The scouting unit emerged from its burrow and rushed to the vilge. According to its coded directives, the [Hero Protocol] is a type of interference within a group of intelligent locals, which would grant the unit their favor when it saves them from bad or traumatizing situations.

  ST-UN 0004 waited for the two criminals to begin strong-arming the girl before it moved to save her. Its carefully calcuted pn began when one of the vilgers screamed upon noticing its presence, causing its two targets to panic and stare at it, effectively halting any progress they had in capturing the girl named "Tsuare."

  Doors smmed shut around Greb as everyone stopped staring in pity at Carpef Namior's test "whore" and bolted into their homes to hide from the rushing monster.

  "W-what is that?!" Gathar pushed him aside and began running. Not even his friend's shove stopped Greb from freezing up. His hold on the now-panicking girl's wrist had turned into a vice grip, tightening as he watched the creature come closer.

  It was made of metal—high-quality iron from the looks of it. The monster's blue-and-white body was sleek, with sharp edges, and where it did have bulk, it was hidden away by an upper yer of metal sheets that acted like some type of armor. Six powerful legs with tips that looked like bdes carried its weight, and two spear-like arms waved menacingly in front of it. A dark-grey tail swished back and forth from the thing's back as it moved.

  Its arrow-shaped head split open, and a tube-like tongue emerged from the depths of its throat. Something glowed within the cylinder, and Greb realized too te that it was some type of weapon.

  An oval-shaped projectile made of light pierced through his head, flying past multiple houses to hit the shoulder of Gathar. But Greb didn't hear his friend's screams of agony.

  The unit ignored the fallen criminal as it chased after his fleeing compatriot. Thanks to the vilgers fleeing moments prior, the streets were empty, and its bulky frame was able to weave through the space between the houses without much issue.

  One of its front cws pierced the man from the top of his head, going down through his body until the sharp tip exited from his groin. Gathar now y dead beneath the automaton, the unit mostly uncaring of what happened to the criminal. Now that he had been dispatched, it was time to take care of the st issue while fulfilling one of its directives at the same instant.

  ST-UN 0004 broke into the house, shattering its wooden walls and causing the mostly female servants within to hide from its emergence. They all froze in panic at the sight of it, too mentally scarred to do anything but accept the inevitable. ST-UN 0004 ignored all of them and rushed to the living room, where it proceeded to break the ceiling. A man and a woman fell from above. The woman had bruises on her face and parts of her exposed skin. Thanks to her concussed state, she did not react to the unit's sudden arrival and destruction.

  The man was pristine—was. He was now full of dust, the sweat that had caked his body seconds ago collecting particutes that stuck to his skin. His blonde hair had been dirtied by the fall. Liquid waste ran out from his spot on the floor, causing chemicals to rise into the air as the liquid evaporated. Little of it was produced as of present. The air was still clean, and data on the man's health could not be gathered.

  "W-wha—" The man began to crawl away when he saw the unit's mouth split open.

  ST-UN 0004 fired a paralyzing shot, causing the high-priority target to remain still. He was still conscious but would not fil about when captured. ST-UN 0004 wrapped its prehensile tail around the man's rotund form. The appendage's sleek silicone surface turned sticky as an adhesive substance poured outward, locking the man in pce and ensuring he would not escape.

  Its work now done, the unit emerged from the house expecting the adoration of the vilgers, but all it got were fearful looks and weapons it recognized as crudely made spears pointed in its direction. Aggression?

  The unit short-circuited and stayed still. It sent out a message to the operator and prepared to overload its energy storage should it sustain enough damage during its temporary stasis.

  Rocks pelted its form, but most struck the high-priority target it had captured with its tail for some unknown reason. It referred to its data bank and concluded that organics simply cked the precision of machines and thus could not aim properly.

  It gathered data on the locals while waiting for a reply.

  ...

  Tsuare clutched her chest with her hand as the vilgers attacked the monster—no, golem. She corrected herself. Ninya, her little sister, was studying magic due to her talent, and though she could not read, she had seen paintings of the types of things mages could make. Golems were one of them.

  The vilgers would not see reason when she told them what it was, fearing it might attack them as well. But from how things were going—namely, that Lord Carpef Namior was the one being attacked—she believed everyone was just using the golem as an excuse to throw rocks at the noble.

  "We'll save you, Lord Carpef!"

  "Yeah!"

  "What he said!"

  "Don't worry!"

  "Keep throwing rocks, everybody!"

  Tsuare took that as proof that her assumptions were true. Now that the golem was, in fact, safe, she couldn't help but stare at it. It looked well-made, and she didn't doubt that whoever created such a thing must be a powerful mage. And they had saved her. Her face turned crimson, and she looked around, worried that the other vilgers might have noticed.

  Well, she didn't see the mage. But then again, the golem was stationary, so maybe it was waiting for its master? Tsuare's imagination ran wild at what they might look like.

  Before long, a portal opened at the outskirts of the vilge. The gasps and sounds of awe from everyone caused Tsuare to stop her musings and focus on the swirling mass of red that appeared out of thin air.

  Someone—no, something—stepped out. Another golem? This one looked humanoid and was even more menacing than the insectoid golem that had invaded their vilge. It was tall and nky, with lights for eyes, a featureless face, and a sleek design.

  The golem looked around, probably searching for threats before stepping out fully. The portal closed behind it before anyone else could emerge. Everyone watched with bated breath as the thing stepped into the vicinity of the houses. It was as tall as some of the buildings here.

  "UN-ST 0004. Report."

  The golem speaking caused everyone to react with paranoia, and Lord Carpef Namior to begin panicking.

  "I see. And where are these criminals you speak of?"

  What? Tsuare didn't hear anything. Did the golem really speak? Perhaps only this one could hear it? What was it, anyway?

  The humanoid golem stepped into the pathways and turned to look at the corpses of Tsuare's would-be kidnappers.

  "Did Sakai not program you to prioritize capturing targets?" Another bout of silence. "Well, she should have. I'll tell her right now."

  Silence, and then the golem finally looked at all of them.

  "Humans." It looked away as though it couldn't bear to stare at the vilgers for long before turning its sights on Lord Carpef Namior. "What is your title?"

  "B-Baron!" Carpef said in panic, beginning to cry. "Please, if the Eight Fingers did something to the empire, I didn't have anything to do with it!"

  "Empire?" The golem tilted its head. "I am not from wherever that is. But I'll take note of that—thank you for the piece of trivia." It kneeled until it was face-to-face with the bound noble. "Now, you will tell me everything you know about the Eight Fingers, or I will drag you to the ice dungeons where Demiurge will do that for me."

  It raised a hand wrapped in lightning. "You will talk."

  "Whoa." Right next to her, Ninya spoke. Oh no, was her talent kicking in? Tsuare moved to shut her mouth, but Ninya's thoughts were faster.

  "It's using the air to form the lightning and—how is it making the air dance?"

  The golem paused—was it a golem?—and looked at Ninya.

  "Oxygen. Its molecules, to be exact. I am creating a vibration in the air using mana, which energizes them. A brief shock causes lightning, and all it takes is mana to fuel the resulting reaction."

  Tsuare gulped. She feared for Ninya now that her sister had caught the golem's interest.