Death, Devotion, Dissonance

<Just means that your king isn't so holy and benevolent as he might seem,> the Voice seemed to shrug.

<No, that can't be. Wasn't the king the one who captured him and then executed Heim Morton in the first place?>

<That's just what the public sees. Naturally, the king should have done many things that couldn't be seen by normal people, one of them having relations to Morton... But I am curious as to why the Academy would reveal the previous king's secrets here.>

<But why would there be any advantage to having relations with a man like Morton?>

The Voice sighed loudly in Evin's head, before replying. <Tell me you're not actually serious.>

Evin didn't understand what the Voice was so confused about. <He was scum beyond saving!>

<You're right on that, but you should also remember that his inhumane research was indeed helpful in solving many secrets of the human body. I'm not condoning what he did, but I can still see that he was abnormally useful. The late king should've also seen that and wanted to use the man for himself.>

<But…>

<And it's really not the time to be discussing this, as we have a Laboratory to conquer. From what we saw, this was just a crippled version of his golems, so we should expect to meet stronger enemies now.>

Things didn't really sit well with Evin, but there wasn't much he could do about it, so he continued. When he exited the room, he was met with a long corridor that had had a door at the right-hand side and also at the end. The latter seemed to be locked, so Evin could only go through the first.

When he approached it, he heard eerie sounds of metal screeching, so he definitely knew that there was an enemy behind it.

He opened the door with a bang, and saw a hunched metallic figure with glaring red eyes turn towards him. The golem was made in the shape of a rat, and its behavior reminded Evin a lot of the mana-beasts he slew the other day. The only problem was that this one was a made of metal, making it impossible for Evin to kill it instantly.

<Make sure you focus on dodging!> the Voice reminded and concentrated its attacks on the golem.

Its warnings weren't really necessary, as Evin was trying his best to dodge the metal creature's attacks. Compared to the previous golem, this one's movements were much quicker and more unpredictable. It wasn't at the level of actual rats, as its body was still made of metal, but it was definitely successful in invoking the same… feel as a live rat.

The way it struggled even with an invisible hammer constantly attacking its neck was definitely not a pleasant experience to see. The more the Voice attacked, the louder its claws scratched at the floor and the more it tried to reach Evin.

Seeing it so desperately trying to stick its metal fangs into his body, naturally, Evin focused his best to evade it. Even if Evin had his cheek healed when he was at the Infirmary, he still felt chilling pain when he thought about the rat that made a mess of his face. He definitely didn't want this one to do the same.

But thankfully, the Voice was diligent in shoving the rat away when it got too close, making the process much easier for Evin. But it was true that the hammer wasn't doing much damage. Compared the more delicate design last time, this one was much bulkier. Even if the Voice lodged the hammer in one of the gaps in its joints and tried to pry open the thing, it was still standing strong.

<This is taking too long, so I'm gonna try some other methods!>

The Voice then created a body of water and had it enter the rat's body through the small gaps. <I'm still in control of the World energies! This should work!> the Voice said and began freezing the water.

Evin observed as the giant metal rat finally stopped moving, leading to various cracking sounds came from inside it. The water freezing made its body expand a bit, before the Voice completely engulfed it with ice. Finally, the red glow in its eyes died out.

<That was fucking hard… I should've guessed earlier that this one was a much earlier version of the golem we just faced. I guess they didn't add the feature of repelling World energies inside its body yet.>

Then, the clicking sound came, and a tile in the wall revealed a few pieces of paper inside it.

[Finally, the Morton Golem, Type 1 is finished! After countless hours of research and experiments, finally, I was able to create a golem piloted by an animal! Who knew how simple the solution to all the problems of having a living being control something inorganic was?

I've experimented on countless animals famous for their intelligence, trying my best to create a body that practically mimicked the original for them, even succeeding to create some artificial organs through the use of Evolutionary Essence, but all of them ended up as glaring failures.

The answer was, simply, to use the brain functioning brain of a mana-beast. It's truly embarrassing that I haven't thought of it sooner. Of course the accursed mana that defies every bit of scientific logic would be the solution to this problem as well… The Northerners calling mana an 'all-purpose force of nature' does have some truth to it, after all. Maybe I should also relent to accepting its apparent omnipotence.

Now I have to solve the problem of it being impossible to control, so the previous experiments should help out tremendously. The countless hours I've spent on research wasn't in vain.]

Next to these notes was a key and a set of instructions that described Morton's process of creating the golem… which seemed to be missing some pages at the end of it.

<These instructions look very similar to the research on soul-swapping we found in the Temple… They should've been made by Morton,> the Voice sounded excited. <But damn… Are they actually serious about letting us see these things? They couldn't have created a bunch of fake research documents to just set the mood, right? … No, these things are too clean to be fake.>

<Why would they allow for students to see these things? This doesn't feel normal,> Evin felt worried.

<I know, right? The only thing I can think of is that they're trying to get you guys more knowledgeable about the kingdom's dark history? Maybe they want to see how the students react after they take off their fancy clothes to reveal their sick and bony bodies?>

With a heavy mood, Evin continued his exploration of the Labs. Contrary to his expectations, the Laboratories weren't that complicated of an area. Evin definitely expected a more maze-like structure, but things were relatively straightforward.

He explored ten more rooms in the next hour and a half, and met three Type 1-s, four Type 2-s, eight Type 3-s, and one Type 4; with each new type of the golem being an improved version of the previous one, for example, the Type 2-s solving the impossibility to control the golems that was apparent in the previous version.

But Morton's notes for the Type 3 contained a highly concerning detail in it, which greatly shook Evin's trust in king Roland.

[I don't know how the king found out about my newest experiment, but he came to me offering funding for my project. In its stead, I would have to try to create a more commercialized version of the golems I'm making.]