Bitter Cup, Sweet Cup (2)
Hephaestus was speechless for a moment. Though his face still wore that smile, it was impossible to know what thoughts churned behind it. But one thing was clear: the man was flustered right now.
"…If you're thinking of playing word games with me, I'd advise against it, Aizen. I'm here as…"
"The palace's representative, right? Unfortunately, this isn't a word game."
I spoke quietly, locking eyes with Hephaestus.
"Let me be direct. Not a single Cyclops ready for palace delivery has been completed yet."
"I'm aware that four Cyclopes have already been finished, with a fifth in production, Aizen."
"True. But those aren't for palace delivery. If anything, they're civilian models."
"You're selling weapons meant for the palace to other nobles for profit on your own whim."
Hephaestus revealed his bewilderment with quiet composure. That gave me some breathing room.
"What the fifth saintess of the Saras Church bought from me were just the initial blueprints and tech drafts for the Cyclops—limited to that one design. Coldly speaking, they're unfinished products."
"There's a contract for that."
Mina produced the neatly prepared contract at some point. The first clause: she covers all costs for golem production, gets sales rights, and—sadly for me—naming rights. The second: what I'm selling her is strictly the draft, and she has the right to modify and sell it. The third: going forward, she funds development and upgrades for next-gen golems, takes sales rights, and we split profits.
"The saintess of the Saras Church is just improving those drafts, producing them, and selling the results. Nothing more. To make the finished version for the palace, we need data from these draft-based productions anyway."
"By that logic, you could delay delivery forever, Aizen."
"The palace contract doesn't specify a completion deadline, Mr. Hephaestus. There's this thing called the principle of trust, and since it's a palace deal, I have no intention of dragging it out indefinitely."
…Whether this world even has a "principle of trust" is debatable, and yeah, I'm technically exploiting the contract, but by the standards here, it wasn't wrong. Besides, the palace wasn't in a position to make a fuss. Their investment was just sending me to the academy—nothing else, no cash support whatsoever.
They'd been thrilled with the Caterpillar Golem from the start, so when they signed the contract, they probably figured I'd refine it for mass production at the academy. They hadn't invested much, and from their view, a finished product already existed, so no need for deadlines—they could demand it anytime during my academy days.
That complacency stemmed from the meddling and sabotage by the Abatus family, which Hephaestus represented. And that made it a vulnerability I could exploit.
"…As for the leak of classified information…"
"It wasn't researched in an officially funded academy secure facility, and the classified part is the contract with the palace—not the golem itself."
Strictly speaking, the palace contract was confidential, barring me from spilling its details to outsiders. The golem design itself? Not so much. Probably to guard against jealous nobles sabotaging the project. But I couldn't complete it without exposing it anyway.
"The Saras saintess seemed to know all about it, though."
"Does your position require you to take responsibility for what others arbitrarily infer?"
Of course not. Back then, I'd only mentioned a prior commitment. Mina had guessed the rest—who the other party was and all. "Classified" or not, palace insiders had pieced it together through their networks, making it tough to pin blame. And broadly speaking, everyone assumed the contract was for Caterpillar Golems—no one dreamed it'd be bipedal war machines like Cyclopes. From their side, my rapid progress was unwitting smokescreen.
'Not that I expected to hit the next stage in under a year myself.'
Dig deeper, and without Mina's backing, Cyclopes might not have happened at all. No financial support, they said? How do you build one without research funds? In a way, she'd delivered an even better outcome.
Time to press while Hephaestus was still off-balance.
"Anyway, I wasn't planning to milk it forever. I was about to submit the blueprints soon."
"You expect the palace to wait on a few sketches?"
"Not sketches—blueprints. I prepared them since the representative was coming."
I cracked open the box I'd brought. Inside: diagrams for two Cyclopes. One for Mina's production and sales. The other…
"The official mass-production model for palace delivery, I presume."
"There's no difference!"
Hephaestus shouted, comparing the drawings. No difference? Amateurs!
"The internals are different! …My apologies. The biggest feature is the Overload function, of course."
"Over…?"
