Chapter 19 - Twins of Water & Ice
Shaw then explained his plan in detail, accompanied by a lot of body and hand movements.
「Uhm, so the details right? ….we use the ship and smoothly…」
Shaw stretched his right arm diagonally and placed his left fist on it and showed a slipping movement. At that, Marisa’s glare seemed to get even more intense and her indignation got far stronger.
「Do you seriously think that a ship can properly slide down the ragged mountain side? The friction alone would stop it from moving properly right. Are you an idiot?」
「That’s rude! Even I understand that much. However, in this case, if we have the other Demon Lords help out, it feels like we’d be able to get it done somehow. I have given it a decent amount of thought」
Suddenly, Shaw turned his gaze towards the battlefield, making Marisa do the same.
「There are two small girls over there right? Those two girls who look a lot like each other, they’re most probably twins」
「....those children…」
Marisa suddenly seemed to enter into a rather heavy silence.
「Why are such children over here…」
「They were there from the start. However, either they’re mischievous kids or they just quietly hid themselves but even during the time we were making the gravestones, they really didn’t stand out much」
At the point where Shaw was pointing, there were two small girls with long bluish silver hair. They were small girls who were far younger than even Lilium.
The very fact that they were in the battlefield made for such a surreal spectacle that it made people think, 「That’s a joke right?」. Even then, those two were make full use of their techniques and were able to handle Mūzeg quite well.
The techniques that those girls were using, seemed to incline towards the ‘Water’ and ‘Ice’ systems which is what Shaw had his eyes on.
「Let’s get them to make the ‘path’ for the ship. With water and ice」 「...I see」
Using water and ice successively would definitely be able to achieve creating a route with low friction. Marisa also seemed to be satisfied with that approach and to her, those two girl’s techniques looked outstanding.
「Well then, I’ll go get them right now」
「Ah, there’s no need for that. From a little while back, that, 〈Fist Emperor〉 was it? He’s been rather bothered by them and seems to be a rather meddlesome person. I think it’s about time that he picked them up and dropped them off over here」
Shaw’s expectations became reality without a moment’s delay. On the battlefield, the 〈Fist Emperor〉 seemed to be having a talk with the two girls but suddenly he seemed to reach the end of his patience and he quickly picked them up under both his arms and ran over to Marisa and Shaw.
The 〈Fist Emperor〉 ran over to Shaw, and while his breathing was rather rough, he dumped the two girls onto him.
「You! Don’t you dare let these two get near the battlefield! They looked so precarious that I couldn’t stand watching!」 「We can also fight!」 「Also fight!」 「Shut up! We’re not in that dangerous a situation to need such little girls to fight with us!」 「We’re not little girls!」 「We’re young girls!」
They definitely seemed to be twins. Their faces were like two peas in a pod and even their voices that overlapped each other sounded alike. The 〈Fist Emperor〉 looked at the two with a troubled face and then he placed his hands on their heads and said,
「Got it! I got it! But for now, just stay here! I’ll buy you guys candy later! Okay?!」
「Does he really think such cajolery would work in this day and age…」 so thought Shaw with an amazed expression but,
「Got it!」 「Got it!」
It worked. The two girls immediately stood straight and acted very well behaved while giggling.
「Oi, 〈Alchemy King〉!」
「I’m not really fond of that title so could you please call me a money-grubber instead?」
「Asking to be called that by yourself, you really do have guts huh.... Well whatever, understood. Oi, money-grubber!」
「Yes, what is it?」
「Are the preparations to run away done yet? Thanks to that 〈Merea〉 and the 〈Sword Emperor〉 it looks like the battle will finish rather quickly, though, as expected, if we go any further down Mūzeg’s main force seems to be there. Facing that would definitely be touch」
「We just came up with a plan for that」
「Got it. Well then, I’ll get back then. We’ll bring the rest of it to a close so get ready as quickly as possible please」
「Yes, yes」
The 〈Fist Emperor〉 ran back to the battlefield at full speed. The ones left behind were, Shaw and the twins. As well as Marisa and Aiz, who was dumbfounded at the dizzying speed that the situation was developing.
Shaw immediately turned to the twins and called out to them.
「The two of you, are you good at water techniques and ice techniques?」
「Yeah!」 「That’s cause we’re the children of the 〈Water King〉 and 〈Ice King〉!」
「...I see」
‘No wonder’, groaned show.
「We want to slide down the mountain side on an extremely pretty ship but since the ground is so coarse that it’s really hard to slide down. That’s why, could you use your water and ice to make it easier to slide down?」
「Sure!」 「Got it!」
「In that case, i’ll go ahead and make that ship. It’s going to be really~ pretty, so make sure you properly appreciate that brilliance. ...After all is said and done, it’s the brilliance of money after all!」
The moment they complied, Shaw immediately moved onto taking action.
「Just in case, taking what may happen once we get down, maybe I should hold onto a few pieces of pure gold coins」
Saying that, Shaw took out a bunch of gold coins from his pocket and spread them out on the ground, near his feet.
In addition, using his finger he drew many patterns onto the ground.
