Chapter 54: Success Is a Wonderful Feeling!
The shack felt more like a warehouse or a garage than a laboratory or workshop. There wasn’t even a forge. Alicia was baffled. How had they even made the armor?
“Robert? How did you make that armor here? I don’t see any tools—no forge, not even an anvil.”
“Well, I ordered the parts. I have a blacksmith friend.”
“I see. And who handled the enchantments?”
“I asked another friend. He’s a rank-three wind mage who’s about to graduate. We’ve been working together on this project.”
“I assume he pulled out? Then this project is done for. I can’t do enchantments yet.”
“Erm… no. I spoke to him yesterday. He said he’s still willing to help, but he doesn’t want to provide mana anymore. Ah, he’s also asking me to introduce you to him.”
“...I see. I’m not saying yes to that invitation, by the way,” Alicia muttered.
“Of course. I was tasked only with inviting you. Whether you attend or not is entirely up to you. He did say he’d bring cake, though.”
“Hm… I don’t want cake anymore.” Alicia felt guilty, but she didn’t want to feel obligated to attend. She wanted to make her own choice. Robert had probably poured his life savings into chasing his dream, and she had trampled all over it. Well—not exactly trampled. She had only badmouthed it a little.
“Thank you, Alicia,” Robert said.
Alicia wondered if she was being too much of a pushover, but it didn’t matter. Even if things went wrong, she could always escape. In this world, Alicia could do anything.
“Hm… so what can I do for you today?” Alicia glanced at the armor. Several dents were visible on its surface—remnants of yesterday’s accidents.
“Well, Clarissa wanted to meet you.”
“Ah, the laser-cutting-tool girl,” Alicia said. The idea sounded cool, but the execution had been disappointing. First of all, steel was better cut by grinding—that was how blacksmiths across Althemer had always done it.
“Yes. I am the laser-cutting girl—Clarissa! I need your help today, Honored Mage Alicia!” Clarissa barged through the door, utterly demeaning herself. She was almost eighteen, by the way. The fact that she accepted Alicia’s rude remark while also deprecating herself into despair reminded Alicia of her own bleak days when her thesis deadline loomed.
“You are the daughter of a count, Clarissa. You shouldn’t demean yourself like this. Alicia wasn’t being entitled or arrogant—she just has a foul mouth,” Robert said.
“As long as I can finish the essay, I don’t care. Hehehe…” Clarissa let out a self-deprecating laugh. She had arrived late today because she’d chased one of her professors, trying to persuade him of her tool’s greatness. From the look on her face, Alicia didn’t need to ask how that had gone.
“...All right. What do you need? I can only charge arcane stones, okay? "I enrolled only yesterday, after all,” Alicia said as she backed away slightly. Clarissa’s desperation was unsettling.
“Yes. Just charge these stones, please.” Clarissa produced a sack of arcane stones—thirty of them. Alicia winced, but she didn’t flee. If she ran away now, her reputation would plummet to the ground.
As Alicia charged the stones, Clarissa began fiddling with the workbench where the laser-cutting tool was stored. From Alicia’s perspective, it looked like a 3D printer—but instead of plastic, it fired lasers. A question surfaced in her mind.
“Clarissa, how did you produce the lasers? Is it a fire element or a light element?”
“Lasers are just concentrated heat, so of course it’s a fire element,” Clarissa answered.
“…I see. How far can the laser reach? I wonder if it could be used as a weapon.” Alicia winced.
“About ten or twenty centimeters. Any farther than that, and the heat starts to dissipate.”
“Then why did you make it?”
“It’s necessary! This tool can make precise cuts! Why couldn’t those stupid professors see that?” Clarissa groaned.
“But you only made toys with it…” Alicia commented as she looked at the space in this shack reserved for her. Beside the table were sheets of metal cut into delicate flower shapes.
“Ugh… I know I don’t have an example right now,” Clarissa groaned. “But I can feel it! This is going to be the tool of the future!”
Most iron and steel tools were made by blacksmiths. If someone wanted rough iron tools, they used a blast furnace and cast molten iron into molds. If they wanted quality steel—things like swords or armor—they heated iron in a furnace to produce bloomery iron, then shaped it with hammer and anvil. There was no real reason for laser-cutting tools to exist.
But as someone from the modern world, Alicia knew this tool would be important someday. Precision tools defined modern manufacturing, all carved out by machines. Laser cutting existed in her old world and was widely used. However, in this medieval setting, the need simply wasn’t there yet. Steel itself was still expensive. The only market for Clarissa’s tool would be arrogant nobles who wanted metal flowers to decorate their walls—and without stainless steel, those decorations would rust within a year.
