'Wow, it wasn't my fault! This was just a series of unfortunate accidents!

　Bowman, who was brought into a room in the royal palace, said this in front of everyone.
　It seems that instead of drawing out the potential of the host, he improved a type of parasitic plant that was said to take in nutrients instead of drawing out the potential of the host, turned it into a giant beast and attached it to an armed golem. That's the one that was fused to its back.
　However, this parasitic plant took over the armed golem's consciousness and began to run amok. The 'Enslavement Collar' that he had fused to the golem was no longer effective, and it seemed that his commands were no longer effective at all. So all the golems that were being cultivated at the same time went out of control and ran out into the city.

'Aside from the golem, that parasitic plant was still in the testing stage. It seems that they forced it to grow and turn into a giant beast, making it fuse quite recklessly. It seems to have been a dictatorial decision over the objections of the institute's staff.

　While looking at the materials seized from Bowman's laboratory, Limit-san, the Knight Commander, told me.

''How dare you........ Didn't you consider the possibility of this happening? You have no idea how many victims your indiscretion has created...!
'The chances of a runaway by a parasitic plant were low! Besides, who could have predicted that they would even take over the consciousness of a golem! This runaway was an accident! It's not my fault! It wasn't me who destroyed the city!

　Bowman responds to Governor Audley's words with a backhanded response. It sounds like an excuse that he's not responsible for it, though. In fact, I've heard that he was the first to run away from the lab and was shaking in the warehouse.

'Was there a need to improve the golem now in the first place? I believe that we were almost ready to talk about Frase with the help of the Duchy of Brunhild. The governor-general of the province was supposed to take a decision tomorrow and make a formal announcement.

　Heh, it had been decided that much? Apparently, not only the Governor of Audrey's hill states, but also up to four of the seven provinces were getting together to ask Brunhild for help.
　Rhodomeer was divided into the central, hill, mountain, lake, river, plains and forge states, of which the hill, mountain, lake and forge states agreed, the central and plains states opposed, and the river states were still neutral.
　They were planning to take a formal decision at tomorrow's Provincial Governor's Conference to decide on a national policy.......

''The fact that we lost to the Duchy's Flame Gear raised questions about our research into armed golems, so. They said we shouldn't waste the country's budget.

　When Mr. Limit opened his mouth with a cold gaze, Bowman cowered in a jolt as he opened his mouth. Then what is it? You'd do something like that to continue your research?

"There's no point in discussing anything with that golem anyway. I took care of everything by myself. He's too weak.

　At Else's words, Bowman raised his face from its prone position. There was a mixed expression of astonishment and sadness on his face.

''You defeated that enhanced armed golem...? All by yourself? Oh no...
You shouldn't have used a force you can't control. You are guilty of a serious crime, Dr. Bowman. You must take full responsibility for the tragedy you have created by single-handedly improving the Golem. You will be removed from all positions, stripped of your doctorate, and sent to the mines of the Mountain States. Isn't that nice, Governor of the entire province?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to take responsibility.

　At Governor Audrey's stern voice, all the state governors, who had just swept their eyes in silence, gave a small nod and a drawn-out smile.
　That would be it. It was he, who was also the Governor of the Central Province, who had appointed the person who had created this damage and entrusted him with the research institute. He couldn't escape the responsibility of not knowing and only himself.
　Bowman was dragged out of the room by the knights. Some people have died in this commotion. I wonder if the reason it's not the death penalty is because of his achievements so far.

'And the governor of all the provinces. Central Province, evacuate the people from the city of Recep. The situation is time-sensitive. Please send out a fast horse.
Wait a minute. What happens if they evacuate us and there's nothing there? The city's residents won't be quiet!
'What a foolish thing to do at this point in time........ If nothing happened, all you have to do is apologize for causing a disturbance, compensate and take responsibility for it. Instead, what happens if you find out later that you knew about the appearance and did nothing....... That's a bigger problem, isn't it?

　The governor of the entire province flinched when the governor of the hill province told him, but there was no mistaking what she was saying, so he ordered his men to drive the fast horses into the city.

