Chapter 07
“Wow. Joel. What is all this?”
Nina covered her mouth as she gazed in awe at the dazzling array of magical devices displayed along the wall.
Though, she wasn’t even entirely sure they were magical devices.
She had merely guessed from the intricate craftsmanship combining blue circuits and fragments of magic stones, but she couldn’t begin to imagine what they were used for.
Some were shaped like clocks, books, or even small chandeliers, making the place look almost like a display case in an upscale salon.
“Being stuck at home all the time was making me restless, so I made a few things as a hobby.”
“You make magical devices as a hobby? Is that even possible?”
At Nina’s incredulous reaction, Joel’s expression turned serious.
“Of course it’s impossible. There are all sorts of half-baked fools going around selling ridiculous books about how magical engineering is a great side hustle, with titles like, ‘Hey, You Too Can Earn 100 Million a Year with Magical Devices!’ With that sort of mindset, they couldn’t even fold a paper crane properly. Nina, you clearly know a thing or two.”
With that, he changed direction, heading downstairs instead of leading her to the upper floor as he had originally intended.
“This way, please.”
Nina continued to gasp in amazement as she noticed magical devices displayed along the stair railings and walls as well.
“You made all of these yourself?”
“That’s right. There’s a certain satisfaction in research.”
“You’re a magical engineering genius. How can the kingdom just leave someone like you alone?”
“It’s true that I’m a genius, but unfortunately, I’m rather frail.”
“If you were healthy, the royal palace—oh, right, this is a Free State. Some government agency would be scrambling to recruit you in secret.”
Joel had been about to open a door somewhere in the basement when he paused and gazed down at Nina.
His golden-flecked eyes took on an unusual glow beneath the soft lighting.
“Are you generally quick to pick up on things, Nina?”
“Wouldn’t say I’m anything special. But why do you ask? Are you thinking of studying me, too?”
At Nina’s bright, playful joke, Joel tightened his lips with an expression of utter incomprehension.
“Studying humans? What a strange thing to say.”
Then he turned the doorknob with a click and opened the door.
“This is my magical device workshop.”
“Oh my!”
Nina covered her mouth once again, overcome with wonder.
On one side of the workshop, magic stones were piled up into a veritable mountain, while disassembled machines were scattered across a long table.
The blackboard was covered in complicated equations, and beneath it, a magic stone extractor hummed as it operated.
A place where magical devices were designed and created.
It was a sight she had never witnessed in her life.
“This is incredible. You did all of this by yourself?”
“Working alone is the most convenient. I do hire people when I need extra hands, but not a single one of them is reliable.”
Nina couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. Joel’s pride in his craft was evident in every word he spoke.
“You called it a hobby, but it sounds like you’ve found your calling.”
“……A calling? I see. So this is what they call a calling. A calling.”
As Joel rolled the word around in his mouth several times, Nina spotted a magic gun hanging on one of the walls and lit up.
“Wow. A magic gun!”
Unlike ordinary firearms, which fired conventional bullets containing gunpowder, magic guns condensed and fired magical energy extracted from magic stones.
Magic guns themselves were a type of magical device, and their varieties differed tremendously depending on their manufacturing methods and the way their magic stones were refined.
Joel took a magazine of magic rounds out of a drawer and showed it to her.
“That one fires shock waves. It can’t pierce an enemy’s skin, but it can send them flying into just about anything and incapacitate them.”
“I see.”
Nina’s eyes sparkled as she examined the barrel.
The matte, dark-brown barrel, dotted with magic stones, reminded her of chocolate topped with blueberries.
Just then, all the lights in the workshop turned red, and an alarm began to sound.
—Intruders detected. Intruders detected.
Despite the sudden situation, Joel remained calm and switched off the alarm. Using a magical device designed for surveillance, he checked the upper floors.
There were four intruders.
Nina was the only one who jumped in surprise, hopping anxiously from one foot to the other.
“My goodness! Intruders have so brazenly broken into the home of a frail young master!”
