Episode 71: The Romance of a Giant Bipedal Golem (2)
The royal palace of the Kingdom of Justia was renowned for its grandeur and beauty.
Was it only fitting for the palace of a kingdom founded by the union of a hero and a Demon King?
Within the palace’s majestic atmosphere, the exotic interiors, decorations, and gardens were harmonized to perfection.
So much so that when Wade first saw it, he thought he would boast about it to his younger sisters, Lena and Aria, when he returned home.
Deep within the royal palace, where that beauty had been splendidly maintained for hundreds of years,
Harold, the current king of the Kingdom of Justia, and Duke Lucid were conversing.
“How did you find meeting Author Wei in person?
He did not happen to do anything discourteous to Your Majesty, did he?”
“Haha. Nothing of the sort, so rest easy.
If anything, just as the reports said, and just as I heard from you, Duke, he was a very solid and capable fellow.
His ideas are amusing as well.”
“Hohoho. Are they not?
I do not know how such a fellow suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
But it is certain that the fact he has turned the kingdom upside down several times over the past few years was no mere coincidence.”
“When I first saw his work, I was utterly startled.
Well, now I almost wonder if the Goddess truly sent our kingdom an apostle of culture.”
The king and the duke smiled in satisfaction at the same time.
Cultural development was one thing,
but thanks to Author Wei, the royal family had also received quite a bit of help in governing the kingdom.
He went about doing useful things without even being told, so of course he could not help but seem commendable.
“The matter related to the knight orders this time is the same.”
“Was it the giant bipedal golem?
I heard he answered immediately, right there when Your Majesty posed the question.”
“Indeed. I merely asked in passing, so I was surprised that he would bring out such a decent idea on the spot.”
He had asked just in case, after seeing Wei’s accomplishments and evaluations so far, but to think he would give an answer so easily, quickly, and passionately.
“As expected, he is no ordinary man.
Is it not truly fortunate that he was born in our country and not another? Hahaha.”
“Hohoho.”
Following the king, who seemed in high spirits as he laughed contentedly, Duke Lucid chuckled and asked in return.
“By the way, was that originally the task you intended to entrust to Author Wei?
I believe you said it would be something that would not be difficult…”
“Ah, no. Of course not.
Who would invite someone to commend their achievements, only to saddle them with such a difficult task?”
“Then you mean…?”
“Did I not say so? I merely asked in passing.
Originally, as a reward, I planned to entrust him with one simple, showpiece sort of task, and give his work a royal seal of approval.”
King Harold paused for a moment, then continued, his smile widening into a broad grin.
“Hoho. But who could have known that he would present such a wonderful idea and volunteer to take on the work himself?”
“Ah…”
“Would it not be a little much to give another task, even one in name only, to someone who has already taken on a major undertaking?
So I gave up on the mission I had been considering.
Instead, if this matter goes well, I will have to add the reward I originally planned to give him and make it somewhat larger.”
“I see. So that was how it happened…”
Duke Lucid nodded appropriately at the king’s explanation and thought,
‘He really is the sort of fool who cannot even eat what is handed to him…’
A man who made his own work bigger, in other words.
Well, in any case.
Though it had been born from one of Author Wei’s ridiculous antics, it was certain that the idea of a giant bipedal golem was a good one.
If it succeeded, it was not hard to imagine that its effect would be tremendous.
“Since it has come to this, I hope it succeeds properly.
How did he say he would proceed?”
“Mm. First, neither we nor the knight orders would be able to grasp exactly what it feels like from an explanation alone.
So he said he would first create a comic in which such giant bipedal golems are the main attraction.
It would allow him to explain it visually and intuitively, while also serving as publicity to the outside.”
Saying, “It is still only concept art and has not been finalized, but would you like to see it?” the king showed the duke a single drawing.
“Oh-ho! This is… truly remarkable!”
And the moment Duke Lucid saw the drawing, he was so impressed that his eyes widened and he sprang up from his seat.
The figure in the drawing was not some bland, ordinary golem.
It was far larger, and rather than having a thick, clunky body, it had a form specifically resembling a human. Its exterior looked as though it were wearing armor, and despite its cold metallic texture, it possessed a splendor that radiated passion.
How should one put it? For some reason, it made a man’s heart race.
Just as Author Wei had described, it truly felt like a giant knight in magnificent armor standing there.
If this splendid fellow were promoted through Author Wei’s work, and then the knight orders boldly showed themselves controlling the real thing?
“Its majesty would be tremendous.”
Perhaps they might even break the record for the highest approval rating among all knight orders in history.
No, it was not that they might be able to break it—they would certainly break it!
This magnificent thing, which made one want to give it a proper name rather than simply call it a giant golem,
moving and fighting alive according to the will of the knight controlling it.
Even he, an old man, felt his heart race simply imagining it.
How much more would other people feel?
Even His Majesty the King’s eyes were already filled with anticipation.
“I expect so.
I am worried whether they will be able to properly control a golem that is not their own body.
But he said he is providing the knight orders with a game he had been separately developing since before, one where they control armor linked to their own movements, so they can practice.”
“Oh. That is news to look forward to in its own right.
It seems perfect for training to board a giant golem.
Just when did he make such a thing, I wonder? Hoho.”
If this had been a few years before Author Wei appeared, he might have dismissed it as nonsense only mad magicians would say.
But perhaps because he had watched Author Wei’s wildly imaginative works and their influence up close, his mind, now rather more flexible, accepted that this project was good enough to be worth attempting.
The duke thought as both a statesman and as a reader—and a man.
Please! By all means! May this project succeed!
‘If it is completed, I wonder if I might get to ride it once too?’
