Translator Corner

Minasan oideyasu. This is Yukkuri demasu!

Ａｎｏｔｈｅｒ　ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ！

DISCLAIMER: There is no

guarantee that my translation is 100% correct. Please correct me if I was

wrong.

Author:

Dozeumaru(どぜう丸)

Translator:

Yukkuri Oniisan

Editor:

So-Chintzy

Enlightenment Arc

Chapter 3: The Core of CoReform E

Ginya led us in front of a

medium-sized part.i.tion screen. Actually, this part.i.tion screen was so big that

you needed to look up to see the top of it, but then again, I was more curious

about the huge tent that occupied half of this room……. Would she let me see

what was inside it?  Just as I was

thinking about this……

「Come

out, Golem.」(Ginya)

Ginya said these words and then,

from a part of the floor, that was exposed bare ground, the soil rose up and before

long, it turned into a pair of 3 meter tall giant humanoid figures. Those soil giants

walked clumsily. Yeah, they surely looked like clay puppet golems.

「Is

that Ginya’s magic?」 (Souma)

「Un. My magic is to

create and manipulate golems from the soil. It can’t do difficult tasks, but it

has power. It’s really handy to move things.」(Ginya)

「Manipulating

clay dolls…… It’s similar to my ability. Is it Dark Attribute?」(Souma)

「 No,

it's Earth Attribute. Since it can’t manipulate things other than the earth.

Manipulating dolls also can be categorized as gravity manipulation. I think

that the categorization of the four major attributes, along with the light and

darkness attributes, is just something that had been created subjectively, so

people could understand it easily/ I believe that in reality, the categorization

isn’t that strict.」(Ginya)

「 So

they really do believe in just about anything……」(Souma)

Ever since I came to this world, my

view of this world kept swaying. Even though it was an unknown mysterious

phenomenon from an Earthling’s point of view, for the people of this world, it

was something normal. I had thought that this was normal, but actually this could

be said as not necessarily normal. One must know one’s ignorance in order to

know about the unknown. From now on, there might be the need for me to question

everything.

「Well,

rather than that, this is the thing that I wanted you to see.」 (Ginya)

Ginya said that and the golems began

to remove the part.i.tion screen. The object that we saw behind that part.i.tion

wall made Liscia and I freeze in surprise. It was a really "incomprehensible

thing". What appeared in front of us was an object that was about the size

of a two-storied building. If I had to describe its shape in an easy to

understand way, then it would be:

「A

ridiculously big Dyson Fan?」 (Souma)

「Hmm?

What’s that?」(Liscia)

「Ah,

no…… It’s nothing.」(Souma)

Well, I could only see it as a

huge Dyson Fan. Just from its silhouette, the main body was shaped like a short

kokes.h.i.+[1],

but the top part was shaped like a ring. From a glance, its purpose was unknown

and it also looked like some kind of abstract art sculpture. However, I was

curious as to why only the base part was firmly fixed into the floor…… I then asked

Ginya.

「What

is th-……」 (Souma)

「It’s

『Susumu-kun(Mr Go Forward) · Mark V』.」[2] (Ginya)

What a lame name! …… Wait, Mark

V!?

「So

there are four more like this!?」(Souma)

「Wh-why

are you paying attention to that!?」(Liscia)

Although Liscia retorted, Ginya was

laughing loudly.

「Well,

the previous models were either blown away or exploded, so all the ones up until

Mark V have died.」 (Ginya)

「Is

it such a dangerous object!?」(Souma)

「Mark

V is alright. This is…… the finished product.」(Ginya)

After she mentioned that, Ginya

began to explain 『Susumu-kun · Mark V』.

「I

think you already know this, but the large s.h.i.+ps in this world are moved either

by harnessing wind power with sails or by being drawn by a huge thala.s.saur, right?

This 『Susumu-kun · Mark V 』 is an object that can replace that huge thala.s.saur. One

object has a force comparable to a large thala.s.saur, so if you attach this to

the bottom of the s.h.i.+p, it is possible to propel it.」 (Ginya)

「……!

You mean a propulsion device!」 (Souma)

“Just like a screw or a motor!”,

when she heard my remark, Ginya placed her hand on 『Susumu-kun

· Mark V』’s body with a smile.

「This

machine can inhale things that are in the s.p.a.ce in front of the ring and then expel

them to out behind it. If you operate this in the sea, then it will inhale the

seawater and expel it out from behind. This water pressure has enough propulsion

force to move an iron wars.h.i.+p.」 (Ginya)

So that means, there was

something like a screw in the middle of the ring’s empty s.p.a.ce.

