NOVEL NEXT Chapter 286
<286 - The Forbidden Technique Prohibited by the Empire>
The statue has turned into Rosgini.
She may be harboring feelings for Sandkooker.
Manipulating him with the tips of her fingers, she plays with both their hearts.
“Y-Young Lady? What’s with the suddenness…?”
“Don’t get me wrong. I just wanted to check something for a moment.”
Arcadia shook off the temptation that had arisen within her with a scoff. Nobles cannot be children. Especially not a noble young lady from the prestigious Sebiche Count family.
‘What does that mean?’
While Arcadia quickly suppressed the urge to take her anger out on innocent people, Sandkooker was caught in turmoil as his heart raced.
Is this a proposal from her? Is she suggesting we have a child? She’s definitely tempting me right now, right? Then will I become a noble too?
But I’m just someone with talent for magic! I won’t be able to satisfy this woman!
His mind raced with wild imaginations!
The rapidly turning future plans ended with disappointment at 30, leading to a divorce from a wife worn down by pressures from the Sebiche Count family. The shadow of that grim reality couldn’t even overshadow his dark thoughts.
“I’m sorry. No, I’m so sorry.”
“?”
While wondering if it was too much for him to accept the proposal of a noble young lady, Sandkooker was visibly happy for that fleeting moment.
Arcadia, having ignited the flames of desire in Sandkooker’s heart, got to the crux of the matter.
“So, what is it that you need my help with, if Rosgini doesn’t need assistance?”
“Ah, oh no. Ppyoi, who went to join the revolt, hasn’t returned. She’s definitely been caught by the crew and is getting a smack on the bottom!”
“Smack on the bottom…?”
“Don’t you know? If a student in the Magic Tower fails to follow along, the mentor punishes them with a smack on the bottom.”
Seeing Sandkooker’s innocent expression, Arcadia quickly pieced things together.
Though she had missed it due to her prickly demeanor typical of magicians, Sandkooker had a look that could hear the faintest sound in the air.
The Magic Tower was filled with weirdoes, and among them were terrifying mentors who, missing their own opportunities, brought forth hidden desires onto their apprentices.
‘There must be magicians in the Foundation, but even so, they wouldn’t do something like smacking bottoms.’
If it’s the works of the Foundation, it must be a punishment that’s far more dreadful and cruel.
“…I’m starting to get unnecessarily worried. Let’s go help.”
“Really? Are you willing to help that easily?”
“I came here to cause an onboard revolt too.”
“Was there really such a common sense as revolting onboard!?”
“If you’re on a cruise ship, causing an onboard revolt is common sense, don’t you think?”
With that, Arcadia recalled Oknodie’s words when troublesome things came up.
For some reason, Sandkooker muttered, “Did the stuffy apprentices in the Magic Tower have common sense that they didn’t know about?” as he begrudgingly agreed.
“Is the reason why the lights on the cruise ship are out also because of the onboard revolt?”
“I think that’s likely. That Titosso helped the Northern Grand Duchess with that.”
“Huh? Titosso?”
Sandkooker chuckled and spoke cheekily.
“Pretending to be ignorant won’t work? I already know that Titosso was an incredible secret weapon. If she can wipe out the lights, that’s extraordinary enough.”
“Huh? Wait, are you talking about that Titosso I know…?”
“Stop acting dumb. I get it. Externally it’s a secret, right? I won’t blabber about it, so don’t worry. I’ll keep today’s thrilling events as memories in my heart.”
“?”
Arcadia found herself in utter confusion.
What on earth had happened to Titosso?
And why was this man blushing in discomfort and sneaking glances like a shy bride on her wedding night, despite not having done anything? And why did she keep feeling that piercing gaze from the Rosgini statue?
*
Titosso’s surprising presence was revealed during her brilliant performance, and the hidden secret was simply the lights.
-Oknodie really cherishes her friends, charging boldly into the dangerous habitats of monstrosities just because of the light stands.
-Of course! Without light stands, Titosso would be meaningless!
-What if it were light stands from someone other than Titosso?
-Um… but she’d probably still go pick them up, right? After all, she could share the two light stands with Titosso!
-Two levels…?
-Oh, you don’t need to know that reinforcing the same equipment doubles in quantity each time!
Recalling the conversation she had with Oknodie when Titosso’s light stands got robbed by the silk moths, Irene felt a surge of inspiration as she saw the lights scattered all around the cruise ship.
“Irene. I have a favor to ask! Would you contract with me to cause an onboard revolt?”
“Wasn’t that cruise ship sent from your home?”
“I’ll give you Titosso, so please!”
“Fine.”
