Ch.128Golem (5)

Golem, golem.

Are you deceiving us?

That was the first thought that came to mind.

There was no tension, no sense of crisis. It was more like a passing thought.

The opponent was too insignificant to feel tense about.

Even someone like Valterok was strong not because he was a golem, but because he was a Black Knight.

He was powerful because his accumulated anti-magic power was nearly infinite, and he could wield it in countless ways after 300 years of practice.

He probably wasn’t even serious when fighting me. If someone could defeat such a being, they’d have to be my ultimate equal.

So while the dozens of crystal eyes staring at me were eerie, I felt no sense of crisis. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Looking at those eyes, I felt something like relief.

If they were all golems, there was no danger, nothing to worry about.

But there was something puzzling about it all.

Why were there so many clothed golems here?

“…Weren’t you supposed to guide me to your master?”

At my lowered voice, the dog that had been happily running between the golems’ legs stopped.

It wasn’t whimpering, but I could feel it reading the atmosphere.

Dogs were creatures made to read human moods, and it was clearly frightened as it stared at me without wagging its tail.

That wasn’t my intention.

When I reached out my hand and waved, the dog finally started wagging its tail again.

“Now that I look around, I don’t see anyone who could be called a master.”

Actually, it was more that this whole environment felt extremely unfamiliar.

At first glance, it looked like an ordinary village, and judging by the clothing, it seemed like all the villagers were out and about.

But the heads on top of those bodies told a different story.

This wasn’t some medieval-themed attraction at an amusement park—they were all golems dressed in typical medieval village attire.

The miner outfits were somewhat fitting for the environment, but everything else felt awkward.

The clothes were too clean. They lacked signs of daily wear.

Was it because they were new, or because they were golems?

Were the clothes part of their bodies? Hard to tell.

More important was the intent.

They said they would take me to their master, but when I arrived, I was surrounded by golems.

They had no expressions. It was difficult to guess their emotions.

I even wondered if they had any to begin with.

Recent experiences with Valterok had caused some confusion, but fundamentally, I was certain that golems didn’t possess intelligence or emotions.

So their behavior could be interpreted in two ways.

One, they were actually trying to harm me.

And the other…

“Is one of you the master?”

“No, sir.”

“Then who is the master?”

That they had truly led me to their master.

The golems’ eyes simultaneously shifted away from me and Lorian, looking somewhere else. Eyes staring blankly at the mountain.

It would be easy to interpret that they meant something was up on that mountain.

Partly because these beings might not truly have eyes, making it difficult to judge their gaze.

What they meant was something difficult to imagine by common sense.

But as an open-minded modern person who had encountered various possibilities through different media, I understood.

At the end of their gaze, that rare and towering mountain.

As I stared at the strange formation wondering what kind of mountain looked like that, my exceptional perception of 22 revealed a new landscape.

“That’s…”

Lorian spoke first. Since she noticed it much later than I did, I simply nodded without showing surprise.

“That was the master.”

A massive peak covered in countless crystals, appearing separate from the mountain range.

At the very top was a face.

A human portrait with eyes tightly closed. I swallowed as I looked at it.

*

“Except in certain situations, visitors to the village are to be accommodated in this inn. Do you agree?”

“I agree.”

After the uncomfortable meeting with the “master,” my mind was in turmoil.

As for lodging, it didn’t matter if it was outdoors, so there was no real need for agreement, and Lorian didn’t seem to have any particular thoughts about accommodation either, so we quickly agreed.

Rather, I needed to organize my thoughts.

There was much to sort through, recall, and refine.

Why golems were keeping dogs or why they were autonomously maintaining a village wasn’t particularly important.

Instead, the massive entity I had just seen and the various phenomena stemming from it raised more questions for me.

So after the golem and the dog that showed no signs of leaving the room had departed, I thought:

What the hell was that thing I just saw?

I had never seen anything like it, neither in the game nor since falling into this world.

Something I could guess at? That too was the same. Even in the Pantheon…

No, wait.

Thinking about the Pantheon, something did come to mind.

When I first visited the Pantheon, I thought it was an inefficient building.

It had some influence from Greek and Roman mythology, which had the world’s best architecture, but it couldn’t even touch their level.

Part of that impression came from the unnecessarily high ceilings, the excessively wide spacing between columns, and the absence of walls.

It seemed less like a building and more like a stone tent.

