Chapter 45 - Commoner Sample

"I'm considering confiscating all their rings."

Morning in the Grand Duchy's territory began with Luri's complaints.

She initiated the conversation with a look of utter displeasure on her face.

For Ferda, who was just eating his breakfast, it was quite baffling.

"I see."

So Ferda gave a half-hearted reply.

"The workshops you brought in, Lord Ferda, aren't listening to me at all. Is it really that hard not to spill a single drop of blood in this castle?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Alright, let's say they can spill a little. But those guys don't clean up their own messes at all before they leave."

"Is that so?"

"I think they might fix their habits if I show them how scary a dragon can be. What do you say?"

"Do as you wish."

Luri's chattering mouth stopped.

Glancing up, she stared sullenly at Ferda.

"You're the worst, Lord Ferda."

"Is that so?"

"Even now, at this very moment, you're just giving half-hearted answers."

"I see."

"Are you acting like this just because I scrubbed your skin once?"

"How petty."

She muttered it so quietly it was nearly inaudible, but Ferda heard it.

It would be a lie to say he held no grudge from that day.

Having had his petty revenge, he decided to give her a proper answer this time.

"Refining mana stones is naturally a time-consuming task. Research isn't something that can be finished in an instant, is it?"

"Can you really understand that, Lord Ferda, when you reached the 3rd Circle so quickly?"

"I've practiced looking down from the perspective of the ordinary."

The old Ferda wouldn't have understood.

However, when the current Ferda—who knew the old Ferda—recalled what he felt while rapidly breaking through the Circles, he could look down at the perspective of ordinary people to some extent.

"I see."

This time, it was Luri who gave a half-hearted reply.

"So, hold off on that punishment for just a bit longer. Once they bring good news soon, then—"

"-Ahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!"

Before Ferda could even finish his sentence, a madman's laughter echoed throughout Valdrova Castle.

The sound grew closer and closer.

"Ahahaha! Finally! I finally succeeded! I don't have to bake these damn mana stones anymore! Ahahaha!!"

That madman was Burnel Marquis.

With greasy hair and his robe half slipping off.

Ferda and Luri's eyes were fixed on the path he had just run past.

Ferda took a sip of his tea and spoke.

"Speak of the devil, it seems we have results."

The moment to prove the reason he had brought Burnel in had finally arrived.

* * *

Burnel, who had run around like a madman, did nothing but sleep after that.

He had been engaging in life-shortening labor, cutting down on his sleep to research mana stone refinement.

When he finally stood before Ferda, he arrived looking neat and tidy.

"I thought it might work today, and it really did. Hahaha!"

"Will you explain it now?"

"Ah, yep! Of course. So, how this works is..."

Burnel began to explain something with great enthusiasm.

He babbled on about the details of his research for a full hour, finally placing a period on a densely packed chalkboard.

"You understand what I'm saying, right?"

After listening to the entire explanation, Ferda spoke.

"Did you?"

"I-I completely understand it, of course. I've organized it to some extent and tried my best to break it down simply for you, which is why I explained it like this..."

"Hmm."

Ferda thought to himself.

'I guess I'm not that smart after all.'

He realized that reaching the rank of Great Mage had been purely the result of hard work.

He had listened to Burnel's talk, but he didn't have the slightest clue what the man was saying.

Around the thirty-minute mark, he felt like he was staring into the cosmos; he zoned out slightly before snapping back to reality when the period was drawn.

Ferda discreetly looked at the assisting researchers.

Their eyes were bright and sparkling.

Those were eyes a researcher could never possess.

'It seems no one understood.'

They were the people Stephan Pascal had sent over, claiming they were quite smart in their own right.

If he was a brilliant merchant, he would have picked the best of the best to send here to acquire the technology.

'At least there won't be any immediate issues with technology leaks.'

Ferda thought about it positively.

Either way, wasn't it enough if Burnel understood it and could demonstrate it?

"Show me what it is."

