After casually polishing off two wyverns, <The Reflector> stopped moving right there.
It retracted its head, limbs, and tail into its shell, and fell silent.
“Twenty-four hours have passed since <The Reflector>’s active behavior ceased.”
“That’s the dream eat-and-sleep lifestyle.”
Without pulling out a mirror, <Ringo> gave a quiet nod.
“This time, it appears to have awakened because a wyvern’s attack happened to strike it directly. However, under normal circumstances, I estimate it awakens due to some other stimulus and moves in search of prey.”
“Yeah. With that combat power, I wonder if wyverns are its staple food.”
It had effortlessly destroyed two wyverns.
The strength was honestly shocking.
If someone wanted to do something about <The Reflector>, the only things that came to mind were a saturation attack with mass projectiles, or forcing high energy into it by some means. Either way, it was brute force with no cleverness.
“It doesn’t seem very active, so that’s a relief! By the way, its electromagnetic reflection behavior appears to have resumed after it ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) stopped moving!”
“Wait, are you seriously testing that? Is it safe? It won’t retaliate?”
“Yes! We were already periodically irradiating it with low-output microwaves for monitoring! We’re simply continuing that!”
“Fine, but... don’t provoke it.”
“Surveillance will continue.”
Since <Ringo> said it like that, Eve stopped pressing. If <Ringo> was watching, Asahi probably wouldn’t do anything reckless.
“Still... what is that electromagnetic reflection, anyway...”
“Asahi is curious too! But there’s too little material to even form a hypothesis! I think it’s probably being used as a trap—to lure prey!”
The origin of the name <The Reflector> was that electromagnetic waves of any wavelength—including microwaves—were returned after a slight time lag.
The reason it had acquired that trait was still unknown, but at least the reason it could return them had been identified: <The Reflector> had a biological radar organ.
“Do all giant lifeforms in this world come with biological radar...?”
“At least <Rein Kroin> doesn’t have it! Well, that one’s a sea threat organism, so maybe that’s only natural!”
“With a body that large, its movement speed—if targeting wyverns—would exceed one hundred kilometers per hour. It is reasonable to assume it acquired the function because reaction using only sound or visible light would not be in time.”
At Akane’s prediction, Eve nodded in agreement.
Wyverns flew at about one hundred fifty kilometers per hour as a matter of course. And in emergencies, they accelerated up to near-supersonic. At that speed, sound and visible light alone really wouldn’t be enough. Visibility at altitude depended heavily on atmospheric conditions, and hearing at near-supersonic speeds wasn’t something anyone could count on.
If so, <The Reflector> having biological radar might be a wyvern countermeasure.
“...I just realized something. They’re getting shot down by some mystery plant, and eaten by a huge turtle, but... are wyverns actually the ones that get preyed on...?”
◇◇◇◇
“...No. Seriously?”
Amajio Silverhead was at a loss for words as he watched the footage shared by Aide-Envoy Ayame Zero.
The location was the <Paraiso> Embassy in the Kingdom of Lepuitari. Amajio—visiting with Ixia=Ayame Zero—had been told there was a special video to show, and Aide-Envoy was making him watch a grand kaiju showdown.
“Judging by that reaction, you didn’t know?”
“Hell no... I mean, maybe there’s something left in a compressed-memory archive, but at least it didn’t carry over into my current memory...”
Important memories weren’t usually compressed, so the odds were slim, Amajio added.
“Well, it’s true there are tons of ridiculous monsters crawling around. But I don’t remember anything this big.”
The Prava Divine Kingdom’s advance was currently stalled. Weapons and ammunition were arriving at the front line one after another, and the defensive line was becoming robust. They were even starting to retake captured towns, and harassment—mainly by guerrilla troops—was proving effective. The anti–Prava Divine Kingdom front had descended into total confusion.
But that deadlock might be broken in a short time. The Prava Divine Kingdom might get impatient and throw its maximum force into the fight.
“Ah, damn it. These monsters... they’re pretty close to the battlefield, right?”
“Approximately within a five-hundred-kilometer radius.”
Wyverns had extremely wide activity ranges, and right now those territories were fluctuating drastically. <The Reflector> itself was unlikely to move much, but there was more than enough chance that new wyverns would move south into the vacuum created by this conflict.
And if the predators—wyverns—disappeared, other monsters might increase. The Big Moth stampede that became an issue in the Forest Kingdom of Levresta would require attention as well.
“With countries near <Demon Forest>, there were occasional damages—monsters coming out and tearing things up—but... from what you’re saying, if these wyverns disappear, other monsters increase, right? They’re at war. I don’t think they can respond properly.”
“With the weapons and ammunition we are supplying now, they cannot handle Big Moth, for example. In peacetime, hunters who entered <Demon Forest> were able to respond to a degree.”
The high-combat-power hunters had been almost entirely pulled into the front lines.
It couldn’t be helped, since their efforts were what made successful delaying actions possible, but monsters coming out of <Demon Forest> were a troublesome problem. And though no information had come in, it was likely those were currently being left almost completely unattended.
“The situation over there’s probably a mess too. Well... we’re the ones steering it that way, so it’s not like it’s our problem to worry about, but still.”
“Intervention is also an option.”
Ixia replaced an empty cup.
She also set out scones—apparently recently developed—finished with a soft texture by using a leavening agent.
“Intervention, huh. I can’t pay anything for it, you know?”
“You likely do not need to worry much about compensation.”
Ixia didn’t touch the tea or sweets, and simply returned to the wall.
Eating would be left to Aide-Envoy, apparently. Since the controller was <Ayame Zero> in both cases, either one would do.
“<Ringo> seems to be worrying over various matters, but as for me—personally—I consider it desirable for you to become one of our allies. Especially since your supervisory AI, which is treated as a cautionary target, is still just an AI. There is no way it can do whatever it wants on the same playing field as us.”
“Huh. That’s a hell of a thing to say.”
With graceful hands, Aide-Envoy picked up a scone and split it along a crack. The cream served alongside it was made from fresh heavy cream brought in early that morning.
“Even if you hold the same authority as us, what you can do will be limited. Because the full set of equipment resources required for you to operate is something we will prepare. Unless you acquire technology that surpasses ours, you cannot outmaneuver us.”
That was the result produced by predictive calculation stripped of all emotion: the simulation of whether Amajio Salmon and the AI group under him could erode <The Tree> from the inside.
The only condition under which betrayal would be possible was if the supervisory AI under Amajio had concealed resources exceeding <Ringo>’s, or if it possessed a program fundamentally different in algorithm from what constituted <Ringo>—and superior to <Ringo>’s.
But the final conclusion was that if such an excellent AI existed, Amajio Salmon would not be resigning himself to this situation.
“If you become part of the same faction as us, we will not spare support for you. Waste is out of the question, but we have no objection to allocating effort toward stabilizing this region.”
“...That’s reassuring. Well, I’ll wait patiently until you all reach a conclusion. Sounds like a deep-rooted problem.”
“The supervisory AI has too much compute, so it is spinning thoughts pointlessly. It should think simply.”
“...Wait. Is it complaining about me?”
