanted to show off the Bodenburg Company’s accomplishments. It was just like a child reading an essay they wrote about their parents’ jobs. If you could ignore the dangerous content of her speech, the tone of voice and mannerisms were downright heartwarming.

Money was everything to her, so dealing with her on equal footing would be difficult. The instant their business deal fell through, she would be his enemy. He really wished they could have met under different circumstances.

Since he was her direct business partner in this deal, she generally followed him around.

Like a chick. Or like a child extoling her parent’s jobs to a visiting friend.

Still, his party found a chance to gather alone.

Strangely, things felt much more dangerous the instant their supposed enemy was absent.

“Kyoo kyoo☆”

“Has this vile thing developed a taste for tea? No! It’s trying to use a shared interest to score points with the rich girl. This vile beast is aiming for a harem end!!”

The rest of them ignored Alma and the radio.

Helen got started while seating her tight skirt butt on a wooden barrel labeled “truffles” and crossing her long legs.

“If we’re going to do damage from within, the alchemy ceremonial ground looks like the best candidate to me. She has more equipment and chemicals in there than the capital’s research library. And keeping such fragile equipment in a moving train is absurd enough on its own.”

“Hmm,” said Alicia. “Or we could use the Lucifer Horn to make a pinpoint attack on one of the links between cars. Those are a structural weak link, so an aerial bombing should be enough to slice right through them. That would be devastating while at speed. We only have to leave a marker at the desired point.”

That was technically possible.

For example, a Decoy Wall could draw in a Godhorn Tech attack to accurately divert it from the intended target. So by sandwiching their target between two of them, the falling beam of light would be twisted around so it sliced through both walls with the one attack.

“When do we make our attack?” asked Alicia. “We need to set things up here, but I would also like to escape before the attack begins.”

“…”

Miyabi fell silent, but not just because he was pondering the coming operation. There was an obvious cloud over his face.

He knew there was no avoiding a battle with Celina at this point. And if they lost their advantage, his home or village might be razed to the ground by the armored train’s firepower.

But still.

Celina was not with them because she was working with the oven. A look through the glass door showed her focused on baking the food she planned to serve them. She generally ate frozen and preserved foods, but she claimed to specialize in baking sweets because she refused to compromise with them.

Alicia Blueforest sighed when she noticed.

“Snap out of it, horny boy.”

“What?”

“That miniskirt maid outfit isn’t distracting you from our goal here, is it?”

“I know it’s all I’m thinking about,” said the radio, earning it a solid blow from the elf’s small fist.

“We came here so we could defeat Celina,” she reminded Miyabi.

“Failure is not an option now that you’ve used your Godhorn Tech as bait.” Helen calmly chimed in. “It will be dismantled once we arrive in the Arsenal Kingdom, so we have to settle this before then.”

“I know that,” grumbled Miyabi.

Down at his feet, Alma noticed something and began crying.

“Kyoo, kyoo!”

Celina Bodenburg was returning with her miniskirt maid uniform fluttering around her.

“Oh, you’ve all gathered in here? The cookies will take a while longer to bake, so why not head in there to talk? Don’t worry. I will accompany you.”

Helen slipped away and Alicia picked Alma up from the floor with a look that said “you deal with her”.

Celina guided Miyabi back to the lounge. The wonderful sweet aroma likely came from the oven.

Once they were alone together, Miyabi spoke his mind.

“This feels weird.”

“Yes, it does for me as well.”

She pinched the frills of her maid uniform and smiled bitterly.

“Um, I don’t really understand how your family does things.”

“?”

“But I don’t see why you need to do all this just for money.”

She did not immediately respond.

She sat on the edge of the billiards table and sighed first.

“Because money is so simple.”

“Is it though?”

“Hee hee. How about an example?” She ran her finger along a table in the lounge and then did the same with the counter. “This table is obviously not worth much, but this counter is of the finest quality. Now, Miyabi, destroy one or the other.”

He hesitated, but he could tell not choosing was not an option.

He drew his control sword.

The Lucifer Horn was in sleep mode, so he was barely receiving any power from the horn. Still, it was far sharper than the average blade.

He chose one of the options and a crash of destruction echoed through the lounge.

“See?” She smiled with just a hint of loneliness mixed in. “People either sacrifice the cheaper one, or they destroy the more expensive one because they can. Either way, they make their choice by ranking the options based on monetary value.”

“…”

“Money is simple.”

She sounded like she was speaking to herself more than him.

“My father always says so. As does my mother.”

Hadn’t Moebius Entrance said she was raised to think this way?

“With money, people will accept you. With money, you can grow. With money, you can do anything you want. With money, you can even protect people’s lives.”

She listed them off like lines of a lullaby.

But the lonely girl whispered one last line.

“With money…your parents will call you a good girl.”

“Wait…”

“The money itself is meaningless. The possibilities that money opens up for you are what matter.”

There was a gentleness to her voice.

Like this was a mantra driven into her day after day as far back as she could remember.

“Enjoying a trip alone is one form of luxury. Having an army of butlers and maids at your beck and call is nice, but it becomes stifling after a while.”

When he first heard her say that, it had disgusted him. It had sounded like the privileged complaining about their own privilege.

But looking back, he realized she had never mentioned her family or any friends.

“And that is enough reason for me to fight to the best of my ability. Feeling disillusioned?”

He started to say something, but he was cut off by a high-pitched ringing.

His heart skipped a beat because he initially thought it was the sign of a nearby sorcery bomb, but apparently not. Celina also looked up toward the ceiling.

“What was that?” he asked.

“A transmission is coming in.”

Celina approached a box on the wall behind the counter. Several thick pipes had covers over them, but this looked different from the speaking tubes he had seen in plays.

“Oh?”

“Kssshhh.”

“It appears to be from outside, but the signal quality is poor.”

She sighed and started fiddling with the device on the wall. He realized it must be difficult for just the one person to look after the entire armored train. And while he knew she was fixated on her work, he really wished she would stop bending over and sticking her small butt out toward him. He was only trying to see what was going on, yet the shortness of her maid uniform’s skirt kept giving him some very distracting glimpses!

