Which One Is the Real Golem Mask? (2)
Seok Dong-mi and Yoo Ji-min, who had been listening, both nodded their heads.
The legend of Oedipus defeating the Sphinx was a tale from Greek mythology, but according to this mask’s story, it seemed to have actually happened.
Ki Ju-hye asked Yoo Ji-min in a small voice.
“The Oedipus from ‘Oedipus complex’… that’s the same guy, right?”
“Yeah. The tragic man destined to marry his own mother.”
I turned back to the iron mask and asked again.
“Explain the battle with the Sphinx from the very beginning, in detail.”
One day, a scrawny and unimpressive young man came to Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt, seeking the Pharaoh. He said he had heard that King Khufu was looking for a hero to hunt the Sphinx. That man was none other than Oedipus.
“And then?”
King Khufu took one look at the lame Oedipus and immediately dismissed him as unworthy, trying to send him away. But Lord Oedipus explained that he was the prince of Corinth. He had received an oracle that he would one day kill his own father and sleep with his mother, so he had fled all the way to distant Egypt.
Heh.
So none of this was purely myth after all.
The mask continued its story.
King Khufu did not believe Oedipus’s words, but the wise vizier Imhotep earnestly pleaded that they should trust him. In the end, the king followed Imhotep’s advice and decided to give him one of the Golem Masks. Soon, the ten masks sent from the temple of Philae were lined up before Oedipus. The great king declared that among them was only one mask made from the most precious material in the world.
And the hero Lord Oedipus pondered for three full days and nights before finally choosing a Golem Mask. His choice was… me, the iron mask — that is, the Iron Golem.
At that, the other masks that had been awake began to jeer loudly.
I put all the other masks back to sleep to stop them from interrupting, then asked the iron mask to continue.
“So? What happened next?”
After that, I became one with Lord Oedipus and we set out to find the Sphinx. A few days later, we discovered the creature atop a tall rocky mountain. And with a single punch, we brought the Sphinx down.
“With just one punch?”
Yes. Thanks to Isis’s blessing, I possessed the power to completely and utterly overwhelm the Sphinx.
“And after that?”
Lord Oedipus tried to slaughter the Sphinx on the spot. The Sphinx wept and begged, saying it would give one riddle. If he solved it, he could kill it. If not, it asked to be spared. Lord Oedipus was a very competitive man. He fell for the Sphinx’s provocation. And so the Sphinx posed its riddle.
“What was the riddle?”
What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening — and the fewer legs it has, the weaker the beast?
“So did Oedipus get it right?”
No. Lord Oedipus could not solve the riddle.
I still don’t know the answer to this riddle… Does anyone here know it?
At that point, I, Seok Dong-mi, Yoo Ji-min, and Ki Ju-hye all burst into quiet laughter.
So Oedipus really hadn’t solved the riddle.
The true form of every myth was apparently twisted just a little like this.
In the end, Lord Oedipus spared the Sphinx and dragged it back to Memphis alive. King Khufu was overjoyed and treated Oedipus with the utmost respect. As a reward for capturing the Sphinx, he arranged for Oedipus to marry the beautiful widowed queen of a neighboring country.
“Then why are the other guys lying?”
As soon as Oedipus left, King Khufu changed his mind. He found it difficult to accept that some lame foreigner had defeated the Sphinx. So he decided to distort history. Just as I told you earlier, he brainwashed the other masks into believing that the silver mask had defeated the Sphinx.
I put the mask back to sleep with the stainless steel trowel and asked Seok Dong-mi.
“What do you think?”
“It’s incredibly specific.”
“It matches the Oedipus myth we know, so it feels trustworthy.”
I stared quietly at the stainless steel trowel before asking Seok Dong-mi again.
“Professor, Egypt 4,500 years ago was the Bronze Age, right?”
“It was right at the beginning of the Bronze Age, just after the Neolithic period.”
“Then how could they have made such a well-forged ‘iron mask’ in Egypt?”
