“Steel, what did you think of Tenma’s match against the fourth knights’ brigade today?” I asked.
“Well, I’ve already seen him fight during the incident with Regir, but you can’t even compare them now. Tenma’s much stronger these days. Hypothetically, if we were to go up against him even with everything we have, we’d definitely lose, my lord. We’d give it our all, of course, and I’d make sure every last soldier did the same, but his strength is probably equal to the combined might of the ducal knights and our shadow division. If someone like that were to target you and Albert... Well, I wouldn’t be able to protect you no matter what we tried. Surrendering early and joining his forces would be the wisest choice at that point,” Steel said.
Honestly, he might’ve been right. That could be the best way to preserve House Sanga. But judging from how Tenma had been acting lately, I doubted he’d suddenly turn hostile. The fact that he was friendly with both Albert and Primera was a huge relief.
“My lord, Albert has arrived.”
“I see. Back to work now, Steel,” I commanded.
“Yes, sir!”
Albert stepped into the room just as Steel left. He looked noticeably uneasy.
“Why are you so anxious? Don’t worry, I didn’t call you here to scold you. Sit down,” I said.
“Y-Yes, Father.”
I told him I wasn’t going to lecture him, but from the look on his face, I wondered if it might end up that way regardless. I asked what was bothering him.
Albert sighed. “Ugh... I don’t know if I should be happy that I’m getting along with Tenma or mad at myself for letting things get out of hand...” he said.
Apparently, when he had heard that I wanted to talk about Tenma, he panicked and thought I’d tell him to stop causing trouble. But Tenma hadn’t complained to me directly about him, so all I could really do was give him a light warning. Albert had enough experience to know if he were to push Tenma too far over the edge.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, I had Tenma test the strength of the fourth knights’ brigade,” I said.
“And we didn’t stand a chance?”
“More or less. He said in order to fight someone like Chaos, we’ll need a team with someone like Primera, a person like the vice-captain of the fourth brigade, and then maybe a knight skilled in magic. It would only be then that we’d even have a shot,” I explained.
Primera and the vice-captains of the fourth brigade were some of the strongest fighters belonging to House Sanga. We did have stronger ones who I believed could hold their own against that monster, but they’d have to be nearby when it appeared, of course. If it were to show up while they were away, I couldn’t even begin to guess how much damage there’d be.
“So here’s what I’m thinking. I’m going to have our dispatch teams carry golems. I’ll reassign some of the knights as well.”
If we couldn’t prevent a disaster, our only choice was to minimize the damage. In an ideal situation, I’d want to equip all of our knights’ brigades with golems, but we didn’t have enough. Right now, our best option was to give them to the fourth brigade stationed in Gunjo City, as the chances of an encounter were highest there. And if worse came to worst, we could send the fourth brigade to another region as reinforcements. If they were killed in action, they would be honorable deaths, and no one would complain as long as we paid their families compensation.
“I wouldn’t have to think so hard about all this if they were just regular knights,” I muttered.
“Did you say something?” Albert asked.
I hadn’t meant to voice that, so I told him it was nothing. He didn’t press me further.
“Albert, you’ve seen Tenma’s golems before, haven’t you?” I asked.
“Yeah. He uses them for routine tasks too. And when we visited Haust, I saw one stationed on lookout duty. It went straight into battle right in front of me.”
“And what did you think about them?” I really wanted to learn more about the golems. If I went straight to Tenma, he might’ve even been willing to explain a few tricks to me, but my doing that could raise suspicions within the royal family. And once the other nobles got wind of it, they’d all start demanding he teach them too. It’d be a mess.
But if I were just getting Albert’s impressions of them, I doubted anyone would care. In fact, that kind of indirect access to Tenma was an advantage for House Sanga. It was one that we shared with the royal family, as well as House Sammons and House Haust.
“Tell me whatever you can remember. Their shape, how they moved, your impressions watching them... Anything,” I said.
