kscans

Chapter 273 - The World Reflected in Those Eyes

A small space rested before my eyes. I could hold it easily in both hands. It was smaller than a clothing box, which would not hold even a single garment.

I found my eyes drawn into the tiny spectacle.

Inside a cube stained light blue, green leaves swayed in the current. Silver scaled fish, clad in red and blue, swam languidly among them. A painting of the same size would seem paltry, a sculpture trite. Its beauty existed only because it moved.

"A living miniature garden. How interesting that it even comes with gardeners."

My gaze fell upon a newly added organism. A legged creature, about the same size as the fish. Ricardo had called it a "biological weapon," making me imagine something truly monstrous, but it was just a small shrimp, the kind you might find among the weeds in a pond.

Covered in drab brown armor, it walked through the water on thin legs, brandishing its long antennae. Its movements were restless, a stark contrast to the small fish swimming gracefully through the water.

They were working everywhere, on the round, baked clay spread across the bottom, on the surface of the glass, and on the leaves and stems of the aquatic plants. Like tiny seamstresses, their two small claws worked without pause. They were pruning the weeds in this submerged garden. For them, however, it was a meal.

These shrimp were what had returned that rotten scene to its current beautiful state.

After that, all Ricardo did was add five of these shrimp to the tank and cover the whole thing with a cloth. Blocking the light caused the light-dependent algae to wither. The aquatic plants were larger and grew more slowly, so they could apparently endure by using their stored nutrients.

As a result, the shrimp had cleaned up all the brown algae. From now on, the shrimp would eat the algae at a stage when it was still too small for the human eye to see.

Indeed, the glass surface was as clean as if it had been polished. It was cleaner than if a person had wiped it with a cloth, and what’s more, it was fascinating to watch. I could see children, especially boys, pressing their faces right up against it.

Could it be that this product is also for Alex? Hmm, if I was put through all this trouble for his sake, I might have a few choice words about it.

"I was worried when it was covered in that green haze, but it has become an even more splendid product. In addition to the fish and aquatic plants, there are shrimp. How much do you think this will be worth?"

"Let’s see. It’s a luxury item, and considering the cost of transport and such, how about this much?"

"Oh my."

Princess Lisabet, who had initially called the fish unremarkable, started calculating on an abacus with Ricardo. A literally money-minded conversation had begun.

"How boorish, in the face of such a beautiful sight."

"……" "……"

The two of them turned to me with looks of surprise.

"What. I’m perfectly capable of appreciating beautiful things. An artistic eye is necessary for sketching monsters, you know."

"The first half of your sentence contradicts the second."

"That sounds just like you, Princess."

The two of them laughed.

"Hmph. Well, fine. You’re a lord and a merchant, after all. But."

I thought for a moment. Even to me, a layman when it comes to business, this looked like it would sell. Ricardo had said he would line the tanks up in the convention center and the futures exchange, the heart of where people gathered in Central Garden, and it would spread as a new trend. Princess Lisabet would surely welcome an increase in exports from her domain. And for the Empire, reducing the trade deficit with the kingdom, even by a little, was important both economically and politically.

Even so, listening to the figures being exchanged next to me, I still couldn't understand.

"For a great merchant like Ricardo to come all this way and spend nearly two months on it, this seems a little small."

"I told you from the start it wasn’t a huge deal."

"This is a very promising matter for us, though. Well, it is certainly a small project for you, Ricardo-dono."

Princess Lisabet said this, and Ricardo gave a wry smile.

"Is this some kind of cover to secretly test that screw with your kingdom’s palace? You actually have made a lot of research progress with speed adjustments and whatnot."

"Don’t say such scary things. That’s not it. Well, I know it connects to that sort of thing, though."

I voiced what I had been thinking. Ricardo shook his head. I did not understand. Surely that was far more important. Just as I was about to argue my point, there was a knock on the door.

"Princess Lisabet. There is a petition regarding the lodging town."

"What is it?"

"Well, it is not something for this room."

Princess Lisabet’s lady-in-waiting informed her mistress. They moved to a corner of the room to speak. It was probably about that issue. The population increase was causing various problems, such as a rise in human waste and a shortage of firewood and charcoal. In that sense, perhaps it was a blessing this product was on such a small scale.

"I am sorry, but I must step out for a moment."

Princess Lisabet left the room.

"She seems to have her hands full."

Ricardo watched her go, his voice a little dark. I wonder if he prefers the obedient, feminine type like her. Alfina is like that, and Mia too. Well, Mia is a little different.

