Chapter 134: The Tin Knight and the Golden Alchemist (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 134: The Tin Knight and the Golden Alchemist (4)
The moment it reached the sandy shore, the golden carriage (ship) began to transform once again.
As the wheels, which had resembled water wheels, returned to their normal carriage form, the rattling and shaking vehicle stabilized.
Dorothea asked.
“By the way, where is the witch now? I doubt that castle we fought in is still standing.”
“Normally, she would have rebuilt the castle using her homunculi, but even for her, finishing it in less than two days would be impossible.”
Franka touched her lips, pondering, then continued a moment later.
“There's another castle on this island besides the one we first visited. I've only ever seen it from a distance, so I've never been there, but knowing my master's personality, she wouldn't deign to stay in a shabby place. She's probably there, don't you think?”
“So you’re not sure. Well, can’t be helped.”
The absence of the bracelet that could track their companion's location was keenly felt, but it couldn't be helped. If they hadn't used it as bait, they might not have been able to enter the island at all.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if there’s any chance she might be hiding or has run away!]
“…It’s asking if there’s any chance she’s hiding or has run away.”
“Ha?”
Franka’s reaction was one of utter disbelief.
“We’re talking about one of the Four Great Witches. A monster of monsters, a legend for hundreds of years. There’s no way she’d do something that would tarnish her own reputation while dealing with brats like us. She might be overconfident, but that’s about it. You should know, your master is one of the Four Great Witches too, right?”
“No, my master would probably do it without a second thought, asking what good pride is anyway.”
“……”
“……”
The two fell silent.
It was a topic that would bring no one any joy to discuss further.
“Anyway, we don’t have anywhere else to go, so let’s head that way.”
“I’d like to take down some magic beasts or homunculi on the way and collect their corpses.”
Unfortunately, Dorothea’s wish did not come true.
No matter how far the carriage traveled, not a single magic beast showed its face.
Wondering if the enemy was waiting for an opening, they even tried setting a trap by stopping the carriage to repair damaged parts or creating and stacking javelins from the earth, but there was still no response.
Thanks to this, the carriage was able to speed along unimpeded, but the expressions of the party were anything but bright.
“Don’t tell me she’s giving up on a war of attrition just to keep us from replenishing our forces?”
Franka refuted Dorothea’s words.
“No, that’s ridiculous. Homunculi are one of the two spears an alchemist can wield. There’s no way she’d just give that up…”
Franka’s words abruptly stopped.
She repeated the words she had just spoken.
“Two spears. Right, two. Then, the other one is…”
Franka’s face turned pale.
Her head snapped to the side, and the rest of the party’s gazes followed.
Their eyes landed on the ballista at the front of the carriage.
Dorothea’s lips trembled.
“Hey, wait a minute. No way.”
And as always, premonitions of doom come true.
─────WHOOOOOOOSH─────
It was then that a bizarre sound reached the party’s ears.
The sound was very faint, yet heavy.
The sound of something massive tearing through the air as it flew.
Their gazes turned to the sky.
──WHOOOOOOOSH──!!!!
With a clearer, more intense sound, it revealed itself.
Simply calling it ‘large’ was an understatement.
No joke, it was as if a new star of the same size had been born right next to the sun.
A colossal arrow, its head alone the size of a mansion, was plummeting toward them.
“Aaaaaah!”
A scream escaped Franka’s lips.
She seemed to have no capacity to worry about pride or anything else.
But it was not a meaningless scream. Even as she shrieked, she fulfilled her role.
The carriage veered at a near-right angle, tracing a bizarre trajectory.
The monkey with insect wings pedaled furiously, as if to break the pedals.
Immediately after, the super-large ballista bolt slammed into the ground about two large paces away from the carriage.
BOOOOOOOOM!
A tremendous impact sound echoed.
The sound itself felt like a physical assault, a roar so deafening that some might have instinctively clutched their chests to calm their pounding hearts.
The attack was so devastating that even though they had avoided a direct hit, the shockwave alone lifted the carriage a full wheel’s height into the air.
Dorothea lost her balance and nearly fell out of the carriage, but the Tin Knight quickly snatched her, preventing a disastrous accident.
Clinging to the Tin Knight's arm, Dorothea shrieked.
“I mean, there's a limit to how big you can go! What the hell is your master?!”
Franka yelled back with equal fury.
“How should I know?! What do you want me to do about it?!”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ advises that it understands they get along, but they should save it for later!]
“Oo-ooki? Ookieeeeeek!”
The familiars’ advice was sound.
─────WHOOOOOOOSH─────
Hearing the sound of something tearing through the air again, Dorothea braced for a second impact and held onto the Tin Knight tightly, while Franka let out a silent scream and attempted to drift the carriage.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Impact. Shock. Aftermath.
This attack was even closer.
The carriage, already unstable from the sharp turn, tilted sideways from the ensuing shockwave.
A second later and the side of the carriage would have shared a deep kiss with the ground, but at that moment, the Tin Knight’s leg kicked powerfully against the earth.
Thwack!
The tilted carriage was forcibly righted.
It was a perilous move that would have shattered not only the foot and leg of an ordinary person but also their pelvis and spine. Yet, the only damage the Tin Knight sustained was a slight scrape on its foot. And even that scrape was immediately repaired.
