Chapter 38
“Explain.”
Clad Steelburn.
Aicirel Volkov.
The two had one thing in common: both were superhuman Masters who had earned the title of Swordmaster.
And…
“Including the fact that one of my electric screwdrivers has gone missing.”
“Th-that is….”
“I can explain everything! All of it!”
They had both knelt before Akion, a complete weakling who was not even a proper sword user, let alone a Swordmaster.
Honestly, Akion had only guessed they had caused some sort of trouble and told them to explain, but
“Ahem! Master of the workshop, do you remember the electric drill aura I mentioned on the day I brought the electric screwdriver?”
“Yes.”
Whatever grave mistake they had committed, these supposed Swordmasters had knelt of their own accord.
Akion prayed it would at least not be another incident like the boiler explosion last time.
“When I tried to recreate it, I thought it would work better as a spear than in the form of this electric screwdriver. So….”
“W-well, Sir Clad disassembled the body of the electric screwdriver and made a steel casing….”
“Then he attached it to a spear shaft and made a spiral blade on the motor’s axle?”
Fortunately, they had not caused a major accident.
While Akion was away in the capital, the smelter had finally been completed, and high-quality steel was pouring out, so….
“By using up that precious electric screwdriver?”
“Ahem. It was a necessary sacrifice.”
With materials now plentiful, Clad had made the spiral spear he had always wanted to create.
The problem was that he had disassembled his allotted electric screwdriver and attached it to a steel spear shaft…. For now, at least, the electric screwdrivers were workshop property, not personal property.
“And Aicirel noona, liking the result so much, wrapped it in aura and tested it? On a thick iron plate?”
“W-well, any warrior is bound to be interested in a new weapon….”
And for some reason, Aicirel had come down from the north.
After seeing it, she had happily stepped forward to test it herself. Just a moment ago, in fact.
If you listened carefully, this was a much~ safer, quieter, and tamer accident than the previous boiler explosion.
“Are you two proud of that?”
“Guh!”
“Hng….”
Still, what was he supposed to do when they casually modified supplies into combat equipment?
Of course, people on the front lines did pick up branches and use them after all sorts of insane modifications, but this was not such a place.
‘For combat….’
More than anything, Akion did not want his magi-engineering products to become tools for killing. That was why he had steered his research toward everyday applications whenever possible.
Of course, that only applied to humans.
Demons, devils, and monsters had to be killed, or humanity would die instead. That was why he had cooperated with the saintess in developing the Holy Light Line investigation device.
- Fidget, fidget.
Still, he could not keep watching Aicirel, a thirty-one-year-old woman who had been scolded, kneeling before him and nervously fiddling with her fingers.
Nor could he leave old Clad, who seemed unsure whether he should imitate her from beside her, just standing there.
“Haaah. The motor wasn’t destroyed, right?”
“Absolutely not! Once it is wrapped in aura, its properties become much more robust!”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm! It becomes much harder to break!”
These people were not the sort to use it to butcher other people…. Akion decided to let it slide this time.
Above all, Aicirel’s words had stuck with him.
“Ahh… With this spiral spear, I could slaughter every one of those metal-like ice monsters in the north!”
‘Don’t make me feel soft.’
This Swordmaster who ran around the front lines of the Volkov Line had started by talking about killing monsters.
The fact that she viewed it less as the joy of a new weapon and more as a means of overcoming a crisis
had shaken Akion’s resolve a little.
“How far do you want to use it, Aicirel noona?”
“M-me?!”
So Akion asked her once more.
He asked what she would use it for once it was completed.
Akion had been asking how far she intended to take the principle, but
she did not understand his question, so she hemmed and hawed before finally speaking honestly.
“Along the walls of the Volkov Line… countless soldiers die every week.”
Extreme weather.
Monsters that attacked without warning.
And on days when a commander-class medium or large specimen appeared… several squads were wiped out.
“If they had possessed this spear, they might have survived. They can handle a little mana and aura, too.”
“So you won’t use it to kill people?”
“If they attack our territory, of course we’ll use it. But neither my father nor I, nor our soldiers, have any intention of invading another territory, and we have no reason to attack another lord’s domain.”
We’ll only use it for defense, she meant….
Only after turning it over in his mind several times did Akion return the confiscated spiral spear prototype.
“Here.”
Aicirel clutched the spiral spear she had received back.
Beside her, Clad stared tensely at the workshop master’s mouth.
The two had been waiting to hear Akion tell them to dismantle it, but
“Make it properly.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
They looked up in shock at Akion’s approval.
“Why? You said you’d use it to slaughter monsters. And to deal with the bad guys who try to invade us, too.”
“I-is that okay? Even if we use it like that?”
