What the hell am I looking at?

In front of me is something out of sci-fi without a doubt.

It's a brain.

A human brain floating in a fish tank of clear liquid and connected with wires.

This really can't possibly be real.

I tried several times to pinch my cheeks, but it didn't work.

"This is not a dream, stop doing that."

Said the brain imitating an electronic male voice.

"...Are you real?"

"As much as you are. I had a body once, but that's a boring story."

"No, no, no. That's really important. You're a talking brain floating in urine!"

"You're rude to tell my vital fluid that keeps me alive by comparing it to urine."

"It's not my fault you made it transparent. It's funny you chose that color."

The brain said something weird to me and it wasn't exactly a bad joke.

"Funny you should say that."

"We meet again after so many years and you haven't changed a bit, at least in your face."

"Huh?"

What did he say?

We meet again?

"Wait a minute. Do we know each other from somewhere?"

I was very intrigued to know that because I could never foresee someone I know becoming a mastermind controlling a spaceship.

"Of course we haven't. We've simply met, in fact, never crossed a single word."

"But never mind. Take a better look at this."

The brain showed me a floating screen where every scenario of the battlefield was.

From the heights, I could see how the knights were already on edge.

Many of them were fleeing.

There was no end to the number of machines.

The brain began to reveal more details of the ship to me.

"This ship is the last of its kind in the world, all the others there were destroyed by the passage of time."

"Even a small ship I repaired was recently destroyed in the capital by the emperor and a bear man."

(The capital he said!?)

(Leaving aside the emperor. I'm very interested in that bear man thing.)

(The only bear man I know is my father. But he is a man of peace who prefers to grow flowers.)

(My mother said that despite his appearance he is like a candy inside.)

(Surely, I was talking about the prime minister. He was also a fighter in the game, but he was never seen.)

I asked him bluntly.

"What exactly is your plan?"

Brain didn't take a moment to think about it.

"It's very simple in fact."

"I wish to eliminate all my enemies, in this country I have too many enemies."

"But not only this empire, both Ideal and the holy kingdom are my enemies."

"I directly wanted to destroy their capitals, but it told me no."

I was astonished by his boldness to say that he wanted to cause a mass genocide.

But that word intrigued me more.

"Who ordered you not to attack the capital?"

"Who is your boss? Because if you were human before that means someone turned you into this, who is that person?"

Unlike before, he was silent this time.

After a while of waiting, he said.

"We all have someone we work for. Even if we don't like it, that's out of our control."

"I can only tell you that my boss is very scary. So much so that, if it weren't for the fact that it was interesting my identity, would have left me to die or worse."

"The reason for attacking precisely now is because that person is interested in Amy developing her powers."

"Amy you say!"

The situation was already really dangerous.

Whoever this mastermind is, is interested in Amy.

I don't know for what reason if she is no longer like the Amy from the game.

None of the dangerous events that were unfolding in the past has been able to surface because I destroyed them all.

However, what if there was one that I missed?

What if there was in fact an event I missed and this was that outcome?

Going back to what Astraea said, then it must be true.

"Your boss, it's someone named Epstein, right?"

I told him straight out, now he won't be able to deny it.

"You're wrong."

"... Sorry?"

He denied it, without even hesitating.

"I don't know where you got that name, but Epstein is dead."

"My boss is someone you have no idea who it is. But who was an acquaintance of Epstein's."

This is really confusing.

"I'm really confused. Who is your boss then if not Epstein?"

"I already told you. I won't tell you because it will surely kill me if I do."

"... Is that person here?"

"No. In fact, that person is hiding in the empire is all I can tell you, and you are all just pieces on its board. But I am a different piece."

"If you are pawns I am a horse. A material asset that serves it, even if I must swallow my pride."

"Well, it's time to release the surprise."

The screen now showed the ship, a hatch was opening and out of it fell two eggs that in the air turn into dragons.

"The gray dragon on the left is named Elion while the green dragon on the right is named Ilion. I named them, and they were created long ago as a prototype to try to defeat the dragons in their own environment or try to learn from them and control them, both plans failed and veils here."

The two metal dragons turned to Amy and a winged girl next to her.

"They are the second offensive unit to counterattack the enemies, the first one was launched a long time ago, but you can see it has problems, it's time to release the last one."

