I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 45
Chapter 45
“I am seriously considering confiscating every single one of those rings.”
The morning in the Grand Duchy began with Ruri’s grumbling.
She approached him with a face that clearly showed something was not to her liking.
For Ferda, who was in the middle of breakfast, it was a bewildering start to the day.
“I see.”
Thus, Ferda replied half-heartedly.
“The workshops you brought in, Ferda-nim, aren’t listening to me at all. Is it really that hard to follow the rule of not letting a single drop of blood fall in this castle?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Fine, let’s say they might spill a little. But those people leave without cleaning up after themselves at all.”
“Is that so?”
“I think their habits might improve if they learned to fear a dragon. What do you think?”
“Do as you wish.”
Ruri’s chirping mouth came to a halt.
Glancing up at her, Ferda saw her staring at him with a pout.
“Ferda-nim is the worst.”
“Am I?”
“Even at this very moment, you are giving me such half-hearted answers.”
“I suppose I am.”
“Are you acting like this just because I gave you a single scrub?”
How petty.
She spoke so softly it was almost inaudible, but Ferda heard her.
It would be a lie to say he held no grudge from that day.
Since he had already gotten his revenge, he decided to give her a proper answer this time.
“Refining Mana Stones is originally a time-consuming process. Research doesn’t yield results overnight, does it?”
“Can you really understand that, Ferda-nim, when you reached the 3rd Circle so quickly?”
“I’ve practiced looking down from the perspective of an ordinary person.”
The Ferda of the past would not have understood.
However, recalling the sensations he felt while rapidly breaking through the Circles, the current Ferda, who knew his past self, could somewhat look down through the eyes of commoners.
“Is that so?”
This time, it was Ruri who replied half-heartedly.
“So, try to postpone that punishment for a little while. If they bring good news soon, then—”
—Bwahahaha! Bahahahaha!
Before Ferda could finish his sentence, a madman’s laughter echoed through Valdrova Castle.
The sound grew closer and closer.
“Bwahaha! Finally! I’ve finally succeeded! I don’t have to bake these damn Mana Stones anymore! Bwahahaha!!”
The madman was Bernel Marquis.
With greasy hair and a half-discarded lab coat, he dashed past. Ferda and Ruri’s eyes remained fixed on the spot where he had vanished.
Ferda took a sip of his tea and spoke.
“Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. It seems there are results.”
The moment to justify why he had brought Bernel in had finally arrived.
Bernel, who had been running around like a madman, did nothing but sleep after that.
He had labored on the Mana Stone refinement research to the point of shortening his lifespan, cutting back on sleep.
When he finally stood before Ferda, he appeared neatly groomed.
“I thought it might work today, and it actually did! Hahaha!”
“Will you explain it now?”
“Ah, yes! Of course. So, how this works is…”
Bernel began to explain something fervently.
For a full hour, he rambled on about his research findings and finally placed a period on a blackboard packed with notes.
“Do you understand what I mean?”
After listening to the entire explanation, Ferda spoke.
“Did you?”
“I… I, of course, did. I’ve organized it to some extent, and I tried to break it down as easily as possible, which is why I explained it like this…”
“Hmm.”
Ferda thought to himself.
‘It seems I’m not particularly brilliant.’
He realized that rising to the position of an Archmage was purely the result of sheer effort.
As he listened to Bernel, he had no idea what the man was talking about.
Around the thirty-minute mark, he felt like he was seeing the universe, then he drifted off slightly before snapping back when the period was drawn.
Ferda glanced at the assisting researchers.
Their eyes were sparkling.
They were the kind of eyes that a researcher should never have.
‘It seems no one understood.’
These were the people Stefan Pascal had sent, claiming they were quite intelligent.
If he was a shrewd merchant, he would have handpicked the best of the best to acquire the technology.
‘At least there won’t be any issues with technology leaks for now.’
Ferda thought positively.
In any case, wasn’t it enough if Bernel understood and could demonstrate it?
“Show me what it is.”
“Yes!”
He brought out one of the many magical devices.
It was an object called a Mana Stabilizer.
When mana is infused, it uses 5th-tier stabilization magic to fix mana within a certain area in the air.
“If you place a monster’s corpse in here and stimulate it with a bit of lightning magic…”
Mana surged out of the dead corpse.
Junk Mana, which was coarse and unusable, spewed out like a pollutant and drifted in the air.
“And then, after heating it to a certain temperature, compressing it, and cooling it like this…!”
Heating with fire, compressing, cooling…
After undergoing a complex process, a crystal appeared, emitting white smoke.
It was a stone that glowed with a faint blue light.
“This is a Mana Stone!”
Bernel pulled out the result with an ambitious voice.
It emitted a soft glow like a crystal imbued with mana.
It was a wondrous moment, but Ferda felt no particular inspiration.
‘It’s murky.’
Ferda had already seen this object in the future.
However, unlike then, the color was pale, and it gave off a distinctly crude impression.
Just in case, he asked Bernel.
“What is the efficiency?”
“Uh… that is…”
Bernel, who had been fluently reciting incomprehensible knowledge, suddenly got stuck.
“Bernel Marquis.”
