After returning briefly to Hourai Island, Jin was talking with Laojun. There was something he had remembered.
"There was that guy called the 'masked man' before, right? What ever happened to him?"
The "masked man" was a figure who had apparently been the mastermind behind the Revolutionary Party in the Melkana Principality—or rather, the Autonomous Region.
Or more precisely, judging from the circumstances, it was suspected that he might be an automata.
"Yes, My Lord. Since then, he has not shown himself even once."
If he did not show himself, even Laojun could not track his movements.
"I see. Nothing we can do about it then."
It was a concern, but if he wasn't interfering with them, they had no choice but to leave it alone.
Even so, he would have Laojun continue to stay vigilant.
"Other than that, since things have come to this, should we seriously search for Try and wake it up...?"
"I believe that is a viable option."
Laojun agreed.
"Since it is likely a golem belonging to the invasion faction, there is a possibility it will not listen to what we have to say."
"Hmm... Ah, what if we ask Marikka to help?"
"Even then, a risk remains."
"Does that mean it might not obey Marikka?"
"Yes, My Lord. The probability of it obeying Marikka-san is roughly sixty percent."
"So it comes down to that..."
Since it was likely a golem of the invasion faction, the chances of it obeying the Northern People—who were descendants of the radical faction—were somewhat low.
If that was the case, Jin thought it might be dangerous to have Marikka meet it right away.
"Still, wouldn't it be a good idea just to locate it first?"
"That is certainly true."
"Oh, right. How about taking it to Planet Hehl?"
"You mean having the Elder inspect it?"
"Yeah. If Try wants to, that is."
Laojun stated that the probability of that was over sixty percent.
In the end...
"That means we will proceed flexibly while taking all conceivable possibilities into account, does it not?"
"That's our only option."
Because it was a golem created by the Origin Clan, its behavior was difficult to predict with complete certainty. In other words, unknown variables remained.
"...Then, shall we proceed along those lines?"
"Yeah. Go ahead."
"Understood."
Now that official instructions had been given by Jin, Laojun activated the Peeper.
Since the approximate location was known to be within the Jagus Principality, it was expected that using the Peeper would allow them to find it in short order.
"First, the foot of Nameless Peak, is it...?"
It was the location where Laojun had focused its suspicions.
"As for the surrounding area... hm, there is nothing."
The vicinity was an unbroken expanse of wasteland.
However, thanks to the recent rains, a sparse layer of grass had begun to sprout.
"Mine ruins... There are traces of backfilling."
Laojun probed underground in that area.
"This is... a ruin of the Origin Clan."
Although called a ruin, it was a simple structure, and Laojun judged that it seemed to be something like a temporary collection depot.
"They likely made effective use of the hollowed-out space left behind after mining underground resources."
Then, investigating the roughly ten mine shafts one by one...
"Here it is."
In the fourth shaft, it found the objective.
It was almost directly on the Equator of the Jagus Principality.
At the foot of Nameless Peak: west longitude 170 degrees, latitude 0 degrees.
Deep within the mine shaft, the four-armed, deformed golem Try lay sleeping.
"It shares the same external design as Mono, Ji, and Teto, who are sleeping near Lake Aoba in New El."
At this point, Laojun reported the finding to Jin. Before long, Jin arrived at the command room.
"Good work, Laojun. You found it already?"
"Yes, My Lord. We had a general idea of the location from the start."
"Yeah. Even so, that was fast....Oh, this is it? It really is bizarrely built, after all..."
Projected on the magi-monitor before Jin was the deformed golem believed to be Try.
"Looks like it hasn't moved in quite a while."
The thick layer of accumulated dust made that obvious.
"Yes, My Lord. It appears roughly a hundred years have passed."
"Excavating and repairing this... huh. It might be better not to bring it to Hourai Island, right?"
"I believe so. It would be preferable to have the Doppel handle the work on-site."
"Hmm, you really think there's danger, don't you?"
"Yes. Furthermore, we do not know whether the atmosphere inside is breathable."
"That's true too. It's a shame, but it can't be helped."
Jin had wanted to touch and repair it directly with his own hands rather than using Jin D.
"Yes, My Lord."
"Should we send four Lands and four Smiths along with Jin D?...Make sure to calibrate the transporter as well."
The transporter was a magi-device used for self-teleportation.
Developed by referencing Warp Gate technology and the Teleportation utilized by the Northern People, it was capable of short-range spatial transit across a distance of several kilometers.
As a contingency for emergency escapes, every member of the Hourai Island forces had one built in.
Because spatial destination coordinates via Teleportation lacked pinpoint precision, they decided to deploy a marker to calibrate the coordinates so all nine units would arrive inside the same aircraft.
"Pelican 1 should suffice."
The Pelican was a transport aircraft built by Jin four hundred years ago. It seated twenty people and had a maximum speed of three hundred kilometers per hour.
Because it was also equipped with a Warp Gate, it could return to Hourai Island in an instant.
On Hourai Island, it was 4:00 PM on September 2; local time at the destination was 4:40 AM.
"Alright, all set."
Jin D, Lands 11 through 14, and Smiths 1 through 4 completed their preparations.
"Then, teleporting now."
Using the transporter—a Warp Gate that required no receiving gate at the target site—Laojun sent the nine units straight into the ruins.
There was more than enough room inside the ruins to accommodate them all.
"...So this is the interior."
Jin D looked around his surroundings. With his built-in infrared night vision, he could see clearly even in pitch-black darkness.
"Light."
Even so, since finer details could not be discerned through infrared alone, he cast a spell to produce visible light.
"Hmm..."
The interior of the ruins was illuminated clearly.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were leveled and smooth, hardly resembling the crude interior of a mine shaft.
While the floor was obscured under a thick layer of dust, the walls and ceiling were constructed from a whitish material.
What appeared to be the entrance was completely blocked off by a massive boulder. Seeing this, Jin thought through Jin D that no ordinary human would ever suspect there was an open space worth investigating beyond it.
And as for the golem that was their objective...
"Ohh, this is it..."
Headless, with four arms. Standing roughly two meters tall. Its exterior was forged from solid adamantite.
"Yeah, there's no doubt about it. This is a golem crafted by the Origin Clan."
The golem believed to be Try lay silently on the stone floor.