Absolutely Do Not Touch Eldmia Egga

Chapter 656

The dragon generals, who started to move in earnest while leaving the escorts waiting outside because they were worried about the hassle, were the epitome of speed and accuracy.

To me, it looks like they’re just roughly drawing a ruler, but the numbers are recorded and data is collected. Just by roughly drawing lines on parchment, a draft is drawn, and some of them even go as far as making armor that looks very similar to the armor that Esmuye made for them, even though they’ve never seen me use a sword.

I felt no hesitation in his actions, and while watching it with my own eyes, it felt like I was watching a video that had been sped up several times, but that wasn’t the only surprising thing.

“It seems that Your Majesty likes the things our dwarves make? Even the clothes were made by a dwarf captain?”

“How would your Majesty know that?”

“Hahaha. If you look at this roughly, you can get an estimate.”

Are they really Sherlock Holmes in their own field? The general smiled and glanced at me as if it was nothing, but from my perspective, not knowing what the difference was in terms of technique, it seemed like a feat on the level of guessing what kind of swordsmanship he had learned just by holding a sword without even taking a stance.

I was truly amazed by this, and the dragon general who had been smiling brightly and holding the shield designs with my consent frowned and added curtly:

“Don’t believe him, he’s a dirty racist who says ‘Oh, this is definitely a dwarf work’ if it’s above a certain level of quality.”

“Hey, you crazy idiot! Do you keep making me look like a weirdo in front of people I don’t know?”

“Did I say something wrong? The Suin tribe created it 30 years ago…”

“Oh, that was a mistake, why do you keep bringing it up!!”

Surprise, for a moment I really thought they were fucking racists. Looking at them laughing and talking amongst themselves, it seems like it was a shameful dark history caused by one warrior’s excitement. It was dizzying to think that it was a story from over 30 years ago, but anyway, the warrior, who had finished his work while blushing with shame, adjusted his glasses, came out, pulled a chair for himself, and began talking in earnest.

“I’ve already taken all the measurements… I think you talked to the elder about enchantments on the way here. Was there anything that caught your attention while listening?”

“Uh… There hasn’t been much talk since I told you about the gauntlets I received as a gift from the Empire. They were supposed to create a defensive barrier using the user’s mana or magical power…”

“Oh, I did make something like that. I know what it was, but it probably wouldn’t have been of much use to a race that uses mana like us.”

“I can use magic powers.”

Just a moment ago, I thought the attention of the warriors who were starting to bring chairs and sit around me, as if they were slowly finishing preparing for work, was a bit burdensome.

But that was just a pretext. I realized it too late when I saw the eyes of the warriors sparkle before I could finish speaking.

“You can use magic power···?”

I also realized that having twenty people say the same thing at the same time without making any promises was a more terrifying experience than I thought.

“The old man was right.”

The warriors began to laugh eerily at the one word someone muttered.

◈

What was the sight I had in mind before meeting the dragons?

I imagined things like stubborn dwarves who take the crooked path for a personality test, old dwarves who ask what kind of equipment they should make for such a young guy, and dwarves who tell him to prove his skills in front of them because they don’t care about fame or anything…

“Wow, the magic power is really good! Why don’t you try using this too? These boots have a certain amount of stealth effect if you stay still···”

“This! How about this cloak? It’s an item that protects the wearer from the surrounding environment and maintains body temperature! It keeps you warm when it’s cold and cool when it’s hot!”

“This crazy guy? Why don’t you put that thing away? We finally have a chance to try out various prototypes, so how dare you bring a monstrosity that sucks out mana in seconds!”

Why am I being a lab rat, skipping all that process?

Of course, I don’t feel bad. It wasn’t that they wanted to use this opportunity to test the equipment, but they came with the hope that their work, which had not seen the light of day, might get a chance to be used properly.

As if to prove this, the equipment the warriors bring seems incredibly useful just by hearing the explanation. Most of them are items that have the power to make people’s ears flutter, like a cloak that just came right up to their noses and was then thrown far away.

The problem was the miserable cost-effectiveness, that damn cost-effectiveness.

What is the function of the cloak? In my case, if it’s really hard, I can just pray to the spirits. Even in normal cases, since travel magic tools are so well developed, there’s no need to use something like a mana-eating hippopotamus.

It is absolutely not something that can be used while carrying the serious risk of sucking out mana in seconds.

The same goes for boots that have a stealth effect. If you move slowly, the magic will not work properly and will create a ripple effect, so if you run, it will not be maintained.

At first glance, it may seem like a trivial effect, but there was a reason why he brought it as soon as he heard that I was a magic user. It was an incredible item that had an illusionary magic that could cast a real-time perception-obstructing spell on all beings that approached it and even distorted the surroundings.

