Chapter 22 – Mana-comm (Aria’s POV)
Dad’s response arrived, and he said he’ll visit the capital next Sunday. There was not enough time left for me to send another letter and ask him to bring Letty with him. All I can do is hope that he brings her along with him today.
Beatrice has been really quiet. Although I fed the mole all sorts of information to bait her, she didn’t make a single move. Why is she still keeping an eye on me if she doesn't want to meddle with me?
If there is someone who has profited from this farce, it is the mole guy. He earned quite a good amount, working for both of us.
Whatever it is, it’s good that she isn’t creating any trouble.
Meanwhile, Sophia has been a dear. She invites me to lunch from time to time, and I have a great time with her. There is just something about her that reminds me of Letty. Yes I know, they’d both endure my ramblings for hours without complaining, hehe.
And her physique is quite similar to Letty’s, except for the white hair, of course. I guess that’s the reason I have a soft spot for her in my subconscious.
Somehow, she changed a lot after unlocking her class, she speaks very fluently and doesn’t stammer, unlike before. I take it that her class is influencing her personality to make her an ideal businesswoman.
But I didn’t notice any such change in myself, I am still the same as the day I awakened. I wonder when I’ll level up to level 3 and gain my first skill. I can’t wait.
I think she could work together with me on my future projects. There are so many ways I can think of to make money, her businesswoman class will surely be helpful, if she wants to join hands with me.
That’s a talk for the future though. For the time being, I should get ready to see Dad at the same mansion that we stayed at previously.
***
“Welcome Dear, Dad was so excited to meet her sweetheart. You have grown a bit since then. How are you?”
“I’m doing good, Dad. But where is Letty? Don’t tell me you didn’t bring her along”, I asked, while searching left and right to check if she was here.
“Your Mom asked me not to bring her, she said that girl would definitely try to stay here with you, if given the opportunity. It’s best for her to stay there with your mother. You know she has been hard at work too”
“I see, it’s a shame, but it’s for the best I guess” I said, disappointment leaking from my tone.
“Now don’t make such a face, I was just kidding. How can I not bring her here? If she knew that I visited you behind her back, she might just start spilling my secrets to you mom. And that would be disastrous”, he looked at a pillar and yelled, “Come on out, Kid. Your friend has arrived”
Hearing his words, Letty dashed out from the pillar and lept on me for a hug.
Thank God she isn’t heavy.
Hah, I missed her so much..
We stayed in that position for a moment before realizing all the gazes aimed at us.
I broke up our sweet hug.
“How have you been, Letty? I missed you so much”
“I missed you too, Aria. And I’m doing great. You will have to wait till you return home for the surprise, I won’t tell you even if you ask me”, I missed this voice so much.
“Hehe, fair enough”
“I know that you two are happy to see each other, but you don’t have a lot of time, Babygirl”, dad spoke, as a matter of fact.
“Yes, I have to return before curfew, or else I’d receive a detention and lose the privilege of skipping classes. Sorry Letty, I won’t be able to spend time with you today”,
“I know, Aria. Sir Baron warned me about this, before we left. I am content with being able to see you”
“Aww, my Letty is the cutest! Just wait for a few months, and we’ll be able to talk everyday. It’d be awesome!”
Turning to Dad, I said, “ Let’s talk about the matter you came here for”
“Yes, I know you must have a lot of questions. Let’s head inside first”
After moving into a guest room,
“Dad, what was Mr. Lewis saying? Are you the secret prince of the emperor?” I cut to the chase.
“I understand that Lewis’s words must have confused you. While your assumption is incorrect, you weren’t far off”, he put his hand under his jacket and pulled out some sort of insignia.
“What I am going to reveal to you is a top secret, and this is known by very few people in the whole empire, which includes the king, the emperor and a few acquaintances”
“Do you recognise this symbol?”, he asked, handing me the insignia.
“It’s… the insignia of the royal family of the great empire of Bregonia, of which our Carnia kingdom is a part of. Don’t tell me…”
“Your mother’s full name is Princess Martha, the illegitimate daughter of the emperor of Bregonia. Your maternal grandmother was the secret lover of the emperor, so upon the birth of your mother, he took your mother and grandmother to the palace despite the repercussions. She faced severe torment during her time in the palace under the emperor’s nose, until she got fed up and ran from home”
Oh my God! He dropped a bombshell. My mother is a princess of the whole empire!
Then why is she here?
What is happening?
“Hard to believe, isn’t it?” he asked.
“How?” was all I could manage.
“Well, your mother just took off from the palace and wandered around the empire until I met her and started chasing after her”, he took a pause.
“At that time, I figured she was some noble running away from a political marriage. So after getting rejected for a petty reason such as ‘my father would kill you’, I kept pestering her until she fell for me”
“It was after this that she revealed the truth that she is a runaway princess. She thought I’d give up at this point. But instead, I traveled to the empire’s capital, arranged a meeting with the emperor. I keep telling you, the power of money is no joke. Anyway, I asked the emperor for her hand in marriage” He took another pause.
