06-29 Overwhelming
“Lotte’s… Sister?”
The Prince looked perplexed. While smiling, Lotte nodded and pointed with her left hand that had let go of the sword.
“Yes, over there.”
Lotte pointed at the left side entrance to the hallway. Right now, it was the spot where the most golems were gathered, and the most chaotic spot.
From there appeared a girl wearing a light blue dress and a white apron dress.
“It’s Elder Sister Reiko.”
＊ ＊ ＊
“Father!”
Scattering the rows of golems, Reiko rushed into the hall. Whether the obstructing golems were chore golems or knight golems made no difference and they were all similarly blown away, as she headed towards Jin’s location.
“Oh, it’s Reiko! I was just thinking that you’d be here any time now.”
Reiko smiled delightedly at the admission of trust, and,
“So, what would you like me to do first?”,
She asked Jin for instructions. Jin had just one order.
“Protect the people, and disable the attacking golems.
“Yes!”
Reiko kicked the floor with force, and jumped into the fray of the swarming golems. With a swing of her right arm a knight golem was blown to pieces, and with a swing of her left arm a security golem sunk into a wall.
When Reinhardt saw it,
“Ah, Reiko-chan has come!”
“Eh? Reiko-chan?”
Elsa and Beana looked towards Reiko, their eyes wide.
The amount of the grouped up golems was decreasing noticeably. Not just by one or two golems, but in groups of five to ten golems.
“Alright, now’s the time! Schwarz Ritter, rescue the remaining survivors!”
Reinhardt saw it was a good opportunity and leaving the handling of the golems to Reiko he decided to use all of his strength in rescuing the survivors.
“Behave yourselves!”
Reiko blew away the golems.
She had already defeated more than 60 of the rampaging golems, but knocking down one after another there were more golems to come.
Seeing that, Jin worked out a plan and gathered a bunch of metal fragments of the golems scattered about,
“[Fusion].”
He melded them together,
“[Forming].”
And then shaped them. What he made was a blunt weapon called a mace. Its weight was about 200 kilograms or so.
Finally he applied [Hardening] to increase its endurance, and it was finished.
“Heeey, Reiko!”
Even though she was in the middle of a melee, Reiko caught Jin’s voice and immediately came to his side.
“It’s hastily made, but try using this.”
He pointed at the mace he had made. Reiko immediately sensed its usefulness.
“Understood, I will gladly accept it.”,
She said, picked up the mace with one hand, and said,
“Then I’ll continue cleaning up.”
With those parting words she again thrust herself in the middle of the group of golems.
“……”
“…”
Watching the whole exchange from beginning to end from nearby were Celuroa Kingdom’s special envoy Dominique, and the Magi Craftsman of the same Celuroa Kingdom, Stearina.
Both Reiko’s strength and Jin’s Craft Magic were so far away from their standards they were lost for words as they watched.
Reiko swung the mace, and four or five chore golems were blown away in one go.
“This is fine, isn’t it.”
As far as Reiko’s concerned, even wielding nothing more than a wooden pole would have an extraordinary effect.
In front of the whooshing mace the golems scattered and were sent flying as if they were scarecrows. Ten golems, twenty, thirty.
135
After ten more golems, most of them had disappeared.
And, after Reiko spotted the remaining golems she swung once more.
But that swing was stopped.
“That’s…Tauros!”
The golem Duke Blue brought with him, Tauros, blocked the mace Reiko swung with its giant tower shield.
“So you can block this. It seems you’ve got a bit of strength.”
Reiko gripped the mace she had so far wielded with one hand with both of her hands, and with a big windup,
“Let’s see you block this!”
She struck at Tauros.
A thunderous roar rseounded through the hall.
The mace Reiko wielded was smashed up, and Tauros’s tower shield along with its left hand that held it were pulverized.
“Rather robust, aren’t you.”
Reiko dropped the unusable mace, and faced Tauros with her slender body.
“This is payback for breaking the mace Father built and gave to me!”
At that moment, Reiko increased her power output to 30 percent for an instant. Like that, Reiko performed a ramming attack.
In this world, excluding the phenomenon of magic, the laws of physics don’t differ much from Earth’s.
If a light object and a heavy object collide, the light object bounces back. But that’s when talking about situations with no friction, resistance, etc.
In addition, you must take into account their individual strength.
The 250-kilogram Tauros made of steel, and the 33-kilogram Reiko made without sparing rare materials.
Tauros’s speed was about zero. Reiko’s speed in comparison at the moment of the impact was about 50 meters per second.
