The Encounter in the Desert

"I've found it! It's in the Rabbi Desert, southeast of the Sandora Kingdom!"

We were all calmly eating our breakfast when suddenly the door burst open.

Leen and Paula barged their way in, spouting a bunch of gibberish. Leen had a

smile plastered to her face, one that was practically screaming "I did it!"

"Beneath the sand! Stone pillars! Just like the Ruins of Nirya! It seems there

are six ancient stone pillars with spellstones embedded in them. It's just buried

beneath the sand!"

"Mmngh... that's nice, I guess." I replied while chowing down on my toast as

Lapis poured me a fresh cup of juice. Breakfast gives you your daily burst of

energy. It would be foolish to not eat it properly. Honestly, I didn't really have

time to listen to her ramblings during my morning routine.

"...Sexy underwear."

"Fine, fine. Tell me about the Rabbi Desert."

Tsk... she remembers, then. She had made me promise, or rather...

threatened me into promising her some skimpy underwear if I refused to search

for Babylon with her.

The mood in the room had taken a sudden shift when she brought it up, so I

found it prudent not to indulge her. I had no choice but to grin and bear it.

"Far south of Mismede, through the Sea of Trees, you'll find the Burning

Kingdom of Sandora. The Rabbi Desert is just southeast of that place."

"First the depths of the coastline, and now a blazing desert... Does the good

doctor have it in for me?" She could see the future, so I was wondering if she

was peeking in on me right at this moment. I shot an irritated glare upward, just

in case.

Then again, it's been thousands of years... The landscape probably changed a

lot, huh? I mean, she couldn't really be that malicious, right? That was what I

wanted to think, at least. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that she'd be laughing

at me if she was watching this unfold.

"So we should head there, then?"

"That's right. We'll go uncover more relics from a bygone age. I hope we find

the library this time." Leen was absolutely up and ready to get at it. I, on the

other hand, didn't really care all that much. I gave a reluctant, cursory glance

toward Cesca.

"What's wrong, Master?"

"Well, I'm just wondering if there'll be another one of you thrown into the

mix if we do go..."

"A whole new realm of debauchery will open then, Master."

"That's enough out of you." She's such a pain in the ass...

I wondered what to do. My initial thought was just to leave it. After all, I'd

already come this far without looking for them.

But at the same time, I had made a promise to Leen, and the doctor had

made a rather cryptic speech about the Phrase annihilating civilization, so there

was that whole thing too.

It was entirely possible that I'd need the power of Babylon to help me in some

kind of catastrophic event. I definitely didn't want to be caught with my pants

down if that time ever came.

"Alright, let's do it. Cesca, prepare the garden."

"Yes, master." Leen and Paula rejoiced, and everyone else stood up with

smiles on their faces. They headed out the door, presumably to their own

bedrooms.

I suddenly remembered the houses that I had teleported from Reflet. They

should've still been aboard the garden. I figured they'd have made for a nice

holiday home, after I fixed it all up of course. They were pretty sizable too, so

there'd be no worries about space.

Okay, I'll start fixing that place up while we ride over to the desert.

We started riding the garden in Belfast, then headed as quickly as we could

south of Mismede, toward the Burning Kingdom of Sandora.

I figured that the speed of the garden was about on par with a commercial

plane. Well, that was mostly a guess on my part. I'd never actually been on a

plane in my life. Not that I had a fear of heights or anything like that, I'd simply

never had the opportunity.

"It will take about four hours until we reach our destination." I couldn't judge

whether that was fast or not, but it was still a lot quicker than I had expected.

Therefore, I decided to get to fixing up the vacant homes immediately.

The houses had been moved to the corner of the garden. I opened up the

door to the largest of the two, then stepped inside. Hm, it's not bad at all.

Guess cleaning the interior up will be enough for the time being.

"I'll handle everything upstairs," Elze said, sounding almost excited.

"Then I'll take care of the kitchen and the dining room."

"I will take care of the living room, I will!"

"Then I'll be in charge of the landing and corridors. Touya, please handle the

lighting and areas that require running water," Yumina calmly decided.

Wait, water... What do I do about the water? Wait, there's a waterway

running through the garden, right? Maybe I can make use of that.

I headed toward the central control monolith and asked Cesca if she knew

anything about where the water in the garden came from. As it happened, she

did. The water was produced by an Artifact that the doctor had created a long

time ago.

I was shown to a fountain that produced a seemingly infinite supply of water

that flowed down the canal waterway and spread all across the garden. At the

end, the water was then cleansed of any impurities it may have picked up, and

looped back around to the fountain.

"Does the water last forever?"

"No, there's still evaporation, condensation, and such. But even if water

escapes, the source will always produce a level amount." Then it should be fine

to draw water from here.

"Can you drink it?"

"Yes, it's safe for human consumption."

Good, there's no problem, then. I used the same method that I used back at

the Silver Moon, installing a short pipe in the waterway. I decided to install the

drainage pipe at the end of the canal. That was where the water was purified,

after all.

I went to see Linze, who was cleaning the kitchen, and used [Modeling] to

create a sink while I was there. I made the sink out of mithril, so it shined with a

lovely glow. Then, I installed a faucet that was connected to the primary water

source with [Gate]. After that, I set the drainpipe to flow back into the canal as

well.

I turned the handle on the tap, watching on as water flowed out. Great, it

works after all. Linze was surprised at first, but pretty quickly came to terms

with the concept of turning a faucet on and off.

After that, I made a toilet. A proper flushing one, as well. I definitely couldn't

afford to cut corners there. I didn't connect the toilet drain to our canal, that

would've been nasty. Instead, I connected it to the sewer at home.

After that, I made a bath in the same way. I also made a shower. All-in-all, I

was pretty satisfied.

After finishing up all that work, I figured I'd set up the lighting. A few [Light

Orb] enchantments seemed good enough, as they'd continue to light the place

up for a few hours so long as they were topped up by magical power every so

often. [Light Orb] was not a spell that drained much magic, so it was fine by me.

After I was finished, I looked around and noticed that I hadn't seen Leen or

Paula anywhere for a while. After searching around a bit, I found them both.

Sango, Kokuyou, Kohaku, and Cesca as well. They were crowded around the

central monolith, watching something it was projecting.

"What's going on?"