“Yes, yes!”
“Did I not ask you? I asked what the efficiency is.”
“Well, you see…”
Bernel broke into a cold sweat and answered with difficulty.
“If you consume the mana equivalent of seven Mana Stones, you can create one.”
“So the efficiency is 14.2%.”
“If you round it up, it’s 14.3%. And even then…”
It seemed there was more.
Whatever was left also seemed unfavorable, as he hesitated.
“As the capacity of the Mana Stone itself is raised, there is mana that leaks out… so it should be viewed as dropping by half again…”
This meant that fourteen Mana Stones had to be used to produce the efficiency of a single original one.
“So it’s roughly 7%.”
“To the first decimal place, it’s 7.1%… Hup, I’m sorry.”
Bernel pointed it out tactlessly and thought to himself.
Ah, I’m doomed.
My research ends here.
Who would hire a mage when they could just use a tool with 7.1% efficiency?
He was going through the five stages of grief, pronouncing a death sentence upon himself in his mind.
Ferda, who had been looking down at the Mana Stone in silence for a long time, finally spoke.
“Regarding the efficiency.”
“Yes.”
“Can you raise it further?”
“Pardon…?”
“I asked if you can raise the efficiency further.”
He had thought this since the moment he brought Bernel Marquis in.
As long as this man didn’t give up, Ferda had no intention of letting him fail.
Bernel nodded at the question.
“Of… of course. It is possible. I will surely make it happen.”
“Good.”
Ferda stood up from his seat.
“Then continue your research.”
Bernel blinked as he looked up at him.
Just as he thought that was the end, Ferda added more.
“I will gather the people who need to hear this story. Until then, organize your research findings and the demonstration once more. Understood?”
“Ye-yes!”
Leaving those words behind, Ferda stepped outside.
Bernel was trusting in this research, even though he himself lacked confidence.
So, he had no choice but to do his absolute best.
Unlike Bernel, who was trembling with such anxiety, Ferda’s thoughts were different.
‘It was used quite well.’
Ferda knew.
Magical engineering would develop one way or another.
And he knew roughly how arduous that developmental process had been.
Even at the time Bernel made his announcement, there was ridicule.
People said things like, who would use such a thing, why use it, it lacks dignity.
But what happened in the future?
‘Mages end up using magical engineering even more.’
It was because it provided a level of convenience that was on a different dimension from the magic circles they calculated and used.
The era of monopolizing the mystery of magic would come to an end.
For Ferda, who knew that day would come, there was plenty of reason to believe in Bernel.
Ten days passed, and distinguished guests arrived.
The old lord, Count Consilus, and the manager of the Pascal Trading Company, Stefan Pascal.
In front of them, Bernel performed the demonstration and provided further explanations, just as he had done for Ferda.
Given ten days to organize, it was better than the first time he explained it to Ferda.
However, the content remained difficult to grasp.
“Ho-oh, I see.”
“Indeed. That was excellent content.”
Ferda watched their reactions quietly and then asked them.
“Did you truly understand? I didn’t understand it myself, so speak honestly.”
Only then did the two reveal the truth.
He had felt their voices lacked soul, and he was right.
“Haha, my apologies. It has become a habit of mine to play along. This old man is a layman in that field.”
“I also thought it might be embarrassing for me to look like I didn’t know…”
As expected, both were just pretending to know.
Only Bernel, who thought he had summarized it more simply, felt awkward.
“Still, based on what I can piece together, the conclusion seems to be that the efficiency is not high. Is that correct?”
“That is correct.”
“Hmm, it is truly an ambiguous object.”
Consilus muttered as he stroked his beard, and Bernel began to sweat profusely.
Stefan tried hard to highlight the positive aspects against Consilus’s negative view.
“From an economic standpoint, I don’t think it’s good right now, but isn’t it a good item in that it can supply mana?”
“Ah, that’s the part I explained… it’s not the kind of item that can supply mana to a mage. It can’t be used for recovery or charging like potions or elixirs.”
“Ah, then it is a bit ambiguous… Even if it’s a success, if the efficiency doesn’t follow…”
Even Stefan, who had tried to shield him, took a step back.
Both had given answers that were close to negative.
Stefan’s back was becoming damp.
That was something Ferda had anticipated.
“Do not think about efficiency for now. In any case, that is something our Chief Engineer will handle later.”
Ferda had already expected this.
The reason he showed it to these two, even though he knew he would hear negative comments the moment it was revealed, was for something else.
“I want to hear your thoughts on what should be created first using this item.”
“Specifically, what kind of things are you referring to?”
Ferda held up the Mana Stone Bernel had created and said.
“Literally, it is the power source for revolutionary items that can perform the tasks mages do. Think about the tasks that required a mage, and the tasks that were surprisingly trivial for a mage to do.”
What was needed were ideas.
Count Consilus and Stefan were people deeply involved in their respective fields.
At Ferda’s words, Count Consilus spoke first.
“If we can mimic a mage through that object… does that mean we can fill the lacking infantry on the front lines with mages?”
He was an old man who was a soldier to the bone, raised in a Count’s family.
Thus, the first thing he thought of was an element that could replace the threats from the Far East.
