Chapter 425

13 Stronghold Enchancement Arc

13-01 Jin Started To Take Action

“Wow, what a great view!”

“This is exhilarating!”

The Technology Expo was held in Koju of the Shouro Empire .

Right there, Jin presented the 10-centimeter tall mini smith and the airs.h.i.+p . As a person with the best Magi Engineering skills, he received the t.i.tle of “Magi Craft Meister”, although it was limited to the Shouro Empire .

And now, he was flying in the sky with Prince Ernest of Egelia Kingdom and Princess Lieschen of Klein Kingdom on the airs.h.i.+p .

“Jin is amazing after all . Way more amazing than Marcus . ”

“Oh, thank you . ”

“Prince Ernest, I was kept in suspense at that time . …”

“Haha, sorry, Lies . ”

She was probably referring to the time when she criticized Marcus’ Golem for being unsatisfactory .

Jin thought that Princess Lieschen was very reserved and charismatic . Even though he could not understand his own emotion, he could understand others fairly well .

“Oh, a beautiful bird is flying over there!”

“Where is it, Lies? I can’t see it . ”

Princess Lieschen, who possessed Devil’s Eyes Distant Vision could see very distant things that Jin and Ernest could not .

Therefore, she might be the one who enjoyed this air travel the most .

“Both of you are letting go, I see . ”

Prince Ernest smiled, and Princess Lieschen blushed a little upon hearing Jin’s remark .

With the two of them on board, Jin flew across the sky for an hour and returned to Koju .

“Oh, that was fun! Jin, please let me get on the airs.h.i.+p again!”

“Prince Ernest, don’t bother Jin too much . If something happens to us royals, it will be an international problem . ”

Prince Ernest was 13 years old . Princess Lieschen was 12 years old . However, Princess Lieschen seemed to be a little more mature .

“Welcome back, Magi Craft Meister Sir Jin Nidou . ”

They were greeted upon landing by Empress Gelhart Hilde Von Rubies Shouro and Prime Minister Jung Fowles Von Kevsler .

Since they were state guests, the Empress herself entertained the prince and princess .

The Empress was so excited and wanted to get on the airs.h.i.+p as well, but she had to hold back for the time being since she had to entertain Prince Ernest and Princess Lieschen .

Jin thought that he could finally relax after dropping them off . But he made a promise the day before to take about 120 people on an airs.h.i.+p ride .

“This is a nightmare … . ”

All because he presented an unconventional invention called an airs.h.i.+p . He reaped what he sowed .

Jin took the 120 people in pairs for the airs.h.i.+p ride . Each ride took 5 minutes . All in all, he spent about 5 hours going back and forth . He was exhausted .

“Ugh … . ”

Upon his return to his hotel room, Jin crashed on the sofa . Reiko offered him some persica juice .

Specially made in Horai Island, it had a fatigue recovery effect . Well, that only applied to normal humans .

Most of Jin’s body consisted of Mana … more precisely, Magi Atoms . In terms of modern Earth, it would be similar to treatment ladle in metallurgy, the Magi Atoms would fill up the missing parts of his body .

Therefore, poisons and medicines had no effects on Jin . He had been thinking about investigating the mechanism of his metabolism, but it had been neglected to this day due to business with other things .

Now let’s get back to the main subject .

After drinking Persica juice and refres.h.i.+ng his mood, Jin got up from the sofa .

Elsa and Mine returned just in time . Edgar was with them as well .

“Welcome back . How was it?”

A formal and detailed interrogation was being conducted after the disappearance of Marcus .

“Yeah, there was no problem . ”

“Yes, they were only recording our statements . ”

Laojun had prepared an answer to this in advance, so it must have ended without any problems, especially when Her Majesty the Empress was not present .

It was important that Her Majesty the Empress gave her approval the other day .

“That’s great . So, what are you going to do?”

If Viscount Georg Randol collapsed and was likely to be punished in some way, the case about Elsa’s going home would be left dangling .

How the Viscount would be dealt with was still uncertain as well . There was a good chance that he could lose his position .

“Yeah, for the time being, Brother Rei is taking care of him . ”

Jin acknowledged Elsa’s comment .

“I see . ”

That would be expected . Even though Reinhardt was officially Jin’s disciple, he was also a liaison of the empire .

In that case, there would be no problem for him to move together with Jin .

“And what about Saki? Have you heard anything from her?”

