Chapter 429 — Cecil's "Warship"
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 3
"Honestly… yes," Byron admitted without concealment. "After the Whitewater River bombardment, the lord ordered the two most intact ships to undergo arcane refitting. At first he planned to mount arcane-crystal railguns on them—we reinforced the decks for that and added plenty of extra frames inside. Look over there—some of the smaller secondary cannons are already mounted. But now we're swapping the planned main guns for that 'prismatic ray device.' It's bigger than even the largest arcane-crystal railgun, and its weight is terrifying. We had to cut the two main guns down to one, and strip out half the secondary cannons already installed, just to keep the ship from sinking…"
As he spoke, Byron led Tyr down toward the lower deck, pointing out the refitted sections along the way. "Good thing the magic-net interfaces are universal—the arcane-crystal railgun's power supply works for the prismatic ray device too. See these magic-net units? Not just on the deck and this cabin—they've laid a whole layer down in the hold as well. The whole ship is like a small factory's magic-net packed into its belly, so it can supply its own energy…"
Tyr undulated along behind Byron, eyes wide as she studied the advanced arcane structures crammed into this "backward wooden ship." At last she couldn't hold back: "Why not just build a new ship? Piling such advanced things into such a backward hull—how awkward is that?"
"…Because our shipbuilding isn't good enough," Byron said, spreading his hands helplessly. "Shipbuilding is skilled work. The best shipwrights in the whole Southern Realm are those Peibo folk, and the ships they build are exactly what you see before you. Anything more advanced… the lord is researching it, but who knows when that'll bear fruit. And even if it did, building a new ship from scratch would take who knows how long—the enemy at Boulder Fortress won't wait for us."
"Tch…" Tyr clicked her tongue as if about to say something, but in the end kept silent and only poked a nearby wooden post with the tip of her tail.
Watching the siren lady's reaction, Byron secretly pursed his lips and continued, "Let me show you the bottom of the hold—it's an unfinished place."
The two reached the bottom of this "warship." In the hold lit by arcane-crystal lamps, Tyr saw a metal mounting frame clearly meant for some large piece of equipment, along with some magic-net units not yet connected. Curious, she asked, "What goes here?"
"Power," Byron said. "A problem not yet solved."
At the word "power," Tyr remembered what Gaoyang had asked of her and nodded at once. "Oh—right, your lord brought me here to help solve the power problem. He said these two ships can't move themselves now, so he needs my help…"
"Exactly," Byron picked up. "You noticed we stripped the sails from the upper deck? That was to install extra magic-net and auxiliary rune arrays. And to fit the water pumps and their piping, the rower stations this ship originally kept were squeezed out too. So by traditional means this ship simply can't move now—as a replacement, the lord designed a sort of 'oar' driven by a mana engine, but as you can see—it's nowhere near finished."
Knight Byron pointed at the empty space in the hold meant for some large piece of equipment and said with regret, "Mr. Egg has been researching it for a long time, and there's still no finished product."
The more Tyr heard, the deeper her frown grew. At last she jabbed the nearby wood with her tail tip—thump, thump. "What kind of refit is this… after all that, the ship doesn't even have power…"
Byron waved a hand. "According to the plan it has power—it just isn't installed yet!"
"Shouldn't something like that be designed early on?" Tyr planted her hands on her hips. "Do you even know how to build ships?"