Chapter 341: Red Cats Corps, and the Prince of the Fallen Kingdom.
Chapter 341: Red Cats Corps, and the Prince of the Fallen Kingdom.
“Alright. As expected, it’s gotta be like this for us, eh?”
Nia smiled with satisfaction. In front of her, ten Chevaliers stood there with their bodies painted red and cat markings on their shoulders.
While waiting for the variants to appear, Nia requested me to repaint the base color of the Frame Gears.
Since these ten were originally going to be lent out for [Red Cats]’s usage exclusively, I don’t really mind. Still, a cat marking…
Seems that among the [Red Cats] pilots, there’s someone who’s good at these kinds of things, and that person painted them on speedily with only pattern papers and tape.
For the other locations, the Frame Gears painted each other skillfully using giant brushes I made on the spot. They’ve really gotten used to moving them.
On a side topic, I had to transfer all the way back to Babylon to get paint since there were none inside my [Storage].
“To have made them all bright red… Well, it stands out so it’s easy to identify but…”
This might be overlapping a bit with Elze’s Gerhilde, but the coloring is slightly different. One is scarlet while the other is a deeper red. Well, in the first place it’s easy to tell them apart from the differently-shaped frames.
I checked the clock on my smartphone, and it’s already past 4 in the afternoon. They should be appearing soon…
“I’d like for it to not become a night battle…”
“Weren’t the Chevaliers installed with night vision devices as well?”
Yumina looked towards me and asked. Before, during a fight at night against Phrases, we had to equip our Chevaliers with external visors to allow them to see at night.
Learning from that time’s mistakes, the Chevaliers here are all installed with internal night vision capability similar to the Valkyrias. They should perform fine even while fighting in pitch dark conditions.
“Although they are installed, it’s not impossible for the camera itself to be destroyed, so. When that happens, it’ll be hard to move around given the darkness. It’ll be horrible if something like them accidentally hitting each other happens. That’s why I’d prefer it if they would appear while it’s still bright.”
Well, we still have time until the sun sets though.
There’s also one more reason why I want them to come early if possible.
“We aren’t that far away from the town to begin with, so it’s within expectations for us to have been noticed by the townspeople already.”
A group of suspicious individuals using giant golems who have set up camp near the town. At least, that’s probably how the townspeople see us.
There’s several people looking this way from the rock formation over in the distance. They think they’re well-hidden, but that much isn’t nearly enough to escape from Kougyoku’s eyes above.
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> (Note: tried using this for telepathy dialogues. Tell me if you prefer keeping it standard with “”.)
Those people probably came here to check on us after noticing the unusual situation. Around this time, the town might even be in a panic while thinking of us as possible aggressors. It’s probably unlikely for them to accept our explanation so easily too, anyway.
This country, Eisengard Magicraft Kingdom, doesn’t have connections with our side. There’s the possibility of them treating us as foreign invaders and attacking us, but since this place is far away from their central regions, it should take quite a while for the army or knight order forces to arrive here. Of course, we plan to finish up our business here before they can arrive.
As its name suggests, this country is one proficient in magic engineering techniques, and is apparently also a major military power on par with Garudio Empire in the east. They might possibly have things like golem tanks. As expected, if they bring out those kinds of things, it would get troublesome.
While I was thinking about that, Leen came out of the tent set up on the plains while holding a sensory board.
“I’ve confirmed signs of appearance. They should be here in around 10 minutes.”
“They’ve come, huh.”
Seems like we can finish this before nightfall. I connected my smartphone to the cockpit speakers on the Chevaliers.
“We’ve confirmed the appearance signs of variants. All members, get ready for combat. The battle will commence in around 10 minutes.”
The [Red Cats] members heard that and closed their cockpit hatches.
The red Chevaliers slowly stood up one by one accompanied by start-up sounds.
“Finally, eh? I can’t wait-.”
“Nia. Don’t get too excited.”
