Chapter 23
There was a reception room inside the Enersis mansion.
Although it wasn't overly decorated,
every material was expensive enough to make one gasp.
Since it was a show of sincerity to guests, they couldn't skimp on money.
“Young Master, the front of your clothes…!”
“No time. Tighten it as we go!”
“Young Master. You memorized all the etiquette I taught you, didn't you?!”
“Head Butler, I've heard that twelve times now.”
But the maid was not there; instead…
“Of all places, the workshop…!”
He was in Akion's workshop.
There was no time to wonder why.
“A-Akion! Come in quickly!”
“Uh… yes.”
When he made his way to the workshop, his birth father Delford, Lady Lucretia, Goldie, and the Tower Master were waiting for him inside.
And at their center,
“Hmm.”
stood a middle-aged maid with faded blond hair.
Beatrice, the Seventh Princess's chief lady-in-waiting.
A palace attendant backed by the pinnacle of authority, powerful enough to crush most nobles of count rank…
The moment he saw her, Akion Enersis
- Tap.
“I pay my respects to the glory of Her Highness the Seventh Princess, the seventh blessing bestowed upon the empire.”
knelt and bowed his head, showing the princess's maid the proper respect.
Akion always found this sort of etiquette terribly finicky.
“Akion, son of Count Enersis, stands ready to receive Her Highness's command.”
“Thank you for showing proper respect, Lord Akion.”
This only made him think, Yep, this really is a romance-fantasy story. Or perhaps just a middle-to-early-modern class society.
“Her Highness was deeply intrigued by the many magical devices you have created, Lord Akion. She was particularly impressed by that electric heater used by the Ministry of Finance official.”
“I am at a loss for how to respond to Her Highness's excessive interest.”
“Hehe… now, please rise. And may we dismiss those around us? I would like to discuss this serious matter between ourselves.”
“Ahem. All right. Everyone, let us leave.”
And thanks to seventeen years… no, now eighteen years of aristocratic life, he also noticed that the maid wanted to speak with him alone.
- Boom!
His birth father Delford led the household retainers out of the workshop,
and once the door closed, only Akion and Beatrice remained.
- Gulp….
Akion rose slowly and carefully, then straightened his clothes.
The fate of the count's family might depend on every little thing he did.
Of course, no one would twist the neck of Enersis, a founding contributor to the empire… but they could at least dictate Akion's fate.
For example, “The northern front is in danger, so send the youngest son.”
Of course, Akion had no intention of taking it lying down.
He had the Tower Master, after all.
That said… he had no intention of blindly calling in the Tower Master.
He had already imposed enough trouble on her during the duel incident.
So Akion resolved to handle this through his own efforts, but
“I hear the head of Tax Division Two at the Ministry of Finance became so obsessed with your electric heater that he personally went digging through the tax-exemption regulations, and the rumor has spread all the way to the imperial palace. To disarm Viscount Dalleong, who is famous for his strictness, was truly a remarkable feat.”
Akion felt a slight pang of regret beneath Beatrice's sharp gaze.
This auntie. Why was she so good at twisting her words around?!
Akion began to wonder whether he was being interrogated or, as the letter had said, receiving a development request.
“I merely shared my warmth with someone who was shivering from the cold at the banquet. I never dreamed that it would come back as an official order incorporating an imperial command. I was terribly surprised when I saw the imperial seal stamped on the order delivered to my office.”
For now, Akion decided to explain the situation and evade responsibility.
That viscount had become obsessed with the electric heater and dragged an imperial command into it; Akion hadn't led him to do so.
- Smile.
‘Ah, don't tell me….’
The moment the maid smiled, he realized that the seal belonged to the Seventh Princess.
That Dalleong fellow had clung to the Seventh Princess and gotten an imperial seal stamped on the order…!!
Putting aside his slight sense of betrayal, Akion waited for Beatrice to speak.
“Hehehe, Viscount Dalleong is also Her Highness's tutor, after all. You wouldn't know this, Lord Akion, but immediately after returning from the banquet, he met with Her Highness and praised that electric heater to the heavens, going on and on about what a wondrous device it was.”
‘Phew.’
Akion was relieved inwardly.
Fortunately, it wasn't anything negative.
The Seventh Princess had probably heard about the electric heater and thought of something, then wanted Akion to make it for her.
