User:Krykrytyk

As the Accord Cannon’s firing test had safely ended with success, all researchers and engineers started to analyse the data they gathered. On the other hand, other main members spread the documents inside the development room and started talking about the usage and mass production.

As for Mira, she escaped from all the bothersome country management talk to start looking through various things lined up on shelves.

“Now, Thoma. We were able to safely activate the first stage, I hope there were no problems?”

“Yes. We are capable of controlling the recoil now. I believe it will be able to deliver the minimal expected war results.”

Hearing the chief, Thoma say so with confidence, Solomon nodded with satisfaction.

“By the way, what about mass production? If it has this much power, our Verzlee household won’t spare money on investment.”

One of the nobles leaned forward, other nobles also nodded in agreement.

“About that, however…"

While saying this, Thoma’s expression clouded as he put a single document on top of the desk. Written in it, were details on supply of Accord Cannon’s ammunition and power source.

“Just as we have written here, one shot requires a single Energy-Refined Stone and two Magic-Sealing Stones.”

There, Thoma started explaining the principles behind the Accord Cannon.

Simplifying the content of the explanation, an Energy-Refined Stone was required as ammunition and the power that was put inside that ammunition was poured from the Magic-Sealing Stone.

An Energy-Refined Stone was an artificial material created through Energy-Refining, which had a property of extremely easily gathering energy.

Accord Cannon was a device that extracted power from the Magic-Sealing Stones, amplified it and fired, the Energy-Refined Stone served to grant directionality for the power which was amplified to the limit.

The raging energy was pulled towards the Energy-Refined Stone and after destroying it, it soared forward. The bigger the Energy-Refined Stone was, the longer it took until it was destroyed which increased the range along with it.

And one more thing. To activate the Accord Cannon, another lightning-elemental Magic-Sealing Stone was required.

“And thus, there is no problem about mass production of the device if we have everyone’s support, but these Energy-Refined and Magic-Sealing Stones are a problem.”

After saying so, Thoma heaved a large sigh.

The problem Thoma was talking about was the method of supply of Energy-Refined Stones and lightning-elemental Magic-Sealing Stones.

Arkite Kingdom had several people who possessed the techniques required to craft Energy-Refined Stones. However, they were only capable of crafting medium quality ones, and lightning-element Magic-Sealing Stones barely capable of activating the cannon. However, even with such limits, the Accord Cannon was powerful enough to show such a great performance.

It can be mass-produced. They would somehow manage on the ammo supply. But they were only being able to display the minimum of the performance it was capable of.

Thoma who had wasted many years to develop it and was unable to allow his child to show its full power, glared with frustration at the documents.

“That can be resolved with this.”

While Thoma made a clouded expression, Solomon showed a merry one as he lined up some gems on top of the table, of which, some were shining with a faint light.

“These are...a Turquoise and Moonstone, aren’t they. And this...is a Magic-Sealing Stone. But Solomon-sama, I believe these aren’t of too good quality, so how would they resolve the problem?”

Turquoise and Moonstone. They were one of many gems born in nature that had the characteristics of easily gathering energy so they were used not only for decoration, but also many other things. As for the several faintly shining stones, they were gems that already had power dwelling inside them - Magic-Sealing Stones.

These gems Solomon had lined up were not unusual, but very common ones. Therefore, multiple people in this place were puzzled by Solomon’s words, however, everyone gathered had already had a chance to see him act suggestively like this multiple times, so they quietly waited for the continuation.

“Hold on, here we gooo.”

“What, whaaat?!”

A young girl’s confused voice suddenly sounded from the corner of the room and as if pulled towards her, everyone poured their gazes in her direction.

At the sight, Solomon who was in merry mood, quietly burst into laughter. The reason was that Mira was carried by Luminaria in her arms and like a kid, and struggled in her breasts to get free.

After she was placed down in front a the table she pursed her lips and glared at Luminaria, but more importantly, she noticed everyone’s gazes were concentrated on her.

“So, what is it?”