Albert hesitated, unsure if it was okay to share such information about Tenma’s golems behind his back. But if Tenma were the type to get angry over something like that, the king and queen wouldn’t adore him like they did. Still, I couldn’t let any of my retainers hear about this. For now, this would have to stay between Albert and me.
“So you’re telling me that Tenma has two types of golems. There are ones like Thunderbolt, which have a core fused to their bodies, and then ones that are made on the spot from nearby materials,” I summarized after Albert’s explanation. “Are there any other major differences between the two?”
“Thunderbolt’s an outlier, but there isn’t much of a performance gap between the other kinds of golems. The fused golems are easier to build, maintain, and upgrade, though. The kind that assembles their bodies from surrounding materials is tougher to make and harder to maintain or enhance, but they’re way easier to carry around. And as long as the core survives and there are materials nearby, they can rebuild themselves on the spot. Oh, and they can be used to quickly set up temporary outposts, like when we built that front by the border in Haust.”
Now that could actually be valuable, I thought. If the golems were made of earth, for example, then you’d end up with a hole in the ground and a golem-shaped wall in its place.
“I bet no one’s ever even thought of using golems like that before, but then again, there probably hasn’t been someone with enough of them to try it,” I mused.
I had a better understanding of them now, thanks to Albert, but no technical details. I just knew what they looked like and what he thought about them, which was enough for me to speculate a bit. The only real detail I had gotten was that the cores had tiny inscriptions, like markings, etched into them.
“I suppose you couldn’t make out what the markings said, but based on the structure, do you think they’re the same as ours?”
“As far as I can tell, I think Tenma’s hidden his own enhancements in them,” he said. “That’s what makes up the difference in performance.”
I knew just mimicking the shape wouldn’t be enough, but even that might help advance our own technology and maybe even give us a clue about the secret behind Tenma’s golems. I wasn’t counting on making a breakthrough with that, though.
“We really do need to accelerate our golem development so we can boost our forces, though. But rushing things could backfire on us. We’ll focus on ramping up production and gradually improving their performance for now,” I said. “I suppose that means we’ll have to give the engineers a raise.”
The balance between carrot and stick was important, and there was a chance that someone might run off to another noble house with our technology.
“So that’s why you’re going to help out with the budget cuts, Albert,” I continued. “First things first—let’s start with entertainment expenses, shall we?”
“Right...”
For nobles like us, entertainment expenses were pretty much just glorified pocket money anyway. Those things were easy to remove from the budget.
“What about Mother’s? And my sisters’?” he asked.
“Do you think I can say something to them, or are you volunteering to do it for me?”
They’d probably understand if I sat them down and explained it to them properly, but who knew what they’d say if we didn’t trim the fat on our end first?
“Cut out any pointless spending from now on, got it? Also, keep a close eye on Tenma’s golems if you get the chance to see one again. Even closer than before. But don’t ask him about it, or Queen Maria might lecture you.”
This felt a little underhanded, like I was sending a spy over there, but I thought it couldn’t hurt.
Still, maybe I should give Tenma a heads-up?
Albert’s eyes flashed suspiciously for a moment when I said we’d restore entertainment funding once our golem production hit its mark.
However, Albert wasn’t the type to spend frivolously. And when he did go out with someone, it was usually just with Tenma, Cain, or Leon—the same group as always. It was hard to imagine money being a real issue for him unless he was keeping a mistress or something.
No, there’s no way...
I knew that Albert was totally smitten with Eliza. At best, he needed cash to smooth things over with her. She lectured him a lot, after all. That was partly his fault, but it was also thanks to Cain and Leon dragging him into trouble.
“Albert, if something comes up and you need money, just let me know,” I told him. “I can give you some extra cash, depending on what you need it for.”
“Y-Yeah, thanks...” He seemed a little startled by my offer, but the quicker you fixed things with women, the better. I had made all kinds of rookie mistakes when I was younger. The second you upset one woman, there was a decent chance another two would start sulking out of solidarity. It wasn’t fun.
Albert only had Eliza to deal with, so it wouldn’t be nearly as bad as what I had gone through. Still, she was a feisty one. He’d probably have his own kind of troubles...