Scepter Design

According to Hiyori, pro-independence sentiment has been growing lately in the Chengdu Concession.

It looks like there will be a major upheaval soon—or rather, one has already begun.

The Stuart family, the British noble house currently ruling the Chengdu Concession, was originally a warlord noble family that destroyed the small country of Jio, which once flourished where Chengdu now stands. They conquered it, settled in, and lorded over the region for a long time.

They worked the local Chinese people to the bone for low wages, fanned conflicts to prevent them from uniting, and siphoned off all the profits. It was an unpleasantly British style of rule based on the principle of "divide and rule."

British immigrants increased year by year, and the city came to resemble a little Britain inside China.

Things began to change when Arthur Stuart took the position of lord governing the Chengdu Concession.

Arthur fell in love with and married the daughter of a prominent Chinese family.

The young lady was a demon whose kind originated from Gremlin implantation, and her family was well known throughout western China. Her relatives had initially gone berserk after that sadistic tea bastard stole one of their children, but the birth of a daughter, Ainsell Stuart, to Arthur and the young lady brought about a complete reconciliation.

The Chengdu Concession became more pro-China than ever before.

What Britain itself found unacceptable was this.

The better the treatment of Chinese people in the Chengdu Concession became, the less revenue reached Britain. Profits that should have been sent to Britain were instead being distributed within China.

Well, things got messy from there.

Arthur refused an order from Britain to transfer him elsewhere, and a dispute broke out.

Arthur and the great families of the west grew increasingly hostile toward Britain after he began to suspect that his wife, who had died in a magical runaway, had not died by accident.

When Arthur went to Britain with a Transcendent as his bodyguard to settle matters with the home government, his daughter Ainsell, whom he had tried to evacuate to America until things settled down, was nearly assassinated on the way there.

It was bad. Really bad.

His wife had been killed—probably—and now his daughter had nearly been killed too.

That was war, plain and simple.

However, the Chengdu Concession was the greatest metropolis in the west thanks to the tiger-monster industry, but it was still only a city of a manageable size. It did not have the power to wage war against Britain.

Britain, meanwhile, had only just emerged from a civil war and was in terrible shape. It did not want to pit its army directly against the Chengdu Concession either.

The Stuart family no longer had even the slightest loyalty to Britain. They hated it to the bone.

Ideally, they wanted revenge, but they lacked the power to go that far.

That was why they were planning independence. If they were going to break away from Britain after all the outrageous things the home country had done to them, now was their only chance, while Britain was weakened by the damage from its civil war.

The Stuarts had strong support from both British immigrants and the local Chinese population. Declaring independence would not provoke opposition from their people.

Apparently, formally returning the land to China and falling under its jurisdiction would cause problems of its own.

China was strong in the east and looked down on the west. Even under China, the only difference would be that the destination for their tribute changed from Britain to the central government. It would still be painful.

Even if I didn't make a scepter, the Stuart family would become independent from Britain one way or another.

The Stuart family wanted to take every measure available to them.

If 0933—the creator of Cureanos, the over-tech magic item that had reigned as the world's strongest magic wand for eighty years despite being made so long ago—were to create a Regalia and lend prestige to the new nation's royal authority, they would be able to avoid more difficulties, and all sorts of negotiations would proceed more smoothly. That was the gist of it.

I listened to the whole story with my arms folded and nodded, while Tsubaki draped herself over my back, rested her chin on my shoulder, and wore a blank expression.

"There were too many names. I don't really get it. Oori, summarize it so it's easy to understand."

"They bullied me until I got mad, so I decided to have a territory of my own. I can't rely on the neighbors, so I have to stand on my own two feet and walk forward. And I'm making a cane to help me over the rough road."

"Mimimi. Got it!"

"Really...?"

"Oori make super wand. Everybody happy. Happy ending. Right?"

"Oh, that's right~"

When I poked her cheek, Tsubaki narrowed her eyes and chirped, "Mimimi."

Tsubaki was so clever!

Tsubaki and I were enjoying a warm, fuzzy moment, but Hiyori, the capable saleswoman who had brought us such a huge job, was twirling the ends of her hair around one finger and looking thoughtful. What was wrong?

"Is there something else?"

"There is. China won't be a problem when they declare independence. From the perspective of China's central government, all that is happening is that a British exclave is changing its name to a British offshoot. They might even be pleased that it will become easier to handle after losing its ties to Britain and turning into an ordinary small country.

Britain will hate it. Without a doubt. If we make a scepter supporting their independence, Britain will have a poor opinion of us."

"What...? Should I turn down the commission?"

I had been getting excited about the scepter because it was a prestigious and challenging project, but if the sales witch said no, perhaps I should refuse it.

