Two days had passed since the installation of the Steam Furnace.
Unfortunately, Ezra had run into a problem.
A surprisingly stubborn one.
The library was unusually ssy compared to its normal state.
Sheets of paper were scattered across the floor.
So were covered in notes.
Others contained rough sketches.
Several books lay open in different places, as if they had been abandoned halfway through being read.
In the middle of all the ss, Ezra lay flat on the floor with a blanket beneath him.
His hands rested behind his head while his eyes remained fixed on the ceiling.
His expression was blank, but his mind was not.
Lucy was also inside the library.
Unlike Ezra, she looked perfectly comfortable.
She sat quietly on a nearby chair with a novel resting on her lap, occasionally turning a page whenever she finished reading.
Eventually, she lowered the book.
Her gaze drifted toward Ezra.
For the past hour, he had barely moved.
The lazy look in his eyes had beco increasingly obvious.
"What’s the matter, Master?"
Lucy closed her novel and walked over.
When she reached him, she bent down slightly while adjusting her maid skirt.
Her brown eyes studied Ezra’s face.
"Ahhh..."
A long sigh escaped him.
Lucy blinked.
The faint scent carried by his breath reached her.
Warm and clean.
Mixed with a slight vanilla fragrance from the soap he used.
He slls nice.
The thought appeared suddenly.
Lucy imdiately ignored it.
Her expression remained unchanged.
"I don’t know what to invent."
Ezra’s answer ca out flatly.
Lucy tilted her head.
"No ideas?"
"Not that."
Ezra lazily waved a hand.
"If it’s ideas, I have too many."
"Then what’s the problem?"
Her gaze shifted toward the countless crumpled papers scattered around him.
Ezra folded his arms.
"No idea fits my low-key but still groundbreaking invention plan."
Lucy stared at him.
Then stared a little longer.
Finally...
"Master."
"Hm?"
"Those are two completely opposite things."
She pointed at him.
"How exactly do you plan to make sothing groundbreaking without attracting attention?"
Ezra slowly turned his head.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"I’m not explaining what I ant by that to you."
He sounded tired.
"It feels stressful."
Lucy puffed her cheeks.
"Hmph."
She looked genuinely dissatisfied.
Still, she knew better than to push him when he entered one of his thinking moods.
After a few monts, she spoke again.
"Then what are you going to do?"
She sat down beside him.
"I rember Lady Vera saying sothing about ti ticking."
At the ntion of Vera, Ezra’s eyes twitched slightly.
"I’m thinking."
He paused.
"But honestly, Vera’s deadline isn’t what worries ."
Lucy blinked.
"Then what does?"
"We’re running out of money."
His tone remained calm.
Almost too calm.
Lucy stared at him.
Running out of money?
When, Master still has over eight hundred thousand gold coins...
The number alone was enough to make most people faint.
Yet sohow, Ezra sounded as though they were one al away from starvation.
Lucy picked up one of the crumpled papers lying nearby.
Curious, she unfolded it.
The mont she saw what was drawn on it, her eyes widened.
"Wow."
The word escaped her mouth naturally.
"What is this?"
She held the paper up.
A large chanical walker had been sketched across it.
tal legs.
Heavy armor plating.
Twin machine guns mounted on both sides.
The design looked intimidating even on paper.
"This is so cool!"
Lucy’s eyes sparkled.
Ezra stared at her expressionlessly.
"Although..."
She tilted the page.
"It doesn’t really look like the Ironstride Walkers I’ve seen on Linsta."
Her brows furrowed.
The more she studied the drawing, the more confused she beca.
Several seconds passed, then she lowered the page.
"Yeah."
She shook her head.
"I don’t understand anything."
A second later...
"But it still looks cool!"
Her voice echoed through the library.
"Quiet down."
Ezra rolled over.
His face pressed against the blanket.
"You do know this is a library, right?"
Lucy coughed awkwardly.
"Sorry."
"I know the design is amazing."
Ezra’s voice remained muffled against the blanket.
"But it doesn’t fit my the."
He finally rolled onto his back again.
"If I create sothing like that, the amount of attention it attracts would completely ruin my plans."
Lucy looked down at the sketch once more.
Then she slowly nodded.
He wasn’t wrong.
Even she could tell that such a machine would shake Britannia.
A war machine capable of dramatically increasing the combat effectiveness of ordinary soldiers.
The military alone would go mad trying to acquire it.
And the Ashenlocke Family?
Lucy had no doubt they would lock Ezra in a room and force him to explain every single detail behind the design.
"What about inventing a gun?"
Lucy suddenly raised her hand.
Her fingers ford the shape of a pistol.
"Pew...Pew."
She enthusiastically pretended to fire.
Ezra looked at her, then looked away.
"Still attracts too much attention."
Lucy lowered her hand.
"An invention that demonstrates obvious complexity will naturally attract attention."
Ezra folded his arms.
"What I need is sothing simple."
"Maybe improving sothing that already exists?"
Lucy guessed while unfolding another paper.
