Ganersam Volume 2
Chapter 12

Hastily boarding Amber’s ship, we rushed toward the northern areas of Alpha. We flew past the city walls, continuing our flight above the northern road. After flying for around twenty minutes, we could see the silhouette of two beings dancing in the sky...

Well, one of them is dancing, and the other is doing frantic maneuvers trying to dodge the other being.

It was Riko’s ship and a dragon, because of course, someone just had to engage a freaking dragon. Are there like no better story ideas?

Like, why dragon?

The dragon was a large red dragon, like the one you see in movies. It does breathe fire and from my perspective, Riko was pretty much screwed.

“Can’t we do anything to help them?”

Emma asked as she kneeled beside Amber, who was flying the ship. Amber pressed a switch on her controls.

She lifted her thumb from the button, then pressed it again, but nothing happened.

“Umm... me cannons won’t work.”

Amber said as she looked back at us. Also, she was still wearing her pajamas, so coupled with her cute pleading face, I guess I would tolerate her this time.

Well, It’s not like I can do anything had I not forgiven her.

Amber radioed the other ship, telling them that we were there. She then parked at an open plain not far from the aerial battle and dropped us off.

Seeing our position, Riko’s ship maneuvered and headed for us, trying to bait the dragon and its owner into flying toward us. On the ground, Emma gripped her sniper, aiming it upward at the massive red dragon.

“Urgh...”

She mumbled annoyed. Due to the dragon’s fast movement, it was a target hard to hit, despite its large size, but for someone like Emma that wasn’t an issue.

The problem was Riko’s ship which flew in front of the dragon, blocking the line of fire.

“Couldn’t Riko’s ship take a hit or two?”

I asked. Emma seemed quite hesitant about firing at Riko, but if Riko could take some damage, then she wouldn’t need to worry-

“It could, it’s just...”

Amber gave a wry smile before continuing,

“Me turned the shields off.”

At that moment, all of our eyes pulled themselves toward Amber, who let out an awkward chuckle.

“Riko asked me to do maintenance on his ship yesterday, but he needed it before me could finish it. Me thought he’s just going to another city... so... yeah...”

Just what was wrong with this world? Nia grabbed her binoculars and looked toward the dragon.

“Emma, could you take out the demon riding the dragon?”

“I can’t even get a clear line of fire for that gigantic dragon, how could I... actually, hold on.”

Emma readjusted her sniper. Through the top end of Riko’s ship, there was a very small opening where the demon’s face was visible. She waited for the perfect moment. Riko flew his ship straight toward us, the dragon flying right behind him. The dragon perfectly copied its every move, while breathing fire into the rear of the ship. Riko’s ship was just barely fast enough to dodge them.

Emma waited, and finally, an opening presents itself. She pulled the trigger, and the bullet roared through the air.

Emma’s shot connects, taking out the demon. The dragon made a loud roar and shook itself violently, before pulling away and fleeing the scene. The demon turned into dust, and his pouch fell onto the floor.

‘A horse is as good as the one riding it’ I guess that applied to dragons too.

“Nice one.”

“Thanks.”

The girls approached the scene, while Riko landed near us. On the ground there was a small bag, its flap opened. A small device was peeking from the inside. The device looked similar to the signal box, both colored in black. It had several parts shattered and bent, but most of it was intact.

Compared to the signal box, this one was a bit smaller with a size of only 8 by 5 cm. It had one antenna as opposed to the three on the receiver. It had a small screen with eight buttons under it, with some holes below the buttons, presumably for a speaker.

“This must be the transmitter.”

Amber mumbled as she picked the box up.

“Let’s head back to me place. Us discuss there.”

She continued. Riko, who had just approached us, was about to complain and he saw us turning back for our ship, but he didn’t say anything and returned to his own ship.

“So, us now have all three kinds of stuff related to the events.”

Amber said as she spread the three items on the table, the rest of us standing around it. On the left was the supposed transmitter. Based on its looks, it was used to send commands and maybe received information from the goblins.

On its right, was the receiver. This one had three different antennas on its side, each at an exact 120 degrees angle from one another. It also had a far shorter antenna on its underside, probably to receive the signal coming from the transmitter. Around that hidden antenna is some kind of recording device. Considering the place it was put in, it was probably used to record top-secret conversations between guild hire-ups.

The third was the paper with gibberish text on it. This would be the hardest part. Back on Earth, signal transmitters and receivers were pretty common, and there were some wifi-related devices that look pretty similar to them. However, there was nothing that looks like the paper there.

While you could argue that a mobile phone functions in the same roles as this piece of paper, it did not look remotely similar to them, and I doubt it worked in a similar fashion to a mobile phone.

“Riko, ye mind explaining what happened?”

Amber redirected our attention toward Riko, who was the one fighting the dragon. We’re not gonna count Amel because she probably did nothing this time.

... She would probably be so angry if she could read my mind.

“... William, why are you looking at me like that?”

Amel asked with a deadly grin.

“Nothing.”

Never mind, she does read minds.

