The battle between the Stone Golem and the half-robot-like golem ended in a mutual defeat, without anything particularly worth watching.
...For Rei, the real highlight came after the fight was over.
The developers who had built each golem apparently had a long-standing rivalry, and a draw wasn't a result either of them could accept.
From Rei's perspective, it felt more like, What's all the fuss about over a fight at that level? But to the creators, that bout had been a painfully close one for both sides, and it turned into an out-of-ring affair as the alchemists themselves started arguing in place of their golems.
Shouldn't someone stop them? Rei wondered. But the spectators watching the Wild Matches around them showed no sign of intervening.
If anything, they almost seemed to be egging them on.
For the people gathered around, the alchemists' squabble was probably the real main attraction.
That argument wound down in under ten minutes, and the next Wild Match began.
"Since the cleaning golem was a quadrupedal type, I figured as much. But there are non-humanoid golems too."
"It's not that unusual. From what I know, there are even merchants doing business with carriages pulled by golem horses."
Maruka, still watching the match from Seto's back, chimed in after hearing Rei's words.
Rei was surprised, but quickly understood. Whatever pulled a carriage didn't have to be a horse. In fact, as far as he knew, there were people who used other animals or tamed monsters to pull carriages instead of horses. Even when pulled by animals or monsters other than horses, they were still called carriages—well, it was probably just a matter of convention.
(Even back in Japan, they'd call something a hundred-yen shop, but with consumption tax added it came to over a hundred yen, and they'd even stock items priced at two or three hundred yen.)
Thinking along those lines, Rei decided to ask about something from Maruka's story that had caught his attention.
"In that case, instead of having a golem pull a carriage, why not make the carriage itself a golem? That way it'd move automatically without needing any animal to pull it."
Rei had been picturing an automobile when he said it, but Maruka shook her head...
"Hey there, brother. You've got a good eye. ...But you're an amateur when it comes to alchemy, aren't you?"
Before Maruka could open her mouth, a voice suddenly called out to Rei.
He turned toward the unfamiliar voice and, sure enough, found someone he didn't recognize.
He glanced at Nicky and Maruka, wondering if the man was an acquaintance of theirs, but their eyes showed no recognition either.
Since Maruka and her group had arrived in Egginis before Rei, it wouldn't have been strange for them to have more acquaintances, but apparently that wasn't the case here.
"Who are you?"
It was Nicky who asked the man on behalf of the group. His tone carried none of the casual affection he used when revering Rei as his brother, nor the easy familiarity he showed toward Maruka. It was a tone laced with wariness.
He hadn't forgotten his role as Maruka's bodyguard.
The man who had spoken, however, showed no particular concern at Nicky's attitude.
For someone from Egginis—especially someone participating in these Wild Matches—dealing with nobles probably wasn't all that unusual.
"No, nothing. I just wanted to add a little something to what Rei said earlier."
It was obvious enough given that Rei had Seto with him, but the man clearly recognized him.
It was an odd thing, but once that was confirmed, Nicky dropped his guard. He had no doubt concluded that no one would try something like attacking Maruka in front of Rei, Bearer of the Crimson Moniker.
"So? What's this addendum? Did I say something wrong?"
"No, you didn't say anything wrong. If you're going to have a horse golem pull a carriage, it'd be better to make the carriage itself a golem. Anyone could think of that. But... then, why do you think there aren't any golems like that yet?"
Rei only knew enough about alchemy to be slightly informed thanks to his interactions with a few people, but if even he could think of it, there was no way the alchemists in Egginis who specialized in golem creation hadn't noticed the same thing.
Despite that, there were no carriage golems. Why?
When put that way, the first thing Rei thought of was...
"Would it require a lot of rare materials to make?"
"That's not wrong either. But more importantly, the difficulty is simply incomparably higher than with a normal golem."
"Is that because there are people inside?"
"That's right. Normal golems are basically just as they appear. Well, equipping them with weapons or armor makes a slight difference. But a carriage golem? Just having people inside means you have to be extremely careful about the golem's movements when operating it."
Rei didn't know all that much about golems—Magic Items aside—so he could only nod and accept the explanation.
"Besides, a carriage naturally transports people and cargo, but the number of passengers isn't the same every time, and the same goes for the amount of cargo."
"Well, that's true."
The number of people was one thing, but when it came to cargo, merchants would be transporting different goods each time, so some variation was only natural. Nobles might not see as much fluctuation, but it wouldn't be unusual for them to transport something for one reason or another either.
"Adjusting for all that is the hard part. To manage it, you need not only the right materials but also considerable skill from the alchemist."
"Does that mean if you had a skilled enough alchemist and the necessary materials, you could make a golem carriage?"
"If you're asking whether it's possible, then maybe... but an ordinary alchemist? No chance."
There was confidence behind those words. Being an alchemist himself, the man clearly understood that creating such a carriage with run-of-the-mill technical skill was impossible.
