Chapter 330 - Episode Thirty - Old Pen's Progress (2)

It was lunchtime, and it was time for a break in the production of the wooden dragon Quetzalcoatl.

I dont think its necessary to have a lunch break, but I was boycotted once before, and Mea and Lark persuaded me to sign a memorandum stating that I must have an hour lunch break.

The members of the alchemist division have recently started to learn to cry to Lark, Mea and Altamir, which is annoying.

Not wanting to be discouraged, I carried the Ortem into their reunion during the lunch break and began to lecture them on magic, which resulted in the addition of a devilish reminder: During the break, Commander Abel must not speak to any member of the group without their permission.

So, normally, Im either crying to Mea, complaining, working in silence by myself, or having Altamir, who seems to be a bit of a pain in the ass, take care of me, but from today, Penrath, aka Old Pen, is here.

I was excited to think that Penrath would be willing to discuss magic with me.

Penrath is not in the hall at the moment, but Im sure hell be back soon.

Peter had come to inspect the place just before noon, so I had asked him to hide somewhere else.

Lark would give in if I asked him to, but Peter is a troublesome opponent.

Although Peter owes me a great debt of gratitude, as he tried to use me and kill me.

In addition, Peters only hope of contacting the Great God Kudor, probably the most powerful spirit in the world, would have to go through me.

Its a cunning thing to do, but Peter would never want to upset me, so Im confident I can push through even if he finds out Peter is a cunning guy.

In exchange for letting Penrath off the hook, he might impose some restrictions on me in the name of monitoring important criminals, or he might be more direct and bring other challenges to me.

I want to keep Penraths existence a secret from Peter as much as possible.

If Penrath were to come into my possession, I would have no choice but to do as Peter asked or ask Kudor to mediate and find a compromise between us.

I dont want to choose the option of defecting to the Riveras Kingdom, joining forces with Levi, and becoming thoroughly hostile to Peter.

Speaking of absence, Mea is also not here right now.

Shes usually around me while Im working, but today she was supposed to attend a cooking class held by Milsy, a housewife who prides herself on her cooking, and she left in the middle of the class to go there.

In the past, in the Palgas Village, where Nelgliffes disease riot, Mea had a cooking contest with Fleur, the daughter of the village chief Heil, and she may have been suffering from a severe defeat there.

Its not that Im bored, but I wonder if Mea cant handle this kind of fervor.

Before I knew it, she was studying something she said she was not good at, or something she said she was interested in, but I couldnt help but feel that she was becoming more and more poor in dexterity, since she seemed to be doing whatever she could.

Mea is always by my side, so sometimes when shes not, I feel uncomfortable or rather, I feel murky.

Anyway, I wonder if Mea or Penrath will come back soon.

From what Mea had said, it seemed like it would be a long day, so I might not see them until the evening.

With this in mind, I sat down on an Ortem at the edge of the plaza, where the wood carcasses were scattered, and bit into a ham sandwich.

As I finished eating and stretched out, I saw Mea running towards me.

Abel, thank you for your hard work!

Oh, Mea! You said you were going to learn how to cook, but are you done with that already?

I was actually supposed to be over there for lunch, eating Milsys cooking and talking with the others, but I thought Abel might be taking a break right now and I was fidgeting, Milsy took care of me

Youre overreacting, Ill see you in half a day, though.

As I stood up, smiling, a small, elderly man came sprinting past Mea, right at me.

It was, of course, Penrath.

Mea couldnt help but pause, her eyes flashing.

When Penrath came right in front of me, he stopped.

I took a half step back, my face too close to his.

Penrath took a step forward. I decided not to move.

Abel-sama! I finally came back! This Old Pen regrets that he could not be present at the great achievement of Abel-sama ! Really, that goddamn annoying faggot!

I, I see, that was tough.

May this Old Pen have some of Abel-samas precious time now! I would like to ask you to teach me! Ive been examining what I should ask you to teach me! So, I thought that this is the only way to ask Abel-samas knowledge, which is wider than the ocean, deeper than the underground empire of the dwarves, and can be called the world record, and this old pen , struggling to squeeze his stupid and poor brain, came up with the idea of !

Wait a minute! Im sorry about that but can you do it later?

This may be the first time in my life, including my previous life, that Ive been asked for so much knowledge.

I suppressed my desire to talk.

Mea had twisted her schedule to come and check on me.

If I were to talk with Penrath, it would definitely put Mea in a situation where she couldnt interfere from the side.

That would be too pitiful for Mea.

Muu

Penraths eyeballs glare at Mea.

Mea flinched at Penraths ghastly eyes, but she grabbed my clothes and glared back at me.

Mea, Mea wont lose to old Pen!

Mea says, and Penrath grits his teeth.

What are these two competing for?

Abel, how is the wood dragon manufacturing going ?

Abel-sama! The first thing I want to ask you about is your interpretation of Gillemeims virtual demon paradox!

Mea, who was interrupted, looked annoyed.

You dont know when to give up! Abel has decided to talk to Mea!

Mea puts her arm around my back and pulls me slightly toward her back, then steps forward to protect me from Penrath.

Gillemeims virtual demon paradox I never thought Id hear that word come out of someones mouth.

Ah

When I responded to Penraths words, Mea let out a breath that seemed to disappear into the air.

It is said that Gillemeim is a genius who almost single-handedly came up with the basic concepts of modern magic thinking about five hundred years ago.

In addition to being an excellent sorcerer, he was also a scholar of religion and ethnic studies, and a philosopher.

It is said that Gillemeim made a novel proposal about the afterlife and provided a mathematical proof for it, but unfortunately, he could not get anyone to agree because it was too advanced for anyone to understand, and he was beaten to death because his proposal was taken as contempt for God.

His life is shrouded in mystery, and not a single portrait of him has survived, leading some to speculate that he was actually a sorcerous organization consisting of several people.

Gillemeim had conversations with high-ranking demons, pioneered the spirit language, and created many magical theories.

However, most of them are not understood by anyone, and only a very small portion of them have been accepted by the general public.

The virtual demon paradox is a way of thinking and understanding about magic proposed by Gillemeim, but like many of the theories that Gillemeim came up with, it is also one of those that are not understood by anyone and are being forgotten as time goes by.