Chapter 18
The result of the duel between Akion Enersis and Anton Yurintsev.
“Hwahahaha!! You actually landed a blow on that Yurintsev!”
Akion’s overwhelming victory!
Anton was sent back to his family home with physical and mental injuries.
The mental damage could be chalked up to the Tower Master descending upon him, but as for the physical damage….
“Th-then the winner─.”
“Wait!”
The Tower Master stopped the adjudicator’s declaration,
- Whumm! Fwoosh!
- Crack!
“Whew, I tore it off nicely. You may proceed now.”
“Haaagh…! Th-that technique!”
The Tower Master had fired mana gathered at a fingertip straight at Anton’s most sensitive area.
They say every man at the scene clutched his thighs together and complained of phantom pain after seeing it.
“Tower Master. What is that wondrous technique that sent Anton to the grave?”
“It isn’t magic, but martial arts. It is called the Finger-Projectile Art. Beyond the endless mountain ranges, deserts, and seas at the far eastern border of the empire, there is a continent where they practice a wondrous martial art called martial arts.”
More importantly, Akion realized there was a wuxia world here.
He had heard about it to some extent, but hearing it directly from the Tower Master made it all the more astonishing.
“The adjudicator recognized it remarkably quickly.”
“Envoys from the eastern kingdoms regularly stay at the imperial palace. The adjudicator must have seen the wondrous martial arts they demonstrated before.”
Apparently, they occasionally came to trade with the Khalid Empire.
Akion wanted to see them at least once someday. Through them, he could confirm whether there was a nation based on Joseon.
“Then let’s move on to the main matter.”
“Hehehe, I suppose we should.”
“Hehehe, a wish ticket. What a sweet word indeed!”
And at last, the coveted wish ticket.
Akion had just obtained a contract from Anton, who had regained consciousness a little while ago.
It contained numerous clauses, but in short, it said, ‘I’ll do anything, just let me live!!’
“When I remember that he tried to violate Hermione, I want to burn the bastard alive as her father, but….”
“I understand your feelings, Father, but….”
Akion didn’t want to keep that wastrel of a professor alive, either.
He was the sort whose very existence harmed those around him.
A vicious bastard who caused trouble wherever he went, offended everyone, and spread nothing but suffering.
But kill him?
“We can’t let a real war break out.”
“Hmm. The lives of our people have grown prosperous thanks to your generosity, so they must not suffer because of one of my poor choices.”
If that happened, Marquis Yurintsev would truly declare war on the Enersis territory. He would have a pretext.
That was why, as a rule, after a duel ended, the winner took the loser hostage and demanded an enormous sum in compensation.
Enough to bankrupt a poor noble family.
And since the marquisate was wealthy… the amount would not be small.
“We can ask for roughly this much.”
“Father, wouldn’t even a marquisate go bankrupt over an amount like this?”
“That would be fine, and even better if he refused. The moment he refuses, he will become the head of house who threw away his own younger brother, and he will lose the trust of his family. If things go well, we might even be able to drive him out of the empire’s Ten Great Noble Houses.”
And Delford, a man who had maxed out his political skills, was confident it was possible.
What sort of case they could make to the emperor with this,
Delford, as a count, laid out all sorts of possibilities for his son.
“So, son.”
“Yes.”
“Do as you wish. Honestly, even if you kill him, the Tower Master is by your side, so the marquis won’t even dream of starting a war. And I won’t sit idly by, either.”
“Father…!”
For once, Akion felt proud of his politically maxed-out father.
* * *
However, Marquis Yurintsev was unwilling to pay money for his wastrel of a younger brother,
and began delaying the compensation payment by any means possible.
“No….”
“Now we can! Hahaha! Vacation!!”
That kept Akion busy.
With tears in his eyes, he pushed back the schedules for all his ongoing projects.
The craftsmen, in turn, hugged one another and shouted their joy.
And more importantly, a warm wind began blowing through Enersis.
“Th-this is…!”
The occasion was a banquet hosted by the Count of Enersis.
Quite a few nobles had gathered in Enersis to watch the duel,
and Delford saw his chance and held a small banquet.
The invitations came too suddenly for anyone to dress properly.
Some nobles complained, but the moment they braved the winter wind and arrived at Enersis’s banquet hall,
- Fwoosh!
“Ghk?!”
“I thought a wall of flames had rushed at me…! It’s just warm inside!”
As soon as they entered the banquet hall, warm indoor air greeted them.
Everyone who stepped through the entrance assumed Enersis had used mages to heat the place.
They thought it was merely the usual profligate spending of a wealthy noble, but soon…
“Wh-what is that glowing red thing?”
“Could it be lava?”
They discovered solidified magma installed throughout the banquet hall.
It looked as though flowing lava had been fixed in place like a solid object, so every mage-born noble grabbed an attendant and asked what it was.
“Ah, that is called an electric heater.”
And they all proudly introduced the product.
A heating appliance that used the resistance heat generated when mana flowed through it.