“Excuse me, but would you mind helping out? Giving it a solid whack here should do the trick.”

After a loud “thwack!”, the static vanished.

The Schwarz Schütze lived up to its reputation. It seemed his solid control sword could only destroy the wooden furniture.

At any rate, the device was working again. The static coming from the ceiling was replaced by a cool female voice.

“This is Eliza Silverstorm of the White Seidr Chosen Knights. I have identified you as the Bodenburg Company’s armored train.”

“From the Arsenal Kingdom? Thank you for your cooperation.”

Celina must have been through this process before.

Miyabi had been nervous simply leaving his village, but she traveled across the continent to make business deals that rivaled national budgets. She could handle this just fine.

“I assume you have received the entrance request I sent. Surely you won’t claim my messenger harpy got lost along the way.”

“That form is just that: a request. You have no guarantee it will be accepted.”

But even the country boy could tell this was not going well.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Celina grabbed the metal pipe more firmly.

“The Arsenal Kingdom is a northern kingdom buried in deep snow. You might have meat, but I believe your average vegetable production is well below the self-sufficiency rate. Making an enemy of our company will only mean starvation after trade slows to a crawl.”

“You have guts gathering our internal information in the name of business. But this is an emergency. Do I sound like I want to pick a fight with you?”

Miyabi was close to panicking at this point.

“Wait, what’s going on here?”

“We received another letter. An anonymous letter,” responded the female voice. “It alleges that a portion of your train has been replaced with one of the 11th’s sorcery bombs.”

“What!?”

Miyabi felt his throat go dry.

“It also said you may be unaware of this fact.”

Why were they bringing up sorcery bombs now?

“We cannot possibly let you in under those circumstances. We are a fortified kingdom with thick walls surrounding our limited land. A blast of that magnitude within the walls would blow away the castle town where our people live and could do the same to the king’s castle as well. The king gave me my orders once the letter arrived, so this is the entire kingdom’s decision. If you wish to disregard that decision, then provide proof that your train is safe.”

“What is the meaning of this?” asked Celina.

“I wish I knew,” said the voice.

“…”

Miyabi was even more confused than those two.

What was happening here?

“The Arsenal Kingdom’s king is a good friend of my father’s.” The girl weighed things on unseen scales. “I doubt he would make a meaningless bluff here. So is it true?” She spun around. “Miyabi, I need your help to locate the sorcery bomb.”

The rhythmic rumbling continued.

The Schwarz Schütze continued on its way. The fear filling the girl’s chest may have told her that stopping would be admitting to the worst-case scenario here.

Not only was the train long, but it was multiple stories tall as well. But since Miyabi and Celina split up to search the train, he had a chance to speak with his party without her noticing.

“Koo koo!”

“Sorry, Alma, but it’ll have to wait!”

Young Alma was toddling along by his feet, but speaking with it would not help at the moment. That meant he had to contact Alicia or Helen.

Any alchemist would want a chance to check out someone else’s lab, so Alicia was absorbed in the alchemy ceremonial ground. The radio hanging from her neck didn’t have a care in the world.

“Hm? Is that the time limit lighting? Do we have enough time to open some treasure chests???”

“(H-hey,)” whispered Alicia. “(I don’t see anything set up in the alchemy lab, so did you set the marker on the car connection after all? Either way, you should have told us the plan before you got started!)”

Her question told him she had no idea what was happening. She had not even heard about the sorcery bomb.

He also tried asking Helen after finding her in the cargo hold full of wooden and metal boxes.

“I-is something wrong, Miyabi?” She approached close enough to whisper. “(What’s our escape route? We can’t just jump out at this speed, but I hope you aren’t planning to scoop us up with the Lucifer Horn!)”

She also knew nothing and was starved for information.

Regardless, now was not the time for conspiracies and attempts to outwit each other. All of them gathered in the lounge just in time for Celina to return from her search with her maid uniform’s short skirt fluttering.

And…

“You can’t find it?” he asked, feeling dazed.

That was the only possible conclusion when she too had completed a circuit of the train and returned to the lounge.

“Koo?”

“But I doubt the snowy Arsenal Kingdom is picking a fight with our company. They are reliant on our imports for food.” Celina responded immediately, showing how confident she was in that fact. “My father has built a strong connection with them and they are a major business partner, so there must be something to this warning.”

But was she really thinking about this clearly?

To Miyabi, it looked more like she was simply grasping at her trust in her family in her panic.

She unfurled a large parchment map atop the billiards table.

No, it was the armored train’s internal design.

She glanced over at Miyabi and hesitated for just a moment, suggesting she should not be letting outsiders see this, but she finally pushed past her doubts.

Then she grabbed a small box from the edge of the bar counter. It gave off a sweet aroma, so it may have been made from pieces of an aged fruit wine barrel. She poured the darts it contained onto the billiards table.

“Miyabi, stick a dart in the areas you checked. All of them.”

“Um, here, and here, and then here…and here I think?”

“I checked here and here. What about the rest of you? …??? I don’t know what to think now. This covers everything from the cargo hold to the alchemy ceremonial ground!! Then where could it-?”

“Celina.”

“N-no, it’s nothing. That couldn’t be.”

She shook her head and glared down at the parchment.

“Again.” She looked ready to chew on her thumbnail. “We need to search it all again!! Yes, that’s it. It might be mixed in with all the boxes and barrels containing the Compress Cargo items.”

“It’s no use, Celina.” Miyabi shook his head. “I already looked around everywhere beforehand, but I didn’t sense the horn resonance. That means we aren’t going to find it anywhere!”

“Resonance? Are you saying you can sense a sorcery bomb’s location!? But I can’t do that…”

“That isn’t what matters right now!”

She started to veer off track, so he verbally forced her back. She seemed aware they did not have time for an extended questioning session because she went along with it and placed a hand on her slender chin.

“In that case…”

That was when another transmission arrived.

