"The Puppet Clan is neutral on the surface, but the truth is, we are internally divided... sir."
Belialus shifted his manner of speaking halfway through. It seemed his gratitude toward Jin was sincere.
"It is quite embarrassing to admit to such a split."
Belialus hung his head slightly.
It's a common enough story, Jin thought, but he didn't say it out loud. Instead, he asked a different question.
"Is it safe to assume your clan excels at controlling monsters and magical beasts?"
"That is correct. My specialty is controlling Ground Worms. It seems that compatibility depends on the practitioner; there are very few who can control anything and everything by themselves."
"I see... By the way, do you know someone named Arshel?"
Upon hearing that name, Belialus looked slightly surprised.
"Where did you hear that name? Arshel is my younger sister; she has been missing for a year."
"Is that so? She seemed to be in the northern part of the Klein Kingdom, a human nation. I didn't meet her directly, though."
"I see..."
Belialus's face betrayed his worry, but he suppressed it and continued his explanation to Jin.
"...Her specialty is the Gigantoavrum. Furthermore, she can use Teleportation Magic."
A Gigantoavrum was a giant earwig. Jin recalled that such a creature was indeed what had attacked Gloria.
"What about someone who specializes in the Gigant Peeder?"
"A Gigant Peeder? No, I'm sorry, I don't know of any."
Jin had asked just in case, but it seemed Belialus didn't even know what a Gigant Peeder was.
"It's a massive centipede, but if you don't know of it, never mind."
Jin remembered there was one more thing he was curious about.
"Ah, that's right, one more thing. Do you know anyone who can control a Hekatonkheir?"
"Yes, there are about five people who can. About a month ago, a man named Endus sent one beyond the Pazdext Great Isthmus."
Contrary to Jin's assumptions, it seemed that the more intelligent a creature was, the easier it was to control. It made sense once it was explained; apparently, having a certain level of intelligence made it easier to manipulate their will.
Conversely, more primitive organisms required a specific aptitude to control.
"And how is the rest of the clan?"
"The bellicose ones have left our settlement, so you can consider the twenty or so who remain to be part of the moderate faction....However, they likely all have Agujha implanted in them."
"I see..."
It was safe to assume that, at the very least, members of both the Puppet Clan and the All-Creation clan had fallen victim to the Agujha.
"The problem is that we don't know how many clans were being controlled by the Magi Machine we deactivated."
First, they needed to liberate everyone in the so-called moderate factions, starting with the Puppet Clan and the All-Creation clan.
"I intend to depart tomorrow morning. Which clan's territory is closer?"
Istalis answered that question.
"In that case, our All-Creation territory is closer. The Puppet Clan's settlement is much further to the west."
"...That is correct."
Belialus looked disappointed, but there was no helping it.
"Alright, then we'll visit the All-Creation clan tomorrow morning. If they have been liberated, we'll remove the Agujha. If they haven't been..."
"What do you plan to do?"
"We'll Stun them all and then remove the Agujha."
Jin added that the Negadolls likely already knew they were capable of removing the needles.
With that, the briefing came to an end for the time being.
"Fabius-san, could you show me your ancient magic tools?"
Jin (using his Double) made the request with genuine interest.
"Yes, of course....Some of them no longer function, however. Please, this way."
Jin's Double followed after Fabius with four Mini-Smiths riding on its shoulders. Reiko went with them.
"First is this."
Located at the very back of the settlement was a magic tool with many windows. This was the Gospel magic tool.
"I see... May I touch it?"
"By all means. If it's you, Jin-sama, I don't even mind if you dismantle it."
Jin's Double took him up on the offer and, with the help of the Mini-Smiths, removed the tool's outer casing.
"Hmm..."
"Oh, so this is what it looks like inside....Though I haven't the slightest idea what I'm looking at."
With its casing removed, the magic tool revealed a basic magi-sequence for controlling magic that was very similar to the manaphones Jin had sent to various countries through Nostalgia.
After a thorough observation, he replaced the casing. Laojun had firmly committed the basic design data to memory.
"Are there others?"
"They are over here."
Fabius led Jin into another room.
"These are the golems we employ."
They were dark gray golems—the same model as the ones that had attacked Jin's group the other day and had been repelled by Reiko and Anne. There were fourteen of them.
"We had twenty, but as you know, six were destroyed by you the other day, Jin-sama."
"Ah, I feel a bit bad about that."
This was a sentiment unique to Jin. It was a line that would never have been uttered if Laojun were the one operating the body.
"Two of them have stopped working entirely."
"Let me see them."
Jin had a particular interest in golems and automata. He immediately set to work analyzing the two that wouldn't move.
First, the material. It was an alloy unknown to this world, but Jin recognized its true nature.
Stellite. A high-hardness alloy composed of cobalt, chromium, and tungsten. It possessed excellent wear, corrosion, and heat resistance.
In this world—or rather, on this planet—tungsten hardly existed. Instead, adamantite was found. This led Jin to believe that the metal used to make these golems might have been brought from another planet... Hale.
The golems had no muscle tissue and seemed to be moved directly by magic. It was no wonder their movements were clunky. One could say this was a method unique to a land with such a high concentration of free ether. In exchange, their durability was high.
As far as Jin was concerned, the only thing of reference was the material.
The reason they had stopped moving was that their ether converters had deteriorated over the years.
"So ether converters have been used since back then... Perhaps the Predecessor learned from them too."
Musing over this, Jin repaired the golems with the help of his Double, Reiko, and the Mini-Smiths.
Even the golems that still functioned had significantly deteriorated ether converters, so he replaced those as well.
Since magi-crystals were abundantly produced in this land, there was no shortage of parts.
"Jin-sama, thank you very much!"
Seeing the remaining fourteen units moving properly again, Fabius bowed his head repeatedly.
Next was the lighting near the entrance.
It seemed that when some of the lights stopped functioning due to the Magi-Jammer's irradiation, the remaining parts were overloaded, damaging the magi-circuits.
This was easily repaired.
And finally, the illusion barrier.
"...This is..."
The principle was similar to a 3D hologram. Waves utilizing magic were emitted from two or more projectors.
At the points where the waves from different projectors intersected, visible "dots" were drawn.
A collection of these dots formed the illusion. Since it was a three-dimensional image, there was no sense of incongruity from any direction, and one wouldn't know it was an illusion unless they touched it.
Furthermore, the surface of the illusion had the property of reflecting sound waves across a wide range of frequencies.
Because of this, it could also deceive the sense of hearing, resulting in extremely high concealment capability.
What impressed Jin most was the use of magic power.
The "magic power" referred to here was not magic in the broad sense of "magical power," but magic power in the narrow sense, used synonymously with things like magnetic force. It was more accurate to call them "mana lines."
"Mana lines propagate through space just like light. They can also be modulated. Visible light is generated through interference at the points where two mana lines intersect."
This was Laojun's explanation after analyzing the data.
Regardless, thanks to these analysis results, Hourai Island's defense network would likely become even more robust.
This was a major harvest.
During these tasks, two objects thought to be teleportation markers were found, and Jin removed them. This would prevent any surprise attacks.
Beyond these, Jin repaired nearly ten other types of magic tools, including some that weren't particularly rare.
By the time Jin had restored all the magi-plates and magi-circuits that had been malfunctioning, Fabius had expressed his gratitude so many times he had lost count.
Jin, too, had gained a great deal from the exchange.