Episode 73: The Romance of a Giant Bipedal Golem (4)
In truth, when they had first received Author Wei’s new work.
Although the knights’ minds had been filled with curiosity and questions, they had not held any particularly special expectations regarding the golem’s true nature.
After all, if one was a knight of the Royal Knights, one would have seen golems commanded by mages any number of times.
And because that image of a golem was firmly lodged in their perception, they had been unable to imagine anything that strayed far from it.
“Author Wei’s new work.
Has it officially started publication?”
“Would this be an official publication?
They said they’d wait until the golem was actually built, then release it together.
You little punk, you weren’t listening properly when the commander explained, were you?”
“Ah, right. That’s what he said.
Oh? Then does that mean they’re letting only us see an unreleased new work first?”
Thus, instead of focusing on the true nature of the golem—which they were curious about, but did not expect to be anything particularly different—
The knights were more interested in the privilege of getting to see Author Wei’s work before it had been released.
There were many fans of Author Wei among the knights as well.
A new work that others did not even know existed yet.
It was not easy to avoid feeling a thrill at the sense of superiority that came with being able to read it before anyone else.
“Let’s see, the title is [Magic Armored Machine God Gigant & Knight]?”
“Knight must refer to us, the knights.
Does Gigant refer to the giant golem?”
“A giant and a knight.
It is an expression that fits the theme perfectly.”
But the knights, who had opened the new comic while thinking it would surely just be an ordinary golem made larger, were—
“Huh?! This is really the golem we’re going to control?
It’s completely different from what I imagined!”
“This isn’t an ordinary golem!
Its form, structure, and even material are all out of the ordinary!”
“Is it a giant knight, just as the name says?
Ha… As expected of Author Wei. He’s someone we ordinary folk could never possibly predict with our own minds.”
Upon seeing the majesty of the giant bipedal golem revealed in the comic… no, of the “Gigant,” which could not be called a mere golem—
They had no choice but to retract their hasty assumptions, shocked to the point that screams rang throughout the training ground.
And no wonder.
The Gigant that appeared so proudly was not an ordinary golem with a plain shape, crude structure, and common materials.
It had a form modeled after a knight, joints that moved smoothly, and armor made of steel.
Just as its name implied, it was a giant knight itself.
The grandeur and pressure that naturally came from its enormous size.
And the style felt from its refined design, which kept it from looking sluggish.
“Huuuuh! A golem could become this cool?
Why didn’t mages make them like this from the start?”
“Would the knights of the giant race said to have existed in ancient times have looked like this?
Damn, if I’d been born in that era, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Just seeing it in a picture makes tension well up in me.”
“If I could control something like this exactly as I move, it would be incredibly exhilarating.”
Every knight in the order was captivated in an instant.
Some tried to estimate how large the Gigant would be if it were made in reality.
Others began swinging their swords at empty air here and there, imagining themselves controlling that enormous Gigant.
And the final, finishing touch that detonated the desires of the knights who had fallen for the Gigant at first sight was—
—Board the Gigant, Hugo.—
It was the scene where Hugo, the protagonist of [Magic Armored Machine God Gigant & Knight], boarded the Gigant.
“He boards the Gigant directly?!”
“Not controlling it separately from behind?”
“Is this for real?!”
The knights had thought the Gigant would also be controlled separately from behind, just as they had practiced through [Iron Combat], taking the form of a kind of proxy battle.
Even that alone had looked cool enough.
But it was completely different.
Utterly different.
—Phew… All right!
Gigant Number 0! Unit name Savior’s control knight, Hugo! Deploying!—
With the help of magic, the protagonist Hugo boarded a specially manufactured cockpit located in the heart of the golem.
And in that cockpit, filled with various complicated controllers, he moved the golem by directly synchronizing with its movements.
That sight was truly—
“So cool…!”
“My God! I become the Gigant?”
“Beyond controlling that enormous Gigant, he actually boards it and becomes one with it!
Then it really is no different from a living giant knight, exactly as the words say!”
It was a scene that stimulated every last bit of the knights’ sensibilities and romance.
Perhaps it was all the more so because they were knights.
It was the form of a giant, the symbol of mighty power, combined with the cold passion of steel.
And that was the very image the knights longed for.
Kooong—!
And along with a dynamic scene so vivid that one could almost imagine hearing the sound—
The Gigant stood upon the earth.
““I-it’s standing!””
Naturally, another scream-like cheer burst from the watching knights.
“Everyone! Move! I need to practice more right now!”
“Don’t talk nonsense! The control knight who will board the Gigant is none other than me!”
“From this moment on, anyone with less than five years of service in the knight order is forbidden from using [Iron Combat]!
Rookies, don’t even think about touching it behind your seniors’ backs!”
Soon afterward, a pandemonium broke out over the right to use [Iron Combat].
To earn the chance to board that magnificent Gigant, they had to become even a little more accustomed to controlling a golem.
And for that, [Iron Combat] was the optimal training equipment.
The sight of the knights using force, authority, and even years of service in the order to keep their competitors in check—
It seemed they had already forgotten even the original purpose of raising the knight order’s prestige and morale.
What mattered to them was only being chosen as the one to board that magnificent Gigant!
Knight Commander Mateus, who had been staring blankly at that chaos, gave a hollow laugh and muttered to the vice commander beside him.
“Ask whether we can place an additional order for those.
At this rate, before we can raise the knight order’s prestige with the Gigant, the order will destroy itself by fighting among its own members.”
“…Understood. I will make the inquiry at once.”
If they destroyed themselves not because of malicious slander or an outside attack, but merely because they were fighting over who got to use the training equipment, what kind of reversal of priorities would that be?
