Chapter 467 - The Five Great Gollem Meisters and the Young Boy’s Troubles
When it comes to gollem-related matters, having an expert on our side makes things much easier.
For this reason, I contacted our engineer, Elluka, through Babylon and brought her in. Dr. Babylon herself also tagged along, which I suppose couldn’t be avoided. Fenrir was in the middle of doing maintenance checks, so he had to stay home.
When I returned to the Refreese infirmary together with the duo, I found the young Emperor of Gardio, Lucrecion, and the Emperor of Refreese waiting for me. There were knights present as well.
Miss Imelda (a gollem that looks exactly just like her) was lying on top of the white bed, unconscious. At first glance, she looks just exactly like a human.
Elluka forced open Miss Imelda’s eyes wide and looked into them before tracing her throat with her fingers.
“Certainly, this kid is a simulacrum gollem, and one that is made quite elaborately at that. Perhaps one from the『Fleurage』series? Ooh, that appears to be the case…” Muttered Elluka as she rubbed the gollem’s collarbone with a wet handkerchief, revealing a faint flower-like symbol.
Was it hidden by some kind of foundation…?
Elluka then took Miss Imelda’s wrist. She was holding some kind of thin needle-like object which she then used to prick a small point on Miss Imelda’s wrist, making a small hissing sound in the process. After a few seconds, the back of her hand slid open like a lid. Shown inside were several transparent threads of small light flowing through her body, along with a blue, crystal-like object. There was no doubt about it… This girl… She’s absolutely a gollem.
Just in case, I asked Kohaku and her summoned beasts to check if any other gollems were mixed among the participants, but there didn’t appear to be any. I had them do this job since it would be easy for them to differentiate humans and gollems by scent. Thankfully, it seems that there weren’t any more of them sent into the party.
“Unbelievable… She was really a gollem…”
“What in the world is going on…? Whoever they were, what was their reason for sending such a human-like gollem to our party?”
Lucrecrion was in a state of shock and confusion, while the Emperor of Refreese, with his arms folded, was casting a dubious glare towards the Emperor of Gardio. The Rammish Pope’s mystic eyes had already revealed that the Emperor of Gardio was not involved, but nevertheless, it was still true that Miss Imelda is an attendee from the Gardio Empire.
“I’m having this matter currently investigated as we speak. I’ve already dispatched a team towards the Tryus household located in our capital, Garlesta. We’ll be hearing from them soon…”
As soon as the Emperor of Gardio finished talking, his phone began to vibrate. Nice timing… He walked a short distance away from us then took his phone out from his pocket to talk to whoever was on the other side.
Each of Dr. Babylon’s mass-produced smartphones have been given to representatives of every nation, their families, and their officials, and they have proven to be useful for communication in such situations. I’ve also heard talks about rulers of each nation and their officials becoming more busy ever since they’ve received their smartphones, but that’s just to be expected, right?
After a few moments, the Emperor of Gardio eventually returned to us.
“Apparently, Miss Imelda was found locked up inside her closet. Fortunately, her life doesn’t seem to be in any danger and was just unconscious. I can’t really say for sure yet, but it’s highly likely that the gollem swap didn’t have anything to do with her family.”
Fumu… However, it’s also possible that her family did all this and that in order to get away with it. Still, even if that’s the case, I don’t understand their purpose…
“What kind of family is this Tryus? Tell me more about them.”
“They have a long history of loyalty towards the Empire, and their current family head is also a man of character who has been entrusted with one of the capital’s educational institutions.”
“U-uh, I, no… I1‘ve also met the Earl of Tryus many times when I was a crown prince, and he was a sincere and kind gentleman. So… maybe, I think that he doesn’t have anything to do with this gollem matter…” Lucrecion followed up after the Emperor of Gardio’s answer to my question. Apparently, the earl of Tryus seems to be in the clear… Though, just because they said that, doesn’t mean the doubts are immediately cleared…
Elze was carefully observing Miss Imelda’s face as she lay on the bed, sleeping.
“Does this gollem looks as exact as the real person herself? Can gollems like her change their faces easily as they like?”
“To a certain extent, yes. Women can transform through make up, right? However, unlike humans, gollems like her can transform their skeletal structure, body shape, flesh mass, and so on.”