So I had been thinking to myself: those bastards from the mythical age clearly had terrible architectural skills.

I thought maybe the Nest was decent because “Father” built it independently.

But now I see that wasn’t it. Perhaps the Pantheon was designed to accommodate beings like that?

I couldn’t know exactly what that thing was, but I could make an educated guess.

…Though the Pantheon is smaller.

Or was that thing the gods’ architect? Is it also a god?

Or just some kind of divine subcontractor?

To think even this world has subcontractors—what a deplorable state of affairs. Not that I particularly care.

No, wait, is that right?

I turned my head slightly from where I lay to look at Lorian. The Blood Knight had already unfastened her scabbard and was polishing the blade with a cloth.

In a way, couldn’t Lorian be considered my subcontractor?

Considering that my position is essentially that of a figurehead, and I delegate most important tasks to others…

Lorian could be considered a subcontractor for matters of force.

No, that’s not right. It’s usually strange for a boss to do everything directly, and rather, a good boss places capable people in the right positions.

How talented I am as a person.

Thinking of myself as an excellent boss made me feel a bit better.

“…Hmm? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I was just thinking that I’m an excellent boss.”

“Boss…?”

“Ah, you don’t know. It refers to someone who reigns at the top of a company.”

“Like a king?”

“Actually, more like the head of a merchant guild.”

“Oh, if that’s what you mean… hmm, you do seem to be doing well at it.”

Lorian tilted her head but answered diligently.

There was no need to take it too seriously. I thought about this as I lay on the bed with my feet on the floor.

In any case, it was certain that I had never heard of that massive entity in the game.

Of course, I had heard of giants in the game, but they lived in tribal units and weren’t nearly that enormous.

That thing was more like a colossus.

Having played all three games from the first to the third, I could confidently say that the term “colossus” had never appeared in them.

Which meant that this was something that could only be found in this New Continent.

Was it an indigenous inhabitant of the New Continent? Or a being created by entities like Father and Mother?

Or perhaps a transcendent being hiding its true identity?

Or maybe…

I was in the midst of considering and discarding various hypotheses when:

“So, what are we going to do?”

Lorian asked. She was re-sharpening her beheading sword with the whetstone built into her right prosthetic hand.

Her eyes glowed ominously red in the sparks flying up.

“Well, what can we do about the golems? For now…”

“No, I’m not talking about the golems. Have you forgotten our original purpose?”

With a whoosh, she blew away the metal fragments accumulated on the blade. She then gently ran her right prosthetic hand along the sharpened edge.

“We came to find two shapeshifters. Shapeshifters that even Melody, with her keen senses, said she couldn’t approach.”

Ah, that’s right. Thinking about it now, something had seemed odd.

Melody, while not at Eshaterna’s level, should still be skilled at infiltration. If someone like her found it difficult to approach, it meant these shapeshifters had considerable sensory abilities.

If they weren’t at Eshaterna’s level, there would be no way to deceive their senses.

Which meant…

“They’ve probably already noticed us. Even though I’m a blood kin with a different aura than before, you’re…”

“A blood bag. A rather strong one at that.”

“Precisely.”

Not just strong.

I was also quite famous.

And in this world, there are only two blood bags as strong as me. My sister and I.

But my sister is the famous Guardian Knight. Much is already known about her, from her face to her abilities, among the three clans.

In this context, it seemed unlikely that the two shapeshifters wouldn’t recognize that I was a blood bag different from the Guardian Knight.

“Then by now.”

“Yes, they’re already here.”

We were in what appeared to be an inn building. Befitting a designated lodging place, on the first floor there was a golem dressed like an innkeeper and another dressed like a servant.

Among the clattering sounds made by these two golems, a strange noise mixed in.

It sounded like a dog, but somehow different. I slowly rose from my seat.

Belatedly, I sensed a presence. A deliberately revealed presence.

A presence emitted to show they meant no disrespect or harm.

It approached the door. Despite being able to tear the door off its hinges, they didn’t. Instead, they made their presence known.

Knock, knock.

A polite knock. As I exchanged glances with Lorian, she crossed her legs and nodded to me.

A signal that she would follow my lead whatever I decided. I took a breath.

“Blood bag, Blood Knight. I’ve come to deliver the Empress’s message—”

As the words flowed out.

CRASH!

The hand axe that left my hand embedded itself in the door, splintering it.