Ch.134Golem (11)

As I walked, I thought to myself.

This ability, depending on the target, could bring about a great calamity.

Until now, for reasons unknown, I hadn’t realized it, but upon reflection, it became clear.

If one of the people I met was a shapeshifter not belonging to the Three Clans, and the other was an ordinary human.

If those two were married, I could have unintentionally stolen someone else’s wife without even meaning to.

And such situations typically spiral toward catastrophe. No matter how much I might push away, a shapeshifter driven mad by forbidden love would start clinging to me even in front of her husband.

Then even the most oblivious husband would notice and begin to rage, and the end would be bloody.

Just thinking about it made me dizzy. I’d rather engage in a difficult battle than be caught in the middle of a love triangle.

Especially if that love triangle centered around me?

The mere thought was horrifying.

And even beyond that, dangers were scattered everywhere.

I could see that just by looking at the current situation.

“Elize, she seems uncomfortable. Perhaps you should keep some distance?”

“Shut your mouth, Elimul. I might tear it apart.”

“How uncouth. Haven’t I told you countless times that’s your bad habit, Elize? Don’t blame me if you end up being disliked.”

Elimul, Elize.

These shapeshifters who addressed each other this way were walking on either side of me, and I found it extremely uncomfortable.

There were mainly two reasons for this.

First, I was already well-accustomed to women’s jealous fights thanks to “friends who remain oblivious while women flock to them.”

Second, Elimul was male, and I wasn’t interested in that sort of thing.

I let out an awkward laugh—haha—at Elimul’s intense gaze.

Fuck, this is uncomfortable.

I felt my chastity was at risk, yet I couldn’t push them away because of their usefulness and because I was a pushover who couldn’t be harsh to people who liked me.

An emotional pushover, you might say.

If I were an ultra-popular guy with friends overflowing from everywhere, always inviting me to parties, it might be different. But with my amazing social skills, that wasn’t quite the case.

So despite my discomfort, I couldn’t bring myself to say, “I’m not interested in men, so could you back off?”

All I could do was put up subtle walls.

Who would have thought the ability wouldn’t distinguish between genders?

Sighing, I glanced behind me to see Lorian following with a complicated expression.

I guessed she wanted to join this triangle but hesitated because it was the result of “father’s gene.”

Understandable. I turned my gaze away from Lorian, who seemed to have rarely regained her reason and intelligence, and looked ahead.

A dark path stretched out before us.

[Play Time: 9,952 hours]

It had been about 4 hours since we entered the golems’ mine.

We had already ventured deep into what was presumed to be the interior of the golem master’s massive body.

*

Despite my concerns about the calamity caused by my gene, the two shapeshifters were diligently performing their duties.

“Investigation?”

“Yes, we’re in charge of investigating this place.”

“What kind of investigation?”

“Well, that’s…”

Elize glanced around nervously before looking at Elimul. I hoped this meant the gene was having less effect and she was being cautious, but that wasn’t the case.

“Her Majesty has taken interest in the special properties of this space and the resources found here, so she dispatched us.”

It was simply that Elize, as a shapeshifter, lacked intelligence and couldn’t remember.

Elimul’s voice carried that implication, which made Elize frown slightly before transforming her hand to poke her twin in the side.

Blood spurted and then healed—a playful jab. A wound that would have killed an ordinary human was merely an annoying prank between the two shapeshifters.

They grumbled and complained at each other before returning to their positions on either side of me.

Cultural differences, perhaps? I looked at the two shapeshifters with displeasure before speaking.

“There’s a trap ahead.”

“A trap? Just a moment…”

Setting aside my displeasure, the cultural differences, and the strange way they clung to me because of the gene.

These two were quite good companions.

“Elize.”

“I know.”

CRACK!

First, being shapeshifters, they didn’t die from ordinary wounds and could regenerate.

Because of this, there was no need to carefully disarm traps or waste time—they simply resolved them with their bodies.

Elize was closer to the tank role among these twins.

There was a reason she could show the aggressive side I saw when she was being beaten by me.

Elize transformed into a strange beast that seemed like a mix of bear, drake, and brock.

A bear-like thick fur with a massive build, covered in drake-specific tough and durable scales.

And on top of those scales, densely packed steel-like feathers. At first glance, the fur wasn’t visible, making her look like a monster with a mix of bird feathers and scales.

After transforming, Elize stepped on all the traps to dismantle them.

BOOM, CRASH!

With distant sounds, Elize roared as she took countless crossbow bolts and magic attacks with her body.

She disabled all the traps with her body and returned.

“Did I do well?”

Smiling brightly, she pulled out a crossbow bolt stuck in her arm and tossed it away.

She even seemed relaxed enough to seek praise from me.

Even I wouldn’t do such things often, but Elize resolved traps this way every time we encountered them.

“Well done. Now…”

“Shall we continue? I’ll lead the way.”

“Y-yes.”

Elimul chuckled and walked ahead. Elize stuck out her tongue at Elimul’s back before clinging to my side.

