The Juggernaut came to a sudden halt. The jolt felt like hitting an invisible wall, causing furniture to shake and objects to crash to the floor.

As I sat elegantly sipping tea, the abrupt stop made me spill the hot liquid all over my front. Classic wisdom held true—water beats fire. Especially when the water is scalding.

“Ow! Hot!”

I quickly flapped my clothes, trying to cool down the spilled tea. Nature’s mysteries never fail; even a simple motion like shaking fabric is enough to take the heat out of hot tea.

Now this is what you’d call natural magic. Using qi or actual spells to cool down tea would be overkill.

“Woof! Woof! Woof! Earthquake! Earthquake! Danger!”
“Azi, this isn’t even solid ground. Earthquakes don’t happen here.”

Meanwhile, Azi was frantically hopping around, clearly mistaking the tremor for a real earthquake. Maybe it was because the Juggernaut had been giving us such a smooth ride so far that Azi assumed this was solid earth.

“What’s going on? This has never happened before—it’s always been steady,” the regressor asked aloud. But only Peru could answer that question. Naturally, everyone’s eyes turned to her.

“…Probably.”

Peru slowly walked toward the small window. The Golden Ark had a tiny, reinforced window that was heavily curtained under Tir’s influence. Peru pulled back the curtain just enough to glance outside. She muttered under her breath:

“…We’re getting close.”

Peru’s typically terse words didn’t require further explanation. There was only one place to approach in this region.
The Golden Mirror.

As if on cue, we left the cabin and climbed up the narrow stairs to the deck. Standing under the blazing sun, I squinted against the light and took in my surroundings.

On one side of the deck, Aurea was huffing and pacing nervously. While Peru calmed Aurea, I strolled toward the prow. As I approached, the horizon that had been obscured by the Ark gradually revealed itself.

“I hadn’t noticed since we were cooped up inside, but the scenery has changed quite a bit, hasn’t it?”

When I reached the bow, I mumbled to myself as I looked at the scene before me.

On one side, an endless cornfield stretched out as far as the eye could see. The stalks were so tall that a person would be completely submerged up to their head. Although parts of the field at the edges appeared to have been harvested, compared to its vast size, it was no more than a scratch. Collecting all that corn could feed the Heat Nation for years.

But this sea of corn came to an abrupt end.

Beyond a small stone wall lay a cityscape. It was a magnificent city, its white stone buildings gleaming under the sun, with aqueducts running across and winding streets snaking through it. In the distance, a grand and majestic palace loomed. Clearly, this was the work of an advanced and historic civilization.

“This isn’t the Golden Palace, is it?”
“…No.”
“Then it must’ve been built by the Golden Mirror. Both the fields and the city.”

If this weren’t the Heat Nation, I might’ve been fooled by its splendor. But something about it felt...off. You didn’t even need to search for it; the incongruity was evident right away. The cornfield being situated right next to such a massive city was already enough of a red flag.

“This city lacks any sense of planning. How do you grow a field of this size, right next to such a massive urban area, without access to water? Within weeks, the crops will wither, and the city will become a breeding ground for disease and pests. What a waste of a city.”

As I muttered to myself, Hilde, who had been scrutinizing the cityscape, chimed in.

“I don’t know~? The city doesn’t seem like much of a loss to me. It might look grand and flashy, but its aesthetic sense is utterly abysmal. Even the military states are prettier than this!”
“I’m no expert on art, but it’s hard to imagine anything worse than the military states. Aren’t they just blocky and boring?”
“Father, you have no sense of aesthetics! You don’t feel the sheer discomfort this place exudes?”

Sense of aesthetics? Feeling discomfort over something you can’t even eat seems more bizarre to me. Beauty is such a subjective concept, and for someone like me who can read minds, there’s no universal standard for it. Unless everyone unanimously agrees, I can’t pinpoint what makes something beautiful.

“Here’s a hint: look at the pillars. You’ll see what I mean.”

Following Hilde’s suggestion, I turned my attention to the city’s pillars.

