A sensation of blue sparks crackling in my head along with a ringing in my ears. I gritted my teeth. The lump of steel inside the transmission, interfered with by mana, began to melt down and then reconstitute itself.
‘Even with higher efficiency, it’s still this bad?’
I had gone to the trouble of raising [Material Conversion] to level 3, but the pain gouging through my mana circuits was still there. It was on a completely different level from making bread or bullets.
Tank gears were precision machine parts. In a way, it was only natural. If the angle of a tooth was off by even one degree, if the bore of a bearing differed by even a single hair’s breadth, a tank weighing dozens of tons would not move. At high speed, the engine might even explode.
I squeezed out the last of my strength and completed [Material Conversion].
“Hngh…!”
A heavy sensation traveled from my fingertips. I supported the extracted cluster of gears with both hands.
[Conversion complete.]
“Haa, hah….”
Even a single gear weighed dozens of kilograms. Drenched in sweat, I set the completed gear down on the workbench. The silver-gleaming cogwheel was of such quality that one could believe it had just rolled off the line at an imperial arsenal.
But the price had not been small.
“Damn it.”
My head throbbed. When I pressed hard against my temple, a pulsing pain surged in like a wave. I wiped beneath my nose with the back of my hand, and dark-red blood smeared across it.
‘As expected, precision parts cost a lot.’
It was a mercy that I had used materials with similar properties. If I had tried to make this out of some completely unrelated lump of scrap metal, I probably would have burst a blood vessel in my brain or passed out.
And this was not the end. What remained now were the main shaft bearing, the clutch disc, and the road wheels.
“…Let’s rest for a bit.”
Amid the wreckage of tanks, oil, and machine parts, I lay spread-eagled and took a break. Only after quite some time passed was I able to synthesize the shaft bearing, clutch disc, and road wheels as well.
In any case, I had done it all. I picked up the radio and said,
“Gunter. Bring only the two mechanics you trust most. Men who especially know how to keep their mouths shut.”
A short while later, Gunter and the mechanics appeared out of the darkness.
“L-Lieutenant Colonel! Wh-where in the world did these spare parts come from…?!”
Gunter was startled out of his wits. I paid him no mind and approached the two mechanics. Maintaining secrecy was important.
‘Charming Speech.’
“What are your names?”
“P-Private Braun, sir!”
“Corporal Porsche!”
The mechanics stood at attention, stiff with nerves.
“You will never speak of the work you are about to perform. These parts were airlifted in through a special route.”
“A s-special route, sir?”
Corporal Porsche nearly jumped out of his skin.
“That’s right. They were delivered by special operatives at the risk of their lives. It is a route the Empire must protect at all costs.”
I deliberately paused to set the mood, then continued.
“And a route the Republic must eliminate at all costs. If word of this leaks, it means I can’t guarantee your lives either.”
[The skill instills an intense sense of pressure and an obligation to maintain secrecy in the targets.]
“Eek! I will never, never let it pass my lips!”
“I’ll assemble it with my life on the line, Lieutenant Colonel!”
“Good. Gunter, supervise them. Have them perfectly installed in Major Frederica’s tank before dawn.”
“Don’t worry, Lieutenant Colonel! Even if these bastards’ fingers break, I’ll make sure it’s finished perfectly!”
At that moment, Corporal Porsche looked at Frederica’s tank with a troubled expression.
“B-but, Lieutenant Colonel… to replace this, we have to remove the transmission cover, but all the bolts are rusted tight… Even blasting them with an oxygen torch would take half a day.”
“Hah….”
I let out a hollow breath. After suffering so much to procure the parts, these were the kinds of problems that occurred in the field.
“Don’t worry. I think I can help.”
I walked up to the tank. I could see the rusted, seized hex bolts embedded in the front armor plate. I placed my hand on the head of a bolt.
‘Material Conversion.’
[Target: Rusted iron oxide -> Fine sand]
Scritch.
When I infused mana into it, the rust tightly packed between the bolt and nut instantly turned into sand and crumbled away.
“Uh, uhh?!”
The mechanics rubbed their eyes.
“Now, try turning it.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Gunter fitted a massive wrench over it and applied force. The bolt, which had looked as if it would never budge, turned smoothly as if by magic.
“I-it’s turning! Lieutenant Colonel, what on earth is this?!”
“A special lubricant. Hurry!”
I continued circling the tank, working my “magic.” For seized parts, I removed the rust; for worn threads, I restored them.
“Damn it! The gasket is completely rotten! If we take this off, we can’t reuse it!”
Corporal Porsche wailed.
“Stop whining. I brought something for exactly this.”
I nudged an old wooden box sitting in the corner of the workbench with my foot. It was a box I had filled with miscellaneous scrap metal I had scraped together from the tank wreckage earlier.
“Sir? What is that?”
“An ‘emergency maintenance kit’ airlifted from the imperial arsenal. It’s for special forces, so it has everything.”
