Volume 14 Chapter 4 Another Assistant Device
"Riana, thank you. I think I've learned what I wanted to know for now. I hope you can stay with Patricia and give her some advice."
After finishing their conversation, Al bowed.
"Of course, I will gladly assist as an assistant device. I am honored to be in a position to advise the princess, the successor of Sir Tempest, once again."
Riana, the golem, seemed to have a strong voice. It must be a rewarding position for her too.
"But why would an assistant device like Riana run out of mana...?"
"That is..."
Riana hesitated to answer Al's question. She explained that assistant devices could only give advice, and over time, many people began wanting to give advice instead of Riana when it came to the king.
Some even said Riana was useless, and she gradually lost respect. To make assistant devices smaller as magic tools, they couldn't refill mana with magic stones, and the special refilling device was lost during their escape.
Now, they could only refill mana using the "Magic Power Control" spell. It wasn't entirely clear, but it seemed that when the royal family lost the ability to use the "Magic Power Control" spell, they could no longer refill mana.
"I think you're still very useful... I mean, Glee saved my life once..."
During the expedition to the outskirts, if Glee hadn't noticed the Goblin Mage first, Al might not have survived. That wasn't all.
There were many other times Glee had helped him. Thinking about this, Al smiled at Glee the Golem.
"Hehe."
Glee the Golem puffed out his chest happily.
"Now, let's talk about this assistant device."
Saying that, Malachi the Golem took out another assistant device. It was the one that the Goblin Mage had been using.
"Unfortunately, I tried to persuade it for a long time, but it never changed its belief in supporting the Barbarians."
He continued, shaking his head slightly.
"After trying various leading questions and organizing the information I got from this assistant device, it seems the Goblin Mage didn't just happen to get this device. A person claiming to want to support the Barbarians gave this assistant device to the Goblin Mage."
Malachi paused for a moment, his expression thoughtful.
"This person was an older man with white hair and many wrinkles, wearing a robe. From the description, he seems similar to Lord Veil."
Lord Veil... had he reached this far?
"What exactly is his intention?"
"Although I don't fully understand the intentions of that person resembling Lord Veil."
Malachi continued, his brow furrowing in concern.
"It seems the Assistant Device was ordered to help the Goblin Mage gain wisdom on how to increase the Barbarians and stop humans from building new bases."
He took a breath, his tone grave.
"And once the Barbarians grow in number, they would also invade Lester. The Assistant Device was given to the Goblin Mage about ten years ago. I'm not sure how long Goblin Mages live, but it seems this plan has been going on for several generations of Goblins."
"..."
Were they really planning to cause a massive outbreak of Barbarians in the border area of Margrave Rain for the past ten years? Al wondered what benefit could come from such a large outbreak of Barbarians.
Could it be that they had been planning a coup in the Tempest Kingdom back then, trying to weaken one of the border forces, Margrave Rain? But the Tempest Kingdom and Sylvester Kingdom had fought many wars and weren't on good terms.
As Al thought about this, a feeling of anger began to rise within him. He didn�t know all the details, but the idea of increasing the Barbarians for an advantage in war made his blood boil.
"There's probably a lot of background to this," Malachi speculated, his expression thoughtful. "But if that man was Lord Veil, then the Marquis Prentis family must have had some kind of plan."
He continued, his voice steady.
"For now, following the advice of the Assistant Device, the Goblin Mage, who is the owner, seems to have been receiving large amounts of food regularly from humans who wanted to ally with the Barbarians. They offered it under the pretense of tributes."
Malachi's gaze sharpened as he elaborated,
"The Goblin Mage was also given what appears to be a magic tool--a magic bag--along with the Assistant Device. By storing food in that bag and giving it to the Barbarians, he gained influence over them and was able to manipulate them to some extent."
That goblin mage should have only had the button-shaped magic tool that Al was trying to investigate. So, is that a magic bag?
The magic bag that he had borrowed from Guildmaster Levy was definitely useful. He heard that some magicians in Tempest also had a few, but if the Marquis Prentis family was one of the wandering clans, they probably had some of those magic tools too.
However, this meant that it was an important operation requiring the use of those limited magic tools. It felt a bit wrong to only use the magic bag for his escape with Patricia.
Since he had also obtained the "Teleport" magic tool, he returned it to Guildmaster Levy, insisting it should be used to help Naresh.
But if he could get another one, that would be great.
"Are there command words for taking items in and out?"
"No, not that far... By the way, the button-shaped magic tool you wanted to investigate, was it obtained from a goblin mage? If that's the magic bag, there is a way to examine it. It will take some time, though..."
"If that's the case, can you tell me that method? How do you find out the command words for a magic tool?"
"Well, inside the magic tool, there is a way to manage the command words..."
"Ally, Malachi, can you two take your time with that?"
At Al's question, Malachi the golem seemed ready to start a lecture, and Glee hurriedly stopped him.
"What's wrong? Is there something else?"
"Yeah, I was talking with Patty, and I was thinking, what if we made a path down to the beach on the island?"
The giant rock, over 500 meters (1,640 ft) tall, stood at a steep angle on top of a mountain that was almost in the center of the island. The mountain's height was over 150 meters (492 ft).
Could they really make a path down without using "Fly"? Al looked at Patricia, then at Glee the golem, and finally at Malachi the golem. Malachi the golem nodded lightly.
"I checked the outer side of the stone wall that protects the tower in advance. Most of the outer side of the giant rock is a steep mountain slope."
He continued, his tone serious.
"No matter which direction, we will need to use 'Soften Stone' to create stairs and make a path. Conversely, if we create easy-to-defend stairs and gates like that, I think the measures against intruders won't change much from now."
The shape of the island is an oval stretching about 3 kilometers from the northeast to the southwest, with a reef extending straight south from the northeastern part of the island. The almost southern end of the reef was where they had previously defeated a wyvern.
"Are there magic beasts or barbarians on the island?"
"I had the High-Rank Worker Golem use ropes to climb down this giant rock and patrol the island along the coastline a few times. But so far, we haven't found any magic beasts or barbarians, let alone large mammals."
He paused, glancing toward the horizon.
"It seems that the only creatures living on the island are birds, snakes, and insects. However, there might be poisonous animals and plants."
From Malachi's words, it seemed almost safe.
"Got it. Then let's go explore. Ah, I wish Joanna were here right now... but the Guardian Golem can't carry her with the 'Carrier' spell."
Al muttered without thinking.
"If we have the High-Rank Worker Golem, we'll be fine, right? Whenever I look down from the tower window, I see the white sandy beach and the sparkling sea. The sunset is really beautiful."
Glee said, and Patricia nodded happily in agreement.
"Malachi, what about the golems and seawater?"
"They'll be fine if we wash off the salt properly later."
"Alright! For now, let's have the High-Rank Worker Golem carry the 'Magic Missile' staff for protection, and let's go explore!"
As Al cheerfully raised his voice, Patricia, Glee, and the golem excitedly raised their hands in response.
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