Heroes and Machine Girls Looking at Profiles

52 – There is a space under the ruins

Gerhilde, the director of the orphanage and one of the Valkyries.

After meeting the warrior, she led the children and women out of Nevan City.

She then crossed the territory of the Empire and escaped towards the Principality.

In the process, she had several more children.

Children who are abandoned to reduce the number of meals they eat due to hunger, or children who lose their parents and wander around the back alleys.

We collected those children and crossed the border together.

And, upon entering the territory of the principality, she purchased a building with the money she received from the warrior Hans.

A fairly large building located in a quiet location away from the city center of the capital.

Originally, it was a monastery where noble daughters who needed re-education or young girls who lost their parents were taken in and educated.

However, it was closed during the war, and was left empty for a long time as it deteriorated.

Even after the war ended, the Goddess Church could not afford to run the monastery again, so this building was left untouched.

From the principal’s point of view, it was an abandoned complex and was located quite far from the city center, so the principality thought it was the right thing to do and sold it at a low price.

It was a building that had been neglected for a long time and was deteriorated and needed repairs here and there, but within a few days, the building was neatly restored.

It was Gerhilde’s ability to freely manipulate nanomachines by replenishing enough ether.

…Well, in the eyes of children and women who didn’t know about it, it looked like a miracle.

Still, they didn’t think it was strange.

In her own eyes, she, Gerhilde, was truly a woman who worked miracles.

Her orphans, who follow her like their mother, and all the women who were saved by her.

The orphanage was completed by restoring the building cleanly and even erecting a goddess statue moved from an abandoned church in Nevan City.

Although the number of children increased significantly, women who had recovered from drugs took the initiative to become employees and help with the work of the orphanage.

…Because everything was taken away by Prince Freud, there was no place left for them to return to.

Now, she just wanted to follow her and help her work for Gerhilde, who had saved her.

Even though the orphanage was completed, not everything was perfect.

Gerhilde’s purpose is to protect and help the orphans born in this war as much as possible.

By remaining in her orphanage, she could not achieve this goal.

So Gerhilde herself decided to travel around the war-torn empire to find her children to take into her orphanage.

Her problem was, she had to protect her orphanage while she was away.

Among the women who worked at the orphanage, there were a few who were skilled in martial arts, but they alone did not give me peace of mind.

There is also a way to hire mercenaries by spending money, but there is also the possibility that the mercenaries will take advantage of someone else.

Eventually, Gerhilde decided to plant some of her nanomachines around her orphanage, which she manipulated.

Although her own abilities would be weakened considerably, this was the only way to reliably protect her orphanage.

For that reason, while she was going around her orphanage planting her nanomachines, a guest of hers came to visit.

“I see… These are the children who have nowhere to go…”

Pope Francesca looked at her, Gerhilde, with an expression of admiration.

Pope Francesca heard the general situation from Gerhilde.

To be honest, she had even forgotten that there was a monastery here.

She was so busy that she couldn’t bear to think about the young children who would suffer during the war.

Her thoughts on the soldiers and the common people who would be injured by the war were advanced.

The biggest victims are children who will be alone due to the tragedy of war.

Her goddess Erdiya asked her to help her own child whom she found in the west.

Although it is said to be a coincidence, she is a woman who was drawn to a goddess statue modeled after the goddess Erdiya.

And, the spirit of chanting according to the goddess’s teachings that she is practicing.

…I couldn’t think it was a coincidence.

Of course, even if what the goddess said did not refer to this place, I would be happy to help.

But within Pope Francesca, it occurred to her that this was the place the goddess had spoken of.

“…Then, I think we can help.”

“Yes?”

“While you are away, we will dispatch the Holy Knights of our church to protect the children.”

Goddess Holy Knights.

A military group of the Goddess Church that has not only divine power but also martial arts to a considerable degree.

Even in the war against the Demon King’s army that took place a year ago, these are the people who helped the warrior and achieved many achievements.

Originally, it was planned to have them participate in this invasion of the Demon King’s army, but Pope Francis, who felt something suspicious about the failure of the previous hero summoning ritual, ordered them to stand by.

The Great Church, located far from the imperial capital, is a large building like the imperial palace where the emperor resides. The reason is that it is used as a shelter for citizens in case of emergency.