"Sothing like that."
Ezra nodded.
"But even that’s dangerous."
His gaze drifted toward the ceiling.
"Improving existing technology can sotis create a bigger impact than inventing sothing new."
Lucy quietly listened.
At this point, she had given up trying to fully understand how Ezra’s brain worked.
"Hmmm."
She unfolded more sketches.
Then more.
And more.
Her eyes widened repeatedly.
Everything she looked at seed completely unfamiliar.
So resembled machines.
So resembled food.
Others looked like concepts she couldn’t even identify.
I’ve never seen anyone think of things like this before.
Lucy stared at another sheet.
Then paused.
A perfectly drawn burger.
She picked up a second page.
Fried coated chicken.
Lucy blinked.
Then blinked again.
"Did you think about creating a new food recipe?"
She held both pages up.
"No."
Ezra replied flatly.
"Those are for us."
The room beca silent.
Then...
"Really!?"
Lucy’s eyes imdiately brightened.
The excitent in her voice was impossible to hide.
Although she had no idea what a burger was or how it actually tasted like, she knew exactly what fried chicken was.
A faint mory surfaced in her mind.
Back in the Red District, fried chicken had been one of those als she could only sll from afar.
She rembered carrying trays through crowded rooms while wealthy custors laughed, drank, and ate dishes she could never afford.
The scent alone had often been enough to make her stomach growl.
Yet she had never once been given the opportunity to taste it.
The only chicken she had ever eaten during those days was boiled chicken.
No special seasoning.
No sauce.
Sotis only salt.
Sotis not even that.
Compared to the als served to nobles, it might as well have been a completely different food.
Of course, that life was long behind her now.
Ever since becoming Ezra’s maid, everything had changed.
The quality of food she ate had improved dramatically.
She had tasted dishes that would have been unimaginable during her days in the Red District.
And now...
Without even realizing it...
She was about to experience food recipes from an entirely different world.
The thought alone made her curious.
"But seriously, Master."
Lucy carefully gathered the crumpled sketches scattered around the floor.
Unlike before, she unfolded each one properly before stacking them together.
Every sheet contained sothing different.
Machines.
Weapons.
Strange objects.
Concepts she could not fully understand.
Yet every drawing looked incredibly detailed.
"Your drawing skills are amazing."
Lucy genuinely ant it.
Even though she couldn’t understand half of what she was looking at, the precision alone was impressive.
The proportions looked correct.
The lines were clean.
Even the smallest details had been carefully sketched.
Standing up, she held the stack against her chest.
"I’ll put these inside your table drawer."
Walking toward Ezra’s personal desk, Lucy gently opened one of the drawers.
She carefully arranged the papers inside instead of simply tossing them in.
Only after making sure everything was neat, did she close the drawer.
Click.
The small sound echoed softly throughout the library.
anwhile, Ezra remained on the floor.
His eyes were fixed on the ceiling.
The scattered thoughts inside his head felt like tangled threads.
Every ti he focused on one idea; another would appear.
A weapon.
A machine.
A product.
A design.
Too many possibilities.
Too many directions.
The problem wasn’t a lack of ideas.
The problem was choosing the right one.
Several monts passed.
Then suddenly...
Ezra sat upright.
The blanket slid from his shoulder as his posture straightened.
Let’s focus properly.
He folded his legs beneath him.
His breathing gradually slowed.
The noisy thoughts filling his mind began settling little by little.
Apart from Box Breathing, the Book of mories contained many other breathing thods his past-self had studied.
So improved concentration.
So reduced anxiety.
So helped maintain composure under extre pressure.
Military operations often demanded clear thinking in situations where panic could an death.
Because of that, his past-self had spent years studying thods capable of improving ntal performance.
The breathing thod Ezra chose this ti was one specifically designed for creative thinking.
Creative Breathing.
The mont the thought appeared; the Book of mories responded.
Within his ntal world, the enormous book materialized once more.
The familiar pages began flipping rapidly.
One page after another.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
The sound resembled a strong wind moving through paper.
Eventually, the pages slowed.
Then stopped.
The correct entry appeared before him.
Creative Breathing.
Ezra silently focused his attention on the information.
The library around him gradually faded into the background.
The sounds of turning pages.
The distant ticking of a clock.
Even Lucy’s movents.
Everything beca less important.
At that mont, his entire focus rested on finding the solution hidden sowhere among the countless ideas inside his mind.
***
[Creative Breathing]
A breathing thod used to improve idea generation, problem-solving, and ntal clarity.
Unlike combat-oriented breathing techniques, Creative Breathing focuses on reducing ntal interference rather than increasing alertness. By slowing respiration and relaxing unnecessary tension, the mind is allowed to process information more freely.
The recomnded rhythm consists of a slow inhalation through the nose, followed by an equally slow exhalation. No breath retention is required. The objective is not control, but flow.
When practiced for several minutes, distractions gradually diminish, allowing connections between seemingly unrelated thoughts to erge more easily.
