From Trash to Villain Master of Card: With Harem of Evil women-Chapter 53: Innovation and Tradition (1)

Engineering Workshop — Following Morning

The workshop smelled of fresh wood and metal.

Kaito had spread Lilith’s scrolls across the central table, weighing down the corners with heavy tools to keep them from rolling up. Morning light streamed through the high windows, illuminating the complex diagrams.

Five senior engineers surrounded the table. Older men, all of them, with calloused hands and expressions that said they’d seen many "revolutionary" ideas fail.

Ferrus, who had returned from the mining expedition with Naporia, was the youngest of the group. The other four out-aged him by decades.

Kaito pointed at the first diagram.

"Irrigation system. Main channels here, secondary distributing toward..."

"Commander."

The one who spoke was a man with a completely white beard named Oswin. He had built most of the important buildings in Dreisburg before Kaito arrived.

Kaito stopped.

"Yes?"

Oswin scratched his beard, studying the diagram with an expression that mixed curiosity and skepticism.

"This is... well, it’s not exactly how we’ve always done it."

Ferrus intervened.

"But it’s more efficient. The calculations show we could irrigate three times the land with the same amount of water."

Oswin looked at him.

"Calculations say a lot of things, boy. But the land doesn’t read calculations." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Another engineer, thinner with a scar on his cheek, nodded.

"Oswin has a point. We’ve used current methods for generations. They work."

Kaito rested his hands on the table.

"But do they work as well as they could?"

Oswin considered that.

"Depends on how you define ’well.’ Our crops grow. People eat. That’s pretty well to me."

"But if you could feed more people with the same effort..."

"Then it would be interesting," Oswin admitted. "But it would also mean changing everything we know. And change... well, change has costs that don’t always show up in pretty diagrams."

Kaito hadn’t expected such articulate resistance.

He leaned back slightly, reevaluating his approach.

"What kind of costs?"

Oswin pointed at the diagram.

"This system requires farmers to learn new techniques. To trust something they’ve never seen work. To risk their harvests on an experiment from someone who..."

He stopped.

Kaito waited.

"...who arrived less than a year ago and isn’t from here."

There it was.

It wasn’t hostility. It was pragmatic caution.

Ferrus opened his mouth to defend Kaito, but Kaito raised his hand.

"I understand. And you’re right."

Oswin blinked, clearly not expecting agreement.

Kaito continued.

"I’m an outsider. I didn’t grow up working this land. I don’t know its particularities like you do."

He touched the scrolls.

"But these designs come from a civilization that existed here a thousand years ago. That knew this land better than any of us."

He paused.

"I’m not asking you to abandon everything you know. I’m asking us to test whether we can improve."

Oswin crossed his arms, but his expression softened a millimeter.

"A test, then? Not full implementation?"

"Exactly. One field. One system. If it works, we expand. If not... we learn why."

The engineers exchanged glances.

Finally, Oswin nodded slowly.

"That... sounds less crazy than changing everything at once."

He pointed at another diagram.

"But these water mills. The ones we have work fine."

Ferrus couldn’t contain himself this time.

"Oswin, these produce twice the energy with the same current. Don’t you see the advantages?"

Oswin looked at him with the patience of a master toward an enthusiastic student.

"I see the advantages on paper, boy. I’ve also seen many things that worked on paper fail spectacularly in reality."

He looked at Kaito.

"What happens if we build these new mills and they break in the first storm? Who feeds the people while we repair them?"

Kaito genuinely considered the question.

"We keep the old mills operational while testing the new ones."

"That requires more resources."

"I know."

"And more workers."

"I know that too."

Oswin studied Kaito for a long moment.

"You’re more sensible than I expected for someone your age."

Kaito wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or a veiled insult.

He decided to take it as the former.

---

Main Smithy — Afternoon

Master smith Brennan was a legend in Dreisburg.

He had forged swords for three generations of soldiers. His hands, deformed by decades of work, could identify metal quality by touch alone. His workshop was a temple where fire and hammer were gods.

And he was not impressed.

Kaito entered with the diagram of the improved furnace rolled under his arm. The heat was immediate and oppressive. Brennan stood before his furnace, striking a piece of metal with a hypnotic rhythm.

He didn’t stop when Kaito entered.

Kaito waited.

The hammering continued. Ten strikes. Twenty. Thirty.

Finally, Brennan plunged the piece into water. The hiss filled the workshop.

Only then did he look at Kaito.

"Commander."

