Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

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Kyle managed to shake the doubt and self-hatred and headed for his next destination, an industrial district with many magic researchers and developers who worked on magic items. This was one of the most crucial districts of Rimarze, and so there were plenty of guards and other soldiers patrolling, but they all knew Kyle by face. He then headed for a particular building, checking the inside of the sturdy door in front of it. Inside, there rested the Golems that had been used in yesterday’s battle, with the researchers around working on maintenance. Out of all of them, one looked incredibly young, only about 15 years old with the face of a young woman.

“Oh, Kyle-san!”

When he, Gou, saw Kyle, he walked over to him just like Erina had earlier. Since Kyle funded the development of the Golems, he was also a benefactor to him. Though in reality, they were more like partners in crime, having committed acts that would cause a major uproar if found out.

“How are the Golems looking?”

“Perfect. They can move if need be,” said Gou with a tone of absolute confidence, as if that was to be expected since he was working on them.

Kyle couldn’t keep a wry smile from appearing on his face, but he knew that Gou’s talent was genuine. The magic weapons known as Golems had been in development since the Ancient Magic Kingdom of Zaales, and Gou succeeded in replicating them, so his skill spoke for itself. Once this war was over, his name would probably be left in history.

“Adjusting the battle experience is making great progress, too,” Gou looked up at the Golem.

The Golems had the ability to gather experience and knowledge in battle, and you could even adjust the strategies implanted into them. You could give them direct orders, but in a battle where everything changes in an instant, that was too much for their design. When they were still in full development, they could only do simple movements, but during the battle yesterday, they could even evade attacks and take advantageous positions, which allowed you to cooperate with them. To Kyle, it felt like a human who becomes stronger with enough training.

“Yeah, it does look like their movement’s become better over the months. Great job, really,” Kyle commented while touching a cold mechanical part of the Golem, showing his appreciation.

“Yes, this ability to form a self-consciousness is nothing short of astounding. Maybe one day, we won’t even need human soldiers any more!”

“Now hold on, didn’t Shildonia warn you that it’d be dangerous to take it that far?” Kyle said in a hurry.

According to Shildonia, when Zaales was still blooming, this self-consciousness they created led to them bringing harm to humanfolk instead.

“It’s extremely difficult to teach them morals and ethics. They would just prioritize efficiency over everything. That’s why, they should only be used as a last resort,” Shildonia explained as she probably chewed on her past mistake.

But thanks to her information, that same mistake would not be repeated.

“Well, that’s also true…Even if I think it’s a bit of a waste,” Gou said, seemingly having his own thoughts but still agreeing. “I’ll limit the self-consciousness to just battle knowledge and nothing more.”

“Please do…By the way, how many do you think you’ll be able to make?”

Currently, five golems exist and are ready to be deployed. There were more units in planning, but if you just had ten of these, it could change the tide of battle.

“We have plenty of budget, resources, and people, so we’re stacked. However, we can’t just let them focus on Golems,” Gou showed a complicated expression.

This place wasn’t just a facility for the Golems alone, but in fact was made to create goods or magic stones, as well as medicine that would be necessary during the war. And of high quality no less, so they couldn’t direct resources another way too easily.

“I see. If possible…No, let’s discuss this another time,” Kyle was too cautious of the people around them, ending the conversation there.

“Understood…So, I’m going to see my father after this. Would you like to join me?”

Feeling that something was going on, Kyle nodded.

Making their way to the district that harbored all the smiths, you could feel the temperature in the air rise drastically. As one would expect since furnaces were burning everywhere. Dwarven smiths, as well as human smiths, were working as the sound of metal clinging could be heard from every corner. It must be repairs for all the equipment that had been damaged the day prior, or to prepare for the next encounter. Watching that with one eye, Kyle and Gou entered the building the deepest in the district. The inside inhabited other forges, but unlike the regular ones, this one let out raw red heat. Next to the furnace stood a dwarf and the mayor of the mining city Callan, called Gazas.

He was probably the most skilled smith in all of the races currently alive right now, and since his talent was necessary during this fight for humanfolk’s survival, he was invited to Rimarze. He didn’t even look at Kyle and Gou even as they entered the room. He was working on something, swinging down his hammer on and on with absolute focus.

“It’s pointless to try and talk to him when he’s like that. But I think he’ll be done soon, so let’s wait.”

“Yeah, more importantly…Why are you here, Seran?” Kyle was surprised to see his good friend waiting there.

