CHAPTER 32

Predicament

“That Hero sounds like a really scary person.”

I nod in agreement as Kiriko trembles.

“But, well, most people are very kind and compassionate. He’s just special…in an abnormal way.”

The earth-serpent telephone suddenly rings again.

“Rista! The telephone’s ringing again!”

“Eek! Did he hear us talking about him?! No…! He’s gonna crush my boobs!”

“…?! The Hero would do that to you?!”

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

The snake phone continues to ring. After working up the courage, I finally answer it.

“I didn’t mean ‘abnormal’ in a bad way. I just wanted to say that you were ‘special’ and—”

“What are you talking about? Listen, my scout serpents outside of Termine have spotted the machine corps.”

“What?! Th-the second unit is already on its way?!”

“Yes. Meet me in the watchtower and bring that Killing Machine with you.”

“I can take Kiriko with me?! Seiya?! Hello?!”

After Seiya hangs up on me, Kiriko stares at me with blank amazement.

“Um…am I allowed to go outside with you?”

“Y-yeah, it looks that way. But things could get messy if the people of Termine see you, so don’t leave my side, okay?”

I don’t know what Seiya’s up to, but I bring Kiriko with me to the Termine watchtower.

“I-it’s a Killing Machine!”

The guards get into a fighting stance the moment I open the door and step onto the top floor of the watchtower with Kiriko. Before I can even open my mouth, Seiya says to them:

“Don’t worry. I wrapped earth serpents all around it just like with Jonde, so I’ve essentially got it on a short leash just like with Jonde. I can destroy it anytime I want just like with Jonde.”

All the soldiers are overcome with relief when they hear that…with the exception of Jonde.

“‘Just like with Jonde. Just like with Jonde.’ Did you really have to say that three times?! The nerve!”

After yelling at Seiya, Jonde glares at Kiriko.

“Do you mind telling me why you brought that Killing Machine here?”

“We’re going to use it as a hostage for the negotiation.”

I’m astounded by what I hear.

“What the…?! Wait! Did you let Kiriko live just so you could use her as a hostage?!”

“But the enemy is a Killing Machine, so I doubt he will be willing to negotiate. Regardless, I wasn’t planning on striking a deal with him anyway, but you can never be too careful.”

Huh?! If he wasn’t planning to negotiate, then what’s the point of a hostage?! Th-this doesn’t make any sense!

I wouldn’t be able to figure it out no matter how long I thought about it, so I decide to just give up. Seiya heads into the watchtower’s observation room and begins surveilling the machine corps through the earth-serpent cameras.

“All right, it’s about time I put up the Iron Dome.”

The Killing Machines displayed on the bucket monitor still seem to be quite far from Termine, but Seiya nonetheless decides to change the walls into a dome. After that, he continues looking up at the multiple monitors as he prepares for an aerial attack.

“Seem to be roughly ten thousand machines in the north.”

Ack! That’s so many!

I quietly study the surveillance cameras with Seiya for a while until I suddenly realize something.

“Hey, Seiya? None of them is flying.”

“Looks that way.”

“See?! There aren’t any flying-type Killing Machines! I knew the dome would be pointless!”

But Seiya calmly ignores Jonde’s screams.

“At any rate, it shouldn’t be much longer before the Killing Machines start battling the golems in the northern plains.”

When I look at the monitor, I see a legion of Killing Machines packed together as they charge, but there are just as many golems rushing in to attack.

“How many golems did you send into battle?”

“I sent around eight thousand north. They’re slightly outnumbered, but it won’t be a problem.”

And he wasn’t lying about that. The golems barely have to swing their arms to swat the Killing Machines away like flies. From what I can see, one golem equals about three Killing Machines in battle. They end up crushing the Killing Machines so badly that the enemy isn’t able to get anywhere near the outermost wall. We watch the monitor showing the fight in the north for a while, but Seiya eventually takes his eyes off it.

“It should only take another hour before the second batch of Killing Machines is completely destroyed.”

Jonde and I are overjoyed to hear about our certain victory, but…

Hiss! Hiss! Ssssss!

I hear a shrill hissing coming from the serpent phone in Seiya’s breast pocket, far different from the usual ringing.

“What?!”

Seiya unusually loses his calm demeanor.

“S-Seiya?! What’s wrong?!”

“It was from a scout serpent. They let me know when the enemy comes into contact with the first wall…”

“Wait! What?! You mean our last line of defense?! This has to be some kind of mistake!”

Jonde’s expression is overcome with surprise as well as he quickly looks at the monitor. I turn my attention to the monitors as well, but the north-, east-, and west-facing cameras all show the same thing we’ve been watching: The golems are still holding off the Killing Machines.

“Must have come in from the south…”

Upon hearing Seiya’s troubling words, I turn my attention to the live feed from the scout serpents in the south, but I still don’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“But the golems in the south are still fine! I don’t see a single Killing Machine, so why is the alarm going off?!”

In a hushed tone, Seiya replies:

“They probably broke through the bedrock underground until they passed under the outer four walls…”

“They didn’t attack from the sky but from underground?! Did they outwit us?!”

“Of course I considered the possibility of the enemy creating a tunnel underground to invade us. Therefore, I made sure that the Great Iron Walls extended underground. The walls are fifty meters aboveground and continue fifty meters below, making them one hundred meters tall altogether.”

