[EN] Episode 18 - A Graduation Thesis 1

Wingester stared blankly at the sudden proposal, and the lord chuckled softly, waving his hand dismissively.

“Ah. Was it too abrupt after all?”
“Ah, well... how should I put it...”
“If it feels burdensome, you may decline. I never meant to force the issue.”
“......”

Though he said that, the head's eyes seemed unwilling to let him go easily.

“I truly appreciate the offer, but I'm not quite ready to consider something like that yet...”
“Ha ha! I see. Well then, if the opportunity arises again in the future, I'll propose it once more.”

Of course.
Wingester sensed, though he couldn't quite place why, that the head of the Seiz family was determined to recruit him somehow.

As a pragmatist, the head of the Seiz family didn't want to see such a talented young man wasting away in a mere magic tool shop, nor did he want him to catch the eye of some other official and be recruited by them.

Above all, the head valued the fact that keeping him close could stimulate Romulus's competitive spirit and draw out his talent.

“Thank you.”
“Not at all. Just... remember that I do not despise you as others do.”
“......”
“I hold your talent in very high regard. If you wish to pursue your ambitions, I intend to support you fully.”

Wingester bowed deeply in respect.
Regardless of the head's true motives, the fact that the head of the Seiz family held him in high esteem was gratifying.

“Continue striving alongside our Romulus.”
“...Yes. For me too, Romulus is someone I wish to surpass.”

*

The year changed, and Wingester reached the time to prepare his graduation thesis.
Romulus also appeared at the club much less frequently, preparing something of his own.

At berett's strong request, Wingester had taken her on as an assistant and was writing a thesis on developing a lightweight concentrator.

“I never thought this would actually work...”

He surveyed the newly built lightweight concentrator placed atop the completed blueprints, savoring the sense of accomplishment.

Adding copper to the circuits around the magic stone proved effective. Instead of the usual spiral or lattice structures, they based it on a spiral design but densely packed the circuits into a hexagonal, tilted honeycomb pattern.

While they couldn't drastically reduce the weight as much as desired, they managed to cut the volume down to about half the original size.

The weight issue could also be solved by researching lighter materials for the internal circuits.

Together with berett, they tried various approaches to find that material.

Currently, they were experimenting with wire made by twisting brass around mithril, then feeding it into a device that drew out the wire, using this brass-coated mithril wire to further reduce weight.

“Hmm... done.”

He placed the completed new concentrator on the scale, set the previously made concentrator on the other side, and checked if the weight had decreased.
The scales, which wobbled briefly, indicated the newly made concentrator was slightly lighter, but even this didn't satisfy him.

“So this is the limit with metal materials after all.”

Wingester had been feeling skeptical about metal materials themselves for some time now.
Mithril was a relatively light metal, but weaving high-density mana circuits into the concentrator meant it ended up being surprisingly heavy for its volume.
Yet, using other lighter metals wasn't an easy solution either; metals as mana-friendly as mithril were rare.

“If only there was a better material...”

After pondering for a moment, Wingester went to find Haixian.
She was still in the club room, pulling bundles of herbs wrapped in cloth from a cauldron filled with a jumble of herbs and squeezing them out.

“Hey.”
“Wingester? What brings you here?”
“How's your research going?”
“Yeah. This is almost finished.”

With a grunt, she gave one last powerful squeeze. As she shook the wrung-out cloth bundle over a plate, a dark green pill that looked somehow dangerous plopped onto it.

“...Poison?”
“Of course not. I'm from the White Witch family, remember?”
“Ah. Right.”
“I'm making a pill that permanently increases the user's mana pool. This is the fifth prototype.”
“That's fascinating research.”

For people like Wingester, with low mana aptitude and consequently low mana pools, if that pill were properly completed and commercialized, it alone could create new opportunities.

"Honestly, the cost-efficiency is low. But... once the manufacturing formula is established, medicinal farms will increase their supply of ingredients, which will help with commercialization.“
”So, stable pricing and supply will become possible, meaning long-term use will ensure efficiency... is that it?“
”That's the idea."

Just as she was about to pick up the pill, Wingester reached out and grabbed it first.

“What are you doing?”
“Can I try it?”
“Like I said, it's still a prototype in the trial-and-error phase. Are you prepared for potential side effects?”
“...Because I trust you.”
“You idiot!”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Wingester shoved it in his mouth and started chewing.
But before he could even swallow it, he regretted his decision.

“Guh…?!”

At first, the taste was refreshing, so he shrugged it off. But the moment it mixed with his saliva while chewing, an indescribably foul, rotten-like scent filled his mouth, along with a bitter, astringent taste that felt like his tongue was being torn off.

Unable to spit it out, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to chew and swallow...

“Guh... Ugh...!”

