Don't Want to Be Ordinary Even Though I'm an Extra Character-Chapter 130: [] The Wireless Phone is born

"What?" Rainer stared directly at Arkan, his brow slightly raised and his tone flat, hinting at confusion and a trace of tension.

"Yes, you heard me correctly..." Arkan replied calmly, his gaze fixed on the map spread out before him. "I’m asking you to carry out something in the Empire."

His voice wasn’t raised, but each word landed like a slow, deliberate weight on Rainer’s shoulders. The air in the room grew heavy with the silence that followed Arkan’s statement.

Rainer stepped forward, eyes locked on the red-circled spot on the map. He didn’t speak at first, trying to grasp the deeper meaning behind that marked location.

Then Arkan turned to face him, arms folded, posture radiating gravity. His gaze was sharp but not judgmental, as if to say that whatever he was about to explain had to be heard without bias.

"You’ll be escorting Hongward," he said flatly, but the pressure in his voice made it clear this was no ordinary assignment.

"Wait, Pastor Hongward?" Rainer straightened up, his voice rising slightly in surprise. The memory of that man was still vivid—some opponents aren’t easily forgotten.

"Oh, you still remember?" Arkan smirked faintly, his hand lowering from his chest to the table, revealing a small scroll marked with bold red symbols.

"Of course I remember..." Rainer replied, frowning. His tone hardened; he knew this wasn’t some minor errand. "He’s not just anyone, and I haven’t forgotten our last encounter."

"Very well..." Arkan let out a long breath before locking eyes with Rainer. "I’ll explain my plan. Listen closely—this is big. One wrong step, and we all fall."

Arkan’s voice dropped lower, no drama, only silence filling the gaps between his words like unseen weight pressing on the room.

Rainer swallowed hard, his body tensing at the shift in atmosphere. He sat upright, fists resting on his thighs, ready to take in every word without interruption.

"The Church is in turmoil," Arkan began, his tone even but loaded with strategic weight. He pointed to the map on the table, red ink carving lines across the Empire, straight to the heart of religious authority.

"A power struggle?" Rainer asked, trying to read the meaning behind the symbols. His eyes traced every cross and circle drawn with deliberate care.

"Not just that... something worse," Arkan answered, sliding a small wooden piece shaped like a castle across the map. "The current Pope is clinging to outdated dogma, refusing any progress that touches science or reform."

Rainer’s brows furrowed. "And you want to change that from the inside?"

Arkan nodded slowly. "Pastor Hongward is the key. He’s not only the Pope’s youngest son, but also the only one with influence and progressive thinking. But his position is fragile. The moment he appears in the capital, there could be rejection—or even an assassination attempt."

Rainer exhaled deeply, his eyes wavering, as if Arkan had just touched on an old wound not yet healed. He looked down at the dusty tips of his boots, trying to collect his thoughts amid the growing pressure.

"Yes, because he’s vulnerable, countless battles await," Arkan said calmly but firmly. "That’s why this is your chance to grow—and to realize the world isn’t as black and white as it seems."

Arkan slowly walked along the side of the table, his hand gliding over the map’s surface as if tracing the path of a carefully laid destiny. "Haven’t you felt it too? That there’s no growth here? Routine won’t shape you, Rainer. But conflict, pressure, and hard choices—those forge true heroes."

Rainer looked up slowly, his jaw tightening at those words. He knew staying still wouldn’t make him stronger—but to step into the crossfire of politics and religion? That wasn’t a battlefield he understood.

"But..." he muttered, almost like a whisper hidden from himself.

Arkan narrowed his eyes, watching the shift in the young man’s expression. "I know," he said softly, but with unwavering certainty. "You’re afraid your identity as Astoria might be exposed, aren’t you?"

His tone wasn’t accusatory, but it made it clear that indecision wouldn’t be accepted as an excuse to retreat. Rainer clenched his fists by his sides, gripping his trousers tightly, as if holding back a fear that had started to rise from the pit of his stomach.

