Chapter 41
It was early winter, around the time I had started needing a hot-water bottle to sleep, when good news arrived.
The Tohoku Hunting Association had apparently used the wand I made—my wand! The wand I made!—to beat Daidarabocchi into a pulp and win a complete victory.
Zero deaths. Zero injuries. A perfect victory.
The Tohoku Hunting Association had been unable to touch the Class Kō-1 monster Daidarabocchi, which had long sealed off the very center of Japan.
Yet the instant they used my wand and sealing rounds, they achieved a perfect victory.
Well, you know? How should I put it? I guess this is what they call talent? My own genius is frightening.
As promised, the Tohoku Hunting Association sent me the Gremlin harvested from Daidarabocchi through the Witches' Assembly and Hiyori. I couldn't help but perform a dance of joy.
However, the letter that came with it contained two things I couldn't quite understand.
The lengthy letter of thanks, written in elegant calligraphy that showed its author's years of experience, was fine. It made me proud.
The proposal to take on a talented young person from Sendai as an apprentice was not fine at all, but I planned to ignore it, so that was fine too.
But,
"Does the Gun Wand 'Giant God Slayer' contain something like an emergency interception system that activates during an emergency?"
I didn't really understand that question.
I had no idea what they were talking about. Scary...
According to the explanation, when Daidarabocchi was on the verge of death and tried to make one last desperate struggle, its torso suddenly burst apart, delivering the finishing blow.
The Tohoku Hunting Association thought it was assistance from the Tokyo Witches' Assembly, but the Assembly denied it.
So they thought it might be a hidden ability installed by the wandmaker and asked me about it.
No, I don't know anything about it either. Nothing comes to mind.
I hadn't built any emergency interception system into the wand, and it was theoretically impossible for some combination of factors to coincidentally produce such a phenomenon.
It wasn't as though anything bad had happened.
But I didn't know the cause. It was a little creepy.
Since my wand had nothing to do with it, perhaps some wandering, kind-hearted witch like the Hell Witch had happened to help them... Though I have no idea where the Hell Witch is now.
I still didn't understand it, but apparently Daidarabocchi hadn't been completely defeated by my wand's performance alone. It would be premature to get carried away and think the whole thing was thanks to my wand.
Even so, the Gun Wand 'Giant God Slayer' seemed to have earned a massive boost in reputation within the Tohoku Hunting Association, so I decided to humbly regard myself as having played one part in the major operation to exterminate Daidarabocchi.
The second thing I couldn't understand in the letter was the mysterious black Gremlin.
Daidarabocchi had used two types of magic: poison gas and self-regeneration. However, apparently it had used a third type of magic, time acceleration, at the last moment.
And three Gremlins were harvested from Daidarabocchi.
A 90-millimeter, red-bronze Gremlin.
A 60-millimeter, red-bronze Gremlin.
And finally, a 15-millimeter black Gremlin.
The 90-millimeter and 60-millimeter Gremlins were believed to correspond to self-regeneration magic and poison-gas magic, respectively. Daidarabocchi had frequently used both spells for some time. The idea that huge Gremlins were used as activation media for powerful magic made sense.
By that logic, the time-acceleration magic, which had only been used once, corresponded to the smallest black Gremlin.
Only the black Gremlin was abnormal.
The other two were red-bronze, presumably the distinctive color derived from Daidarabocchi's blood, but the 15-millimeter Gremlin alone was black.
Moreover, that unnatural black Gremlin had apparently crumbled into dust and vanished on its own before they could send it to me.
The letter asked for my opinion from the perspective of a craftsman who processed Gremlins, but I had absolutely no idea.
All I could say was that something strange had happened.
I did find it interesting.
But there was nothing I could do when the crucial sample had turned to dust and disappeared.
I think they should just throw questions like that at Magical University for now. At Tokyo Magical University, where brilliant minds gathered, they would probably swarm all over it and unravel the mystery in a productive way. Though sometimes they couldn't solve things, or took a long time to do so.
Now then.
The contents of the letter had left me scratching my head, but the main course of the Tohoku Hunting Association's gift was not some flimsy sheets of paper. It was a magnificent magical crystal.
I washed my hands thoroughly, put on my steel-sheep work gloves, offered a prayer of thanks before the box, and then opened it.
"Whoa, it's huge...!"
Even though I already knew that, a gasp of admiration escaped me.
Seeing the actual things was completely different from reading their catalog specifications in a letter. The rough yet powerful red-bronze Gremlins measured an astonishing 90 and 60 millimeters. They were massive, surpassing the giant monster's Gremlins, which had held the previous record at 80 millimeters, by a full 10 millimeters.
