Vol.5 Ch.91 - The weight of your actions

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Kaido.” A shady looking merchant approached ourfront door, “Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule andhaving me inspect this month’s batch of goodies.”“The pleasure’s all mine, Horc! Every time you swing by, we get paid andyou get the patents for our lovely little inventions! It’s not an understatementto say how thankful we are for doing business with you!”As you can tell, Horc is a traveling merchant who also happened to have akeen eye for the products Issei and I whip up. He’s basically like our mainclient, that is to say, we get most of our income from this one man (the othermain client is actually Adam, thanks to Marina frequently and offhandedlyadvertising us). Horc’s incredibly well-traveled, having been to Simpletonon multiple occasions to import our wares there. It’s quite an honor to havemade a name for myself by doing this gig with Issei, but a large part of mestill feels like we couldn’t have done it without Horc’s merchant ability.The man’s a menace. An absolute beast. He could sell you a blade of grassand make you fully convinced that it actually cuts through enemies like anactual ‘Blade’, so when he first approached us, I was extremelyapprehensive about his input. I was scammed countless times in the past,starting from that damned merchant in Whitehood who sold Ed and merandom rocks for our hard earned Snairskin, but this guy was actually alright.He immediately put both hands on the table when we sat down to furtherdiscuss business, and he made a point of telling us any important info inexchange for our wares. Such a man was rare in the world, and I can’t helpbut feel like Issei’s the reason for this.You see, Issei really doesn’t hide the fact that he’s from another world. Ithought he’d be a lot more reserved about it, but apparently he’s treating itlike any other field trip. He’d say stuff like I’m from the wondrous land ofJapan! and then he’d start shouting something in a mysterious tongue. Itsounded really cool at first, but it got annoying real soon.“So, is today finally the day?”“What do you mean, Horc?”“Well, the day I finally meet this famed inventor, of course!”Ah, I forgot to mention. Out of fear of me being found out by Adam in someway, I decided to hide my identity by wearing a cheaply made mask I hadIssei whip up for me during our negotiations (even now I’m viewing theirexchange from the comfort of my room’s window). The mask was reallypeculiar, though. It had a white, scary looking face with pointy horns at thefront. Issei called it an ‘Oni Mask’, but all I could see was a bull. Might justbe me, though, since Marina teased how much it suited me.“Nah, he’s still a bit shy around strangers. Give him a break, already, he’s gothis own complex to deal with.”Hey! Don’t make me out to be some introverted beta-male! Or wait, was it‘Beta-male’ or ‘Sigma-male’? Gahh, Issei’s stupid foreign slang is reallyhard to grasp!“Eh, alright. Then what do you have to offer for today?”“Humu,” Issei chuckled while taking something out of his bag, “For today Ihave (drumroll please!)… A flashlight!”“Oooh! And what does it do?”“Uhh, it flashes a light, duh!” Issei made fun of the merchant’s stupidquestion, “Geez, after doing business with us for so long, you’d think we’dhave already reached a point of mutual understanding, no?”“Heh, if that we’re the case then you’d already know all there is to knowabout how to sell off these products yourself!”“I-I was just kidding! Heheh, oh you! H-Heh…”That’s another thing about Horc, he really knows how to turn the tables onIssei almost always. From my point of view, it actually looks like a comedyact, which really soothes the anxiety I’m feeling. Issei’s really not taking thistoo seriously, but Horc is right. If it was that simple to sell off our wackyproducts, then we’d have done so ourselves. Back when I was helping Annaout with Arthur’s in Trivis Numerica, we’d mostly just abuse the fact that wewere cute little kids who were just helping out our Gramps. Now that I’mactually a (somewhat) independent adult, though, I can’t really play that cardanymore.“Whoa! Even during the day, that’s really bright! So, does it use fire as fuel?I mean, that’d only make sense, since you just recently sold me that lighterthing the other day.”“Actually no, this one uses something much more complicated than mere fire,it harnesses the power of electricity! Bzzt!”Issei was trying to sound ominous with that little act just now, but his littleonomatopoeic imitation of electric arcs whizzing by really ruined it all andmade both me and Horc tense up from the ‘Cringe’.“Actually, did you say electricity? So what, you stuck a mechanical generatorto it or something? Then where’s the winding handle?”“Oh, my dear Horc, this is why you should just stick to being a travelingmerchant. You don’t know the slightest thing about electricity, nor how wemake it work! Call it a trade secret, actually no, fuck that, I’ll just tell youbecause without context you wouldn’t understand it anyway!”“Oh? Well go on then!”“Paper and aluminum foil! Stick together with glue and roll it up and you’vegot yourself a capacitor! It’s a makeshift battery! It doesn’t hold much, butwith enough of them connected in series, it does the trick for a couple ofminutes!”“Hold no, just a couple of minutes?” Horc second guessed his purchase.“Well, if say for example our funding got increased, we could certainlymanage a large scale production of actual batteries which could increase theflashlight’s battery life to even a couple extra hours. But ohh, I guess that’sjust a pipe dream, no? What a shame~”Way to go, Issei! You’re really squeezing Horc out of every Shil now! Justone more push and you’ve sealed the deal for our promotion! Don’t fail menow, Scooter Brother!“Grr, fine! If it’ll help you… But just know that if you don’t make this batterything of yours by the next time we meet, so help me I’m gonna…! Ahem,never mind that. How much money are we talking about? An additional 5kshils? 