Side Story 3: Genia and Merula’s “Let’s Test it!”(1)

MISTERLP

"It's time for Genia..."

"...a-and Merula's..."

""...Let's Test It!""

The two who shouted this and pumped their fists into the air were

overscientist Genia, who had just gotten engaged to Ludwin Arcs, the

Captain of the Royal Guard, the other day; and Merula Merlin, from the

Spirit Kingdom of Garlan, the high elf whose too-strong curiosity had

gotten her accused as a witch, and put her on the run from the Orthodox

Papal State of Lunaria.

The two of them were now in the ruined dungeon workshop owned by

the House of Maxwell.

"...Um, was there some meaning behind that call?" Merula asked

Genia, her pale face having turned red.

"Huh? It was obviously just a spur-of-the-moment thing."

"Spur-of-the-moment...? Now, listen, Genia..."

"C'mon, Merumeru. Time's finite. Let's get to testing!"

"Please, don't call me Merumeru!"

Ignoring Merula's protests, Genia pulled something out from behind

her. It was a squalid bag, about the size of a sandbag used in boxing

practice.

"This here is the item up for testing today," Genia declared. "Dun-dudu-duuun: the Hero's Sack."

"The Hero's Sack?"

"This sack was said to be used by the first King of Elfrieden, who, just

like our king (Souma), was summoned from another world as a hero. It

may not look like much, but it can hold a lot, and recently Sir Poncho's

been using it to store the ingredients he gathers all over the continent and

brings them back."

"The first king... Wait, isn't this a real treasure?" Merula asked, poking

at the sack.

If this was the first King of Elfrieden they were talking about, he was a

great hero who united the many races to form this kingdom. His story was

told of in legend, and he was still loved and respected by the people. If the

first king had used this, it was probably an incredibly prized possession.

"It's technically a national treasure, yeah," Genia said like it was no big

deal.

"N-National treasure?!" Merula jumped back in surprise. "Wait, is it

okay to treat a national treasure so poorly?!"

"When I told the king 'I want to study it,' he said, 'Don't break it,' and

let me borrow it."

"So easily?! Like you were asking to borrow a new pocket watch that

he just bought?!"

"It sounds like the king wants to research overscience relics," Genia

shrugged. "You think something happened?"

"I-I wouldn't know..."

Having learned there was a connection between his former world and

this one after the incident in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, Souma

directed his research organizations to do more specific research into the

overscience relics that were no doubt key to learning what the connection

was. He hadn't gone so far as to explain that situation to them, though.

"Anyway, today I think we'll run tests on the Hero's Sack." Genia

picked up the relic. "Now first, let's see about its weight and volume. As

you can see, at present, even a delicate basement-dweller with thin arms

like me can easily lift it up."

"Was the self-deprecation necessary? But yes, it certainly does look

light."

"But, get this, there's already a whole lot of stuff inside. Okay, my

golems, bring it on out."

With that, Genia had the dirt golems she made with her own ability

bring over a large, rectangular water tank. It had to be as large as a sizable

shed. The base was about four by five meters, and it was more than four

meters tall. Genia had to put up a ladder just to stand on the edge of it.

Merula, who was left looking up at her, asked, "Um, Genia? What is

this for?"

"The thing about this sack is, it's already been left immersed in a river

for half a day."

"What are you doing to a national treasure?! Won't you be punished?!"

Merula was confused, but Genia didn't care.

"We can't let little things get in the way of academic progress."

"I... I always thought I was too obsessed with research, but... it's a big

world out there."

"Haha! Please, don't compliment me like that, Merumeru."

"I'm not complimenting you!"

"Well, anyway, thanks to being immersed in the river for half a day,

there's a lot of river water inside here. We don't know its volume, so it

remains unknown whether it's full or not. Regardless, I think if we open

the sack into this water tank, we can find out how much water is inside. If

it gets dangerous, we can just close the sack up, after all." With that, Genia

turned the sack toward the water tank. "Now, the grand opening."

With that easygoing proclamation, Genia opened the sack and water

started gushing out with incredible force. The kickback made Genia lean

backward despite herself, but she managed to prevent it from becoming a

problem by having her golem servants hold her in place.

The water kept building, and in no time, the tank was already half full.

Because it had been filled with river water, it was muddy, and there was a

lot of algae, chunks of driftwood, and garbage inside.

"Oh, fish..." Merula, who was looking up from below, noticed a

number of fish swimming inside the tank. They must have gotten inside

while it was immersed in the river.

Setting aside everything else, the fish in the bag were still alive. This is

fascinating. I don't know what the bag is like inside, but at a bare

minimum, it has the conditions necessary to support living fish.

Merula tended to get dragged around by Genia, but she was every bit as

curious. She quickly shifted her mind into research mode and began

analyzing.

The water, which it seemed might come out infinitely, eventually came

to a stop with the tank nine-tenths of the way full.

"Hmm," said Genia. "It's unthinkable that this was all that came in

after it was immersed in the river for half a day. Therefore, this might be

right around the capacity of the sack. More or less than one shed full?

Normally, if there was this much water inside, I wouldn't be able to lift it.

Does that mean the weight of the things inside can be ignored?"

Having come down from the ladder, Genia speculated with her hand on

her chin.

"It's incredible to be able to ignore the weight of so much water..."

Merula pondered. "Oh! Look, Genia. Can you see the fish swimming in

the tank?"

"Hm? ...You're right. They're swimming around full of energy."

