Chapter 51: Royal Navy
A few days after lessons for the former Arius students began, I spent my day off packing a bag for a slightly longer trip—tablet, charger, wallet, some tea—and took an express train toward my destination.
“It’s been since summer vacation, hasn’t it…”
Standing tall along the coastline outside Millennium, the red-brick shipyard loomed before me. This was the headquarters of the Shipbuilding Engineering Department. What business could I possibly have here?
“Oh! You’re here, you’re here! Aika-chan, good to see you!”
Greeting me was Seira, the head of the Shipbuilding Engineering Department. Even though the lingering summer heat had long passed and autumn was already halfway through, she was still wearing the same belly-exposing outfit she’d worn back in summer. Isn’t she cold?
“Yes, I’m counting on you. Now, regarding today’s matter…”
“Yep, yep, I know! You want a new ship, right?”
Exactly—this was the large-scale order I had been planning to place with the Shipbuilding Engineering Department. Since I’d used them as scapegoats so many times without their knowledge, I felt genuinely guilty and decided to actually commission something properly.
“This time, it will be a fairly large request. I’d like you to construct two cruisers and one battleship, all converted from older vessels, just like last time.”
“Hm, hm…”
As I explained, I showed her the documents I’d prepared.
Just like with Remarkable, there was a 90 ft (27 meters.) fishing boat one of my father’s acquaintances intended to scrap because it had gotten too old. A 90 ft megayacht from Maiha’s family, which they had planned to get rid of as it aged—until they remembered Remarkable and decided to give it to me. And finally, a 105 ft (~32 meters.) megayacht that had deteriorated significantly and was being thrown onto the market at a bargain price.
I intended for these to be remodeled into a light cruiser, a heavy cruiser, and a battleship, respectively.
“Of course, I’ve already decided on their names. The light cruiser will be , the heavy cruiser will be , and the battleship will be named .”
“Ohh, nice names!”
From there, we moved on to hammering out the details of the modifications.
“Norwich’s exterior will look something like this, and the main gun is a one-seventh scale of a 15.2 cm gun… so that makes it 22 mm, correct?”
“Let’s see… Remarkable-chan is an aircraft carrier, and her main armament is planes, so that’s fine. But for a ship whose main style is gun combat, I’d rather avoid using too many special ammunition types. Maybe we should downsize slightly to use 20×102 mm rounds instead—they’re commonly used in Millennium’s defense systems.”
“For Wiltshire-chan’s main gun, scaling down from 20.3 cm… hmm, I think shells might be best.”
“I see…”
“And as for the dual-purpose guns… they’re 10.2 cm originally, but let’s make them use 12.7 mm rounds.”
“As for Princess Royal’s main guns, I would very much like to adopt quadruple turrets, just as described in this plan.”
“Hmmm… quadruple turrets are going to be pretty complex structurally, so it’ll be tough. But since you’re commissioning something this big, we’ll have to give it our best. Let’s use 6-pounder anti-tank shells for its ammunition.”
We spent the next hour poring over blueprints and computer screens as we refined the remodeling plan. Once everything came together nicely, Seira clapped her hands lightly.
“Alright, alright, we’ve got the general shape now. The rest, the Shipbuilding Engineering Department will finish on our end.”
By the way, Norwich was modeled after the , Wiltshire after the and Princess Royal after the
“Yes, understood. And also…”
“Hm?”
Saying that, I handed her a check. I had originally planned to bring cash, but it would have been far too bulky, so this would have to do.
“W-whoa, this is a huge amount of money! What’s going on!?”
“Today’s commission fee. For a project of this scale, you’ll need all sorts of resources, won’t you?”
I had been saving every bit of my allowance that wasn’t used for living expenses—and now, a staggering eighty percent of everything I’d saved up until now was going into this commission.
“That’s the kind of thing I’d normally say not to worry about… but hmm… maybe I should take it after all. We’ve been preparing for the Millennium Prize, and the club’s finances ended up completely dry.”
“The Millennium Prize… if I recall correctly, it’s the contest where each Millennium club presents their results and competes, yes?”
The original Pavane arc began with everyone being threatened with disbandment unless they produced solid results at the Millennium Prize, which pushed them to fight for their club’s future. That’s how it unfolded in the game. Chances are, the broad outline hasn’t changed in this world either.
“Yep, that’s the one. We’re submitting a one-seventh–scale missile cruiser this year… but the integrated combat system and all the missile-related development ended up eating way more time than expected, and the costs skyrocketed too.”
“A missile cruiser…”
“Want to see it?”
“Yes, please.”
We spent some time touring the partially constructed missile cruiser, chatting with the club president and the other members as we walked. By the time we wrapped up and stepped back outside, the sky had already begun to tint red with the approaching evening.
“Well then, I believe I’ll take my leave here.”
“Got it! Come check on the progress again soon! …Ah, and one more thing.”
I turned around when she called out to me. Seira now wore a more serious expression.
“You shouldn’t go near central Millennium right now. Seems there was some kind of incident. I heard something like… the Veritas clubroom got blown up or something.”
Her sigh—“Things are getting scary around here”—triggered a very specific thought in my mind.
The Veritas clubroom being destroyed… that would be Alice’s rampage in Pavane Arc Chapter 2, right? So that’s what’s happening here. Which means… the final arc isn’t too far off either.
“Hm? Something on your mind, Aika-chan?”
Seira called out, sounding worried when I didn’t respond for a moment. Thinking too hard the moment trouble is mentioned—yeah, that wasn’t a good look. I answered quickly.
“Oh, no, thank you for telling me. If that’s the situation, I should head back immediately.”
“Yeah. Be careful on your way.”
Ever since the Eden Treaty incident was resolved, I hadn’t thought much about the events of the original story… but now I really needed to sort things out.
After switching trains a couple of times, I finally returned to the Trinity dorms. I changed into my room clothes, flopped onto my bed, and stared up at the ceiling as I let my thoughts wander.
(When Pavane Arc Chapter 2 ends, the final arc begins… and after that…)
All that remains after that is the Calbanog Arc Chapter 2 and the Hundred Flowers Blossom Arc.
Calbanog still takes place in the D.U. district adjacent to Trinity, so there’s still some room for me to interfere… but the Hundred Flowers Blossom Arc happens in Hyakkiyakō. A regular Trinity student like me can’t do anything about that.
Which means—
(My knowledge from my past life… is about to stop being useful.)
Until now, I’ve moved carefully—knowing the original events, preventing anything that might lead to Kivotos’ collapse, and avoiding major deviations. But the time is coming when those guiding points will disappear.
(I was never meant to exist in this world at all…)
And someone who shouldn’t exist might destroy the story that was supposed to unfold. Until now, I’ve made sure that wouldn’t happen—but once my knowledge becomes useless, there’s no guarantee I can keep doing that.
(…No. Enough. I’ll think about all of that after the final arc is over.)
First, I need to get through the greatest crisis leading toward Kivotos’ destruction. Everything else can wait until after I survive that.
With that, I pushed the worries aside—just for now—and let myself drift into sleep.
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