C125: Stählern Kapelle (2)

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Hans floated in the endless dark space. It felt as if his body was submerged in water but floated in the sky at the same time.

‘Where am I?’

How long has he been in that space?

When Hans opened his eyes, he realized that he was not in the dark but there were beasts everywhere.

The black things that spread around him were not darkness, but all of them were animal hairs.

‘……!’

He tried to scream in surprise, but his voice didn’t come out.

At that moment, red eyes rose among the black fur group. The three largest pairs of eyes looked down at Hans.

The beasts roared at him. Hans shook his limbs like crazy to live. Then, he felt a cold and strange touch on his palm.

With a feeling of grasping at straws, Hans grasped it strongly. At the same time, Hans woke up from the dream with the feeling of his body being pulled strongly.

“Gasp! Gasp!”

“Did you wake up?”

“Brother?”

Hans stared at Rudger, who was looking down at him, and asked back in a stupid voice.

“What the hell is going on? Where are we?”

“This is a secret hideout. I brought you here after you fainted. Is there anything strange?”

“No…….”

“That’s a relief.”

“More than that, I didn’t die.”

Hans remembered the scene before he passed out.

Unfortunately, he faced black magicians, and his body was eroded by their curse. So just before he almost died he put the monster’s teeth into his body.

After that, all he remembers are small and fragmented memories that can only be called fragments.

“Did I become a monster and lost reason?”

“Yes.”

“But I’m still alive…….”

“It’s a relief, so give it back now.”

“What? What do you want?”

“What you decided to give me.”

“Ah.”

Hans belatedly realized what Rudger was asking for. Didn’t he say that he would hand the Relic fragment to Rudger?

However,

‘It was taken away by a dark wizard.’

The last thing he saw was that the black wizard had in his hand. After that, Hans had no idea where the fragment was because he doesn’t have any memories.

‘I’m doomed.’

In the worst case scenario, it may lie under the rubble of a semi-collapsed Kunst auction house. Thinking so, a cold sweat flowed down his back.

“Well, brother, I mean……Don’t be surprised and listen carefully.”

“Stop talking and give me the thing you have in your right hand.”

“Right hand?”

Only then did Hans realize that he was holding something in his right hand. The cool touch he felt in his dream was from this item.

When he opened his palm, there was the relic fragment that Hans had been looking for so much.

“Huh? Why is this here…….”

“You’ve been holding it since you fainted.”

“I was?”

“Yeah, when you fainted and when I moved you here you held it as if you would never let go. So let it go now.”

At that, Hans looked down silently on his right hand and burst into laughter.

“Ha ha ha ha.”

It wasn’t taken away. Even at the moment when he turned into a monster without reason he protected the object. In a way, it’s really nothing, but Hans got emotional for no reason.

“…Take it. I’m glad I didn’t lose it.”

”You did a great job. Hans.”

“Never mind, it was my job.”

Hans smiled faintly and handed Rudger the relic fragment. Rudger, who received it, stood up from his seat while touching the fragment with his fingertips.

“Now that you’ve come to your senses, get up. There’s a lot to tell everyone, including you.”

“What happened after we robbed the auction house?”

“There’s definitely that, but that’s not the point now.”

“What?”

Hans tried to ask what it meant, but Rudger left the room first, so he had no choice but to get up in a hurry and chase.

All the other colleagues were already seated in the conference room downstairs.

They opened their eyes slightly wide when they saw Hans woke up. Hans laughed awkwardly because the gazes were burdensome for no reason.

“Well, where should I start?”

Rudger opened his mouth, ignoring their reactions.

“First of all, you all did a great job. It was a series of unintended incidents, but thanks to everyone’s good work, the operation ended successfully.”

“Wow! We’re rich now!”

Seridan raised her arms and shouted happily. Belaruna, who was glancing at her, raised her arm awkwardly and shouted ‘Yeah~’ in a weak voice.

“But it’s too early to be happy. These stolen goods would not immediately be replaced with money. At least it would take quite a long time to dispose of the stolen valuables.”

Fortunately, Kunst, who could track them, was completely ruined, so he was less worried about catching their tail.

“But there is another really important matter.”

At those words, everyone became serious.

“I’m sure everyone felt something while working together for the first time. You must have realized at the same time what kind of skills you have and how you’re going to move forward.”

As Rudger said, the executives of “U.N. Owen,” who had not yet fully known each other, clearly imprinted their colleagues’ abilities on their minds through this operation.

The first person to speak was Alex.

“Well, to be honest, I was surprised. Hans transforms into a giant beast, and I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“You were pretty good too.”

Pantos, who had been listening silently, looked at Alex and said,

“You’ve got quite a unique swordsmanship. Were you a knight?”

