9-5 Combat Preparations

I tried making an automatic alarm system for defense.

I built mana-based sensors into it.

It worked by combining a mana emitter with a sensor that reacted to mana.

The images I based it on were things commonly used in factories, and since I often handled replacement work myself, it was relatively easy to build.

For the sensors, I processed magic crystals.

Things made of mana reacted to mana.

When emitted mana hit an object, it was blocked.

I connected that as a peripheral device to the magic PC.

If it reacted to something, an alarm sounded.

The mana also carried detection-type magic and appraisal, so it displayed who the intruder was.

If the identified target was a registered person, it logged the entry but didn’t raise an alarm.

I made it react to high positions too, and I also added Dissearch, so enemies couldn’t detect the alarm system’s existence.

Or rather, people in this world didn’t even know Earth-style alarm systems existed.

I also equipped automatic interception weapons.

Using the same sensor concept, I installed a friend-or-foe identification system.

I deployed magic machine guns based on the Type M2 heavy machine gun.

They were buried in the ground with earth magic, but once they detected an enemy, they all sprang up at once and spewed fire—no, magic.

The mechanism might differ, but the inspiration was a military robotic automatic machine gun.

This was a dangerous item that demanded careful handling.

I tested it thoroughly and set it up with maximum caution.

Something occurred to me, so I asked Mari.

“Doesn’t have to be on your level, but can’t we make something like a guardian—some magical creature or golem?”

“It’s not impossible, but the control system might be difficult. How about a simple-moving golem meant to buy time? If anything, that’s more your style. Use raw mana to mass-produce powerful ones. Use them as shields to escape, slip around in the gaps, or crush the enemy with sheer numbers.”

That made sense.

For now, that was best.

Mari taught me the magic for golem creation.

The golems I made this time were generously given mithril cores, and even if their earth bodies broke, they absorbed material from around them and kept moving as long as supplied mana continued.

They moved automatically under rough commands.

Advance and trample. Smash that castle.

For detailed orders, I’d have to give them each time.

Heh heh heh.

I even made orichalcum and Besmagil cores.

I had Mari download her core data and embed it into those as well.

You could practically call it a copy.

It was the same kind of work as when I made the teleportation bracelet.

Right now I could only make an inferior version, though.

Still, I’d be able to make a higher-performance one eventually.

The original was extraordinary, after all.

What remained was the software problem.

I’d place my hopes on the magic PC and the cheat item box’s capabilities.

The body could be freely swapped out.

I made bodies out of iron, mithril, orichalcum, and Besmagil.

Bodies made of higher magic metals were limited in number.

Since I produced golems in huge quantities, their default bodies were rubble bodies formed by magic.

Swap bodies were also prepared in the inventory of the item box I equipped them with.

I also embedded magic and loaded in all the spells I used.

Then I installed enormous magic-metal mana batteries.

If I stuffed them into the golems’ equipped item boxes, they didn’t take up space either.

These were standardized parts too, swappable anytime.

Even with the same model, performance could differ by a thousandfold depending on the unit.

I also mounted every physical weapon as well.

For the larger units, I even added a cockpit so a human could ride in an emergency… this was basically a super robot now.

Mari stared, exasperated.

“Deja vu… the nightmare from a thousand years ago again! Oops, I said something unnecessary.”

I made rifles for the super-ro—no, for the golems.

I also dug out that pseudo-laser that had been shelved with no chance to use it.

Yeah—this was a man’s romance!

It condensed the advanced spell, the Annihilating Light Megid, into a beam, increasing penetration and making it detonate inside the target on impact.

I also made a beam version of dragon breath—converged breath.

I added flamethrower-type magic for convenient suppression.

A large 200mm Stone Bullet was adopted as a standard function in the large golem rifle.

It was basically a rifle ten times the size of a human rifle.

This was straight-up a magic cannon.

Under the barrel, I mounted an electromagnetic-gun barrel fired by lightning magic, as a grenade launcher substitute.

The rounds were made of orichalcum.

On hit, it pierced the enemy, triggered a mana explosion inside, blew them apart, and consumed everything into mana energy—by design.

If used poorly, it could have power comparable to a nuclear blast, so it was exciting.

But then it was too strong—this couldn’t be used to defend a kindergarten.

For the time being, it was banned.

