Chapter 181: The Reason Not to Retreat
The upright [Aqua-go] was like a soldier obeying a command. It lifted its foot and walked forward, then kicked the warehouse door to pieces.
"Waaaaah!!!" x2
The dust and falling debris flew everywhere. Kazuma and Aqua screamed as they fled in a panic.
And the mecha's raised left foot hovered in mid-air. Even others could feel the awkwardness.
"Wh-what's going on?!" Kazuma shouted, not understanding.
Aqua also shouted angrily, "Kobayashi! Be careful! We're still near you!"
"Sorry, sorry. It got bigger, so I'm having trouble controlling my body for a moment. I accidentally kicked the warehouse door down."
Inside the mecha, he retracted its left foot and made a scratching, embarrassed motion. It was so lifelike, completely without the awkwardness or sluggishness of a mecha.
This was all thanks to Aqua having also transferred over the virtual neural-link space.
The inside of the cockpit was not a cramped space with tons of complex and mysterious instruments. Instead, when he had properly activated the mecha, he had been enveloped by some special energy and had entered a void space.
Although it didn't allow his superhuman hand speed to be of any use, it was clear that the technology of linking his nerves and completely connecting him with the mecha was far superior.
The giant mecha tiptoed past the ruins of the warehouse and out onto the plain. It was hard to imagine that such a heavy-looking giant could be so light on its feet.
The current mecha no longer had the tall, majestic appearance of the [Supreme Throne]. At only half its original height, it had also gained much swifter and lighter flexibility.
He stretched its body freely in the unobstructed suburbs, getting used to the machine.
Soon, he was moving it as if it were his own limbs.
This wasn't because he had some superhuman talent for piloting. This was Aqua's doing. The remodeling, one could say, was perfect.
Could it be that my worries were unnecessary? he couldn't help but think.
Then, he squatted down, getting into a running pose. No one gave the command, but after a brief acceleration, he shot out like the wind.
Dong— dong— dong—
Dongdongdongdongdong!
From a slow start to a rain-like patter on the ground, he piloted the mecha, advancing at high speed along the town's main road.
Fortunately, the villagers had all evacuated. Otherwise, they would surely have been terrified upon seeing the mecha.
But the vibrations still reached the city walls.
"This vibration... don't tell me it's the Destroyer?"
"No, it's not. [Clairvoyance] hasn't spotted it."
"Then what's going on?"
The scouts, acting as lookouts, were baffled.
Equally baffled were the mages below, who were setting up traps. The vibrations were making their work troublesome. Mistakenly thinking that the Destroyer had arrived and that they hadn't finished setting up their traps, they felt a pang of regret.
At this moment, a certain adventurer on the wall suddenly shouted, "No! The town! Look inside the town!"
Following the direction of his finger, the people on the wall looked into the town.
They saw a black and blue giant mecha, which was so tall that houses only reached its chest, running through the town. And its speed was getting faster and faster, charging towards them with a terrifying momentum.
Many adventurers were immediately terrified.
"Wh-what is that?"
"Don't tell me it's a golem from the Destroyer?"
"Mages! Where are the mages!"
In the panic, the mages wanted to use magic to intercept the mecha.
When Megumin saw it, she was incredibly excited. She nudged Wiz, who was standing beside her, ready to cast, and shouted, "Look, look! It's a robot! It's a robot! So cool! It's really amazing! I want to keep it! I want to take it home!"
"I-I know, Miss Megumin. Please calm down." The gentle Lich-mage was almost dizzy from being shaken by the excited loli.
The mages setting traps below the town scattered in fear.
And the charging mecha did not slow down. Just as everyone thought it would fall right into the trap, it suddenly planted its feet and leaped, crossing over the city wall and over the heads of all the adventurers. Everyone's mouths unconsciously fell open, their dumbfounded expressions comical.
It hadn't destroyed the city wall or attacked anyone, so they knew the mecha was on their side.
But the question followed.
"Wh-what in the world..."
"Is going on?"
"Where did this mecha come from?"
Just as the adventurers were wondering, Kazuma and Aqua came running from a distance, out of breath, shouting at them as they ran, "D-don't be nervous! This mecha... is on our side! Kobayashi-senpai... Kobayashi-senpai is piloting it! Hah... hah—"
Hearing him say this, the adventurers showed expressions of dawning realization, followed by excited cheers.
