Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Volume 5 Chapter 2

“Ohh! Why Your Majesty, welcome and thank you for gracing us with your presence.”

When I pa.s.sed through the door into the Jewel Voice Broadcast studio that we had set up in the castle, a well-built middle-aged n.o.bleman welcomed me with an exaggerated flourish.

This was Moltov Juniro, the father of Ivan Juniro, who played Silvan, the Kingdom of Friedonia's first tokusatsu hero.

“Hey, Moltov,” I said. “How are things going on the program?”

“Sire, we've been doing our best to follow the example you set.”

The truth was, the other day, partly because his son's Silvan had become so popular, I had decided to go all the way and appoint Moltov as the director of broadcast program production. I'd done that because I wanted to be able to keep the programs in production even when I was busy.

Moltov, like his son Ivan, had an ability that made it so there was no need for special effects, so I'd decided that would make him a good pick for the position.

Moltov stroked his beard and said, “Well, this program-making business is deeper than you might think. There are things the people want to see, things that they don't want to see, things that we want them to see, things that we don't want them to see… It's quite difficult to strike a proper balance.”

Moltov groaned in consternation.

I was relieved to see him taking his job so seriously. “Do you want to quit?”

“No! I appreciate the challenge!” Moltov responded with a lively smile.

Somehow, I felt that that was a better look for him than when he was trying to foist his daughter Siena off on me.

On that subject, Siena, who was now appearing alongside her brother Ivan as a supporting heroine (something similar to **ckle in St**nger), had said with a gentle smile, “I believe my father has found his purpose in life. There are a limited number of ways to rise in stature as a n.o.ble. You can distinguish yourself in the military or administration, or you can become a maternal relative of the Royal House. Those have always been the only ways, so he had been wholeheartedly pursuing them. However, Your Majesty, you taught my father something: the joy of creating a broadcast program to entertain the people. Thank you so much.”

Sigh… She was such a good daughter, I almost had to doubt she was actually a blood relative of that boisterous father and son.

Anyway, let's get back on topic.

Like Siena had said, Moltov was enthusiastically working on creating broadcast programs.

I extended my hand to him. “I have great expectations, Moltov. If you keep developing your craft, I'm sure eventually I'll be leaving a jewel in your care.”

“My word! You'd give me a jewel?!”

“Yeah. I'd want you to use it not for public broadcasts, but to open your own broadcasting station.”

In other words, making him a private broadcaster. If all we had was a public broadcaster, there were limits to the number of programs that could be produced, after all. In order to make such a thing happen, there would need to be further advances in technology, and the appropriate laws would need to be put in place, so it couldn't happen right away. Still, it was best to start preparing for five, ten years from now.

Moltov gave a jolly laugh. “You'll be giving me my own independent station, huh! The dreams are endless!”

“Yeah. So, work hard for it.”

“Leave it to me!” Moltov thumped his chest proudly. “By the way, sire, what were you doing here today?”

“Oh, yeah, that's right. I think Juna was supposed to be around here somewhere…”

“If you mean Ms. Juna Doma, she is currently shooting the educational program.” Moltov pointed towards the studio.

It just so happened, Juna was currently in the middle of a live broadcast for the educational program. The song she was currently singing and dancing to was a children's song from the other world with a slightly Asian style. The way Juna looked as she danced with the strings wrapped around her sleeves fluttering was just like a celestial maiden. It made me want to pray, “Close the pathway through the clouds.”

Eventually the broadcast came to an end. Juna noticed me and rushed over, still in her stage outfit. “What's going on, Your Majesty? I didn't think you were planning to come here today, were you?”

“Well, no, I wasn't, but… I had a favor I wanted to ask of you.”

“Of me?” Juna asked.

I nodded. “For about three days, starting tomorrow, I'm going to be away from the castle to meet with someone. I'd like to have you escort me.”

“I don't mind, but… you're leaving the capital unattended for three whole days?” Juna tilted her head to the side, looking slightly perplexed. “With all due respect, won't the government's work be impeded by your absence?”

“Oh, that should be fine. That thing I had Genia developing is complete now.”

“What… am I supposed to say…?” Juna was at a loss for words.

I had waited for Juna to get changed, then we'd gone to the office. Now she was looking at the thing I had been talking about.

Yeah… I could understand.

I had put in an order with Ludwin's fiance eand self-proclaimed “overscientist,” Genia Maxwell, to have her develop a certain thing for me.

My ability, Living Poltergeists, could imbue objects with a part of my consciousness; could make them float; and could allow me to see them from an overhead view; but it was only effective within a range of a hundred meters or so. If I had a pen doing paperwork in the governmental affairs office, I had to stay within a one hundred meter radius of it at all times. Because of that, during the time just after the handover of the throne when things had been really busy, I'd never left the capital for more than a day unless there was a crisis.

Also, as you already know, this ability's effective range could be ignored if the target was a doll; but, unfortunately, dolls weren't able to write very well. It was easy to write when I was controlling the pen directly, but for some reason, it was unusually hard to do it when I had a doll holding the pen. It was like using a remote control to operate a robot arm that was holding a pen. It took an awful lot of focus, and what I wrote still ended up looking like chicken scratch.

I couldn't have messy writing on important doc.u.ments. There were a lot of doc.u.ments where it could cause major problems if they were misread.

In the end, even though dolls negated the range limitation of my ability, that hadn't changed the situation which was keeping me from leaving the castle for an extended period of time. I'd known that if I'd had a machine that could write letters, I could do my work from a distance, and that would let me leave the castle without worries.

That was around when I'd discovered the highly capable Genia.

She had used dragon bones as a basic frame, combining them with various mechanical and organic parts to create the mechanical dragon, Mechadra. I'd figured, Maybe she could create a doll that moves like a human hand.

With that thought in mind, I'd made the order, and just the other day, Factory Arm #1 (named by yours truly) had been completed.

From the side, it looked like an arm had bizarrely sprouted from an L-shaped platform. In simple terms, it was like a prosthetic arm or a manipulator. However, it was strangely realistic and human-like in a way that was creepy and off-putting. That much was evident from Juna's reaction to seeing the thing.

Oh, Genia, why did you have to make it so realistic?

Well, I'd experimented with using Living Poltergeists to control Factory Arm #1. The artificial arm moved smoothly, grasping the pen and writing letters on a piece of paper.

…It was twice as creepy in motion. So this was the “uncanny valley,” huh?

“When the bureaucrats see this thing doing work, they're always scared stiff,” I said. “Oh, and when the maids bring tea, they often scream and faint.”

“I completely understand how they feel.” Even Juna's smile was twitching a little as she said that. It did look like something out of a horror story, after all.

“In any event, now that I can have Factory Arm #1 do work for me, I'm able to travel outside the capital,” I said. “I'm already having a number of them made.”

“Having a whole bunch of them moving… I don't even want to imagine what that looks like,” Juna said sounding apologetic, but I agreed with her.

The arm dolls, in an empty room, writing endlessly. Even imagining it was grinding away at my SAN stat.

Juna shook her head, trying to put the image out of her mind so she could get things back on track. “But, sire, why do you want to have me with you as your partner? Wouldn't the princess, Aisha, or Roroa do just as well?”

“Hmm… Considering who I'm dealing with this time, I want you to lend me your strength,” I said. “I think for the others… they'd be no match for her.”

“Her? Who are you talking about?”

“National Defense Force Commander Excel Walter.”

“…I see. Grandmother, huh? That's why you want me.”

Juna seemed satisfied with that explanation. However, she soon c.o.c.ked her head to the side quizzically.

“But, sire, Grandmother has been your ally all along, hasn't she? When you say they'd be no match for her, is there some reason you would be taking a stance against her?”

When I saw the worried look on Juna's face, I said, “Oh, that's not it,” and shook my head. “The reason we're leaving the capital for three days is to survey the progress on a project I've had Excel working on; but aside from that… I've heard that Marx recently made contact with Excel.”

“The chamberlain? Now why would he do that…? Was it for something important?”

“Oh, no, nothing that important. He didn't seem to be making any secret of it. He was just getting her advice on some things, but… it's what he was getting advice about that worries me…”

“…And what do you think he was getting advice about?”

“It seems… it had something to do with a ‘s.e.xual instructor' for me.”

The moment I said that, Juna winced a little.

s.e.xual instructors were a custom of the upper cla.s.ses in this country. (The knights, the n.o.bility, and higher.) When a man came of age, an “experienced woman” would be dispatched. To ensure that he wouldn't embarra.s.s himself when he took a wife, she would teach him, well…”bedroom etiquette,” and other such things.

It was standard for those lessons to be taught at a desk like a health and physical education cla.s.s, but there were some houses that included “hands-on learning.”

I scratched my head awkwardly. “I'm turning twenty this year, and I've got beauties like Liscia, Aisha, and you by my side. I guess they thought that, as a healthy young man, if they just left us alone, I'd lay my hands on at least one of you eventually, so it never came up before. But because I've taken so long, Marx has gotten impatient, and he's been saying that maybe some education is needed. It seems Hakuya agreed with him on that.”