"I've noticed something troublesome. Escapees, perhaps... We're near the

Burning Kingdom, but this is still the harsh desert. There shouldn't be people

braving these wastes." The projected screen showed the surface below. There

were several feeble-looking people down there, walking unsteadily with a

camel in tow. What little they wore was ragged and tattered, offering little

protection against the blazing sun. There seemed to be about ten of them, but

they certainly weren't carrying enough provisions for that many people.

"If they're in trouble, we should help them, right?"

"Are you sure? What if you compromise us by revealing Babylon's existence?

They may be criminals, or brigands. It's out of the ordinary to travel these sands

on foot, you know? It's a more nuanced call to make than simply helping them

out of the goodness of your heart."

I see... That definitely is troublesome. Well, Yumina's Mystic Eyes can

determine whether or not they're good people. But I'm not sure what I'd do if

there was only one bad person amongst them... Leave them in the desert,

maybe?

"Let's save them. We can always just use a [Gate] to send them to Belfast or

Mismede, that way we won't compromise the garden." Still, I was unsure how

to make contact without freaking them out. Just appearing before them

through a portal of light wouldn't really be good.

"You may want to speed up your deliberation process."

"Why?" Cesca pointed at the screen, which was now showing the group

under attack by a large monster.

What the hell is that?! Is that a bug?! A big worm?! Its long body ended in a

face that was practically all mouth, and the maw inside was lined with serrated

teeth.

"It's a Sandcrawler. A magical beast that burrows beneath the desert, eating

its prey along with the sand." Leen muttered a brief explanation, her eyes fixed

on the monitor. Three of the survivors had swords and axes, but their situation

didn't seem all that great. They didn't seem especially skilled, and they didn't

have any magic users either. In moments flat, their camel was devoured, along

with their supplies. They would surely be next on the menu.

"I'm going!" As I spoke, I conjured up a portal of light and made it to the

ground.

I emerged from a portal in the air above the Sandcrawler, raining down

bullets upon it with Brunhild. They weren't ordinary bullets, either. They were

my detonating bullets, freshly enchanted with [Explosion]. The Sandcrawler

contorted in pain, bodily fluids spewing from its wounds.

As I landed on the hot sand, I raised my right arm and recited the chant that

Linze had taught me.

"Come forth, Water! Feel My Blade, Both Cold and Clear: [Aqua Cutter]!" I

shot off a pressurized blast of water toward what I assumed was the

sandcrawler's neck. It was split cleanly on impact. Oh gross, I definitely overdid

it.

White-green fluids oozed from the gaping wound and slowly pooled on the

sand below. Still, it didn't seem to die instantly, and spent a short time writhing

and squirming before finally falling still.

That is absolutely disgusting. I remembered reading that eels could survive

without their heads, but the image was far more grotesque than I had thought. I

made a mental note to burn the next Sandcrawler I met.

I gave a disgusted look at the corpse while I holstered Brunhild. Before long,

one of the survivors came over to me. They held a longsword and wore a hood,

so I couldn't see their face. It appeared to be a girl, though.

"...Who are you?"

"I'm Mochizuki Touya. I didn't expect to encounter anyone out here in the

desert, but I couldn't stand by when I saw you were in danger."

"We're in your debt. We would've died without your interference. My name is

Rebecca, I'm an adventurer." She took off her hood, exposing her face to the

sun. She had tanned brown skin and ashen, shoulder-length hair.

"Honestly, that was amazing. To take down such a beast like it was nothing..."

An axe-wielding man approached from behind Rebecca. He, too, removed his

hood. He was a tall, sturdy man with a small beard. There was a boy who

seemed to be a bit younger than me standing next to him, panting heavily and

attempting to carry a sword.

Even at a glance, I could tell a weapon like that didn't suit him. The blade was

far too big for him.

As I was pondering, he threw the sword to the side and got down on his knees

at my feet.

"Uh-Uhm, sir! Y-You used water magic before, didn't you?! C-Can you please

use it to make some water? Please!" I was taken aback by the sudden request,

but I quickly understood the situation. These people were seriously dehydrated.

Their camel must've held the last of their water reserves. Traveling across the

desert now would surely be suicide for them.

"Sorry for his behavior, but we do desperately need some water. We have no

money right now, but we'd be indebted to you... If you could find it in your

heart, that is..." Rebecca cut in on my thinking time. Guess I was taking too long

to reply.

"No, that won't be a problem at all. I was just thinking about what kind of

container I should make for it, that's all."

"Hm?" I took out a small lump of iron with [Storage], then made a large bowl

out of it with [Modeling]. I then used Water magic to fill it up with water. I

knew that the desert heat would cause the water to warm or even boil, so I

called forth several lumps of ice to counteract that.

"Ooh!" Hearing the sound of trickling water, the others came shuffling over as

I used the rest of the iron to make cups for everyone.

It was clear as day from the way they desperately scrambled to fill their cups,

as well as the way they gulped it down. They must have been parched.

After a while, something strange occurred to me. There were ten survivors,

all-in-all. Aside from the boy and the man, every one of them was female.

Excluding Rebecca, all of the women had something in common. They all

wore thick, black collars tightly bound around their necks. I wondered...

Rebecca noticed my staring, and opened her mouth to speak. Her tone was

grave.

"It's what you think. These girls are all slaves. We stole them all from a group

of slavers..." I began wondering if Leen had been right. I might've just helped a

group of thieves.

◇ ◇ ◇

They called it a "Submission Collar." Apparently it was a single Artifact in the

old days, but the great sorcerers of Sandora successfully created a massproduced version hundreds of years ago.

Originally, it was used to enslave ferocious beasts that couldn't be tamed, but

over time it came to be used to enslave people as well.

It started more innocently, being used to bind criminals into labor and

servitude. But eventually slavery became the norm, and it wasn't just the guilty

who were forced into it. Those who had the collar clasped around their necks

lost everything, becoming commodities themselves as a result.

In that country, slavery was legal, and those in heavy debt could be taken as

well as criminals. But naturally that led to a new kind of crime as well.

Slaving merchants would ally themselves with brigands, conspiring to raid

settlement for money, merchandise, and young women. The brigands would

take whatever spoils they wanted, and the slavers got fresh new stock on the

black market.

After all, once the submission collar was around your neck, your free life was

forfeit. You'd be registered with the merchant's guild and formally recognized

as a commodity. It seemed that the girls here, Rebecca excluded, were all in

that category.

