Ch. 61This Isn't a Paradox! You Need to Think Outside the Box!
Summary
The revelation of the Technology God’s vision leaves Magic Space in uproar. Although some mages dismiss the emphasis on devices as contrary to the pursuit of magical truth and self-improvement, most are stunned by the prospect of a future filled with widespread magitech, enormous populations, and material abundance. Noble families and household mages begin supporting the Technology God, hoping both to help realize the vision and profit from the new technology.
At a banquet in Rost Territory, Viscount Rost speaks with the Wild Mage, who remains deeply unsettled after witnessing the vision. The Wild Mage explains that he is not troubled by the future itself, but by a practical “paradox” involving a newly discovered ore. The ore produces magic power when struck or otherwise stimulated, and that power can activate magitech devices. However, using the ore seems to require magic power in the first place, creating an apparently endless loop: ordinary people need the ore to operate devices, but activating the ore appears to require a mage.
Rost helps him break out of this line of thinking by emphasizing that the new era will combine machinery with magic. The Wild Mage realizes that a mechanical system—similar to the mechanism of a clock—could repeatedly strike the ore. He proposes adding a Mechanical Trigger Module to devices such as the Ray Gun. Pressing a button would activate the mechanism, make the ore generate magic power, and allow even non-mages to use the weapon.
Excited by the commercial and technological possibilities, Rost immediately wants to contact the Wild Mage’s mechanically skilled acquaintance, a member of the Rune Society whose family are clockmakers. Rost predicts that the Artisans Association could rise to rival the Rune Society and even the Mage Association. The Wild Mage, now relieved that the paradox has been solved, confidently declares that the Artisans Association will become a major force in the coming era.
Meanwhile, in the Tiele Chiefdom, Lucina remains absorbed in prayer after seeing the vision. As a soldier from a long line of soldiers who defend against the White Walkers, she interprets the future’s vehicles—cars, trains, and aircraft—as vastly superior military machines. She concludes that, if such technology can be created, it could enable the conquest and unification of the entire continent, potentially overwhelming the Graycastle Empire, the Elven Kingdom, and even the dragons.
Character Developments and Interactions
- Viscount Rost demonstrates his practical, ambitious, and decisive nature. Rather than fear the consequences of technology available to ordinary people, he focuses on developing and protecting the commercial enterprise behind it.
- The Wild Mage shifts from confusion and frustration to excitement after recognizing that mechanical engineering can solve the ore’s activation problem. His faith in the Technology God’s vision is strengthened.
- Rost and the Wild Mage collaborate intellectually: Rost reframes the problem, while the Wild Mage supplies the key engineering insight.
- Lucina reveals her strongly military perspective, imagining the vision primarily in terms of warfare, conquest, and strategic power.
- The Wild Mage’s acquaintance, a mechanically gifted member of the Rune Society, is introduced as a potential key figure in making magitech accessible to non-mages.
Significant Themes
- Magic and technology must work together: The chapter rejects the idea that magic and machinery are opposing forces, presenting their combination as the foundation of the new era.
- Innovation through unconventional thinking: The “paradox” is solved by thinking outside purely magical methods and borrowing from clockwork engineering.
- The democratization of power: Mechanical triggers could allow ordinary people to use magitech devices, weakening the traditional monopoly of mages.
- Economic and institutional change: The rise of magitech threatens to transform noble wealth, commercial enterprises, and the balance among organizations such as the Artisans Association, Rune Society, and Mage Association.
- Technology as both prosperity and weaponry: The same devices that promise abundance and convenience could also enable unprecedented warfare and continental conquest.