June 25.
First thing in the morning, Elsa applied the healing magic Genesung to her father, Georg. Despite the treatment, his condition showed no visible signs of improvement.
"I’m... so... rry..."
His former arrogance was gone. Seeing her father reduced to such a state, barely able to utter halting words, Elsa found it unbearable and fled the room.
Outside, she ran into Jin.
"Ah, Jin-nii."
"...Still no luck?"
Jin saw the tears pooling in Elsa's eyes and knew the treatment wasn't progressing well.
"They say you have to be patient with brain damage. For now, we need to focus on dealing with the Marquis."
"...Okay."
After breakfast, Jin and the group left the Randol estate in Ekishi. They boarded Jin's carriage and headed to the Eschenbach Residence. From the Warp Gate hidden in the shed there, they traveled to Hourai Island.
"Welcome back, My Lord. Welcome, everyone."
Laojun’s familiar voice greeted them as they arrived. They headed straight to the dining hall—not for a meal, but because the laboratory lacked a proper meeting room.
"I suppose we’ve run into a problem in an unexpected place," Jin remarked.
During the Predecessor’s era, large-scale meetings were never a consideration, so no such room had been prepared. Jin made a note to have one built later as they sat down to refine the plans for Fusou Island.
"As a baseline, we should probably place the Warp Gates in the capitals of each nation," Reinhard suggested.
"Yeah. Ideally, inside the royal castles. If the people using them are officially sanctioned by the state, it adds a layer of security—or at least reliability."
At the very least, it would serve as the primary security filter.
"I'm planning for the facility to have a laboratory and a separate residential wing," Jin added. "On Hourai Island, the living quarters are inside the lab, but I want to keep them distinct on Fusou Island."
"I think that's a wonderful idea," Berche said, glancing at Reinhard beside her. "Drawing a clear line between work and daily life is very important."
"Will you set up hot springs, toilets, and futons too?" Elsa asked. For her, those three were non-negotiable.
"Yeah. Hot springs and toilets are easy enough, but I'm not sure about the futons. The materials we use here are specialized, so it might be better to go with something more common for the researchers. Let’s put that aside for now. I have something else in mind."
"Something else?"
"Yeah. I’d rather talk about it once Saki is here, since it involves materials research."
Since Jin put it that way, the others didn't pry further. The conversation shifted back to the administration of the island.
"I want to install a management magi-brain—essentially a scaled-down version of Laojun—to oversee the entire island. What do you think?"
"Sounds good to me," Reinhard said. "I'd also like some golems available to act as research assistants."
"If we’re hosting a lot of researchers, we’ll need maid golems for the domestic chores," Elsa noted.
After hearing various opinions, Jin decided to check on the status of the project.
"Laojun, what’s our current progress?"
"It is currently at approximately sixty percent. Specifically, the laboratory wing is complete, and construction has begun on the residential wing. The farms, harbor, and island road networks are mostly finished. The resource survey is still pending."
"Oh, you've made quite a bit of headway. Keep working on the management system we were just discussing."
"Understood. I shall prepare the small-scale management magi-brain, along with the necessary maids and Butlers."
Leaving the development of Fusou Island to Laojun, Jin turned to Elsa and suggested she begin building an automata.
"Is this... for the Marquis?"
"Exactly. He mentioned how cute he thought Reiko was. To put it bluntly, it's a way to deflect his potential anger."
Even though the arsenic had been flushed from his system, Marquis Theoderic's liver cirrhosis was not fully cured. Magic could not easily regenerate cells that had already died. The current treatment involved stimulating his few remaining healthy liver cells to their maximum capacity, slowly repairing the organ over time.
Normally, a healthy liver could regenerate even if seventy percent of it was removed, but cirrhosis affected the entire organ. With so few healthy cells remaining—and those few being far from peak condition—it was a slow process.
Marquis Theoderic had agreed to Jin's request to give up on marrying Elsa, and Jin held no grudge against him. In fact, since he was Saki's grandfather, Jin wanted to do what he could for the man. More importantly, he hoped that if Elsa provided a caregiver automata, it might soften the Marquis's fury toward her when he eventually learned that her father was the one who had been poisoning him.
"The basic design can be the same as Edgar. However, since this one is for caregiving, you should equip it with a tactile sense."
"...Eh?"
Elsa was taken aback by the sudden jump in technical difficulty, but Jin reassured her that he would teach her the process step-by-step.
Meanwhile, Reinhard was busy working on a plan to upgrade his Schwarzritter with tactile sensors. He drafted the modifications while occasionally consulting Laojun for advice.
"...I see. Just as I thought. Since it’s a golem and not an automata, equipping the Schwarzritter with a full-body tactile sense is difficult..."
"Indeed," Laojun replied. "At least as long as you use the method of detecting the distortion of the exterior plating that acts as skin."
"Right..."
However, Reinhard was nothing if not resourceful. He soon struck upon an alternative.