The giant monster had two 80-millimeter Gremlins, while Daidarabocchi had a 90-millimeter and a 60-millimeter one. Apparently, that was the general size of Gremlins harvested from Class Kō-1 monsters, which boasted extraordinary strength.
Both red-bronze Gremlins had smooth shapes like chicken eggs and, as was typical of Gremlins harvested from monsters, were close to spherical.
Ah, beautiful.
They couldn't match the bewitching allure of magic stones, but Gremlins were not half bad either. It wasn't often that you came across gemstones of this size and quality.
In another age, they could easily have been used on the crown of a great nation's monarch. I wouldn't even be surprised if there were a survivor community somewhere in the world using a Class Kō-1 monster's Gremlin as a crown or scepter even now.
After admiring and enjoying them for a while, I promptly placed the 60-millimeter one on my workbench.
If I could take photographs, I would preserve this natural miracle before processing it, but there was nothing I could do about that.
Actually, ever since I learned I would be receiving Daidarabocchi's Gremlins, I had secretly decided how to use them.
If I only obtained one Gremlin, I would use it in a wand.
But if I obtained two or more, I would use one in a wand and recklessly waste the rest!
At present, my workshop held the priceless Octameteorite on display, a small furnace where the fire lizards came to play, and a shelf lined with six little bottles filled with the magic-stone dust produced during polishing. I was also rather fond of the map case containing the blueprints for every work I had made so far.
It looked and felt quite a lot like the workshop of a legendary wandmaker, which I liked, but there was still plenty of room for more decoration.
I felt like this workshop was short on nice ornaments. Maybe a carved wooden bear or a decorative sword.
As a matter of principle, I wanted the furnishings in my workshop to be related to magic. When a titanium-alloy knife was mixed in among a workshop overflowing with magical items, it just felt... off.
So I decided to turn the 60-millimeter red-bronze Gremlin into an ornament.
It was first-rate material for a wand, but even when used extravagantly as material for an ornament, it would become a one-of-a-kind luxury item.
An ordinary ornament with no special effect, made using a Gremlin harvested from a Class Kō-1 monster! The sheer extravagance was making me excited.
It was mine because I had received it, so I could use it however I wanted. But if I told Hiyori, she would probably scold me for going too far with the wastefulness, so I kept it secret from her until the ornament was complete.
I had already spent a long time letting the design of the ornament take shape. Naturally, I wanted something based on a living creature.
I had considered making a miniature Daidarabocchi from the Gremlin harvested from Daidarabocchi, but after looking at the sketch of Daidarabocchi sent by the Tohoku Hunting Association, I abandoned the idea because its face was creepy.
Why would I decorate my workshop with an ugly monkey face?
If it had been a green Gremlin, I would have made a Flower Witch—that person was frightening, but undeniably beautiful. If it had been blue, Hiyori; if white, Professor Ermine; and so on. I had decided what to make from each color, but red-bronze was a shade of red.
If it's red, it has to be a fire lizard.
I happily picked up my carving knife and began cutting into the Gremlin.
At my level as a genius craftsman, there was no need to draw guide lines on the Gremlin. I could simply carve away smoothly, as though digging the fire lizard buried inside the Gremlin out of it.
"Mii? Mimimi!?"
Partway through, the laid-back Sekitan ambled into the workshop to play. When it saw the fire-lizard ornament in progress, it was startled, opened its mouth in astonishment, and widened its little eyes.
Wahaha. It looks like you, doesn't it? Doesn't it?
"Mi? Mimi?"
Sekitan climbed up the workbench using my trousers, mewing as it poked the ornament with the tip of its nose and licked it with its tongue.
But it soon seemed to realize that the ornament in front of it was neither a companion nor a living creature. It exhaled a little puff of smoke, jumped down to the floor, and lumbered into the furnace's ashes. Adorable.
Monsters used the Gremlins attached to their bodies to identify their companions, after all. No matter how similar something looked, the misunderstanding was quickly cleared up.
I spent half a day carefully carving a fire lizard at one-third scale from the 60-millimeter red-bronze Gremlin.
I hollowed out the tail and body and added a function that let me put alcohol inside and light the tail, turning it into a lamp. The capacity was small, so it could only hold a little alcohol and was merely a toy feature, but having a little gimmick like that made it fun.
I showed the completed ultra-luxury fire-lizard ornament to Mokutan and Tsubaki as well, taught them not to break it with their mischief, then placed it beside my pillow and slept soundly.
Man, I did good work.
Two days later.
Hiyori came to visit with an ermine tucked into her breast pocket. As soon as I brought the fire-lizard ornament into the living room, she let out an exasperated growl, just as I expected.
"I wondered what you were going to make, and it's this? Wait, does that thing move?"
"No. It's just an ornament."
"...Sigh. Well, it's Dairi's. You can do what you like with it."
