It was an automatic type of magic item, called a golem. There were those in the shapes of humanfolk, but also animals and even monsters, as well as shapes that were far removed from the natural world. The general idea was for them to keep repeating the same order they had been given, but when it comes to high-level golems, they could even act independently and make decisions for themselves.

Back during the Ancient Magic Kingdom era, this area was very developed, which allowed golems to take over jobs usually done by humans, raising the efficiency when it came to physical labor. Usually, one family had one golem, so they weren’t a scarce resource either.

Naturally, this usability was also impactful when it came to battle. The golems that had been adjusted as weapons possessed power any normal member of human folk couldn’t hope to compete against, and they contributed in many victories against the demons. However, this knowledge had been lost with the collapse of Zaales, and the best modern technology and knowledge could do was create small and almost insignificant replications. Although you would find ancient golems in ruins and such, these usually sold at an insanely high price.

“So basically, you are trying to restore the golems from the Zaales era, in particular the weaponified ones?”

In order to calm down Kyle who had been going crazy for a while now, Lieze fired off consecutive blows to the liver, and asked in his stead. Of course, Kyle still was in high spirits, but the pain made him go quiet.

“Y-Yes. I managed to complete a blueprint, but creating a test version will take a lot of time.”

“Oh..this is quite the resourceful work you’ve done.” Shildonia commented in admiration after looking at the blueprint.

“You can tell!?” Gou looked at her in shock.

“Indeed. In particular, this is the model for the [Titan], which had been used against demons specifically, right?”

“Yes! With the small amount of literature left, I tried to recreate it.”

“Hmmm..There seems to be no problem with the most difficult part, the efficient exchange of mana into dynamic force.”

“Yes, that’s right! Rather, I have problems with making it smaller..” Gou was utterly entranced, simply asking Shildonia questions.

Shildonia glanced at Kyle, and faintly nodded. It appeared as if things would go smoothly from now on. Kyle finally managed to regain his composure, and was relieved to see Shildonia cooperating.

Kyle was hoping to acquire magic weapon golems that would gain them military power and freedom. He had originally planned to buy up all remains of Zaales with his excessive wealth, but with Shildonia’s assistance, mass-production might be possible. However, even if Shildonia was basically the [Magic King] in person, she didn’t possess all the knowledge that existed during Zaales’ heyday. Additionally, Shildonia right now wasn’t a perfect reincarnation of the [Magic King] either.

Surely, she possessed extensive knowledge in regards to magic weapons, but she herself mentioned that she was not on the level of a specialist. Asking how long it would take to build it from scratch with the assistance of Shildonia, she said that years, and that was still thinking positively. Kyle desperately wished for independent power like that, but he couldn’t afford to take that much time, which is why he had to put that on the side. However, if Gou managed to succeed, and mass-produce them..the [Great Invasion] would surely change drastically.

“You’re amazing, Shildonia-san. I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about Zaales, and yet..” Gou looked at Shildonia with glittering eyes.

“Indeed, respect me.” Shildonia seemed to enjoy the praise.

“Man, I thought it would take tens of years to create a prototype, but now it should be doable in half that time even.”

“That’s still too slow. At latest, it has to be in two years..maybe even one would be best. And from that, we need to focus on mass-production.” Kyle said with a serious face.

“Eh? No, but..for that, I would need a literal fountain of money..”

“I’ll give you as much as you need, so use it all.” Kyle said, still dead serious.

Gou’s mouth opened in shock, and looked at the other members, but they all nodded along to affirm that.

“Thank god..It seems like I found myself a reliable patron..” Gou wiped his tears away. “With this, I don’t have to worry about the budget, and let my interests run wild..”

“No, please continue with the plan. Also, another point of interest, I’d like to ask you to keep this a secret.”

“Yes. Ah, but..I already have an investor..”

“Just tell them that you failed. I’ll give you the pay and compensation so that you can pay them back.”

“I don’t mind then, but..”

“Please..We need to be careful about this.” Kyle urged Gou, making it seem like his frantic attitude just now was nothing but a lie.

“So, did you make progress?”

After this brief meeting, Kyle and the others returned to Miranda, who seemed awfully exhausted.

“Neverending parallel lines.” Miranda let out a sigh, and Gazas was unable to hide his discontent.

“Imagine me, a dwarf, becoming the mayor! There are way too many problems to consider!”

There may be a lot of dwarves living in Callan, but it was still a human city. If a dwarf became the leader, there would surely be a group of people not willing to accept this.

“..I want to move beyond the wall of races, and change Callan as a whole.” Miranda said, and stood up. “That’s all for today. I will come again.”

“No need to.” Gazas did the same, certainly planning to lock himself up in the back room, when Kyle stopped him.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you after all this, but I also have a request unrelated to Miranda’s.”

“A request? You want me to make you a sword or something? Sorry, but I’m not taking any right now.” Gazas rejected Kyle without even looking at him.

“Father, don’t be like that. I’ll be in their care regarding my own job, so at least hear them out.” Gou spoke up.

