Chapter 28
Akion handed that carpenter a new electric screwdriver, and…
“He definitely siphoned it off, right?”
“Yes, Young Master! Just as you predicted, he smuggled the electric screwdriver out through a black-market dealer!”
He immediately sent investigators to track and analyze their movements.
After Tobi’s pilfering of the incandescent bulbs last time, it wasn’t as though Akion had been sitting around without a thought.
Akion-made magic tools?
He confirmed that rumors about them had spread here and there throughout the Empire.
Naturally, they would sell for a high price to any noble. Who wouldn’t be tempted? This was a place where pilfering was an everyday occurrence.
The thieves might be confident they wouldn’t get caught, but traces were bound to remain.
“Apparently, it made its way to the Viscount Steelburn family in the southern part of the Empire.”
“How did it get all the way there already…?”
“Young Master, we were rather surprised ourselves while looking into it.”
But in the meantime… it had gone as far as the south, quite a distance from Enersis?
Akion was dumbfounded as he listened to the report.
“What the—how did it get that far? Did they take an electric car or something?”
“If it isn’t too presumptuous, may I ask what an electric car is, Young Master?”
“Uh… You ride horses, right? Imagine a steel horse that eats mana for fuel and can run for a week without getting tired.”
“Damn, Young Master. That’s one hell of a magic tool! Please make one immediately!! I’ll devote my money and my life to it!!”
“I can’t make one yet.”
“Yet! You said yet!! Ha-ha-ha!”
“Oh dear.”
In any case, the reason Akion pretended not to know about the electric screwdriver being pilfered was…
“Got them!!”
“You criminals! Don’t move!”
“Gasp?!”
so that he could crush the carpenter who was trying to siphon off another one, along with the accomplice who helped him and the black-market dealer.
People like them were bound to appear one at a time, gambling on their luck.
And an accomplice employed by the count’s domain was bound to get dragged in as well. It was better to catch them all cleanly in one go.
And so, they fell perfectly into Akion’s sting operation.
“Y-Young Master. Hehe! We’re sorry!”
“We’ll definitely compensate you, so please forgive us!”
Of course, the ones who had been caught were grinning with relief.
They hadn’t siphoned off a large quantity like the tanner Tobi had. It was only one electric screwdriver!
Akion had always been merciful, so he would surely forgive them!
“You said the parish was short on criminals to work at the correctional facility, right? Hand them over to the parish in my name.”
“As you command, Young Master!!”
“Y-Yes?! Wait a minute! Young Master! C-Correctional facility?!”
“I heard people go mad in there?!!”
“Gyaaaah! Please!! Young Master, please forgive meeeee─!!”
But even the gentle young master had gotten angry.
He had built a flower garden in their heads out of consideration, and they had used it to make a fool of Akion. Did they really think he would forgive them?
And Akion had looked into it: at that correctional facility, whenever someone seemed likely to die from the labor, they were healed with divine power and forcibly restored.
No one ever died, so by the time they were released, they came out as drooling lunatics.
Was that punishment too harsh?
“I warned them.”
Well, Akion had warned them once through the count.
He had told them to stop, because stealing any more would be an insult to the count’s family.
Tobi was the exception to the exception and was outside the correctional facility, but in practice, he was being healed with divine power and worked to the bone just like the criminals inside it.
“If they still come out after this, I intend to recover the incandescent bulbs we gave their families, ban them from entering the bathhouse, and even impose a relocation ban so they can’t run away. We’ll keep them under surveillance too.”
“Eek! Goldie, do you know what that means?! It’s social death!”
“A house in Enersis where the lights don’t come on at night, where they’re banned from the bathhouse, and where soldiers visit at all hours… They wouldn’t be able to survive in this count’s domain.”
If they thought Akion was a pushover because his kindness kept coming,
they should at least have been prepared to be chewed to death by that tiger.
As an extra measure, he sent pretty desk lamps to the nobles whose domains surrounded theirs, along with requests for future cooperation.
Thanks to that, everyone gladly accepted.