The slavers had hired a female swordsman, a male axeman, and a young boy

to help escort their product. These hires were named Rebecca, Logan, and Will.

Apparently, the three were completely unaware that the goods they'd be

escorting were people. They had listened to the slaves and heard their tragic

story, so they chose to take up arms against the merchants in the name of

justice. However, just as they made this decision, the slavers were attacked by

brigands and killed fairly easily.

Apparently they died rather unceremoniously, so it was all a little

anticlimactic. Still, for those to have conspired with brigands to then be killed by

them... Easy to think it was karma at work.

Rebecca and the others dispatched the bandits, and then decided they would

escort the slave girls out of the country. If they went back to the guild, the girls

would simply be transferred to a new master, after all. But traveling through

the desert was the only way they could escape the country beyond the public

eye. So they tried that, but got caught in a sandstorm, and the rest was

history...

"So that's the story, eh?"

"Yep, that's about the whole thing."

I see... Seems they had some bad company... Human trafficking, huh. So that

exists in this world too, then.

Apparently the Burning Kingdom of Sandora didn't have much interaction

with other nations, and preferred to preserve its own culture. That made sense

to me. It was beyond even Mismede, past a great sea of trees and a desert so

boiling hot that even a rock on the ground could scald you.

"So, about this submission collar..." From what I was told, the collar would

wrack the slave's body with pain and give them a horrific death if they tried too

hard to remove it. That was goddamn messed up. The person designated as

master by the collar could no longer be refused or attacked, either.

All their master would have to do is think "come back to me" and the slave

would have no choice but to return. If they did not, agony would rip through

their bodies.

Only the designated master could remove the collar, too. But these girls were

enslaved to the merchant who had died in the brigand attack. In other words,

they couldn't have their collars removed at all. If they returned to the

merchant's guild, they'd simply be sold off to a new master. They wouldn't ever

taste freedom unless that master decided to let them go.

An idea suddenly formed in my mind, but I wasn't sure if it would work...

I thought about trying to use [Apport], but I wasn't certain about the size.

Women's necks were slender, though... It was just a matter of whether or not

I could squeeze one in my hand. I grabbed my own neck with both of my hands

to get a feel for it. I figured it'd be fine, since my neck was definitely thicker

than a woman's. Plus, if it didn't work, nothing would happen, so there was no

harm in trying.

"I might have a way to get those collars off."

"What?"

"You serious?!" Will's reaction was considerably more excited than Rebecca's.

He stared at me, eyes wide with hope and wonder.

"Well, I won't know until I try. And there's a good chance nothing'll even

happen, so..."

"Try it, please! Please free Wendy!" Wendy? Will suddenly went over and

grabbed one of the slaves by the hand. He brought her over.

She was about thirteen or fourteen years old... probably around Will's age.

Her skin was tanned, and her hair was dirty blonde, hanging down in braids

over each side of her chest. She was clearly the youngest of the slaves in the

group. She hid herself behind Will's back, nervously peeking over at me. She

seemed frightened, perhaps in shock. Then again, I had just completely

massacred a sandcrawler in front of her, so that might've had something to do

with it.

Well, whatever. Let's give it a go.

"[Apport]." To prevent her from getting any more scared, I tried to call her

collar to me without any more bravado.

And there, in my hand, the black collar shone beneath the sun. It had worked.

"Wha—?! Huh?! Ah?!" Will stared at my hand, and then turned to look at

Wendy. Naturally, there was no collar clasped around her neck.

"He did it, Wendy! It came off!"

"Eh...?" Wendy rubbed at her neck slightly. When she realized she was no

longer beholden to the cold grip of the collar, she put a hand over her mouth

and started to cry.

Will pulled her into a tight embrace. Oh, so it's like that, is it? No wonder he

was so desperate. What an adorable little couple.

"...Hey, how'd you do that?"

"I used my Null spell, [Apport]. It lets me pull things into my hand when I'm in

range." Ignoring Logan's astonishment, I continued to remove the other collars.

Eventually, I held seven collars in my hand. I promptly incinerated them with a

basic fire spell. Rebecca stared at me blankly as the little fire raged, only able to

mutter a few words.

"Just what are you?"

"Just a simple adventurer. Here's my card."

"You're a Red Rank?!" The trio noticed the color of my guild card and seemed

quite surprised. I handed it over to them, and their surprise reached new

heights.

"You got the Dragon Slayer and Golem Buster titles, too?!"

"No wonder you could cleave through that sandcrawler like it was butter..."

"Wow...! I've never seen anything like this before!" Each of the three gave me

their earnest, if not perplexed, words of gratitude. I took my card back and

asked Rebecca what their next course of action was.

"Even without their collars, they're still registered as property within Sandora.

It'd be bad to keep them here. I'm thinking that bringing them to another

country would be the best plan."

"How about Belfast? It's quite nice there. You guys can stay at my place for a

while if you want."

"Well, hold on a moment. I'm not sure how far away Belfast is from here..." I

answered Logan by opening a [Gate]. I poked my head in, then called Yumina to

come join me.

"Huh?! Who are you?!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Yumina Urnea Belfast, daughter of Tristwyn

Urnes Belfast, king of the Kingdom of Belfast."

"WHAT?!" The trio echoed their disbelief at once. They stiffened up

immediately, too. But then again, that was only natural.

Sometimes I forgot it, but Yumina was royalty after all. Even without the regal

attire, her decorum and attitude were on point. All of us paled in comparison to

the presence she emanated.

"I've heard of your unfortunate circumstances. My country would be happy to

take you in, but what do you wish to do?" Yumina looked over them one-byone, smiling all the while. She was definitely using her Mystic Eyes. If any of

them had impure thoughts, we'd still take them to Belfast, just in a position

where they could be monitored for a while.

Yumina finished looking over them all, gave a small smile, and turned to me

with a nod. I figured that meant they were all clear.

Rebecca suddenly got on her hands and knees, prostrating herself before the

princess.

"Y-Yes, Milady! Th-Thank you... Thank you so much!" One after the other,

Logan, Will, Wendy, and the others all bowed in the same position.

Geez, guys. Ease up on the old-timey genuflecting any time you want.

"Well then, everyone's off to Belfast! After you, Touya."

"No problemo." It would be a hassle to have everyone just go through a

[Gate] one by one, so I huddled everyone together and created one above

them. The exit would start one centimeter above the ground outside our house

at Belfast, and slowly move upward as the entry portal moved downward.

