I recalled Aisha having used wind magic to increase
the cutting power and attack range of her greatsword, while Hal had used fire magic
to make his weapon explode when thrown at the enemy.
"That's why the cutting ability of the weapon itself isn't so important," said Liscia.
"Though, that said, I'm sure that in a battle on the seas, where everything but water
elemental magic is harder to use, these would be the strongest. The main way people
from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago fight at sea is to close in quickly and
board their enemies, like pirates."
"Hmm... It's a weapon suited to a maritime nation, huh..." While listening to
Liscia's explanation, I looked closely at the blade of the katana. "But... I would like to
get my hands on these smithing techniques."
"Huh? Didn't I just tell you it's largely meaningless?" she asked.
"For weapons, yes. But there are a lot of other uses for sharp blades, aren't
there?"
If we mass-produced knives with a good, sharp edge, I was sure the chefs would
be able to produce more delicate and tasty dishes. If we had sharper tools, we might
be able to use them to produce even better tools. Then there were medical
applications, like scalpels. I thought that might be the most urgent. In surgery, the
sharper the tools used, the less stress would be put on the patient's body.
It was a technique with all these applications. I wanted it badly.
"Technically, I have people researching it here, too, but... it seems like that's
gonna take a while," I said.
When it came to Japanese swords, I knew that they heated and folded the iron
and hit it. That was the sort of rough general knowledge I had. Tamahagane or
hihi'irokane; which was the one that actually existed again? With this level of
knowledge, there was no way I was going to be able to recreate the Japanese sword.
"If we just had diplomatic relations with them, I'd pay a good amount for them to
transfer knowledge of those techniques to us..." I pondered.
"Which is why you're wondering what the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago
Union is thinking?" she asked.
"Exactly."
"It sounds like a hard problem to solve," Liscia said.
She could say that again. Amidonia had had a clear intent to invade, and I had
made the decision to fight them because we'd been in a situation that forced us to,
but I couldn't keep this country intact if we were fighting wars with our neighbors
year in and year out. I wanted to open diplomatic relations if only to avoid an
unnecessary confrontation.
"Well, anyway," I said at last, "we need to develop techniques of our own that
other countries won't have. Technology and scholarship will build an unshakable
base for the country."
"That sounds reasonable, but do you have any specific ideas?" Liscia asked.
"Techniques are created by people," I said. "That's why we have no choice but to
go after anyone who might have those techniques. I have just the person in mind,
too."
"Just the right person?" Liscia asked, looking at me dubiously.
I nodded. "Ludwin was telling us about it a while back, remember? He said
there's a mad scientist in the Forbidden Army. I think I'll have him follow through
with his promise to introduce us sometime."
Then, just as we were talking about that, there was a knock and the office door
opened, with Ludwin himself rushing through the door.
He suddenly got down on the floor, lowering his head to the point it was almost
touching the ground. It wasn't quite a formal kowtow, but it was pretty close.
"Your Majesty! I am so sorry!" he suddenly burst out.
In response, Liscia and I opened our eyes wide and spoke simultaneously.
"What are you suddenly apologizing for?" I demanded.
"Did something happen, Sir Ludwin?" she asked.
Ludwin raised his face and spoke, carefully choosing his words. "Well, you see...
an acquaintance of mine has gone and done something outrageous..."
"Something outrageous?" I asked cautiously.
Had something bad happened? Now, when I had finally sorted out the mountain
of things that I had to do after being given the throne, was something going to
happen again? I was starting to feel a little fed up with it all.
Ludwin hesitantly asked, "Um... sire. Do you perhaps remember that I said there
was a person I wanted you to meet?"
"Hm? Ohh. Liscia and I were just talking about that," I said. "The mad scientist
you know, right? I've been wanting to meet them, but things have been so busy
lately. Sorry I haven't been able to find time."
"No, I completely understand that. It's just..."
Ludwin looked hesitant to speak at first, but he seemed to find his resolve and
continued.
"That acquaintance of mine happens to be the one responsible."
