Esperanza didn't like referring to strategy guides, but a certain user whose login tis overlapped with hers for a while used to recite the strategy guides posted on forums by heart. What had they said back then?
'Esperanza-nim, do you like tackling everything head-on like that? It hurts when you get injured.'
'It doesn't hurt that much. I do it because it's manageable.'
'Really? Still, I want to clear things with as little pain as possible. Golden Claw dungeons don't always follow the strategy guides anyway.'
Just because the dungeon type was the sa didn't an the sa monsters would appear in the sa positions in order. However, information about how to tackle each monster and what equipnt to bring to which dungeons was helpful enough.
'Ugh, it's a ti attack. One hour! I'd die without a strategy guide, right? Now you're curious, aren't you?'
'...What do I need to do?'
When a crisis actually hit, there was a big difference between knowing and not knowing information.
Esperanza tried to recall the hazy mory. It had been a research facility back then too. A place where those without even minimal morals had excitedly grafted monster limbs onto human bodies.
Fortunately, the police had already confiscated all the test subjects, so she didn't have to see them directly. But she had seen enough of the disgusting automatons that would co from the mind of soone making chiras.
'That one looked quite similar too. Then could there possibly be here too...'
No. She would have found it earlier if so. Stay calm.
Esperanza, who had been pushed back to the rear of the corridor, instantly regained her balance and fired. The monster's arm flew off. She hit its head directly as well, but the head didn't budge—whatever it was made of.
Blades flew again. Ranged versus ranged. Esperanza gritted her teeth and jumped up to avoid the blades.
Killing everything and then fighting the boss would be too late. There had to be a shortcut. But the mory of that battle from two years ago, just one among countless fights, wasn't clear.
So what had that person said back then?
'You know, sotis there are ones that don't attack if you feed them occasionally.'
'Was that so?'
'Ah, you just killed them all.'
That wasn't it.
Esperanza, tired of the ranged weapon versus ranged weapon duel, drew her sword instead of the gun and began deflecting the blades. The monster had almost no cooldown for spitting blades, but Esperanza's speed was faster than even that short cooldown.
Esperanza, who had crossed the corridor and approached right in front of the monster in an instant, suddenly exclaid.
"Battery!"
Right, that's it!
'If you turn off their power, they shut down.'
No matter how much the monster flew and crawled, its essence was a machine. If you smashed it, naturally it couldn't attack. But even without smashing it, if you just removed the magical power—that is, if there was no magic stone—it had to stop operating.
Esperanza, who had thrown her sword into her inventory, sohow had her rifle in her hands. The magical power core of the giant machine. The magic stone insertion slot. Her lips curved as she calculated the position while recalling old mories.
There was only one place to aim. A very small point compared to the machine as huge as the passage. But if she couldn't hit that from this close distance, she couldn't call herself a sniper.
Click. Click. The monster making sounds of parts colliding as it approached opened its mouth. At other tis she would have just beaten it to pieces, but as she'd just seen, simply pouring magical bullets didn't seem like it would break it.
When her thoughts reached that point, Esperanza unhesitatingly kicked the mouth of the monster about to spew blades. The monster staggered from the kick infused with magical power. Esperanza, who had jumped down to the floor, used that montum to leap over the monster's shoulder.
In the brief mont the monster lost its balance.
Going over its shoulder, she pulled the trigger from behind aiming at its neck. Bang! Blue magical power pierced through the small cover attached to the back of the monster's neck. A sound like electricity sparking occurred. A finger-thick hole appeared in the center of the thick machine's neck.
The machine that had been quickly turning toward its target stopped moving halfway through its turn. Creak, creak. Thud. The fingers of the machine that had fallen to the floor twitched. Esperanza's boot stepped on and crushed the joint part of the bronze finger.
Esperanza, who had stuck her hand into the hole in its neck, confird that the magic stone was completely destroyed.
'It's over.'
Only after confirming the clear number 1 next to 'Deaths' in a corner of the status window did she brush off the tal fragnts stuck to her gloves.
Esperanza, who had gotten up and turned her head, sighed. It wasn't over. This was just the beginning. Machines filling the stairs were glowing with blue-green light. So of them were shapes Esperanza recognized.
'This is troubleso.'
Sullivan's area of interest was ti machines, but his specialty was weapons. Sullivan had also made the gun she used before Cider made her one.
Most of Sullivan's machines were for killing. Even primitive things like blade-spewing golems were much more threatening than ordinary dish-washing automatons.
She'd finish them off as quickly as possible. Even if it ant getting sowhat injured.
'Cyrus will have to hold out as long as possible.'
Esperanza, who had forcibly suppressed the impatience that felt like her stomach was twisting, re-gripped her gun. It wasn't enjoyable at all. She only wished it would end as quickly as possible.
??????°??☆????°??????
