After successfully retrieving Penny, I was lost as to what to do next.
If I went back down as I was there was no doubt I would invite Cardin's distrust. They especially wouldn't like the fact that I was carrying Penny. By my estimation, they might demand that I break her in the worst scenario.
Of course, I had no desire to do that myself, so if it came to that, they'd become my enemies. Cardin and the others would pose no threat even as enemies. They'd still be annoying to deal with, though. So if possible, I wanted to avoid that outcome.
But I couldn't come up with a decent excuse.
Hmm… At worst, I can just knock them out and run. Would that be okay…? Actually, I can't think of any other way to do this.
While I was pondering and becoming a little depressed, I continued down the stairs.
"Ah, Lady Naru!"
"Welcome back. Looks like you managed to get Penny back safely." When I got to the previous floor, Fiona and Haruka welcomed me with smiling faces. On the flip side, Cardin and the others didn't move at all. The faraway look in their eyes indicated that they weren't really mentally here.
They were totally out of it.
"Haruka, what did you do to them?"
"Ahh. Trying to explain things to them was too troublesome so I may have… hypnotized them."
"Hypnotized?"
"I manipulated their memories and implanted false ones, just a little bit… I made it so that they never met us in the first place. While I was at it, I also had them think that they were the ones who conquered this grave. That should hide our tracks for a while."
My smile stiffened after hearing Haruka casually say something so outrageous.
Ahh. Oh, right. She can manipulate memories. She was really useful, but also really scary. I'm truly grateful that she's a friendly.
But now my biggest worry had just been cleanly swept away.
"As for Penny, she was already destroyed by the time they got here. The story will go that the investigation corps that came earlier gave their lives to destroy her. That should get some attention away from her."
"Could it be you planned to do this to Cardin from the very start, and that's why you let them come with us?"
"Would there be any other reason to carry around dead weight?"
"…You're a scary girl. You know that?"
"For you, Big Sis, this little sister of yours can become a monster or a demon. Such is the woman named Haruka."
With a smug expression, Haruka puffed out her chest. I gave a tiny shudder as I wiped away some cold sweat.
Well, whatever. Now, all that was left was to retrieve some of my things from storage. There was my promise to Juvia, too. Let's leave behind anything I won't use anymore.
To be fair, equipment that only gives, like, +100 attack or something had no use other than selling for money at this point. I might as well leave stuff like that here.
"All right. We're going to the top floor."
"Okaayy!"
"Y-Yes!"
Leaving Cardin and the others on the 999th floor, we moved to the top. When we finally got to the top floor, what awaited us was an incredibly gaudy room. The ceiling, walls, and floor all shined gold, and it pricked my eyes. Even as pure flattery, it would be hard to say this room was one someone could relax in. Heaps of gems and gold were piled up everywhere, and swords and other equipment were neatly lined up.
No. No matter how you looked at it, this wasn't a grave. In fact, if this were my grave, I'd hate it. There was no way I could properly rest here.
At least, that was how it should have been… Why is it? Why can I barely contain myself when I'm looking at all this? I didn't know why, but the urge to just take all this shiny stuff home with me welled up from within.
"Calm down, Big Sis."
"We are calm.… We're calm, but for some reason We can't calm down. What is this?"
"Ahh. Come to think of it, Big Sis, you have always liked shiny things and would collect a lot of them, huh?"
I froze.
Huh? Really? I didn't remember that bit of backstory. Collecting shiny things? Am I a freakin' crow?! No, well, I do have black wings…
"Let's just take all the weapons we'll need for now before our master goes crazy."
"Haruka, saying We will go crazy is too far. We understand what is necessary at the very least."
"Okay, then. Why don't you let go of all those lumps of money you're holding that've got no use to us first?"
After having it pointed out by Haruka, I realized for the first time that I was already holding a bunch of gems, gold, and shiny stuff.
…Oh no. That was completely by reflex.
No, uhh, yeah… I should have no interest in lumps of cash like this… I don't like gaudy, nouveau-riche styles. In fact, I'm more of a dark, chic colors girl myself.
But then, why is this urge so strong?
"Fiona, big sister Naru has just turned into a regular old crow, so let's pick out what's necessary by ourselves."