'Your Majesty, your majesty, Rimrud and Eminus in the Hill Province, and Recep in the Central Province, evacuate all residents from here. Also, I will allow you to deploy the Flame Gear in the country for a limited time. Governor of all provinces, good.
Oh, yeah. Of course.

　All the state governors nodded their heads as Governor Audrey told them to. I don't know who's the leader of the country then.
　Anyway, I'm ready to take on the Freys now.

Thank you very much. I will do everything in my power to deal with this. Then we will deploy our own frame gear to the area where the Freys will appear as soon as possible.

　In terms of time, it could appear tomorrow. There's no need to rush.
　I quickly left the Royal Palace of Rhodomeer and immediately returned to Brunhild's castle to organize my troops. There were three platoons of 20 aircraft, including the knight commander, Rain-san, the deputy commander, Norn-san and Nicola-san, with 19 aircraft attached to each of them, along with his own aircraft. These were stationed at the site and guarded in three shifts.
　Brunhild would be short-handed, but with the rest of the knights and old Baba's and Yamak Prefecture's old man, they would be fine.
　The East-West Alliance countries will be loaned 18 heavy knights 《Chevalier》 and 2 black knights 《Night Baron》 to wait in their countries. As expected, we couldn't keep the major knights of other countries tied up at the site of the Rhodomeer, as we didn't know when they would arrive.
　Our fiancé《fiancé》's daughters all said they wanted to go out together, but I asked Sue and Lean to refrain from doing so for now.
　Suu was still anxious to stand on the battlefield (although she didn't need to stand in the first place), and Leanne was still not used to flying the Frame Gear.
　Else was to board the new plane Gerhilde, a dedicated new plane, Yae and Hilda were to board a plane based on the Black Knight "Night Baron" respectively, with Yae and Hilda equipped with a crystal wood sword and sword, Lou with a crystal wood dagger dual sword, and Yumina and Linze with the flying control sword "Fragarach".
　This time, Rosetta and Monica would be asked to prepare for emergencies such as a broken frame gear with the mini-robots in the back.

This time, all of the frame gears are equipped with weapons made of crystalline materials, so I think we have a big advantage.

　There's plenty of crystalline material to rot in the fight in Euron. It won't rot, though.
　Accompanied by Brunhild's Flame Gear Division, we transitioned to the front of the forest, a bit farther away from the site of Rhodomere's Flames appearance.
　A plain stretched out in front of us, and beyond that was a series of mountains. Clouds drifted silently and birds were singing. There is not a hint of an atmosphere that suggests that this is going to be a battlefield.

Now, let's make this our main camp.

　After gently smoothing out the front of the forest with earth magic, I transferred some of Dr. Babylon's container houses that had been stored in the 'hangar' and placed them in a remote location.
　This container house had the same spatial magic as the "storage" and was larger than I expected. Of course, the inside is kept at room temperature and can be used as a resting place for the knights on guard. It's a good idea to have a blanket available for them to take a nap.
　I've numbered the walls, and I've assigned one to a meeting, two to a meal, and so on. Oops, I'll have to set up a women's only house as well.
　If the evacuation of the Lordmare is completed properly, we'll be the people closest to the place of appearance. If that happens, they should be coming straight for us.
　With the telephoto lenses on the frame gear, we should be able to see Frase's appearance from a distance. Fortunately, the area around us is an unobstructed plain.

"Is she coming?
It's a good thing you didn't come. Since we've set up this whole thing, we're going to have a lot of trouble if you don't come.

　I set up a table and chairs on the flat roof of the container house and played a game of chess across from Nicolas. I don't have much to do except watch over them.
　I searched the map and found that the evacuation of the Lord Mare is progressing steadily.

"You are not participating in this battle, Morobaze-sama?
Hmmm... Morohana can't control Frame Gear, you know. She's a complete stranger to anything other than a sword...

　Or rather, I'm not interested in the frame gear itself. If I can ride it, it would be quite a force to be reckoned with.......

''But he did say he'd participate. I've also given him the Crystal Wood Sword, and I think he'll work reasonably well.
Participate... in the flesh?
In the flesh.

　For a moment, Nicola had a pouting look on her face, but she quickly gave a small shake of her head and

"Could your sister be...

