Chapter 22.2 – Plus and Minus

She kicked her stubby legs in mid-air, her excitement impossible to miss.

“This is crazy fun! Research and development are a blast! Spotting flaws and tossing out fixes is the best!”

Following the helmswoman’s lead, the rest of the crew chimed in.

“Me too! When we’re assembling, I love seeing where the parts I made end up and what they actually do!”

“And me, and me! When something won’t run right, tracking down the busted bit, patching it up, and watching it work—that’s pure joy!”

“Watching the car we built perform out there feels amazing! It’s like being a mine engineer—absolute bliss!”

All five Dwarves shouted in unison.

“Oh, so you’ve tasted the thrill of magitech, huh? But the path of sorcery is deep and steep. Right now you can throw out ideas, sure—but making them real, knowing the exact steps, is still beyond you.”

“You can do it though, Chief! Otherwise it never would’ve worked this fast!”

“You bet! I’m the genius mage and Knight Commander, Gaikaku Hikume! Once we’re back, I’ll draw up blueprints from all your suggestions.”

“Awesome—so awesome! I wanna do that too! Come up with my own designs and build ’em myself!”

In a sense, the Dwarves had reached the same conclusion as the Elves: they now revered Gaikaku Hikume, master of all things mechanical.

“Teach us, Chief!”

“Nah—no time.”

And just like the Elves, their newfound respect slammed into a brick wall.

“Design work starts way back with arithmetic. Then you need applied arithmetic, then mathematics. Drilling you that far is a pain.”

“Aw, come on, Chief!”

“Besides, once we get home you’ll be cranking out parts. No time for study, right?”

“Nooo! We wanna study! We wanna build our own cars and drive ’em!”

Every Dwarf onboard raised her voice in protest.

“That’s a lovely dream. Hope it comes true someday.”

Gaikaku’s words were warm—his brightest smile aimed their way.

※

Thus Gaikaku and the Dwarves returned to base ahead of the others.

Their invention had shone in battle, the mission was complete, and Gaikaku came back positively beaming.

“Welcome back, Sensei. How did the mission go?”

“Total success.”

“Welcome home, Master!”

“Everyone doing okay? Good, good—who’s a good kid?”

Elves and Goblins greeted Gaikaku.

Seeing him roll in aboard the Nine Lives already told them the job was finished, but hearing it confirmed let the Elves finally relax.

The Goblins, getting head pats, looked over the moon.

“So, how about those fire pots, smoke bombs, and chemical refills I asked for?”

“All stocked, just as ordered.”

“Perfect! Love it!”

The Elves who’d held the fort looked slightly miffed by how happy he was.

“…Sensei, we’d like to tackle something more advanced.”

“Let’s keep it pure, honest, and modest, okay?”

“Ugh…”

Gaikaku prided himself on his genius; he needed assistants, not co-developers.

So he taught the basics but took care of the difficult parts himself—and so far that had caused zero problems.

“Elf, we feel your pain,” a Dwarf sighed.

“Dwarf… one day we’ll be first-rate mage-technicians too.”

Two races, suddenly in sync—their hearts beat as one.

“Still, deploying everyone except the Elves and Goblins this time means base development’s a ghost town.”

Gaikaku’s own heart, meanwhile, was perfectly carefree.

“We’ll probably get a decent break, plus the Dwarves got here first… time to build!”

On the wide-open grounds, Gaikaku began sketching his dream city.

“Let’s build leisure spots for every race—boost quality of life. A tavern for Dwarves, a fragrance hut for Elves… Less stress means they’ll endure even more tedious, awful, soul-crushing work!”

To his listeners, it sounded like a vision of hell.

“‘Race-custom leisure facility present… +3!’ Yeah! Plus three! That covers three whole points of misery duty!”

“…If you’d teach us seriously, that’d be worth at least +5.”

“Same for us… probably,” the Dwarves muttered.

Their lives were managed by hilariously rough numbers.

Their tomorrow would be whatever Gaikaku decided—whether they liked it or not.

“Honestly, getting proper lessons from me is worth the tuition at the kingdom’s top university.”

“…The world is garbage.”

“Yeah…”

Indeed, the world was garbage.