Invaders of the Rokujouma!? Volume 46 E-Book

Takehaya

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Invaders of the Rokujouma!?
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 210

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The resurrection of Maxfern draws Forthorthe ever closer to war. Before the battle begins, the enemy hopes to strip the Blue Knight of his power by going after the brains behind him—Kiriha, Ruth, and Clan—and shooting the spaceship they’re on! But as the emergency sends Koutarou into panic, he receives a message: “Veltlion if you are watching this, I imagine you’re in the middle of an uproar.”

Just what kind of plan have the Blue Knight’s lovely confidants thought up?! The three girls behind the scenes lead the enemy by the nose as volume 46 shines with trickery!

Leseprobe

Traces of Conspiracy

November 29, Tuesday

Sanae was angry. As honest as she was, she couldn’t hide her feelings. Her cheeks were puffed up like a cartoon character’s. She pushed her face against the desk and complained. “I think that Koutarou should be more honest!”

“Why is that?” Kiriha asked with a smile. Sanae’s appearance was heartwarming to her.

“I think it’s about time for him to start developing the desire to take a peek at us bathing!” Sanae felt that Koutarou was being too serious. It would be more fun for her if he let his emotions go rampant.

“Koutarou is the supreme commander. In the face of a large battle, I don’t think he’d be able to do that,” Kiriha explained with a wry smile.

Koutarou was the Blue Knight, Forthorthe’s hero. He had an overwhelming amount of influence, politically, militarily, and economically. He was also being held up as an example of morality. So prioritizing himself and acting emotionally would have a negative influence on everything. In particular, Koutarou needed to refrain from doing anything irresponsible before the big battle.

“I know that,” Sanae said. “But I’m a third-year high schooler, so there are things I want to try! Like screaming, ‘Eeep! Koutarou, you pervert!’”

“In other words,” Kiriha summarized, “you want to feel more like a high schooler in private.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Sanae wasn’t saying that Koutarou should act as he pleased toward just anyone, but she wanted him to at least be more selfish around those close to him.

“But Koutarou just isn’t honest. When I tried to get in the bath with him the other day, he said, ‘Evil spirits, begone!’” Sanae cried.

Koutarou had chased her out, saying that he couldn’t take a bath with a girl. Sanae had simply accepted it until recently, but she’d changed her mind after hearing that Koutarou and Nana had been in the same bath. So lately, she’d been astral projecting to go through walls and trying to force her way in. Koutarou had then brought out the charms he had gotten from his grandmother to chase her out. An explosion would happen if Sanae were to touch the charm that said ‘Evil spirits, begone.’

“Well, there’s no other way to chase you out,” Kiriha said with another smile. It appeared Sanae’s frank display of feelings was troubling Koutarou. She found it heartwarming but was envious at the same time.

“Sanae-chan is angry about two things, ho!” a haniwa explained.

“That big brother is keeping her in check, and that the charm is still exploding on touch, ho!” a second chimed in.

Although there had been an explosion, Sanae hadn’t really been hurt. There’d accidentally been an explosion in the spring, but it had just ruffled her hair and not much more. But the charm going off meant that Koutarou saw Sanae’s astral projection as an evil spirit.

The explosion being so small meant that those thoughts had been drastically reduced, but Sanae didn’t like that they were happening at all. She was also unhappy about Koutarou using a charm to evade her expression of love.

“I see. That is complicated,” Kiriha said.

“How rude,” Sanae complained.

“Haha... Sanae, could you reduce your spiritual energy a little?”

“All right.”

Sanae was in the process of using her vast stores of spiritual energy to assist Kiriha in her work of adjusting instruments related to that very topic.

“It worked this time, Kii,” Clan exclaimed. “The spiritual energy inserted was reduced, but the output of the generator increased.”

“Sanae-sama, can you haphazardly increase and decrease the level of spiritual energy so that I can fine-tune the output?” Ruth asked.

Clan and Ruth were present as well, and the girls were in the process of putting together a new machine to replace Warlord III Rev, which had been damaged during the battle the other day, although most of the damage had come from how Koutarou and Maki had used it. The frame hadn’t been able to handle the movements that they wanted. That was why they were talking about making a new machine instead of repairing the old one.

“Yes, sir,” Sanae replied.

