Chapter 3 – It Seems to Be the Payment of an Annual Tribute

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Short Update:

Starting with today, Nidome no Jinsei wo Isekai de moves from a weekly to a monthly public release. On Patreon, the release continues being weekly for the time being.

This is a change I had been considering for a very long time, and to be honest, usually I’d have canceled the series altogether a while ago. But, well, I’ve been translating it for such a long time that it’s hard for me to part with it, especially with only two volumes left until the end.

Still, the recent months have been really grueling with fewer and fewer people reading the series, let alone supporting it. Unfortunately, I cannot exist on air and love alone, and if only very few read a series, the chances for people to occasionally drop a coffee or two are much fewer than I can expect with popular series.

Since I don’t run any ads or cash links on this blog to make the reading experience as unobstrusive as can be, I rely on donations to do what I do. And if everyone just leeches a series and no one supports it (be it financially or by spreading news about it to draw more readers), then it simply means people do not appreciate it enough, and thus it’s not really worth to be translated.

Well, the drama around the cancellation of the anime and the end of the manga didn’t help Nidome much either, so I guess this is the natural outcome. If you want to read it to the end, become a Patron.

Starting next week, the weekly Saturday slot will be filled with a new series, so look forward to that. Nidome’s release will continue on Saturday as well. The next release will take place on September the 23rd, if I don’t forget.

Cheers,
Shasu

On the next day messengers departed from Klinge to the highest authorities of all races other than the dragonoids. Officially, the messengers were equipped with a request to dispatch someone capable of explaining the details about the construction site in the outskirts of Klinge in the name of Earl Kunugi, but in reality, it was Renya’s way of telling those, who had built the ship while keeping it secret from him, to move their butts to Klinge in order to justify their little scheme.

Apparently because they understood Renya’s intent of implicitly warning them that they knew what was coming for them if they complicated things by sending someone unqualified, the three highest authorities of the humans, elves, and beastmen arrived personally at Renya’s castle several days later.

“Do I need to tell you the reason why you were called here?”

Since those three had outwardly visited Klinge as guests, they were guided to a parlor, but the atmosphere inside the room was nothing short of an interrogation room.

Once Renya asked the three who were gracefully sitting across a table, while scrutinizing their faces in order, the rulers simultaneously shook their heads as if they had timed it perfectly.

“Could you～ give us some～ time to explain～?”

The archduchess spoke up first. Even if it was just for the sake of formality, she held the position of being Renya’s direct superior. While believing this to be a valid response, Renya nodded.

“In the first place～ this would have not～ been necessary～ if you had said～ that you would fight～ the demon king for us～”

“It’s the heroes duty to fight the demon king.”

This was a red line he couldn’t cross, as far as Renya was concerned. It wasn’t as though Renya had come to this world to accomplish something to begin with. He had intended to cross over to this world because that little goddess had asked him to scatter resources in this world for her.

On top of that, he had absolutely no interest in stealing the work of the heroes by butting in from the sidelines, given that it was their job to fight the demon king. Of course, Renya didn’t plan to fetter himself with that limitation if it looked like the heroes could get defeated out of lacking strength, since he had formed rather close relations with each of them, but that didn’t change his idea that the heroes ought to be the first ones to cut through the enemy ranks and fight against the demon king.

“Renya-san～, you’re a meanie～” The archduchess complained while scowling at him with a bitter expression, but since that was something he couldn’t give up on, he returned the scowl while taking on her upturned gaze from the front.

“Earl-dono’s view is very reasonable. For that reason, I see no problem with respecting it,” the elven emperor took over from the archduchess who kept glaring while growling lowly. “On top of that, you confirmed that you would try to cooperate with us as much as possible.”

Renya put on a grim expression in response to the emperor’s casual remark. Renya hadn’t forgotten that he promised as much. So far as it went, he was affiliated with a human country and also possessed the position of being nobility, so he had offered them this concession of cooperation based on the idea that it’d be problematic to say he wouldn’t cooperate at all, but now he was reflecting in his mind that it had been extremely careless to have given such a promise.

“There’s no problem with that, right?”

“Correct, there isn’t. But, building something like that without permission inside someone else’s fief is a problem, you know?”

A fief was regarded as a noble’s possession. Then again, this only applied within the framework of a country. Naturally, it’d be impossible for him to reject the wish of that country’s highest authority in the end, but Renya insisted that it’d have been the proper procedure to have first checked the whole story with him.

In response, the three leaders looked at each other and then simultaneously said, “””You’d have definitely complained about it, right?”””

Being asked like that, Renya had no choice but to answer with a nod. Even if the question what sort of result it might have brought about would have been different, Renya himself was certain that he likely wouldn’t have agreed right away, telling them to think of a different method, if they had approached him about this beforehand.

“So you believed that I wouldn’t have any choice but to agree, as long as you finished building it?”

“To the point that you might get fed up with it,” the beastman queen responded bluntly without faltering from Renya who had asked with a tinge of threat coloring his voice.

“Considering your existence, advancing things would be impossible. That’s simply how big an existence you are.”

“In short, you thought pissing me off to some degree would be a cheap price to pay, if you could get the expected results out of it, eh?”

