Lord Of Puppets
Chapter 239 – Long awaited reunion.
<<Honestly....Wow.... I still.>>
<<...>>
<<I’m repeating myself, over and over again.... And I think why.>>
<<I can’t contain in.>>
<<Ariava... She is truly here!>>
<<There was just... So much that I wanted to talk about...>>
<<And so, they were.>>
"By the way, if it possible, can we explore this section of the dungeon later on? I want really to see what you are doing here." – asked Ariva as the duo arrived at the core room, which the demoness instantly noticed to be noticeable bigger compare to the last time she came in here.
["No problem."] – written Thauma on the piece of paper.
"Thank you." – replied Ariva.
"However, before we do the whole exploration, how about we first talk?" – said Ariva as she used her own blood to form a chair for herself and Porai, which then Ariva used to sit on and also gave the woman next to her to also sit.
"Talk."
"I mean, we just came here and shit."
"And we haven’t seen each for many years and what not."
"And from what I’ve heard you had been making quiet commotion."
["Honestly, I also wanted to talk with you as soon as possible."] – replied Thauma.
"Great! So, our plans aligned!" – said Ariva with a smile.
– said Ariva before the duo could start exploring the dungeon private section.
"Well then, let’s start off with something simple."
"Is this your new body?"
["Yes. But this isn’t meant for combat, only for work."]
"Huh... So, you have like what? One combat body and one worker body?" – asked Ariva.
["Yes. And I also change parts based on what I’m doing."]
"Interesting." – said Ariva.
"...By the way, I know you have a LOT of questions yourself Porai."
"..."
"Was it that obvious?" – asked Porai.
"Woman. You were smiling way too much." – said Ariva with straight face.
"Oh... Sorry." – replied Porai.
"Don’t be." – replied Ariva.
"You will get your own answers you seek, just as I promised to explain everything to you after we had gotten in the dungeon."
"So, how about your first question?"
"..."
"Okay." – said Porai.
"Your name is... Thauma, correct?"
"And... You are really a golem?"
"Like a golem ’GOLEM’, right? Not some being that is just controlling this body?"
<<That woman.... Vampire.>>
<<Honestly, I don’t really trust her.... But then again.... I can trust Ariva.>>
<<So, I’ve decided to trust the woman and answered her question.>>
<<She was curios what I was.>>
<<Was I truly a golem?>>
<<I’ve explained to her what I was.>>
<<A [Golem Noble].>>
<<I’ve explained in detail what I’m and how I really works.>>
<<As well as pointed the main differences between me and regular golems.>>
<<And... As I’ve answered more questions.... She.... Started reacting.... Weirdly?>>
"H-how?" – asked Porai as she covered her mouth with her hand.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait."
"You can posses a class!? AND SKILLS!?"
"How?!"
"It shouldn’t be physically possible for you to do it!"
"Not only that, you have full control over your body!?"
"You can change your body bit by bit, transforming your being into new body and you don’t even needs engravement coding for any of this?!"
"Is this.... This shouldn’t be possible... And yet..."
"It is his race." – said Ariva.
"I was also completely caught off guard when I was examining Thauma for the first time."
"However, Thama’s very being, his ’essence’ is mystery to me, even to this day."
"He maybe the only one in the world in this world.
"There may had been other golem dungeons out there."
"Maybe he isn’t the only one in the world like this, maybe he is? Who knows!"
"Either, way, as the fellow golem researcher like him, you must understand how special of a being he is."
"Yeah... He is indeed... Special." – said Porai.
(A golem which not only has ability to change its body, but also posses’ ability to grown its own being?!) – thought excited Porai.
(And all his skills, all his abilities are kept whenever he changes bodies?!)
"..."
(No.... This isn’t the most interesting path.)
(An ability to "think".)
(This thing... It can adapt, change... Evolve.)
(Not only that, it called this body the "work" body, right? It also said that it has the combat body.)
(Replace body parts and what not, if not entire body.)
(...)
(What if you could mass produce the same beings as this "Thauma"?)
(An army of golems that posse’s ability to evolve without limit.)
"Anyway, Thauma, your turn next." – said Arvia.
"Let’s us continue asking each other questions like this."
"Each side can ask each person other any question."
"This includes me and her as well."
"..."
["I really have many questions myself."]
["However, I have one question I wanted to ask first no matter what."]
["Who is that vampire?"]
["I know she is with you and I can trust you."]
["But I was recently attacked by the army of soldiers who were led by the vampires, a group known as Crow Watchers."]
"So... You are thinking if she is enemy, right?" – said Ariva.
"Hm... Well, yes."
"She even originally came here, aiming to enslave you."
"!?"
"What the fuck woman!?" – asked alarmed Porai.
"..."
