“You’ve been fiddling with gunpowder lately, haven’t you?”
“Uh, no?”
Roman, sipping his coffee, had a slight twitch in his eyes.
It was a lie.
If one possessed the Majin’s perception, discerning an opponent’s lie would be as easy as pie.
“Did Schlus refuse to disclose the gunpowder-making method while using up all the existing gunpowder for fireworks? So I wouldn’t know, right?”
“I already know, so spit out the truth. Just tell me roughly how far you’ve gotten.”
“Um… I really haven’t been handling any gunpowder…”
“I won’t force you to dispose of it, so just tell me plainly. Before I lose my patience.”
“Yes. Actually, we’re researching gunpowder made by combining nitrated fabric soaked in nitric acid and potassium nitrate.”
“……”
My head felt like it was splitting in two.
That’s smokeless powder.
It made sense, though, since Roman provided me with potassium nitrate and sulfur when I was developing gunpowder, so he probably had a rough idea of how to mix it.
But to think they’d not only mimic my black powder but develop smokeless powder that was far more advanced…
“Schlus.”
“What?”
“Your face is scary.”
“Ha…”
How do I even put this?
I just said I wouldn’t force a disposal but now I just want to halt all research immediately.
At this rate, the Freya Empire’s military could unleash firepower enough to smack down even the best magicians with just a long stick.
That meant they’d possibly achieve military strength that was unimaginably greater than before.
‘But can just shutting it down actually stop it…’
Stopping the research wouldn’t solve anything.
Because the advancement of science is something that can’t be stopped.
In fact, trying to suppress it might just lead to an underground world blooming as a counter-effect.
“Roman. Just promise me one thing.”
“What is it?”
“No wars of conquest. No more wars to place other species under human domination. If such things start happening, I won’t just be warning you with words.”
I gave a heads-up in case anything happened.
I definitely wouldn’t want to turn the Empire’s soldiers to ashes by my own hands instantly.
Still, I didn’t think I’d need to worry too much about the Empire’s military becoming excessively bloated.
Just like how the Trud Kingdom established its Intelligence Agency, the Empire was crawling with spies from the Great Forest and the Desert.
I figured other species would probably complete smokeless powder pretty soon, too.
“Yes, I will keep that in mind. But, Schlus…”
“What?”
“I don’t think that’s something for me to address to you.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not the one with the authority to decide on war. If anything, I think that’s something to bring up with Her Majesty…”
“Shut up.”
“I spoke quietly, you know.”
“Just shut it, you.”
Was Roman always this much of a smartass?
He seemed sharp enough back when I was a national leader, but now it’s like he’s treating me like just another guy in the neighborhood.
‘Alright. Let’s enhance surveillance.’
Today, meeting Roman solidified my conviction.
I must expand surveillance over the Empire’s troops.
After all, I didn’t even know these guys were developing smokeless powder until now.
“Oh, by the way, can I share some ideas on weapons currently in development?”
“What is it?”
“I’m devising a method that uses mana as fuel to directly combust. It’s based on your paper mentioning that mana and magic have material properties, so I thought of this idea. Though the feasibility is still uncertain, if successful, we could possibly create explosives with immense power per volume.”
“Uh…”
“And we’re also developing a weapon that continuously fires rounds using gunpowder. If this gets developed, a single soldier could perform the roles of hundreds, drastically reducing casualties in future battlefields.”
“Uhh…”
Everything faded before my eyes.
That sounds like something some inventor once suggested.
As I recall, that invention didn’t just reduce casualties on the battlefield; it led to horrific trench warfare.
“Hey, you seem to be under some misapprehension…”
“What do you mean?”
“Sigh. Forget it. Just do whatever you want.”
“……?”
I shook my head and fell back.
Even just preventing war of conquest was already a huge involvement, and there’s no way I could stop their research on specific techniques.
Besides, just because you stop it today doesn’t mean it won’t be invented forever.
It’s just the natural flow of the times.
“And also, if we could create bombs that generate energy corresponding to the lost mass according to the mass-mana equivalency principle and the mana-energy equivalency principle that you proposed—”
“That’s a hard no. Stop the research.”
