Episode 100
“Phew.”
A deep sigh sank down onto the table.
“Is it that hard?”
“Yes.”
Cecile, who could always handle anything with confidence, shook her head this time.
“At least~! The ship blueprints you found in the library were a huge help. Without them, I don’t think I could’ve even started.”
To Ariella, those blueprints were basically from an ancient civilization.
“So, it’s impossible to build a whole ship with just those, right?”
“At least I can hire shipbuilders. The merchant guilds in the Demon Realm have been transporting goods and people along the Servenue River for ages.”
But the river Servenue didn’t reach as far as Ludwig’s territory.
And an even bigger problem blocked their way.
“Those ships were only made to float on rivers. Meaning, they can’t sail on the sea!”
And the sea they had to cross was far from peaceful.
“If just one number goes wrong, I’ll have to recalculate everything from scratch.”
Failing to calculate properly would break the ship’s balance.
It could flip over in the waves, or a hole could tear through the bottom.
And if a storm hit, no one could predict how much shock the hull would take.
When it came to the sea, everyone in the Demon Realm was a beginner.
“Beginner shipbuilders making a ship, and beginner sailors steering it? I’d never get on board. I value my life!”
Ariella looked at her in surprise.
“What? But you have to ride that ship too.”
“……?”
A few seconds of silence.
Cecile, stunned, snapped back to her senses and jumped up.
“Th-there was never any mention of that!”
Her face flushed bright red from shock.
“It was too obvious, so I skipped saying it. You’re the core of this whole project, Cecile. What happens if you’re not there?”
Besides, even when discussing the dark iron trade in the north, they needed Cecile.
“Don’t worry too much. I’ll be on board with you.”
“What?”
Cecile’s eyes grew even wider.
“That makes even less sense!”
She was more upset about Ariella boarding than herself.
“How can the Demon King’s contractor go on such a dangerous voyage? It’s a sea route no one has sailed for centuries!”
“My homeland was a maritime kingdom. In the Demon Realm, no one has more sailing experience than me.”
Cecile kept trying to stop her, but Ariella stayed stubborn.
She’d already finished discussing it with Ludwig.
He made it clear that if he was going with Ariella, he wouldn’t care about the destination or the method of transport.
“Anyway!”
Ariella changed the subject.
“I don’t want to die either, you know? I’ve been thinking about it. Basically, you’re saying with current technology, there are too many gaps, right?”
“Yes!”
“Then what if we plug those gaps with safety measures?”
“What kind of safety measures? Like I said, there aren’t just one or two gaps. We don’t even know where or how many there’ll be!”
“Then we control the environment where those gaps might happen.”
“Controlling unknown variables? That sounds like magic or something…”
Cecile stopped mid-sentence.
She realized the answer was in her own words.
Their eyes met in the air.
“Lady Ariella… don’t tell me, the safety measure is…?”
“Yep.”
She smiled brightly.
“Magic!”
With one word, she defined the answer.
Then Ariella looked straight at the horn on Cecile’s forehead.
“You demons are closer to magic than anyone, yet you rarely think of using it in other industries.”
At least Cecile specialized in making artifacts, so she caught on quickly.
“You remember the magic stone we got from hunting the Serpent, right?”
Excitement flickered in Cecile’s eyes.
“Yes! That was the biggest magic stone I’ve ever seen in my life. You can’t break that up, okay? You know that, right?”
“Yeah. Richmond said the same thing.”
With a focused face, Ariella laid out her idea.
“Of course I don’t plan to split it. The bigger it stays, the more efficient it’ll be. So I kept thinking.”
She grinned.
“And then you, Cecile, said you’d make a ship for our Demon King’s domain?”
Of course, it wasn’t really voluntary—it was more like an order.
But Cecile forgot to correct her and cried out instead.
“You’re going to install that magic stone in the ship?”
“Now we’re finally on the same page.”
Ariella smiled meaningfully.
“We’ll design and build the ship itself as an artifact, from the very beginning.”
An artifact that took the form and function of a ship.
It felt like lightning struck Cecile’s mind.
But only for a moment.
As an artifact expert, her brain quickly overflowed with ideas.
“This is different from making weapons. Even if we don’t have enough dark iron, it’ll be fine! With a magic stone that big, the energy will even flow through the air!”
She was already thinking of spells to enchant the ship with.
“If the hull tilts, we can use balance magic to keep it level!”
Ariella chimed in.
“And magic to detect wind and air currents.”
“Reinforce the hull with durability magic against reefs or sea monsters. For propulsion, we can use wind magic!”
“And in the worst-case scenario, we can cast buoyancy magic over the whole ship so it won’t sink.”
The two women spoke back and forth like a team that had worked together for years.
The blurry plan was sharpening into something real.
“……!”
“……!”
They both saw the same message in each other’s eyes.
This might actually work.
After returning from Cecile’s atelier, Ariella gathered her retainers.
In the meeting room, she spoke like she was handing down judgment.
“It’s time we deal with the Delac spies hiding in our land.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Richmond cracked his neck.
“About time. We’ve done enough counter-espionage. We’ve fed Delac plenty of false information.”
Delac still believed Ludwig was seriously working on tunnel construction.
They also thought Cecile’s artifact weapon project was going nowhere.
It was a trick to make Delac completely drop their guard.
“Our Demon King’s domain is about to start a massive construction project.”
On paper, it was about developing the barren southern land to expand housing for the people.
That was partly true, but the real reason lay beneath.
“While building a shipyard in the south and making ships, there will be a lot of materials and manpower moving around.”
The real goal was the shipyard.
“Even if we disguise it as another project, it’s impossible to hide everything from the spies’ eyes.”
The Demon King, Ludwig, thought for a moment and then spoke.
“You said there are twelve spies, right?”
“Yes.”
“And we know exactly where they’re hiding and what they look like, but we can’t just go kill them right away, correct?”
In the past, he would’ve charged in himself without hesitation.
But now, he was actually thinking.
Ariella felt proud.
The power of education really is amazing.
“Exactly. If we did that, Delac would lose their false sense of security and become alert again.”
They needed to remove the spies without letting it show that Ludwig had spotted them long ago.
“The best way is to make it look like an accident.”
Richmond laughed heartily.
“So, not because we’re smart, but just by coincidence, they get caught? That’s the idea?”
“Yes. We’ll make it look like a mouse getting stepped on by a cow’s clumsy hooves.”
If they added a little blame on the spies’ own carelessness, it would be even better.
“So, what kind of ‘accident’ are you planning?”
Ariella smirked.
“I’ve already thought of everything.”
