Volume 2 – The World Sneered
Mary and her group took some rest, and arrived in Feedam in the afternoon.
The town was around one fourth of Captis’s size.
Its population barely reached 10,000, but the roads were well maintained.
Cleaners worked through the town, and one could easily tell that it was a stable place.
There was a big church at the center of town.
The faith’s banner hanging from the tower was like the symbol of the town.
The car passed through the center of town, heading for the outskirts.
A factory with smoke coming out of it was visible in the distance.
It was Majoram’s sorcery gun manufacturing factory.
The car stopped at a parking spot a small distance away, and the four headed for the factory.
“This place is pretty tasteless, unlike the town.”
“There’s just grass and nothing else, huh?”
“That’s what a factory looks like, don’t compare it to Yukum Beach.”
“Miss. Cutie, we’re going to a sorcery gun factory, right?”
“Yes, from the Feedam branch. That town is pretty prosperous. It’s thanks to our factory.”
“But I think the Mizelma Faith hates fighting. I’m impressed you managed to build a gun factory here.”
“Mizelma Faith?”
“I’ve never heard of that religion.”
Ami and Calaria did not seem to know about it.
Mary explained to the two.
“It’s a religion with worshippers in the Kingdom, centered on Feedam. For generations, they’ve been deciding on a reincarnation of a god named Mizelma to be their founder, and they worship that person in place of God……”
“God’s reincarnation, huh? Are there conditions to be elected?”
“I heard it’s outward appearance. The hair color is supposed to be red, and…… I think physique has something to do with it too.”
“So it’s not by lineage? I don’t think something like that would have spread all throughout the Kingdom.”
“Yes, but the founder has a strong authority in the region. Even more than the aristocrats who own it.”
“More than the aristocrats? I feel like they might be trouble.”
“Yes, they did become trouble. That’s why the previous king conducted a purge, which worsened their relations with the Kingdom even further.”
“That’s when Majoram slid in, right?”
“……I won’t deny that.”
It was precisely that way.
Leaving aside the hostilities between them and the Kingdom, the Mizelma faith did not have enough power to start a civil war, and they were taxed too heavily to be rich.
That was how Majoram built their factory here.
The Mizelma Faith could not turn their backs, and bent their doctrine to allow Majoram to build their factory.
Over 10 years after that, the factory was now a crucial thing for the town’s existence.
“Still, we built altars in the factory, and we give them time for prayer, so we’ve been very thoughtful, you know?”
“I think this kind of attention to detail is one of the reasons the Kingdom can’t get rid of Majoram.”
“You really root yourselves in their lives.”
“Like weed mixing into a field!”
“You say some cruel things…… Well, that’s what a merchant does.”
They arrived at the factory while chatting.
Cutie called out to the guards by the site’s entrance.
But, she peeked inside and saw no one there.
“That’s strange, I told them we were coming.”
“Can’t we just go in?”
“Yeah…… I don’t think that would be a problem for us.”
“You’re not getting angry for the lack of a welcome, huh?”
“I don’t care. But the other executives prefer it that way, so I pay attention to it.”
Cutie seemed to be graceful to the other executives.
Still, she got angry when she needed to.
The lack of doorkeepers was a problem beyond the lack of a welcome.
She entered the plot while intending to present some harsh words, but……
“It’s weirdly quiet, isn’t it?”
“Maybe it’s a rest day today?”
“That’s not possible, I told them we were coming.”
“……In that case……”
“Maybe it’s arcana!”
Cutie frowned after Ami’s remark.
“Does this mean Ox guessed we were coming here?”
“Even if that’s the case, I still think this is too fast.”
“Let’s just get in-”
Calaria was interrupted by a shrill ringing noise coming from inside the factory.
“What was that!?”
“That’s…… the factory’s fire alarm.”
“Miss. Cutie, there’s smoke coming out of that window!”
“What do we do?”
“Let’s think about that after extinguishing the fire.”
“Then I’ll do it!”
Ami created wheels.
“Wait, there’s no need to go that far.”
Calaria stopped her.
Then, water started raining down from the factory’s ceiling.
“Oh, wow. Water’s coming out of nowhere! Is that sorcery?”
“Just as I’d expect from Majoram’s factory, it looks like they managed to put the fire out.”
They looked at the factory for a while. The flame was gone, but no one was there.
Naturally, no one was coming out of it either.
“I’m going to check inside, you and the others stand guard outside, Mary!”
Calaria charged inside through a broken window.
Inside, she saw that the machine automatically making sorcery gun parts had burned to a crisp.
It seemed like pieces of ore were caught between parts, which caused failure and ignition.
“It’s not a sorcery attack from the outside. But, this is……”
The thing that grabbed her attention were the countless stone statues inside the factory.
Their faces were featureless, as if wearing a mask, and they did not look like they were wearing clothes, but they did not look naked either.
Their bodies were smooth, and it was impossible to tell apart their genders.
They were shorter than Calaria, around the average length of an adult female.
“What is it, Miss. Calaria!?”
After Mary shouted, Calaria approached the window and explained the situation.
“There’s no one inside the factory. That must be why no one reacted to the abnormality in the machine.”