"Ah! Don’t worry! She won’t do anything. I’ve already dealt with her." – said Ariva as Thauma was about to write something.
"She won’t even dare to lay a finger on you without my say so."
"So don’t worry. She is no longer an enemy."
"You can trust me on that."
"..."
["Fine."]
"Well then, my turn now." – said Ariva.
"Tell me Thauma."
"Did you decided on the path of peace? Or a path of war?"
"I know this is heavy question."
"However, it is also for the best if we deal with this most important question first."
"..."
["I’ve tried obtaining peace with the outside world. But they left me with one choice."]
["Enslavement."]
["They wanted to enslave me or exterminate me."]
["When I said no. They attacked me."]
["I’ve tried.... But by the looks of things, it was impossible."]
"Hm... Noticed that." – said Ariva.
"The commotion you had been making was somewhat.... Silent before, like I’ve never heard anything about you when this whole empire established while I was away."
"Interesting.... May you tell us in details what happened?" – asked Arvia as Thauma began describing in the details the talk it had with the guild master, her assassination, the talk with the being calling himself ’Y’ and the Crow Watchers attack.
"...And you think that the whole incident was set up and what not, the assassination was means of fooling you, since you confirmed that the adventurers gave willingly from their own free will the information, supporting the Crow Watchers and all other stuff." – said Ariva.
"Huh.... Explain." – said Arvia as she turned towards Porai.
"Wait, I have to do the explaining?!" – asked Porai as she looked extremely confused and nervous.
"Well, yes." – replied Ariva.
"I mean, you were once working with them few days ago until I kidnapped you."
"At least you freaking finally admitted to kidnapping!" – said Porai.
"..."
"Well... I think.... There may had been misunderstanding." – said Porai as she didn’t knew if she should say anything.... But at the same time, she was scared of Ariava.
"Quick question."
"How much do you know?" – asked Porai as she turned towards Ariva.
"Pretty much everything, from the top to bottom."
"Who runs partially this empire and what not."
"And what role YOU played in its birth."
"..."
"But, please do tell everything, since Thauma here probably isn’t aware of anything."
"..."
"Fine." – said Porai with defeated look.
"Well, first things first."
"From the way you were speaking, it seems you are already aware of the empire, yes?"
"The empire of Gorijy, or more exactly the empire of Gorijy struck a deal with us."
"Well, not me technically, I’m hired and what not."
"Look. This story is extremely long and what not."
"But I think it will be the best if for now I just say the nutshell version of it, okay?"
"So.... Yeah... First thing first."
"The king of Gorijy, Gustav Warmin The Third, made the deal with vampires."
"Why he made a deal?"
"Well... He was scared."
"And for many good reasons
"Gustav.... Well, let’s just say he was scared."
"To be more exactly, he was aware of all the chaos that was happening on this part of this continent."
"Chaos after chaos."
"He was scared that his kingdom would be soon struck by the same chaos."
"But so far everything was.... Well, peaceful per say."
"The chaos was still not like large scale disaster that he needed to do something extremely big to stop."
"..."
"However, everything changed ever since the kingdom of Garmfon and kingdom of Marok entered the war."
"Well... Even I, who was really not interested in that bullshit conflict couldn’t really not notice it."
"Their war was just only a start."
"Then came rebellion, and another war between nations, fallowed up with another war with elves once again."
"To make matters worse, the people working for that kingdom Gustav informed his king about other kingdoms plans to start off their other wars."
"In other words.... This part of continent may end up being swallowed by the series of non-stopping war which could last for years if not decades."
"Pretty much, that first war that I’ve had mentioned straight up caused a snowball effect to occur."
"Madness, war and what not would keep popping up nonstop."
"And it wasn’t some kind of paranoia or something like that."
"Nope."
"It was pure reality."
"And king Gustav realized the truth."
"It was stupid truth, but it was unfortunately the reality."
"However, he was not having any of it."
"Simple put, he wanted to end the whole thing in one go."
"He wanted to destroy the whole snowball before it could become too big to stop."
"However, even if he somehow ended the next upcoming war, the shit could happened again and again."
"So.... What is the only way to stop it?"
"Simply put, take control."
"Become powerful enough to scare the foes and conquer those who dare to give into the greed."
"And here where vampires comes in."
"They wanted to have.... Well, some authority, control and perfect access to the blood."
"Simple put, they wanted to have some authority while also obtaining all the benefits.
"And both of these sides?"
"Well, let’s just say that there was a good way to make sure that both sides will win."
"I don’t know who really made contact with who first, since I wasn’t around the talks were happening."
"Not only that, there is still a lot of details I don’t know from both sides, so my own information is limited."
"Hm? But aren’t you with them?" – asked Ariva.
"I’m just HIRED by them."
