A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 191 : Emily (3)

I had a rough idea.

The very existence of a useless basement in this Guild House made no sense from the start.

Isaac Einstein.

He was the one who designed this Territory and Guild House.

And the Isaac I knew was a thoroughly insane individual who never did anything half-heartedly, even when he was being a lunatic.

If he made a basement, it surely had a clear purpose.

Just as Eliya had described, the small, rectangular space seemed utterly useless at first glance, but I believed that if he had designed it, there must be a clear use for it, even if we hadn't found it yet.

This conviction grew even stronger, especially given that it wasn't present on the blueprints.

...Well, of course.

"…I didn't expect it to be ‘this’ much, though."

The sight revealed behind the metal door, which Emily had skillfully opened, was quite overwhelming.

A massive sphere connected by various colored wires, cylindrical glass tubes lined up in a row, and unknown equipment that I couldn't even begin to describe.

Above all, a research lab obsessively covered in white.

This was where I understood why Isaac Einstein's lab was called the 'White House'.

"…It definitely hasn't been maintained."

Strictly speaking, it was classified as private property and thus not part of the Order Territory, but it was still a space within the Order's sphere of influence.

Even Isaac Einstein surely couldn't have come and gone easily enough to continuously maintain this research lab.

As if to prove it, dust had settled on various parts of the equipment.

However, apart from the lack of maintenance, the equipment installed here was of a considerable level.

No.

Considering that it had been almost a hundred years since then, "considerable" didn't even begin to cover it.

The fact that Emily's eyes were sparkling so much suggested that the things here seemed to still be usable.

"…Well, I suppose he put some kind of preservation magic on them."

Of course.

That wasn't necessarily a good thing.

Considering the atrocities Isaac Einstein committed back then, the things done here wouldn't have been light enough to be easily described.

It seemed to have been tidied up in preparation for any unforeseen circumstances, but there was no way of knowing how many people had been sacrificed here.

"…So."

"…"

"What happened?"

Leaving Emily, whose eyes were sparkling as if she'd found treasure, I asked Jerry, who was drinking the nutritional supplement drink Eliya had hastily brought from the first floor.

"…I was trapped."

It was an intense yet concise opening.

"Straight to the point."

"…I thought there might be a space like this, given that it was a Territory Isaac himself had been involved with. So I kept searching inside the Guild House."

"…"

"At first, I just thought it was a basement, but as I searched other rooms, a thought occurred to me. What if, to prepare for unexpected situations, ‘I’ would have built a lab underground?"

"…"

"Then, by chance, I learned of the door's existence."

Jerry had once been confined as a test subject in Isaac's White House.

It wasn't a particularly pleasant memory, and he had been tight-lipped about it even in his previous life, so I didn't know exactly what he had experienced inside.

However, through Jerry's uncharacteristic reactions when talking about his personality, I could roughly guess that it hadn't been a good time.

"The secret pattern of the metal door was the same as the White House's."

Gulp—

Hoo.

The guy, apparently thirsty, took a sip of the drink, exhaled, and then added:

"…But the way out was different."

"…"

"The exit was actually the part I remembered more clearly, but the door wouldn't open the way I knew it."

"…"

"So, feeling that something was off, I minimized my movements until you came to find me."

It was a decision typical of him, and indeed, not a bad one.

If he had exhausted his stamina trying to get out, the situation could have become even more dangerous.

Despite not having eaten, he seemed otherwise fine, continuing to speak more coherently than I expected.

Swish—

Jerry turned his head to look behind him and quietly asked.

"…I don't recognize her face. Who is she?"

"Ah."

Come to think of it, it was Jerry's first time meeting her.

I briefly explained Emily's identity.

"She'll be living with us here for a while. A burden we took on in exchange for coordinates from the UMC. She's apparently a promising talent in the Magitek field."

"…I see."

Whether he understood everything from the brief explanation, or simply thought no further explanation was needed, I couldn't tell, but he nodded.

"…I'm not in a related field, so I don't know much, but most of the equipment seemed to be in usable condition."

"…"

"…Though it seems their purpose was geared towards biological experiments. Given her background, she might be able to handle some of the equipment…"

At that moment.

As if she had been listening to Jerry's words, Emily interjected into the conversation, examining a piece of equipment.

"Mana shielding systems were the first result produced by Magitek."

"…?"

"The inventor isn't recorded, so I didn't know who it was, but looking at this, the person who made this place seems to be that person?"

