Chapter 261: To Move Forward

Gush-gush-gush-gush-gush—

The black liquid that had flowed down through thoroughly purified pipes poured into the rows of glass bottles moving past below.

Thud— Thud—

Whenever the conveyor rattled, hundreds of bottles advanced a handspan at a time.

─Hiss. Clack.

Filling, carbonation, cap sealing.

─Hiss. Clack.

Filling, carbonation, cap sealing.

The bottles that passed through the final stage were laid into boxes, twenty-four apiece. Curved glass bottles embossed with the imperial crest piled up into mountain ranges.

To the people of the continent, it might have been an unfamiliar taste at first.

But taste was ultimately taste, and addictiveness was still addictiveness.

And ‘he’ had the capital and power to force it upon the continent until everyone was addicted.

Unexpectedly, Cola was supplied to the Knight Orders before it reached the cinemas. Knights had become a profession admired by everyone in the Empire, regardless of status, wealth, gender, or age, and Cola was the beverage they drank. It served both as a welfare perk for the Knight Orders and as propaganda.

“……Hmm.”

Hannah Usar leaned against the break-room wall and stared hard at them.

“So I can just take one and drink it?”

“Yeah.”

Knight Royce answered while drinking Cola straight from the glass bottle.

“Try one.”

Transparent glass refrigerators stood in every break room. Inside them, glass bottles filled with black liquid stood lined up in orderly rows.

“Is this stuff even good…… It looks weird too. Like somebody’s waist.”

“Just drink it.”

She took out a bottle, popped the cap off with a finger, and took a sip.

“Gaaagh. What kind of taste is this?”

Hannah shuddered at the prickling sting of carbonation against her tongue.

“You’ll get used to it if you keep drinking-”

“My tongue’s sensitive enough already.”

Perhaps because she was from the countryside and hadn’t been exposed to much variety in food, her palate seemed somewhat underdeveloped.

“Kgh.”

Hannah turned back toward her office, her lips trembling.

Before long, however, she had a refrigerator installed in her private office as well.

Her reason was that going all the way to the break-room refrigerator was a hassle.

Scenes of Knights arriving at work with Cola in one hand, doing their jobs with Cola in one hand, or heading out to the field that way became common enough to catch the citizens’ attention.

Around then, Cola finally reached the cinemas as well.

“……Sob.”

This was「Palast」, the Empire’s largest cinema.

“Sob.”

Reutern sat in the audience watching the documentary「Thousand-Year Empire」. He recalled that moving day at the World Expo, already half a year in the past.

Vwoooooom──!

The Imperial Pavilion of the Expo, recreated on the screen.

The place called the ‘Hall of Light’, which had swept the covers of art magazines across the continent.

“Wow…….”

“……Oh my.”

“Good heavens…….”

Reutern was someone who had witnessed that very first day with his own two eyes.

While countless viewers watched in genuine awe, the film recreated waves of many colors rippling across the night sky.

Of course, it was not quite the same as reality, but it was not very far off either. The emotion and astonishment of that day returned, mingling with fresh wonder at just how extraordinary technological progress could be.

“Hhk.”

Large tears rolled from Reutern’s eyes.

“……Delicious.”

Tears poured from his eyes while he stuffed Cola and popcorn into his mouth…….

In that way, cinemas were completed throughout the Empire.

Small theaters even appeared in the rural villages of the Empire, where fields and paddies made up most of the landscape.

“All right, get in! Today’s screening day!”

On screening days, government vehicles ferried the villagers back and forth.

They sat in theaters warmed by stoves, enjoying hot coffee and bread, popcorn and Cola as they watched documentaries.

……Along with the free warmth, there were ‘things’ that seeped in.

***

These days, the first thing I did every morning was look up and read the ‘patent publications’ from countries all across the continent.

In truth, I barely slept at all. Three hours at most. Around then, my body woke on its own.

Was it pressure, or a sense of obligation?

I’d wondered about it, but I found a nicer word for it.

Responsibility.

Anyway.

As I remembered it, quite a few inventions were clustered around this point on the continent’s timeline.

It was a period when science and technology were ripening all at once throughout the continent.

The creativity that would explode during the course of the war, or after the Empire’s collapse, was now slowly ripening.