And if possible, he hoped he would get to ride it once himself.
***
“The four-panel comic [Omniscient Backstage Viewpoint] is ending its service!”
“Eh. Truly?”
“Gasp! Don’t tell me, Author… are you finally trying to abandon our publishing guild this time…!”
At my solemn declaration that the four-panel comic’s service was ending, Aria and Rex, the head of the publishing guild, cried out in surprise at the same time.
After all, one of them was the artist for that four-panel comic,
and the other was the person in charge of the newspaper serializing it.
At least Aria had only been slightly surprised, and was looking at me calmly as if assuming there must be some reason.
But Rex looked as though his soul was leaving his body in real time like Munch’s The Scream, so I hurriedly added a few words to calm him down.
“I’m not abandoning the publishing guild, so please don’t worry.
It’s just that I think it’s about time to take a short break.”
“A break, you say?”
“Yes. After all, [Omniscient Backstage Viewpoint] is a format that brings out the protagonists of my completed works, isn’t it?”
Since it has the feel of a kind of afterstory and a strong fan-service aspect, it is a little difficult to develop an original story.
And since I cannot immediately introduce new characters as I please, it is not easy to secure material either.
In other words, it was about time to adjust the serialization schedule.
“So from now on, I plan to stop the regular newspaper serialization and publish it as a volume every so often once enough content has accumulated.”
“Ah… If that is your reason, then it cannot be helped…”
“More importantly, I want to serialize a new comic with Aria.
Through the publishing guild, of course, not the commercial guild.”
“Is that true?!”
Rex’s reluctant expression, which had been forced to accept my reason for stopping the four-panel serialization, was this time dyed with joy at the news that I would be serializing a new work.
It was extremely regrettable to give up the regular serialization of [Omniscient Backstage Viewpoint], which held the title of the first comic.
But it would be published in volumes once enough content had accumulated anyway.
And on top of that, I would be serializing a new work as well.
He must have run the numbers and concluded it was profitable.
But before he got that happy, there was one thing he needed to know.
“Mr. Rex. This work absolutely cannot fail.”
“Why, of course? Who publishes a work intending for it to fail? Hahaha!”
“No. I don’t mean it in the sense of ‘we will do our utmost.’
I mean literally, no matter what happens, it must not fail.
We have to stake everything on making it a success.”
“Pardon? Why is that?”
“This is a mission personally assigned by His Majesty the King.”
“…Pardon?”
“Author, is that true?”
This time as well, Rex and Aria’s faces stiffened at the same time.
Rex’s with bewilderment, and Aria’s with tension.
Mm, I suppose that is the kind of expression one makes after receiving a quest directly from the king.
Do you now understand the importance resting on this work?
“Now then, with that importance in mind, please listen to my explanation.
To briefly explain the new work that we absolutely must make succeed:
the concept is that knights ride giant bipedal golems and control them to fight, displaying majesty and destructive power like giants…”
When I briefly explained to them what the genre concept of this work would be,
Aria, who would actually be in charge as the artist, asked in confusion, as if she had not fully understood.
“So the giant golems fight each other in place of the knights?”
“To be precise, the knights board the golems and control them to fight.”
“Is that difference meaningful?”
“It is. Very much so.”
If it were just robots fighting each other without pilots, there would be no style, no romance, and no story.
If we were going to do that, it would be more fun to have familiars pulled out of a pocket fight proxy battles instead.
It would be another matter if it felt like a hero-robot story where the robots had wills of their own.
But this work is being made to raise the morale and prestige of the knight orders, so it needs to take the form of knights controlling them.
‘More than anything, even in hero-robot stories, there is a partner who fights alongside them.’
This was an important point, so I decided to explain it once more.
“To give a simple example, imagine removing the part where the player controls the golem from [Raisiz Fighter], a game where you similarly control a golem.
If you imagine there is no human control, doesn’t it suddenly become much less interesting?”
“Ah! I understand what you mean!
On the surface, it looks like the golem is the main thing.
But in reality, the person moving it is the center of the story?”
“Exactly.
The protagonist is not the golem, but the knight controlling it.
As for the golem… Mm. Just think of it as armor or a weapon that makes the knights incredibly huge, flashy, cool, and destructive.”
Approaching it with that concept would make it a little easier to understand.
It was like a kind of giant avatar.
Except it was cool and came with all kinds of combat functions.
Of course, that did not mean we could thoughtlessly ignore the popularity and romance of the machine itself.
‘When it comes to the main units the protagonists board, their popularity is beyond imagination.’
Viewed that way, the core of the popularity could actually be said to be the machine.
For one thing, it is cool.
“Well, in the end, both the golem and the knight who pilots it are important.”
It must not lean too heavily toward the machine, while still bringing out the style and romance for certain.
“In the end, the plan is to actually produce the machine that appears in the comic and have the knight order demonstrate it.
So we have to make the design good too.”
Since knights who spew mana from their weapons are planned to ride them, they may end up having somewhat different forms or structures from the mecha units I saw in my previous life.
What matters is making them look cool!
So they can raise the morale and prestige of the knight orders.
“So this time, we’re planning to hire plenty of assistant artists to help Aria, so Mr. Rex, please recruit talented people for us.”
Unlike the four-panel comic, which Aria had been able to handle on her own because the art style was simple and there were few characters,
properly drawing those stylish giant golems would be difficult alone.
That was also why I was giving up magazine or newspaper serialization and planning to publish it as volumes instead.
“Now then, once we finish recruiting assistant artists, we’ll go straight into design discussions.”
And in the meantime, we…
Shall we begin by deciding on the official name of the giant bipedal golem, something cool that rolls nicely off the tongue?