I tried doing the classic "beam me up!" routine from a certain sci-fi show, but

it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I had to stop myself. I looked like a moron.

I felt a strange sense of vertigo as we teleported in that way, like the feeling

you get when you think there's another step at the top of the stairs when there

actually isn't. It felt gross.

Well, that feeling probably only applied to Yumina and I. Everyone else was

simply too stunned due to the sudden scenery change.

"Wh-Where are we...?"

"You've arrived in the Kingdom of Belfast, friends. The Royal Capital, to be

exact. My home. You guys can stay here as long as you need. Hey, Laim!" I

called right away for our resident super butler, and he appeared on the terrace.

Our maid squad, composed of Lapis, Cecile, and Renne, appeared alongside

him.

"Please take care of this group until we come back."

"Very well, sir." Laim bowed deeply, then shot a glance to the maid trio. Lapis

began to lead everyone into the house. Rebecca looked around a little

restlessly, but shuffled in line with the others into the house.

"For now, we need to continue our course. Let's head back to the garden."

"You're right." Rebecca and the other two were adventurers, so they'd be

able to earn money and find a home through the guild without much of a fuss.

But as for the others... I definitely couldn't afford to hire seven more staff.

Hopefully I'd be able to help them find work.

"My lord!"

"Huh? Kohaku?" I was startled by the sudden telepathic message. I wondered

what was wrong.

"Kohaku? What's going on?"

"An unussual creature hasss appeared in the desssert. A crysstal creature,

with a beautiful ssshine..." The one that replied was Kokuyou, rather than

Kohaku.

Wait, crystal? It can't be...! I opened a [Gate] and dashed out before the

garden's monolith. Everyone was looking at the screen. On it, an enormous

crystal being was flying high above the desert, emitting a high pitched scream.

The one we had encountered in the ruins was shaped like a cricket. The one

Leen had encountered was a snake. The form this devil took... was that of a

manta ray.

It's huge... That was all I could think when I saw it. The Cricket Phrase I had

fought before was about the size of a small car, but this one was easily larger

than four buses.

At the tip of its body, there were two round protrusions, and within each was

an orange-looking nucleus, similar to the core we had encountered within the

previous Phrase.

But, unlike the Cricket Phrase, the core on this beast was about the size of a

basketball. Scaled up to match the rest of its body, I supposed.

Crap... I don't think [Apport] is gonna work here.

"What should we do?" Leen turned to me, expecting an answer. We could

easily escape without a fight if we wanted to. In truth, we had absolutely no

obligation or loyalty to this region, or the nearby kingdom.

Still, it was possible that this creature could pass through the Sea of Trees and

attack Mismede. Even worse, it could attack Belfast after that! There'd be a lot

of injuries, maybe even casualties. People could get hurt, people we owed

debts to, and people we'd met over the course of our travels. I couldn't accept

that.

"We fight. I can't leave this creature unchecked." I had made my decision.

Luckily we were in a barren desert. That meant we didn't need to worry about

collateral damage.

"But how are we gonna hurt this thing? It's huge! It's probably the same as

the last one, too, so not only does it absorb magic and have a stupidly hard

shell, but it can fly in the sky as well!" Elze had a point. Yae had mithril

weaponry now, but I still wasn't sure how much that was going to help. I didn't

even know where to begin with the flying part, too.

"We've no choice, so we should use indirect magical attacks. [Ice Rock] and

[Rock Crash] should work, I think." Linze and Yumina nodded at Leen's

comment. After they took it down to the ground using those spells, it'd give

Yae, Elze, and myself the chance to attack it with our weapons. We didn't really

have much of a choice when it came to strategy, anyway.

"Alright, it's time!" I opened a [Gate] and we hopped through to the desert

below.

The Manta Phrase was high above us now, calmly soaring through the air as

its body gleamed in the sunlight. Seeing it in person only made my dread and

awe deepen. The creature was looking down upon us, intimidating us with its

very presence.

I pulled out Brunhild and let off a few shots. They simply bounced off the

Manta Phrase's body with little to no effect.

"Regular bullets are useless, I guess..." Its smooth, streamlined, and firm body

was clearly well designed to repel physical attack.

"Come forth, Ice! Grand Frozen Mass: [Ice Rock]!" Linze invoked her spell,

and an enormous chunk of ice appeared above the crystal creature.

The ice chunk smacked against the Manta Phrase, but it only succeeded in

making the creature bob downward slightly. The ice slid down the smooth

surface of the creature and simply crashed to the desert below. It didn't really

change the Manta Phrase's course at all. It was a total waste of effort on our

part. That was all there really was to it.

It was about as futile as throwing rocks at styrofoam floating on water. It

would always just bob back up to its default position.

The crystal creature finally noticed us, though. It turned in our direction.

Suddenly, light began to gather between the two core nubs on the Manta

Phrase's head. Something doesn't feel right here!

"Everyone! Split up!" At my call, everyone spread out in different directions.

At the next moment, missiles of light blasted from the Manta Phrase and

rocketed toward the spot where we'd been standing. An enormous wave of

sand erupted from the area it impacted. Honestly, it was a shocking display of

power.

"You've gotta be kidding me... If one of those hits someone, I doubt there'd

be anything left!" Looks like it has to wait a while between shots, though. That's

a relief, at least. We'll be able to dodge it so long as it keeps up like that.

As if to mock me, the Manta Phrase extended its tail, bending the tip beneath

its belly. The tip began to spin up like a Gatling gun, continuing the assault and

firing yet more projectiles.

"Oh, what the hell?!" I dashed out of the way and looked toward the sand. I

had to see what had just been launched at us.

It looked like a thin crystal arrow, no, closer in shape to a bo shuriken. Several

thin, piercing projectiles. Regardless of what they were, that attack was

definitely dangerous.

I looked over to check everyone else was okay, and saw Linze clutching at her

ankle.

"Linze!"

"I-I'm okay. It was just a graze..." Linze cast some healing magic and staggered

to her feet. But then I noticed that the crystal Gatling tail was pointed directly at

her. Oh shit!

"[Accel]!" Using her engagement ring, Elze sped up and headed toward her

younger sister.

Elze raised her gauntlet covered fist high against the oncoming barrage of

blades. Because of her wind enchantment, all of the projectiles were repelled

and dispersed.

"Touya-dono! Put me above it with a [Gate]!"

