7 years had pa.s.sed since I discovered the broken Aluminare.
I’ll explain roughly what had transpired since then.
When I first started, I repaired it from its current condition as much as possible.
The start-up condition of the Aluminare included an ability to diagnose the damage on it. By using it, I was able to locate the places that needs to be repaired before launching it.
However, almost all of the joints are no good. Since the back of it crashed on the cliff, there are some cracks on the pipe. And some cables were broken too.
In order to fix the backside, I had to make a hole in the cliff to repair it in place. So I had to momentarily postpone repairing that, and started repairing the individual joints first.
The armor is fully welded, as neither screws or bolts can be found. Therefore, I carefully cut it in pieces with wind magic so it would be easy to rea.s.semble. My previous knowledge in plastic models was useful in this area.
I examined the frame of the Aluminare, which had been exposed, starting from its foot to pick up the broken parts. The parts from the left arm can be re-used on those places, If there is no tool to replace the parts, it would be impossible to inspect those places.
It took half a year to fully inspect the right leg. Three months on the left leg, three months on the right arm. Additionally it took three months to inspect the area around the body and the neck. I was able to inspect everything somehow.
In the meantime, I collected tools using the money I earned little by little from hunting.
A single kid tried to repair the Aluminare. If such a thing is known, there is a possibility that the villagers will feel weird about it. Therefore, I was negotiating directly with the merchant unbeknownst to the villagers, which is quite hard.
After all, I was just a kid around 8 to 9 year old at that time. Such a kid is highly unlikely to want such special tools. Furthermore, purchasing metal pipes, tubes and cables from here on would be impossible not to be suspected.
Also the remote village by itself is a place were iron is scarcely used. The merchants will considerably be suspicious.
But conversely, I used the case that I was a kid.
They will believe that children that got attracted to Aluminare will try to build something similar to it.
There is little to doubt when shown the Basic Introduction and showing an innocent smile that was practiced, this got them convinced somehow. I was able to more or less pay with money diligently.
Thanks to that, it took 3 years to finish the repair with using all the parts of the left arm.
During those days, Anjou also came to help me with the repairs of Aluminare.
Anjou who practiced magic all the time, came along with me to the Aluminare to memorize the movement type magic.
Although she only had a small impression when she saw the Aluminare, she did like the place itself. Therefore, I sometimes accompany her to come to this place. Thus, she was able to help me with the repairs, by bringing me small tools and some other stuff.
What Anjou saved me the most was that she was able to use fire type magic. Her fingertips can easily produce similar flame as a gas burner. She will weld on spots where cracks appeared on the pipe. Without Anjou’s help, I would have experienced a harder time to repair.
As time pa.s.ses with this and that, today is the eight year.
At last, as much as possible, all the emergency repairs had been complete.
“Finally we did it woooooOOOOO!”
“Congratulations Eldo”
I gave a roar while looking at the Aluminare while Anjou was clapping on the side.
Anjou had also grew up and is now 15 years old and she’s brightly becoming more and more beautiful. Her hands that should have been working on the fields still remained soft, as she began to develop as a woman, her femininity became more obvious as well. She’s already as tall as her mother, I’m sure Anjou will become more taller in the future.
“It’s thanks to your help Anjou. Without you, it would take another 2 years”
“That’s nothing. You were able to repair it this much because Eldo-kun worked hard. Putting that aside, are you gonna start the experiment?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Then please evacuate to the top of the cliff Anjou. I don’t know what will happen”
For a machine a.s.sembled by an amateur, there would be some some various defects.
Some armor might get blown off due to the defects when the machine starts to move, so the possibility that Anjou will not get caught up with that is not zero. Therefore, I had asked Anjou to evacuate to a safe zone.
“Ok. Good luck”
As Anjou said that, she let me go, ran to the riverbank, and began chanting.
“[Flare Booster], [Double Installation]. [Start]”
And then, two transparent boosters appeared across the waist of Anjou. This is her basic movement type magic.
She accelerates by bursting out flame from the two boosters.
She is already accustomed to climbing the cliff, she waved at me when she reached the top.
And as for me, I boarded the c.o.c.kpit of Aluminare.
“Now then, please start up successfully”
I opened the fuel valve with familiar hand movements, and pushed the start b.u.t.ton. Various meters started moving, and a low vibration came from under the seat.
