“We’ve named that rocky mountain that reflects electromagnetic waves—<The Reflector>!”
Asahi—back aboard <The Tree> for the first time in a while—leapt straight into Big Sis Eve’s chest the moment Eve came out to greet Asahi, and shouted that.
“O-oh, is that so. I’d completely forgotten, but that was a thing too, wasn’t it...”
“Yes, Big Sis! I poked at it a little in the gaps between tasks, and it’s pretty interesting!”
Hugging Asahi—back after several months—Eve flicked a glance at <Ringo>.
“Even at extremely low output, it seems to send back electromagnetic waves across just about every frequency! When the low-orbit platform passed overhead, I tried a small experiment, and there was a response even with a laser! The emission direction seems to match the incident direction with high precision, so I couldn’t capture it directly, but—nyuuaaa!?”
“Asahi, it is time for a precision inspection overhaul.”
“B-big Sis!?”
Asahi, who had been clinging to Eve and enjoying every bit of that body, had not noticed the work machine sneaking up from behind.
With the torso clamped down hard, escape was no longer possible.
“I’ll hear the report later, so go get properly maintained.”
“Asahi, telemetry alone doesn’t tell us, and in the first place, there is surely something being hidden.”
“Y-you’re being cruel!!”
◇◇◇◇
“...We will provide a report on Asahi later.”
“Oh? ...Did Asahi do something reckless again...?”
With that whispered aside inserted—
“I saw a bunch of things about <The Reflector>, so I’ll share with my big sisters too!”
The other five sisters had gathered in the lounge with expressions that said, (Asahi again...) as usual.
They still came anyway—probably proof that those five also recognized Asahi as a little sister. Probably.
“The first thing I checked was the imaging! Electromagnetic-wave maps from passive radar, differences in reflectance by wavelength, and so on! The result was that I couldn’t find any distinctive differences at any wavelength, but...”
What appeared as an image was a satellite photograph with strange colors layered onto it. It was probably <Demon Forest> centered on that rocky mountain.
“I added ultraviolet-region shading into the image! We might manage, but Big Sis definitely can’t see it as-is!”
“Oh, thank you, Asahi. That’s thoughtful.”
“Hmph!”
And in that image—with the ultraviolet region added as a layer—there was a road, crisp and unmistakable.
It was a road with the same width as the rocky mountain that had been named <The Reflector>, continuing from the north side of the image to the mountain—gently meandering, but unbroken the entire way.
“It’s a road! And what kind of road it is, everyone can guess! Differences in vegetation mean differences in ultraviolet-region reflectance! Easy to understand, if you think about it that way!”
Even so, that kind of difference would not show this clearly from simple image display alone. Asahi had probably applied a filter that amplified signals in specific wavelengths to make it obvious.
“In other words! This <The Reflector> is a threat organism!!”
With a sharp motion, Asahi smacked the left hand down against the marked mountain on the display and shouted.
“You are declaring it is a threat organism. On what basis?”
Akane cut in immediately.
“The fact that a vegetation difference looks like a road is not sufficient grounds.”
“If something this suspicious is in <Demon Forest>, then it’s a threat organism by definition! Even if the scientific basis is shaky, if we think in fantasy terms, it’s self-evident, isn’t it!?”
“Asahi, that’s a bit of a leap...”
Ichigo, looking troubled, tried to rein Asahi in after that confident answer.
“Asahi. Because it’s you, you investigated. Explain properly.”
“Ghn. If Big Sis says so...”
If it was something Asahi could find out, the other five sisters could find it out too. The performance difference was basically the number of Brain Units, but in raw processing capacity, the five sisters stationed on <The Tree> were higher. After all, they could freely use <The Tree>’s computing resources. The environment was different from Asahi’s, constantly out on the front. Even so, there was no need to re-investigate something that could be settled by letting Asahi explain.
“First, I checked the possibility that it’s an accidental product of natural terrain.
“For example: a river used to flow there, then the water dried up, and eventually it got covered by trees.
“But this surrounding area is sloped from north to south, so even if there were a river, it would only flow from north to south.
“For the river to hit the rocky mountain and end unnaturally would be required, so the possibility of natural terrain is low.
