Thanking Tushu for the helpful critique, I inform him I’m about to begin the golemancy spell, which seems to cheer him up as he heads back to the ramp to watch.

Beginning the spell, a wave of mana flows over the sculpture and seemingly seeps into the stone, for a few seconds nothing happens, and I worry a little that I might have messed up somehow or perhaps the summon limit count’s golems, but with a startling crack, the joints of the stone limbs begin moving. With two stiff steps, a layer of stone falls away from the newly formed golem.

Slate-like sheets now form a layer of armor over a tall, muscular humanoid, their face consisting of two dense glowing runes where the eyes would be. Its armor is like the brigandine I’d carved except made with chain-like links between the pieces, allowing for true flexibility in the armor.

As the last of the spell finalizes, the golem slowly looks around itself with the sound of stone grinding stone, stopping briefly on Tushu, but halting entirely in the direction of my core.

It stiffly marches down the ramp, where Tushu moves to follow, and makes its way down to the door of Kohaku’s room. It stares at the handle for several seconds before it seems to figure out how doors work and pulls the door open. It was a push door. Now standing in front of my core, the golem’s runes flash briefly, and with some shock, I hear its voice grindingly ask me “O…r…d…e…r…s…?”

Once I get over the shock of a golem speaking to me, I tell him to guard my core and my fox-kin when they go to work outside.

Tushu seems overjoyed to have seen a golem become animate and follows the stone guard out the destroyed door.

So… that was quite something. I don’t know what I expected but it certainly wasn’t my freshly carved golem smashing up my door and asking for orders. I suppose the good news is that I’ve answered one of my theories; golems can in fact be summoned without using the summons slots my fox-kin use.

Now I just need to make thirty thousand more or so. Easy, right?

As a matter of fact, no. turns out making each of the rough forms from the start was incredibly difficult to master, as I was trying to picture an entire humanoid form at once, which usually resulted in a malformed lumpy man that crumbled soon after forming under its own misshapen weight. Still, I eventually had a dozen more soldier statues ready to make into golems.

Like before, the mana of [Golemancy] sunk into the stone and took some seconds to activate, one by one, the runes on their faces lit up and their limbs cracked into motion. Heavy stone steps filled the air as they marched towards the ramp, but before they could get too far, I gave them the same order as my first one, and they all marched off to the gatehouse construction site.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

following with my perspective, I was surprised to see that the initial golem had somehow acquired a strip of red cloth that was now affixed to the top of its helmet and billowed in the wind, and its shoulder armor had gained ornamental spikes that widened its silhouette to be more intimidating. Checking its status revealed a similarly interesting development more than the cosmetic changes.

[Unnamed, Golem Garrison Commander Lvl 1]

[Exclusive Class : Golem Garrison Commander.] [Due to Theme: Kitsumari, all summoned golems will automatically adhere to traditional Kitsumari military ranking and formation structures, up to and including a faux shogunate to command their ranks. By default, the shogun position is fulfilled by the summoner, but can be transferred willingly to another person, servant or even golem.]

The dozen soldiers lined up in front of the commander, saluting in unison before returning to attention. I summoned a pile of swords next to the commander as well as a glaive like Kohaku’s own. With a literal gravely bark, the soldiers retrieve their swords in single file while their commander does a few practice swings with the polearm.

In it’s stoney voice, the commander organized the dozen stone soldiers into a column 2 troops wide before turning on its heel and beginning to patrol around the gatehouse. Only when watching their column progress did I notice yet another interesting trait of my golem commander. Comparing the runes on their face to the other soldiers, they were almost twice as complex, and if I had to guess, it would only grow more complicated as I grew my army.

The shogunate part of the class description gave me a sudden idea, and I felt it only appropriate for my new commander slash future shogun be named appropriately. Diving into the leader’s status, I renamed the otherwise unassuming golem. The newly dubbed Tokugawa and his soldiers seemed to puff their chest slightly as I finished the naming process, and I watched on as the marching golems continued their patrols.

Something seemed different about Tokugawa now that I’d named him, but I couldn’t quite place it. I’m sure it would reveal itself at some point, for better or for worse.

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***Tokugawa***

As I lead my troops.

Thoughts come to me.

Of ground.

Of sky.

And of sea.

Familiar yet different in strange ways.

I know in my deep stone soul.

they are not mine.

But.

I feel these thoughts flow into me.

Gradually.

Thoughts of grand cities and walls.

Thoughts of great armies fielded against common foes.

Thoughts of sprawling fields of rice in shallows.

These strange thoughts.

Bring warmth.

Yet it is not my thoughts.

I know by instinct.

I am not meant to possess thought.

And these thoughts… do not belong.

The Empire of my thoughts does not exist here.

The fields and cities of my thoughts do not come from here.

The armies and enemies are not in these lands.

Yet still.

I feel pride for them.

And for my master... I shall bring these thoughts to life.

Even at the cost of my being.