Gamma gave the council members a surprised look. "Are you serious?" he finally asked, hoping that it was all just some bad joke.
He however already knew the answer seeing the council leader's expression. While he and Gamma already knew each other for a while now and their relationship was one close to being friends after he had helped his granddaughter get a pair of glasses that wouldn't break during even the roughest play-sessions, he knew him well enough to know that he would quickly jump back into his more serious leader position when it was deemed necessary.
"Yes, we are." the council leader replied. "As I already said, this isn't the time for jokes. This is a serious case we're in after all."
"Honestly never expected to one day be a serious case." he half nodded, half-joked.
The old man sighed but didn't comment on it.
"So war you have mostly used your knowledge in the technical field purely for general life improvements and safety." another member replied instead. "But from what little we have seen you put into the defenses of the village it's easily imaginable how horrifying the results would be if you decided to design a weapon for mass murder. While we know that that's against your general line of morality we're pretty sure that the invincible lord will probably force you to do something like that. The thoughts alone are extremely worrying."
Gamma was silent for a moment. "He can't force me to do something like that." he finally replied in an angry tone. "If he even manages to kidnap me in the first place…" He turned towards the council. "I assume you have a plan?"
"That's correct." the empress carefully replied. "We have been considering to relocate you to Safe Harbor. It will only be temporary bu-"
"Sorry, but that won't happen." Gamma broke her off.
"Are you sure that is a good idea?" she asked worriedly. "If they succeed…"
"I make sure they won't." he almost instantly replied. "Trust me, I have the knowledge to make sure that not even a fly can get into my workshop."
The empress fell silent, giving him an unsure look.
"Have you ever built a weapon?" she finally asked. "One of the kinds that are too dangerous for this world… Would you want one of those to fall in the wrong hands?"
Gamma was about to reply that such a weapon didn't exist, but paused, reconsidering the question as a particular memory came back to him. The memory of his most recent flashback to be more precise and the robot that was present in it.
While he hadn't found the blueprint for that particular machine in his diary, he could say for sure that it had been designed for war. He had to admit to himself that those blades it possessed had a vibe of danger around them even though he didn't know or remember what material they were made of, leave alone what they did. He did recall however how sharp they were, being able to cut through almost every material, but that wasn't the reason why they were special. There was another property. A special alloy that allowed it to… allowed it to… to…
"Gamma? Are you still with us?"
"I don't remember…" he finally replied truthfully. "If I did, I don't remember…"
The council members slowly nodded one after the other, although some were giving him suspicious looks.
"I however still stick with my decision that I stay." he replied, before quickly continuing as some members were about to protest. "It's not because I don't care, but there's a project of highest priority that I'm currently working on that can under no circumstances be canceled."
"Why don't just bring that project with you?"
"It's not just important, but also big. As long as it hasn't been completed, trying to move it will be an incredibly difficult task, and doing it over long distances is outright impossible." he replied with a serious tone. "With the addition of this new enemy I now also need to make sure that they under no circumstances get their hands on it be it just half completed, or worse fully."
"Would you mind telling us what that project you're working on is?"
"I can't. This machine I'm assembling is so advanced that none of the words in your current grammar would be able to even closely describe what it is. So far only my diary has the words that could describe project Armory and those are words whose meanings go beyond that of your imaginations and wildest dreams with technology so advanced that you won't understand what you're dealing with, so advanced that you can only explain it through magic and supernatural powers. Project Armory is a build-out of technology so advanced that it's centuries beyond the most advanced technology your military is developing in secret while at the same time palling and being written off as primitive in comparison to the other things my diary has hidden between its pages…"
"Sounds pretty dramatic… What is it able to do?"
"If everything goes right, it should be able to allow the user to almost shrug off dragon attacks as well as counter them and under optimal conditions even repeal a coordinated attack of multiple individuals on its own."
"By all respect and accomplishments you had so far, this honestly sounds impossible. Even you struggled with these beasts and they're huge…"
"Oh, I know them better than you do." he interrupted the council member. "After all there's a reason why I'm not able to move the Armory. It's a big project in a way more literal sense than you would think. I'm planning to give the dragons something of their own size to fight against instead of constantly picking on smaller prey…"
He smiled looking over the council. "You probably don't believe me, and I honestly don't blame you, but that will only be temporary. The Armory has almost been completed and if even dragons can't face off against it, that city that calls itself indestructible will soon realize how wrong they were. My choice stays the same. I won't leave."
The council had didn't even reply to that, instead of whispering amongst themselves.
Gamma watched them casually before the council leader finally turned towards him after what felt like an hour, although it probably had only been a few minutes.
"You may leave now Gamma. We… have a lot to discuss and think about and we need to reconsider our options before we take further actions…"
"That was the plan." Gamma replied standing up. "If you plan to relocate me, I'm going to make it very difficult for you both physically and mentally. I'm not planning to leave anytime soon."
"Pretty dramatic." one of the guards silently commented when he walked past.
He knew the young guard under the name Jimmy, and they were under good terms after he had helped him get into the guard by making him an expensive armor for a price the rather poor boy could effort.
"I might've been exaggerating a bit to give them a reason to reconsider their decision." he replied with a wink. "But only a tiiiiny bit so no reason to tell them…"
Jimmy chuckled at that before giving him a thumbs up.
—000—
A mysterious figure was watching the council, concealed from the shadow of a pillar. His original objective had been to spy on the Mechanic and kidnap him once the right opportunity has shown itself.
Now however he had to decide as he watched his target leave the room.
A bit later his choice had been made and he quickly climbed out of a window without making any sounds.
"I'm sure the invincible lord will forgive me for not completing my task once he hears about this…" the figure thought before disappearing into the shadows of the nearest alley."
New chapter's out, and this time it's on time with the release shedule.
A lot is planned and being built up with both project Armory as well as the invincible lord starting to get into the mix.
I can promise that things will start to get crazy now that we're reaching the end of the "Blue Wave Harbor chapter" and entering the next...
As always, feedback are highly welcome as well as suggestions and questions. :D