Reina was tense.
‘I hope nothing happens in today’s dungeon class.’
One of the classes Reina taught was dungeon class.
The previous class had been relatively peaceful.
In other classes, Aizen openly damaged and took school property, but in the last class, the only oddity had been him wandering off inside the dungeon and mining ore with a pickaxe—an eccentricity that, from Reina’s perspective, was on the lighter side of what she had seen so far.
For some reason, Saintess Mina had been swinging a pickaxe alongside him at the time, which had nearly made Reina’s heart stop, but the practice dungeon was safe, so there had been no real problem.
It was only that the good-natured, slightly hearty saintess had been taken in by Aizen’s coaxing, and it seemed the experience had not remained an unpleasant memory for her.
Even so, since the saintess of the kingdom’s largest religious order had nearly been put in danger, Reina had resolved not to let it happen a second time.
And so what she had devised on the spot was a party-based group lesson.
After all, people did not enter dungeons alone, so there was a need to teach them how to move in groups. More importantly, she believed Aizen would be kept under control not only by Reina but by the saintess as well.
When the idea first came to her, Reina had honestly thought her mind was still fairly sharp, and had felt just a little pleased with herself.
If not for the roster she received yesterday, she would have remained pleased.
‘Lady Noel? This is dangerous. Really dangerous.’
It was not that Noel Nexia herself was dangerous.
After all, she was widely known, even among nobles, as a person of good character.
What was dangerous was Noel’s family, the Duchy of Nexia.
The Duchy of Nexia was one of the branch families that had split off from the royal house.
Since the current royal family had no princess, Noel was even treated as practically the princess of the Kingdom of Vespia.
In other words, if something happened to Noel…
‘It would be like picking a fight with the Kingdom of Vespia…!’
The academy might possess extraterritorial rights, but the moment one took a single step outside it, they were within the territory of the Kingdom of Vespia.
In other words, if anything went wrong with Noel, Reina’s life was over.
The one small blessing for Reina was that Noel was physically weak.
Since Noel was frail by nature and could not walk for long, she could not properly participate in most of Reina’s classes, which involved physical activity.
The last time, during Aizen’s pickaxe incident, Noel had not been present because she had been resting that day due to her weak health.
She could manage written and theoretical lessons, but things like dungeon exploration were out of the question.
So when Reina saw Noel’s name boldly written down as a party member alongside Aizen and Mina, she had rubbed her eyes again and again, wondering if she had misread it.
Then she had even confirmed with the people involved whether it was true, and received firm assurance that it was.
‘No, seriously, why?!’
Outwardly, she feigned calm and stood before the students with the dignified bearing befitting a famous knight, but inwardly, she felt like she was dying.
The class this time was taking place in a practice dungeon near the academy, where weak monsters had been placed for training.
It was only at a level meant to awaken their practical instincts, but monsters were still monsters.
In other words, there was a risk of injury.
And if Noel was injured, Reina was as good as dead.
She had hurriedly sought out Noel to dissuade her, but Noel stubbornly insisted that she would take the class.
Reina had suggested that she use servants, and even offered to escort her herself if necessary, but Noel refused everything.
Her reason was that it would be fine because the saintess would be with her, but…
‘Even if she heals you, getting hurt is still getting hurt…!’
Reina wanted to cry.
And, in truth, Saintess Mina was also, in the broader sense, a student who must not be injured.
Her status as a noble was actually ordinary, but Mina getting hurt would be tantamount to picking a fight with the Saras Order.
Still, Mina was healthy, and she remembered all the warnings Reina had given her, so Reina had permitted it, but…
‘My head, my head hurts…!’
Should she hide her presence as much as possible and escort them?
Since Aizen had caused trouble before, should she accompany them under the pretext of surveillance?
She had called Iserina just in case, so should she leave overall supervision to her and go herself?
All sorts of thoughts flashed through Reina’s mind at once.
Meanwhile, a well-dressed noble standing in front of Reina let out a small, amused laugh.
“This is absurd. I barely made time to attend because I heard some fairly famous students would be participating, yet when exactly is the class going to begin?”
“Please wait just a little longer, Prince Gilford. Lady Nexia has expressed her intention to participate, so we plan to begin once she arrives.”
Reina swiftly answered the complaint of the handsome royal with blond hair and clear blue eyes.
