The Fall Of The Airship?!

As for Ian, he had no choice but to frown at the sudden news of the airplane explosion accident.

In truth, he had always expected since the past that an airship would explode and crash. But he could not help but think, why did such an explosion have to happen on their land today of all days?

‘This wasn’t deliberately blown up because someone ordered it, was it?’

He was suspicious, but when it came down to it, he also wondered who would be there to commit such an act. He immediately asked Mardin, the secretary who was reporting to him.

“Are there any survivors?”

“I do not know if it should be called fortunate, but since it was in the middle of landing, it did not fall from such a high place, so they say there are quite a few survivors.”

“That is at least fortunate. Still, there must be quite a few dead, right?”

“Yes, it is estimated that perhaps dozens have died. Once further investigation proceeds, we should be able to confirm the exact number of deaths.”

“For now, have the royal family convey its condolences regarding this matter to the Magnia Empire’s embassy.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I will convey it that way.”

Inwardly, he thought that considering the past incident when an airship had nearly crashed as well, perhaps airships alone were cursed when it came to this capital. On the other hand, he thought this incident would likely cause many disruptions to airship operations. Perhaps the moment the accident became known, people might become reluctant to ride airships.

Thinking that way, he again grew suspicious that the airplane companies might have joined hands and deliberately set a fire to cause the explosion, but they had no reason to cause an accident of this scale either. Rather, if they were caught, they would be finished, so it could instead become a situation that would cause them even greater losses.

As such, he decided not to be certain of it.

‘In any case, if the use of airships decreases, we will also suffer losses, so it does seem that we will need to quickly unveil our own airplane-based passenger aircraft.’

For reference, our kingdom also had an airship company. It could be said that it engaged in such a broad range of various businesses that there was nowhere it did not involve itself, and airships were one of them. Of course, it could not be called the best, but it could be said to produce airships with a certain level of performance.

More than that, now that things had turned out this way, he thought they might have to unveil airplanes a little earlier than expected. He had intended to show them to the world after watching them for at least one more year, or even two, but it might become a reality where they had no choice but to unveil them early.

‘For now, they said it was technically perfect.’

Even now, the situation was being secretly relayed to him in the form of reports, and they said that since last year, they had already conducted over three hundred flights, but no problems had been found anywhere. In other words, technically, they had already demonstrated proof.

Since affairs in the world did not originally flow according to plan, he thought he should have them carry out even stricter flight tests. He felt that he would only be able to feel at ease after at least around a thousand flight experiments.

‘I feel like I can already hear everyone groaning in exhaustion. I feel a little sorry about this. Still, I’ll give them a hefty bonus, so I’ll have to tell them to put in a little more effort.’

He knew the researchers and technicians would suffer, but there was no other method if they wanted to quickly get the situation under control. The Magnia Empire was already officially operating passenger aircraft. It was already preparing airports throughout the Old Continent.

In truth, their kingdom had also conducted prior negotiations and prepared dedicated airplane airports with several runways, though they were not especially large. From the beginning, Polia had prepared medium-sized airports or so with the purpose of using them later as well.

‘The later we are, the more we will only fatten the bellies of the Magnia Empire’s aircraft companies.’

Before their airplanes were filled up as passenger aircraft, Polia also needed to unveil civilian passenger aircraft to the world and enter the passenger aviation business. Of course, since they had seized it first, there would not be much room to squeeze into, but even so, Polia had to make our airplanes gain a certain place in the world market.

‘For maximum safety, it would still be best to proceed with the experiments at least until the end of this year, right?’

Thinking that, his mind seemed to become somewhat more at ease.

The next day.

Through media such as newspapers and radio, yesterday’s airship explosion incident became widely known. Many people could not help but be shocked by this fact.

Since communication lines had already been laid all across the world, although it was an incident that had happened yesterday, most countries already knew about this explosion accident. In particular, since their own reporters had gone to directly cover the airship, they knew even more details.