Since the Technology Expo, she went with Marquess Gueren Theodoric von Eisen, whose body was weakened, to support him . No contacts had been made since then .

“Saki seems to be with the Marquess . ”

“Hmm … . ”

She used to badmouth the Marquess and called him names behind his back . But they were still blood relatives, after all .

“They are blood relatives, after all . As they say, blood is thicker than water . ”

When Jin made that remark, a bleak expression was visible on Elsa’s face .

“Oh, sorry, Elsa . ”

Recently, Jin had been able to discern changes in Elsa’s facial expressions .

Due to having a severe discipline upbringing, Elsa had become less emotional . But she had begun to show her age-appropriate facial expressions recently .

“… No, that’s fine . Don’t worry . ”

The day before, Elsa was shocked when her angry father, Viscount Georg Randol, made such terrible remarks .

“… I’m wondering about the Viscount’s condition . ”

Mine was trying to s.h.i.+ft the topic a little .

“Yeah, I’m certainly worried . If he had cerebral infarction … wait a minute … . ”

Due to the busy schedule, Jin had not been able to calmly think and a.n.a.lyze the situation, but there was something he worried about .

“Didn’t Reinhardt mention that Elsa’s father had lost consciousness before?”

“… Yeah . ”

“At the time, Elsa was on a trip . But were there any changes in his personality around that time?”

“There is!”

Mine promptly replied .

“He … was indeed a power-oriented and stubborn person, but he still listened to the suggestions from those around him . However, once he recovered from losing consciousness at that time, he became a self-absorbed person . He became hot-tempered, and he would even hit his subordinates if there was something that displeased him . ”

“Hmm … . ”

After hearing Mine’s story, Jin muttered the word “cognitive impairment” .

Judging from Elsa’s puzzled look, it seemed that the earlier Transinfo did not provide cognition to that extent .

Cognitive impairment could also be caused by cerebral infarction or blockage of small blood vessels in the brain . In that case, changes in personality were often observed .

Many became hot-tempered and had unpredictable behavior .

On modern Earth, where Jin grew up, such symptoms were often broadcasted on TV . He often watched the program since he was worried about the hospital director . That was the reason behind his limited knowledge about the disease .

“Are you worried?”

“… I don’t … know . ”

Jin thought that no matter how terrible her father’s words were, the fact that they were parent and child still would not change .

It was an emotion that Jin did not understand even if he wanted to .

“… I’ll go with you if you’re going to visit him . ”

Elsa’s shoulders quivered as she heard his offer .

“… . ”

However, Elsa cast her eyes downward and kept quiet .

Reiko replied instead .

“If … this is a big if, okay? If Elsa’s father’s personality changed because of ‘cerebral infarction’ like father said, would his personality be restored if the “cerebral infarction” was cured?”

“Huh … . ”

Elsa raised her head upon hearing that question .

“Besides, I’m also curious about what Marcus could have done . He mentioned that information gathering was his purpose . But the fact that he even created Goliath was also something we need to speculate about . There might be a possibility he could have done something else . I think it’s necessary to find that out as well . ”

So far, only Jin, Reiko, Laojun, and Ann knew about the high probability that Marcus could have been a demon’s minion .

In fact, the pursuing Regulus 50 had secured Marcus, who suddenly collapsed in front of the demon territory .

It was as if he was a marionette which strings had been broken .

After securing him, he was carried to a nearby town was taken care of . Soon after, he regained consciousness .

However, Marcus did not seem to remember anything up to that point . It was confirmed by utilizing Transinfo .

“Could some kind of puppeteering magic have been utilized?”

That was Laojun’s best guess . Otherwise, there would be no other possible explanation . If that a.s.sumption was correct, it would also explain his seemingly disconnected cognition .

However, Marcus could not remember who was manipulating his mind .

Though uncertain, it was highly likely that Marcus was manipulated by the demons . Due to the uncertainty, Jin had not mentioned to anyone regarding that matter . He did not want to cause unnecessary confusion .

He intended to discuss it with his family on Horai Island soon . But since Saki was absent, the discussion had been postponed .

“… That’s for sure . ”

Elsa nodded in agreement with Reiko’s remark .

It seemed necessary to visit Viscount Georg Randol’s residence to unravel the tangled threads . It seemed to be a task only possible for Jin and Elsa .

“… All right . Brother Jin, let’s go and take a look . ”

“Okay, then let’s head over tomorrow . ”