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 sexy 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 embarrassing," I admitted.
While we were talking, we arrived at the lowest level. The elevator doors opened
into a wide, open space 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 glass room came into sight. Inside, the researchers
were doing an operating test of the Little Susumu Mark V Light.
Technically, the glass was reinforced glass (not in terms of the materials used—
It was glass 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 arsenal and a research institute," 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 artisantypes 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 vassal 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 twang, 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 cocked 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
pass 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 gods 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 antimagic 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 cluster 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-fashioned?) "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 altitude and he was able to
see what was below us, he cried out in shock.
"Wha?! What is this?!"
Beneath us was a single, massive ship floating in the middle of the open sea. The
surface of the ship had soil packed on it, and there was a rocky mountain, forest,
grassy 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 ship's bridge would be.