Foreigner Volume 8, Chapter 162

Volume 8 Chapter 162, Steady Advance ~ 15

　Five days have passed since the explosion and collapse of the Chalk Tower, the symbol of the Academy of the Wise, and the crushing of the Strahltraun, the pride of Ares, by a rock ― the mysterious events that struck Ares, the leader of the 13 City-States.

　Two days after the incident, the Senate of Ares announced that Graham Coogan, the High Mentor of the Academy of Wise, had failed in his ritual magic and caused an explosion in the Chalk Tower, summoning a huge rock into the castle as a result of his death-defying attempt to control the rampaging magic power.

　On the same day, the Academy of Wise announced the death of Graham Coogan, apologizing for the trouble he had caused to the country of Ares.

　At first, the citizens of Ares were concerned that the death of Graham Coogan was the work of a demon race, but fortunately few people were harmed, making the two announcements more convincing. And since the person who had caused the earthquake was an old sorcerer who had served as the High Mentor for 30 years, the longest period of time in history, and since he had reported after the fact after causing the magical tremor, the citizens were somewhat skeptical about the possibility. The citizens were somewhat suspicious, but at least they were convinced ― or perhaps they were too scared to do anything unless they thought that the damage was caused by the former High Mentor Sei since there was so much damage and so much mystery.

　The king himself announced that the people of the castle were able to escape just in time because he risked his own life to stop the outburst, and since there was no hindrance to the operation of the state, the confusion at the citizen level was also minimal.

　The newly appointed High Mentor, Diki Parcell, apologizes to the country of Ares for the death of the previous High Mentor, Graham Coogan, and announces that he will mourn the death of his predecessor at an academy funeral. However, it will also be a modest one, not in keeping with Coogan's legacy. This is in light of the failure to destroy the Chalk Tower and the Royal Castle.

　At present, there is no royal palace in Ares, and the king is having difficulty finding a temporary residence under the hill. In the future, a royal palace will be built on a huge monolith that fell on top of the small hill where the royal palace, the Strahltraun, once stood, but of course, this will not happen overnight. It will take several decades of planning with the help of famous architects.

　At the moment, the site of the palace is off-limits, and citizens and travelers can only admire the huge rock sitting on top of the hill from a distance.

　Although the bigwigs at the Academy of Wise, the Royal Palace, and the Senate are in a state of confusion, ordinary citizens have nothing to do with it as long as it does not affect their daily lives. Citizens and travelers in Ares look at the hill where the Royal Castle used to stand as a new sightseeing spot.

　Among them was a five-and-a-half-foot-tall swordsman.

　His cloak was of a design not often seen in this part of the country. He must have come from far away. The swordsman was not even looking at it but was simply measuring the size of a rock on top of a small hill. There were soldiers, probably from the army of Ares, standing guard around the rock, and he was able to roughly calculate the size of the rock from the size of the soldiers.

「The width is about 20 majors (180m―1 major is 9 m), length is 50 majors, and thickness is ......10 majors, I think.」

　The man said nothing to anyone. It was not the kind of murmur that would be heard by the citizens and travelers around him who were also looking up at the bedrock on top of the hill. It was just a murmur for confirmation.

『...... Yeah, I'm sure of it.』

　Another man's voice echoed in the swordsman's mind. It was a 【Telepathic】 art. The man's voice sounded as if he had understood what the swordsman was saying, and the swordsman nodded silently.

『Even if Graham Coogan were the one who lead the ritual with a hundred practitioners, he would never have been able to create a rock this big. An unintentionally large art can be the result of an outburst, but it would never be this large, as expected.』

　The man who is a swordsman changes his position and looks up at the bedrock with a small agreement with the voice that echoes in his mind. He wondered if there was anyone in the world who could create a rock formation of that size. For the swordsman, this was also a question.

　The art of making clods appear is a rudimentary earth-based art. The difficulty level is low, but the amount of earth produced depends simply on the amount of magic power used, and if one can produce a box-shaped clay tablet one foot (30 cm) on a side, he or she is recognized as a beginner in the art of earth.

