The Seed Thief

“Golem, come here.”

The golem approached, its steps slower than usual, obeying Heinel’s command. Heinel recalled the contents of the book she had secretly read inside the house earlier.

‘Mommy said I shouldn’t imitate her…’

But wouldn’t it be fine as long as she didn’t get caught? Heinel grinned mischievously and placed her hand on the golem’s body. The magic circle she had drawn earlier appeared, glowing faintly, and quickly spread across the golem’s form.

The golem, startled by the sudden magic, looked at Heinel as if questioning her actions.

“Don’t be surprised, it’s a sleep spell. I want to take a look inside you and to do that, I need to dismantle you for a bit. Even though you’re a golem, it might be scary and painful to see your body being taken apart, right? So, just take a nap while I examine you. Okay?”

Scary and painful? Those were emotions the golem didn’t experience. But it obediently crouched down and sat beside Heinel, as if to indicate it would comply with her instructions.

[I don’t sleep.]

As a being created through magic, sleep was unnecessary and wasn’t part of the golem’s programming. But she wanted it to sleep? How was it supposed to do that?

At that moment, the golem’s vision darkened. So this was sleep? It tried to move its head, bewildered, but its body wouldn’t budge. Its vision faded to black. The last thing it saw was its little Master’s face, her expression serious.

Staring at her face, so similar to its Master’s, the golem recalled a long-forgotten memory, buried deep within its core.

* * *

The golem had once been a rock in this forest. The strongest, brightest rock in the entire forest. It had existed in this place for countless days and nights, summers and winters, without consciousness.

And then one day, a shock, like a bolt of lightning, coursed through it, awakening its ‘consciousness.’

The moment it gained consciousness, the rock realized it had become a ‘golem.’ And with that realization came the awareness of sensations. The golem felt a surge of confusion, experiencing things it had never felt as a rock.

But the confusion was fleeting. It understood that it was a golem, created to obey its master’s commands. So it needed to receive its orders quickly…

“Did I succeed?”

It heard a voice. The golem slowly turned its head, searching for the source of the sound. But it couldn’t see anyone. Where was its master? It continued to search, its head swiveling. But it still couldn’t find its master.

“Here! I’m here! It’s me! I made you! My name is Lulu!”

The voice came again as the golem was searching. It pinpointed the location of the sound and looked down. A tiny human, barely reaching its knees, was staring up at it with sparkling eyes. The golem, sensing the same magical wavelength as its core, imprinted the information.

This small being was its ‘Master.’

At the same time, a vast amount of knowledge and memories flooded its core, organizing themselves rapidly. The flow of the world, imprinted on the countless materials that made up its body, the knowledge embedded in the magic circle that created it. The golem now understood who it was and what it was supposed to do.

It was a magnificent being, created through magic, and every movement, every action, was a testament to that magic. And it had to prove its worth by serving its creator, its Master, with absolute obedience.

The golem, having grasped its purpose and its value, raised its arms and slammed its fists against the ground. A declaration, a signal, announcing the birth of a magnificent being. It straightened up.

Its tiny Master was still standing before it. The golem looked at its Master.

Master, a command worthy of your greatness!

What would its first glorious order be? At that moment, its Master spread her arms wide and said,

“Hug me!”

[…?]

Silence passed between the golem and Lulu.

“…”

[….]

The silence stretched. The golem couldn’t understand the command. Hug? That wasn’t part of the knowledge embedded in its magical core. What kind of action was that?

Seeing that the golem was motionless, unable to comprehend the command, Lulu’s eyes welled up with tears.

“D-Did I fail? Can’t you understand me?”

That wasn’t the case, but…

Unable to communicate its lack of knowledge, the golem stood frozen. Then, it heard loud noises approaching from behind Lulu.

[Enemy!]

Based on its ingrained knowledge, the golem clenched its fists, ready to strike down the approaching figures.

“No! Stop! They’re my friends! And they’re going to be your friends too!”

Lulu frantically waved her arms, stopping the golem.

[Friends?]

That, too, was a concept the golem hadn’t been programmed to understand. But its Master had ordered it to stop, so it obeyed.

A moment later, the figures who had been rushing towards them stood between Lulu and the golem. The golem looked at them. Thanks to its ingrained knowledge, it recognized one of them as a scarecrow and the other as a skeletal bird.

“Let me introduce you. This is Scarecrow. I found him abandoned by the villagers, all worn out, and I gave him life with magic. He doesn’t listen very well, though… Hey! Stay still!”

Lulu held onto the scarecrow, who seemed to be saying, “Is this guy not an enemy? Then I’m out of here,” and then pointed to the bone crow.

“And this is Crow. He was dead in the bushes, just bones, and I brought him back to life. He wants to fly, but… he can’t. But he listens better than Scarecrow, and he even sleeps with me! But you have to be careful with his bones. They’re fragile, and it’s a pain to put them back together if they break!”

The golem listened quietly as Lulu spoke. It didn’t seem like its great creator, its Master, was actually giving it any commands at the moment.

“Oh, right. I asked you to hug me. Do you… not know what a hug is?”

