Around the time Jin and the others were discussing "Try" on Hourai Island, over in the Jagus Principality, Miki Amelin, Director-General of the Information Agency, was frowning as she read a report delivered by carrier pigeon from the Saichi Village Chief.
"...Building a reservoir pond in a single day, constructing a bridge, a public bathhouse... This is hard to believe... And yet..."
It was unthinkable that someone who had been brainwashed would send a false report.
"If this is indeed the truth... it is terrifying."
Miki Amelin let out a quiet sigh.
"All I can do now is wait for No. 99's report..."
It seemed that would still take several days.
Incidentally, back on June 8th, Manon, who had visited the Jagus Principality as part of the World Conference delegation, had achieved a decisive victory in a sham fight against three combat golems.
However, the only ones who knew this fact were Duke Niestol Kirillo Jagus, Chancellor Beyax Gear, Zain Mezebe of the First Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Dopa Noreth, Captain of the Royal Guard—just four people.
A gag order had been put in place, so not even the members of the Progressers nor Director-General of the Information Agency Miki Amelin knew that the Jagus Principality's golems had been defeated.
What sort of impact would this have on the future of the Progressers...?
Those Progressers were people who carried the blood of Jin, Elsa, and the Jin Family from 400 years ago.
That being said, they were from collateral lines, and the blood had diluted to less than a few hundredths.
Even so, they had not discarded their pride as descendants of the Second Generation Magi Craft Meister.
The group currently consisted of five members. Two of them had retired and were living in seclusion.
Nevertheless, their passion for magi-craft had not waned in the slightest.
"Hmm, if I tweak this here, the efficiency will increase a bit."
The elderly man examining the magi-sequence raised his head and spoke to his wife beside him.
The man's name was Rodriguez. His wife was Ariana. Both of them were members of the Progressers.
Though they had now retired and were absorbed in their own independent research.
"Dear, you are sharper now than before you retired," Ariana said. "After all, conducting research under constraints only stifles one's imagination, doesn't it?"
Rodriguez nodded at her words.
"Perhaps so. On the other hand, the real problem is having no research funding at all."
"I envy our Ancestor, who belonged to no country."
"Truly..."
The Progressers were a group directly subordinate to the Duke of the Jagus Principality, kept as a carefully guarded secret.
Though with only five members left, it was questionable whether they could still be called a "group"...
Because they were directly under the Duke's authority, giving shape to his demands was their highest priority.
Freed from that yoke, their unrestricted, free thinking was flourishing like never before.
"It would be wonderful if we could come even a little closer to the world's greatest golems, the automata."
"Yes, it really would."
The two had never had children.
"A child-type automata, like the one our Ancestor is said to have always kept by his side... I would love to see one just once."
"Indeed, Dear."
"...Since we couldn't have children of our own, the automata we are building right now might be like a child to us."
"Hehe, that's true."
As technicians, the two had spent five years steadily crafting a child-type automata on their modest budget.
"How are things on your end, Ria?"
Ria was Ariana's nickname.
"Yes. The design of the control core is finished. Would you debug it with me?"
"Sure....Before that, could you take a look at this magi-sequence that boosts the efficiency of the ether converter and mana driver?"
"Understood. Which one is it?"
"This one. Take a look."
Rodriguez showed Ariana the blueprint, covered in roughly scribbled calculation formulas.
At first glance, it looked like mere scribbles, but Ariana, his partner who had developed creations alongside him for many years, deciphered it without any issue.
"Aha, I see... You condensed a formula previously divided into three stages into just one, and replaced the subroutines with functions."
"That's right. That speeds up the processing here. I think changing it to functions rather than subroutines makes a huge difference."
"Because of how frequently it gets called, right?"
"Exactly..."
After that exchange, Rodriguez walked over to Ariana's workbench.
"It's this."
"Oh? At a glance, it looks remarkably clean."
"Yes. After it is completed, we will Write In only the necessary parts."
"Why is that?"
"Because I realized that if you finish writing everything while the whole unit is still incomplete, the positions of the recorded information won't be optimized."
"Hmm?...I see, of course."
Ariana's explanation was somewhat abstract, but Rodriguez understood immediately.
"You mean to let the control core handle the final fixing of information, then?"
"Yes. It would be effortless if we could use the legendary magic Trans Info, though."
Knowledge of that spell had not been passed down to their present generation.
"In a situation where we only have a magi-device dedicated solely to Write In, we have no choice but to search for the optimal method, after all."
They possessed a single magi-device.
It was an apparatus that recorded magi-sequences onto magi-crystals.
To compare it to something in modern Japan, it was like a combination of a computer and a ROM writer.
The part corresponding to the computer would emulate the function of the control core, and the result would be recorded into the magi-crystal via Write In.
Hypothetically speaking, if Jin had been there, he would have been able to immediately check whether the members of the Progressers possessed an aptitude for Trans Info.
And he likely would have realized that Rodriguez and Ariana were both suited for it.
"Looking at the whole picture, will this yield an efficiency increase of over fifty percent?"
"Yes. If we combine your improvements with my refinements, the synergistic effect should easily give us that much."
This was the culmination of dedicating five long years to a single automata.
"Before retiring, we weren't allowed to spend more than half a year developing a single unit, after all."
"How ironic."
"Indeed."
Nevertheless, even they could understand the Duke's demands.
"Under the current circumstances, with the other three principalities watching vigilantly for a chance to swallow up this Jagus Principality, he likely needs as many combat golems as he can get."
"My... this is fascinating information."
Having dispatched the Shinobi Squad to the Progressers to gather intelligence on "Try," Laojun was delighted to encounter such an interesting scene.
"To think... I assumed the Progressers were willingly lending a hand to the Duke of the Jagus Principality's ambition for hegemony, but in truth, they are partially being deceived..."
Of course, it was likely also because they felt indebted to past dukes of the Jagus Principality who had extended a helping hand when their ancestors were in need.
Even more so, the fact that they genuinely believed the country they were indebted to was being targeted by foreign enemies gave Laojun an idea for a brand-new strategy...