Ruins
"Hey, Ginkei-san?"
"What is it, Shiro-san?"
Lately, Ginkei seems to be getting the hang of things.
It is more and more willing to go along with the jokes if the situation allows.
"How many defense drones do we have to destroy before this is over?"
Desert of Elfriade. As we pushed through the blue light, we were attacked by a large number of machines.
"Are you tired?"
"No. But it's troublesome, isn't it?"
"I agree. I guess that's what they mean when they say, you're not getting anywhere."
As for me, I can afford it, but anyway, defense drones have a high kill rate.
"What were the ancient people thinking with ray weapons?"
"An ordinary man would have died instantly."
Thinking about it, the bandits who escaped were really lucky.
No, they are dead
"And it's hot. The heat and direct sunlight stings."
"My exterior could cook meat right now."
A little further on, a drone appears out of the sand.
"If you bring a bow or something it won't do much good against the metal."
"Why don't you just throw a hatchet like Wince Edgeworth?"
"Impossible. I'm not good at throwing like Wince."
If Wince were here, she'd have cracked that drone open with ease.
"What else is left? A secret weapon?"
"That knife."
I got a prototype from Yukikaze.
"How powerful is it?"
"If it works as well as I think it will, I should be able to bring down an airship with this one."
If it were a living thing, it would kill it instantly, no questions asked. If you hit the right spot.
And so we proceeded through the desert for a whole day.
The next morning
We finally arrived at sunrise.
"Is this the ruins of Elfriade?"
"There is no doubt about it. I can confirm that the reactor core has been activated."
"Then let's shut it down or destroy it, and get it over with."
As an empire, our goal is to stop the blue light.
As a Dragon, our objective is to gather knowledge of Elfriade.
As for me personally, I'm looking for something that concerns me.
"As far as Elfriade is concerned, it's the closest facility to where Shiro Edgeworth woke up. There must be something there."
I hope you're right.
--------------
The facility is a complete ruin. Naturally.
"No living machines... of course not."
"There is the carcass of a synthetic dragon, Dranmeira, but it is completely dried up. Probably a failure... correction. A failure of a failure."
"In that case, what kind of creature would be a success?"
"Shiro Edgeworth and Dragon God Edgeworth."
"Thank you for your sarcastic compliment."
"I didn't mean it as a compliment."
I'll put this one in salt when I get home
"...Oya?"
"Did you find anything interesting?"
What Ginkei lifted was a tattered bundle of paper.
It looks like it's about to fall apart.
"Interesting stuff"
"Can you read it?"
Unfortunately, I can't
It appears to be hieroglyphics, but it's more complex than that.
"It's how the elves work their magic through the Almana Quantum."
"Is it amazing?"
It's elf magic, customer!
"It's the magic that Shiro Edgeworth uses on a regular basis."
Boring
I can use it now, so I don't need it... Wait, wait?
"If one can understand that, can anyone use elven magic?"
"It's not for everyone, but if you have a talent for magic, you'll be able to use it."
"Record it all. Document it with Yukikaze later."
"Got it."
Now, is there anything else?
"Oh?"
"I found something… an ancient storage medium."
It's a plastic-like mass that looks like an HDD or SSD.
"Though the stack of papers you mentioned earlier is quite old, it still retains its shape."
A lot of things like when I was in the world before I woke up
"The radiation dose doesn't allow life to survive. That must be one of the effects."
"The fact that it's dark indoors and the temperature is low also has an effect... hmm? Low temperature?”
"...That's strange. Is the air conditioning working?"
We both examine the wall.
"Could you break down the wall here?"
"Alright!"
Ginkei seems to have found something
I hit the designated spot as hard as I can.
"Oops... it is surprisingly fragile"
And wires appear from inside the broken wall
"A power source?"
"No. It's a line within the facility."
Ginkei touches the wiring and starts looking for something.
"…………"
"What do you got?"
"It is a pity."
That being said, Ginkei's reaction doesn't seem to care about it.
"It seems that there were survivors in the deepest part not too long ago."
"Are they dead?"
"Yes. They are crumbling."
--------------
"It's just down here."
We found a staircase and descended deeper and deeper into the facility.
At the end of the stairs was an iron wall.
It was rusted through, but it was still a door.
"Is it okay to poke it out?"
"Go for it."
I got the OK, so I hit it with all my might
It seems that the hinge is broken and it falls forward as it is
"The dose is too high."
"Even for me?"
"No. We are not affected."
"Then why did you report it?"
"I reported it as a place where no living thing could survive."
I see.
"The power is alive. It's bright."
"I don't like wasting electricity, though."
"You mean they died so fast that they couldn't afford to save power, right?"
Well, I'm sure it's this power source that's causing it.
"I've checked the reactor core."
"Do you know what the situation is?"
"It's out of control. It will explode in a few days."
"How bad will the explosion be?"
"There is no impact on the ground in terms of depth."
"Then leave it until the explosion. Let's get all the data we can."
"Got it."
Molten corpses are lying all over the place
"Are these people from Elfriade?"
"They are not."
"How do you know?"
"My data says the Elfriade are much uglier than this."
"Ugly? Ugly how?"
"……It seems that one's cerebral medulla was so developed that it could not be contained within one's body."
"You mean it's popping out?"
"I don't know the details, but it's enough to make a dragon feel horrible, so I'd say it's pretty bad."
I don't know what to think, since the dragon is also described as ugly by Elfriade.
And who are these guys?
Prelati?
"I evaluate that the life currently existing on the ground is the most decent."
"I agree with that"
And so, while I collected data, I sat with Ginkei and told it stories of the past.
After we collected as much as we could, we stand by far away from the facility.
"The core begins to collapse"
I can feel the vibrations beneath my feet.
I could feel the explosion, but it didn't blow out onto the sand.
"Confirmed the collapse of the ground. All under the sand."
"It's an annoying civilization until the end..."
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