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Chapter 363: The Over Gear, and the Joint Training.

To the north of the Brunhild Dukedom castle, there is a gigantic field.

There’s a special barrier cast over this field that prevents unauthorized personnel from entering, and it’s also enchanted with visual-blocking magic that can be activated to block out the inside. It’s the same thing as the barrier around Babylon.

And as for the purpose of this field, it’s mainly used for combat practice with Frame Gears, testing of new models, and experimenting with new inventions made in Babylon.

At this testing field, right now, one such experiment is going on.

“That’s some nimble movements it’s got there.”

“Golems are mechanical things as well, in the first place. It’s obvious the compatibility would be high.”

“Since it’s not manually operated, it’s actually faster in reaction time compared to Frame Gears, you know.”

While looking at the mechanical form in front of us that was running around the testing field, Professor Babylon and Dr. Elka besides me answered my murmurs.

The thing running about in front of us was a black lion-shaped mechanical beast.

A large translucent sphere is embedded in the chest area, while the clear parts made out of crystal materials that can be seen here and there on the body glittered as they reflected sunlight. Gold lines ran through the robot lion’s black body.

For size, if we take the size of a Frame Gear as that of a normal human being, it’s around the size of an actual lion.

This is the golem-strengthening unit the professor and Dr. Elka developed, the [Over Gear].

There’s a cockpit inside the crystal sphere on the chest—called a Core Frame—and the golem, which is the core for the Over Gear, as well as its master would be inside there.

The Over Gear, which synchronizes directly with the golem inside it, is capable of drawing out the golem’s characteristics and amplifying it. Just like what its classification of a golem- strengthening unit suggests, it’s something like a powered suit for golems.

If so, why isn’t it in a humanoid shape, you may wonder? I wondered about that too.

Regarding that, the answer given by the two developers are:

““Because we wanted to make something weird.””

Like that. Basically, they’re letting their own interests take over at this point. These idiots.

The black lion kicked the ground and jumped straight upwards. Uoo, that’s some amazing jumping power!

As if trying to test its own limits, the gear is running around at full speed, and doing things like sudden braking and jumping around. Those are pretty fierce movements. In terms of maneuverability it’s above the Frame Gear, that’s for sure.

“Is it perhaps using some sort of golem skill?”

“No, at the current stage golem skills are still too dangerous to be used so that function’s been sealed. What you’re seeing is purely the specs of that gear, the [Leo Noir].”

For equipment, it only has crystal-made claws and fangs at the moment. However, even so, in my eyes it’s still enough to stand against several intermediate-class variants. Although it’s probably impossible to deal with an advanced-class by itself at that level.

“Un, it might be interesting to make that become capable of transforming into a humanoid shape, too.”

“Since it’ll still be centered around the core frame, wouldn’t it be closer to retrofitting instead of transforming? By exchanging the parts…”

Leaving aside the two of them who began some weird discussion, the black lion, [Leo Noir] stopped its movements. The gear moved itself into a lying down position, and from its core frame, a young girl and a black knight got out. The younger sister of Dr. Elka, Norn, and her partner golem, the black [Crown], Noir.

I walked towards Norn who was standing still and asked about her impression of the Over Gear.

“You were moving it pretty well earlier. How did you feel riding in it?”

“……”

There’s no reaction. What?

The eyes of Norn, who was looking up at me, were like that of a dead fish. She came close to me while wobbling, and grasped the hem of my coat.

“…… Upu.”

“Eh?”

Please excuse us for a minute ?

“Seems like the shock absorption function wasn’t up to par.”

“The inside of the cockpit shakes a lot more than we thought it would. We would have to increase the setting above the level used for the Frame Gears, I guess…”

“Oi you there! Have some concern for us too, damnit!”

Norn, who had vomited out everything she had and was now lying down flat, and I, whose feet received a critical hit from that Norn, both glared at the two idiotic researchers with teary eyes.

“There’s no way I can control something like that, the way it is… It has way too much power. I just wanted to make it run a little bit, and it becomes like that…”

Those words leaked out of Norn’s mouth weakly as she lied on the ground. Ah, I can understand somewhat. When I first learnt the acceleration magic [Accel], I felt that way too. Or more like, you mean those movements just now didn’t come from your own intentions?