Everything was familiar up to here. I have repeated these steps a hundred times in eight years.
And from here on out, will be the first operation. Probably because of the tension, I wiped my sweat which started to appear with my hand, I then slowly depressed the foot pedal.
The output of the generator was increasing, the needle of the meter was gradually rising to the top. The first time I did this, it threw up an error along the way.
I glaringly stared at the meter as I confirmed that the needle is now beyond the middle point.
I stepped on the pedal furthermore to raise the output.
“Go! Go! Go! Go!”
As the output rises, the sound within the machine changed in a big way.
While it was making a sound like that of a jet engine, the needle of the meter had entered the second stable region.
“Awaken! Aluminare!”
For the first time, I pushed the launch b.u.t.ton.
“How’s that!”
I checked every sorts of meters while maintaining it in the second stable region, All joint parts where not in the all green condition, it is possible to operate this in all yellow condition somehow. Mobile head camera, start. No abnormalities in the various hydraulic parts. The Gyro Balancer is in normal operation. High Magia Liquid is at 10 percent remaining. Estimated operating time, 5 hours.
“YES! It booted up!”
It started up without any problems in the systems! All kinds of meters didn’t display any errors. With the data provided, the Aluminare can move!
Then, there is only one thing left to do.
I have to make this move.
“Let’s start with the right hand”
I slowly operated the hand control lever.
The right arm slowly rose with creaking sounds, and I levelled it parallel to the ground.
If I press the b.u.t.tons on the lever, each fingers moved sufficiently.
“I, I’m moving the robot! I’m piloting the humanoid robot!”
Excitement was overflowing out from the bottom of my heart.
I just noticed that tears are falling down from my eyes. 8 years of unswerving determination. At last I have reached it.
“There are still reserve energy left. So, let me see you stand up”
If its possible, I would like to replenish the High Magia Liquid, but it’s only made on a special factory managed by the country, so it’s not possible to refuel. So, even though I have been minimizing the usage, it has been greatly reduced. When its actually moving, I don’t know how much fuel it will consume, 10 percent is probably tight number to satisfactorily move this. But there should be no problem as I just want the machine stand for now.
I have never practiced the maneuver to stand, but the method was written down in detail on the Basic Introduction.
I have completely memorized the contents of the book. I’m at a level now where I can recite it from memory.
So it’s gonna be alright. As long as I do what the book says, I can operate it successfully. If I make some slight mistake, the Sense Board should be able to compensate.
“While pushing the foot pedal, raise the slot by one foot”
I completely followed the transmission procedure step by step as outlined by the training manual.
The Aluminare began to move its foot accordingly but slowly.
Pulled the right foot, supporting with the left foot, slowly standing up while leaning the upper body forward.
Although the balance is off because there is no left arm, the Gyro Balancer and the Sense Board are correcting it automatically.
The field of vision inside the c.o.c.kpit is slowly rising, the range of what can be seen is extending little by little.
Its trying to stand up from one knee after all.
“Stand up!”
I shouted inadvertently as I was doing the last procedure. As if responding to it, the Aluminare stood up vigorously.
“I did it!”
It might not be a great step for mankind, but it was a great step for me.
Looking at Anjou, she jumps and hops down the cliff. I’m filled with unexplainably strong emotion.
I then operated an overhead switch to activate the microphone and speakers.
These two are magics. Speaking of how they work, the magic was recorded in the Sense Board, and it activates by consuming the High Magia Liquid.
It may closely resemble a beam weapon in the modern age.
The Aluminare can only activate magic that was recorded in the Sense Board, however, since it uses High Magia Liquid, the scale is too big that it cannot be compared to a human activating the same magic.
As for capacity, since the Sense Board can be rewritten in various ways, I wanted to make an original machine. Unfortunately most of the things about the Sense Board was not written in the Basic Introduction. Since it’s the brain of the Aluminare, I might need a more technical knowledge.
“Anjou, can you hear me?”
“Fwee!? Eldo-kun’s voice became loud!”
“I can hear you voice from there too. It’s this guy’s magic”
“It’s amazing that such a thing can be done. Leaving that aside, congratulations! You were able to finally launch it”
“Yeah, this is all today for the time being. After this, I’m going to do more checks to make sure there are no abnormalities”
I want to move it more somewhere, but this machine was repaired from a state which this guy wasn’t able to move. Though it succeeded in standing, something might be going on in places I can’t see.