Irene, who was already planning to win Oknodie’s favor, had no reservations since she had also received permission from the officials.
Though Titosso seemed nervous, glancing at the lights as if they were all-important, she was instead giving decisive hints to Irene.
So it was.
Recalling Oknodie’s stories about Titosso’s light stands, and seeing the abundance of lights all around the cruise ship, this was meant to reinforce Titosso’s light stands!
“Find me a production artisan who can combine two identical materials for reinforcement.”
“Hmm. You’ve caught a silly fancy.”
Singing displayed reluctance but cooperated readily at the mention of helping Oknodie.
“What if I ask you to find an artisan aboard and they end up looking like a captured criminal, bound and thrown in a bag on the brink of execution?”
“Be grateful you brought back someone alive.”
Though it was a rather intense invitation, Irene felt a sense of convenience when the artisan, after being unwrapped from the bag, exclaimed in tears that he would help with anything.
She thought she might just have to try Sing’s methods sometimes, showing the lights she had brought from the ship alongside Titosso’s light stand.
“Please reinforce this. This is to help Titosso, the chief scholarship student of the Foundation and a dear friend of Oknodie.”
“Reinforce…? You mean it? Is it alright to commit destruction prohibited by the Empire?”
“…Why is reinforcement considered destruction?”
The production artisan, bound in ropes, looked around and whispered.
“Reinforcement is a secret of production artisans using two identical objects to enhance one’s performance. Naturally, mastering it would require an enormous amount of materials, which would be a burden for ordinary artisans to self-fund.”
“Are you saying one uses their own belongings or someone else’s belongings?”
“Didn’t the Northern Grand Duchess just tear apart perfectly good light stands from the cruise ship to reinforce her light stand? Imagine if such incidents occurred in public facilities one after another and burst the neighbor’s property using reinforcement. What sort of chaos and expenditures would ensue in society?”
Just listening made one dizzy.
In the already resource-scarce North, if soldiers greedily decided to use their fellows’ weapons to enhance their own, what if one soldier’s combat power increased slightly but another soldier’s death rate skyrocketed due to losing their weapon?
“Reinforcement, despite being classified under production, is an extremely destructive and cruel act. That’s why the Empire designated this technique as a forbidden technique, a taboo.”
It seemed unfair that a daughter would do something like that on a cruise ship her parents sent her for fun.
Yet such thoughts quickly vanished when looking at those still trapped in the underground prison, repaying points with Foundation scholarships, or now reduced to labor class students diligently working as crew members.
They crossed the line first; there’s no reason students shouldn’t cross it too.
‘Maybe this could be an extension of the Academy’s education.’
Socially frowned-upon acts. Ridiculous mindsets. The Academy boldly encouraged such things to be committed.
After all, as long as you lived, you could do anything.
Learning all kinds of tricks, discovering ways to counter others’ tricks, and making even the studious and obedient students realize methods to avoid getting caught in illegal behavior or protecting themselves.
Surely the Academy wasn’t a complete bottom-tier institution that openly taught taboo actions like reinforcement, yet Oknodie and the Foundation had permitted it.
It must be the difference between an educational institution and a private company.
If that’s how the Foundation and Oknodie’s policies stood, as a guest invited, she could only follow in line.
For that reason, Irene actively dismantled the lights as Titosso, feeling anxious, had to watch his light stand get disassembled by the artisan.
“What if the light stand breaks? It’s the precious light stand my sister gifted me!”
“Don’t worry. I’ve been hammering for a day or two. A light stand like this won’t be a problem.”
Amidst haphazard hammering, the light stand engulfed in light shone brightly before shattering with a crack.
“Waaah!”
“Haha. Don’t flinch. What blew up was the reinforcement material, not the original equipment!”
The artisan’s hammering insisted on securing the format of the equipment, and as the reinforcement level rose, the standards of materials, too, stepped up from shabby stands to unified standard wheels.
As the levels increased, both the reinforcement effect and the difficulty of reinforcement naturally rose.
An artisan who was beyond the ordinary dreamt of such a level of reinforcement, wiping away the sweat from his brow with satisfaction.
“Phew. It’s been so long since I got to reinforce like this since graduating from the Academy.”
“Wait, you were a senior!?”
“Ah, I forgot to introduce myself? My name is Ferguson. I enrolled in the Production Department as the 970th class, and I graduated in the 982nd.”
Ferguson proudly presented his masterpiece.
“Here you go. This is a +5 light stand, which theoretically requires 32 light stands to reinforce. It can cover everything from blinding light attacks to cozy adult moods with its brightness adjustment function!”
Thus, a +5 light stand destined to shine in the onboard revolt was born.