「Hmm?

If it inhales thing in front of it, then what will happen if we use it right

now?」 (Souma)

「Oh, a

sharp one. On land, it will inhale the air and then expel it. Shall we have an

experiment?」(Ginya)

After she said that, Ginya ordered

the golems to prepare a huge cloth. And then, at a position 20 meters away from

us, the two golems stood up and spread the cloth like a movie screen.

「Let's

experiment to see how strong its power is. 『Susumu-kun

Mark V』 will inhale the air from our side and expel it towards

that side. Please witness its power!」 (Ginya)

「Oh, wait

a mo-……」 (Ludwin)

It seemed that Ludwin was trying

to stop her in a hurry, but Ginya didn’t care and 「press♪」. She

then pushed something like a switch, and at the next moment,

BOWAAAAAAAA------! !

With that loud noise, “we”

got blown away by the sudden gust of wind.

「Whoaaa!?」 (Souma)

「Kyaa!」 (Liscia)

「Ubya‼」 (Ginya)

「Againnnnn!

」(Ludwin)

Shaken by the sudden wind, with a

*don*, our backs. .h.i.t the wall. C-can

this be said as a kabedon?[3]……

Or rather, the wind pressure made me stick to the wall and I couldn’t move any

part of my body at all! Liscia and Ginya were in the same situation. Until Ludwin

crawled to approach the machine and pushed the same switch to stop it, we were

stuck to the wall like insect specimens.

After being released, Ginya made

a dry laugh.

「Ahaha……

Sorry, sorry. It seems that I have made a mistake in recognizing which

direction it was facing. Since I made its form as minimalist as possible to not

waste any material, it has the drawback that it is difficult to tell which way

it’s pointing at.」(Ginya)

「 If you already noticed this, then fix it already…… 」 (Souma)

Or rather, if the front was this

strong, then wouldn’t if we stood in the back, we would have gotten sucked into

the machine and then expelled forward? Isn’t that a ‘human cannon’? How scary!

「So

sorry, Your Majesty. In any case, do you understand the power of this 『Susumu-kun

· Mark V 』?」(Ginya)

「…… Literally,

with my own body.」(Souma)

I sarcastically said so, but it was

certainly an amazing device. If it wasn’t fixed firmly to the floor, the device

itself might have been blown aw-…… Ah so, perhaps that’s why all the ones until

Mark Ⅳ had exploded or were

"blown away"? When I comprehended that curious tidbit, Ginya was in

high spirits and explained about the mechanisms of this device.

「This

ring part is made from a special metal inscribed with modified energy warding enchantments.

It has an interesting history, this enchantment was originally a failed product

based on the 『Magic Negating Enchantment』

used by the Imperial Magic Armored Corps. Since the 『Magic

Warding Enchantment』 only could ward off magic and couldn’t stop the

magic, even if the Magic Armor Corps were fine, the soldiers in the rear lines would

still be damaged, so that research was discontinued.

I then noticed this failed enchantment.

If it can ward off magic, then surely it must interfere with the movement of

mana. Then, since there is mana in the air and water, if we could give it a direction,

then we can make something to inhale and expel it out. If we could compress

that expelling power, then couldn’t we create a propulsion device? …… Or so I

thought.

To move the mana in the air and

water is almost synonymous with moving the air and water itself. And then, after

making so that device will inhale mana and expel it if the modified enchantment

inscribed into the metal ring was provided with energy, and thus, this 『Susumu-kun

· Mark V』 was completed.」 (Ginya)

「 ……」(Souma)

Ginya fluently explained it, but since

she mentioned enchantment magic, I couldn’t judge the veracity of her explanation.

Oh well, since the experiment happened like Ginya had explained, what she said

was correct……. perhaps.

「Do you

understand it, Liscia?」(Ginya)

「Not

at all.」(Liscia)

It appears that this is difficult

to understand even for the people of this world. Ginya then smiled wryly.

「Well

it’s enough if you can understand what I had said before, that one unit of this

could work like one thala.s.saur.」(Ginya)

「…… But,

isn’t this thing is unnecessary?」(Ludwin)

The one who asked this was Ludwin,

who was greatly confused.

