Chapter 57
- Swish.
The Emperor's hand brushed over the white fabric.
- Squeeze…! Pop! Pop!
It was soft enough to rival the silk of the Eastern Continent across the sea,
yet sturdy enough that it did not seem as though it would tear when pulled hard.
“Excellent.”
Several cartloads of such fabric were piled before the Emperor.
“Truly excellent. To think you can produce a mountain's worth of fabric in such a short time….”
It was the price paid for delaying the Empress Dowager's return.
“Hehe, Your Majesty. What do you think?”
And one of those fabrics had already been reborn as the Empress Dowager's one-piece dress.
The workmanship was inferior to that of the imperial palace's exclusive tailors… but perhaps the good fabric and its excellent wearer made up for it.
“It reminds me of the sandwiches my mother used to make when I was young.”
It was a wonderful dress, good enough even to stir the Emperor's nostalgia.
“Hoho, I can't believe you still remember that! I remember how you used to frown and complain that the vegetables tasted bad.”
“Ahem, Mother. Flare is right here.”
Flare had been watching from nearby,
and from Akion's perspective, she was utterly dumbfounded.
“I'd heard that His Majesty the Emperor was a sage ruler….”
“I've only recently begun getting used to this side of him myself.”
She had seen that the Emperor was more easygoing in private than she had expected.
Even the Seventh Princess, who had recently begun helping the Emperor run state affairs, was only now starting to get used to seeing him like this.
“He was originally an incredibly gentle person. But that day, after Mother collapsed….”
The fact that Seventh Princess Flare was reluctant to say more brought several old rumors about the imperial family to Akion's mind.
‘When was it? It must have been about ten years ago….’
Seventh Princess Flare's biological mother was the Third Imperial Consort, Edelweiss Pendragon. Her family was House Asterion.
She had been the Emperor's third wife.
Akion remembered Count Delford hurrying to the capital more than a decade ago.
‘It was an attempted poisoning, wasn't it? A servant was said to have poisoned her.’
Afterward, he remembered the conversations that had taken place in the corridor between the chief butler and the elders when he returned home.
Akion had overheard it unintentionally at the time, and knowing that it was confidential, he had kept his mouth shut.
But the time when Flare's mind had become fixed in its current state seemed to have been around then….
“Mother still hasn't woken─ Ah!”
Apparently it had been confidential after all, because the princess covered her mouth in the middle of speaking.
Then she looked at Akion nervously, unsure what to do…
“I didn't hear anything.”
“Ah… hehe, thank you. Well, now that you know about our family history, to tell you a little more, relations between His Majesty─ my father and me became awkward after that day.”
Relieved by his promise to keep silent, she instead began spilling out her family history.
Akion, meanwhile, was shedding tears of blood internally because the number of secrets he had to keep had increased. Anyway.
“Still, thanks to the hair dryer Young Master Akion sent me… I reconciled with His Majesty─ no, with my father.”
Still, whenever someone who had become happy thanks to engineering expressed their gratitude,
Akion could not help but puff out his chest with pride.
“Young Master. It is late, but… would you accept my thanks?”
“Of course. I am deeply honored to receive Your Highness's gratitude.”
Who in the empire could receive the heartfelt gratitude of a member of the imperial family?
Could there be gratitude more valuable than that of the Seventh Princess?
“Young Master Akion.”
The Emperor, who stood even higher than the Seventh Princess, called out to him.
“It has not even been a full year since I issued my imperial decree… and already you can produce such excellent fabric in bulk.”
“I was merely moved by Your Majesty's concern for the people of the empire and wished to contribute what little I could with my humble skills.”
The Emperor's son-in-law, for all intents and purposes, had completed the clothing industrial revolution in a single year, despite the Emperor believing it would take more than three.
“I consider you, by yourself, more capable than the Imperial Mage Corps.”
“I-I am deeply honored….”
From the Emperor's perspective, Akion was far more impressive than the Imperial Mage Corps.
The funds Akion had requested with a casual, ‘I'll handle this,’ were far less than the cost of maintaining the magical units directly under the Imperial Mage Corps.
On top of that, they had been unable to resolve the Seventh Princess's blessing—or curse—
while Akion had solved it within a few months of receiving a single secret commission!
“And… you rejuvenated my mother─ Ahem. I do not know how best to put it. In any case, thank you.”
And he had even rejuvenated the Emperor's own mother?
The Emperor wanted to seize Akion by the shoulders that instant and demand, ‘How did you really do it?!’ before questioning him in detail.
Akion's magi-engineering had made impossible possibilities seem plausible.
“If there is anything you desire, speak freely. The imperial family must always repay the favors it has received.”
The Emperor, Theodore, forcibly calmed those feelings and decided to reward Akion.
