Chapter 146: Designated Forbidden Technique

I want the royal scepter that will become the symbol of the new Stuart royal family being established in the Chengdu Concession to possess unparalleled performance.

While black-boxing the important parts that will serve as the flagship functions, I outsourced the mathematical calculations necessary for manufacturing. I’m a dexterity world champion, but my mental capacity is only so-so. The brain-melting complex calculations related to four dimensions are best left to those who are good at that sort of thing.

I just set up equations, throw theorem proofs at them whole, and push data to have formulas made.

Scholars think, I make. This is best.

As the scepter production reached its climax, we moved from the inn to the Stuart mansion’s guest house.

Once the concept was solidified and I presented the estimated specs for theoretical completion, the other party designated it as a state secret. It was no longer a project to be advanced in a single room of a private inn.

The matter was becoming increasingly important.

The calculations I had requested for the scepter production were from Chengdu University, but before I knew it, that had become an ultra-secret project too.

Moving beyond the theoretical stage and into prototype production for practical verification, when I tried to outsource the manufacturing of simple parts that even someone other than me could make, the Stuart family’s exclusive craftsmen came out in full force.

These exclusive craftsmen are in charge of the remaining two of the three regalia that guarantee the throne: the crown and the ring.

They seem extremely frustrated that the scepter will be foreign (craftsman) made, and are challenging the limits of their technology to increase the domestic production ratio even if only for parts. They’re also enthusiastic about learning and practicing four-dimensional theory.

Well, four-dimensional technology, if mastered, becomes an extremely powerful weapon and holds the potential to cause great leaps in technology across all fields.

Any technician who doesn’t bite at this is third-rate at best. As a fellow craftsman, I understand their feelings.

But the parts you guys made, I might barely use them in prototypes if I give you a hundred steps of leeway, but they don’t have the precision to be used in the finished product. Don’t stick your noses in too much!

I’m busy making prototypes, but Hiyori and Tsubaki are also quite busy.

Hiyori serves as a cushion between me and the calculation & parts manufacturing contractors, and keeps a sharp eye out for industrial spies.

She’s also keeping watch by placing a golem near Ainsel-san who was nearly assassinated, and conducting performance tests on prototypes.

She’s meticulously handling the disposal of prototype scepters too, and even makes home-cooked meals every day—such a devoted caretaker.

A woman who supports me both publicly and privately, who is kind, cute, beautiful, devoted, and self-sacrificing—she wasn’t just a virgin’s delusion after all. Though our first meeting being a life-or-death situation was totally like a chuunibyou patient’s delusion.

Tsubaki is also busy, not losing to Hiyori in the slightest.

Because she was asked, she incorporated a silent casting mechanism into Salamandra and did basic training in silent magic.

She had elegant tea parties with Ainsel-san using Ratzio-produced highest quality extra virgin olive oil.

She took walks, napped, and walked barefoot on carpets covered in ash, troubling the cleaning maids. She was extremely busy.

Each of the three busy in their own way. Everyone’s having a hard time.

In the end, the total production period for the scepter lasted a full two months. When I started it was summer, but now it’s already becoming autumn.

The main reason production took so long was that the team cooperating with me was weak. It’s bad to say this when they’ve helped me, but I was made painfully aware that Chengdu is indeed small.

If this were Japan. With manpower and the cooperation of Tokyo Magic University which has many excellent people, it would have taken half the time.

Chengdu has talent, it does, but not elite forces like Japan’s, and fewer in number.

If there had really been only insignificant, worthless people, I wouldn’t have been able to complete the scepter in the first place, so well, it’s a passing grade. I won’t complain.

But maintaining independence between Britain and China with this level of talent seems difficult.

Even in the short term, they’ll probably suffer in a constrained position for about the next ten years or so.

That’s precisely why they wanted to add prestige to the scepter to make things a little easier. Politics is tough.

“…So, is it complete?”

“It is. I name it the Scepter Beifang!”

In a room of the guest house that had become a workshop, I held up the completed staff and showed it to Hiyori.

“I name it”—or rather, regarding the inscription, there was an intensely emotional request from the client Arthur-san to use his wife’s name, so I simply did as requested.

The appearance of the Scepter Beifang conforms to a traditional Western-style royal scepter regalia.

That is, it has a straight handle, and at the tip it wears a core modeled after a splendid crown.

Hidden inside this very royal scepter-like designed core is one of the cores of the functions as a scepter regalia.

The “Successor Identification Function.”

Through a composite mechanism combining the Fire Guardian Staff principle mechanism and Iatros Glass installed inside the crown, it identifies the gremlins of the late Beifang-san and Mr. Arthur’s inherent color gremlins, and is designed to react only to the magical power of the two and their descendants to unlock its functions.

