CH 24

“Greetings to the Young Madam. My name is Caroline Dolph.”

“Caroline is Gottfried’s only magician and she’s an all-rounder who makes things for us. She, of course, is also a knight.”

Bell added an explanation next to me.

“She’s a magician, but she’s a knight?”

I opened my eyes in amazement.

“Then do you fight with magic?” I tilted my head and asked.

It was because I heard that the magicians’ magic was biased towards technology and convenience, and was therefore of no use in battle.

“No, my weapon is this.”

Caroline smiled shyly and pulled out a long, flexible bow from under the desk.

“It feels like Caroline is half-half between an archer and a magician rather than completely a magician.” Again, Bell intervened. “Since we don’t accept magicians, I should say that as a last resort, we have received an archer and wizard.”

That’s right. Gottfried was famous for not hiring wizards.

Magicians can’t join the Knights because they don’t have combat power.

But as Caroline said, she was also an archer, so it seems that Kellerhan accepted it.

If they had a magician in the Knights, it was convenient in many ways, so she must have been a double-dealer.

“What are you doing?” I asked curiously about the blueprints hanging on the table.

“Ah, you mean this one?” When I showed interest in the blueprint, Caroline said with a bright face. “This strategy is to infiltrate the dark magicians’ hideout in Bylum Valley and destroy the Mist Stone…”

“Ehem!”

Suddenly Gilbert and Eric coughed loudly.

Caroline said ‘Oops’ with the shape of her mouth and then she shut up.

She seemed to regret that she had carelessly leaked the details of the operation to me.

No matter how much I’m the Grand Princess, I still haven’t worn Barmuth’s surname. Besides, even if I ever get married to Yuta, the Knights aren’t under my jurisdiction.

So it was only natural for them to keep the Knights’ business secret in front of me.

“That’s why… Anyway, we need bombs for the operation. I was making it.”

Caroline muffled her words.

“But it’s not easy.”

Her expression darkened.

Before we came in, she almost banged her head on the table and groaned, so the blueprint seemed to have been a problem.

I wondered what Caroline was going through.

The eagerness to solve problems when I see them was a trait I had inherited from my parents.

My parents, who were well-known scholars, always hung on to new riddles, new problems, and new questions, and they did everything in their power to find answers.

Then, growing up next to my parents, I naturally started thinking about how to solve a problem if I had one.

After going to Lodgemund, I had no chance of encountering any problems or solving them.

But I shouldn’t ask about this, should I? As it’s a part of the Knights’ operation?

I glanced up at Caroline.

She looked at me with her round eyes, read the curiosity in my eyes and smiled.

It was such a gentle smile that a senior scholar would have made.

“I’m fine with showing you the blueprint, would you like to see it?”

I think my expression brightened up too much at those words. Seeing the five adults in the room burst into laughter at the same time.

I was embarrassed to say that I liked it like a real child, so I rubbed my cheek for nothing.

“Come over here, please.” Caroline called me in a friendly tone.

Standing next to her, she laid out the blueprints in order.

“By the way, do you know what a bomb is? Would you like me to explain it?”

“It’s fine. I heard it when I was young.”

Caroline looked surprised at that.

It seemed surprising that I, as a young child, knew of a less well-known invention, the bomb.

There’s no particular reason why I know about bombs.

It’s just that, in my previous life, when bombs became more popular, Heiner enjoyed playing dangerous games with them.

Bombs and the gunpowder inside them will undergo major changes in the future.

Later, guns came out, and they did a lot of killing.

“What the Captain ordered is a portable bomb powerful enough to shatter huge stones.”

“Portable? And powerful?”

I tilted my head.

Obviously, the bomb of this period must have been a simple structure that has its pipe or sphere filled with gunpowder and gets exploded.

“Aren’t bombs too harsh to handle delicately? It must be a difficult weapon to use tactically.”

“Of course I’ll improve it.” Said Caroline. “I plan to fill the bomb with small balls of gunpowder, not just gunpowder. Then the destructive power doubles.”

“I don’t think it will be difficult so far, what’s the problem?”

She let out a long sigh at my question.

“Lastly, I’m adding a new function to the bomb, and that’s the problem.”

“New function?”

“It’s not something that needs to be shot directly by someone, it’s a function that will detonate the bomb at a specified time if installed somewhere.”

“Wow…”

Amazing!

Without realizing it, I let out an exclamation of admiration out of my mouth.

I’ve never heard of such a function in the future, like detonating a bomb at a specific time.

Oh, maybe it wasn’t in the future because Caroline didn’t develop a bomb that exploded in time?

Several hypotheses came to mind.

But for now, I wanted to see the blueprints first, rather than guessing why she didn’t have the bomb that she envisioned in the future.

I fixed my gaze on the blueprint.

The bomb blueprint wasn’t easy to read because it was my first time, but Caroline gave me a few hints and I was able to interpret it right away.

