A few days after the interviews, the princess visited my lab in person.
"Through the Imperial Intelligence Division, I've completed background checks on all 500 people who passed the interview. You can trust them now."
"Why are you... telling me this in person, Your Highness, and not Laura?"
The princess furtively avoided my gaze and answered.
"... It wasn't intentional, but it was an accident that occurred during a project I was overseeing. I figured I should report the progress to you face-to-face."
"I see. Thank you as always, Your Highness."
She was certainly a person who took her noblesse oblige seriously. I bowed my head deeply in gratitude. For the princess to come and tell me this herself, there probably wouldn't be any more spy problems in the future.
Ahem, ahem.
The princess cleared her throat.
"I merely did what I had to do."
The princess also gave me an update on the captured spy, Eric. He was currently undergoing 'lawful interrogation' in the underground prison of the Bureau of Magical Investigation. I knew that a lawful interrogation in the Empire meant beating a person half to death... but what could I do?
Who told him to be a spy? When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Unless you have a strong backer in the imperial family like me, you'd better be careful.
Let's keep it this way! A moment later, the princess opened her mouth.
"And..."
The princess paused, as if about to say something.
"Please speak, Your Highness. I am listening."
Her gaze wavered anxiously.
"About the rumor of you subduing that spy..."
"Yes."
"Well... I failed. The rumor got out."
The princess clenched her fists, looking incredibly frustrated. I told her.
"Why are you so concerned about something like that?"
"Hm?"
"A rumor about subduing one spy won't be a big problem."
"... I wish that were the case."
"Pardon?"
"It's nothing..."
The princess continued.
"I am fortunate to have such a magnanimous subordinate."
What in the world was this rumor that made her act this way? It was unsettling. In any case, even if the dog, a spy, barks, the train moves on.
The airship construction plan proceeded as scheduled. The airship moves by magic, but its construction process is filled with human effort. This was a massive project involving hundreds of mages and dwarves.
The estimated construction period was about two years. There had been endless incidents until now, but I hoped for peace from here on.
And so, two years passed, and the day to ride the airship... did not come. Today was the long-awaited first day of construction. Which meant it was time to curry favor with the workers.
Right now, most of the workers had a favorable opinion of me, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way two years later. I had plenty of bribes stored up.
F=ma.
Using telekinesis, I floated about 600 glass bottles into the air. 127 bottles of flavored distilled spirits. And 500 bottles of ion drinks.
The former was for the dwarves, whose senses sharpened when drunk, and the latter was for the human mages who would need to replenish their electrolytes. The flavored distilled spirits weren't difficult, since I was already researching them, but the ion drinks were the problem.
I still remembered what Laura said when she heard I needed sugar to make the drinks. '... A genius is different, I see.'
'Pardon?'
'I just thought, you are truly creative in your extravagance.' Sugar, the main ingredient of ion drinks, was hard to come by at this point in time. Far from being used for drinking, it was apparently only used as a decoration on the tables of nobles.
Well...
To supply a large amount of sugarcane without agricultural machinery, you would have no choice but to use humans as machines. My compliments to His Majesty the Emperor for his decision not to do so.
'Thanks' to the short supply of sugar, the sweetener in the ion drinks was provided by dried fruit.
It ended up looking like some kind of health drink, but there should be no problem with replenishing electrolytes. I floated the drink bottles in the air and arrived at the empty lot next to the Upperhills iron workshop. There, mages who had finished their safety training were gathered in small groups.
I stood before them and said.
"Everyone, let's start with a cool drink."
"Ooooh!!"
"It's Sir Isaac!"
"My goodness... he even comes to the site himself."
I smiled and handed out the drinks. I was benchmarking politicians who eat soup with the common folk during election season. The mages took the drinks, bowing their heads in thanks.
One of them said to me.
"Wow... can I keep this as a family heirloom?"
The glass bottles were a bit expensive, so I was thinking of collecting and sterilizing them... But when he asked with such sparkling eyes, I couldn't refuse. I told him.
"I would be honored."
"Ooooh!!"
Right, what's the point of earning money? Unless I was going to donate it to a dying industry like Anna, using it like this was the wise choice. I had to remember.
These people were the ones building my airship. The reason I, who engaged in unproductive ball games... no, basic academics, was treated so well, was because of these people. Then, a mage cautiously asked.
"Um... if you don't mind, may I ask you something?"
"Yes, go ahead."
"So, what did you use to kill that spy?"
"Pardon?"
"Oops... it must be a secret. I'm sorry. I'll enjoy the drink, thank you."
He quickly backed away. I stood there dumbfounded.
Kill him?
The spy was alive and well when he was taken to the Bureau of Magical Investigation. Of course, he might not be well now... but he was fine at least until I sent him off. The mage who asked about the spy was immediately surrounded by other mages.
"Are you crazy! How could you ask him that outright!"
"Well, I was curious, what was I supposed to do! Aren't you curious?"
"... I am."
"Then you go and ask him!"
The two began to bicker.
"Argh! It's because of people like you that His Majesty has such a hard time!"
"I was just satisfying my intellectual curiosity as a mage!"
As far as I knew, these people were elite mages with at least a master's degree. But with safety helmets on instead of academic caps, they had turned into construction site uncles. ... Did someone cast a spell on the safety helmets?
Naturally, my detection spell sensed nothing.
"Argh, I can't take it anymore!"
One of them spoke to me.
"So. Did you shoot a beam from your eyes, or did you rupture his organs with a shout?"
"...?"
I needed to hear a more detailed explanation of this. About ten minutes later. I found out the whole story.
It seemed the story of me subduing the spy had been distorted. But even granting that rumors can be exaggerated... 'Why do these people believe it?'
