"Are they doing it here...?"
Rei's muttered words carried a hint of surprise along with the creeping suspicion that he might be getting played.
It was only natural. What lay in his line of sight was a gymnasium—not the kind found at a high school, but one comparable in scale to a municipal or prefectural facility.
Having heard it described as a Wild Match, he had assumed it would take place in some empty lot rather than inside a building like this.
"Yeah, that's right. I think I mentioned it on the way here too, but alchemists hold these to test the golems they've made. Naturally, they need a place like this. And... from what I've heard, merchants and nobles who see the Wild Matches and take a liking to a golem sometimes buy them on the spot."
"I see. So besides performance testing, it also serves as a kind of product showcase."
"Something like that. Alchemists who purely want to test their golem's performance don't show off all their techniques, but the ones looking for buyers jump at the chance to put their skills on display."
Though it was called a Wild Match, Rei understood from Nicky's explanation that it was a surprisingly full-scale operation.
He understood, but at the same time, questions surfaced.
"With that kind of scale, wouldn't some organization normally act as a backer? From what you're saying, there's a lot of money at stake, and there should be plenty of people who'd want in on that."
"Ah, I thought the same thing. So I looked into it a bit... and it turns out there actually have been various organizations that tried to seize control of this Wild Match, but for some reason, they all gave up partway through. Probably someone's pulling the strings behind the scenes."
"Then are the ones pulling the strings acting as the backer? Or rather, controlling things from behind?"
"Hmm, I thought so too, but it doesn't seem like anyone like that exists. Of course, my investigation was just something I did in my spare time while serving as the young lady's bodyguard, so if I dug deeper, the story might change."
Rei found Nicky's explanation hard to swallow—and understandably so.
Thinking about it logically, if some organization was backing the Wild Match, it was hard to imagine they would let it run this freely. They would naturally act in ways that benefited themselves.
And yet, no one was doing anything to profit from it, but the moment some organization tried to muscle in on the Wild Match, they'd be interfered with.
Was something like that really plausible? It was only natural to harbor such doubts.
That said, since such a place actually existed right before his eyes, there was no denying its reality.
Rei still wondered why, but it wasn't to the point where he couldn't accept what was in front of him.
"I understand what you're saying, but wouldn't it cost a fair amount of money just to rent a building like this?"
In Japan, he remembered hearing somewhere that when renting a building, you paid by the hour or by the thirty minutes, and those fees went toward operating the gymnasium.
Whether the same system applied in this world—or rather, in Egginis—Rei had no idea.
But from what he could see, it was a fairly impressive building, which meant maintenance costs and the like were surely necessary.
Moreover, what took place inside was a Wild Match between golems—an actual fight.
Given that, it wouldn't be surprising if the building ended up getting damaged by some accident.
Repairing that would naturally cost money as well.
"I'm not sure about that. I don't know either way. But apparently, alchemists can have their golems fight here for free? And of course, spectating is free too."
"I see... Well, if there's nothing suspicious going on, then I suppose it's fine."
Rei was still mildly curious, but right now he had the matters of the bandits and Golias to deal with.
Besides, he needed to return to Gilm before long to collect the materials obtained from the Crystal Dragon's dissection.
He was genuinely curious about how this gymnasium-like building was operated, but that didn't mean he had the time to spare investigating it.
That was why Rei didn't press the matter any further and headed toward the spot where Maruka was waving broadly, with Seto carrying her on his back.
The building was large partly because some golems were quite sizable, and naturally that meant the doors were proportionally large as well.
It wouldn't have been strange for there to be separate entrances for golems fighting inside the building, and that might actually have been the case. Even so, the main doors themselves were sized to accommodate golems.
In other words, even Seto could enter without difficulty.
"Hey, look at that. A gryphon, right?"
"Now that you mention it, there was talk that Crimson from Gilm was in town... hey, don't tell me that little girl is Crimson?"
"No, from what I heard, they have a feminine face, but they're supposed to be male."
"Maybe they've got a thing for cross-dressing? Their build doesn't really look like a woman's eith—eek!"
The man who had been commenting on Maruka's figure let out a shriek when a sharp glare dripping with killing intent was directed his way.
He had no idea why he had just made such a sound. He didn't know, but he could easily guess that the girl glaring at him was the cause.
Maruka, young girl though she was, was still female.
What's more, given that her mother also had a modest figure, Maruka was already slightly anxious about her own future development. To have someone suddenly say something like that—it was only natural that she reflexively shot back a glare full of killing intent.
(Ugh...)
Both Rei and Nicky felt Maruka's killing intent as a matter of course, but Nicky smoothly averted his gaze with the air of someone who had seen nothing, heard nothing, and felt nothing.
Rei couldn't help thinking it might have been sharper than the killing intent of the assassin who had attacked him the day before.
Several other people near the entrance also turned to look at Maruka after she radiated that killing intent, but in the end, nothing further came of it.
