Chapter 45

Commoner Sample

“I’m considering confiscating every last one of their rings.”

Morning in the Dread Queen’s domain began with Luri’s grumbling.

She had approached Ferda with a displeased look on her face and said that out of nowhere, leaving him bewildered as he ate breakfast.

“I see.”

So Ferda gave her a halfhearted reply.

“The workshops you brought in refuse to listen to a single word I say. Is it really so difficult to obey an order not to spill even one drop of blood inside this castle?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Fine, let’s say accidents happen and someone might bleed a little. But those bastards leave without cleaning up any of the blood they spilled.”

“Is that so?”

“If I show them how terrifying a dragon can be, I think they’ll finally correct their behavior. What do you think?”

“Do as you wish.”

Luri’s chattering abruptly stopped.

She glanced up and stared sullenly at Ferda.

“You’re the worst one of all, Lord Ferda.”

“Am I?”

“Even now, you’re still answering me without paying any attention.”

“I see.”

“Are you acting like this just because I scrubbed your back once?”

How petty.

She muttered it too quietly for him to hear—or so she thought—but Ferda heard her.

It would be a lie to say he bore no resentment over what had happened that day.

Still, he had already gotten his revenge, so this time he decided to answer her sincerely.

“Refining mana stones has always been a time-consuming process. Research is not something that produces immediate results, is it?”

“You reached the Third Circle so quickly, Lord Ferda. Can someone like you truly understand that?”

“I practiced lowering myself to the perspective of ordinary people.”

The Ferda of the past would never have understood.

However, the present Ferda remembered how it had felt to rapidly break through the Circles while possessing the memories of his former self. Thanks to that, he could somewhat look down and understand matters from the perspective of ordinary people.

“I see.”

This time, it was Luri who answered halfheartedly.

“So postpone their punishment for a little while. Once they bring us good news, then—”

“Wahahaha! Wahahahahahaha!”

Before Ferda could finish speaking, a madman’s laughter rang throughout Valdrova Castle.

The sound grew steadily closer.

“Wahahaha! Finally! I finally succeeded! I don’t have to bake these damned mana stones anymore! Wahahahaha!”

The madman was Marquis Burnell.

His hair was greasy, and the robe he wore was hanging half off his body.

Ferda and Luri’s eyes followed him as he ran past.

Ferda took a sip of tea and said,

“They say speaking of the tiger makes it appear. It seems he has finally produced results.”

At last, the moment had come for Burnell to prove why Ferda had taken him in.

After running around like a lunatic, Burnell did nothing but sleep for some time.

He had shortened his sleeping hours and worked himself half to death while researching mana-stone refinement.

By the time he stood before Ferda, however, he had cleaned himself up.

“I thought it might work today, and it actually did. Hahaha!”

“Will you explain it now?”

“Ah, yes! Of course. So, as for how this works…”

Burnell began explaining something with great enthusiasm.

For an entire hour, he rambled on about the details of his research before placing the final mark on a blackboard packed with writing.

“You understood what I was saying, correct?”

After listening to the entire explanation, Ferda replied,

“Did you?”

“I-I certainly did. I’ve already organized it to some extent, and I tried to explain it as simply as possible…”

“…”

Ferda thought,

It seems I’m not particularly intelligent.

Apparently, he had reached the rank of Archmage through sheer effort alone.

As he listened to Burnell, he could not understand a single thing the man was saying.

At around the thirty-minute mark, he thought he had begun seeing the origins of the universe. His consciousness had briefly drifted away, only to return when Burnell placed the final period on the board.

Ferda glanced at the assistant researchers.

Their eyes were bright and innocent.

They were the sort of eyes no true researcher should ever possess.

It seems none of them understood either.

Stephan Pascal had claimed they were reasonably intelligent when he sent them.

If Stephan was indeed an excellent merchant, he would have selected the very best people available to acquire this technology.

At least there is no immediate risk of the technology being leaked.

Ferda chose to view the matter positively.

