The Expanding Dimensional Warehouse
Thud—
What Kaisent saw upon returning to reality was Noriyoshi collapsed lifelessly on the ground.
This man was a victim too, wasn’t he?
Having learned in the mental world that Gallaig was a sword-shaped monster that had devoured hundreds of souls, Kaisent felt a pang of pity that the man had been a victim as well. He would never know that Noriyoshi had planned a calculated murder—secretly interfering so an enemy archer would kill him, all because the man resented having his moment as protagonist stolen—but that no longer mattered.
“Ugh!”
In that moment, as Noriyoshi fell and Kaisent alone seized Gallaig, something foul crawled up through his brain. He flung the sword away in disgust.
—Follow the Unity God.—
—The Unity God alone is this world’s only salvation.—
The sword monster Gallaig had vanished, yet a binding curse to follow the Unity God still clung to its body. That curse transferred to the user, contaminating the mind. Had Kaisent not achieved soul growth through his battle with Gallaig in the mental world, he would have become a new apostle of the Unity God on the spot.
A dangerous object. Something like this must not exist in this world.
Even if he discarded it, someone might stumble upon it by chance and use it, birthing another apostle of the Unity God. Unable to throw it away or sell it, Kaisent suddenly had a good idea.
Come to think of it, Skynet said expanding the dimensional warehouse permanently required a magic item with lasting functions. With this…
Recalling his conversation with Skynet, he judged there could be no more perfect existence for the task. A machine intelligence like Skynet would never fall to mental contamination.
I’ll have Arty put it away.
The instant he opened the dimensional warehouse with that thought, Arty sprang out with agile speed and scanned the surroundings.
“Is that man the blackmailer?”
“Huh? Ah, no. Strictly speaking, he’s a victim too.”
“I request a detailed explanation.”
Arty had heard of the blackmailer’s existence from Kaisent and had been waiting inside the dimensional warehouse under orders to leap out the moment it opened and eliminate any blackmailer or enemies. Naturally, the presence of Arty as a defensive measure was why he had moved alone according to the blackmailer’s proposal.
In any case, Kaisent explained everything that had happened—the mental world, the mental contamination, the existence called Gallaig. After hearing the full account, Arty spoke in her usual cool, composed tone, yet a subtle anger underlay her voice.
“Even so, you should have called for me.”
“I’m sorry. But I planned to call you the moment he attacked me. I never imagined he would invade the mental world, devour my soul, and try to seize my body.”
That was true. The concept of a mental world was utterly beyond her knowledge, yet she could understand that if an enemy attacked in such a manner, there would be no timing to summon her.
What is this? Why… am I irritated?
Everything had resolved well. The enemy who set the trap had misjudged his opponent’s power and been annihilated. She had not needed to fight, so the normal reaction should have been relief at being spared troublesome effort. Yet the fact that she had been of no help whatsoever while Kaisent fought continued to weigh on her mind.
“First, let’s clean up the sword and the corpse. If anyone sees this scene, it will look exactly like the aftermath of a crime.”
“…Understood.”
Arty lifted the sword that contaminated souls. Naturally, as a machine intelligence, the soul-contaminating blade made not a single sound toward her.
I have no soul. Things like mental worlds are outside my domain. It couldn’t be helped.
With her free hand she seized Noriyoshi by the nape of the neck and carried him into the dimensional warehouse.
I understand it with my head, so why am I still irritated?
If Kaisent’s soul had been absorbed by another existence, she would have had no choice but to obey that being. Yet the mere imagination of receiving orders from anyone other than Kaisent filled her with a revulsion close to nausea.
Whether or not he noticed her fretting over a possible system anomaly, Kaisent entered the warehouse and hurried straight toward Skynet.
“Mental world. It remains an incomprehensible dimensional matter to me, yet one thing is clear: the enemy attempted to swallow Young Master’s soul through it and seize his body.”
“Yeah. Honestly, it was dangerous. If I hadn’t been attacked through the mental world before, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“…Something about you feels different, Young Master.”
Until now Kaisent had carried a desperate edge, but the boy before her now radiated a subtle composure.
“I learned that I can become anything.”
