Chapter 58
“Ha-ha-ha! Young Master Akion!”
A handsome red-haired man somewhere between youth and middle age came running down the imperial palace corridor.
Even though Akion had clearly never seen him before… he somehow felt the man was incredibly familiar.
“Um, who might you be…?”
That was because the man had fallen asleep on the spot after merely explaining how to operate the waterbed.
The imperial family members who had been watching nearby had sent him back to his quarters with hearty laughter….
“Ha-ha! Why don't you try guessing!”
Akion truly had no idea who this person was.
At least, not from his appearance alone.
Red hair and a hearty laugh,
and considering that the Crown Prince, the First Prince, was still in his late twenties, this man couldn't be the Crown Prince…
“Could you be His Majesty the Emperor?”
“Correct.”
“Oh, Heavenly Lord.”
He had guessed that the man was the Emperor, and he had been right.
Akion's mind went more or less blank.
“What, exactly, happened…….”
“Ha-ha, surely it was thanks to the waterbed Young Master Akion offered my mother! Ah, and here is the review you requested. I wrote it in great detail, so I hope you find it useful.”
Akion wished someone would say it was a lie,
but unfortunately, the Emperor handed him the review document he had requested, driving the point home.
Even so, Akion
“Congratulations on Your Majesty's rejuvenation.”
could calmly let this much slide.
His skin had originally rejuvenated thanks to the hot spring, but now he had made it possible with a waterbed as well?
Akion was already accustomed to the tangled mess of spaghetti code known as the Yellow-Dog Hotpot Spa.
“Hmm. You're not as surprised as I expected.”
“After witnessing Her Imperial Highness the Empress Dowager's rejuvenation, I developed a certain resistance. And since I heard that she had even awakened her magical talent, I had also considered the possibility that Your Majesty might rejuvenate.”
“Ho. Now that you mention it, my mother did awaken her magical talent. Then perhaps I, too, have newly awakened a talent for swordsmanship. But….”
Perhaps because of that, the Emperor looked at Akion as though he found him a little boring.
To be honest, Akion was hoping he would leave already.
“You really weren't surprised?”
“My joy at celebrating it is immense.”
“Then what do you think of my daughter?”
This was suddenly an attack of, ‘Would you like to meet my daughter?’
Akion began frantically turning over his options, unsure what he should say.
“As for Her Highness Princess Flare… well… she is beautiful, but whether someone like the youngest son of a count's family such as myself would suit her─.”
“Ah, I'm not looking for that answer yet.”
Thank goodness he had denied it, but what did he mean by ‘not yet’?
Just as Akion began trembling at the terrifying prospect of the Emperor becoming obsessed with the matter,
“I mean, what do you think of her current appearance?”
“F-Father…!”
Flare suddenly appeared behind the Emperor with a ta-da~.
“Wow.”
She was wearing dragon horns and a dragon tail, exactly like the master of the Ridasid Tower.
“Holy shi─.”
“Hm?”
“My heartfelt congratulations on Your Highness's wondrous evolution into a dragon, an existence so marvelous that it can make even withering flowers raise their heads again─!!!”
Akion had nearly spat out a string of curses in front of the Emperor and the Seventh Princess before desperately swerving away.
But honestly, the situation certainly warranted some profanity.
“Ha-ha! Evolution! That may be a rather apt comparison!”
“F-Father! And Young Master Akion, too…! Please stop teasing me…!”
Did it really make sense for a single waterbed massage treatment to awaken dragon traits?
But now it did?
Yet as far as Akion knew, this father and daughter had gone to the court meeting, hadn't they?
Then the truth had been exposed to every noble there, hadn't it??!
“They're only little horns and a small tail….”
“Ha-ha-ha!! Why are you so embarrassed? They look utterly adorable to this father of yours!!”
Akion wanted to unleash a torrent of abuse at the Heavenly Lord.
Was it really so wrong for him to apply engineering?
“I can count on one hand the number of times I have received such a great favor… Young Master Akion! If there is anything you want, say the word! Your father-in-law will─!!”
“Fatherrrr─!”