For a time, so many reporters visited that the telegraph offices in the capital of the Polia Kingdom were busy, and as a result, the whole world had become noisy over the airship explosion incident.

「Airship Reini, the first airship to directly cross the vast Sea of Slaves head-on, crashed after exploding at the very moment it arrived in the Polia Kingdom and was about to land!?」

「The sight of the airship burned until only its frame remained. Is it truly safe to ride such airships?」

「While the cause of the explosion has not yet been revealed, it is said that due to this explosion accident, airship-related stock prices, which had already been falling, are now plummeting.」

「Officials from airship companies claim that airships are the safest means of flight in the world, and that this explosion is believed to have occurred due to terrorism. Was this incident truly an explosion caused by terrorism?」

The whole world appeared noisy over the airship explosion that had occurred in the Polia Kingdom. In some quarters, there was even much talk in the form of conspiracy theories saying that someone had deliberately installed a bomb on the airship and detonated it.

Amid this situation, the Magnia Empire had not yet made any particular announcement about it. For now, it was showing its intention to watch while the investigation proceeded. Of course, it was not as if it had done nothing.

It had dispatched excellent experts from its own country to investigate the incident, and right now they were flying here aboard airplanes. The experts who flew in like that conducted a joint investigation together with the experts of the Polia Kingdom.

This investigation period alone took as many as twenty days. Soon, the investigation reports they wrote were delivered respectively to the Polia royal family and the Magnia imperial family.

“An explosion caused by the use of hydrogen, so it means a kind of static electricity occurred, and by bad luck, the explosion happened?”

In the investigation report Ian examined, he saw contents indicating that inexpensive hydrogen gas had been used. Originally, something called helium gas was used, but because its production volume was so low that supply had once been insufficient, it was possible to know that hydrogen had inevitably been used in the crashed Airship Jeini.

‘This seems like it’s following the situation on Earth.’

He thought the situation seemed very similar. Whatever the case, if things had turned out this way, the fault lay with the company that manufactured and used the airship. Since they had filled it with hydrogen gas in place of helium gas, the explosion and accident had occurred.

‘This isn’t bad for us.’

Since the fault lay entirely with the Magnia Empire’s airship manufacturing company, there was no problem at all with the fact that it had exploded on Polian land. If they made a large-scale announcement based on this fact, airship-related stock prices would probably literally hit rock bottom.

‘They may say they’ll use helium gas again, but people will always think of hydrogen gas and continue to be reluctant to ride airships.’

Literally, a crisis in which airships might be buried had arrived. It was clear that starting this year, the use of airships would rapidly decrease. Of course, since the airship business was going to fall behind anyway due to the development of airplanes, it might have been a natural phenomenon.

“More importantly, about our airship manufacturing company.”

“Yes, I understand there is a company called ‘Brno.’”

“Did we not have royal shares in it?”

“Yes. I understand that we currently have about 49%.”

“Put all of them on the market and sell them off. If we put them out now, we should still be able to receive something close to their proper value.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I will hurry and put them on the market.”

Since they were selling now, they would have to sell at a considerable loss. But at this rate, the shares might become scraps of paper altogether, so it was better to hurry and put them out. The fact that they could take a loss like this and still sell them for a certain price was, in truth, because the royal family held the information advantage.

‘Actually, when you think about the profits earned until now, it isn’t a loss.’

When he thought of the money they had earned through those shares until now, they had gained a considerable profit. While thinking about that fact, Ian soon became curious about what kind of reaction the Magnia Empire would show. By now, they were probably receiving a similar investigation report.

Inside the imperial palace of Noa, the capital of the Magnia Empire.

“So the conclusion is that it was the fault of the airship manufacturing company?”

“That is so, Your Majesty. According to the investigation results, it was revealed to be an explosion caused by the use of much cheaper hydrogen gas.”

“Hmm, by now, King Ian of the Polia Kingdom must have also received this investigation report.”

“Yes. Since the investigation was conducted jointly, I understand that the conclusion was also reached together, and each side delivered its own investigation report.”

