Chapter 296 – Progress
After lunch, Hannah went to play since she hadn’t been to Kaina village in a while.
Elsa was telling Mine about their journey.
Jin had started planning to protect Kaina village, just in case something were to happen. And to implement those plans, he went back to Hourai island.
“Welcome back, master.”
Butler 1 welcomed him.
And then Jin went to the workshop.
“Welcome back, master.”
Ann also came. Jin thought he would tell her later about how he met a similar-shaped automata, Tia.
Jin sat down on his usual chair and started discussing with Laojun through the equipped mana cam.
He explained that now that Kaina village was his leasehold land, he was thinking of increasing its security.
“I would like to install magic eyes in several places and increase bodyguard golems.”
Laojun also agreed with Jin.
[Right. I agree with equipping magic eyes for monitoring along the highway, the Elme river, the northern mountains, the eastern and western forests, etc.]
“Master, I think it would be good to also prepare barriers.”
“Alright, let’s install barrier-generating devices below the Elme river bridge and the village’s fences.”
They made it so that only Jin, Laojun and Reiko could control it. Jin held the most priority, after him was Laojun, and after Laojun was Reiko.
“We will have 26 golems. Same type as army golems, naming them from Land A to Land Z. Let’s make the golems grey so they don’t stand out. Stealth should be installed in all of them.”
The army for Hourai island is named after numbers so this is to differentiate between them.
[Understood, I will get on starting production immediately.]
As they would be of the same type as army golems, even Laojun is capable of making them.
“Master, I think it would also be better to equip them with arms.”
Another suggestion from Ann. That is true.
“Alright, paralyzers against humans. Vibration swords against close range golems. And how about induction radiator against long range types?”
“Hmm, right, but since the opposing party might also not be golems so I think it would be better to go with laser guns.”
“I see. Then let’s go with both of those.”
Exactly what were they planning to fight against?! — There was no one in Hourai island who would retort like that.
“Lastly, it would be good to have a proxy for when I am not present.”
[That is true. I shall station a Butler there permanently.]
And so, one Butler was stationed at Jin’s house in Kaina village.
“That is fine and all but how many Butlers do you plan on making?”
When Jin asked, Laojun replied ‘50’.
“Alright. Then make that 51 and make the one which will be stationed at my place numberless.”
[Understood. It might prove to be difficult without any numbers so I shall name it ‘A’.]
And therefore, a Butler which had just been finished was stationed at Jin’s house and would act as his proxy in his absence.
“Well then, after that…”
Jin brought up the topic of how Hannah was held captive for a while in Kurain kingdom and,
“To prevent these kind of incidents from happening again, I think we need to change the SP’s setting a little.”
[That’s true. A stitch in time saves nine. I think we need to adjust for situations when there are suspicious beings nearby.]
“How about having it be prepared to subdue anyone who is not known by Hannah-chan, onee-sama and master?”
That was Ann’s suggestion.
“No, worst case scenario, it might subdue someone who just happens to come close to ask directions or such.”
“That is true…”
They weren’t able to come up with a good option.
[I think we have no other choice but to have you, my lord, develop a new defensive magic tool.”
“Eh?”
[How about a barrier which forms along the surface of the body.]
Laojun suggested. Of course, that can be used all the time.
“Hmmm, it will prove to be quite difficult but I will think about it. It seems quite impossible at the moment.”
[Yes, I also do not think a situation where it might be needed will arise anytime soon.]
At the end, they decided on using paralyzer as default. Even if they used lighting magic, it would be difficult to make it strong enough to make the other party faint. The chances of it affecting the people around was also high.
In contrast, paralyzer is able to only paralyze the target.
“Alright, that should be good enough for the SP. Also…”
Jin took out two magic crystals from his pocket for the other task he had in mind.
One was Tia’s old control core and the other had Heintz Lash’s sword techniques in it.
“Do an analysis on these for me. It will probably turn out to be quite important data.”
[Understood.]
Jin passed the two cores to Laojun.
“All that’s left is… Hey, maybe you guys aren’t showing it to me because I haven’t asked but… that diary-like book we found at the ruins? You are done deciphering that, aren’t you?”
Jin asked with a sullen face. Laojun wondered how he should respond, looking forward to how Jin reacts.
[Yes, that is…]
Laojun inarticulately responded, which was unusual of him.
“What is it? Is there a problem?”
[Yes, I guess you could call it a problem.]