Applications: creative writing, invention, planning, research, worldbuilding, and strategic thinking.
A calm mind often discovers solutions that an agitated mind cannot perceive.
***
Ezra imdiately began practicing the breathing thod.
Slow inhale.
Slow exhale.
His shoulders gradually relaxed.
The tension that had been building inside his mind over the last two days slowly began to loosen.
The countless ideas floating through his head no longer felt like a tangled knot.
Instead, they started separating from one another.
One by one.
First, I need to filter out all the large-scale ideas.
He slowly released another breath.
The air left his lungs in a steady stream.
I don’t need them right now.
Ideas about military vehicles.
Advanced weapons.
Industrial machinery.
Large-scale manufacturing systems.
All of them were valuable.
All of them had potential.
Yet none of them suited his current situation.
What I need is sothing simple.
Sothing people can understand at first glance.
Sothing useful enough to generate publicity, but not so shocking that the entire Kingdom starts staring at .
He inhaled again.
The rhythm remained slow and natural.
The purpose of Creative Breathing wasn’t to force the mind to work harder.
It was to remove the unnecessary noise that prevented ideas from connecting together.
I need sothing that will make them wonder why nobody thought of it sooner.
Sothing traditional thinking caused them to overlook.
Most importantly...
Sothing that won’t shake Britannia overnight, is what I need now.
Ezra gradually focused deeper on the Book of mories.
The giant to floated silently within his ntal world.
Its pages remained open, waiting for his thoughts to guide it.
My first thought was won’s products.
His mind moved toward that category.
To be honest, it’s not a bad path.
Won do make up half the population and the demand would be enormous.
If I search deeper through the Book of mories, I’m certain I could find products that don’t exist in Britannia yet.
His thoughts lingered there for a mont.
Then he slowly shook his head.
No.
That path drifts too far away from my main direction.
It’s the sa reason I pushed food aside.
Food does have the potential.
A lot of it.
The burger and fried coated chicken alone could probably beco successful businesses.
But neither of them aligns with what I actually want to build.
Ezra’s breathing remained calm.
Steady.
His thoughts continued flowing naturally.
I’m pursuing Gun Alchemy.
Weapons manufacturing and Industrial businesses connected to military production.
That has always been the main path I’ve been following.
However...
His eyes narrowed slightly.
The mont that thought surfaced, mories from his previous life appeared.
Large corporations.
Massive companies.
Business empires.
So focused on a single field.
Others expanded everywhere.
Technology.
Food.
Fashion.
dicine.
Entertainnt.
Transportation.
Many of the largest companies in his past-life previous world had never restricted themselves to a single industry.
They grew by branching outward.
Creating opportunities wherever they found them.
That’s why I don’t want to chain myself to Gun Alchemy alone.
If an opportunity appears, I should take it.
A business doesn’t need to be connected to weapons to be valuable.
The Book of mories responded to his thoughts.
Its pages began flipping again.
Faster this ti.
Page after page turned.
Soon images appeared.
n’s clothing.
Won’s clothing.
Formal wear.
Casual wear.
Military uniforms.
Accessories.
Different fashion styles from different countries and eras.
Ezra quietly observed them.
My past self really did research a ridiculous number of things.
The thought appeared naturally while his gaze continued moving through the pages.
The fashion industry of Britannia isn’t lacking.
Compared to the clothing I rember from my previous life; they’re already doing quite well.
We Nobles dressed elegantly.
aning the Tailors are highly skilled.
Luxury brands also already exist.
Trying to revolutionize clothing itself would be difficult.
Another page turned.
Then another.
Ezra continued thinking.
Fashion.
Clothing.
Luxury products.
Fashion.
Clothing.
Luxury products.
The words repeated inside his mind.
Then suddenly...
His eyes widened.
His breathing stopped for half a second.
Wait.
Fashion isn’t only about clothing.
The realization struck him imdiately.
His entire body straightened.
The scattered thoughts that had been floating around his head suddenly connected together.
Like puzzle pieces finally falling into place.
That’s it.
That makes perfect sense.
Why didn’t I think of that earlier?
His mind raced.
Not with confusion, but with certainty.
Fashion wasn’t limited to clothes.
There were accessories.
Appearance products.
Personal grooming products.
Luxury items.
Thing’s people used every day without realizing how important they were.
And among those categories...
There was one particular item that imdiately stood out.
An item simple enough.
Useful enough.
And Profitable enough.
Most importantly...
An item that fit perfectly into his plan.
Ezra’s eyes opened.
The Book of mories faded from his ntal world.
Without wasting another second, he reached for a blank sheet of paper.
His drawing pen followed imdiately afterward.
The previous laziness was gone with the frustration he felt.
Even the uncertainty that had plagued him for days had disappeared.
His hand moved across the paper.
Lines appeared one after another.
A rough design gradually ford.
"Yeah..."
A small smile threatened to appear on his face.
"This should be it."
Then Ezra completely imrsed himself in sketching the design of his invention.
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