“It is possible. If processed into a weapon, manifesting magic is no trouble.”
He told them the name it would one day be called.
“Under the name of Magical Engineering Infantry.”
“Ho-oh… Magical Engineering Infantry.”
A light seemed to shine in Count Consilus’s eyes.
A mage was a being who demonstrated efficiency in almost every situation.
Among those, they showed the greatest efficiency specifically in dealing with monsters.
The Far East was a land with more monsters than beasts.
It was a region that was more desperate than any other.
However, as is the case with most front lines, it was no different from a place of exile for mages.
The only mage who had skill and motivation was Thessalos Walcher.
“That’s good. Just filling the void of mages brings hope. If the efficiency can be resolved, I think it would be better to process it into weapons first.”
Count Consilus showed his enthusiasm.
Like an old lord who could not bear to watch the sacrifice of his infantry, he seemed to want to push forward in that direction immediately.
At that moment, Stefan countered.
“Count Consilus’s opinion is also correct. It would be helpful if infantry could freely transition to mages. But, isn’t transportation also important?”
Stefan had already placed his stakes when he invested in this business.
“Transportation?”
“Yes. The most important element of a battlefield is always logistics. Even if firepower is superior, if logistics become an immediate problem, it will be useless, will it not?”
“That is also true. However, many monsters are already dying in the Far East. If we focus on producing them here using those monsters, that difficult problem can be postponed until later.”
Count Consilus and Stefan did not back down an inch, each emphasizing the importance of what they desired.
‘As expected, it was good to ask both of them.’
Just from this back-and-forth, he could see what both were demanding and what the problems were.
Stefan wanted to reduce the costs he felt in transportation immediately, while Consilus wanted to increase the survival rate of the soldiers in the Far East territory.
There was a clear reason why neither would back down.
“It seems the two of us won’t be able to reach a conclusion, so in this matter, it would be right for the Regent of the Grand Duke to decide.”
“Yes. I also happened to think so.”
The arrow fell to Ferda.
“In my opinion, it would be better to leave it to the Chief Researcher, who is responsible for all development.”
“Pardon?”
And Ferda promptly threw that arrow toward Bernel.
“Me?”
Bernel wore a blank expression, looking dazed.
But as Ferda said, they were waiting for his decision, and Bernel was in a situation where he had to choose.
“Uh, so, I…”
Bernel was a pacifist.
He was a man who wanted to create things beneficial to people immediately rather than making weapons.
Bernel carefully brought out what he had been thinking.
“I… I think it’s better to do weapons first, after all…”
“As I thought, right?”
“Of course, weapons are important, but think about it more. I am the one in charge of the monster supply.”
The winner chuckled, and the loser attempted a second persuasion.
“At first, I also thought it was right to develop in another direction. But… after seeing the territory Count Consilus rules, it was a bit different.”
When he had stopped by the Count’s territory, he had been hovering between life and death due to mana overload.
He had seen the people of the Count’s territory, and he had seen the pain and sorrow of them losing their families.
“First, I think we should make weapons to stop the monsters trying to ruin our home.”
“Ugh… I understand. If you say it like that…”
Stefan eventually backed down.
Although priorities had shifted, Stefan would still be able to get what he wanted eventually.
“So, for now, we are also proceeding with weapon development. Since I’ve also been researching the characteristics of monsters, I’ll be able to bring you good news.”
“Haha, keep up the hard work. Your research will become the light of our Far East.”
The atmosphere seemed to be wrapping up warmly.
“Right, about that weapon…”
Ferda began, as if everything was going well.
“By any chance, is that weapon also going to be as difficult as what you explained?”
“Pardon? Uh… I’m not sure about that, but probably… I expect so.”
“That’s good.”
Ferda already knew.
Bernel Marquis.
The first invention he created was incredibly complex and difficult.
He could realize complex things to create miracles, but he did not know the importance of simplicity.
“I happen to have a very good sample for you.”
“Uh… a sample?”
“Yes, a sample. Come in!”
At Ferda’s call, a man who had been waiting outside entered.
They were startled as soon as they saw him.
Wearing armor, he was performing a military drill.
When his left foot moved, his left hand was raised as well, and when his right foot moved, his right hand was raised.
There was a man who entered confidently, showing that awkward drill as if it were a proper one.
Bernel felt a chill the moment he saw him.
“Malcolm of Peach Hill! I have come at your call!”
“Yes, welcome. There is something for you to do.”
“Just say the word!”
With his hand over his heart, he was like a young boy overflowing with passion.
It wasn’t a particularly pleasant sight.
“What is 2 times 2?”
“That’s easy! It’s 4!”
“Correct. Then, what is 7 times 6?”
He answered this time as if it were also easy.
“It’s 13!”
“Well done.”
“Haha, you flatter me!”
Malcolm wore a proud expression, but the people around him were feeling a chill.
Faces that asked, Where on earth did he pick up a fellow like that?
Ferda patted Bernel’s shoulder and said.
“Make it simple enough for this friend to understand and use.”
“Pardon?”
“I trust you can do at least that much.”
“…Pardon?”
Bernel felt his mind going faint.
