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Towards the territory of the Empire’s army, we advanced.

…But we decided not to walk, instead using a very special ‘device’ to move.

“I can’t believe Endymion made something like this.”

“Hehe, it’s a secret weapon I hid away for a day like today. It’s called the All-Weather Mobile Fortress ‘Mamon’!”

“Are you crazy?”

“What do you mean?”

Endymion didn’t seem to have any suspicion about the name of the Mobile Fortress we were riding in, ‘Mamon.’

“…Hey, are you going to go around advertising that?”

“No? Who in the world would associate that name with Mamon?”

“That’s way too similar! …You know.”

I yelled out in frustration, but others were starting to notice.

I figured I should just keep being polite, even if it was just conscious effort.

“Ha. Let’s think about the name you use, Bell. Is Bell, Belus, Belial, or Belphegor all names that remind you of that Demon King?”

“Yes.”

“…….”

Endymion frowned at my objection, as if to say what nonsense it was, but the human world really was like that.

“There are hardly any cases of the name ‘Bell.’ Have you ever seen anyone around named Bell?”

“……Huh?”

“None, right? Yeah. The name Bell is rarely used because it overlaps with one of the letters from the Demon King’s name 500 years ago.”

“…Hmm?”

Endymion tilted his head in confusion.

“That’s strange. Isn’t the Demon King’s name just a single character? Bellphegor.”

“…Sigh. It’s not even worth explaining, so let’s move on. Fine. When your identity is revealed later, you can handle it yourself.”

If Mamon being recognized as Mamon were the issue, that was beyond my concern.

“More importantly, is this Mobile Fortress really okay if it gets found out?”

“By who?”

“The Empire.”

“Not a problem. Hehe, what do you think? With this, we won’t be overpowered even against a 50m Great Dragon!”

“True.”

What we were riding was a ‘Mobile Fortress.’

“Putting shape aside, at least the size is not lacking.”

“Hey, putting shape aside…! How beautiful it is!”

“It looks like a whacked-out jellyfish walking.”

A body like a skinny jellyfish moved forward.

To be precise, it was a fortress made by constructing a single-story building atop a wide square platform and attaching four legs to either side of the bottom plate to walk on the ground.

“The design isn’t important! What’s important is the performance!”

“Yeah, sure. If you put four wheels on something and attach a big flat platform on top, that’s a car, right?”

“Don’t insult my ‘Mamon Mk.2’…!”

“Mk. 2? Are you crazy, there was a model 1? Goodness.”

“I’ll take any further insult as a technical challenge against me, Sorceress of Crimson Lotus.”

“…You seem annoying. Got it, got it. You worked hard on developing this thing, making it move with the legs attached beneath that wide one-story building.”

That’s right.

Just sticking eight mechanical legs to a flat platform and calling it a Mobile Fortress.

“Hmph! You have no idea how hard it was to secretly hide and create this here in the Anari Principality…!”

‘If I show him the Bride Boat, maybe I can make a flying Mamon Boat in three years?’

Although the design was utterly shabby, the ‘Mobile Fortress’ was undeniably serving its intended purpose.

The eight legs, resembling those of a beast, used the power of Magic Stones to repeat the same movements, allowing the ‘fortress’ body to move with only slight wobbles.

“…Hmm.”

With that level of wobbling, maybe we could easily do ‘that.’

“Endymion.”

“What is it?”

“I’m just going to sort out the hierarchy of the warriors a bit.”

“Hierarchy…?”

“We need to determine the ‘leader’ of the warriors. Not the Hero.”

“Ah, I see. Go ahead. I’ll focus on controlling things in the meantime.”

After finishing my conversation with Endymion, I immediately approached the wall and opened the door.

“Ah, Master?”

“Lucius. How’s everyone doing?”

“Everyone’s in an excited state.”

What?

“They’ve been told that as long as they don’t attack the head, groin, or feet, they’re free to attack any parts of the body and have started hitting each other’s arms and thighs mercilessly.”

“That makes sense.”

Thud, thud, thud!

The sound of solid muscle hitting was heard.

Turning my head towards the sound, I saw one muscle warrior lying on the floor while another muscle warrior was actively punching away at his abs from a mount position.

“You! Let’s see how long you can hold out! I won’t stop until your Magic Stones’ mana runs out!”

“This… can’t be happening…!”

Thud, thud, thud.

The man’s attacks were ceaselessly aimed at the solar plexus, and the man pinned to the ground couldn’t move with both of his hands trapped beneath the other man’s knees.

“Ugh, argh…!”

“Damn it, this isn’t breaking…!”

It could easily be described as barbaric.

Swinging punches left and right made him seem like he had martial artist origins, but unfortunately, the blows were doing no harm to the man underneath.

“Can’t transfer any hits inward. It’s a special barrier magic I inscribed myself. Hehe, to strip off the skin shield, all you can do is keep hitting until the mana runs out.”

“…It’s a sweaty fight, that’s for sure.”

