The Mob Noble Who Got Reincarnated in a World Where Men Are Naturally Protected—So I Trained Like Crazy to Protect Girls Instead, But Their Love Got Way Too Heavy - Chapter 19: Wiz’s Invention Philosophy

Chapter 19: Wiz’s Invention Philosophy

A few days after Wiz had been tied up with her obligations, this time I got word that Aegis would be absent.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. I was told to make sure you knew.”

The message came from a girl—apparently a friend of Aegis—who’d also been the one to summon me over right before Aegis and I reunited. Hearing that, I folded my arms with a thoughtful little “hmm.”

The problem was, I needed some extra materials today.

Pathetic as it was, this grappling hook project basically couldn’t move forward without Aegis playing the role of Treasury Department.

I considered paying for at least one of the materials out of my own pocket… but being from a knight family didn’t exactly mean having spare allowance lying around.

If I could’ve left the academy grounds, I could’ve hunted monsters for pocket money… but nope, still stuck. Frustrating.

“T-Then! Maybe this time, I can pay for it!?”

The one making the flustered offer, cheeks turning slightly red, was Wiz.

But I grimaced.

“Are you sure about that…? Honestly, I already feel guilty enough leaning on Aegis. And you probably have even less money than she does, Wiz…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! Please, let me buy it for you!”

Her bright, beaming smile nearly bowled me over.

Still, I leaned closer and whispered the actual price into her ear.

“…Oh. …I-I’m sorry. That’s… way beyond my budget. Yes… definitely my lack of ability here…”

“No, it’s fine. Nothing you need to apologize for.”

I gave her a wry smile to ease her nerves.

Honestly, getting spoiled too much just made me feel guilty. I didn’t want money to come between friends either. (Well… Aegis was already a lost cause on that front.)

“In that case, looks like I’ll have free time after class. Can’t really make progress without the new materials.”

As I muttered that, Wiz suddenly blurted out, “T-Then, um!”

“I-I want to buy some materials from the magic item shop and… there’s something I’d like to make. W-Would you come with me!?”

Her face went scarlet as she looked down, her voice practically squeaking. I blinked at her sudden outburst, then just shrugged and grinned.

“Sure thing. You don’t have to stress over it so much, Wiz. For something like that, I’ll tag along anytime.”

When I said it with an easy laugh, Wiz’s face crumpled into this strange mix of tears and a smile.

“Y-Yes! I knew it… Tect really is my angel…!”

…Angel? Seriously?

And so, after class…

The two of us headed off together to the magic item shop Wiz had been eyeing.

Walking side by side through the streets, Wiz was stiff as a board the whole way—honestly, it was kind of funny. But the moment we stepped inside the shop, her energy exploded.

“I don’t recognize that material. What’s it for?”

“This one? Oh, that’s a roasted lizard. If you feed it to reptile-type monsters before finishing them off, the quality of the harvested material goes up. Very cost-efficient.”

“And this?”

“That’s blood oak heartwood. It’s tough, so it’s often used to make staves. It also boosts magic related to blood. In fact, it’s one of the components in the Blood Rose staff.”

“Huh… impressive.”

I couldn’t help being impressed. I prided myself on knowing a lot about materials thanks to all my own crafting, but it seemed Wiz’s knowledge went even deeper.

“…Whoa, the quality’s amazing… but the price is brutal…”

Wiz muttered to herself as she stared down the expensive materials, clearly torn between desire and common sense.

Seriously… a picture-perfect refined beauty on the outside, yet on the inside she was a total tinkering nerd. Talk about unfair character traits.

“By the way, Wiz—what exactly are you trying to make?”

Come to think of it, she hadn’t said. When I asked, Wiz froze like a deer in headlights.

“…What’s wrong?”

“A-Ah, um, it’s not like I, uh, made up an excuse just to invite you out because I wanted this to be a, um, d-d-date or anything like that, no!”

She flailed wildly, words tripping over themselves in panic.

“I-I want to make… a chimera!”

And then she suddenly dropped a bombshell.

“…A chimera…?”

I frowned, tilting my head.