"Um, standing around out here forever doesn't do much good, so shall we head inside? You're itching to see the golem Wild Match too, right, Brother Rei?"
"I won't deny that."
For Rei, who had come to Egginis to purchase golems, he was brimming with curiosity about what kind of golems existed, what kind of performance they offered, and how they fought.
He was planning to buy a golem from the Dolan Workshop, and he had arranged to purchase a defensive golem and a cleaning golem from Roger—payment in materials rather than money—but if he could pick up other golems on top of that, so much the better.
Normally, while cheap golems like cleaning models were one thing, the kind of golems that nobles and merchants coveted were not so easily obtained.
There were financial barriers, and above all, golems took up space.
Purchasing multiple golems meant having to transport them yourself and having a place to store them.
Noble or merchant, both money and storage space were limited.
Rei, on the other hand, already had a substantial amount of money, and if he ever ran short, he could always go bandit hunting.
As for storage, since golems weren't living creatures, they should be storable in the Misty Ring.
In that sense, Rei held a considerable advantage when it came to buying golems.
Of course, whether that meant he'd buy them recklessly was another matter entirely.
What Rei wanted were golems that were practically useful.
The cleaning golem he had requested from Roger, and the defensive golem as well.
A half-baked golem, or one with pointlessly excessive performance, was by no means something he was after.
And so, Rei and Nicky followed behind Seto and Maruka as the pair led the way into the building.
From the outside, it had looked like a gymnasium, but the floor was made of neither wood nor stone—just ordinary packed earth.
(This is... well, golems are moving around on it, so it's probably to make repairs easier if something happens.)
According to what Rei had heard from Nicky, what took place inside this building served as both a golem performance test and a trade show.
The trade show aspect aside, a performance test meant the golem wasn't yet complete.
In other words, there was a possibility the golem could go berserk for some reason—or even if it didn't go that far, it could behave unpredictably.
If that happened with a solid floor of wood or stone, repairing it would require a commensurate amount of labor and money.
But with packed earth, all you had to do was level the surface, or bring in fresh dirt and pack it down. Problem solved.
Naturally, hauling and packing dirt still required effort.
Financially, though, the burden was practically negligible.
...Though if it wasn't a small patch but a massive amount of dirt that needed replacing, there was a very real chance the costs would add up.
"We're here, Rei. This is the place," Maruka announced, gesturing toward a space at the end of the corridor.
"Quite spacious. More than I expected."
He had estimated as much from the building's exterior, but he had also wondered if perhaps the interior was divided into several rooms of moderate size.
Even if this was purely a venue for Wild Matches to test golem performance, there would be those who wanted to keep their golem's capabilities hidden.
Or, when it came time to negotiate a purchase for a golem they liked, there would be those who didn't want to do business in the public eye.
Considering those circumstances, there should have been regular rooms in addition to the open space.
(Though the rooms for that kind of negotiation might not be near this space, but somewhere else entirely... in a separate location.)
Before Rei, who was mulling this over, two golems roughly three meters tall were locked in combat.
A proper ring had been prepared, and having heard from Nicky that stepping outside it meant a loss, Rei nodded to himself.
At the Fighting Tournament in the Bestia Empire that Rei had participated in before, similar rings had been properly set up.
By that logic, it was only natural that a Wild Match for evaluating golem performance would also require certain rules.
(With rules this well-established, and yet there's no backer, no sponsor, nothing—or at least no one showing their face. It's hard to believe.)
One of the golems was a typical example made of rock—a so-called Stone Golem.
The other was a golem that looked not entirely unlike a half-robot.
Both were clearly trying their hardest to land hits on their opponent.
The Stone Golem wielded a club made of stone, while the half-robot one carried a weapon resembling a rapier.
They were fighting, but...
"This is a bit underwhelming, honestly."
The words slipped from Rei's mouth.
He had been expecting something far more dynamic.
But the battle unfolding before his eyes had a frustratingly sluggish tempo.
Maybe I got my hopes up too high? he wondered. Still, if the golems Rei actually wanted could only move like this, he didn't see much point in going out of his way to buy them.
"A golem's abilities change dramatically depending on its creator. But from what I can tell watching with the young lady... that golem, while maybe a little below average, really isn't that bad?"
Rei's stomach sank at Nicky's words.
If the golem currently fighting was only slightly below average, then what kind of performance would a golem from the Dolan Workshop—reputed to possess the highest level of craftsmanship—actually deliver?
And what would become of the defensive golem Rei had commissioned from Roger?
He couldn't help but wonder if he had simply handed over his materials for nothing.
"From what I saw of the cleaning golems, I think golem movements could be a lot more precise."
"Well, that's because cleaning golems have a single fixed purpose. When it comes to general-purpose golems, the control systems and everything else are quite different."
Rei figured that made sense, and hoping his bad feeling wouldn't prove justified, he settled in to watch the Wild Match.