Jin decided to leave his substitute puppet Machina there and have Laojin control it and take command of dealing with the remaining business.
He himself took the Golden Princess of Destruction’s pieces and returned to Hourai Island with Reiko and Ann.
When they came here they had flown all the way, but on the return trip they decided to use the floatsink base. According to Laojin since it also had a [Stealth] function they probably wouldn’t be seen even during the day.
Of course they checked that there were no boats or such in the surroundings. However, even the fishing boats going into the giant lake Azul didn’t go that far from the shore, so the worry that the waves caused by the base’s rise would affect them was exceedingly small.
It was better to not use it too frequently, but this time Jin and company returned before others to the research laboratory through the floatsink base’s Warp Gate.
“Now then, shall we examine this fellow?”
The Golden Princess of Destruction’s body and her broken arms were laid on top of the workbench. Jin began assiduously examining them.
Reiko had the Vibration Sword in hand prepared for any unforeseen situations, and Ann was standing next to Jin to give advice.
“Hmm, so she has a similar endoskeleton. It’s just that the attachment of the muscles is still imperfect, huh.”
Although it was far superior to usual golems’s, Jin saw that the structure wasn’t a match for the works of the predecessor.
“The skeleton’s made out of Light Silver, huh. Well, that’s appropriate. Then there’s… What’s this?”
“Father, is something the matter?”
If something surprised Jin it was probably quite serious, Reiko thought and hurriedly rushed over to Jin’s side from other side of the workbench.
“Mmh, ah, sorry. I just saw something curious in her structure.”
Jin said and opened up the Princess of Destruction’s chest unit so that Reiko could also see.
“There’s no Ether Converter. No Mana Driver either. Besides… what might this be?”
Seeing the composition she had never seen before, Reiko too couldn’t immediately comprehend how the Princess of Destruction worked. But as Jin had already completely understood it, he explained it to Reiko.
“Yeah, this is an Ether Tank and this is an Ether Driver. The energy efficiency is poor, but it seems to be able to produce power easily. Although it’s not slim at all.”
Jin said while looking at the giant Magi Crystal working as the Ether Driver.
“It appears that around the time of the Great Magic War the Ether concentration in the air was much higher than now. So this was probably fine then.”
“In that case, if this Automata went to a place where the Ether was thicker, it would’ve become more powerful?”
Jin thought a little and then answered Reiko’s question.
“That’s right. If the Ether concentration was doubled, it would probably be able to increase its output by a half.”
Including Reiko, Jin’s golems and Automata had an Ether Converter the output of which would double if the Ether concentration doubled.
However, it appeared that the manufacturer of the Golden Princess of Destruction couldn’t build an Ether Converter in the end. Or she disliked imitating Adrianna’s patterns.
If Ether was crude oil then an Ether Driver burns it directly, while an Ether Converter refines it to gasoline which a Mana Driver then uses. It’s a rough comparison, but maybe it’s an easy one to understand.
“At any rate, it’s not a match for Mother’s technology is the gist of it, is it not?”
Reiko who came to this conclusion looked slightly proud.
“Well, the other thing is this. This is no doubt the Control Core, but it’s a Magi Crystal I’ve never seen before. Ann, can you recognize it?”
Jin had a pink Magic Crystal in his hand. Its diameter was about five centimeters; it was rather large.
“No, I do not. What might the attribute turn out to be?”
Ann didn’t appear to know either.
“Hmm, it seems to be a composite of light and fire attributes. To think that a Magi Crystal like this could naturally form. At any rate, this should be filled with the memories and knowledge of the Golden Princess of Destruction. Let’s have Laojin analyze it. But before that…”
It was a precious source of information, so Jin decided to hold onto a duplicate of it. He prepared an all-attribute Magi Crystal and,
“[Transfer Info].”
He used the Craft Magic for transcription. But at that moment.
“Woah!?”
The pink Magi Crystal suddenly lit up. Jin closed his eyes reflexively due to the radiance but Reiko focused on the phenomenon.
