Book 7: Chapter 35

After the conference ended, Rokuna’s group was lead into a room within the ship.

Since the conference had progressed smoothly and ended faster than planned, a bit of time until the party that would happen on board after that had opened up.

After sitting down in a chair of the room that seemed like an officer would normally use it, Rokuna breathed a sigh that could be described as being exaggerated.

「Good work out there, Rokuna.」

「Seriously.」

When Altejio thanked her for her work, Rokuna glared at him.

「In the end, I was pretty much doing all of the talking alone, wasn’t I. Honestly, if it was gonna be like this, I should’ve just given Ichika an executive position, even if it was forcibly, and pulled her out here.」

「Fundamentally, we Mazoku aren’t suited for negotiations after all.」

「That is true -nou. Just with the negotiations earlier, just how many times did you all search for each other’s true motives. Mankind, they truly do have a tiresome way of life -nou.」

Seeing Lumon and Arum go “ahaha” and laugh with each other, Rokuna pressed down on her forehead.

「Ahー……Well, that’s true. I am special among Mazoku, aren’t I. Well, it’s good that you all just kept quiet instead of clumsily saying stuff. You guys just being able to read the atmosphere like that makes me understand that you guys are excellent, haa.」

「Still, those earlier negotiations. They were done to explore our reactions, but they didn’t make as many excessive demands as I thought.」

「True.」

Rokuna nodded at Arum’s words.

Of the conditions that the Cylas Empire side had put out, many of them drastically fell below the compromise line that they had hypothesized.

First, the relationship with each other. This would start from doing business transactions in metals, and they would think about the progress from now on while being considerate of the national feelings.

Even within mankind’s territory, the Cylas Empire is a nation that has many high quality mines. The trade of ores and metals was a weak point when it came to the Jiol Forest Kingdom which was a forest nation, and the trade of Holy Silver was something they were particularly anticipating since it could currently only be produced in a single mine in the Zadark Kingdom.

Next, the technical aspect. Since they currently couldn’t make specific proposals, it was deferred to the next conference.

And then, in the military aspect, by doing either a small scale combination training session, or inviting each other to exercises and then reviewing those, they would each bring something back.

Even regarding the next conference, similar to this time, they decided to coordinate it through the Jiol Forest Kingdom.

All of them were settled slightly smaller than they assumed they would be, and just looking at the results, it was to the point that it was anticlimactic.

「The friendship aside, on the point of technology, since our nation has Margaret, I don’t think there is really anything that should be imported from the Cylas Empire though.」

「That isn’t true at all, Aー-chan」

Margaret immediately cut into Altejio’s comment.

Since Rokuna was thinking the same way a bit on that part, she urged her to continue on with her gaze just like that.

「Well, you see. The reason why the Cylas Empire is always state of the art in technology as a major nation is because the entire race’s desire to improve is tremendous. The Metalio have a part of them where they will devote their entire life to something once they decide “this is it”, but……they also greedily absorb new knowledge as well. I think you could really understand it if you thought of it as a country where there’s a lot of me.」

「Ahaha, I see. If there were five Margaret-sans, it feels like the Dark Continent would be all gathered out in materials in few days with just that.」

While making a kick at Lumon who was poking fun, Rokuna started thinking.

Right, she considered things with the Mazoku Norms as the standard, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

The Norms specialized in blacksmithing, but they were a race that displayed talent in manufacturing in general. And then, they had spirits of being true artisans, and they also had side that was tremendously stubborn and eccentric.

She thought that the Metalio were the same, but the fact that they were the same as Margaret meant that they might be a bit more daring and have a wider outlook.

「In, in any case. Through that sort of Metalio nature, the Cylas Empire has always continued to be state of the art. And then, it’s probably the same even now. Did you see the armor of the heavily equipped soldiers at the entrance of that room?」

「It did look heavy, didn’t it.」

When Rokuna spoke her candid impression, Margaret nodded.

「They did, didn’t they. But compared to those, if I were to make them, the weight would be twice as much……Well, it might not go that far, but they would be considerably different.」

「Hou.」

Maybe having gained an interest in those words, Altejio leaned his body forward.

「It’s pretty hard to tell from the appearance, but their movements were really smooth. Maybe they changed a part of the armor’s materials, or maybe it’s a special construct……but in any case, they made it lighter. During the time that I was here, that sort of thing should have existed. That being said, well……what I know is from the time where the concept of heavy equipment was just coming out though.」

「Hnn?」

「Heavy equipment」 was a concept peculiar to mankind, and it literally indicated equipment that was heavy.