More like—would there ever even be an opportunity to use it?

It was practically a nuclear-grade own-goal weapon.

Well, I’d only made it “just in case.”

It was like the U.S. military’s so-called “nuclear bazooka,” supposedly real once.

That too apparently got shelved, of course.

With a bazooka, the range was too short.

Even a californium atomic bomb—weak as nukes go—loaded into a rifle bullet had more range.

Apparently, when the U.S. military first deployed nukes, their understanding was still poor.

They treated them like just a new bomb with huge power.

They should’ve tried it once in training—aiming a few hundred meters ahead, at the bazooka’s max range, with a device that probably had tens of kilotons of destructive power.

They’d understand Japanese atomic-bomb victims’ feelings real quick.

I also had a Besmagil energy-release weapon, but using it would almost certainly exceed even a hydrogen bomb, so I hesitated to use it.

Assuming the enemy hid in an underground fortress, I manufactured bunker busters.

An orichalcum body that pierced anything.

The body itself followed the reverse process of creation, exploding while releasing enormous energy.

All the violent mana devoured during creation was converted back into magical-explosion energy.

A direct strike comparable to an underground nuclear blast pressure wave.

Even a subterranean fortress wrapped in thick concrete would be crushed flat.

I created and mounted magic that nullified various shields onto it.

A demonic penetrator that went through everything.

And I mounted a propellant-based booster on the rear.

A booster four times the size of the main body ignited smokeless powder at ground-skimming altitude and drove the main body into the earth.

It would surely pierce any fortress wall, no matter how solid, without difficulty.

And then—ah!

When I suddenly noticed and turned around, a slightly long-lived beautiful older sister was staring at me with cold eyes.

I calmed down a bit and tried manufacturing a bomber.

It was nothing—just a mockup bomber model with flight magic added, modified so a person could ride inside.

It had an item-box bomb bay for infinite bombing.

Propulsion was wind magic and gravity magic.

And I added levitation too.

In an emergency, it could glide silently.

Well, if anything happened I’d retrieve it with homing.

Preparing for dragon knight raids, I also prepared various fighters capable of dogfighting.

I even prepared VTOL craft capable of hovering in midair by magic.

Though really, it was just an empty shell flying by magic power alone.

It was also a kind of golem using a magic core, but for now it was similar to the other rubble golems—basically radio-controlled airplane level.

Well, other aircraft could hover too.

A man’s romance. A man’s romance.

With this much, it felt like we’d be fine even if the U.S. military formed an otherworld invasion coalition and attacked.

I made Mari carry a full set of it all.

“That’s why! What do you expect me to go to war with…!”

I didn’t want to hear a woman’s nagging, so I vanished quickly with teleportation magic.

Where did I go?

Obviously.

I appeared by teleportation at House Orston out of nowhere, raised a hand to greet the butler and the lady of the house, then immediately grabbed Antonio’s hand and teleported away with him.

Then I took him to the Glass Garden and showed him everything I’d made.

“You… well, fine. Yeah. The robotic machine guns and the full golem set are interesting. And the alarm system too.”

As expected of Antonio—he got it fast.

And yeah—he was a guy at heart!

We went right back to the manor and installed and tested the alarms.

The alert destination was the lord and lady’s two smartphones.

And I would play the role of the security company.

Just in case, I also deployed a barrier that could cover the entire manor with a single switch.

Once all the traps were installed, I barely said goodbye before vanishing in a puff.

“What a busy man,”

the lady said.

“Yeah. He’s always been that impatient. If you let it bother you, you lose, Margarita,” Antonio said.

Today’s tea was something like Earl Grey.

With Earth-recipe sweets, the Orston household was relaxing in a calm tea gathering.

Of course, when I got back, I also set our own security alarms to ring Ed’s and others’ smartphones.

I loaned smartphones to the other guards as well.

I also set up hands-free and party chat mode.

I deployed a barrier system that spread across the building’s surface to protect it.

Alarm system, barrier, automatic interception system, surveillance camera network, communications devices, magic assault rifles and heavy machine guns, fighters capable of ground attack, and giant humanoid weapons as tank substitutes.

And the adventurers serving as guards trained day after day.

Come on, Empire.

Attack anytime.

Your movements are being watched closely by invisible cameras in the imperial palace.