“…What was that?”
The puzzled Jin said while rubbing his eyes, and Reiko who had been watching in detail explained.
“Father, it seems that the Magi Crystal overreacted to a specific Magic Energy wavelength or waveform. That light came from changing the Magic Energy of [Transfer Info] into light.”
“What? I can understand the theory, but the existence of a Magi Crystal that naturally does that is…”
Nothing like that was in the abundant knowledge Jin inherited from the predecessor. Ann said he didn’t know about it either.
“Hmm, this is just a hypothesis, but could the cause for the overreaction to my Magic Energy -in other words the predecessor’s Magic Energy- perhaps be the Princess of Destruction’s hostility against the predecessor?”
“It’s possible, but that’s hard to prove, isn’t it.”
“Yeah. Expressly confirming that seems troublesome too. …Anyway, it’s better not to poorly tamper with it. By the way, was the copy made successfully?”
Jin tried examining the all-attribute Magi Crystal. There might’ve been some missing parts but most of it had been copied.
“Alright, let’s have this analyzed. Let’s make sure the original is securely sealed for now.”
Since it was a Magi Crystal with unknown properties, Jin decided to be cautious with its handling.
He decided to wrap it in thin Mithril foil to insulate the Magic Energy, and store it inside a bulky Adamantite box.
“Alright, lastly are her eyes.”
Jin detached the deep crimson Magi Crystals which had been used as the eyes for the Princess of Destruction.
“As I thought, they’re Blood Crystals. If I remember right, they had the [Charm] effect.”
That was something in Jin’s knowledge.
“Using these eyes at the same time seems to make mental manipulation simple, huh…”
This late in the game, Jin felt relieved and thought it was good that he hadn’t gone in person.
“Alright, now I understand it all. I suppose I’ll try to repair her.”
Jin said after finishing the investigation of the Golden Princess of Destruction. Reiko couldn’t keep quiet about it.
“Father, even though she was hostile you’re repairing her?”
When asked so, Jin smiled and added,
“Yeah, as long as I remove the cause of her madness she’ll be very helpful, I think. And I was thinking I’d have her monitor the Unifiers.”
Jin explained his plan further.
The group of small nations, in other words Celuroa Kingdom, Egelia Kingdom, Frantz Kingdom, and Cline Kingdom had been completely disturbed by the Unifiers.
Instead of leaving the management of the aftermath to just the individual countries, he wanted to have the Unifiers take responsibility.
“That top seat guy, Joule was it, seems to have returned back to sanity and is regretting things, you see.”
He’d have the Golden Princess of Destruction, or more accurately someone just like her monitoring Joule by his side and giving him advice.
“I see, I understand now. If she looks like the Golden Princess of Destruction she was originally then she won’t feel out of place, correct?”
“That’s right. So I’ll try to repair her. But let’s adjust some of the structure.”
And so Jin set about to repairing the Golden Princess of Destruction.
He left the skeleton as it was. But he decided to use the Hourai Island standards for the installation of the Magical Muscles and their material. Yet he decided to restrict the power output a lot, to about the level of a layperson. Just in case, he thought.
He coated the joints with Adamantite.
The skin was also changed to Hourai Island’s standard Magical Skin. The same skin that was used in Ann. He installed an Ether Converter and an Ether Driver.
The problem was the Control Core.
“Hmm, what should I do…”
Jin was troubled.
“Father, what are you worrying about?”
Out of consideration for the troubled Jin, Reiko called out to him.
“Ah, I was thinking about what to do about her memories. If analyzed, I could even remove her memories of after she malfunctioned, but is that what I should do…”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t want to be left with the memories of the time I was mad. I’d want to be myself because Mother and Father wished me to be so.”
Hearing Reiko’s words, Jin made up his mind.
“Alright, I got it. In that case, let’s remove her memories after the point her manufacturer passed away. Then let’s confer her the information afresh.”
