Chapter 2: The Kingdom's Secret Weapon part 2

“I want you to look at the back of their saddles,” I said. “They’ve got something attached there,” Castor noted, looking where
I’d told him. “Is it those rings?” If you looked closely, yes, on the back of the wyvern knights’ saddles
there were two rings; one on the left, and one on the right. I answered him while still looking up at the sky, “What you see there on
the back of their saddles is a miniaturized, light-weight version of the Little Susumu Mark V.” (The Maxwellian Propulsion Device.) “When equipped
with those, wyverns can fly faster and with a greater cruising range than ever before.” It had happened on the day when Ludwin took me to see Genia’s
dungeon laboratory. They’d shown me Genia’s inventions like the Little Susumu Mark V and Mechadra, and while I’d still had some concerns (especially about what I was going to do with Mechadra) on my way home, I had been confident that I’d found the key to bringing a revolution to this country. That was when a certain idea had occurred to me. “...Hey, Genia. Can this Little Susumu Mark V be mass-produced? Also,
could you make it smaller and lighter?” “Hm...” Genia answered after thinking for a little while. “It’s really an issue of whether I can secure a source for a certain special metal, but if that can be taken care of, mass production is possible. Now, as for miniaturization and making it lighter, you do realize the output will scale down with that, right?” Metal, huh? This had been before we’d absorbed Amidonia, so getting
that metal would have been difficult in light of the poverty of mineral resources in the kingdom...Genia tilted her head to the side quizzically and asked, “What were you going to use them for?” “Well, they suck in air and blow it back out, right? In that case, I was thinking we could fix them to the wyverns’ bellies, or maybe the back of their saddles.” “Oh?! I see! I hadn’t thought of using it like that!”There were three types of creature used in a manner similar to airplanes
in this world: wyverns, which were in wide usage; griffons, which only the
Empire had succeeded in breeding; and the dragons of the Star Dragon
Mountain Range. If I were to assign them a grade of S, A, B, or C to their
flight speed, turning, and cruising range, it would look like this:
[Wyvern] Flight Speed: B, Turning Ability: C, Cruising Range: A
[Griffon] Flight Speed: A, Turning Ability: S, Cruising Range: C
[Dragon] Flight Speed: S, Turning Ability: A, Cruising Range: S
...Well, more or less.
If you look at these stats, you can see that wyverns are like bombers,
able to fly long distance but not strong in a fight; and griffons are like
fighters, not able to fly long distances, but strong in a fight. The dragons
were strong in all categories, but they were far less numerous than the other
two, and they were sentient, so they couldn’t really be controlled. There
was apparently a country up north that had a contract with the dragons, but
they were an exception among exceptions.
In other words, though I wanted to avoid this at all costs, if we went to
war with the Empire, our wyvern cavalry would be no match for the
Empire’s griffon cavalry.
However, if we could make a miniaturized, light-weight version of
Genia’s propulsion device and attach it to them, what then? Wouldn’t it
raise everything except for their turning ability? If we could make it:
[Wyvern (With Propeller)] Flight Speed: B (S), Turning Ability: C (C-),
Cruising Range: A (S+)
Then, even if they couldn’t fight griffon cavalry in close combat, they
might be able to compete using a hit-and-run style of fighting. That was
what I was thinking.
That said, I hadn’t been able to secure a source of that special metal, so
the idea had had to go on hold for a time. However, with Roroa foisting
Amidonia on me later, things had changed.
Though Amidonia’s food self-sufficiency rate was low, it produced a
wealth of valuable mineral resources outside of just iron. That happened to
include the special metal.
With a stable supply of the necessary metal, I had once again asked
Genia to develop a miniaturized version of the Little Susumu Mark V that
the wyverns could be equipped with.
◇ ◇ ◇
“And so, she developed the Little Susumu Mark V Light,” I concluded.
The massive Little Susumu Mark V had been made smaller, lighter, and
able to be installed on the back of a wyvern’s saddle. The reason there were
two rings was that, with only one, it pulled in riders who got in front of it.
In order to prevent that, the rings were positioned to the left and right.
Incidentally, when they weren’t in use (when the rider wanted to focus on
tight turns, or the wyvern was flapping its wings itself), they could be
closed like clam shells. In contrast, when the device was in use (for highspeed, long-range flights), the wyvern could keep its wings fixed in the
open position, focusing only on creating lift.
