“The ship’s...gone?”
The massive Ark in front of us had vanished in the blink of an eye. It might not have been an appropriate thought, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of a magic show... You know, the kind where it’d be all like “Now you see me, now you don’t!” or something along those lines.
“It didn’t dive into the lake, did it?”
“No, it vanished far too quickly for that. Plus, the surface of the water is completely still,” I said, shooting down Yumina’s suggestion.
It’s probably some kinda teleportation magic... Though it might still be there? Maybe it’s just hidden by illusion magic.
I flew over to the dock to make sure it was actually gone. It was.
“Let’s see... Run search... Ark. Searching... No Ark found.”
Not even my [Search] spell managed to locate it, which meant there must’ve been some kind of ward up. I could’ve always channeled my divinity into the [Search] spell, allowing me to bypass such contrivances...but that would take me channeling my divinity outward over the entire search radius. Therefore, it would only really work if I was looking for things in my immediate vicinity, not the whole world.
“That masked fellow... His words were somewhat troubling, were they not?”
“...Yeah. He mentioned the wicked god.”
Leen’s question made me nod along with her. The masked guy had said something extremely suspect. But was the wicked god he was alluding to the same one as the NEET I’d defeated? Or was it something else entirely? Wicked gods could be born from corrupted divinity, usually from sacred treasure... All they required were enough malice and the right vessel to take on a will of their own.
As far as I knew, the only sacred treasure on this planet was my smartphone. Those twin blades that Ende had were in my [Storage], so it couldn’t be them either. I took my smartphone out of my pocket and slowly looked it over.
Seems fine to me?
“The wicked devout... Wasn’t that one of the things Granny Tokie was concerned about? It must mean that— BWUFGH?!”
“Shhh!”
Hm?
I raised a brow and saw Arcia flailing around, her mouth firmly covered by Quun’s hands. Something told me that one of my daughters was speaking out of turn.
I stared at Quun, but she simply shrugged her shoulders innocently in response.
Gimme a break... You can’t act like that and just start whistling the situation away.
“...Quun. Do you know anything about this?”
“Not at all, father. We don’t know a thing,” my daughter said as she smiled innocently, gazing back at me with innocent eyes. She was just as good as her mother when it came to playing the fool, apparently.
“You sure about that? I might have to ban you from Babylon...”
“W-Wait, father! Please don’t do that! That’s no fair!”
Heh... Ye of simple mind... Now I know how to get what I want out of you! W-Wait, Leen... Don’t give me that look!
“Ugh... Think about our company? Can we talk about it later, please?”
“Fine. But let your sister breathe, okay? She’s going red in the face.”
“Mfh!” Arcia, freed from her sister’s grabby confines, took a deep breath.
Quun had a point. It would’ve been unwise to get into matters concerning Tokie when we had the Seekers around. I’d just have to probe for more info once I got home.
“Hm... So what now... Was the Ark really stolen?”
“Seems like it. Teleportation magic of some kind’s my best bet,” I flatly stated. I had no other response for Mario’s question.
He seemed pretty dejected by my words. And the knights of Gandhilis looked similarly dismayed. It was no wonder, really. They’d let the legacy of an ancient genius slip right through their fingers... It was a considerable loss for their country.
“Hey, Mr. Mario... What was with those four-armed Gollems?”
“Beats me, friend. They’re pretty sophisticated stuff. Hybrid models made outta different pieces are rare. Normally, hybrids like them wouldn’t even be able to move, so their creator’s gotta be some kinda crazy genius. If that’s the kinda person who took the Ark from us, well... Tch, we’re probably screwed.”
I quietly pondered to myself as I heard Mario talking with one of the knights. Those four-armed Gollems definitely didn’t seem run of the mill...which made his words all the more concerning. If hybrids like that truly required a sophisticated creator, then we were definitely up against someone who knew their stuff.
Yumina turned to Albus and asked, “Albus... What exactly can the Ark do? What is its purpose?”
“The Ark was Chrom Ranchesse’s personal production factory. When provided with raw materials, it is capable of mass production on an industrial level.”
“Wait...mass production of what?! Crowns?!”
