Volume 9 Chapter 186, Demonic Dragon ~ 01
In the sky at dusk, a strange object, clearly different from a bird, is flying in the sky.
It is an iron object with a strange shape. It is a strange-looking object that cuts through the sky in a leisurely manner while emitting a strange presence.
The airship Yamato.
The only airship in the world, created by the technology of 『Black Bear』 Vance of Arsweta, who is considered one of the best craftsmen of this time, and the knowledge and the vast magic power of 『Foreigner』 Satoru. That is the true identity of this mysterious flying object.
Its captain is Satoru, a large otherworldly man who has achieved a feat that could not be accomplished in the modern era: the grant of a flying ship.
「It's more comfortable than I imagined.」
Satoru was very satisfied with this space prepared by Vance, as it was more comfortable than he had expected.
There was no swaying like a carriage, and yet the speed was more than that of a carriage. There is only the sound of the wind and the occasional creaking of steel. From Satoru's point of view, the lack of engine noise gave him a strange sensation, but that was due to the power of sorcery, a power that did not exist in his original world. Every time there was a squeaking sound, the slaves looked a little nervous, but as time went by, they got used to it. The bolts and nuts used for fastening are much stronger than riveting.
However, the Yamato must be filled with magic power every two kokus (eight hours). The magic stone used has a soul value of 300, and although Satoru, Leia, Solor, and Minerva can fill it, Satoru is afraid of overfilling it, and Minerva is unfamiliar with the rijutsu and art, so the job belongs to Leia or Solor.
「Somehow, Minerva's body feels so fluffy and uncomfortable~」
It was Minerva, the daughter of the king of the sky, the flying dragon, who screamed inside the ship. She was not using her own wings, but was walking in the air on an airship something she was not used to? The beautiful woman, who has not been able to return to her flying dragon form because she carried a special child in her belly and continues to stay in human form, looks a little pale and is slumped over the bearskin in the living space.
「You'll get used to it. Here, drink some water.」
「Mmmm~.」
Satoru offers Minerva a canteen of water filled with magic power, but Minerva makes a small whimpering noise. Minerva was making small gulps of water, probably because she felt like throwing up if she put something in her mouth. Satoru smiled a little and took a mouthful of water from the canteen himself, then suddenly put his lips on Minerva.
Minerva rolls her eyes but swallows the water that has been passed from mouth to mouth. Satoru does not even let his tongue get involved. Minerva, who is currently prohibited from having sex, cannot be rutted carelessly.
Their lips parted, and Minerva breathed a gasp. Her eyes are bewitchingly wide. She's one step away from going into heat―that was close, Satoru thinks.
「Are you feeling better?」
「Yup~!」
「Well, take it easy and lie down.」
Minerva rubs her cheek against Satoru's shoulder and smiles. After letting Minerva do as she pleased for a while as if to soothe her, Satoru stepped toward the cockpit when she was satisfied.
The cruising speed is about 40 kilometers per hour. It is about 7,000 miles (about 9,450 km) to Nevis, the sacred mountain where the Holy Dragon, Feather Dragon, resides. It would take about 10 days if they continued to fly without sleep or rest. Since Solor has Leia, a being who does not need to sleep, a 24-hour flight would not be a problem. However, Satoru had also determined that it would be hard for them to fly 24 hours straight right away because they were not used to the environment.
「How's it going?」
「It's going well.」
Liz, who is currently acting as the pilot, looked back at Satoru and smiled. The pilot's seat has only a wooden chair and a pedestal on which a magic stone is mounted for control, and the front of the seat is almost half made of glass, allowing the pilot to see the ground. Satoru peeked in and felt a little dizzy.
「Oohh ...... it's pretty scary in this way.」
「Is it? I'm having fun.」
Satoru is not afraid of heights, but this Yamato is currently sailing at an altitude of about 4,000 meters above the ground, just to be on the safe side. Looking at the mountainside in the evening from there, even if you are not afraid of heights, you may feel a little fear, but Liz seems to be really enjoying it.
If they go any higher, the temperature will drop and the pressure difference will be frightening. On the other hand, if they lower the altitude, they might be discovered by other people. The mountainous area of Arsweta, known as the Dragon's Claw, has some mountains that are 6,000 meters high. It must be fun to be able to freely maneuver this airship as if weaving through these steep mountains.
「If you get tired, just tell me, all right?」
「Okay」
Controlling an airship does not require much magic power, but it does require a certain amount of concentration. It is just like driving a car. However, there is a big difference in that you don't need a steering wheel or gas pedal to operate it, you just think about it. In this aspect alone, it seems to be more advanced than the modern Earth where Satoru lived.
In the living space, the slaves are spending their time as they please.