With the invention of the Little Susumu Mark V Light, our country’s
wyverns were, as I had hoped, able to outmatch the Empire’s griffon
squadrons on everything except turning speed.
When he heard that explanation, the former General of the Air Force,
Castor, was deeply impressed. “It’s an incredible invention, yes, but...
couldn’t you have done something about that name?”
That was the one thing that disappointed him. I could relate.
“I did at least register it as the Lightweight Maxwellian Propulsion
Device,” I said.
“Yeah, I think that’s better.”
That was when I noticed Juna had a gloomy look on her face.
“Hey, what’s wrong, Juna?” I asked.
“Um... are you planning to fight the Empire, sire?” Juna asked
worriedly.
Oh... Having heard my explanation, maybe she would think that, huh. It
was true, I was using the Empire as my imaginary enemy when developing
weapons. You should always prepare for an enemy stronger than yourself,
after all. But...
“For as long as Empress Maria of the Gran Chaos Empire stays true to
her ideals and stands strong, I don’t think we’ll have a problem,” I said. “I
have no intention of fighting against the Empire as it exists now, either.”
“...You don’t?”
“Nope. But... no one knows what the future holds. There’s no guarantee
the Empire will stick to its current policies, and it’s possible that another
major power other than the Empire may someday rise up to face us. I don’t
want to take a naïve view of things, and then be left scrambling when that
time comes. That’s why, at all times, I need to assume the worst possible
scenario.”
For that, doing things that were like tearing down a stone bridge and
replacing it using the newest techniques was just about right. Machiavelli
said a prince must always be prepared for changes of fortune, after all.
“You’re assuming the worst possible scenario... I see,” Juna said, and
then said no more on the subject.
I was sure she was still feeling uneasy, but in the end, she trusted me.
Liscia and Aisha could be the same way sometimes. Roroa was the only
one who wouldn’t feel uneasy, and would actually help fuel me.
Honestly... they were all too good for me.
Castor asked, “Earlier, you said this was a testing ground for secret
weapons and types of troops, right? I understand the weapon part, but
what’s this about a secret type of troop?”
“If you want to know that, we’re going to need to walk a little further,” I
answered.
I started to walk, leading the group to our next stop. While we
progressed through the open field, the grass suddenly stopped, and the bare
ground was exposed. That spot where red clay had been laid down was like
sports ground. However, there were no bases for baseball, or goals for
soccer. The only things there were were two tents to ward off the sunlight,
and one anti-air repeating bolt thrower.
Inside the tent, the fox-eared mage who was now Ludwin’s second-incommand, Kaede Foxia, was deep in conversation with a bunch of people
who looked like researchers and engineers.
When we approached, Kaede noticed us, too.
“Why, Your Majesty, and Duchess Excel, too. Welcome,” Kaede said
and greeted us with a smile.
“Long time no see,” I answered. “Have you guys been doing well?”
“Yes. Hal and I are both doing well, you know. Oh? Is the princess not
with you today?”
“Yeah... This lady here is my partner for today,” I said to her in a
whisper, putting my hand on Juna’s lower back and giving her a little push.
Juna took a step forward, then gave Kaede a slight bow of her head. “It’s
nice to meet you. I am Juna Doma, formerly of the Navy.”
“Oh, my! You’re the Prima Lorelei, aren’t you?! I’m a fan, you know!
Please, let me shake your hand!” Kaede held Juna’s hand with both of her
own and shook it up and down. “I never would have known you were in the
Navy... Huh? Didn’t His Majesty just say you were his partner...?”
Kaede blinked rapidly, then looked at me.
I had said she was my partner, thinking it would be okay for Kaede to
know we were engaged, but it was a little embarrassing having to explain it
in my own words. When I looked, Juna had turned a little red, too.
“Um, er, well... That’s how it is,” I said at last.
“...I get it,” Kaede said. “So that’s how it is, huh?”
Looking at both our faces, Kaede, clever girl that she was, connected the
dots immediately.
Lowering her voice a little, she asked, “Since it hasn’t been announced
yet, I assume this is still a secret, right?”
“I’m glad you pick up on these things quickly,” I whispered back.
“Juna’s incredibly popular, after all.”
“Well, that’s true. I think riots might break out if you announced it now,
you know.” Kaede was wholly serious.
Well, I knew that, which was why I was trying to shift Juna’s popularity
away from that of an idol and into a singer for small children.
“Setting that aside, I’d like to show Excel and the others the new type of
troops,” I said.
“I see. In that case, we were just about to carry out a drill, you know.”
