Chapter 27

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Collaboration
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Chapter 27

“I’m not trying to scare you. I just thought I should warn you before I kill you.”

“Oh, that’s a little scary.”

Luspell and I chuckled.

Something tickled in the pit of my stomach. It was like becoming secret friends with an enemy officer.

Unintentionally, the stiffness left my voice, and my tone softened.

“If you answer one question for me, I’ll keep it a secret until the day I die.”

“…What is it?”

“Did someone in your family take their own life?”

*You fool, it’s because of you. I’m so scared that the wound I gave you will fester and rot until it eventually kills you.*

I gently pressed on my swollen eyelids.

“You don’t need to know.”

Instead of prying, Luspell chilled my tear-soaked handkerchief with magic and handed it to me.

“Here, put this on your eyes for now. You wouldn’t want the butler to see you like this, would you?”

I took the handkerchief without hesitation.

Placing the chillingly cold handkerchief on my eyes felt like a lifesaver.

I sat on the sofa and leaned back at an angle.

“I’ll look over the proposal in the meantime. I should just look at the one on the table, right?”

“Yes.”

For a moment, the only sound was the rustling of paper.

“Um… if I ask questions, can you answer without looking at the proposal?”

“I’m the one who wrote it. Of course.”

“Then, first question. Glass that automatically regulates temperature? Why is something like this necessary?”

“Isn’t it written there? I’m pretty sure I noted it was for the greenhouse.”

“I saw that, but I don’t understand. Until now, we’ve built greenhouses with ordinary glass and had a mage cast a spell on it. There haven’t been any problems, so do we really need to create magic glass?”

Of course *you* wouldn’t have had any problems. If you need magic, you use magic. If you need money, you spend money.

Inconvenience is something only those who've experienced it can understand.

“The traditional method requires enormous maintenance costs.”

“Maintenance costs money?”

See? He has no idea.

“You have to hire a mage. On a regular basis, too.”

“Ah…”

“Hiring a mage for a large sum just to regulate temperature is a waste. Those resources should be allocated to far more critical areas.”

“Do we need to consider all that just to build a single greenhouse? It seems a bit excessive.”

“It only feels excessive because you’re limiting it to one greenhouse. Imagine developing this temperature-regulating glass and commercializing it. It could be used in every building that needs temperature control magic.”

Luspell didn’t answer for quite a while.

*Don’t tell me it’s hard to make. That would ruin everything.*

I tossed the handkerchief aside and sat up straight.

“Is it impossible?”

“Put the handkerchief back on.”

“It’s gotten lukewarm.”

“Want me to chill it again?”

“Forget the handkerchief and just tell me honestly. Do you think it’ll be difficult to make?”

“I’ll have to experiment to be sure, but… I don’t think it will be too difficult.”

He finished his anticlimactic answer and continued.

“However, the cost will be enormous. I can design the device for free, as a sort of talent donation. But actual production is another matter. There’s no telling how much trial and error will be needed.”

“We just need to finish it by the emperor’s birthday, so there’s no need to worry about the deadline. And the budget is probably huge.”

“How did you know about the budget?”

“The original plan was to build a ten-meter-tall golden statue studded with jewels. They must have set aside an enormous sum for it.”

“Ah, right. There was the statue…”

The emperor’s birthday comes around every year.

I plan to use up every last coin so they can’t pull any stunts like that again.

To the point where the word ‘statue’ won’t even be mentioned for the next ten years.

“Anything else? Ask if you have more questions.”

“This ‘sprinkler’ thing, is it also a magically enchanted device?”

“That one will be incredibly useful once it’s made. It can be used for everything from gardening to agriculture and livestock farming. Of course, it’s convenient to hire a mage, but… not everyone has that kind of wealth.”

No matter how hard I tried, I could never have created things like magic glass or sprinklers.

But I could come up with magical devices to serve the same purpose.

That is, if I had Luspell’s help.

