Chapter 81

Day 311 of Banishment: Beautiful Ruins (5)
"A Golem Capable of Carrying 100 Iron Golems and Marylia Across the Sea." Naturally, such a thing has never been employed in human history.

Even Marylia didn’t think such a thing was possible... until she saw the magic stones here.

By utilizing as much of the dormant mana beneath this island as possible, she could strengthen herself. Alternatively, she could embed the magic stones into a massive golem to reduce the burden of controlling it. If she could do that... it might just be possible. That’s what Marylia thought!

… Or rather, Marylia thought, "Well, making a golem still seems easier than building a ship..." Because, honestly, building a ship is just too difficult!

Now then, Day 311 of banishment.

For this reason, Marylia decided to stay in this ruined town for a while.

She wanted to mine a decent amount of magic stones first and then decide her next steps based on what she found. So, she brought enough food for an extended stay.

"Let’s see, I’ll set up a temporary food storage here. And over here can be the bedroom… Hehe, there’s a water source nearby, so I should be fine."

She chose a relatively intact corner of the ruins as her temporary base. She set up a simple bed and shelves to store the food she brought. Nearby, there was a spring with fresh water bubbling up, which she could use.

"While the golems work on mining, I’ll make this place more livable for myself."

Marylia smiled brightly as she dusted off the ruins with a cloth. She planned to stay here for about two weeks, so it was her job to make the place comfortable and healthy during that time.

… So.

"First, let’s stop this necromancy."

The most unpleasant aspect of this town... and the thing that was needlessly consuming the mana Marylia needed for her own purposes—the necromancy—had to be stopped immediately!

"Even while mining, it doesn’t stop. Impressive, really."

Heading to the necromantic temple, she saw the Iron Golems diligently working on the excavation as usual. Passing by them, Marylia looked up at the altar in the center of the room... the altar used for necromancy, and nodded thoughtfully.

"But still, I’m going to stop it. Hehe."

This necromantic ritual had been running for nearly 100 years, cobbled together haphazardly. Stopping it wasn’t too difficult, at least not for Marylia.

"Jade, come here for a moment."

Marylia called for Jade, who was busy with the mining. But when Marylia called, Jade immediately came over.

Jade knelt respectfully in front of Marylia, who praised her with a "Good job today" before pointing at the altar.

"I’d like you to destroy this altar. Is that okay?"

… Jade nodded, picked up a pickaxe, and headed toward the altar!

And so, Jade followed Marylia’s instructions to destroy the altar.

It was, after all, a magical artifact. Destroying it required some care... but conversely, with "some care," it could be destroyed.

"The part that binds souls is pretty obvious, huh?"

Marylia’s expertise was in golem control, which shares some similarities with necromancy. So, she could roughly understand the structure of the necromantic ritual. "Destroy this part first, then stop that part over there..." By carefully following the steps, the necromancy was quickly subdued.

As the altar’s effects faded, the island gradually became quieter. Essentially, the wasteful diffusion of mana had ceased.

"That’s better. It’s a bit more comfortable now."

… Living under someone else’s magic always felt unsettling to Marylia. So, once the altar was completely destroyed and the island’s necromancy vanished, she smiled brightly and clapped her hands!

"Now, let’s fix the roof."

Next, Marylia started repairing the roof.

… She had chosen a relatively intact house to stay in, but "relatively intact" was still far from perfect. It was obvious that the roof would leak if it rained, so she wanted to do something about it.

"Let’s see... I can place weights here and here. Then, I’ll use ropes to secure this part."

What Marylia pulled out was a piece of cloth—a sailcloth that had washed ashore. And more importantly... it had been waxed with beeswax.

Sailcloth is typically a tightly woven, thick fabric impregnated with wax. The wax makes the cloth denser, stronger, and waterproof. Military tents, for example, used this kind of material.

By repeatedly coating the cloth with beeswax, heating it to let the wax soak in, and then drying it, Marylia created a highly water-repellent waxed cloth. Stretching this over the roof would serve as a makeshift solution.

Using weights and ropes, Marylia successfully reinforced the roof with the waxed cloth. Now, the decaying roof had a waxed cloth layer over it. Well, this should keep the rain out. Comfortable!

"Next, the door... Wood just rots so quickly, doesn’t it?"

Next, she tackled the door. Currently, the ruins had no door. The walls were made of brick and plaster, so they were still standing, but the door was likely made of wood. Over time, it had rotted away, leaving only fragments behind. This wasn’t a comfortable situation!

So, Marylia decided to repair the door... but with limited materials, she had to make do by weaving branches together. Since it was already spring on this deserted island, a few gaps here and there wouldn’t be a big deal.

"Hehe, this brings back memories~”

It must have been half a year ago when Marylia first made a simple door by weaving wood and bark together. What she was making now was similar... but the fact that this now felt like a "makeshift solution" made her feel nostalgic.

… Now, Marylia could even smelt iron. Looking back at the days when she had to make do with stone, wood, and clay, she felt both nostalgic and proud of how far she’d come.

Feeling motivated, Marylia continued repairing the house.

When cooking produced ash, she mixed it with water, baked it, and then combined it with more water and sand to make mortar, which she used to patch up the crumbling walls.

She removed beams that were too weak and likely to collapse. Since the roof was now covered with sailcloth, having fewer beams was actually better.

For the windows, where glass had once been, she hung woven branches as makeshift curtains... but it still got cold at night. So, she decided to seal them with planks and mortar. Health was more important than comfort!

While Marylia worked on repairing the house, the golems continued their relentless mining.

… However, the mining for magic stones wasn’t going very well.

Day 320 of banishment.

Marylia let out a small sigh as she inspected the magic stones mined that day. "Hmm... not much to show for it."