“So nervous-ssu ne…”
Contrary to those words, the voices coming from the smartphone’s speakers sounded rather carefree. Well, that’s better than them being nervous, really.
“Leen and Yumina, you’re the supports as mentioned. I intend to have Nia and the rest handle the intermediate-classes too, but if it gets dangerous you girls can step in.”
“I understand.”
“Roger.”
Yumina and Leen got into their personal machines. Eh, why’s Pola getting in with Leen… Don’t get in her way, alright?
Several minutes later, suddenly, a crack appeared in the middle of the sky nearby with a glass- breaking sound. The crack, which appeared directly in front of the [Red Cats] group, slowly began to expand like the cracks on an egg when a chick was struggling to get out of it.
“Uoo, there’s cracks in the sky!?”
“So that’s it.”
“Fuaa, my heart’s beating so fast-ssu!”
Eventually, after an especially loud breaking sound, the cracks opened up and from there, dark gold-colored variants appeared one after another.
Most of them are lower-classes, and they come in various shapes from ones like snakes to ones like rhinoceros beetles.
Within them, there are three variants that are clearly bigger than the rest. The intermediate- classes.
If the Frame Gears are around the size of an average adult man, the lower-classes would be small-sized dogs while the intermediate-classes would be small buses.
Using [Long Sense], I let my sight fly towards them to get a closer look. Aren’t they bigger than normal intermediate-classes… Right, come to think of it, the lower-classes all have different sizes, so it makes sense for the intermediate-classes to have some differences as well.
The bigger problem here is the fact that one of the intermediate-classes is a flying-type. That’s… A sunfish-type, is it?
That it’d be moving slowly like an actual sunfish… Is probably not a good assumption to make. It could be surprisingly fast. It doesn’t even have eyes and a mouth, and is only close to a
sunfish in shape anyway. To be honest, if the angles on its body are a bit sharper, it could pass as an angelfish-type.
Anyways, the Red Cat members can’t handle an aerial enemy yet. They don’t have any long- range options, after all.
“Yumina, snipe that flying variant for me. Since it’ll be impossible for Nia and the others to deal with it.”
“Alright.”
Brunnhilde, which was standing behind me, raised its sniper rifle-like gun. While the location of the variants’ cores can’t be seen through their colored bodies unlike regular Phrases, we can still guess at a general location based on experience.
Still, the sunfish-type sure looks thin when it turns its front directly towards us. Well, even if I say thin, it’s still several meters across, though.
On the body of that sunfish-type, suddenly, numerous cracks reminiscent of a spider’s web appeared. Yumina’s sniping had been the cause.
While I was marvelling at her sniping ability, the sunfish exploded from inside flashily. Uo, that scared me!
So it was a crystal bullet with [Explosion] enchanted, huh. A Phrase can absorb any magic power that comes into contact with its surface, but it apparently can’t absorb magic power that originated from within its body. [Aports] worked in the past, too.
Seems like that strike had destroyed the core inside. What’s left of the sunfish fell onto the ground, before starting to dissolve while producing eerie black smoke.
With that as the signal, the battle had begun. The ten red Chevaliers, each holding different weapons like swords, spears or maces, charged into the group of lower-class variants and started mowing them down.
Although the sunfish is down, there’s still two intermediate-classes left. One has long legs and look like an ostrich, while the other is a dinosaur… Something that looks like an iguanodon. Of course, their sizes are incomparable with the originals.
Following the [Red Cats], Leen also went towards the group of variants. While Grimgerde is an annihilation-specialized bombardment-type unit, in this kind of close combat situation it’s impossible for it to fire as it wants. Staying faithful to her role as a support, Leen only targetted
areas where the [Red Cats] were falling behind, and stalls or displaces the variants here and there.
During that period, Yumina’s long-range shooting was also saving Chevaliers that were about to be hit by a variant.
One Chevalier dashed out from the group of lower-classes and arrived in front of the ostrich intermediate-class. From the number on its back, that’s Nia.
“Urya!”
