Going back in time a little.
After being told that he could travel if he wants, Jin went back to Hourai island in great joy and started preparations for his trip.
“Now then, let’s get the carriage ready first.”
The carriage he had built back in Egelia kingdom still remained, but after assigning the equipped warp gate for other uses, it would be a bit of a bother to put it back.
Laojun had been putting together a carriage of similar type for this occasion. Jin thought he would make a new model from scratch.
He made the outward appearance similar to the previous one.
Of course, he also equipped the warp gate.
With four-wheeled, self-support suspension system, ‘Active suspension’.
Fully furnished air-conditioning.
Floodlight projector.
And, of course, the horse would be a golem horse.
This was what would usually be equipped but from this point on, Jin did the unthinkable.
“I guess I will make it so that it can run even without a horse.”
In other words, he planned on equipping it with a golem engine so that it would be capable of running on its own.
“I can’t really pack in a big engine which stands out so I guess I will have to go with the least possible one I can.”
He isn’t aware that his ‘least’ isn’t what is considered to be the general ‘least’.
“Father, I have prepared the materials.”
Reiko brought aluminium 64. It is much stronger than normal aluminium.
“Alright, let’s start.”
Not having to worry about anyone watching, Jin exerted his engineering magic as much as he wanted and kept on processing the materials. Reiko was supporting him.
Moreover, Laojun was considerate and called over two Smith golems.
And before one knew it, the carriage was completed.
They used the sea dragon’s leather for the tire. Due to its roughness being similar to the dragon’s scales, its grip power is extraordinary, even above boulders. (In fact, the boulder might break instead.)
“As I thought, we don’t get much speed if the golem engine is small.”
Jin grumbled as he saw the carriage go through the test run.
The engines are small as they have been equipped to each of the wheels. It looks like nothing but a fat tire but, in fact, golem engines are installed next to it.
And due to this, he couldn’t install anything too big as it would stand out too much. But it is also true that that would decrease the torque. It would be able to reach a speed of about 40 kilometers per hour.
If the golem horse pulled with all its strength, it would go up to a 100 kmph. A normal carriage’s max speed is about 15 kmph.
Even Jin himself didn’t know that his measure of things was quite outrageous.
This golem horse was reusing some of the material used before.
Even still, the aluminium portion is replaced with aluminium 64 and the magical muscle was enhanced, making the output power twice that of the one before.
“It would be nice to be able to ride it alone as well.”
He equipped the horse with a saddle, a stirrup and a handle so that it could be rode without the carriage as well.
“I guess I should also equip it with a seat so that it feels comfortable riding. Well, when needed, I could always use the warp gate and come back here to sleep anyway.”
There was no one present there who would retort saying ‘you wouldn’t call that a trip now, would you!?’.
Either way, super carriage no. 2 was done in about 2 hours.
[My lord, I have a suggestion.]
“Mm, what is it?”
[I suggest taking a golem with you, one which has the outer appearance of a low-class golem.]
Hearing Laojun’s suggestion, Jin immediately understood the intention behind it.
“I see. Low-class ‘outer appearance’, eh?”
Put simply, a golem which would take care of his daily needs.
“I guess I could also make it be the driver normally.”
And so, Jin started making it immediately. All in all, Jin really liked making automatas and golems.
“The basis is fine being the same as butlers.”
He used 18-12 stainless steel as the raw material. It looked like iron at a glance so it would be easier to fool others’ eyes with this.
He purposely tried making the outer appearance look clumsy. The model was Unifiers’ battle golem. Even still, he didn’t make it clumsy to that point. He also didn’t want others to misunderstand, after all.
Its power was a bit higher than the butlers and its dexterity was close to that of the Smiths. And so, it should be able to handle miscellaneous tasks as well.
“Hmm, I’d better order it to pretend to be sluggish normally.”
And so, the attendant golem was done.
“Your name will be… ‘Steward’.”
“Yes, master.”
With this, approximately all preparations were complete.
“…I guess I will rest for a bit. Reiko, Laojun, I leave the rest to you.”
“Yes, father.”
[Leave it to us.]
As one would expect, Jin was pretty tired and so left the remaining preparation to Reiko and Laojun and lied down on the floor.
“Alright then, I will be back.”
Jin went to inform the people of Kaina village about his trip.
“Jin-nii, take care. Give my regards to Rai-nii.”
“Jin-sama, please take care.”
“Jin, take care. Come back from time to time, alright?”