“That’s how real men fight. What objects could humans have fought with at the beginning? They fought with their fists first. Then they thought it was good to use tools and started whacking things with wooden sticks.”

“What kind of weapon do you like, Master?”

“Me?”

Out of nowhere?

“Yes. What type of weapon do you prefer, Master?”

“Are you asking about a weapon I find easy to use or a weapon I prefer?”

“Hmm… If it’s about a weapon you want to master, just one?”

“Oh, in that case….”

I pointed to a weapon a man was wielding.

“That one.”

“…A spear?”

“Yep. I like spears. They’re long, making it easy to stab at the enemy’s weak points quickly.”

You can swing and slice, but the best thing about a spear is undoubtedly stabbing.

“I used to wield a spear.”

“You, Master? Oh, right….”

“Yep. I’m a pro at handling poles. I could even do pole dancing with the tip of a spear stuck in the ground!”

“Pole… what?”

“I’ll show you later. For now, I’ll just need to borrow that spear.”

It’s one of the exercises listed in the ‘mechanical gymnastics’ researched by the Deep Dark Council.

It’s a form of exercise where you use your arms, legs, strength, and flexibility to perform all sorts of tricks atop a solid pole.

“Excuse me. What’s your name?”

“Uh? Are you talking to me?”

“Yeah. You.”

“I-I’m Leonidas!”

“Do you know what pole dance is?”

“Th-that…?!”

In an instant, Leonidas’s face turned red.

“If you suddenly ask me something like that….”

“I’m going to borrow your spear.”

“Oh, oh no…?!”

I borrowed Leonidas’s spear, used mana to prop it on the ground, then immediately grabbed the spear shaft and hooked my thigh over the pole.

“This is basically how it works.”

“Oh….”

Lucius was startled in awe, and for some reason, the gazes of the warriors began to gather on me.

“S-Sage…?! What are you doing right now…?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t overdo it. I just want to let you all know this exists.”

My body was suspended in the air.

To be exact, I was just gripping and supporting the spear shaft with my grip.

‘This is surprisingly good exercise.’

It was developed by Lucifer.

Although it might have flowed into Asmodeus, resulting in something rather decadent in the Intermediate Realm, at least Lucifer, who developed it, intended it to be a form of exercise.

I learned this, as did Satan.

It was fun.

“…Oops. This isn’t why I came here. Well… since all eyes are on me now, listen up!”

I climbed to the very top of the pole, tightening my grip with my armpits and thighs around the spear shaft and extended my hand to gather everyone’s gaze.

“Gather around! Ah, can you hear me at the back too?”

About three hundred people had gathered in this spacious training ground.

Thanks to amplifying my voice with mana, everyone’s attention was quickly drawn to me.

“We’ve decided to call our unit the ‘Steel Horse Squad.’ It’s a name borrowed from the appearance of this Mobile Fortress.”

“Um, do you mean this fortress… a horse?”

“It has eight legs, but it’s not a horse. It’s not a dog or a jellyfish either. It’s simply that due to a lack of time and budget, we couldn’t attach a horse’s head. And we added multiple legs just to support the weight.”

That’s a lie.

Mamon considers this flat platform a completed form.

“Anyway, the most important thing for our Steel Horse Squad is that while you all are people from the Anari Principality, the Hero here is not one of you.”

“So…?”

“You guys, the Steel Horse Squad is a kind of special force and knight order. What does a knight order need?”

“The captain of the knight order…!”

All their eyes began to sparkle.

It seemed they quickly realized what I was about to say.

“That’s right. We’re going to select a captain for the knight order. In fact, we should have done this a while ago, but everyone assumed Lucius was the leader.”

“T-Then how do we select them? Will the Sage choose for us?”

“No. Within the Steel Horse Squad, we will only compete in one way.”

I placed the spear shaft between my legs, crossed my ankles, and supported my upper body.

“Ohhhh….”

“Muscle. With strength.”

“I understand! How it works is whoever can do more push-ups than Lucius wins!”

“…….”

When I learned pole dancing from Lucifer in the Deep Dark Council.

Satan and I initially learned it from the fallen angels following Lucifer.

What was the name again?

Tampi and Skating?

“There’s nothing more definitive for a strength competition than this. …I’ll be using something other than the pole.”

“Something other than the pole, you say?”

“A duel with the Hero. Using the Power of the Holy Sword, Lucius will also compete solely with strength.”

“Oh, ohhh…!”

An excellent opportunity to defeat the Hero using only muscle.

“Lucius. You can do it, right?”

“…I can do anything, but what exactly do I need to do?”

“Push-ups.”

It was an exceedingly simple competition.

“The way we compete is simple. The person who does more push-ups than Lucius wins, of course, Lucius will have a penalty….”

I pointed at myself for everyone to see.

“I’ll sit on Lucius’s back. Lucius, can you do it?”

“Master.”

Lucius cracked his finger joints and lifted his head up.

“Shall we start right now?”

With a clench, clench.

Lucius puffed out his chest, igniting his fighting spirit.

 

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