Chapter 75

"Yahaa, it felt so good. As expected, flying with Fafnir is great!"

Having completed his mission and returned to Lathewood, Robin stretched as if to loosen his stiff body and said this. His sharp eyes had returned to their usual round shape, and his face bore an expression like that of a child who had played to their heart's content with their favorite toy.

"You look quite refreshed."

"Ah, Camilla. Thanks for the hard work."

Robin waved his hand to greet Camilla. She raised her slender arms, wrapped in black lace, and responded with a "Hmm," then turned her gaze to Fafnir, which was being stored in the hangar.

"It seems you performed admirably. It's a relief that the puppet worked without any issues. To be honest, I was concerned about how much it would function with the magic stones of this world..."

"Hmm, that's where my skills come in. Even if I say so myself, I am Robin, the pinnacle of puppet masters, a golem master."

"...I have my doubts about whether you are a regular puppet master."

As Camilla pointed out, Robin's combat style was quite different from that of a regular puppet master.

Typically, puppet masters stay away from the front lines and control powerful and replaceable puppets—golems—remotely. Most of their combat capabilities depend on the golems' specifications, and the puppet master's own stats are often low. Therefore, when facing a puppet master, the usual strategy is to target the master rather than the golems.

There are also golems that can be ridden on the shoulders or back, but these tend to be less used as one advances in rank because they negate the puppet master's greatest advantage: the golem can take hits while the master remains unharmed. Only inexperienced puppet masters with a short remote control range would choose to use such golems.

Despite this, Robin, a rare genius born from the union of a curious dwarf and a gnome, chose the opposite path, as if to say that he knew nothing of common sense.

He submitted a "blueprint" to the royal castle, proposing to excavate the remains of a large mechanical puppet—a mobile weapon found in ancient ruins and a collection of lost technologies—and restore it into a golem.

The success of this plan was uncertain, and the cost of attempting it was enormous. It was almost immediately rejected by the internal affairs officials, but it was Helian who put a stop to it.

"Successful excavation in ancient ruins? —What is this, what is this! Hey, is this for real! It's a block of romance!"

These were the words of Mimasumi Tsukasa, a high school student at the time.

He was a young man who understood the romantic terms like "decisive battle weapon" and "mobile weapon" and never forgot the heart of a boy—put differently, he had a middle school syndrome.

He gave the green light to this unprecedented and reckless plan and poured funds into it like water.

The total amount was close to the national budget at the time, but with the promise of full support from the king, Robin burned with enthusiasm and eventually completed Fafnir, the "unique golem that combines the latest magic engineering and ancient lost technology."

As of the Holy Magic Calendar 150, no golem of this type existed, and Fafnir continued to reign as the pinnacle of golems, being a one-of-a-kind machine that could not be replicated.

"To the enemy, it's a nightmare. Even if they try to target the puppet master's common weakness, the master is inside the golem. Moreover, there's no restriction on the effective range of remote control, and with overwhelming firepower, it can fly across the entire battlefield, making it impossible to deal with."

"Ahahaha! That's great, that's great! Praise me more! I grow when I'm praised!"

"Don't get carried away. What was that final attack? It was clearly an excessive attack."

Camilla's criticism was directed at the dragon strike that finished off the fairy mother dragon. Her expression was somewhat stiff as she faced Robin, who wore a cheerful smile.

"It was a good thing it was a direct shot upwards. If the angle had been off even a little, it would have hit the barrier. We almost exposed ourselves to the outside."

"That's why I aimed it straight up. The barrier didn't break, right?"

"What I'm pointing out is not that. I'm saying that there was no need to fire in the first place. With an attack of that level, the main cannon alone would have been enough."

Camilla had mobilized all the mages of the Sixth Legion to create a recognition impairment barrier that covered the entire battlefield, as she had done in the battle with the vanguard. This barrier, deployed as a ritual magic, had a certain level of defensive power and could handle stray shots from fairy dragons, but it was not capable of withstanding Fafnir's dragon strike. Even a glancing blow could have caused the barrier to collapse, and it was a moment that made Camilla break into a cold sweat.

"Well, maybe that's true... but since I got the chance to act, I wanted to do it spectacularly, you know? Everyone might have been satisfied with their roles in the previous war, but I ended up just waiting. I didn't even get a chance to act, let alone achieve anything. I just sat there in Fafnir, waiting for the end of the war. Can you understand how I felt?"

"...Well, I can sympathize with that to some extent."

