39 - Chapter 35: Magic Theory by an SF Otaku and the Fall of Adra Fort
Sirius-san "Oh please, I won't be fooled again."
Now, the Three Idiots had been ordered to remain in confinement until the schedule, which had been bogged down by Dusk, was resolved, but they had been given permission to do as they pleased as long as they did not leave the Imperial Capital. Therefore, from the next day, they set about renovating... no, extensively remodeling their base.
The original was a large mansion, and even with just the three of them, it had been quite a lot to handle. Now that Latia and the others had joined and the number of people had doubled, there was still plenty of capacity, but some problems had arisen regarding usability.
That is to say, until now it had been three men... actually, three middle-aged men, so they hadn't cared much, but if they were to live with young maidens, there were various things they had to be mindful of, such as the baths and toilets.
Therefore, they decided to use their free time to remodel the mansion. Later, who had experience working part-time in civil engineering and equipment installation in his previous life, took the lead on the facilities. Marianne, who had connections to her family's trading company, handled the procurement and interior design. Geoglyph divided his roles, including meetings with nobles assigned by Dusk. The other three formed a party and took on beginner requests to get used to being adventurers.
After spending a few days like this, one day, when Geoglyph returned to the base after finishing his meetings with the nobles, he found Later inspecting materials that had been brought into the garden.
"Oh. Welcome back. I've moved the iron that Sensei ordered over there."
"Sorry, Ray. Thanks for sorting it out for me."
"Well, I'm leaving the tedious stuff to you, so it's fine. Still, this amount... are you planning to build a battleship?"
Later gave a wry smile as he looked at the iron ingots piled up into a small mountain, and Geoglyph shrugged while collecting them with storage magic.
"No, no, it's not even close to 46cm triple gun turrets yet."
"Sorry, I'm the one who brought it up, but I don't get the reference."
For the record, he was referring to the main guns mounted on Yamato-class battleships. These triple gun turrets, which grouped three of the world's largest 46cm guns, weighed 2,500 tons per unit. Considering that the average displacement of a destroyer at the time was around 2,000 tons, a Yamato-class battleship, which carried three of these, was carrying the weight of three destroyers.
"Including the amount I've secured in storage, I'd say it's over 1,000 tons. Roughly the weight of one light destroyer from the old Imperial Japanese Navy."
"I don't know much about ships, but that's 100 fully loaded 10-ton trucks. When you think about it that way, storage magic is incredible."
"Right? Starting with magic, there's barrier arts, healing arts, summoning arts, spirit arts, and various others. The laws of mana (magic) are a mysterious thing."
Geoglyph nodded to Later, who was converting the values into a field he understood.
In fact, despite having a large amount of mana, he still couldn't see the upper limit of storage magic. To begin with, users of storage magic themselves are rare, making comparisons difficult, but from what he'd heard from other users he'd met, they could usually hold about the size of one container house, and those who bragged about it could hold about the size of a 25m pool.
Despite using the same magic, why was there such a difference? This was the starting point for Geoglyph as a researcher.
"So? What do you plan to do with that mountain of iron? Are you seriously planning to make a flying battleship?"
"I'm considering it for the end goal. You know, in RPGs, isn't the means of transportation in the late game usually a flying vehicle? Romance is important, very important."
"Ah, like balloons or flying beds?"
"Ray, you're on that side. I'm more of a Blackjack type."
Even elementary school students of that time were divided on whether they preferred Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. Well, those from wealthy families probably followed both, and others borrowed cassettes from friends.
"Well, it's for the romance, so I want to make it and I'll make it eventually, but that's still a long way off. Right now, I'm at the verification stage."
"Verification? Of what?"
"Mana."
Geoglyph said, raising his index finger.
"I've formed a hypothesis to some extent. Actually, it's thanks to Ray."
"Me?"
"To be precise, this."
He pointed to the dull-colored bangle, the Holy Scripture, on Later's right arm.
"No matter how you look at it, it ignores the law of conservation of mass. People of this world just brush it off because it's a magic tool, but from the perspective of the physical laws of my previous life, it's strange, right?"
"I guess so, but isn't that just because it's another world?"
To the tilting head of Later, Geoglyph put his hand forward, saying that he thought so at first too.
"This world, if you leave out the mana, is based on the previous world... or rather, Earth. From physical laws to the evolution of biological organisms, and even the orbital period of the planet. If anything, it feels like mana was bolted on to something like the Mesozoic era of the previous world."
"...So you mean, this world is a parallel world of Earth?"
As a result of repeated considerations and experiments, he realized that the scientific technology of his previous life... and by extension, all academic disciplines, led by physics, were applicable. Despite being a different world, or a different planet.
For example, in his previous life, Mars. It is the only planet in the solar system where human migration is considered possible, but even so, its gravity is 38% of Earth's, and its size is only half of Earth's. Its orbital period is 687 days, and a day is 24 hours and 37 minutes.
