Chapter 24
When Akion was focused on developing the hair dryer,
“Ah….”
The papal palace in the capital city of Drakir, and the enormous monastery within it.
And in a secluded cottage deep inside that monastery….
- Swish, swish.
The Saint, whose injuries had completely healed, had removed all her bandages.
She was carefully caressing the flashlight Akion had given her.
Every movement of her hands was filled with devotion, as though she were handling a sacred relic of the Heavenly Lord.
“It’s really pretty….”
Akion had made two kinds of flashlights in total.
Headlamps for distribution to the other holy knights. And for the Saint, a flashlight slightly too large to hold in both hands.
It was made by combining bronze and wood, then coating it with black glaze to give it a smooth surface.
On top of that, there was the Saint version, fitted with an incandescent bulb modified using the Tower Master’s magical knowledge so it could withstand the Saint’s output.
In Goldie’s words, it was worthy of being called a ‘metaphysical work of art.’
- Swish.
The Saint was about to do something reckless to an object that ought to be handled with such care.
- Click.
Over the lens where the flashlight’s light emerged… she placed a cover with vertical grooves carved into it.
And then,
- Kiiiiiing…!
She used divine power to light a halo above her head,
then began forcing divine power into the flashlight.
- Crackleeee…!!
“Ahhh…….”
The holy beam protruding through the grooves… took the shape of a sword with no end.
Its blade had a dangerous form, sharp enough to cut someone if mishandled.
- Tap, tap.
- Creak.
Holding it in her hand, the Saint left the cottage….
“Saint. Here is the experimental subject you requested.”
“Kek, keck!”
In front of her was a goblin that had been brought in bound for an experiment.
Because there was something she wanted to test with the precious flashlight Saint Akion had given her.
“Hold it firmly.”
“Yes!”
“Kieeeek?!”
Two holy knights held the goblin by its limbs,
and the goblin, dragged here without knowing what was going on, struggled desperately.
“Keryak! Keyaaaak!!”
The goblin was confused.
What on earth was happening,
and who were these hulking, pure-white chunks of metal?!
- Tap, tap.
- Whoosh!
Above all, why was an extraordinarily beautiful human female—beautiful enough to stir even a goblin’s lust—
“Poor thing.”
“Kiheeek….”
far more frightening than the ogre had been when it first saw one…?!!!
- Shake, shake!
The goblin wanted to live, and shook its head while shedding tears as round as chicken droppings.
Please, spare my life.
Had its desperate plea reached her?
“Monsters like you… are like orphans who have lost their parents.”
At the Saint’s pitying gaze, a faint glimmer of hope appeared in the goblin’s eyes.
“But those parents were demons, after all─!!”
“Kieeek?!”
That was not, in fact, true.
- Kiiiiiing!!
- Sizzleeeee!!!!
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Saint─!!!”
Fanaticism appeared in the Saint’s eyes, and the output of the flashlight sword(?) surged to its maximum.
“A──Men!!”
“Kyaaaaak!!!”
The sword she brought down while crying out to the Heavenly Lord
- Slash!
“Kureeek?!”
cleanly bisected the goblin.
And to make matters worse, it burned the wounded areas as well!!!!
“Kku, kkuue. Egek.”
“Ha, haaahhhhh…! Haaat-hahahaha─!!!”
A fitting end for a scrap whose only parents were demons!!
For the Saint, who had once nearly lost her life to vampires, nothing could have been more satisfying.
“That was a truly magnificent stroke!”
“To create a sword of light from a flashlight! As expected of the Saint!!!”
“Ah-hahahahaha! From now on, I shall call this the Holy Light Sword!”
“Long live the Saint!!”
“Long live the Heavenly Lord!!!”
And so, the sword that holy knights would draw in an emergency—
The Holy Light Sword had been born.
*
“Ugh.”
“What is it? Why are you suddenly trembling?”
Meanwhile, Akion was at the Enersis mansion.
He suddenly shivered from a chill that came over him.
“I’m not sure. Am I coming down with a cold?”
“It may be warm during the day, but the nights are cold. If necessary, I shall call a priest.”
“No, it’s fine. This is more important right now.”
His condition was at its peak, so it seemed too early to call it a cold. Akion brushed it off as nothing.
There was a more urgent matter in front of him.
“I can’t find anything suitable for hanging the coil from.”
He was talking about the coil that would play the exact same role as an incandescent bulb’s filament.
It needed to heat the air blown out by the fan… but he could not find anything suitable for securing it in place.
“Young Master, what about mica?”
“It would shatter the moment we dropped it. So it needs to be heat-resistant, sturdy, durable, and it must not allow mana to flow through it.”
“What troublesome conditions….”
It had to be nonconductive, resistant to impact, and resistant to heat.
Akion had realized that the first requirement through his engineering research so far.
When mana took the place of electricity, it absolutely would not flow through an insulator.
“What about rubber?”
“It might melt if we’re not careful. Wouldn’t it be better to use the ceramic we tried when making the toilet?”