A sound louder than the earlier thunderous roar could be heard, and metal-odored smoke shrouded the area.
When the dust cleared up, Tauros could no longer be seen, there was only the figure of Reiko brushing the dust off her body.
The present survivors all felt relieved at the resulting silence.
“Is it…over?”
Someone muttered, and with that the heavy strain on their shoulders disappeared, as it did from the weakened people who were sitting on the floor.
Meanwhile, the vice-captain of the Imperial Guard knights, Bruno, moved to the King and the Prince despite his wounded body.
“Your Majesty, Your Highness, you made it.”
“Oh, Bruno, so you were safe too.”
“Please come this way, the survivors are gathering.”
“Is that so? I understand.”
With that all the survivors had finally gathered in one spot.
“Your Majesty!”
“Ah, Prime Minister, so you were safe too”
“It’s good that Your Highness alright too.”
“Mmh, thanks to Lotte’s help.”
Lotte, covered in wounds, was behind the King and the Prince waiting on them.
The King and the Prince, and cabinet ministers such as the Prime Minister Galueri, Minister of Finances Blaoroot, Minister of Magic Kelhidore, and the Ministers of Defense, Internal Affairs, and Foreign Affairs.
Nobles like Duke Blue, Earl Kuzuma, Earl Guarana, and Viscount Grieri.
Invitees Reinhardt, Elsa, Celuroa’s special envoy Dominique, Stearina, and so forth.
Magi Craftsmen like Yarui-Dale, Jade Nepheloi, Gladia Hampton, Bootes, et cetera.
The commanding officer of the Imperial Guard knight company, and the vice-captain.
Some had serious injuries, but they weren’t life-threatening.
On the other hand, the escorting soldiers and Imperial Guard knight troops didn’t get away with just a few casualties.
＊ ＊ ＊
Due to the immensely powerful Reiko’s activities clearing away most of the golems in the hall, and it seeming like more golems weren’t going to rush in any more, the leaders of Egelia Kingdom discussed what to do from now on.
From among them, the Minister of Magic Kelhidore asked,
“Reinhardt-dono, why weren’t your Schwarz Ritter and Earl Kuzuma’s Lotte among the rioting golems?”
It was surely the number one question in everyone’s minds.
Reinhardt replied by explaining the story about the criminal in Elias Kingdom, Valentino, and the golem Albus he used.
He said he had surely already reported the matter to Elias Kingdom and Egelia Kingdom through the proper channels, and had finished remodeling his Schwarz Ritter to resist against interference by outside magic.
“I hadn’t heard any story about a golem like that. The report must’ve come to stop somewhere.”
On that note, the Minister of Magic went silent with a troubled expression.
Jin then turned up there along with Reiko.
“Oh, Jin! And Miss Reiko! You saved us!”
Reinhardt greeted Jin. Earl Kuzuma also expressed his thanks,
“Jin, Lotte whom you built commendably protected His Majesty and His Highness, you have my thanks!”
When Jin heard it,
“Eh? Lotte did?”,
He said and looked around, and found Lotte behind him. In front of her were the King and the Prince.
When the King heard Jin’s name, he said,
“Oh, so you are the Magi Craftsman called Jin. We heard from Kuzuma, you’re an excellent Magi Craftsman. Good work on building a golem as splendid as this Lotte.”
“Oh, thank you very much.”
When the King said so, Jin lowered his head. Although he didn’t know the etiquette for an occasion like this, he thought it should be fine if he just behaved modestly.
“In addition, Reiko, was it. A splendid piece of work. Is she also yours?”
“Yes, she’s an Automata.”
“Hm, is that so. We have many things We would like to ask, but first, let Us express Our thanks.”
Everyone in the vicinity was surprised when the king of the whole country thanked a mere Magi Craftsman.
“Jin, was it? We were saved thanks to you! If you can, could you fix Lotte?”
The one who talked was Prince Ernest.
At his remark, Jin raised his head and took a long hard look at Lotte who was behind them.
The maid outfit she was wearing had been completely torn to pieces and lost, and her right arm had come off from the shoulder. Her left hand was missing the middle finger, the ring finger, and the little finger, and throughout her body were countless of bruises and dents.
“Lotte, come over here.”
Jin beckoned and Lotte came over while limping a little.
Looking close her condition was even more severe than thought.
“Lotte, you did great. You protected His Majesty and His Highness well even though you became like this. I’m proud of you.”
Like so, Jin kindly showed his consideration for the wound-covered Lotte.