Chapter 109
Of course, this doesn't mean I'm going to start skipping school and head into the Tower tomorrow. The Tower raid hasn't even started yet, and when we tell Nova, "Okay, we're coming," Nova will gather the remaining people and tell the Dungeon Management Association, "Okay, let's go."
Then I thought that might be the end of it, but nope, not yet.
Then the Dungeon Management Association hears Nova is coming and says, "We'll get ready too," so we prepare our gear and everything, gather everyone, and head into the Tower raid.
There are things like getting the raid teams to coordinate, and I'm in a somewhat special situation, so I also need personal preparations in case something unexpected happens.
“So... this goes here...”
“What are you doing, Eve?”
“Huh? Ah, I'm studying.”
“What are you studying? That's interesting.”
Choa looked over the engine diagrams I had displayed on the tablet and tilted her head.
“What is this? It looks like a blueprint. Is it a new golem?”
“Ah, right, this is secret, so you can't look at it... sorry.”
“Really? Well, that can't be helped.”
It was recess, so the kids were gathered around and I couldn't let them see the engine blueprints. But honestly, even I, the smartest kid in this class, don't understand them at all, so what would the others know if they looked? They're just grade-school kids.
Still, I'd better hide it just in case. For now, I need to study for my certification first...
* * * * *
After school, I was still hanging on to the certification book. Normally, inside the Tower, in entry-type gates, or within dungeon structures, you can ride them even without a license. But what I want is to be able to ride around outside too.
“Ophelia, why did you tell me to look at the engine blueprints..?”
“Does the princess know the principle by which a rocket burns fuel and generates propulsion?”
“U-um... flames come out from the back..?”
“Not every object that burns with flames gains propulsion.”
Come to think of it, that's true. I just thought that if huge flames came blasting out the back, it would get faster, but now that I think about it, I don't even know why. Then shouldn't candles just go shooting downward if you leave them alone?
“Actually, Princess, you don't really need to learn the engine blueprint perfectly.”
“Huh..?”
“In order to use the engine for the golem a little more efficiently, it would be better if the princess understood how it works.”
“Th-that was it..?!”
I thought it'd take me about five years to memorize all this, and there was a reason for it. Then you should've just explained it simply from the start!
“But who are you giving this engine to? Minyum? Or Suri, since it would be nice if repairs were faster? Or would it be better if Grandpa Galahad could move a little faster?”
“It is scheduled to be used in the production of a new golem.”
“Huh..! So that means... you're making another new golem?!”
“But not yet. It seems we'll need a little more time. More than anything, the newly designed engine still hasn't been tested in practice, and it looks like it will need several revisions and real-world tests.”
“I see.”
Today after school I didn't go home and came straight to the forge. I didn't really have anything to do at home anyway.
When I arrived at the forge and got out of the car, it was obvious that Ophelia had been spending a tremendous amount of money lately. The forge that had been completely empty was now packed with all sorts of things, and outside there were heaps of containers left over after transporting expensive materials.
“Princess! Welcome!”
“Grandpa!!”
They say they'll come collect it all later anyway, but I wish I had a container of my own too. I'd like to convert one into a hideout and keep it.
“Grandpa, you've got tons of stuff now, huh? Can you work more comfortably now?”
“Mm! This still leaves some things to be desired, but I can work fairly comfortably now!”
“Hehe, I see.”
Grandpa is the type who spends a huge amount just on making things, and then also spends a ton on everything needed afterward. Of course, it all helps us later, so it doesn't feel wasteful. Besides, I don't even know exactly how much went into it.
“Ophelia, but is it really okay to spend money like this? Do we still have a lot of money left?”
“At present, our expenses are greater than the amount earned through investments. Since a large number of high-priced facilities are required, this is within the anticipated range.”
“Then aren't we going to end up broke later..?!”
“We will soon turn a profit, so you need not worry about that.”
“Profit?! From where?!”
“For now, we purchased a small entry-type gate to secure mana stones and have a proper location for experiments. It's entirely the princess's gate.”
“A gate..!?! That's expensive, isn't it!? How much did it cost?!”
Ophelia pondered for a moment, rubbing her chin at my question, and then finally opened her mouth.
“We are paying 26.8 billion won in installments.”
“Hooeeek!!!!!”
“We got it for a bargain for an entry-type gate. It was located in a remote mountainous area, so accessibility was poor.”
“I-I see... Is there anything good inside...? Why is it so expensive...”
“The fact that it can periodically secure mana stones and rare metals makes it a choice that will be helpful in the long term.”
Yeah, sure, that makes sense. Later we'll make money from this, then buy another gate, and later make money again and buy yet another one...
“Mm..! We'll get incredibly rich.”
“But to do that, there's one thing we need.”
“What's that?”
“We need more personnel. Minyum and Suri are currently inside the gate hunting monsters and mapping the interior. After that, for efficient resource gathering and mana stone acquisition, we'll need manpower.”
“I-I see..!”
Just because a gate is owned by a company or guild doesn't mean only the owner ever uses it. Unless it's some absurdly lucrative gold mine that nobody else can touch, the number of hunters who can enter a gate is limited.
