◇

"It"s a cuboid building without appeals isn"t it."
"So this is  the base of 『Brains』...."

Liza and Zensan muttered while looking up at Brains"s base.
It looks like a research inst.i.tute or a business building.

Two Temple Knights are standing guard on the entrance while looking bored, they"re glaring at us, or rather at the bodyguard.
The domestic bureau the bodyguard belongs to seems to not get along well with the Temple Knights.

"Ah! You came you came! Miko-cchi, Alex"s here!"

The black haired girl whom I"ve gotten familiar with during the several days here is waving her arms while looking impatient at the the automatic gla.s.s door opening.
Three purple haired reincarnated people are behind the black haired girl.
One of them is Tomiko who invited me here, while the other two seem to be the director and the vice director here according to AR reading.

"Hee, so he"s the actor-san emissary of s.h.i.+ga Kingdom."
"Director, I"ve heard that the courtesy with n.o.bles in s.h.i.+ga Kingdom is strict. You should not be too frank."
"Eeh, that"s annoying."

The angelic smile of the director who"s wearing a white robe darkens.
Even if he"s beautiful the director is a man, so I don"t feel anything even if his good looks get cloudy.

According to the information shown on the AR reading, he"s level 41 and, surprisingly, doesn"t hide his skills, his Unique Skills are [All-Purpose Drafting], and [Precision Work].
He also has various other production skills.

The vice director is hiding her skills so I"m not really sure, but judging from the daisho katana on her waist, it"s probably something related to them.

"I"m Kuro of s.h.i.+ga Kingdom. I am merely an emissary without peerage, thus you don"t need to use stiff polite speech with me."

I introduced myself when we got close enough to have a conversation.

"Huh? You heard us? I"m Kenji Orerian the director here. That might sound like a fake name but it"s the real one in this life you see."

The director seems to be more easygoing than I thought.
His name is [Kenji] on the AR reading.
Yet he adds Orerian on his name, he must cherish his family after his reincarnation.

After briefly exchanging greetings, we walk in the hall with him guiding us.
We separated from Zakuga the bodyguard, so he"s not here now.

"This place is bright--are you using Light Drops?"
"No no, those are 『LEDs』 you know."

The director answered my question lightly.

"Ell, ee, dee?"

Zensan"s p.r.o.nunciation was somewhat cute.

"Now that Kazursan"s no more, we"ve got to work hard and reproduce them or else we can"t replace them."
"We sure lost a valuable man."

The vice-director replied Tomiko"s remark without a hint of regret.

"It"ll be quick and easy if we just find a reincarnated person with a Unique Skill that can synthesize rare metal, but the merchants under the imperial command of his majesty the emperor couldn"t find one even after scouring the whole world, it might be impossible."

I see, so that"s the reason why there"s a lot of reincarnated people in the Weasel Empire.

"Saeki-san or I can make them as long as we have the material though."

Looking up on the map, this Saeki-san is someone with single digit level and has no Skill, so he"s probably a technician who worked in a company that dealt in LED production in his former world.

Right, I have to confirm one thing--.

"Since you have LED lights, that means you also have a power generator?"
"Un? We do. But since we got the gasoline from Kazursan, now we"re using Electric Turtles and Electric Frogs to charge electricity on batteries."
"Using monsters as a subst.i.tute of power generator huh."

Just when I was about to be convinced, I realized that he was joking.

"--That"s a lie isn"t it? You can just use common coals to run a steam turbine right?"
"Mou, you noticed too fast. And I"ve made a dummy generator room for visitors and all."

The director puffs his cheeks, the vice director and the black haired girl are looking at him with enraptured expressions.
Tomiko is the only one who"s looking at the three with cool eyes.

Several gla.s.s cases are put on a side of the wide corridor, exhibiting various things like a microwave oven and telephone instruments.

"There"s a lot of unusual things."
"Those aren"t made by the weasels, they seem to be articles from j.a.pan."

Liza answered the surprised Zensan in s.h.i.+ga language.
Lizsan knows more about j.a.panese culture than Zensan due to my flip-phone and Arisa telling her about various things with illusion magic.

"The things over there are summoned by Kazursan. We still can"t reproduce most of them you see."

The director said that in a slight vexation.
Even if he can draw a blueprint of an LSI with that Unique Skill, he probably doesn"t have the facility to actually make one.