"Are they so energetic because it was just half a day? But there's no

light inside, right? Even if there was water the whole time, they'd probably

think it was night and be more sluggish."

"The fish inside are energetic, huh... There's something about that fact

that catches my attention. If I recall, the king said food that gets put inside

doesn't rot easily. If that's the case..."

The girls traded arguments that seemed to go nowhere.

While they did, there were two men watching them from the terrace of

the log cabin built inside the ruined dungeon workshop. One of them was

the Captain of the Royal Guard, Ludwin Arcs, who was Genia's fiancé.

The other was Merula's guardian (?), Souji Lester, the rotten bishop sent

from the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria.

The two were drinking beer on the terrace while watching the women

engaged in their research. One wore a dumbfounded smile, and the other

was holding his head.

"That Genia, being reckless again." The one holding his head was

Ludwin. Today, like every day, the serious Captain of the Royal Guard

was being jerked around by his childhood friend Genia. "Did she say she

left a national treasure in a river for half a day? What was she thinking?! If

it got lost, they'd do more than just abolish the House of Maxwell!"

"Hahaha!" Souji laughed jollily as Ludwin clutched his head. "Oh,

what's the harm? Either way, during your generation, the Houses of Arcs

and Maxwell will merge to become the House of Maxwell-Arcs, right?"

"Urgh, that's not the problem! Besides, should you be letting Madam

Merula run wild, Sir Souji? You're her guardian, aren't you?"

"Even if you call me her guardian, my job's just to take it easy and

avoid acting on the requests my country sends me," Souji said. "I'll protect

her from the demands of my country to arrest her, but I don't care enough

to open my mouth about anything else. When it comes to anything other

than research, she's got her act together better than I do, anyway."

While saying that, Souji knocked back his beer. Normally, a man of the

cloth in the Lunarian Orthodox faith would be expected to refrain from

such worldly desires, but he was as rotten as ever.

"Phew..." he added. "When it comes to one of us telling the other off,

it's Merula that's the noisy one, you know? It's always, 'Clean up this

room,' or, 'You're acting like a slob. Get it together.'"

"No, I think Madam Merula is right... They're both researchers, but the

way she's neat and tidy is like the polar opposite of Genia."

"You might be surprised to find you'd be better off getting together

with Merula instead, don't you think?" Souji asked.

"By the same token, if we paired you up with Genia, I think the two of

you would run even more wild than you do now."

Imagining the pairings of Ludwin and Merrula, and Souji and Genia...

The two of them smiled wryly. That was because though it resulted in

couples with similar personalities, they just didn't feel right.

"Well, it's hard for things to work out when both partners are too

similar, after all," Souji said.

"...Is that how it works?"

While the two were having that sort of heart-to-heart talk, Genia waved

Souji over. "Hey, you got a minute, Old Man Souji?"

"Hm? You mean me, Young Miss Genia?"

"Yeah. Sorry, but could you come over here for a moment?"

"Geez, I guess I'll have to..."

With steps made slightly unsteady by alcohol, Souji headed over to

where Genia and Merula were.

Being called out by name when Genia was experimenting...

Ludwin had a bad feeling about this. But if he stopped the man from

going, he was bound to be the one to eat a stray bullet instead, so he shut

up and watched Souji go.

—Slightly before Genia called Souji over—

"I suspect the reason why food that's put in the sack doesn't rot easily

is because the time it takes the food to rot is being extended," Genia said.

"By which you mean?" Merula asked.

"I think the flow of time inside the sack is different from the flow of

time outside the sack. Perhaps the reason the fish that had been inside for

half a day were still so energetic also stems from the flow of time being

different. So, here's the idea."

Genia pulled out an hourglass. When turned upside down, the sand that

was filling the top part began falling to the bottom. Genia put the hourglass

into the sack in that state.

"This hourglass is designed so that it takes five minutes for all the sand

to reach the bottom. We'll wait five minutes with it like this."

"...I see. So that's how it is."

—Five minutes later—

When Genia pulled out the hourglass, the sand still hadn't fully fallen.

More than that, there was little change in the amount of sand at the top at

all.

Genia brought her hand to her chin and groaned. "Hrm... I expected the

sand not to have fully fallen, but if the amount in the top hasn't noticeably

changed, does that mean time is practically stopped?"

"Time's stopped inside this bag?! Is that possible?!"

"Our common sense doesn't apply when it comes to the way

overscience relics work, my dear Merumeru."

"Don't call me that... But how can we tell if time is stopped inside or

not?"

"Hm... It seems we're forced to use our last resort."

"L-Last resort?"

Merula gulped as Genia flashed her an indomitable smile.

"Going inside to see."

And that was why Souji was called over.

Merula turned a cold look on Genia. "So you're not going to go

inside."

"I am an observer," Genia said. "I have a duty to leave records of the

experiment."

"Honestly... This is really going to be okay, right?"

"You're worried about the old man?" Genia smirked, and Merula

turned to look away.

"Even if it was him, I'd have trouble sleeping at night if anything were

to happen."

"It'll be fine," said Genia. "You saw how energetically the fish were

swimming around, didn't you?"

"They may have looked that way on the surface, but there's no way to

tell if the fish are really fine when they don't speak."

Then Souji came over. "You called, Young Miss Genia?"

"Hee hee! I know this is sudden, but we're going to have you help us

out a little."

"Help? ...Wait, whuh?!"

Without waiting for his response, Genia pulled the Hero's Sack over

the top of Souji.