Volume 4 - CH 1

Chapter 1: Preparing for Innovation 

The Captain of the Royal Guard, Ludwin Arcs. 

Though only in his late twenties, this excellent man was the captain of the Royal Guard, charged with leading the 40,000-strong Forbidden Army in times of crisis. 

Ever since the Kingdom’s Forbidden Army and Army, Navy, and Air Force had been dismantled and reorganized as the National Defense Force, he’d been seen as the next in line to become Supreme Commander. He was currently training under the current Supreme Commander, Excel, as her second-in-command. 

He was a handsome man with straight blond hair who came from a good family. He was also highly popular with the maids who worked in the castle. However, despite all that, there were never any rumors of him becoming involved with a woman, and he had once become troubled when weird rumors started to spread that he might swing the other way. 

Speaking of weird rumors about Ludwin, there was one more: the rumor that his family finances were difficult. 

That came from the fact that Ludwin, for some reason, was always eating at the cafeteria for the maids and guards who worked at the castle, as if he were trying to keep his expenses to a minimum. He came from a good family, held an important position, and received a good salary, so it was hard to imagine; but from time to time Ludwin was spotted eating the cheapest bun that the cafeteria offered. 

In response to this, many theories were offered. 

“He wants to share his men’s joys and sorrows by eating the same things they eat,” or “By being frugal, he is preparing himself for a time of crisis” were some of the more positive interpretations. But... 

“Actually, maybe he’s a penny-pinching miser,” said some, and “Perhaps he has a lover and a secret child, and all his money goes to them,” gossiped others. 

However, while there was no talk of Ludwin making ostentatious displays of spending money, there was no sign of him saving it, either. So where was Ludwin’s salary going? 

The answer to that question was something we would eventually find out. 

— Early in the 11th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Royal Capital Parnam —

With autumn growing deeper, the days grew gradually colder. 

With the post-war arrangements with the Principality of Amidonia concluded and the corrupt nobles that had been working behind the scenes to hinder me domestically swept aside, Elfrieden was enjoying a fleeting peace. 

Because the internal threat of the corrupt nobles and the external threat of Amidonia had both been taken care of at the same time, the people’s opinion of myself as king and Hakuya as the prime minister had improved. With the nobles who had chosen not to take a side in the conflict with the three dukes now swearing loyalty to me, I was able to quickly centralize power. 

It was that sort of autumn afternoon where I could imagine my political reforms would be moving forward in leaps and bounds. 

Currently, I was in the governmental affairs office in Parnam, showing Liscia a certain something. “Take a look at this. What do you think?” 

“It’s very... long, thin, and curved.” With a curious look on her face, Liscia stared intently at the thing I was showing her. 

“Do you want to try it?” I asked. 

“Can I? Well, then...” 

Liscia’s thin, white fingers reached for the rapier at her waist. Then, narrowing her eyes, she drew her blade and swung it at the thing. In the next instant, there was the screech of metal on metal and the tip of her rapier was cut off and fell to the ground. 

Liscia looked back and forth from the severed tip to her rapier, then cried out in surprise, “M-My sword?!” 

As Liscia lost her mind over what had happened, I let out a big sigh. “What’re you suddenly taking a swing at it for...?” 

“Well, you asked if I wanted to test it!” she exclaimed. 

“I meant for you to hold it, maybe take a few practice swings,” I said. “I have no idea why you suddenly tried slashing it...” 

Liscia could be a bit of a meat head sometimes. Was it her teacher Georg’s influence? 

“Besides, you must know what would happen when you swing two blades at each other, right?” I asked. 

Liscia’s eyes wandered around the room awkwardly. “W-Well, you know... That’s a Nine-Headed Dragon katana, right? I was interested in its cutting edge, you could say...” 

“Honestly...” 

The blade that had chopped Liscia’s sword in two was a type of katana, specifically a Nine-Headed Dragon katana, forged in the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union, a maritime state that ruled the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago to the east of Elfrieden. 

It was single-edged, with a thin, narrow, curved blade. There was a blood groove running between the blade ridge and back. That’s enough detail to make it clear that, for those in the know, it should have been apparent that the Nine-Headed Dragon katana closely resembled a Japanese katana. 