My proposal was full of such devices, and those were the parts Luspell was most curious about.

“Wasn’t this a proposal for the Grand Plaza construction? No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t seem like a one-time project.”

“It is a one-time project. It’s just that while we have a generous budget, we should develop a bunch of useful devices. Getting started is the hard part; once they’re made, popularizing them will be quick.”

“…”

Luspell stared at me quietly from between the strands of his disheveled hair.

“What?”

“I’m just surprised.”

“About what?”

“It’s nothing.”

He lowered his gaze back to the proposal.

“Self-generation using solar heat… what’s this one?”

“You’ve read that far already?”

“I skimmed it. So, what is it? It seems like a device that uses solar heat, but what’s the operating principle?”

“Well, it’s like this…”

We debated fiercely.

Most of it concerned the feasibility of the magical devices I had conceived.

He threw sharp questions at me, and I parried them as if I were trying to persuade a client.

When Luspell conceded a point, I felt triumphant.

When Luspell’s ideas were better than mine, I gladly revised the proposal.

Before we knew it, it was nine at night.

The proposal was more or less complete.

The core magical devices were organized to be as easy to create as possible.

Now, all that’s left is to make a few minor edits to the remaining sections.

And I have to recreate the original copy, which has become a tattered rag.

*When will I ever find the time? This original took me three days to write…*

Definitely not today.

I’m too exhausted to move a muscle. I’ll leave it to tomorrow’s me.

As I was half-dozing with my head on the desk, Luspell held something out to me.

“…What is it?”

“A newly written proposal, incorporating everything we discussed.”

“…You rewrote the proposal?”

“Yes.”

He was busy with something for a while… so that was it? Even though I didn’t ask him to?

“Why did you do something I didn’t ask you to? That was my job.”

“I just copied it onto clean paper. You should check if anything’s missing, just in case.”

“Hmm… W-well, let’s have a look then.”

I swept aside the pile of empty coffee cups and leftover desserts on the desk.

Then I placed the newly written proposal down and turned the first page.

*H-holy… He’s a real genius.*

It wasn’t just a simple rewrite.

The corners of my mouth lifted on their own at the vastly upgraded proposal.

Is this what a professor with an incredibly competent slave—ah, no, assistant—feels like?

“It’s neater than I expected. No revisions needed.”

“That’s a relief.”

I carefully closed the new proposal.

Thanks to Luspell, the core part was complete.

And now I even had a proposal that was good enough to submit as is.

*My conscience dictates I should do the rest myself, right?*

It’s a proposal I’ll be submitting under my name, after all.

“Good work. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Luspell chuckled.

“As expected, Your Grace is no ordinary person.”

“…Huh?”

“First, you piqued my curiosity with the device descriptions, then you said you had no intention of working hard and suggested we just wing it. You knew that would just fire me up more, so you did it on purpose, right?”

“…?”

What is he talking about?

When I said I had no intention of working hard, I meant I really had no intention of working hard.

But then Luspell got more excited than I did and made a fuss, and I just got swept along.

He continued with a smile.

“I’m not the type to back out halfway. I’ll help you until the very end.”

It seems there’s been a huge misunderstanding…

I hugged the proposal Luspell had written to my chest and replied.

“If Professor Luspell insists. I’ll allow it.”

“Leave the proposal here. I’ll visit around the same time tomorrow so we can finish it together.”

“Alright.”

With steps far lighter than when he’d arrived, Luspell left the study.

“Did he like my proposal that much?”

Seeing Luspell’s enthusiasm made me worry about what would happen later.

*Even if we work hard, it’s just going to get rejected anyway… What if he’s disappointed? Shouldn’t I tell him beforehand?*

I glanced at the empty spot where Luspell had been and shrugged.

“He just seemed to be getting his spirits back. Let’s just leave it be.”

There’s no need to tell someone who’s just regained their energy such disappointing news.