On the same day Deus Ex Machina was giving his tour of Arcadia, Jin was hard at work back in Avalon, engrossed in his research on three-dimensional magic circles.
After lunch, the other members of Go-lab had left for consultations with the Aviation Research Lab, leaving the work to the three of them once again.
Even so, whenever the trio pooled their efforts, the results were impressive.
"I think we're just about done."
"Yeah. Working with you really makes things fly by, Jin!"
"No, it's thanks to Kachea's insight."
Jin praised Kachea, knowing her mathematical sense made all the difference—something pure knowledge and experience alone could never achieve.
"N-No, that's not true at all."
"It's entirely true."
At the same time, Jin couldn't help but notice that letting Kachea's talents be consumed by routine paperwork was a dreadful waste.
(She really needs a golem or an automata to take most of that clerical work off her hands...)
An office machine that could tally data might suffice, but Jin suspected the research geeks around here wouldn't even bother entering the numbers in the first place.
(In the long run, it would make their own research so much easier, though...)
Still, Jin was hardly in a position to lecture anyone about diligence, so he kept the thought to himself. He had a bad habit of procrastinating on administrative chores as well.
Be that as it may, he returned to the core issue: letting Kachea's potential go to waste was simply unacceptable.
(This is probably a project Go-lab should take on...)
While he was lost in thought, Eira called out to him.
"Jin, what's wrong? Getting tired?"
"No, that's not it. Actually..."
Jin explained that he wanted to lighten Kachea's workload. Eira readily agreed with the idea.
"Yeah, I'm with you on that."
"In that case, let me ask: are there any half-finished golems lying around Go-lab?"
Or perhaps some standard golem parts, Jin added.
"Hmm, well... yes and no."
A rather noncommittal answer came back from Eira.
"Which is it?" Jin retorted.
"What I mean is, we have about four prototypes that didn't pan out. Kachea told us to leave them alone as they were."
"Oh...?"
Wondering what the reason was, Jin looked over at Kachea.
"U-Um, well... we couldn't finish them with our current technology, but I thought we might be able to down the road. It seemed like a shame to scrap prototypes we'd spent so much time and effort on and turn them back into raw materials."
That was a reasonable enough point.
"Since coming here, we haven't been short on supplies, so I figured we might as well prioritize new development."
She added that dismantling them or reverting them to raw materials took time and effort, so she felt it was best not to break momentum when development was going well.
"You really have a knack for management, Kachea."
"I-I do?"
"Yeah. So..."
Jin asked if he could see the half-finished golems.
"Good idea! With you around, Jin, we might actually be able to finish them!"
With that, Jin was taken to inspect the four abandoned prototypes.
"This is..."
One of them was truly half-finished, consisting of nothing more than a bare frame.
Its joint mechanisms were completely inconsistent—some were ball-joint style, while others were Adriana-style.
The second one was wildly unbalanced.
"We concentrated all the power into the upper body and treated the lower body strictly for movement... but it was a total failure."
"Well, naturally..."
Even humans couldn't exert full strength without a solid foundation. Balance was everything.
The third was an early ball-joint style build.
"It was abandoned once we realized the Adriana-style was better."
As for the last one, even Jin couldn't make heads or tails of what it was supposed to be.
"Ah, that one's kind of a prototype of a prototype. Everyone just tinkered with it to test out random ideas."
"So that's why it's like this."
The right elbow was ball-joint style, the wrist was Adriana-style, and the left elbow was an antiquated hinge from before ball joints were ever introduced.
The legs weren't even the same length, and the materials were an utter patchwork.
"Hmm..."
"Which one are you going to use, Jin? The third one after all?"
"I'd suggest that one too. It's quite unfinished, but it seems the most adaptable."
Jin pondered the choice while Eira and Kachea both pushed for the third.
However, Jin gave a decisive answer.
"Let's go with the last one."
"Huh?! Are you serious, Jin?"
"That's going to take so much extra work, you know."
Both Eira and Kachea voiced their doubts, but Jin remained entirely unperturbed.
"From what I can see, it uses the most material. It'd be a waste not to use it. Besides, if we don't fix it up now, no one will ever bother repurposing it later. And that... would just be sad."
With that, Jin had Reiko assist him as they laid the chaotic golem flat on the workbench.
"First, let's take it apart a bit."
Even Jin had no intention of restoring it in a state so disorganized that "incoherent" was the only suitable word for it.
He decided to strip it down to the skeleton first.
"Reiko, give me a hand."
"Yes, Father."
Work like this always went quickest when coordinated with Reiko.
In just four minutes, the chaotic golem was completely dismantled down to its frame.
"S-So fast... as always."
"Hehe. If everyone worked like Jin-san, reverting things to raw materials wouldn't be any trouble at all."
Eira looked on in awe, while Kachea smiled happily.
"Alright, here's where the real work begins. The skeleton is made of steel."
Realizing it would lack durability in its current state, Jin glanced around the room.
"Kachea, do we have any nickel?"
"We do. You're going to make 5.5 nickel steel, right?"
Kachea replied, fetching an ingot of nickel from the storage shelf.
The 5.5 nickel steel that Jin frequently used for relatively inexpensive golems contained 5.5 percent nickel, just as the name implied, giving it exceptional toughness.
On top of that, its performance in low temperatures was significantly improved.
A brittle frame would be far too fragile to work with, which was why Jin preferred this alloy.
"Alright, with this..."
"Jin really is something else when he gets down to business."
"He really is."
With Eira and Kachea watching in admiration, Jin briskly set to work.