The Broken Ed■son

“Um, Aine Unnie? Couldn’t different people have different opinions—”

“It’s not different, it’s WRONG!!!”

Aine’s lecture continued until I retracted my statement that the yard-pound was the best.

Honestly, I didn’t really care which unit was the best, but Aine’s reaction was more amusing than I had expected. In many ways.

I refused to yield for a bit longer than I had initially planned, and finally admitted I was wrong around the time Aine’s voice was completely giving out.

Right after that, I uttered a slightly odd compliment to the person whose reason hadn’t fully returned yet.

“Wow, you’re much smarter than I’d heard!”

“Of course. Despite appearances, I graduated at the top of my class from Letana University… Wait, ‘than you’d heard’?”

“Yes! Than I’d heard!”

Sure enough, to the person who asked with slight confusion what I meant, I told a backstory with some exaggeration.

“Since they say you only create strange inventions, everyone calls Aine Unnie the broken Ed■son?”

“W-what…?”

Or things that were merely baseless rumors.

“I heard there was a time when a whole city almost evaporated because of Aine Unnie’s experiment.”

“It was my warehouse that evaporated!”

“So something did evaporate after all.”

“…………”

And so, after manipulating one person’s emotions and mood as I pleased for quite some time.

Belatedly, I let slip some names that couldn’t be ignored, allowing her to notice something strange.

“Oh, come to think of it, I think Aine Unnie’s name was on Tana Unnie’s blacklist.”

“Tsk. No wonder they wouldn’t even accept my paperwork submission. …Wait? Tana ‘[Unnie]’?”

“Huh? Why are you suddenly like that?”

After that, the gaze of the person who had been dazed by my continued mental attacks began to grow clearer.

Then, literally scanning me from head to toe, she asked for my name with a somewhat trembling voice.

“K-kid. What’s your name by any chance?”

“Lua.”

“Loa?”

“Lua.”

“……I’msorryI’llneverevenmakeyecontactagainpleasejustsparemylifeIreallydidn’tknowanything—”

I was also quite startled when she suddenly began something resembling a confession.

Eventually, with a feeling of “could it be,” I looked behind Aine instead of at her.

“Oh, Asha Unnie?”

I said, but.

“@$!@#!@$!@#!@$!”

–Thud.

She fainted with foam in her mouth in exactly one second.

Apparently, rumors about me.

No, more precisely, rumors about Asha who treasures me extremely, had spread widely outside the guild headquarters.

In addition, for some reason I didn’t know, Aine’s mental image of Asha seemed to be somewhat negatively fixed.

Regardless of the reason, she seemed to mistakenly think she might die just for the fact that she had touched someone Asha cared about.

But this is the first time I’ve seen someone react so sensitively.

Usually, people just say “So you’re that Lua!” and are a bit curious, and that’s it…

–Tap tap.

“Um, hello…?”

Even after I continued to poke that trembling cheek with my index finger, she still couldn’t come to her senses.

I couldn’t even guess where this strange misunderstanding had started.

No matter how much of an Asha we’re talking about, she wouldn’t harm someone just for bringing me to her lab and talking briefly…

“…Huh?”

Come to think of it, I realized only then that it was a situation where misunderstandings could certainly occur.

The existence of a witness—the workshop owner—who saw her grab my wrist in an excited state and drag me out of the workshop.

A deserted alley.

A laboratory filled with all sorts of tools and machines that obviously looked strange.

…Maybe it would be strange not to misunderstand…?

“Hmm…”

After thinking for a moment about how Asha would act if she were in the middle of this suspicious scene, I came to the chilling conclusion that it wouldn’t be very peaceful.

In other words, it’s not so strange that Aine fainted with foam in her mouth.

Well, anyway. Since I didn’t want to make Aine look like a weird scientist who kidnapped a child to her private laboratory in broad daylight.

For now, to make her capable of conversation, I splashed a cup of water on the face of the person who had fainted with a not-so-good expression.

–Splash!

“Aaaah!!”

“…Are you back to your senses?”