"G-Got it!" I hesitated for a second at Yae's suggestion, but quickly opened up

a portal beneath her, sending her a few meters above the Manta Phrase.

"Take this!!!" Yae came down upon the Manta, mithril blade in hand. But the

damage she did was far from fatal.

Yae kicked against the creature's back and jumped off. Hey, wait! You'll hit

the ground hard if you fall from that high! "Touya-dono, please create another

[Gate]!"

Y-Yep! On it! I created a portal just below Yae in the air, and then placed the

exit about 1 meter above the ground near me. She disappeared and reappeared

in a flash, safe and sound. What a relief...

"Don't do things like that, it's bad for my heart...!"

"I am sorry, I am!" Still, it helped us figure out how effective mithril was on

this thing. Not effective at all, actually. I had no idea how to go about hurting it.

I knew we'd have to target the cores like with the Cricket Phrase, but they were

the size of basketballs and there were two of them. I couldn't use [Apport] to

grab them.

The Gatling tail turned to face me again. Crap, not again!

"Whirl, O Wind! Bulwark of Storms: [Cyclone Wall]!" Yumina spoke an

incantation, creating a wall of wind around Yae and myself. The piercing shots

from the Manta Phrase were deflected away in an instant. Thank goodness...

But as the sand subsided, I noticed the creature had shifted its attack. It was

preparing another barrage of light missiles.

"Tch, [Accel]!" I held Yae in my arms and moved away with my acceleration

spell. Seconds later, a massive explosion crashed into the area we were just at.

This is dangerous... It's a lot smarter than I thought!

"Rumble forth, Earth! Pulverizing Boulder: [Rock Crash]!" Leen conjured an

enormous rock and smacked the Manta Phrase in the head, but the effect was

the same as Linze's earlier spell. Not much.

Damn it... we really don't have an ace in the hole here. I've got no idea what

to do. There's a chance someone could get hurt, too... Just thinking about that

makes my blood run cold.

"Should we just fall back with a [Gate], maybe? There's nothing we can do

here."

"Er... Touya-dono? Do you know who that person is, do you?"

"Hm?" I turned around at Yae's remark, confused.

Even though we were in the middle of a burning hot desert, there was a boy

there. A boy wearing a long, white muffler.

"Ende...?"

"Yo." The monochrome boy I had met in town suddenly appeared. He was

smiling and gave a small wave.

What's he doing here? Wait, why is he even here in the first place? No, more

importantly... how did he get here?! It's barren desert for miles around, we

would've seen him.

"Long time no see. I came here because I detected the presence of a Phrase,

but I didn't expect to find you, Touya."

"Ende... you know about the Phrase?"

"Hm? Well, I suppose you could say that... So far I've only encountered

Intermediate Constructs... I guess this world's 'Dimensional Boundary' is close

to the breaking point, though..." Intermediate Constructs? Dimensional

Boundary? What's this guy talking about?

"Could you hold on a moment? I have a mess to clean up."

"Huh?" With a laugh, Ende turned to face the Manta Phrase. The creature

turned its aim to the boy, but he vanished from his spot entirely before the

piercing shots met their mark.

"What?!" I looked around, but Ende had completely disappeared from sight.

Did he use invisibility magic? Wait, no... that just stops you from being seen, so

the attacks still would've hit him.

"Over there, Touya-dono!" Yae suddenly pointed overhead, straight at the

airborne Phrase. Ende was there, standing atop the flying beast. How did he...?!

"Alrighty..." Ende raised his leg high into the air... And casually brought it

down upon the Manta Phrase's back. A splitting sound rang out, like someone

had dropped a wine glass.

A tiny crack appeared at the point of impact, which then spread across the

entire colossal body, shattering it into pieces in an instant.

What the hell?! How did he do that?! Ende descended to the desert surface

alongside a rain of glittering crystal.

He found the two basketball-sized cores amidst the debris, took one in each

hand, and smashed them against each other. They were obliterated instantly.

His work done, Ende dusted his hands off.

"What the hell was that?!" I stared at Ende, dumbfounded. That was all I

could say.

"Hm? I just attacked it by attuning my own magical oscillations to the

wavelength of the creature." Magical oscillation? Like in the resonance

phenomenon? Wait, it's magic, so it's probably a bit different...

"Ende, earlier on you mentioned something about a Dimensional Boundary...

What is that?"

"I guess you could consider it a kind of net that prevents entities from their

own worlds crossing over into other ones. For whatever reason, there's a small

hole in it that opened up recently... This Manta Phrase came through, and the

other ones as well. But luckily it's only the small-fry for the time being." Ende

muttered an explanation while looking over the shattered fragments of the

former crystal creature.

"These ones are just mooks, pawns working together for a common goal.

They're not the real threat."

"So what's their goal?"

"To find the slumbering Sovereign Phrase, their leader. It's a goal I share,

actually..." What the hell?

"Oh, I have to go now. I have a prior arrangement to tend to. I do hope we

meet again though, Mochizuki Touya."

"Wai—!" Ende ignored my protest, gave a small grin, and vanished in the blink

of an eye. What the hell kind of magic is that? Teleportation?

"The Sovereign Phrase...?" I could do nothing but stare blankly as I pondered

the mystery Ende had left behind.

◇ ◇ ◇

"That's way too suspicious," Leen concluded, folding her arms. Well, I figured

much the same thing.

After that I returned to the garden and told everyone about Ende.

"He had this currency from five thousand years ago, and he was able to take

down a creature that we couldn't even scratch in just a single hit. Also, he knew

a lot about the monster and was wearing some stupidly hot-looking scarf. Even

that attack he did was super huge and dramatic, too." I didn't feel like that last

point was particularly important, but it didn't change the fact that it was

suspicious. Just what in the world is that guy?

"He called that crystal creature a Phrase. But what exactly was it?" Elze

brought up the obvious question. It clearly wasn't an ordinary monster.

What I did know was that the Phrase came to ravage the world 5000 years

ago. But the only ones who knew that were Cesca and I. And to be honest, I

really didn't know if telling everyone else was the right thing to do.

Worrying about whether or not to tell them, and thus bring about undue

anxiety, just made it even more difficult to bring up.

Staaaaaaare...

Ugh. It'd been a while since Yumina assaulted me with her eyes. My own eyes

started to dart around. Shit. I can't be lying to Yumina if I'm going to marry her!