In any case, was it not enough that Burnell understood it and could demonstrate the result?

“Show me what you have made.”

“Yes!”

Burnell brought over one of the numerous magical devices.

It was an object known as a mana stabilizer.

When supplied with mana, it activated a Fifth-Tier stabilization spell that fixed the mana within a designated area in midair.

“If we place a monster’s corpse inside and stimulate it with a small amount of lightning magic…”

Mana poured from the dead corpse.

Its flow was rough and unusable, junk mana that drifted through the air like a pollutant.

“Then we heat it to a certain temperature, compress it, and cool it like this…!”

Burning, compressing, cooling…

After a complicated series of procedures, a crystal emerged while releasing pure-white steam.

A stone glowing faintly blue had been created.

“This is a mana stone!”

Burnell triumphantly presented the finished product.

It gave off a faint glow like a crystal infused with mana.

It was a wondrous moment, but Ferda was not particularly impressed.

It’s cloudy.

Ferda had already seen this object in the future.

Unlike the mana stones he remembered, however, its color was faint and it looked somewhat crude.

Just in case, Ferda asked Burnell,

“What is its efficiency?”

“Uh… Well…”

Burnell, who had effortlessly poured out incomprehensible knowledge until now, suddenly froze.

“Marquis Burnell.”

“Y-Yes!”

“Did I not ask you a question? I asked how efficient it is.”

“W-Well, you see…”

Sweating profusely, Burnell struggled to answer.

“It consumes the equivalent mana of seven mana stones to produce one.”

“Then its efficiency would be approximately 14.2 percent.”

“If rounded, it is 14.3 percent. And even from there…”

It appeared there was more.

Whatever remained was evidently not good news, judging by the way Burnell hesitated.

“Some mana leaks out while raising it to the full capacity of an actual mana stone… so you should assume the efficiency is reduced by another half…”

In other words, fourteen mana stones had to be consumed to produce the effectiveness of a single original mana stone.

“So it comes to roughly seven percent.”

“To the first decimal place, it is 7.1 percent… Ahem. My apologies.”

Burnell corrected him despite the situation, then thought to himself,

Ah, I’m finished.

This must be the end of my research.

Who would ever use an object with only 7.1 percent efficiency?

It would be better simply to hire a mage.

Burnell mentally sentenced himself to death and passed through the five stages of grief.

Ferda remained silent for a long time as he looked down at the mana stone.

At last, he spoke.

“About the efficiency.”

“Yes.”

“Can it be improved?”

“Yes…?”

“I asked whether you can improve its efficiency.”

Ferda had already decided this when he first took Marquis Burnell in.

As long as the man did not give up, Ferda had no intention of allowing the project to end in failure.

“…”

Burnell nodded at the question.

“O-Of course. It’s possible. I will succeed, no matter what.”

“Good.”

Ferda rose from his seat.

“Then continue your research.”

Burnell blinked as he looked up at him.

Just as he wondered whether that was truly all, Ferda added,

“Go gather the people who need to hear this. Until then, organize the research and prepare the demonstration one more time. Understood?”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

With those words, Ferda left the room.

Burnell believed in this research even though he himself was not fully confident in it.

That meant all he could do was give it everything he had.

Unlike Burnell, who trembled with anxiety, Ferda thought differently.

It was put to good use.

Ferda knew.

Magical engineering would advance one way or another.

He also had a general idea of how arduous the process of that advancement had been.

Back when Burnell first presented his work, people had mocked him.

Who would use something like that? Why would anyone use it? It lacked dignity.

Those were the sorts of things they said.

But what happened later?

Mages ended up using magical engineering more than anyone else.

That was because it provided a level of convenience fundamentally different from the magic circles they calculated and cast themselves.

The age in which mages monopolized the mystery of magic would come to an end.

Ferda, who knew that day would come, had more than enough reason to trust Burnell.

**

Ten days later, distinguished guests arrived.

They were the elderly lord, Count Consilus, and Stephan Pascal, the manager of the Pascal Trading Company.

