CH 26

The laboratory of the arms transmutation department was very spacious. After annexing the room of the basic research department and tearing down the wall separating them, it became twice the size of other departments. All the people of the arms transmutation department were in this room.

Rihalzam sat on a chair that looked more like a throne with its fine leather, after cleaning himself and changing clothes. However, there was still a faint rotten smell in the air.

In front of him was a row of apprentices of the arms transmutation department. He called all of them, even the ones who were on their day off, and they were now waiting for him to speak.

Rihalzam seemed a little troubled, but then suddenly started speaking. It seemed he held a grudge against Sabasa, who saw him get chewed out by Gahn over his smell.

“Sabasa, we need to deliver magic circuits that change attributes to the arms association, right?”

“Yes, Master Rihalzam. They ordered magic circuits that change magic elements to the element of fire. Apparently the army ordered fire-type weapons so…”

“So why is the delivery so late? They need precise adjustments, but you’ve done this a lot haven’t you?”

“We don’t have enough distilled water. Especially high quality distilled water for solutions we use when we write the circuits into the boards.”

“Distilled water!? What are you talking about? That’s the most basic thing there is. It’s one of the first things alchemists learn how to make. Even a student can do it.”

The apprentices all looked at each other.

Tortake nervously held out a magic circuit and a sword handle.

“This is a board made with distilled water we transmuted.”

Rihalzam snapped them out of his hands and inserted the circuit board into a slit in the sword handle.

After confirming the remaining magic elements in the magic crystal, he activated this device.

This was a device they used to check the operation of magic circuits. If a board was operating normally, magic elements would turn into a sword of flames, but all it did was sputter.

Rihalzam checked the scale used for measuring on the sword handle.

“There’s not enough power and the emission of magic elements isn’t stable.”

“Yes. We could really use Master Rust’s distilled water to create solutions at the very least, but it would be great if we could use it to clean too and…”

“Hey! Don’t say that detestable name!”

Rihalzam suddenly screamed in anger.

The apprentices all knew Rihalzam felt fierce jealousy over the man who was superior to him, and quickly stopped talking.

In the end, Rihalzam’s jealousy led him to urge the president to drop Rust. Since they were made to help with this, they knew of Rihalzam’s antagonism better than anyone else.

The awkward mood continued until Rihalzam broke the silence.

“I’ll make distilled water a lot better than his. Finish the magic circuits quickly.”

Declared Rihalzam.

◆◇

A few hours later.

“How’s my distilled water?”

Said Rihalzam full of pride. In his hand was a small bottle of distilled water that took him more than twice as long to make than it would take Rust.

Sabasa and the others used this distilled water to make a few magic circuits and lined them up. After checking the operation of each board, Sabasa seemed to struggle to say something.

“These are the values measured by the device.”

“They’re above the norm aren’t they?”

All the values showed the output and stability were just barely above the minimum.

Rihalzam’s distilled water was clearly not as good as Rust’s. The quality of the magic circuits was not very reliable in terms of safety, and their stability in particular was just barely acceptable.

Normally, the alchemists association would not think to present a product of this quality. If an accident happened, it would damage their reliability.

All the apprentices faced down.

“The values are up to standard.”

Said a concerned Sabasa.

“Hmph. Then continue making them until we have enough. Hurry hurry.”

Rihalzam made more distilled water, and the apprentices continued using it to make more magic circuits.

This continued until late at night, when the door to the arms transmutation department suddenly began to melt.

The door fell with a thud.

The surprised alchemists turned around, and saw a large amount of scavenger slime moving around on the hallway.