The technicians of the Southern Special Ordnance Design Bureau were working through the night again today.
When Kyle Leopold created blueprints, it was the Design Bureau's job to realize those blueprints within realistic limits.
It was a gathering place of engineering geniuses who made Kyle's designs—which were several steps ahead of the times—work in reality.
Those who were scouted for showing exceptional talent even in the industrial city of the South were each individuals capable of changing the era in their respective fields.
It wasn't very difficult to catch a glimpse of that talent.
"Here is the 76mm Anti-Air gun design sent from the Design Bureau, Your Grace."
"Oh, that looks quite plausible?"
It was enough to be acknowledged by Kyle Leopold, the Grand Duke of the South from the twenty-first century, on the first try.
XA-01, a modification of the 76mm naval gun used as a secondary gun on the Dreadnought.
Calling it XA-01 makes it sound impressive, but it's actually nothing special.
X is a distinguishing mark I arbitrarily attached to weapons under experimentation, and A stands for artillery, meaning cannon.
Experimental cannon No. 01.
For something hastily modified from a naval gun, it had a fairly plausible design.
Because it looked like the Anti-Air guns we commonly saw in World War II movies.
That meant it was an extremely advanced design by the standards of this era.
"I think this is good enough to use with just a little modification. There are some regrettable parts, but those are things we can't resolve given our circumstances."
Of course, Kyle Leopold wanted to increase the Anti-Air gun caliber to 88mm.
88mm FlaK.
Because he knew all too well the power of the German army's all-purpose gun from World War II, which could be used as an Anti-Air gun, anti-tank gun, and coastal gun.
But now, with an armed conflict with the West looming, it couldn't be helped.
The 76mm Anti-Air gun could be produced from the already established Dreadnought secondary gun production factory.
But to produce it in 88mm caliber, the entire factory would have to be rebuilt.
Regrettable, but he had no choice but to compromise with reality.
Thus, Kyle intended to deploy this XA-01 to actual combat after testing.
That is, until the technicians of the Design Technology Bureau opposed it.
"I'm not sure if large-caliber Anti-Air guns will be effective in actual combat."
"I think that against Wyvern Units that can freely maneuver up, down, left, and right in the air, increasing large-caliber batteries won't hit well."
"Rather, how about deploying many small-caliber Anti-Air guns to form a network of fire?"
The technicians, who still didn't know well about proximity fuses, looked at the Anti-Air gun with skepticism.
So Kyle Leopold headed directly to the Design Bureau.
***
Thanks to the modernization project steadily pursued over the past 10 years, the capital of the South, Albion, had at some point taken on an appearance similar to late nineteenth-century London.
Between brick buildings, concrete buildings occasionally appeared, and tall factories constantly spewed smoke from their chimneys.
On brick-paved streets, cars and horse-drawn carriages traveled together, and gentlemen in suits were often seen.
"It certainly looks like a place where people live now."
It was a completely different atmosphere from the streets filled with trash and homeless people when he first arrived in the South.
Watching that scenery from inside the car, he headed to the Design Bureau building.
Meanwhile, Lucilla asked me.
"Do you know the status you hold in the Design Bureau, Kyle?"
"Well, aren't I just a reasonably popular leader?"
It was a bit awkward to say it myself, but with an approval rating of 85%, it's a level where I can say that, right?
But Lucilla shook her head.
"Hmm... You'd better experience it for yourself once."
Lucilla, with her index finger placed under her lips, wore a faint smile on her face that was like a stiff ice princess.
The corners of her mouth, raised so slightly it was hard to notice, were a bonus.
As childhood friends. As royalty and lady-in-waiting. As revolutionary comrades.
And as Grand Duke of the South and Adjutant, the time they had spent together was already 10 years.
It wasn't difficult to notice the meaning in that expression.
"Ahaha, when you say that, it makes me a little anxious?"
She may look blunt, but she likes socializing and has a bit of a playful side.
Especially, she likes it when I'm flustered.
She says it's fun when someone who seems as perfect and thorough as me gets surprised.
"But this time it won't go as you please, will it?"
So, with the intention of playing along, I answered confidently.
Well, no matter how I thought about it, that was the case.
I had even given notice that I was coming in advance. Surely nothing would happen at the Design Bureau where the world's greatest intellects gathered.
"There's a saying among Eastern proverbs that 'surely' kills a person."
So I let Lucilla's words go in one ear and out the other.
It didn't take long to realize that I shouldn't have done that.
As soon as I entered the Design Bureau, a gloomy girl with dark circles hanging heavily under her eyes suddenly thrust a letter at me.
"I like you...!"
"Eh?"
I forgot everything I had confidently said to Lucilla and froze on the spot.