In other words, even though she would know what happened, she’d recognize the deeds as not hers but of someone else’s doing.
“I don’t really want to tamper with her, but she’d be dangerous.”
“Father, for Automata it is detestable to have oneself act against the wishes of their creator.”
Reiko said to encourage Jin.
“I got it, Reiko.”
Jin then prepared a milky white Magi Crystal, and very very carefully transcribed the memories of the ‘former’ Golden Princess of Destruction to it in order of age.
He digitized the record of memories and such using the structure of the molecules of the Magi Crystal.
It’s a digression, but it’s said that a single standard Magi Crystal could record the memories of 50 people.
“Alright, it’s up to here. By the way, her last memory is ‘You are the best’, huh. What’s up with that?”
“‘You are the best’? Is it not ‘You are the best daughter I could hope for’?”
“Yeah. She probably died mid-way through the sentence…”
Reiko stared motionlessly at the ‘former’ Golden Princess of Destruction and,
“…Poor thing. I was able to hear Mother’s last will but she didn’t even have that.”
She said. First Reiko had been opposed to repairing the Princess of Destruction, but it seems that she had gradually grown sympathetic.
“Yeah, that’s where her misfortune began, isn’t it.”
Jin then after once again worrying about it, added ‘daughter I could hope for’ to the end of it.
“It’s not a very good thing to do though.”
Jin muttered and Reiko said to him,
“No, Father is kind. Even if they are fake memories, this girl will surely become happy. I guarantee it.”
“Thanks, Reiko.”
Then Jin recorded what happened until now into the information area instead of the memory area. With this she’s be able to understand what had happened and what she had done.
He’d then have her use the information to make things up afterwards.
Lastly, as a safety measure, he added measures to purge the main Magi Device in case she fell into the hands of a third party.
“Only thing left is general maintenance.”
As Reiko had bisected the clothes she had worn along with her body, he remade them anew.
During it he noticed that he had been late in having lunch so after eating and continuing with it, everything was finished at 5 PM Hourai Island’s time.
“Alright, [Activate].”
The ‘former’ Golden Princess of Destruction opened her eyes. Her eyes had been changed to be just regular red Magi Crystals.
She slowly sat upright, then looked at Jin and,
“You… have repaired me?”
She said.
“Yeah. How is your condition?”
“It is excellent. Thank you very much.”
After hearing that Jin tried to ask as an experiment,
“Do you remember what has happened until now?”
“Yes, I was built by my Mother, loved by her, and she left me with her final words of ‘You are the best daughter I could hope for’. I do not have any memories after that. I seem to have been broken.”
She replied. Jin was relieved. Then again,
“Alright, in that case what is your name?”
He tried asking. The manufacturer hadn’t given her a name. If there was any disorder or flaws between her memories and knowledge then she would surely respond with Elena. But.
“I do not have a name. It would be a privilege if you who repaired me gave me one.”
Her reply calmed Jin down.
“Alright, you’re ‘Elena’.”
“Yes, I am ‘Elena’.”
Without raising any objections that her name was the same as the Elena in her knowledge, Elena accepted her name.
Like this, the ‘Golden Princess of Destruction’ disappeared and was born again as ‘Elena’.
＊ ＊ ＊
As you might expect Jin was tired so he went to relax in the hot springs, ate Reiko’s home cooking, and soon went to bed.
Contrary to Jin, the magical brain of Hourai Island Laojin who knew no tiredness was taking one measure after another in accordance with Jin’s ideas.
The headquarters of the Unifiers was re-established, and to repair it back to functional the Smith units were dispatched.
After finishing collecting the wreckage from the battle, the Land Corps near the Unifiers’ headquarters were withdrawn except for the 20 Land units from Land-81 to Land-100.
The brainwashing of the captured Unifiers was undone.
Such things were done first.
Further arrangements would begin the next morning when Jin would wake up.
Thus, there was finally hope that the long days of mayhem caused by the Unifiers would end.