chapter_0150

151 – It’s a Thing to Present at the Conference!

151 – It’s a Thing to Present at the Conference!

“It’s been a while, human!”

I saw a familiar face that had come to our shop.

Tio, the boy dwarf artisan.

Although they referred to her as a young dwarf, the truth that she was actually a girl dwarf was a secret known only to me.

The Willis Carrier of this world, who invented the ManaCon, an air conditioner powered by mana.

A genius dwarf who had expressed her desire to invent something to put down the noses of other dwarves who laughed at her.

She had taken my rejected proposal and created a ‘Mana Battery’ that doesn’t consume mana.

Thanks to her, we received the best auxiliary device that could utilize mana even in emergencies.

The battery had minimal mana consumption even when left unused for a long time, allowing it to be maintained semi-permanently unless directly consumed.

Of course, since I had never collapsed from mana exhaustion, it had been used for our master’s shotacon illusion.

– The finished product is here! I plan to announce this at the Imperial Academy soon! I will mention that I had the help of the human!

I had received a message from Tio just a day ago.

So I thought it would take her a few more days to arrive in the imperial capital.

Her presentation at the academy was scheduled for four days later at the Essence Magic Conference.

But she had come the very next day.

“I came a little earlier to coordinate with you before presenting the invention and paper at the academy!”

She said with a bright smile directed at me.

“Come in. Let’s talk inside.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here. Is business going well?”

Tio, who was looking around inside, asked me.

I nodded my head.

“There have been a few ups and downs, but it’s going well.”

“I thought so. Your illusions are… how should I put it… fantastic!”

She awkwardly smiled and sat down on the sofa.

“Would you like to try it out after a long time? There are no customers right now, so it’s possible.”

“No, not right now.”

Tio shook her head and pulled out a black cylindrical object.

Thud.

As soon as I saw the large, heavy iron cylinder, I knew it was the mana battery that Tio had developed.

It was about the size of a man’s fist.

It looked somewhat like a small shell, and it was too large to be called ‘portable’ by our standards.

However, in this world, the definition of portable was much larger than that.

Even among the portable batteries I was familiar with on Earth, those with large capacities weren’t small either.

‘It’s smaller than a 30,000 ampere battery.’

Tio, having taken out the cylinder, opened her mouth.

“This is a mana battery developed for portability. Naturally, it’s designed to be rechargeable. I tightly bound the mana with Luitan to prevent it from leaking, and inside, I increased efficiency with a mana gate made by Mikelo. Thanks to that, it can be charged as well.”

“Portable means there are also items that aren’t truly portable, right?”

“Exactly. I also brought one for internal installation! I plan to install this directly in Max’s shop!”

Tio pulled out a much larger cylinder from her backpack, which had looked small before.

“Ugh!”

It was enormous, like stacking four large computer towers on top of each other.

“With this, even if you run the illusion magic at full power, it can last for about 16 hours!”

That was an incredible amount.

The limit for existing batteries was about 3 to 4 hours.

To think this could last more than five times that.

“Can it really be charged?”

“Yes. However, there is a downside in that a magician must charge it directly or create mana stones into mana water.”

Considering that the process of creating mana water wasn’t easy, it seemed that a magician’s help would be necessary to utilize it properly.

“But! Even considering that, the storage capacity efficiency is several times better than the existing mana cores, and since there’s no mana loss, the energy efficiency is high. Moreover, the charging mana efficiency is also high, so it can be called an unprecedented invention!”

It was indeed a product that would bring about tremendous change.

It was far more efficient than the existing mana cores.

“It’s big.”

“This is the largest battery that can currently be made! It’s several times more efficient than mana cores made elsewhere! Isn’t this revolutionary?”

Tio smiled confidently.

“Impressive.”

“Ahem, this mana battery will have both my name and the human’s, no, Max’s name on it. A joint invention of Tio and Max!”

Joint development.

“I don’t think I helped that much.”

All I had done was give a few pieces of advice in the letter she sent when she was stuck.

“No, without your help, it would have been impossible. The most challenging point was combining Luitan and mana water, and once that was solved, the technology was able to advance to the next level!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, so you can be confident! In fact, that combination technology is even more remarkable than my invention.”

With a bright smile, she clenched her fist.

“Anyway, thanks to you, I feel like I can walk with my head held high now. I was looked down upon for being a girl dwarf… no, for being young, but now I can finally shed all that past humiliation.”

Tio, who had mentioned being a girl dwarf, quickly changed her words.

She didn’t know.

That I, having seen her illusion from the perspective of an administrator, already knew she was a girl.

Tio, or rather Tia, didn’t seem to realize that I had seen her embarrassing illusion revealing her desires.

