CLIFF and Akizu ended up walking all over Chest Island until evening. Golem parts filled the cart at long last.
They hit the road back to the shop while casually snacking on bread crust they had bought on the way. But when they returned to Flank Beach Market, they found it was unusually abuzz with commotion.
“Hm? What’s going on?” Cliff squinted at the market. He made out men clad in pure-white vestments with Stone Golems in tow, shouting at the top of their lungs.
“Nobody move! We’re with the Torah Church! On account of violations against the Golem Possession Regulations, we are hereby confiscating and impounding all stolen and illegal goods!”
Cliff and Akizu exchanged alarmed looks.
“Crud! It’s the Church’s Rabbis!” Cliff exclaimed.
“Tch, it’s a Torah Church crackdown! This is bad, Cliff. Let’s sit this one out till they go.”
Cliff and Akizu hid in the shadow of a building a short distance from the market.
Most of Chest Island’s residents reacted in this manner whenever they came across the Rabbis. Cliff despised the high-handed, tyrannical religious leaders just as much as anybody else from the slums.
Torah Church was a religious organization with a myriad of devout believers. With Head Island as their base of operations, they acted as the archipelago’s enforcers of civil obedience by using Golems to crack down on criminal activity.
But their relentless, merciless crackdowns frequently devolved into unwarranted abuse of Chest Island’s residents. Cliff was still haunted by bitter memories of the time they caught him salvaging parts and beat him till his skin turned purple as punishment. Torah Church wasn’t just any religious organization—it was also the reigning power on the entire archipelago.
Rabbis confiscated truckloads of merchandise as they intimidated the marketgoers. Some shopkeepers glared spitefully at the Rabbis, while others tried to make a run for it with what goods they could fit in their pockets. The Rabbis caught the runners and beat them with their staffs before they got far.
Meanwhile, the Rabbis’ Golems loaded huge wagons with the confiscated goods. In all likelihood, they planned on returning to the church with the merchandise to dispose of it there. Cliff watched the events from the safety of his hiding place.
“Dang it all! What a cruel bunch of jerks!” he spat under his breath. “Isn’t it unusual for Head Island’s Rabbis to come to this market?”
“Not exactly. They crack down a lot in the spring compared to the rest of the year. It happens ev’ry year, but I went and let it slip my mind this time like an idiot.”
“Why spring?”
“The Church has got some sorta religious event around this time of year. They tighten their reins whenever it gets close.”
“I wish they’d just leave us be… We can’t get back to the shop if they don’t hurry up and finish their business here,” Cliff complained, glancing at the barracks. Then he sharply inhaled.
Several of the Rabbis had congregated around Akizu Company. They were debating about what to do with the metal giant they surrounded beside the garage. Their loud voices reached Cliff’s hiding spot.
“What’s this statue? Doesn’t look like a Golem’s Prime Body to me.”
“Sure doesn’t. Not even the Rabbi could get this preposterously large hunk of metal to move.”
“Still, the sheer existence of such a huge piece of metal is dangerous. We can’t confiscate it at this size—tear it down.” At that command, the Rabbis’ Golems shambled toward the metal giant.
“DON’T!” Cliff yelled.
The Rabbis turned toward him.
“Don’t be stupid, Cliff!” Akizu pleaded.
Cliff didn’t listen as he dashed over, shouting, “Don’t destroy that statue!”
“Wh-Who in the blazes are you?!”
Cliff tried to ram a Rabbi who spun around in surprise—but it was futile. One of the Golems seized his collar and lifted him clean into the air.
“Wha—LEMME GO!” Cliff flailed and thrashed wildly from where he was suspended.
A Rabbi observed his plight with a snort. “What? You from this shop or something?”
“You’ve got that right, Rabbi Scum! Cut the crap and get this hand off of—” Cliff was interrupted by the Golem, which yanked him higher before relentlessly slamming him into the ground. “GUAH!”
Cliff writhed in pain. A Rabbi with a villainous face glared down at him with contempt. “God be with us all. There’s no end to these Chest Island vermin, no matter how hard we try to clean them out,” he spat. “Not only are you guilty of illegally creating Golems, but you’ve dared to slight us Rabbi.”
