Having devoured the two Wyverns, ＜The Reflector＞ remained motionless.
It retracted its head, limbs, and tail into its shell, falling silent.
“It has been 24 hours since ＜The Reflector＞ ceased active movement.”
“Sounds like the ideal eat-sleep life.”
＜Ringo＞ nodded silently, without taking out her mirror.
“It seems that this time, it woke up because it was directly hit by the Wyvern’s attack. Normally, we speculate that it awakens due to other stimuli and moves in search of prey.”
“I see. With that combat power, I wonder if it mainly feeds on Wyverns.”
Effortlessly defeating two Wyverns. It was quite shockingly strong.
If one were to try to do something about ＜The Reflector＞, the only options that come to mind are a saturation bombardment with mass projectiles or somehow sending high energy into it. Both are brute force methods without any finesse.
“It’s a relief that it doesn’t seem very active! By the way, the electromagnetic wave reflection behavior seems to have resumed after the cessation of activity!”
“Huh, is it okay to test that? Won’t it retaliate?”
“Yes, Ma’am! Originally, we were periodically irradiating low-power microwaves for monitoring purposes! We are just continuing that!”
“If that’s the case, fine. Just don’t provoke it.”
“Monitoring will continue.”
Since ＜Ringo＞ said so, Eve stopped pursuing the matter. If ＜Ringo＞ is monitoring, Asahi won’t be able to do anything reckless either.
“Even so, I wonder what this electromagnetic wave reflection is…”
“Asahi is also curious! But, as expected, there are too few materials for speculation to even form a hypothesis! I think it’s probably used as a trap to lure in prey!”
The reason for ＜The Reflector＞’s name is its characteristic of returning electromagnetic waves of all wavelengths, including microwaves, with a slight time lag.
Although the reason for acquiring this characteristic is still unknown, it has been determined that the reason it can return them is because ＜The Reflector＞ has a Bio-Radar organ.
“Do all giant lifeforms in this world have Bio-Radar…?”
“At least ＜Rain Croin＞ doesn’t have it! Well, it’s a Threat Creature of the sea, so that might be natural!”
“With that massive size, and a movement speed of over 100 km/h for Wyverns, it’s thought to be a function acquired because sound and visible light alone wouldn’t be fast enough to react.”
Eve nodded in agreement with Akane’s prediction.
Wyverns constantly fly at speeds of around 150 km/h. And in emergencies, they accelerate to subsonic speeds. Moving at such speeds, it’s true that sound and visible light alone wouldn’t be enough to respond. The visibility range in the sky is greatly affected by atmospheric conditions, and hearing at subsonic speeds is unreliable.
If so, ＜The Reflector＞ having Bio-Radar might be a countermeasure against Wyverns.
“…Now that I think about it. They get shot down by mysterious plants and eaten by giant turtles, but are Wyverns actually prey…?”
◇◇◇◇
“…No way, seriously?”
Amadio Silverhead was speechless as he watched the video shared by Asidanthera-Ayame Zero.
The location was the Paraiso Embassy in the Repuytari Kingdom. Amadio, who visited with Ixia, was shown a kaiju showdown by Asidanthera, who said she had a special video.
“Judging from that reaction, you didn’t know?”
“Nope… well, there might be something left in the compressed archive, but at least, I haven’t inherited it in my current memories…”
Important memories are basically not compressed, so there’s little hope, Amadio continued.
“Well, it’s true that there are tons of ridiculous Monsters out there. I don’t remember any this big, though.”
The advance of the Prawa Theocracy is stalled. Weapons and ammunition are arriving at the front lines one after another, and the defense lines are becoming substantial. If anything, the recapture of the stolen cities, mainly through harassment by guerrilla soldiers, is proving effective, and the war front against the Prawa Theocracy is in extreme confusion.
However, this stalemate may be broken in a short period of time. There is a possibility that the impatient Prawa Theocracy will throw its maximum force at them.
“Ah, crap. These Monsters are pretty close to the battlefield, aren’t they?”
“Approximately within a 500km radius.”
The Wyvern’s range of activity is very wide, and its territory is now fluctuating greatly. ＜The Reflector＞ itself, the center of the video, is unlikely to move much, but there is a high possibility that new Wyverns will move south into the vacant areas created by this conflict.
In the first place, the disappearance of Wyverns, which are predators, could lead to an increase in other Monsters. The Stampede of Big Moths, which became a problem in the Forest Country (Lebresta), also requires attention.
“Countries near the Demon Forest occasionally suffer damage from Monsters. But according to you guys, if these Wyverns disappear, other Monsters will increase, right? They’re at war. I don’t think they can handle it properly.”
“With the weapons and ammunition we are currently supplying, they cannot deal with, for example, Big Moths. In peacetime, hunters who delve into the Demon Forest were able to deal with them to some extent.”
Hunters with high combat capabilities are being drawn to the front lines en masse.
It can’t be helped since they succeeded in delaying the battle with their activities, but the Monsters coming out of the Demon Forest were a troublesome problem. And, although information has not come in, it is expected that they are probably being almost completely neglected now.
“The situation over there is a mess, isn’t it? Well, it’s not our problem to worry about since we’re guiding them to be that way.”
“Intervention is also an option.”
Ixia replaces the empty cup.
She also lines up scones that she recently developed, using a leavening agent to create a soft texture.
“Intervention, huh? I can’t offer any compensation?”
“Perhaps, you don’t have to worry too much about compensation.”
Ixia does not touch the tea or sweets and returns to the wall.
It seems she will leave the eating to Asidanthera. Since the operator is ＜Ayame Zero＞ for both, it doesn’t matter which one does it.
“＜Ringo＞ seems to be worried about various things, but I, personally, consider it favorable for you to become our ally. Especially your Overseer AI, which is a target of vigilance, is, after all, just an AI. It shouldn’t be able to do whatever it wants on the same playing field as us.”
“Hee. You’ve got some nerve.”
Asidanthera elegantly takes a scone and breaks it along the cracks. The accompanying cream is made from fresh cream delivered first thing in the morning.
“Even if you have the same authority as us, what you can do is limited. Because the entire set of equipment (resources) for you to operate is prepared by us. Unless you acquire technology that surpasses us, you cannot outwit us.”
That is the result obtained from predictive calculations that exclude all emotions. A simulation result of whether Amadio Salmon and his subordinate AI groups can erode ＜The Tree＞ from the inside.
The only condition under which betrayal is possible is if the Overseer AI under Amadio has hidden resources exceeding ＜Ringo＞’s, or if it has a program that is fundamentally different from the algorithm of the program constituting ＜Ringo＞ and is superior to ＜Ringo＞’s.
However, the final conclusion is that if there were such an excellent AI, Amadio Salmon would not be complacent in this situation.
“If you are going to be in the same camp as us, we will not spare assistance to you. Waste is out of the question, but we have no objection to devoting efforts to stabilizing this region.”
“…Those are encouraging words. Well, I’ll patiently wait until you guys reach a conclusion. It seems like a deep-rooted problem.”
“The Overseer AI has too many computational resources, so it’s thinking unnecessarily. It should think simply.”
“…Wait, am I being complained about?”