At this fact, Emperor Jedic could not help but feel regretful. He thought that if they could have shifted the blame for this incident onto the Polia Kingdom side, they would have been able to create quite an interesting situation.

Of course, even then, the blow would not have been large, but they would still have been able to inflict some degree of damage. Emperor Jedic had not forgotten last year’s ancient ruin incident. They had been secretly carrying out an exploration in the frozen lands of the Noma Empire, and during that, they had ended up being unluckily discovered.

In the midst of that, the place that most actively joined the condemning public opinion was none other than the Polia Kingdom. Because of that fact, he had inevitably been extremely angry at the time. So he had verbally tormented the empress.

‘They are always interfering.’

Seeing a mere kingdom act so arrogantly just because it had gained some power could not help but displease him. Even so, he could not wage war against the Polia Kingdom. He had experienced the Great War, though it had been short, and had fought the Republic of Promance for a year. In such a situation, if he clashed with the Polia Kingdom, the empire would inevitably suffer a considerable blow.

‘And with two empires siding with them, I cannot clash with them.’

Along with the thought that making things difficult for the Polia Kingdom had fallen through in many ways, he thought he first needed to settle the situation. Since the Polia Kingdom also had the investigation report, he thought it was a foregone conclusion that this fact would become known.

“Sell off all the airship-related shares held by the imperial family.”

“Understood. I will proceed with haste.”

“And tell the president of the manufacturing company to come out personally, kneel, and apologize.”

The emperor’s words literally meant that they should admit fault and offer an apology before the public. Making him kneel as well meant the end of the airship manufacturing company. With the order to sell off all shares already, he had clearly drawn the line.

Still, if there was one fortunate thing, it was that the Magnia Empire had recently begun the airplane business, and it was now blooming greatly. Perhaps because of this incident, that business would inevitably soar even higher as if it had gained wings.

‘For at least the next five years, we will be able to seize the lead in the airplane business. The two empires that enter late will have no choice but to be anxious. Heh heh heh.’

Considering the circumstances of the Noma Empire and the Moria Empire, which were suffering the massive aftereffects of the Great War, he thought that since the development of airplanes required enormous funds, airplanes at the current level would inevitably only be completed belatedly.

In this situation, the Polia Kingdom was not in Emperor Jedic’s thoughts at all. As for him, he had no way of knowing that the Polia Kingdom had currently completed airplanes with performance quite similar to the passenger aircraft released by the Magnia Empire.

The Polia Kingdom in his mind was merely a kingdom with a certain degree of technological power. Of course, there were technologies they had taken from them until now, but he did not think that was enough for them to have caught up to the technological power of an empire.

“More importantly, how does the assault on the ancient ruin in the Noma Empire appear to be progressing?”

“They appear to be actively assaulting it even now, so there must certainly be considerable progress.”

“Do you think they can capture the ruin with the forces they possess?”

“If it is the opinion of our intelligence bureau, the conclusion is that it is fully possible. The Noma Empire must also certainly possess hidden forces.”

Would the Noma Empire really have no Expert-level figures? It was even certain that there would be wizards as well. It was only that they did not show themselves openly. They must certainly exist somewhere, and the Noma Empire’s imperial family was surely drawing them in and assaulting the ruin.

“So that is how it is.”

Emperor Jedic was curious as to when the assault would be completed. In truth, he had not yet given up. The Noma Empire would surely obtain White Crystal from the place it captured, and he thought they would move with it.

He had set up a plan to seize the White Crystal after watching for an opportunity at that time.

‘The Noma Empire likely does not yet completely know the value of White Crystal. As such, even if it is stolen from them, they will not react too strongly.’

Knowing accurately and vaguely guessing inevitably led to different reactions. That was why he had the mind to push through with the seizure. Of course, he was also confident that he would not be caught.

However, Emperor Jedic soon came to learn that he could not proceed with that plan at all. At the moment the date passed into April, shocking news was delivered from the Noma Empire.