"Wow, so this is Jin-sama's laboratory! It really is a mirror image of the one on Onogoro Island!"
"It ought to be. After all, this is the original."
"I am honored to have been invited."
As they spoke, the Hourai Island Golem Maids appeared.
"Welcome back, everyone."
"Whoa..."
Greeting them were the five leaders of the Five-Colored Golem Maids, along with Soleil, Luna, and Laozi.
Laozi was the first to speak to the newcomer.
"Edgar, welcome home."
"...I'm back," Edgar replied, his voice thick with emotion.
"Eh... Oh, that's right!"
His current master, Shu, was the first to realize the significance.
"Edgar, you were born here, weren't you?"
"Yes, Master. I was created here... on May 29, 3457, by Elsa-sama."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. Back then, Elsa built her first autonomous automaton all by herself. That was Edgar."
Jin added a supplementary explanation, noting that after several upgrades, Edgar had become the automaton he was today.
"I built Arrow in Port Rock Town. Alco and Veil, too."
In truth, "this" Jin hadn't been the one to build Alco and Veil, but he kept that to himself, knowing the explanation would only make things more complicated.
＊ ＊ ＊
After finishing the introductions for the Five-Colored Golem Maids, Soleil, Luna, and Laozi, Jin summoned Konron 3 for their tour of Hourai Island.
"Edgar, would you like to take the helm for the first time in a while? Shu, you don't mind, right?"
Naturally, neither Edgar nor Shu had any objections. Edgar looked particularly nostalgic as he headed toward the pilot's seat.
"It hasn't changed at all."
"Please, Senior."
Hope, who had been sitting in the pilot's seat, vacated it to let Edgar take over, moving to support him as the co-pilot.
"It's an airship... but can something this size actually float?" Shu asked, voiced his doubts. It was a reasonable concern; if one viewed it as a standard helium-filled airship, it seemed impossible for it to stay aloft while carrying all of them plus the golems.
"Konron 3 doesn't rely on helium to float. It uses force generators. Its appearance as an airship is just a disguise."
"Is that how it works?"
"Heh, incredible."
"Soooo cool!"
Everyone seemed to at least be familiar with the term force generator.
"However, no one knows the method of construction," Shu explained on behalf of the group.
"Marikka-sama wouldn't teach us, either."
Jin wondered if she had decided it wasn't necessary for life on Onogoro Island, or perhaps Marikka herself didn't remember... Regardless of the reason, there was no doubt that the technology existed on Onogoro Island, as evidenced by Testa.
(If they're going to migrate to Hale, I'll need to teach them eventually,) Jin thought. But for now, the tour of Hourai Island took priority.
"Edgar, start."
Jin gave the order, his mind drifting back to four hundred years ago.
"Yes, Jin-sama."
Answering exactly as he had in the past, Edgar set Konron 3 in motion.
"Wow, we're floating!" Rubina cheered.
The floor of Konron 3 was made of cubic zirconia, making it entirely transparent. When the coverings were retracted, it was the perfect vantage point for observing the ground from above.
"Waaaah, so this is what Hourai Island looks like!"
In terms of sheer scale, Hourai Island was larger than Onogoro Island, making an aerial tour the most efficient way to see it all.
Mount Hourai soared in the center of the island. It wasn't currently emitting smoke, but it was an active volcano. In the modern Japan Jin had come from, it was the type of mountain that, until recently, had been classified as a "dormant volcano."
One thousand... no, 1,400 years ago, during the era of the first Magi Craft Meister, Adriana Barbora Tsetse, it had been a much smaller island. Volcanic activity had caused the land to rise to its current proportions.
The current elevation was approximately 3,400 meters.
As Jin provided the historical background, Reiko stepped in to supplement the finer details. Konron 3 made a slow, graceful circuit around Mount Hourai. They enjoyed a sightseeing flight with coniferous forests and rugged wilderness stretching out below.
"Ah, what's that!?"
Natalia's voice rang out. She wasn't looking through the floor window but out of the side, pointing toward something in the distance.
"Those are the Albatross units. They're Hourai Island's Air Force."
"Hah, that's truly impressive."
Konron 3 traveled clockwise from the laboratory and soon reached the skies above Tatsumi Bay.
"Edgar, drop the altitude a bit."
"Yes, Jin-sama."
Edgar lowered the ship to about fifty meters. At this height, they could clearly see the activity on the sea's surface.
"Ah, Jin-sama, is that...?"
Natalia had spotted a vessel. It was a trimaran, Hydro 1.
"We have preserves in Tatsumi Bay for aquaculture. We farm fish and harvest nori and wakame there."
Aqua and the other Five-Colored Golem Maids were working diligently, with Marine and the other Navy Golems providing support.
"This is nice. It feels like a real community," Rubina said, her voice bright.
"Oh, looks like they've brought in a catch."
"Eh?"
In the direction Jin was pointing, the Mermaid unit was towing a massive creature.
"Wh-What is that?" Rubina asked, sounding a bit rattled.
"That's a sea dragon. I heard they've been raiding the fishing grounds lately."
Sea dragons were aggressive, carnivorous monsters that even preyed upon death sea serpents.
"They usually inhabit the cold northern seas, but occasionally they travel south on ocean currents. They eat so many fish they disrupt the entire ecosystem, so we have to cull them like this."
Jin explained that they honored the creature's life by utilizing every part of it as raw materials.
"I-I see."
The visitors from Onogoro Island all looked a bit pale; it was their first time seeing such a gargantuan monster.
"Ah, do you not have many opportunities to see magical beasts like this on Onogoro Island?"
"That is correct, Jin-sama," Arrow replied. She was familiar with the death sea serpents and the bowall materials that Testa and the others prepared, but seeing the real thing was another matter.
"I suppose that just shows how peaceful Onogoro Island is."
In a sense, they were quite sheltered—enough so that even Jin felt the need to point it out.
Someday, Jin thought, he would like to show them the nations of the outside world as well.