We arrived at the empire's capital and rented a room in an inn that’s popular with adventurers. It was fascinating to see how quickly things have changed in the empire. There are still a lot of things in progress and it’s definitely not finished yet but the atmosphere all around is much happier and streets that were almost desolated before are now bustling with people. I sent Lauren a letter ahead of our arrival saying we will stop by tomorrow for a quick chat and briefly explaining our reason for travelling. We decided to eat something before looking through the merchant district. There are a lot of new stores around, each carrying things from different cultures. Lauren told me that the people from conquered nations were forced to adapt to the empire’s ways and would even be prosecuted if they didn’t. It was one of the first things she changed. I expected there to be at least some clash with so many different cultures in one place but it looks very harmonious. We checked out a few different stores that sell weapons, mom because she is obsessed with swords and me because I figured I might be able to learn something, but they said they can’t just give out information like that. By the end of the day I was more exhausted than I thought I would be but then again I wasn’t really able to explore as much as today before.

After eating breakfast we are now on our way to the castle. We arrive at a gate and two knights greet us, “Your highness’, her Majesty asked us to guide you when you arrive.” We follow the knights into the castle and through quite a few corridors before they stop in front of a large door and knock, “Your Majesty, they are here.” “Come in.” The knights open the door and direct us in but stay outside while closing the door behind us. The room looks like an office, on one wall there are all kinds of different weapons displayed while on the other side there are bookshelves reaching the ceiling. There is also a small sitting area and a desk, where Lauren is currently sitting at, with multiple stacks of documents. “Take a seat, I will be right with you.” I think she is waving her hand towards the sitting area but it’s hard to make out with all the documents in front of her, nonetheless mom and I sit down while a maid pours us tea. It only took about a minute before Lauren lets out a loud sigh and gets up from her desk and walks over to us. Mom gives her a warm, understanding look, “I hope we aren’t too much of a bother.” Lauren shakes her head as she sits down opposite us, “Not at all. Verna, my assistant has been pestering me to take more breaks for a while now anyway.” As if on cue the door opens and a woman enters, “I wouldn’t complain as much if you stopped insisting on doing everything yourself and let others help with the workload, or at the very least me.” Lauren lets out another sigh, massages her temples and mumbles, “Speak of the devil and they shall appear.” The woman looks at Lauren with an intimidating smile, “What was that?” Lauren flinches and looks clearly uncomfortable if not scared, “N-nothing.” She then looks at us, having composed herself again, and gestures at the woman, “This is Verna, my assistant.” Verna gives a courteous bow, “It’s a pleasure meeting you your highness’” She looks in my direction and suddenly has a puzzled expression. “Your highness, if you don’t mind me asking, why does your golem look like a backpack?” I switch between looking at my backpack and her in confusion, “What do you mean golem?” She tilts her head and stares at the backpack as if trying to stare a hole into it, “I’m sorry, I might be wrong but I grew up around golems so I’m pretty confident in recognizing them but I’ve never seen one quite like yours before.” I don’t really know what she’s talking about, what even is a golem and why would my backpack be one. Before I can ask any of my questions mom asks, “Excuse me but aren’t golems a type of monster? As far as I know inanimate objects can’t turn into monsters, can they?” Verna seems to think for a moment before turning her head towards Lauren who gives her a quick nod. “The kind of golem I’m talking about is different from a monster. They are manmade instead of occurring naturally like a monster. You see, I grew up in a place where such golems were commonplace before the empire took over. We told the former emperor that they can’t be used for battle, because of that he wasn’t interested in them and mostly left us alone. Since I grew up seeing them a lot so I’m pretty confident in recognizing them but I don’t really know too much about them so if you want to know more about them you should probably visit my hometown.” I turn towards mom, “I think it’s worth a try but I don’t know what you have planned so you decide.” Mom gives me a smile, “I don’t really have anything planned to be honest so it’s no problem.” She then turns to Verna, “We would need to know where it is exactly though.” “Ah right. It’s to the west, close to the Everroot Forest.” “Everroot? Isn’t that where the Elves live? I thought they don’t like outsiders?” “Yes, but as long as you don’t enter the forest without permission it’s fine. The village even trades with them from time to time.” Lauren massages her temples, “I want to ask why the empire doesn’t know about something like that but I can already guess what the answer is going to