Forbidden Love? (3)
Forbidden Love? (3)
That said, I wasn't seriously worried about what Alice and Charlotte were thinking. Or about Leo or Claire, for that matter.
They wouldn't be the protagonist and heroines for nothing.
This wasn't a picaresque story, so the protagonist and heroines were mostly righteous by nature. Once they learned the reality of imperialism, they'd be shocked and change their thinking. Well, in the original, it was less that they "changed their thinking" and more that they'd had a righteous nature all along, but that was probably because the story I'd heard aboard the airship had never appeared in the main game.
"Wow, it really is hot... Actually, it's way past the point where it just feels like the seasons are reversed."
The moment she stepped off the airship, Alice looked appalled.
The daytime temperature was nearly thirty degrees, so her reaction was understandable. Even in midsummer, Rondarium almost never climbed this high.
"You don't need to worry too much. Once night falls, the temperature drops so hard it's tough to manage without an outer layer."
"The climate is way too extreme..."
"Still, a much larger population lives here than on the Imperial mainland. For all we know, this place might actually have a far more livable climate than where we're from."
"... In the middle of a desert the size of a small country?"
At Alice's retort, Jake answered with a shrug.
Half a joke, but half serious. Jake had lived here since he was a child.
He felt a certain affection for his hometown, and at the same time, a certain guilt; it was a city built by exploiting the people who'd originally lived here. I could understand his desire to put the best possible spin on things.
"Everyone, attention! Form up by class!"
Jennifer, who had the loudest voice among the instructors, clapped her hands to get the students' attention.
The commoners who rarely got to travel this far were beside themselves with excitement, and plenty of noble children were also chattering away in clusters. As if to advertise the prestige of House Lindbergh, the airport they'd built was entirely glass-walled. It put me in mind of the Crystal Palace that had once existed in London.
A glass building thrown up under this blazing sun ought to have been sweltering, but some sort of air-conditioning device was forcibly venting the hot air outside, so the temperature wasn't unbearable. The ceiling was all glass too, but sunshades had been installed here and there to provide shade.
To my eyes the building's design was extremely old-fashioned, but by 1901 standards it was a perfectly state-of-the-art structure, even though several years had passed since its construction.
And beyond the building, the orderly streets presented an exotic view you'd never see in the imperial capital. Palm trees were planted along the avenues. Steam automobiles came and went, their complex-looking equipment clearly driven by steam engines.
This city, built from scratch on empty land, was practically a testing ground for cutting-edge technology.
Incidentally, the airship terminal here was the largest in the world.
"Good, good."
Once the students had listened to Jennifer and formed something resembling lines, she nodded.
"We'll be staying at the Lindbergh Hotel. It bears the name of the family that rules this domain, and it's the largest and most modern hotel in the city."
At that, a few students glanced at Jake. Jake wore only a faint smile and showed no other reaction.
"The transport we'll use to get there is the same. We're going to ride something called a 'bus.' Follow instructions carefully once we're there. I doubt anything serious will happen, but a lot of things will look unfamiliar compared to the imperial capital, and accidents can easily happen if you don't know what you're doing."
The imperial capital had crosswalks, but its carriages did not travel especially fast. The few steam automobiles were forced to crawl because of the Red Flag Act, which required vehicles not to frighten horses. Being struck would still cause a serious accident, but they could not match the speed of the cars here, which zipped along in the open.
... Still, listening to that explanation, I couldn't help feeling a strange sense of "Ah, right, those are cars." It was a little funny.
"This is a very unfamiliar place for most of you, so individual excursions are forbidden. If you want to go anywhere, you must move in groups of at least three. If you can't find anyone to go with, ask me or one of the other instructors."
Jennifer swept her gaze over us.
"Any questions?"
I'd expected no one to raise a hand, but to my surprise, one person did.
Jake.
"You."
When Jennifer called on him, Jake spoke up.
"This is my hometown. Do I still need someone with me if I go somewhere?"
A ripple of quiet laughter ran through the group.
Jennifer smiled along with it.
"No exceptions. If I make an exception for you alone, some idiot will convince himself he's gotten used to the place and go off alone, then get hurt. Besides, wherever you go, you won't exactly be alone, will you? You'll have girls following you around whether you like it or not."
A slightly louder burst of laughter broke out.
"Now, any other questions? No? Good. Then let's head to the hotel. Your luggage will be delivered to your rooms, so don't worry about it."
*
The hotel and the surrounding buildings mostly looked like something out of a drama or movie set in early twentieth-century New York. No, with those palm trees lining the streets, maybe it was closer to Miami. I'd never been to either place myself.
Still, the hotel itself looked a great deal like the Empire State Building, so I decided to think of it as a half-and-half mix.
"...."
Charlotte's expression as she watched the departing bus was a little troubled.
That was only natural. Belbur hadn't yet achieved full industrialization or modernization. Carriages still far outnumbered automobiles, and even the soldiers were only gradually being issued modern firearms.
the imperial capital's situation wasn't that it couldn't modernize, but that it chose not to. Whether you wanted to call it vested interests or guilds, people who drove carriages or made saddles had to earn a living, so modern devices were restricted by things like the Red Flag Act.
That meant the imperial capital fell short of letting you truly experience full-blown modernization the way this city did, because this place was completely different.
You couldn't say the streets were full of automobiles. But you didn't see carriages, either. Wealthy commoners and nobles drove their own cars, and workers rode municipal buses to get around. Occasionally, something like a motorcycle was visible.
It was the atmosphere of a modern city—something you'd never find anywhere else in the Empire.
This was precisely what made it suited for showing the students the Empire's might.
"It's amazing..."
Sophia could offer that honest assessment because, presumably, she had no particular reason to develop the Holy State.
Charlotte, who would inherit the throne, must have felt far more troubled than the rest of us.
"This city is special. Most of the Empire isn't like this, honestly. There's still a long way to go before we catch up."
Alice must have picked up on Charlotte's mood, because she tried to console her.
"Lutetia isn't even close to 'a long way to go.'"
At Charlotte's reply, Alice clammed up immediately.
I considered saying something in Alice's place. Lutetia had beautiful streets. Beautiful enough to boast about even without modernization.
"If you applied those kinds of transport to the military, just how many troops could you move at once, and how fast?"
"...."
Well, if she put it that way, I didn't have anything to say either.
True—no matter how beautiful the streets were, if they couldn't stop an enemy, they'd simply be taken.
"Don't worry too much."
Jake suddenly cut in.
"Those only started being brought in this year. It might look impressive, but they were rushed into service and break down constantly. They've still got a long way to go before they're fit for military use."
Of course, even if he said that, it was hardly a problem for the Imperial Army; they were already fielding tanks and the like.
"Is that so."
But Charlotte didn't argue the point. Because if they kept talking about it, there'd be no end.
"More importantly, let's get inside the hotel. It's hot, right?"
... Hm.
I already knew that Jake didn't think entirely positively about his own house, but...
Somehow, I got the feeling that he didn't particularly enjoy praising his family at all.
Was there something going on that I hadn't seen in the original?
Turning the thought over in my mind, I followed the group into the hotel lobby—a space impeccably decorated in a style that was, by this world's standards, cutting-edge and modern.