Chapter 55
A fairly famous line appears in a film about the development of nuclear weapons.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Akion had really wanted to watch that film, so he watched it bit by bit whenever he had free time in the lab during his previous life.
He got scolded after blowing up a small circuit board, though. Anyway.
Of all the lines from it, Akion still remembered the one spoken by Isidor Rabi.
“I do not wish to see the culmination of three hundred years of physics turned into a weapon of mass slaughter.”
It was said while Rabi was telling Oppenheimer that he would not participate in the Manhattan Project.
Watching it, Akion in his previous life had wished, ‘I hope my own research doesn’t turn out that way.’
- Click.
“…….”
And that wish was shattered by the railgun pistol(?) in his hand.
After taking it apart, Akion found that it was closer to a coilgun than a railgun, so it would be more accurate to call it a coilgun, but…
“Sigh.”
Even so, it was a gun.
And not just any gun, but one reduced to the size of a pistol.
If it was this small, even a child could hold it.
At that thought, Akion felt both nauseated and furious.
- Thunk! Clatter….
So he threw it away.
He did not care whether it ended up buried in a corner of the workshop or not.
There was no way he could be happy about something born from the knowledge he had taught them.
“Fuck….”
They said science had developed rapidly through war… but Akion had never wanted development in that direction.
At least here, he could make sure that did not happen.
A holy-light sword?
It was an unintended byproduct of Akion’s work.
A holy-light surveying device?
It was difficult to use it to harm humans in the first place.
And if either of them were fired at a person, they would instead activate a healing effect. That was why Akion had calmly made more of them.
- Tap, tap, tap….
The spiral spear prototype, which had been his final line?
He had made Aisirel promise that it would be used only for defense.
On top of that, Arctic Volkov had officially declared that it was “for protecting the duchy,” driving the point home.
Of course, that was for the sake of strengthening imperial authority, but at least its tip would not be pointed at good people.
As Akion wrestled with those thoughts,
“…….”
Goldie silently remained at his side.
Her eyes were swollen, and she had not even bothered to fix her hair.
- Sniff.
Akion knew that Goldie was not doing this deliberately… she had truly spent the whole day crying before coming here.
They had not spent only a short time together, so he knew her inside and out.
“Sigh.”
A few days earlier, Akion had heard the full story from Goldie and the Tower Master.
What circumstances had led to them using that gun.
And why Goldie and the Tower Master had developed it.
And what they had intended to use it for.
Finally, he heard how carefully they had tried to follow Akion’s instructions.
Even so, the fact remained that they had made a gun.
“Goldie.”
- Flinch!
That day, when his hand had moved before he could think, Akion had seen his parents from his previous life and himself superimposed over one another.
He still felt as though the blood of those trash who had struck him first—even after he had become a university student—was flowing through his veins.
He had not even felt affection for his sister Hermione, yet he had done that to Goldie and the Tower Master, who helped him almost without limit.
He had felt a measure of self-loathing. Even if what he had done was understandable.
“Come sit here.”
- Nod, nod!
- Plop!
So, the human heart was truly fickle.
Once he felt somewhat sorry and learned the circumstances, he found himself overwhelmed by the desire to forgive them.
He had even started thinking about quietly glossing over the fact that he had struck them while he had the chance.
“Goldie. Did your cheek hurt…?”
- Nod, nod.
“I see….”
That did not mean he intended to avoid the issue.
At the very least, he wanted to remain human. He had to admit when he had done something wrong.
“Before we begin… I’m sorry I slapped you because I was angry.”
“Pardon?”
“I should have used words, but when I got angry, my hand moved first.”
In this era, though, a superior slapping a subordinate was… more common than one might think.
Even Countess Lucrecia had slapped the maids several times whenever she was in one of her vicious moods.
From that perspective, Akion’s apology was quite bewildering to Goldie.
“Ah, no, Young Master. Goldie did so much wrong…!”
“Even so, I shouldn’t have used violence so carelessly.”
“Ah…!”
For a moment, Goldie misunderstood Akion’s hatred of violence in a slightly different way.
‘The Young Master hadn’t overcome it. He had merely hidden it…!’
Akion was still suffering from the trauma of being bullied,
and despite that, he was forcing himself to endure it rather than taking revenge.