「First

of all, in order to make one of this, don’t you need quite a lot of money?」 (Ludwin)

「Un ...... Yeah, at

least enough to care for ten thala.s.saurs for ten years……」(Ginya)

「Then,

if one unit only could do one thala.s.saur’s share of work, isn’t this just a

great waste of money? Furthermore, it looks like this can’t make tight turns like

the thala.s.saur can.」 (Ludwin)

「 Wh-what are you saying, Lu-nii! Don’t you understand

what this invention will bring?」(Ginya)

「 Bring? 」(Ludwin)

Ludwin tilted his neck in

confusion, but I was of the same opinion with Ginya in this matter.

「Indeed,

this is a great invention. Ludwin.」(Souma)

「Your

Majesty, too?」(Ludwin)

「Try

to think about it, if one unit has the same power as one thala.s.saur, then with a

simple calculation, if we could gather ten units, then they could give a power

equal to ten thala.s.saurs, right?」(Souma)

「!?

That is certainly……」 (Ludwin)

Ludwin didn’t seem to really understand

this invention, so I explained it in an easy to understand manner.

「Well

then, is it possible in reality to harness ten thala.s.saurs? Isn’t the case of

the battles.h.i.+p Alberto being drawn by two thala.s.saurs already a rare case?」(Souma)

「That

is .... Yes, indeed, that’s true. Even if we harnessed ten thala.s.saurs, it is

impossible for all of them to abide to the same order. Even in the whole world,

people can only harness three at best?」(Ludwin)

「In

other words, even if the turning radius of the s.h.i.+p is limited, this device is

able to move even larger s.h.i.+ps than the present. For example…… Ah, that’s

right. Let’s try to construct a cargo s.h.i.+p with five of these installed on it.

There will be a revolution in the goods’ logistics.」 (Souma)

It would be possible to transport

a lot of goods on the sea at the same time. More than half of this country's

border faces the ocean. The construction of a new city as a hub for goods distribution

had also reached the final stage, and it would have a great impact if it could strengthen

our maritime transportation capacity.

「I-I

see……」(Ludwin)

Finally, it seemed that Ludwin

finally comprehended the amazingness of this invention. I then asked Ginya.

「You

said about sending energy a while ago, right? This is an amazing invention, but

what kind of the power source does it use?」(Souma)

Since I came to this world, not

to mention electricity, I had never even seen a single steam engine. A form of energy

that could move such a large mechanical device, was it magic power as I

expected?

「The

power source is built in, Your Majesty.」(Ginya)

Ginya said this as she took out a

lump-like thing from her white coat pocket and handed it to me. It was palm-sized,

but it felt a bit heavier than its appearance suggested (like when holding a

fis.h.i.+ng sinker), and looked like a pure black cuboid crystal.

「This

is?」(Souma)

「A crystal

that is commonly called as a 『Curse Ore』.」 (Ginya)

「You

mean that Curse Ore?」(Liscia)

When Liscia heard Ginya’s answer,

she demonstrated a noticeably strong reaction to it.

「You

know about this, Lisden!?」[4](Souma)

「Who

are you calling Lisden? …… In this world, we also use magic for mining ores. The

mines are dug with Water Magic, the tunnels are hardened with Earth Magic, the stale

air is exchanged with Wind Magic, and the metals are dissolved with Fire Magic.

However, magic couldn’t be used in the area surrounding these Curse Ores for

some reason. Furthermore, if you keep using magic, then……」 (Liscia)

Liscia made a gesture of bringing

her hands together and then rapidly opening them while saying, 「Boom」.

「Explosion!?

Isn’t an explosion in a mine really bad?」(Souma)

「Enough

to make the miners weep. If they dug a mine and then struck upon this ore, they

couldn’t dig further anymore. In this world, magic is thought of as a blessing from

the G.o.ds and Spirits, so this ore that makes magic unusable is a "cursed stone"

that doesn’t receive the blessings from the G.o.ds and Spirits…… hence why this is

called a Curse Ore. What more troublesome, is that it can be taken in large

amounts from underneath Elfrieden Kingdom’s land.」(Liscia)

Liscia said this self-deprecatingly.

In the first place, Elfrieden Kingdom was a country with poor mineral

resources, but it looks like it wasn’t only due to its featureless terrain. So

there are still a lot of things that I don’t know…… While I was thinking about

such things, Ginya made a daring smile.

「Cursed

Ore? Don’t say such a foolish thing. Rather, the fact that there are tons of

this ore buried underground, this country can be said as truly blessed by the

G.o.ds! 」(Ginya)

Ginya said with an exaggerated

reaction.

