Chapter 43
“Honestly, this place never runs out of things to research.”
It was the Magi Tower Master speaking after switching into her mage mode for the first time in a while.
The Magi Tower Master had been running her fingers over the face of her distant nephew’s grandson’s wife… well, her distant nephew’s daughter-in-law, examining the skin.
“Akion, it seems clear that those mineral ions you mentioned had an effect.”
“But why did they work so well?”
“I would rather ask you that. What am I supposed to do if the creator doesn’t know?”
“I’m saying I really don’t know…!”
After fainting and coming to, Akion received accelerated healing, hurriedly left the treatment center, and followed the Magi Tower Master to observe the Empress Dowager’s examination.
“To explain in greater detail… it seems the substances in that microscopic domain were affected by mana and caused a synergistic reaction.”
“Ugh.”
Once again, that damn mana was suspected to be the culprit.
Akion could feel that a large amount of mana lay dormant inside his body. More precisely, he could only vaguely sense it as, “It’s there, right?”
As someone with the mana-sensing ability of an untalented commoner, Akion could never understand such an interaction.
Mana was doing something or other with ions, but was this really a field that could be explained scientifically?
“Young Master, Young Master.”
“Why are you calling me, why? Doggy.”
“Anyway, it worked out well, so isn’t that a good thing?”
“I guess it is, buuut….”
At least, as Goldie had said, it was the ultimate result of “Anyway, it’s good!” so that was a relief.
Akion alone was the one whose engineering pride had been rubbed raw.
“What?! Bathing and using the sauna with underground hot spring water makes your skin smoother?!”
“I’ve got to try this on my wife too! Heh heh heh!”
Even the male-dominated workshop craftsmen were saying things like that, so what about the women?
“The hot spring bath at Akion’s Workshop is that powerful…?!”
“Send a letter to the capital at once!”
Throughout the ages, smooth skin had been a symbol of beauty.
Slathering on all sorts of toxic substances to boast pale skin was practically the norm… well, maybe not exactly, but it was important regardless.
From the attendants who had accompanied the Empress Dowager to the nobles who came just to pay their respects after hearing she had arrived, everyone had reason to make a fuss.
<The wrinkled old lady of eighty has become twenty years younger!>
What if such a rumor started circulating?
“This is profitable!”
“Oh, come on, Father. Please.”
Even Count Delphord (businessman aptitude: S-rank), who had heard the entire story, was acting like this, leaving Akion at his wits’ end.
*
But the train had already left the station,
and a snowball had begun rolling from the mountaintop.
“Son. About that public bathhouse of yours. Let’s build another one for distinguished guests.”
“Father. I need time to do research too. You can’t do this.”
To prepare for the avalanche about to descend, Enersis went all-out.
“That road-improvement project and those automobiles you mentioned. I’ll throw my full support behind them, so let’s make them.”
“Sure, let’s give it a shot!”
Hot-spring tourism, right away!
…That was a bit of an exaggeration.
They decided to sell a hot-spring (not really) whitening tourism package for the noble wives and daughters who would come from all over the Empire after hearing the rumors.
It was currently the time of year when summer was just around the corner.
The noble ladies arriving after hearing the rumors would probably reach them around the end of autumn.
But would nobles want to share a public bathhouse with commoners?
“Huh? Then why do the Young Master and the Magi Tower Master use it together?”
“If I build another one just for our use, who’s going to pay for it? Besides, we were both born as human beings anyway.”
“Mm-hmm. True. Aren’t all humans equally insignificant to me?”
“Eek.”
Of course, Akion still retained modern common sense, so he was less prejudiced.
The Magi Tower Master was free of prejudice in a somewhat different way. In any case.
It would be better to build a public bathhouse for the nobles—or rather, a shared sauna building.
“Young Master. Didn’t you clearly promise us a vacation?”
“This isn’t what you promised!! We don’t need the money—give us a vacation, a vacation!!”
Naturally, the workshop employees and carpenters who had been worked to the bone building the imperial family’s private guest facility took to the streets in protest.
You’ll work us to death like this!!
For a moment, Akion considered awakening his blue blood and putting them in their place with, “Commoners, know your place?” but….
“Would I be doing this without giving you anything in return?”
If he did that, he would truly become something worse than an exploitative professor.
Since Akion really had worked them brutally hard, he decided to give them one extraordinary benefit.
“I’ll let you produce magic tools under your own names, so come with me.”
“What!!!”
Magic tools of artifact caliber came out of Akion’s Workshop.
Their duplication and distribution were being strictly blocked by imperial decree.
Without Akion’s permission, they could not even dream of producing or selling them… and he was offering them licensed production?
“Wh-why, Young Master. That joke is too much. Do you know how expensive the ceiling fans and handheld fans sold to nobles are….”
“You’re giving us some of those rights? Ha ha! You really don’t have to go that far for us!”
At present, Akion-made magic tools were worth whatever price the seller named.
It wasn’t as though the people of Enersis had been skimming them off and selling them for no reason.
Give them some of those rights?
It was such an unbelievable offer that the clever employees joked that he should stop lying, but….
“Then forget it.”