"And at the same I’m using them."
"Again, I wasn’t originally the part of the group of vampires that were doing the talk with the king."
"I didn’t really cared about some things, so I just focused on my work, meaning I didn’t went into extremely in-depth research regarding both sides."
"But I think I do know most of important bits."
"Anyway, back to the story."
"All I know is as the chaos in this part of this continent continued to nonstop grow while other nations were getting more and more prepared to start off their own wars.... The king of Gorjy was growing more and more worried, realizing that he may truly never be able to bring the peace alone."
"And after discussing it for a long time, the decision was finally made."
"They struck the deal."
"The deal was like this."
"The empire will be born and the vampires will obtain all the ’benefits’."
"Food, blood and what not."
"Simple put, they help him, and in turn they will obtain the fruits of their labor."
"The stronger the empire is, the more room to grow vampires will have while also straight up suffocating from benefits."
"It was an.... Well, simple put, a deal that benefited both sides fully, making.... Well, in the nutshell, a perfect deal."
"Everybody is happy as long as the empire is around."
"Both of these factions are using the empire for their own ’benefits’."
"And so far?"
"It.... Well, no new war has been happening around us."
"It was peaceful."
"The chaos somewhat stopped for now."
"The empire was truly doing it work."
"Just as the king and vampires predicted it would."
"They became obstacle in every bodies way."
"I’ve met that king once face to face... And I got to say."
"He knows what he is doing and he knows what sort of beings vampires are."
"But at the same, he isn’t like an extremely greedy person nor anything corrupted."
"He is like.... A good person that will do anything to do good, while at the same being willing to get his own hands dirty if necessary."
"So.... Yeah..."
"This empire may had been born extremely quickly via countless number of deaths soaking the lands."
"But even so, this blood made empire had truly shattered the snowball effect, brining the stop to the sudden surge of chaos that started developing this part of continent.
"However.... However, however, however, however!"
"Even though this new and powerful empire was born, that doesn’t mean that the other nations are still not scheming anything."
"Not only that, this empire was born extremely recently."
"Meaning that its military strength is still not powerful enough to handle the entire territory it now possess."
"True, it may possess some powerful army in case of war, but they still need to have a lot of soldiers not only in the empire itself to deal with some random problems, but also they need a lot of soldiers on the stand who can be deployed for different form of situation, for example being deployed to support the main army and what not."
"The empire was born quickly, but it is nowhere near solid enough to be really called empire, from my point of view."
"And both the king and vampire know it."
"If they don’t do anything soon, the empire will be pretty much destroyed as it just gotten born."
"The empire needs to get stronger by any means necessary before another war breaks out."
"However, the vampires contacted me before the whole war between several nations happened."
"They.... Made with me a benefaction deal that worked for me and them."
"I like, making stuff."
"And by working for the empire, I would obtain not only possible interesting stuff to research, but I would also obtain the funds for my own research as well as materials."
"In turn, they wanted me in turn to produce golems while also teaching other people about golemancy."
"Simple put, they wanted to make up for the lack of their numbers with manmade soldiers."
"A golems."
"And.... Well, not to brag."
"But-"
"If it wasn’t for her, the empire would had never been born." – said Ariva.
"It is not really bragging when it is just pure reality."
"If they didn’t recruited you, the vampires would had no choice but to reveal themselves from the get go."
"And the vampires are seen by many as monsters, so the moment a large number of vampires would suddenly appear like this, aiding a random ass kingdom, obviously it would make things beyond complicated."
"It would be good if the vampires slowly start revealing themselves after the empire solidified, since it would make things easier."
"But from the get go?"
"Heck no."
"It would be straight up putting everything into fire."
"So it is not overstatement or anything."
"Just truth."
"If it wasn’t for her, the vampires would never be able to help out in construction of the empire."
"And right now, the only way for the empire to grow strong enough is to use you and your golem making skills."
"....Yes..." – said Porai.
"They benefited from me big time, while at the same time I also benefited from them big time." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
"A mutual relationship where we both exploited each other for our own benefits."
"A friendly partnership, you may even call it."
"The after the empire has been established, a golem factories had been established and more are plan to be made."
"They plan on forging their own army."
"They wanted to produce large number of golems, which could help out in solidifying the empire, while at the same time preparing for any possible war that could occur at the moment notice."
"Army of golems."
"Simple plan."
"But extremely effective one that could truly deal with one of their main concern that threaten the life of the empire."
"They are obviously doing all sort of other things to solidify the empire and increase their military strength, so it is not just golems."
"However, having these ’soldiers’ be on their side, a numbers, will definitely be necessary for their plans."
"..."
"And that is where you came in." – said Poriv as she looked directly at Thauma.
"You had caught the attention of the empire itself."