Magi Craft Meister

What Jin found at that corner of the store was definitely a fridge.

"…A fridge?"

"Oh, you have quite the discerning eye, Jin. This is a magic tool we've just recently got in stock. It was sold by an earl from the Egelia Kingdom…"

After all, it seemed that Earl Kuzuma was sponsoring their production and sales.

He was soon reminded of that red-haired Magi Craftswoman, Beana.

(Those two will be getting married any day now, huh. I'll ask them about it if I get the chance.)

"…And this here is a 'lighter'. …Jin?"

Jin, who had lost himself in his memories of the time when he saw Beana and the magic tool that they made in Blue Land, was returned to this world by Roland's voice.

"Ah, sorry, I was lost in thought for a moment."

"I see. So, this is a "water heater". It's pretty well done. I'm currently researching whether I can make them myself."

Since there was no concept of ??patents in this world, this kind of idea came up rather naturally. And since the market was unlikely to suffer because of it, Jin decided not to say anything about it.

"If I have any questions about it, can I ask you for your help, Jin?"

Jin laughed and nodded to Roland, who asked that of him without knowing that Jin was (one of) the creators of all of those items.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

Jin turned down Roland's invitation to stay overnight, and instead returned to Hourai Island.

"Well, preparations… are going to be rough."

"What happened, Brother Jin?"

As Jin seemed troubled all by himself, Elsa suddenly showed up in the control room.

"Hmm? Ah, Elsa. Well, tomorrow I'll be going to the Frantz Kingdom with Shion and I've been wondering what to look like."

"Ah, so it was about that."

Elsa had been worried it had anything to do with Shion having undressed herself in front of Jin in order to gain his trust.

"But tomorrow? You agreed to go tomorrow?"

"Yeah, that's right. So, I got some information about the Frantz Kingdom from both Reinhardt and the Raglan Firm in the Klein Kingdom. Its government seems to be a tyranny of sorts, and the aristocrats appear to be in control, so that makes me think that knights would generally be in a good social standing. I was wondering from what country should I call myself a knight of…"

Jin explained that he wanted to introduce himself as a knight instead of as the Magi Craft Meister.

"…In that case, you should go in as a knight of the Shouro Empire."

Elsa expressed her view. Going as a knight of the Klein Kingdom was out of the question since their relations with the Frantz Kingdom was rather hostile. The Egelia Kingdom was in bad terms with the Celuroa Kingdom, which was Frantz's suzerain state, so he would have to avoid using that country as well.

"I think the Shouro Empire is a rather neutral option."

Elsa concluded that the Shouro Empire shouldn't be seen as an enemy because it has diplomatic relations with the Celuroa Kingdom.

"I see. So I should go as a knight of the Shouro Empire on a visit?"

"Yeah. And I can look for Shion's sister."

"Wait. You're coming as well, Elsa?"

Jin was surprised by Elsa's remark.

"Yes. I'm not sure you'll be using the proper etiquette of the Shouro Empire if you go there all by yourself."

That was more or less a pretty good reason. There was no way Jin could refuse after being called out like that.

"Understood. Make sure to bring your Guard Ring with you."

"Okay."

Thus, Jin, Reiko, Elsa, Edgar, Shion, and Lucas would all go to the Frantz Kingdom.

The time was right after dawn on the 7th of August. The place was in front of Nidou Castle.

It was a cloudy morning, and it seemed that it could start raining at any moment.

"Ok, so Shion, Lucas, Elsa, Edgar, Reiko, and I, we're all here."

Lucas had already met Elsa, but still was a little cautious because Edgar was a new face to him.

"Edgar is Elsa's guardian Automata."

After hearing Jin's explanation, Shion spoke out with an impressed tone of voice.

"Oh, the Magi Craft Meister's disciple is also very skilled."

"Yeah, she is. So, are we all ready?"

"We didn't need to make many preparations to begin with. But more importantly, how are we going to travel to this Frantz Kingdom?"

"We'll fly there."

"Huh?"

Jin explained to them what he meant.

