Chapter 134

Chapter 134

#134. Mobile Knight Pluto (4)

Day by day, the art of papermaking and printing grew more advanced when they met with magical engineering.

Arad Group, which issued counterfeit-proof Rensha banknotes, didn’t stop there.

They also filled Arad Post with vibrant colors and lively pictures.

This was how the first comic, “Mobile Knight Pluto,” was revealed to the Lensretians, delivering a massive shock and fresh excitement.

First off, the authors of this comic were unusual.

There were two: Meteor for the story and Arad Entertainment for the illustrations.

And the content of the comic was simple yet quite fresh and stimulating.

[This work is fictional. It has no connection to reality.]

A cautionary note was included at the start to prevent misunderstandings, which itself drew great interest from those encountering this kind of work for the first time.

[Year 45XX of Divine Power, Year 2XX of the Silver Age]

The timeline of the work was set in the current era but left an impression with the XX marks.

Just that alone strongly conveyed to readers that the story’s setting was near-future.

[One day, dark wizards successfully summoned demons from hell.]

[The empire was the first to surrender to the demons and became the Dark Empire.]

[The evil army of hell plunged the continent into chaos.]

The villains were dark wizards. The empire, defeated by the demon army, was subtly villainized as well.

The imperial army, having sold their souls to the dark wizards, rampaged through Arcadia as part of the Demon King’s forces.

In between scenes, huge monsters summoned by the dark wizards appeared.

[Especially before the colossal demons of hell, humanity had no choice but to suffer defeat.]

[Even the alliance of kingdoms couldn’t hold out against these giants and eventually had to hand over their capital, Badenheim.]

On the brink of disaster, with all hope seemingly extinguished on the continent…

-A ominous presence was detected in northern Lenslet!

-Send troops to the north!

The Demon King, who had taken up residence in the imperial palace, suddenly ordered an advance to the north.

Kuung Kuung Kung!

Monsters over ten meters tall from hell, along with corrupted priests of the empire and half-undead soldiers and knights of the empire, invaded Lenslet.

The dark army gathered in the fortress city of Louhan and, in coordination with monsters from the Magic Realm, quickly captured Haven.

Next, Shuen and Narvik were devastated, and now it was the turn of the industrial city Cadia.

Surrounded, the citizens of Cadia trembled with despair and fear.

-Hurry! We must move the giant soldier to High City!

-The city defense force and Frosthaven will risk their lives to open an escape route!

Meanwhile, outside Cadia, people dressed in uniforms similar to Arad employees were moving urgently.

Their location resembled an Arad Group factory, where not only employees but also knights from High City and city defenders stood guard with determined eyes.

-Master, what exactly is this thing?

At that moment, a young apprentice knight, who appeared to be around fifteen or sixteen, cautiously asked his master while standing guard.

-It’s the only hope to reverse this war.

Thus answered the high knight to the apprentice knight’s question.

-So we must risk our lives to protect this snowman.

-Yes!

Their gaze was fixed on something that had just come out of the factory.

On a large plate enchanted with levitation magic lay something covered with a huge cloth, making it impossible to tell what it was. It vaguely resembled a giant humanoid figure.

People called this reclining giant statue a “snowman” as a slang term.

Now, ten top-class horses were carefully preparing to transport it.

Kooaaaang!

But no matter how secretly one moves, it’s impossible to stay completely hidden.

Corrupted imperial troops and giant monsters, guided by the Demon King’s insight, finally discovered this place and attacked.

-Do not destroy that!

-The Demon King wishes to use it personally, so secure it!

Among the attackers was a unit reminiscent of Sigma, the empire’s intelligence organization, which any Lensretian would grit their teeth about.

-Defend!

-For Lenslet! For His Royal Highness! For humanity!

The city defenders and knights began fighting the Demon Army with their lives on the line.

-Assist the knights!

-Buy some time!

Priests and mages from the Lenslet Order supported them from behind.

-Khhheuuugh!

-Master!

At that moment, the master of the protagonist apprentice knight Rain fell, spitting blood.

-Rain! I’m fine, go to the snowman quickly! We must prevent the Demon Army from stealing it!

-Certainly! I shall fulfill Master’s command!

Rain, though merely an apprentice knight, bravely ran toward the giant soldier called “snowman.”

He then fought alongside other knights atop the giant soldier.

However, the situation grew increasingly unfavorable as time passed.

Special units of the Demon Army kept coming, and from the opposite side approached three 12-meter-tall giant monsters.

[Here.]

-Wh, who?!

[Over here!]

They say the sky gets darkest just before dawn.

When everyone was ready to give up and blow up the giant soldier,

An unknown voice echoed in the mind of the young knight Rain.

[Young one, board Pluto.]

-…!

What followed was pure cliché.

The protagonist Rain climbed aboard the giant soldier named Pluto like he was possessed.

-Good heavens! Even the high knights and sword masters of High City couldn’t move Pluto!

-The chosen one, the chosen one has arrived!

While the shocked employees and mages reacted,

Pluto rose, shedding the giant cloth, shining in pristine white armor, and swung its massive sword.

Kuaaaak!

The three colossal monsters summoned from hell were instantly bisected and returned to hell.

-Damn it, retreat! Retreat!

Realizing their failure, the imperial army hastily broke the siege and retreated.

-Hooray!

-Rain! Rain! Rain!

Under the sunset, the giant soldier Pluto and Rain in the cockpit received cheers from everyone.

With that scene, the first chapter of “Mobile Knight Pluto” came to an end.

“…!”

Stein, who had read through the entire first chapter, felt his heart pounding.

He read and reread the first chapter of “Mobile Knight Pluto” printed in Arad Post until he could recite the dialogue word for word.

His chest fluttered and burned with excitement.

