Just as Jin breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the preparations for Deus Ex Machina's base were practically finished...
"Hey, Jin, aren't you going to name the giant golems and multilegged tanks?"
Prompted by Saki, Jin realized he had completely forgotten to settle on names for them.
"Let's see. How about 'Talos' for the giant golems, and 'Liger' for the multilegged tanks?"
He had actually given it some thought beforehand, but had simply forgotten to christen them officially.
"Talos" came from Greek mythology—the bronze automaton that guarded the island of Crete.
A "Liger" was a hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female tiger. Incidentally, such crossbreeds were known to grow exceptionally large.
As an aside, a cross between a male tiger and a female lion was called a tigon.
"Hmm, how should I put it? It feels a bit different from your usual naming sense, Jin. Ah, but since they belong to Maquina, maybe that's for the best."
Saki seemed convinced.
"Sounds fine to me. Both have a nice ring to them," Goose added.
In any case, most Greek myths and Earth animal names were entirely foreign to the people of this world anyway.
At any rate, the work on Deus Ex Machina's base had finally reached a stopping point.
All that remained was to put everything into operation and iron out any issues that arose.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, Elsa chimed in with another question.
"Jin-nii, where are you going to station Arcadia?"
"Ah, right. There's that."
It was currently floating in Tatsumi Bay, but they needed to decide on an official post for it.
Jin decided he would gather opinions from the entire Jin Family over lunch.
True to Reiko's earlier announcement, lunch was pasta.
"Ah, this is it! This is the taste I love!"
What Sion was raving about was none other than spaghetti Napolitan.
It was made with tometru ketchup, marunegi, pimiento, and bacon made from pigu meat, tossed with butter, salt, pepper, and an array of secret ingredients, then finished with a sprinkle of dried green laver.
Although the mountain leek usually used as a substitute for garlic had been omitted this time, the dish still turned out wonderfully delicious.
"I prefer this one."
"Same here."
Elsa and Jin seemed to favor the meat sauce.
Meanwhile, there was another group that championed a third option: peperoncino.
"I really like this one the best."
That was Reinhard.
The Napolitan camp consisted of Sion, Lordtoss, Ludmila, Marikka, Beena, Louis, Lishia, and a few others.
The meat sauce faction included Elsa, Jin, Saki, Marcia, Rodrigo, Vivienne, Goose, Hanna, Martha, and the rest.
The peperoncino supporters were Reinhard, Berche, Saki, Toa, Stearena, Milowina, Mine, and others.
For beverages, citran juice, ramon juice, and cider had all been prepared.
After lunch, before Sion and the others departed, Jin decided to ask for their thoughts.
"I've been wondering where we should station Arcadia. I'd like to hear everyone's input."
At Jin's instruction, Laojun brought up a world map on the large wall-mounted magi-screen.
"For now, I was thinking somewhere between Hourai Island and Kunlun Island."
"It could serve as a decoy position to conceal the true location of Hourai Island," Jin explained.
"I think... it's not a bad idea," Reinhard offered first.
"I don't see any glaring flaws with it."
"Yeah, that's true. Just as Reinhard said, strategically speaking, I don't think there are any major problems," Louis agreed.
"If you say 'major' problems, does that mean there are minor ones?"
It was Sion who answered.
"Well, yes. If you put Arcadia there, the distance to Hourai Island becomes significantly shorter, right? The odds of it being discovered would go up."
Granted, since Hourai Island was protected by a barrier, the likelihood would merely increase from something like 0.0001 percent to 0.0002 percent—though that was still double—Sion noted.
"In that case, what other candidate locations are there?"
"Well, personally, I think the open sea south of the Shouro Empire would be ideal," Louis suggested.
His reasoning was that while the Celuroa Kingdom and Shouro Empire were far from Hourai Island, placing Arcadia in those waters would allow swift access to both nations.
"I see. That makes sense."
"It was previously stationed in the waters east of the Lauren Continent, so claiming it simply relocated shouldn't raise any eyebrows."
Furthermore, it would also be closer to Avalon, Louis concluded.
Since Avalon was located west of the Kingdom of Elias, the time difference between it and Arcadia would only be about an hour and a half.
"Besides, having a base there would give Jin a convenient pretext—pretending he's merely being permitted to use it—which would make traveling to the Celuroa Kingdom and Shouro Empire much easier," Reinhard added.
"Yeah, that definitely works to our advantage."
Jin checked to see if anyone else had different suggestions, but since none were raised, he decided to adopt Louis's plan.
"All right, let's move it to the open sea south of the Shouro Empire, around 75 degrees west longitude."
The latitude would match Avalon's, at roughly 7 degrees north latitude.
"We can take our time during transit. That'll give us a chance to check for any malfunctions along the way."
With that, the preparations for Deus Ex Machina's base, Arcadia, were essentially complete.
"Well then, we'll be heading out."
After lunch, Sion set off for the Nord Federation as planned, accompanied by Lordtoss and Ludmila.
Having settled the matter with Arcadia, Jin and the others relaxed in the dining hall.
"...Now then. With that taken care of, we can finally begin construction on the circuit in the Kingdom of Franz."
"Jin-nii, before that, we need to buy some asphalt emulsion."
"Right, that too."
In other words, they needed to make another trip to Mitsuho.
"Looks like I'll have to go back again... Ah, come to think of it, the main branch of the Ikeda Trading Company was in Kushima, wasn't it? Not Seki Town."
Jin imagined that natural asphalt could probably be harvested somewhere nearby.
"Since there's no urgent business in the Shouro Empire or the Kingdom of Franz, maybe I'll head over tomorrow."
Just then, Laojun's voice chimed in.
"My Lord, regarding the cave-in at the Torom Mine that the Shouro Empire's intelligence operatives have been investigating..."
"Oh? Has there been some progress?"
"Yes. Shall I deliver the report here?"
"Yeah, go right ahead."
"Understood."
Laojun began its report...