[Tran]
What is this boy talking about? Does he not realize how absurd it is to build a ship on the sea?
I thought this and the feeling of distrust began to flare up again, but that same distrust was blown away in an instant by sheer astonishment.
“Thank you for the materials! Now, let’s start with the bottom of the ship!”
The next moment, after hearing such a carefree voice, something unbelievable happened right in front of my eyes. What I thought were strange blocks were carried over, and then Van used some sort of strange magic to turn them into boards. No, wait. They weren’t just regular boards. They had a shallow, ship-like shape. The length was over three meters. The width was about two meters, I suppose. It was small, but sure enough, a ship-like thing suddenly floated on the sea.
“…What just happened…?”
I muttered in disbelief at what had just occurred in front of me. Around me, the subordinates were also voicing their astonishment. With a wry smile, Van showed his side profile and grabbed the next block.
“Normally, I’d want to build the keel properly, but first, I need to get it floating on the sea… So, this is a bit of a makeshift solution.”
Laughing, Van continued to make further modifications. Before I knew it, a beautiful keel had appeared, arcing over the small ship-like thing. The keel was thicker than the one supporting the Fleetwood ship and had a steeper angle. The design wasn’t great for handling side waves.
“For a larger ship, the angle should be a bit gentler…”
I had unconsciously muttered that. Van, hearing it, smiled happily and nodded several times.
“Is it to lower the center of gravity? I see, that’s quite informative!”
With that, Van once again used a block to perform a strange magic. As we marveled at the transformation, the part of the large ship’s bottom was already finished floating on the sea. As we stood there, stunned, Van turned to face us and pointed to the bottom of the ship, where the keel was jutting out.
“Now, we’ll go inside and continue building the ship. I think there’s enough buoyancy now, so anyone who wants to watch is welcome to join.”
With that casual tone, Van glanced at a knight named Dee. Even though Dee had been using inadequate equipment, he had singlehandedly raised a massive anchor with incredible strength.
“Leave it to me!”
Dee said as he brought a strange-looking set of stairs and leaned them against the ship’s bottom wall. The top of the stairs had hooks, indicating it could be secured to the wall, but the stairs were a series of hexagons that didn’t line up in a straight column. Watching curiously, I saw Dee pull the bottom of the stairs to the floor of the dock.
As a result, the stairs extended, and Dee pressed the bottom down with his foot to fix it in place. It seemed to be some sort of adjustable lift. If I could, I’d love to bring this kind of device back to my country.
“Huh? Are Tran and the others not boarding the ship?”
Van’s voice came from above, snapping me out of my thoughts. Apparently, the main people, including Van, were already aboard the unfinished ship.
“No, we’ll board too…!”
In a hurry, Dee began climbing the stairs he was supporting and managed to board the ship. The subordinates followed, hesitantly climbing aboard one by one. Watching them, I confirmed the state of the ship’s bottom.
“…It’s perfectly balanced without any ballast or anything.”
I had never seen a ship with only the keel and bottom floating on the sea. Even so, it was unbelievable that a ship’s bottom, with the keel protruding above it, was floating on a somewhat choppy sea.
“The center part of the keel is intentionally made a little heavier. Also, it’s nearly 30 meters long now,” Van said with a small laugh, once again saying something unbelievable. When I turned to look at him in surprise, Van was answering other people’s questions while steadily assembling the ship.
“Hm. Is this rib-like structure the ship’s pillars? In your case, you could have just built them straight from the wall.”
“That’s true. But since I’m still figuring things out, I thought if I built the pillars and walls all at once, it wouldn’t come out well…”
“Viscount Van. Is it not possible to add windows to this wall?”
“I could add them, but I feel like it would reduce the strength. Also, the first and second floors will likely be mostly submerged in the sea, so it would probably be better to add windows on the third floor.”
While this exchange took place, Van quickly built the pillars from the bow to the stern of the ship. I was left speechless, unable to make a sound in my astonishment. Then, Van, smiling as if embarrassed, came closer to ask.
“Tran-san, what do you think? It’s still just the bones, but does the shape look alright?”
“Eh? Ah, well… yes… the bow could be a bit narrower, and the stern could be wider, with a greater angle…”
“Like this?”
I offered some advice hesitantly, and Van immediately started making adjustments. Before long, the first and second floors of the ship were completed, and he was working on the walls of the third floor. As if to add to it, windows were being installed in the walls. Materials were being brought in from the pier, and knights were delivering them to Van. Remarkably, every time Van received the materials, he immediately processed them in no time.
By this point, I had come to understand that Van had an aptitude for production-type magic and an overwhelming amount of magical power.
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