15 — Chapter 14

To stand against a powerful enemy like Nodon, exposing his wrongdoing or simply doing the existing trade better would not be nearly enough.

That was why the fact that Kururu’s idea seemed promising also meant that it would be impossible unless we came up with that level of innovation.

And to give shape to Kururu’s idea, an obvious problem stood in our way.

We would need expensive magic stones in order to experiment with new magic circles through trial and error.

“It really makes you realize just how amazing the modern age was.”

I agreed with Kengo’s sighing remark.

“If we had something like a logic circuit simulator, we wouldn’t have to worry about procuring materials.”

“Hey, speak in words I can understand.”

My command of this world’s language was not polished enough to smoothly translate a term like logic circuit simulator. I ended up speaking in Japanese, and Kururu frowned.

“In our old world, we could do something like testing magic stone processing without wasting resources.”

“…Your world really did have some strange technology.”

I did not want to hear that from someone from a world where magic existed, but a world made possible by computer science could indeed be called a world of magic. The fact that a tiny chip small enough to sit on the tip of your little finger could probably hold every book in this world really was magic, after all.

“Let’s talk realistically.”

Kengo said that.

“There are far too many things we still lack if we want to steal Nodon’s business. If there’s any real possibility, it lies in what Kururu-chan mentioned—the possibility of a new magic circle. But to find something like that, trial and error is indispensable.”

Kengo paused there and looked at me and Kururu.

“Still, when it comes to the issue of raw materials for testing magic stone processing, honestly, it depends on how noble we want to be.”

It was a roundabout way of saying it, but of course I understood what he meant. Clever Kururu seemed to grasp it immediately too. She pointed at Kengo and me as she spoke.

“You, who work at the mine, are basically the keeper of the magic stone storeroom, and this one is the merchant who moves the goods out of that storeroom. Skimming a few magic stones would be easy, wouldn’t it?”

“…”

“…”

Kengo and I had come from modern Japan. The fact that it had some of the best public safety in the world naturally also meant that, even in business dealings, honesty and trust were highly valued.

“It’s more like… the guilt, you know?”

“In our world, that sort of thing is a bit…”

Kururu made a face like she had been presented with fish on the verge of rotting.

“This is not a game. What are you talking about? I’m not saying you should steal all of it. If I had just one or two—fifth-grade, or preferably fourth-grade—I could experiment with those. What is there to hesitate about?”

Even if moral laws did not differ all that much, the amount they were tolerated could easily change depending on the environment.

Kururu was not a bad person, of course, and in this world, a bit of petty theft was probably within the range of what people overlooked—an everyday occurrence.

But by our standards, theft was theft, and it was hard to feel comfortable with it.

“What do we do?”

When Kengo asked me that, I wished he would not throw it to me, but what immediately crossed my mind was our old world.

A workplace could change greatly depending on how the person in charge behaved.

If it came under the control of someone whose values said that as long as the numbers went up, it did not matter if they screamed at people or did anything else, then that place could easily turn into hell.

If that was the case, then if the three of us were going to do something together, the question was whether it was really okay to operate under standards that tolerated theft.

“Stealing is no good.”

Water flowed easily downhill, and once it did, it was hard to make it return.

“Then let’s do it without stealing.”

Kengo agreed with me firmly.

“…”

Kururu looked like she could not believe it, but she did not object strongly.

And the fact that she turned away and jutted out her lips might have been because she felt as though her own misconduct had been reproached.

“But I also think Kururu-san’s point was correct.”

“Huh?”

At my words, Kururu turned an irritated look toward me.

“The part about Kengo being the keeper of the storeroom and me being the merchant who handles what comes out of that storeroom.”

“…You were the one who said theft was no good.”

That was true, but merchants throughout history had always been remarkably good at finding the gaps in morality.

“If we borrow them, maybe there’s no problem.”

“Come on, Yorinobu.”

Kengo, who had just sided with me, said that in exasperation, while this time Kururu gave a sarcastic smile.

But I was serious.

“Kengo, listen too. There is always a magical stretch of time in part of any business transaction.”

Kengo and Kururu looked at each other.

“Suppose Lady Iiria wanted a new hammock.”

