The 9th Class Swordmaster: Blade of Truth

Chapter 276: The Rothschild Family (1)

“Is that a human...? N-No! What on earth is that?” Anthem Howard couldn’t help shouting. He stared in disbelief at the shadows that were slowly creeping up the stairs of the underground passage.

Clank― Click―

A sharp metallic resonance, like machinery stirring to life, rang out, and the figures turned their gazes toward Anthem and Karyl. They were more or less the size of an adult male, their sturdy-looking frames adorned with unfamiliar devices. Their faces resembled wooden dolls, with eyes devoid of pupils.

Amazingly, they were golems.

“Golems can’t operate without a pilot... Can someone fit inside those things?”

“Nope.”

“Then how...?”

“They’re sentinels, designed to carry out the orders they’ve been given. They’re relics of the Magical Era. As you know, there were golems that could move without pilots back then.”

Anthem was also aware of the sentinels that had been encountered occasionally during excavation of ruins.

Particularly, at the ruins of the rock cave where they discovered Enderus—the golem of the Muir royal family of dwarves—the principality suffered significant losses due to the numerous sentinels. Most citizens of the principality knew about that.

Apart from ruins, it was well-known that golems capable of moving on their own had once been common during the Magical Era, as evidenced by Allen Javius’ sentinels that guarded the Spring of Vision.

“But most of them are only capable of carrying out simple commands. Those guys are just guarding the ruins, nothing more.”

Karyl looked at the golems before them, speaking as though it was no big deal. However, Anthem was astonished for a different reason.

“Still, it’s the first time I’ve seen such small golems. To create mechanical golems of that size, the internal components would also need to be miniaturized...”

Building large golems like Revol was certainly difficult but not impossible. Enlarging the components was feasible as long as balance was maintained.

“Exactly. I was about to bring Wingel Hart for that, but I decided against it. I figured it would cause a huge commotion,” Karyl chuckled.

As Anthem had mentioned, miniaturizing the components within a golem was an area that required exceptional technical skill. Even Wingel Hart, a genius in magitech, claimed that the small golems of the Meister Unit were the smallest size currently achievable.

However, those were still several times larger than a grown adult. Had Wingel Hart laid eyes on these human-sized golems, he would have either fainted or been desperate to dissect them on the spot.

“One, two, three, four...”

Karyl counted the number of golems and then tilted his head slightly.

“Nine in total... Have their numbers increased? No, maybe there were fewer back then. There were only three.”

“Sorry?”

“Nothing.”

Anthem, perplexed by Karyl’s muttering, simply watched the enemy before them with a worried expression.

Hmm, what could have happened? When we were guided by Kay and came to the Frost Plateau because of the Oracle, the number of golems had already decreased. That means something must have happened before then...

Karyl glared at the golems.

As far as I remember, nothing significant happened in the Frost Plateau before Olivurn brought Kay here.

“Well, we’ll have to deal with them first. Anthem, step back.”

Karyl set aside his worries for the moment. Whether there were three golems or nine, the fact remained that Karyl and Anthem had to deal with them before they could proceed inside.

Clank―!!

Shhh—!!

As he drew his sword, the golems almost simultaneously crossed their arms, and sharp needles shot out from the back of their hands.

Whoosh—!!!

As soon as Karyl’s figure vanished, six of the golems disappeared as well, stirring up a whirlwind.

“...!!”

The clash was unbelievably fast, and Anthem quickly fell back, realizing he would lose a limb if he got caught in that storm. He ducked behind the camp set up by Karyl and watched the scene unfold.

The meat was burning over the fire, but that was the least of his worries.

Gulp—

Even though Karyl was relentlessly swinging his sword, Anthem couldn’t tear his eyes away, disregarding any danger. It was as though he was enthralled by Karyl’s movements.

“Jeez...!!”

Karyl gripped his Freezing Talon and parried the blade coming for his side. He then drew upon his mana, the bracelet of greed trembling as it struggled to absorb the surge of energy.

Crackle... Sizzle...!!

Karyl slashed with all his might, the Arcane Blade cutting along the golem’s arm. Unable to withstand the force of the strikes, the golem was thrown back.

Whoosh—!!

The sharp wind pressure barely missed the golem’s head, severing one of its horns instead. Two other golems supported the one that had been pushed back, while the remaining six rushed at Karyl.

Boom! Crash!!

The golems’ attacks came from all directions, almost as if they were teleporting, raining down on him with overwhelming intensity. It was as though they were a single entity, their chain attacks flowing seamlessly.

Karyl gripped his sword with both hands, preparing to counter.

Screech—!!

A sharp sound pierced the air as his sword released a deadly wave of energy, cleaving through the ground. However, by the time his slash landed, the golems had already scattered. Their performance, moving with such fluidity as though they were human, was astonishing, but what was even more surprising was their coordination.

“...”

Karyl flexed his wrist, which was starting to ache. He seemed slightly surprised by how powerful the golems were. They had certainly exceeded his expectations.

“Hmph.”

Nevertheless, he wasn’t too concerned. He took another deep breath, drawing upon his mana once more.

I can’t afford to drag this out.

Whoosh—

Karyl shot forward as his mana erupted, charging straight into the golems’ formation. Twisting in midair, he swung his sword in a wide arc. The golems, scattering to evade his attack, quickly regrouped and surrounded him once again.

They may seem to move erratically, but the golems are actually following a pattern. The side wings block vision, the arms defend against attacks, and the legs block the path.

Although they moved too fast for the naked eye to follow, Anthem kept turning his head as though analyzing their movements.