There must be people here who saw it happen in person. I said to them.
"Since you are all people who would know, I'll tell you without adding or subtracting anything."
"Ooh!!!"
"He's speaking!"
"It was just Telepathic magic."
"..."
"I just increased the output to interfere with his spell casting."
"..."
A moment of silence fell. The gazes of the mages were piercing. Even if I skipped a lab meeting, the reaction wouldn't be this intense.
Then, a mage nodded and said.
"So you're going with that 'story', I see."
"...?"
"I understand, since it's related to the spy. Security is vital. Of course."
The murmuring grew louder. I could hear people's voices through my detection spell.
"Ah, what. Was that it?"
"If it's confidential, we have to protect it for him."
Something...
Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
"Even a man who shoots death rays from his eyes is being so careful, shunning fame... who am I to have been so arrogant all this time?"
"I should stop leaving food at restaurants from now on."
"I agree. I'm going to start steeping my tea leaves twice."
I can hear everything, you people...! Of course, they were saying that because they didn't know the performance of my detection spell, but hearing it made my face flush. I headed to the ironworks where the dwarves were, as if fleeing.
The dwarves took the distilled spirits from me and cheered.
"This is it!"
"It's here. The light of my life! The fire of my soul!"
The dwarves cheered as they downed the spirits. It might seem strange to drink while working, but it was a common thing for dwarves. They say alcohol helps cultivate an intuition that can see through the structure of metal.
Solid-state physics must be easy for them.
I'm envious.
I'd like to run an experiment on the dwarves' intuition someday. But since I wasn't a life sciences major, I might never know the detailed operating principles. The dwarves chatted in their gruff voices.
"This time it has a fruity scent too. The apple scent is nice."
"Apple? Mine smells like lime."
"Could it be that each bottle is different?"
"Good heavens..."
A senior dwarf patted my back a few times. Of course, for a delicate human mage, it was closer to a thud. He said to me.
"You're better than most dwarves."
"Thank you."
"I'm not kidding, really."
A smile peeked from under his twitching beard.
Gulp, gulp.
He downed the drink in one go and said.
"Alright! Now that we've all had a drink, let's get to work!"
Clang! Clang, clang!
"Let's gooo!"
The dwarves clanked their hammers against each other's and walked towards the furnace.
'How cool.'
Watching them made me want to have a drink too. I looked at the bottle of distilled spirits the dwarves had left for me and pondered. Should I drink this, or not?
'Still, drinking in an ironworks would be crazy...' Maybe I should help out with the work today? Just then, Callen appeared like a ghost and grabbed my wrist.
"Aha, Chairman. You can't do that."
"Huh?"
"No drunk humans allowed on site."
"I haven't had a drink yet...?"
"... Yet?"
"Ah."
A slip of the tongue. In the end, I just lit the mana stone furnace and had to leave work as if I were being kicked out. It hadn't even been an hour since I'd arrived...
Trudge, trudge.
Watching Isaac's retreating back, Tobin said to Callen.
"You did a good job chasing him out."
"Hehehe. This is basic stuff, old man."
Driving Isaac out of the workshop was something the two of them had planned. The two had known Isaac since the Upperhills Workshop was first established. So they had a good idea of what Isaac would do next.
'If we don't stop him now, he'll come and work here every single day.' The work speed would certainly increase. The dwarves would like it too.
But that wasn't what Tobin and Callen wanted. Isaac had many other places to shine besides this ironworks.
"A researcher belongs in a research lab, don't you think?"
Callen nodded at Tobin's words.
Since that day, my work consisted of just turning on the mana stone furnace.
"I really wasn't going to drink..."
Both Tobin and Callen thought I was some kind of drunkard. Because of that, I had a lot of free time on my hands lately. Normally, I would have written a paper related to the airship.
But this project was strictly a military secret, so I couldn't publish it as a public paper in the Magic Tower.
"What should I do then?"
I felt like an unemployed person with nothing to do. Most doctoral students would fill in for undergraduate lectures at times like this. But doing that now would be a disaster.
It was impossible until the rumor about 'Isaac the Spy-Slayer' died down. Was it because it was spreading among mages? This rumor just wouldn't be extinguished.
For the time being, working with mages was a bit... burdensome. I confided this concern to Gwendolyn. For the record, the place was a salon, not the Magic Tower.
There were too many watching eyes at the Magic Tower.
Clink.
Gwendolyn set down her teacup and asked.
"... Then am I not a mage?"
"No, Miss Gwendolyn, you're already my friend."
Gwendolyn's expression brightened at the word 'friend'.
"Hehe. That's true."
"But I was curious too. So, was it the death ray or the seven-orifices-bleeding shout?"
"Miss Gwendolyn... you weren't listening to me."
"For your information, my father bet 5 gold on the death ray."
"..."
As I was at a loss for words, Gwendolyn giggled and continued.
"I'm kidding. If you have nothing to do right now, how about giving a special lecture at the Upperhills boarding school?"
"Oh."
That was a good idea. Spreading the greatness of science to the children of the new era. Untainted children would believe my words at face value. ...
Or so I thought, once upon a time.
A few days later. Upperhills boarding school, 1st-year classroom. "Hello, everyone. I am Isaac, and I will be in charge of today's special lecture..." "Waaaaaah-!" "Kyaaaaaa-!" The kids' cheers were on a different level of decibels. "Wow!! It's the statue uncle!" "Show us how you kill an orc in one hit!" "Oppa! I, I have a dream too!!" Embarrassment was no longer an issue. "If you fight the Capital Guard, who wins?!" "Hyung, can you kill a dragon like Sir Doloren?!" My ears were physically about to burst.