Chapter 65
“S-such dense divine power hasn't existed since I became a saintess…?!”
“The Heavenly Lord smacked me on the back.”
The saintess awoke after the Heavenly Lord departed.
She was startled by the dense divinity she sensed from Akion.
“I-I'll just take one look. Just once! At your back!!”
“N-no! Don't! Eeeek!”
At the same time, she brazenly tore off Akion's clothes, completely ignoring his wishes.
“Th-this is a stigmata!!! Saint Akion, what kind of trial could the Heavenly Lord have given you…!”
“I said the Heavenly Lord smacked me on the back!!”
“Ahhh…! While I slept, you stoically endured the trial all alone…! I was foolish to have once doubted why divine power had dwelled in you, Saint! Amen, Aaaameeeen!!”
“I said I got smacked on the back….”
That day, the saintess became so excited that she tried to kidnap Akion and take him to the Papal See.
Fortunately, Goldie and the tower master came in after hearing the commotion, stopped her, and thwarted the attempt.
*
Only after that major commotion had passed and the saintess promised to join him later
did Akion finally have time to sort out his thoughts and consider the situation.
“A romantasy academy story, was it….”
“Romantasy? What does that mean?”
“It's a thing.”
Putting aside the distinctive features of the world into which he had been reincarnated,
he had to prepare for the crisis that was about to arrive.
Even if the Heavenly Lord had descended solely to chew him out, the mere fact that he had left behind an explicit warning was a great help.
Wasn't being given time to learn about the crisis and prepare for it an extraordinary privilege in itself?
“Do I have to wear it…….”
And one method of preparing was right beside Akion at that very moment.
“An academy uniform….”
“What!!”
A new academy uniform.
The academy was a place where countless young masters and ladies from noble families gathered.
From the perspective of evil forces plotting to overthrow the nation, wasn't it the perfect place to cause chaos?
“Have you finally decided!!”
“No, why are you so happy?”
From the emperor's perspective, holding the nobles' children hostage was also a way to keep the nobles in line,
but that also meant he had a duty to return them unharmed.
That was why he had stamped his approval the moment he heard about upgrading Akion's academy uniform.
“Akion. I wish you would stop holing up in a room and go play with children your own age.”
“I'm an adult, and the place I hole up is my laboratory.”
“I mean, don't hole up in a dark laboratory. Go outside and have some fun!”
There was exactly one prototype made that way, and it was none other than…
- Flap!
“This academy uniform right here.”
“Come back after getting rid of that blush on your cheeks.”
The all-purpose academy uniform prototype Akion had first created while serving as a mannequin!!
Since prototype meant a trial product, it was usually a mass of errors.
But this academy uniform was different!
“I recently developed magic-circle compression technology….”
“Oh-ho, Montefiora. Did you finally complete it? It feels like only yesterday that you were stubbornly researching it as an undergraduate, saying you would finish it.”
“That was over thirty years ago, Chancellor….”
A magical technology that had forced Montefiora to endure the horrifying integrated master's-and-doctorate program: magic-circle compression.
It was a type of compression technology that compressed and rearranged a large magic circle so it could be crammed into a small space….
“That's what I'm saying. Hear me out, everyone. If we use this, we can make more room, so can't we cram all sorts of things into it?”
“Oh.”
“What's with the ‘oh’? Stop!!”
Because Montefiora suggested using it on the academy uniform,
every mage and cleric who had joined the project ended up going completely berserk.
“For defensive magic, should we add a barrier or impact reflection…? Ah! We can add both!”
“It will be weakened, but I know a way to activate divine magic with mana! Fabric soaked in holy water for a long time can convert some mana into divine power─!”
“Oh! Then you know that magic engraved on paladin shields? The one that definitely deflects attacks, the….”
“Ah, ‘Bowing Malice’? But you'd need to know shield techniques to handle it easily… Ah, to hell with it! Let's add strength enhancement and make up for it with brute force!”
“Oh, that's a great idea!”
“Oh, fuck, no!!”
……Something like that.
Thus, the academy-uniform prototype currently in the tower master's hands had an absurd amount of magic engraved into it.
Apparently, its value was enough to buy an entire prosperous barony.
“You can't use it anyway if you can't control mana, can you?”
“Didn't we also engrave a mana-leech spell for that very reason?”
“Ugh.”
On top of that, for people who couldn't use magic, they had engraved a spell that automatically drew out and used mana on its own.
The only drawback was….
“You'll run out of mana and die before you can use all of that!!!”
Its energy efficiency was atrocious.
“Even Goldie can only last twelve hours! And that's just maintaining it!!”
Based on Goldie, who had a considerable amount of mana at the fifth tier,
even merely wearing it and going about one's daily life would leave a person exhausted from mana depletion after twelve hours.
