Making a Cooler

“I never expected to find a magic tool built this way...”

“The Divine Tool is... My Divine Tool...”

While the housing remained intact, the Magic Stones inside had been stripped out, and the threads connecting them had been severed. As a result, its ability to chill the interior had vanished entirely. They were now nothing more than stones that happened to be cold to the touch.

“U-Um, Lord Yuri... this Mock Refrigerator is...”

“I can put it back together in a second,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“B-But—”

Melty ignored me, attempting to pulse a different kind of Magic Power into the stones as she experimented. Then, without warning, she produced a hammer and began pounding on the Magic Stone.

Marina watched the scene with teary eyes before pointing a trembling finger. “I-Is this really all right? Look at what she’s doing!”

“I’ve got plenty of spares,” I replied.

I checked my inventory as I spoke. The stock has actually dwindled more than I expected. Between the Mock Refrigerator and the upcoming prototype, I’m burning through these things fast.

If the Cooler was going to be a resource hog, I needed a plan.

“I suppose I can hunt some Monsters on our way to the Beast Kingdom,” I muttered to myself.

I decided to put the Magic Stone shortage on the back burner for now. We had enough to get through the day.

Crack!

A high-pitched shatter echoed through the room. The Magic Stone had been reduced to sparkling dust.

“L-L-Lord Yuri!”

Melty was the one who had destroyed it, yet for some reason, Marina looked like she was the one about to burst into tears.

“So, the stone shatters if it exceeds its capacity,” Melty mused, seemingly oblivious to the chaos. “I’ll need more experiments to determine the exact volume it can hold... Ow!”

She was so deep in her own world that I had to give her a light flick on the forehead to bring her back to reality. Startled, she finally noticed that every eye in the room was fixed on her. She immediately crouched down, trying to hide her face behind her hands.

“W-Why is everyone staring at me?”

“Well, Marina’s about to have a breakdown because you just smashed a piece of the Mock Refrigerator.”

“Ugh... T-That’s only because you said it was fine to break it, Lord Yuri!”

“I meant it was fine because I can fix it, not that I wanted a demolition derby.”

“In our country, that is a priceless Divine Tool!” Marina wailed. “If my father saw this, he would literally lose consciousness!”

Honestly, it looks like Marina is the one about to pass out.

“Anyway, I want to get started on the Cooler, so I need your help. You’ve got the gist of how the Mock Refrigerator works now, right?”

“I suppose. So, what exactly am I supposed to do?”

“Watch this first.”

I pulled out three Magic Stones. I imbued one with a cooling effect and another with a fan effect. Using the third stone, I stretched it thin like a wire, applying an anchoring effect to link the first two into a circular circuit.

Immediately, a blast of cold air began to swirl around us. I set the makeshift device down on the desk.

“Wow! I want one!” Marina’s grief vanished in an instant, replaced by a beaming smile.

“Not so fast. If we leave it like this, it’ll keep pumping out cold air even after the room is freezing. It’s inefficient. Besides—”

The air current from the stones on the desk sputtered and died.

“Oh...”

“I didn't put much Magic Power into that one, but you see how fast it ran out?”

“Of course it did!” Melty shouted. “Wasn't that Composite Magic just now? You mixed Two Attributes!”

“Is it really that complicated? It’s just using two elements at once.”

“That is a Super High-Level Technique! It only works if you perfectly balance the Magic Power of both attributes! Do you have any idea how few people in this kingdom can even attempt that?!”

“Can’t you do it, Melty?”

“Well... yes, I can, but that’s beside the point!”

“See? If you can do it, anyone can.”

“I am nominally the greatest Sage in this country!”

“Mages and Sages are different roles, aren't they? Being a Sage doesn't necessarily mean you're the benchmark for average magic use.”

“...Fine. Have it your way.”

Melty looked like she wanted to argue further, but she eventually slumped her shoulders in defeat. Standard mages spend years training just to synthesize Beginner Magic, she likely thought, but this man is so far out of the norm that logic doesn't apply.

“More importantly,” I asked, “why did the power drain so quickly?”

“Likely because the act of maintaining the Magic Synthesis between the Two Attributes is consuming a constant tax of energy,” she explained.

So, on top of the functional cost, there was a high 'maintenance' cost for the synthesis itself. That explained the rapid depletion.

“That’s why I was thinking about an on-off switch,” I said.

“Even then, it won’t last long. The switch itself would require its own constant feed of Magic Power.”

As Melty and I went back and forth, I felt a tug on my sleeve. It was Fee.

“What is it?”

“I think... you should just take the cold air from the fridge and move it with Wind,” she said simply.

“That’s what I’m trying to—”

“No. Isn't what you're doing right now trying to create cold wind?”

Fee tilted her head, her innocent question hitting me like a physical blow. Beside her, Al looked like he had thought so hard his brain had turned to mush; he was currently slumped over like a puddle of slime.

“But if I attach a Cold Magic Stone and a Wind Magic Stone...”

I stopped mid-sentence as the realization dawned on me. If I just want to move air that’s already been cooled, I don’t need to synthesize the attributes at all. I just need to place a fan behind a cold source.

I reached for the Mock Refrigerator to test the theory, but realized it was still sitting there in pieces.

“Damn it. Who broke the fridge at a time like this?!”

“I-Is it my fault again?!”

Melty shrank back under the collective gaze of the room, huddling into a ball.

Ignoring the drama, I quickly reassembled the Mock Refrigerator.

“Are you sure it’s okay to show me this?” Marina asked, her voice hushed with anxiety. “Isn’t the construction of a Magic Tool classified information?”

“It’s just a box with some stones, Marina. It’s not a state secret.”

I finished the assembly and, rather than messing with Magic Synthesis, I simply attached a Wind Magic Stone to the exterior of the cooling unit. The stone blew a regular gust of air, but because it was pulling from the chilled reservoir, the result was a perfectly cooled breeze.

It was exactly what I had envisioned. The only question was the duration.

“It’s... not stopping.”

I had used the same amount of Magic Power as before, but the device was still going strong.

“It’s a success... isn't it?” Melty whispered.

“Yeah. Just needs a mechanical switch and it’s finished.”

“Did I help, Yuri?” Fee asked.

“Yeah. You saved the day.”

I ruffled Fee’s hair, and she squinted happily at the praise.

Marina, meanwhile, looked like she was having a religious experience. “S-So this is the legendary Divine Tool, the Cooler... The temperature is divine...”

She looked as though her soul were drifting away into the clouds.

“Once the switch is on, do you want to take it back with you?” I asked.

She snapped back to reality instantly, nodding her head so fast I thought it might fall off. “Yes! Please! I beg of you!”

Seeing her satisfied expression, I felt a wave of relief. This was the perfect bribe to get her out of my hair for a while.

A short time later, Marina departed for the capital, clutching the completed Cooler like a holy relic. Before she left, I saw her whispering to Emilina.

“I’ll move forward with that matter on my end,” Marina had said.

Perhaps there was a secret understanding between them—the Saint and the representative of the Holy Principality of Ames. They shared the same faith, after all.

And so, a fleeting moment of peace returned to my lands. But as I watched the carriage disappear, I couldn't shake the feeling that this was merely the quiet before a very cold storm.