"I fell in love with Your Grace's Dreadnought design! Haah, in my life I've never seen such a magnificent, cool, and beautiful blueprint..."
While other researchers who belatedly rushed in covered the girl's mouth and dragged her backward, a famous saying naturally came to mind.
The saying that genius and madness are separated by a sheet of paper.
And this place was where only the continent's greatest geniuses gathered.
***
The staple food of Southerners is wheat and fish.
However, the staple food of the engineers belonging to the Southern Special Ordnance Design Bureau was a little different.
"Ugh, senior... is there no more coffee?"
"The one you just drank was the last cup."
"Heek...? Um, I still have a lot to do..."
"You've already drunk ten cups of coffee today alone, you know? Just get some sleep."
"If I do that, I'll hear considerable resentment from my future self..."
If the higher-ups order it, the engineers make it. In front of this major premise, the ones who were ground down were ultimately them.
Staying up all night with coffee as their staple instead of wheat and fish. It had become a common sight in the Ordnance Design Bureau before anyone knew it.
Because the magicians of engineering who made the impossible possible would get the job done somehow, even if it meant grinding themselves down.
-Hey, upper management don't know this can't be made with modern engineering??
-We know.
Even if they did it, it was an open secret that work would increase with 'Oh? This works too? Then try this.'
If they were ordinary people, they would have quit the Ordnance Design Bureau long ago. If it were a company, they would hire these geniuses even by paying a premium.
But the people gathered here were all engineers who would not be ashamed to be called the Empire's greatest intellects.
Their way of thinking was slightly different from ordinary humans.
"Ehe, ehehe, the blueprint... it's pretty..."
"All phenomena in the world are explained by physics...! Numbers are god..."
"Finally, finally completed! All you bastards who said this was physically impossible, come out!!!"
From the start, the engineers of the Design Bureau had not come to receive money.
Backed by the unlimited funding of the wealthy South, they were people who gathered to make what they wanted to make.
In the middle of such a place, the Dreadnought's blueprint fell.
"Everyone, attention! This is the blueprint of the latest warship that Kyle has entrusted to us for review!"
The largest war weapon in human history.
A fortress on the sea that operates solely by the power of machines, without any help from magic.
Even naval guns with overwhelming firepower that cannot even be compared to mere mages.
There was nothing that could more accurately express the word 'romance' than this.
The battleship, the largest and strongest war weapon created by humans, was the romance that all engineers dreamed of.
Therefore, Kyle Leopold in the Design Bureau was an existence close to a god.
A transcendent being who saw a distant future that they could not even grasp.
Since such a person was coming to the Design Bureau with a blueprint for a new weapon, all the engineers of the Design Bureau forgot their sleepiness and gathered in the conference room with excited hearts.
"I heard your opinions on the Anti-Air gun's accuracy well. It happens to be a problem I was also pondering, so I brought a blueprint... The welcome was a bit intense."
As expected, this design proposal was also one that would not betray the engineers' expectations.
1.Each shell is embedded with a processed magic stone. These magic stones begin operating the moment they are fired from the Anti-Air gun.
2.The activated magic stone periodically emits mana around it.
3.When there is nothing around, the mana wave scatters into the air, but when riding a Wyvern, a creature that handles mana, with a knight clad in aura, the wave reflects and returns.
4.The magic stone, detecting the reflected wave returning, releases all the mana it held.
5,The magic stone's release of mana acts as a detonator, and the shell explodes right next to the enemy.
"An unavoidable shell, the Proximity Fuse."
Originally a weapon that could only be used after vacuum tubes were invented, but in this world there was a natural semiconductor called magic stone.
And magical engineering utilizing magic stones and modern technology was what the engineers of the Design Bureau loved most.
The eyes of the engineers, who had been dying until just a few hours ago, regained life.
"We will definitely complete it within 3 days!"
The sight of the engineers clinging to the blueprints with dark circles hanging heavily under their eyes... honestly, it was a little scary.
***
After that day, it really took only 3 days for the XA-01 Anti-Air gun and Proximity Fuse Shells to come into my hands.
I decided not to think about how many engineers were ground down in the process.
Because thinking deeply about it would only increase my guilt.
Anyway, the test of the XA-01 Anti-Air gun and proximity fuse was conducted on an uninhabited island.
Inside the wide shooting range, there was a captured adult Wyvern and a target placed 5 meters away from it.
The purpose of the experiment was to see if the proximity fuse worked well even with an error of about 5 to 10 meters.
And whether a shell exploding at this distance could inflict effective damage on the Wyvern.
In front of the test site where officers had gathered, the 76mm Anti-Air gun emitted light.
The result was devastating.
The Wyvern, torn apart by blast pressure and shrapnel, ended up becoming tattered pieces of meat.