Chapter 447 Product Development for Wielope ②
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The development phase for the Wielope Empire was finally moving. I decided to start with a light-emitting ddo, and I posed a challenge to my disciple, Nina the Sacred Artificer¹: “Which monster material is best suited for a lighting mechanism?”
I gave her five options:
1. Light Lizard
2. Light Earthworm
3. Light Bat
4. Light Eel
5. Light Moss
The goal was to identify which material was cheap enough for mass production. And, of course, there was a forfeit for a wrong answer.
”Nnggh…”
Nina crossed her arms, tilting her head as she racked her brain. I knew the feeling-nobody likes a pop quiz-but being the one asking the questions, I couldn’t stop a smirk from creeping onto my face.
I wasn’t just being a jerk. This mental struggle is vital. Designing magic circuits² is just one long string of problems like this. Sometimes you have to stare down a question with no answer for days, weeks, or even years.
Besides, Nina is still green when it comes to monster materials. I wanted her to build her knowledge base and her logic skills at the same time through actual circuit design. Again, I wasn’t just doing this for my own amusement. Well, maybe about fifty percent of it was.
”I’ve got it! Light Moss! It has to be Light Moss!” Nina cried.
”Oh? And what’s your reasoning?” I asked.
”Because you tacked it on at the end, Master! You were being so obvious about it, I bet you just threw it in as the ‘hidden’ right answer!”
”Idiot!”
”Ow!”
I delivered a sharp rap to Nina’s head. This girl… she actually tried to metagame me. Trying to guess the answer based on the teacher’s intent rather than the facts-some might call that “reading the room,” but in this craft, it’s a bush-league move.
”What was that for!?” Nina snapped.
”What are you even talking about? You’re here to learn how I build magic circuits, right? Even if you guess right that way, you haven’t actually learned a thing.”
”Wait, so it was the right answer?”
”You double idiot!”
”Ow! You hit me twice! My head! Do you have any idea how many people called me a genius back at the Kanray Divinity School³?”
”Don’t care. Forfeit time.”
”Wait… is the forfeit… something ‘naughty’?”
”No! And for the record, you were wrong anyway.”
”Aww…”
After a bit of bickering, Nina finally started taking it seriously. She began muttering to herself, weighing things like population density and ease of capture.
Good. If she’d just done that from the start, we’d be getting somewhere. I’d given her plenty of clues. If she used what she knew about monsters, the answer would reveal itself.
”…Is it the Light Bat?” Nina asked after a long pause.
”I see. I’ll give you a chance to defend that. Why?”
”Well… Light Bats nest in cave entrances. Their habitat is easy to reach compared to the others, making them easier to hunt. And… by that same logic, the Light Eel is out. You’d have to trek all the way to an underground lake for those.”
”Hmm, good logic. We can definitely scratch the Light Eel. What about the others?”
”A Light Lizard only glows at the tip of its tail, so the yield is too low. Plus, they’re tiny. The Light Earthworm is big, sure, but only its lure glows, and hunting those things is way too dangerous.”
”Fair enough. Just for the sake of completion, what about the Light Moss?”
”That’s the thing… is Light Moss really wrong? Depending on the area, it grows thick from the shallow caves all the way to the deep floors. It’s relatively easy to harvest. I went with the bat, but the moss was a close second…”
Listening to her, I couldn’t stop my grin from widening. She’d arrived exactly where I wanted her to, and she’d even spotted the catch with the moss.
Taking a disciple isn’t so bad after all-especially a sharp one. I wonder if my old masters felt the same way… though whether or not I was actually a “sharp” student is still a matter of debate.
”Not bad. I’ll give you six out of ten for partial credit,” I said.
”Nnggh… fine. What’s the actual answer then?”
”The answer is: ‘We don’t know yet.’”
”Wh-!? You mean there was no answer? That’s cheating! Total scam!”
Nina’s reaction was perfectly justified, which only made me laugh harder. Truth be told, my own master pulled this same trick on me once. But again, I wasn’t just being mean.
”Relax. Think about it. We haven’t built a prototype, we don’t know if the lighting mechanism will even work, and we don’t know the exact volume of material required. How could there possibly be a ‘correct’ answer yet?”
”It’s still a scam! You were sitting there with that ‘I know everything’ look on your face!”
”Kukuku, that’s your fault for being unobservant. But the question wasn’t pointless. I was testing whether you knew what to consider before starting your research. Come on, let’s go find out for real. We’ll start the build based on your hypothesis.”
”G-grrr… you’re trying to play this off as a deep lesson, but I’m not buying it…!”
Ignoring her grumbling, I headed for the shelves holding the Light Bat parts. She pouted for a bit, but when she realized I wasn’t going to coddle her, she reluctantly trailed behind.
For the record, the missing points were because I actually planned to start with the Light Moss, and because she didn’t realize that “no answer” was a possibility.
”Aha, here we go.”
”…So this is a Light Bat?” Nina asked.
”What, never seen one in the flesh?”
”No, I only knew them from textbooks.”
We reached the shelf and chatted. To be honest, I’d never seen a living one either. They’re the size of a large dog; if one of those jumped me in the dark, I’d be toast. Plus, they spit glowing fluids that blind you. Terrifying creatures, really.
”Alright, time for a lesson you won’t find in books. Looking at this bat, where and how do you think it produces that glowing fluid?”
”Another question…?”
I hauled the bat over to the dissection table. Actually, I made Nina do it. If I tried, I’d need a cart, but she just hoisted it with one hand like it was nothing, which was a bit of a blow to my ego. She gave me that frustrated look again, but this time, she looked suspicious and focused from the get-go. Good. The lesson was sticking!
”…Does it have an internal organ for it? I’ve heard some venomous monsters have poison sacs. Is it something like a… light sac?”
”Ho! Not bad at all. I thought you were weak on monster biology, but you know your stuff. You’re right. The Light Bat has an internal organ called a light sac that stores the fluid.”
”Wait, really!? I was sure it was another trick question because of your personality!”
Kukuku. So naive, Nina. It’s all about the carrot and the stick. If I only gave you trick questions, you’d stop playing! In reality, it was to keep her motivated while honing her skepticism. You don’t learn that stuff until you’ve been burned a few times.
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Summary:
The protagonist begins developing lighting-based adult products for the Wielope Empire. He tests his disciple Nina’s knowledge of monster materials through a trick question. After some slapstick bickering, they begin the actual dissection of a Light Bat to study its light-emitting organs.
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Trivia:
- Nina is physically much stronger than the protagonist, despite being his apprentice.
- The protagonist’s teaching style is modeled after the ‘trick’ questions his own masters used.
- Light Bats are the size of large dogs and can blind attackers with fluid.
- The protagonist actually preferred Light Moss over Light Bats for the final product.
- Nina was a top student at her previous divinity school
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Character Insight:
Nina is starting to develop ‘occupational suspicion,’ learning not to take the master’s words at face value. The protagonist shows a rare moment of pride in having an ‘excellent disciple’ while maintaining his playful, slightly sadistic mentor persona.
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Behind the Scenes:
The ‘trick’ question about the correct material highlights the scientific method over rote memorization common in isekai power-fantasy tropes.
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TL Notes:
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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