Ch.53Stone Golem – 2

“…..”

I quickly started racking my brain. Which one was Brunhilde’s food again—the porridge or the rice ball they gave me as “patient food” back then?

I couldn’t grasp the intent behind the question, but I knew that answering incorrectly would lead to extremely troublesome consequences.

Especially since Brunhilde was watching from beside me with a mischievous grin. Judging by her expression, this would be fodder for teasing me for at least three days.

‘Was Brunhilde responsible for the porridge? No, it could be the opposite. What did the rice ball look like again? Was it normal? Or was it a bit misshapen? The taste… there wasn’t much difference, I think.’

After mobilizing all my memory cells to recall lunchtime and deliberating for quite some time, I finally deduced the answer and opened my mouth.

“Brunhilde, you made the rice balls, and Aria made the porridge.”

“Uh… huh? What? How did you know?”

Fortunately, it seemed I was correct. Her golden pupils dilated, and stuttering, disorganized words tumbled from her lips. Brunhilde looked utterly bewildered, as if she hadn’t expected me to actually get it right.

“You didn’t just… guess, did you?”

“Of course not.”

How could I do that when it was obvious such a question would come flying my way?

“Then how did you figure it out?”

Brunhilde probed for an explanation, seemingly still looking for something to tease me about. This was an easy question to answer. I just needed to explain my deduction process.

“You mentioned it was your first time cooking when you took out the lunchbox, right? When I examined the food before eating, the rice balls were a bit more misshapen. They weren’t uniform in size, and the seasoning wasn’t evenly distributed—some parts were bland while others were too salty. Common mistakes for a cooking novice. On the other hand, Aria said she had quite a bit of cooking experience, so I made my deduction based on that.”

“…..”

Her expression turned peculiar. But if I ended there, it would seem like I was one-sidedly mocking her cooking skills, so I added more to ensure she wouldn’t feel that way.

“Of course, that was just supplementary evidence. The decisive clue was the expressions on both your faces. Your expressions changed each time I picked up and tasted something. When I ate the porridge, Aria looked tense, and when I ate the rice balls, you were the one with the nervous expression. Both of you seem incapable of lying, even if your lives depended on it.”

“…Really? I had that kind of expression?”

Instead of answering, I gave her a slight smile. Brunhilde, unable to tease me for getting the answer right and then hearing that the reason was her poor cooking skills, seemed annoyed and puffed her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hmph. Forget it. What’s the point of talking to someone who makes misshapen rice balls? Just watch the sparring.”

In response to her obvious “I’m sulking” behavior, I held back a laugh and asked, and Brunhilde turned her head away completely.

But she remained seated in the same spot. If she were truly upset, she would have moved to a spot far away first. This was nothing short of a silent protest saying, “I’m sulking, so hurry up and comfort me.”

I reached out my left hand, placed it on her head, and gently stroked it. Her blue hair flowed like silk between my fingers. As I expected, Brunhilde didn’t reject my hand.

“So what if they were a bit misshapen? They were both delicious.”

“But you just said you knew because they were ugly.”

“When did I say they were ugly? I said they were misshapen. And I didn’t even notice until you asked. They were so delicious that I didn’t even pay attention to the shape while eating. Isn’t taste all that matters for food?”

I deleted the thought that they were a million times better than combat rations, which merely met the minimum nutritional requirements to be edible. There was no point in adding unnecessary details.

Unaware of these inner thoughts, Brunhilde would probably think I was a rich young master who surprisingly wasn’t picky about food.

“…..”

Sure enough, Brunhilde was showing quite an intense reaction, visibly fidgeting. Then, as if trying to maintain her pretense of sulking, she whispered timidly while keeping her head turned away.

“…Fine. I’ll believe you. But stay like this until I say it’s enough.”

“You want me to stay like this all day?”

“…You’re impossible.”

Brunhilde, who had chuckled, changed her posture. She brought her knees together, hugged them, turned her head toward me, bent her waist, rested her left cheek on her knees, and looked up at me.

How much time had passed as I stroked her hair while silently watching the sparring beside her? Aria, with dirt smudged on various parts of her uniform, approached with a tilted head, her turn apparently over.

“What are you two doing, Mira?”

“Brunhilde was sulking, so I was comforting her.”

“What?”

“Hey, why did you tell her that?”

Brunhilde jabbed my side with her elbow and brushed off the hand on her head. But her face was still smiling. Aria sat down on my empty right side, looking puzzled.

“Mira, are you really not going to spar? The professor said we won’t have to pay for the golem even if it breaks.”

“I will. I’m just waiting for everyone else to finish their turns.”

To execute my plan, I needed to destroy the golem’s core, which would reduce the sparring time for other students. The two of them, unaware of my true intentions, seemed to accept this.

