Chapter 298

Battle to Ship Off the Yamata no Orochi (4)
Three days had passed since we’d installed guillotines at the base of every one of the Yamato no Orochi’s necks.

“Mufufu. We’ve collected seven hundred forty-eight heads and one thousand seven hundred ninety-six eyes. Perfect—now we can mass-produce as many Aion Eyes as we want.”

If we embedded these into Moai statues and lined them along the border, they’d become formidable guardian statues. The long-gone people of Easter Island would surely be proud.

Moai statues really are great. I love their unique shape. I want the people of Arland to know how amazing they are too. I still can’t believe everyone calls my statues ‘idols of an evil god.’ How rude.

Like I’d ever worship an evil god. Anything that thing can do, I can do too—so what’s the point in worshipping it?

Not that I’d actually do it. That’d just make me an evil god myself. What a bother. Teto would probably interfere too.

Anyway, in front of me now was the pitiful ancient biological weapon known as the Yamato no Orochi.

At the base of every one of its necks sat a guillotine. Every time it regenerated, the blade would fall and sever it again. Regeneration consumed mana, so it was essentially spewing its power into the air nonstop.

Why was it so obsessed with regenerating its heads, even after all this? Simple. Without them, it couldn’t do anything. The sealing magic immobilized its body, so without its brains, it couldn’t even construct a spell. Any subconscious magic activation was blocked by the holy sword.

In other words, to do anything at all, the Yamato no Orochi needed its heads to regenerate.

“This is too easy—I’m actually getting bored.”

“You’ve really gotten cocky since you reincarnated, you know that?”

“Well, it’s not like it can fight back. I even prepared thirty countermeasures for the Madame, and this thing didn’t even make me use one. Didn’t think it’d end with just a seal.”

If I were fighting the Madame, even with all thirty measures, it’d be… fifty-fifty? No, forty percent at best… sorry, one percent actually. I got carried away.

Takuto looked bored too. Ever since we’d installed the guillotines, we’d stopped injecting poison. All that was left to do was watch its heads get chopped off.

The surrounding poison had already been purified, so we’d lifted the barrier. Honestly, I had nothing to do. Maybe I should just go declare war on the Empire again?

“Smile.”

Guess not. My brother’s smiling—but it’s that dark smile again. He’s way too sharp lately.

“Just a little bit? I could maybe snatch a nation’s worth of gold, no more…”

“If you do that, the Central Alliance will definitely intervene this time. And stealing a national budget doesn’t count as ‘a little,’ you know?

Besides, do you really think the Empire even has that kind of money left? The Kingdom Alliance’s been bleeding them dry as it is.”

Oh, right—we’d been stirring up their civil wars and selling them supplies. Thanks to that, there are about thirty royals claiming to be the next emperor, independence movements all over, tax riots breaking out daily… their remaining forces are dwindling by the day. They’re no longer a threat to Arland.

Well, we’re busy rebuilding our army too, but still.

The Central Alliance apparently tried to profit off the Empire’s civil war too, but Mr. Coote outsmarted them in business. Now all the trade rights are in the Kingdom Alliance’s hands.

And to make things worse, instead of backing one side, the Alliance secretly funds all of them. That way, even talented princes or nobles can’t gain an edge. If any side starts winning, they conveniently “lose” transport routes or get their aid cut, stirring up the others again.

They’re even using rival factions to eliminate competent nobles and royals—neutralizing future threats. The Kingdom Alliance is downright villainous. And the one who proposed this plan? My brother. The supposedly gentle crown prince everyone fears for his terrifying cunning.

So yeah, we chatted about that while killing time. Nothing to do but wait for the Yamato no Orochi to run out of mana anyway.

And then three more days passed.

“Takuto, don’t you think it looks cool?”

“Why are you modifying the enemy again…?”

Before us stood the Yamato no Orochi, now remodeled with mechanical necks.

“Doesn’t it look awesome? Like Mecha King Ghidor—”

“Absolutely not.”

“I was thinking we could finish the modifications and keep it as a pet.”

“No way!”

Big Brother immediately shot me down. I turned to the knights instead. Surely they’d understand how amazing it was—turning a lame biological weapon into a sleek cyborg masterpiece!

“I’ll admit, it looks cool… but isn’t it a bit too big for the castle?”

“Yes, the design is thrilling, but… quite in the way, isn’t it?”

“Wha—how could you…?”

No one agreed with me. After all that work, too!

As I slumped my shoulders, an awful cracking noise echoed from the Yamato no Orochi.

I turned to look—and froze.

From beneath the mechanical necks, new organic heads were sprouting. Just normal regeneration. The metal necks I’d attached were torn apart and fell to the ground in pieces.

“Y-you little—”

My anger gauge went critical.

After all the effort I’d put into replacing those ugly flesh heads with cool machine ones, it dared to ruin them?

I snapped my fingers. Instantly, the regenerating heads were lopped off by the guillotines.

“Looks like it needs a little training before I can make it a pet.”

