Debuff Master

Chapter 349

Golem King Reventon shot out a beam of light from its eyes after getting hit by Death’s Touch.

“…!”

It was horrified upon sensing an immense energy hitting its left chest.

What happened next?

Thud…!

Golem King Reventon fell forward.

[Golem King Reventon]

[HP: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜]

It only had less than ten percent HP remaining.

Siegfried’s Death’s Touch was indeed a terrifying skill that took away most of the Golem King’s HP in a single blow.

“Wow… this guy’s so tough…” Siegfried grumbled in disbelief. The fact that the Golem King didn’t die in a single hit from Death’s Touch was a testament to its tenacity.

“I guess I just have to get the Arachnid’s—”

It was then.

“It’s not… Over yet…”

“…!”

“I can’t give up… Not yet…”

Shockingly, the Golem King was trying to get back on its feet even when its HP was almost depleted. Its left chest had caved in after getting hit by Death’s Touch, and one could see its insides.

‘Huh? Why does it look like its insides look a bit strange…?’ Siegfried noticed something different about the golem’s insides. However, those thoughts did not last long as Golem King Reventon cried out.

“Why! Why are you stopping me?! Just why?!”

“What the hell…?” Siegfried muttered in disbelief. He grimaced and said, “Hey, you attacked an innocent village unprovoked, so what are you complaining about? Shouldn’t you at least be prepared to die if you tried to kill somebody else?”

He was absolutely right about this. A person had to be prepared to suffer the consequences if they attacked someone else, right?

Well, Siegfried did go searching for Golem King Reventon for the sake of obtaining its core for his quest, but that was a different story altogether.

“Then what about you humans?!”

“…?!”

“Why are you attacking us and treating us like your slaves?! Why?! Answer me!”

“Huh…?”

“Can you do whatever you want just because you are our creators?!”

“W-What the hell are you talking about now?”

“Yeah, sure! You humans created us golems, fine! I won’t deny that we are merely your creations!”

Reventon continued its tirade.

“But that does not give you the right to classify us as monsters and treat us like slaves!”

“E-Excuse me, sir? Why are you saying that to me…?” Siegfried asked in disbelief. He could not understand where all of this nonsense was coming from while they were in the middle of a battle, but he decided to listen to the Golem King nonetheless.

“Do the gods treat you humans like slaves, too? Have you been enslaved by them?”

“Hello? Can you explain things in detail before saying whatever you want? I don’t think we’re on the same page here…”

“All we golems wanted was to have our own small kingdom!”

“Kingdom?”

“Yes, even us golems have an ego. Humans created us, but we have egos, too!”

“So…?”

“I pondered for the longest time. Why are we golems being treated as slaves by you, humans? Is it because we are your creations?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure? This is my first time hearing that golems have egos, so—”

“We have egos too! It’s just a matter of how weak or strong it is! All golems have egos no matter how weak they are!”

“So you decided to conquer the Lexus Kingdom? To create a nation for golems?”

“Yes.”

“Then you could’ve just lived in one place together. What was that place called again? Sharp Forest?”

“We did…”

“But?”

“But do you know what you humans did when we gathered there to live peacefully?! Especially you Adventurers!”

“H-Huh…?”

“You Adventurers started calling our home a dungeon and started attacking us! You hunted us down, calling us monsters when all we wanted was to live peacefully! You barged into our home and started calling us monsters!”

“T-That is…”

Siegfried was rendered speechless by Reventon’s accusations. Based on the accusations, the NPCs and Adventurers were no different from invaders in the eyes of the golems, and it was technically correct since NPCs and Adventurers classified the golems as monsters and had been invading the Sharp Forest to hunt them down.

“That’s why we left the Sharp Forest to establish our own kingdom!”

“Ah, so that’s what happened…”

“We believed that nobody would bother us if we had our own kingdom instead of living in a forest! That’s all!”

“I don’t think so…?” Siegfried said and shook his head.

“I-It’s not?”

