Chapter 176 Poor Head
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The girls who had once hovered around Kiritani like glittering moths—now pale, shaking shadows of themselves—had been treated first with the cold, practical things. Hormones distilled from eggs, the morning-after pill, antibiotics. Bandages and healing tonics for what could be touched with hands.
But their eyes still stayed far away.
So Ayumu had added sorcery into the mix, soft spells meant to blur the edges of memories too sharp to hold, and gentle sedatives and antipsychotics to quiet the storms screaming in their heads. He knew, as a man, there were parts of this wound he could never touch. Thankfully, Sashima stayed close by their side, her steady presence softening the air around them, and even Luruna, Rilina, and Nanari had thrown themselves into helping with a kind of quiet determination. Sasami and Cocoa, though… their chaotic chatter and reckless antics had somehow coaxed faint smiles back to the girls’ faces.
And if they were smiling—even just a little—then he could keep working. Maybe, just maybe, he could even admit he was grateful to Sasami. Just a little.
* * *
”Good morning, everyone!”
Ayumu’s voice carried sharp and clear across the field as rows of wide-eyed recruits snapped to attention. “Starting today, you’ll be learning how to use the official weapons of the Keldan Domain Army—efficiently, not like you’re swinging sticks! You’ll learn how to give emergency treatment in the field, how to survive when cut off behind enemy lines, how to scout alone, and above all, how to think and fight as Infantry.”
By mid-morning he’d already hammered the basics into them, pacing in front of the line like a restless storm, hands slicing the air as he drilled into their skulls the absolute, soul-deep importance of building an Infantryman’s body from the ground up.
He was still catching his breath when an engineer came hurrying over, face pale.
”Chief Sanai, may I speak with you? It’s about the new high-output engine for the tanks… the development is not going well. The moment we push the output higher, it explodes. Or catches fire. The upper brass are saying if we don’t show results soon, they’ll cut the funding—”
”What?!” Ayumu’s head snapped around so fast the recruits flinched. “Those idiots pulled the same thing with the smokeless gunpowder project—’It’s a waste of time and money, build something usable now, it’s the nation’s budget’—do they just want to kill every project I start?!”
The engineer winced. “What shall we do?”
”Protest,” Ayumu spat. “Tell them, ‘If the new tech I’ve brought to this world doesn’t have time to mature, you can’t even make things that apply existing tech.’”
”B-but… if you say that, won’t they accuse you of lacking the ability to even apply existing tech?”
”I don’t care!” Ayumu flung his arms wide like he was about to swat the clouds out of the sky. “I’ve already made trucks, cars, clotting agents, and matches. I’m the emperor’s favorite. Who the hell do they think they are to talk down to me?!”
”Please, yelling at me won’t help…”
”And they call clotting agents useless because ‘if it’s an external wound, just use a potion,’ and they say matches and lighters are pointless because ‘if you want fire, just use Fire Magic,’ and they dare question the things I built with my own hands and mind, as if I’m just burning up the nation’s resources for my ego—”
Ayumu’s voice cracked into a snarl, and the recruits were starting to edge back in terror.
”That’s why I keep saying it!” he barked, stamping the ground hard enough to make dust jump. “It’s not good enough if only a few people can use it! If everyone has my safe, easy tools right at their hands, they can light fires without begging a mage, they can save lives even when they don’t have potions! I’ve told you all this a hundred times, dammit!”
The otherworlders and scholars who kept attaching complaints like leeches never seemed to understand that if you built the industry, the technology, the base, then everyone could do things—not just the elite few. The nation’s power would rise as a whole.
So yes, he might have yelled “shut up already!!” at them. Loudly. Several times.
But at least his days were full. Busy, frustrating, but full.
Even if the high-output engine had been officially frozen and he was currently a very, very angry Ayumu-shaped storm about it.
…Those short-sighted fools.
Still, it wasn’t like he was losing. He’d just proven that the southern Keldan marshes—once thought hopeless for farming—could be reshaped by mixing the podzol and peat soils with high-polymer gels from diapers and cellulose from eucalyptus and mangrove. And now they had oats and｜Birene (potatoes) sprouting in neat rows under the pale sun. The government officials had even, for once, said, “A truly ambitious and wonderful plan!”