That was why Akion had been about to shove it straight into the warehouse, but
“But you can wear it, Akion.”
“Ugh.”
This prototype academy uniform, to begin with—
had been made specifically for Akion, whose mana reserves were absurdly immense… so Akion could wear it.
They had even measured his mana recovery rate just in case, and Akion ranked at the very top.
In other words, it was an academy uniform made exclusively for Akion!
“You may be proud. Even to me, your mana reserves are unmatched among your peers!”
But on top of the cost of the magical reagents used in it, the labor required to engrave the magic circles,
and the cost of the fabric used because they were determined to make it sturdy!
Once all the other expenses were added in… even the repair bill for the moment it got scratched would be no small sum.
“I'm not wearing it, I said I'm not wearing it!!”
“Hmph! Do you have any idea how beautifully I had the tailors make it after hounding them so I could dress you in it?”
“That's why I hate it even more!!!”
Above all, the fact that it was stuffed to the brim with the tower master's personal motives.
Honestly, it was far too burdensome a gift, so Akion could do nothing but continue refusing.
In the end, the tower master let out a deep sigh and…
“I'll use a wish voucher. Take this and let's go for a walk together.”
“Gaaaah.”
She used a wish voucher.
She wanted him to put it on right away and go on a date with her.
*
Dragons generally counted their ages in centuries.
Of course, among younger dragons like the Redashed Tower Master, they were strict about dividing things up and insisted that ages should be counted in fifty-year units,
“Hee hee, heeheehee~”
but after constantly mingling with creatures that did not live even a century,
even the Redashed Tower Master, who was in her twenties by dragon standards, had no choice but to act like an elderly person.
She, too, had recently entered a new phase of life,
“What is that? Who's that guy?”
“He looks like an academy student… Have I ever seen a handsome guy like that?”
“Silver hair with a single blue strand? Hmm, which of the Enersis children was it?”
with Akion's appearance!
By spending time with the foremost figure in the new fields of science and engineering, and her very, very beloved disciple (not really), the tower master had recently been feeling younger.
Of course, she clung to him over the pretext of sponsorship and various other things,
“Ugh, could you stop clinging to me?”
“Well, if you dislike it….”
“I didn't know you'd be that disappointed… Sigh. Go ahead and cling.”
“Hee hee, thank you!”
Even so, the time she had spent with him was by no means short.
While being with him, the tower master was experiencing what life as a woman was like.
“Tsk, what's with the old lady beside him?”
“Looking at that necklace, she must be some nouveau riche noble… She must have been rejected by her ex-husband and is trying to snag an academy student so she can remarry.”
No matter how well the tower master concealed her horns and tail with magic,
hearing things like that as a dragon was extremely unpleasant.
However, the tower master was not displeased.
- Squeeze~!
“Ow, that hurts. Ouch.”
“I know it doesn't.”
“You don't fall for it….”
Wasn't it merely jealousy from other women who could not have Akion?
Having recently realized that, the tower master was enjoying a happiness beyond her imagination.
Thus, as she roamed the academy district, she dragged Akion around to visit one place after another.
“But, Tower Master, is this really enough?”
The two stopped at a café partway through their outing to take a break.
The tower master had rented out the second floor by paying cash up front.
Of course, Akion wondered why there was a coffee shop in a medieval romantasy world, but….
For now, he decided to focus on the tower master.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, is it all right if I use this to go on a date with you while wearing the academy uniform?”
Actually, Akion had intended to grant something like this even without a wish voucher if the tower master wanted it.
After all, wasn't she the tower master who had given him so much strength and help?
Considering the debt he owed her and their friendship, it was not as if he could not do this for her.
“Didn't I have to go this far to break that iron will of yours?”
“Well, I would have gone along with it if you kept asking….”
And he, too, knew that the tower master's manner had changed recently.
She had become strangely softer.
The intensity and area of her physical contact had strangely increased compared to when they first met.
And the tower master herself had become more embarrassed by it.
“I'm sorry for continuing to refuse.”
Akion's previous life had consisted of an all-boys middle school, an all-boys high school, an engineering university, and a laboratory,
but even he could not help noticing a change this obvious.
That was why Akion had tested the tower master's waters a moment ago, and
“Hmm.”
- Sliiither.
the tower master stroked the back of Akion's hand with a mysterious smile in her eyes.
“Dragons are a race that finds at least one thing they want before they die.”
Akion had heard that before, too.
That it was the reason the tower master was obsessed with him.
“Something containing a brilliance you would want to display in your lair… You heard me say last time that, to me, you appear more precious than any jewel, didn't you?”
“Yes.”
“Only the feeling of cherishing that precious thing has changed a little.”
- Stroke, stroke.
The tower master's fingertips tickled the back of Akion's hand.
