Chapter 1: Preparing for Innovation (last part)

When Ludwin came back to his senses, he said with a pained look, "Sire, I ask you

to forgive me for speaking against you," then refuted me. "No matter how important

of a person Genia is to this country, suddenly tying her down with marriage seems a

little much..."

"You're going to say that to the two of us?" I asked archly.

The former king, Sir Albert, had given his daughter Liscia to me in order to make

me the king of this country. Conversely, from Liscia's perspective, she had been

made my bride to keep me as the king of this country. Though our relationship had

started out in that warped way, now that we had overcome many trials and

tribulations, we were bound by an absolutely unbreakable bond.

I patted Ludwin on the shoulder. "Having been through it myself, let me say, how

the relationship starts isn't the issue. It's how you two spend your time together

after that which is important, don't you think? Besides, you already have all the time

you've spent with her as childhood friends, don't you?"

"Sire..." Ludwin murmured.

"Do you need another push? If you take Genia as your wife, you can call your

house Maxwell-Arcs," I said. "That way, the House of Maxwell's name will remain. On

top of that, the Royal House will cover all expenses for your wedding. ...Also, the

country will cover nine-tenths of the expenses for Genia's research from here on.

The House of Arcs won't need to carry that burden alone."

"I-I'm very grateful for the offer, but... we still have to cover one-tenth of it

ourselves?" he asked.

"If I don't make you pay at least a little of it yourselves, I feel like there would be

no limit to the amount of money she'd sink into it," I explained. No matter how

useful the invention, I couldn't have Genia upending the country's economy to build

it.

When I shot her a cold glance, Genia looked the other way and whistled

innocently.

When he saw that, Ludwin said, "I see..." and laughed wryly. "You want me to

keep a firm grip on her reins, then."

"Or to become a work-horse that can support larger expenses, I suppose," I said.

"I'm afraid that seems like the more likely outcome," he said wryly.

"All right, Ludwin," I said. "Genia's said her piece. Now I think it's your turn, don't

you?"

"...Y-Yes, sire!"

Ludwin and Genia faced one another.

Ludwin had turned a bright shade of red, but Genia's cheeks might have turned

just a touch more pink. Though Ludwin was the taller of the two if you were to

compare, with him freezing up from tension, they looked about the same. I worried

if he was going to be all right, given how tense he looked, but this was the handsome

Captain of the Guard who had led an army of tens of thousands. He quickly

composed himself.

"Genia. Will you be my wife?"

"...Are you sure, Luu?" she asked. "I don't think I'm really noble wife material, you

know?"

"I know," he said. "Still, I want to have you at my side forever."

"You've got odd tastes... But, sure. Okay. Take good care of me, Darling."

Then, the two of them shook hands.

I had to think, Shouldn't you hug instead? but... well, this was more like them.

They looked happy, so I wasn't about to say anything. I was glad the matter had been

settled quietly.

"Whew... Is that everything neatly taken care of?" I asked.

"...No, sire." The moment I tried to relax, Ludwin said that with a deeply-troubled

look. "Not yet."

He'd looked so happy just a moment ago. What happened in that one instant?

"I'd forgotten up until now, too, but... Have you forgotten why we came here

today?" Ludwin added, his face still looking troubled.

Ah... come to think of it, he was right. I had completely forgotten, but we hadn't

come here to see her inventions.

That was when Ludwin bonked Genia on the head with his fist.

"Ow?!" she cried. "Luu, I don't want domestic violence when we just got engaged."

"You idiot!" he shouted. "Listen, just apologize to His Majesty along with me!"

Having said that, Ludwin grabbed Genia's head and pressed it to the floor. He

then bowed low enough himself that his head scrapped the floor, too. It wasn't quite

the same, but it was this country's style of double kowtow.

Ludwin apologized as he held Genia's head down. "My... fiancée has done

something truly outrageous this time..."

"Ow, that hurts, Luu," she complained. "You're pulling my hair out."

"Genia, be quiet! I humbly, humbly, beseech you, sire, have mercy."

No, he didn't have to apologize so fervently... I wasn't that bothered by it, you

know. "Ludwin, Genia, both of you raise your heads. I'm not particularly looking to

find fault here."

"Sire... Thank you!" Ludwin cried.

"Ahh, but I am curious about it." I sat down, looking Genia straight in the eyes and

asked her, "Tell me, would you, Genia? Why did you take those dragon bones?"

You may remember, this had happened about half a year ago.

When we'd dug a hole for a sedimentation pond as part of the process of

installing a water system in our major cities, we'd discovered a large number of

monster bones. From among them, a full set of giant dragon bones had just up and

vanished.

Because I had heard that dragons who died while bearing a grudge could come

back as skull dragons, I had worried for a while that that might be the cause. Had

that been the case, however, the skull dragon would have spread its miasma. Given

that Parnam had stayed peaceful and quiet, that possibility had seemed unlikely.

My next suspicion was that someone had stolen them, but I had no inkling as to

why they would. If they'd still had magic in them, they might be useful as a magic

catalyst or an ingredient for crafting equipment, but these bones had been fully

drained and lacking that value. In fact, it was precisely because there was nothing to

be done with them that I had been keeping them in storage to eventually display in a

museum. So, in the end, people had said a collector must have made off with them.

While it was a strange case, I hadn't seen it leading to anything too major, so it

had gradually faded from my memory... or it would have, if the truth hadn't come to

light just the other day.

