“That guy is sharp in the strangest ways.”
It had begun only a few minutes earlier, just before the Cyclops sortie.
—“In situations like this, there’s always a spy or a thief who raids the empty house.”
—“What are you talking about?”
—“You know, stealing the machine under construction in the middle of the chaos is kind of a cliché…”
—“Spouting incomprehensible nonsense. You must be Aizen.”
It was something Aizen had said as he entered the cockpit, as if it had suddenly occurred to him.
While Aizen and Mina were trading insults at Mina’s joke, flaunting their closeness, Reina had suddenly gotten a bad feeling.
“If we move according to common sense…”
Normally, Erika would have to take her place in the castle as the count’s representative, Noel and Mina would go to the place where the nobles from the party had evacuated, and Reina, being Noel’s guard, would have to be there as well.
In short, the factory would be left empty.
If it were simply a monster attack, then with their forces so thin, that might have been unavoidable…
“But if it’s as Aizen said…?”
Seized by an ominous feeling, Reina had immediately asked Erika and Noel for permission and tried to remain at the factory.
And the one who spoke up first was, in fact, Mina.
—“Stop work on Units Three and Four and put everyone on Unit Two. Order from the caravan master. I’m staying here.”
—“Then I’ll stay too. I, um, have at least seen enough over his shoulder to advise on installing magic tools…”
The two women who had first come to know Aizen stayed at the factory without anyone telling them to.
Perhaps it was because, just as Aizen had said, they were people who had needed, and wanted, to accomplish something on their own.
Neither of them let Aizen’s casual remark slip by, using it as their reason to act.
—“Tell them Erika Phoenix will defend this place. Leave the response to the nobles at the shelter to the head butler, and have command orders sent here. While you’re at it, bring my armor and sword.”
Their mood even drew Erika into staying, creating an atmosphere where she would arm herself here as well.
And then, a few minutes after Aizen had taken the Cyclops outside to fight.
“I didn’t expect real rats to come crawling in.”
Reina grinned, resting her sheathed sword over her shoulder.
It was the posture she had always been scolded for as rude back when she was a knight, after being scouted as a commoner who happened to be good with a sword.
But because everyone said it suited Reina, no one had ever truly corrected her, and only after becoming a professor had she fixed the bad habit herself.
It was also a sign that, though it had been quite some time since she had fought on a battlefield with a sword in hand, the scent of battle had made her revert instantly to her former skill.
“You’re ready for this, right, you sons of bitches?”
The spies disguised as servants began to show their nerves even as they took up combat stances.
Drawing daggers and short spears from who knew where, one of the two spies focused on Reina as she approached at a leisurely pace, while the other focused on Noel, who was slowly rising into the air, and Erika, who had drawn her sword and was approaching as flames gradually wrapped around the blade.
“Reina the Swift… Why isn’t one of the kingdom’s five strongest on the front line…?”
“Damn it. We accounted for Phoenix, but not Nexia too…!”
Reina was one of the top five knights in the kingdom.
Her fame was known even in the empire.
And in the Kingdom of Vespia, where it was considered a virtue for nobles to step forward against monsters, one could not look down on a mere noble young lady either.
One was from a leading prestigious house, Nexia of Lightning.
The other was Phoenix of Flame, who guarded the border with the empire.
Among the next generation of nobles, they were truly among the very strongest forces.
On top of that, behind them, the fifth saintess of the Church of Saras stood with her arms crossed, looking down from a safe place.
At a glance, she looked as if she were merely playing around, but a divine practitioner was not someone who fought on the front line.
So long as the distance was within sight, she could form hand seals at any time and support her allies with divine arts.
And so, simply by being there, the saintess became a great burden to the enemy. She drew a finger across her throat and declared,
“Take them out.”
“If someone saw this, they’d think Mina was the leader.”
Noel said this and moved her hand.
A fierce spark formed in front of her palm, changed into something like a ball, and shot forward.
The electric blast flew rapidly, but when the imperial spy swung a cloak he had pulled from his chest, it scattered apart. Even so, Noel showed no sign of panic.
“I’ve heard plenty about spies carrying cloth that blocks mana because they’re wary of Vespia’s magic.”
Whether for infiltration or for battle like this, she had heard it was an extremely useful tool.
However.
“That doesn’t stop you from getting stabbed.”
It could not stop Reina, with her rough way of speaking, from swinging her sword.
After all, it could only block magic; against physical force itself, it was just cloth.
Even so, they were spies skilled in combat, and they tried to use the cloth to block her sight while attacking with their daggers and short spears, but their opponent was Reina.
In an instant, the short spear broke, and its wielder was kicked in the abdomen and sent flying.
“You monster…”
“No, you’re just weak, you idiot!”
At Reina’s shout, the spies flinched.