With that said, Kaede started giving orders to the nearby engineers. She
had them draw a double circle in the middle of the clay field using chalk.
Kaede then used her earth-type magic (gravity manipulation) to move the
anti-air repeating bolt thrower to the center of that circle. When Kaede
finished setting up the anti-air repeating bolt thrower, she came back to
where we were.
“Whew! That’s everything set up and ready to go, you know.”
“...Just what’re you about to start here?” Castor asked, and I pointed up
into the sky in response.
“If you look up, I think it will quickly become apparent,” I explained.
“Up?”
In the sky we looked up to, there was another formation of wyverns
flying by. Up to that point in the description, it was the same as what he had
seen before, but this time, the wyverns were carrying something in their
hind feet. (Wyverns, unlike dragons, and like birds, had wings instead of
front legs.) When the formation of wyverns passed over our heads, they
dropped whatever those things were in unison.
Those countless things that had been cast out were falling towards us in
a straight line.
The closer they got to the ground, the more their shape gradually
became apparent.
They were people. Countless people were falling. What was more, we
could tell they were all carrying weapons.
Then, just faintly, we heard their screams.
“Wahhhhhhhhhh!”
Halbert was there, mixed in with the screaming, falling people.
“H-Hey! They just threw away a bunch of people!” Castor shouted,
sounding panicked.
If you didn’t know what was up, that was the natural response, I guess.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Just watch.”
At nearly the exact moment I said that, round parachutes sprouted from
the backs of all the falling people. Suddenly, their speed of descent dropped.
The parachutes blossomed in the sky like white flowers, almost like we
were watching fireworks from a distance. Though, if they vanished like
fireworks, Hal and the others would be upside down.
Castor looked at the squad of parachuters, dumbfounded. “What
exactly... are those?”
“The equipment, you mean? Or the type of troop?” I asked.
“Both.”
“The equipment is called a parachute. When spread, it kills their speed
of descent, allowing for a safe landing. I went to the development team and
said, ‘Hey, this is a thing that exists,’ and I had them make them for me.
Now, as for the type of troop... They’re wyvern paratroopers. I call them
dratroopers.”
“Dratroopers?” Castor asked.
“They’re a type of troop that drop from the sky like that to surprise the
enemy, throw the enemy’s rear line into chaos, and take enemy positions.
Normally, they’re a type of troop you would need airplanes to create, but
we do have wyverns here in this world, after all. I decided the groundwork
had already been laid to develop them, so I organized it.”
When I’d been thinking about whether I could recreate the types of
troops that existed in my former world here, paratroopers had been the first
to come to mind. In Germany they were called the Fallschirmjäger, and they
had been in use since World War II. Their primary missions were, as I’d
explained, ambushes, causing chaos, and seizing positions. Many of them
were buff, macho guys, and Japan’s 1st Airborne Brigade had stories about
them that would make you think they came out of some manga. (Example:
Tearing two-millimeter-thick wire with their bare hands.)
The initial paratroopers of my old world had their equipment dropped in
separate containers, so if they came down in a different place from the
container, they had to fight with nothing but handguns.
But this was a world of sword and sorcery, so if ours could bring just
one specialized weapon with them, they could still put up a good fight. For
Hal, if he had just one spear, he’d probably single-handedly cause utter
chaos in the enemy camp. From that perspective, they were a good match
for this world.
Castor looked at me quizzically. “They’re dratroopers, even though
they’re jumping of wyverns?”
“H-Hey, where’s the problem? Besides, dratrooper sounds cooler than
wyvetrooper anyway.”
“...I guess it does.”
Yeah, coolness was important. They didn’t necessarily have to jump off
dragons.
“That aside... I had another objective in organizing a unit of
dratroopers,” I added.
“Hm? There’s still something more?”
“Watch and you’ll see. Okay, Kaede, do it.”
“Yes, sir.”
When I gave the signal, Kaede raised her right hand. Then, “Now... Fire!
You know.”
When Kaede brought down her hand, the anti-air repeating bolt thrower
in the center of the double circle fired all its bolts at once. The bolts with
their range and accuracy enhanced by magic hurtled towards Hal and the
others. For the record, the bolts tips were made with materials that wouldn’t
injure them even if they did hit, but when they were flying that fast, they
were going to hurt pretty bad.
“Screw youuuuu!”