There had been a single piece of paper mixed in with Ludwin's work papers. It

had simply said: "Dear Luu, I'm gonna take the dragon bones, handle the paperwork

plzkthx — Genia."

Yes. The one who had taken the dragon bones was Genia.

She had apparently used the golems to carry them off. I suppose it could be said

that the way she'd only turned in a single piece of paper saying she'd be doing it,

then went ahead and did it without waiting for a reply, was very much like her. That

paper had been turned in while things were a real mess, so it had gotten mixed up

with some other documents.

The other day, when that paper had finally been discovered, learning his

childhood friend was the criminal, Ludwin had come to prostrate himself before me

in apology. Now, today, to confirm the location of the bones, we had come to visit

Genia's dungeon laboratory together.

And so, we at last learned where the missing bones had gone, but...

""Whaa?!"" we cried out in surprise.

The bones had changed completely... or rather, they looked totally different.

When asked where the bones were, Genia had led us inside the tent that covered

half of this huge space. When we'd gone inside, my eyes nearly jumped out of my

skull at the sight of that giant mechanical dragon with its shining, metallic body. The

moment I'd seen that thing which was only fit to be called a mechadragon, the main

theme of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla with its low and heavy sounds started to play in

my head.

No, it wasn't that big, and it was only twenty meters tall at most, but its form was

just so far away from anything that felt real.

While I was standing there dumbfounded, Genia proudly began to explain, "I call

this baby 'Mechadra.' I put armor and parts from wild creatures and monsters on top

of the skeleton of a dragon, then threw in some mystery parts found in a dungeon to

flesh it out and make my own mechanical dragon."

Genia was cheerfully explaining in a singsong tone, but... I dunno. The materials

from monsters and mysterious parts from the dungeons were giving me nothing but

a bad feeling.

Liscia was still gaping, and Ludwin looked like he might faint.

I asked Genia, "This thing won't go on a rampage, right?"

"Ahaha," she laughed. "There's no way it'd do that."

Then Genia approached Mechadra, touching the underside of its foot lightly.

"I mean, it doesn't even move."

"Huh? It doesn't?" I asked.

"Of course not," she said. "I think the outer frame is pretty well complete, but it

lacks the all important control system to send orders to all the parts. The way it is...

it's just a glorified scarecrow."

What are you, the "I'm gonna kill you nooooow!!" guy...? I thought, making a

reference no one was going to get.

I saw the situation now. She had made a mechanical dragon, and that was all well

and good, but the program and circuits to operate it didn't exist. It was apparently

something she had built to study the workings of living creatures' joints, and she had

never intended for it to move. But, well, much as that should have been a given with

the level of technology in this world, when Genia was involved, my sense for that

was numbed, you know.

Genia was moving one of Mechadra's foot talon parts up and down with one

hand. "Look, it moves smoothly like this. Even without power, you can make it

move."

"Yeah, that's amazing," I said. "It's amazing, but... what did you go and make this

thing for...?"

I clutched my head in my hands. I figured this was probably gonna get me in

trouble with the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

With ancient humans, sure, maybe we'd put them on display in a museum. But if

you started embedding one in a machine, people would start to draw the line. It

could be taken as profaning the bodies of the dead, after all. If they found out that

one of their kind's bodies was being used like this, the dragons might come to attack.

...When I get back, I'll write a letter of apology to the Star Dragon Mountain Range,

I thought. Depending on their response, we'll dismantle the thing and either bury it or

send it back to them.

As I was swearing that to myself, Genia's words, "The way it is... It's just a glorified

scarecrow," came back to me.

A scarecrow... A doll put up to protect the fields... A doll?! Don't tell me...

I tried touching the tip of the Mechadra's toe. Then, using Living Poltergeists, I

transferred one of my consciousnesses into it. When I did, with a great sound of

metal creaking... Mechadra began to move.

Whoa?! I managed to control it?!

"Hold on, Your Majesty?! Did you do something?!" Genia exclaimed. Even she had

to be surprised by this turn of events.

As I looked up at Mechadra spreading its arms like a monster from a kaiju movie,

then start doing radio calisthenics, I held my head in my hands.

Seriously, what was I going to do with this thing? Might the ability to move an

iron dragon be seen as a threat by other countries?

"But even if you can move the iron dragon, will it be any use in battle?" Liscia

asked.

I snapped back to my senses. Now that she mentioned it, if all it could do was

move around, an iron dragon wasn't going to be much of an asset in battle. With its

big, bulky body, it would make a prime target. If the wyvern cavalry focused their

aerial bombardment and dragon breath on it, it would be blown to pieces in no time.

"Is Mechadra armed?" I asked.

"Of course not," Genia said. "Even I'm not so whimsical that I'd install armaments

on something I never even considered moving."

"I wouldn't put it past you..." I murmured.

If that was the case, it really was useless. The best thing I could think to do with it

was set it up somewhere like the Odaiba G*ndam and use it to attract tourists. It was

likely to make other countries cautious of us, but it had absolutely no use. It was the

absolute worst. Talk about a white elephant.

In conclusion, all information regarding Mechadra was declared top secret, and

until I received a response from the Star Dragon Mountain Range, it was to be kept

sealed. Would it ever eventually see the light of day?

As for Genia, who had produced the dangerous thing, we had her move to a lab

built especially for her close to the capital. Even now, she was working on research

and development there. As soon as the country began supplying her with most of the

funding for her research, it only spurred her to work harder.

...I think I'll send Ludwin some stomach medicine sometime soon.