Chapter 99
“H-huuuh..!!”
So what weapon would Galahad Grandpa use!
“W-what did you say it was called again? A flail?”
“Kwahaha! A flail, you mean!”
“Oh, right.”
A flail is a blunt weapon with the head and handle linked by a chain. A regular mace is just a mace in English, while the chain-linked weapon is called a flail.
But since it's not all that different from a mace, it's fine to just call it a mace. The head looks just like an eight-pronged medieval mace, after all.
“Ugh!! It's too heavy!!”
“You probably wouldn't be able to lift it, Princess. The head alone weighs 40 kg.”
Of course, I used to haul around 40 kg boxes of drinks all the time. The muscles I built working part-time at a convenience store are all gone now, so I can't lift that at all anymore....
It seems to be a somewhat lightweight alloy, so maybe it weighs less than its size suggests? Still, it's heavy all the same.
Considering that a normal mace only weighs about 2 kg despite the image people have of it being heavy, this one is almost twenty times heavier.
Since I also wanted to check out Galahad Grandpa's finished weapon, and we'd also finished a little of the new rare-metal alloy ingot for Minyum using the perfected upgrade recipe, too.
“T-this is..!”
ㅡKa-chak!
The metal blend formula Galahad Grandpa had agonized over for three days and three nights, the one that suits Minyum best.
It's fairly bulky and weighs about 50 kg. There still isn't enough to replace Minyum's whole body yet, but even that much is amazing!
“Ophelia, we can do it now, right..?!“
“Yes, that's correct.”
“Minyum's ready too!!!?”
Minyum, who had been standing nearby with maximum anticipation, flinched in surprise at my voice.
ㅡKa-chak..!
Minyum gave a serious double thumbs-up, completely different from before. It must be a little tense too, come to think of it. Of course it would—at first it had been an aluminum beer can, and it had even gone through the plastic of a hair dryer.
After we put in an old jet engine stripped from one of Oseong Group's old fighter jets, there was still plenty of ordinary metal left. Come to think of it, Minyum probably worked the most after Ophelia; having arms and legs, it even helped move boxes when we were living in a one-room apartment.
“Come here!”
ㅡKa-chak!
After nodding, Minyum slowly came over to me and knelt on one knee. Galahad Grandpa is so absurdly huge he's far outside the norm, but Minyum is also enormous at 2.3 meters. Even while sitting, Minyum's eye level is about the same as mine.
“Phew, I'm nervous.”
“It's okay, Princess. If it's you, you can do it.”
“Yeah! Of course!”
“Th-then I'll do it..!”
What I want is not an addition, but a replacement. To remove the ordinary metal in the old engine, along with unnecessary things like the beer cans. Of course, even all of that together doesn't come to 30 kg, so it'll probably end up a little heavier.
“I bestow these metals here... upon Knight Minyum!”
ㅡVwooong...!
Blue mana lashed out at the metals like a whip, wrapping around the piled ingots as if snatching them up. Soon the metal, softened until it was almost liquid, shot toward the kneeling Minyum, and, as if painting Minyum's entire body, it kept swelling until it covered everything in no time.
Fwaaaap ㅡ !!
“Ho-eek.”
Bathed in the tremendous flash, Minyum was reborn as Omega Super Ultimate Super Strong Minyum. The pure white metal wrapped around Minyum gleamed as if it had just been made, and the way it moved felt somehow different.
“M-Minyum..?”
ㅡKa-chak!!
“W-whoa!!”
Minyum immediately broke into a b-boy dance to celebrate the update. It definitely moved more smoothly than before, and the b-boying speed seemed at least twice as fast. At this rate, it might even beat Usain Bolt with a moonwalk.
“You little brat, you're going to wreck the tiles.”
ㅡKa-chak….
After being scolded by Galahad Grandpa, Minyum stopped breakdancing. The tile floor was covered in scratches from Minyum rolling around. But hey, even things like this become memories, I guess!
“Wow, it looks like it didn't get a speck of dust on it.”
ㅡNod, nod
I fiddled with Minyum's thigh while it scratched its head awkwardly. As the entire outer layer was replaced with Galahad Grandpa's new metal, the metal that had been swapped out fell away too.
ㅡClang..!
“Ah.”
ㅡBeep….
The old beer cans we'd gone out to pick up with Doggy long ago popped out of its body, still all crumpled up.
“T-this is... um.”
I glanced to the side, feeling a little self-conscious because of Ophelia....
‘Gasp, an incredible expression.’
Ophelia's face looked completely flustered. For a moment, I wondered if it was because I'd gone around collecting beer cans.
“This smell!! Beer!! It's beerㅡ!!!”
“Sir Galahad! You can't!”
Galahad Grandpa, from the side, thrust his huge body forward and hurled himself at the crushed beer cans.
ㅡClatter-bang!!!
In the blink of an eye, faster than Galahad Grandpa, Ophelia's blue fiber-optic strands wrapped around the crushed beer cans, and Ophelia instantly squeezed ten flattened cans into a ball with her grip before, perfectly timed with the ventilation opening, hurling them far out beyond the factory building.