At my words, both Kengo and Kururu listened quietly.

“Kururu-san takes the payment to the Nodon Company. The money is paid in advance, and she asks them to prepare it by around next month.”

Up to that point, it was just an ordinary shopping story.

“The Nodon Company then promptly goes to a rope-weaving artisan to procure the hammock.”

“Hey, what is the point of telling such an obvious story?”

Impatient Kururu said that, but Kengo’s eyes had widened.

“You mean, whose cash is it?”

“Huh?”

“That’s right. There is one month until the hammock is delivered to Kururu. And given the Nodon Company’s position, they can probably delay payment to the rope-weaving artisan by one month.”

In other words, the situation was this.

The Nodon Company could delay purchasing the hammock until the very last moment before Kururu’s deadline arrived, one full month later, and then from there have the artisan wait another month for payment. That meant that for two months, the money Kururu had paid would remain in the Nodon Company’s hands.

The question was: whose money was that?

That was the magical stretch of time that existed in the gap within a transaction.

If you used money during that magical stretch of time—money in your hands that belonged to no one in practical terms—what harm would there be? You could lend it out and collect interest. Or you could use it to buy a bargain item and quickly resell it.

As long as the books are balanced, no one would suffer.

“There is plenty of magical time between when a magic stone is dug out of the mine and when it is handed over to the Bax Company.”

“So during that time, we borrow the magic stones and have Kururu-chan experiment with magic circles.”

“Is that theft? Or is it not?”

I had read it in a book in my old world.

For example, how had the Mitsui shop, which had originally been no more than a draper, grown so rapidly into a giant conglomerate? Because it succeeded as a money changer and thereby secured the position of an official bank handling government deposits.

Even the enormous sums of government money deposited into bank accounts had their own magical stretch of time.

That was effectively the same as multiplying the amount of usable money by hundreds or thousands of times, so of course profit followed.

And the use of magical time, in every case, was neither morally good nor morally evil—it was simply a shadow lying in the abyss of commerce.

“Ugh… I do not really understand this magical time of yours, but in the end, is it not the same as theft?”

Kururu said that unhappily.

“You may want to follow the beliefs of your own world and call it borrowing instead of theft, but changing the word does not turn a fish into a pig, does it? Of course, if that is enough for you to be satisfied, I have no objection. But if you call it borrowing, then you intend to return it. Is that not so?”

After rattling that off, Kururu fell silent as though thinking over her own words, then looked at us again.

Because I had mostly only seen Kururu acting like a belligerent street punk, I had not realized it, but Kururu was originally an intelligent and quick-witted young woman.

“In experimenting with magic circles, the only option is to actually carve them. However, by shaving down the surface of a magic stone, it is possible to recarve a new pattern, so with a single fifth-grade or fourth-grade stone, we could try quite a number of times. But the standards for magic stones include weight, do they not? That is why if a magic stone processing artisan fails while carving, they end up shaving away valuable magic stone and lowering its price. Which means they get beaten black and blue by the master.”

With Kururu teaching us the practical side of magic stone processing, I started to understand the picture.

“The fact that the magic stone gets used up doesn’t change. So borrowing won’t work. You’d have to steal it.”

Kengo, the former consultant who could understand ten things from hearing one, answered at once.

“There are several ways around that. One is to make sure that after erasing the carved pattern, the remaining weight stays within the margin of measurement error. Quality inspections aren’t that exact, so for example, we could make the carved pattern no deeper than a mere scratch.”

“…If there were a master mage, that would indeed be possible.”

Kururu looked displeased.

“The ease with which a magic stone’s effect can be activated depends on the depth of the pattern. I’ve heard that even a pattern that is no more than a slight scratch can be activated by a truly skilled mage. If it’s only a faint scratch, the magic stone doesn’t lose weight in processing, which is one reason master mages are so highly prized.”

And Kururu said she was only barely able to draw out a magic stone’s power at all.

To carve a new pattern into a magic stone and confirm that it was more efficient than an existing one, a mere scratch would apparently not be enough.

Seeing Kururu lower her gaze in frustration at her own inadequacy, Kengo placed his large hand on her head and rubbed it roughly.

“Then there’s only the second workaround. Right, Yorinobu?”