“D-does that mean they went even farther underground and passed under the walls?!”

I hear Seiya clench his teeth.

“Just in case, I made sure to make the last wall extend one hundred meters underground, twice as long as the others, but…”

Seiya stares at the monitor displaying the area between the two innermost walls in the south. Before long, dirt is flung into the air and a Killing Machine pops out like a mole. Both Jonde and I gasp. It has a shiny, metallic blue body with drill-like arms. It’s a new type of Killing Machine.

“This isn’t good. This isn’t good at all.”

Seiya begins busily pacing around in circles. Jonde, on the other hand, starts reassuring himself that everything is going to be okay.

“B-but this is as far as they get! There is no way the enemy is going to get past the innermost wall that extends an entire hundred meters underground! That’s why it gave up and came back to the surface!”

“Y-yeah, you’re right! It’s going to be okay, isn’t it?!”

I go along with what Jonde’s saying, but Seiya bitterly replies:

“No. They broke through the dense bedrock of Termine and were able to reach fifty meters underground…which means…”

I check the camera displaying the area around the innermost wall. About one hundred drill-type Killing Machines rise to the surface and thrust their arm-drills into the innermost wall! Gravel flies into the air as the wall is gradually chipped away.

“In addition to the group that returned to the surface and is trying to drill through the wall, there’s most likely another group underground, still chiseling at the bedrock in an attempt to go under the innermost wall.”

“The enemy is trying to invade Termine from two different locations?!”

Jonde, fed up, storms over to Seiya.

“This isn’t turning out like you told us it would! You said that Termine would be completely protected as long as we defended ourselves from an aerial attack!”

Seiya sharpens his eyes.

“Shut up!”

Seiya lets his emotions get the best of him for a change. He is clearly annoyed.

“S-Seiya…!”

After noticing me, Seiya lets out a deep sigh, then regains his composure.

“It looks like I don’t have much of a choice anymore.”

Seiya snaps his fingers, and the ground begins to violently rumble, shaking us along with it as the dome around Termine recedes.

“Wh-what did you do?”

“I got rid of all the walls around Termine except for the innermost. After that, I poured all my mana into the last wall, making it five times denser and longer in both directions. I would have liked to make it even denser and extend even farther into the ground, but the hard soil makes that difficult compared to extending it into the sky.”

And just like that, only one wall is left to defend Termine. It must have been a bitter decision for Seiya to make, especially since he was wrong with his prediction. Nevertheless, the wall is five times stronger now and seems to be protecting against the enemy’s drilling and underground invasion as well, thus halting the Killing Machines’ attack. But the moment I get a taste of relief…

“Stop right there! This room is off-limits! The Hero is busy!”

I hear the soldiers yelling from the watchtower’s stairwell.

“Wh-what’s going on now?!”

My curiosity draws my eyes to the noise.

“There’s something I have to tell the Hero!”

A brawny soldier shouts as the guards surround him. After a good look, I realize that it’s the soldier Seiya turned down the other day and told to go do farmwork.

“What’s the problem?”

The soldier calms down a little when he sees me.

“I was doing farmwork just like the Hero told me to when I noticed something.”

Before I even realize it, Jonde, Kiriko, and Seiya are already nearby and listening to the soldier.

“There was a light rain yesterday, which didn’t last long, but the golems inside Termine crouched down and stopped moving. And it wasn’t just me who noticed this. Lots of other people saw it, too.”

Seiya furrows his brow.

“So what are you trying to say? That golems are weak to water? Ridiculous. I have already made sure that the golems are resistant to water.”

But the soldier firmly declares:

“I know what I saw! The golems became sluggish when they were rained on!”

“Rainwater…?”

Seiya glares at me.

“Rista. Are there any monsters that aren’t resistant to water when it’s rainwater that falls directly from the sky?”

“I-it’s not totally inconceivable! Unlike well water or filtered water, rainwater contains the forces of nature, too! So maybe even golems with a resistance to water…!”

If something can go wrong, it will. When I look up, gray clouds hang over Termine. They look like they could cry at any moment.

I-if it rains, does that mean…?!

I suddenly hear a loud bang, which causes Kiriko and me to jump. It was the sound of Seiya kicking a table into the air. After throwing a fit, Seiya heads back to the surveillance room and starts impatiently staring at the monitors like a man possessed. His eyes frantically move around as he bites his nails. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Seiya like this before. After a few moments of silence, Jonde clicks his tongue, turns on his heel, and leaves the room to give orders to the soldiers.

“Prepare for battle! Strengthen the defense around the palace!”

“J-Jonde?!”

His is the face of a general.

“It appears I gave him too much credit. I thought his cautiousness was backed up with strength. However, it was quite the opposite. His strength comes from his cautiousness, and once that comes crumbling down, he mentally breaks down as well.”

I quietly stare at Seiya’s back after Jonde leaves.

Seiya…!

It’s been one grueling battle after another since we arrived in Ixphoria. Grandleon possessed attributes that even exceeded the Demon Lord’s, and the Machine Emperor Oxerio outwitted us. It’s only a matter of time before Termine is invaded by the Killing Machines. Seiya is extremely cautious. He always makes sure to prepare for anything, but it’s not like he can see into the future, and there is only so much a human can predict given all the possibilities in the universe. Seiya Ryuuguuin may be overly cautious, but this might be his limit.