"Huh?"

Jin looked at the screen Erza was pointing at,

He could see a concentration of free magical elements (ether) at a place slightly off the South Pole.

"What is it?　Here."

<> in combination.

"Oh, that's a good idea."

A little later, the magic screen becomes brighter.

A block of ice is projected on the screen. It is probably sea ice in the Antarctic Ocean.

<

"That's huge. Is there a concentration of free magical element (ether) here at ......?"

The image changes.

"Oh!

"What is this?"

Jin and Erza exclaimed in surprise.

The interior of the ice was a man-made structure.

"Is this ......?"

<

is a huge man-made floating island. Because it is an island, unlike a ship, it cannot navigate on its own.

However, this huge structure looks as if it could navigate on its own.

It is circular in shape with a diameter of approximately 2 kilometers. It is about 100 meters thick.

"Anyway, is the free magical element (ether) concentrated in this thing? ......"

"Yes."

It is because it looks incomplete from the outside. That means it is still under construction.

In order to do it secretly, they are building it under the ice in Antarctica where there is almost no free ether.

For this purpose, they have consumed more than half of the free magical element (ether) of Ars.

"What in the world for?"

<

<

<

"If it's under construction, there must be someone building it. ...... you don't think so?"

<

On the screen, a small, shuffling thing appeared.

"What is this ......?"

A caterpillar-like thing with 10 legs. a ball with 3 legs. A cube with wheels instead of legs.

A golem, which looks nothing like a human being, is at work.

"Hmmm ......"

I understand that function comes first, but it's a little creepy not to see any humanoid form.

"Is it a golem controlling them?　Is it a magic brain?

.

The old man answered.

"Is it in the <>?"

<

"Yes."

The icy Antarctic Ocean. The area has almost no free magic element (ether).

It is reasonable to assume that the controlling magical brain is inside where the free magical element (ether) would have been transferred.

"Yeah. ...... what?"

The old man immediately found a magic brain that looked like it and projected it on the screen.

But when Jin looked at it, he could not hide his discomfort.

"What is this?"

The had a strange shape.

The body, or should I say the main body, was roughly spherical in shape. It was supported by a sturdy-looking structure.

However, Jin had the impression that there were some foreign objects attached to it.

"It looks like a pimple. ......"

There are five hemispherical bumps attached to the surface of the sphere.

The irregularity of the spots makes them seem even more foreign.

"If they're attached to each other regularly, it seems to me they're appendages. ......"

The color, or rather the appearance, is also very different.

The original spheres are a subdued silver-gray, but the attached hemispheres are black.

"I wouldn't say it's a bad combination, but ......"

The surface condition of the spheres may be the most disconcerting factor rather than the color.

The surface of the silver-gray sphere is smooth and not uneven, but the black hemisphere to which it is attached has several smaller hemispheres protruding from it, making it grotesque, depending on one's point of view.

The old man also described the black hemispheres as such.

"But it's not so clear that we don't know the purpose of the device," Jin thinks.

Jin thinks.

"I guess we should ask about it. ......"

"Yes, what is it?　Is something wrong?"

What?

What?

Time goes back to the day before.

The fifth column (Quinta) in charge of Alban, the capital of the Kingdom of Klein, Regulus 2, a.k.a. Leiber.

He found a suspicious person.

For several days now, he has been relentlessly asking vagrants in bars and back alleys, and sometimes even suspected criminals, about the .

(If you are an intelligence agent, you should have done better.)

(If he is an intelligence agent, he should have done better.) The behavior of the person was so blatant that Leiber thought, "Why is he doing this?

(If he was an intelligence officer, he could have done better.) He did not ask around openly, but it was easy to spot him.

He reported this to the old man and was trying to find out who this person was, but he had no clue.

We called in Spica7 a.k.a. Bago, who was also in charge of Alban, and Deneb2 a.k.a. Fawumi, who was in charge of Charles Town, to assist us.

In the evening, when Fawumi arrived in Charles Town, the three began to take action.

"......That's him."

The target was soon found.

They had heard rumors about while buying drinks at a local tavern.

"How do I lure him out?"

Bago asks.

"The old man tells me that if he's related to , he's a complete amateur at roughing it. Let's start by baiting him."

How?

"Well, we just have to let him know we have information he wants, and he'll come to us."

Ryber smiled wryly.