Chapter 75
Thus, while the unintended VTuber customization continued,
《What is this.》
“What is this.”
Various things had been attached to a chibi shota Akion (anime-style).
《What kind of bizarre hybrid is this supposed to be….》
“What kind of bizarre hybrid is this supposed to be….”
Black horns and a scaled tail exactly like the Tower Master’s.
Floppy dog ears and a tail exactly like Goldie’s.
Golden odd eyes, Aisirel’s original eye color.
And in the other eye, a blue cross-shaped pupil exactly like the Saintess’s….
“Take them all off.”
“No!! Leave the beastkin ears!!”
“No!! Please, leave the horns at least!!”
“No!! The eyes are the whole point!”
“You can’t!! Are you saying you reject the cross of the Lord of Heaven?!”
“Why not? A hodgepodge character like this won’t sell.”
In his previous life, Akion had conducted various experiments,
and some, like deposition, took a long time… So whenever he had nothing else to do, he would pass the time watching YouTube and the like.
In the meantime, he had seen how easily overly characterful VTubers could go under.
“If you’re going to add something, add just one. Otherwise, go with the original design.”
If they absolutely, positively had to introduce a VTuber into this world, a simple, original character like this would be better.
After all, to the people of this world, the very concept of a VTuber would be shocking enough.
“Waaait a second….”
But before that, Akion recalled once again the magical-girl VTuber Astera ver. that his second older sister, Astera, had shown him.
“Tower Master. Is illusion magic really that precise?”
“Astera’s rank is seventh at present, so she certainly has the skill… but even so, it is remarkably precise. She is even rendering the movement of her hair and clothes, is she not?”
The Tower Master had said,
that ordinary illusion magic would only roughly project an appearance, and that displaying movements in real time like this was not easy.
And after reaching the seventh rank, this was what Astera chose to do.
“Th-that’s because… I’m timid, and my appearance is gloomy too… So I made it to cover up the me on a more lively day. Hehe….”
“…….”
Isn’t this just an augmented-reality VTuber?
Perhaps the Outer Gods had only wanted to make him forget his memories in order to fulfill that dream?
Akion stopped thinking.
He didn’t want to go insane in that direction.
“Anyway, please return this to normal quickly. I have to record a lecture.”
“Mhm, got it.”
While Astera made the adjustments again, Akion walked over to the blackboard in the office and inspected it.
A blackboard with a dark green hue, meant for writing with white chalk.
At the university he had attended, professors projected materials onto whiteboards with beam projectors and taught their classes.
“I-it’s done. How about we just try it lightly for about five minutes?”
As memories from his undergraduate and graduate years came back to him one after another, Astera finally announced that the adjustments were finished.
“Then… shall I explain the second law of thermodynamics and entropy?”
“Just do anything. Quickly!”
“Oh my, understood, little sister. Anyway, to explain entropy first—”
- Scritch, scritch,
With Hermione urging him on, Akion began the lecture, rubbing chalk across the blackboard.
*
"Heehee, heeheeheehee….”
Astera converted Akion’s lecture into a pattern using illusion magic.
Clutching the recorded data… she was snickering in the corner of Akion’s lab.
“Sis.”
“Oh, you’re here?”
The only people currently left in Akion’s actual lab were Astera and Hermione.
Akion had gone out to escape Goldie, the Tower Master, Aisirel, and the Saintess, who were trying to put him back in his academy uniform.
“Is this the recording?”
“Y-yeah. I converted it into text using that compression spell Sir Montefio made last time.”
Meanwhile, Astera used the earth magic she studied as a minor to create a metal plate.
“This metal disc?”
“L-look closely. There’s a very thin… groove carved into it, right? And if you spin it around this axis….”
“Ah. So it can hold a lot of recordings. I see there are grooves on the back too—is that for recording sound, then?”
“Y-yeah! Hermione, you’ve gotten smarter than before…?”
“Ahem!”
It was something Akion would have called an LP record.
“A-actually, all of this is like an information storehouse that’s been physically separated. Each one of these grooves… if you look closely, you know the poles of a magnet, right?”
