New Semester (12)
Approximately three hundred years ago, an expedition team dispatched from the Kingdom of Lockfell reached this place—the Shadow Mine.
The boundless mana that saturated the natural environment and the ancient civilization facilities that harnessed it. After a long investigation, the Lockfell expedition uncovered several key facts.
This facility had been built during the Age of Stars by people trying to escape the wars of that era. Inside the facility existed an inorganic replication device that used mana materialization technology, allowing them to maintain supplies with minimal resources. However, there was one exception: food replicated through mana would gradually alter the consumer’s bodily composition, so it had to be obtained through means other than the replication device. As a countermeasure, something resembling a ‘farm’ existed within the Shadow Mine.
There wasn’t just one facility—there were multiple, all connected to one another through underground passages. The humans of the Age of Stars who had built this place had already vanished to somewhere unknown, leaving only the facilities and their maintenance golems behind.
The expedition team rejoiced. The facility, constructed with technology far beyond their understanding, held truly limitless value. They seized the ownerless installation and attempted to claim the other facilities through the underground tunnels.
But their plan failed.
The ‘farms’ that had been left unattended for so long without their masters had given birth to monsters whose original forms could no longer even be guessed at. Every facility except the one the expedition first discovered had already been destroyed by these creatures. In the process of investigating them, most of the expedition team was annihilated as well.
All except for one man—whose mind had somehow been transferred into a golem’s body without him even understanding the exact cause.
[Fortunately, the monster had no interest in golems or structures that contained no nutrients. That was how I survived.]
The golem, which had only just been fished out of a pool of dissolving liquid for fear that leaving it any longer might cause the story to be cut off mid-way, continued speaking.
[I wanted to return to the kingdom, but the defense directive engraved into this damned body was still effective even after my mind had fused with it. I could not move more than a certain distance away from this facility. Golems simply carry out their assigned orders. They possess no intelligence capable of holding a conversation. Over a long period of time, I modified this body. I also tinkered with the facility itself, but I only succeeded in operating a very small portion of it.]
Then one day, a change occurred.
A group of humans entered the long-abandoned Shadow Mine, which had seen no visitors since the Lockfell expedition. They appeared to be seasoned soldiers. They ransacked the mine, investigating every corner, and in the process triggered the facility’s defense systems, leading to clashes with the golems. The soldiers crushed every golem that stood in their way, even defeated the ‘monsters’ that had come sniffing after the scent of prey, and spent some time rummaging through the area. Yet for some reason, they left just as abruptly without staying any longer.
Chrome, who had been listening quietly, cut in.
“Wait. If that ‘monster’ was taken down, then what’s causing all that roaring we keep hearing from outside?”
[There isn’t just one monster. Even this underground section had been swept clean once by the soldiers, but before long it was filled again by creatures that crossed over from the far side of the passage. As long as their seed isn’t destroyed, they multiply. Some of them even leave the underground and grow even larger. There are no humans left to manage the farms, and the golems only patrol the exterior according to their given orders. They ignore the monsters growing right beneath their feet.]
Chrome’s expression twisted. He realized this was no longer a situation where he could leisurely listen to the story.
He asked one final question.
“Why did you call me here? What were you trying to take out of my bag?”
At that question, the golem—which had been chattering away so easily until now—fell silent for the first time. Chrome frowned, wondering if it was trying to buy time again, but the golem suddenly burst into wild laughter.
[Kk, kkk, k-hi-hi, gi-hi, gi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi!]
No—could that even be called laughter? It was a distorted, explosive cackle that seemed to mock Chrome, the question he had asked, the current situation, and even itself. The chilling malice contained within it momentarily left Chrome speechless.
[It truly is a pearl before swine! Not only does he fail to understand its value, he doesn’t even know what he possesses! To think I must hand this over to such a fool! I cannot! I will not!]
The golem—once a member of the Lockfell expedition—forced its half-melted body, which could barely function anymore, into a violent frenzy.
[This treasure is mine! This facility belongs to my homeland, Lockfell! How could I possibly hand it over to the likes of you!]
The instant he screamed and reached out toward Chrome—
Schunk!
