Chapter 95 - Power
We were finally in a position to take a vacation for the first time in a while, so our Second Unit was making our way toward the surface.
Ahahahahahaha! I feel so light! So light!
After being forced to keep training our muscles in a hot spring where we could recover endlessly, my body really does feel incredibly light. I never realized armor could be this light.
Even though we're carrying a whole load of towels, soap, and mirrors, climbing the stairs feels like walking on level ground.
After all, we were forced to keep working out until our bodies had transformed into solid masses of bulging muscle.
Even those muscles, swollen to the point of looking like a professional bodybuilder's, return to our usual physiques—at least in appearance—once we soak in the bath on the eleventh floor.
At our current level, I'm pretty sure we could even conquer the athletic area on the eleventh floor while carrying Queen Teta on our backs, as long as we took it slowly.
Hahahahahahaha... Haaah.
Our bodies may be light, but our hearts are heavy after enduring one hellish training session after another...
I'm truly grateful that they invented dishes on the cooking floor that have the effect of clearing the mind.
Without those, half of the Second Unit would have had their spirits broken long ago and might have already been saying, "Oh, Father, Mother, please forgive me for going before you."
That was how brutal Captain Touji's training was.
Thinking that to myself, I returned to the mansion, only to find that part of the mansion's wall had collapsed.
What happened? Could we have been attacked?
"Oh, welcome back, Vihita!"
As though this abnormal situation were nothing at all, Lady Auf greeted me with an incredibly bright smile.
What is it about it? Lately, Lady Auf's smile hasn't had any healing effect whatsoever.
Seeing her smile, which was completely at odds with the disastrous state of the mansion and the horrified atmosphere surrounding us, I could only think one thing:
What have you done this time?
"Um... My lady, what happened? That wall, I mean...?"
"You remember that design from before, where you guys turned a handle with your feet and hands to move the wheels of the mobile residence from inside?"
Lady Auf was referring to one of the discarded designs that had been produced while we were building the mobile residence.
If I remember correctly, it was a complete failure that required five people to turn the handles in perfect coordination just to get the thing moving at all.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, there was something like that... If I remember correctly, we concluded that it was so heavy that it would obviously be much faster just to push it from the outside."
"I modified that mechanism so it runs on steam power! And the experiment was a success!"
"...A success?"
I said that as I looked at the wall, now reduced to rubble, and the remains of what had presumably once been the mobile residence.
"Of course it was a success! It moved! I managed to move a residence weighing hundreds of kilograms! If that isn't a success, then what is?!"
"Yes, but... the wall..."
"That's such a trivial matter! Who cares about that?! We've just witnessed the birth of an invention that could turn the world upside down!
Listen, Vihita! For an invention to evolve to the point where it can revolutionize the world, there are three conditions!
First, you need the invention itself. Second, you need the budget, facilities, and manpower to turn that invention into reality. And finally, you need proof of the economic benefits that invention can bring to the country!
If even one of those is missing, you can't reform the world!
Even if some scholar in the city invents something all by himself at his desk, there's no point in having a useful invention if he can't actually turn it into something tangible!
There must be geniuses all over the world who have secretly come up with inventions and designs capable of shaking the world, only for those ideas to quietly disappear because they had no way to bring them into reality!
And even if you're lucky enough to have craftsmen at your disposal and are in a position where you can turn your invention into reality at a research institute...
If you can't then create enough value to justify mass-producing it, it still means nothing!
That's right! We've already cleared the first two hurdles!
All that's left is to actually demonstrate the undeniable economic benefits this invention can bring to Her Majesty Yuzha, and once we do, this world is going to change dramatically from here on out!"
Lady Auf continued to rattle off her speech with an absolutely frightening expression.
I really don't think destroying part of the ducal mansion's wall qualifies as a "trivial matter."
...Then again, Lady Auf getting worked up and passionately lecturing me about things I could barely understand was nothing new.
But this time, she seemed even more fired up than usual. Her eyes had completely lost their focus.
"Reforming the world," "changing the world dramatically"—the words she was throwing around sounded exactly like something you'd hear from a dangerous person who had received some sort of divine revelation.
If it weren't Lady Auf saying these things, I would have thought she was someone who needed to be taken to a hospital immediately.
"I'm going to live at the royal palace's research institute for a while! Vihita! Show me the way!"
I had been planning to spend my long-awaited rest by drinking myself into a stupor and sleeping like the dead, but I was immediately saddled with work.
Still, if I stayed at the mansion now, I had a feeling they'd put me to work repairing that wall, too, so I might as well leave as soon as possible.
