Mage? Magic Engineer!

Rorschach wasn’t the only one researching how to counter the Empire’s Forbidden Magic Devices; many Mages who disdained bargaining with the Empire Council had also begun to act. For a time, research into anti-magic and counter-anti-magic became a hot topic.

It wasn’t just the Mages of Valois; unaffiliated Casters within the Empire, upon hearing rumors that cities would be equipped with Forbidden Magic Devices, were also determined to challenge them.

The challenge of overcoming the Forbidden Magic Devices was taken up by all.

As a subtle protest, the Aurora Elder Council released key texts held by the Guild to all Mages. Manuscripts of the mysterious Baron Leipzig, the founder of Forbidden Magic theory, were disclosed. Previously, fragments of these manuscripts were held separately by the Empire, the Tower of Secret Techniques, and the Tower of Stars. Now, two of these parties had made their copies public.

Having encountered the Airships more than once, the Alchemy Department naturally also considered the problem of a Giant Mechanic Breaker’s survival within a Forbidden Magic Domain.

Initially, all models were designed for situations of "temporary Magic Power failure," which the old-timers called "barrier time." Since the duration of the Forbidden Magic effect was limited, the problem they needed to solve became ensuring the machine could sustain itself for a short period without Magic Power and promptly reactivate all functions once Magic Power returned.

The final result was called the "Black Coffin System." It placed a Vibrating Quartz inside the Power Furnace to act as a fuse. Once fluctuations in ambient Magic Power reached an alarm threshold, the quartz would be triggered, amplifying the signal. The Power Furnace would then be sealed.

The "Black Coffin" was composed of layers of Black Stone, etched with idly cycling Magic Circuits. As long as it wasn’t at the epicenter of a "Magic Tsunami," it could absorb some of the impact.

It protected the internal Power Furnace, allowing it to keep running while storing Magic Power. Once the impact ended, the "Black Coffin" would release this stored power in an attempt to immediately restore full operational and combat functions.

Then, thanks to supply chain improvements, the Empire’s devices went from being one-shot wonders to long-lasting models! And in the face of these devices, the Giant Mechanics were still taken out in a second...

Even the new Giant Mechanic models equipped with the "Black Coffin System" could only perform simple, brief actions using their Steam Engines and hydraulics when deprived of Magic Power. During this time, contact with the operator was lost, and the machine would only follow its preset actions:

either it was set to kneel on one knee in standby mode, or to run nonstop, turning the Power Furnace it carried into a mobile bomb with the sentiment of ’screw it, I’m taking you with me.’

So, after the "Wall of Sighs" went online, the old-timers—their hairlines already threatening to recede past the crowns of their heads—sarcastically "thanked" the instigator, Rorschach, for his "great benevolence" while simultaneously trying to figure out how to improve the "Black Coffin System."

Perhaps sensing the old-timers’ friendly "greetings" from a thousand miles away, Rorschach presented a great gift after the manuscripts of "Baron Leipzig" were made public.

He submitted his first paper to the Magic Guild since his promotion to Great Mage: "A Preliminary Study on Three Effects of the Forbidden Magic Domain." The first was the frequency polarization distribution of Magic Power; the second was the super-ground state of physical entities from the Material Realm within a Forbidden Magic Domain; and the third was the "Magic String," based on the polarization effect, and a new method of Casting.

Theoretically, it should have been split into three separate papers, but Rorschach didn’t have time to hash out all the details. In truth, the other Mages were also in a panic.

"Teacher, why can’t I understand any of this?" Andre was terrified. He had been forced to accept credit as the third author on the paper, but he couldn’t make sense of more than ten sentences in the entire article.

’If people from the Elder Council and the Arbitration Court come knocking, will I be accused of academic fraud?’

"To be honest, I don’t understand it either." Rorschach’s words were shocking, but he himself remained calm. "All the theories are constructed from my unique perspective. Frankly, I had the practical application first, and only then did I try to explain why my actions were valid and feasible."

To him, the wondrous transformation that day had been natural and beautiful, but when it came to putting it into words, Rorschach felt a profound sense of inadequacy—not just from a lack of language, but also a lack of mathematics. Therefore, he mostly just described the phenomena, deciding to leave the more detailed and complete theoretical construction to those who would come after him.

And if anyone raised doubts... Rorschach could simply replicate it for them personally.

Andre made a very unusual request. "In that case, can you remove my name from the list of authors?"

"No, no, no. What I hate most is burying an individual’s contribution. You were responsible for preparing the equipment and proofreading the paper. You worked hard. You deserve this credit," Rorschach said, seriously rejecting his student’s request.

"What about Martin, then? He was the one who turned the device on and off. He’s more suited to be the third author than I am."

"He’s a magic insulator! If he were exposed to the Guild, there would only be one outcome: he’d be kidnapped and secretly dissected..." Rorschach comforted him, "Don’t worry, if any trouble comes, I’ll take the heat. Across the entire continent, there isn’t a Caster I can’t handle."

Andre felt suffocated by this unwanted kindness. "What if several Great Mages came at you together..."

"Then I..." He wanted to say that, at worst, he’d just take his student and run, but then he remembered his terrible teleportation skills... "I can buy you and Teacher Caroline time to escape."

And yes, Caroline was the second author, but she had made a real contribution. Caroline had attempted to explain the probability distribution, in a spatiotemporal sense, of Magic Power and entities from the Material Realm within the domain.

After the paper was published, most Mages didn’t understand it. A small portion managed to analyze parts of it and achieved some results. The members of the Aurora Elder Council, however, were most interested in the final point: the "Magic String" and its corresponding new method of Casting. If Rorschach wasn’t bluffing, this would be a revolution even more impactful than the Spell Chain.

Although the Guild was engaged in soft resistance against the Empire by promoting research to crack its technology, the new emperor and the Empire Council remained united. They passed the "Imperial Supernatural Security Control Act," which aimed to install Long-term Forbidden Magic Devices in all settlements with a population of ten thousand or more within ten years.

In any case, by late autumn, the conflict surrounding Casters had reached a temporary stalemate. For the vast majority of Mages, it was impossible to quickly master the ability to cast within a Forbidden Magic Domain like Rorschach. The Empire, likewise, lacked the spare resources to fully implement the new act, although the Imperial Capital did indeed begin installing more devices.

The early autumn campaign ended. For the Empire, their frontline troops had bought time for the completion of the Helmut Defense Line and hastily harvested the grain from the occupied territories, leaving the already struggling Republic with a starving populace in its liberated zones.

As for the Republic, their new weapons were now deployed, and the spirited National Guard was eager to press its advantage.

In the depths of autumn, the continent’s two great powers were gearing up to launch a new offensive.

「On the Western Line」, Paul, stationed on the border between the Republic and the Lowland Duchy, received new equipment and new orders.

"A Magic Weaving Device?"

"It will be fitted into the Dawn Player’s Black Coffin System, allowing it to operate inside a Forbidden Magic Device. But it’s only experimental. And while it’s running, the operator can no longer control it remotely. They must enter the Black Coffin to pilot the Giant Mechanic," an old-timer from the Alchemy Department informed his former junior.

"Understood. Let’s see how it performs." Paul gazed at the silhouette of the massive fortress of the Lowland Duchy in the distance. It was the western terminus of the Helmut Defense Line. If they could pry it open, the most direct route to the Imperial Capital would be clear for the National Guard.