Chapter 2 – Nostalgia
10-02 Nostalgia
On the same night when Jin heard that Mine and Elsa were starting a study group, he warped to Hourai Island. This time he took Elsa with him. It goes without saying that Reiko came along too.
Since a small Warp Gate had been installed in the new home’s basement they were able to travel easily and without having to go to the shelter.
“Welcome back, master.”
Managing the Warp Gates was the butler golem ‘Butler-1’ that had started working only yesterday.
The adult male type SP golems were used as its base, and to have it serve as a guard too its power output was a little bit higher than the SP’s.
In addition, there were plans to have butler golems in various administrative tasks on Hourai Island.
“Welcome back, My Lord.”
The brain of Hourai Island, Laojun, welcomed Jin.
“I’m home. Laojun, I know it’s sudden but could you prepare some cloth woven out of a Ground Spider’s silk?”
“As you wish. How much is it that you need?”
“Let’s see, I think that a piece of cloth with a width of one meter and a height of five meters should be enough.”
“I will have it brought to you at once.”
And so Jin went to the workshop. There he found that the golem maid Peridot-17 who was in charge of the chores had already carried in the cloth.
“Ah, thanks.”
Jin thanked her and Peridot-17 gave a bow and left.
“Father, what are you going to make with the Ground Spider silk?”
Jin’s number one helper Reiko asked.
“Hm? I figured I’d make use of the special characteristics of cloth woven out of a Ground Spider’s silk and make a whiteboard.”
Jin replied.
“A whiteboard… I see.”
Reiko seemed to immediately understand, but Elsa looked to be full of questions. Noticing that, Jin began explaining.
“Elsa, a whiteboard is a board that teachers in my previous world used to explain or write down things when teaching their pupils.”
Actually blackboards were more widely used, but talking about that would’ve made it more complex so Jin continued talking about just the whiteboard for now.
“So, the silk of a Ground Spider is hard to stain. Even Reiko’s clothes are made entirely of it.”
After explaining that far Elsa too seemed to understand as she made an exaggerated nod.
“I got it. You can write letters or such on it and explain. And because it doesn’t stain the written letters disappear after a light wipe.”
“That’s correct.”
Elsa appeared to have understood.
“So by attaching this to a board we can make a whiteboard for the teacher to use. If we cut smaller pieces out of it, children can use them to practice and take notes.”
“Got it. Very useful.”
“Since it’s still unreasonable for you to make them, just watch us, Elsa. …Reiko, let’s start.”
“I understand.”
And so Jin and Reiko split the labor and began to work. The silk of a Ground Spider couldn’t be worked with normal tools. Either tools made out of Adamantite or Craft Magic needed to be used.
Jin and Reiko worked rapidly with their Craft Magic and built one blackboard-sized one and 27 small squares with 30 centimeters long edges.
“Amazing. Can I also do it like that one day?”
Elsa who had watched with sparkling eyes asked Jin. Jin promised her.
“Yeah, I’ll teach you.”
“Mm. I can’t wait.”
Next were pens and ink.
This world had pens too, but they were quill pens. Jin thought about making them out of metal, but since regular iron would soon wear down if rubbed against cloth woven out of a Ground Spider’s silk and there was also the weight to think about, so he used the 6/4 Light Silver alloy.
So as to make them fixable with Craft Magic if they did wear down, he made them out of the same material all the way to the shaft. They were dip pens of the so-called Kabura Pen variety. They were easy to make because they were comparatively simple.
“Elsa, you can try making these too.”
Jin gave her the required amount of 6/4 Light Silver and told her to give it a try.
“Mm. [Forming].”
The 6/4 Light Silver changed its shape…
“…It’s hard.”
…Into a weird one.
“As I said earlier, the image is important. Close your eyes and imagine the shape you want to make, and then give it another try.”
“Mm. I got it. [Forming].”
This time it went rather well. The left and right side weren’t symmetrical though.
“Oh, you did rather well. Give it one more go.”
“Mm. I’ll try.”
Elsa practiced many more times. Around the tenth time she managed to complete a usable pen.
“Oh, this is alright. Good job.”
Jin praised her and Elsa smiled pleasantly. Lately her facial expressions seemed to have become more common.
Next was the ink. Well, water with color mixed in would do but the other day the Mermaid corps discovered a fish just like a squid (or rather a mollusc), so its ink ended up being used.
If time passed then it would maybe pale, but for practice it should be enough.
Next was the marker for Mine, or rather for the teacher to use.
Jin shaped Light Silver into a tube and made its head narrow, then made a felt shape out of hardened Ground Spider silk and put it in as the tip. He then filled the body with ink and closed it with Craft Magic to finish.
Or so he thought, but then ink began overflowing out of the tip. It seemed that he really did need something like cotton wadding permeated with ink or it wouldn’t work.
