“Advances in technology are trying to link different cultural spheres—or perhaps different economic spheres.”
“Hm?”
In the usual king’s office, the Premier Duke was speaking passionately, and His Majesty the King was drinking coffee.
It was an extrely rare sight.
The Premier Duke speaking passionately was rare enough. Normally, he lay sprawled on the sofa, reading a book.
His Majesty the King drinking coffee was rare too. Normally, he was buried in signing docunts.
On Earth, there had been an age called the Age of Exploration.
There had been many technologies that made it possible, but among them, the greatest crystallization of technology was probably the compass.
Once it ca into practical use, people could know their direction even on the open sea.
By day or by night.
Even when the sun, moon, and stars could not be seen.
In Fai, there was magic. There was alchemy too.
They could serve in place of a compass.
But there were even greater difficulties.
Sea monsters.
That was why the central problem in the technology of crossing the sea beca how to avoid being attacked by sea monsters.
“Even so, in the end, it’s no more than monster repellent.”
“Hm?”
“It isn’t technology that can defeat a Kraken.”
“Well, of course not.”
“The initiative at sea remains in their hands!”
Ryo insisted, visibly frustrated.
Yes. Ryo had not forgotten.
He had not forgotten the tragedy of the Kraken sinking the first Rondo-class ship, the Rondo.
To keep that tragedy from repeating, the second Rondo-class ship, the Neil Andersen, had been built, and their vengeance had been taken.
But that was rely victory in a one-on-one fight.
Even now, if they faced a group of Kraken, there was no guarantee they could win.
The initiative at sea was not in human hands.
“It isn’t only the sea, is it? The sky, obviously, but even on land humans don’t have the initiative.”
“What?”
“Wyverns in the sky are one thing, but we can’t beat Griffins, can we? And on land, vampires are one thing, but we can’t beat Behemoths or dragons, can we?”
“Th-that’s true...”
“And that’s not even getting into Demon n...”
“There’s no helping the sea, but we need to train harder on land.”
At Abel’s words, Ryo nodded with a look of firm resolve.
“Train?”
“If people train as hard as they can, they can beco stronger.”
“W-well, to so extent. But if you ask whether they can beco strong enough to beat Demon n...”
“We won’t know until we try!”
“Will we? I think we can know without trying...”
“You only think you know. First, let’s have the Kingdom’s knight orders train twenty hours straight per day for seven days. After seeing the results, we can decide their future training schedule—”
“Yes, they’ll collapse, so stop.”
Ryo’s Spartan training thod was stopped.
“In that case, to show a concrete example that it can be done, Abel can perform continuous training—”
“Why ? You can show them yourself, Ryo.”
“I-I’m busy with alchemy research...”
“As a special exception, I’ll allow you to train while doing your research.”
“I don’t need that exception!”
Apparently, people ca back to their senses once the problem landed on their own heads.
“Well, about those Kingdom’s knight orders...”
After saying that much, Abel sighed.
“What’s wrong? Don’t tell they’ve gone back to being useless knights like in the old days?”
Ryo tilted his head and asked.
There had been a period when the reputation of the Kingdom’s knight orders had fallen drastically.
However, after the subsequent reconstruction, they should have returned to being knight orders admired by the people of the Kingdom.
At least as far as Ryo knew, the captains at the core should all be decent people...
“Of course they’re decent. That isn’t the problem. It’s Dontan, about going on the foreign tour...”
“Captain Dontan of the Kingdom’s knight orders? Of course he’d oppose it.”
“He did say he’d approve if you ca with , Ryo, but naturally, he told to take the knight orders as guards...”
“Ah, I see.”
Ryo nodded.
From Ryo’s perspective, that demand seed only natural.
Because among the roles of the Kingdom’s knight orders, surely “protecting the king” was included.
“But he told to take one hundred of them. I can’t put a hundred guards alone on that ship.”
“Ah...”
Abel shook his head slightly, and Ryo nodded too.
It was the king’s foreign tour.
Naturally, civil officials in charge of practical affairs and attendants who supported daily life would also be boarding.
It was different from “adventurer Abel” setting out on a journey.
Even when appearing before the people of another country, he could not show himself in shabby clothing.
That would call into question the dignity and standing of the Knightley Kingdom itself, known as one of the great powers of the Central Countries...
“Being king is hard, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I think so too.”
Both Ryo and Abel sighed.
In Earth terms, the Skidbladnir was a clipper ship.
A clipper ship had three or more enormous masts, carried a large number of square sails, ran at high speed, and was characterized by a narrow, long hull from bow to stern.
Because of that, its carrying capacity was by no ans large.
Of course, the Skidbladnir was an extrely large ship with a hull over one hundred ters in total length, so it could carry a great deal of cargo.
The ships currently mainstream in the Central Countries—what would be called galleons on Earth—were a little over fifty ters long. Compared to those, it would carry more.
Ryo considered from mory.
When he had improved the Skidbladnir in the Republic of Mafalda, he had stared at the blueprints until he nearly bored holes through them.
Along with the number of crew, they had listed the load capacity and passenger capacity...
“The expected crew was fifty, and if fully loaded, the passenger capacity should have been one hundred twenty.”
“That’s quite a lot.”
“Yes. The hull is narrow, but it’s very long from bow to stern. It was originally designed for the open ocean...for trade between the Western Countries and the Dark Continent, and for transporting important people.”
“Important people?”
“For when important people from the Republic went to the Dark Continent, or important people from the Dark Continent ca to the Republic.”
“It wasn’t a governnt ship, but a normal trading company’s ship, right?”
“Yes, yes. But since it was supposedly the fastest ship in the Republic, the governnt would pay to use it... That was apparently how it was supposed to work. In the initial plan.”
