What he’s recovered might not be what he once knew—but unless he checks, how will he ever know? There’s no better option anyway. So he pretended to feel relieved while leaving the uncertainty unresolved, and then got fooled by his own pretense.
For now, it’s fine. Satin didn’t find Cain particularly bothersome—in fact, he was rather reassuring here. Cain also seemed satisfied to take over some of Satin’s responsibilities.
But what about later, when this sense of excitement fades? Will it still be okay then?
“I get it.”
Cain frowned and stepped to the side, irritated, though all Satin had done was glance at him silently. Leaving about two steps of distance between them, Cain spoke in a sharp tone.
“This is as far as it goes. Got it?”
“Yeah, sure…”
***
“It’s a bit late to say this, but isn’t it really strange?”
Edward muttered as he looked up at the massive golem, easily the height of a five-story building. Rita snapped back at him.
“What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?! Focus on figuring out what we’re gonna do!”
“There are tons of records praising the hero who defeated the Demon King, but hardly any mention of what kind of being that Demon King actually was. Isn’t that odd?”
“Oh, come on. That’s the same thing you were rambling about back at the Temple.”
Earlier that morning, before they went to retrieve the holy relic, Edward had stopped by the temple archives after their meeting with Jeremy. The rest of the group had to wait outside, unable to enter. Edward checked the records regarding the appearance of the Demon King and came back looking disappointed.
There were no records about the Demon King. Just page after page about how grandly the hero who defeated him was honored.
Only Edward seemed dissatisfied by what he found. The others hadn’t expected much to begin with. Since the information wasn’t useful, there was no need to dwell on it. After that, no one brought up the archives again.
So why was Edward bringing it up now?
Satin was curious but knew this wasn’t the time to press.
The golem thundered around the hall. Its movements were slow, but each stride was massive—without an all-out sprint, there was no hope of dodging it. Thankfully, it paused occasionally, giving them moments to catch their breath.
Rita and Edward flanked the golem on the left, while Satin and Cain stuck to its right. In truth, Satin had no idea who was beside him—he was running for dear life. But every time he paused, Cain was still there.
So this is what they call a “keyring man”…
But on second thought, maybe that wasn’t quite what the term meant.
Satin corrected his own misunderstanding and cautiously reached for his shoulder, intending to at least draw his sword. But Cain immediately barked a warning.
“Don’t even think about drawing your sword.”
Getting scolded before he even pulled it out felt a bit unfair, and Satin grumbled in protest.
“Just holding it’s fine, right? It’s not like I’m going to charge in or anything.”
“You never know. In a pinch, you might rush in anyway—who’s to say?”
“I’m not that reckless, you know.”
“Well, people are terrible at judging themselves.”
“That’s rich coming from you—”
“Anyway, don’t draw it.”
Satin sighed and lowered his hand. If things got truly dire, even Cain wouldn’t be able to stop him. Of course, it’d be better if it didn’t come to that.
The golem had revealed itself in a completely different way than the monkey swarm from earlier.
Just moments ago, the group had entered a wide hall. Braziers burning with violet flames suggested another trial awaited them here.
They made a point not to split up this time and examined the walls, thinking they might find another inscription like in the previous hall.
As expected, they found one—but it was different from the last: “Undergo the trial.”
What exactly did that mean? Before they could discuss it, a heavy, thundering noise echoed through the hall.
The golem didn’t descend from the ceiling. It emerged from the wall. The solid stone bulged and distorted, and then the golem pushed its massive body out of it. Since the inscription had been nearby, the group was caught completely off guard.
Rita hurled hail, and Cain raised a wall of fire—but the golem trudged through both like it was nothing. The monkeys had feared fire, and the snakes hated hail, but this golem seemed unaffected by either.
And so, here they were now—chased in circles, unable to land a single proper attack on the thing.
Whether it was due to a cooldown or some kind of balance patch, Satin didn’t know—but while the golem stood still, he had time to think.
“Something doesn’t sit right.”
<The trial isn’t over>
The more he thought about it, the more it seemed the sequence was out of order. At first, he had assumed the monkey swarm was simply a sign that the trial wasn’t over—but maybe that wasn’t it.
“Were we supposed to come here first?”
But that hadn’t been possible. From the moment they entered the Demon King’s Castle, the party had moved straight ahead. Unless the castle had deliberately reversed the order of the trials, there was no way they could’ve done them out of sequence.
It seemed unlikely that the Demon King’s Castle would make such a careless mistake.
“But here… it might actually be possible…”
While Satin was seriously mulling over the possibility, Cain kept his eyes trained on the golem. Without even glancing toward Satin, he issued a warning.
“It’s about to move again.”
“Ah, right.”
Satin tensed at Cain’s words. He’d gotten somewhat used to dodging the golem by now, but that didn’t make him any less anxious. Just one misstep and he’d be crushed—there was no room to relax.