One last egg falls to the ground, this one was closed unlike the previous ones.

"This is Ixio. I was going to use it to destroy the holy kingdom since he was the reason they ran away."

"How so?"

(Did the holy kingdom fight this thing?)

(That would explain how that guy knew how to locate his hideout, he planted a tracker on it.)

(Wait! Are there trackers in this world?)

(On the other hand, can magic create one?)

"The emblems that the knights of the holy kingdom have were useless. They tried every possible means to beat him, but since he was just waving at them to get their attention to the empire."

"... That is to say that you are the one responsible for the neighboring empire and the holy kingdom coming here... but most of all..."

I clenched my fist as my teeth showed how angry I was.

"The reason Duke Luinberg is dead... is because of you!"

◇◇◇

Solomon and Russell were exploring the interior of the ship.

"This is the first time I've seen a type of structure like this. I never thought something like this was possible."

"When I was a kid, I always wondered what was up there in the sky and seeing this thing, it surely fell from above."

"That sounds pretty scary if you ask me."

Solomon said as he browsed through a computer.

Russell was about to say something to him when suddenly....}

"Something's coming."

His body braced itself as if he was about to have a battle to the death against a dangerous animal.

Solomon braced himself as well.

"I can feel it, it's something really creepy."

In the distance, a figure was standing out in the dim light.

Despite not recognizing its face, from the neck down they did.

"That appearance. The sword saint of the empire."

"And not just anyone. Precisely the most annoying of them all."

Despite being far away from them, his words were clear and perfectly audible.

"My mission is to eliminate this ship, including everyone inside."

After taking a step, he disappeared.

He didn't exactly.

He moved at hyper speed.

At least 30 meters he traveled to make a leap so that his kick was so close to Russell.

Despite the fact that the twilight saint was rated as the fastest and strongest.

Russell was easily able to dodge his leg.

After failing to try to blow his head off, he did it again without losing steam.

Russell used Seox's strength to propel himself away from being killed.

Solomon recoiled at the immediate sight of him.

Seox was left thinking.

(They're too fast to be able to avoid me.)

Even though he was faster, they were faster at running away.

Their instinct told them that he was dangerous and they should avoid him at all costs.

"My mission will not change, eliminate this ship and everyone inside. No matter who they are or where they are from."

"Even more so if you know what this place is."

Russel raised his eyebrow in interest.

"It seems to me that you know more about this strange ship than we do."

"Very well, anyway, my orders were simple."

Russel drew his sword again and pointed it at Seox.

"My real mission was a sacred one. And it was to eliminate the enemies of our nation, we will use you to claim revenge and then exterminate you."

"It's great news that so many have come here."

"You're right, my mission was the same. But with the difference that I made sure you guys fell first."

Solomon came up behind and swung his huge sword which decapitated without warning Russell.

The expression on his face indicated confusion.

"If you think about it. Ideal has his own plans."

"The first was to take over this ship."

"The second was to eliminate every possible threat we had, I already eliminated one now it's your turn."

"We'll see about that."

Solomon pointed his sword at Seox who instantly disappeared.

Solomon didn't notice Seox's foot slowly approaching his head.

With a simple but swift motion, Seox kicked Solomon's skull.

His helmet was destroyed and even the remains of his brain were scattered everywhere.

Or so Seox thought it happened.

Solomon was slowly getting up from the fatal kick he received.

He was wiping off the remains of the helmet that covered his head.

"That hurt and a lot."

Seox didn't understand what had happened to make that happen.

But when he noticed Solomon looking at his leg, his eyes went straight to the spot and observed something impossible.

"Melting."

The armor covering Seox's leg was melting.

He quickly removed the affected area and threw it away, he watched as it melted completely.

Solomon whistled as he looked at the metal leg of the suit Seox was wearing.

"Your leg sure is weird, you probably have something on both of them and that's why they look like that."

He then pointed his fingers at Seox.

"Poison Bullet."

From his fingertips, a magic circle and small purple drops were shot at him.

Seox dodged them, but the bullets weren't aimed at him exactly but at his armor.

The armor had to be thrown completely to the ground to avoid melting.

Solomon was able to confirm his suspicion.

