Arc 24: The King is Busy in Many Ways

Chapter 214: The Railcar, and an Omen of War

A reaction showed up just a few days after I pa.s.sed the detection board to the guild. Three lower cla.s.ses had appeared. The place is a port town northwest of Reefrees. It seems adventurers in that country took care of them.

Oh well, a few red cla.s.s adventurers can defeat a lower cla.s.s after all. Although it may give them quite a hard time.

However, a problem still exists. There appears to be an issue with the time of appearance which considerably deviates even if the board can predict the location and the number to some extent. Its quite tough to keep a 24-hour watch for 3 days.

On the other hand, the guild has purchased the crystal materials for quite a high price, so they shouldve reached a zero balance. Its been decided that the guild would sell the materials to a merchant. So would I be buying the bought crystal materials in the country it has appeared?

Not everyone can accept those fraze subjugation requests since such requests are designation requests. They are the requests which are being pa.s.sed to adventurers who can be relied on and who will keep working with the guild.

It will be unbearable if they just accept the request and then simply escape.

Anyway, its good to be able to confirm the performance of the perception board. There wont be any problems apparently.

Ive also distributed these boards to the tribes in the Great Forest Sea after borrowing the power of Pams Lauri tribe. An exchange letter bird (not a type of pigeon or anything similar) will fly to the Lauri tribe if something happens. Pam will then contact me through the gate mirror.

Itll be problematic if the Frazes come out at the sea though, but theres nothing I can do about that.

For now, I can only pray that at least there wont be a big damage.

With that said, is this alright?(Touya)

Hohou. Is this object called a rowing trolley?

Currently, Im in front of the leaders of each country, explaining the rowing trolley while in the middle of my thoughts. Ive spread a straight rail in the wide plains of Brunhild, showing them a rowing trolley moving above the rail.

As Ive explained earlier, this wagon will move above the rail by moving this handle up and down. Its a tool for transportation(Touya)

I see. Its construction is not particularly complex. I wonder, however, wont it be unable to carry much cargo?

Right now, yes. But Im also thinking of replacing the railcar with something else that can carry large quant.i.ties of cargo at high speeds. This wagon is just being exhibited to everyone for now and if it looks like there are no problems Im thinking of going ahead with my plan

If I make a steam engine or something similar all of a sudden, I would like to be excused from being blamed on the incidents like if someone who doesnt know about railways or trains gets run over by that. I will first introduce the railway and have them realize that theres something running over it. Then, an accident wont be as disastrous if it only involves railcars.

It seems trains have normally existed in the ancient kingdoms, according to Shescas group. It would likely be more appropriate to revive the technology of this world rather than bring in a technology from another world. Oh well, it seems those trains were loud-sounding magic trains though.

It should be easy to flatten the route when laying rails if a person uses earth magic. It will also be convenient to carry out the ores dug out from the mines with this(Touya)

Hmmm. Youre right

However, what I want you to abide by is the width of the rail. I would like it to be unified if possible. It will be considerably easier to circulate money or goods if the railway is able to extend from Reefrees to Rodomea one day. Remaking it will be troublesome, right?(Touya)

Rail width...a gauge. It seems to be called gauge, and the most widely used width in the world is 1435mm which is called the [Standard Gauge]. The width in j.a.pan is 1067mm which called the [Narrow Gauge] and it seems to be the most different from the [Standard Gauge]. It appears the bullet trains are using the 1435mm gauge, so Ive also adopted that one here.

Actually, my grandpas job was walking and measuring the width of the railroad, and he often talked about how important that is. The rails may expand or contract due to excessive heat or cold. If you dont notice this distortion and leave it unattended, its quite capable of causing the worst derailment accidents. I remember how many times he had told me that his work was that important.

Our country doesnt have borders with the countries of everyone else though...(Rynie King)

The King of Rynie Cloud-san raises his hand. They are an island country so they only border with the Paluf Kingdom to the north.