"Forget about things here, what about you, Maytyl? Didn’t you have business in the Imperial Capital to begin with?"

"The person in question, His Majesty the next Emperor, hasn’t returned from the old capital. It seems he found some new information over there. Something about a detailed map of the western side of the Despair Mountains."

"Is that so. Come to think of it, trade with the west was cut off."

◇◇

Three days after the completion of what Ricardo called his small product, I had finished preparing for my departure to my "post." In the end, Dagobard had decided to head to Central Garden. The map they found must have contained something incredibly important, something related to magical energy observation.

Honestly, what did I even come all this way for. I looked at my own fancier-than-usual attire and shrugged. I suppose I failed to achieve my intended results as well.

Oh well. It was rather interesting, so I do not mind.

I bid farewell to the fish tank. It would be left here as a product sample. It would be a lie to say I had not grown attached to this living work of art that I had watched over from the very beginning.

Bathed in the light from the window, the aquatic plants had tiny bubbles on them as they stretched their leaves. A small piece of driftwood Ricardo had picked up from the riverbank later on also added to the atmosphere.

"Ah, hey, that’s not food. Wait. To the fish, it is food, isn't it."

On top of that driftwood, a fish ate a tiny shrimp larva, no bigger than a grain of sand. It is only natural for small animals to be eaten by larger ones.

"This isn’t like me. This is the same as us eating birds or cows."

Wait a minute.

The sun’s light makes the grass grow. Birds and cows eat the grass, and we eat their meat. It is perfectly ordinary. So what about what is in front of me? Shrimp eat the aquatic plants and algae that grow from the light, and fish eat the shrimp. It is the same.

No, it is more than that.

I thought as I watched the brown substance emerge from the fish’s anal fin.

The fish waste, the shed shrimp shells, and even their carcasses are returned to the soil by the Mucus inside. That becomes fertilizer and nurtures the plants. It cycles?

"Wait a minute."

The words escaped my lips. I blinked in spite of myself. The small product before me now looked like something else entirely. I caught a glimpse of why such a tiny space had captured my eyes and would not let go.

"Hey, Ricardo."

I opened my mouth timidly, unable to keep the possibility I had thought of to myself.

"These fish. Could they be, us?"

When I asked, Ricardo looked surprised. He understood my outlandish words. I see, so it was like that from the very start.

But I had bigger things to worry about. I had realized something about the living art, the beautiful miniature garden before me.

"If that’s the case, Ricardo. Then this tank, it’s a self-contained version of the world itself, isn’t it."

"Well, light, air, and food come from the outside. You’re sharp to have noticed."

Ricardo’s answer was, as expected, an affirmation. He looked at me with a strange expression, as if he were both troubled and impressed.

"What if this tank were ten times larger, with the same number of fish?"

"Under ideal conditions, they might not need any food. Right, even under the current conditions, if it were just shrimp and not fish, they might be able to sustain themselves on light alone."

What does he mean, a small business.

I glared back at the man who was looking at me with a troubled expression, fighting the urge to be intimidated.

There had been many times when I had been horrified by this man’s knowledge. But until now, those feelings had been outweighed by stronger emotions like greater interest or curiosity.

This, however, was different. He had packed the workings of the world into a small glass box. An attempt to place the world itself on the dissecting table of an experiment. It was like the viewpoint of a god.

"You, just how many schemes do you have?"

It was fear, no, awe that moved my mouth. But my words stopped halfway. Something still felt off. I planted my feet, which had instinctively tried to back away. Then, I looked at the tank before me once more.

It was a world that circulated within a closed space. Yes, just like this small basin.

Suddenly, I remembered Princess Lisabet’s words, and Ricardo’s reaction to them. I realized I had seen that look in his eyes before. It was on his face shortly after we left the town, when he looked back at the developing Central Garden. His eyes, looking at that city which seemed to have so much room for growth, held a hint of melancholy.

For just a moment, just an instant, I felt like I had seen into the depths of his eyes.

What if that was not how he saw it? The next moment, Mia’s story of the 128 gold coins came back to me. The very story I had so sagely taught Princess Lisabet the other day.

A man borrows a single gold coin. The interest doubles each month. When the debt reaches 128 coins, he will be executed. The interest rate is impossibly high, and execution is certainly harsh. But that is not the point of the story.

In the first month, the debt becomes two gold coins. In the second month, four. Then it grows to eight, then sixteen. After seven months, the debt reaches the limit of 128 coins, and it is all over for the man. But what about the month before that? The debt is 64 coins. It looks as if he is only halfway to ruin. As if he still has another half a year, an illusion.