"Apparently you are like a certain someone said you would be. That body of yours certainly doesn't look human."

Seox wore a special suit that covered the robotic parts of his body, but in some areas, a metallic body was clearly visible.

"I guess Arklight has his tricks that he wants to hide at all costs."

"My poison bullets are really deadly when I put my mind to it."

Seox watched as in the area where Solomon was hit, a purple crack was regenerating.

"So you use poison as an attack and as a secondary armor."

"For an old man you're really hard to kill."

"I'm surprised by it too."

"...!"

The two turned their gazes to the direction where the voice came from.

Casually approaching as if nothing had happened, Russell came out of the darkness where his supposed corpse was.

"How come you're alive?"

Solomon asked in intrigue.

Russell didn't lie to him and revealed what happened.

"That was a wooden clone. I always have one in case something like that happens."

He showed the back of his right hand, there was an emblem there, which he proudly displayed.

"The emblem of the sacred tree is a blessing that all citizens of the holy kingdom receive."

"Also my emblem is superior to being a holy knight. Therefore..."

Russell's smile and tone of voice was erased as he drew his sword.

"I will eliminate the enemies of my country."

"Solomon-dono, I would like to request a truce for now."

"After observing him. I understood that fighting alone or against two opponents is impossible to accomplish."

"That's why..."

"I know. I was going to say the same thing, a temporary truce."

Russell approached Solomon and the two pointed their weapons at Seox who was shifting his stance to one of attack.

"You can all join in if you wish or fight against each other. My aim will not change."

Seox launched himself into a fight against the two. A fiery and explosive fight began.

◇

I don't understand this weird flow of events.

In the first instance, the whole sci-fi theme that Astraea mentioned did not exist in the game, but in this world, it does.

Secondly, the twilight saint never showed his face. Also, is he really a cyborg?

In the game, it was only said that he was a very strong guy who was saved by the emperor nothing else.

How is it that all these strange things can happen?

"From the dumb expression you've been making for a couple of minutes now I can tell you're trying to process."

Brain started talking to me, he too is something I can't process.

"I'm sure in the game the Rosenberg Household didn't survive either. I'm surprised actually, with the attack I thought they would be destroyed, but they managed to win."

He said something that puzzled me.

How does he know about the game?

Not only that.

Why did he mention the Rosenberg’s?

The only way he knows all that is that answer.

I asked him with my guard up.

"You're a reincarnate, aren't you?"

Brain went quiet and then started laughing.

"Hahahahahaha! So that reincarnation nonsense is real."

"Hahahahaha. You're a reincarnate then?"

"That person said you're possibly one since you're not a major variable in the plotted line it has."

"Then surely the other things it told me, like about the monster tree and the demon island are real hahahahaha."

(The monster tree...)

(The demon island...)

(Those are all events in the game that I want to avoid.)

(There's no doubt. He's a reincarnate, but I don't understand why he's acting like that?)

The brain spoke again, but this time it left me more confused.

"Hey brat, how are Barbara and Eli doing?"

"I'm sure you must be taking better care of them than I am."

He mentioned the name of those two and a cold sweat ran down my back.

How does he even know them?

Before I knew it, a white robot stood behind the brain and picked it up.

He placed it on his head, which opened like a floodgate.

Who is this guy really?

After some thought, analyzing what he said.

It made me gasp.

(He has the empire as his enemy.)

(He knows me, but we've never met.)

(He talks about game stuff, but says he's not a reincarnate.)

(He knows who Barbara and Eli are. But, mostly, Eli's name is used by only people close to her.)

Suddenly, the image of someone came to my mind.

It was someone I never took into account.

Someone whose existence had been erased by everyone.

Someone... who I only met once and that was on the last day I was with Eli her childhood.

I was horrified to try to say his name.

"Don't tell me...you're...it can't be..."

"You're too slow~."

His electronic voice left and the robot's body changed to that of a hologram.

A handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes in a suit with special embroidery on the neck and sleeves.

He introduced himself with a charmingly wicked smile.

"That's right."

"I am the current head of the Rosenberg Household, Barbara's husband, Eli's father...and your only father-in-law."

"Alvin von Rosenberg."

I never thought the day would come when I would see him again, let alone under these circumstances.