“I see… So that's what it was.” Juna nodded, her expression still twitching.

This country's Royal House was on the verge of extinction due to the succession crisis that had broken out upon the death of the king before the last one, so Marx was always badgering me to “hurry and produce an heir.” While the wedding had yet to take place, I was already betrothed to Liscia and the others, so it apparently didn't count as premarital s.e.xual relations in his mind. That was how bad the shortage of royals in this country was.

“And so, the two of them turned to Excel, who's five hundred years old and has a bounty of experience when it comes to romantic affairs,” I went on. “‘We don't have a good woman for the job in mind,' they said. When they did…”

“…I have a bad feeling about this.”

“…Excel raised her hand and volunteered herself.”

“The nerve!” Juna shouted, something she rarely did.

It seemed that, when she imagined her betrothed (even if that was still a secret) possibly having relations with her grandmother, she couldn't maintain her composure. She showed a mixture of panic and anger.

She can make expressions like that, too… That's kind of refres.h.i.+ng, I thought.

Incidentally, when Marx had come to her for advice, Excel had said, “Oh my, in that case, why don't I teach him for you? I have a decent amount of experience in that field, after all. If you'd like, I can even handle the practical lessons personally, you know? I come from a long-lived race, so it's not that likely that I would get pregnant. Hee hee,” with a laugh that made it hard to tell just how serious she was.

According to Marx, giving the lie to her mid-twenties appearance, her eyes had had the glint of a snake that had found its prey.

…I suppose she wasn't from the sea serpent race for nothing.

When I told Juna that, she pressed a finger to her temple, looking worried. “I've heard about this from Aunt Accela.” That was Excel's daughter and Carla's mother. “When she was still a young girl, Grandmother would tempt the men who fell in love with my aunt and tease them.”

“Wow… That's pretty awful…”

“No, she only did it with the ones my aunt had no feelings for herself. It was to make them give up on having an illicit affair with her daughter, but… my mother once told me, with an exhausted look on her face, ‘I never wanted to have to see cla.s.smates who had tried to woo my mother and been shot down.'”

Well, no, I don't imagine she would have. Thinking about it, Castor had initially

approached Excel, hadn't he? Had she been cold to him because he'd gone after her first? It was definitely true that she was a breathtaking beauty. If I hadn't built up a resistance to that by being around Liscia and the others, I might have been at risk of falling for her myself.

“So, now that you know what's up, I'd like to ask you to accompany me,” I said. “Can I count on you for that?”

“…I understand. I will do my utmost to protect you, sire.” Juna saluted me, her face filled with resolution.

Protect me from what?… Yeah, the answer to that went without saying.

Juna looked to me as if she wanted to say something, but she was having a hard time saying whatever it was and she looked away. I wondered what it could be, so I waited for her. Juna seemed to resolve herself, then opened her mouth and said, “Um… About the issue you're having, well… Wouldn't it be solved if you just laid your hands on one of us? It could be the princess, or Aisha, or Roroa, or even… um… me…”

When she said that with her face looking down and her eyes upturned, it hit me hard, but I gulped and restrained myself. If Marx had his say, this might be exactly the problem.

“I'm… uh… not ready to be a father yet,” I said. “Listen, I love all of you, of course, and I'm definitely interested in doing that sort of stuff with you, but… when they tell me I absolutely have to make a baby, I'm hesitant. With me as I am now, with this country as it is now, I question if I can make all of you, and the children to be born, happy.”

“I see…” Juna looked a little disappointed, but she quickly covered it with a gentle smile. “That's very much like you, sire. I can feel how much you care for all of us.”

“Of course I do!”

“In that case, I will be looking forward to it when you're ready.”

Juna's smile was so wonderful that I hugged her tight. She seemed surprised, but she didn't resist.

She was soft and smelled good.

I wasn't ready yet, but… I could do this much, at least, I figured.

(Y)

A few days later — Lagoon City

Lagoon City was the central city of the Walter Duchy.

It was located in the northeast of Friedonia, and as the name would lead you to a.s.sume, it was a city built in a lagoon. Because of the high heat and humidity, it was built much like Venice in Italy, and there were ca.n.a.ls running everywhere in the city.

When I looked at this city, it reminded me of a certain iyas.h.i.+kei manga I had read a long time ago, but unfortunately there were no cute girls acting as gondoliers here. Instead, I could see burly men loading and unloading cargo from little boats all over the place.

It was winter now, so the men were bundled up tight; but if this had been summer, they'd probably have all been practically naked. (Like, wearing nothing but a loincloth.) Even the thought of it was suffocating.

I was there, watching the scenery of Lagoon City from inside a carriage with Juna.

“Were you born here, Juna?” I asked.

“No, I was born a little further to the northwest, in a small port town near the border with the Union of Eastern States. It's not as lively as it is here, but we do catch lots of delicious fish there, you know?”

“Oh, yeah? I'd like to go there someday.”

“Yes, I hope you will.”

While we were having that pleasant chat, the carriage arrived at Excel's manor.

At Lagoon City, the Navy's stronghold, there was a base, but there was no castle. That was because they didn't antic.i.p.ate the city being besieged by a land-based force. It reflected the fact that the Navy was able to show its fullest power at sea, and if this

land were ever invaded by a foreign enemy, they would simply board the s.h.i.+ps and eliminate the enemy, city and all, with coastal bombardments.

The sea serpent race loved this land more than anyone, and if they couldn't have it, no one could. They were pretty yandere when it came to their feelings for this land.

When we rode onto the grounds in our carriage, I saw that Excel was standing in front of the manor, awaiting our arrival. Her blue hair shone in the sun, her beautiful face peering out from behind it.

Like always, Excel was so beautiful, you could tell even from a distance. You could really tell she was Juna's grandmother. (Though there were few people whom the word “grandmother” would have suited less.) The blue outfit she was wearing that was like a kimono crossed with a dress looked good on her.

When I looked over, Juna had a grim look on her face.

“Juna? What's wrong?” I asked.

“That kimono…”

“The kimono?”

“It's Grandmother's favorite. It seems… caution may indeed be warranted.”

“Um… Technically, my only goal here is to survey a military facility…”

When I said that, alarmed, Juna wrapped her arm around mine, holding it tight, then looked at me with a serious expression. “Sire, when you are in front of a sea snake, you never show an opening to strike. If you do…”

“If I do?”

“You'll be gobbled up.”

“…”

…I didn't know exactly what that was supposed to mean, but I made a mental note to be careful.

(Y)

When we disembarked from the carriage, Excel met us with a smile.

“It's been too long, Your Majesty. Welcome to Lagoon City.”

I knew what Juna had said, but for now, she didn't seem any different from usual. I tried not to make my wariness evident, responding in a friendly tone. “We haven't seen each other since I appointed you as Supreme Commander of the National Defense Force, right? I'm glad to see you're in good health.”

“Hee hee! Oh, sire, you do love pus.h.i.+ng off major duties onto this old lady.” (She seemed to be fine with calling herself that.) “But thank you. I hope you've been well, Juna.”

“It's good to see again, Sea Princess.” Next to me, Juna gave a graceful bow.

Excel had been called “Sea Princess” in the former Navy. It was probably similar to addressing her as “ma'am” for them.

But Excel shook her head. “Juna, you've been discharged from the Navy. You will be marrying His Majesty, even if it is as a secondary queen. The only positions we have relative to one another now are the ones we have as family.”

“Sea… No, I understand. Grandmother.”

Yeah. This was a good scene, one that brought across their bonds as family… or so I thought.

“Hee hee hee. So, Juna, that means you and I are equals now.”

…What was that? Had I imagined that she'd stressed the word “equals” there?

Also, when she heard the word “equals,” I thought I noticed a vein rise on Juna's temple. “…Hee hee hee. Whatever do you mean by that, Grandmother?”

“You see, the key to not getting tired with a life that goes on for too long is to always take an interest in someone or other.”

“Is it now?” Juna asked. “By the way, do you have an interest in His Highness?”

“He's the first hero we've had since the first king, after all. I find him fascinating.”

Excel was smiling. But I sensed a strange pressure behind that smile. Juna was responding with a similar smile of her own.

…What was this atmosphere? I really wanted to get out of there.

“Anyway, do you mind if we go inside?” I suggested. “There's no need to stand out here, surely.”

“Hee hee! I'm sorry about that,” said Excel. “Please, come right this way.”

In any case, with the formalities (?) out of the way, we were led into the building.

Inside it was like a cla.s.sy Western-style manor. The furniture on display wasn't excessively gaudy, instead melting into the relaxed atmosphere. Even I, who was by no means artistic, could appreciate Excel's good aesthetic sense.

Eventually we were led to a room bearing a plate that identified it as the parlor.

There was already one person in the parlor, standing at attention.

That tall man, who was wearing the uniform of a non-commissioned officer in the Friedonia National Naval Defense Force, had bat-like wings and a lizard-like tail. The man saluted me, then began preparing tea.

Even once we had seated ourselves and he'd finished distributing tea to everyone, that man continued to stand behind Excel, waiting for orders.