“I wasn’t a knight, I was just an ordinary squire.”

“Your power wasn’t at the level of a squire.”

Alex fought on an equal footing with a Nightcrawler Knight. He says he’s a squire, but he’s as strong as a senior knight in terms of pure skills.

He was unbelievable for his young age. The reason that such a talented person is hiding his identity and scams people is probably because there are circumstances that he cannot tell.

Alex immediately changed the subject as the atmosphere gradually went against him.

“More than that, leader. What the hell was that girl?”

It was a blatant turn of the subject, but everyone paid attention to it. The most curious thing was the blue-haired wizard girl who was there.

Alex, who is not very skilled in magic, was convinced that she was no ordinary person.

“I’m curious, too.”

Pantos, who is usually quiet, was also curious. Casey Selmore was also included in the ‘prey’ category because Pantos was only interested in the strong.

Even if he pretends not to, the other people were also interested.

“It’s just a bad relationship I encountered in the past.”

“Looking at her reaction, I think you met when leader was using the name of James Moriarty. Right?”

“Yeah.”

What happened in the Kingdom of Delica was one of the most intense memories of Rudger’s past years. Now that they’ve come all the way here, there’s nothing to hide, Rudger said.

“Her name is Casey Selmore. You should know the Selmores.”

“Selmore? Wait. If it’s the Selmore family I know, all I can think of is the famous magical family. Is that right?

“There is only one Selmore family, so it is the family you are talking about.”

Hans, who has wide feet in this area, knew the weight of the name very well.

“The Selmores have long been famous for producing great wizards. They’ve even recently produced two wizards who have earned the title [Colour].”

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And one of the wizards with the title [Colour] was Casey Selmore, who had a conflict with Rudger. She is a genius wizard and her achievements as a detective are well known.

“I met Casey Selmore for the first time in the Kingdom of Delica.”

“Did you meet by chance?”

“Not at all. Rather, she came to see me.”

Perhaps it was still a headache to think of that time but Rudger frowned slightly.

* * *

“At the time, I was traveling in the Kingdom of Delica.”

“Traveling?”

You told me how you met Betty, but you suddenly brought up the story of your trip. Erendir could not hide her curiosity.

“A trip is a trip, but, um, what should I say? It had a purpose.”

“What purpose?”

“At that time, I was in the middle of being arrogant because I was gaining considerable recognition and fame as a detective.”

Casey was conceited by the praise she received from all over the place. Then she overheard a rumor of a man in the Kingdom of Delica, where she happened to visit.

“I heard that there is a professor who has a very good, brilliant mind. Even though he was young, he established a lot of mathematical formulas and was especially well versed in geometry.”

“Professor? Is that…….”

“Yes, he was Professor James Moriarty.”

“What? But wasn’t he a vicious criminal?”

“It was only later known, but at first he gained fame because he was an excellent mathematician. There’s a reason why his name was labeled as professor.”

Of course, the title of professor later changed to a bad meaning for those who promoted crime.

“I first went to the Kingdom of Delica to see who the prestigious man was and we actually met.”

Casey, who recalled the first meeting at the time, had an annoyed expression but she didn’t mean to disparage his achievements.

No matter what anyone said, the geometric formula he created was so great that it caused a big stir in the mathematics world.

“What kind of person was he?”

“He was a douchebag.”

“What?”

Erendir was greatly embarrassed because she didn’t expect that such an evaluation would come out of Casey’s mouth. In times like this, shouldn’t she usually say things like, ‘He was an unusual person from the first time we met’ or ‘He looked suspicious just by looking at him?’

“Anyway, he was a very annoying person. He’s a person who lives on his high horse. Every word that came out of his mouth was annoying.”

“How did you find out that such a person was a criminal?”

“A series of disappearances occurred shortly after I visited the Kingdom of Delica. Many people disappeared without a trace every day, especially young children.”

“I can’t believe it’s a case of disappearance…….”

“I went around trying to trace it, and then I got an important clue. It was an abandoned mine that was deserted but there were suspicious people inside.”

Then Casey, heading deep into the mine, saw something amazing. It was not just a closed mine, but a laboratory that was conducting some kind of secret work. The space was full of all kinds of machines, it was a factory consisting of steel, pipes, and mechanical levers.

“And James Moriarty was there.”

Not James Moriarty the famous mathematician but the criminal, James Moriarty.

Recalling the scene, Casey clenched his fist. At first, she simply wanted to think that there would be a misunderstanding but the situation was not like that.

The bodies of the Delica Kingdom police officers were scattered around Professor Moriarty. Above all, the body of a child who had gone missing that day was lying in front of Professor James Moriarty.

