Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 639

18　King Klein’s Treatment Arc

19-26　Gossip 34 – The Golden Princess

This happened a few days before Jin and the others headed to the Klein Kingdom.

At Asunto, the capital of the Egelia Kingdom…

A hot air balloon with a golden gasbag was flying overhead.

The gasbag had the words “Nostalgia Party” written in large letters, and regardless of its design, it was the most definite indicator of its affiliation.

The Royal Knights, who had built two of that exact same kind of hot air balloon after examining the one that Jin had given them, immediately approached the golden hot air balloon.

Then, a voice came from the golden hot air balloon.

“I’m Elena, a diplomat from the Nostalgia Party. I’ve brought a gift for your country. I request permission to land.”

This was possible thanks to a spell that uses Wind Magic to give directionality to her voice and transmit it to any specific receiver who is far away.

It was often used before the Great Magic War. Its name is “Acoustic Tube”.

The Egelia Kingdom is the farthest from the Nostalgia Party HQ.

Since Elena doesn’t need to eat, drink or sleep, she decided to visit this faraway country first.

Incidentally, the climate and eating habits of the Elias Kingdom are quite different from the rest, so they wouldn’t be getting a dehumidifier this time around. Although there were plans to give them one at some point in the future.

Elena landed in the courtyard of Asunto Castle, sandwiched between the two hot air balloons built in the Egelia Kingdom.

Surrounding it are 20 knights of the Royal Guard armed with swords, although they had not drawn them.

Aware that this castle was once attacked with a hot air balloon during the Unifier era, Elena smiled bitterly.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Elena. I come as a representative of the Nostalgia Party.”

Elena introduced herself once again. A knight stepped forward in front of her.

“Welcome, Miss Elena, I am Bruno Thales Bright, the Vice Commander of the Knights of the Royal Guard. Are you here for the delivery of this ‘dehumidifier’ we’re scheduled to receive today?”

Elena had a sweet smile on her face. Some of the knights were fascinated by her smile and smiled broadly themselves.

“Yes, that’s right. Could I see the person responsible for receiving it?”

“Of course. I’ll take you to Minister of Magi Technology Kerihidor and Minister of Home Affairs William.”

After Bruno said that, the other knights turned around and left.

With a small package in her hand, Elena followed Bruno’s lead, crossing the courtyard where the scars of the turmoil during the Golem Party still remain here and there, and headed for the guest house, which was located to the left of the castle.

Elena was welcomed into what looked like a large conference room at a state guest house.

Her exposition began shortly after in the presence of two mage knights of the Royal Guard.

“Moisture condensates as temperature drops, and the resulting water is removed as temperature returns to normal. …That’s the principle behind how it works. Do you understand?”

The attendees were puzzled by her concise explanation.

“Uh… well, its mechanism seems to be simple enough. We should be able to produce these ourselves, shouldn’t we?”

“Yes. By all means, please try manufacturing them as well.”

Elena smiled.

“The removed water will accumulate, so please make sure to drain it regularly. Do you have any questions?”

“Why does condensation happen when the temperature is lowered?”

Elena’s face looked like she was at a loss for words for a moment before Kerihidor’s question.

“…It’s impossible to explain it in such a short time. Please accept it as it is now.”

However, Elena could clearly see the dissatisfaction in Kerihidor’s face.

“…The maximum amount of water vapor that air can hold depends on the air temperature. This is called saturated water vapor. When the temperature is high, it can hold more of it, and when the temperature is low, it can hold less of it. …How about now? I’m sure that this explanation has brought even more questions to your mind, and that’s because the foundation for this kind of phenomenon hasn’t been explained in detail. That’s why I said it was impossible to explain this in such a short time.”

Elena’s red eyes didn’t have the slightest hint of disdain, and so, even Kerihidor, Minister of Magi Technology, couldn’t help but back down.

“…Water droplets tend to stick to the outside of a glass filled with cold water, right? That happens because of this exact same phenomenon.”

“Hmm… I see…”

Elena kindly gave a supplementary explanation, which seemed to have satisfied Kerihidor.

“Are there any other questions?”

Everyone had fallen silent. They might have given up entirely.

“Well then, I’ll be on my way.”