“Damn it!!! I’ll bury my bones at Akion’s Workshop─!!”
“I don’t need a vacation!! Just give me orders!!!”
“I’m Young Master Akion’s dog, a dog! Tell me to bark and I’ll bark; tell me to roll and I’ll roll!! Woof woof!!”
The moment they realized Akion was serious, they slammed their heads to the ground and pledged their loyalty.
The rights were valuable enough to drive them mad and make them give up their own vacations.
“Right now! Did you just insult dog beastkin in front of Goldie?! That’s mean! You need a spanking, spanking!”
“Ack! Miss Goldie! I was joking!”
Goldie, who had been watching from the scene, puffed out her cheeks and entered angry mode. In any case.
From Akion’s perspective, this was actually the better arrangement.
“Akion, won’t you be losing money?”
“Better to subcontract like this than grind people into the ground.”
Since the world had not yet reached the factory-production stage, whether it was a ceiling fan or a handheld fan, everything ultimately had to be made by individual hands.
If that many people were going to be ground down, it was better to dump the work on the skilled craftsmen of Akion’s Workshop.
Then those craftsmen would subcontract the work on other parts, and those subcontractors would subcontract it again….
“Then I just skim off the royalties, right?”
“Eek… Young Master, you’re evil…!”
“But Goldie, wouldn’t I still earn more than a skilled blacksmith?”
“Aha!”
It was outsourcing taken to the extreme… but since these magic tools carried such a premium, even the subcontractors’ subcontractors’ subcontractors would be able to make a good living.
*
Thus, at the end of a spring day that made everyone happy(?)…
“Akion.”
“Noona Aisirel?”
Aisirel, who rarely showed her face at the workshop, had come in.
“What brings you here, Noona? You’ve been busy lately with the mine development in Volkov.”
“There’s something I need to discuss with you. And, ahem.”
Volkov’s average temperature had risen recently.
As that had greatly expanded what could be developed there… those with no connection to the Duke of Volkov had tried to establish connections through Aisirel.
“Are other nobles bothering you?”
“Well, that’s already being handled neatly on your end. Goldie helped me a lot.”
Of course, Enersis had resolved to join hands with Volkov and gobble up everything between them.
The other nobles could see it as a desperate struggle of their own, in any case.
“Goldie is clever. So what’s going on?”
“I demand a date with you as your fiancée.”
Anyway, the purpose of Aisirel’s visit was to go on a date with Akion.
But Akion was in a situation where his head felt ready to explode from all the projects on his plate.
“No. I’m busy.”
The clothing factory the Emperor had ordered.
The design of a massage device to ease the Empress Dowager’s back pain.
And now, turning the hot springs (not really) into a tourist attraction for the nobles who would soon be flocking in.
With three projects underway simultaneously in an ultra-hardcore situation… a date?
Akion could not accept it.
“To be precise, I’m taking you out because the Empress Dowager said a few words to me.”
“Aaargh.”
But he could not resist the scolding of one of the Empire’s great elders, even if it meant leaving the house entirely.
Dragged out on an involuntary date, Akion soon found himself—
“This is the Enersis estate.”
“It’s also your family home, which you haven’t entered in a week. Now get inside.”
Aisirel took Akion by the hand and led him into the Enersis estate.
He wondered why she had suddenly told him to come home, and then….
- Bang!
- Baaang!
“Waaah?!”
Vividly colored magic burst before Akion.
“Happy birthday, Akion!!”
“Huh…?”
While he was being congratulated by the many people gathered in the entrance hall.
As he wondered what was going on, Akion suddenly remembered the date.
“Ah. My birthday.”
Come to think of it, today was Akion Enersis’s birthday.
Apart from the modest birthday celebration two years ago, he had always said he was busy and never celebrated his birthday.
On top of that, he had been so busy that he had completely forgotten about it….
“Happy birthday, son.”
“Happy birthday, Akion.”
Count Delphord and Countess Lucretia.
The head steward, the estate’s servants, the mages he had worked with, and the knights and squad leaders belonging to the family.
“Happy birthday, Young Master!”
“Hehe, you remembered all our birthdays every time, yet you put your own birthday last. What’s that supposed to mean?”
Goldie and the Magi Tower Master.
And even the workshop’s chief craftsmen, who had slipped away earlier.
“Good grief….”
Compared with the sparse crowd at his seventeenth birthday, there were so many people that it felt like a world apart.
Thinking it was awfully elaborate for a mere birthday, Akion only scratched his head awkwardly as embarrassment welled up.
“Why did you make it so grand? What a waste of money.”
“We went to all that trouble to make it grand, and that’s all you have to say?”
“Ow ow ow.”
Aisirel beside him said something in response, but everyone knew Akion was joking and let out hearty laughs.
“Goldie asked the Montblanche baker to make a special whipped-cream cake! It’s absolutely huge, right?! Amazing, right?! It looks insanely delicious, riiight?!!”
“Do you know how long Goldie held herself back? She’s been drooling indecorously for ages.”
“Ah! Magi Tower Master, why did you tell the Young Master that?!”
When was the last time he had ever attended such a boisterous birthday party?
He could find no such occasion in either this life or his previous one.