I ma.s.saged my temples. “If he's just going to stand there, it's going to bother me too much not to think about it.”

“I did tell him he could just act like normal,” Excel said with a wry smile.

The man standing behind her was Castor. He had formerly been one of the three dukes and the General of the Air Force. He was also Carla's father.

Having been held responsible for defying his king and stripped of his post, he had been forced to retire and leave the family heads.h.i.+p to his young son Carl, while he himself had been put in Excel's custody.

Incidentally, the one acting as Carl's aide was, at the man's own request, the former steward of the House of Vargas and current General of the National Air Defense Force, Tolman.

Anyway, from what Excel had told me, she was working Castor hard as a rank and file soldier of the National Naval Defense Force.

Perhaps becoming a defeated general had stripped him of his stubborn pride and made him more meek. Or perhaps he was simply making a show of acting only as a rank and file soldier of the National Naval Defense Force out of stubbornness.

If he met them on the streets, he bowed even to those who had been ranked far beneath him until just recently, and when it was his day on cleaning duty, he cleaned all of the toilets on the s.h.i.+p.

I thought this about Carla, too, but the members of his bloodline tended to be far too loyal to the positions they found themselves in.

“…This is an order,” I said. “Sit down, Castor.”

“Yes, sir! Pardon me, sir!” Castor finally took a seat.

Good grief.

“Also, it kind of creeps me out, so drop the excessive formality,” I added. “Unless we're in public or there are other subordinates around, I want you to talk normally when it's on a personal basis. That's an order, too.”

“Yes, sir… But…”

“Castor, does a non-commissioned officer defy his king's orders?” Excel demanded.

“…Understood.” Castor reluctantly acquiesced.

Whew… Now we can finally have a relaxed talk, I thought.

“Anyway, it's been a while, Castor,” I said. “How's life in the Navy treating you?”

“Quite well, sir. I have already grown accustomed… I've gotten used to the smell of the sea. Also, um…”

“Hm? What's up?”

“How is Carla doing?” He seemed concerned for his daughter who was now my slave.

Well, he was her father, after all.

“Relax. Carla is… Uhh, she's getting along fine.”

“What was that pause?! What was that ‘Uhh' for?!”

“No, I'm sure she's doing great and all, it's just…”

If I recalled, back in the castle right now, Carla would be…

(Y)

Meanwhile, in the studio back in Parnam Castle…

“Bwahahahaha! Silvan, today I end you! Get him, Wheel Monster Dialgon!”

“Dialgoooon!” (Moltov had taken over playing the monsters from Aisha.)

“Curse you, Miss Dran and Dialgon! I will protect peace in this country!”

(Y)

“…Yep. She's (probably) doing fine. Physically, she's the very picture of health. I know she's a slave belonging to the Royal House, but I haven't laid my hands on her or anything like that.”

Now, as for her being mentally fine, I wasn't so sure. I mean, Serina was always toying with her…

“You haven't done anything to her… When I hear that, I'm actually more worried.”

“Hm? Why does that make you look so depressed?” I asked.

“Because if you had laid your hands on her, I'd think that would make Carla safer.” Castor let out a little sigh. “I've heard from d.u.c.h.ess Excel. You're the kind of man who values his family, and you'd do anything to protect them. In the time since I was left here, I've come to hear rumors of what you do, and… I hold the same opinion. That's

why I figure that if Carla became pregnant and you recognized her as family, nothing could make her safer.”

Not so that he could become a relative of the Royal House, but so that his daughter would be safe. It made me think about how complicated a father's feelings were.

But…

“I have zero intention of taking Carla as my queen.”

He was silent.

“Still, Liscia would be upset if anything happened to Carla,” I said. “I'd rather not have to see Liscia sad. I can guarantee you I won't do anything too bad to her.”

“You won't…? I'm relieved to hear that. Please, I ask that you take good care of my daughter.” Castor bowed his head deeply.

I'm sure he took on that more formal tone at the very end because it was a sincere, heartfelt request. With the way Excel had been treating him, maybe it had helped him to grow somewhat as a human being. (Well, as a dragonewt, actually.)

I looked over to Excel. “So, Excel, do you think we can use this guy?”

“Hee hee! I've prepared him well. As you would expect from a man who once led armies, he learns quickly. The way things are going… I'd say it's possible.”

“I see… Well, let's go then.”

Having finished that exchange which only the two of us understood, Excel and I rose to our feet. When they saw us suddenly stand up, Juna and Castor's eyes went wide.

“Um, sire? Where are we going?” Juna asked me with a blank look.

I smiled wryly. “Did you forget already? Our plan for the day is to survey a military facility, remember?”

“Oh, now that you mention it… That's right.” Juna's cheeks flushed red with embarra.s.sment.

Her mind must have been preoccupied with staying on guard against Excel. When she was embarra.s.sed, she actually acted her age. It was really cute. I wished I could just watch her forever, but I had king things that needed to actually get done.

“Now then, first order of business…” I turned to Castor, who looked like he had no clue what was going on. “For now, let's put a blindfold on Castor.”

(Y)

With Castor blindfolded, we got onto a wyvern's gondola, then traveled an hour or so, including the time transferring over to a s.h.i.+p midway.

When we finally reached our destination, I said to Castor, “Okay, you may now take off the blindfold.”

“…Why do you sound so high-handed?” Castor grumbled.

Even as he grumbled about it, Castor took off his blindfold. When he did, he found himself in the middle of the woods.

The only ones there were Juna, Castor, Excel and me, and the only thing in sight was a bunch of trees.

“What are we doing in a place like this?” Castor seemed dubious, but then he suddenly seemed to realize something and furrowed his brow. He asked me, “Is this… an island or something?”

“Oh…? Why would you think that?”

“I can smell salt water in all directions. We're near the sea, right? We did get on a boat in the middle of the trip, after all.”

“…Perceptive,” I said.

Even though he had been blindfolded the whole time, he had managed to immediately figure out that we were surrounded by the sea. That was impressive. I could see Excel had trained him well.

That's when I noticed that Juna was dumbfounded by what she was seeing.

“What's the matter?” I asked.

“Oh, no… It's just, on the way here, I've seen a lot of incredible things…” Juna said a little embarra.s.sedly, realizing I'd caught her with her guard down.

Ohh… Come to think of it, I never had told Juna about this place, did I? I had been leaving it totally in Excel's hands, after all.

Seeing Juna like that, Castor looked even more suspicious. “Just what is this place supposed to be?”

“Hm? Well, to put it in the simplest terms I can… It's our secret weapon, and a testing ground for a type of troops, maybe?”

“Secret weapon?” Castor repeated.

“It's faster to just show you. Come this way.” I started walking and led the way for everyone.

When we had walked a little ways, we came to a clearing. It was a meadow covered in short gra.s.s.

There was nothing high up, so the blue sky spread out over our heads. When I looked up to the sky, there were wyvern knights flying in formation.

I pointed up to those wyvern knights. “Castor, what do you think when you see that?”

“They're very… fast, huh…” Castor said, narrowing his eyes as if it were bright. “Too fast, if anything. That's not a speed wyverns can fly at. Are they using magic or something?”

“Well, when it comes to magic… you could say they're using it, in a way, yes. But, if they used magic to create a tailwind, do you think they could still fly in formation like that?”

“…No, not possible. If they were accelerating themselves with magic, they'd be less synchronized.”

Like Castor was saying, people had varying skill levels when it came to magic. Even if they used magic of the same type, the power, range, and cost depended on the person. That was why, even if we gathered a bunch of people with the same ability to

manipulate wind, they probably wouldn't be able to fly in neat formations like that while accelerating with magic. So that speed didn't come from magic, it came from technology.

“I want you to look at the back of their saddles,” I said.

“They've got something attached there,” Castor noted, looking where I'd told him. “Is it those rings?”

If you looked closely, yes, on the back of the wyvern knights' saddles there were two rings; one on the left, and one on the right.

I answered him while still looking up at the sky, “What you see there on the back of their saddles is a miniaturized, light-weight version of the Little Susumu Mark V.” (The Maxwellian Propulsion Device.) “When equipped with those, wyverns can fly faster and with a greater cruising range than ever before.”

(Y)

It had happened on the day when Ludwin took me to see Genia's dungeon laboratory.

They'd shown me Genia's inventions like the Little Susumu Mark V and Mechadra, and while I'd still had some concerns (especially about what I was going to do with Mechadra) on my way home, I had been confident that I'd found the key to bringing a revolution to this country. That was when a certain idea had occurred to me.

“…Hey, Genia. Can this Little Susumu Mark V be ma.s.s-produced? Also, could you make it smaller and lighter?”

“Hm…” Genia answered after thinking for a little while. “It's really an issue of whether I can secure a source for a certain special metal, but if that can be taken care of, ma.s.s production is possible. Now, as for miniaturization and making it lighter, you do realize the output will scale down with that, right?”

Metal, huh? This had been before we'd absorbed Amidonia, so getting that metal would have been difficult in light of the poverty of mineral resources in the kingdom…

Genia tilted her head to the side quizzically and asked, “What were you going to use them for?”

