Volume 9 - Chapter 21 – Side Story 10: the Story of the Magi Craftsman Called a Genius (1/2)

09-21 Side Story 10: the Story of the Magi Craftsman Called a Genius

In the eastern part of Celuroa Kingdom, a Magi Craftsman lived in a poor village on close to the border of Egelia Kingdom.

Originally he had been Celuroa Kingdom’s Royal Magi Craftsman, but he came to dislike living in the capital, retired, and secluded himself in his home town.

The man had a single disciple.

The child was a distant relative of his and while he had been in the capital he had discovered the child’s talent and made him his disciple.

The man used to have plenty disciples but few of them proved successful, and on top of that when he announced his retirement to his home town only the boy followed.

All the other disciples had families, or disliked rural areas, or had some other circumstances which they claimed as a reason and then went their separate ways from the man.

“You are my only true disciple.”

The man said, and imparted the boy his everything.

The man’s specialty was golems. Naturally he could make other Magi Tools too, but his strongest point was the manufacture of golems.

For a long time now Celuroa Kingdom had been supplementing the shortage in the labor force with golems. The man’s skills played a large role in that.

The golems the man made were clearly different from those other people made.

They could ‘talk’, that is, they were the autonomous type.

And they were ‘strong’. They boasted a power output thrice that of typical golems. In other words, one golem could do the work of three golems. Although work in which numbers were required was a different case.

Finally they were ‘beautiful’. Even among the brusque worker golems they had a refined form and appearance.

As the ‘beauty’ wasn’t simply because the man had been born with a sense for it, but because it was mainly about the ‘functional beauty’ of the craftsmanship, it could be taught reasonably well.

By the time the disciple boy became a young man, the boy–nay, the youth– had come to know nearly all the skills of the man and his instruction was finished.

And then came the time when the gears of fate turned.

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“Are you the rumored genius Magi Craftsman?”

A man stood in front of the youth. He was maybe about five or six years older than the youth. He looked to have just entered his 30s.

“Who are you?”

Facing the suspicious youth, the man replied,

“You could say that I’m an emissary of ancient times.”

“So? What does this Mr. ’emissary of ancient times’ want with me?”

“Don’t you want to try spreading your wings, and using your abilities to your heart’s content?”

“What’s that you say?”

The man’s words were commonplace, but the youth’s interest was a little piqued by the expression “to his heart’s content”.

“Well, follow me and you’ll see for yourself.”

The man turned on his heels and promptly began walking. As if the youth following him was a matter of course.

He was somewhat offended, but his interest outweighed that. The youth simply began following in the man’s footsteps.

The man led him to an old mansion in the suburbs.

“Get in.”

The man turned to look back for the first time when he opened the door and invited the youth in.

And then the youth had a fateful meeting.

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In front of the youth there was a perfect beauty.

Both the beauty in form and function were impeccable. No, there was a single fault.

It was the broken left arm.

“T-this i-is…”

The girl with golden hair, deep crimson eyes, and white porcelain skin.

The youth had never before seen an Automata this beautiful.

The girl then spoke.

“Good day, my name is Elena. Are you the man who will kindly repair my arm?”