"Alright, let's try running it around here."
In the middle of a grassy field a short distance from the Royal Capital, we decided to test the knight-type Golem. By "we," I didn't just mean Kelly and me — it was everyone who happened to be at the mansion. Kelly had actually shown up well ahead of schedule and rushed me along, which piqued everyone's curiosity and led them to tag along.
"Seriously, I told you I needed helpers and you sent our people home..."
Since everyone insisted on coming and we ran out of room in the carriages, I had to send the female dwarves who'd been brought along as helpers home instead.
Kelly had argued that without helpers, he wouldn't be able to do his job if something came up, but any adjustments from here on would just be fine-tuning while we observed — and besides, if we ended up in a situation where we actually needed that many extra hands, it'd be better to head back to the workshop anyway. So I sent the female dwarves on their way...
They seemed to think I'd done it to give them a break, and they were extremely grateful. Honestly, that wasn't my intention at all... but since they seemed happy about it, I didn't say anything to correct them.
"Well, any minor adjustments we can make here, Grandpa and I can probably handle with magic. More importantly — let's bring out the Golem."
The Golem materialized on the field in a standing position, but the ground here was soft compared to the workshop floor, and it nearly lost its balance.
"Whoa — Golem, activate!"
I hurriedly activated the Golem, and it found its footing on its own, steadying itself on the ground.
"Safe!"
"That was close!"
Amour threw both arms out to the sides, just like she always did,
while Aura had backed away the instant the Golem started to lose its balance — but the moment it steadied itself, she walked back as though nothing had happened.
"My, my... it seems another Golem beyond the usual specifications has been created."
When Grandpa murmured that, everyone turned to look at Raiden in unison.
"Merlin, what's so impressive about it?"
Aura, who had been tilting her head while looking at Raiden, asked Grandpa with a puzzled expression.
"You'd probably get a better answer from Tenma, but... in a nutshell, it's because the Golem is doing something close to what a human does.
Even things that come easily to humans are often incredibly difficult for an artificial construct like a Golem."
Grandpa was right — getting a Golem to move like a human was difficult in all sorts of ways. Just as he'd noted with surprise, maintaining balance through weight shifting was beyond a normal Golem's capabilities. Especially on soft ground like a grassland, the Golem's own mass would cause its feet to sink, and since the firmness varied from spot to spot, a Golem that could adapt to each of those variations was high-performance by definition.
"Well, I already figured it could handle that much, so I'm not particularly surprised. What really matters is the Golem's strength."
When I said that, everyone gave me looks of exasperation for some reason, but a Golem like that had been doable since the Tanikaze era, and more recently, both Amy's and the royal family's Golems could pull it off too.
"It's been designed to use any weapon, but... let's start with this and see how it goes. For the opponents — five Golems should do?"
The weapon I took out was an iron bar about two meters long — a spare clothesline pole from around the house.
A halberd was the closest thing I had that matched the Knight-type Golem's build, but its performance would be too good and ruin the test.
As for the opposing Golems, they were the same type that normally guarded the estate — each one strong enough to handle two or three knights from the Royal Capital.
In other words, five Golems equated to roughly ten to fifteen knights. A small squad-class fighting force.
And against those five Golems, the Knight-type Golem—
"—wasn't even a contest. Next, should I let Jin have a go?"
"Hey, wait! You're not trying to use me as a sacrifice, are you?!"
Where Jin was pointing, the wreckage of five Golems that the Knight-type Golem had kicked apart lay scattered about.
"Look, I want to see it fighting a real person, and it's hard to judge its combat style when I'm the one facing it. Just think of this as paying for all the food and drink you've had at my place, and give it your best!"
"Alright — go! Jin!"
"You'd better fight like your life depends on it!"
"I'll collect whatever's left of your bones, so leave the rest to us!"
The moment money came up, Garat and the others all sided with me at once. As for Jin, who'd been sold out by his own companions—
"Hey, Tenma... wouldn't you want combat records from someone besides me? Specifically, I'm talking about a Beastkin who fights light on his feet, a woman who holds the front line, and a woman who casts magic from the rear."
"That works too. Alright, after Jin, let's have the three of them go as a group?"
Following Jin's recommendation, I decided to have Garat and the others face the Golems as well.
"Then Jin, you're up."
"If it's come to this, I've got nothing to lose! Let's do this!"
From a distance, Garat and the others seemed to be saying something, but Jin's fired-up voice drowned them out and I couldn't quite make out what they were saying.
"Alright... begin!"
"Here I go!"
Jin's attack, launched almost simultaneously with the signal to start...
" " " " "Ah......" " " " " "
...was blocked by the Golem. Or rather, Jin's aim was off and the blow struck its shoulder. And then, Jin's sword chipped badly.
"W-W-Wait a damn minute!"
