Gacha Kingdom Building

Their workshops are big and they research in groups with talented individuals, which makes the City a ridiculously advanced center for magic in the continent.

Being recognized or praised by one of the mages is already an achievement, but being invited to join their workshop or even become one of their apprentices is a lifetime opportunity.

And yet, there's an even higher miracle one can be blessed while in this City. To not only become an apprentice and learn from one of the mages but to inherit their secret arts and discoveries.

Since even the least capable mage in the city should be a genius, inheriting all of their knowledge is a direct ticket to grandeur.

Miwen: "...And so, these are the ones I'm planning to bring."

Isabella: "Hm... Quite a big group..."

Miwen: "Yeah, but not all of them will be accompanying you."

In our group, there are a ton of good mages, and the opportunity to bring a few of them to Rodky seems too good to pass on.

Claire made sure to inform me that if I didn't bring her, I'd be toast.

Licia was also interested in cool ways to use [Ice Magic] and she promised me that I wouldn't regret bringing her.

Ellie was simply too curious to come. She wanted it so much that she powered through all of her usual shame and used all of her cuteness to convince me.

Aside from them, Agatha also insisted on coming. Lily also made a good argument as improving her magic could lead to better results with the crops, and the Valkyries are always doing a bunch of odd jobs and being overall helpful in the Kingdom, so when Skuld asked me to bring her and Eir along, I couldn't refuse to give them this small reward.

Sadly, not everyone interested could come.

It would be hard to hide Angelica's identity over a long period. Especially among good mages.

So, even though this could be a great opportunity to advance her studies in [Light Magic], we decided it was best to not take the risk.

The same problem applied to Elizabeth. Demons aren't well seen in this continent.

There's a legend about two great calamities that would one day bring chaos to this land.

While one of them is believed to be the ice dragon that froze most of the continent in the past, the other is said to be a demon that would rise from the shadows.

Not every world treats demons the same, but with a low number of them in this one and this legend, their treatment is as poor as it can be.

If they see one, they'll kill it on sight. Or at least try to.

Isabella: "...What about Anna and Mia?"

Miwen: "Anna said she couldn't care less. Mia also wasn't that interested, but she lost on rock paper scissors so I forced her to come."

Isabella: "Well, I was invited to that group from before, so..."

As expected of someone who has never had the opportunity to connect with others before, she's trying hard to not be weird in front of the friends she made.

Having all of us around her all the time could be embarrassing for her. Like a kid with an overly doting parent.

Miwen: "Well, don't worry. As I said, most of them will go and explore on their own. It'll be just Daddy, Mommy, and our kitty with you."

Mia: "...Who are you calling Mommy?"

Miwen: "If you want to be the kitty I'll have you add ~nya to the end of your every phrase. And then I'll promote Lana to-"

I was already expecting Mia's reaction, but even Lana joined this time.

It was great for me though since I got two for the price of one.

Isabella: "If you think that is insulting, imagine being forced to accept him as my guardian."

The only downside was that my surrogate daughter was entering her rebellious phase.

But I knew deep down she loved me and was glad for my help. It was just a case of her being influenced by the bad behavior of our family members... probably.

Still, with all the preparations made and Isabella's agreement, we headed to the floating city.

Its "ports" were a couple of giant stairs that extended from what looked like a floating island.

Once they connected to the ground, we were able to climb the stairs to reach the city.

It took us about 30 minutes at normal walking speed to reach the end of the stairs, and waiting for us was a gate. They just asked for a document that identified the students, and then allowed us to enter as Isabella's escorts.

Up until there it was just Isabella, her friends, their escorts, Mia, and I.

But once we were inside I summoned the rest of the girls so that they could go have their fun.

Then I returned to Isabella's side and we went ahead to explore the workshops her friends wanted.

Our first stop was a weird house.

Since their workshops doubled as the mages' residences, it wasn't strange to see house-shaped buildings. However, most of them looked more normal compared to this one.

And inside this one, I found my cute elf fawning over different items and tools.

She instantly got ashamed when she saw me, but she turned away and pretended to not know us.

Miwen: "...I didn't see anyone bringing supplies here. And it would be quite hard to do so since they only allow alumni and academy personnel to enter, right?"

I get that to maintain a population this place stops periodically and recruits new talented mages to join.

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But it was a little weird to not take advantage of the situation and restock as well.