UWOAAAAAH!
The golem suddenly let out a grotesque shriek. Its appearance had been so crude, no one even realized it had a mouth. Everyone in the group jumped in surprise.
“It had a mouth?!”
As Rita shouted, the golem’s head turned in her direction. Her expression twisted into a grimace.
“It has ears too…”
“Cut the chatter and get ready to run.”
“Wah! It’s coming!”
The golem began to move just as Rita and Edward took off at full speed. At the same time, Cain spoke.
“We’ll follow behind it.”
“To what end?”
“A creature that huge has to have a weak spot—just like that snake from earlier.”
Cain moved as he spoke, heading in the opposite direction from Rita and Edward. Satin followed beside him and asked,
“How can you be so sure?”
“It’s a trial. If it’s a trial, there must be a way to overcome it. If they just wanted to test brute strength, they wouldn’t have made it that massive.”
He didn’t hesitate in his answer. And now that Satin thought about it, it did make sense… sort of.
Satin glanced around briefly, then gave a small nod.
If there really were no weak point, like Cain said, there was no way they could ever defeat something that large. At least the snake was a living creature—this thing was stone. Blades were practically useless against it, and magic didn’t seem to work either.
“What’s the point of having two magicians if they’re completely useless?”
He wondered how others had handled this before.
“Or did they all just fail?”
That’s when Rita shrieked.
“What the hell is it throwing now?!”
Startled, Satin looked in her direction. Every time the golem swung its arm, small fragments scattered and rained down. Rita couldn’t look back while running, so she seemed to think the golem was pelting her with gravel.
“She’s the kind to scream ‘I’m dying!’ right before actually dying.”
Cain muttered dryly, and Satin couldn’t help but snort a laugh. Rita really would do something like that. She probably shouted “I’m born!” the moment she came out of the womb. Princess arrival!
Around the time the golem reached the center of the hall, Cain came to a stop—right behind it.
“Do you see that?”
Satin immediately spotted what Cain was pointing to. A long, narrow marking stretched across the back of the golem’s head. At first glance it looked like a shadow, but from another angle, it appeared to be a shallow indentation. But the moment the golem turned its body, the mark vanished from view.
“It’s gone.”
Cain didn’t panic. Instead, he moved sideways. Satin, caught off guard, instinctively ran after him. Not long after, the mark reappeared—again, directly behind the golem.
“It’s only visible from dead center behind it. Even a slight angle and it disappears.”
“What do you think it is?”
“Whatever it is, it’s worth checking out.”
Without another word, Cain yanked the sword from Satin’s back. Satin reached out in shock, but Cain had no intention of giving it back—if he did, he wouldn’t have taken it in the first place.
“Hey! That’s mine!”
“I told you not to draw it.”
Without a single explanation, Cain charged toward the golem.
“What the hell?! That lunatic…”
The curse slipped out of Satin’s mouth before he realized it. Just like with the snake earlier, Cain rushed straight into danger without offering so much as a plan. He said he was doing things in Satin’s place—but in reality, he was just doing everything Satin couldn’t.
Even in his confusion, Satin knew better than to follow him.
“He’s not the keyring—I am. I’m the damn keyring.”
The way he was being kept around, tucked away somewhere safe and utterly useless, made him feel more like dead weight than a lucky charm. Burdened by a creeping sense of self-loathing, Satin ducked for cover.
Meanwhile, maybe the cooldown had reset or something—because the golem began to slow down again. Sensing the change, Edward glanced back and spotted Cain.
Guessing what Cain was about to attempt, Edward shouted to Rita.
“Miss Rita, run a bit more!”
“What?”
“We need to draw its attention!”
“Why?!”
“I don’t know!”
Rita let out a string of curses that barely sounded like a language, but Edward didn’t respond—he just kept running.
“Fine! Take this!”
Rita hurled alternating blasts of hail and flaming arrows, goading the golem. The creature, which had seemed like it was about to stop, trudged forward a bit more.
UWOOOOAAAH!
Its awful roar echoed through the chamber like a curse.
Then finally, the golem froze, its gaze locked onto Rita and Edward.
During that brief window, Cain sprang into action—he leapt straight for the golem’s head. Using the sword he’d taken from Satin, he stabbed it into the back of the creature’s knee and kicked off it for momentum, propelling himself higher.
Then, grabbing hold of a protruding section near the golem’s elbow, he clung on like a human grappling hook.
“He’s a magician—why the hell does he love hand-to-hand combat so much?”
Satin’s nerves were shredded. If the golem so much as swung its arm, Cain would go flying like a leaf in the wind. Where did he get the guts for this?
But the fear turned out to be unnecessary.
In a move that seemed almost choreographed, Cain climbed up onto the golem’s back just as it bent over, reaching to pull the sword out of the back of its knee.
“What is he, a gymnast or something…?”
