Chapter 129: Chapter 124: How an Honest Man Gets Fooled (2)
The main issue was that his predecessor had been a complete shut-in. He rarely left home, and despite being a nobleman, he’d hardly ever attended any banquets.
Since Robson had transmigrated, he’d spent most of his time on the battlefield and had no idea how to interact with the noblewomen of this world. Still, when he’d tried these things before, the women hadn’t seemed to mind.
Valentino looked in surprise at the Blue Hometown Flower in Robson’s hand. Just as she was reaching out to take it, the door to the Mage Tower was suddenly thrown open.
"Aha! Sir Robson! You’re finally here! I’ve been waiting for ages!"
It was Demmon, dressed in his signature armor with a ruddy face. Winter had arrived, and the front line was nothing like the Royal Capital—just as a Mage’s constitution was no match for a Knight’s.
For the past several days, he had been discussing Magic research with Master Kosen and Mage Falan.
That Mage named Falan had an understanding of Magic that was simply beyond his imagination. Demmon used to consider himself a magical prodigy, but now he had seen what a true genius looked like.
Demmon felt like he had found a kindred spirit. If Kosen hadn’t treated him so well, he might have even considered switching masters.
"Hm? A flower? Can Magic be used like this?" Demmon asked, curiously taking the flower from Robson’s hand.
"You can even smell it. What a novel application." Demmon’s eyes lit up.
"Ahem... so, that matter I asked you about before, how’s it coming along?" Robson coughed, trying to hide his embarrassment.
"Right, we were just... Earl!"
Demmon’s attention had been entirely on Robson. He startled, only just now realizing there was a lady standing before them.
Valentino’s brow furrowed slightly.
"It is of no concern. Please, continue."
"Oh, right. Of course." Demmon nodded.
"It’s about that issue of how to speed up casting time. Mr. Falan taught us some new methods," Demmon said.
Robson had previously wondered if there was a way to raise a city from nothing.
While Robson had raised a few cannon platforms from the ground before, there wasn’t much technical skill involved. Besides, he had to gather a whole group of Mages to do it, so the method wasn’t practical for widespread use.
"What kind of methods? Take me to them," Robson asked.
Demmon led them all the way to the top of the Mage Tower, where Kosen and Falan were busy scribbling and sketching on several sheets of paper.
"This is it!" Demmon said, pulling out a sheet of paper and placing it in front of Robson.
Robson picked it up, and the familiar contents almost made him gasp.
’An Otherworld version of... trigonometry!’
"This...?" Robson didn’t know what kind of expression to make.
"Well? Sir, you of all people must understand the significance of this!
"With these simplified formulas, we can completely streamline our casting process!" Demmon said excitedly.
Robson wasn’t nearly as excited. He certainly understood it. In fact, not only did he understand it, he had studied it systematically.
He had noticed before, when learning Magic, that as this world’s Magic developed, hints of mathematics had begun to appear.
But they were only hints, not a complete, integrated system. It wasn’t that Robson hadn’t considered this before, but regrettably, this world ran on its own system of rules, and his own mathematical knowledge was useless.
’Of course, it wasn’t like he had much mathematical knowledge left anyway.’
"So you’re saying, this is what you’ve all been working on?" Robson asked, curious.
"That’s right. This is it," Demmon confirmed with a nod.
Robson picked up a few more sheets, each giving him a feeling that was both familiar and strange.
’Unsurprisingly, this was all systematic!’
"Sir, do you realize? If we compile this into a book, we could even get an audience with the Tilia Royal Family!" Demmon looked thrilled.
"You fool! What are you talking about?!"
The one shouting was Master Kosen.
"Do you have any idea what this represents?! Not only should we not publish this, we should be securing it this very moment! ...Earl!" Kosen’s reaction upon seeing Valentino was just like Demmon’s.
"Please, continue your discussion." Valentino said, looking curiously at the papers.
"Earl, Sir... I think we must secure these documents at once and deliver them to the kingdom’s Mage Guild. It would be best..." Master Kosen trailed off, not finishing his thought.
’Of course, Robson knew what Master Kosen was about to say: it would be best not to tell anyone, to keep the knowledge only among those present.’
’It was the tragedy of this era—the hoarding of knowledge. Of course, Robson had no intention of publicizing it either.’
’As for Valentino finding out? There was no way around it. His Mage Corps had been assigned to him by someone else. Master Kosen’s name wasn’t on his Mount & Blade panel right now.’
’You couldn’t stop cooking just to keep the neighbors from smelling the food, could you?’
If he wanted to use this new knowledge on the battlefield, all of this was a necessary step.
"This discovery... it can shorten our casting process by at least half!" Master Kosen exclaimed, his face flushed with excitement.
Hearing this, Valentino also grasped the gravity of the situation.
"We can talk about all that later. For now, we need to spread this knowledge among the Mage population," Robson said, shaking his head.
"We’re at war. We can’t afford to be lax."