Mia: "They use the ports on the other side for that. I believe it's to protect the safety of the students since they are all nobles."

Makes sense... even if this is such a prestigious place, endangering nobles is bound to spell disaster for them.

Even if they can fight or avoid a country, this place sustains itself on the premise that it can help advance magic throughout the continent by sharing some of its secrets with the new generation.

If there are doubts about their ability to protect the nobles, then, it will become harder for them to maintain their population, not to mention supplies.

It's a delicate relationship...

But paired with this workshop, I can only deduce that the strangeness is purposeful.

Unconventional minds and their desire to make something unique...

It's cool, but highly unconventional and in-

Isabella: "Miwen! Wind magic is your specialty, right? Show it to her."

I wouldn't go as far as to say it's my specialty, but...

Miwen: "...What do you want me to do? If you order me I can flip her skirt before she-"

Isabella "I want you to participate in her game. Even Ellie- Even the elf didn't manage to win."

It seems like something pretty bad went down while I was doing my best to not pay attention to Ellie.

In the blink of an eye, the workshop owner was laughing while Ellie was confused and a little dejected.

Miwen: "...Right. So... what are the rules?"

Workshop Owner: "First, a registration fee. But don't worry, if you can win, I'll give it back, and I'll also give you any item from the shop!"

At 2 silver coins, this was quite harsh for a fee...

However, I had no option but to participate.

All the items here seemed pretty good... The books authored by the shopkeeper herself especially seemed to be pretty valuable.

And so, I decided to entertain my lady and avenge my girl.

The game itself was pretty simple.

Each of us has 5 balloons filled with air. The game ends after five minutes have passed and the one with the most remaining balloons filled with air wins.

All magic aside from wind is prohibited.

We were allowed to check each other's balloons as well as our own before the game started to be sure that they both had roughly the same volume of air inside.

Miwen: "..."

Workshop Owner: "No need to stare daggers! The elf losing was just bad luck!"

...Elves tend to be reasonably good at magic, with wind and earth usually being their most common and stronger elements.

Ellie leans more toward wind and fire, but still, her wind magic is pretty good.

She's also quite observant and smart. For her to be confused after a match, some trick must've been used.

I was pretty sure about that, but I didn't manage to figure anything out until the game started.

We tied our own balloons' knots so that air wouldn't escape, but the only way to prevent all air from leaving was to control it with one's own mana.

The best way to prevent air from escaping is to block the exit with mana. It's more effective than trying to control all the air inside since the area is smaller.

It also has the benefit of allowing me to prevent her from controlling the air inside my balloon as I would instantly detect the foreign mana trying to infiltrate the barrier.

I'm pretty sure both Ellie and the workshop owner have done the same since it's a pretty safe strategy...

However, in this game, we not only have to worry about maintaining the air inside our balloon, but we also have to figure out a way to take the air from the opponent's.

The first and most straightforward method would be to fight for control over the entrance.

In this case, whoever has the most mana output and reserve, as well as talent and understanding for [Wind Magic] would end up the winner.

But if the game was so straightforward it wouldn't explain Ellie's confusion...

Well... the second method of attack would be to cut their balloon from the surface area.

This would involve control since whoever can launch more attacks while defending their balloon would end up winning.

This is a bit harder to fight against.

It leads to a problem where you have to be very careful with how much mana you spend defending.

If you choose to make a thick barrier to protect every balloon, your attacks will be pretty weak.

It's a bit counterintuitive, but the best way to fight against this would be to employ two thin barriers.

By making the first one a little bigger than the surface of the balloon I can use it to recognize any attack incoming.

Then, it's just a matter of reinforcing the targeted area.

It's a system similar to what I use to protect Isabella.

While more cost-effective, the downside is that it requires more mana control, which can be a barrier for some people when you're employing 10 different barriers while also paying attention to where to reinforce and where your opponent's barriers are at their weakest.

If you can do this, you're at least a good mage. However, I knew for a fact that Ellie was able to do this much...

But then, an entire minute passed...

It went pretty much how I expected it to go. Neither side lost a single balloon.

They aren't small or big enough for me to have trouble controlling my mana around them, and it was the same for this workshop's mage.

Just a second after the first minute though...

A single one of my balloons started to deflate faster than the others.

I started to focus less on the attacks to regain its air, but...

All the others also started to deflate.

Miwen: "Oh... That's a surprising trick. I was thinking of using it myself."

