The Golden Gollem and the Littlest Lady

The situation with Tatsuma had been resolved. The one

who attacked him, as well as the one responsible for his

original death fifteen years ago, had been stripped of their

statuses and exiled from the nation.

Since neither Tatsuno nor Tatsuya were bad people, I

offered them refuge in Brunhild. They refused my offer,

however. Apparently, they had some friends in Triharan that

would help them build their lives back up closer to home.

And so, I figured the very least I could do was open up a

[Gate] and send them off to Triharan safely.

The day of the exile came, and Tatsuma saw his brother

off with a smile. He handed off a pouch of money into his

brother's hand.

"I know the two of you will make it, no matter where life

takes you. But if you need anything from me, please write.

Exile or not, you're still my brother, and I love you."

"Tatsuma... Thank you..."

The two bowed their heads to the former ryutei, then

bowed to the current houtei, before joining hands and

departing for Triharan.

Despite the fact that they'd been stripped of everything,

they smiled gently as they walked through the portal

together. It was plain as day that they felt more free than

they'd ever been.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Sorry, say that again?"

"Of course. We received a report of an enormous monster,

one resembling a winged cow. It was spotted in the northern

region of Xenoahs."

As soon as I'd returned from my business, Tsubaki had a

report waiting for me. According to Fam's investigation from

up in the library, the creature was known as a Zagan and was

believed to have died out completely around two thousand

years ago.

"So, uh, what happened?"

"The first prince of Xenoahs reportedly went out and

killed it himself."

"Seriously?! He didn't just leave it to the adventurers?"

Prince Faron definitely had that kind of gung-ho

personality, so the report made sense to me... He was

Sakura's older brother, and her family wasn't exactly weak...

He certainly wasn't out of place as my brother-in-law, at

least.

Still, what was he thinking? The second prince, Farese,

had no succession rights to the throne. Faron was the only

heir! It was far too reckless to put himself in harm's way.

That said, the overlord had a long life ahead of him... It

wasn't like he couldn't just have another kid or something.

Though, he didn't have a partner at the moment.

In the worst-case scenario, maybe Yoshino would have to

take over. I wasn't exactly a fan of that idea, however.

Xenoahs didn't really have much in the way of

adventurers, unfortunately. Foreign adventurers didn't

usually plant their roots in that country, and the people who

lived there were stronger than ordinary humans. Nobody

put in requests for dealing with monsters they could easily

crush by themselves, so there weren't many quest listings in

Xenoahs as a result. From what I'd been told, even

youngsters from backwater villages in Xenoahs were about

as strong as your average blue-rank adventurer.

One of the big reasons why adventurers from other

nations didn't really stay in Xenoahs was their cuisine.

Unless you were already used to it, it was generally

considered hard to stomach. That said, there'd been some

recent improvements to the culinary scene over there. Lu's

cooking blog had a part to play in that. Though it would be

more apt to call it a development rather than improvement,

as it wasn't exactly my place to say their food culture was

bad. Food was said to be a reflection of the culture

surrounding it, so it would make sense that the people of

Xenoahs would eat things as inhospitable and hardy as the

lands they lived in.

But back to the main point, the appearance of another

extinct species meant a time distortion had happened. It was

an echo of the broader timequake that my kids had gotten

caught up in, and Granny Tokie's time spirits were hard at

work repairing it already.

Still, I had to count my blessings. We were only getting

the occasional monster rather than a full-on displacement of

beasts through time. Then again, the average extinct

monster was way stronger than any of the monsters that

existed in the current day, so was that really a blessing to be

counted?

"What happened to the prince?"

"Some minor injuries, but he'll live."

Injuries, huh...? Well, they'll be fine. We already sent

some of those alchemy lab potions over to Xenoahs for

emergencies.

"The issue this time around has less to do with the

appearance of the beast, and more to do with the stampede

it ended up causing. From what I hear, an entire village was

reduced to rubble..."

Damn it, again?!

It was only natural, since these monsters from the past

were suddenly appearing in different areas. The modern

monsters didn't know how to respond to the sudden

territorial dispute, so they ended up fleeing. This act sent

other animals fleeing, creating a chain that resulted in a

stampede. In fact, there'd been a lot of stampedes all over

the world lately, all presumably caused by yet-unreported

ancient monsters.

