Volume 5 Chapter 6-2 Sacrifice
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Did Ms. Nina use Provocation magic? It seems the target shifted from me to her. The Golem Knight interrupted his strike at me and is now moving towards Ms. Nina.
What a meaningless, brave sacrifice. Just delayed my death by a few seconds. The knight who killed her instantly will finish me off with a returning slash.
Ah, am I to die here with Ms. Nina? That might not be so bad. What’s regrettable is that if I were a bit sharper, a happy ending would’ve been within reach.
A trivial mistake in a game that could be laughed off turned paradise into hell, dragging both me and Ms. Nina into misfortune.
This is the end for Ms. Nina, but I should have a decent chance of coming back to life. Even if I do, it’ll be nothing but pain, yet still, I don’t want to die.
Still, the knight’s saber slashes through Ms. Nina’s torso horizontally.
The scene unfolds in slow motion before my eyes. The sharp blade passes through her body as if there’s no resistance at all.
Ms. Nina’s body collapses, tumbling to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
The silver knight turns back to me, takes a step forward… and then loses balance, falling down.
The knight’s silver plate mail, for some reason, is also cut in half at the torso, just like Ms. Nina. The separated halves of the Golem knight’s body fall to the ground and remain still, dissolving and disappearing into the light.
”Ms. Nina!”
I want to rush over, but my body won’t move properly. I slowly walk, step by step, towards Ms. Nina.
”Don’t overdo it. It looks like the internals aren’t reached, but we need to stop the bleeding quickly.”
The halved Ms. Nina seems worried about me. I hope she’s just a doll and it’s okay. If there’s a chance to do it over, I won’t mess up this time.
”Who’s being reckless. Ms. Nina did something, didn’t she?”
”Just a bit, I wanted to try a trick I’d been saving. Even if the attack magic didn’t work, the curse certainly does.”
Ah, yes. There was a spell that dealt damage equal to what you hurt others with. It’s a lower version of Uno’s curse in the Valley of Trials, where both attacker and defender take damage, so you have to be willing to risk a tie.
Ms. Nina was hiding such a trump? No, I knew about it already. The final sacrificial move of the doll princess: sacrificing herself to take down one strong enemy in exchange for her existence.
The doll princess’s last lesson to get the summoned hero to fight with a death wish. It’s a sneaky tactic by the Hero Management Bureau. I’d heard most heroes end up in a mutual destruction at the first dungeon boss. But I kept ignoring that it didn’t matter to Ms. Nina.
The fact that the knight vanished means… Ms. Nina too…
Tears start to flow.
”Saburou is still a crybaby. That’s okay, you’re a kind boy.”
”I-I…”
”It was only about half a year, but it was fun. Do you remember? I turned into a scarecrow in the spring grasslands, and you kept trying to catch the quail but couldn’t catch a single one…”
Ms. Nina stopped moving as if her batteries ran out.
* * *
In my hand is a doll with only its upper body left. A very light wooden doll.
The face of Ms. Nina, now bloodless, shows how her mana is rapidly vanishing.
It’s mana──if the mana runs out, Ms. Nina will die. So just pour more mana in. If we don’t hurry, I’ve heard that if heart stops for over 2 minutes, revival chances drop sharply. I don’t know about homunculi, but they’re probably not much different from humans.
Inside the severed torso is hollow, and only the magic crystal and a few magic lines are damaged.
He precisely aimed for the weak point──the magic crystal. The reason the crystal didn’t explode with mana when cut is probably because her mana was almost gone already. A stroke of luck, really.
Even if things went wrong, I was planning to swap to a magic stone when Ms. Nina’s crystal ran out. I also learned a simple repair method for the magic tool from Mr. Zenom.
They said if you try to forcibly disassemble the doll princess, a protective device activates and she would self-destruct, but since her mana circuit was cut instantly, that didn’t happen.
I pulled out a spare magic wire from my pouch and connected it to the severed one. I hope I can remove the protective device, but I don’t know which part it is. If I reintroduce mana, she might start to self-destruct. Still, I have no choice but to do it now.
I remove the magic stone and socket from the destroyed Indra Gun, then replace it with the original crystal.
I need to finish this as fast and accurately as possible. My fingertips are slippery with my blood, and it’s making the work hard; I feel dizzy from the bleeding, but I can’t afford to fall now.
I carefully reconnect all the mana lines, then slot the magic stone into the socket. As Ms. Nina’s mana circulation restarts, her homunculus heart reboots, and her face gains a healthy flush.
I did it! No signs of self-destruction. She’s probably unconscious from exhaustion and sleep──there’s no other explanation.
Then, I stop my bleeding with “Healing Touch Plus.” Both my body and mind are exhausted, and even casting magic is a struggle now.
After catching my breath, I carefully align Ms. Nina’s upper and lower body, then connect them with a sealing skill. It’s only meant for temporary holding, but I think I can manage a gentle fit.
I lift Ms. Nina in a princess carry and stand up──she’d probably be embarrassed if she wakes now. Damn it, don’t cry, me. Ms. Nina *must* be alive.
I noticed a surgical table made of crystal appearing in the center of the stage. When did it get here?
It fits exactly to Ms. Nina’s body shape. It looks like this is the immortal-ifying effect of the golem as a reward. Desperately, they lay Ms. Nina on the surgical table.
Particles glowing like fireflies begin flying around Ms. Nina. Please, bring her back to life.
Like rewinding the effect when the knight golem disappeared, a swirling light converges onto Ms. Nina. She’s become a knight golem. No, she’s just wearing full armor that she can take off later.
The size shrank once to match Ms. Nina’s body, but the design is exactly the same as the rare boss knight golem.
Is this what it means to become an immortal golem? No, they just gave her high-end gear. If only this armor had the same defense (power) as that rare boss’s, it wouldn’t be strange to say she’s become invincible. But it’s not what we were looking for at all.
Even wrapped in armor, Ms. Nina doesn’t wake up.
But she isn’t dead. The fact that she’s given this special gear means the dungeon recognizes her as still alive and functional, right?
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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