Chapter 295: A World Made of Gears - 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 295: A World Made of Gears - 2
Maximilien was born in the Fallen Dominion.
A country where all of creation was a falsehood, born of alchemy. Even a single stone rolling on the roadside was an artifact someone had created. The land where the Golden Lord roamed was a blessing and a curse in one. Humans lived their lives crushed under the weight of gold.
It had taken less than a hundred years for the nature that Mother Earth had spent hundreds of millions of years creating to be completely covered by the traces of humanity. In that country, where even the lusciously ripened crops held the poison of steel, humans themselves were used as mere materials.
It was thanks to being born in such a land that Maximilien survived.
Maximilien had no arms. Neither he nor his parents were particularly surprised. To someone born without arms, the concept of having four limbs is foreign. Besides, the Fallen Dominion was a peculiar country where, if you had three children, one was bound to be born with a deformity.
In the Fallen Dominion, anything that was lacking was supplemented with alchemy. This was true even for the arms of a child who had not yet grown. His parents, who were reasonably competent alchemists, decided to make prosthetic arms for their child.
They were overly ambitious for their level of skill.
The Fallen Dominion was a country where, if you had three children, one would be born with madness. Maximilien’s parents were such a case. From a young age, Maximilien was subjected to all sorts of modifications under his parents’ fervent attention.
Was it love? Obsession? Or was it the mindset of scholars, burning with a fighting spirit in the face of a difficult problem?
In any case, thanks to his parents’ extreme efforts and the endless pain he endured, Maximilien came to understand alchemy. With that knowledge, he built his own prosthetic arms.
He soon became famous as he wandered the Fallen Dominion with his gear-driven arms.
No matter how brilliant an alchemist, it is difficult to implement necessary functions on the fly. But for Maximilien, to whom gears were like his own body, he could create sturdy mechanical devices even from low-quality materials. People were enthralled by his works, which were different from the very design stage.
Alchemy is honest. According to the law of equivalent exchange, no matter how hard one tries to cut costs, one cannot surpass the absolute amount of alchemic value. Sticking to conventional methods was no way to compete with Maximilien.
Having gained a competitive edge, Maximilien practically raked in money from all over the Fallen Dominion. In a land where alchemic value was truth, money was power. With enormous capital, Maximilien established a company and rose as a new emerging power in the Fallen Dominion…
Until the Golden Palace rejected him.
Once permission was granted, the Dholes pounced. Maximilien was an outstanding alchemist and had some skill in combat, but the Fallen Dominion was the land of alchemy. A miracle where the lighter side of the scale tips the balance does not occur when the other side is heavier.
After a long chase, Maximilien had to flee across the border.
Then one day, news arrived that his parents were looking for him. It was obvious they had been taken hostage. Ignoring them would have been the rational choice, but to Maximilien, his parents were his teachers and benefactors. He couldn't let them die. He returned to the Fallen Dominion of his own free will.
Meeting his parents under heavy guard, Maximilien took a gear out of his pocket.
It is said that in the Fallen Dominion, if you have three children, one will be a deformed child, one a madman, and one a genius.
Sometimes, all three are born at once.
Maximilien despised his parents' incompetence and neurotic nature. Taking out their frustrations on their child after a failed experiment was something Maximilien’s common sense could never comprehend. But, aside from that, he loved his family well enough.
In the Fallen Dominion, if something is lacking, you fill it with alchemy. Just as his parents had done for his arms, Maximilien decided to ‘fix’ his parents’ heads.
His parents could no longer get angry. One cannot get angry if one cannot think.
Unlike his parents, Maximilien did not pass the blame for his failure. He calmly admitted his own shortcomings, settled all his affairs, and left.
*
Just before the sharp saw blade could tear me to shreds, a brown shadow fell beside me like a meteor. It was Azzy, who had been hiding until now. The Dog King, able to unleash her fury to her heart's content against the gears, leaped fiercely toward the saw blade.
“Woof woof!”
Even Azzy wasn't foolish enough to sink her teeth into a sharp saw blade. Her target was not the blade itself, but the axle connected to it. Dashing inside the Steel Beetle in an instant, Azzy bit down on the rotating shaft and thrashed her head. She intended to rip the axle right out.