I decided that the various nations needed to be made

more aware of the threat they faced. There were some

warning signs that a stampede was about to begin, after all.

You could tell by the absence of certain animals, or flocks of

birds flying off together in the distance. If the various

countries could see those signs in advance, then they'd be

able to take better precautions to prevent damage.

Just as I was thinking about ways to implement that, the

phone in my pocket began to vibrate.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Hoh. They're larger than those Gollem warriors of

Brunhild, it seems," Indigo muttered quietly as he looked

over the contents of the Ark's hangar.

The dull gold bodies of the massive Gollems contained

within gleamed in the dim light of the lightstones above

them. The golden machines were engraved with black lines

running through them, which was some manner of magical

circuitry. The angular mechs were lined up in a row,

completely unarmed, with a somewhat heavy, rugged air

about them, like they'd been crafted coarsely. Indigo had a

feeling that design was to the preference of the plaguemasked man that stood before him.

"It's a shame, but I couldn't really make them any smaller.

Well, I could've, but that would've reduced the output quite

a bit. And at that point, why even bother?" the plaguemasked man, Scarlet, casually shrugged as he offered a halfbaked apology.

The dull gold Gollems in front of them were far bigger and

sturdier than the massive Chevaliers of Brunhild. The design

wasn't all that different from Brunhild's standard-issue

Frame Gears, it was just bigger and their heads bore a single

large eye.

"The performance on these isn't bad at all, though. I'd say

they could give Brunhild's machines a run for their money."

"Hoh!"

Indigo was somewhat impressed by Scarlet's confident

musing. Scarlet wasn't one for empty boasting, after all, so

that had to mean he was sure about what he was saying.

"And we can begin mass-producing these?"

"We've already begun. Though we've only managed to

make a few dozen with the materials we recovered from the

underground dock in Gandhilis. I imagine we can harvest

plenty of raw materials from the seabed, however."

The Ark was currently deep beneath the world's oceans,

trawling and mining the very bottom of the depths for ore.

The wicked god's divinity shrouded the entire vehicle,

preventing it from being traced by conventional search

magic. They were well-hidden indeed.

"Scarlet... I was wondering something."

"What's that?"

Indigo walked over to a gap between two of the giant

Gollems, his diving suit clunking as he walked.

"What happened to the machine that presumably stood

here?"

"That idiotic Orchid took it for a joyride. I'm not entirely

sure what became of it."

Scarlet clicked his tongue as his explanation elicited a sigh

from Indigo's mouth. Despite what Scarlet had said, Orchid

wasn't necessarily an idiot. It was more that he had a onetrack mind when it came to doing certain things. He worked

intuitively rather than using his head, and his happy-golucky approach was rooted in embracing his wild side and

disregarding groundwork. In short, he was a hedonist who

preferred feeling over thinking.

There was no way a person with that kind of personality

could resist taking a giant robot for a spin. The first moment

he saw one of them, he decided he needed to take it on a

rampage.

Indigo didn't necessarily think a rampage was a bad idea,

but he saw the tactical disadvantage of revealing their hand

too early. That was why he quietly resolved to go and bring

Orchid back before he drew too much attention to himself.

"Where did he go, then?"

"If it's Orchid you're after, then the Kingdom of Rhea is

where you will find him."

Indigo turned toward the source of the voice, spotting a

woman in a domino mask lined with fancy feathers. She was

remarkably tall and slender, and wore a flamboyant outfit

coated top to bottom in blue and green plumes. That

appearance had led to Orchid nicknaming her 'bird lady.'

She also held two metallic-green chakrams in her hands.

They were remarkably oversized when compared to her slim

build.

"Peacock... You know where he went?"

"Isn't it obvious? My Viridian excels at both seeking and

destroying. It's a truly magnificent gift from above. Tracing

my fellow devout is as simple as breathing."

Peacock let out a strange, haughty laugh. Threads of light

weaved through the holes in her chakrams. Peacock could

pull on these lights and measure their intensity to find

whatever it was she was looking for. Thus, there was no

doubt in Indigo's mind that Orchid was over in Rhea.

"He's there, eh? I'll go recover him, then... We can't have

these Gollems of ours being public knowledge just yet. And

on that note, do we have a name for them yet?"