Unlike this country’s swords, which were meant to chop through things (the Western style), it was specially designed to cut by pushing or pulling. Exactly the same as a Japanese katana. Maybe the manufacturing process was the same, too. 

That Nine-Headed Dragon katana was out of its sheath and its blade was exposed, sitting on top of a sword rack with its blade facing upwards. That was how it had been when Liscia had taken a swing at it and lost. 

Liscia was now staring intently at the Nine-Headed Dragon katana’s blade. “It’s got an incredible cutting edge, huh.” 

“We had swords like these in the country I came from, and when it came to cutting power, they were top class,” I said. 

In one program I’d watched, I had even seen a katana cut through the stream of a water cutter (a machine that used high pressure water to cut through things), after all. They had to have some pretty impressive cutting power. 

Liscia let out an impressed grunt. “That’s really something. But what’s a Nine-Headed Dragon katana doing here?” 

“It was a gift from Excel,” I said. “It apparently came from a fishing ship from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago that they seized.” 

“A fishing ship?” 

“There’ve been a lot of them lately, I hear. Ships from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago that come into our waters to fish illegally.” 

In this world, there were large creatures called sea dragons (they looked like monstrous plesiosauruses with goat horns) used to tug iron ships. Sea dragons were relatively docile, but among the large sea creatures of this world, there were also vicious and dangerous ones like the super-massive sharks called megalodons. Because those sorts of dangerous sea creatures mainly lived in the deep sea, fishing was, by necessity, restricted to the coastal waters of the continent and islands. 

There were still enough fish to catch, so it wasn’t much of a problem, but in recent years, the number of ships from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago coming to fish in our waters had increased. 

In this world, it was commonly accepted that fishing should be done in one’s own country’s coastal waters or on the open sea (though that was, of course, dangerous), and fishing in another country’s coastal waters was considered illegal. Illegal fishing ships could be seized or sunk without recourse. And yet, the number of illegal fishing vessels entering our waters was on the rise. 

Correlating with that, there had been an increase in the number of clashes between fishermen. 

“We’ve submitted a formal complaint to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union, but... there’s been no reply,” I said. “I have Excel’s fleet out patrolling our waters, but it doesn’t seem to be having much of an effect.” 

“It’s a maritime state you’re dealing with, after all,” said Liscia. “They have the best shipbuilders and helmsmen in the world.” 

She was right. In the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, they trained other creatures that could draw their ships in addition to the usual sea dragons. I had heard they were incredibly fast. That, and because fishing ships were made of wood and not loaded with cannons, they could move quickly. If they focused on trying to escape, a military ship couldn’t catch up to them. 

“Even this ship they seized recently was only caught when they had the bad luck to run aground,” I added. 

“Then why don’t we chase after them with fast wooden ships of our own?” Liscia asked. 

“If we did that and they were armed, we’d take heavy losses, you know?” 

“...You’re right.” 

It hurt that, as the ones guarding, there was a bare minimum of equipment we would need to get ready. 

Liscia crossed her arms and thought deeply about it. “Still, it’s a bit strange. It’s true that, if they make it to our coastal waters, they can fish here easily, but to get here, they have to travel over the open sea where there are large sea creatures, right? Why would they go through that risk to fish here illegally when there’s the chance they’ll be caught?” 

“Who knows...” I said. “There might be something going on in the archipelago, and there’s no way for us to find out what it is. We get barely any information on the island countries.” 

Even if I had my clandestine operations unit, the Black Cats, infiltrate the country to collect intelligence, the country was surrounded by the sea, making it hard to get information out. Messenger kuis couldn’t travel over large stretches of sea when there was no place to rest, and a jewel for the Jewel Voice Broadcast would be large enough that it would be difficult to sneak in. That, and there was the risk we’d lose it. 

In the end, we’d have to resort to sending people over the sea to deliver the information, but that would take days to arrive. Intel had to be fresh. Even if our spies got their hands on important intel, it would be meaningless if there was no way to communicate it back home immediately. 

I had asked those who, like one of our top loreleis Nanna, had drifted here from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago, but it turned out that, while all islands swore loyalty to the Nine-Headed Dragon King, the living situation on each was different. While I could gather fragmented pieces of information, it was hard to put together any larger picture. 