At the words of Elluka, both Elze and Sakura quietly glared at Imelda, or more precisely, towards the two bouncy masses that were rising like a mountain on top of her body.
“Not fair…”
“…How unfair…”
No, we don’t even know if it’s the same volume as the real person herself… Still, this is bad… We’re gonna reach a bad end if we keep the atmosphere like this… I hurriedly turned towards the Emperor of Gardio and spoke, hoping to divert the topic.
“A-anyway, you really had no idea she was a fake one? Like, didn’t you notice anything strange with her mannerisms or the way she speaks?”
“Miss Imelda was one who rarely goes out. In fact, it has already been five years since I’ve seen her, so everything about her has changed. Her height, and how mature she looks, so I just accepted it as her growing up. And, I didn’t really have any reasons to doubt her in the first place.”
Unsociable, huh… Perhaps it was the reason why she was targeted. I mean, it’d make sense that someone who doesn’t have any social connections or acquaintances would be the most convenient person to be switched with.
“Well, now that it’s come to this, we should get the information we need from the gollem itself, then,” muttered Dr. Babylon as she rolled her aroma pipe in her mouth while looking at the gollem lying unconscious on the bed.
“Is it safe to reboot her, though? Won’t she attack us?”
“There’s also that possibility, however gollems from the『Fleurage』series aren’t that strong to begin with. If you’re worried, we could just tie her up.”
After Dr. Babylon voiced her concern, Elluka took out a sturdy-looking rope out of the toolbox she had brought. Why in the world are you even carrying such a thing…?
“Uh, hey, listen… Why don’t we try overwriting her master authority before doing that?”
I’ve been thinking of this method for a while, so I tried suggesting it to both of them. Since, if we do it this way, instead of going through the process of tying her up, we can just simply bind her to a new master and ask her directly why she was sent here.
“Fumu fumu. In other words, Touya-kun, you’re saying that we should take out her G-Cube?”
“…Eh? I mean, yeah, but…” freewebnov(e)l.com
“No, I understand, Touya-kun. I am also very interested in seeing what kind of oppai simulacrum gollems like her has too.”
“No, don’t listen to her! That’s not what I meant! Don’t lump me in with you!”
But of course, in order to access a gollem’s G-Cube, we need to take off its clothes to open the hatch on its chest, but that’s just a means to an end! It’s not what I was aiming for!
“…Shall we have a little chat over there, husband-sama…?”
“…Grand Duke, you should not be doing that sort of thing in front of us, your wives…”
“W-wait! You’re wrong! Nooo-!”
Both of my wives grabbed my arms very firmly from either side and were about to drag me away. As Elluka saw that however, she swiftly gave Dr. Babylon’s head with a light karate chop.
“Kora, Regina-chan. Don’t tease the newlyweds too much.”
“Iyaaaaa… I just thought that it’d be nice if I add some little spice to their married life…”
Are you kidding…? That’s no spice, that’s poison, you old loli! I’ve already had enough sh*t to deal with, and you just had to add more!
“Well then, for now I’ll become the temporary master. It’s perfect since Fenrir isn’t here, so signal jamming won’t occur. The men over there, you sure you’d be looking here?” Prompted by Elluka, all the men gathered in the infirmary, including I, Emperor of Refreese, Emperor of Gardio, Lucrecion, and all the male knights turned to face the wall at once. Well, Elluka’s better than having that perverted old loli become the gollem’s master.
I wondered if wouldn’t it be better if all the men present in this room just leave, however it seems that it won’t take long, so I guess this was fine too.
A few moments later, I heard the rustling of clothes. Seemingly the sound of Miss Imelda’s clothes being removed. Ah, so it was after all the correct choice to just leave the room… The door is on the other side, which is behind me… So, going outside is out of the question… Damn it!
Then suddenly, a clicking sound of something being removed was heard.
“Woah!”
“Hell, yeah! Those are some damn nice bouncy objects, huh! It’s almost as big as Flora’s… Hmm… ooh, what a soft feeling, just like the real thing… Hora, Elze, give it a feel.”
“U-uwah! A-amazing…! What the hell are they made of…? I can’t think of it as anything, but the real deal!”
“…Heavy…! U-ugh… I can’t win… These melons definitely are unbeatable…”
The ongoing conversation behind me was growing more and more uncomfortable as they talked more about that topic. I knew I should’ve left the room earlier while I still had the opportunity. It was still perfectly fine for me, but… Looking at Lucrecion, this was poison for his eyes-no, poison for his ears to hear. He was literally as red as a tomato all the way up to his face.
