A small part of Midgar's architectural technology surpassed that of Earth's. It was all thanks to the fact that, unlike the people of Earth, the people of Midgar possessed a fantastic power by the name of alchemy, which allowed them to build things that would normally be impossible. Take my ridiculously big grave pyramid with over 1000 floors for example; it was thanks to alchemy that the thing was possible to build. If people had tried to build it on Earth with their current level of technology, it would be impossible.
Still, there was a limit to everything. Even alchemy wasn't omnipotent; there should be an upper limit to what it could do. However, sometimes geniuses were born who could cause disaster, and people like that always ignored the path laid out by common sense in order to forge their own way, going places that no one could foresee.
So, what I meant was… That the woman named Jenny Pollendina was one of those people and… I have only now realized just how far off course she'd been.
We'd been traveling for a few days in Honda. The place we arrived at was a huge—no, incredibly huge-castle-like structure. It towered up into the sky, and it was over 1 km long.
Wait, is this thing a castle? Really?
There's ports for cannons here and there; it's more like a battleship.
While I stared at it in wonder, Haruka called out to me. "There it is. That's our next destination, the 'Mobile Capital Blutgang.'"
"…Mobile… Capital?"
"Yes. The Blacksmith Princess Jenny Pollendina's last and greatest creation was Blutgang itself—300m tall, 1100m long, and 400m wide. It's a golem made completely out of Orichalcum, and it's level 770. To date, it has repelled all attacks from the grimmfolk. Inside, it is split into 15 floors with sections for residential and industrial areas, or so I've heard."
So the entire capital is a weapon? What the hell? That's frightening.
Just who would expect to see an entire city that was supposed to be their target get up and attack them? On top of that, it's level 770, which meant that she used paid items to boost its power.
Hey, who was it that said that Blutgang was a weak country? It's ridiculously strong! The capital, that is.
…Whoops. It was me.
Hey, actually, Jenny, why are you the only one with a different sense of reality? This golem looks way more appropriate for a mecha anime with war in space and stuff like that. Why the hell did you make a gigantic battleship in a fantasy setting…? Think of people's immersion!
"So she made the capital itself a golem… Levia, Svel's guardian deity, surprised us, but this surpasses even that. We suppose it should be expected of the Blacksmith Princess, though."
"Yawn… W-wow, it's huge."
Beside me, Wendy was awestruck. Her pure-white wings fluttered restlessly, and I could tell just how excited she was. Fiona and Tayuya were unmoved, so they'd probably already known about it. And Penny seemed overly proud.
Ah, oh right. Jenny's kind of like Penny's mother, isn't she?
"Well, it's a golem, as you can see. So it's basically proof against physical attacks."
"Makes sense. It would probably be tough for Fiona or Penny to take down."
"Apparently it transforms into a humanoid shape in emergencies and can punch enemies out."
"Anything goes, huh?"
"Yes. So against Anko, it's…"
"The worst matchup."
Blutgang itself was a golem, so poison wouldn't work against it. In that sense, it had an advantage over Anko. But there were still citizens inside. It didn't matter how strong Blutgang itself was. If the people inside all died, then it would still be a loss for them. In fact, since there was no place to escape within the enclosed space of the golem, it would be easier to fill the inside with poison.
It seemed I'd made the right choice to hurry here.
"Master Naru, what will you do about your appearance?"
"Dwarves shouldn't be that long-lived, correct? So it should be all right as long as We hide our wings. Let's go with the outfit We got from Juvia this time."
I selected the outfit that Juvia had gifted me in response to Penny's question. My only two choices when appearing in public were either to go full suspicious-person-mode and cover myself with my cloak or to wear the bandages I'd gotten from Juvia. The first choice did make it nearly impossible to see my wings, but in exchange, I clearly looked very suspicious. The latter didn't make me look as suspicious, but my face was still visible to anyone who could recognize me.
Both had their advantages and disadvantages, so I needed to carefully choose which I would use. But if no one would recognize me anyway, then it was better to avoid looking so suspicious. People who sneak around actually seem more suspicious, so being bold and acting like I belong is the right choice.
"Ah, Big Sis. We can just keep going in Honda. Blutgang has a loading dock for golems."
"Oh? How convenient."
I decided to do as Haruka suggested, so we approached without getting off Honda first. As we got closer, a walking armor came out from the castle accompanied by clanking noises. It was probably a security golem employed by Blutgang.
It looks to be around level 50 at first glance. This one isn't Jenny's, is it?
"S T O P. P L E A S E S H O W Y O U R P A S S P O R T A N D S T A T E Y O U R R E A S O N F O R T R A V E L."
"I am Haruka, a free merchant. We came to do business. Here are our passports."
Haruka held up our passports to the golem's eye part. When she did so, the golem's eye shined blue and beeped.
Is it scanning the passport?
"P A S S P O R T: C O N F I R M E D. N E X T, I W I L L I N S P E C T T H E I N S I D E O F Y O U R G O L E M."
Haruka got out of Honda and beckoned to us.
I guess we'll have to wait outside until they're done with their inspection.
Since I had no reason to object, we all obediently stepped outside and joined Haruka.
"They're going to inspect the inside of the golem to make sure we aren't bringing in anything dangerous. Blutgang is famous for its solid defenses, and the thing it's most careful of are the grimmfolk and other similar enemies sneaking inside. Also, people who disguise themselves like Mercury did generally get stopped here."
"We see. But if that's the case, won't Penny be noticed?"
Penny looked like a maid, but inside, she was basically a walking weapons warehouse. Even leaving aside her machine guns, all the other weapons Penny stored within her should easily strike her out. She was basically a mobile safety hazard. There's no way they'll let her in.
