A Tool Useful Only for Defense
I'd been kidnapped.
Or rather, the military grunts had dragged me off.
"We've brought as much of the wire used for livestock fencing as we could manage. With this, we should be able to fashion a simple barbed-wire barrier and put it to the test. Mr. Otto Lothringen, we'd be grateful for any advice you can offer."
"Haha… Will I really be of any help?"
"Of course! Your precise, concrete tactical thinking is certain to transform border security dramatically. It's almost a shame you're a merchant instead of a soldier. Ah—have you ever considered military service?"
"I'm a merchant born and bred, I'm afraid."
Enlistment is absolutely not happening!
I shook my head hard enough to rattle my brains. I already hated working—and now they wanted me to join the army?
I'd rather inherit the trading company and become its head than rot in a military uniform.
Wait. Is that a death flag?
No. That was only a comparison. I still had zero intention of taking over the company.
While I was entertaining those ominous thoughts, the soldiers set to work with the wire, hammering and twisting something together. They even hauled in a few captured monsters from somewhere.
"Oh! Weaving the wire and adding barbs really does work! It's just like a rose thicket. Once you're snagged, it drags you in like a fishhook."
Barbed wire.
It wasn't as if this world had never conceived of such a thing. When raising livestock that liked to hop stone walls, people often wove iron wire into a makeshift fence rather than stacking rock. It was several times easier to install, too.
But it had never been used for military purposes. An iron-wire fence looked flimsy at a glance, as if anything could simply slip through. No one imagined it would be much use against powerful monsters.
Once you actually tried it, though, its usefulness was almost impossible to overstate.
"Remarkable. As expected, Mr. Otto, you possess genuine military insight."
"Ahaha…"
"And you also mentioned something called concertina wire, did you not?"
"Huh? Uh, well… I don't really remember…"
How sharp is this guy's memory?
He's remembering every single thing I said?
"Wheel-shaped wire fencing… What exactly does it look like?"
"Mm. Well, you coil the barbed wire up like a spring so it's easy to store… You keep it bound until you need it, then cut the bindings and let it unfurl on its own."
"Oho."
I didn't know the details myself. I'd only ever known that the army used a lot of the stuff—that "something like that existed." Building it probably wouldn't be hard… but why anyone would deliberately shape barbed wire into a wheel was a complete mystery to me.
"If that's the case, you wouldn't even need to install it like a proper fence. In a pinch you could use it as a barricade."
"Uh, well… Maybe? Probably?"
"You could intertwine it with other wire barriers as well. Ah—and if you mounted it atop a wall, it would be highly effective at stopping light, agile monsters from climbing over. Truly, the applications seem endless. You could even stack concertina wire alone and have it serve as a wall by itself."
"Uh…"
Is… that so?
The Defense Procurement Chief seemed completely obsessed with the concertina wire I'd described. He even fetched a chalkboard from somewhere and began sketching furiously.
And the shapes he was drawing looked uncannily familiar—exactly like the ones I'd seen in my previous life.
Wait. He'd come up with something this concrete from just that brief explanation?
At this rate, do they even need me?
I was staring blankly at him when the Chief suddenly seized both my hands in his.
Whoa. That grip strength was no joke.
Career soldiers really were built different.
"Mr. Otto! This absolutely must be introduced along the border!"
"Ah, yes…"
Why are you telling me that while crushing my hands, though?
Just have the National Defense Magic Tower develop it.
"I'll use my authority to skip nearly every procedure! Please supply our forces with as much concertina wire as possible, as quickly as possible!"
"Excuse me?"
Is that how military contracts work?
Shouldn't they run field tests, figure out appropriate quantities, that sort of thing? Just "make as much as you can"? What if we overproduce and get stuck with leftovers?
Is he just excited and blurting nonsense?
He's not going to reverse himself later, is he?
I doubted the Empire's own Defense Procurement Chief would do something like that… but on the flip side, if he did, a mere merchant couldn't exactly protest. The Empire was an absolute monarchy. A trader daring to complain to the military brass who held the army's power? Getting a faceful of pepper stew through the nose would be the least of your problems.
