Chapter 458 – Plate and Pen

000

Um-, and as the vibrating sound, which seemed to be far from this world, continued to reverberate around, the flying discs started firing indiscriminately at the humans they saw around them from the weapons deployed on either side of them.

Although they look solidly cannons, seeing them flying without problems clinging to discs the size of frying pans slightly wider than a person’s waist circumference makes you wonder if they are actually toys.

Bang, bang! And every time an explosion sounded, the piles of dirt on the ground bursting out, and the magic barrier Laila spread trembled, and when sparks flew on the surface, it was hard to imagine what would happen if a person was hit by it.

[Exclusion of intrusion targets. Invasion target excluded.]

The disk saucers, which had been repeating the same sound since earlier, were attacking the most fiercely, Innis, who was the first to fall and stumble upon the flying saucers that appeared after touching the stone plate.

“Ugh… It hurts~!”

“Oh, are you okay? Innis.”

A homunculus that makes a whining noise as it grabs Amelia’s hand as she tries to raise herself.

It was fortunate that her cannonballs did not hit her, as a stone caught in her foot her just before her cannon hit her.

“Everyone, there doesn’t seem to be any… Injured.”

“I got a lump in the back of my head.”

Innis rubbed the back of his head as he said that, but then he saw a flying object that was rapidly approaching him and Amelia, and-

“Amelia-sama! Get down!”

Saying so, she uses the Flamberge of Flame created by fusion of blood and flame to boldly cut off the disc that is tormenting her.

Awesome!

An unstoppable blow, as if cutting butter with a hot knife.

As expected from that force, the plate fell to the ground without stopping in a straight line from the surface to the inside, and from there to the opposite surface-

Within, it caused an explosion as intense as the cannons they were using, leaving no debris behind.

“Oops!! The round plate exploded!”

When the young assistant inside Layla’s magic barrier shouts that, the others scream as well.

“Don’t make a fuss! Their explosions can’t even get inside this barrier!”

“It’s not like that! How many secrets and skills must be hidden in there!”

“Ah… Is that what you’re worried about…?”

Lila slumped her shoulders as if the assistants’ actions were absurd.

“Go, thanks, Innis.”

“Whoa. What! Master! I’ll focus on protecting Amelia-sama!”

When she shouts at Laila while waving her hand her, Laila yells at Innis as veins form on her forehead her.

“Who caused this accident!? You’ll be punished after it’s over!”

“I hate it!!”

Even while screaming, as if holding a flamberge and dancing a sword dance of flame, the fiery sword draws a trajectory, and a feast of flying saucers falling like mayflies takes place.

“The combat output is quite high.”

Artis, hiding behind Laila’s magic barrier with other assistants, confirmed Innis’ performance of her with her own eyes, then looked up at Laila and talked.

“That’s all… It seems like you’re doing a bit of housework too. Having that kind of personality and being too clumsy is a disqualification for a maid homunculus. …Sorry. Because of that guy, you guys got in the way…”

Lila bit her lip, feeling a little resentful.

If any of these people got hurt, as the creator of Innis, he had to take responsibility.

And, it seemed that the pathetic feelings towards himself for not being able to properly control his own creation were buried in his expression.

Artis, looking at Layla like that, scratches her head and talks.

“You don’t have to blame that kid too much. We didn’t expect something like this to come out.”

While talking, Artis made a circle with the index finger and thumb of his right hand and held it in front of his glasses like a telescope.

Then, she continued her words while looking at Innis and her circular plates that were aiming at her.

“Perhaps, the same thing could have happened if we investigated. Rather, it’s good that those of you guys have turned up.”

“However-“

“Besides, you dug the opposite of where our assistants were digging hard and hit it all at once, right? I don’t know if it’s luck or intuition, but it’s quite useful? That kid. Right assistants?”

At the sound of laughter from Artis, who seemed to be giggling, the assistants trembled with frightened expressions.

“Really… You’re an unknown person. You are.”

“Is that so? I think of myself as someone who is surprisingly easy to understand. More than that, don’t you have to help Cleon? If it’s your magic, those guys are nothing, right?”

