9 Magic Engineering

Ann has been listening to my story for a long time. We changed the location a few more times and now we are in the castle's library.

"So what happened next? Did he realize that she was hiding her origin from him?" Ann asked me eagerly. Judging her facial expression I can say that she is already quite hooked on the story.

"It's not like she didn't hide her origin deliberately but more like he never asked her about it. Also, he sort of guessed that she was a runaway the moment he found her in the woods. She apologizes to him saying that she didn't intend to hide it but it's simply never brought up. From her, my ancestor learns more about the outside world. As he learn more, he realised that our land is weak and we need power. So he formed his military. With the merchant's help, we accrue fast class information and strength and soon we became a small kingdom. But there is still one thing he needed to do. After he learned about his wife's circumstances, he realised that she was living much more luxuriously in her homeland. So he asked his merchant friend what is the most luxurious thing a noble should have. The merchant replied with one sentence, a luxurious castle."

"My ancestor was enlightened. He send his wife along with his grandchildren to our old summer house a few years, and in the meantime, he along with his children build a massive castle in our old home. While building the castle he got a little carried away as he build the castle a little bigger than expected and when he finally showed his wife the castle she became furious as she doesn't need any castle.

It turned out that she was happy from the beginning and doesn't need a huge castle to live in. She loved our old house as it was much comfier. She was very angry and my ancestor had to build a small house a top of the castle with our old house materials so that she can live there."

We went both reached the top of the castle. The place is filled with greens and flowers. There is even soil so that trees can grow here. In the middle of the land, there's a small house. It was an old house, but very clean.

"To impress his wife, my ancestor made this land atop the castle. Not many people know about this place. But it was a wonder of the world. A complete artificial ecosystem."

"Wow!" Ann exclaimed in excitement. I thanked my ancestor in my mind for making this place and the castle. Ann quickly ventured into the place with excitement. "How come this place is still intact." She asked me.

"Well after his wife passed away and his son became the new king my ancestor became lonely. So he started to live here. Before his death, he made a device that can naturally keep this land intact without any external help. That device is keeping this ecosystem in check."

Hearing this Ann become more excited as she started to ask my permission to see the device. I took her inside the house. In the middle of the house, there is the device.

"It's nothing groundbreaking as this kind of device is already on market but this one is built thousands of years ago. So you can probably say that this is a one piece."

As I looked at Ann, I realise that she is completely on her own ignoring me and showing a huge interest in the device. I become slightly confused because this is the first time I am seeing this side of her. Even in my dream, I had never seen her show any interest in a magic device. Soon she looked at me and asked, "Can you tell me how this thing works, please?" I looked at her for a few seconds before replying, " Energy stone of the earth. It uses the energy stone of the earth to amplify its surrounding solid quality so that a very small amount of soil is needed to grow any plant. It has a limitation as big trees cannot grow here but a small tree can always survive. "

I have seen Ann in my dream. She was a shy girl with a bit of a Tsundere personality. When we were a couple she had only one interest or hobby, which is cooking. She would always cook nice food. But I never thought that she had any other interests in her life.

Curiously I asked her, "Miss Ann, Do perhaps have an interest in the magic devices?" Hearing me, Ann quickly straightens herself and returns to her normal self. She replied to me with a faint voice, "Please don't laugh at me! It's just I have surprised me." I can feel that she is trying to hide the fact that she has an interest in them. That explains when we entered the library she deliberately spent some time on the magical device section. I never thought that she has so much interest in them.

"Why would I laugh at you? What's wrong with loving magic devices? They are elegant. They are the backbone of this world?" Hearing my boasting Ann started smiling. Then she asked me, " Mr Aaron if you don't mind please keep this a secret between us. It will be problematic if my family knows about this."

"Why? Is your family against the idea of you having an interest in magic."

"Well kinda. My father wants me to become a sword master. As you know he loves swords. As for my mother, she wants me to be more ladylike. That's why both of them sometimes argue with each other. As a result, I have a very hard time mentioning my interest to them."

I kind of relates to her, as my parents also argue about my future. "I can understand your pain. My parents are also like this. My father wants to teach me swords but my mother wants me to be a scholar." Seeing that we both had a similarity in one field we both sympathised with each other.

To change the topic, she quickly asked me, "So Mr Aaron, you have shown me a lot of places but you didn't show me your favourite place. I was hoping to see your favourite place."

