Animation Producer in a Fantasy World

The Kingdom of Rihart.

A country with a long history not far behind the Empire that boasts a thousand years of history, and at the same time, possessing the power called the hegemon of the North.

And currently, the Kingdom of Rihart was in a state of not having much exchange with the Empire.

Because these two countries had a history of constantly waging war against each other until about a few hundred years ago.

Of course, now it was long after the war between the two countries had ended.

Nevertheless, the citizens of both countries couldn’t help but harbor not-so-good feelings towards each other.

So roughly speaking, if we were to compare it to Earth, it would be like the relationship between England and France.

But no matter how bad the relationship between the two countries was, they couldn’t cut off diplomatic relations altogether.

Therefore, the kingdom was sending diplomatic envoys to the Empire at least once every few years.

So on the very day when the envoy of the Kingdom of Rihart visited the Empire to deliver a diplomatic letter to the Emperor as usual.

“…What on earth is that?”

The kingdom’s envoy had witnessed it.

A giant steel giant, approaching several dozen meters in height.

At first, the envoy thought he was seeing some kind of illusion, or that magicians were using illusion magic to do something strange.

But.

Ladies and gentlemen, did you see? This is Unit 0, the war machine secretly created to defeat and repel all enemies threatening the empire.

[Guoooo-!]

Seeing the sight of the thing called a ‘Machine God’ letting out an ominous cry as if it were alive.

And the sight of a person entering it and actually controlling the Machine God, the envoy couldn’t help but open his eyes wide.

“This can’t be! Has the Empire finally created such a secret weapon to invade our kingdom?”

Although peace had been maintained between the two countries for the past few hundred years, the wicked Empire must have created such a terrible weapon behind closed doors, unable to suppress their ambition to conquer the kingdom.

At that moment, the envoy couldn’t help but imagine.

Assuming a war breaks out between the two countries, what would happen if that steel giant were to take to the battlefield.

“…It’s terrible.”

In the envoy’s mind, he could only imagine that giant roaming the battlefield, mercilessly trampling the kingdom’s soldiers.

That’s how powerful that steel giant was, a tremendous weapon that could change the very paradigm of the battlefield.

So the envoy immediately returned to the kingdom and reported everything he had seen and heard.

“You say the Empire has created a 40-meter-tall humanoid giant and plans to use it as a war machine?”

“No, what… Even so, that sounds too absurd to believe.”

Naturally, the king and nobles expressed their disbelief openly while listening to the envoy’s report.

But the envoy had his own things to say.

“I too thought I was mistaken when I first saw it. But the reactions of the Emperor and nobles of the Empire were strange.”

“…Their reactions were strange? What do you mean?”

“Well, you see…”

First, the nobles who approached to inquire about the identity of that giant showed a somewhat peculiar attitude.

…Ah, you mean that?

I see, you don’t know….

I see. That’s….

Let’s stop this conversation here. Well then….

…?

In fact, this was due to the chain of hatred, that is, nobles who had been trolled by someone acting the same way towards someone else.

From the perspective of the envoy who knew nothing, he could only feel bewilderment.

In contrast, the Emperor:

Ah, so you know about the Machine God. The Machine God is something that Ragna fellow created with my sponsorship, made to repel the true enemies of the Empire. In the setting it’s made to repel Outer Gods, but we had to compromise with reality due to various issues. But still, we made it so that even considerable attacks can’t even scratch it, so there’s no particular problem….

….

He even showed the behavior of rambling on about information that wasn’t even asked, as if showing off the Machine God in front of the envoy.

In the end, looking at the Emperor and nobles, the final conclusion the envoy drew was this:

‘I see. Now that this Machine God is completed, they have nothing more to hide, is that it?’

The Machine God is over several dozen meters in size, so it’s something that can’t possibly be hidden from others’ eyes even if they wanted to.

However, while the nobles want to keep the existence of the Machine God a secret to the end in the sense of being as cautious as possible, the Emperor is showing off the existence of the Machine God with an extremely arrogant attitude.

“Even ordinary citizens seemed to know well about the Machine God. The existence of the Machine God was already widely known to the imperial citizens.”

They were even openly selling various pictures and models themed on Machine Gods in the market, so what more needs to be said.

Of course, the pictures and models related to Machine Gods were so elaborate at first glance that he wanted to investigate them further.

But if he dug too deeply into this, he didn’t know what kind of interference might come from the Empire’s side, so he chose to return to the kingdom as quickly as possible.

Anyway, when the envoy’s vivid account was conveyed, the king and nobles also made serious expressions.

“…If what you say is true, the concept of war will change completely from now on. Because there’s no way to defeat that giant by conventional methods.”

