Chapter 5 – The Scoundrel is No More (2)

The Department of Magic Engineering, which had become the backbone of survival and city development as the ice age set in.

The magic engineering laboratory, which operated day and night alongside the Eternal Embers, was lighting up the city’s night today without exception.

But was it not said that it is darkest under the lamp?

All the magic engineers of the embers gathered under that bright lamp that illuminated the city’s future. A deep shadow was cast on the faces of the ten individuals seated in the conference room.

“Director… is this really going to work? It has already been four months since we started the research. We must announce it before it’s too late. That the development of the magic engineering golem has failed.”

Caleb, the novice magic engineer with the longest years of experience.

He, who was the most skilled after the Director of the Magic Engineering Department, Demian Vale, broke the long silence.

At that, the other magic engineers began to pour out their long-repressed resentment like a burst dam.

“This was impossible from the beginning. To develop a golem in this small ember of only a thousand people. Even if we succeed in development, would we even be able to manufacture it? Does this make any sense!”

It made no sense.

The embers they had settled in had a population of only a thousand, a level embarrassing to even call a city.

It had been only a few years since they built the essential wooden structures to provide food, clothing, and shelter, established a system, and began to live like human beings.

Even now, they were struggling to supply resources because they used primitive equipment like hammers and pickaxes to mine magic stones, meaning their technology and industrial levels had not advanced in the slightest.

“…Even conceding a hundred times that we could manufacture it, with the equipment and magic engineering technology we possess in the first place, even the development of a golem is impossible. It requires various magic engineering equipment and antecedent technologies like prosthetics, along with numerous trials and errors before a golem, yet they expect us to skip all that and produce a golem.”

“That’s right. Unless we receive golem blueprints as aid from other embers or have an Upper-Intermediate or higher magic engineer dispatched here, there is no hope even for development at present.”

Even if manufacturing was not an issue, with their magic engineering capabilities, the very development of a golem was like a dream.

Bang!

An angry Caleb slammed his fists on the desk and demanded an answer.

“Director Demian, no, brother! Please say something. You know this better than anyone, don’t you?”

“…The golem development does not stop. We continue.”

“Brother…!”

However, Director of the Magic Engineering Department Demian Vale did not bend his stubbornness despite the numerous protests from his subordinates.

It was not because he did not know.

Rather, it was because he knew all too well.

‘Those dog-like bastards of the leadership. Squeezing in such an announcement at their own discretion while I was briefly away…’

The leadership, consisting of the leader and his close aides.

Elected by the votes of the citizens, they were the core force governing the affairs of the embers and designing the city’s future.

However, since the ‘magic engineering’ generator Eternal Embers possessed a comparable importance, the magic engineering department was a power group destined to share the power of the embers in half with the leadership.

‘You’re struggling desperately to monopolize power, Yan!’

The development of the magic engineering golem, which was a task impossible to achieve right now no matter what they did.

This was a political maneuver orchestrated by Yan Casellos and the leadership to reduce the influence of the magic engineering department and monopolize power.

Originally, challenging such a task had to go through a grand council meeting where both the leadership and the magic engineering department were present. Under normal circumstances, it was an agenda item that could never pass.

Yet Yan Casellos opened the grand council and pushed through the ‘magic engineering golem development’ agenda item anyway.

It happened while five magic engineers, including the Director of the Magic Engineering Department Demian Vale, were dispatched to the magic engineering laboratory of the ‘First Embers’, which held the arrogant alias of ‘Immortal Embers’.

It was a so-called robbing of the house while it was empty.

‘To think they would play this dirty… I was naive. I shouldn’t have accepted it so readily.’

As the voices of his subordinates grew louder, Demian let out a sigh.

He had also been fooled. No matter how much Yan and he were in a confrontational relationship between the leadership and the magic engineering department, the two were a community of destiny belonging to the same embers.

Though he didn’t know how Yan had managed to bring such a dream-like opportunity as a tour of the ‘First Embers’ magic engineering laboratory, he thought at least that Yan was making every effort for the embers.

Because for such an nameless, trivial embers to push aside other city-level embers and win such an opportunity was close to a miracle.

But Demian’s thoughts were wrong. The efforts Yan Casellos put in all directions were not for the magic engineering department or the embers, but solely to solidify the power of himself and the leadership that followed him.

Yan had already finished the calculation.

That he would pass the golem development agenda item while the magic engineering department was away, thereby reducing their influence.

That was how cunning and clever a human Yan was.

“Quiet! Do you know what words are heard when you go outside? It is all about the golem. That once we succeed in developing and manufacturing the golem and begin mass production, there will be no more patients or people becoming disabled. Yet, does the talk of giving up development come out so easily?”

“But Director…!”

“I know too. How absurd it is to develop a golem at this point. And that we—no, I—danced to Yan Casellos’s political scheme…”

“…”

“However, that is precisely why we must succeed in development. Once we succeed in development, manufacturing will fall under the jurisdiction of the leadership anyway. Even though they won’t be able to manufacture it, at least we can prevent the disaster of Yan monopolizing power.”

