I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With - Chapter 23

WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 23

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Stay Off the Streets at Night

"Oh? Thought nobody was here, but you are. I came to keep my promise."

Rita's feet stopped midway down the stairs beside me.

"...Serena?"

"...Rita?"

"You two know each other?"

The question was barely out before I nodded to myself.

Come to think of it, both the silver-haired woman and Rita were acquaintances of Old Man Gordon.

So it wasn't strange for the two of them to know each other.

"...Yes. This is Serena, the daughter of one of Gordon's old colleagues."

"So Gordon sent you here, Rita. Yeah, I did think it was weird, leaving this guy here alone."

I cut straight into the silver-haired customer's words, into Serena's.

"No. She just started working at our garage. We signed the official contract earlier."

Rita glanced at me, then snorted a laugh.

"That's right. I found a new job. Gordon didn't send me or anything."

"A job? Here?"

The woman called Serena swept her eyes once around the garage, then spoke again.

"...Does it pay?"

Rita opened her mouth to answer, but I beat her to it.

"Ma'am. How can you ask something like that in front of the boss?"

Serena let out a quick laugh and turned to me.

"Keeping this one around is going to cost you a lot, you know."

"I know. I intend to treat her exactly as well as she deserves."

Listening to the two of us, Rita tilted her head and asked.

"What about you, Serena... how did you come to know the boss?"

"Ah, she was a customer. She had a broken piece of equipment, so I fixed it for her."

"And we've got a little secret between us, don't we?"

Serena winked at me as she said it. Rita scowled, looking uncomfortable at the sight.

Right, if they'd known each other from way back, that kind of flirting would be a bit awkward to watch up close.

To clear the air, I opened my mouth.

"Um, ma'am. It's a little late to be asking this."

"Hm?"

"Was your name Serena...?"

Serena's eyes went round.

"...You didn't know my name?"

She went quiet for a moment, thinking, then burst out laughing in disbelief.

"Ha! You're right! I asked your name, but you never asked mine."

"The mood when you came by that time wasn't really right for it."

At my words, Serena laughed even harder and nodded.

"Ahahaha! True. I was like that, wasn't I? Not exactly the mood for asking my name."

Still laughing, she nodded and held out her hand to me.

"Sorry. Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Serena, from Mantis Crew."

"I'm Dex. The owner of Titan Garage."

Every time I spoke, Serena chuckled.

Didn't think I'd said anything funny. What was so amusing?

Serena looked at Rita, then turned her eyes back to me.

"Seeing this, Gordon really does have an eye for people... Definitely."

"...What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing. Talking to myself. Anyway, the reason I'm here is to keep the promise I made with you, Dex."

All I could do was blink.

A promise? What promise had I made with her?

I thought back to that day. Her Cheonroe-made prosthetic arm had broken mid-fight, and Serena had fled here, and I'd fixed it... and she'd paid 500,000 credits for my silence.

"...I don't think there was any promise?"

"The boss says he doesn't remember, though?"

"No, there was. You pretty much saved my life, so I said I'd come back and pay for it. Remember?"

Ah. Had she? Now that she mentioned it, maybe.

Honestly, I hadn't believed she'd actually come to repay a life debt. Of all the people who'd said they'd pay later, I'd never met a single one who actually did.

And back then, 500,000 credits had been enough to satisfy me.

Still, if she's offering, why turn it down?

"Yeah, sure. I'd be grateful."

The words were hardly out of my mouth before Serena turned and threw the garage door wide open.

A truck was parked in the alley leading to the garage.

"All right, kids! Unload it all!"

"Yes, boss!"

At Serena's shout, a handful of men and women began carrying goods down into our garage.

"What is all this?"

Serena grinned at my question.

"Don't ask. You're better off not knowing. You could get hurt if you do."

I shut my mouth for the time being. How many times had I heard "you'll get hurt if you know" lately?

"I tried to bring back anything that looked usable from what those bastards had, but the situation didn't allow it. Still, it should be good for filling up this empty garage."

Hearing that, I remembered what I'd heard on the radio earlier.

Mantis Crew's garage had been attacked, every engineer inside killed, and everything in it looted.

I'd had my doubts, but apparently it had all been Silver Thorn Serena's doing.

And now she was bringing me the equipment from that place as a gift...

Rich customers really are the best.

First down was a gun maintenance bench.

A bench packed with the tools used for servicing firearms. For someone like me, who did nearly everything with magic, it wasn't strictly necessary. Still, better than nothing. There might be a time I'd use it.

Next came a parts disassembler.

Feed it parts due for scrapping and it would separate out the salvageable pieces.

This one would be nice to have.