As Hephaestus blinked in confusion, I interlaced my fingers.
"It boosts mobility, but it's risky, so civilian Cyclopes will have it disabled."
After seeing the damage from my Overload test, selling it to civilians would be like handing out bombs. Further tests confirmed it strained mana and body severely. Erica helped verify on another unit—she couldn't match my output, but her speed jumped twenty percent. Significant if you could endure it.
"Palace knights can handle the Overload strain, no problem."
Knights were battle-hardened elites. Ordinary folk couldn't take it, but the trained ones could.
Mina smiled. "The palace Cyclops will ship with that feature—superior performance overall."
"In short, two distinct models with a key functional difference."
Same base specs, sure, but that core feature made them separate. Sure, you could argue they're identical otherwise, but…
"I built the golems. I know them best."
Only I could spot the differences—and they were real, no deception. Even another expert couldn't refute it.
"Am I wrong?"
I asked Hephaestus again. The smiling middle-aged noble…
"Heh, well played."
His smile held, but his hand trembled faintly.
"…Then hand over the blueprints now. I'm the palace representative."
"After a quick review and consultation with academy professors. The palace informed the academy about the contract for exactly this reason. They'll go through Professor Reina or Professor Isarina."
Hephaestus narrowed his eyes briefly. Had I finally hit his limit? But the smile returned.
"Very well. That settles it, then."
"Not quite. I've got a new proposal for the palace."
"The palace isn't yours to bargain with casually. Mind your words."
No more indulgent tone. He was seething inside—I could tell.
"It's to the palace's benefit."
"…Very well. Speak."
Hephaestus waved dismissively, as if to humor me. Mina jumped in with a grin.
"Strictly speaking, Aizen's mediating, so it's me dealing with the palace. I'll take it from here."
Hephaestus didn't respond. Mina pressed on, smiling.
"Simple deal. Let our merchant house produce the palace Cyclopes."
"Not worth hearing."
Hephaestus dismissed it outright. But Mina wasn't done.
"Three months' operating costs for the kingdom."
"What?"
"If you want to save, listen."
Mina crossed her arms. "You have blueprints and tech, but how do you plan to produce them?"
"Aizen will…"
Hephaestus paused, finally grasping the obvious.
"Aizen handles design and prototyping. Production rights transfer to the palace upon delivery."
I couldn't touch palace Cyclopes post-handover. Not without getting paid to consult.
Mina continued. "Cyclopes need standardized facilities, land, equipment, materials."
"You think the palace can't manage?"
"Sure, but it'd take two or three months minimum. You'd burn three months' ops budget on the first unit alone. No skilled workers means high defect rates."
In essence: self-producing would cost the palace time and money. Blueprints don't spit out finished units.
"We have seasoned artisans, facilities, land, supply chains."
Mina's outfit had been in on this from day one—full know-how, setups, routes secured.
"Outsourcing production? Easy."
She grinned. Hephaestus still smiled, but…
"…That's not my call this time. Hard to commit on the spot."
"No rush. Take your time."
Hephaestus eyed Mina, then rose with a picture-perfect smile.
"My business is done. I'll take my leave."
"We've got work too. Won't go far."
I offered my hand. Handshakes existed here, apparently. His expression shifted, but he gripped it.
"Have a… good… day."
It felt like a curse wishing me misery. We'll see, his eyes said, as he left without looking back.
"How'd it go?"
"Makes you appreciate experience, huh."
I answered Mina's gentle probe quietly.
"So that's the Abatus family."
First time sensing the chill behind that soft face. No wonder everyone treaded carefully—and he wasn't even top brass in his house, intuitively speaking.
"Politics ain't for me."
Constantly sparring with types like that? If I could avoid it, I would—but I'd probably face them again. With that thought, Mina and I slipped out of the parlor.
"By the way, Aizen. Tell me more about stripping Overload from the civilian model."
"Ah."
The buyer of the civilian Cyclops—Professor Reina—was beaming, clamping my shoulder. Glancing aside, Mina was snared too. Dragged back into the parlor like good kids.