Ch.89Promise with Mina

“Would you care to explain the situation, Dr. Minaret?”

“I-if you give me enough budget and time…”

“You should know that excuses are sinful!!”

“Eek! I’m sorryyyy!”

To equip Ancestor with the anal…no, the Black Label away from people’s eyes, Mina and I had come to a forest about 10 minutes away from Riverside.

The entire process of installing the Black Label in the correct position and storing the artifact took less than 10 minutes to complete.

The Black Label’s storage function worked perfectly, and the function of transferring magical power extracted from the artifact to Ancestor was also operating without issue.

Nevertheless, the reason Mina was being scolded by me while lying flat on the ground was because her trivial greed had caused a serious problem with the magical tool called the Black Label’s value.

“I’ll overlook the Black Label’s appearance and the installation method that involves inserting it into Ancestor’s behind.”

For artifacts to be inserted and removed from the Black Label, the jewel part responsible for storage needs to be exposed to the outside.

In that case, placing it between a horse’s buttocks, in a spot completely covered by tail hair and hidden from people’s view, could be considered a reasonably rational choice.

“I can fully understand your reluctance to waste the excess magical power generated by the artifact.”

Even while maintaining the advanced magical effect of asymmetric mass isolation, there was still surplus magical power being generated from the artifact.

It’s natural for a technician to want to utilize that power somewhere rather than just letting it dissipate into the air.

“What I’d like to hear is a convincing explanation of how this led to Ancestor shooting water cannons from his behind.”

“Ahahahaha… it was just a minor error in the formula design…”

There was a moment of shock when I watched her unhesitatingly insert the Black Label, which looked suspiciously like an adult toy, into Ancestor’s behind.

The sight of a 20-centimeter metal cube being sucked into the sparkling jewel between Ancestor’s buttocks felt like a piece of intense avant-garde art.

But what about my soaked state after a vast amount of water gushed out from Ancestor’s anus—no, from the Black Label’s jewel the next moment?

‘Drip, drip, drip…’

And what am I supposed to do with Ancestor, who’s still leaking water from his behind like a broken faucet?

“I really didn’t expect this to happen. The original plan was to control the humidity around Ancestor so that water would automatically fill the canteen.”

“And that went wrong, resulting in Ancestor developing urinary incontinence.”

“B-but it’s 100% pure water without any impurities…”

Scientific experiments always carry the risk of failure.

Since it wasn’t dangerous substances or excrement, we could say we’d avoided the worst-case scenario, so I decided to stop scolding Mina.

“So, how long will it take to fix this?”

“Hmm~ I’m not sure how long it would take to complete the formula I originally planned.”

“What if we set aside utilizing the excess magical power for later and just make an emergency fix to stop the water flow?”

“That would take about an hour. For the time being, the excess magical power would just be released into the air.”

“Let’s do that first. You need to enter the dungeon with me tomorrow, and we can’t leave Ancestor in this state.”

As I said this while taking off my soaked vest and shirt to wring out the water, Mina, who was watching me, muttered quietly.

“Heh, I thought you were the skinny type, but your body is better than I expected…”

“Huh?”

“Ah, nothing, nothing at all.”

My body since coming to Grantis isn’t quite gym-buff level, but it’s reasonably slim with decently toned muscles.

Compared to my unremarkable middle-aged body from my office worker days, it’s truly remarkable progress.

“Hmm~ I can’t wear this right away. I’ll have to hang it on a tree and ask Jessica to dry it for me later.”

“Should I start a fire? I have an igniter.”

“No need. It would be troublesome if the campfire spread to the trees. It should dry a bit while you work.”

A campfire with a Repellation Field activated wouldn’t easily spread to surrounding grass or trees, but fire started with an igniter doesn’t have that protection.

It would be troublesome if we accidentally started a forest fire, so I’ll just let it air dry naturally while waiting for Mina to finish her work.

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“If I had just stopped at hiding the artifact, there wouldn’t have been a problem, but I got greedy and failed.”

While rewriting the Black Label’s formula, Mina apologized in a dejected voice.

Her expression looked so pitiful that I found myself scratching my head and offering words of comfort.

“I wasn’t really angry about the failure. I was just uncomfortable about being hit by water that spurted from a horse’s behind.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Besides, even though it failed, it’s not like Ancestor became unusable. At worst, my clothes got wet, that’s all.”