Turning to this other world... this planet that probably hasn't even been named yet, how is it?
As can be imagined from the fact that Earth's academic knowledge is applicable, it is exactly the same as Earth.
When he noticed this abnormality, Geoglyph shuddered. Could a celestial body with the exact same gravity, orbital period, and rotation speed really exist? At least, similar environments exist. But a planet with the exact same environment had not been discovered, at least until he died in his previous life.
In other words, he came to think that the base was Earth, and from there, it was a world that had been correctly magic-modified and derived.
"Well, there's no point in considering what kind of world Goddess Refill prepared, and I have a feeling she just did it on a whim."
"That goddess girl, despite having a corrective attribute, smelled a bit like a klutz."
He felt as if the disappointing goddess sneezed somewhere, but he ignored it.
"Now, here is the problem. It's all well and good that an impurity called mana entered, but how do you think biological organisms deal with it?"
"I mean, isn't it just evolution?"
"If you think logically, yes. I think monsters that drop magic stones are species that evolved that way. The vortex of mana during combat is most concentrated there, and it remains even after death, so for magic beasts, the magic stone is probably a mana control device."
The magic stones that monsters possess in their bodies vary by species. Some species have them near the heart, while others have them in the head.
"Then, what about the humanoid types that use magic? Humans, beastmen, elves, dwarves, and demons... do they have magic stones?"
"No, at least humans don't."
Later had also participated in hunting bandits to defend the village. Therefore, he had killed people, and since leaving corpses would be a source of plague, he had burned the bodies of bandits. At the very least, no magic stones ever came out of those ashes.
"Beastmen and elves don't have them either. Mahora and Ferdina also cremate bodies as a plague measure, but they say no magic stones come out."
"Sensei, you were researching that?"
"I don't know about dwarves or demons because I haven't met them yet, but since beastmen and elves are like that, I think it will probably be the same result. If that's the case... where on earth are we controlling magic?"
"Well, maybe a new organ or..."
"At least humans don't have one. A long time ago, as part of my knight order's training, I dissected several bandits, and they were no different from the textbooks of my previous life."
"Eee..."
"Don't be so repulsed. You build up a tolerance for gore, and the main enemies of the knight order are other humans. To understand where they are weak and where they are strong, or the range of motion of the human body, muscles, and nerves, dismantling them is the fastest way. It's what you call reverse engineering."
"How can there be such a bloody reverse engineering!"
"Well, anyway, at least humans have no special organ that governs mana. So the mystery deepens. The method of mana control."
There are species and individuals among monsters that use magic. But that is probably derived from the magic stone. Humanoids can also use magic. But without a magic stone.
Where is the commonality? What is this difference?
As a result of steadily researching in that way, Geoglyph said he arrived at one hypothesis by investigating the composition of magic stones. To him, who said that mountain of iron was for that experiment, Later asked.
"Hmm... so, in the end, what is that hypothesis?"
"Ah, that is..."
Upon hearing Geoglyph's hypothesis, Later would reconfirm that this guy really is an SF otaku.
●
Jake's job for the day was, unexpectedly, lookout duty.
The Rafal squad, belonging to the Second Knight Order of the Triad territory army, was stationed at Adra Fort, built at the entrance of the Cazzo Plains, and Jake, its vice-captain, had also been stuck at Adra Fort for the past few weeks. Normally, replacement personnel would come every week, but apparently, beyond Adra Fort... that is, the Kingdom of Karim, the movements of the Kessel frontier territory were suspicious, and internally, they were in a state of high alert. Not just here, but all adjacent borderlines were being watched, and since they had to be prepared for any eventuality, it seemed they couldn't send replacement personnel.
The members with wives and children were lamenting greatly, but for Jake, it was relatively unimportant.
He was 24 years old. Single, no girlfriend. With short-cropped blond hair, a rugged mask, and a body trained as a soldier, he was relatively popular with women, and he himself had made some moves, but regardless, his affiliation was bad.
Since the Second Knight Order's main mission was border security, they were on patrol all year round. He had secured a residence in the downtown area of the Triad capital, but he was away for half the year.
As a result, even if he made a girlfriend, he suffered miserable experiences such as being cheated on or stolen away, and he was still single. Now, since various things were a hassle, he only associated with professional women with no lingering attachments.
His job today was lookout duty, something a rookie would do. At the very least, it wasn't the job of a vice-captain. However, there were no replacement personnel, and they had been stuck here for a while. They were doing it on a rotation, but there was a limit, so he thought he should take over.
Of course, that was the same for Jake as an assistant manager.
To be honest, he was bored with desk work, so he made up a suitable reason and escaped. His head was tired, so he wanted to lose himself in physical labor as a change of pace. When he returned, the paperwork would probably have doubled, but humans sometimes need escapism from reality.