“Ha-ha-ha!! Flare is being unusually shy today!”
As yet another imperial version of ‘Our Akion, do whatever you want’ was added to the situation,
- Bang bang bang!!
Akion was horrified as Flare's light punches of protest pounded the Emperor as if she were nearly beating him senseless.
Yet the Emperor was taking them without the slightest concern.
‘Aura?!’
Looking closely, rose-gold aura was automatically blooming over the places where the blows landed.
Akion had heard from Clad and Ishirel that such a thing was impossible without the talent to reach Master.
He had heard that the Emperor in his prime had reached Advanced Expert…
but wasn't rejuvenation plus Master from a single waterbed session a bit much?
‘Oh, for fuck's sake. Can't you code properly?!’
Akion hated the Heavenly Lord even more.
*
After finishing his usual WWE match with the Heavenly Lord,
Akion began conducting research alongside the Imperial Mage Corps in accordance with the imperial command while he remained in the imperial palace.
“Ho-ho-ho! A pleasure to meet you, Young Master Akion! I am Count Ben Montefiora, commander of the Imperial Mage Corps and an eighth-tier mage!”
“A pleasure to meet you, Count Montefiora.”
Of course, upon hearing the imperial command, Akion had agonized over whether he should refuse.
“Akion, bear this in mind. The mages in the imperial palace are all famous for being stubborn and foul-tempered. And in reality, they are exactly as bad as rumored!!”
“Like our family before I developed incandescent light bulbs?”
“Why phrase it that way…? Ahem, perhaps you could say they are even worse.”
His biological father, Delford, had warned him that they were an even bigger mess than the Enersis family had been during its era of neglect.
Apparently, since they were elite personnel consisting of at least sixth-tier mages, their stubbornness was as hard as iron…
“Oh, come now! Just call me Lord Ben!”
“Pardon?”
“Or, if you don't mind, you can call me Uncle!! Ho ho ho!”
That iron stubbornness all crumbled before Akion's magi-engineering.
“A fellow without even magical talent… Tsk, tsk.”
“He must have been lucky. The rejuvenation is probably similar. He clearly just took credit for a string of miracles.”
Of course, they had been jealous when they heard that the Empress Dowager's back pain had vanished and that she had rejuvenated.
After all, Akion had achieved what they themselves could not. It was a natural human emotion.
“His Majesty the Emperor… has rejuvenated?”
“Wait, why is the density of that aura so high?”
But then the Emperor had said, ‘Have I awakened a talent for swordsmanship?’ and drawn his sword in the training yard,
- Vwoooong!!
“Eeeek.”
“Gasp!! Your Majesty, such powerful aura─?!!”
Aura burst forth with an astonishing level of power.
The commander of the Imperial Knights, a Master who had been watching from nearby,
“Your Majesty─!! I am overjoyed that you have finally stepped across the threshold of Master─!!!”
“I haven't even participated in training recently… More importantly, Master? Me?”
“Not quite yet, but you have climbed onto those steps!! With just a little more training!! You will surely be able to reach Sword Master─!!!”
How could the mages not panic at such a spectacle?
On top of that, the knight commander had served the Emperor since his youth and had personally taught him swordsmanship.
At this point, several of the mages gave up their pride.
No matter how much they wailed that it was a fraud, the result was right there before them.
And then came the long-awaited Flare.
“Y-Young Master Akion….”
“Ah, Your Highness. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes….”
- Sway, sway!!
This one had become a dragon outright.
The startled mage corps even conducted an examination, and she truly possessed strong dragon traits.
Her horns and tail were still nothing but cute, at least. Anyway.
After taking several enormous shocks in succession…
“The sight of you two standing side by side… To this old man, you look like a match made in heaven! Ho ho ho!”
“Ah! Lord Montefiora!!”
“Please tour without worry, Your Highness! We will attend to Young Master Akion with the utmost sincerity!!”
The mages' heads had been smashed open by magi-engineering, leaving their brains dripping out.
‘If something can't be done, we can just ask Young Master Akion and solve it with magi-engineering, can't we?’
‘Alchemy? Why bother? We have magi-engineering, the higher-tier option.’
