“Ha ha ha! I’ve never exaggerated your feats, I’ll have you know,” he responded. “There’s only one fool I know of to rise all the way to Top Knight of the Kingdom only to throw it all away and walk off with a Lord Gryphon for retirement pay—and that’s you! You’re the first and the last, Watt!”
“My back was against the wall,” Watt said. “And besides, Gryphon’s a different story—I needed him to keep myself safe, that’s all.” Regaining his composure, he rose to his feet with a grunt.
“You can fill me in on all the details later!” Soleil replied. “But why don’t we get the real headache outta the way first? And wouldn’t you know it—right on cue.”
That very moment, a figure leaped onto the scene, as if tumbling out of the prison. It was none other than the king’s younger brother, Turk Ogdenn. Fists quivering with rage at the harrowing sight of the nigh-total destruction of the prison before him, Turk shouted, sending spittle flying from the corners of his mouth.
“You... You damned Royal Knights! What is the meaning of this?! Guillé Prison is one of our kingdom’s most crucial facilities, and you bastards have gone and annihilated its forces! You’re fools if you think such lawlessness will go unpunished!”
Carome’s Lord Gryphon Neo made a show of drooping down to glare at him.
“It’s a matter of priorities, Duke Turk,” Carome replied. “We didn’t annihilate Guillé Prison’s forces just for the fun of it. We were pursuing a criminal who’d broken the laws of Legalisbelm with crimes that amount to high treason against the royal family. In the process, we somewhat reluctantly clashed with the forces here, that’s all.”
“What sort of nonsense is this?!” Turk yelled. “If it’s the criminal you’re after, we’ve already captured Watt Sears! You’ve done nothing but destroy the prison!”
Carome calmly pointed to the older model of Lord Gryphon to her rear, where Anna was peeking her head out of the cockpit.
“I do wish to avoid any misunderstandings here,” Carome said. “You’re the one we’re after, Your Excellency. In light of Princess Anna’s testimony, we’ll be detaining you for violating the ban on the use of military force in Legalisbelm.”
“I’m sorry to say...I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about,” Turk replied.
It couldn’t have been a total surprise to him. While his words had escaped him for a moment, Turk met Carome’s accusations in an undaunted manner—on the surface, at least. It would take far more than that, however, to escape the Royal Knights’ interrogation.
“It seems I’ve gotten ahead of myself,” Carome remarked. “While I’m sure you hoped to execute Watt quickly to erase any proof of your attack to secure Anna, I’m afraid things haven’t gone as you hoped. We’ll be taking him in as our most vital witness.”
“Wow, I’ve never seen the captain so pissed!” one of the knights said.
“Wonder if all this is because Watt’s involved?”
“Damn, show some tact, man...”
The Royal Knights sank back in embarrassment, but that was beside the point.
“My, what bold claims coming from the likes of a lowly knight like yourself!” Turk said.
“Have you forgotten that those same ‘lowly knights’ must act to keep the royal family in check on occasion?” Carome said. “There’s no point in resisting. Come along quietly before you disgrace yourself any further.”
“I don’t think I will,” Turk replied. “My ambitions are far too great to be stopped by vermin like you!”
No sooner had he spoken than Turk spun around, retreating into the half-destroyed wreckage of Guillé Prison.
“He’s still trapped though, right?” Watt asked.
“It’d be a real pain if he holed himself up inside.”
“I could just smash my way to him with Gryphon,” Watt replied.
“The prison does belong to the kingdom. We can’t go smashing it up if we don’t have to.”
An unnatural vibration made its way through the ground and up their legs. The Royal Knights immediately assumed a defensive stance, only for a corner of Guillé Prison to suddenly crumble away. An enormous figure slowly began to rise from underneath the ground, as if pushing its way through the billowing clouds of dust.
“I see now,” Carome said. “So this is your trump card, then, Duke Turk.”
Splitting through the ground as it made its appearance was an enormous humanlike figure—a massive humanoid magical instrument brought to life by man—a Mechsteel. Yet, its sheer size was far from ordinary for a Mechsteel. Reaching nearly thirty meters tall in total, it was well over double the size of an average mech.
“The slimy bastard sure was hidin’ one helluva nasty surprise, huh? That’s a Crusader-class... No, we might just be lookin’ at a Diviner-class Mechsteel!”
Mechsteels were sorted into different classes based on the strength and additional abilities granted to them by the monsters they were built from. One such class was Diviners: the highest-ranked mechs built from powerful monsters like dragons that were the stuff of legend.
The Diviner-class Mechsteel that had emerged was almost far too grotesque in appearance to be called a humanoid magical instrument, however. Despite its towering height, the mech had a lean frame. What’s more, three sets of arms stretched from its shoulders for a total of six, with three heads sitting atop it. It had birdlike feet and stood solely on its toes. The mech continued to shoot out flickering bursts of flames from all over its body, roasting the wreckage of the prison that stretched out around it.
“What kinda abomination is that...?” While the others around him looked up in fear, Soleil found himself more disgusted than anything. “I’d love to say I’d expect nothing less of a royal, but it takes enough money to put a small nation out of business to build a Diviner—and you had one in secret. I think we’d do well to start by taking a look at how you’ve embezzled funds from the kingdom’s treasury, don’t you agree?”