The mansion's maids and guards had been struggling with the debris-removal work for a while now, and I could feel their intense gazes burning into me.
When I brought Lady Auf all the way to the research institute at the royal palace, several researchers came rushing over in a panic and began talking with her about something.
"I heard that part of the ducal mansion's wall was destroyed. Could it be...?"
"Yes! Once I installed that power unit on an old mobile residence, it actually worked!
The safety mechanism didn't function properly, so it went out of control and crashed into the wall, destroying both the residence and the prototype power unit... but the power was more than sufficient!"
Hearing that, some of the scientists in the research institute erupted into wild celebration, throwing their arms around one another's shoulders and raising a threefold banzai cheer.
Wait, you people don't care that she smashed through part of the ducal mansion's wall either?!
What's so exciting about this?!
"Hehehe, Vihita, look at this one, too. We've even made a boat like this, so it's easy to understand."
Lady Auf pointed at something that looked like a small metal boat.
Apparently, they had made it by piecing together empty cans—the kind that had been filled with salty meat from the No-Hunger Dungeon.
When Lady Auf placed the boat in water and lit a candle inside it, the boat began moving forward with a little poco poco sound.
I wonder how it works. It's quite an interesting toy.
"If we could make this on the scale of a normal boat, ships would be able to move freely without relying on the wind. That alone would completely change the world, wouldn't it?"
"Can you really do something like that?"
"The new, incredibly durable metal that came out of the Iron Dungeon, tools reinforced with the equipment-enhancing spring from the Hot Spring Dungeon, and the complete sealing treatment provided by the repairing spring!
By combining all of those, we've managed to secure enough power! ...Though we still have a mountain of problems to solve, like controllability and safety..."
The research institute was filled with things like little toy carts made from empty cans that ran on candle flames, as well as toy windmills and waterwheels that kept spinning using steam.
What exactly are they planning to do? Are they seriously going to build full-sized versions of these toys and put them to practical use in everyday life?
...To my untrained eye, I could see how they might be practical replacements for waterwheels and windmills, but I couldn't possibly imagine them replacing sailing ships or horse-drawn carriages.
Do they have any idea how heavy ships and freight wagons are? There's no way something like that could be moved by a little bit of steam...
As I thought that, I remembered the state of the wall of the destroyed ducal mansion.
...Does this mean something that enormous really can be moved by steam?
It was difficult to believe.
"Anyway, we have to make a prototype that will convince Her Majesty Yuzha! I'll have the entire country secure the necessary budget and personnel for us, no matter what!
First, we'll start with drawing water! We'll pump up the hot water from the first floor of the Hot Spring Dungeon at several times the efficiency of the current human-powered pedal waterwheels... No, that won't be enough! Our goal is dozens of times the efficiency!
If we succeed, it won't just revolutionize the transportation of hot water from the Hot Spring Dungeon. It should fundamentally change how we secure water for agriculture and cities as well!
...And once that happens, we'll be able to secure a huge amount of funding and personnel for development and production as a national project."
"We're running short on the new material from the Iron Dungeon, Lady Auf."
"Hmm... We used quite a lot of material making that prototype... Ah! That's right! We need to recover the important materials!
Vihita! We're going back to the mansion right now! We need to dig out all the usable components from that rubble before it's too late!"
What?! You're making me clean up that rubble?
You're seriously ordering me to do that right after I've returned from the dungeon completely exhausted?!
Does my lady have no mercy?!
Though, I suppose I already knew that Lady Auf doesn't have anything resembling mercy when she enters one of these dangerous mental states!
And so, after returning to the mansion, I was naturally put to work repairing the wall and clearing away the debris.
This is going to be exhausting…
I began removing the rubble with a weary sigh, only to be completely taken aback by how light it was.
Compared to the days when I was forced to carry Captain Touji, who was herself carrying a massive boulder, while repeatedly doing squats and push-ups until I collapsed with my eyes rolling back, this required practically no effort at all.
While the servants had needed three people to carry each piece of rubble, I casually picked them up and hauled them away by myself.
In less than an hour, I had cleared away all the conspicuous rubble and even recovered all the various components Lady Auf had said she needed.
"Um, now then, I'll leave the remaining cleanup and the repairs of the wall to you."
After saying that, I headed back toward my room, only to find the servants around me looking at me with a mixture of awe and fear, some of them even praying to me.
Why?
Even Lady Auf, who had received the components, was looking at me as though I were some strange creature.
What is this? Why do people have to look at me like that just because I got stronger?
Whatever. I don't care anymore.
I'm going to drink some whiskey and go to sleep.
Comments
Post a Comment