Chapter 26 Part2 (2/2)

”Yeah.”

Lee s.h.i.+n Woo looked at the Chi Pauls... his completely destroyed surroundings, Kratia, who was blankly staring at him, Jin, as well as the collapsed satellite city, Kadinan.

He smiled bitterly. His original plan had been so much simpler, so how did things turn out like this?

”Now, shall we go and see what's hidden within the secret facilities?”

”Are you going to show me too?”

”What's with you all of a sudden?”

Kratia became a bit happy at Lee s.h.i.+n Woo's words. To be honest, he thought it would turn out like this when he had first asked her for help, but it wasn't a bad feeling to be recognized by one's information sharing partner.

”Hey, he's a skeleton.”

”I know. He's a skeleton who's really good at handling magic.”

Jin commented from beside her, but Kratia tilted her head as if to say 'and what about it?'. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo heard their chat, but he had no idea what they were even talking about.

”So you got a request from the golems?”

”Yeah. We've been in contact even before then.”

[Are you saying that there are knights who succeeded the experiment...?]

Lee s.h.i.+n Woo led the party, entered the facility, and explained the events to Kratia. It was also an explanation to the Chi Pauls, who were turned into golems and sacrificed for the experiment.

”The Golden General, Arema Steelworker...”

”The reason I didn't tell you earlier was because I was concerned that you might go looking for him. Plus, it would've become a pain for us, as we need to use the golem trains.”

”...I understand.”

Kratia agreed; if it were her from a few months back that was extremely curious about how golems worked, she might've stuck with Lee s.h.i.+n Woo and been a pain in the a.s.s. Of course, she was different now. She knew when she could be greedy and when she needed to resign herself.

”If they figured out who I am, they would be suspicious.”

”a.s.suming that they know about every single hero in the Empire, there's no reason to link us with the heroes. As you know, we don't look like heroes, right?”

”Yeah. So long as we don't know their intent, there's no reason to tell them about the heroes.”

While conversing, they explored every nook and cranny of the facility. The Chi Pauls heard Lee s.h.i.+n Woo talk about 'other golems', as well as finding traces of other knights being sacrificed as test subjects just like them and began to feel a powerful emotion that they couldn't define.

[The test succeeded, but they were indeed sacrificed. To think that there's a core capable of making someone absolutely loyal.]

[Yet, that core is what allowed us to be reborn. Though there's no trace of it anymore.]

[Do you think they're hostile to the Emperor as well?]

[They're probably not like us. Moreover, Arema Steelworker? I remembered when I heard his name. It seemed like he wanted to hide it, but... we saw it.]

One Chi Paul spoke in the middle of the other Chi Pauls. It seemed as though its intellect was far greater than the other Chi Pauls, probably as much as the level 7... it compared the memories of countless knights' imperfect memories and extracted them, coming into possession of a ma.s.sive amount of intact memories.

[Isn't it him? The one who recommended this d.a.m.n plan to the Emperor?]

[Is that true?]

”...What did you say!?”

That's the first even Lee s.h.i.+n Woo had heard of it! He immediately turned his head, and the Chi Paul stepped back slightly, as if fl.u.s.tered, and bowed his head.

[I'm sure. I couldn't be sure before, due to the fragmented memories, but... I can tell now. The one who recommended that the Emperor turn knights into golems was... No, the one who first introduced the technique of making golems came from him.]

”...Is that so?”

Arema Steelworker was definitely the one who proposed the experiment, but he'd never told Lee s.h.i.+n Woo who had come up with the plan. Moreover, at the time of the experiment, he had volunteered himself and pledged his loyalty to the Emperor, so he hadn't lied.

'The truth was merely hidden; it wasn't a lie. Even so, it's still deception.'

Lee s.h.i.+n Woo's mouth gaped, as though his jawbone would fall out, but he was smiling. That's because he'd gotten a hint from a place he'd never expected to get one from.

'He sent me here himself, but to think I'd hear about this from the knights who were supposed to be buried in the past... Moreover, he probably didn't think that there was a way to gather all the knights' fragmented memories and rebuild them.'

Of course he wouldn't know. Lee s.h.i.+n Woo hadn't known either!

”Even so, was there anything that changed? They just went from loyal psychos to people who got a hold of themselves and ran away following the Emperor's activation of the curse, no?”

”Well, that could be it. But if Arema Steelworker was the one to recommend the formation of the golem army, then...”

Lee s.h.i.+n Woo was remembering. All the golems possessed a mark that allowed the Emperor to control them, and under that, Guillotine Steelworker and the others held a high rank administrative mark. Then under that was a general administrator's mark.

”But from what I remember, Arema Steelworker possessed a mark for just himself... one that wasn't the Emperor's mark, or even the Steelworker mark.”

Of course, he probably needed it to control the golem army. Rather than the Emperor giving orders, it would be much better for the general, Arema Steelworker to be commanding the troops in battle.

However, if he was the one who started everything... and if he had a different intention in mind...

”What if Arema Steelworker's mark is even higher than the Emperor's?”

”...”

His sharp statement caused everyone to keep their mouths shut. At that moment, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo, who had been feeling up the wall, stopped his hand. At his fingertips, the Steelworker mark was radiating a blinding light.

He'd finally found the facility within the facility; the entrance to the secret area.

[1] T/N: Digimon reference. Just a way of saying she's reached her ”final form” or something.

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