Chapter. 18. World 4 (10)
****
Common space on the second floor of Fardau Fortress Station.
The engine drivers, who had been panting due to the sudden emergency, were gathering one by one at Naelda’s call.
“Have you covered all the windows?”
“Yes, sister.”
“Who is looking at the station fence and building entrance?”
“Foram and Bilkert, who have sobered up a bit, are watching.”
“Don’t even blink an eye, and especially don’t let those rotten reporters come near you. “The place we are now is also a station, but just in case, let’s turn on the magic tool detection equipment from the first floor.”
“Uh… it’s expensive and you won’t be able to use it more than a few times, so you didn’t tell me to use it sparingly-” “
If you want to do it, do it. “I’ll make up for it later by shaving my head and selling it.”
The train drivers move quickly to Naelda’s extremely serious voice.
“But why are you doing this? “You’re being mean to me. It’s not just for a day or two, but if you hit me hard, I don’t think it’s just a joke.”
“No… then it’s not a joke. Um Gary? Go and give the kids a cup of tea each. “Just calm down before you start throwing up.”
“Well, it’s totally worth it. “I will bring it to you as soon as I write it and come to my senses.”
“OK.”
Huuuu –
While the dwarf stoker was slowly turning the car around to the driver, Naelda, who was sitting on the table, was taking a deep breath as if she were about to do something big.
As the train drivers, who were nervous at the sight, were each slurping the tea used for hangovers, Naelda lifted me, who was still confined in her arms, with an expression as if she was tearing out her own heart.
“Say hello. “He is our new family member, the professor.”
“…And this is it?”
“okay. Nine years old. Besides, he is the son of the Brastol family.”
“Even nobles? “Can we afford this?”
“Are you trying to get a ransom?”
“If you are my sister, that could be enough….”
“Our financial situation doesn’t make sense…”
Buzz, buzz!
Noisy!
The about 20 train drivers looked at me, who was suddenly introduced as a new member of the family, and each one was busy trying to guess the reason and identity. Of course, some who witnessed the teacup stunt kept their mouths shut and tried hard to suppress their laughter.
“To conclude, even if your stomach is torn apart, you have to deal with it somehow. “Because-”
Naelda, who was savoring the commotion like a orchestra conductor, opened her mouth and grinned as if she could not bear it.
“This kid is a wizard.”
Took-
.
.
.
.
.
The commotion that disappears in an instant along with the word ‘wizard’.
and
“Pahahahaha!!”
“Kuhuk kek kolok! “Hehehehe!”
“Oh my gosh! sister! “You’ve been making a lot of jokes lately!”
“That’s a wizard! “The hairless little boy is a wizard!”
“Hehehe! sister! “Even though he’s an elf with short ears, he doesn’t look old enough to be a wizard!”
“Fuhahaha! I know yeah!”
There was laughter among the train drivers. Naelda just looked at them with a grin, as if she had just heard a ridiculous joke.
“Haha ha ha….”
“Haha….”
“Uh….”
.
.
.
.
….gulp.
“….sister?”
“Why~?”
“The atmosphere in the department is starting to get a little awkward, but now you’re really teaching me why I added that little boy to the family…”
“I don’t like saying things twice, right?”
“So what I said didn’t sound like words…”
“Did I say it in a difficult way? Our new family member, nine-year-old Professor Brastol, is a magician. “What?”
Sigh-!
This time, a slightly heavier silence fell than before. From the dwarf who absentmindedly slaps his cheek repeatedly, to the train driver who started to hiccup while holding his breath, to the beastman who crosses himself and mutters.
The reactions were very different, but they all had the same look of disbelief.
“Really?”
“okay. “Our loyal Voltaeus has finally begun to repay my ocean-wide kindness!”
“Uh, did you steal the wizard from Brastol Street?”
“no? No one knows that this little boy is a wizard except the engineers on our railship here. Since he wasn’t a wizard created by Brastol House, he just stole that family’s son. And that’s from people who don’t care whether a child dies or not.”
“Free wizard….”
Fluffy!
Keep huffing and puffing! I heard the sound of one of the train drivers, who was holding his breath while doing this, collapsing.
“Attributes! What about the properties!”
“Is it also the wind? “Other than those people with wanderlust, there’s no reason to walk in like this, right?”
“Ding~”
“It’s fire! “A special stoker has arrived!”
“What are you doing! The engine part is all sticking out! Your youngest, no, your master has arrived! Instead of burning the kiln right away and showing you the engine room first-”
“Ah~ You’re not even a fire wizard?”
“…Isn’t it fire?”
“Then maybe it’s the Earth type?”
Flutter flutter!
Two more dwarves fell over and with tears in their eyes, they began to recite prayers such as ‘Root of the Great Earth-‘.
“If it’s an Earth Mage… then there’s a possibility that we can secure the rail station on our own, right?”
