CH 170

Chapter 170 – Research And Development Department Is Free Today!

With Isla grabbing the hem of my clothes and Ms. Zamir quietly following behind me, we moved to the Research and Development Department. All the while, the thought of Ellen, who might be in dire straits, kept running through my mind.

Without actually talking to her and hearing about her situation, I couldn’t be reassured, but if I thought about it, it would be possible for Lime and the others to guard her in Merinesburg. In this situation, the assassination of Ellen would only be a disadvantage for the Liberation Army, so I think Sylphy is asking Lime and the others to protect Ellen.　Damn, I should have asked her. I’ll ask her at lunch. For now, I’ll just focus on what’s in front of me and cool down.

When I showed up at the Research and Development Department in Erichburg, researchers and craftsmen had gathered around me.

“Welcome back.”

“I heard you were in some kind of vehicle that I’ve never seen before.”

“We’re almost out of magic crystals. Did you bring some from the rear?”

“Prototype magic gun from the rear…”

“Alright, alright, calm down. Don’t push me.”

Our Research and Development Department has a pretty high percentage of women, and the Lamia blacksmiths and others are very exposed, so I have to be careful about many things.

I managed to push back the researchers and craftsmen of various races who were crowding me and piled up on the large desk in the Research and Development Department the magic crystals and prototype magic guns entrusted to me from the rear, as well as the magic tools and books from the Omit Kingdom that I retrieved from the ruins.

“Hyahoo!”

One of them grabbed what he wanted and dashed back to his research.

“This is…”

“It’s not badly constructed, but it’s not very powerful, is it?”

“It’s heavy, isn’t it?”

One of them begins to inspect the prototype magic gun sent from the rear.

“There are a lot of old books… It’s at least more than three hundred years old.”

“There’s a saying, ‘Learn from the past, learn from the present,’ and if we read them, we might learn something new.”

Some of them immediately started looking through books from the time of the Omit Kingdom.

“It’s so old, the way it’s made.”

“There’s a lot of waste in the magic circuits. The materials used are impressive.”

“It’s just a waste of resources if you don’t see the value in it as a document or a work of art.”

A person who’s ragging while inspecting the magic tools of the Omit Kingdom… the Research and Development Department is a free-for-all today as well.

“Kosuke-san, Kosuke-san, I want to see that vehicle.”

“I want to see it too.”

“Yes, yes, let’s go to the testing grounds in the back.”

The alchemists, mages, woodworkers, and blacksmiths urged me towards the testing area behind the Research and Development Department. This is a large area for test driving and test firing of products. I remembered that we had to demolish some buildings to secure the site. Well, they were the mansions of wealthy people who had fled because the Liberation Army occupied Erichburg. The remaining set of household goods was deliciously confiscated by the Liberation Army.

“This is the airboard that we rode from the rear base to Erichburg. The whole thing floats with levitation magic and moves with a propulsion system that uses wind magic. The maximum speed is much faster than a horse, even with the propulsion system we’re using now. If you leave the rear base in the morning, you’ll be able to reach Erichburg by nightfall. As for fuel consumption, the magic crystal consumption is about 80% for a one-way trip.”

“Fumu… There are two vehicles. Is it because of the different number of levitation magic tools?”

“There are four small ones and one large one.”

“This tube is… a wind magic tool?”

“Isn’t there something strange about the inscriptions?”

The people from the Research and Development Department rushed to the airboard I had taken out and began to analyze it. It seems that they immediately noticed something wrong with the propulsion system.

“Isla-san, Isla-san, isn’t there something incomplete about the formula engraved on this wind magic tool?”

“It’s not incomplete. That’s right. Kosuke’s words gave me a hint.”

“Kosuke-san can’t use magic, can he?”

“Hmm, but he has knowledge and skills that we don’t have. Perhaps he also has knowledge that could greatly improve existing magic.”

I was listening to Isla’s explanation. The mages and alchemists who were listening to Isla’s explanation also turned their eyes to me. I mean, almost all of them are looking at me. Okay, okay, calm down, ladies and gentlemen. Even if you look at me like that, I won’t suddenly come up with a plan to improve magic. It’s not like I don’t have some knowledge that’s unfamiliar to this world or some ideas that would be considered outlandish in this world. I can’t help but say to myself.