"What if I limit the sensors to only the most necessary parts? Specifically, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet."
It was a compromise—concentrating high-sensitivity sensors or a higher density of sensors in a minimal area to maintain functionality.
"I see. That approach should be quite effective."
Laojun was secretly impressed. This method was remarkably similar to the modifications Laojun was currently implementing on all the golems of Hourai Island.
Laojun’s specific method involved grafting the hide of a Death Sea Serpent onto the palms and soles and detecting the resulting mana pressure. Jin and Reiko had previously slain a vast number of these creatures near Port Rock. Since their hides did not rot in water, the Mermaid units had salvaged them from the seabed under Laojun’s orders. While slightly less sensitive than the Sham Dragon wing membranes used for Reiko's original design, the hide was durable and more than practical for sensory detection.
"Now, what should I use for the sensors themselves..."
Reinhard continued to fret over the materials. Laojun decided to watch in silence, knowing that simply giving him the answer wouldn't help Reinhard grow—and Reinhard wouldn't appreciate the easy way out anyway.
In another part of the lab, Mine and Berche were learning new recipes from Perido Leader.
"Flour, eggs, and milk... and then what is this powder?"
"It is baking soda."
"Baking soda?"
"Yes. It is refined from a source found deep in the mountains north of Kaina Village. You could think of it as a type of seasoning."
The powder was obtained from a baking soda spring discovered in the unnamed, glacier-covered mountains. Now that the refinery plant was operational, Hourai Island could produce 500 grams of it daily.
"Adding just a small amount of this will make the dough fluffy."
Baking soda—sodium bicarbonate—decomposes when heated, releasing carbon dioxide gas. This gas causes pancakes and bread to rise. Without a leavening agent like baking soda or baking powder, a pancake would have a texture closer to a thin crepe.
"If you use too much, it will turn the food bitter, so please use only a tiny pinch."
When heated, baking soda breaks down into carbon dioxide, water, and sodium carbonate. While the gas provides the lift, the sodium carbonate left behind is bitter. Normally, an acidic substance like tartaric acid would be used to neutralize the bitterness—creating what is known as baking powder—but they hadn't sourced any tartaric acid yet.
Since baking soda was also excellent for polishing metal and general kitchen use, Perido Leader took the opportunity to show Mine and Berche various ways to utilize it.
"Detection of a mana-active skin and its... deformation?"
"Right," Jin explained to Elsa. "Trying to process data from the entire body at once is overwhelming. If we concentrate the sensors in the palms and just put a token amount elsewhere, it should be manageable."
"...I think I understand. Focus the sensitivity where the most delicate control is needed?"
"Exactly. You're a quick study."
Jin explained the principles of tactile sensors that utilized the mana potential generated by the deformation of mana-active skin. Elsa, already possessing a strong foundation in magi craft, displayed a level of intuition that occasionally surprised even Jin.
"Alright, let's start by upgrading Edgar. If that works, we’ll move on to the actual automata construction. Go ahead and give it a try."
"Okay."
As Elsa began her work on Edgar, Jin left the workshop and headed to the underground hall to speak with Laojun.
"How is Marcus doing?"
"Yes. Regulus 50 tracked him, but he somehow lost consciousness during the pursuit. Since he was already outside the Randol territory, he is currently recuperating in Taki Town to the north. Regulus 50 is still monitoring him."
"You said you checked his memories with Trans Info, but that was only at Level 4, right?"
"Correct. That is the limit of our current capabilities."
Jin hummed thoughtfully. "I suspect there’s something buried in his subconscious. We need every bit of information on the demon race we can get right now."
"In that case, would you like to travel to Taki Town?"
"If I can."
As a Magi Craft Meister, Jin could utilize Level 8 Trans Info, which allowed him to copy even the deepest subconscious layers.
"Then it is fortunate that we have just confirmed the practicality of a Warp Gate that does not require a receiving unit."
"Really? That's great!"
"Thank you. We attempted various methods to improve the transfer precision, but the deciding factor was the Mini-Smiths you created, My Lord."
Jin had previously ordered Laojun to mass-produce Smiths for high-precision work.
"By instructing the Mini-Smiths to create Inch-Smiths, and those to create Milli-Smiths, we achieved a new level of engineering."
The Mini-Smiths stood 10 centimeters tall, the Inch-Smiths were 2.5 centimeters, and the Milli-Smiths were a mere 5 millimeters.
"We produced a thousand of each and tasked them with the manufacturing of the precision components. Thanks to them, the transfer precision is now fully functional."
"A thousand of each... that’s impressive."
"We can now transfer from Hourai Island to the Shouro Empire with an error margin of less than one meter. We confirmed this with a test transfer to Lake Tosmo roughly three hours ago."
The precision was remarkable. Jin was satisfied. Using this "transporter," he could head to Taki Town with Pegasus 1, finish his business, and return via a standard Warp Gate with minimal loss of time.
"Alright. Let's head out immediately. It's time to test the transporter."