“I’ve gotta say, it’s harder to deal with a country when you don’t know what they’re thinking than it is to deal with one that’s clearly hostile,” I said. “I don’t even know if we should be getting ready to defend ourselves.” 

“That’s true...” 

Liscia and I both wracked our brains, but we came to no conclusion. 

“Well, there’s not much point in us thinking about it here,” I said at last. “Getting back to the topic of the Nine-Headed Dragon katana, the katanas from my world were incredibly sharp, but they had the drawback that they couldn’t stand up to impacts and would break or warp easily,” I said. “But in this world, there’s enchantment magic, right? That’s how this katana is sturdy enough to stand up to trading blows for a while.” 

“That would make it the best in its class as a sword blade, yeah,” said Liscia. “But, well... that’s only for the blade itself.” 

“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked. 

“We don’t fight on the strength of our weapons alone. Everyone in this world can use magic to a greater or lesser degree, and most of us use fire, water, earth, or wind elemental magic. When it comes to a fight, we can wreathe our blades with those elements, too.” 

Oh, I’ve seen that, I thought. I recalled Aisha having used wind magic to increase the cutting power and attack range of her greatsword, while Hal had used fire magic to make his weapon explode when thrown at the enemy. 

“That’s why the cutting ability of the weapon itself isn’t so important,” said Liscia. “Though, that said, I’m sure that in a battle on the seas, where everything but water elemental magic is harder to use, these would be the strongest. The main way people from the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago fight at sea is to close in quickly and board their enemies, like pirates.” 

“Hmm... It’s a weapon suited to a maritime nation, huh...” While listening to Liscia’s explanation, I looked closely at the blade of the katana. “But... I would like to get my hands on these smithing techniques.” 

“Huh? Didn’t I just tell you it’s largely meaningless?” she asked. 

“For weapons, yes. But there are a lot of other uses for sharp blades, aren’t there?” 

If we mass-produced knives with a good, sharp edge, I was sure the chefs would be able to produce more delicate and tasty dishes. If we had sharper tools, we might be able to use them to produce even better tools. Then there were medical applications, like scalpels. I thought that might be the most urgent. In surgery, the sharper the tools used, the less stress would be put on the patient’s body. 

It was a technique with all these applications. I wanted it badly. 

“Technically, I have people researching it here, too, but... it seems like that’s gonna take a while,” I said. 

When it came to Japanese swords, I knew that they heated and folded the iron and hit it. That was the sort of rough general knowledge I had. Tamahagane or hihi’irokane; which was the one that actually existed again? With this level of knowledge, there was no way I was going to be able to recreate the Japanese sword. 

“If we just had diplomatic relations with them, I’d pay a good amount for them to transfer knowledge of those techniques to us...” I pondered. 

“Which is why you’re wondering what the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union is thinking?” she asked. 

“Exactly.” 

“It sounds like a hard problem to solve,” Liscia said. 

She could say that again. Amidonia had had a clear intent to invade, and I had made the decision to fight them because we’d been in a situation that forced us to, but I couldn’t keep this country intact if we were fighting wars with our neighbors year in and year out. I wanted to open diplomatic relations if only to avoid an unnecessary confrontation. 

“Well, anyway,” I said at last, “we need to develop techniques of our own that other countries won’t have. Technology and scholarship will build an unshakable base for the country.” 

“That sounds reasonable, but do you have any specific ideas?” Liscia asked. 

“Techniques are created by people,” I said. “That’s why we have no choice but to go after anyone who might have those techniques. I have just the person in mind, too.” 

“Just the right person?” Liscia asked, looking at me dubiously. 

I nodded. “Ludwin was telling us about it a while back, remember? He said there’s a mad scientist in the Forbidden Army. I think I’ll have him follow through with his promise to introduce us sometime.” 

Then, just as we were talking about that, there was a knock and the office door opened, with Ludwin himself rushing through the door. 

He suddenly got down on the floor, lowering his head to the point it was almost touching the ground. It wasn’t quite a formal kowtow, but it was pretty close. 

“Your Majesty! I am so sorry!” he suddenly burst out. 

In response, Liscia and I opened our eyes wide and spoke simultaneously. 

“What are you suddenly apologizing for?” I demanded. 

“Did something happen, Sir Ludwin?” she asked. 

