Machinist of Mana Chapter 138 Loran

Two weeks of keeping my head down, of listening to people talk, of attending various exhibitions and shows and I finally felt like I was getting somewhere. This place was something better for me, a party the likes of which I'd not been to before.

It wasn't quite the same as what I was used to, much larger, much more open but it was a party and I'd trained for those. So I mingled, mostly keeping quiet and hearing what people were saying. Honestly the majority of it was pretty bland, it was for most of these kind of events.

And then I saw someone I knew, at least in passing, the man from the college who'd told me about the book I'd bought.

“Why hello again,” I greeted him. “I didn't know you were going to be here.”

“Nor I you, though I'm quite happy to see it.”

“Glad to hear, I don't believe I got a chance to properly thank you for your book recommendations.” Of course we both knew he knew and that I knew he knew, but that was beside the point, it was just polite.

“Indeed, indeed, it's wonderful to hear that you liked it.”

“And which book would this be?” asked a voice from near us.

I turned to see the newly approaching elf, older if I was a judge, and perhaps with more elven blood too. It was hard for me to tell, but I was starting to see some of the subtle differences in the ears and certain facial structures. There was also of course the way they held themselves, with this man giving off an aura of seriousness. His military uniform didn't hurt that at all either, with crisp lines and perfect arrangement from top to bottom.

“Sayings of the Ancestor, did you know they don't teach it in Hediza?” the professor asked him.

“It is true, at least as far as I saw it wasn't on any of our reading lists,” I agreed with a nod.

“Well that's a shame, something we might well endeavor to fix,” he replied with a smile. “Tell me, what did you like about it?”

That was a question I hadn't been expecting, but could easily answer.

“While most of the sayings had a very serious tone some were clearly both wisdom and jest if I'm understanding them correctly. That shows forward thinking, knowing that people would find it... funny, and then think about what was being said. It opens the way for discussion and inspection that a drier comment might have let fall away.” It was even part of the local theorizing on some of them, not just something I myself felt, so I doubted it would cause offense.

“And the advice itself?” he questioned.

“Practical, much of it is quite obvious in retrospect, but a lot of things are like that. It takes someone saying them, and making sure you hear it for it to really lodge in properly. Without that many will fail to heed what should be simple. Yet he puts it in a way that even children can glean knowledge from.”

A lot of Sun Tzu was like that, and his work was still popular back on Earth last time I was there. Saying that if your enemy sees no escape except through you and will die otherwise means they'll fight tooth and nail to go through you is pretty damn obvious, but having someone point that out helped.

“Well put,” the military man said with a smile before holding out his hand. “Commander Lodan, good to see you're doing so well here.”

“Percival Shadestone, a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I replied with a nod, taking his hand in turn. Handshakes were a thing here, probably because of someone I'd met if I had to guess.

“You know I think I've heard of you,” that was not at all surprising, he'd probably been told all about me before I'd even been invited to this event. “I'm told you were the one who made a flying machine.”

That was not supposed to be public knowledge.

“My grandfather built it if we're being honest, though I did aid him where I could. He'd apparently heard of his Majesty's flying machines in his youth and is quite skilled when it comes to making things.” All of those were true, grandpa had actually paid for building the thing, and he was very well regarded in our lands.

I needed to downplay my part here, and I thought I was succeeding. People really weren't supposed to know that I knew how to build planes, and if they did then I might soon find myself in a lot of trouble. It seemed to work though, as while they were all still interested they weren't looking at me like I was a genius.

“I see I see, he based it off of one of those then?” Commander Lodan asked.

“I'm not quite sure, though it wouldn't surprise me at all. I only ever did some of the work on the edges though, and didn't help with the magical propulsion. There's probably something important with that you'd need, but he did that design himself.”

The cat was already out, and I had no fear for grandpa, he could take care of himself. Right here, right now I needed this man to believe that I wouldn't be much help to him, because I couldn't be much help to him.

“Unfortunate, I had really hoped to see one.”

I gave a small smile. “I am yet young Commander, perhaps soon we'll see them flying here.”

He grinned back, a toothy, unpleasant thing. “That would be lovely indeed, particularly seeing the work of one of ours brought home to us. We've lost so much and I so desire for it to be found once more. That's the way of things isn't it? That we should desire to improve ourselves always, but still take joy when the lost return?”

“A wonderful point sir,” the professor said, patting me on the shoulder.

I didn't know which part of what I said did the trick but whatever it was, it worked. The next day I got a letter asking me to come by Commander Loran's office in a few days so I could discuss 'Potentials for future consultation work' with him. It was presented as optional but it was clear that if I said no I'd need to flee the country. It was also exactly what I was looking for. Before I could get in there though I needed to tell a certain spy about it, see what I needed to look out for.