After walking on the corridor for a while, one of the sides has changed to one fitted with gla.s.s, showing the place with Electric Turtles and Electric Frogs generator like he said earlier.

"Here"s the room to explain our research to our patrons. If we show our thermal power generator recklessly, there might be someone who"d want to remodel the steam locomotives you see."

I thought he despises the weasels but it seems he"s also relatively cautious against them.

"Once we can operate a large scale thermal power plant inside a building, the Weasel Empire will become a bright place like modern j.a.pan. Installing telephone and electric lines are difficult though, so we"ll need to make a power plant in each city y"see."
"How wonderful, director. The whole empire will benefit from science."

The vice director gives an applause with a serious look on her face.

"Do you know about the taboo of the G.o.ds?"
"Un? Of course."

He calmly answered when I asked him in a low voice.
He"s smiling and looking straight ahead but only his eyes aren"t laughing.

"Can you see the black building over there?"

The director points at a neighboring big building that can be seen from a small window.
When I nodded, he said, "We have nu-clear weapons over there you see."

Searching the map, every kind of modern weapons--even a nuclear submarine surprisingly, are inside the building. There"s even SLBMs with nuclear marks inside a wars.h.i.+p.

They"re probably summoned by the weasel demon lord"s Unique Skill.
I"m intrigued just how they"re maintaining them, but it must be mostly with Fixture magic.

"Are you going to threaten the G.o.ds with nuclear weapons?"
"We can probably launch an attack that has enough power to create another sun."

The [G.o.d"s Fragments] that couldn"t even be scratched by the holy swords flashed on my mind.

"It"s futile. Physical attacks don"t work on G.o.ds."
"Hee, It"s as if you"ve fought them huh?"

The director looks at me with squinted eyes.

Tomiko and the black haired girl have disappeared before I knew it.
Apparently the vice director who noticed our conversation sent the two away by asking them to do some errands.

"According to my Master, even the holy sword that could cut demon lords couldn"t even interfere with 『G.o.d』."
"Hmmm, Hero Nanas.h.i.+ of s.h.i.+ga Kingdom sure treads a tough life."

The director said that with a voice slightly mixed with pity.
I also just want to have an easygoing sightseeing tour if I could.

"Well, putting that aside, Touysan"s probably going to do something "bout the G.o.ds."
"Are you close with tactician Touya?"
"Ahaha, don"t even joke about it."

The director replied while laughing, but he spoke of it with chilly eyes.

"That person isn"t someone who will fight head-to-head fair and square anyway, in order to defeat the G.o.ds, he"s probably even willing to b.u.mp with your master and that thing whose name I hate to say you know?"

The director looks up at the sky from a small window while saying that.

What does he mean by "that thing"?

It"s probably not the new hero of Saga Empire, and judging from [thing whose name he hates to say] and an existence that can oppose the G.o.ds--I see, that huh.

I can see a faint white moon in the noon sky the director is looking up at.

◇

"--What"s that?"
"It"s a mock-up of particle accelerator."

When I asked him about a ring-shaped object in the courtyard, the director answered as such.

"That, you see. I"m using that to find out the true nature of magic essence."

--The true nature of magic essence?

"You see. I cannot allow myself to not know the unknown. Once I understand magic essence, I"ll investigate the reason why there are unscientific things like Skills and Level, and lastly--"

The director pulled my ears and whispered, "I want to find out the true ident.i.ty of G.o.ds" with a serious look.

"Keep it a secret from everyone okay. I haven"t told anyone "bout it."

After the director said that jokingly, the darkish anger burst out of the vice-director who has been abstaining herself calmly behind us. I clap Liza"s shoulder who reacted to the anger and retaliated by coercing the vice-director to stop her.

Still....

Researching about true nature of magic essence and all, this director is a true scientist.
His way of thinking is fundamentally different from me, an engineer.

"But, you see, there"s a lot of obstacles in this world, it"s hard to carry experiments."

He said that while looking at the particle accelerator mock-up.

"That particle accelerator is about 10 kilometer long, but there"s too many monsters on the ground they"ll quickly break it."
"Isn"t the smoke car"s rail longer?"
"Ahaha, you"re so funny Kuro-san. I can quickly repair it if it"s just locomotive rails, but that"s not possible with the particle accelerator."

The director turns at me with a smile of disdain.