“Had I known that Your Highness's interest would be so swift and direct, I would have proceeded more carefully.”
Then he could afford to be a little more confident.
Akion ran a hand through his hair and gazed steadily, though seriously, at Beatrice, the princess's maid.
“It seems the viscount's praise was faster than your caution, Lord Akion. Thanks to it, Her Highness has become even more firmly convinced that your ingenious talent would be wasted if it were used merely to warm a room.”
“Her Highness's confidence feels like quite a weighty task to me. So, what is the next challenge you intend to place on my workshop bench?”
Akion felt as though he might get motion sickness.
He hated aristocratic speech so much. And this was the etiquette he had to observe with someone from the imperial family!
So he went straight for the point. Let us get to the matter at hand.
“You are quick to understand.”
Beatrice handed him a document with a satisfied smile.
“Lord Akion, would you be able to create a magical device that emits warm air rather than fire?”
It was a confidential commission bearing the imperial seal.
And Akion's eyes caught the words “hair drying.”
‘Ah, is that it?’
Akion recalled the rumors about the Seventh Princess.
“Her Highness is sick and tired of the arduous labor of drying her long, luxuriant hair every morning. Even with her maids rubbing it with towels and warming it over a brazier, it takes far too long, and it only damages her hair.”
The youngest member of the imperial family, just like Akion.
Along with her reputation as an unparalleled beauty, people said that when she let her hair down, it reached ten paces in length.
Her hair supposedly grew back to its original length within a day no matter how many times it was cut, a ‘blessing’ of the dragon blood passed down through her lineage.
Whether it was a blessing, he didn't know. Anyway.
“Her Highness wishes to apply the principle of that heater to create a wondrous magical device that will dry her hair in an instant.”
Akion had already come up with an idea for that.
‘A hair dryer should do the trick, right?’
The essential modern appliance no one could do without after washing their hair: a hair dryer.
Akion had heard that mages were assigned to dry the imperial family's hair.
But apparently that privilege was reserved for the emperor and crown prince, among others… which naturally left the Seventh Princess excluded.
At this point, Akion caught the scent with uncanny precision.
“Her Highness's concern is far more personal and practical than something as serious as a matter of state security.”
The scent of a very sweet budget…!
* * *
“Lord Akion, this is a matter as urgent to Her Highness as the security of the empire.”
The Seventh Princess's chief lady-in-waiting, Beatrice, was also her nanny.
From the day the Seventh Princess was born until now, when she had just turned eighteen, Beatrice had remained by her side and cared for her… an adoptive mother more like a real mother than even the Empress.
“Bae… I'm so tired. Can I sleep just a little longer? Do I really have to wash my hair today…?”
“I'm sorry, Your Highness.”
That was why she knew just how enormous the stress the princess suffered because of her long hair truly was.
Silky, glossy red hair that returned to its original length no matter how many times it was cut.
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that it stopped growing after reaching a certain length,
“No, no! If this is how it's going to be, I'd rather live as a bald woman!!”
“Y-Your Highness! Please calm down!”
but to the person herself, it was a curse.
Hair that returned to its original state after she slept, even if it was shaved so close that her scalp showed!
“Lord Akion would surely solve this problem with ease.”
“I understand Her Highness's predicament, but it isn't such a simple engineering problem.”
Beatrice had watched all of this from close by… and wanted the princess to sleep even one hour longer.
As luck would have it, the electric heater shown by the princess's tutor, Viscount Dalleong, had given both the princess and her maid a breakthrough.
Half by the princess's command and half of her own accord, Beatrice had come rushing all the way here.
“Controlling the heat and airflow simultaneously would require starting over from the design stage….”
Yet she had to watch a mere young master of a count's family dig in his heels.
Beatrice was dumbfounded inwardly.
Of course, she had no idea that, in his previous life, when the minister of the relevant ministry had said…
“Minister, you're the starting point. The starting point for talent flight, that is.”
“Something about that had an accent to it….”
she was facing the madman who had cursed right to the minister's face.
“I also don't have much free time because of the water and sewage facilities in Ridasid….”
Even so, how dare he hesitate with the Seventh Princess's proposal right in front of him?
Of course, Beatrice remained the one in the weaker position.
For the Seventh Princess, who had not even been assigned a mage… there was no immediate breakthrough besides this Akion Enersis.
