09-03 Smith

“There is a report from Deneb-21.”

The next morning, Laozi conveyed Quinta’s first results.

The destination where Deneb-21 was dispatched was near the lake Azul.

Lake Azul was a huge lake located in the northern part of Celuroa Kingdom. It was a popular sightseeing spot that also importantly had the national border between Celuroa and Frantz Kingdom and aquatic resources.

Due north of the Celuroa Kingdom’s capital Esaia was the tourist city Rulasus. It was said that on its outskirts there were ruins from the times of the Great Magic War.

“It appears that the insides were partially destroyed, and no particularly important doc.u.ments or Magi Tools were left behind.”

The first results were as stated, although the details were lacking.

“There is a report from Regulus-15.”

“There is a report from Capella-21.”

That day, a total of three reports came, and the third report, namely Capella-4 said that he had found a box with a sealed [Core] of gigantes in it. The location was in the northern mountains of Egelia Kingdom.

“So there really were more. Just as Ann said, huh.”

From the supposedly six remaining ones one of them had been found. Five remained.

The sealed box was a little troublesome, but Capella-4 decided to very carefully carry it to Hourai Island through the Warp Gate near Blue Land.

“Hmm, the advance bases, or rather the lodgements, or rather the network is still lacking, huh.”

Jin muttered. But it hadn’t been more than five days since the completion of the Quinta. That was natural.

“Now then, I’ll, hmm.”

After receiving the reports and giving instructions Jin decided to build a subst.i.tute puppet for himself due to Reinhardt telling him to ‘take care of himself’ the other day.

“Using same structure as with the Quinta…”

He would make it just like a human. What was essential was the internal [Mana Telecam] that could convey sounds and images to Jin on Hourai Island.

It would move according to Jin’s orders, basically half-autonomously.

He made its look exactly like Jin on the outside. …Or so he wanted, but it really was hard to make a puppet that was an exact copy of himself by himself, so he asked Reiko to make the finis.h.i.+ng touches.

And thus Jin’s subst.i.tute puppet was completed.

“…Uncanny.”

Seeing a puppet just like yourself would be uncanny, wouldn’t it.

“Is it not to Father’s satisfaction?”

Reiko said anxiously.

“No, I wasn’t criticizing it. On the contrary, it’s somehow too much like me, just a little. ”

Jin said and calmed Reiko down.

“Let’s try making it move as a test.”

He immediately started a test run. Controlling it was done in one of the rooms in Hourai Island’s research laboratory.

There were five large monitor screens, each projecting what the subst.i.tute puppet was seeing, but the front screen was tuned to display what was about the same as a human’s field of vision, while the screens around it showed the rest around it.

The subst.i.tute puppet’s field of vision was much wider than a human’s. Normally just the front monitor ought to suffice.

From the room Jin sent simple instructions to the subst.i.tute puppet. As implementing remote controls seemed to be time-consuming, and development of control through brain waves also seemed to be time-consuming, this was a stopgap method adopted until then.

The plan was to have Reiko and the SP at his side most of the time giving him support.

Move, stop, walk, run. Basic commands worked fine, but as expected small motions were very uncomfortable.

No matter how you looked at it, it seemed clumsier than a human.

“Well, it’s a subst.i.tute for times when I’m going somewhere dangerous, so maybe this should do.”

He had many complaints about it, but it was still a work-in-progress, so Jin decided that the subst.i.tute puppet was done for now.

“Now then, Laozi, what’s the state of progress with the aircraft carrier?”

Jin asked Laozi, and,

“My Lord, currently the material processing is 50 percent done.”

“My Lord, currently the material processing is 50 percent done.”

The same reply came from two directions at once.

This was because on one side was Laozi’s human terminal, and on the other there was Laozi’s brain.

“Ahh, having two Laozis is maybe too tangled.”

Jin thought about it. How was it again in that book he once read? Then he remembered.