Albus’s answer startled the hell out of me... It was bad enough with a handful of crown Gollems, but an army? That’d be a nightmare.
“Negative. Crowns cannot be mass-produced.”
“Don’t scare me by being all vague, then...”
Once I calmed down, I realized that if it was that easy to make crowns, then there’d probably be a lot more around... If it was his personal factory, he’d probably have made dozens of them with it.
“It’s still a factory facility that belonged to one of the greatest gollemancers in history. It stands to reason that it would contain secrets beyond standard facilities.”
Elluka’s right... If it falls into the hands of someone dangerous, we’d be in some serious trouble. Wait...what am I saying? That guy was talking about a wicked god. It’s already in the hands of someone dangerous!
“We crowns act as keys to the Ark. It can only function with our direct input.”
“Huh, really? So their next target might be a crown Gollem...”
If they wanted the Ark for its capabilities, then that was their only option... Fortunately for me, four crowns happened to be in Brunhild. Well, technically, there were only three functional crowns. Luna’s one had been stripped of its abilities. There was always the chance they’d turn their eyes toward another crown, however.
“Negative. The safest conclusion would be that the assailants already have a crown.”
“...What?”
Just as I was thinking of ways to safeguard the blue and green crowns, Albus took me completely by surprise.
When I asked the little Gollem to elaborate, he simply pointed to the passageway we’d come through and said, “The door to that passageway will not open without a crown. We engaged enemy Gollems the moment we came down the elevator. Conclusion: The enemy brought a crown with them.”
“H-Hold up...how many crowns are there, again?”
“Red. Blue. Green. Purple. Black. White. Six in total.”
Of the six Albus listed, four were already in Brunhild. And that meant the blue or green crown was in the enemy’s hands!
“This unit surmises you have come to an erroneous conclusion. But it is not your fault, as you were unaware of the two unfinished crowns created by Chrom Ranchesse during his ordeal between the two worlds. The gold and silver crowns.”
“Gold and silver...? They sound kinda fancy...”
From what I recalled, Chrom Ranchesse used the power of the black and white crowns to jump between the Reverse World and the world I was more acquainted with. And according to Albus, upon discovering the Phrase invasion, Chrom started creating the gold and silver crowns as a way to get back to his original world without having to pay the toll for his contract... Unfortunately, he didn’t finish them in time. That left the gold and silver crowns in a dormant, unfinished state, which meant the masked guy must’ve gotten his hands on one of them before he’d arrived.
...This just feels weird, though. Like, isn’t their plan really developed? Did he get the crown first because he wanted the Ark? Or did he target the Ark because he got the crown? Wait, how’d he even learn about the Ark?
“We should inform the king of Gandhilis about this at once. Grand Duke, would you mind coming with me? I don’t really know how to explain all this...”
“No problem. It only makes sense to introduce myself while I’m here.”
I’d been looking for an opportunity to meet the king of Gandhilis, so I decided to make the most of our visit.
A handful of knights went with the Seekers to board their airship, while the rest of them stayed behind at the camp. Meanwhile, me and the Brunhild lot boarded the Balmung.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to cover much distance between the ruins and the capital of Gandhilis. We moved through the air at a relatively slow speed, letting the Seekers take the lead. We figured it’d be better if they entered the airspace first, rather than letting the sight of the Balmung freak out the general populace.
Once I was alone with my family and the Babylon group, I had questions.
“So...I need answers here. What was that guy talking about with that wicked god stuff?” I narrowed my eyes at Arcia and Quun, who were sitting across the table from me, as I asked that question. Though honestly, they didn’t seem to be taking the situation all that seriously.
“We don’t really know much ourselves, to be honest. But what we do know is that the wicked devout are vestiges of the wicked god that you once killed.”
“Uh...vestiges? What do you mean?”
“They’re like residue, father. Think of them as leftover soybean byproducts. When soy milk coagulates into tofu, there’s some goopy runoff that tends to get squeezed out and left by the wayside. That’s what they are,” Arcia said, explaining things in cooking terms, which sort of helped.
So they’re like squeezed out bits from that NEET? That’s kinda gross...
