Anime Episode 19

Strike While the Iron Is Hot is the 19th episode of the "Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki" Anime adaptation.

''Royal Guard Captain Ludwin's childhood friend, Genia, was a rare bread of mad scientist. Her inventions leave even Souma, who comes from a world of science and technology, in astonishment... In addition to being utterly dumbfounded.''

Summary
While Hakuya reports to Souma that the project is going way too smoothly, Ludwin comes and reports that his childhood friend had done something outrageous. They head out to meet his childhood friend, Genia Maxwell, also known as the Forbidden Army's Mad Scientist. They reach a "garage" where Ludwin explains its an abandoned dungeon that Maxwell family turned it into a research laboratory. Reaching the bottom level of the dungeon, they meet with Genia, who invites them for a cup of coffee.

Genia reintroduces herself, stating she is scientist, researcher and inventor, and a mage in the Forbidden Army. She was in the weapon development division, but ended up getting dismissed. She made arrowheads loaded with seeds for fast-growing plants, so they can repopulate trees in the war torn zones. Genia believes her idea was great, but guesses she shouldn't have enchanted them in light magic to help accelerate the growing process. Liscia then recalls that before Souma was summoned, there was an incident in a training ground and laboratory and they were swallowed up by sea of trees.

Genia then explains that her family have been conducting research for generations and they have started to get a vague glimpse of natural law, separate from magic. She asks if Souma knows what the gemstones are and he explains he heard they were ancient treasures from dungeons and the magic of the Sylph wind spirits and the Undine water spirits are incorporated in them, and that's how they deliver the picture and sound. Genia states there are two things wrong with his perception. The first is the spirits as everything mysterious gets associated with either the power of magic or spirits. But she isn't sure the spirits exist. By an accident, they discovered that if you use water and wind magic on the gemstones, they took the view around them and project it to the receivers that were also discovered with them. The second part he is wrong is the picture and sound being delivered. They are using the gemstones for broadcast, only because they discovered by an accident they can project image. Souma then realizes that the gemstones had other use and wonders what are the gemstones. Genia states they are dungeon cores, and as long as they are in the dungeon, they will keep spawning monsters, but once destroyed or shut down, the monsters stop spawning and the dungeon eventually becomes abandoned. The adventurers goal is to destroy those cores and take them for a reward, but because of that humans have only researched destroyed dungeon cores, the gemstones. No one has brought up a working dungeon core. Souma wonders if they can restart one, but Genia explains they can't as they don't even know how they work. As Genia says the unknown is scary, Souma states that's the reason people use magic to explain everything. Genia is happy that Souma understands her and explains that her family calls the natural law, Over-Science, making her an over-scientist.

Genia decides to show her inventions. She reveals the Little Susumu Mark V, a propulsion device that can propel a whole ship. It can suck the air in front of it and then shoot it out behind it. Souma wonders what will happen if they use it on land and Genia states it will suck the air and then shoot it out. She decides to demonstrate and activates the device, causing everyone to be blown away, but Ludwin manages to reach the control and deactivate it. Genia apologizes as it was facing the wrong direction. Souma likes it, but wonders how its powered. Genia then takes out a curse ore. Liscia explains they use magic to mine ores, but when this one is close all magic stops. If they force it to work, the curse ore will explode, so usually when they find curse ore in mines, they stop mining those mines. And unfortunately, there is large vein of curse ore beneath the kingdom. Genia doesn't agree and as she explains, Souma realizes that the curse ore absorb magic. Genia confirms and states that if it exceeds the tolerance level of energy, it releases that stored energy. Genia explains she managed to find a way to retrieve the energy absorbed by the curse ore and is able to power the device with it. Souma then realizes she made a rechargeable battery and that could speed up the country development and make them the most powerful country. However, as the word spreads about it and that the kingdom has large amount of it for mining, it can cause a war over resources and even the end of the kingdom.

Souma tells Liscia that Genia had become quite important for them and wonders how they can anchor her to the country. Liscia then suggest she could marry someone Souma trusts and raise a family here. Souma then wonders if Genia likes Ludwin and Liscia believes there is 60% chance. Liscia wonders the same for Ludwin, but Souma states there is 99% chance for he to like her. Souma then asks Ludwin if he likes Genia as he wants someone who he trusts to marry her, which causes Ludwin to blush. Souma wonders if Genia would object, but she denies, stating that she always believed she will eventually settle down and wanted it to be good person like Ludwin. Ludwin is afraid that will be the end of Maxwell family line, but Souma states she can go on by Maxwell-Arcs and that the royal family would pay for the wedding. Ludwin then proposes to Genia, who accepts. Ludwin then makes Genia bows and apologizes for her scandalous act. Souma then remembers why they came and asks what she did and Ludwin reveals she stole dragon bones.

Characters in Order of Appearance
Characters in italics debuted here.
 * Kazuya Souma
 * Liscia Elfrieden
 * Hakuya Kwonmin
 * Ludwin Arcs
 * Genia Maxwell

Changes

 * Souma doesn't learn that Genia has stolen dragon bones until the end of the episode.

Trivia

 * This Episode adapts Light Novel Volume 04 Chapter 1 (Parts 1-2).
 * The Japanese title is adapted from official Chinese history Records of the Grand Historian Volume 85: Biographies 25 Lü Buwei. Note that the meaning of English translation is different form Japanese. The original story says that a merchant named Lü Buwei found a noble in exile and deemed him to be important, leaving the idiom "collecting goods that is rare and valuable".