Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 1



Only Noblemtl

Children of the poorest countries (1)

There are two elements that have contributed greatly to the development of civilization: fire and magic.

It is strange to find a place where fire is not used, and magic has penetrated deeply into all aspects of life beyond personal training. To give just one example, there is a power plant with a heat-magic conversion magic circle installed.

However, a new powerhouse has emerged that surpasses the two mentioned above, and its name is Labyrinth.

A hundred years after the discovery of the Labyrinth, the changes during that period were more rapid and splendid than those of the previous thousands or tens of thousands of years.

*

The freight train, loaded with natural resources, did not stop even at night. The wind created by the train shook the shacks lined up along the railroad tracks one by one.

It was a scene that made me feel anxious that the house might blow away, but no one came out.

It was a familiar phenomenon to the residents of this place. The boy lying on a quilt covered in stitches was also one of them.

The boy read the book using the moonlight and starlight as a light. The cover of the book, “What is Magical Engineering?” was tattered. It was a passage that showed how old the book was and how often the boy had looked through it.

Knock knock knock.

As soon as he heard the familiar sound of shoes, the boy pushed the book under the covers and closed his eyes, imitating the slow breathing of a sleeping person.

Soon the door opened and a man and a woman came in. Their shabby appearance and tired expressions were evidence of how tiring the day had been.

As the man hung his coat on the clothesline next to the door, the woman reached out to a round sphere hanging from the ceiling.

Click!

A round stone lantern made of crude craftsmanship emitted light. The interior of a very small house was captured in the woman’s retina.

For a moment, the woman’s gaze was fixed on one person, no, on just one person. Her weary expression also changed into a flower in full bloom just for that moment.

“You, Alan is sleeping. It’s so bright that you’ll wake him up.”

“You still don’t know your son? This is so frustrating.”

The woman, who had patted her husband’s buttocks several times, approached the boy. As the shadow of the stone lantern behind her covered Alan’s face instead of the blanket, her eyebrow muscles twitched reflexively.

“This guy.”

The woman gently stroked her child’s dark brown hair. Alan, who had been pretending not to notice, had no choice but to raise his eyelids. Bright brown eyes were in them.

“Welcome back.”

“Alan, what did your mother say?”

Even at her son’s greeting, the woman’s displeased expression did not change. As the silence continued, she tapped the book that was slightly sticking out from under the blanket.

I wondered why I kept getting caught every time, even though I said I hid it well. Alan responded with a pout.

“Don’t be stingy with your magic stone lamp.”

“Yes. No matter how poor Mom and Dad are, they still have money to buy a magic stone lamp. So don’t rely on moonlight to read books with difficulty, just use it. Got it?”

“Mary, let’s wash up first.”

“Yes, I understand. You promised?”

Mary patted her son’s head once more and headed to the corner where the wooden bucket was. She took a yellow towel from the clothesline hanging from the ceiling, soaked it in water, and started wiping his face.

While his wife was washing, this time the husband approached Alan.

“The water in the wooden barrel is clean. There is also a lot of it.”

“The nearby river and pump were dirty, so I had to go far away. But it wasn’t that hard. Really.”

“Alan, it’s not your fault that you’re weak. So, take it easy.”

“It’s really okay. Look at this.”

Alan pointed to an object leaning against the wall near the blanket. He pulled at the rag and a two-wheeled cart appeared.

“Foldable? Did you make it yourself?”

“That’s right. I picked up some good stuff from the garbage dump over there…”

“Robinson, Mary. Are you home?”

A voice called out to Alan. Robinson laid his son, who was still standing, on the blanket.

“You’ll hear the story later, so go to sleep for now.”

As the couple went out, the house became quiet. As the light from the stone lantern disappeared, the moonlight reached out into the house again.

Alan rolled onto his side to avoid the tickling hands on his face. His own folding cart came into view.

Although he was weak and couldn’t work like his peers, he was now able to bring clean water for his parents. Alan closed his eyes, feeling his arms tremble.

‘Lanka’ was a poor island country, so the old, adults and children had to work all day for a loaf of bread. The rich natural resources were not the property of the poor people.

Skyscrapers that pierce the clouds, news of a research base being built on the moon, and flying cars were stories from another world.

The people of Lanka were so busy trying to survive that they had no time to worry about external situations. No matter how amazing the news was, it was of no help to their lives.

Alan’s parents were workers who charged the mana batteries, so they could be considered upper class among the workers. Their daily wages were not generous, but they were enough to make them forget about their poverty for a while.

Thanks to this, 10-year-old Alan could eat without having to work, and he could use his remaining time and energy elsewhere.

No matter how weak your body is, you can still turn the pages of a book. Alan’s curiosity was very strong, and his interest was drawn to that. The books he found in the trash were Alan’s treasures.

The next morning, Alan saw his parents off to work and headed to the dump. He moved very carefully, lest his parents worry if he got hurt.

“It’s a book! ······The letters are illegible.”

I felt sorry for the book, which was written in a language I couldn’t read. There was no one to teach me the foreign language, and there were no pictures, so I couldn’t understand anything.

Alan put down the book with a regretful gesture and moved deep into the area. His friends, carrying loads of useful scrap metal and waste materials, waved at Alan.

“Bisil!”

“hi!”

“What if you collapse like last time? Do you know how hard it was to carry you home that time?”

“I’m sorry about that, but I appreciate it, but I’m okay today because I have this.”

When Alan pointed to the cart, his friend’s eyes widened. All the useful tools were for adults.

