Kays Translations

Chapter 165: The Mystery of Magic

“It might be because the arms we found earlier feel different; perhaps it’s due to the country where they were made.” 

Willem remarked upon hearing about the crest.

“That’s right. Since they’re made by people, it’s likely they bear characteristics specific to each country.” 

On Earth, weapons and vehicles like cars naturally differ in appearance based on their function, but they also exhibit national styles in design and coloring.

Similarly, even magic giant golems might vary in appearance not just based on when they were made or their function, but also by their place of origin.

However, knowing their origins doesn’t immediately provide us with a way to use them. Without dismantling them further, we won’t learn more, so we decided to shelve the investigation for now and continue exploring.

We first checked out the crane and leg parts we found straight ahead. The room was divided into three large sections.

The area with the crane occupied the largest space in the back. In front of that were rooms divided by partitions about three meters high on both sides.

We entered the room on the right. It had a simple door, but it wasn’t locked.

The room, about the size of a school classroom, had three walls completely covered with tall shelves, except for the one with the entrance. There was one large table and four desks that seemed meant for individual use.

“…Feels like a workshop or a laboratory, doesn’t it?” 

Willem observed as he surveyed the room.

“Yes, it does feel like that.” 

Isamu nodded, sensing it resembled a lab in a factory.

However, it was just the atmosphere; the room itself was quiet. Once, these shelves were likely filled to the brim with books and documents, but now there was no trace of them.

As Isamu opened drawers on the desks, he commented.

“It’s certain they were researching and developing the magic giant golems here, so they must have taken out important research materials.”

Still, they managed to find several documents. Whether they weren’t taken due to quantity, deemed safe for viewing, or simply forgotten remained unclear.

Most were notes written in unreadable characters, likely ancient, but among them were what seemed to be diagrams of something like design plans and drafts of magic circles.

There were also simple sketches and diagrams mixed in with the notes.

“Hmm… These diagrams are probably part of the design plans for the magic giant golem.” 

Eto remarked while looking at a diagram of the foot part of a magic giant golem.

The diagram depicted legs similar to those suspended by the crane, along with legs about two sizes larger, with multiple lines connecting them.

“Hmm, is this comparing both of them?” 

Isamu wondered aloud. 

“Now that you mention it, it does seem like that. Or perhaps it’s noting differences based on one being a model for the other.”

Unfortunately, since we couldn’t read the text, it remained in the realm of speculation. But at least it was clear that some research and development related to golems had been conducted here.

Though the remaining diagrams differed in angle and scale, all depicted comparisons of two or more golem legs.

Next, they lined up sketches and diagrams mixed in with the notes on the table.

“Here too, there are sketches comparing large and small magic giant golems.” 

Eto said, pointing out that many of the sketches in the notes compared large and small magic giant golems.

From the design perspective, it seemed that the smaller one was being researched here.

“Hmm? What’s this…!?” 

Isamu’s attention was drawn to one of the sketches.

It depicted a human embedded crucifixion-style in the torso of a magic giant golem, and in a small room with pillars in each corner, a human in a similar pose was outside the room with a large circle drawn around it.

“…Is this indicating a difference in control methods?” 

Eto asked, watching Isamu intently as he looked at the picture.

“What do you mean?” 

Isamu asked back, engrossed in the image.

“If we assume that the magic giant golem doesn’t move on its own, then we need some way to control it, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s easy if it moves as you think, but both horses and magic cars need to be operated by people.”

“Yes. Basically, horses and magic cars have only three movements: running, stopping, and turning. Well, horses can jump, but that’s an extension of running. On the other hand, magic giant golems are humanoid. If the reason they’re humanoid is that they want to move like humans, then the patterns of those movements would be quite complex.”

Why Make Weapons Humanoid in the First Place?

On Earth, it feels like a significant portion of the reasoning behind making weapons humanoid stems from a mix of romanticism and technological appeal. Up to a certain size and weight, human infrastructure and tools can be readily utilized, offering high versatility in complex movements.

