“I heard you’ve fled your country, Stearleana.”
“That’s right, Reinhardt.”
It was July 23rd, the day after Stearleana had moved into Saki’s house.
At around 9 AM, Stearleana was visiting Reinhardt in his house in the Kartze Village.
“Hmm, this should be reported to the state quickly…”
Reinhardt decided to go to the capital city Loizart, thinking of taking care of things as soon as possible.
His true motive for doing that could have also been that it would be a nice change of pace for him since his duties as a feudal lord had been finished for the time being.
The lineup for the trip would be Reinhardt, Stearleana, and Neon.
On the outside, the reason why they were taking Neon instead of Schwartz Ritter was to lighten the load on their vehicle, but in fact, it was all part of a worried Berthie’s plan to to have Neon make sure Stearleana and Reinhardt wouldn’t spend too much time alone that they ended up fooling around.
They took a carriage to Vanne, then boarded the Scarlet Trail at the port towards the city of Koju on the other side of the riverbank. Finally, they hired another carriage in Koju, headed for the capital city of Loizart.
Their fast traveling allowed them to reach the Imperial Palace at around 3 PM.
They hastily arranged for a meeting with the chancellor. Of course, they also stated their reason for the meeting.
Perhaps because there was little work left to do on that day, Reinhardt and Stearleana were quickly granted an audience with the chancellor, and 5 minutes later, they were called into his office.
“Ah, Reinhardt and Miss Stearleana.”
“We haven’t seen each other since the Technology Expo, huh?”
Chancellor Jung Fawles Von Kebsler wasn’t the only one in the room. He was joined by the Minister of Magi Technology, Degauss Furt Von Manishlas.
And even more surprisingly…
“Welcome to the Shouro Empire. It’s nice to have you here, Miss Stearleana.”
The empress herself, Gelhart Hilde Von Rubies Shouro, was there as well.
“Y-Your Majesty! I-I’m truly honored…”
Stearleana was completely taken aback by such an unimaginable situation. Reinhardt was very confused as well.
“I just happened to be consulting with the Chancellor on another case, and heard that there was a report and a request for an audience from Reinhardt.”
Reinhardt secretly convinced himself that that had been the reason why their audience was granted so quickly.
“Miss Stearleana, we are delighted to welcome a talented Magi Engineer such as yourself into our country. Are you currently staying at Reinhardt’s?”
The chancellor asked Stearleana with a broad smile on his face.
“No, I’m staying at Saki Eschenbach’s house.”
She denied his initial assumptions and replied earnestly.
“Ohoho, is that so? By the way, does the Celuroa Kingdom know that you have come to our country seeking asylum?”
“No, I don’t believe so. They might be able to imagine it, but they have no way of being sure. I don’t think I’ve left behind any clue that could tell them where I went.”
“Understood. We’ll take this chance to properly announce it from our end. You can rest assured that we’ll take care of everything.”
The chancellor kept on smiling, reassuring Stearleana that he would personally handle her emigration from country to country.
“So, what do you plan to do here in our country?”
Right then, the chancellor’s eyes became sharp. But Stearleana wasn’t daunted by his gaze, since she had no ulterior motives for moving into the Shouro Empire.
“I don’t have any particular purpose to be here. I would like to live quietly if possible…”
That was her real intention. To simply live quietly in the Shouro Empire.
Therefore, not even the empress herself could understand. They assumed that if all she wanted was to live peacefully, she could have gone to Hourai Island instead.
“I see. We’d be very grateful if you could share your skills with our youth engineers…”
The empress raised her hand as if to keep the chancellor from speaking any further.
“Not now, Jung. Miss Stearleana must be tired after her experiences in her home country. You can ask her about that after she has rested.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Miss Stearleana, make sure to rest your body and mind for the time being. Is there anything you need?”
After being addressed directly by the empress, Stearleana bowed her head profoundly.
“Thank you very much, Your Majesty. There’s nothing in particular I need right now.”
“I see. So, chancellor, do we have any certificates for our country’s Magi Engineers?”
“No, not at this moment.”
“Oh… How are we going to prove that Miss Stearleana is under our country’s protection…?”
“Your Majesty, there was this thing called ‘Family Register’ I learned about from Fuhrer, which I received from Mr. Jin Nidou…”
“Ah, I’ve learned about that too. But it’s not something I can do right away…”
Understanding the people of a country is useful not only for management but also for all sorts of social services. But unfortunately, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.
“If so, how about creating a system to issue some kind of certificate for foreign residents living in the Shouro Empire?”
The Chancellor had come up with an alternative. They already had passports and visas for temporary residents. But they needed something that served as a certificate for permanent residence.
“Oh, right. Let’s go with that. Miss Stearleana shall have the honor to be the very first one!”
“Uh… Huh?”
The conversation went on and on, and Stearleana had a hard time keeping up with them. She was no good at political talk.
Reinhardt, on the other hand, could easily comprehend the effectiveness of their idea.