Mira said to try keep up her appearances and glared at Solomon this time.

“Sorry, but I have a request.”

With a smile that didn’t make him look sorry at all, Solomon took several stones from the table into his hand.

“Mira, could you turn these into Energy-Refined Stones?”

On the hand he extended to Mira, there were two Turquoises and one Moonstone. Everyone in the surroundings poured their gaze at the hand.

“Mm? What, you need something like that?”

Mira extended her hand to receive the stones, but her hands were already holding awkward-looking model robots. In her right hand there was a red robot, in her left, a blue one. They were tagged as combining robots, so Mira has been playing around to combine them until she was picked up and carried by Luminaria.

"............”

“Umm...I’ll take this for now.”

"...Mm, do so.”

In the middle of unspeakable silence, Süleyman who stood in the back extended his hands. Mira quietly answered and passed the awkward robots to him along with a clunky sound.

Once Mira received gems with her now-free hands, Luminaria carried over a large board. Several spellcasters wearing robes held the corners to help her, and they placed the board on top of the table.

“An Energy-Refining Board, is it.”

After looking at the board with countless shapes and symbols drawn on it, Thoma said the board’s name.

The Energy-Refining Board was a spellcasting tool used for Energy-Refining items. Drawn on it were shapes signifying disassembly, combining, alteration, conversion and compression, which together formed a circle.

“Can it be that you intend to do Energy-Refining now? But won’t it take time?”

Edward posed a question. Even the Arkite Kingdom’s most skilled person at Energy-Refining techniques required thirty minutes to create a single Energy-Refined Stone, so this was an obvious reaction. Other nobles and spellcasters who had some knowledge of Energy-Refining nodded, agreeing with Edward.

“Well, you will understand once you see it. Now, Mira. Take care of it.”

“Good grief, and I was so close to find out how it worked.”

Mira groaned a complaint and stood in front of the Energy-Refining Board. Reflected in the corner of her vision, was Süleyman holding the two robots. She was close to finding out how they combined, which is why, wanting to finish this quickly, she put the the stones on top of the Energy-Refining Board and placed her both hands in the designated locations.

After a moment, the circle started to shine with faint light. Precisely manipulating the way power was poured in and the multiple shapes on the board, she disassembled the stones, extracting just the characteristic of easily gathering energy she compressed it and combined again. In the middle of shining light, gems started turning into a different material.

Soon after starting, Mira let go of the Energy-Refining Board.

“AH! You shouldn’t let go during…!”

Thoma spoke in panic, but at the sight of a whirl of light flowing from the Energy-Refining Board he stopped moving and gasped.

“This is…"

Once light has died down, on top of the Energy-Refining Board instead of multiple gems, lied a single large transparent stone.

Making an expression as if he saw something unbelievable, Thoma moved his head to the transparent stone so close, that he nearly touched it.

“It’s an Energy-Refined Stone… It can’t be…for one of this good quality to be created in such short time…"

It was no wonder Thoma was surprised. Mira made a Energy-Refined Stone in less than a minute.

“I said she's Danbulf’s disciple, have I not. Mira has succeeded all of his abilities.”

Solomon said while puffing up his chest, as if it was his own accomplishment. Rather than succeeding it, Mira was the Danbulf himself so it was natural she could do it. However, since that was a secret, this was a good way to explain, as such Mira affirmed it instead of denying.

Each gem had its set capacity, but by mixing together multiple gems it was possible to create Energy-Refined Stones like this. Energy-Refined Stones like this had a greater capacity than gems, so they were valuable and useful.

“I did hear that Energy-Refining techniques were created by Danbulf-sama, but I did not think that even the disciple would be this skilled.”

Thoma moved his gaze from the Energy-Refined Stone to Mira. The girl within his sight might have been the person capable of allowing the Accord Cannon utilize all of its potential. The moment Thoma thought so, he made an expression showing excitement that rose deep inside from his heart, and his body trembled.

“Then Mira, while at it, let’s add this for a set with the Energy-Refined Stone.”

