Chapter 308 – Models and Aerial Maneuvers

—The hot spring meeting had concluded, and a new day dawned.

“Good morning, Cecilia.”

“Good morning, Master.”

We gathered in the dining hall to see everyone. The current residents were Old Sigmund and Valentina, Elliot and Camilla’s family, plus Justia and Dominique.

“Good morning, Elliot-san, Camilla-san.”

“Yes. Good morning.”

Elliot and Camilla entered the dining hall together. With Elliot escorting Camilla by holding her hand, they gave off the atmosphere of a couple who would likely become quite lovey-dovey.

…Well then. Since various matters were settled last night, things will probably start moving in different directions.

Especially for Elliot, who will become the captain of the newly established unit—both in terms of work and his personal life, as discussions about marriage seem to be progressing, so he’ll likely be quite busy.

Once everyone had gathered, I asked Elliot during breakfast.

“By the way, it seemed like His Majesty Melvin had something else to say to you after that.”

“Yes. While there’s the matter of establishing the new unit, first regarding marriage, it looks like we’ll be searching for a new home.”

I see. Since he’ll be independent, he probably can’t continue living at my place.

“How about asking Rosetta-sensei to mediate finding a new home?”

Ashley suggested.

“Rosetta-sensei… was she the one who taught Ashley healing magic?”

“Yes. When Grace and I first came to Termwills, she helped us too. This house—though it’s been remodeled now—was originally mediated by Rosetta-san as well. If needed, I can contact her via the communication device.”

“Then—I’ll take you up on that offer. Thank you.”

Saying this, Elliot smiled gently and bowed slightly.

Hmm. He doesn’t seem too concerned about financial matters, but Elliot was quite well-known as a magic knight in Silvatoria, and becoming a knight directly under the king likely means he has some leeway.

When I contacted Rosetta via the communication device, she replied that she had no lectures today and was free. Well then… I’ll tell Elliot where Rosetta’s house is located.

“We’re planning to go to the workshop and conduct experiments.”

“Understood. Once things are settled and I have time, I’ll stop by.”

“Yes.”

After nodding back to Elliot, I turned my gaze to Justia and Dominique.

“What about you two? I can take you back when returning to the Guild.”

“Sounds interesting. Can we come watch?”

“Yeah. We want to see.”

“Then that’s fine with me.”

Today we planned to create a model airship in the workshop and conduct experiments. Princess Stephania and Princess Adriana had also expressed interest in observing.

“Hmm. The appearance will probably be something like this.”

When I created a scaled model of the airship and made it float in the workshop’s courtyard, Marlene applauded for me. Yeah. She had a happy expression. Maybe she remembered the paper airplane from before.

“Will that become the same shape as the completed version?”

“That’s the plan. Though we still need to make adjustments from here.”

When I answered Valentina’s question, she nodded with interest.

We brought out desks and arranged chairs in the courtyard, proceeding with adjustment work while everyone watched.

“Hmm. Perhaps because the sails are gone, it has changed quite significantly from existing ship forms.”

Old Sigmund offered his impressions after seeing it.

“It doesn’t feel much like a ship… but isn’t that good?”

“With the same material as that Golem, it will be a white ship. With some decoration, it will surely become elegant.”

Princess Stephania and Princess Adriana were analyzing it.

To reduce air resistance, the overall silhouette is streamlined. Main wings on both sides, tail wings at the rear of the hull. And two magical propulsion units equipped at the stern.

Since sails aren’t needed, the top is clean. Instead, we included a bridge section so that crew members wouldn’t fall off even during some degree of aerial maneuvers. Though it’s called a bridge, it doesn’t protrude that much, but it should provide defense for the crew from pressure changes during rapid ascent or descent, as well as the cold at high altitudes.

Except for the view from the cockpit, we plan to use the vision of magical creatures to grasp the entire surroundings. This vision through magical creatures is also planned to be applied for aiming the rotating cannons installed throughout the hull.

The crew won’t expose themselves at all from inside the ship, instead using the vision of magical creatures to detect enemy appearances and positions, then intercept approaching opponents.

We want to thoroughly check the movable range of the rotating cannons and eliminate blind spots.

