The day after we successfully returned to Pandemonium, or rather achieved a triumphant return.
“Chrono, I need to talk to you.”
“Yeah, let’s get dressed first.”
This morning, when I woke up to find Fiona sitting there completely naked at my bedside, her unusually serious demeanor made it clear she wasn’t just making small talk; she had something important to discuss.
That’s why it wouldn’t be appropriate to have this conversation while both of us were unadorned. Calm down, I thought, maybe I can have my morning coffee first… but by the time I realized it, I had already finished breakfast.
To talk with Fiona, we stayed in the bedroom, just the two of us. I had even had breakfast brought here.
After Hitsugi started playfully teasing Prim, who was balancing a stack of plates, and they left the room with a cheerful air, I finally felt calm enough to start the conversation.
“————It’s rare to see you so serious, Fiona. What’s the matter?”
“I would like to take charge of the next Damascus conquest.”
I thought it might be something related to our private lives, but I certainly didn’t expect Fiona to propose a strategy-related discussion.
“The fact that you’re bringing this up means you must have some plan in mind.”
“Yes, specifically for Damascus, I have a perfect conquest plan.”
“A perfect conquest plan…?”
“Yes, it’s perfect.”
She sounded incredibly confident. What could possibly be so flawless?
Her approach made it seem like I would be mocked for asking for specifics, but it was Fiona after all. She must have thought this through.
“Please tell me more.”
“I’m going to burn Damascus.”
“Huh?”
“The capital will turn to ashes, but we can eliminate the enemy swiftly holding onto it.”
“That sounds… like something from ‘Golden Sun’?”
“Close, I guess.”
Could it be that Fiona has successfully developed a nuclear bomb? If this thing was launched, it could wipe out the enemy along with the city.
“I can’t approve anything until I understand it better.”
“Fair enough. Chrono, do you have time today?”
“If you tell me about your plan, I can make time now.”
“Thank you. Then let’s get to it right away.”
Following Fiona as she stood up from her seat, I asked.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m inviting you to my workshop.”
I see, that moment has finally arrived. This was getting exciting.
“————Welcome to my ‘Witch Workshop’.”
Against the backdrop of a starry sky and a towering cathedral, Fiona greeted me, but her words barely registered.
“Wow, this is incredible…”
Having been summoned to this other world, I’ve seen various breathtaking views such as majestic nature and ancient ruins, but this place was truly astonishing.
What would surely be mistaken for a starry sky was actually underground. It was an enormous subterranean space. The glittering lights were various types of raw magical stones. This was likely the Fourth Layer, ‘Crystalline Cavern’.
In the Karamala Great Maze, valuable magical stones can be mined, but it’s a dangerous area rated level 4, characterized by its long and complex layout and the presence of powerful monsters that have gained abilities from the stones. Currently, due to Lily’s management functions near the center, it has been turned into a pure stone mining site and is also used for labor at the Freedom Academy, becoming a major production site supporting the Empire’s magical stone resources.
However, the fact that Lily doesn’t have a grasp of this place likely means it is located in a zone outside her management, truly a portion of dungeon.
“Did this space exist from the beginning, or did you carve it out?”
“The golems dug it out.”
On one hand, I was relieved that there wasn’t a colossal monster occupying this as a boss room, but on the other hand, I rethought how crazy it was that this had been artificially created.
“By the way, Lily had mentioned before that you were sneakily acquiring golems from the industrial area.”
“Should I return them now? I can add interest too.”
I see! So she could secure her own golems. Whether she captured them from somewhere or could produce them herself, I began to glean the truth from the sight of the groups of golems, resembling quadrupeds and industrial machines.
“So, did those golems also build that magnificent cathedral?”
“Well? I don’t recall building it myself.”
“That’s not the main attraction?”
“What is that?”
Fiona’s reaction was as if it had nothing to do with her. No, this is her territory. If that cathedral towering boldly in the middle isn’t the real workshop, then where is the actual workshop located?
Let’s see if we can do a bit of exploration, I decided as Fiona and I walked toward the mysterious cathedral.
“Hey there, miss! You’re back!”
With a deep rumble, the grand main gate of the cathedral opened, revealing a familiar-looking dwarf.
His face seemed somewhat familiar, but because of all the glowing etheric tools he was wearing, he had a distinctly cyberpunk aesthetic.
Additionally, he was accompanied by two golems, one resembling a humanoid with many arms like Kannon, and the other a large drum can. Those too must be work golems, although I couldn’t guess what jobs they performed just by looking.
“I’m back, Dane. I just returned.”
“You’re always taking your time… Wait, is that Chrono next to you?”
“Ah, it’s been a while. Since we met in Damascus, hasn’t it?”
This man was introduced to me by Regin; he’s a big shot from Thor Industries and a top-tier craftsman who created Fiona’s ‘Walpurgis’.
“…That’s not right, Your Majesty. Even though we’re familiar, there are others around.”