　The most that a practitioner with advanced qualities can produce with the expenditure of almost all his or her magic power is a box-shaped lump of earth measuring 10 majors square. It is simply a lump of earth. It is hard to imagine how much magic power would be required to create a rock of that density.

『Leia-chan wasn't that good at earth-based sorcery. As expected, she can't pull off a trick like this.,......, So, is it as predicted? Hmmm... 』

　If there was anyone here who could handle advanced spirit arts, they would have been surprised. The swordsman didn't make any unusual movements, but a small range of magical tremors occurred.

　Fortunately, there were no other practitioners nearby who had reached a level where they could detect the magical tremor. The swordsman blended easily into the crowd, blending in with the people around him who were busy with sightseeing.

　Leaving the place where he could look up at the high hill where the Royal Castle used to be, the man followed the voice from the shadows and walked through the city of Ares. He arrived at a mid-level inn.

『Let's see......this inn, huh. If possible, check if you can get a corner room on the right side of the third floor.』

　The swordsman did as he was told, entered the inn, and secured a room just as he was told. Fortunately, there was a room available ― although they questioned him staying alone in a four-person room.

　As soon as he entered the room, two figures emerged from the man's shadow. 【Shadow Diving】 ― an abhorrent art that can only be used by 【Immortal Family】.

　Emerging from the shadows were a man and a woman. Both were dressed in long robes, and their skin was strangely pale. The skin tone is indicative of an immortal.

　The man in the long robe looks a little reluctant as soon as he checks inside the room.

「I was expecting to find some residuals, but I guess it's a 【Grant Goods】?」

　It is said that when sorcery is so powerful that it causes a magical tremor, a subtle fluctuation remains for a while, but in this day and age, there should be no way to know what that fluctuation is.

　However, the man in the long robe sat down on the bed with a rather bored look on his face. He was wearing a hood over his eyes, so you could not see his expression. Both the swordsman and the woman in the long coat wait silently for the man's instructions.

「Granfeld-kun」

「Ha」

「Gather information on the recent anomalies that have been occurring here, and try to find out what's going on.」

「As you wish.」

　The swordsman bows condescendingly, quickly turns himself around and leaves the room.

　The remaining two people were a man and a woman dressed in long robes―and the woman, with a seductive movement, flung off her long robe and brushed up against the man. Underneath the long robe, the woman's body is adorned with sensational clothing and limbs. Despite her strangely pale skin and jet-black hair, and her sexy scent, the man showed no particular reaction.

　The woman's supple, white-fish-like fingertips try to open the chest of the man's long robe.

「Yuki」

「Yes」

　The man raises his voice ― the woman replies but does not stop her hand. Trying to undress the man half-naked, the man finally takes her hand and makes her stop moving.

「I'm still okay.」

　The woman reluctantly leaves at the sound of the man's voice with a bitter smile. The man, as if not thinking anything of the woman's wonderfully bewitching gesture that would have made a normal man leap at her, smoothly shushes her and then leaves her.

「I'd like you to get some information from the appropriate authorities in this country about any unusual events that have taken place recently in this area through 【Hypnosis】 or other means.」

「Understood」

　The man who had been stripped half naked had a pale skin tone and a surprisingly well-developed chest with an intricate reddish-brown pattern on it. The man added, adjusting the chest of his jacket to hide it.

「Clean up the mess as usual.」

「I understand.」

　The woman, too, picked up the cloak she had taken off and bowed politely as if she had no idea that the man had thrown her out. The next moment, there is a boun sound, and the woman's figure disappears ― or, more precisely, a bat flutters out of the place where she seemed to have disappeared. The man stood up and opened a small window, and the bat, as if to gain an advantage, went out through the crack in the window to the front.

　Looking out the window at the cityscape in the approaching dusk, the man sat down on the bed and pulled out a sheet of parchment from his pocket. It was a map of the world.

　He put his finger on a large mountain range in the west-central part of the continent and traced it westward. The first place the man put his finger on was a place called 『The Dragon's Back』. This is where the largest mountain range in the world is located.

「Is this the route? So, it's around Galhassan or Gordo. ......」

　The man finally pointed to the place where the men are now, Ares, the eastern gateway to the 13 city-states and one of the largest cities on this continent, home to the Academy of the Wise. The man strokes his chin as he traces several paths leading from The Dragon's Back to Ares.

