The Son-In-Law of the Magician Is a Transcendent Sword Master - Chapter 67

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 67

After my declaration, the elders began murmuring and exchanging opinions.

“Incomplete? How can you say such an absurd thing?”

“But if what he says is true, it would explain why we’ve failed all this time.”

“Though I do feel uneasy about entrusting the family’s long-cherished wish to an outsider…”

How much time had passed like that?

After the rather heated yet cold exchange of words ended,

Elder Ivar looked at me and nodded.

“Fine. Go ahead and do as you please.”

The Arcamen elders were also technicians and craftsmen.

They were people who knew how to bend their stubbornness in the face of logical possibilities.

In the end, after the meeting, they approved my repair work.

However, there were conditions attached.

“Instead, we will all watch the process here. If we see any sign that you’re trying to damage the ‘Mechanism’ with foolish tricks, we’ll immediately intervene and drag you out.”

“That’s fine with me.”

I don’t care whether they monitor me or not. I’ll prove myself with the results anyway.

Thus, we began the work for the full-scale repair, or rather, completion of the ‘Mechanism’.

“Renia, are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll radiate the flow of mana, so you just need to draw the circuits following that flow on this magic paper.”

The effects of Chronos had worn off, but my memory was clear. There was no need to take the drug again.

Renia wouldn’t allow it anyway.

I pulled out the blueprint etched in my memory and drew it in the air with mana.

Then Renia read the trajectory of that mana with her excellent senses and transferred it onto paper.

“This flow… it’s the power transmission part of a mechanical device.”

Victor, who received the diagram Renia had illustrated, adjusted his glasses and muttered. Then he gripped his pen and began frantically writing down calculations.

It was the process of converting magical circuits into mechanical blueprints.

“Here’s the blueprint. Though it may be lacking… I think this should be close to completion.”

Just like in my previous life, Victor Otto was one of the finest technicians in the Empire.

Iline, who received the blueprint Victor handed over, widened her eyes and nodded with a bright expression.

“Perfect. This is exactly what we need.”

Victor’s lips twitched upward.

Being recognized by the head of Arcamen would be like a dream come true for any magical scholar.

“Well, well… it’s been a while since I’ve held this.”

Iline tightly tied up her hair, put on a triangular bandana around her forehead, and picked up a forging hammer.

Standing at the workbench not as a family head but as a blacksmith, her expression looked more vibrant than ever.

“You know what?”

The heat from the furnace made Iline’s eyes sparkle.

“I actually never wanted to become a family head. When you become a family head, you hold a pen more often than a hammer, right? I absolutely hated that. I even thought about running away.”

Iline continued speaking while preparing to hammer.

“In that sense, I want to thank you in advance, Reagan. You stood up for me when the elders were questioning me earlier. That was for my sake, right? Right?”

“Well… that intention wasn’t entirely absent…”

“How admirable, you rascal. You’re quite versed in understanding a woman’s heart. No wonder you quickly snatched up Benheim’s precious daughter.”

Iline looked at Renia behind me and curled up the corners of her mouth.

“Right?”

Clang!

The hammer struck the red-hot iron.

“I’m quite enjoying myself right now.”

* * *

Arcamen’s Elder Ivar was watching their work process with blazing eyes.

Not just Ivar, but all the elders were desperately looking for something to find fault with.

Their suspicion was justified.

Did it even make sense for youngsters who had just arrived at Arcamen for the first time to claim they would solve the family’s long-cherished wish?

They thought it was nothing but outrageous arrogance.

“…”

However, a few hours later,

Seeing the ‘Mechanism’ actually being completed, the elders couldn’t help but be astonished.

“The flow is… connecting.”

Ivar muttered.

The severed mana circuits were being connected, and the stopped gears were ready to mesh together.

The blueprint created by Reagan and Renia was nearly perfect in Ivar’s eyes, having devoted half his life to interpreting the ‘Mechanism’.

No, it was actually much more precise and refined than what they had imagined.

Since they had grasped the overall structure of the device, detailed adjustments had become much easier.

“…So what he said was serious.”

He painfully realized that Reagan’s words about the ‘Mechanism’ being incomplete weren’t just empty boasting.

And what about the golem scholar that Benheim’s party had brought?

“How can such a talented technician be unaffiliated?”

The elders were stunned by the bird’s-eye view drawing that Victor had created.

His understanding of mana engineering was unparalleled. Even Arcamen’s craftsmen had to stick out their tongues at his skill.

Clang!

Then Iline hammered the iron.

It was excellent workmanship, but to craftsmen who had worked with iron their whole lives, it was somewhat inexperienced hammering.

However, Iline was smiling.

She, who had always looked tired under the weight of being a family head, was hammering iron with a truly joyful expression.

In the end, Iline was also of Arcamen blood who enjoyed working with molten metal.

“…Hah.”

Watching that scene, Ivar felt something heating up hotly in his chest.

Like steel that had been in and out of a furnace.

Like reagents in a bubbling glass bottle.

The competitive spirit and passion as a craftsman that he had forgotten long ago began to spread.

“…What do you all think?”

Ivar spoke up.

One of the elders answered with a bitter smile.

“I suddenly want to grab a hammer.”

Perhaps it was a natural reaction.

History was being written before their eyes. A machine that had been stopped for hundreds of years was trying to breathe.

The urge to join in right now and be part of that historic moment

dominated the elders’ entire beings.

—Gulp.

If even the elders felt this way, what about the apprentices whose young blood hadn’t cooled?

Noticing that his watching disciple’s fingers were fidgeting, Ivar let out a deep sigh.

