Wandering Agent
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Machinist of Mana Chapter 70 A Bouquet
🕑 Added 2024-10-11 13:50:53 +0000 UTCSimon and I had to wait a bit to really get to work, mostly because I was too busy to do much more than I was. That said I did give him a few tips on what he should look for in features, and even loaned him a couple of my schoolbooks on programming. The latter would help for looking up commands and useful sequences, but didn't really contain anything groundbreaking in it.
While he did that I thought about some shell designs and how I'd go about making each, along with how I'd do what he should be doing, nothing too specific, just some basic notes. Even so we had access to the shop in the school, and I was sure that we could come up with something really quite nice. In fact I had some ideas based on pieces from my previous world I thought would go over well.
The evening before our day off we had time, so we went to go see Professor Ruian.
“Good evening Professor,” I said as the two of us entered her office. “I was hoping that we might have you look over something.”
“Hopefully not some attempt to make another weapon with my tools,” she said with a frown, apparently it had gotten back to her what I'd done.
“No ma'am, I promise we won't be doing that.”
“Or any other illegal items,” she responded, pointedly looking at Simon.
“No Professor,” he said, looking a bit embarrassed.
“Hmm, what do you need then. Your work in my class has been acceptable, so I don't think we have any homework you'd need help with.”
It was clear that she was suspicious, and that was fair after all. Both of us had caused this particular professor no small amount of trouble, and while I'd heard nothing I was sure that someone had given her a talking to about letting students do things. She'd caught Simon though, so there was that.
“Just looking at making a few small items Professor, would you be willing to look over things to make sure we didn't do anything wrong?” Simon passed over the runic sequences we'd written down, the codes for the items we were planning to make.
The professor took them without losing her scowl and I worried. She'd been so friendly before, so full of joy. Had we taken that with out hi-jinks? I certainly hoped not, she was good at what she did, and making her lose her love of it certainly wasn't what I'd intended.
“These are... not bad. There's some room for improvement in the efficiency, and you need to add some limiters in a few places, but otherwise not bad at all.” She even made notes on the pages where we needed to improve them, and what we might do to do so.
Looking over what she'd written the reasoning was obvious. Simon hadn't added in upper limits to how much heat or light the items he was making could produce, and that was mildly dangerous. They couldn't really explode or anything, since they simply wouldn't be putting out that sort of energy, but they could burn things, or potentially hurt someone's eyes. It was something I should have thought of, but didn't.
“Um... we were hoping to make these tomorrow if you don't mind us using some of the equipment,” Simon added as he too looked over the notes.
“We have a new policy that students are only allowed access to certain pieces of equipment under direct supervision of a member of staff, and you are fortunate that I will be here tomorrow afternoon. She wrote the hours she'd be in on a slip of paper and handed them to us. I'm sure you two understand why such a policy is necessary?”
“Yes ma'am,” we chorused.
A quick check on my part confirmed that the machine shop now had similar restrictions as well. Personally I was surprised, but also relieved. I might be fairly safe to use those tools alone, but others certainly weren't as trained, and it would be a real shame if some kid got hurt. We also got lucky in that it would be open in the morning.
We met once more as the sun crested the horizon, spilling pale light over the countryside. It was beautiful really, the pink stretching across the sky before fading into a pristine blue. There was not a cloud in sight, a perfect day. It was really a shame we'd be inside for most of it.
“You know, you never told me about this girl you were making the golem for,” I said as we left the dorms. “Magical items are nice, but does she even have a way to power one?”
“She's a priestess,” he said with a blush. “So that wouldn't be a problem. We met when I had to go for some healing, broken leg over the winter break.”
I looked at him with raised eyebrows. All the boys at this school were physical magic users and it took a significant amount of force to break one of our bones. Some of us could lift small cars if we were in the mood to, or move at superhuman speeds, so even the least durable of us was still quite hard to injure.
“I'd rather not go into how, it's a bit embarrassing,” he demurred when he saw my look.
“Alright, so you met her when you went to get healed and ended up courting?”
“Indeed, she's so kind, and her face is like porcelain, surrounded by golden locks...” He looked off into the distance a bit. “Add to that she doesn't really have anything nice other than a few formal outfits and I wanted something special for her.”
“Doesn't have anything nice? Goodness a caster of any kind should be able to afford at least a few things.”
“She lives at the temple for training and they encourage a very... ascetic lifestyle. Not allowed to sell mana to anyone for things beyond needs, or encouraged to buy fancy things. A gift though would be fine, so I thought the little golem would be perfect.” It was clear that he was trying, trying to give her something to impress.
“What magical items does she have though? Maybe we can think of something.”
“Oh, so far as I know nothing. She said they issue small allowances for things like oil lamps and wood for heating...” he said, nearly stopping where he stood. “Oh I'm a fool aren't I?”
“At least you realize it,” I teased, seeing that he now understood what he should have been looking at.
“We'll need something pretty though, I'd hate to give her some ugly thing like I had. Hope you don't mind me saying, but I'd like something different for her, something, oh I don't know, feminine.”
“How about flowers?” I offered, I'd turned a few for decorations back on Earth. Tulips were easy, and with a bit of imagination you could even make others. “I could make several of different metals and we could make each like the items your making for yourself.”
“That wouldn't be to hard?” he asked.
“Not at all,” I assured him. “We should even have enough metal in stock. It will be like giving her a bouquet, but useful.”
“Yes, yes let us do that!” He sounded thrilled with the idea.
He was quite excited and so was I as we entered the shop. I breathed deep, the smell of oil and metal filling the air, the sun pouring through the windows. It was an absolutely perfect day, and the only way it could possibly improve was if I'd been able to do this partially outside, like my garage from my first life.