“Well, they suck in air and blow it back out, right? In that case, I was thinking we could fix them to the wyverns' bellies, or maybe the back of their saddles.”

“Oh?! I see! I hadn't thought of using it like that!”

There were three types of creature used in a manner similar to airplanes in this world: wyverns, which were in wide usage; griffons, which only the Empire had succeeded in breeding; and the dragons of the Star Dragon Mountain Range. If I were to a.s.sign them a grade of S, A, B, or C to their flight speed, turning, and cruising range, it would look like this:

[Wyvern] Flight Speed: B, Turning Ability: C, Cruising Range: A

[Griffon] Flight Speed: A, Turning Ability: S, Cruising Range: C

[Dragon] Flight Speed: S, Turning Ability: A, Cruising Range: S

…Well, more or less.

If you look at these stats, you can see that wyverns are like bombers, able to fly long distance but not strong in a fight; and griffons are like fighters, not able to fly long distances, but strong in a fight. The dragons were strong in all categories, but they were far less numerous than the other two, and they were sentient, so they couldn't really be controlled. There was apparently a country up north that had a contract with the dragons, but they were an exception among exceptions.

In other words, though I wanted to avoid this at all costs, if we went to war with the Empire, our wyvern cavalry would be no match for the Empire's griffon cavalry.

However, if we could make a miniaturized, light-weight version of Genia's propulsion device and attach it to them, what then? Wouldn't it raise everything except for their turning ability? If we could make it:

[Wyvern (With Propeller)] Flight Speed: B (S), Turning Ability: C (C-), Cruising Range:

A (S+)

Then, even if they couldn't fight griffon cavalry in close combat, they might be able to compete using a hit-and-run style of fighting. That was what I was thinking.

That said, I hadn't been able to secure a source of that special metal, so the idea had had to go on hold for a time. However, with Roroa foisting Amidonia on me later, things had changed.

Though Amidonia's food self-sufficiency rate was low, it produced a wealth of valuable mineral resources outside of just iron. That happened to include the special metal.

With a stable supply of the necessary metal, I had once again asked Genia to develop a miniaturized version of the Little Susumu Mark V that the wyverns could be equipped with.

(Y)

“And so, she developed the Little Susumu Mark V Light,” I concluded.

The ma.s.sive Little Susumu Mark V had been made smaller, lighter, and able to be installed on the back of a wyvern's saddle. The reason there were two rings was that, with only one, it pulled in riders who got in front of it. In order to prevent that, the rings were positioned to the left and right. Incidentally, when they weren't in use (when the rider wanted to focus on tight turns, or the wyvern was flapping its wings itself), they could be closed like clam sh.e.l.ls. In contrast, when the device was in use (for high-speed, long-range flights), the wyvern could keep its wings fixed in the open position, focusing only on creating lift.

With the invention of the Little Susumu Mark V Light, our country's wyverns were, as I had hoped, able to outmatch the Empire's griffon squadrons on everything except turning speed.

When he heard that explanation, the former General of the Air Force, Castor, was deeply impressed. “It's an incredible invention, yes, but… couldn't you have done something about that name?”

That was the one thing that disappointed him. I could relate.

“I did at least register it as the Lightweight Maxwellian Propulsion Device,” I said.

“Yeah, I think that's better.”

That was when I noticed Juna had a gloomy look on her face.

“Hey, what's wrong, Juna?” I asked.

“Um… are you planning to fight the Empire, sire?” Juna asked worriedly.

Oh… Having heard my explanation, maybe she would think that, huh. It was true, I was using the Empire as my imaginary enemy when developing weapons. You should always prepare for an enemy stronger than yourself, after all. But…

“For as long as Empress Maria of the Gran Chaos Empire stays true to her ideals and stands strong, I don't think we'll have a problem,” I said. “I have no intention of fighting against the Empire as it exists now, either.”

“…You don't?”

“Nope. But… no one knows what the future holds. There's no guarantee the Empire will stick to its current policies, and it's possible that another major power other than the Empire may someday rise up to face us. I don't want to take a naï veview of things, and then be left scrambling when that time comes. That's why, at all times, I need to a.s.sume the worst possible scenario.”

For that, doing things that were like tearing down a stone bridge and replacing it using the newest techniques was just about right. Machiavelli said a prince must always be prepared for changes of fortune, after all.

“You're a.s.suming the worst possible scenario… I see,” Juna said, and then said no more on the subject.

I was sure she was still feeling uneasy, but in the end, she trusted me. Liscia and Aisha could be the same way sometimes. Roroa was the only one who wouldn't feel uneasy, and would actually help fuel me.

Honestly… they were all too good for me.

Castor asked, “Earlier, you said this was a testing ground for secret weapons and types

of troops, right? I understand the weapon part, but what's this about a secret type of troop?”

“If you want to know that, we're going to need to walk a little further,” I answered.

I started to walk, leading the group to our next stop. While we progressed through the open field, the gra.s.s suddenly stopped, and the bare ground was exposed. That spot where red clay had been laid down was like sports ground. However, there were no bases for baseball, or goals for soccer. The only things there were were two tents to ward off the sunlight, and one anti-air repeating bolt thrower.

Inside the tent, the fox-eared mage who was now Ludwin's second-in-command, Kaede Foxia, was deep in conversation with a bunch of people who looked like researchers and engineers.

When we approached, Kaede noticed us, too.

“Why, Your Majesty, and d.u.c.h.ess Excel, too. Welcome,” Kaede said and greeted us with a smile.

“Long time no see,” I answered. “Have you guys been doing well?”

“Yes. Hal and I are both doing well, you know. Oh? Is the princess not with you today?”

“Yeah… This lady here is my partner for today,” I said to her in a whisper, putting my hand on Juna's lower back and giving her a little push.

Juna took a step forward, then gave Kaede a slight bow of her head. “It's nice to meet you. I am Juna Doma, formerly of the Navy.”

“Oh, my! You're the Prima Lorelei, aren't you?! I'm a fan, you know! Please, let me shake your hand!” Kaede held Juna's hand with both of her own and shook it up and down. “I never would have known you were in the Navy… Huh? Didn't His Majesty just say you were his partner…?”

Kaede blinked rapidly, then looked at me.

I had said she was my partner, thinking it would be okay for Kaede to know we were engaged, but it was a little embarra.s.sing having to explain it in my own words. When I looked, Juna had turned a little red, too.

“Um, er, well… That's how it is,” I said at last.

“…I get it,” Kaede said. “So that's how it is, huh?”

Looking at both our faces, Kaede, clever girl that she was, connected the dots immediately.

Lowering her voice a little, she asked, “Since it hasn't been announced yet, I a.s.sume this is still a secret, right?”

“I'm glad you pick up on these things quickly,” I whispered back. “Juna's incredibly popular, after all.”

“Well, that's true. I think riots might break out if you announced it now, you know.” Kaede was wholly serious.

Well, I knew that, which was why I was trying to s.h.i.+ft Juna's popularity away from that of an idol and into a singer for small children.

“Setting that aside, I'd like to show Excel and the others the new type of troops,” I said.

“I see. In that case, we were just about to carry out a drill, you know.”

With that said, Kaede started giving orders to the nearby engineers. She had them draw a double circle in the middle of the clay field using chalk. Kaede then used her earth-type magic (gravity manipulation) to move the anti-air repeating bolt thrower to the center of that circle. When Kaede finished setting up the anti-air repeating bolt thrower, she came back to where we were.

“Whew! That's everything set up and ready to go, you know.”

“…Just what're you about to start here?” Castor asked, and I pointed up into the sky in response.

“If you look up, I think it will quickly become apparent,” I explained.

“Up?”

In the sky we looked up to, there was another formation of wyverns flying by. Up to that point in the description, it was the same as what he had seen before, but this time,

the wyverns were carrying something in their hind feet. (Wyverns, unlike dragons, and like birds, had wings instead of front legs.) When the formation of wyverns pa.s.sed over our heads, they dropped whatever those things were in unison.

Those countless things that had been cast out were falling towards us in a straight line.

The closer they got to the ground, the more their shape gradually became apparent.

They were people. Countless people were falling. What was more, we could tell they were all carrying weapons.

Then, just faintly, we heard their screams.

“Wahhhhhhhhhh!”

Halbert was there, mixed in with the screaming, falling people.

“H-Hey! They just threw away a bunch of people!” Castor shouted, sounding panicked.

If you didn't know what was up, that was the natural response, I guess.

“It's okay,” I said. “Just watch.”

At nearly the exact moment I said that, round parachutes sprouted from the backs of all the falling people. Suddenly, their speed of descent dropped. The parachutes blossomed in the sky like white flowers, almost like we were watching fireworks from a distance. Though, if they vanished like fireworks, Hal and the others would be upside down.

Castor looked at the squad of parachuters, dumbfounded. “What exactly… are those?”

“The equipment, you mean? Or the type of troop?” I asked.

“Both.”