Kururu brushed off Kengo’s hand as if it annoyed her, then looked suspiciously at him and me.

“Well, that was my plan from the start anyway.”

“Hey, I have no idea what you mean.”

Kururu was not stupid, of course, and even I might not have come up with it from nothing. But if you were used to the complex paperwork of the modern world, it was not that hard to think of.

“As long as the numbers in the documents match up, we can keep the same magic stone inside magical time forever. And that really isn’t all that difficult.”

As long as we had Kengo, the supervisor of the mine, and me, the one in charge of exports.

And this was a world where sloppy bookkeeping was allowed to pass as normal.

“But that doesn’t mean we can do it with lots of magic stones, and if one day Nodon orders a full inventory inspection, I’ll end up having to lie. I’d have no choice but to tamper with the documents, close the entrance to magical time, and pretend none of it had ever happened. At that point… it becomes theft.”

You could say it was not really a matter of law, but simply a matter of conscience.

And Kururu, who had suffered greatly in this harsh world, was realistic enough that she would not hesitate to steal if it served a greater purpose.

That was why Kururu, with a cold look on her face, said this:

“Instead of going through such roundabout means, would it not work if I were the one who took on the dirty role in your place?”

She did not care if she got stained by theft at this point.

Faced with that Kururu, I answered back almost on reflex.

“That’s no good.”

The words came out before even Kengo could speak, and I was a little surprised myself.

Kururu blinked too.

Silence fell among the three of us, and I suddenly felt embarrassed, but I thought it would be even more embarrassing to stay quiet, so I continued.

“Because Lady Iiria would not want that.”

It was obvious enough from the way Iiria and Kururu had endured ridicule and contempt at the ceremony that morning.

I did not think Iiria would ever want Kururu to help her by dirtying her hands with wrongdoing. If she had been willing to accept that, she would have done so long ago.

And the same went for us.

“…What do you know of Lady Iiria?”

Kururu said that while looking away, but before long she glanced back at me from the corner of her eye.

“I… do not want to owe you two a debt.”

It would be fair to translate that as meaning she did not want to loaf around after forcing someone else to play the villain for her.

Kururu was dutiful and loyal by nature. She just seemed a little rough-tempered and awkward about it.

Kengo was smiling cheerfully, and I nearly smiled too, only to almost get scratched by Kururu for it.

“How about this—we save up money together, the three of us, so that if magical time ever runs out, we can make up for the magic stone we used.”

It seemed unlikely that the moment we hid a magic stone inside magical time, we would immediately be struck by the misfortune of an inventory inspection, but we still ought to prepare for it.

“If that’s the case, then with what we earn, a fifth-grade one, maybe?”

Magic stones were basically like weapons, so their prices were far removed from things like wheat or meat. A third-grade one was worth over a thousand gold coins. A fourth-grade one was around two hundred, and even a fifth-grade one was around ten.

At the official rate, one gold coin was worth twelve silver coins. One silver coin was worth twenty copper coins, so one gold coin was worth two hundred forty copper coins. If one copper coin could be thought of as about one hundred yen, then a fifth-grade magic stone was worth about two hundred thousand yen. In modern terms, that meant it cost about as much as a handgun.

A third-grade stone came out to about twenty million yen, so it was probably more like a light military weapon. I felt like a portable rocket launcher cost around that much.

I had never handled second-grade goods, so I did not know the price, but converted into modern money, it would easily exceed one hundred million yen, so it probably felt more like a missile. Since the story was that a mage could become military force worth a thousand soldiers, that was probably about where the price and destructive power lined up.

“What about you, Kururu-chan? A fifth-grade one is pretty small, right?”

A stone only a little larger than a five-hundred-yen coin. Geometric patterns would have to be carved into that.

“I am used to fine decoration. A fifth-grade one is fine.”

Kururu said that bluntly, then lowered her gaze to her hands and added this as well:

“I used to imitate processing in secret, hidden from Lady Iiria’s eyes.”

Kururu, interested in magic stone processing but unable to let Iiria find out, secretly practicing by carving patterns into small stones. Both Kengo and I ended up imagining that.