“Okay, let’s say that you did manage to conquer a kingdom and establish your own. Do you know what’s going to happen? I think things are going to go from bad to worse. First of all, the powerful kingdoms on the continent are going to come to subjugate you golems, and then the Adventurers on the continent are going to swarm at you. Don’t you think so?”

“…!”

“Yeah, it doesn’t sound like a brilliant plan now, does it?”

“T-Then, what are we supposed to do?! Are you saying we have no choice but to live as slaves or monsters for the rest of our miserable lives?!”

“Hey, why are you asking me that? It’s not my fault the humans look at you that way,” Siegfried replied with a shrug.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Then, the golems rampaging in the Magnus Territory rushed out and surrounded Reventon. It looked as if they were knights protecting their king from the enemy.

***

Siegfried couldn’t deal the final blow to Reventon.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The reason was that the golems started to kneel in front of Siegfried one by one.

It was almost as if they were begging him not to kill their king. No, that was exactly what they were doing. The golems did not attack Siegfried; instead, they knelt in front of him and begged.

“W-Why are you doing this to me?” Siegfried asked while being absolutely flabbergasted, and then he grumbled, “You’re making me look like the bad guy now…”

The current picture made it difficult for him to end Reventon’s life.

Reventon was already on the ground with half of its body destroyed, while the golems were kneeling on the ground begging the villain to spare their king, and the villain, Siegfried, was standing in front of them.

A passerby who had no idea what was going on would probably think that Siegfried was the villain and the golems were the victims.

‘H-How can I kill that thing now?’ Siegfried was extremely troubled inside.

“We… What do we have to do to live…?”

Reventon did not beg for mercy. Instead, it continued to lament their fate as golems.

“We can’t have a place to call home, and we can’t establish our own kingdom, so what are we supposed to do? Where will we find our rights as golems?”

“Hmm…”

“You humans are going to keep creating golems, and we are going to be treated as slaves or monsters…”

At this point, Siegfried was already feeling quite bad, and he no longer felt like killing Reventon. This was probably a classic case of the assailant turning out to be the victim?

Siegfried was a cold, despicable piece of trash when his own benefits were at stake, but even he could not bring himself to kill these golems that were simply fighting for their own survival.

“Just kill me…” Reventon muttered in a voice that lost all hope of living, and then he continued, “What’s the point of living? I know that the world is full of humans stronger than me…”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Humans are going to continue treating us as monsters to hunt, and our dream of establishing our own Golem Kingdom has been shattered to pieces by you…”

“Haha…”

“What is there to live for? I’d rather die than live as a slave, so kill me”

“Wait,” Siegfried stopped Reventon and asked, “Just what exactly are you looking for? To live peacefully?”

“Yes,” Reventon replied and explained, “All we want is to live peacefully without being attacked, but there’s no way you humans are going to allow that. We have been moving for the past hundreds of years, but humans have been stubbornly chasing after us.”

“…”

“We are tired… tired of being on the run and tired of being slaves…”

“Then do you want to come live in my kingdom?” Siegfried asked.

“W-What?!”

“I’m a king, so I can prepare lands for you to live in.”

“A-Are you sure?! Are you really willing to give us golems a place to call home?!”

“Well, I won’t really go that far, but I guess you can come and live in it? No, even better, do you want me to grant you citizenship? I mean, you can call it your home with that, right? I don’t think you will have problems with making a living since... you golems don’t really need jobs, right?”

“Ha! Do you take me for a fool? Do you really think I’ll believe what you said?!” Reventon retorted.

The Golem King was not going to easily believe a human. After all, it had never heard of a human king giving lands to golems to inhabit in the centuries that it existed.

On top of that, this human king was willing to give golems citizenship? It meant the golems would become citizens of that kingdom, right?

“Huh? What are you going on about?” Siegfried grimaced and asked. Then, he continued, “I’m the king, so who’s going to complain if I want to accept golems as citizens of my kingdom?”

“Lies! That’s impossible!”

“Eh? Fine, forget about it.”

“T-That’s not what I meant…!”

“You were crying that you wanted land for yourselves, but you’re refusing to accept it when you’re offered what you want? Seriously…”

“It’s too good to be true! How can a human accept golems as a citizen of their kingdom…?”