“Excuse me for interrupting your pleasant conversation, but do you mind speeding things up a little? The Emperor and the others had to return to the party, remember?”
“Sheesh, alright. I gotcha,【Open】,” said Elluka. What followed her words after were the sound of hissing air. It seems that she must’ve opened the chest hatch. Moments later, sounds of internal tinkering were heard, probably the sound from removing and overwriting the G-Cube.
Even if Elluka put back the overwritten G-Cube, Miss Imelda wouldn’t wake up unless I repaired the nerve lines that I’d severed with【Cracking】.
“Yoshi, all good. All that’s left is to put the clothes back on. Though, we can neglect the bra since it would take too much effort.”
“Oi…” I muttered irritatedly, still facing the wall. Beside me, the young boy Lucrecion had his eyes shut, doing his best to not hear whatever the girls were talking about as he mumbled something to himself quietly. …Man, don’t toy with this poor boy’s innocent mind too much.
“I understaaaand. Lethal weapons like these are poisonous to young boys, after all. I’ll dress her properly, then… Mou… as expected, they’re pretty heavy… Ooh…”
Stop telling us every single damn thing, goddamn it!
When the girls had finally finished dressing Miss Imelda back, with their permission, I turned around and saw her lying on the bed looking the same as before, except her outfit was a little dishevelled, her chest ribbon and necklace removed.
“Alright, can you repair her nerve lines back, Touya-kun?”
“Gotcha,” I replied as I moved towards the bed and put my hand on the back of Miss Imelda’s neck and activated my【Cracking】spell to reconnect the nerve lines I’d severed earlier. Her body jerked wildly for a while and her eyes shot open. However, those eyes were devoid of light, and while she was glancing about restlessly, she seemed to be looking nowhere and was unfocused. Her whole body began convulsing, as if she was having a seizure.
“S-she’s fine, right?”
“Well, yes. The severed nerve lines just got reconnected, so she’s just processing the stored data inside her. Give her a minute, she’ll settle down soon.”
I certainly hope so… It’s just a little bit worrying seeing a gollem with a human-like appearance convulsing like that…
Eventually, Miss Imelda stopped convulsing and then raised her upper body. She opened her mouth, however, a different mechanical voice came out.
『Model Number FR-006, Individual Name Hydrangea, has recovered from a state of unexpected shutdown. Operational issues, none detected. Master registration modified, now commencing previous mast-.』
“Wha-!? T-this is bad, Touya-kun, quick! Sever her circuits again!”
“H-huh!? O-okay!” I hurriedly replied as Elluka suddenly started panicking and immediately placed my hands behind Miss Imelda’s neck then activated my【Cracking】spell once again. Thud! Her body stopped moving and slumped back as if fainting. What in the world was that…?
『-er’s records…eeli…miinna…tioooonnn…』
Although she stopped moving, she still tried to finish her words with a mechanical voice that is no different from having a malfunction, but that stopped as well.
“They got us… To think that they’d tamper with the Q-Crystal as well… But, if we carefully think about it, this gollem is a scout-type, which would make sense that putting an insurance in case something like this happens is only natural, especially if they’re using a gollem made for recon… Ugh, it was a mistake on my part…” Elluka grumbled, looking very frustrated. Hm? I don’t really understand what she meant by that, though…
“So basically, the legacy gollems have their memories stored in the Q-Crystal on their head. This Q-Crystal is like their brain, and is made of small crystalline blocks which contain several layers of their memories and basic behaviours. Stuffs like obeying their master and self-defense are burned directly into their most fundamental levels, so they are not something you can erase. However, the records of who their master is, what orders were they given, and other everyday memories could be stored in another block, so…”
“Hmm, I see. That separate block could then be readily deleted, right? It was most likely left by her previous master as a countermeasure to erase the gollem’s memories of them, and was set up in such a way that if someone attempted to overwrite the master’s authority, it would trigger…” Dr. Babylon said, nodding to Elluka with a grin on her face.
Eh…? So she’s been programmed to reset her memory!?