“Young Master, I report that the number of magic tools lost or stolen this week is zero!”
“Good. Very good….”
Thanks to that, even the incandescent-bulb thieves had vanished without a trace.
This story spread far and wide inside and outside Count Enersis’s domain.
“Did you hear the news?”
“A correctional facility… Ugh, I’d rather die.”
“Young Master Akion is frightening when he gets angry, too….”
Even though the thieves had only siphoned off ‘one measly’ electric screwdriver,
this time Young Master Akion had refused to forgive them and personally reduced them to a state worse than death.
It was another warning—one far harsher than the previous one.
Thanks to it, a single sentence was engraved in everyone’s minds.
“Never make Young Master Akion angry…!!”
“The correctional facility is absolutely out of the question…! W-We should just go to work diligently and earn our wages.”
“Hmm. I suppose we’ll have to give up on obtaining one through back channels…. Send the young lord a formal letter requesting a purchase.”
‘Don’t make him angry.’
That was it.
*
Afterward, Akion’s work proceeded smoothly.
The electric screwdrivers were changed from unlimited lending to a policy of returning them after work.
“What’s the point of giving them to us and then taking them back!!”
“Damn it. Is this just going to make us buy our own later?”
Naturally, there were carpenters who voiced their complaints,
“Are you saying you want to work at the correctional facility right now, by wagging your tail?”
“Nooo─!!”
“Please, take it away!! I don’t wanna go to the correctional facilityyyy─!!”
but thanks to the example of the one who had pilfered it, everyone was perfectly satisfied.
They had no desire to be dragged off to the correctional facility.
And so, Akion established a second safeguard against theft—the policy of returning the tools before clocking out….
“Why do I have to send a polite letter when they bought it from a black-market dealer…?”
“Hehe, don’t worry. I, your mother, will help you from your side.”
“Yes, thank you, Mother.”
“……Hng.”
It was time to recover the electric screwdriver that had changed locations.
Akion sent the Viscount Steelburn family a letter titled, ‘Request for Assistance with Recovery.’
“Young Master, Young Master! A reply has already arrived!”
“Already? Even if they used an express owl, isn’t that too fast?”
The letter was written politely, but
roughly translated, it said, ‘It’s ours, so will you return it? You pay the shipping, you thieving bastard.’
“The thing is, the former head of the Steelburn family says he’ll bring it himself!”
“W-What?!”
But that wasn’t supposed to mean that the ‘Sword Master carrying a hammer’ should bring it, was it…?
Cladd Steelburn.
A knight who had started as a mere blacksmith and driven the half-demons out of the south with a sword he had made himself.
He had received the title of Sword Master directly from the emperor and had once been one of the strongest people in the south.
Apparently, he had retired after an unfortunate accident compounded by old age….
“Tower Master, how do I look in this outfit?”
“You could walk straight onto a lecture platform.”
“So you’re saying it looks good.”
The title of ‘Sword Master,’ bestowed directly by the emperor, did not simply disappear.
It meant he had accomplished enough to earn that title.
“But aren’t they the ones who bought the stolen magic tool? I don’t think you need to be so polite to them.”
“He’s a Sword Master, isn’t he?”
“Even so, he’s a decrepit old man who has lost his strength. Before me, he’s nothing.”
Of course, as the Tower Master said, Akion didn’t need to be overly polite. They had purchased something from a black-market dealer, after all.
Even so, Akion did not let his guard down.
“I hear that a half-demon army recently invaded Steelburn. Because of that, the head of the family cannot leave his post….”
“So you’re saying he sent the former head to show us the utmost courtesy?”
Delphord’s political reading was as follows.
Steelburn had sent the former head of the family—and a Sword Master—Cladd Steelburn to say, ‘We’re sorry, waaah….’
“Don’t crush them through sheer power politics.”
“Heh heh, very well.”
Even for Enersis, it would be difficult to treat Steelburn rudely after they had shown such courtesy.
And so, Akion had to observe the basic etiquette expected of a noble.