Cliff violently shuddered under the Rabbi’s threatening gaze. In that critical moment, Akizu intervened in a booming voice, “HEY, QUIT IT! Stop, please!” He slipped in between Cliff and the Rabbis.
The Rabbi swept his eyes over Akizu in disgust. “Where’d you crawl out of? You the owner of this shop?”
“I sure am. That boy’s just a part-timer.”
“I see. But we had a good look at your garage. It looks like all your wares are salvaged goods.”
“…!”
“You’re guilty of fraudulent appropriation of salvaged articles, direct violation of the Golem Possession Regulations, and the greatest crime of all—leaving this ugly piece of junk in front of your store. What were you planning to do if it actually came to life? HUH?!” The Rabbi kicked the metal giant with the tip of his boot.
Akizu wrung out a reply, his voice thin, “M-My part-timers made that to serve as the shop’s trademark image…!”
“And why should we give a damn about that? In accordance with our duties as the Church’s Rabbis, we hereby claim the right to destroy that monstrosity.”
At the Rabbi’s words, the Golems raised their fists in unison, then brought them crashing down.
“S-STOP IT!” Cliff yelled. But his plea fell on deaf ears. The troop of Golems struck the metal giant, sending metallic clangs reverberating through the market. The statue gave way before his very eyes.
“NO…Nooo…Nooooooooooo…” Cliff could only cry out in horror. The statue he had put his blood, sweat, and tears into creating with Master Roche had its arms ripped off and its head torn down. In no time, they gutted the metal giant and knocked it onto the ground.
“How could you…! How could you do that to something the children put their hearts and souls into making?!” Akizu lashed out. The Rabbis shot him death glares in return.
“You got a problem, buddy? Wanna pick a fight with the Church? All the Golems on this island only move thanks to the Church’s efforts. Which is the only reason why worthless criminals like you can scrape together a living!”
“…!”
“Turn over a new leaf if you get the picture. Go through the proper channels provided by the Church and conduct your business the legal way.”
Leaving those final words in their wake, the Rabbis vacated the market. With them gone, Cliff, Akizu, and the destroyed statue were all that remained.
The sea’s roaring waves thundered through the lingering silence. Eventually, Akizu weakly muttered, “…Sorry, Cliff. I let ‘em destroy this statue of yours.”
“It’s not your fault. But—”
“Ya heard ‘em. With the way things are now, we need to take a break from this job for a spell… It ain’t gonna be pretty if they catch us up to somethin’ again,” Akizu grumbled, dropping his shoulders and disappearing inside the barracks.
Cliff stood stiller than the unmoving, broken statue on the evening beach, simmering with bitter feelings.
The Rabbis told them not to disobey the Church due to an unshakeable truth—every human on this archipelago can only use Golems because of the Rabbis.
Golems that came to life by borrowing God’s power could only move on lands where the Torah Church existed. The Great Bell Tower stood as a symbol of the church for a reason; it was precisely because it tolled the bells of blessing that the archipelago came under God’s divine protection and the land was purified enough to use Golems.
The Rabbis let that borrowed power go to their heads and misused it by imposing ridiculously expensive taxes on the creation of Golems and the permits required to use them. They had essentially created the need for a black market that illegally created, recycled, and sold Golems.
They’re the ones who created the problem in the first place, so why’re we the ones who get treated less than dog crap?! Do the poor and unlucky have no choice but to suffer wretched experiences under the persecution of the Rabbis?!
Cliff couldn’t forgive the Rabbis who used Golems to do nothing but hurt others, when their role was to serve God. Consumed with his fury, he glared in the direction they had departed.
He could see the Rabbis’ Golems and their large wagons down the road. Confiscated Golem parts and Prime Bodies packed the wagons past capacity.
I’ll get it back from them…! I’ll steal back what they took from everybody! Cliff boldly made up his mind and took off to secretly pursue the Rabbis.
He wasn’t taking action because of some pure sense of justice, he acted out of the frustration of being oppressed and belittled day after day.
But regardless of his reasons, Cliff raced through the city lit by the evening sun and headed straight for the Rabbis’ headquarters—the Church on Head Island.