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107. Supply

「It sounds like Geli is being forced to use golems, and that doesn’t sit right. Geli’s doing this because golems are the best. That’s important. Very important.」

「Yeah, yeah. They say love makes you better at things, right? You’ve really gotten good at making them.」

「Right?! The only problem is, this model of golem isn’t fit to be a future husband candidate. Marrying an ancestor would be… a bit much. Geli thinks it’s not a good idea..」

「…Husband? Candidate? Wait, what now?」

「But the form’s good. Real good… Geli bets they’re all better-looking now than when they were alive.」

Angelina stroked the golem’s skin with a somewhat enraptured expression. Her eyes were caught somewhere between a maiden in love and a far-off daydream.

Golems, even if only quasi-living, might be reborn as humans in the distant future. And if that happens, marriage is on the table—so goes Angelina’s personal theory. Marge had started to wonder if the Emesmes family as a whole just had a thing for marrying golems… but judging from Lord’s reaction, that wasn’t the case.

「Golems really are the best…」

「Welp, as long as they’re strong, it’s all good! And unlike humans, you don’t have to worry about any shady ulterior motives!」

「Right?」

「Go, my beloved daughter! This is the last one!」

「I’m going! —Reference: Forty-second Head, [Millia the Fortress-Breaker]!」

Responding to Angelina’s call, yet another golem rose from the earth.

It looked like a goddess statue. That was the first impression it gave.

Despite the name ‘Fortress-Breaker’, this golem had a graceful, feminine form. Yet in its hand, it gripped what looked like a wooden club. Power radiated from its body, shaking the surrounding stone walls. Its strength was beyond question.

「She was the heretical genius of our alchemist scholar family—one who pursued ‘force’ above all. That’s Millia Emesmes.」

Even the battered Kirmiji must have recognized the difference in power. But he had no option to flee. All remaining tentacles rushed the golem’s white body to entangle it—but [Millia the Fortress-Breaker] didn’t move an inch.

「Shake them off.」

With Angelina’s single command, all of Kirmiji’s tentacles were shredded and dispersed like mist. He had no protection left.

「Ah—E—ah…!」

「Break.」

The golem swung its club overhead and brought it crashing down on Kirmiji’s skull. His golden-haired head snapped forward and slammed into the floor. The force drove him halfway into the ground, and he lost consciousness on impact. The club, swung with overwhelming strength, snapped in two. The fragments spun through the air and fell on Kirmiji’s back with a dry thud.

「Victory!!」

In the now-silent tunnel, Angelina clenched her small fist. The golem smiled in response. Even as it began to crumble, having fulfilled its purpose, it remained beautiful. Its mouth moved slightly as it faded.

「I really went and did it」1

「…I understand now, Master. Angelina-san is the fiftieth head, and Lord is the forty-ninth. She must be the one who left behind Emesmes family’s famous phrase, the head from seven generations ago.」

「So the one who coined that was a female head. Now that you mention it, three out of the four summoned golems were women. Seems like they had a lot of female heads.」

「That’s just ‘cause Geli’s a girl, so it was easier to start with those, y’know?」

「Still, though…」

It seems she was a little careless—or maybe you could call her an airhead? I hope Kirmiji is still alive. After getting bashed on the head with that kind of force, is his brain still okay? I checked his condition and got confused at how shallow the injuries were. His right arm and leg were gone, sure, but his head was surprisingly intact.

Peering over my shoulder, Angelina nodded like it was only natural.

「Just as planned.」

「That club should’ve hit hard enough to break, and yet… how’s he this lightly hurt?」

「Club?」

The conversation wasn’t quite lining up. Curious, I picked up the broken ‘club’ that had landed near Kirmiji’s back—and finally understood what it really was.

It was bread.

「Bread, huh.」

「Bread.」

「Come to think of it, you said the bakery owner gave you one that would keep long. Did you use that?」

「That one.」

People in the city tend to assume bread is always soft.

But preservation bread? It’s hard as a rock. I remember being forced to eat the stuff during his adventuring days. Without moisture, a human’s teeth were basically useless.

「Still, slamming someone into stone with it it’s pushing it…」

Sure enough, Kirmiji’s head was halfway buried in the rock floor. No doubt it packed a punch.