If that happened, Author Wei, who had proposed this Gigant project, might be so dumbfounded that he would be unable to control his laughter, laugh until he was exhausted, and die.
‘Please, let such a disgrace never happen…’
Mateus began praying fervently that the Gigant would be completed quickly and that this disturbance would come to an end as soon as possible.
***
While the knight order, having confirmed the true nature of the Gigant that had swollen their curiosity all this time, was thrown into an uproar.
And while they began devoting themselves to training as if competing to be chosen as the glorious control knight.
There were people who, perhaps, were moving even more busily than those knights.
“Hey! When is the revised blueprint for the load applied to the Gigant’s legs coming out?
You need to decide quickly so we can finish the upper section’s blueprint!”
“Mana circuit number 37 is clashing again?!
Kraaaagh! What the hell is the problem?!
We changed the placement and output of the mana stones and even redrew the circuit, so why is it clashing again?!”
“You’re asking if we can just get rid of the legs altogether?
If legs and such aren’t just decoration for the Gigant?
Ha… This is why people say the higher-ups don’t know anything.
Do you think knights’ swordsmanship is performed only with the upper body? Huh? The movements of the lower body are incredibly important too, so how is proper swordsmanship supposed to come out if we remove the legs?!”
They were the engineering nerds who had to realize that very Gigant in reality—in other words, the mages and artisans.
As this was a massive project conducted directly by the royal family, the team had been assembled by selecting only the best of the best among top-class engineers.
With Professor Logic and Grok, who had proven their skills by creating all sorts of games with Author Wei, as their leaders, they were being ground down day and night to bring the Gigant from the comic into reality.
And yet, despite being ground down like that.
Their faces were filled not with fatigue, but with mad grins.
“Khehehe! The people of the entire kingdom will be shocked senseless when they see the work I made, won’t they?
Krrrr! Just imagining it is thrilling!”
“If we succeed in making something this incredible, our names will surely remain in history!
Perhaps I might even obtain the honor of being the greatest artisan in dwarven history, surpassing even Birektal, the legendary blacksmith said to have forged the hero’s weapon!”
“The great undertaking of reviving, with these hands, the majesty of the giants who were exterminated in ancient times!
It could truly be called the recreation of a myth!”
Because they were researchers, developers, and artisans by nature, they were also accustomed to this sort of crunch development.
And above all, they were filled with joy and pride at participating in such an incredible project.
“When you engrave the mana circuit there, don’t just grind the mana stones and draw with them. Mix them into this reagent and draw with that.
The efficiency will improve greatly.”
“Tch. I had not intended to bring out even this, but I suppose there is no choice.
I will teach you the alloy formula that increases steel’s strength while reducing its weight.”
“This is my family’s secret magic, but…”
Thanks to that, quite a few techniques that they had secretly known only themselves, or that had been passed down as secret arts within their organizations or families, were being shared.
To complete this special project, they had agreed not to spare the knowledge each of them possessed.
One might wonder if they really needed to go that far.
But everyone was desperate to raise their own contribution to this massive project that would remain in history.
After all, the greater their contribution, the greater the fame they would leave to future generations.
“Well, even so, the name that will remain the most is still Author Wei’s.”
“Well, that can’t be helped.
He is the original creator who came up with this idea, isn’t he?”
“That much has to be acknowledged.
Honestly, it was an idea we had never even imagined until now.”
Golems were fairly traditional familiars of mages.
And everyone here had prided themselves on knowing quite a lot about golems.
But no one had ever thought of the concept of a giant weapon painstakingly made by dozens of people like this.
So everyone tended to acknowledge that Author Wei, who had first presented it, had made the greatest contribution.
And on top of that, it was not even just a golem—apparently, a knight would board it and control it.
If a Sword Master appeared on the battlefield in the form of that enormous steel giant?
“It would truly be a disaster.”
“Unless one were a dragon, one would not even dare to face it.”
Of course, it would be difficult for that enormous Gigant to follow every extreme movement performed by a Sword Master.
And it would not be easy to reinforce that entire bulk with mana either, so it might simply become a large target.
But if they could reproduce even half of its overwhelming presence in the original work—
It would be enough for it to become a nightmare on the battlefield.
“And does it matter even if it isn’t necessarily useful in actual combat?
It isn’t something we’re making with actual combat in mind to begin with.”
“That is true. This is, after all, for display.
As long as it looks cool, isn’t that enough?”
Well, in truth, it did not matter even if it never went as far as actual combat.
As long as it came out looking cool, it would sufficiently fulfill its role.
Even if it only swung that enormous sword once in front of people for ceremonial purposes, it would be enough to make people gasp and raise the prestige of the knight order.
In fact, most of the people gathered here, drinking potions as they voluntarily worked overtime, were working hard just to see that one sight.
“It would be nice if it could be deployed in actual combat, but it isn’t as though a war has broken out, so it isn’t essential.”
“As long as we can reproduce the cool appearance we saw in the comic, that’s enough.”
To make that happen, development was pushed forward without cease.
And perhaps their efforts and devotion had paid off.
After several more months passed.
On the decisive day when the Gigant was finally completed.
“The Gigant! Where is the Gigant that actually moves?!”
“I came all the way here from the borderlands to see the Gigant!
Hurry up and show us that enormous steel giant!”
“Argh! Why are there so many people? Before I get crushed to death, hurry up and show us the Gigant actually moving!”
Thanks to the crowds that had gathered to watch the completed Gigant’s demonstration, the capital did not merely fill to capacity, but practically burst, succeeding in drawing an unprecedented level of excitement.