Receiving such a question, Layla narrowed her eyes and surveyed her battlefield, then let out a sigh.

“Isn’t this place on top of the ruins? If you use magic that’s too powerful, you could end up getting caught up in that ruin… What’s more, it takes too long to prepare and calculate if you don’t want all of you to be harmed.”

“It’s a surprisingly difficult job to be a wizard too.”

“It’s a modifier that doesn’t need to be unexpected.”

Layla sighed as she answered Artis’ words brusquely, and then looked at Cleon as if she was a little concerned.

And, with his back her to him, the girl holding a staff in his hand her, Quon too.

“Ha… Ha. Cleon, are you okay?”

Quon does not enter the magic barrier, assists Cleon right next to him, creates wind to stagger the flying saucers, or protects his body her by putting a shield around his body her.

Unlike the Magical Barrier, Quon’s defensive magic applied to Cleon’s body did not restrict Cleon’s movement of his, only protected him from damage, but it consumed a lot of magic power.

It wasn’t magic that Quon, who didn’t have as much magic as Lyla, could keep for a long time.

“Quon. I’m fine, so use your defense magic only on you.”

“I can’t… I can’t.”

Cleon tells Quon so while swinging his sword to shoot down the flying saucer that clings to him, but Quon shakes his head.

“No matter how Cleon is, it’s dangerous if he gets attacked like that. I don’t want to see Cleon get a hole in his stomach either.”

Of course, Cleon nodded as if she understood, but her expression did not brighten her.

‘The number is definitely decreasing, but… It’s only the guys on the ground. The number of them roaming the sky and looking down at us is not diminishing.’

If there were guys flying low on the ground, there were guys who went up to an invisible high altitude and bombarded the ground.

If it hadn’t been for Lyla’s magic barrier or Quon’s shield, it might have been dangerous.

Sasha knocked some of them down with arrows, but if her altitude her was too high, the power of her arrows would also decrease, and her reaction speed would improve, perhaps learning the movements of Cleon and the others.

Is there some way to end them all at once? And the moment Cleon was looking for a way-

“Okay… I figured it out. These guys are called ‘Drones’.”

When her Artis her, who was quietly going through her own notes, said that, Lila, who noticed that she had a cigarette in her mouth at some point, frowned and asked back.

“What is a drone?”

“To put it simply, they’re a variant of the automata used by the ancients. No, they’re a bit more ancient. Unlike automata, they don’t have the ability to respond to magic.”

In the ancient war, mechanical soldiers created by humans to oppose the wizards.

Certainly, drones and automata were similar in that they were machines, but Lyla shook her head and asked quietly that they were older than the automata.

“How to stop?”

“There’s supposed to be a control system… Usually inside the facility. Well, wait a minute, I’ll do something for you. Sasha there? Can you help me for a second?”

Artis thought of something with a ‘hmm’sound coming from her mouth her, then saw Sasha running around her shooting her bow her and calling her with the corner of her mouth.

“I-you mean me!?”

When Sasha hears her voice her calling out to her as she sprints, the law of inertia works and she barely manages to control her her body her leaning in front of her, and she stops and looks back at her. .

“So, is there any other Sasha besides you?”

At her words her, Sasha nodded her head with a nervous expression, and as she approached, she pointed at the circular plates that were flying particularly low.

“Drones don’t use mana to fly, they use an energy source. Those who fly that low have little energy left, so they can’t maneuver at high speeds. Can you bring one of those guys in front of me? Can I borrow Sasha? I’m going to, will it be alright, Cleon?”

As she said that, what she took out was her pen her, which she always holds when explaining.

“Anything, as long as it can stop these guys, I don’t care.”

If Cleon willingly permits it,

“Oh, I see!”

Sasha nodded her head vigorously, and quickly changed the arrows on her bow her.

It was a special arrow with a hook-like tip and a rope tied behind the collar of the body.

Starting with her fingers pulling her the string, then her arms, shoulders, and back her.

An illusion arises as if the speed of movement of the end of a longbow pulled tight and the scenery beyond it is momentarily slowed down.