Hal let out an almost incomprehensible war cry as he knocked down the
incoming arrows with the spear he was holding. The others cut them down
with swords, blocked them with over-sized shields, deflected them with
bucklers, or found other ways to defend themselves from the hail of
projectiles.
Eventually, as he got close to the ground, Hal wreathed his spear in
fire... or not. He just threw it straight at the anti-air repeating bolt thrower.
Thunk!
The spear stabbed through the anti-air repeating bolt thrower. If Hal had
wreathed his spear in flames, it would have pierced through the anti-air
repeating bolt thrower and set it ablaze, silencing it entirely. In other
words... the drop was a success.
“Cease fire! You know.”
On Kaede’s signal, the anti-air repeating bolt thrower stopped. Hal and
his fellow dratroopers landed in the double circle one after another.
While watching them out of the corner of my eye, I explained for Castor,
“This is the other use for them. They’re anti-air repeating bolt thrower
killers.”
The anti-air repeating bolt thrower had been developed to counteract the
considerable air power provided by wyvern cavalry, griffon squadrons, and
dragon knights. The repeating bolt thrower had its range and tracing ability
greatly raised by magic, making it the natural enemy of flying units like
wyvern knights. Because of those, attackers couldn’t use their air power to
suddenly bombard a city. If they wanted to bombard the city with their air
power, they first needed to destroy these anti-air repeating bolt throwers
which would be on the castle walls.
Thanks to that, they’d have to launch a siege using a land-based force
like the Army. Only once the Army took the walls or destroyed the anti-air
repeating bolt throwers on them by using siege weaponry, their forces in the
air could carry out bombing operations on the city.
That said, if the city was being bombarded, the defenders had already
lost. It was apparently common sense for them to surrender the moment
aerial bombardment became possible. That was why, in siege battles, the
Air Force’s job was really just to take down the other side’s Air Force so
that they couldn’t attack the Army.
That had gotten me thinking. If there were a simpler way of attacking
the anti-air repeating bolt throwers, the Air Force could be deployed sooner,
and that might allow for the speedy resolution of the battle.
“So, what I formulated as my response to that was the dratroopers,” I
explained. “Because, as you saw watching Hal, the elites can apparently cut
down the arrows that come flying at them. The dratroopers are a special
unit that cut their way through a storm of arrows to land where the anti-air
repeating bolt throwers are and neutralize them.”
“Hahh... Hahh... Y-You make it sound so easy...” Hal came over and
joined us, panting and looking exhausted.
It must have been a hard training session. Even though it was still only
the second month of the year, he was drenched with sweat. He cut off his
parachute, and maybe he felt hot, because he stripped down to nothing but a
tank top on his top half.
Hal took a canteen of water from Kaede as he complained. “Honestly,
you drop me from the sky again, and again, and again.”
“I’ll just remind you, there are safety precautions in place,” I said. “If
you go into the danger zone without your parachute opening, the wyvern
knights are supposed to retrieve you.”
“That’s not the problem,” Hal said. “It’s damn scary being thrown out
into the sky. The wind roars as it races past your ears. I don’t know how
many times I’ve thought I was going to die.”
“Ohh. Yeah... I don’t ever want to do it myself.”
“I’m not doing it because I want to, either!” he shouted.
While I was bantering with Hal, Castor raised a question he’d had.
“In order to drop dratroopers, don’t you need to break the enemy’s air
power first? If the wyvern cavalry are carrying dratroopers, they can’t fight
that well, can they?”
Hmm... That was the former General of the Air Force for you. He’d
caught on to a good point.
“That’s why we’ve strengthened the wyverns’ abilities with the Little
Susumu Mark V Light,” I said. “This is an innovation that affects both the
dratroopers, who belong to the Army, and the wyvern cavalry, who belong
to the Air Force, at the same time. We don’t have a system for mass
production in place yet, so we have to prioritize where they’ll be deployed.”
“I see... It’s an upgrade you can carry out precisely because you unified
everyone under the National Defense Force,” Castor said with a groan of
admiration. He looked up into the sky where the wyvern cavalry were
flying in formation, and muttered sadly, “Wyverns that fly faster than
griffons and farther than dragons, huh. I wish I could ride on one. I’ve never
felt more frustrated about being transferred to the Navy than I do right
now...”
“...Castor?” I asked.
“Ha ha... It’s just the howling of a beaten dog. Pay me no mind.”
“...Is it?” I asked.
A beaten dog... huh?
True, I had won and Castor had lost. Now we were standing next to each
other staring up into the sky. It was a strange feeling.
