The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 52 (Patreon)

Chapter 52 – Phantomline, Again

“Ah, Kaori-chan, I’m glad you’re here!”

“Otōsaaan!” I mock-whined at my father, as one might when being called ‘chan’, despite being over fifty years old. But, then, one’s family is one of the few who could do that.

My father just laughed, and waved off my objections, as normal when he teased his family. “Yes, yes. But I am glad you’re here.”

We were meeting in the Phantomline headquarters, along with several of the VIPs of the company, which meant that this was something to do with the business. The Shield Charms had been selling as fast as they could be made, and there was still a backlog of orders, from what I had heard. That didn’t mean the company was going to rest on its laurels, of course. I had another idea that could be a big seller, that I wanted to talk about. But first, it was probably best to see what the reason for the meeting was.

“So, why did you call me out here, Father? If you just wanted to tease me, you could have just called. And you certainly wouldn’t need to bring all these important people away from their work. Has someone started causing problems with the business?”

“Straight to business, then? Probably for the best. First, to put your mind at ease, no, there haven’t been any threats or actions against the company. Oh, there have been the normal little games, trying to steal information and the like, but our internal security has kept out any would-be corporate spies, and the information on the Shield Charm and other projects is safely kept on a stand-alone server, so there is no way for hackers to get to it without getting inside the building and to a secure terminal.”

“That is good. But then, what was the reason for this meeting?”

My father looked to Kaspar Oesau, the head of Phantomline’s R&D Department, who I’d worked with to create the mass-produced Shield Charms. Kaspar sighed, and said, “The reason is that Zaubertechnik has approached Phantomline with the hopes of a partnership in manufacturing the Shield Charms in the West, with hopes of joint development projects in the future. Of course, it is an open secret that the German government has many ties to Zaubertechnik, through the military.”

“So, this is the German government ‘politely’ asking to get access to the shield charms and other projects, so that they can reverse-engineer them?”

“Most likely,” my father nodded. “Our analysts suggest that this is because they have always been leaders in mass production of military equipment. The Shield Charms are already highly sought after by national militaries. They see a chance to rapidly grow their power in Europe.”

He paused for a moment, and then said, “Daughter, if the Germans were to get access to our manufacturing processes and data, how easily would they be able to produce new items, on their own?”

I considered this, for a second. “Hmm. They must have made quite the attractive offer, if you’re actually considering going through with this production deal.

“First off, if we just share the manufacturing process with them, enough to put in machines that will do everything we need to make our products, then, even if they crack the encryption on the designs themselves, the most they’ll be able to do is to put shield spells on other objects. Both the raw and finished schematics for the Shield Charm do not have anything in them about the ‘programming language’, for lack of a better term, to make the spells. It would be equivalent to trying and reverse engineer a computer program from scratch, when all you have is an image produced by the program to work off of.

“Even if, somehow, they recognized that the designs engraved in the shield charms are a ‘program’, they won’t have any way to translate it. It would be like looking at stone containing the engravings of a long-lost language. Yes, you know that there’s a language there, but without any point of reference, a Rosetta Stone, if you will, to link the language to one you know, then you’re stuck.”

Kaspar’s eyes lit up. “So, if we just share our processes for finished products, we can license additional production from Zaubertechnik, but they will have to stumble around, trying to figure out what the squiggly lines actually mean, without even knowing which lines are important, and which ones are merely decorative!”

“Exactly. And, if they try playing around with the elements of the design, without proper guidance, then their results are likely to be worse than yours, when you started simulating different patterns. After all, you at least knew which parts of the pattern had active properties.”

Kaspar groaned, and hid his eyes behind his hand. “Don’t remind me!”

I chuckled. “Now, now. You did really good, considering that you hadn’t even touched the ‘programming language’ before. And while half your early experiments would have blown up horribly, or contained some really nasty curses, because you started with simulations, where I could show you where you messed up, instead of trying to do it with real materials, disaster was averted. It is no different from a pilot practicing in a simulator before someone trusts them with a real airplane. You actually caught on fairly quickly, and you didn’t make the same mistake twice.”

Kaspar bowed his head, thanking me for the complement, and I turned back to my Father. “So, what are the Germans offering, besides increased production?”

He sighed, “Suffice to say that it would allow us to open a new factory someplace abroad, to start working on expanding Phantomline’s influence throughout the world. But it is fairly clear that they are wanting to get more than just a set of instructions that they can follow, but not use to do their own thing. And since, officially, we are licensing the process from you…”

“I would need to sign off of and approve the additional uses of the license, yes. Well, currently I’m getting 10% of the gross revenue from sales of the products using my process. I’ll be willing to extend the license for production only to Zaubertechnik, so long as I still get that 10%, and it comes out of Zaubertechnik’s share of the revenue.”

