Chapter 51
[To Saint Akion.]
The letter that arrived alongside the saint’s rosary contained a message of thanks from the saint.
Since the saint was a clergyman too, he should probably have called the not-particularly-close Akion “Young Master” or “Brother,” but….
[I would like to begin with a story from a thousand years ago.]
Having apparently reached MAX intimacy with Akion internally,
Saint Ray launched straight into it, calling Akion “Saint.”
[I used to be the healer of a hero’s party a thousand years ago.]
“No….”
First, he had revealed himself to be not around 300 years old, but a being who had transcended humanity—though younger than the Tower Master.
[It must be bewildering. I suddenly started saying something so absurd. However, some background is necessary if I am to explain what happened in Hell, is it not?]
Thus began a rambling account of the hero’s party from a thousand years ago, stretching over no fewer than two pages.
Even as Akion thought of the term “over-sharer,” he carefully read through it since the letter had come from such an exalted person.
[Apparently, that fellow once heard from a philosopher that while killing one person makes you a murderer, killing ten thousand would make you a hero, wouldn’t it?]
“Jean Rostand?”
It was a famous saying by philosopher Jean Rostand.
He was also a famous experimental biologist known for research into embryology through frogs, parthenogenesis, and teratology.
“Tower Master. Do you know someone named Jean Rostand?”
“Who is that?”
And he was a person unknown in this world.
Yet the hero knew him?
‘From Earth?’
The hero might be from the same homeland as Akion.
That didn’t mean he could be certain.
If a fantasy dimension like this existed in the first place, why not a parallel Earth?
- Tap, tap.
Or perhaps there happened to be a philosopher from there nearby.
Or maybe information from Earth had flowed in.
“Sigh.”
There was nothing he could figure out immediately by worrying over it now.
Putting the question aside, Akion finished reading the letter.
“Hmm….”
There was nothing much in the rest of it.
He had slaughtered thirteen million demons with the custom-made special flashlight Akion had created,
and among that demon legion had been several hundred high-level demons,
and although he thought he had killed them all, he caught a high-level lich-type demon that had hidden and fled, opened a gate, and escaped through it, apparently.
As a token of gratitude, he had sent the rosary used by Saint Johannes XII.
“Mm-hmm. I understand.”
Of course, he did not understand.
Because Akion had given up on understanding!
He had swept away 6.66 million demons at once by imitating a technique called Excalibur,
slaughtered every last one without the flashlight going out, and
given him a perpetual-motion machine as thanks—how was he supposed to understand that!!!
“Akion knows nothing. I’m going to sleep.”
“Young Master has broken….”
“He did use it for a long time. Come here. I’ll lend you my lap.”
Fatigue and an engineer’s fit had overlapped, leaving Akion utterly exhausted.
He decided to leave the rest to his tomorrow self.
*
- Shhaa….
“What should I do with this?”
Fortunately, rumors about the rosary did not spread.
Thanks to Delford keeping people quiet out of consideration for Akion, it became a secret known only to those in the know.
“What do you mean, what? You need to wear it around your neck, Young Master!”
“You want me to advertise everywhere that I’m someone who owns a holy relic?”
“Of course!”
He had received an ultra-luxurious holy relic that only popes could be expected to wear,
and Goldie said that, from an aristocratic perspective, the proper thing was to wear it around and show it off.
“Why should I?”
But Akion wanted to live quietly.
He was already as famous as he could get, and now he was supposed to spread the word everywhere that a saint had even gifted him a holy relic?
Oh, he would immediately be besieged by countless requests for handshakes.
Akion’s peaceful daily life would collapse.
And….
“And I have Goldie and the Tower Master, too.”
“Young Maaaster…!”
“Hehe. Yes. Am I not far more reliable than that rosary?”
More importantly, there was Goldie, who had recently evolved through the meridian-pulse technique into Gol-den Thunder,
and the Tower Master, who might be the most powerful person in the world.
Besides, Akion’s backing had grown so formidable—who would dare come after him!