Or so I thought, but the security golems didn't say anything about Penny at all.
"Please be at ease, Master. I am of much better quality than them. No defective golem that can only scan the surface of something will be able to detect my weapons."
"O-oh."
Yep. A mobile safety hazard. The fact that she wouldn't get caught in checks like this made her even scarier.
Penny wasn't the only one who might get detected, either. Tayuya was hiding in my shadow, so there was no worry about her. The problem was Fiona. But the security golems didn't say anything about Fiona, either, and eventually, we were given permission to pass. While it felt mysterious to me, I noticed that Haruka was looking smug.
"You hid her status?"
"Exactly!"
Apparently Haruka used her cheat abilities to trick the golems. She really is insanely reliable in times like this.
We got back into Honda and passed through the gate, with the golems seeing us off. After we passed through the gates that were surrounded by steel, we were signaled to by a dwarf who was probably something like a guide.
"Hold on there. You're going to have to leave your golem with us. It's forbidden to travel by golem inside the capital."
"Understood. We're going to be walking from here, everyone."
After leaving Honda to the dwarf, we stood in front of a giant door that probably led to the actual capital. The dwarf activated a switch next to the door, and it opened ponderously with all the noise one would expect. The giant door split into a left and right side as it opened, exposing the innards of Blutgang to us.
The inside did, in fact, look like a regular city. The ceiling was painted to look like a real sky, complete with artificial light. The total size of the city wasn't large, with only around 1100 x 400m to work with, but there were many buildings packed tightly together, making full use of the space available. There were large roads, parks, and places that seemed like stores as well.
The ceiling was quite high. From what I could tell, it stood about 15m up, so the space didn't feel very cramped or enclosed. In fact, I could see apartment buildings, condos, and other housing complexes. This place certainly didn't feel like it was inside a golem.
I couldn't restrain my curiosity; I looked around everywhere. In a rare turn of events, it was Penny and not Haruka who started explaining things after seeing how I was acting.
"Among Blutgang's fifteen total floors, the first eight are designated as residential areas. Each floor's city is named simply, following the convention of First Floor Town, Second Floor Town, and so on. The ninth and tenth floors are the commercial floors, containing many different shops. The eleventh to thirteenth floors are the office area. All of Blutgang's various companies are concentrated there, which are mostly workshops and warehouses. The fourteenth floor is for the royal family. Only they and the people they specifically give permission to are allowed to enter that floor. And the fifteenth floor is Blutgang's brain, its control center. Only a select few are allowed onto that floor as well. The high-level golems that Mother made herself are also stored there."
"You're awfully knowledgeable."
"Blutgang is kind of like my little brother."
That's a huge little brother you've got there, Penny.
I stopped myself from saying that out loud as I took a peek at the usually inexpressive Penny's face from the side. Even though their sizes were completely different, both Penny and Blutgang had been made by Jenny. She probably felt some attachment because of that.
"So, Jaune is somewhere in here… Correct?"
"Yes. For sure." For some reason, Haruka went as far as to add "for sure" to her reply. Haruka was probably bothered by the fact that last time, she'd said that Kushina was alive and well only for us to find out that she was actually dead.
Personally, I actually feel closer to Haruka knowing that she's not infallible, but I guess there's no real need for me to tell her that.
"Hm… Then why not grab a meal for now? Luckily, there seem to be several eateries in the residential area as well."
"Apparently they were actually placed in the commercial area, but complaints were raised about how annoying it was to travel that far to eat. So now, the restaurants and some general stores have moved to the residential areas."
While listening to Penny's explanation, I continued walking through the city. Compared to the other cities I'd seen so far, this one seemed much more modern. Of course, it still felt old and outdated compared to modern Earth, but it certainly didn't feel like a city from the Middle Ages.
Let's see… Maybe the Early Modern Era? I suppose the closest analogy would be… London in the 18th or 19th century.
Of course, this wasn't actually the case. This was simply the closest comparison I could make using the knowledge I had on hand.
Unlike London, there weren't bridges crisscrossing the landscape or anything like that. In the first place, Blutgang wasn't big enough nor did it have the lakes or even ponds that would necessitate bridges, although there were small ones for pedestrian traffic. There was also a limit to the height of buildings due to the ceiling, so everything ended up a little shorter as well. That was all right, though.
At any rate, I wanted something to eat. It wasn't as if I hadn't had anything to eat today, but since we were traveling, pretty much all the food we had were things that could be preserved for a long time. Honda did have a mock refrigerator, but it wasn't nearly as effective as the real deal. I didn't really know how a refrigerator worked in the first place. I'd just made a hermetically sealed box and thrown ice that Haruka had made inside. So it was less a refrigerator and more a cooler. It was better than nothing, but it still wasn't quite right. It just didn't feel proper. Given that, it was always better to enjoy food as much as you could while you were in a town or village. Having good food helps alleviate stress. That's just obvious.
"Ah, Miss Naru. Doesn't this place look nice?"
"Hm… We would prefer that one across the street with the crab sign, though."
Wendy pointed to a stylish-looking restaurant built out of wood, which was rare for this place. There were pots lined up in front of the store, giving it a nice accent. But I was more interested in the place that advertised seafood even though we were inside a golem.
Still though, Wendy's actually asserting herself. She just joined us, so I guess I should fold here. We can just try the crab place next time.
"However, this restaurant does certainly have a good sense of style. Let's eat here."
"Yay!"
Wendy was like Fiona in that they shared some childlike aspects, but unlike Fiona, she had a much brighter personality. She was energetic, and it was heartwarming to see. Actually, Fiona is a little too introverted. It'd be great if she rubbed off on her.
With that thought, I opened the door to the restaurant and stepped inside.
Now, then. What kind of food do they serve?