　Then, the man's finger fell with a thump on another spot. The map was drawn in all black, but there was a diagonal line running across it. It means a large forest or woodland.

「I'd love to check out the Dark Green Forest, but ...... elves are a pain in the ass. For now, the place where the explosion was said to have occurred, and..」

　The man who was stroking the map stopped moving. If there had been a third person present, they would have been horrified.

　The index finger of the man's right hand, which was stroking the map, suddenly fell off from the root as if it had rotted away.

　No blood flowed from the base of the finger, the broken finger, or from either wound. There was only a lump of flesh, like the cross-section of a sausage ― well, not exactly. The section is squirming and peristaltic.

　The man takes a breath, picks up his broken finger, presses it against the cross-section, and waits.

　After a few minutes, the man picks up the map with his right hand and wraps it around his wrist as if nothing had happened.

「...... not yet, I can still endure it」

　The man muttered in an empty, dark room.

　There was a sense of loneliness in his voice.　

　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

　As darkness approached, Satoru turned off the road a little and chose a spot where there were many trees, and there he planted a tree, the child of the World Tree. If they continue on in the dark for one more koku (four hours), they will be able to reach their destination, the checkpoint, but there are no streetlights on the roads of this world. The moon and starlight were the only light they could rely on. They can prepare lights, but the night is the time of monsters, beasts, and Immortal Families. Compared to his original world, the night is extremely dangerous. Unless you are a traveler, you should not walk at night.

　And horses can't keep running. Rather than take a chance, they decided to prepare for the night camp.

　Although the child of the World Tree is useful, this item is not well known to the public. It would be conspicuous if a huge tree grew in an unintentional place, so it could not be suddenly sprouted in a crowded place.

　After the tree is grown by Leia's magic power, the magical slaves prepare for the night camp. Rico made a fire at the foot of the World Tree, Minerva and Liz went to gather firewood, Isolde took care of the horses, and Solor prepared the laundry.

　Satoru would then have to wait until dinner was ready. But today, Satoru had a little more purpose.

　He cut a nearby plant that resembled madake bamboo, used sorcery to remove the water, and then deftly ripped the bamboo with a knife. Leia, who was not involved in the preparation of the meal, looked at him curiously as he dug a hole and made a cut with his multipurpose knife.

「What are you making, my Lord?」

「A bamboo dragonfly. It's an old-fashioned toy from my world.」

「Hoo」

　Satoru knows that there is no other toy in this world like the bamboo dragonfly, as he has seen. He, too, is not from the same generation, but in the past, Satoru has participated in several hands-on learning programs at the facility where Alice lives, and he has learned how to make bamboo dragonflies. He had even made several of them unsuccessfully at Alice's request. He manages to recall his fading memory and dexterously carves them out with two knives.

「I hope it works.」

　Trying to dig a hole to put the shaft through at the end, it was not so convenient with a multipurpose knife without a sharp knife, and struggling to make a hole, he twisted the shaft and checked many times if it was at the right angle. It seemed that they had just finished preparing dinner, and all eyes were on Satoru's work.

「Done, and ......」

　He holds the bamboo dragonfly between his two hands and rubs his hands together vigorously to send it flying. The bamboo dragonfly flies away with a buuun sound.

「W-Wow」

「OK, it worked out well」

　The bamboo dragonfly flew with Rico's cheer, and after flying in the sky for a while, it happened to fall down near Satoru. He picks it up and smiles proudly at the slaves.

「Ohhh, ...... it was flying. And what about magic power?」

「I'm not using magic power at all」

　Satoru spins the bamboo dragonfly with his fingertips.

「So this one flew through the air because of the spinning force.」

　He puts it between his hands again and sends the bamboo dragonfly flying with great vigor. Everyone follows the flying bamboo dragonfly with their eyes. All the slaves except Satoru rolled their eyes in surprise.

　This time, a bamboo dragonfly crumbled into the bushes, and Liz went to pick it up, although she was nervous to do so.

