Magic tool development

 
 Having been called by Anna because she [wants me to open the lock], I stood in front of the laboratory’s front door.
 
 ”Uhm, if I remember correctly…”
 
 A stone pillar beside the door, at about chest-height.
 I check the crest engraved upon its surface.
 
 ”Is that stone-monument-like thing the [key]?”
 
 ”Yep. The way to operate it has been passed down orally within the family.”
 
 I replied to Anna, who’s gazing at the stone pillar with deep interest, and took a single deep breath.
 
 ”Now then. It’s been a while, I wonder if I can do it right.”
 
 It’s also the first time I’ve operated this [key] since my previous life.
 I’m just a bit nervous.
 
 I place my hand on the Owleyes crest inlaid in the stone pillar’s surface… a plate of magic metal arranged into an owl and ivy… and carefully poured in my own magic power.
 
 First, the ivy on the left.
 
 I let the magic power crawl through the ivy, from the bottom to the top.
 The portion with my magic power poured in, glows a whitish blue.
 
 Next is the ivy on the right.
 
 And then, the owl’s left eye.
 
 And lastly, the right eye.
 
 When I made all of that glow, a clanking sound could be heard from the front.
 
 The front door opened steadily.
 Fuu, I let out my breath.
 
 ”That went well somehow.”
 
 Pass magic power through the designated points in the crest engraved in the plate, in the designated order and at the designated wavelength.
 That was the key to the door.
 
 Producing magic tools requires skill in controlling magic power.
 If you can’t do this, you can’t make detailed magic circuits.
 I really think it is an Ainsworth-like [key].
 
 Having safely cleared the first hurdle, I placed my hand on my chest and sighed in relief.
 

 ☆

 
 ”Ojou-sama, I’ve finished~~”
 
 Anna leaned out the window and waved at me.
 
 Sitting outside on a chair that was carried out and filling in the sketches I’d drawn messily last night, I lifted my head and waved back at her.
 
 The attendant who loves cleaning seems to have cleaned the room in the blink of an eye.
 
 ”… heh, it didn’t even take an hour.”
 
 Checking my pocket watch, I muttered to myself, half-shocked.
 
 Anna may be scatterbrained at times, but she’s fundamentally exceedingly good at what she does.
 She’s able to do everything, from cleaning and washing, to sowing and cooking.
 
 This one time in the future^[1] when I got tangled up with thugs, she subdued a man wielding a blade while she was bare-handed.^[2]
 
 At that time, I asked her [Is there anything you’re not good at?], to which she laughed and said something like [If it’s for Ojou-sama, I’ll make sure that I’m able to do anything].
 
 That’s some heavy love.
 But———
 
 ”I’m the same for thinking that’s sweet.”
 
 Wryly smiling to myself, I went to the dear attendant waiting for me in the cabin.
 
 
 
 The laboratory is exactly the same as I recall from my memories.
 
 A large work desk by the window.
 A primitive drawing board next to it.
 
 On the shelf to the left are measuring instruments and exclusive implements for making magic tools lined up, and on the bookshelf to the left are the diagrams of magic tools made by the successive heads filed away.
 
 There’s not a speck of dust to be seen.
 The bed and the wall are also spotless.
 
 ”How is it, Ojou-sama!”
 
 Anna, with a smug face.
 I hugged her without a moment’s pause.
 
 ”Thank you, Anna! Now I can make the thing I was thinking of!!”
 
 Ehehehe~~, my attendant, whose face loosened, bent down and met my gaze, saying
 ”I’m glad to be of use to Ojou-sama”
 with a smile.
 
 For some reason, I felt a surge of power.
 
 ”Well then, let’s get started immediately!”
 
 I headed to the work desk and drawing board that awaited me.
 

 ☆

 
 For the following two days, I spent nearly all of the daytime in the laboratory.
 
 During the day I would draw up plans in the laboratory, and at night I would bring the drawing board into my room and draw plans even more.
 
 To be honest, it was hard on my body after having been sick.
 But, I didn’t have much time anyways.
 
 The amount of time I was given, was three weeks.
 These three weeks were the number of days that I had suggested myself, but taking from what Otou-sama said, [Stretched out to a month], and calculating backwards, that’s the number I reached.
 
