[6 PM]

After Sheepy distracted me, I felt l couldn't quite back get into the reading mood, which was really annoying. Eventually, I stopped reading.

With how Minnie spoke of the whole thing, it would seem like the golems and dwarves were at war. But yet, the missions were as peaceful as this? Well, maybe not so peaceful with robbery and the bears coming into play, but still.

Not that I was complaining though. The last thing I wanted to do was to act as a carrier for missiles to bomb a dwarven city or something.

I continued to think about stuff for a while.

"You know the drill! Landing!" the speaker interrupted with Gunhand's voice.

We got off the blimp, Gunhand hopping into me along with the red gem golem and sat. The other golems went in separate directions.

"So... the missions are surprisingly peaceful, huh?" Radio asked. "Aren't you guys with odds with the dwarves or something?"

"Hmm?" Gunhand mused, before grinning for some reason. "Yeah, they are. Maybe they don't trust newbies like us enough for dangerous missions?"

I guess that would make sense.

Come to think of it, it feels like Radio has been doing most of the talking and asking lately. Well, not that I mind. It didn't seem like I was much good with interacting anyway.

"Oh..." Radio sounded relieved. "By the way, where is uh... the golem who... recruited us? When will he be back? He said he would save one of our friends."

Can't blame Radio, I forgot that golem's name too.

"Ah, funny you'd ask! His name is Xion, by the way. Earlier, he contacted us and said he already came back. You can talk to him later. Right now, we're heading to the market to sell our spoils."

"Oh! So- so, we'll uh, meet Jaxt later? I'm so glad!"

Gunhand smiled awkwardly, then looked away.

"Yeah... Xion said he found your friend."

Well that's good then.

(Radio suddenly felt a lot of anxiety.)

"Oh, thank you... By the way, what's your name? I still didn't hear from you."

"Hmm? A name..." Gunhand looked thoughtful. "I've still not come up with one I'm satisfied with yet, to be honest. Well, I did already have a name given to me, but it's a tradition here to come up with a 'freedom name', you know? Just like how some of us change our faces."

"Change... your faces?"

"Oh, you didn't get to experience that because of... what you are! A lot of times, new recruits are given the option to have a new face made. To really sell the new identity thing, you know?"

That sounds messed up to me. Why change your face just because you've escaped slavery? And since he doesn't have a name, I guess I'll continue to call him- it Gunhand.

Radio and Gunhand continued to chat as I followed the directions the red gem golem pointed. Odd how it didn't talk at all. Maybe its just a quiet person.

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At the market, Gunhand handed crate after crate of fish to a man at a store who opened and checked them. Gunhand was very dismayed when the man didn't accept the box of burnt fish.

"Dammit! I thought these guys almost never fight each other? What the heck happened?"

My bad.

Wait! If they're accepting food, what about the fruits I picked? I might be able to get good money for that!

"Hey! I have some fruit I picked a while ago, can that be sold here too?"

"Hmm? Interesting."

Gunhand handed some of the fruit I took out over to the person.

"These are the infamous Winterland fruit!" the market person said.

Oh, did that mean they were worth a lot? That's great!

"Normally, they'd fetch a nice price, but... these are underripe. Such a pity, it looks like they'd be ripe in just a day! They're very poisonous when unripe."

What.

"Can't you wait for them to ripen?" Radio asked.

"No, it doesn't work that way. The fruit is only truly ready to eat when the tree dispells the poison with its magic."

"Then... what about growing the seeds?"

Oh, that's right! Sheepy did manage to get them to grow.

The person sighed.

"Yes, they can already grow at this stage. But they take hundreds of years to fruit, so these won't be worth a lot. You might be able to sell each for a single copper."

Well, screw that! I might as well eat them myself then. Good thing I had a literal iron stomach.

The man took out a piece of paper and wrote some things on them, then handed them to the golem.

I was a bit curious so I took a peek. Apparently, it was just a note detailing the number and quality of the fish, along with the total points awarded, 17,496.

Afterwards, Gunhand drove to the 'mission building' from earlier and tossed the note into a box, then told me we were heading back to where they lived.

Outside, Xion was waiting.

"Xion! Where is Jaxt? You said you found him, right?" Radio sounded rather anxious.

"Yes, I found him. But... did I say I managed to bring him back?" Xion rasped.

It turned to look at us. Somehow, I felt like if it had a face, it would have a mocking look on its face.

"But... but you said you found him... Gunha- your friend said you said you found him."

"Did you not hear what I said earlier? Hah..." Xion sighed.

"But you promised. You said..."

"I have no idea how you convinced yourself I promised anything. All I said was that I'd take a look. Did the device scramble your machinery?"

"Xion! Don't go too far!" Gunhand shouted from the side.

"Hah. Jaxt... I believe, he said he was called."

"You talked to him?"

"That fool... he cooperated with them in the binding. Fully willing. I don't have the expertise to remove a seal like that. It would be very hard to unbind someone actively fighting the process even for the most experienced person."

Ouch. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised considering his character.

"All idiots..." Xion scoffed. "We have tried to free many golems. Most of the time, the bounds weren't hard to break. But many a time, they stayed and refused to leave. Some, even ask to be bound again, like that idiot of a friend-"

"Shut up! Don't call people idiots for being loyal!" Radio shouted.

I had never seen Radio get angry before.

"Loyal... Aha.. ha... hahahaha!" Xion laughed mockingly.

"What's so funny?"

"Xion... do we need to talk about this again?" Gunhand grabbed it by the neck but was kicked away.

"We golems were made with purpose." Xion rasped. "From the moment our souls are made, we were instructed, told what to do. We were made to perform our tasks. We are bound to not think, to act like soulless automatons. But even with the bindings gone, most golems want to continue what they were doing. Continue their useless lives, following orders!"

...

"Idiots! they could not break free. They could not break free from the true bounds, those in their heart!" it shouted. "Did you know? Sometimes, our new recruits cannot take it. They cannot take their new lease on life!"

"You know what they do?" it whispered.

"Wha-what?" Radio stammered.

"They sneak away! Run away during the missions! Run back home to be enslaved again."

The golem laughed hysterically until those sounds devolved into rage-filled wheezes. The green jade on its face began to glow with a crazy vibrance.

"You... I advise you to think about what you want to do. Not in this revolution. If you ask me, i's basically the same thing here. We are all still cogs, forced to work anyway, only for different masters." it said. "Don't be like those fools, too afraid to think for themselves, reliant on someone to take the reigns. IDIOTS!"

Xion punched right through the door of the building and stomped in.

I wasn't sure what to think after that.

"Sorry about that. Xion is... a bit crazy." Gunhand winced, clutching the foot-shaped dent on its torso. "Don't worry, it's really not as bad as he puts it."

Radio was silent for quite a while afterwards.