As instructed, Sanae repeatedly increased and lowered the amount of spiritual energy. If they adjusted the generator to withstand her level of fluctuation, there would be no problems with Koutarou using it. That made it fundamentally different from Warlord, which had been made with normal people in mind. Naturally, that made it more difficult to handle. It was expected that nobody other than Koutarou would be able to use this machine.

Koutarou was, of course, involved in their work. However, he was also training with the soldiers, so he didn’t stop by Clan’s laboratory until early evening.

“Still...to think you are already testing a new machine. It hasn’t been that long since the last battle,” he pondered.

There was already a machine built in the laboratory. It lacked armor and wasn’t complete yet, but its functions were rapidly taking shape, so Koutarou was surprised to see the new machine taking shape so fast.

“Well, it is mostly using basic parts,” Clan explained. “Not everything is being built from scratch.”

They were using general parts and layouts for much of the machine, allowing them to rapidly create a new one. Forthorthe also had artificial intelligence to assist with the blueprints, which made a big difference. It had analyzed the battle data to point out what parts needed to be customized.

“But you’re making a new one because of the serious wear on it, right?” Koutarou tilted his head. The new machine needed to be able to handle him and Maki getting serious, which the old one hadn’t. Yet they were using the old parts, which Koutarou had his doubts about.

Ruth smiled at him. “That is part of it, Master.”

“What do you mean?”

“Since the parts are worn down so much, they will need to be replaced regularly,” she explained. “And even if all the parts are custom-made to handle the strain, it won’t make too much of a difference given how often the parts are replaced.”

“Oh, I see...” Koutarou came to a realization. “So it’s like replacing custom parts five times, or replacing common parts ten times.”

“Yes. It is more convenient to restrict where custom parts are used.”

“Right...it’s smarter to have repair parts that can be used by other machines too.” Koutarou nodded. Reinforcing all of the parts was ideal, but since it was a machine, wear and tear was unavoidable—which meant that parts would be replaced regularly, so it made sense to leave those that would be replaced often as they were. Custom parts were expensive, and there was no other use for them. Since they were a bottleneck when it came to replenishing, the fewer the better. One could call it strategic ingenuity.

“Hehe, by the way Clan-dono wanted to make a fully custom machine at first,” Kiriha said with a grin.

Clan had initially wanted to make the best machine possible to guarantee Koutarou’s victory, so she had looked to design a fully customized and invincible machine.

“Kii!” Clan yelled with a red face. She’d wanted to keep that from Koutarou.

“But Ruth-chan was the one to stop her, ho!” Karama said.

“Thanks to that, the machine has already taken shape, ho!” Korama added.

The invincible machine would cost too much, and it would take a lot of time to construct. Moreover, there were operational problems to contend with. So Ruth had stepped in to make adjustments to keep the machine realistic while still respecting Clan’s policy as much as possible. In other words, the machine in front of Koutarou had only been made possible with Ruth’s assistance.

“Frankly, this design puts me more at ease as well,” Kiriha noted.

“You’re being mean, Kii!”

“That’s true. There’s no point in an invincible weapon if it never reaches the battlefield,” Koutarou added.

The biggest priority with weapons was delivering the required number to the required place at the required time. If only a few cannons could be sent to the battlefield, it made more sense to mass-produce bows. The difficult part about war was managing the supply in accordance with the current situation.

“Not you too, Veltlion!”

“But sometimes, perfection is necessary. Such as PAFs custom-tailored to patients. You should be using your talents for that,” Koutarou said. Clan wanted to object some more, but his words put a stop to that. Her cheeks gradually turned red. Naturally, she wasn’t angry. Koutarou’s words had shown his deep trust for her and moved her. Clan instead cast her eyes down and started fiddling with her hair.

If you say that, Glasses is going to try to make another invincible robot...

Sanae didn’t understand any of the technical talk, but she could tell that Koutarou had gotten Clan fired up. Next time, Clan was sure to try to make another custom machine in order to protect her beloved Koutarou and deliver a perfect victory to him.

Haha, Koutarou can be so stupid... she thought to herself while looking at the other four with a smile.

Tuning the new machine was put on a break for dinner. There was other work waiting for them as well, so they were busy.

“Koutarou, let’s go eat!” Sanae said. “I’m hungry!” She pulled off the electrode on her head and jumped off the chair. With energetic steps, she ran up to him.

“All right, hang on a second,” Koutarou answered. He was setting up and porting data to the machine, but he left the rest of the work to the AI and stood up. Sanae had a point, as he was feeling hungry.

