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Chapter 32: The Go-Kart Is Complete

  From her perspective on the ground, the world spun around Nagami, her eyes nothing but spirals as the other members of the Craft-Squad and Zalroth stood over her. The girls cast their gazes up to Zalroth, eyeing the red, vaguely U-shaped mark on his face, biting their bottom lips to hold back a snicker as they recalled Zalroth easily plucking Nagami from her spinning predicament, only for him to get clocked in the face by the circular go-kart's steering wheel.

  "At least we know my rotation enchantments work," Yumi Yuna mentioned slightly nervously, trying to find a silver lining in Nagami's sacrifice but mostly hoping to keep Zalroth from leaving since her only method of keeping him around was currently out of commission. Catching the physically and mentally childish teen's growing worry, evident on her face, Zalroth imagined himself rolling his eyes, figuring she'd say something outlandish if Nagami stayed out of commission much longer.

  "Oh, look at that. Since Nagami's not available, I could totally sneak away and go fight monsters," Zalroth said obnoxiously, his acting so obviously fake that not even a baby would be convinced. The three girls, and even the Inventory-freed humanoid Imperiou, could only stare in awestruck shock at how atrociously bad Zalroth's acting was. But, to all of their shock, Nagami shot back up to her feet like a springboard, managing to do so without the use of her hands.

  "Woah," Luna mouthed, as Nagami eyed Zalroth with her cheeks inflated into a pout, almost sulking despite knowing Zalroth only said what he did to snap her back to her senses. She let out a light huff of shock with her face turning lightly red as she spotted the bare state of the Imperiou duo, her body forcefully spinning in the opposite direction to avoid getting any strange thoughts, like wanting to do maintenance on them.

  "Nekoura, since you weigh the most out of us, excluding Zalroth, you should sit in the kart's seat, so we can test it," Nagami stated, saying the first thing to come to mind to get her mind off the Imperiou. The sudden order mixed with the reasoning managed to get a physical jolt out of the fashion freak. Nekoura turned from her usual complexion to one fuelled with embarrassment, starting with her cheeks turning rosy, followed by the rest of her turning a similar shade.

  "Heah? You calling me phat?" Nekoura shouted, flailing her arms up and down as her lollipop stick did the same thing, only on a smaller scale.

  "Noooo... I'm saying you weigh the most, and you'd be able to tell if the padding is working best out of us," Nagami retorted swiftly and sternly, her eyebrows twitching like they had earlier when she first met Trikuel. Nekoura sloped her head to the side, utter bafflement coaxing her face, as she wondered if Nagami was looking for a fight.

  "I'm fairly sure she just wants you to sit on the padding so they won't be as firm when she uses it," Peuonie stated bluntly from behind Zalroth, causing Nagami to freeze up and shiver from the dead-on call out. Swivelling back around towards the two unclothed Imperiou, Nagami clenched her fist in a poutful fury and blurted out, "OI! Who asked for your breakdown, you streaking longsword!"

  Shortly after the charged atmosphere had simmered down, Nekoura took her place on the circular go-karts, crossing her legs in defiance as she got herself comfortable, patting the padded cushion for extra effect. Once she was settled, Nagami asked Zalroth to pick up and help attach the drill part to the frame. Grabbing the frame's claw-shaped, groove handles, Zalroth hoisted the Nekoura-carrying circular go-kart off the ground, raising it just high enough for it not to be out of the shorter girls' reach.

  Employing their little gremlin hands, Nagami and Yumi Yuna got to work attaching and socketing the drill piece to the matching socket, getting similar crystaline clicking like when Nagami socketed the aircraft-like steering wheel. Whilst the others worked away, Luna awkwardly stood beside Zalroth, not having anything to do until the go-kart was in one piece so she could apply the remaining enchantments to it.

  Seeing the perfect opportunity to do some teasing herself, but mostly wanting to try it out herself. Noticing the attention directed at him, Zalroth peered to his side and was greeted by the surprisingly close and smirking Luna, the fierceness behind her eyes apparent to Zalroth even with Luna's hair obscuring them.

  "Since we're face to face and have nothing else to do, you can thank me now," Luna said gleefully from behind her hair that blanketed her face, taking advantage of Zalroth being stuck in place.

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  "Huh? Oh, you mean the weapon skill that was in the gold moon knife?" Zalroth spoke, his voice slightly strained from having to lift the connected, circular go-kart frame with his arms and keeping the drill balanced against his raised leg as the two shorter girls worked. Luna raised a hand to her mouth, covering it and giving her the visage of a scheming villain, despite the confidence of her grin turning into a wobbly mess.

