Chapter 5: The Legendary Old Man (part 2)

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Do you remember how before, when I talked about how the technology of this

country was all messed up, I mentioned that there were steel battleships, only they

were drawn by massive sea dragons? When Liscia and I arrived at the planned site

for the new city, we were greeted by one of those steel battleships.

Battleship Albert.

Bearing the name of the former king, it was the sole battleship in the possession

of the Forbidden Army, and the flagship of the Royal Navy.

Its shape was similar to the Mikasa, which was the flagship of the Combined Fleet

at the time of the Battle of Tsushima. There were two main batteries, one each at the

fore and aft, for a total of four guns, with auxiliary guns along the sides, although the

main batteries and auxiliary guns were all loaded onto the vessel, not fixed artillery.

Also, because it wasn't loaded with an internal combustion engine, the lack of a

smokestack was another difference between the two.

It's power source was a sea dragon. (These looked like plesiosaurs, but with

short, thick necks and goat-like horns.) With a giant sea dragon pulling it, this

battleship could run through the water. For an ordinary ship, one dragon was

enough, but this ship was a two-dragon model.

Now seems like a good time, so let me explain about some of the imbalances in

this country's technology.

You might find it strange that a country which hadn't even reached the industrial

revolution had these sorts of near-modern warships. However, thanks to this

world's magic and mysterious creatures, they were able to do things they otherwise

couldn't.

Even if something is made of iron, if it's been built with the proper calculations

for buoyancy, it can be made to float. In other words, the outer frame of a battleship

can be built even with Middle Ages technology. The reason they hadn't been built

until after the industrial revolution was because the engines that would be needed

to move them didn't exist. In an era where your only means of propelling a boat are

catching the wind with sails or rowing with oars, an iron ship wouldn't be able to do

anything but float there.

However, in this world, there were powerful sea dragons that were strong

enough to tow an iron ship. By training them to pull the ships, ocean navigation

became possible. That was why iron ships were built.

It was the same for the large cannons aboard the battleship.

This world already had gunpowder. Now, that in and of itself wasn't strange.

Even on Earth, there are traces of gunpowder having been used that predate the

appearance of black powder, which was one of China's three great inventions. In the

second century, during the time of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the general

defending Chencang used an explosive weapon (something like a firecracker) to

pulverize the invading army led by Zhuge Liang's weapons.

However, in this world, there were no arquebuses.

Because they had magic for their long-range attacks, they had never developed

firearms. Earth mages could fire off stones like a machine gun, fire mages could drop

attacks that were like napalm bombs, wind mages could launch a vacuum slash from

incredible range, while water mages could, at shorter range, penetrate obstacles

with water pressure.

Furthermore, there were what were called "attachable spells." By attaching spells

with various effects to an object, it could be made stronger or able to cut better.

Because of these, weapons with higher mass, which could have more spells

embedded in them, tended to be more powerful.

Thus, an arrow was stronger than a bullet, a spear stronger than an arrow. To

explain further, with a bullet's small mass, even if you embedded an attack spell in it,

it couldn't pierce a suit of plated armor with a defensive spell embedded in it. It

could be said that this was why they'd never developed guns.

However, while they didn't have rifles, they did have cannons.

This was because, over the water, the use of other elements was limited, so

they'd been developed as a means of making long-range attacks.

This world's magic was said to come from mixing special waves emitted by

people with a substance called magicium in the atmosphere to produce a variety of

phenomena. Magicium had an elemental alignment (with the exception of darkness),

and the composition of the magicium in the atmosphere was greatly influenced by

the terrain. Over the water there was mostly water magicium, meaning magic from

the other elements was weakened there... and so on for other areas.

Because of this, if they were to use magic in naval battles, all elements but water

would be weakened, and they would end up in a situation where water elemental

magic didn't have a long enough range. (But it could still be used to control the

currents for steering, so water mages were assigned to the navy).

Which was precisely why cannons had been developed as a way to attack ships.

Ultimately, technology only develops where there's a demand for it.

End of digression. Now let's get back to the Battleship Albert.

When I saw the Albert, here is what I thought:

What am I supposed to do with one ship? It's only when they're defended by

destroyers and cruisers that a battleship or carrier can exhibit their true power. What I

have here is no more than a scarecrow.

"Well, you know, it was assumed it would be operating alongside the navy."

Liscia's words only made it sadder. Clearly, this thing was a white elephant.

"In that case, if we leave the flagship to the navy, don't you think that would save

us some of the upkeep costs?" I asked.

"B-But... we were able to use it to transport materials, weren't we?" she asked.

"Well... Yeah, I guess..."

We had used this needlessly big battleship to transport materials for the coastal

city. Once we had removed the armaments from inside it, that had freed up a good

amount of carrying capacity. With the transportation network not in place yet at this

stage, it had allowed us to ship the materials here many times faster than we could

have sending them by land.