“Let’s go, everyone!” Sanae cried.

“I suppose so.” Kiriha nodded.

“Thank you for the invitation, Sanae-sama,” Ruth said and stood up from her chair.

The girls were even busier than Koutarou. Considering the work they had pending, they needed to eat dinner. During this busy period, having dinner together was one of the things they looked forward to the most.

“Kii, Pardomshiha, hold on!” Clan called out. “I wanted to talk to you about you-know-what a little.”

The two girls stopped and turned toward Clan. They both had serious expressions on their faces.

“How much is a little?” Sanae casually asked. Right now, food was the biggest thing on her mind.

“It is only a few minutes, so please go ahead with Veltlion, Sanae.”

“Then I’ll order food for you too. Are you three okay with the same menu?”

“Yes, please.” Clan nodded.

“Leave it to me! Okay, let’s go, Koutarou!” Sanae exclaimed.

“Okay, okay, you don’t have to pull me,” he said. “The food isn’t going to run away.”

“Of course it is!”

Koutarou was dragged out of the laboratory, and after seeing that, Kiriha and Ruth turned to face Clan.

“So, what did the intelligence agency say?” Kiriha asked with a stern look. Clan and Ruth had the same look.

“It is just as you expected,” Clan reported.

“Is that for certain?”

“Yes.” Clan nodded. “They just came in with decisive evidence.”

“How should we handle this?” Ruth asked. “If we make a mistake, we will lose months of time.”

The three discussed the matter for only a few minutes, like they’d promised Sanae. But the contents of that discussion would shake Koutarou and the others, as well as the core of Forthorthe.

The Holy Forthorthe Galactic Empire had several secret organizations that served the empress directly. The most well-known one was the intelligence agency. Though its name and scale were unclear, the people had known the organization existed for a long time. Meanwhile, there were also secret organizations that were completely unknown, such as the court magicians. The old Darkness Rainbow leaders had been appointed as such, and they were in charge of dealing with incidents regarding magic and spiritual energy, but they had little direct contact with Elfaria. It had been a bitter pill to swallow since Forthorthe as a country had no countermeasures for magic and spiritual energy, but it was working out well for the moment. If anything, they were performing admirably. As a result, the organization was gradually being expanded with the help of personnel on loan from Folsaria. But that also meant that they were busy.

“Crim-chan, stop standing around and help out,” Orange said.

“But I’m bored,” Crimson complained.

The girls were busy at work today as well. Their job was to decontaminate the battlefield. Waste had been used in a limited capacity in the previous battle. That waste was material that had been drenched in negative spiritual energy, and just touching it would infect living creatures and turn them into zombies. Since leaving it would be dangerous, they needed to thoroughly decontaminate the area. Moreover, decontamination required either necromancy or spiritual energy, so the court magicians had their hands full, and right now they were hard at work, with Purple, who specialized in necromancy, as their leader.

“We’ve been doing nothing but cleaning lately,” Crimson continued.

“But it’s never going to end if we don’t do it.”

Right now, Crimson and Orange were in the main tower of the contaminated military base where they had been assigned. But Crimson was unhappy. She was active and rough around the edges, so plain work like this didn’t suit her. As a result, the normally free-spirited Orange had to soothe her. Orange wanted to finish the job as soon as possible and escape from this place that had nothing cute.

“Why don’t we just blow it all up?” Crimson asked. “It should be fine if we burn it down.” She was reaching her limit and considering destroying it all with her magic.

“I’m sorry, Crimson.” Purple, who was passing by, apologized with a wry smile.

“If you’re going to apologize, we should just blow this place up,” Crimson suggested again.

“I would love to, but it could just scatter the waste and would burn up the evidence as well.” Purple shrugged. “This is one of the difficult parts of court service.”

The waste in question was weak to heat, and Crimson’s magic could burn it up. The problem was that if not everything was equally heated, waste could be scattered, expanding the contaminated area. Moreover, destroying the evidence would hurt as well. Working for the empress or not, the law needed to be followed, and they needed to gather evidence of the wrongdoings of enemy crimes. That was something that had been unnecessary for Darkness Rainbow in the past, but was another struggle now that they were court magicians.

“This is something we’ve got to do even if you don’t want to, Crim-chan,” Orange agreed.

“Jeeeez.”

“Or would you rather take over my computer work?” Purple asked.

“I want that even less!”