I have repeatedly exercised caution after caution, I must operate this under thorough safety management.
“Roger that. I’m going there then”
“Ok”
I opened the hatch and went from the c.o.c.kpit to the shoulder.
The view I have seen so far have risen by about 4 meters, It feels like as usual and special at the same time.
Anjou jumped off from there.
“Congratulations again”
“Thanks. It’s thanks to your help Anjou”
“I greatly appreciate it. So, give me something to show your utmost grat.i.tude”
“I was thinking about what would you like”
A very big gift has been requested. What kind of gift would be equivalent to my dream that was fulfilled? What should I prepare?
Oh well, I will really keep thinking about it.
“Now then, I will have to start the maintenance”
“Ok”
I jumped down from the machine, and started to check it.
In a quiet forest, a giant footsteps can be heard from far away.
Slowly walking step by step, group of soldiers at the giant’s foot are matching the pace.
A total of 20 soldiers made up the group, all of them were riding on a horse and wearing the same body armor dyed in black.
“Will there be really a village ahead?”
A large man taking the lead glared at the slender man tied down on a horse beside him.
The slender man was frightened at the glare as he answered with trembling voice.
“Yes, Yes. It’s a small farm village, I go there once a month to sell stuff……”
“And during that time you sold iron, copper wires and special screwdrivers?”
“Yes…… it is so”
The slender man was a merchant who was selling merchandise regularly to Eldo’s village.
“No matter how you put it, aren’t you just overthinking this too much Captain? That someone is building an Aluminare in a remote village”
A voice was heard from above, it came from A black Aluminare with a shining red line.
It was still a young and cheerful voice.
“There is a deep valley beyond the village. Previously, that place was a frontline, dividing this country into north and south due to some rebellion. It wont be a ridiculous story if there are still some Aluminare remaining. If you believe the story of this merchant, you’ll expect there are some that will be in fairly good condition. It’s possible that the generator is still functional. It was fortunate that I was able to obtain this information before the army of this country could have. You have my grat.i.tude merchant”
“Hic……”
The merchant, who by chance spilled that he was selling machine parts in the remote village in a tavern, was deeply regretting it even though it was too late already.
There is only one organization in this whole world where they can operate Aluminare that is not connected to any country.
It’s the large-scale mercenary group, de Liverpool.
It doesn’t have a home country, nor have a base, it doesn’t even have a top leader. A dangerous group where each one are independent and driven by their own beliefs and greed.
You can volunteer to be part of de Liverpool as long as you follow the their law. It’s existence is closer to a guild so to speak.
Those who partic.i.p.ates in wars, those that provoke wars, and those who robs in wars, they made wars their livelihood, there is no common point other than living in wars. Therefore, any country had difficulties with dealing their existence.
“To get a hold of something like that, Captain will become an influential person at once! We will also receive the money gleefully”
“It’s only natural. There is no military unit in de Liverpool possessing two Aluminare machines. We will get it and be the leading unit, and the Elshard unit will gain fame as a mercenary”
“I have done an excellent work, so please don’t forget my reward. It’s not— ”
Suddenly, the right hand of the Aluminare reached the hilt of the sword and swung the sword in a smooth pattern.
Despite moving a huge ma.s.s, it only generated a slight breeze. The horses in particular didn’t mind it and just continued marching.
However, one of the men in the rear intentionally screamed suddenly.
“Wah, Aaaaaaahh!”
“What happened?”
“My, my horse’s head”
The subordinate riding on that horse was shakingly pointing towards the neck of the horse. The head has been completely cut as if it wasn’t there to begin with.
However, the horse appeared to not have noticed that its head was sliced off and still continues to walk carrying the man even though it doesn’t have a head anymore. Soon enough, it tripped and fell down from a root of a tree that was protruding from the ground.
The man who was riding it wasn’t able to stand up from that spot anymore due to fear.
“Verze!”
“Ahaha, it’s just a little bit of entertainment. But you understand it right? ”
“I know! I will prepare the best battlefield for you”
“Then that’s good. As long as you give me a place to fight, I will continue to follow the Captain”
The voice that could be heard coming from the Aluminare is clearly innocent. It’s because of that innocence that it was able to conceive a tremendous madness striking terror into the hearts of the group.