Akion Enersis, nineteen years old this year.
Until before his seventeenth birthday, he had been bullied everywhere and received no proper treatment from anyone except Goldie.
“No, no…!”
The news that such an Akion had seized power?
To the members of the household, it sounded like a disaster.
Their karma would surely come back to haunt them.
“It’s not that the Young Master is bad, hic, no…! Sob…!”
But Akion acted as though he did not remember any of it and instead shielded them.
On top of that, he had given them countless magical tools they could never have afforded on their salaries!
Thinking of that, Goldie felt another sob rising in her throat.
This person was trying to leave his past pain behind and stay away from violence, yet she had done this without even understanding how he felt.
“Hweeeeng!! I’m sorryyyy─!!”
“Goodness… You don’t have to apologize this much. And apparently you used it to protect me, too.”
Having stewed herself in misery, Goldie finally burst into tears.
Of course, from Akion’s perspective, Goldie suddenly starting to cry was bewildering.
And on top of that…
“A-Akion.”
“Ah, Tower Master. Good timing. I have something to say to you too, but let’s calm Goldie down first─ Wait, why are you crying?”
The Tower Master, who had heard the entire situation from behind the door, made the exact same misunderstanding.
“Honestly… Sniff! To think a child raised without a mother could grow up so wonderfully…! Sniff…!”
“Are you really bringing up my dead mother here…?”
Akion was slightly stung by the Tower Master’s unintended confirmation that he had lost his mother.
He considered getting angry instead of simply letting it go, but…
“Hwaaaaaaah!!!”
“Akion, I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry….”
“Aagh.”
The crying of Goldie and the Tower Master began to fill the workshop.
Even Akion found it difficult to deal with this.
“Y-Young Master….”
“We didn’t even know about that… Sob…!!”
“Waaah!!!”
“No, why are you crying again?!”
To make matters worse, the maids who had come with the Tower Master entered and began sobbing as well.
Akion wanted to cry even more than they did.
*
After calming down all the maids from their misery spiral,
“Y-Young Master. Sniff. May I speak first…?”
Goldie spoke first.
“I did it because I was weak… I wanted to be of even more help to you, Young Master….”
“Mm.”
Goldie was a fifth-circle mage.
She was an outstanding mage, but she was somewhat behind the Tower Master and Aisirel.
“Because evil dark mages and demons are targeting you… If I became stronger, you’d be safer, and maybe you’d praise me more… and maybe forgive me a little, too… Sniff! That’s what I thought.”
“You thought so carelessly? The Tower Master and the other maids did too?”
“Yes…….”
True to her beastkin straightforwardness, Goldie laid all her innermost thoughts bare.
“I’m sorry… for making the railgun….”
“It’s closer to a coilgun than a railgun. Let’s call it a coilgun.”
“Sniff, yes.”
- Brimming….
Goldie wiped away her tears as she recalled what Akion had told her that day.
“Anyway, I never imagined it could be used for something like that. Sniff.”
“Yeah.”
If the coilgun were fitted with a mana stone so that even people incapable of manipulating mana could use it, and placed in the hands of commoners?
If it were made stable and even capable of rapid fire before being handed out?
“Young Master… Did we commit an unforgivable sin…?”
If thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers like that were trained and sent into war?
It would certainly be useful for grinding up monsters, demons, and dark mages.
But did humans fight only those enemies? Wasn’t humanity a species that constantly slaughtered its own kind? Countless people would die.
And if it were made powerful enough to fly far faster than the speed of sound?
It could assassinate key figures from a distant range where no one could respond.
Its potential applications were unimaginably horrifying.
Akion had explained all of this that day,
“Maybe.”
“Wheee.”
Only then did Goldie, the Tower Master, and the maid researchers understand the true power of the coilguns in their hands.
This thing… if it got out into the world, matters would spiral completely out of control.
If Akion, furious that day, had not recalled everything and even imposed a ban on leaving the estate, no one knew what would have happened if this information had leaked outside.
“But there must be a way to atone. At least the fact that you all came here means you’re willing to take responsibility, right?”
“Sniff, yes. Goldie will take responsibility.”
That was why Akion first turned to Goldie, and then…
“What about you, Tower Master?”
“Ahem.”