"Ehem... so I got info that the demons are attacking. However, amidst the chaos, I found someone that I had been ‘interested’ in running toward the northern side of town. He ran outside town, so I followed him.”

Is it just me, or does Riko always has an interest in the worst possible targets?

“You’ve been following him since morning?”

If that was true, that meant Riko had been fighting for nearly 8 hours, since the back and forth between Amber’s warehouse and sneaking around the guild took me a total of maybe 2 hours.

“Yes. He walked a far distance from town, before resting at a small field by the road, and continuing his journey after. By the time he met up with his dragon, it was already around 2 pm. I’ve managed to land a tracker device on his dragon, so I called Amel and she brought the ship to me, and we chased the dragon.”

“Wait, Amel could fly?”

“Of course, I’m a very talented person...”

She said proudly.

“... I could only do basic maneuvers though, so don’t hope too much.”

She continued.

I was still surprised at the patience Riko had, though. There was no way I would survive a stealth mission that long.

“I’m surprised ye manage to catch up to him.”

“It took quite a while, but the ship is a lot faster compared to the dragon, so we have no problem catching up... Well, itwasfaster compared to the dragon, but the engine had issues during the battle. The other problem is that my shield had been turned off, and my cloaking device won’t work either, ruining the spying mission.”

Hearing that, Amber simply shrugged her shoulders.

“Ye know me took time to work.”

“Well, you’re right. I can’t really blame it on you, this time. What’s important now is we get to the bottom of this.”

“This time? When had any of my stuff broken down?”

The rest of us simply stared at Amber. Riko let out a sigh and redirected our attention back to the devices on the table.

“You think there’s a particular reason all of them are at an equal distance?”

“I have an idea on why.”

Nia politely raises her hand. We went silent to allow her to speak.

“The demon’s army always used a brute force tactic in attacking. However, they didn’t use to have the communication devices humans have, meaning to launch a united attack, they’ll need to launch the army from the same area, making it easier for the humans to defend, but if they used this device, it allowed them to launch from multiple points at the same time. The 5 km is probably designed so that the goblins arrived at the same time.”

Nia repeated her explanation. I was the only one with her when she said that back during the stealth mission, so the others haven’t heard about it yet.

“Can’t they use the time?”

Emma asked, but Nia shook her head.

“Not all the troops had an understanding of complex time, they only know about day and night. Bright and dark.”

“I see, that does seem like an issue for them.”

“This device could solve that issue.”

Amel, the only one here that originally came from this world but not from the demon’s army, gave us a concerned look.

“Does that mean we’re in trouble?”

“Me doubt that the device is finished, yet. As ye know, there is probably 100 goblins maximum in the camps. They are probably guinea pigs for testing, and 100 goblins aren’t that much of a threat, us still have time.”

“I agree with Senpai. If we act now, we could slow down the development progress of this device. It would be better if we can completely stop it, though.”

Act now?

“... How do you suggest we act?”

“We could try striking the research center in Asparagus.”

Oh yeah, I’ve completely forgotten about the Asparagus thing-

...

Striking a what?

“But didn’t you say we still need a third stone slate?”

Oh yeah, Emma’s right, I’ve also completely forgotten about the slates. We still have them, right?

“The research center is located outside Asparagus, but they’re still trying to break in.”

“Is it because of the sword?”

“Probably.”

It’s probably the same sword Riko talked about back at the end of the first volume.

But if we count these hectic weeks as one volume then which volume of life am I currently in? My previous years on Earth were boring, so if you’re going to write about it (please don’t), you’ll probably get less than a volume for a year. So if we count those years combine with the speedruns of this world, that means I’m probably on the 18th or 19th book.

“So we’re going after that next?”

Riko’s words brought me back into the conversation...

wait, wait, wait...

we’re actually assaulting the enemy’s hideout next? Are you kidding me?

“Alright, I’ll go and make preparations.”

Riko said withdrawing himself from the conversation.

“Alright.”

The others reply in unison.

Wait, no, no... don’t just reply with an ‘alright’!

Why can’t I just have some peace and quiet!?

•••

We walked home together. I stood behind Emma and William, thinking about the mission. The fact that we were heading for Asparagus...

It reminded me of her.

“Nia, are you scared?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t understand what you meant.”

“Are you scared of killing?”

“I’m not.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Back then, I didn’t understand what her words meant.

I was a weapon tester, testing new weapons on the goblins that became our test subjects. I never felt anything back then.

But the day when I was deployed for the first time to fight against humans, I was scared.

Taking a human life... felt different.

They feel so similar to me, unlike the demons or goblins I worked with.

I grew up in the demon’s army research lab.

Whether it’s the one in Asparagus, or the deactivated one in the northern desert.

It used to be my home.

But it no longer was. Did I long for that home? Have I found a new home?

“Nia?”

Is there another option? An option for peace, maybe?

I don’t want to go back there.

I’m scared.

I’m scared of killing her.

“Nia?”

“Ah, I’m sorry!”

“Nia, where are you going?”

Emma’s voice faded as I ran further from her.