WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Made Magic Easier by Changing the Formula ◈
Chapter 8: The Genius Mender’s Night Is Secretive
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Bergen Count’s estate in northern Rowen.
“You can’t? What do you mean, you can’t?!”
Crash!
The teacup Lady Sophia Bergen threw struck the wall and shattered.
The family’s menders in the dressing room trembled as they lowered their heads.
“My lady, it’s... completely beyond our ability. You want us to make sure water cannot soak into the dress fabric. Perhaps if we coated it in oil, but giving it waterproofing while preserving silk’s texture is...”
“Ellen did it! Her dress... was perfectly fine! I saw it with my own eyes! Not a single drop got on it!”
Sophia huffed in fury.
The humiliation she had suffered at Salon de Rose yesterday had wounded her pride deeply. Ellen, whom she usually dismissed as provincial, had become the star of high society with a single dress.
“Sis, please stop. My head’s pounding.”
Felix, sprawled across a sofa in the corner, muttered irritably.
His face was bruised blue, and his eyes were hollow.
“You should shut up, Felix! The family’s reward wasn’t enough, so you secretly borrowed from loan sharks and dumped it into stocks? Father beat you half to death, and you still haven’t come to your senses?”
“...That was just bad luck. If it weren’t for that damned acidic mist...”
Felix raised his voice as though it were unfair, but there was no strength behind it.
Sophia looked at her younger brother with the contempt one might show a bug, then turned away.
“What are you doing? Bring Baron Gale here immediately!”
A little later, Baron Gale, the Bergen family’s resident mage, entered the room.
Gale was a proficient third-tier mage.
“My lady, please calm down. That phenomenon you described... is not magically impossible.”
“Then put it on my dress immediately!”
Gale cleared their throat and shook their head.
“The problem is efficiency. To prevent a dress from getting wet, a water-element barrier would have to be maintained over the entire garment at all times. That would require embedding at least two mana crystals in its lining, as well as room to inscribe a magic circle.”
“Two mana crystals?”
“It would become heavy, and the mana crystals would need replacing whenever their mana ran out. Putting a battle-grade barrier into a dress just to stop a few splashes? The cost would outweigh the benefit.”
His explanation was logical.
Waterproofing was merely an added function. It was an expensive, inefficient technique originally meant to block arrows or magical attacks.
But Sophia could not accept it.
She attended the Rowen Magic Tower Magic Academy herself. She was not ignorant of magic.
“Ellen’s dress looked light. I didn’t see any mana crystals, and I couldn’t even feel mana waves from it! And it can’t possibly be an ancient artifact.”
“Hmm...”
Gale stroked their beard.
“It certainly is strange. Achieving that level of efficiency without mana crystals...”
“Could it be domestic magic? Something like cleaning or drying magic?”
Gale gave a short laugh.
“My lady, domestic magic can barely be called magic at all. They are mere tricks, useful at most for dusting or drying wet hair.”
“Then how did Ellen do it?!”
“Well... the world is a wide place. Perhaps there is some lucky mutant mage whose domestic magic developed in an unusual direction. Though even then, they would still be nothing more than a domestic mage.”
“Then find me one of those mutant domestic mages. I’ll hire them as my personal mender.”
Gale scratched his head awkwardly.
“That would be even harder. Most domestic mages are holed up somewhere earning a living, so they are difficult to find in the first place. I have no way of knowing where someone with such exceptional ability may be hiding. It will take considerable time.”
“Time? I need to wipe that smug look off Ellen’s face as soon as tomorrow!”
Sophia bit her nails as she fell into thought.
If finding fresh talent was difficult, the answer was simple.
She could take someone who had already proven their worth.
“Look into it.”
“Into what, my lady?”
“That mender Ellen hired. I heard from the maids that his name is Hans. Find out everything about him.”
Felix, who had quietly listened to the conversation, twitched his brow.
“...Wait, sis. Who did you say? The mender Ellen of the Valderk family hired is really named Hans?”
“That’s right. Hans. Why? Do you know him too?”
“Hah!”
Felix’s face flared with bitter hatred.
He recalled the indifferent eyes of that commoner boy who had passed him at the exchange as if mocking him.
