The daily lives of the alchemy department students had changed greatly.
In the past, they would rummage through cupboards, stave off hunger with a leftover piece of bread or even just water, build up their knowledge while listening to Rodelini’s lament-filled lectures, and study techniques in hopes of somehow making a living.
They had spent their days registering new techniques with places like the academy, then crying themselves to sleep when they realized those techniques would not bring in money right away. But now, things were different.
-“All right, eat up and do your best today too! Please take no more than two lunchboxes!”
Because Erika was handing out lunchboxes in front of Aizen’s workshop.
It was not that she was buying them herself. The meal distribution had begun when Aizen said he would provide meals for the people working with him.
Of course, due to matters of price and budget, their patron had imposed limits, so the lunchboxes were closer to what commoners might eat than what nobles would. But the impoverished alchemy students had long since stopped caring about such things.
More than anything, the alchemy department was mostly made up of fallen nobles or nobles steeped in poverty.
They had thrown away their dignity long ago, back when they had been tempted by the fact that alchemy could make gold.
To begin with, from the moment Professor Rodelini became the first person to receive a lunchbox after this distribution began, dignity had already lost all meaning.
They would set one aside to eat later, and the other for breakfast or lunch the next day, then all head straight into Aizen’s workshop.
-“Hey! Who messed with the thing I made yesterday?!”
-“This arrangement is way better than that! It’ll let us respond when the parts get improved!”
-“Apply that sort of thing to the Cyclops! This is for a different golem! Hey, where did you put the gunpowder we bought yesterday?!”
They began unleashing the voices they had kept hidden in their hearts.
Lively voices rang through the workshop, and all sorts of prototypes were brought up haphazardly and began to be calculated.
“Ah, having lots of people really is nice.”
“I had the impression you researched alone, so that’s unexpected.”
Professor Rodelini said as she wrote down all sorts of things, apparently calculating something.
The place had originally been fairly spacious, but now that it was packed with people, it had become noisy and cramped. Listening to that commotion, I too used golem magic to create a structure, moving it and calculating as I answered.
“That’s only because I had no one to research with. Does it look like there’s anyone who can keep up?”
“You got that wrong right before the end. It’ll explode again.”
Professor Rodelini glanced briefly at what I was calculating and immediately pointed out the error.
I checked it at once, nodded, corrected the mistaken part, and continued.
“Still, honestly, it feels like I’m alive. Everyone looks so interested.”
“Whatever else you say about them, if they came to my department, then they’re basically talented in researching things like this.”
Professor Rodelini spoke without even turning her gaze.
“They have no money, or they think it might help them run their territory. Whatever the reason, they come because they looked at alchemy as a technique and decided they’d make a living with it. There are some who get swept up in the mood of the moment, but people with no interest don’t even look this way in the first place. The moment they show interest, you can more or less assume they have talent.”
“There must be people who can’t keep up, though.”
“There are. But everyone takes the classes themselves as part of basic education, don’t they? The department is the advanced course, remember? They have a chance to experience it, so there are fewer cases like that.”
Professor Rodelini nodded in satisfaction.
“Good. If we load it with plenty of explosives, we should be able to fire a powerful warhead from farther away. We’ll have to test it later.”
“Please take a look at the armor curvature calculations.”
At that moment, a commotion broke out outside, and with an explosion, there came a sound like someone being sent flying.
-“Aaaagh! Find power 60 at 42 degrees!”
Without even turning my head, I thought about the direction the sound had come from and spoke as I was.
“The guys researching the levitation device went flying.”
“It isn’t easy to replace magic with a highly efficient magic tool instead of simply reproducing it. The concept itself is simple—floating slightly above the ground and moving—but the simpler something is, the harder it tends to be. And on top of that, it has to be able to keep doing it for a long time.”
I nodded at Professor Rodelini’s words.
After all, if you actually knew how many muscles, electrical signals, and bones moved just to move a single arm, you would be shocked.
“This is correct, so go help them. I have something else to do.”
“Ah, so I’m finally going over there.”
I nodded at the professor’s verification and stood up.
The professor sighed and said,
“After becoming a professor, I never thought the day would come when I’d work while sharing a table with someone.”
“They say the world is full of variables.”
“You do talk well. That was a compliment, so just say thank you and go.”
That was a compliment?
I was not sure, but Professor Rodelini did have a slightly peculiar way of speaking and acting, so I decided to let it pass.
“Then I’ll be going over there.”
“I’ll verify your figures for standardization and then go to the children making the weapons.”
Since those were the areas we had divided between us, I nodded.
Then a bit of noise came from outside.
-“I calculated it. They’ll be at this point!”
-“Then I’ll go look for—”
-“Don’t think about running away because you’re embarrassed. Put in some labor.”
It seemed they had calculated roughly where the ones who had flown off earlier had landed, and Noel, who had been demonstrating levitation magic for analysis since a while ago, apparently tried to escape but was stopped by Mina.
