Ch.295Epilogue – The Empty King (4)

The connection between our Duchy and the Metal School dates back to when our Duchy was still a mere barony.

This relationship, established through the previous School Master, Honorary Instructor Lord Malakai Falten, continued even after the barony became a duchy, allowing the Metal School to develop a “deep relationship” with the Duchy of Alzar in many ways.

Specifically, they were able to establish their own branch within our territory.

This branch, located in the Ruhr region—formerly known as the Ruhr Barony—serves as a symbol of the friendly relations between both powers. Unlike the Free City branch that inevitably falls under the Emperor’s influence, this one primarily conducts “experimental” research.

A prime example is the research and data accumulation on the powerful weapon known as “Golem Armor.” The experience of dismantling one Golem Armor to obtain various data and then modifying another based on that information has reached its peak today.

Of course, even without this type of research and development exchange, our Duchy has been able to increase the number of state-affiliated mages through exchanges with them in various fields.

Despite its name, the “Metal School” doesn’t exclusively deal with “metal magic.” Rather, it covers the entire engineering field of metal processing and prosthetic technology—and by extension, golem manufacturing techniques.

In other words, their goal is to research the ancient lost (though actively being restored) magical engineering.

Therefore, while most of their members deal with metal magic, they also include mages who handle various other types of magic.

Earth and soil mages. Alchemists who focus mainly on mechanical engineering aspects. Numerous golem artificers obsessed with golems. Additionally, there are “Enchanters” who specialize in enchantment magic.

With countless mages belonging to the school, each taking on apprentices and producing more mages, it’s impossible for anyone seeking magical power not to promise full support to them.

Especially if one could properly utilize Western Continent’s finest iron and coal veins by cooperating with them—who are essentially running heavy industry while everyone else is still in handicraft production.

Even though metal magic includes the power to permanently transform other materials into metal, this is quite advanced magic, and one cannot expect those capable of such spells to spend all day just producing metal.

However, despite being able to produce various metal products quickly and cheaply through magic… our territory hasn’t been able to fully showcase this productive capacity.

To put it bluntly, with medieval feudal order still largely intact, there simply isn’t enough consumer power to absorb all the steel we could produce.

Even in the cold weapons sector, which consumes the most metal in this era, our produced armor and weapons sell well but remain merely steady sellers.

Those wanting high-end equipment would prefer items forged by blacksmiths who partially handle mysteries, and even for mass purchases to equip soldiers, plate armor isn’t exactly cheap.

Moreover, the consumer base for magically enhanced metal equipment is surprisingly small, so there’s little we can do with rampantly produced steel.

At best, we reinforce newly built fortresses with iron pillars to enhance durability, or mass-purchase cheaper metal nails for building construction.

Therefore, instead of blindly increasing steel production, they sought to use their excess capacity to complete the Metal School’s long-standing aspiration.

Namely, the mass production of the weapon known as Golem Armor.

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Comparable to powered suits in modern media, Golem Armor, to explain simply, is a golem that can be worn by a user.

Since golems are basically mid-tier “constructs,” this equipment grants its wearer mid-tier golem level specs, regardless of who they are.

Despite this tremendous value, Golem Armor is a product of ancient civilization, making production impossible except for those excavated from places like the “Desert of Death.”

Consequently, even just the core components of Golem Armor traded for dozens of gold coins, making it extremely expensive equipment…

A few years ago, the Metal School managed to somewhat restore Golem Armor production technology based on several ancient artifacts.

They obtained information by completely dismantling and analyzing an ancient large Golem Armor that had gone berserk at the Soul School’s tower branch.

Additionally, they had two intact Golem Armor units discovered in a frontier village.

However, no matter how thoroughly they investigated these, there were clear limitations to the technology they could acquire. As a result, while they managed to recreate the hardware reasonably well, they remained quite inexperienced with the software technology…

Even with this level of technology, they could produce units that overwhelmed the patchwork Golem Armors circulating in the existing market.

The base is a 5-meter Steel Golem. It’s equipped with a pseudo-mind metal system that feeds back the wearer’s actions, and by separating the internal frame and armor plates, they dramatically reduced the weight compared to solid metal.

Additionally, they attached thrusters throughout to assist with posture control, and it can be equipped with parts compatible with the newly test-produced “magic cannon” series weapons.

They thought this might change the world’s genre from medieval fantasy to something resembling SF mecha, but this equipment actually has several critical flaws.

First, production is incredibly difficult.

Even a solid metal golem requires a mid-tier golem artificer to invest three days and nights without rest to create. How many mages would need to be involved for such an advanced unit with various technologies?

Ten mid-tier mages and fifty low-tier mages as assistants for a full month. The labor costs alone could buy an entire estate, not to mention the tremendous effort required.

Moreover, every time it operates, significant strain is placed on all joint sections, requiring a capable mid-tier Metal School mage to serve as a dedicated maintenance technician.

This leads to the second problem: the unit’s astronomical price.

The labor costs alone could purchase an estate, and the material costs—requiring all sorts of rare metals—exceed four times that amount.

Furthermore, actual combat causes extreme wear and strain on parts, and finding mages to replace and maintain these parts all adds to the cost.

Frankly speaking, the money to operate one unit could employ five wandering knights, yet if a low-tier operator pilots this expensive machine, they lack the combat skills to use it effectively.

When you add weapons purchases and several options, one unit costs the equivalent of ten knights. Anyone who would spend that much money on this would raise eyebrows.

Beyond all these issues, the biggest problem was the power source for this 5-meter metal giant.

While most Golem Armors can be operated with the magical power of even a low-tier pilot, this massive steel giant is different.

Not only is it enormous, but the thrusters installed throughout consume magical power that low-tier operators simply cannot handle. At minimum, a mid-tier knight or mage is needed to operate this magic-devouring machine.

However, the original purpose of Golem Armor was to allow low-tier operators to wield mid-tier power, not to inefficiently stack mid-tier power on top of mid-tier operators.

Therefore, apart from a tiny minority of enthusiasts, there are almost no potential buyers, and public opinion has grown even stronger since the Metal School released a cheaper 3-meter model after this unit’s announcement.

People say this unit is merely a technology demonstrator, and that the 3-meter model is what they actually intend to sell as a product.

However, the reality was somewhat different.

From the beginning, this wasn’t just a technology demonstrator—it was a Golem Armor we specially ordered for our own use.

Having extensively operated Golem Armor as a weapon, we believed its value justified the high price, and that this unit should be compared to other large entities rather than knights…

But the true reason was different.

The 5-meter all-metal Golem Armor, officially named “KNIGHT-1.”

The reason our territory ordered such an expensive mechanical device was to provide combat capabilities to knights who had lost their fighting ability for various reasons.