I was a farmer who knew which trees would bear which fruit.

Of course, I had Lorenzo Academy, but there was no reason to waste their creativity on things that were going to be invented anyway.

They had more important assignments, so I intended to save time by buying those inventions from the people who had already created them.

The price would be generous, but refusal would not be an option.

That was how I’d bought up patents for zippers, Velcro—which we’d also called ‘rip tape’ before my regression—and various other inventions, then established production systems for them.

That day, however, I’d found a somewhat more special patent.

──「Yursled Patent Office」──

Registration No. 52,189.

Applicant : Pavel Aneman

Title : Linear Polymer Substance and Its Filament Obtained from Mana Stone Refining Residue.

Summary : Concerning a new substance produced by purifying and heating the waste liquid generated as a byproduct of the Mana Stone refining process, obtaining monomers from it, and polymerizing them into chain form.

When extruded and drawn through fine holes in a molten state, this substance forms threads, and retains flexibility and elasticity even after cooling……

────

A Mana Stone chemical that would later be sold as stockings, become new tow lines for parachutes and gliders, and go into mosquito nets and the linings of bulletproof vests.

Compared with the Knight Wingsuits made from extracts taken from top-grade Mana Stones, it was woefully inferior, but it was a far more economical invention.

It was in Yursled.

An eastern country, though not a member of the Eastern Union.

I personally visited the tiny company that used a three-story building in Yursled’s capital as both its headquarters and laboratory.

“──I hear Imperials persecute Merin.”

The company’s president was a Merin. That was why the Empire’s proposal I’d first sent through someone else had been rejected, and why I’d crossed the border to come in person.

He asked.

“You think I’d sell my company to the Empire?”

I nodded.

“Yes.”

“……What? Get out!”

He waved me away roughly, but I merely smiled.

“You know as well as I do. Your homeland, Yursled, persecutes Merin too.”

“…….“

The Merin were a people persecuted despite not being what the continent called a ‘Subspecies’.

In other words, racial prejudice was already widespread across the continent in this era, even outside the Empire.

“You’d need to make money first if you want to save your people. Can you really make money with a company this small?”

“Don’t make me laugh. Then why are you trying to buy something invented by this fucking tiny company?”

“……I never said it was fucking tiny.”

I’d expected him to refuse.

But I did not have time for persuasion.

The fact that I’d come in person was already a waste of time, so I went straight to the point.

“I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse, Mr. Pavel. The material you invented requires greater capital and more raw material anyway.”

“That’s for me to take care of-”

“Korva Bank.”

For a moment, the president’s expression faltered.

“That’s where you took your loans, I believe. You’ve borrowed quite a lot.”

I had no reason to drag this out, and no time to.

“And the clothing company that invested in your firm, ‘Belua’.”

“What are you getting at-”

“I’m now the owner of both that bank and that clothing company.”

“……What?”

His voice rose in disbelief.

I handed him the relevant documents, and the president’s eyes widened as they swept across the pages.

“As the owner of the bank, I’ll refuse to extend your loans, and as the owner of Belua, I’ll press for the investment to be withdrawn. This building will probably be the first thing you lose.”

An offer you couldn’t refuse meant exactly that.

You actually couldn’t refuse it.

Ah, for reference, I’d never heard of ‘Belua’ before. That was precisely why I was even considering turning it into a luxury brand.

A company that hadn’t existed before the regression…….

Anyway.

“Mr. Pavel. You’ve created a miraculous material.”

I told the man who had no choice but to cave what I had really come to say. I kept my tone respectful.

“The residue left after refining Mana Stones. You found value in that black waste liquid.”

Thread finer than a spiderweb and tougher than steel wire. Magic that turned trash into silk.

For someone like me, who owned a ‘very large number’ of Mana Stone mines, that meant the raw material cost was practically free, and the supply would never run dry.

“I know its value.”

I took out the acquisition agreement and held it out.

“I’ll leave you a minority stake. So take this money.”

The royalty was a form of courtesy.

For you who, despite being persecuted, contributed to humanity’s progress and to civilization’s survival.

“Live the rest of your life as a wealthy man.”

I looked him straight in the eyes and added one final line.

“With money, you’ll be able to protect not only your family, but even your people.”

President Pavel lifted the contract with trembling hands.