“It was made from meteoric iron. All iron items back then were made from meteorites that fell from space.”
“So iron was actually a far more precious material than silver or gold.”
“Exactly. Iron was the most valuable thing at the time. It only fell from the sky in tiny amounts, after all. How rare do you think that made it?”
With that, we were all nearly certain.
The iron mask!
This was the real one!
At that moment, Jang Pomi walked over, snatched the iron mask from my hands, and declared.
“No need to drag this out. When the Sphinx comes back, we’ll each wear one mask and fight. I’ll take this iron mask. No complaints, right?”
She shoved the silver mask into my hands.
“You wear this and draw its aggro. It should be the next strongest after iron. The rest of you, just grab any mask and turn into golems. You won’t be much help in the actual fight, but you can at least buy us a turn or two, yeah?”
Ki Ju-hye asked Jang Pomi.
“If you become the Iron Golem… do you really think you can beat that Sphinx?”
Jang Pomi snorted.
“That scrawny lame bastard managed it. Why wouldn’t a hunter like me be able to?”
But something felt off to me. There was a part of the iron mask’s story that still felt fishy.
“I’ll be right back! Gotta use the bathroom!”
I moved far away from the group, gathered all the remaining masks, and woke them up again.
The masks immediately started shouting.
I quietly asked the silver mask.
“Everyone in the world knows this. The golem that truly defeated the Sphinx knew the answer to the Sphinx’s riddle. Silver Mask! If you’re the real one, you should know the answer. Tell me!”
“What is the name of the beast that walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?”
“Everyone, tell me the answer to this riddle! Whoever gets it right, I’ll wear that mask!”
The masks, all desperate to become golems, started spitting out random answers.
“Neptune!”
“Cyclops!”
“Siren!”
They were all nonsense.
But there was one mask that stayed completely silent until the end.
The single mask we had been unable to wake.
It was a mask woven from dry grass. We didn’t even know what kind of grass it was, and even if we did, there was no way that kind of grass existed inside the pyramid, so we couldn’t wake it.
Then I noticed something written on the surface of the grass mask.
Looking closer, it was hieroglyphs.
Paper?
Was it not grass, but paper?
Just in case, I took an old receipt from my inventory wallet and used it to wake the mask.
Amazingly, it woke up.
I immediately asked it the riddle.
“What is the name of the beast that walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?”
Amazingly, the grass mask gave the correct answer right away.
“How… how do you know the answer?”
“No, explain exactly how you know!”
Suddenly, a spark of electricity shot through my mind.
Wait.
That was it.
Isis was the goddess of wisdom.
The most precious material in the world in her eyes was… of course…
This.
And this had been Egypt’s main export for thousands of years, bringing in enormous wealth.
What could possibly be more valuable than this?
I examined the mask closely, then asked again.
“It was you, wasn’t it? You were the golem that truly defeated the Sphinx alongside Oedipus, right?”
“But why… are the other guys lying?”
“Why?”
I could roughly piece together what had happened.
Oedipus had traveled through Egypt, but he was clearly a Greek.
He probably hadn’t wanted the Egyptian pharaoh to become too wise.
In fact, after that, the light of civilization eventually passed from Egypt through Crete and into Greece.
It was right when I was thinking that.
[Did you dig hard and learn anything more while I was gone?]
Jang Pomi stepped forward, iron mask in hand.
“Yeah. I think we’ve pretty much figured everything out.”
The Sphinx smiled slyly as it looked down at Jang Pomi.
[I knew from the start that you were the strongest and smartest. Well then, shall we hear the answer to the riddle?]
“Easy.”
Jang Pomi lifted the iron mask and declared.
“It’s this iron mask right here.”
The Sphinx closed its eyes, crossed its arms, and slowly nodded.
“At the time, iron was the most valuable thing in the world! It fell from the sky, after all!”
Then the Sphinx spoke.
[Correct!]
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
For a moment we all stayed silent, staring at the Sphinx’s mouth, wondering if it would really end that easily.
