Chapter 74
“Heh heh heh!”
Delphord, Lucretia, Juan, Hermione, and even Astera.
The Akion Workshop had become a perfectly family-like company.
“So, Akion. Are you thinking of bringing the workshop’s people here?”
“That might be a little difficult. They all have households there.”
However, with Akion staying at the Academy, the existing workshop was at risk of being pushed aside.
Even so, Akion had no intention of leaving it unattended.
“It wouldn’t be good for you either if your territory lost high-grade personnel, Father. And they’re your subjects.”
“I am truly grateful for your consideration. Still, are they not your people?”
“If it really doesn’t work, they can go back and forth. We can just leave an agent in charge, right?”
All he had to do was find someone to run the workshop in Akion’s place.
But….
“Is there… anyone talented enough to replace you?”
“Is there really anyone like that…?”
From their perspective, there was no engineering personnel who could replace Akion.
“Why do you rate me so highly? Sister Hermione and Brother Juan should be enough.”
“You’re the one who taught us theories that sound plausible despite being things we’d never heard or seen, like thermal-fluid analysis!!”
“And what the hell is fracture mechanics?! Do you even know how important a resource you are right now?!!”
“Why are you getting angry…?”
To them, Akion’s level was simply on another plane.
New theories, appearing out of nowhere, kept popping out,
and no one had the confidence to replace Akion.
“Ah, let’s think about that later. The workshop runs fine for now with just Father and Brother Juan.”
Of course, maintaining the current level of production could be handled by two people.
Besides, the Akion Workshop as it was now….
“We’re gradually industrializing it, too.”
It was entering the industrialization stage.
Despite having abundant resources, they had been putting it off day after day because of the research immediately ahead of them.
Now they were accelerating the industrialization they had planned since their first year.
As for the workshop’s facilities, they could invoke the imperial decree, obtain land near the Academy, and copy the facilities there.
Building that infrastructure would take some effort, but one had to seize the initiative to establish a monopoly.
“You’re not wrong, but….”
“If you’re not in Eneresis… how are we supposed to find someone to lecture, ha….”
“Oh, that’s why? I’ll send letters whenever I have time.”
Of course, Delphord and Juan were worried that they wouldn’t be able to attend lectures.
Akion had considered sending lecture materials by letter, as he had done for Hermione, but….
“No lectures…?”
“Grrk, grrrk…! That won’t satisfy us!”
“Why are you having a fit?”
Delphord and Juan despaired, acting far beneath their age.
Thinking about it, these people were mages, too.
They were madmen whose obsession with knowledge likely rivaled anyone’s.
“If that bothers you… you know what to do, right?”
“Sob…! How could my son be this disappointing!”
“You’re holding knowledge hostage and demanding an apology?!! You worthless piece of trash!!”
Of course, they were the ones at a disadvantage. Akion held all the cards.
If they didn’t like it, they shouldn’t have become mages in the first place.
“Your father and my father are the same sort of people, bro.”
“So that proves I’m right.”
“Aha!”
“You utterly unfilial wretches.”
Meanwhile, Delphord’s patience was running out amid his sons’ passionate display of filial piety.
“I’ll write out full explanations for everything you ask by mail and send them. We have the academy-uniform project for now, too, so I’ll take my time looking for other options.”
“You utterly unfilial brat. Try being as filial as Akion!!”
“Father? Why suddenly ‘bastard’ instead of ‘brat’…?”
“You started it first!!”
“Whaaaat?!”
There was a brief father-son magical duel between Delphord and Juan.
Anyway, Akion agreed to find an alternative.
‘Is there an ionosphere? If there is, we can make radio work.’
Perhaps they could give lectures as audio through long-distance communications like radio.
The high-frequency signals needed for video lectures and the like would be difficult to handle with radio communications, so they would have to lay fiber-optic cables or launch satellites.
Of course, a radio-wave transmitter and receiver,
batteries to power the radio,
and a detector to extract only the audio signal from the received signal.
Since there was a mountain of things to make, Akion decided to push it down the priority list.