　I mumbled softly.
　Yah, we're not blood related, though.
　To be honest, I'm not that worried about this fight. I've had time to prepare, and it means that the number of appearances is less than in Euron's time.
　The only thing I'm worried about is the presence of the advanced species. I might be able to handle one like the crocodile from before, but even so, if that charged particle cannon-like thing shot at me, the damage would be incalculable. After all, it's enough to devastate the capital city of Euron, which is far away. I've been thinking about countermeasures, but I don't know how effective they will be, so I can't say for sure.
　Of course, I've already prepared the crystal materials for the Meteor Zapper, which was the deciding factor at that time.
　However, unless you have a large number of them, the hit rate for that one is not good, and it consumes a lot of magic power, regardless of friend and foe, making it difficult to use. The terrain also becomes a mess.
　It might be possible to launch a strike at the emergence of the flames, but in a situation where you don't know what's going to happen, you don't want to waste your magic power like that.
　And so the first day passed without incident after making the main camp. It seems that the evacuation of the town is almost over. Searching for humans, there was no response. All we have to do now is wait for Frase to appear........
　The second day was no different. It's too late now, but if they're going to appear, I'd recommend avoiding them at night. They're translucent, so it's hard to see them. While I was thinking about that, dawn broke and the morning of the third day came.
　While the stew for breakfast was being cooked, the person who was monitoring the monitor on the frame gear finally reported that there was a crack in the space.

'I see a crack in space! 'Fraise is about to appear!'

　The alarm went off in the main camp, and those who had been napping jumped up and climbed into their own aircraft.
　There was still some time to go. In the meantime, I go around to each country to report on the appearance of the Fraze and transfer each of our prepared frame gears to the site and send them out.
　A total of 200 Frame Gears deploy in a bow shape towards the place where the crack appeared and prepare to intercept it.

''Your Majesty! The cracks are widening!'

　As I let my vision fly with Long Sense, the cracks in the space widened slightly, and I could see parts of Frase's body sticking out from within.
　Soon, a loud sound of destruction, like glass breaking, echoed around the area, and at the same time, an avalanche of Frays appeared on the spot, one after another. Eventually, the destroyed space returned to its original state once all of the Frays were let out.

''Mostly lower-grade and intermediate species... but what about the higher-grade species?''
Advanced species take longer to emerge. Hasn't it been like that before?
Oh, that kind of... wow!

　Suddenly, I unlocked my 'long sense' in response and saw Ende standing next to me. When did it happen........ It's still a godsend.

'I'd say we have about 30 minutes to appear. I'd like to get rid of those guys before then.

　Ende cracked the prepperate in his hand and called the monochrome dragon knight. Then he quickly gets in. 'You're an impatient guy.

'Search. How many flares can you confirm?'
Searching ... 8141 entries.

　With Euron, it was about 13,000, so that's roughly 60% of what it was then.

How many of them are intermediate species?
"Search begins. ...finished. 809 intermediate species.

　About 10% of the total. That's what happened before. I wonder if there is some kind of law.
　I summoned a Valkyrie with a camera and had it relayed to me. This footage reaches the kings of the various countries and allows them to see what's going on in the war. I'll have to have the leaders of Rhodomeer in particular take a good look at it. I don't want them to be as difficult to deal with later on as Euron was.
　The main team will have spare Flame Gear, and Rosetta, Monica, Flora and Lean will be waiting in the main camp. I've also set up a forwarding address for the emergency escape magic here.

''Fuyao-san, Frase and the others are starting to move.

　I could hear Yumina's voice coming from the receiver attached to my ear. This time, Else's Gerhilde and the Black Knight type have the ability to communicate with me, so I can immediately know if something is wrong.
　When I activated my "Long Sense" again and checked ahead, I found that Yumina was indeed right and they had started advancing towards us.
　 A dolphin........or rather an orca......orca type is flying towards us. It's a mid-range species, judging by its size.

Okay, let's get started.

　He pulls out two large swords with two-meter long blades from storage and holds them at either side.

"All planes into battle! Follow your commanders to destroy and mop up the Freys!
"Ohhhh!

　The ground rumbled and the Flame Gear unit rushed towards the flock of Frays.
　I also activated my "Fly" and took off to annihilate the flying flames.