Chapter 213: The Sensor Board and Escape
「Hmm. So that person is from the Frennel family, right?」(Charret)
「Do you know about them?」(Touya)
「Of course. They are one of the five Zenoasu military families, and the [s.h.i.+eld] of the Frennel family is famous, you know」(Murret)
The Lamia sisters, Murret and Charette talk while they tidy up the blueprints in one of the castle’s rooms. Those girls are working as subordinates of Naito-ossan who is the chief of agriculture, forestry, and the construction agency. They are mainly handling and sorting the procedural doc.u.ments, requests for construction and town divisioning.
I happened to see them by chance when they were returning from the meeting with Naito-ossan and tried asking them about Spika-san who’s in my mind for a bit. They are the fellow demonkins after all.
I’ve ended up worrying very much as to why did she leave her country while she has that much ability and a good parentage even though I’ve planned not to inquire about her as much as possible.
「When talking about The Frennel family, they are a lineage which serves as bodyguards to the royal family of Zenoasu. It has been said that each member of the royal family has a person from Frennel family attached to them like a shadow. But in the end, it’s only a rumor」(Charret)
「Then, could it be that even Spika-san has been one of the bodyguards of the royal family?」(Touya)
「Mn, I wonder about that. Certainly, I’ve heard that the bodyguards from the Frennel family are being selected to match the gender of the member of the royal family they are being attached to. If I’m not mistaken, there are no women among the royal family as of the moment」(Murret)
Murret folds her arms like she is trying to remember something and lightly strikes her tail at the floor.
Ara? This one is Murret, right? Isn’t she Charett? I really cannot tell those two apart in any way.
Even so, the same thing doesn’t apply for Elzie and Linzie even though they are twins as well. When I had said about this earlier, they asked in return [Aren’t our scale patterns entirely different?]. Normally, one can’t tell.
「By saying “there are no women”… Is there also no queen?」(Touya)
「If I’m not mistaken, both the first queen and the second queen should’ve died from illness. There’s a prince born from each one of them, but there shouldn’t have been a princess」(Charret)
I see. It has been decided that it’s better to have a woman guarding another woman. If that’s the case, does that mean that Spika-san hasn’t been a bodyguard? Then, what did she mean by [family which has crashed to the bottom]…
「Speaking about the Frennel family, has something happened to them lately?」(Touya)
「「Who knows. It’s also been a long time since we left Zenoasu, soo…」」(Charret/Murret)
Fumu. In the end, I haven’t found out anything, huh. Oh well, I feel that thoroughly investigating this matter will also be a violation of her privacy.
I then headed towards the training field having parted from the Lamia sisters. Upon my arrival, I could see Spika-san wiping off her sweat on the bench after just finis.h.i.+ng her training.
「Yaa」(Touya)
「Y-your Majesty. Do you have some order for me?」(Spika)
Spika-san genuflects and lowers her head after standing up from the bench. I’m really bad with people like her who act like they’re in the military. First thing is I’ll have to make her stand up.
「How are you? Is anything troubling you?」(Touya)
「No, Everyone treats the newcomer like me with lots of kindness. I’m grateful that they come and interact to me without any prejudices because I’m a demonkin or because I’m a woman」(Spika)
Certainly, the ratio of women in our household’s knight order is high in comparison to other knight orders. Then, there is a number of demi-humans as well. Well, not all of them are from Misumido though.
「Nevertheless, the power level of this country’s knight order is high. I’m surprised」(Spika)
Well, that’s because they are being worked unreasonably hard like in Sparta. It would be unbelievable if they didn’t become strong with this.
「The power of Moroha-sama is especially…」(Spika)
The light vanished from Spika-san’s eyes. Did she remember something?
「Aaah… You’ve already competed against her」(Touya)
「My acc.u.mulated self-confidence has entirely collapsed… It had been the first time that my [s.h.i.+eld] was of no use… Although I’ve grown so accustomed to using it for who knows how long…」(Spika)
That person is outside the norm in many aspects, so I think it will be better if you forget about it. Humans will have to continue challenging an insurmountable wall if they set her as a standard.