Suddenly, everything went dark.
This absolutely must be stopped.
Under no circumstances should we end up with nuclear weapons.
Please, just not that…
*
“H-Hertlocker, is that you?”
“Yeah. Keep studying hard.”
“It’s an honor!”
Hertlocker half-heartedly responded to the students who greeted him and hurried past them.
If he didn’t hurry, he risked being surrounded by students who flocked in after hearing that Hertlocker was here, making his life miserable.
Once out of the school, Hertlocker finally let out a sigh of relief upon entering the deserted alley.
“Ugh. They were looking for me urgently, and I thought something serious was happening.”
It’d been a call from the home country using an emergency line.
He had to abruptly cut his travel short and arrived at the Trud Kingdom’s Military Academy.
But as soon as he got there, the Commandant bowed his head and said something utterly absurd.
“Please, become a professor at the academy!”
“Thanks, but no. I haven’t learned anything worthy of being called a professor.”
“I can give you a degree in three months if you please! There’s hardly any pressure, we just need someone to teach. We’re really short on manpower these days…”
“Isn’t the Commandant a general? Why are you bowing your head to a soldier?”
“What’s wrong with that? I was just a non-commissioned officer until three years ago.”
“……”
So he jumped from non-commissioned officer to general in just three years.
Hertlocker couldn’t help but sigh at the reality starkly showing the labor shortage in the Trud Kingdom.
It made sense that they would ask for help from someone who had only real combat experience and not even a smidge of academic knowledge.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to decline.”
In the end, Hertlocker politely turned down the offer and left the academy.
The sight of the Commandant’s face, now in despair, lingered in his mind, but it couldn’t be helped.
Hertlocker had things he needed to do.
However, even he didn’t know what those were yet.
For a relatively recent time, he’d been feeling a vague sense that only he could do certain things, but it was clear that teaching at the academy was not one of them.
‘Seriously, there’s really nothing in this country…’
As Hertlocker wandered around the Trud Kingdom, he clicked his tongue in bitterness.
Was it because he had spent so long in the Freya Empire as an intelligence officer?
He struggled to adapt to the outdated infrastructure of his home country after being back for so long.
Most streets were pitch-black at night without a single magic stone lamp, and as soon as the sun went down, all the shops closed, leaving the city eerily quiet, like a dead rat. If you turned on the tap, there’d often be muddy water pouring out.
He hadn’t noticed it before, but every little detail was just so inconvenient.
And with the Trud Kingdom already tangled in defensive wars and civil wars with a tiny bit of national power, there hadn’t been any time to improve infrastructure.
“What on earth is the king doing?”
Turning his head, he saw the dazzling palace lit up with all manner of lights just as the sun was dipping below the horizon.
Royalty had always believed gold springs from the earth and indulged in excess, but recently it seemed particularly severe.
He heard that since the Trud King reverently submitted to the Freya Empire, and a puppet government was established, the extravagance had escalated further.
Do they believe that if they’re about to be overthrown, the Freya Empire will protect them?
“Maybe I should just be the king?”
Cradling his chin, Hertlocker pondered seriously.
He was a vital asset who fought as an assassin magician during the Freya-Trud war, and after the war, he engaged in battles within the Empire’s heart as an intelligence officer, participated in hand-to-hand combat against the Majin multiple times, and had a significant contribution to ending the war with them…
The more he thought about it, Hertlocker realized that he indeed had quite the résumé.
If such a young war hero with utterly dim prospects spoke up in the dismal Trud Kingdom, it was obvious he would gain vast popularity.
Moreover, he knew well that the capital’s defense forces were utterly corrupt, and Hertlocker could easily dominate them by himself.
“Huh? Should I really take the throne? Isn’t this a divine revelation?”
I have things to do.
Hertlocker finally seemed to discover what those ‘things to do’ were.
He probably wouldn’t have dreamed of dangerous endeavors like a coup to protect his younger sister, but after marrying her off to a cult leader, he had no worries anymore.
“Alright! I’ll overhaul everything and get elected as king!”
However, Hertlocker still didn’t even understand the difference between a monarchy and a republic.
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