CH 638

"Your Highness, Titan's maintenance has been completed."

"Good job."

As he received Adelia's report, the Archduke was reading a book in the research tent.

"Your Highness, it seems that further maintenance or upgrades to the Titan will be difficult at this point. We anticipate that we will reach the next planned battle site sooner."

"I suppose so. Maintain the existing equipment, and there's no need to consider further attachments."

"Can we consider Titan complete as it is?"

"I suppose so."

As planned, Titan would only participate in two more battles.

"In the future, Titan will be used only twice more. After that, it would be better if there were no need for Titan."

"I see."

Adelia nodded at the Archduke's words.

It was better if such a massive war machine had no use.

After the Gate incident was over, it should only be used to deal with the remaining monsters, not for any other purpose.

Therefore, there was no need to improve Titan beyond this level.

So both Adelia and the Archduke could free themselves from the time spent focusing on Titan and maintain its current state.

It meant they were finally free from their heavy responsibilities.

Adelia looked at the Archduke sitting in his chair.

Perhaps because he no longer needed to research Titan, the Archduke was reading a book instead of research documents.

They had hardly ever discussed anything beyond work.

So, Adelia couldn't help but be curious when she saw the Archduke reading a book unrelated to Titan.

"May I ask… what book are you reading?"

Judging from the complex content and diagrams, she could roughly guess it was a magic book.

"It's the family's grimoire."

"What? Ah, I apologize. …That was not my intention."

She dared to glance at the grimoire of the Saint Owan family while he was reading it.

Knowing how important a grimoire was, her face turned red with embarrassment for asking such an inappropriate question.

The Archduke faintly smiled at the flustered Adelia.

"……I misspoke. I apologize. I meant that you would not find the content interesting. You already know it."

The Archduke closed the book and showed her the title.

[Magic Automaton - 27]

"…?"

Magic Automaton.

Of course, Adelia knew what it was.

"Is it a book about golems?"

"Strictly speaking, it's a book about all devices that use magic as a power source. Golems are one of those things, so I can't say it's not about them."

It included magic trains, warp gates, and golems.

Adelia's talent, Magic Crafting, was specialized in this field.

It was a very comprehensive field of study, but the fact that there were at least 27 incredibly thick volumes meant something.

Adelia had learned and understood almost everything about golems while building Titan. Most of this knowledge came from the Saint Owan family, so even if she hadn't read it directly, it was as if she had read it all.

The Archduke's remark that she would not find the content interesting was for that reason.

However, Adelia marveled at something else.

The Saint Owan family did not embrace dark and unlawful powers, but that meant they were interested in all other magic fields.

The scale of the grimoire that the Saint Owan family had accumulated over a long period of time was truly impressive.

There were more than 27 volumes of books on magic devices alone, each with considerable thickness. Adelia wondered how many other visions there might be.

Adelia felt the overwhelming weight of time.

Without such accumulated knowledge, she believed that the Titan could not have been created.

However, it was strange.

The Archduke said that there was no need to improve the Titan now.

Yet he was reading the vision of a family related to golems, which he should remember quite well.

As if understanding Adelia's doubts, the Archduke shook his head.

"It has nothing to do with the Titan. The story written in this book is not about that."

"Ah... I see."

"More precisely, it records research on a remote control neural network that goes into a magic device."

"You mean... the system within the Master Orb?"

"It's part of it."

The Archduke and Adelia used the Master Orb to activate and control the Titan.

A remote control neural network.

Adelia could not understand why the Archduke was looking at it now.

Naturally, the Archduke couldn't explain why he was looking at it either.

He couldn't say that he was thinking about how to neutralize the Immortal due to the Demon King's request.

The Immortal was an unknown magic to the Archduke.

Therefore, he did not know how to neutralize it.

He could only imagine it.

At that moment, he was in the process of finding a clue.

"Have you ever been to Arnaca?"