「Look closely. Under his head—it’s all fluffy, isn’t it?」

「Rock’s not supposed to be fluffy… and yet it is.」

Fluffy it was. It looked like ordinary rock, but it cushioned Kirmiji’s body like a bed.

I glanced at Angelina for answers—and saw her holding Azula’s hand. That was the key. She must’ve asked Azula to soften the ground while [Yelle of Obsession] had Kirmiji restrained with her song.

「Geli gave Azula-chan a signal, and she used her endemic skill to soften the ground. Originally, it was meant in case someone got slammed into the wall—but hey, it worked here too.」

「A Dwarf’s endemic skill, huh. I’ll want the details later, but first, let’s heal her eyes and ears… [Seraph’s Grace], activate.」

I healed Azula’s eyes and ears, restoring her sight and hearing. I also dispelled the suggestion dulling her pain. She blinked rapidly, gently brushed away Chunaru who had clung to her, and tilted her head.

「Oh, Marge-sama has returned as well. So the battle is over, then?」

「Yeah, it’s over. Sorry—my skill caused you a lot of pain.」

「You only did it to save me. And above all, you rushed here for us Dwarves in our time of need. I can’t imagine blaming you—only being grateful.」

「Milady! You were amazing, milady!!」

「Hmm. The way Chunaru’s crying… it must really be over, then.」

Having pieced together most of what happened, Angelina hugged Azula tightly. Was it joy, relief, guilt—or all of the above—on her face?

「It’s all thanks to Azula-chan. All of it, all of it…」

「First, let me ask the important thing. What happened to Kirmiji?」

「That thing that looks like a rag over there is him.」

「Haah, what a splendid job.」

Beat him within an inch of his life, but don’t let him die. Azula could only hug the red-haired alchemist tighter, knowing she’d followed that principle to the letter.

Entrusting Shizuku and Azula to Angelina had been the right call after all.

「Alright, I’d love to keep celebrating, but this is only the first half.」

With our initial victory secured, I looked over the situation again. First, the knights had been repelled. With their commander Kirmiji neutralized and the chain of command broken, they wouldn’t be a problem for a while.

That meant it was time for the main event—

「Time to take on the Golden Land of Crimson Luxury.」

「Master, are you going now?」

「I think we should. It’s too dangerous to leave it unchecked.」

A dungeon where gold flowed endlessly. If word of its existence got out, nations and factions alike would scramble for it. Any delay in clearing it could result in disaster.

It had to be our hands that cleared it. I braced for a long battle—when the weight of the chain spoke up.

「Hey, Marge-kun? Things have been so hectic I didn’t get to say this before but…」

「What is it?」

「I think… we’re all going to die.」

「…Come again?」

The sudden announcement made me reflexively ask again. All going to die—what did that even mean?

「Ah, shoot. That was way too blunt. Alchemists have a bad habit of doing that. Bad! Very bad! See, before transforming into a chain, I ran all the possible simulations.」

「You mentioned that. So what’s the result?」

The weight jingled as it pointed toward the still-open ‘Golden Land of Crimson Luxury’.

「That dungeon—Geli was originally supposed to clear it herself. It was only decades away from triggering a Dungeon Break. But the Dwarves digging it up… accelerated things.」

A dungeon break. When an S-rank dungeon matures and overflows, spewing monsters onto the surface and turning the surrounding area into a hellscape unfit for human life.

If it’s a Super-S-class dungeon like this one, the damage would be catastrophic. The Emesmes family had spent generations preparing—ultimately, to prevent this exact calamity.

But then Azula interjected.

「Lord Emesmes-sama. It might be true that this dungeon is on the verge of a Dungeon Break, but it’s not something that would happen today or tomorrow, right? Why did you bring this up now?」

Dungeon breaks usually came with signs—monsters trickling out little by little, like what happened in the Farthest Ends of the Blue at the Werewolves’ Hidden Village.

Since no such signs had shown up, the assumption was that a dungeon break was still years off.

「Yeah… that was the assumption.」

「Was?」

Was.

The phrasing sent alarm bells ringing. I started fitting the pieces together—and a terrible possibility came to mind.

「No way…」

「You know how dungeons normally build up power slowly over decades, right? But we just dumped something inside. Like, decades—centuries worth—of ‘Age of Gods’ mana.’」

TN1: It was formerly translated as ‘We got got!’, but it doesn’t fit the original reason for its use, so I decided to change it.