It was enough to freeze Jin and everyone watching in place, but the Golem couldn't have cared less—it swung its club straight down toward the top of Jin's skull.
"Golem, halt!"
Jin dove sideways to dodge, rolling away to put distance between them. However, the Golem's reaction speed was better than expected, and before Jin could regroup, the Golem was already poised for a follow-up strike, so I hastily issued the command to stop.
"This is bad... Jin just got one-shotted."
"I mean, it was practically a self-destruct on Jin's part, but still, he's an S-Rank fighter..."
"He charged in carelessly, broke his weapon, and accomplished basically nothing, and he's supposed to be the leader of the 'Dawn Sword'..."
" " "That was so lame......" " " "
Garat and the others stared at Jin with looks so cold it was practically enough to freeze him solid. And while nobody said it out loud, I was thinking the same thing. Probably the old man and the others were too.
"Tenma, one more time! Give me one more chance! I'll do it right this time!"
As he said this, Jin returned the chipped training weapon to his Magic Bag and instead pulled out a greatsword forged from Mithril.
"You should've used that from the start," I muttered, but Jin pretended not to hear me, going on about how "that sword must have reached the end of its lifespan" and "even a practice sword needs proper maintenance." Meanwhile, Garat and the others were watching him and saying things like, "Wasn't that sword recently sent out to be reforged?" and "He came back saying how nice and clean it was, with that dumb grin on his face" and "He was oiling and polishing it just yesterday, wasn't he?"
"Then, let's begin!"
"Hyah!"
Once again, Jin took the initiative, but unlike before, the greatsword didn't chip.
"Looks like a pretty even fight."
"But overall, the Golem has the edge, doesn't it? If this drags on, it's only going to get worse for Jin."
The Golem's strength was formidable — it hadn't yielded a single step against Jin. If anything, it was easy to predict that if the fight continued in this state, Jin would be at an increasing disadvantage.
"The weapon difference plays a part, and Jin's attack power and technique are slightly better. But the Golem's defense is overwhelmingly superior, and its stamina blows his out of the water..."
If we're talking about the sheer weight of each strike, the Golem had the upper hand. However, what it was holding was an iron clothesline pole — nothing compared to the Mithril greatsword Jin was wielding. That said, the weight of the Golem's blows largely made up for the weapon disparity. In terms of technique, the Golem had far too little accumulated experience to even be comparable. But while Jin swung a Mithril greatsword, the Golem was clad head to toe in Mithril full plate armor. On top of that, the difference in raw mass was absurd — attacks that Jin couldn't block were simply deflected by the armor. And then there was the stamina gap. For a human like Jin, his attack performance would inevitably decline as fatigue set in, whereas the Golem wouldn't stop moving until its Magic Power ran dry.
"Besides, even if they tried to drag this out until the Golem's Magic Power was depleted, looking at the amount of core fuel in that Knight-type Golem, Jin would run out of stamina first — no question about it. Which means the move Jin has to make is..."
"Hah! Ha! Sei!"
A concentrated assault targeting the relatively vulnerable joints. Among those, Jin began focusing specifically on the backs of the knees — the joints bearing his opponent's weight.
"Jin's pulling ahead quite a bit, but it's still anyone's game."
"He hasn't actually nullified the Golem's defense, after all. And its attack power is still very much intact."
"After this is over, they'll need to think about joint attacks and make adjustments. Well, just how many of those joints you can actually concentrate fire on against a Golem like that is anyone's guess."
Jin's focused joint attacks were gradually slowing the Golem's movements, but the weight behind its strikes hadn't diminished. Every so often, when Jin leaped back to dodge an attack, the Golem's blow cratered the ground.
"Sei-YAH!"
"That's enough! Golem, stand by!"
Jin's full-power strike connected squarely with the back of the knee, and just as the Golem dropped to all fours on the ground, the match was called.
"Contrary to expectations, Jin won..."
"Tch... my allowance..."
"Poor choice of words, but the result was unexpected. He still had plenty of margin to spare, too."
"Tch! What was that just now?!"
"He did it on purpose, right? He wanted to pull off a dramatic comeback from a crushing defeat!"
"He's like 'I'm so cool~'... you know, that kind of thing, right?"
Betting on Jin versus the Golem had apparently started at some point. And then—
"Somehow, I made a profit..."
"Jeanne takes it all, huh... She probably felt sorry for Jin since nobody was betting on him and placed a bet on a whim... and the long shot hit without anyone expecting it."
The stakes were apparently a flat 500 G per person... even if Jin lost, the math meant you'd only net about 100 G per person, but after seeing the first match (the one where Jin's greatsword chipped), it was a solid, smart bet. Of course, it was meaningless if it didn't hit.