"My favourite place! Well, there are not many. One is the balcony of my room, and the other one is the library. Usually, I would spend my regular days in the library reading books," I replied.

She looked at me mischievously before saying, "I heard an interesting rumour after I arrived here. It says that recently you spent a lot of time on your training. But they have never seen you training in the soldier training facility. So I am hoping you would show me your training facility."

I am speechless. How come the news reaches so far? I deliberately tried to make sure that my training should remain a secret for the time being, and I calculated that some information will get leaked but now it looks like some unwanted people did hear the rumour. That's why the delegation from the capital wanted to talk to me. It breached my expectation. I need to be more careful from now on.

But since it's already out I do need to think of something. For the time being, I can start training in the soldier facility with everyone. I looked at Ann before saying, "It will be my pleasure."

****

At this moment Ann and I are in my facility. After entering the facility Ann quickly spotted the running machine that I build. After learning that I build this on my own, she is even more astonished and started questioning me about all kinds of things like what model of motor and crystal I used, and what kind of control magic I put in here.

After talking to her I realised something, that Ann is talented. It's not like she just wants to learn magic engineering more like she is already much more knowledgeable than me. In just a few moments she point out some impressive flow in my build and even suggested some solutions that might improve the machine. If she is not talented that who is? Then an idea popped into my hand.

I want Ann. I want to change her fate. But more than that I want her magic engineering ability. So if I somehow manage to convince Ann to work with me, I get to spend time with her and also we can both create more magic devices. With proper magic devices, we can make our fiefdom stronger. It's like killing three birds with one stone.

"Miss, would you like to accompany me into fixing this machine? Since you pointed out and gave me the solution to the problems, it's only fair if you also join me. Also, it's always better to have two minds instead of one. " I can't ask her to stay here on the get-go, Instead I asked her to work with me for a moment. If everything goes well she might not reject me if I ask her to stay behind.

"Is it ok for me to join you? I mean I love to but...."

"Of course. Then we will start our work here. This place is spacious and only I and my maid have the authority to enter here, so nobody will bother us."

"Then it's settled. We will start tomorrow." She said with a cheerful voice.

While we are discussing Claire entered the room quietly. She waited for our conversation to end before saying anything. When we both decided about tomorrow she opened her mouth, "Young Master, Master has summoned you to join in the training facility. The Dual is about to start."

The Dual? OMG, I forgot about that thing. Last night Jonathan and Rocky agreed on a friendly Dual but I thought it was just a joke. But now I can see that they're being dead serious. I asked Ann, "When they are starting? And is there any guest?"

"Match is supposed to start 10 minutes from now and we have a guest."

"Ok." I looked at Ann and said, "Miss, it's about time we should join them. Your father probably waiting for you."

"yes." She replied in a worried tone.

****

The match between Jonathan and Rocky is about to start. The gallery is full of people mostly soldiers who are cheering both Jonathan and Rocky. I am sitting close to my parents. Ann is with her mother. We are sitting at a high point where we can see everything.

I looked around the crowd and spotted a hooded figure near the stand who is emitting a very faint magic Aura. I don't who they are but I can distinctly feel that I know her Aura. I have a bad feeling about them, but then I looked at my father who also noticed the other person but didn't do anything so I guess this is the guest. Instead, I looked at the ring where both Jonathan and Rocky are preparing for the dual.

A dual is when two people fight with each other. Usually, it's not a death match where you die or your opponent dies. A traditional dual refrain fighters hurting the opponent badly. The main goal of a dual is to understand each other, understand your shortcomings and learn more.

Usually people dual with a weapon with a blunt edge, or a wooden weapon. But when the is a high-level one, they switched to the conventional weapon. This allows the fighters to have better control of their weapon. But this result in a major problem where people might get killed in a friendly match. To solve this problem, a very special type of magic circle is invented.

The magic circle produces a magic barrier around the fighter's body. This way fighters become protected from swords while they can also go all out instead of worrying about their opponent's life.

Usually, this is done by using a magic circle embedded in armour. But they were expensive. Because the process of making them is a bit tough and the because of low resources they didn't turn out the best. So that's why these things are mostly used for private usage and as art. But people figure out their other users and that is dual.

As I was thinking my father gave his permission and the dual started between them.