“I had a favor to ask him, see.”

“A favor?”

“Yeah…I think it’s time to end things once and for all,” Seran said with a serious expression, so Kyle could only think of one thing.

“Targ, huh?”

Seran answered with silence. Targ is a demon in close service of the current Demon Lord, and Seran had often clashed with him.

“He’s the type to weasel around in the shadows, right? But if we do that thing you suggested, we should be able to drag him out. And then, I’ll have to kill him for good…” Seran said as steam rose from near the forge.

Gazas seemed to have finished his work. Confirming a satisfactory result, he sighed once and then faced Kyle and the others.

“I sure am popular today. What do you want?” said Gazas who appeared exhausted but still in high spirits.

He seemed to be happy with the result.

“I came here to check up on the forge. No issues so far?”

“Aye, works like a charm.”

This forge and furnace were actually a bit different, specifically built by Gou. The magic metal called mithril usually can’t be melted with the power of a regular furnace, so it was only possible to process it over at Callan, which used natural heat. So, you worked up a way to use the same high temperatures for the furnace to process the metal here.

“Also, the mithril you’re supplying me with is pretty high-level. The swords made from it are turning out great.”

The mithril Gazas was using actually came from ingots processed all the way back in the Ancient Magic Kingdom Zaales, and it was impossible to recreate this with today’s means. And by using such high-quality material, it equally raised Gazas’ skill as a smith and made him produce better and better results. The weapons he created in turn were used in the war by the strongest fighters, just like Basques’ scimitar.

“Glad I could be of help. So, I’ve got a bit of a favor to ask…”

“Are you going to get me involved in another mess?”

Gazas must have realized that nothing good would come from getting involved with Kyle, as he looked at the two men.

“Hey now, mine’s just a genuine favor. Kyle is the guy always plotting,” Seran shrugged his shoulders, but Kyle protested.

“Can you not make me sound like some villain? I’m just not made out for all of this, so it’s mentally exhausting…” he said and then cleared his throat. “Something’s off about the demons. It almost feels like they’re holding back.”

This is something he felt by directly clashing with them, making it feel like he didn’t get as far as before. When the war first started, the demons were willing to fight to the death, even sacrificing themselves to take down humanfolk.

“Compared to that, the battle yesterday was far too different. I mean, we’re still trying to kill each other, but…”

“Yeah, they pulled back incredibly quick,” Seran said as he remembered yesterday’s battle.

“So…I’ve heard there have been fewer casualties as of late, but isn’t that because humanfolk as a whole has gotten stronger?”

“That’s one part, but I can tell the demons are holding back. The proof of that is that they keep sending out lower-ranking demons.”

“Lower-ranking?” Gou showed a confused expression.

According to what he heard, humanfolk did suffer a lot of casualties, but most of the harm had been done by three pure demons, instead of the thousands of half-demons. And since they had to be dealt with by Kyle and his group, Gou knew just how strong they were. However, for Gazas and Gou, who didn’t participate directly in the war, that was just numbers, and they didn’t know how different they really were.

“I don’t blame you for feeling that way. However, amongst the demons, those goblins and whatnot are definitely lower-ranking demons.”

Byakumu was a pain, but even that demon with the giant arms could destroy an entire army by itself.

“The really troublesome ones are those who you know will be coming but you still can’t do anything about it.”

The ones Kyle thought about were true monsters like Three-Arms or Targ.

“Um, so…What do you do if you run into them?”

“That’s easy. Just try to survive and deal with them. And if you can’t, you die,” Seran continued to maintain his nonchalant tone, as Gou’s face stiffened.

“Whatever the reason may be…isn’t it a good thing they’re holding back? Maybe their morale’s dropped?” said Gazas and brought up a valid point.

If the battles aren’t as fierce as before, humanfolk would benefit from it.

“Assuming that’s the only reason. But demons aren’t so naive.”

Of course, Kyle hasn’t brought up this change within the demons’ attacks in the meeting. Or rather, this was basically just his own perception, and he simply didn’t want humanfolk to feel overly confident because they’d been on the winning side this time. Plus, just as Maizer said, as long as that Demon Lord was around, the war would continue.

“So they could be trying to lure us into a trap by pretending they’ve weakened…But what could they be plotting?” Gou said with a complicated expression.

“Yeah, so…I was hoping I could ask you two for help,” Kyle flashed a devious smirk, making it more than obvious that he was plotting something evil again.