Genius

"Time, are you fast or slow after all—"

The perspective of time was always so strange. Before one realized it, it slipped away like flowing water.

During magic language class, Anvis listened to the teacher's explanation, but his thoughts had already wandered far away.

After that tea party several years ago, Duke Carlot had called him to the castle study for a talk, then directly handed him a list.

The list contained numerous industries under the family's control. With a grand wave of his hand, the Duke allowed him to choose any three businesses to manage himself.

Carlot's exact words had been: Do as you see fit. Don't be afraid of failure; the family can afford to lose a few businesses—

After giving it some thought, Anvis selected a small-to-medium-sized merchant association and two newly built civilian Construct Factories.

Of course, although they were nominally entrusted entirely to his management, Anvis only needed to oversee the general direction. The people below would handle the specific affairs.

The two factories were newly built, and their Construct production lines needed to be commissioned from the Iter Kingdom Federation.

The first thing Anvis did was cancel the factories' originally ordered production lines and replace them all with Construct Train production lines.

The Duke neither approved nor disapproved of his choice. Following the news of the Radiance beginning operations, a train craze had indeed sprung up across the land.

But that had also prompted many nobles to follow the trend and build Construct Train factories, making competition exceptionally fierce.

What the Duke did not know was that Anvis's true goal was not to earn Gold Coins, but to make arrangements for the future.

The family was not particularly interested in the development of Constructs. When the Duke had deliberately brought up Magic Constructs before, it had merely been because he feared they would destabilize the province.

Not because he feared that the spread of Constructs would shake the family's ruling position.

Due to limitations in materials and technology, true Magic Constructs could currently display power only around the Sixth Rank at most.

Perhaps someone could use certain special techniques to forcibly manufacture Magic Constructs capable of wielding power above the Seventh Rank.

But that generally required advanced alchemical methods and vast quantities of precious materials. It had already lost the meaning of a Construct itself, instead leaning more toward an ordinary alchemical item.

In truth, this lackluster attitude was a reflection of the Old Nobles throughout the entire Empire.

In their view, for people who had known no war for thousands of years and possessed Ninth Rank Experts, these "moving pieces of scrap metal" were utterly meaningless beyond being placed atop city walls to kill wild beasts.

Yet because of the nature of Constructs, allowing them to develop freely would also destabilize the lower classes.

They possessed two greatest advantages—almost no restriction on the individual strength of their operators, and the ability to be mass-produced.

If too many of these things existed and low-level Professionals used them to cause destruction, that would be rather troublesome.

A Low-Rank Professional equipped with specially made magic armor could instantly unleash the destructive power of a mid-to-high-ranked Professional.

Even if they were successfully suppressed afterward, the resulting damage and losses would be far greater than under normal circumstances.

Thus, the Old Noble class had always maintained strict control over the development of Constructs.

But Anvis knew that the development of Constructs was the trend of the future.

Moreover, with the emergence of several key technologies, Constructs would gradually break through the limitations of their insufficient power through special means, becoming an enormous threat that no one could ignore.

As someone well-versed in history, he would never allow himself to fall behind the times in this regard. On the contrary, he intended to overtake them in advance.

As the only large Construct creation classified as civilian-use by the Imperial Royal Family, Construct Train production required massive quantities of metal raw materials and specially made super-large production lines.

With these two Construct Factories as cover, he could openly mobilize Construct materials on a large scale without arousing anyone's suspicions.

When the need arose later, he would only need to make a few modifications to the entire production line to easily produce other large-scale war Constructs.

Furthermore, the family's territory also needed Construct Trains to become widespread, and naturally, it was more reassuring to give such orders to the family's own factories.

"Anvis, Your Excellency, are you listening?"

Anvis's magic language instructor was a Sixth Rank Royal Scholar who looked to be around fifty. His temples were streaked with gray, his hairline was very high, and recently, it seemed to have been climbing even higher.

At that moment, he dispelled the Mana letters floating in the air, frowned slightly, and looked at Anvis with some dissatisfaction.

"Of course, Mr. David!"

Anvis hurriedly withdrew his thoughts and answered seriously.

"Good! Then in Ancient Manni Language, what meanings does Ri~ket-en carry? Give an example of its usage."

David put on a stern expression and questioned Anvis. Accompanying his question, a new line of Mana letters appeared, glimmering faintly in the air.

"It means 'gnawing,' sir. In the incantation for the Third Rank spell Digging Art, it is found in the second subsection of the third segment.

When used as a noun, it specifically refers to the Squirrel on the World Tree."

"...Entirely correct."

Mr. David was deeply puzzled. He always felt that Anvis was spacing out, yet no matter what question he asked, Anvis answered flawlessly.

After a while, he gradually began to doubt his own judgment.

"Perhaps... true geniuses are all like this? He isn't daydreaming, but thinking?"

Mr. David was not the only one with this question. Nearly every instructor responsible for educating Anvis developed the same feeling.

Gradually, whenever the Duke asked about his studies, the instructors began showering him with praise, calling Anvis a true genius.

Even while listening to lectures, he could simultaneously engage in deeper thought.

At first, Anvis had a face full of question marks.

Is that so? Then I really am a once-in-a-millennium genius!

In the end, he helplessly accepted this fact. While drawing sidelong glances from the Duke and Duchess, he once again received Fiona's worshipful gaze.

He was not worried that the secret of his rebirth would be discovered. Since he had already passed the Soul Synchronization Rate test, as long as he did not go too overboard, everything could be attributed to talent.

As he grew older, Anvis's daily curriculum continued to change.

Linguistics had advanced into magical linguistics, and the language currently being taught was Ancient Manni Language.

This language had been passed down from the era of the Ancient Magic Empire. Its characters themselves contained mysterious power, making it the most widely used magical language among Spellcasters on the continent.

Anvis learned from his memories that after mastering this language, there would be four more to study: High Elven Language, Dragon Language, Ancient Dragon Language, and Titan Language.

In addition, music and art were added to his morning lessons. The time spent studying etiquette was cut in half, with social interaction added to the curriculum.

For example, how to please a lady.

History had also branched into Archaeology, though the course duration remained unchanged.

His afternoons were no longer leisurely. A total of four Magic Hours of Demonized Material Science, inscription studies, alchemy, and Occultism occupied much of Anvis's time.

When the day's lessons ended, Anvis went to the Library as usual.

Due to his diligence and the improvement of his own strength, the Duke had exceptionally raised his access privileges.

Now, he could already read most magic books below Third Rank.

In the silent Library, the thin, pale figure of the boy appeared somewhat lonely. Though the book in his hands lay open, its pages remained unturned for a long time.

His birth had already been decided, impossible to change. Over the years, he had constantly contemplated ways to break the deadlock.

Several years had passed since the Radiance began operation. During this neither-long-nor-short period, the Empire's situation had not changed much.

Instead, with the construction of many new Magic Construct factories, quite a few citizens had gained income and jobs, and life was flourishing.

But Anvis knew very well that this was only an illusion. The seeds of a new era had already been quietly sown, like scattered sparks buried beneath fallen leaves.

They only awaited a fierce wind to ignite into a blazing inferno, reducing the decayed forest of the old era completely to ashes.

The memories from Little Anvis's first-person perspective filled in many details he had never learned in the game.

Unfortunately, the memory fragments were ultimately limited and revealed few crucial details.

After a long while, he sighed, gently closed his eyes, then slowly opened them again, forcing himself to shift his attention back to the book.

Only here could he escape those subtle, omnipresent watching gazes.

Gurgle—→Recommendation tickets

To prevent anyone from reporting this, whatever age you think the protagonist is, that's how old he is. In any case, it's legal.