Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi

kind of person do you guys think I am!?」

Balbano goes on to explain the materials he used, however, I didn’t end up paying much attention since the only one I recognized was coal.
It doesn’t really matter as long as I know he didn’t peel the skin off a human corpse.

「This arm is not tailored for fights.
It’s quite easy for the material to fall off if force is applied, so use it with care.
I genuinely didn’t want to make such a fragile arm, but I can understand the feelings of a woman with a lover who wants to get back her arm…… I’ll make an exception.」

Sekrit turns shyly in my direction before shaking her head and then offering her hand to Balbano with a provocative expression.

「What are you doing? Aah, right.
I intended to make the arm hairy, although I saw that your entire body was completely smooth.
While it was still strange to me, I decided to complete it without the hair.」

「I would have strangled you had you turned it into a hairball.
……anyways, it’s an excellent product.
I feel I should also thank you.」

「No need.
I’ll just take the booze this guy promised to give me.」

Sekrit was persistent and continued to ask Balbano.

「Then why don’t you give my breasts a squeeze at least? Or maybe you want to suck on them?」

「Argh, let me go! If you want to seduce me, come back after you grow some hair under your arms!」

I couldn’t help laughing at the scene.
Normally, I’d go crazy with jealousy, however, I can tell this time Sekrit was the one hiding her embarrassment.

Sekrit, unhappy that I didn’t get jealous, stretched her arm at Balbano…… then froze.

「Hey.
Did you construct this arm with my arm as a model?」

「That’s right.
It’s a perfect copy.」

Oh yeah, Balbano was closely inspecting Sekrit’s right arm during the initial measurement stage…… wait, I realized what the problem was.

「It has a fatal flaw.」

「I can’t let that go! The center of gravity and shape is perfect! Tell me which part is not right!」

Balbano bellows at Sekrit, confident in his own handiwork.

Sekrit promptly extends the arm.

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「The thumb of the left arm is on the left.」

「……」

There was a brief moment of silence.

「……I’ll fix it later.」

「……Mm.」

Apparently Balbano copied Sekrit’s right arm exactly.
Nevertheless, it’s quite a feat to stabilize her center of gravity in spite of the error.

「Now, let’s get to the good part.」

Balbano speaks up as if trying to cover his mistake.

「That’s good enough already.」

The trio of arms – all-purpose, combat, and everyday use – makes a complete set.
He’s done a fine job.

「What do you mean!? There’s nothing interesting about ordinary artificial arms!」

Technically, those arms can, by no means, be called ordinary, but the tone of his voice suggests he has something even more amazing in store.

「Hooh.」

Sekrit also looks at him with anticipation.
If she was shown such incredible products already, of course she would have a greater amount of expectation if told something greater existed.
I’m getting all kinds of bad feelings though.

「First is this!」

Balbano takes out an arm that is bulkier and cruder than all the previous ones.
It’s also made of a different material as a dull oppressive lustre is emanating from the arm.

Most notable is the hole in the center of the palm.

「……hey, it’s unusually heavy.」

「You don’t swing this around.
Well, just try it out.」

Balbano points to the far end of the basement.

「Aim your arm at the barrel over there.
Once you take a solid stance, press the button at the base.」

「……this?」

The moment Sekrit pushed the button, a thunderous roar and a tremendous shockwave struck my body.
After a puff of fire and smoke, the barrel exploded into pieces, and even a large hole was created in the wall behind it.
A trail of smoke was left between the arm and the wall.

「Gyowah!」

The recoil sent Sekrit flying, so I had no time to worry about what just happened.
My body reacted immediately, leaping to catch Sekrit in midair and then making a sliding landing on the ground.

「Are you alright?」

Sekrit was stunned, but she instantly grasped the situation when she saw the destruction that resulted.

「A cannon!? Y-you’re kidding me!! I thought you were a capable man, but I guess I overestimated you!!」

The enraged Sekrit points the arm at Balbano and presses the button repeatedly.

「It can only fire one shot.
Perhaps I put in a little too much explosives…… I’ll adjust it, so give it back.」

Sekrit, probably still disoriented from being in close proximity to the blast, staggers before tossing the arm cannon at Balbano.

「Next.」

「……I’m getting nothing but bad feelings.」

Sekrit’s premonitions come true as Balbano takes out an arm that clearly was not in the shape of a normal arm.
There was a slender cylindrical-shaped vessel attached to the bottom of the arm.

「You carry this on your back and attach the hose to the arm.」

「……」

A large backpack was strapped to her back and a long hose connected to her arm.
I could hear some sort of fluid sloshing around inside the backpack.