“Yeah. The ones pointing north and south?”
“Mhm. I thought maybe we could record information with those…. Akion said that simplifying the way of recording anything made it easier to read back, so…. I classified them into three signals: north, south, and no polarity.”
“You’re pretty ingenious yourself, Sis.”
“Ehehe….”
More precisely, its principle was not so different from that of a hard drive.
If Akion had seen it, he would have been horrified.
She had essentially figured out the principle of a hard drive on her own from a single clue he had tossed her.
And she had even applied a recording method using three signals instead of 0 and 1!
Of course, his horror would have been the admiring kind: “I can’t believe my slave is this smart!”
- Click.
After fitting the plate onto the rotating axle, Astera soon began examining the mana from underneath.
- Zzzzz…!
The mana vibrated according to the magnetic arrangement recorded inside, and the illusion magic array engraved in the crystal ball converted it into images and sound.
And then, across the lab’s white wall….
《Hello, and welcome to Introduction to Basic Science. My name is Akion Enersis, and I’ll be spending this semester with you.》
“Eek, heeheehee…!”
“Whoa.”
A scene of shota Akion lecturing appeared.
And it was even the version with the dragon horns and tail still attached!
“Sis….”
“D-don’t ever! Ever tell Akion about this…!”
In truth, Astera hadn’t been able to return the holographic Akion to normal.
The image of Akion as a child had remained far too deeply within her.
Besides, when she had added the dragon horns and tail at the Tower Master’s request,
Astera had nearly collapsed, clutching her chest.
In short, she had become a fan.
“Hmm. Without getting anything in return?”
“Ugh… Wh-what do you want?”
So she had simply recorded Akion as Dragon Aki-chan without telling him!
“Heehee, it’s not like I’m planning to cause Sis any serious harm….”
Now that she had this leverage, would Hermione really stay still?
But in truth, she saw this less as leverage than….
“Can you record things from Akion’s daily life too? And can you even manipulate the scenes?”
“Mhm? Yeah. Probably…? It’d be a little difficult to do it secretly, though….”
She instinctively realized it could be an extremely, extremely useful tool.
“Then let’s make it and sell it to the other women.”
“Wh-who?”
“You know.”
- Waaaaah!!
- There you are!!!
Just then, Akion was escaping past the lab window,
and four women were chasing after him.
“Ah.”
“What do you think?”
Astera could faintly see Hermione’s birth mother, Countess Lucretia, in Hermione as she was now.
How should she put it? A cruelty that recognized no limits in its means or methods.
“I think it’ll be pretty good. No, I think it’ll be amazing.”
“That’s my sister. Let’s start by properly making this information recorder and storage device!”
And Astera, too, was a woman with half of Lucretia’s blood flowing through her veins.
The two women clasped hands tightly and began developing their new business venture.
* * *
“Good grief.”
The imperial capital had become extremely, extremely busy with New Year’s celebrations and ceremonies.
As the Enersis family had come up, including the current head and his wife and their children, Akion had many people to meet here and there as well.
“I wish I had five bodies….”
As a famous member of House Enersis, Akion was also being summoned all over the place.
He wanted to ignore everything and hole up in his lab, but if a young nobleman did that, people would call him a man with completely ruined social skills.
“One of them would have to follow you around here….”
“Knowing Akion, he’d leave the other four in the lab.”
“Wrong. I’d leave only one behind, and have the other three sleep on the bed, the sofa, and the lawn.”
Besides, he couldn’t ignore the value of connections… so these days Akion followed along, crying inwardly.
After accompanying Delford to meet a marquis’s family today, Akion was sprawled across a sofa, completely exhausted.
“A-Akion. Hang in there…! Tomorrow’s the last day of the year, so it’s the New Year’s ceremony, you know? Right?”
“There are schedules the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that too.”
“Ugh.”
Astera’s encouragement was useless.
Akion missed the leisurely days when he could simply do research.
“Akion.”