“How troublesome.”
Joel had a fairly good idea who was behind this.
The culprits were likely among the intelligence agencies of the four nations: the Kingdom of Illyte, Hollich, Kibon, and Lujein.
……Or perhaps all four of them.
I’d been worried about this ever since my master started messing with the other masters. Looks like someone’s finally gotten angry.
His master had been using the fact that Rikiyta’s townhouse was located in Soltum as an excuse to squeeze local specialties and magic stones out of the intelligence agencies of other countries.
Even if they weren’t planning to spill blood, they must have been offended. They probably want to send a warning.
They likely hadn’t broken in with the intention of killing him. At most, they’d smash a few windows, give him a scare, and leave.
Considering how quickly the intrusion alarm had gone off, they probably weren’t professional assassins, either.
Of course, there were security devices in place, but conflicts between intelligence agencies were his master’s problem to deal with.
There was no need to provoke them further with an unnecessary response.
Just as he came to that conclusion, Nina poked him in the arm.
“Joel. Can I borrow this?”
At some point, she had slung the magic gun she’d been admiring over her shoulder.
“What are you planning to do with that? It’s dangerous, so put it down.”
“Oh my. You don’t know because you don’t have any maids here, do you? Handling a magic gun is one of a maid’s important virtues.”
“What does that have to do with a magic gun?”
As Joel reached out to take it from her, Nina smiled brightly and hugged the weapon protectively.
Joel began to wonder whether he had misunderstood the meaning of the word virtue.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the metallic click of a magazine locking into the magic gun.
Despite never having been taught how to operate it, Nina inserted the magazine with practiced ease and disengaged the safety.
“How……?”
“Let’s go.”
Nina dragged the bewildered Joel out of the workshop.
“The basement is easy to get trapped in, and there are lots of valuable magical devices down here. We need to deal with them before they secure the high ground.”
Then she crouched low on the stairs leading up to the first floor.
Joel felt a sense of incongruity as he watched Nina use the staircase as a trench as naturally as if it were second nature.
According to his investigation, Nina had never received formal combat training, nor had she ever participated in a battle.
Something’s strange.
Joel watched her with an uneasy feeling.
Even when the intruders’ footsteps began echoing through the lobby, Nina showed no signs of being intimidated.
“Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen.”
She even whispered reassuringly to Joel before darting out before he could stop her.
What happened next in the lobby was nothing short of astonishing.
Nina moved as though the magic gun were an extension of her own body.
She brought the stock firmly against her shoulder and aligned the sights with the muzzle and her target in an instant.
The magic stone embedded in the barrel glowed blue, as though proudly displaying the presence of the fully loaded magazine.
“Wh-what? Where’s the owner of this house? Why are you just standing arou—”
Thoom!
Before the intruder could finish speaking, Nina pulled the trigger.
A shock wave burst from the muzzle and slammed violently into his body.
“Urgh!”
When one of their comrades was sent crashing into the wall and knocked unconscious, the intruders’ hostility intensified.
Nina pouted her plump lips in disappointment.
“You really thought four of you could take on one frail young master? How utterly cowardly.”
“Frail? Does that look frail to you?”
“If that guy’s frail, then I’m terminally ill!”
Then, as the intruders approached her in a fit of indignation, she swiftly created some distance before aiming at them again. The entire sequence flowed as naturally and quickly as running water.
“I’m really disappointed in you for judging people by their appearance.”
Thoom! Thud!
Bang! Thud!
One by one, the intruders hit by the magic gun crashed into walls and floors, sprawling helplessly.
Even as she tossed aside the empty magazine and loaded a fresh one, Nina stepped on an intruder’s foot and drove the gunstock into his solar plexus.
The discarded magazine itself struck another intruder squarely in the head just as he was staggering back to his feet.
Watching all of this from the bottom of the stairs, Joel felt his mind go momentarily blank.
A memory suddenly resurfaced: the moment he had been saddled with this assignment.
