The Water Magician

The eleven golems that had approached the kingdom delegation were defeated, but it seemed that the chaos in the Duchy Castle had not yet subsided.

The leader, Hugh McGrath, stood with his arms crossed, not uttering a word.

It was a matter concerning another country, and honestly, he was unsure how much he could involve himself.

He would face any incoming threats, but beyond that...

The remaining B-rank and C-rank parties on the ground were gathered together, discussing among themselves.

Except for one person.

Once all the issues were resolved, Ryo sat beside the eleventh golem he had first defeated, disassembling, analyzing, and reading something.

The six members from Rooms 10 and 11 gathered around him.

"Ryo is..."

"Probably doing alchemy..."

"He's really gotten into his hobbies."

Eto murmured, Amon speculated, and Nils concluded.

The three from Room 11 remained silent, having realized the truth.

Ryo was disassembling the eleventh golem and analyzing its structure and magic formula.

Of course, the magic formula was something akin to 'each designer weaving their own unique language,' so deciphering it wasn't easy.

Even Ryo, who had accumulated knowledge and experience in alchemy far beyond what he had three years ago, found it challenging.

However, it wasn't that he couldn't understand it at all.

Though he didn't grasp every detail, the main concept was clear.

"This is incredible... it's the epitome of energy conservation or magical power reduction... it runs on just a single moderately sized earth attribute magic stone. To think such a massive golem could be operated with just one magic stone... the design and manufacturing are on a remarkably high level."

Ryo whispered in awe.

He hadn't even noticed that the six had approached him.

"Of course, it's autonomous, but it can do various things with just simple instructions... like an artificial intelligence from Earth... it's fuzzy, so to speak. Moreover, it's voice-activated... huh? Wait a minute... there's some forced writing in the attack target section?"

It seemed that in the process of deciphering the magic formula, Ryo had stumbled upon something unexpected.

At that point, he finally noticed that the six from Rooms 10 and 11 were around him.

"Oh, good timing. Nils, please call Hugh. I've found something that seems to be the cause of this commotion."

"What did you find, Ryo?"

"Hugh, the cause of this commotion is not the golems running amok. In the 'attack target' section of the golem, there's a time-specified entry: 1. Destruction of the delegation's lodging, 2. Attack on the delegation, clearly recorded."

"What did you say...?"

Not only Hugh, but the six from Rooms 10 and 11 were left speechless.

Of course, since the attack was so clearly defined, they hadn't thought it was merely a rampage, but the explicit mention of an attack on the delegation was something they hadn't wanted to consider.

Well, considering that the first ten golems had thrown their spears towards the ship right away, it could be said that the intent was clear at that point...

"Ryo, you mentioned that the attack was time-specified. Do you know when that instruction was given?"

"I don't know the exact time, but I know it was yesterday."

He had already found the section that recorded the change history.

It had yesterday's date.

"The river calmed, and the departure was decided this morning, in the early hours. That means the whole delegation, not just the kingdom delegation, was the target of the attack..."

Hugh spoke slowly as if confirming his thoughts.

However, unanswered mysteries remained.

Yes. For what purpose was the delegation attacked?

"The chaos within the Duchy Castle is still ongoing. There’s a high possibility that other golems are rampaging... It’s difficult to send out scouts. We may have to wait here a little longer."

Hugh murmured that and then raised his voice.

"Kingdom delegation, all personnel, remain on standby until further orders!"

"Yes!"

The adventurers responded and nodded.

Hugh, as the leader, was also the grand master of the kingdom's adventurer guild, meaning he was the ultimate authority over the adventurers.