- Click.
Thus, Akion and the Tower Master waited for their guest in the reception room.
Just then, they looked toward the opening door.
“Oh-ho.”
The Tower Master beside him shuddered as she felt herself being analyzed in an instant.
“The title of Sword Master is no empty boast….”
“Hmm…? What brings a dragon here…?”
She was the Tower Master who had lent her strength a thousand years ago, before the Empire was founded.
Even in her long experience, anyone who could analyze an opponent this quickly had generally inflicted two or three wounds on her before dying.
“Ah! I’ve heard the rumors. They say the Tower Master of Ridasid is always at the side of Akion Enersis, the genius alchemist!”
“Mm. Correct. I am the Tower Master of Ridasid. However, I will not participate in today’s negotiations.”
“Thank you for your consideration, pillar of the Empire.”
Cladd, who had also unconsciously sounded her out, relaxed his guard at her benevolent smile despite her pallid appearance.
“I am Cladd, an insignificant old man of the Viscount Steelburn family.”
“I am Akion Enersis of Count Enersis’s family. It is an honor to meet a Sword Master.”
Akion also tried to show the proper respect.
Not merely because Cladd was a noble, but out of reverence for the title of Sword Master.
“Don’t stand. I have come to apologize, not to be received like a guest.”
Of course, Cladd took the initiative and made Akion sit down.
He hurried over and carefully pressed down on Akion’s shoulder.
Since Cladd was far more deferential than expected… Akion was slightly flustered.
Still, what could he do? He had a job to handle.
“Ahem. Sir Cladd, where is the electric screwdriver I requested in my letter?”
“Here it is.”
As soon as Akion asked, Cladd took the electric screwdriver out of the bag inside his coat.
There was no visible damage, but Akion’s sharp eyes scanned the scratches and broken spots that had appeared here and there.
“It seems you handled it rather roughly.”
“There were circumstances. I will compensate you, so can you forgive me?”
“Circumstances….”
Akion suddenly sensed the atmosphere of a saintess around this old man.
Not the noble sort of atmosphere,
“Would you be willing to tell me what happened?”
“Of course. This was the day my nephew, who is now the head of the family, gave me the electric screwdriver as a gift─.”
In applications that made absolutely no sense.
Lately, Akion had been sweating buckets over the keyword ‘Holy Light Sword’ that was drifting out of the main church.
Its source was the saintess. According to the rumors, the saintess was using a flashlight as a sword…!
Because of that, the two keywords ‘electric screwdriver’ and ‘Sword Master’
gave Akion an ominous feeling, so he asked immediately.
“……That is what happened.”
“I see.”
He had heard that Cladd had used an electric screwdriver to crack open the head of an Armored Basilisk, whose scales supposedly required at least an intermediate Sword Expert to cut.
“If I had not possessed that electric screwdriver then, I would already be at the side of the Heavenly Lord. I owe your young master a great debt.”
“I see.”
And Akion stopped thinking.
“I see… I… aaaargh…!!”
“A-Akion?! Breathe! Breathe!”
Because if he thought any further, he felt like he would foam at the mouth and start cursing wildly!!
The electric screwdriver that had been provided to be used as a tool had, unbelievably,
in the hands of a former Sword Master, smashed through the scales of an Armored Basilisk that even an intermediate Sword Expert could barely cut and drilled straight through its head!!
Why had that damned aura automatically sharpened itself at the driver bit,
and why had the motor reacted to Cladd’s mana and ramped up its rotational force as though it had gone berserk?!!
Why!!!
By what principle!!!!
“Y-Young Master Akion, are you all right?!”
“He gets like this sometimes. Don’t worry.”
“Haa, haa…!”
After foaming at the mouth and convulsing for roughly three minutes, Akion returned to his senses.
When the Tower Master patted him on the back, he felt himself calm down a little.
“Tower Master.”
“Mm. Speak.”
“Every time this happens, I feel like I should quit engineering.”
But he no longer wanted to understand mana.
