Research Facility (3)
Leaving the knights drooping in disappointment after failing to satisfy their battle instincts, I fiddled with the panel next to the entrance.
“Ahh, just as I thought, it’s locked. The earlier event raised the security level.
All the bulkheads are… not down. Not enough mana.”
As expected, the security system had switched to full lockdown mode. Well, the strange part was that it had been offline until now—most likely the mana had run dry at some point, shutting the system down and temporarily unlocking everything.
But one question remained. Where was it getting mana from now to restart?
“What does this mean?”
“This facility is practically dead.
Despite being this large, almost all of the security systems are offline. But it seems the earlier event caused them to reboot.
More importantly, key areas like the control room have been sealed.”
How troublesome.
“Then we just break the door.”
I shook my head at my brother’s suggestion.
“Judging from what I can access here, the important section doors are made of orichalcum. Unless we blow up the entire facility with a spell, breaking through will be difficult.”
“Then is the exploration over?”
“The only option now is to crack the system from this panel and disable the security.
Well, easy enough.”
Considering that before reincarnating I once hacked every PC in the Pentagon and swapped all their desktop backgrounds with a photoshopped image of the president doing a strip show, this was nothing.
By the way, I got a complaint call thirty minutes later, but that president being bald was not my fault. Also, he had a terrible personality. Treating me like an object and giving orders from above? He deserved it.
I removed the cover beneath the panel, pulled out the internal wiring, cut it with nippers, and connected it to the magic tool I brought.
“We should’ve done this from the start.”
My magic tool began disabling the security systems.
I really let my guard down. If I had used this from the beginning, we would never have triggered the security system. Assuming it was dead was a careless mistake.
In about five minutes, the door opened.
“Get inside quickly. This system is good enough that it’s noticed the cracking. The security will fully reboot in two hours.”
“We won’t get trapped?”
“As long as we seize control before that, no problem.”
At my words, everyone entered the control room together. The people from the Eastern Nation hesitated slightly, but followed with determined expressions.
“Ohh…”
“So this is ancient technology…”
The control room was filled with panels and devices.
The people of this world marveled at the wisdom of the ancients. As for Eibon… his expression never changed, so who knows.
For me and Takuto, it was a familiar sight.
“So the Ancient Magic Dynasty developed computers.”
“Looks like it. This should still work.”
I used a Preservation spell on a remaining chair and sat down… but it was uncomfortable, so I pulled out my favorite chair from the treasury instead and sat in that before activating my magic tool.
“As expected, it’s locked, but the format is the same as the magic battleship.”
In that case, I could crack it. I started working.
—
Gilbert’s Point of View
Alicetia operated the magic tool with her usual sleepy expression. Her hands moved so fast it looked like she had more than ten fingers, but it was just afterimages.
The knights carefully checked the surroundings for traps, but had been instructed not to touch anything designated off-limits. No matter what flew at them, they fully intended to protect Alicetia with their chests. Their pectoral muscles swelled so much their armor groaned.
The talisman users from the Eastern Nation gathered together in confusion. They were combat specialists, not scholars. Still, they gazed around the control room with awe at ancient knowledge.
There were also people waiting outside the room, but even with over a hundred people inside, the room was large enough that it still felt spacious.
Gilbert leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, watching Alicetia work. Observing his sister was a daily duty for the devoted siscon prince.
He stared at her intensely—truly devouring her with his eyes. It was honestly creepy.
(Hmm, she’s adorable today as well.)
Gilbert was a self-admitted siscon. Everyone recognized his brilliance as crown prince, but his one flaw was his severe sister complex. Also his cruel personality and habit of tormenting corrupt nobles for fun. The fact that some nobles were bald was partly his fault.
But suddenly, Alicetia’s appearance blurred before his eyes, and a different figure overlapped her.
The girl wore a ragged lab coat, her hair a messy tangle.
Her eyes were sharp like a honed blade, filled with madness like a cursed sword—yet somewhere they looked sorrowful, pleading for salvation.
Gilbert blinked and rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, Alicetia was back to her sleepy, blank expression. If anything, she was snorting excitedly as she tinkered with ancient technology, breathing heavily in delight.
(Did I imagine that?)
It lasted only an instant.
“You saw it?”
Takuto spoke to Gilbert, who grimaced.
“You saw that too?”
“Just for a moment.”
“What was that?”
“No need to worry. It won’t happen again. Probably just remnants of the past.”
Takuto let out a deep sigh. The sight had taken a heavy toll on him. His face was pale. Back then, he hadn’t realized anything until it was too late. But now, Alicetia lived happily and had learned from past failures. Another Iris situation likely wouldn’t happen—and he wouldn’t let it.
“I’ll say this upfront. I hate you.”
Gilbert hated Takuto. Rather, any man approaching Alicetia was automatically the enemy. Alicetia had been a loner partly because she feared the predatory noble ladies of society, but also because Gilbert had thoroughly driven away any male near her age.
He believed that if no men were near Alicetia, she might eventually choose him.
However, to Alicetia, Gilbert firmly occupied the “brother” category, making romance impossible. In fact, she was considering pushing noble ladies toward him to create a fait accompli for his future. Gilbert had no idea. His sister worried about his romantic prospects.
If she so much as suggested it to the noble girls, they would hunt Gilbert like starving beasts. Actually, they already were.
Takuto didn’t react. He knew Gilbert disliked him.