Ludwin raised his face and spoke, carefully choosing his words. “Well, you see... an acquaintance of mine has gone and done something outrageous...” 

“Something outrageous?” I asked cautiously. 

Had something bad happened? Now, when I had finally sorted out the mountain of things that I had to do after being given the throne, was something going to happen again? I was starting to feel a little fed up with it all. 

Ludwin hesitantly asked, “Um... sire. Do you perhaps remember that I said there was a person I wanted you to meet?” 

“Hm? Ohh. Liscia and I were just talking about that,” I said. “The mad scientist you know, right? I’ve been wanting to meet them, but things have been so busy lately. Sorry I haven’t been able to find time.” 

“No, I completely understand that. It’s just...” 

Ludwin looked hesitant to speak at first, but he seemed to find his resolve and continued. 

“That acquaintance of mine happens to be the one responsible.” 

The Arcs fiefdom lay between the royal capital Parnam and the new coastal city Venetinova. 

This was the land ruled over by the Captain of the Royal Guard, Ludwin Arcs, who was head of the House of Arcs. Because Ludwin lived in the castle, he normally had a magistrate here who acted in his stead. 

When compared to the fiefs held by other members of the nobility and knighthood in this country, it was around medium-sized. Ludwin had distinguished himself in the recent war, so I had wanted to transfer him to a larger fief, but Ludwin had been very particular about his own domain, and had stubbornly refused. I didn’t see any reason to force the transfer, so I opted to expand the boundaries of his current fief to suit his preferences. 

Liscia, Ludwin, and I had come to the Arcs fiefdom in a gondola carried by one of the royal house’s wyverns. We had come to verify the facts of what Ludwin had told us some days earlier. 

“Was it okay to leave Aisha behind like that?” Liscia asked. 

“Well, we’ve got Ludwin here, after all,” I said. 

I hadn’t brought a bodyguard on this outing. Aisha had been concerned and made a fuss about it, but with the Captain of the Royal Guard around, I figured it would be fine. Besides... I wanted to keep this quiet, so the fewer people involved, the better. 

From the air, the Arcs fiefdom had been stained in fall colors by the leaves that had fallen from the trees. There were a lot of fields and pastures, too, so the scenery that spread out before us had a feeling of tranquility to it. 

This was just based on my own senses, but this continent, which was a bit larger than China had been in the Three Kingdoms Period, had a considerable difference in its climate between the north and the south. 

The further north you went, the hotter, and the further south you went, the colder it became. That was true even within this country, and in the southernmost reaches, the snow had already begun to fly. The Arcs fiefdom, being more to the north, was still experiencing a temperate autumn climate. 

“Wish we could just take it easy and have a picnic or something,” I grumbled. 

“I know the feeling, really I do, but we’ll do it another time, okay?” Liscia gently rebuked me. “We came here today for a reason, didn’t we?” 

“I know that, but, hey, it’s such a nice day out...” 

“Ah, this is it, sire,” Ludwin interrupted. “Please, take us down here.” 

Dungeons. 

These labyrinthine places had their own unique and mysterious ecology. 

They were also the one place where monsters had been confirmed to exist before the coming of the Demon Lord. 

When I had been using my Little Musashibos to play at being an adventurer, I had heard about them from Dece, Juno, and the other members of their party. But the one they had told me about had been a cave, like you would imagine. I hadn’t heard anything about this sort of clearly artificial entrance. 

I presented my doubts, but apparently dungeons came in many forms. 

“There are all sorts of different dungeons,” Liscia explained. “They appear everywhere from the plains to the forest to the mountains, and even to the depths of the sea. They can be like caves inside, or paved with stone like the basement of a castle, or even a bizarre space with metal walls.” 

I vaguely recalled that the jewels we used for the Jewel Voice Broadcast had come from inside a dungeon. I’d heard of other such pieces of over-technology coming out of dungeons, too, so it wasn’t strange to find a dungeon itself was made out of over-technology... maybe? 

“Hey, wait. How did people even discover undersea dungeons?” I asked. 

Liscia said, “There are races that work underwater, and some of the undersea dungeons have air inside, so in those cases, people go down to them inside these big bell-like things.” 

Oh, a diving bell, huh? That was a sort of diving machine shaped like a bell that you continuously pumped air into as it sank. I only knew them from manga, but... I kind of wanted to try riding in one. 

