The Uote Town Guards accompanied their Guard Captain, Sebastia and Kraft to the capital arriving at the break of dawn. The first thing Jin’s companions saw from afar was the encroaching tall walls made not out of brick and mortar but metal.
“Heh heh! You guys have definitely never been to the capital before, aye? The look on first timers is priceless!” Uote Guard Captain giggled loudly. The guards at the front gates demanded passes from the carriage that carried them, but with a show of the Captain’s face, the guards immediately consented their entry without much hassle.
“You must hold much influence for them to let us in without even inspecting the contents of the carriage.” Kraft tried to make some small talk while complimenting the captain.
“Our masters. They are expecting us. That is why they let us through. But of course, if not for my presence, the guards would be more stringent with their checks.” The Demon Rat Captain replied proudly as they saw a large group of demon rats mobilising.
“Is this a normal sight for soldiers to mobilise this early?” Sebastia asked, and even the Demon Rat Captain wanted to pry into the matter.
“Not unless something happened. Let me ask.” The Demon Rat Captain went out of their carriage and called over one of the Demon Rats with one rank beneath his own. It was unlikely for the normal grunts to know anything besides the need to assemble. “What? An attack at Uote town?!”
“Yes, sir! Apparently, it was a direct report from the Masters themselves when dawn broke out.” The sergeant reported that not only Uote Town was affected. Even Youi and the trading town of Wecha were hit around the same timeframe. “We believe the Dark Templars are the cause of all these attacks. We are setting out now to recapture those towns.”
“Do you need to follow them?” Kraft asked in a concerned manner although he already knew it would be pointless, as he had the reports from the System and had already informed him of the scouting teams’ progress.
“Argh, I will bring you to meet Masters first and then I will follow the contingent.” Uote Guard Captain grumbled and struggled with his choice, telling the carriage driver to hasten the speed even though the road were packed with soldiers bringing groups of slaves into battle too.
“For them to use slaves and prisoners as cannon fodder shows much about their hierarchy and intelligence level.” Kraft thought and pitied the System being unable to catch any of them at all. Still, the additional resources would be a welcoming gift too.
Meanwhile, Sebastia noticed how the inhabitants were all living in cramped places in order to make way for factories that were polluting the atmosphere. There were definitely more than just one or two factories responsible for all the smog and smoke covering the entire city’s sky with dark clouds.
If anything, they were exploiting a lot of the people to work hard for them to produce those Steam Tech and the demon rats did not care about a single bit of their well being. To them, one slave or prisoner of war could easily be replaced with the next. After all, the entire capital’s population was their plaything.
Kraft had already used the opportunity when the Guard Captain left the carriage to send out his foxes for reconnaissance. They proceeded to map out the area with everything they saw reporting to him as well as the System. The System noticed that many war factories were producing not just Steam Tech, but weapons, armoury, and even vehicle parts such as the steam tanks and helicopters. All of them were powered with the very same Steam Tech.
The System then commanded the foxes to get more insight into these items and if possible the blueprints. However, the foxes deemed it as a secondary objective compared to what Kraft had asked them to do.
“Sorry, Captain. The masters do not wish to see anybody right now and asked us to pass you this instead.” One of the guards at the doorstep of the castle denied their entry and gave the Uote Guard Captain a task instead. He quickly scrambled to tear the envelope open and read the contents of the letter.
“Urgh! After all, I did for them!” The captain crashed the papers and told them to follow him instead.
“Where are we going?” Sebastia asked with a stern tone.
“To the main Research Centre. The Masters have allowed you and only you Battle Lady to pick a weapon and armour of your choice. They want you and your companion to annihilate the demons in the north. The lion and the snake!”
“Two demons? And you are just going to give me one weapon? What about my companion?” Sebastia asked, and Kraft echoed along.
“No! No can do! Masters say only you since you gave results! Your comrade did not do anything to earn the trust of our masters! Be glad that he is able to come into the capital and see our glorious empire without doing anything!” The Uote Guard Captain vehemently refused as he told the carriage driver to move to the research centre post haste.
“Oh, come now. It doesn’t have to be the latest model, but surely you have some older ones, that are just gathering dust? You know how strong demons are. Even our dear Battle Lady might have some difficulty fighting against two of them. You do not want her to lose, right? Having an extra weapon will no doubt prove a boon, and it is just one weapon, I am not asking for an army.” Kraft commented, and somehow it gave the Guard Captain some headache.
“Grrrrr. We will see about it when we enter the place.”
———-
It did not take long, but the moment they entered the building, the temperature of the place shot up by at least three fold. The labourers and workers that were busy on the production line were all so hot that none wore any upper clothing. It’s either they stifled themselves to death, or they injured themselves for not wearing any safety gear. (As if the demon rats were going to give them any in the first place.)
At one glance, they noticed that the rats were using the slaves for creating the parts for their combat vehicles, and everyone gave them the momentous stare before returning back to work. As much as they hated the bad treatment (still better than the slaves), the job paid just enough for the workers to send some money to their family.
Sebastia despised the current work setting as she could feel how oppressive the atmosphere was. Still, she continued on with Kraft who seemed quite at home. The Uote Guard Captain brought them into a special room whose entrance was cordoned off by guards equipped with Steam Tech. It appeared to be an even more advanced version of the power suit which Sebastia saw the ex-commander wearing back in Keyrin’s territory.