“Judging from the purpose of the workshop master’s research, I had thought he did not care much for such violent applications….”
In truth, Akion’s research goal was to secure a peaceful, prosperous everyday life.
“If monsters or hostile forces invade, then there is no peaceful everyday life to speak of.”
But this world really did have devils, along with countless monsters created as by-products by their servants, the black magicians.
The Volkov Line in the north was proof enough, and wasn’t the whole Empire in an uproar over black magicians and servants of devils?
“Since we’re doing this anyway, let’s make it properly and supply it to Volkov. On the condition that you promise not to use it against humans except in defensive warfare.”
“Really?!”
“An excellent decision, Master of the workshop!!”
What else could he do?
If they were going to do it, they should do it properly. He had to guide them toward using it for a good purpose.
That meant making a proper dedicated motor rather than dismantling a completed electric screwdriver to use.
“Ahem, as Aicirel of Volkov, I thank you. I’ll put this down as a debt.”
“At times like this, you must be completely honest for your sincerity to come through, Sir Clad.”
“Old man, please…!”
“What are you two talking about that you’re trying to hide?”
Akion had no idea what had passed between them. Anyway.
Akion promoted the working title ‘Spiral Spear’ to an official project.
*
The next thing he needed to check was
“But why did you come down here, noona?”
Not the bathhouse, not the loom—he had to find out why Aicirel had come visiting!!
Aicirel had suddenly popped up in Enersis, despite not appearing at the capital’s banquet, and Akion found it extremely suspicious.
“Hmm. My father sent me to cooperate with Enersis. A few days ago….”
“The Duke of Volkov?”
As expected, the Duke of Volkov had sent her.
But there was quite a distance between the Duchy of Volkov and Enersis.
Even at her fastest, judging by the timing, she would have had to set out around before the banquet began….
“You came by carriage?”
“Huh? Why would I ride that slow thing? Running is more than ten times faster.”
Apparently, she had made up the distance with the superhuman physical abilities of a Swordmaster.
Akion could hardly believe it. He even wanted to ask why she had not run here last time, if that was the case.
“Hmm. I suppose I’ve never shown you properly. Just a moment─.”
Taking Akion’s incredulous expression as disbelief,
- Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
- Whooosh!!
she demonstrated high-speed back-and-forth dashes in front of Akion.
For about ten seconds. To Akion, it looked as if there were six Aicirels.
“It would be difficult to keep going, but I can do this much easily. Hehe. If I’m only running, I can keep going for days without needing to sleep.”
“……R-right. I understand.”
This was when Akion realized that this was why she had earned the title of Master,
and that her absurd physical abilities were also why she could get from Volkov here in an instant.
Volkov… way too powerful─!!
“So what was the reason? Didn’t you say it was already hard enough to defend the Line?”
“Things have been quiet lately, so it won’t be a problem if I’m away. And….”
Anyway, Aicirel had come to Enersis on the pretext of being dispatched.
From what he continued to hear, she had come alone; in that case, was she planning to stay as a guest of Enersis?
“My father said I should take you as my husband.”
“……….”
But wasn’t her objective a little too blatant?
Akion vowed that the next time he met the Duke of Volkov… he would give him a piece of his mind.
Akion also felt he would be more satisfied if he gave Aicirel a piece of his mind.
“Are you just going to follow everything the Duke says?”
“As a descendant of Volkov, I have the qualifications to carry on the family. Therefore, my opinion is included as well. Of course, this has absolutely nothing! to do with any personal feelings! Please don’t misunderstand.”
The moment she added “absolutely,” it was absolutely true.
In other words, this was the opinion of the Volkov heiress, not the Duke of Volkov.
- Bang!
“Akion?! Akion?! You’re not going to ban me from the workshop forever, are you? I have to help make the spiral spear…! Akioooon! I’m sorryyyy─!”
That day, Akion banned Aicirel from entering the workshop.
It was autumn.
* * *
And when autumn was ending and winter was approaching,
“Careful! A little farther to the left!”
The first of the large-scale projects Akion had dreamed of.
- Clunk!
- Whirrr! Click!
“It’s finished, young master!”
The final work on that project was taking place right before Akion’s eyes.
“Turn it on.”
“Yes, sir!”
-Clunk, crackle!
A gigantic sign written in the Imperial language lit up,
brightly illuminating the street as the sun was about to set.
<Enersis Public Bathhouse - Ridasid Parish Branch>
“H-heh heh. You really managed to do this in just a few months….”
“Did we truly make this with our own hands?”
The workshop artisans and carpenters who had directed the workers under Akion, tending to the pipes, boiler, floor insulation, and everything else.