“Well, are there any monsters in this dungeon, then?” I asked. 

Ludwin shook his head. “No. You could call this a ruined dungeon. The monsters and creatures inside have long since been exterminated.” 

“It’s already been cleared, you mean?” I asked. 

“Yes. And now, this is where a person from the House of Maxwell, a family of eccentrics that were given the rights to this ruined dungeon and turned it into a laboratory, currently lives.” 

Ludwin turned and spoke into a metal tube next to the entrance. 

“Genia! It’s me! Ludwin Arcs! You rarely go outside, so I doubt you’re not there, so respond if you are!” 

It must have been a speaking tube he was shouting into. They’d had them on the battleship Albert, too. And wait, was this person he was calling a shut-in, I wondered? This person called Genia (based on that name, was she a girl, maybe?). 

Coming from the speaking tube... 

Bang, crash! ...there was a sound of something falling over, followed by a young woman’s voice. 

“Ow... Hey, Big Brother Luu. What’s up?” 

“No, not ‘What’s up?’” Ludwin shot back. “There was a pretty loud crash just now. Are you okay?” 

“I was surprised when you suddenly called out to me, so I accidentally knocked some stuff over,” Genia said. “Well, it wasn’t dangerous chemicals, so it’s all good.” 

“It’s not good at all,” Ludwin said. “You’re always doing this...” 

“Ahaha, getting lectured through a speaking tube is kind of a fresh experience.” 

Faced with a voice that showed no sign of regret whatsoever, Ludwin’s shoulders slumped. I felt like I could tell how their relationship worked just from what I’d seen here. One did crazy things and the other chased after her. 

Ludwin shook his head and tried to get back on track. “Anyway, I’ve brought some important guests to see the place today. Let us in.” 

“Important?” Genia asked. “Okay. I’m opening it up now.” 

The closed shutter began to rise on its own. Was it switch-operated, maybe? It felt more and more out of place in this world. 

When the shutter had opened fully, there was a set of stairs leading down underground. It seemed this garage really was just the entrance. With no regard for my surprise, this Genia person said in a cheery, singsong voice, “Okay, Luu, and my guests, too, come on in.”

We descended the stairs into the underground and soon came to an open space. 

From what Ludwin had told me, this wasn’t a particularly huge dungeon. It was like a large six or seven floor building, only buried underground. What was more, the House of Maxwell who owned this dungeon had taken out all the walls and floors between levels to secure more space, so it was just one big rectangular space now. 

The massive staircase that stretched out along the walls of that massive space felt like being at the edge of a sheer cliff face, and it was pretty scary. I wished they had at least put in railings. 

The walls also seemed to be made of metal. Liscia had described dungeons like this as “bizarre spaces with metal walls,” but to me, it was like being inside a futuristic spaceship. The metal walls seemed to give off a faint light. The way that it wasn’t dark, even though we were underground, felt futuristic, too. 

Internally, I was shocked to see this incongruously advanced technology, but Liscia and Ludwin didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Apparently the two of them thought the walls were shining because of magic or something like that. Because magic could do anything, perhaps the people of this world didn’t have much of a sense of wonder. 

As we descended the stairs, I asked about the House of Maxwell. 

“The Maxwells were the noble house that originally ruled over this area,” Liscia explained. “It must be in their blood, because the House of Maxwell has produced many great researchers, and it’s said that they have greatly raised the level of this country’s civilization. They’re particularly well recognized for their analysis of technologies discovered in dungeons. It was the Maxwells who discovered how to use simple receivers for the Jewel Voice Broadcast.” 

Wow... I thought. So it was the Maxwells who discovered how to use those simple receivers, huh? 

“Wait, huh?” I burst out. “I think they’re using them in the Empire, too, aren’t they?” 

“It was a fairly long time ago, after all,” Liscia said. “One king a number of generations ago sold the knowledge to various foreign powers.” 

“Hmm... Well, it’s hard for me to say that was a bad move, I guess,” I said. 

It was scary to see cutting edge technology leak out, but if the technology would have little effect and someone else was going to discover it eventually, selling the knowledge while it was still worth something might be okay, maybe. That, or exchanging it for knowledge of something else. 