She had expected a shut-in young master, but Beatrice clicked her tongue inwardly and tried to negotiate once more.
“The public bathhouse and water and sewage facilities, was it? Her Highness has heard quite a bit about public hygiene. However, it seems Count Enersis has been suffering from disputes over water rights with the neighboring domains, as well as the resulting administrative friction. A request for mediation on the matter has already reached the imperial family.”
A glint appeared in Akion's eyes.
Beatrice, too, realized that public hygiene was an expensive public works project, but one whose benefits were immense.
The money spent on public hygiene would surely be far less than the losses caused by infectious diseases and the like.
“After reviewing that report, Her Highness was deeply moved by the compassion the count and his son have shown the people of their domain. As a result, the request is already under favorable consideration.”
“I shall regard it as an honor for my family.”
The Seventh Princess valued Akion highly for this reason.
She believed that someone who looked after those beneath him might even extend a hand to the princess herself.
Beatrice wanted to shout right then that she was mistaken. But anyway.
Even so, together with the Seventh Princess, she had prepared a gift Akion couldn't possibly refuse.
“Therefore, Her Highness has promised her full support for all civil-engineering projects, including the water and sewage facilities, along with full authority to resolve all administrative friction in one stroke.”
“What?!”
It was a recent letter from Count Enersis to the imperial family requesting mediation over a dispute concerning water rights.
It asked for mediation in disputes over water-resource usage with the neighboring lords, as well as the various squabbles with other lords who owned land in Ridasid.
The moment he heard the offer to support all of that with full force, Akion sprang to his feet.
“Ahem. I'm sorry.”
“Hehe.”
Even a man hailed as another genius of House Enersis wouldn't have expected such a huge gift.
Of course, the princess had made a decision of her own.
So she desperately needed a favorable answer… and just as Beatrice's anxiety was reaching its peak,
“I pay my respects to Her Highness's decision. In that case, I too must stake my honor as an engineer on producing something that will revolutionize Her Highness's mornings.”
“I like that confident answer.”
The deal was struck. Akion had accepted!
Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
“Very well. Her Highness and I will look forward to seeing what warmth the young master of House Enersis brings to the empire.”
She would send an inspector to check on the progress, but both she and the princess had high hopes for Akion.
Hoping he would solve the Seventh Princess's problem, Beatrice silently slipped out of the workshop.
* * *
“Akion!”
As soon as Beatrice left, the household retainers came rushing over and asked Akion what had happened.
“Well, you see….”
Akion explained most of his conversation with Beatrice, the princess's maid.
Among those who listened quietly, Delford spoke first as their representative.
“Son. Are you insane? You gambled your family and your own fate in front of the chief lady-in-waiting?”
“Anyway, it worked out, right?”
“Worked out, you little brat─!!!”
- Bonk!
It was the first time he had raised a hand to Akion as a father, but
of course, it was only a light knuckle tap. Anyway.
“Ow! This is domestic violence!! Tower Master, help me!!”
“This calls for Delford to hit you with love….”
“You too, Tower Master?!”
It was reckless enough to make even the Tower Master shake her head.
No, this young master had gambled to get even more, despite the possibility that it could be taken as an insult to the imperial family?
Even if he was the one in the superior position?
From Delford's perspective, his heart must have dropped into his stomach.
The Tower Master decided to side with Delford for once.
A little later,
“So… Son. Do you have any ideas?”
“I've already planned everything out.”
Goldie and the Tower Master had also pinched his cheeks.
Rubbing his reddened cheeks and the bump on his head, he explained his plan.
The hair dryer would need the filament from the electric heater and the motor from a portable fan.
Honestly, those two things would be enough. It would be finished in about two weeks.
So what mattered was,
“In that regard… Goldie, Tower Master. And Lady Lucretia?”
“Hmm?”
The evaluations of early adopters.
Or what people called reviews.
“I'll make one for you, so could you try it out and leave a review? Since I'll be passing it on to Her Highness, you'll need to write it up in some detail.”
“Eek, for Her Highness…?!”
“Hmm. For my distant grandniece….”
“U-Um… all right, dear.”
Akion planned to put it into the hands of the three women first and get their reviews on it.»«Because beauty appliances normally live and die by vivid reviews from their actual users.