Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

"Indeed. That's absolutely true."

Lusa smiled.

"I just want to know more about you, the person who raised that kind of girl."

"..."

Sethine did not answer.

She just remained silent, turned around and looked forward - through the screen, what she could see was nothing more than poisonous clouds as thick as water. Those dark gray and almost black clouds almost filled the entire world. Surrounded by such a scenery, what she could feel was not only danger, but also uneasiness.

An uneasiness about the unknown.

For a moment, everything fell silent again. No one spoke, no one answered, only the mechanical sounds continued to creak. The low-level puppets were immersed in their work, and the only people they could talk to were the "Opera House" and the "Arbitrator".

Not only is it unknown, but you should also feel lonely.

This is something people have long been accustomed to.

"Well, let's make it clear first."

I can't see that cold face, but I can clearly hear that cold voice.

“You won’t get the answer you want.”

"……Ah."

Chuckling, Lusa realized that she had gotten the result she wanted.

The pitch-black warship cut through the sea of ​​clouds, going deeper and deeper, until it reached the other side of this unknown airspace.

……

"Ah!"

Lunicia sneezed suddenly and touched her nose with an incredible look on her face.

"Ms. Luna! ...Is everything alright?"

This mysterious behavior made Ella nervous for a moment, but she soon determined that there was nothing wrong with Lunicia - no coughing, no sneezing, no runny nose, only her cheeks were slightly red from the cold.

"I don't know. Could it be that someone is missing me?"

"Then you really have to be more careful—"

As she spoke, Ella moved closer as quickly as possible and put her hand on Lunesia's forehead.

"Hmm...it doesn't seem hot."

"Well, Ella."

"Hmm? What's wrong, Lady Luna?"

Lunicia couldn't help but sigh.

"You can't take your temperature when you're wearing gloves, right?"

"Ah, this seems to be the case."

Ella was stunned for a moment, and then she cast her eyes towards her palms - the gauntlets wrapped around her slender fingers were made of metal and leather. Through this gauntlet, she couldn't even feel the smoothness of Lunicea's skin, let alone the temperature on her forehead.

"Besides, this is very dangerous now-"

——It was dangerous.

This was what she was supposed to say, but the rest of the words turned into a meaningless howl as she uttered half of them. With a small accident of slipping, Lunicia's body fell backwards due to inertia. Her efforts to maintain balance led to the opposite result. When she tried to push Ella away, Ella had already grabbed her collar with one hand.

Of course, the weight of a full body armor is not a problem for trained professionals. However, if the parties involved are replaced by girls with slippery feet, the situation will be different.

Accompanied by a loud and noisy noise, the two people rolled down the hillside one after the other.

"Wow!"

"Well--"

Then with a loud "bang", they crashed into the tree trunk at the bottom of the hill.

Perhaps because of the heavy armor, the sound sounded particularly pleasant, almost like the ringing of a bell.

"Ahhhhhhh..."

"Are you okay, Lady Luna?!"

"No, well, it's okay..."

Lying on the snow, shaking off the snow that covered her body bit by bit, Lunicia's expression looked quite embarrassed, far less relaxed than her actions - the beautiful face pressed close to her, the light weight pressing on her armor, the tightly clasped chest, and the waves of warm breath blowing against her face, it always made her feel very embarrassed.

"That... is too close..."

“Huh? …Ah!”

It was not until then that Ella Hepper seemed to react from her trance. She quickly sat up from Lunicia, and then quickly backed away while sitting on the ground. This gave Lunicia a chance to sit up again and continue to clean the snow that was on her body.

"I'm so sorry, Lady Luna—"

"Okay, it's nothing—"

Before she finished speaking, she got stuck again in the middle of the conversation. Unlike before, there was no screaming sound from top to bottom. Now there was only an awkward silence that entangled Lunicia. She couldn't help but look away, lest she be embarrassed by Ella's red face again.

——What on earth am I doing…!

Accompanying shyness was helplessness. Lunicia had no idea why she was like this. She didn't know where this feeling came from, nor did she know what this feeling was called. She just felt very familiar and warm, and even her cheeks turned red.

Ella also didn't dare to look at Lunicia again. She just gently stroked her red and hot cheeks, sat down on the snow, and couldn't utter a word for a long time.

