?

It was the day after Satellite 001’s failure, that is, August 4th. Jin was hanging out at Stearleana’s house.

“What a shame about what happened yesterday.”

“Yeah, well. It might have been a bit out of my league.”

“Haha, if you’re not good enough to make it happen, then who in this world can?”

Then, after having spent some more time on idle chat…

“Thanks for the tea.”

After putting down his empty cup, Jin decided it was time to leave Stearleana’s house.

He was planning to activate his new Magi Machine on this day.

“My Lord, the preparations for the activation of ‘Mole’ are ready.”

Laojun reported this immediately after Jin returned to the laboratory.

As of August 1st, the Inad Mine had been officially incorporated into Jin’s leasehold land. There was nothing anyone could do to prevent that anymore.

Laojun had questioned the Klein Kingdom’s decision to retire their guards right before the transfer of possession had been properly made.

“Okay, let’s start probing. We need to be very careful.”

“Yes. We also have 20 Land Units equipped with Plasma Swords standing ready just in case.”

There were many things that Jin wanted to investigate, like the mysterious device discovered beneath the Inad Mine, and the habitat of the Giant Centipedes that had come out of it during the other day’s incident.

The “Mole” was to be transferred to the position set by the Land Units upon their arrival at the scene.

The completed Mole was a huge cylinder with a diameter of 2 meters and a length of 3 meters. It was similar to the shield machines used for tunnel digging on modern Earth.

It was capable of using both the Engineering Magic spell “Dig” as well as Hyper Adamantite excavation tips.

The excavated soil and sand would be discharged to the surface using a transfer machine.

It could dig while exploring foreign substances in the ground thanks to its sonar and Magi Detector.

It was also capable of using the “Toughen” spell on the walls of the tunnels it excavated in order to prevent cave-ins.

Those were the functions available to the “Mole”.

Under Jin’s attentive watch, the Mole was transferred to its destination at 11 AM.

“Father, Elsa is calling for you. Come inside.”

“Hmm. Okay.”

The two of them entered the laboratory, and headed towards the workshop.

“Ah, Brother Jin. I’ve finished working on their exterior.”

Elsa, Jin’s protegee and top disciple, cheerfully greeted him.

There were 10 cat-shaped golems on the workshop’s big workbench. Jin had entrusted the hair transplantation process to Elsa after she had returned from her parents’ house.

Nine of them had a shiny and colorful coat of fur. One for each of the colors of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple, plus one white and one black.

“Oh, they’re so pretty.”

The last remaining one still had an aluminum exterior. It was still a prototype.

“I’ve named them Seki, Tou, Ou, Ryoku, Sei, Ai, Yukari, Haku, and Koku.”

They all seemed to have been named with words that seemed to be fashioned after Jin’s own name, and sounded very Japanese-like.

“What about this one?”

Jin asked that while pointing at the single golem cat which had yet to get his own coat of fur.

“I haven’t thought of a name for that one yet. Why don’t you name it, Brother Jin?”

“Okay, then… How about ‘Tama’?”

“Tama, huh?”

The nine coated golem cats had been made in Tama’s image. The only difference it had with the other nine was its lack of fur.

Tama would be kept on Hourai Island, but the other nine would be sent to Kaina Village so that they could roam free.

In the first place, all these golem cats were a result of Hanna’s suggestion to Jin. At first, Jin was going to make a single golem cat for her, but he then changed his mind.

“Brother Jin, why did you choose to make so many of these?”

Elsa seemed to have been wondering why for some time.

“Well, Reinhardt advised me that, as a feudal lord, one shouldn’t show signs of favoritism.”

The point was that the other children would be jealous if Hanna was the only one to get a golem cat.

“It’s different from when I was under the care of Martha’s family, but albeit tentatively, I’m a feudal lord now.”

“…That’s right. Kind of like Brother Rei.”

“That’s why I’m planning to set these little guys free in Kaina Village.”

They moved just like cats, but their intelligence was set much higher. Their bodies were made with aluminum, while adamantite was used for their claws.

Even if they were to come across a Rock Wolf or a Wood Bear, they should be able to defend themselves without any problem. Of course, they were also set to notify Laojun in case of an emergency.

They were intended to behave like friendly cats. Still…

“I think it would be nice if kids could remember the importance of life by caring for a living thing from these little guys as well.”