"We certainly do. Kyklops."

"Kyklops? Sounds kinda like Cyclops, doesn't it?"

"It's what they called the Cyclops five thousand years ago.

Isn't that right, Gold?" Scarlet asked, grinning over at the

small shadow that lurked by the hangar's entrance. The

shadow then stepped forward, revealing a small golden

Gollem with glowing red eyes.

◇ ◇ ◇

"That's it! That's the thing that attacked the port!" the

elven soldier yelled out as he saw the illustration I managed

to recreate using [Recall]. The soldier, a local captain, still

had a bandaged head and a cast on his right arm despite my

healing. After getting his confirmation, I showed the image

to other soldiers who quickly said the same thing.

I was in Khadan, a port town in the Kingdom of Rhea. I'd

been summoned here after hearing news of the place coming

under attack by something that greatly resembled a Frame

Gear.

King Rhea and Grun the green crown had accompanied

me, along with an entourage of guards. I'd brought the king

with me to assure him I wasn't the one responsible for this

attack, and also to help escort any refugees to Rhea's capital

through one of my [Gate] portals.

Rescue teams from the capital charged into the billowing

smoke in search of wounded survivors.

King Rhea took a look at the illustration I'd generated and

asked, "Then you say this Gollem isn't the same as your

nation's Frame Gears?"

"That's right. It's not the same thing. I get what it looks

like, but it really isn't..."

At this moment in time, Brunhild was the only country in

the whole world with access to Frame Gears. That was why I

wanted to clear this situation up as fast as possible. Before I

could say any more, four people by my side interjected.

"It's obvious at a glance, isn't it? It looks nothing like my

Frame Gears. The fundamental design philosophy is

completely different. To have such shabby construction

compared to my product is absurd."

"Indeed. From the parts alone, you can see that whoever

made these must be from the western continent. It's not

nearly as refined as Regina's workmanship."

"Hmm... I do suppose I'd call it halfhearted, at a glance?

Whoever engineered it was so focused on optimizing output

that they didn't spare a minute to consider rider comfort..."

"As interesting as it is, it's a design created in poor taste.

I'd be pretty angry if I made the Frame Gears and someone

compared this to them."

Babylon, Elluka, the professor, and Quun all took turns

dunking on the machine that had destroyed the port. They

were so offended by the drawing that I almost hoped we'd

never find the real thing.

According to the townsfolk, it came shambling out of the

ocean and started laying waste to the town. It trashed stuff

at random, as if it was testing what it could do, then started

to break more things until it seemingly got bored and went

back into the water. The fact that it came from the ocean

made me think that this fake Frame Gear was the work of

the wicked devout.

I remembered that the wicked god had created mutated

Phrase variants that resembled Frame Gears, but that was

more like a life-form imitating a machine. This thing was

something completely different. It was a machine, created

from Gollem tech and artifacts, which meant there was

someone out there capable of producing war machines, and

he wasn't on my side.

"Do you think this could be something that was left in the

Ark that the wicked devout found?"

"Doubtful. The craftsmanship is far too crude for the

genius behind the crown Gollems. There's also new

technology here mixed in with the legacy parts."

"Might it be a refurbished version of an older design?"

"That's not impossible, but..."

"I think it would make more sense to just design a new

robot from scratch if you had to modify an old one. Though

supposing it actually is a legacy remnant, then..."

My offhand question prompted a flurry of technobabble

that I wasn't nearly equipped enough to understand. Clearly,

I was just adding fuel to the proverbial fire in their hearts.

"Negative. Chrom Ranchesse never manufactured

Gollems of this scale. This is someone else's doing."

The small green crown Gollem dumped a proverbial

bucket of water on that fire, quelling it in seconds. Grun was

created by the Ark's creator, so its word was as good as

anyone's. In other words, this fake Frame Gear was not

Chrom's handiwork.

That was probably worse, though, because it meant there

definitely was an incredibly skilled Gollem engineer working

with the wicked devout. Hell, he might have been one of the

wicked devout with their blessings and everything.

Man, this is really starting to be a real pain in the ass.

"After all you've done for Rhea, I can't begin to suspect

you as the culprit behind all this. I was only asking to be

sure, you needn't worry. Though if a country without our

relationship were to be attacked, they might not be so

understanding."