◇ ◇ ◇
The Arcs fiefdom lay between the royal capital Parnam and the new coastal city
Venetinova.
This was the land ruled over by the Captain of the Royal Guard, Ludwin Arcs, who
was head of the House of Arcs. Because Ludwin lived in the castle, he normally had a
magistrate here who acted in his stead.
When compared to the fiefs held by other members of the nobility and
knighthood in this country, it was around medium-sized. Ludwin had distinguished
himself in the recent war, so I had wanted to transfer him to a larger fief, but Ludwin
had been very particular about his own domain, and had stubbornly refused. I didn't
see any reason to force the transfer, so I opted to expand the boundaries of his
current fief to suit his preferences.
Liscia, Ludwin, and I had come to the Arcs fiefdom in a gondola carried by one of
the royal house's wyverns. We had come to verify the facts of what Ludwin had told
us some days earlier.
"Was it okay to leave Aisha behind like that?" Liscia asked.
"Well, we've got Ludwin here, after all," I said.
I hadn't brought a bodyguard on this outing. Aisha had been concerned and made
a fuss about it, but with the Captain of the Royal Guard around, I figured it would be
fine. Besides... I wanted to keep this quiet, so the fewer people involved, the better.
From the air, the Arcs fiefdom had been stained in fall colors by the leaves that
had fallen from the trees. There were a lot of fields and pastures, too, so the scenery
that spread out before us had a feeling of tranquility to it.
This was just based on my own senses, but this continent, which was a bit larger
than China had been in the Three Kingdoms Period, had a considerable difference in
its climate between the north and the south.
The further north you went, the hotter, and the further south you went, the
colder it became. That was true even within this country, and in the southernmost
reaches, the snow had already begun to fly. The Arcs fiefdom, being more to the
north, was still experiencing a temperate autumn climate.
"Wish we could just take it easy and have a picnic or something," I grumbled.
"I know the feeling, really I do, but we'll do it another time, okay?" Liscia gently
rebuked me. "We came here today for a reason, didn't we?"
"I know that, but, hey, it's such a nice day out..."
"Ah, this is it, sire," Ludwin interrupted. "Please, take us down here."
Following Ludwin's directions, we landed the gondola and disembarked at the
edge of a little forest. Even once I was out of the gondola, all I could see was trees.
Nothing looked out of the ordinary about this forest.
I ordered the gondola's driver to wait for us here, then asked Ludwin, "Is it really
in the forest?"
"Yes," he said. "Though, to be precise, it's not 'in,' but 'under.'"
"Under?" I asked.
"I think it would be faster to just show you." With that said, Ludwin set off toward
the forest. "Now, sire, princess, please follow me."
Trailing after Ludwin, Liscia and I walked through the forest side by side. As a
precaution against wild creatures, I had the mouse dolls that I used while providing
relief to the dark elf village scouting the area, but there didn't seem to be any wild
animals that were a threat. It was a small forest, and I could tell that people entered
it often. With the leaves having fallen from the trees, it was bright inside the forest,
which provided good visibility, too.
If it came down to it, I figured Ludwin and Liscia could handle any problems that
arose.
Ludwin was ahead of us, clearing any branches that would be in our way with his
sword and shield, so all we had to do was walk behind him. While walking on the
fallen leaves, I started to get into the mood for a picnic again. I naturally started
singing a song that matched the atmosphere.
"That's a nice song. What is it?" Liscia asked me.
"The theme to the first movie of a monster anime that every person in my
country would know," I said.
"...The one thing I do know is that what you just said made no sense to me." Liscia
just sort of rolled her eyes, but then she suddenly took on a more thoughtful look. I
wondered what was up, but the next moment, she wrapped her arm around mine.
"How's that? Does it feel a bit more like a picnic now?"
Seeing Liscia's shy smile, I said...
"...I'm getting weirdly sweaty now."
"Why?!" she exclaimed.
"Because you're too cute, and it's making my heart race."
