/
Chapter 357 – New Development
A few days after the Gerda incident.
“Then, Byaku-san and Shen-san, please contact the merchants’ guild. Luna-san and Lana-san, please go to the adventurers’ guild. Meme-san will escort Kosuke-sama with me, and Mito-san, Fey-san, and Olivia-san will take the normal shift.”
Gerda was given the position of overseeing the beastmen maids. I was not informed of the details of the discussion, but it seemed to have been settled in that way.
“I understand.”
“Yes.”
“”Understood.””
“Okay.”
Byaku, the Fox-type beastman. Shen, the Horse-type beastman; Luna and Lana, the Dog-type beastmen; and Meme, the Rabbit-type beastmen, responded.
In response, those who were told to work their normal shifts―their normal duties as maids at the castle.
“Roger.”
“Yes.”
“I understand.”
On the surface, all three seem to have no complaints. However, Gerda, perhaps not pleased with Mito’s overly appropriate response, smiled at her.
“I understand.”
Gerda nodded her head in satisfaction as she looked at Mito, who had rephrased her words with her ears down and her tail straightened up.
“We will be Kosuke-sama’s eyes, ears, and shield. That is our role.”
“””Yes.”””
“Well then, I look forward to working with you all today.”
As I watch the beastmen maids perform their morning ritual, I take a sip of the morning tea that Gerda made me before the morning ritual.
On the fluffy sofa where I am sitting, Grande is sitting with me
 or rather, lying down, sleeping peacefully with her cheeks on my thighs. Drool is dripping down my pants, but I pretend I didn’t see it.
“What shall we do today?”
I have a good amount of tasks to do. For example, making weapons as requested by Sir Leonard or making a new type of astronomical telescope as requested by Aquawill-san. I also want to check on other canned food and instant noodle-related situations, and if there are any tools needed or requests for improvement in the field, I want to take them and give them shape. I also need to deal with the Dragonis Mountain Kingdom soon. I hear they are waiting for me and Grande to come. Well, I am not in a position to go to other countries so easily. I’ve already talked to Melty, so she’ll decide when the time is right.
I opened my inventory and checked the contents while thinking about what else, let’s see, what else
 As for the materials, there is no problem. When I built the pioneer village, I collected a lot of materials such as stone, sand, clay, ore, wood, etc. There were also plenty of organic materials from the monsters that Shumel and her party had hunted and collected during the pioneering work. Thus, I get the materials from the monsters, and Shumel and her party get bonuses in the form of gemstones and cash. It was a win-win deal.
“What, are you thinking about your work?”
“Grande, your drool, your drool.”
“Hmm, oh. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Grande wakes up, and I point out to her that there is drool dripping down my pants, and she’s rubbing her hand through it. Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to clean it up. Well, that’s okay.
“Kosuke, you work too hard. If you work that hard, you will die young. You’re with me now, so you should be more composed.”
“I don’t understand. I don’t feel at ease just sitting around doing nothing.”
“It can’t be helped. Then let me be the one to weigh you down.”
Grande snuggles over and rubs her cheek against my thigh. Ah, yes, yes. Grande is so cute. I ruffle Grande’s blonde hair, which is a little kinky.
“The weight is fine, but I’d like to see the kids’ faces.”
“That would be nice. I’d like to see them, too.”
“So, please make the arrangements. After I see Elise and Conrad, I will go to see the harpies, too.”
“Understood.”
Gerda looked at her, and Meme, the Rabbit-type beastman who was with her, walked out of the room. Since the last attack by the assassins of the Holy Kingdom, when I go outside, I have to be escorted by a guard. Not long ago, I used to wander around the area on foot, but now I have a magnificent royal carriage with a heavy escort. I guess this is what it means to be royalty.
☆★☆
We stopped by Ellen and Amalie’s to check on the babies and then went to the harpies’ residence to see how the harpies were doing. The harpy kids were all very excited when I told them that their little sister and brother had been born. Let’s take everyone to the royal castle and see if we can get them to meet Elise and Conrad.
When I returned to the castle in the late afternoon, Isla was waiting for me in my room.
“I’m back, Isla.”
“Hmm, welcome back. Are you from the harpies’ house?”
“Yeah, I went to check on the harpy kids. What’s going on, Isla?”
Basically, Isla rarely visits my room during the daytime. It is because Isla is busy working as a court mage and as the head of the Research and Development Department during the daytime, and when she has free time, she usually does some kind of research.
“Hmm, I wanted to talk to you about that flying vehicle you were talking about the other day.”
“Oh, that thing.”
I talked about that kind of thing the other day when we were doing astronomical observations in Aquawill-san’s room. The Merinard Royal Army has gained unrivaled mobility through the development of air boards, but Isla is greedily trying to go even further than that.
“You sounded as if you had a concrete plan.”
“I don’t have anything concrete in mind. Well, I’m thinking in the direction of mass transportation rather than high-speed travel.”
“Mass transportation?”
Isla tilted her head.
“The airplanes are flying in the sky, so they can ignore the terrain. So, of course, it will be fast. If we can install a wind-magic propulsion system, the speed will be considerably higher. But then, wouldn’t it be better to use it in an air board?”
“Hmm, well, yes. Indeed, if you think about it, air boards are not really suited for mass transportation.”
“I think it would be different if we could improve the roads so that large air boards could be used for transportation. Well, in the case of air boards, the roads don’t have to be that solid.”
Since air boards also float from the ground, their maneuverability does not change that much, even if road conditions are bad. However, they do need to run along highways. Even though it is a highway, there are places where there are deep forests right next to the road, so it is not always possible to run at high speed on the side of the road. Also, in order to carry a larger amount of cargo by air board, it would be necessary to build a large air board for transportation. Even if they were to run on the side of the road, it would be a bit narrow on the road designed for horse-drawn carriages. It would take a lot of money and time to build such a road.
“So I think we should build a blimp or airship
 or whatever you want to call it, a flying ship.”
“A flying ship.”
Isla’s eyes widened. It seems to have caught her interest.
“If we use a wind-magic propulsion system for the propulsion, the problem is how to make it float.”
What comes to mind is a ship with a big propeller instead of a sail, but what about that? It seems feasible to use a golem, but how do you counteract the torque? There’s no tail rotor or anything like that. Oh, maybe by changing the direction of rotation for each of the several pillars to cancel out the torque? Sounds like a difficult problem.
“Hmm
”
In the airships that existed in reality, buoyancy was generated by filling a large air sac with light gas, right? If we can prepare a large amount of so-called “light gas” in this world, there is a possibility that it can be put to practical use. Since there are highly efficient propulsion systems, it would be possible to use them as auxiliary power to support buoyancy.
Or, it may be possible to make it float in the sky and fly with only a wind-magic propulsion system. It would require some ingenuity to make it fly stably, but it seems feasible. Ah, there is also a way to make it like a balloon. If we use wind magic, we can keep sending wind into the air sac without using a burner, so we can gain buoyancy with it. In this case, would it be more of a sailboat in a sense than a balloon? Instead of a sideways sail, you would attach an upward sail to the ship and keep the wind blowing through it.
“At any rate, I have a lot of ideas. Let’s start by sharing some theories and see what people think.”
“Hmm, I’m looking forward to it.”
I feel like Grande is sending a look at me and Isla, who are getting excited as if to say it’s hopeless, but let’s not worry about that. Because it is fun to create something new.