“...He’s a vulgar commoner who did nothing but clean the library.”
Grinding his teeth, he rose from the sofa.
“Sis, you can’t possibly be thinking of making a lowly commoner like that the Bergen family’s personal mender. It would disgrace our family!”
“I don’t care whether he’s a commoner or not. As long as he has skill, I only need to keep him under my heel and use him.”
“No! That bastard is... Tch! He’s insolent. A commoner, acting like that! Next time I see him, I’ll crush him.”
“Then isn’t this even better? Bring him here, and you can crush him completely.”
A grotesque delight spread across Felix’s twisted face.
“...Right. I need to see those arrogant eyes fill with terror myself.”
Gale’s eyes widened.
“My lady, then surely you do not mean to...?”
“The Valderk family may be wealthy, but ours is no less so. If we offer several times his current wages, he’ll come running. That is how commoners are.”
Gale sighed.
“And if you cannot take him from them?”
A sinister smile curved Sophia’s lips.
“Then Ellen should not be able to use him either. I cannot stand to see Ellen wearing a dress that I cannot wear.”
“That is an extremely dangerous idea. Even if he is a commoner, harming an employee of the Valderk family could lead to consequences that will not be easily resolved.”
“Hmph! Would the two families really go to war over one mere commoner?”
“Even so, it must never be done.”
“Then make sure such a thing never happens by bringing him here.”
“Understood, my lady. I will do my best.”
With another sigh, Gale withdrew.
* * *
Tap, tap.
“Hans, it’s me.”
At eight in the evening, Nen came to the annex.
She held a black one-piece dress in her hands.
“Come in, Nen.”
“I brought what you mentioned this morning... I’m sorry to trouble you with my clothes when you must be busy.”
Nen shyly held out her maid’s uniform.
Not only the sleeves but also the hem were worn, with the threads coming undone.
“It’s fine. I’ll have it perfect by tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you.”
I took the clothes and placed them on the workbench.
Nen looked around the workshop, then asked as if something had occurred to her.
“My lady gave special instructions. She said to provide you with any tools or materials you need for your work. Is there anything you need?”
The first thing that came to mind was mana crystals.
The depleted mana crystals I had were weak and short-lived. If I could receive even a few clean, lower-grade mana crystals with the count’s wealth, my work speed would increase tenfold.
‘But... no.’
No matter how much favor I had gained from Ellen, asking for mana crystals as a mender?
That was a request beyond my station.
I did not want to lose the goodwill I had worked so hard to gain by doing something so foolish.
“Well, I have enough thread and needles...”
After a moment’s thought, I spoke.
“Could I perhaps read some newspapers?”
“Newspapers?”
Nen’s eyes widened.
“Things like the Rowen Daily or the Merchant Guild Bulletin.”
“You can read?”
A commoner, and a mender at that, could read?
It was especially unusual for someone to read newspapers full of difficult economic terms.
“I used to work as a library assistant. I learned to read by watching others there. I don’t know many difficult words, but I’d like to at least see what is happening in the world.”
I gave the excuse I had prepared in advance.
Nen nodded at last.
“Well, if you worked at a library, that makes sense.”
She looked at me as if seeing me anew.
“It isn’t difficult. I’ll ask my lady for permission.”
“Really? Thank you!”
“No need to thank me. If you need anything else, don’t hesitate to tell me. All right?”
An hour later, Nen really did bring me a bundle of newspapers.
[Imperial Economic Daily]
The front page was covered in war articles.
The moment I opened the business section...
“...Hah.”
A disbelieving laugh slipped out.
A small chart made my heart race.
[Today’s Top Gainer: Black Forest Timber]
- Current Price: 1 silver 70 copper
- Positive News: Rumors of an imminent first supply contract with the military.
My purchase price had been 5 copper.
But today it was a full 170 copper!!!
‘Thirty-four times... Is this real?’
If I sold now, the 53 silver I had invested would return as a staggering 18 gold.
Eighteen gold coins!
For a commoner like me, it was an enormous sum that I might never touch in my lifetime.
‘Should I sell?’
My heart pounded.
Should I take the profit now and play it safe?
‘No. It still has a long way to go.’
I read the newspaper articles more carefully.
“The military struggles to secure Black Ironwood... No substitute available.”
