“Ladies and gentlemen, do not fear! It’s not a live dragon!” the crown prince’s smug voice echoed.
We can tell by looking at it. You’d be dead if that thing were alive. I can’t even be bothered to jab at him right now.
“This very dragon was defeated by the founding king, and this here is its preserved carcass. The king brought it back as a reminder to future generations of the threat the demons posed! We have reconstructed that carcass so that it may fly in the skies! Ladies and gentlemen, do you know why?”
I knew why I felt incredibly sorry for the founding king. You can’t make toys out of past relics. How are you all right with doing this as his descendant? “There is no need to fear demons! This aircraft is a record of our purpose! Our history! Our growth!” Those who were cheering in support got louder, whereas those who were disgusted by it all, sank even lower into their seats. I mean, a frontier territory was recently destroyed by demons. The royal family—excluding Alicia—who did absolutely nothing to help were now saying stuff like “There is no need to fear demons!” Just what were they thinking?
“Why did the people around the...ahem...crown prince...not even try to stop this?” Lady Seire, keeping a professional expression on her face, whispered to me. You were about to use a more insulting name for the crown prince just now, weren’t you, Lady Seire? However, she had a strong sense of duty and tried to understand the situation as neutrally as she could. Unfortunately, her eyes looked exactly like the dragon’s glass eyes.
“The Yanga territory was destroyed by demons and is still in the process of rebuilding. It’s somewhat calmed down since, but...what on earth are they thinking?” she continued. “Relations with the frontier regions are already bad, so why are they trying to make it worse?” I could imagine the effect this would have. The intelligence department had an important job to do. Just what was the crown prince’s faction hiding behind this farce? Lady Seire was trying to get to the truth of the matter. I understood the importance of information and had no choice but to respond sincerely.
“They probably are not thinking anything.” I was also presently suffering, but that is just what it is like to be around people in the royal capital. They had no real plan—they just wanted to be insensitive and rude toward the Frontier Alliance.
Lady Seire had a look on her face as if she had lost all hope in humanity. “Sir Fenix. I find it fascinating that we live in a world where a person such as you can exist alongside those who feel that it’s all right to do things like this.”
“Sometimes the world can be quite unfortunate.” Let’s have a drink when we return home. Let’s wash away this awful memory with alcohol. I’ll make us some delicious snacks. Although, with the world being as it is, there will surely be more painful moments to come.
“Hey, Ash. Something’s starting.” Hermes drew my attention back to the aircraft. While I was talking to Lady Seire, it seemed it had been readied for flight. The dragon-shaped aircraft— Wait, was it even fair to call it that? Wasn’t it just a dragon corpse? It had a steam engine nestled in its stomach area which kicked to life. It had worked exactly as Rockel—the steam engine enthusiast—had meticulously planned out. The engine started producing energy with no issue. However, the problem was the source.
“Oh, man. The wings are moving. Like, really moving. Up and down. They’re flapping like wings. They’re going so fast. I’m gonna go insane watching this,” Hermes narrated as he watched. The dragon-shaped aircraft was not powered by a propeller—it was powered by the wings flapping. Hermes was incredibly confused.
I was incredibly confused too. Why did they decide on that? The tendon-powered model aircraft was already in the market, so they didn’t have to come up with this humorous-yet-hideous design. Whatever compelled them to reverse-engineer our work only to end up using bird wings kept together with wax?! Does the crown prince think himself a comedian?!
The sturdy knights began to row the boat, leaving us, who were still dumbfounded, behind on the riverbank. Right, they need to produce artificial wind. That I understand. That’s at least theoretical. There are types of birds that first need to build up momentum before they fly. The burly knights then lifted the flapping object.
“Now, pay close attention. It’s now time for the first piloted aircraft...” The crown prince, as well as the musicians from the royal palace, all got louder. “Fly, Diamond...”
Ah, of course, he named it after a jewel. I can see how this will go. I can see this ending up in the water.
“...Drago—”
The knights all gave one final push with all their might—it seemed like they had timed it either to match up with the crown prince’s statement or with the music. The knights pushed with a collective “Hyah!” Since this was such a huge event, they had probably practiced together a lot. The dragon carcass flew awkwardly in the air...before falling into the water with a splash and sinking to the depths of the river. As expected. It’s not an aircraft, after all. That’s just a corpse. A carcass of a dragon that makes the steam engine useless by generating power to its flapping wings.
“Well...” The crowd had fallen silent as the event came to an abrupt ending. “Shall we head home, everyone?” I asked.
“Yeah, let’s head back. I’ve got a lot I want to do,” Hermes responded.
“I don’t even want to think of how much I’ve got waiting for me. It’s depressing,” Lady Reina sighed.
“So, this the result of one month of work...” Lady Seire commented.
Yeah, good work guys.
The dragon carcass ended up getting soaked two more times after that. Naturally, I did not quite have the time to go see it again, but I heard the results in a report.
“I wonder what they were even thinking? I don’t get it...” Hermes seemed quite confused, so as someone who knew a lot about history, I gave my deduction.
“I suspect that they lacked fundamental knowledge regarding basic scientific approaches.”
“Scientific approaches?” Hermes questioned.
“There are a lot of ways of going about it,” I began. “Say someone throws a ball.”
“Huh?”
“The ball flies one hundred meters.”
“Right.”
“So, the ball would always fly one hundred meters no matter who threw it, right?”
“Nah, nah, that’s not right. It would depend on the direction of the wind, and the strength of the throw...there are a lot of variables. But, wait, you didn’t say the ball would be the same every time, right?” Ahh, well done Hermes, you noticed that. Very logical of you.
“Precisely. There are a lot of variables when it comes to a ball flying a distance of one hundred meters. The strength of the person throwing it, how they throw it, the wind conditions that day—even if it were the same ball, a lot would change depending.”
“Yeah. Say you did it from a roof, it would be hard to recreate the same conditions to ensure it flies one hundred meters again.”
“So, if you had to come up with a way to ensure someone could throw a ball one hundred meters every time, what would you do?”