Apparently the Stuart family’s exclusive craftsman team became completely worn out from data collection to realize this mechanism. They had to try about 3000 patterns. Can’t be helped.

But I narrowed it down from about 100,000 patterns to 3000 using intuition and experience as weapons, so I’d like some thanks.

And another core function of the scepter regalia, which guarantees the staff’s authority as a complete over-technology.

The “Magical Power Storage Function.”

This is a gimmick combining the reduction mechanism, a technology branched from the magical power backflow prevention mechanism, with four-dimensional technology.

When magical power is sent through the magical power measuring device at the handle’s grip part, the staff stores and preserves that magic power four-dimensionally.

Well, roughly speaking, it’s equipped with an external magical power tank.

On catalog specs, it can store nearly 8000K of magical power!

A marvelous thing that stores magical power you can’t maintain with your own body on your behalf!

An ultra-function teetering on the edge of being over-spec that Hiyori agonized over extensively whether it was something that should be released into the world because it’s too excellent!

If you have the Scepter Beifang, even Arthur-san or Ainsel-san with only 20K of possessed magic power can use large-scale magic consuming 8000K of magic power! Though they’ll die from losing 100% control and going on a rampage!

Still, being able to go “Eat this great magical power I’ve accumulated over a year!” is hot, and even without doing something that flashy, it’s honestly amazingly strong that an ordinary human who isn’t even a demon can do something like 100 consecutive healing spells.

Store magic power in normal times, and use it all at once in emergencies. It’s a staff that demonstrates its true worth only by being continuously held and steadily accumulating magic power.

Also, for the black-boxed magic power storage function, I used liquid gremlin derived from Demon King gremlin that was delivered from Japan through the Flower Witch clan network’s reliable transport route, so I think it will maintain its prestige without becoming obsolete for about another 100 years as requested.

After all, no one knows how to make liquid gremlin! If I make it with a structure that only I can manufacture using materials whose production method no one knows, the secret of the manufacturing method will definitely be protected.

Because I added the same function to Kyanos, all the liquid gremlin that could be extracted from the Demon King gremlin is gone too.

[Successor Identification Function] [Magic Power Storage Function] [Magical Power Measuring Function]

With these three functions, it should be more than sufficient “dignity” as a scepter regalia.

I’ll accept complaints, but I’d like them to understand that I’d be troubled if asked for specs beyond this.

Thus the Scepter Beifang was completed.

All that remains is to deliver it to the client, but Hiyori looked exhausted and let out a deeply weary sigh, so I went to comfort her.

“Good work, Hiyori. Thanks for everything. Thanks to you it was completed.”

“Mm. I’d like to say this is nothing… but honestly, I’m mentally tired. Those exclusive craftsmen kept pestering and pestering me to let them meet you and deal directly with you no matter how much time passed.”

“Yikes. Was it that bad? If I’d been dealing with it directly, I’d have been vomiting stomach acid.”

The sales representative who had handled interpersonal business duties that would make one shudder had truly worn herself out and looked pale, so I gently laid her on the bed, stripped off her clothes, and began massaging her.

Delivery can happen anytime. Caring for her who worked hard takes priority.

“Waaah!? W-wait, wait. I haven’t even showered, and doing that in broad daylight—”

“You seem quite tense, customer~ Yes, then please lie face down. I’ll work from the top down.”

“…That kind? No, thank you. Am I the bad one for expecting something?”

Hiyori was grumbling, but obediently entrusted herself to me. And in no time, the tension drained from her stiffened body and she melted.

Hiyori may look human, but she has no heart, her core body temperature is below freezing, and her internal body structure is completely different from humans. Even so, I know Hiyori’s body thoroughly. I can see all of Hiyori’s pleasure points completely. Fwahahaha!

Taking plenty of time, as I was pampering Hiyori into a puddle with the highest-class Ollie-style spa & esthetic, the limp Hiyori raised her face as if noticing something.

Suddenly, shouts and screams loud enough to penetrate the room’s soundproofing could be heard.

Then, something like a strange impact or wave that seemed to distort the air ran through the guest house, and immediately a commotion like a hornet’s nest being stirred up erupted.

“Wh-what is it!?”

“I don’t know! For now, clothes, clothes!”

Hiyori quickly put on the clothes I threw to her, picked me up, kicked through the window, and escaped outside the guest house.

We tumbled out into the front garden and grasped the full situation in an instant.

The servant quarters and the lodgings where the exclusive craftsmen lived had been gouged out and vanished.