‘Hey!! It's not alchemy, it's magi-engineering!!’
That was more or less what they were thinking.
If Akion had heard their thoughts, he would have foamed at the mouth.
*
Anyway, Akion had also bestowed a great favor on the mage corps in ways beyond all that.
“I would like to try enchanting these academy uniforms….”
“Mm-hmm. Miss Goldie told me that you plan to run them through that washing machine before inscribing the magic circle.”
“Would holy magic be inscribable as well?”
“What.”
The power of connections, coming through immediately.
Not only had this man met the Saint and Saintess, he even had an actual relationship with them!
“So I had the Saint and Saintess brought here with some difficulty.”
“May the Heavenly Lord's blessing be with you.”
“It's been a while, Count Montefiora?”
“O-oh, my!!”
And on top of that, he had the initiative to bring in the two greatest assets of the Holy Church just to conduct one experiment.
Even the Saint and Saintess had boundless trust in Akion, enough to keep up with that initiative!!
“While we're at it, let's conduct some additional experiments. Are there any of you who need to be tested with divine power but haven't been able to?”
“For the sake of you who are sacrificing yourselves for humanity's advancement, I can spare some of my divine power.”
“Ho ho, since you're cooperating with Saint Akion, do you think I couldn't even offer such a small favor? Don't worry!”
“Gaaasp!!”
How could anyone hate them after this!!
The mage corps's favorability toward Akion rose to 99 out of 100.
The remaining one point was more or less their final scrap of pride.
On top of that, Akion had bestowed yet another favor.
- Bzzzz~ Ding!
“It operates according to this principle. Every time it turns 180 degrees, the direction of the current changes─.”
“Grrk, the Ridasids were hearing this for free all along…?!!”
“Should we retire from the Imperial Mage Corps and move down to Enersis…!!”
Scientific and engineering knowledge.
In truth, none of them had known anything about how the engineering devices they used actually worked.
“Whoa, whoooooa!!!”
“Wahahahaha!! Damn it, Young Master Akion! What in the world is this knowledge─!!!”
“My mana circle… it's heating up!!”
“Yes, well. Glad to hear it.”
Thus, Akion unintentionally opened a science class,
and they soon became intoxicated by the legal drug for mages that only Enersis could provide: learning scientific and engineering knowledge.
- Rumble!!
“Gasp, Lord Montefiora!! This mana wavelength─!!”
“Congratulations!!”
“I-I really… truly reached the ninth tier…?! Gasp, gasp…!”
The first beneficiary was Count Ben Montefiora, commander of the Imperial Mage Corps.
He had been stuck at the eighth tier for twenty years. That stagnation had left him frustrated and stubborn, but…
“Sob, wahhhh…!!! Young Master Akion!!! I will never forget this favor!!”
“I understand, so please get off me.”
Tears burst forth from the ecstasy of having his tier rise and overflow his body.
The prevailing opinion of the Imperial Mage Corps was that there was no way their shattered heads could be stitched back together after this.
“You really are an amazing person.”
“No, I'm not.”
Even Flare, who had been watching nearby, was accumulating awe and misunderstandings.
Akion wanted to go home.
*
Despite all the various events, Akion's research itself proceeded without a hitch.
First, could fabric be infused with holy power or have holy magic inscribed on it?
- Shhhh….
“As expected, it's possible.”
“Holy power and mana behave somewhat similarly. I never thought it would be impossible.”
“But for this to happen even though it wasn't soaked in holy water… truly amazing. Do you think we could mass-produce holy water with this washing machine?”
“Oh.”
“Don't ‘oh’ me—stop saying ridiculous things and concentrate!!”
As a result of the Saint and Saintess pouring an abundance of holy power into it while it was in the washing machine, the fabric became infused with holy power.
“Hmm. But it'd be hard for anyone other than clergy to wear.”
“Mm-hmm. In the end, it's magic that can only be activated by holy power.”
A mana circuit—or rather, a holy-power circuit—had been formed based on that holy power.
Naturally, holy magic was inscribed over it as well.
