CH 69

“Father. Mother.”

When I was being taken care of by my uncle, when I was training at the workshop, there was nothing I wanted more than to see my parents, but now they are little more than memories to me.

Would that be enough to say that I have grown mentally independent?

I do not know.

But if the opportunity to meet them does pop up, I think that I should probably try and talk to them.

However, if the choice of whether or not to abandon my current life to live with Mother and Father or whether to keep the life I currently have ever comes up, I would never choose the first.

“Is it okay to meet them then?”

Although it was a bit chaotic, this was line of thought running through Claire’s mind.

The road from the Citadel City Marsfield to the Magical City Wisdom was well maintained, and apart from accommodations, there were even entertainment stores where people could have a holiday at. This was because the Wisdom – Marsfield – Skycastle route was frequently traveled by the aristocracy and even royalty. The Marsfield – Warren – Wheat Grace route was similarly shaped, but it was known as a commoner route.

The party tried entering one of these holiday stores that they thought looked interesting as they passed by. What was sold were sweet yet salty seasoned dumplings.

Ellis-Eiji was able to understand. These were Mitarashi dango seasoned with soy sauce and sugar.¹

However, this was a brand new taste to the other four.

Frau was impressed saying, “So you can use bean sauce for something like this as well.”

“I’d like to try eating some of these dumplings with just the bean sauce.”

“What about caramel?”

“Sufficiently delicious as is nya.”

The other three were showcasing each of their respective tastes as a person with a strong sense of taste, a sweet tooth, and a straight shooter.²

The shopkeeper had been listening in to their conversation and interjected himself into the group to give each of them his own recommendation.

Reeve received a dumpling set just the bean sauce.

Claire’s dumplings were covered in chilled syrup.

Katie received a second portion of what she already had.

Ellis and Frau decided to have one bite of each.

“Mmm, this saltiness is delicious.”

“This syrup is so sweet and tasty.”

“This first one is the best nya.”

Frau made a particularly pleasant reaction to the syrup on Claire’s portion of dumplings and immediately left to ask the shopkeeper about the materials. Ellis-Eiji was only left with the thought, “It’s maple syrup isn’t it?” though.

“Please stop it!”

Suddenly a scream echoed from outside the store.

Frau noticed the troubled frown on the clerk’s face as she quickly rushed out of the store to see a large bull dyed completely black. It was about twice the size of a Magical Horse, and after a second of watching it move, she realized that its black finish was due to it being made completely out of metal.

The other four girls soon joined her outside the shop.

The rampaging bull was charging this way and that, causing travelers to scatter around. Soon the bull made contact with the store on the opposite side of the road, splintering wood and flinging debris.

“I beg you, someone please stop it!”

The clerks had already escaped.

Was it the owner who was shouting?

“Wow! That moving cow is made of metal!”

Claire was getting worked up from the scene laid out before them, but the tension in her voice was slightly different than the people fleeing in terror.

Hurriedly holding Claire’s mouth to prevent her from saying anything else, Ellis turned to Frau.

“Frau, why not beat the cow with another cow?”

“Got it, Ellis.”

It seems like this rampaging bull was made of metal, so it would be better to smash it than to cut it. And now, Frau’s crimson Minotaur maul had Flying Phoenixand Exorcism attached to it. Frau removed her maul from her bag and slowly walked towards the rampaging bull.

“Hey, it’s dangerous over there lady!”

“Don’t be unreasonable!”

“That thing’s a Gorgon Golem!”

Worried voices called out to her in an attempt to get her to run away, but Frau ignored them all and stood tall before the bull.

The bull soon noticed Frau as well and turned on her. And then, it charged.

*GONG*

When Frau countered the bull’s reckless charge with a strike from her maul, a sound similar to a bell being rung cried out loud enough to almost split a person’s eardrums.

After being stopped dead in its tracks, the now calm bull soon collapsed to the ground with a loud creak of metal scraping against metal. A large dent had appeared where the bull’s face had once been, and the cow never moved again.

The surroundings were dead silent for a moment.

And then the cheering came.

“Awesome! That girl, she just took down that Gorgon Golem with one shot!”

“What is with her strength?”

“We’re saved!”

And then an old man ran up from the ground while apologizing to his surroundings. After bowing low to the shop owner whose store had been destroyed, the old man came up to Frau.

“Thank you, you have saved me. I never thought it would rampage like that and run away.”

The old man was a magician who belonged to the Wisdom Magicians’ Guild. When asked, he politely answered all of Ellis’s questions.

That black bull was something called a ‘Gorgon Golem’. It was a cow-shaped metal golem developed by workers from the Wisdom Magician’s Guild.

They analyzed the mechanisms behind the Magical Horses and imparted that research into building this cow doll made of metal. When completed, they were cable of following orders to: leisurely walk around, leisurely turning right, leisurely turning left, and leisurely coming to a stop.

So why did this Gorgon Golem suddenly go on a rampage?

Well, the Gorgon Golem is basically a combination of a Magical Horse and a command operated golem, so you could call it a ‘Command Gorgon Golem.’

This magician tried to add some speed to this, turning it into a ‘Command Speed Gorgon Golem.’

From the Magical City up until this point, this golem which could only do things at a leisurely pace up until now had been running with a speed equivalent to an ordinary horse.

It’s just, there seems to have been a bug specifying the golem’s destination.

