Mage? Magic Engineer!

Chapter 441: Chapter 438: Onward to the Starry Sky

"What if something happens to the Chief Mage?"

"You’ll take my place," Kano said nonchalantly.

"Don’t be so flippant! Okay, let’s take a step back. If something goes wrong, who can fix it? You’re the best in the entire Tower at Space Spells. If there’s a problem, someone needs to be on standby to help, right?"

Poincare had a point. Besides Kano, the next best was Paulina, but she didn’t have the prodigious talent required to handle the ground operations while Kano himself was taking the risk. Having her do it would be worse than Poincare forcing himself to take over.

Jules Poincare suddenly added, "I think you’re just trying to run away. Run away from this mess."

"Jules! How many years, how much energy have I poured into this project! Success is right in front of us. Why won’t you let me take this final step? Why?" Kano held up the telegram from Rorschach. "Let me tell you, this wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment decision..."

A genuine smile spread across his face. "I have a star pupil arriving now. He’s more than capable of providing support on the ground while I’m conducting the project."

"Rorschach? I thought he was a blockhead in most fields..."

"You’re half right. He’s a blockhead when it comes to Space Spells, but he’s not the one coming." Kano’s student, the one he hadn’t seen in ages and whose talent could rival his own, was certainly not that little rascal. "It’s Caroline."

Poincare paused, then actually nodded. "If it’s her, then that’s acceptable."

...

"What? You’re not... coming with me?" Caroline’s face was a mask of astonishment. Rorschach, the one who had suggested they go back to Valuva for a look, had suddenly changed his mind.

’It’s better not to tell her that the moment she gets there, she’ll be roped into working for our esteemed master.’ Rorschach crumpled the newly received private telegram into a ball. "Something urgent just came up that I have to deal with. Andre has already gone to find Hanna and the others."

"Should we postpone it for a few days, then? Things have been pretty peaceful between Valois and the Empire recently."

’That’s a strategic stalemate...’ Rorschach shook his head. "Master Kano has already prepared the other end of the Teleportation Gate. We shouldn’t break our promise. If I can handle my business here quickly, I can come find you later."

"Alright. You must be busy." Not suspecting a thing, Caroline calmly began the teleportation ritual according to the coordinates from the telegram. Both locations were simultaneously preparing to open a temporary Teleportation Gate.

After watching Caroline get swallowed by the light of the Teleportation Gate, Rorschach turned and left the workshop. He ordered the waiting Andre to be absolutely sure to maintain the workshop’s equipment; otherwise, Caroline wouldn’t be able to return.

"How many of our Transmutation Dust Extractors can we mobilize?"

"Two are under maintenance. The remaining twenty-five are available," Andre replied, rattling off the numbers with practiced ease.

Rorschach smoothed out the crumpled telegram and handed it to Andre. "Keep four running. For the others, use our reserve crystal power and adjust their parameters. Hmm... and under the guise of an emergency drill, halt the affected production lines."

"But that will cause huge losses... All three main factories will have to be shut down and restarted."

"It can’t be helped." Rorschach sighed. "Andre, if your respected mentor asked you for help with something within your power, would you refuse?"

Andre thought Rorschach was referring to himself as the "respected mentor." "Of course not."

"There you have it." Rorschach pointed to a long string of characters in the telegram. "For the twenty-one offline Extractors, adjust their extraction points and collection flow rates according to these parameters."

The Collectors in both locations now formed a sufficiently powerful array. Over the course of ten days, they were adjusted several more times, much to Andre’s chagrin. Rorschach, however, was full of anticipation. After all, this was a project he had once participated in. To now be able to help Master Kano achieve his goal again was a point of pride for him as a student.

’This way, I won’t be the only person in the world to have seen the scenery of the Star Realm... No, no, that sounds way too pretentious...’ Rorschach mentally chided himself.

Night fell. The weather was clear and cloudless, a rare treat. As summer approached, Bayern didn’t have a "plum rain season," but instead grew progressively dry and hot. The transparent canopy of the sky was an indigo canvas dotted with stars.

"Master, the Collectors adjusted with the fifth set of parameters are ready," Andre reported. There was a hint of resentment in his voice; every time they made an adjustment, the monthly output of the Steel Factory, the Basif plant, and the food factory had to be lowered, and the Collector maintenance team had to work overtime.

"Mm, understood. Start them up."

Rorschach gazed up at the starry sky. After giving the order, Andre also looked up at the twinkling starlight.

"Look over there." Rorschach pointed to a small patch in the northeast. As the twenty-one Collectors began to draw from the correct positions, the macroscopic shape of the Transformation Layer Flow in that small area began to change.

Kano’s hypothesis was correct. Poincare’s calculations were correct. All the machines were operating flawlessly.

In the spot Rorschach pointed to, a few dim stars began to brighten. "The stars twinkle for us," Rorschach murmured.

"..." Andre was so stunned he couldn’t speak at first. He had never expected this effect. After a long moment, he asked, "How is this possible?"

"Uhm... uh..." It was Rorschach’s turn to be speechless. The amount of information transmitted by telegram was extremely limited; he had just followed the instructions Kano had sent. Rorschach stretched his sore neck and said, "Why don’t you ask Master Caroline when she gets back?"

...

Caroline was in the suburbs of Valuva. A former secret site of the Alchemy Department had now become a launch site, where three Extractors were charging the teleportation device of a Floating Cabin.

It turned out everything at the Tower of Stars was normal—so normal that the moment she stepped out of the Teleportation Gate, she was grabbed and put to work, making her feel as if she were back in Kano’s research group. If there was any difference, it was that her routine had changed from a two-point commute between the Tower of Stars and the research building to one between the research building and the secret test site in the distant suburbs.

As for the situation in Valuva, she hadn’t had a chance to observe it over the past ten days. All she saw on the road were occasional crowds gathering around strange wooden frames.

Paulina saw her "Senior Sister" again. When she had first joined the group, she had always been in her senior’s shadow, right until that "shadow" drifted off to the north. Now she was back, and she had swiftly taken over parts of both Paulina’s and Master Kano’s work—and was doing a better job.

*Sigh...* Paulina let out a breath and continued to inspect the Floating Cabin.

"Are you going alone, sir?"

"Just me. Minimum payload." Kano turned to Caroline. "After my signal disappears, wait for a 15-minute countdown before you activate the teleportation."

"Five minutes!" Poincare wanted to shorten the time Kano would be at risk.

"If the protection really fails, it won’t even take five minutes for the Transmuting Dust to devour me." At the last moment, Kano grew calm. "Since that’s the case, why not give me a little more time?"

"Then let’s begin," Caroline said, presiding over the teleportation ritual on the ground.

The Floating Cabin’s reinforced Blue Light Barrier lit up. The Teleportation Array, charged by the three Collectors, sent it directly to the highest point the research group’s array could reach—even higher than the current Transmuting Dust collection points.

Poincare estimated from the angle of stellar deflection that from the point the teleportation reached, Kano would still need to ascend vertically for another 23.1 kilometers to break through the flow of Transmuting Dust and reach the pure Star Realm.

The blue light flickered and whined, until there was no longer any medium besides the Transmuting Dust to carry sound. Within the layer flow, the ambient Magic Power was distorted by dense Divine Kingdom Fragments. Kano could only rely on the Magic Power within his own body for support. The jet of flame from the Floating Cabin’s rear ignited, only to be quickly swallowed by the light of the agitated fragments.

Accelerate... Disintegrate... Charge. Having shed the Floating Cabin, Kano maintained the barrier enveloping his body and pressed onward, toward the stars.