Chapter 82

Day 312 of Banishment: Reclamation (1)
"So, I’m going to turn this island into a golem!"

… On the morning of the 321st day of her banishment, Marylia boldly made this declaration!

"The magic stones are likely scattered all over the island, but I think the largest concentration is around this area. So, I plan to shape the island with this spot as the center."

Marylia explained her plan to the golems. The golems listened attentively, nodding along, making the conversation feel worthwhile.

"And... probably, this area here is a river, and the part we’re currently breaking down is here. This is a valley, and over here, there’s another river, right? So, for now, I think we should divide the island here and start shaping it."

Marylia continued her explanation while showing a rough map—a copy of the one she had found in the underground of the temporary base she had discovered earlier.

Using this area as the center and making good use of the two rivers... she would create a golem in the middle of the island. A massive, enormous golem... so large that everything else would seem like a mere "margin of error"!

"So, the main issues are shaping the island, removing other souls, and... embedding the core."

Now that the decision to turn the island into a golem had been made, the tasks ahead were clear. Marylia smiled cheerfully as she continued explaining to the golems.

"First, shaping. We need to clearly define the area from here to here that will become the golem... In the worst case, I’ll use mana to draw a line and separate it, but ideally, I’d like to manipulate the terrain itself to make it work."

The first thing needed was shaping.

To make the golem move as a golem, Marylia’s mana and skills were essential. And, of course, the material that would serve as the golem’s body... but the closer the golem’s form was to Marylia’s own, the easier it would be to control.

In other words, it would be better if it had a humanoid shape!

… That said.

"... If there’s a large amount of magic stones, even if the shaping is rough, it should still work. The smaller the golem, the more precision is required in its form, but once it’s as big as part of an island, the shape becomes almost irrelevant..."

… If she were making a very small golem, precision would be crucial. The difference between "Marylia’s finger" for a golem that fits in the palm of her hand and "Marylia’s finger" for a golem larger than a house is immense.

Yes. The larger the golem, the less precision is needed for it to function. Therefore, Marylia believed that 'shaping' wasn’t actually that necessary. The rest would depend on her imagination and skills.

And finally...

"In the center of the island... the spot that will become the golem’s core, I’ll embed a part of myself. That should make it easier to control."

A technique to make controlling the golem easier. It involves embedding a part of herself into the golem to serve as its core.

This technique isn’t limited to golem control. The act of cutting off a part of one’s own body and using it as an extension of oneself is used in various places. For example, drawing magical patterns with one’s own blood or using an ancestor’s bones as a sacrifice.

"What to embed... well, a bit of blood, and..."

Marylia stared at the knife she was holding. She thought, “I should sharpen it properly before drawing blood!”

But... the blood was just a precaution. Because...

"And hair! Ehehehe. It’s a good thing I saved it~"

Marylia already had a large amount of “a part of herself that she had cut off”!

There was a reason she had carefully preserved the hair she had cut on the day of her banishment! Marylia smiled brightly, thinking "I’m so glad!" and took another step closer to creating the golem!

After completing the preparations... on the 325th day of her banishment, the plan to turn the island into a giant golem finally began.

"Alright, take care. Be careful out there."

… What Marylia entrusted to the golems was the task of shaping the island.

Deciding where to carve, where to break down, and where to build up. These decisions needed to be made in consultation with the golems currently working on the iron excavation, so some of the golems had to return to the base temporarily.

"You be careful too."

Also, without some kind of reference for shaping, it would be impossible to proceed. So, Marylia decided to experiment by creating a small golem... and placed it on the back of a nearby wyvern!

"Alright, you, fly around as you please. Just don’t drop this little one!"

… The wyvern had just been thoroughly beaten by Marylia, Jade, and the other Iron Golems. Just as it was about to flee, it found a small Iron Golem on its back, leaving it utterly bewildered!

But Marylia showed no mercy. She poked the confused wyvern with her spear, urging it, "Come on, take off already!" The wyvern, with the golem on its back, flapped its wings desperately and disappeared into the sky.

Marylia looked up at the sky where the wyvern had flown off and smiled, "Yep! Great weather!" The wyvern’s panicked cry of "Meeeeeeeh!" echoed through the air.

"Now then... Let’s go handle the 'soul removal.'"

With the golems starting to move... Marylia also began to act.

The task for Marylia, Jade, and the four other guard golems was “soul removal. Essentially, the more residual souls there were on the island, the harder it would be for Marylia to control the golem. To reduce the burden as much as possible, they needed to remove other souls... meaning the living creatures inhabiting the island and their remains.

