If I Have to Show My Face Every Single Day??
A few days later.
"Now, these here are for the lads who'll be heading out to the battlefield — and this lot is what I've prepared for my assistant!"
"Ooooh..!"
It was true that the Closed Gate we'd bought for the princely sum of over 10 billion needed golems too, but before anything else, in order to make lots and lots of golems, I absolutely needed golems to help Grandpa Galahad out.
Grandpa Galahad works incredibly fast, mind you, but down the road his speed would need to get even fastermuchmuch faster than that. And originally Minium and Suri were the ones helping him, but the two of them are in the gate right now.
So for lonely Grandpa, we'd be making golems that could lend a hand.
"Still... is this really enough?"
"Plenty and plenty! A size like this is just right!"
"Hmm."
Ten sets total — 8 kilograms of low-grade rare metal and 40 grams of high-grade magic stone apiece. All told, that came to 80 kilograms of rare metal and about 400 grams of high-grade magic stone.
At this rate, I was making my assistants for far cheaper than a single Ophelia. The amount of rare metal is substantial, but it's lower quality than the nova-derived synthetic rare metal that went into Ophelia — and Ophelia used a full 600 grams of the absolute top-shelf magic stones that money can't buy, after all.
"Think it over well! I have faith in you, Princess!"
—Clank!
"Mmmm..! Okay!"
I walked up to the golem materials, all ten sets neatly arranged with each ingredient portioned to size, and pondered for a moment. If they were going to help out as forge assistants, wouldn't a humanoid form be better than an animal one? Having hands would probably make them help out a good bit better.
—Beep?
"Hm? No no."
If I tried imagining ten Daengdaengis... my mind immediately descended into chaos. They'd tear open every single bag of pet food on the planet.
'Then a small humanoid form... something fairy-like? Or maybe round and chunky?'
They probably didn't need all five fingers. The early Minium was exactly the image that came to mind and it fit perfectly. Three fingers or so, human-shaped but small. Still, made of metal so they'd work hard...
"Okay! Decided!"
"Ooh! Now I'm excited!"
"I trust in the Princess's choice."
"Yep!"
What popped into my head was Minium from back in the day. Though they'd be way bigger than that Minium, obviously? Back then I made Minium out of a plastic-cased hairdryer and a few aluminum cans.
"R-Respond to the Princess's Calling! Ten assistants who shall aid Grandpa Galahad!"
—Fwoooosh..!
The mana being drawn in was less than I'd expected. As per the pre-measured portions, the 8 kilograms of rare metal and 40 grams of magic stone began clinging to one another.
And before long, with a bright blue flash — pop! — tiny golems appeared.
—Moo!
—Moooo!
"Oh! It worked!"
They seemed a teensy bit stouter than I'd imagined, but either way they had arms and legs attached, and even three whole fingers each. A body more than sufficient for working as assistants in the forge.
"Kwahaha! Very good!"
"Grandpa! Do you like them?! What do you think!!"
"They're the best, Princess!!"
Their height came up to about my waist? If I crouched down, our eye levels would be roughly the same.
"Kwahaha! Come here, lads!"
—Moo..?
"Uh, uhh? Ah, right. Of course."
Come to think of it, they probably don't know yet what they were made to do. Grandpa Galahad had told them to come over, but they just stared at me without moving — so it seemed they only obeyed my commands for now.
"Listen up, you guys. All you need to do is work hard to help Grandpa Galahad. Got it?"
—Moo!
—Moooo!
"Off you go!"
Something like house fairies? The tiny lads nodded along as Grandpa showed them an ingot and told them to fetch this much and this much, then started scurrying all around the place.
"Huh. Why are they wandering around instead of working?"
"It appears they are trying to map out the interior structure. They have no information yet on what lies inside."
"Ohh..!"
Just as Ophelia said, once the lads had each been assigned a section and finished exploring the factory interior, they found where the ingots were, hoisted one onto each shoulder, and bustled about diligently.
—Moooo!
"Good job!! Amazing!!"
—Moo!
But once they finished the work, they suddenly came to me — apparently my orders had been off somewhere.
"N-no no no! You have to keep helping Grandpa!"
—Moo...
"Ah, um, how do I put this...? Well, well done! You guys are the best! That just now was a test, and you passed! I hereby grant you the honor of working here as Grandpa's assistants, got it!?"
—M-moo..!
"Th-that's right! It's an incredibly hard job! Are you sure you can handle it?!"
—Moo!!
—Moooo!!
"Really?! Then I'll be watching!! Now go follow the orders of Forge Master Grandpa Galahad!"
Something kept fumbling there, but anyway, it worked out fine in the end. Our house-fairy golems were now full-fledged forge fairies who would work as Grandpa Galahad's assistants. Probably.
"Splendidly done, Princess."
"D-do you think it went okay...?"
Either way, with that, the assistant-making was a success. Once the ten forge fairies earnestly pitch in to help Grandpa Galahad, preparations for making the other golems should speed up too.
—Clank clank clank.
In the blink of an eye, a pile of combat-golem materials sat before my eyes. The forge-fairy golems had brought them.
"Mid-grade rare metal, 30 kilograms, and mid-grade magic stone, 120 grams each... Can golems made from this actually fight..?"