Nia’s frame flew up into the air and unleashed a falling slash on the neck of the ostrich-type. The neck, together with the head, was cut off beautifully by her strike, and falls onto the ground.
However, from the place where the neck was cut off, a new neck and head immediately grew back, as if nothing had happened to it.
“Nia, havn’t I told you that they would regenerate if you don’t destroy their cores?”
“I, I know that! I was just confirming, yeah!”
This liar, she definitely forgot. She even charged straight to the intermediate-class while ignoring the lower-classes.
Everyone else were steadily exterminating the lower-classes. For now, there’s no major problems. Over half of the variants are down for the count already.
Est-san’s Chevalier had also arrived at the place where Nia was still fighting against the ostrich intermediate-class. Oh, she started going for its legs first. Seems to be a plan to rob it of its mobility first, then destroy the core which is likely in its torso.
The other iguanodon intermediate-class was fighting with another Chevalier. That back number, is it that one-eyed man from earlier?
Frame Gear operations can show the pilot’s personal skill. Judging from those movements, the person himself must be quite the master as well. He’s sealing the movements of that iguanodon-type easily with the spear in his hands.
Then, two new Chevaliers joined the fray. Probable the brown-skinned beauty and the slit- eyed young man from earlier. Those two have some good movements as well. Seems like it’ll be ok to leave that side to those three.
When I turned to look at Nia’s side, Yuni too had joined the battle there following Est-san.
The two intermediate-classes each has three person on them, and the four other Chevaliers concentrated on the lower-classes. They’ve nicely separated into groups.
Light began to gather at a spot in front of the iguanodon’s head. Mu, looks like it’s trying to release a laser attack. Since I’ve taught the [Red Cats] pilots matters regarding that attack, the three frames fighting it immediately spread out and moved around without stopping to throw off its aim.
The beam that was released by the iguanodon did not hit anyone and flied off into the sky.
“Ah, not good.”
The beam was flying towards the town instead of the sky. While the advanced-class’ particle cannon-ish beam is enough to blow away the entire town, the beam from an intermediate- class is probably only strong enough to destroy a house.
Well, it’s not as if I’m going to ignore it because of that.
“[Reflection].”
I deployed a reflective magic wall in a 45 degree angle and deflected the laser high off into the sky. It really is troublesome to fight near a town…
“-Ryaa!”
When Nia thrusted her sword into the torso of the ostrich-type that had fallen down, together with black smokes, its body began crumbling down and dissolving. They did it.
The iguanodon-type too had started to dissolve; apparently the one-eyed ossan had pierced its core with his spear.
Mustering the last bits of its strength, the ostrich-type variant suddenly started pecking the ground with its long mouth. It kept pecking at the ground for a while, but eventually its mouth too dissolved. What was that?
I would regret having not looked more closely at this incident later on.
The lower-class variants were almost entirely gone as well, and the battle was drawing to a close.
“I guess we’re finished.”
“Seems like it.”
Yumina’s voice came from Brunnhilde’s speakers. Well, this is the expected result for 10 Frame Gears against 100 lower-class variants. There’s no one who’s injured too, so this is a good performance.
If this was a battle against the Phrases, I could’ve collected the crystal materials from their corpses… Fighting against the variants really have no direct merits for us. Let’s just quickly retreat.
Normally, Eisengard Magicraft Kingdom should’ve been dealing with this incident directly, and us destroying the variants may be seen as unnecessary assistance. However, if we left them alone, there will definitely be damages. There’s a need for us to pass information along to more countries.
[Papillon]… Wait, it’s [Black Cats] now. Guess I’ll ask that place’s Silhouette-san to spread some suitable rumours within their inns and brothels in different countries.
While I was absorbed in thinking about future plans, the scattered red Chevaliers returned towards my location.
Opening the cockpit hatch, Nia jumped down from her frame with a lightness that won’t lose to an actual cat.
“How’s that, oi!”