"Yes. Got it!"
Huh? Am I really not even just useless but an active hindrance now?
Even with those thoughts running through my head, I couldn't stop myself from reaching for weird, shiny objects. This is bad. I can't stop myself. I just naturally move for anything that's shiny.
"Big Sis! That's just decoration! It's for show! It's not useful at all! Just throw that away somewhere!"
"Lady Naru, that's just a shiny piece of art!"
"Ah, yeah."
After getting yelled at by Haruka and Fiona, I dejectedly retreated to a corner of the room.
Naw… I swear, I'm not like this. I really want to look for weapons, I do. But my body won't listen!
After that, Haruka and Fiona continued to gather weapons I used to use while shooting me sidelong glances as I kept laying my hands on shiny but utterly useless items.
Spears, giant swords, knives, halberds, katars, tonfas, pile bunkers… Looking at them like this, I realized that I never did settle on a single weapon.
By the way, my favorite weapon was a whip sword.
"This should be good for now. Big Sis did use the rest a long time ago, but she'd never use them again anyway as it is now. Let's leave them here. Even those should be precious these days."
"What about the golems?"
"Ahh. I'll take those back to the Heart tower, too. Big Sis, could I get you to gather all the golems you didn't destroy here?"
While I was waiting in a corner of the room, it seemed like my time had come. But said time seemed to entail some rather hard work.
Retrieve all the golems I only pretended to destroy, huh? Ahh, well. If I didn't, they'd just keep racking up casualties. There was no choice…
"Understood. It will take some time, though."
At any rate, I'd be useless if I stayed here anyway. So, I might as well do what I can.
…I lost a lot of dignity just now, haven't I?
In the end, retrieving all the golems ate up a lot of time and all, because this grave was way too huge. Who was it that made this?
For now, I gathered up all the higher AI level golems and left them with Haruka along with all the weapons and armor. Apparently she could teleport with things if they weren't living, so she took everything back to Ouzel Tower.
I digress, but I also destroyed all the dumbass golems that turned into automatic attack machines.
"Okay, let's get out of here."
"What about Cardin and the others?"
"They'll wake up after a while and think they made it up here on their own. It won't be a problem."
I see. So when Cardin and the others woke up, they'd become heroes thanks to having conquered the Grave of the Black Empress. They might take some of the treasures for themselves, but that's none of my business.
All this wealth I couldn't even carry was just a nuisance to me right now, so if they wanted it, they could have it. I was happy having gotten some useful weapons, the golems, and Penny.
I've got some complicated feelings about this place being robbed. I might not have been in it, but the grave was mine…
It was the same back on Earth, though. Showy graves with lots of treasure in them were basically there for the stealing.
Even if the grave robbers returned empty-handed, academic types would just show up and clear it out anyway, claiming they'd found historic artifacts and displaying the body in a museum or something.
This place really wasn't fit to be a grave. If I really were to die, I'd want to be buried in the ground in a place where no one would bother me.
After leaving the grave, we returned to the woods where Honda was waiting for us. Then, I used alchemy to transmute new maid clothes for Penny, and while I was at it, I wiped her body clean as well.
After that, we spent a few hours waiting.
Penny just wouldn't wake up on her own, so I tried ordering her to do so. She woke immediately and opened her eyes.
"…Sight, all green. Checking all sections… All green. Starting."
Penny slowly sat up, eyes glowing. Seeing me, she stood, and with a complex series of inner workings, she performed a neat bow.
Hm, I have the opportunity. Why not take a look at Penny's stats?
[Twelve Zodiac's Guardians—Penny of the Libra Constellation]
[Level]: 910
[Race]: Artificial Life Form
[Attribute]: Metal
[STR (Strength)]: 6500
[DEX (Dexterity)]: 6900
[VIT (Vitality)]: 7020
[INT (Intelligence)]: 1300
[AGI (Agility)]: 5100
[MND (Mind)]: 1350
[LUK (Luck)]: 1600
Hm, no change at all from what I remember of her stats.
Her SP was 0 now, but that was the same for all golems.
Golems didn't expend SP in order to use skills. Instead, they had a limit to the number of times they could use their skills. And that limit only recovered every twenty-four hours. That was why Penny could only shoot Brachium once, and there was no point at all in having her learn skills that used SP.