If the guards were wearing such amazing power suits to defend the place, it had to be of relative importance to the rats themselves, and there was only one way to find out. Both guards turned around in their power suit in order to lift the door open for the guest to enter.
The bar handles were indeed at the bottom and the only way to open it was by lifting it up. However, just the two of them were not enough, and two more were called over. The four of them could only lift the twenty inch thick steel door enough to create a sufficient opening for their guests to enter. (They had to bend over to enter but not for the Captain.)
Once they entered, the door smashed down behind them, creating a giant noise echoing throughout the factory. What awaited them was a long spiralling staircase which took some time for them to reach their location. A spacious hall the size of two football fields and at least tall enough to place Mechataur in there. But what intrigued them most was that the place was filled with makeshift construction platforms.
Stairs leading to elevated platforms with each of the platforms used to conduct various experiments. There were caged demon rats, humans and even demons of some sort at the side of the halls as well as gadgets, broken pieces of steam tech etcetera.
“New subjects?” The cloaked figure sighed. The Captain shook his head.
“These esteemed guests are here to choose one of your newly developed experimental weapons.” Guard Captain explained before he bowed himself out of the place. “Afterwards, you are to teleport them to the demons in the north…and eh give both of them weapons. Just make sure the Battle Lady stays alive at all cost. Give the other one something that may increase their chances.”
As if the cloaked figure understood what the rat was saying, he nodded his head and cast a teleport spell on the Guard Captain.
“What? Why are you leaving so fast? Aren’t you supposed to guide us?” Sebastia asked with a tinge of suspicion.
“Guide? I am a Guard Captain. Not some guide! You should be grateful that I guarantee an increased chance of safety for your life!” The demon rat said as he was teleported out via a magic circle.
“So I am guessing you are the guinea pigs for my experiment.” The cloaked figure took a look as he asked them to follow him to the back of the hall. “The Scholars probably want you dead, which is why they made an attempt to kill you via the demons.”
“The Scholars? Not the Masters?” Kraft got really curious when the cloaked figure referred to them as such.
“Hmm… yes, you are right. It should be Masters. It’s rare for me to receive any guest. I am usually alone with my subjects, so it’s not like I have to watch my language.” The cloaked figure stopped momentarily before acknowledging and continued to walk forth.
“If the ‘Masters’ hate us, why don’t they kill us outright? Also aren’t you worried that after telling us all this we would just try to kill you?” The crafty fox asked though he had no intention to simply forego this opportunity to gather intel. His sixth sense was tingling, indicating that they had stumbled upon a rare opportunity.
“Honestly, it’s not like it will make a difference. Should you choose to kill me, you will be automatically teleported to the demons anyway. If you don’t kill me, I can at least provide you with a weapon allowing you to live a little bit longer. The demons are now their pet projects. They had mutated them from two non caring demons who bothered with their own businesses into some vicious murdering machines they are today. Their lust for battle is never ending, and there is nothing I can do about it.”
“You seem to know a great deal about those demons,” Kraft questioned with a hidden purpose.
“I’ve raised them myself. It’s a pity that my beloved demons were forced to fight against each other instead of growing to fulfil their initial objective.” The cloaked figure answered with a hint of pride before it turned into melancholy.
“Let me guess. To use them as the guardians for each country?” Kraft proposed his theory, and he could hear a soft sigh coming from the cloaked figure.
“How did you know that? This is something only one person should have been aware of.” It was as if he knew about it all along.
“Because your words were tied with sorrow and regrets. Judging from your explanation, those masters of yours seem to have spoilt your work, which should have been part of some grand scheme. I’ve long since wondered about those elder demons like they were meant for something greater.”
“Also, I feel it’s just too convenient for the demons to be under their control. That is unless there was some sort of link no one else knew about… or something… or more likely, someone was used to blackmail them.” Kraft seemed to know the vague identity of this cloaked figure.
“Things did not go that well, that’s all.” The cloaked figure went to the corner of the hall, and with murmuring words flowing out of his mouth, the illusion of the corner of the hall broke, allowing them to enter.
“You seem to be more than just some mere travellers. It would be a shame for you to die because of their scheme. Let me aid your escape at the very last minute with my experimental ‘weapons’ that I had developed.” The cloaked figure offered an olive branch to the travellers and Kraft burst into a short laugh.
“Do you think we cannot win against your demons?” Sebastia questioned with a confident tone.
“Verily so. I suggest you come down from your high horse. No one can beat them. Many competent warriors have tried in the past. None came back alive.” The cloaked figure suddenly displayed past images of various adventurers who tried to battle against the Burning Lion and Water Snake.
“I see, they sure are horrifying. Please do give us all the information on them. Sebastia looks like you will have a great work out for later. For now, try to learn their attacks.” Kraft ordered, and Sebastia already had her notebook out making notes on their pattern of attacks.
“What are you doing? Have I not given you a choice to live? Don’t act too rash!” The cloaked figure panicked as if he really wanted them to not fight against the demons.
“Don’t worry. We know what we are doing.” Kraft walked up to the cloaked figure and stare at him eye to eye. “Now how about you take off that pathetic disguise? I prefer talking face to face.”
“Miss Scholar of the West.”
