by Dojyomaru
“There’s a tendency in this world to think of magic as the grace of gods or spirits,” she said. “That tendency becomes stronger with the strength of a person’s faith in religion. That country’s a theocracy. The gods or spirits are the very source of their authority. They can’t recognize the existence of any research... or researcher if it would pull back the curtain on that divine mystery.”
“...You could be right,” I said.
In countries with too much religious fervor, those who try to discover the laws of nature sometimes become suppressed. Those who give explanations against the teachings of the faith might be treated as heretics and, in the worst cases... killed. Even Galileo had been forced to recant his theory.
...How stupid.
“This country won’t end up like that,” I said. “I won’t allow it.”
“I’m very happy to hear that.” Genia clapped her hands on her lap and smiled broadly. “So, here’s the thing about us people from the House of Maxwell. We thought that there might be another principle in this world outside of magic, and we’ve been studying it. It’s true that some of the dungeon core’s functions were brought back to life with magic, but when we imagine how the dungeon core was created, we think it has to be a product of engineering, or mathematics. It’s not the power of miracles; if we investigate it thoroughly, we believe there is a functional truth to be found. For convenience’s sake, we call this separate principle ‘over-science.’”
“Over-science...” I murmured.
“That’s O-Sci for short.”
“‘Oh, sigh’... Don’t shorten it like that,” I said.
“And so, our clan, as people who study over-science, refer to ourselves as over-scientists.” Genia puffed out her chest with unironic pride.
“I heard from Ludwin that you’re a mad scientist, though?” I asked.
“I’d rather not have a lame name like that.”
“I don’t see the difference!” I cried. “Over” was cool, but “mad” wasn’t? ...I didn’t quite get her logic.
Genia said, “Now then...” and stood up. “I‘d like this king, who seems like he’ll become a sympathetic supporter of mine, to see my inventions.”
“Yeah, that’s what we came here for,” I said. “Please, show me.”
“Roger that,” she said happily. “I think I’ve got just the thing. Could you come outside with me?”
Genia rose from her seat and left the house. Apparently the invention she wanted to show me was outside. If so, it might have been behind the divider I saw on the bottom level.
Ludwin had muttered “Honestly...” to himself and followed after Genia, so it was just me and Liscia left behind in the house.
“If there’s one thing to say about her, she’s different,” Liscia said with a wry smile.
She must have meant Genia. I largely agreed with that opinion, but I was beginning to have certain hopeful expectations for her.
“Still, she may be just the kind of talented person we’ve been looking for.” I kept my arms crossed as I expressed my thoughts. “When I saw the imposing sight of the Imperial Army at Van, I realized we can’t leave things the way they are. I’ve made do with things that already exist up until now, but going forward, we’ll need to be able to come up with and create things no one has seen before. To create revolutionary new technologies, adopt them, and move the times forward. If we don’t, this country will never be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Empire.”
“...You’re right,” Liscia said.
“So, I’ve finally found a method for moving forward into a new era.”
“A method?” Liscia echoed questioningly.
I nodded firmly in response. “In the history of mankind, there have been those who were ahead of their time. They have a gift of foresight, break down established notions, and one of them alone can be enough to change history. Although in many cases, they’re lost in the flow of the times, or weeded out by natural selection.”
For instance, take the “universal genius,” Leonardo da Vinci.
Da Vinci is famous for his painting, the Mona Lisa, but he left behind designs for a surprising number of inventions. They say there were even designs for a tank, a diving suit, and a helicopter in there. Setting aside the feasibility of them, if those inventions of his had been researched properly, the history of Europe might have changed dramatically.
In addition to his outrageous inventions, he had also produced accurate anatomical drawings of the human body. In an era when the Christian church had held great influence, he had purchased dead bodies and cut them up in ways that might have been seen as blasphemous by the church, all in order to learn about the structure of the human body. If these anatomical drawings had spread, they would no doubt have led to great advances in medicine. However, he’d sealed them away for a long time, fearing the power of the church, and so he’d been unable to contribute to medical science.
“Those sorts of people are said by later generations to have been ‘born before their time,’” I said. “However, what if the ruler of the time saw such a person for what they were, protected them, and gave them an important position? Then, what if, not just the person in power, but the people as a whole, could be led to recognize them for what they were? Don’t you think that could lead to a major advance?”
“You mean, make the times adjust to the person who’s ahead of them?” asked Liscia.
“Precisely!” I said. “Though I didn’t expect you to get it on the first try.”
“I haven’t been hanging around with you for half a year for nothing, you know,” Liscia said with a laugh, but then quickly took on a pensive look. “But, by that reasoning, shouldn’t you be the one to lead, Souma? The technological level of your world was far ahead of this one, wasn’t it?”
“Well, I can understand why you’d say that, but... Yeah, no, I can’t,” I said.
“Why not?”
“It’s because my world isn’t further down the path that this one will eventually follow.”
My former world had no magic.
I had felt that this world’s technology was all over the place because of the existence of magic before, but that was one way that this world moved forward. Some pieces of technology, like the jewels for the Jewel Voice Broadcast, were already superior to the technology in the other world. This world was probably going to continue along a different path from my own.