Naturally, Kyle asked him to do this in the event that Gazas immediately rejected his request. He seemed to be weak against his son, so he stopped in his tracks, and looked at Kyle’s group one more time. Once his gaze reached Urza, it stopped. At the same time, Urza’s expression tightened up, and she seemed about to say something, but Gazas got ahead of her.

“Don’t worry, I don’t discriminate against elves..I don’t care if I’m dealing with an elf or a human.”

“R-Right..Quite admirable for a dwarf.”

“Even if elves are always arrogant, against metal, wussy about everything, and don’t care about others, I don’t care at all, so don’t worry.”

Urza started blushing aggressively, ready to complain, but Lieze somewhat stopped her.

“So, I want a new sword. The one I have right now isn’t quite cutting it.” Seran said, and after Gazas briefly inspected it, his eyes narrowed in disgust.

“That sword you’re holding, it was made by Doutos, right?”

“You can tell?”

Naturally, Seran didn’t pull the sword. He could simply tell from the hilt and the center of gravity.

“Leaving aside that Doutos isn’t even on my level, you really are one skilled fellow, not satisfied by his sword. I rarely get to see that.” Gazas said, evidently displeased, but Gou jumped in.

“Father, Seran is really that strong. I don’t think Doutos-san’s sword is good enough.”

“Are you serious? Doutos’ sword, huh?”

Gazas seemingly put faith in the eye of his son, as he started thinking.

“That means..No, but..”

“If possible, I’d like something on the same level of Shi..as Kyle’s sword.”

This time, he looked at Kyle, as well as the sword he was carrying at his back, as his eyes opened wide in shock.

“Wha!? S-Show me that sword..No, please show it to me!”

Accepting the sword from Kyle, Gazas carefully pulled it out of the sheath with shaking hands.

“This is..”

Met with the beautiful yet strong blade, every skilled blacksmith immediately would be bewildered. As proof of that, both Gou and even Miranda looked at the sword in disbelief.

“I have seen various legendary swords that had survived the collapse of Zaales, but..this is on an entirely different level..To think there existed others..”

Seeing Gou utterly baffled, Shildonia simply nodded along in pride and confidence.

“I can’t..creating a sword that could rival this..the current me has no hope of doing that.” Gazas muttered with a defeated voice.

Devoid of any energy, Gazas told the group to leave for today, throwing them out.

“Hmmm..I guess even making it from scratch won’t get me a sword on Shildonia’s level.” Seran commented, scratching his head.

“Of course. My sword form was a product of Zaales’ techniques and wisdom. In other words, no other man-made sword could surpass me.” Shildonia spoke with pride in her voice.

“Well, it’s not like I got my hopes up to begin with, but..he sure seemed weird at the end.” Remembering Gazas’ attitude after having seen Shildonia, Seran tilted his head.

“Now that you mention it..Oh yeah, his ‘To think there existed others’ mumbling really confused me. Does that mean he saw swords that could rival Shildonia?” Lize commented.

“Hm? A sword that can rival me? As if such a thing could exist!” Shildonia pouted, immediately denying that possibility.

“Oh yeah, he did say that..Maybe we should stop by tomorrow again, asking for more detail in regards to that.” Seran said while looking at Gazas’ home.

That night, Kyle entered his bed in the embassy, but spent most of this night lost in thought rather than sleeping. Although he didn’t make any progress in regards to Seran’s sword, the case with the golem was a valuable find.

“That being said..”

Circumstances weren’t all that simple, and he couldn’t just simply be joyful about that. If things went smoothly, and with the condition of Gou receiving enough funds, the weapon-type golem wouldn’t be a far off dream. However, preparing several of those would be impossible for Gou alone, so there’s a need for workers and equipment. At the same time, the bigger the operation became, the more it would stand out, and draw attention.

“That way, we’d definitely be seen as a threat.”

Kyle himself knew the strength and military power of a weapon-type golem. If the danger of these were to be revealed to the world, then let alone a hero, Kyle and his group might be seen as enemies of the country. The best choice to avoid that is to hide behind a different country, hiding it from the world. In that event, the best possible candidate would be Zilgus, but Kyle remembered that not many specialists of golem knowledge lived there. Thus, it wasn’t suitable for strengthening humanfolk’s military power.

Most likely, the ones who held the necessary techniques and ability to truly make the golems flourish—would be the Galgan Empire. In the midst of the past ‘Great Invasion’, the ones who achieved the recovery of weapon-type golems was the Empire.

“They mentioned they got the blueprints and built them accordingly..So I guess that Gou must have made that.”

In the past world line, Gou seemingly failed with the recovery of the golems.

“He most likely failed immediately because of the lack of money.”

Following that, the blueprint must have been leaked, and the Empire built the golems as magic weapons. In the midst of that, the ‘Great Invasion’ happened, and they had to go with the test version, sending it to the frontlines. However, even that one golem did wonders. That’s why they mass-produced them, gaining more strength in their battle against the demons.

“It’s not impossible for me to approach the Empire with this, but..”

Kyle knew at least one or two people of the Empire who would be quite interested in this, and could most likely assist in mass-production.

“However, that would give the Empire too much power.”