“For that achievement, they were given this ruined dungeon and the land around it to rule,” Ludwin said. “However, the Maxwells, passionate as they were about their research, showed no interest in managing the land. With the understanding of the royal family, they delegated management of the land to us, their neighbors in the House of Arcs. Half of what they earn from the land is given to the House of Arcs, while the other half goes to supporting their lifestyle and funding their research. That’s the system that we adopted.” 

“That’s... pretty amazing, in a way,” I said. Managing the lands of their fief was a noble’s duty. To think they were neglecting that to spend their days on nothing but research... “But, wait, isn’t the House of Arcs losing out on that deal?” 

“Because the House of Maxwell’s contributions were so great, it was allowed,” Ludwin said. “Besides, if their research brings us new knowledge, the country will prosper even more. Though, that said, as the times have gone by, the Maxwells’ lands have been incorporated into the Arcs fiefdom, and now we’re treated as their patrons.” 

Basically, while their house had been allowed to continue, their lands had been reduced to just this dungeon. And the House of Maxwell was being supported financially by the House of Arcs. 

“...Huh? You’re the head of the House of Arcs, aren’t you?” I asked. 

“Yes. I am.” 

“And this Genia person is the only one here?” I asked. 

“Yes. Genia Maxwell. At present, she is the last of the Maxwells.” 

“In other words, right now, you’re paying to support this Genia, right?” 

“Urkh...” 

When I asked him that, Ludwin was at a loss for words. That was when I remembered those rumors that maybe Ludwin was facing financial difficulties. 

“Don’t tell me, the reason you eat the cheapest bun the cafeteria has to offer is...” I said slowly. 

“...Genia is five years younger than me, and we were raised like brother and sister,” Ludwin began with a far off look in his eyes. “The amount of support to be paid to the House of Maxwell is set at a fixed rate, but, well... Both my parents and Genia’s have already passed away... That makes each of us like the only relative the other has left... and, well... I’m a sucker when it comes to things my little sister asks for, and I can’t help but draw from my own salary, too...” 

I was speechless. 

I clapped Ludwin on the shoulder.

When we reached the bottom, I finally got a grasp of the scale of this space. 

Up until that point, while the walls had been emitting light, the center of the space had been dark, and I hadn’t been able to see. Here at the bottom the floor also glowed with the same faint light, so I could tell that the space was split up with the same sort of cloth dividers you would see at a construction site. 

First, there was one massive divider that split the space into two halves. 

In the remaining space, there was one medium-sized area that had been divided off, a number of box-like objects with cloth over top of them, and a (two floor) log house. 

I wondered what was behind the massive divider, but seeing a house that looked like it belonged in a forest here inside this metal space, it looked like a joke. That house had probably been the living space (and experimenting space?) of the owners of this dungeon, the House of Maxwell. 

Ludwin knocked on the door to it. “Genia, it’s me. I’ve brought guests, so please open up.” 

When Ludwin called out, a vapid sounding voice responded. “Okie-dokie. I’m opening it nooooow.” 

Then the door opened, and out came a woman in her early twenties wearing a wrinkled lab coat. She looked a bit underfed, but she had regular features, and if she had taken proper care of herself, she would probably have been reasonably beautiful. However, her clearly unkempt semi-long hair ruined it. 

This, I presumed, was Genia Maxwell. The small, round glasses resting on the bridge of her nose looked just like what I’d expect a researcher to be wearing. 

“Hey, Luu,” Genia smiled. “Glad you’re here. ...Who’re they?” She tilted her head to the side. 

Seeing her reaction, Ludwin hastily bowed his head in apology. “H-Hey, you’re being rude! I-I’m terribly sorry, sire, princess! Genia! This is His Majesty King Souma and Princess Liscia!” 

“Oh, hey... you’re right,” Genia said. “That’s the face I’m used to seeing on the Jewel Voice Broadcast.” 

In contrast to Ludwin’s panic, Genia seemed relaxed. She lifted up the hem of her lab coat as if it were a dress and curtsied to us. “We haven’t met before, Your Majesty. My name is Genia Maxwell. Welcome to my messy home.” 

I couldn’t tell if she was being respectful with that greeting or not, but she didn’t seem to be trying to insult us, at least. She was a little off, but this was probably her doing her best at being respectful. 