The fact that it was heavy meant that it used that much more metal, and it also meant that its defensive power was high.

However, if it’s heavy, then naturally, it will be that much harder to move, so physical strength would be necessary.

Depending on what it is, there would be enough weight that an ordinary soldier would become unable to move, so heavy equipment was first perceived as 「equipment that is ideal but can’t be used」.

That is why, through that uncommon physical strength, the Cylas Empire’s Heavy Equipment Chivalric Order that ran around wearing heavy equipment armor was the first time in the Shutaia Continent that Heavy Equipment Knights were thrown into actual combat and were boasted as the strongest fighting power during those times.

However, now, a Heavy Equipment Chivalric Order existed even in the Jiol Forest Kingdom.

That signified that the manufacturing technology of heavy equipment armor had drastically progressed during the time that Margaret was away from the Shutaia Continent.

And then, at the same time, it was also a direction that the Zadark Kingdom didn’t have.

There were many among the Mazoku that desired being agile, and speaking of how they were at the beginning, the concept of weapons and armor itself was something that the Mazoku didn’t have. At most, there were those that used armor with the sense of them being personal accessories to decorate themselves with.

Currently, Norm-made armor was created, and although the concept of using armor for the sake of defense has finally taken root thanks to the Mazoku staring to acknowledge their efficiency, there was no one that tried to purposely wear heavy equipment.

Margaret explained all of that at once, and then cut her words off.

「Well, that is true. But, wouldn’t time resolve that? The life spans of us Mazoku are astoundingly long. It’s not like it’s something that we need to catch up in right away.」

Hearing Lumon’s opinion that could be said to be reasonable, Margaret shook her head sideways.

「No. This is just a guess, but the technology of the Zadark Kingdom is advancing in a different direction from the other countries. Just like how things are now, that won’t change even from now on. I can declare that.」

「Well, that might be true.」

Rokuna nodded, and made distant eyes looking as if she were remembering something.

「Come to think of it, Ver-cchi said this at some point. Technology improves as necessary. And if there isn’t a need, there will also be times where nothing will change even when decades have passed……or so he said.」

That’s right, technology improves as necessary.

There are times where nothing changes, and there are times where things drastically change.

However, even if there are improvements, no matter when or where, there is no guarantee that things will change in the same way.

Eras, places, people. If one thing is different, then even the things that will be necessary will differ.

Even when looking at a single sword, there is an astounding variety of them. If one expanded that into the range called weapons and thought about it like that, it would be possible to understand the diversity in the improvements of technology.

「In other words……The Cylas Empire’s technology is something beneficial to us and will continue as such, is what you are saying? Are you not overestimating them?」

「That might be the case. This is nothing more than my own personal opinion.」

Hearing Margaret’s reply towards Arum, Rokuna nodded with a “fumu” and looked up at the ceiling.

「Either way, it’s not something for us to decide here and now. But, it’s a nice reference. Thank you.」

「Eh? Y, yes!」

Taking a peek at Margaret who was making surprised face for some reason, Rokuna then looked back up at the ceiling. And then, she looked around as if she suddenly noticed something.

「Speaking of technology, that goes for this ship as well.」

「Indeed. To purposely create something to float on the sea, I had thought that they had strange tastes but……this is like a mobile fortress, isn’t it.」

Altejio nodded, while Arum snorted sounding uninterested.

「Hmph, something like this. It could be easily destroyed with large magic, could it not. Moreover, with such an exaggerated shape, the only place it could possibly move is along the coast, is it not? I cannot think of it having any meaning -nou.」

「……However, before, that meaningless thing had crossed the Sea of Farthest Ends and came to the West, you know?」

Just as Altejio said, the ship that Borkio’s group had ridden, although it was a coincidence, had reached the Dark Continent’s western region before.

Their ship was greatly damaged, but even so, it might be possible to overcome that through the improvements of technology.

An era where it will be possible for mankind to reach the Dark Continent even without relying on the Holy Dragon might come.

「Technology improves as necessary…… In that case, this large type ship thing, I wonder just what kind of necessity created it.」

Was it simply made in order to travel the sea? Or is there some different objective?

Even if they were to ask someone of the Cylas Empire, they probably wouldn’t answer.

As if to interrupt Rokuna’s thoughts, the door was knocked upon.

「Excuse me. Since the preparations are complete, I have come to receive you.」

Hearing the voice that could be heard from the other side of the door, Rokuna once again made a smiling face for diplomacy use.

There was probably no use in thinking about it. At least for now.

「Well, in that case, let us go. It’s the last job for today.」