The Large Box, which performs maintenance and supplies the magic power needed to activate Fafnir, does not exist in the capital of Alkymira, Agartha. This is because the research facilities and large workshops are concentrated in the suburbs of the capital, and the Large Box is also built there.

Therefore, Fafnir, which is stationed in the Large Box, should have been left behind in the original world due to the inter-world transfer phenomenon. However, on that day, it was moved to the large square of Agartha, dressed in ceremonial equipment to celebrate the founding anniversary, and thus escaped being left behind by chance.

From a strategic perspective, bringing Fafnir, which plays an important role in Alkymira, into this world was nothing short of a stroke of luck.

During the war two months ago, Robin waited with Fafnir in the deserted large square, hoping for a chance to act, but in the end, he did not get the opportunity, and the war ended.

Given his high spirits at the time, spurred by the king's speech, Robin was quite disappointed when he heard the news of the end of the war.

Considering his state of mind at the time, even Camilla, who has the character trait of "cruel," lost some of her momentum in her pursuit.

"Besides, thinking about future situations where Fafnir might be needed, I want to test as many functions as possible. There's a big difference between 'it should work' and 'it works,' so it's better to have actual operational data, right?"

Robin's words are a kind of truth.

This is because Fafnir is one of the trump cards of Alkymira, a decisive battle weapon used only in battles where victory is absolutely necessary.

The strategic concept is to "definitely destroy the designated target within a specified time." Fafnir's attack targets are either the "maximum combat power possessed by the enemy" or the "central part of the opposing force." The former aims to eliminate the most threatening combat power, while the latter aims to damage the entire enemy camp by destroying the king, legion commander, or command unit.

This concept is clearly different from that of Nogard, which is known for its ability to collectively annihilate enemy armies.

However, for Fafnir to fully demonstrate its potential, "Awaken, O Legacy of Dain" is essential, and it also has the drawback of consuming a large amount of resources, represented by magic stones, even with a single battle. Additionally, after the battle, the replacement of degraded parts is necessary, requiring a significant amount of funds. There may be no other weapon that causes as much trouble for internal affairs officials.

Given its nature, Fafnir must achieve results whenever it is deployed. Considering the enormous costs and personnel required for a single deployment, it is natural that results are expected, but the addition of the word "definitely" changes the situation entirely. The insurmountable wall between ideals and reality is self-evident, as is the case with the aforementioned extreme strategic concept.

However, the Fafnir piloted by the rare "genius" Robin has never failed a mission and has maintained an undefeated legend to this day. Among the other eight legion commanders, who have some form of defeat in their records, he and his Fafnir are undoubtedly the "strongest" decisive battle force.

"So I'm not at fault. I had the king's permission, and the budget from El was properly approved. It's a perfect theoretical armament."

"By the time you mention 'theoretical armament,' you've already lost the argument... Can you say that to Merzal? He's fuming because you used up an entire large radiator."

Robin turned his head to the side and started whistling ostentatiously.

Camilla, thinking of the poor maintenance crew, let out a sigh from her lustrous lips.

"Well, that's fine. ...By the way, that lady-in-waiting seemed to have a real scare. She underestimated you, not knowing you were one of the strongest in Alkymira."

Camilla is referring to Wenli, who was present at the start of the war with Noblewood.

When the preemptive attack by Selvin occurred, she was evacuated from the battlefield by the scouts of the Sixth Legion. From a safe location, she witnessed the entire battle in the sky. Her complexion began to worsen when the revived fairy dragons started falling like katydids, and she fainted from shock when the fairy mother dragon was obliterated by Fafnir's dragon strike. She is currently in bed, muttering things like "I was deceived," "You were a monster after all," and "I will never underestimate you again."

"Ah, being called the strongest makes me blush! But, it's true, isn't it? Only a super genius like me can handle Fafnir! Ahahaha!!"

"Even with my lord's power, we can only fight for a limited fifteen minutes."

"...If we could use the ultra-large magic stones brought from the original world, we could do a bit more, you know?"

"How much resources do you plan to consume, you internal affairs officials' nightmare? You've already used nearly ten magic swords, and you're still not satisfied?"

"Well, the magic stones in this world are empty inside. I thought they would last a bit longer, but the second core stopped working pretty quickly."

This is also a result of saving, Robin defended.

In fact, the early shutdown of the second core was unexpected for the engineers of the Seventh Legion, including Robin. There might be issues with quality, but it could also be a matter of compatibility.

Robin's argument is that, considering the hungry state of Fafnir, he had to use the low-magic-consuming