"Yep!"

Burnel brought over one of the many magical devices.

It was an item called a mana anchor.

When imbued with mana, it fixed a certain area of mana in the air using a 5th-tier fixing magic.

"If we place a monster's corpse in here and stimulate it with a bit of lightning magic..."

Mana spewed out from the dead corpse.

Unusable junk mana with a rough texture spewed out like a pollutant, floating in the air.

"And if we heat this to a certain temperature, then compress it and cool it down like this...!"

Scorching it with fire, compressing it, cooling it...

After going through a complex process, a crystal appeared, emitting pure white smoke.

A stone glowing faintly with a blue light had been created.

"This right here is a mana stone!"

Burnel pulled out the final product with an ambitious voice.

It emitted a faint glow like a quartz crystal filled with mana.

It was a marvelous moment, but Ferda wasn't particularly impressed.

'It's cloudy.'

It was an item Ferda had already seen in the future.

But unlike back then, the color was pale, giving off a strong feeling of crudeness.

Just in case, he asked Burnel.

"What's the efficiency like?"

"Uh... well..."

Burnel, who had been spouting incomprehensible knowledge so fluently, suddenly got stuck.

"Burnel Marquis."

"Y-Yes!"

"Did I not ask you a question? I asked what the efficiency was."

"W-Well, about that..."

Burnel struggled to answer while breaking into a cold sweat.

"If we consume the equivalent mana of seven mana stones, we can produce one."

"Then the efficiency should be viewed as 14.2%."

"Rounded up, it's 14.3%. And even from that..."

It seemed there was more.

He hesitated, as if the remaining detail wasn't good either.

"Because there's mana that leaks out while raising it to the mana stone's own capacity... you have to assume it drops by another half..."

That meant they had to use fourteen mana stones just to get the efficiency of a single one.

"So roughly 7%."

"To the first decimal place, it's 7.1%... *Hic*, I apologize."

As Burnel tactlessly pointed that out, he thought to himself.

Ah, I'm screwed.

I guess this is the end of my research.

It would be better to just hire a mage; where would anyone even use an item with 7.1% efficiency?

He was passing a death sentence upon himself in his mind, going through the five stages of grief.

After staring down at the mana stone in silence for a long while, Ferda finally opened his mouth.

"About the efficiency."

"Yes."

"Can you raise it further?"

"Pardon...?"

"I asked if you can raise the efficiency further."

Ferda had been thinking this since he first brought Burnel Marquis in.

As long as this guy didn't give up, Ferda had no intention of letting it end in failure.

Burnel nodded at the question.

"O-Of course. It's possible. I will definitely make it happen."

"Good."

Ferda stood up from his seat.

"Then continue your research."

Burnel looked up at him and blinked.

Just when he thought that was it, Ferda added a few words.

"I'll gather the people who need to hear this. Until then, organize the research details and your demonstration one more time. Understood?"

"Y-Yep!"

Leaving those words behind, Ferda stepped outside.

He was trusting in this research that even he himself wasn't entirely certain about.

So, he simply had to do the best he could.

Unlike Burnel, who was trembling with anxiety, Ferda's thoughts were different.

'I put it to plenty of good use.'

Ferda knew.

Magical engineering would develop no matter what.

And he roughly knew just how arduous that development process was.

Back when Burnel had first announced it, there was nothing but mockery.

People said things like: who would use such a thing, why use it, and that it lacked dignity.

But what happened in the future?

'Mages ended up using magical engineering even more.'

Because it provided a level of convenience completely different from the magic circles they cast through calculations.

The era where the mysteries of magic were monopolized was coming to an end.

For Ferda, who knew of that future, there was plenty of reason to believe in Burnel.

* * *

Ten days passed, and honored guests arrived.

They were the old lord, Count Concillus, and the branch manager of the Pascal trading company, Stephan Pascal.

In front of them, Burnel gave his demonstration and provided supplementary explanations just as he had for Ferda.

