Chaos in Ostland (6)
A secret potion of magic power on the table in front of me. I stared at it.
An ancient elixir… it boasted a terrifying amount of recovery, and when my Father drank a drop to test it out, he fell into a coma from the sheer concentration of magic, and it was said to have been stored in the castle treasury ever since.
Naturally, I did not even know it existed. Or rather, my Father himself remembered it just before Big brother ran out of the castle.
“With the amount of magic power Alicetia has, she should be able to use this.”
Saying that, Father handed five bottles to Big brother and marched to the border with his army.
According to what I heard using the communication magic tool that the Big brother borrowed from the country, the imperial army will be destroyed in a couple of hours, and tomorrow evening they will come by airship to reinforce us.
Until then, he told us to maintain the barrier and not to go on the offensive. Also, Mr. Grantz was a stowaway. We found an unfamiliar wooden box among the cargo, and when we opened it, he was asleep in it, snoring. Apparently, he was worried about me and wanted to go with reinforcements, but he is a person who is basically prohibited from leaving the country.
Mr. Grantz is the head engineer at Arland with many meister certifications. He has smuggled himself out of the country because the council decided not to let him leave the country even if it meant detention, as the country would suffer great loss if he died.
“Guhahaha. This Lassie has far more potential than I do!! Let the obedient people pray for our safety at the temple. I’m sure no one can help her more than I can!!”
“Sir Grantz…”
As expected, even Big brother was greatly perplexed. His guards on the other side of the communication tool were in tears. He’s not the kind of person that can be let out that much.
“Isn’t this past the expiration date?”
I continued staring at the potion. It’s thousands of years old… or even ten thousand years old. Is it safe to drink? I know that Father just fainted after recovering more than his limit of magic power, but there is too much difference in physical strength between me and him.
It’s not rotten, is it? Eeih, woman power!! I opened the lid and drank it in one gulp.
“Ooh… hm?”
First impressions? It tasted like water. Anyhow, it didn’t seem to be rotten. It didn’t hurt my stomach, either. But nothing was happening… did the effect wear off already?
“Oh… oooohhh!!”
Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then the magic power… the magic power overflowed!! This was indeed a secret medicine. This elixir is certainly… beyond my capacity… not good!!
“I have to feed magic power to the Spirits… how long are you going to keep sleeping?”
I diverted the excess magic power into the sleeping Spirits to wake them up. If I didn’t give the Spirits the excess magic power, even I will pass out. I shouldn’t have chugged it down in one gulp.
—Bleh!! I don’t want this.
—Stop it.
—This is not Alice’s magic power!! It’s disgusting.
They were all complaining. The Spirits who woke up were quite grumpy. Apparently, this magic power was bad to the taste buds of the Spirits. I mean, I’ve never known that they have taste buds. They always said that my surplus magic power was delicious, but I didn’t know they really had a taste for it… oh well.
Anyway, I am back. And I still have four more potions left. We can win this!!
“Mr. Grantz!! Let’s begin weapon manufacturing right away. Have you memorized ‘Factory’?”
I have been teaching “Factory” to Mr. Grantz as well. I have to say that of all the people I have taught, Mr. Grantz is the one who knows how to use it the best.
He is originally an engineer by trade and can understand the necessary materials from drawings, and since he routinely performs millimeter-by-millimeter machining, his imaginative power has been trained to the point where it is close to mine.
Factory is the magic of a universal manufacturing plant. It gives form to the user’s image as it is. Without a concrete image, it’s a meaningless magic.
“Of course, that spell is very suitable for me. With it, my career can stay afloat for the rest of my life.”
Mr. Grantz is already over 300 years old. He was wondering if it was time to retire. It seems that the strain of the years has taken its toll on him, and his fingers have begun to tremble. However, he no longer needs to use tools with Factory, since it allows him to do everything he wants even if he can’t use his hands as dexterously as before. Unlike me, however, he can only telekinetically move things manually. He can’t change the shape of a metal ingot without using heat, like I can. Still, he is a tremendous craftsman by nature, so there is no problem. I took out a couple suitable blueprints.
Namely, these two:
Multi-legged tank
Minigun
The barrel of the tank has not been made yet. Moreover, the legs weren’t done yet either, so I have to dismantle my golems and use their parts. My Golems are not made from rocks, but robots powered by magic power, so it is a precision machine. By dismantling it and using it as a material, the tank can be completed.
The miniguns will be restored as there are remnants left over. There are fewer of them than before, but it doesn’t matter because the place is so crowded with monsters that they will hit even if fired blindly.
Now we can fight. You will pay for killing Sharon. I will kill them all with everything I have.
“Mhm, your head is still full of crazy ideas as always. Well, why not? Follow me, my disciple!!”
“Got it.”
Mr. Grantz has not taken an apprentice in decades. He makes everything by himself alone, and all his past apprentices have been kicked out of his workshop and made independent. The workshop itself is in the Royal castle, so he’s basically a man of the castle.
He’s already left his territory to his children. He still retains his Marquis title because people around him haven’t let him retire, but the reality is that his son is basically the Marquis now.
He is very moody. A true craftsman. He says what he doesn’t like out loud, and he will show his dislike even if Father gives him orders. When I first met him, he yelled at me and made me cry. But he is the best of the best. So, I followed him around and stole his skills. Craftsmen do not teach their skills. You don’t learn from them, you steal their skills. So I followed him around and acquired his skills.