“If I butt in when I shouldn’t, there’s a risk that I might end up delaying development,” I said. “That’s why I think it’s best if this world’s progress is driven mainly by its own people.”
“I understand what you’re thinking.” That was what she said, but Liscia’s face didn’t look satisfied with my explanation at all. If anything, she looked both angry and sad.
While I was wondering what was up, Liscia took my hand and squeezed it tight.
“I understand what you’re thinking, Souma. Still, there are parts of it that I can’t accept.”
“...Such as?” I asked.
“The part about ‘this world’s people!’ You belong to this country now, too, Souma!” Liscia pulled my hand and placed it against her cheek. “My father was the one to tear you away from your old world, so I, as his daughter, may not be the one to say this, but... What you said just now, it made me feel incredibly sad.”
“Oh, um... sorry,” I said.
“Please, don’t ever divide yourself from us again.” With misty tears forming in Liscia’s eyes, she seemed unbearably lovely to me.
“Okay... I won’t say it again.” I took the hand she wasn’t holding and went to place it on her other cheek.
“Heyyyyy, Your Majestyyyyy,” Genia called from outside. “Hurry uuuuup.”
Suddenly pulled out of our own little world, Liscia and I looked at one another, and laughed in awkward embarrassment.
Genia led us in front of the medium-sized area that had been divided off.
Yes, the divider was big enough that I had to lo
ok up at it, but more than anything, I was curious what was behind the massive divider that was separating off half of this space. It looked to be over twenty meters high. Wasn’t she going to let me see what’s behind that one?
As I was thinking that, Genia raised her hands aloft and said, “Come forth, golem.”
The moment after she did, the earth swelled up in a spot where the ground was exposed. Eventually, two giants, each around three meters tall, appeared. Those earthen giants began to lumber forward.
“Is this your magic, Genia?” I asked.
“Yep,” she said. “My magic is to create golems from earth and to manipulate them. They can’t do any delicate work, but they’ve got power. I get a lot of use out of them when it comes to carrying things.”
“Manipulating mud dolls...” I mused. “That’s a lot like my own ability, huh. Is it a dark-type?”
“No. It’s earth-type,” she said. “Because I can only manipulate earth. Being able to move them around like dolls probably falls under gravity manipulation. Besides, the four major categories and light and dark are just something people came up with to make it easier to understand. I don’t think of them as being strict limitations.”
“What am I even supposed to believe in anymore...?” I murmured.
Ever since I’d come here, my understanding of this world kept being constantly shaken. When it came to phenomena that were unknown to people on Earth, if this world’s people said something was obvious, I had assumed it must be; but now I was being told that wasn’t necessarily the case. It wasn’t a known unknown, but an unknown unknown. From here on out, I might have to approach every phenomenon from a position of doubt.
“Well, setting that aside, this here is what I wanted you to see,” Genia said, indicating something. The golems took down the divider that was covering it.
When we saw what came out from inside, both Liscia and I were dumbstruck by the utter incomprehensibility of it. Before our eyes, there was an object that looked like it was the size of a two story building. If I were to describe it in the easiest way to understand...
“A ridiculously huge D*son fan?” I burst out.
“Hm? What’s that?” Genia asked.
“Ah, never mind... Just talking to myself.”
No, still, the only thing I could see it as was a gigantic Dy*on fan.
As far as the silhouette went, the torso was like a kokeshi; one of those short, wooden Japanese dolls with no arms, but the head was a big ring. It wasn’t clear at a glance what it might be used for, and the way it just looked like some sort of art object was the same. It did concern me that just the portion in contact with the ground was firmly fixed in place, though...
I asked Genia, “What is this thing?”
“It’s ‘Little Susumu Mark V.’”
What a lame name! I thought. ...Wait, Mark V?!
“What, then there are another four of these things?!” I burst out.
“That?! After seeing this thing, that’s what gets your attention?!” Liscia exclaimed.
As she watched our surprised reactions, Genia smiled with satisfaction. “Well, you know, with all the getting blown away, and exploding, and other stuff, Little Susumu Marks I-IV are now no more.”
“It’s that dangerous?!” I cried.
“The Mark V is fine,” she assured me. “This one... is the finished product.”
Having said that, Genia launched into an explanation of the Little Susumu Mark V.
“I suspect you’re already aware, but the large ships in this world are either powered by the wind or tugged by sea dragons, right? This Little Susumu Mark V is a replacement for those sea dragons, you see. When attached to the keel, one of these devices can drive the vessel forward with power equivalent to a sea dragon.”
“...Ah! You mean, it’s a propulsion system!” I cried.
Like a screw propeller, or a motor, huh?
When I said that, Genia smiled and laid a hand on Little Susumu Mark V’s torso section. “The thing about this machine is, it can suck in whatever is in front of the ring, then force it out through the back. When it operates in the sea, it takes in sea water and expels it out the rear. That water pressure will create enough propulsion to move an iron warship.” In other words, it was like there was an invisible propeller in the empty space in the middle of that ring.