“Ordinary soldiers would die instantly if trampled by the Machine God, and even if it were an archmage, it would be extremely difficult to destroy it with ordinary firepower.”

“Also, the Empire wouldn’t just stand by and watch our archmages trying to destroy the Machine God. In the end, it’s saying that it’s nearly impossible to destroy the Machine God by conventional methods…”

So the king and nobles had a very serious discussion about the existence called the Machine God.

And as a result, one conclusion was drawn.

‘We can’t win.’

If the Empire deploys this Machine God when a war really breaks out between the Empire and the kingdom.

The kingdom would be defeated in the war without being able to properly fight back.

Then what should be done?

Should we really just watch the Emperor and imperial nobles’ wicked schemes?

“…We have no choice.”

The king opened his mouth with an extremely depressed expression.

“We must secretly contact the Empire. Tell them that we’ve completely seen through what plans they’re making with the Machine God, so we’ll stand on their side too. That we’ll participate in the plans they’re making.”

If it’s an enemy that can’t possibly be defeated, we should at least stand on the same side.

It was a very humiliating thing for the kingdom that had been opposing the Empire for hundreds of years, but reality was only cruel.

So the Kingdom of Rihart ended up drafting a humiliating document proposing an alliance to the Empire.

The kingdom’s alliance proposal document was immediately delivered to the Emperor.

Naturally, the Emperor’s reaction after reading that document was as follows:

“Are these guys really in their right mind?”

The Emperor muttered as if bewildered.

“They’re asking if we created the Machine God to use as a war weapon?”

Saying so, the Emperor stared at the Machine God on display in the square outside the Imperial Palace.

It looked magnificent on the outside, but its reality was nothing more or less than a simple amusement ride.

Because the moment the Machine God model was completed, the Emperor had oppressed Ragna with his power and boarded it first.

It was a very satisfying time for the Emperor, who claimed to be an ardent fan of “Machine God Chronicles”.

“Well, I guess. That Ragna fellow did make the Machine God model quite convincingly. No wonder the envoy from another country thought it was real when he saw it.”

The Emperor was just muttering with an extremely pleased face.

Meanwhile, the nobles could more or less guess why the kingdom side had such a misunderstanding.

“The Kingdom of Rihart hasn’t had much official exchange with us for the past few years.”

“As such, they wouldn’t have been exposed to the work called “Machine God Chronicles”, so we can’t say anything even if they have such a misunderstanding.”

Well, even if they were on the kingdom’s side, the probability that they would have mistaken that Machine God model for a war weapon was very high.

Because even most of the nobles here had never imagined that a mere animation would be so successful that a 1:1 size real model would be created in the middle of the empire.

Well, whatever happened, there was zero possibility that the Machine God would be used as a war weapon as the kingdom worried.

So the nobles were about to laugh it off lightly, thinking of it as just an amusing happening, when at that very moment.

“…Wait a moment.”

The Emperor suddenly came up with a brilliant idea in his head.

“What if we really make such a weapon on this occasion?”

“…Pardon?”

At that moment, the nobles made expressions as if doubting their ears.

Has the Emperor finally become unable to distinguish reality from anime because he’s too immersed in “Machine God Chronicles”?

“Don’t look at me with those eyes. I’m not crazy enough to say let’s really use the Machine God in war.”

The Emperor said, clicking his tongue.

“To people from other countries who don’t know about “Machine God Chronicles”, the appearance of the Machine God can only be overwhelming and majestic. Also, our soldiers’ morale will rise endlessly. Then won’t it serve as a powerful deterrent just by standing on the battlefield?”

“…Oh.”

“Indeed, that’s not wrong.”

Without going far, even the kingdom’s envoy ran straight back to the kingdom after seeing the Machine God model.

Of course, its reality is just a 40-meter-tall plastic model, but if the people here are just careful with their mouths, that fact won’t leak out.

Just as the nobles were making such calculations in their heads.

“And if we make the Machine God in advance, won’t it be helpful when Outer Go… I mean, when giant monsters really appear later? It might be confusing if we use the name Machine God as it is, so it would be better to use a different name. Does anyone have any good ideas?”

“…Hmm, then how about Giant God Soldier?”

“Giant God Soldier, Giant God Soldier. Very good, Duke.”

“It wouldn’t be bad to add the word ‘Obelisk’, which means ‘great’ in ancient language, to that.”

“Oh, indeed! As expected, you have a sense, Duke.”

“…..”

“…..”

Listening to such conversations going back and forth between the two power holders standing at the pinnacle of the Empire, the nobles closed their eyes tightly.

Thinking that if the Empire falls apart sometime soon, it will surely be because of that bastard Ragna.