The elf king was absolutely right. If a country without any

friendly relations with Brunhild came under attack by this

thing, they'd have no reason to believe me if I tried to clear

things up.

Was that the goal here? To besmirch my reputation? No,

that couldn't be it. If that was their intention, then they'd

have made it look more like our Frame Gears instead of

these hulking one-eyed monster robots. But in that case,

why even make them? What was the endgame? It was too

confusing.

"Now that we're aware our enemies have access to

something similar to my Frame Gears, we should probably

let our allies know about it before we lose control of the

narrative. I'd advise that we let countries that aren't allied

with us know that as well, since I'm sure we can

communicate with them through the other world leaders."

"Yeah, you're right."

Doc Babylon was right on the money. If our allies vouched

for us, it would be easier to smooth things over. The only

way to prove this one-eyed Gollem wasn't one of ours was

probably to capture it. I tried using my search spell to trace

it, but I didn't get any results. Presumably, it shared the

same protections the Ark had.

"Hm..."

"What's wrong?"

The professor grumbled quietly as he mulled over the

image of the fake Frame Gear.

"It's nothing precise, but I do recognize the peculiarities of

this Frame Gear's design... Where have I seen this before?"

"Oh? You as well? I thought I was just imagining things,

but there are subtle quirks to the construction that seem

familiar to me..."

Elluka leaned in and slowly nodded, her brow knitted in

thought.

"Peculiarities to the design? I don't get it."

"All mechanical constructs betray their creators with

subtle details. It's just like with paintings. There's an

individual mark in all art."

Doc Babylon grinned as she explained that to me. I could

sort of get what she was saying. Babylon's aesthetic sense

was pretty clearly present in the Frame Gears and Over

Gears, after all. You could tell they were hers. Similarly, the

crown Gollems all looked pretty in line with Chrom

Ranchesse's aesthetic sense.

It was kind of like how you could tell when two manga

had the same artist even if they changed their pen name.

"If you both recognize it, does that mean the creator

might be someone famous? It's not the witch-king, is it?"

"Oh! I know!"

"I've got it!"

Huh?! Don't tell me the witch-king's actually behind this!

"This reminds me of the maestro's work! The Gollem

looks very much like his designs!"

"Exactly! It looks exactly like the type of Gollems the

maestro creates!"

...The maestro? Isn't that one of the five great

gollemancers of the western continent?

That would mean he was on the same level as Elluka and

the professor... And he was on the wicked devout's side?

Why?

"He's a skilled crafter, but he's a bit of a fussy sort. He

often got into heated conflicts with his aides."

"Indeed. He's always been difficult to work with and often

kicks up trouble in the countries he roams to."

According to the professor and Elluka, the maestro was

something of a conceited man who took extreme pride in his

vision...which meant he was kind of similar to the witch-king

in that regard, so I wasn't totally wrong!

"Unlike the witch-king, who took advantage of other

people, the maestro doesn't really care about others. He

looks down on just about everyone other than himself.

Young Elluka and I were treated as equals, but that's about

the closest I got to seeing him express any human warmth."

"Yeah, he treated Fenrir horribly right in front of me and

said he was of inferior make. In short, he's a bastard."

Elluka frowned, clearly still bitter over that particular

memory. Fenrir wasn't a particularly strong or complicated

construct, he was just a talking Gollem that looked like a

wolf. I thought that was cool, personally...but apparently,

not everyone was so easily satisfied.

But back to the matter at hand, the situation was

obviously worse than I thought. The wicked devout had a

Gollem engineer on the same level as Elluka and the

professor. Was he just working with them, or had he been

converted into one of them? The Ark was Chrom

Ranchesse's personal factory, which meant, in theory, there

was a facility within it for him to mass-produce the one-eyed

Gollem design.

I'd probably have to consider giving out Frame Units to

our most recent diplomatic allies so they could train pilots to

prepare for an emergency.

"Now that we've seen this, we can't afford to drag our

heels. Let's accelerate our production schedule."

"Your production schedule? You mean the Albus Over

Gear?"

"Indeed. We've already come up with a name, even. Val

Albus. We'll have to create an Over Gear that the maestro

won't be able to look down on."

Doc Babylon grinned wide, a scornful sneer appearing on

her face.