After making a reverence, Elena stood up.

Again, Bruno accompanied her back to the hot air balloon.

There was someone staring at her from afar.

It was Ernest, the third prince. He was staring at Elena, occasionally tilting his head to the side.

“Prince? What happened?”

The prince’s maid, Lyla Soreuse, who was standing by his side, asked the prince about his strange behavior.

“…Hmm, what a strange Automata. She feels different from the ones Jin makes.”

Lyla was surprised by those words.

“Huh?”

“I’m talking about that Automata… Elena. She’s different from Reiko. But there are also some similarities… But they’re different. Hmm…”

“T-that girl is… an Automata?”

“Hmm? Yes, of course. Can’t you see it?”

“I-I can’t tell…!”

The prince had intuitively noticed that Elena was an Automata.

The only other person who knew that she was an Automata was Minister Kerihidor.

None of the knights watching her from a distance had realized that about her her.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

After that, Elena headed for the Klein Kingdom.

The reaction there was more or less the same.

The ones who welcomed her there were Chancellor Powell, Minister of Industry Derait, and Viscount Bernard Nefra Foster, the leader of the 2nd Order of Knights.

They, too, had trouble understanding her explanation of the theory behind the dehumidifier.

“Well then, if you’ll excuse me”

After saying her goodbyes, Elena took her leave. But her eyes were opened wide for a moment as she was about to board her hot air balloon.

(Blue hair… An Automata of Adriana Balbora Ceci?）

She had seen Princess Lieschen and her wet-nurse-looking Automata, Tia, from afar.

When Elena saw her blue hair, she felt a rush of excitement for a moment, but it soon subsided.

Then she boarded her hot air balloon and took it up into the sky once again.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

The Franz Kingdom was the same as the others.

(…The way they stare at me is depressing…)

However, their knights and soldiers seemed to be less skilled than those of the other countries she had visited, and the level of understanding of those in charge was also poor.

(The future of this country is bleak…)

And in the Celuroa Kingdom, there was even a ploy to secretly kidnap Elena.

Once Elena had given the kingdom’s representatives the dehumidifier and finished with her explanation, she headed back to her hot air balloon. At that time…

“Miss Elena! Some Golems have gone berserk! It’s dangerous, please run away!”

Such an “accident” was set to occur.

The two Golems in question seemed to have been built for combat, and both were rushing at a tremendous speed.

One of them was on an obvious course to hit Elena, and if she were to avoid it, it would crash into her hot air balloon instead.

(What shall we do……)

Elena had recently been detuned so that she would only be as strong as a common human being.

However, her reaction speed and the techniques she has learned were untouched.

She was programmed to self-destruct in the unlikely event that she were to break down and her Control Core was left prone to being analyzed by an unwanted third party. While the risk of anyone stealing the Control Core’s secrets with ill intent was low, she still needed to have some means to defend herself.

There was no time to think any more, and Elena met the rushing Golem.

Just before it could crash into her, she moved lightly to the right and used her leg to sweep at the Golem’s feet. It was similar to the deashibarai throw in Judo.

With its upper body unable to keep up with the movement of its center of gravity, the Golem easily lost its balance and fell forward.

Since there was still a risk of it hitting the hot air balloon even after that, Elena grabbed the Golem’s left arm and swung it around using its own momentum.

Even though she weighed less than half of that Golem’s weight, it was enough for her to change the trajectory of a Golem that had lost its balance.

Elena released her grip on its arm and quickly sidestepped away.

That’s because the second berserk Golem was approaching.

This second rushing Golem collided with the first one, which had just been thrown forward, making it lose its balance as well, and the two Golems fell to the floor in an entangled mess.

“…I’ll leave the rest to you. Good evening, everyone.”

Elena quickly untied the mooring cable, jumped into the hot air balloon, and used her Fire Magic.

The gasbag inflated very rapidly, and soon began to float. Since all the luggage she had loaded in it was now gone, it quickly took to the skies.

Glancing at the stunned soldiers, Elena kept on gaining altitude.

(… I don’t know if humans are too smart or too stupid…)

Embracing such impressions, Elena took her hot air balloon back to the Nostalgia Party HQ.