The Mighty Divine Dragon Ilx

Belluno's Passion

Doiva, Kingdom of Irnetia

"What the..."

In the port city of Doiva, where the traces of destruction by naval bombardment were still vivid, a man trembled alone at the harbor.

His name was Belluno. He was the head of the Development Department of the Holy Mirishial Empire's Technical Research and Development Bureau, and this time, he had joined the diplomatic mission to see the captured giant battleship. He had watched the previous broadcast, and while he had a general idea of its size...

"T-this is huge...!"

Now, the Grade Atlastar herself was moored right in front of him. Its majesty was incomparable to seeing it through a screen. He had seen military technology in Japan before, but this was a different vector of "strength" that was more easily understandable. There is no battleship that could face this head-on in Mirishial. Ancient weapons said to be in Area 48 would be an exception, but those were things the Empire couldn't create yet.

Gra Valkas had constructed this unprecedentedly giant battleship solely through mechanical technology. Magic and nonmagical tech were different fields, so a direct comparison might not be fair, but at least in the technology of creating large-caliber guns, Mirishial was inferior to Gra Valkas.

"In this short period, two countries with technological capabilities surpassing our own... and both are advanced civilizations, huh? It would have been better if at least one of them was a magic civilization..."

If that were the case, he thought, their country could learn from them.

The Holy Mirishial Empire was acknowledged by itself and others as the "strongest in the world." However, that was because they had excavated the technology of the Ravernal Empire and replicated it. Therefore, Mirishial lacked the ability to "develop on its own." Belluno understood this problem as well. However, ancient weapons utilized such advanced technology that replication would be completed before understanding. Thus, they would move on to the next technology without understanding the previous one.

It had been fine so far. But what about from now on?

"At least, if there is something indicating a new direction in technology..." he sighed.

The next ship he boarded was a small ship called the Canis Minor-class destroyer. Its main guns were four long-barreled 10 cm twin guns and, smaller than the standard caliber of 12,7 cm for Mirishial small ships, but there were many of them, and the long barrels suggested a long range due to that. It was not an advanced design created by Mirishial's magical technology but a somewhat messy design created by mechanical technology. It felt like this would be the result of the evolution of Muish ships.

"What is that decoration..."

In the midst of that, what caught his eye was the metal decoration attached to the mast at the rear of the bridge.

"Can I help you with something, sir?"

"Oh, Master Nizuel."

While tilting his head, General Nizuel of the Kingdom of Irnetia approached him, so Belluno asked Nizuel about it.

He was surprised by the answer.

"Oh, that? According to the information from the prisoners, it seems to be a device that emits electromagnetic waves to detect objects far away."

"Huh—t-that's just like..."

"Yes, we were surprised when we heard it too..."

He was speechless. Using radio waves to detect distant objects. It perfectly matched the description of the 'magical electromagnetic radar' that the Ravernal Empire was said to have used.