“It may be difficult to handle with our current number of people, but we are still young… While we wait until they grow up, we will increase our number of people, and once the Earth Wizard is included, there are people all over the place who will crawl on all fours to join…. ”
The train drivers are already starting to picture the future as if they are possessed by something. Naelda set me down in front of them and made a scissors sign with her fingers.
“Dang! “It’s a shame, but I’m not even a precious earth mage!”
With those words, regret quickly passed across the train drivers’ faces. And the next question.
“Unless the wind blows. what? “Soulmancer?”
“Have you ever seen such a fine soul mage? “I wonder how much a nine-year-old can see when he sees a dead person.”
“Then what’s left…”
.
.
.
.
“water?”
“answer!”
….slap!
Slap, slap, slap, slap!
Some of the train drivers who had been slapping my cheek earlier were swinging their hands even harder, and some were even asking the person next to them to slap them.
“This first stoker! Exen Outra! “I request a bar comment!”
“Yeah, I feel like I’ll listen to anything today, so tell me.”
“Ah, you said earlier that you are a wizard that no one knows about except us. So… is it natural?”
“that’s right. A real wizard who gained ‘enlightenment’ by accident. “Not today’s wizards like human magicite mines.”
“Is it possible for a water-type wizard to emerge naturally?”
“At least there are no known people in the Tarigden Islands, right?”
Hi!
“For that reason, I am issuing a silence order to all railship officials here from now on. In my name, I will rip out the mouth of any human who even pulls out a magical ‘demon’ and throw it into the engine. Do you understand?”
“Yes yes mem!”
“good. “Elves hate lies, so I hope you don’t tear our family apart with your own hands.”
Naelda, who had received the pledge from the still bewildered drivers, was looking at me with eyes that seemed to be dripping with honey.
As I was watching this almost comical scene, I became unbearably curious.
“Hey… Naelda?”
“Hmm~ baby? What’s happen? “I’ll listen to anything as long as you don’t tell me to get off the rail ship?”
“Well… how valuable is being a wizard specifically? “I think there are some differences between attributes.”
How valuable is it? Dwarves and beastmen slap each other and say, ‘This is reality.’ ‘I taste blood in my mouth.’ / ‘I guess it’s reality.’ Does it make you mumble the same thing?
“The value of a wizard… To put it simply, it can be said to be the value of pouring all the magic stones that can be mined in a small magic stone mine into one person.”
Naelda stretched out my cheek and began to explain to me one by one.
****
“First of all, most of the people on the train are wind wizards. Those Cheadles are some kind of… curse? They say that I have some kind of innate anxiety, and if I stay in one city for a long time, I will go crazy. So, most of the wizards on the train are wind-type wizards.”
“It’s worth it.”
Due to the nature of their mana, they are magicians who cannot stay in one place. Even if they can fly, they need to come down and rest in the middle of the way. No matter where you go, you can’t rest on the dangerous, soft ground. It is not easy to become a magician great enough to fly between cities, so in the end, you have no choice but to take the train, which is the only means of traveling long distances by land.
The main work is ventilation and defense of trains.
The train, which is sweltering and crowded with drivers who haven’t washed well, is an environment so harsh that it makes you want to give up breathing, but it is said that a wind wizard can act as its own air purifier and cooler. He said that it is useful for managing the condition of the magic engine, useful in battle, and most of all, it makes the train a place where people can live, so it is greatly appreciated.
“If wind-type wizards are combatants/desirable equipment, flame wizards who control fire are at the stage where they can really help with the operation of trains.”
“Do you need fire to use a magic engine?”
“then! “The very old magic engines are powered by magic power itself, but they are not compatible with the magic stones that come out these days!”
The reason was that due to the dragon vein explosion, the concentration of mana on the entire continent became lighter, and as a result, the quality of the magic stones also decreased significantly.
Like in the past, magic stones with a high concentration of magic power can move old magic engines that run on their own mana, and they are much more powerful and efficient, but most of the poor magic stones that come out these days are made because it is difficult to move them even if a truckload of them is poured into them. A magic-steam hybrid engine used in trains.
It appeared to be a hybrid engine that powered a steam engine by burning with coal or wood on one side and producing heat through a heat-generating engine connected to a magic stone on the other. It is said that magic stones are used for basic operation, and when large power is needed, such as acceleration or obstacle breaking, additional power is used to supplement power.
In this situation, what if you recruit a fire wizard and place him in front of the engine?
“Not only can you control acceleration delicately, but in urgent cases, you can move the train with power and propulsion that cannot be compared to a regular train.”
It’s not just a matter of improving engine power. There is an actual case of a train that was thrown off the rails due to a broken track due to an attack from a tunnel bug, but still managed to reach the next city even after going off the rails due to the fire wizard’s power. In fact, it is insurance and fuel for the end of the magic train. Wow, he is the best stoker who reduces travel time.
