"Let us have it make a grand declaration and then open the fortress."
This was the proposal Laojun offered after some deliberation.
"We shall use amplification magic to have it announce: 'This fortress was built for the Anti-Demon Race War; it is not my intention to intervene in conflicts between humans.'"
Hearing this, Jin nodded. "I see. That’s a good plan. It isn't a lie, after all."
"Indeed. Furthermore, it shall declare: 'Now that the Anti-Demon Race War has concluded, my raison d'être has vanished,' and we will make it appear as though it has self-destructed."
"Yeah, I like that."
The majority of the Magi Machines inside the fortress had already been destroyed. Since the Brain itself had been placed in a state of Stand Still, it couldn't actually self-destruct now even if it wanted to.
Jin pondered for a moment before giving his authorization. "Alright. Let's go with that."
＊ ＊ ＊
"...Just what is happening in there?"
It was all well and good to have sent ten men inside, but since then, there had been no movement. Even Marshal Carter was beginning to grow impatient.
"Attention, humans who surround me!"
A booming voice resonated from Fort Crow.
"I am the 'Brain' that oversees this fortress."
"The Brain? What on earth...?"
"Shh! Just listen," Carter whispered.
Marshal Carter and Chiharad Sauto exchanged a brief look and then strained their ears.
"My raison d'être is to fight the demon race and protect humanity. It is not to fight against humans. However, I cannot simply allow myself to be destroyed."
A wave of agitation swept through the members of the Kingdom Detached Force as they heard this.
"I have detained all the soldiers who infiltrated the fortress. I have extracted information from them."
"...As I feared. They were captured," Carter muttered.
"I believe that conflicts between humans should be settled by humans themselves."
"..."
"For the time being, I have also detained the humans who were holed up in this fortress."
"What!?"
Marshal Carter could hardly believe his ears. If it had even detained Orange's faction, it meant the end of this campaign.
"I shall now open the gates. There are nineteen detained humans. Come and collect them. Afterward, I shall judge my role complete and self-destruct."
"W-What!?"
The fortress was a priceless artifact; its destruction would be a loss to the world. Chiharad panicked. As a member of Nostalgia, this was a situation he desperately wanted to avoid.
"W-Wait! Stop!" he cried, but his voice did not reach the fortress.
"Now, I shall open the gates. Come."
With that, the voice ceased. Simultaneously, the main gates swung open.
"...How should we interpret this?"
Marshal Carter was troubled. Whether or not they could trust the declaration was the most pressing issue. The gate had certainly opened, but there was no guarantee it wasn't a trap.
"A difficult question indeed. However, it is also a golden opportunity. The gates are open, after all," Chiharad replied, wrestling with his own doubts. "Our only choice is to send the golems in first to confirm the situation inside."
"I suppose so. Nothing will progress unless we take action."
They reached an agreement and decided to first dispatch two general-purpose golems under the pretext of collecting the prisoners. These general-purpose golems were specially made by Nostalgia and possessed a reasonable degree of intelligence.
Chiharad gave the necessary instructions and sent them off. "If those two return, we should understand the situation a bit better."
"I certainly hope so."
They waited for about ten minutes.
Suddenly, someone came running out of the fort's main gate. They were approaching at a light run. For a moment, the men braced themselves, thinking it was an enemy, but as the figure drew closer, they recognized the face.
"Is that... Cougar?"
He was one of the ten men who had been sent in. Marshal Carter and Chiharad went out to meet him.
"What happened? Are you alone!?"
"Tell us everything!"
"Y-Yes, sir."
Out of breath, Cougar began to explain haltingly. He told them about how they had dug a tunnel to infiltrate, how they had split into two groups inside, and how they had fallen into a trap and been captured.
"Only I was woken up and sent back to explain. The remaining nine are being kept asleep with magic."
After listening to the explanation, Marshal Carter fell into deep thought. There was no discrepancy between the voice from the fort and Cougar's explanation.
"Ah, that's right. I ran into two units that looked like general-purpose golems. They should be coming out shortly."
Just as he said, their leader, Dohas, and one other soldier were carried out on the backs of the golems.
"Hmm, it seems there was no lie. Can we assume there are no traps?" Marshal Carter breathed a sigh of relief.
"We still can't trust it one hundred percent. This time, let's send four general-purpose golems and four soldiers....Cougar, I'm sorry, but could you go back to that fort once more?"
He intended to have Cougar, who at least knew the layout, act as a guide.
"Understood," Cougar—or rather, Regulus 43—agreed.
The four men and four golems were dispatched... and fifteen minutes later, they returned carrying the remaining seven captured soldiers and, to everyone's shock, the former Duke Orange.
"O-Oh!? This is Orange!"
"Yes. Just as the voice said, they were asleep in the room next to where we were being held. There are eight others still asleep, presumably members of the duke's faction."
"I see. Those words were true after all. Very well, go back once more."
"Sir!"
The four men and four golems headed toward Fort Crow again. Chiharad decided to accompany them this time.
"Self-destructing would be a loss to the entire world. I will see if I can somehow prevent it. If I can't, I want to carry out at least one or two artifacts."
"Mm, understood. I'm counting on you."
Thus, five men and four golems entered the fort. Chiharad intended to act separately and search the various rooms.
It was then that the voice spoke again.
"I do not know what you intend to do, but there is nothing of note left within this fortress."
Chiharad cried out in panic. "T-That can't be! What a waste!"
"Regrettably, it is the truth. I cannot yet hand these over to a world where humans still fight amongst themselves. Unless it is a nation comparable to the Dinar Kingdom, I cannot hand over this legacy."
"..."
Chiharad was left speechless. He was a member of Nostalgia; his ideology was to reproduce technologies lost in the past and utilize them for the future. At the same time, he possessed no small amount of admiration for the ancient superpower, the Dinar Kingdom. Precisely because he knew all too well that the current state of the world was vastly different from those days, he could find no words to argue.
"Oh, yes. There is one more person sleeping in a separate room. Take him back with you as well."
"What?"
Guided to the location, Chiharad saw a soldier who had failed in his attempt to scale the walls of the fort earlier.
"He was injured from falling off the wall. I have applied Behandeln to his wounds."
With that, Chiharad carried the soldier on his back and left the fortress behind.
＊ ＊ ＊
Thus, all the humans inside Fort Crow—a total of twenty people including both allies and enemies (though Cougar was actually an automata)—were now safely outside the fort.
"It seems not a single human remains. With this, my role is finished. Descendants of the Dinar Kingdom, strive for excellence. Farewell."
And with that, the voice was never heard again.
When Marshal Carter and Chiharad led a force of over a hundred men to investigate the interior of the fort once more, they found nothing of note. Aside from the ten combat golems that had been sent in with the original squad, which were found in a state of Stand Still, the fort was empty.
"...I don't know how it was done, but that voice... the self-proclaimed 'Brain'... it has erased everything..."
"Yes. It is extremely regrettable."
"A world where humans fight amongst themselves, eh? It means we are still immature," Marshal Carter said with a lonely smile.
The evening sky he looked up at was beginning to turn a deep, bloody red.