“Then, the probability becomes very high that it was made by an external factor.
“Which means a possibility that animals—or humans—cut it open.
“But neither seems likely.
“Then what remains is a threat organism.
“In probability terms, I’d put it at around 70% to 80%.
“The remainder would be: a terrain feature that happened to occur due to a natural phenomenon.”
Asahi rattled that off quickly. The explanation was mixed with desire, but there were no real flaws.
In the first place—
“When something unnatural is found, judging threat level is our job as AI! Preparing as if <The Reflector> is a threat organism is far better than assuming it’s something else! Because threat organisms are threat organisms, and that is exactly why they are a major threat to us!”
“...Well, that’s true.”
Once Commander Big Sis accepted that, Asahi puffed out the chest and continued.
“Well, that’s as far as the analysis goes, and I don’t know anything else! It’s deep in there, after all! If we tried attacking with a maser cannon, maybe we’d learn something!?”
“You want to fire right away? Won’t <wyvern> come charging out?”
“Territory is uncertain, but that possibility is more than plausible!”
“Then we can’t go picking a fight from our side.”
And so, everyone shared the conclusion that they still did not know anything.
To investigate further, the only option would be to insert survey machines on-site. But that location was more than 800 km north of the Kingdom of Lepuitari.
Even thinking from the closest country, it would require pushing almost 200 km deeper past the border of <Demon Forest>. And that country was in the middle of being invaded by the Prava Divine Kingdom.
“For now, we can only monitor, right? From the look of it, it hasn’t moved at all for ages, has it? Maybe it’s already dead.”
“We can’t say that! It’s definitely not moving, but we still don’t understand the logic behind reflecting electromagnetic waves! But Asahi agrees that we can only monitor!”
And so, they decided to adjust the surveillance satellites’ orbits so that they passed overhead several times a day, and the response to <The Reflector> was shelved.
◇◇◇◇
PHEEE—!
A whistle echoed.
“It’s here!!”
Someone shouted, and the soldiers hurriedly re-gripped the assault rifles <Foxtail> hanging from their shoulders.
It was not refined movement, by any stretch.
But considering the soldiers’ origins—farmers forcibly conscripted from rural villages—it was not bad movement either.
Hiding behind a simply installed log palisade, the soldiers glared forward and leveled rifles.
“It’s coming...”
“It’s here! Don’t fire yet!”
It was dawn. Thin mist drifted, and silence ruled the area. Within it, the crunch-crunch of footsteps began to echo.
The moment a vague shadow became visible, a white human figure burst out of the fog.
“Fire!!”
The figure sprinted at terrifying speed and reached the log palisade where the soldiers were hiding.
But the palisade was right in front of soldiers already aiming rifles.
Faster than the figure could thrust out the spear in hand, the soldiers pulled the triggers.
Three-round burst.
The bullet-struck figure staggered, and the thrust spear stabbed into a soldier’s right shoulder.
Panicking, other soldiers pulled their triggers ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ too.
A swarm of bullets slammed into the figure.
Even if this weapon called a gun was not something they were used to, at point-blank range it was hard to miss.
The figure was riddled with bullets and sprang backward as if in a rush to retreat.
“Ruger, you okay!?”
“Dammit, it hurts, it hurts...!”
The man whose shoulder had been stabbed rolled on the ground, and another man—probably an acquaintance—ran up.
But they had been attacked by Prava Divine Kingdom cleric-mages, and forced the attackers to withdraw with only a single stab wound on their side.
It was an undeniable great victory.
“Well done, all of you!! Send Ruger to the rear! Right now we’ve got <Fox>-brand top-notch wound medicine—so no one’s dying from this!”
“Yeah, good job, Ruger! You did it! You did it!!”
“It hurts, dammit... ahh, Goddess, I give thanks...!”
Scenes like that could be seen all over the battlefield.
Some units failed the interception and were scattered by the cleric-mages. But elsewhere, cleric-mages lured into kill zones were shredded into a sieve by heavy machine guns.
With the weapon called a gun brought from the Kingdom of Lepuitari, the Prava Divine Kingdom’s invasion speed was being dramatically suppressed.