Unlike Hiyori, whose aura of regret over the wastefulness was painfully obvious, the ermine leaped from her breast pocket, landed in front of the fire-lizard ornament, and gazed at it with sparkling eyes, openly impressed.
"Fire Lizard-san! Oh, I want one! It's so cute and pretty!"
"Oh, you understand its appeal, Professor? Actually, it has a hidden function. Watch this... Ta-da! The tail can actually catch fire!"
"Waaah!? It's, it's amazing! It really looks alive!"
What a fantastic reaction.
Gahaha, it reminded me of the long-distant days of online auctions. Life-size anime mascot dolls and figures used to sell for a lot. There had even been times when the reservation wait reached two weeks. Everything about it was nostalgic.
"Is that for sale?"
"No, I'm going to display it in my workshop."
"That's for the best. If you put it out in public, it could spark a bidding war for reasons completely different from those behind your magic wands."
Hiyori, living up to her role as our workshop's negotiator, voiced her concern and gently stroked the fire-lizard ornament with one fingertip.
I wonder. At present, I felt like witches and wizards were about the only ones who could afford to pay for this kind of interior decoration.
The new coins would be issued in another month. Once the monetary economy had stabilized, I wanted to put one of my works up for auction. I was curious how much it would fetch.
We spent a while chatting animatedly around the fire-lizard ornament, but the conversation naturally turned to what to do with the remaining 90-millimeter Gremlin.
How should I use this absurdly huge Gremlin that had broken the size record?
"I suppose a wand is the obvious choice."
When I said that, the other two nodded.
Using it in a wand was a certainty. I was a wandmaker by profession, after all. I obviously wasn't going to use both of them as interior decorations.
"If you get a large flake out of it, making a small animal ornament from that could be interesting too."
"Really?"
I nodded at the professor's suggestion. She clearly adored the fire-lizard ornament. Even if a large flake came off, it would probably be too small to use as ornament material, but it was worth considering.
"Speaking as the point of contact for negotiations, there is high demand for multi-layered magic wands. A 90-millimeter Gremlin could probably make five or six layers, right? ...No, a wand at that level could upset the balance of power. What if it fell into the hands of a witch with malicious ideas? What might happen? Forget it."
"What? We've already made fifteen sealing rounds, so isn't it a little late to worry about that?"
"I still haven't accepted that matter. Please refrain from scattering weapons that are too technologically advanced for me to protect Dairi from them."
"Come on, but you'll protect me, right? It'll be fine. The Blue Witch with Cyanos is the strongest person in the world, after all. I'm counting on you."
"..."
Apparently pleased to be relied upon, Hiyori grew quiet, surrounded by a soft, fluffy aura.
"What about you, Professor? Any research that's hot right now, or a wand like this that you want? Is it related to the Nameless Epic, as usual?"
"Hmm. The Nameless Epic hypothesis hasn't made much progress. We need to collect many more incantation samples.
Recently, the research that Mr. Dairi might like is... perhaps the Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Implements?"
"Huh? What's going on at Magical University? You're doing an endless supply of incredibly interesting research. Tell me more."
When I pressed her for details, Professor Ermine explained everything carefully.
The Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Implements were an attempt to apply the principles of the Ritual Magic Thirteen Implements I had created and produce unpronounceable sounds in incantations.
Unpronounceable sounds were sounds mixed into incantation texts that humans could not vocalize. According to Yoshida's prediction, there were twelve such sounds in total, and nine had currently been confirmed to exist.
Unpronounceable sounds were a major obstacle to humans imitating the magic of witches and wizards. Attempts to bypass that obstacle had continued ever since the era when Professor Ohinata's father led research into magical linguistics.
Among these efforts, research into producing unpronounceable sounds with musical instruments had a long history.
The idea was to produce sounds humans could not pronounce using musical instruments. Early studies tried stringed instruments and percussion instruments, but none produced promising results, and the theory offered little hope. Nowadays, only research into wind instruments, which produced sound when people blew into them, continued.
Certain types of wind instruments could produce one particular unpronounceable sound that humans could not make.
An assistant professor of magical linguistics with absolute pitch had determined that, among wind instruments, the harmonica could perfectly imitate one of the unpronounceable sounds produced by witches and wizards.
However, producing an unpronounceable sound with a harmonica had been pointless until now. The sound came out, but it did not move magical power, so no magic was activated.
It was also impractical to put a harmonica to one's lips only when producing an unpronounceable sound while chanting an ordinary spell.
Magic incantations required extremely precise pronunciation. If an unnatural pause appeared between any two sounds in a sequence of chanting, the incantation failed all by itself.
My Ritual Magic Thirteen Implements had provided a breakthrough for this problem.
As an application of the way the Ritual Magic Thirteen Implements were used, six people could chant the first half and the remaining six could chant the second half, allowing them to complete a single spell.
