The Devil Is Evolution Catalog - Chapter 830: Matters of the Territory (3)

After learning of the magitek armor’s weakness in the last battle, it was only natural to try and patch it. However, mesmers were a rare breed of mages to begin with, so any defenses against their magicks were hard to come by as well. Adding on the matters of my territory, I did not have much time at all to research this topic with the meisters.

Actually… Ferti’nier told me that she was going to have some trouble finding a solution as well, so I ended up having to delay this problem till now.

And while we were on the topic of being honest, I couldn’t help but wonder if Ferti’nier had purposely left out psychic defenses in her initial design. After all, it was such a glaring hole for the main architect of these schematics to miss out.

Just as I handed over the plans for the psychic defense arrays to the two meisters, that all-too-familiar teasing voice of Ferti’nier rang in my head.

“You can bet your big sis did it on purpose, mhm.”

Why, though?

“Because such designs need to go through an iterative process. Improving with each cycle of production.”

And?

“The situation demanded some degree of urgency back then. There was a threat of invasion, and we needed the shortest amount of time possible to produce a finished product. As long as the armors were able to turn the tide, such a glaring weakness was forgivable.”

I guess that’s true. Even games have bugs on their initial release, let alone weapons. And we didn’t have that much time to dry run these machines either. Everything checks out, but it all seems too convenient…

“When you give them the designs, you will understand why I did so.”

Oh? Is that so?

“I expected nothing less from Lady Mo Na, such intricacy in the carvings of the arrays!”

In the time that I conversed with Ferti’nier, Meister Amori had finished looking through the schematics I handed him. With how excited I was, I was surprised he hadn’t banged his head against the ceiling when he leapt to his feet.

“Haha… As long as it works…” I laughed dryly at his extravagant praise.

Yup, definitely my work… After all, who else could it be, am I right? Hahaha…

The designs were definitely Ferti’nier’s, but I couldn’t very well admit to that either.

“You’re too modest, Lady Mo Na.” Amori laughed along with me. “Ever since the battle, His Majesty had been most concerned about the magitek armors falling under another psychic spell. He even brought it up to me several times, but alas, Lady Mo Na was too busy with her territory administration. I had even given up hope that a solution would be forthcoming soon… but lo and behold!”

“What happened to Lord Mo Na?” Meister Belud couldn’t help but poke at his companion then. “And someone was going on about how Lady Mo Na was no longer the same Lady Mo Na…”

“Ahem…”

Finally unable to take the withering barrage of jibes, Amori coughed awkwardly, hoping to stop the dwarf. Naturally, Belud knew what his compatriot was saying, and knew when not to push a joke too far.

Still, it seemed like the two of them weren’t too excited about me burying myself in administrative work.

It was a normal reaction for the people of the palace. After all, what could be more important than the palace?

It didn’t help at all that I even asked the King for help with those supplies, after having put off the matter of the psychic weakness. That was why Amori had taken to calling me Lord Mo Na.

“Matters of the land had been wearing me out recently, it was only when I had a small window of time that I was able to research these arrays. In any case, I’ll leave the matter to your capable hands, Meisters…”

I cordially ended our conversation. Or so I had hoped.

“Lady Mo Na, these arrays are meant for the internals of the magitek armor, are they not?”

“Err.. Yes, they are.” I replied as noncommittally as I could, knowing that I wasn’t actually the designer of these arrays. That was all Ferti’nier’s handiwork, and she did not explain the theories to me either.

Hopefully, they wouldn’t suspect anything. Not that it mattered; Ferti’nier and I were technically the same person.

“But if that’s the case, I’m afraid the current generation of magitek armors aren’t able to benefit from this new design. The arrays take up too much surface area to be used. We would have to redesign the entire machine… In other words, a new generation of magitek knights…”

Amori frowned as he turned to the dwarf, “Old friend, with the current resources in this territory, do you think you can craft the required components?”

“Absolutely not. Even with the necessary materials, the facilities here are lacking. The furnaces aren’t hot enough, the anvils aren’t sturdy enough. It would be impossible to replicate the alloy we used.”

The alloy Belud was referring to was the special composite material he developed, known as Beludite, version 1.0. It had great mana conductivity, and was the main material for the outer armor of the magitek knights.

As such, very exacting standards were required for the materials and tools. Naturally, my wasteland of a fiefdom wouldn’t meet those standards. And without that material, the entire project would have to go on indefinite hiatus; it wasn’t like I could just abandon my job as the lord of the land. Not even with a royal decree.

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