New Weapon
Ellydium Extraction Method
1. Soak the raw material in a solution with pH 12 or higher under alkaline conditions to dissolve the protein portions. — At this stage, pre-treat by removing foreign substances such as rocks or soil in advance.
2. Place the first-extracted metal mass into a separator, fill it with distilled water, add approximately 10g of “average-quality magic stone powder” per liter of solution, then perform separation by metal through the Eloin reaction*. — *What is the Eloin reaction?: A phenomenon in which metals react to different concentrations of mana. It also refers to the most common extraction method of separating metals by varying the intensity and concentration of mana in each layer of the solution.
3. Once the appropriate mana concentration is found, extraction is complete — or so I thought, but it’s still insufficient. Additional processing is required.
3-1. Because Ellydium blocks and reflects mana, it cannot be extracted through the Eloin reaction alone. A special post-treatment process is necessary. Collect the sediment that has settled at the bottom separately, wash it in a Ronder solution* at 50ppm concentration, then place it into an aqueous solution containing approximately 5g of “high-quality magic stone powder” per liter of solution and induce an electric electrode reaction. — *What is Ronder solution?: A solution that stabilizes the mana within metals.
4. Filter out all other metals attached to the electrode and collect only the metal that has settled at the bottom to complete the Ellydium extraction — this doesn’t work either. The impurity content is too high.
4-1. After consulting someone experienced with handling Ellydium, I learned that simply increasing the intensity of the Eloin reaction will not solve the problem.
5. Pure Ellydium is unstable, so most of it exists in alloy form with other metals. — The degree to which Ellydium’s unique properties are preserved varies by alloy, so a compromise between strength and properties must be found. — Ah, so this is what I saw before.
6. I requested data on each alloy, but was told to figure it out myself. — Neria, try persuading your father. — Sis, Dad says he’ll never teach me.
7. After searching through even imperial papers via other routes, it turns out that if you already have high-purity Ellydium that has been extracted, it can be extracted without difficulty through a mana-electrode reaction.
8. But where do I obtain Ellydium with 99% or higher purity?
I set the documents down and pressed a hand to my slightly aching forehead.
“This isn’t a manual at all.”
“It started out as one, but…”
Kirié, who had been staring at the manual that had somehow turned into a mix of the maintenance crew’s research logs and scribbles, turned her head to avoid my gaze.
“So you haven’t even found a way to extract it, let alone mobilize workers?”
“That’s not it. I found the method, but once I thought about it, I realized we can’t use outside workers after all.”
“Why not? Wouldn’t it be better to hire a lot of people and finish quickly?”
Rane, who had been pouring tea, answered my question.
“Luna. Do you know how obsessed the Empire is with Ellydium?”
“The Empire?”
Why was the Empire suddenly being brought up here?
“Yeah. Even if it’s academy cadets, there’s no guarantee that outside personnel won’t be influenced by the Empire.”
Even the people at the school are dangerous, Rane muttered under her breath, which made me curious.
“Didn’t we finish the Sky Stairway? Isn’t it no longer needed?”
“But because of the Republic, the area around the Sky Stairway has been practically a battlefield for the past fifty years. There are rumors that they’re planning to build a second Sky Stairway deep inside the Empire using the latest technology, somewhere completely safe.”
Rane continued in a serious tone while pouring tea into my empty cup.
“So if a large quantity of Ellydium is discovered somewhere, they’ll try to secure it no matter what. That’s why I think bringing in outsiders is dangerous.”
If what Rane said was true, even mentioning Ellydium carelessly was risky. I knew better than these students from a distant country just how persistent and strange the Empire could be, having witnessed fragments of their past involvement firsthand. I never expected they were still collecting Ellydium even now.
“Why do we even need Ellydium weapons in the first place? The ones we have now are stronger and better.”
“Uh, well, about that…”
Kirié, who had created Ellydium weapons on her own in the original story, was reacting this way, so I had nothing to say. The answer was probably in the later parts of the story written by the original author, but it was beyond my knowledge. In times like this, asking the other person can sometimes unexpectedly provide the answer. Besides, Kirié was an expert in this field, so she might have her own ideas about its uses.
“Then, Senior, have you ever thought about what would be good if we made weapons out of Ellydium?”
“You’re asking me now? Hmm. I can easily imagine Rendell’s weapon. He said he recently learned how to channel mana inside the sword, right? The moment I heard that, it came to me.”
