The Shirogane Workshop
The morning after I had poured an entire day into refining Ea’s combat style, Saturday dawned.
I confirmed that Flame of Tranquility had been safely recorded in the library, then, just as planned, I made my request of Shirogane Rui.
Permission to explore the workshops of the Sirogane Union, and a review of possible solutions for the chronic problem she carried. I had phrased it carefully, but in essence it was simply: I’m dropping by your place.
“Sure!”
She answered at once, bright and thoughtless, yet I caught the faint spark of hope that lit her eyes.
If I had solved her own issue so easily, then perhaps I could solve her father’s—Shirogane Ichiro’s—as well. The reckless assumption and the expectation that rode with it were written plain across her face.
I had not examined him properly yet, so I could not swear to it, but unless the affliction was something truly extraordinary, stacking Subjugator and then asking Echidna and Kallion should settle the matter.
Echidna could now wield ordinary sacred arts through divine power without trouble; recovery was no longer a concern. The doctrine she followed emphasized self-improvement and overcoming adversity by one’s own strength, so the effect was somewhat diminished when used on others—but raw output high enough to overwhelm that drawback would more than compensate.
Kallion’s Holy attribute, too, carried the concept of annihilation that rejected foreign matter and the abnormal; anything short of the truly exceptional would be purged.
What worried me was the possibility that even their combined power might fail.
The old me would have been helpless, but the present me could interfere with souls to a certain degree, so the range of exceptions had narrowed. Still, exceptions earned the name precisely because they appeared without warning.
So I laid a small contingency.
If I could not solve it, I would solve it through the protagonist. I would deliberately drag Ban Taewung into the affair, accepting the risk of being swept into whatever mess followed.
To a god who delighted in heaping hardship and adversity upon the hero so that he might grow stronger and more profitable, no event could be more delicious.
For all I knew, some dark organization I had never heard of might pop into existence at this very moment.
Even weighing that risk, I judged it worthwhile to place Shirogane Rui—and by extension the entire Sirogane Union—in my debt. Future business would proceed far more smoothly.
On the appointed day a not-inconsiderable party of ten gathered before the Shirogane workshops.
“Whoa… so this is the famous Iron Man Workshop of the Sirogane Union?”
“…It really is impressive. Even the workshops my family owns aren’t this systematically organized. There’s a lot to learn here.”
“Yeah! It’s amazing. Feels like we’ve stepped inside a giant furnace. Tohru! Thanks for inviting us!”
“Uh, y-yeah… I only did it because my sister told me to. You don’t have to thank me that much…”
At Ban Taewung’s words, Shirogane Tohru glanced my way for cues. Shirogane Rui snorted a laugh, clamped her brother’s head under her arm, and ruffled his white hair without mercy.
“Ack!! Sis?!”
“Look at this guy getting all shy!! There, there!”
“S-stop it…! What are you doing in front of my friends?!”
At a glance they looked like any affectionate siblings.
In truth it was Shirogane Rui’s quick thinking—hiding the fact that, after our “conversation,” she had invited Ban Taewung with zero input from her brother.
“Heh, Rui still seems as close as ever with her little brother.”
“What about your own big brother, Erika? Doesn’t he dote on you just as hard?”
“…Yes, I’m close with my older brother, but he’s been so busy with succession matters lately that we hardly see each other… I guess I was a little envious of you two.”
“Aww, our princess looking all thoughtful—what’s there to envy! If you really want, you can rough this guy up all you like!”
“S-sis, please… stop…”
“What, you can’t accept what your big sister says? Or is it that you just don’t like our princess?”
“N-no!! It’s not that I dislike Onohara-noona… aargh, seriously…!”
“Hehehe.”
The surprising part was that Onohara Erika and Shirogane Rui were friends.
There was a year between second- and third-years, but S-Class students had mixed before; it was only natural. From what I had observed, though, their bond predated the academy.
Well, a famous Japanese workshop would of course have ties to a Japanese conglomerate like the Onohara Group. Similar ages made hanging out inevitable.
Shirogane Rui gave her brother’s head one more thorough ruffle while he stared blankly at Onohara Erika’s smiling face, then lowered her voice to a whisper.
“Little brother of mine, wake up from that dream early. The princess’s prince slot is already taken. I only invited the rumored prince who holds her heart today because I was curious what kind of guy he is. Snap out of it, idiot.”
“Ugh… I already know…”
Shirogane Tohru had instantly noticed the difference in Onohara Erika’s demeanor toward him versus toward Ban Taewung. He wilted, yet the bittersweet look on his face said he had no choice but to accept it.