“So you’re saying he’s something similar to the wicked god?”
“Not just him, father. There are several. It’d be more apt to say ‘them,’” Quun stated before letting out a small chuckle.
“Granny Tokie didn’t exactly tell us much about them, but she said they’d pose a threat if they emerged. If they don’t do anything, we’ll be able to return to our time without a hitch... But if they start causing chaos, then their residual divinity will complicate the timestream, making the future somewhat less certain.”
“But the wicked devout weren’t supposed to wake up... She only really told us to be on the safe side. We weren’t even supposed to tell you about it, since it wasn’t meant to be relevant at all.”
Wait, so these things might actually change the future? Maybe not to an extreme amount, but it’d be bad if my kids can’t get back home... I don’t want them creating some kind of alternate timeline that messes everything up.
“I can’t say I understand what it is they want, but they certainly seem unpleasant,” Leen said, failing to hold back her urge to sigh.
“They’re just residue, right? Can’t be that bad...”
“That’s a touch overoptimistic, father. Even runoff can become part of a good meal if used appropriately. The wicked god may have been the finished tofu, but the wicked devout still came from the same soybeans. There’s no hierarchy there, only a difference in form and refinement.” Arcia proudly spoke in metaphors again, but I couldn’t help but feel she was stretching it a little too far. I still got the gist, however. Essentially, we needed to tread carefully.
Even if these things were false gods, they still had smidgens of muddied divinity. That meant they could spread that divinity to mortals to create dependents. I wondered if the plague mask guy had once been human... Either way, he was one of the devout now. Whether he was that sludge made manifest or a person corrupted by it didn’t really matter.
“So, uh, what do they want? Revenge? Resurrection of the original?”
“Well...it’s not really known, I think. I’m sure it’s bad news, though.”
I didn’t think it was possible to resurrect the wicked god, since its soul had been scattered into oblivion upon defeat. At the very least, that NEET bastard was never coming back. But there was always the possibility of a new wicked god rising out of all this. It’d need some kind of divine vessel to grow within, but...
Whatever the case, all I could really do was shrug. Would’ve been bad if that NEET god had ended up leaving some kind of sacred treasure behind...but surely that couldn’t have happened.
“We’re at the capital,” Doc Babylon said, her voice echoing out from the bridge speakers. We glanced out the window to look at our surroundings.
The city was surrounded by towering, rocky spires. A river ran through the settlement, dividing it into north and south. The large, sturdy castle sat on the north side. To the east of the castle sat an open field with an airship parked in it, likely an official Gandhilis vessel. I noticed that the Seekers were descending close to it, so they probably wanted us to follow suit. It must have been a designated landing zone. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really enough space for Balmung.
“Sorry, guys... Would you mind waiting up in the sky? I won’t be long.”
“Not a problem. We’re in the middle of taking a Gollem apart, so no rush.”
I had a feeling the Gollem they were referring to was one of the four-armed ones from the ruins. They certainly wasted no time in trying to rip it apart. Quun, having heard the announcement, suddenly jumped for joy. Sparkles flared up in her eyes.
“Can I assist them, father?!”
“Yep, yep. You can stay behind too.”
“Yay! I knew you’d understand!” Quun exclaimed loudly as she jumped about. Somehow, I’d grown used to her antics already.
Don’t despair about our daughter, Leen... I assure you I feel the same way.
“As for Arcia...”
“I’ll be staying behind as well. Fear not, father. I’ll prepare some food in the meantime. B-But I’d appreciate it if you could bring some ingredients back.”
Hold up...didn’t I already eat a home-cooked lunch from you on the way here?
I didn’t want to outright reject her or hurt her feelings, so I figured I’d just try to be as hungry as possible by the next time I saw her.
I looked out the window and saw both Mario and Ripple descend from their airship, so I used [Teleport] to go down to them. In the end, Yumina, Lu, and Leen were the ones to join me.
“Welcome to Gandhilis. Step this way to see the king.”
I looked over to see a young steward. He’d been talking to a knight, but his attention promptly switched over to us.
We followed him, eventually coming to a fairly secluded room. Once we entered, we found ourselves face to face with three individuals. Though they looked to be of high standing, they didn’t appear pretentious or tacky at all.