Unable to sit still, he paced around the house and finally rushed outside due to unbearable restlessness.

He wanted to share this afterglow and impressions with anyone.

That way, Stein headed back to the town square.

“You’ve seen ‘Mobile Knight Pluto,’ right?”

“Of course!”

“It’s really shocking.”

“How can I wait for the next chapter?”

“Father! When I grow up, I want to become a Pluto Knight!”

“Son, sorry, but your old man’s getting there first!”

There, children, youths, and middle-aged men gathered to talk about “Mobile Knight Pluto.”

Originally, they might have had to share one newspaper among many, but with this Arad Post, everyone held their own copy.

* * *

The Arad Post, published in the major cities of Lenslet, was distributed throughout the northern villages within two days.

To the Lensretians who recently had leisure time but nothing better to do with it, the appearance of the comic “Mobile Knight Pluto” was truly a dopamine-inducing event.

Thanks to this, the enthusiastic response to “Mobile Knight Pluto” swept across all of Lenslet in less than a week.

It was nothing short of a whirlwind.

“Is the content of this picture book real?”

“It says it’s fiction at the beginning.”

“But Arad Post wouldn’t casually draw such content, right?”

“Hmm… That does make sense. Last time, wasn’t the Wall War caused by the Demon Den?”

“Everyone in Lenslet knows the empire and dark wizards are somehow connected.”

“Hold on…! Does that mean? Somewhere in our land, Pluto might be being made.”

“Lord Arad Jin Viscount? He could easily do it! Just think of all he’s accomplished so far…”

Further, some people began mistaking the contents of the manga for reality.

The problem was that it wasn’t entirely false since a prototype of Pluto actually existed in Jin Viscounty.

“One day! One day, the black wizards and hell’s Demon King will invade our homeland!”

“Mother! I want to become a Pluto Knight. Instead of Lenslet Academy, I want to enroll in the new knight military academy opening next year!”

“Good job! My son!”

The cautionary note at the beginning of the manga lost its meaning, like the words on a computer boot screen.

More than 70% of the readers of “Mobile Knight Pluto” believed that the empire would someday invade the north with hell’s hand, and they firmly believed that somewhere in the north, especially somewhere in Cadia, Pluto was being built.

“The reaction is more serious than expected, but… whatever, it doesn’t matter, does it?”

As “Mobile Knight Pluto” created a whirlwind, the sales of Arad Post skyrocketed to thirty times its usual amount.

Advertising fees were three times higher than competitors, and despite raising the advertising fee fivefold for pages featuring the manga, requests to advertise continued to pour in.

“Arad Post.”

“Old man! President!”

In this situation, Petro, the president and editor-in-chief of Arad Post, couldn’t help but acknowledge the truth.

“Mobile Knight Pluto” and “Arad Post” had become one entity.

“Leave the ad space for the next five chapters empty.”

“Yes… Yes?!”

“The Arad Toys will place an ad. Don’t worry about the cost.”

“Understood!”

Leaving Petro’s reaction behind, Arad decided to row while the river was flowing.

“Soon it’ll be Ariana’s birthday. Thanks to this, the whole region of Lenslet is already in a festival mood. Time to cash in big. Heheheheh…”

Arad had been preparing various things with the church for a long time.

One of them was turning Ariana’s birthday into an event similar to Earth’s Christmas festival.

They had invested years of effort into this. Now it was time to reap the rewards.

“Let’s see some profits from the illustrated paperback version of the novel ‘Knight Rom and Witch Julia,’ and let’s sell robot toys based on Pluto for now.”

“But these two alone feel a bit boring. Should I release another manga with a Pokémon or Digimon vibe? Since this world still has trauma regarding monsters, converting them into fairies or spirits like Tiny Pings should work…”

“Ah! Now’s the perfect time to aim for card games too! With proper enchantments, we might even create game cards with moving images, something impossible even on Earth.”

While happily contemplating the harvest for a moment, someone suddenly appeared.

“Viscount! Lord Arad Jin Viscount!!”

About a dozen people unexpectedly showed up where Arad was.

“Hmm? Oh…! I wondered why you weren’t coming.”

Arad, who had heard beforehand, slightly nodded and greeted the visitors.

“Hahaha… Lord, I’m Boris, the president of Northern Wind Sound Newspaper.”

“I greet you. I’m Beven, operating the High City’s Light Newspaper.”

“I’m Ret, the representative of Lenslet’s Wind Newspaper.”

“I am…?”

They took deep breaths and introduced themselves briefly to Arad in respectful postures.

“I know. Aren’t your companies all ones we’ve invested in? Isn’t this the first time since last year’s Northern Journalists’ Meeting?”

“T-That’s correct!”

“Did you gather here to see me for that reason?”

“Yes! Please introduce us to the genius author, Sir Meteor!”

“We don’t even expect something like ‘Mobile Knight Pluto.’ Just a novel like ‘Knight Rom and Witch Julia,’ currently serialized in Arcadia Morning, would suffice…”

“We couldn’t get any information about Author Meteor from Arad Entertainment’s president Kanu, no matter how much we pleaded… .

Representatives from newspapers like Lenslet’s Wind, Northern Wind Sound, and High City’s Light, currently active in Lenslet, all swarmed towards Arad.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll talk to Arad Entertainment’s president Kanu.”

“Thank you so much!”

“Still, do we have enough works for all our newspapers? What exactly is the identity of Author Meteor?”

“Don’t dig too deeply into the author’s identity. It’s a secret. And yes, there are enough works for each of your newspapers.”

“We’ll contract immediately! Anything will do!”

“Calm down. Works co-created by Author Meteor and Arad Entertainment will be auctioned.”

“Auction!”

When Arad mentioned the word “auction,” the newspaper representatives’ eyes hardened with determination.