The study without Esperanza was quiet. Cyrus lifted his eyes from the open book. The letters seed to jump out and dance. He was only holding onto it to pass ti despite having no interest. He would quickly return when Esperanza ca back.
His gaze fell on the grandfather clock beside the bookshelf. 1:30. It seed like it took a minute for the second hand to go from 1 to 2.
'Is it broken?'
Even knowing that couldn't be the case, he closed his eyes while listening to the crawling sound of the second hand. What was fortunate, at least, was that Cider didn't welco him either. The young Count had confird that Cyrus had settled on the sofa and then gone inside the research lab. And he hadn't co out until now. He hadn't even looked for a sip of water in between.
Wasn't he thirsty? Not that he hoped he would co out.
Cyrus had pointless thoughts while fixing his unfocused eyes on a corner of the book again. If he had known it would be like this, it seed like it would have been better for him to go to Dr. Sullivan's research facility. Though it was right not to go considering the possibility of running into Daria, emotionally speaking, that's how he felt.
Basking in the midday sun, his mind gradually beca hazy. It was such a quiet afternoon, except for the faint sound of rare commotion from the entrance of Upper Lane. His throat felt parched, so he lifted a tea cup that was just for show and poured black tea into his mouth.
He thought about Esperanza's real body that would be in the hospital by now.
Though he had only told Esperanza that she was simply in the hospital, in reality, she had been moved to the hospital as a whole without being removed from the machine.
The machine made exclusively for Golden Claw was an improvent on existing virtual reality ga machines, connected to enable movent to the real world instead of virtual reality platforms. He didn't understand the principle well, but the technicians said it was a fusion of the original world's virtual reality technology and this world's spaceti machine. However, whether what had moved was consciousness or soul was unknowable even to them.
What was certain was that breaking the connection between the body and machine was dangerous. In such a state, no matter how much money was spent, there were limits to the treatnt that could be provided. Though he couldn't see directly, Esperanza's body would be considerably weakened. Perhaps more than Esperanza vaguely thought.
If she returned at the appropriate ti, there wouldn't be a big problem... Cyrus, who had been calculating whether the amount he had donated to Esperanza as compensation before coming here would be sufficient, let out a deep sigh.
It might be enough as compensation for a damaged body. But compensation for the heart—that wasn't sothing he could do.
'There's nothing I can do.'
Cyrus, who had given a bitter smile, soon completely closed the book and got up from his seat. He threw open the window and ca out to the balcony.
When the cold wind hit his cheeks, his muddled head beca a bit calr. Though all he could do anyway was sit still and worry...
"What's that?"
The next mont, Cyrus, gripping the balcony railing, stared at a carriage beyond the street.
A stuffy-looking carriage. Though not splendid, the crest carved on the black body was clearly visible even from a distance. A golden spinning wheel and sickle. The crest of the Saturn Royal Family.
Avondale Mansion was located in a sowhat remote area even within Upper Lane. There was no way the destination of a carriage that had co this far could be anywhere else.
"Avondale!"
Cyrus knocked on the research lab door. There was a rattling sound, then Cider opened the door with an annoyed face.
"Really, can't you call quietly..."
"There's a royal carriage outside."
"Here?"
Though he had asked the question, he wasn't waiting for an answer. Cider, who had passed Cyrus, headed to the balcony through the open window fra.
It was true.
Though he didn't have the skill to identify the crest on the carriage that hadn't even entered the main gate beyond the large garden, the existence of such an old-fashioned carriage that seed like it would have been pulled around in upper-class districts a hundred years ago in this era didn't an anything else.
"How far can Daria use the royal family?"
"You could consider them one body."
"Then it's not good business."
Cider said while putting on his vest and jacket. It wasn't the movent of soone who needed to flee imdiately.
"What are you doing?"
"If they ca in a royal carriage, it must be His Majesty or a close associate sent directly by His Grace the Grand Duke. Who else but
would receive them? You, who has no status?"
"Shouldn't we be running away even now?"
If that were possible, sure. Cider frowned. Though Esperanza was weak at political maneuvering, she understood quickly, but this one was completely hopeless. If he had to explain everything one by one, it might take all day. He didn't want to be that kind either.
Instead of explaining, he answered with a cold smile.
"By what ans? They sent the royal carriage to prevent escape."
News that a royal carriage had reached Avondale Mansion would have spread throughout Upper Lane by now. And in high society, there was no one who didn't know that the mansion's owner was devoted to research in almost complete isolation from the outside world.
"We're completely trapped. They must be doing this knowing Esperanza isn't here."
So the ominous feeling was right. Cider recalled past intuitions like the idiots he had always mocked. Back then he had been afraid that intuition was just an expression of emotion, but conversely, perhaps the compulsion to forcibly bury intuition had been his fear.
They were caught in a trap.
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