「It was just a hand-rubbed spin, so it became weaker as time went by. So it lost its power to fly, and that's why it fell.」

「Hou, hou.」

「What if we make that thing bigger and give it the power of rotation all the time?」

　Solor and Leia nodded their heads in agreement.

「I see, so it can float in the air.」

　Satoru took the bamboo dragonfly that Liz had picked up and sent it into the air once more. Isolde looked at it with a blank expression, but Rico, Liz, and Minerva looked somewhat excited. Rico picked up the bamboo dragonfly that had flown in the sky for a while. She turned her attention to Satoru.

「Hey, can I try it?」

　Satoru nods lightly.

「Sure. It might be difficult until you get the hang of it.」

　It was made to convey the concept of a propeller in an easy-to-understand way, but it seems to have attracted more interest than Satoru had imagined.

「Minerva, too~」

「I want to try it too!」

　Minerva and Liz continued, and Satoru smiled.

「In order, okay.」

　Satoru starts to make another one, while laughing at the three of them who are swarming around the bamboo dragonfly, saying "wai-wai-wai" while ignoring the meal they have made. The way they were looking, it would be quicker to make another one or two.

　Using leftover scraps of wood, Satoru made a precise mark in the center of the dragonfly and ran his knife along the bamboo fibers.

「This one has a distinctive wing shape. See the twist?」

「Oh, it's true.」

　First, Satoru cut both sides of the front only and show them to Leia. The rough part is a knife taken from Leia's labyrinth. The fine parts are adjusted with the knife from the multipurpose knife. After the front side is adjusted, the back side is also shaved to make it thinner evenly.

「It's difficult ......!」

　They tried to make it fly by watching and imitating, but it didn't go well. All three of the three interested parties seem to be having a hard time getting the hang of it.

　At Satoru's side, Leia, Solor, and Isolde are watching Satoru's work. While showing the finished blade part to the three, Satoru begins struggling to drill a hole in the center again.

「So by making it this shape, by rotating it, you're sucking in air from above and spitting it out below.」

「Hahaaa .......Speaking of this toy, so why don't you tell us about this?」

「The concept of a helicopter. See, I told you I was going to teach you about the propeller. This is it.」

　Solor peeks at Satoru's hand with an expression of admiration on her expressionless face. Isolde has a serious expression on her face. Leia scratched her forehead with her fingertips.

「It's not the same as a balloon, is it?」

「A balloon stores warmed air in a large bag. When you burn wood, the smoke rises into the sky. As I explained briefly before, the smoke and the warmed air are lighter than the air around us right now. That's why it floats.」

　What Satoru is talking about is a hot air balloon. Leia must have remembered the balloon from the various drawing forms that were shown to the magical slaves as models for the airship.

　She nodded in understanding of Satoru's explanation.

「There was a scholar who proposed the concept of hot air.....I see」

「That's easy to understand.」

　Solor nodded broadly. In this world, sorcery can take care of everything. The principles of sorcery have never been understood, and ideas such as chemical reactions are almost nonexistent. There were scholars who examined various reactions in the late days of the Ancient Magical Kingdom, but all their research results were burned to ashes during the Seven Days Disaster.

　With a "wham" sound, a bamboo dragonfly flew into the air.

「Minerva got it~! All you have to do is to put it in your palm, like this, and just whoosh and poof!」

「I-I don't understand, Minerva-san」

　It seems that Minerva was the first to get the hang of it. However, Minerva's explanations were onomatopoeic, like a certain baseball team's manager emeritus for life, and not much of an explanation. While watching the fuss over the magical slaves with a wry smile, Satoru painstakingly punched a hole in the center of the other wing he made.

「This world is easy.」

「Why is that?」

　Satoru muttered to himself, to which Leia immediately responded. Satoru's words came as a surprise to Leia since she had seen from time to time that the world in which Satoru lived had more advanced technology in a variety of fields.

「For example, internal combustion engines require energy. It can be oil or refined air, but it is also heavy and takes up a lot of space. In this world, however, we only need magic power, an invisible force, such as magic stones. This is easy.」

　Speaking of cars, you don't need a gas tank. The reality is that the majority of rockets and other vehicles sent into space are propulsion. However, if you use magic power in this world, you don't need to think about that. A gemstone that can be held in the palm of one's hand is all that is needed. Also, the part that corresponds to the engine can be made from various gems, which also saves labor.