“Ah, I would rather do that, Purple!” Orange raised her hand.

“You can’t change the desktop image to something cuter, you know?” Purple said. “That’s evidence as well.”

“Whaaaaat?!” Orange cried out. “Then I’ll pass.”

“I see.” Purple nodded. “Then take care of this place.”

In the end, Crimson reluctantly got back to work. The court magicians worked for the empress, but the girls had their own goal. By making a name for themselves, they wanted to create a path for Folsarians returning home. By expanding their scale, Forthorthe would have more of an exchange with Folsaria. The coming and going of people and information would increase. That was why messing up here would only create discontent in Forthorthe, which would put their goal in danger. And that wasn’t something Crimson wanted.

“Everyone, listen!” Green’s voice came from their government-issued bracelets. It was a message for all former leaders of Darkness Rainbow transmitted through an emergency channel.

“What is it, Green?!” Crimson threw away the tools for decontamination and hurriedly answered. She’d already surmised that it was a serious situation because of the use of the emergency channel.

“We’ve gotten a message from our ‘common friend’! Come back right away!”

“Got it!” Crimson briefly replied and took off running. Green was working as an operator at the top of the main tower. All Crimson needed to do was run up the stairs. “Good job, Elexis, Maya!” she shouted as she ran.

“Do you think it’s them too, Crim-chan?” Orange asked as she chased after her. The same people had come to her mind upon hearing Green say “friend.”

“Who else could it be?!”

“Yeah! It has to be!” Orange agreed.

They were people the girls definitely couldn’t ignore. Driven by hope, they disappeared from Purple’s field of view in moments.

“Good grief.” Purple sighed. “They must have been bored. You two called at a good time.” Having been left behind, she smiled and moved the tools for decontamination they had dropped toward the wall so that they wouldn’t get in the way. Once she finished that, she quickly walked after them.

Facing Elexis for the first time in a while, the court magicians found that he had gotten more fit. He also had a bit of a tan, making him look less like a scion. But the glow in his eyes and smile on his lips were the same.

“I never expected that we would be able to meet again,” he began.

“If you were alive, you should have come to see us!” Crimson shouted.

“Do forgive him, Crimson,” Maya pleaded. “After all, he is wanted for trying to overthrow the empire.” Maya seemed to be the same as always. She had clear, white skin and a beautiful body. Her beauty was captivating even to women. However, her expression when smiling at Crimson was kinder than before.

“Where were you until now, and what were you doing?” Yellow asked as she wiped away her tears. She was normally reserved, but this time she spoke bluntly. She was truly happy that they’d been able to reunite.

“We were working as couriers while drifting around the outskirts of space,” Elexis explained.

“It was such a hassle,” Maya added. “We couldn’t even create a company by regular means. And then that Blue Knight started meddling with the transport industry.”

After the battle against Vandarion, Elexis and Maya had been hiding on the outskirts. Forthorthe’s hold over the remote regions was weak. The anti-government forces used those circumstances, which made sense, since Maya and Elexis were pretty much anti-government as well. And since they needed to work in order to survive, they’d set their eyes on the transportation business now that the country was getting back on its feet. At first, they’d operated a normal transport business with fake papers, but after attempting to acquire the Blue Knight business certification mark, their papers had been checked over, and they had escaped. After that, they’d switched to the illegal transport business.

“Acquiring the know-how to run a business before turning to an illegal business was a big help, though.” Elexis laughed.

“I don’t think that’s something to laugh about,” Blue replied firmly. She was always calm and didn’t say much, so her speaking up said a lot about how she truly felt.

“I’ll relay your complaints to Koutarou-kun later,” Elexis told her. “But for now, I’m back, Blue.”

She stared at Elexis but said nothing. To him, she didn’t look unhappy. That said, he wasn’t sure what to do, so he looked over at Maya, who smiled at them.

“I can finally offer my thanks, Maya,” somebody called out.

“Green...it has been a while since we met face-to-face,” Maya answered.

“Thank you for saving me that time. And Elexis too...” Green said and bowed.

Maya nodded. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Happy to see you well,” Elexis added.

“I’m doing fine thanks to you,” said Green. She had once been captured by Vandarion and used for her predictions. Elexis, Maya, and Darkness Rainbow had saved her, but when she’d come to, they had already been missing, so she’d never had a chance to thank them.

“I’m glad to see you two doing well!” Orange walked up to the pair and lightly tapped Elexis’s chest. “You look more fit than before.”

