The Prince's Observation (2): The Alchemy Department's New Routine
The daily lives of the alchemy students had changed dramatically. In the past, they would rummage through cupboards for a leftover crust of bread or sip water to stave off hunger, absorbing knowledge during Rodelini’s grumbling lectures while desperately researching techniques just to survive.
They would register new technologies with the academy only to weep at night upon realizing they brought no immediate profit. But things were different now.
“Here you go—eat up and keep your strength! Please take no more than two lunchboxes each!”
Erika was handing out lunchboxes in front of Eisen’s workshop. She wasn’t paying for them herself; the distribution had begun when Eisen offered to provide meals for anyone working alongside him. Budget constraints meant the boxes were closer to commoner fare than noble cuisine, but the impoverished alchemy students had long since stopped caring about such distinctions.
Most of them were either fallen nobles or those crushed by poverty anyway. They had already abandoned their pride back when they first dreamed that alchemy could produce gold. The moment Professor Rodelini herself became the first to claim a lunchbox after the program started, any remaining pretense had vanished. Students took one box for later and another for the next morning or lunch, then filed straight into the workshop.
“Hey, who touched the thing I made yesterday?!”
“Forget that—this arrangement is way better! It’ll handle upgrades to the parts!”
“Apply that to the Cyclops! This one’s for a different golem! Where did you put the gunpowder we bought yesterday?!”
Voices once kept hidden now burst forth freely. Energetic shouts echoed through the workshop as various prototypes were assembled and calculations began in earnest.
“Having this many people really is nice.”
“You give the impression of preferring to research alone. This is unexpected.”
Professor Rodelini spoke while scribbling calculations. The space had always been fairly large, but with so many people crammed inside it had grown noisy and cramped. As I listened to the din, I shaped a structure with golem magic and continued my own calculations.
“That’s only because I never had anyone to research with. Do you see anyone who could keep up?”
“You made a mistake right before the final step. It’ll explode again.”
Professor Rodelini glanced at my work and immediately pointed out the error. I double-checked, nodded, corrected it, and kept going.
“Still, it feels like I’m actually alive. Everyone looks so excited.”
“Anyone who chooses my department has at least some talent for this kind of research.”
Professor Rodelini didn’t even look up.
“They come because they have no money, or because they hope the knowledge will help them manage their territories. Whatever the reason, they’ve decided alchemy is how they’ll make a living. Some get swept up in the moment, but anyone who shows no interest wouldn’t bother in the first place. So at the point they’re interested, we can assume they have talent.”
“There must be some who can’t keep up.”
“Of course. But they still attend the basic lectures, don’t they? The department is for advanced study. They get the chance to try, so there aren’t as many failures as you’d think.”
Professor Rodelini nodded with satisfaction.
“Good. We can pack more explosives and launch a more powerful warhead from longer range. We’ll test it later.”
“Could you check the gauntlet curvature calculations?”
At that moment, a commotion erupted outside, followed by an explosion and the sound of someone being launched through the air.
“Aaaagh—find the 42-degree, 60-power setting!!”
Without turning my head, I spoke in the direction of the noise.
“The ones working on the levitation device got sent flying.”
“Replacing magic with a high-efficiency magical tool isn’t easy. The concept of hovering just above the ground is simple, but simple things are often the hardest—and it has to last.”
I nodded at Professor Rodelini’s words. Even moving a single arm required an astonishing number of muscles, electrical signals, and bones; seeing it in practice was always surprising.
“This is correct, so go help them. I have other work to do.”
“Ah, so you’re finally heading over there.”
I stood after receiving her verification. She sighed.
“After becoming a professor, I never imagined I’d be sharing meals and working with anyone.”
“The world is full of variables, after all.”
“You certainly know how to talk. That was a compliment, so just say thank you and go.”
Was that a compliment? I wasn’t sure, but Professor Rodelini had her own eccentricities, so I decided to take it at face value.
“Then I’ll head over.”
“I’ll verify the standardization values for your work and then check on the weapon-making group.”
Since we had divided the workload, I nodded and stepped outside. A faint noise reached me from a short distance away.
“…I’ve calculated it. They should be around this spot!”
“Then I’ll go look for them…”
“Don’t even think about running off out of embarrassment. We need the manpower.”
Voices suggested they had calculated where the earlier victims had landed. Noel, who had been demonstrating and analyzing levitation magic, seemed to be trying to flee but was stopped by Mina.
