Kind, But Not Kind
“Ah, there you are.”
When I climbed to the third floor of the golem exhibition hall, a familiar face was there to greet me.
Golem Lover—the guild executive who had handed over a ship to me before I came here. I hadn't even known his name at first, but after checking the Magic Engineering Guild's roster, I discovered that this was, in fact, what he called himself.
The man with his hands in every single golem the guild produced.
“You're Golem Lover, correct? I've heard about you. They say you're the number one ranker when it comes to golems.”
“Ah, haha… that title is far too generous…”
Golem Lover answered while wiping cold sweat, and Ino-o beside him looked utterly baffled as to what his problem was. And no wonder—the Golem Lover I'd met before had been practically bursting with confidence.
He'd been strutting around, bragging about the full combat power of his golems. But the moment I'd smashed them all to pieces, his self-esteem had crumbled right along with them.
More than anything, judging by his reaction, he seemed to have at least half-suspected that Rafina and I were the same person.
Given the circumstances, he's probably not going to blab about what happened. And even if he did, he couldn't handle the fallout—so he has no choice but to keep me happy.
If he had that much spine, he'd have thrown every golem he owned at me back then to stop me.
“Th-this way, please. I'll handle the tour from here.”
Golem Lover turned to lead the way, and even his footsteps looked heavy.
Somebody please shut them up…
Golem Lover wiped away the streams of sweat rolling down his face and deleted the guild chat popping up in the corner of his vision. The elders were too busy razzing him to realize this was a matter of enormous consequence.
It's really her.
Until he'd faced her directly, he'd dismissed it as a plausible delusion—or at most, a remote possibility. Not anymore.
The Lily standing before him was the bandit he'd seen that day.
And that bandit had recently shot to fame as a user called 'Rafina,' with community forums endlessly debating whether Lily and Rafina were the same person. Opinion was split fifty-fifty, and Lily herself had neither confirmed nor denied it, leaving everything in an ambiguous haze.
But Golem Lover, a ranker with a genuine measure of insight into mana, knew for certain.
No—anyone who had seen the two of them separately would know, period.
It's obvious to anyone with eyes…!
Their manner of speech was similar, and while their behavior differed in small ways, at their core they were identical. Above all, that peculiar mana ripple unique to Lily could be felt from Rafina as well.
Rafina's was extremely faint, but Golem Lover wore 'glasses'—and with them, it was easy to notice. Not that she seemed to be making much of an effort to hide it in the first place.
“This is a Titan-class golem. A war machine in the fifth of the golem classification's seven tiers, with strength on par with a level 80-to-90 field boss, along with numerous other special functions.”
“And that one?”
“That's a Gigant-class golem, a tier-six war machine. Level 100 field boss-class strength, plus special—”
Still, he couldn't make a scene.
Lily was the most famous superstar in DeoEn, and as a streamer, she commanded a massive following.
What? Lily attacked the Magic Engineering Guild disguised as a bandit and stole a ship?!
Normally, when something like this happened, people would naturally curse out the attacker—but the attacker was Lily.
One of the users whose standing reached for the heavens, and beyond her sheer power, an enormous number of people genuinely loved her personality and character.
Above all, Lily had come armed with the biggest justification of all: the Great Cataclysm Raid.
If he exposed the truth in this situation, people would search for reasons before they hurled insults—and then the Magic Engineering Guild, which had to sell those ships at exorbitant prices, would find itself in a very awkward position indeed.
She's kind, but she's not kind.
Call her kind? She'd smashed a man with a hammer and shaken down compensation that was basically extortion.
Call her unkind? The payment had been fair, and her purpose was closer to peace than war.
Even at this very moment, she was running herself ragged to reduce the damage of the Great Cataclysm.
“…And that concludes the golem exhibition. A few more are in development, but they're not ready for public release yet.”
“Then what about the tier-seven war machine? Is that what I saw outside the building earlier?”
“Ah, that's less of a war machine and more of a symbolic—”
Badabadabada…!
A violent wind slammed against the building's exterior.
In an instant, the sky above the Proiden Kingdom darkened, and an enormous ship wreathed in blue ironwork revealed itself overhead.
A lone man stood on the deck, black cloak billowing, staring steadily down at them.
The only person in the entire guild authorized to move a large-class vessel for 'personal' purposes.
“Th-the Guildmaster appears to have arrived.”
“So that's a large-class ship, huh. It's huge.”
'Oh, you noticed, did you? Then don't pretend you didn't…!'
Golem Lover bit back the words climbing up his throat and hurriedly ushered Lily outside.