The first was Princess Cordelia Terra Gandhilis, the second princess of the realm. The bespectacled maid behind her was Parullel. She happened to be the daughter of both Mario and Ripple. I’d met the two of them after the masquerade incident in Refreese. Since it’d been a while, we exchanged a brief greeting.
That left the third and final person in the room. He stood up from his desk and walked over to us. He had a big bushy beard, which was white due to his age. His body was sturdy as a tree trunk.
“Welcome to Gandhilis, Grand Duke of Brunhild. I am the king, Galivan Zila Gandhilis.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, and pardon my sudden intrusion. I’m the grand duke of Brunhild, Mochizuki Touya. I’m accompanied today by three of my wives, Yumina, Lucia, and Leen.”
“Ah, I was wondering who these pleasant young ladies were. Please, be at ease.”
King Gandhilis offered us chairs, which we readily sat down upon. A short while later, Mario began to explain the situation.
“Your Majesty, I gotta apologize. We lost the ship we were studying.”
“I’d say the fault lies with me and my lax allocation of resources. It’s a true pity we were unable to obtain any new information relating to Chrom Ranchesse, but more than anything, I’m just pleased you’re all alive.”
Though Mario bowed his head in shame, King Gandhilis simply smiled gently and shook his own head. It was a plain relief to see that he was a kindhearted man.
“Now, Grand Duke...do we have any idea where this assailant may have escaped to?”
“I don’t. They used some advanced teleportation spell to escape and employed similar techniques to cloak their location. Whoever they are, they know what they’re doing.”
“Hrm... Then there’s nothing to be done, is there?” King Gandhilis said, then folded his arms and let out a small, tired sigh.
I could see Princess Cordelia fidgeting slightly in my peripheral vision.
What’s she doing?
“U-Uh...! If anything comes up then, please, uh... You could contact us? Directly!”
“Oh, sure. No problem.”
“Right, so uh... Uhhh...”
Is she okay? Does she wanna say something?
I briefly exchanged glances with Yumina, but she looked just as befuddled as me.
After a few moments, Parullel let out a sigh and frankly stated, “What my lady is attempting to do, Grand Duke, is bait you into giving her one of those smartphone devices so that she might engage in lovey-dovey conversations with her beloved Emperor Gardio once the sun goes down.”
“D-Don’t put it like that!”
Cordelia was close to weeping out of embarrassment. Parullel reminded me of Cesca in quite a few ways. Though they differed in that Cesca was a clear masochist, while Parullel struck me as more of a sadist. Either way, they were a pair of intrusive maids.
“I-It’s that little communication device, yes? I know that the rulers of Gardio and Allent both have one, so...could I trouble you for one as well, perhaps?”
All you had to do was ask. I was gonna give you one anyway.
I opened up [Storage] and pulled out a pair of smartphones. I then slid them across the table, along with a small instruction booklet.
As I was showing King Gandhilis and his daughter how to use their new devices, I caught the burning gaze of Mario, Ripple, and Parullel from across the table. They weren’t exactly being subtle...but I figured it was fine, since Yumina’s eye had already vetted them for potential ill will, and they’d come up clean.
“No taking it apart, all right? You won’t be able to put it back together, and I won’t give you a new one.”
I had to make sure to remind Mario not to mess with the technology, since I knew exactly what he was thinking. The mass-produced smartphones were enchanted with both [Shield] and [Protection], so they couldn’t be broken very easily. That didn’t mean they were impossible to take apart, however. I just wanted everyone in the room to understand that doing so would mean you’d probably never get the chance to do it again.
Princess Cordelia immediately asked me for the emperor of Gardio’s number. I didn’t want to just hand the guy’s number off without his consent, so I sent him a text asking if that was okay.
He sent me a message back, almost immediately, saying “Absolutely!” and that was that.
But even though Princess Cordelia had his number, she was suddenly hesitant to actually call him. Probably because all eyes were now fixed on her as she held the phone in her hands.
“I-I can’t call him when you’re all staring at me like that!”
Her feelings seemed reasonable enough to me.
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