Naturally, even the slightest discrepancy in the handoff between the first and second halves would cause failure, making this an advanced technique that demanded extremely sophisticated coordination. Even so, it solved half of the harmonica problem.
A single person didn't have to keep frantically chanting with their mouth and putting a harmonica to their lips and taking it away. They could operate it as ritual magic. One person would chant the spell aloud, then hand off only the unpronounceable sound to the player who had already prepared to blow the harmonica, completing one smooth, uninterrupted incantation.
The problem of magical power not moving when an unpronounceable sound was produced with a harmonica also showed a possible breakthrough thanks to cooperation between the Gremlin Engineering Department and the Eye Witch.
When they made the harmonica's mouthpiece out of Gremlin, the Eye Witch observed definite movement of magical power. It wasn't enough movement to become magic, but magical power had undeniably moved.
Furthermore, the amount and smoothness of the magical power in motion increased as more of the harmonica's parts—the parts actually involved in producing the sound—were replaced with Gremlin.
In other words, to sum it up.
Just like the Möbius-strip Ritual Magic Thirteen Implements I made before, if they created a set of identical harmonicas made entirely from Gremlin, humanity could overcome one of the unpronounceable sounds—with the help of several people.
After listening to the explanation to the point where my head nearly got tangled up several times, I made sure I understood one thing.
"So, basically, I just need to make several identical harmonicas from this 90-millimeter Gremlin, right? Then humanity will be able to chant several advanced spells that no one has been able to chant until now."
"That's right. But, despite bringing this up, I have to admit that I can't dismiss the multi-layered construction plan Blue-san mentioned.
A multi-layered magic wand that one person can operate is definitely easier to handle and immediately useful than Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Implements, which require multiple users, practiced coordination, and vocal training. A five- or six-layer multi-layered magic wand might even allow humans to stand against Class Kō monsters."
"But?"
"Yes?"
"Be honest with me. Forget whether it's useful or not. Professor, which would you rather see: a multi-layered wand that's just a rehash of existing technology, or Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Implements that open up a new frontier? We can't make both."
Professor Ermine pressed her lips tightly together at my question and agonized over it, but eventually gave in and confessed.
"I want to see the Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Implements... Uuuh, the magical linguist's blood in me wants to see the possibilities of magical linguistics."
"Good. Let's make the Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Implements. Sure, the multi-layered magic wand might seem better at this point, but this is an investment. An investment. Instead of continuing to do the same thing to chase immediate profits, it's more important to open up new possibilities, even if it means a small loss or is inefficient."
"That's true, isn't it? In the long run, I mean. The Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Implements are proper wands too."
The professor spoke as though trying to convince herself.
And she was right, in fact.
The recent discussion about the threat posed by the Class Kō monster Daidarabocchi had merely made me lean toward multi-layered wands, which might let humans stand against Class Kō monsters.
Let's make a new wand, shall we?
Even Hiyori, who opposed multi-layered magic wands, seemed satisfied with that conclusion. I immediately requested the research materials on Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Implements and began production the next day.
I had already gained experience carving objects of exactly the same size and shape from a single Gremlin with the Ritual Magic Thirteen Implements. The only thing that had changed was the shape being carved, from a Möbius strip to a harmonica.
From the shape of the harmonica shown in the design materials, I identified the minimum structure necessary to produce sound and carved six extremely thin and fragile harmonica prototypes, along with one somewhat larger prototype to serve as the ritual focus. Seven in total. The prototypes had to be thin and fragile, or carving out seven of them would have been impossible.
A 90-millimeter Gremlin had seemed ridiculously huge, but when I tried to carve multiple items out of the same lump, I found myself wishing it were even bigger. Humans were greedy.
Once I had carved the thin, fragile harmonica prototypes, I fitted them into shells made of metal and wood.
The Gremlin prototypes, which served as the core and handled the sound-producing function, and the shells, which covered and protected them while providing strength, came together to create Wind Instrument Ritual Magic Seven Implements that looked like some stylish folk craft decorated with red-bronze gemstones.
I sent the completed implements to the professor immediately. I had wanted to test their performance with Hiyori, but she remembered the accident when the Thirteen Implements went off far too vividly and refused to cooperate with the test. We had no choice but to have the university test them.
Making ritual magic implements in a shape other than a Möbius strip raised concerns that abnormal vibrations might destroy them, but I thought that even if they broke, it would be fine as long as we obtained valuable data.
Even if it happened only once, a precedent in which humanity activated magic containing an unpronounceable sound would be a great first step for future research.
...But I had made these implements from an exceptionally precious Gremlin. I really didn't want them to break after a single use.
At least wait until after you've used them five quadrillion times before breaking. Please.