When I asked her opinion, Hiyori massaged away the furrow between her brows.

"It's a difficult problem. If we turn down this commission, we might as well side with Britain. If we become a bat that sides with neither party, both sides will hate us. Britain is currently the stronger nation, so siding with it would give us more powerful backing.

But Chengdu has enormous potential. Can't you feel it, Tsubaki? The magical power of this land?"

"Mii?"

"Connect to the ley line with Salamandra."

Prompted by Hiyori, Tsubaki poked the floor with Salamandra and closed her eyes, obediently following instructions with a vacant expression that suggested she barely understood what was going on.

After a little while, Tsubaki opened her eyes and blinked.

"Mimimi, mii...? Could it be that the ley line here is strong?"

"Yes. Chengdu is probably an exceptionally favorable place in magical terms. That is likely why Duns like this area. The longer time passes, the stronger the magical benefits of this land will become. Establishing ties with the country rooted here would be an excellent investment in the future."

After pausing for a breath, Hiyori concluded honestly:

"Besides, I don't like Britain. I do like Arthur and Ainsell. I want to help them."

"Then don't overthink it. Let's take the job."

In business, there were times when people would hate you. No business could please everyone.

If I was going to be liked, it was much better to be liked by someone I wanted to be liked by than by someone I disliked. Would I rather be liked by Iruma, who was extremely capable but scummy, or by Hiyori, an astonishingly beautiful woman? That was the question.

I didn't even know what Arthur and Ainsell looked like, and I wasn't particularly interested in them, but if she cared about them, I felt inclined to help them.

Seeing me so eager and positive finally helped Hiyori make up her mind after all her agonizing over the conflicting interests involved.

I formally accepted the commission and decided to make a scepter for Arthur Stuart, the future king.

Well, then.

As soon as I agreed to take the job, the client predictably requested a face-to-face meeting.

Guardian Hiyori flatly refused on my behalf, acted as our negotiating representative, and successfully obtained a written list of requirements from the other party.

With Hiyori's help, I deciphered the request, which was written in English full of difficult turns of phrase. I sent questions to clarify the ambiguous parts, then organized the information into a clear understanding of the whole.

To put it roughly, they wanted "a dignified wand that would retain its majesty for a hundred years." To that end, they would even provide various magical metals and the magic stones Merlin Diamond and Kunlun Jade. Offering two different magic stones showed how serious they were.

The Merlin Diamond had originally been a massive lump, but it had since been shattered and divided into several pieces. The Stuart family possessed an amount equivalent to about one-tenth of the original stone.

Kunlun Jade was a magic stone given to Lady Ainsell by her maternal grandparents, and it too was a small fragment split from the original stone.

Magic stones that could once be obtained as intact originals had become even more valuable in the modern era. Even a fragment was extraordinarily precious.

Using an entire magic stone as a wand core was unthinkable in the modern age. In that sense, the old days really had been nice...

The materials were excellent.

My motivation was excellent too.

The question was what kind of wand I should make.

I had made magic wands for distinguished Transcendents, with the Tokyo Witch Gathering at the forefront, but naturally I had never made a scepter before.

What kind of wand would be dignified enough to retain its majesty a hundred years from now? I struggled with the question.

The first thing that came to mind was that relying too heavily on the latest technology would be a bad idea.

Even if I made a cutting-edge wand packed with the most advanced technology of the present day, it might be obsolete a hundred years from now.

In fact, Cureanos's reverse-flow prevention mechanism, which had been cutting-edge eighty years ago, had become obsolete over the long years and had already been replaced with the latest model. Even the multilayer structure that had once been 0933's exclusive technology could now be made with up to three layers.

Meanwhile, the magic power measuring device and the regular dodecahedron fractal had become outright lost technologies. I was still the only person who could make them. Some things in this world never became obsolete.

The magic power measuring device had a proven record of remaining valuable and useful for eighty years, so I would incorporate it into the scepter.

Recreating old technology with a modern design would probably impress British nobles, who valued tradition and dignity, and I wanted to incorporate the sealing mechanism from the Firekeeper's Wand as well.

The Firekeeper's Wand, which had prolonged the life of the flame for eighty years, required the Monster Clamp mechanism, made by connecting two or more magic-stone fragments, as an essential material.

Fortunately, I had received two kinds of magic stones as materials for the scepter. It was perfect.

For a scepter meant to be held by a British-born noble founding a small country in China, a feature using both a British-derived magic stone and a Chinese-derived magic stone was entirely appropriate.

The Firekeeper's Wand's sealing mechanism bestowed the magical traits of the one sealed inside it upon users related by blood.