However, achieving these complex movements is quite tricky.

For instance, if there were robots that moved in ways humans couldn’t, they wouldn’t be practical unless operators were accustomed to those movements.

But what if the movements were exactly like those of humans? At least for basic movements, they could be learned in an overwhelmingly short amount of time.

And this effect would be even more pronounced if the control method used a master-slave system where one’s own movements were directly reflected, rather than using something like control sticks and foot pedals.

Of course, there are plenty of challenges to consider, such as how to handle feedback when the golem moves or when external forces are applied.

“Well, there are challenges, but it seems like the magic giant golems in this world have somehow solved those challenges in some way, originally using a method where humans entered to control them. And now they seem to be trying to switch to a remote control method.” 

“Hmm. But if those challenges have already been solved and they’re functioning fine, why bother switching to a different method?” 

Eto questioned.

“I don’t know the true reason, but there are several potential advantages to consider. For example, if it’s attacked, having a person inside would take direct damage, right? With remote control, that concern can be ignored. Plus, you wouldn’t need to protect a person, nor would you need space for them to ride or mechanisms for them to control, so it should be possible to make them considerably lighter.”

However, drawbacks would also arise, and the difficulty of production would likely be higher with remote control.

Above all, there’s a need for instantaneous communication of the operator’s movements to the magic giant golem without delay, and vice versa. While this might not be an issue for tasks where quick decisions and movements aren’t required, delays could prove fatal when considering them as weapons.

“Well, in any case, it seems they were conducting quite advanced research, and they probably reached a stage where they could deploy prototypes into actual combat, as with the country of Abalush.” 

“…That’s quite a story. So, does that mean if we study the legs we found earlier, we might be able to learn something about them?” 

“It seems so. Well, I’m not sure if we can read them yet, and even if we can, I’m not sure how much we’ll understand. And like with the arm before, it might not mean much at the level of individual parts.” 

Isamu shrugged off with a laugh, not expecting to find easily reproducible data.

Now, they finally turned to decoding what seemed to be drafts of magic circles, the main event they were waiting for.

Since these were magic circles, there was a high potential for them to have some use if they could be read.

“………… It’s a bit hard to understand since it looks like it’s scribbled, but I can read this.” 

Isamu murmured quickly as he scanned through everything.

“Ohhh!!”

Before we knew it, all the members had gathered together and cheered.

“Um, so this magic circle here… wha…!!”

After carefully reading through the first of about twenty magic circles, Isamu’s expression turned to one of shock, and he hurriedly started scanning through the rest.

“This is…”

And then, with one magic circle still in hand, Isamu came to a complete stop, completely absorbed in its contents.

“What’s wrong? Has something unbelievable come out?”

Eto asked, representing the members who were watching Isamu anxiously.

“Well… I think this is quite an extraordinary discovery…”

Isamu replied without taking his eyes off the magic circle.

“I’ve begun to understand part of what they were researching here. It seems they were indeed trying to lighten the magic giant golems.”

“Lighten them?”

“Yes. The remaining magic circles appear to be experiments attempting to reduce weight. Since not all of them are intact, unfortunately, I don’t think we can reproduce them… They were trying to do this using dark magic.”

“What the!?”

“Huh!?”

“Dark magic…”

Eto, Willem, and Annemarie exclaimed in surprise.

Previously, Willem had found fragments of magic circles that seemed to use dark magic.

At the time, they had no idea what effects it might have, but it seems it can be used for magic that reduces weight, at least.

“But that’s not the discovery.”

“””Huh?”””

The three expressed their confusion in unison.

“It seems that you can extract dark attribute magic from non-attribute magic stones…”

“””…”””

The three didn’t immediately understand what Isamu was saying and fell silent. Isamu added more words.

“More precisely, it seems you can extract any attribute of magic power, not just dark attributes.”