「The ratio of earth should be fine with this…., as expected, if I have to make this big a ship with just the gold coins I have on hand then I’ll have to be a little unreasonable in it’s usage huh…」
Shaw took some time to depict his technique. However, even then, he worked as quickly as possible.
「Alright, this should do it」
Having finally completed the technique, he did some final checks.
「Now then, time to show the power of money」
After finishing everything, Shaw invoked the technique. He placed his right hand in the center of the pattern and as soon as he did that, the patterns on the ground shone and with a rumbling sound, the ground started swelling up and 「Something」 started coming out.
The gold coins that were glittering inside the pattern started melting, turned muddy and finally soaked into the ground.
The ground that was swelling up seemed to have it’s composition change when the gold soaked into it. While it was forming, the ship that was created barely had the shape of one.
「It’s slightly poor quality huh. Honestly, being short of solid gold really is inconvenient when it comes to alchemy」
It did have some decorations that could be seen on the ship but it basically had the shape of a semi-circular pillar with a hollowed out inside, making it look like an extremely shoddy job.
「...a ship?」 「...a ship?」
The twins tilted their heads to the side at the same time.
「It’s a little hard to call this a ship… No matter how close to perfection I am as a maid, I’m unable to offer any follow-up」
「You’re annoying. Isn’t this fine? If we’re talking about ships then this is a ship too. With the power of money, that’s what it will be!」
「It looks like a Kamaboko!」 「Kamaboko!」
The shell of that ship looked like it was made out of solid gold and, the molding aside, it definitely gave off a high-class feeling. The shell itself seemed to be rather thick and so the strength of it didn’t seem like it’d be an issue.
「Heave-ho」
Shaw took the initiative and climbed onto the ship. There were many things that looked like windows and seemed to be for people to slide in through them.
「Come on, get on」 「From, where…?」 「Where?」 「Don’t know where the entrance to the Kamaboko is」
Aiz and the twins tilted their heads at the same time.
「Anywhere is fine right? There are many window-like places aren’t there」
「Please never become a shipwright. It will not do anyone any good, ever.」
While saying that, Marisa picked up the twins and Aiz and tossed them through the window, into the ship, with surprising agility.
「Ah, Marisa-san, please push the ship down the slope. It seems like the twins will take over after that, however, if we don’t get onto the slope then there’s really nothing further we can do」
「You want me to push this block of gold, by myself?」
「Is it impossible?」
「It’s too easy」
Saying, 「I can do it」 would still be fine but, 「Easy」 was not something Shaw expected to hear. While he was being surprised, Marisa circled around behind the ship and then,
「Woah」 「Uwaa」 「Hyaa」
In the next moment, a loud sound resounded and a jolt that penetrated deep into their bones went through their entire body. In the next instant, a grating sound resounded and the golden ship slowly entered the slope with its bottom scraping on the ground.
At that time, a second impact could be felt on the ship and the ship finally started moving down the slope.
Due to the friction from the gravel, it had a hard time moving but it was definitely able to somehow climb down the slope. Having confirmed this, Shaw immediately called out to the twins.
「Well then, please」 「Okay~!」 「I’ll work hard for the candy!」
The twins cheerfully replied and immediately hung out of the window and,
「Water!」 「Ice!」
Placed their hands on the ground.
Shaw struck his head out of a window and confirmed what the twins were doing.
「...Hou」
The ground that the two had placed their hands on had a large quantity of water pouring out of it and at the same time, it was freezing over.
---They’re fast.
The 〈Water King〉 seems to be using her technique to bring forth the water and the 〈Ice King〉 seems to be freezing that over.
The time it took between the creation of the water and the freezing was hardly a moment, they definitely have an amazing cooperation.
The golden ship, which until that time could only move very slightly because of the friction from the gravel, suddenly accelerated when it got onto the 「Waterway」.
「Do you think we can make it all the way to the base of the mountain this way?」 「With 10 pieces of candy, sure!」 「I’ll work hard!」 「Understood, I’ll splurge on it」
The twins had a light expression. They seemed to be having fun.
At the sight of that, Shaw felt a little relieved. Though he felt relieved, but on the other hand, he also felt rather pathetic as an adult to have to rely on such small children.
However, this was not the kind of situation where he could be bothered by such things.
「...Right now, we have to concentrate on running away, no matter what」
Marisa, who had used her brute strength to push the hull, jumped back into the ship.
「Aiz-sama, are you hurt anywhere? Did you have to smell the money-grubber’s disgusting smell?」
Marisa immediately walked over to Aiz and asked her.
「Ah, uh, yeah, I’m, fine?」 「As expected, I’m used to this now...」
Aiz had a troubled expression, while Shaw pretended to be calm. While that was happening, the golden ship steadily accelerated and would soon aapproach the battlefield below them.
「Could you two please lower the speed of the ship when we near the battlefield?」
Shaw considered the situation and then gave directions to the twins.
「Candy!」 「20 pieces!」
「You increased it in one go!? Don’t tell me, it’s going to be double from now on?! That’s a horrible deal!」
Yelled Shaw at the reply from the twins but all he could do was nod while heaving a sigh.