Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 553

16　Resolution With The Demons Arc

17-02　Frequency

“The food situation certainly is pretty rough.”

The talks with the Shinshoku clan, one of the neutral clans, had begun.

The demons of the Shinshoku clan that were participating in this meeting were Chief Domenicos, his son and next-in-line Jalardos, a mediator, and a secretary. In addition to those four, other five demons were present as audience.

“Through Mr. Jin’s efforts, you would become self-sufficient in that regard.”

Belials began to explain.

“In fact, the core clans of the moderate faction are expected to be able to harvest rye again within the year.”

“Oh…”

Someone from the audience was clearly impressed by that.

Suddenly, one of their reasons for invading human territory, which was to procure food, had collapsed.

“Does this mean that it will be possible for us here as well?”

Domenicos turned towards Jin’s double, staring at him straight in the eye as he asked that.

“Of course, but I’ll require that you cease your participation in the invasion of human territory, as well as a minor compensation from your clan.”

Domenicos frowned a bit in response to Jin’s answer.

“Only a minor compensation? You won’t ask for any riches or anything too big?”

“I don’t think so, no. Belials here tells me that these lands produce quite a lot of Magi Crystals.”

“Ah, I see. Being the Magi Craft Meister, you’d certainly have endless ways to use them.”

“That’s right”

Thus the first of the negotiations with the neutrals were settled relatively smoothly.

Jin then resolved to call for representatives from other nearby clans on the next day.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Things went pretty well with this clan since it’s relatively moderate among the neutrals, but I think it’s going to get tougher in the future.”

Jin and Laojun were having a briefing session on Hourai Island.

“You mentioned that tomorrow you would be calling for representatives of other nearby clans.”

It was an opportunity to win them all over in one go, but the game was in a difficult state.

“Would you do the negotiations in my stead, Laojun?”

In short, it meant leaving the control of the Substitute Doll to Laojun.

“Understood. Thank you for trusting me with this task.”

“Is there anything else we’re going to need for our negotiations?”

“Well… Since we’re negotiating with a neutral party, I think we should do something to show our ability. We only need to think about what would be a suitable option.”

Jin remembered that Lucas had said something similar once. Considering that demons put a great deal of value in merit, Jin wondered if there was some flashy way to prove his worth.

“How about a plasma sword?”

“I don’t think it’s a bad choice, but I also believe it’s a bad idea to show our cards too much.”

Laojun was concerned about revealing too much considering they didn’t know the extent of Nega-Doll 001’s technological abilities.

“I see… What about the airship?”

“I believe it’s better for us not to show off our aerial military strength just yet.”

Istalis and Shion knew about the airship, but they weren’t going to tell anyone anyway, so Jin tried thinking about something else.

“How about we send in a large number of Golems?”

Seeing Jin thinking hard, Laojun came up with an idea.

“I see, that’s a good idea. We have Land 1 there, so let’s send in Lands 2 through 20.”

“Understood.”

This time, they would win them over with quantity rather than quality.

“Is there anything else?”

“Yes, just now, I’m in the process of investigating Nega-Doll 001’s bases, but unfortunately progress is slow as I do not want to arouse suspicion.”

“I see. And?”

“Still, I managed to infiltrate. According to what I could gather, it would appear that Nega-Doll has somehow gotten wind of your existence, My Lord, so we’ll have to consider the possibility of him trying to take some sort of action against you in the future.”

“I see. So, what do we need in order to come up with a counterplan?”

Here, Laojun shared his theory about Nega-Doll 001’s possible course of action.

“Since you’ve managed to extract so many ‘Agujas’ releasing so many demons from his control, you have surely become a thorn in his side. So…”

Laojun then said that he would definitely aim for Jin’s double.

“The most likely way he’d do it would be a surprise attack by use of his transfer ability.”

Basically, he would transfer himself close to Jin in order to attack him in some way, and then he would escape using the same transfer ability. That was the most likely scenario.

Though they had set up a Magic Barrier, which would prevent anyone from transferring within its area of effect, the barrier is more often than not turned off whenever they are visiting one of the demons’ places of residence.

“If he were to send in a gravity bomb, there would be no defending against it.”