be.” Verna gives her a mischievous smile, “Hey, at least I’m telling you now.” Mom thinks for a moment, “That should be fine, there is something I have been holding off doing around there anyways.” Lauren clears her throat, “Now that that’s settled I want to suggest holding a banquet but I know you would hate that so I will hold off on it but at least get in touch with me if there is anything you need while you stay in the empire.” “Then can you ask the blacksmiths to teach me their forging method?” Lauren looks at me flabbergasted while mom and Verna are clearly trying to hold in their laughter. “I assume you’re asking me because you already asked them and they refused, right? There is nothing I can do about that, forging methods are a blacksmith's lifeblood, they only teach their disciples.” I shrug, “Well, it was worth a try.” “That does remind me though, if you don’t mind could you have a look at the armour? All the blacksmiths and magic tool craftsmen that looked at it couldn’t figure out how to maintain it and I wanted to make sure it’s still in working order, especially since it seems more like a parade armour rather than one used in actual combat.” “Ah. I can’t really inspect it properly since my workshop disappeared but it should be fine. It has a self maintenance function so as long as you don’t completely destroy it it should even fix a few dents by itself given enough time.” She looks at me even more shocked than before, “what do you mean it disappeared? You’re saying this as if it’s something minor but isn’t this quite a big deal?” I shrug, “There is nothing I can do about it. It disappeared together with most other things I stored in the backpack so it either got destroyed when whatever changed the backpack happened or it got absorbed into the backpack somehow. It’s more realistic to assume it got destroyed though since I tried to fuse magic tools before but it never worked.” “Well, if you’re not worried about it there is nothing I can do about it.”

We talked for a bit more about different things that happened while we didn’t see each other and as it turns out Verna and Lauren are engaged and they invited us to the wedding. They don’t have a specific date in mind yet but it’s probably going to be in about 2 years. We left for Verna’s hometown after another day of sightseeing in the capital and I tried to use that time as well as the time it took to get there to get mom to tell me what she had to do around there that she’s been holding off on but she always avoided answering. At least the journey was pleasant until we got so far out the countryside that even calling the roads a dirt path would be a compliment. Since the carriage we used was rented I also couldn’t modify it to make it more comfortable which made me miss home a bit but the change of scenery was definitely worth it. We arrived in the late evening so we were a bit worried about finding a place to stay since a small village this far out doesn’t even have an inn but it seems Verna might have informed them about us arriving because we were welcomed by a couple a few years older than Verna and they offered us a room at their house.

Turns out I was correct, Verna sent a letter ahead of time and the couple that welcomed us are Verna’s older brother and his wife and they said they would introduce us to someone who is a golem expert and maintains most of the ones used in the village. “They live at the outskirts of the village, close to the forest but luckily the village is small so it doesn’t take long to walk over there. It’s the only house out there so it’s hard to miss and when you meet them just tell them I sent you.” With that we start walking towards the forest along the village's roads. Mom is fidgeting around with her sword handle which she only does when she is nervous about something but I don’t really know what she would be nervous about and since there are a few golems walking around I’m also too focused on them to try to get mom to tell me. The golems indeed look quite different to the monsters. They look like they are made out of dirt and mud and are about one metre tall. They don’t seem to have any fingers, toes or facial features aside from faint yellow glowing eyes and they seem to either transport things from one place to another or do simple farm work. I’m still absorbed in observing the golems when a voice calls out to mom. “Eliza? What brings you all the way out here? I thought you were trying to avoid me.” I look towards where the voice is coming from and there is an Elf with a big grin walking towards mom. Mom tenses up and I can almost hear her gritting her teeth, “Well, had I known you were here I would have made an excuse to not meet you.” “Oh come on, don’t be like that, it’s been like what, 15 years? You’re all grown up now so I promise I won’t tease you anymore.” Mom sighs and seems to loosen up a bit, “Fine, we can talk later, we are currently looking for the golem master that should be around here somewhere.” The elf tilts their head and puts a hand on their chin, “Oh my, that would be me. I thought people outside of here don’t know about golems to begin with so why do you want to know about them?” I shove my backpack between mom and the elf, “Apparently this is a golem.” The elf looks at me blinking a few times before smirking at mom, “Eliza, don’t you