But this time, the knight named Eliza sounded much more violent.

“Stop, Schwarz Schütze!”

An icy sensation pierced Miyabi’s heart. His head shot up and his eyes met with Celina’s rather than Alicia’s or Helen’s. They had both been on the receiving end of this great a threat in the past, so they could sense it on an instinctual level.

It was coming.

Something equal or greater to their own power was on its way.

“Approach any further and I will stop you with my Snow Sleigh Godhorn Tech – the Icicle Bullet.”

A violent tremor ran through the train.

Impossibly, it shook side to side, along with the scream of straining metal.

“Kyah!?”

“It directly…hit us!?”

He gasped. Celina lost her balance and he tried to catch her, but then both of them were slammed against the wall.

Even if it had come as a surprise, a single attack had done this to the Schwarz Schütze.

“Kh! Schwarz Schütze, respond with a direct attack of our own!! Immediately activate calcination of the 12 operations!!”

“It is no use. I am more powerful when it comes to pure tackling force. You might have managed a draw in a head-on collision, but you should know I have won from the moment I scored a hit on your side.”

Eliza was right.

Celina had done something, but it did nothing to stop the disconcerting noises.

The armored train was massive enough to forcibly take the star position no matter where it was and it could plow through anything standing in its way, yet it was clearly sliding to the side.

The maid girl paled.

“B-but not even crashing a great mass into the side should be able to-”

“I have derailed you,” curtly stated the ice knight before correcting herself. “Correction, I have overturned you.”

With a great roar, Miyabi’s vision tumbled and his mind was shattered into a million pieces.

Even if the armored train could lay its own track, there was nothing it could do once it rolled onto its side.

The knight’s iron will to keep the sorcery bomb away from her kingdom had rejected their entry.

Chapter 2 Section 4

Strangely, he did not feel cold.

Which scared him.

“Ow…”

Miyabi Blackgarden was lying on his back and he had to extract each of his limbs from the deep snow before he could slowly get up. Nothing seemed to be broken, but where was he? He was surrounded by a raging blizzard and an unfamiliar pointy type of tree jutted up into the frigid sky. A portion of that forest had been brought down by a scattering of metal rails, wooden boxes, and more detritus.

And by colossal train cars.

(I-I was thrown outside?)

Glass shards and wooden splinters were everywhere. Fancy truffles spilled from a broken barrel and he did not even want to think about how much those had to be worth. The kind of cutting-edge phonograph and film projector never seen in his village were smashed and half-buried in snow. The entire area would have looked like a treasure trove to the scrap collectors who had gathered in that inn town full of sheet iron and rusted rails.

With this much of the contents spilled, the armored train’s exterior could not have survived intact.

The links between cars had broken and they had rolled onto their sides. They were spread out over a wide area, so they and the scattered cargo containers built a strange 3D labyrinth as far as the eye could see.

Miyabi found himself outside.

What had happened to the giant front car? The entire car may have been torn asunder instead of just having the link to the next car broken.

“Are the others okay?”

Miyabi saw the others lying nearby and half-buried in the snow, so he called out to them. His body was number than he had thought. He experienced a general lack of feeling more than any pain from the impact of being thrown clear, but that was no reason to relax. Not feeling the biting cold could easily mean he was close to death.

“K-kyoo…”

“Are you all right, Alma?” asked Alicia. “Even for a Wicked God, that must have been rough at your age. But it’s okay now.”

“It turns out the body you made for me is sturdy, but a little concern would be nice.”

Alma and the radio seemed unharmed and Helen Clockgear mostly looked exasperated.

With a quiet popping sound, Alma’s coloration changed again within Alicia’s tight grasp. The creature was red now. The burning red seemed at odds with the snowy kingdom.

“Ohh!? Is that supposed to be the fire element Phoenix? You’re just so cute!!”

“At least you won’t blend in to your surroundings like with the green of the fields,” bluntly stated Miyabi, noting that this new form did not look any more useful in combat than the last one.

Was this meant to fight the cold rather than function as camouflage? But despite the fiery appearance, the elf was not burned as she held Alma close and rubbed her cheek against it. He tried snatching Alma up (to Alicia Blueforest’s protests), but he felt no warmth at all from the useless thing.

Miyabi held the juvenile Wicked God up out of the short elf’s reach, causing her to hop up and down trying to grab the one member of their party protected from the cold, but his little game was interrupted.

Celina Bodenburg appeared to be having trouble with the blizzard in her flirty miniskirt maid uniform. Her movements were stiff and slow as she got up.

A deep tremor ran through the white land and clumps of snow fell from the conifer trees.

“Eliza’s Icicle Bullet has left.”

That white giant was several dozen meters long. It was designed for ramming attacks, making it look like a spindle-shaped artillery shell with two icy blades attached below it in parallel. It would stab and pierce or crush and flatten. The sorcery weapon felt more specialized than Miyabi’s Lucifer Horn or Celina’s Schwarz Schütze, making it a true oddity. It was so specialized for ramming that the cannon at the center of the top looked puny by comparison. Even though that cannon was enough to obliterate Miyabi’s party on its own.

However, it seemed the still-unseen knight had only been interested in stopping the dangerous train’s approach. She had left without finishing off the survivors. The Icicle Bullet was departing through the blizzard, blasting white snow up from the ground along the way.

But Celina still could not believe what she had seen or what had been done to her.

“What was that about?” she asked. “We never did find a sorcery bomb.”

“…”

“…”

Alicia and Helen maintained poker faces.

(Did those two do something?)

Miyabi was curious, but he could not ask in front of Celina.

And there was a problem with that idea.

(No, you need a Wicked God horn to make one of those. Only the 11th can create a sorcery bomb, so it couldn’t have been them.)

But that thought was cut off by the sudden arrival of the real issue at hand.

A high-pitched, evenly-spaced alarm rang in his head.

His horn was resonating with a sorcery bomb.

“!?”

The ringing was loud and constant. It was terribly distracting when he could not turn it off. But Celina noticed the way his head sprang up to look into the frigid white sky.