Jin redid it. Jin made wadding out of the Ground Spider’s silk and stuffed it inside the pen stop the ink from overflowing.
“Mh-hm, this time it seems to be a success.”
“My Lord, there is one final report.”
“Hm, what is it?”
“The aircraft carrier has been completed. It is the first warship ‘Hokata’.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
“The reason for the delayed completion was the need for trial and error in various parts and applying revisions.”
Considering the true strength of Hourai Island which finished building the submersible base in a single day, taking over 10 days to do this was strange in a sense.
As usual, there was no one around to retort with “which option’s weird here, huh?”.
“The two-layered structure was no good. It makes landing and takeoff all the more time-consuming. As it uses a Warp Gate, it’s not a problem if we keep the number of aircraft stationed on the carrier as low as possible.”
The explanation continued.
“To make landing and takeoff more efficient, the deck has been arranged to go diagonally across the ship’s center line.”
This ‘angled deck’ structure was something already put to practical use, but since Jin didn’t know of it Laojun had to arrive at the idea by himself.
“The weapons are as instructed. Some other small adjustments and revisions will be made. But after finishing the first warship, surely we should build the second and third ships as soon as possible.”
“I see. Good work. Keep it up.”
“Yes, understood.”
While handling all sorts of tasks it had suddenly become nearly midnight.
“Now then, so that we don’t lack sleep we should be going to bed soon. Let’s go back to Kaina Village. …I’ll explain to you later about the aircraft carrier.”
“Okay, Jin-nii.”
They got out of the Warp Gate in the basement, and here in Kaina Village at 9 PM everyone was sleeping.
Elsa snuck back to the house so as not to wake up Martha, Mine, and Hannah while Jin went to the bedroom that had been recently finished.
And then he realized.
“There’s no futon.”
He had been thoughtless.
“Father, I will fetch one from the mansion.”
Reiko turned around. She warped to Hourai Island. Few minutes later she came back.
She brought a new futon, a duvet, and a pillow. Finally Jin could sleep.
“Good night, Reiko.”
“Good night.”
The night went on.
＊ ＊ ＊
It had become a daily routine for Reiko who had no need for rest to talk with Laozi about this and that after Jin had fallen asleep.
“Today Reinhardt-san made routine contact. Nothing’s unusual, but he seems to still be forced to stay in Astan.”
“Celuroa Kingdom was the country with the most brainwashed ministers, so they surely haven’t recovered their faculties.”
Right now, the Unifiers were actually falling apart in every country, and because their influence disappeared everything was in disorder.
Celuroa Kingdom was the most disorderly of all, as indeed three in four cabinet ministers were puppets of the Unifiers.
The Quinta sent out and spread the names of the brainwashed people, and each country had their own responses to it.
“It seems that Egelia Kingdom is testing the [Shock] magic for cancelling brainwashing.”
Information had come to Laojun through the Quinta.
“Cline Kingdom seems to be the same. The countries with not enough nobles, or rather, not enough of the leading class seem to be having it hard.”
“How about Frantz Kingdom?”
“There they have been simply fired. Ah, not burned in a literal sense. I mean that they’ve been removed from their posts.”
“Even I know that much, Laojun. But Frantz Kingdom is rather small so they should be able to manage, right?”
“Yes. Celuroa Kingdom is doing the worst. They similarly fired people and hired new ones, but since they’ve got so many people a lot of departments have stopped operating.”
“And so Reinhardt-san can’t leave either.”
“That’s how it seems. The army seems to be the most disorderly department.”
＊ ＊ ＊
In the headquarters of the Unifiers where Jin had sent the repaired and rebuilt Elena, the top seat Joule and the next seat Donald were cooperating with planning the reorganization of their group.
“Hey Donald, just what were we thinking?”
“I have no idea. We were fixated on longing for the past, and bound by that ended up doing some unthinkable deeds.”
“I was very surprised when Elena told me to take responsibility and that even death wouldn’t be enough for that. Indeed that would just be an escape.”
Then a clear and beautiful voice joined in.
“Yes, that’s right, my lord. Taking responsibility means ending the disorder and contributing to society. I’ll also do my best.”
“Ah, just having Elena gives us tremendous strength.”
No one other than Jin knew where the Unifiers’ headquarters was. And so, for now, Joule and Donald could act behind the scenes.
And so they dedicated the rest of their lives for the purpose of changing the Unifiers to a group that benefits society as a whole.
That was conveyed through Elena to Laojun, and having Jin’s permission Laojun could also help them as much as he was able to.
“And so, as proof of our new start, let’s abandon the name ‘Unifiers’, I was thinking of calling us the ‘Nostalgia’.”
“Nostalgia you say, that sounds good.”
“Yes, that is a lovely name.”