“Arf! Arf-arf-arf-arf-arf!”
And then she screamed, still hanging on.
Size does not always correlate with strength, but the Steel Beetle demonstrated the pure difference in weight class. Azzy spun round and round along with the saw blade.
“Azzy. You can’t beat that with your strength alone.”
Humans are not strong. Objectively speaking, they have no physical advantages over other animals. Their skin is thin, their claws are dull, and their bones are fragile. It’s a wonder how they survived at all.
But the true strength of humans is the ability to borrow strength from other places.
They skin other animals to cover their own bodies. They break stones and pull out horns to use as claws. They cut down trees and twist vines to serve in place of a skeleton. The strength brought in this way is not their own, so it can be handled carelessly. If a tool breaks, you just make another one.
By using tools, humans became the rulers of the earth.
The Steel Beetle, which greedily applied the principles of the axle, multiplied its force by thousands, by hundreds of times arithmetically. In the face of the violence of numbers, even the Dog King could not hold out.
Ah, except for the King of Humans, of course.
I reached out my hand toward the falling saw blade, Azzy still dangling from it. My hand covered the side of the blade that could tear apart the entire world in an instant.
Ordinarily, my hand should have been ripped to shreds.
Thud.
The meeting of the saw blade and me ended with a quiet sound. The blade, which had been raging like a furious storm, became a still life the moment it touched my hand.
“Mmmph…”
The dumb whimper of Azzy, dangling from the steel shaft in her mouth, could be heard. In the silence, Maximilien opened his mouth.
“…So it wasn't an empty taunt. To think you can control even the Steel Beetle.”
“If you can do it, so can I.”
Unlike the automaton carriages powered by Thundergears, the Steel Beetle moves solely by Maximilien’s ability. The rolling wheels, the rotating saw blade, even the joints connecting the gears—all are under his power.
Therefore, I, who use the same power, can exert the same level of control.
Maximilien flicked his fingers. A motion like scratching the air with his fingernails, and with each movement, the Steel Beetle twitched. It tried to escape my grasp and move according to its true master’s will.
But as long as I held it, it would not move. Because I was moving in the exact opposite way to Maximilien.
‘We’re canceling each other out. I can’t completely seize control. So that’s the extent of it… I have a chance.’
Tch. He’s quick to catch on.
After being provoked this much, it would be fine for him to lose his reason, but maybe it’s because he has gears embedded in his head. His emotions and reason move separately.
“Isn't it rather pathetic to get angry after I've hit a nerve?”
“I am not angry. You have the right to say such things to me.”
Don’t lie. You’re angry. You’re just desperately turning the gears of thought in your head to hold onto your reason!
“You attack me without a word and now you say you're not angry. I find that hard to believe.”
“It cannot be helped. You have no will to follow me. But I need you. Since our opinions do not mesh, we have no choice but to determine which opinion is stronger.”
“Even if you drag me away, I can just refuse to cooperate.”
“You might not cooperate. But what about the King of Humans?”
That is indeed a problem.
I am the King of Humans, and even if I regain my power, my personality won't be twisted or changed.
But the reason I can't help but feel threatened is that humans have a history of ousting their own king, and…
“Perhaps… the King of Sins might be more cooperative.”
No matter how I think about it, the King of Sins that the Regressor saw in the future is undoubtedly the King of Humans.
I am human. I am a beast. A beast would not do something to destroy the world. No, it’s impossible in the first place. Because a beast is also a part of the world.
To destroy the world, one must first commit suicide, but if you commit suicide, you can’t destroy the world. What a contradiction.
And yet, they managed it. Amazing, those humans.
“I do not know the inner workings of The Human Regime well. In truth, I never needed to. My purpose was to meet the King of Humans, and that alone. However… if you will not acknowledge me, then I must devise another method!”
Maximilien raised his right arm.
Gears that had crawled out from somewhere rolled over his body. Without any need for assembly, the gears moved to find their own places. Steel meshed with a heavy sound. In an instant, a giant arm of steel was complete.
Maximilien swung the steel arm, aiming for me. I let out a scream.
“You said you were taking me with you!”
“Do not worry. I will fix you even if your limbs are broken.”
“I don’t need that!”