So, being the broad-minded man he was, Ayumu decided to let that count as a victory.
(It’s not like I was scared when they said ‘waste the nation’s resources and it’s off with your head,’ okay?!)
…Okay, maybe he was a little scared.
”A-anyway! I have Lordly paperwork to do, so I’m heading home!”
* * *
He pretty much ran out of the office like it was on fire.
Back at the manor, he found Sasami and Cocoa crouched over the box of matches and lighters he’d brought back for Ninim, their heads tilted like curious cats. Perfect.
He crept up behind them, grinning, and with a dramatic flourish flicked the wheel on a lighter right in front of their eyes. *Click—fwoosh.* A neat little flame danced on his thumb.
They blinked at it.
”Eh… it just makes fire?” Cocoa said slowly. “If we need fire, couldn’t we just… get a flame from the street torches?”
”Lord… are you maybe… a poor soul in the head?” Sasami added gently.
”…Desuuu~?”
The way they said it—pitying. Like they were watching a sick animal. Their eyes were soft with honest, painful sympathy.
”St-stop it… d-don’t look at me like thaaaat!!” Ayumu wailed, clutching his head.
For the record, he would later regret this demonstration even more when Ninim came strutting in, brandishing a lighter with a smug grin.
”Fufufu… now even without Mana, I can keep up! The genius fire-starting mage Nin-Nin is born!” she declared, striking a pose.
It was… unbearable. Utterly, completely unbearable.
No one—not Sasami, not Cocoa, not even smug little Ninim—would ever know that, deep inside, Ayumu had muttered to himself, *”When people say ‘pitiful in the head,’ this—this kind of blissfully stupid idiot is exactly what they mean.”*
He stood there, frozen halfway between despair and rage, while Sasami’s wide eyes sparkled with something dangerously close to pity and Cocoa’s lips twitched like she was holding back a sigh. The lighter still flickered stubbornly in his hand, casting tiny, defiant glints against the room’s polished wood panels as if it had its own pride.
He could feel the words boiling in his throat, clawing to get out, but instead he just clenched his jaw until it ached. If he let even one sound slip, he was sure they’d start patting his head like he was some poor, broken creature who’d invented “a stick that makes fire” out of sheer confusion.
No. He had to keep what little dignity he had left.
So he simply turned on his heel, shoulders stiff, and stalked toward the door as if he had Very Important Lordly Business to attend to—his boots clicking a little too sharply against the marble floor, like he was trying to hammer the shame right out of existence with every step.
Behind him, he swore he heard Sasami whisper, soft and sing-song, “Desuuu~…,” and Cocoa’s quiet snicker tried—and failed—to hide itself in her sleeve.
Ayumu’s hand tightened around the lighter until it creaked.
…Someday, he swore, they would understand.
Someday.
Notes:
• Kiritani – The class president who takes leadership and questions their situation. A smooth operator, laid-back and calm. The handsome one.
• Sashima – Family name of Hiyori. A quiet, caring girl from the library committee, empathetic toward Sanai. She followed as a Barrier Technique Adept.
• Sasami – Birene girl, small and sharp-eyed with messy brown hair | First in Ch.126 | Servant maid from the slums, does chores with chaotic energy | Has many starving siblings she secretly sends wages to | Bonds with Cocoa as her junior but constantly drags her into trouble | Meets Ayumu as part of the first servant group, wakes him with flying tackles and endless pranks | Unique note: loudmouthed gremlin who hides deep loyalty and homesickness behind mischief
• Cocoa – Birene girl, tiny and round-cheeked with soft blonde hair | First in Ch.127 | Junior servant maid, clumsy but earnest | Orphan with no known family | Shadows Sasami everywhere and copies her antics | Met Ayumu as part of the first servant group, now joins Sasami’s wild wake-up attacks | Unique note: innocent copycat who causes chaos without ever realizing it
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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