Portable Water Purifier (3)
A cold-looking woman announced, without preamble, that she was his aunt. His father standing quietly beside her suggested she was telling the truth.
She had the same frosty look as Father — a perfect match for him, really.
Was she posted somewhere outside the family? But if she was, Rachel never mentioned her…
Her expression hardened.
"…Aunt? Did you come down with amnesia overnight?"
At her sarcastic tone, he hastily corrected himself.
"Hahaha! You've gotten so young I almost didn't recognize you! Welcome home, Aunt!"
Whether his flattery moved her or not, she narrowed her eyes at him.
"You're acting strange. Since when were you this polite? They said you'd changed — finally come to your senses?"
"Hahaha. Figured I'd try being a little different from now on."
"……Come see me later."
She tilted her head, then swept straight inside without a second glance. The other family members greeted her, but she didn't so much as look at them — very Bladewyn of her.
"Robon Bladewyn."
"Yes, Father."
Father's gaze as he looked at him was remarkably warm. Clearly something good had come of the trip to the principality.
"Everyone in the capital was impressed with your work. Is there anything you want?"
"As a matter of fact, there's something I've been wanting to research. I'd like support for that."
"Very well. Speak to Samuel about it."
"Yes!"
The casually granted approval drew a laugh from him unbidden.
"Heheheh."
"What is wrong with you? You look like a pervert."
Wendy stared at him with open disgust.
"Do I? Heh."
"Why are you like this? You're seriously weird! Pervert brother!"
When he stepped closer she shrieked and fled into the mansion. He'd been branded a pervert of an older brother, but what did that matter?
Father had promised him research funding — he could push his generator plans forward sooner than expected.
He went straight inside and asked Rachel about his aunt.
"Weren't you completely uninterested after that huge fight with Lady Sophia?"
A huge fight? Why?
"Did I… do that?"
"Yes. Two years ago, when she tried to take you to Vulkan so you could study magitech engineering together, you told her, 'Magitech engineering? Why would I bother with that crap?' and really got under her skin. She's held a serious grudge ever since."
Robon Bladewyn had said that?
Strange. Looking at the things in his workshop, it didn't seem like something the original Robon would have said about magitech engineering.
"Haha… I don't really remember."
"Honestly. Anyway, you know Lady Sophia is the Magitech Research Director at Vulkan, right…?"
He didn't. This was the first he'd heard of it. If he'd known she was someone like that, he would have tried harder to make a good impression.
"This is from when you were little, so you probably don't know. The Bladewyns are a family that values the sword — unless you're a real oddball, you train with a blade, right?"
So she was calling him an oddball?
"But Lady Sophia kept emphasizing how important the development of magitech engineering was, and after clashing with the family head over it, she left the family. That's how she ended up at Vulkan."
"Ah. So that's why she was so cold."
"Yes. She's probably here because of you, Young Master."
Hearing Rachel's explanation, it all made sense.
Engineers always recognized their own. Anyone who could look at his modified Black Terrahole and feel no interest didn't deserve to call themselves an engineer. Hmm.
"Thanks for telling me."
"Of course. Call me if you need anything else."
He could already guess how the conversation with his aunt would go.
He could prepare roughly. And maybe an even better opportunity would present itself.
Without wasting time, he headed straight for her room.
Knock knock knock.
"It's Robon Bladewyn, Aunt."
"Come in."
She looked slightly startled that he'd come so quickly.
"You're quite impatient, aren't you?"
"Engineers can't stand leaving a question unanswered, can they?"
First, build rapport through common ground.
"Hoh? Since when were you an engineer?"
Despite the sharp words, a layer of tension left her face.
"I just entered the field a little late. I'm walking the path of an engineer now too."
"Wanting to be an engineer doesn't make you one."
"I disagree. If you want it, you become it. As long as you're sincere about the field and put in the work, I consider that person an engineer. Rigid elitism does the future of magitech engineering no favors."
"Are you trying to lecture me?"
"Not at all. I was only stating my own thoughts."
It had always been this way. Classism, elitism, credentialism, meritocracy…
People used such things to create distance from others, to draw lines, and to elevate themselves.
It was all pointless. There was no guarantee that the seat they currently occupied would remain theirs forever.