“Y-Yes, my apologies.”
When I was with Fiona, I tended to drop my guard. It seemed I still needed to maintain my ‘Demon King’ role even here.
Dane kneeled and whispered to me, finally making me understand the situation.
“Hey, bringing the Demon King all of a sudden, what’s going on?”
“If I don’t show you around, there’s no point in talking.”
“That’s too sudden! What do we do? The Demon King is inspecting things with no preparations?”
“Don’t mind it. Please act as you usually would. Time is limited, after all.”
With Fiona maintaining an innocent expression, Dane sighed deeply and then bowed to me again.
“I apologize for not being able to offer any hospitality, Your Majesty.”
“Don’t worry about it; Fiona is right.”
As head of Thor Industries, a major enterprise representing Adamantoria, Dane must have had plenty of experience with dignitaries coming to inspect. I can imagine Fiona not caring at all about such particulars. I sympathized with his struggles.
Nevertheless, it was clear that Dane and his fellow dwarven craftsmen were hastily working on preparations for Fiona’s Damascus conquest plan.
It seemed Fiona had taken in the dwarven craftsmen who had evacuated from Damascus.
“By the way, what’s this place?”
“What are you talking about? It’s your workshop.”
“Really?”
“Could we leave such a box as-is? For the time being, I made it look somewhat like that. The fine details still need work, but let’s make do with it until you recover Damascus.”
So just a rough job on this grand cathedral? Where exactly are the fine details? There were intricate reliefs carved into both the pillars and window frames.
“I see. Then the inside hasn’t changed.”
“Ah, I only tweaked the interior a little.”
Beyond the opened main gate stretched an unbelievably luxurious entrance, rivaling the Demon King’s castle in Destiny Land. At least, this decor didn’t seem to match Fiona’s tastes.
“Now then, Chrono, let me show you around inside.”
“Sure, please do.”
“————The industrial revolution happened without my knowledge.”
As Fiona personally showed me the remodeled cathedral, now a gigantic workshop, I couldn’t help but murmur.
The impression I had upon seeing it was precisely encapsulated in the words “industrial revolution.” It had leapfrogged past mere manufacturing; here, the automation phase through golems was already completed. What? They’re mining automatically and even completing the first processing? Everyone else in the industrial area is doing it by hand!
Although, because of the issue of ether supply needed to operate the golems, the places where this can be achieved would be limited; it can’t be widely spread immediately. Still, the productivity is astonishing. At the very least, if it could be introduced into the industrial area, it would lead to unprecedented results.
“I understand now why Fiona contracted Simon for work.”
There’s a template image of a witch’s workshop stirring a large cauldron and handcrafting suspicious medicines, yet that should be the common perception in this other world as well.
So how do they possess state-of-the-art technology and machinery to directly compete with the Empire’s factories?
“I can’t lose to Lily, you know?”
“Impressive doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’m surprised. She even made a train…”
I was currently being rocked by a magical locomotive. This one resembled a black, heavy-bodied steam train, moving through a mechanism practically identical to that of a steam engine, differing only in its power source, be it coal or magical stones.
I’d discussed the concept of railroads with Simon a while back, and with the rise of the Elroad Empire, its practicality had almost become a reality… Yet, Fiona managed to complete it ahead of time.
“It’s convenient for transporting things. The dwarves are quite fond of it, too.”
Of course! The magical locomotive radiates romanticism. Even someone who doesn’t care much finds the sight of it charging forth, belching black smoke, to be striking.
But it seemed Fiona merely implemented it because it was practical. Can a genius succeed at inventions without any romanticism?
“Still, this space is truly vast. We’ve been riding for at least ten minutes.”
“I think I may have expanded it a bit too much.”
Don’t treat expanding a subterranean space as casually as burning a dish a little too long. No matter how automatic the mining golems are.
“I can’t test fire the main cannon in here.”
“No matter how spacious, please don’t do that.”
They claimed that collapses wouldn’t occur, but if we fire heavy artillery, that wouldn’t hold true. Being buried alive in a place like this would mean disappearing forever.
“By the way, where are we headed?”
Or are we going to loop around like the Yamanote Line?
Fiona gave me an overview of the facilities we could see from the window, so she had already provided sufficient introduction. However, the most eagerly explained feature at that moment was the cockatrice farm, where fresh meat and eggs could be had.
Well, I would taste it later, but there was no need to discuss flavor now.
“We’ll be arriving shortly.”
And it seemed like what lay ahead was the main event she wanted to introduce me to.
More exciting than even that workshop infused with ancient magical technology. I was both anxious and expectant about what she was preparing.
“Hmm, is it suddenly getting hot in here?”
“Yes, the heat reaches us from this area.”
As Fiona spoke, it definitely wasn’t just my imagination; the temperature rose rapidly. In no time, it felt like summer—was it over 30°C?
“Hey, this isn’t just hot. Isn’t there an extraordinary density of fire attribute magical power floating around?”