"You know something, don't you, Touya?"

"Urgh..." With Yumina seeing right through my suspicious behaviour, I had no

choice but to convey the message I'd gotten from the doctor to everyone.

"Why would you keep silent about something so important!"

"Well, I was going to bring it up sooner or later..." Leen scolded me, to which I

desperately tried to make excuses for myself.

"An invasion of tens of thousands of the Phrase. That's the reason the ancient

civilization was destroyed. So there were that many of them 5000 years ago,

but barely any eyewitness reports of them nowadays. Until now, that is. Now

that they're appearing again. Just what is going on here...?"

"Maybe it was a survivor, or one that got sealed away?" Leen seemed

worried, but brought up her ideas to Linze. The Cricket Phrase we'd first come

across had seemed half dead, so that way of thinking did make sense...

"I've been thinking about what that Ende guy said about the Dimensional

Boundary... The Snake Phrase did seem to come out of a crack in space. It

makes me think that perhaps the Phrase are sealed in another dimension..."

"So that would mean... someone is breaking down the boundary?"

"I don't have any proof of it, though." Paula crossed her arms and nodded by

Leen's feet. Does that bear really get what's going on? What was weighing

more on my mind was that we had no method of fighting against the Phrase.

Ende had called the one we fought an Intermediate Construct. That means that

there were Lower Constructs and Upper Constructs too.

The Cricket and Snake Phrase were likely Lower Constructs. But that meant

we couldn't even defeat an Intermediate one. If an Upper Construct appeared...

I had no idea what we'd do.

Looks like we really need to seek out the other Babylons.

"Cesca. Did humanity fight against the Phrase 5000 years ago?" Cesca turned

to face me from in front of the monolith.

"Yes, they did fight. Not that it went too well for them, though. The doctor did

manage to finally create an anti-Phrase weapon, but the Phrase had

disappeared entirely by the time it was completed."

"What kind of anti-Phrase weapon?"

"The doctor created weapons that are controlled by a person housed within

them. She called them Frame Gears." What?! Sounds like giant robots! Did the

doctor really manage to create those too?! Well, she did manage to make

smaller, Cesca-sized robots, so I guess making giant ones isn't too much of a

stretch...

"What happened to them?"

"They were stored in the Hangar of Babylon." Cesca answered Elze's question.

Which means if the ruins we're heading toward ends up leading to the hangar...

we can get some giant robots for ourselves?! Holy shit. This is getting me all

excited. I mean, they're robots? Robots that you can get inside of and ride

around! All men dream of this! Not that any one here would understand, since

they're girls...

"It seems we've arrived at our destination."

"But I don't see anything."

"Apparently it's buried under the sand." Kohaku informed me as he looked at

the monolith's screen. The coordinates were spot on, but I couldn't see

anything but desert outside.

"Well, let's head down and have a look." Leaving Kokuyou and Sango on the

garden in case anything happened, I used [Gate] to get down on the ground.

Desert spread out as far as I can see, with nothing else in sight. I looked up the

ruins again on my smartphone, but the pin dropped on the map exactly where I

was standing.

"Right below us..." Well, what do to... We couldn't just start digging through

the sand. We had no idea how long it'd take to dig out with a shovel after all.

"I'll use wind magic to blow away the sand. Stand back." Leen thought up an

idea before I did, then stepped forward. I moved away, just as told.

"Spiral forth, O Wind! Raging Sweeping Gale: [Cyclone Storm]!" A tornado

sucked up all the sand, whirling it into the skies. It flew downwind from us as a

sort of basin opened up in the desert below.

Finally, the ruins came into sight. It was a dome that was made out of some

sort of stone or concrete. There was a door at one part that seemed to be the

entrance. Not a double door, but a single one.

The tornado died down, so we made our way into the basin, but there wasn't

a handle on the door.

I wondered if it was automatic, but it didn't react to my presence. There

didn't appear to be any sensors on it, either. I casually reached out to touch the

door, but my hand didn't stop there. I passed straight through it.

"Whoa?!"

"Touya?!" I took a step forward to keep myself from falling over, which made

me end up inside the ruins. Six pillars stood in the center, illuminated by a faint

light.

I touched the door again, but this time it felt cold and solid. I tried to use

[Gate] to get back outside, but my magic wouldn't work. Huh? Am I trapped in

here?

"Are you alright, my lord?!"

"Kohaku? Yeah, I'm fine. There's nothing going on or anything. But I can see a

circle of pillars, just like the last time... I'm gonna go on ahead, so tell everyone

not to worry."

"Very well. Please be careful."

At least I can still use the telepathic link...

I figured there must be some sort of a trick to the door, to stop people coming

in and destroying the circle. Like, it only lets in all-attribute holders, or only lets

in one person at a time. I didn't know why it wouldn't let me out, though.

I thought back to all those cryptic things the doctor had said.

Well, there's nothing I can do here. I'm not gonna be getting out unless I get

this circle moving, so time to get to work.

I sent forth magic into each pillar in turn, one attribute at a time. When all six

were filled with magic, the center of the circle began to glow. Seeing that as my

cue, I headed to the center. I allowed the Null magic to flow from me, and

began to feel myself teleporting away. Please let this one be the hangar...

Light swirled around me, glowing, covering my vision, until I found myself

somewhere that looked rather similar to the garden. The one difference was

the massive building standing before me. The building was a sort of cube, like a

massive white die.

I started to head down the path toward it, when a girl suddenly jumped in

front of me, blocking my path.

"Stop right there! Yessir!" She held up her right hand, stopping me in my

tracks. The girl's orange hair was tied into a bun on either side. The buns were

wrapped up neatly under chignon covers with ribbons trailing off them. Her

white skin and golden eyes immediately made me think of Cesca.

Her clothes were a similar design to the ones Cesca was wearing when I first

met her, only this new ginger girl had long sleeves and black socks. The cuffs of

her sleeves had the number twenty-seven stitched into them.

She must be the manager of this place. She seems younger than Cesca. Mostly

because she looks shorter, though...

"Welcome to the Workshop of Babylon. I am High Rosetta, the Terminal

Gynoid tasked with managing this facility. I'm a nice enough guy, so I'll be kind

enough to allow you to call me Rosetta, yessir."

Knew it. Wait, she just said she's a nice guy. Isn't she a girl? She's a girl, right?