And someone you once considered inferior might one day stand in a place so high you could no longer see them.
The scope of engineering was infinite; no single human could pioneer it all alone. That was why experts from many fields were needed — why every additional person mattered.
"Is that how you see it, Aunt?"
"……Whether someone has sincerity is proven by results."
"I agree to some extent."
"Ha. Arrogant brat. So that's why you went and messed with the Black Terrahole on your own."
"Not arrogance — courage. Taking apart and modifying the only one of its kind is impossible without the courage to risk losing everything."
"You really won't lose a single exchange."
Her expression hardened. She stood, poured tea from the kettle, and brought it to him.
"Drink. You look like you have a lot to say."
"Thank you."
"So you do have a spine. I used to think you were just a brainless little punk."
She looked refined enough that you wouldn't expect rough language from her, but her mouth was surprisingly coarse.
The way she looked at him had changed. It was like the way a professor looked at him after a consultation back when he was in school.
Suddenly his aunt was starting to feel rather intimidating.
"The suspension? How did you come up with that?"
"Nothing special. Ride comfort is just about canceling out the shocks that come up from the ground, right? So I figured if you separate the wheels that touch the ground from the chassis and put a canceling device in the connecting section, that would do it. That method is shock absorption with springs, then secondary cancellation of the spring's residual vibration with dampers."
He pulled a small spring from his pocket and showed it to her. He'd made it in advance for just this kind of situation.
"If you form high-carbon steel into a circular spiral like this, the repulsive force drops dramatically when you compress it. Want to try?"
"High-carbon steel?"
"Mm… Think of it as iron that can take high-temperature heat treatment. In this case, I made it from steel."
She pressed the spring with her own hands to test its elasticity. The spring shot into the air, bounced off her head with a soft tok, and fell.
"Hoh. Why didn't I think of this?"
She didn't even notice something had hit her head — she stared blankly into space, lost in thought.
He had seen that look plenty of times. The way geniuses sometimes received a flash of inspiration and focused with everything they had so as not to lose it.
He quietly rose, brought over a pen and paper, and carefully placed them in her hands.
Her hands immediately began to race, scrawling something down. She clicked her tongue and stamped her feet as if things weren't coming together the way she wanted.
He snuck a glance at what she was writing.
It was mixed with drawings — she seemed to be thinking of something bow-like.
Using a spring to increase destructive power? Not a bad idea, but it has a lot of problems. Hmm… Still, with a few tweaks it might work.
She shot to her feet and glared at him.
"Robon."
"…Yes?"
She'd been calling him "you" this whole time, and now she suddenly used his name.
"Come to Vulkan with me tomorrow. What do you say?"
"I'd like that."
He'd been planning to go to the capital anyway. Perfect.
"Good. See you in the morning."
With that, she left. People in this field really were all willful.
"Well then, time to see Samuel. Heh heh."
Humming the whole way down the corridor. How much should he ask for? Big brother Gain had been carrying about a hundred gold, so maybe he should request about a thousand gold in support?
No — negotiations always started high and worked down. He'd open boldly with five thousand gold…
"Three hundred gold is the limit."
Samuel, the Bladewyn family's financial officer, stated flatly in his rigid tone.
"What? Why?! Father said he'd support me with as much as I needed!"
Technically Father hadn't said "as much as I needed," but close enough, right?
"There are no funds."
"Don't lie to me! You think this is the first time I've fallen for that trick? I know you people always hide gold bars in your pockets and claim you're broke!!"
"……This is the first time you've ever come to me like this, Young Master."
Oops. He'd gotten carried away for a moment.
Old memories had surfaced and he'd slipped.
"It's a figure of… of speech!"
"Regardless of what the family head may have said, this is the limit."
"This is Bladewyn, isn't it?"
"Being Bladewyn means a great deal of money goes out as well."
Adjusting his round glasses and pretending to be busy with documents — he was exactly like the finance team people from Robon's old life. Irritation surged.
No matter where you went, people who handled money were all the same.
"Can't you give me a little more?"
"No."
"Five hundred gold!"
"Three hundred gold."
"Four-fifty!"
"Three hundred gold."
"Four hundred! That's as low as I go."
"I said three hundred gold and only three hundred gold."
"You cheapskate!"
"Thank you."