My father sniffed like he was about to cry. “You do an old man proud, Daughter.” That got a round of polite chuckles from the group, as he intended.

“Yes, yes. While I’m here, though, I want to put forward another product to add to the lineup, and potentially get more money added to the pot up front. This one will be a big seller, I’m sure.”

Kaspar leaned forward, eagerly, “What is it?”

“An infinite canteen. The idea is that the canteen will condense mana out of the air to conjure water, and will keep that water at a nice, drinkable 20C, regardless of the outside temperature. It won’t fill all at once, but over the course of an hour, it should refill itself, unless you’re in a dead magic zone. Think the Germans would jump at the chance to get their hands on something like that?”

There was a low whistle around the table. One of the VIPs (I think he was a Logistics man) chimed in, “Not even talking about military use, this would be big, all over the world. Depending on the price point, we could even sell them to a lot of those charities that help support people in Africa, where water is a problem. Hell, we could probably start a factory in Egypt, and corner the entire North African market!”

“What is necessary for this infinite canteen?”

I looked over to Kaspar, who, as expected, was already considering the technical needs of a project like this. “Actually, most of it could be done with the standard process to make aluminum water bottles. Just use a laser engraver after you shape the bottom of the bottle, but before you spray the sealant on the inside. That will seal the pathways.”

“That easy? Just adding one step to an existing process?”

“Sure, it is a simple enough thing. Also, you’ll need to keep the assembly line warded to keep out ambient mana, or the bottles will start trying to fill themselves, and water getting everywhere would be bad, for all kinds of reasons. Once assembly is done, though, just seal it up, and the canteen will be full of water already at the point of sale.”

The VIP from before raised his hand. “Why the field? And can’t we ship them empty? It would save on the costs, that way.”

I shook my head. “Because the enchantment is a passive gathering type, rather than a willful activation type, like the Shield Charms, the only way to stop the magic from functioning is to remove the ambient magic. We could make an alternate version that was a forced activation method, but at that point it would be simpler to just conjure the water yourself. This is primarily for use by people who cannot easily use their magic, like poor refugees without a magical education, or those who ought to save their magic for more important things, like soldiers or rescue workers.”

Another VIP, from the operations department, said, “What about the packaging? Could we put something on the packaging to keep the magic from activating, and that second thing is destroyed when opening the bottle for the first time? That would allow us to ship the empty bottles, and keep some of our secrets.”

I paused to consider that, before shaking my head. “In the other world, something like that would be handled by using a temporary enchantment. But since you won’t be able to know how long items will be sitting in a warehouse, or something like that, it would be difficult. Also, there were people who meticulously open the most stubborn packaging so that the item within can be resealed and sold as ‘new, in package’, even before there was magic. Someone would figure it out, and magic nullification enchantments are far more dangerous than water conjuration ones.”

“Because they could be used offensively?”

“Exactly. That would not do anyone any favors, until magic has had a chance to settle down some more, and there are fewer insane cultists in the world.”

“Fair point,” Kaspar said, “And actually, I had an idea I wanted to run by you. Would it be possible to make something like the Shield Charm, but that could be mounted on a vehicle?”

“Ah, for a bit of extra VIP protection? Yes, something like that would be possible. Actually, since we’re talking about passive effects already, you could add Armor spells into the mix, as well.”

“Like the bracelet you gave Little Kaori-chan when you came back?”

I smiled at my Father. “Exactly. It is a passive spell, that augments the wearer’s natural defenses. So, their skin might become as tough as brass, stone, iron, or even steel, but to everything but how much damage it can withstand, it would feel the same. It is possible to put the same kind of work on a vehicle, as well.

“When comparing a shield charm and an armor charm for a vehicle, there are pros and cons to each, of course, but I’m sure you can figure most of those out, but the biggest problem would be the amount of magical power shielding a vehicle would take, since it would be much more intensive than a personal shield, due to both the larger size, and the fact that it would be expected to stand up to anti-vehicle weapons. The biggest bonus to this, though, would be that the two charms would stack. In other words, a vehicle made tougher by the armor spell could be further shielded by the shield spell.”

“How would you go about it?” asked Karpar, eagerly.

“Well, for a vehicle shield charm, it would need to be mounted on the dash, so that the driver or a passenger can channel their mana into it. For a vehicle armor charm, I would just engrave it on a plate, and fix it to someplace in the interior of the vehicle. Preferably someplace that is hard to see without ripping the vehicle apart. A task that would be much harder once the charm is installed.”

The VIP from marketing laughed, “Oh, this is going to make us BILLIONS!”