At that, Prince Gilford began grumbling in dissatisfaction.
“…We could simply ignore that frail weakling who happens to be good at magic and set off already…”
If you order me to do that, I will.
Though Noel could, if one looked broadly at the family tree, be regarded as royalty, she was strictly speaking the daughter of a duke. Gilford, being of Vespia’s legitimate royal bloodline, held the higher status.
In other words, even in this place with extraterritorial rights, he was a high-ranking person who needed to be considered, and whose reasonable demands were best accommodated as much as possible.
If he pressed the matter strongly, Reina could at least pretend she had no choice and comply.
Yet despite saying that, Prince Gilford did not actually tell her to force the class to start, and instead seemed to be waiting for Noel.
She was a little curious what the reason might be…
‘…Stop caring. Stop caring. I must not care.’
If she got tangled up with the affairs of the high and mighty and ended up with a headache, she might have to add stomach medicine to her headache pills.
But Noel was far too late, so perhaps they should just begin… Just as she thought that.
—Rrrrrrrumble.
“Even if she can use powerful magic, it would be better to start quickly than to wait for a weakling who was born frail. And while we are at it, I should show her who stands above…”
Beyond Gilford’s muttering, a strange sound could be heard.
Iserina and Reina raised their heads.
And a young lady with long red hair opened her eyes wide and shouted.
“Woooow!!”
A voice of admiration.
And then Reina saw the object in question as well.
“It’s the golem that tried to break down the academy gate!”
“That insane Aizen, what has that bastard done this time?!”
The culprit was identified immediately, and while chewing on the headache pills she had unconsciously pulled from her pocket, Reina had no choice but to widen her eyes.
It had changed.
The golem’s body had been changed to metal.
Its arms, too, had changed from odd-looking hands into two humanlike arms.
On one forearm was something like a large spear engraved with a spiral pattern, and on the other forearm was something resembling a scoop.
And on its shoulders were enormous cannons.
In the transparent section on its torso…
“L-Lady Noel!”
“The Saintess is riding in it too!”
“The madman is riding it as well!!”
They could see Aizen seated in a triangular arrangement of seats, with Noel and Mina sitting behind him to either side.
****
There had been a lot of commotion, but in the end, things somehow worked out.
“There was a lot of nagging about getting down and asking if this really wasn’t going too far.”
The blond pretty boy I had never seen before and Professor Reina had shouted all sorts of things.
Things like whether it made any sense to bring something like this, or whether it made any sense to put Noel inside such a bizarre thing, and so on.
“But when I said Lord Aizen had prepared it out of concern for my safety, they acknowledged it.”
Originally, only one person was supposed to sit in the cockpit, but the modifications I had made this time allowed two assistant pilots to ride as well, and that seemed to have worked rather well.
After arguing back and shouting that there was nothing strange about it, Reina had let out a deep sigh, but…
—“…Fine. If she’s inside that, Lady Noel will be safe, so it should be all right. Yes, it’s all right. It should be all right…”
Thanks to Reina’s permission, given as though she wanted to cry herself to sleep for some reason, we were able to enter without issue.
We had just ignored the strange handsome guy saying something and entered as we were.
It was a venerable beginner’s dungeon, so the entrance was wide and fairly tall, which meant there was no problem getting in.
And Noel looked around the cockpit in wonder as she said,
“I can see everything around us.”
“That’s because I used magic stones imbued with far-sight magic and far-hearing magic.”
They would serve in place of cameras and sound collectors.
At that, Noel tilted her head slightly and opened her mouth.
“But I wonder if that will be all right. If magic stones are used for too long, or if the impact is too strong, sometimes the magic can twist strangely…”
I didn’t know that.
And Noel continued speaking.
“It doesn’t happen often unless the conditions are quite bad. I think it should be fine if you install them with appropriate spacing. Or perhaps, if you simplified them even further…”
Unexpectedly, Noel immediately began pointing out improvements, so I prepared to take notes right away.
In the meantime, there was a thud as we crashed into something.
“Focus on driving, Aizen.”
“Oops.”
I put away the notebook where I had written Noel’s words and activated the arms.
The manipulators moved smoothly, and the hand drill attached to the right arm smashed straight through the wall.
The rock was crushed easily, scattering fragments all around.
I pushed aside the larger chunks with the dozer on the left arm and continued moving.