"Ooooh! It's a secret weapon! A secret weapon!"
"If it's this big guy, it can definitely stop the Destroyer! No, it will definitely stop it!"
"We've won! We've won!"
For some reason, the adventurers had a lot of faith in him, or rather, the mecha. So much faith that they had already entered the "popping champagne at halftime" phase.
Kazuma was surrounded by a group of people, and the barrage of questions was making his head spin. But in reality, he couldn't answer anything. The mecha had been remodeled by Aqua, and the person piloting it was Kobayashi. He was just an outsider.
But there was also Aqua, who loved to show off in front of people, so he left the questions to her.
A group of people then surrounded her.
Kazuma wiped the sweat from his forehead and came to Megumin and Wiz's side, saying with a smile, "You two great Archwizards, how are your preparations? Don't drop the ball in a bit."
"Yes, leave it to me. I am a Lich, after all, one of the highest-ranking undead. As long as I can successfully open the barrier, you can leave the rest to me! If I fail... then let's all cheerfully return to dust together."
His joke was met with an even more terrifying joke from Wiz, which made him almost want to curse.
"Well then, what about you, Megumin?"
"D-d-don't worry! I-I-I... I will use my Explosion, and... b-b-b-blast it to smithereens?" she stammered. It seemed this little loli was indeed very nervous, facing such a big scene for the first time.
But, it couldn't be helped.
Not just her, but many of the adventurers present were practically rookies. Therefore, he had no intention of looking down on her.
"Don't be nervous. It's fine even if it's not successful. We still have Kobayashi-senpai. His mecha will definitely be able to stop the Destroyer."
"A mecha?!"
Now that was something she wasn't sleepy for. Who told her that she loved mecha the most?
She suddenly leaned in close, her cheeks slightly flushed, and pointed at the mecha outside the town, asking excitedly, "Kazuma, Kazuma!"
"Yes, I'm Kazuma."
"What is that robot!"
"As you can see, it's a mecha."
"I see! It's a robot!"
"...I said it was a mecha."
Kazuma looked at the panting, impatient loli, not understanding why she had suddenly gotten so worked up.
But then she said, "Kazuma, Kazuma!"
"Yes, I'm Kazuma."
"Can I keep this? Can I keep this robot?"
She seemed to have said something incredible. He was completely speechless.
Are robots... pets?
He understood why she was so excited. Because this loli not only liked things that were "big and hard," but she also liked robots.
"I'll say it again. This is a mecha!"
He was particularly stubborn on this point.
But one could also understand his feelings. After all, a mecha, in both its form and its performance, had a much higher sci-fi feel.
Robots, on the other hand, were a bit lame.
"As for you saying you want to keep it... you'll have to ask Kobayashi-senpai. He's the one piloting it," he said after a moment's thought. "But at the end of the day, this is our party's mecha. It should be fine, right?"
"Really?! That's great!"
Hearing this answer, the loli's eyes turned to the mecha below, burning with a fiery gaze.
Mmm, it seems she's not nervous anymore.
He nodded with satisfaction.
And he, slowing down, piloted the mecha to Darkness's side.
This perverted knight's true identity was that of a great noble's daughter. Both her duty as a knight and her duty as a noble would not allow her to desert.
Therefore, she was standing here, and no amount of persuasion would make her leave.
"Yo, Darkness."
A voice came from the mecha.
After a brief surprise, she said with understanding, "Is that you, Kobayashi?"
Unlike the other adventurers who had panicked upon seeing the mecha, her expression was cool, with no sign of fear or retreat. If one didn't know her true face, one would have thought she was a true knight.
She plunged her newly bought greatsword into the ground, placed both hands on the hilt, and gazed into the distance.
His voice came from the mecha. "Darkness, although your defense is very strong, this time, it's just too much for you. And if a battle breaks out in a bit, it's very likely you'll be caught in it. So please leave for now. Don't make me get distracted."
And she replied, "Kobayashi, it's all my fault that my usual behavior has caused you to have this misunderstanding... But, do you really think I'm a woman who is so loyal to her own desires that I would be so even in this emergency?"
"Do I really think so? Do you even need to ask?"
His words made her falter for a moment, and her face quietly turned red.
But the lashing was not over.
