The Unavoidable Shell

The engineers of the Southern Special Military Design Bureau were working through the night once again. When Kyle Leopold drafted a blueprint, it was the bureau's job to bring that design to life within the bounds of physical reality.

This was a gathering of engineering geniuses who made Kyle's designs—which were several steps ahead of the current era—actually function in the real world.

Handpicked for their extraordinary talents even within the industrial powerhouse of the South, each and every one of them was capable of changing the era in their respective fields. Glimpsing that genius was not difficult.

"This is the 76mm anti-aircraft gun design sent by the bureau, Your Grace."

"Oh, this is actually quite decent."

To think they could win the approval of Kyle Leopold, the Archduke of the South who hailed from the twenty-first century, on their very first try.

The XA-01 was a modification of the 76mm naval gun used as secondary armament on the Dreadnought.

Calling it the XA-01 made it sound fancy, but it was actually quite simple. The 'X' was an arbitrary designation I used for experimental weapons, and the 'A' stood for artillery. Experimental Artillery No. 1.

For a weapon hastily converted from a naval gun, its design was remarkably sound. It looked just like the anti-aircraft guns one would commonly see in World War II movies. By the standards of this era, it was an incredibly advanced piece of engineering.

"This looks good enough to use with just a few minor modifications. There are some disappointing aspects, but those are things we can't resolve under our current circumstances."

Of course, Kyle wanted to increase the caliber of the anti-aircraft gun to 88mm. The 88mm FlaK. He knew all too well the devastating power of the German army's legendary multi-purpose gun from World War II, which could be used as an anti-aircraft gun, an anti-tank gun, and a coastal gun.

However, with an armed conflict against the West looming, he had no choice. The 76mm anti-aircraft guns could be churned out by the existing factories that produced the Dreadnought's secondary guns.

To manufacture an 88mm caliber weapon, they would have to rebuild the factories from scratch. It was regrettable, but he had to compromise with reality.

Thus, Kyle intended to put the XA-01 through testing and deploy it to the field. That was, until the engineers of the design bureau raised their objections.

"We are not entirely sure if a large-caliber anti-aircraft gun will be effective in actual combat."

"Against wyvern squadrons that can freely maneuver in all directions in the sky, we doubt that increasing the number of large-caliber batteries will yield many hits."

"Would it not be better to deploy a large number of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns to create a wall of fire?"

The engineers, who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were still ignorant of the proximity fuse, cast skeptical eyes on the anti-aircraft gun. And so, Kyle Leopold headed to the design bureau in person.

Thanks to the modernization projects steadily pushed forward over the last ten years, the Southern capital of Albion had come to resemble late nineteenth-century London.

Concrete buildings occasionally peeked out from between brick structures, and towering factories constantly spewed smoke from their chimneys. On the brick-paved streets, automobiles and carriages bustled side by side, and gentlemen in formal suits were a common sight.

"It finally looks like a place where civilized people live."

The atmosphere was completely different from when I first arrived in the South, back when the streets were overflowing with trash and the homeless. I gazed at the scenery from inside the car as we headed toward the design bureau. Along the way, Lucilla asked me a question.

"Do you know what kind of status you hold within the design bureau, Lord Kyle?"

"Well, aren't I just a reasonably popular leader?"

It was a bit embarrassing to say it myself, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but with an eighty-five percent approval rating, I was well within my rights to make such a claim, wasn't I? However, Lucilla shook her head.

"Hmm... It would be best for you to experience it firsthand."

Placing her index finger just beneath her lips, Lucilla let a faint smile grace her cool, ice-princess face. The corner of her mouth, curving upward so subtly it was almost imperceptible, was a bonus.

As childhood friends. As royalty and maid. As revolutionary comrades. And now, as the Archduke of the South and his adjutant, they had spent ten years together. It wasn't hard to decipher the meaning behind that expression.

"Ahaha, when you put it that way, it makes me a bit anxious."

Despite her blunt exterior, she actually enjoyed socializing and had a bit of a mischievous streak. In particular, she loved seeing me flustered. She claimed it was entertaining to see someone who seemed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as perfect and thorough as me get caught off guard.

"But it won't go your way this time."

So, in the spirit of playing along, I replied confidently. No matter how much I thought about it, there was no reason to worry. I had even given them advance notice of my visit. Surely nothing strange would happen at the design bureau, a place where the world's finest minds were gathered.

"There is a proverb in the East that says, 'Complacency kills.'"