think she is a bit too young for you?” “You know, this is exactly why I didn’t want to meet you. Lucina is my daughter, she is also older than me.” “I see, I see. Let’s go back to my place first so I can take a look at that golem and after that you can tell me all about what you’ve been up to these past 15 years.” As they say that they turn around and wave us to follow them. As we follow them I nudge mom to get her attention and whisper to her, “Who are they and how do you know them?” Mom lets out another long sigh, “They are Arlayna, a like 400 year old elf and they used to be my mentor when I started out as an adventurer. I’ve been trying to avoid them because they kept teasing me about ending up with at least one child because I can’t distance myself from my job as an adventurer.” Arlayna turns around, now walking backwards with a mischievous grin, “Hey, I will have you know I’m only 362 and in the end it turned out I was right, wasn’t I.” They then turn towards me, still walking backwards, “Why don’t you tell me how this golem got created while we walk? I have never seen one quite this unique before.” “If I knew I wouldn’t be here. There was an… incident and what used to be a regular backpack with increased space turned into this.” How can someone walk backwards with their head tilted like that without walking into anything or falling over. “Hmm, you are going to have to tell me about that incident later but there is something else I’m curious about. How did you get Sylva’s blessing?” “What do you mean by Sylva's blessing? Who even is Sylva?” Arlayna starts bursting out in laughter, “Are you seriously telling me you got blessed by the queen of Dryads, who never blessed even an elf, without even knowing her name?” “I mean to be fair she only said something about helping her kin before flashing a bright light directly into my eyes and disappearing as if she was never there to begin with. It was the first time I encountered a Dryad so I have no idea what helping her kin was supposed to mean and I got distracted with other things right away so I forgot about it.” Arlayna’s expression turns serious very quickly and they turn around, “Well, let’s take a look at the golem first.” They enter a house and gesture for us to follow, going further into a side room that looks like a workshop. Though, in my opinion it looks more like a slaughterhouse rather than a workshop, there are crude looking limbs and torsos made out of all kinds of materials hanging on the walls and over some tables, some partially assembled others just laying around on their own. The floor itself is covered with a layer of dirt and in two corners are piles of dirt and mud respectively. Arlayna clears off one of the tables by swiping their arm across it, dropping everything on the floor in the process. “Now, could you please put the golem onto the table so I can take a look at it?” I make my way to the table, trying not to stumble over anything, and place the backpack on the table. They use magic I don’t recognize, presumably, inspecting the backpack before prodding and poking with a variety of tools, I have no idea what they are supposed to be for. “Just what in the name of god did you store in this backpack.” I look at her just as confused as she is looking at me, “Just the normal things, a few changes of clothes, a few corpses of monster I defeated, a few magic tools I was experimenting with, the box I used to create my special metal, oh and of course my workshop including weapon and armour prototypes.” They look at me, mouth agape, for a moment but getting their composure again pretty quickly, at least compared to others, “What did I expect from Eliza’s daughter.” They turn towards mom who, for some reason, is fidgeting around with an arm made of a green metal, “I somewhat expected it but why didn’t you teach your daughter some common sense?” Mom puts the arm down on a stack of other limbs, “First of all, rude, and how am I supposed to know I need to teach her not to do something that’s impossible anyways.” “Excuse me, but what are you two talking about?” Both let out a sigh and Arlayna shakes their head, “You’re not supposed to be able to put a magic tool with space expansion into another magic tool with space expansion. Of course there are some exceptions but they are very hard to make and because of that often not worth it.” I look at Arlayna confused, “I know that. I tried it at first but it didn’t work so I changed the magic that is on the backpack so it’s a pocket dimension instead of a space expansion.” “Pocket? Dimension? … … … “ Arlayna looks at mom as if asking for help. “Hey, you’re the magic expert, not me so don’t ask me to explain. But wasn’t it your theory that as long as someone uses enough mana pretty much anything is possible?” “I-I mean yes but something like this wouldn’t be possible for me and I haven’t met someone with more mana than me until now. Even when looking at records of the history of different places it’s rare for anyone to have similar mana to me, let alone more.” Their head snaps in my direction and they stare at me for a moment before letting out a sigh, “Let’s talk about what happened in the past 15 years over some tea, and after that I can explain more about Dryads and teach you how to make and control golems. It should be easy enough with your amount of