“Pick them up, Prince.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
With a cheerful reply, Golden Sun dashed off. Watching from above, Professor Rodelini suddenly asked,
“Is this really all right? He volunteered, but treating a foreign prince like a common laborer…”
“He offered to be manpower himself. I have no reason to stop him.”
For some reason, the prince genuinely seemed to enjoy being caught in explosions and sent flying.
“This is so much fun—I’m glad I came!”
“It seems like his true calling, so let’s just leave him be.”
“Very well.”
Professor Rodelini appeared to have given up as well. I headed toward where the earlier group had landed. Noel greeted me at once.
“Ah, Lord Eisen. You’ve finished your calculations?”
“Yes. With the professor helping in earnest, the speed is incredible.”
Previously I would have had to test and fail repeatedly to find errors. Now Professor Rodelini spotted them instantly. The frightening part was how little time it took. Normally verification meant failing and hunting for mistakes, but she seemed to organize everything in her head just by looking at the calculations.
“The title of Vespia’s greatest alchemist and inventor is well deserved. Even if she’s poor.”
“Judging by ability alone, it would be hard to find anyone in the kingdom’s history who could compare. Even if she’s poor.”
Mina and Noel said similar things, but the important point was that development time would be drastically reduced.
“Still, I wonder if we can finish on schedule.”
I would have to step in and check the estimates myself, because the levitation device for the hover system was progressing slowly. I had originally wanted a different approach, but an earlier attempt at replication had nearly caused a fire, so we had settled on an electromagnetic levitation method instead. That was precisely why we were dissecting Noel’s magic so thoroughly.
“Everyone keeps staring at me while I float. It’s a little embarrassing.”
“Sorry. I’ll grant you one request in return.”
This plan would become extremely difficult if Noel proved uncooperative. Many professors could handle basic levitation magic, but the spell that generated electricity to fly was something only Noel could perform. Her family dealt in lightning magic, and she had developed the formula from childhood to compensate for her weak body.
We were now trying to reproduce that formula as a magical tool. Simply copying the formula would have been easy, but magic sometimes relied on imagination, so even Noel herself didn’t fully understand the exact principles and occasionally produced unintended explosions.
“Is it impossible to build a new golem?”
“It’ll probably be impossible here. If we’re unlucky, we might not manage it even after we arrive.”
If we performed adjustments during the pilgrimage, there was still a chance, and the alchemy students’ morale was high thanks to the meals. They would likely continue working on site, but time was strictly limited. Even Professor Rodelini couldn’t instantly complete everything she saw. Everyone simply had to work as hard as possible. And for moments like this, we had a Plan B running in parallel.
“Once the levitation device is finished, we can also solve the Cyclops’s desert-operation problems.”
Several alchemy students were clustered around one of my Cyclops units a short distance away, working on its design. They were attaching levitation devices to the legs and reinforcing the backpack…
“You’re planning to add extra equipment depending on the battlefield situation.”
“Yes, but that means the Cyclops will carry additional gear, so efficiency will drop and operating time will decrease.”
The Cyclops had been designed with versatility in mind, but we had never planned for field modifications. Still, attaching a levitation device to let it glide across the ground seemed feasible.
“The Cyclops will inevitably be the most widely sold and used model, so increasing its applications is worthwhile.”
“In that case, it might also be possible for the Cyclops to borrow some of the Knight’s close-combat capabilities.”
“It won’t be a complete replacement, but if a Knight isn’t available and close combat becomes necessary, we could add equipment to supplement its melee ability.”
“I see.”
After hearing the reply, I felt something was off. That tone of voice didn’t belong to Noel or Mina. And I hadn’t sensed any presence…
“…I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“No, you haven’t.”
“Huh?! Ah?!”
Noel finally noticed something strange and turned around. Mina gasped, clutching her chest and holding out what looked like a religious symbol while breathing hard. I broke into a cold sweat.
“That’s bad for the heart.”
“It’s amusing, so I’ll use it again.”
Professor Reina smiled.
“So, if we can create a desert-combat Cyclops through partial field modifications and additional equipment, close combat will also become possible. Is that correct?”
Professor Reina spoke quietly, her face filled with anticipation.
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“Um…”
“I’ll come check every day to see how the work is progressing.”
Professor Reina smiled once more. Her presence gradually faded, and the chill disappeared with it.
We now had even more things to build.