It’s a terrible line of argumentation for sure. But, Renya pondered even while feeling unhappy about all of this, if I consider their position, the idea that this approach might be inevitable certainly might hold some truth to it.

After all, the three rulers had been entrusted with a number of lives Renya couldn’t even imagine. They held a position where they’d have to order all those lives to die, if it proved to be necessary. As such, if a method to reliably lowering the number of casualties existed, they didn’t have the free choice to not use that option to its full extent. Even Renya could understand that train of thought.

The ideal method would have actually been to have Renya fight the demon king directly, but the part of them not applying this method might have been a show of good will towards him, Renya assessed. Given that it wasn’t as though Renya wouldn’t be at least able to make that lump of metal fly and send it all the way to the demon king’s castle, he had lost all will to act like a brat by continuing to vent his complaints about their plan, if he took their consideration towards him into account.

But even then, anyone would have some dissatisfaction remaining if they were used as convenient tools.

“How dull.”

Even if he would cooperate in the end, Renya thought that he should at least make his dissatisfaction about this whole setup clear, leaned back in his chair, and vented his complaints while reclining.

“Okay, so could you tell us what we should do in order to make it fun for you?”

For an instant, Renya faltered since he hadn’t really anticipated the elven emperor to respond to his griping.

“If you’ll move for us for money, you just need to name the price. If necessary, I’ll throw open my nation’s coffers and pay you as much as you want. If you’ll move for us in exchange for women, you just need to tell me how many you want. If you’re fine with my citizens, I’ll promise to wed any woman of your liking to you, regardless of age. Or do you want power? In that case, you can have my throne. If things can be concluded with that, you may as well become the next emperor.”

“The beastmen will also abide by that. Our race follows the principle of obeying the strong, so it won’t pose much of a problem.”

“It’s not～ like I’ve unified～ all humans under my banner～, so I can only～ promise you what he said～ limited to the Trident Principality～”

All three phrased it in their own words, but they fundamentally said the same. It was the crazy promise that they’d hand him everything, if only he named what he wanted.

Even Renya hadn’t expected that the conversation would take this direction, and thus he didn’t know what to answer. As he remained silent, the elven emperor further pressed on to get an answer.

“So, want my crown?”

—————- End of Part 1 —————-

“No thanks, it’d be too much hassle.”

Renya was surprised by the words of the three authorities, but that reply alone slipped over his lips very naturally and instinctively. And the elven emperor laughed as if he had known that he’d get this answer.

“That’s what I’d expected. In short, it means none of the things we offered you so far would be enough to make you move for our sake.”

“A man, who doesn’t care about his own benefit, possessing a ridiculously huge power is a nightmare for any person in power.”

“That’s why～ we have no choice～ but to appeal to your sentiments～ personality or good will～”

Renya deliberated what the three had told him. Before long, he reached a certain conclusion and timidly asked the three, “In short, I’m a burden, you say?”

“That’s wrong. But, we’d still like you to understand our position who have to resort to such means even while being well aware that it’s going to offend you.”

“I understood the reason. As for the cooperation…well, I already said that I’d do so, so I cannot turn it down now. But, in the end I feel indescribably unhappy with this. I wonder what I should do about that?”

“You could have my daughter console you? My daughter should be the soothing type.”

Renya blinked in surprise at the elven emperor who had dropped this very casually, but the emperor continued as if not having noticed any of it, “She’s older than you are, but among elves, she still counts as being immature. She still hasn’t fully grasped the art of soothing a man, so I think she’s in the perfect age where you can admire her awkwardness and innocence.”

“Pardon?” Renya answered half-heartedly.

“If it comes to soothing～ we are much more suited～”

The one butting into their conversation was the archduchess.

“If it comes to our family～ you’ll be able to freely choose the full range～ from extra large to somewhat small～! No man～ has ever been soothed by a wall～!”

Renya vacantly thought that it could get scary if he tried to think who might be meant with wall.

“In regards to that case, the beastmen must apologize to Earl Kunugi no matter what…”

Renya couldn’t keep up with the conversation as its flow suddenly changed altogether.

While looking very apologetic, the beastman queen added, “The only beastmen we’ve sent to you are a hot-blooded idiot of a hero and a black-hearted priestess…neither has the slightest ability to soothe anyone. As one entrusted with the rule over my race, I feel deeply sorry for us being the only ones unable to provide you with appropriate personnel…”

“N-No, you’ve been plenty of help since you have been taking care of Kurz.”

“It eases my mind a bit to hear you say so. But, I must sadly admit that we’re all basically bloodthirsty, so it won’t matter who I might send to you.”

Once he revealed a helpless, vague smile on his face, the attention of the archduchess, who had been quarreling with the emperor about the existence or non-existence of small and big, shifted to Renya.

“Renya-san～, how big do you like them～?”

“Them what?”

“That’s～ of course～”

“Yeah okay, stop there. I guessed what you’re talking about,” Renya held back the archduchess with a deep sigh, and used his fist to lightly knock on the table.

Renya waited for the eyes of the other three to gather on him after being drawn by that small, hollow sound, and then slowly spoke up.

“I understood the gist of it. I’ll cooperate.”

The three felt relieved about having obtained Renya’s consent. However, without so much as a break, Renya added a condition to it.

“Still, it’s a fact that you angered me with your actions. Hence, I’ll have you accept my demand in exchange.”