And Lorian, who looked at Elimul and Elize with complicated eyes, slowly approached my side.

Despite the confusion and awkwardness, I desperately tried to think.

“Why are there so many traps here? If this is a facility managed by golems, there shouldn’t be traps to prevent damage to the golems…”

“The golems don’t come into this inner area. They say it’s sacrilege.”

Sacrilege. That’s a term I haven’t heard in a while.

While thinking, I glanced at Lorian’s demeanor.

Her expression was still uncomfortable, confused, and seemingly in pain, but she was enduring.

Well, she had been calm and collected when we first met, so this was probably closer to her true self.

Thinking that all the stupid behavior she showed afterward was due to the gene, I grabbed Lorian’s shoulder.

She flinched and lowered her gaze to avoid me.

I massaged her left shoulder with an apologetic touch and gently pushed her away.

“But you managed to get permission to enter.”

“Permission… actually, they didn’t give permission.”

Elimul walked with light steps, occasionally examining structures that appeared here and there.

Sometimes he would take out something like a chisel to collect samples, and sometimes he would quietly call Elize forward when he discovered something.

We were descending deeper and deeper.

“The golems discouraged it, saying life could be in danger, that the space wasn’t functionally designed for exploration… but I felt they couldn’t go beyond that to deny permission.”

“They didn’t try to block you by force or anything?”

“They’re golems. There was no aggression in their behavioral patterns.”

The golems I knew wouldn’t hesitate to use force. As Valteroc showed, they could harm people without hesitation if their mission required violence.

But despite my assertion, Elimul said:

“Usually, that’s true. But their mission is to create a ‘beautiful and peaceful village,’ so violence is exceptionally forbidden.”

How did he know such things?

Did the Empress tell him? Thinking about it, that made sense.

If the Empress was a figure from “the era when Father existed,” it wouldn’t be strange for her to have connections with gods, and if she was sending them on a personal mission, providing information would be her duty.

That left one question:

“What exactly are these resources or special properties found here? If she sent you, there must be something significant.”

If a being like the Empress dispatched a personal investigation team, there must be something here, but what I felt while digging through this tunnel was:

Is there really something special in this space?

I couldn’t see any special minerals. The occasional glimmers in the darkness were mostly iron ore, and even those seemed unmanageable after being neglected for so long.

As for special properties, even I, with my connection to the divine, couldn’t sense anything, which made me wonder if there really was something special here.

“We don’t know exactly either.”

Elimul seemed guilty about not being able to answer my question and responded cautiously.

“But the Empress said we would certainly know when we reached the deepest part. She’s not one to play pointless pranks, so there must be something. And.”

Elimul proudly straightened his chest and smiled at me. It was a bit creepy.

“This happens to be the last exploration point. We’ve already explored all other branches and depths. I believe we’ll definitely find something today.”

“Really?”

“And I’m glad I could lead you to such a discovery.”

Elimul walked ahead of me with a satisfied smile. While I wasn’t entirely displeased with such goodwill, I felt uncomfortable about the emotions that might lie beyond it.

But there was no time to express that discomfort, because Elimul was right.

“…A coffin?”

In the deepest part of this massive mountain—whether it was the remains of a god or a monster—

Inside the cave protected by countless traps, there was a bronze-colored coffin that seemed out of place.

It was made in a style I had never seen before, despite my extensive experience with Grim Darker.

Is this the resource? Or the special property?

Could I use this somehow when negotiating with the Empress?

While I was thinking, Elimul and Elize approached the coffin.

“I think this is it… what should we do?”

“We could move the whole thing or just the contents. Considering disguise and such, it would be better to just move the contents.”

“Alright, shall we open it?”

Elize transformed only her arms to grab the coffin. Despite feeling uneasy, I didn’t stop her.

I can’t say I didn’t think, “What could possibly go wrong?”

Even though I knew something usually happens when you think that.

CREAK!

“Good, it’s opening. Inside there’s… huh?”

Right after Elize’s puzzled voice echoed.

CRACK!

Elize’s body collapsed. Her body fell onto the coffin and rolled to the floor, and before either Lorian or I could react,

I noticed that Elize’s neck and above had cleanly disappeared.

The shapeshifter twitched a few times before becoming still. The coffin lid, now covered in her remains, was slowly opening.

“…Elize? What…”

While Elimul froze, unable to grasp the situation, something rose from the fully opened coffin.

Something with a bronze color, its right hand dripping with blood.

With eyes made of crystal and a face engraved in gold.

“A golem…?”

It looked like an example of the golems scattered outside.

However, some inexplicable pressure suggested that this golem was something extraordinary.

Silence fell. Dust floated in the dim cave, and within it, the golem with its left side soaked in blood slowly turned its head to look at me.

My face reflected in those mineral-like eyes. Me, standing there with my mouth open, dumbfounded.

The golem looked at me and said:

“How brazen of you to return here.”

A fluid voice that was hard to believe came from a golem. Before my expression could even furrow, the golem spat out:

“Traitor.”

Only then did I realize.

That expressionless face was clearly filled with hatred.