Isolde is in the middle of her training. She is in the middle of doing sit-ups. It looks like a tearful effort, but she is probably uncomfortable in an environment where she cannot move her body freely. The space is not too small, but it is too big to swing a sword.
「Errr......These words mean...... hmmm? Where is this coming from?」
「It extends to the context before and after. With this one sentence affects four places.」
Leia and Solor are facing each other, and they are busy analyzing the art of 【Otherworldly Summoning】. Leia said that it would take years to analyze everything, but since this art was the beginning and the heart of everything, it was necessary to analyze it thoroughly.
The torch containing the 【Light】 art is hooked up to the ceiling, so there is no problem reading in it.
Minerva still looks a little under the weather. Despite her poor condition, she is taking care of a horse that has been reduced in size by 【Shrink】, a process in which one of the metal boxes used for balancing is crushed and kept inside.
Rico, who was peering at the horses with Minerva, noticed Satoru's return from the cockpit and came up to him.
「Hey, Satoru」
「What's up?」
「I have three questions for now.」
「Three? What is that?」
「I'll start with the most important. For the time being, we're going to ride this thing to Nevis, the sacred mountain where the Feather Dragon is, right?」
「Yes?」
Rico is looking at Satoru with a small fidgety look in her eyes. It's a cute gesture. After a small hesitation, Rico opened her mouth boldly.
「...... Um, you know. What are you going to do about the toilet?」
「Ah」
Satoru sounded dumb at Rico's point.
「You could go down every single one of them, but there's not a lot of people around Nevis. But hey, if it's not, it's not so obvious, is it?」
「Hmmm... ......I completely forget about it.」
Satoru scratched his head. If you're going to live in this place, you're going to need such a living environment, of course. Solor is a being that does not defecate in Leia, but that is because she is special, and as long as someone is alive, it is the natural order of things to defecate.
「The other two are also living aspects. Laundry and I was wondering if it's okay to cook in here.」
「I don't mind cooking in it, but, I see, a Kamado, right.」
Hmmm, Satoru stroked his chin. In this world, sorcery is so prevalent that it is easy to forget, but Rico's ideas are closely related to daily life, even without sorcery. Cooking also requires the use of fire. Satoru suddenly thought of something like a cassette stove.
「I have an idea for a Kamado. Isolde, give me a canteen.」
Isolde, who was closest to the box that held the canteen, tossed him the iron canteen that Vance had made for him.
This canteen, made by Vance, is a circular canister flask ― similar in shape to a hip flask. Two round steel plates are joined together to form a drinking vessel, and the surrounding area is covered with tanned animal skin.
Satoru removed the lid, roughly peeled off the skin, and then slowly struck the center of the lid with his elbow. The sturdy steel canteen was dented with a sound.
Once the breakthrough is made, Satoru can mold it to some extent by simply pushing it in with his fingers. He makes a circular hollow, gets a little soil from the iron box that used to hold the smaller horse, lays it down, and hands it to Rico.
「Why don't you put a stone heated by my magic power in this concave part?」
Rico nodded somewhat exaggeratedly at Satoru's explanation.
「This is good. But won't the heat go to the bottom?」
「Let's do it this way.」
Once again, Satoru took the stove-like water bottle, used a tool to open a breakthrough, and inserted a foot-long screw into it. Likewise, a total of three screws are embedded and balanced.
「Ohh, you're smart」
「When I was in the original world, I used to make a little piece of furniture out of scrap wood, so this is about as good as it gets.」
Satoru responded to Rico's praise with a small grin. Satoru himself had not expected that his few hobbies of carpentry would come in handy in this way.
The tools that Vance loaded up for him are easy to use. Of course, there are no tools that use electricity, and they are all primitive, but if that's the case, he just has to use his wits and ingenuity.
「So, the problem is the laundry, but ...... the most important thing is the toilet.」
「Let's see, I don't know if it's possible, but I have an idea.」
Satoru Hah? at Rico's offer. He tilted his head. Rico pointed to an iron box for ballast.
「That one. I wonder if we can crush one of them.」
「What do you mean?」
「That can be removed, right? We could drill a hole in it and make it look like a jar.」
Hmm, Satoru put his hand on his chin and thought for a while.
The toilet situation in this world is that where there is a sewage system, it is a button toilet. Where there is no sewage system, the latrine is a jar. A fecal slaver, who is controlled by the government or a town or village, collects the pots from each house and disposes of them with slime that feeds on feces.
「If you keep a water bag nearby at all times and make a lid out of wood, would the smell will be lessened? And when it accumulates, dump it out and wash it.」
「I'd rather let them scatter it outside than let it accumulate.」
「What? Is that okay?」
Satoru had in mind the toilets of old aircraft. In the old days, passenger planes, for example, used the difference in atmospheric pressure to expel excreted matter from the air. Satoru also thought that it would not be a problem, although they were not at the same altitude as passenger planes, but Rico's expression was austere.