“You have too many useless movements. You were not looking at Est-san and Yuni’s movements right? Clearly, you’re not suited to group battles.”
“I’m impressed you can tell.”
As I was admonishing Nia who for some reason had a satisfied face on, Est-san was nodding away to the side.
Well, before this, when the Red Cats fight in battles Nia would probably be alone accompanied by Rouge who’s a huge fighting force. That it would turn out this way isn’t surprising.
Since the plan is for Nia to move to the golem-use model after it’s completed, I guess for now it’s fine leaving this to Est-san.
Since everyone has assembled, I returned the Frame Gears back into [Storage]. Kougyoku who was acting as surveillance up in the sky also flapped her wings and came down.
“Kougyoku, please let a few of your dependants patrol this area for a while. I want to know what happens here afterwards.”
“As you wish.”
When Kougyoku cried into the sky with a *Pyiii—i*, a few small birds appeared overhead and began flying around.
“With this it should be fine.”
“Thanks.”
“That bird can talk…?”
Nia stared at us with eyes opened wide as we talked with each other. What is it, coming this far… Don’t you have a talking golem as well?
Alright, guess its time we pull out of here.
I walked into the [Gate] I opened and arrived back at the abandoned fortress we departed from. The same scenery as a few hours ago greeted us.
“Fuu—, even though it’s only been a few hours, it was pretty tiring-ssu ne.”
While saying that, Yuni leaned herself against a wall. The other members, happy at the safe return of their fellow members, brought out food and drinks and lined them up on tables in the courtyard. Oi, is this a banquet?
While I was smiling wryly at them, the three-people group from earlier came towards us. The one-eyed ossan, brown-skinned beauty and slit-eyed young man.
Noticing that, Nia came and stood between our groups.
“Oto, there was this too. I’m a bit late but let me introduce them to you, Touya. These guys were members from the previous generation, and the old man is ‘Colonel’, the woman is ‘Lieutenant’, and the frivolous man is ‘Sergeant’.”
“Colonel?”
“Those are fake names. We’ve decided to not call ourselves by our real names until our wish has been achieved.”
Colonel’s evil-looking face twisted as he laughed. His face looks even scarier when he laughs… It’s true that the three of them all reminded me of military personnel somewhat.
“Yumina.”
“Yes.”
I asked Yumina to use her magic eyes to ensure the people in front of me had no problems. Yumina’s Magic Eyes of Intuition can even identify souls that are at a level of “leaning towards evil, but is actually not a bad person at heart”. I don’t think there’ll be people holding some sort of weird desires here in the chivalrous thieves’ band [Red Cats], but just in case.
Yumina gave a smile and nodded. Seemed like it’s alright.
“It’s regarding our request for help in looking for a person…”
Colonel took out a leather-bound notebook from within his coat, and passed a monochrome photograph which was inside that notebook to me.
In that picture is the figure of a woman holding a baby, sitting in an elegant-looking chair. Her age looks to be in the early twenties. She’s wearing high-class clothing, and a necklace with a large gem adorned her neck. Was she a noble, perhaps?
“Do you want me to look for this person?”
Maybe she’s the wife of Colonel? I then looked at the stern-looking old man in front of me… Nope, doesn’t look well together at all.
“Unfortunately, she had already passed away. The person whom I want you to find is within her arms.”
“Eh? The baby?”
I looked down at the photograph again, staring at the baby in the woman’s arms this time. No, well, even if you tell me to find this baby… I can’t tell the difference between babies, you know.
If I searched for the baby with my smartphone, wouldn’t the map just be filled up with pins…?
“In the first place, when was this photo taken?”
“Ten years ago. Which means that baby should be a ten-years old child right now.”
Ten years ago!? Why do you think I would know how the child would look like after ten years!? More like, I can’t even tell if this baby is a boy or a girl!
“He’s a boy. That boy is the son of the last king of the Kingdom of Lowe, a country destroyed by the two countries of Garudio Empire and Eisengard Magicraft Kingdom in the past.”
-Pixel