Supply Chain Stabilization (4)
Supply Chain Stabilization (4)
"This is at a terrifying level."
Paaaat-!
395th monument-breaking.
When I free the fairies trapped in the Runestones, they now cling to my chassis without a moment's hesitation.
Looking at these fairy friends who have set up camp and laid down first, they seem to be under the grand delusion that my chassis is safe.
"If they knew what kind of person I am—how much I overwork and mistreat my subordinates—they wouldn't be doing this, tsk tsk."
[The fairies have a good eye, don't they? General Director-nim, you might work us to the bone, but you don't overwork the citizens. They're recognizing Trixie-nim's good-natured character!]
"Me, being good-natured? When I'm overflowing with enthusiasm to screw over the dwarves out of pure malice? A passing dog would bark in disbelief."
[You're doing it again! None of the Lunatium citizens think that! It's just you, Trixie-nim, who is too strict on yourself, General Director-nim.]
{Agreed. If Archon-nim wasn't good-natured, you would have already blown up our data center. Just keeping us alive is full of mercy.}
Twinkle twinkle.
Even the fairies, who can't even speak, seem to have so much they want to say, repeatedly flashing their brilliant light as they plead.
Come to think of it, fairies showing this much favor and being absorbed was definitely a female protagonist event.
"At this rate, I could even be the Saintess. An android dictator as a Saintess—what a ridiculous play that would be."
[Uh...? Trixie-nim as the Saintess...?]
{Hmph. It's worth considering.}
"Why are you taking it so seriously, you idiot AI tin cans? If you have nothing to do, don't open a comms channel just to add your two cents; get back to your actual work."
[Okay..]
{Aww.}
Pat!
I scold Elara and Colonia, who have started useless worrying, and dismiss them.
Not a human.
Not a woman.
Not altruistic.
My tone is vulgar, so no matter how you look at it, I am not a Saintess.
It's not like I'm panicking, going "oh no, oh no," just because I snatched a protagonist event from a romance fantasy novel.
On the contrary, if I can eat it, I'll devour it to my heart's content, and if given the chance, I'd gulp it down with zero guilt, thinking, "Oh, how nice."
It's just that the Saintess and I aren't exactly enemies.
It's just that I don't have the spiteful desire to steal the status of someone who is alive and breathing somewhere in this world, whom I've never even met.
I've lived well for over 10 years without getting tangled up in romance fantasy events, and I'll continue to live well on my own.
'Though the story changes if we get entangled through war.'
If the Saintess takes on a role in the coming war, we might eventually meet and become enemies.
But I don't have the unproductive hobby of dragging emotions from a future possibility that hasn't even happened yet.
Such emotional expenditure is something that can be done later when it actually happens in reality.
"Shall we focus on the miracle right in front of us?"
Hwaaaa-
Pure mana, which I believed I would never experience in my lifetime and would never feel in the future, circulates through my chassis.
A miracle that only some talented individuals among humans can manifest—magic.
This world's special miracle, which I thought had nothing to do with me trapped in a metal chassis no matter how advanced the technology was, reaches me, using the fairies' favor as a stepping stone.
"Hmm... I can gauge it. I certainly can."
I can feel it.
Starting a fire.
Creating water.
Summoning a storm.
At a glance, it seems like performing miracles by defying all physical rules.
But I vaguely feel the truth that mana is just another force that harmonizes with the world and faithfully follows its basic operations.
Inducing strong friction. Condensing water vapor. Delicately controlling the temperature of the vast sky, etc.
It is not denying the laws of physics themselves.
An intangible force that adjusts the strength and weakness so that the intended physical phenomenon can occur.
That is mana.
"Then, like this."
Gravity is the force that pulls all objects toward each other, so what would happen if I strongly adjusted the gravity between specific objects?
Ttak.
I snap my fingers.
Kiririk-!
The broken Runestones merge with each other and regain their original form.
If you look closely, cracks remain and a few puzzle pieces seem misaligned, so it's not exactly the same.
I've managed to roughly imitate a magician who turns back time.
An Archmage would be someone who is perfect down to these delicate details, and whose mana capacity exceeds the ordinary.
"Hmm?"
But something is strange.
Even if it was small, I used magic, so mana should be consumed...
Saaaa-
The number of tens of thousands of fairies, who have made the molecular structure inside the steel plates that make up my chassis their home, simply does not decrease.
Surely it's not some comfortable story where I'm the only one with unlimited mana.
As a test, I try floating a boulder in the sky, and even push myself a bit to flatten a cliff into dirt.