“Is something…wrong?” she asked cautiously.

“I can hear it.” He gulped. “It’s just like that other time. I’m detecting a sorcery bomb!?”

They could not ignore this. This was a remote snowy forest, but if the sorcery bomb were to detonate without warning, it could reduce a village or two to ashes. Or so he had been told. He only had Moebius Entrance’s word to go on, but he felt that was better than having seen it for himself. However, the scope of the blast meant running away was not a good plan. With the deep snow hindering their movement, they would never escape the range of the blast in time. They would be swallowed up and blown away.

They had to do something about it themselves.

After the Schwarz Schütze derailed and rolled over, it had spread metal rails, wooden boxes, cargo containers, lab equipment, and furniture everywhere. The twisted remains of the giant cars themselves could be seen further in the distance. Nature and the artificial combined to create a deadly labyrinth in this forest.

“Oh, that’s my clothing bag.”

Celina happily reported a find while shivering in her maid uniform. A sleeve was sticking out of a boxy trunk. It did not appear to use the Compress Cargo magic that allowed so much more to be packed inside. But since that magic wound up the Palette Dice – or folded them up? He could not remember exactly – it apparently reduced the value of art or antiques where authenticity was so important.

“Please wait a moment.”

She circled behind a squashed container and rummaged around for a bit.

“What I wouldn’t give for some camera controls right about now,” lamented the radio.

“What in the world are you talking about?” asked Alicia.

It could not have taken more than 10 minutes in all.

“Thank you for waiting.”

Celina emerged in the black dress adorned with golden embroidery and red gems that she had worn before. It did not appear to use any heat insulation magic.

“That doesn’t look much warmer to me,” commented the elf.

“What is this about a sorcery bomb?” asked Celina. “You said there wasn’t one earlier! Are you saying that anonymous letter was right!?”

Her armored train had been destroyed over this, so he understood why she was upset.

“I can’t explain it either,” was all he could say. “But I can sense it now. If we don’t find the bomb and deal with it, we’ll be blown away along with the entire snowy mountain!”

The distance was all he could sense, so he wanted to walk over a wide area to figure out a general area where the bomb had to be.

It did not have a set form. The previous one had been transformed into a half-rotten and broken tree, so this one could be a box, a barrel, a container, a metal wall piercing into the ground, twisted metal scraps, a billiards table, or a chandelier. Any of the debris strewn across this area could be it, so they could not hope to spot it from a distance.

They walked deeper into the forest, where the remnants of the cars and furniture were. The forest’s trees had been torn down, the cars lay oin their sides with connections broken, and the containers and boxes had fallen in precarious piles. No straight path through lasted for long. They even had to duck below a train car blocking the way and walk along an oblong cargo container spanning a ravine.

Celina did not appreciate navigating a vast labyrinth made from her own possessions.

The contents of the containers and boxes had expanded to their original size when the Compress Cargo magic wore off, making it look like a giant’s toybox had been overturned.

“This feels like one of Strange Guide’s deadly dungeons.”

“?”

“That is a mysterious individual rumored to host death games as a form of entertainment for the immoral members of the wealthy class. I have never seen one for myself, for better or for worse.”

“Hm? The immoral members? Are you saying you’re not like that?”

“Hmph. I will leave that up to your imagination.”

But they were soon interrupted by a low rumbling.

No, a group of Beast Novae passed by close nearby. They were covered in white fur to survive the harsh blizzards and the appeared to be Abominable Snowmen, Werewolves, and the like.

“Kyoo!?”

“Watch out, Alma!”

Alicia moved to protect Alma and then lurched backwards.

“Gh!?”

“Alicia!”

“I-I am fine. I would have died without this hanging from my neck, though. (Grin)”

“What she means is, the claw or fang struck me instead!”

The pervert radio’s legitimate complaint was brushed aside.

Helen cautiously viewed their surroundings with her breath white and a finger on the side of her glasses.

“What is this? Are the Beast Novae afraid of something?”

“Damn, why don’t they focus on running and leave us alone?”

Miyabi had never seen snow monsters before.

They looked a lot more dangerous than the animals in the well-maintained forest of his village. Did the harsh cold environment mean they had to fight harder to survive? Those masses of powerful muscle would normally bring despair to any traveler who encountered them, but now they were fearful and panicked.

Miyabi heard what sounded like the snow and the ground below it tearing apart.

It came from a boar so massive he had to look up at it. The boar must have been agitated because it showed no sign of trying to flee like the other creatures. It was kicking its hind legs at the snow in an attempt to fight.

The philosopher’s stone noted the thick curved tusks.

“Oh…oh dear. Now those things would make short work of me, wouldn’t they?”

“Heh. Is that a fellow forest ruler I see?” said Alicia. “I get what’s going on here. He’s the rear guard, allowing the others to escape!!”

Miyabi’s party would gain nothing from defeating the ruler of this forest. In fact, spending time on it would give them less time for the sorcery bomb.

“My point is that he does not really want to fight. Now, set aside your prejudices, stop insulting him with terms like ‘Beast Nova’, and approach with a smile. I am sure we can work this ou-”

The ruler of the forest charged.

Miyabi swung his control sword to protect the elf who had frozen with a smile on her face. Specifically, he slammed the grip into the boar from the side.

The entire space was shaken by what sounded like a thunderclap.

The enormous boar had to weigh four times Miyabi’s weight, but it spiraled through the air, knocking the trees down along the way. It lay there twitching on the ground after it landed.

What was that?

It had not felt like simply saving his party member.

He stared blankly at his hands on the sword for a while.

This felt so different from when he had been cowering from Celina’s shellfire and searching for the sorcery bomb in the forest, or when the Shadow Hyenas had surrounded their tent that first night out camping. He had only struck the thing with the grip. Only? Since when was Miyabi Blackgarden the kind of person who violently intervened like it was nothing?

Celina looked exasperated by his response while holding a control gun made of the same material.

“Oh? I see you’re getting the hang of it now.”