One of the teachings of the orphanage’s Director was that keeping small animals as pets wasn’t just for cherishing them, but to remember how precious life actually was.

The gravestone that Jin had set for his pet goldfish probably still remains in a corner of the orphanage’s garden to this day.

“Okay, ‘Startup’.”

The ten golem cats started to move all at once and began to meow. Jin immediately named each one of them.

Then…

“Tama, you stay here. The rest, come with me.”

Following Jin’s orders, Tama walked up to Elsa. When Elsa stroked its head, Tama jumped silently from the workbench and rubbed its body against Elsa’s legs.

The remaining 9 golem cats formed a line behind Jin, followed by Reiko at the very end of the line.

Using the Warp Gate, they traveled through shinkai and towards Kaina Village. The exit point was the shelter in front of Nidou Castle.

“Ah, Lord Jin, welcome back.”

Noticing Jin’s presence, Barrow rushed over to him. Jin realized that his behavior was a little off.

“Thanks, Barrow. What’s the matter? Did something happen?”

“Y-Yes. Um, it looks like we have found two seemingly lost children.”

“Lost children?”

“Yes. They’re at Dr. Sally’s clinic. I only know what I’ve learned by hearsay, so please ask the village chief if you wish to know more about this.”

“Got it.”

As Jin began to feel that trouble was on its way once again, Belle arrived also in a hurry, so he introduced the golem cats to her.

“Whoa, they’re so cute!”

“So these are the famous cats, huh?”

“Yeah. I’ll be letting them run free around the village, so try to show them some affection from time to time.”

He also added that they didn’t need food or water because they were golems, which caused both Barrow and Belle to stare at them in wonder. This was the first time they had seen a golem that resembled a small animal.

It would be more accurate to say that there had never been a small animal golem in that world before, so their surprise was understandable.

“They don’t even look artificial…”

The yellow golem cat approached Belle and crouched at her feet. She reached out and caressed its body. Its fur was made from Ground Spider silk, which was more supple than regular silk, and stronger than steel.

“It feels so nice to touch…”

Leaving Ou with her, Jin started walking forward.

“Alright, let’s go take a look.”

Now Jin had only 8 cats following him.

“Ah, it’s big brother Jin!”

“Oh, what are those?”

The children approached Jin the moment they noticed he was there.

“These are golem cats. I’ll let them wander around the village, so please show them some affection.”

“Golem… cats?”

Patty, one of the children, picked up the blue “Sei”, who then promptly curled up in her arms.

“You’re really skilled at holding it, Patty.”

“Yeah, I’m used to holding Henry just like this.”

Henry was Patty’s newborn younger brother, born on June 27th. Even though he was barely 1 month old and couldn’t even hold his own head steady, it seemed that her older sister was already used to babysitting him.

After stroking Patty’s head, Jin resumed his walk. Reiko and the now seven golem cats followed behind him.

Along the way, Seki and Tou ran off, chasing some small animal that looked like a mouse. Jin then arrived at Martha’s house joined by only five golem cats.

“Ah, big brother! Welcome back!”

Hanna rushed to see Jin and was surprised to find the five golem cats behind him.

“Oh, are those cats? You made them, big brother!”

It all started when they came across a cat figurine in the old Lenard Kingdom and Hanna asked Jin if he could make something like it.

“Yeah, I’ll be letting them roam free in the village, so make sure to show them some affection when you can.”

As Jin said that, Haku, the white golem cat, rushed to Hannah and got on her shoulder.

“Whoa!”

Golem cats weighed about the same as normal cats.

Haku was rubbing itself against Hanna’s face.

“Waah, so fluffy!”

Hanna was in very high spirits. Jin leaned towards her.

“Hanna, do you know about the lost children that are said to be staying at Dr. Sally’s clinic?”

“Eh? Ah, yeah. Are you going there?”

“That’s the plan.”

Then, Jin parted ways with Hanna and headed towards the village chief’s house, followed by Reiko and four golem cats.

On the way, they ran into other children, and Ryoku and Yukari stayed behind with them, so when Jin arrived at the village mayor’s house, he only had Ai and Koku with him.

“Hello.”

Sally came out as soon as they knocked on the door.

“Ah, it’s you. I take it you’re here about the lost children? You came at the right time. Come in.”

Following those words, Jin entered the Milleshan Clinic. The golem cats, however, ran off somewhere.

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