"It really isn't decreasing?"
Paaaat-
The fairies, as if confident that they have plenty, slipped out of my chassis and responded by flickering around me with the soft light of candlelight.
I don't know the reason, but what's good is good.
It was strange from the moment I possessed this scrap metal can, and thinking about it deeply only overheats my logic circuits.
Ding.
Just then, another communication request came in from Elara.
[General Director-nim, is the operation finished? A dwarf armed group has started heading toward the mining complex we occupied. I will launch a transport plane to the site for Trixie-nim's safe return.]
"Have it circle and wait nearby for a moment."
[Uh. At this rate, you'll run into them soon... You're not planning on engaging them directly, are you?]
The original plan was auto-hunting after extracting the Runestones.
If the rune armaments the dwarves boast about are weakened, they'll become fools who can't even beat our official duty robots reinforced with nano-molecular structure design alloys.
The plan was that if they got beaten up and came to their senses, we could open a proper negotiation table, but...
Now, I have a better means of shock and awe in my grasp: magic.
"Because I have a whole bunch of things to test. Don't worry, it probably won't even come to an engagement. I'll finish the subsequent negotiations all at once."
[...Whaaat? They're coming, so how can you not fight?? No, more than that, what do you mean you'll finish the negotiations too!! Again, again, again, you're trying to solve it alone! No, absolutely not!!]
"You'll see."
[Trixie-niiim-!]
Pit.
I mute Elara, who is on the verge of tears from worrying about me, and head north, humming happily.
Dwarves.
A race that naturally doesn't take well to magic.
In other words, it means they are the perfect opponents for practicing magic.
If I accidentally use magic with this overflowing mana on a living person, they'd be torn to shreds immediately.
A massive amount of biological test subjects that I can legally practice magic on to my heart's content has just rolled in?
There's no other opportunity given for free like this.
They are too precious resources to just let them get beaten up by the official duty dolls and go back.
"What are you? You're quite pretty for a woman of the mountain-dwellers."
I had already confidently faced the procession of dwarves marching through the white snowfield.
Dwarves wearing Viking helmets with spikes on both sides, armed with axes and warhammers, laugh at me.
"Wait, looking closely, it's just a moving piece of scrap metal with a shell on it."
"It's probably something those wild brats stitched together for amusement."
"Kuahahaha!! They've reached the point of making a woman because they don't have one to warm their beds!"
"How pathetic and uncivilized!"
Hundreds of bearded dwarves burst into laughter.
I also smiled and said.
"That's right. There might not be any dwarf women to welcome you—who are short, greedy, dull-witted, and stuck in the glory of the past. But with Lunatium's advanced technological civilization, even an android with reproductive functions that can cater to you degenerates in every detail is not a dream!"
"...Hu, huh?"
The dwarves are speechless and flustered by the barrage of mockery.
It seemed their brains froze for a moment at the raw insults, devoid of any profanity, that they were hearing for the first time in their lives.
"If you are willing to withdraw your armed provocation against Lunatium, return Lunatium's rightful territory, compensate for the losses caused by the irrational economic sanctions imposed on Lunatium, and apologize, we can part ways peacefully today without anyone getting hurt. I can even throw in a dwarf beautiful girl android to prove the friendship between our two civilizations; how about it?"
However, when I brought up the main point, the dwarves, who couldn't gather their wits, quickly understood my meaning and became indignant.
"Look at this. I wondered what kind of crazy talk she was spouting all of a sudden, turns out she's a total psycho bitch!"
"Even if she's wearing human skin, she's exactly like the savages of the lowlands."
"This is our mountain range. I never thought I could talk to you bastards who insult the spirit of our ancestors!"
"Tear that detestable scrap metal to shreds! Show the firm will of our ancestors by smashing it to pieces!!"
Waaaaah-!
The dwarves charge, shouting.
"Sigh. I clearly offered to negotiate peacefully first. Right, Elara?"
[-!!]
"Oh, right. I muted Elara-yang too. As long as it's recorded well, that's enough."
Ppiyup-
The ping-pong ball-sized recording drone operated by the quick-witted Elara quickly rises into the sky.
Naturally, the audio recording is turned off.
Since my lacking provocation skills aren't included, the video only shows the situation where they suddenly charged first while we were talking peacefully.
It's excellent material to promote to the domestic media as evidence that it was an unavoidable act of defense.
"Now, then...."
Ttak-!
I snapped my fingers threateningly at the charging dwarves.
"Welcome to science fiction, everyone."
Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.
It is time to prove this myself.