So, she was in a state like that of a new player playing a fighting game, and was just randomly mashing the attack buttons?

“Thanks to that, the place I’m riding was also shaking like crazy… Uu.”

“Quiet, silence.”

Noir gently stroked the back of Norn, whose face turned blue and had started feeling nauseous again.

“Well, for the first test this is a decent result, I guess. The main problem right now would be the fact that we can’t start mass-production of this Over Gear so easily.”

“You can’t? Why is that?”

I interjected when I heard the professor’s monologue as she looked up at Leo Noir. What do you mean you can’t mass-produce it? Did they develop this gear exclusively for Norn and Noir like the Valkyrias?

“Yep. Each gear would have to be fine-tuned to the golem it would be paired with, after all. It should be fine to consider them all personal machines.”

“You mean, if Nia’s Blood Rouge gets into this Leo Noir, it won’t be able to move it?”

“That would be the case. Other golems wouldn’t even be able to start this thing up. While Frame Gears could be used by different people, since the Over Gear utilizes its power through its connection with the golem, no matter what, only that golem’s master would be able to control its specific gear.”

I see. In the first place, a golem is something exclusive to its master, so it makes sense.

“Even in cases like the Soldats, in the end, there’s only one golem master. There’s no point in one person being able to use multiple Over Gears; the value of mass-production lies in its numbers and the ease of access, after all. Well, before all that, only Legacies can operate this Over Gear anyway.”

If each and every one of them has to be made to order, that’s obviously not something you can call mass-production. Well, we would still be producing a lot of them, though.

According to the two of them, as long as the core frame is built to order, the other parts could be interchanged between existing gears. For example, in the future when we finish the core frame for Nia’s Over Gear, we could use the limb parts from Norn’s gear directly on it.

“It’s still tough to repel the variants with only the other side’s forces, huh…”

“For now, that is. We’ll improve upon what we have and make it something we can mass- produce eventually. Their individual combat strength might fall as a result, though.”

It’s a choice between quantity and quality, eh. And while a certain degree of quality is necessary, without sufficient numbers there would be situations that we cannot respond to; it’s a tough question.

On the way back to the castle, I dropped by the knight order’s training grounds. They’re receiving Moroha nee-san’s hellish training again as usual; however, recently I think they’re beginning to get used to it.

“Touya-sama, you came at the perfect time.”

“N? Something happened?”

Hilda came up to me as I was watching the knights’ training. Her breathing is a bit rough; she was probably training together with them. I took out a towel and a cold drink from [Storage] and passed them to her.

“Thank you very much. Actually, I was in a call with my elder brother just now. And there, a talk about whether it is possible for Lestia’s knight order to hold a joint training session with Brunhild’s knight order came up.”

“Reinhardt-san said that?”

Fumu. A joint training session with Knight Kingdom Lestia’s prided elites, huh. That might be good.

Hilda had a wry smile on as she continued speaking to me while I thought about the proposal.

“Although, I think that’s only the surface excuse, and what elder brother is really after is the chance to cross swords with Moroha nee-sama and receive her guidance…”

Ah, so it’s that. I seem to recall hearing about Reinhardt nii-san losing to Hilda after the world conference last time. As expected, losing against his own younger sister must really hurt.

(Note: Touya is technically calling Reinhardt “brother-in-law” here, but it’s troublesome to type that each and every time, so I’ll just use nii-san. Same with “Moroha nee-sama” used by Hilda, really.)

He also has his job as a monarch, so I think it’s normal for there to be a gap between the two of them. Not to mention the fact that Hilda’s in the process of becoming my dependant.

Well, the idea of joint training itself is good, so I’ll get on with it. I’ve also troubled Galen-san for the guild test the other day, so might as well.

I took out my smartphone and contacted Reinhardt-san.

“Eh, right now? You mean we’re starting right now!?”

No, well, I don’t have any problems with that. I’m just wondering if you’re a bit too hasty…

For now, I opened a [Gate] to Lestia, and Knight King Reinhardt came over, followed by several elite knights of Lestia.

While the king of Lestia doubles as the commander of the knight order, there is a proper vice- commander in place.

“Thank you for today’s opportunity.”

“Us as well; thank you very much.”

The vice-commander in question was exchanging greetings with our knight order commander, Rain-san.