Once Solomon placed three Magic-Sealing Stones on top of the Energy-Refining Board, Mira responded with “Mm-hm" and moved the stones to their set location and started to energy-refine again.

This time as well, it did not take even a minute for the power of three Magic-Sealing Stones to be extracted and poured into a newly-made Magic-Sealing Stone. Energy-Refining was capable of gathering power like this into one Energy-Refined Stone to create even bigger Magic-Sealing Stones.

“This should work.”

“Yeah, it’s enough.”

Solomon took the newly-made stone in his hand and nodded with satisfaction. Unlike the three Magic-Sealing Stones used as base, this refined Magic-Sealing Stone was filled with strong light and it was apparent it held a fair amount of power.

“With this, we have prospects on Energy-Refined and Magic-Sealing Stones, don’t we?”

He said and passed the Magic-Sealing Stone to Thoma.

“Yes. It’s more than enough!”

Preciously holding the Magic-Sealing Stone he received in his hand, Thoma answered with a smile.

While everyone started to talk about Accord Cannon’s handling, Mira sat down in the corner of the room with the robots in her hands and started to tinker with them, letting out clunky sounds. And then, a man wearing a robe approached her.

“Mira-chan, could you join me for a talk?’

“I’m busy now, make it later.”

All enthusiastic about robots, Mira answered without looking away from the mobile parts. The man in the robe made a slightly troubled expression and pleaded with "please, give me some time".

Mira heaved a sigh and turned towards the man. He was well-featured handsome young man wearing a blue and black robe, and had shining blonde hair flowing down to his shoulders. Also, his face was familiar to her.

“Nhm, are you Cleos?”

“Oh, do you know me?”

Of course, this was first time Mira met him, but it was different for Danbulf.

Cleos was one of the followers affiliated with the Tower of Summoning and he was a half between a Light Spirit and an Elf. He was useful when brought together because he was able to use his special ability as a Light Spiri,t to light up the dark dungeons, so Danbulf often brought this follower all around different dungeons.

“Aa-ahm, I heard from my master.”

Realizing his identity at a glance Mira ended up saying his name, so now she used a safe excuse. “I see" answered Cleos and made a little happy smile.

“Then I’ll introduce myself once more, I’m the Tower of Summoning’s Elder substitute, Cleos.”

“I’m Mira.”

The two exchanged simple introductions. Immediately after, Mira recalled the word “substitute" that he mentioned.

“Speaking of which, I heard from Graya that towers were being run by a substitutes, so you were the one.”

Now that the whereabouts of the Nine Sages were unknown, the Elder substitutes are in fact the top of the towers.

“Partially against my will, since it was forced on me. I was recommended because I adventured the most with Danbulf-sama. Well, everyone else was chosen for similar reasons, however.”

“Hooh, is that so.”

It was a simple reason, but not a bad criteria for selection. When it comes to strength, Cleos whom Danbulf brought to all kinds of extremely dangerous places was definitely number one among his followers.

And according to Cleos, other substitutes were chosen in the same way. All of them had experience of being brought to highest level fields, where they would definitely get stronger even if they did not want to.

“By the way, don’t you need to join the discussion? Isn’t it an important weapon?”

Mira asked, turning her sight toward the table where Solomon and others were discussing.

“I don’t mind. We Elder substitutes only came here to see the performance of the Accord Cannon.”

“Which means, all of them are substitutes as well, huh.”

She moved her gaze towards the spellcasters standing by the wall. All of them were amusing themselves as they liked, just like Cleos.

“The important talk is already over and they are speaking of mass production now. That is the domain of Solomon-sama and the nobles.”

“And so, you came to me.”

After saying so, Mira lowered her gaze back at the robots and started to turn and bend parts to try find how to combine them.

From there, the two continued a simple conversation, but in the end the conversation turned in a direction where Cleos complained and grumbled about how Danbulf brought him into all those absurd places, making Mira only able to pretend to be paying attention with a bitter smile.