Chapter 135
It's done?
Suddenly, Drew came to my room, entered without knocking, said only that, and began breathing softly as Drew slept on the sofa.
Hmm? What's done?
There was no sign that Drew intended to answer my question; Drew was already sound asleep.
Wickhart, Lufa, Dick, and I had been discussing the management of the food stores, so we looked at one another and tilted our heads in confusion.
Apparently, no one had understood what Drew meant by those words.
"For now, I guess we have no choice but to wait until Drew wakes up. Lufa, sorry, but could you tell Raiz-sama? Tell Raiz-sama that Drew seems to have made something again, and I'll let Raiz-sama know again once Drew wakes up."
"Got it!"
Just as Lufa ran off energetically, Nelfia appeared at the door.
"What happened...? Oh? Drew... Ah, I see."
Nelfia took one look at the sleeping Drew and grasped the situation.
"Oh, right, Nelfia, could you call Sazaby too? Otherwise, Sazaby will get mad again and say, 'You're having fun without calling me!'"
"I'd say so, but Sazaby is away from the capital on a mission."
"Oh, really? Well, it can't be helped. So what brings you here, Nelfia?"
"Actually, I have some news about Sazaby's mission. I had some free time, so I came to help Roa-sama, but... it might be better to wait until we've dealt with Drew's situation."
Nelfia said it in a way that seemed to imply something. I was curious about Drew's matter, but I also wanted to know about Sazaby's mission, so I told Nelfia I'd like to hear about it first.
"Is that so? Actually, there's been some talk of Prince Zeland undergoing the royal ritual soon."
"The royal ritual?"
"Oh, you don't know about it? Members of the royal family make a pilgrimage to the 'royal shrine' in the eastern mountain range, and only then are they recognized as full-fledged. Prince Zeland was considered too introverted to be ready yet, but thanks in part to Roa-sama, Prince Zeland has shown remarkable growth lately. The king must have decided that the time was right."
"What changes once he performs the royal ritual?"
"He'll finally begin taking part in official duties in earnest and learn all sorts of things."
"Oh. Hmm? What does that have to do with us?"
"Prince Zeland wants the Roa Unit to serve as his escort."
"You mean the Tenth Knight Order?"
"No. Even for a prince, we can't mobilize the entire Tenth Knight Order. It'll probably be about the same scale as the recent escort mission for the Imperial prince. Since Prince Zeland accompanied us on that occasion, the prince asked whether the familiar Roa Unit and Lapiria Unit could handle it."
"Has Raiz-sama heard about this?"
"Yes. I just came from Raiz-sama's place. Lapiria-sama was there as well, so I have approval from both of them."
"Then I have no objections. I'll tell Frein and Ryuzel later. When is it?"
"Depending on the weather, it is scheduled for a month from now."
Just as our new mission was settled, Lufa returned. Raiz-sama, Glantz-sama, and Lapiria-sama came into the room as well.
"Oh? Raiz-sama, you're here too? Drew's still asleep, you know. Should I wake Drew?"
Raiz-sama stopped me from going over to Drew and sat down in a chair.
"No, I came to discuss the new mission while I was here. But if Nelfia is here, you've already heard about it, haven't you?"
"Yes. It's Prince Zeland's escort, right?"
"Yes. While we wait for Drew to wake up, let's go over the details of the formation. Drew will wake up eventually."
And so, after calling Frein and Ryuzel as well, my room suddenly became the site of a mission briefing.
While that was going on, Drew woke up with a "Fwaaah!", looked around in confusion, then tilted their head and asked, "Where is this? What is this place?"
Just as I was about to open my mouth to explain things to Drew, someone knocked on the door.
One of Drew's subordinates, Hornet, entered.
"Ah, there you are! I've been searching everywhere for you! Please stop disappearing without warning!"
Hornet went over to Drew.
"Sorry 'bout the trouble." Hornet gave a small bow.
"That's all right, but what did you make this time?" I asked.
"It'll be faster if you see it for yourself," Hornet said, helping the still-drowsy Drew to stand.
With our remarkably large group in tow, we moved to Drew's room, where Judiano greeted us with a relieved expression upon seeing Drew.
"Here it is."
Hornet handed me a collection of metal components. They were remarkably light for metal. And these components were...
"Could this be a disassembled crossbow?"
When I looked over at Drew, Drew was engrossed in the soup Judiano had prepared, apparently too hungry to explain anything.
Seeing this, Hornet gave a small sigh and took over the explanation.
"That's right. Making it out of metal would make it heavy, and processing it would be difficult, so we had trouble deciding on the material. In the end, we used a combination of Saltonite steel—which isn't as strong as iron but is relatively versatile—and Halnoa wood. Then, you put these together like this..."
As Hornet screwed the components together, they quickly took the shape of a crossbow. It was also nearly two sizes smaller than the wooden ones we had used until now.
"As you can see, it's smaller, but we reinforced it with metal, so it's more powerful than our previous crossbows. Drew-san has been making these for quite a while now."
"This is... incredible," Frein exclaimed. If it was smaller and more powerful, it would be easier to use in the field.
"At this size, I might even be able to reload it on horseback," Ryuzel murmured with interest, holding the prototype.
"Right. Turning the handle attached here draws the string back. So, as long as it doesn't break, you should be able to fire it repeatedly."
...That might actually be pretty amazing...
"Can these be mass-produced?" Raiz-sama asked.
"It'll take longer than making wooden ones, but it's not impossible."
"I see... Then, for now, let's arrange to equip the Roa Unit with them. You've already used crossbows in actual combat, so the difference should be easy to see. Hornet, can you prepare enough for the Roa Unit?"
"Understood. But I can't make them all at once, so is it all right if I supply them gradually?"
"That will do."
"Roa, have your unit try them out and report back. If they prove usable, we'll produce more."
"Understood."
And so, the Roa Unit was slated to receive small metal crossbows assembled with screws invented by Drew.