June 25th.
First thing in the morning, Elsa cast Genesis on her father, Georg.
Still, his condition did not seem to improve.
“I-I’m so-sorry.”
Seeing her father’s arrogance suddenly disappeared while struggling with his speech, Elsa was unable to endure it and rushed out of the room.
She bumped into Jin outside.
“Oh, Brother Jin!”
“… Was it no good after all?”
Seeing the tears rolled down Elsa’s cheeks, Jin realized that the treatment did not go well.
“It seems that brain damage should be treated patiently. First, we need to deal with the Marquess.”
“… Yeah.”
After breakfast, Jin and his friends excused themselves and left the Randol family in Exxi. They boarded Jin’s carriage and headed for the Eschenbach residence.
Through the Warp Gate hidden in the barn there, everyone traveled to Horai Island.
“Welcome home, My Lord. Welcome everyone.”
Jin and his friends were greeted by Laojun’s unchanging voice. Their first destination was the dining hall. The reason being there was no other suitable place available for a meeting room.
“Ah, this was an unexpected problem.”
There was no such room because large group meetings were unthinkable in the predecessor era.
Jin re-discussed the concept of “Fuso Island” that was to be improved later.
“Basically, the Warp Gate will be installed in the kingdom’s capital, won’t it?”
Reinhardt interjected.
“Yeah, if possible. Installing it inside the royal castle would be desirable. It ensures safety or credibility since the people that have access inside the castle would be those recognized by the kingdom.”
At the very least, it would be the first level of security.
“I’m thinking of developing a research institute and a residential building. Here on Horai Island, the residence and the laboratory are inside the same building. But I’d like to separate them on Fuso Island.”
“I think it’s a good idea. Making a clear distinction between research and life is undoubtedly a good thing.”
Berthie commented then glanced at Reinhardt who was sitting next to her.
“Will there be a hot spring, a toilet, and a futon?”
Elsa inquired. She seemed not able to give up on those three.
“Yeah, I can do something about the hot spring and the toilet. But what shall we do with the futon? Since it needs special materials, I think maybe we should make something that uses more general materials. Let’s leave it aside for the time being. I have something to think about.”
“What’s that?”
“Yeah. If possible, I’d like to talk about it when Saki is around. Because it’s related to materials.”
She did not persist in asking further after Jin’s reply.
The topic shifted back to Fuso Island.
“I would like to set up a magic brain to manage the entire island, like a miniature version of Laojun. What do you think?’
“I think it’s a great idea. I think you should make a golem for the assistant, too.”
“If a lot of researchers came to visit, a maid golem would be necessary to do daily chores.”
Everyone expressed their various opinions. Jin decided to inquire about the progress of the development for the time being.
“Laojun, what’s the progress on the development?”
“Yes, it’s about 60% done. Specifically, the research institute building is completed. We have just begun construction of the residential building. The fields, harbors, and roads on the island are almost complete. Resources confirmation is incomplete.”
“Oh, it’s progressing quite fast. We were just discussing the management system. Please review it.”
“Received. I’ll prepare a miniature magic brain for management, a maid and a butler.”
After leaving the Fuso Island project to Laojun, Jin suggested Elsa to create the Automata.
“To give to the Marquess?”
“That’s right. Because he said that Reiko was cute. It’s for us to dodge the bullet, so to speak.”
Although the arsenic accumulated in the liver had been removed, the cirrhosis of Marquess Theodoric had not been cured completely. Magic could not regenerate dead cells.
His current condition was that the surviving liver cells were activated to the maximum extent until the liver could gradually heal.
It was said that a healthy liver could regenerate even after 70% of surgical removal was done. However, cirrhosis caused the entire liver to fail, so only a small number of cells survived. Moreover, it was hard to confirm whether those surviving cells were healthy or not.
Such a condition made the treatment time-consuming.
It was not because Jin wanted to thank the Marquess’ decision to give up on the marriage with Elsa, rather, he wanted to do something for him because he was Saki’s grandfather.
In addition, by having Elsa make a care-provider Automata for the Marquess, Jin was hoping that it would help alleviate some of her anguish regarding the fact that her father and his subordinates were behind the murder plot.
“The basics are the same as Edgar. However, since it’s for care providing purposes, it would be better to install Tactile Sense as well.”
“… Eh?”
Elsa was surprised when she suddenly had to overcome a higher hurdle. However, Jin reassured Elsa that he would teach her properly.
* * *
Meanwhile, Reinhardt was working on upgrading his Schwarz Ritter to be equipped with Tactile Sense.
No, to be exact, he was creating the remodeling plan, with occasional advice from Laojun.
“… I see, as expected. It’s difficult to equip Schwarz Ritter with Tactile Sense because it’s a golem rather than an Automata, correct?”
“Yes. It should work as long as the distortion of the exterior corresponding to the skin could be detected.”
“I see …”
However, as expected of Reinhardt, he came up with an idea.
“Then, how about limiting the Tactile Sense to necessary parts? Specifically, the palms and sole of the feet.”