The third one is hovering on the left side in the back, while the fourth one further up from the center. The ninth is at the forefront, so the first one will attack next.

Boom!!

When Karyl raised his sword to block the next attack, Anthem knew his prediction had been correct. Even though he couldn’t follow the golems’ speed with his eyes, he could anticipate their attacks. He was predicting before seeing.

The fifth one in the center of the nine orchestrates the flow and becomes the most powerful force. And the center of that ripple is...

“...!!!”

Anthem’s eyes lit up.

“Yeah, that’s it!”

Risking his safety, Anthem poked his head out from his hiding spot and shouted to Karyl, “Lord, it’s the golem on the upper right! The one whose horn just broke off! Target that one!!”

“...!”

As Anthem cried out, Karyl moved.

“It’s the third one!! If you deflect three of their attacks, it will move to the center on its own!”

Clang—!!

Karyl deflected the golem’s blade, and then the two golems on either side moved to attack from behind.

Using his left arm, Karyl deflected the punches of the two golems before shoving one in the face. Exhaling sharply, he used the golem’s head in front of him as leverage to swing his leg backward.

Crack—!!

As the two golems tried to evade, Karyl’s kick landed squarely on their chests, sending them flying backward. Using the momentum, Karyl pushed off the other golem’s head, somersaulting into the air and landing a short distance away.

Clang—! Clank—!!!

Two other golems lunged at Karyl, seemingly to protect the one with the broken horn, but Karyl had already fended off an onslaught from all nine. Two golems alone were no match for him. Without hesitation, Karyl slashed horizontally with his Freezing Talon.

Crash—!!

His Arcane Blade completely shattered one golem’s head, the thunderous blow echoing in the air. Ignoring the black smoke rising from both sides, Karyl drove his foot into the chest of the last golem.

Crunch!! @@novelbin@@

Without pause, he plunged his Freezing Talon into the fallen golem on the ground.

Crackle...

The last golem shuddered and convulsed, then fell limp as Karyl withdrew his sword, sparks flickering from the wound.

“Phew...”

Only then did he finally exhale.

“How did you figure that out?” he asked Anthem.

“The golems’ movements matched the formation inscribed on the stone tablet we saw earlier. Beyond the formation itself, it’s incredible that someone could create such golems...”

“You’re the impressive one for noticing that and finding a way to exploit it.”

Karyl nodded in satisfaction, his boot pressing down on what was left of the golem’s head.

“You’re too kind, my lord,” Anthem replied, scratching his head sheepishly, clearly embarrassed by the praise.

“You mentioned that the one who created that formation was a genius, but I think you’re no less of a genius for solving it.”

“The key golem was damaged, which slowed down the other eight, creating openings. I’m sure you could have defeated them even without my help,” Anthem said sincerely.

“Not with strategy, but with brute force.”

“Like smashing the stone tablet?”

“Overwhelming power is often the most effective strategy in war,” Karyl said with a nod. He then looked down at the shattered golems scattered across the ground.

But the tactics employed by the nine golems exceeded my expectations. I wouldn’t have lost, but I might have struggled more than I anticipated.

Though none of the nine golems were individually as powerful as a Sword Master, their coordination as a group far surpassed the sentinels Karyl remembered from his previous life.

Among the continent’s ten strongest, only the five Sword Masters could match the golems’ speed.

Karyl had already crossed swords with two of those five, and knowing the true strength of Kuwell MacGovern, who was considered the strongest on the continent, he felt there was no need to compare the others anymore.

In terms of sheer strength, Karyl had surpassed all five Sword Masters. He was certain that none of them could have taken on the golems alone.

But these golems were destroyed in my past life.

By whom?

If he had to speculate, it would take multiple Sword Masters to bring down the golems. However, by the time the Oracle had been prophesied, only Valvont, the King of Martial Arts, and Ganeth were alive.

Also, when I got here, there were no signs of the machinery being damaged.

This meant that whoever came before them had solved the riddle of the formation that even Anthem couldn’t decipher and had destroyed the golems inside.

Solving the riddle and destroying the golems... It would require knowledge beyond human reach.

Unless Allen Javius had somehow been resurrected, there was only one possibility.

A dragon.

And at that time, there was only one dragon with influence over the continent—the Platinum Dragon, Narh Di Maug.

Karyl bit his lip slightly as he pondered.

He definitely appeared for the empire after the Oracle was prophesied. But if that was a lie...

A connection between Olivurn and Narh Di Maug, and Olivurn’s connection with the Wooden Cloud...

Does this mean Narh Di Maug and the Wooden Cloud could be linked?

Karyl couldn’t help thinking about that possibility as he stared down the dark underground staircase. Until now, he had never considered the possibility of such a connection, not once. After all, the idea of Olivurn being entangled with the Wooden Cloud had never even crossed his mind.

In my previous life, he definitely worked hard to eliminate the Blue Roar.

However, if that had all been a lie... and if Narh Di Maug had been involved as well, then everything Karyl thought he knew about his past life would become uncertain.

He took a step down the stairs.

Olivurn, you were already at the top of my list. However, my suspicions about you are also growing stronger, Narh Di Maug.

Karyl tightened his grip on his sword.

But I was able to return because of you. Yet, the moment these suspicions become certainty, the name at the top of my list—carved deeply over eons—will change for the first time.

He still didn’t know why Narh Di Maug had come here, but at least in this life, Karyl was determined to strike first, ahead of everyone else.

Thud, thud, thud...

The sound of his steps descending the stairs matched the beat of his heart.