Upon receiving the report from Laojun about the discovery of the "mysterious ship," Jin hurried to the command room alongside Reiko.
Naturally, they used the Warp Gate network on Hourai Island to get there.
"Laojun, you found the ship?"
Roughly one minute after receiving the report, Jin arrived at the command room located beneath the laboratory.
"Yes, My Lord....Though under the circumstances, finding it was hardly difficult."
"Please take a look," Laojun said, displaying the scene on the massive magi-monitor in the command room.
It was an overhead, bird's-eye view, as the feed came from the observation satellite, Watcher.
"This is..."
Three vessels were displayed on the screen.
A large ship held the center, flanked on both sides by slightly smaller ships sailing alongside it.
"The central large ship is approximately 150 meters, and the ships on either side are 100 meters."
"I see. Our deductions were mostly on the mark, then."
"The large ship is between 100 and 200 meters," and "There might be more than one ship out on the water"... Both of those guesses had hit the mark.
However, the guess that "they might possess an invisible barrier" appeared to have been incorrect.
"Where are they located?"
"Yes, it is in an area surrounded by the Pandor Continent, the Lauren Continent, and the Lashier Continent."
"Where are they headed?"
"Toward the Jags Principality and the Dahlat Principality."
"What about their distance and speed?"
"Yes, the distance is approximately 1,000 kilometers, and their speed is around 40 kilometers per hour."
"Which means..."
In twenty-five hours, they would arrive at either the Jags Principality or the Dahlat Principality.
"Their objective... doesn't look friendly."
From what was visible alone, a total of twenty cannon-like weapons were mounted across the vessels.
"Yes, My Lord. While their objective remains unknown, there is a possibility of military intimidation."
"Hmm, what do they hope to gain by doing that, though...?"
Merely threatening, or merely attacking. Jin could not fathom their intent.
"My Lord, I will continue the investigation, so I will call for you again as soon as there is a change."
Laojun stated that it would conduct an internal inspection of the ships using the Peeper.
"Yeah, sounds good."
Jin decided to watch the process for a little while.
"Then, I shall begin."
Leaving the footage from Watcher as it was, another large magi-monitor lit up, displaying the view from the Peeper.
"This is..."
"The crew members are golems."
The ones operating the ship were golems, not humans.
"What's more... they look similar to those made by the Origin Clan....Though the craft is crude."
"My Lord, perhaps they used the Origin Clan's golems as a reference and attempted to recreate them using modern technology?"
"That's possible..."
Yet, even considering that, Jin could not shake a sense of dissonance.
"...The balance between the new and old technologies is far too well-struck. Could modern craftsmen really pull that off?"
Jin judged that even the laboratory or the Progressers of the Jags Principality would find it impossible. He figured it would be slightly beyond Avalon's reach as well.
"This is probably on the level of Onogoro Island."
"My Lord, is it not also possible that Markitus created them?"
"Oh, that's a possibility too....Yeah, that seems likely."
In the past, Markitus had made heavy use of high-performance golems. The basis for them was the technology of the Origin Clan.
Just as Laojun suggested, if one assumed that someone had repurposed things Markitus had previously made or used them as a reference, that would sufficiently explain why these golems existed.
"Yeah... There are about fifty golems per ship, huh."
Because they utilized aqua thrusters rather than boilers or diesel engines, only a minimal crew was required to maneuver the ships.
Consequently, most of them seemed to be tasked with operating the weaponry.
"Are there any humans?"
"Please wait a moment....No food or water is loaded aboard."
Laojun concluded that none of the three ships carried human passengers.
"In that case, who's commanding these three ships?"
"...Most likely this individual."
Displayed on the screen was a figure standing on the bridge of the central large ship.
"It's not human, is it?"
"Yes, My Lord. It may be difficult to discern from the footage, but it is an automaton."
It was a male-type automaton roughly 180 centimeters tall.
"...Could this guy be the masked man?"
"Yes, that possibility does exist."
Judging that no one was watching (though Jin and the others were, in fact, watching), he might have removed his mask.
"His build quality alone is completely different."
Even setting aside the fact that he was the sole automaton surrounded by golems, one could tell just by looking that he possessed superior performance.
First was his appearance. He looked just like a human.
Furthermore, from the way he walked around the bridge, it was evident that his movements were identical to a human's.
"No, how should I put it..."
"He looks strikingly similar to the Quinta, does he not?"
Just as Laojun astutely pointed out, the automaton closely resembled the Quinta units that Jin had crafted.
Not in outward appearance, but in presence.
"My Lord, perhaps the structures of Melda and Lili, who were captured by Markitus, were copied?"
Those two units were also Quinta—Melda being Spica 5, and Lili being Mira 2.
The two had been captured by Markitus and partially dismantled. Jin presumed that if their internal structures had been analyzed, it must have been back then.
"If so, it's bound to have fairly high performance."
"Yes, My Lord."
Since Markitus himself possessed considerable technical prowess, he would have easily been capable of at least imitating them, Laojun agreed.
"However, there are things that cannot be imitated."
"The materials."
Many ultra-rare materials were used in the Quinta. Some could not be obtained anywhere outside of Hourai Island.
"Yes, My Lord. Therefore, I estimate that the performance of that automaton is less than one-fifth that of the Quinta."
"Yeah, that sounds about right."
The skeleton, muscles, skin. And the control core, the magi-reactor.
While they might have managed to make something similar, they could not have made it identical.
"Even so, it probably has physical capabilities dozens of times greater than a human's... That's a bit of a threat."
"Yes, My Lord."
"Are there any other automata?"
"Yes. I have located five more."
"There are that many...?"
"Yes. All of them are of the same model."
Six Quinta copies. They were Markitus's parting gifts.
"...Seriously, Markitus keeps giving me headaches even from beyond the grave."
Jin could not help but grumble aloud.