"I present to you, Shun," Edric announced with theatrical flair, "magiteck that allows you to automatically make the perfect pancake. All you need are ingredients and a magic circle connected to the machine."
Shun's eyes lit up with genuine interest. Rylan tilted his head, visibly confused.
"Wait, wait," Rylan interrupted. "This is what you've been working on?"
"Yeah. Something wrong?"
"A magiteck… to cook the perfect pancake?" Rylan's voice dripped with bewilderment. "I thought you two were building fancy gadgets or something actually cool."
"Rylan, this is cool," Shun said solemnly, pointing at the blueprint. "If I build this, I won't need to rent a housewife just to get perfect pancakes every morning."
"Rent a housew—" Rylan looked utterly perplexed, then wisely decided not to pursue it. "I'm not going to touch that. Also, if you're too lazy to cook, can't you just order something?"
"They don't accept orders for five hundred pancakes within an hour," Edric said, raising his hand toward the projected machine. "This can."
"Who in their right mind would eat—" Rylan's eyes widened as realization hit. "Okay. It's you two."
After a beat of silence, he added, "Why pancakes?"
"I sense some insult in that question," Shun replied, expression slightly displeased.
"No, it's just… it doesn't fit you two at all." Rylan pointed at Shun. "Look at that stern face. I'd believe it more if someone said you hunt beasts outside the wall and eat them raw."
"They're not wrong," Shun shrugged.
Edric and Rylan stared at him in shock.
"You actually did it?" Edric asked.
"It was that or die from hunger." Shun's tone stayed perfectly calm.
"Right… your past." Rylan rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly awkward. "Sorry. I sounded like a douche."
"Don't worry about it. It's just the past." Shun turned his attention back to the machine and continued tinkering. "You two don't have to get all stiff suddenly. Don't make it awkward. Edric, help me with this."
"Yes."
"Can I help with something?" Rylan asked, still carrying a trace of guilt.
"Nah. Just sit tight and wait. Your presence here is already enough."
Rylan smiled and settled back. He watched the two fall into a smooth rhythm—assembling parts, channeling their mana to refine rough shapes into polished components, carefully routing wires.
Less than three minutes passed before his eyelids grew heavy. A yawn stretched so wide a fly could have flown in, done three laps, and escaped.
He stood. "I'm going to take a huge dump."
"Okay. Have fun."
As the washroom drew closer, Rylan walked straight past it and kept going until he stepped outside. He gazed across the empty field where blades of grass swayed gently in the breeze.
The ground seemed to call to him. He chose a secluded spot and began to dig.
…
As the young masters left the counseling room, they maintained polite smiles until the door clicked shut. Their expressions instantly twisted into pure fury.
"Those damn rats!" one snarled, fists clenched. "How dare they humiliate me in front of everyone! I'll make them pay. I'll torture them until death feels like heaven!"
Their rage burned hot—until cold realization doused it like ice water.
"How exactly are we going to do that?" one asked. "Didn't you see how Shun and Edric moved? They're at least mid-stage Awakened!"
"Nonsense!" Jul flung his arm dismissively. "I've seen their files. Shun is only at the peak of Dormant, and Edric is early Awakened. They must have used magiteck or some kind of artifact to boost their speed and strength. There's no way their families could afford top-tier gear."
"Even so, Young Master Jul," another interrupted, "Shun is supposedly a genius with magiteck. He could have built it himself. I heard he developed a gun that can shrink people."
"Ridiculous," Jul scoffed. "If something like that were possible, Kinrara or Machno would have made it first."
They continued walking and soon reached a hall with an open window overlooking the field. Below, they spotted a lone figure.
"Is that Rylan?"
"Excellent! He's alone!" Jul's lips curled into a sinister smile.
"Young Master Jul, are you sure about this? Won't we get a mark?"
"It's fine as long as no one knows." He reassured them. The other two exchanged doubtful glances.
"Now, follow me."
They headed toward the stairway but passed an open door. Instinctively, they glanced inside and froze.
Shun and Edric were bent over a strange machine humming with magic.
"So you really have that shrinking gun?" Edric asked, as if confirming a rumor. "The stories are true, then."
The three young masters ducked behind the wall, faces drained of color.
"Did you just hear that?"
"It's real! The shrinking gun is real!" one whispered urgently. "They're going to use it on us! Shrink us down and stomp us like bugs!"
"Wait… that hole Rylan is digging…"
They held their breath, imaginations painting a gruesome picture: their shrunken bodies turned into bloody paste and dumped into the hole as their final resting place.
Like prey desperate not to be noticed, they nodded silently to one another and backed away slowly.
…
"But the gun only worked on objects," Shun said, lowering protective goggles over his eyes. He resumed welding, bright sparks flying in all directions.
"That's disappointing," Edric muttered while scribbling complex mathematical formulas laced with strange, glowing symbols. The symbols twisted, merged with the equations, and vanished into thin air.
Beneath the half-finished machine sat an active magic circle. Edric placed the completed sheet of paper onto it. The paper decayed as though consumed by invisible flames, dissolving into particles that flowed into the device.
For a brief moment, the machine emitted a cold, ethereal glow.
"Should be stable," Shun said, setting down his tool. "It has a lot of potential… and just as many risks. I'm not taking chances. I don't want some quantum virus slipping into the real world and spreading."
He added, "I can lend you the magiteck. Friend rate—ten thousand sterls for three days. Five thousand per extra day if you don't return it on time. If you miss the penalty or exceed the agreed date, I'll collect the device… and you know what happens next."
"No leeway even for a friend?"
"You know me. I never mix personal relationships with business. I don't want Rylan to feel like the child of divorced parents."
Edric chuckled. "Fair."