“Hm? If it sucks in whatever’s in front of it, what would happen if you used it here and now?” I asked.
“You’re very perceptive, I see,” she said. “On land, it can suck in air and expel it out the rear. Let’s try an experiment, shall we?”
Genia had the golems prepare a large sheet. Then, with us standing back at a distance of around twenty meters, the golems held it up between them like a movie screen.
“Now, observers, the Little Susumu Mark V will suck in air from our side, then expel it out the other side. Witness its power for yourselves.”
“Ah! Genia, hold on a...!” Ludwin hurriedly tried to stop her, but Genia didn’t care.
“And click,” she said in a singsong tone, then pressed some sort of switch. In an instant...
Bowahhhhh!
There was a sudden loud noise as a sudden gust of wind blew us away.
“Whoa?!” I exclaimed.
“Eek!” Liscia cried.
“Bwah!” Genia laughed.
“Not agaaaaain!” Ludwin wailed.
The sudden and powerful blast of wind threw us all against the wall.
Wait... Th-This wind, it’s too strong! I screamed in my mind. The wind pressure had me pinned to the wall and I couldn’t move at all. It looked like Liscia and Genia were in the same boat.
Until Ludwin crawled toward the machine with great difficulty, pressing the same switch to stop it, we were pinned against the wall like a bunch of insect specimens. When we were finally released from that wind, Genia laughed, “Ahaha...” and put on a dry smile.
“Whoops, sorry. Looks like I had the front and back mixed up. Because I gave it a highly efficient form, with all waste removed, it’s hard to tell the front from the back.”
“If you know that, then take precautions...” I muttered.
“I said I’m sorry, sire,” she said unashamedly. “Anyway, I think you see how powerful this Little Susumu Mark V is now, yes?”
“...I literally experienced it firsthand.” I said that sarcastically, but it really was an incredible machine.
If it hadn’t been firmly affixed to the floor, the machine itself might have been blown away. Ah... was that why Marks I-IV had blown up or been blown away? While I was figuring out that strange little detail, Genia launched into an enthusiastic explanation of how the system worked.
“This ring segment is made of a special metal, and it has a modified version of an enchantment for deflecting energy carved into it. This enchantment was based on a failed version of the enchantment for nullifying magic that the Empire’s Magic Armor Corps uses, you see.
“Originally, it was an enchantment for deflecting magic. Deflecting it was good enough for the Magic Armor Corps themselves, but the other troops behind them were still taking damage, so they discontinued researching it. That failed enchantment caught my attention.
“If it was able to deflect magic, I thought it must be exerting some influence on the way magicium worked. They say that magicium exists in both the atmosphere and in our water. That being the case, if I could apply a direction to it, maybe I could create something that would suck it in and blow it out. If I could concentrate the power from expelling it, maybe I could create a propulsion system... Well, that was the idea.
“That’s because moving the magicium in the air and water is the same as moving the air and water themselves. And so, I put a modified version of that enchantment into a metal ring, and that’s how I completed the Little Susumu Mark V, which sucks in magicium and blows it back out when you run energy through it!”
I was dumbfounded.
Genia was very articulate in her explanation, but the momen
t she started talking about enchantment magic, it went beyond my ability to judge whether what she said was true or false. Though, given the experiment went exactly the way Genia was saying, I figured she was correct... probably.
“Did you understand that, Liscia?” I asked.
“Not even the teensiest tiniest bit of it.”
It seemed it was a difficult subject for people from this world, too.
Realizing we hadn’t been able to follow her explanation at all, Genia forced herself to smile and shrug. “Well, like I was saying before, so long as you understand that one of these devices can do the same work as one sea dragon, that’s good enough.”
The man who had been clutching his head in his hands up, Ludwin, now spoke up. “But isn’t this thing kind of useless, then? I mean, you spent considerable resources just to build this one device, didn’t you?”
“Yeah... Well, it was easily enough to maintain ten sea dragons for a period of ten years...” Genia said.
“If it only does the work of one, then that’s a huge loss, isn’t it?” Ludwin asked. “Besides, unlike sea dragons, it can’t make tight turns.”
“Wh-What are you saying, Luu?! Can’t you see what this invention will bring?!” Genia cried.
“What it will bring?” Ludwin asked.
Ludwin seemed confused, but I had to agree with Genia on this point.
“She’s right. It really is an incredible invention, Ludwin.”
“Y-You, too, sire?” he asked.
“Just think,” I said. “If one of these can do the work of a sea dragon, then, applying some simple math, ten of them could do the work of ten sea dragons, right?”
“I suppose...?”
As Ludwin didn’t seem to get my point, I explained it in a way that would be easier for him to understand. “Well, can you actually bind ten sea dragons to something? I thought even a two-dragon setup like our battleship, the Albert, was unusual?”
“Well... Yes, that’s right. Even if you could bind ten sea dragons to something, it would be impossible to make them all follow the same order. Even in other countries, I think three is probably the limit.”
“In other words, even its use were limited to ships, with this machine, we would be able to move ships that were more massive than any before. For instance... imagine a cargo ship with five of these installed. It would revolutionize shipping.”