Ligret’s slash cleanly severed his neck. While it might not have been enough for an ordinary golem, the already tattered body that had reached its limit stopped moving completely. The head and torso, frozen like a short-circuited machine, began crumbling into dust.
Watching the sight, Chrome finally understood why, despite the battle that had once taken place between the Barhart soldiers and the golems, not a single scrap of golem remains had been visible.
Ligret asked, “Why did this guy suddenly go crazy after talking so nicely?”
“…Probably realized his own situation while he was talking to me.”
While speaking with Chrome, he must have come to understand. That his homeland, the Kingdom of Lockfell, no longer existed. Hundreds of years had passed. No one who remembered him from his lifetime remained. There was no longer even a country left to report his mission to. The golem body that had barely survived was now destroyed, making self-sustained activity impossible. While he had been desperately struggling to survive inside the dissolving liquid, looking back on his past after recounting it must have made everything feel utterly hollow.
“Anyway, we need to get back up top—huh?”
Suddenly, something caught the corner of Chrome’s eye. Where the golem’s body had turned to dust, one object alone remained untouched. At first glance it looked like nothing more than a fist-sized stone, but Chrome had seen it before.
“Ligret, did you happen to see my monocle near the elevator… I mean, that moving pulley box?”
“This?”
“Thank goodness. Would’ve been a real headache if I’d lost it for good. Thanks.”
Chrome put the familiar item back on with practiced ease and examined the stone through it.
“……”
All sorts of hypotheses flashed through his mind, but Chrome set them all aside for now. He tucked the stone into Thoth’s Bag and tossed a potion to Ligret.
Apparently too bothered to check her minor wounds one by one, Ligret simply upended the entire potion over her head. After what she had already done to her less-than-pristine clothes, her figure beneath the shirt was now fully visible. Though the potion would dry soon enough, the sight was strangely embarrassing, so Chrome averted his gaze.
Ligret looked puzzled for a moment, then checked her own appearance and let out a small snort of laughter.
“Looks like you’ve got some leeway after all, if you’re paying attention to stuff like that.”
“I’d rather not get my skull caved in by a warhammer just for staring too hard.”
“Doesn’t bother me. Compared to Fiore, there’s not much to see anyway, right?”
“That’s not the issue here, missy.”
When they had lived at the Midas estate, they had both been little kids, and Chrome’s previous-life awareness had still been strong, so he hadn’t felt anything in particular. But the mind follows the body. It had already been over three years since he became fully aware of his past life. Now, with the body of a healthy adolescent in his prime, asking whether he could still look at her with complete indifference was a difficult question to answer.
Besides, lately this girl had been developing quite a bit—wait, no, hold on. His thoughts were heading in a strange direction. This was hardly the time for such idle thinking.
“Let’s head back up. That thing smashed the communication magic tool first, so we can’t contact anyone.”
“I cleared out most of them on the way here, but there might still be a few left.”
Following Ligret’s lead, the two returned to the first floor. The scene that greeted them was incredibly intense.
—■■■■■!
“Begin the extermination. Destroy all enemies!”
Worm-like monsters swinging vine tentacles and spewing dissolving liquid from their mouths. Golems using their own massive bodies as blunt weapons or attacking with blades protruding from their limbs.
“Damn it! I can understand the monsters, but why are the golems attacking us too!? What did we even do!?”
“Because you blew up the golems along with the monsters when you tried to take them all out at once!”
“Shit! My sword melted!”
“Martial artists, ignore the green worms and focus on blocking the golems! Leave those to the mages!”
“I’m out of mana! Support! Someone give me a mana refill!”
“Hey, hey! The formation’s collapsing!”
“Arrows ready! Everyone clear the way!”
A small number of Academy students were desperately struggling in the chaos.
And then—
Thud. Thud.
Still quite far away, yet massive enough that its rough shape was clearly visible: something resembling a hydra with nine worm-like heads.
This was supposed to be just one class, not some showdown against an evil organization. The absurdity of it almost made him laugh.
Still, what choice did he have?
“Damn it. Even if it kills me, I’m clearing this perfectly.”
If he didn’t want to crawl out of here on his own two feet, he had no choice but to succeed.