“Onii-chan, have a good trip…”
After being escorted by Elsa, Mine, Martha and Hanna, Jin headed towards the shelter.
The workshop’s warpgate would have been fine as well but since it would feel kinda weird, he went all the way to the shelter.
In front of the shelter, Kaina village’s gatekeepers, Land A to Z were lined-up.
“Master, we are the ‘Land’ squad, we are in charge of the protection of Kaina village.”
“Ohh, good job. Then I leave Kaina village to you while I am absent. I will head out for a bit.”
“Yes, please leave it to us. Have a good trip, master.”
And so, Jin vanished inside the shelter.
＊ ＊ ＊
In Serroa kingdom, northward of the provincial city, Bololon, an uninhabited wasteland spread out. It’s name was the Bololon wasteland.
As far as the eye could see, it was full of boulders, some which were even 50 meters tall.
It might be easier to think of the landscape as that of a small scale Arizona, which comes up in western films.
Among all these boulders, one was noticeably bigger and had an entrance to a cave at the bottom.
“Hmmm, so this is the Bololon wasteland.”
“Yes. I have probably been here about 8 times before.”
Reiko muttered.
It was that time warp gate behaved recklessly and Jin had gone missing, when Reiko used the same method to search for Jin all around the world.
“At that time, I appeared out in the sky and barely landed but due to one of the part of the warp gate being damaged, I somehow managed to make it back to the lab but had to dispose of the warp gate.”
However, the areas it had been used at could come in handy later so Laojun tracked what faint magic it had left and dispatched an air force golem to identify the locations. And then installed the warp gate once again.
If there are points like this, it would make travelling through the continent much easier. Although Jin and his staff will be the only people using it for a while.
And for this reason, the halfpoints of the warpgate’s teleportation were also being studied. For security purposes.
[First in line is the aircraft carrier ‘Hodaka’. It has plenty of space inside so, when used as a relay point, even if by any chance, enemies land on it, they would not be able to go through to Hourai island.]
Laojun explained it like that to Jin. Jin said ‘that’s fine, I will leave it to you’ and gave his approval. That system will probably be done quite soon.
The carriage, which had Jin and Reiko, ran southwest of the wasteland.
“Hmmm, he also installed a compass, eh? As expected of Laojun.”
On the ingeniously camouflaged carriage steering console, a compass was also installed.
“The highway runs from the east to the west, so if I just keep going southwest, I will come upon it.”
Jin kept the carriage at ‘golem horse’ mode and fixed the speed to be at 50 kmph. The highway should come into view within an hour.
“Father, I can see it.”
Reiko raised her voice. To her eyes the highway, which spread about the horizon, was visible. And so, Jin lowered the carriage’s speed.
Even Jin knew that running a carriage at 50 kmph would be out of place.
But even then, the carriage’s speed exceeded 20 kmph.
＊ ＊ ＊
Bololon and Ganiz had only about 30 kilometers between them.
Reinhart’s carriage was going along at ease.
After all, it would take about a day at most to reach the border, on the other side of which was their motherland.
“Reinhart, good weather we’re having today.”
Lining up the carriages side by side, Matheus started talking to Reinhart.
“Yeah, feels like the full bloom of spring. Don’t you feel sleepy?”
Opening up the carriage’s window, as Reinhart said jokingly to Matheus,
“Haha, true. I would feel sleepy on the horse. For better or worse, I am a soldier, after all. I wouldn’t even doze off on a horse by mistake.”
Answering with that, he deliberately surveyed the surroundings. And then, his face got stiff.
“Reinhart, hasten your carriage.”
“What happened?”
“…An unknown carriage is coming this way from the wastelands.”
Hearing that, Reinhart opened up his other window and looked outside. But contrary to Matheus’ expression, Reinhart’s one was of joy.
“Matheus, that is a friend of mine.”
“What?”
“I told you before, right? The magi craftsman I got to know and befriend along this trip. No, I guess now he is the Honorary Magi craftsman of Egelia kingdom. That is Jin Nidou’s carriage.”
“Say what? That’s his?”
“Yeah. Who else can make such an exquisite golem horse?”
Bathing in the afternoon sunlight, the silver-colored golem horse shined brightly, pulling the aluminum carriage behind it. Controlling such a horse was a golem made of iron.
“Oiii, Reinhart!”
From that carriage, Jin himself set out and was waving towards them.
“Oii, Jin! It has been so long!”
Reinhart also got out through the window and waved back.