“Did you forget about the black mages who came after you this time?”
“Ack.”
Right. There were black mages.
Backing or no backing, there were lunatics who would charge in shouting, “Then die!”
This time, torture had revealed that the black mages’ target was Akion’s magical tools, but….
There was no telling when the black mages’ target might change to Akion himself.
“Ahem. So, how about I stay close by and watch over you?”
That was Aisirel, offering to protect him.
“You, Sis?”
“I’m a master, you know, even if I don’t look it.”
Lately, she had been feeling threatened in her relationship with Akion.
She had never thought she was losing out in terms of combat power, but the Tower Master was by his side,
and just when she thought she had no shortcomings, that golden retriever suddenly awakened.
“I can sense even the faintest killing intent and protect you while you sleep. How about it?”
She was a master under twenty in the Empire, not to mention the only daughter of a ducal house!
She could not let herself be pushed aside even by some doggy maid from an obscure viscount’s family.
“Goldie and the Tower Master sometimes have to leave, but I’m staying here as a guest, so I won’t have to.”
“That’s true…?”
Hearing that, Akion was slightly tempted.
A Swordmaster bodyguard who watched over him constantly?
That would be reassuring.
- KABOOM!!!
“No way─!!!”
“How dare you butt in─!!!”
Of course, the moment Akion reacted, Goldie and the Tower Master attempted a physical discussion.
“I-It’s underhanded for both of you to gang up on her all of a sudden!!”
“The spot beside Young Master belongs to Goldie?! No, absolutely not!!”
“Stay put, like the well-behaved cat you are! Don’t even think about climbing onto the roof!!”
It was Goldie’s Thunder Dropkick and the Tower Master’s punch.
Of course, Aisirel was a Swordmaster.
Even without a sword, she easily deflected and dodged attacks of this caliber.
- Crash!
- Clatter! Crunch!
Inside the workshop, that was.
Akion’s huge, precious workshop was turning into a total wreck.
“Everyone out!!”
“Whiiine!”
“T-This is all Aisirel’s fault! You may be getting on in years and growing impatient─!”
“I’m younger than the Tower Master, you know?!”
Naturally, all three were driven out by Akion’s order to leave.
“Sigh. What a mess. Let’s clean this up quickly.”
“Y-Yes. Let’s hurry and clean up, then get back to our research.”
Akion had the employees clean it up.
Then, claiming that he was the workshop master and it was none of his business, he sat down at the research desk,
- Click.
- Shrrk….
He picked up the rosary again and examined it from every angle.
A top-tier artifact called a holy relic, overflowing with divine power that manifested and fell like stardust.
“A perpetual-motion machine….”
It could activate defensive magic and grant a blessing that eliminated minor illnesses.
And for that to operate perpetually… no matter how he looked at it, it was a Type I perpetual-motion machine.
A device that would make Maxwell’s demon panic and scream, “How the heck did you do that???”
- Clack, clack.
It violated the law of conservation of energy from the outset, so Akion could not help wondering whether it made any sense.
Even this world’s mana had absurdly high efficiency and an output that made no sense,
but it did not appear to violate the law of conservation of energy outright, at least.
Akion considered the fact that scientific theories could be applied to magic theory evidence of that.
“Sigh.”
At times like this, Akion bitterly regretted having no talent for magic.
Not because he was jealous, but because he yearned to understand magic.
If scientific theories applied to it, then couldn’t it be science too?
He had walked the path of a researcher even in his previous life because investigation suited his aptitude.
What kind of lunatic asks questions using his supervising professor’s doctoral dissertation and then races straight through an integrated master’s-and-doctorate program on the strength of that?
“I won’t need to boil water with this and spin a turbine, at least.”
In any case, Akion had no intention of using this to run a generator.
Mana already served in place of electricity in this world, after all.
“If I press this….”
- Poke, poke.
So first, he decided to follow the instructions for using the rosary written in the letter.