When Demian bowed his head, admitting his mistake, the other magic engineers fell into great shock.

Demian Vale, what kind of person was he?

Was he not a rare genius who had reached the end of the Intermediate magic engineering textbooks at the age of forty and was now looking toward the Upper-Intermediate level?

Considering that those generally called geniuses take 5 years for Introductory, 15 years for Novice, and 30 years for Intermediate, taking a total of 50 years to enter the Upper-Intermediate level at the fastest, this was definitely the case.

In fact, during Demian’s youth, the First Embers, recognizing his ability, even tried to recruit him by offering immense rewards. However, Demian rejected the proposal of the dispatched Upper-Intermediate magic engineer, saying:

“The Immortal Embers has enough fuel to burn forever, but this nameless embers does not. I will stay where I am truly needed. Even if my talent fades away along with these embers.”

Saying so was an anecdote that was still talked about repeatedly to this day.

It meant he was a person with that much confidence and pride in himself, and a high self-esteem.

Such a man was bowing his head before his subordinates for the first time. Though they had not spent their entire lives by Demian’s side, they could know instinctively.

That it was likely the first time in his life that the great Demian Vale had bowed his head.

The deep sense of defeat hovering on Demian’s face proved it.

“Caleb, do you know what the people want from us? Jerry, Paul, Hamington, Eugene, Edward… do you know?”

“…”

“High-level magic engineering? Technological advancement and development? Convenience of civilization? No. What those out there fighting the cold and all kinds of dangers want from us is simply hope. A sliver of hope that someday… someday they will escape all this inhumane life and live in peace and warmth. Right now, that is the golem.”

No one could open their mouth.

Although they were guaranteed a comfortable life living close to the Eternal Embers as a privileged class of magic engineers, their families still risked their lives every day to do their share.

Of course, the families of magic engineers worked with more consideration than those without backers, but even so, accidents such as losing an arm or leg to frostbite still occurred.

In fact, hadn’t Caleb’s beloved ten-year-old daughter, Lily, suffered frostbite during work and had her right arm amputated below the elbow?

If even the direct lineage of such a privileged class was like that, what about those who were not?

It meant they also, as family members of the ‘ordinary’ class, deeply felt their pain and their responsibility as magic engineers.

“I will say this only once. Listen carefully.”

“Yes, Director.”

“The remaining time is half a year. It can be crude. I do not care about its function, durability, or perfection of design, so you must make a ‘golem’ without fail. We must somehow create at least its shape and clearly show the people that hope exists. That is the only way for these embers and our magic engineering department to survive.”

“Yes, Director!”

Magic engineers.

Those who dreamed of the impossible great task of normalizing the world and saving humanity by advancing technology and civilization through magic engineering.

At the same time, neighbors and guardians who protected people’s hope, happiness, and their lives.

At Demian’s heartfelt appeal, they, who grasped the fate of humanity, began to burn with fighting spirit once again.

“Now, everyone return to work immediately! No one is going home for the next two months, so keep that in mind!”

“Excuse me… Director, what should I do about Lily? As you know, there is no one else to look after her but me.”

“Is that a problem right now? Bring her to my house. I will make sure she gets all three meals regularly.”

“Loyalty!”

Caleb saluted extravagantly, and the other magic engineers roared with laughter as they watched him.

In the harmonious atmosphere, Demian smiled bitterly.

‘It is tight… Even just to give it a shape and make it move, half a year is far too short.’

As the highest-ranking magic engineer of this embers, he cruelly knew the current reality facing the magic engineering department all too well. However, the reason he declared that they had to continue golem development was for fear that their morale would drop.

Therefore, what Demian was aiming for was a success that looked like a failure yet was not—namely, a transition to magic engineering ‘prosthetics’.

‘It would be great to succeed in golem development, but… since failure is obvious, we will transition to prosthetics. It will be hopeful news for the disabled, and it will also help the embers by increasing labor.’

Anyway, since a golem referred to a machine that moved like a human, it was ultimately composed of a skeleton and joints, making it a high-tier technology of magic engineering prosthetics.

Even if they failed in golem development, they could pull off meaningful results by shifting the direction to prosthetics.

Nevertheless, since a golem was a task that must be achieved someday.

“The water is already spilt. Let’s give it a try…!”

Demian began to shine his eyes.

His eyes drawing the blueprint were, before he knew it, colored with those of a dreamer.

* * *

The dawn of the day when the magic engineering department, which had fallen into despair, regained hope.

Tramp, tramp—

There was someone standing in front of the magic engineering laboratory’s door, cutting through the cold air of dawn.

A tall height, black hair fluttering in the wind, a sharp nose that looked as if carved from glacial stone, and a sculpted face.

Which meant…

“Is anyone here? I am Aylen Vale. I came because I have business.”

He was none other than Aylen Vale, the famous scoundrel of the embers and the legitimate son of the Director of the Magic Engineering Department.

“Ah, Aylen? Why are you here…”

“Ah, Uncle Caleb? I’m trying to meet my father.”

“You… your father…?”

Today was the day after he last visited his father.

A day when a whopping 10 more years had passed.