He felt as though a day would come when he collapsed from high blood pressure.
He had wanted to foam at the mouth even when it came to the saintess’s ultraviolet irradiation device and the princess’s hair dryer.
At this rate, he felt like he wouldn’t live out his natural lifespan.
“Mm, Akion.”
“Yes.”
“Give it up. The mess you’ve made is too big.”
“Yes….”
Whether he intended it or not, his engineering had begun to exert a major influence on this world as magi-engineering.
The Tower Master pointed this out, and Akion could only nod in agreement through his tears.
“Ahem. In any case, thank you for returning it, Sir Cladd.”
“No, no. Although I did not purchase your property of my own accord, as someone who carelessly bought it and received a great favor from you, I am merely doing my duty….”
And so, the recovery ceremony ended, followed by plans for a simple conversation and a meal─.
“If you have no objection, I would like to lend what little aid I can to your workshop.”
“Huh? Yes? I’m sorry, what?”
“This battle has made it even harder for me to wield a hammer, but I mean that I wish to contribute my strength as a blacksmith.”
They didn’t, actually.
Cladd, his complexion pale, had voluntarily applied to enroll in Akion’s lab.
“Are you serious?”
“What? I am an old man who has already retired from the front lines.”
The members of the Viscount Steelburn family made their own swords.
Perhaps because of that, they also produced their own steel, and its quality was considered the finest in the Empire.
From Akion’s perspective, this was not a bad thing.
“My nephew will handle the family himself, and I ought to repay the debt I owe you. More than anything, I want to bring these designs to life in your workshop.”
“These are….”
With that, Cladd showed Akion the blueprints he had painstakingly drawn.
Complex machine designs laid out on the table.
Akion looked down at them and…
“Is this a machine that automatically hammers metal? And this appears to be an electric—no, a mana furnace, inspired by incandescent bulbs….”
“Good heavens, correct! Is genius truly capable of recognizing genius? You understood them at a glance!”
Akion realized that Cladd Steelburn was not only an excellent Sword Master, but also an outstanding designer.
The precision was not much different from the blueprints Akion had drawn systematically after coming here!
“I am highly experienced in producing steel! Even if my contribution is small, I should be of some help, so would you please help me develop these machines?”
It was obvious at a glance. Cladd possessed an innate talent for design.
Like an aircraft designer who claimed he could see the airflow.
And…
“Sir Cladd.”
“Mm.”
“Could you show me your gums?”
“Ah, you mean this bluish-gray line?”
Akion had found another sign in him.
“And please show me your hands as well.”
“Hmm. Very well. But is there anything worth seeing? They’re mottled and covered in bumps, and rather ugly….”
His complexion had been pale from the beginning.
There was a bluish-gray line along the boundary between his teeth and gums.
His skin was mottled and covered in uneven bumps.
“Lead and arsenic poisoning?”
“Hmm? I have handled lead often, but what is arsenic?”
The symptoms were strikingly similar to those of classic heavy-metal poisoning.
More than anything, heavy-metal poisoning could paralyze the nervous system and make it difficult to exert force with certain parts of the body.
The arms, for instance. The hands.
“Sir Cladd, how long has it been difficult for you to hold a sword and hammer?”
“A little over a year. Why?”
That was also a perfectly reasonable explanation for why Cladd had been unable to lift a sword or hammer.
In fact, this could be treated gradually by feeding him activated charcoal, pectin from apple peels, garlic, and egg yolks.
But… a man so skilled at producing steel had been suffering from this without knowing what it was?
“Even if it can’t be cured completely, what would you say if it could be alleviated?”
“Ha-ha, something even the clergy have given up on… If you can do that, I will tell my nephew to establish a Steelburn forge branch in Enersis. The steel we produce is considered the finest in the Empire, so it would benefit you as well.”
“You promise?”
“That’s wonderful, Akion. But… why are you smacking your lips?”
To Akion, it looked like a pumpkin that had rolled to his doorstep, vine and all.
He was practically drooling at the thought of putting Cladd in his debt.