Burnell demonstrated the process before them and offered additional explanations, just as he had done for Ferda.

Since he had been given ten days to organize everything, his explanation was better than the one he had initially given Ferda.

Even so, it remained exceedingly difficult to understand.

“Oh, I see.”

“Indeed. That was very informative.”

Ferda quietly watched their reactions before asking,

“Did you truly understand it? I failed to understand it myself, so speak honestly.”

Only then did the two confess the truth.

Ferda had thought their voices sounded devoid of spirit, and he had been right.

“Hoho, my apologies. I have developed a habit of nodding along. This old man knows nothing about such matters.”

“I also thought it would be a little embarrassing if I appeared completely clueless…”

As expected, both of them had merely pretended to understand.

Burnell, who had believed he had organized and simplified the explanation considerably, was left feeling awkward.

“Even so, judging from what little I do understand, the conclusion appears to be that its efficiency is not very high. Is that correct?”

“That is correct.”

“Hmm. It is truly an ambiguous device.”

Count Consilus stroked his beard as he muttered, while sweat poured down Burnell’s back.

In response to Count Consilus’s negative assessment, Stephan attempted to highlight the positive aspects.

“I cannot say it seems economically beneficial at present, but is it not still a useful device in that it can supply mana?”

“Ah, that was part of what I explained… It cannot supply mana to a mage. It is not something capable of restoring or replenishing mana like a potion or an elixir.”

“Ah, then it is somewhat ambiguous… Even if it works, if its efficiency is this poor…”

Even Stephan, who had tried to defend it, took a step back.

Both men had offered responses that were close to outright rejection.

Burnell’s back grew damp with sweat.

Ferda had anticipated this.

“Do not concern yourselves with its current efficiency. That will be a matter for our chief engineer to resolve later.”

Ferda had already expected such a reaction.

He had not shown it to these two merely to hear criticism that he already knew would come.

“I would like to hear your thoughts on what we should create first with this device.”

“What exactly would you like us to consider?”

Ferda held up the mana stone Burnell had created.

“It is a power source for revolutionary devices that can perform the work of mages in their place. Think of tasks that currently require a mage, particularly tasks too trivial for a mage to bother with.”

What he needed were ideas.

Count Consilus and Stephan were both men deeply involved in their respective fields.

Count Consilus was the first to speak in response to Ferda’s words.

“If this device can imitate the work of a mage… does that mean we could compensate for the shortage of infantry at the front by turning ordinary soldiers into mages?”

He was an old man who had been raised in a count’s household and was a soldier to his very bones.

Naturally, the first thing that came to mind was how it might replace a missing element in the defense against the threats of the Far East.

“It is possible. If fashioned into a weapon, producing magic would not be difficult.”

Ferda told them the name by which such soldiers would someday be known.

“They would be called magical-engineering infantry.”

“Oh.”

Count Consilus’s eyes seemed to light up.

Mages were useful in nearly every situation.

Magical-engineering infantry.

They were particularly effective when dealing with magical beasts.

The Far East was a land where magical beasts were more numerous than ordinary monsters.

No region needed such a solution more desperately.

However, as was often the case with the front lines, the region was no different from a place of exile for mages.

Thessalos Wolcher had been one of the few capable and motivated mages willing to serve there.

“Excellent. Merely filling the void left by the lack of mages gives me hope. Once the efficiency issue is resolved, I believe it should first be developed into a weapon.”

Count Consilus spoke enthusiastically.

Like the elderly lord who could no longer bear to watch his infantrymen sacrifice themselves, he clearly wished to push the project in that direction as quickly as possible.

At that moment, Stephan objected.

“Count Consilus’s opinion is certainly valid. If infantrymen could freely take on the role of mages, it would undoubtedly be useful. However, would this not also be important for transportation?”

Stephan had already been considering something when he invested in the project.

“Transportation?”

“Yes. The most important element on any battlefield is always logistics. No matter how great your firepower is, would it not become useless if supplies were disrupted?”