Having been given ten days to organize everything, it was better than his initial explanation to Ferda.

But the content was still highly complex.

"Oho, I see."

"Indeed. That was excellent information."

Ferda quietly observed their reactions before asking them a question.

"Did you truly understand it? Even I couldn't, so be honest with me."

Only then did the two confess the truth.

He had thought their voices sounded soulless, and he was right.

"Haha, my apologies. Chiming in with agreement has become a habit. This old man is a complete layman in that field."

"I just thought it would be embarrassing to look like I didn't know anything..."

As expected, both were just pretending to understand.

Only Burnel, who believed he had organized it better and summarized it simply, felt awkward.

"Still, from what I could gather from the parts I understood, the conclusion seems to be that the efficiency is quite low. Is that correct?"

"That's right."

"Hmm, what a truly ambiguous item."

Count Concillus muttered as he stroked his beard, while Burnel sweated profusely.

In contrast to Concillus's negative view, Stephan tried his best to highlight the positive aspects.

"It doesn't seem very good from an economic standpoint right now, but isn't it still a good item in the sense that it can supply mana?"

"Ah, that's a part I explained earlier... It isn't an item that can supply mana to a mage. It's not something that can recover or recharge mana like a potion or elixir."

"Ah, then it's a bit ambiguous... If the efficiency is that low even when it succeeds..."

Stephan, who had been trying to defend it, also took a step back.

Both of them had given responses leaning toward the negative.

Stephan's back was growing damp with sweat.

That was something Ferda had expected as well.

"Don't worry about the efficiency for now. That's something our head researcher will figure out later anyway."

Ferda had already anticipated this.

Given that he knew revealing it would only lead to negative remarks, showing it to these two was for a different purpose altogether.

"I wanted to hear your thoughts on what we should create first using this item."

"What exactly are you referring to?"

Ferda held up the mana stone Burnel had created and spoke.

"Literally speaking, this is the power source for a revolutionary item that can do what mages do on their behalf. Try to think of tasks that require a mage, as well as tasks that are surprisingly too trivial for a mage to do."

What they needed were ideas.

Count Concillus and Stephan were men deeply immersed in their respective fields.

At Ferda's words, Count Concillus spoke up first.

"If we can imitate a mage through that item... does that mean we could have our foot soldiers fill in for the mages we lack on the front lines?"

He was an old man who had grown up in a count's family and was a soldier to the bone.

So the very first thing he thought of was an element that could act as a substitute against the threats of the far east.

"It's possible. If we process it into a weapon, casting magic wouldn't be a difficult task."

He told them the name it would one day be known by.

"Under the name of magical engineering infantry."

"Oho... Magical engineering infantry, you say."

A light seemed to shine in Count Concillus's eyes.

Mages were beings who showed their efficiency in almost every situation.

Among them, they showed the greatest efficiency specifically in dealing with monsters.

The far east was a land with more demonic beasts than ordinary monsters.

It was an area more desperate for them than anywhere else.

However, as was typical of the front lines, it was no different from a place of exile for mages.

The only mage who had both some skill and the drive to be here had been Thessalos Vulture.

"This is wonderful. I can see hope just from the fact that it can fill the void left by mages. If only the efficiency is resolved, I believe it would be best to process it into a weapon first."

Count Concillus showed his enthusiasm.

True to the nature of an old lord who could not bear to watch his infantrymen be sacrificed, he clearly wished to push it in that direction immediately.

At that moment, Stephan countered.

"Count Concillus's opinion is certainly valid. If infantrymen could freely convert into mages, it would be a great help. But wouldn't it be just as important for transportation?"

Stephan had already staked his own conditions when he invested in this project.

"Transportation, you say?"

"Yes. The most crucial element on the battlefield is always supply. Even if your firepower is exceptional, if immediate supply becomes an issue, wouldn't it all be rendered useless?"