 So, how would I use those three weeks.
 This time’s development process could probably be thought of as such:
 
 ① Functional design ・ Overview design ・ Writing up the Bill of Materials (Me)
 ↓
 ② Component preparations (Royal Capital Workshop) ・ ③ Parts design (Me)
 ↓
 ④ Parts manufacturing (Royal Capital Workshop) ・ ⑤ Magic circuit design (Me)
 ↓
 ⑥ Magic circuit installation ・ Assembly (Me)
 ↓
 ⑦ Operation test ・ Quality check (Me)
 
 Of these, the most time-consuming are ② Component preparations and ④ Parts manufacturing.
 They’re both being outsourced to the Royal Capital workshop, so as long as I haven’t finished my previous task, they can’t begin.
 
 In other words, as long as I haven’t drawn up the plans, the development won’t move forward.
 

 ☆

 
 Three days after having started the designs.
 I was being rocked by a carriage going to the royal capital’s downtown area.
 
 ”Urgh…”
 
 ”Are you alright, Ojou-sama?!”
 
 ”I-, I’m not fin-…blergh”
 
 I opened the mouth of a cloth bag, and hurriedly thrust my mouth in.
 
 Like that, Anna patted my back and peered at me with a bitter look on her face.
 
 ”What time did you go to bed last night?”
 
 ”Fo-… about two o’clock, maybe?”
 
 ”Four o’clock?! You didn’t sleep any more than three hours!”
 
 ”No, that’s why I said 2 o’clock…”
 
 ”That’s still late! Seriously, you only just became able to eat normal food yesterday.”
 
 My attendant let out a sigh, and once more began patting my back.
 
 ”Ojou-sama. I understand your impatience, but I beg of you, please don’t strain yourself. When Ojou-sama kept sleeping for five days, I, didn’t feel like I was alive, you know?”
 
 Anna sniffles, probably remembering back to a few days ago.
 
 ”… sorry.”
 
 ”Geez, please don’t push yourself, ok?”
 
 I nodded in reply.
 
 
 
 While I was fighting my carsickness, the carriage drove into the workshop district.
 
 Contrasting with the trendy commercial ward we had passed through up till now, this district had a rough atmosphere. Hammer strikes echoed from alleys here and there, and the streets overflowed with hustle and bustle.
 
 Giving such a townscape a sidelong glance, the carriage clip clops along, eventually coming to a stop in front of a single store.
 The attendant got off from the coachman’s stand, and opened the door from the outside.
 
 ”Ojou-sama, can you get off?”
 
 ”…yeah. Somehow.”
 
 Getting help from Anna, who had asked me that, I slowly got down the steps, and gradually followed her to the ground.
 
 After Safely getting out of the carriage, I looked up at the two-storey workshop before my eyes.
 
 A stylish stone building.
 The front entrance with a sense of history, with the Owleyes’ owl and ivy crest drawn on the signboard.
 
 The Ainsworth magic tool workshop, the Royal Capital Workshop.
 
 Based in the royal capital Sanakia, it’s a workshop that mainly performs the repairs and after-sales maintenance support of magic tools from our family.
 In the first time I made a magic tool in the future^[3] and needed a supply of materials, I requested it all from them.
 
 
 
 ”Yep, it’s nostalgic!”
 
 Forgetting my nausea in an instant, those words rushed from my mouth.
 Seeing me like that, Anna tilted her head.
 
 ”Huh? Has Ojou-sama been here before?”
 
 ”Uhm… just once when I was little, I guess?”
 
 Anna’s sharp question made me feel intimidated.
 
 Right. The last time I came here, in the future^[4], was when I was a student.
 This time’s me hasn’t come here before.
 
 When I was acting suspiciously, Anna clapped her hands.
 
 ”Ah, by any chance, was that before I served Ojou-sama?”
 
 ”Uhm… maybe, yes?”
 
 Breaking down into a cold sweat on the inside, I smiled as I replied to her.
 
 
 
 ”Huuh?! Don’t fuck with me!!”
 
 Echoing from inside the workshop was a man’s angry yell.
 
 … what on earth is going on, I wonder?
 
 Anna and I exchanged glances, and———
 
 ”Ah, please wait, Ojou-sama!!”
 
 Before she could stop me, I rushed into the workshop.
 

TL Notes:

[1]she’s talking about her “first” life, but some time when she’s older than what she is now. ↩

[2]maid is OP ↩

[3]again, this refers to her “first life”, but at an older age than what she is now ↩

[4]yeah, I’m getting tired of pointing it out. Just use your head to figure out what she means when she says “future”, since technically even I can’t see the differentiation in the raws ↩