“Eric, you seem quite interested.”

“I’m, I’m sorry.”

“I’m not reproaching you.”

Ivar exchanged glances with the other elders standing beside him.

Their eyes were no different from Ivar’s.

They were old men bound by stubbornness and prejudice, but that’s precisely why they were craftsmen.

“…There’s no helping it.”

They too were Arcamen mages.

They were eccentrics who felt ecstasy in creating things.

* * *

“We will fully cooperate with your work. We shall assist you.”

The Elders surrendered exactly two days after we began repairing the ‘Mechanism.’

Finally, even Arcamen’s Elders swallowed their pride and rolled up their sleeves.

In the current situation where manpower was lacking, the Elders’ assistance was welcome.

However, I looked at them calmly and said.

“Good. But there’s one condition.”

“A condition? What condition?”

“Don’t you still have something to say?”

I stepped aside. This revealed Iline, who had been standing in front of the workbench, looking bewildered as she stared at the Elders.

“What do you mean we have something left to say?”

“To truly work together and sweat side by side, we need to clear the air first.”

“…Those are truly wise words.”

Elder Ivar, the white-haired leader at the front, nodded his head.

Soon he approached Iline and bowed deeply.

“We showed disrespect to Arcamen’s family head. I apologize.”

“Huh…?”

“It’s not that we doubted your qualifications, Iline. It was entirely due to an old man’s excessive worry and stubbornness as he faces his final days, so please understand with a generous heart.”

Iline’s eyes widened.

Having lived as Arcamen’s family head, she had never received such treatment from the Elder before.

Following Ivar’s apology, the Elders behind him also bowed their heads one by one.

Iline stood there dazed for a moment, then looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders, and she smiled bitterly while nodding.

“It’s fine. Please come in. There are many empty spots in the workshop.”

That settled the matter for now.

Immediately after, the Elders and their apprentices joined our work.

The pace of work quickened as a result.

“Over there! Connect circuit number 14!”

“We’re short on materials. Get more from the warehouse. What? We’re out? Then we need to procure them from Karac right away!”

“Hey, kid! Increase the mana supply! The output is insufficient!”

Shouting and hammering sounds.

Dozens of mages filling this massive workshop were all cooperating toward a single purpose.

There was something, how should I put it, even a reverent atmosphere surrounding that sight.

“You know what. I’ve been thinking about something.”

Renia, who had been watching that scene, spoke to me.

“Reagan, you said this mechanical device was intentionally left incomplete. And you said you weren’t sure about the reason.”

“That’s right.”

“I think I know.”

“What is it?”

Renia casually linked her arm with mine and looked ahead. Her gaze swept over Iline hammering, Victor reviewing blueprints, and the Arcamen mages bustling behind them.

“Surely, Arcamen’s ancestors wanted to see this kind of scene unfold in the workshop.”

“Change and development…”

The sight of everyone united and working hard under the name of the family’s long-cherished wish.

Passion transcending generations and status, running toward the single goal of completion.

“Certainly.”

* * *

A total of two weeks passed like that.

“…Ha, hahaha.”

Iline let out a hollow laugh.

Her face was grimy with soot and her hair was matted from not washing for days, but her eyes sparkled brighter than ever.

“We actually completed this thing.”

Before our eyes was the completed ‘Mechanism.’

No, it might still be incomplete. From now on, future generations would have to continue improving this machine.

However, compared to the previous ‘Mechanism’ whose purpose we couldn’t even guess, the current ‘Mechanism’ had a much more comprehensible appearance.

A massive cylindrical structure. Complex mana circuits and cooling devices wrapped around it.

“Who would have thought that the ‘Mechanism’ created by our ancestors was actually a furnace.”

Ivar muttered in a trembling voice.

The identity of the ‘Mechanism’ was literally a furnace.

Now we finally understood why Archmage Citadel was built on top of a volcano.

“This citadel itself was a vessel designed to house a massive furnace.”

“They say in the ancestors’ time, they used lava as fuel.”

The apprentices each muttered a word or two.

Perhaps the ‘Mechanism’ becoming a furnace was thanks to everyone here’s choice.

After all, it’s the creator’s role to determine how a machine is used. Because everyone repaired the ‘Mechanism’ with one heart and mind, such a finished product could emerge.

“Good.”

Iline placed both hands on her hips and spoke energetically.

“Then now we should try turning on the power, right?”

“Yes. If it doesn’t work in the end, it would be meaningless.”

“Then I’ll yield the role of turning on the power to Reagan.”

Iline insisted that pulling the power switch was my job and pushed my back.

The Elders didn’t object either. Rather, they looked at me with expectant eyes.

I reluctantly stood in front of the lever.

Well, choosing one person from within the family would be complicated anyway, so it’s fine if I do it.

“Then, here I go.”

I took a deep breath and pulled the lever with all my strength.

———.

The discordant noise from before didn’t occur.

A rough yet clear operating sound rang out, and the mana circuits filling the walls began to flash blue.

Soon, massive gears began turning one by one, meshing together.

Vibrations shook the entire workshop, no, the entire Archmage Citadel.

Rumble rumble rumble!

Intense heat burst forth from the central cylinder.

From one end of the workshop, a long-extended outlet began flowing with bubbling silver-blue liquid.

“Oh, ohhh!”

The Elders cried out in admiration.

Even Victor stared mesmerized at the liquid metal flowing along the mold.

“This is…”

Even I, who was a novice in metalworking, knew what this liquid was.

“Ether Steel.”

A mystical metal imbued with mana that only appeared in legendary ancient texts.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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