When the golem was ordered to return to the city, it threw the old man off its back and became a runaway. So riderless and operating off a magical source like an ordinary golem, this bull ran amok with no clear destination in mind. Consequently, the old man hypothesized that Frau’s blow may not have completely destroyed the golem, and he thought that it was possible that the bull had just completed its function and thought it ‘arrived’ when its head met the business end of Frau’s maul. This was mostly only a guess on his part though.

The magician went on to give a bunch more technical information, but all Ellis really understood from him was, ‘The command golem went out of control, so I couldn’t stop it.’

Claire continued to listen on to the magician’s explanations, eyes glittering with fascination and excitement.

Ellis remained standing next to Claire, eyes slightly hollow watching Claire act so out of character for her.

Frau had gone with one of the shop clerks who had offered her some of their syrup as thanks for putting a stop to the bull.

Reeve was back in the original shop eating dumplings as if nothing had happened.

Katie had gone to the carriage and brought back Pi-tan to allow him to eat the Gorgon Golem.

Pi-tan degraded the Gorgon Golem splendidly. Ellis didn’t notice what was going on until she saw Pi-tan nibbling the corner of the bull’s behind. When she did, she hurriedly pulled Pi-tan off the golem and returned him to the carriage.

Pi-tan gave a loud cry of disappointment of “Pi~ Pi~”, so she gave him an Exorcism long sword to eat before leaving.

Practically sprinting back to the scene, Ellis remonstrated Katie for her actions with a quick kick to the head.

“Nya! That hurt Ellis nya.”

“This idiot, what would you do if people around here found out about Pi-tan’s ability!?”

“E-Ellis saw that big cow too, so don’t you want to see the tiny Pi-tan eat that huge cow nya?”

It’s no good.

Ellis slapped Katie in the back of the head once again to silence her before returning to Claire’s side. Fortunately, the magician was so preoccupied with Claire who was listening in to everything he had to say with extreme enthusiasm that he had apparently not noticed Katie’s mischief.

“My name is Alphonse, and I am doing golem research in Wisdom right now. Since I am also selling golems to the general public, please drop by some time.”

And Alphonse then tried to take his Gorgon Golem home only to notice that some alteration had been made to it.

“Ladies? Did you do something else to this?”

Five girls all shrugged their shoulders.

“Okay. I’ll research this more when I get back.”

Alphonse then said a command and released the golem. With a poof of smoke, the Gorgon Golem turned into a doll about the size of three beets. After putting it into his bag, Alfonse used a {Fly} spell and flew off into the distance.

“Wow.”

Claire watched him go with a sparkle in her eyes.

Meanwhile Ellis had a bad feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.

“Claire, are you going to make a golem?”

“It’d be impossible for me.”

But Claire was making a twisted smile as she denied Ellis’s question. It was the smile of a madman.

“Let’s get going!”

Now that Frau had secured a bottle of the syrup for her role in beating the rampaging golem.

It seems that Reeve had also secured her own small portion of bean sauce from the shopkeepers as well.

Meanwhile Katie had resurrected from her beating and was eagerly sitting at the coachman’s seat.

Dinner that day was sauteed chicken that glistened in a strange way underneath the light. Ellis was amazed upon seeing it, but she didn’t say anything out loud.

“This food is beautifully cooked. Frau, did you do something?”

“Please try it and guess.”

The five girls each bit into their own piece of chicken.

“Uwa, it’s so sweet and good!”

Claire had the largest reaction and continued to praise Frau’s cooking with no end.

“I could eat this until I explode nya!”

Katie also really took to the chicken and started eating one piece after another.

“Hmm, there’s no sugar, but it still tastes sweet.”

Three girls were all trying to figure out why the chicken tasted like it did while Frau had her chest puffed out in pride.

Ellis continued to remain silent while smiling to herself.

“Ellis, do you know?”

This was the time to act like an adult, so she shook her head and told them that she didn’t.

“Actually, I used this!”

What Frau pulled out was some of the syrup she had received earlier. She had been experimenting with it after they had left and had successfully created something very similar to teriyaki sauce.

Three girls watched looked at the sauce in amazement and clapped their hands to praise her while the fourth raised her hand up and shouted out,

“I want this on fish next nya!”

And then night rolled around.

“Frau, weren’t you afraid today?” Ellis whispered into Frau’s ear.

“No, even if it’s the Demon Lord himself, I don’t feel like losing anymore.”

Frau answered while holding Ellis’s head close to her chest, lightly laughing to herself.

“Just remember to know your limits, although, I suppose it’s only right that a cow woman like you were the one to stop a cow golem.”

And then Ellis’s demonic abilities released all at once, and Frau was able to enjoy this evening as well.

A sharp gasp and a soft squeak echoed inside the carriage.

Three other girls waited in order, blushes covering their cheeks, as their excitement continued to mount. They all wanted Ellis to come quickly.

The girls eventually arrived at Magical City Wisdom at a leisurely pace while enjoying the trip.

1. Oh my god I am so hungry right now please kill me.

2. The actual word they use is バッチコイ’baachikoi’ which is supposed to be the Japanese equivalent of ‘swing batter.’ I couldn’t find out too much more, so I figured they probably just meant that she was someone ‘right down the middle’ or in this case, someone who likes things not too sweet and not too salty.