Machinist of Mana Chapter 127 Leaving Home

A/N: Hi everyone! I'm back from my little break, and ready to jump right on back into it!

All good things must come to an end, and so too did my break for training. Rowenna had to return to her school, my own reopened, though I wouldn't be attending, and things began to return to some semblance of normal. Sure, much of the city was still a wreck, people were still here and there, but the nobles were slowly leaving, and so too was it time for me to follow.

The ship that would be taking us to Elazia, was in fact one from that particular continent, and one much unlike our own vessels. Rather than looking like a steam ship powered by magic, it looked something more akin to a floating fortress. The vessel wasn't quite as big as the old aircraft carriers from Earth were supposed to be, not that I'd ever personally seen one, but it was massive, and teeming with what looked like weapons.

“Heavens, is all that really necessary?” I said to my teacher.

“You've never traveled in the open ocean have you? Only nearer to shore I would suppose. Not a lot of people do, for various reasons, but yes, it is necessary.”

“It can't even come into the harbor properly,” I pointed out, motioning at the smaller ship we were going to have to take to get to where it was parked.

“Eh,” he dismissed. “Shouldn't you be saying your goodbyes though?”

“Hmm?” I turned to see my mother approaching behind us, looking worried. How had he even known she was here?

Rather than let her come and get involved with this walking headache I went to her. Mother looked... better. For a time after my father's death she'd been a bit reclusive, which was odd to me. They weren't ever lovey-dovey, at least in front of me, but there'd been much I'd clearly missed. After looking lost for several days she then looked simply painfully sad.

“Hello son,” she said with a small smile. “I don't suppose you'll decide to cancel this?”

“No,” I confirmed. “There's still more going on, and I want to know what and why.”

“You could leave that to others, and stay here instead.”

“I could,” I agreed. “But I won't. There's no chosen hero here like in all those children's stories, no special person to save the world, or stop some disaster, and I'm certainly not such a person. What I am though is the person who's here, and someone who can do something, so I will.”

Was I chosen? Honestly I didn't think so, not as some superhero. My abilities were thoroughly average, even for someone with magic. Sure, I was good at making guns and small machines, but I wasn't some overpowered monster capable of fighting demon kings or gods. No, I was just a man, a man who could only do so much. That was no excuse though, to do less than what I could.

And what I could do now was find out why. Why had people come to kill Archmage Penumbra? What was their plan, their motive, their purpose to this? People had theories, perhaps a few good ideas, but that wasn't enough. It didn't even tell me why they'd gone after the goblins so much, which was truly weird.

There was more still though. Some of their actions had undoubtedly put pressure in places that may well have caused my father's death, and I wasn't about to let that go. Vengeance was a fool's errand, but justice wasn't, and someone out there had been doing some soundly unjust things. So I'd see if I couldn't find them, couldn't bring them out of the shadows and into the light. When that happened I had a feeling that my new acquaintance might have his own say.

“You're wrong,” she said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“About what?”

“There is someone chosen, you son.” A small smile played on her lips. “You chose yourself, and personally, I think that's a bit better than some of those stories. I just want you to know that you don't have to, and if you ever want to stop, you can.”

“I love you too.” She playfully hit my arm. “And I have a request.”

“Oh?”

“I know you have feelings about it, but look after Kaylee for me. She may not be your daughter, but she's still my sister, and she needs all the help she can get.”

Mother frowned, but after a sigh and a shake of her head answered.

“Very well, I'll keep an eye out for her and if I think she's in over her head I'll do something. Don't expect me to baby her though.”

I could hear the boatmen calling us to go, but before I could leave she held onto me, pulling me down a bit so she could kiss my forehead.

“You'll have to follow my request though, come home to me safe.”

“I'll do my best,” I promised.

Almost too soon though I had to pull away, hop into the small loading vessel and sail out to the larger ship. I waved back at mother as we went, smiling as best I could, as we pulled away. Sure, we were prepared, but we still had much to do before we made it across the ocean, something I'd never done before.

Once we were all aboard, and our luggage was being moved on I was called over to the Councilor's chambers, there was apparently something he wanted to talk to me about.

His room was large, stately, not opulent, but like something made for a military officer, with a desk and plenty of writing materials, along with a few chairs. His clothing was still in boxes, pushed against one side where a door to what must be his bedroom stood. There were other boxes too though, large ones sitting all about.

“You needed something?” I asked

“Yes, we had some operational concerns before leaving, but I had a bit of a conversation with your goblin friend Sasha.”

“Oh?”

“Indeed, and she wanted us to take something with us you haven't yet been informed of. Now that we're underway our security is quite a bit more potent, so I thought I'd share it with you.”

“And what is-” I didn't finish before the lid of one of the boxes all but exploded off, a small green form shooting upwards.

“Surprise!” said a familiar girl, goggles whirring as they adjusted to something or other. It was the same one who'd fought me several times, and gotten the better of me too.

“What the hell!” I shouted.

The Councilor almost doubled over in laughter, wheezing as I looked between the two of them.

“Ahaha-ha, your face!”

“You could have told me about this!” I shouted at the old bastard.

“But then you wouldn't have been so surprised!” he enthused.

“Not at all,” Greta agreed as she clumsily climbed out of her box. I couldn't help but notice the odd lack of grace, and it took a moment to register why.

“Are you pregnant!?” I asked the goblin girl with the visible bulge in her abdomen.

“Indeed, and I wanted my child to be born in our old homeland, so I decided to tag along. It will be nice to see where my people are from anyway. Your friend only required that I play along with his joke.”

“But it's only been...”

“Our gestational period is far shorter than that of humans.”

“You're both such a headache,” I grumbled, turning and leaving. They could have their fun with each other if they were going to be like that.