“That is also true. However, countless magical beasts are already dying in the Far East. If we focus on manufacturing the devices here using those corpses, we can postpone that particular issue until later.”

Neither Count Consilus nor Stephan yielded an inch as they emphasized the importance of what they desired.

It was wise to ask both of them.

Their exchange alone revealed what each of them wanted and what problems they saw.

Stephan wished to reduce the transportation costs he had experienced firsthand, while Count Consilus wanted to increase the survival rate of the soldiers stationed in the Far East.

Both had clear reasons for refusing to back down.

“It does not appear that the two of us will be able to reach a conclusion. In that case, I believe the regent of the Dread Queen should make the decision.”

“Yes. I was thinking the same thing.”

The arrow was pointed at Ferda.

“I believe it would be best to leave the decision to the chief researcher responsible for all development.”

“Pardon?”

Ferda promptly redirected the arrow toward Burnell.

“Me?”

Burnell blinked with a foolish expression.

However, as Ferda had said, everyone was now waiting for his decision, and Burnell had no choice but to choose.

“Uh, well, I…”

Burnell was a pacifist.

Rather than creating weapons, he was a man who wanted to produce something that would immediately benefit people.

Burnell cautiously voiced the thought he had been considering.

“I-I also believe it would be best to develop a weapon first…”

“As expected.”

“Of course weapons are important, but please reconsider. I am the one responsible for supplying the magical-beast corpses.”

The victor chuckled, while the loser attempted a second round of persuasion.

“At first, I also thought it would be better to develop something else. But… my opinion changed after seeing the territory governed by Count Consilus.”

When Burnell had stopped by Count Consilus’s territory, he had been hovering between life and death due to mana overload.

He had seen the people of the county.

He had witnessed their pain and sorrow as they lost their families.

“I believe we should first create weapons and stop the magical beasts that are trying to destroy our home.”

“Ugh… Very well. If you put it that way…”

Stephan eventually backed down.

His proposal had been pushed down the list of priorities, but he would still be able to obtain what he wanted eventually.

“That is why we are currently developing a weapon as well. We have also been researching the characteristics of magical beasts, so I believe we will soon be able to bring you good news.”

“Hoho, I am counting on you. Your research may become the light of our Far East.”

The meeting seemed about to end on a warm and hopeful note.

“Speaking of that weapon…”

Ferda began as though the thought had just occurred to him.

“Will that weapon be as difficult to understand as the explanation you just gave us?”

“Pardon? Uh… I am not certain, but it probably will be.”

“That is excellent.”

Ferda already knew.

Marquis Burnell.

The first invention he created was extraordinarily intricate and difficult to use.

Burnell could produce miracles by implementing complex systems, but he failed to understand the importance of simplicity.

“It just so happens that I have an excellent test subject for you.”

“Uh… A test subject?”

“Yes, a test subject. Come in!”

At Ferda’s shout, a man who had been waiting outside entered the room.

The moment they saw him, everyone was startled.

The armored man was attempting to perform a formal military march.

Whenever his left foot moved, his left hand rose with it. Whenever his right foot moved, his right hand rose as well.

The man proudly marched into the room as though his awkward movements were a proper military drill.

The moment Burnell saw him, a chill ran down his spine.

“Malcolm of Peach Hill! I have arrived after receiving your summons!”

“Good, you are here. I have a task for you.”

“Give me your orders!”

With one hand pressed against his chest, he resembled an overly enthusiastic young boy.

It was not a pleasant sight.

“What is two times two?”

“Easy! It is four.”

“Correct. Then what is seven times six?”

Once again, he answered as though it were obvious.

“Thirteen!”

“Well done.”

“Haha, you flatter me!”

Malcolm wore a proud expression, but everyone around him felt a chill.

Their faces seemed to ask where Ferda had possibly found such a man.

Ferda patted Burnell on the shoulder and said,

“Make it simple enough for this man to understand and use.”

“Pardon?”

“I trust that much is within your capabilities.”

“Pardon?”

Burnell felt his mind go blank.