Part 6: Golem (4)

The throwing range of my woven daggers had increased. Things had been so urgent that I had simply thrown them, but fortunately, they had remained “real” long enough to reach it.

If only I had left the training room a little earlier, I could have tried it more safely.

‘Anyway, what is that thing?’

That enormous frame, encased in layers of metal armor, was unmistakably a Metal Golem.

I looked at Edwin. From a distance, he had appeared to be the Golem’s master.

“... Edwin.”

“Frondier.”

There was something dry about his voice as he spoke my name. He said it as though his voice held all the resentment in the world.

“You again.”

“... This is our second time meeting.”

Keeping a wary eye on Edwin, I approached Elin. I knelt to examine her condition. There was a gash in her side.

“Did Edwin do this?”

At my question, Elin blinked her languid eyes a few times. I couldn’t tell whether she was sleepy or exhausted.

“... The Golem did.”

“But Edwin is controlling that Golem.”

“... Yes. Sorry.”

What was she sorry for?

I stood up. The flames of Edwin’s anger were still directed solely at me—as though I were the final piece of a puzzle he was putting together however he pleased.

‘... No. It can’t be.’

The air around Edwin turned purple. It rose from his body like a heat haze.

I knew what it was. Etius offered players few special privileges, but this was one of the few things that set them apart: a purple haze visible only to the player.

Proof that a character had undergone “Corruption.”

‘This is bullshit.’

Why was Edwin undergoing Corruption? It had never happened to him before. Throughout my countless playthroughs, he had always gotten back on his feet and restored his family’s honor and glory.

A mere Golem like that—with just two more years, he could have made one through his own ability alone.

Even to me, this Edwin was utterly unfamiliar. There was only one possible explanation I could think of.

‘... Is it me?’

A character who had never existed, no matter how many times I played.

Frondier.

Was the existence of Frondier de Roach causing Edwin von Behertio to fall into Corruption?

“Frondier. That Golem isn’t Edwin’s. It’s the Golem that’s controlling him.”

“I understand, so please rest.”

It was hard to listen to her voice strained with pain.

The Golem was controlling him? Did that mean its movements weren’t what Edwin truly intended?

“Edwin.”

“... What?”

“Can you control that Golem?”

“Of course.”

The Metal Golem moved as if to prove his answer. It certainly seemed faithful to Edwin’s commands. Or rather, to his will.

Having only just intervened, I didn’t know why the two had been fighting. I didn’t know, but...

“... Have you killed anyone with it?”

Edwin’s eyes darkened at my question.

Of course they did. Even I would have hated being asked that. But it was a question I had no choice but to ask.

“... Every last one of you, fuck, asking whether I killed someone...!”

Just as I thought. Elin had asked him too.

“What if I did kill someone? What are you going to do about it?”

“...”

“What are you going to do, you bastard?!”

The Golem launched itself into the air with a whoosh. As it charged at me, swinging its spear, it reminded me of a spinning top fitted with a rotating scythe.

Only far more vicious.

Fabrication

Workshop No. 13

Grade - Rare

Bastard, the Lion’s Greatsword

I activated Weaving and gripped the bastard sword in both hands. A small weapon couldn’t block an attack charging in with such brute force.

Woven weapons vanished upon impact. If I failed to knock the spear completely aside, I would die.

“Hup!”

CLANG!

I knocked the Golem’s spear aside, and my weapon vanished that instant.

The Golem couldn’t understand why its spear had suddenly been blocked. It had already taken several woven daggers to the face, but Golems had no capacity to learn.

In that case...

CLANK!

CLANG!

I wove daggers and hurled them into its face.

If you can’t learn, just keep taking the hits. I’ll beat you until you’re in tatters.

But it advanced little by little. I could only weave one weapon at a time, so it used the gaps between them to close in.

‘I should have practiced weaving two weapons.’

Regret always comes too late.

* * *

Elin checked the wound on her abdomen. The bleeding had stopped, and the pain had eased a little. Her trained physique and accumulated mana were steadily healing her body.

With a little room to breathe, she watched Frondier fight.

‘I have to... help him escape...’

Why was Frondier helping her? He shouldn’t even know her. Even if he did, he had no reason to risk his life.

She had heard a little about Frondier from her younger brother, Aster. Hadn’t he said Frondier was far more diligent and decent than his reputation as “the Human Sloth” suggested?

But Elin hadn’t found that particularly convincing. Aster felt indebted to Frondier because of the Mistilteinn incident.

She knew nothing at all about his combat abilities, though. If the rumors that he slept through every class and tried to skip practical training and outdoor lessons whenever possible were true, he didn’t seem likely to be a good fighter.

Even now, there was no real structure to his movements as he fought the Golem.

And yet, why...?

‘How is he holding it off?’

Frondier was empty-handed. Yet whenever he swung his hands, the Golem’s spear bounced aside or its head jerked back.

At first, she had thought of “invisibility”—concealing his weapons with magic. It was certainly a difficult technique, but well worth the effort.

‘... But then, how did he save me?’

