Part 6: Golem (1)

After the Joint Mission ended.

"Oh."

I was heading to the training room after school as usual when I spotted someone approaching from the far end of the hallway.

A woman with long brown hair. Her gentle eyes had a calming effect on anyone who looked at her.

She approached me at an unhurried pace—and walked straight past.

'... What an odd person.'

I could count on one hand the students who had simply walked past me normally. Between my bad reputation and my fame, people rarely left it at that.

But she had treated me with complete indifference.

No, it wasn't something as easy to understand as indifference. How should I put it? It felt as though I hadn't even entered her awareness.

'... Oh.'

That train of thought made me realize who she was. A memory surfaced, and once I recognized her, a hollow laugh escaped me.

Now I felt like an idiot.

"It's Elin."

Aster Evans's older sister, Elin Evans.

She hadn't been ignoring me, nor did she have a calm demeanor.

She was simply asleep.

I scratched my head and headed to the training room.

DING

While I was taking a short break, my smartwatch chimed.

A quest notification.

Judging by the timing, I knew what quest it was. But I hoped I was wrong. Still hoping, I opened my smartwatch, only to see:

[Main Quest: Attack]

- Constel will come under a large-scale monster attack. Prepare yourself.

- An inadequate response may result in the loss of Named Characters.

"You call this a quest?"

The quest description couldn't have been more straightforward. In reality, however, it was anything but simple.

Constel's Main Quest, Attack.

It was exactly what it sounded like: an event in which monsters suddenly came pouring in like the tide.

Etius always demanded choices from its players. An event was just that—something happened, and how you responded was up to you.

This attack was no different.

You could kill monsters indiscriminately, target only the important ones, or simply watch from the sidelines. If it really came down to it, you could even leave Constel for the duration of the event.

But there would be a price to pay.

Even the quest made a point of warning that Named Characters could be lost.

"In the end, I need to get stronger."

I'd been lucky when I fought the Red Bear. Though could I even call that a fight?

I knew its habits and could see the motions that preceded its attack patterns, so I'd known it was about to roar. I'd managed to throw a dagger into its eye at that moment, but that was all.

Had I been alone, I would have died afterward.

Improvising like that couldn't work every time.

Weaving was important, of course, but I needed more experience in combat itself.

"... Hah."

I let out a sigh.

The truth was, I knew how to solve this problem. I just really didn't like the idea.

But there was only one answer, and I had nothing to lose.

"... Shall we?"

I stood up.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Professor Binkis's laboratory.

Someone was crouching outside the laboratory in a hallway without a single light.

His face hidden beneath a hood, he checked his surroundings with practiced ease, then used his Divine Power to open the padlock.

For someone beloved by Hephaestus, a metal padlock was no different from an open door.

Once inside, he lit the lantern he had brought.

WHOOSH

The flame softly consumed the air, illuminating his surroundings.

He lowered his hood. It was Edwin.

He walked slowly toward his destination and held up the lantern.

"... Incredible."

There stood a Golem. Professor Binkis's creation, the Metal Golem.

Kneeling on one knee with its spear held upright, it looked like a stalwart knight.

From what Edwin had observed while serving as Professor Binkis's assistant, the Golem was complete.

He swallowed hard.

His eyes saw through every part of the Metal Golem's structure. Just as when he'd last looked, the master designation remained blank.

As though intoxicated, he reached out and channeled mana into it.

'... Password-protected, just as I thought.'

Leaving the master's position vacant didn't mean security had been neglected. Access to that authority was guarded by all manner of security measures and passwords known only to Professor Binkis.

For the first time, Edwin hesitated. Up to this point, he could pass it off as touching the Golem out of simple curiosity. But once he tampered with its security, there would be no denying what he'd done.

His hesitation was brief, however, and his eyes shone even brighter.

The structure of Binkis's Golem was intricate, complex, and precise.

To Edwin's eyes, it was simply beautiful.

If only he could make this Golem his own.

'... Well, I'm only testing it. It's not as if I'm going to do anything.'

Edwin began disabling the security, carefully and precisely, as though defusing a time bomb. Not even Binkis would have anticipated his speed and accuracy.

But penetrating the security required an even greater measure of luck.

No matter how accurately he could see the structure, forcing his way through meant choosing between two or three options at a time. One wrong choice would lock him out completely and immediately send a signal to Professor Binkis.

He had to avoid every one of those land mines, understand the structure precisely, and, on top of that, correctly guess every answer he had no way of knowing. The difficulty was staggering.

Yet was this a god's helping hand at work?

"It's... done."

Edwin's hands stopped.

Amazingly, he had succeeded in claiming the Golem's master authority for himself.

"... Rise."

At that single word, the Golem's eyes glowed red.

It straightened its bent knee and faced Edwin with a dignified bearing.

Edwin's hands trembled.

This embodiment of a knight was breathtakingly beautiful, and the workings of its structure, laid bare to his eyes, were positively entrancing.

"Try using your spear."

The Golem gripped its spear and maneuvered it freely, as though handling a feather.

