It was noon at the village mansion.
A stranger stood in the middle of the snow-covered courtyard. He was a man dressed entirely in black, his face obscured by a dark hood and a pair of what looked like sports sunglasses. He carried no weapons and was simply moving his body, seemingly testing the range of motion in every joint.
Once his checks were complete, he transitioned into a series of movements that resembled martial arts forms. I couldn't judge exactly how skilled he was, but Galf, who was watching beside me, radiated an aura of quiet respect.
Then, the man in black stopped his exercises and gripped a wooden sword. Facing him was Daga. They lightly tapped their blades together, and the match began.
Even with my limited experience, I had watched enough martial arts tournaments to tell who held the advantage. Daga was clearly the stronger of the two. He pressed the offensive with overwhelming force, while the man in black remained entirely on the defensive.
He parried Daga’s strikes well enough, but just as it looked like Daga was about to land a decisive blow... wait, what was that?
The man in black dodged the strike with a bizarre, unnatural movement. It looked as if he had dislocated his joints to bend in the opposite direction. It felt almost like cheating, though I suppose in a real fight, anything goes. Daga was using his tail, after all.
Daga attempted to follow up with a tail swipe, but he couldn't keep pace with the man’s strange contortions. Seizing a momentary opening in Daga’s stance, the man in black launched a counterattack.
Daga immediately struck a surrender pose.
The man in black and Daga approached me together.
"Good work," I said. "Are there any injuries?"
Daga replied that he was fine, and the man in black signaled his well-being with a gesture.
"That’s a relief. So, what do you think?" I asked, looking to Daga and Galf for their professional opinions.
"I don't believe there are any issues," Daga reported.
"It’s frustrating to admit, but he’s stronger than I am," Galf added.
The man in black made a joyful little gesture at their high praise.
"However," Daga continued, "won't his inability to speak be a problem?"
"Could we just claim he’s a mute?" I suggested. "There are plenty of adventurers who have lost their voices, right?"
"True, but that might make him stand out too much. Coordinating with others would be difficult."
"Ah, I see your point. He might be able to manage on his own, but considering the mission..."
I hummed in thought. His combat power was sufficient, but communication was definitely a hurdle. I couldn't come up with a solution on the spot, so I decided I would have to consult the others—and most importantly, check in with the intentions of Zabuton’s children.
In truth, the man in black was a mannequin operated by Zabuton’s children. They weren't manipulating it from the outside with threads; they were inside the suit, pulling the strings from within. It was essentially a humanoid version of the giant spider kigurumi they had operated during the Demon Kingdom's parade.
Of course, a single spiderling couldn't manage the whole thing alone, so there were eighteen of them inside the man in black. Ten were dedicated to controlling the body's physical movements.
Normally, no matter how talented ten of Zabuton's children were, reproducing human movement would be nearly impossible—they would have struggled just to keep the thing upright. The secret to their ability to fight Daga lay in the specialized humanoid kigurumi the Mountain Elves had built for them.
The Mountain Elves had initially constructed a hollow humanoid shell. While the interior was empty, it was filled with countless anchor points for threads. They also carved out small chambers in the head and torso for the spiders to inhabit.
However, during the first trial run, they realized the suit couldn't stand on its own. It made sense—even if you connected all the parts with internal threads, pulling them would just cause the suit to collapse into a heap. To stand, they would have needed to anchor threads into the ground from the soles of the feet, which would have made movement impossible.
Back when they used the spider kigurumi, they had simply packed it full of Zabuton’s children. Their collective coordination allowed the suit to stand and move. While they could have done the same for the humanoid version, we wanted it to be operable by as small a group as possible.
The Mountain Elves shifted their approach. Instead of having the spiders move a limp doll, they would create a suit designed to move like a human, which the spiders would then operate.
They began modifications to allow the suit to stand independently. They inserted a frame modeled after the human skeleton, installed supports and springs in every joint, and equipped a balancer in the center of the torso to manage the center of gravity. This left less room for the spiders, but the elves decided to deal with that later.
Once it could stand, they moved on to mobility. They struggled to balance stability with fluid human movement, but they had a perfect reference: the Multi-purpose Humanoid Mobile Heavy Equipment, the Artie Horse.
Unit No. 1, Siegfried—the one that most closely resembled a human—had been absorbed by Crim, but the elves had kept detailed records of its disassembly and investigation. They had even made a wooden copy. While they hadn't mastered every single mechanism, they said studying it had been incredibly educational.
The result was a humanoid suit that could stand on its own and move naturally when steered by threads. The Mountain Elves were satisfied, but they discovered they had run out of room for the pilots. There was only enough space for seven spiders: two in the head, one in the stomach, and four in the flanks. While seven could make the suit walk, it wasn't enough for high-level combat.
Zabuton's children requested more pilots to handle the controls and act as sensors to watch their surroundings. A proposal was made to add a backpack to house the extra spiders, but it was rejected because it would ruin the suit's intended look.
The elves looked for any wasted space. They realized that while they needed gaps for the joints to move and for the threads to pass through without tangling, they had overlooked one area: the bones.
They decided to house the spiders inside the skeleton itself. They widened key structural "bones" and carved cockpits inside them. The spine, the thighs, the upper arms, and the shoulder blades all became housing units. They even added cockpits in the backs of the hands to allow for fine finger movements.
This was how the man in black achieved enough combat power to challenge Daga. Out of the eighteen spiders inside, ten focused on movement while the other eight acted as eyes and ears, issuing tactical instructions. It required immense focus, but so far, they were performing perfectly.
The purpose of this suit was to act as Alfred’s escort. Early in the winter, a representative from Progenitor-san’s kingdom requested that Alfred be provided with guards for his travels. I had initially considered asking Galf, Daga, or the Angels, but Zabuton’s children had volunteered for the job.
Zabuton, who was currently hibernating, gave her permission as long as they kept their numbers small and their true identities hidden. She really is soft on her children. They had originally wanted to use the spider kigurumi from the parade, but since that would have caused a diplomatic incident, the humanoid suit was built instead.
"Village Head," Ya, the Mountain Elf who led the project, approached me with a small box. "If we install this in the head, they should be able to communicate, even if full conversation is difficult."
The other Mountain Elves behind her took the box and installed it inside the man in black’s mouth. They then gave the spiders in the head a quick tutorial on how to use it.
"All right, give it a try!" Ya coached.
The man in black raised a hand. "I... am... a... guard..."
He spoke! The pronunciation was a bit stilted and robotic, but the meaning was clear. It worked!
"I think they’ll become easier to understand with more practice," Ya said.
"This is incredible," I praised.
"Hehe. It’s actually a modified musical instrument."
It was a brilliant piece of engineering, and Zabuton’s children were impressive for mastering it so quickly.
The man in black wouldn't be departing for his mission until spring. For now, they would focus on perfecting the controls and identifying any potential flaws. If something went wrong out there, it would cause trouble for Alfred, Progenitor-san, and Fouche. I wanted to prevent that at all costs.
"Anyway, let’s head back inside. Even with the sun out, it's freezing."
Oh, that reminded me—I still had to think of a name for the man in black. I couldn't keep calling him that forever. I knew I didn't have much of a naming sense, yet everyone always insisted on leaving it to me.
My first thought was "Zabuichi."
...Yeah, I should probably consult with the others before making a final decision.