Well.
　I almost forgot about it because the race had become so heated, but my goal for the win was to appeal directly to the principal to be allowed to advance.

　When I received the prizes and certificates in person from the headmaster at the award ceremony, I asked him at the last moment, "What do you want me to do?

"Let me advance to the second grade.
All right.

　It was easily accepted.

''Even so, to win in your first year of school. Where did you learn your flying magic?''
No, not since I came to the Academy.
Ha-ha, that's not possible.

　He laughed at me once.
　It's true.





　Now I was able to advance to the second grade in the three academies, red, blue and green.
　Except for the black academy, where the grade system itself has collapsed in the first place, the rest are just yellow and white.

　To tell the truth, they already had a guess about the yellow academy.

　In the yellow academy, something called a presentation meeting is held regularly.
　On the first day, first grade students (but only if they wanted to) would present their results in the first part of the first day, second grade students would present their results in the second part of the second day, and top grade research students would present their results in the third part of the third day.
　Then on the last day, the teachers would present their research.

　It is said that students who achieve excellent grades in these presentations may be allowed to advance to the next grade.
　That's what I was aiming for.

　So now that the race is over, I'm getting ready for the presentation in two weeks.

　As I've explained before, there are two main types of yellow magic: earth magic and alchemy magic.
　It seems that those who specialize in earth magic are mostly the type of presentations that demonstrate how well they can manipulate the earth.
　I've heard that the alchemy magic is not something that can be shown immediately on the spot, so the presentation is basically a report on the content of the research while presenting the results.

　

　Generally speaking, golems belong to the field of earth magic, and are used in a variety of situations, such as making them do physical labor in place of people, or making them run into enemy lines during battle.
　However, they are after all puppets created from the earth, and as soon as the magician releases their magic power, they crumble back to earth.
　Besides, the magic power is severely depleted, so it is difficult to use it for long periods of time.

　I came up with a method to improve such a weakness of the golem.
　It was an idea to create a golem using the metal created by alchemy magic.

　The origin of this idea was the living armor in the Sword City dungeon.
　That was a moving metal armor, and unlike the golem, it kept its shape semi-permanently.
　I wondered if it would be possible to create a golem similar to it.

　I started by creating the metal that would become the body of the golem.

　Ideally, the metal should be strong and light.
　That way, the golem can move quickly and also reduce the amount of magic power it pours into the body.

''Hmm. Something like this?

　After much thought and error, the metal created by alchemy magic was a decent product.
　Even though it is much lighter than steel, its strength surpasses that of steel.

　Even so, it still bends when I put all my strength into it, so there's still room for improvement, but for now it's strong enough to support its own weight.

　Of course, even if I made a limb from a single lump, it would not be able to move.
　So I decided to divide it into several parts and put them together.

　In short, it's just like a human bone.
　And if we could provide joints in each part, the robot would be able to fly or run by moving those parts.

　That's how the first prototype, a metal golem with the same shape as a human, was created.

''........Mm. It's hard to get it to keep its balance.''

　It was fine if he was just standing, but as soon as I made him walk, he became suspicious.
　And his movements were very awkward.
　I could hear a squeaky, grating sound coming from the joints.

　Clank!

　And then I took a tumble.

"Hmm. I should be able to move a little more smoothly.





　Soon, two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

'Okay, we're all set. All we have to do now is present it.

　And that's when I realize a major blunder.

"...I forgot to register.

　Apparently, I was too enthusiastic.
　I rushed into the presentation's administrative office.

'It's hard,'

　I was kicked off by the secretariat.

'Otherwise, the first part is so large and the schedule is so packed that we can't very well accept you jumping in now. Please wait for the next presentation.
Can't you do something about that?　Or a second part.
The same is true for the second part, since there are so many of them.
So how about part three?
...It's absurd to think that a First Grade student would want to present in Part III.

　I think I've pissed him off.

'After all the effort I put into creating the latest golem that no one had ever thought of before...'
'It's not that no one thought of it, it's just that they thought of it but decided it wasn't worth doing?'

　That's a terrible thing to say.

What's up?　What's going on?

　Then someone barged in.
　He was a middle-aged man with a fairly good physique.
　His face is stern, and he looks more like a soldier-in-chief from some country than a wizard.
　But in spite of that, he has an innocent smile on his face, like a child.

'Dr. Logwell.

　Apparently he is a teacher at this academy.
　Well, I thought that would be highly likely, given his age.

''Actually.........''

　After hearing the clerk's story, Logwell nodded broadly and said, "I see, I see.

All right!　Leave it to me!

　He slapped his chest and shouted so boldly.
　Could he do something about it?