“Kraaaah!”
“Sir Galahad, that is not beer!”
“This old man's nose is sharp! I can smell even a single drop of beer from 10 km away!”
“Ho-eek.”
In truth, Galahad Grandpa was a massive drinker, a super-duper ultimate boozehound who could gulp beer down by the barrel.
‘No, why is a golem drinking alcohol..’
“In any case, no beer.”
“Think about it, Ophelia! If this body drinks beer, it can cut down on mana consumption!”
“Tch..!”
Actually, Doggy, Suri, and Ophelia can reduce the mana I spend on maintaining them by eating food. Minyum is the exception, since it meditates, but that's separate.
“But that wouldn't be good for the princess's education....”
“Princess! Is it really such a problem for this old man to drink beer!?”
“U,um.... I guess not really..?”
“Kwahah! Did you hear that, Ophelia!”
“Princess..!”
“W-well, what's the big deal... a little beer...”
“Hahaha! Come here!”
“W-whoa!!”
Galahad Grandpa was so delighted by my approval that he called me over and picked me up, rocking me around.
“Now then! My mood's soaring!”
“Ho-eek!!!”
It was that baby-tossing-and-catching thing dads do for their kids, but Galahad Grandpa was so tall and so strong that I went up so high I nearly hit the ceiling.
“Sir Galahad! The princess is going to faint!!”
“Huh?”
* * * * *
“U-ugh....”
I think I blacked out partway through. I vaguely remember seeing something in a hazy dream. Was it a dream where I fell off a cliff? I definitely heard that's a dream that means you'll grow taller.
“Princess, are you awake?”
“Ah, Ophelia. Where are we going?”
When I opened my eyes, I was in a car. Thankfully, this time we came in a Rolls-Royce instead of a truck, so I must have slept comfortably. Seeing that we'd already reached a neighborhood I recognized, it looks like quite a bit of time had passed after I fainted.
ㅡBeep!
“Huh? Ah, I'm awake. Don't worry, my body's fine.”
ㅡBeep-beep….
“Mwahaha, it was fun though.”
From the side, Ophelia's sighs kept slipping out in little bursts. I think this is the first time I've seen Ophelia sigh like that.
Because he had knocked me out, Galahad Grandpa's beer, which had originally been unlimited, was cut down to six cans a day. It was fun, but it was a bit much, right? Serves him right.
Anyway, after we got home I showered, turned on the computer and played a little, then instead of exercise today I went for a short walk with Doggy. Naturally, this brat didn't even properly get down from on top of my head.
“Sigh. Doggy, you're lying about wanting to go for a walk, aren't you.”
ㅡBeep-beep?
“See? You're pretending not to know again!”
We were walking around the Seoul city center, bright even after sunset, fooling around with Doggy. I was standing at a crosswalk to cross the road when suddenly an alarm from the phone in my long padded jacket pocket rang out.
ㅡBeep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep—
“W-woah, is it Ophelia?”
Just as I was about to pull my phone out, thinking maybe Ophelia was calling.
ㅡBeep, beep, beep, beep….
ㅡDring, dring, dring—
ㅡWee-woo wee-woo….
The phones around me all started ringing at once. This was definitely..!
“Doggy!”
ㅡBeep-beep!!
“It's a gate!?”
ㅡBeep!! Beep-beep!!
After grabbing the Doggy on my head and checking, I saw B- written on the screen. Since the hunter-exclusive phone is supposed to ring before anyone else's, and the delay wasn't that big, it must be very close by.
The difficulty is about the same level as that gate in Hangang Park back then.
I hurriedly left the area and called Ophelia.
“Ophelia! It looks like an open-type gate is going to appear nearby!”
“Princess, remain calm. How did the mana measurement turn out?”
“Doggy says it's B-minus!”
“I see. The difficulty isn't very high. For now, please summon just Suri and me, and while we keep watch, stay under our protection—”
I had been planning to do that too. But there was a problem with where the gate had appeared.
ㅡH-hey, look over there!!
ㅡKyaaaah!!!
“Uh..?”
The sound of the outer wall windows of a nearby building shattering. Through the glass, with the interior brightly lit, what I saw was a gate that had appeared on a floor above the 10th.
And before long, part of the concrete broke off, putting the people walking along the street in danger of being crushed.
Their reaction was faster than I expected, to the point that it made me feel like I wasn't the same person who used to go 1 kill and 14 deaths in FPS games.
“Galahad Grandpaㅡ!!!”
The concrete fragments seemed to fall in slow motion. Blue light poured down over the street, and in an instant a gigantic grandpa with an enormous metal shield was summoned beneath the falling concrete rubble.
ㅡKa-ba-ba-ba-boom!!!!
“H-huuuh..?”
“Kwahaha, this body makes its entranceㅡ!!”
Galahad Grandpa easily blocked the enormous slab of concrete with his shield. The monsters pouring out of the open-type gate, looking like radiation-soaked raptors, were blown apart by Grandpa's flail one after another and instantly turned into minced meat.
“Uh, uhh....”
But how am I supposed to get that grandpa back to the forge?