Yes, the man spends six months walking half the way to the executioner’s block. Then, in the next single month, he covers the entire remaining distance.

At first, the change seems small and linear, but it is not. Incidentally, even without the impossible assumption of doubling, with an interest rate as low as ten percent, it is only the timescale that changes. One day, at least from a human perspective, a great change can suddenly occur.

The problems that troubled Princess Lisabet. And the filtration that Ricardo had been concerned about from the start of the tank. In this limited box, the more the small fish multiply in the future, the more apparent these issues will become. In this small world, how much prosperity can these fish maintain?

No, wait. That is still strange. Around that city, aside from the area by the great river, there are vast, open plains. Even if that city grew to ten times its current size, no, twenty times, there probably would not be a problem.

"Could it be that this world isn't that big?"

"No, it’s big. But, how do I put this. I’ve brought concepts from my world over and sort of messed with the speed of progress here. And with skewed knowledge, at that. When you think about it like that, I start to worry about what will happen to the balance between various fields, something that would normally be adjusted naturally."

Ricardo said that dealing with the magical pulse period came first, scratching his head. But the melancholy in his eyes did not fade.

"You mean things like population growth?"

The way population, that is, the number of humans, increases clearly follows the pattern of the gold coins. Suppose a couple has four children. Ideally, the population doubles in one generation. With a generation being twenty years, we could prosper for hundreds of years without a care, growing and growing. All without realizing that the very next generation might bring ruin to the world.

But still, that is just too much. I tried to shake off the impossible thought, but Ricardo nodded.

"Yeah, something like that. Also the amount of magical resources, Magic Crystals, needed. You know, that winter box uses a fair bit, right? And this screw. The applications for magical power are endless. And that, in turn, increases the population."

Ricardo said this as he watched the small cylinder spin inside the tank. Beside it was the winter box, a magic tool I could no longer imagine living without, still consuming magical power.

"It’s a topic that has no bearing on the present. That’s why this is just a small business. But a hundred years from now, two hundred, no, actually even later. I can’t see that far into the future. So, this is my way of at least leaving this behind."

He said this and laughed playfully. As I began to understand his explanation, the fear from before subsided. Normally, I should have been exasperated. I should have said, "What do you mean, a small business." But I was struck by a completely different emotion.

"That’s not something for you to bear alone, Ricardo."

And I uttered the complete opposite words.

Back when I was still absorbed in sorcery research in the Empire, an emotion would occasionally surface in my heart when I was alone in my room. It was something I had forgotten for a very long time, but now it revived within me. The view from a height no one else had reached. It must have been a loneliness that was two sides of the same coin as pride.

Since meeting Ricardo and starting research with Noel, Fulsy, and the others under him, I had forgotten such feelings. I did not even feel it at night here, when I was adjusting the screw by myself.

So what about Ricardo? Isn’t he lonely? Isn’t he isolated? He prides himself on his knowledge, but he does not see it as his own power. So what is left, it is not just loneliness. Standing alone on a peak, looking at the wide world, at a world long after he is dead.

That can’t be right.

Yes, the expression Ricardo showed just now, when I realized his intention. A face that looked a little relieved, a little at ease. That means. He wanted someone, even just one person, to see the same thing.

If that is the case, isn't there something I can do? The moment I thought that, something in my heart clicked perfectly into place. Two circuits that had been slightly misaligned until now became one.

"No, that’s why, I’m doing this for profit. You know, basically leaving it all to the people of the future. It’s not a serious issue, I’m sure the people of the future will solve it with technology."

Ah, I have been completely enclosed now. Just like the fish in this tank.

I lifted the hem of my frilled, dress-like garment and pointed at the tank.

"You failed to protect yourself, Ricardo. So be quiet. I’ve already decided."

Then I took a step toward Ricardo. Ugh, this long skirt is just getting in the way.

"I’ll be your partner in this."

"Wha, wait, Maytyl, so."

"What is it?"

I pointed at the cylindrical piece of metal rotating inside the tank. Then I gave him a smirk. At least in this field, I will stand by his side. I am definitely better suited for this field than Alfina.

"You need me, don’t you. Instead of hoping for someone in the future, Ricardo, you should start by putting your faith in me, right here, right now."

Actually, Mia is the real rival. No, I need to discuss this with Mia. We should probably form an alliance. Alright, I can see a path to a more certain victory than just dressing up to impress him.

Hee hee, you had better remember this. You are keeping a rare, beautiful, and brilliant fish like me, so I expect to be fed properly. Properly enough to. well, you know.