"That may be true. However, there are already plenty of demonic beasts dying in the far east. If we focus on utilizing those demonic beasts to manufacture them here, we can put off that difficult problem for later."

Count Concillus and Stephan refused to back down even an inch, both emphasizing the importance of what they each desired.

'As expected, asking these two was the right call.'

Just seeing this back-and-forth exchange made it clear what both of them wanted and what the underlying problems were.

Stephan wanted to reduce the immediate costs he experienced with transport, while Concillus wanted to increase the survival rate of the far eastern territory's soldiers.

There was a clear reason why neither was willing to step back.

"Since the two of us won't be able to settle this, I believe it would be right for the Regent to make the decision on this matter."

"Yes. I was just thinking the same."

The arrow had fallen to Ferda.

"I think it would be better to leave the decision to the head researcher, who is responsible for all development."

"Pardon?"

And Ferda forcefully threw that arrow right at Burnel.

"Me?"

Burnel blinked blankly with a stupid expression on his face.

However, just as Ferda had said, everyone was waiting for his decision, and Burnel was now in a situation where he had to make a choice.

"Uh, so, I..."

Burnel was a pacifist.

He was a man who wanted to create things immediately beneficial to people rather than build weapons.

Burnel carefully brought out what he had been thinking.

"I-I actually think it would be better to focus on weapons first..."

"As expected, right?"

"Of course, weapons are important, but think about it a bit more. I am the one in charge of supplying the quantity of demonic beasts."

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

"Well, at first I also thought it was right to develop in the other direction. But... after seeing the territory ruled by Count Concillus, I felt a bit different."

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

He had seen the people of the territory, and he had seen their pain and sorrow from losing their families.

"I believe we must first make weapons to stop the demonic beasts trying to ruin our homes."

"Ugh... Understood. If you put it that way..."

Stephan ultimately backed down.

Although his priority had been pushed back, Stephan would still get what he wanted eventually anyway.

"So right now, we are also proceeding with weapon development simultaneously. I've been researching the characteristics of demonic beasts as well, so I'll be able to bring you good news soon."

"Haha, keep up the hard work. Your research will become the light of our far east, after all."

The atmosphere seemed to be wrapping up on that heartwarming note.

"Yes, about those weapons..."

Ferda spoke up, as if sensing a perfect opportunity.

"By any chance, will those weapons also end up being as complicated as what you just explained?"

"Pardon? Uh... I'm not entirely sure, but perhaps... I think they might be."

"That's wonderful."

Ferda already knew.

Burnel Marquis.

That the first invention he produced would be incredibly complex and difficult to use.

He could materialize complex concepts to create miracles, but he didn't understand the importance of simplicity.

"As it happens, I have a very good specimen for you."

"Uh... a specimen?"

"Yes, a specimen. Come in!"

At Ferda's shout, a man waiting outside stepped in.

They were all startled the moment they saw him.

Wearing armor, he was trying to execute military drill steps.

When his left foot moved, his left hand swung up with it, and when his right foot moved, his right hand swung up.

There was this man confidently marching in, showing off those awkward steps as if they were proper drills.

Burnel felt a sudden chill the moment he laid eyes on him.

"Malcolm of Peach Hill! I have come at your summon!"

"Yes, welcome. There is something I need you to do."

"Please, tell me!"

With a hand placed proudly on his chest, he looked like a young boy overflowing with passion.

It wasn't a very pleasant sight.

"What is two times two?"

"That's easy! It's four."

"Correct. Then what is seven times six?"

He answered as if this were equally easy.

"It's thirteen!"

"Well done."

"Haha, you flatter me!"

Malcolm wore a proud expression, but the people around him were feeling a profound chill.

Faces that seemed to say: *Where on earth did he pick up a guy like that? *

Ferda patted Burnel on the shoulder and spoke.

"Make it simple enough for this fellow to understand and use."

"Pardon?"

"I believe you can do at least that much."

"... Pardon?"

Burnel felt his mind slipping far, far away.