When you hold your breath and focus your senses, it energizes the retina more intensely than ever before.

Soon, at the end of the line she stretched out, the ‘prey’ reached the moment.

As she let go of the strength in her fingers her, an arrow fell from her hand her.

The arrow’s trajectory was a straight trajectory that was infinitely close to horizontal, and the reason it didn’t curve was to reduce the flight distance even a little.

And, the mark of a hunter engraved in Sasha’s eyes- No, as the result of calculations created by her sense as a hunter she had accumulated.

The hooked arrow catches the drone flying low above the ground with a ‘click’ sound, and grabs the body.

[Flight disruption! Flight Disruption!]

Suddenly, when a drone tries to hit him on a hook hanging from his body, the cannon fires and attempts to cut the rope across his muzzle.

“Aww…!”

For Sasha, all she could do now was hold on to the rope hanging from her hook so it would n’t drag.

So, just when she thought she wouldn’t be able to stop the gunfire-

“Haha!”

At the same time as the cheering sound, a heavy and dull ‘Kang’ sound resounded, and the bag fell off the body of her.

It wasn’t Innis’ Flamberge that hit the drone, it was just a simple ‘shovel’.

And the one who took it and rushed-

“Amelia!”

When Cleon looks at Amelia, who jumps into her battlefield with a surprised face, Amelia smashes the cannon on the other side of her with a shovel as well.

“Sa, Sasha! Are you okay with this!?”

“——Ah, yes! Yes!”

Sasha looked at it with her dazed expression as well, then she hurriedly pulled her drone by the rope and brought it in front of her.

“Really~! It’s cool, but if you jump in like that, it’ll be hard for me to protect you!”

When Innis moves to Amelia’s side, he cuts off the cannonball fired at Amelia on the spot.

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh. Next time, let’s talk and go together! Innis likes that too.”

When Innis responded with a smile to Amelia’s apology her, Amelia nodded as well.

Layla and Cleon sighed spontaneously.

Of course, both of them sighed in relief.

In the meantime, Sasha grabs a drone as Artis ordered and brings it over her barrier in front of Artis. Artis takes out the pen she always used at camp.

It was the pen she always used to draw red dots on the illusion map, but Lyla thought it was probably a type of artifact.

“If my predictions are correct… This will also ‘work’…”

Drone struggles to escape Sasha’s rope somehow.

However, when Artis pressed the button with the tip of the pen pointed at the drone, a red light flashed from the tip of the pen and at the same time, the movement of the drone ‘popped’ and stopped.

“Oh, oh, it’s stopped!”

When Sasha spoke with a surprised face, Artis also smiled generously.

“Success!”

As Artis twirls the pen in her hand and smirks at her mouth, a translucent blue apparition appears in front of her.

“It…”

Lila’s face turns to surprise, as she looks at the vision spread out before her.

Although she may be inferior to Artis in archeology, Layla is also a researcher who is praised as a genius, and she can read the ancient language.

That’s why she was able to figure out that the vision spread out in front of Artis was the blueprint for the drone in front of her eyes.

“What did you do with that pen?”

“I opened the door. I call this ‘key pen’.”

As if to say, “Aren’t you envious of Artis?”, She turned her pen around once more, put it in her chest pocket, and now quickly examines the translucent vision spread out in front of her eyes with both her hands.

[Hacking detected! Hacking detected! Please stop illegal access immediately!]

However, as if the other drones had noticed it, they all emitted a red light above the plate’s head and made a high-pitched sound.

It was quite annoying, so when all the people around him, including Cleon, covered their ears with their hands-

[Change target exclusion to top priority!]

With the drone’s ultimatum-like words, they all encircle Layla’s magic barrier in formation.

“Now, wait!? Come inside Sasha!”

Lila was also taken aback by the sudden situation, but she wondered if she expected what would happen right after. She poured as much of her magic as she could, strengthening her magic barrier and pulling Sasha inward.

The next moment, an explosion loud enough to deafen her encircled her magic barrier her.

She is Concentrated fire as if trying to get rid of Artis inside the magic barrier.

