Undersea Exploration (1)
The submersible advanced through the depths of the ocean. This submersible still didn’t have a name.
It was a 2,500-ton class vessel about 75 meters long. Just as Takuto said, you could also call it a submarine.
As for armament, it had two torpedo tubes each at the bow and stern. There were no missile silos.
Its purpose was to serve as a test submarine. Even I, in my previous life, had never been involved in submarine design.
Of course, I had created several technologies used in submarines, and as a way to kill time I’d secretly peeked at submarine blueprints from various countries. But I’d never designed one from scratch.
I mainly researched AI, developed various weapons for surface ships and fighter aircraft, sold favors to government officials, and had them fund my research into resurrection and help cover it up.
Naturally, resurrection, well, in my case it wasn’t reviving corpses, but research into perfect cloning of the dead, would have been troublesome if exposed. The self-righteous crowd that loved justice would’ve smugly criticized me. Cover-ups were necessary. Especially since I’d made a lot of enemies and attracted a lot of attention in my previous life.
Back to the topic: when I was still on Earth, submarines had become extremely quiet, their maximum diving depths had increased, and Japan and the US possessed highly refined designs. Because of that, no one ever asked me to design submarines themselves.
That said, when I was with Takuto, I once worked with Dad on developing an unmanned submersible, so it’s not like I lack knowledge. The sub we built back then attempted to reach a depth of 10,000 meters and failed, sinking in the process. Well, you don’t usually succeed on your first try.
By applying that experience and the magical technology I gained in this world, I completed a manned submersible with a theoretical maximum depth of 10,000 meters. Of course, that was only possible because dark-matter alloy is an exceptional metal and because magic can solve the problem of water pressure. Dark-matter alloy alone wouldn’t be enough for a manned vessel.
Still, this was a manned submersible that could theoretically reach a depth of 10,000 meters. Depending on how these tests go, Arland could end up possessing submarines! Not that we need them right now. But in the future, it’s not impossible that the nations in the center of the continent might develop navies.
At present, the seas are a demon realm and not worth the cost. But technology always advances. I don’t deny the possibility that one day the threat of sea monsters will be eliminated and safe maritime transport will become possible. So I prepare countermeasures.
“And that’s how I ended up making it.”
“Is this really something you can just casually make?” Takuto asked.
I answered his question with a smug grin.
“I’m the First Princess of the Kingdom of Arland, head of the Vice-Royal House, director of the Technology Development Bureau, and former Air Force Marshal.”
The reason I’m both First Princess and head of the Vice-Royal House is because I haven’t fully withdrawn from the royal registry yet. I’m still a minor, after all. But I am officially the head of the Vice-Royal House! You’re allowed to revere me, you know. Daily offerings of pudding, well, those already happen.
“You’re way more important than I thought!”
Ah, so Takuto really didn’t know. My Big Brother probably kept it quiet on purpose because it was a hassle. For some reason, he doesn’t like me being around Takuto. Actually, he doesn’t like me being around my mentor either, so he probably just dislikes me interacting with men in general.
Still, if he tried to restrain me too much… come to think of it, he only complained but never actually interfered. Well, aside from trying to send Takuto off to the frontier. Unforgivable!
Though even if Takuto were sent to the frontier, he can use Teleport, and we’re building a rocket launch facility in his territory anyway. I’d be coming and going regardless, so it wouldn’t really be a problem.
The fact that Takuto still didn’t know was also because he was busy consolidating control over his territory and didn’t have strong ties with neighboring nobles. But that’s normal for newly ennobled families who’ve just been granted land, so the surrounding nobles would probably wait patiently.
Though there are some poor souls who’ve been ignored for centuries. I wonder why their people are still basically barbarians?
Well, if they interfere too much, I’ll offer them up as sacrifices, toys, to the ladies of high society. I’m too scared to go near them myself. Recently, the ogres are so cheeky that they casually talk about snapping necks bare-handed. That kind of conversation is terrifying. They’re way too much of a warrior race. I totally get how a small animal feels when stared down by a cat.
… Though I’m on the side doing the staring.
“If an ogre were walking down the street, what would you do, Princess?”
“Huh? If it annoys me, I’d dispose of it.”
I basically dislike ogres. A long time ago, I nearly got killed by an Ogre King. And besides, I’ve seen enough muscleheads just from the knights.
“…………”
Alicia fell silent with an awkward expression. What did she want to say?
I’d dispose of them if they entered my field of vision, sure, but it’s not like I’d go out hunting them. Ogres are stupid idiots and only form groups of maybe ten to twenty at most. That’s something sturdy Arland farmers can handle. Especially if they try to attack a village, it turns into a bonus payday! More often than not, they just get mob-lynched by the villagers.
Apparently, if it’s a general-class ogre, they call adventurers or set traps.
But the ladies? They go hunting just to kill time. That’s where we differ.