「I think it's better to put slime in that metal that feeds on the fecal matter than that.」
Solor came into the conversation. Seeing her Lord and the second magical slave in a heated argument over the toilet method, Leia, the first magical slave, shrugged her shoulders in dismay.
「......It's peaceful, in a way.」
At any rate, since they were arguing about the toilet, it was nothing short of peaceful.
For the time being, the toilet was shelved and it was decided that they would land every half koku (2 hours) and dig a hole to deal with it. Rico insisted on placing a jar, even if only temporarily, but Satoru did not want the smell of excrement wafting into the space. And there was no place to hide in this space. Even if they were magical slaves, it would not be convenient for him to watch the women defecating.
Satoru has some taste for shame play, but he has no taste for scat.
Although it had only been half a koku since they had flown out of Deligrande, the sun was already beginning to set. Satoru orders a descent and takes some time to use the restroom and prepare food.
In the meantime, Satoru had Solor and Leia check on Yamato's condition. There was a lot to be done: the decrease in the magic power of the magic stone, the endurance for continuous flight, the load on the amethyst and opals, the transmission of the magic power of the silver threads, the effect on the hull, the identification of problems with the granted arts, etc...
They had a test flight with Vance on board, but of course, many things could not be determined from that flight alone. For the time being, or perhaps until the end of the journey, this Yamato will be Satoru's home base. It was worth checking.
While Satoru and the others were eating dinner, Leia and Solor, who did not need to eat, were meticulously checking the condition of the airship. Even though Satoru had instructed them to do so, they were quite enthusiastic.
「How it is? Is there a problem?」
Satoru lightly asked Leia, who had finally finished her investigation. Satoru's own sense is that there are no particular problems. It seems that his sense was correct.
「No. There is no problem that seems to be a problem. If I had to say so, I would say that there might be a few additions to the outer arts.」
According to the drawing board left in Vance's workshop, the airships of the Ancient Magical Kingdom were in the form of four boats joined together. There were flying cities in that era, so of course,e there were not all of them, but it seems that they were mainly open spaces and there were not many enclosed ones like this Yamato. The chanting left in Solor was also an open-type art, and Leia said that it would be more efficient if it were adapted to an enclosed type.
In any case, Satoru is not an expert in chanting arts. Chanting sorcery requires the use of letters, like advanced mathematical formulas. It is a world that Satoru, who is not very smart, cannot handle.
「I'll leave that to you. Solor and you will work out the problems. So, considering the load of the amethyst and the hull, how much more weight can we carry?」
「Let's see. Although not an exact number, I would say that weight of up to 800 pounds (1200 kg) above the current weight would have no effect on flight. Any more than that and the rate of ascent will gradually slow down. The limit is ......」
「It is thought to be between twice and three times that. The original hull weight is heavy, but at 1500 pounds the hull is overloaded, and at 2500 pounds, it would stop floating.」
「2500 pounds.....3 tons and a bit. I can't imagine loading that much, indeed.」
Satoru gave a wry smile. The basic rule of thumb is to keep the weight below 1,500 pounds for later use, but if you are going to live a normal life, it is not likely that the weight will go up to 1.5 tons. It seems that weight is not a concern.
The next question is how to create a comfortable living space. This is where Satoru's thoughts went. He takes out a notebook and makes notes of what he thinks is necessary.
「Something that everyone should have this, too. Tell me if you have it.」
At Satoru's call, Rico, Liz, Minerva, and Isolde looked at each other. It is a space where they will be living, but even if they were told that they couldn't come up with anything.
After putting out the fire, they get back on board again.
It is now night. That's all for now, and Liz's piloting for the day is done. Leia settles into the pilot's seat.
「My Lord. Can we continue to fly while you sleep?」
「Let me think. ......」
Satoru gave a small tilt to the question. They are still in Arsweta's territory, and Arsweta is a mountainous nation. Considering the possibility of crashing into the mountains, night flights should be avoided. However, it would also depend on the pilot.
「Leia, you can see at night, right?」
「Of course. The 【Immortal King】 has the unique ability of night vision.」
「I see. Then I'm counting on you.」
「Mm-hmm. I'll do as you ask.」
If she can see at night, there is no problem with flying at night. Satoru was about to turn on his heel when he suddenly thought of something and turned back to Leia.
「Just drop us off once before the sun comes up. Of course, in a deserted place.」
「......? That's fine, but for what?」
「We had a heated argument earlier. It's about the toilet.」
Ah, Leia thought to herself. It had been more than 200 years since she became the 【Immortal King】. She had forgotten how hard it was to defecate.
「I see. I understand.」
――Thus, the troubles of life will always follow you.
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