Lestia Knight Order Vice Commander, Franz Iceman.

His age is over forty, and his hair has streaks of white mixed in; with the small moustache, he gives off the impression of a dandy older gentleman.

He’s a friend of the previous king, and a master to the current king, Reinhardt nii-san. He’s a sword master who had been taught by Hilda’s grandfather, Galen-san in the past. He is a serious person, and his character is good too. I’m so glad he didn’t inherit his master’s ero- ness.

Normally, in a joint training between knight orders of two countries, the commanders don’t participate.

I mean, if, and we’re talking about a big if, our commander loses to a knight from the other side, wouldn’t that be bad? We’d be looked down upon by the other side as well.

That’s normally how things would go, but uh, forget about him being your commander as well, why is your monarch coming out to fight first, Lestia?

Since a while ago, the knights from both sides have been watching the match between Reinhardt nii-san and Moroha nee-san with bated breaths.

Well, it’s just Reinhardt nii-san being beaten up one-sidedly though…

“At least hold back a bit…”

I could only put my hand to my face at Moroha nee-san’s inability to read the atmosphere. The saving grace is that even though Reinhardt nii-san was being beaten up badly in front of them, no one from our knight order did anything stupid like laughing at him.

Well, everyone here understands Moroha nee-san’s strength with their own bodies after all… They might be thinking it can’t be helped for him to lose and be sympathetic to him.

Moroha nee-san isn’t even part of our knight order in the first place anyway. She’s just a special advisor to them.

N? If so, then it’s also weird that she’s participating in this joint training even though she’s technically unrelated? Well, it’s too late to be wondering about that.

Again, Reinhardt nii-san received Moroha nee-san’s strike and was sent flying out of the ring. Ouch…

“Moroha-sama’s demon-like fighting style is something impressive to behold, indeed. I can feel my blood burning too.”

“Is that so… Um, I’m sorry for my wet blanket elder sister…”

I reflexively shrank myself a bit at Franz-san’s words. Sending the king of a country flying, that’s something that can lead to war with a single misstep, you know…

“No no, we don’t mind it at all. Our king is satisfied with that too. A person would grow faster without becoming complacent if there’s a wall in front of him, after all.”

Well, I understand what he’s saying. I believe I’ve gotten much stronger than before as well, but I’m still not even close to being able to match those people.

It’s impossible for me to become complacent right now. If I get proud of my abilities, that pride will just get shattered the next moment easily.

“Recently, we’ve incorporated combat training against magic beasts into our regimen, but it’s not going very well. It’s not like we can catch magic beasts and bring them to our training grounds. We were thinking of going on a field training in the near future…”

“Since there’s no large magic beasts around Brunhild, we don’t have a lot of anti-magic beast experience as well, now that I think about it. Although if we go to the dungeon islands, there would be some strong magic beasts there…”

As befitting its title as the Knight Kingdom, Lestia has a huge number of knights. Most of them are assigned to guarding towns or cities, and defeating magic beasts in the vicinity is also part of their duties.

There are often times when the knight order cooperates with the Adventurer’s Guild, and knights and adventurers work together to hunt magic beasts as well, apparently. And from there, the path for adventurers to enter the knight order also opened up for some. The great former king, Galen-san, started as an adventurer, after all.

Hmm, combat training against magic beasts, huh… No harm in trying it.

“Un. Guess I’ll go find some random magic beasts and bring them here, then. Edible ones should be good.”

““Eh?””

Leaving the shocked Rain-san and Franz-san behind, I used [Gate] to move to locations where nice magic beasts could be found

“If you don’t aim at the joints, your swords will just bounce off-. Don’t stand directly in front of it-, it’ll blow out bubbles-. You’ll melt, you know-.” (Note: Touya’s shouting with a bit of a lazy feeling. You know, the one where you drag out the ends of your sentences a bit.)

I gave some suitable advices to the knights who are running around.

The knights from Brunhild as well as Lestia were fighting a tough battle against a crab magic beast with red shell, a Bloody Crab. On a side note, the Brunhild members aren’t using their crystal swords. Since it wouldn’t be proper training otherwise.

The bloody crab is a red-ranked subjugation target going by the guild’s standards. It’s the same rank as lesser dragons. It’s also a type of magic beast that can be found in Lestia from time to time as well.

