Chapter 1: What You Get out of Louts and Scissors Depends on How You Use Them(1)

MISTERLP

15th day, 3rd month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar

It was a sprawling prairie in the northwestern part of the Kingdom of

Friedonia.

A single wide road ran across that prairie with its excellent view, and

on either side of that road were demon-destroying trees from the GodProtected Forest planted at regular intervals. This was one of the national

highways that had been laid down as part of the transportation network. If

one were to follow this road, they might pass merchant caravans protected

by adventurers, or rhinosaurus-drawn freight trains.

It was a quiet spring day with clear skies. There was a covered wagon

drawn by two horses traveling down said highway. In the covered cart

were the wares of a common traveling peddler, but the horses which drew

it were quite magnificent beasts.

We were inside that covered wagon. And I was talking to the guy who

was running behind the cart.

"What do you think, Hal?" I asked. "How's it feel running down a road

you built yourself?"

"I won't deny it's gratifying, but... when you're the one who says that,

it pisses me off a bit..." Halbert said grumpily, still running outside the

cart.

Currently, there were four of us riding in the covered wagon: Aisha,

Kaede, Tomoe, and me.

This was the group traveling to the Star Dragon Mountain Range at the

direct invitation of Mother Dragon.

However, we didn't know the reason for this invitation, and only a few

of my closest retainers had been notified, so we needed to travel incognito.

That was why I was wearing my usual Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago

traveler's outfit, consisting of a conical straw hat and a traveler's raincoat;

Tomoe was wearing a white mage's hooded robe; and Aisha, Hal, and

Kaede were each dressed as adventurers.

Of course, once we arrived in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, we

intended to change into our formal uniforms that were loaded in the

wagon.

Incidentally, the last member of our party, Carla, had gone ahead to

scout out things in the direction we were traveling. It was useful having a

dragonewt who could fly at times like this.

Aisha and I were relaxing inside the wagon, while Tomoe was in the

driver's seat, having Kaede teach her to control the wagon. Because

Tomoe and Kaede were of the similar-looking mystic wolf and mystic fox

races, when they sat together in the driver's seat, they really did look like

sisters, which put a smile on my face.

Hal had been in the wagon, too, at least initially, but then he'd said,

"My body's gonna get all numb like this," and gotten out to start running.

"You were going through hard training as a dratrooper, weren't you?" I

asked. "You should take the chance to relax now, at least."

"You're taking it too easy..." Hal gave me a stern and somewhat

appalled look.

Uh... Yeah, he might be right.

I was in the covered wagon right now, resting my head in Aisha's lap.

My hat was resting on my chest, and I was taking things maybe just a little

too easily. I shifted my head backward to ask Aisha, who was patting my

head with a goofy look on her face, a question.

"Aisha, are you okay? I'm not too heavy?"

Aisha came back to her senses, and shook her head with all her might.

"Not at all! If anything, I should ask if my lap is too hard for you. I have a

lot of muscle, after all..."

"Nah, I think it has just the right level of springiness. Look, my finger

sinks right in."

"Wah! Hold on, that tickles!"

When I poked her thigh, Aisha writhed a little. It was kind of cute.

"Oh, for the love of... I don't want to be in a wagon with that

atmosphere," Hal said with an "I can't take any more of this nonsense"

attitude.

Yeah, if I were in Hal's position, I'd probably feel the same. Tomoe

was hogging Kaede, too.

"But, if I hadn't chosen you to accompany me, you two would've been

aboard the Hiryuu, training as usual, right?" I asked. "Isn't it nice being

able to relax?"

"Well, yeah, but... why are we on this relaxed trip, anyway?" Hal

demanded. "They're meeting us at the border, right? Couldn't we have just

taken a wyvern there?"

As he said, someone from the Star Dragon Mountain Range was going

to be coming to get us at a village on the northwestern border of the

Kingdom of Friedonia. Once we got there, a dragon would carry us to the

Star Dragon Mountain Range.

From the standpoint of pure efficiency, we could have stayed in the

capital until just before it was time to go, and then traveled to the village

by wyvern on the day of. But that would've been bad.

"I've finally been given a long vacation," I said. "It'd be a shame to

ruin it by rushing things, don't you think?"

"Really? I don't think traveling is something to enjoy..."

This was a difference between the way people in this world looked at

things, and the way a modern person would.

In this world, where there were vicious wild creatures, and even

monsters that may appear, it wasn't possible to take it easy traveling, even

inside your own country.

In the history of Earth, it was only recently that we'd become able to

travel so easily. Even in the Edo Period, when public order had been in a

reasonable state, when Matsuo Bashou had traveled, he had to accept he

might not come back alive.

Thinking of it that way, it made me realize once again just how

incredible Poncho was, having traveled around to so many different

countries, and having spent a great deal of money, all to pursue his interest

in food.

"I like traveling," I said. "Seeing unfamiliar vistas makes my heart

dance. My grandma and grandpa liked traveling, too, so they often brought

me with them."

"Your grandfather and grandmother did that, sire?" Aisha asked.

"Yeah. Though, with them being an elderly couple, it was a lot of trips

to temples, shrines, and castles."

Going to Nara in autumn.