「Pull the lever!」

「……dammit.」

Sekrit adopts a ready stance and pulls the lever.

Instantaneously, fierce flames spray out from the arm.

「Oooooooh!」

Sekrit holds her position and expresses her awe.
Those flames were that fearsome.

「Did you see that!? The fuel is a special substance extracted from coal and the firepower is nothing like the combustion of oil!!」

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「See here……」

My gratitude towards the wonderfully constructed prosthetics is slowly disappearing.

If Balbano stopped at the first three arms he showed us, Sekrit would have been indebted to him…… no, her heart might even sway towards him.
That would have been good enough.

「Stop iiiiiit!!」

「Mu, I didn’t include a stop button yet.
You’ll have to let it continue spraying until the fuel runs out.」

A few minutes later, the arm ceased emitting the flames and Sekrit leaned wearily against the wall.

「Is there more?」

「Of course.
This arm is……」

Sekrit grabs Balbano’s head.

「Tell me what it does first.
I’ll decide whether or not to test it out.」

Her smile disappeared and I only felt bloodlust from her.

「Umu, this arm has explosive charges spaced evenly in six locations at the base, which launches the arm itself at high speed――」

「Rejected, next.」

「This arm is multi-purpose with a total of 17 functions such as pincers, corkscrew, tweezers, bolt fastener, torch, massager――」

「Mu, that’s surprisingly convenient…… but I’m not going to attach an arm that’s basically a bundle of household goods.
Next.」

「The tip of this arm is made of a special highly-durable alloy and uses the power of a mainspring to spin, allowing it to drill holes in especially hard rocks and even iron plates――」

When she pushes the spinning tip against the wall, parts of the stone wall are visibly shaved away.

「……」

All of a sudden, Sekrit settles down.
Don’t tell me she’s grown fond of this particular one.

「Don’t forget its appearance is worse than the claws.
It’ll do nothing but stand out.」

「……」

Despite my warnings, Sekrit doesn’t reply and focuses on whittling the wall.
I’m sure she simply wants to try it out.

「Anyways, the first three you showed us is more than enough.
The others are too excessive.」

「Mrrggh…… I still had more.
This one is one of my proud creations.
It combines the mechanisms of the cannon arm and flame arm, so it only requires turning of this lever to rotate the multiple cylinders and continuously fire the shells, with the speed of 3 or 4 shots a second――」

The object he takes out, which looks more like six thin tubes connected together than an arm, makes me smile.
Something like that can’t be called an artificial arm.

「I want to take Sekrit with me to the battlefield, but not turn her into a human weapon.」

The three arms are sufficient.
Anyways, I should still thank him.

I bow my head at Balbano.
Sekrit looks at me for a split second with mixed feelings in her face, then quickly returns to her work on the wall.

「I appreciate you entertaining my selfish request.
Sorry for any troubles.」

Sekrit is still drilling the wall, and the three artificial arms are placed safely beside her.

「I’ll prepare some strong liquor in my room.
The three of us can drink together.」

「Sure! I might not stop at one cup after such a job though.
Let’s get to it.」

Balbano casually stows away the strange collection of arms and prompts me from behind with his stumpy legs.

「I’ll share a cup with you too, Sekrit.
Don’t rewind the spring……’kay?」

「That was fun.I haven’t seen something so strange before.」

Sekrit takes the three arms with her…… as well as the mysterious spinning arm.
In the end, she took a liking to it.

As I walk in front, Balbano and Sekrit talk about something behind me.

I see Celia dash furiously from the corner of my eye.
Fufufu, she must surely be busy as I feel a wholesome sense of engagement unlike before.
Being well-prepared is a good thing.

While I was occupied with the cute Celia, Sekrit and Balbano converse in hushed voices.
I strain my ears to try and find out whether Balbano is devising a way to cheat with Sekrit after getting in the mood from seeing her naked body.

「Can you apply the same engineering that spins this arm and add directional and irregular movements?」

「It’s not impossible, those are just pointless motions to include.」

「No, that’s fine.
Make it with the same soft material as the daily-use arm, with this kind of shape and this big…… also make the tip thicker than the rest of the arm.
If possible, add metal balls or stud it with bumps all over……」

「I don’t really get it, but I can make it if that’s what you want.
I don’t think it’ll be very useful though.」

「Don’t worry about it, please.
As thanks, I’ll share some of my cherished alcohol with you.」

I can’t understand what is being said from the fragments I overhear.
Whatever.
As long as it’s not about cheating, it’s fine if I don’t know.