“The equipment is called a parachute. When spread, it kills their speed of descent,

allowing for a safe landing. I went to the development team and said, ‘Hey, this is a thing that exists,' and I had them make them for me. Now, as for the type of troop… They're wyvern paratroopers. I call them dratroopers.”

“Dratroopers?” Castor asked.

“They're a type of troop that drop from the sky like that to surprise the enemy, throw the enemy's rear line into chaos, and take enemy positions. Normally, they're a type of troop you would need airplanes to create, but we do have wyverns here in this world, after all. I decided the groundwork had already been laid to develop them, so I organized it.”

When I'd been thinking about whether I could recreate the types of troops that existed in my former world here, paratroopers had been the first to come to mind. In Germany they were called the Fallschirmja ger,and they had been in use since World War II. Their primary missions were, as I'd explained, ambushes, causing chaos, and seizing positions. Many of them were buff, macho guys, and j.a.pan's 1st Airborne Brigade had stories about them that would make you think they came out of some manga. (Example: Tearing two-millimeter-thick wire with their bare hands.)

The initial paratroopers of my old world had their equipment dropped in separate containers, so if they came down in a different place from the container, they had to fight with nothing but handguns.

But this was a world of sword and sorcery, so if ours could bring just one specialized weapon with them, they could still put up a good fight. For Hal, if he had just one spear, he'd probably single-handedly cause utter chaos in the enemy camp. From that perspective, they were a good match for this world.

Castor looked at me quizzically. “They're dratroopers, even though they're jumping of wyverns?”

“H-Hey, where's the problem? Besides, dratrooper sounds cooler than wyvetrooper anyway.”

“…I guess it does.”

Yeah, coolness was important. They didn't necessarily have to jump off dragons.

“That aside… I had another objective in organizing a unit of dratroopers,” I added.

“Hm? There's still something more?”

“Watch and you'll see. Okay, Kaede, do it.”

“Yes, sir.”

When I gave the signal, Kaede raised her right hand. Then, “Now… Fire! You know.”

When Kaede brought down her hand, the anti-air repeating bolt thrower in the center of the double circle fired all its bolts at once. The bolts with their range and accuracy enhanced by magic hurtled towards Hal and the others. For the record, the bolts tips were made with materials that wouldn't injure them even if they did hit, but when they were flying that fast, they were going to hurt pretty bad.

“Screw youuuuu!”

Hal let out an almost incomprehensible war cry as he knocked down the incoming arrows with the spear he was holding. The others cut them down with swords, blocked them with over-sized s.h.i.+elds, deflected them with bucklers, or found other ways to defend themselves from the hail of projectiles.

Eventually, as he got close to the ground, Hal wreathed his spear in fire… or not. He just threw it straight at the anti-air repeating bolt thrower.

Thunk!

The spear stabbed through the anti-air repeating bolt thrower. If Hal had wreathed his spear in flames, it would have pierced through the anti-air repeating bolt thrower and set it ablaze, silencing it entirely. In other words… the drop was a success.

“Cease fire! You know.”

On Kaede's signal, the anti-air repeating bolt thrower stopped. Hal and his fellow dratroopers landed in the double circle one after another.

While watching them out of the corner of my eye, I explained for Castor, “This is the other use for them. They're anti-air repeating bolt thrower killers.”

The anti-air repeating bolt thrower had been developed to counteract the considerable air power provided by wyvern cavalry, griffon squadrons, and dragon

knights. The repeating bolt thrower had its range and tracing ability greatly raised by magic, making it the natural enemy of flying units like wyvern knights. Because of those, attackers couldn't use their air power to suddenly bombard a city. If they wanted to bombard the city with their air power, they first needed to destroy these anti-air repeating bolt throwers which would be on the castle walls.

Thanks to that, they'd have to launch a siege using a land-based force like the Army. Only once the Army took the walls or destroyed the anti-air repeating bolt throwers on them by using siege weaponry, their forces in the air could carry out bombing operations on the city.

That said, if the city was being bombarded, the defenders had already lost. It was apparently common sense for them to surrender the moment aerial bombardment became possible. That was why, in siege battles, the Air Force's job was really just to take down the other side's Air Force so that they couldn't attack the Army.

That had gotten me thinking. If there were a simpler way of attacking the anti-air repeating bolt throwers, the Air Force could be deployed sooner, and that might allow for the speedy resolution of the battle.

“So, what I formulated as my response to that was the dratroopers,” I explained. “Because, as you saw watching Hal, the elites can apparently cut down the arrows that come flying at them. The dratroopers are a special unit that cut their way through a storm of arrows to land where the anti-air repeating bolt throwers are and neutralize them.”

“Hahh… Hahh… Y-You make it sound so easy…” Hal came over and joined us, panting and looking exhausted.

It must have been a hard training session. Even though it was still only the second month of the year, he was drenched with sweat. He cut off his parachute, and maybe he felt hot, because he stripped down to nothing but a tank top on his top half.

Hal took a canteen of water from Kaede as he complained. “Honestly, you drop me from the sky again, and again, and again.”

“I'll just remind you, there are safety precautions in place,” I said. “If you go into the danger zone without your parachute opening, the wyvern knights are supposed to retrieve you.”

“That's not the problem,” Hal said. “It's d.a.m.n scary being thrown out into the sky. The wind roars as it races past your ears. I don't know how many times I've thought I was going to die.”

“Ohh. Yeah… I don't ever want to do it myself.”

“I'm not doing it because I want to, either!” he shouted.

While I was bantering with Hal, Castor raised a question he'd had.

“In order to drop dratroopers, don't you need to break the enemy's air power first? If the wyvern cavalry are carrying dratroopers, they can't fight that well, can they?”

Hmm… That was the former General of the Air Force for you. He'd caught on to a good point.

“That's why we've strengthened the wyverns' abilities with the Little Susumu Mark V Light,” I said. “This is an innovation that affects both the dratroopers, who belong to the Army, and the wyvern cavalry, who belong to the Air Force, at the same time. We don't have a system for ma.s.s production in place yet, so we have to prioritize where they'll be deployed.”

“I see… It's an upgrade you can carry out precisely because you unified everyone under the National Defense Force,” Castor said with a groan of admiration. He looked up into the sky where the wyvern cavalry were flying in formation, and muttered sadly, “Wyverns that fly faster than griffons and farther than dragons, huh. I wish I could ride on one. I've never felt more frustrated about being transferred to the Navy than I do right now…”

“…Castor?” I asked.

“Ha ha… It's just the howling of a beaten dog. Pay me no mind.”

“…Is it?” I asked.

A beaten dog… huh?

True, I had won and Castor had lost. Now we were standing next to each other staring up into the sky. It was a strange feeling.

Excel watched our exchange with a wry smile.

“Now, let's check out down below next,” I said.

After parting with Hal and Kaede, we had returned to the open plain we had walked across earlier. I was pointing towards a small, rocky mountain that was large enough to be seen from where we were.

“That rocky mountain over there is probably closest. Let's go there.”

I lead the way. When we reached the foot of that rocky mountain, the wyvern knights were landing, having just finished their training. In the foothills of that rocky mountain, there was the opening to a cave large enough that a rhinoceros could easily pa.s.s through. The wyverns were going inside.

Seeing that, Castor asked me, “Is that where the wyvern stables are?”

“Oh, hey. You figured it out.”

“Normally, wyverns build their nests in rocky caves like that one,” he explained. “We built similar facilities in Red Dragon City. Compared to ordinary stables, the wyverns can relax more easily in a place like this.”

Ah, that made sense. He would be an expert on the topic.

“That's right,” I said. “That cave is connected to the level beneath this one. Down on that level there are about one hundred or so small rooms that branch off to the side of the main cave. We have the wyverns living in them. There are twenty or so of them here at the moment, though.”

“One hundred?!” he yelped. “That's one-tenth of all the wyverns we had at our command when I was commander! Do you need that many deployed here on this island?! Is this a front line base or something?!”

“Well, there's a lot that goes into my reasoning for it,” I said.

While I was rea.s.suring Castor, we entered the cave. It stank like a farm inside. (Or maybe a zoo.) We were doing our best to ventilate the place, but there was no helping

this.

“So… the place down below that you wanted to show me, is it the wyvern's roosts?” Castor asked, frowning. Maybe all the secrecy was starting to irritate him.

“No, it's even further down,” I told him. “Come on, through here.”

In front of us there was a man-made door that was clearly out of place in the cave. There were cranks on either side of it, and there was a guard standing at attention next to each crank. Beyond the door there was a small, square room.

“Um, sire… It looks like an awfully small room?” Juna commented, a question mark floating over her head.

Oh, right. This was a first for Juna, too, huh. It was going to be fun seeing her reaction.

“Okay, people,” I said. “All aboard.”

“Aboard? Is this some sort of vehicle?”

“Don't worry about it.” I turned to the soldiers on each side. “Okay, to the lower level, please.”

They saluted. ““Yes, sir! As you command!””

When everyone was inside the little room, the soldiers spoke into a communication tube. “Traveling from middle level to lower level.” Then, after the responses of “Upper level, roger,” and “Lower level, roger,” came, they began spinning the cranks beside the door. When they did, the little room began to slowly descend.