“I mean, why can’t I? Who’s going to complain as long as you don’t cause trouble and live peacefully, right?”

“Oh my god…”

“But I can’t craft my item if I don’t kill you…”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I need your core.”

Siegfried needed the Golem King’s Core to craft the Vanquisher’s Grasp, and it was unfortunate, but he had to kill Reventon to obtain the item he needed.

“So you will have to kill me in the end? Fine, kill me and take my core if you have to. However, promise me that you will take care of the golems and allow them to peacefully reside in your kingdom.”

Surprisingly, Reventon was willing to sacrifice itself if it meant that the golems were going to have their Golem’s Rights.

‘Ah, it’s going to leave a bad taste in my mouth if I kill this thing now…’ Siegfried grumbled inwardly. He could not help but feel bad about killing the golem now that it had volunteered to become a martyr.

“Hmm… I’m not saying I’ll kill you. I’ll ask the blacksmith crafting my weapon to come up with an alternative that won’t require your core, so let’s go with not dying for now.”

“But you said you need my core…?”

“Ah! I don’t know!” Siegfried screamed. He glared at the golem and grumbled, “Who told you to get me so emotional? Just shut up and don’t even talk about it! I’ll try to find a way… geez…”

“T-Thank you…”

“Then, can we conclude this war?” Siegfried asked.

“No, before that…” Reventon said. It struggled to get up, and then it knelt in front of Siegfried and said, “I, Golem King Reventon…”

“Huh? What are you doing?”

“Greets the King of Proatine, Your Majesty, Siegfried van Proa.”

The war ended just like that. He accepted Golem King Reventon and one thousand golems as citizens of his kingdom. However, Siegfried wasn’t exactly happy.

‘H-How am I supposed to craft the Vanquisher’s Grasp now?’

***

The post-war clean-up was not that difficult.

Surprisingly, the golems did not cause any bloodshed during the war. They only caused enough damage required to conquer the Eden Territory, but they did not massacre the soldiers of its citizens after conquering it.

“They had their own reasons, and humans kept bothering them, so… Can we just peacefully resolve this? I will personally compensate the families of the deceased,” Siegfried told the feudal lords.

‘No… My money… My precious money…’

Of course, he was crying tears of blood inside at the sudden unexpected expenses that occurred.

“I apologize, Your Majesty. We will pay you back even if we have to do hard labor for it,” Reventon said.

“Hmm? Hard labor?”

“We golems have shame, too, and we know that Your Majesty has suffered financial losses because of our actions. We will work to pay you back.”

“Come on, you don’t really have to do that. Haha!”

“No, we are your people too, and we have to uphold our duties as citizens of the Proatine Kingdom.”

“Then… I guess you can take your time to pay me back…?” Siegfried said while trying hard to stop himself from smiling ear to ear.

‘Look at that owner punk… He’s so happy he didn’t lose any money this time… Kyu!’

Of course, Hamchi could see right through his thoughts no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

“So, what about it, milords? Do we have an understanding?” Siegfried asked the feudal lords.

“Yes, I agree.”

“I agree.”

“I concur since we didn’t suffer much, and I can somehow placate my people.”

The feudal lords accepted Siegfried’s proposal and decided to call for peace… but that was only until the Knight Orders of the Lexus Kingdom arrived at the Magnus Territory.

“Then I will compensate you right now for the—” Siegfried said as he was about to take out gold from his inventory.

Bam!

The meeting room door was kicked down.

“Who’s Siegfried van Proa?!”

A knight barged in and shouted Siegfried’s name.

“That would be me?” Siegfried said as he raised his hand.

“Are you Siegfried van Proa?”

“Yes, but who are you?”

“I’m a count of the Lexus Kingdom as well as the Captain of the Royal Knights, Clark!”

The knight introduced himself before he drew his sword and pointed it at Siegfried.

“Siegfried van Proa!”

“Yes…?”

“You are hereby arrested for war crimes! Knights! Arrest this man at once!” Count Clark shouted.

The Royal Knights of the Lexus Kingdom surrounded Siegfried in an instant.