After their enjoyable deep-sea excursion, Jin and Elsa returned to Hourai Island.
"It was a great success," Jin said. "We even managed to find some undersea resources."
"Father, if you intend to proceed with development, I believe you will need an offshore base," Reiko suggested, offering a rare piece of advice. "It would be much more efficient to send the extracted resources back to Hourai Island through a Warp Gate."
"I see. Let's look into it."
Thus, Hourai Island set out to secure even more resources.
＊ ＊ ＊
On the following day, the 20th, Jin and Elsa returned to their mansion in Loizart for a while. Since they had contacted him in advance, Reinhard was there to meet them.
"Hey, Jin! I heard you've built something interesting again."
"Yeah. A submarine... or rather, a submersible."
"A submersible! You have to let me ride it next time!"
"...Rai-nii, didn't you have something more important to discuss?" Elsa chided Reinhard as his excitement began to boil over.
"O-Oh, right. Her Majesty has summoned us. She requested that you come along as well, if possible, Jin."
"Her Majesty? I wonder what it's about."
"Something about ships and various other matters, apparently."
With that, Jin, Reiko, Elsa, Edgar, and Reinhard immediately set off for the Imperial Palace. By airship, of course.
Jin’s airship had become such a familiar sight at the palace that they had even constructed a semi-private landing pad for it.
"Edgar, sorry, but could you stay here and look after the ship?"
"Yes, I understand."
Leaving the management of the airship to Edgar, Jin and the others first headed to the chancellor’s office.
"Ah, Lord Jin Nidou, Lord Reinhard Randol, Lady Elsa, and Lady Reiko."
The chancellor stopped his work of reviewing documents and welcomed Jin’s group. He immediately sent a secretary to inform the Empress.
"Jin-kun, welcome," the Empress said as she arrived in person less than five minutes later. The chancellor’s expression soured slightly at her casual entrance.
"First of all, congratulations on the success of the Bernstein. And let me thank you once again. Truly, thank you." She added that it was a shame she hadn't been able to attend the launch ceremony. "I received word via pigeon the day before yesterday. It seems that when it docked at Narnekka, a port in the Kingdom of Egerea, on the 18th, the crew received a welcome from an imperial envoy from Asunt. They will likely stay for a few nights."
Narnekka was a town overlooking a bay south of Asunt, the capital of the Kingdom of Egerea. It was known for its large port.
"I see, it's already in Egerea..." Reinhard said in a deeply moved voice.
"According to the reports, they passed a large ship from that country at Koup, on the southern tip of the Celuroa Kingdom. That ship is apparently anchored in the town of Jirishou in our country now."
Jin had heard about this as well. After all, the ones who had actually built that ship, the Bridget, were Altaf and Gena—the Quinta units Jin had dispatched.
"So, that's about it regarding the ship's whereabouts. Next are the requests."
"Requests, you say?"
"Yes. After all, it's a ship pioneering so many new technologies. It's only natural that various requests would come up afterward."
The Empress showed a summarized list to Jin and Reinhard.
"Let's see... I see, okay."
- The crew wants to be able to apply emergency braking.
- They request consideration regarding low-speed navigation when pulling up to a pier.
- They propose flags and banners as a means of communication with the shore.
- They want signal lights to be installed in ports and along the coastline.
Regarding the braking in item 1, since they were using small jet thrusters, they could either increase the number of units or raise the output. Jin felt that increasing the number of thrusters would be more practical for general use.
Reinhard came up with an idea for item 2.
"What if we deployed mermaid-type golems at the ports to handle those operations? They could also tow ships into place, acting as tugboats."
"That might be good," Jin agreed.
"It might also be good to keep one on the ship as rescue personnel," Elsa added, voicing her own idea.
"Yeah, that's right. It's just as Elsa says."
As for item 3, Jin was familiar with the concept—signaling with specific colors and patterns on flags.
"If we implement that, it would be best to standardize the system across all nations," Jin suggested.
"Yes, exactly as Jin-kun says. Except for special cases, let’s have the nations discuss it among themselves."
Item 4 was an administrative issue rather than a technical one.
"That's a reasonable point. We shall take action."
Thus, the requests originating from the Bernstein were generally accepted.
"Now then, the next topic concerns the Klein Kingdom."
Jin pricked up his ears.
"It seems the Klein Kingdom plans to send an investigation team into the Former Leonard Kingdom early next year. It’s related to food procurement. They're looking into hunting edible wild game in addition to gathering grain. At the same time, the Kingdom of Egerea will be doing the same. If all goes well, they might be able to develop a road that allows travel between the two nations without passing through the Celuroa Kingdom."
Currently, the territory of the Celuroa Kingdom was sandwiched between the Klein Kingdom and the Kingdom of Egerea, making land travel difficult. While hot air balloons were an option, they lacked sufficient transport capacity. It seemed they wanted to develop a new land route.
Inwardly, Jin found himself thinking it might be a good idea to restore the Former Leonard Kingdom and have Ernest and Lieschen rule it.
"And finally," the Empress continued. "In our country, acting on Lord Jin Nidou's suggestion, we will be dispatching a vanguard squad early next year to establish formal diplomatic relations with the foreign tribes."
"What!"
Jin, Elsa, and Reinhard all cried out in surprise.
"That said, it will be small-scale at first. We're thinking of about ten people in total, including an ambassador, a deputy ambassador, and guards."
"I see..."
Jin was pleased. If the Empress was serious about opening diplomatic relations with the Mitsuho tribe, both sides would surely have much to gain from each other.
"Regarding that ambassador role—Lord Reinhard Randol, what do you think?"
"Eh?" Reinhard blurted out, stunned yet again.
"Reinhard has a track record in diplomacy and is an excellent magi engineer. I thought he would be the right fit."
"..."
Reinhard wasn't able to give an immediate answer.
"If that doesn’t work, I have another plan to appoint someone else as ambassador and name Lord Elsa Randol as the deputy."
"!!"
"Since it involves visiting foreign tribes, I can't force you. Please think it over carefully."
"I understand."
"I... understand."
Reinhard and Elsa replied, both looking down slightly.
"And then, there's one more proposal," the Empress said, moving the conversation forward. "I'm also considering sending an ambassador from the Shouro Empire to the Kingdom of Elias."
"The Kingdom of Elias, you say?"
"Yes. All three of you have been to the Kingdom of Elias before, haven't you? Right now, the Bernstein is heading there, and it's scheduled to arrive in Port Rock on the 23rd or 24th."
Jin and the others had a rough estimate of that as well.
"In connection with that, I want to discuss future navigation routes." Taking a breath, the Empress looked back and forth between Reinhard and Elsa. In terms of establishing trade routes, this was also a vital mission. "If I had to choose, I would prefer you accept the latter. In that case, I'll find someone else for the mission to the foreign tribes. What do you think?"
"Well..."
Since Jin wasn't a citizen of the Shouro Empire (only an honorary one), he wasn't officially invited to participate, but he thought both options sounded fascinating. However, his current interest lay with Port Rock. He was concerned about the Bernstein’s progress and the reunion between Rodrigo and his daughter, Marcia.
It seemed Reinhard felt the same way, as he replied, "In that case, I would prefer to go to Port Rock."