  "I'll accept a kiss as a thank you, thank you very much," Luna said teasingly, her words acting in complete opposition to the deteriorating state of her covered and quivering mouth. The fake request caused the other girls to snicker while Nagami remained completely focused on socketing the drill.

  Given Nagami's lack of a response, Zalroth safely assumed this was yet another attempt to annoy him and deemed it about time he reciprocated with his own.

  "You trying to give me a hairball, Hair-Bull?" Zalroth asked brashly and full of snark, that you wouldn't have thought he was short of breath. Luna let out a sheepish gasp of shock, almost passing out from the shame the nickname gave her, and flopped backwards, needing to be caught by the small balls of light around her before she hit her head on the oricalcum frame.

  "Gah! Almost choked on my lollipop there," Nekoura barked, almost choking on her lollipop from how fast she swung her head back in laughter. A few more splutters of chokes escaped from her mouth, from her continued laughing. Nekoura lounged out on the cushion lazily, stretching out her arms and legs to their limits, intending to make the most of her cushion testing role.

  Eventually, the drill was attached, the remaining pillows placed, and the final enchantments were applied to the go-kart. The final part was the main reason for the delay, given Luna's brief trip to dreamland.

  [The Astadrina is a circular orichalcum kart with claw-shaped, groove handles on each of its sides and a large mythril spinning top-shaped drill; it has a bowl-shaped padded royal blue cushion with golden buttons as the base padding, a collection of fluffy different-coloured pillows that have been enchanted to be strongly magnetized to the base padding, a gold aircraft-like steering wheel, a transparent solidified slime windshield, and an array of hexagon enchantment runes along bottom of the windshield]

  "Success, the Astadrina is complete!" the four girls cheered together, double high-fiving each other repeatedly as their cheers attracted the brief attention of the young Smith, who peeked her head through one of the forge's open windows before being dragged back to work by her grandfather.

  "Can I put it down now?"

  Stirred from her slumber by Zalroth shaking the Astadina, Nekoura lazily blinked under her sleep mask, groaning in exhaustion as she forced herself upright.

  "Just one second," Nekoura muttered groggily. Lifting her sleep mask to reveal her half open eyes, the lazy girl squinted at the line of hexagon runes etched into the bottom of the slime windshield before poking the one golden one. The golden hexagon rune, containing four tally marks, sprang to life and gained a faint glow before four stand-like legs of golden Hexa particles sprouted from the kart's sides, planting themselves on the floor.

  "... Interesting," Gnawraul and Peuonie said with unified interest, commenting on how they'd never seen such a device before. Given the Imperiou's probably long life, the comment filled the Craft-Squad with a sense of accomplishment that their creation hadn't been made before in this Hexa-ruled world.

  "Did you even try to test the padding and cushions?" Yumi Yuna asked mockingly while wagging her finger at the lazing Nekoura.

  "I fell asleep, didn't I?" Nekoura retorted confidently before she attempted to lower her sleep mask back over her eyes, said attempt failing as Yumi Yuna whispered something into her ear. Nekoura's eye shot wide open, a revived passion exploding within her, before she grabbed Yumi Yuna by her crop top, getting an amused huff from the cherubic. But that amusement quickly faded as Yumi Yuna was dragged through the air like a flag by Nekoura as she frantically booked it into the ironwood shed, followed by a magical warping noise.

  "Ok, to briefly explain our creation. When activated in driving mode, the drill will be coated in a layer of Hexa that'll stop it from being able to drill through the ground and will stand on its own like one of those spinning top toys. Then it steers by sending Hexa through select parts of the mythril ring to make it lean and move in the direction you want. Oh, and pressing the covered buttons on the steering wheel will make the upper half of the frame spin in the corresponding direction."

  "Nagami, you lost him the second he put The Astadrina down," Luna stated meekly, faintly gesturing towards the unfolding chaos.

  "Ehh?" Nagami muttered as she repeatedly blinked in confusion. Peeking her gaze towards Zalroth, Nagami slumped her shoulders with disappointment evident on her face as she watched the two Imperiou scaling Zalroth.

  "What do you mean you aren't doing any fighting today! How am I supposed to show off my new weapon form now!?" Gnawraul exclaimed in a violent fury as she and her sister aggressively pulled at the guy's clothes.

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