Chapter 157 - 157 Humphrey Gaster
Since Steve held a lecture on ghost stories in the Royal Capital, Prince Carter and Prince Alex had come to watch, each bringing their respective faction's entourages.
As they were leaving the theater after the ghost stories ended, Prince Carter and Prince Alex bumped into each other. Their entourages exchanged sparks of hostility with their gazes, but the two of them themselves did not display such a strong sense of conflict.
"Did Your Highness also come to watch?"
Alex spoke first.
"I wanted to see this so-called ghost story once. I finally managed to get a ticket today."
"So you are the same as me, brother. Of the ten stories, which one was the scariest?"
"Definitely the last one. I got goosebumps from the moment the knight went to investigate the lake. What about you, Alex?"
"For me, it was when the story ended and Lord Archibalt blew out the candle. It was hard to look at directly because I wondered what kind of monster would appear."
The way they exchanged their impressions of the play looked exactly like that of close brothers. After talking a little like that, they each returned to their own detached palace.
On the way back, Alex, who was in the same carriage, spoke to Count Cutter.
"Does brother not realize what I am doing in the south?"
"There were no signs of probing in the conversation."
Alex had secretly hired a researcher who had resigned from the Royal Research Institute to conduct research in the south. In fact, he had found a Separation Magic user in the south and had headhunted researchers seeking research results that surpassed the Match.
The researcher's name was Humphrey Gaster. He was a genius, but his thoughts were considered dangerous, so the Royal Research Institute had trouble handling him. Alex had approached Gaster through an agent, offering funds and a location to see if he would conduct research.
On the other hand, Prince Carter had also grasped this information. Also in the carriage on the way back, he spoke to his confidant, Marquess Finley.
"I didn't feel any particular ease in Alex's attitude, so has he not achieved any results yet?"
"We have not received such a report yet."
"When I heard from His Majesty that Alex had poached Humphrey Gaster, the problem child of the Royal Research Institute, I thought he had made a very big gamble, but I hope that gamble ends in failure."
Humphrey Gaster's words and actions had often been problematic, and the Director of the Royal Research Institute had reported him to the King as a dangerous person. If he resigned from the Royal Research Institute, there was no way he would not be under surveillance. Although Alex himself never came into contact with Gaster, it was immediately obvious who the next patron was based on Gaster's destination.
Once the King grasped this information, he passed it on to Carter. The King did not necessarily favor Carter, but if anything happened to the King, Carter would succeed him now. Therefore, the King shared the information.
However, since there was no guarantee that the King would pass all information to Carter, Carter also used Marquess Finley to monitor Gaster independently.
Marquess Finley learned of Gaster's information and despised his ideology.
"It seems to be his catchphrase to create a fire that could burn people to death, something incomparable to the Match."
"Unless it is wartime now, in a peaceful era, such a thing has no value. War may come again, but there are many issues to be studied before that."
Even if it is only for a moment, in this time when a peaceful era has arrived, there is no merit in prioritizing research for military purposes. And if other countries find out about this, it will create unnecessary tension. Therefore, the research of the Royal Research Institute should be something that can be justified as civilian goods. Even if it can be converted for military use later on, he wanted to avoid research that was blatantly for military purposes.
For example, balloons. These can be used for reconnaissance and attacks from the air, but that is not the main purpose; the public reason is for tourism and adventure.
Compared to that, something that can burn people to death cannot be called civilian goods no matter how you look at it.
The Royal Research Institute had given Gaster a different research theme, but he was dissatisfied because he could not accept it.
"Even if one is smart, if they are difficult to deal with, they are useless. And if they cannot stay in an organization, in the end, they are just stupid."
"That is true. I do not want him in my hands, but I would be troubled if someone else got credit for it. To put it more bluntly, a runaway that cannot be controlled is the most troublesome."
"Researchers naturally want to try using what they create."
Although Carter was not conscious of it, his gaze naturally turned toward the south. Of course, he could not see it inside the carriage.
At the same time, Steve, who had finished the lecture, was chatting with Christina and Nancy.
"I was nervous today because both princes were present."
"Is that so? They did not look very nervous."
"Hmm. Your husband seemed rather happy to see both princes being scared."
"It is a ghost story, so I am happy if they get scared."
Saying that, Steve remembered that Carter and Alex were scared and chuckled.
"It is rare to have an opportunity to boldly scare royalty and nobles."
"I think Mr. Steve always scares them."
"That is a result of action, and it is different from intentionally scaring them like these ghost stories."
Looking back on past actions, it was more about instilling anxiety and fear than just scaring them. However, it was not that he thought the other party would be scared if he moved this way. He should not have been happy that the King was terrified. Also, the content of the fear was completely different.
"Nobles who usually do not show their emotions screaming because of your words and magic is certainly fresh, and it is a pleasure for the side trying to scare them."
"That is right. Lord Clermont has visited many times, but Lord Sowell does not come. I want to see him scared."