He continued, "Just now, too. The first thing you thought of when you saw the mecha was that you must be toyed with by it when we get back, right? You've even started to fantasize about human x machine, haven't you? That's right. You're just that kind of hopeless, perverted knight."
"Wh—! Hah— hah— hah—"
His sharp-tongued words, far from making her angry and humiliated, instead made her cross her arms and pant heavily with strange, rough breaths.
She was clearly getting worked up.
Perhaps because this really was an emergency, the perverted knight quickly calmed down and said, "I am a Crusader. And besides that, I have other reasons that compel me to protect this town. I can't say them now, but I have a duty to protect the residents here. So... no matter how reckless this is, I will not take a single step away from this place."
"Seriously, you really are stubborn sometimes. So willful."
"You don't like companions who are stubborn and willful?"
"It depends on the situation. But in this situation, I don't hate it."
"Is that so..."
She muttered this, looking somewhat relieved.
He also didn't try to persuade her anymore. Instead, he said, "Then let's fight side-by-side, Lalatina."
"Yes!... Eh?"
She was dumbfounded.
She turned her head, her movements jerky, and looked at the giant mecha beside her in disbelief, as if she didn't understand why he would know her name.
And he asked, "What's wrong? The reason you're not leaving is precisely because you're a knight, and at the same time, the young lady of the great noble Dustiness family, right?"
"Eh... eh? N-no... y-you... how..."
She clearly hadn't expected him to point it out.
Most importantly, she had never told anyone about these things. She had no idea how he knew her real name, which she found so embarrassing.
"Because I've seen everything, Lalatina."
"D-don't call me by that name!"
She was rarely so shy.
He, however, paid no mind to the girl's feelings. Of course, he didn't have to be considerate of a perverted knight's feelings. He said bluntly, "My ability [Spectator] has the power to see through everything. Whether it's what you're thinking, or your clothes... it can see through them all. So the 'seeing everything' just now was also in the physical sense."
"Wh-what?!"
Darkness's face immediately flushed bright red. She twisted her body, her hands crossed over her chest, not knowing what to cover.
He asked, puzzled, "What's there to be shy about? It's not like we haven't done more intimate things."
"B-but...!"
The perverted knight's reaction was truly baffling. It was unclear if she was enjoying it or if she was truly shy.
At this moment, she suddenly heard a murmur.
"So, it's for my sake that I have to build my achievements..."
"Eh? What did you say, Kobayashi?"
"It's nothing."
Without giving her a chance to press further, he gazed into the distance and said, "We'll chat later. The Destroyer is here!"
At the same time, the ground shook.
Just like when the mecha had appeared, it was still very faint at the moment, but the earth was indeed shaking.
From behind the distant hills, one could first see its head (the mobile fortress).
—The Mobile Fortress Destroyer!
He really wanted to tell them not to give it such a random name, but anyone who had seen it thought the name was very fitting.
On the city wall, someone muttered to himself, "What is that? No matter how you look at it, it's just too big."
It was indeed very big.
It was as tall as a mountain. In comparison, his mecha, the [Aqua-go], which was as tall as the city wall, seemed tiny, only reaching about half the height of its eight legs.
So big! And so fast!
It was even more terrifying than he had imagined!
Faced with the approaching giant object, the adventurers fell into a panic.
"Is the mecha really going to be useful?"
Someone couldn't help but groan pessimistically.
At this moment, amplified by magic, Miss Luna's voice echoed across the entire plain.
[All adventurers, the Mobile Fortress Destroyer is now before us. All residents of the town, please move immediately from the rear to the outside of the town, and get away! Now, all adventurers, please prepare for battle! ...W-wait, Miss Aqua, don't grab the megaphone!]
Her panic was accompanied by a burst of static.
The atmosphere, which had been serious and tense, was completely destroyed by Aqua, who was causing trouble at this moment.
Just as he thought that was enough, Aqua's voice followed.
[Kobayashi! Pilot the mecha I remodeled and go on a rampage! Go on with all your might! Let them see... the power of me, Aqua—the Goddess of Water!]
"Since the goddess herself has said so..."
He looked at the giant, octopus-like golem that was constantly approaching, and his own blood was set ablaze.
Then, he crouched down, dashed forward, and went up to meet it.
(End of Chapter)