“What demand is that?”

The elven emperor pretended to be calm on his face and voice, but the end of his question was slightly shaky.

Renya clearly voiced his own demand.

“Seeing how I’ve already decided, I’ll actively cooperate with you. Therefore, I think I’ll have Frau and Emil handle the manufacturing of that thing.”

The air inside the room froze instantly. Due to the effect his words had had, Renya’s mood improved somewhat since he managed to get a sort of revenge on the three leaders.

The emperor asked him with a stiff face and tone, “That’s…would it be impossible to have you choose a different demand?”

“You think it would be?”

The emperor fell silent after having his question returned with another question. The queen looked up to the ceiling as if having given up on everything. Meanwhile, the archduchess was showing a cramped smile while apparently thinking about the right words to make Renya give up on that idea, but seemingly not coming up with anything good, she remained silent.

“If we’re going to do it anyway, we might as well go all out. You won’t find any better engineers than those two, even if you search all continents, right? I’m sure those two will be able to build something amazing, if you let them. In such a case, I’ll also be able to cooperate with joy.”

Renya’s face had suddenly brightened up as if it was such a great idea, but negating Renya’s cheerful mood, the faces of the three authorities had become gloomy and depressed.

“I cannot help but feel we’re creating an artificial demon king in order to defeat the natural demon king. I’m not just imagining that, am I?”

Creating something uncontrollable to defeat something uncontrollable merely changed the shape of the uncontrollable entity, but didn’t improve the situation in any way. The beastman queen succumbed to that sort of thinking, but even if she were to voice her concerns here, she knew that Renya wouldn’t withdraw his demand anyway.

“Well, we can’t tell for sure yet.”

Renya had somehow guessed her thoughts anyway, but he deliberately played dumb. The queen closed her eyes as if having given up on life itself with her head still pointed towards the ceiling.

“Renya-san～, are you trying～ to be nasty～?”

“If you dislike it, I don’t have a problem if you let me turn down the cooperation, you know?”

Once Renya provokingly asked her, the archduchess realized that she wouldn’t be able to refuse Renya’s demand by herself, seeing how the other two didn’t object any further, and thus she didn’t say anything else while gritting her teeth in anger.

“Is it fine for me to consider this as all of you agreeing?”

“You can consider it as us being unable to stop you.”

“That’s life, I suppose.”

“Renya-san～, you dummy～”

It sounded like the three leaders felt the need to drop some inconsequential replies at the very end, but even so, Renya grinned as he knew that no further objections would come from them anymore.

“Guess it’s time to get pumped about this. We’ll create a wonderful, gaudy, and spectacular weapon for the sake of taking down the demon king and saving the inhabitants of this world.”

“If I consider the personnel and material to create that as well as the costs it will take, I feel like wanting to resign as emperor…”

“I should have just let that idiot play king. Now all my efforts to take him down have come to naught.”

“Renya-san～, you idiot～!!”

Each of the leaders voiced their grudges over this, but as far as Renya was concerned, it was unthinkable that he’d pay any attention to that. Even though everyone’s gazes had become reproachful, their glares felt like nothing more than a warm spring breeze to Renya. Feeling that the remaining discontent nesting his chest had been cleared away with this, he revealed a cheerful smile.

◆◇◆

—————- End of Part 2 —————-

“As I thought, it would be a bad idea to remove the fusion function,” Frau declared full of confidence while sitting at the head of the long table.

In response, the humans and elves, who seemed to be engineers, were all at their wits’ ends while sitting around the foot of the table.

“We will add a transformation and linking function to Ouu which is currently under construction. We will have around four destroyer-class ships follow Ouu and make it so that all of them can combine into one ~no.” Frau explained as if it was an awesome idea, but not one person in the room mentioned anything close to an approval.

“No good nano~” Frau cocked her head in confusion as the whole room was dominated by iron silence.

Mayria, who was sitting close to her, couldn’t endure this any longer and interjected with a somewhat grim expression on her face.

“What is the point of doing something like that?”

“It will allow us to use the mana pool of four destroyers and one battleship ~no!”

Frau declared cockily, reclining on her chair as if asking Mayria whether she was going to give up with this, but hearing her adversaries next words, she almost toppled over backwards alongside the chair.

“Wouldn’t it be fine to have them unified from the very start then?”

“Mayria-ane-sama, how could you say something like that ~no…”

Somehow managing to keep her balance, Frau averted the fate of a back-drop with her chair. After leaning somewhat forward, she placed her hands on the table’s edge and stared at Mayria. Mayria took on Frau’s look with a calm demeanor and made Frau fall over on the table with her next comment.

“In the first place, what are those destroyers you are speaking of?”

“You know battleships and yet you don’t know destroyers!? Your knowledge is full of holes~no!”

“It’s called a battleship because it’s a ship for the sake of fighting, correct? Going by that logic, a destroyer is called like that because its task is to destroy, right? But, both of them exist for the sake of battle, don’t they? So, wouldn’t it be just fine to name both battleships?”

“So it’s no good unless I start explaining from that part ~no?”

Renya was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room as an observer. Seeing Frau respond to Mayria with a drained voice and expression, he felt something akin to praise towards Mayria since he hadn’t expected that this sort of method to oppose Frau had existed.