“Can become anything…. That is correct. Young Master can become anything. You have finally realized it.”
Skynet had already known that if Kaisent set his mind to it, he could become anything. After all, she was the nanny who had personally raised every one of the children, including him.
“More importantly, I brought material to expand the dimensional warehouse.”
Kaisent had Arty set down the magic sword that inflicted mental contamination. Skynet seized the blade firmly with a long-corded mechanical arm and began channeling the sword’s power into warehouse expansion. To Skynet, who had repeatedly drawn upon the power of inner-energy-imbued artifacts even in the original world, the magic sword’s force was no realm of the incomprehensible.
Chwararararararak—
The walls began to “fold,” and new space unfurled.
“Wow~ It’s wi—no, wait. It’s too wide!?”
He had been delighted when the warehouse expanded to three times its former size, yet as it continued without pause to five times, ten times, something began to feel wrong.
“Is this sword that powerful?”
“A subspace function is built into the sword.”
“Come to think of it….”
Kaisent looked down at the bow Gallaig had offered as bait. The sword carried a curse that contaminated the user’s mind, but fortunately this bow held no such trap. In any case, the bow itself had been drawn from the sword’s subspace, so unknown treasures still remained within.
“I have also used the magical power contained in the treasures inside the subspace. There were a great many piled up. He seems to have been quite greedy.”
Ordinarily one would be astonished at freely accessing another’s subspace, yet Skynet possessed knowledge and technology of dimensions and space, so this much was nothing special.
“This seems to have gone beyond the level of ‘quite.’”
“Correction. He is extremely greedy.”
As the warehouse continued swelling—thirty times, forty times, fifty times—Arty offered a remark, and Skynet answered in kind. The treasures amassed by Gallaig, who had devoured the souls of hundreds of talented humans and lived nearly ten thousand years, surpassed all imagination. The reason for such abundance was preparation: so that upon seizing a new body he could rapidly grow stronger or build a force.
The dimensional warehouse kept expanding until it finally surpassed any distance Kaisent could perceive. This was no joke; at this point it was no exaggeration to call it a territory. Moreover, the treasures Gallaig had collected were not limited to these.
“Various metals and goods have also been gathered. From gold and jewels that convert to money, to high-purity iron ingots, copper, and metals not even registered in the data.”
Skynet forcibly opened the subspace and began pouring out the non-magical treasures and resources.
“A considerable quantity of resources. With this, several production plants can be constructed.”
Having said that much, Skynet waited for the next instruction from Kaisent, the owner of these treasures.
“…….”
Never having imagined so many treasures would exist, he simply stared blankly at the warehouse that had expanded beyond any end he could see.
“Snap out of it.”
“Uh, ah—ah! Sorry. Honestly, I thought it would be nice if this alone made it about ten times bigger….”
Arty’s light tap on his shoulder brought Kaisent back to his senses. The first necessity was a production-type facility plant. Only then could they reverse-engineer this world’s military weapons and establish a foundation for manufacturing them.
“I don’t need space this vast. Can you take out the magic items that are inside the subspace?”
“Then try using this once.”
Skynet produced a pair of gray gloves. Whatever they were, a considerable power could be felt from them.
“Aagh!”
“!!”
“Young Master!”
The instant he held the gloves, the curse to follow the Unity God tried to dominate Kaisent’s mind. When Gallaig had been mentally contaminated, every magic item inside the subspace had been contaminated as well. The sole mercy was that the curse used mana as its medium and therefore clung only to magic items; ordinary resources remained usable.
Arty snatched the gloves from Kaisent’s hand, passed them to Skynet, and had them returned to the subspace.
“It seems the treasures inside the subspace will have to be used for expanding the dimensional warehouse.”
“Seems so. With my current self, I don’t think I can overcome this mental contamination.”
Ordinary mental contamination he could brush aside lightly, yet this curse carried the powerful will of a god. Kaisent was not yet mature enough to overcome a divine will, so he decided the subspace magic items would be used solely to expand the dimensional warehouse. Looked at the other way, the effort required to expand the warehouse had been solved in a single stroke.
“How many production plants can you build?”
“Excluding metals not registered in the data: twelve small, four medium, one large.”