Workshop Owner: "Whatever do you mean?"

Ellie: "Did you figure it out Mi... Sir?"

Miwen: "Yeah. Her attacks are not wind blades meant to cut the fabric of the balloon, they are simply making me reinforce the barrier in a few areas while also thinning it in others. With her wind dissipating, this created a very predetermined airflow around my balloons. It creates a pressure imbalance and deforms them, which messes with the hole barrier and allows air to escape."

It's very slow and small, but since most of the work isn't done by her mana if you concentrate too much on that, it's impossible to notice.

It feels like the air is simply naturally leaving and your barrier has stopped working.

Almost like a rigged game, except it's not. She's following the rules, but she's being extremely smart about it.

I can see why Ellie got confused. Poor girl must've been cracking her head trying to figure out why the hell her barrier wasn't working.

Workshop Owner: "I'm impressed you figured it out. It took me months of observation to learn this trick."

Miwen: "Neat. I wanted to blow my brains out an entire month and according to my scores I didn't even learn it properly."

I at least know the concept though...

Workshop Owner: "I'm... sorry? But sadly, just knowing how it works is not enough to-"

Pop.

...Pop ...Pop.

Pop Pop.

Miwen: "Oh, finally got it. Trial and error does pay off."

Workshop Owner: "...How?"

Miwen: "Resonance. The wind blades I threw were to test the natural frequency of your balloons. You maintained control over the dissipated air after it met my barrier to manipulate the airflow... So, as I said, I had a similar idea, except I decided to use it to get information instead."

The idea came while I was thinking about how I use a similar two-dome barrier to protect Isabella.

When we use magic, the mana leaves our body. Thanks to that, we have a little ghost limb experience with it.

If we maintain control over the mana, we can feel through it to a certain degree.

It's easier to feel foreign mana, which is why barriers are especially useful for detecting incoming magic attacks.

However, certain barrier types have different uses.

For example, pure mana barriers tend to be the weakest, however, they provide the most amount of information and are the easiest to control and maintain over an extremely large or extremely small area.

Right after, we have wind barriers. They are stronger than pure mana, but they also allow one to get a lot of information.

After a certain size, the smaller the area, the more precise the feedback is, which is one of the reasons why we need more control to maintain it.

With the balloons, I tried to make my wind blades as small as possible while attacking. I also sent as many as I could.

Thus, I was able to determine what frequency I had to use to resonate with the balloons' material and pop them.

Thankfully, to ensure fairness, the balloons have pretty much the same size and shape, so once I figured one out, the others didn't deviate too much.

Workshop Owner: "I... don't get it."

Hah. Sweet.

Now she knows how my poor-

Ellie: "I also don't get it."

Eh?

Why does she look even more confused now?

Isabella: "Do you care to explain?"

Mia: "Can you take that gross grin off your face and start talking?"

...I get why Ellie couldn't act all happy and thankful.

But these two as well?

They had no excuse.

So I decided to punish them a little.

Miwen: "...I'll introduce it as the subject of our next class."

I feel like no matter how much I explain, without the proper theory behind it they'll just end up more lost than before.

It was a fun game though, and the mage of the workshop did keep her word. Her casual attitude about it made me feel a little bad since I assumed she was a scammer...

But that didn't impede me from claiming the prize.

I took a look around to see if anything caught my interest in the workshop, but in the end, the spellbooks were definitely the best the place had to offer.

They are the materialization of her research, and I saw for myself how good she was.

The only problem was that... judging by their titles, they were all spells that used [Wind Magic] to manipulate pressure in different ways.

Miwen: "Why is this world so keen on making me go back to high school..."

Workshop Owner: "Something the matter?"

Miwen: "Nah. I want that one."

I just picked whatever seemed to interest Ellie the most. I wasn't going to read it anyway, but it should be great for her.

Especially since understanding this type of concept through magic should be easier for her.

Butler: "Man... Isabella must not be such a bad lady after all..."

Oh?

As we headed to the next workshop, one of the escorts accompanying Isabella's friends started speaking in a low voice to me.

Miwen: "...You're right. But what makes you think that?"

Butler: "She must've allowed you to receive quite a lot of magic training to perform at the same level as a Rodky mage. And she didn't take the credit for herself... That's pretty humble."

...This was a misunderstanding, but...

Perhaps for the first time, it was a welcome one.

I hadn't thought that I could contribute to her image like this.