Mayria had received the proper education to become the next archduchess of Trident Principality. When compared to Renya, she might fall flat, but compared to Shion, her big sister, her comprehensive abilities and memory were far superior. And yet, she possessed a character thirsting for knowledge, making it impossible for her to proceed with things as long as she didn’t comprehend them to some degree.

So what would happen if you assigned someone like Mayria as chaperone of the battleship development team?

The answer to that question was given right now in front of Renya’s eyes.

“Battleships and destroyers possess various differences, but generally speaking, the main differences are the existence of armored hulls and the types of armaments installed on the ship ~no.”

“In other words, you could say there is a difference in the usage itself between those vessels?”

“I think that fits the description ~no.”

“Okay, so what is the point in having those vessels with different uses combined then?”

If Frau’s opponent had been Shion, the conversation might have ended with Shion either accepting that she couldn’t understand all of it or her believing that it’d be no problem even if things deviated a bit, if she left everything in Frau’s hands. Or even if Shion harbored doubts about several points, Frau would only provide a simple explanation, believing that Shion wouldn’t understand half of it anyway, and move on with the main topic after just establishing the fact of actually having explained something.

“Mayria-ane-sama, mankind’s dreams are to be found in a fusion of warships ~no.”

“Are those dreams going to improve our military gains?”

Now that Mayria was Frau’s conversation partner, things were different. Because her average comprehensive power was high, she understood Frau’s explanation to an extent. Based on that, she questioned the things she didn’t understand.

If her opponent didn’t understand a thing of what she was saying, Frau would have likely muddled through with some random bullshit or abbreviated the explanation itself, but seeing how Mayria would realize that, she couldn’t pull any such stunts. As a result, Frau was forced to spend time and effort to explain everything to Mayria, and that hindered Frau from advancing the conversation as she pleased, meaning Mayria’s presence here clearly acted as deterrence.

On paper Mayria was participating as representative of the three leaders who were funding this whole project, but as far as visible from her exchange with Frau, you could clearly tell that she’d sent in to stop Frau from going ballistic.

“To begin with, the only one serving as mana source will be Renya. So how do you plan to operate five ships all at once?”

“We will add mana channels between the ships and make them share a common mana pool. The idea is to have them function as a mana network centered around Ouu ~no.”

“That’s pointless, isn’t it?”

“It’s not ~no. Going by the structure and armament of Ouu, it’s lacking in anti-aircraft and anti-ground-attack capabilities. Since it’d be bad to proceed like this, it’s necessary to have other ships flank Ouu to compensate for that lack ~no.”

Frau rattled the reasoning down awfully smoothly as if she had prepared an answer in advance after having anticipated being confronted with that question. But, Mayria mercilessly took this reply apart as well.

“In that case, I would suggest creating smaller ships with higher mobility. If the intent is for them to support Ouu against attacks from below and above, wouldn’t it be plenty to deal with it by preparing several devices that can fly for a limited time by using magic stones?”

“No way, I would have never expected that you, Mayria-ane-sama, would suggest an aircraft carrier ~no!?!”

“If it’s possible to prepare several dragoons as an alternative plan, I think using this method would also lower the costs. What do you think?”

“You even added a flavor of fantasy to it ~no!?”

‘If they consider adding a deck for aircrafts taking off from the ship, requesting assistance from the dragons, as Mayria mentioned, would likely be a huge help in lowering the costs and decreasing the space required on the ship itself,’ Renya assessed. ‘If there’s one problem it’d be the fact of Liaris currently being the sole existing dragoon whose appearance already had caused quite an uproar. If we now were to bolster those numbers significantly, it’s hard to imagine just how much of a disturbance that would cause. Also, it’s questionable whether we could get the dragons to help out to such an extent that they’d allow people to ride on their backs, but it’s not an issue that can’t be solved at all.

“If it’s necessary, should we do a quick calculation of how much cost-effectiveness this would bring?”

“You make this so difficult ~no…”

Mayria was so motivated about this that Frau got frustrated.

There was a reason for this. While Mayria was dealing with Frau in regards to this matter, the various paperwork pertaining to issues in the Kunugi Earldom were covered by human and elven officials. This was part of the agreement for Mayria to sit here. Neither Renya nor Frau knew about this as it was a secret agreement between Mayria, the archduchess, and the elven emperor, but with the two leaders having promised Mayria that they’d continue their support after this whole matter was done, depending on the results, it was more than enough reason for Mayria to go all-in on this since it’d lower her own burden significantly.

“Frau sure is being overwhelmed there.”

“May has become serious.”

Emil and Shion commented while watching the situation play out, sitting on either side of Renya. Renya had brought Shion along for some reason or another, but Emil should actually be sitting at the table. So, speaking of why she was acting as an onlooker together with Renya and Shion…

———– End of Part 3 ———–

“Since she’s trying to move on only after getting approval for each and every lil’ thing, it takes quite a bit of time. Things would proceed much faster if she’d simply done it without mentioning a word.”

“Emil, that’s the same method as the archduchess and the other two leaders used, isn’t it?”

“I think it’s kinda like losing a fly to catch a trout, though.”

