“Sigh, this is going to be a real pain.”
Eleanor let out a helpless sigh, resting her forehead in her hand as she surveyed the chaos within the workshop.
Tables and chairs were overturned, bottles and jars were rolling all over the floor, and the golem was wandering through the mess like a lost child.
It seemed completely unaware that it had turned the workshop into a disaster zone.
“I only wanted to help Helos clean up her workshop…”
Her voice carried a hint of frustration. “Instead, it has turned into a total pigsty.”
As she spoke, she turned her head toward her personal maid, Lille, who had followed her inside.
Under the moonlight, a flicker of hesitation crossed Eleanor’s eyes, but she soon spoke in a low voice, “Lille, why don’t you… take a trip to the Cathedral and bring Helos back?”
She paused, glancing at the golem inside the workshop with a complex expression.
“After all, she was the one who personally tinkered with this thing. It is only proper for her to handle it herself. If we accidentally break it and make her sad, it will be hard to make amends.”
“As you command.”
Lille said nothing more. Upon receiving her orders, she quickly turned and left the duke’s mansion.
When Helos was groggily shaken awake, she felt someone pushing her shoulder.
She frowned sleepily, her long eyelashes trembling slightly. Opening her eyes in a half-dreaming state, the first thing she saw was a familiar face.
“Hey, wake up.”
Julius leaned down and urged her in a low voice.
However, the girl’s first reaction was not to answer. Instead, she instinctively raised her leg and, in her dazed state, delivered a direct kick to him.
“Ouch!”
Caught off guard, the squire stumbled back half a step, nearly falling to the ground.
Only then did Helos fully wake up. She rubbed her eyes, her pale violet pupils still misty with sleep.
She stared blankly at the speechless Julius for a few seconds before realizing what had just happened.
“Eh… It was you?”
She scratched her hair sheepishly and gave an embarrassed smile. “Sorry, I thought a magical beast was attacking me in my dream…”
“Wait—”
Helos suddenly snapped to attention, her eyes widening. She pointed at the black-haired boy and raised her voice, “Why are you in my room at this hour?!”
“Do you think I wanted to be?”
Julius’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot. He gritted his teeth as he rubbed his kicked shin.
“Miss Eleanor sent Lille to find you.”
“Who? Lille? Why is she looking for me?”
Helos was still not entirely awake, her gaze wandering.
“Supposedly…”
Julius scratched his head, sounding hesitant.
Seeing the girl’s eyes finally regain their clarity, he paused before speaking slowly, “Your golem… seems to have gone berserk.”
“Right now, it is indiscriminately attacking your workshop.”
“What?!”
Helos was instantly alert, feeling as if she had been struck by lightning. She jumped out of bed, her pale violet eyes rounding. “Attacking… attacking my workshop?!”
“Yeah, it is currently rummaging through everything. It almost tore the place apart.”
Julius’s tone sounded strange, as if he were suppressing a laugh.
Helos’s face turned pale instantly, and she began to stomp her feet in a panic.
“I’m doomed! My workshop! My treasures! Just hold on for me—”
“Then what are you standing around for!”
Julius grabbed her wrist and urged her urgently, “Let’s go! Any later and your workshop will be torn into scrap metal!”
“Right! No time for talk! Fast, fast, fast!”
Helos shouted as she ran, looking like she was about to cry. “Gavi! If you dare tear down my workshop, I will never forgive you—!”
Led by Lille, Helos and Julius sprinted the entire way, rushing toward the duke’s mansion like a whirlwind.
To increase her speed, Helos gritted her teeth and pulled out two bottles of potion midway through, neatly downing a vitality potion and a concentration potion in one go.
The warm medicinal power surged through her body, instantly restoring some strength to her aching legs and clearing her mind.
However, when they finally arrived at the workshop and pushed the door open, the sight before her made Helos’s vision go dark. She nearly fainted on the spot.
The workshop was a wreck. Tables and chairs were overturned, bottles and jars on the shelves had fallen to the floor, and broken glass mixed with residual medicinal liquid to create a pungent odor that filled the air.
Tools were scattered everywhere, as if the room had just survived a chaotic looting.
In the center of this mess, Gavi stood silently.
That half-exquisite face and half-cold mask flickered in the firelight. The crimson dots of light that had been burning in its hollow eye sockets suddenly flickered when it saw Helos enter.
***
In the next instant, the red light receded like a tide, returning to its original faint glimmer.
Gavi’s stiff shoulders slowly relaxed. The movement it had been making, as if searching for something, came to a halt. The entire figure returned to a deathly calm.
“Gavi…”
Helos murmured, her chest heaving violently. She felt both the relief of a survivor and an indescribable complexity of emotion.
She stepped forward quickly, wanting to check Gavi’s status. Julius followed closely behind, his eyes still wary, looking ready to strike at any moment.
But Gavi did not move. It simply stared straight at Helos.
Watching the red light gradually fade from its eyes, the heavy stone pressing on Helos’s heart finally lifted.
“Phew… That scared me to death.”
She stumbled and leaned against the workshop doorframe, her legs giving way as she nearly sank to the floor. “Why would it suddenly go berserk? I checked it and everything seemed fine.”
“Uh, it might be because it mistook the maid for an intruder,” Eleanor said weakly, poking her head out from outside the door. “I originally wanted to have the maid help you clean the workshop.”
Helos blinked, then frowned, her voice tinged with confusion.
“But I clearly never gave Gavi a ‘repel intruders’ command.”
Just as she finished speaking, Gavi suddenly moved.
It looked at Helos, its movements stiff yet carrying a sense of curiosity. It slowly tilted its head, much like a confused child pondering a problem.
Helos’s eyes widened as a storm of shock surged through her heart.
‘Is… is it responding to me?’
‘No, that should be impossible, right?’
Golems were not supposed to have autonomous consciousness. They should only function mechanically according to instructions.
This was especially true for one like Gavi, whom she could not even control through resonance.
And yet, the scene was playing out clearly before her eyes.
“Could it be—”
She held her breath, her heart pounding. Suddenly, she gathered her courage and asked tentatively, “Gavi, can you understand what I’m saying?”
Inside Gavi’s hollow eye sockets, the points of light flickered slowly.
Then, it nodded—extremely slowly, but with absolute certainty.
In that moment, everyone in the workshop froze.
Helos’s breath hitched. She felt all the blood rush to her head, making her feel faint.
The suspicion in her heart had actually come true.
Now if we could only give her a voice.