Chapter 43: CH 43

It had happened all so fast.

Accompanied by a massive roar, a terrible explosion had erupted into the sky.

“!!”

But even though she stood at the center of that explosion, Veena emerged from the dust physically unharmed.

(I didn’t notice them at all until they attacked.)

Her clothes had been burned away by the heat of the explosion in various places, and the skin that was exposed was more fetching than you’d expect from a teen.

(…Even so, to notice them before even Leena or I did, that ‘eye’ might be troublesome but it certainly has its uses.)

Although the same can’t be said for her clothes, Veena’s body itself wasn’t injured because of the barrier she put up.

But, to put up a barrier in a split second like that, such a crazy feat can only be done by Lilyfall family members like Veena and Leena.

Yua couldn’t do it in time.

Nevertheless, no one had been killed, since Aria had warned her subordinates in advance about the ambush.

(Unfortunately, the person who actually owns that eye is pretty uncooperative so it might not be all that useful.)

Of course, Veena wasn’t aware beforehand.

She had intentionally not been told.

If this attack managed to get rid of Veena, it would be a stroke of good luck. That was what Aria thought.

So, she reacted late to the barrage, which is why she’s the only one whose clothes are in tatters.

(Oh, well. It seems I made the barrier too thin, that’s why my dress didn’t survive. I hope Yua is okay.)

Veena closed her eyes and used magic to try and trace Yua’s location. And, eventually found an enormous reading of magical power a little in the distance.

It could only belong to Yua.

(Thank goodness. At least Yua is safe.)

Veena breathed a sigh of relief, then confirmed the safety of Leena and the others. And finally, she searched for the location of her assailants. And, felt a small reaction nearby.

(There’s the enemy.)

As she judged so, Veena kicked off the ground and emerged through the smoke onto the other side.

It was then that she saw the two automatons.

That was a surprise to her.

“Automatic dolls…”

What could this mean, Veena thought to herself.

Automatons are manufactured to be unable to harm people.

Just because Beirut has fallen, doesn’t mean things could have changed so much.

That’s because imprinted into the magical formula used to make the automatons, is the phrase ‘Harm no living things’. In other words, legally manufacturing automatons like this was impossible.

In the first place, automatons had never been built with any sort of offensive capability.

Is this a new sort of model?

(There’s no point in wondering, I don’t have any information to go on. I’ll think about it later, for now, I just need to focus on capturing these two automatons.)

Veena drew her dragon-scale sword, and held it in front of her. Although it’s her first time using such a blade, for some reason this felt natural.

(Fufu, this feels good. It’s really easy to handle.)

The eyes of the automatons started to gleam on and off as they recognized her.

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“Visual confirmation of Veena Lilyfall. Permission to exterminate?”

That gleaming was still going on, and it was a reaction she had seen before in other automatons. It was an error, in other words, an indication that they couldn’t harm a human being.

However.

“Permission received. Commencing extermination of Veena Lilyfall.”

“!”

This is really weird.

The automaton’s eyes reacted as they normally do.

An error indication for when it is ordered to or attempts to attack a living thing.

And yet,

“Unit 08 Prepare to support.”

The childlike automaton spoke to his partner as his body bristles with weapons once again. And,

“Processing request. Recognized. Approved. Moving to support Unit 13.”

Whilst the error message flashed in her eyes, the woman automaton answered.

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

When the message ‘Please prepare a barrier for an incoming enemy attack’ had suddenly flashed in her mind, Yua cast a barrier without hesitation.

Immediately after she did, there was an explosion. The entire carriage was blown away, but Yua, Leena, and Aria had landed safely outside because of their barriers.

“Yua, are you okay?”

Leena had called out to her.

Yua raised her head and responded.

“Yes, I’m fine. But, Veena-sama was directly hit by that explosion…”

“Ah, it’s Onee-sama, so she’ll be fine. An attack of this level won’t do anything to her.”

Leena smiled, then looked behind her.

“More importantly, Captain Aria, why didn’t you tell Onee-sama about the attack?”

Aria snorted.

“Vice-Captain Leena, she remains our enemy.”

“But right now, you’re supposed to be allies.”

“We simply share mutual enemies, that doesn’t make us allies.”

Aria unsheathed her sword and walked towards the billowing smoke of the attack site without another word.

Following Aria’s instructions, the knights who had all survived the attack joined her.

“Haa… Oh boy, she’s really not flexible at all, is she?”

Leena shrugged her shoulders and offered Yua her hand.

“Yua, let’s go.”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

Yua grasped Leena’s hand, and they ran after Aria.

Flapping their wings furiously, Sylph went as well.

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