His stomach felt like something heavy was pressing down on it, throbbing painfully...!

“I'm... I'm okay...!?”

Haixian looked down at me with concern from beside me.

“H-Haixian…!”
“What's wrong?!”
“You, you… How can you normally eat this stuff as an experiment and still be fine…?!”

Watching Wingester writhe in agony, she silently shook her head and said,

“Witches basically have some level of poison resistance, and since we're treated like guinea pigs for all sorts of things constantly from a young age, we get used to it.”
“……!!”

Thinking what an incredible upbringing that must have been, Wingester staggered out of the club room.
Because if she didn't vomit it out in the bathroom right away, she felt like her stomach would explode.

After wrestling with the drug's side effects in the bathroom for a while, Wingester wiped the cold sweat from his brow with a handkerchief and barely made it back to the club room.

“Phew….”
“You went through a lot. Is your head clearer now?”
“…Not sure.”
“Then I guess it's a failure again….”

Wingester watched her shake her head regretfully, then belatedly remembered why he was here.

“Come to think of it, I have one question...”
“What is it?”

Wingester asked her in detail about non-metallic materials that were easy to process, lightweight, and good at holding mana.

“Hmm... If that's what you mean...”
“......?”

After a moment's thought, she snapped her fingers and said,

“There is.”
“What material?”
“...Silk. High silk is the best among them.”

Silk is commonly produced within the Magic Kingdom as it's a primary material for robes.
But high silk was a different story.

It was a premium silk exclusive to nations on the Eastern Continent, considered a luxury item even within those countries.

“High silk might be overkill. Regular silk is easy to obtain... but it's worth testing.”

Wingester's eyes lit up as if he'd found the answer.

“Thanks, Haixian. Keep up the good research.”
“Wait a moment!”
“?”

Haixian stopped him and spent some time touching various parts of Wingester's body, placing a hand on his forehead, and so on.

“Hmm... No noticeable changes. Your head really didn't feel clearer or anything?”
“...Not sure.”
“Hmmph. Got it. Keep up the research.”

Stepping out of the club room like that, he saw Zessler walking towards the club room.

“Hey there. Zessler.”
“Wingester? What brings you here?”
“I wanted to ask Haixian something.”
“Ah. I'm just on my way to get my maintenance tools.”
“So, how's that new propeller project coming along?”

He shook his head at Wingester's question.

“Nope. I've already wrecked two... It's no easy challenge.”
“Still, completing it would be a major achievement, right?”
“That's exactly why I'm taking it on. Wingester, make sure your research succeeds too.”
“Right. Hang in there.”

Wingester headed straight out onto the street.
Graduating students could roam freely, regardless of class schedules, if needed for their graduation thesis work.

Heading to Witches' Street, the best place to find silk, Wingester soon entered a wholesaler selling various materials.

“Oh my. A student, are you? Looking for something in particular?”

A plump, middle-aged witch shopkeeper emerged from the corner of the store, greeting him with a smile.

“Do you have any high-quality silk bundles?”
“Of course we do. Are you weaving a new robe?”
“No. I need the thread for an experiment….”

Despite his avoidance of details, she didn't mind, pulling out several bundles of silk dyed in various colors from a display case.

“Which one will you take?”
“Hmm... I'll take the white one, please.”

After buying five skeins of thread from the shop and putting them in her bag, she returned to her laboratory.
She conveyed the suggestion to try silk to Berett, who was deep in thought while organizing the results of tests on various materials on the blackboard.

“Silk definitely has potential. But...”
“?”
“Silk is a soft fiber, right? How can we create a precise hexagonal structure with this?”
“......”

Wingester, realizing that part was indeed problematic, also fell into deep thought.
Moreover, its softness made it difficult to secure it firmly to the core magic stone.

After exploring various solutions, they improved the structure by carving grooves into the magic stone itself for the circuitry, allowing the silk to simply be inserted into these grooves.
The result was the most ideal form: the weight was reduced to just that of the magic stone, with the silk contributing almost none.

“Now, if this just activates properly…!”

Wingester fervently hoped as he placed the metal cover over the concentrator.
Success here would mean a major innovation in mana concentrator materials.

Compared to expensive and relatively hard-to-find mithril, or even silver which offered decent value, silk was a very cheap material since it was also used in robes and such.
If it became certain that concentrators could be made from silk, the price of mana concentrators could be drastically reduced.

Click.

The cover was fully attached and mounted on the test stand.
Berett watched with hopeful eyes, and Wingester calmly activated the mana.

Sssshhh….

Unusually, instead of a resonant hum, a soft, almost brushing sound accompanied the faint glow of mana emanating from the mana concentrator.
The silk-made mana concentrator was functioning.

“……!!”
“It's incredible…!”
“It works…! With this…!”

-To be continued-