Chapter 17: The Squire who reinvented Time.

Ugh. I let out a groan as I barely managed to sit up.

I really felt like I was going to die, I could barely breathe, but I was worried I might hear another command to cast magic.

“I’ll stop here for today.”

Haa.

When I heard the King’s Brother’s voice, I was sincerely relieved.

I fully understood he was an excellent teacher, but from the position of the one suffering, it couldn’t help but feel harsh.

I also had doubts about my talent, which took a whole year to reach the point where I wouldn’t lose consciousness.

“Then I will take my leave now. Please have a comfortable night.”

I should quickly run away—no, return—while he’s letting me go nicely.

“Yes, thanks to you, I will have a comfortable night today.”

It was a compliment meaning he didn’t receive any emergency treatment from the King’s Brother today.

Right, a compliment. In one year, my employer has become a bit more sly.

It feels like I contributed to my employer’s growth, and also like he evolved on his own.

I closed the door of the banquet hall where, still, not a single banquet had been held, and came out.

Unlike me, who could collapse on the bed and sleep right away due to being overworked to the limit, the King’s Brother didn’t seem likely to return to his bedroom.

His insomnia shows no signs of improvement.

If he couldn’t reduce fatigue through mana breathing, he would have collapsed at any moment.

Thanks to my sincere attendance forcing him to reduce caffeine and sunbathe for 30 minutes a day, the frequency of his headaches decreased a little, but they still haven’t disappeared.

Is it a reaction to being born with strong pheromones after all?

The King’s Brother’s Rut is approaching.

His steps leaving the banquet hall will likely lead to the study, not the bedroom.

As the time approaches when he has no choice but to stop all work despite having so much to do, he was working through the night.

During the day, meetings were endless.

Recently, the absolute majority of guests invited to his study were jewelers.

The King’s Brother was buying up enormous amounts of melee diamonds.

The value of a single melee diamond isn’t that significant.

Still, the jewelers were frantic to meet the King’s Brother’s demands.

Partly because the amount he demanded was large, but the merchants had other ulterior motives.

I lifted my wrist to check the time.

Right, wrist.

The reason the jewelers’ eyes turned red was precisely because of this wristwatch.

Another status of the King’s Brother is the Duke of Westell.

In Westell, there were vast wheat fields, forests, and mines owned by him.

The former King was the Queen, the King’s Brother’s grandmother.

It was land passed down to the King’s Brother by his father, who passed away before the long-lived Queen, was a Crown Prince who failed to become King, and eventually became a deposed Crown Prince due to his second marriage to a recessive Omega.

Although he was a landowner rather than a lord with military and judicial power like in the medieval ages, it was land where the King’s Brother could exert tremendous influence.

Even if he couldn’t visit often due to the King’s check.

Since I came here, the King’s Brother visited Westell exactly once.

Which means I also visited exactly once.

Being far from the capital was no different from that fishing village where I first opened my eyes, but the scale and affluence of the city couldn’t even be compared to that barren fishing village.

Wheat farming was the main source of income, but it was also a place visited by many tourists coming to see the beautiful lake and crystal mines.

There, I saw a product that was extremely useful and had great potential for growth.

“Don’t you think it’s too big for you to use yourself?”

I discovered it in a shop displaying various crafts made of crystal.

Although I didn’t experience a growth spurt of growing 30 centimeters in 6 months, I was still growing steadily, and my hands were growing too.

Now completely out of the childish maple-leaf hands phase, it was something I had to grip tightly enough to tear my grasp.

Something vibrating extremely regularly.

It was an adult toy made of crystal.

“This is truly a jackpot.”

Seeing me so happy, the King’s Brother’s eyebrows twitched.

Paying no heed to his reaction which was not positive at all, I bought the adult toys in that shop by type.

Not with my money, but with the King’s Brother’s money.

“I know you don’t intend to use it yourself, but do you really think this is useful?”

When the King’s Brother, holding the largest and thickest one in his hand, asked, I shook my head.

Honestly, it was extremely hideous.

And unrealistic.

But I felt like I had seen an object of that hideous and unrealistic size before.

Though it was amidst a chaotic situation.

That large and ominous thing, not in the King’s Brother’s hand but there…

No, I shook my head again more vigorously.

Anyway, that one was a fail.

“That’s not it. The movement is too irregular. Well, the creator probably made it with that intention, so it might be an excellent result for the creator, but it’s not what I’m looking for.”