“…”

“The more experience you gain, the more efficiently you can wield your own power. It acts as the fuel needed to draw out more strength than you knew you had. Do not forget that you possess one of the world’s strongest powers. Is that only now sinking in?”

That meant Celina was the same.

No, she would have even more experience than him.

This went beyond the Godhorn Tech itself. Its wielder grew more inhuman the more they fought.

Combat alone could change people. Even if they were only fighting to protect their everyday life. Alicia and Helen were able to keep up with the battle despite no control sword or Godhorn Tech of their own, so did that experience affect everyone in his party? The rich girl gave a self-deprecating smile and declined to answer any of his questions.

To avoid thinking about it, he focused on the more pressing issue.

The resonance continued to ring in his mind. The sorcery bomb was out there, but he had not yet tracked down its location. Their only options were act now or sit around waiting for it to detonate.

The fleeing Beast Novae demonstrated no intention of fighting, but their fear and desperation were still dangerous. The more panicked they were, the harder it was to predict where they would charge. They could only aim their weapons toward any noises they heard.

“C-can you summon other partner members from Horn Fortress?” asked Helen. “Victia’s obscene strength would come in handy right about now!”

“Where even is that Horn Fortress?” replied Alicia. “How long does it take the Lucifer Horn to travel there and back again!?”

Miyabi swung his control sword this way and that.

“Why do you use a gun? Those things scare me. I’ve seen the plays, so I know those are what gangs use.”

“Sigh. Don’t let the royals and nobles trick you with their jealous lies, Miyabi.”

“?”

“Unlike magic or swordplay, guns are a next-generation all-purpose weapon that provides power equally to all, regardless of intellect or size. However, the powder must be treated with care, something the countries caught up in musty old tradition have a hard time with. They will carelessly let their armory grow too damp or blow up the entire room after an accidental ignition. So while those hardheaded countries dislike guns, they are spreading through newer, more openminded groups. Like, for example, our Bodenburg Company!!”

None of that seemed to address his fears, but he could not say a word more after seeing how she held her (small) chest out proudly.

She would occasionally aim the gun toward a noise and pull the trigger, but it looked like she was trying to frighten the Beast Novae away with the noise, not kill them.

The muzzle-loading rifle was not made for rapid-fire.

She had to stuff powder and a bullet in through the muzzle and cram it down with a long rod after every shot, but she was still fast. It only took the span of a breath. At the very least, she seemed quicker than someone could raise a large two-handed axe and swing it down. He could tell just how much she had used the gun.

As they trudged through the snow in their search, they came across an entire enormous train car. Wires thicker than Miyabi’s arm had snapped and the other Godhorn Tech loaded on its roof was now jabbed into the snow.

“That’s it.” Celina sounded like she had made a discovery. “There was no sorcery bomb on my Schwarz Schütze, so what if the sabotage was on your Lucifer Horn!?”

“Why would it be!?”

“It’s the only logical conclusion!”

She was adamant about this.

She may have been under more pressure than even she was aware.

“You knew you could never defeat my armored train in a fair fight, so you planned an underhanded trick. It all fits!”

The dark-hearted elf could not look the girl in the eye.

“(Ugh. It’s hard to argue when that was more or less our plan.)”

Miyabi took a deep breath.

It irritated him that his exhalations were visible. It felt like he was giving her a way to read his mind.

“Then we would be reduced to ashes along with you. How is that logical!?”

“But.”

“And the reading is coming from further back. It isn’t here.”

Miyabi could sense it.

Without that, he may have had no way of convincing her.

She still looked skeptical, but…

“Oh, right. You said you could somehow sense a sorcery bomb’s location.”

“It’s weird that you can’t.”

His sample size was too small, but since Moebius had gone out of his way to explain how it was done, he could only assume the man could do it too.

Moebius had said he was using the Godhorn Tech’s power to search, so detecting sorcery bombs may have been exclusive to the Lucifer Horn. And if only Miyabi could do it, then it was up to him.

“Just follow me. I’ll show you where the real sorcery bomb is.”

He gave a random swing of his control sword and frowned, noticing something off about it.

The power of the sword clearly weakened when the tip was aimed toward the Lucifer Horn lying on the ground.

“?”

“Obviously you can’t destroy your own Godhorn Tech with your own control device. Where did you think you were drawing that power from?”

But now was not the time for chitchat.

As they continued into the woods, the warning sounds sped up, showing they were getting closer. This was the right direction. There were no wild Beast Novae around here. They had all fled in fear, but from what?

Most of the trees had been toppled here.

At the farthest reaches of the strewn wreckage, the Schwarz Schütze’s front car lay half destroyed on its side.

The ringing was painful at this point.

“It’s here,” he said, his empty hand holding the side of his aching head.

“Kyoo?”

“Here?” repeated Celina, not sure what he meant.

Thick glass covered a mass of metal far more daunting and impressive than the pipe organ in the village’s church.

The girl’s voice wavered as she looked back and forth between Miyabi and the bomb.

“But that’s the Wicked God horn’s sealed container. Are you saying the sorcery bomb was placed on the horn!? Could someone really replace a component here!?”

“It explains why I didn’t notice it before.” Miyabi grimaced from the deafening noise no one else could hear. “My horn or its energy resonate with the bomb, but there was a more powerful reading than the bomb here.”

“Yes, that does make sense,” said Alicia. “This horn was creating too much interference, but now that it has stopped, the bomb’s reading rises to the forefront.”

They continued the conversation without the person who should have been at the center of it.

“W-wait! Are you saying…?”

“Yep,” confirmed the philosopher’s stone. “The only way to stop it is to destroy that thing.”

“Silence, box!! …Box?” Celina tilted her head at what she had just said. “Anyway, we can rebuild the train as long as that survives. But if the sealed container is destroyed, the horn will be destroyed as well and it can never be repaired! Are you telling me to abandon my Schwarz Schütze!?”

“B-but if we don’t do it, the explosion will kill us all!” shouted a flustered Helen.

But Celina still could not bring herself to do anything.