By now, even Steve realized that they were avoiding it too blatantly. And the reason could be easily guessed.
"They are probably not good at scary stories."
"Even if we send an invitation, they come up with reasons not to come."
"That is the same as Daphne."
Daphne was still not trying to approach the ghost stories. Daphne had received quite a few requests from her subordinates to get tickets. It had become a date spot in the Royal Capital, and tickets were difficult to obtain, but her subordinates, knowing her position as the Royal Guard Knights Commander and her relationship with Steve, were asking Daphne.
Steve was relaying these requests and having tickets distributed to her preferentially, but she had never come once.
"Pathetic. What do you intend to do if there is a Necromancy user among the enemies?"
Nancy was not teasing; she was angry seriously from the perspective of a knight.
"If it becomes work, I suppose they will do it."
Steve defended Daphne.
"I do not think someone who cannot do it in training will be able to do it in the actual performance."
Nancy thought that what Steve said would not happen. So Christina, taking a middle ground between the two opinions,
"Then, why not try it as a surprise inspection? If we get His Majesty's permission and attack with Necromancy during escort, we will know how they move in the actual performance."
She proposed.
"In that case, without getting His Majesty's permission, I will have Daphne use Illusion Magic to create such a situation."
"That is also true. We would have to target when they are not wearing resist magic items."
"That is troublesome."
Since the Royal Guard Knights Commander, who is the King's bodyguard, must avoid a situation where they are manipulated by the enemy's mental magic, Daphne wears magic items twenty-four hours a day. Therefore, Steve's Illusion Magic does not work on her.
"Well, it is not absolutely necessary to check Daphne."
Since the conversation had strayed from the original topic of Aurora, Steve brought the conversation back.
"How to invite Lord Sowell to the ghost story."
"That is right. However, if we force them to get scared too much, I am afraid of retaliation."
"That is true. My sister has asked me to perform ghost stories in the Kingdom of Merda, and since it will be held at the theater operated by Lord Sowell, we could say we really want them to come together."
"Is that appropriate? They might refuse."
"We could ask Lord Leo to cooperate. It seems he is interested in ghost stories."
Leo, Aurora's husband, had wanted to see the ghost stories. However, his wife Aurora had declared she would not go with him, so he had not yet been able to see Steve's ghost stories, which were still extremely popular.
If he went alone and was seen by other nobles, it would create unnecessary rumors, so he wanted to avoid that.
Because of these circumstances, Steve and the others decided to attack from a flanking angle, starting with Leo.
Incidentally, Sherry was scared, but she liked the ghost stories themselves and wanted to spread them in the Kingdom of Merda. She was compiling the ghost stories Steve told into a book and using them as a reference to come up with new stories. She intended to leave stage production to experts, but she intended to nurture ghost stories as one of the cultures. Mainly for her own hobby, that was the reason.
While Steve and the others were talking like this, they had no idea at all that a man named Gaster was researching new weapons in the south.
That Gaster was in the laboratory with Nils, a boy who was a Separation Magic user. Nils was a boy born and raised in this place adjacent to the Kingdom of Merda. Because he was a commoner, no investigation of magic aptitude was conducted when he was ten, but he was a boy whose magical talent was discovered when Alex paid for the investigation himself.
During his time at the Royal Research Institute, Gaster had learned methods to separate substances through reduction without using a Separation Magic user, but since it was not perfect, a Separation Magic user was necessary for the research.
And Alex, having discovered Nils, a Separation Magic user, decided to headhunt a researcher from the Royal Research Institute.
Gaster had not been able to take out the research results of other researchers at the Royal Research Institute as documents, but his excellent brain had memorized most of that content. Among them, regarding the mechanism of the Match burning, he was in the middle of recording what he remembered on paper to prevent forgetting it over time.
At the same time as such work, he was instructing Nils.
Even if one is a Separation Magic user, things that cannot be imagined in the head are difficult to separate. For example, if you do not know the mechanism of plating or chemical symbols, trying to separate copper used as a strike process for gold plating will not work well.
Gaster thought that such instruction to Nils was troublesome, but he endured it because it was for what he wanted to do.
And since Nils was a commoner who had never received education, it was necessary to teach him from the letters. Fortunately, Nils was quick to learn, and he could learn the letters immediately. From there, he taught words often used in research and made him learn through experiments what chemical reactions were.
"Red phosphorus changes to white phosphorus due to frictional heat and burns. You have learned up to here."
"Yes. I can also separate red phosphorus from yellow phosphorus."
Yellow phosphorus has strong toxicity, so it has not been produced in large quantities. At best, it is made in small amounts in experiments. Furthermore, even if there was a large amount of yellow phosphorus, Nils's magic power was insufficient, so it was difficult to separate all of it into red phosphorus.
Nevertheless, it was enough for Gaster to proceed with his research. Once red phosphorus was made, the next step was to get white phosphorus. It was more difficult to handle than red phosphorus in terms of ignition temperature and toxicity, so they would start with red phosphorus.
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