“I still don’t know what interesting thing you’re trying to find, but I know interesting rumors will circulate starting tomorrow.”

“Uh, rumors circulating won’t do. Can’t you use some of your power, Duke?”

“It better be a really interesting item. Otherwise, the amount billed to you will be quite substantial.”

That was a genuinely scary threat.

If I hadn’t been confident I’d find something interesting, I would have put down what I was holding immediately.

But since I was confident, I could overcome the King’s Brother’s threat.

His flower-like smiling face was truly scary, but I decided to think of it as the price for borrowing the King’s Brother’s power as a mere servant.

Among the many items with varying sizes and vibration cycles, finding the item I truly wanted took a little time.

I had to find something vibrating perfectly regularly.

“This is it.”

Regrettably, what I was looking for was that very largest and most ominous one.

It was also the one I checked first.

I didn’t know it had a separate mode for regular vibration.

Feeling like the King’s Brother’s face would also distort ominously, I quickly added.

“This is a watch.”

“What?”

“More precisely, it will become a part of a watch. A vibrating crystal piece will tell 1 second instead of complex mechanical devices. There is no need to wind it every day. Since the number of parts will be drastically reduced, the time error will also be very small. Breakdowns will be fewer too. You could also add other functions besides simply telling time in the empty space.”

“Certainly, interesting.”

In the past, my father’s jewelry shop doubled as a watch shop, just like jewelry shops did in the old days.

I grew up seeing as many watches as gems.

Although my father also closed down the watch section when I stopped wearing the watch with the world’s most famous mouse character on it.

When I was young, I could often see my father repairing watches.

Thanks to that, I have memories of seeing the insides of watches.

Those packed tight with mechanical parts, and those containing motors and semiconductors.

For me, watches could be classified into two types.

Watches in this era were naturally the former, mechanical watches.

Watches moved by weights or springs.

In the 21st century, these are watches made only by luxury brands.

Conversely, most watches commonly seen in Korea were the latter, quartz watches.

Regardless of whether they had digital or analog displays.

The main component of a quartz watch was precisely crystal.

It was a method utilizing the characteristic of crystal vibrating at a constant frequency when voltage is applied to both ends.

Voltage, meaning a battery, is needed, but in this world, there is something called magic.

A simple semiconductor to count the crystal’s frequency and move the motor once per second is also needed, but magic can solve this too.

What was important here was not the degree of technological advancement but a shift in perception.

Unlike on Earth where even high-end quartz watches need battery replacement once a year, here, a single melee diamond could make a watch run for a lifetime.

Compared to the hassle of winding and resetting the time every day, it had tremendous advantages.

The reason quartz watches could sweep the market instantly upon appearance was precisely convenience.

On Earth, mechanical watches established themselves as high-priced luxury goods, but here, I thought quartz watches could take even that market.

Since the boundary between flagship and entry-level watches wasn’t even properly divided here yet.

It was just regretful that I couldn’t think of it until I saw the crystal dildo.

“So you’re saying we just need a simple magic circle to convert the crystal’s movement into the second hand’s movement. We can overwhelm watchmakers in production volume.”

Once the opportunity for a paradigm shift was provided, the King’s Brother instantly expanded the scale.

He found and persuaded the mages who made crystal dildos.

As soon as he promised stable and large income, they all became the King’s Brother’s faithful magic circle makers.

He found and absorbed watchmakers suffering from management difficulties due to undervaluation, and won over leather workshops and metal workshops.

Crystal adult toys disappeared from Westell.

Resentment for that was directed at the King’s Brother, but he didn’t care.

“The statement is getting longer and longer.”

As the list of absorbed workshops grew longer, the King’s Brother looked at me and said with a laugh.

Chills ran down my spine.

“It wasn’t me who grew the business to this extent. I only provided the idea, just a very small part of it.”

I had nothing to meddle with regarding the watch manufacturing process.

I was only involved in the crystal oscillator.

And even that was just providing the idea.

Other than that, I just mentioned it would be nice to have a light to see the time in the dark, add a perpetual calendar, display day and night, include waterproof functions, and make separate versions for children as well as men and women.

“But you’re the one who contributed most to raising the price of this watch sky-high?”

On the wrist the King’s Brother lifted, hung a watch that was lavishly finished with a bezel decorated with 128 melee diamonds, on a design that could have been monotonous with a black strap and black dial.