I mean, she's wearing a skirt. She's a girl... right?! Wait, this is the Doctor we're

talking about! I can't trust her! Couldn't this be a trap?!

"Uhh, Rosetta? You're... a girl... right?"

"Hmm? I do not understand the intent behind your question, but yes, that is

what I am. Yessir."

Whew, guess it was just a mistake on her part. I mean, Cesca did say the

doctor hadn't made any males. So this is the workshop, huh... It's not the library

that Leen was hoping for or the hangar that I wanted.

"Ahead of us lies the center of the workshop. There is currently a ban on all

those deemed incompatible from entering!"

"Well, Cesca said I was compatible, so..." I figured they were sisters, so I tried

mentioning Cesca by name.

"Cesca... as in Francesca? I see. So you have already obtained the garden,

then. That speeds things up, yessir it does. You must allow me to perform a test

on you to verify that you are indeed worthy." A test...? I've got a bad feeling

about this.

"Guess the color of my panties without moving from that spot."

"Are you stupid?!" I knew this would be bad! Nothing made by that doctor

could ever be good! Is she actually asking me to flip her skirt up?! What's with

this?!

"You are only allowed one guess. Your time limit is five minutes, yessir. Now,

what color are they?!"

Tch! Why is she in such high spirits! Time began to tick down as I worried

about what to do. Well, I'll just have to do things my way!

"Blow forth, Wind! Soaring, Spinning Gust: [Whirlwind]!" Wind picked up

around Rosetta's feet, making the ribbons on her chest and her bangs flutter in

the breeze. However, her skirt didn't budge an inch. What?!

"This skirt resists wind magic." Rosetta grinned.

Grrrr... So it's not gonna be that easy, huh? Then I'll just get rid of the skirt

entirely!

"Sear forth, O Fire! Oral Incineration: [Fire Breath]!" I conjured forth fire

magic, intending to burn away her skirt, but it didn't catch. I had no idea why

that didn't work.

"Similarly, this skirt also resists fire magic." What is this, the world's strongest

skirt?! It's pointlessly powerful! Tch, don't think this is over, Rosetta. When I get

serious, I can peek at whatever panties I want! Wait, this is silly. Why am I so

desperate anyway...?

I'd had enough. I decided to peek directly. All I had to do was send my line of

sight into her skirt.

I don't have any other choice. This is the only way forward... I'm kind of

making excuses for myself here, but whatever.

"[Long Sense]!" I fired my eyesight under her skirt, then opened my eyes. It's

a bit dark... Can't really see so well... Wait, what... is...

...What the hell?! I crouched on the spot, trembling, as I tried to hold back the

blood flowing from my nose.

She has those on?! Those?!

"Now, what color are they?!"

"C-Colorless... Th-They're transparent..."

"Yessir! I recognize you as a compatible person. Henceforth, Gynoid Number

Twenty-Seven, designation 'High Rosetta' shall be assigned to you. May we

work together forever, sir yes sir!" Rosetta spoke with a snappy salute, but I

honestly didn't care. They hadn't been entirely clear, more on the level of

commercial cling wrap, but... She definitely should've had more shame! They

were transparent...

Drip, drop... My nosebleed refused to let up.

"Has it stopped yet?"

"Somehow..." The torrent of blood had finally subsided. I'd managed to avoid

death by hormonally induced nosebleed. That was a relief.

I had Rosetta change into a regular pair of underwear. It wasn't good for my

health to have her going around like that. That being said, I hadn't seen proof

she'd done as I asked. Although, I wasn't exactly able to look at her directly at

that point either.

"Well then, let's get down to touring the workshop. Yessir, let's." Rosetta

spoke before starting off into a brisk walk. She glanced back at me.

...What is it now?

"Don't you want to see the pair I've changed in to?" Rosetta giggled, then

grabbed the hem of her skirt.

"I most certainly do not! Hurry up and get on with the tour!"

"Sir yes sir! By the way, do you prefer large or small chests?"

"Just get on with the tour!"

"Yessir!"

Where does she come up with this stuff?! If parents are parents, then

shouldn't kids be kids? Please just give me a break...

I trudged along after Rosetta, approaching the die-shaped building. Since it

was a workshop, I figured it must have been a place where they created things.

The white building was about fifty meters tall on each side. That made it

roughly the same size as the Arc de Triomphe in France, but this building was a

cube. It was about the same in length as it was in height.

Still, there didn't appear to be any windows... Actually, there didn't seem to

be any doors either. We arrived at the edge of the building, and Rosetta gently

pressed her hands up against the wall.

In the next instant, several lines ran down the white wall, then turned into a

small cube. It transformed into an entrance in the blink of an eye.

Is this building made up of tiny cubes or something?! A building made up of

small cubes that can reform themselves based on the orders given to them by

Rosetta, maybe? The workshop truly was something else.

We went through the newly constructed entrance, then up several flights of

stairs until we entered a wide, open space. What is this place...?

It was a completely white space. There was nothing around. There was

literally nothing there, as if it was a white void. White walls, white floor, and a

white ceiling. It was vast and wide. Far too vast, and far too wide, in fact. It's

bigger on the inside, so... is the space being spread out through magical means?

"What is this place?"

"This is the workshop, yessir. It's a facility outfitted with all imaginable

crafting tools, a sophisticated workbench, and mass production capabilities." As

she spoke, Rosetta touched a floor panel, which made a white table sprout up

before my eyes. The table seemed to have a bunch of tools jutting from it as

well.

I see... So the small white blocks that compose the building can reform into

tools and equipment.

"Only you and I can operate the workshop! You can build original items here,

but also mass produce copies of other items! Well, so long as you have the raw

materials, yessir!" That made sense. If it was just a matter of making things,

then I already had [Modeling], but the mass production of items was another

thing entirely. For example, I could mass-produce bicycles and start selling

them... I'd be able to seriously start doing some business, then.

Making something more complex like a smartphone probably wouldn't be

doable, though. I had no idea what went into those things.

I figured I'd be able to make the general shape, even the insides maybe, but if

I made it out of something like iron, then it obviously wouldn't function.

But really... this place would've been better off being named the Production

Plant of Babylon... The name's totally misleading.

I decided to run an experiment. I unholstered Brunhild and asked Rosetta to

reproduce it. I took out a lump of mithril from [Storage], then asked her to use

that for the materials.

Rosetta placed Brunhild on the white table, placed her hand above it, and

recited a command.

