454

A Chance For a Comeback

Four days ago, on the 20th day of the Dark Month. It was the day of the second attack of the Crusaders.

“Huh, I still don’t get it at all…”

Simon was sighing while looking like a beautiful girl.

Today, thanks to the Crusaders’ attack, we temporarily had to evacuate from Taurus. Kurono was in trouble, but before I knew it, he had won a miraculous comeback victory.

What was troubling Simon now was the Taurus, the huge weapon or heavy machine that has been revived from ancient time.

As Lily had predicted, Simon was completely engrossed in playing around with the Core system of the Taurus. Is this what it means to forget to eat and sleep? There have been times when I have stayed up all night concentrating on my research, but this is the first time I have been as absorbed as I was now since the first time I started working on the gun.

This is the second turning point in Simon’s research life, he thought from the bottom of his heart, even though he was only seventeen years old.

“If you don’t understand the meaning of the words a little better, it’s impossible to decipher anything of …”

However, the progress of the research, or rather the restoration of the Taurus system, which was Lily’s request, was not going well. In the first place, the meaning of the ancient characters displayed on the screen was unclear. There was no way to decipher the text.

As a matter of fact, Lily, who was born with the blessing of a powerful Fairy Queen, Simon, who is the top student of the Academy, and Sophie, who is a veteran adventurer with a mysterious background, had deciphered almost all of the ancient scripts that could have been deciphered. Even the professor specializing in ancient script at the Royal Spada Academy would be surprised at the rate of deciphering. At the very least, they are a trio of intellectuals who are fluent enough in ancient languages to be able to translate all the texts of the Zero Chronicle of the Beginning of History in Spada into modern languages.

But apparently, the ancient script used in the Taurus system is a language built on a different logic than the conventional ancient language. Half of the language uses the same ancient script, but the other half is a completely unknown script. They may not be letters at all, but symbols or numbers, or they may be something else with a completely different conceptual meaning.

If the text had been written in the ancient language universally found in ancient ruins, the work would not have been so difficult. Anyway, the fact that this mysterious second language of ancient times is undecipherable is the biggest problem at present.

“Haaaaah… what should I do…”

Sighing loudly, Simon slumped down on the table, as if the exhaustion of staying up all night and fighting his way back from the middle of the battlefield had taken its toll on him.

Beneath Simon’s face is a bundle of notes, about the size of three diary books. Some of the sheets stacked on top of each other were scattered, but he didn’t have the energy to pick them up.

In addition, half of the food he had ordered was was now completely cold. Of course, he couldn’t bring himself to eat it.

“Oh, no! Oops, sorry about that, little girl.”

Liquid rained down on Simon’s gray head and the notes on the table. He was covered in that liquid and looked like someone who had been hit by sudden rain for three seconds.

Simon didn’t care about that though. He was drunk.

Yes, this was the Galahad Restaurant, the largest restaurant in the Galahad Fortress.

Tomorrow, I will return to Taurus and try to restore it. In other words, I will remain in the fortress for the rest of the day.

It was Sophie’s idea to have a decent meal since we hadn’t been out of the cramped cockpit in a while.

However, the reason why Sophie, the initiator of the conversation, was not here now is that she has gone back to her room ahead of me. To be more precise, Simon sent her home.

He said he would be back before twelve o’clock and to leave him alone until then.

If they were alone in the inn room, there was no telling what she might say to mess with him. Simon was also wondering why she was getting involved with him so much. He doesn’t think it’s because she likes him though.

Simon thinks he knows the extent of his masculine appeal. He is the opposite of the ideal Spada boy, strong and robust.

However, he doesn’t seem to understand that not all women in the world fall in love only with masculine charm. Not only men and women, but everyone has their own idea of what they find attractive.

In any case, Simon felt uncomfortable to keep dealing with Sophie, whose intentions he did not understand, but who was always trying to get involved. However, being trapped in a thought loop like this was just as bad as wasting time.

“No, I think I’ll take the rest of the day off…”

Without any useful inspiration, Simon shook his tired head and left his seat – that’s when it happened.

“Oh? What is this, an Electronic script?”

Such a voice rained down from above my head.

Another drunk person. But not as drunk as Simon.

I looked up to see the face of an Iron Golem with a strangely dull, dull-colored body. He had a single red eye, similar to that of the Taurus, and was pointing straight at the notes scattered on the table.

“The Taurus’ maneuver control program has been initialized, and if you wish to reconfigure it–  Hey, little girl!”

Yes, this Golem read out the ancient script that Simon had transcribed.

“… Hey, hey, can you read this, by any chance?”

Simon grabbed a piece of note in his hand and asked the question in a fearful manner. He was not trembling because he was afraid of the Golem’s huge steel body. It was a warrior’s trembling.

“Oh? What’s with this elf kid? Are you joking with me? Of course, any Golem can read something like this!”

This is how Simon met his translator named Galdan.

It seems that the electronic language script is something like the Golem’s native language.

It is said that all Golems are born thinking in a script-based electronic language, and when they communicate in the common language used in both Pandora and Ark, it is translated into this language in their brains and understood.

Magic and Martial arts can also be learned only by constructing a kind of formula in electronic language script. It seems that the same technique can be learned and activated in slightly different ways by different races.

In the first place, normal reading and writing are done in a common language, the otherworldly alpha-bed, which is not widely used outside of the Golem race. Even when communicating with other members of the same race, they do not bother to write down their electronic language script in writing.