Oh. Actually, this is perfect.
I could use this as an excuse to completely tank the munitions business. Flood them with dead stock on purpose.
Then Father would decide my commercial talent was lacking. I might even be able to wash my hands of military contracts entirely. Come to think of it, none of the ventures I'd succeeded at so far had involved actually manufacturing anything.
If I failed spectacularly this time, I could advertise how bad I was at forecasting demand and managing inventory.
"Chief!"
"Yes, Mr. Otto!"
"Our trading company will mobilize every resource at our disposal and begin barbed-wire production immediately! When I think of the nation's security and the safety of our soldiers, I couldn't bear even a moment's delay!"
"Ohh!"
Of course, I'd still have to grind a little first.
I'd need to commission the Magic Tower to craft magitech tools for concertina-wire production, purchase factory and warehouse land, handle all sorts of paperwork under the company's name… There was an awful lot to do.
My hands and feet were already trembling.
Urrrgh. I hate working…!
Haa. Think of it as an investment in the future.
I had to ruin my track record bit by bit if I ever wanted to ditch the trading company.
They do say you chip away at a mountain one grain of dust at a time, right?
"Haha!"
"Haha!"
The Defense Procurement Chief and I clasped hands and laughed together.
"Chief, is this really all right? We haven't even gotten budget allocation yet, and you've already made a promise like that… Besides, we still don't know what the actual requirements will be."
One of his subordinates offered the worried advice. Not a military man—a civil servant who'd entered the policy office through the exams.
The Chief snorted and shot back a question of his own.
"Actual requirements?"
"Yes. I mean, I understand this barbed wire is useful… but at the end of the day, isn't it just something like a fence?"
"Do you know what percentage of the border the Boundary Zone accounts for?"
"Sir? Uh, about fifteen percent, isn't it?"
"Right. So if we want to lay concertina wire across every inch of it—factoring in how much gets worn out over time—I doubt we could finish the job in a lifetime. How much of the stuff do you think we'd need?"
"…Is this wire really that significant?"
"It is."
The military suffered from chronic manpower shortages.
Monster colonies kept multiplying, yet the number of soldiers available to hold the Boundary Zone was trending downward.
There were simply too many factions determined to keep the army from growing. Nobles, landowners, priests of the Church—any time the military tried to expand its ranks, they all threw a fit.
Never mind that they only lived in safety thanks to those very soldiers.
"With this, the efficiency of Boundary Zone defense will skyrocket. And unlike other weapons, it's a tool useful only for defense—so the stuffed shirts at the capital won't have much to say about it."
In truth, barbed wire was hardly "useful only for defense." The ability to seal off a path in an instant… Dozens of offensive applications were already swirling through the Chief's mind. But the capital's old fossils would never understand any of that.
It looked like a fence, so they'd figure it was no big deal.
"Hmm. If you say so, Chief, I'm sure you're right… but will the budget be enough? It's bound to get hung up in the Finance Ministry's review."
"Do you know what ate half the munitions budget through last year?"
"Uh… magic-stone procurement costs, sir."
"Exactly. And the timing couldn't be better. Magic-stone prices have plummeted, freeing up the funds. If we don't push this through now, we'll never meet the real demand later. Cutting a budget is easy. Expanding it again is a nightmare."
"Ah…"
Once a budget was cut, recovery was nearly impossible.
That was why civil servants packed every fiscal year to the brim. The Finance Ministry's axe never cared about context. If money was left over, you found a public works project and burned through every last coin.
The military was no different.
"Honestly, I was more worried whether the Lothringens could handle a volume like this… but after watching that just now, I don't think we need to worry."
"So that Otto Lothringen fellow had already calculated all of that."
"He's Golden Ear blood, after all."
"Heh. Being a merchant really isn't something just anyone can do."
"Young Master… are we truly building the factory on this scale…?"
"I'll take full responsibility."
"Yes, sir! Understood."
Ahh. I want to quit.