“So that’s why it burned? Wait, why isn’t there anyone?”
“That’s right. Instead, there are weird statues lining up the place.”
Mary and Cutie looked at each other and tilted their heads.
Ami was jumping up behind them to try and see inside.
The three could not understand by words alone, so they entered inside the factory.
There, they saw a strange scene.
“What are those statues……?”
“Are you saying the workers changed into these?”
“There’s something written on the back of that statue! I can’t read, but…… can you read it sis?”
Mary looked at the statue’s back after hearing Mary.
There were letters carved into it.
“This person disobeyed the third precept.”
“The one over here says the same thing too.”
“Same here. The letters also…… all look the same.”
“That’s a hard word. Precepts?”
“Precepts are rules that the people in a religion must adhere to.”
“They turned into stone…… because they broke those?”
Only an arcana user could pull off such a stunt.
This place was definitely under the control of an arcana user.
“So they did know we were coming here, didn’t they!?”
“Is it Ox who leaked the information, or Philias?”
“It could be neither. If all the arcana users we don’t know are against us, it’d be easy for them to search all locations.”
“Yeah…… if that’s the case, I won’t feel like we made a mistake.”
“Would arcana users like us instantly turn into stone like this too?”
“It’s too risky to test. First of all, let’s search the factory for clues.”
“Yeah. For caution’s sake, let’s move in pairs, and shout if we see anything.”
Ami grabbed Mary’s hand right away.
Naturally, Cutie had to team up with Calaria.
The two groups split up and started searching the factory.
But all they found were the stones with ‘third precept’ written on them.
“I’m getting tired of seeing the same face.”
“None of them look any better……”
If they could not see the other precepts, there was no way to determine what the third precept was.
Then, finally, Mary found something in a spot located on the border between the factory and the office.
“Oh, this one…… It says second precept!”
“Ooh, you’re right! But……”
“Everything else is the same, huh?”
Its face, shape, height, everything was the same as the others.
The only difference was that there was a pen with the core taken out on the floor.
Mary and Ami could not find any clues, and started heading back to the window they entered through.
Cutie returned too after a while.
Her eyes were darting around, and she was walking with her hand on the wall.
“Your face is pale, Miss. Cutie. Did something happen?”
Cutie shook her head sideways after Mary’s question and slowly replied.
“……I don’t know.”
“But that means we can’t know either, doesn’t it?”
“Like I said, I don’t know either! She was there just now…… but Calaria is…… gone.”
“Miss. Calaria!?”
Mary’s eyes opened wide.
She tried to run straight away, but Cutie grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“Wait!”
“But Miss. Calaria is in danger!”
“I think it’s…… too late.”
“W-What……”
“I was walking together with Calaria just now. But I looked somewhere else for only a few seconds. Then, I faintly heard her voice, and the noise of something dropping on the ground. When I turned around, two guns were on the ground.”
Of course, Cutie could not carry Machinaneus back.
She left it behind and ran over here.
“Then, on the spot where Calaria was standing……. Umm, there was a statue.”
“That means Miss. Calaria……”
“……Probably changed into a statue. Because she broke a ‘precept’.”
Cutie’s voice was shaking.
Calaria’s body was supposed to be resistant to sorcery.
Even someone like her was instantly transformed into a stone statue without even a sound. Cutie experienced that right beside her.
It was definitely terrifying.
“Cutie……”
Ami looked at her with worry.
Cutie was biting her lips with regret, and her shoulders were shaking in fear.
Mary honestly did not fully feel it yet, but she softly embraced Cutie’s head and caressed her face to comfort her.
“……Thanks.”
Mary expected Cutie to turn around after saying she was not a child, but not this time.
Cutie felt Mary’s bodily warmth as she repeatedly took deep breaths.
Then, she started speaking when she calmed down a little.
“We still don’t know the enemy’s identity, but…… I think the ‘third precept’ is to touch a gun.”
“Oh, I see…… this is a gun factory.”
“If you’re out when you touch a part too, that includes all the workers.”
“That’s how everyone turned into these things……”
Calaria probably touched Machinaneus by habit.
That action alone transformed her into a stone statue.
It was an absurdly strong power.
And, if there were three precepts, they still did not know what the other two were.
“Mary, let’s leave right now, because we can’t lose any more fighting power than we have.”
“Please wait! Can I see Miss. Calaria before that?”
“……That won’t help.”
“Just to be sure.”
Cutie did not seem keen on that idea, but she brought Mary and Ami to the spot.
The stone statue they saw there was the same as the others.
But, the two guns used by Calaria were on the ground.
“I can’t even tell if that’s Calaria.”
“But those guns are definitely-”
“I told you. Let’s leave right now, or we’ll end up the same way too!”
There was no proof the statues would go back to normal if the arcana user was defeated.
But they had to believe that right now.
The three hurried out of the factory.
The outward appearance of the factory was the same as just before, but it felt completely different.
It was cold, featureless, as if rejecting all life.
“I don’t sense any living people here.”
“Then where is the arcana user?”
“……In town. Crowds are the best place to be if you’re hiding.”
Cutie squeezed out these words, and a new fight to the death started.