The volley, launched before Cleon and the others were even able to get their hands on it, shook the ground, causing explosions and storms that made it difficult to properly approach the area.

“Lyla! Sasha!”

The moment when Cleon called out the names of those who remained inside and tried to pour magic into Caliburn in order to somehow stop the drones.

[…

The bombardment, which seemed unlikely to stop even if the target turned to ashes, stopped, and one by one, the drones lost their light and fell to the ground.

“…What, what happened?”

As Amelia looked at the scene and said with a confused expression, as if she couldn’t judge the situation, the dust cloud settled and the figures behind the magic barrier were revealed.

“Haha…!”

There, Lyla stood there, sweating profusely, but she somehow kept her barrier, when Artis crumpled the holographic illusion she was holding in her hand her.

Finally, the captured drone lost its light and tumbled to the ground, resting on Sasha’s lap her, who was crouching with her ears pressed against her head her.

[CONTROL, LOSS… POWER DOWN ORDER… EXECUTE…]

At the words the drones uttered, Artis stretched and stood up.

“Okay! I took control of the drones and turned them all off! With this, these guys are now a bunch of scrap metal!”

“…”

Laila said Artis, and she let out a sigh of hers once more.

It staggered, and she fell forward as the strength drained from her body.

“Wow!? La, Mr. Layla!”

“Lyla!”

As Sasha and the rest of her party approach the fallen woman, Lyla looks up at Artis, who gives a satisfied expression with her eyes squinted.

“Let’s see…”

Layla, who poured out her magical powers her to the point of exhausting herself while spouting lines like a third-class villain, lost her mind just as she was.

001

“Lyla?”

“I’m resting in the tent. Taking Mr. Quon’s lap pillow.”

When Sasha answers Cleon’s question, she nods her head too.

“At that level, I think it will get better after a little rest.”

“Yes. It’s not anyone else, it’s Mr. Layla.”

Considering her magic recovery ability of her, the only problem is that she used too much of her magic all at once, but she will be back to normal in less than a day.

And, in front of Cleon, Innis was on his knees, his head her bowed.

“Hing-hing…”

Then, while her face her remains expressionless and a crying voice comes out of her mouth, Cleon looks at her and talks.

“Think before you move. No matter how free-spirited you are, it’s your personality, but this one has gone too far.”

“I’m sorry… Papa…”

Looking at Cleon, who was scolding her for her Layla her, Amelia really thought that Cleon was like her father her her to Innis.

“Well, let’s do it like that. That child is also reflecting, and no one was hurt in the end.”

As if defending Innis, when Artis comes closer, Cleon sighs and talks to Artis.

“It’s consequentialism, right? If the process isn’t improved, there’s no guarantee the same outcome will come out when the same thing happens.”

“Well. That’s also true. Homunculus personality correction. Cleon is also an eccentric person. Indeed.”

“…Innis is a fully individual person and a companion.”

“Papa…!”

When Cleon responds like that, Innis is moved and looks up at Cleon with his eyes twinkling like yesterday.

At that time, Schrödinger pulled out of Cleon’s pocket and spoke while sticking his head out.

“Because that part is eccentric. Brother.”

“Oh~ Yesterday’s doll. It’s still there. I didn’t see it during the battle earlier.”

Artis looks at Schrödinger and brings his face closer as if he is still interested, and Schrödinger goes back into Cleon’s pocket and talks.

“That, that’s because there’s nothing I can do during the fight, and talking to it just gets in the way.”

“Well. That judgment wasn’t wrong.”

Attis shrugged his shoulders and replied, and the cat doll crawled out of his pocket again with a frown on his face.

“…Anyway. Speaking as a senior homunculus, there are many humanoid homunculus like you who have the illusion that other humans are as strong as they are, or that they won’t die even if they get slightly injured. It doesn’ t heal well when it’s cut off, and it dies when its head is blown off.”

“I-I know that, but…”

As if she was a little taken aback by Schrödinger’s words, Innis answered quietly, facing each other with the index fingers of his hands.

“That’s why. Think of them as much as possible and act accordingly.”

“Yes…”

“Hmm,” Schrödinger snorted and asked Cleon if he did well.

