Chapter 644

Parfe’s Full-Speed
“Gugugoo! (There we go!)”

“Guggugugoo! (Faster, faster!)”

“Okay, stop right there!”

“Goo? (That’s all?)”

“Guggoo (We can run even faster, you know?)”

“No, this is enough. Now we know you can run this fast.”

With the additional equipment plans settled, we next tested Parfe’s full-speed sprint.
The result: they can travel long distances far faster than an ordinary horse.
And even after covering a decent stretch, not a single one of the Parfes were out of breath.
Truly, they’re stamina monsters.

“Lady Lily. Do we need this spider-thread launcher?”

“The restraint launcher will be used in a separate slot, I think. But with this speed, we can shake off mounted bandits easily.”

“Is that not good enough? After that, all you need is a single turret with strong crushing power for when someone blocks the road.”

“Well, that much equipment should be enough.”

Exactly so.
Now that the concern about speed of Parfes is gone, the main remaining issue is when the road gets blocked.
If the path is obstructed physically, we just need one turret to break through.
Since this one prioritizes destructive power, we’ll ask Lana to install a magi-science weapon.
As long as the exterior can be made from Talat’s boards, our defenses won’t drop too much.
Strangely enough, the problem was solved rather easily.

“Lady Lily. It’s great that they’re fast, but what do we do if Parfes are directly attacked?”

“Ah, right, we have to think about that too. The hide of Parfes isn’t particularly tough, after all.”

“Yes. Even normal arrows would cause a serious wound. And if poison is applied, it could be dangerous by itself.”

True—poison is something we need to be careful about.
After all, Parfes originally fled the grasslands because of poisonous plants.
Who knows how effective poison would be, but if someone used monster-grade toxins, it might be bad.
We do need to consider Parfes’ own protection.

“In that case, why not make a box that covers Parfes entirely?”

“A box? What kind of box?”

“Something like this.”

Plum drew a picture to explain—it was, quite literally, a box.
It would be placed over Parfes, who pull the Parfe-wagon, covering them from above and protecting them.
Since the box would be made from Talat’s boards, it could be transparent, so even if the entire front were covered, visibility wouldn’t be an issue.
We’d just need to pay attention to the area around the legs, but otherwise it would protect from all directions.
The problem is that if we park the carriage at an inn, the whole thing becomes too long to fit comfortably.
But LumiTech says they can handle that.
They’ll make the box section movable so it can be lifted upward when parked.
They also said they could install a magic-engine as auxiliary power for when Parfes run at full speed, along with brakes for deceleration.

Running the tests really revealed all sorts of issues.

(Lily, for the bottom part of the box, you could hang my threads, couldn’t you?)

“Your threads, Talat?”

(Yeah. My thread won’t let attacks through from the inside, so I think it’d be useful.)

True, if we use Talat’s threads as a curtain or hanging veil, the underside would be safe as well.
That leaves landmines and pitfall-type traps as the main concerns, though there’s nothing we can do about landmines, and for pitfalls… with enough momentum, we might be able to clear them.
That might need more consideration.

… Come to think of it, I am making a wagon here, right?
I’m not building a war chariot… right?
I’m starting to get a little worried.

What do you think about this chapter?