However, the one I brought over this time is quite big. Perhaps it might even be silver-ranked.

“Isn’t it a bit too large…?”

Looking at the bloody crab which was fighting against several Brunhild and Lestia knights, Hilda murmured with a stiff expression. Hmm, it really is large.

“It’s just a guess, but maybe that one is beginning to turn into a behemoth… If we left it alone for a few more years, it might turn into something we need to use Frame Gears to subjugate.”

I answered while sending healing magic to a knight who was blown away by the crab’s pincers. The knight, who was bouncing along the ground, managed to stand up somehow and headed back towards the bloody crab.

There’s around 20 people if we count both countries, huh? There’s no place for the magic beast to escape, so I think we can defeat it.

“Fumu… It’s easy to understand its movements if you look at it from the side. See how it would brace its two front legs when it would use the bubbles?”

“Yes. Also, when it’s swinging down its pincers… There, it moves itself in the opposite direction to the strike.”

Reinhardt nii-san and Franz-san were analyzing the crab from outside the grounds. First is to observe. Through observation, one can grasp the opponent’s characteristics, how it moves, and how it responds to attacks, and build tactics based on that. It’s the same whether the opponent is a magic beast or a human.

“Since we’re doing this, we could’ve gotten a Cyclops. It’s more fun that way.”

“Please no. That’s a giant, you know. That’s something we’re supposed to use Frame Gears to deal with, you know.”

Moroha nee-san, who’s still not reading the mood, said something stupid. Cyclops are magic beasts with about the same body size as golems. While they’re smaller than Frame Gears generally, there’s variations between individuals, and there could be large ones like the crab before our eyes.

“Even without Frame Gears, it’s not something they can’t defeat if they deal with it properly. They just need to find the optimal way to fight against it. There are aspects that we can utilize even in normal training as well. Being able to see through an opponent’s weakness instantly, and attack it. Being able to choose the weapons, location, and time that can maximize one’s own strength, being able to move without wasting any energy, and being able to coordinate with allies perfectly. If we can draw on all of those as much as we can, it would be an easy fight.”

You said it so easily, but none of that is easy, isn’t it…

While I was feeling amazed at nee-san’s words, it seems like the knights have finally weakened the crab enough, and they went all out on a big attack. Spears pierced through the joints before axes chopped off the pincers. And eventually, the swords of several knights were thrusted deep into the abdominal area, which is covered by thinner shells, and the bloody crab finally collapsed onto the ground.

“Alrightttt!!”

“We, we did it…”

“Good job!”

While the way they expressed it were all different, the knights from Brunhild and Lestia shared their joy with each other. There were some wounded knights, but I healed them with healing magic immediately, and also used [Refresh] to replenish their stamina.

“Guess the training ends here.”

“That would be the case.”

While nodding to Hilda’s words, I took out a extra-large pot from [Storage] and put it on top of a roughly-made firewood stove I made using earth magic. I added water to the pot and lit the stove on fire.

I started lining up foodstuff on the table I took out as well. Using miso as the base should be fine.

“Alright, we’re gonna have crab pot! Dismantle the crab!”

“““Ohh!”””

The knights all took up their swords and rushed to the crab.

I threw the dismantled crab parts into the pot together with some meat, vegetables, tofu and mushrooms and boiled them, and soon an appetizing smell began coming out. Everyone ate the finished crab pot with relish, and they all had satisfied smiles on their faces. It’s something they themselves had worked hard to bring down, so it must be delicious to them.

While I was thinking about useless things—maybe the fact that this is more delicious than normal crabs was because it’s been through a lot as a magic beast—the smartphone in my breast pocket rang.

“Oh, it’s Silhouette-san.”

The matron of the brothel “Moonlight Parlor”, as well as the boss of the premier intelligence organization in the Reverse World, the [Black Cats]. She normally gathers various information from the other side and sends them over to me; however, I somehow feel a sense of foreboding towards today’s call.

“Yes, hello. This is Touya. Yes… Yes. What?”

Wait a second. I mean, I was the one who defeated the cyborg grandpa there, sure, but still.

Magicraft Kingdom Eisengard is in a state of near-total collapse… Just what do you mean by that?

- Pixel