Chapter 20 – Put to the Test (6)

Namiya Pelroy. There was only one reason why she, the second-generation owner of Namiya Bookstore, had let these customers who did not know their place and demanded intermediate and upper-intermediate books… no, these penniless homeless people, into her bookstore.

‘Those kids probably don’t even know their parents’ faces… If I think about it that way, am I on the happier side?’

It was not pity for a yellow-bander or the weak, but a sense of kinship from having lost her parents. It was because she deeply sympathized with the weight of a life where one had to stand alone at a young age.

However, Namiya herself had her parents until she reached adulthood. Furthermore, since she was born with the best background of the First Embers, calling it a sense of kinship might even be an insult to them.

Because happiness seemed absolute but was extremely relative. Perhaps they simply envied the life of Namiya, who possessed a small but decent bookstore in the First Embers.

‘Anyway, I wonder if they are reading the books well.’

Feeling concerned, Namiya set her book down for a moment and poked her head out to observe them.

The cute and pretty girl, who looked too well-bred to be a yellow-bander, was sleeping peacefully, while the boy and the man, who were surely out of their minds, sat side-by-side leaning against the bookshelf, chatting amiably.

“No, I told you not to read magic engineering books…!”

As was the case with most yellow-banders, magic engineering books were held in their hands without fail.

Just as she was about to spring up from her seat at their pitiful behavior of not listening to a single word she said,

“Sigh, whatever. Who am I to tell them what to do.”

Plop.

Namiya sat back down with a complicated face.

‘They must want to learn magic engineering too. It’s the best way to cast off one’s origin and past and rise in social status.’

Even in the First Embers where talent overflowed, if one was a magic engineer, they would approve immigration applications without questioning any conditions. Because it was a world where magic engineering was the only answer, their vocational value soared to the skies, and the areas requiring them spanned nearly all fields.

In the first place, they could have just dispatched examiners with the test papers to conduct individual examinations at each embers, so why were they going through the trouble of holding the examination in the Immortal Embers?

That was to avoid sending the talents who passed the examination back to their original embers, recruiting them all instead. The so-called prevention of talent drain.

Although it was funny to describe it as a talent drain targeting people who originally belonged to other embers, there had never been any official expression of dissatisfaction from other embers, nor any criticism from the populace.

Even the gossips who loved to chatter were like that, because the Immortal Embers guaranteed the optimal environment and welfare for talent to grow, which other embers could not provide.

Not to mention providing housing, support for desired job placements and research projects, and even a system allowing families to migrate was established.

With things like this, who wouldn’t want to become a magic engineer belonging to the Immortal Embers?

‘Those guys probably don’t want to become magic engineers so much as they want what they can get by becoming one. Happiness… that is.’

Yes, in reality, magic engineering was practically salvation for yellow-banders. Although magic engineering was known as the salvation of humanity in the first place, if there was a difference, it was that to them, it was salvation for the ‘individual,’ not humanity.

Perhaps their demanding of magic engineering books of absurd difficulty suited the word hope quite well. Since grasping hope was something that required a miracle.

‘Since I didn’t purely like magic engineering either, it’s strange for me to say anything.’

Namiya understood their feelings. It was the same for Namiya, who had wanted to succeed by utilizing the professional status of a magic engineer.

Of course, magic engineering was also fun. However, she had more often treated it as a means to secure a more comfortable and happy life.

Therefore, stepping in any further felt uncomfortable even for her. Above all, Namiya could not bring herself to pointlessly trample or break another’s hope.

Since she, who had now lost everything in her life, knew very well how terrifying and painful the loss of hope was.

To the current Namiya, life was no different from hell.

“……”

Yet she could not help but be concerned. Since they, like Namiya, were people left alone in this world. If possible, she wanted to snatch away the magic engineering books immediately and throw them manuals.

However, just as Namiya, with sad eyes, was blankly staring at them…

“For expansion and contraction magic substrates, it is basic to put the circuits governing the size of the matter as the lowest priority, and prevent unwanted deformation or distortion of the matter through the magical preparation of the preceding circuits.”

“What is the reason it must be put as the lowest priority? If you integrate the circuits to operate simultaneously, you’d be able to use it much more instantaneously.”

“Have you ever been in combat?”

“No. I’ve been in a few fistfights, but I’ve never been in combat, so I don’t know. Still, they say 0.1 seconds decides life and death on the battlefield, right? There is quite a bit of content in military magic engineering that looks like it came out of a manual on military strategy, and it emphasizes rapid combat readiness and instantaneous response.”

“To answer your first question, it doesn’t absolutely have to be that way. As you said, it can be done in an integrated manner. However, that not only requires a highly precise design but also demands a very high-quality grade of materials during production for stability. Even if you do that, operational stability drops, meaning the production cost becomes extremely expensive.”

“Hmm…”

“And if an error occurs during the expansion and contraction process, the matter is inevitably destroyed. Conversely, if you apply safety devices to the preceding circuits before the deformation process, you can minimize losses. In other words, it could be called a matter of ease of repair, return on investment… that is, cost-effectiveness.”

That a high-level discussion, which would normally take place in a magic engineering grand conference and could not possibly exist in a small bookstore, was occurring between the two…

“How much sorrow must have built up in them for them to have so much to say?”

Namiya could never have known.

* * *

A faint shaft of light squeezing through my eyelids. Having fallen asleep at some point after my discussion with the boy, I raised my stiff body.

“Ugh…”

The clock was pointing to 11:00 AM. Registration for the examination started at 12:00 PM and closed at 1:00 PM. Considering the waiting line, to go with time to spare, I gently woke the boy who was sound asleep leaning on my shoulder and stood up.