* * *
“So, what is your field of specialization, Sister?”
“Thaaat iiiis……”
There were two important things now.
The first was showing the final design for next year’s new academy uniform to the Emperor.
In fact, if things continued like this, he thought he could show it immediately after the New Year’s ceremony….
“Don’t be nervous. Just tell me.”
“Ummmm.”
The second was figuring out the traits of the newly farmed graduate student─ no, research slave.
In the temporary professor’s office at the Imperial Academy,
Akion was interviewing his new research slave.
Her name was Astera Eneresis. She was, unbelievably, of the Eneresis bloodline.
“It’s just that, uhhh….”
- Thud!
“Eek!”
“Hurry up and talk.”
With the Saintess and Isirelle beside him.
There were plenty of vile black-magic users constantly eyeing the Academy, and although this had been carried out in secret, there had also been the dangerous situation involving an Outer God,
“Akion. Was the Saintess always like that?”
“I don’t know either.”
An over-the-top security detail had been assembled, with both the Saintess and Isirelle stationed there.
For Akion alone.
“I can hear all of that, you know.”
“Oops.”
Of course, Akion’s privacy was being invaded to some extent,
but at least it wasn’t being invaded by the Saintess, so perhaps that was fortunate.
“Ahem. Anyway, Sister Astera.”
“Mmm. You see, I….”
Of course, Isirelle was invading it.
Using their engagement as an excuse, she kept coming to Akion’s room with a pillow whenever she felt like it, claiming she had to provide close protection.
Unlike Akion, who was putting up this nonsensical defense,
Astera, having finally mustered her courage, opened her mouth only now.
“I use illusion magic….”
“Rejected.”
“W-wait! Hear me out to the end…!”
Akion had shouted “rejected” half-jokingly.
Above all, he hadn’t sensed any urgency from Astera. If Akion gave up on her here, one wrong move could see her sold off as a wife to another family.
Feeling a little satisfaction at her anxious appearance, Akion waited for her next words.
Maybe it was thanks to Akion pressing her,
- Swish….
She showed him through actions instead of words.
《Hello, I’m Astra, the archmage of the Terrasia domain!》
“Oh.”
A 3D hologram that popped into existence directly in front of Akion….
“A vtuber?”
“Vtu…ber?”
An anime character?
More precisely, a character created by forcibly remodeling the Astera Eneresis before him into an outgoing person and dressing her in magical-girl clothes was winking at Akion.
《Hi, Akion!》
“You had this kind of taste, Sister?”
“Uuugh, this is why I didn’t want to show you….”
It was so ridiculous that the Saintess and Isirelle, watching from behind Akion, could only blink.
“What use is that…?”
“Could you use it as a decoy in battle… maybe?”
In this world, magic was generally used for fighting.
Only recently had a few mages begun trying to apply it deeply to everyday life, as Akion did.
“Sister Astera.”
“Y-yes?”
But Akion got a major idea from it.
Among streamers, some did mukbangs, while others showed themselves playing games.
What they had in common was that they had made “consumption” into content.
“Would you like to try making money with this?”
“…Huh?”
In that regard, the only things to watch in this world were plays, clown tricks, and gladiatorial arenas.
For Akion, who had never been particularly interested in such things… merely reviving the content of his previous life was thrilling enough.
Before that,
“Can this record me too? I mean… can it record whatever I do?”
“Re… record? What do you mean? More importantly, Akion. Do you like this too?”
Could they make recorded lectures with this?
After all, that illusion magic must have a signal, too,
so they could record the signal, turn it into something like a video, and then screen it?
Wouldn’t that be a recorded lecture? The mages of the Ridashid Mage Tower would be happy to attend lectures, too.
“Heh, hehe, hehe. Of course it’s you, Akion. I knew you’d understand me….”
“I mean recording a lecture I give with illusion magic.”
“That’s right, Astera Eneresis!! The Saint meant that in the best possible sense, but you twisted it into something strange!! It’s time for punishment!!”
“Eeeek! Eek, it huuurts…!”