Temple pillars. Bridge pillars. Building pillars. Ordinarily, different structures have different creators, resulting in varied designs and techniques. While popular styles might emerge, they’re never identical. Humans reinterpret things in unique ways, even when looking at the same reference.

But this city was different.

Everything was the same. The bridge pillars, temple pillars, and even the decorative street pillars were eerily similar. While they varied slightly in size, thickness, and minor patterns, they didn’t seem like separate creations but rather branches from the same tree.

“Now that you mention it, it’s a bit unsettling.”
“That’s not all. Look at the brick patterns, the construction methods, the building layouts, the district shapes—they all repeat the same pattern. It’s so repetitive it goes beyond mundane and feels downright eerie.”

Does she always notice these things? While others were gawking at the cornfields and cityscape, Hilde was busy dissecting the details of pillars and patterns. Whether that made her observant or just peculiar, I wasn’t sure.

Her observations made me more uneasy the longer I thought about them. While her critiques didn’t emotionally sway me, I couldn’t ignore the disquieting feeling her words awakened in me.

There was something inherently wrong with this city. Its grandeur and splendor were tarnished by a persistent sense of artificiality, like a mosaic with pieces that didn’t quite fit. Buildings and blocks blended indistinguishably, like leaves in a forest of pixelated confusion.

Aesthetic sensibilities must be tied to some primal instinct, I supposed. I shrugged.

“Well, it’s no surprise. The Golden Mirror built this city alone.”

The Golden Mirror’s powers were godlike, but the worlds he created were still limited to the scope of his imagination. He might’ve been capable of creating anything, but he didn’t know everything. In that sense, the flaws in this city were a testament to his imperfection. Hilde, noticing this, gleefully pointed it out like a child.

“The Golden Mirror might be an incredible alchemist, but he’s clearly no artist! No matter how great he is, he can’t do everything. Hehe.”

Nobody can do everything alone, not even the Golden Mirror. Still, Hilde’s mocking tone seemed to rub Peru the wrong way. She frowned slightly as she approached us.

“…So. What now?”
“What do you mean? We still need to reach the Golden Palace—oh.”

Right. Why did we come out here in the first place? The Golden Ark had suddenly stopped, and we’d gone outside to investigate. But the scenery had distracted me.

“…Look below,” Peru said, pointing to the stern.

Realizing our oversight, we peered down.

The Golden Ark was tilted upward, its front wheels suspended in the air. Beneath it, massive pistons were lifting it off the ground. The endless tracks beneath the Ark flailed uselessly in midair, clawing at nothing.

The Ark, for all its advanced mobility, still needed to touch the ground to move. Lift it off the surface, and even this behemoth could be immobilized. A simple and logical solution. But the execution? Anything but ordinary.

“They lifted this giant chunk of steel?”

The Juggernaut wasn’t called a Juggernaut for nothing. It was an enormous metal colossus, towering over most buildings. Its interior housed intricate machinery designed by the Golden Mirror himself, protected by reinforced alchemical steel of unparalleled strength and weight. Lifting it should’ve been impossible.

Even the lift holding it aloft was extraordinary. Its pistons exuded immense power, capable of feats no ordinary technology could achieve.

“…That’s the work of Atlas Weenie. Equipment of the Oppressionist,” Peru explained.

“So they stopped the Ark... to protect the city?”

Looking around, I noticed wolves on mounted vehicles watching us warily from the city’s edge. The city appeared deserted, as if its inhabitants had fled at the sight of the advancing Juggernaut.

“From their perspective, it probably looked like a massive runaway machine about to crash into their city. Should we apologize and find a detour?”
“…No. We’ve arrived.”

Peru halted the Ark with her power. A low whistle signaled the engine’s shutdown, and the endless tracks stopped spinning. Shortly after, the Ark’s energy drained, leaving it cold and lifeless.

Hissss.

The pistons released with a sharp hiss, lowering the Ark back to the ground with a heavy thud. The lift ceased its operation, and for a moment, silence reigned. In this stillness, Peru spoke.

“…The Oppressionist is one of the Golden Palace’s closest guards. The Golden Palace must be nearby. We’ve arrived.”