“Your Majesty, please consider attaching a portrait to this certificate. That way, it can be easily updated every certain number of years.”
This kind of advice was only possible thanks to Jin having transferred his knowledge of modern-day Earth to Reinhardt.
“Ah, that sounds great. It would also make it easier to identify its holder, and to prevent misuse by a would-be-impostor.”
The empress pictured its effectiveness and quickly approved of the idea.
Thus Stearleana became officially recognized as the first registered foreign citizen living in the Shouro Empire.
＊ ＊ ＊
The same day, on Hourai Island…
“My Lord, I have several things to report.”
Laojun spoke while Jin and Elsa were thinking about what kind of weapon would be a good choice for Edgar.
“Alright. Tell me.”
As he had been stuck in his thoughts, unable to decide what to do for a while, Jin decided to listen to Laojun’s reports for a change of pace.
“Very well. First, about Lardus’ short sword, which we have recently obtained.”
It was the short sword used by the demon that had called himself “Lardus the Jester”. Deneb 30 had been able to snatch the blade after being slashed at by it.
“My Lord had theorized that it had been made using materials from a monster, and it turned out to be that way. It was discovered that it was extremely close to Giant Centipedes.”
“I see…”
Back then, Giant Centipedes were a monster that Jin knew nothing about. It was no surprise that he hadn’t been able to notice that at the time.
“Though it was very similar to a Giant Centipede, it could also have been some kind of falsely similar creature. At any rate, there is no doubt that it was some kind of arthropod monster.”
“Something that has some kind of an exoskeleton, then. Like a mantis’ sickles or a stag beetle’s jaw.”
“That’s right.”
Jin assimilated that information while thinking about how terrific a creature’s must be to have an exoskeleton that was tougher than aluminum.
“Ah, should we try to use that for Edgar’s equipment, Elsa?”
“…That? You mean the Giant Centipede’s carapace?”
“Yeah. It’s light and very durable. How about we make a knife and a hand guard, and also a pair of gauntlets for him?”
Jin and Elsa had returned to the topic of Edgar’s equipment, but Laojun still had something else to report.
“My Lord, I haven’t finished with my reports.”
“Ah, right, sorry… Please continue.”
“Very well. The second topic is about the ‘Mole’.”
“Mole”?
Jin didn’t really understand what he was talking about. Laojun quickly began to explain.
“It’s a magic tool for underground exploration. Based on the situation from the other day when several Giant Centipedes came out of the mine, I thought that it would be better if we were able to conduct an investigation before going underground.”
“Oh, that makes sense. So?”
“I would like to ask you to create a certain Magi Device, since I cannot do so due to my restrictions.”
There were some things that Laojun couldn’t do without the permission of his creator, Jin. One of them was the creation of a magic tool that had never existed before.
“These are the plans for it.”
Jin confirmed the conceptual drawing that Laojun projected on the Magic Screen.
It had a cylindrical body and was furnished with a hyper-adamantite tip, which would be used to burrow underground.
The excavated rocks and sand would be then transferred to a designated spot using the warp gate installed inside the cylinder.
Its cylindrical body would be able to move forward and backward using golem engine-driven caterpillars installed on its sides.
“Yeah, it’s very well planned. So, what is the Magi Device that you’d like me to use?”
Jin felt that it was functional enough.
“A magic tool that can use ‘Dig’.”
“Ah, so that’s what it was.”
Jin nodded.
Jin had used “Dig” when he created the hot springs. This was classified as a beginner earth attribute spell, and was originally used to dig a pitfall for an enemy to fall into. Jin had also used it to dig underground tunnels.
Originally, it would be very difficult for an average, or even an advanced mage to dig a hole 5 meters deep into the ground. This was because the magical power of the caster would weaken as the volume of soil and rock extracted from the ground increased. Jin, however, was an exception among exceptions.
Also, the soil and rocks removed by “Dig” are discharged as if they were ejected from a hole. Since this also consumes magical power, the easier it becomes to imagine that the deeper the hole, the more difficult it would become for the average mage to handle the spell properly.
“If there’s a foreign object underground, you can probably detect it without destroying it using ‘Dig’.”
“That is correct.”
During the Giant Centipede incident, a mysterious Magi Device was found while investigating the hole they had crawled out of. But they weren’t able to identify its name or purpose from its outward appearance.
“Got it. I’ll make it right away.”
Upon seeing Laojun’s intentions, Jin quickly vouched to make the requested Magi Device.
“The third topic is regarding a proposal to equip the entirety of Hourai Island with Lightweight-inducing magic tools as a countermeasure against eventual attacks from demons.”
It was a measure against the use of gravity magic. Since it had been a great help during the incident with Androgias, Jin quickly agreed to Laojun’s proposal.
“Then we shall prepare it so My Lord and his family, Reiko, the attendant automata, the Covert Units, the Quinta, and every golem in Hourai Island are equipped with such countermeasures, in that order.”
“Yes, that’ll do just fine.”
In this way, further enhancements were planned for Hourai Island’s defense.