And even the workers beneath them, who had worked with no hope of leaving early, as if they were coughing up blood.
Every one of them gazed as if entranced at the two-story concrete building the size of a soccer field before them.
No matter how much labor and capital they had poured into it, they could not quite believe they had truly completed it themselves.
“You’ve all worked hard. Take a look around for a moment before going inside.”
The moment Akion gave permission, everyone began examining the building’s exterior.
- Swish, swoosh.
The exterior walls featured limestone-finished pillars and terracotta tiles made by firing clay.
The glazed terracotta tiles had been combined with pre-engraved mythological murals, making the story continue from wall to wall.
Was that all?
“This empty space behind it….”
“You mean it keeps the heat from escaping? How fascinating.”
There was also a space about half a palm’s breadth behind these walls, and apparently the air inside served as insulation.
Young Master Akion had said it was originally supposed to be about a finger joint wide, but the margin of error with current technology would be too large, so they had generously made it a full handspan.
“Of course it’s only natural for the young master! Don’t you remember? He even installed pipes inside that reinforced concrete!”
“When I saw that he had designed a separate space for pipe repairs later, I was left speechless by the young master’s thoroughness.”
There was also the reinforced concrete.
Embedded pipes meticulously designed with room for error inside it.
Even maintenance spaces to make those pipes easy to service.
While this bathhouse was being built, they were swept up every day by the shock of the technological innovations.
“You’ve all seen everything there is to see, right?”
And then came the tour of the bathhouse interior they had been eagerly awaiting.
Akion decided to give the workshop staff and workers who had labored so hard one gift.
“For the next three days, feel free to bring your families and use it as you like. And leave us your feedback, too.”
“Hurrayyy─!!”
“Long live the young master!! Long live Enersis─!!”
A three-day free pass to the Enersis Public Bathhouse.
They even had the chance to buy the special products stocked inside at an enormous discount!
“Come on, let’s go in!”
“Hehe, son. Do you see this pillar? Your father filled it all with concrete!”
And so the workers went inside with their families.
At the entrance counter, they received locks for their personal lockers, then all split up by gender.
“Dad, it’s cold….”
“Hehe, but the floor is warm, right? Just bear with it a little.”
The craftsmen who had brought their sons inside chuckled as they watched the boys, now naked and awkward in the waiting room.
“That over there is the bathing area, right?”
“That’s right. Once we go inside now….”
The moment they finished undressing and opened the bathhouse door,
- Fwoosh─!
“Wooooah.”
“Wowww… It’s like the grand bath where the Emperor washes himself…!”
An enormous cloud of steam billowed out.
Before them spread a grand bath filled with hot water, something said to be enjoyed only by emperors in the Middle Ages.
“Hahaha! Let’s get in!”
They could not help but get excited.
Just as everyone was about to leap into the bath,
- Smack!
- Slap!!
“Ow!”
“Oof!!”
A person in orange clothes struck them across the back and stopped them.
Those who had flopped onto the floor tiles stood up angrily, but
“Who dares hit me, a craftsman of Master Akion’s workshop─!! Gasp, Sir Clad?!”
“Why is Sir Clad wearing the staff uniform here…?”
The culprit was the muscular blacksmith and Swordmaster, Clad Steelburn.
“Just as Workshop Master Akion said…! Have you all forgotten the warning the young master gave you!!!”
Wearing an orange short-sleeved shirt and black shorts, he glared fiercely and pointed toward the bathhouse entrance.
“You must wash your body before bathing!”
He said this while pointing to the bathhouse rules sign hanging there.
────────
[Bathhouse Rules]
1. Enter only after washing your body thoroughly with soap.
2. Do not steal the salt for brushing your teeth.
3. Do not run.
4. One towel per person.
5. Anyone caught stealing bathhouse supplies or another person’s belongings will spend two months in a reformatory.
────────
Those rules even bore Akion’s seal, pressed firmly into them.
For reference, rules 4 and 5 had been bolded.
There was even a rumor that the women’s bath had them underlined as well.
“…….”
But wasn’t smacking people across the back a bit much just to tell them this─? That thought spread among the staff.
When the workshop employees, whose backs were still sore, glared at Clad resentfully,
- Rumbleeeee…!
“I see you find my words amusing….”
“Gasp.”
Clad’s threat came down as he drew up his mana.
They had all forgotten, but this good-natured Clad had originally been a Swordmaster!
“I’ve treated you kindly all this time at Master Akion’s behest… but it seems I’ll have to restore some discipline. Now, would breaking a leg help you understand?”
“Absolutely not!!!”
“S-son! Let’s go wash up!”
They did not want to become guests without legs.
Everyone grabbed a communal bar of soap dearly and bolted for the shower area.
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