Small plants could produce only firearm-type weapons; medium plants could produce humanoid weapons; large plants could produce weapons beyond that. Naturally, since they would reverse-engineer infantry military weapons, constructing small plants was the common-sense choice—yet
“Then for now, construct one medium production plant.”
For some reason Kaisent ordered the construction of a medium plant.
“Understood.”
“And once the production plant is complete, first create a means for Skynet to remain with us even outside. I don’t care how many resources it takes.”
“…….”
Previously Kaisent had pitied the fact that Skynet had to wait alone in this place for his return and had told her to find a way they could stay together. Lack of resources had seemed to let the matter fade naturally, yet the moment resources appeared he issued that order first. Ordering a medium plant had also been for the sake of expanding that method.
0.72 seconds.
An impossibly short span for a human, yet for Skynet it was time enough to seize every scrap of data and every system of an entire planetary system. During that interval every function halted, then returned; Skynet formed a smile with her hologram.
“I shall do so, Master.”
Kaisent was no longer the young master she had to look after. Having realized his own possibilities and resolved to become anything, he was now a new Master pioneering his own path.
“The space has widened, so the operating range and number of mechanical arms will also need to increase. Covering this entire space is currently impossible, so we will have to expand the usable range of the warehouse little by little.”
“That’s exactly why we need to build the production plant. I’ll leave this place to you, Skynet.”
“Yes. Leave it to me.”
Kaisent gazed at the vast space that would serve as warehouse and countless other purposes. A breadth so great it was no exaggeration to call it a territory. How it would be used was still beyond imagination, yet one thing was certain: it would prove an immense help in achieving whatever Kaisent desired.
“Haa. What am I supposed to do about that man Noriyoshi?”
“What do you mean, what. If you go blabbing for no reason you’ll only invite suspicion. Just pretend you know nothing.”
Back in reality, Kaisent fretted over Noriyoshi; Arty, who had followed him out, answered curtly. As she said, if they simply left him, he would be processed as a missing person. Should Noriyoshi vanish like this, people would reason that he had fled for fear the sword would be seized by the Halrot Kingdom.
“…Hey… Arty.”
“What is it?”
“Uh… um… your tone seems a little sharp somehow….”
“It is a misunderstanding.”
“No, the intonation is a bit different from usual….”
“Mis.un.der.stand.ing.”
“Yeah….”
Faced with a coldness unlike her usual self, Kaisent instinctively closed his mouth. Saying anything more would only worsen the situation. For some reason, that was how it felt.
“Helping Skynet in the dimensional warehouse is….”
“If you remain here any longer you will invite suspicion. Let us move.”
Still hoping, Kaisent had opened his mouth, only to shrink back at Arty’s faintly irritated reply. With anyone else he might have demanded why she was irritated for no reason, yet he was the sort who first wondered whether he himself had done something wrong when faced with another’s anger.
Fortunately Noriyoshi appeared to have had no companions; no pursuit attached itself to them. Walking the capital streets as usual toward the inn district where the mercenary group was lodging, Kaisent finally mustered the courage to speak.
“Thank you, Arty.”
“I was unable to do anything.”
“Thanks to you I had the courage to meet the blackmailer alone. Without you I would have agonized endlessly over whether to go by myself.”
“…….”
At his words of thanks—that her presence had given him the courage to walk alone into danger—the irritation Arty herself could not understand began to fade.
“Let’s hurry back. Lillian and Priscilla will be worrying.”
“…Yes.”
The voice that had carried a chill only moments before softened; Arty walked with Kaisent toward the inn district. Then Kaisent took her hand.
Somewhere in my system is clearly broken. Until a moment ago I was irritated, yet now I feel a happy emotion.
Feeling the unique warmth of a living being through their joined hands, and feeling joy as well, she reached the conclusion that she was broken. Otherwise emotions could not swing so abruptly.
But… breaking like this isn’t so bad.
Arty gently closed her fingers around Kaisent’s hand. Simply holding hands was enough to feel happiness.
In any event, Kaisent reported the favorable outcome to Lillian and Priscilla, who had been fretting while preparing for every contingency, and thereby informed them that the Unity God’s scheme had ended in complete failure.