A drenching of 100% pure water can be easily fixed with Jessica’s drying magic, so it’s hardly worth calling it damage.

Of course, if someone asked me if I would drink water collected from Ancestor’s behind in a cup, I’d probably hesitate quite a bit.

“I already decided to entrust that artifact to you, so as I said before, you can try mass production or use it for something else as you wish. Even if something goes wrong and it breaks, as long as no one gets hurt, it’s not a big problem.”

“Hmm~~~ How can you be so calm about it? It’s something that could change the world, you know?”

“It’s not objects that change the world, but people. Even without artifacts like this, technology will continue to develop, and the world will gradually change accordingly.”

“Hmm…”

Mina’s hands, which had been moving diligently while talking with me, suddenly stopped.

After a brief moment of silence where neither her hands nor mouth moved, Mina turned toward me and asked with a serious expression.

“I’ve been wanting to ask this for a while, but was Will’s homeland a country with incredibly advanced technology compared to here?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Will, you’re a drifter who crossed over here only about a month ago, right? Moreover, you don’t have knowledge about magic or thaumaturgy, yet you understand what Jessica and I say unnaturally well.”

“Unnaturally well? For example?”

“What stands out most is what happened at the Black Forge Mine. Without anyone explaining about mana tanks, you figured out their function just by observing the Tyrant Worm’s reaction. Also, someone completely ignorant of thaumaturgy wouldn’t come up with a plan to release sand stored in the Seismic Cracker inside the Tyrant Worm’s body.”

“Is that so? I thought anyone would realize that if a large amount of sand is confined in a special space, it could be taken out again.”

“The very concept that space can exist independently is the kind of thinking only thaumaturges would have! Besides, brewing coffee with a spear enchanted with fire attributes, or understanding that you could be infected with plague through the gun the Ratman had—it’s all the same.”

I roughly understood what Mina was trying to say.

Someone who only thinks of a fire-enchanted spear blade as “a weapon that deals fire attribute damage” would find it difficult to come up with the idea of “placing a cup of water on a hot metal plate to boil water using heat conduction.”

Being able to utilize the essence of magic without being dazzled by the miracle before my eyes was thanks to the scientific common sense I acquired as a modern person.

“The only explanation for being able to think so logically without specialized knowledge is that you encounter these concepts casually in daily life. I can’t even imagine what kind of life people lead in a country where concepts like heat conduction, microbiology, and independent spaces are commonplace.”

“If you’re that convinced, I can’t keep pretending… You’re right. Except for the existence of magic, the technology and lifestyle here are equivalent to about 100 to 150 years in the past compared to my homeland.”

“That means Will’s homeland is technologically more than 100 years ahead in the future…!”

I thought I heard the sound of her swallowing hard.

Various emotions—surprise, bewilderment, expectation—flashed across Mina’s face as she looked at me.

“I should warn you in advance that you shouldn’t expect to get any great ideas or knowledge through me. Thanks to compulsory education, I’ve acquired basic scientific knowledge, but in the end, it’s just the shallow knowledge of a non-specialist.”

“Just being able to hear about it is enough. Things that exist in Will’s homeland but not here, things that neither the colonists nor even the dwarves have thought of. There must be at least one or two such things, right?”

“Well… I’m sure there are a few if we look for them. But are you okay with that?”

“With what?”

“Don’t you have some pride as a technician or researcher? Don’t you feel any resistance to… spoilers about the future?”

“No? Not at all.”

Mina answered without a moment’s hesitation or reluctance.

“Technological development can only be realized through someone’s ahead-of-their-time ideas. No technician would pass up the opportunity to hear about numerous such ideas, especially ones from more than 100 years in the future. At least not among the dwarves.”

“Is that so…?”

“It is. So when you have time, I’d like to hear stories about Will’s homeland. The agreement to refrain from talking about the outside world is between colonists, so it doesn’t apply to me as a native, right? Right?”

“You really are honest about your desires… Alright. However, now is the time to focus on the commission we’ve taken, so let’s set aside time later for talks about future technology.”

“Really? Is that a promise? Great, then I’ll fix the Black Label right away and think about how to utilize the excess magical power after hearing your stories~”

With those words, Mina rolled up her sleeves and focused on the Black Label, not glancing aside even once until the work was done.

I felt like I might have made a dangerous promise, but since the milk was already spilled, I resolved to be careful not to reveal truly dangerous knowledge like modern weapons or chemical warfare.