And then.
-“Go pick them up. Prince.”
-“Yes, ma’am!”
With a cheerful voice, Geumtaeyang set out.
Professor Rodelini, who had been watching the scene from above with me, abruptly asked,
“Are you sure this is all right? He may have volunteered himself, but is it really fine to use a foreign prince as a handyman?”
“If he says he’ll become labor on his own, I have no reason to stop him.”
For some reason, he also genuinely seemed to enjoy getting caught up in explosions on this side and flying all over the place.
-“To think it would be this fun. I’m glad I came!”
“It seems to be his calling, so let’s just leave him be.”
“Let’s do that.”
Professor Rodelini also seemed to have decided to give up in moderation.
I went outside and headed to where the people who had flown off earlier had been, and Noel greeted me right away.
“Ah, Lord Aizen. You’re here. Did you finish all the calculations?”
“Pretty much. Since the professor’s helping in earnest, the speed is no joke.”
In the past, I would have tried it myself, failed, and then looked for the wrong part. Now, Professor Rodelini checked it immediately and pointed out the error.
The frightening thing was that the time it took her was truly short.
Usually, when you calculate something, you verify it, fail, and then look for the mistake, but Professor Rodelini seemed able to organize it in her head just by looking at the calculations.
“The title of Vespia’s greatest alchemist and inventor is real. Though she’s poor.”
“In terms of ability alone, she’s a genius beyond compare even in the kingdom’s history. Though she is poor.”
Mina and Noel said similar things, but in any case, it was immediately clear that the time needed for development would be greatly shortened.
“Still, I’m a little unsure whether we can make it in time.”
We had to step in personally and estimate things, but the development of the levitation device for the hover system was lagging.
Originally, I had wanted to do it another way, but in truth, when I had tried to reproduce it before, I had nearly caused a fire. So I had concluded that it was impossible for now and moved to an electromagnetic levitation type instead.
In other words, that was why we were tearing apart Noel’s magic for analysis.
“It’s a little embarrassing when everyone keeps staring so hard at me while I’m floating.”
“Sorry. I’ll grant you one thing you want in exchange.”
This plan would honestly be difficult to proceed with if Noel refused to cooperate.
Among the professors, there were many for whom simple levitation magic would be easy, but apparently only someone like Noel could use magic that generated electricity to fly around.
It was thanks to her family handling lightning magic, but Noel herself had trained from childhood to make a formula to compensate for the weakness of her body. We were now trying to reproduce that formula as a magic tool.
It would be easy if we were simply copying the formula, but since ordinary magic is also activated through imagination, Noel herself did not know the exact principles, and some parts manifested by feel. That was why things were exploding in strange ways.
“Is making a new golem impossible?”
“I think it’ll be impossible here, and if we’re unlucky, we might not be able to make one even after we go.”
If we went on the pilgrimage and worked on it there too, there was still a possibility. And since the alchemy department guys had been fed and their morale had risen, they would probably keep working even after we got there. But time was absolutely limited.
Even Professor Rodelini could not simply make anything on the spot the moment she saw it.
In other words, everyone had no choice but to work hard.
And for times like this, there was also Plan B—or rather, something we were progressing in parallel.
“Once the levitation device is complete, we can somehow solve the issue of operating the Cyclops in the desert too.”
A little distance away, several alchemy students were attached to my Cyclops and working on the design.
They were mounting levitation devices on the legs, strengthening the backpack…
“So you’re attaching additional parts to match battlefield conditions.”
“Yes. However, since it means adding extra equipment to the original Cyclops, efficiency will drop and operating time will be reduced.”
The Cyclops had been designed with versatility as its focus, but in truth, I had not accounted for operating it with full equipment swaps.
Still, attaching a levitation device to make it glide over the ground seemed possible.
“Inevitably, the Cyclops will be sold and used the most, so it would be good to expand its applications.”
“Then, in that sense, the Cyclops would be able to use some of the Knight’s close-combat ability too.”
“It won’t be a perfect substitute, but in cases where there’s no Knight and close combat is needed, it should be possible to reinforce close-combat ability through refitting.”
“I see.”
After hearing the answer, I sensed something strange.
That manner of speaking was not Noel’s or Mina’s.
More importantly, I had not felt any presence…
“…I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Mm. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Huh?! Ah?!”
Noel finally noticed something odd and turned around, and Mina, startled, clutched her chest, held out what seemed to be the church’s symbol, and gasped for breath.
I broke out in a cold sweat.
“Th-that’s bad for the heart.”
“It’s fun for me, so I’ll use it again.”
Professor Reina smiled.
“So, in other words, if you can make a desert-combat Cyclops with partial refitting and additional equipment, close combat will also be possible.”
Professor Reina said quietly, her face filled with great anticipation.
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“Um.”
“I’ll come check every day to see whether you’re making it well.”
Professor Reina smiled once more, and as her presence gradually faded, the chill vanished.
The number of things I had to make had increased again.