Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Master's Letter and the Empress's Command
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A few days had passed since Eirin left satisfied.
"Mail has arrived."
It was a letter from my master.
It had to be the reply to the question I'd asked her before.
I'd sent a letter a few weeks ago asking for advice on the heat generation issue in the emotional calculation magic circle and the resulting durability problems in the circle itself.
The timing was perfect.
The postal worker, who had handed me the letter from my master, extended his hand.
"No way."
"That's right. It's COD."
COD again.
Did she spend a fortune on research there?
"Understood."
I handed over one silver coin.
"......"
But the postal worker tilted his head and didn't leave.
What was it?
"Isn't the COD fee one silver coin? Did it go up?"
"Oh, no, that's not it. The mage who sent it COD before had it sent COD again by your mage."
Hold on.
"You're saying that for the letter I sent COD, my master didn't pay the fee?"
"Yes. The mage said your disciple has good credit, so collect it from them."
My master did COD on COD?
"Really?"
"Of course. Why would I lie to mages about something like this?"
"......"
He had a point.
Why would a civil servant paid by the Imperial government, lie to me for some petty gain?
"Sigh, got it."
I handed over another silver coin.
Covering a master's shortcomings is a disciple's virtue.
"Thank you."
After sending the postal worker on his way, I opened the letter.
And just like before, the face of a blue-haired woman appeared.
It was my master Meiko, wearing her energetic smile that I knew so well.
- My disciple, I read all the troubles you sent. The heat issue and magic circle durability are chronic problems that appear in many circles.
Unlike the video letter I'd sent before, this was a letter that played a recorded video.
She must have changed the format because she had a lot to say.
Her eyes were slightly bloodshot from not sleeping for days due to research, and dark circles hung heavily under them, but her passion for teaching her disciple burned bright as she explained the principles and methods to resolve the symptoms appearing in the magic circle, dressed in her white lab coat.
- It could be a circuit issue, but usually, it's because the rune settings in the core calculation magic circle don't mesh well.
- For the calculation circuits in the magic circle you sent, the incantation adds new runes like 'arithmetic operation', 'logical operation', 'processing', 'amplification', 'emission', right? They're positive runes that enable efficient calculation processing at the cost of high mana consumption, great for strengthening magic circles. But when the types of calculations exceed a certain amount, overload comes easily. No matter how sturdy you make the circle's structure, you can't block the overheating from the runes.
- If you set one or two of them to negative runes that reduce mana consumption, the overload will disappear.
Use negative runes.
I'd considered this method before.
But negative runes weren't suitable for large-scale magic circles.
They used less mana and were easy to learn, but drastically reduced calculation volume, which could break the magic circle.
So I thought they were only used in small-scale circles that required almost no calculations.
- The moment you hear this, you're thinking negative runes aren't used because they slow down the magic circle despite low mana cost, right? Spot on?
How did she know?
She was uncanny, seeing right through me.
- Hehe, that's the part bright kids like you miss. You've mastered positive runes since you learned them, so you never had to deal with the issues of negative runes.
- Anyway, if you insert a negative rune between positive ones, the negative rune stabilizes the heat from the positive runes manifesting. This allows efficient operation of the magic circle.
Harmony of yin and yang.
My master was emphasizing this.
'She's right.'
Calculation speed would drop a bit, but the heat itself could definitely be controlled.
'And if I can lower the heat with negative runes as master said, I could add a few more runes to boost the circle's efficiency.'
The blockage cleared with her single piece of advice.
"Thank you, Master."
- If you get it, buy me something tasty when you come back next time. I haven't had dessert in ages; I'm craving something sweet.
What?
Was this a two-way video?
- Hehe, knew you'd be surprised. It's not two-way communication, don't worry. I just predicted you'd react like this.
"......"
- Anyway, stop researching that indecent magic circle showing base desires. With your talent, you could do better things. Why obsess over that? What if the heresy inquisitors come knocking?
Sorry, Master.
I almost did something to a saintess already.
- I'll end it here. See you soon when you return.
Having gotten advice via letter, I carefully wrapped it and stored it in the drawer.
"Thank you. I wouldn't have made it this far without you, Master."
She was younger than me but possessed magical knowledge that far surpassed mine.
No wonder they called her a genius.
After storing the letter, I went to the magic circle.
Thanks to the saintess's divine power, the circle's original heat weakness had been greatly mitigated.
It could handle a certain level of calculations on its own without my control, and mana consumption was drastically reduced.
'It's thanks to this golden pattern.'
But the divine power engraved on the magic circle was much fainter than when I'd first used it on the saintess.
Probably because it hadn't been exposed to divine power since she left, so the power was fading.
I was a mage, not a priest.
"I knew reinforcing the magic circle with divine power wasn't permanent, so now I need to refine it with master's advice."