Brushing off my backside and preparing to leave the bookstore, I spotted the female employee tidying up the shop at this hour for some reason.

“…Are you closing at this hour? What about the boss?”

When I asked, unable to understand why she was preparing to close at the hour when everyone else opened their shops, the female employee spoke with a look of disbelief.

I didn’t know how many times I had seen this expression already.

“You really seem to have heard absolutely nothing from Uncle Jack. I am the boss here. It says Namiya Bookstore, doesn’t it? That Namiya is me.”

“Ah… I didn’t know.”

Perhaps… it was just hard to think of her as the owner because her apparent age looked similar to mine. Operating the shop as she pleased and talking back sharply were not behaviors an employee would dare to show.

Realizing that her arbitrary way of operating was possible because she was the boss, I asked.

“Excuse me, though this might be intrusive…”

“Intrusive? What, are you asking to borrow money? I’m sick of things like that. I don’t have any money to give you, either.”

Namiya’s reaction was sharp, but I resolutely spoke anyway.

“Could you look after that child, Williana, for just a moment?”

“Pardon?”

Although she looked displeased, the reason I could bring it up was simple.

Namiya had let us sleep in the bookstore even though we were yellow-banders. Sharp words had been exchanged in the process, but judging solely by her intentions, they were good, leading me to conclude that she was fundamentally a kind-hearted person.

But above all.

‘I said I would protect her. Williana.’

Matching words and actions; I keep my word. Because that is the only way to earn trust.

And this exerts a greater effect when a relationship of trust has not yet been formed between me and the other party. Did I not risk a gold coin just to fulfill Jeremy Scott’s request somehow?

That is why unconditional kindness and favor are terrifying things.

“……”

In fact, even the boy, whose wariness was high due to his unfortunate past, wore a deeply impressed face despite pretending otherwise. Although he quickly composed his expression, the turbulence of his emotions was read all too clearly by me, who conducted psychological warfare as if it were a daily routine.

“I’m not a babysitter, and you’re asking me to look after a child? What kind of request is that? What are you two doing that there’s no one to take care of her?”

However, Namiya, apart from her kind nature, spoke while making that same expression from before, and

“We must go to take the magic engineer qualification examination.”

I merely replied to her like that.

“……”

I waited for her mouth to open. Judging by what Namiya had told us and the fact that the book she was reading was an introductory mechanical magic engineering book rather than a basic one, she must be a poor bookstore owner whose dream had been frustrated for some reason.

She had probably projected herself onto us, who were yellow-banders wishing to become magic engineers.

The reaction, which I thought would be fierce, was tamer than expected.

“…Room 501, 260th Ring, 311th Street.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s my home address.”

Namiya spoke in a calm voice. When I failed to understand, she pulled out and unfolded a zoning map of the First Embers.

“You came down using the elevator in the 3 o’clock direction, right?”

“Yes.”

“Street refers to the direction. You can easily understand Ring as the growth rings of a tree… and you know what Room is, right?”

To summarize her words, it was like this. The circular embers was a SimCity; in other words, it took the form of a planned city for the efficient use of terrain.

‘Street refers to the direction based on a clock, and Ring refers to the borders extending outward from the center like ripples spreading on a lake.’

Therefore, 311th Street was in the direction shifted further by 0.11 decimals from the 3 o’clock position.

260th Ring was the 260th border, sequentially surrounding it starting from the 1st border at the center, the Eternal Embers.

Simply put, Namiya’s house was ‘Room 501 in a building located on the 260th Ring, in the 3 o’clock direction.’ Having understood everything, I spoke to her.

“I will come to pick her up by 3 o’clock.”

“Pardon?”

“Because I think one hour will be enough to take the examination.”

I was at the upper-intermediate level, so no matter how difficult the examination was, how hard could it be? I knew the total exam time was two hours, but I was confident I could solve all the questions as soon as I saw them. The time spent writing down the answers would be much longer than the time spent solving the questions.

But once again, I had not considered Namiya.

“…It’s my first time hearing such crazy talk.”

“……”

“Ah, maybe not. If it’s you, you might finish in thirty minutes rather than an hour. But even if you finish the exam in ten minutes, it will be impossible to arrive in an hour.”

Namiya, not knowing my real skill, spoke in a sarcastic tone. She probably meant that I would give up on the exam in thirty minutes because there would be no questions I could solve.

But what did those meaningful final words mean?

When I asked Namiya, she spoke as if telling me to just try it.

“Even from here at the 190th Ring, it’s a two-hour distance to the examination site at the 10th Ring. And you’re going to come to my house at the 260th Ring in an hour? Are you going to fly here?”

“……!”

I was in big trouble. I didn’t know the location of the examination site!

It was my fault for failing to consider the size of the Immortal Embers while thinking of our own embers, where one could tour the entire area in thirty minutes. Perhaps I was not the only one who had overlooked it, as the boy also began to fuss like a person whose feet were on fire.

“Wh-Where is the examination site?”

“1st Street, 10th Ring. The building itself is the examination site.”

There was already less than two hours left until the close of registration. The moment our eyes met, the boy and I expressed our brief gratitude to Namiya, dumped our luggage as if throwing it away, and began to run at full speed toward the examination site.

“Damn it…! Who would have imagined that two people, an intermediate and an upper-intermediate, might fail because they were late!”

“Pant, exactly… my point…!”

We were realizing once again, even after entering the Immortal Embers, that getting to the examination site was indeed more difficult than the examination itself.