One, two, three, four…… His lips moved soundlessly as he counted the digits. The sum written there was certainly not small.

“…….”

He wet his dry lips with his tongue.

──Tick. Tick.

After a rather long silence.

“……Nylon.”

The inventor Pavel Aneman uttered a word I’d heard quite often in the not-too-distant future.

“It’s…… the name of the material.”

Acquisition negotiations concluded.

I smiled.

“Yes. A good choice.”

…….

That week, after I returned to the Empire with the Nylon patent.

Leo was undergoing two-on-one training in the mansion’s backyard.

“……Hup!”

One Cadet shouted as he brought his wooden sword down.

“Grrr!”

By the time the sword came down, Leo was already gone.

He lowered his body as though flowing away like a snake until he nearly touched the ground, then folded his front legs like springs.

Swoooooosh──

They snapped straight as he launched himself forward, shooting between the Cadet’s legs like a bullet. His teeth grazed the ankle as he passed, and the Cadet’s legs gave out beneath him.

“Kgh!”

“─!”

The remaining Cadet went for Leo’s back, but Leo simply changed direction without even rolling.

Scrrsh!

All four paws bit into the dirt as he wheeled sharply. While the sword cut through empty air, Leo had already slipped into the Cadet’s blind spot and rammed the back of his knee with his shoulder.

Thud. Thud.

The two Cadets ended up lying side by side on their backs in the dirt.

“Woof!”

Leo snorted at the fallen Cadets and backed away.

“…….”

“…….”

For a moment, the two young Cadets looked as though they were questioning themselves.

“No need to get discouraged, you brats. This dog is already at active-duty Knight level. Your skills weren’t bad.”

Freya hauled them to their feet and was about to move on to the next lesson when.

“──Sir Knight! They say the purification succeeded!”

A staffer suddenly came running over and shouted.

Purification.

I knew which purification he meant even without the subject being stated.

“Get the car ready. Lady Freya, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“That’s extra. You know that, right?”

“Of course.”

“Sweet.”

I went straight to Lorenzo Academy.

Deep underground, inside a laboratory tightly sealed off under heavy security.

“Sir Knight. This is it.”

The substance a researcher handed me was called──

“……Penicillin.”

“Yes. That’s the name we’ve given it for now.”

Before the regression. What I’d read about this substance amounted to its name and a few other fragments.

A miracle drug from mold.

A highly effective medicine for ‘infections’ caused by bacteria like staphylococcus.

Not Mana Stones, not Mana Fluid, not anything like that, but mold of all things had supposedly extended human life by leaps and bounds.

That was about all I knew.

Naturally, I didn’t know the principle behind it.

Back then, as a homeless man, I had been interested in all sorts of things and read quite a few magazines, but deeply technical medical talk had been boring.

So for this project alone, I’d had no choice but to stake everything on the scholars I’d hired, giving them only the assurance that ‘It will work. It definitely will.’ and a bottomless budget.

The Empire’s finest minds had found the method on their own.

…….

“Just as you said, sir Knight, the mold kills the infectious bacteria!”

Lorenzo, who had hurried over, spoke with a flushed face.

Though his face plainly showed that he’d been up all night, his eyes alone sparkled like a boy’s. Probably because he was a good man. This invention was, at its core, meant to save people.

“That’s a relief.”

I smiled as I looked at the powders of some sort, purified and sealed inside glass.

“This invention absolutely must bear your name, sir Knight.”

Lorenzo’s voice was fervent.

“Not at all. It’s fine. What did I even-”

“-No.”

An unfamiliar voice suddenly cut me off, and the face belonging to it was.

“……Wait. Don’t tell me you’re Arman?”

You know, the kid who had built the Mana Stone waterwheel way back when.

Lorenzo’s direct disciple, who had now somehow ended up becoming his adopted son.

“Yes. It’s been a long time, sir Knight.”

At some point he had grown taller than me, an adult on whom the white lab coat sat rather well.

He continued clearly and deliberately.

“The first person to say what sounded absurd at first, that mold could kill staphylococcus, was you, Knight Maximilian.”

“…….”

Arman was praising me with apparent pride, but honestly, it pricked my conscience.

“Many researchers thought it simply wasn’t going to work. Whenever their enthusiasm flagged, you came by and even got angry with them, sir Knight.”