And it possessed the durability of metal, coupled with a Golem's loyalty?

It truly was the ideal soldier.

"G-good. Return to your original position."

The Golem obediently returned to its spot and knelt on one knee, looking exactly as it had before being activated.

"Deactivate."

The light vanished from the Golem's eyes, and silence once again filled the laboratory.

Lit by the lantern, Edwin's face was flushed with delight.

* * *

Inside the mansion, I was experiencing the most tense atmosphere I'd encountered in days.

Atzier stood before me, looking distinctly displeased.

Was it because I'd shown up at his room unannounced? But why should I have to give notice before visiting my brother's room?

"You want me to teach you to fight?"

Atzier's stern voice made the nearby maids shrink back in tension.

The solution to my problem was Atzier. As far as I knew, there were very few people better than him in combat.

Besides, he was my brother.

... The trouble was, I didn't know Atzier's character very well.

When I'd played as Aster, none of my companions had been close to the Roach family. Ampere, who defended the frontier, and his son Atzier were characters I'd learned about almost exclusively through rumors and gossip.

So I'd only begun studying Atzier over the last few days.

From observing him as Frondier during that short time, I'd found him cautious and coolheaded—and just as suspicious.

More than anything, that suspicious nature made me uneasy.

"Has Father's warning finally made you desperate?"

Father's warning. He meant the order to place in the top ten overall?

That mattered too, of course, but the Attack was even more important—and more urgent.

"Leave. I have nothing to teach you. Take responsibility for your indolent life."

With that pronouncement, Atzier folded his arms and closed his eyes.

Was he planning to stay like that until I left?

Atzier certainly wouldn't be fond of me.

He had talent, but he'd also worked harder than anyone to catch up to our father. His current skill hadn't come easily.

Naturally, he disapproved of a younger brother who had done nothing but laze around. I understood.

But I didn't like Frondier any more than he did.

It felt like I was doing someone else's homework after they'd put it off until it piled into a mountain. Or like I was a new hire stuck cleaning up the shitshow my predecessor had left behind before running off.

"... Then how about this?"

A new hire in that situation had only two options.

Quit the company like their predecessor.

"If we spar and I land even a single hit, will you teach me?"

Or prove they were better than their predecessor.

Atzier opened his eyes.

That alone lowered the temperature in the room even further.

The maid beside us was actually trembling.

"What would I gain from such a thing?"

"I know I'm a thorn in your side, Brother."

"Watch your words."

"At this rate, I'll fail to make the top ten and be disowned anyway. So..."

I drew a breath.

"If I can't land a hit, I'll leave of my own accord."

Atzier and I went out to the mansion's backyard. We dismissed all the servants.

In the stillness, we stood facing each other.

Atzier held a practice spear—a staff—upright and regarded me coldly. His gaze filled with displeasure.

"Your arrogance knows no bounds, Frondier."

Arrogance. Challenging him to land even one hit was arrogant?

But his assessment was correct.

Even if an average Constel student had taken my place, they wouldn't have been able to touch a hair on his head.

I had only one advantage: I wasn't the real Frondier.

The fact that he knew nothing about me was my sole chance.

'Just once.'

I adjusted my grip on the practice daggers in my hands.

I couldn't drag this out. If I did, I would lose anyway.

I'd never faced Atzier in the game, so everything I knew about him came from other players—his specialties, habits, and attack patterns.

But Atzier wasn't a monster. He was human. I couldn't count on fixed patterns.

All I could do was force him into one.

"Come. I'll give you the first—"

I threw a dagger before he could finish speaking.

His staff hand moved reflexively.

THWACK

My dagger was easily blocked.

By then, I was already charging toward him.

I still had another dagger.

"Hup!"

While Atzier knocked away the thrown dagger, I thrust at him with the second.

In that brief instant, though I couldn't hear it clearly...

"... Hah."

I thought I heard Atzier give a bored sigh.

Atzier's Unique Spear Technique

Falling Tension

The instant my dagger met the tip of Atzier's staff, there was no sound at all.

His perfect control of force had brought the two weapons together without a sound.

Immediately afterward came a dry rattle.

CLACK-CLACK-CLACK

My dagger went spinning through the air.

This was Atzier's technique, Falling Tension.

It forced an opponent's weapon from their hand—a technique bordering on the supernatural.

"Pathetic, Frondier."

Atzier lightly swung his staff, positioning its tip low on his left.

His specialty, Diagonal Slash, was coming.

Atzier's Basic Spear Techniques

Third Form

Diagonal Slash

Having lost my second dagger, I was now completely unarmed.

Even if I knew what attack was coming, there was nothing I could do.

That was what Atzier believed.

And that was why my plan would work.

At the very instant Atzier swept his staff diagonally upward—

TAP

My "single hit" landed on his head.

Atzier's staff stopped dead, right beside my temple.

"...?"

He had stopped his staff because something had struck his head.

Even so, he seemed unable to understand how he'd allowed me to land a hit.

My "single hit" rolled away to one side.

It was a dagger. A third practice dagger.

"I won."