"Still, Jeanne's got surprisingly good gambling luck. Back when she bet in the Haust Border Territory, she won that too, didn't she?"
"Well, she wins by making straightforward bets without overthinking or getting greedy, so you can't say her luck isn't strong."
Aura, on the other hand, lost whether she bet on the underdog or the favorite — she must have truly terrible luck. Then again, you could say the same about Amour.
"Well, next up should be Garat and the others... but with the Golem like that, it's not happening."
The Golem, knocked down by Jin and left on all fours, wasn't unable to stand, but Kelly decided it was better not to force it, and it was now lying down receiving treatment.
"Tch! And here I thought I'd get to see Garat and the others get demolished!"
Jin was unhappy, but the Golem's
Blacksmith
stop was a result of its fight with him, so he didn't push the matter. And the Garats, who no longer had to fight, clearly looked relieved.
"The Knight-type Golem is pretty well made, I'd say, but right now its fighting style relies on heavy strikes and high defense... Against an opponent with Jin's skill and experience, there are limits to how well it can use its abilities."
"So in that case, we'll need to have it accumulate real combat experience and get it accustomed to fighting, won't we?"
Just as the old man said, that knight-type golem is
a
new
born
baby.
So from now on, it would need to learn how to fight.
"Hey, Tenma... uh... does that mean the knight-type Golem's current state is its weakest, since it hasn't gotten used to fighting yet?"
Jin asked, sounding like someone who didn't really want to hear the answer.
"The golems I made recently... the ones for the royal family and for Amy were built by selecting good cores from golems I'd used many times before and improving on them, so they knew how to fight from the start. But that Knight Golem, I built its core from scratch. Even though its abilities are high, it still feels just like a baby."
When it came to Raiden's sense of self, the Bicorne's magic core undoubtedly played a significant role, but he believed that was only possible thanks to Tanikaze's experience and the magic core working together.
"So I was celebrating a victory over a baby..."
"Well, calling it a baby is just an analogy. Among Monsters, there are those that possess strength far surpassing humans even when they're still young, so I don't think you need to worry about it that much."
Even if it was called a baby, the knight-type Golem used a magic core, so it could be considered an artificial Monster—and there were Monsters that could kill people the moment they were born. So Jin's way of thinking didn't quite apply... but he seemed shaken by the fact that the knight-type Golem he'd struggled against was in its weakest state and still had multiple stages of growth ahead of it.
"Hey, Tenma! The Golem's emergency patch-up is done, but I think we should bring it back to the workshop to fix the joint warping. Also, I want to swap out the material covering the back of the joints for something else. If we leave it as is and the same thing happens again, we'll just have to do the same repairs all over. I've got a few ideas, but I'll need your help too, Tenma. Let's get back already!"
It seemed Kelly planned to make changes to the knight-type Golem's armor—he'd already finished getting ready to head back.
"Well then, I'll head to the workshop with Kelly."
"Mm, understood."
"Go ahead, but we're leaving tomorrow, so make sure you're back by noon."
Jin and the others were set to depart tomorrow at noon, so they'd need to be back at the mansion by then... but there was a chance he might forget, so if he didn't return tonight, he decided he'd have someone come pick him up the next morning.
So, about the improvement plan — I'm not thinking of making major changes. Just a small shift, the idea that the armor is
not for
human
use, but rather for
Go
-
le
m
use —
that's the idea I want to bring to the forefront.
According to Kelly, the armor the current knight-type Golem wears
it could
also
be
used
by
humans
without
any
problem
The
armor
was
endurable — and that was why the knight-type Golem lost to Jin, who used the method for dealing with a human wearing armor.
"First, add guards to the inner side of the joints — thin enough that they don't interfere with movement."
By "guards," I just mean bending metal rods into curves and attaching them, but even that alone can reduce damage from slashing and blunt-force attacks.
"Next, change the joint coverings from a single layer of Monster skin to a combination of two types of skin and chain mail."
Apparently, the layers are arranged from the outside in: stretchable skin, chain mail made from small links, and elastic skin. Using all these layers adds considerable thickness. If a human were wearing this, the weight and bulk would make it impractical, but for a Golem, that wouldn't be an issue. The adjustments would involve finding a thickness that doesn't impede movement — just have the Golem do squats and such while testing, so it shouldn't take too long.
"For the hip joints, adding thickness would probably restrict movement, so leave those unchanged. Completely redo the neck, elbows, knees, and armpits. Change only the leather on the ankles. Also, the fingers currently move all five independently, but change them so the index and middle fingers are grouped together, and the ring and pinky are grouped together. Leave the torso and legs as they are. Let's try this."
In the end, nearly every joint was slated for modification. Since the other joints would end up like the knees, he decided to focus on the areas that were relatively easy to attack and wouldn't have movement issues after improvement. The reason for changing the fingers was that they were the weakest joint and closest to the opponent — adding even a little thickness to the fingertips would help.