“This is the end of ‘It’s good to be on the train!’ class.”
“Then what about the earth wizard and water wizard?”
“From there, it is a level of strategic resources where the right to operate the city is at stake.”
Earth wizards are virtually the core of modern human survival. Isn’t the place where you live right now limited to rocky areas?
The Earth Wizard, who controls the land and rocks, is a territorial expansion device that can expand the city’s limits in peacetime, and in wartime, it is a strong barrier that protects your feet when you inevitably enter soft lands, and above all, it is capable of occupying dungeons and controlling the Mute Lord. If removed, it was indispensable for the construction of a line connecting the new rocky terrain nearby and the city.
The good news is that since Mute is devastating the world and turning it into a world where there is only soft and hard land, there are more Earth-type wizards than other wizards. It is said that once you reach the 3rd level, you are treated almost the same as the lord of a fortress city.
“So, most of the earth wizards on the train are 1st or 2nd rank. “It also takes the form of renting out another earth wizard’s disciple.”
In the case of a train carrying an Earth Wizard, unlike other trains that run straight between cities, you will be able to explore ‘next to’ the tracks.
The affiliated Earth Mage blocks the footsteps and ground tremors of the accompanying personnel and watches out for attacks by burrowing bugs and other mutes, allowing them to operate even in places other than human territory.
It is mainly used to dig up relics of the golden age from former human cities, or to secure sites for simple stations between railway lines, called ‘stations’, and to construct and repair them.
Relics from the Golden Age are a bonanza that, if properly collected, will give you enough money to buy a new magic engine. If you succeed in building a station, you will be able to collect usage fees from passing trains over time, and in some cities, taxes will also be reduced.
Thanks to this, the rent for the earth wizard who makes these things possible is equivalent to the operating fee of a train for the 1st and 2nd ranks alone, and everything above that is treated as a first-class strategic resource that belongs to each city and even its location is strictly protected. do.
“It’s precious….”
“It’s very precious. “After the Dragon Vein Distortion, mana became scarce and the path to becoming a wizard was almost blocked.”
“It is an expansion of the range and limits of ventilation engine thrust control… If wizards are rare, how can we cover it with magic engineering?”
“There are some things that are possible, but there are also some that are impossible. Magic is a realm of mystery, right? Mechanically, there are times when a job that requires only one magic engineering equipment for three trains can be done by one wizard. “The parts where wizards are used are all in that area, and that’s why they’re so valuable.”
next. Lastly, the value of a water-based wizard like me.
“If you look at value alone, I tend to give Earth-type wizards a little more credit. “More than anything, its value is incomparable in that it is needed for the repair and construction of inter-city tracks.”
“However… if you go beyond value and consider things that are precious, water magicians are ranked first among the four major attributes.”
“why?”
“I washed my eyes and looked for it, but it wasn’t there.”
As is well known, Mute, which devastated all surrounding living organisms, spread throughout the world and dug up dungeons for everyone, desolating most of the land on the fragmented continent, and thanks to this, the proportion of earth wizards increased everywhere.
This means that the water-based magician has decreased by the exact same percentage that has increased.
“In terms of usefulness, it’s second place, right? The world has dried up, water is essential for the survival of any living thing, and magic steam engines using low-grade magic stones are nothing more than water-eating monsters. That’s why water wizards are treated as city-level strategic resources, just like earth wizards.”
Since this city was built on top of the thickest and largest rock terrain nearby, it was naturally bound to be distant from water resources such as groundwater. The fact that water flows means that there are a lot of cracks and that the terrain is vulnerable to attack by tunnel bugs.
So, most cities have to build pipelines to draw water from places far away, but not only is the construction cost a level that would make the lords laugh, but it also requires quite a bit of magicite to be used in the engine that pumps water from deep in the dry land. In addition, since the noise of the magic engine continues to occur in land that is soft enough for water to come out, it is necessary to organize separate facilities and personnel to defend the area.
If a water wizard resides in the city, all these costs can be solved by the wizard alone. If you live in a city and use your control to continuously pull in water, new waterways will naturally appear toward the city.
Additionally, if city-level waterway construction was supported, it was possible to dig a well without disturbing the city’s ground. If there is sufficient water, additional engines and other equipment can be utilized, permanently expanding the city’s industrial capacity and resources.
“On the train?”
“Water business. Since the Mado Train does not stay in one city for a long period of time, large-scale construction may be difficult, but it is possible to bring in water while it is there. Just bring water and sell it. Of course, just being able to fill our tank with water for free is a huge benefit.”
“I’ve never heard of a water wizard riding a train, so I don’t know how useful it is, but if you grow well… wouldn’t it be possible to provide water for us to drink and wash?”