「If

we see it without the veil of mystery of it, calling it cursed is a stupid

story. The Curse Ore doesn’t make it so that magic can’t be used, but it instead

absorbs that energy. Try to think about it. You can’t use magic near the Curse

Ore, and if you try to use it anyway, it will explode. Where did that explosion

energy come from? Wouldn’t you naturally think: “because the ore absorbed the

magic energy, if it pa.s.sed its tolerance levels, it will explode”?」(Ginya)

Umm…… So in other words, the

Curse Ore is like a rechargeable battery and absorbs magic energy. Then if it

is charged too much, it will explode…… Why I feel an uneasiness? I guessed that

perhaps this was because we were seeing such an unimaginable thing right now. Particularly,

something that could completely undermine the order of things in this world.

And then Ginya made an outrageous

remark.

「And so

I succeeded in extracting the absorbed magic energy from the Curse Ore and then

using it as a power source for this device.」 (Ginya)

「Wha-!?」 (Souma)

With just that one sentence, it

sent a chill down my spine. If this was true, then it was really similar to a

rechargeable battery! Although there were many things that I still couldn’t

understand, but I realized the importance of the Curse Ore and Ginya who uncovered

that secret. For this world that had neither electricity nor steam engines, if

we could acquire a technology that could "store energy" ahead of the other

countries, this country will make a great leap forward. Then being able to "surpa.s.s

the Empire” would no longer be a dream.

But, at the same time, I felt the

danger of this technology. First of all, the Curse Ore was wrapped in superst.i.tions.

If they knew about the research on the Cursed Ore that doesn’t receive the

blessing from the G.o.ds, the people of this superst.i.tion-infested world might end

up to harboring distrust towards us. If it was only domestic, then depending on

the citizens’ enlightenment in the future, we could do something about it.

However, for example, a religious state like the Lunaria Orthodox Empire would surely

turn into our enemy. For a country ruled by the religious doctrine, something

that destroys that doctrine, (even if it was just the superst.i.tions surrounding

it), would mean the decline of their authority and power. They surely wouldn’t

allow this to happen.

Also, even for a country with low

level of faith, if they knew about our possession of this technology, they

would certainly say 「hand over it」. From Liscia’s words, the Curse Ore itself seems to

be buried in substantial amounts underneath this country. In the worst case, all

the neighboring countries might commence a resource war. Even though I was finally

able to create a secret alliance with the Empire and got rid of the Amidonian

threat, this country will be destroyed if such a situation happens. While this

technology had the potential to make this country be the number one country on

this continent, it also had the danger of ruining this country completely.

「Ugh……」(Souma)

「H-hey,

Souma!? What happened!?」(Liscia)

I staggered and then Liscia

supported me.

「…… Sorry.

I felt unwell with my high risk, high return imagination.」 (Souma)

「Imagination?」(Liscia)

I then talked to Liscia and the

other two about what I had thought just now. Liscia and Ludwin’s faces went pale.

Just like me, they felt the same dread. However, only Ginya didn’t show any

concern at all.

「Why are

you so worried about that? Isn’t it fine if you completely research it before

being targeted by another country and then become strong enough, so that other

countries couldn’t interfere?」(Ginya)

「……

That’s too optimistic, but there is no other way than that. Even so, for this

matter, there is a need to make progress in absolute secrecy……」(Souma)

If that was the case, what became

the biggest problem was Ginya's personality. She was now this country’s top important

figure like Tomoe-chan. Even in the unlikely event that the imagined scenarios happened,

we needed to prevent her from escaping or from being kidnapped by another

country, And so, I wanted to entrust her with trustworthy people inside the

country. The person herself seems to have a one-track mind of researching, but

she is still a woman in her mid-twenties. I wanted to avoid the situation where

she was being courted by a n.o.bleman who knew her importance.

――― So, it came to

this. I looked at the ikemen Royal Knights Commander.

「……

Hey, Ludwin?」 (Souma)

「Yes?  What is it, Your Majesty?」(Ludwin)

「Do

you like Ginya?」 (Souma)

☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽

Souma’s imagined scenario reminded me of the

so called “Resource Curse” and the fact that most modern global conflict were

partly ‘fueled’ by the necessity for modern countries to secure enough resource

for their industrial and war machines.

NEXT: MECHAG.o.dZILLA!