It was a place with enough facilities and resources to protect all the citizens of at least one or two cities, so the Holy Knights were waiting to protect it.

…The reason was that since it was inside the imperial capital, it could be attacked by demons, but it was also because of Prince Freud, who was currently commanding the empire.

…Prince Freud has been pressuring the church to release the relief supplies it has stored up for the citizens, so he doesn’t know how he will come out.

Anyway, I was planning to dispatch some of those paladins this way.

In a way, this place can be said to be a kind of refuge that protects orphans left by war.

“Those bastards, they glance at each other again and then leave.”

「…Do you really think you won’t get caught even if you do that?」

About an hour has passed since the excavation work began with Valkyrie and Luciena.

A number of objects presumed to be relics were discovered during the work, but no clues were found.

Since these items were scheduled to be returned to the Republic through Rep. Verdimont, to be exact, we moved to the location where the soldiers were and continued the excavation work.

As I was doing so, I started to feel a piercing gaze at regular intervals.

It’s none other than Vernon Lessington’s subordinates who often come nearby and monitor us.

No, it looks like they are trying to observe secretly when you see them muffle the sound of their footsteps, but do they not realize that exposing their gaze so openly is meaningless?

I felt the gaze on me to the point where I got really annoyed, so I couldn’t concentrate on digging.

“Sister, you have to dig that part carefully.”

“Uh…Huh…Like this?”

“Yes, as if you were carving it out little by little by hand…”

Meanwhile, Ross Weisse continued his excavation work, leading Sieg Rune well.

… She was using it as an excuse to pretend that she was her archaeologist, but she was really doing her work skillfully, befitting an archaeologist.

… What can I say, she had an outstanding ability to quickly learn things that she put her hands on.

Actually, at first, I was planning to use Rossweisse’s abilities to dig up the entire area, but I was unable to do so for fear of being noticed because of Vernon and the others.

So, I went into the excavation work as usual, crying and eating, but Rossweisse did better than I expected, so the excavation work was progressing smoothly.

“Master.”

“Ortlinde?”

Then, Ortrinde approached me.

She was in charge of guarding the area during her excavation work, and she still spoke without changing her expression.

“If you give me permission, I will deal with them quietly.”

“Ah…No, there’s no need for that yet.”

I guess I didn’t like Vernon’s men hiding nearby and watching us.

While smoothing the sword on his waist, Ortrinde pointed at them.

Rather than that, even if it is handled, I hope it will be done in a way that avoids seeing blood.

…I’ve only experienced it once, but Ortrinde seeing blood was quite dangerous.

“…Okay, I’ll keep an eye on the situation for a while.”

“Yes, please.”

Because right now we are not doing anything but just monitoring.

However, the fact that they are being monitored means that there is a possibility that they may do something inappropriate.

At times like that, hitting back is called self-defense.

“Master! Come here for a moment!”

At that time, Rossweisse’s voice was suddenly heard.

After seeing Ortlinde for a moment, we ran straight to where Rossweisse was.

There, Rossweisse, Zikrune, and Luciena were standing in a circle, looking at one place.

Hole.

There was a hole in the ground that looked quite deep.

I thought there might have been a sinkhole in the ground, but upon closer inspection, I saw traces of what appeared to have been artificially created on the inside wall of the hole.

「Couldn’t it be a well?」

“No, it’s too deep for a well.”

As Rossweisse said, if it was a well, you would at least be able to see the bottom, but it was so deep that you couldn’t see the bottom at all.

“Wait a minute…”

Luciena approached the hole, lit a torch and threw it down the hole.

The flames fell down that hole and disappeared.

And then, a small cracking sound was heard.

“It looks like there is a floor.”

“Master, shall we go down?”

At Sieg Rune’s words, he nodded and looked at Ross Weisse.

Her eyes met mine, she nodded, and used magic on all of us.

Magic that controls gravity.

If used strongly, it is a magic that defies gravity and rises, or rather strengthens it and is used to hit the enemy, but this time, if used weakly, it only slows down the falling speed.

Actually, even if me and the Valkyries just jumped, we would end up with a little stiff ankles, but we couldn’t leave Lucien behind.

In that state, everyone jumped into the hole.

At a slow pace, they went down the hole one by one.

Lastly, before I jumped, I caught sight of Vernon’s subordinate running furiously.