—Crrrrunch!
Listening to the sound of the rock fragments beneath us breaking apart and turning to powder, we continued deeper inside.
And as she listened to that sound, Noel looked at the right arm and the left arm and asked,
“What curious devices. How did you think of them?”
“Secret.”
Even if I explained a drill—more precisely, something that should be called an auger—or a bulldozer, she obviously would not understand, so I skipped the explanation.
It was enough for her to know that I had prepared them in case we got caught in a narrow space.
Since the manipulators could substitute for digging out things with ease, in a way, the current caterpillar golem was in a state not much different from an all-purpose industrial robot.
“…Rather than that, if you removed the arms and upper body entirely and operated it with just that forearm, or just one of those strange spears, or only that basket…”
“If you increase the budget for the time I’d spend on that, I’ll consider it.”
Mina looked dissatisfied, but there was nothing I could do.
If she fell into some strange idea and made me build things like bulldozers, my dream would drift farther away.
Put another way, she was someone I really could not let my guard down around.
It was honestly frightening how quickly she noticed what would be more efficient to make.
While I was stopping Mina like that, Noel quietly murmured as she looked at the screens I had installed inside and the cockpit window prepared just in case.
“With this, even I could, on my own…”
Noel clenched her fist slightly, her eyes sparkling.
I watched her for a moment, then quietly opened my mouth and asked,
“Lady Noel, you dislike being overprotected, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Noel said with a smile.
Then she spoke bitterly.
“My body is weak, after all. …If I so much as say I want to do something, servants cling to me… I disliked that a little.”
About Noel—after observing her, I had noticed that although her body was frail and her personality gentle, she was by no means lacking in backbone.
Perhaps I should have realized it when she had come to my laboratory by herself, leaning on a cane.
Noel wanted and enjoyed accomplishing things by herself.
That was probably the reason she was interested in the golems I made.
‘Power for the sake of doing things on one’s own, huh.’
Was that not also one of the charms of mecha stories?
A steel giant that becomes strength, allowing people to accomplish what would be difficult with the human body alone.
And the symbol at the end of that was…
“Aizen. You had better look ahead.”
At Mina’s voice, I immediately cut off my thoughts and looked forward.
Both through the cockpit window and through the transmitted image, I could tell at once.
A green, slightly small humanoid monster.
“A goblin.”
“This place is like a beginner dungeon for nobles. It only has monsters that are easy to hunt.”
I nodded at Noel’s words.
Since it was that sort of place, they must have brought nobles here for class.
Professor Reina would have cleaned it out once to begin with, so it should be a safe place.
There probably would not be any opponent here worthy of the reborn caterpillar golem.
“Should I postpone the performance test until next time?”
Still, it was a chance to check the completeness of the boarding, piloting, and cockpit systems, so it did not matter.
Then Mina asked quietly,
“If they are that small, is it difficult to use anything against them?”
Golems were more effective when fighting large monsters.
They had not been designed with fighting small monsters in mind.
So the current situation was…
“Actually, it’s easier.”
Honestly, there was no need to prepare for this situation at all.
The goblins, though flustered, swung clubs and shot arrows, but they merely struck the armor plates and bounced off.
The ones that tried to climb up could be chased away with a light sweep of the arms, and I even grabbed a few with the manipulators and threw them.
Thinking that I needed to improve the responsiveness a bit more, I played around with the goblins for a short while, then nodded.
“Now then, shall we push through?”
“You really are wicked, Aizen.”
Glancing over, I saw that unlike what she said, Mina had an expression that showed she liked it very much, but there was no real issue, so I ignored her.
The caterpillar advanced.
The monsters fled.
Just then, the sound of the rocks beneath us being crushed into powder rang out loudly.
There was no need to agonize over small monsters like this.
We could simply push them aside.
—Rrrrrrrumble.
—“Kirik?! Kirrrrra?!”
The caterpillar vibrated, and the drill and dozer were swung.
The goblins began fleeing deeper inside with all their might.
Faced with the advance of a powerful giant they could not injure no matter what they did, some cried and others tripped and fell.
“This is comfortable.”
Watching the fleeing goblins, Noel said very softly, with a faint note of enjoyment.
And then.
“…Huh?”
A large red dot began appearing on the crystal ball I had installed as a substitute for radar.