“I don’t think you can train something like that.”

“… I guess it just doesn’t have the brains to join my pets. And don’t you dare look at Helios like that.”

Helios is obedient—unlike this thing. Probably.

“By the way, you’re not using poison anymore, right? What happened to the clone inside it?”

My brother changed the topic a little too obviously—but he had a point. The clone hadn’t come back. I could still sense its mana, though.

“I’ll go check inside.”

“Wait—!”

I ignored him, unfolded my storage card, switched to my Lord Vader mode, and entered through the cross-section of a neck.

Honestly, the insides were disgusting. I swam down what looked like an esophagus toward the stomach.

“Ow—wait, is this… a corridor?”

The moment I got deeper, I fell. There was a metallic passageway, even with lighting installed.

“I see. So it was a cyborg from the start.”

I’d had no idea. Maybe there was a control room inside? No, that couldn’t be—if it could be controlled, it wouldn’t have been sealed away.

Still, why was this even here? As I walked forward, I found a door. I didn’t hesitate to open it. Based on the layout, this should be the stomach area. Maybe there’s treasure inside.

The door opened into a windowless room. Nothing unusual—just a table, a chair… and someone sitting there, drinking tea.

“(´・ω・｀)”

“(´・ω・｀)”

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I returned in silence.

“Oh, you’re back,” Alicia said, hurrying over. She must’ve been worried—I did dive inside without warning.

“Huh? Where’s the clone? Or wait, the original?”

Then my brother ran up.

“I’m the original.”

“The clone, then?”

“It’s dead.”

Unbelievable. That guy had built herself a nest inside the Yamato no Orochi. I want my expectations back.

Apparently, she’d been slacking off in there, saying she had “more work waiting after this one.” But she’s been shipped out now, so it’s fine.

At least she did some research, apparently. Turns out the Yamato no Orochi’s blood can be used as a material for magic tools. Well, it’s not like it’s rare—there are already tools that use blood from high-ranking monsters. This one just joins the list.

Still, this is a bit much.

The next day, now that we knew its blood was useful, the Yamato no Orochi’s entire body was covered with stakes.

Its scales were in the way, so Takuto used his psychic sword to pry them off, levering them like tiles.

The stakes were hollow, letting us siphon out blood efficiently.

“Alright, keep regenerating. Mr. Coote likes the meat, the blood and eyes are for magic tools, the bones… maybe fertilizer? The scales will be gifts for my master. The Yamato no Orochi’s got no waste at all!”

“Got a nice little sting to it too,” Mr. Coote said.

“That’s the ones still laced with poison.”

He happily ate the contaminated meat anyway. Helios tried some too, then said, “Not my taste,” and switched to a different cut.

Even the pups loved it.

Ah, I see now. I was wrong all along. This thing wasn’t an enemy—it was a resource!

Which means I need to optimize the harvesting process!

The Yamato no Orochi’s newly regrown eyes looked utterly dead inside, but who cares? It got decapitated instantly every time—it didn’t matter!

Takuto could handle the meat harvesting with his psychic sword. The creature kept hardening its body with defensive magic, so it was ridiculously tough.

The blood kept flowing nicely, so no changes needed there. Same for the eyes.

After a while of efficient disassembly, the armed airship I’d called for precaution finally arrived. Perfect timing. The voyage had been a good training run—though they’d gotten lost halfway and had to home in on my communicator, cutting straight through several nations’ airspace. Not that anyone noticed, so it’s fine.

“Princess… were we, uh, actually needed?” the captain asked, staring at the state of the Yamato no Orochi.

“You came at the perfect time! I need to borrow your mana supply system.”

Armed airships are designed to defend cities too. In the future, Arland’s cities will have magic defense barriers, but those aren’t perfect. They can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

That’s why airships carry external mana supply systems—to feed power to other defenses when needed.

Why did I need it now? Simple—the Yamato no Orochi was running out of mana. It wasn’t regenerating fast enough, which was slowing down harvesting.

But if I pulled out the holy sword, it might start casting spells again. So the answer was obvious: keep the sword in and just pump mana into it instead.

A few crewmen dragged over the hoses.

“Where should we connect it, Princess?”

“Hmm… the necks’ll come off again when it regenerates, and Takuto’s harvesting near there too… wait a sec.”

I circled the Yamato no Orochi, looking for a good spot. Near the tail, I found a hole.

“Here looks fine.”

“““Got it—ready!”””

“SKYAAAAAA!!”

“Whoa!”

That scared the life out of me! The Yamato no Orochi suddenly regenerated all its heads at once, just to have them chopped off immediately afterward.

“Good grief. Don’t startle me like that. Mana supply—begin!”

“““Yes, Princess!”””

“SKYAAAAAAAAA!!!”

The moment mana flooded in, every head regenerated with incredible force—only to be severed again instantly.

“Yup, lively as ever.”

It’ll take a while longer to finish you off. I’ll just keep collecting materials for now.

I crossed my arms and nodded in satisfaction.

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