The Curse of Being Hated Has Been Lifted

30 – Mana Engine

Logan’s business was generally going smoothly.

He had increased the number of mana condition detectors and even installed one at the back door of the academy. The badge business he had started was also showing promising results, effectively targeting a niche market.

By hiring trustworthy individuals for the mana condition detectors, Logan was able to earn money without exhausting his own labor, and the automated devices in the badge business required minimal effort on his part. Despite this, the net profit he made in a day amounted to tens of silvers, making Logan undeniably a successful entrepreneur.

“What brings you here?”

“Do we need a reason to visit you?”

Logan’s success was not solely achievable through his creativity alone.

Always by his side, playing the role of a good wind catcher, Shohel’s contribution to Logan’s success was significant. But, no matter what anyone said, Redrika was the one who contributed the most.

Without her, Logan would have had to leave his ideas only in his imagination.

Or, at best, provide ideas and receive only a minimal share of the profits.

“I heard a rumor. Did you completely immerse the lady of the manor in one day?”

“I didn’t intend to. She just got swallowed up in her own business.”

Logan sat in front of Redrika, took out a bottle he had carefully stashed away.

“Hey! Where did you get that?”

Redrika’s eyes widened instantly.

“It’s a gift.”

As Logan placed the bottle in front of Redrika, the already large eyes seemed to grow even larger as if they couldn’t get any bigger.

“Do you know what this is and why you’re saying such things?”

“I know. It’s Beehive Liquor.”

“It’s not just any beehive liquor!”

Excitedly, Redrika began to explain.

It was a collaboration between the famous Palera family, known for their honey, and the Edelgia family, known for brewing. In the past, it was produced in abundance, but recently, due to a souring relationship between the two families, the price had skyrocketed.

“You’re giving this to me? It must be worth several tens of gold at least…”

“I knew someone, so I could get it at a reasonable price.”

With Lena’s help, he could acquire it for a cheap price of 15 gold, but even that was planned to be paid off gradually over several months, not as an immediate payment.

“I appreciate it, but I don’t understand. Why such a gift to me?”

“To put it bluntly, because I don’t want to lose you.”

Logan’s eyes were fixed on Redrika.

“I don’t want our relationship to break because I haven’t paid you the proper value, because I haven’t given you trust. This time, I’ll try to make up for it with the alcohol you like, and if you need anything in the future, tell me, and I’ll do my best to get it for you.”

Logan had nothing. He had no proper standing, and the money he made from his business was insignificant compared to what real nobles possessed. In the end, the only thing he could trust were the people around him.

It was somewhat ironic that someone who had lived while being hated by everyone could only trust others, but that was the reality.

“Don’t worry. If I were to betray you for the sake of money, I would have done so a long time ago. If I had used the ideas you gave me for business, I would have made much more money than you.”

Contrasting Logan’s serious gaze, Redrika put on a playful smile.

“If you don’t want me to leave, then bring me some interesting ideas with that clever mind of yours.”

“I knew you’d say that, so I brought an interesting business idea this time too.”

Logan pulled out a document from his pocket and handed it to Redrika.

“It probably won’t work exactly as intended. I’m not particularly gifted in magic, you see.”

After reading the document Logan handed her, Redrika let out a deep sigh.

In my opinion, you might be a genius. If you had a bit more mana and received magic lessons when you were young, you would have been a renowned magician by now.”

“It’s a tough call. I’m not particularly disappointed.”

Becoming an outstanding magician required the perfect alignment of various factors. One needed a sharp mind for calculations, a high sensitivity to mana, strong magical power, and exceptional talent in magical units. Even if one had all these talents, without the right environment to learn magic from a young age, they couldn’t become a magician. That’s just how it was for a magician.

“How on earth do you come up with such ideas?”

The document Logan presented depicted a power source operating on mana. It could be seen as a kind of engine that generated physical force by burning mana.

“I created a machine last time, but I found it a bit regrettable that I had to include a magic circle to generate power. I wondered if there was a structure where just injecting mana could create physical force.”

He continued his research related to this even when storing daily experiences, so the actual development time was approximately two weeks.

“I don’t know if it will actually work. I’ve only experimented on a small scale, and the larger it gets, the less likely it is to work well.”

Mana inherently induces magical phenomena only when powered by magic circles or spells. Therefore, regardless of what you wanted to do with mana, a magic circle had to be naturally included.

Creating a power source with artifacts using mana was an extremely inefficient task due to the larger size and higher mana loss rates of complex magic circles.

However, when mana was not influenced by magic circles or spells, it caused a phenomenon depending on the situation.

‘Rapidly moving mana in a concentrated state generates heat on its own.’

If one didn’t pay attention to the mana in the body, it could instantly raise heat, causing the body to burn.

That’s why wizards refrained from using magic to their limits. If they lost control of their mana due to excessive use of magic, the mana could go berserk, causing the body to burn.

Logan focused on this phenomenon.

He realized that heat could be generated using mana.

The initial idea was to use this heat for heating, but there were too many other technologies needed, and there was also the problem of employing too many people.

‘It would be great if we could convert this into physical force.’

He pondered how to convert heat into physical force. If he hadn’t witnessed the lid of a boiling pot shaking in the restaurant nearby, he might still be pondering without finding an answer.

‘Boiling water produces energy.’

The subsequent design was quite impressive.

After all, what mattered most was the idea.

Starting with small units, I created a device that utilized mana to generate heat, boiling water and producing physical force through it.

Expanding the size later, I came to Redlica with the blueprint for a device capable of generating even more physical force.

“Did you hesitate, fearing I might betray you by bringing such a remarkable thing?”

To Redlica, Logan’s idea was revolutionary.

Though she, being an exceptional technician and magician, could quickly grasp the flaws in Logan’s brought design, the idea itself seemed nonsensical.

By utilizing this method, even if Logan’s blueprint was implemented as it was, it would generate physical force surpassing Artifact-level force by a considerable margin.

“You’re truly insane.”

It was praise.

Redlica immediately began crafting the device according to the blueprint.

As it was her first attempt at creating the apparatus, she could have made a smaller experimental version. However, time and money were abundant for Redlica.

If it failed, she could simply remake it, and if improvements were needed, she could make them afterward.

******

“Senior, you’re really crazy.”

“That curse is truly cruel. Without that damn curse, I can’t fathom how successful Logan would have been.”

About a week later, Logan, along with Redlica, presented the magic engine they had created to the reactions of Shohel and Anna.

“Wow…”

Lena just stared at Logan with wide-open eyes, deepening her gaze.

-Floating away

The sight of the massive machine running with periodic sounds was truly magnificent.

“It’s spinning so fast…”

Redrika and Logan had succeeded in creating the propulsion, but the magic engine was primarily a device for generating power, so they had attached a disc to the outside of the magic engine to make it easier to process with a different kind of force, and the speed at which it spun was no joke.

“Can I try stopping this once?”

Curious, Shoel approached the magic engine, her hand fidgeting.

“Go ahead, give it a try.”

Confidently speaking, Logan handed her the disc…

“Wowww!”

And the disc started spinning wildly along with her.