Chinese Cultural Exhibition

After leaving the Everdark Plains, we arrived in China's capital, Beijing, just in time for a cultural exhibition.

It was an exhibition looking back on Chinese culture in the New Era (from the Gremlin Disaster onward). The oldest item was the last newspaper published on the day the Gremlin Disaster occurred, while the newest was the Magic Cannon newly developed by Wuxian Group.

Wuxian Group's Magic Cannon... There is absolutely no way they didn't analyze the Golden Jade Staff to make this, right? I'm extremely interested.

Six months after selling the Golden Jade Staff, how far had China's leading corporation come?

Let's see what they've got.

But when the two of us arrived at the venue where the cultural exhibition was being held, there was strangely no sign of anyone. That was nice, but the entrance had been barricaded, with a sign reading "Strike" standing in front of it.

Hiyori sighed, thoroughly disappointed.

"Of all the days..."

"What does it say? I can't read it. Is it 'factory workers'? 'Construction complete'?"

"It's a strike."

"Oh..."

The station-front pamphlet said the exhibition was open, though. What a lie! What happened to basic communication?!

Striking is fine, but at least let people know ahead of time. This trip had been a complete waste.

"Can't be helped. Things like this happen. A cultural-exhibition date isn't exactly trendy, and instead of taking you somewhere only I enjoy, I should go somewhere we can both enjoy, right?"

"...Wait. There is a way."

When I patted Hiyori on the shoulder and started to leave, she spoke as if she had some sort of plan.

Wondering what she intended to do during a strike, I followed Hiyori to the back entrance of the exhibition building. She sent an eyeball familiar flying to the address written on the poster.

Then, in barely more than ten minutes, some old guy came sprinting over at full speed, drenched in sweat, and negotiations began.

In the end, they shook hands, and the old man unlocked the back entrance before leaving with a broad smile.

Hiyori opened the back entrance and took my hand, leading me inside.

"All right. Let's go in, Dairi. We've got the place to ourselves."

"How'd you do that? I heard something about a deal and putting in a word."

"I called the strike representative and told him I'd put in a word with the exhibition management about raising their wages, so they should let us have the place to ourselves for today."

"That's powerful."

As expected, the Okutama Minister of Negotiations did things differently. She'd made use of her own fame and position! I couldn't imitate that in a million years. I hadn't even thought of it. Serious respect.

"Hiyori, this makes it hard to walk. Don't cling to me."

"It's a date, isn't it?"

"What, you want to cling that badly? Want me to give you a piggyback ride or carry you on my shoulders?"

"Listen. What makes Mokutan happy and what makes me happy are different. Remember that."

I didn't really understand, but Hiyori stopped linking arms with me and took a sullen step away.

She wanted to get close, but got angry when I suggested getting even closer...? What did that mean? A woman's heart was far too complex and bizarre. Judging by how it felt, it was about as complicated as Demon King Gremlin.

Despite the confusion, our cultural-exhibition date ultimately worked out, and I enjoyed China's cultural history since the Gremlin Disaster to my heart's content.

The exhibits were arranged in chronological order, from ancient times to the present, and many of the items were protected by reinforced glass and iron railings.

As befitted a country where the Gremlin industry, or monster industry, flourished, a large proportion of the exhibits were related to it.

There was a taxidermied specimen of the world's oldest Red-Eyed Beast, Carbuncle—or so they claimed.

There was a drinking vessel made specifically for Nectar, a magical liquor made entirely from Gremlins.

There was a monster-leather coat worn by the emperor of a small country that had since been annexed by China.

But the exhibit that caught my eye the most was a magic-crystal painting by Zhang Limo.

According to Hiyori's reading of the explanation beneath the painting, Zhang Limo (2001–2099) was the foremost magic-crystal painter of the twenty-first century.

Magic-crystal painting was a type of artwork made using colored Gremlins crushed into powder as paint.

Other than using unusual pigments, there was nothing especially remarkable about the technique, but Zhang Limo's work was different in every way.

Her early works were ordinary, but her talent suddenly blossomed in paintings from 2028 onward. The paintings themselves took on an uncanny allure that irresistibly captivated anyone who viewed them.

The painting currently on display, 'Hellscape of Taotie,' was especially renowned as a masterpiece, and Zhang Limo's grandchild had agreed to lend it to the exhibition at the personal request of the president.

I was overwhelmed by the eerie painting depicting the atrocities of Taotie, the Class 1 monster that had once destroyed China, and stunned by the familiar sensation of being drawn in.

"...Hey. Doesn't this use magic stones?"

"I thought so too, but it's different somehow. It doesn't use magic stones. At the same time, I don't think it was painted with ordinary Gremlins, either."

The strange luster—or aura, perhaps—that emanated from the painting was remarkably similar to the allure of magic stones.

I wondered whether the artist had done the unbelievably wasteful thing of grinding magic stones into paint, but Hiyori shook her head.

"Limo painted more than a thousand of these. If magic stones had been used as paint, Limo would have gone bankrupt, and there wouldn't have been enough magic stones to acquire in the first place."

"Huh...? Then how did she paint something with this kind of... atmosphere?"

"I don't know. Whether it was the paint or the technique. Limo died, leaving the mystery unsolved."