I tilted my teacup to empty it, then took a breath. After that, I lightly slapped both my cheeks to psych myself up.

“Alright. Shall we try flying it? I’ll need to concentrate a bit.”

When I said this, everyone’s gaze focused on the model. The three girls—Irmhild, who had been playing music as a substitute for BGM, along with Justia and Dominique—stopped their performance to create an environment where I could concentrate.

As everyone watched with bated breath, I used both Levitation and Wind Magic to simulate the forces experienced during flight. During this, I made adjustments to any parts that concerned me.

I floated and supported the model here, adding adjustments while intuitively checking what kind of load would occur with various behaviors. The actual thing will be dozens of times larger. The required force—both for flying and floating—will be that much greater. Since we’re doing this with a model, I need to concentrate intensely to perceive the minute loads.

While flying it, I adjusted the shape of the main wings several times. I repeatedly made fine adjustments to maximize lift when moving forward.

Stability during flight. What about air resistance? How much will the ship tilt when turning? Where on the ship will large loads occur? The strength of areas receiving loads.

I checked each of these one by one, and whenever something concerned me, I repeatedly made corrections and fine adjustments to the hull structure and magic output balance. Fixing one place sometimes affected the whole, making it quite troublesome.

Five, six, seven, eight. After flying it for a while while deploying multiple Magic Circles in layers, the unreasonable parts gradually decreased, and I also got the hang of operating the model.

“Shall I try changing the behavior a bit?”

Though not originally planned, it seems possible to perform somewhat unique aerial maneuvers even with the power currently equipped on the airship. It would probably be good to get accustomed to behaviors for evasion too.

Rapid ascent while turning, vertical rotation from ascent, diving into inverted flight, rolling. While finely adjusting Wind Magic, I investigated how much strain was possible and what kind of load would be placed on the crew inside.

Finally, I made the airship model, which had made a large turn, float above my palm and stop. …Hmm. Is this about right?

“…Are you planning to do that with people aboard?”

Alfred was the one who asked. His smile seemed slightly strained. Old Sigmund and Valentina too. Princess Stephania and Princess Adriana… on the contrary, they looked somewhat happy.

“…No, that’s not the plan. It was more about… well, experimenting to see what movements are possible just by operating the output of the magic tools.”

“Meaning—if Theodore is piloting, similar movements would be possible with the actual ship too, right?”

Rosemary asked while hiding her mouth with her feather fan. Rosemary seemed to be enjoying this.

“Hmm. That would be… probably.”

Since I’ll be documenting what I learned from this as a Spell Formula… it will probably be like that.

“If Theo is piloting, shouldn’t we feel at ease?”

“…That’s right, probably. Though it looked reckless, it should be fine.”

When Grace said this, Claudia nodded, and Ashley smiled. Well, yeah… It makes me happy to be trusted, but… Ah. The G-forces on the crew could be mitigated by Levitation Magic Tools each possesses.

In any case, to ensure safety upon safety, we’ll need to conduct many more experiments.

“For now, I’m planning to fix the chairs inside the ship to the floor. And attach belts to those chairs too, so bodies won’t be thrown from them.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“Otherwise, we’d bump our bodies inside the ship.”

In other words, seat belts. Sheila nodded, and Irmhild gave a wry smile.

“What about me?”

Seraphina asked.

“I’ll make special seats for Seraphina, Lavigne, and Eclair too. Since the ship is under my care, I can manage that much flexibility.”

“Yay!”

Seraphina happily spread both arms and danced around. I could see she was subtly trying to imitate the aerial maneuvers from earlier.

Regarding the airship’s materials, I heard arrangements are currently progressing rapidly. Since I’ve already been taught the Spell Formulas for processing the hull, once the required amount is gathered, we plan to start by making the framework and exterior.

After the exterior is done, next is the interior. The core floating device, external monitoring system via magical creatures, anti-demon weaponry, wings, propulsion units. These magic tools will be incorporated in order.

We’ll proceed with labyrinth exploration, airship construction, and new unit training in parallel… and once these take shape to some extent, we’ll probably head out to investigate Beriondora.