“But King, while this place seems to be sorted out one way or another, I think there still are golems rioting elsewhere inside the royal palace. Without cleaning them up this turmoil won’t end.”
The Prime Minister Galueri said.
“Hmm, it is as you say. That being the case, We shall leave the handling hereafter to you and the Minister of Defense.”
“Yes.”
The Prime Minister Galueri bowed, and turned towards the Minister of Defense Judol, whose painful-looking broken arm had a splint.
“Judol, even though you’re wounded you’re still the Minister of Defense of our country. You’ll come, right?”
“Of course I’ll come with you.”
Judol said and stood up.
Kelly, the commanding officer of the Imperial Guard knight troops said,
“You four over there, go accompany them as guards.”
And so the four relatively lightly injured knights followed the ministers.
“Schwarz Ritter, you go with them too. After escorting them, come back.”
“Ja!”
Reinhardt also had Schwarz Ritter accompany them just in case.
“Hmm, the arm, it…”
While being protected by Reiko, Jin looked for Lotte’s parts.
“Oh, found it.”
The lost right arm was discovered. Both the parts from the elbow to the fingertips and to the shoulder.
“Alright, Lotte, lie down there.”
“Yes, Father.”
Since there wasn’t a workbench or anything of the like, the tables left in one piece were lined up and Lotte lay down on them.
“[Standstill].”
Jin had Lotte go into suspension temporarily. He then began to first connect the right arm.
Lotte’s steel endoskeleton had Magical Muscles. And her exterior was bronze.
As the Magical Muscles were considerably damaged, he couldn’t repair them more than to the extent of somehow enabling normal movements.
“Ooh, so Lotte’s structure was like that.”
Prince Ernest said something akin to admiration while peeking from the side.
“Your Highness, are you interested in the makeup of golems?”
Jin asked, and,
“Yes, I do! I’ll make a golem myself too when I’m a little older!”,
The prince answered innocently.
The surface dents and scratches could be mended with Craft Magic.
As the Mana of the Mana Tank was running rather low, he refilled it in advance.
“Jin, isn’t this Lotte’s finger?”
From nearby, Beana brought an object like one of Lotte’s fingers.
“Y-you’re…”
“?”
Seeing Beana like that, Prince Ernest was lost for words and went stiff.
“Your highness?”
Jin thought it was strange and he called out for him, but suddenly the prince took Beana’s hand and said,
“You! Your name is?”
“It’s B-Beana.”
Beana gave her name while taken aback and not knowing what’s what. Still holding confused Beana’s hand, the prince said,
“Beana, huh! What a good name! Hey Beana, won’t you become my bride?”
“Eeeeeeeh!!”
Suddenly a preposterous suggestion was made.
“I fancied you at first sight! Because you look exactly like Lotte!”
Maybe this could still be called the suspension bridge effect, as the prince seemed to have fallen in love at first sight with Beana, the model for Lotte who the prince got an interest in after her protecting him from danger.
Although he was just barely 13, so it wasn’t certain to what extend he understood what he was asking.
“I cannot allow that, Your Highness!”
A single person forced his way through. He was none other than Earl Kuzuma.
“As I already have planned to propose to Beana!”
“Eh…?”
“Ah…”
Right next to him, Beana heard the Earl’s vigorously stated words.
“Eeeeeeeeh!?”
She turned bright red and ran away from the place. Although, she couldn’t leave the hall so she simply went to the place where Elsa was treating the wounded.
“…”
“……”
“………”
Left behind were the Prince, the Earl, and Jin. The atmosphere turned vaguely awkward.
“Uh, let’s see, oh, this is indeed Lotte’s middle finger.”
Jin spoke forcedly while using the finger Beana found and brought to fix Lotte.
＊ ＊ ＊
The hall’s situation was like that, while the clean-up battle for the royal palace’s insides was about to begin.
“Alright, with this the preparations are complete.”
The treasured Imperial Guard knight golems of the Minister of Defense Judol. As they weren’t usually ever activated, their Magi Devices were removed to make them inert, and for that reason they were safe.
The Minister of Magic Kelhidore activated them, and they began their startup.
Five Imperial Guard knight golems had started up.
“Alright, you’re expected to defeat the golems who don’t obey our orders. Got it?”
“Yes, Sir.”
The five Imperial Guard knight golems who held shields in their left hands and swords in their right hands left the cellar of the Ministry of Defense.
“The first step should be fine now.”
“Onto the next then.”
Next they activated ten golems meant for emergency use. These ones were all-purpose types, and they were given orders to assemble and protect the wounded people inside the castle.
After that they activated ten spare security golems. They were made to assist in the defense of the castle’s insides.
Just then, the sound of a bird flapping wings could be heard. Judol looked out of the window, and saw a pigeon-like bird flying in the evening sky.
“A pigeon, huh. An enviable thing.”
The Minister of Defense Judol muttered and turned back to the business at hand, and resumed his discussion with the Minister of Magic Kelhidore.
As expected, it seemed the scope of the surbordination magic attack wasn’t centered in the castle but the hall area, and the golems in the royal palace’s second and third floors weren’t affected.
That is, the Queen, the second Prince, and the first Prince were safe.
“We can conjecture that the temporarily so-called [Subordination Rewriting Magic]’s effect’s radius is about 20 to 30 meters, having the strongest effect at around a 10 meter radius.”
Kelhidore guessed the effective range from the circumstances of the rampaging golems. From now on countermeasures had to be put to use and recorded, he said.
＊ ＊ ＊
There weren’t more than 30 remaining golems, and facing the Imperial Guard golems they were quickly neutralized.
Thus, the rampaging golems inside the castle were eradicated, and by nighttime the treatment of the wounded was over and order was restored in the castle.
The participants of the party who had the most severe wounds were sent into the sickbay, while the lightly wounded people returned to their allotted rooms after receiving medical care.
After collecting the usable parts of the destroyed golems, that is, the Magi Devices et cetera, the best materials were returned for reuse.
That meant the Magi Craftsmen who were able to were asked to assist in the task as necessary.
＊ ＊ ＊
“This time, thanks to your efforts the damage could be kept at a minimum, We are grateful.”
In his office, the King of Egelia, Harold Ruan Autocracy expressed his gratitude towards Jin and Reinhardt.
“In particular, Jin, We cannot thank you enough. Because there is no doubt that the golem you built, Lotte, saved Us and Our son.”
The King said, and continued,
“And so by all rights We would’ve liked to make you a noble and the Royal Magi Craftsman, but We hear you have already decided to go to Shouro Empire. It is unfortunate, but there is nothing We can do about it.”
There’s no question about Jin ‘going’ there. But the King interpreted the meaning of that word by his own accord. Jin felt relieved from the bottom of his heart along with gratitude for Reinhardt.
“However,”
The King’s speech still continued.
“We most certainly would like you to give Us the method of defending against that subordination magic attack. Naturally you will be recompensated. You can state your wish in advance. We will grant it to the best of Our abilities.”
The King told Jin, who was thinking about just what to request.
