01.44 - Knights And Magic

I was, in fact, very sure about my planned Standard Knight modifications.

The list was indeed rather long and unconventional:

* Improved muscle fibers.

* Adaptive, transmutation based armor.

* Fire- and Wind-Spell fueled special thrusters for additional mobility.

* Alchemically enhanced pseudo nerve fibers for increased reactivity.

* Arcane imbued blades with special ultrasonic modulation spells to increase the sharpness.

* And a good number of minor substitutions and modifications.

Suffice to say, proofs of principle, prototypes, and final integration tests were in order.

All of that would take time, and I could not personally oversee everything.

There was the regular school time, dates with Lucy, private duels with some of her wannabe suitors, and official matches for the knight rankings I had to participate in.

Luckily, Tia had a lot of free time.

There were some regular meetups with Ryu, Akatsuki, and Dawn, some of which I took part in, but most of which overlapped with my new schedule.

I had introduced Ryu to Lucy and gotten her help to allow him to work with Tia and spend some time in the Knight workshops. He had reached Silver rank on his own and was en route to officially enter officer school on my recommendation next year.

The few nights I didn’t spend with Lucy or studying on my own were consumed by the rest of the family and helping bring order to the underworld. Not all of the ‘Fallen’ were acting benign and following orders. They understandably held grudges against the former heads, who up until now, had mostly submitted to our interference. But the true reform was far from over.

As for the Standard Knight modifications, progress was slow and unsteady.

There were some serious issues with the improved muscle fibers and adaptive, transmutation based armor in particular.

I had spent the last few weeks trying to outsource the search for the solution to Hermes, Isabella, and Geber.

Today, Hermes presented their first samples to Tia, a few mechanics, the head Knightsmith, and me. We met right in the Knightsmith workshop. With my Custom Standard Knight’s parts hanging from individual frames and pulleys, disassembled to the core.

“We made a number of changes to the overall muscle fiber structure,” Hermes said. “Mom… I mean, Isabella and Geber managed to increase the endurance of the contractions by nearly an order of magnitude, but…”

“But what?” Tia asked before I had the chance to do so.

“They are way slower,” Hermes said. “I, on the other hand, managed to develop a very fast twitch fiber that can apply much more force for a short duration.”

“But they are incompatible, right?” the head Knightsmith asked.

“Yes, they work on mutually exclusive architectures,” Hermes said. “What makes one work is fundamentally opposed to the other, and vice versa.”

“Told you,” the head Knightsmiths said. “I’ve been in this business for longer than the current Elden Lord’s reign. This was a fool's errand from the start.”

“But…” Hermes said.

“No buts, kid,” the head Knightsmith said.

“They are both way better than the default,” Hermes insisted. “We’ve tried a mix of the two. Seventy/thirty. They fit with the specifications, they just take more Energy.”

“And that’s where your plan falls apart,” the head Knightsmith said. “Standard Knight’s have been optimized for centuries. You can’t just switch in parts that consume more and expect everything else to stay the same.”

“I already told you Energy is no issue,” I said annoyed. “Multiple times.”

“Wippersnapper,” the head Knightsmith said. “You might be able to pull that off in a practice fight, but we are meant to prepare you for real battles.”

“Goddamn,” I snipped back. “I can handle it. Could you just do your job?”

“Meh,” he said with a shrug. “True, we are paid to work, not complain. But don’t blame us when this blows up in your face. Boy.” He said as he grabbed the blueprints and samples Hermes had provided back to the work station besides the disassembled Standard Knight.

“So, with that done, what about the adaptive armor?” Tia asked.

“We’ve managed to make it work with tiny transmutation circles embedded in the structure,” Hermes said. “It took a bit of tinkering, and drains a lot of Energy too, but I am sure Dad can make it work. We had Ryu damage a couple of sample platings and…”

“Reminds me, where the hell is Ryu?” Tia interrupted him.

“Ah crap,” I said.

“What?” Hermes asked.

“Too late now,” Tia said after reading my train of thoughts and looking at a nearby clock. “It's way past three already.”

“Oh,” I said after I heard footsteps from beyond the workshop's entry gates. “I think that’s them.”

I had a duel scheduled for two o’clock. Well, more like three, but who is counting? They weren’t a threat, the whole thing was just a formal duty and an annoyance.

“Yo! Thought I’d find all of you here,” Ryu said as he led the challengers my way. “Hope you don’t mind the company.”

The three challengers arrived visibly annoyed.

“Morgenlicht,” one said. “You were supposed to face us over an hour ago. Got cold feet?”

“We’re willing to accept your surrender,” another said.

“One of us would be better suited for the queen of blades anyway, and I…” the third began.

“Not happening," I cut him off.

Lucy, a queen of blades? Gimme a break. Kids these days came up with the dumbest nicknames. But if they came for a zerg rush, who was I to oppose?

“Know what?” I said with annoyance and bravado. “Let’s make this a quick three on one and be done with it.”

“Now he’s lost it,” the head Knightsmith said, while shaking his head, after returning from a quick chat with the mechanics. “Those two are the number two and three of the seniors, and the other guy is ranked first among the third years.”