That reminds me, Sakura has said that there are s.h.i.+elds being used exclusively by the Frennel family. I’m wondering as to what kind of s.h.i.+elds are those.
「It’s a dome-shaped s.h.i.+eld drawing a gentle curve. There’s a protuberance at the center like a thorn to stab with…」(Spika)
「Fumu」(Touya)
I take out crystal materials from [Storage] and start transforming them with [Modelling]. Is it something like that?
Spika-san, having been surprised with [Modelling], takes the s.h.i.+eld and gently brushes its surface.
「Can I ask you to make this curve a bit more gentle? Can you also make its whole size a bit smaller…」(Spika)
「Like this?」(Touya)
I change it according to what I’ve been told. I apply weight reduction with [Gravity] and various enchants onto this s.h.i.+eld after finis.h.i.+ng with its form, completing my work.
Spika-san takes the completed s.h.i.+eld into her hand after brus.h.i.+ng it through, takes a stance with it and swings it around trying out various movements.
「It’s a good thing that this s.h.i.+eld doesn’t obstruct the field of view with itself since it’s transparent. It’s also unbelievably light. This is a wonderful s.h.i.+eld 」(Spika)
「That’s not all there is to it. The most sword types won’t be able to leave a single scratch on it. I’ve also bestowed an enchantment which will absorb and repel magic attacks to some degree」(Touya)
I haven’t yet supplied Spika-san with a complete set of equipment for a member of the knight order, a crystal sword and an armor, so I will do it now. The sword and armor will be the same as everyone else though.
「This sort of armor is… If I had it at that time…」(Spika)
A few words which she has muttered in daze did not escape my ears, but I’ve decided not to touch that subject.
「Master」(Shesca)
A voice resounds from behind me. I see Shesca standing there in a maid uniform as I turn my head.
「A message has come from Rosetta. The aforementioned article has been completed」(Shesca)
「Ah, that was quite fast」(Touya)
I’ve thought it would surely take a bit more time. All right, shall we make a debut during a meeting this afternoon?
I part ways with Spika-san and go together with Shesca to Babylon.
================Scene-Change==============
「Touya-dono. Is that an artifact capable of predicting the appearances of the frazes?」(Rerisha)
「Yes. It’s called [Perception Board]」(Touya)
As it name suggests, it’s a so-called liquid crystal tablet made in the form of a black board.
It’s a convenient tool which can display the number of frazes that will appear, their individual cla.s.sifications, the predicted time of their appearance, distance and direction after it senses the sounds of their appearance.
However, its scope of measurement isn’t that wide, but we won’t have any problems with just one of those if it’s just Brunhild. Large countries like Belfast, Regulus and Restia will need several of those tools. Even Rynie will require the same even if its size is next to us.
「I will ask the adventurers guilds in each country to install those. I a.s.sume that adventurers will handle the lower types that will appear via a request from the guild. On the other hand, the frame gears located in that country will then be launched to deal with the intermediate types. Finally, I would like to try dealing with the advanced types together with all members of the East-West Alliance. Naturally, that’s if the scope of their numbers aren’t too big」(Touya)
「We don’t have problems with this as a guild. We would like to be excused from suffering damage like the one we’ve received in Yuuron when we couldn’t have predicted their appearance」(Rerisha)
Rerisha-san says so as she joins the representatives of each country and sits at the round table.
We have sought the cooperation of the guild. They are, above all else, hold positions in various lands, including the countries which aren’t members of the East-West Alliance. Moreover, they have a definite network.
Certainly, we plan to request the cooperation of a country that’s not a member of the alliance after explaining the circ.u.mstances to them if the prediction falls within their country. It will be a different question whether they will be able to believe us or not. Well, they won’t be able to not believe us when the frazes appear though.