Tap-tap—

"There's a lot of equipment here that even I don't know. They all seem to incorporate the principles of Magitek, but…"

Emily added, unable to hide the smile on her lips.

"Especially this one over here, I only recently discovered it… even if it looks a bit old-fashioned, each piece of equipment here has originality…"

"…"

At Emily's words, I turned my head to look at Jerry, and Jerry likewise turned his gaze towards me.

And Eliya, standing beside us, quietly voiced our thoughts.

"Does that mean… Magitek started with Isaac Einstein?"

Shrug—

"I don't know who that person is, but if the one who made this place is that person, then it seems right?"

"…"

"…"

Emily answered in an innocent voice as if it were nothing, but goosebumps were rising on my skin.

'…Could it be that he even had a hand in Magitek?'

To summarize Emily's words, it meant that the founder of the technological field known as Magitek was actually Isaac Einstein, not the Order.

It wasn't a completely illogical story.

Isaac Einstein's atrocities, running various guilds and secret laboratories, had undoubtedly been discovered by the Order, and the cleanup had also been carried out by the Order.

If the Order had re-established the principles based on Isaac Einstein's equipment and rebuilt them under the plausible name of 'Magitek,' then the picture started to make sense.

And if this picture were true.

"…Then, essentially, it wasn't about creating a new technological field to try and defeat the Demon King's Army."

"…It was to understand the danger and prepare for it."

It was a story that would make anyone faint upon hearing it.

It was commonly known that Magitek's birth lay in the Order's technological investment to lead the War against Demons to victory, but this story overturned that belief from its roots.

Furthermore, if the equipment here from 100 years ago wasn't actually inferior to current technology, as Emily claimed, then it was impossible to even guess the level of Magitek Isaac could wield now.

In other words.

The Order's full support for Magitek until now wasn't to develop new technologies that would give them an advantage in the War against Demons, but rather to prepare for the unknown technological field Isaac might possess.

Of course, there were points in this line of reasoning that weren't entirely convincing.

If Emily's words were true, it was hard to understand why my past self hadn't known this fact.

The Order's Magic Engineering Technology had indeed played a significant role in the War against Demons.

I could vouch for that, as I myself was one of the prime examples.

The specialized weapon Emily had made for me, a top-tier Magitek firearm, was a high-quality item, comparable to an Artifact, which I had used until the very end.

And the downgraded Magitek firearms she subsequently created had brought about an unprecedented revolution, significantly boosting the power of even ordinary soldiers who couldn't properly use Mana, allowing them to inflict damage on Named Magical Beasts.

Emily's Magitek had exerted an influence on the War against Demons that could not be ignored.

However, if Isaac possessed technology that surpassed it.

It wouldn't have been impossible to create Magitek weapons using technology that interfered with or defended against such Magitek weapons.

But I didn't recall ever hearing that Isaac had used such things.

No, in fact, I didn't even know that the Demon King's Army possessed Magitek technology, let alone such specific techniques.

Therefore.

If I were to offer the most plausible explanation for this situation.

'…For some reason, Isaac didn't use Magitek technology. And he did so intentionally.'

I couldn't guess what that reason might be.

Though, to begin with, trying to guess or predict anything about that psychopath was absurd.

I set aside the cascade of questions for now.

It wasn't that I wasn't curious about what that certain reason was, but it wasn't something I could figure out by worrying about it right now.

If the story was flowing this way, there was something else important at this moment.

'…There's Magitek equipment.'

And there was Emily.

Neither was something I had intended or planned, but the synergy created by these two facts meeting was considerable.

No.

It was an 'ideal' situation, to an extent that "considerable" couldn't even express.

So much so that even I found it difficult to predict what would come next.

Whoop—

"Found it!"

It was then.

Emily, who had been examining the giant spherical equipment in the center of the lab, suddenly stood up and climbed onto it.

Red, blue, green.

She pushed through the wires of various colors, then shouted as if she had discovered something.

"I knew it looked familiar. It was here after all."

And the corners of Emily's mouth, as she shouted, were pulled up to a point where it was difficult to call it merely a 'smile' anymore.

As if the current situation was utterly delightful and satisfying. As if it pleased her immensely.

And in her murmur, added with that expression.

"Magitek Reactor."

I could let out a cheer.

Because something, even if I couldn't precisely predict it, seemed like it was going to happen in a way I'd quite like.