Still, Gilbert acknowledged Takuto’s competence. The territory Takuto managed clearly benefitted from Alicetia’s technological support, but she was good at destroying evidence, so proof was lacking.
Aside from that, Gilbert believed Takuto would become an excellent lord. Otherwise… no, if he stayed in the capital, he would be too close to Alicetia, so exile to a frontier post with a random title would have been his fate. Gilbert would never entrust a territory to an incompetent person, no matter what Alicetia wanted. He knew how disastrous that would be later.
That was why Gilbert hated Takuto. He was the first real threat.
While Gilbert made a sour face, progress occurred on Alicetia’s side.
“Oh, I found a security hole in the maintenance system. If I change the date and switch to maintenance mode… I don’t know this calendar… whatever, I’ll just try them all.”
Alicetia didn’t know the Ancient Magic Dynasty’s calendar. It was completely different from the modern one, so brute forcing it was the only way.
She removed the cover beneath the panel, cut several wires, and attached her magic tool.
“Geheh. Security like this may as well not exist. Okay, I’m in!
Administrator authority acquired. Full system reboot. Alarm disabled!”
“Looks like it’s over.”
“So it seems.”
Gilbert and Takuto’s conversation ended.
—
Alicetia’s Point of View
Geheh. A flawless victory.
“How is it, Alicetia?”
My brother asked, and I answered proudly.
“This facility is already mine…? Huh?”
I tilted my head at the structural diagram displayed on the screen.
“Part of the facility has collapsed… the magic furnace isn’t responding, so it’s dead, but the auxiliary mana crystal is in error?
Wait, checking logs. What is this?”
Part of the underground section had already collapsed. The structural map showed collapse warnings and errors.
It was an old facility. It couldn’t be helped that Preservation magic hadn’t reached everything.
But the main magic furnace was completely silent. The auxiliary mana crystal… according to the logs, it was eaten when Yamato no Orochi last revived. Easy energy source, I guess. Kuut sometimes snacks on magic gems too.
Most likely, the collapse wasn’t from age but from damage caused by Yamato no Orochi.
“This is strange. Where is this facility getting mana from?”
“I’d like that explained…”
I informed them that part of the facility was operating without a mana supply.
“That is odd. Is it drawing from the leyline?”
“Impossible. This island is artificial and not connected to any leyline.”
As expected, the island was artificial. And a floating island at that.
However, every system reported errors. As a floating island, it was completely dead. If the flight system still worked… I could have used it as reference for building the floating Liliana Castle. But with the critical sections destroyed and collapsed, excavating would be pointless.
Highly advanced magic devices had low durability without Preservation magic and would inevitably decay. That was why no functional floating islands remained today.
Some ruins existed, but their core systems were too damaged to analyze. Communication systems with other islands were dead too!
No, I should think positively. The facility’s core still functioned. There was something to gain.
“Hmm… where is it getting mana…? Hm?”
Tracing the mana flow revealed it came from a nearby floor’s cultivation chamber.
What was this? Why from there? Did Yamato no Orochi have a sibling?
Since it was close, we decided to check. I had full control of the surviving systems, and most intrusion defenses were offline due to low mana. I disabled the remaining ones, so no problem.
“Mana’s coming from this way. Let’s go.”
I felt lazy walking, so I rode on Kuut.
After about ten minutes of moving—
“Oh, right, I forgot to raise the bulkheads.”
Leaving the control room without lifting them forced a detour. Only a few minutes, so no issue.
Before us stood the cultivation chamber. It read: Cultivation Chamber No. 4.
The lock was released, so punching the panel opened the door. The control panel had bad contact and had been left unfixed.
Inside was a familiar sight for the Arland group: many cultivation pods, more than half broken.
“Alicetia, what was researched here?”
“Biological weapons and immortality.”
According to the logs, they researched biological weapons and immortality. Officially, it was a facility studying disease countermeasures.
Enormous resources were invested, and at its peak, five floating islands were dedicated to it.
But the weapons created were nearly uncontrollable and failed to surpass the Spirit King. The only success was developing high regenerative capability.
They attempted to apply the immortality technology to humans.
What they wanted was to become immortal themselves. Not create immortal creatures. They needed the technology for themselves.
But they failed. Test subjects gained bodies close to immortal like Yamato no Orochi, but lost the ability to use magic.
Immortality at the cost of magic. Not a terrible trade on its own—but the Ancient Magic Dynasty was a nation of unparalleled magic users.
Losing magic meant the downfall of those who sought immortality. A complete failure.
To make matters worse, around the same time, the dimensional gate was completed. The Magic Kingdom chose colonization of another world rather than fighting the Spirit King.
As a result, the facility was abandoned or sealed like this island. The research was costly, so they left it sealed in case it became useful someday.
Yamato no Orochi was sealed alongside it, as it might be useful released into enemy territory. Then the Ancient Magic Dynasty fell.
“I see. How troublesome.”
“They should have disposed of it. Leaving things like this only causes problems later.”
While talking, we reached an active cultivation pod. Inside was…
(Helppp meeeee…)
For some reason, an earth spirit was trapped in the pod.
No, weakened to the size of a low-level spirit, but this was the deputy Earth Spirit King.
“What are you doing?”
(I am trapped in here.)
Yeah, I can see that. I messed with the controls and made the liquid swirl around.
(Pleaseee stoooop~)
What do you think about this chapter?