Renya implied that Mayria should give it a rest because it merely upset Frau as the one on the receiving end of this sophisticated harassment, but Emil apparently didn’t quite get that part. Renya carefreely assumed that this way of thinking by the leaders would bring them closer to the way demons did stuff, if you assumed that Emil’s being a demon was the cause behind it, but he was immediately pulled back to reality by having his side poked.

“By the way, Renya, I happened to overhear a little something, you see?” Emil whispered with an awfully quiet voice while revealing a complacent smile for some reason.

Seeing that, Renya frowned, wondering where she was heading with this. He had a vague suspicion that it might be nothing decent anyway, and as if to feed his worry, Emil dropped a bomb, countering the low volume she was using to speak.

“Did you already finish choosing your betrothed?”

“Partner!? Give me the details on that story.”

Shion had picked up Emil’s question with her sharp ears, despite Renya sitting in-between. At once she tried to bring her body closer to Emil across Renya, but got forced back by him.

“Renya!? That story right now is of paramount importance…”

“You should have heard about it as well…so, does that mean you haven’t? Or did you simply forget? Her Highness the Archduchess supposedly said that she’s got the approval of the people involved.”

“Eh? Ah? Aah, umm, I remember. Yep, I do.”

For an instant Shion looked flabbergasted, but after receiving such an answer from Renya, she apparently recalled it somehow after searching her memory and quickly nodded several times. Renya felt that he might look like an absolute idiot to have thought about this matter fairly deeply, if she had forgotten the whole thing altogether at this point, but since you could also describe it as very normal for Shion, he decided to stop pursuing the matter any further.

“So, did you come to some sort of conclusion yet, Renya?”

The one getting a kick out of evilly pursuing the matter was Emil. As the emotions showing on her face weren’t limited to just interest, Renya was assaulted by a dire urge to make Emil shut up with force. But, he managed to suppress it with effort. After all, one of the potential candidates, Shion, was keenly watching Renya’s every move and word right next to Emil.

Renya couldn’t clearly define how Shion would react if he were to make Emil shut up by force, but the possibility that she’d interpret such an action as an attempt to gloss over a difficult reply with a show of violence wasn’t exactly low.

As such, he decided that he should answer here as honestly as possible, and thus answered Emile while paying attention to not show any agitation in his voice.

“I’m still deliberating it.”

“That’s rare for you, isn’t it? So you got trouble choosing, as expected?”

“No, it’s not like that. But, it’s nothing you can decide lightly either, is it?”

Renya wasn’t really all that amused since he felt like he was being provoked, but if he considered it closely, even Emil was one of those who was speaking and acting in a way as though she was interested in him. Once he thought of her questioning as a pretense to provoke him so that he’d feel mentally shaken for the sake of trying to draw out some sort of information from him, Renya’s feelings actually calmed down.

“It’s something you decide once in your life, right? So even I would think it over properly.”

“You sure are serious about this. Since no one’s saying that you’ve got to limit yourself to one partner, you’re free to choose as you like,” teased Emil.

Renya lowered his voice’s tone a bit and asked her with a very serious expression, “You want me to choose you?”

“T-That’s, well, you see…wait, wrong…this time it’s, umm….a talk about choosing from the Trident Principality and thus it should be unrelated to me, right?”

The effect was instantaneous as Emil clearly started to panic. Emil’s reaction, which included her face becoming bright red while she was having difficulties to form coherent sentences, was extremely novel and rare as far as Renya and Shion were concerned. Reflexively both ended up closely scrutinizing Emil’s face, which only worsened the degree of Emil’s confusion.

“W-Why has it turned out like that? Or rather, is something stuck to my face, you two? Partner, why are you smiling like that…Renya, you too. Could you please stop looking my way with that sort of appalled look?”

Emil confronted Shion and Renya in a hurry, but once she looked in the direction of the long table, where they had been having a discussion until moments ago, she immediately froze after realizing that the looks of all participants were directed at her.

“Master, Frau feels sorry to interrupt you while you are having such a pleasant chat ~no…”

With her eyebrows furrowed, Emil called out to Renya while gazing in alternation between Emil, who was lost for words out of sheer confusion, and Shion, who continued to stare at Emil with a knowing look.

“Frau doesn’t really want to say such things, but all of the engineers present here are people who haven’t been able to go back to their families because of the constant research or don’t have any family ~nano.”

Several engineers flopped down on the table while holding their chests as if having been stabbed by a blade due to Frau’s words.

Even Renya could somewhat grasp that the mental damage they had just suffered had to have been something quite devastating. Hence he became slightly worried whether they’d be able to recover from this blow, but Frau went on without heeding any attention to such matters.

“It’s poisonous for the eyes of such people to witness another guy flirting around while flanked by two beauties ~nano.”

Renya was about to reflexively apologize after being rebuked in such a way, but since he felt like it’d somehow be wrong to apologize here, he managed to suppress the words of apology slipping out of his lips at the last moment.

At the very least it shouldn’t be as though things had developed in the way as Frau said, but as far as he could tell from the looks on the engineers’ faces staring at him, Renya could immediately tell that they agreed with what Frau was saying, although how Renya himself was feeling remained a different matter altogether. Hence, Renya realized that he had only one choice of action he could take here.