“I think the first thing to do now is the airboard. Yeah. As you can see, its propulsion system has a simple structure. It’s simple enough that it probably won’t be damaged, but I think it could generate propulsion more efficiently if it were more ingenious. I would like to see you pursue this aspect of your work. Everything should be taken care of one by one.”

My desperate insistence was accepted, and it was decided to proceed with improving the propulsion system and controls of the airboard first. In addition, since there was no way to further improve the levitation device using levitation magic, it was decided to examine how much time and cost it would take to actually make one large and four small units by hand.

“What kind of mechanism does it use to generate power in the first place? This thing.”

“Originally, when wind magic creates the wind, there is a reaction to its output. However, wind magic formulas have built-in counteracting formulas from the beginning. By getting rid of the reaction-canceling formula, I created a modified wind magic formula that takes the repercussions of creating wind with wind magic seriously.”

“So you carve it into this tube, and the reaction of wind magic creates propulsion…? How much power does that have?”

“You can actually use it to test how much power it has. I don’t recommend using it at full force. You will die.”

“Die?”

The mages and alchemists who received the modified wind magic from Isla were sequentially blown backward. The craftsmen were laughing, holding their bellies at the sight of it.

“Hahahaha! That’s quite a flight.”

“I can understand why you would die if you went all out.”

“I didn’t mean to put so much magic into it.”

“Me neither… But this means that the efficiency of magic power is very high, right?”

“Hmm. Kosuke and I are wondering if the Harpies and Dragons are using this magic to fly.”

“Kosuke-san’s idea is solving a long-standing mystery…”

One of the mages, who had been blown away and tattered spectacularly, blurted out. Then Isla walked briskly to get some distance from me.

“Then I worked out a new spell from the technique that had suppressed the recoil of wind magic. You can all throw rocks at me.”

Isla took out a mithril wand from her pocket and held it up. Everyone, including me, looked at each other, picked up a random stone, and threw it at her. It would be a disaster if we hit her and hurt her, so we all took it easy and just tossed the stones.

As we did so, the stone that had been flying toward Isla suddenly lost its momentum and fell directly below before reaching her. Could it be barrier magic?

“Is that barrier magic?”

“It’s similar but a little different. You can throw it like you mean it. You can also shoot me with a crossbow.”

“I’ll get the crossbow.”

A few of the craftsmen ran off to the lab, and as we watched them go, we threw a stone at Isla, this time rather seriously. However, the stone still stops in front of Isla and falls to the ground.

“Are you using a magic that cancels out the recoil of wind magic to kill the momentum of the stone?”

“Yes.”

“How about using magic?”

“It will probably stop.”

As Isla said this, one of the mages fired a flame arrow magic at her. Then, as Isla declared, the flame arrow stopped in front of her before hitting her and disappeared shortly afterward. The crossbow arrows that the craftsmen brought, the handgun bullets that I shot, the shotgun bullets, the submachine gun bullets, and the rifle bullets also stopped.

“It’s a great defense…”

“It’s still in the prototype stage. When activated as a barrier, it consumes an excessive amount of magic power.”

Then Isla put away her wand and let out a sigh. She seemed to be quite tired.

“Maybe the reason why it consumes so much magic when it’s activated as a barrier is because it keeps stopping the flow of air, or maybe invisible molecular movement or something like that all the time. I mean, if you put it over a living thing, it’s going to die, isn’t it…?”

“It’s impossible. Magic circulates within the organism’s body, so it is not possible to interfere with it from the outside with magic so easily. It’s a different story if you use an overwhelming amount of magic to get past the resistance. But you might be able to stop the hand or weapon of an opponent who is punching or slashing at you.”

When I actually tried it, the weapons and fists I wielded were stopped in midair. It was a strange feeling. It wasn’t like they hit a wall, but they just stopped. To be honest, it was a bit weird.

“It’s a magic that seems to have a lot of potential for development.”

“Hmm. If you examine it closely, you will see that the formula for this magic still has room for improvement and analysis. The formula itself has been used in other magic, so it is being analyzed. Maybe we can create new magic that is completely different.”

Isla said, her big eye shining. Yes, Isla really likes magic for some reason, doesn’t she? I think she likes the unknown to be explored rather than the magic. I remember she said something about being a seeker of truth.

Most of the mages, alchemists, and craftsmen have gone to work on the airboard and Isla’s new magic, but the new prototype magic gun is also something I’m very interested in.

Now that everyone’s interest has shifted to that, I will examine the prototype magic gun that the others aren’t paying much attention to.