Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 609

18　Further Progress Arc

18-29　Time Difference

The Imperial Palace, in the capital city Loizart.

There, the giant Golems towered over the courtyard.

A temporary roof was being constructed around these Golems, which were still unable to move by themselves.

“Hey, bring it a little bit more over here.”

“The scaffolding there is unstable, so be careful!”

“Alright, now lift it, slow and steady.”

The construction work, which was carried out using Engineering Magic, was supervised by the Magi Engineer Marcus Grinwald.

The large Golems he had built were also being used, so work progressed at a quick pace. Most of the framework was completed in one day, and by the second day, all of the giant Golems had been moved to their exhibition spot on the courtyard.

“Excellent work, Marcus.”

The Empress, who came to see the finished work, thanked Marcus for his efforts.

“These things are quite sturdy. …But it’s a pity that we don’t have their control device. I wanted to see them move…”

At that moment, there was a clicking sound somewhere, but no one paid any attention to it.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Wow, this is your new house, Big Brother?”

Hanna, who Jin had brought along through the Warp Gate, was in high spirits.

Barrow and Belle were puzzled as to how Jin brought Hanna from Kaina Village, but they were already used to Jin’s eccentricities, so they simply swallowed their doubts and didn’t even ask him about it, thinking that they would get an explanation from Jin someday.

“But it’s still bright here. Why is that?”

It was past 5pm when they left Kaina village, but it was still 2pm here. Hannah tilted her head in wonder.

“Oh, that’s right…”

Jin decided to take this opportunity to talk about time differences with Hanna. And, since Barrow and Belle were there as well, to them, too.

He started by using Engineering Magic to create a terrestrial…rather, an “Ars globe”. It was a simple model that very vaguely showed what this world looked like when seen from outer space. Still, it also had a proper support so that it could be rotated.

Then, he set a Magic Lamp to act as the sun to complete his preparations.

“The world we live in is called ‘Ars’, and this is what it looks like, only much, much larger than this. But I’ll use this model as an example, okay?”

Everyone nodded, and Jin continued.

“This here is our sun. ‘Ars’ rotates slowly like this. This half here that’s under the sunlight is currently in the morning. And in this part, where the sun is right above, it’s noon. As the world spins around, all of these parts will stop being under the sunlight, morning will become noon, noon will become afternoon, and will eventually get dark. That’s when it’s night.”

Barrow and Belle were also listening with great interest.

“So, time is determined by the position of the sun. Here, where the sun is right above, it’s noon. And on this part here, which is the exact opposite to that one, it’s midnight. And so time is divided equally all around our world depending on where the sun is.”

Hanna seemed to have a bit of trouble digesting all of that, but since she was a very sharp girl who also studied on a regular basis, she seemed to be following along to some extent.

“So the hour of the day here and the time, let’s say, here, will be different from each other.”

Jin pointed at two different points on the “Ars globe”. The first one was at noon, and the other was at sunset, around 6:00 pm.

“This is what ‘time difference’ is. Imagine these vertical lines… This is what’s called a ‘longitude’. Since this world spins in this direction, the hour of the day changes as you change from longitude to longitude. But it won’t change as we move along the meridian, that is, from north to south. Do you see?”

“Yes, I understand!”

“It was very easy to understand. You said this thing is called a ‘model’? This helped a lot.”

Barrow and Belle seemed to be following along nicely.

“Yeah, Big Brother, I understand why the time here and back home is different now.”

Hannah seemed to at least understand the general idea.

Jin then thought it was time to take Hanna to do some sightseeing around Loizart.

“Then I’ll go with you. I’ll show you around.”

Thus Jin, Elsa, Hanna, Reiko, and Edgar would be heading downtown. Barrow and Belle decided to stay at the mansion to take care of any tiny details that could still need some polishing.

“Feel free to give any instructions to the Smiths.”

“S-Sure.”

Although roughly 90% of the work had been completed, there were still some unfinished details to the furnishings, so Barrow and Belle began to search around the residence for anything that could still use some more work.

“Oh, there’s a gap in the door here, can you do something about it, Mr. Smith?”

“Roger.”

“This part of the stairs here looks damaged and could be dangerous, could you please fix it?”

“Roger.”

In this way, Barrow and Belle went over the finishing touches to the house while getting used to its layout.

“This is the central square.”

“Wow~!”

Jin and the others had taken Hanna around for sightseeing rather than shopping.

The Shouro Empire was founded about 300 years ago, so its history was short compared to other members of the Small Group of Countries. And the way Loizart was built matched its short history.

In terms of design, many of the buildings in the city seemed somewhat angular, making a clear distinction from the over-decorated aesthetic of the Celuroa Kingdom.

“There’s so many people…”

The time was past 4:00 pm. It felt as if the number of people going around shopping downtown had increased as of late.

“Ow.”

While she was walking, Hanna bumped her shoulder against someone else.

“Whoops, watch out.”

Jin picked up Hanna and put her on his shoulder.

“Big Brother?”

Hanna was a bit confused for a moment as Jin suddenly carried her on his shoulder in the crowd, but soon got used to it and started enjoying it.

“Whoa, I can see so much from up here! Thank you, Big Brother!”

“…”

Elsa, who was walking next to her, stared at her with a hint of envy in her eyes.

“…?”

At that moment, Elsa felt that someone had grabbed her right hand.

“We need to make sure we don’t get separated.”

The one who had taken Elsa’s hand was Jin. As a result, she started walking a little closer to him.

Reiko and Edgar watched the situation from behind as they followed the three of them.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

After doing some sightseeing, Jin and the others returned to the residence a little earlier than expected.

After a bath to wash off the sweat and dust, it was soon time for dinner.

Incidentally, Hanna had left Kaina Village without having dinner. Back there it was almost time to go to bed already.

Therefore, during dinnertime at Jin’s house, Hanna had mainly fruit. She understood that, timewise, she had skipped dinner, so she was fine with having just a bit of fruit before bedtime.

Since the time difference was only 3 hours, it wasn’t that big of a jet lag, but just to play it safe, he had her go to bed early.

To Jin’s surprise, Hanna said “You know, Big Brother? I can sleep alone now!” before going to bed.

Still, the Covert Units Iris and Azalea were still watching over Hanna, so Jin felt there was no need to worry about her.

Jin was also tired from having a busy morning due to his audience with Her Majesty the Empress and the round trip to Magiroots Village, so he decided to go to bed early as well.

That night, a messenger had come from the Imperial Palace, but Jin, who had gone to bed early, would not know about the contents of his message until the next morning.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Whaaat!?”

The messenger from the previous night had left a letter. One of the Smiths delivered it to Jin soon after he woke up the next morning, so he read it immediately.

“What happened, Brother Jin?”

Jin silently showed Elsa the letter.

“…Her Majesty the Empress is coming for a visit!?”

“Looks like she is.”

The letter said that the reason for her visit was to make sure that there were no defects in the residence given to Jin, but Jin figured that Her Majesty was probably coming because she was intrigued about how Jin had renovated it.

“…Her Majesty…!?”

“Huh!?”

Even Barrow and Behle had also become slightly pale.

“…Should I have a Golem Maide be brought over here…?”

Unsure about what to expect from the Empress’ visit, Jin thought about asking Laojun to send him 5 Golem Maids from Hourai Island.

“Wait, no, this is a special occasion, so I should create new Golem Maids specifically for this visit.”

It seemed that the Empress would be arriving at around 10 o’clock, so Jin figured he had enough time. And so, Jin used the Warp Gate to go to Hourai Island so that he could make his preparations there.