First, Akion pressed one of the rosary’s gems, which was said to activate fatigue recovery.
- Kiiing….
- Shrrk.
“O-Ohhh…!”
Vitality began to course through his body, which had been marinated in overtime work.
Just as Akion was thinking that it really was a blessing after all, he suddenly,
“Kelly. Come here for a moment.”
“Yes? Yes.”
He remembered, ‘Don’t mages also sense divine power?’
Those with good mana detection could easily sense divine power as well, after all.
“Hold this for a moment.”
“E-Eh?! Me?!”
The mage affiliated with Enersis, named Kelly, was startled when Akion suddenly handed her the rosary.
She was one of the people who had been sworn to secrecy.
She knew what this was, after all.
“Ah, hahaha… Good heavens, such a precious thing….”
“No, not that. Can you tell how much divine power is inside?”
“What? Yes? Hmm, just a moment.”
Kelly then focused her mind on the rosary.
“……There’s an enormous amount.”
And the amount of divine power contained within it… looked like an ocean to her.
If the amount of mana she possessed was a large bathtub, the divine power in the rosary was too vast to be compared even to the open sea.
“Then can you feel it decreasing?”
“Huh?”
Akion was asking whether she could feel a bucketful of water being scooped out of that.
Kelly wanted to smack this magic-illiterate man and yell, ‘Do you think that makes sense?!’
“I don’t think that would be easy. Actually….”
But Akion was a benefactor who imparted precious scientific knowledge.
In academy terms, it would be like a first-year freshman punching the dean, who was practically the heavens themselves, in the face!
“……For that reason, I don’t think I can.”
“Because the total amount is too large to detect…?”
So Kelly explained it in simple, easy-to-understand terms.
She said it would be difficult to detect unless it was consumed—unless there was an impact powerful enough to make the ocean churn.
“Then we just need to consume a large amount?”
“Huh?”
It was excellent advice.
Akion came up with a way to determine whether it was a perpetual-motion machine or not.
*
“Are you insane?!”
That meant making the divine defensive magic activate at maximum strength.
So Akion went to the depressed Aisirel, who had been thrown out, and asked her a favor.
“Y-You want me to draw out my sword aura at maximum output and cut you?!!”
“Yep.”
“Are you insane─?!!!”
He was asking her to cut him with all her strength.
Aisirel felt dizzy for a moment.
She had suffered through this research madness displayed by mages a few times before, but she never expected it to come out of Akion’s mouth.
“Y-You. What are you going to do if you die?”
“Wouldn’t it be all right if the rosary has defensive magic engraved on it?”
“No, I mean… Haa…!”
Akion seemed to trust his equipment a little too much.
Increasingly exasperated, Aisirel eventually said,
“Wouldn’t even your sword be unable to get through this? They said it was used to protect the pope.”
- Scrape?
She had been irritated by Akion’s pure, innocent curiosity.
Just now, Akion had effectively told a Swordmaster, “Your sword is so pathetic~!”
Honestly, even if she was annoyed, it would have been bearable….
“Lady Aisirel is human and more than ten years older than Goldie, so she’s almost past her prime─ Eeeek!! I’m sorreee!!”
Having just been savagely needled by Goldie, Aisirel’s anger threshold was considerably lower than usual.
“……Stand over there.”
“Uh, yeah? Okay. What.”
“What do you mean, ‘yeah’? You madman─!!”
Fortunately, the Tower Master, who had been watching, was horrified and intervened.
“Aisirel, you fool!! Are you trying to kill Akion?!”
“Please move. He called me a stupid old hag who can’t even wield a sword.”
“Akion didn’t go that far?!”
How was she supposed to stop this?
As the Tower Master wondered what to do,
“Perfect. Tower Master, could you help me check whether the divine power inside this rosary is decreasing─.”
“How can you ask that so calmly?!”
Akion’s innocent request only left her even more at a loss.
“Heh, hehe. Fine. We do need to conduct research, so if I just remove his legs and take him to the north─.”