In exchange, their HP could get incredibly high compared to regular people, depending on the materials that had been used. This was especially true for Penny. She was a broken golem with boss-class HP, probably because her starting materials had been so good. Only Alchemist class skills could heal her though, so just having HP didn't necessarily mean she was tough.
For example: Fiona had much lower max HP than Penny, but thanks to her HP auto-regenerating skill, she was unexpectedly tough. If the two of them were to actually fight, though, it'd be over before said toughness could ever come into play. Fiona would die in one shot to Brachium.
"Good morning, my master: Naru."
"Good. Do you feel alright?"
"There are no problems. Thank you for your concern."
She was no longer speaking with a voice mixed with white noise, like a broken radio, but with a beautiful, flowing voice. I felt relieved as soon as I heard it. Looks like she's really okay.
Penny noticed Fiona next and bowed to her as well.
"It has been a long time, Fiona. Nice to see you again."
"Nice to see you too, Penny."
After greeting Fiona, Penny looked off and faced Haruka next. She performed another elegant bow.
"Pleased to meet you, unknown person. I apologize deeply for causing so much trouble."
"This again?!"
Yep. Exactly as I expected.
I'd thought this would happen when the other golems in the grave couldn't recognize Haruka. It looked like Penny didn't remember Haruka, either.
She was the same as Fiona and I, and as fellow people who didn't remember Haruka, I felt a strange kinship with Penny.
"Penny, this girl is our advisor. Her name is Haruka. Her presence was weak, but she was here one thousand years ago."
"…?! What… did you say…? Does that mean her stealth is so strong he doesn't even remain in my memories…?!"
"No way am I that forgettable! You're gonna make me cry!"
Haruka was already half in tears. She grabbed Penny's shoulders and pulled her face close.
"See, it's me! Me! Look closely! Aren't I in your memories somewhere?!"
"…No, you are not in any corresponding memories. However, I have found some damaged data due to one thousand years of wear. I expect memories pertaining to Haruka to be within this data."
Hmmm, I'd kinda thought that a golem like Penny might have been able to remember Haruka, but looks like that isn't the case. Haruka's got bad luck.
To think that her memory had been damaged, of all things, and that the data pertaining to Haruka was part of that. Isn't that basically harassment at this point?
"Restoration will take a couple months, but it is possible. Until then, I will register Haruka as a tentative advisor."
"Tentative?!"
Haruka's expression grew more and more stricken the more Penny, who always stuck to her own tempo, talked. Even so, Penny never seemed like she paid that any mind.
Well, she's actually completely expressionless, so it's hard to tell what she's thinking anyway. But, given how she had guarded my grave even while being worn to tatters like that, I wouldn't doubt her loyalty, at least. Her face was frozen like a mask, but she must have had a burning soul somewhere inside… Probably. I bet.
"Penny, We must ask. Do you know what any of the other Twelve Zodiac's Guardians are doing?"
"My apologies. I have been concentrating my efforts on guarding your grave this entire time, so I do not have much information on the outside world."
Penny's reply was just as disappointing as I had expected.
Since she was inside the grave this entire time, there was no way for her to get information from the outside. Luckily, there were still four Guardians left of the six Haruka knew about, so there was no real need to rush on the information front.
"So, Haruka. Where is the next of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians?"
"Next is… Let's see… It's a little far, but the Holy Maiden from the long life Uzumaru's clan, Kushina of the Virgo constellation has built a small settlement at the base of a mountain 2000 km west of here, where she is currently living in hiding."
"A settlement?"
"Yes. She constructed a barrier to protect powerless monsters and trees from outside threats and has been living disconnected from the outer world."
Ohh, how decent of her. I was proud that she wasn't actively causing trouble for others.
I was a little worried, since she'd shut herself in, but I thought that could be solved later. At the very least, there wouldn't be an increase in victims if we left her alone, unlike how it was with Fiona and Penny.
"Also, umm… That mountain was where you were born, Big Sis. She chased away all the flugels who were living there and turned it into a holy site after she began occupying it…"
I take it all back. She really did do something bad.