Of course, it was a signal that she wished he would notice a little more, but
“Aren't feelings like that originally?”
“Is that so?”
“Tch, never mind.”
“Why are you sulking? Ah, ow, stop pinching the back of my hand.”
That was the limit of Akion's perceptiveness.
The tower master lightly pinched the back of Akion's hand, feeling disappointed.
“Oh dear, the tower master is bullying her precious disciple.”
“Say that after you've become my disciple.”
“Then buy me a coffee drink and I'll forgive you.”
“Good grief. Fine. Wait here.”
Perhaps the tower master was trying to capture his heart more because she was the one in the weaker position.
They say the person who falls in love first is the one in the weaker position, after all.
Saying that maybe the saying was right after all,
the tower master hummed as she went down to the first floor.
“Sigh.”
Of course, Akion was at a loss, too.
Clearly, the tower master's favor was not the businesslike kind that meant, ‘I'll make you my disciple!’
‘Could it be that the tower master….’
Using his usual process of elimination, there were not many kinds of favor left.
Just as Akion was about to figure something out,
- Click.
“What are you pondering, Young Master Akion?”
A red-haired academy student sat down in the tower master's seat.
Anyone seeing her for the first time would have frozen for a moment from the shock of encountering such a breathtaking beauty.
Her eyes were that beautiful, like amber with a hint of orange mixed in.
But,
“Seventh Princess? What brings you here….”
“I was looking for somewhere to ask you something, Young Master, and I heard you were here.”
She had the same vertically slit pupils as the tower master.
She also had small horns and a tail that seemed to have appeared only recently.
“More importantly… Hmm. You suit it better than I expected.”
“Pardon…? Ah, you mean this outfit. Ha ha, I hardly know how to respond to Your Highness's praise.”
She was a princess born with a strong draconic bloodline.
She was the Seventh Princess, Flare Pendragon Asterion.
“But, Your Highness, what brings you here?”
“Just a moment.”
- Shiver…!
Her slit pupils swept from the top of Akion's head to the tips of his toes.
Since it was the gaze of someone of a higher order than a human, Akion instinctively felt a chill run down his spine.
“Princess Flare, I apologize for asking once again, but what brings you─.”
Akion tried to get to the point so he could send the princess away as quickly as possible, but
“How do I look?”
“Pardon?”
“What do you think of me?”
He received a question that seemed to carry several meanings.
What did she mean, how was she?
Akion examined her outfit from the neck down.
It certainly was not much different from the academy uniforms he had seen at the academy, but….
- Grin.
Since Flare was even flashing him a sly smile while he looked her over,
it was obvious even to Akion that he would never get to the main point without complimenting her.
Resigned, he gave the answer he had organized in his head.
“It suits you perfectly.”
“What does?”
“The academy uniform. If you stood among the noble ladies your age, you would be so beautiful and well-dressed that you would make everyone else look shabby.”
It was a businesslike answer that still contained a certain amount of truth.
Of course, the princess raised one eyebrow to show her displeasure.
“Hmm. That's how you choose to answer?”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Still, hearing you call me pretty feels nice.”
Even so, there was a subtly satisfied note in her voice,
so Akion had managed to get through it without incident.
“And soon… the ancestor being held up by the staff should be returning, so shall we get to the point?”
Thus, the princess finally moved on to the matter Akion had been waiting for.
She pulled a document bearing the imperial seal from her bosom.
Akion accepted it and read it,
“You want to use the washing machine as a torture device?”
It was a request to modify the washing machine so it could be used to torture criminals.
It was an uncomfortable commission for Akion.
“Are you going to refuse?”
“Since you say it's for punishing bad people, I can't exactly refuse outright, but hmm….”
The idea of torturing people with a machine made to wash clothes was unsettling and somehow wrong.
On top of that, the other seal stamped beneath the princess's was….
“Why is the Pope's seal stamped on it as well?”
It was the seal of the Pope, the administrative head of the Papal See, the central authority of the Heavenly Church!
“Well, this happened while we were investigating a dark mage….”
Akion sensed something ominous here.
Whenever he became involved with the clergy of this world,
things somehow always ended with a positive result overflowing with madness.
“You know that Saint Akion handles heresy inquisitions, right?”
“Yes.”
“The Saint personally interrogated the dark mage we captured this time, but the man absolutely refused to open his mouth. So….”
This time, he had sent several washing machines as a tithe and for improving the clergy's clothes,
so how on earth had they used them, and how effective had it been for the Pope to stamp his seal on the request?
“They put him in a washing machine filled with holy water and ran it.”
“I see.”
“The dark mage howled in agony like a beast and confessed everything in less than five minutes.”
“They did whaaat….”
And Akion, as always,
felt like he was about to lose his mind over the clergy's outlandish ways of using machines.