"We can immediately start the next phase once we can successfully launch the experimental rocket to the geosynchronous...o...b..t though. Fortunately, some of my colleagues have the Infinite Inventory, so they can carry the parts needed to the s.p.a.ce and we don"t need to launch often. This kind of things is what"s nice in a fantasy world isn"t it."

I"m interested in his research and it"s possible to immediately start the experiment with my cooperation, but since it will obviously violate the G.o.d"s taboo, I restrain myself and speak nothing.

--Why are you restraining yourself? Just do it if you want to.

I felt like I heard such devilish whispers, but I don"t intend to deviate from the rule created by the creator of this world, however imperfect. At least for my sake and the sake of my close friends.

And--.

"EEEEEH! There"s monsters in s.p.a.ce too?!"
"The elves refer to them as mysterious creatures, but a lot of them are of the same cla.s.s as the Great Monstrous Fish Tovkezeera."
"Y-you serious.... d.a.m.nit, G.o.d is death!"

Hearing the director"s begrudging wail, I almost told him that two of them had already died, but since that"s probably not the response he wants to hear, I leave it to the vice-director to console the director.

Tomiko and the others came back then.

"Director, what"s wrong?"
"Looks like he"s a bit shocked."

Tomiko and the others acted as our guide in place of the director who went back to his room due to feeling unwell.
The director seemed to be the only one peculiar, the others staff members were all common people such as old factory workers and exhausted middle-aged male engineers.

"--Do we want to go back to our former world?"

My question seemed to be unexpected, the people who were having a welcoming party in the dining room fell silent.

"Don"t even joke about it."
"Right. I was asked the same question when I first came here, no way I"m going back to that world."
"Here, the meals are delicious, I can live in luxury, I have a house, a private car and above all, a job."
"I haven"t got a bride yet, but the thought of leaving a world where beautiful diligent maids, elves whom I haven"t seen yet, and girls with cat ears exist doesn"t even cross my mind."

Apparently, the Weasel Empire asks the people they summoned about their will at the time of the summoning.
Most of the people here seem to be happy about their treatment, they don"t seem to want to go back.

"Isn"t it better to ask that question to the people who fell into the slum?"

According to a middle-aged engineer, young people who didn"t have the required technical skills and ideas, and refused to even do ch.o.r.es are prowling around in the slum by relying on distributed food.
It seems many of the j.a.panese people who left this place couldn"t adapt to the city life and picked that course.

"Those guys are only wallowing in self-pity, you"d be better off not getting involved with them you know?"

They told me that, but I decided to check it with my own eyes.

◇

"--G.o.d"s punishment is upon us! People! Pray to G.o.d, and beg for mercy!"

That sermon reached my ears once we got to the slum.
When I turn my eyes at the source, an old weaselkin priest that looks like a dead tree is shouting out loud with fiery eyes full of madness.
It looks as if he"s going to spout fire from his mouth.

"That holy mark is of G.o.d Zaikuon. If Master allows, I can take care of him."

Liza is glaring at the old priest without hiding her animosity.
The memory when she was tormented by the fat Zaikuon priest in Seryuu city might have resurfaced.

"No, there"s no need for that."

I point at a direction where several government officials are running.

"Holy Master Bodrazog, it"s the emperor"s p.a.w.ns!"
"We"re changing places! O pious youths, follow after me!"

The elderly priest took about 10 young people into a back alley.
The transported people I"m looking for are among the youths who escaped with him.

Looks like they"re not waiting for distributed food in the slum, but devoting themselves to their faith.
Quite an intense act.

Of course there were several transported people who didn"t partic.i.p.ate in the act, but I couldn"t even connect a conversation with them since they were too lethargic, let alone asking their will, I stumbled at the first step.
If I were someone whose overflowing with the spirit of a volunteer, I probably would frequent here until they open their heart, but unfortunately, since I"m just a hypocritical ordinary person, I don"t intend to take care of them more than this.

Of course, it"ll be a different story if they come to me on their own.

And then, Lady Liedill visited our mansion when we returned there.

"Kuro! A summon from His Majesty the emperor! We"re going to the Imperial Castle!"

Lady Liedill caught my arm and pulled it.
As always, she doesn"t have consideration to an international guest, I think it"s because she"s been living in an isolated nation.

"Right now?"
"That"s right! You can"t make His Majesty wait. Your clothes fine, just come with me now."

Looks like the emperor is unexpectedly hasty.

Now then, let"s have an audience with the emperor--.