"Huh?! O-Oh... My heart is, too," she flirted back.
Ludwin came to a stop. "This is the place, sire, princess."
Ludwin turned around, so I quickly backed up. Then I noticed something I hadn't
up until now. There was something big right in front of us. It was...
"...A garage?" I asked. That seemed like the only way to describe the rectangular
object.
It was moss-covered, but it seemed to be made of something like concrete, and
had a shutter on one side. It was big enough for an average car to fit into. While they
sometimes had technologies that seemed far ahead of their time, this world was at a
pre-industrial revolution level on average, so this design seemed out of place.
While I was reacting with confusion, Ludwin shook his head. "It's not a garage.
This isn't tall enough for a horse-drawn carriage to enter, after all."
In this world, the common assumption would be that a garage was for holding
carriages. In my world, a van might not have fit inside, but an ordinary car would
have easily fit. Not that there was any point in trying to explain... but, come to think
of it, that made the design of this building all the harder to understand.
"Well, what is it?" I asked, and Ludwin responded with all seriousness.
"The entrance to a dungeon, sire."
Dungeons.
These labyrinthine places had their own unique and mysterious ecology.
They were also the one place where monsters had been confirmed to exist before
the coming of the Demon Lord.
When I had been using my Little Musashibos to play at being an adventurer, I had
heard about them from Dece, Juno, and the other members of their party. But the
one they had told me about had been a cave, like you would imagine. I hadn't heard
anything about this sort of clearly artificial entrance.
I presented my doubts, but apparently dungeons came in many forms.
"There are all sorts of different dungeons," Liscia explained. "They appear
everywhere from the plains to the forest to the mountains, and even to the depths of
the sea. They can be like caves inside, or paved with stone like the basement of a
castle, or even a bizarre space with metal walls."
I vaguely recalled that the jewels we used for the Jewel Voice Broadcast had come
from inside a dungeon. I'd heard of other such pieces of over-technology coming out
of dungeons, too, so it wasn't strange to find a dungeon itself was made out of overtechnology... maybe?
"Hey, wait. How did people even discover undersea dungeons?" I asked.
Liscia said, "There are races that work underwater, and some of the undersea
dungeons have air inside, so in those cases, people go down to them inside these big
bell-like things."
Oh, a diving bell, huh? That was a sort of diving machine shaped like a bell that
you continuously pumped air into as it sank. I only knew them from manga, but... I
kind of wanted to try riding in one.
"Well, are there any monsters in this dungeon, then?" I asked.
Ludwin shook his head. "No. You could call this a ruined dungeon. The monsters
and creatures inside have long since been exterminated."
"It's already been cleared, you mean?" I asked.
"Yes. And now, this is where a person from the House of Maxwell, a family of
eccentrics that were given the rights to this ruined dungeon and turned it into a
laboratory, currently lives."
Ludwin turned and spoke into a metal tube next to the entrance.
"Genia! It's me! Ludwin Arcs! You rarely go outside, so I doubt you're not there,
so respond if you are!"
It must have been a speaking tube he was shouting into. They'd had them on the
battleship Albert, too. And wait, was this person he was calling a shut-in, I
wondered? This person called Genia (based on that name, was she a girl, maybe?).
Coming from the speaking tube...
Bang, crash! ...there was a sound of something falling over, followed by a young
woman's voice.
"Ow... Hey, Big Brother Luu. What's up?"
"No, not 'What's up?'" Ludwin shot back. "There was a pretty loud crash just now.
Are you okay?"
"I was surprised when you suddenly called out to me, so I accidentally knocked
some stuff over," Genia said. "Well, it wasn't dangerous chemicals, so it's all good."
"It's not good at all," Ludwin said. "You're always doing this..."
"Ahaha, getting lectured through a speaking tube is kind of a fresh experience."
Faced with a voice that showed no sign of regret whatsoever, Ludwin's shoulders
slumped. I felt like I could tell how their relationship worked just from what I'd seen
here. One did crazy things and the other chased after her.