That showed just how valuable the Godhorn Tech was to her. It was enough to hold her back and restrain her.

No one was telling her to protect the train she was so proud of.

They were only telling her to rob the Bodenburg Company of that power.

The time had come for her to become just a girl once more.

So.

“…”

So.

So.

“…”

So.

So.

So.

“Control gun, connect to the horn core. Armored Train Schwarz Schütze, tactical open!”

Several things moved all at once.

The train had derailed, the links between cars was broken, and it could no longer move, but the many cannons on the roofs and walls turned their heads to answer their master’s call. Just like a mortally wounded beast raising its head for one last threat.

It was an undeniable sign of hostile intent.

Miyabi was flustered.

“Celina, what are you doing!?”

“I cannot give up my Godhorn Tech.”

At first, he thought her face looked flat and emotionless.

“Without this, I lose my strongest power,” she said, her flintlock hunting rifle’s bayonet stabbed into the snowy ground. “I lose the continent’s safest trade routes and the trust in my company.”

But she was far from emotionless.

With each word, the mask crumbled further, revealing the true face hidden below.

“And I lose all hope mother and father had in me.”

She looked just like a lost child.

“Celina!!”

“Laugh and call me a fool if you must.”

Her face crumpled into a tearstained smile, but she refused to let go of the rifle. She now aimed Schwarz Schütze’s control gun toward Miyabi.

“If I must lose it, then I will take the title of strongest for myself and go out in a blaze of glory. I will create a legend no one can ever hope to match. That is sure to increase the company’s value.”

She spoke only of becoming the strongest for her business brand name, but she had not chosen that path so she could bathe in riches herself. All she wanted was her parent’s approval. Yet that simple desire had been twisted beyond recognition.

The boy clenched his teeth.

Slowly but firmly.

“Ready your control sword, Miyabi Blackgarden!!” roared the lonely girl. Her courage was misplaced to the very end. “I will use you to decorate my death!!”

Deafening roars tore through the air in multiple directions, seeming to drown out all other noise.

These were not something you could dodge by sight. If Miyabi had not swung his empty hand to create a Decoy Wall, they all might have died to the very first blast.

It was a fragile wall made from packed snow.

Helen Clockgear had fallen into a sitting position right next to the crumbling white obstacle. Even the capable Republic official had never seen Godhorn Tech destruction up close before.

Yes, the Republic had no Godhorn Tech.

“W-we’re alive?” she asked.

“Assuming you aren’t a ghost,” replied the elf.

But no wall was better at diverting enemy fire. Not even an array of the thickest fortress walls would have helped against this opponent.

“Hey!” shouted Alicia Blueforest, pale in the face and holding her long blonde hair down against the cutting wind. “What now, boy!?”

“Change of plans.”

A thick layer of snow could be heard falling from somewhere.

They all knew what it had to be.

The bomber had instantly reacted to the boy’s thoughts by snapping its bonds and taking flight.

He had thought his senses of hot and cold had been numbed away by the icy blizzard, but this heat he felt.

He did not fight the throbbing he felt in his chest.

There was no need to fight it.

“I can’t just watch this happen. I will break Celina’s bonds!”

“Heh hee hee. Now we’re talking! If your strongest character isn’t hot-blooded deep down, what the hell are you even doing!?”

The radio responded before Alicia herself could.

The philosopher’s stone may have had some issues with its attitude, but its answers were accurate.

“The main problems here are Celina and the surrounding cannons. Take out one or the other and this silly mess is over. The choice is yours!!”

“Got it!! She’s as good as saved!!”

The choice was obvious.

He could solve this by destroying either the derailed armored train’s countless cannons or the girl wielding her control gun as she raced full speed toward self-destruction. It could not have been more obvious whether a mass of alchemically-strengthened metal or a flesh-and-blood girl would be easier to cut down.

But Miyabi had already made up his mind.

He would save Celina Bodenburg no matter what it took.

“Ooooaaahhh!!”

“!?”

Celina was caught off guard.

She had been so certain he would charge at her, but he suddenly changed direction before reaching her. Before she could recover, he had used his control sword to forcibly smash a nearby cannon. She frantically gave commands to the other cannons, but he just barely got a Decoy Wall up in time. But not to protect himself. It was positioned to redirect the shells from one train car toward the cannons on another car.

The shells must have used a flash freeze magic to add even more cold to this icy land, so the car on the receiving end shattered like a sugar sculpture dropped on the floor and then exploded from within.

“Curse you…Miyabiii!!” screamed Celina with tears in her eyes.

That train was the only thing supporting the lonely girl’s heart.

She quickly readied her dark control device once more, but Miyabi used that moment to dive behind a large boulder. That cut off her direct line of fire, but that was all it did. That gun used alchemical flint to create a spark and guided that into a metal tube where it reacted with a dark powder to provide explosive acceleration. However, magical bullets did not always travel in a straight line. As she repeatedly shoved a long rod in through the muzzle to load the next powder and bullet in the span of a breath and then fired, several lines of light arced over the boulder to stab down behind it, erupting into explosions where they fell.

The paths of light had a variety of colors.

The wind bullets robbed the area of air once they hit and the fire bullets would rapidly fry the lungs of anyone who attempted to breathe in once it erupted.

But there was no one behind the boulder to be destroyed.

Miyabi had already moved elsewhere.

To the next cannon.

(Did he dig a tunnel below the deep snow!? Creating obstacles with that bizarre creation ability was bad enough, but is he also creating spaces by hollowing things out!?)

“Fight me, Miyabi!!”

“No, thanks!! I’m not giving you your blaze of glory!!”

The boy’s voice shouted back at her from near a toppled train car.

With a dull explosion, another of the cannons was blown away.

“Tch.”

Realizing even her rifle’s bullets were being diverted by the Decoy Walls, Celina clicked her tongue, kicked at the snow, and moved forward herself. She was intent on stopping Miyabi’s destruction even if it meant stabbing him with her bayonet or walloping him with the stock. Or was she willing to let Schwarz Schütze’s attacks blow her slender body away along with him if that was what it took?