"Scan." A dull green light blinked briefly from the table. After it was done

glowing, Rosetta removed Brunhild from the table and placed the mithril lump

where it was.

"Copy." The table opened up slightly, swallowing the mithril lump into it. The

green light flashed once more. Then, the hole opened up, and the completed

product came out. That was fast! The excess mithril was scattered to the sides,

but the product in the middle was unmistakably Brunhild. Well, except for the

fact that this one shone with a silver luster.

"Get a load of this." An image of the silver Brunhild was projected in front of

Rosetta. She traced her finger along it, changing and tweaking the finer

features.

At the same time, the silver Brunhild on the table warped and deformed itself

to a form that was roughly similar, but definitely different to how it was before.

It changed to match the form Rosetta had created on the projected screen.

"You can freely change the design of what you produce through these means,

yessir." I took the weapon into my hand and tried to activate Blade Mode, but it

didn't extend. That was puzzling for a moment. Then I realized that it wasn't

able to copy any programming I'd applied to the base object.

I applied all the battle programming I had put on my original Brunhild to the

new one, then stashed the old one using [Storage]. Mithril felt better to me,

after all.

"If you note down an exact number during the initial copy, it'll continue to

produce them automatically after that. Yessir it will."

"That's definitely handy." There was nothing I felt like mass producing, but I

knew it would definitely be of use later. Oh, right...

"Rosetta. Cesca mentioned something about a weapon that could oppose the

Phrase..."

"Sir yes sir! That'd be the Frame Gear, sir! You can definitely produce those

here. I helped the doctor make it, sir!" It was as I had thought. The Frame Gear

were built in the workshop, and then stored in the hangar after that. So all I had

to do was...

"Rosetta, can we make a Frame Gear?"

"Sir no sir! Right now, the best I can produce is equipment and modifications.

The schematics for the actual Frame Gear are not on site. Your best bet would

be the storehouse, yessir!"

Damn it... Then we'll need to find either the hangar or the storehouse... Guess

I've got no choice...

"I'll call the others here for the time being. Cesca'll probably be happy to see

you, too."

"I'm looking forward to it, yessir." I had completely forgotten about the

friends I'd left behind in the desert. I hurriedly opened up a [Gate] to where the

others were.

◇ ◇ ◇

"So this is the workshop... is it."

"...Don't irritate me now, yessir!" Leen made her disappointment immediately

obvious, receiving a menacing glare from Rosetta in return.

"This place is far more useful than the garden, yessir it is! That place is only

good for looking pretty."

"Excuse me? The garden is a place of healing, a place to help regain peace of

mind, a place of moral support for our master! How dare you misunderstand its

use." I sensed that this might go beyond glaring, so I stood between the two

gynoids.

"That aside, can we link the garden and the workshop?"

"Yep. Now that master owns the workshop as well, it'll be a good idea."

"We can lower the barrier and link to the garden. We can even combine the

control systems of both facilities now, yessir." There was a terminal monolith,

much like the one in the garden, situated in the corner of the workshop.

Rosetta led Cesca over to it.

"What shall we do, Master?"

"Let's send the garden to Belfast. We can move the workshop there, as well.

After that, we can start docking while we're there."

"Docking...?" The two gynoids seemed confused.

What? Did I say something weird? Why are you staring at me like that?

"H-How indecent..."

"Just do it already!" Great, we have another troublesome person in the crew

now... This is one of the reasons why I didn't want to do this in the first place!

These two are probably similar to the old doctor as far as personality goes.

"Massster? The garden appearssss to be inexplicably moving." Kokuyou sent

me a telepathic message. Oh, almost forgot about them.

"Don't worry. We're moving it to Belfast from here. We found the

workshop."

I opened a [Gate] and everyone moved to the garden. It looked like both

facilities were making their way toward Belfast with no trouble, so I opened

another portal, picked up my familiars, and took everyone back home to the

mansion.

We went across the terrace and entered the living room. Rebecca, Logan, and

Will were there. The moment they saw us, they leaped up from their seats and

kneeled before us.

"Hey, don't do that! That's enough!"

"No, no! We heard everything from Miss Cecile! Please forgive our rudeness.

Please ask that the king forgives us!" Just what did that maid tell them, exactly...

I looked over at Cecile and she stuck out her tongue at me. Plus, she gave me a

wicked little smile, too. Don't think I'll forgive you for this!

"Really, don't worry so much about it. Formalities aren't necessary here."

"But..." The three of them hesitantly stood up. I told them to sit back down on

their chairs, and they did so.

"Well, we'll take a bath." Elze and the other girls went off to their respective

rooms. Leen and Paula had returned to the royal palace to report about the

Phrase and other matters. I did make sure to tell her that any mention of

Babylon was forbidden, however.

Cesca and Rosetta headed toward my bedroom. That reminded me, I wasn't

sure whether Rosetta would become one of our maids now or not.

"Where are the former slaves?"

"Th-They are erm, very-ly... tired, yes. So they indeed-ly, went to rest and...

recuperate themselves."

"Rebecca, I'm not a noble or anything. You don't need to force yourself to

speak formally or anything like that." Rebecca clearly looked strained and

uncomfortable due to her low social status, so she gave a wry smile and gulped

down the water that Renne had brought.

"That right? Then I won't worry about it."

"H-Hey, y'sure that's alright...?"

"He said it was fine, didn't he? There's no problem here, Logan." Rebecca

disregarded Logan's remark and gave me a grin. I didn't mind so much since I

was sure he'd come around eventually.

"So, what's next for you guys? You three can easily work with the guild, but

what about the girls?"

"Well, that's the thing... these girls are originally from poor villages. They have

no specialized skills to speak of, and their combat ability is minimal. We won't

leave them behind until we're all working and stable, I know that much, but..."

"Hm... I understand." Work, eh... I considered mass-producing bikes in the

workshop and having the girls sell them, but that would be a little difficult...

I preferred to keep the workshop a secret anyway, and I'd rather have asked a

professional about distribution and sales instead of doing it myself. That

merchant from Mismede, Olba. He was Olga's father, as I recalled. The fox

beastman.

When it came to work other than that, I considered running some kind of

food stall, but there was the cost of ingredients to take into account. Plus, it

wouldn't generate much revenue for seven people.

Hmph, I can't really think of anything good. Business is harder than you might

expect...

I wondered what to do.