“This isn’t something done normally, though. Since in human terms, it’d be equivalent to losing all of the experience you’ve gathered over the years. To begin with, there are only a handful of people who could tamper with a legacy gollem’s Q-Crystal. And even if they wanted to, they couldn’t.”
Legacy gollems were usually found in ancient ruins, having remained inactive for many months and years. This would also mean that portions of memories from their Q-Crystal would’ve been long gone, making the gollems excavated from these ruins holding no memories of the past eras. However, some of the higher-spec model of gollems, especially from the『Crown』series retained their memories intact. Yumina’s white『Crown』, Albus, was one of those.
Come to think of it, Albus was of the same kind with this simulacrum gollem. Though, in Albus’ case, it was a countermeasure wherein if anyone other than a suitable person tried to open its hatch, its reset ability would be triggered.
“…Does this mean… that the only clue we had to figuring out who the mastermind was has disappeared…?”
“I’m sorry, this was a total mistake on my part. Had I thought about things more carefully, I could’ve noticed this situation as one of the possibilities…”
Uh… I was the one who suggested overwriting her master authority, though… I kind of feel a little bit responsible…
“However, it’s not like we’re completely out of culprits to narrow down. There are actually only a few gollem engineers capable of tampering with a Q-Crystal like this. Still, there’s also the possibility that they were threatened into helping them out, but…”
“So you’re saying that it might’ve been one of the five great gollem meisters?” Asked the Emperor of Gardio towards Elluka, the latter nodding back at him. “Five great gollem meisters?” I asked a question in return, clearly looking confused, so Lucrecion took the liberty of explaining things to me.
“In our world-uh, no. In the western continent, there are five famous and talented gollem engineers. Those five are known as the five great gollem meisters, and Elluka here is one of them. She’s famously known as the『Restoration Queen』. Ah! Despite the fact that we refer to them as the five great gollem meisters, one of them had recently died, so… As of now, it would not be incorrect to refer to them as the four great gollem meisters…”
“…Is that so? I see.”
“What the hell are you saying now, Touya-kun? Weren’t you the one who caused his death?”
“Eh!? Me!?”
I was literally shocked by Elluka’s words. I mean, when did it happen!? I clearly don’t remember anything of that sort, though!
“Hora, you remember the witch King of Isengard? That old fart was one of the five great gollem meisters, you know?”
Oh, you mean that… Well, if we clearly think about it, aside from that old fart’s personality, I can admit that he could easily become one of the top five great gollem meisters in the Reverse World… especially if we take into account that ridiculously large gollem, Hecatoncheir, that he managed to revive… Plus, he had that simulacrum gollem that was very human-like as his body double as well…
“Apart from Elluka and the witch King, what about the other three?”
“There’s also the『Professor』which I’m sure you’ve met before, Touya-kun.”
Aah, that old man who’d been kidnapped by Yulong. Certainly, that old man was very talented as he was able to create gollems out of very little materials. I heard that he’d went travelling after that incident, but I wonder where he is now. Surely, he’s not going to be kidnapped and forced into doing evil things again, no?
“I don’t think the professor is involved with this time’s incident. After all, he’s currently staying at the Royal Palace of Panaches, in charge with doing routine maintenance checks with Blau.”
Oh, so he’s currently staying at pumpkin-pants’ place.
Apparently, the Panaches royal family’s blue crown,『Distortion Blau』, needed some maintenance, so they took the professor in, seeking his abilities for maintaining said gollem.
Basically, people who could handle Legacy gollems were scarce, and among those who could, the number of people who could handle the『Crown』series was even lower. Even Nia would rely on Elluka to repair Rouge whenever it was out of commission.
“What about the other two?”
“Well, I don’t really know where either of them are currently. The『Maestro』is a bit of a misanthrope… and the other one… no, calling it one sounds wrong… they’re more like a group. They’re called the『Seekers』and they like to roam around here and there, so I can’t really say where they might be as they are hard to locate.”
So it’s highly likely that one of them is involved with the switching of Miss Imelda… Well, we couldn’t also deny the possibility of them just being blackmailed and threatened into cooperating, though…
“For the time being, that’s the only hint we have… We have no idea what they’re up to, but we should at least look on the bright side and consider ourselves fortunate that no damage was done this time,” muttered the Emperor of Refreese, seemingly regretful. I tried asking Elluka about the other gollem meisters’ features so that I could gather more information through the search function on my phone, but I got no results. Seems that they were probably keeping some protective measures in case tracking-oriented gollems tried to search them up.