“Where did you get it? Did you make it yourself?”

“Because of what happened last time, I’ll make it for you too if I find the ingredients.”

“Really? I promised! He’s always acting strangely… What was it? What’s the word for making good things?”

“handicraft.”

“That’s right. You’re really good with your hands.”

The friends chatted with each other as they headed toward the entrance of the dump. They couldn’t chat for long because they had to carry the trash several times to get food.

Alan went deeper. The real goal of the day was not to collect scraps. When he reached his destination, an old voice resonated through the surroundings.

“Fucking dictators! Fucking invaders!”

A wrinkled old man was shouting while digging through a pile of garbage. He was called a madman.

“This is our land! This is our land! Why are you throwing trash here! We have to clean it up right now!”

The old man rummaged through the garbage with his bare arms. He thought he was cleaning, but to others it looked like he was just changing the location a little.

‘This place is a garbage dump anyway.’

There was garbage everywhere. Even the word mountain was a humble word in front of the collection of filth.

Although Alan had never seen it himself, he had heard it through rumors. A ship bigger than a train would dump all the garbage and the higher-ups would get paid for it.

Remembering the grumblings of the adults, Alan focused on the old man. The old man, who had worked in a foreign factory in his youth, knew foreign languages ​​and could read yellowed newspapers.

Just like now.

“The nerds created a tree that breaks down plastic? Then why are there so many of them here? Are they discriminating against poor countries?”

“Orc bandits carpet bombing the dictator’s palace? Revolution! Yes. Revolution is bombs and blood!”

Of course, as is often the case with people of a crazy mind, the old man’s interests quickly turned elsewhere, but it was a great gain for Alan to learn even a little bit of news.

As he learned about new worlds, Alan’s curiosity grew like a sprout that had been greeted by rain, and above all, imagination was free. No one asked for anything in return.

The old man, who had been chattering for a long time, leaned against the abandoned refrigerator. He looked so exhausted that he didn’t even have the energy to talk.

Alan put a piece of bread in a relatively clean plastic bag, rolled it up, and threw it at the old man’s feet. He was paying the price for telling a story, just like his mother had taught him.

When the old man opened the bag and discovered the bread, instead of chewing and swallowing it in one gulp, he knelt down and looked up at the sky.

“Are you looking at me from up there? Are you sharing the food of heaven for your starving father? I’m sorry. It’s because of me. I should have listened to you and escaped this hell right away…”

It seems the rumors that he lost his children in the civil war and went mad are true. Alan left the dump, leaving the old man behind.

A turning point came to Alan, who had been spending his time like that.

“Robinson and Mary’s son?”

“yes.”

The guard took off his hat and scratched his head as he looked at the lunchbox in Alan’s hand. After saying a few words into the walkie-talkie, the couple walked toward the entrance.

“There was no need to bring it to me… Are you okay, son?”

“No problem. What is that?”

Alan’s gaze was fixed on Mary’s vest. More specifically, on the rectangular silver-gray object attached to it.

“Is that a mana battery?”

“Yeah, that’s right…. Oh my gosh, look at all that sweat.”

Mary didn’t answer, but instead wiped her son’s forehead with her sleeve. She moved her arm, not caring whether her clothes were getting damp or not.

Tiring!

A clear sound came from the mana battery. Alan was startled by the sudden change and hid his fingers behind his back.

“Is there a problem? Is it broken?”

Mary looked at her anxious son and the battery in turn, then shook her head.

“This means it’s fully charged. This is strange. Normally, I would need to use an extra 30 minutes of power, so why is this happening all of a sudden?”

While Mary was lost in thought, Robinson put a hand on Alan’s shoulder.

“Does anything hurt?”

“Not at all.”

“You have to be honest and not lie. Recharging a mana battery is hard even for adults with magical powers. But just now, you touched it and it charged.”

“I felt like something was leaving me. Huh? And then I realized that I could breathe easier.”

It was an incomprehensible phenomenon. Of course, Mana itself was an energy that Robinson, who was merely a laborer, could not understand.

The charging wasn’t done by Robinson himself, but the battery simply sucked the magical power out of his body, like donating blood. As proof, the couple’s forearms were covered in needle marks.

Despite Robinson’s worries, Alan’s eyes sparkled with joy. He finally had something he could do.

“I want to work here too.”

“”no.””

The couple shook their heads at the same time. Mana was an incomprehensible power. Even if it seemed fine now, it could cause problems at any time. Even their own son was weak.

Alan knew that it would be difficult to convince his parents like this, so he took a step back.

“Then I’ll go home today and watch for a few days. If there’s no problem, I’ll come back. What do you think?”

“Alan···.”

“If I start working and I start feeling sick, I’ll quit right away. I promise. Please. Okay?”

At this point, the couple couldn’t stop their son. They knew what was on their minds as he stayed home alone, unlike his peers who were able to find food for themselves.

Mary squatted down in front of Alan.

“Then it’s a promise. If you’re sick, you have to tell me right away. You absolutely cannot hide it and suffer like last time.”

“yes.”

As Alan answered, Robinson opened the lunch box lid. There were vegetables and meat wrapped in cornmeal. After eating, the family cooled down in the shade of the trees near the guardhouse.

Alan, who was enjoying the breeze, asked his father.

“Is it okay if I don’t go in?”

“There are still 30 minutes left until lunchtime, so there’s plenty of time left.”

“Well, the factory we work at has good welfare.”

Mary chimed in.

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