Eventually, after staring blankly at me for a while with our eyes meeting, she felt various parts of her body and realized she wasn’t dead yet.

But since she was still unable to calm down, just like before she fainted, I took the initiative.

“If you keep being so restless, I’ll really contact Asha Unnie.”

Honestly, it felt a bit like I was threatening her, which made me feel a bit bad. But at the moment, I needed to make her listen to me, even forcibly.

And so, thump.

For some reason, Aine, who had demurely knelt down, began to silently gaze at me before finally opening her mouth.

The first question I asked the suddenly obedient and polite person was, of course, why she was making such a fuss.

“What on earth did you think of me to faint as soon as you heard my name?”

“…Asha’s reverse scale?”

Strictly speaking, that’s correct.

But I didn’t think there was a need to faint because of it.

“Did Aine Unnie hit me? Did you bully me like a villain in a comic?”

“N-no.”

“Or were you trying to do some weird experiment on me?”

“Why would I do any experiments on a kid like you…?”

“See? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

But why are you suddenly scared? I wanted to ask directly, but it seemed a bit much, so I tried to speak as indirectly as possible.

However, since she still wouldn’t stop fearing Asha.

Just in case, I asked if she had any history with Asha.

“Well, actually…”

The story that came from the person who finally opened her mouth hesitantly was, from my perspective, honestly just a mundane story.

It was roughly about how she happened to see Asha slaughtering monsters quite a long time ago and had been needlessly afraid since then.

She thought if she touched even a hair of the child that such a monster cherished, things wouldn’t end well.

“To you or the Lunatic hunters, she’s just a close sister or guild master. But to others, she’s a walking time bomb.”

Honestly, it wasn’t completely unreasonable.

If someone who could easily destroy a city lived not far away.

Moreover, if the child that such an extraordinary powerful person incredibly cherishes suddenly appeared before you, I think even I would be cautious.

Especially from the perspective of someone who had witnessed that power once, it’s inevitable to be more sensitive compared to others.

“…Even so, calling her a time bomb is too much.”

“Ah… Sorry.”

A moment of calm and silence followed.

Since she was just watching my reaction for some reason, I couldn’t stand it for long and finally spoke first.

“I’m not good at speaking at length… so I’ll just be honest from the start. There’s something I want Aine Unnie to make for me.”

Usually, the phrase ‘if there was more time and budget’ is treated as an excuse, but there are always exceptions.

Among those hidden talents that belong to that exception, the only person who could provide what I needed was none other than Aine.

Therefore, I had to make Aine help me as soon as possible.

Specifically, to start the production of a portable teleportation stone.

“Me? For you? What? No, more importantly, why?”

But even someone who’s watching my reactions isn’t a volunteer.

In other words, if I want to request something, I also need to present a payment or compensation for it.

Therefore…

“You said earlier that they wouldn’t even accept your paperwork submission, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yes…”

“Could you tell me what kind of paperwork it was?”

“Well, that’s, you see—”

I presented the most certain and valuable thing I could offer as payment for the request.

The identity of the paperwork I eventually heard about was none other than an introduction to an invention called [Wide-Area Flare].

She thought it would be quite useful in dungeons if it received support from Lunatic and went into mass production, so she went to the guild headquarters, but they wouldn’t even accept her submission, perhaps because of the bad rumors about her.

Honestly, I couldn’t guess what kind of item it was just from Aine’s explanation…

But I could let people closer to experts hear Aine’s explanation.

I could give Aine an opportunity to persuade people.

They wouldn’t turn away someone I personally introduced, no matter what.

“Honestly, I can’t guarantee what will happen after that, but this is the best I can do.”

“Th-that’s enough! No, it’s more than enough!!”

Almost simultaneously, she clasped my two hands together.

Moreover, for some reason, she seemed excited in a completely different sense than before.

“F-first, shouldn’t I hear what you want me to make…?”

Even though I already knew she had sufficient ability to create the portable teleportation stone, I uttered words that needlessly doubted Aine’s abilities.