Even in our garage right now, there were quite a few parts whose quality fell short for my use, but that I couldn't bring myself to throw away.

Run them through, and I'd probably get something usable out of them.

Then came an incinerator.

"...Does a garage normally need an incinerator?"

"Usually not."

"Then why this...?"

"We needed one every so often."

That was as far as I listened. I decided not to ask any more.

A twenty-first-century earthling's instincts were coming back after a long time. Terrifyingly.

But the next item to come down was one I couldn't possibly not ask about.

It was something like a chair, hung all over with thick leather restraints and electrode cables.

"Serena! Why would you bring something like this here?!"

Rita screamed in horror at the sight of it.

"Huh? Isn't this used in garages?"

Serena answered with a face that had clearly given it no thought.

"For tying people down during repairs, right? They move when it hurts."

I walked up to the chair and looked it over slowly.

Five restraints were attached to it, for both arms, both legs, and the forehead. Once someone was strapped in, it looked like they'd never move again.

"Where was this?"

"There was a separate room in the back. It was locked, so I broke in. This was the only thing inside. So I figured it had to be something good."

"...I see."

"If even you don't know what it is, what the hell was it, taking up a whole room by itself?"

I studied her face, thinking she was joking, but she honestly seemed not to know what it was used for...

She was apparently high enough in rank that she'd never needed to do that kind of work herself.

"Boss. Is it really okay to accept something this ominous?"

Rita whispered in my ear.

"It's creepy, so let's take it for now and shove it into the incinerator later."

I kept my voice low too, so Serena couldn't hear.

"Hey! You two! What are you whispering about right in front of me!?"

We'd been too obvious, apparently, and got scolded.

After that came a mana circuit engraver.

"Oh. Haven't seen one of these in a while."

It was, in fact, the first piece of equipment anyone had to have to work as an engineer. Though I'd replaced it with the mana thread function.

It wouldn't be bad for keeping the garage's atmosphere up.

But the next thing that came down made my eyes go wide.

"Oh! Is that-?!"

A prosthetic procedure table, with a neural interface attached.

Honestly, this one was a welcome sight.

Until now, repairing prosthetics that were already installed had been enough, but what kind of expert would an engineer in charge of prosthetics be if they couldn't even install one?

Truth be told, with the magic I had now, it wasn't impossible...

'It wouldn't be great for a modern person's mental health.'

Cutting off a perfectly good arm, peering at the nerves with the Magic Eye, and connecting the prosthetic with mana thread... It would be a long, painful ordeal, for the patient and the one operating alike.

With this table, it would catch a fair share of the nerves on its own. All that was left for me was a final check and the work of connecting the prosthetic.

After that came a few shelves, storage lockers, and cabinets. Inside were a good number of materials a normal garage would use.

Exactly what we needed most, with no money to buy parts like these right now.

"Oh, right. One thing I should tell you. Don't sell any of the equipment we brought outside, got it? They could track it. Just leave it here and use it."

Of course. We'd get tracked by Mantis Crew over things we got from Mantis Crew.

I'll never sell it... I'd rather throw it in the incinerator and burn it...

While I was thinking that, Serena spoke to me.

"And... things are probably going to be a little noisy around here for a while, okay? Don't go wandering around if you can help it. Especially at night. You get what I'm saying?"

The war with Black Dog wasn't over yet. It seemed that war was going to keep dragging on.

"Yes. I understand. I'll hole up in the garage and keep quiet for a while."

"Good, good. I'll come by for an arm tune-up next time I have some free time. Too busy today."

With that, Serena climbed into the truck she'd arrived in and was gone in a flash.

"...That was really hectic."

"It really was."

I nodded at Rita's words and looked around.

The inside of the garage had changed completely.

It used to be one workbench, one chair, and a few tools hanging on the wall. Now the place looked like a proper garage.

The procedure table and circuit engraver, the gun bench and storage lockers had moved in, and in the corner the disassembler and incinerator stood side by side.

...And somewhere in between, the chair even Serena couldn't explain had been shoved out of the way.

"Boss. Let's really smash that thing and burn it. It's way too ominous."

"...Yes, let's do that."

Bringing it all in wasn't the end of it, of course. It would probably take a few days to get this equipment working and to tidy up the place.

Now that we had an employee, working hard together should do it.

Arranging the goods, checking the inventory of the parts and materials we'd received... setting up the equipment...

Before I knew it, evening had come.

"Good work today. Let's stop here and have dinner."

"...Don't tell me dinner is that jelly too?"

Ah. Right.

I wasn't on my own anymore. I was a boss with an employee. Looking after an employee's welfare seemed to be part of the job now.

"...Bear with it just for today. Tomorrow let's go out together and do some grocery shopping."