After a small nod of his head, Cleon gave Innis permission to get up.

“Well. If your daughter’s education is over, this time we’re also preparing to enter the facility in earnest. Do you want to see the opening ceremony?”

“See you!!”

When Innis excitedly raised his hand right away wondering where the previous admonition had gone, Sasha and Amelia smiled wryly.

Cleon sighed and just shook his head.

002

The investigators dig out around the steel door that Innis excavated, revealing the full picture.

There were also holes where the drones protruded, so it wasn’t too hard to dig them out, but-

“Haha. What is this?”

As if being a little bewildered, Artis figured out that the width of the roof exposed after digging it all out was enough for a ship like a trading ship to easily enter.

It was a little different from the door Innis had first discovered, but from the cracks in the middle, it was clear that the wide roof was also a kind of ‘door’.

“Is this also a door?”

When Cleon questions Artis for confirmation, she nods her head.

“Yes. Apparently, it seems that the airship went in and out. The big door this way. And- Innis found, it must be a human entrance. Are you really curious about what’s inside this?”

When Attis raised the corners of his mouth, the assistants made a sigh as they surrounded the slabs with ancient numbers written on them that Innis had been manipulating earlier.

“Professor. As expected, this slate seems to be the only way to open the door by entering the password…”

“There are no hints about the password.”

At the assistants’ words, Artis scratches his head.

“Well. Well, it’s a place from thousands of years ago, so there’s no way passwords or hints remain.”

“How do I do it?”

When her assistants ask her for her course of action – Artis thinks for a moment, then replies she laughs.

“Doesn’t drones come out anymore? Try entering everything from 0 to 9999.”

“Eek!?”

“And what if another trap is triggered!?”

Looking at her repulsive assistants, of course, Artis rummaged through her pockets as if she wanted to smoke her cigarette.

Cleon moves closer to the door where they are gathered.

“Ah. Mr. Cleon, would you like to try it first? It’s Cleon-san’s birthday…”

“Wait. Look away.”

Cleon listens to his assistants’ suggestions of her, but gets them back, then he pulls a caliburn from his waistband of hers.

“Huh? Now, wait!”

“Cleon-san!?”

One island!

When Cleon’s holy sword, Caliburn, containing the Sword Saint’s sword skill, cuts diagonally through a door large enough for humans to pass through.

After a while, the door made of some kind of alloy, not steel, was cut off like a drone being cut down by Flamberge, and fell down the stairs spreading under the door.

“It’s no longer necessary to enter passwords one by one.”

“It’s amazing… A metal from the primordial world that is said to have a strength comparable to adamantite…!”

“That’s right! The holy sword is also a relic of the primordial world! It’s a material from a similar era… Ah, no, but in that case both would have to be destroyed…!”

“As expected, Mr. Cleon is amazing!”

The assistants stop thinking deeply and cheer in delight: ‘Anyway, thanks to Mr. Cleon, we don’t have to do the 10,000 password input challenge!’

Artis looked at those assistants and at Cleon scratching his head, then puffed out a cigarette smoke-

She handed her own precious pen to Amelia, who was standing next to her —

Just like that, tuck, tuck, tuck. Run with the sound of her footsteps her-

“What are you doing!! You guys!”

Then, he jumped in with a lariat at his assistant his and Cleon.

At the artifact site, where the surroundings became noisy in an instant, Amelia looked at the pen she had accidentally picked up and talked to Sasha and Innis.

“…Somehow… I thought excavation of artifacts was a series of quiet, more meticulous work… Surprisingly, it’s rough…”

“That, that’s probably. Maybe it’s because of us… Ah, haha…”

Sasha says that to her guilt her, but Innis says it with a finger on her lips.

“Um-but, I think it’ll be a lot more fun this way than just being quiet, right? It’s more likely that you’ll be free.”

“…Freely.”

Amelia listens to Innis, she thinks about her for a moment, then she nods her head.

“…That’s right. The freedom that adventurers like Cleon want may be the very possibility.”

Thinking so, she too approached the place where everyone was gathered to check the entrance of the relic that had finally appeared after a long time.