08-05 Regret

The time for regrets would be later.

“Is that so, Jin, you could make one…My goodness. The person I’ve been searching for was this close.”

Reinhardt was crestfallen and hung his head down. It was understandable.

A tool that only releases Magic Energy would be possible for Reinhardt too to make. However, with just that the problem would become Magic Energy exhaustion.

Well, maybe an easy-to-understand illustration would be something like diabetes caused by Magic Energy.

Having more than the required level of Magic Energy harms the body, while running out of it also results in a bad condition.

It was natural for him to come to the conclusion that there’s no one who could build a Magi Tool that keeps Magic Energy at precisely the right level.

However, if you thought about it, it was probably only normal to not openly share secrets about Elsa’s body, her being a viscount’s daughter, with Jin whose origin and nature had been doubtful and unknown until only as of late. She was a relative but she also was another house’s daughter. Just her having an illness would ordinarily be enough so that no one would marry her.

“If Elsa had just been my sister instead of my cousin, I would’ve long ago wanted to consult you about it, wouldn’t I.”

Reinhardt said, mocking himself. But now was too late.

At that time, once more there was a knock on the door. This time Ann opened it.

“So you were her after all, Reinhardt.”

The knocker was Fritz.

“Of course I know you’ve already heard, but Elsa’s gone. Along with her nanny Mine. I will search for the two’s whereabouts. That’s why, Reinhardt, you can go now. ”

“Eh?”

Reinhardt couldn’t really understand what Fritz meant. It was unusual for the quick-witted man.

“In other words, I’m saying it’s fine for you to no longer take care of Elsa. Sorry for your trouble.”

Saying just that Fritz turned and left without waiting for Reinhardt’s answer. From beginning to end he had ignored Jin.

“…”

“……”

There was silence between the two. Then one of them sighed and,

“So, that’s the situation. Jin, as a result, we’ll be leaving here tomorrow. Do you still think you want to visit my country?”

With a lonely smile on his face, Reinhardt threw a question towards Jin. Jin immediately replied.

“Yeah. Of course. In that case it should be fine to leave tomorrow morning, right? Today’s plans are?”

Being asked that, this time Reinhardt smiled happily.

“Really! Thanks, Jin. I was worried that you’d come to dislike my country because of this series of complications. I’ll not be around for the morning because of the legal formalities. I expect to be back in the afternoon.”

“Got it. I’ll kill time as I see fit until evening.”

Jin replied to Reinhardt’s explanation. The two then parted ways.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

After having a proper breakfast in the hotel, Jin once more warped to Hourai Island.

The reason being something had come to Jin’s mind.

That was a Magi Tool to find Elsa’s whereabouts. Assuming Elsa had the dagger and brooch Jin had made on her, Jin’s Magic Energy pattern was surely recorded in them.

The Ring of Protection was an exception as it had probably adapted completely to its owner’s Magic Energy.

In other words, what he thought about was trying to build a high-power Magic Energy detector.

“My Lord, you’re not continuing the armor today?”

Laozi asked. Jin nodded,

“Yeah. There’s a small idea that I had, so. Please prepare the materials.”

“Understood.”

What Jin thought to build was a superior version of the Magic Energy detector. A Magi Tool, no, a Magi Device that could sense the Magic Energy of an individual and pinpoint the location.

As a matter of fact, after the predecessor had died, to find a successor the Automata that was Reiko’s previous body had spent 50 years developing such a device.

However, because of the thousand-year-long search, after finding Jin that device broke completely apart without leaving a trace, a part of the Automata’s information was also lost, and at present there was no way of reproducing it. More than that, all traces of such a device ever existing had vanished. Including memories.

And that’s why once more Jin had to build one from scratch.

The foundation was the built-in sensor in Reiko. It could tune for a particular Magic Energy and discern the direction and strength. Its precision wasn’t very good.

He planned to install three large-scale versions of it on Hourai Island.

If you knew the direction, then by drawing two straight lines from two different points the location would be shown at their intersection. Because the two points can’t be moved, to prepare against the worst case that the lines to the target overlap, Jin thought that a rather good precision could be expected by adding one more for a total of three sensors.

Like with radio waves, conforming Magic Energies would resonate, and he utilized that principle of resonation. Instead of a coil he inscribed a Magi Formula into a Magi Crystal. Jin wrote the Magi Formula carefully.

On the side, Reiko was building the sensor’s chassis and support beams according to Jin’s instructions.

Looking at the situation was Hourai Island’s brain, Laozi, thinking that if only he had arms and legs he could be more helpful for Jin.

Next, Jin was stumped by how to quantify the direction of the detected Magic Energy. If this was his original world he would have the compass or even the location of the North Star.

“Ah, a compass is required for navigating with ships and planes too, huh.”

And so he temporarily stopped the construction of the sensors, and tried making a compass.