10k shils?”“30k shils.”“Th-! 30 THOUSAND SHILS?!”At this somewhat greedy suggestion, Issei was really playing with fire here.Just one wrong move and we immediately lose our main source of income, soI don’t really like how he’s handling this. God damn it, Issei, why didn’t youjust say 15k like we agreed upon?!“Ugh… Fine…” Horc muttered.Eh? He actually agreed to give us that much? Am… Am I dreaming rightnow? M-Marina, pinch me! Kyah! Not my nipples, geez…!***And so, after some really good luck and enough sound arguments, Issei and Imanaged to fund our little joint project a bit more than what we’d usually begiven. I’m still honestly really surprised at how that worked, I was sure Horcwouldn’t give in to such greedy demands, but it seems like luck favors Isseifor whatever reason. No matter what we do, it just sort of feels likeeverything ‘clicks’ for him in just the right way. Honestly, I’m kind ofjealous, but then I remember that Issei isn’t a competitor, but a coworker, soit really doesn’t matter.“Alright, so what are we making today?”“Hmm, on today’s schedule is something for the Gryses, right? Got anythingthat a Royal Family would like?”“Hmm…”As we pondered about what to create for Adam’s family, Marina suddenlyburst open the door to the inn. She was heaving and her breaths were all outof whack, but you could tell that she was excited instead of worried. Weasked what was happening, but all she could mutter throughout her breathswas ‘A letter… from Adam… addressed to Sol!’ which only further excitedus. After taking the letter from her and having her sit down, I finally read theletter’s contents out loud.“Good day, famed inventor! Rejoice, for it is I, Prince Adam of the GrysRoyal Family! Even though we have not yet met in person, dear Mariabellehas been serving her duty as our intermediary quite nicely!”After being praised, Marina looked quite pleased with herself. Geez, allshe’s doing is playing the role of the mailman, but to think she’s wearing thattitle with pride. I gotta give her at least some respect for the commitment atleast…“Ahem, in any case!” I continued reading the letter, “Thank you for sellingto us the patent for your famed invention, the Augmented Firestarter Pistol(abbreviated henceforth as AFP). As you may know, the AFP is anincredibly strong weapon, and even though I’ve yet to see it in action formyself, I could easily tell from a glance of the blueprints just how strong ofa punch it packs!”Heh, now I’m the one who’s giggling with pride. Adam, you sly dog! Youreally know how to sway people’s hearts, no? Just where was this eloquenceback in the battle of Neo Urbana I wonder? I continued reading the letter, thatis until I read a part that I simply couldn’t just overlook.“Just imagining the amount of territory we could acquire thanks to thisweapon of yours is already enough to make me jump for joy! Those horridCarmenians won’t see it coming! Oh, thank heavens you invented this AFPof yours, it could mow don’t enemy soldiers within seconds!”H-Hold on? Did he say he plans on using it… in a future war?! Wait waitwait wait! I didn’t plan for this! I just wanted people to have a way to defendthemselves against beasts and the like! It was never meant to be used againstother humans! But now that I take another look at it, it could easily killsomeone, couldn’t it!? Oh God…“Heh, isn’t that cool, Lune?” Issei chuckled, “Now we have the Prince’srespect. He might actually hear us out and just give us the remaining moneypaid in full!”“Cool?! Did you not hear what I just read?! The Prince is planning on usingour invention to colonize and kill hundreds of thousands of people! What partof that is cool!?”At this, Issei gave me a worried look, as if to say What did you expect it wasto be used for?“I-I don’t want this! It’s a weapon used for self-defense, not for furtherviolence! I certainly want to be marked down in a couple of pages of thisworld’s history, but not like this! I don’t want to be remembered as the guywho invented a weapon of mass destruction!”“…Haah, if that’s the case,” Issei had me calm down, “then you should’vesaid so from the start. Listen Lune, there is no such thing as a weapon usedfor self-defense. Weapons can only cause damage to their opponents, and nomatter how you look at it, they don’t get to choose who their opponent is. Theonly person who can choose this, is its wielder.”“Then what do we do, Issei?”“Nothing. We do absolutely nothing. This is the natural order of technologicaladvancements. Once something has been invented, it spreads like wildfire,and the flame can’t be put out no matter what. You can try delaying the spreadas much as you want, but at the end of the day you’re still gonna be left with aforest fire.”“No… It can’t be! You’re lying! I didn’t-! I didn’t make a weapon used toharm others!”“You didn’t make it with that intention, but the way I see it, that’s the onlyway it could be used for. Even if you somehow miraculously could label it asa weapon used solely for self-defense, someone would eventually get theidea to use it in this alternate way instead. It’s just how weapons work,Lune.”“I don’t care! I won’t accept this!” I yelled as I hit the table as hard as Icould with my fist, “You keep saying it’s not so simple to change fate, butthat’s just cause you lacked the strength to do so! I’ve changed mine multipletimes! Heck, if I kept staying complacent and making up excuses instead ofacting on my wishes, then I’d still be stuck in Whitehood!”“Oho! Then what are you suggesting we do, Augmenter of Fates?”“Simple. We sold the blueprints just a short while ago, no? From the letter,we can assume he still hasn’t scrounged up the materials for making a singleprototype yet! This means that if we were to somehow, someway sneak intothe Grys Royal Castle and steal back the blueprints used for crafting an AFP,we could avoid having this horrible weapon be mass produced and also keepthe money from the sale!”“That’s quite the crazy idea.” Issei commented on my plan.“Yeah,” Marina added, “He’s full of those.”