… After finding a high-quality fragment of a magic stone on the first day, she had hoped that even larger and higher-quality stones lay buried deeper underground. But it seemed her expectations were a bit off.

"I thought there would be a vein with plenty of magic stones... but it seems I was wrong."

She tilted her head, wondering what to do.

… If she could gather a large number of magic stones and significantly enhance her abilities, she planned to control a massive golem and escape the island.

But with so few magic stones being found... she might need to rethink her approach.

"Still, I can’t bring myself to start building a ship now..."

… Of course, she knew that building a ship would be difficult. Marylia only had golems. Only golems! It was because she only had golems that she ended up stranded on this island in the first place!

"... What should I do?"

Feeling lost, Marylia watched the golems return to their mining work, thinking, "Well, there’s no use worrying about it..."

That night, Marylia tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

It felt like everything was at a standstill, and she couldn’t find peace.

"I don’t think I’m wrong about the method. Using golems to escape is still the fastest way. Building a ship—no, even designing one from scratch—would be far worse. It’s certain that this island contains magic stones..."

Muttering to herself, she gazed at the thin line of moonlight streaming through the cracks of the boarded-up window, painting a bright streak on the floor.

"It’ll take time, but if I can just find the magic stones, I’ll manage... But I have no idea how long that will take..."

She thought and thought. Worried and worried. Part of her believed that "charging forward without overthinking" was the best approach, but another part couldn’t stop thinking and worrying, leaving her unable to sleep. In this state of mind, Marylia continued to stare at the moonlight on the floor.

"If only I could confirm whether the magic stones are there or not."

Focusing on the line of moonlight, she sharpened her thoughts, hoping to find an answer.

"That’s right... I don’t even know if the magic stones are really there or if they’re buried at a depth I can reach. At the very least, I need to confirm that before I can keep waiting aimlessly..."

Desperately, Marylia racked her brain for a solution. Outside, the sound of pickaxes echoed as the golems worked tirelessly. They could work all day without rest, but even they had limits—mainly in terms of speed.

She could wait a year. Maybe even three years. But if this dragged on for ten or twenty years... would she still be able to keep going like this?

It wasn’t a question of her body. It was her mind... Would her spirit remain unbroken by then?

Could she cling to an uncertain escape plan and keep moving forward for decades?

Suddenly, the line of moonlight on the floor disappeared. The moon had shifted, no longer shining through the cracks in the boarded-up window.

Seeing this, Marylia decided to give up and try to sleep. She rolled over in bed...

"... No, I can’t. I’ll stay up a bit longer."

But in the end, she couldn’t calm down. If she couldn’t sleep, she might as well embrace it. If she couldn’t stop worrying, she might as well accept the time spent worrying and try to enjoy it.

Stepping outside, she was greeted by a breathtakingly beautiful night sky. Marylia smiled. "Ah~ staying up was worth it."

Noticing her presence, Jade hurried over, clearly concerned.

"Oh, it’s fine. I just couldn’t sleep and came out to look at the stars."

Reassuring Jade, Marylia watched as the Iron Golem nodded and took a position slightly behind her, standing guard. Seeing Jade act like a proper knight made Marylia chuckle. Another reason to appreciate staying up late.

"It’s so beautiful... With no other lights around, the stars are so clear from this island."

For a while, Marylia simply gazed at the stars.

From this dark island, even the tiniest stars sparkled brilliantly against the deep blue sky. One of the few good things about being here was undoubtedly the chance to enjoy this magnificent view.

"Truly beautiful... It’s like someone scattered fragments of crystal... no, grains of magic stone across black silk."

She imagined what it would be like to scatter crushed magic stone grains across a dark fabric and giggled. "If I find a lot of magic stones, I’d love to try something like that." Then she continued, "Or maybe I could make Mud Golems mixed with magic stone sand and line them up..." She laughed softly.

… But then.

"... A Mud Golem made of magic stone sand."

Marylia’s laughter stopped abruptly, and her eyes widened.

She felt like she had just stumbled upon something incredible. Slowly, she began to refine and examine her thoughts. It was like carefully searching for a fishbone in her mouth after accidentally swallowing one—a mix of annoyance and anxiety.

"That’s it!"

Finally reaching her conclusion, Marylia broke into a wide smile.

"I can check if magic stones are present! If a golem that is normally beyond my control activates, then that means there are magic stones in the soil! This way, I can confirm whether or not the soil contains magic stones!"

"If the soil contains a certain amount of magic stones, a giant Mud Golem should activate. If not, I can discard that clump of dirt... Yes, yes, this could work!"

Marylia trembled with excitement at her own idea.

It felt like emerging from a dark cave into bright light, or like sunlight breaking through thick clouds... In short, it was an amazing feeling! She wanted to dance right then and there!

… After all, Marylia’s spirit wasn’t strong enough to endure ten or twenty years of aimless work. She was only human.

That’s why coming up with a "goal-oriented" method was so meaningful.

The idea of "creating a large golem and testing its activation to confirm the presence of magic stones" was admittedly rough... but it was still far better than throwing herself into endless, directionless mining.

"The question is, how big should I make it? Hehe, I’ve got so much to think about now!"

… Above all, it was far healthier to think and act toward a goal than to dwell on endless, aimless thoughts. Like a fish—no, a whale—finding water, Marylia swam vigorously through the sea of her thoughts.

But.

"If it’s too small, it’ll be inefficient. But if it’s too big, I might miss a lot of magic stones... But I don’t even know how much magic stone is buried on this island. Maybe I should start by making it as big as possible, then gradually break it down..."

… But as soon as Marylia started thinking, she quickly reached a conclusion.

Because.

"... What if I just turned the entire island into a golem? That would be faster."

… After all, strength is everything.

What do you think about this chapter?