“Eek!” Juna shrieked.

The drop was slight, but it came suddenly, and Juna lost her balance, leaning against my chest for support. When I caught her, I felt the closeness of her soft body, and the scent of her hair tickled my nose. It was kind of nice for me.

“I-I'm sorry, sire,” Juna said, blus.h.i.+ng.

“Hey, I'm not complaining,” I said. “You okay?”

“Y-Yes.… Is this little room going down below?”

“Yeah,” I said. “You saw the cranks by the door, right? By turning them, they're able to raise or lower this room.”

That's right. This box-like room was an extremely simple manual elevator. The designer was Genia Maxwell.

I (not being so good at the sciences) didn't understand the system that well myself, but there was a pulley with a counterweight on the opposite side of the elevator, and that somehow let them raise and lower the elevator with no more power than it took to pedal a bike.

The truth was, it had originally been designed to be installed in Genia's dungeon laboratory. When she'd thought about it, though, even if the ha.s.sle of going up and down the stairs was removed, Genia wasn't going to want to go outside any more often, so the plan had been sc.r.a.pped.

The team I'd sent to organize Genia's blueprints (they'd been stored so haphazardly, I'd dispatched a cleaning team—led by Ludwin, of course) had found the plans, so we'd tried setting one up here as a test. It was manually operated, not that fast, and required a lift attendant to be on hand at all times, but if they worked in one-hour s.h.i.+fts, it wasn't that tiring for them.

There were currently only three stops, “Cave Entrance,” “Lowest Level,” and “Top Level,” so the one elevator only took six soldiers to operate.

Honestly, it only needed one person to operate it (two, if they were working in s.h.i.+fts), but the soldiers had said that, when there were requests from multiple levels, it caused confusion, so we had ended up with a six-person system in which the soldiers announced what they were doing before turning the cranks.

There were a number of elevators installed here. (Though this one here in the cave was the only one with three levels.) I intended to have them installed at the castle, too, sometime in the near future. The palace was a big place, and it was a lot of work going up and down the stars all the time, after all…

When I gave her that explanation, Juna let out a s.e.xy sigh for some reason. “I feel like I can understand why the princess has an exhausted look on her face sometimes.”

“Why are you bringing up Liscia now?” I queried.

“I understand this is a wonderful machine, but when you pop things that are beyond my understanding on me one after another, it's hard to keep up.”

“Do you really need to think about it so deeply?” I asked. “I'm sure the guys here only think, ‘Hey, what a convenient new thing to have.'”

“That won't do.” Juna was still leaning against my chest, and she gave me a soft smile. “Even if it's exhausting… we want to understand you.”

“…That's kind of embarra.s.sing,” I admitted.

While we were talking, we arrived at the lowest level. The elevator doors opened into a wide, open s.p.a.ce with a high ceiling.

There were a large number of machines, bizarre pieces of experimental apparatus, and “something” that appeared to be currently under construction. It was like the scene I had witnessed before in Genia's dungeon laboratory.

If there was one difference, it was in the number of people. Here and there, there were people wearing the white lab coats that made them look like researchers, as well as construction workers traveling to and fro.

I explained this place to the three visitors with me. “This is where the military research and development department is based now. That piece of wyvern flight equipment, the Little Susumu Mark V Light, is being developed here, too.”

“You're making them on an island? I would think it would be an inconvenient place to set up a workshop…” Castor presented the issue he was seeing. He was right, of course, but there was a reason for it.

“When it comes to military technology, we have to be worried about information leaking to other countries,” I explained. “In a place like this, surrounded by the sea, we're able to put limits on who comes in, and what is taken out. That's convenient. Well, it's gotten cramped here, though, so I'm thinking we'll eventually move to a larger place.”

Walking a bit further, a little gla.s.s room came into sight. Inside, the researchers were doing an operating test of the Little Susumu Mark V Light.

Technically, the gla.s.s was reinforced gla.s.s (not in terms of the materials used— It was gla.s.s that had been reinforced with magic), so if something terrible were to happen, like the equipment were to explode, or a researcher were to be sucked in and blown out, it wouldn't have an effect on anything outside the room. Still, that wasn't going to prevent damage and casualties inside of the room, so I hoped the researchers would be careful in their work.

“This is both an a.r.s.enal and a research inst.i.tute,” I said. “That said, most of what they're doing right now is testing Genia Maxwell's inventions.”

The overscientist and inventor, Genia, was a stereotypical genius. Once she built one of her creations, that was enough to satisfy her. She apparently didn't do much further research on the subject or refine it after that. She would rather devote the time and energy to making something else she wanted to create.

“That's… a terrible waste,” Excel said, tilting her head to the side.

Yeah, I felt the same way. We had managed to use her Little Susumu Mark V to create the lightweight version, after all. But…

“I think that's the most efficient way for Genia to work. It's only natural that people have their own strengths and weaknesses. There are genius-types like Genia who have crazy ideas and pop them one after another, but there are also artisan-types like the researchers here who focus on studying one thing and achieve results that way. I want to praise both types equally.”

“Hee hee,” Excel giggled. “I think that's an admirable way of thinking, sire.”

When I was given such an unreserved compliment by an important va.s.sal who, contrary to her mid-twenties appearance, had supported this country for close to five hundred years, it tickled me a bit.

“Well, it's not like we'll see worthwhile results from all of it,” I admitted.

“Hm? Why do you say that?” she asked.

“To explain… Uh, was it over here, maybe?”

“Why do you sound so uncertain?”

“I've seen the blueprints for this place, but it's my first time actually coming here, too,” I said. “It was easy to see where everything was on the upper level, so that was one thing, but the inside is kind of a convoluted mess.”

Following my vague memory of the blueprints, we soon came to our destination. It was a shooting range surrounded by walls and nets. There were bows leaned up against the wall, and for some reason, there were two suits of leather armor set up as targets. The range was only about ten meters deep.

“You even have a shooting range?” Castor asked. “But with the targets so close, it won't be much use for training,” He picked up one of the bows that was leaning against the wall.

“That would be because it's not for training, you see,” I said. “If they want to train, they can do it in the field on the upper level.”

“I guess that makes sense…”

“Rather, this place is for testing bows and arrows, or testing the durability of armor.” Explaining that, I handed Castor an arrow. “Castor. How are you with a bow?”

“Don't make fun of me. I may not be one anymore, but a general must be familiar with all of the martial arts.”

“Good, then,” I said. “Just try taking an ordinary shot at the armor on your right.”

“I just have to hit it, right? Fine.”

Castor readied his bow, drew back the string… and released. With a tw.a.n.g, the arrow flew straight towards the armor, stabbing into the leather suit. However, only the arrow's head stabbed into it, and it didn't pierce through.

Castor c.o.c.ked his head to the side questioningly. “That leather armor… Have they done something to it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “There's a thin iron plate behind it. Okay, next. This time, fire like you would in combat, infusing the arrow with magic.”

“…Okay.”

Castor fired again. There was no visual difference in what he did, but this time the arrow pierced the leather armor. It was thanks to the magic he had put into it, no doubt. This demonstrated that, if it were enchanted with an element, an arrow could pa.s.s through a suit of armor with metal in it.

“Okay, next, shoot the suit on your left using another magic arrow,” I said.

“Roger.”

Castor fired again. When he did, there was a clang and the arrow bounced off. The leather armor was unscratched.

“That is a suit of the Empire's Magic Armor Corps' armor… or a pale imitation of it,” I said.

“Pale imitation?”

“We don't have the technology to fully replicate it, I hear. But this suit of armor is reinforced with defensive magic, too. You saw it negate the magic, and the arrow was repelled, right? Well, these arrows were one of our failed attempts to come up with a way to counteract a suit of armor like this one.” I handed Castor an arrow with a black head.

“What is this arrow?” he asked.

“I call it an anti-magic arrow. The head is made with curse ore.”

“Curse ore?!” Castor looked closely at the arrowhead.

Curse ore was an ore that absorbed magical energy. You may remember that Genia used this ore as a power source for her Little Susumu Mark V. Because you couldn't use magic when it was nearby (or rather, the energy from magic was absorbed), and magic was seen as the blessing of the G.o.ds or spirits in this world, it was called a cursed ore.

“We learned that curse ore doesn't negate magic, it only works to absorb its energy,” I explained. “In that case, I thought maybe it could absorb the magic power placed in a piece of equipment using enchantment magic. So, we tested it, and… I was right.”

“That's incredible, isn't it?!” Castor said excitedly. “If that's true, we don't have anything

to worry about from the Magic Armor Corps!”

But I shook my head. “Didn't I already tell you? It was a failed attempt. Curse ore absorbs more than just the enemy's magic. We can't enchant things with elemental magic, or reinforce our arrows either.”

“Ah! So that means…”

“Try it for yourself and see.”

“Uh, sure.” Castor let one of the anti-magic arrows loose. When he did, the anti-magic arrow scratched the surface of the magically enchanted armor a little, but the arrow head shattered into little pieces when it hit.