“Like I said, what is it?”
[Yes, then I will tell you. That diary was a diary.]
“Huh?”
Jin doubted his ears. He was worried if Laojun had gone mad.
[No, like, we had thought, it had important facts about the big magic war but it really was just a personal diary.]
“Ah, I kind of understand.”
Jin was able to comprehend.
[It barely has about 2 to 3 parts worth referring to. Except that, it is completely useless. After all, it is no fun reading some stranger’s daily life activities.]
“Well, I guess.”
Losing interest, Jin asked Laojun about those 2 to 3 parts.
[There were something written about alchemy, demons and other historic ruins.]
“Oh? Sounds interesting.”
Jin was drawn in the most by the word ‘demon’. Jin knew next to nothing about the demon race.
[But even still, it is very little… Monsters are beings who live off of ether. And among them, demons are the ones which have intelligence.]
“Hmmm.”
Laojun continued with his explanation.
According to him, it seems like demons have built up a civilisation which could even rival the humans. However, they do not consider flocking like humans a good thing and therefore do not use any ‘war tactics’ or ‘strategies’.
Due to that, the human side was able to barely win.
“But if that is the case, doesn’t abandoning the fort and retreating seem weird?”
If they were winning, there shouldn’t have been any reason to retreat.
[Yes, I couldn’t understand that much from the diary.]
“Hmm, then I leave the report to you. What’s written about alchemy in there?”
Jin knew that alchemy here resembled science in the modern world. But that was all he knew.
Alchemy was developed about 500 years ago, after his predecessor had passed. Hence, the golems (Reiko’s ancestor automatas) which stayed in the solitary island had no way of knowing about it.
[Yes, this was also not something that interesting. It seems they had tried using strong acid as a weapon. At the end, it didn’t become a reality as they couldn’t create a large amount of strong acid.]
Strong acids are acids which have a high level of ionization. Sulfuric acid, nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. If they were trying to use this as a weapon, they probably contained it in an airtight containers and launched it onto the enemy demons.
“Chemical weapons, eh…”
It was something he didn’t really want spreading.
“What did the part about historic ruins say?”
[Yes, for convenience, I did say historic ruin but it seems that at the time it was an abandoned fortress. It is the fortress near the Yada village’s historic ruin. However, we, the Quinta, have already finished investigating it.]
“Got it. I leave the control cores with you. Continue analysing it.”
[Understood. Also, this is something Topaz and I investigated but, shall I report about it?]
“Hm? What is it? I am listening.”
Thinking that this was one day full of unusual remarks from Laojun, Jin urged him to continue.
[Alright, then… We have identified why the plants, more specifically the fruit trees in Hourai island, grow so well. It seems that Hourai island is a singularity point for mana.]
“Singularity point?”
[Yes. Normally, ether gathers together at the North Pole. Although it is less than 1/10th of the North Pole, it seems there is a pulse here where ether gathers.]
“I see. And?”
[The ether in the fruits decrease in the order: pelshika, apple, citran. Pelshika, being the highest, has more than 10 times the ether compared to the ones grown in other regions.]
“That is quite amazing. It’s like a ‘senmomo’(special peach).”
A while earlier, Laojun had speculated that Jin would react like that when he gets to know about it.
[And we also discovered that we are able to store it without any drop in quality using the ether stocker.]
“Ooh, that is nice. So, the refrigerators are already reconstructed, right?”
This time, Jin saw through Laojun’s works.
[Yes, as per your command.]
Jin felt happy seeing his own creation, the system called Laojun, executing properly.
＊ ＊ ＊
At a location 1 kilometer north of the provincial city of Serroa kingdom, Astan.
In that area, lay Shouro empire’s storage depot.
The diplomat Reinhart was being forced to stay there.
Because a majority of the Serroa kingdom’s head camp consists of Unifiers, as a result of replacing that head, they weren’t properly functioning as an administration.
“Reinhart! Rejoice! We can finally depart!”
Elsa’s elder brother, Fritz, said while he jogged closer.
“Eh, really?”
“Yes. The procedures are finally done. We will depart tomorrow morning! Forte, Bololon, Ganiiz, Toskoshia. And my motherland!”
Seeing Fritz in such high spirits, Reinhart felt happy too.
They were about a week behind schedule.
“We can finally go back to our motherland!”
“Yes, I look forward to it.”
That night, Reinhart was also able to talk to Jin after a long while and so lied down on the floor in content.