Chapter 491: Jin, Towards Kaina Village (1/2)
It was the day after Satellite 001’s failure, that is, August 4th. Jin was hanging out at Stearleana’s house.
“What a shame about what happened yesterday.”
“Yeah, well. It might have been a bit out of my league.”
“Haha, if you’re not good enough to make it happen, then who in this world can?”
Then, after having spent some more time on idle chat…
“Thanks for the tea.”
After putting down his empty cup, Jin decided it was time to leave Stearleana’s house.
He was planning to activate his new Magi Machine on this day.
“My Lord, the preparations for the activation of ‘Mole’ are ready.”
Laojun reported this immediately after Jin returned to the laboratory.
As of August 1st, the Inad Mine had been officially incorporated into Jin’s leasehold land. There was nothing anyone could do to prevent that anymore.
Laojun had questioned the Klein Kingdom’s decision to retire their guards right before the transfer of possession had been properly made.
“Okay, let’s start probing. We need to be very careful.”
“Yes. We also have 20 Land Units equipped with Plasma Swords standing ready just in case.”
There were many things that Jin wanted to investigate, like the mysterious device discovered beneath the Inad Mine, and the habitat of the Giant Centipedes that had come out of it during the other day’s incident.
The “Mole” was to be transferred to the position set by the Land Units upon their arrival at the scene.
The completed Mole was a huge cylinder with a diameter of 2 meters and a length of 3 meters. It was similar to the shield machines used for tunnel digging on modern Earth.
It was capable of using both the Engineering Magic spell “Dig” as well as Hyper Adamantite excavation tips.
The excavated soil and sand would be discharged to the surface using a transfer machine.
It could dig while exploring foreign substances in the ground thanks to its sonar and Magi Detector.
It was also capable of using the “Toughen” spell on the walls of the tunnels it excavated in order to prevent cave-ins.
Those were the functions available to the “Mole”.
Under Jin’s attentive watch, the Mole was transferred to its destination at 11 AM.
“Father, Elsa is calling for you. Come inside.”
“Hmm. Okay.”
The two of them entered the laboratory, and headed towards the workshop.
“Ah, Brother Jin. I’ve finished working on their exterior.”
Elsa, Jin’s protegee and top disciple, cheerfully greeted him.
There were 10 cat-shaped golems on the workshop’s big workbench. Jin had entrusted the hair transplantation process to Elsa after she had returned from her parents’ house.
Nine of them had a shiny and colorful coat of fur. One for each of the colors of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple, plus one white and one black.
“Oh, they’re so pretty.”
The last remaining one still had an aluminum exterior. It was still a prototype.
“I’ve named them Seki, Tou, Ou, Ryoku, Sei, Ai, Yukari, Haku, and Koku.”
They all seemed to have been named with words that seemed to be fashioned after Jin’s own name, and sounded very Japanese-like.
“What about this one?”
Jin asked that while pointing at the single golem cat which had yet to get his own coat of fur.
“I haven’t thought of a name for that one yet. Why don’t you name it, Brother Jin?”
“Okay, then… How about ‘Tama’?”
“Tama, huh?”
The nine coated golem cats had been made in Tama’s image. The only difference it had with the other nine was its lack of fur.
Tama would be kept on Hourai Island, but the other nine would be sent to Kaina Village so that they could roam free.
In the first place, all these golem cats were a result of Hanna’s suggestion to Jin. At first, Jin was going to make a single golem cat for her, but he then changed his mind.
“Brother Jin, why did you choose to make so many of these?”
Elsa seemed to have been wondering why for some time.
“Well, Reinhardt advised me that, as a feudal lord, one shouldn’t show signs of favoritism.”
The point was that the other children would be jealous if Hanna was the only one to get a golem cat.
“It’s different from when I was under the care of Martha’s family, but albeit tentatively, I’m a feudal lord now.”
“…That’s right. Kind of like Brother Rei.”
“That’s why I’m planning to set these little guys free in Kaina Village.”
They moved just like cats, but their intelligence was set much higher. Their bodies were made with aluminum, while adamantite was used for their claws.
Even if they were to come across a Rock Wolf or a Wood Bear, they should be able to defend themselves without any problem. Of course, they were also set to notify Laojun in case of an emergency.
They were intended to behave like friendly cats. Still…
“I think it would be nice if kids could remember the importance of life by caring for a living thing from these little guys as well.”
One of the teachings of the orphanage’s Director was that keeping small animals as pets wasn’t just for cherishing them, but to remember how precious life actually was.
The gravestone that Jin had set for his pet goldfish probably still remains in a corner of the orphanage’s garden to this day.
“Okay, ‘Startup’.”