And so, I let Lucilla's words go in one ear and out the other. It didn't take long for me to realize that I shouldn't have done that. The moment I stepped into the design bureau, a gloomy-looking girl with deep dark circles under her eyes suddenly thrust a letter at me.

"I love you...!"

"Eh?"

Forgetting everything I had so confidently declared to Lucilla, I froze on the spot.

"I fell in love with your Dreadnought blueprint, Your Grace! Haa, in all my life, I have never seen a design so magnificent, cool, and beautiful..."

While other researchers rushed over belatedly, covered her mouth, and dragged her away, a famous saying naturally came to mind.

That there is a fine line between genius and madness.

And this place was a gathering of the greatest geniuses on the continent.

The staple food of the Southerners was wheat and fish. However, the staple diet of the engineers belonging to the Southern Special Military Design Bureau was slightly different.

"Ugh, senior... Is there no more coffee?"

"The cup you just drank was the last one."

"Heh...? But, I still have so much left to do..."

"You've already had ten cups of coffee today. Why don't you just get some sleep?"

"If I do that, my future self will resent me terribly..."

If the higher-ups order it, the engineers build it. Under this grand premise, they were ultimately the ones being ground to dust. Staying up all night with coffee as their staple instead of wheat and fish had become a common sight at the military design bureau. These magicians of engineering, who turned the impossible into the possible, would somehow get the job done even if it meant grinding themselves to the bone.

It was an open secret that even if they succeeded, the only reward was more work, with the higher-ups saying, "Oh? You can do this too? Then try this next."

Ordinary people would have quit the military design bureau long ago. Private corporations would have hired these geniuses even if they had to pay a premium. But the people gathered here were engineers who fully deserved to be called the finest minds of the Empire. Their way of thinking was slightly different from that of ordinary humans.

"Hehe, ehehe... The blueprint... it's so beautiful..."

"Every phenomenon in the universe can be explained by physics...! Numbers are God..."

"Finally, I've finally finished it! All you bastards who said this was physically impossible, get out here right now!!!"

In the first place, the engineers of the design bureau hadn't come here for the money. Backed by the unlimited financial support of the wealthy South, they were people who had gathered to build whatever they wanted. And right into the middle of such a place, the blueprints for the Dreadnought had dropped.

"Attention, everyone! This is the blueprint of the state-of-the-art warship that Lord Kyle has entrusted to us for review!"

The largest weapon of war in human history. A fortress on the sea that operated solely on mechanical power, without any assistance from magic. Complete with naval guns boasting a devastating firepower that made mere mages pale in comparison.

Nothing could capture the essence of the word "romance" more perfectly than this. The battleship, the largest and strongest war machine created by mankind, was the ultimate dream of every engineer.

Therefore, within the design bureau, Kyle Leopold was a figure akin to a god. A transcendent being who looked into a distant future they couldn't even begin to grasp.

When word spread that such a man was coming to the bureau with the blueprints for a new weapon, all the engineers forgot their sleepiness and gathered in the conference room with fluttering hearts.

"I have heard your concerns regarding the accuracy of the anti-aircraft guns. As it happens, I was also pondering that very issue, so I brought a blueprint with me... though the welcome was a bit intense."

As expected, this new design was another masterpiece that would not disappoint the engineers.

"The shell you cannot evade: the proximity fuse."

Originally, this was a weapon that required vacuum tubes to function, but this world possessed a natural semiconductor called mana crystals. And magic engineering, which combined mana crystals with modern technology, was the absolute favorite subject of the design bureau's engineers.

Life returned to the eyes of the engineers who, just hours ago, had looked like walking corpses.

"We will absolutely have this finished within three days!"

To be honest, the sight of those engineers, with their deep dark circles, swarming over the blueprints was... a little terrifying.

From that day on, it truly took only three days for the XA-01 anti-aircraft gun and the proximity fuse shells to fall into my hands. I decided not to think about how many engineers had been ground to dust in the process. Thinking too deeply about it would only make me feel more guilty.

At any rate, the testing of the XA-01 anti-aircraft gun and the proximity fuse was conducted on an uninhabited island. Within the vast firing range, a captured adult wyvern was positioned five meters away from a target board.

The purpose of the experiment was to see if the proximity fuse would function properly even with a margin of error of five to ten meters, and whether the shell exploding at such a distance could inflict effective damage on the wyvern.

Before the gathered officers at the testing ground, the 76mm anti-aircraft gun spat fire. The result was devastating. Torn apart by the blast pressure and shrapnel, the wyvern was reduced to tattered shreds of flesh.