There was something Akion needed the Tower Master, who had declared herself ultimately responsible for this incident, to do.
“Akion. May I say something?”
“Sure. Go ahead.”
Of course, Akion gave the Tower Master a chance to speak as well.
Partly because he was half curious and half nervous about what words would come from the mouth of a dragon known for her arrogance.
“Akion. As the person ultimately responsible for this incident… I am also guilty of inciting Goldie and the attendants.”
“Oh.”
“I used them to satisfy my own desire for research.”
And she faced it head-on.
Despite the fact that, both in Akion’s previous life and here, superiors frequently abused their subordinates and dumped their own mistakes on them before running away,
“So don’t scold Goldie and the attendants too harshly. It is only right that I bear the responsibility.”
“Is there another reason?”
“About half of it is because I don’t want you to hate me.”
“Hmm.”
Our two-thousand-year-old dragon admitted her mistake,
and at the same time resolved to bear all of it as the person in charge. She even spoke honestly.
From Akion’s perspective, after everything he had experienced—from his parents in his previous life to all the different people in the lab,
and after enduring seventeen painful years in this world…
“Your intentions were good, and the immediate result was good, so it would be awkward to scold you any further.”
“Huh? W-Wait, are you saying you’ll forgive us?”
“Y-You’ll really forgive Goldie?”
“You even caught the mercenaries who came to steal something with it. I have to take that into consideration.”
This was practically a blessed outcome. At least they regretted what they had done and were willing to take responsibility.
He could forgive about fifty percent of it.
“However, every one of you here.”
What about the other fifty percent?
That would come after he made them do what needed to be done right now.
“Take responsibility and scrap the project. And keep it secret.”
He meant the complete scrapping of the project Goldie, the Tower Master, and the maid researchers had developed.
Along with a secrecy oath.
“Coilguns are too dangerous. This technology must never leak outside.”
“G-Goldie understands now, too. You’re right, Young Master.”
“I understand as well. They say we must prepare for war to preserve peace… but only after hearing your explanation did I realize how dangerous it is.”
“The Young Master is right. It’s too dangerous.”
All of them would take responsibility and bury the entire thing completely.
Every document, including the research plans and reports,
and every prototype and coilgun already in existence!
Of course, someday someone might use the knowledge Akion had taught them to create something similar…
But by then, the average level of this world would probably have risen enough to respond to it.
“All that hard work, gone in an instant.”
“Still, it’s better than letting a war break out, isn’t it?”
So even if the people who had researched it felt disappointed,
they decided to put those feelings aside and willingly scrap it for now.
“Ah, leave the bulletproof, stab-resistant maid uniforms. You made those really well, didn’t you?”
“Oh, those are okay?!”
“Really?!!”
“They aren’t lethal, are they? Let’s promote them to an official project instead. Their purpose is good, too.”
Of course, he allowed the bulletproof, stab-resistant maid uniforms.
Their purpose was an excellent defensive one, after all.
“Hweeeeng! Thank you, Young Master!!”
“Akiooon!!”
“I’ll serve you for the rest of my life, Young Master!!”
“Graaagh! Everyone, wait! You’re going to break my bones! You are!!─”
Of course, Goldie, the Tower Master, and all the maids were so happy that they cried and hugged Akion tightly enough to crack his bones.
Anyway, all’s well that ends well!
*
Thus, all the documents were burned away,
and every coilgun was thrown into a smelter and melted down completely.
And while the Enersis mages half-beat the Calypso mercenary company and tracked down the traitor who had taken the estate blueprints outside,
“Oof, my back.”
Having risen from his sickbed, Akion’s back ached despite being only nineteen years old by this world’s reckoning.
“Hehe….”
“Don’t laugh. I’ll get attached.”
It was because the countless requests for hugs from the moved maids had cracked his spine.
Fortunately, he was carried to the clinic and walked back out a few days later, but there was nothing he could do about the lingering ache.
“Hehe.”
“Tower Master, you should chuckle softly.”
“I was about to hit you again─ Ahem.”
Still, perhaps he should be glad that he had earned a get-out-of-being-hit-free pass from the Tower Master. Anyway.
- Swish, swish.
Akion examined a maid uniform laid out on the desk from every angle.
“Bulletproof and stab-resistant….”
