“I’m truly sorry about that……”
Several dozen minutes later.
Eris had regained consciousness and was bowing deeply with a mortified expression.
Honestly, none of us had expected her to just collapse like that.
I already knew how remarkable Makina was, but that reaction was a bit much.
……There had been something almost alluring about it, too.
“So — what became of the girl?”
“She’s in the holding cell below. I intend to learn her affiliation and who hired her, but she appears to be tight-lipped.”
Eris made a troubled face at Makina’s report.
She rubbed her chin thoughtfully for a moment before speaking.
“……She had her face surgically altered and went to the trouble of building up poison resistance. That’s a serious professional. With that level of commitment and skill, she almost certainly won’t talk.”
“I did want to investigate who was behind her……”
“I may have a thought on that.”
Sarmat entered the conversation.
He looked at me with an expression that was hard to read — somewhere between reluctance and regret.
“Go ahead. Who is it?”
“……I believe Lord Wiesel is involved.”
My own family, then……
That explained the face.
Though honestly, my brother was exactly the kind of person who would do something like this.
“When Lady Eris offered to buy Lord Viktor’s golems at a high price, Lord Wiesel apparently heard of it. My suspicion is that he intends to forcibly bring Lord Viktor back and have him produce golems.”
“Right, right. That’s actually why I came all the way to the Great Forest in the first place — Wiesel had already disposed of the golems, so I came looking for their maker.”
Ah — so that was it.
I’d been puzzled about why a Sage would venture into a demon frontier like this, but she’d taken an interest in my golems.
Makina aside, I had confidence that the golems I built were considerably above the average.
“But in that case — why send an assassin at all? Couldn’t he have simply persuaded you to return? He is your elder brother.”
“……I imagine he wanted to keep my existence hidden and take all the credit himself. Something like: he analyzed the golems I’d left behind, and had his court mages develop something even better.”
“Why would he do that?”
“To win the succession against Wilhelm. If he said ‘my little brother built the golems,’ it wouldn’t count as Wiesel’s achievement.”
In the Embance Kingdom, succession generally followed primogeniture.
But Wilhelm, the eldest son of the Stein earldom, had been in poor health.
Their father had consequently shown reluctance to have Wilhelm inherit.
If Wiesel could produce some significant achievement at this juncture……
It wasn’t impossible that he could become the next earl.
“Stealing Master’s achievements for his own advancement and intending to use him as forced labor……quite unforgivable. He deserves a thousand deaths.”
Makina had begun radiating genuine killing intent.
It wasn’t even directed at me, and I was getting cold shivers.
If Makina ever ran into my brother, she’d kill him even if I tried to stop her……
“A-anyway, let’s not go that far. It hasn’t been confirmed as fact yet. More importantly — Eris, how much were you offering for my golems?”
“A hundred gold coins per unit.”
“W-what!?”
I couldn’t help making a strange noise.
A hundred gold coins — that was enough to buy a house in the countryside.
Even as the third son of an earldom, my entire annual personal allowance had been around that much.
Truly incredible.
“Of course, for golems like the ones here, it would be considerably more. Honestly, there’s no way to put a price on them. That Makina in particular — we’d be talking national-budget territory.”
“N-national budget!?”
“Obviously. A human-level intellect and combat ability that overpowers a trained assassin? The world would change.”
W-well……
In reality, Makina’s intellect already exceeded a human’s, and her combat ability was on an entirely different level than “overpowering an assassin.”
But saying that would probably make Eris faint and not come back this time.
Better to keep quiet for now.
“I will add that Eris’s appraisal is reasonably accurate.”
“Is that right……Hmm, Makina is off the table for various reasons, but the others……”
“Are you saying you’d sell one!?”
“Yes. And you don’t need to pay that much.”
“YESSSSS!!!!“
Eris thrust her fist in the air and let out a sound no lady should make.
Then she launched into a victory laugh for no particular reason.
Something was off. She looked like she’d taken some kind of strange medicine.
“This is going to transform my research! Thank you, Viktor!”
“Y-yes, glad to hear it. And actually — if it’s technology research you want, would you consider staying here?”
“Hm?”
“Our research institute is perpetually short-handed. Having a Sage join us would be beyond reassuring.”
The moment Makina said it, Eris’s expression froze.
Then, in a slightly stilted tone, she asked:
“That research institute……you study golems there?”
“Of course.”
“Does that include golems like yourself?”
“Yes. As it happens, we’ve just secured a prospect for obtaining a new magic stone, so I’m currently researching a new body for myself.”
Eris fell silent and closed the distance to Makina.
Then she seized Makina’s hand with force and bowed her head with remarkable speed.
“Please — let me join the institute!! I’ll resign from the White Tower!!”
Wh-what!?
Her unexpected declaration left all of us genuinely stunned.