Realizing they had narrowly avoided a major accident, the two witches were momentarily terrified, but they prioritized preparing for what was to come over feeling relieved about what had passed.
It seemed you needed more than just an ordinary temper and guts to be a witch.
“Where the hell is this being shot from?!”
Dorothea scanned the surroundings, but there were no massive structures in sight.
It meant the shots were being fired from a distance so great they couldn't even see the source.
“W-wait a minute! Just one more! Just one more shot!”
“What?”
“I need to see the angle of descent to calculate the firing position!!”
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Franka to prove her point.
Less than three seconds after she finished speaking, the next arrow fell.
After dodging the attack once more, Franka muttered something to herself and then said.
“Thirty minutes.”
“What?”
“At our top speed right now, it’ll take about thirty minutes to reach the source of that ballista!!”
“Can’t you go any faster?!”
“Can’t you see my baby is working its butt off right now?! This is already fast enough to leave any normal carriage in the dust!”
Dorothea gritted her teeth.
She knew Franka wasn’t wrong.
But not being wrong and being able to accept it were two different things.
Mansion-sized ballista bolts were raining down at intervals of ten to twenty seconds, and they had to endure this hellish course for another thirty minutes?
For now, they were somehow managing to evade the attacks, but if even one of those brutish projectiles grazed them, it would be a dead end.
Dorothea looked down at the staff in her hand.
She was proud of it as a masterpiece of her own making, but whether it could withstand such a massive physical attack was unknown. Especially when her life was the wager.
As for hoping the arrows would run out, their opponent was an alchemist who had mastered the reconstruction of matter.
The entire island was her ammunition.
“We probably won’t have to endure the full thirty minutes. A ballista that huge will have problems with its firing angle once we get closer. Maybe… when we’re about five minutes away?”
Franka muttered, her voice lacking confidence, but it wasn’t much of a comfort.
Dorothea’s mind raced.
Speed. They had to secure speed, somehow.
But a way to suddenly accelerate the carriage… unless it was that ridiculous stunt Sophia pulled.
‘—Ah.’
A realization struck Dorothea.
Of course, she wasn't trying to recreate Sophia's carriage booster incident, which was more of a gag. This carriage didn't even have horses to begin with.
What was truly important was the event that followed.
The thing the Tin Knight did after falling into the lake.
“You, you! That thing from before! When you moved so fast in the water!”
At Dorothea’s words, the Tin Knight seemed to think for a moment before replying.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ replies that if you mean the propeller swordsmanship, that’s difficult to do outside of water!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ adds that if it had something like a large windmill blade with a long shaft at the center of its axis, it might be worth a try!]
“So you just need a windmill blade! Front of the carriage or back, where?!”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says it doesn’t matter which side, since it will be holding and using it!]
“Franka!! Make a windmill blade! One with a long shaft at the center of its axis!”
Franka’s expression twisted with confusion and shock.
“What kind of bullshit is that in a situation like this?! I'm busy enough just dodging the arrows!”
“If you don’t want to die, shut up and make it!”
“Th-there are many types of windmill blades, what shape should it be?”
“Just make one that looks like it’ll push the carriage the best!”
“You really make it sound so easy!”
Franka gritted her teeth but complied with the order.
Using her favorite parasol and the javelins piled in the corner of the carriage as materials, a giant windmill blade materialized.
The Tin Knight was slightly impressed. Something very similar to the propellers in its memory had appeared.
Taking the object, which looked like a long pole stuck through the center of a fan blade, the Tin Knight gripped the end and middle of the shaft with both hands.
Simply spinning it by hand would create a decent breeze, but that would only be useful as a substitute for a fan, not enough to move a carriage like this.
The Tin Knight held the shaft steady so it wouldn't wobble, then began to manipulate the mana within its grip.
Mana, projecting like a blunt blade of sword energy, pressed firmly against the shaft from all sides—top, bottom, left, and right.
And in that state, the mana in the Tin Knight’s grip began to spin. Like a vise, the mana gripped the shaft, forcing it to rotate along with it.
It was a dangerous feat; the slightest mismatch in the angle or rotational speed between its right and left hands would snap the shaft, but the Tin Knight didn't hesitate.
The memories etched into its body told it one thing:
I can do this.
One rotation, two rotations. The propeller spun.
Faintly at first, but then faster and faster.
And, in time with its rotational speed, the carriage also began to accelerate.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says to hold on tight!]
Twice the speed.
Dorothea clung tightly to the Tin Knight’s body.
Three times the speed.
The bat-winged monkey stopped flapping in the air and clung to Franka’s embrace.
Four times the speed.
The insect-winged monkey, realizing the pedals were now useless, focused on holding onto its master and companion.
Five times the speed.
Franka screamed.
“I can't control it if it goes any faster!!”
The carriage wheels screeched relentlessly, and the chassis screamed.
If the carriage hadn't been crafted from a single piece of special catalyst, it would have been no surprise for it to have shattered long ago.
The ballista’s attacks no longer came close to the carriage.
Even precise predictive shots were meaningless against this insane, runaway speed.
The witch’s castle began to appear in the distance.
On the plains leading to the castle, a massive army was gathered.
There were furry ones, many-legged ones, ones armed like humans, and even ones that flew through the sky.
It seemed they were past the point of conserving forces out of concern for Dorothea’s necromancy.
The charge was a success.