“O-Onii-chan…”
“Hanna!”
Jin and his companions had let their guard down completely. The timing, too, couldn’t have been worse.
Because they were traveling by carriage, the Secret Mobile Unit (SP) dedicated to Hanna’s protection had fallen back to maintain a discreet distance. Had Reiko been the first to disembark, there would have been no problem. But dwelling on that now was pointless.
To make matters worse, Jessica and Gloria had already moved into the forest to scout for potential threats.
The assailant must have employed a magic tool with a Hide effect. While the Secret Mobile Unit (SP) might have sensed a presence, they had hesitated to act because the man’s intentions were unclear. It was a series of misfortunes for Jin’s group, which translated into a stroke of luck for the man—though in light of what followed, “misfortune” would have been a far more appropriate word for his situation.
“D-Don’t move! All of you, get out of the carriage!”
“…Let us do as he says for now,” Princess Lieschen said.
She leaped from the carriage without waiting for a footstool. Jin, Elsa, and Reiko followed.
“Princess!”
Jessica and Gloria came racing back.
“You! What are you doing?! Release that child!”
The man holding Hanna only gave a smirk. “Hmph. If you value the princess’s life, you’ll stay at least ten meters back.”
“Hmm? The princess?”
Hearing those words, the group finally realized the situation. The man had mistaken Hanna for the princess, misled by the noble’s dress Lieschen had gifted her.
However, that realization provided no comfort.
As they slowly backed away from the carriage, Jin whispered softly to Reiko. “Reiko, where are Iris and Azalea?”
Reiko switched her vision to infrared and scanned the area around Hanna. “Yes, Father. They are only one step away…”
“Gyaaaaaah!”
Reiko was still speaking when the man’s scream tore through the air.
Everyone present, save for Jin and Reiko, stared in shock. Two pitch-black golems had appeared as if from nowhere. One was shielding Hanna, while the other had pinned the man to the ground.
The man’s right arm—the one that had held the dagger—was bent at impossible angles, shattered in at least three places.
“Onii-chan!”
Hanna ran to Jin with tears in her eyes. Jin hurried to meet her, pulling her small body into a tight embrace and rubbing her back.
“It’s okay now. I’m sorry, Hanna. I’m sorry I let you get scared.”
“No… I knew you’d save me, Onii-chan.”
Jin looked over at Iris and Azalea and told them they had done well.
“W-What are they? These pitch-black golems?” Lieschen managed to stammer out.
Jin told the princess he would explain later and turned his attention back to the man. “Now then. What was your goal?”
Sweat poured down the man's face from the pain, but he merely snorted. “Who knows.”
That was a mistake.
“Iris. The other arm too.”
At Jin’s command, Iris twisted the man’s left arm behind his back. Jin held Hanna even closer, shielding her eyes from the sight.
A sickening crack echoed through the clearing, followed by another agonizing shriek. The man's shoulder and elbow were now crushed.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaah!”
Jin was no saint. He was incredibly indulgent with his family, but he could be utterly merciless toward his enemies. This man had made Hanna cry, and in doing so, he had incurred Jin’s absolute wrath.
“Next, I’ll shatter your hips. This is your last chance. Why did you do it?”
Weeping and trailing snot, the man finally cracked.
“I… I just wanted… to run away. I needed… the carriage.”
Jin asked Elsa to apply a painkiller so the man could speak more clearly. Elsa nodded.
“Schmerzmittel.”
The magic took hold, dulling the man's agony, though his mangled arms remained useless.
“Why did you need to flee?” Jin demanded, glaring down at him.
Having lost his will to resist, the man confessed. “In a few minutes… a group of about fifty is going to attack this road. They’re all thugs. I was part of the crew, but I got cold feet and decided to bail. I had to get away from here as fast as possible, so I needed a horse or a carriage.”
As if on cue, the sound of many footsteps began to echo from the depths of the forest.
“What?! It seems he was telling the truth.”
Lieschen turned pale. Closing the city gates would take too long; the odds of them finishing before the bandits arrived were slim.
“At this rate, Alban will be attacked while the defenses are down! Jessica, Gloria! We must hold them here!”
“Yes, Princess!”
“By your command!”
Lieschen turned her frantic gaze toward Jin. “Jin, you and the others must take my carriage and return to the city. Once you are inside the Royal Palace, they won't be able to reach you easily.”
“What about you, Lies-sama?”
“I will hold them off here as long as I can. I can at least use Water Ball and Water Bullet.”
She looked down at a nearby puddle, her expression determined. Jin was impressed; the princess truly intended to act as their shield.
“Tia, run to the Royal Castle immediately and bring word of this. If the garrison moves, fifty bandits will be easily dealt with.”
“But, Princess…” Tia hesitated, her ancient programming conflicting with the order to leave her charge.
Jin closed his eyes for a moment, thinking, then spoke with absolute certainty. “No. Tia, you stay and protect Princess Lieschen. Jessica-san and Gloria-san, you only need to focus on capturing the bandits.”
Elsa whispered softly under her breath, “That’s so like Jin-nii.”
“Y-You, what are you saying—”
Before Lieschen could finish, the first of the bandits emerged from the woods. They were accompanied by a single golem.
“What! They even have a golem?!”
“Against a golem… we might not even be able to stop half of them,” Jessica said, her voice tense.
“Jin-dono, you should—” Gloria began, but Jin ignored her and gave Reiko her orders.
“Reiko! Stop them! But try not to kill them if you can help it.”
“As you wish, Father.”
Reiko blurred into motion. In the next heartbeat, several bandits were launched into the air, crashing back down to the earth with bone-jarring force.
“Y-You people…”
“What in the world is that girl?!”
“…I’ve never seen a human fly like that before.”
Lieschen, Jessica, and Gloria could hardly believe their eyes.
The bandits, who numbered fifty, were flattened in the blink of an eye. As for their golem, a single kick from Reiko sent it hurtling twenty meters through the air. It slammed into a tree and crumpled into an unusable heap of metal.
“It is finished,” Reiko said.
The entire process of neutralizing fifty men had taken less than a minute. It defied all common sense. Even without words, the looks on the faces of the princess and her knights were clear: Who are you people?
“I’m sorry, but let’s tie them up before we talk,” Jin suggested.
He began using the bandits' own belts and sashes to bind the unconscious men. Reiko and Elsa joined in, and a moment later, a dazed Jessica and Gloria followed suit. Within minutes, the entire group was restrained.
“Now then, I ask you once more. Who are you?” Princess Lieschen asked.
Jin had already decided to tell her a portion of the truth.
“Lies-sama, I told you about the golem incident in the Kingdom of Egerea, didn’t I?”
“Y-Yes.”
“The one who was most responsible for suppressing those rampaging golems was Reiko here. She is an artifact, and she is also my precious daughter.” Jin placed a hand on Reiko’s shoulder as she stepped to his side. “Because of that achievement, I was granted the title of Honorary Magi Craftman of the Kingdom of Egerea.”
It was a condensed version of the story, but it was the truth.
“So that was it…”
Witnessing Jin’s skill in magi craft and Reiko’s overwhelming power, Lieschen found the explanation easy to accept.
“Even so, Reiko is incredible,” Jessica added, clearly impressed. “To think she’s stronger than a golem.”
“On that note, where did those black golems go? The ones that saved Hanna?” Gloria asked, looking around the empty road.
“They are golems that guard us from the shadows,” Jin explained. “They were a bit slow to react this time, though…”
Lieschen’s eyes sparkled. “I knew my intuition was right! Jin, would you be willing to create golems for my country as well?”
Jin let out a small mental sigh at the predictable turn of events. “Well, that would depend on the conditions.”