10-2 Departure

“So anyway, Mari. Come with me now.”

I suddenly warped to the Beast-Ear Garden and invited Mari.

So that I would not suddenly warp in and find someone there, I had prepared a special space in my own room.

A special magical barrier kept people from entering it.

I had placed a magic device on the floor to set up a teleportation spot.

It gave off the vibe of a transporter device from old science fiction.

“And what exactly do you mean by ‘so anyway’? You are being sudden again. So where on earth are you saying we are going?”

Mari asked while playing with the little ones.

“The royal palace. Apparently His Highness Prince Emilio’s eldest brother is going to something called the Crown Prince Rite. I only just heard about it myself. His Highness the Crown Prince is the civil-official type, and he seems pretty intimidated by it. Hey, Mari. Do you know what ‘when Kamakura calls’ means?”

Mari looked up at the sky with a face like she was saying, “Ahh.”

“So that was still going on. Well, it is not really the sort of thing that becomes a problem.”

“Really? His Highness the Crown Prince looked pretty intimidated. Well, whatever. Come with us too, Mari.”

“Oh honestly, I suppose I have no choice.”

Then someone else called out.

“That sounds interesting. Let me join in too~”

The owner of that voice was, of course, Ars.

His Highness the Crown Prince was supposed to be with us too, though.

Well, if we went along with this guy’s easygoing mood, maybe His Highness would feel a little more at ease too.

“Yeah, sure. I reserved enough room for three people.”

“Are you going somewhere~”

“Take me too—”

“A souvenir—”

“I wanna take it apart—”

“No way, I cannot bring you lot along with me today, not today. A prince is coming with us, you know~”

And what exactly was Touya planning to take apart?

That had already become his catchphrase.

We were not going on an outing, so they should not expect souvenirs.

After teasing the little ones’ ears and noses a bit, I called out to Mari and the others.

“All right then, let’s go.”

I put a hand on each of their shoulders and teleported together with them.

When we arrived at the royal palace, the future king was, unbelievably, still sitting on the bed in his room.

Good grief, he was still young, yet he really was the slow-to-move type.

As for me, during my company’s summer vacation, even when I had had no plans to go anywhere, I once suddenly decided the day before to do a Hokkaido touring trip, and by midnight I had already set out on my bike for Hokkaido.

Back then, if you did not get through Tokyo’s metropolitan expressway early in the morning, the traffic jams turned into absolute hell.

Once it passed six o’clock, it was completely hopeless, a scene from hell.

My left hand gripping the clutch lever would start to feel like it had tendonitis.

I would end up pulling into the emergency shoulder where you were not supposed to stop, just so I could dangle and shake my left hand.

Because if I kept going like that, I would get into an accident, so it really was an emergency evacuation.

I envied those sport bikes nowadays that could be ridden without using the clutch.

“Ah, thank you for waiting, Your Highness the Crown Prince. Let us go with this group. Are your preparations complete?”

“Yes, they are. Then let us be off. We are going by your teleportation magic anyway, are we not?”

His Highness the Crown Prince wore a decorated mithril sword at his waist, and then slung a simple pack over his shoulders.

“No, I cannot go to a place I have never been before with teleportation magic, so let us ride there in a vehicle.”

“A vehicle?”

“I will show you outside.”

I used teleportation magic to go to the palace front courtyard and brought it out.

It was the bomber (mock-up) that had gotten absolutely no chance to appear in the previous uproar.

Even though we were not attacking an enemy from here, for some reason I had gotten carried away and made this thing on impulse.

Since it only looked like a bomber, it was really just an empty imitation that took off and landed vertically with wind magic (Fly).

Normally, it really was not the sort of thing one ought to have His Highness the Crown Prince ride in, but well, we were not going out for fun.

Please, Your Highness.

Ride gallantly in this military aircraft, and let us go forth together to the trial.

Mari watched it all again with a look of exasperation.

This was not a civilian aircraft, and the model was old, so the inside was quite rugged too.

After all, besides the cockpit, which was rugged to begin with, it had all the seats for the humans who would do things like aim and drop bombs or watch for enemies on the radar all crammed together.

I had deliberately built it for fun so that it would give off exactly that kind of atmosphere.

I had not used a real one as a reference; I had only arranged things here and there to make it feel like one.

Since I was not actually going to pilot it myself, something like a cockpit was unnecessary in the first place, and I could have just made it into a comfortable room where people could relax.

Ars was extremely excited.

Naturally, it was probably his first time riding in an airplane.

Once he got on board, he stuck himself to the window like a child.

The things this guy approves of usually go over incredibly well with children too.

Maybe I should think up some kind of airplane for the kindergarten next time too.

Naturally, it was my first time riding in a bomber too.