He stood up from his seat, and urged the other two next to him with his eyes to follow his lead. Shion responded quickly while Emil’s reaction was rather slow as she apparently was still affected by the confusion from before, but she still stood up in the end. After making sure of that, Renya addressed Frau.

“It looks like it’s better for us to leave.”

“Frau will report back to you later ~no.”

Renya replied to Frau with a nod and left the meeting room while taking Shion and Emil with him. It wasn’t as though he had a particular destination in mind, but on top of not wanting to become a nuisance for the meeting participants, Renya didn’t think he’d be able to endure their looks for long, and thus he abode to his instinct telling him to get out from there as quickly as possible.

Seeing off Renya, Shion, and Emil, the engineers slowly shifted their eyes from the room’s entrance back to Frau, and carefully lent their ears to the countless suggestions that made them feel like they were at their wits’ end.

◆◇◆

———– End of Part 4 ———–

On the next day, Frau personally briefed Renya about the specifications of <Ouu>. It wasn’t as though Renya didn’t feel like they were taking it awfully easy, considering the existence of a demon king and the frequent occurrence of natural disasters that changed the land itself, happening at the edges of the continents, but once he thought calmly about it and considered the time and labor it’d take to mobilize tens of thousands soldiers and get them to march all the way to the demon king’s castle across the hard and long journey through the Miasma Forest, it was pretty obvious that continuing with what they were doing right now would be much more fruitful. As such Renya decided to stop worrying about those things himself, and instead leave those parts to the rulers like the archduchess or bureaucrats like Mayria.

“First off, Frau must inform you of something regrettable ~nano.”

Seeing Frau looking truly devastated while holding what appeared to be the written report in her hands, Renya felt like one of the worst-case scenarios had likely been avoided for some reason. While Renya assumed that Mayria had accomplished the task assigned to her, Shion sat in Renya’s office at the table, which Renya used to carry out his official duties, while swinging her feet back and forth.

“I’m pretty sure it must be good news then.”

“Shion-ane-sama, that’s terrible of you to say ~no.”

Frau looked like doom and gloom, but personally Renya shared Shion’s feelings on this. But, since he didn’t want Frau to find out, he prompted Frau to continue with her report using his eyes alone.

“It pains Frau to say, but the introduction of the transformation function has been postponed this time ~no.”

“I see.”

Renya didn’t believe that the function to transform a battleship mid-flight actually required a discussion in the first place, but limited himself to answering Frau curtly.

“More than the issue of exceeding the budget, I couldn’t quite persuade Mayria-ane-sama about the advantages of a battleship transforming into a humanoid shape ~no.”

To begin with, the warship under construction, <Ouu>, was mostly intended as troop transport. Of course, it’d still need a reasonable combat prowess itself, seeing how they planned to fly it all the way to the demon king’s castle. For this very reason, they went with the option of using a battleship for this task.

However, if that battleship were to transform into some sort of robot, it’d completely change the ship into something you’d have to call the final weapon.

I wonder how the demon king would feel about getting pummeled to death by a huge robot. In such a case, we might as well have the demon king’s castle transform into a humanoid robot as well so that they can decide the whole battle through a duel between big robots.

That idea crossed Renya’s head, but without mentioning a thing about it, Renya concentrated on the continuation of Frau’s report.

“Frau has some good news too ~no,” Frau’s expression completely changed, blossoming into a cheerful smile.

Shion lightly shrugged her shoulders and muttered with a low voice, “I suppose that one’s going to be the bad news then.”

“We have decided on building two accompanying warships with a length of 200 meters ~no. They will be treated as escort vessels of <Ouu> ~no.”

“Are they going to combine?”

“Of course ~nano.”

Frau nodded in a way as if wondering why Renya would even ask.

Renya could easily imagine that Mayria had no choice but to accept the fusion function in exchange for having Frau give up on the transformation function. Renya couldn’t quite tell what sort of influence this horse-trade might have on Mayria’s overall evaluation, but he sincerely hoped that it wouldn’t lead to any sort of misfortune for her.

Looking only at the result, the number of ships to be built had grown by two, even if Mayria managed to decrease the number of additional ship Frau wanted to build at first. This compromise would clearly increase the necessary funds and labor force, something that most certainly wouldn’t make the archduchess and the other two rulers happy at all, but just having the transformation function excluded should already be counted as a huge win. Renya decided that he had to put in a good word for Mayria if he got an opportunity to do so.

“Each of the escort vessels will have four dragoons while also supplementing anti-ground and anti-air capabilities for the main vessel ~no.”

“Seven more dragoons, if you include Liaris, huh? Will we be on time with raising those guys?”

Just as it’d be quite a challenge to make seven dragons cooperate, it’d likewise be a challenge to train riders capable of steering those dragons.

Although there was still a good amount of time left until the completion of the ships, Renya became worried whether the dragoons would be ready in time.

In response, Frau proudly stretched her back and answered, “Dra-kun and Keith will do their best ~no.”

Although believing that those two had drawn the short end, it was the problem of someone else in the eyes of Renya. Given that Frau had answered like this, Renya suspected that both parties had already accepted their fate, and seeing how they did, they now had no other option but to do their utmost.

“The escort vessels have been named <Mogami> and <Kumano>. Please keep that in mind ~no.”

“Where did you pick up those names?”

“Frau would love to ask the Lost-san of the past ~no.”

