“Do you have such a talent for explosions and you’re not developing explosive bombs? That’s such a waste…”
Julius fanned away the dust swirling around them with a grim expression as he complained.
He crouched down and poked at the twisted, deformed metal scraps on the ground with the sheath of his sword.
“By the way, what exactly is this complicated magic circuit supposed to do?”
He looked up at Helos with furrowed brows.
“Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just inscribe magic runes directly?”
Although Julius was not a magic craftsman, as a Saint Knight Squire, he had seen quite a few magic items—those objects only needed to be infused with mana to activate the inscribed runes inside and produce the corresponding effects.
Helos came over to his side, her silver hair falling over her shoulders.
She bent down and picked up a piece of charred metal, her fingertips gently tracing the delicate patterns on it.
“You think I don’t want to use runes?”
The girl held the scrap up under the sunlight, a hint of helplessness in her voice. “It’s just that I can’t!”
“Ordinary magic runes require a stable flow of mana, but I’m not only mana-deficient, I also suppress the mana around me.”
She shook her head with a bitter smile. “I can’t even activate magic items, let alone create them.”
Julius’s gaze shifted to the remnant in the girl’s hand. Those seemingly complex patterns were actually composed of countless tiny circuits, each node designed with extreme precision.
“Honestly, rather than a magic circuit, it looks more like some kind of even more complex magic array.”
“So you came up with this…”
The boy carefully chose his words. “…a Frankenstein-like solution?”
Helos scowled and angrily tossed the scrap aside.
“What do you know! This is called innovation!”
She turned and walked toward the workbench, her skirt sweeping up a small cloud of dust.
“Since I can’t use traditional magic, I’ll create my own kind of magic system.”
Julius stared at the twisted, deformed metal scrap on the floor, his throat involuntarily rolling.
“Well… that’s actually pretty impressive.”
Helos looked up, scanning the boy’s figure. Suddenly, she noticed something strange.
“Wait, you just took the full brunt of that explosion and you’re completely fine?”
She looked him up and down, trying to find a single wound on Julius.
“No wonder you Saint Knights can keep your composure through such violent impacts.”
“It wasn’t really that bad…”
Julius scratched the back of his head awkwardly, dust falling from his black uniform.
“If it were my teacher, he wouldn’t even bat an eye.”
Helos’s pale purple eyes widened, and her voice grew louder instantly.
“Are you magic old-timers all some kind of superhumans?!”
“No wonder I can’t even beat that little brat from the Gardener family!”
Julius was startled by her outburst and mumbled a vague defense.
“Um… actually, we’ve been undergoing mana enhancement training since childhood…”
The girl suddenly let go and kicked a nearby component angrily.
“That’s not fair!”
The metal piece clattered as it rolled to the corner. Helos placed her hands on her hips and huffed like a flustered old cat.
“Why is it that you’re born with mana, and I have to get blasted into a mess every day?”
“Well…”
Julius rubbed the slightly reddened tip of his nose, unsure how to comfort the flustered girl in front of him.
Then he suddenly noticed a faint scratch on Helos’s hand.
On impulse, he reached out and grabbed her wrist.
“Here.”
“You’re hurt.”
Helos froze for a moment and looked down at the scratch on her hand—it was barely noticeable, not even bleeding.
But Julius’s expression was serious, as if dealing with a fatal wound.
“This little scratch…”
Before she could finish, Julius took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and gently pressed it onto the wound.
Sunlight streamed through the workshop window, shining on their overlapping hands.
Helos suddenly felt her cheeks warm and awkwardly withdrew her hand.
“Enough, enough. I’m not that delicate.”
Julius looked at the empty palm left behind and felt a bit disappointed for some reason.
He cleared his throat and shifted his gaze to the pile of twisted metal scraps on the workbench.
“So… what was this failed magic circuit originally supposed to be used for?”
Helos’s eyes instantly brightened.
She took a quick step to the workbench and deftly pulled out a crumpled design diagram from the scrap heap, presenting it to Julius like a precious treasure.
“Look closely!”
Her slender fingertip jabbed heavily at the center of the paper, her nail leaving a small dent on the parchment.
“This was originally designed as an internal circuit for a mana switch!”
Julius leaned in to take a closer look and saw that the dense patterns were indeed very different from ordinary magic arrays—it was more like a complex structure nesting a dozen miniature arrays together.
“But!”
Helos suddenly raised her voice and flipped the diagram over.
“After yesterday’s big breakthrough, I suddenly had an epiphany while sleeping.”
“Wait, you were thinking about this even while you were asleep?”
Julius couldn’t help but interrupt.
“That’s not the point!”
Helos huffed and tapped his head with the diagram.
“After my painstaking, day-and-night, seventy-seven times seventy-seven seconds of deep thinking…”
“I think I figured out why it explodes…”
“Don’t interrupt!”
She suddenly stood on tiptoe, almost nose-to-nose with Julius, and sharply raised a finger in the air.
“It’s evolved into a mana core! Or rather, a mana repeater!”
“I believe that one day, it will be of great use!”
Julius held his breath involuntarily as he looked at her glowing profile in the sunlight.
The way Helos lit up when talking about inventions was completely different from the “Cursed Girl” who usually cowered in the corner.
“Al-albeit the success rate is currently…”
She suddenly deflated and slumped her shoulders.
“But failure is the mother of success! As long as I improve it ninety-nine more times, it will definitely work!”
Julius watched her clench her small fists and suddenly recalled the images of Saintesses carved on the church walls.
His palm gently covered the crumpled design diagram, fingertips clearly feeling the uneven textures on the paper.
He took a deep breath, his voice softer than usual.
“…How about trying one more time?”
Helos looked up sharply, a flicker of delight flashing in her pale purple eyes.
“Of course, I want to—”
Her voice suddenly caught.
The girl turned to look out the window, her gaze fixed on the sun whose position seemed a bit off.
“But… maybe another day.”
At that moment, her stomach loudly protested, the sound especially clear in the quiet workshop.
Helos awkwardly covered her abdomen, silver strands falling over her slightly flushed cheeks as she bowed her head.
“Looks like… we accidentally missed lunch.”