I shamelessly bluffed as I stuck my hand into the box. What my fingertips caught were only bits of rusty wire and a crushed can.
‘Material Conversion.’
[Target: Lump of scrap metal]
[Conversion: Cylinder head gasket for Panzer IV]
Drip—
Blood poured from my nose, but I roughly wiped it off on my collar.
“Here.”
Corporal Porsche’s eyes went wide.
“Huh?! Th-this is a pure copper gasket?! Isn’t this a top-grade item they only put in generals’ vehicles?”
“Just use it.”
Next, Private Braun looked ready to cry.
“We don’t have washers that fit the standard! They’re all worn down and spinning loose!”
‘Material Conversion.’
[Target: Brass cartridge cases and iron plate fragments]
[Conversion: 14 mm anti-loosening spring washers]
“Here, take them.”
Clatter.
A handful of silver-coated washers spilled onto Braun’s apron.
“Th-these are… brand-new spring washers with perfect tension…?!”
“It’s the tank our battalion commander will be riding in, so we should at least use that much. Just hurry up and change them.”
I had become a sort of general store… no, a Max-emon for mechanics.
“L-Lieutenant Colonel! Do you happen to have a 14 mm hex bolt? One with a 1.5 pitch!”
“Hold on.”
[Target: Piece of iron pipe -> 14 mm hex bolt (heat-treated steel)]
“Take it.”
Clatter.
“Lieutenant Colonel! A clamp! The hose clamp burst!”
“Here.”
Thunk.
“We’re short on wiring terminals!”
“Here.”
Thunk.
“Surely… you don’t have bearing grease, do you? Something that can withstand high heat…”
“Wait.”
I grabbed a lump of waste oil residue rolling around inside the box.
‘Material Conversion.’
[Target: Waste oil -> High-viscosity lithium grease]
“Here. Bring a container.”
When I opened my hand as if squeezing out a tube, thick, top-grade red grease dripped down.
“Eek?!”
By this point, even Gunter’s jaw had dropped as he stared at me—or rather, at the “magic box” placed in front of me.
“L-Lieutenant Colonel… If you’ll pardon the question.”
Gunter asked cautiously.
“That box… is the bottom of it connected directly to the imperial capital’s arsenal? Or is it some kind of legendary four-dimensional pocket?”
“I told you. They’re special supplies.”
To hide the blood running from my nose, I turned my head and deliberately scolded him in a stern voice.
“We don’t have time for chatter. We need to finish before sunrise!”
“U-understood! Hey! The lieutenant colonel is bestowing top-grade goods upon us, and that’s how fast you move your hands?! Move faster!”
“Y-yes, sir!!”
The mechanics now turned their wrenches with enthusiasm. Since the excuse that they could not fix it because they lacked parts no longer worked, the assembly proceeded at a truly insane speed.
Leaning against the box, I secretly panted for breath.
‘Damn it… raising a level is ridiculously hard….’
And so Frederica’s precious command tank gained new life throughout the night, fueled by my blood, sweat, and mana.
*
The next morning.
“Th-this is… impossible!”
Frederica screamed.
She had climbed onto her tank and was staring blankly down into the engine room. Her adjutant and the mechanics gathered around her.
“Battalion Commander? What’s wrong?”
“I started… I started the engine, but….”
Frederica could not continue and stroked the tank’s hull with trembling hands.
“It’s idling, but I can’t feel any vibration. It’s as quiet as if the engine were off. And the exhaust note….”
She murmured as if possessed.
“It’s a perfect four-stroke. There’s no sound of a cylinder misfiring, no sound of valves knocking. Even a brand-new engine one day out of the factory wasn’t this good.”
Unable to hold back, she flung open the engine room cover.
Whoosh—.
The inside of the engine room was revealed along with a wave of heat. Frederica’s eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck them.
“Th-this is…!”
The first place her gaze landed was the gap at the cylinder head.
“A pure copper gasket?! Are they insane? They used something this precious in the field?”
That was not all. The heat-treated bolts I had made with [Material Conversion] last night gleamed black as they tightly bound the engine together. The rust that had been seized all over was nowhere to be found, and top-grade lithium grease had been applied to every important area like red jewels.
“There are traces that the transmission cover was removed. But… not a single bolt head is stripped. No, they’re completely new.”
She was an elite who understood mechanical engineering. That was why she could understand it even less.
To repair the transmission, that massive cover had to be removed. In one night, here, without a crane or a dedicated press? And where on earth had those parts come from?
“Could supplies have arrived from the home country?”
At her adjutant’s words, Frederica shook her head.
“No. No transport plane came. And these aren’t imperial army supplies.”
She ran her finger over the surface of a tank part. It bore none of the distinctive markings of the imperial army. What she felt instead was the rapture of a finish so smooth it gave her chills.
“They really… made this here…? In just one night…?”
Inside Frederica’s head, she heard something shatter into pieces.
Frederica hurriedly turned her head and looked around. Just then, her eyes met mine as I was coming down the city hall steps.