According to Frau, those names had been noted down like scribbles in the corner of the blueprint of <Ouu>, using this world’s language. Of course, the scribblings didn’t contain any information about what sort of ships were supposed to be assigned to those names, so they simply picked those names randomly.

“With this it has been decided that the three warships will be launched into the war against the demon king as one unit ~no!”

“You mentioned a combination function. What sort of combination are they going to perform?” Shion asked out of pure curiosity.

Frau drew one paper out of the stack in her hand, and placed it on the table in front of Shion. Renya assumed that this was a draft Frau had likely drawn herself. It depicted what would happen in case the three ships fused.

“Frau didn’t feel like making it overly complicated ~no. The two escort vessels will simply attach themselves to the two sides of <Ouu> in a normal way ~nano.”

As soon as Renya saw the drawing, it reminded him of a small canoe that had two supports installed on either side to prevent it from toppling over. He could guess that it’d grant quite a bit of stability on the sea, but Renya couldn’t quite tell what meaning it’d have to do this when all three ships were airborne.

“By using the mana pool of all three ships, the sorcery cannons installed at the bow of <Ouu> will become able to use 200% of their normal output ~no!”

“Hey, wait a sec. What did you say just now?” Renya asked, feeling like he’d heard something very disturbing there.

Instead of replying, Frau retrieved yet another piece of paper from her stack, and placed it on the table. According to that paper, the cannon barrel, which was installed as if penetrating straight through the long hull of <Ouu>, ended at the bow with a wide gaping muzzle. The cannon’s base reached almost all the way to the stern. Back there, an exclusive generator for the cannon was installed. Apparently it was planned for the mana of all three ships to directly flow into that generator in case the three ships combined.

“Based on space, it would be impossible to achieve 200% with just one ship ~no. That is why Frau tearfully gave up on the transformation function, and settled for the escort vessels. The output is a number we will be able to somehow reach by appropriating the mana of those two ships ~nano. Frau would like to be praised for this achievement ~no!”

“What sort of power output are we talking about here?”

“That is…Frau cannot tell without trying to fire it ~no. The cannon barrel will be extremely long, so we won’t be able to perform any test firing in advance ~no.”

After all, the barrel was scheduled to almost penetrate all the way from one end of the 1000-m-long ship to the other. Logically, it wasn’t a weapon which you could simply set up somewhere and try firing it as a test.

From Renya’s point of view, he hated the idea of using weapons in live battle without having tested them beforehand. And although he didn’t believe that Frau would likely make some error with this cannon, he still felt somewhat anxious as it was only possible that something could go awry in the worst case.

“Can’t you do anything about this?”

“Do not worry ~no. Please believe in Frau ~no.”

———— End of Part 5 ————

Frau said something like that with a weird tempo and rhythm, as if being cursed or something. Shion didn’t stop frowning upon Frau’s antics, but Renya halfway gave up on pursuing the matter any further, and sighed lightly.

Certainly, it’s nothing with a scale that would allow for easy testing, and if it’s impossible to fire some test shots, we have no choice but to trust in Frau’s skills.

Of course it wasn’t as if the option of not installing it was off the table, but if Renya enforced that, the necessity of the warships linking up would vanish altogether. Naturally, this would pry open a place for Mayria to attack and it was also expectable that it’d worsen Frau’s mood significantly as she had said that she couldn’t remove the fusion feature.

If Renya would be asked whether a misfiring by the cannon or a degradation of Frau’s mood would be worse, he’d opt for the latter without any doubt.

“I won’t pursue the matter down to its core, but…make sure to properly plan out alternatives for all eventualities, okay?”

“Frau will make sure that you can disconnect and purge it from the hull in the worst case ~no,” answered Frau casually.

Shion immediately confronted her with a question, “You can do something like that so easily?”

“You just need to change the gun barrel and generator into different units and set it up so that they can be dumped in one go ~no. You can leave all of this in Frau’s capable hands ~no.”

“By the way, can I also ask what would happen if you purge a huge weapon like that while it’s running amok from a flying warship?”

Frau brooded for a while over Shion’s question. Apparently having sorted the answer in a mind, she glared into empty space while responding, “Just the weight of the gun barrel, coupled with its falling speed, will likely lead to devastating damages, but in the worst case, if the cannon is dumped after going berserk when having its power output raised to 200%…Frau believes it will change the terrain on a wide range ~nano.”

“That’d become a major incident, no?” Shion asked for confirmation, apparently unable to completely process it because she was told all of this so indifferently and neutrally.

Renya and Frau simultaneously nodded.

“All I can do is to pray that it won’t turn out like that.”

“No problem ~no. After all, we plan to fire this sorcery cannon at full power only after entering the demon country and encountering a wall or for breaching the demon king’s castle ~nano. Even if we purge it at such a time while it runs amok, the damage will be limited to either the Miasma Forest or demon territories ~nano.”

Shion was unsure whether she could really agree with Frau’s train of thought that it was no problem as long as the damage didn’t befall the habitats of the elves, humans, or beastmen. Of course, if the damage hit demon land or the monster-infested Miasma Forest, it wouldn’t hurt anyone even if it led to major damages, but Shion hesitated to approve of it readily. And at the same time, another worry cropped up within her.