The source of my knowledge. In other words, what I’d done was steal an invention from the future.

“You even supplied as evidence all those stories the Military Surgeons had dismissed as superstition.”

The anecdotes I’d offered as evidence to those who doubted me were.

[During the Western War in the past, a folk remedy spread through one unit whose supplies had been cut off: crushing moldy bread and applying it to wounds, and that unit had an unusually low rate of gangrene.]

[……They were so short on bandages that they boiled and reused them, and among the bundles was one that had gone moldy because of poor storage. Since it seemed a waste to throw it away, they used it anyway, and the wounds wrapped with it actually festered less.]

They were supposedly memoirs containing superstitions like those, but the truth was…… no such memoirs, bandages, or bread existed.

Naturally, because I’d made them up.

“……Ahem.”

I turned my eyes toward the culture vessels and tried to change the subject.

“So, is it finished now?”

“No. This is only the beginning.”

Arman shook his head.

“We need more mold. The yield from the current strain is atrocious. We’d have to squeeze an entire vat of culture broth just to maybe get enough for one patient, if that. So we intend to collect mold from across the entire Empire.”

“The entire Empire?”

“Yes. Well…….”

Arman hesitated slightly, and Lorenzo continued in his stead.

“Mass production is a distant prospect with our current method. We need to find not only new molds, but also an entirely new production process. However…… the cost will be astronomical. More than any project you’ve undertaken so far, sir Knight.”

If Lorenzo himself emphasized it that much, it really would cost an enormous amount.

“……My policy remains unchanged.”

I merely smiled in satisfaction.

Even after all this time, the invention still needed further development.

“There is no limit on the budget.”

I only hoped mass production would become possible before the war.

***

I arrived at the Sentinel Knight Order in high spirits.

“Sir Knight.”

A staffer placed a file before me. It was a document with tape marked [CLASSIFIED—MAXIMILIAN] affixed to it.

“It’s an intelligence report passed along by our network in Highland.”

Highland. Prozen. I had spies planted in most other countries on the continent as well. Spies who worked not for the Empire, but solely for me.

I’d built an independent intelligence network early on. In what I considered the most sophisticated way possible.

……I’d read about it in some novel from the future, and the key was ‘making sure no one knew the whole picture’.

The spies existed only as points. Cells that knew neither one another’s faces nor even one another’s existence. Each carried only news from his assigned area, and that news reached my desk only after changing hands five or six times across borders, companies, and people.

Even if one point was exposed, only that one point was severed. More than half of them did not even know they were spies.

“One agent infiltrated the Empire…….”

I tilted my head as I read the report.

“……One?”

There weren’t many enemy spies in the heart of the Empire.

That was entirely thanks to ‘Georgen’. They encouraged a culture of informing and monitored foreigners themselves with almost pathological intensity.

“Yes. They say it’s a top-tier Black Agent of extraordinary ability.”

Highland classified its agents by color. Black was the highest.

Their organization was called [6th Intelligence Bureau], and it was, put simply, Highland’s knight order, one we’d infiltrated only with great difficulty.

──「CLASSIFIED—MAXIMILIAN INTELLIGENCE REPORT」 ──

Classification : Top Secret

Access : Maximilian

Source : 6th Intelligence Bureau Internal / Reliability High

1. One Black Agent belonging to the 6th Intelligence Bureau confirmed to have entered the western Empire early this month via a merchant vessel. Cover identity believed to be a trade broker of Highland nationality, but unconfirmed.

2. This case is unlikely to be an operation against the Empire. The mission assigned to the agent before departure appears to have been tracking and eliminating one person of interest holding third-country nationality.

3. Target : Terrorist ‘Ilyich’. Highland appears to have been the first to detect signs that he recently infiltrated imperial territory…….

────

I raised an eyebrow.

There was something familiar about how this was unfolding.

It had happened before my regression, and after the war ended, the events surrounding it had been published in Highland as a ‘novel’.

“Keep tracking him.”

“Yes.”

As a former homeless man, I’d had a habit of reading every magazine, newspaper, or discarded famous novel I could get my hands on.

Perhaps the time I’d spent knocking around the streets back then was what had made me who I was now.

~~~

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