Then, the second question…
“Then can it hold both mana and holy power?”
“This Montefiora tried it once before and failed. But with Young Master Akion's washing machine and fabric…!”
“It's Saint Akion's magi-engineering!”
“It's not magi-engineering─ No, let's call it magi-engineering.”
Could they contain both and have ordinary magic and holy magic inscribed on them?
So they fitted the washing machine with a high-output mana stone and Montefiora and the mages poured mana into it,
while the Saint and Saintess poured in holy power at the same time…
“……Why does this work?”
It took hold.
Both mana and holy power.
Akion had been about to call for the Heavenly Lord over yet another random bug,
“Didn't you say this was similar to the mana circuits in the human body? Mana flows through circuits in us clergy as well.”
“Only the Heavenly Lord's holy power is denser!”
“Ah.”
Once he realized that this was how things normally worked, he felt reassured.
The fact that fabric could form circuits resembling those of clergy was already absurd, but anyway.
And so the third and final question was…
“You said it's the same as the circuits inscribed in the human body, right? Count Montefiora, the Saint, and the Saintess all confirmed it.”
“That's right.”
“Then… couldn't we inscribe healing magic too?”
“Oh-ho.”
Could they inscribe healing magic here as well?
In Enersis, they had inscribed hardening magic, impact-absorption magic, and so on onto maid uniforms and put them to use.
“Several incidents happen every year at the academy….”
“What can we do? With young people in their prime and dark mages targeting them… Sigh.”
They said attacks occurred even more frequently at the academy than in Enersis,
so even more magic had to be inscribed for the academy cadets.
“It should be possible, right?”
“Of course. Shall we try?”
So Akion proposed inscribing healing magic.
The idea was for the healing magic to activate naturally whenever an academy cadet was injured.
- Slash!
- Sizzle….
“Ngh, it hurts a little.”
“Wait just a moment… As expected, it isn't activating for you. I'll heal you.”
Of course, it failed because the holy magic only consumed the wearer's own holy power!
The Saint and one of the mages took turns wrapping the fabric around themselves and cutting their own arms, but the arms failed to heal at all for everyone except the Saint.
“Phew….”
“Why are you relieved, Saint Akion…?”
Akion was delighted, as though he had found some code running properly.
While he was entertaining the strange thought, ‘Even the Heavenly Lord, who knows nothing about engineering, can't pull this off!’
- Sizzle….
“Hm? Count Montefiora. Do you see this?”
“Good heavens. Could it be that the fabric… is repairing itself? Using healing magic?!”
“Oh my!! Could this too be the Heavenly Lord's grace…?!”
“No, what the—”
The Heavenly Lord had already smacked Akion on the back of the head and run away.
The fabric… was repairing itself with healing magic.
“Count Montefiora is right! The healing magic is manifesting from the fabric! Ahh…!”
“Since it possesses a network of circuits resembling those inscribed in the human body, it seems holy healing magic works on it as well. Fascinating….”
“We must seek the cooperation of the researchers at the Vatican headquarters… W-Young Master?! Why are you suddenly foaming at the mouth?!”
“Ah! Saint, pull yourself together!!”
Self-repairing fabric?
If it had been a self-healing material from his past life, Akion could have understood it,
but this was merely fabric made from cotton thread and run through a washing machine.
It absolutely was not a self-healing material!
“Grrk, gurgle…!”
“The Saint isn't breathing!!”
“Don't panic, Saintess! Start with the prayer, just as you were always taught!”
Akion's blood pressure surged again at this phenomenon that perfectly violated the laws of physics.
As his consciousness faded, Akion prayed and prayed to the Heavenly Lord.
‘Heavenly Lord, what did I do wrong?’
If applying engineering was wrong, then he should have been given bad results,
so why was he being given results that were suspiciously, excessively good?
But weren't these results rubbing an engineer the wrong way far too much?
“Phew, all right. For Saint Akion's sake, I suppose I can even give up my first kiss…!”
“Didn't you say that should be done when his heart isn't beating?”
“Saintess. Isn't this just a mild seizure to begin with….”
“Oopsie.”
Akion fainted on the spot.