Kirié had been enthusiastically talking about ideas for Rendell’s new sword when she suddenly tapped the documents on the desk as if she had just remembered something.
“Oh, right. This isn’t the time for that. You said you wanted to wrap this up as much as possible within this week, right? Then we should get started right away.”
“Can we do it just among ourselves?”
“To be precise, it’s you and our maintenance team.”
Kirié gave me a slightly crooked smile and pointed at me.
“Just me?”
“Yeah. Let’s talk about that separately. The others don’t need to come.”
“Phew.”
The first-years who had been pretending not to be nervous and the other seniors all let out sighs of relief. Only Rendell stepped forward and offered to help.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“It’s fine. Actually, if you’re going to help, it would be good to have Muri’s Trooper 01, but…”
“You mean it’s okay without it? Then pass.”
Muri, who had been completely absorbed in teaching Yui lately, coolly rejected Kirié’s roundabout request. Yui, who had been caught by her, was fidgeting and rolling her eyes, so I secretly winked at her to let her know it was okay.
“So it’s possible with just me? Then I’ll try doing it alone.”
“Why don’t you apply that attitude to us too?”
“It’s technical work, so how can the maintenance crew be left out? Shall we go right now?”
“Sure. It’s a relief that we only have morning classes these days.”
Even that was mostly self-study, and the CT Club could skip under the pretext of special training at the principal’s discretion. With the time we had secured that way, what I did was…
“Is this really the right way?”
「Yeah. You’re doing well. Now shake off what’s stuck to the surface. That’s a piece of Ellydium.」
At Kirié’s transmission, I let out a deep sigh and shook the large object held in Black Fairy’s hands onto the waterproof mat spread on the floor. Slightly bluish metal fragments fell out with soft thuds. Since it had been soaked in water, droplets fell along with them, but the waterproof mat let the water run off, leaving only the metal pieces behind.
This was no different from the scene of panning for gold dust. What we were mining was Ellydium instead of gold, and what we held was a component extracted from Limpid Fairy’s engine core instead of a sieve.
“By the way, I didn’t know Ellydium was used in Limpid.”
「Me neither. I was shocked when I discovered the Ellydium-made parts while doing maintenance the other day. If I hadn’t handled Ellydium often lately, I might have missed it.」
I came down from Black Fairy and, together with Kirié, Neria, and Marius, sifted through the metal fragments to separate the Ellydium. A component the size of a child’s torso made of pure Ellydium. After soaking it in a solution mixed with Ellydium and impurities, running a mana-infused electrode through it, and pulling it out, Ellydium would stick to the surface just like now. Since Limpid couldn’t use its engine, we used Black Fairy to dip the parts in water, pull them out, and shake them off dozens of times. Through this method, the amount of Ellydium we extracted in half a day had already exceeded the kilogram unit.
Maybe we really should call Muri or Yui after all. If we attached a crane to a Vivald-class, we wouldn’t have to keep climbing up and down like this.
When the first day’s work ended, the Earthworm’s shell from which we had extracted Ellydium had piled up like a hill. But what remained ahead was not a hill, but a mountain.
Kirié, seemingly accustomed to this level of work, stretched with a pleased expression and declared the end of the session.
“Good work, everyone. At this rate, we’ll be roughly done by Friday.”
“I’ll try persuading Yui tomorrow.”
“Does she know how to operate a crane?”
“I’m not sure…”
Even if she couldn’t use a crane, she could at least help with the manual labor. On the way back to school, Kirié talked about the plans ahead.
“This is also a chance to uncover the secret behind Limpid Fairy’s engine output. When we didn’t know the parts were made of Ellydium, we couldn’t even touch them for fear of breaking them, but now that we have Ellydium and know their identity, we can properly research them.”
Kirié, excited at the prospect of new research, continued exchanging opinions with Neria and Marius on the way back.
“But Senior, weren’t you clearly against making something out of Ellydium?”
“It’s not that I’m against it. It’s because you specifically said it was for weapons. If it’s for other parts, the possibilities are endless.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, Rendell’s weapon had left such a strong impression that we had only talked about weapons.
“Could we make a ranged weapon using a similar principle to Rendell Senior’s sword?”
“Hmm. A sword might work, but for ranged weapons, using Ellydium probably won’t make much difference or might not work at all.”
“Senior. May I say something?”
“Oh, go ahead.”
Marius, with his large build and innocent face, spoke to Kirié in a respectful manner. Anyone watching would think he was talking to a teacher.