While Castor and the others were still taken aback, I shrugged my shoulders. “It's like we're back to where we started, hitting an ordinary suit of armor with an ordinary arrow. Curse ore is pretty brittle, so it's not useful as an arrowhead on its own. And if we melt it down and put it inside an iron arrowhead, the decreased amount of curse ore weakens the effect. Meanwhile, if we increase the amount, the arrowhead gets too large, and it's no longer functional as an arrow at all. To be blunt, we've hit a dead end.”

“…That's why it's a failure, huh.”

“That's right.”

Still, even if there had been almost nothing gained from the attempt, it wasn't a complete wash. We had put a slight dent in that enchanted armor. That suit of armor that was covered in fragments of curse ore had lost its enchantment. If it were hit with a bullet, or something else that had a high level of penetrating force even without magic, it would be possible to penetrate that armor.

Yes, when developing the anti-magic arrow, I had been thinking about introducing the gun, which hadn't been developed in this world because it didn't provide much of an advantage.

When I'd learned of the existence of curse ore, I'd thought it might be possible to shoot through the Magic Armor Corps. However, the result had been as I'd shown.

An ordinary bullet would be deflected by the enchantment. If we tried to use curse ore in the bullet, it would become too brittle to be usable. Besides, though it was common

to strike curse ore in the kingdom, it had many uses, like the Little Susumu, so we didn't have such a surplus that we could afford to waste it.

Furthermore, when used in a bullet, the curse ore could cause problems later. If land became littered with bullets that had missed their mark, it would make it impossible to use magic there for a while. In this world where magic was a part of people's daily lives, that would make the land unlivable.

While it wasn't as lethal, in terms of remaining after the war and negatively impacting the lives of civilians, curse ore was as bad as cl.u.s.ter bombs or depleted uranium bullets. That was why it was necessary to be cautious in how we used it, and to continue with the research.

“…So, like that, they spend their days here with repeated successes and failures,” I concluded. “And even though it's with only one step at a time, they're marching us towards a new era.”

“…You're covering a pretty broad range of things here, huh,” Castor remarked, looking half-impressed and half-exasperated.

“Well, though some of our research will be fruitless, I have to take every measure I can as king,” I said.

“As king… That's right. You've really become a king now…” Castor murmured.

“Well, yeah. Now then, shall we go up now?”

“There's still more?”

Having seen so much, Castor was looking a little fed up with it all, so I told him, “The next one is the main event for today.”

“Up, you said? What, are we climbing the mountain now?”

I tut-tutted and waggled a finger at Castor. (Was that too old-fas.h.i.+oned?) “Even further ‘up' than that.”

Returning to the surface, we got aboard a wyvern gondola.

The gondola rose, leaving the surface further and further behind.

Not being blindfolded this time, Castor gave me a suspicious look, as if to say, “What are you showing me now?” But once we rose in alt.i.tude and he was able to see what was below us, he cried out in shock.

“Wha?! What is this?!”

Beneath us was a single, ma.s.sive s.h.i.+p floating in the middle of the open sea. The surface of the s.h.i.+p had soil packed on it, and there was a rocky mountain, forest, gra.s.sy plain, red clay field, and more. From above, it looked like nothing other than a lone islet in the distant seas. But beneath the ground, it was a hunk of metal. Looking closely, the rocky mountain was where the s.h.i.+p's bridge would be.

That's right. Up until now, we hadn't been on an “island” at all. We had been on that s.h.i.+p.

“Wyverns fear the sea,” I told Castor, who seemed at a loss for words at the incredible sight. “That's because wyverns, lacking the flight range of dragons, can't cross the sea, right? To be more precise, wyverns hate being so far out to sea that they can't see land. That's why it's been common sense that you can't employ wyverns in naval battles, right?”

“R-Right…” Castor nodded.

Because dragons could fly continuously across incredible distances, they could cross the sea in a single flight, and that meant they had no reason to be afraid of it. However, wyverns, with their lesser flight range, would run out of strength halfway if they tried to cross the sea. Because of that, they feared going out far enough to lose sight of land. This held true for the Empire's griffon squadrons, too, which had an even shorter flight range than the wyverns did. (In fact, they were even afraid of rivers if they couldn't see the other side, so they had it worse.)

“Huh?!” Castor cried. “Now that you mention it, the wyverns were flying in formation earlier, weren't they?! No, even the wyvern carrying this gondola seems perfectly fine out here in the middle of the sea!”

Finally, Castor was beginning to grasp the situation. However, the more he figured it out, the wider his eyes opened in surprise. His lips were trembling.

“You… What the h.e.l.l have you created here…?”

“A vessel which carries air power across the sea, and also acts as a base for it,” I said. “In my world, a s.h.i.+p like this was called an aircraft carrier, or just a carrier.”

That's right. That island-shaped s.h.i.+p was a.n.a.logous to a carrier, with wyvern knights as an a.n.a.logue to fighter planes. When I'd seen this world had wyverns and steel s.h.i.+ps, I had wondered if maybe I could combine the two to create a carrier. When I'd first started planning it out, the first issue that had been pointed out to me was the wyverns' fear of the sea.

“So that was when I had an idea,” I explained, “to try and trick the wyverns out of being afraid of the sea.”

I'd gotten the hint I needed from the first of the Thirty-Six Stratagems from my world: “Deceive the emperor to cross the ocean.” It's about making your strategy look like nothing out of the ordinary, then acting while your enemy's guard is down. The stratagem had been based on an event when, in order to get the Emperor of Tang, who feared the sea, aboard a boat, his retainers had piled dirt on top of it to make it look like the land. I'd thought that maybe I could use the same trick on wyverns.

First, I'd created a giant s.h.i.+p, then packed soil on top of it. Though a portion was left as dirt, most was covered with gra.s.s or trees to create plains and forests. The bridge had been covered in Roman concrete and painted to disguise it as a rocky mountain. Then, in order to lower the wyverns' stress levels, their stables and everything below

deck had been made to look like the inside of a cave.

Basically, I was trying to make the wyverns recognize this carrier as an “island.”

The issue had been how I was going to find the propulsion to move my island-type carrier, but that had been solved thanks to Genia's Little Susumu Mark V. They weren't visible from the air, but there were four Little Susumu Mark Vs attached to the sides of this island-type carrier below the waterline. The reason the distribution of the Light model wasn't further along was because I had prioritized the production of these larger ones.

Now, as for this island-type carrier that we had built, it was still incomplete. It had taken a long time to get the wyverns used to the carrier. Our first priorities had been to give it the bare minimum features required of a s.h.i.+p, make the outside look island-y, and focus on making it seaworthy. In terms of propulsion, the plan was actually to have double the number of Little Susumu Mark Vs (with the current number, it could only go at a crawl), and the area currently being used as a military research and development lab was eventually going to be used for equipment storage and the crew's quarters. (They were currently camping out in tents on the deck.)

Castor, who had been staring at the half-finished cruiser in a daze, turned to me, his eyes filled with disbelief. “But this thing is ma.s.sive… Just how long have you been building it for?”

“Hm? If you mean when I started gathering funds and materials, I did that right after taking the throne, you know?”

“Whaa?! Before you fought me and Amidonia?!”

“It was part of my plan to enrich the country and strengthen the military,” I said. “As a trump card against the Empire.”

With my arms crossed, I leaned back in the gondola's sofa.

“I didn't know what the Empire was thinking back then, after all. I was working on a plan that would give me a trump card when we had to oppose them. Up against the more powerful and more populous Empire, we wouldn't stand a chance in a land-based arms race. I thought the path to survival might lie in expanding our air or sea power, where technology plays a much bigger role. Well… at that stage, I was just allocating the funds and materials. Construction only began in earnest after the end of

the war with Amidonia.”

Besides, because I had been moving ahead with the new city project at the same time, I hadn't been able to gather quite enough funds or resources for the project. If Roroa and Colbert hadn't joined us, giving me a source of funding, and if I hadn't been able to secure a source of resources by annexing Amidonia, construction might have started even later.

Still, once construction began, s.h.i.+p construction in this world went fast. Actually, I'd felt this way when rolling out the transportation network and building the new city, too but construction in this world went unusually fast.

Because they had magic here, there was no need for large pieces of construction equipment. For instance, if you try to build something large on Earth, you first need to build the cranes and such that will be used in building it. At worst, there were even times you might need equipment to build the equipment you needed to build the equipment… and so on.

However, because there were earth mages who could manipulate gravity in this world, that equipment wasn't necessary here. Also, an experienced fire mage could handle casting metal and welding in no time. In this world with its strange balance of things that could and couldn't be done, it felt like it actually took more time to secure the funds and materials than anything else.

I got up and stood in front of Castor, who was still taken aback by everything.

“Well, this is what I've been doing as king, Castor,” I said, looking him straight in the eye. “You rebelled against me because you thought I was a usurper. It seems your doubts had already been cleared up by Liscia and Excel's attempts to dissuade you from doing so, but in the end, you still chose to oppose me, prepared to martyr yourself for your friends.h.i.+p with Georg Carmine. Then you lost and were placed in Excel's custody.”

