Huan's Surrender and the Steel Wolves' Arrival
"You went to Akion's Workshop on your own accord? Are you out of your mind?!"
"Aaaargh!!!"
Huan Energies.
The tanned silver sun of the Energies family, often out and about.
A promising heir to the next Count Energies, with his tall stature, striking looks, and flashy skills that women raved about.
"Agh! Aaaargh!!!"
Crash!!!
A casanova who had gone through nearly three digits of women.
That was Huan Energies.
Until a few days ago.
"P-Please calm down, young master!"
"Damn it! Do I look calm to you?!"
Then one day, he blacked out from intense pain in his face and lower body... only to wake up eunuchized?
And by the Tower Master disguised as a lowly viscount's daughter, no less?
To top it off, his mana wouldn't flow properly, plunging him into deeper despair.
"I'll kill them! I'll kill them all!!"
Huan burned with vengeance... but...
"You want to kill me, brother?"
"......"
When Akion actually showed up after hearing the commotion, Huan turned mute as a honeyed clam.
Huan's classic trait: strong against the weak, weak against the strong.
The butler, who had watched it all, let out a deep sigh and vacated the room as Akion had requested beforehand.
Thud.
"........."
"........."
Silence hung heavy in Huan's room.
Facing each other, Akion regarded Huan indifferently.
Grind...!
While Huan glared at him like he wanted to kill him.
It was obvious—he blamed Akion for his castration, seething with grudge.
Even though Huan himself had caused it.
"Brother."
These exhausting types had swarmed him even in his past life.
Seniors poking at his glovebox experiments out of jealousy, juniors fabricating smears and stabbing him to crooked professors.
Akion the undergrad in his past life hadn't believed such things happened... until he experienced them and understood.
"To be blunt, it's a real shame you got castrated."
"Guh...!!"
And he felt it here too.
Humans never change, he thought, resolving to smack down anyone ruthlessly in this life.
"You can't carry on the line anymore, so you'll have to step down from heir. Wow, is this really the same brother who used to sic servants on me as a kid to torment me creepily? And now those servants like me."
Prepare to die if you're going to threaten it.
Should've snapped his fingers and had his head chopped off like the man said.
Grind...!
Huan had scraped together every scrap of family info in the days since waking.
And realized his knowledge was outdated.
The Energies family was now in the grip of the shadowy power behind the scenes: Akion.
He hadn't believed it at first, but...
Click!
Whirr!
Whoosh~~~!
"Ha......"
Incandescent bulbs lighting up the night.
Ceiling fans freshening the air.
Turbine pumps supplying water to the whole mansion.
Hot water boilers boiling that water for steaming output.
"What the hell is all this, haha, ha......"
Even Hermione raved about it—a byproduct of magitech engineering, born from science. He despaired.
He had no choice but to admit it.
"Still, if you're okay with it, brother, this little brother is willing to make peace—"
Huan was already a has-been heir compared to Akion.
Spring!
"Eh, brother?"
What good was magic prowess?
His brilliant life had vanished with his manhood, and his backer Delpord was now Akion's.
Plus, his mana control was unstable.
When would it stabilize? Tomorrow? The day after? A month? Who knew.
So rather than stubbornly cling to pride here like an idiot...
Bam!!
"Teach me... engineering!!!"
He had to beg for knowledge, groveling to reclaim what was lost.
Especially since higher circles supposedly reconstructed the body... Akion's science and engineering were a lifeline for eunuch Huan.
"Uh......"
Akion, unaware of the circumstances, was flustered.
Seeing his big brother suddenly kowtow like old Hermione, he scratched his head with a sense of déjà vu.
"Brother, why the sudden—"
"I tormented you since you were little. This might be karma coming back."
Akion was thrown by the sudden repentance.
He'd planned to suggest a businesslike truce, but hadn't expected his brother to go even lower.
Of course, Akion never missed a free lunch.
"So?"
He crossed his legs, looking down at his kowtowing brother.
It had been about 16 years without memories of before his past life... but this thug had tormented him endlessly.
Akion's instincts screamed not to forgive, to punish.
Trample him, sic servants on him.
'Namu Amida Butsu. Begone, stray thoughts.'
But what would that make him different from Huan?
Akion wanted a comfy life as a splendid evil professor, not some thug like Huan Energies.
"You want me to bestow knowledge, brother?"
"Yes...!"
Of course, he'd squeeze every crumb he could.
"Sure. I'll teach you a bit."
"What?!"
Akion respected those who swallowed pride to seek learning.
Look at that Marquis Whatsitchef's brother.
Just like Huan, he'd lived arrogantly, convinced only he was right.
Yet here he was, bowing to his enemy (though Akion hadn't burst him) for self-advancement?
This guy would make a fine lab slave!
"R-Really? After I tormented you for over a decade...?"