The distance in a straight line between Kaina Village and Storsk, a village that was on the border between the kingdoms of Klein and Frantz, was approximately 300 kilometers. Such a distance could be traversed by airship in about 3 hours.

Curiously enough, there was no highway connecting the Celuroa Kingdom with its vassal state, the Frantz Kingdom. To get to the Frantz Kingdom, they had to go through the Klein Kingdom.

Laojun had sent some of the Quinta to confirm this, believing that there must be some kind of secret road.

"A blimp…? Is this something you made as well?"

The demons had records of humans having used aircrafts known as "hot flying balloons" during the Great Magic War 300 years ago, but a blimp was beyond their imagination.

There were some improvements to be found between the hot flying balloons of the past. Specifically, it had an increased load capacity, and it featured an elongated air sac to increase buoyancy.

"Yeah, we'll use this until we get to the national borders. We can use this to freely move around the Klein Kingdom. After that, we'll go the rest of the way by carriage."

The carriage Jin was talking about was one that he had already transferred to the national borders of the kingdoms of Klein and Frantz in advance.

"Alright, let's go!"

The blimp took off from Nidou Castle. For the time being, they were under the effects of "Invisible" in order to not cause an uproar.

"It's so dark…"

Since Jin wouldn't cancel "Invisible" until they were way high up in the sky, the view outside the blimp would be completely dark.

But once it was cancelled…

"Woah, amazing! We're above the clouds!"

Once they had reached level flight, "Invisible" was cancelled, and everyone on board could finally see the surroundings.

Shion was frolicking in excitement as she looked down onto the world under the blimp.

"Jin… no, Magi Craft Meister, you're amazing!"

Lucas' face didn't express much, but a hint of excitement could be seen in his blushed cheeks.

Even to Elsa and Jin, the view of the world from the sky was a completely fresh experience.

The blimp was sailing over an endless sea of clouds.

As clouds became thinner, the world below was more visible. Jin made the blimp drop a little altitude to further improve the visibility of the world below the clouds.

"This land is so vast. And there are so many humans living on it…"

Shion said that as she gazed upon the fields and villages that seemed to be so tiny below that it seemed as if she was looking at a map.

Since the blimp managed to travel faster thanks to the Wind Barrier, they arrived at Storsk about 2 hours later. They landed in an unpopulated suburb while cloaked with "Invisibile".

Jin had sent a golem carriage there before by transfer machine. The coachman was, of course, Steward.

"Okay, let's ride that carriage."

Shion had a curious expression on her face.

"J-Jin… what's this?"

"That's my carriage?"

"No, I know, but how is it here already?"

"Ah, that's a trade secret."

"Trade?"

"Well, I'll tell you one of these days. Don't worry too much about that for now."

"…"

After that, they boarded the carriage. Ten minutes later, they had left Storsk behind.

The village of Storsk was a place where the scars of the conflict that occurred last April still remained here and there.

Like any border town, it was surrounded by walls, but these walls were about to crumble in some places, and hadn't been repaired yet.

Jin's carriage approached a checkpoint on the outskirts of that town.

"Stop!"

The border guard soldiers of the Klein Kingdom stopped the carriage right before the checkpoint.

Jin stepped down from the carriage and showed them a permit. Of course, he was wearing a coat similar to the ones used by the Shouro Empire's aristocracy.

"…Very well. You may pass."

The effect of the permit issued by the royal family was glaring, and the soldiers gave permission to pass after simply taking a quick peek inside the carriage.

"…It was a bit too easy, don't you think?"

Elsa muttered that once the guards were far enough.

No matter how good Jin's permit was, it was quite negligent for a border soldier to allow them all to pass without taking a good look at everyone else who had come with him.

That had been an impression unique to Elsa, since she had been on diplomatic trips with Reinhardt.

"They really are falling short in human resources…"

Jin remembered the immigration examination that he underwent back when he entered the Shouro Empire from the Celuroa Kingdom.

After passing through a stone gate, they finally arrived in the Frantz Kingdom.