“And yet that alchemist left the Republic, so the ship was never completed...”
“The latest technology is difficult to use.”
Ryo shook his head slightly.
“One hundred twenty ans...yeah, I really can’t bring a hundred guards just for myself. Yes, it can’t be helped.”
“Why do you sound happy?”
Abel made an excuse in a tone almost like Ryo’s.
After a while, Ryo seed to think of sothing.
“A good idea has co to .”
“When you say that, Ryo, it usually isn’t very...”
“What a terrible thing to say! This ti it’s the real thing!”
“Fine. What {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} is it?”
“What do you think about using my Ice Golems as Abel’s guards?”
“Ice Golems?”
Abel tilted his head at Ryo’s proposal.
“Co forth, Covert Guard First Unit!”
At Ryo’s voice, eleven Ice Golems appeared.
The golem at the head of the group had a “horn” on its head.
It was Herald No. 1, who led the First Unit.
Of course Abel rembered it too.
“They’re the golems that protected Rondo Manor in Darwei, right?”
“Yes, yes, these are the ones. I gave Friendship Token No. 2 to Captain Lu Yao, so the Second Unit has no commander at the mont, but the First Unit led by Herald No. 1 can work perfectly well. Shall we have them take on Abel’s protection?”
“Ah...”
At Ryo’s words, Abel looked at the golems.
“Starting with No. 1, every one of them is wearing an expression full of motivation.”
“R-right...”
Ryo said it happily, but of course Abel could not read the golems’ expressions.
No, probably no one except Ryo could read them.
Being unable to read their expressions also ant being unable to read what they were thinking.
Honestly, as people to whom one would entrust one’s life...that was frightening.
Of course, they were golems made by Ryo, the person Abel trusted most, so surely nothing strange would happen...
But this was not a matter of reason.
It was a matter of emotion.
“No, you should use those golems yourself, Ryo. I’ll have the Kingdom’s knight orders protect after all. I’ll have them reduce the number, but thinking about the future, you know.”
“Ah, I see. You want the knights to gain experience. A king’s expedition almost never happens, after all. It would be a waste not to make use of such a precious opportunity. As expected of Abel. How profound.”
“Y-yeah... It isn’t that impressive.”
Ryo nodded, slightly misunderstanding, and Abel answered while concealing his expression.
What Ryo had said was not wrong.
It was true that this would be a precious chance for them to gain experience.
“These children need to be upgraded further too.”
“Upgraded?”
“It ans making them stronger. Well, they weren’t originally ant for combat... Even so, as guards for soone like Abel, they can serve as shields.”
“I see...”
“But they still haven’t reached the point where they can keep up with Abel, the king who races through the sky.”
“Races through the sky?”
“Abel can fly through the sky with the Flight Ring, can’t you?”
Ryo tilted his head.
It was true that Abel had taken off the Flight Ring after returning to the Kingdom.
His Majesty the King even had set rules for the accessories he wore.
“Eventually, these covert guards will also be able to race through the sky with ice gliding wings and . When that ti cos, they’ll be able to guard Abel too.”
“I-I see...”
“Together with the Golden Hind, they’ll protect the skies of the Kingdom... If we consider the sky as the Kingdom’s garden, then there is no one more suited than the covert guards to defend the sky alongside the Golden Hind!”
After saying that, Ryo happily patted Herald No. 1 on the shoulder.
His thoughts raced toward the future skies of the Kingdom.
Watching Ryo, Abel realized sothing.
It was true that Abel was not wearing his either, but Ryo was not wearing his...
“What happened to your Flight Ring?”
“I gave it to Kenneth.”
“Gave it to him? Co to think of it, you originally bought two of those, didn’t you?”
“Yes, yes. One was for dismantling and research...but I completely dismantled it and couldn’t put it back together.”
“Ah...”
“Well, thanks to that, I understood a lot, so I recovered my investnt.”
“I see...”
Research cost money.
“I gave Kenneth the one I had been wearing, and he said he finished most of his analysis in three days. Compared to the magic-nullification cylinder, it was apparently much easier to understand. He really is incredible.”
“That’s amazing...”
Both Ryo and Abel were impressed.
“However, it seems it really does eat mana like an idiot.”
“Hm? Everyone was flying with them over there, weren’t they?”
“Yes. In the Yellow Center, they were.”
“Ah, so that’s it.”
Abel realized it imdiately and nodded.
Abel’s Flight Ring had been altered by Ryo, allowing it to fly anywhere.
But as a result, they had learned that its mana consumption beca astonishingly high.
In the region called the Yellow Center, where Darwei was located, the Flight Rings were apparently supplied with mana in a way similar to contactless charging, so the user’s own mana consumption was low.
As a result, however, Flight Rings could not be used outside the Yellow Center.
“After Kenneth calculated the mana required to use a Flight Ring outside the Yellow Center, he was shocked.”
“Hm?”
“Apparently, for an ordinary person, it guzzles so much mana they couldn’t fly for even thirty seconds.”
“I...practiced quite a bit, didn’t I?”
“That’s exactly why. He was surprised that even though Abel can’t use magic, you may have a large amount of mana.”
“Having a lot of mana when I can’t use magic doesn’t really help...”
“W-well...”
Abel shrugged, and Ryo could not think of anything comforting to say.
“M-maybe one day, Abel might beco a great magician...”
“Absolutely not.”
“Right...probably not...”
“Just being able to fly is enough for .”
Abel said that with a wry smile.
Flying through the sky.
A dream many people had imagined.
Even if it was only because he had more mana than other people, simply being able to do that made him blessed...or so Abel thought.
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