Casey almost instinctively picked up her cane and shot a spell at him. Professor Moriarty also naturally blocked her magic.

It was the first clash between the genius detective and the criminal mind of the century.

“You know what happened after that. He ran away from the fight that day, and I kept chasing him to arrest him.”

As she pursued the traces of James Moriarty, she faced the hidden events that were lurking in the Kingdom of Delica and solved them one by one.

The disappearance of several people has already led to a huge plan for the nation’s survival. The monopoly of the military industry to wage war, the development of new weapons, plans to assassinate key figures from other kingdoms and even a secret laboratory that used people as test subjects.

Casey dug them up one by one, captured all the people involved alive and exposed their plans in detail.

The newspapers of the Kingdom of Delica were plastered with new events every day. And three days before the day of the showdown she faced James Moriarty at a factory.

“It was a secret base that was manufacturing automatons. How the hell did he secretly prepare that? He was the enemy but I was amazed.”

To Casey, who came all the way there, Moriarty talked about his plans without thinking about hiding them. He even asked major figures of the country to start a war and sweep away huge wealth.

But just before the outcome of the plan was completed a huge explosion quickly engulfed the factory.

“Explosion? Did the detective do that?”

Casey looked at Erendir.

“I’m a water wizard not a bombshell.”

It was a time when she was still immature and didn’t even have the title [Colour] so she could only use elemental magic.

“……Of course, I did try to prevent the factory from operating properly just in case but it wasn’t enough to cause the explosion.”

The reason she timidly refuted was that she wasn’t sure what caused the explosion. Maybe it’s really because she touched something wrong in the factory but that wasn’t the point.

The arrest of James Moriarty, the mastermind behind all this, was her top priority but they couldn’t fight properly in the burning factory, and James Moriarty ran away.

Eventually, Casey, in a hurry, found Betty while searching the burning factory for evidence. She was kept in a half-collapsed room as if she was asleep. On the large capsule where she was lying, the word “Beta” was written.

“Betty is a special automaton made there. Betty’s very existence is evidence of that scene.”

Casey got Betty out of the factory and shortly after she escaped, the factory disappeared in the fire.

“That’s what happened.”

Erendir was amazed to hear Casey’s story and it was the same with Enya.

This was a famous story, but it felt quite different when they heard it directly from the person involved. Still, there were actually some details Casey couldn’t tell Erendir and Enya.

‘The only thing I saw at the time was the half-collapsed room and Betty.’

Codename [Beta], a successful project, to be exact.

Her suspicions arose then because the existence of the codename [Beta] means that there was something made before that. It must be Project Alpha that was created before Beta.

‘So, where the hell is that Project Alpha?’

* * *

Rudger’s story naturally ended with meeting Arpa.

“As you may have felt, Arpa here is not a human being. He’s an automaton.”

“Oh, my God.”

When Hans heard it, his tongue twitched as he was surprised.

“He’s a machine? But he’s just like a human.”

“Arpa is special.”

“No, it’s beyond that, even if it’s special. How can there be a machine so similar to a human? If you hadn’t told me, I would have thought he was just a weird guy.”

“…….”

Everyone’s eyes were on Hans. It was as if they were asking, ‘What do you mean?’

However, since he was an automaton, the ridiculous abilities that Arpa showed finally made sense.

“Then the girl who clashed with Arpa at the scene.”

“Actually, she’s my sister.”

That day Arpa realized it immediately when he faced Betty. She was made for the same purpose as him.

“I was surprised. I never thought I’d see a kid like me there.”

“The same goes for me. I didn’t know there was still  an automaton  in the factory.”

Casey Selmore assistant was one of the automatons that Rudger thought were completely destroyed.

Arpa opened his mouth with a smile.

“But I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who survived the project.”

It was then that Violetta, who was listening quietly, opened her mouth.

“So Arpa is the only automaton left in the Kingdom of Delica?”

“Something like that.”

“What was the purpose of the Kingdom of Delica to make such an automaton?”

Arpa was not an ordinary automaton by all accounts. He had a terrifying physique, excellent intelligence and strange but human emotions.

Rudger closed his eyes with his arms crossed.

“There is only one reason to mass-produce soldiers that can be consumed as much as they want, without requiring knights and wizards.”

The kingdom of Delica, a powerhouse in the steel and munitions industries, had one purpose. It was not intended to be a tank or anti-aircraft gun, but a steel soldier that thought and moved autonomously in the form of a human being.

They could turn the tables of any war by supplying a country with the dolls made of steel they made and the project name was Stählern Kapelle (Steel Chapel).

“It’s war.”

The first automaton and successful prototype of the project had the codename [Alpha], Arpa.

TL Note: This was the longest chapter of the novel so far (2838 words).

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