“This is just the aftereffects, Chrono.”
“Aftereffects, which means… there’s a heat source somewhere.”
“Yes. We’re just about to see it.”
Beyond the window, a massive cylindrical tower stood tall, shrouded in dark smoke.
The thick, white smoke billowing out resembled that of a nuclear power plant’s cooling tower. It was indeed of a size comparable to that.
“No way, Fiona, you didn’t build a reactor!”
“A reactor…? I don’t recognize that term. Is it something from your world, Chrono?”
“Yeah, it’s the most dangerous item in the world to handle.”
“It didn’t exist in a world without magic, right? Then it’s different.”
That makes sense; since Fiona made it in her workshop, it must be based on magical technology. There’s no way a reactor made with 100% scientific technology could be created.
“That is a ‘Purgatory Furnace.’”
“What’s that? It’s not just any furnace, is it… capable of extraordinarily high temperatures?”
“Indeed, it can emit temperatures far beyond regular kilns or furnaces, but even magical high-end items can achieve that. My ‘Purgatory Furnace’ has a blessing attached to it.”
“A blessing, as in the one from ‘Black Witch Endymion’?”
“It seems she was skilled with fire. Thanks to that, it went better than I had expected.”
The power of blessings does not only grant unique abilities to individuals. Gods can endow all sorts of effects. It’s even possible to reincarnate a human girl like Misa into a succubus.
If it’s a witch god, it wouldn’t be strange for her to lend some power regarding workshop facilities too.
“So, what can that Endymion Purgatory Furnace create?”
“Well, it’s now possible to refine magical metals that couldn’t be before, and I can create various things—”
Rather than delivering a detailed explanation of what could be crafted, I soon realized it would be faster to see the actual products, so I patiently awaited our arrival at the destination.
The towering Purgatory Furnace was already in sight. As I stepped into a spacious terminal built right beforehand, it immediately caught my attention.
A magical locomotive was seated deep inside.
However, it was clearly different in shape from the SL model we were currently riding. The already sizable body was nearly double in both length and width, clad in armor as thick as a desert battleship.
Most striking of all was its massive turret, larger than that of the Sky Battleship Shangri-La.
Its sheer force, its dignity, made it clear what it represented without needing any explanation.
“No way… it’s a train cannon…”
“Indeed, Chrono, it seems you’re already aware.”
A weapon of romance long turned into a page of history on modern Earth. I never expected to see the real thing with my own eyes one day.
“As you can see, it’s already almost completed. The dwarven craftsmen have really outdone themselves.”
Currently, a large number of dwarves were bustling around the gigantic train cannon, furiously working with sparks flying everywhere. Just like Dane, whom I had met at the workshop’s gate, they also had golems of various shapes accompanying them, wielding tools that shone like gaming gear.
It felt like a scene more akin to science fiction than magic.
“When did this all start?”
“Probably around the time we shifted strategies to Varna.”
After first scouting Dane, they had pulled in the craftsmen seeking refuge in Pandemonium, and the actual development kicked off from there.
This underground space, workshop, and magical locomotive were all made possible by Fiona’s efforts, culminating in the gathering of top craftsmen from Pandora.
“When I returned from Varna, this was already here, so I don’t know much about the details.”
To think the workshop that was supposed to be made of tofu had transformed into a cathedral. The train cannon and the massive tower housing the Purgatory Furnace had all surpassed Fiona’s expectations in every regard.
The fall of Adamantoria had led to highly skilled dwarven craftsmen filled with regret, and when they were given hope to reclaim their homeland along with the romance of ancient magical technology and train cannons, this is what became of it.
“And so, my Damascus conquest operation is simple—”
“We’ll fire this from a designated position.”
“What happens when we fire?”
“We will win.”
What incredible confidence.
However, for the solid and fortified fortress city of Damascus, it wasn’t necessary to strictly lay siege. All I need to do is successfully extend the railway on site so that the train cannon can reach the position Fiona specified.
Naturally, interference from the enemy is unavoidable, but sacrifices would be less severe compared to charging infantry toward well-fortified castle walls.
Whether it’s possible to truly secure victory with just one shot is another question, but striking the enemy or breaching one section of the barrier would still hold substantial value.
“I’d like your approval for this plan and the personnel to execute it, Chrono. At worst, if it fails, my wallet will hurt a bit, but there shouldn’t be many casualties.”
“And if it succeeds, we’ll liberate Adamantoria with minimal effort in record time.”
“Yes, securing a quick reclamation is my promise with them.”
“I see, it’s rare for Fiona to make a promise to others. We must ensure she keeps it.”
I had thought launching an attack on Damascus without the Shangri-La was impossible, but now there seemed to be a real possibility. As Fiona said, it’s significantly lower risk than a direct assault. Even discounting any favoritism I might have, this plan appears entirely feasible.
“Alright, then Fiona, tell me more details.”
Especially regarding the specifications of the train cannon, which is a total embodiment of romance.