Its better to have the same rail width from the beginning so that you can reuse the railcars used by other countries when they give those to you. I dont think theres a need to bother making a different width(Touya)

Ah, is that so?(Rynie King)

Basically, disasters like collision accidents from the front wont likely to happen if they lay out the rails in twos with one rail going in one direction while the other rail going in the opposite direction. After talking about various considerations, the rulers rush to the merry time same as usual.

They are merry traveling by going back and forth on a 200m straight rail, steering the handle up and down while happily enjoying it. Are you kids?

As expected, the two women, her eminence the Pope and the statewide governor, didnt get on board and get merry.

They were instead looking at the railcar instructions and drawings I had given everyone with intense concentration. It seems theyve already come up with a way to utilize them.

Rodomea and Ramisshu are next to each other across a large river, and I think the trade will blossom quite a bit if a bridge can be built across.

Incidentally, the Monarch of Reefrees and the Beast King of Misumido have become excited and raised the speed too much. Because of that, they couldnt stop close enough and were blown away even though they had used the brakes. It became a good example of an accident. Naturally, Ive cured their scratches with recovery magic. Thats what happens when you speed up too much like that.

++++++++++++++++++++Scene Change+++++++++++++++++++

The season is going to be spring soon. Even the cold days are getting fewer, and the warm days are increasing.

It seems the number of travelers has increased along with that. The castle streets became lively as well, reaching the point of being crowded.

Adventurers aiming for the dungeon have gathered, while arms merchants and others aiming for the adventurers have also lined on the streets.

Ive thought about what would happen at first, but this country has developed quite well.

Your Majesty(Tsubaki)

Ha? Tsubaki-san?(Touya)

A cat on the fence speaks to me as I walk through the town. Its not a summoned beast. It appears to be a Ninjutsu of Takeda s.h.i.+n.o.bi, and it looks like a technique that allows you to emit a voice from other directions. Tsubaki-san is probably hiding nearby.

I think that it will be fine if she just talks to me directly without even purposely doing this. Rather, is it something done for its stylistic beauty?

Ive received a little bit of news which you would like to hear. It seems a war has started at Ishen(Tsubaki)

In Ishen? Where and to what extent?(Touya)

Among the eight lords consisting of Oda, Has.h.i.+ba, Chousokabe, Mouri, s.h.i.+mazu, Tokugawa, Uesugi and Date, Ive been told that Chousokabe has lost to the Oda/Has.h.i.+ba allied forces and had their territory taken away. Soon after that, the feudal lord of Oda, Oda n.o.bunaga, was a.s.sa.s.sinated. The feudal lord of Has.h.i.+ba, Has.h.i.+ba Hideyos.h.i.+, has taken over Oda and has become the largest power. Tokugawa has formed an alliance with Date and they are resisting him

Huh? Oda-san and this n.o.bunaga()... n.o.bunaga()? Was he killed? Guess it was expected.

The one who killed the feudal lord of Oda was Akechi-san, right? Was the feudal lord of Oda attacked at the temple during midnight?(Touya)

... Yes. A person called Akechi Mitsuhide rebelled against him while he had been staying in his lodgings in the temple called Honnoji... Why do you know about it?(Tsubaki)

Mn, I had a feeling it would be like that (Touya)

Just as I thought. The events in Ishen doesnt look like they follow the history of our world entirely, but they look similar in some respects. I havent really heard about the alliance between Tokugawa and Date though.

And, what about the Has.h.i.+ba army?(Touya)

They are governing over Mouri and s.h.i.+mazu with force at the moment. The remaining powers are Tokugawa, Date, and Uesugi. However... (Tsubaki)

Whats wrong?(Touya)

The Has.h.i.+ba army is moving towards the eastern parts of Ishen, while theyre building wars.h.i.+ps on the other hand. It appears like they are also thinking of crossing the sea and invade Yuuron...(Tsubaki)

Whats this? If Im not mistaken, there was a period in our history called the Bunroku-Keicho campaign.... Ara? Wont it be dangerous for Yuuron if they are attacked now under their current circ.u.mstances?