Excel watched our exchange with a wry smile.
“Now, let’s check out down below next,” I said.
After parting with Hal and Kaede, we had returned to the open plain we
had walked across earlier. I was pointing towards a small, rocky mountain
that was large enough to be seen from where we were.
“That rocky mountain over there is probably closest. Let’s go there.”
I lead the way. When we reached the foot of that rocky mountain, the
wyvern knights were landing, having just finished their training. In the
foothills of that rocky mountain, there was the opening to a cave large
enough that a rhinoceros could easily pass through. The wyverns were
going inside.
Seeing that, Castor asked me, “Is that where the wyvern stables are?”
“Oh, hey. You figured it out.”
“Normally, wyverns build their nests in rocky caves like that one,” he
explained. “We built similar facilities in Red Dragon City. Compared to
ordinary stables, the wyverns can relax more easily in a place like this.”
Ah, that made sense. He would be an expert on the topic.
“That’s right,” I said. “That cave is connected to the level beneath this
one. Down on that level there are about one hundred or so small rooms that
branch off to the side of the main cave. We have the wyverns living in them.
There are twenty or so of them here at the moment, though.”
“One hundred?!” he yelped. “That’s one-tenth of all the wyverns we had
at our command when I was commander! Do you need that many deployed
here on this island?! Is this a front line base or something?!”
“Well, there’s a lot that goes into my reasoning for it,” I said.
While I was reassuring Castor, we entered the cave. It stank like a farm
inside. (Or maybe a zoo.) We were doing our best to ventilate the place, but
there was no helping this.
“So... the place down below that you wanted to show me, is it the
wyvern’s roosts?” Castor asked, frowning. Maybe all the secrecy was
starting to irritate him.
“No, it’s even further down,” I told him. “Come on, through here.”
In front of us there was a man-made door that was clearly out of place in
the cave. There were cranks on either side of it, and there was a guard
standing at attention next to each crank. Beyond the door there was a small,
square room.
“Um, sire... It looks like an awfully small room?” Juna commented, a
question mark floating over her head.
Oh, right. This was a first for Juna, too, huh. It was going to be fun
seeing her reaction.
“Okay, people,” I said. “All aboard.”
“Aboard? Is this some sort of vehicle?”
“Don’t worry about it.” I turned to the soldiers on each side. “Okay, to
the lower level, please.”
They saluted. ““Yes, sir! As you command!””
When everyone was inside the little room, the soldiers spoke into a
communication tube. “Traveling from middle level to lower level.” Then,
after the responses of “Upper level, roger,” and “Lower level, roger,” came,
they began spinning the cranks beside the door. When they did, the little
room began to slowly descend.
“Eek!” Juna shrieked.
The drop was slight, but it came suddenly, and Juna lost her balance,
leaning against my chest for support. When I caught her, I felt the closeness
of her soft body, and the scent of her hair tickled my nose. It was kind of
nice for me.
“I-I’m sorry, sire,” Juna said, blushing.
“Hey, I’m not complaining,” I said. “You okay?”
“Y-Yes. ...Is this little room going down below?”
“Yeah,” I said. “You saw the cranks by the door, right? By turning them,
they’re able to raise or lower this room.”
That’s right. This box-like room was an extremely simple manual
elevator. The designer was Genia Maxwell.
I (not being so good at the sciences) didn’t understand the system that
well myself, but there was a pulley with a counterweight on the opposite
side of the elevator, and that somehow let them raise and lower the elevator
with no more power than it took to pedal a bike.
The truth was, it had originally been designed to be installed in Genia’s
dungeon laboratory. When she’d thought about it, though, even if the hassle
of going up and down the stairs was removed, Genia wasn’t going to want
to go outside any more often, so the plan had been scrapped.
The team I’d sent to organize Genia’s blueprints (they’d been stored so
haphazardly, I’d dispatched a cleaning team—led by Ludwin, of course)
had found the plans, so we’d tried setting one up here as a test. It was
manually operated, not that fast, and required a lift attendant to be on hand
at all times, but if they worked in one-hour shifts, it wasn’t that tiring for
them.
There were currently only three stops, “Cave Entrance,” “Lowest
Level,” and “Top Level,” so the one elevator only took six soldiers to
operate.
Honestly, it only needed one person to operate it (two, if they were
working in shifts), but the soldiers had said that, when there were requests
from multiple levels, it caused confusion, so we had ended up with a sixperson system in which the soldiers announced what they were doing before
turning the cranks.