“...I think your tool will be useful in the future. But for now, there just isn’t any demand. Ah—wait a minute.” Alicia was about to finish her blunt assessment when something clicked. There was one thing that existed in both the medieval and modern worlds.
Gears.
“What if you used it to craft gears?” Alicia said. “I think the professors would finally appreciate your work, Clarissa.”
“Gears?”
“Yeah. Like the ones used in clocks. Those require precision. Axles in carriages need precision too. Right now, most gears and axles are made of wood. If you could make steel ones—and prove they’re better—you could show the professors that your tool has real value, even if the mana cost is high,” Alicia said.
Clarissa gaped.
Her expression bloomed from wretched desperation into joy. Like a flower opening in a field, she hopped in place—having finally found the answer she’d been searching for.
“That’s great! Wonderful! Amazing! Ahh! Yes—gears! I can use this laser-cutting tool to make gears! Why didn’t I think of that before!” Clarissa hopped around the garage, raising her hands like a kindergartener. She then hugged Alicia. “You are my hero, Alicia! Thank you, thank you! With this, my graduation is secured! I’ve finally made something I can be proud of!”
“You’re welcome! Just don’t forget to treat me on your graduation day. And if you don’t have anywhere to work, I think my mistress would like to hire you,” Alicia said.
“Really?”
“Yeah. She seems to like this sort of thing. Besides, your tool isn’t very mana-efficient. Who’s going to charge it if not me?”
“You’re my best friend! I didn’t know there was a mage like you. Thank you! If you ever need help, please come to me. I’ll help you!” Clarissa hugged her once more. Her elation was contagious, and it made Alicia smile. She raised her hands as well, celebrating and hopping along with her.
Alicia might have been twenty years old on Earth, but here, in Althemer, she was merely a twelve-year-old girl. And she truly acted her physical age.
“Don’t promise things you can’t afford, Clarissa. How could you possibly help someone like Alicia? Her future is guaranteed. If she ever gets into trouble, it’ll be on an epic scale—civil wars or massive invasions. You have neither an army nor political power for that. You’re just a second daughter, after all,” Robert said.
“It’s the thought that counts, Robert! You don’t understand women at all!” Clarissa pouted. Then she darted off to the nearest clocksmith, hoping to find a clock she could replicate.
Robert’s face creased into a faint frown as he glanced between the jubilant Clarissa and his own dented armor. He was happy for her success, but deep down, he felt conflicted.
Envy.
He wanted to succeed too.
Returning to his work, he pored over the runes and studied them carefully. If he could improve the armor’s flight control system, he might be as successful as Clarissa. Then he, too, would have something to be proud of.
“Phew, that was tiring,” Alicia sighed. Charging thirty arcane stones would take days for lower-ranked mages. But Alicia had finished it all in under two hours. Even so, for someone as lazy as her, it was still exhausting.
She then fixed her gaze on Robert. “Is there anything else I can do? Where’s the diamond guy?”
“He’s at the library, poring over books about fire enchantments. He believes the fire isn’t hot enough,” Robert said.
“Why does he think this machine can make diamonds from lead? They’re completely different atoms.”
“Atoms?”
“I mean… they’re totally different materials, right?”
“Well, gold is produced from stone—extracted from certain soils. Gems like diamonds and rubies are also found in the ground. Diamonds, in particular, are often found near volcanoes. That’s why he believes he can create diamonds, gems, or even gold by reproducing the same environment,” Robert explained.
Alicia sighed. She had assumed this world already understood something like the periodic table. It turned out she was sorely mistaken.
She knew diamonds could be made from carbon, but that was the problem—she didn’t actually know how.
She knew diamonds formed when carbon was subjected to immense heat and pressure, but she had no idea how to build machines capable of doing that. Magic could bend the laws of physics through mana, but mages still needed to specify which laws to bend and how much mana to sacrifice. Eli could use Earth Magic to sift gold dust from sand; she could weld metal and even stone together. But transforming one element into another was a different matter entirely. Even modern technology hadn’t found any practical way to do that. After spending billions on particle accelerators, all humanity had achieved was the creation of a few atoms of gold.
“Well, I guess that’s it for today. I wish you luck, Robert,” Alicia said with a smile as she waved goodbye.
“Thank you for your help today, Alicia. Yeah—I’ll ask for your help again once I fix the armor’s flight control,” Robert said, waving back.
After that, Alicia headed to the mage course.
This time, she would show her skills!
…Or maybe not.
Little did she know what surprises awaited her.