Say, whats going on at Yuuron right now?(Touya)

Power disputes are happening wherein influential n.o.bles are putting up people whom they claim be the illegitimate children of the Heavenly King into the position of the new Heavenly King. It resembles Ishen from some time ago(Tsubaki)

I wonder, wont it be bad if the Has.h.i.+ba army invades Yuuron at a time like this? They probably wont be able to rule all of Yuuron, but they might be able to conquer a part of it.

Honestly speaking, I dont care about what might happen to Yuuron...

Yuuron hasnt been invaded by other countries thus far considering the state they are currently it. One reason for that is due what has happened with the frazes.

The other countries are worrying whether the same ma.s.s killings might happen again in that country where it has already happened once. They also have no means to oppose the frazes in addition to that.

Naturally, there are also countries who arent interested in invading Yuuron in the first place like the Horn Kingdom or Demon Kingdom Zenoasu. This also includes the countries which dont want to hold any relation with Yuuron like the Hanock Kingdom, so I cannot say that for certain.

Rodomea seems to have no intention to invade them as well, to begin with. In that case, theres uneasiness whether the Ferzen Kingdom and the Nokia Kingdom wont be influenced by the movement in Ishen and start a similar march on Yuuron.

A war will likely happen between those three countries with Yuuron being made the staging grounds in the worst case scenario. Speaking of power, it appears that Ishen is considerably falling behind the other two countries, but I wonder what they will do.

What are the movements of Ferzen and Nokia?(Touya)

There are none at the moment. With regards to Ferzen however, its being restrained by large countries like Rodomea to the west and Restia to the south, so I dont think they will move that easily(Tsubaki)

I see. Its just as I thought. In that case, are those movements by the Has.h.i.+ba army due to foreseeing that things will be like that? Or do they have some sort of goal in here...

Despite that such an island country wont be able to gain total control by itself, why are they embarking towards other countries?

Say, what type of man is Hideyos.h.i.+?(Touya)

I dont know him that well. He b.u.t.tered up to Oda after he has unexpectedly received a position of the feudal lord from the emperor. A civil war then broke out just when I thought that they had formed an alliance. Its said that hes a small man with face of a monkey who raises a battle standard with a golden gourd, but no one has seen him except the people from Has.h.i.+ba(Tsubaki)

Has no one seen him? Is he being careful of being a.s.sa.s.sinated? Hideyos.h.i.+ has been a show-off in my memories, but it looks like hes different here. When Ive heard the story in detail, it was said that he was moving like a shadow of n.o.bunaga, but thats definitely how Hideyos.h.i.+ is.

Furthermore, theres an emperor or something. Ive heard that the King of Ishen doesnt have the power to restrain the feudal lords, but what if this Hideyos.h.i.+ is emperors person of ability. If hes not, then theres no way he wouldve been able to be something like a feudal lord so easily.

What is Ieyasu-san doing?(Touya)

He has tied his hands with Date and it seems that now hes trying to do the same with Uesugi. It might be that he wants to prepare for the Has.h.i.+ba army by getting allied with Uesugi whos holding arms rivaling that of our Takeda... no, former Takeda (Tsubaki)

Yep, now what can be done about this? Ive surely thought that Ieyasu-san would be unifying Ishen very easily though.

What am I am to do?(Tsubaki)

Lets wait and see for now. Contact me again if it looks like the Has.h.i.+ba army is really going to invade Yuuron or attack Ieyasu-san(Touya)

Ha(Tsubaki)

The cat sitting on the fence is yawning same as usual even though Tsubaki-sans indicator has vanished.

It appears that a lot of places are getting suspicious. It might be better to go to Ieyasu-sans place and have a talk with him just in case.

I have absolutely no relation to anyone there whatsoever with the exception of Yaes family living in their hometown.