Not just the ground above but deep into the earth, drainage pipes exposed and water gushing out.

It wasn’t destroyed. It disappeared.

From the shocking traces of a clean disappearance in a roughly 20-meter square, I understood what had happened and groaned.

“You idiots…! You used four-dimensional technology outside the designated range? I sent you so many warning notes!”

“A four-dimensional accident!? I strictly ordered them not to mess with it when I wasn’t supervising!”

As we were holding our heads in despair at the great disaster caused by the exclusive craftsmen, a blonde girl who had been sitting paralyzed just outside the disappearance zone came to her senses and began wailing.

“This is so bad! Father, Lord Roderick, Yvette! It’s terrible! Arrange rescue and medical teams! Ah!? Lady Blue Witch! You’re here at a good time, please help!”

“!? Ah, yes. Ainsel! You hurry back to the mansion! There may be secondary disasters! We’ll provide manpower here! The eldest daughter’s beautiful Diodonna rebellion period has arrived, the stone army has joined under King Wogan’s Tarquea—”

Hiyori reached into her bosom and pulled out four large gremlins between her fingers.

As she threw the gremlins while chanting, four one-eyed golems appeared with the gremlins as their cores.

“Rescue them. Human lives take priority.”

“Go.” “Go.” “Go.” “Go.”

The four golems received Hiyori’s order, let out creaking sounds, and rushed toward the lodgings whose majority had been gouged out and whose remaining parts were swaying, about to collapse at any moment.

While the mansion’s people gathered from here and there watched fearfully from a distance, the fearless golems carried out those who had fortunately escaped disaster.

Watching that scene, Hiyori made a bitter face.

“Ollie, can you bring back what disappeared?”

“Impossible. If it disappeared this way, it can’t be brought back. Wait, if I reverse-calculate from the disappearance method… no, it’s impossible. If we try to force it back, an even worse accident will happen.”

I knew there was a risk of accidents happening.

That’s why I used it in ways that wouldn’t cause accidents, and sent numerous warnings about incorrect usage methods.

Even so, the accident happened.

It was a man-made disaster.

Somehow helpless and empty.

I knew the craftsmen were fired up, trying to catch up to and surpass my technology.

Did they reach too far in their eagerness for research and refinement, and touch something they shouldn’t have? Passion that breaks through brakes is terrifying.

If Hiyori hadn’t nagged me so much, I might have caused such an accident somewhere and died instantly. It makes me shudder.

Before our eyes, the remaining swaying parts of the lodgings tilted and collapsed.

Amid terrible dust and screams, the four-dimensional accident temporarily reached its conclusion.

Half a day after the four-dimensional accident occurred, the victims and damage were confirmed.

Three mathematicians, two craftsmen, thirteen servants—a total of 18 people disappeared via four-dimensional banishment (effectively dead).

Complete destruction of the servant quarters.

Loss of four-dimensional research materials.

It was a great disaster.

Arthur, who viewed this situation seriously, decided to at least ban four-dimensional technology research in principle within his territory.

Designated as a forbidden technique.

From now on, merely researching four-dimensional technology without permission will result in severe punishment.

It’s not unreasonable. They knew it was dangerous, but it was proven to cause actual harm.

Regarding the Scepter Beifang, which uses four-dimensional technology, there were discussions about removing the four-dimensional-related mechanisms and remaking it.

However, based on the testimonies of the craftsmen who escaped disaster, and my guarantee that “using the scepter will not cause similar accidents,” and after a secret discussion with Hiyori who had been thinking with a difficult expression, it was decided to deliver the scepter as is without modification.

Somehow, an unpleasant aftertaste.

While the scepter was completed at 120% quality, such an accident occurred.

No matter how much Hiyori and I were careful about accidents and sent thorough warnings, the accident still happened.

With the delivery of the scepter, my work is done.

There’s no longer any reason to be here.

Despite having finally completed a big job, as if being driven out by an awkward and unbearable unpleasant atmosphere, Hiyori pulled me and Tsubaki along with a stern face, and we departed Chengdu.

Riding on the tiger’s back, traveling along the highway.

Tsubaki, who doesn’t understand what’s happening, also has a solemn face, affected by the dark atmosphere of Hiyori and me.

Without anyone speaking, we proceeded for several hours in heavy silence.

“Now.”

Eventually, entering the mountain region where the cityscape of Chengdu was no longer visible, Hiyori opened her mouth.

Hiyori, who had dismounted from the tiger, spoke with a gentle, warm voice, but with eyes cold enough to send chills, and said:

“I’m going to kill the mastermind. You two wait here.”