"Very lively."

With her hand on the tree trunk beside her, Ashlee was suspended in mid-air, making such a conclusion for the two people below her on the hillside.

After getting the pass from Roy von Ivanov, they took the carriage given by the Principality Army for free, crossed the vast wilderness on the edge of Twick, and then crossed the "Pantzen Sea of ​​Trees" where the border was located. Then, what blocked Lunisia and her group was the "Nemreth Hills" that they were trying to cross. As long as they passed through this hilly area and crossed the no-man's land between the border of Marie and Myuland, they could reach the city of Myuland on the top of the mountain.

"Ugh, what a mess."

Walking around the spot, Lunicia looked up and down with an embarrassed look on her face.

The new armor I bought in Nosawi seemed to have been worn for only a short time, but it has become like this now - the acid corrosion and burn marks around the breastplate, as well as those small cracks are still okay. Using the "repair technique" in Ella's spell book and adding a little polishing, it looks no different from the original. However, the ability of the "repair technique" is limited after all. For the completely damaged left half of the arm armor and the almost completely shattered and deformed waist and abdomen, the "repair technique" seems to be powerless. In other words, there is no way to restore it.

Maybe it's not impossible, but it's still a little difficult for Ella now.

"I'm so sorry, Lady Luna..."

"What's wrong? ...Now it can be used like this. I am a little embarrassed to let Ella do such chores."

Lunicia smiled indifferently and patted the parts she had repaired, making the armor rustle.

The parts that could not be repaired were patched up with borrowed armor and leather cloth, and it was airtight. As for the protective performance, that kind of thing was completely out of the question. Although it sounded a little imprudent, Lunisia felt that she would not encounter any outrageous enemies along the way, so this should be more than enough... probably.

"If we're talking about armor, Ashe might have some ideas."

"That means..."

"But it's meaningless for this broken armor that lacks protective properties, so Ashe decided not to propose this plan for now."

"Then why didn't you say it before?"

"Generally speaking, the service life of heavy armor will not be less than one patrol."

“Uh, ahahaha…”

Now Lunicia had nothing to complain about. After all, it was impossible for an ordinary person to turn an expensive new set of armor into half a piece of scrap metal in just six days. A considerable part of the responsibility should be borne by Lunicia herself.

No expression could be read on Ashatherine's face, except for the occasional hint of emotion. Most of the time, it was a face similar to Lunicia's but more moving and expressionless. However, Lunicia always felt that she could understand her emotions that seemed to not exist and had never been revealed. For example, she should be feeling "helpless" now.

"Ah, well, what time is it now?"

After coughing twice, Lunicia decided to change the subject decisively.

"time……"

Ashlee was stunned for a moment, and then did not give an answer.

"Hey, doesn't Ash know?"

"The only thing the construct named Ashetherin can judge about 'time' is 'how long has passed since the last time point to the current time point'. If you need to know the current time -"

"Do we need to come up with a specific time point? That's too much trouble."

"It should be around 4pm now, Lady Luna."

Even though it looked like she was doing nothing, Ella Hepper immediately told the approximate time, which surprised Lunicia.

"Use the change in brightness to determine noon, and then use noon as a node to determine the time that has passed... Also, the biological clock trained in the body, and so on..."

“That’s really amazing.”

As if she couldn't bear Lunicia's gaze, Ella lowered her head slightly, trying to hide her blushing face again. It wasn't a compliment, just an ordinary sigh, but even so, it made her feel happy and her heartbeat accelerated.

"Since it's already this time——"

Then, the next step is to set up camp.

————————————————————

Well, as you can see, I have started updating again!

And horsegirl is really fun.

Chapter 2: Over the Mountains and Sea of ​​Trees (Part 2)

The sky like this is undoubtedly a very new existence for Lunicia.

Whether it is the sky in the Central Cathedral or the sky canopy in the south of the continent, they may be different in form, but they can ultimately make people feel the alternation of the sun and the moon. The glorious sun slowly descends, and then the moon takes over, coating the purely dark earth with a layer of silver light. This scene is commonplace and beautiful to Lunicia, but it does not make Lunicia sigh.