The snowball that had begun with the washing machine had rolled and rolled until it became a bulletproof, stab-resistant uniform for protecting important figures.
Though it took the shape of a maid uniform, this was protective clothing that the powerful people of this era would go crazy for.
Selling this to powerful people would certainly be lucrative…
“Wouldn’t that be too small-scale?”
“Right. If possible, I’d like to receive a bulk order….”
Akion was now the owner of a proper business(?) of his own.
More precisely, he was the behind-the-scenes power of Enersis Corporation, but in any case, he was in a position where he had to consider profitability as well.
They were making good money even now, but there were also plenty of expenses, from workshop employees to the cost of various materials.
This clothing would guarantee a safe and comfortable life,
but he could not easily find a way to make it rake in money.
“How about something like high-end bodyguard uniforms?”
“I’m not sure. Most nobles are either quite capable themselves or have people like that stationed around them… There would be demand, but I wonder whether there’s anywhere that would need them in bulk.”
“What are you two doing?”
Just as he was lost in thought, Aisirel returned from patrolling Enersis County at the Count’s request.
Her eyes went wide when she saw the pretty maid uniform laid out before Akion, and─
“A maid uniform? Ah-ha, Akion. Don’t tell me you’re planning to put this on me and the Tower Master and do something─ Ow, ow, ow!”
“No, you lewd-minded sister. And stop being so dramatic.”
Aisirel had been having indecent thoughts, so Akion cut them off with a pinch to her cheek!
Since it was Akion, whose body was pathetically weak, doing the pinching, her cheek only turned slightly red.
“Tch, you could’ve just said so.”
“Instead of saying weird things, help me come up with a business idea.”
“Aah, my small, precious Akion is turning into a money-crazed bastard….”
“Does the money to run the workshop come from nowhere?”
“Hey, I was only joking.”
Aisirel grumbled about her husband (not really), who tormented her instead of comforting her after she got home from work.
After a brief moment of thought, she said,
“What if we turn these into academy uniforms? Since your clothing industry is being carried out by His Majesty’s order, it would be good to combine it with that.”
“Oh?”
“Hmm. The academy….”
She suggested supplying them to the Khalid Empire Academy, which had two thousand new students enter every year.
Khalid Empire Academy.
When Akion looked into it, he found that it was not all that different from a four-year university.
Its major faculties were divided into the Faculty of Knightly Arts, the Faculty of Magic, the Faculty of Arts, and the Faculty of Administration,
with further departments divided beneath them.
Unlike the university from Akion’s previous life, however…
“Academy students have to wear academy uniforms.”
“And since they’re all children of nobles, dark mages and all sorts of riffraff often target them.”
There were dress codes.
And incidents happened surprisingly often.
As he looked into it, Akion began to wonder whether this world was not merely a romantasy, but one with an academy setting added on top.
Anyway, setting that aside…
“And the current rector is my disciple.”
“According to Goldie’s memory… Isn’t the chairwoman Her Imperial Highness the Empress Dowager?”
All of Akion’s backers were influential figures at the academy.
It was a truly mouthwatering opportunity for a cronyism-fueled business!
“But won’t clueless nobles complain again…?”
“You can simply provide them free to students of commoner status.”
“Whoa! You mean we can call it charity?! Tower Master, you’re so smart!!”
“Ahem. Praise me more.”
Of course, he meant that in a good way.
Thus, Akion, who had grown excited at the thought of making a huge amount of money,
“Then the person in charge should go to the academy, right?”
“Huh?”
“Her Imperial Highness the Empress Dowager is scheduled to return soon, so you can go with her!”
A bolt from the blue struck him.
He had to share a carriage with Her Imperial Highness the Empress Dowager, who adored him as her granddaughter’s husband, for more than two weeks?
“Goldie, Goldie. Are you telling me to ride back in Her Imperial Highness’s carriage?”
For Akion, a reclusive researcher who hid in a corner of the workshop, it was an utterly horrifying prospect, but…
“Then who else is going? You’re the person ultimately responsible.”
“Give up and pack your bags, Goldie!”
“Yes! Young Master, let’s pack!”
“Aww….”
With Aisirel and the Tower Master delivering blunt truths, Akion began packing his bags with tears in his eyes.