Red leaves and senbei crackers.

Those had been good times.

Back then, even going to the neighboring prefectures felt like I was

going somewhere really far away. I never would've imagined then that,

years later, I'd find myself traveling to another world entirely.

While I was basking in those memories, Aisha said, "Now that I think

of it, there's something I've been wondering about..." She sounded

mystified as she continued. "This wagon, it doesn't shake. Normally, we

wouldn't be able to relax like this, you know?"

"Well, it may look like an ordinary covered wagon, but... Genia

designed this thing," I said.

"Um, why do you suddenly look so exhausted?" Aisha asked.

"The rhinosaurus train primarily carries freight now, but if we want to

have it pull passenger cars eventually, the shaking would become an

issue," I began.

"Now that you mention it, when we went to the dark elves' forest, it

was shaking really badly," Hal interrupted, wincing.

Perhaps he was remembering what it had been like that time. We'd

been going there for disaster relief, so every moment counted. That was

why we'd gone as fast as we could, without regard to the shaking, and

most of the members of the Forbidden Army who had ridden with us had

suffered motion sickness as a result.

"That's why I asked Genia to develop a setup that reduces shaking in

the car," I explained. "It's just... Genia always manages to exceed my

expectations in ways I'd never see coming."

I'd been envisioning something like a coil spring. My studies had been

focused on the humanities, not engineering, so I didn't understand the

exact way to set it up. But I'd given Genia the Overscientist a rough image

of what I was thinking of, and hoped she could develop something close to

it. What Genia did develop had been beyond my imagination.

"I never thought she'd come up with shock-absorbing materials first..."

I murmured.

"Sh-Shock absor... What now?" Aisha asked.

"I haven't seen one myself, but apparently there's an armadillo on this

continent that's so huge you could mistake it for a glyptodon, right?" I

said.

"I don't know what a glyptodon is, but you're talking about the giganto

armadillo, right?" Aisha asked. "They mostly live in the forests. They have

a hard armor shell, and even I have trouble breaking it."

"Wait, hold on?! You can break it?!" Hal exclaimed in surprise. "They

say it's practically impossible to break their shells with a physical attack,

you know?!"

"They do?" Aisha asked. "I hit it around ten times, changing

greatswords in between, and I managed to break it."

""..."" Hal and I were both speechless. It looked like Genia wasn't the

only one who was off the charts...

"W-Well, setting that aside," I said. "So, we knew that the giganto

armadillo defended itself from physical attacks with its hard armor shell,

but Genia questioned where the shock from those attacks was going. No

matter how much it looked like there was no exterior damage, she thought

the impact might be reaching their soft internal organs. When she dissected

one to take a look, she discovered the fat deposits on the inside of its armor

shell had powerful shock-absorbing qualities."

In other words, the inside of the shell had a fleshy texture; but, to put it

in terms a modern person would understand, it had a number of qualities

that made it like rubber.

I stomped twice on the floor of the wagon car. "The axles and wheels

of this wagon are made with a processed form of that fat found inside their

armored shells. That's why this wagon shakes less than other wagons."

"I see... That's Madam Genia for you, all right," Aisha said. "Coming

up with something like this so easily."

Aisha seemed genuinely impressed, but my feelings on the matter were

a little more complicated.

It might sound a little demanding, but I wished she'd come up with a

material that was easier to put into general use. Giganto armadillo fat was

precious, and that made this covered wagon expensive in a way that didn't

match its appearance. If I tried to make a train that didn't shake using this

method, we'd end up overhunting the giganto armadillo.

It needs to be cheaper for the general public to be able to use it... I

thought to myself.

However, Genia was a natural-born genius, and once she created

something, it wasn't in her personality to think of ways of creating a more

budget-efficient version, or to improve its functionality. There was no

helping that, so I turned the materials over to the diligent researchers, and

asked them to research a substitute material that could be mass-produced.

As for their results, there was apparently a species of silkworm whose

cocoons had similar shock-absorbing properties to this material. Those

cocoons could be mass-produced, so I was looking forward to their future

research developments. Naturally, I'd told them what I knew about

springs, and I had them researching those, too.

The truth was, the ones supporting this country weren't rulers like me,

or geniuses like Genia, but those nameless researchers. It was important

not to forget that.

It happened while I was resting my head in Aisha's lap with my eyes

closed, thinking about that.

"Hey," Hal commented. "Looks like young Miss Carla's back."

Hearing that, I sat up. I called out to Tomoe and Kaede in the driver's

seat to have them stop the wagon.

When I got out of the car, Carla was in the middle of landing. It wasn't

a vertical drop; she came in at an angle to land like a passenger plane. She

was probably landing that way to make sure no one saw up her apron

dress.

"I have returned from scouting, Master," Carla reported, fixing her skirt

which had gotten just a little ruffled in the landing. It looked like she'd

gotten used to handling her miniskirt maid outfit.

When I decided to have Carla accompany me, I had thought it was a bit

much to make her wear the maid uniform while traveling, and I had

planned to let her wear the armor she'd used in the war. But Serina the

head maid said, "I thought this might happen, so I prepared a maid outfit

for traveling," and with a cool look on her face, she handed over the thing.