“Wow, Dad! You went to such lengths for your love”, the respect in my heart for dad is skyrocketing.
“Well… he still rejected me and threatened to kill my whole family if I didn’t return the supposedly ‘kidnaped’ princess. But the next day, your mother cleared up the misunderstanding and exposed all the years of her torment. She threatened him that she’d commit an unspeakable act, if she wasn’t allowed to marry me” he said, while tightening his chest.
“In the end, the emperor agreed, and we secretly married with his blessings. And that’s my dear, how I scored your beautiful mother”
This is straight out of a rom-com novel, Gosh! The princess and the protagonist fall in love at first sight, then the princess says ‘I can’t be with you my love, forgive me’, then the protagonist does something heroic to gain the king’s approval.
What a cliche.
“You both were really cool. But why did you hide it from me?”
“It’s your mother, she hates her previous family. So she didn’t feel the need to tell you”
“I see. It’s alright, but you should have at least told me after I told you about my past life”, I said.
“I’m sorry. We should have told you earlier”
“Alright. Now I see why the king can’t use force against us” I said.
“Be that as it may. I still have to follow the law. If I broke the laws, I wouldn’t be treated any differently. No matter who my father in law is” he pointed towards the insignia in my hand, “ But this keeps the king in check, so he can’t force us for anything against the empire’s law”
“So the solution to your problem is simple, just create your company under my subsidiary and present your research as a service. This way, you can refuse to share your trade secrets with the state, apply for a mana-stone loan. And when it’s running, charge a little amount for each connection. So after you’ve paid off your loan, you will be free to share your knowledge however you please” he continued.
“Yes! This solves all of my problems. Let me show you the prototype real quick, I have already prepared someone at the academy to speak”
I brought out the prototype.
“Hold it like this in your hand, and send you mana through it”, he did as I asked.
“Now, think about this id, ‘test 5.02’, that’s the unique id for the other device. And channel your mana through this part here. Once the connection is established, you will start hearing the person on the other side”
“Hello sir, is the connection established?” came the voice of Mr. Lewis.
“Incredible! My daughter is such a genius. How is this happening? I am beyond speechless”, Dad started rambling.
“She is indeed, old friend. How have you been?”, came from the device.
“Don’t call me that, you are no more than an unwanted acquaintance”, Dad replied.
Expecting my words, he said,
“He is the one who introduced me to my personal knight, Sir Nicol. My most trusted aid. He poked his nose where it didn’t belong to figure out your mother’s secret”
“Oh, I see”
After that, Dad explained to me the process of establishing a company, and he will take care of it for now.
So all I have to do is finish the product, and we’ll be all set.
After bidding my goodbyes, I returned to the dorms.
***
After another three months of researching, we figured out a way to manufacture the repeaters using low grade mana-stones. The professor asked his top students for help, one of them had a skill that allowed him to form a secure connection using low-grade mana stones.
And all of a sudden, this project was no longer a dream. It was functional and attainable!
By using the low-grade mana stones instead of high-grade ones like we use for the devices themselves, the cost of each repeater was cut by a whopping 90%.
For the issue of monsters disrupting the repeaters, we made it so that the repeaters can function underground instead of through air. Silly, how hung up I was until one of the helpers pointed it out.
The mana interference underground is a little high. But that’s a more practical option rather than continuously repairing the repeaters.
Finally, after almost the entire year’s worth of hard work, we were able to finish the product. Ready for manufacturing.
Now the rest is in Dad’s hands. I’m sure he’ll do great.
Under harsh conditions, I was allowed to leave the academy with the professor for guidance purposes while deploying the infrastructure.
And after all the preparations, the company finally started providing its services. I named it Mana-comm. We are currently operating to every nearest cities to the capital, and Swindfort.
Given its ridiculous applications, it was bound to be a success.
We priced each device at 50 gold each, while it cost us about 15 gold to make them. And made some phone booths in the form of shops to make a single call for a couple of silvers. Although the devices were too expensive for the average person, they could schedule a time and place to call that booth and ask for the person they wanted to speak with.
We had to make money now, in order to pay off the debts to the king and recover Dad’s own money.
There was no recharge process, as the device would die once the mana stone died, which gave it a set amount of hours that you could use each device for.
It quickly became a necessity for every merchant and a luxury for every noble.
I completed a quest, which gave me a juicy reward, and I was finally able to talk all I wanted with Letty. We decided to call each other every night. Now I have refueled my determination to keep going until graduation.
Meanwhile at the academy, suddenly everyone wanted to be friends with the so-called ‘genius of the century’.
Sigh, I shouldn’t have established the company under my name. I’m such an idiot.