◇ ◇ ◇

After we returned from Rhea, Doc Babylon seemed more

motivated than ever to finish Albus's Over Gear. She didn't

let me see what parts she was working on, though. Given

that I was sponsoring the project, I thought I'd at least be

able to get a peek at what she was doing, but I didn't care

enough to push the issue. I'd get to see it when it was done,

which was good enough for me.

Quun was helping out too, though in a pretty limited

capacity. She wasn't cooped up in Babylon the same way

Elluka and Doc Babylon were. She at least came out to have

tea with her siblings every once in a while, which was nice.

We needed her help to tweak the Frame Units in time for

the current world conference, anyway. Rosetta from the

workshop and Monica from the hangar were both fully

focused on helping out with the Over Gear construction, so

we were a bit short on manpower.

I was watching the houtei face off against the iron king of

Gandhilis in a Frame Unit mock battle. They were getting

used to the controls via the simulator.

Oh, looks like it's over. Seems like the houtei won. Though

they're both beginners, so I feel like either one of them

could've pulled it off with the right button press...

"I won! Tatsuma-sama, I won!"

"Mh... Seems I lost."

The houtei and the iron king stepped out of their

simulation pods and back into the hall. The room was filled

with representatives and delegates from various nations

around the world. Our new friends from the western

continent were somewhat apprehensive about the Frame

Units, but they were curious enough to try out the training

modules. It was more of a way to nurture friendly

competition, really.

When I brought up the incident that had happened in

Rhea, the other nations agreed that we should train people

from every nation to pilot Frame Gears. It was a similar

situation to when the Phrase threat was looming, after all.

The beastking of Mismede raised his hand and spoke up

with a question.

"Grand Duke, do you think there could be the chance of a

large-scale invasion much like the Phrase incursion?"

"It's not impossible. It depends on how much Chrom

Ranchesse's Ark can create, but I think it'll be more than a

handful. Given enough time, they should be able to create

enough Gollems, since their output's probably going to be at

least similar to an average national factory."

My words prompted gasps from the delegates who'd come

from the western continent. Given they were more used to

Gollems in their daily lives, they'd grasped the scale of the

threat much more quickly.

Doc Babylon told me the enemy was probably going to be

mining undersea resources to mass-produce their one-eyed

Gollems. If they were trawling the sea bed for such things,

then they'd be able to create a lot of them if given enough

time to do so.

After a brief moment, King Belfast raised his hand as well

and asked, "So, these wicked devout... What is their aim,

exactly?"

"We believe their aim is the resurrection of the wicked

god, or the birth of a new one entirely. That's only our

speculation at the minute, though. Whatever it is they have

planned, it's not a good thing."

If I had to guess, they probably needed a massive quantity

of negative emotions from people all over the world to kickstart their true aim. And obviously, the fastest way to do that

was to send the world into a state of anxiety and unease, just

as Yula had done.

If that was why they were planning to mass-produce those

Gollems, then we needed to take action before we found

ourselves playing right into their hands. If the wicked god

was properly reborn, then neither I nor my family would be

able to directly interfere with it. I was a god, after all...and

my wives were beneficiaries of my divinity. We needed to

stop that situation from coming about at all costs.

Brunhild was also one of the only countries in the world

that didn't border the sea, other than our territory on the

dungeon islands. The only other landlocked nations were

Roadmare and Ramissh. Every other country could become

a possible target, so the only way to prevent that was to set

those countries up with Frame Gears.

The only difference from the Phrase invasion was that we

had no advance warning of attack. If I heard about it, I'd be

able to warp there in no time at all, but if they ended up

attacking a remote location, I wouldn't be able to hear about

it until it was too late.

Elluka said if we could capture one of the one-eyed

Gollems, we might be able to dismantle it and put together

some kind of sensor or radar... But we had to actually

capture one first, so there was nothing we could do before

the next attack. That was why we had to divert all our

resources to prepping for the next attack.

"I see... So you propose allowing the western nations to

access the Frame Units and become Frame Gear pilots as

well?" Knight King Reinhardt of Lestia said, then nodded

slowly at my explanation.

"That's right. We'll be loaning out Frame Gears to

countries as and when they need them, much like when the

Phrase invaded. Please keep a stronger watch along your

coasts."