However, she failed to get anywhere near the boy.

Because two other figures rushed in to stop her.

Helen wielded a thick dagger and Alicia wielded a gnarled tree branch staff.

“What!?”

“Don’t assume Miyabi is the only one…”

“…who doesn’t want you to die!!”

The attacks came simultaneously from either side, so Celina prioritized Helen’s knife. The blade shined with the purple light of a sleeping magic called Over Sleep, so even a nick could prove devastating in the middle of battle. She swung her rifle’s stock around to hold it back, but that left her open to the elf’s wooden staff.

An explosion of light burst from the staff’s head as it blossomed into a flower larger than the girl’s head.

“There are several schools of alchemy, but every one of them belongs to one of two categories: the transformation of matter or the alteration of living bodies. Thanks to your obsession with money, you were fixated on transforming metals to alter their value.”

“You’re an alchemist too!?”

“I needed some way to create the medicines and White Sorcery Items to look after the short-lived villagers. I know the human body inside and out, so appearances can be deceiving with my attacks. The lightest strike will rattle you to the core!!”

Impossibly, the blow from the staff felt like an explosion.

Alicia had swung the staff horizontally, slamming it into Celina’s side with all her might. Raising her arms to block the knife with her rifle had been a mistake. Her breath burst from her throat, like her bent ribs were squeezing at her lungs. Not only had Alicia aimed for a weak point, but she had likely used an alchemy potion to temporarily boost her physical strength.

“Gah!?”

Time seemed to freeze for Celina and her eyes landed on Miyabi Blackgarden stabbing his control sword into the last of the cannons.

“Koo!!”

Hearing red, glowing Alma’s cry, Miyabi’s party dove down onto the snow.

They got down to prepare for what came next.

After a moment’s delay, the cannon exploded. A thick shockwave spread out in a ring, compressing space itself. Only Celina Bodenburg remained standing, so she took the shockwave at hip height, sending her crashing down onto the snow.

“Ahh!?”

She could not get back up.

Her body was trembling and ignoring her commands, like she had taken a solid fist to the gut.

Someone else stood before her.

“Stop this, Celina. It’s meaningless.”

The Schwarz Schütze’s front car lay ahead of collapsed Celina.

The sealed container and the Wicked God horn within were there.

Nothing stood between it and the boy now.

The pitiful girl tried and failed to crawl toward him, so she settled for reaching a trembling hand out toward the destroyer’s back.

“Please.” Her voice was a mixture of entreaty and resentment. “Please wait. If I lose that…if I lose the strongest power, I’m worthless.”

She was willing to lick his shoes if it would protect the Schwarz Schütze.

But not for the money.

What she really wanted had never changed.

“I want mother and father to look my way…to say I did a good job.”

This was the true curse placed on her.

The root of her complex spilled out.

“But do this and they…they won’t love me anymore.”

She was not just crying anymore.

She was desperately begging the boy who stood facing the great mass within the broken train car.

“So…”

She felt pathetic.

And greedy.

But she could not stop her longing for the strongest power that so clearly bound her.

“So please!!”

Miyabi Blackgarden did not look back.

He faced the sealed container, but he did speak to the lost girl.

With a somehow gentle voice.

“I won’t take anything from you.”

“?”

“This isn’t the only Godhorn Tech.”

He said this while he prepared to destroy the Schwarz Schütze.

Only a Godhorn Tech could destroy a Godhorn Tech.

“I will become your strongest.”

“Ah.”

Celina’s mouth hung open, but nothing more came out.

“But not for Bodenburg. I will become the strongest for you.”

So instead of words, clear drops spilled from her eyes.

“Wahhh!!”

“So can I get started now?”

His choice was a cruel one, but it created a new contract that fulfilled all of the girl’s demands.

“Control sword, connect to the horn core. Tactical open!”

He stabbed the sword into the ground and a sinister magic circle appeared atop the snow.

“No one needs this strongest anymore, so let’s dispose of it.”

A white beam dropped from the sky above and shattered the girl’s chains.

The danger was over for now.

Alicia and Helen stood on the snowy plain. If Miyabi’s senses could be trusted, the sorcery bomb had been safely destroyed, so there was no need to flee the area as fast as their legs would take them.

Dark metal wreckage was strewn everywhere.

All of it contained secrets that could easily start a new conflict.

“Good grief. That boy cut it awfully close,” said Alicia.

“I wonder if he’s even aware how close that was.”

“We can only hope he isn’t that dumb.”

They shared a sigh and the visible breaths were soon swept away by the cold wind.

Helen was the first to resume speaking.

“A third party would have had a very hard time approaching the fully-equipped Schwarz Schütze and sabotaging it en route.”

“That means someone already knew where it would be derailed and was lying in wait to swap in the sorcery bomb after it came to a stop.”

“And they had it replace a piece of the Schwarz Schütze.”

“It would be simplest to assume that was the 11th.”

“…”

“…”

After a short silence, the two young women who watched over the pure and innocent boy shared another sigh.

The cunning displayed by that bastard made this their territory.

“I can’t believe this,” said Helen.

“Agreed,” said Alicia. “Whoever this is must be a lot shrewder and more dangerous than I expected.”

Character Profiles

Iris Tempinvy

Age: 17

Sex: Female

Height: 159cm

Originally invited to the magically-weak Arsenal Kingdom as a guest magic researcher, but in her desperate attempt to research the theoretically impossible recovery magic, the kingdom decided she was using public funds to fund a hobby and she lost all national support. She currently earns enough as a dancer to fund her own personal research.

Victia Magnumfist

Age: 20

Sex: Female

Height: 163cm

Female martial artist working to develop a simple-to-learn form of self-defense that provides peace of mind to women and children on long journeys. However, her idea of “normal” is terribly skewed by her unnatural physical strength that could be called a form of inborn talent.