Its developer was Akion Enersis.
“Good heavens.”
“This is a revolution in thinking….”
The mage-born nobles were momentarily stunned.
From ancient times to the present, whether at the Academy or among mages,
they had always regarded any loss caused by interference with the flow of mana as inefficiency.
Yet that rumored Akion had… maximized one such loss—heat—and turned it into a heating appliance!
“It consumes about one standard mana stone per week.”
“That little?!”
“What incredible efficiency…!!”
The inefficient mana lamps in common use consumed one standard-sized mana stone every week.
And this thing emitted such intense heat while using about as much mana as those mana lamps?
“The streetlamps were also made with incandescent bulbs developed by Young Master Akion.”
“Good heavens. Now that you mention it… those streetlamps did light up around sunset.”
The bright light of the streetlamps set up along the roads was one reason they had been able to brave the cold winter wind.
They had heard that the bulbs were several times brighter than mana lamps, while also having longer lifespans and better efficiency.
And they had heard that they had been developed by a noble young master with no talent who couldn’t cast a single spell.
The nobles had dismissed it as nonsense, but….
“My knight recently told me that the blacksmiths were asking him to procure something called an electric screwdriver.”
“That also uses the motor component made by Young Master Akion, doesn’t it?”
After seeing the electric heaters as well, they all realized.
That it wasn’t a lie.
Moreover, they realized that Enersis was not maintaining these things with money to burn, but that they made money and had low maintenance costs—and had passed those benefits on to the people of the territory.
Of course, they had already sensed it when they saw the chandeliers and wall lamps brightly illuminating every corner of the banquet hall. Anyway.
“Haaaaah, I feel as though my hands and feet are melting.”
“Husband. Shall we get one for our mansion, too?”
“Might I have a chance to speak with the count one-on-one?”
“I am Gale of House Altera. I have something urgent to discuss with Count Enersis… Ahem, I mean that electric heater over there. Would it be possible to purchase several─.”
The head butler, who was entertaining the guests in the banquet hall, had experienced this sort of interest countless times.
But never before had he received it because of the alchemy they looked down on—or, more broadly, the magi-engineering they had dismissed as mere legend.
‘Thanks to the young master we used to look down on, a warm wind is blowing through Enersis once again.’
His ill feelings toward Akion, who kept asking for more funding, began to melt away.
The head butler resolved to propose an increase to the research budget at the next budget meeting.
* * *
“So this is that mana lamp called an incandescent bulb, is it?”
Within the County of Enersis, incandescent bulbs were cheap.
More precisely, once their status as residents of the county was confirmed, they could receive a remarkable discount of up to nearly eighty percent.
Naturally, prices were high for the time being only because factory-scale mass production was difficult; Akion intended to lower them once production was moved into factories.
“Yes, Father.”
Naturally, outsiders had to pay full price, so ordinary commoners could not even dream of owning one.
Even so, they were cheaper than mana lamps, so nobles could afford them,
and Gale Altera, who had happened to attend the banquet, managed to bring home some incandescent bulbs along with a present he had kept hidden.
Of course, since incandescent bulbs were rare products that only those in the know had managed to acquire, Gale had clung to the count rather pathetically to obtain them.
- Click!
“Heh heh. It really is much brighter than a mana lamp.”
And his father, Marquis Luden Altera, marveled at the incandescent bulb that lit up by consuming mana.
It flashed brightly enough to blind him for a moment, then steadily drew in his mana—this thing called an incandescent bulb!
“How many did you manage to obtain?”
“It was somewhat difficult to persuade the count….”
Gale opened a large box and showed him nine incandescent bulbs wrapped in cloth.
“Including the one you’re holding, Father, we secured ten in total.”
“Hahahaha!! Gale, splendid work! You brought back ten of those incredibly difficult-to-obtain incandescent bulbs!”
“They said they would also send craftsmen to install them. And finally….”
These days, the capital was hot—in the best possible sense—because of the County of Enersis.
An artifact-grade mana lamp called an incandescent bulb, known only to insiders.
A turbine pump that shot out water like high-tier water magic.
And electric heaters that made the dead of winter completely unfrightening!
Not to mention boilers that supplied hot water even to the bathrooms they had given over to guests!!
“We will also be the first in the capital to receive electric heaters.”
“Hwahahaha!!”
A revolution in technology!
The magitech devices of a genius alchemist—no, of the genius magi-engineer Akion Enersis!!!
The nobles who had seen all of it with their own eyes bragged about it nonstop as soon as they returned to the capital.
At salons, after meetings, and even over simple meals, they chattered away.
‘You lot haven’t seen anything like this, have you?’ They went around saying it at every opportunity.
And nobles, by nature, were the sort who…
“Well done, Gale! From now on, maintain a close cooperative relationship with Enersis as the heir to our house! Especially with that Young Master Akion!”
“I’ll remember that, Father!”
They were the sort who wanted something even more when they heard about it.
And so, Akion-made magitech devices began to trend among the nobles of the capital.