I was used to seeing and interpreting blueprints and codes because it was a game I often played with my parents.

And soon my eyes saw a contradiction in the blueprint that was tormenting Caroline.

“This… ”

I swept the contradictory part with my hand.

Numerous geometric shapes and numbers swirled in my mind.

“…ng Madam?”

I heard someone calling me from the side, but I couldn’t afford to pay attention.

All my focus was now on the contradiction of the blueprint.

It’s been awhile since I’ve used my brain like this.

In my present life, it has only been a few months since I got separated from my parents, but it has been almost 11 years in my past life.

For 11 years, I had been locked up in my attic without doing anything I liked and was banned from thinking.

Occasionally, all I could do was stand next to Heiner as a doll.

But now, without being disturbed by anyone, I am spreading the wings of free thinking.

It was insanely fun to interpret blueprints, uncover contradictions, and put the pieces of the puzzle together.

In the relaxed atmosphere that Kellerhan and Yuta had provided, my inner potential was awakened.

And I was able to find the answer to a complex problem that I would never normally be able to solve.

“Here.”

When I picked up the blueprint, everyone’s eyes turned to it.

“You need to fix this here.”

Caroline’s eyes widened to the size of a lantern.

“Are you trying to set the timing of the blast using chemicals that change properties over time? To do that, first adjust the part that receives the light like this…”

I slowly explained the inconsistency of the blueprint, picked up a pen and began to draw a proper blueprint.

Drawing up the blueprints was much easier because the chemicals Caroline used were stockpiled in my parents’ lab.

Caroline and the four knights looked at the blueprint I drew as if they were possessed.

Eventually, when the blueprint was complete, Caroline hurriedly adjusted her glasses and pinned her head down.

“This, this…” Her lips trembled. Her eyes were filled with astonishment.

“Oh my gosh, it’s perfect!”

Caroline cheered, and the four knights looked at me in amazement.

“Perfect? You mean the Young Madam has perfected the technique of putting a time limit on the bomb?” Gilbert asked in amazement.

I don’t know, but if Kellerhan had chosen her, Caroline would have been an incredibly talented magician, but I couldn’t believe that I, at the age of nine, solved a problem that even such a magician couldn’t solve.

“Really! I’ll have to experiment first, but it’s almost 100% successful!” Caroline roared with excitement.

“We have to report it to the Captain right now! This strategy, I’m in a hurry!”

“That’s right, we should report to him first!”

When Kellerhan was mentioned, they moved around as if everyone had come to their senses and grabbed the blueprints.

As I was staring blankly at the knights, who were preparing to go to Kellerhan, Caroline turned her head to me and smiled.

“Let’s go together, Young Madam.”

“Me too?”

“Of course. It was the Young Madam who completed the bomb. Obviously, you have to report it and get a reward for it.”

“But I’m not a member of Gottfried either…”

“Oh my gosh.”

Caroline burst out laughing. It was a laugh as if she couldn’t stand it because I was cute.

“The Young Madam is a member of Barmuth to which Gottfried belongs!”

That’s right, I… I was a member of Barmuth.

“Come on. Everyone will be delighted to hear your work.”

The sense of pride that I felt for the first time in my life filled my heart.

I took a deep breath and left the annex with the five knights.

Upon entering the mansion, Harold led us to the conference room where Kellerhan was.

When I entered the conference room, I was nervous and stopped.

It was because there were at least a dozen members of the Gottfried Knights and Kellerhan discussing something with a serious expression.

The members of Gottfried Knights gathered in the conference room had a serious and frightening impression, unlike Bell, Jurgen, and Caroline, who were rather light.

“Who… Gilbert?”

Kellerhan raised his head to look at us and frowned.

“And with the thugs, my daughter-in-law.”

As the cold gaze approached me, it was somewhat loosened.

Kellehan didn’t say anything when he saw the knights brought me to the conference room.

“What is it that you’ve come here so sudden?” 

He just asked what I wanted.

Not only the knights gathered in the conference room, but also the knights who brought me seemed startled to see Kellerhan’s eyes soften.

However, there was only one person who valued the report that the bomb had been completed more than Kellerhan’s reaction, and that was Caroline.

“Captain! Finally, the bomb is complete!”

Caroline stepped forward and shook the blueprint wildly.

When she said it was done, one of Kellerhan’s eyebrows rose.

“A few days ago, you came to me crying that it would never work, though? Already?”

“I didn’t complete it. I wouldn’t have been able to complete it.”

“What else do you mean?”

Caroline took my hand at Kellerhan’s question and made me come forward.

In an instant, I got the attention of everyone in the conference room, and I had no choice but to tense up and tighten my grip.

Caroline patted my hand a few times as if she tried to reassure me, then she opened her mouth again.

“The Young Madam has finished the bomb!”