"Ugh. I wish Limo hadn't done something so interesting while I was dead. I mean, it's beautiful, but forget the how."

"Yes. It's a frightening but beautiful painting."

We spent a while gazing in a daze at Zhang Limo's paintings, framed and displayed on the walls.

Magic stones had a mysterious radiance that one could stare at for hours. It was a shame indeed that the one and only painter capable of creating magic-crystal paintings with that same allure had passed away.

There were seven of Zhang Limo's paintings on display, and we took our time examining them one by one.

When Hiyori turned her eyes to the last painting, she groaned.

The painting's title was "Lanxian."

The subject was none other than the Blue Witch herself.

Oh, come on! This is the most interesting thing in the whole exhibition.

What do you think, Blue Witch? No, Lanxian!

Say something about this painting!

"That's your painting. You're famous!"

"I-I know. It's embarrassing. Don't look at it so much."

"Ah, well, it's not a very good one. Pretty ugly."

"......"

When I gave my honest opinion, Hiyori's embarrassed expression vanished, replaced by a blank stare.

W-what? Did she want me to say it was a beautiful portrait of her? What was the point of lying?

It really was ugly. Anyone with a decent eye for aesthetics would agree.

"The real thing is incomparably beautiful. This is an awful painting."

"Uwaaah...!"

Hiyori clutched the area around her heart, groaned, and crumpled to the floor.

There she went again, Hiyori-dono acting strange. She was far too emotionally unstable. Could someone with such sensitivity really survive a visit to a cultural exhibition?

"You... this is exactly what you're like. Because you say everything you truly think, it hits a hundred times harder than flattery."

"Huh? That's a good thing. Hiyori, you learned as a child that lying was bad, didn't you?"

Doing the obvious thing even a little kid knew was right—this was what a responsible, respectable adult did.

I avoided saying anything more about the painting in case she suffered another episode, waited for Hiyori to reboot, and moved on to the next exhibit.

Following the route, we proceeded onward, and the Magic Cannon we had been looking forward to was the final exhibit.

It was indeed an exhibit of Wuxian Group's latest technology, with a whole string of puff-piece explanations about how it would create the future!

It looked like a cannon. Apparently, you shoved your arm into the rear of its thick barrel to charge it with magic power, and then it fired a black beam. It looked like a downgraded weapon based on the Golden Jade Staff.

"Just as I thought, they made it needlessly huge. At this size, it must exceed the optimal volume and have absurdly lower magic efficiency. Still, reproducing an inferior version in six months isn't bad..."

"It even mentions the cooperation of Technician 0933. Just one casual line."

"Wait. Technician?"

That was not something I could let slide.

Huh? Is that a mistranslation? I'm a wandmaker, damn it?

When I glared at her, Hiyori shrugged.

"Can't be helped. You haven't made many new staffs lately, have you? No wonder they'd think that."

"Th-that can't be..."

Now that she mentioned it, I did have a vague sense that she might be right, but I did make staffs. I was pretty sure I did.

Anxious, I counted on my fingers the staffs I had released into the world since coming back to life.

Leaving out the Cureanos upgrades...

The Magic Spiral Staff that converted magic power into physical enhancement.

And the Golden Jade Staff I had put up for auction...

......

What!?

O-only two!?

That's pathetically few!

After spending my time on whatever caught my interest—modifying Cureanos, Iatros Glass, the four-dimensional function, and so on—I had made only two new staffs in a little over a year.

This was a serious problem. Even for luxury-oriented, small-batch production, two staffs a year was far too few.

No wonder they'd mistaken me for a technician. Damn it. They thought I had switched careers from wandmaker to technician.

"Sorry, Hiyori. I know we're traveling, but I want to do a little work. My identity as a wandmaker is in danger of collapsing. I need to make a staff and put it out into the world."

"Are you serious? There's no rush, but if we return to Japan, set out again, and all that, we'll never reach the Kingdom of Rus, even if it takes our whole lives."

"I can work while we're away. I brought my tools."

I worked with portable tools without using any machine tools at all. I had no need to return to my workshop in Okutama.

That said, securing materials was a problem. China had a thriving Gremlin industry, so Gremlins wouldn't be an issue.

The problem was wood. Without Fuyou, I couldn't have high-quality wood made for me. I didn't want to settle for ordinary lumber. The name 0933, synonymous with the highest quality, finest products, and cutting-edge technology, would be tarnished.

"Right. There are Flower Witch clans all over the world, aren't there? There must be one around here too. If I can get their help, I can secure materials while traveling!"

"Are you planning to pick up another woman? No."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Hiyori was reluctant, but after I persuaded her, she told me where the Flower Witch clan in China was located.

Fortunately, our route passed through the area where China's Flower Witch clan lived, so we didn't need to change course.

The Flower Witch clan rooted in the fertile land along the Yangtze, China's proud great river, was named Kinrenka.

She was the daughter of a Flower Witch and Fuyou's younger sister.

She was also the guardian who had protected the great city of Wuhan from monster attacks for many years.

"Kinrenkaaa! It's me, a friend of your big sister's... a companion... a neighbor we're fairly close with! Help me make a staff!"