In other words...

"It's been a while since I last hunted~ Ehehehe..."

… It was time for a hunt.

Lately, Marylia had left most of the hunting to the golems, so for her, it had been quite a while since she last hunted herself!

And so, Marylia hunted to her heart's content, removing countless animal remains in the process.

As expected, an island of this size had a lot of residual matter. Finding the remains of large monsters that small animals and microorganisms couldn’t fully decompose was an incredibly daunting task.

The remains couldn’t be eaten. At best, they could be scattered in the fields, but that wouldn’t remove the souls, so the only option was to burn them in a cremation.

… In that regard, hunting was better. If you hunted, you could eat the prey, which was motivating. Though, once the island became a golem, the living creatures would likely flee on their own, so perhaps there wasn’t a need to hunt so vigorously.

"So much meat. Ehehe..."

… But for now, Marylia was motivated by the goal of "eating"! It couldn’t be helped. Appetite is one of the most important human instincts, after all...

That evening, the spoils of Marylia’s hunt were laid out in front of the temporary base. The results were impressive.

The small Iron Golem also returned. It toddled back diligently, looking utterly adorable, so Marylia couldn’t help but pick it up. Small things are just so cute!

… However, she felt Jade’s somewhat sticky gaze on her, so she gently placed the small Iron Golem back on the ground. Jade didn’t have eyes, of course. But still...

"Alright, you can start drawing the map right away. Use whatever you need."

After sending off the small Iron Golem and the other Iron Golems assigned to help with map-making, Marylia turned her attention to the next task.

"... Let’s process the meat."

Marylia, along with the guard Iron Golems and Jade, set to work processing the meat they had hunted!

The next day, the 326th day of her banishment.

"I need more salt..."

Marylia came to this conclusion.

… Or rather, the hassle of transporting materials and tools was becoming a problem. While she was using this beautiful ruin as a temporary base, traveling back and forth to her original base—a journey that took over a day—was just too troublesome!

"... This is going to be an ongoing issue, isn’t it?"

Marylia pondered.

… While the goal of "turning the island into a golem" had been set, numerous obstacles stood in the way of achieving it.

She would have to continue dealing with the monsters, and shaping the island into a golem-like form would take a considerable amount of time.

And most importantly... she still didn’t have enough Iron Golems!

Yes! She needed more labor, but the labor force was insufficient!

In other words, she would have to continue gathering iron by either sifting for iron sand or mining iron ore… Especially with the iron sand sifting, since it involved breaking down mountains, it would also play a role in shaping the island. It was an essential task.

Anyway, to produce iron on such a large scale, relying on just one location for iron sand sifting would take far too long.

Therefore, as originally planned, she intended to use the river on the opposite side of the island to conduct iron sand sifting simultaneously. But that raised the question: "Where would the collected iron sand be smelted?"

… That’s right.

As Marylia’s range of activity and territory expanded... she found herself grappling with logistics!

"... I could build a separate ironworks near each iron sand sifting site, but... that would require twice as many smelting golems..."

The tricky part of this problem was that it wasn’t as simple as "if you’re sifting iron sand in two places, just build two furnaces."

The reason was that the two sifting sites were on opposite sides of the island. Having golems travel back and forth between them would be pointless, so each site would need its own garrison of golems.

Of course, if she had enough golems to spare, that would be possible. But... given the current situation, it was quite challenging. She wanted to allocate as many golems as possible to mining and shaping the island, so she couldn’t afford to dedicate too many to ironworking.

Therefore, centralizing materials and their processing in one location would be more efficient. Marylia wanted to gather both the iron and the golems in one place as much as possible.

… The exception might be charcoal. Once you started burning it, you could leave it alone for a while, and charcoal kilns were somewhat disposable by nature. Moreover, transporting charcoal was easier than transporting raw wood. And since the trees weren’t concentrated in one area, it was more efficient to "burn charcoal near where the trees were cut."

"I want to transport iron, and also salt... So, I’ll either need to prepare transport golems or find a way to make transporting things easier... But if I spend resources and labor on that, it might delay the overall completion..."

Marylia was torn.

She couldn’t tell whether solving this issue would speed up the completion of the island golem or if ignoring the logistics problem would ultimately be faster.

But.

"... Still, from the perspective of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, it’s better to handle various tasks in advance."

In the end, Marylia reached this conclusion.

"Alright, let’s build a ropeway."

A ropeway. In other words, a cable car system.

What do you think about this chapter?