Of course it didn’t. The monster added another line.
[Did you really think I’d say that?]
[Kyahahaha!]
[Incorrect!]
[Too bad, pretty one!]
[Looks like I’ll have to eat you after all!]
That was the limit of Jang Pomi’s patience.
“Fuck it. Time to beat the shit out of you!”
Jang Pomi immediately put on the iron mask. She grabbed it with both hands and shouted loudly.
“‘Iron,’ the most precious material in the world! Turn me into a powerful golem!”
Suddenly the ground around Jang Pomi began to shake as if an earthquake had struck. Steel armor pieces burst out from the earth and clamped onto her body one after another.
Soon Jang Pomi had transformed into a twenty-meter-tall blue iron golem.
Since it was made from meteoric iron with high nickel content, its texture was almost identical to modern stainless steel.
The golem-form Jang Pomi didn’t wait long.
She poured every bit of magic power she had prepared into the Sphinx in a continuous barrage.
A brilliant light flashed as the monster was swallowed by a storm of magical explosions.
The Iron Golem immediately changed tactics and slammed a powerful punch straight into the Sphinx’s face.
Thud—
The Sphinx’s head spun around.
But the Sphinx simply laughed leisurely and turned its head back.
Flustered, Jang Pomi swung her fists wildly, landing blow after blow on the Sphinx.
Thud— Thud thud—
Thud— Thud—
Accumulating damage finally made the Sphinx shake its head and pull back. Then it suddenly stuck out its tongue.
And with a loud urrrrgh, it began spewing a long stream of vomit.
The Iron Golem quickly raised both hands to cover its head and tried to endure the water-cannon-like assault.
But soon the heavy golem began to be pushed back step by step by the force of the breath.
Boom— Boom—
The excited Sphinx advanced while spewing even stronger streams.
The once-flawless meteoric iron golem’s surface gradually began to rust.
Even stainless steel will rust if continuously exposed to hydrochloric acid.
In the end, the Iron Golem creaked with rust, lost its balance, and collapsed.
Crash—
It was pushed back by the force of the acid, rolled violently across the floor, and slammed into the stone wall with a thunderous bang.
The Sphinx flew straight at it.
It stomped down hard on the now-shrunken iron golem’s body with its massive lion paw.
Clang—
Crunch—
The Iron Golem’s rusted chest plate shattered.
“Ugh…!”
The Sphinx opened its mouth wide.
A four-meter-tall woman’s mouth stretching open like a demon’s looked utterly grotesque.
“Nooo!”
The Iron Golem reached out and screamed.
The Sphinx playfully bit down on the golem’s arm, then twisted its head violently and ripped it clean off.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
Jang Pomi’s desperate scream filled the entire pyramid.
Blood poured from the severed stump of the iron golem’s arm.
It looked like Jang Pomi’s actual arm had been torn off.
The Sphinx tore off the other iron arm, spat it out, then put the hollow tube to its mouth and began sucking like it was eating crab meat.
Slurp—
Gulp—
It seemed one of Jang Pomi’s arms inside the golem’s armor had been sucked straight into the Sphinx’s mouth.
“Aaaagh! Uuuuughhh!”
Jang Pomi looked like she was about to faint.
“Aaaagh! You fucking bastard! Just kill me! Kill me and eat me!”
But the Sphinx had no intention of doing that.
It bit off Jang Pomi’s other arm as well.
“Aaaaaagh! Aaaaaagh!”
Jang Pomi finally passed out.
I decided that was enough.
Jang Pomi would now have to live forever as a hideous iron golem. With both arms gone, she could no longer recite the spell to remove the mask.
So I opened my mouth.
“Hey! Lady! Stop tormenting that weak kid and let’s start the riddle game again!”
The Sphinx turned to look at me.
I answered.
“I do. I’m holding it in my hand right now.”
I put on the mask and recited the spell.
“‘Papyrus,’ the most precious material in the world! Turn me into a powerful golem!”