
"Most of the high monks could only make simple golems that would vanish if walking away from the core of the forest or walking across the Bjork river" Torfin said, occasionally looked up to look at Jose who was observing him critically. "If the corpse used was still fresh and the mariner was an expert, the golem would last longer and could be told something more complicated."
Rolan was sick of hearing a proud tone to Torfin's voice. "What do you guys usually say? Kill?"
Torfin quickly shook his head. "We're looking for a necklace" he said weakly, feeling like he had no choice but to talk. "There is a necklace that is used as a complement to the ritual. Baron Hastings lost it. Without the necklace, the sacrificial ritual could not be done. The golems made with the necklace would be able to be told to cross the river without needing too many corpses as a medium. I've never worn it, but he said he could talk to the spirits of the dead using the necklace."
Rolan glanced at Jose, who was listening with a stiff face.
"Who is He?" ask Marco bored. This all sounds like nonsense to him. If he had never met the golem in question several times, he would have ordered that Torfin be beaten for giving him a fairy tale. "You always mention it. Who's she?"
"He was the one who made Scholomance, who gave us knowledge of many things, also the one who had the highest ability to make golems and would open Eden's doors" Torfin said enthusiastically. His cheeks blushed in excitement. "Duke Ashington himself!"
Rolan frowned. "You mean the descendants of Duke Ashington, right? His children were all girls, and they were married to another family. I know Duke Ashington doesn't have an heir to the title."
Torfin shook his head solemnly. "I mean Duke Ashington. You'll know the truth as soon as you see him."
Jose bowed his body deeply and whispered in Torfin's ear, whose face immediately turned as white as cotton.
"I'm honest!" jerrit Torfin's. "Duke Ashington is alive! He lent me this castle! If I hadn't seen him with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed in the magic of Scholomance! Duke Ashington has opened the gates of Eden and become equal to God. We can all be God!"
The sound of his screams was met with fanfare from fussy party guests asserting the remarks and praising Duke Ashington.
Gerald snapped and silenced them, but most of them got up bravely and prepared to fight back.
Marco returned his eyes to Torfin. "Where is the Duke now? I need to say hello, if he's still alive."
"At Aston" Torfin said in surprise, as if it was a silly question that everyone already knew the answer to. His eyes looked at the party guests with pride, pleased with their courage. "We didn't break the rules or commit any crime. We use corpses because it's a medium that's easier to use to make golems."
"Who taught you how to make a transmutation circle and its evolution as well as Duke Ashington?" chase Rolan.
Torfin. He looked at her with a big smile. "You can do it too, if you're talented. We all can. We have a talent for that. That knowledge was ours. God created us according to His image, so we actually have the potential to do whatever God can do. Well, it's just that when we are in the human body, we need to be helped by such circles. If we are God, we can do many things without circles and spells, without sigils. We can make gold from the ground, we can raise the dead, we can—"
"Omong empty," said Marco firmly. "The law of transmutation is equal exchange. Gold cannot be made from soil because of its different composition. The dead can't be brought to life as long as you don't sacrifice the living." Marco stop. He frowned, as if he had realized something. His eyes stared fixedly at Torfin. "If Duke Ashington were still alive, he would have been over three hundred years old. You're sure he did open Eden, instead of sacrificing others and taking their lives to live forever?"
Torfin's face is changing colors. It starts off pale white, then red, then blue. "Please!" angry shouting. "A humiliation!" while calling for that, he got up from the floor to lung at Marco.
But before his hand could touch Marco's neck, Torfin was slammed to the floor with his face first. Deep red blood welled up from the man's throat, soaking the stone floor. In front of him, Rolan stood clutching a scalpel. The man's face was as cold as a statue.
Lady Chantall stroked her own neck involuntarily, as if making sure her skin was still intact there. "He hasn't told you everything, Doc."
"I'm sorry for showing such an unpleasant sight in front of a lady. Just chill. He told Jose everything, didn't he?" Rolan glanced at his nephew, who put on an unhappy look.
"We're back now" Marco decided. Longer to rest here, he knew his whole body would start to hurt and be hard to move. "This place is too disgusting to be in."
"What about these people, sir?" Gerald pointed to the guests and the monk who went back to silence as soon as he saw Torfin dead. Since then he listened to everything in silence, waiting for orders.
"Leave it. Cut the monks' tongues, lest they make golems."
Jose choked. He approached Marco and whispered, "There are no high monks here, these remaining ones don't even know what a golem is!"
"You pity them? Pity the people who want to kill me?"
"Uncle, don't do this." Jose shakes. He looked anxiously at the workers who had begun to move the young monks together in the middle of the room. "It wasn't them who caught Uncle. We can explain why some people died in Uncle's rescue attempt, but if the palace finds out we cut people's tongues, it'll backfire on Uncle himself."
Marco smiled slightly, again satisfied with the development of his nephew. Jose no longer fought back or denied it directly in the face of others. Obviously the recent events have made the young man change a lot. Marco flicked his finger, calling out to Gerald again. "I changed my mind. Just tie them together strong. You guys got rope?"
Gerald nodded firmly, then passed the order on to the other workers.
"Bound and left in a dark castle like this would be scarier than losing a tongue" Marco said. "That's the only reason I granted your request."
"Thank you, Uncle," murmured Jose.
There were fifty people who were still alive and conscious. They were all tightly bound and leaned against the wall, gathered together. He didn't really feel sorry for all those people, Jose realized with guilt. He just did not want to really be as cold as his uncles in looking at the lives of other humans. He did not want to lose his sanity. In his mind were still imagined figures staring sadly in the reading room, figures that shimmered in a transparent light.
"You brought fifty workers?" Marco pressed one of his hands against the altar and let his body rise. Lady Chantall got up from her seat politely.
Jose nodded. "Gerald led twenty. Hans, Finnian, and Harold each brought ten."
"And you're moving in droves with this many people through the main road of Bjork?"
"certain. Where else can it go?"
Marco narrowed his eyes, observing the delicate face of the young man intently. "You do realize that it's the same as announcing to all our enemies that Argent's house is not guarded?"
"Just calm down" said Jose. Next to his hand touched his chest, rubbing the talisman pendulum hidden behind the shirt. "Jake must be home by now. He can take care of everything."
Rolan listened as he cleaned his blood-stained scalpel with a handkerchief, then kept it back under the suit. He stared back and forth at the dark opening that led into the castle, and out into the dark courtyard. He didn't see the mushroom giant.
Maybe the creature's gone, Rolan hopes.
***