“Wouldn’t that break too?”
Thus, they needed an insulator from which to suspend the coil… but they could not find a suitable material, and that was the problem.
To summarize the issue, most materials were vulnerable to external impacts.
“Young Master, Young Master.”
“Why are you calling me? Why?”
“Then, like when you made the bearings… couldn’t you put a damper around it?”
“Oh?”
Why had he been worrying about this?
They could simply wrap it in a shock absorber—a damper—that would suppress both vibration and external impacts.
But Goldie had thought of it first!
“There, there. Our Goldie is so smart.”
“Hehe! Pet me more!”
“My, my. Goldie, you really do love being praised.”
Akion and the Tower Master spent quite some time doting on Goldie, and Goldie became the happiest beastkin in the world.
“Then let’s use wool felt for the damper.”
Wool felt, which was widely used as a material for handmade dolls in modern times.
This material, which may have been invented even before weaving technology, was ideal for insulation and absorbing sound and vibration thanks to its tiny air pockets.
On top of that, it was a protein fiber, so it was resistant to fire as well!
“We can make the inside of the case from lacquered wood and the outside from ebonite.”
“What is this ‘ebonite’ you speak of…?”
“It’s a black rubber made by mixing an appropriate amount of sulfur into natural rubber─.”
For heat resistance, they would make the case’s frame from lacquered wood and cover the outside with ebonite.
“If you need wood for heat resistance… there is such a thing as Drakibluddy. It has a beautiful red color, and once it is dried and lacquered, it cannot be burned.”
“Oh, it sounds like a tree dragons would use a lot.”
“It is a tree raised by feeding it dragon blood. The one in my tower… Hehe, I fed it my own blood.”
“Gasp.”
And once again, the Tower Master provided assistance in materials engineering.
She even provided an entire precious Drakibluddy tree that she had grown herself!
“Hehe. It’s a gift for my great-nephew. I can provide this much.”
“Krr, family really does come first for the Tower Master!”
“F-family?! You mean your family and mine…?! Ahem, well. Akion, you have always watched my beauty, so it was understandable that you would fall for me─.”
“That isn’t what happened.”
In the meantime, the Tower Master grew dejected at hearing that Akion had not fallen for her.
Akion and Goldie worked hard to comfort her, but anyway.
“Gasp, Drakibluddy!!”
“Please carve it carefully. It will form the inner shell of a product to be delivered to the imperial family.”
“Yes…!”
Akion entrusted the extraordinarily hard Drakibluddy wood to a master carver, and
“Look carefully. This is ebonite.”
“Ohhh…!”
he taught the workshop artisans how to make ebonite and had them discuss ways to manufacture it in large quantities.
Before that, some of it was hardened into a mold, and he asked the master carver to shave the inside and outside of the wood to exactly cover the inner wooden frame.
“And since it’s rubber, we can expand it with heat and fit it on like this….”
- Thud thud thud!!!
Finally, after fitting all the components into place, they dipped the ebonite outer frame in warm water to expand it, then fitted it over the inner frame.
Afterward, they could carve grooves into it with a carving knife and dye it in between, or cover the handle with lacquered wood to block the heat.
“Finished….”
A hair dryer engraved with a red golden dragon. It was complete.
*
With the hair dryer completed, they sent it straight to the princess—
“Ugh, my hair feels dry and coarse.”
“As expected… high heat is bad for a woman’s hair.”
They did not send it.
As mentioned before making it, they gave it to three early adopters and compared its pros and cons.
“Hmm. Son.”
“I’ll let it go this time.”
“Thank you…. Drying my hair with hot, powerful air made it turn coarse very quickly. For a woman with hair as long as mine, I think we need slightly warm or lukewarm air, which is why I brought it up.”
Before installing the components in the device, Akion had set a three-stage switch so the coil’s heating level could be adjusted.
As for airflow, he divided it into low and high settings.
“In my view, high-temperature, high-power air is appropriate for drying the skin beneath the hair.”
“Hmm. And when drying the hair, would that be medium-to-low temperature with high airflow? Goldie liked the high setting best, as long as it wasn’t hot!”
“I agree with the Tower Master and Goldie.”
The protein that makes up hair is keratin. It is extremely vulnerable to heat.
Moreover, wet hair has moisture gathered between its open cuticles, and if that moisture evaporates rapidly under hot, powerful air, the hair is damaged as a result.
“Here’s the evaluation form the Tower Master, the Countess, and Goldie wrote together!”
“Thank you.”
Akion himself was a man, so his hair was short and dried quickly; he did not need to take those points into consideration.
The princess’s hair was probably much longer than the combined hair of these three women.
And Akion, aside from the fact that most nobles here had naturally curly hair….
“It would be nice if a hairstyle culture developed while we were at it.”
He had never seen anyone twist or wave their hair like people did in modern times.
If the hair dryer could also be used as a means of adorning oneself, wouldn’t the princess come to take pride in her long hair?