“White Cedar Shipyard shares fall 90%, trading suspended.”
The military had not signed the official contract yet.
This was the result of mere rumors that it was imminent.
Once the contract was signed, the advance payment deposited, and the shortage of Black Ironwood truly hit home, this stock would rise past a hundredfold and go through the roof.
‘I’ll wait until it rises further.’
I neatly folded the newspaper and placed it deep in a drawer.
Then I sat before the workbench again.
‘Focus. This work is magic training for me.’
I spread out the maid’s uniform Nen had entrusted to me.
The worn fabric let in rain and wind.
‘Connect the depleted mana crystals to the circuit.’
I combined formulas that had already been successfully tested.
[First-Tier Composite Formula: Tear Mending + Trace Erasure + Stain Repellent]
Such care for a mere maid’s uniform?
But to me, who was training in magic, these clothes were no different from Ellen’s dress.
Tssst.
With a faint light, the fabric tightened and became firm.
I increased the fabric’s density so that ordinary grime would not cling to it and would simply slide off.
‘My mana is being drained.’
Pain squeezed my mana core dry.
Still, I did not stop.
Cold sweat ran down my face, and my fingertips trembled, but enduring one more second at that limit was harsh training.
By the time I finished, I was nearly exhausted.
‘It looks almost new.’
Still, it did not emit the sweet glow of Ellen’s dress.
The base was a cheap maid’s uniform, so there was nothing to be done about that limit.
‘I deliberately did not add radiance. If it stood out too much, Nen might have trouble.’
Even so, Nen’s maid’s uniform had been reborn as a dignified garment worthy of a count’s household.
“Phew... My mana is depleted, so I’ll rest for a while.”
I was tired and exhausted.
Yet I could feel the minute increase in my mana capacity, deep within my core.
I was growing.
Making money and building my skill.
“Keep going.”
Fortunately, I had other materials for experiments.
The handkerchiefs I had made some time ago.
‘Let’s turn these handkerchiefs into magic handkerchiefs.’
I had no fear of failure.
These were magic experiments I did for my own enjoyment. No one would say anything if I failed.
‘This itself is fun for me.’
Thinking up and applying new formulas each time.
As I became immersed in my experiments, midnight passed, and it was soon well after two in the morning.
Then...
Tap, tap.
Someone knocked on the annex door.
“...?”
Nen?
No, she would not come this late.
Then was it a guard?
I instinctively grew tense.
I quickly covered the depleted mana crystals and magic circuit diagrams spread across the workbench with a cloth.
“Who is it?”
I asked as I approached the door.
“It’s me. Open the door.”
My heart sank.
It was neither Nen nor a guard.
That clear, confident voice.
Ellen, the mistress of this estate.
‘Why at this hour?’
Swallowing dryly, I opened the door.
Creeeak.
When the door opened, I saw a young girl standing with the moonlight behind her.
“Miss Ellen?”
Instead of her usual extravagant dress, she wore a comfortable thin silk gown with a shawl over it.
But her expression was not as playful as usual.
Her gaze was sharp and serious.
“What brings you here so late?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I was taking a walk and saw the light on, so I came over.”
Ellen strode into the room, stood in its center, and sniffed the air.
The lingering trace of mana from my recent magic use still hung in the air because I had not had time to air the room out.
“...”
Ellen’s gaze settled on a piece of depleted mana crystal sticking out from where I had hurriedly put things away on the workbench.
Her eyes went wide.
“Is this a mana circuit...? You made a circuit using the residual mana in depleted mana crystals?”
Fine threads of mana connected the depleted mana crystals.
“That’s impossible! I’ve never seen anything like it.”
She stared intently at the mana circuit.
As if trying to read something from it.
But soon, as if a headache struck, she shook her head.
“I knew my guess was right. You’re no ordinary mender.”
In an instant, she turned toward me.
Her blue eyes gleamed coldly.
“Hans.”
“Yes, my lady.”
The pressure was palpable.
She was not a spoiled young noblewoman.
She was a sharp, perceptive member of the ruling class, raised with an elite education in Rowen’s finest noble family.
“Tell me honestly.”
She asked in a voice full of certainty.
“Are you a mage?”
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