If you look at the effect alone, it’s incredible. If I just sit still, it doesn’t just make me invisible, but it also makes people who approach me but can’t resist magic avoid me. How can you not call something that makes you think, ‘I didn’t avoid anything and just went straight ahead’ amazing? If that develops, it’ll be like a training ground that the Empire’s illusionist put in the academy.

However, if you are a mana user who can actually operate it, it is something that even a star-bearing father would not use.

The illusion magic has the same chronic problem and cause that it is not used well on the battlefield, so it doesn’t work on high-level targets. And even if I were a magic user, it didn’t make much of a difference.

The only good thing is that I’ve touched so many things in a short period of time that just a quick smile on my face makes the dragons feel depressed and they take their things and leave.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. You still can’t let go of your foolishness. Get rid of those monsters. How many times have I told you? They’ve escaped the shackles of ‘equipment’. What good is a good technology? It has to be fit for purpose.”

Then, while he had shown himself to be no different until just a moment ago, another warrior approaches, maintaining a proud attitude of ‘This time it will be different’. It was a feast of people whose emotions fluctuated to the point of making you laugh out loud, but somehow, just by watching, you could feel their sincerity and passion, and your laugh out loud turned into laughter.

“Sir, don’t worry about all those things, just look at this.”

The thing that the three-bearded warrior handed over was a gauntlet that reached up to the elbows and had a shield attached to it. It had a structure similar to what was called a lantern shield, but the back of the shield had a strangely mechanical feel, as if someone might think it was a dwarf item.

Even the small, round tube-like thing that had an unknown purpose was attached between the shield and the forearm like a gun barrel, so it was quite heavy. While the unfamiliar sensation was felt as he turned his arm here and there, the warrior checked with his eyes whether the gauntlets were properly worn. He nodded with satisfaction and continued his explanation.

“I don’t know if it’s right to use it in the same way as Mana, but the technique itself is not complicated and is close to a simple passage, so there shouldn’t be much of a difference. If you maintain it with the feeling of concentrating magical power on the back of the gauntlet hand, the shield falls, but on the contrary, if you concentrate it on the palm, it sticks. Want to try it?”

It felt like a somewhat appropriate explanation, but when I actually used my magic power as he said, it wasn’t just a vague explanation, but a simple way to use it. When I concentrated my magic power on the back of my hand, a small amount of magic power was absorbed, and at the same time, the pincer-like structure that had been attached to my forearm fell off along with the shield.

“It was originally a function added for the purpose of easy maintenance, but it can also be useful in certain situations where you have to take off the shield. This time, focus on your palm. It will consume a bit more magic power than before.”

It was exactly as the dragon general said. As I concentrated my magical power on my palm, I felt it connect with the other spells engraved on the back of the shield and find its place. The downside was that magical power was constantly being consumed while the shield returned to its original position and stuck, but this downside was a problem that I could solve.

It was the simplest and most pleasing thing of all the things I’ve ever touched.

“Can you transfer the technique to your lower arm instead of your palm or back of your hand?”

“It’s to make it easier for those who are not familiar with magic tools to understand, so it can be used anywhere.”

In reality, the part that requires the spell is the pincers to secure the shield, so if you change the shield to a magpie, you can definitely use this as a needle. In that case, the vulnerable part may be damaged during the throwing process, so it wouldn’t be bad to change the pincers to a form that holds the shield rather than the gauntlet.

The dragon general smiled with satisfaction at my reaction of looking at the structure while smiling brightly at the thought of becoming Captain Itisel for a moment. When I tried to take off my gauntlets, he raised his index fingers on both hands and told me to stop for a moment. Then, he smiled meaningfully and took a pose of putting his left arm close to his body.

“There’s still more left. Attach your left arm to your body like this… Okay. Tighten your shoulder and spread your magical power throughout your hand. Oh, since tightening your shoulder risks injury, it’s okay if you don’t use magical power.”

And my heart pounded loudly as I listened to his explanation. I felt a strange sense of heaviness in the empty space where there was no place for gunpowder or shoulder wounds.

“Is this by any chance related to this cylinder?”

“You’re quick-witted.”

The dragon general didn’t explain at length. He just told me to do it with a nod and crossed his arms. I suppressed my heart that was puffing up at his confident appearance and spread my magic as he told me.

At the same time, a creepy mechanical sound of “Clang!” and a strong “Two!” echoed through the workshop. And I was truly amazed when I saw the result of that sound and impact.

“What do you think? It’s probably useless in a fair fight or something, but it’s not a bad item as a last resort in battle.”

I wondered where this power came from, but at this moment, that wasn’t important.

Who would have time to worry about that when you have a pile bunker and a gauntlet with a shield in front of you?

“I really like it…”

Even for me, this was hard to bear.