Chapter 17

Charlo led her out of the city gates, heading southwest.

Along the way, the lush green wheat fields grew sparser, eventually giving way to a vast expanse of uncultivated, scrubby land. However, rising from this barren earth was a massive complex of interconnected buildings that dominated the horizon.

As they approached, Clyris noted the sheer scale of the structures. They were tall, cavernous, and built of red brick and steel girders—linked together in a geometric web she had never seen before. They looked less like buildings and more like temples dedicated to a god of iron.

Passing through the security gate, the area suddenly became populated. Hundreds of workers appeared as if out of nowhere, bustling with organized chaos. Sparks flew from welding torches, and the air smelled of coal dust and ozone.

Clyris followed Charlo as they dismounted, weaving through the crowd to the center of the yard.

"My Lord, you have finally arrived!" A middle-aged man with grease smudged on his cheek saw Charlo and rushed over with a joyous expression.

"Mr. Speer, I hope I'm not late?" Charlo shook his hand warmly, ignoring the grime, then introduced his companion. "This is Miss Clyris, the Chief Consultant of the Magic Research Department. Clyris, this is Mr. Speer, the Minister of Industry."

Chief Consultant of Magic Research.

That was the title Charlo had given her. To the outside world, she was a High-Rank Mage hired at an exorbitant price. In reality, he was paying her a measly three Morris Silver Coins a month—a wage fit for a maid, not a Demon Lord.

"Miss Clyris, welcome, welcome!"

Clyris nodded, offering a silent, cool acknowledgment.

The man led them up onto a raised stone platform. Clyris noted that the platform was unusually long, perfectly flat, and ran parallel to the ground for hundreds of meters.

Standing on the platform, she finally saw it.

Resting quietly on two parallel lines of polished steel was a colossal metal beast. It was painted a matte black, with brass fittings gleaming in the sun. Behind the main machine, a series of large iron boxes were linked together, forming a long, segmented body.

It looked like a sleeping serpent made of steel.

"The Mana-Motive Train. A giant unlike anything the world has ever seen!" Mr. Speer introduced the machine with swelling pride, his voice trembling slightly. "Based on your blueprints, My Lord, we successfully adapted the Mana Engine and created the Mana-Motive Drive!"

"Hahaha! Start it up! I can't wait to see it breathe!" Charlo rubbed his hands together, looking less like a Lord and more like a child on his birthday.

"Haha! Indeed, words pale in comparison to the sight!" Speer turned and shouted to the crew in the cab. "Lads! Wake her up!"

A moment later, a massive surge of mana fluctuated from within the machine's core. Wisps of blue-tinted steam puffed rhythmically from a funnel at the front.

Hiss... Thump. Hiss... Thump.

"WOOOOO—!!!"

With a long, resonant whistle that shook the air and vibrated in Clyris’s chest, the steel rods connected to the massive driving wheels began to turn.

Clank-chug. Clank-chug.

Then, as if a giant beast were awakening from a slumber, the "Iron Serpent" began to move.

One by one, the large iron boxes glided past Clyris. The speed increased steadily. The rhythmic clattering of steel on steel accelerated into a continuous roar. The wind generated by its passage whipped her long hair across her face and billowed her robes.

By the time the final carriage passed, it was a blur that vanished down the tracks in the blink of an eye.

"What... is this?"

She stared in shock as the steel serpent disappeared into the distance, leaving only a trail of blue steam. Was it a weapon? No, it didn't look like one. But what was it for? How was it made?

"The Dawn Type-I Mana-Motive Train," Speer recited the specifications from memory. "Track gauge of 1000 mm, Locomotive weight of 35 tons and a Top speed unloaded reaches 120 km/h With a Cargo capacity of 2000 tons"

"Haha! Finally... the curtain can officially be raised!" Charlo laughed heartily, watching the dust settle. "Thanks to you and your team, Speer. Thank you for your hard work!"