Arkan paused for a moment, then stepped forward and placed a hand firmly on Rainer’s shoulder. "The truth isn’t something you can avoid forever, Rainer. But you can choose how it’s discovered. And you can choose to stand on it, not run from it."

Rainer closed his eyes for a moment, drew a deep breath, and opened them again slowly. In his gaze now flickered a small fire—still faint, but bright enough to begin dispelling the doubts clouding his heart.

"Alright... if this is the path, then I’ll walk it," he finally said.

Arkan gave a short, meaningful nod. "That’s what I wanted to hear. Now go. Pick your team and get everything ready. You have two days."

###

Arkan then handed over administrative control of the region to Marcel, his most trusted right-hand man in both civil and military matters. This decision allowed Arkan to fully dedicate his focus to developing a communication device that fused the principles of science and magic.

In the underground workshop filled with the scent of metal and the crackle of raw magic, Elara stood beside a large workbench cluttered with blueprints and inactive runes. Though the initial designs were already in place, implementing the technology in the real world had proven far more complex than they had anticipated.

"Elara, this magic wave is interfering with the voice transmission channel. We need something to stabilize it," Arkan said, pointing to the center of a diagram, where magical energy clashed with metal wiring in theory.

Elara nodded quickly, her black hair tousled from a full day of nonstop work. "If we can create a stabilizing crystal based on light runes, maybe we can replace the copper wires for sound energy transmission without distortion," she replied enthusiastically.

They continued their technical discussion in a rhythm only researchers could follow, occasionally crossing out parts of the blueprint and replacing them with magical symbols combined with scientific calculations. The world they operated in was a hybrid one—where mechanical logic and arcane forces met without the limits of dogma.

"We need to generate an electromagnetic wave strong enough to reach beyond Lawrence’s territory," Arkan murmured, pointing to the center of the schematic where the network of cables and rune circles had yet to synchronize. "Is it possible to combine it with these second-level light magic runes?"

Elara narrowed her eyes, studying the section he indicated, then grabbed a rune pen and crossed out several unstable points. "It might be, but we’ll need a damping layer between the rune and the metal conductor. Otherwise, the interference could blow the whole component."

"Then use lunaris stone infused with a binding incantation," Arkan said quickly, his mind working as fast as his hands as he adjusted the blueprint again. "We used it in the perimeter defense engine before. Its durability and resonance were stable enough."

"Good point... and if we place amplifiers at each signal tower, the transmission will be even cleaner," Elara replied, a small smile forming as a path to a solution began to emerge.

Then, after several days of relentless effort, Arkan conducted a trial run of the communication device—one that no longer relied on cables. The world’s first wireless phone had been created.

A few days later, in the Department of Magic lab, Arkan stood tall in front of a long table covered in wires, magical crystals, and precision instruments. A soft blue glow from engraved runes illuminated the surface of the device, now completed as the prototype of the world’s first wireless communication tool—an achievement he never imagined would become reality this soon.

"It took a lot of materials... but it was worth it," Arkan murmured, his voice raspy from lack of sleep, yet his eyes sparkled with undeniable satisfaction. He turned a small knob on the side of the device and pressed the rune symbol to activate the initial transmission.

A low hum filled the room, followed by a thin beam of light emanating from the core crystal—proof that the magic-electromagnetic transmission was now active. Elara, seated at the end of the table taking notes on the rune reactions in her journal, looked up and smiled proudly.

"My Lord, you’re absolutely insane... but brilliantly insane," she said with a small laugh as she stood and approached the device. She placed her hand near the crystal’s surface and felt a faint vibration—evidence that the resonance between the technical and magical elements had aligned. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"This is just the first phase, but if this test reaches ten kilometers..." Arkan said, still monitoring the energy indicators on the side panel. He then picked up a small receiver shaped like a half-circle and handed it to Elara.

"Field test. Try speaking from outside," he instructed, lifting another receiver of his own. Elara nodded without a word, then jogged out of the lab, her steps light despite the exhaustion from days of tireless work.