The sham fight framed as a goodwill match between Manon and the Type V2 golem ended in Manon's victory.
"Splendid...!"
Amid thunderous applause, Manon walked slowly back to where Gajue Tsuga and Fione Fias stood.
"Well done."
"Yes, I managed somehow."
Contained within that brief exchange were words of appreciation and an unspoken acknowledgment of the operation's success.
"...Mmh, Sir Gajue Tsuga, and Lady Manon, I am thoroughly impressed!"
The Duke spread both hands in an open gesture of defeat and admiration.
"With strength like this, there is no doubt that you could pacify not only our nation, but all Four Principalities by military force."
Provided there were a thousand Manons, of course, the Duke added with a wry smile.
"And I have witnessed the true extent of the Magi Craft Meister's skill with my very own eyes!"
As expected, having ancestors hailing from Mitsuho meant he was already well familiar with the legend of the Magi Craft Meister.
Manon pondered the situation to herself as well.
(If someone were to visit this country officially, it might be better for Jin-sama to come in person rather than Deus Ex Machina...)
"If possible, I would dearly love to meet the current generation's Magi Craft Meister one day."
"I will be sure to pass along your regards."
Hearing the Duke's earnest request, Manon gave her assurance.
(If push comes to shove, using a Doppel would work just as well...)
"Oh, Lady Manon, I would be most grateful."
The Chancellor chimed in with equal fervor.
"It would truly be an honor if we could meet the Magi Craft Meister!"
(Could it be that instead of just coming ourselves, things would have proceeded much faster if Jin-sama had come along from the start...?)
The popularity of the Magi Craft Meister was remarkably high—so much so that even Fione Fias couldn't help but think along those lines.
Leaving behind the cheer-filled Royal Palace, the airship carrying Gajue Tsuga's party took to the skies once more.
"Please pick up the pace a bit on the way back."
The time was noon.
At normal cruising speed, they would not make it back until eight in the evening.
Since the following day was scheduled as a full day of rest, the arrival time itself wasn't a pressing issue; however, flying through the dark was quite hazardous in a region completely devoid of air traffic control.
Hence, they wanted to return before night fell completely.
By bringing the auxiliary propulsion engines online, they could boost their speed by roughly thirty percent. That would shave the eight-hour journey down to about six, allowing them to arrive around six in the evening while daylight still remained.
With the next day being a holiday, the crew would also have ample time to perform maintenance on the vessel.
Incidentally, the pilot and co-pilot rotated shifts every hour. Maintaining sharp focus while steering through an endless, empty expanse of sky for hours on end was an exhausting duty.
(...I wonder if a golem could be configured to handle the piloting to some extent?)
Gajue Tsuga pondered the thought as he watched the pilots work.
The return flight went off without a hitch, and the airship carrying the delegation touched down at the garrison in the Mimaka Principality shortly past six in the evening.
"Welcome back safe and sound. Thank you for your hard work on this mission."
The captain of the World Security Guard's Mimaka Principality Garrison stepped forward to greet the group with warm words of appreciation.
"Thank you for enduring such long hours at the helm. Tomorrow is a day off, so please take your time and rest well."
With that, the airship was handed over for maintenance.
Starting with the heavily taxed propulsion system, inspecting the helium pressure inside the gas bag and checking the envelope for any exterior damage were essential tasks. Maintenance on the helm controls and the interior cabins was equally vital. While the onboard lavatories featured a tank system equipped with deodorant, sterilization, and decomposition functions that required very little fuss, routine inspections were still a necessity.
All of those duties were entrusted to the maintenance crew.
"...Manon, are you holding up all right?"
Gajue Tsuga voiced his concern regarding Manon's physical condition. Built originally as a secretary automaton, she had just fought a duel against a full-fledged combat golem. He worried that some internal component might have been strained beyond its limits.
"Yes, thank you for asking. My body is completely fine."
"That's a relief. You're an exceptionally capable secretary whom the Chief Administrator relies on heavily. We'd be in serious trouble if anything happened to you."
"I appreciate your thoughtfulness. But Jin-sama crafted this body with great care; a scuffle of that scale isn't enough to rattle its joints."
"I see. That is good to hear."
Gajue Tsuga then turned his attention to Fione Fias.
"You did well today as well. Make sure to rest up tomorrow. The day after, we finally enter the Jagus Principality."
"Yes, understood."
Each of them spent the evening as they pleased—enjoying dinner, soaking in a hot bath, or receiving a massage—refreshing both body and mind.
Over on Hourai Island, Jin and Reinhard had been watching Manon's battle unfold on screen.
"Oho, those are Shouro Empire martial arts! Most impressive."
"Yeah, she fought with speed and technique strictly at the forefront."
Since destroying the opponent was never the objective, Jin agreed that this had been the wisest course of action. If she had overwhelmed it with raw physical power on top of her agility and technique, it would have utterly humiliated the host nation's royal family.
Manon had been transmitting performance data on her opponent, the Type V2 golem, in real time.
Although some metrics required extrapolation, Laojun synthesized the readings and mapped out the Type V2's exact specifications.
Once the bout concluded in Manon's victory, Laojun reported in:
"My Lord, regarding the Type V2 golem's performance: its output is roughly one-hundredth that of the Land squad, its operational speed is one-hundred-twentieth, and its reaction speed is approximately one-hundred-fiftieth."
Laojun added that since these were calculated from combat observation rather than formal benchmarking, there was a margin of error of about plus or minus three percent.
"No, that's more than enough detail."
Given such figures for a designated combat golem, Jin estimated that its engineering stood roughly on par with the standard magi-craft he had witnessed four centuries ago.
"Isn't that about the same level as the combat golems at Prince Ernest's birthday celebration back in the Kingdom of Egerea?"
"Ah, that incident?"
Reinhard replied with a nostalgic smile.
"Lotte did great work, my Schwarzritter pitched in a little too... and then Reiko-chan stole the entire spotlight at the end..."
Behind Jin, Reiko puffed out her chest with immense pride.
"...So it's at that level, huh... That's quite low."
The combat golems deployed by the Unifilar back then had been roughly three times stronger than this model, Reinhard noted.
"There was a point where even my Schwarzritter was completely outmatched by them, after all."
"Did something like that happen? It's been so long."
The two friends reminisced about the past for the first time in a while.
"At any rate, that means their military is relying on golems of that caliber."
"Which means they shouldn't pose the slightest threat to the Conference Countries for the foreseeable future."
Even if they decided to invade, repelling them would be trivial, Reinhard reasoned.
Just then, a single lingering question crossed Jin's mind, and he gave voice to it.
"Still... who could have sold them these golems in the first place... or rather, who actually built them?"