07-10 The Mystery of Ether
After finishing dinner, it was decided that each one would spend the afternoon as they pleased.
“Father, it seems something has happened on Hourai Island.”
“By that, do you mean something even Laozi couldn’t deal with?”
“Is that so. Alright, let’s go see it for a while.”
After confirming there was no one watching, they silently boarded the carriage, activated the hidden Warp Gate, and warped to Hourai Island.
“Welcome home, My Lord.”
“Oh, I’m home. You had something to report?”
“Yes, My Lord. To be frank, it’s about the ‘Albatross’ units.”
“Right now they’re continuing drawing up the topographic map by means of aerial surveillance, but during that process we came to understand something unexpected.”
“Yes. First, please take a look at this.”
“It’s well made.”
“Yeah. However, why is there not much of anything in the southern hemisphere?”
“That’s the point of this report.”
“At the beginning, measurements advanced all right. However, the ‘Albatrosses’ that went south noticed an abnormality. As did the boarded Sky golems.”
“Yes. The operation efficiency of the Ether Converters fell. However, when we examined the returned Albatrosses we didn’t find anything unusual.”
“And then, for the Albatrosses that went north, they say that conversely their Ether Converters’ perfromances increased. Again the boarded Sky golems reported this same increase.”
Laozi concluded with stating that from this information he deemed that the concentration of Ether in the air increases when going north, and decreases when going south. It was consistent with Jin’s hypothesis.
At that time Reiko, who had been silent until now, spoke.
When Laozi heard that,
He reasoned. Jin agreed too. Reiko also agreed and explained,
Jin nodded and spoke of his conclusion.
With that, Jin started designing a new type of aircraft with Laozi’s assistance.
“Let’s install three Ether Converters. Then to have it be able to fly even without Ether, also build in a large Mana Tank.”
“My Lord, I recommend also supplementing the Magi Jet Engines.”
“Alright, let’s add one to both wings. By having three engines in total surely even long-range flights would be possible.”
And thus, they decided to build several fuselages.
Next was the fuselage for use in transportation. It was similar to the long-distance reconnaissance models, but rather than improving flight distance the takeoff weight was improved by increasing the surface of the wings and the volume of the fuselage.
They were each named with the long-range reconnaissance model being ‘Skylark’, the transportation-model being ‘Pelican’, and the secret model being ‘Raptor’.
The Skylark was a Eurasian skylark, and Raptor was a bird of prey. Jin christened them after names he had heard while on Earth. If you thought of the two then certainly, you’d get the feeling that albatross would be a better name for the long-distance reconnaissance plane rather than skylark, but since Jin named them it’s hopeless to worry.
When the designs were roughly completed, Jin once more viewed the map.
“However, it’s smaller than I thought.”
“It’s filled with heavy elements after all…Probably magical elements too, huh.”
“Laozi, it seems that there’s a turbulent situation in this world too, so stay alert.”
“Yes, things such as [Subordination Rewriting Magic] and Unifilers, right? I get the reports from Reiko-san too.”
“Understood, My Lord. I will do that, and staying vigilant in Kaina Village is important too, right?
It was the name of the village that was special to Jin. You could call the village a second home to him.
Now that Jin had received the title of honorary Magi Craftsman of Egelia Kingdom, a small hope swelled of perhaps being able to go to Cline Kingdom and openly visit Kaina Village located in its countryside. It still seemed to for a bit later in the future, though.
After that, Jin spent time listening to the detailed reports regarding the islands’ development, and the state of affairs on Kunlun Island.
To put it briefly, eveything was going very well.
Finally, he tried asking about mining Elradrite, but unfortunately a vein of it couldn’t be found on either Hourai Island or Kunlun Island.
“Well, I guess it can’t be helped. Please continue your investigations.”
Then Jin once again went through the Warp Gate and returned to Yada Village.
Because of the time difference, it was still bright in Yada Village.
“Ah, Jin-kun.”
“What, are you up to?”
Elsa looked satisfied with an answer like that.
“Haha, you won’t get anywhere even with flattery.”
“Alright, everything’s normal.”
“I hope the weather’s fine tomorrow.”
Jin looked up at the sky while walking alonside Elsa.
The clouds in the sky dyed red by the sunset seemed to be an omen of fine weather for tomorrow.
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