“Among the Ellydium alloys, isn’t there one that maximizes mana reflectivity? If we apply that to the sniper rifle Luna mainly uses…”
Despite appearances, Marius was a talent Kirié had personally selected. The conversation, filled with technical terms that were difficult for me to understand, only ended when we reached the back gate of the school.
“It seems feasible. If we apply a similar principle, it might be difficult for rifles, but it could work for the main gun of a Vivald-class as well.”
“Sis, I’ll try coming up with a miniaturization plan.”
As Neria joined in and they discussed various theories and principles, the discussion that I thought had ended reignited. Hmm. As expected, the world of the maintenance crew was a place I couldn’t easily approach.
“Hey, if we stay here, the other cadets might overhear. Weren’t you the one who said we need to be careful about security, Kirié Senior?”
“Huh? When did we get here already?”
Although it was almost time for dinner, our CT Club maintenance crew unanimously headed toward the research and development room next to the maintenance shop. I should pack some simple snacks to take with us later.
「Half of the year has already passed.」
The sweltering summer had arrived on Galaxia as well. The cadets lined up on the training ground were wearing their dress uniforms instead of regular ones for the first time in a while, facing the summer sun. We each cooled ourselves in our own ways while listening to the principal’s address.
「The weather is hot, and I can feel the cadets who have booked their return ships home glaring at me. Don’t get hurt during the break and rest well. That is all.」
After delivering an extremely short address, the principal withdrew after receiving the student council president’s salute. I could understand, at least in fragments, why the principal was popular among the cadets. The following ceremony was also short, and we welcomed summer vacation.
Although the closing ceremony had ended, the cadets had to return to their classrooms. There was still the final homeroom, and there were various things to take care of. On the way back to the classroom, Rane gestured for me to come over.
“Luna. After class homeroom ends, can you bring the first-years to the clubroom?”
“Yes.”
We had no time to rest because we had to make our own vacation plans. It felt like we were even busier than before the break. We only gathered when it was almost 11 a.m. Rane, who naturally became the facilitator whenever we gathered, spoke first.
“Good work during the semester, everyone.”
“Good work!”
After a light exchange of greetings, the topic naturally shifted to vacation plans.
“What is everyone doing this summer?”
“It takes several days to get home, so I think I’ll just stay near school.”
Savian’s home was in the farthest region from here. On Galaxia, where aircraft had not developed, the most common means of transportation were cars and trains, and Alitus’s territory was not small enough to cross in a single day.
“What about the others?”
“I’m planning to visit my family and come back to school. In about a week?”
“Me too.”
Carson, Muri, and the others each shared their plans. Rendell and I exchanged glances. I didn’t know how he interpreted my look, but Rendell closed his mouth and stayed silent. Right. Don’t mention that we’re planning to go somewhere together. It probably wouldn’t happen anyway.
“I was thinking we could all go somewhere together this time, but it looks like not everyone can participate. What about Rendell and Luna?”
“I’m planning to travel around for family matters.”
“I see. What about Rendell?”
“I’ll go home and come back again.”
The increasingly busy second-years seemed to be planning to stop by home briefly before returning to school.
“I guess I’ll have to come back to school too.”
While Rane was pondering, Rendell sent me a look with his eyes. Did it mean to stay because he had something to talk about? Setting aside the conversation with Rendell for now, it was time to show the results we had achieved over the past week. When the conversation had run dry and signs of dispersal were beginning to show, Kirié stepped forward.
“Ahem. Ahem. There’s something the maintenance side needs to announce.”
“What is it?”
“You know that metal Luna brought last time?”
“Ah, that.”
We had established an unspoken rule after last time not to say “Ellydium” directly when mentioning it on campus.
“Did you finish extracting it?”
“We finished a while ago. There was an enormous amount.”
The amount of Ellydium we extracted reached a full ten tons. Enough to potentially build one Aindium completely plated with Ellydium. But making an Aindium entirely out of Ellydium would be no different from making one out of wood. As a special metal used only in small quantities for special parts, the number of Aindiums we could arm with the Ellydium we extracted was beyond imagination.
“We made a few prototype weapons with it. Everyone’s leaving tomorrow, right? Let’s do some testing today.”
At Kirié’s suggestion, the pilots raised their hands one after another. Pilots were naturally interested in new weapons.
“Here, we made one weapon each, so try them out and tell us what you think.”
We followed Kirié to the maintenance shop. It was time to try the Ellydium weapons that the maintenance crew had kept hidden even from me until now.