All the world leaders I was on good terms with had

smartphones and could call me at any time, but I also took

the time to create and hand out a bunch of extra gate

mirrors. If they had gate mirrors in more remote or rural

locations, we'd have a much better chance of responding to

attacks on those places in a timely manner.

The western continent had short-range communication

devices, but they wouldn't be able to reach me all the way in

Brunhild through one of those.

"Given the nature of this threat, I can only hope that the

other nations join our alliance before long..." Elf King of

Rhea let out a small sigh as he spoke. The vampiric

Archfiend of Helgaia, another newcomer to our alliance,

nodded in agreement.

Though I'd arrived too late to stop the one-eyed Gollem

attack on Rhea, the other nations had all provided donations

in the form of gold or resources to help them rebuild. The

affected port town would be able to recover in time thanks to

that.

Though it was only a small town in this instance, some

nations had full cities along the coastline. If the wicked

devout attacked one of those, we would have a serious

disaster on our hands...and I had a feeling they'd do it

sometime soon. What better way to make people afraid than

attacking a large population center?

"The Kingdom of Curelia has been considering our offer

more seriously, especially after what happened on their

coast. I think they may well join us soon!" Prince Robert of

Panaches, the pumpkin-pants prince, spoke up merrily. King

Panaches nodded alongside him.

Curelia had one of its settlements recently come under

attack by Fishmen, giant stone constructs, and four-armed

Gollems. That was the work of the wicked devout as well.

The random guerrilla warfare was really pissing me off, as I

had no way of determining the next target. I was pleased

that Curelia was coming around on joining us, but they

weren't the only ones who needed convincing... There was

also the Kingdom of Langaeis, the Kingdom of Rephan, and

the Gem Kingdom.

Assuming Curelia would be joining us, what of those

three? From what I'd heard from Triharan, the Gem

Kingdom had been talking with them and there was the

possibility they'd join soon enough. Langaeis could also be

open to joining us if they saw their neighbors in Curelia do

so. They'd be surrounded by allies at that point, after all.

That really only left Rephan, which I didn't know all that

much about. I'd have to ask the king of Primula about them,

given his nation bordered theirs.

"Rephan, eh...? They're our neighbors, aye, but the Daola

Mountains form a natural border between our two nations,

so there's not an awful lot of foot traffic. I suppose the most

notable thing about them is that their territory is extremely

rich in mithril..."

Oh. Mithril's just about the worst thing you can use to

make a Gollem, right? It drops their potential output by as

much as half and is used in tools for sealing more

dangerous Gollems away. It's a valuable magical metal on

the eastern continent, but over on the western side, it's little

more than useless junk. Given the western continent is so

reliant on Gollems, it'd only be natural that a country

sitting on a bed of mithril would be a place people would

want to avoid.

Even Gollem airships were likely to crash if they got

within range of the ore there, though not all Gollem

functions were affected so badly.

"I've only heard rumors, but apparently, Rephan is in the

midst of a civil war. I doubt they're in a position to join us

right now."

A civil war? I wonder if it's a struggle for supremacy like

what happened in Eashen a while back.

The Kingdom of Rephan was made up of various clans,

but apparently, their king's power recently waned and his

clan was driven out of their capital. Now the situation was

more chaotic: opposing clans were said to have taken up

positions around or in the capital city, other clans were

taking advantage of the situation to expand their territories,

and smaller clans were banding together under new

agreements to try to take some real power for once.

It was kind of an inevitability, really... Power vacuums

always ended this way. It wasn't a matter of people, it was

just how things went. Even a small country like Brunhild

wasn't immune to that kind of thing, which was why I

needed to remain vigilant in terms of succession.

"Actually, my people have heard that their warring period

is finally coming to an end. Apparently, a prodigious Gollem

meister has allied herself with the royalty, who are

reclaiming their power."

"Oho?"

Crown Prince Lupheus of Triharan suddenly interjected,

accompanied by Princess Berlietta of Strain. It made sense

he'd have some knowledge of the situation, as his country

bordered Rephan as well.

As an aside, apparently, the two of them were making

strides with their ether vehicle development. I had a feeling

that Triharan could become quite the successful car

manufacturer in the future.

"But isn't Rephan on a whole bed of mithril? Gollems

can't operate well there, can they?"