"Sure, there's some grudge left, but you're showing humility in seeking knowledge, so I'll overlook it for now."
His expression was rough, but endless doubt and inquiry made for a fine researcher.
This could make a decent PhD.
Especially self-volunteering as a slave. Anyway.
Drip, drip.
But he hadn't wanted to see the hairy silver sun's tears.
Akion averted his eyes. Too hairy.
"Th-Thank you."
"That's enough talk. Come to my workshop tomorrow."
"Thank you, Akion... sniff, sob...."
Oblivious to Akion's nefarious lab-slave plot, Huan simply thanked his mercy.
* * *
"Oh. It's sis."
"Shut it, Hermione."
And so Huan Energies started commuting to Akion's Workshop alongside Hermione.
With his injuries anyway keeping him indoors, he hunkered down to assist Akion's research.
And his specialty was...
Rumble!
"These should hold up to the heat just fine."
"Ohooo! This, this is it! Young Master Akion! The gyuchoto I raved about!"
Earth magic. Materials and resources via it.
He knew them better than Akion, dubbed the alchemist!
"How'd you know about this stuff, brother?"
"Earth magic's mostly defensive, so you gotta pick materials carefully for barriers."
Just as Hermione handled fluids, and Countess Lucrecia was sensitive to heat and fire,
"Found it! Haha! Thanks to Young Master Huan, I've got all the materials for the furnace!"
"Happy to help a Sword Master."
Huan uncanny pinpointed where and how much of the right materials lay buried.
Accelerating the Corex furnace construction.
And that was it?
"Akion. Found that underground water source you wanted."
"Hehe, my credit too."
"Wha, already?!"
Teaming with vacation-returned Hermione, they even located the groundwater!
Akion had worried about river contamination.
Rivers could spark cholera, typhoid... waterborne epidemics.
So he'd needed groundwater, but alone Hermione couldn't, and last break they'd given up...!
"Excellent. As expected of you two."
"Ahem."
"Hehe!"
Truly Energies through and through.
Akion was thrilled at another splendid lab instrument (human).
*
And as always, give and take ensued.
"Materials engineering suits you best, brother."
"Materials engineering? I know some alchemy, but that's a new field..."
Akion's knowledge infusion began with materials engineering's physics.
Though it blended chemistry too. Anyway.
He hammered in basics like solid, liquid, gas states.
"Whoooaa...!"
Huan's eyes opened wider and wider.
Beyond basic states to superconductors, superfluids!
Not just "magic makes it work," but deep insight into his materials elevated everything.
Just listening to Akion's lectures improved Huan's magic feel.
"No wonder Hermione's letters praised science so much."
"What? Sis wrote that?"
Amid it, Huan's confession slipped.
That he'd written Akion-praise odes in letters?
"Sis?"
"......"
Hermione, studying fluid dynamics nearby, turned.
Recalling all the gushy nonsense she'd written.
Of course, Huan unwittingly—
"Ha, know what she wrote? 'Akion's fluid dynamics and equations rammed straight into my brain without mercy!'"
"Hey!! Why tell Akion?!"
—stirred the pot.
"Agh! Why pull my hair!!"
"Looks like my sis forgot the pecking order—I got to the workshop first! Hazing newbies is senior duty!"
"You'll only be here a month or two 'cause of academy—what nonsense!!"
Naturally, pissed new-sis(?) Hermione tussled with him.
The eavesdropping students, Goldie and the Tower Master, exchanged looks.
"Even to Goldie, siblings are siblings."
"Mm."
They realized Akion's chaos was hereditary.
* * *
Thus, the furnace steadily rose in Akion's Workshop—
no, the empty lot allocated to it on Ridaside's outskirts.
Clatter, clatter.
"Halt! Halt!"
A carriage convoy entered Energies territory.
The gate guard stopped them per protocol... but...
Thud, thud, thud!!
"Affiliation and purpose—uh, u-uhhh...!!"
Giants with heads bigger than his loomed.
The guard choked on pressure.
But he was a guard.
A cog in Energies security!
"I don't know whose nobles you are, but state your affiliation and purpose!"
He did his duty, and
Click.
a crest was politely placed in his hand.
"Uh, wha?"
The crest: a deep blue wolf baring fangs.
"Th-This!!!"
A family emblem he knew well.
"Volkov Duke—?!!"
One of the empire's five dukes, steel wolves guarding the northern front.
"Indeed. Our purpose is..."
Clack.
From their carriage, a white-haired beauty with an eye scar leaned out.
"Tell Delpord we're here to retrieve my fiancé, as per contract."
She commanded matter-of-factly.
"Y-Yes!! Understood—!!!"
"Notify the mansion quick!! Hurry—!!"
The steel wolves of the north, Volkov Duchy.
Akion's fierce bride had marched on Energies herself.