Even if you ran hunters like machines 24 hours a day, it wouldn't be easy. You make money by opening it to the public and taking a share of the materials or mana stone sales, or by charging an entrance fee.
“Then we aren't charging other people an entrance fee or anything?”
“Yes, not yet. It isn't in the plans.”
“I-I see...”
Even if it's small, it's still an entry-type gate, so to get the maximum efficiency out of it, we'd need a huge number of golems. Putting the golem-making aside, could my mana even handle all of them..?
“The higher the princess's fame rises, the more your total mana rises sharply. Even so, since a great deal of manpower is consumed, it is also possible to reduce mana consumption by giving the golems mana stones extracted from the monsters living inside.”
“Ah... I see.”
More importantly, as the rank of the "Powerless Princess" skill you possess rises, the amount of mana consumed in making golems or operating them will also decrease significantly.
“There was a function like that..!”
My skill was probably C-rank by now. Compared to when it was F-rank before, that's already quite high. Ophelia has also stopped eating those gross high-calorie grain cubes as often to reduce mana consumption.
“No, Dangdang, then why do you keep ripping open the feed bags and eating them?”
Dangdang goes into the feed bag if it doesn't get fed on time and eats until it practically bursts, you know? What even is this thing??
—Beep...
“Don't tell me not to complain about what it eats? No...”
Either way, the higher the skill rank gets, the more the efficiency will skyrocket. We need to keep upgrading the Powerless Princess and command-issuing skills like crazy.
“At present, if the princess were to create and maintain about 80 golems with combat power equivalent to average B-rank hunters, the cost would, when combined with the princess's mana recovery, come close to zero.”
“That can't be. I've gotten that strong..? Is my mana like the Pacific Ocean or something.”
“More than the increase in the absolute amount of mana, the bigger change lies in the nature of the mana and the reduction in ongoing maintenance costs.”
“Ahh...”
In simple terms, it just means my mana has gotten better suited to being used as golem fuel. It's not like my mana quantity is huge or anything.
“Then we should make the golems right now, shouldn't we?!”
“...”
“O, Ophelia?”
Ophelia seemed to be thinking about something while looking at me for a moment. She usually has that expressionless face, but her face looked sad, so it felt a little strange.
“Princess, may I ask you one question?”
“W-what is it..?”
“Princess, would you be able to treat the golems you make differently depending on their rank?”
“Different treatment..?”
“Yes, that's right.”
Ophelia, who had been standing beside me, crouched down for a moment to meet my eye level. Then she placed a hand on my shoulder and fiddled with my cheek.
“Princess, the more golems there are, the more impossible it becomes for you to look after all of them.”
“W-well, yes...”
“Moreover, if they are golems carrying out their duties far away, such an act becomes even more difficult.”
“Ah...”
“Or there may be golems who, from the moment they are created until their lifespan ends, never get to see the princess even once.”
“Th-that would be a little pitiful, wouldn't it..?”
I made them, but sending them off to work and never once checking how they're doing is a little sad. If I were that golem, I think I'd resent the person who made me.
“However, that is what it means to be a princess. The time of someone precious is more valuable than the time of someone who is not. It isn't possible to devote time equally to everyone.”
Grandpa Galahad's hammering, which had been going thump-thump like background music, also stopped. The quiet hum of machinery drifting through the air made my head feel tangled.
“But if you don't want that and therefore don't make them in the first place, they can never even exist. What will you do?”
“...”
For a while, I avoided Ophelia's gaze and scanned the ground. Ophelia's eyes are expressionless, but if you keep looking at them, it feels like something is being conveyed.
“But for us, that is happiness. Just being able to help the princess is also the reason for our existence.”
“That's... but you'd want to be praised, wouldn't you.”
“...”
“It isn't okay to just work your whole life and then break down. If I worked hard... no, even if I didn't do well, if I worked hard, then I want to be praised.”
I know all too well the sorrow of working every day and not being praised.
“Princess, we are golems. We have no emotions at all-”
“Lies.”
Ophelia, unlike usual, flinched as the hand on my shoulder jerked. So her claim that she has no emotions was a lie.
“I'm super smart, you know? I'm not stupid, you know? Dangdang too, Suri too, Minyum too. Ophelia and Grandpa Galahad too. I know you're all not ordinary golems.”
“That is...”
“But even so. Just because I made them and feel like I might not be able to properly look after them doesn't mean I'll choose not to make them at all.”
That in itself somehow feels like it might be even worse than making them and then never looking after them for the rest of my life.
“If I work hard, I can just praise 100 people, 1,000 people, even 100 million people. Right?”
“That would... require a tremendous amount of effort.”
“I'll manage somehow. I'm smart, after all.”
“Kwahahaha—!! That's truly princess-like—!!”
“Grandpa!?”
Just as I was about to cry, Grandpa Galahad stomped the ground and charged at me. Then he lifted me up and hoisted me into the air.
“Uwaaah—!!!”
“Sir Galahad! Stop that! The princess's head is hitting the pipes!”
—Daaang
The sound of the pipes colliding with the top of my head rang out like a declaration.
“Gek.”