Chimeras. Monsters that sometimes appeared in dungeons—though among certain mages, they were also created as substitute familiars.

“Y-Yes! Yes!”

Her eyes were practically spinning as Wiz hurriedly continued.

“T-The thing is, during the recent Bloodline Council, they asked me what my next invention would be! They kept pressing and pressing! And so! Um! Well, I-I… sorry…”

“Wiz, don’t apologize. Have some confidence.”

…What exactly was she apologizing for just now?

“But I see. A chimera, huh… chimera…”

I repeated the word to myself, rolling it over in my head.

Chimeras. Definitely not something I had zero interest in. Actually, the opposite—I was very interested.

But there was one major thing on my mind.

“Uh, Wiz? You do realize chimera creation deals with life itself, right? What about ethics?”

“…E-Ethics…?”

“Oh—do you not know the word?”

For a second, I thought maybe this world didn’t even have the concept. But then Wiz gave me a conflicted look and said,

“No, I know what it means. It’s just… in our bloodline, we’re taught to set ethics aside. So I never really gave it much thought…”

“Right. I almost forgot—you come from a long line of mad scientists.”

I sighed, pressing a hand to my forehead.

Generations of mad scientists? How did that even work? Usually, mad scientists don’t exactly thrive long enough to pass down their madness like some kind of family business.

“C-Chimera tinkering is fun, you know! Won’t you try it with me? Creating your ideal monster is super exciting! And sometimes when you dissect them, you discover the most unexpected things!”

Wiz, sounding almost desperate, was basically suggesting we mess around by creating life for fun.

Quietly, I thought to myself: this girl is completely insane.

I didn’t say it out loud, of course. But honestly, this was a world where an entire bloodline of mad-scientist girls had spent generations happily churning out chimeras.

So maybe, yeah… here, making a chimera as a hobby actually counted as “normal.”

I gave a small nod.

“Alright, yeah. I don’t know the first thing about chimeras anyway… so let’s do it.”

“R-Really!?”

Her face lit up instantly as she leaned in close. 

Whoa—too close. 

Her face was way too good-looking. An oblivious beauty type… who also happened to be a mad scientist.

“Y-Yeah, really. So… how do you make a chimera?”

“Well, first you prepare the meat of some base animal. Then you offer it monster materials you want to combine, along with some mana. That’s basically it.”

“Huh, simpler than I expected. So… what’s a good combo?”

“Let’s see…”

Wiz thought for a moment, then casually picked up a material—a snake’s shed skin, from the looks of it.

“Chimeras with snake tails are pretty classic, right?”

“Ah, I get it. So that’s the idea.”

“Exactly.”

Following her lead, I reached out and picked a material of my own.

“What about something like… powdered unicorn horn? If we use it as a material, maybe we could borrow some of the unicorn’s strength or something?”

“Ah, yes! Exactly like that! Tect, you have great instincts!”

Wiz nodded eagerly, and I couldn’t help puffing up a little with pride at the praise.

“Alright then, how about slime mucus for extra defense?”

“Perfect! Then I’ll add… the quills of an electric mouse, to charge up the slime’s mucus!”

“Ohhh! That sounds crazy strong! In that case, I’ll throw in something simple but tough—like this weird crustacean shell I found!”

“Nice idea! Then next… oh! Salamander scales for this cheap!? This is a bargain, a total steal!”

“Alright, let’s add those too!”

The two of us got way too into it, grabbing as many materials as our budget could handle.

Time flew by, and before we knew it, evening had fallen. We strolled through the lower town, bags stuffed and spirits soaring, until we spotted an open lot—perfectly empty, the kind of place where summoning a chimera wouldn’t cause a disaster.

Our excitement was already sky-high, so we didn’t hesitate for a second. This was it! Time for the ritual.

Wiz carefully drew the magic circle while I placed the materials inside in just the right arrangement. Once everything was ready, Wiz put on a solemn expression and began chanting the chimera crafting spell.

At the center of the circle, magical smoke rose up, sparks of lightning crackling wildly through it.