Even their accessory talk is about things like the sabers strapped to their waists. A dress with a saber… well, I guess I can’t complain when I’ve got a revolver on my hip.
“Depth: about 4,000 meters.”
A clone announced the current depth.
“There’s surprisingly nothing here. I thought a kraken might attack us,” Takuto said, shrugging as the dive continued uneventfully.
“If there were a kraken, it’d probably be getting hunted by armed airships right about now.
We brought along a device developed by the Technology Development Bureau that lures aquatic monsters.”
Apparently, some group had developed it without me noticing. It emits a special sound wave that aquatic monsters hate, drawing them in.
When exposed to this sound wave, aquatic monsters don’t flee, they come to destroy the source. Originally, they were trying to make the opposite kind of device to mount on surface ships for safer voyages, but they ended up creating something completely backwards.
They’re using it to gather krakens and sea dragons and blow them up with depth charges. Incidentally, samurai from the Land of Tranquility are aboard as observer officers.
Because of that, aquatic monsters in this area are focused over there and completely ignore us. Earlier, sonar picked up something that looked like a kraken, but it moved at incredible speed toward the armed airships instead.
When I told the developers it was like a moth trap, they burst out laughing and rolled around.
The Technology Development Bureau is, as always, a delightful workplace filled with researchers’ laughter, and with veins bulging on the foreheads of the people who take care of them.
That’s because the researchers are personality-broken maniacs who worship research above all else. When I visited the lab a while back, every chair, with its researcher still sitting in it, was stuck into the ceiling.
What were they even doing? It was funny, so I increased the research budget for the group that had been stuck up there. I did, however, strictly order them to use specialized facilities for mobile testing of magic and magical tools. The maids who had to clean up afterward were terrifying.
“Depth: 6,000 meters. This place is really deep,” another clone said, watching the depth gauge.
“According to the water spirits who gave us the information, the transport convoy sank at around 8,000 meters.
Though apparently they all got gathered in one place because they were in the way, which I didn’t expect.”
They’d sunk in a spot used as a meeting place for water spirits, and were apparently piled together like trash. Spirits don’t react at all to human corpses.
They’re mainly interested in living beings. Once something dies, they lose interest, so it gets treated roughly.
We’ll recover the remains, at least. In this world you can’t tell whose bones are whose, but the Land of Tranquility would probably make a communal grave. That’d earn us some goodwill, too. And the dead sailors would probably rather rest on land.
“How are we going to recover them? There’s no way we can go outside the ship, right?” Takuto asked.
“Takuto, I can operate even in the deep sea, you know.”
Magic can solve anything, really. But I won’t do that.
“At first I thought we’d use golem arms, but I decided to ask the water spirits instead.”
Originally, we planned to recover everything using the sub’s equipment, but the water spirits were apparently pretty annoyed by it. It’s their favorite place, after all.
Spirits are generally mild-mannered. Wind spirits are fairly free-spirited, and fire spirits can be a bit arson-happy, but they’re not outright rampagers. And besides, fire and wind spirits don’t come to the seabed anyway.
Spirits don’t care about human corpses, but they don’t treat them disrespectfully either. They’d gathered everything in one place so it would be easier to hand over when someone eventually came to recover them.
So if we were going to retrieve them, they were willing to cooperate.
—If it’s the Queen, we’ll do our best!—
—Yeah! This is our home, after all!—
The water spirits were full of motivation.
Incidentally, the water spirit I’m contracted with only has about the same level of power as the local spirits here.
Normally, my contracted water spirit is a high-ranking spirit, while the spirits helping us this time are mid-ranking at best. Their ranks are completely different, like a wyvern compared to an elemental dragon.
However, this is where the nature of spirits comes into play.
When a spirit remains in a place for a long time, it makes that place its home and can exert power beyond its original level, but only within that area.
For example, a high-ranking spirit that’s lived in a lake for 2,000 years can wield power comparable to a proxy Spirit King within that lake. That’s why land where spirits linger for long periods often gets treated as sacred ground.
Incidentally, in the center of the continent, there have been frequent mysterious incidents where spirits disappear from sacred sites. And for some reason, spirit sightings in Arland have increased several hundredfold. I wonder why?
… No, I know why. It’s my fault. Apparently, being near me, the one at the pinnacle of spirits, feels good to them.
When I reincarnated, I probably absorbed part of the Spirit King’s power into my soul, which brought my mana closer to that of the Spirit King.
That said, I’m still human, so it doesn’t matter much. I can’t use spirit magic on my own. What I can do is efficiently supply mana to spirits and raise their rank as a result.
In fact, many high-ranking spirits were devoured by the Evil God during that war, so their numbers are currently lower than they should be. Fixing that is apparently also my job.
Haha, I’ve got more than enough mana, so I don’t mind.
As I watched, the spirits cheerfully passed through the submersible and headed outside, and I simply looked on.
What do you think about this chapter?