　It is a delicate line whether bamboo dragonflies will be made in this world or not. In the days of the Ancient Magical Kingdom, some toys were filled with magic power, but there are almost no such toys left in this age. In a world where the basic idea is to use magic power, it is difficult to imagine using the power of nature. The best they can come up with is a windmill. Satoru thought about it for a moment.

「There were windmills, even in this world.」

「They are used to grind wheat into flour. And they are used as defense facilities against monsters and the like.」

　I see Satoru thought to himself. In this world, most buildings are made of wood and earth. It is better if sun-dried bricks are used, and facilities made of durable stone or baked bricks are used only for important facilities at most. And most windmills are made of stone. They are probably sufficient to house a village's worth of people and protect them from monsters and other attackers.

　On the other hand, if there are windmills, then gears must be used, Satoru thinks.

「Anyway. The idea is the opposite of windmill blades. The blades of a windmill are designed to catch the wind easily, yet still rotate, right?」

「――I see. Does it mean that the device is designed to float in the sky using the wind?」

「Yes.」

　Satoru nodded broadly in acknowledgment of Solor's conviction. Satoru understands what a lift is, but he does not know enough to explain it.

　Leia seems to have understood it after thinking about it for a bit, but Isolde still seems to have a bit of a hard time understanding it.

「The world Milord was in is quite an extraordinary one, isn't it?」

　Isolde's were surprised. She knows that Satoru is from another world, but she doesn't know anything about that other world.

「Instead, the world I was from doesn't have sorcery or magic power. That's what we have here, which is why scientific chemistry hasn't developed very well. Well, it's a difficult place.」

　He managed to twist the shaft into the hole he pried open. Now he just has to make sure it's properly right-angled.

　The three flying the finished product. Rico and Liz failed again, and Minerva is flying it high again.

「Where are you flying it~!」

「I don't know where it's going to fly!」

　Rico is complaining that it got caught on a branch of the World Tree and stopped falling. Rico's face is smiling as she uses her 【Light Work】 to quickly climb up the branch and retrieve the stuck bamboo dragonfly while complaining. Liz seems to be seriously studying the situation by repeatedly rubbing her palms together.

「...... It looks like they are having fun.」

「I'm glad they enjoyed it.」

　Leia laughs with amazement at the sight of the children enjoying themselves while squealing with delight. Minerva is the oldest of the slaves in terms of appearance.

「Isn't a boomerang a weapon?」 [ブーメラン/Boomerang]

「Buumeran? What is that?」 [ぶうめらん]

　Satoru asks Isolde, who seems to be the most knowledgeable about weapons and the like, but she doesn't give him a clear answer. Thinking that the proper nouns might be different, he tried to draw a figure of a beak type or a three-bladed type on the ground, but Isolde shook her head from side to side.

「No, I've never seen one. I've seen four-bladed simple throwing weapons and a round ring called a Moonring Blade」

　When I heard "four-bladed simple throwing weapon," I thought, "Isn't that a shuriken? Satoru thinks. Would a Moonring Blade be a Chakram? Whether Rico or Isolde often uses it as a hidden weapon, it looks like a long needle or a knife.

「Boomerangs can be playthings too, but they are more difficult to balance than a bamboo dragonfly. If you make it well made and throw it well, it'll come back to your hand.」

「Hoo......」

　Isolde, being a swordswoman only, seems to be interested in throwing weapons. However, compared to bamboo dragonflies, which can be made roughly, boomerangs are not so easy to make. Especially when it comes to the type that returns to your hand.

「Flying is a balance between weight and other factors.」

　Satoru tried flying a newly made bamboo dragonfly on a trial run―a bamboo dragonfly soaring through the evening sky with a whirring sound.

「Oh, it's flying again!」

「It's amazing!」

　Rico and Liz cheer.

　It would normally be a bad idea to teach the skills of the original world in this way, but Satoru thinks that this is fine. If everything is not done by the book, it would be stifling.

　By the time Rico and Liz got the hang of it, the dinner they had just made was getting cold.

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