“Man, it’s been forever since we all got together like this.”
“…There really are a lot of us.”
At Ban Taewung’s remark, Luicia half-lidded her eyes and shot sidelong glances at the other girls. Instinct had already told her they were all potential rivals.
Excluding myself, Shirogane Rui, and her younger brother—the eldest son of the Shirogane family—there were still seven of them.
I let out a quiet sigh.
I had deliberately invited them, yet the sheer number of people was draining my mental energy at an alarming rate.
In order: Ban Taewung, Luicia, Riri, Cheon Jang-mi, Onohara Erika, and finally Shin Na-rae and Sena Bright.
It was the complete current roster of Ban Taewung’s harem. The last two were still a little ambiguous, but that was only a matter of time.
Cheon Jang-mi had been so buried in work lately that I rarely saw her. She was thrashing about in earnest to seize the guild-master seat of Sumuk—the vast underworld power led by her father, Cheon Muk-hwa.
To fulfill the contract she had made with me—to devour the entire underworld and swear loyalty within two years—she had been carving sleep out of her schedule and moving nonstop.
As a result, the innocent, sheltered-child look she once wore had given way to a languid air that carried a faint decadent beauty. Her excellent base features turned that weariness into a strangely alluring charm that set her apart from the other heroines.
Ban Taewung had even promised to help with her work so she would not have to struggle alone; some sort of “storyline” involving her was progressing on its own. I had no interest in the details and had left it half-neglected, but everything was clearly flowing in Ban Taewung’s favor.
In the heroine market, nothing gets discarded faster than a duplicated archetype. Her image shift was probably the natural next step.
“…”
She gave a small nod when she noticed my gaze—her version of a greeting.
From her perspective I was nothing more than a ruthless corporation forcing impossible conditions with her life as collateral, so the cool distance was only proper. The fact that she could manage even that much of a greeting was proof that her current efforts were going well. If things had been falling apart she would have been trembling, unable to meet my eyes at all.
While I was thinking that, a prickling stare made me turn.
Sena Bright.
Daughter of the Bright family, famous for discovering and training excellent holy knights. More precisely, she was glaring at me because she had noticed Shin Na-rae looking my way.
That woman was wary of me. I did not know what stories her family had told her, but with Lee Se-rin involved I doubted any of them had been flattering.
Honestly, even I found that woman terrifying precisely because I still did not understand what she was.
Humans feel the strongest resistance and wariness toward the unknown and the frightening; it is a survival instinct etched into us from the beginning. So the fact that those same eyes fell on me simply because I was connected to her was, in a way, only natural. I had never intended it, yet I had somehow been marked by something extremely troublesome.
Of course, I did not regret it.
Clap!
“All right, enough chatter. What do you all want to try first? Places with as much variety as our workshop are rare. Since fate brought us together, I’ll give you a little discount—friend-of-a-friend pricing.”
Shirogane Rui clapped her hands, drawing every eye, and deftly took control of the atmosphere. She had not become head of the Discipline Committee for nothing; she was excellent at handling people.
“Uh, what should I do, Shinwoo? There’s so much I want to try…”
Then just try everything. Watching a grown man groan over something so trivial like a kid who needed to take a dump was absurd.
No—more like a child on the verge of tears because he could not decide which present to pick when someone offered to buy him one.
Time was plentiful. Money would be covered by the lady glaring daggers from the background, and since Shirogane Rui—possible future workshop master—had invited them as “guests,” no one here would grumble about the bill.
“Shinwoo, what are you going to look at first?!”
Before I could voice any of that, the thoroughly excited guy sparkled at me. He had not actually been asking for an answer. I sighed and let the tension drain from my body.
Somehow all my careful thinking felt stupid.
“…I’ll just take a slow look around.”
My real goal was to meet Shirogane Ichiro. I could not simply march in and demand an audience, though; when the time came Shirogane Rui would call me. Until then I had no choice but to play along.
“Ah, yeah, it’d be a waste to look at just one thing! This is the Iron Man Workshop, after all!”
“…You’re really worked up.”
“Yeah! The weapon I’ve been using is about due for a replacement. I need to check armor and artifacts too… and I was already planning to look for something that could add weight to my training gear. Then this invitation landed at the perfect time, you know?”
The way he casually glanced at me while saying it, as if to imply he already knew everything, was irritating. A good-looking freeloader acting like that only made it worse.
“Thanks, Shinwoo.”
“You should be thanking Shirogane.”
“I just wanted to say thanks.”
What had this guy eaten today? Only a protagonist could drop lines that cringeworthy without hesitation. I wished he would spare a thought for the listener; warm atmospheres like this gave me goosebumps and made my skin crawl.