"How is it?"
As he was gazing vacantly at the border from the fort's parapet, a voice came from behind. Internally thinking 'geh', Jake turned around. As expected, the red-haired giant... the captain, Rafal, was there.
"It's peaceful. Are they really coming?"
"Lord Radglyph seems to predict so. It's better to be cautious."
Jake wondered if he would be scolded, but Rafal didn't mention it. Probably, he too had escaped from desk work under the guise of a patrol. They both had personalities that felt more relaxed when moving their bodies.
"Come to think of it, did the captain participate in the war 16 years ago?"
"Yeah, I was still a recruit back then."
"I've heard our army was overwhelming... but how was it actually?"
"After Lord Radglyph went to battle, it was mostly as the rumors said... no, the rumors were actually more subdued."
16 years ago, at the Battle of the Cazzo Plains, the one who achieved the greatest military merit on the Empire's side was Radglyph Triad.
As for the achievements sung by bards, it is said that he defeated thousands of enemy soldiers with magic single-handedly and then won 18 consecutive duels.
However, Rafal, who was there, knew. About 5,000 enemy soldiers were able to die instantly from the great fire magic unleashed by Radglyph, and the number of those who died later from severe burns, suffering from airway burns, kidney failure, sepsis, and multi-organ failure, amounted to several times that number.
Even now, the scene was burned into his eyes to the extent that Rafal would choke a little whenever he smelled fire.
"Lately, Lord Geoglyph is a bit eccentric... rather, crazy... no, peculiar..."
"It's easier to just say he's out of his mind."
At Jake's candid way of speaking, Rafal gave a wry smile, saying that Lord Geoglyph is a member of the lord's family, after all.
"Anyway, he's called a once-in-a-generation genius magician, but before he was called that, that was Lord Radglyph's title."
Radglyph, who held various aliases such as the Crimson Archmage, Vermillion Rad, and the Flame Demon, was certainly a hero that the Leonesta Empire boasted.
But...
"But before Lord Radglyph went to battle, the war situation was exactly as you feared."
At the feet of a hero, there are many corpses. That applies regardless of whether they are friend or foe.
"It was barely holding on. Naturally, my peers, and many of my seniors, died. Honestly, I thought I never wanted to go to war again."
"I see..."
At that time, it was just after the previous head... Redglyph, had died of illness, and Radglyph had just become the head. Despite that, since the main battlefield was the Triad territory, he was chased by negotiations with the Imperial army and nobles from all over. Therefore, the timing of the maximum force deployment of the Triad territory army was delayed.
They were ordered to buy time until Radglyph arrived, risking their lives.
"War really is the worst. I want to get promoted quickly and be a window-seat general in a safe rear area."
"Hahaha. With your skill with a bow, you'll be able to get promoted eventually. In fact, there was an inquiry about scouting you from the Alvaresta Horse Archers."
"...Huh?"
At Rafal's muttered words, a blank space formed in Jake's mind.
The Alvaresta Horse Archers. A unit of the First Knight Order, an elite unit where bow specialists gather. The longed-for duty in the capital. An inquiry about scouting for such a star role. Who. Me.
Chewing on the fragments of information inserted into that blank space, Jake shouted.
"Eh? Wait a minute! I haven't heard anything about that!?"
"Yeah, I declined it using my captain's authority."
"Wait! Crushing a subordinate's promotion makes you the worst boss ever!"
"No, it's because you're bad at riding horses."
"Ugh...! You hit a sore spot...!"
When Rafal told him that despite being the vice-captain, he was still bad at handling horses no matter how much time passed, even Jake had nothing to say.
As the name Alvaresta Horse Archers suggests, it is a unit that utilizes high-speed movement on horseback and the long range of the bow. Naturally, even Jake understood that it would be out of the question if he wasn't proficient in horse riding as well as archery.
"Well, actually, I've put it on hold. I intended to recommend you once you could at least ride a horse properly. That's why I've been putting horse riding in the training every now and then."
"A-Ah, so that wasn't harassment... I thought it was unusually frequent just for me..."
"If I let you go as you are, both you and I would be embarrassed, and if I used the scouting matter as bait, you'd get cocky... you're a difficult person to handle."
"I-I will devote myself to improvement..."
"Well, I thought it was about time to see some results..."
It was just after Rafal started to say that. In his gaze, which he had cast casually... toward the border, he noticed a cloud of dust.
"Hey, wait. Jake, do you see that...?"
Urged by Rafal, Jake narrowed his eyes. Being skilled with a bow, his eyesight was extraordinary.
"...That is..."
And because of that, he was the first to notice the despair rushing toward them.
"Earth Dragons... it's a herd of Earth Dragons...!!"
Two hours later... despite their desperate struggle, Adra Fort fell.
I'm out of stock, so the next update is undecided. If it was interesting, please leave your thoughts.