In the eastern part of Celuroa Kingdom, a Magi Craftsman lived in a poor village on close to the border of Egelia Kingdom.
Originally he had been Celuroa Kingdom’s Royal Magi Craftsman, but he came to dislike living in the capital, retired, and secluded himself in his home town.
The man had a single disciple.
The child was a distant relative of his and while he had been in the capital he had discovered the child’s talent and made him his disciple.
The man used to have plenty disciples but few of them proved successful, and on top of that when he announced his retirement to his home town only the boy followed.
All the other disciples had families, or disliked rural areas, or had some other circumstances which they claimed as a reason and then went their separate ways from the man.
“You are my only true disciple.”
The man said, and imparted the boy his everything.
The man’s specialty was golems. Naturally he could make other Magi Tools too, but his strongest point was the manufacture of golems.
For a long time now Celuroa Kingdom had been supplementing the shortage in the labor force with golems. The man’s skills played a large role in that.
The golems the man made were clearly different from those other people made.
They could ‘talk’, that is, they were the autonomous type.
And they were ‘strong’. They boasted a power output thrice that of typical golems. In other words, one golem could do the work of three golems. Although work in which numbers were required was a different case.
Finally they were ‘beautiful’. Even among the brusque worker golems they had a refined form and appearance.
As the ‘beauty’ wasn’t simply because the man had been born with a sense for it, but because it was mainly about the ‘functional beauty’ of the craftsmanship, it could be taught reasonably well.
By the time the disciple boy became a young man, the boy-nay, the youth- had come to know nearly all the skills of the man and his instruction was finished.
And then came the time when the gears of fate turned.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Are you the rumored genius Magi Craftsman?”
A man stood in front of the youth. He was maybe about five or six years older than the youth. He looked to have just entered his 30s.
“Who are you?”
Facing the suspicious youth, the man replied,
“You could say that I’m an emissary of ancient times.”
“So? What does this Mr. ’emissary of ancient times’ want with me?”
“Don’t you want to try spreading your wings, and using your abilities to your heart’s content?”
“What’s that you say?”
The man’s words were commonplace, but the youth’s interest was a little piqued by the expression “to his heart’s content”.
“Well, follow me and you’ll see for yourself.”
The man turned on his heels and promptly began walking. As if the youth following him was a matter of course.
He was somewhat offended, but his interest outweighed that. The youth simply began following in the man’s footsteps.
The man led him to an old mansion in the suburbs.
“Get in.”
The man turned to look back for the first time when he opened the door and invited the youth in.
And then the youth had a fateful meeting.
＊ ＊ ＊
In front of the youth there was a perfect beauty.
Both the beauty in form and function were impeccable. No, there was a single fault.
It was the broken left arm.
“T-this i-is…”
The girl with golden hair, deep crimson eyes, and white porcelain skin.
The youth had never before seen an Automata this beautiful.
The girl then spoke.
“Good day, my name is Elena. Are you the man who will kindly repair my arm?”
Even her voice was sweet. The man was suddenly completely enchanted.
For a while he couldn’t speak and only stared at the red eyes of the Automata called Elena.
His concentration was broken by the speech of the man who had brought him there.
“How is it, do you think you can fix her arm?”
The youth shook his head in silence. He could tell just by looking. The Automata in front of her, Elena, was a work of art.
He couldn’t-no, ‘as of now’ he couldn’t fix it.
However.
“One day, I’ll have you see me become able to fix it.”
The words spontaneously rushed out of his mouth.
The youth was again charmed by Elena’s devilishness.
The man’s words were not a lie.
The basement of the mansion was cramped with Magi Tools he had never seen before and Artifacts he had never heard of side-by-side.
And there were books written in an ancient language that contained writings of magics and magical technologies long thought to have been forgotten.
The youth was pleasantly surprised, thanked the man, and immediately began research to enhance his skills.
＊ ＊ ＊
One, two, three years.
Time passed.
Five years, then ten years.
The time flew and the man entered the prime of his life.
He couldn’t yet fix Elena but his research was steadily progressing.
“He he, you seem to be having fun.”
Elena’s movements had already become smooth. That was because the restoration of her joints and muscles had finished.
However, reproducing her skin and bones was still impossible.
“I have faith in that you shall fix me.”
Sometimes the Automata visited the youth-nay, the man, and when she spoke with him face-to-face he kept up with his great efforts even more.
The man made multiple dozens of prototype golems. In the process his golem-making skill increased even more.
Golems specialized in combat were the norm. The power output which used to be three times greater than usual golems’ now boasted a performance of nearly double that.
It ought to be mentioned that he also made golems with the power of overwriting the instructions in the enemy golem’s Control Core.
And then the course of his research brought about golems which, utilizing the Magic Energy amplifying jewel Elradrite, could -although temporarily- increase the power output by ten-odd times.
There were countless others more.
Again, not limiting himself to just golems he made a Magic Energy-imbued sword. A shield that defended against magic.
Just as the man who had called himself the ’emissary of ancient times’ had said, the technology of the past surpassed the current technology by several levels.
During breaks from his research he went to visit ancient ruins, carried out relics from those ruins, researched them, and through piled up efforts approached the past even if it was just a little bit.
“Hmmh, this ancient weapon called Gigantes found in these ruins appears to have a rather interesting function.”
The youth was by now right in the middle of the prime of his life. Filled with energy, the flames of his passion rather than growing weak burned brighter and brighter.
“Gigantes, you say? That’s a failed work. With its intelligence being low, it can only go on a rampage, it’s an imbecile with nothing but brawn.”
At times Elena came to the man’s research laboratory and gave him advice or criticism.
“More importantly, if there are any Automata left in the ruins please destroy them.”
“Why is that? Elena.”
“Because they are all inferior models compared to me. I ma the one and only Automata. The queen of all Automata. That’s what I was built for. The Automata remaining in the ruins are conspirators who planned to rebel against me. They can’t be left alone.”
“Is that so, I understand.”
In a few of the ruins multiple blue-haired Automata had been found, but according to Elena’s request they were all disassembled and disposed of.
As some of the Automata had body parts which were compatible with Elena, in the 20th year Elena’s body had completely recovered.