Had he not taken the Empress Dowager, who had always suffered from back pain, beyond mere good health and actually rejuvenated her?
As her son and the head of the imperial family, he had to repay him.
Of course, this was the answer Akion had been waiting for.
“Then, Your Majesty. May I ask two favors?”
“You restored mass production of fabric, not to mention my mother's health. Of course I can grant that much.”
“I recently discovered a way to infuse this mass-produced fabric with mana….”
“Oh?”
First, he requested that he be granted exclusive rights to produce special academy uniforms.
Because these academy uniforms were so expensive… students from commoner backgrounds often had to borrow money from nobles just to enroll.
“I plan to recruit the tailors who previously handled the academy uniforms and lower the production cost. In addition, I intend to distribute them completely free of charge to students who are not of noble birth.”
“Oh….”
That was Akion's proposal for a special academy-uniform business: lower the price through mass-producing the fabric and hiring tailors.
He also planned to offer an option to inscribe defensive magic onto the academy uniforms.
“It seems Mother was directly involved in this.”
“Hoho, that's my Emperor.”
They say that to be called a sage ruler, one must be an excellent ruler as well.
The Emperor immediately noticed that the Empress Dowager's strategy was hidden within this proposal.
The academy's purpose was to cultivate outstanding talent regardless of social status,
or more precisely, to gather that talent under the imperial family.
Therefore, to strengthen the nation and advance the incomplete centralization of power, it was important to lower the barrier to academy admission….
“Good. I approve.”
“I am overwhelmed by Your Majesty's grace.”
The academy, which had continued for hundreds of years, had gradually degenerated into a social venue where young nobles and wealthy commoners built connections,
and it had become standard for poor commoner students who borrowed money to become those nobles' vassals after graduation.
Thus, Akion's proposal was not merely harmless from the imperial family's perspective—it could not have been better.
“And the second is….”
The next words that came out of his mouth
“Hahahaha!!”
“Hohohoho!”
made both the Emperor and the Empress Dowager burst into laughter.
“You want me to leave a review because there are too few user reviews?!”
“My, Young Master Akion is as audacious now as he was then. Since things have come to this, Your Majesty? Why don't you try it once?”
He had asked the Emperor to try the waterbed he intended to give the Empress Dowager and leave a review.
For the Empress Dowager's return procession, Akion had brought all sorts of things to show the Emperor.
Naturally, the Empress Dowager's waterbed was among them,
but aside from the Empress Dowager, Goldie was the only person who had properly used it… so Akion wanted more reviews.
It was a rather modest request considering how long Akion had hesitated, so both the Emperor and the Empress Dowager burst out laughing. Anyway.
“Haha! Then so be it!! Akion, I shall enjoy the miracle of rejuvenation together with my mother! Show me this thing called a waterbed!”
“I can only thank you for readily accepting a request that may have been rude. Then, this way─.”
The Emperor readily agreed. It would not cause any harm to his imperial person, after all.
And in truth….
“Y-Your Majesty. Over there….”
“Flare. Do not worry. Would your father leave you out now?”
“Ah, thank you…!”
Both the Emperor and Flare
had been eagerly anticipating the waterbed because of the Empress Dowager's extravagant boasting.
- Thump-thump!
They wondered just how wonderful the waterbed could be to have erased the Empress Dowager's back pain along with rejuvenating her!
The imperial father and daughter were more excited than befitted their ages.
* * *
The next morning.
“Did you hear the news yesterday?”
“I heard there was a dragon's roar from the residential district where the imperial family stays….”
It was a topic of conversation among the nobles gathered for the day's court meeting.
“That? I hear His Majesty the Emperor and Her Highness the Seventh Princess went to receive a massage from that waterbed.”
“Oh my. You mean the magical device that rejuvenated the Empress Dowager?”
The tremendous roar that had filled the imperial palace yesterday afternoon.
Since the imperial family had dragon blood flowing through their veins, their basic physical stats were already absurd, so even their shouts were tremendous…
“Graaahhhhhhhhh─!!!”
“Kyaaaaaaaaaa─!!!”
“W-What was that?!”
“What on earth was that sound?!”
The problem was that the shout had been a roar loud enough to tear apart the sky above the imperial palace.
It sounded less like they were in pain and more like they were cheering because it was so incredible… the cry of a dragon.
Those near the imperial palace trembled at the dragon's aura contained within it,
while those with keen mana-sensing abilities trembled at the tremendous mana resonating through the sound.
“Could something have happened to His Majesty's imperial person?!”
“If that were the case, today's court meeting would have been canceled. There was no such notice, so put your worries aside.”
“But His Majesty the Emperor, who always takes his seat on time, is this late. Hmmm.”
In any case, the capital was thrown into an uproar by the unexpected commotion.