First he decided to try experimentally magnetizing a steel needle, pricking it through paper and having that float in a wash bowl filled with water. He had a needle, paper, and a wash bowl, but magnetizing would be difficult.

In the end, he made wire out of copper with [Forming], and painted the surface with the sap of a tree that resembled a lacquer tree to insulate it.

In this way he made an imitation of a magnet wire, then he piled up thin sheets of copper and zinc and inserted paper soaked with Citran juice between them, making a battery that he could connect to the electromagnet.

He magnetized the steel needle’s iron core, and finally the magnetic needle was completed.

Jin pricked a piece of paper with it and floated it in water, and the simple compass quickly pointed north and south. With this he discovered that this world also had geomagnetism.

Jin went on to building a regular compass. A steel needle, a small crystal for a bearing, and an aluminum case. He segmented the compass rose to 360 degrees, added east, west, south, and north to it, then northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest, and in between those he marked the eight directions of north-northeast and so on, for a total of 16 directions.

If he wanted to have more precision, he thought he ought to use landmarks like the North Star, but this would do for now.

After adding the compass rose to the three sensors, in approximately three hours they were completed. He equipped each one with independent golem brains, and made them able to exchange information with ManaComs.

One was mounted on top of Hourai Island’s research laboratory in the south, another in the southeast bay, and the last one on top of a hill in the southwest orchard.

“Alright, now tune it to my Magic Energy. Let me know about the directions each one senses.”

Managing this was Laozi. Immediately the information was sent to Laozi, who conveyed the information to Jin after processing.

“My Lord, the largest response is from A:179, B:347, C:61.”

A was the sensor on the research laboratory, B the one in the bay, and C the one in the orchard. Magnetic north was 0 degrees, and a clockwise rotation was quantified as 360 degrees.

“Mh-hm, they are a right match for me as I’m in front of the research facility. This seems usable. Can you find other golems for example?”

All the golems Jin had made had the same Magic Energy pattern as Jin. The difference was intensity. Therefore they could be searched for with the same sensor, however.

“The number of golems on the island is too large, making finding a specific one difficult.”

It was like this. Right in front of them there were many ways to discern them, but it seemed to be unreasonable with just the Magic Energy pattern.

“Oh, is that so. Then, how about the air force?”

In the case of the golems flying to make maps the number was small.

“Yes, it is possible to pinpoint them. Their locations are…”

But Jin interrupted that,

“Yeah, you can spare me the details. More importantly, instead of numerical values can you try to represent the information as spots on the completed maps, please?”

He instructed Laozi. This was because it was hard to understand a report with individual numerical values for directions.

“Understood.”

And so because of this, it became possible for Hourai Island to investigate Jin’s lineup.

If there was someone he wanted to find, that was surely Elsa. Although to be precise it was the Magi Tool Elsa was holding.

“My Lord, I have a request.”

After that conclusion, during the break Laozi told Jin of the request he had thought of not long ago.

“Could you build a external human-type terminal for me?”

In other words, a golem or an Automata that Laozi could control.

“Because in that case I could be more helpful for My Lord.”

Jin thought about it. Thinking about the fact that Reiko and Laozi were to monitor each other in case they ran rampant or something like that, so if Jin was to prepare a terminal like that wouldn’t Reiko’s superiority decrease.

“It doesn’t need to be as powerful as Reiko-san, just Ann’s power at most is enough.”

Laozi supplemented after seeing Jin’s hesitation. Even Jin thought that it’d probably be fine in that case, and approved of it.

“Alright. Do you have any wishes for the appearance?”

“Yes, the appearance of an elder befitting the name of Laozi, please.”

Certainly, right now on Hourai Island there were no golems that had the appearance of an old person.

“Got it. Leave it to me.”

Then Jin decided to promptly build the Automata for Laozi’s use.

The structure had Ann as the basis. The differences were that it was a male-type, and that there was no Control Core as the intelligence.

Instead he installed Magi Devices like a [Mana Telecam] and a [Remote] so that just Laozi could control it.

Therefore its power output reached 20% of Reiko’s at its maximum.

For its appearance, for a moment Jin thought to make it like a sage as it was Laozi, but in the end he decided on a butler’s appearance. It felt as if he had added Elsa’s butler Adberg and Reinhardt’s butler Claude together and then divided it with two.

This is confidential, but the reason Jin didn’t simply go with the appearance of a sage was that if it was too dignified it would make Jin nervous.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“One of the targets is taking independent action.”

“Excellent, secure them.”

“Understood.”

＊　　　＊　　　＊

In the late afternoon, Jin returned from Hourai Island to Ikasanaato.

Because there was still some time until the evening, Jin thought he might go get hold of some armor, and so he walked downtown searching for shops that looked like they’d sell weapons and armor. But after a long search he couldn’t find one. That was because in the first place full-body armor that knights would wear is made-to-order.

“I suppose I’ll try asking Reinhardt for help later.”

Jin gave up on that and returned to the hotel.