These people took "cheapskate" as a compliment. Damn it, it was the same here too.
"Did you see me modify the Black Terrahole? You didn't, did you? Its performance went through the roof! Even Vulkan came looking for me!"
"That didn't generate any revenue, did it?"
"It will generate revenue. I created something like that!"
"It hasn't generated any yet. Therefore there is no money. Once you start earning, we can provide a little more support."
Damn it. He couldn't win a war of words. Curse these liberal arts types.
"Haa… Fine. Three hundred gold! Fine! Just you wait, Samuel. I'm going to take that money for sure."
"Anyone listening would think I stole money from you, Young Master."
"Hmph."
In the end he turned away empty-handed. Nothing for it. In times like these, the only option was to produce results even those penny-pinchers couldn't ignore!
"I still have the Robon-001. Heh heh."
The portable water purifiers Big Brother Gain had issued to the knights that morning.
Once Gain returned from his mission and proved how useful the Robon-001 was — once the knights all spoke up for him — that would be the end of it.
"I'm going to squeeze every last coin out of you, Samuel. Heheheh…"
The Green Swamp in the southwest of the Mardin Principality.
The monster-tracking unit had gotten stuck in the swamp, lost the monsters, and become isolated in the middle of the wetland.
"These damn Croker bastards!!"
Eldin Robel, commanding officer of this monster-tracking unit, roared in fury and kicked a hapless tree for all he was worth.
"That's enough. Taking it out on a tree isn't going to produce water we don't have."
"Shut up! Gain Bladewyn. If you people had just killed those crocodile bastards in the first place, none of this would have happened!"
"And if you hadn't stupidly fallen for the Crokers' lure, we wouldn't have been driven into this mess either."
Gain looked him up and down with a pitying gaze.
His reddish-brown hair was caked in mud as if he'd rolled in a dung heap, and his clothes were so tattered they were beyond any further use.
His subordinates were in the same state. All of it was the price of Eldin Robel's reckless orders.
By contrast, Gain's soldiers — who had been watching the situation unfold from the rear — were in relatively decent condition.
"Is now really the time for that? We need to get out of here before those monsters come back."
"Rest first. No one has had a moment's rest while we've been on the move."
"Anyone listening would think you're the commanding officer, not me."
"A commanding officer has to act like one first."
"What? You little—!"
Gain returned to his own men and looked after his soldiers.
In the monster attack they had lost all their water and provisions. They were already on their second day wandering the swamp. The men's thirst was reaching its limit.
"Everyone, draw water and quench your thirst."
"Yes, sir!!"
The Bladewyn soldiers pulled long cylinders from their belts and began scooping swamp water into them.
"Crazy bastards. They're going to drink that? With a superior like him, no wonder the men suffer… Tsk. Tsk."
Eldin was shaking his head and badmouthing them to his subordinates when clear droplets began to drip from the cylinders.
Glug glug glug…
"Ahh! I feel alive again!"
"Without this we would have been in real trouble!"
"This tastes better than regular water. Hahaha!"
Cheers broke out all around.
Everyone's eyes fixed on the Bladewyn soldiers. Eldin's too.
"Wh-what?"
What was that thing that took muddy water in and turned it into clean water?
Gain glanced at him and smiled the smile of a victor.
"That bastard…! Don't look at that! What kind of trick is he pulling? Clean water from mud is complete nonse—"
"Care for a sip?"
Gain held the water out to a mage who had been sent from the principality as support — not one of the Robels.
"Yes!"
She took a few drops of the filtered water and her eyes flew wide.
"H-holy water…!"
At her dramatically changed expression, everyone's doubts vanished in an instant.
"C-can I have more?"
"As much as you want. Water's the one thing we have plenty of around here."
Gain shared the water with the others as well. Only the Robel people, watching Eldin's face for cues, couldn't bring themselves to drink — until Gain approached.
"Stop being stubborn and come drink."
"……How am I supposed to know what kind of scheme you've cooked up?"
"A scheme? If I were plotting something, I wouldn't have come out here in the first place."
At Gain's words, Eldin's expression stiffened and he tentatively held out his hand.
But Gain's hand whipped back again.
"In exchange — one sack of this year's grain harvest."
"What?"
"You were planning to take it for free?"
Gain gave a cool little smile.