That was Laojun’s conclusion.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

In fact, the only way to nullify a gravity bomb so far was to hit it with gravity magic in the opposite direction in order to offset it.

“We could use a transfer machine to send any incoming gravity bombs far away before they can detonate, but…”

Transfer machines weren’t small enough to be carried around easily.

“Wait, what if the transfer machine’s destination was already set in advance?”

Jin came up with an idea.

The reason why transfer machines were so big was that the function to manually set the transfer’s destination takes up a lot of physical size.

“I see, that is a great idea, My Lord.”

“Do you think it would be possible to make a pocket-sized transfer machine that can instantaneously send things to a predetermined location?”

The transfer destination wasn’t the only piece of information a transfer machine needed to understand. It also needed to have a good understanding of the object it was going to transfer away. Otherwise, there would be a risk of other surrounding objects being sent away along with it.

“Human reaction speed would be no good either. But if it was Reiko…”

If operated by Automata or Golems, which have a reaction speed that is several tens of times faster than that of humans, the pocket transfer machine would be able to catch a gravity bomb on the fly and send it far away before it can detonate.

“It would be great if we could design it in the shape of a gun.”

“Yeah.”

With this outline, Jin and Laojun set out to develop a simple transfer machine nas a countermeasure against gravity bombs. And since it could also be used to neutralize other things as well, they worked on it with the highest of priorities.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Jin, are you here?”

After dinner, Saki came into the workshop as Jin was working on his plan. Toa wasn’t with her; she had come all by herself.

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Hey, I’ve been thinking about something and wanted to hear your opinion on it.”

“Okay, let’s hear it.”

Jin too had been absorbed into his thinking for a while, so a change of atmosphere was most welcome.

“Thanks, I know you’re busy. But anyway, I’ve been thinking about those Magic Lines we’ve been talking about, and I’d like to hear your opinion on some theories I’ve come up with.”

Jin remembered thinking about something similar that morning, trying to come up with ways to disrupt Transfer Magic.

“Sounds good. Tell me about your theories.”

“Ehehe, it’s a bit embarrassing now that I’m here and all. …Umm, first…”

Saki’s first point was very similar to what Jin had been thinking about before.

“Magical power lines are like waves. So they have frequencies, wavelengths, and wave forms…”

“Oh, I totally agree with that.”

“Hehe, I’m glad that you do. …Well, my first theory is that magical attributes are determined by frequency.”

“Huh?”

Saki begins her explanation.

There are four attributes: Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire. Earth has the lowest frequency, while Fire has the highest.

“Also, for example, ice would be among the lowest frequencies in the Water attribute.”

Since ice is solid, Saki seemed to believe that it was closer to the Earth attribute.

“Hmm, interesting.”

“Isn’t it? And the one with the highest frequency among those in the Water attribute would be steam.”

“Hmm, I see. But in that sense, what about Wind and Fire?”

“Ehehe, that’s where the knowledge I received from you comes into play, Jin. The solid, liquid, and gas states of matter. Earth is solid. Water turns into ice when it’s solid, it’s liquid in its normal state, and when heated it turns into gas. So what about Fire?”

There may be some interpretations of what Fire actually is, but it can also be seen as a state in which a heated gas emits light.

This was Saki’s explanation.

“Hmm… Well, that’s impressive.”

“Thanks. So Wind is linked to the gas state, and so is Fire. But what if you heat it up even more?”

The answer was plasma.

“I think it might that’s what we call the phenomenon of lightning bolts, but I wanted to hear your opinion, Jin.”

Jin agreed that plasma was an ionized gas, and that lightning bolts were one of the many ways plasma could manifest.

“Right! So then, Light would be above that, and then… Darkness, I suppose…?”

Saki’s voice faltered toward the end of her sentence. She seemed to be losing confidence. However, her face quickly brightened up with Jin’s answer.

“That phenomenon itself may not be linked to just frequency, but I agree with your theory.”

“Right! Well, I’m glad I consulted this with you! …But the thought of Darkness being above Light kinda goes against common sense.”

The idea that light dispels darkness generates the common idea that the Light attribute has to be on top of the line.

“Hmm, but black holes, which not even light can escape from, are still ‘darkness’. And its frequency…”

At that time, an idea came to Jin’s mind.