It finally landed, a noisy landing with the sounds of wind whirling, shouting and clattering mixed in.

[2:04 PM]

I felt somewhat anxious. Part of me was hoping someone would let me out quickly

But the other half of me was worried if they’d do something bad to me. What if I was caught by a group pretending to be the Unbound? And if they were the Unbound, were they actually good with such treatment.

“Maybe it’s just a few bad eggs?” Radio said.

I hope.

A shutter opened creakily as a young man with long hair walked in. They had people working with them too? I guess there’s no reason to not hire humans despite being a golem organisation.

“Sorry about the rough treatment earlier. Xion is a bit violent with recruitment.” He smiled awkwardly. “Honestly, we would rather not have him in the group, but he was paired with us.”

Radio seemed to be relieved.

Don’t celebrate yet. I still feel like he’s fishy.

“R-really?” It whispered.

It’s just a hunch, but still.

“I don’t think you should suspect just based on something as vague as that.”

A hunch.

“Okay…”

He continued smiling as he led me out. Behind him, several golems and people came out with us and followed.

Now outside, I took a good look at the vehicle and was surprised. It was some sort of blimp, like Radio said. But what struck me was how small the ‘balloon’ was, only twice the size of the carrier below. Probably magic super light gas or something.

We had landed In some kind of small airport. In the distance, I could hear the sound of waves. Wait, did we just fly to a different country or something?

I guess that would make sense, especially considering the long flight. If they were in the same country, the dwarves forces would find them easily. Still, shouldn’t flying be kind of costly? Maybe magic made it a lot cheaper.

“Where are we going?” Radio asked, snapping out of my random thoughts.

“We need to head to the mechanic. It’s just a precaution in case the dwarves put anything nasty on you or a tracker.”

Shouldn’t they have checked for trackers before the blimp takes off?

Wait, no this didn’t sound good! I did not like the idea of some random fantasy world mechanic trying to fiddle with my purely science workings.

[Yes, science that lets you open a mouth and a storage space.]

You know what I mean!

“Um, are you sure they would know how to handle me? I’m a unique model, not-“

“Just trust me, he knows what’s he’s doing.” said one of the golems.

That did not reassure me in the slightest.

Radio tried its best to convince him to let us off but to no avail. I guess I just had to do it.

The mechanic was a… dwarf? I thought they were trying to rebel against dwarves? Was she a captive or something? The dwarf was gruff looking and covered in muscles, especially around the arms. Kind of weird looking to be honest, since her legs weren’t very muscly.

“Urgh… let me take a break. Why today, of all days when both Roult and Ullor are sick?” she grumbled. “I’ve had to check up on nearly 20 golems today and now you want me to check up on some complicated machine model I’ve never seen before? I didn’t even have lunch! It’s like the world is-“

The dwarf continued to complain without end.

The mam who led me here laughed awkwardly.

“I think a surface level check is good enough for now.”

Hearing him, the woman grinned.

“Hah! That’s what I like to hear!”

I think I like the sound of that too.

She took out some devices and scanned me with them, then opened up my hood and took a look inside me in both the cabin and cargo. She was a bit surprised to see a sheep in there.

“Pretty impressive stuff…” she muttered to herself before turning to me. “Hey, can you talk?”

“A-ah, yes! What is it?” Radio stuttered.

“Just wanted to check, didn’t have anything to say to you.”

Okay…

She took out a sheet of black metal and placed it again the hole, then focused for a bit. Wait, she must be using magic to repair me! That was great!

Slowly, it melded, fixing the hole perfectly except for the paint.

[+11 HP]

What.

Tablet, didn’t I take 23 damage from that? Why am I healed for less than half of that?

[Healing can only repair half the damage taken. You need to level up to heal completely.]

WHAT. Bullshit!

Whatever. I decided not to question Tablet’s ‘game logic’.

“And you owe me 10 silver now. Pay up.”

I cursed internally. Yeah, totally worth it.

Grudgingly I floated the coins before her.

“Oh, I was just kidding. I didn’t think you actually have money on you!”

Phew.

She snatched the coins out of the air.

“But since you offered so graciously…”

That bastard!

“Um, can I have it back?” Radio asked.

“No. I was going to charge you later for it anyway.”

I didn’t even agree to be repaired! I could just level up and be done with it.

Well, I guess it would be less conspicuous if a mechanic did the repairs instead of me somehow being completely healed one day, but the loss of my precious coins still pained me.

We headed out of the building.

“Ah, to think Roult’s not here today… I wanted to fix my arm.”

“Your arm?”

“Yeah.”

He held up his arm to me. Suddenly, it started to shake and make weird clicking sounds. I could see a segment where it was supposed to be removed, but it seemed to be stuck.

He gripped onto it with his other hand and pulled it off with force, revealing a nasty looking gun.

“It won’t come out smoothly.”

So he’s a golem too... Or is it just a prosthetic? Urgh, should I continue to call it him or it?

“Oh… Speaking of which, where are we going anyway?” Radio asked.