Jin hurriedly inspected the golem's condition.
It was a model he had never encountered before. It certainly wasn't from the lineage of Adriana Barbora Tsetse, nor did it utilize a Form Drive. It definitely wasn't a primitive magi-stone golem, either.
"This is..."
While the method was unfamiliar to Jin, that didn't mean he couldn't understand it.
"I can admire the craftsmanship later. First, I have to fix it."
As long as it was a golem, it had to have a control core. That fact didn't change, even with a new model. To Jin, a golem without a control core simply wouldn't be a golem at all.
"Decompile."
He began by extracting the data regarding its control systems.
"Hmm. The fundamentals are the same, but the fine controls have been specialized for specific tasks. I can manage an emergency repair on this."
With that decided, he set to work. Jin made expert use of spells like Joint, Fusion, Bonding, and Toughening.
"Oh!"
"Incredible!"
Voices of praise erupted from the onlookers. In roughly three minutes, the repair of the first unit was complete. Jin immediately questioned it.
"Hey, do you know where the accident occurred?"
"…YeS. I sHAll gUIdE yOu."
The voice was still distorted, but it was intelligible enough.
"Is there someone here with a boat? Please!" Jin called out.
"Right, I'll go with the golem," the Inn Owner volunteered.
"Ple... ase..."
Relieved to know someone was going to save his daughter, the father lost consciousness once more.
Jin intended to remain at the inn, but he followed them down to the shore.
"Can you give me a general direction?" he asked the golem.
"YeS. tHAt WAy. aBOUt 200 mEtErs."
"Alright."
Jin cast a Light spell in the direction the golem indicated.
"Whoa! That’s bright! Right, I’m off!"
Accompanied by the golem, the Inn Owner rowed out into the dark lake. Jin and the crowd of onlookers watched them go, shouting words of encouragement.
As the boat disappeared into the night, Jin stood on the shore, ruminating on the information he had just gathered.
(It’s less of a golem and more of a "magi-robot"...)
Adriana-style golems, much like automata, possessed skeletons that were simplified versions of human anatomy, with musculature that mirrored a person's. They were built on the philosophy of being "as human as possible."
(But that thing...)
Setting aside the somewhat cheap construction, Jin was fascinated by its mechanical structure.
(The movements were completely decoupled.)
Take wrist rotation, for example. In a human forearm—the section from the elbow to the wrist—there are two bones: the radius and the ulna. The radius connects to the wrist, and the ulna connects to the elbow joint. To put it simply, the ends opposite their connections are relatively "free," supported by ligaments, tendons, and muscle. This allows a person to "twist" their forearm using the wrist or elbow as a fulcrum.
To achieve this, muscles must be attached diagonally, allowing them to exert force not just along the length of the bone, but around its axis as well. This was the complex biological structure that Adriana-style golems and automata sought to replicate.
However, the golem Jin had just inspected used a single bone for each limb segment.
(It's like a stick figure...)
Despite the disparaging thought, Jin found himself impressed by the logic of the design. The bones were hollow pipes with a "double structure"—a pipe within a pipe. Using the arm as an example, the inner pipe handled the flexion and extension of the elbow, while the outer pipe handled the rotation of the wrist. The "muscles" for bending and those for rotating were entirely separate.
(The control commands might be more complex, but the actual movement control is much simpler to calculate.)
This was because bending and rotating were completely independent variables.
(It’s efficient, too. There’s no wasted energy.)
In humans, the diagonal attachment of muscles results in a slight loss of mechanical advantage. Furthermore, human rotational force isn't particularly strong.
(I bet that thing has a terrifying amount of torque when it "twists"...)
And yet...
(The movement is so obviously artificial...)
It lacked any semblance of humanity. One could argue that for a golem, that was perfectly fine, but it felt sterile.
(Perhaps Groma's new golems are similar.)
The golem he had attempted to analyze back in the Jagus Principality had shared some similarities with this design.
As Jin stood there lost in these technical musings, a sound pulled him back to reality. The Inn Owner had returned.
"We saved her! She was clinging to a piece of the wreckage!" he shouted.
His voice was raised specifically to reassure the worried father. By then, the man had come to and had rushed to the entrance to meet the rescue party.
"Oh... thank you, thank you so much."
On the owner's back was the daughter, her face deathly pale. When she saw her father, a faint smile touched her lips.
"The healer has arrived!" someone shouted.
A young man in a white coat approached, accompanied by an automata.
(A Nurse...)
The word almost escaped Jin’s lips. The automata was unmistakably based on the "Nurse" model he had originally designed for medical care.
Using an automata for nursing made perfect sense. They could care for the sick and injured day and night without fatigue, and they were immune to human contagion. After seeing the healer and the Nurse begin their treatment, Jin felt at ease enough to return to his room.
The next morning, as Jin and Lordtoss prepared to depart, the Inn Owner approached them.
"Thank you for your help last night."
His tone was no longer the blunt, harried bark from the emergency; he spoke with the refined politeness expected of a host addressing his guests.
"Oh, no, I didn't really do much..."
"Don't be modest. If you hadn't performed those emergency repairs on the golem, the rescue wouldn't have been in time. You're quite the humble man."
"I only did what I could," Jin replied, taking his leave.
He felt a bit bashful, but more importantly, he didn't want to create any more unnecessary ties to this era than he already had.
"The weather is clear, so let's make some good time today," Lordtoss said. "Esaia, the capital of the Celuroa Kingdom, has very tedious entry procedures, so I think we should head for Telurus."
A favorable west wind was blowing, and Lordtoss estimated they would arrive by early afternoon.
"Telurus, huh?"
It was the town on the great Torres River—the same river where Elsa's biological mother, Mine, had washed ashore after being gravely injured during the Unifilar crisis.
It was also the town where he had first met Sally the healer. Memories of the past washed over Jin, filling him with a quiet sense of nostalgia.