If I could combine that effectively with the magic-identification function of Iatros Glass, I might be able to make "a Regalia that only the king's bloodline could use."

If I could create a function like that, it would be exactly what a king's wand ought to have.

I would include the magic power measuring device and the royal-bloodline restriction, but what should I do with the remaining functions? There was still room in the design, so I wanted to add one or two more. The reverse-flow prevention mechanism was an incredibly stable, no-downside component, so I might as well put it in.

And after that... Hmm...?

I scattered blueprints I had scribbled all over the floor of the inn room and sat cross-legged, groaning thoughtfully.

After ushering Tsubaki out of the room for burning one of the blueprints, Hiyori returned, sighed, and began gathering up the scattered designs.

"You don't have to clean up. Just leave them there."

"Even so, there isn't anywhere to put your feet... Hey, is this a blueprint for four-dimensional technology?"

Hiyori raised her voice accusingly when she saw one of the blueprints, so I looked up while wiping the nib of my fountain pen.

You're noisy. You're going to break my concentration. I'm at the good part!

"Idiot! Stop, stop! What if it malfunctions and causes another accident? Don't use four-dimensional technology."

"It's fine. I'll give it the same safety features as Cureanos. Besides, the four-dimensional technology in that blueprint isn't storage-and-manifestation. Theoretically, it's probably closer to Quodenenets than the theory Hatobato used when designing dolls."

"Huh...? What are you talking about? You've never seen Quodenenets."

"But it's a four-dimensional geometric structure, right? Then it must have been designed that way to overcome the constraints of three-dimensional volume."

"Huh?"

For Hiyori, who remained clueless about Gremlin geometry, I broke down and explained the magical theory I had only recently begun to understand.

Geometric Gremlins, which operate by assembling huge numbers of Gremlins like a puzzle into a single mass, have something called an optimal volume. Once the total size exceeds a fixed volume of 1,400 cm³, the amplification and conductivity rates decrease exponentially.

In other words, even if you can't perform precision miniaturization like me, making the thing larger instead causes its performance to plummet.

The performance of geometric Gremlins, including silent-casting mechanisms, magical communications, and magic power calculators, depends on how many functions can be packed into a small space.

Quodenenets is probably four-dimensional for this very reason.

It breaks through the constraints of three-dimensional volume by using four-dimensional technology. By expanding its volume in the fourth dimension, it can make use of an extremely large design space while keeping it within a three-dimensional volume of 1,400 cm³.

"Basically, it's compression. Compression. Listen, imagine that you have to keep your data capacity within 10GB. If you make it 100GB, things slow down, freeze, or force a shutdown. But you want to cram 100GB of data in somehow.

So you compress it! You compress 100GB of data down to 10GB.

That's how you use four-dimensional space to compactly contain a geometric Gremlin that would be too damn big in three dimensions. In reality, it's enormous, but the volume that manifests in three-dimensional space is small, so there isn't a problem."

Sometimes technology is born for technology's sake.

Light bulbs were developed in pursuit of brightness, and filament materials were improved to make the bulbs more efficient.

If Quodenenets's four-dimensional nature was technology created to solve the technical problems faced by geometric Gremlins, it made perfect sense.

After finishing my explanation while drawing various diagrams on the backs of the blueprints, Hiyori tilted her head uncertainly.

"Um... so... you're talking about Yamagami's spatial lamination theory?"

"Exactly! An advanced form of it. How do you remember that?"

"I only vaguely remember it. Anyway, I understand. It's definitely much safer than making objects disappear and reappear. But conduct experiments! Don't implement it in the real thing right away. I'll conduct the experiments. Tell me absolutely every time you experiment, all right? Don't think, 'It's probably safe enough for me to do this on my own.'"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

"Listen properly! I'm worried about you, Oori. You have always been far too careless about danger. 'It'll probably be fine' isn't good enough. Even if you're certain it will be absolutely fine, you still need to test the stone bridge before crossing it――――"

I had no choice but to sit formally on my knees and listen quietly to Hiyori Mom's lecture.

She didn't have to go on and on like that.

Still, if listening to her lecture put Hiyori at ease, that was fine. She wasn't yelling at me just to vent her stress. Besides, Hiyori wouldn't lecture someone she disliked.

"So double-checking is mandatory――――Why are you grinning? Are you even listening?"

"No? I was just thinking that you're nagging me like this because you like me."

"............ Forget it."

Hiyori was dumbfounded for a moment, then dropped her shoulders with a resigned expression and headbutted me.

I had no idea what that was about, but apparently the lecture was over. Good.

While fending off Hiyori, who kept clinging to me for some reason, I returned to designing the scepter.

Just wait, client. I'll make you the finest scepter imaginable, one fit for a king of the magical age!