Naturally, the news reached the ears of everyone attending the court meeting,
“I would like to try it myself….”
“Apparently it does not actually have a rejuvenation function.”
“But His Majesty the Emperor tried it too. That makes me even more curious!”
Everyone's curiosity about the waterbed's effects was on the verge of exploding.
Akion, meanwhile, would have been shedding tears of blood over the waterbed's performance being exposed instead of kept secret. Anyway.
“His Majesty the Emperor and Her Highness the Seventh Princess are arriving!!”
“At last!”
The nobles who had been waiting and waiting turned all their gazes toward the entrance to the meeting room.
They were curious just how effective that magical device called a waterbed really was.
- Clop, clop!
The Emperor entered first,
“Have you all passed a peaceful night!”
“Gasp?!”
“H-He looks as young as one of my children…?!!”
“Haha! You all look surprised by my transformation!”
He had become a handsome man somewhere between youth and middle age, no older than his mid-thirties at most.
“Well? Haven't I become quite young?”
“Y-Yes! Indeed you have!”
The Emperor's wrinkled skin had smoothed out completely, returning him to the appearance he had possessed in his prime,
and the nobles could not close their mouths.
“Y-Your Majesty. To think you have regained the appearance you had in those days… Congratulations on your rejuvenation!”
“Thank you! Hahahaha!”
The elder nobles, who were advanced in years themselves, were nearly driven mad with envy at seeing the Emperor return to the appearance he had possessed more than twenty years ago.
They wanted to receive the waterbed treatment themselves.
But the waterbed belonged to the Empress Dowager, did it not? They could not make such a request carelessly….
They swallowed their tears and busied themselves congratulating the Emperor on his rejuvenation.
“Thank you for celebrating my good fortune! But… I am certain you will be even more astonished by Flare's transformation.”
But was there really something even more surprising than this?
The nobles, who had floating hooks over their heads at the Emperor's bold claim,
- Click, clack.
watched Flare follow behind the Emperor in surprise.
“Hm? I do not see much difference.”
“Not at all! Look closely. Her skin is much lovelier than it was the day before yesterday!”
“Her hair is even more lustrous, too…!”
Flare, who had followed in behind the Emperor, drew their astonished gazes.
Could one call it the skin of a pale, smooth baby?
Flare's skin had become so beautiful that noblewomen would have paid a fortune to obtain it.
More precisely, her complexion had become extraordinarily healthy overall.
“Gasp….”
“She was already beautiful, but now she is even more….”
Flare had transformed into such a lively beauty that even the young nobles in the meeting room who had not been interested in the Seventh Princess were falling for her.
But was this really more amazing than rejuvenation…?
“But what are those horns?”
“……I think my eyes must be deceiving me. Why can I see a tail behind Princess Flare?”
- Sway, sway~!
Their gazes gathered on the Seventh Princess's head and back.
A cute horn had emerged from between Flare's bangs.
And behind her waist was… a somewhat short, but cute, dragon tail.
The nobles, who had grown wary, wondering whether this was another dragon resembling Flare,
“D-Did everyone have a peaceful night…?”
“…….”
“…….”
recognized her from Flare's familiar voice, though she sounded a little more embarrassed than usual.
“It appears that a fragment of the great dragon sleeping within Flare has manifested. Is that not truly a blessed event!”
Once the Emperor's firm declaration was added to that,
- Snap!
something in the nobles' heads snapped.
- Crash!!
“How can this be─?!!”
“It is so bizarre that it cannot be explained even by magic… No, it is certainly a joyous occasion, but─!!!”
“Ghk, guh, gurgle…!”
“Gasp, breathe. Breathe!!”
A collective seizure began at once.
More specifically, the mages among them were twisting their entire bodies at the incomprehensible phenomenon, some even foaming at the mouth.
“Hahaha!! I had a similar thought! But after experiencing it myself, I had no choice but to believe it!”
“A-Ahaha.”
The Emperor and Flare had also been astonished by the effects after receiving the treatment, both thinking, ‘How can this be?’
Even if the Emperor had rejuvenated like the Empress Dowager, Flare now appeared to be even closer to a dragon.
The details would have to be examined, of course. Anyway.
“Your Majesty! Please grant us the opportunity to meet Akion Enersis!”
“And this technology!!! It is a treasure that our empire must monopolize─!!!”
“Now, calm yourselves. Calm down! We will discuss it after bringing in the grand elder. Today, we have the crucial matter of mass-producing clothing, so let us focus on that. Chief Chamberlain?”
“Yes, I will dispatch an imperial express messenger at once!”
The court meeting was thrown into turmoil by the unexpected commotion, leaving the Emperor and Flare rather relieved.
At least they weren't the only ones who had been surprised.