There were a number of elevators installed here. (Though this one here
in the cave was the only one with three levels.) I intended to have them
installed at the castle, too, sometime in the near future. The palace was a big
place, and it was a lot of work going up and down the stars all the time,
after all...
When I gave her that explanation, Juna let out a sexy sigh for some
reason. “I feel like I can understand why the princess has an exhausted look
on her face sometimes.”
“Why are you bringing up Liscia now?” I queried.
“I understand this is a wonderful machine, but when you pop things that
are beyond my understanding on me one after another, it’s hard to keep up.”
“Do you really need to think about it so deeply?” I asked. “I’m sure the
guys here only think, ‘Hey, what a convenient new thing to have.’”
“That won’t do.” Juna was still leaning against my chest, and she gave
me a soft smile. “Even if it’s exhausting... we want to understand you.”
“...That’s kind of embarrassing,” I admitted.
While we were talking, we arrived at the lowest level. The elevator
doors opened into a wide, open space with a high ceiling.
There were a large number of machines, bizarre pieces of experimental
apparatus, and “something” that appeared to be currently under
construction. It was like the scene I had witnessed before in Genia’s
dungeon laboratory.
If there was one difference, it was in the number of people. Here and
there, there were people wearing the white lab coats that made them look
like researchers, as well as construction workers traveling to and fro.
I explained this place to the three visitors with me. “This is where the
military research and development department is based now. That piece of
wyvern flight equipment, the Little Susumu Mark V Light, is being
developed here, too.”
“You’re making them on an island? I would think it would be an
inconvenient place to set up a workshop...” Castor presented the issue he
was seeing. He was right, of course, but there was a reason for it.
“When it comes to military technology, we have to be worried about
information leaking to other countries,” I explained. “In a place like this,
surrounded by the sea, we’re able to put limits on who comes in, and what
is taken out. That’s convenient. Well, it’s gotten cramped here, though, so
I’m thinking we’ll eventually move to a larger place.”
Walking a bit further, a little glass room came into sight. Inside, the
researchers were doing an operating test of the Little Susumu Mark V
Light.
Technically, the glass was reinforced glass (not in terms of the materials
used— It was glass that had been reinforced with magic), so if something
terrible were to happen, like the equipment were to explode, or a researcher
were to be sucked in and blown out, it wouldn’t have an effect on anything
outside the room. Still, that wasn’t going to prevent damage and casualties
inside of the room, so I hoped the researchers would be careful in their
work.
“This is both an arsenal and a research institute,” I said. “That said, most
of what they’re doing right now is testing Genia Maxwell’s inventions.”
The overscientist and inventor, Genia, was a stereotypical genius. Once
she built one of her creations, that was enough to satisfy her. She apparently
didn’t do much further research on the subject or refine it after that. She
would rather devote the time and energy to making something else she
wanted to create.
“That’s... a terrible waste,” Excel said, tilting her head to the side.
Yeah, I felt the same way. We had managed to use her Little Susumu
Mark V to create the lightweight version, after all. But...
“I think that’s the most efficient way for Genia to work. It’s only natural
that people have their own strengths and weaknesses. There are geniustypes like Genia who have crazy ideas and pop them one after another, but
there are also artisan-types like the researchers here who focus on studying
one thing and achieve results that way. I want to praise both types equally.”
“Hee hee,” Excel giggled. “I think that’s an admirable way of thinking,
sire.”
When I was given such an unreserved compliment by an important
vassal who, contrary to her mid-twenties appearance, had supported this
country for close to five hundred years, it tickled me a bit.
“Well, it’s not like we’ll see worthwhile results from all of it,” I
admitted.
“Hm? Why do you say that?” she asked.
“To explain... Uh, was it over here, maybe?”
“Why do you sound so uncertain?”
“I’ve seen the blueprints for this place, but it’s my first time actually
coming here, too,” I said. “It was easy to see where everything was on the
upper level, so that was one thing, but the inside is kind of a convoluted
mess.”
Following my vague memory of the blueprints, we soon came to our
destination. It was a shooting range surrounded by walls and nets. There
were bows leaned up against the wall, and for some reason, there were two
suits of leather armor set up as targets. The range was only about ten meters
deep.
“You even have a shooting range?” Castor asked. “But with the targets
so close, it won’t be much use for training,” He picked up one of the bows
that was leaning against the wall.
“That would be because it’s not for training, you see,” I said. “If they

Chapter end