mana.” We leave to the living room and Arlayna prepares some tea for us. While mom is explaining what happened to me and how we met I tinker with the teapot. Teapots that don’t heat up by themselves have to be one of the most annoying things there are. It seems I got faster with making teapots into magic items as mom is still in the middle of explaining but I already finished. Maybe I can add some other functions to it since I seem to have more time. “Care to explain what you are doing to my teapot?” Before I can think of things I could add to the teapot Arlayna seems to have noticed I was remodelling it. “Lucina! We talked about this! Didn’t you promise not to make other people's things into magic tools without permission?!” Oops. “B-but I hate regular teapots a-and it’s not that big of a change and it’s not like I have to listen to my own story and I was bored and I didn’t want to be a distraction and…” Mom buries her face in her hands and Arlayna looks at me in disbelief. “I’m sorry Arlayna, she does this every. single. time.” Mom gives me an angry glare, “I told her before that that’s the reason she keeps getting into trouble but no matter what she just can’t seem to help herself.” Arlayna calmed down again and is inspecting the teapot now. “I mean, to be honest, I can see her point. I probably wouldn’t have believed that story but seeing her make a magic tool out of an ordinary teapot makes it hard to deny.” They let out a deep sigh, “Now let me tell you about Dryads. Dryads are spirits, to be precise they are forest spirits. They are protecting forests all over the world but usually it’s not necessary for them to interfere. They feel strong kinship among each other and will protect each other to the best of their abilities and protecting a Dryad, especially a young one, will earn you their gratitude. They also follow a rather strict hierarchy where the older the Dryad is the higher up they are going to be. Sylva is considered the queen of Dryads because she is the oldest among Dryads. Now for the blessing. A Dryads blessing marks you as similar to kin and other Dryads will also recognize you as such, in addition to that you will get the forest's blessing which means that if you are in a forest you will be protected by it, either by getting safe passage or preventing dangers to get near you. Of course that only applies to a forest under the protection of a Dryad. And before you ask, I know about this because Elfs are very connected with Dryads since we also live in forests and also protect both the forest as well as the Dryads if necessary. Getting blessed by Dryads is still uncommon for Elfs but it’s also not exactly rare so it’s a part of our culture. Now to the part as to why you got the blessing. Dryads are able to polymorph into another species, not very long, but long enough to be able to get pregnant by that species. They don’t usually do that because it can be very dangerous but since Sylva is that old of a Dryad it’s not impossible. Because of that, who you helped might not have been a Dryad, or at least didn’t look like one at that moment.” I take a moment to think and take in all this information, “But if kin is so important for Dryads then why didn’t Sylva protect her kin herself? Also how am I supposed to know who it was if they don’t even look like a Dryad?” “Dryads can’t freely leave the area they are protecting. If they do it’s not just a limited range but they will also be severely weakened, which makes it very dangerous, so unless it’s something very major where they think they have no choice other than to interfere they won’t. And for how to recognize them, generally they will inherit at least some powers of the Dryad, examples for that would be controlling plants, strong plant based magic or the protection of the forest. They usually also recognize their kin, meaning Dryads, other half Dryads and those blessed by a Dryad. It can take a few years for those powers to manifest so unless they are still young they should recognize you now and in a few years you should be able to recognize them as well.” “So what you’re saying is that I can just wait until that power manifested from the blessing and I will find out then?” They chuckle for a moment, “Normally I would agree with you but since Sylva personally met you and gave you her blessing I think it’s safer to assume that we are talking about her child and with that I think Sylva also assigned you as their guardian with the blessing. I guess I forgot to say that earlier, being blessed by a Dryad doesn’t just mark you as similar to kin to Dryads but the equivalent to kin to the Dryad that gave the blessing which includes you in the Dryad hierarchy just below the Dryad that blessed you. It’s the main reason as to why Sylva doesn’t give her blessing to anyone, well, anyone but you it seems. But that also means it would be in your best interest to figure out who it is and make sure they will be safe until they can properly protect themself because if something happens Sylva is going to blame you.” I’m trying really hard to think about who it could be but nothing comes to mind yet but mom seems to have an idea, “I wasn’t around when it happened so it’s hard for me to say for sure so, Arlayna, is green hair a possible indicator as well?” “It can be, a lot of people with green hair have at least