Chapter 246: Reinventing The Wheel
As important as he considered his role as a teacher, Kir had other things to worry about as he left the Academy grounds. For one, his desire to revolutionize the world starting with Norneau necesitated a lot of work in his free time during the day, to say nothing of his midnight activities.
This evening, he hoped to finally solve the problem that was plaguing his desire to bring mass-transportation to the city. Which meant meeting the two people he’d roped into his project.
One was Moshui, a part-elven magical tattoo artist who also did enchanting work on the side. She was obsessed with spell efficiency and delighted by new concepts and magics, and Kir provided both in generous amounts. Her other obsession was tiny food, which is why Kir set up any meeting with her at The Mouse’s Portion, which was a little hole in the wall bakery run by a pair of mousekin who specialized in tiny versions of food.
The second was Enumasam, and technically Enumasam’s husband as well. The premier independent blacksmith of Norneau, Enumasam was a man of passion who pursued perfection and novelty in equal measure. He was the creator of Kangetsu, Kir’s sword, and the present forms of Bri and Dar, Kir’s revolver rifle and pistol respectively - though Kir had merged Bri with Kangetsu. While Enumasam handled the physical parameters of Kir’s present project, his husband Goro did the math on costs and harried Kir for payment, given all the time he was taking away from Enumasam’s blacksmithing work.
"I’m seeing how it’s starting to come together, but at this point it’s not a problem with the material, but the spell. It’s too complicated," Enumasam said while eating a dainty little cupcake.
"It needs to be complicated in order to be efficient," Moshui argued back. "Air carriages waste way too much mana because the spell on them is basically ’Fly however the driver can think of.’"
"But if a lot of people are going to be using this, won’t it pay for itself?"
"You need to visit the outer city more often, most people won’t be able to afford a small silver just to get across the city. And then there’s the students."
Moshui and Enumasam had been going at things for quite a few minutes after Kir joined them. Meanwhile he was busy staring at a triple-broken set of shards made of equal mixes of chromium, cobalt, and nickel - or as Enumasam dubbed it, kiralloy - the toughest material on Ayther even without additional enchantments... and Kir’s first contribution to the material sciences of this world.
"One plate of bacon cupcakes for you, Mr. Nasumi," one of the mousekin servers said as she slid a tray of cupcakes onto the table. Each of the little treats had a strip of bacon sticking out of it like a sail, cooked to perfection with a slight crunch.
Moshui was easily distracted. "Oooh, is that new?"