The capital of the Saint Owan Duchy, Arnaca.

It was the Archduke's hometown and also Harriet's.

At that question, Adelia shook her head.

"I apologize. I have not yet..."

At Adelia's words, the Archduke laughed.

"What's there to apologize for? It's understandable. We can visit it after the war."

Lately, Adelia had felt that the Archduke was acting a bit strange.

He was always stern and solemn, yet at the same time, kind and gentle.

But recently, something was different.

She felt that he smiled more often.

Was it because the end of the war was approaching?

As if he had been a man of unyielding pride despite his sternness and solemnity.

Now, he seemed like someone who had made up his mind about something.

In the end, the Archduke appeared to have brightened up compared to before.

Adelia couldn't know the details.

"Anyway, in Arunaria, not a single guard is used. There are very few attendants."

"Ah... I've heard. You've replaced them with automated golems."

"Yes."

As it wasn't a secret, Adelia naturally knew that much.

In the capital Arnaca, the White Palace Arunaria was guarded by automated golems.

It was natural for those with great power to prioritize protecting their possessions.

In Arunaria, human variables were perfectly controlled.

That's why it was a very safe but very lonely place, Adelia recalled hearing such a story once.

"These visions describe the method of automating those golems and building a kind of neural network for remote control."

"Ah, I see."

Now, the largest golem in the allied forces was the Titan.

But of course, the golem force was not limited to the Titan.

Steel golems made of iron chunks fought on the battlefield, moving instantaneously over short distances with teleportation magic.

Before Titan was deployed, and even after its deployment, golem forces continued to provide significant support.

The Archduke was now looking at a book that contained information on how to create an army of golems.

How to automate golems.

How to control them.

How to connect the golem army to a magical neural network, allowing remote manipulation.

It was all written there.

Thus, it was already applied technology, being used in actual combat.

Since the family's vision had already been applied, the Archduke was likely not seeing this book for the first time.

In a way, the Archduke was reviewing the material.

Adelia wanted to help the Archduke if she could.

"Have you found anything that needs to be improved?"

Magic crafting was also Adelia's talent. So, with the work related to Titan now complete, she felt a desire to do more.

Whatever it was.

If she could help, she wanted to help.

"No, not exactly."

However, the Archduke looked at Adelia as if that was not the case.

Was the Archduke re-examining the knowledge he already had because he had nothing else to do?

Adelia saw the Archduke as if he was contemplating something.

"I just wanted to consider the possibilities."

"Possibilities...?"

"The lack of guards in Arunaria could be a vulnerability."

"Vulnerability...?"

"Adelia, let's assume you could interfere with the neural network controlling the golems in Arunaria."

"Yes...?"

"Then, while outside of Arunaria, you could control the golems and essentially open and close all the doors of Arunaria, right?"

Seizing control of the golems.

"If that were possible, wouldn't the security of the palace be in the hands of a single mage?"

"If that were the case... it seems dangerous."

Arunaria's golems were connected by a network.

If the network were hijacked, all the golems would be taken away.

"I was thinking about whether such a thing is possible or not. It's just an untried idea... that's what I was thinking."

Arunaria was just an example.

The Archduke was talking about something entirely different.

But Adelia, who had no way of knowing that fact, contemplated.

There was already an established network of golems.

The act of intercepting and seizing control of the golems.

Was that possible?

"I'm not sure. But no one has ever tried it... that much seems certain."

"In the past, dispel-like methods were used to neutralize golems. But as I said, that's a thing of the past. There's no reason to create golems that can't resist dispel."

Golems were created because there were ways to deal with dispel. Resistance to magical interference is also part of golem technology.

However, not to neutralize but to interfere with the golem control neural network altogether.

The direction is different.

The Archduke was considering a magic that had never existed in the world before.

If such magic existed, it would be dangerous.

Not just a problem for Arunaria, but also for the golems currently operated by the Archduke, and even for Titan, which could be hijacked by someone.