What is more, the machine it was modeled after had apparently been in use since more than ten years before I, now in my fifties, had even been born.

The design was probably even older.

It was probably the successor to the B29 that had been used in that Pacific War, the one with such a nasty karmic tie to the Inoue family too.

Since it had become a jet, it was a better aircraft than that one.

Compared to me, who was five years older than that “Shonen Jump,” this aircraft was even more of an elder.

At that point, rather than a boy, perhaps it ought to be called an “elderly flight.”

It was such an ancient veteran that it would not be strange if the grandson of a man who had captained one when it first entered service had joined the U.S. Air Force and become the pilot of this same aircraft after it had been refitted again.

And yet this was still an active weapon on Earth, which was astonishing.

The B52, familiar even from Hollywood films, was an aircraft with an extremely long service life.

Well, things like this were not used all that much anymore now anyway.

The newest bombers carried almost nothing but missiles for weapons, and they probably would not develop a new strategic bomber with this kind of ultra-high-capacity bomb bay anymore either.

This was already the age of high-speed supersonic stealth bombers dropping guided weapons like missiles and smart bombs.

Anti-air weapons had also been rapidly increasing in speed lately, so against any decent enemy, a non-stealthy, slow bomber would probably be sent to the grave in no time.

Even the ancient high-speed reconnaissance craft SR71 Blackbird, which should have flown the skies in the same era as this thing, would probably get shot down in an instant.

Once laser weapons became the mainstream of anti-air weaponry, maybe this old bomber would finally retire.

Or perhaps they would stubbornly keep using it for another hundred years after coating it with anti-laser reflective paint or Japanese-made stealth paint.

Still, it would be bad if we got another VIP transport mission next time too.

Maybe I should make something like a flying palace based on a jumbo jet, a business-jet version of a certain famous aircraft manufacturer’s midsize passenger plane, or a luxury business jet for transcontinental flights.

I had, for the moment, also sent out an escort fighter squadron this time.

I had made those so that they carried golem pilots too.

Since remote-control aircraft could not really be expected to perform much in the way of maneuvering.

Since they were carrying out the departure ceremony in the plaza before the royal palace, the number of spectators had become tremendous.

All right, we should leave early.

“Takeoff!”

I slowly floated the aircraft up with wind magic.

Everyone except Mari took motion-sickness medicine beforehand.

There was really nothing to it.

The empty shell made with magical engineering was simply floating gently through the air by means of wind magic.

But since multiple directly controlled fighters were accompanying it, it made for quite a splendid departure ceremony for the Crown Prince.

Since it was, however humbly, a rite for one aspiring to become the next king, a display this valiant should be perfectly acceptable.

Well, there was no point hurrying.

Let us have them enjoy a leisurely journey through the sky.

It was properly equipped with things like a toilet too.

I flew it with avionics flight while watching the radar.

When flying monsters were detected, the escort fighter units would automatically intercept them through avionics-linked air-to-air missile magic, so there was no need to worry.

Naturally, my golems still did not yet have the ability to dogfight against flying monsters hardened by countless battles.

That was something to work on in the future.

I quickly prepared drinks and offered one to His Highness.

“Your Highness, please have some coffee.”

“Ah, thank you.”

His Highness sipped the coffee slowly.

This man carried himself calmly no matter what he did, and there was a truly noble air about him.

That said, he was so calm that despite still being young, he gave the impression of being slow to get moving.

If I had to compare him to something, it would perhaps be the sort of image one had of Japanese royalty.

Even seen from the side, he really was deeply likable to a Japanese person.

I really was glad I had come along today.

Would His Highness Prince Emilio also become a splendid king one day in the land he married into?

If anything happened in the future, I would help him too.

That boy treated me genuinely well.

“This drink makes me feel extremely calm when I drink it. It feels very nice.”

With a soft exhale, letting the tension leave his body, His Highness the Crown Prince said so.

“Yes. It contains something called caffeine, and it is greatly favored in the world of rare visitors.”

“The world of rare visitors, you say. What sort of world is it? I am a little interested. After all, it is where my ancestor lived.”

Ars was listening too, looking interested.

Hmm.

How should I put this?

“Well now. No matter where you go, there are good things and bad things. You cannot simply say it is good or bad across the board. I like Japan. Your ancestor, Takeshi Funabashi, probably did too. Of course, it also had its fair share of bad parts, but overall it was in no way inferior compared to other countries, and our nation also had many good points unique to itself. Those aspects are well regarded by foreigners too. Have those not been passed down to this country as well?”

“I see. That makes me happy.”

Having heard this unexpected talk about Japan, His Highness looked a little pleased too.

While looking at the MAP, I checked the terrain.

“Oh? It seems we have almost reached the site. We will land.”

Below us, the mountain that was the venue for the trial spread out magnificently before our eyes.