“…Alright, from now on let’s keep calling the humanoid side Laozi, and call the brain side ‘Laojun’. They both have the same meaning so it’s fine, right?”

“Yes, My Lord.”

“Understood, so I am now called Laojin.”

The alias of Laozi in the land of the immortals was ‘Taishang Laojun’, and that’s where he got the name.

Jin then again received the report about the aircraft carrier.

“Hmm, it really does take a long time.”

“Yes. That’s because we had to begin from building a dock on the beach to use for construction.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

Jin was the Magi Craft Meister. Just him being the leading Magi Craftsman didn’t mean he specialized in building gigantic things.

“Hmm, I suppose I’ll make factory worker golems.”

Jin said, and he got support from Ann.

“I think that is a good idea. Leaving the parts only master can build out of it, by letting golems build the rest of the parts master’s workload becomes lighter and the production efficiency increases.”

“That seems to be the case.”

And so Jin decided to start ma.s.s-producing factory worker golems.

The material was steel. There wasn’t a particular need to use the valuable Light Silver or Adamant.i.te.

However, the steel was an alloy with nickel and chromium mixed in so as to make it less susceptible to rust. In other words, stainless steel. In addition, it was 18/12 steel.

18 percent chromium, 12 percent nickel. The reason was that with large amounts of nickel the color would become blackish, giving it a solid feeling.

“The strength is fairly good as is, but if they can’t use Craft Magic well it’ll be troubling, huh.”

As such Jin transcribed considerable portions of his knowledge to them, making them able to work on everything but the most precise formulas. Their physique was about the same as Jin’s. So that they could also work with small details.

He made 500 of them.

He first built five and activated them, and had them a.s.sist him in building a total of 50. With the additional support of these 50 he built 500.

Jin was finished in the middle of the morning.

“The efficiency really is different, huh.”

“My Lord, the name.”

Laozi and Laojun reminded Jin to name them as he became excited about how easy the work became.

“Hmm, let’s see, Smith.”

This was the creation of the worker golems Smith-1 to Smith-500.

＊ ＊ ＊

As usual, he went to have lunch with Elsa and Mine.

“Come on in, Jin-nii.”

“h.e.l.lo.”

Today the weather was once again fine and it was warm, so they had lunch outside.

This time lunch was freshly-baked bread with thinly-sliced meat in between, vegetable salad, and Citran juice.

Jin noticed that the menu was a little scarcer than usual, but said nothing about it and picked up the bread.

“…”

“?”

While Jin did that, Elsa kept staring at him. Jin thought her unusual behavior was somewhat strange, yet didn’t stop his hand and ate the bread.

“?”

The second question mark of the day. The flavor was a little different from usual. The meat slice seemed to be thicker, but the flavor was somewhat weaker.

Although Jin was fundamentally not picky with his food, that didn’t mean he had no sense of taste. Rather, because he had cooked simple meals by himself, he thought he was as particular as anyone else. He just didn’t put it into words.

“…”

And then as he felt Elsa’s gaze as he was about to eat the vegetable salad, Jin suddenly came to a conclusion.

“Could it perhaps be that today’s lunch was made by Elsa?”

He said, and Elsa became visibly nervous.

“…Was it not good?”

She then timidly asked.

“No, the flavoring is a little different than what Mine uses, but it’s plenty tasty. So that was it, Elsa made the food, huh.”

“Mm. Because it would be shameful if, as Jin-nii’s sister, I couldn’t do a lot of things.”

Elsa said and slightly blushed.

“Mh-hm, thanks.”

Jin said and finished eating all of the remaining bread and salad.

“That was good, Elsa.”

Elsa and Mine both similarly finished eating, and for after-meal dessert Mine peeled some Pelshka.

Peeling Pelshka was probably still unreasonable for Elsa, at the very least in front of Jin while he was watching.

Jin remembered how Elsa’s apt.i.tude with [Transfer Info] was greater than Reinhardt’s. If he had the spare time he might try teaching her some Craft Magic, he muttered to himself.