These were to be soldier golems, so naturally they'd need specs sufficient for combat. But it somehow looked a bit shabby..? Actually, wouldn't making them this weak just to have them get crushed inside the gate be even more of a loss?
30 kilograms of mid-grade rare metal and 120 grams of mid-grade magic stone each. Five sets in total — 150 kilograms of rare metal and 600 grams of magic stone.
"Princess, these materials are roughly five times what was used when Suri was first created."
"Ah. So they're strong."
When Suri was first made? I'd practically thought he was S-rank. Come to think of it, that adds up — 6 kilograms of rare metal, plus the teensy-tiny magic stone that had been set into the sword Dohee unnie gave me.
"These soldier golems can simply be placed under Minium's command."
"Ooooh..! Minium, did you hear that?! You're getting subordinates!"
—Clank!!
"Ehehe, you like that?!"
Of course they won't measure up to Minium's level, but you have to make allowances. Minium is in their ultimate enhanced state right now, and there's a jet engine in there too, you know?
And there's no such thing as a soldier stronger than his captain. If there were, then he'd be the captain.
"Phew, my mana won't run short, right?!"
"The small golems you just made will have no effect whatsoever on the Princess's capacity."
"Is, is that so..."
Anyway, I've got more than enough mana to make soldier golems. Honestly, I didn't feel a thing while making them. At the house-fairy golem scale, I feel like I could make 500 of them?
"Phew... G-golem crafting! Respond to the Princess's Calling!"
Just like before, a bit of mana trickled out, the materials hummed and melted down, rolled themselves into round blobs, and — fwoosh fwoosh. After the light flashed — bam! — something like the sound of footsteps rang out.
"O-oooooh..!"
—Clank!
"S-so cool..!"
Five soldier golems, kneeling at perfectly even intervals before me. From the outside, you could almost mistake them for humans if you tidied up just the joints a little. About 180 centimeters tall? Clearly bigger than Ophelia, but definitely on the small side compared to Minium, who stands nearly 2.3 meters.
"S-soldiers! Rise!"
—Clank!
"O-ohhh... their military discipline is razor sharp..."
The five soldier golems snapped up from their knees into textbook-perfect attention. I gestured to Minium beside me to bring them over, then introduced Minium to the soldiers.
"This is Minium! They'll be your captain!"
—Clank..!
"No, Minium, a thumbs-up doesn't look cool. More stylish."
—Swoosh swoosh.
"...Not the moonwalk either. It's cool, sure, but that's not captain material."
First I reeled Minium back over — they'd been moonwalking away — and continued the explanation.
"Um, uuuhm... you all..? Er, soldiers..? — you'll follow Captain Minium and slaughter monsters left and right. Got it? And your role is to retrieve the monsters' magic stones."
—Nod nod.
"Anyone who doesn't want to serve under Minium? Er — no wait... golem?"
The five soldier golems stood there blankly for a moment, and then the one in the middle raised a hand.
"Hm! Come forward."
—Clank...
The soldier golem who'd raised his hand stepped before me and dropped to one knee.
"Um, so... what should we do here?"
—Clank?
"W-will you? Want to spar with Minium, one round?"
Minium and the five soldier golems. Basically every golem in the factory filed outside together, and lined up on the wide open patch of dirt nearby.
"So then... soldier golems versus Minium! The winner becomes captain, and gets to give commands in battle and such. Got it?!"
—Clank!
"Alright, then — begin!"
The soldier golem drew a long two-handed blade from the tip of its arm and charged at Minium at a speed far beyond what I'd expected.
Come to think of it, if you figure five times the specs of Suri from back in the day, that puts them at the very top of B-rank. Nearly enough to qualify as A-rank, even.
"Whoaak."
Thudding hard enough to dent the ground, the charging soldier golem unleashed a two-handed blade thrust. But Minium simply stood right there in place, extended their left hand, caught the tip of the blade between two fingers, and swung their own sword with their right.
—KWAANG!!
"Hooooh..."
The sword stopped just before it touched the soldier golem's neck. An utterly overwhelming gap in power. Nothing to be done about it — Minium possesses S-rank-class combat strength on a one-on-one bruiser standard.
"M-Minium wins! Did you all see that, soldier golems?!"
—Clank..!
I'd worried they might resent Minium's victory, but the soldier golems flung both arms skyward and started bouncing up and down.
And then they went over to Minium and kept bouncing around too. Thank goodness they seemed to like this more than I expected.
"D-did it go well..?"
"It appears so."
"Kwahaha! This Minium fellow, that turned out well!"
—Clank!
Minium and Minium's subordinate soldiers? Squad? — entered a gate located in a remote mountain region with poor accessibility. Suri was originally in there too, but with five new soldiers added, that's fine now.
They're supposed to report the situation to me every single day, and I'm supposed to personally commend them. But the gate is in a place far less accessible than I'd imagined — it's hard for me to go there myself, and having them come back costs them dearly too.
Of course, once a month we'll all gather and I'll shower them with praise and whatnot, but doing it every day is honestly asking too much.
"H-hi there, you guys..?"
Which brings us to the stopgap measure Ophelia arranged for me.
"A-are you all doing a good job..? Wait, can you actually see this..?"
"G-goddamn cute..?"
A stream that could broadcast my face to all the golems at once. It doubles as the stopgap measure, and since it's a private room, no one else should be able to get in.