WMT | Chapter 13

The golems persistently blocked the way. By the time Wiss got close to the sorcerer, five golems were mostly destroyed, with only their legs still moving.

Wiss felt something was off.

‘Why isn’t he running away?’

A normal sorcerer would have caused the mana circuits to go berserk and fled the moment they sensed the guardian golems were damaged. They would hope the rampaging golems would buy them some time.

That was the usual reaction. But this ‘sorcerer’ stayed put as if they felt nothing. There was no change from the moment Wiss pinpointed their location.

Theodore’s sword cut through the bushes. As the thick branches fell, a clearing was revealed.

In the middle of the small, artificially created clearing, it was there.

“……A doll?”

Theodore’s voice was heard.

It was a figure that closely resembled a human. Literally, a doll.

The intricately crafted doll spun around and looked at Theodore and Wiss, who was carried by him.

No, dolls can’t see. They only mimic human movements. However, Wiss felt a slight chill.

The mana reaction was emanating from that doll.

‘Puppetry?’

“……Wait.”

Wiss tried to stop Theodore. But the knight’s reaction was faster.

Few would find a doll that turns its head to look at you while standing still to be ‘cute.’

Theodore was a knight with typical sensibilities. He mercilessly knocked off the doll’s head.

Bang!

“……”

Wiss rubbed his forehead.

The doll’s head was bent and attached to its shoulder. The support that should act as its spine barely connected, preventing the neck and body from separating. The doll, blinking its eyes in a bizarre state, opened its mouth.

“Attack response. Abnormal signal. Switching to emergency system.”

The sound of air escaping from Theodore’s lungs was heard.

“What is that?”

“A doll.”

“It looks like that. But dolls can’t move on their own, can they?”

“They usually can’t talk either.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

The doll’s mouth clicked.

“Emergency system. Prioritizing entity protection. Retrieving guardian golems. ……5 units destroyed. Restoring.”

Golems gathered around the doll. Unlike before, when they reacted to nearby enemies, their movements were now coordinated.

The golems Theodore had half-destroyed had their waists separated, but the legs and upper bodies jumped back to their positions on their own.

When the doll raised its hand, the golems found their own body fragments and reattached themselves.

“……”

Wiss and Theodore watched the scene in disbelief.

“Emergency assembly. Emergency assembly. Retrieving all golems. Commanding return.”

The restored golems stood up and raised their shields. They positioned themselves to block the doll from the two people. Soon, the ground trembled. Golems were gathering from all directions.

“We’ve succeeded in luring them.”

Even in this situation, Theodore found something positive.

Wiss was dumbfounded.

‘Come to think of it, he did say that.’

“What should we do now?”

Wiss spoke up.

“That doll is the sorcerer.”

“Should we destroy it?”

“Yeah.”

If Theodore asked ‘how,’ Wiss wouldn’t have been able to answer. Now that it was clear a mage was attacking, he couldn’t say he would use magic to destroy that thing.

In this era where magic had become rare, who knows what misunderstandings might arise.

If Theodore misunderstood Wiss as the culprit, there would be no way to resolve it, right?

But Theodore didn’t ask for a method. He drew his sword and charged.

A practical personality.

‘He was like that earlier too.’

When facing an opponent, he didn’t waste words.

Bang!

Two golems blocked the way in front of the doll. Theodore ended up crashing into a marble statue.

Wiss, who was hanging around his neck, was violently shaken and almost lost his grip.

‘……I almost died.’

It was terrifying. Theodore checked that Wiss was holding on well and leaped. He seemed to have the leisure to care for others.

For a knight in the vanguard to have leisure was a good sign. Wiss had something he needed to do.

He squinted his eyes. His pupils shone brightly.

The colors of the world inverted, and things invisible to ordinary eyes began to appear.

Threads connected from the golems’ limbs to rods in the air.

It looked like a puppet control board. That was what was moving the golems.

And all the threads extending from the control board were connected to the doll.

The golems running from the outdoor banquet hall, the ones lured outside the hall, and all the entities gathering in the mountains had threads extending from them, all connected to the doll. Because of that, the doll looked like a strange pincushion.