“Aaaah! Father!! I don’t want to, I can’t, don’t make me!”
“If a man who even gave up inheriting the countship wants to live comfortably, connections are essential. Endure through sheer grit and spite!”
“Kraaaagh!!!”
And so Count Delford dragged Akion away again.
Only after being subjected for hours to wooing, half-threats, and various political techniques,
“Good grief…….”
“You’ve had a rough time.”
could he finally set off for home with Juan.
The count and countess, Astera, and Hermione had peeled off midway, saying they had business to attend to, leaving only the two brothers.
“Are you going to eat dinner, Akion? If you wish, this big brother shall bestow mercy as vast as the sea and let you experience a meal of rapture.”
“I can’t exactly turn down free food, but I left a sample incandescent bulb in the lab. I have to give it to Her Highness the princess, whom we’re meeting after dinner.”
“Then we’ll stop by your lab before we go.”
Thus, the Enersis brothers headed toward Akion’s lab.
“Have you made any progress toward the next rank, Brother?”
“Who knows? The eighth rank is a wall far too high, even if the seventh isn’t, but after hearing about fracture mechanics from you, I think I’m starting to see a way.”
“Would you like to participate in the turbine pump improvement project? It was already improved once by Hermione because of fatigue fracture, but it still has some issues….”
“I’d be happy to. I’ll build up information and put the theories you taught me into practice.”
“That’s my sister.”
“I can’t even beat the crap out of this bastard….”
Insulting each other like brothers, they passed through the academy corridors and came to a stop in front of Akion’s lab.
“You’re the reason people say they can’t understand you, Akion. If you had a broad mind like your big brother here, any woman would come running to try to understand you.”
“Not necessary.”
- Click.
Thus, when the two opened the lab door and stepped inside,
《Dragon Magical Boy Aki makes his appearance here!》
A scene had been captured of shota Akion striking a peculiar pose in a white shirt, suspenders… and, well, some otherwise incredibly niche outfit.
“Owowow! The young master was so cute when he was little!”
“Heeheehee, as expected of Aki-chan!”
And there were Goldie and the Tower Master bouncing around excitedly in front of it.
“I’m telling you, the eyes have to be heterochromatic?!”
“What nonsense are you spouting! Blue cross-shaped eyes filled with the vast grace of the Lord of Heaven are the best!”
There were Aisirel and the Saintess arguing over the eyes of Magical Boy Aki-chan.
“Astera, Hermione.”
“Y-yes, Your Highness the Princess!”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Thank you. Now, could you change the horns and tail color… to some shade of red?”
And there was Her Highness Princess Flare coaxing Astera, who was controlling Aki-chan while the other four fought.
Faced with a scene he had no idea how to summarize, Akion and Juan froze completely.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Oops?”
Before long, everyone’s gazes turned toward the entrance where Akion and Juan stood.
“……….”
“I-it’s so hard to alter the information…!”
“Hey, Sis. You’ve got the mana manipulation direction wrong!”
Busy adjusting Aki-chan, Astera and Hermione hadn’t even noticed them and continued working frantically,
but in any case, a terribly awkward silence descended among them.
- Thud.
And Juan immediately shut the door.
He used earth magic to lock the door completely,
- Bang bang bang!!
“Akion?! It’s a misunderstanding! I was merely instructing Astera in illusion magic!”
“Mama, that’s right! It’s a misunderstanding! Saintess, I was only arguing to correct a mistaken misunderstanding!!”
“Young Master Akion!! I was only watching—!!!”
Thanks to that, those trapped inside couldn’t chase after Akion.
- Pat pat
“Akion. Let’s go get something to eat.”
“Yes…….”
And so Juan decided that, at least today, he would be a kind older brother.
“Want a drink? It’s all on me.”
“Yes….”
“That’s right, that’s right. Today, just drink yourself silly, okay? Forget everything that happened just now! Mm-hmm!”
“Yes… thank you, sob…!”
The comfort was so warm,
Akion began to cry without even realizing it.
It was the day familial affection between the brothers blossomed for the first time in twenty years.