Neither seems to want to stand out too much, which I could understand. Having a skillset like that would certainly have every nation’s eyes looking at you, wanting to make you a part of their force. So, those protective measures might be to avoid persistent nations from jumping at them all the time.
“We have no other choice, but to look this incident up at a later time. We don’t want to leave the party unattended after all.”
“A-ah, uhm…”
As the Emperor of Refreese was about to stand up and leave, the young boy, Lucrecion, raised his hand. What now?
“I-I might be able to… help you obtain a little bit of information…”
“Information…? Oh, I see!”
“The Mystic Eyes of Memory Perception, huh!”
Both mine and the Emperor of Gardio’s eyes met at this sudden realization. The young boy Lucrecion, former crown prince of the Gardio Empire, had a mystic eye. More precisely, it was the『Mystic Eyes of Memory Perception』which allows him to recognize the residual thoughts of people in objects that were left behind when someone had touched it. He was something akin to a psychometrician. If he used this power, he might be able to see who were involved with the gollem Imelda. Even if the information is fragmentary, we might be able to make something out of it.
“Couldn’t you have told us sooner…?”
“Uhm… my mystic eyes doesn’t always work unless I touch an area of strong focus… I-in which case, it would need me to touch Miss Imelda… but, that would mean…”
“Oh, I see. You need to touch her boobs, huh. I get it, you’re a young man after all.”
“I-I don’t want to hear that coming from you!”
Dr. Babylon, who looked much younger than Lucrecion in appearance, smirked playfully at him. Ah… this poor young man had no idea that this loli hag was the oldest person in the room.
Considering Lucrecion’s age, I wasn’t entirely sure if this barely counts as a sexual harassment or not, but the other person wasn’t a human… Still, don’t gollems have emotions and feelings as well? Wouldn’t it be considered sexual harassment then…? Ugh, now I’m confused…
However, the Emperor of Gardio was a little more reluctant. He was, after all, entrusted by the previous emperor to look after Lucrecrion. And this situation was clearly… something bad, especially for the boy’s education. He was in a very tight spot.
“Then, how about we do it this way?” Elze suggested as she untied the ribbon that held her long hair together and went behind Lucrecion to cover his eyes.
It was called mystic eyes, but it wasn’t actually necessary to see in order to use its power. All he had to do was to touch the target, and even being blindfolded wouldn’t stop it from activating once used.
The Emperor of Gardio too, appeared to be a little relieved with this approach.
“Alright, the men over there might need to look away.”
“Ugh, again…?”
As we had our backs turned, we heard Lucrecion go “Uwah… so soft…” a moment later. His hands were probably led by that perverted doctor towards the chest area.
I wondered if this was really a good idea. Wouldn’t the boy’s imagination run more wildly with the blindfold on?
“Oooh! I can see it… This is…!” Muttered Lucrecion, seemingly getting a grasp on something. Surely, I hope that what the young boy is seeing aren’t the wicked thoughts placed upon him by the perverted loli hag earlier. Ugh, I certainly hope his minds aren’t corrupted with those wicked thoughts…
“…I didn’t see everything, but I did caught some things to a certain extent…”
As I was worrying about Lucrecion getting corrupted, his psychometry work had ended. He then proceeded to remove his blindfold in front of the unconscious Miss Imelda, her clothes already fixed.
“So, what did you see?”
“What I’d seen… no, my mystic eyes just perceive the target’s thoughts, so all I could grasp were instantaneous images and voices… However, what really caught my attention were the pile of gollems and two crossed hammers on a flag…”
“Nani!?2” The Emperor of Gardio was clearly surprised by Lucrecion’s words, the latter only giving a small nod.
“Hammers on a flag…?”
“Oi, Touya-kun, you’re also a leader of a nation, aren’t you? Why don’t you know the national flags?”
“…Sorry…” I replied to Elluka, who was giving me a dumbfounded look. Wait… I remember seeing a flag that had a description like that once…
“There is only one nation who has a flag like that, located right next to the Gardio Empire… Second only to Isengard when it came to magical engineering…”
“The Steel Nation of Gandhilis…” Lucrecion’s wrung out voice echoed throughout the whole room, as if to finish the Emperor of Gardio’s words.
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