She still thought I saw her as a boy.

I, too, couldn’t say to her first,

‘I’ve seen everything. I know Tia is a girl.’

To explain that, I would first have to admit that I had seen her illusion.

How could I say that?

How do I say that I intuitively witnessed you being messed up by a golem that looks like me?

If I said that, she might break the mana battery she was holding.

That’s why a ridiculous situation unfolded where both of us were deceiving each other.

“Dwarves tend to look down on those without beards.”

Long-Beard.

It referred to dwarves with long experience.

For dwarves, a beard is a symbol of strength and experience.

The longer the beard, the more recognition one has received from many dwarves, so not having a beard among dwarves means being a rookie with no experience at all.

That was the reason dwarves looked down on boys and girls who didn’t have beards.

“I plan to break all those prejudices at the Essence Conference in four days. Just because someone doesn’t have a beard doesn’t mean they aren’t a dwarf!”

She clenched her fist.

“Anyway, let’s draft the manuscript for the presentation of this invention, the mana battery, at the conference.”

With full enthusiasm, Tia handed me the manuscript.

“What’s this?”

“What do you think? It’s the basic information about the battery that I’ll be discussing. I’ll cover the external specs, but you can explain the combination method of Luitan and mana water. That combination method was created by you, right?”

It seemed she wanted me to explain the method of combining Luitan, which has strong mana repulsion, with mana water using extreme mana control.

“I think if I present this at the conference, everyone will laugh and say it’s nonsense.”

It was my idea, but it was absurd.

Didn’t I just clumsily trap mana water inside Luitan using mana control (in layman’s terms, brute force)?

I could already hear the voices of other magicians who would call it a foolish method.

“Don’t worry. I guarantee that. If you want, I can demonstrate it on-site!”

Tia shouted as if there was nothing to worry about.

“No one would ignore the words of the genius inventor who made the ManaCon. Except maybe dwarves.”

Thus, we continued our discussion for quite a while in preparation for the presentation at the conference in four days.

And then,

“Disciple! I’m here!”

Just as we were deep in consultation, our master arrived.

She was taken aback when she saw Tia, who was writing the presentation paper with the battery beside me.

“W-who is this?”

“Oh, this is Tio, the dwarf who made our mana battery.”

“T-Tio? Could it be the one who developed the ManaCon?”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Tio.”

“Thanks to you, summer has been cool, and I’m using it well, teacher. But is there no improved version coming out? I can’t use it often because the mana consumption is too high…”

“Oh, about that.”

Tia patted the battery.

“This one will solve that.”

“What is this?”

“If I were to explain this…”

As Tia explained the battery, Meiko’s eyes widened.

“D-disciples, is this all true? You helped make this?”

“Yes.”

Upon hearing that, Meiko’s mouth dropped open.

“You’re a genius! Truly the best magician of our Illusion Magic School!”

Then she hugged me tightly.

“I’m so proud of you! Really proud! Is there anything I can help with? I can help with anything! After all, I have some experience presenting at conferences!”

“Then please help me create the materials for the presentation.”

“Of course!”

Meiko, who sat beside me, looked closely at the mana battery and then leaned in to whisper to me.

“So, when do you plan to install this battery?”

“Tomorrow, I’ll install it right away and test it out.”

“R-right. Got it.”

The fact that it would be installed soon seemed to excite Meiko, and it wasn’t just my imagination.

The Imperial Academy’s Essence Conference.

The regular conference held by the empire brought together numerous scholars, magicians, and all those who sought knowledge, allowing participation regardless of race.

It was also a rare opportunity to see elves, dwarves, and other races.

The regular conference, held twice a year for a week, often featured new technologies, papers, and magic being presented.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the technologies and knowledge presented at the conference led the year.

On this day, people from various schools and professors from different universities forgot their origins and mingled.

Although one might think it would be a solemn atmosphere since it was a place for exploring knowledge, it was surprisingly noisy.

‘How strange.’

It wasn’t common for a magician from the Illusion School to come here.

‘We rarely get attention for developing magic.’

Thus, it was more common to appear as a co-author from another school rather than under the name of the Illusion School.

‘That was only possible because of Meiko.’

Dressed in a suit that matched the dress code of the conference, I felt uncomfortable in the tight-fitting attire.

‘It’s too tight.’

At this regular conference, wearing a suit was the basic dress code.

Regardless of gender.

It was customary to wear suits, regardless of age or gender, to signify the pursuit of knowledge above all else.

As I entered the academy in my suit, I spotted the two people who had arrived before me.

“Human! Over here!”

“Disciple, you’ve come!”

Tia and Meiko, surrounded by people, waved at me.