"Um... there is a question I have been wanting to ask," Clyris couldn't help but interject, her brow furrowed. "What are millimeters... and tons? What do these words mean?"

"Oh? Those..." Charlo explained, turning to her. "Those are new standard units of measurement I established."

"The standards for weight and length on this continent are too chaotic. Every empire uses different measurements; a 'foot' in Morris is different from a 'foot' in Thebes. So, I decided to abandon them all and establish a brand-new, universal system!"

"This..."

Clyris opened her mouth to speak, but the words died in her throat. She looked at his calm gaze, at the people around him working in unison, and thought of the miraculous things he had built using these strange, precise standards.

"What exactly is inside your head?" Clyris sighed, looking at him with genuine curiosity.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Charlo smiled, tapping his temple. "But would you believe me if I said my brain contains knowledge from another world?"

"I believe you," she answered calmly.

"Huh?" Charlo froze, his smile dropping.

"To produce so much knowledge that does not exist in this world, to build things unheard of... either you are a god, or you have obtained wisdom from another plane," Clyris reasoned logically. "Considering you are not the Hero, you are not a summoned Otherworlder. That leaves only one possibility: Inherited Memory."

"Ah... haha, true enough." Charlo laughed awkwardly. "I almost forgot that this world has summoned thirty-one Otherworlders already. I just didn't expect you to accept it so quickly. When I told Speer, Davis, and Freya, none of them believed me until I slapped the blueprints on the table... Haha!"

"To obtain power from outside the world in order to save the world... that is the story Rodinia has repeated for thirty thousand years," Clyris said with a bitter sigh.

Usually, the people of Rodinia solved their own problems. But when it came to matters of survival or extinction, they always relied on Heroes summoned from other worlds.

The Primordial Hero broke the Demon advance.

The Golden Hero annihilated the Demon reserves.

The Glorious Hero severed the Demon source.

The other Heroes were merely adding bricks to the wall. The natives of Rodinia were often just background characters in their own history.

It was to change this fate that her former self had believed... believed that clumsy lie and rushed headlong into the wall of Despair... only to lose everything.

"Well, in my case, it's the exact opposite!" Charlo said with a grin, interrupting her dark thoughts. "My path is—to obtain power from outside the world to deny the world!"

To obtain power from outside the world... to deny the world?

Clyris looked at him, savoring the weight of that sentence. It tasted like rebellion.

Night. The Guest House.

Moonlight streamed through the clear glass window of the house Charlo had assigned to Clyris. It split the room in two—one half bathed in cold silver light, the other shrouded in shadow.

She sat on the edge of the bed, head bowed, assessing the injuries within her body.

The damage inflicted by the Four Saints had only alleviated slightly. It would take a long time to fully recover her Ninth-Rank strength.

Only in this weakened state did she truly feel the inconvenience of this female body.

Her stamina was terrible. Compared to her former life as a male knight, the physical endurance of this body—even at the same rank—felt fragile.

And...

Clyris lay back, trying to relax her tense shoulders. She looked down at her chest. Even lying flat, those two mounds of flesh piled up high, obstructing her view. They felt heavy, alien.

"Why do they have to be so big..."

She muttered a complaint, pulling the blanket up to hide them. She turned onto her side, her gaze falling upon the nightstand.

There sat a cast-iron scale model of the locomotive she had seen today. It was a souvenir Charlo had pressed into her hand.

She reached out and took it. The metal was cold to the touch, just like the unfeeling machines outside.

But as she held it longer, her body heat began to warm the steel.

"How far can you go... Charlo?"

She stared at the model, her vision blurring... as if seeing someone else's silhouette through the iron shape.

Finally, the Demon Lord set the model down. She turned onto her back, covering her face with a pale, delicate hand.

"No matter what... as long as you can help me achieve my revenge, I will not be stingy with my power!"

Faintly, a sigh seemed to drift past her ears.

But in the heart of the Demon Lord, hatred and rage had long since turned into a sky-consuming inferno, ready to burn everything—even herself—to ash.