"But, in that case, it would have been even more effective if we'd built it as a

transport ship to begin with," I said.

"Ugh! Don't be so negative about everything!" she protested.

"I'm fighting with the budget, so when I see something gobbling up funds, I can't

help myself..."

Then Aisha came along, bringing Ludwin with her.

"Your Majesty, I've called Sir Ludwin for you," she said.

"Your Majesty, Your Highness, I welcome you to the planned site of the new city."

The handsome captain of the Royal Guard, Ludwin Arcs, saluted with a smile. At the

castle he always wore silver armor, but here he was dressed more casually. With the

white shirt and leather vest he was wearing, he looked like a handsome sailor who

might show up in a pirate movie.

I was using the Forbidden Army to work on constructing the city. Of course, I was

hiring a large number of craftsmen from the civil engineering and construction guild,

too, but with the scale of the project, they couldn't handle everything.

That's why I was using the Forbidden Army, thinking I would wrap this up

quickly with human-wave tactics. After I'd gone to the trouble of teaching the

soldiers combat engineering skills, it would have been a waste not to use them. I had

two-tenths of the Forbidden Army's standing forces here, with the remaining eighttenths building the transport network that would connect all of the cities.

"So, how is progress on the construction?" I asked.

"We've already finished roping off the site. Work is going steady... or was..."

Ludwin said hesitantly, a bitter smile on his face.

"I keep telling you, you need to stop construction!" one person shouted.

"Listen, old man. We're building this city on the king's orders, get it?" another

answered.

I heard voices arguing inside the tent that served as the construction office.

"I'm telling you this for the king's sake! You mustn't build a city here!"

"You just don't get it, do you, old man? It's not like we're trying to evict you or

anything."

"You're the ones who don't get it!"

...No, it wasn't an argument, it was more like this old man was one-sidedly yelling

at them.

I spoke to Ludwin. "So, basically, an old man who lives in the area is vehemently

opposed to us building the new city?"

"Yes. A local fisherman. Mr. Urup."

"...I did tell you not to aggressively buy up land or anything like that, didn't I?" I

asked.

"Of course. We're looking for residents to apply anyway, so the prior residents

can stay right where they are. We won't charge them for the land, either. When we

work on the landscaping, we plan to rebuild their houses at no cost."

"Hmm... Those sound like good conditions to me," I said.

As far as I could see, there were nothing but deserted-looking fishing villages

around here. It had to be hard just to eke out a living in a place as rural as this. If a

city were built, with the influx of people, many of the inconveniences of living here

would go away. Not only were they not being chased out of a place that would offer

them a better future, they were even having their houses rebuilt for free, so what

was there to be opposed to?

"Why is that old man opposed to it?" I asked.

"Well..."

"I'm telling you, you'll incur the wrath of the sea god!" I heard shouting from

inside the tent again.

The sea god?

"You see, he says this is the sea god's domain and building houses will anger him,

or something like that."

"What, you even have sea gods in this world?" I asked.

Liscia and the others all shook their heads vigorously.

"I've never heard of one before," Liscia said.

"I, too, am unaware of one," Aisha agreed.

"It's probably just an old man's nonsense..." Ludwin added.

It seemed nobody had heard of one.

A sea god, huh? I wondered.

"I've never heard of this sea god in my life," a voice said from inside. "Would you

please not interrupt construction with your strange religion?"

"It's no religion! The sea god is real! If you violate the sanctity of his holy land,

eventually you will anger him and be destroyed! In fact, the sea god goes on a

rampage once every hundred years or so!" the man shouted.

Hm?

"When I was a boy, the sea god went on a rampage once. At the time, all of the

people who had built homes in the sea god's holy land were swallowed up by him!"

he added.

Could he be talking about what I think he is...?

I entered the tent. Inside were a young Forbidden Army soldier and a tanned old

man wearing a towel twisted into a headband.

"I'm sorry, sir. Could you tell me in detail about what you're talking about?" I

asked politely.

"Who're you?" he demanded. "I'm busy talking to this fellow..."

"Wh-Why, Your Majesty!" the soldier stuttered.

"His Majesty?!" When he saw the soldier stand and salute me, the old man let out

a bizarre cry.

"Hey there," I said. "I'm the (provisional) King of Elfrieden, Souma Kazuya."

I went to shake his hand.

"...The name's Urup," the old man responded with a tense look on his face.

Once we had finished greeting each other, I immediately dove to the heart of the

matter. "Now then, Urup. Back to what you were talking about before."

"Hm?! R-Right! Your Majesty, please, reconsider building this city!"

"Old man, are you really going to trouble His Majesty himself with your

nonsense...?" the soldier demanded.

"No, I want to hear him out." I gestured for the soldier who was trying to stop him

to stand down. "Can you tell me more about it?"

"B-But of course." And so, Urup explained the local legend to me.