The "sun" and "moon" as symbols of mysticism, and the "yang" surrounded by planets and the "yin" surrounding the planets, are related but not exactly the same. Young Lunicia just looked at them, watched their brilliance, watched them pass across the sky, stretched out her fingers to count the stars scattered at the zenith, and counted the fragments surrounding the moon.

What symbolic meanings do blood moon and eclipse have? Lunicia was not clear about this matter, nor did she want to find out. The sky covering the southern part of the continent was strange, but neither the moon that seemed to be dripping blood nor the sun that looked like a huge black hole could shock Lunicia. Only the starless, vast and deep black sky made her feel cold all over, and she wanted to retreat.

And what about the sky now?

Unlike either, hanging high above everyone's heads was no sun, no moon, no stars, only clouds that looked so thick that they were almost solid, gray and monotonous.

Throughout her tours, Lunitia never saw any changes in that patch of sky.

The twinkling of stars? The alternation of sun and moon? The rolling of sea of ​​clouds? The change of cloudy and sunny days?

They are all non-existent things. This sky seems like time that has stagnated and solidified. It exists here, unchanging since time immemorial, but it only exists here, nothing more.

The suffocating gray seemed to not even flow, hanging there as the dividing line between heaven and earth. Lunicia did not know when and why the gray cloud appeared. All she knew was that the sky she was familiar with did not exist in this world. Even if she stretched out her hands, she could not catch the stars. Even if she shouted with all her might, her voice could not reach the silver moon hanging high in the sky. This was a blocked land, using clouds and gray things to create a wall that would neither dissipate nor be climbed over.

"Ashe——"

Lunicia was building a simple fire pit with stones. As if to relieve the boredom that was unique to her job, she tried to call the name of the mechanical girl.

"Is there a problem?"

The formulaic answers and the cold and lackluster voice all came from the girl whose entire body had almost turned into a machine. As if to facilitate her movements, she had taken off her transparent robe and put it aside. Now she was splitting the wood blocks one by one with her fingers, helping Lunicia prepare for the night.

"Hey, Ashe, do you know when the sky became like this?"

Clear the snow on the ground, make a circle with stones, and then lay another layer on the ground. Then put the dry firewood, dead grass, twigs and other fuels you have picked up together and carefully pile them into a small hill. This way, you have made the most basic preparations.

"I searched, but found no relevant data. From the existing fault data, we know that although we cannot determine when these pollutants began to appear, they should have completely covered the sky around the end of the fifth calendar."

“That’s really far away.”

If you listen carefully, not only do they look similar, but even their voices are somewhat similar. If Lunicia and Ashlee stand together, there will undoubtedly be people who think they are sisters.

Lunicia is the older sister and Ashethelyn is the younger sister.

Of course, sometimes it’s the other way around.

For example, when Ashlee stood in front of Lunicia for the first time in the ruins illuminated by the blood moon, she looked so reliable that no one would object even if people said she was her elder sister.

A wonderful and subtle relationship, like a round dance holding hands.

"The fifth calendar, um... that was more than 600 years ago."

While sighing, he put aside the wood handed to him by Ashatherin and piled up small pyramids one after another on the flat ground that had been cleared of snow: the firewood needed to make dinner was already in the fire pit, and the rest was preparation for getting through the long night.

Originally, for people like Lunicia and Ella, after a long period of recuperation in the "Adventurer Course", their physiques were already able to easily withstand the general degree of cold, that is, about minus ten degrees. The high temperature of about 40 degrees and the low temperature of about minus ten degrees were the temperatures they could withstand with just armor. However, the Nemreth Hills are now shrouded in a cold wave, and the night temperature has dropped below minus twenty degrees. If you don't make a fire to keep warm, even adventurers will find it difficult to survive the long winter nights relying on armor that has outstanding defense but is not cold-resistant.

It was not enough to just put on a cloak to keep warm. Even with a hood on, the cold wind that seeped in through the gaps would cause slight pain in the ears and cheeks. Circulating magic and sacred energy, or expanding the vitality that filled the flesh and blood, could also reduce the cold, but it would ultimately make people more tired.

The environment is an enemy as formidable as monsters, and everyone should keep this teaching in mind.

After preparing the campfire, the next thing to do is to build a small isolation zone around the small campsite.