Noel’s lightning did not miss that moment and flew toward the spies. They belatedly tried to spread their cloaks, but the parts they failed to cover were electrocuted.
“Urgh…?!”
“If you surrender, we’ll treat you as prisoners.”
Noel floated in the air, emitting electricity.
Though her body normally could not even walk for long, she was capable of flying by releasing her magic and discharging lightning.
Beside her, Erika had stabbed the spy she had driven back and was shaking the blood from her sword, while the paralyzed one and the bleeding one huddled close to each other.
“There’s nowhere to run, you bastards.”
Reina spoke coldly.
Noel was in the sky.
Reina and Erika stood on two sides on the ground.
The moment they thought there was nowhere to run—
“Wow. Guess it’s a good thing I came too.”
At the sudden sound of a man’s voice, Reina kicked off the ground.
She blocked the sword strike that had flown toward Noel in midair.
Then, taking advantage of the brief opening, a certain man dressed as a servant rushed at Erika, and Erika responded with her sword.
A total of fifteen sword strikes clashed against one another, and as Erika’s expression twisted, Noel’s lightning flew in, followed by Reina cutting into the exchange.
Without hesitation, the opponent retreated, and Reina’s expression contorted.
“So you came too.”
“I was here on business, but apparently this is more important. Still, I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Reina calmly gestured with her hand.
As Noel and Erika quietly fell back, the opponent swung his sword and said,
“Count Phoenix really taught his daughter well. I couldn’t finish it within ten exchanges. If we’d traded just five more, who knows.”
“That won’t happen as long as I’m here.”
Reina coldly leveled her sword at him.
“Sword Saint, Zweit.”
The one who had intruded was one of the empire’s Sword Saints.
****
The one-eyed giant was roaring as it charged.
Perhaps because it was generating far too much heat, its skin had reddened, smoke streamed from it, and its body looked as if it had swollen up.
As I moved the Cyclops, dagger in hand, the ground immediately trembled. I could see the smaller monsters awaken to their survival instincts and flee, and at the same time, the two giants launched their attacks at each other.
The dagger grazed the enemy’s body.
And the one-eyed giant’s fist slammed squarely into the Cyclops’s face.
—“Raaaah!!”
With the powerful impact to the head, the Cyclops’s huge frame toppled backward.
Before I could even register that the mono-eye had not been destroyed thanks to the head structure designed to protect it, I first saw the thing leaping high into the air.
I immediately activated the backpack and shot upward from the ground, and the giant’s fist slammed precisely into the spot where the cockpit had been a moment ago.
“If I’d stayed still, I’d be dead on the spot.”
It was plain to see that even the Cyclops would have a hard time withstanding the strength of the one-eyed giant as it burned away its life.
I immediately regained my posture and thrust out a fist, but the one-eyed giant paid no mind to being struck and seized the arm at once, beginning to push forward.
At first, it seemed evenly matched, but soon a warning sounded in the cockpit, indicating that pressure was escaping from the arm.
The enemy’s strength was greater than the Cyclops’s output.
“No, to be precise, they’re similar, but that thing can apply its strength more efficiently than the Cyclops in close combat.”
If I thought about it, it was only natural that I would be pushed back right now.
The Cyclops’s defining trait was that it was a mass-produced general-purpose unit.
Because it had inherited the spirit of the Space Principality, it had been designed for bipedal movement while being as easy to produce as possible, and its main focus was ranged combat.
It was not incapable of close combat, but it was certainly at a relative disadvantage.
“Well then. I suppose I’ll have to consider a close-combat specialty model too.”
One unit immediately came to mind, but just like before, there would be hope only if I made it back alive.
And more importantly—
“I need to gather data, don’t I?”
Until now, the enemies the Cyclops had faced were hardly worthy of being called enemies.
And in that situation, the Cyclops had finally met a proper match.
Its legs still moved, and so did its arms.
Though dents had been punched all over its body, the Cyclops was still operational.
Which meant that, at this very moment—
“Shall we try using the trump card I was researching?”
I generated mana and poured it into the control stick.
I could feel the mana traveling through the control stick, passing through the cockpit, and being transmitted to the golem’s engine.
“I only thought it would become an interesting function. I didn’t expect I’d be demonstrating it here.”
A pilot safety mechanism I had planned while researching Heat Metal.
Originally, it was a method created with a sort of emergency manual operation in mind, in case a problem occurred with the engine, but…
“Depending on how it’s used, it’s also a way to drive the engine even further out of control.”
Literally, an overload.
The Cyclops’s body, now filled with both its original mana and my own, began to tremble slightly.
—Wooooooong…!
As the engine produced an even more explosive force, it began to let out a sound like the roar of a beast.
And as my mana mingled with it—
The golem’s body felt just like my own.
“Let’s go.”
I gripped the control stick.
The dagger heated to an even deeper red.
And the crimson mono-eye emitted another fierce burst of light.