Godhorn Tech

Armored Train Schwarz Schütze

Pilot: Celina Bodenburg

Affiliation: Bodenburg Company

Size (LxWxH): 100m x 25m x 20m (per car) x 5 cars

A massive black train stretching for hundreds of meters. The entire train is covered in thick armor and each car is installed with multiple cannons. Can be controlled from within or remotely and the interior living space is decked out with its pilot’s fine tastes. Uses alchemy to lay out steel rails in real time, allowing it to move freely. Can also produce as many shells from ultra-hard alloys like orichalcum, meaning it never runs out of ammo. Design motif: alchemy.

Meanwhile at Horn Fortress 1

“Heh heh. Yes, that’s right. Today has not been a productive day. I thought some shellfish would be simple enough, but that big wave dashed those hopes pretty quick.”

The black-haired martial artist grinned while seated with her arms around her knees.

Victia Magnumfist spoked up into the night sky.

“Sigh…another wasted day.”

She collapsed backwards.

She had stripped off her red dress, leaving her entirely nude. She knew she was alone here. Walking the circumference of the small island took less than a day. The ocean and forest provided plenty of resources, but there was no civilization to speak up.

It was a desert island.

And there was no hope of a ship happening by either. The horizon was not at all normal. That straight line dividing ocean from sky would occasionally blur with rainbow colors. This may not have been an ordinary location. Maybe it was surrounded by the miasma-belching cracks in the world and maybe it was separated out by some kind of magical barrier.

It was apparently known as Horn Fortress.

It was meant for the Lucifer Horn and its user’s logistical support. Tools could be made here and sent to the battleground or magical facilities could be built here to boost the Godhorn Tech’s power.

How did she know that? Because it was written here.

She had discovered it after climbing the island’s tallest tree to take a look around. Orderly text was written out on the ocean surface shining in the light of the setting sun.

But the text had vanished after she blinked in surprise.

She figured it was some kind of magic. Maybe the ocean currents had been manipulated and maybe the ocean floor had been moved around.

“His name was Miyabi, wasn’t it? Goddamn that boy! Nwohhhh!!”

This place was freeing yet stifling.

She had stripped naked in an attempt to break the mold, but…

(It didn’t do a thing.)

Her stay on this desert island was like trying and failing to work up the urge to do anything at all in your own room. She could not find any motivation inside herself. It all felt so hollow. When the loneliness pushed in, she felt like crying.

In a harsher environment, where even fresh water was hard to come by, she might have been too busy surviving to feel this way, but this island had the plentiful resources of the ocean and a forest. She had not needed to travel far into the forest to find a pure spring, river fish she could catch by hand, wild bean sprouts growing in the shade, and colorful vegetable flowers. With a fire to cook it all, she could survive just fine.

But the ease of survival provided enough free time for the poison that was dissatisfaction.

She caught a mosquito between her fingertips while lying naked on the beach.

(I should stop moping around and complete today’s last round of stretches. Think of it like becoming a mountain hermit.)

The naked idiot sat back up, failing to realize she would be more of a beach hermit.

But then an impossible sensation pierced her.

She sensed someone’s gaze on her.

“?”

She covered her bare chest with one arm and turned her head on reflex.

There she found her peeping tom.

A bear taller than her was picking up and stretching her black underwear!?

She was indeed a martial artist.

She rolled and hopped to her feet instead of reaching for the axe stabbed into the beach. She calculated how much the sand would absorb the force of her feet as she kicked off of it. Then she loosely clenched her fists and moved to perfect striking range. All while barefoot and bare everything else as well.

The bear stood on its hind legs, but that was not what scared her.

“Really? A Shadow Treading Parasite!?”

A pair of yellow twinkles moved toward her across the ground.

This was an Undead type of Beast Nova that entered a large animal’s shadow to take control of its body. Its weakness was salt, the standard for purification. The thing crawled like a slug and could not leave the ground, so it could be defeated by luring the shadow toward some salt on the ground or pushing the host into the ocean using a series of attacks that would not directly damage the parasite. In that sense, a bear weighing more than 500kg was close to a worst-case scenario. Martial artists who tried to train as a mountain hermit would often lose their lives after deciding to test their skills on a bear like this. And the parasite did not care what happened to the host, so she could never win if she simply fought the animal.

(Blue Starting Pistol, Red Gale, and Yellow Wrath. I have several options for knockback moves, but this is still bad. If I start off focusing on that, it really limits my attack patterns. If I can’t end this quick, I’ll start looking pretty predictable.)

She also sensed a more personal crisis here.

Yes, wild bears did not wear black underwear. The item the bear was stretching between its front paws was the one Victia had abandoned on the beach. She felt silly for thinking she didn’t need clothes earlier. If those tore on this desert island, she was in serious trouble.

This may have been some kind of divine punishment.

A full smile spread across her face as she crouched low and moved in.

“Heh. Eh heh heh. There are so many tastier things out there. If you like, I could treat you to some plump river fish or juicy honeyco-.”

The beast stuffed the panties in its mouth.

When it began to chew, Victia Magnumfist snapped.

“You’re dead meat now! That was the one and only pair on the entire islaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand!!!”

When she rushed in, her opponent gave a joyous roar and raised its front legs.

But it was reacting to her long black hair, not the martial artist’s bouncing and jiggling flesh (raw meat?). It was more interested in the fluttering movement than any flavor or smell. But she could not afford to have any more of her clothing stolen from her for that reason.

She was stronger when not weighed down by the enormous axe.

The naked meathead worked her brain while using her clenched fists and flying kicks to forcibly knock the great mass of muscle toward the crashing waves.

(This can’t be the only Shadow Treading Parasite here. I need some kind of decoy to draw their attention, but what little cloth I have left is precious. If I want to live a wholesome, fully-clothed life here, I need to use as little cloth as possible on the decoys.)

A flash of insight came to the idiot.

“That’s it!! I’ll make swimsuits! The sexiest swimsuits I can think of! I can even make them out of shells, jewels, leaves, or caterpillar silk! I can defeat those monsters by mass-producing sexy swimsuits with materials found on the island!!!!!!”

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