With that somewhat awkward reason in mind,
- Tap, tap.
“You’ve all worked hard.”
Akion completed the hair dryer, including its manual.
“Hraaagh, a vacation….”
“Hmm, by the way, Young Master. About that hair dryer. If you produce more later, could I take one home for my wife─?”
“I plan to make a cheaper version later. For now… this one is for delivery to the imperial family.”
“Gasp, yes…!”
All that remained was
“Tower Master. Would it be better for Her Highness if we put your name on this?”
“Hehe, do you intend to borrow my name for free? Set aside a day for me and Goldie.”
“Hah, I suppose it can’t be helped… Deal.”
“Hehehe! Good!”
to truly send this hair dryer to the Seventh Princess.
Along with the manual containing the know-how of the three early adopters.
* * *
The current emperor of the Khalid Empire
had seven children.
Despite having priests, so many newborns died that people had no choice but to have many children.
“Why does it grow every day?! And why is it so dirty?! Sob, whaaah…!”
“Calm down. Our distant descendant. There, there. Stop crying.”
Among them, the Seventh Princess, Flare, was the youngest, just like Akion.
“Hmm. This is….”
“Is there a problem with Flare, Elder?”
“I did not witness her birth, so I do not know the details, but the child has a powerful flow of dragon blood.”
“Then….”
An imperial princess who was a mutant, with the strongest dragon blood among her generation.
When a certain dragon said she might be closer to a dragon than a human, the emperor at the time broke out in a cold sweat.
“The reason Flare’s hair grew so long is probably that her appearance from a happy time long ago became fixed.”
“Is that because of the dragon blood?”
“Indeed. Dragons engrave the happiest moments of their lives into both body and soul. Still, I shall make arrangements so her body can continue to grow.”
But this is the most terrible blessing. Even for someone like me, who is thousands of years old….
- Chirp, chirp, chirp!
“……….”
The princess wanted to know why she had dreamed that dream.
“Haaah.”
The day she had been held in her father the emperor’s arms and praised for her long, red hair that flowed like silk.
The mound of red hair that had become fixed from that day onward… growing endlessly to match her body.
- Swish.
The various bits of foreign matter caught in that silk seemed to imitate the girl she had been when she joyfully ran around the imperial garden.
As a result, the bed had become dirty once again.
The attendants would have to change the sheets again.
“Haa.”
It was the usual morning scene.
The moment Flare reached to pull the bell and summon the attendants,
- Chirp, chirp, chirp!
“……Hm?”
she heard the cry of a bird, difficult to hear before dawn.
To wash her long hair in time, she had to begin washing up before sunrise, but….
“Huh, wha? Aah?!”
Sunlight was streaming through the window.
“Bae, Bae!!”
- Ding, ding, ding!!
Flare hurriedly called for Beatrice, the chief lady-in-waiting.
“Did you call, Your Highness?”
“Why, why didn’t you wake me?! I’ll be late for the imperial court meeting at this rate, ah…!”
Beatrice had woken her later than usual without warning.
Just as Flare’s worry over being late for the meeting began to swell,
“Do not worry, Your Highness. We have more than enough time to make it.”
“How can I not worry—! Hm? What are you holding?”
Flare noticed that the maids who had entered with Beatrice were carrying something in their hands.
It was a beautiful work of art with a matte-black exterior, hollowed out inside and lined with gleaming gold leaf.
Its end resembled the broad, flat beak of a bird, as though it had been designed to let air flow out easily.
And it had a rather familiar scent.
“That has a somewhat familiar and pleasant smell….”
“You recognize it? This is a magical device called a hair dryer, carved from Drakibluddy wood personally grown by the Tower Master of Ridasid.”
The Tower Master of Ridasid!
Her distant relative and ancestor had provided that precious Drakibluddy wood.
The princess was astonished by that fact, then remembered who the Tower Master had worked with….
“Th-then could this be?!”
“Yes, Your Highness. It is a hair dryer sent by Lord Akion.”
She was doubly astonished that it was the savior who would free her from the ordeal of drying her hair every morning.
“Lord Akion and the Tower Master enclosed a manual explaining the optimal drying method for each hair condition. We tested it first, and its performance was nothing short of revolutionary.”
“Really?! I-I want to try it right now!”
That genius alchemist and developer of countless artifact-grade magical devices, Akion Enersis.
And the Tower Master of Ridasid, her distant ancestor.
A state-of-the-art beauty magical device born from the two of them putting their heads together….
Flare bounced up and down on the bed like a child, forgetting that it had become dirty.
“But first, you must wash your hair.”
“Ah! Right. Come on, come on, help me!”
At the princess’s command, the attendants lifted and gathered her hair,
and Beatrice stood beside the princess and followed her into the washing room.
“When did it arrive?! You should have told me in advance!”
“Hehe, if I had known Your Highness would be this happy, I would have told you sooner.”
Perhaps because she had slept several hours longer than usual,
Beatrice gazed warmly at the princess, whose dark circles had faded.