He had thrown “something” to deflect the spear thrusting toward her. She didn’t know what, but perhaps a throwing dagger?

Yet he kept throwing them without pause, as though there were no limit to their number.

Then, just as she began thinking that, he seemed to grip something in both hands and swing it, blocking the Golem’s spear. At other times, he wounded its waist or legs at very close range.

A dagger? A spear? A greatsword?

Being invisible was aggravating enough for an opponent, but even the weapons’ lengths were impossible to determine.

‘... What a shame.’

Even so, Elin expected Frondier to lose. At a glance, it looked as though he was attacking one-sidedly, but none of those attacks did meaningful damage to the Golem.

Perhaps it would fall if he repeated that several hundred thousand times. But Frondier’s stamina would give out first.

If only he had learned Aura, he might have had a chance of defeating it.

‘... Whew.’

Elin took a deep breath. Thankfully, Frondier was buying her time. She had to recover quickly and give him a chance to escape. If possible, she would escape with him.

Judging by the situation, he wasn’t likely to go down without warning.

“... That spearmanship.”

She heard Frondier mutter. Sensing something ominous in his voice, Elin raised her head to look at the Golem.

It had stopped its relentless assault and taken a stance. From there, it slowly swung its spear.

It looked slow at first glance, but there was power behind every movement, tracing a cunning path that denied its opponent any easy opening to thrust.

‘... Atzier’s spearmanship.’

Elin bit her lip. As she had thought, the Golem was imitating Atzier’s spearmanship.

Frondier’s hand moved again. An invisible thrown weapon.

CLANG!

This time, however, the Golem’s spear blocked it.

The Golem hadn’t seen Frondier’s weapon and blocked it. The path of its moving spear simply left no room for a dagger to enter.

He might still manage to attack through gaps in that path, but stopping the Golem’s advance was now impossible.

“Frondier! Shut up and die!”

Edwin’s shout rang out.

Elin slowly inhaled, then slowly exhaled. With that single breath, she drew in a tiny fragment of stamina.

* * *

Edwin’s intent to kill me was unmistakably real.

It was strange. Everything else seemed to have been a mistake, yet all he directed at me was murderous intent.

Had my actions inspired that much rage?

‘And besides...’

For a while now, the haze of Edwin’s “Corruption” had looked strange. Was this something I hadn’t been able to see in the game—or rather, something I couldn’t see because it was a game?

The purple haze seemed to have a shape. Something human. Something resembling a human.

I felt as though someone stood behind Edwin.

WHOOSH!

I narrowly dodged the spearpoint and stepped back. If this had really been Atzier, I would have died right there.

The Golem imitated his spearmanship, but its techniques were still disconnected. In game terms, its coding was incomplete. It used techniques according to certain conditions, but those conditions were still simple.

“Frondier!”

I heard Edwin’s voice, still full of violent emotion.

“I’ve already killed people! Now that I’ve killed once, adding you to the count won’t change anything!”

His voice sounded like a confession of despair. Even as he spoke, the Golem kept swinging its spear at me.

If he meant to distract me with his voice, it was excellent teamwork.

“If you came here half-prepared, thinking there was no way you’d actually die, you—!”

God, he was loud. As if I weren’t busy enough already.

“Be quiet! Nobody’s dead!”

CLANG!

I swung my woven greatsword as I shouted. Knocking the Golem’s spear aside was starting to strain me. Continuing to burn through mana was dangerous too.

“Wh-what?”

Edwin stammered, apparently quite flustered by my shout.

“You checked?”

“I don’t need to check that to know!”

What had happened? What exactly had caused Elin and Edwin to fight? Why did Edwin think he had killed someone?

I didn’t know any of that.

But even so...

“There’s no way you killed anyone!”

I knew Edwin von Behertio.

The purple haze was proof of Corruption. After he had fallen, anything was possible. But that haze had only just appeared. In other words, Edwin hadn’t been corrupted before then.

An uncorrupted Edwin would never kill anyone.

“Wh-what do you know...!”

What did I know?

How could I explain it? The days I had spent as Aster, challenging Etius alongside him again and again. The countless lives in which I had watched him.

Would he understand if I explained all of it?

Whatever he had done with the Golem, whether he was being pushed around by a Golem that acted on his will alone or not, my opinion remained unchanged.

Edwin couldn’t harbor the intent to kill someone, not even for a moment.

That hopelessly gentle nature was both the weakness that had tormented him all this time and his own innate nobility—the very quality that would one day send the Behertio Family soaring into glory.

“N... No! I’m... a coward who ran away without even checking whether those people were dead...!”

Edwin seemed confused. In contrast, the Golem’s attacks grew fiercer.

That contradiction would probably start feeling wrong to Elin too, not just me.

I could see it. The purple haze inhabiting Edwin was gradually moving into the Golem.

At last, I understood the true nature of that “Corruption.”

I had seen a god before. A small boy with black wings spread wide, who had tried to kill me and disguise it as suicide.

Thanatos.

Now, I could feel that same presence from the “Corruption.”

I didn’t know who it was.

But behind Edwin stood a “god.”