Somewhere along the way, the people of Proiden had gathered as if welcoming a king, waving their hands up at the colossal floating ship.
[Insane]
[Holy crap that's sick]
[How is it THAT big]
[holyshitholyshitholyshit]
[???]
[That's freaking enormous?]
[Whoa]
[Worth billions, no cap]
[So badass lmaoooooooo]
[Drop it on them]
[Ask them for it lololol]
[Robbery GO GO]
[Info: that ship is worth tens of billions]
Lily's chat window, too, was erupting with astonishment at the sheer majesty of the large floating ship.
"Greetings, Lady Lily."
A deep, resonant voice rolled across the entire kingdom.
That man was the wellspring of every magitech technology in existence and the master of the guild—Robus Offer.
"Thank you for visiting the Magic Engineering Guild. I trust you have enjoyed the view of our guild's magnificent technology?"
“More than enough.”
"I sincerely hope it was to your liking. Only then can we work that much harder to produce and supply our floating ships—since ours are, without question, the finest vessels in existence today."
A rather arrogant remark, considering he stood before the true Rank 1—and was himself flying through the sky on the strength of Rank 2.
But the ship he rode was genuinely the finest vessel and item there was. Officially graded Mythic, it was in practice beyond Mythic, and it possessed special functions unique to large-class ships that the small and medium variants simply lacked.
That's right. It really is the best.
He'd spent all this time cowering before the great Lily, but the truth was that no one could match the Magic Engineering Guild's technology—not now, not ever. Even that incredible Lily was powerful because of her abilities, not because her craft was superior.
The moment he settled his heart like that, he felt he finally understood why the Guildmaster had brought out the one-of-a-kind large-class ship.
He's seizing the initiative. Making absolutely sure the price never comes down.
Lily's personality and temperament were common knowledge. A mage of her caliber would inevitably examine the ship and start listing its strengths and weaknesses—and every single word out of her mouth was guaranteed to flip public opinion.
The pricing on small and medium ships had already crossed far too many lines, so things would surely not go well for the guild.
Lily had already declared that a small ship cost less than fifty million won.
But what if they show it off from the very start?
If they demonstrated the floating ship's magnificence right out of the gate, they could steer the tide of public opinion!
Sure enough—the Guildmaster's plan seemed to be working, because the chat's mood had already shifted in the Magic Engineering Guild's favor. Not outright devotion, but a definite undercurrent of well, can't really argue with that, can you?
“Hmmm…”
Even Lily, staring intently up at the ship beside him, wasn't disputing anything.
Sensing his chance, the Guildmaster moved the ship immediately.
"It would hardly be polite to make grand claims without showing our guest, would it? Allow me to demonstrate the true power of the Magic Engineering Guild."
Keee-eeeng!
Keee-eeeng!
Keee-eeeng!
A section of the great ship's flank split open, revealing rows of blue magitech cannon barrels.
Only one side—and barely a third of it at that—had opened, and yet the number of barrels came to roughly three hundred.
The barrels swiveled and took aim at that enormous mountain of stone. An utterly ordinary mountain, notable for nothing except the fact that it was a mountain.
At last, magic formula patterns etched themselves across the barrels, and three hundred points of blue light fired into the open air.
KWAGAGAGAGANG!!
With a thunderous roar, an explosion of blue light engulfed the mountain—and when it cleared, nothing remained but a perfectly flat plain.
An entire 'mountain' had vanished in the blink of an eye.
Clap clap clap.
Lily applauded. The expression on her face—part mocking ooh~, part genuine surprise—suggested she was actually a little impressed.
"That volley used 327 barrels. Should we open the remaining hull sections, we can field up to 1,768 in total. And since the munitions are mana rounds rather than iron shells, there is no need to reload—simply feed mana stones into the reservoir."
“Impressive. The Magic Engineering Guild truly lives up to its name.”
"And that is not all. Formula-driven defensive barriers grant Mythic-grade resistance to elemental damage, a stealth function is available for use, and though still in development, we are working on crossing through space itself—"
“It's all very nice.”
Chwek.
Lily's finger pointed at the sky.
“But no matter how much you've got, it's too much. Feels cheap.”
"…What."
KUUUUNG!
Krk-kkrrrk… One side of the ship began to tilt.
An earsplitting alarm tore through the air, and the Guildmaster's expression froze solid.
"Wh-what! What's going on?!"
He was so flustered that he'd left the voice amplifier on and was just screaming into it.
And at the end of that tilting deck—
“Whoa! Big one incoming!”
—was Leo.