I replaced the positive rune 'amplification' with the negative rune 'growth', and similarly swapped the positive 'processing' with the negative 'cause effect'.
They were much simpler runes, so they wouldn't fully replace them perfectly, but adding other runes to compensate should fill the gaps sufficiently.
'Looks good.'
All that was left was to test the modified circle.
To play the Nanako video, I stood in the center of the magic circle.
Without using even a bit of the lingering engraved divine power, I activated the circle solely with mana.
The entire magic circle, excluding the golden pattern engraved by divine power, lit up and enveloped me.
Yuris finished her morning training as usual and wiped the flowing sweat.
"Captain, good work today as always."
"Ah, uh, yeah......"
Lately, Yuris hadn't been able to look her subordinates properly in the face.
The reason was simple.
It was because of the illusion of herself she'd seen at Max's theater.
The sight of her as a foreign general's wife, flirting in front of her subordinates and begging for dick herself kept resurfacing, making it impossible to face them.
Especially.
"Ah, Captain! Are you not feeling well lately? Your focus slipped a bit during sparring today."
It was worse when facing Jeko, the vice-captain of the 1st Knight Order.
In the illusion, Jeko had incited a rebellion from captivity to rescue her, even reaching Max's tent.
And in front of him, she'd shaken her hips on Max's dick herself, cumming like a bitch over and over.
How lascivious and lewd her squirting figure had been.
Both during the illusion experience and watching the video, Yuris had enjoyed and climaxed multiple times.
Every time she saw Jeko, she recalled herself being ravished by Max and couldn't focus properly.
"Sorry. My, my condition hasn't been great lately."
"Captain, speaking of which, your speech has gotten oddly feminine. Did you get a boyfriend or something?"
Yuris shook her head at Jeko and her subordinate knights' questions.
"W-what boyfriend? No."
Max wasn't a boyfriend.
He was the owner of the theater she visited.
They'd had sex multiple times in the illusion, but it wasn't real sex.
'Right. Just a boss and customer relationship.'
Her heart would race mysteriously in front of him, but that was just because those scenes came to mind.
The desire to exercise with him was just because of that too.
Lost completely in thoughts of Max, Yuris didn't notice her subordinates' gazes changing.
"She's really embarrassed."
"From that reaction, she totally has one."
"Does that mean we can finally eat imperial rice?"
"Can't imagine our captain dating."
Her blushing, shy face wasn't much different from a girl in her first love.
Just then, the Imperial Guard approached the training grounds.
"Captain Yuris, Her Majesty summons you."
"Oh, really? Got it. I'll go right away."
She hurriedly escaped the group of knights where lewd thoughts kept surfacing.
"Yuris, are you in a good mood today?"
Answering the Empress's call from the bottom of the stairs, Yuris bowed to the empire's legitimate ruler and spoke.
"Thanks to Your Majesty's grace, every day is joyful."
"I see. It's good to see a loyal vassal in high spirits. You're no longer afraid of defeat now?"
At the Empress's question, Yuris lowered her head.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Yuris was no longer afraid of defeat.
It couldn't be helped.
After such a wonderful experience, how could defeat be scary?
The moment she imagined losing on the battlefield, her lower abdomen heated up and her hips twitched.
As soon as the thought hit, Max came to mind.
The urge to go to him surged even in front of the Empress.
I want to go quickly and get fucked.
I want to lose.
Suppressing the rising desire, Yuris opened her mouth.
"Why have you summoned this girl?"
The Empress gestured with her hand.
Following the gesture, Yuris slowly ascended the stairs.
Standing one step below the Empress, Yuris bowed her head and awaited orders.
"A messenger arrived from the Elf Forest."
"The elves... you say?"
"Yes. Those arrogant folk who vanished into their forest after saying they'd purify it themselves post-Demon King subjugation."
Before the Demon King was defeated, the elves had sent envoys to the empire multiple times begging to protect their forest.
They were one of the races hit hardest by the Demon King and demons.
The demons had invaded the Elf Forest several times, and Yuris had led her knights there to repel them.
A few years ago, the 18-year-old girl knight at the vanguard had routed all the demons—that was the Goddess of Victory's first triumph.
"The elves say they'll open their forest to the empire."
"Good news."
"Instead of sending a formal delegation, they want an important figure from our side to receive their delegation."
The Empress reached out and gently stroked Yuris's chin.
"They want the captain to greet the delegation."
"Me?"
"Yes. You're the empire's hero, but the elves revere you as their hero too."
"...If Your Majesty commands it, I shall obey."
It was disappointing not to go to Max's theater, but she couldn't refuse the Empress's order.
"Hehe, can you do that?"
"Yes."
"Then I entrust it to you. Bring the elves to the palace safely. They're arrogant, but their power is still useful."
The Empress, stroking Yuris's chin, wore a noble smile.