Chapter 86: The Sage Sees New Weapons

The next day, I went to visit the laboratory in the capital.

It was because the director had contacted me, asking me to come.

I wasn’t able to refuse her request.

Surely, there must have been some kind significant of development in their reserach.

Yuura was beside me.

The director had also asked me to bring her along.

When I had asked her about why, she told me that it was about something related to her.

“Demon Lord-sama! Thank you for visiting us. How are you?”

The director greeted us with loud enthusiasm, even from the very start of her first sentence.

I just responded plainly.

“Just as usual. How about you?”

“My condition? Of course, I’m full of energy! There’s so much I want to research about that I’m worried I won’t have enough time.”

The director answered with a big smile.

In comparison to her expression, her complexion was surprisingly pale.

It was pale enough to be mistaken for a corpse.

Behind her glasses, her eyes were seemingly out of focus.

There was no doubt that she'd devoted all of her time to her research, without taking a moment of rest.

I had told her to get some rest before, but it was clear that she hadn’t done so.

In fact, the laboratory staff would secretly contact me sometimes.

According to them, the director would keep working without sleep and rest, regardless of what she was told.

In response to that, an instance occurred where I had to use magic to forcefully put her to sleep; however, looking at it now, it seemed the method hadn’t been very effective.

If this keeps up, won’t she die of overwork in the near future…?

Perhaps, I should have just turned the director into an undead after all.

She would surely agree to that without much hesitation.

Immortals were tireless and didn't have to worry about getting limited by their lifespans.

I could imagine the director being extremelt pleased about that.

Of course, I had no intention to disregard said person’s will.

I also had to think about what race to transform them into.

I would need to seriously discuss it with Luciana.

While I was pondering this, the director was staring at Yuura.

She approached her with a suspicious glint in her eyes.

“Ho hou, so this is Yuura-chan, I see…!”

“Detecting a life crisis — Master, requesting for help.”

Yuura tensed up.

She grabbed my sleeve and hid behind me.

I stopped the director, who had been trying to go around me, with my hand.

“Don’t act carelessly. I’ve already informed you about what kind of existence Yuura is.”

“She is a Great Spirit’s offshoot, right? Of course, I know it. While I'm extremely curious about her, I’ll try to rein it in somehow.”

The director spoke happily.

I exuded some pressure using magic power to intimidate her, but she wasn’t affected in the slightest.

She was definitely mentally strong.

In her case, her passion for her research outweighed everything else.

She was practically insane.

She was a genius of a completely different league when compared to John Doe.

“Well then, please come over here. As for Yuura-chan, we’ll register your magic power first. If we don’t, the alarm will go off…”

As she was walking before us, the director proceeded to use a magic tool to register Yuura’s magic power.

After that, we passed the entrance checkpoint without any issues.

“By the way, I’d like to thank you for what you gave us the other day. The development materials Demon Lord-sama procured from the Magic Kingdom have been very helpful.”

“Were they useful?”

“Yes, those things are amazing! I think that they will definitely lead to various kinds of inventions in the future. I’m not kidding when I say that those things are literal treasure troves.”

The director spoke with a sloppy smile.

Yuura, who witnessed that, casually moved further away from her.

It seemed she instinctively felt fear.

Her judgment wasn’t exactly mistaken either.

As the director mentioned, I had provided the weapons and documents I obtained from the Magic Kingdom to the laboratory.

I was certain that there were a lot of things which could prove to be helpful for their research.

Given how the director’s insomnia had gotten worse, I couldn’t help but think that I'd been a little thoughtless.

Eventually, the director stopped.

It was the second underground floor.

There was a tightly sealed door in front of us.

“We have arrived! Please go over here.”

The director unlocked the door with a key and then we entered the room after her.

In the center of the large white space, a familiar looking weapon was being displayed.

The director pointed at it as she proudly said.

“This is the newly manufactured golem that we created based on the captured golem. It is the first official prototype in the Demon Lord’s territory.”

“Is this what you wanted to show us?”

“Yes! It is finally taking shape, so I wanted to show it to Demon Lord-sama first.”

I walked towards the golem.

Previously, what I'd seen in this room was the golem manufactured by the Magic Kingdom.

This time, the golem here was one that was exclusively manufactured by the laboratory.

Its general shape was somewhat similar to what I was familiar with.

It was made up of many parts, and has a distinctive shape based on its thick limbs and short torso.

There was also a box on its back for storing magic power for fuel.

The difference between this golem and the Magic Kingdom’s golem was the fact that this golem’s appearance looked more like a traditional knight.

From a distance, it would look like a well-dressed dwarf.

“Please try operating it as you wish. A pseudo-life has already been implanted in it.”

“Alright.”

I poured magic power into the golem and connected with it.

I was immediately impressed.

The magic power flowed in smoothly, with almost no hitches.

The golem of the Magic Kingdom hadn’t been bad, but this golem was much better than that one.

When I commanded it to walk, I didn’t feel any problems.

It was moving exactly according to my thoughts.

It seemed to be a fairly precise machine.

“We designed an operating system so that even non-magicians could operate it easily. A staff member without magic aptitude tried to control it, and they were able to operate it properly.”

I was totally convinced when I heard the director’s commentary.

To be honest, Henry had experienced a hard time controlling the golem last time.

Since he had no magic aptitude, he was unfamiliar with the feeling of manipulating a golem.

He could have mastered it with some training, but it would have taken quite a bit of time.

That golem had been a specialized weapon made only for magicians to use.

However, this prototype overcame that drawback.

After trying it myself, I could confirm that it was, indeed, more comfortable to maneuver.

It was hard to notice the difference since I never had a hard time controlling one to begin with, but people like Henry would probably notice a significant difference.

“Its basic armaments include guns, a magic sword, and protection magic. We can add more armaments depending on the situation.”

“How long can it run?”

“If magic power is fueled up to maximum, it can last for about half a day. However, that's just for pure movement. The fuel consumption will be greater in combat, so for that it'd actually be about a fourth of that time.”

The golems of the Magic Kingdom had a drawback where they could only operate for a short time.

If we compared the two then, it was a considerable improvement.

It was amazing that they had managed to achieve such a thing while keeping many of its functions intact.

This golem prototype thoroughly crushed all of the shortcomings the Magic Kingdom’s golems had.

They had done well.

I shut down the prototype golem.

I questioned the director as I disconnected from it.

“By the way, why did you ask Yuura to come along as well?”

“Fufufu, the reason for that is…”

The director smiled slyly.

She clapped her hands after showing such an expression.

Shortly afterwards, the floor at my side unfolded and something rose up.

What emerged was a tall, metal humanoid.

It could have been a golem, but it was clearly different from the prototype standing beside it.

Its overall shape was refined and gave the impression that all of its unnecessary parts had been thoroughly trimmed off.

That body was filled with curves which didn’t seem much different from that of a human's.

Rather, one could say that it was more balanced than a human's body.

So much so that it could be considered a work of art.

What is this…

I looked towards the director.

She puffed up her chest and vigorously raised her hands.

“This is Yuura-chan’s custom-made golem!”

The director loudly proclaimed this.