Time passed quickly. As the lecture was nearing its end, the line in front of the mana stone golem began to disappear. Everyone had been one-sidedly beaten up.

“Looks like it’s time. I’ll be right back.”

Brunhilde, who must have thought I was just saying it, looked slightly surprised when I actually stood up. Aria, unexpectedly, remained calm.

I approached the mana stone golem. The few students still standing in front parted to the sides as if on cue. Even Jake, who had been busy replacing mana stones around the training ground, stopped what he was doing.

‘Can I cleanly destroy just the core? That’s the priority.’

I needed to destroy the core at all costs—to the point where it would be cheaper to make and install a new one than to repair it.

That way, I could replace it with a new one later.

Those golems would be “coincidentally” transported to Bellium Academy for training when demons invaded, and “coincidentally” become corrupted by the eternally shining chalice the demons brought.

And thanks to the buff from the corrupted holy relic, they would transform into a state that could operate indefinitely without mana stones. Defeating those transformed golems would naturally fall to the protagonist’s party.

‘The Starlight Order has likely been in demon hands for a while now…’

Considering that the Order’s holy relics had almost certainly fallen into demon hands, I needed to modify the core’s structure as soon as possible.

To the structure that archmages would develop after racking their brains about two years in the future, when demons would figure out the core’s structure and seize every golem that appeared.

‘I can have Priscilla deliver the new core to Ingrid.’

If Priscilla’s recent absences from lectures were due to being immersed in research, that would be forgivable. There would be absolutely no reason to reject the request, as it would be more efficient with mana stones than the original core.

Of course, Ingrid would be the one who’d have to explain how she came up with this when summoned to the Mage Association.

“Which opponent would you like to face?”

At Jake’s question, I almost reflexively answered that I wouldn’t mind taking on all seven at once, but I managed to hold back. While it would be possible, there was no need to show off my skills to that extent.

“I’ll take this one.”

I chose the golem with the most standard combination: a longsword and medium shield. From their perspective it was a longsword, but from ours, it was practically a greatsword in size.

Jake nodded and ordered the remaining mana stone golems out of the arena. The other students had already gathered around the training ground to watch me.

‘Quick and clean.’

I didn’t want to drag this out. As I had mentioned, the mana stones were running low, and not much lecture time remained. Everyone would need to eat dinner after this.

As I took my position, the mana stone golem began to move. Watching it head-on, I drew Eternal, activated physical enhancement, and charged.

The speed at which the mana stone golem raised and swung its arm looked relatively slow to me. A familiar sword path. Others might struggle to react properly, but it was manageable for me. I deliberately adjusted my speed.

I deflected the sword that was swung as if to split my head, and immediately moved my body.

I rammed the shield with my shoulder. Despite the collision between a human body and a shield over two meters long, it was the shield that staggered, not the human.

The staggering mana stone golem pumped power into its legs to stabilize itself. During that time, I thrust Eternal into the golem’s exposed right knee joint and twisted.

—Crack!

Fragments from the golem’s shattered joint scattered. But as if this wasn’t nearly enough, the broken joint was instantly reconnected with mana. I hadn’t expected it to fall from just that anyway.

The mana stone golem gripped the longsword in reverse. The distance was awkward for attacking in its original stance. I had deliberately stuck close for that reason.

And when holding a sword in reverse, the attack area becomes a point rather than a horizontal sweep. I easily avoided the downward stab of the longsword and twisted my body to cut off its wrist.

Eternal cleanly severed the golem’s wrist and continued through, sending the longsword flying into the air. From far away, I could hear Professor Jake shouting something. It sounded like he was ordering me to stop the sparring.

Pretending not to hear, I moved my legs. I stomped on the golem’s instep with my left foot to immobilize it, then struck the shield with the pommel of Eternal.

The impact twisted the shield sharply, concealing my body from the students. The stage was now set.

—Extreme Distortion.

Mana began rotating clockwise and counterclockwise from Eternal’s blade. A torrent of mana that would twist everything it touched penetrated the mana stone golem’s chest plate.

The blade, tearing through the armor and extending inside, precisely pierced the core.

“……!!!!!!”

Feeling the core definitely shatter, I withdrew the blade. It took about a second from when I shielded myself until now. I dismissed Eternal and released the physical enhancement. I turned toward the professor.

“What did you just s—”

—KABOOOOM!!!!!!

Before I could finish speaking, a magnificent explosion erupted behind me. A dark shadow fell across my front, and my uniform and hair fluttered in the swirling wind.

There wasn’t any particular impact, but I froze in place, my thoughts halted by the unexpected situation.

‘…Huh.’

I hadn’t heard anything about the core exploding when destroyed.