I explained this place to the three visitors with me. “This is where the military research and development department is based now. That piece of wyvern flight equipment, the Little Susumu Mark V Light, is being developed here, too.”
“You’re making them on an island? I would think it would be an inconvenient place to set up a workshop…” Castor presented the issue he was seeing. He was right, of course, but there was a reason for it.
“When it comes to military technology, we have to be worried about information leaking to other countries,” I explained. “In a place like this, surrounded by the sea, we’re able to put limits on who comes in, and what is taken out. That’s convenient. Well, it’s gotten cramped here, though, so I’m thinking we’ll eventually move to a larger place.”
Walking a bit further, a little glass room came into sight. Inside, the researchers were doing an operating test of the Little Susumu Mark V Light.
Technically, the glass was reinforced glass (not in terms of the materials used— It was glass that had been reinforced with magic), so if something terrible were to happen, like the equipment were to explode, or a researcher were to be sucked in and blown out, it wouldn’t have an effect on anything outside the room. Still, that wasn’t going to prevent damage and casualties inside of the room, so I hoped the researchers would be careful in their work.
“This is both an arsenal and a research institute,” I said. “That said, most of what they’re doing right now is testing Genia Maxwell’s inventions.”
The overscientist and inventor, Genia, was a stereotypical genius. Once she built one of her creations, that was enough to satisfy her. She apparently didn’t do much further research on the subject or refine it after that. She would rather devote the time and energy to making something else she wanted to create.
“That’s… a terrible waste,” Excel said, tilting her head to the side.
Yeah, I felt the same way. We had managed to use her Little Susumu Mark V to create the lightweight version, after all. But…
“I think that’s the most efficient way for Genia to work. It’s only natural that people have their own strengths and weaknesses. There are genius-types like Genia who have crazy ideas and pop them one after another, but there are also artisan-types like the researchers here who focus on studying one thing and achieve results that way. I want to praise both types equally.”
“Hee hee,” Excel giggled. “I think that’s an admirable way of thinking, sire.”
When I was given such an unreserved compliment by an important vassal who, contrary to her mid-twenties appearance, had supported this country for close to five hundred years, it tickled me a bit.
“Well, it’s not like we’ll see worthwhile results from all of it,” I admitted.
“Hm? Why do you say that?” she asked.
“To explain… Uh, was it over here, maybe?”
“Why do you sound so uncertain?”
“I’ve seen the blueprints for this place, but it’s my first time actually coming here, too,” I said. “It was easy to see where everything was on the upper level, so that was one thing, but the inside is kind of a convoluted mess.”
Following my vague memory of the blueprints, we soon came to our destination. It was a shooting range surrounded by walls and nets. There were bows leaned up against the wall, and for some reason, there were two suits of leather armor set up as targets. The range was only about ten meters deep.
“You even have a shooting range?” Castor asked. “But with the targets so close, it won’t be much use for training,” He picked up one of the bows that was leaning against the wall.
“That would be because it’s not for training, you see,” I said. “If they want to train, they can do it in the field on the upper level.”
“I guess that makes sense…”
“Rather, this place is for testing bows and arrows, or testing the durability of armor.” Explaining that, I handed Castor an arrow. “Castor. How are you with a bow?”
“Don’t make fun of me. I may not be one anymore, but a general must be familiar with all of the martial arts.”
“Good, then,” I said. “Just try taking an ordinary shot at the armor on your right.”
“I just have to hit it, right? Fine.”
Castor readied his bow, drew back the string… and released. With a twang, the arrow flew straight towards the armor, stabbing into the leather suit. However, only the arrow’s head stabbed into it, and it didn’t pierce through.
Castor cocked his head to the side questioningly. “That leather armor… Have they done something to it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “There’s a thin iron plate behind it. Okay, next. This time, fire like you would in combat, infusing the arrow with magic.”
“…Okay.”
Castor fired again. There was no visual difference in what he did, but this time the arrow pierced the leather armor. It was thanks to the magic he had put into it, no doubt. This demonstrated that, if it were enchanted with an element, an arrow could pass through a suit of armor with metal in it.
“Okay, next, shoot the suit on your left using another magic arrow,” I said.
“Roger.”
Castor fired again. When he did, there was a clang and the arrow bounced off. The leather armor was unscratched.
“That is a suit of the Empire’s Magic Armor Corps’ armor… or a pale imitation of it,” I said.
“Pale imitation?”
“We don’t have the technology to fully replicate it, I hear. But this suit of armor is reinforced with defensive magic, too. You saw it negate the magic, and the arrow was repelled, right? Well, these arrows were one of our failed attempts to come up with a way to counteract a suit of armor like this one.” I handed Castor an arrow with a black head.
“What is this arrow?” he asked.
“I call it an anti-magic arrow. The head is made with curse ore.”
“Curse ore?!” Castor looked closely at the arrowhead.
Curse ore was an ore that absorbed magical energy. You may remember that Genia used this ore as a power source for her Little Susumu Mark V. Because you couldn’t use magic when it was nearby (or rather, the energy from magic was absorbed), and magic was seen as the blessing of the gods or spirits in this world, it was called a cursed ore.
“We learned that curse ore doesn’t negate magic, it only works to absorb its energy,” I explained. “In that case, I thought maybe it could absorb the magic power placed in a piece of equipment using enchantment magic. So, we tested it, and… I was right.”
“That’s incredible, isn’t it?!” Castor said excitedly. “If that’s true, we don’t have anything to worry about from the Magic Armor Corps!”
But I shook my head. “Didn’t I already tell you? It was a failed attempt. Curse ore absorbs more than just the enemy’s magic. We can’t enchant things with elemental magic, or reinforce our arrows either.”
“Ah! So that means…”
“Try it for yourself and see.”
“Uh, sure.” Castor let one of the anti-magic arrows loose. When he did, the anti-magic arrow scratched the surface of the magically enchanted armor a little, but the arrow head shattered into little pieces when it hit.
While Castor and the others were still taken aback, I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s like we’re back to where we started, hitting an ordinary suit of armor with an ordinary arrow. Curse ore is pretty brittle, so it’s not useful as an arrowhead on its own. And if we melt it down and put it inside an iron arrowhead, the decreased amount of curse ore weakens the effect. Meanwhile, if we increase the amount, the arrowhead gets too large, and it’s no longer functional as an arrow at all. To be blunt, we’ve hit a dead end.”