Wandering Agent
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Chapter 172 Golems
🕑 Added 2022-09-03 08:37:04 +0000 UTC"Royal... what!?" I said, stunned as the beast knelt there.
"Unknown royal-type mana signature," the golem repeated.
I looked at my companion. Ulanion was just as stunned as I was, if not more, his eyes bulging.
"Hey, Ulanion... why would you take this job if you're an elven royal?"
"I am not," he replied.
"Well, I'm not even an elf, so you must be."
"I... don't think I am?" he tried.
"Well, give our friend here some orders, then prince, and we'll see what we can do."
"Okay, okay... um, golem, stand up," he said hesitantly.
We both watched the mechanical creature, waiting for it's response. I held my breath, looking on for the movement, the rise from it's kneeling position. The movement that never came. As the seconds stretched on Ulanion turned his eyes over to me and they just got bigger and bigger.
"St-stand up?" I hesitantly said.
The mechanical wolf slowly rose from where he had knelt, looking forward like a statue. Had we not seen it with our own eyes I was sure that we'd not believe it. I took a few moments to process, and as I did, Ulanion's eyes just kept bulging.
"You're a princess!?" he blurted out in shock.
"No, no I'm not, I'm not even that important," I argued.
"The golem seems to disagree!"
"Well it's obviously wrong Ulanion! I think I would know if I was a princess!" I could already tell this was going to be a whole thing.
He blinked for a moment or two. "Would you know though?"
"Yes!" I blurted out.
There were only two options here. Either I was a descendant of an elven king some few hundred generations removed, or it was detecting my original world somehow. I didn't like either of those options, and even less the third of both.
"No, really would you? Humans don't live long. While my family has been crossing for the last few generations we still live for a good while, but someone who did for too many? You might not have any of the traits other than your higher than average magic." Ulanion seemed to be reasoning it out.
"But wouldn't someone know?" I asked.
"How? I'm aware of a few artifacts that can trace descent, but those are ancient as dirt. Nobody knows how to make them anymore Alana. What if one of His Majesty's children somehow ended up on the human continent and it just passed down through the ages to you? How would you know? And wouldn't they be really inclined to hide it? It's not bad now, but a few millennia ago elves were not well liked by humans." He was going now, and didn't seem inclined to stop.
"Please don't make this a thing Ulanion," I sighed.
"Alana, if this gets out... Well, I don't know, but it would be huge! There are only a few families that can trace their lineage back to the king, and none of them have anything like his mana. If we could prove it, if you showed that." he seemed to think for awhile. "Well, you probably wouldn't be made queen, but it would..."
"It would cause such a ruckus that there might even be a war," I said with conviction.
Ulanion froze for a second, looking at me with a contemplative expression. "You're not wrong."
"I know I'm not. I don't view myself as any kind of royal, and I've seen wars about that kind of thing. I've seen starving children and neighbors killing neighbors Ulanion. I don't want to see that again." Even if it were elves on elves, war was something to be avoided whenever possible.
His eyes settled and grew a bit sad. "You know, in his writings our king said that it was those who didn't want power that were best suited for it. It was one of the things he felt was a failing in himself, his desire to rule. You'd make a good ruler if things had been different."
Unable to take his nonsense anymore I wound up and punched him. There was no way that I'd be taking any throne, not unless they knocked me out and tied me to it. Regardless, I was fairly sure from what he told me that this golem was tracking my extra-planar origins, rather than my family tree. Even though I was sure he had more than ample time to dodge the elven man just stood there, smiling slightly.
He stumbled a bit but didn't even fall. It occurred to me as I saw this that what I'd done was profoundly stupid, his skin should have been hard as concrete. Strangely it wasn't, I even felt the give as I'd hit him. For a moment I stopped, looking at my hand, which was strangely not sporting several broken bones.
"Um," I said as I looked at my only slightly sore knuckles.
"I'm able to retract my magic you know," the smug jerk said with a snicker. "Wouldn't want your golem thinking that I was trying to hurt you." He seemed to think for a moment before adding onto the end, "princess," with a chuckle.
"I'll punch you again," I threatened, pouting, but it didn't seem to help.
"I'd appreciate it if you saved it for later. Regardless of what you think or want this golem will follow your orders, and we can use that." He nodded at said creature, still standing there like a statue.
"You're not wrong. Golem, do you have a map of the facility?" I asked.
"Yes," the mechanical voice said.
"That's something, we need to find the group, and kill that stupid monster." I thought some more before asking more questions. "We need to find someone, do you have the ability to do that?"
"Please clarify order," it answered.
"Are you able to track people or monsters?" I asked.
"This unit has a five hundred meter detection radius," it answered.
"It's answers are kind of clunky," Ulanion observed.
"It's a machine, that it can understand us at all is nothing short of miraculous." And it was, I didn't know too much about how programming had worked back on Earth, but question answering was certainly difficult for many computers.
"Can't say I know much about golems." He didn't seem bothered at all that I'd disagreed, accepting that I knew more about these than him. Which I did, but I appreciated the trust regardless.
"They're like other magical items. It's all based on yes or no answers. Imagine how many yes/no statements I could fit into just this explanation, then try to think about language as an idea."
"That could get out of hand fast."
"Yeah," I answered. "It's certainly something, back to business though. Golem, protect us."
"Do we have a plan then?" he asked.
"Yes, see if we can go and find our people."
A/N: A bit short, thinking I might try to get another out soon, but this was the proper stopping place here.