“I thought so. It’s okay. The Forest Witch told me it’s not shameful to not know something. Oh, the Forest Witch is the one who raised me…”

Lulu then launched into a long explanation about how wonderful the Forest Witch was. The golem registered one thing: that human wasn’t present.

Lulu’s explanation was drawing to a close.

“But… now that the Forest Witch is gone… I’m scared at night… sniffle… and I have no one to talk to…”

Her shoulders shook, and then tears streamed down her face. The golem recognized that she was ‘crying,’ but it didn’t know how to respond. So Lulu continued to sob for a while, alone.

She wiped her tears and snot on her worn sleeve and then looked at the golem she had created.

‘It’s the same.’

Both Scarecrow and Crow just stood there, motionless, as she cried.

‘The Forest Witch would hug me.’

She missed the Forest Witch even more now. The Forest Witch, who would embrace her, comfort her, and feed her the sweetest berries whenever she cried. She had created the stone golem because she wanted someone like that… but looking at the motionless golem, she felt like she had failed again.

But she couldn’t give up hope. She grabbed Scarecrow, who was trying to sneak away again, and hugged him tightly.

“This is a hug. Like this, with your arms…”

The golem nodded. Lulu’s face brightened, and she released Scarecrow.

“Can you do it? Then hug me! Now!”

At her command, the golem bent down and spread its arms. Lulu quickly stepped into its embrace, wrapping her arms around its neck. She felt the coldness of the stone through her thin clothes. But it felt good. It had been so long since anyone had hugged her like this. Lulu leaned against its shoulder and closed her eyes.

The golem moved as well, imitating the action Lulu had shown it. It wrapped its arms around her and hugged her. The problem was, the golem didn’t know how fragile humans were. It hugged Lulu tightly, just like she had hugged Scarecrow.

“Ow!”

Lulu cried out from within its embrace.

“It hurts! Let go! Let go!”

Startled by its Master’s sudden cries and desperate pleas to let go, the golem released her. Lulu doubled over, clutching her side.

“It hurts…”

It knew why she was in pain. It had felt the same pain when it fell from a tree long ago. The Forest Witch had said it was a broken bone. And she had taught her a spell to use in such situations. Lulu, tears streaming down her face, drew the magic circle the Forest Witch had taught her.

But it was difficult to concentrate, her side throbbing with pain with every movement, every breath. It took her much longer than usual to finally cast the spell.

“Whew…”

As the light enveloped her, the throbbing pain subsided. Finally able to breathe properly, she took several deep breaths. She wiped her tear-stained cheeks with her sleeve. Looking up, she saw the golem kneeling before her, motionless.

The magic books Lulu had read stated that golems were emotionless creations. If one desired a golem with some degree of sentience and responsiveness, it was recommended to incorporate a part of a living creature into its core, preferably something with higher intelligence, for a better chance of success.

‘That’s why I added the eagle feather.’

That eagle had been the king of the skies in this area. A proud but arrogant and independent creature. The most intelligent and expressive being in the forest, aside from herself. It had disappeared at some point, perhaps having reached the end of its natural lifespan, but Lulu had kept one of its long feathers. It had been a prized possession, a treasure…

Looking at the feather sticking out from between the golem’s stones, Lulu spread her arms again.

“Hug me.”

It was unthinkable for a magically created being to disobey its creator’s commands, yet the golem hesitated. As if concerned about her. Lulu smiled and opened her arms again, reassured by its reaction.

“It’s okay.”

She was simply happy to have someone to hug her, even if it meant enduring some pain. That day, Lulu cried several times, casting healing spells on herself. Until the golem learned to hug her without hurting her.

* * *

From that day forward, the golem continued to learn.

That potatoes grew underground, and one shouldn’t dig them up carelessly. That Scarecrow and Crow were fragile, and it needed to be gentle with them. That it shouldn’t leave the forest. And that if it encountered any humans within the forest, aside from Lulu, it should crouch down and pretend to be a rock.

During that time, Lulu repeatedly added new magic circles to the golem. The initial magic circle, the one used to create the golem, was one that the mages of the Magic Tower had perfected, so she only had to copy it, but adding new magic circles was a much more difficult task.

Because of that, the golem went through some awkward phases. Its head would suddenly detach, its arms would get stuck to its legs, it would perceive the world upside down. But Lulu never gave up. She experimented with new materials and studied magic circles day and night, eventually succeeding in adding new knowledge and abilities to the golem.

Thanks to her efforts, the golem could now recognize a wider range of beings and react in more diverse ways. And it gradually became capable of independent thought and action.

If the mages of the Magic Tower saw this, they would probably faint in disbelief.

Golems, by nature, were meant to be blindly obedient. They didn’t need to think, and emotions were considered worthless for them. Some mages, those who sought to create a more human-like golem, had researched ways to imbue them with emotions. But it was purely for academic purposes. And in the history of the Magic Tower, only three mages had ever succeeded. Even those three, after meticulously laying the groundwork, had only managed to imbue their golems with the faintest hints of emotion.

If they saw Lulu’s magic circles, they would lament, “Such reckless and unorthodox magic circles, ignoring the fundamentals!” But regardless, Lulu had succeeded in an unprecedented way.