I answered with a vague sigh and a wave of my hand.
If I stayed any longer I was going to punch something under the weight of those warm gazes, so I walked over to Shirogane Rui.
Wasting time for nothing was a shame; I might as well make full use of the opportunity.
“Is it all right to use summons inside?”
“As long as you don’t damage the building or hurt anyone else, okay.”
That was not a concern. If anything, the one I was about to call was more suited to a workshop than anyone present.
I gathered mana at my fingertips. Eyes naturally turned toward me.
Most of the people here were not ordinary civilians; they were skilled enough to react even to a small amount of mana.
Or maybe this is the awe and mental pressure that comes with being a Transcendent.
Either way, I simply did what I needed to do. While I was at it, I might as well give them some social experience.
What I called forth was my tireless mechanical servant and one devoted believer.
“Echidna. Comet.”
Snap!
The moment I spoke their names and flicked my fingers, the shadow at my feet rose, molded itself into two human-shaped figures, then collapsed and spat out two girls of very different charm.
One wore an improved maid uniform and possessed mysterious secret two-tone hair of blue and pink; the other wore a nun’s habit of perfectly balanced white and black. Both looked rather out of place in this space.
“Hello, Master!”
“It is an honor to behold your countenance again today.”
Echidna immediately offered a prayer upon spotting me; Comet smiled and curtsied. I acknowledged them roughly and gave orders.
“Comet, move as you like. Echidna, you already know what to do, right?”
The dungeon boss I had used as material when summoning Comet had been a household android, so she had little resistance to blending into society.
Echidna was different. No matter how kindly she looked in a nun’s habit, her race was devil—beings who lived and moved by emotion. What she needed was ordinary thought and experience. From now on she had to learn how to deal with real people, not the constructs born in dungeons.
“I shall receive the Lord’s command.”
So I ordered her to stay at Comet’s side and learn about society and humanity firsthand.
One might ask whether it was appropriate to leave that role to a robot rather than a human, but Comet had been designed from the start to mix well with people. Now that she had become my summon and gained a soul, unless she deliberately showed her nature, almost no one would realize she was a machine. Only someone with exceptionally sharp eyes or a master-level instinct for distinguishing human from non-human would notice—and even then it would be difficult.
That was why Comet insisted on the maid appearance. Her prototype had been a household android, and she claimed her true profession was serving me. In my view, however, her essence was a walking workshop and factory.
Therefore this place was both a space where she could seek new upgrades and a chance to improve her techniques.
I had only one command for her.
Be useful to me. The magic words that neither conflicted with her identity nor failed to spark her motivation.
Money was no object—buy whatever materials you need, steal whatever techniques you can, and become useful to me.
“Thank you, Master!”
Comet answered with a bright smile. All things considered, I had simply laid the groundwork for her reinforcement, so the reaction was only natural.
Her emotions have gotten richer.
Whether it was because I had begun to understand souls in earnest, or because repeated evolutions had strengthened her AI, I had no way of knowing. The fact that a machine had developed a self and then gained a soul was a mystery to begin with.
“Whoa, a nun and a maid… junior, your hobbies are next-level. Are those really summons? They look like regular people. Wait, are you going to put me in one too? You prefer the school uniform, or something else?”
While everyone else stared blankly, only Shirogane Rui—already somewhat inoculated against my summons—sidled up with a wicked grin and snickered.
My cheek was itching. Seriously.
“Be quiet.”
I coldly slapped away the hand she had casually draped over my shoulder and headed deeper inside, intending to kill time on my own.
Sticking with that noisy bunch would have driven my already depleted mental energy through the floor and out the other side.
“W-wait a moment, please!”
Thud!
If that hand had not caught me, I would have kept walking.
She had grabbed me so abruptly that my center of gravity shifted backward, but thanks to Battle King my balance never broke. The force would have sent the old me sprawling in an undignified heap, so the sudden souring of my mood was only natural.
Who the hell had the guts to pull something like this? I turned with a thoroughly chilled look—and found a girl with blue hair and matching deep-green eyes opened wide: Shin Na-rae.
“Just a moment, even a short moment is fine… could you please listen to what I have to say…? Please…”
My gaze made her flinch for an instant, yet she did not look away.
She forced her trembling eyes open wider, tightened her grip on my clothes as if she would never let go until she received an affirmative answer, and stared straight at me.
…I had a bad feeling that something troublesome was about to happen.
“…What is it?”
Sure enough, Ban Taewung’s voice—having taken the bait—made a sigh escape me of its own accord.
Shit. So much for going alone.