Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 647

18　King Klein’s Treatment Arc

19-34　At Night By The Window

By the time everything had finished, it was quite late at night.

Jin took a bath to wash off his sweat, and went by the window in order to cool off his warmed up body.

“…Brother Jin”

A voice came from behind Jin. It was Elsa. Her hair was wet, and Jin could tell that she was just out of the bath herself. Her skin, peeking out from her Magi Silk bathrobe, had the color of cherry blossoms.

“Want to sit over here?”

Elsa nodded at Jin’s words, pointing to the sofa by the window.

“This wind feels nice.”

While saying that, she sat down next to Jin.

Having cooled off a little, Jin could feel Elsa’s warmth.

“…”

Time passed in silence. Jin was the first to speak.

“This night breeze is already getting a bit chilly. I’ll close the window so you don’t catch a cold.”

“…Sure.”

Elsa’s answer was short. Then silence came again.

This time, it was Elsa who spoke first.

“…Brother Jin, about today…”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for today. …When you came asking if I was okay, it made me very happy.”

“Y-yeah.”

“…But, after all, I’m… still Brother Jin’s… little sister… right?”

Elsa was having way more trouble speaking than usual. The reason why her cheeks were red wasn’t because she had just gotten out of the bath.

“…”

Since Jin couldn’t answer, Elsa continued.

“I’m the one who started calling you ‘Brother’. I know that I’m being selfish, but right now… I want to be more than just Brother Jin’s little sister. Those are my honest feelings.”

After saying that, Elsa stood up and tried to leave the room. But her hand had been grabbed. Of course, it was Jin who stopped her.

“…B-Brother… Jin…?”

“…Elsa. I’d like to speak frankly too. I… what I feel for you is…”

“Father.”

Suddenly Reiko spoke up. Jin came to his senses and let go of Elsa’s hand. Elsa remained frozen in place.

“…W-what’s wrong, Reiko?”

A bit thrown off, Jin responded to Reiko.

“I received a call from Laojun.”

“I-is that so?”

“…Did something happen?”

Elsa, who looked like she had just woken up from a dream, must have been curious about this “call from Laojun”, so she sat down on the sofa again and asked Reiko with a confused look on her face.

“Y-yeah. I’ll fill you in about it after this. Please give me a moment. …What is it, Laojun?”

“My Lord, I’m sorry to bother you this late at night, but there’s something that requires your judgment.”

Laojun’s voice came out of the Mana Comm.

“Sure, what happened? Any progress?”

“Yes, in fact…”

Laojun then briefly summarized what had happened on his end during the past five days, that is, the time since Jin had arrived in the Klein Kingdom.

“I see, so you’re saying that that merchant called Oliver wants to hire a Magi Engineer, huh?”

“Yes. …I believe he probably has some kind of connection with the so-called foreigners.”

“Yes. I’m curious about it too. My Substitute Doll should be good enough to pose as your master, but as a Magi Engineer…”

Jin pondered for a moment. Though he wanted to go there himself, he knew it was probably ill-advised to do so. In that case…

“Okay, let’s use Deus Ex Machina.”

The second-generation body they had used the other day. With more advanced functions added, it was hard to tell it apart from a real human being. And above all, Jin could control it directly.

Laojun would usually take control of it, and Jin could take over whenever he had free time to do so.

“Understood. Then I’ll arrange it like that.”

“Sure, please do.”

‘What should its name be?”

As expected, it couldn’t just introduce itself as Deus Ex Machina.

“That’s right… Elsa, do you have any good ideas?”

Not feeling confident enough about coming up with a good name, Jin was glad to have Elsa around so he could ask her to name it instead.

“…Jon Diniu.”

“Huh?”

“I just shuffled the letters for Jin Nidou around a little.”

“Umm, so, Jon Diniu, huh? I see.”

It was hard for Jin to say whether it was a good or a bad name, but since it was an alias, Jin decided to go with it anyway.

“Okay, Laojun. Let’s go with Jon Diniu.”

“Understood. I will contact you once there’s any progress.”

And with that, the call ended.

“I’m looking forward to it…”, Jin said to himself.

Jin was already excited to imagine what kind of materials and techniques these “foreigners” possessed.

Elsa had her eyes fixed on Jin’s face from the side, but she eventually got up.

“Elsa?”

“…I’m going to bed. Good night.”

As soon as Elsa said that, she bent down and kissed Jin lightly on his cheek.

Then she turned bright red and quickly ran to her bedroom.

“…Good night.”

Frozen by this sudden action from Elsa, Jin finally managed to say only that.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

Meanwhile, on Hourai Island…

“So, Jon Diniu, huh? I think it would be better to make him look a little different from Machina.”

Laojun was taking steps to make slight changes in Deus Ex Machina #2’s appearance.

“His hair and eyes can stay black. How about changing his height to around 160 cm?”

Since he was an Automata that can be used as a multi-purpose substitute, his physical build could be changed a little.

“Now, let’s prepare My Lord’s Substitute Doll…”

This would be a Substitute Doll to be introduced as Laozi’s master to Oliver, the merchant in the town of Ismal.

If he was left to look like Jin himself, there would be a risk that he’d be recognized by the locals, so there was room for concern.

“Let’s change his hair color.”

His hair and eyes were changed to brown. Laojun figured this color wouldn’t stand out since it was fairly common.

“Next, about the carriage…”

Would it be a Golem carriage, or a normal one? That being said, Jin didn’t own an actual horse for a carriage, so that question was quickly answered.

“We’ll also need to take care of their technical level being too conspicuous…”

Just in case, I decided to detune the Golem horses in order to reduce their performance.

A mode was added to them in order to make their movements a bit clunkier.

Up until now, they had been moving their bodies in “Normal Mode”.

A new downgraded mode was set up to conceal their true nature. Being a measure that reduces performance, it can be set up at the pilot’s will. This mode can be switched on and off with a simple command.

After trying to make the Golem horses walk, Laojun had mixed feelings when he saw their newly downgraded, awkward movements.

“It’s a shame we can’t show their true performance My Lord originally built them for.”

However, this would serve the purpose of introducing Oliver to the Magi Engineer he would be hiring.

The carriage itself was the same they had been using so far. It had a Warp Gate that could be used in case of an emergency.

Even if it was unlikely that it would be used, there would be plenty of opportunities to use it in the future, so it wouldn’t be a waste to leave it there.

What awaited beyond the desert?

Laojun was already looking forward to the day where he will be reporting his findings to Jin.