An unthought-of idea has never been researched.

So, it suggested the possibility that this method might be surprisingly easy to achieve.

Adelia wondered if the Duke was thinking about this to strengthen the defenses of Arunaria.

In any case, even if the Duke's worries were unfounded, they were still concerns.

She wanted to help if she could.

"Then I'll think about it as well..."

"Your Grace, Archduke."

Just as Adelia was about to say something, a voice called out to the Duke from outside the research facility.

"What's going on?"

One of the mages who entered the facility pointed outside with a serious expression.

"There's something you need to check."

It was not so much an urgent expression as it was an ambiguous one.

------

The Duke's sons were also at the scene.

"Father, you have arrived?"

"What's happening?"

Everyone seemed to be clueless.

"It's a golem."

"Yes."

A medium-sized iron golem lay in front of the gathered mages. The only inherent magic it possessed was the short-range teleportation ability, Blink.

However, it dominated the battlefield with its explosive physical strength. Although there were recently monsters that spewed superheated breath, this was one of the countless golems in the Duke's forces that reliably performed its duties.

Golems, like Titans, could be recovered and redeployed if their core system remained intact.

That's why the numbers of the Duke's golem forces did not decrease significantly.

"As you can see, it looks fine on the outside, but it won't reactivate at all. We recovered it after it was left behind in the last battle without its return magic activating, but we couldn't restore it."

"I see."

There was hardly any external damage. In fact, it seemed as if it had barely engaged in battle.

So, they recovered the seemingly intact golem that had stopped functioning and was left on the battlefield.

However, they called the Duke after they had brought it back and tried countless times to reactivate it without success.

The Duke examined the golem as his eldest son spoke.

But the Duke also furrowed his brow.

"The internal magic circuit is completely destroyed. No, not destroyed. The components are all intact."

The Duke seemed to understand why the other mages had called him.

"Is it possible for the embedded magic to simply 'evaporate'?"

He could understand if it was completely destroyed. But not only was there no external damage, even the internal components, such as the magic stones and devices, were in perfect condition.

Only the applied magic had been cleanly erased.

So, the Duke was now looking at a golem that had been destroyed in the strangest way possible.

"It seems like it was hit by a powerful dispel magic..."

The Duke had just said that his golems couldn't be affected by dispel-type neutralization magic.

Naturally, the monsters wouldn't use dispel magic. And even if they did, the Duke's golems wouldn't be affected by such neutralization magic.

Do the monsters now use magic as well?

Powerful dispel magic that can disable the Duke's golems?

Then what about the Titans?

What if it was not the golem but the Titan that had been affected by this unknown method?

If such an event had occurred, all the mages might have been in despair.

"May... may I take a look?"

While the Duke's expression was frozen, Adelia cautiously opened her mouth.

The other mages, as well as the Duke, stepped aside, and Adelia began to inspect the golem.

As the Duke had said, it was strangely and neatly damaged.

The crucial components and magic stones were all intact.

However, the magic circuit that allowed the golem to function as a golem was completely destroyed.

No, not destroyed. If it were destruction, there would be no traces to be found among the destroyed circuits.

It had disappeared as if someone had cleanly ripped out the entire magic circuit.

Was it possible for such a sophisticated and precise dispel, especially one that could neutralize a golem that already had countermeasures against dispels?

It had to be absurd for the Duke and his mages.

The most intact golem among the recovered ones was the most severely damaged.

Everyone was terrified at the thought that the monsters might use powerful dispel magic.

"Ah... I think I know what happened..."

But only Adelia had an intuition about what was going on.

------

After assuring the Duke that it wasn't a significant concern if her suspicions were correct, Adelia headed somewhere.

It was none other than a temple garrison, a Royal-class garrison.

Adelia had no choice but to know who the culprit was.

"The golem...? Me?"

"Do you remember?"

It was the red-haired girl, Scarlett.