I introduced myself. “I am the (provisional) King of Elfrieden, Souma Kazuya. This is my fiancée, Liscia.” 

“I’m Liscia Elfrieden,” Liscia said. 

“Hee hee! I am aware,” giggled Genia. “I do humbly note my pleasure to find you in good health.” 

Ludwin buried his face in his hands, unable to watch. Her attempt at polite language was so bad, she came off like a clown. 

“If you’re not used to it, there’s no need to stand on formality,” I said. “We’re the ones who dropped in unannounced. Feel free to talk whatever way is easiest for you.” 

“Y’sure? Well, that’s what I’m gonna do, then.” 

“G-Genia!” Ludwin exclaimed. 

Ludwin started to protest at Genia’s sudden shift to a more easygoing tone, but I held up a hand to stop him. “It’s fine. We’re the only ones here.” 

“B-But... when you consider why we came here...” Ludwin stuttered. 

“Oh, we can leave that for later,” I said. “In the short time we’ve talked, I’ve more or less become convinced that she’s not the type to be plotting anything nefarious. Before that, I think I’m more interested in hearing more about her.” 

“I-I see...” Ludwin seemed deflated. 

Genia chuckled. “Well, no point standing at the door all day. Come in! Even in a house like this, I can at least serve coffee.” 

Dungeon cores. 

They were said to be the most important part of a dungeon, maintaining the unique ecology of the labyrinth from its deepest level. 

I say they were said to be, because it was just someone’s deduction. 

If these dungeon cores were destroyed or stopped, the environment inside the dungeon (the temperature, the humidity, and more) and its ecology would collapse, turning it into a ruined dungeon. While wild creatures might come from outside to live in a ruined dungeon, no more monsters would appear after that point, so it was assumed that these cores were central to a dungeon’s function. 

Incidentally, the adventurers of this world made their living exploring dungeons, but their ultimate goal was to clear the dungeons by stopping these cores. 

As I had just heard, dungeon cores were used as Jewel Voice Broadcast jewels. If they brought them back, they could sell them to the state for fame and an immense fortune. However, it tended to be that the closer they got to the lowest point of the dungeon, the more powerful the monsters that appeared. Across the whole continent, it was only every few years, or decades, that a dungeon would be cleared. 

That was why ordinary adventurers like Dece and Juno made their living protecting merchants and caravans from bandits and wild beasts, or killing monsters that came out of dungeons or the Demon Lord’s Domain. Even if adventurers occasionally went dungeon delving, most did it to sell materials from the monsters they defeated there, or to sell off the artifacts they might, on rare occasions, find. (There was nothing convenient, like treasure chests.) 

Let’s get back to talking about dungeon cores. 

Until a dungeon core was stopped, it would continue to give birth to fierce monsters from somewhere. To this point, no one had ever brought back a core without stopping it. That was because no one wanted to see the surface end up full of monsters as a result of bringing back a working core against all common sense. 

In other words, dungeon cores had only ever been studied in a broken state. 

In my earlier cell phone example, it would be like the person playing with it had somehow managed to fix just the camera function and were using it for that. In that case, you might think it would be a good idea to research them and search for other functions they might have, but... Here’s something to consider. 

Cell phones don’t spit out monsters. 

If you knew that the cell phone had a self-destruct function that would blow away everything around it, would you want to search for any other features it had? 

That was one of the reasons why research on dungeon cores hadn’t advanced. 

“Though, with the level of technology in this world, restarting a dungeon core once it’s been stopped is impossible,” Genia said. “I mean, we don’t even know how it worked in the first place.” Genia shrugged, looking down into her mug. “I can understand why people would want to explain it with magic, I guess. It’s fear of the unknown. It’s scary to have something exist that you can’t see or explain, so people try to force an explanation in order to grasp and understand it. ...No, just to feel they understand it, maybe?” 

“That’s why they make it the work of magic or miracles,” I said. 

“Precisely! Oh, I’m glad our king is the understanding sort,” said Genia. “If this had been the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State, I could have been thrown in jail or, worse, burned at the stake for talking like this.” 

“Burned at the stake...” I thought she must be exaggerating, but Genia looked absolutely serious. 

“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 ‘overscience.’” 

“Overscience...” 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 overscience, refer to ourselves as overscientists.” 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. 

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.