By teleporting between the gates in the basements of our Volton mansion and Sanctuary mansion, we’re able to develop the Sanctuary without anyone knowing.
Once we’re done with development, Laeva and I go into potion research.
This was difficult. The order of mixing things, quantity, and temperature when mixing. That while redrawing transmutation circles many times over, we did trial and error repeatedly, looking for a near optimal process.
Of course, because the transmutation circles were all written by hand, Laeva and I were starting to have tendonitis.
「Hey Takumi-sama, what is everyone else doing?」
「Hm, Sophia is talking to the Great Spirits, Kaede and Maria are making swimsuits for everyone, Akane seems to be taking lessons on how to cook from Lulu-chan and Marnie.」
Even after coming to the Sanctuary, the rhythm of our lives didn’t change. Having breakfast after training first thing in the morning, then we each do the things we want to do. Regarding the training everyday, the dilemma of whether an artisan needs to do combat training or not is something I have.
「Swimsuits, huh. I’m getting more and more excited to swim at the beach. It’s so tempting.」
「Sophia-san and Marnie-san have said they’d go the sexy route.」
Hou, I’m looking forward to it. My upper lip inadvertently stretched. [1]
Since Princess Mimir’s return, the nobles of Yggurle Kingdom had dispatched troops several times.
Especially persistent were the individuals from the Earl Hordia household, who had lost the use of Spirit Magic.
The territory-less nobles de robe Earl Hordia has no personal army. Few knights and soldiers were under his employ and for that reason, he sent people from mercenary guilds and dark guilds to the Sanctuary. He states that his reason is not out of desire for the Sanctuary but to obtain Sophia, unlike the King, Prime Minister, and high ranking nobles.
However, the movements of Yggurle Kingdom are, of course, known by other countries, and Triaria Kingdom has dispatched troops for reconnaissance. Since there was a cease-fire agreement[2], they had taken their distance from the armies of the nobles of Yggurle Kingdom and have started their investigation on the Sanctuary.
When that happened, it had led to Valkyra Kingdom who is near the Sanctuary, and its ally Lomaria Kingdom and lastly, even Samandour Kingdom, which is facing the sea at the south of the continent, dispatch reconnaissance teams.
The armies of 5 countries have established garrisons at the outer edge of the Sanctuary. These armies procure their food supplies from the fortress town in the savage lands, Wedgefort, so Wedgefort was booming.
Despite being outside of the barrier, the desolated savage lands on outer edge of the Sanctuary where each army garrison was established had visibly become a green grassland from the sacred magic power and energy that leaked out. That is one of the reasons why the personnel from each army stay here.
When armies from multiple countries are stationed like this, problems caused by the small monster nests that dotted the savage lands appear.
「Ah, this is an Iron Golem.」
While everyone was eating lunch, Sylph suddenly sensed a monster approaching the Sanctuary. To be more accurate, it’s not approaching the Sanctuary, but rather, it is drawn towards the people stationed on the outer edge.
「Does it seem like the troops would get injured?」
「Hmmm, they won’t be annihilated, but the damage might be close to that.」
「Haa~, I’m busy with all kinds of things though.」
「Shall I accompany you?」
「I’ll help.」
Sophia and Akane had asked me, who rose from my seat reluctantly, but because there’s something I wanted to try if my opponent was an Iron Golem, I said I’d go out with Titan and Kaede.
Yes, the stationed troops draw in monsters from time to time. I leave the monsters be if the they can handle it, but if it seems like the damage would be huge, I deal with it secretly before it comes close like today.
I would like to prevent blood from flowing in the surroundings of the Sanctuary that we painstakingly purified.
I wore my Overcoat of Existence Concealment, erased my presence, and ran off towards the location of the Iron Golem that Sylph had detected.
Having erased my presence and supplemented by the effect of the overcoat, there was no one among the stationed troops that could detect me.
Slipping through the barrier without anyone noticing, I soon arrived at my destination and I could see something of the same size as Titan coming closer.
Kaede and Titan came out of the Subspace and the Iron Golem perceived our presences too. It sped up its approach.
「Master, cut it up with Kaede’s threads?」
「No, just restraining it is good enough. I have something I want to try. Titan too, just stopping its movement will suffice.」
「Ｒｏｇｅｒ， Ｍａｓｔｅｒ.」
When the Iron Golem got into proximity, its movements stopped all of a sudden.
Restrained by Kaede’s threads, the Iron Golem was brought to a standstill before my eyes. Furthermore, Titan maneuvered behind the Iron Golem and shut out its movements with a full nelson.
I approached the Iron Golem from the front and hit it with the palm of my hand.
Of course, it wasn’t just a normal palm strike. This time I didn’t use『Decomposition』 but 『Synthesis』.
The black luster of the Iron Golem’s body turned red. Each time the Iron Golem struggled, it made creaking sounds and there was something that peeled from its body and dropped bit by bit.
Changing the location of my palm strikes several times, the movements of the Iron Golem soon stopped. Even when Titan and Kaede undid their restraints, the Iron Golem was unable to move.
Just to make sure, Titan hit it with a finishing strike before it could recover, and the Iron Golem collapsed as if crumbling to pieces.
「Master, the color of the Iron Golem changed.」
「That’s the color of rust. As expected, it seems an Iron Golem’s movements stop when its entire body rusts.」
Kaede[3] picked up the golem core from the collapsed Iron Golem and brought it back
What I used on the Iron Golem today was not the decomposition of the iron, but transmuting with iron with oxygen that can be found anywhere. It might not be effective against magic metals, but it was effective against the Iron Golem. The Iron Golem which changed into iron oxide had collapsed just trying to move its body, and as a result, was unable to do anything.
「It’s a skill that would be effective against Living Armor and Dullahan.」
「Wouldn’t it be effective on the equipped armor and weapons that people use?」
「Well, it would, but almost all armaments can be cut up by the weapons we have.」
Originally, forcibly transmuting to interfere with an opponent’s magic power would be extremely difficult. Compared to forcefully using 【Decomposition】 on a monster’s brain, binding oxygen to the golem’s body is far more difficult.
Yep, I know that it’s just hard to use so I’ll take that as a good thing.
Still, it’s absolutely woeful how whenever a slightly more powerful monster comes, one of us has to deal with it. I’d have to come up with something. It would be great if the stationed troops leave, but they’ll stay here for a while.
***
Footnotes:
1. Imagine it kinda like the duck face but not as obnoxious. Or if you’re trying to hold a pencil on your upper lip but without the pencil.
2. Correct me if I’m wrong but this isn’t the case according to earlier chapters.
3. Typo. Raws said Akane instead of Kaede.