Castor lowered his eyes. “You don't need to tell me that now. I lost… That's all there is to it.”

“That's not what I'm trying to say,” I said. “Right now, I'm showing you my power as king of this country.”

“You mean that carrier?” Castor asked.

But I shook my head. “No. The carrier itself isn't my power. If there is one thing I can take pride in as king, it's gathering gifted comrades, preparing a place for their talents to s.h.i.+ne, and creating a country that could build that carrier. When you see what I'm capable of, does it not seem fitting that you should serve under me?”

Castor shook his head with a wry smile. “You've got me beaten completely. I can see clearly now… why King Albert left the country to you. But I'm not fit to serve you.”

“Can I take that to mean you recognize me as the king of this country?” I asked.

“Hm? Yeah, I recognize you. You're one h.e.l.l of a king.”

He'd recognized me as king. Now that I had dragged those words out of Castor, I was finally certain of it. I didn't sense any of the arrogance Castor had had before. In his defeat, and with some polis.h.i.+ng by Excel, he had grown as a person. Considering that… I could trust him with it.

I placed a hand on Castor's shoulder, looking him straight in the eye as I said, “Castor, this carrier is an extremely unique weapon. Though it is a s.h.i.+p attached to the Navy, it carries the troops of the Air Force. In order to run it efficiently, it requires not just knowledge of handling a s.h.i.+p and fighting at sea, but the knowledge and experience to command the Air Force. I want to leave this s.h.i.+p under the command of someone with those skills.”

Castor's eyes opened wide. “Huh?! No… You can't mean…”

It looked like he'd figured out where I was going with this. He was a man who had been the former General of the Air Force, yet now he had trained under Excel to learn how to control a naval force.

I grinned as I asked him, “I'm sure you've kept studying, even now that you're in the Navy, right?”

“…Yes, sir! Excel has beaten it all into me!”

Castor rose from his seat, then knelt, putting his hands together in front of him and bowing his head. I placed the captain's hat I had brought with me on Castor's bowed head. Because Castor had horns, it had been specially made with holes for them.

“Good,” I approved. “Now, then… Castor who has no family name! I appoint you as the

first captain of this aircraft carrier!”

“Yes, sir! I humbly accept, my lord!”

My lord… huh. It was a bit embarra.s.sing to be called that, but it was a sign that Castor had truly accepted me as his lord, so I was more than happy to take it.

While I was thinking about that, Excel, who had quietly watched over the proceedings up until that point, spoke up. “Hee hee, I'm glad. That's one burden off of my shoulders.” Then she smiled.

I had already told her I wanted to make Castor the captain of this carrier before she'd begun teaching him.

“By the way, sire,” Excel continued. “I do think that carrier is a wonderful s.h.i.+p, but it wouldn't do to simply go on calling it ‘the carrier' forever. Why don't you give it a name now?”

“Hm? Oh… You have a point,” I said. “What would be a good name for it?”

“Let's see… I think the name of a place, or of the king who built it, would be the most common options. How does Aircraft Carrier Souma sound to you? When you build more of them, they would belong to the Soumcla.s.s.”

“Absolutely not.”

I didn't want that. If I put my own name on the s.h.i.+p that would be the center of our navy, it'd make me seem conceited, and I didn't want that. Besides, if it had my name, they were going to say things like, “Souma, departing!” and “Souma, withdrawing from the line of battle!” and “The Souma has been sunk!” right?

…There was no way I wanted that. I needed to propose an alternate name.

“Oh, hey, I know,” I said. “Why not give it the name of a carrier from my world?”

“From Your Majesty's world?”

I nodded. If I had to give it a name, why not use one that existed my world? Let it be one that had never folded in the face of adversity, and that had never given up fighting. It was going to be carrying wyverns, so this was the perfect name.

I looked down at the island-type carrier beneath us and declared, “I hereby name that carrier the Hiryuu!”

Having finished appointing Castor as captain of the Hiryuu, my work was done, and we returned to Lagoon City in the Walter Duchy. Because the sun was already setting when we arrived, we decided we would spend the night at Excel's mansion.

At least partly because it was a coastal city, we had a dinner that made ample use of seafoo;, and then Juna, Excel, Castor and myself chatted over tea in the parlor.

In the middle of that relaxed atmosphere, Excel suddenly put down her teacup and

asked, “Now that I think of it, sire, you have no plans after this, do you?”

It was so sudden, Juna c.o.c.ked her head to the side and looked at her quizzically. “Grandmother?”

I was puzzled, too. What could she want, all of a sudden?

“Yeah…” I said. “When I get back to the castle, I'm sure there'll be work for me, but I haven't brought anything with me.”

“I see. You have time right now, then?” The moment she said that, there was an unsettling glint in Excel's eye.

I shuddered, feeling a chill run down my spine. I got gooseb.u.mps, my every instinct warning me. I sensed… danger? I almost jumped up from the sofa despite myself, when…

Thump!

“Juna?!”

Juna, who was sitting next to me, fell to the side. She was slumped over the arm of the sofa, already asleep.

Even asleep, she sure is charming… Wait, I didn't have time to think that! I looked over to Excel, who was smiling, a tiny bottle in hand.

“No need to worry. I'm just having her take a little nap.”

“Sleeping drugs?! You drugged your own granddaughter?!”

“It seemed like she would get in the way if she was awake, after all.” Excel put a hand to her own cheek and let out a sigh.

No, no, no, no! She was giving me that, “Oh, goodness, she's such a handful,” look, but what she'd just done to Juna was pretty nasty!

“I couldn't help it,” Excel said. “I received a request from the chamberlain to give you some lessons.”

“From Marx?! You can't mean…”

“What you might call ‘s.e.xual education,'” she smiled. “As an older woman, he wanted me to teach you some things, sire.”

“You're more than just ‘older'!”

“Oh my, how rude. My body is still full of youth, you know.”

“Not your heart, though!” I shouted.

Excel rose from her seat, slowly closing in on me. “Creating an heir is a serious matter for the country. Especially considering the shortage of royals. Even though your betrothals are essentially already being seen as a marriage, and even though those around you have been encouraging you to hurry up and produce an heir, you've yet to lay a hand on the princess, or Juna, or Aisha. It's little wonder the chamberlain is so worried.”

“N-No… I was hoping to wait until I was a little more ready… you know.”

“That leaves us worried,” Excel said. “It might be forgiven as a youthful indiscretion now, but once you are formally man and wife, if you are awkward and inept when you get down to ‘business,' it could have an effect on your relations.h.i.+p. That sort of discord between a royal couple can lead to future strife within the house.”

Excel sat down on the back of the sofa, wrapping her arm around my neck. What was this?! I was like a deer caught in headlights, unable to move!

“That's why the chamberlain asked an experienced woman like myself to give you some direction. Now, sire, let's move to the bedroom. Until dawn comes, I will be giving you thorough lessons on how to handle a woman. First, let's start with some cla.s.sroom lectures.”

Lectures?! I was going to be taking health and physical education cla.s.ses at my age?! I'd graduated from high school… Wait, I guess they didn't go into quite that much detail in health and physical education cla.s.ses.

“Wait, hold on! You just said ‘first,' didn't you?!” I shouted.

“Hee hee! In any field of study, it's best to learn through experience, don't you think?

If you want to, I wouldn't mind keeping it a secret from Juna and the others, you know? We can consider it a one night indiscretion, and I'll give you some hands-on training.”

I don't want it, okay?! I cried out in my mind.

Excel smiled, putting her hands on my shoulders and leaning in close to peer at my face. Yeah, she was definitely having fun seeing my reaction.

I turned to Castor, who was sitting there drinking tea as if nothing was happening, for help. “Castor! You recognized me as your lord, right? Your lord is in a tight spot! Help me, would you!”

“…I did indeed swear loyalty to you, my lord,” Castor set down his tea and said with an all-too-serious look on his face. “However, I would like nothing more than to see the lord I've devoted myself to leave behind descendants who will prosper. I cannot get in d.u.c.h.ess Excel's way. I can only bite back tears as I ignore my lord's request for aid.”

“You say that, but you just don't want to get caught up in this!” I shouted.

He pretty blatantly averted his eyes.

I hit the nail on the head, didn't I, you jerk?!

“Now, sire, shall we be going?” Excel took a firm hold of the back of my neck, then began dragging me towards the door of the parlor.

I was bracing myself to run for it, but I couldn't even put up the slightest resistance. Even factoring in my own weakness, her strength was incredible. Where did that slim body of hers have that kind of strength?

“No, wait, please, Excel, come on,” I begged.

“Yes, yes. You can just leave everything to this big girl here. I'll teach you real good.”

“No, I mean… Okay, I'll take your lessons! Just the lessons! None of that hands-on stuff, okay?!” I screamed.

“…Good grief, I suppose it can't be helped. But if you find yourself wanting to get physical with me, do tell, okay?”

“As if I would!”

In the end, I was subjected to Excel's lengthy lectures.

Having to take health and physical education cla.s.ses from Excel, who looked so much like Juna, was so embarra.s.sing that I thought I might die