His method was to painstakingly place a high-sensitivity sensor in the minimum necessary areas, or place many sensors to ensure high sensitivity.
“You’re right. That would work pretty well.”
Laojun was secretly impressed. That method was similar to the remodeling Laojun did for all the Golems on Horai Island.
As a side note, the remodeling Laojun did was to attach the leather from the “Death Sea Serpent” on the palms and sole of the feet, and then the generated pressure from the magical power was detected.
Previously, Jin and Reiko had eradicated the Death Sea Serpent at Potlock. The leather did not rot in the water, so the mermaid unit had been collecting them from the seabed under Laojun’s directives.
Although the performance was slightly lower than that of the Sham Dragon feather membrane used in the early version of Reiko, the strength and detection power were sufficiently practical.
“Hmm, what shall I use for the sensor …?”
Reinhardt was worrying about the material for the sensor.
Laojun decided to watch over him instead of telling him directly what material to be used. It would not benefit Reinhardt since he would only be following directions from Laojun. Besides, Reinhardt would not be happy with it either.
Mine and Berthie were learning to make new dishes from the Peridot leader.
“Mix the flour with eggs and milk. There … what is this powder?”
“That’s baking soda.”
“Baking soda?”
“Yes. You can get it in the mountains further north of Kaina village … Well, I guess you can call it a condiment.”
It was obtained by refining the water from a baking soda spring that was found on a glacier-covered mountain (unnamed) in the north of Kaina village a long time ago.
Now that the refining plant was completed, we were able to get 500 grams of baking soda per day.
“If you add a small amount of this, it will be fluffy.”
Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, decomposes to give out carbon dioxide when heated. This inflates bread dough and pancakes.
Without leavening agents such as baking soda or baking powder, the texture would be more similar to a crepe than a pancake, but with it, a fluffy cake or dough could easily be made.
“If you put too much, the taste will be bitter. So please just put a little.”
When baking soda is heated, it breaks down into carbon dioxide, sodium carbonate, and water. The carbon dioxide causes the dough to rise, but the remaining sodium carbonate has a bitter taste.
Originally, it was neutralized by mixing an acidic substance such as tartaric acid to eliminate the bitterness (which was called baking powder), but tartaric acid was not yet available.
Aside from that, baking soda had a lot of other uses such as for polishing metals, and could be very handy in the kitchen. Berthie and Mine had the opportunity to learn various kitchen hacks from Peridot leader.
* * *
“The detection of magical power of the outer skin and its deformation?”
“That’s right. It’s hard to process the data from the whole-body, so I think it’s best to focus on the palm and forget about the others.”
“… Okay. Is it okay to concentrate on the part that requires the most delicate force adjustment?”
“That’s exactly it! You’re amazing.”
Jin was explaining the principles of Tactile Sense to Elsa. It utilized the magical power potential of the deformation that occurs on the outer skin.
Having some basics, Elsa sometimes stunned Jin with her occasional surprising comprehension.
“Okay, then try to improve Edgar. If all goes well, let’s start creating that Automata. Try it.”
“Okay.”
Thus, Elsa first got ready to modify Edgar so he’s equipped with Tactile Sense.
Meanwhile, Jin left the workshop, went to the underground hall, and consulted with Laojun.
“What is Marcus’ condition?”
“Yes, while being pursued by Regulus 50, he lost consciousness for some reason. For the time being, he is receiving medical treatment in the town of Taki outside of Earl Randol’s territory to the north. Regulus 50 is still standing watch.”
“I believe you said his memory had been examined by Transinfo, but it was only down to level 4, correct?”
“Yes, that’s within our limit.”
Jin was deep in thought for a moment.
“Well, I think there should be something remaining in his subconscious mind. Currently, I want more information about the demons even if it’s just a little.”
“In that case, are you going to visit the town of Taki?”
“If possible.”
A Magi Craft Meister like Jin could go as deep as level 8 and copy the subconscious mind without a problem.
“In that case, I have just confirmed the “Warp Gate that does not require a receiver” and is ready to be utilized.”
“Really? Well done!”
“Thank you. I made various efforts to improve the transfer accuracy, but My Lord’s creation, the mini smith, was the deciding factor in the end.”
Jin ordered Laojun to mass-produce mini smiths for precision work.
“Instruct mini smiths to produce inch smiths as well as millimeter smiths.”
Mini smiths were 10 cm tall; inch smiths would be 2.5 cm. Millimeter smiths were about 5 millimeters in height.
“1000 of each have been created and taking charge of the production of precision parts. The transport accuracy became practical enough.”
“Oh, I see!”
So 1,000 of each type of miniature smiths were already put into commission. They seem to be quite useful.
“It is possible to transport from here, Horai Island, to Shouro Empire within 1 meter of error. We conducted a transport experiment to Lake Tosmo about 3 hours ago and confirmed it.”
What a superb precision! Jin was satisfied.
If this was used, he would be able to reach the town of Taki along with Pegasus 1, then travel back through the Warp Gate that was installed specifically for Jin’s use only. They would not lose much time.
“Okay, let’s go right away. Using that … Transporter.”