"That doesn't seem to matter for this particular Gollem

meister. I've heard her machine works just fine. It could be

that the witch-king of Isengard's invention fell into their

hands..."

The old guy who ruled Isengard? Oh yeah, he did make

something like that, if I remember right... A device that

neutralizes the effects of mithril, right? Think he made it

based on one of the beast emperor Gollems from the former

Kingdom of Lowe. This Gollem meister couldn't have one of

the beast emperors, right? There are twelve of them, I'm

pretty sure... I thought all the others were destroyed in the

war with Gardio, but one might've survived...

"I hear the king's mysterious benefactor wields a Gollem

with a golden sheen. She's said to be a terribly young girl, as

well. A mere child, despite her prodigious skill."

"...What."

Lupheus's words started to turn a few cogs in my brain.

A Gollem with a golden sheen? Why is that making me

think of the gold crown?

There were a few golden Gollems across the world, mostly

in the hands of the ridiculously wealthy. I'd run into a few in

the past when I'd tried searching for the gold crown.

Having a shiny golden Gollem in your repertoire was

considered the ultimate status symbol in some social circles,

though mostly among the nouveau riche. I couldn't really

say anything about that, though...since I had a shiny golden

Frame Gear sitting in my hangar. Plus, I was technically part

of the nouveau riche too...

I wondered if the girl in Rephan was some noble girl from

a new money family... If she was just a little kid, then that

probably meant she was some rich guy's daughter. Was she

helping out the king of Rephan with her dad's wallet or

something? That sounded pretty funny.

"They say she's only five years old or so, yet she repels

every single enemy that crosses her path. Her Gollem is

equipped with the ultimate defense wall, if the stories are to

be believed."

...Huh?

"Even putting the Gollem aside, the girl herself is said to

be a formidable force on the battlefield. She charged through

an advanced line of soldiers like a wrecking ball, scattering

them instantly. And yet, even though she went charging

right in, nobody could put so much as a finger on her!"

Huuuh?! W-Wait, hold on... Could she be...? No, no...

That's ridiculous...

"Father. I'm fairly sure I know who they're describing."

Even though I didn't want to believe it, Quun's whispering

voice danced over and brought reality crashing down around

me.

Don't tell me...it's really her...

"I'm trying to remember what her name was... That

strange, powerful girl is named...Staph? Or is it...Step?

Something like that..."

Hey! Prince Lupheus, her name's Steph! She's called

Stephania, dammit! That's my daughter whose name

you're messing up, pal! Wait. That's my daughter. Oh no.

Why's she involved in a civil war?!

"Quun, what's she thinking?"

"She's not thinking of anything at all. Steph never does.

She's probably just helping because they're giving her food."

Are you serious right now? Is she gonna be okay over

there? Aren't they basically just using her, then?

"She'll be fine, I think. Steph has something of a good

instinct when it comes to people, so I'm sure those she's

helping are nice. Honestly, she reads people just as well as

Kuon or mother Yumina's mystic eye does. It's some mighty

animal intuition."

What?! Is she a feral kid or something?!

If Quun was right here, then Steph was helping out King

Rephan because he deserved the aid. Did that mean the king

was genuinely a good person? When I asked King Primula

and Prince Lupheus about that, I was surprised to learn that

Rephan was actually ruled by a queen. She was apparently

close to sixty, but there were no tales or rumors about her

being a bad person. Though her qualities as a leader did

leave something to be desired.

One could be a good person while being a bad monarch,

that was for sure. Given that Rephan was made up of

multiple smaller clans, whoever was in charge needed to be

the perfect mediator for their disputes. And above all else,

the ruling party needed to command respect and authority

enough to make those smaller vassals bend the knee. That, it

seemed, was what Queen Rephan was lacking.

I guess Steph's making up for her lack of backbone, then?

Wait, crap... What if she accidentally becomes the new

queen or something?! Now I'm just more worried... I can't

say I know much about this gold Gollem she has either, but

we need to bring her home!

Even though I was concerned, I was still in the middle of

an international conference...so I couldn't just bail out.

Steph's mother, Sue, was also here, but I couldn't just tell

her what I'd learned because she'd probably panic. And so, I

resolved to stay quiet until the evening's events concluded.