What kind of chimera would appear? With the ultimate mix of materials we’d chosen, what kind of monster would be born!?

The smoke cleared, and finally, proudly revealed was—

“Mokkosu.”

The strange chimera let out some bizarre cry.

“…”

Both Wiz and I stared at it, our faces utterly blank.

“…Wiz.”

“…Yes, Tect?”

“What… is this… thing?”

“I don’t know…”

Its appearance was beyond bizarre.

Honestly, I couldn’t even begin to describe it. All I could tell was that it was drenched in slime and poison, half-melting and falling apart as it stood.

Seriously, what the hell had we created?

“…Uh, Wiz. I mean, sure it’s a failure, but don’t let it get you down…”

Trying at least to comfort her, I searched for words. But Wiz just blinked at me in surprise.

“Eh? W-Why are you comforting me right now…?”

“Because… well, we put all that effort into making a chimera, and it turned out to be a total mess.”

When I explained, Wiz shook her head firmly.

“No, no, Tect! That’s the whole point! The failures are what make this fun!”

“…Huh?”

I was left dumbfounded. Wiz, however, leaned closer to the chimera with a bright spark in her eyes. She picked up a stick from the ground and started pointing at its features like an overexcited lecturer.

“Look closely! See how most of this chimera’s body is just slime mucus? But then, right there—you can see a snake’s head sticking out, right? And from its fangs, the venom is oozing out?”

“Y-Yeah… now that you mention it.”

I nodded at her explanation. Sure enough, a tiny snake’s head poked out from the mass of slime, its dripping fangs steadily leaking poison.

“But look here—see the horn sprouting out? That’s probably the unicorn horn. When the poison touched it, part of it got purified into water. In other words, venom-based materials don’t mix well with unicorn horns.”

“Ohh, yeah, you’re right.”

I’d heard before that unicorn horns had purifying effects, but actually seeing it happen right in front of me hit way harder than just rumors.

“And the leftover poison? When it touched the slime, the slime’s mucus started to melt. That proves slimes are weak against venom.”

“True… though I thought some slimes already carried poison, so I figured they’d actually be a good match.”

“I think it’s because the electric mouse material bonded with the slime and gave it an electric property. Slimes aren’t good at handling multiple attributes at once.”

“Heh… I see. And now the purified water is shorting out the electric charge.”

“And on top of that, the salamander fire got extinguished by the water too.”

So yeah… basically, this chimera was a complete disaster.

“M-M-M-Mokkosu…”

The strange creature, lacking even a shred of will, finally melted away. The slime dissolved under its own venom, dragging everything else down with it until the whole thing collapsed into nothing.

Wiz, however, nodded in total satisfaction.

“See? If you just throw random parts together without thinking, you get a worthless chimera. But that doesn’t mean it was a waste.”

“Yeah… even this one failure gave us a ton of useful info.”

Interesting, I thought. Looking at it from the perspective of monster material compatibility, there was still plenty of room to upgrade my weapons. It was a failure, sure—but a failure that came packed with valuable lessons.

The more I thought about it, the more ideas started bubbling up in my head. A feeling of possibility, of inspiration spreading outward, filled me.

That thrill of having my curiosity set on fire. Slowly, I felt the corners of my mouth curl up.

“I see… yeah, I get it. …Chimera-making is actually kinda fun, isn’t it…!?”

“Tect, so you do understand the joy of it…!”

Sure, it felt like a shady hobby—definitely not one you’d proudly advertise to the world. But honestly, it was way more stimulating than I expected. I could totally see myself doing this again.

Wiz nodded firmly.

“That’s why I say ‘failure is fun.’ More than just ignoring ethics, this is actually one of the most important teachings passed down in the Archmage Scholar bloodline.”

She gazed at the collapsed, self-destructed chimera with something almost like affection in her eyes.

I turned to her and said,

“Let’s make another one sometime. Next time, we’ll plan it out properly.”

“Yes! Let’s do it! Yes!”

Under the warm evening glow, the two of us chatted cheerfully as we walked home.

Our time together was still short, but in that moment, I felt like I’d come to understand Wiz just a little bit better.