Suddenly, my medicine-making skill reacted. Apparently, I could use the crystal to create a product as hazardous as a weapon. No thanks. I didn’t want to make that kind of thing.
Ejil stared cautiously at the crystal. “It’s absurdly high-quality. It has basically no impurities.”
“No wonder I could use it to make something dangerous,” I whispered to myself, pondering the product my skill had revealed. That product—calling it a “treatment” was out of the question—was scary. Basically, it was a liquid that instantly caused a typhoon when you opened the bottle. It was terrifying that my abilities could create intentional natural disasters.
Anyone would see that kind of product as off-limits. Fortunately, the one I was attempting to make right now required only a small chunk of the wind crystal.
Once Ejil got my ingredients, I started working. Carving off a small piece off the crystal, I combined it with other materials. The demon king’s eyes remained glued to the process, but I tried my best to ignore him.
Duster X: Apply to a duster. Produces weak static electricity, increasing dust absorption.
“Done.”
“A new product made with a wind crystal piece! It must be amazing.” Ejil stared at the bottled liquid gravely.
“It’s not that crazy. It just makes dusting easier.”
“H-how incredibly useful! You’ve turned the tides in our favor, Doctor!”
Duster X apparently blew Ejil’s mind. I often forgot he was a neat freak—or at least methodical. Even outside the staff’s current in-depth clean, his tidying during work hours was neat and precise.
Ejil knelt, presenting the duster at his hip to me. “Here, Doctor.”
“Okay.” Taking the duster as if it were some prized sword, I sprinkled it with Duster X. For a brief moment, blue lightning enveloped it. “I entrust this to you, Ejil. You can use it now.”
“I’m honored.” Ejil bowed his head and accepted the duster like a priceless blade. He went over to a yet untouched section of the room and swung at a few spots. Dust puffed into the air, and the duster absorbed it immediately. It wasn’t quite as effective as a vacuum cleaner, but still, it sucked in dust like a magnet.
“Th-this is unprecedented, Doctor! A cleaning revolution’s begun!” Ejil trembled with excitement.
He’s really that happy about this?
“I can’t tell you how often I’ve tried to dust, only to send it all flying into midair. Each time, I asked myself, am I cleaning? Or am I just making things worse?” That would stress out a neatnik like Ejil. “This new creation’s magnificent, Doctor.”
“Well, we have that wind crystal to thank.” Without it, I would’ve had to come up with something else entirely. Was it okay to make a cleaning product with such a rare item? If I hadn’t, I probably still wouldn’t have been able to make the most of the crystal, so… All in all, since we needed this new product, there was probably nothing wrong with using it like this.
I borrowed Ejil’s duster and tried it. Immediately, I understood why he was so moved. Duster X sucked in dust, not just from the spot I brushed but from the surrounding space as well. “An area that used to take ten swipes will only take about five now,” I mused.
“This product produces a wide-range electric charge, right, Doctor?!” Ejil asked excitedly.
“No, no. It’s nothing that crazy.” Man, Ejil’s suggestion did sound cool. All Duster X did was suck in dust, though.
I left the overwhelmed Ejil behind in the lab and returned to the store carrying the duster myself.
“Did you make something, Mr. Reiji?” Mina asked curiously.
“Yeah, I created something useful.”
I didn’t have the duster with me earlier, so Mina quickly identified the new product. “Is that it?”
Even Noela focused on the duster. “Made something useful, Master?”
“Yup. I used a new product on this. Check out how powerful it is.”
While they watched me, I swiped across a dusty bottle with the duster. It immediately sucked in the dust from the bottle and its surroundings. Airborne dust likewise flew into the duster as if being rewound. I then briefly explained Duster X to the girls.
“Amazing!”
“Groo! No more dust!”
Ejil’s reaction hadn’t been much stronger than theirs after all.
Noela’s eyes glittered excitedly. “Want try too, Master!”
If Noela enjoyed cleaning with Duster X, that’d be the icing on the cake. I handed her the duster, and she trotted back to her spot to get started.
“Groo! Sucks up lots!”
Pleased as punch, Noela swept up nearby dust into the air, wagging her tail vigorously. The duster sucked up all the dust immediately.
I heard sniffling nearby. Turning, I saw Mina with teary eyes. “Why’re you crying?!”
“You’ve made something incredible, Mr. Reiji,” she replied. “I’m so happy. I can’t tell you how often I’ve tried to dust, only to send it flying into the air instead. Each time, I asked myself, am I cleaning? Or am I just making things worse?”
That was exactly what Ejil had said. To a neat freak, a duster was apparently a double-edged sword. It made them feel like it was just getting dustier instead of cleaner.
After I watched Mina and Noela for a while, Ejil finally came back to the storefront. “I thought of a product name, Doctor! How does ‘Area Lightning Duster’ sound?”
His taste is no better than a junior high schooler’s.
The little fluffball Noela, however, was into the dumb name. “Area Lightning Duster…”
Crap. “If we call it that, people won’t understand how it works. Duster X is fine.” I thought a simple name was better—we wouldn’t waste as much time explaining the product to customers. Even if “Duster X” wasn’t a particularly good name, “Area Lightning Duster” would definitely cause confusion.
“Really? I thought Area Lightning Duster was a perfectly good name,” Ejil said, disappointed.
Noela resumed cleaning. “Area Lightning!!!” She shrieked it like an attack name or something, waving the duster.
“Noela seems to be a fan of the name, Ejil.”
“Then that’s a win, Doctor.”
Don’t look so proud. We weren’t competing for her favor.
“Noela! Noela! I named it! We really do think alike, don’t we?!” Ejil asked her, his enthusiasm clear.
Noela’s duster smacked into him. Zap!
Ejil convulsed for a moment. “Gah!!!”
So, that’s what happens if Duster X touches someone directly? I supposed that made sense, since the duster was enveloped in static electricity.
Noela, however, had no clue what’d just happened. “Groo?”
Either way, it wasn’t good that Duster X could electrocute people like that. I’d have to tweak it.
✦ ✦ ✦
And so I did. Once I confirmed that the product wouldn’t shock anyone who touched it, the drugstore started stocking Duster X. Noela gave doubtful customers a full demonstration of how it worked, and it became a hit with housewives struggling to clear dust.
Noela was so fond of yelling “Area Lightning!” during demonstrations that customers mistakenly thought Duster X wouldn’t work unless they did the same. If that made cleaning more fun for people though, who was I to complain?
I added a line to Duster X’s instructions stating that you didn’t have to shout anything for it to work. Nonetheless, the “Area Lightning!” cleaning cry spread as if customers were playing telephone.
At that point, I had no clue the phrase would reach a big-time adventurer’s ears.