“Wash… water?”
The train drivers who had been quietly listening to Naelda’s words began to get upset.
“You’re saying you wash up after being a train driver?”
“Can’t I sleep with these stinking lumps of yellow salt dripping from their bodies?”
“The groundwater table… must be cool water! “You don’t have to drink hot water when you feel like you’re dying from the heat!”
“My cold shower!”
“Oooooh!”
“This… is criminal! “It’s not the life of a train driver!” “
As
you can see.” For most train drivers, the pain of living in a narrow, harsh environment due to heat and dehydration is beyond imagination. As someone who has to fight every day, managing one’s physical condition is a benefit that cannot be ignored. If you just drink enough water, the death rate will be reduced by less than half, right? “By the end of the ride, you have to go into battle in a state close to dehydration.”
“Of course, it’s still a long way off for you who have just entered the path of becoming a water wizard.”
Naelda, who was tousling my hair as if she was dying, tapped the desk with her hand to attract the attention of the train drivers who were soaked in sweet dreams.
“I’m sure everyone has foreseen a rosy future for our rail-ships. “It is not just a dream that in the next few years, not only will we be able to operate comfortably, but we will also regain our past glory with the title [Magic Train – Including Water Wizard]!”
“Past glory?”
“This is a story about a time when a large-scale dungeon battle was held at the level of the Straug fortress city. Rail Ship also participated, and thanks to this, he gained the name of Lord Slayer and the right to operate trains free from family interference, but he lost most of the drivers who had been with him for several years. “As we were delivering condolences to the bereaved families and repairing the half-wrecked train, we were running out of funds to even operate the train.”
“So that’s how it happened.”
Voltaeus, who sneaked up behind the cheering Naelda and the drivers, informed us.
no wonder. I heard that the train operating personnel, who are among the most highly qualified and highly popular in April World, appear to be seriously poor. I was in a situation where I was straining my back to revive a train that was almost destroyed. It is said that quite a few trains are disbanded after a major subjugation battle. It is said that the half-wrecked train is disassembled and used for repairs on other trains or as parts for making new trains, and the surviving drivers are dispersed to territories or affiliated with other trains.
“Everyone is excited, but we all know that this is a possibility in the distant future, so we shouldn’t feel too pressured. “First of all, no matter what kind of power you have, you should focus on cultivating your body, which is the foundation of that power.”
“yep.”
“Don’t forget. You are somewhat rare… Although you have a very special talent, the name of the squire of the Shard Knight Volteus Straug is not that light. In order to safely possess the fragment, you will need to cultivate a refined mind and work hard to suppress your innate malevolence. “I heard that magic is also a spiritual discipline, so it will be helpful for both parties.”
“All right.”
I felt so fortunate to have someone like Volteus among all the half-screwed people.
‘Anyway, it takes mental discipline to [safely] possess the fragments. Does this mean that if you lack discipline, unsafe situations will arise?’
Considering that the identity of the fragment is Data Soul, the situation is strangely familiar.
Doesn’t it feel similar to the early days of 3 World, when you were fighting with Hyde and the shells and parasites?
‘Hyde. Come to think of it, Hyde must have experienced over 200 years since they broke up.’
Still, when I think about it alone, I clearly feel a strange empty feeling somewhere.
He also blended into GG’s world as a data soul, so he must have lived in the world after the saint’s death.
….I hope it doesn’t change too much.
“I repeat! “As this is the biggest event in the history of our railship company, we must make it happen!”
While I was lost in thought, the turmoil on the part of Naelda and the drivers was reaching its peak.
“We are taking the little boy from the Brastall family while keeping the wizard professor’s identity absolutely hidden! There shouldn’t be any doubt! Complete Brastol’s request! You’re acting exactly the same as usual! Do you understand?”
“Yes-mem!”
“But how do you plan to get it out? Even though he is a bastard, he is a blood relative of that family who officially received the surname of Brastol.”
“Well… shall we try it like we did in the old days when we took out Voltaeus?”
Naelda seemed to think for a moment, then walked over with a serious expression and lifted me up.
“baby.”
“yep. sister.”
Naelda, the elf, looks me up and down with the happiest, crazy eyes in the world.
“Are you interested in child marriage?”
“….yes?”
For some reason, Voltaeus lowered his head and was blushing.
“Ah, you’re at an age where you don’t know this yet? Marriage, I mean marriage! “Wouldn’t you like to marry an elf who will remain young and plump until you die of old age?”
“….no way?”
When I pointed alternately at Voltaeus and Naelda with my eyes, the crazy elf nodded as if it was the correct answer.
Oh my god, world tree that cares for all elves.
Could it be that you couldn’t bear this kind of cruelty and passed away?
Even though I pride myself on being smart, I couldn’t imagine how this crazy elf’s mental world worked.
****