‘Amazing.’

It wasn’t the time for it, but Wiss couldn’t help but be impressed. Puppetry had advanced remarkably in 300 years.

Wiss knew the origins of puppetry. Wiss’s mages had an interesting idea during the war: could they create soldiers with magic?

Golems were objects that required the sorcerer to control them one by one. Instead of such cumbersome rocks, they wanted to create real humans.

Too many people died in wars. If magically created soldiers went to war instead, how many lives could be saved?

That’s how dolls were created, and they were of little use in war.

There were various reasons for that, but…

Anyway, now the doll was even using magic, wasn’t it?

‘It’s a shame to destroy it.’

But if he didn’t destroy it, Wiss would end up destroyed.

Wiss gathered strength in his arms. His body, floating in the air, collided with Theodore’s back as he landed. It felt like his lungs were being crushed.

“Golems are gathering.”

Theodore stated the obvious fact that Wiss already knew.

“It seems difficult to attack the sorcerer through these. They regenerate even if destroyed, making them hard to deal with. ……If I put you down, will they attack you, Your Highness?”

“I don’t think they’ll only favor me.”

“That’s true.”

“What is it?”

Wiss asked, sensing Theodore had something to say. He hesitated before speaking.

“If I brace myself for a hit, I think I can get inside.”

He was referring to inside the shield created by the golems.

Wiss was puzzled.

“Then go in.”

If he was saying something like that, it seemed he wouldn’t be knocked out with one hit, so what was he asking?

Theodore’s expression became subtle.

“……Are you sure about this?”

‘Ah.’

Wiss realized.

‘It’s Wissmia that’s the problem.’

With a body that seemed like it would be sent flying by a stone fist.

If it weren’t for this body, when else would he be treated like luggage? Wiss almost let out a dry laugh.

He answered immediately.

“Yeah.”

‘Not that I plan on getting hit.’

Theodore didn’t give up.

“Would it be dangerous if I put you up in a tree?”

“Doesn’t that seem like a waste of time?”

“It does a bit.”

“Stop and destroy that thing. It’s getting hard to hold on.”

The part Wiss found hard to hold on to was managing his mana. But Theodore seemed to think he was referring to holding onto his neck and kept quiet.

In reality, his arms were trembling like leaves caught in the wind.

Two golems charged simultaneously. Theodore twisted his body to dodge.

“……I’m saying this because it seems like Your Highness might be in trouble if you get hit.”

“It doesn’t matter. If you die, do you think I’ll be safe?”

Wiss gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to make panting noises, but it was impossible.

His arms were losing strength, and blood was flowing into his nose and mouth. There was a limit to swallowing it.

“……I’ll try to take the hit as much as possible.”

Theodore weaved through the golems at an invisible speed. In the blink of an eye, Wiss’s body was in the middle of five golems.

He saw the massive arm flying towards him.

In Wiss’s inverted vision, he could also see the mana thread controlling that arm.

Wiss severed the glowing thread.

Ting.

With a nerve-wracking sound, the golem’s body staggered. Unable to withstand the force of its swinging arm, it fell.

Wiss didn’t look at the falling golem. He was watching the air.

With his mouth tightly shut and focused, he watched the wave of threads connected in the air.

Ting. Ting. Ting. Ting. Ting!

The severed threads rippled like waves. The scattering light dazzled his eyes.

Wiss covered his face with his sleeve. The sleeve quickly became soaked with blood.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The golems fell one by one. The next moment, Theodore’s sword sliced through the doll.

Bang!

A thunderous sound incomparable to the sound of golems falling echoed. Hearing that sound, Wiss was flung away. He didn’t have the strength left in his body to hold onto anyone’s neck.

His body bounced off the ground and rolled twice in a pile of dust.

‘I’m going to die.’

“Your Highness!”

What Wiss saw before he fainted was Theodore running towards him.

Behind him were the remnants of what used to be the doll.

A fleeting thought of regret surged. The thought that he shouldn’t faint came first.

‘If I talk well now, I’ll be the benefactor who saved his life.’

Not that clinging to consciousness would stop it from slipping away.

Wiss went limp.