"So, Kelly will handle making the chain mail and improving the armor, and the employees will prepare the leather, right? What am I supposed to do?"
It sounded like it would all be detail work and specialized tasks, so there probably wasn't anything I could help with.
"Well, I brought Tenma here to explain the changes and get your approval, and also to have you provide usable materials and food for the workers. So, let's have those usable materials!"
Now that I understood why I'd been brought here, providing the materials made sense. If food during the work was needed to keep efficiency up, I'd provide that too. But —
"I have sweets on me, but all the materials and meals are back at the mansion."
I hadn't planned on going far today, so I'd left everything except the essentials at the mansion. If they'd told me before we headed to the workshop, I could have made preparations at the mansion first and then come here...
"That's completely twice the work. I'll head back to the mansion, get everything ready, and come back again."
That seemed to be the extent of my role, so I might as well get it done quickly. Once that was taken care of, I'd have no trouble attending Jin's send-off tomorrow.
I was also planning to head to Seigen a few days after that. We might even arrive at roughly the same time, so it would make sense for them to travel with me — but apparently Jin and the others were in too much of a hurry to wait those few days. In the current Royal Capital, Jin and the others drew stares the moment they stepped outside, so a somewhat more comfortable — or at least more familiar —
residence
—and wanted to get back as soon as possible.
"Please…"
Kelly, who had rushed ahead, was embarrassed about it, and was hiding her face by looking down as she scribbled corrections onto the design blueprints.
Then, when we hurried back to the residence—
"Kelly, you're such an idiot! If you'd just calmed down a bit, you would have realized!"
When Chris, who had come to visit, asked why we'd returned, the result was that Chris's laughter echoed throughout the residence.
"Chris, don't you think that kind of laughter is a bit unbecoming for a woman?"
Aina, who had come along, chided Chris for her laughing, though she didn't seem to be entirely serious about it, and quickly went back to supervising Jeanne and the others who were cleaning.
"Ahem… So, Tenma, why is Primera mixed in with the cleaning crew? She's a young lady who's technically still registered with the duchy, isn't she? Won't it become a problem later?"
Aina and Jeanne knew that Primera and I were engaged, so they didn't mind, but Chris didn't know about it, so it caught her attention. That said, she was aware of my relationship with Duke Sanga's family, so it was more of a "just to be safe" kind of question, and she seemed to think it wasn't really a problem herself. Besides—
"She herself asked Aina for help, saying it would be a problem if she couldn't do anything while she was away on a Knights Order mission. Duke Sanga knows about it through Albert, so there's no issue."
That was the cover story we'd come up with. For the record, this wasn't a cover story meant just for Chris—it was for nobles who harbored ill will toward the Duke Sanga family or the Ootori family. The idea was that the lady herself desired it and the duke had given his permission, so there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.
"Hmm… So it's like a part of her bridal training, then?"
"Why don't you try joining in, Chris? I think it'd be useful when you go on long-distance missions with the Royal Knights and such."
"That sounded like it had some kind of hidden meaning, you know?"
Rather than tell her it would count as bridal training, I urged her to join by saying it would be useful for missions—but she had picked up on the part I was trying to hide.
"Well then, I'm going to make something for Kelly and the others to eat, so don't get in my way. Aina, sorry to ask, but could you help me out here for a bit?"
"Sure. Aura, I'm going to help with the cooking for a while, so don't slack off."
"Why am I the only one!"
I asked Aina—who could serve as a sort of buffer against Chris—for her help. Well, what I was making was beef bowl, which had recently become a staple in our household, so you could argue I didn't really need help… but I called her over because without her there, Chris would probably get too close. In any case, both Chris and Aina seemed to understand my intentions, and since Aina cooperated with my plan, Chris didn't approach.
"I'll just let this simmer a bit longer and wait for the rice to finish cooking, so watch over it until it's done."
I left the rest to Aina and set about picking out materials that could be useful for a Golem. Well, the conditions of having both elasticity and resilience meant the only options were reptile-type creatures like Wyverns, or amphibian types like the Mud Poison Frog. I figured I might as well grab a bunch from both categories.
"So, I'm gonna go deliver some materials and food real quick."
Selecting the skin materials took about ten minutes. When I returned to the kitchen, the beef bowl set was already ready, so I headed straight for Kelly's place. The plan was to have him pick which materials to use from the haul I brought and then teach him the beef bowl recipe—so it shouldn't have taken long... or so I thought.
"When you've got this many great materials to choose from, it sure is tough picking the right one, huh~"
Kelly's craftsman spirit had been ignited by the sheer abundance of materials, and it wasn't until after the date had rolled over that we finally made it back to the mansion.