His chest had certainly become bulkier since the last time she’d seen him.

“Well, I’ve been working in the transportation business for a while. I couldn’t do nothing but desk work like before,” he explained.

“I heard rumors that you were more like space pirates, though?” Orange observed.

“That might not be entirely wrong,” Maya answered.

“Whatever our intentions, our clients and enemies had a lot of misunderstandings like that,” Elexis added.

“Okay, okay, so you were sneakily doing your own thing without telling us,” Orange remarked.

Elexis’s tan and physique were a result of him working as a courier. It was a simple job of receiving and delivering packages, but there were all kinds of clients and destinations. He also had experience with forcibly collecting packages and breaking through sieges, so in a way, he wasn’t too different from a space pirate.

“And what business do space pirates have here?” Purple asked.

“That’s harsh, Purple. Could you please be more friendly?” Elexis pleaded.

“I’m not sure if I can call someone who hasn’t shown himself for almost a year ‘a friend,’” Purple replied, narrowing her eyes.

“Hahahaha, you have a point there.”

“There’s something we wanted to ask you,” Maya interjected. They hadn’t contacted the court magicians in order to renew old friendships. There was something they had to talk about.

“We’re working for the empress now. There’s a chance we won’t be able to help you,” Purple warned her.

“Just listen to what we have to say,” Maya responded. “You can decide if you want to help or not after that. I understand the position you’re in right now.”

“Okay.” Purple nodded. “I’ll hear what you have to say, Maya. Also...I’m happy to see you again after so long.”

“Me too,” Maya answered. “I wish the reason for our reunion wasn’t this, though.”

From there, Maya and Elexis began explaining why they had come to meet the court magicians. Maxfern had been resurrected using a different process from normal reviving spells. By overwriting a living soul with the necessary information, he had overtaken the host’s body and soul. Their client wanted to recover the possessed victim, Ralgwin. In order to do that, they needed powerful magic. They would need to reverse the process and remove the information that made up Maxfern, and restore Ralgwin’s soul.

But Elexis and Maya couldn’t use such spells. Maya had once been able to use powerful magic, but by now most of her body had been replaced with machines and small spells were her limit. That was why they’d contacted the court magicians. They had nobody else they could rely on.

“And that’s how it is,” Elexis concluded. “This is Fasta-san. She is our current client.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Fasta greeted the girls. “I may be unemployed now, but in the past I was Ralgwin-sama’s subordinate.” Fasta bowed to the court magicians. Her polite greetings were in part because she was the one asking for help, but mostly because of her earnest personality.

“You just got back and you’re already bringing trouble with you, Elexis.” Crimson gave him a cold stare. The issue weighed more heavily on her than the reunion.

All Elexis could do was offer a bitter smile and shrug. “It is certainly a problem,” he agreed.

“You sure admitted that easily.”

“I have no choice but to admit it. Trying to rescue Ralgwin will mean going against that Grand Wizard, Grevanas.”

“Grevanas?” Crimson’s expression changed. She’d been unhappy but suddenly looked hopeful.

“Of course.” Elexis shrugged once more. “We won’t get anywhere without doing something about him.”

Resurrecting Ralgwin meant defeating Maxfern first. And Grevanas wasn’t going to allow that to happen, which was why Grevanas needed to be dealt with, either through force or schemes. And Elexis didn’t think it would be easy.

“I-I guess it can’t be helped.” Crimson relented. “We go way back...so spill the details!”

“Hold on just a minute!” Orange objected. “You can’t go and decide that on your own, Crim-chan! You just want to fight against Grevanas, don’t you?!”

Crimson had been easily convinced, but Orange managed to stop her just in time. She loved cute things and seemed carefree, but she could be reliable when necessary.

Crimson denied it. “N-No. That’s not true! I was moved by Fasta-san’s determination, and we’re good friends with Elexis and Maya.”

“We’re civil servants now!” Orange insisted. “We can’t run around on our own anymore, and could we even do this in the first place?!”

“Ugh...” Crimson grasped for words. Orange did have a point. They weren’t as free as they’d been during the Darkness Rainbow era. They might have been a secret organization, but they were also civil servants, so they needed to get confirmation from their boss. Moreover, it was questionable whether they could even use such grand magic to save Ralgwin. Now that they were in Forthorthe, they were lacking catalysts and auxiliary equipment.