Various Circumstances (4)

After adjusting to increase the types of bombs through the meeting with Hare, I began to go around the domain for the tasks I had to do. And I asked Demina for advice regarding the mana and magic power that had recently begun to grow rapidly, but she only explained about mana because she herself did not know magic power well.

“I think it would be easy to think of it as the force of life.”

“The force of life.. that is a bit vague.”

“Well, watch closely. If you concentrate mana in your hand like this, your hand first becomes hard. Now, do you want to touch it?”

Just as Demina said, her hand was in a state as hard as some stone. And when she said she released the mana, the hand became soft again, and Demina began to explain this simply.

“In the case of mana, if you become able to handle it consciously, you can make your body hard or have powerful strength. It is easy to think that the ability of a specific part improves significantly depending on which part you operate the mana in.”

“Hmm.. but even I am capable of that much? But it was impossible in the same way as Demina, though?”

Then, after infusing a lot of mana into my hand, I held out my hand to Demina, and she massaged my hand and asked.

“It seems like you are operating mana… it is strange? Why?”

Demina tilted her head with an expression of even greater wonder than mine, but I changed the question first.

“I can operate mana freely. I can make it swirl through my whole body and concentrate it on specific body parts, but there was no feeling like my physical abilities being strengthened like the knights or strong beastkin.”

“It is strange. Normally, it is said that one has entered the ‘Expert’ stage just by handling mana consciously. And since it is a bit dangerous, just a moment.”

Demina took a step back and gave form to the mana in her hand.

“By human standards, this is called a Master. It is the formation of an ‘Aura’ that can produce powerful force by expressing mana externally.”

“Hmm… mana to the outside…”

Gaining a hint from Demina’s words, I also extracted the mana I was holding in my hand to the outside, and it came out well. And as I was consciously moving it, Demina was amazed.

“When did you become a Master?!”

“…It is not like that? I am literally just taking the mana out and moving it around like I am playing… this has no lethality. It is just flashy.”

At my words, Demina carefully poked her finger toward it, and as she confirmed that her finger was truly unharmed, she looked at me as if she could not believe it.

“How can you… handle mana… so easily…?”

“One of the talents I was granted was ‘Blessing of Mana’.”

“….Do not lie.”

“It is true? Why would I bother lying?”

Demina looked at me as if she found it absurd and spoke.

“The Blessing of Mana is a great talent that only appears a few times in a century…”

“Ehey, you are exaggerating too much. If it is such a great thing, something should be more special, right?”

No matter how much I thought about it, I did not think it was that great. Demina just ended up laughing with an expression of absurdity at my claim, and after laughing for a long while, she quickly composed her emotions and spoke to me.

“I wonder if you are using that talent differently, My Lord. Since you use mana when manufacturing ‘medicine,’ perhaps all the mana that harms people disappeared and only the mana that saves people remained?”

“I do not quite understand, do mana’s properties also get divided?”

“Of course. The more it belongs to someone who has killed many people, the more the mana turns red. Some say it is because it contains blood, but it is common knowledge that ‘Destructive Disposition’ mana takes on a red color. There is another example; among the Demonic Tribe, it is known that when they awaken mana, they emit a black ‘Aura’.”

“What kind of disposition is black?”

“They call it death.”

Black is the color of death?

It could be a forced claim covered in a bit of prejudice. However, since I could not just ignore it, I planned to let it pass, and I became curious about what I could do with this mana if I possessed mana that saves people.

“Is it impossible to change mana to another disposition no matter what?”

“No, if you think about it, even your mana now changed to the current state from some other disposition, right? It would be correct to see that a change in disposition gradually occurs depending on what kind of life you lead and with what kind of heart you frequently and repeatedly operate mana.”

“Ah. I understood.”

Even after performing various experiments afterward, I could not think of a way to change mana to another disposition. I wanted to use this to do something someday, but since there was already enough work to do currently, I thought it would probably be a task for the very distant future.

Afterward, I handled all the backlogged work, grabbed a bottle of liquor, and was returning to my room when a person came to find me.

It was Linda.

“I heard you were drinking alcohol alone again in loneliness…”

Looking at Linda standing awkwardly in front of the room, I scratched my head. She was a woman who did not even know how to drink, yet she had brought snacks. Looking closely, it was ‘cheese.’

“Let’s go in first. But what wind has brought you here?”

“Hmm… I heard from Beni. She said My Lord has been drinking alcohol frequently alone lately.”

“It is a hobby.”

“I thought you had many worries… is it a hobby?”

“Well, this liquor is a masterpiece among masterpieces that has finished ten barrel-changes. It is a liquor produced in a small quantity of only about 20 barrels with great effort this time, and since it is not for sale, I have to handle it all myself. If not for that, it is the kind of item one would give as a gift to an acquaintance, so I am enjoying drinking it.”

Linda wore an expression of not knowing much about alcohol. In fact, since she was someone who would get drunk after just one glass, I had no intention of offering it, but because of Linda, who kept looking back and forth between the liquor and me, I awkwardly placed the liquor bottle on the table and changed the question.

“Are you worried about me?”

“Hmm… actually, I was worried. After all, the inner circumstances are different for every person.”