A few hours passed. It was a little frustrating trying to

make it through the evening without letting anything slip,

but we managed and I saw all the delegates to their homes.

Now came the important part.

I gathered my family in the living room and told them

about the situation with Steph. The reaction was,

interestingly enough, mixed. Yumina and my other wives

were shocked, some even gasped and looked terribly

concerned. My children, on the other hand, simply nodded

and told me that it sounded about right.

"You're not all that surprised, are you?"

"That's just kind of how Steph is... She's a free spirit, for

better or for worse."

Weird... She's kind of an eccentric girl, isn't she? Is this

really not that unusual for her? It's unusual for me, that's

for sure! I'm still worried!

As I was struggling to respond to Kuon, Sue suddenly and

impatiently ran to my side.

"Touya! We must go to Rephan at once! I must see my

Steph! I'm sure she's lonely, afraid, and missing me... I'm

her mother, so I have to see her now!"

I understood her feelings, but I'd never even been to

Rephan before, which meant I couldn't open up a [Gate]

portal. I asked Yakumo if she'd be able to open up a portal

for us, but apparently, she'd never been either. What a

bother...

I had no other choice but to try getting myself there

directly. I wasn't sure where I'd land if I used [Teleport],

so all I could really do was pray I wouldn't pop up in the

middle of a battlefield or some important noble's

bedchambers. I wasn't very keen on starting an international

incident over this, after all...

I quickly reconsidered when I remembered that I could

just use [Gate] to go to Primula, then cross the Daola

Mountains.

"I'll be joining you, of course!" Sue exclaimed as she

stepped forward and grabbed my hand. I was surprised

when Yoshino came over as well.

"I'm an expert at catching Steph. I have [Absorb] and

[Teleport], after all."

That made sense. Yoshino also had [Prison], which she

presumably used to catch her sister. Her [Absorb] could

nullify any spells Steph might start slinging, and if the girl

fled, then Yoshino could pursue her with [Accel]. If all else

failed, she had [Teleport] for instant transmission. In a

sense, Yoshino could be considered Steph's natural predator.

Apparently, Kuon used to use one of his mystic eyes to

stop his sister too. And upon hearing that, I realized we were

starting to feel more like animal control than a rescue

party...

"If Yoshino goes, I go..." Sakura said as she stood up,

understandably concerned. She didn't want her child

rushing to a war zone unattended, which was fair.

I headed to Babylon's hangar and asked Monica to bring

out our rapid transit vehicle, Gungnir. The Gungnir was also

a support unit for Sue's Ortlinde, so bringing it along made

perfect sense. Plus, it had a stealth function that would make

it easier for us to approach any area of conflict.

I considered just using [Fly], but I felt like Sue was

running out of patience.

"Now then, let us be off. We're gonna, like, punch it!

Gooo!"

Monica piloted the Gungnir through the [Gate] I'd

opened, blasting us through into Primula's airspace in an

instant. She then immediately activated the stealth mode,

rendering us invisible to the naked eye.

"So? Are we heading straight to the Rephan royal capital?"

"No, the capital's supposedly occupied by other clans right

now. She won't be there. She'll be with the king, uh...I mean,

the queen..."

I ran a search to try to identify her within the region of

Rephan, but multiple results popped up. There were

probably so many results because there were other clan

leaders who were women, and I didn't know which one the

current queen was...

"Why not search for the gold Gollem?"

"I've searched for that before, but it always gets me junk

results..."

"If you limit the results to Rephan, shouldn't it be easier?"

That was true. Most of the results from my gold Gollem

searches showed up in wealthier nations on the western

continent like Allent or Strain.

Comparatively, Rephan didn't really have all that many.

When I took Sue's advice and set the search terms to only

show results within Rephan's borders, I got three results.

Two of them were in the capital city, meaning the one

outside had to be Steph's. It was far east of the capital, quite

a distance from our location, so we needed to hurry.

"Monica, send us eastward."

"Roger that. We're, like, going east!"

Gungnir crossed over the mountain range and continued

due east. I hoped my daughter wasn't in any trouble...but

there was a good chance she was already neck-deep in it.

"How come my kids always get involved in stuff like this?"

"You're really asking that, Touya? You, of all people?"

"We learned from the best, father. You're just as bad as

us."

...Dammit. My bad, I guess.