His family in his previous life had hardly been a warm environment, either.
“A birthday party? Your father told you that you need to study during that time if you want to get into medical school. Just hang in there a little longer, okay?”
“Son, your mother thinks you’re a genius. If you go to medical school, you’ll become a genius doctor and be able to live doing whatever you want.”
That was why birthday parties felt so unfamiliar to him.
He knew the words, but had never experienced one.
“You little punk… Mechanical engineering? Do you think you can make a living doing that?! You think your father works overtime and comes home so he can turn you into some grease monkey? Roll up your pants! Now!”
“You—you! What is this?! We put you through all that studying and got you into medical school, and you secretly changed it to engineering?! You’ve decided to cut ties with your mother and father, haven’t you?!”
“Tch.”
Perhaps because of that, he felt deeply moved,
and something else welled up inside him too.
Somehow holding back the tears that threatened to redden his eyes, he folded his hands politely.
“Thank you, everyone, for celebrating with me.”
It was probably the most heartfelt expression of gratitude Akion had ever given, counting both his previous and current lives.
Of course, that did not mean he had forgiven all seventeen years of torment in this place.
“Pillows that promote deep sleep have become popular in the capital lately. I thought you needed one, since you reduce your own sleep to do research.”
“Thank you, Madam.”
“Young Master. This is a talisman we attendants bought by pooling our money. When you are tired, press this jewel and the fatigue-relief spell engraved within will activate.”
“Thank you, Head Steward.”
At least, they seemed to be showing signs of regretting their mistakes.
Akion had the generosity to understand that much.
“Akion.”
“Father.”
Among them, Delphord placed a staff in Akion’s hand.
A mage’s staff made of familiar dark-red wood, engraved with gold and silver….
“When a member of the Enersis bloodline comes of age, it is customary for the head of the family to present them with a magical staff he made himself. You remember your older brother and sister receiving theirs, don’t you?”
“Father, I’m not a mage.”
“Is alchemy not magic?”
Alchemy was, technically, a branch of magic, but alchemists were effectively just mages doing a side job.
Akion could only snort at his biological father’s absurd counterargument.
As Akion looked over the staff he had received, Delphord continued explaining.
“The wood for the staff was provided by the Magi Tower Master.”
“Hehehe.”
He had thought it looked strangely familiar, and it was the Drakibloody wood the Magi Tower Master had used last time.
Considering how difficult the tree was to cultivate… the Magi Tower Master had taken considerable care over this.
“The golden yin-yang design is gold treated with magic. Goldie specifically asked me to have it added.”
“Heehee.”
Goldie might be a baron’s daughter, but she probably didn’t earn all that much working at the Enersis estate.
Even so, she had spent a great deal of money on Akion. That was just like the devoted doggy she was.
“The silver is powdered Freezestone from Volkov. It’s a material ice mages use to make top-grade staffs… Aisirel procured the first ore extracted during Volkov’s mine development this time.”
“Ahem. It’s a stone that emits cold, so you won’t be hot in summer. Anyway, don’t even think about giving it back just because you don’t need it.”
Akion had previously heard from Hermione that Freezestone was a mineral among ice mages for which the price was simply whatever the seller asked.
To offer that to an ignorant nobody with no magical talent….
It was like throwing money on the ground, but Aisirel had given it to him without caring about such things.
“Thank you.”
Since it contained everyone’s thoughtfulness, its value felt even greater to Akion.
Come to think of it, Akion remembered hearing that a staff was no different from a lover to a mage.
“I suppose I’ll have to learn how to take care of it.”
“Heh heh. Yes. And, Akion, for a moment…”
Just as Akion was gathering his emotions, Delphord cleared his throat and beckoned him closer.
- Ziiing!
Then he suddenly cast a soundproofing spell.
“Father?”
As if that weren’t enough, Delphord gestured with his hand for Akion to put his ear closer.
Akion had no idea what he was about to say… but he moved closer and listened anyway,
“Akion. This is advice from one man to another, not as the head of the family.”
“Yes?”
“You’re an adult now.”
“Yes, I know?”
This world also considered someone an adult once they turned nineteen,
but did he really need to cast a soundproofing spell just to say something so obvious?
Finding it ridiculous, Akion soon heard—
“In other words, the women targeting you are going to become much more aggressive.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve noticed there are a lot of women around you. So watch what you say and do in front of them. Always think twice, even three times!”
Delphord’s urgent advice put him slightly on edge.
At the same time, while he looked over the people outside the soundproof barrier,
- Lick♡
Akion spotted Aisirel looking at him and licking her lips.
“Your father will do everything he can to help… but you still need to be careful. Judging by your face, you’re clearly destined for catastrophic trouble with women!”
“Ha, haha. Father. They’re all adult women, though… surely they’ll be careful.”
In short,
“But they’re far stronger than you.”
“…….”
Akion Enersis was now legally an adult,
which meant that if he slipped up, he could wake up in the morning having forgotten the night and sharing a bed with someone.
Having realized this,
“You must never succumb to temptation. Understand? If you really can’t manage, ask Juan for advice.”
‘I’m screwed….’
He seriously thought he should ask Juan for advice.