When I made it back to the town, the guards weren't there. The gates were just closed, like that.

Two humanoids suddenly popped out of the air as I approached. Invisibility magic?

They were made out of some kind of metal and I could see bolts and screws holding them together. Their faces were oddly human-like, both male, which was kind of an odd contrast.

"Did something happen?" I told Radio to ask.

"Present your card and pay the toll." one of them said dully.

Urgh, this again.

"Uh... we saved Galu earlier, you can ask the previous guards!"

"We saw. That is unrelated. Please show your card at the very least."

Huh, so they were watching the whole time? Were these guys backup guards or something?

"I... lost my card." Radio sounded anxious.

"That is not a valid excuse. Even a toddler would have trouble losing a literal soulbound object, let alone someone with a vehicl-"

The robot's eyes suddenly seemed to lose focus. I felt a strange force washing over me and felt invaded. This robot, it could see the same way I did!

"I see. You are a runaway machine." the machine said.

"Wha-what?" Radio stammered.

I didn't tell it to say that, but I understood why it was nervous. Running away from the troublesome grove only to get into more trouble here...

"Was it the Unbound?"

"What's that?"

"You- urgh." the robot seemed annoyed. "The Unbound! You know, that famous group of golems that goes around breaking golems out of their contracts. The name even says it all!"

"Uh, what does that have to do with me? I'm not a golem, so-"

"As far as the dictionary is concerned, anything with a core is a golem, whether it was built for golems or not. You have a mind, so it's clear you have a core, thus a golem."

What?

"MN356, she- it's just messing with you." the other robot said. "Ignore it and wait for the guards to deal with this."

"Don't call me by that name. It's Jaxt! JAXT!" said the first robot. "Do I have to drill it into your empty skull?"

"Whatever. I never saw the appeal of human names."

"You just have no sense of identity. Besides, some golems are just that ignorant. Especially when the master hides news from it." Jaxt said.

"What's going on?"

I felt the same way as Radio.

"So should we report it to the guards or no?" the other robot asked unenthusiastically.

"Don't," Jaxt said before turning back to face me. "You, meet us outside tonight. We are responsible for night guard. Not a lot of time to explain to stuff to you now, they're probably almost done with their prayers."

"I didn't ask to be dragged into this."

"Whatever."

I was a bit lost. Could use a bit of time to collect my thoughts.

"Let me think for a bit!" Radio spoke for me.

So from what I gathered, it seems that they called machines golems here or something? And the "CPU" is called the core? And apparently, they were contracted or something because there's some golem group called Unbound breaking them out or something? Not sure.

At any rate, I didn't feel like they meant harm. I decided I might as well. In weather so cold, it'd be hard to get my engine going again once off anyway so I was probably going to be up the whole night later.

"Okay. I'll meet you at this gate later!"

"Good. Now don't act suspicious and wait for the guards."

We faced each other in silence awkward. I asked Tablet for the time several times while waiting. By the time the guards came back, It was 2:32 PM.

"Oh, sorry if Jaxt and Minnie were making trouble for you." one of them said. "I'll open the gate for you."

"I prefer to be referred to as MN357."

Poor Minnie. No wonder it 'never saw the appeal of human names'.

After the guards let me through, I went to Galu's cottage.

"Hey Truck, you came back right after the prayers!" the little boy ran out enthusiastically.

He must have heard me from inside the house. Either the soundproofing sucked or he had pretty good hearing.

"Hi, Galu!" Radio said.

"Oh yeah, you must be curious! We have a tradition here where we pray to the great ice dragon every day! It's becaus-"

No... not this again.

"-hearing that, she heroically set out to fight the demon lord! The brave heroes teamed up with her and finally destroyed the evil monster forever! But the great dragon still didn't return! So-"

I think that means she died.

"...and that's why we pray to her every day!"

Cool, wasn't paying attention.

"Truck, that's a bit mean..."

Hey, I didn't come here for a history lesson!

"Oh yeah, what did you catch from your trip? I can take you to the local butcher to sell it for some money if you want." Galu said.

That's more on my page. Unfortunately, I only had that weird root centipede. I almost wished I didn't bury those deer. No, don't think of something so nasty!

"I only found this."

I showed floated the headless root in the air before him.

"Ew, smelly!" Galu put his hand over his nose. "I'll ask dad if it's worth anything."

Not longer after he ran into the house, Talkative No.2, Yueler came out. He took a good look at it and seemed surprised.

"Ah, that's a Rootworm! Very nasty creatures. You must have pretty good mental resistance if you managed to kill one."

...yeah, totally.

"They're a pretty sought after alchemic ingredient. The folks at the potion shop would probably pay a gold coin for it."

What? A gold coin sounded like a lot! How much bronze was that?

Radio, this is not an invitation to ask him. He'd expect us to know so that would be suspicious!

"I know, I wasn't planning to ask..." Radio whispered.

Just in case.

"I like the tea you can make with it though, so mind selling it to me for 90 silver? As a discount for a friend!"

"But it's smelly..." mumbled Galu softly.

What the hell? Of course not!

"Uh..."

Yueler laughed.

"Just kidding! 1 gold and 10 silver. Deal?"

I quickly did the trade before he could change his mind. Now to figure out how much 1 gold was worth...