But unlike that man, Rei had an acquaintance in Roger. While Roger couldn't match the golems produced by the Dolan Workshop, his technical skill was still top-class within Egginis.
(Though I've already commissioned a defensive golem from him... Once I can buy golems from the Dolan Workshop, maybe I could ask them instead?)
It wasn't yet set in stone that Rei would be able to purchase golems from the Dolan Workshop. But he had ample reason to be confident. After all, he had declared his readiness to provide materials from the Crystal Dragon—an entirely unknown species of dragon.
To be precise, he didn't actually have the Crystal Dragon materials yet, so his primary bargaining chips were A-Rank Monster materials from the Forest of Magic. But there was no way an alchemist wouldn't want those materials—or so Rei reasoned.
...Knowing the alchemists in Gilm, it was only natural for him to think that way. Every time he brought in wood felled from the Treant Forest, they would pester him about whether he had any rare materials or rare Magic Items.
And Roger, whom he had met in Egginis, had attacked the moment he spotted Seto, casting aside all appearances to try to either subjugate him or kill him for materials. ...As it turned out, every last one of those attackers had been taken down, though.
"Well, making the carriage itself a golem was just something that occurred to me off the top of my head. If it's impossible, it's impossible."
In truth, Rei didn't want one that badly. If it were realized, it might revolutionize logistics, but Rei himself primarily traveled on Seto rather than by carriage. Given that, even if carriages became golems, it wouldn't make much difference to him personally.
He didn't entirely dismiss the idea that one might be necessary for party travel, but with the Seto Basket available, it wasn't absolutely necessary.
...Of course, he also thought that storing a golem carriage in his Misty Ring as a contingency would give it some practical use.
"Is that so? Well, if there's some kind of technological breakthrough, it might become possible to make the sort of golem carriage you described. You can look forward to that day."
"Yeah. I'll look forward to seeing a golem like that someday."
After replying to the man, Rei turned his gaze back to the Wild Match venue.
The animal-type golem match from earlier had already ended, and what stepped out next was a golem about three meters tall. It was roughly the same size as the golem that had been fighting when Rei first arrived, but its movements were somewhat smoother.
Smoother, yes, but... it was destroyed in a single blow from the opposing golem's club.
"Hey, one hit... Isn't that way too fragile?"
"It's a Satalukarno Workshop golem. Can't be helped."
The alchemist who had explained about carriage golems responded to Rei's impression with that remark. What do you mean? Rei's questioning gaze prompted the man to speak with a somewhat smug air.
"Satalukarno Workshop's golems are developed with the goal of moving freely like humans. But due to design issues—or rather, technical limitations—they inevitably end up fragile."
Rei wondered, Isn't that fundamentally problematic for a golem? but then reminded himself that this place served both as a golem exhibition and a venue for testing golem performance.
"So you're saying you verify the performance of golems that can move like humans here. Still, being incapacitated from a single hit raises some questions. Actually, if it can move like a human, I don't think getting punched once should be enough to take it out."
That was Rei's genuine question. Even for a human, getting knocked unconscious from a single hit wasn't impossible, but it wasn't all that common either. Of course, if someone skilled like Rei or Nicky hit an ordinary person, that would be a different story. But generally speaking, if someone of comparable skill hit you once, you'd feel pain, but being knocked out cold from just that was hard to imagine. Unless it hit a particularly bad spot, that is.
Yet the golem in Rei's line of sight had collapsed from a single blow and couldn't get back up. Seeing that demonstrated just how fragile it was, despite its human-like movements.
Rei had some interest in the human-like motion, but something this fragile didn't inspire any desire to purchase it.
"By the way, I've only just arrived in Egginis, so I don't know much about alchemist workshops yet. Do workshops not form technical partnerships with each other? That golem aiming for human-like movement—was it from Satalukarno Workshop? It seems like if they partnered with another workshop to cover the techniques they lack, they could solve the problem."
"There are some workshops that are proactive about that, but Satalukarno Workshop is insular. Being able to move golems like humans is a major technological achievement for an alchemist who creates them. Given that, it's not hard to understand why they wouldn't want to spread their techniques."
The one who raised a question in response to the alchemist's words was Maruka. Perhaps something didn't sit right with her; she spoke with a puzzled look in her eyes.
"But does this Satalukarno Workshop not sell golems as well? If so, would purchasing one of their golems not naturally yield the techniques they use?"
"Every workshop is thorough about that. The critical technology is magically sealed so it can't be easily unraveled."
"I see."
Hearing those words, Rei was reminded of a news story he had seen back in Japan—a country that had purchased a U.S. military weapon, forcibly cracked open the black-boxed portion, and ended up breaking the weapon entirely, embarrassing itself on a global stage.
The same sort of thing is probably happening in this world too, Rei thought, an expression of understanding settling over his face.