Of course, the Saintess punished the misunderstanding Astera with a knuckle to the head. Anyway.
*
And so began the serious research.
“Oh… It’s cleaner inside than I expected.”
“That’s totally a flag line.”
Thanks to the Grand Tower Master’s favor and the Empress Dowager’s influence, Akion was given a fairly spacious laboratory.
There was basic alchemy equipment inside, but it would soon all be replaced with Akion’s personal equipment, which was scheduled to be delivered.
There was even an empty area set aside so that blacksmithing facilities could be brought in.
“H-here…!”
And Astera seemed to know very well whose laboratory this had been.
“Professor Anton Yurinchev’s…!”
“Oh, that marquis-family man who got turned into a eunuch by the Tower Master?”
Anton Yurinchev, whom the Tower Master had turned from an uncle into an aunt after he pestered Hermione.
“Oh, I heard yesterday that he retired.”
“I see……”
According to what Akion had heard, after becoming an auntie, he had submitted an indefinite leave request and gone back to the main family estate, where he languished.
But it seemed he ultimately decided to retire when recovery was no longer possible.
“But the Tower Master, Goldie, and even the Count were all running around quite busily. You didn’t have some kind of conflict with them, did you?”
“Suuurp….”
He really did make this decision himself, right?
The Tower Master and Empress Dowager didn’t conspire together to drive out a professor from the Department of Magic just to welcome Akion, did they?
Anton Yurinchev, even if he was like that, had still been a professor in every sense, qualified enough to be counted among the faculty….
“How would I know?”
“That’s true, too~!”
Of course, Akion had no need to show him any consideration.
He had already fallen out of favor with Akion simply for trying to take away his precious research slave.
Thus, in the laboratory that now belonged to Akion, he faced Astera directly.
“Give it a try.”
“Y-yes. I’ll project it!”
Unable to understand magic, Akion simply watched her project an image of him in front of her.
“Sister Hermione. Please.”
“Hehe, just leave it to me.”
Hermione would observe how the magical signal worked.
“Hmm. I came to watch, but it’s illusion magic… It’s been a while.”
“Ooh, Goldie’s seeing it for the first time!”
Thus, with the Saintess, Isirelle, Hermione, the Tower Master, and Goldie all watching….
- Sharaak…!
“I can see it!”
At last, Akion’s hologram began to be projected using illusion magic.
And….
“…Why isn’t he even 140 centimeters tall?”
“And what’s with the suspenders…?”
A shota Akion hologram appeared before them.
In the rather niche outfit of a white shirt and black suspenders, no less.
“…Sis. Did you project your mental image along with the illusion magic?”
“……”
Under Hermione’s interrogation, Astera could do nothing but dart her eyes around in silence.
- Thud!
“Answer.”
“I-I did! I accidentally projected the Akion from my memories, okay? Uuugh….”
It wasn’t until the Saintess interrogated her that Astera confessed everything.
“But… Young Master doesn’t own clothes like that. He hated suspenders, you know….”
“So the outfit was purely Astera’s taste…?”
“Uuugh……”
The outfit had indeed been Astera’s preference.
He had clearly been trying to make a recorded lecture… but Akion began to sense that his chastity was in danger.
- Inch, inch.
“N-no! Akion, it’s not like that…!”
Because of that, he tried to get as far away from Astera as possible,
while Astera desperately flailed around trying to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Get away, you incest-marriage fanatic!!!”
“It’s not!!!!”
Thus, Astera denied it in the loudest voice of her life.
At this rate, she would really become an incest freak!
“Hmm….”
“Sir Isirelle, what are you pondering so deeply about?”
“I was just wondering whether a son born between Akion and me would look like this─ Saintess? Why are you glaring at me all of a sudden?”
“…It’s nothing.”
“Ahem. Astera. Just in case—I’m only wondering whether it would suit me, but could you give it horns and a tail like mine?”
“G-Goldie doesn’t really have any particular intention, but… could you give it ears and a tail like mine too…?”
It was a rather bustling few days before the New Year.