However, it is unclear whether the Golem, a monster that appears in the wild, really understands this. Just as a human and a monkey cannot communicate, a humanoid Golem and a monster Golem also cannot communicate.

Anyway, this language exists only in the mind of Golems.

It is said that the Taurus system is written in a very minor language that is limited to one race. So, with the help of his translator Galdan, Simon was able to successfully reboot the Taurus.

“-But Lily did her best, too!”

When I heard Lily’s explanation about the Taurus starting to move and her small appeal for effort, I finally got the point. Well, it seems that there were unexpected encounters and discoveries that I didn’t know about. I had no idea that the Galdan whom I had rescued would come into play in such a way.

Anyway, I think this electronic language script looks like a programming language, probably because I’m a modern Japanese who lived in an advanced society before.

It is impossible that the Taurus system and the language of the Golems are the same by chance. There is no doubt that an electronic language script existed in ancient times, and that it has been passed down only to the Golem species of today.

This means that the Golems of today may not have arisen naturally like monsters, but may have been the ancestors of something like Artificial Golems built in ancient times. Well, I don’t even know how Golems produce children in the first place. I mean, do they have children?

Anyway, a deeper look into the roots of Golems and their biology is interesting, but not what I should be doing right now.

Yes, the important thing is the fact that a fully tuned Taurus has entered the battle as an ally. Its towering figure, with its boosters roaring and blowing vigorously, is nothing short of reliable when seen as an ally.

“Let’s take out the enemy Taurus first!”

“Yes! I’ve got this, Simon!”

The allied Taurus lazily turned its body toward the enemy Taurus that continued to punch the castle wall.

The high-pitched girl-like voice of Simon and the thick voice of Galdan clearly reached my ears. They seem to be getting along pretty well, but …Simon, a genius, and Galdan, who is an idiot, are a combination that seems to be completely incompatible with each other, but I wonder if this what people mean that opposites attract each other.

At any rate, from the exchange, it seems that Galdan is the main pilot and Simon is in support. I guess it’s an improvised double-seat system.

Well, I don’t know exactly what kind of control method they are using but I don’t think it’s some kind of crazy way of taking out the Core of the Golem and connecting it directly.

Still, I wondered if it was a flaw in the setting that the conversation between the two in the cockpit could be heard all the way to the outside.

“The communicator’s on an open channel.”

Perhaps sensing my thoughts, Lily gently answered me.

“Can’t they change it?”

“I could, but they’re both so into it.”

Lily had a wry smile on her face as if to say, “Men are so stupid.”

“Boosters at full power! Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I’m gonna crush you!”

With the two of them shouting at the top of their lungs, Galdan’s Taurus took off rapidly. With a pale glow and a cloud of snow billowing up from the ground, it attacked the enemy Taurus furiously.

Of course, the Crusaders near his feet were easily kicked away by the huge body of steel pushing forward at full speed. The Taurus isn’t running, so they won’t be crushed, but they are not going to be safe from the aftermath of the thrust that sends Taurus’ huge body flying either.

After a few hundred meters of booster maneuvering that should rightly be called “Overrun,” the Galdan machine, with its right arm raised straight up, finally collided with the enemy.

The sound of super-heavy steel masses crashing into each other echoed loudly in the air.

The enemy Taurus’ body tilted greatly by the straight punch that came from the side like a surprise attack. The fact that it didn’t just fall down, but quickly used its sub-thrusters to stay on its feet, was quite a feat.

“Ooh! Oooooooooohh!”

But in the face of the Galdan’s furious pursuit, it was ultimately a futile resistance. Although it was a poorly executed punch with two arms that alternated between each other and was completely technique-less, when delivered with the power of the Taurus, it turned into an amazing hammer.

When the enemy Taurus fell to the ground, its body was dented to a gooey mess, as if it had been hit by a full swing of a metal drum with a metal bat.

“Let’s finish this! Arm Booster activated!”

“Take that, you bastard! Take my special attack [Super Gul’dan Knuckle]!”

He swung his right arm skyward, and the armor from his elbow and wrist opened, suddenly emitting pale phosphorescence. Is there a sub-thruster mounted on that place as well?

I’m not sure what other place they have placed sub-thrusters in, but at least at this moment, I’m sure it helped by adding a tremendous amount of striking power to finish off the stubborn Taurus.

The steel fist turned into a blue meteor and hit the chest of the enemy Taurus, who was lying on his back, right in the middle of the cockpit.

The [Super Gal’dan Knuckle], shattered the pilot’s chest.

“Oh, I got it!”

I wasn’t the only one who unintentionally screamed with joy.

Even from the top of the walls, many who probably didn’t know what was going on, still cheered at the gallant defeat of the most troublesome and powerful enemy in the place.

Or maybe it’s because the battle between the giant robots called Taurus itself is something that no man can’t help but get excited about. At least, I’m a little impressed.

“Okay, two more remaining!”

“Yeah! Let’s go for it!”

Galdan’s red monocular eyes glinted as he set his sights on his next target.

However, with their ally defeated by the same Taurus, the two surviving Taurus stopped their attack on the city walls and turned to face the Galdan’s Taurus. There was not a single word spoken between them, but it was clear from their appearance that they wanted a head-on confrontation.

“Two on one…, I’ll show you that I can control the Taurus best!”

“All right! I’ll crush you all together!”

And so, against the backdrop of the half-demolished walls of Galahad, the duel between giant robots began.

“Open the gates! Now is the time to strike!”

Even in the midst of the fierce roar and cacophony of the three Taurus, I could clearly hear the voice that no person from Spada could mishear.

King Leonhart’s assault order.