「Fumu. With this, we will be able to deal with the attack of the frazes internally even if it happens」(Regulus Emperor)
「Moreover, the fragments of the frazes… are they being called [Crystal materials]? They also seem useful in one way or another depending on their usage」(Misumido Beast King)
The Regulus Emperor and the Misumido Beast King exchange such a dialogue. While it may be natural, the special properties of [Crystal Materials] have been pa.s.sed to each country. Well, they should’ve taken a good guess after seeing the weapons of the frame gears and the equipment of our knight order which have been made from the frazes, no?
Until now, I’ve received the biggest share of [Crystal materials] from the frazes that have been defeated by the frame gears. After this, it’s been decided that a country that defeats the frazes will be getting 80% of the materials and I’ll be receiving 20% as the rental charge for the frame gears. Of course, I’ll be getting nothing into my pocket in cases where the frazes are defeated without using the frame gears.
The special properties of [Crystal Material] are as follows:
「It increases its hardness by having magic be poured into it」
「It will regenerate itself until the magic power that has been poured into it runs out」
「It will amplify the strength of magic if it’s being used as a catalyst」
The last property about the amplification of magic is the same as that of magic stones, but the crystal materials seem to be more powerful due to the difference in magic power conductivity.
The problem is its weight and the manufacturing process. It will be difficult to use the materials in swords and armor if they can’t make complex transformations with [Modelling] or reduce their weight with [Gravity] like I do.
It won’t be an issue for those possessing the materials to cut them apart, but they won’t be able to fuse those materials together. Well, it seems they will be able to make something like a scale-mail made of thin scaly crystal materials after they raise its hardness by pouring a tremendous amount of magic power.
However, the first problem will be pouring magic power. As Rin has said, the material will have its hardness raised proportional to the amount of magic being poured in, but it seems that continuous pouring of magic power will be hard to do because the resistance to magic power will be increasing as well.
So it’s like raising levels in RPG or something, right? The more the level goes up, the bigger the amount of experience points is required to raise it further. It feels sort of like that.
By the way, I don’t feel something like a magic power resistance. The magic power just pours inside without any objections usually. Naturally, I don’t know for sure since I haven’t filled any of the materials to the brim. It’s not like I also don’t feel that it would break if the magic power being poured in is too much.
「Now then, with this today’s meeting is…」(Touya)
「Excuse, I have a report」(Audrey)
As I was about to close the meeting, I’ve been interrupted by the new Statewide Governor Audrey-san who has raised her hand. What’s this all about?
「I’ve thought that it would be better to report this in advance, just in case. It happened a few days ago. The person fully responsible for the study and cultivation of… the armed golems which have rampaged in our country, Edgar Bowman, has managed to escape from the mine camp 」(Audrey)
Eh? That young baldy? Did he escape?
「It looks like he has been pretty much guided from the outside and we haven’t managed to get a grip on his whereabouts yet. I’ve decided to report this since he might’ve escaped outside the country」(Audrey)
In other words, does that mean that someone has let this young baldy escape? Who the heck could…even if he is how he is, he was called a genius magic engineer once, it wouldn’t be strange if there were fellows thinking about how to use his power…
「Search. Magic Engineer Edgar Bowman」(Touya)
A map has been projected in the air, but not a single pin has fallen down.
『Search finished. No matches』
Nee.
「Did he die already…? What does that mean?」(Audrey)
「That’s if he has turned into a corpse which cannot be identified. Either that or he has escaped to a place where a magic barrier has been applied. He might also be holding onto a tool that has barrier in it which he can put on…」(Touya)
I couldn’t pin down that bad premonition I had even if I tried while responding to the new statewide governor. It’s not like it comes from anxiety, fear or something else. It’s a feeling that troubles will only seem to increase from now on.
As my dead Jii-chan used to say [There’s no one more troublesome than a fool who’s only half-clever].
I think so as well.