The Empire was constantly aiming to expand, repeating invasions and fights at borders like that. Clearly, that would be the lesser evil compared to the whole humanfolk falling to ruin, but in the worst case scenario, humanity as a whole might start interior fighting before the ‘Great Invasion’ occurs.

“So many things to consider.” Realizing that he had to be cautious of the power balance amidst the various countries, Kyle let out a sigh. “Saving the world sure is tough.”

While muttering this, Kyle softly fell asleep.

The following morning, the sleep-deprived Kyle ate breakfast, when he received notice of a visitor. It came from Aluzard, saying that after taking care of some official business and paperwork here at the Zilgus Embassy, he wanted to meet Kyle.

“Apologies for arriving this early in the morning. We never got the chance to properly talk yesterday, am I wrong.” Just as yesterday, Alzuard showed a friendly but eerie smile, as he spoke up.

“No, it’s fine. But, are you sure about visiting me while you’re so evidently busy?”

“I simply want to exchange a few words with the son of my former classmate. I will be busy soon enough, so I’d like to use my free time right now to talk with you. That reminds me, since you’ve finished your breakfast, how about we spend lunch together? I will gladly invite you.” He sounded like a fishy neighbourhood uncle, but his tone sounded confident and unfazed. “After that, we could go for a stroll in the sky with our wyvern? It’s something you probably won’t be able to enjoy that often.” He continued, sounding even more suspicious.

“Are you sure? I heard that wyvern riding techniques are regarded as a national secret.” Kyle was worried.

“I doubt they will have any complaints if it is you. After all, the one who came up with the foundation for it was your mother Seraia herself. Simply asking her, you would have been able to figure it out yourself,” Aluzard laughed.

“My mother did?”

“She wasn’t the youngest person in history to be appointed as a court mage for nothing. Even though I was older, I could only chase after her, which was a great goal to reach.” Aluzard spoke with a nostalgic tone.

“So that story was true..”

About the whole court mage part, Kyle heard about it from a drunk Seraia before, but he never really gave it much thought.

“Right now, she’s just a simple housewife though..”

“That, in a way, is very much like her.” Aluzard showed a wry smile. “Either way, I’d like to hear some more stories about her, so I’ll be waiting.” Aluzard waved his hand, and walked away.

“I thought so before yesterday, but this individual holds quite a tremendous amount of mana.” Shildonia commented, as she gazed at Aluzard walking away.

“You can tell?”

“Indeed. He holds enough mana to control high-grade magic, and there may come a day when he reaches the level of supreme-grade magic.”

“Supreme-grade magic..”

Supreme-grade magic is told to be able to influence heaven and earth. And now, Kyle learned that Aluzard may one day be able to use that.

“I guess he’s not a court mage for nothing..”

The time of the invitation had arrived, so Kyle made his way to the Empire’s embassy, together with Miranda. On paper, it was a banquet for friendly relationships between Zilgus and Galgan, which is why Miranda was invited as well. The other four of Kyle’s group naturally had received invitations, but Seran couldn’t be bothered with the stiff dinner, and although Shildonia always had an empty stomach for delicious food, she had already headed over to Gazas’ home to assist Gou. As her mana would grow weaker the further she was from her real body, the sword, Lieze and Urza took that with them, visiting Gazas’ home as well.

As Kyle couldn’t attend a lunch fully equipped with his armor, he was moving a lot more freely, and it’s been quite a long time. Walking down the hallway while being escorted, Kyle thought about Aluzard’s goal.

It seems like he wants to throw me off balance, or win me over, but I don’t see any benefit for him by doing so..Maybe he has some other goal? Maybe it really is simply related to Mom?

Either way, it would be beneficial if Kyle could get some leads on the Empire, but..Right as he was thinking that, he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

“!!”

From beyond the large door in front of him, he felt the same pressure he was once showered with endlessly. Every hair of his body stood on edge, as his pulse accelerated, his breathing growing out of control. At the same time, Miranda looked at Kyle in confusion, unable to understand his sudden attitude. Even the employee who was guiding them gave Kyle a dubious look.

“Is something wrong?”

Right as the employee spoke up, Kyle started running like he had been shot by a gun, and kicked open the double-door. What greeted him was a typical banquet room, equipped with a large table offering seats for ten people, together with a luxurious lunch lined up. And, without a doubt, Aluzard is present at this very moment—or rather,?was. Fragments and lumps of a body had been scattered around the room, and the only identifiable part of the body, his head, had rolled down next to a plate on the dining table. The people most likely working as waiters ended up in similar fashion, coloring the room red with blood and innards, creating a horrendous and satanic painting.

And then, there was a single shadow standing next to the table. That person slowly turned towards Kyle, looking at him. It was a woman that looks-wise seemed to be a bit older than Kyle, possessing a sharp and wise impression, and her facial features categorized her as a beauty. As she wore a tight leather garment on her, one could easily see the tender line of her body, as well as her well-developed proportions. If she walked down the street in town, most men, naturally Seran first and foremost, would call out to her—if she was from the humanfolk, that is. The single horn that grew from her forehead, like she was the Mythical Beast Unicorn, was enough for Kyle to tell, and scream.

“—A demon!”

The archnemesis of humanfolk, and its eternal rival, stood right there.