"Master Brennan."

Kaito unrolled the diagram on a workbench that was miraculously clean amidst the workshop’s organized chaos.

"I bring a design for an improved furnace. Higher temperature. Better control. Less fuel waste."

Brennan approached, wiping his hands on a greasy rag.

He studied the diagram for thirty seconds without expression.

Then he pushed it back toward Kaito.

"No."

Kaito blinked.

"No?"

"No."

Brennan returned to his anvil, picking up another piece to work.

"I’ve used these methods for forty years. They work perfectly fine."

Kaito didn’t move the diagram.

"But this is more efficient. You could produce more in less time."

Brennan began hammering again.

Between strikes, he spoke.

"Efficiency. CLANG. Is not. CLANG. Everything. CLANG."

He stopped, looking at Kaito.

"There’s also pride in the craft. Knowing your tool. Understanding how it responds."

He pointed at his furnace with the hammer.

"This furnace I built with my hands twenty years ago. I know exactly how it heats. Where it’s hottest. When it’s ready."

"And you could learn the new one too."

Brennan laughed without humor.

"At my age? Boy, I’m sixty-two. I don’t have another forty years to master a new tool."

Kaito understood the real problem.

It wasn’t resistance to change out of stubbornness. It was genuine fear of losing a mastery that had taken a lifetime to build.

He approached the table, but didn’t insist on the diagram.

"Master Brennan. May I propose something?"

Brennan grunted, which Kaito interpreted as "continue."

"A competition. Your furnace against the new one. One week. Same metal, same quantity. See which produces the better result."

Brennan set down the hammer.

"And if the old one wins?"

"You stop pushing new technology for smithing. Your word is law in your craft."

"And if the new one wins?"

Kaito carefully considered his response.

"I don’t force you to change. But at least consider training an apprentice in the new method. For when... well."

He didn’t finish the sentence. Both knew what it meant.

Brennan studied Kaito with eyes that had evaluated a thousand metals and recognized quality when they saw it.

"You’re smarter than you look, brat."

He extended his calloused hand.

"Deal. But when my furnace wins, and it will win, I expect you to keep your word."

Kaito shook his hand.

"I will."

---

Kaito’s Room — Night

He was finally alone.

Candles illuminated the room with flickering light.

On his desk, the remaining cards glowed softly.

He hadn’t taken them out since summoning Valeria. The cost of that fourth summoning still haunted him in moments of silence—a sense of something missing he couldn’t fully name.

But now, with reconstruction challenges piling up, his mind wandered toward solutions.

What if there’s a villain who understands technology? Construction? Innovation?

He took the cards carefully.

Spread them in a fan.

Some glowed brighter than others. Some had partially visible names. Others only showed symbols he didn’t recognize.

One in particular pulsed with soft golden light.

Kaito lifted it toward the candle.

The name became partially visible:

"Aurelia Nobelford... The Architect of Progress..."

The remaining words were blurred. But the image on the card showed a woman with clothes that seemed more practical than ceremonial. Tools on her belt. Blueprints in one hand. The expression of someone who saw the world as an unfinished project.

Kaito felt the temptation.

She could solve all the implementation problems. Convince the traditionalists. Speed up reconstruction.

His hand moved toward the glove.

The door opened.

Kaito put the cards away immediately.

Aria entered with a tea tray.

"You can’t sleep either."

It wasn’t a question.

Kaito sighed.

"No."

Aria set down the tray and sat across from him.

"What are you thinking?"

Kaito hesitated.

Aria noticed the partially hidden cards.

"Kaito. Don’t."

He looked at her.

"I was just considering..."

"Don’t summon another."

Aria’s voice was firm but not angry.

"Four is enough. You already saw what the fourth cost you."

Kaito unconsciously touched his own chest.

"I know. But the problems keep growing and..."

"And you’re still human," Aria interrupted. "With human limits. Every summoning takes something from you."

She leaned forward.

"What will happen if you summon a fifth? A sixth? How much of Kaito Yukimura will be left at the end?"

Kaito had no answer for that.

Aria softened her tone.

"You have four incredibly powerful queens. You have allies. You have growing resources. You have a brain that works better than any magic."

She touched the cards.

"These can wait. Until there’s truly no other choice."

Kaito looked at the cards for a long moment.

Then he put them in his desk drawer.

"You’re right."

He paused.

"Just for now."

Aria nodded.

"Just for now is enough."

She poured tea for both.

"So, how’s it going with convincing stubborn people?"