Naming Criteria
Night. The shipyard, where the battleship was being built.
"Akito."
I was gazing from a little distance when Mayya came over.
She stood beside me, looking at the battleship too.
"Looks like it’ll be done soon."
"Yuria said it’ll be finished by tomorrow. Felt fast. Felt slow. Hard to say."
"Anyway… are you really sure about this? Us using that thing. Cost us a fortune. Took ages."
The longest time of any magic-made object we’ve ever built.
The materials, the gold to pay people—cost a lot.
Magic power? Well, that’s no big deal.
As long as we’ve got slaves, magic is infinite.
"Don’t worry about it. That’s the deal."
"Is that so. Then, I’ll take it gratefully."
"Use it."
"By the way… what are we calling that thing?"
"Huh?"
"Something like that needs a name, right?"
"Yeah."
Right. That’s true.
It's a battleship. Yeah, it really does need a name.
"Got any good ideas?"
I tossed the ball back to Mira.
"Aki—"
"My name's none."
I stopped mid-sentence. Been doing that a lot lately.
Mira pouted.
"Let me finish at least."
"If we name it after a town, and then add a battleship... I'm gonna look like a total narcissist."
"Still, it'd be fine."
"Sorry. No. Any others?"
"Can't think of any. Everyone's got names for kids, but a ship? Not a chance."
Mira tilted her head. Kids—was that all the guards' kids?
For a second I thought she was joking. But she seemed serious.
"Sorry, I'm not much help."
"Doesn't matter. I'll figure it out. Thanks for reminding me I needed one."
I bowed slightly. Smiled at Mira, then walked off.
Left alone, I thought.
Name of the battleship? Tough one.
What happened in the real world again?
Trying to recall knowledge from a game that was popular a little while back.
Old Japanese naval naming conventions.
Battleships were definitely named after old country names.
Aircraft carriers were all things that flew.
Cruisers were named after mountains and rivers.
If I apply that here… the only thing I can use is town names.
Rebeck, Magatan, Beesk.
"Rebeck, Magatan, Beesk."
Muttered it out loud.
Nope. Doesn’t feel right.
"Hmm, tough one."
"What’s so hard?"
"Huh? Nina?"
Nina appeared beside me.
Just standing near me and already sneezing blood.
"What’s wrong?"
"Message. The magic circles are all laid out. Just need to add the materials and combine them. It’ll be finished on schedule tomorrow."
"Ah, right."
I looked at the construction site.
Five slaves were gathered in one spot.
The slave cards had finished their duty, so they were resting for now, apparently.
“Nina, can you do me a favor?”
“Yes! Anything you say!”
I pulled out DORECA and used magic to conjure five servings of cake.
I handed it to Nina.
“Take this to them.”
“To the slave mistresses! Understood!”
Nina ran off with the cake, delivered it to the slaves, then returned.
“Delivered!”
“Good work.”
“The slave mistresses were happy.”
“Ah.”
Three of them had been charged—three, excluding Yuria and Arisa.
“Ah… wonderful.”
Nina sighed dreamily.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s just… to the king, the slave mistresses are truly something special!”
“Of course.”
It’s obvious.
Practically speaking. Emotionally.
The five Eternal Slaves are something special to me.
……ah.
It came to me. The name came to me.
After it hit, it felt like it had always been there, obvious.
All that head-scratching, and suddenly, this was the only thing that made sense.
"Nina, I need a favor."
"Yes! Anything you say!"
"Think up four versions of that capital ship—Minor Change model. Don’t build them yet. Just keep them in mind. When the time comes, get input from the actual Mias who’ll be using them."
Understood! Ahh, getting to work for the King again…
Nina sighs dreamily.
I stared at the warship nearing completion.
Slave-class flagship: Risha.
That name—now I was certain it was the perfect name for the ship I’d built.