“””Huh?”””

“Since a magic circle using dark magic was depicted as a matter of course, I wondered what that meant, but a part depicting extracting magic power happened to be depicted. When I confirmed it…”

At that point, Isamu paused.

“They were extracting only dark attribute magic by decomposing magic power from non-attributed magic stones. What we called non-attribute magic power wasn’t actually non-attributed.”

Isamu lifted his face from the magic circle, surveyed everyone’s stunned faces, then slowly spoke.

“It was a fusion of all attributes of magic power, so to speak, ‘omni-attributive magic power.'”

“What in the world!?”

Eto was the first to reboot.

“So, does that mean if you have non-attribute magic stones, you don’t need other magic stones!?”

“I don’t think they become unnecessary, but with non-attributed magic stones, you can substitute for all attribute magic stones.”

“So it wasn’t just trash activation-only junk magic stones…”

Annemarie’s voice trembled.

“Yes. On the contrary, attribute magic stones are inferior to non-attribute… no, all-attribute magic stones.”

“Attribute magic stones are inferior…”

Willem sighed.

“Moreover, judging from the parameters when extracting, it seems you can not only extract and use multiple attribute magic simultaneously, but also use mixed magic that combine multiple attributes.”

“Mixed magic…”

Liddell, who was the first in the knight order to catch up with the conversation, squeezed out her voice.

“I always thought it was strange… Most of the magic tools found in the depths of ruins only seemed to use non-attribute magic stones, yet they exhibited behaviors clearly requiring multiple attributes, and there were many effects that seemed impossible to reproduce.”

Isamu recalled ancient magic tools he had seen so far and continued his story.

“Well, it’s understandable. It wasn’t just single attributes or combinations of multiple attribute effects, but completely unknown mixed magic using magic power itself…”

Saying that, Isamu shrugged slightly.

“Heh… Honestly, I’m not very knowledgeable about magic or magic circles, but I learnt one unbelievable fact…”

After that, the group, finally catching up with the understanding, made a lot of noise for about 30 minutes, and Gascoigne finally said with a big sigh as they finally calmed down.

“Haha, this will cause a huge uproar if announced, so it’s better to think carefully about how to explain it…”

Isamu chuckled and glanced at Annemarie before continuing.

“With this, the value of non-attribute magic stones will definitely rise even more. The price will likely skyrocket to several times that of current attribute magic stones.”

Upon hearing that, Annemarie looked up at Isamu with wide eyes. Tears welled up in her eyes.

Isamu gently wiped them away with his finger and smiled.

“Fufufu, the value has already increased significantly with previous discoveries, but this one has an even greater impact. I’m sure Selfers-san and Nicolette-san will be delighted.”

At those words, Annemarie nodded vigorously.

“…I see, so that’s what it is!”

At that moment, Eto, who had been lost in thought, suddenly exclaimed.

“Isamu, remember that magic tool for charging that magic power? I was wondering why they used so much expensive mithril just to create non-attribute magic stones…”

“Ah, I get it now! Because they were omni-attributive magic stones, that’s why they used expensive mithril…”

“That’s right.”

“So then, what about the magic tools we’ve discovered so far and been using? There shouldn’t be any that use non-attributed magic stones, right?”

Now it was Willem posing the question.

“Indeed… There were magic tools that used attribute magic stones first. Were those developed into ones using non-attribute magic stones, or was it the other way around? Perhaps there are hints about the cause of the civilization’s downfall in that area as well.”

Musing on Willem’s words, Isamu muttered while folding his arms.

“Also, I just realized something. The fact that the magic circle for extracting any magic power from this magic stone wasn’t taken away suggests that at least at the time it was created, this wasn’t considered a particularly rare technology, right?”

“Come to think of it…”

“Why such a commonplace technology fell into disuse… I wonder what the reason could be…”

No one among them could provide an answer to Isamu’s question, of course.

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