“Wouldn’t the warships flying close-by also get damaged in such a case?”

“We would have all the personnel on board of those ships evacuate on the <Oou>, abandoning the escort ships. At the same time, Frau expects that the defense barrier planned to be deployed around the <Oou> will be able to endure the blast, if it’s Master’s mana ~nano.”

“At this point, I’m starting to wonder whether it wouldn’t be much easier to have it run amok and drop it close to the demon king’s castle.”

“That is a bad idea.”

It was Renya who denied Shion’s suggestion which was based on her believing that the power of the berserk cannon would be enough to blow away the demon king alongside his castle. Shion considered it a potentially good idea, and thus tilted her head in confusion upon having it rejected outright.

“Seeing how we don’t have any clear estimates on how much damage this would cause, I don’t feel like giving this a test. Besides, if it leads to damage that completely erases the demons’ continent…it’s quite possible that it’ll lead to damage to that beneath our feet. In such a case, the demon king will be the least of our problems, you know?”

“That means…ah, that, huh?”

Shion clapped her hands together after remembering the being lurking in the space between the continents and the bottom of the world.

If the accidental discharge of the sorcery cannon held enough power to eradicate the demon continent, it was quite logical to anticipate a certain amount of damage also spreading to the being which was partially below that continent. Something at the level of a scratch or two would be one thing, but if it should lead to heavy injuries, that being could potentially start thrashing around. In such a case, it was quite thinkable that all the continents would perish in an instant.

“But, if you claim that, even firing that cannon at the demon king’s castle would be dangerous as well…”

“We will pay attention to the firing angle ~no. Frau also holds no interest in obtaining a bad reputation over having destroyed an entire continent ~nano.”

Frau believed that the attack probably wouldn’t reach the being below the continent if they possessed proper control over the cannon, but it wasn’t as though she could completely exclude all possibilities.

Renya and Shion ended up wondering whether they shouldn’t instead thwart this incident from occurring by allowing Frau her transformation function, but the specifications of the battleship had already been decided, making it too late now to add any fundamental alterations to the plans.

“Well, keep it at bay. I guess I’ll leave it in your hands. Even if I were to say this or that at this stage, it wouldn’t change much anyway.”

Renya went with the option of giving up on it early on and tried to conclude the whole matter as if the discussion was over, but the next topic Frau broached was like dropping a bomb.

“By the way, Master, did you already decide on your engagement partner ~no?”

“…How is that related to the things we have been talking about until now?”

In contrast to Shion who blushed upon hearing Frau’s new topic, Renya looked as if he had just bitten into dozens of bitter bugs.

Disregarding that, Frau provided the reason as to why she had asked, “There will be an unveiling for th <Oou> once it’s complete ~no. Her Majesty the Archduchess stated that they would hold the engagement ceremony between Earl Kunugi and his chosen partner at the same moment ~no.”

“…Adding even more troublesome shit…”

“The preparation of your attire is perfect, but since we also need to prepare a dress for your partner, Frau would like to be told as soon as you have made up your mind ~no.”

While blotting out his anxiety over just what she was making him to wear with feelings close to a light irritation against being confronted with such an annoying topic and feelings of embarrassment, Renya suddenly looked to his side, just to meet Shion’s eyes, who seemed to be expecting something very much.

After pondering for a while what it might be, Renya answered to Frau with a feeling as if waving a white flag, “Please take Shion’s measurements. She’ll likely become the partner in question.”

“Renya!”

With her face brightening up, Shion tried to leap at Renya, but he stopped her by catching her face with a hand. While Shion screamed to the pain of him quickly clawing down on her face, Renya told her with the tone of a stern instructor.

“Now listen. It is definitely true that I don’t think badly of you, and it’s also true that I stole a kiss from you in the past. It’s not like I’m saying that I’ll take responsibility here, but rather, I believe that you would be my choice, if I’m forced to choose between you three anyway. But, ultimately we’ll be still at the stage of betrothal. Don’t forget that, okay?”

“Isn’t a tiny bit fine…?”

“I feel like you’ll become a drag, if I go easy on you.”

“Uuhh…”

After waiting for Shion to calm down somewhat, Renya let go of her face. Shion groaned while looking somewhat unhappy about this whole arrangement, but she didn’t attempt to leap at Renya any further. Renya perceived that she appeared to have some self-awareness, but as if losing to the pressure of Shion’s constant, reproachful glare, he added with his eyes darting around, “Well, umm…once I make the final decision, I will…overlook things to some degree.”

“Oki, let’s do it like that.”

“Good, then restrain yourself for the time being. Especially if we’re in front of others.”

“Got it.”

Renya felt that it’d be bad to leave things as they were due to Shion nodding awfully obediently. He placed the hand, which he had used to grab her face, on Shion’s head and gently stroked it.

While watching Shion grinning broadly due to Renya’s caressing, Frau felt left out of the loop and whispered, “Frau guesses it’s time for Master to also pay the piper, huh?”

That murmur apparently didn’t reach Shion, but Renya’s ears clearly picked it up. Due to Renya’s cheeks blushing so faintly that you wouldn’t be able to even tell and him looking somewhat troubled, Frau released a low, teasing and evil laughter, and quietly left the office so as to not disturb the two any longer.

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