Applying for a Patent

This was actually pretty interesting.

The morning birdsong was deafening. Aisha sat listlessly on the bed, rolling her stiff neck.

Ah, the sunlight was so blinding...

Had the whole night really just passed like that?

She had only wanted to see what kind of spell model Drogo had made, so she tried learning it herself.

Although Jump Jump used several thousand inscriptions, it was merely long. The logic was not complicated, and there was no need to consider whether the caster could actually cast it, so the model had been built rather haphazardly.

She could spot more than a dozen mistakes at a glance.

Yet it actually worked!

When she tried to correct those mistakes, Drogo stopped her in horror.

"If it runs, then don't touch it, no matter what the principle is," he had said.

Aside from Drogo's inscription habits being utterly unlike those of a mage and making things a little awkward, the learning process went smoothly. In just over an hour, Aisha had built her own Jump Jump.

Before starting the simulation, she had deliberately checked Drogo's score: 654.

Tch. Such a huge ancient Red Dragon, and he had only scored a few hundred points in such a simple game. She had learned it just by watching.

Give her ten minutes. She would beat Drogo's record, then laugh at him mercilessly.

She confidently started Jump Jump.

Press, release. The piece accurately cleared the second box, landed on the ground, and the game ended. Zero points.

"Pfft—"

Drogo's laughter dealt real damage.

"It's my first time, so I'm not used to it! Just wait!"

After tossing out that threat, Aisha burrowed into her room. Drogo must have been too noisy beside her earlier, which was why she had not performed well.

She started over.

Press, release. The piece landed in the middle of the box, and her score increased by two.

Oh? Landing in the middle gave bonus points? That would make beating the record even easier.

Aisha got more and more into the rhythm, her score rapidly climbing as she neared one hundred.

Huh? The boxes had gotten smaller.

Stay calm. Don't get nervous.

Press, release—

Game over.

Bang!

A slap landed on the bed. Mattress HP -1.

She began her third round.

And so, morning arrived.

More infuriating than staying up all night, being tired and sleepy, and having puffy bags under her eyes was the fact that her highest score had stopped at 648.

Her mentality was somewhat shattered, but because she was too sleepy, it had not shattered completely.

Fortunately, it was Monday and the toy store was closed. Otherwise, she would have had to work in Toto form. Gods knew how she would have endured it.

"Come on, let's apply for the spell patent!" Drogo popped out from nowhere.

"Huh?" Aisha turned weakly, then suddenly realized something and hurriedly closed Jump Jump.

Unfortunately, she was too late.

"No way, no way. Did someone stay up all night playing a little game she said 'what's so interesting about,' only to score 648 points?"

She had never imagined that a notorious evil dragon could sound so obnoxious.

She wanted to hit him, but she could not beat him.

Maybe she should tear up the contract. Then she would not understand dragon language anymore.

Ah, she wanted to be angry so badly, but she did not even have the strength for it.

She felt her consciousness leaving her body. Finally unable to hold on, she flopped stiffly onto the bed, followed by the sound of snoring.

This proved that pretty girls snored too.

Drogo scratched his chin speechlessly. He had not expected such a simple little game to be so appealing to Aisha.

Maybe he had played too many games and had already become numb to a lot of things. He really missed the days when he had found it fun just to pick up a few cards and slap them around as a child.

Still, this meant he needed to speed up game development and let this world witness a true 648. That would earn money far faster than selling toys.

He wondered whether Silksong had been finished on Earth yet...

Aisha slept until the afternoon, and as soon as she woke up, she wanted to keep playing Jump Jump.

Drogo had to pay two boxes of chocolate to coax her into going to the Patent Office with him.

Twin Towers City was the first city on the continent to implement a patent system.

Nominally, it was under the jurisdiction of the Sutton Kingdom, but in reality, it was highly autonomous and the most prosperous place on the continent for commerce, technology, and magic.

Soren Mage Tower represented the pinnacle of defensive spells, while Liebin Spellcaster Academy was not necessarily the strongest, but it definitely offered the greatest variety of subjects among spellcaster academies.

Peren Tower was the Origin of Technology for steam-powered machinery. Scholars had established the Academy of Sciences there. They were not as powerful as mages, but they brought more changes to ordinary people's lives.

New inventions appeared here almost every day, which was why the patent system had emerged.

Of course, another key factor was the relaxed academic atmosphere. To the north were two fanatical nations: in one, every creation belonged to the emperor; in the other, it belonged to the church, because all progress was considered divine grace.

However, the current patent system was far from complete. It only had invention patents, not design patents or utility patents, so Yo-yos could not be protected.

Fortunately, Drogo's Toy Store's greatest advantage was the popularity brought by Blazing Teens, along with the Goblins' extremely low-cost assembly line.

Inside the Patent Office.

"So, the purpose of this spell is..."

"To play." Aisha answered excitedly.

"Wow, truly impressive." An auntie from the gnome race sat at the service window. Thick glasses rested on her pointed ears, and her tone did not fluctuate at all.

"Right? I think so too."

The auntie pushed up her glasses, certain that the girl before her could not detect sarcasm.

"All right. Registering a new zero-ring cantrip."

"I think this is a fifth-ring spell. At least fourth-ring."

"Hm?"

The auntie's stern expression reminded Aisha of the fifty-year-old female teacher from her childhood, the one who still appeared in her nightmares.

"Fine, zero-ring it is."

"The owner?"

"Drogo."

The auntie truthfully wrote it into the form.

That caught Aisha completely off guard. She had prepared several sets of explanations outside.

"You... don't have any questions?"

"The person before you listed the Grim Reaper as the owner. He said that he would be rewarded after death that way. Frankly, I have no interest in figuring out what you people have in your heads."

"Uh, all right..."

About forty minutes later, they finally finished filling out the long form.

"Please line up outside Room Two."

They waited for nearly another half hour.

The last person ahead of them came storming out of the room, shouting, "Doesn't Original-Flavor Preservation During Organ Cooking count as a patent? Screw this Patent Office!"

Inside the room, everything looked fairly normal. It was a perfectly standard office.

If not for the paper bag over the staff member's head.

Aisha nervously looked at Drogo. She had every reason to suspect that everyone in the Patent Office was actually insane.

When the staff member saw the girl and dragon approach, he abruptly stood up and yanked the bag off his head.

"Surprise!"

He was a bald old man with reddish-brown skin, likely an islander from west of the strait.

Drogo looked at Aisha too, fully agreeing with her suspicion.

An awkward silence filled the room.

The old man spoke first. "Aren't you surprised?"

"Um, should I be surprised?" Aisha asked timidly, worried that if the old man suddenly leapt up and bit someone, Drogo might not be able to stop him.

"Don't you recognize me?"

"Should I?"

"I am the Guardian of Twin Towers City, King of Defensive Spells, Red Dragon Resistance, Legend of Giantwood Island, Honorary Professor of Liebin Spellcaster Academy, Demonborn Hunter, the great..."

As he spoke, the old man struck a pose, as if waiting for Aisha to take the cue and announce his name.

But she did not.

After more than ten seconds of even more awkward silence, the old man helplessly punched the desk and said, "Soren Ambrosius!"