It was a situation that felt good. A beautiful woman worried about me and came to find me with snacks as soon as work was finished…

Furthermore, a woman who would act drunkenly or collapse after one glass of alcohol?

It was more than a green light, but honestly, it was a moment where I felt gratitude and thankfulness rather than lust.

“Thank you. For worrying about me. To be honest, it is not that I have no concerns. Not just operating the domain, but because I often lose sleep from worry even due to the Empire’s movements lately.”

“Are you worried enough to fall asleep by relying on the influence of alcohol?”

Linda had a serious expression, but I shook my head and spoke.

“It is not to that extent. You know that we are preparing enough to the point that it can be called sufficient, right?”

It was a situation where we had produced over 10,000 firearms by accelerating production, and there were already 200 magic cannons as well.

To be honest, even if we only operated the magic cannons well, there would be no worry no matter how many of the Imperial Army invaded. Furthermore, what if even these new weapons were supplied?

We would be able to ruin the command system and inflict damage close to a massacre on the troops as well.

Furthermore, in the case of those approaching closely, I thought we could handle them with firearms from above the castle walls. It is easy to say 10m, but it is dauntingly high when looking up. Even if they propped up siege towers or siege ladders, since the beastkin were very strong, pushing them back was also easily possible. I predicted that the defense itself would be smooth as long as we were equipped with specialized equipment for pushing back.

The part I thought was at least a problem was the ‘Knight Orders,’ but after hearing that the number of knights mobilized this time alone was 10,000, I just thought about it a bit seriously, and other than that, there were no major concerns.

Furthermore, it was time for Idlen to begin full-scale activities to dry up the funds within the Empire.

It was a situation of moving a massive army. The drying up of funds meant that they would not be able to sustain the war for long, and it meant that the Empire’s circumstances would inevitably become difficult.

At the moment the efforts of the Dust of Sands Trading Company, who could be called a helper, came to fruition, I thought the Empire would suffer from internal illness at an uncontrollable speed and groan.

From now on, it would be a full-scale race against time.

“As for me, I am a person who thinks it is a great relief to have known Linda. I am grateful for your devoted work, and I am also thankful for your meticulous care just like now.”

“It was nothing…”

Linda was blushing, and I spoke to her.

“I think it must certainly be a very difficult and hard time. It could even be called my incompetence for making everyone vulnerable due to a decision that was too hasty. However, I have no intention of backing down. One retreat easily creates a second and a third time. One ends up compromising. I did not want to become that kind of person. Although I made everyone vulnerable by being stubborn, I thought we would be able to overcome this, and even now, it is becoming that way.”

After speaking for quite a while, I said to Linda.

“Because there were people who believed in me and followed me like this, I am still gaining strength and running. Because I do not want to be caught and make everyone unhappy, I am running even harder. Therefore, couldn’t you worry about me when I have collapsed, or when I am exhausted and struggling?”

I thought that encouragement was what was needed most right now. Linda, who noticed my heart, nodded while showing a bright smile. Then she stood up abruptly, brought a glass, opened the liquor bottle herself, and poured the liquor. I drank it and was able to eat the cheese Linda provided as an accompaniment.

While doing so, we talked about various things, mostly about when Linda lived her life at the academy.

“….I suffered so much back then? I really never thought it would be that hard due to the difference in basic knowledge from the kids of noble families.”

“Hmm, was it a problem with the education level itself?”

“Rather than that, I think it can be seen as the difference between the bookshelves opened to commoners and the bookshelves opened to nobles.”

“Why did they divide them?”

The story of the academy’s library was in full swing.

“From what I heard, I think I heard that they divided them because of ‘ideology’ issues that would become complicated if commoners knew them.”

“Ideology…”

It was indeed something very dangerous. It was because it was one of the few pieces of knowledge that changed the world. Literally, it is because ruling is easier when the people are ‘obscured,’ and ruling is advantageous for the rulers only when knowledge is made the exclusive property of a specific class, namely the ‘nobles.’

I know that the illiteracy rate in this world exceeds 90%. It meant that everyone literally did not know how to read except for a few minorities.

“The fact that books are expensive was also one of the reasons they are not revealed.”

“Why is that?”

“It is said that accidents of hand-copying them and leaking them to the outside occurred frequently.”

“Transcription… well, since the content contained is more important than the book itself, they must have tried to earn money in that way?”

“That is right. Thanks to that, many restrictions were established, and although they have been partially eased now, I know that most content related to ‘ideology’ is still being controlled.”

After listening to the interesting stories for a long time, the liquor was already nearly half empty. Since I had rarely drunk this much until now, I put down the glass, and seeing my action, Linda asked.

“Are you not going to drink more?”

“I should stop drinking for the sake of tomorrow. I am in a state where the influence of alcohol has risen considerably even now.”

Because it was a strong liquor exceeding 40 degrees, Linda nodded after hearing my words, and she began to support me according to my movement as I tried to stand up. Then she began to change my clothes into comfortable attire, including my coat, but why was it?

Linda, reflected in my eyes, also appeared to have her clothes become lighter one by one.

‘Is it an illusion…? No, was that the original attire?’

While I tilted my head in doubt, Linda looked at me and spoke.

“I want to… be with My Lord today… It would be okay, right?”

Linda began to unfasten the buttons of her top one by one while waiting for my answer.