a distance relative that was a Dryad but it’s not that reliable because of that. Still, if you know someone with green hair it would at least be a start.” Mom looks at me, “Doesn’t Alexia and Violet have green hair? And isn’t Violet’s Talent talking with plants? From what you told me you also only know one of their parents so there would be room for the other parent to be a Dryad.” Arlayna starts laughing again, “Wait wait wait. You’re telling me you know someone with a Talent that lets them talk to plants but you are confused about who the kin of the Dryad is?” I puff my cheeks, “But Talents aren’t passed down so assuming it’s related should be wrong.” “That is mostly correct. While it’s true that Talents generally don’t get inherited, some species are more limited or have more specific Talents. A wolf can’t do anything with a weapon specific Talent so a wolf with for example a sword Talent won’t appear. They usually have something related to leadership or their bites and claws. The same thing applies to others as well so Dryads have Talents related to nature or forests, of course Dryads themselves don’t have a Talent that lets them speak with plants since they can do that naturally but for a half-Dryad it would make sense to have a Talent like that since the wouldn’t be able to do it naturally.” I think for a moment and then shrug, “Well, if that’s the case I don’t have to do anything since Violet is already under my protection anyway. So can you teach me how to make golems now?” They look at me for a few seconds before shrugging, “For the one you have here you just need to clean up the different magic in it a bit and change the appearance, unless you want it to stay as a backpack of course.” “Sounds easy enough. If you don’t mind, can I borrow your workshop and some of the limbs and torsos?” “They are failed experiments to make proper humanoid golems which I haven’t been able to make so far but I doubt that is going to stop you, so knock yourself out.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

It took some time to analyse the magic but I think I know now which magic is the core of the golem so to test it I grab a few limbs and torsos and put them into the backpack and then use the core of the golem to combine them into one. Nothing exploded so I think it worked, so I’m going to the next step to change the appearance and… the backpack transforms into just a torso. I try to do it again but the golem turns into just an arm and then just a leg. I must be doing something wrong still. I think I got an idea, I try again and the golem turns into a spear that used to be in my workshop. It looks like my theory is mostly right so I change the golem one more time and now it looks like the Direwolf I killed while escorting the Reyes merchants. The golem opens its eyes and in the blink of an eye it turns pitch black and its eyes are glowing a dim red. Well, that should probably be enough for today. I walk back to the living room, the golem following close behind me. Arlayna and mom are still catching up on other things that happened while they didn’t see each other. “Arlayna, thank you f-” ““What the-”” I look back at them, tilting my head, “What’s the matter?” Mom looks behind me, “Where did this black wolf come from?” Before I can answer Arlayna asks the next question already, “How were you able to make that?!” “What do you mean? I just did what you told me to do?” “Even if that’s the case, how can you do something I have been struggling to do for 50 years within just a few hours!” “How am I supposed to know? I don’t know what you tried in that time. When I tried it the issue was that it had to be a single thing. When I tried to assemble the limbs and torso using the golems core only one limb or the torso appeared, the same when I made a sword the centre of the golem, so I tried using one of the corpses that I had which worked. I think it needs to be one entity for it to work so it might work if the golem is assembled completely beforehand.” Arlayna narrows their eyes while staring at me intensely, “Do you really think I didn’t try that before.” I shrug, “Then maybe you just don’t have enough mana.” I turn towards mom, “If you finished catching up can we go back now? I learned what I wanted to and,” I point towards Arlayna,” that person is annoying.” Mom chuckles, “Sure let’s go. Arlayna, it was annoying meeting you again but thank you for helping out my daughter.” Mom shoots me a glance and whispers to me, “Go and thank them as well.” I roll my eyes, “Thank you for teaching me how to make golems and about Dryads.” We leave Arlayna’s house and walk back to where we are staying while we are here.

There were a lot of people staring at my golem in fear, which is understandable, it does look like a quite big black direwolf. We explained everything to Verna’s family and I think they in turn explained everything to the village because the next day they weren’t as scared anymore. We are now preparing for our next destination, the Calux Kingdom. Mom didn’t want to tell me too much about the Calux Kingdom as she wants to keep it a surprise and in order to get there we will have to go through the Ulketia Kingdom, a small nation between the Empire and Calux. Since mom said we will leave the next day I’m going to use that time to adjust a few things on Nyx, my golem.