“Calm down, Aisirel. I said calm down! And what on earth was that plan you were about to finish saying?!”
The Swordmaster had been needled by being called an old woman who could not even wield a sword.
The person who had contributed half of that provocation was steeped in research mania and merely asked her to help with a measurement.
The situation spiraled even further out of control,
- Kwooooong!!
“I-It’s coming.”
“Ughhh, I don’t know anymore either!!”
And then, in an instant, a maximum-output aura blade came hurtling in.
The moment the Tower Master cast defensive magic to protect Akion,
- KANG!!!
“Tch.”
“Oh.”
Divine power exploded from the rosary, and a shield unfolded.
The instant Aisirel recovered the sword that had bounced away, Akion immediately handed the rosary to the Tower Master.
“Did the divine power in this decrease?”
“What is this fellow saying so casually…?! Haa. Let me see.”
What was she supposed to do with this shamelessness?
Of course, the Tower Master had been subjected to this several times and let it slide every time.
It was not as though Akion actually acted like a shameless jerk when he did this, after all.
- Bzzzz….
“Hmm.”
The Tower Master closed her eyes and focused her senses on the rosary,
“Oh-ho. How fascinating.”
She noticed something strange about the rosary.
“It’s only a tiny amount, but… the divine power is filling back up. Divine power is being supplied from outside, though I don’t know from where.”
“I knew it!!!”
Confirmation of energy flowing in from outside!!
The rosary itself had proven, in Akion’s place, that it was not a perpetual-motion machine.
“Did you hear that, Heavenly Lord!!! Even you absolutely!!! cannot make a perpetual-motion machine!!! Ahaha─ Ack! Ack! Sis, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, so stop pulling my hair!”
“You. Come here.”
“Save Akion!!”
It was a scientific victory for Akion.
* * *
“Whew. Nice.”
Still, a holy relic was a holy relic.
They said that merely possessing it made minor illnesses disappear.
Since the technique was already built into it, Akion decided to put it to use.
He hid the rosary under his clothes and activated the blessing whenever he felt tired.
Thanks to that, even though he worked overtime as routinely as he ate, he felt no fatigue to speak of.
Thus, Akion was in a good mood and out for a walk when….
“Ah!”
“Oh dear, the clothes!”
He happened to witness a recently hired maid spilling a load of laundry.
“What are you going to do about this?! Every single one of these clothes is so expensive!”
“S-Sorry, I’m sorry!”
As he watched the young maid get roundly scolded… an idea began to form in Akion’s mind.
“Please don’t scold her too harshly.”
“Who─ Huh, Young Master Akion!”
“Ahem!”
“Ahem, cough.”
So when he approached and said a word, the maids realized who he was and cleared their throats.
“Since Young Master Akion says so, I’ll let it go this time. Understand?!”
“Y-Yes! Thank you, Young Master Akion!”
Still, she was a fairly pleasant girl.
She immediately thanked Akion and left again with several maids, carrying the laundry baskets.
Watching them go, Akion said….
“There must be a lot of laundry?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes.”
He asked the maid.
Whether doing laundry was difficult.
“There are a lot of people attached to the Enersis estate, you know? Ho ho ho.”
She gave him the obvious reason.
The Enersis estate was wealthy and had an enormous number of dependents.
From the Enersis count’s blood relatives to servants, mages, some knights, and even a few guests, along with the staff serving them.
There were far, far too many household chores.
“Still, the plumbing Young Master made has made things much easier.”
“I’m glad everyone likes it, but… laundry, huh….”
Thanks to Akion installing plumbing and reducing various chores, the household staff
had even gotten to study a little magic, but they still had plenty to do….
Having quietly listened to her troubles, Akion soon said,
“I guess I’ll have to make a washing machine.”
“Pardon?”
“A washing machine. A machine that does the laundry for you.”
“W-Whaaat?! A magic tool that does the laundry for you?!”
One of the indispensable household appliances for modern people.
He decided to make a washing machine.