And overheated Kengo, perhaps moved by how endearing that made Kururu seem, tried to put his arms around both her shoulders, only to be genuinely rejected.

“Still, it’s true that we can’t secure enough magic stones to just carve wildly at random.”

With Kengo’s face scratched and Kururu baring her fangs and growling at him, I said:

“That’s why, instead of trying to secure lots of magic stones, maybe we can cooperate at the stage before the processing.”

““Before the processing?””

Kururu was fighting back against Kengo with rather genuine force, but when she was up against a big man like him, who carried an easygoing older-brother sort of presence, it only looked like horseplay. Even so, the two of them spoke in unison.

“Magic circles are combinations of geometric patterns, right? And if there are laws behind them, then maybe we can help by thinking through the possible combinations.”

“Mm, ah… hmm.”

Kengo stopped messing around with Kururu and folded his arms as he groaned.

“I’m more of a humanities guy. What about you, Yorinobu?”

“I’m more of a science guy, but at your university level, you’re probably better at math than I am. You had math on your entrance exams, didn’t you?”

Kengo only shrugged, whether out of modesty or not.

“And even though I’m the one bringing it up, there’s another concern too.”

“A concern?”

“I heard that, in our old world, by the time of ancient Greece, everything that could be done with just a compass and straightedge had already been exhausted. In other words, there’s a possibility that trial and error with plane figures has already been exhausted in this world too.”

“Oof.”

Kengo groaned, and Kururu drew deep furrows between her brows.

“What are you talking about?”

“Uh… the level of civilization, I mean… for example, in this world, does algebraic geometry… how do you even say algebraic geometry?”

I slipped into Japanese midway and looked to Kengo for help, but even Kengo wore a troubled look.

“Is it possible to solve problems of shape with formulas? For example, calculating the path of something when you throw it, or solving higher-order functions?”

Kururu wore the most blankly innocent expression I had ever seen on her. It was possible that I had simply failed to translate it properly into this world’s language, but in a place where plenty of people struggled even with multiplication tables, the number of people who could understand the concept of quadratic functions had to be extremely limited.

In our old world, the general method for solving cubic functions had apparently already been discovered in the Middle Ages, so it was possible that it had already been discovered in this world as well.

But since even basic education in the four arithmetic operations had not spread properly, even if some genius somewhere had discovered it, it would probably be some secret art even less known than magic.

“Well, I’ve already confirmed at the company that they have tools like compasses and rulers, so drawing figures should be no problem. If the proportions or areas of the figures carved into magic stones follow some kind of function, then our knowledge should give us an advantage in figuring that out.”

Even high school level math would be incredible future knowledge in this world. That meant we had a perspective that the artisans of this world did not possess.

If it had been a type of magic that activated through incantation, we would have been helpless.

“Ahh, but geometry problems, huh. This reminds me of the written tests during job hunting.”

“There were those puzzle-like IQ test things too, now that you mention it.”

Kururu was still tilting her head in confusion, but she stomped her foot hard to pull our attention back.

“We can just carve and test them. Is that not so?”

Kengo, who loved strength training, of course also loved that sort of gritty logic.

“That’s right. But if you train the wrong way, it’s inefficient. So in the end, wouldn’t the shortcut be to first verify Kururu-chan’s hypothesis?”

“The hypothesis… ah, right, the part about using legendary magic circles as reference.”

Faced with the gazes from Kengo and me, Kururu unusually seemed to shrink back a little.

“Kururu-san, do you happen to have any copies of old-era magic circles?”

“N-no… but I should have them memorized.”

That sounded a little unreliable.

“As for current magic stones, the company has the base text… but when it comes to things from the era of the ancient war, I don’t think those were included. Maybe I could ask one of the traveling merchants who comes and goes to copy down the ones that remain in other territories?”

“Wouldn’t that be hard to trust? If the copy were wrong, we’d be agonizing over an unsolvable problem.”

“Well, that problem already exists at the stage of the copied legendary magic circles themselves, but…”

Kururu cut into the exchange between Kengo and me.

“We can probably prepare several accurate legendary magic circles. I cannot do it, but you two should be able to.”

“Huh?”

Kururu crossed her arms unhappily, her ears fluttering beneath the hood, then said:

“The church.”