第８３２堀：ダメージレポート (Part1)
Chapter 832: Damage Report
Side: Agil
"We won!"
"We did it!"
Vilia and Hiiro returned, calling out as they approached.
Naturally, they had kept the damage to the enemy ships to a level that wouldn't cause them to sink, and while all the crew were incapacitated, they had managed to hold back enough to avoid leaving any lasting injuries.
It was, by all accounts, a perfect victory.
Or rather, a result this obvious didn't really matter.
I suppose I had been slightly worried about the recklessness and poor judgment that might stem from Vilia and her team's lack of experience, but that was the extent of it.
There was no way we could lose in terms of raw combat power.
However, only those on our side had known that...
"...To think that even those children possess such combat capability. Prime Minister, General Lake, did you know of this?"
"No. All I knew was the strength of Lady Kagura, Lady Firia, and Lady Deryu. I never imagined the others would be on this level..."
"I have never personally witnessed their training, but judging by Yuki-sama’s trust in them, I imagined they would be capable of at least this much. If not, Yuki-dono would never have ordered children and goblins to suppress a ship on their own."
"Indeed... but I would not have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes."
Led by Queen Emerald, the members of the Sea-Cypho Kingdom aboard the carrier were all staring in wide-eyed astonishment.
The Queen’s gaze was fixed on the two ships still trailing smoke as they were being towed by our carrier.
Those were the ships Vilia and Hiiro had dismantled.
Both had had their masts snapped off, leaving them with no way to sail under their own power.
Without being shown such an outrageous spectacle, it would be impossible for them to grasp the true strength of Weed.
Well, regardless of that, I headed straight back to the CDC.
My primary job wasn't to play nice with the Sea-Cypho delegation.
Above all, my priority was to secure useful data. Oh, I had my duties as a diplomat, of course, but that wasn't the top priority.
The time for diplomacy would come once the talks between Weed and Sea-Cypho were settled.
For now, I was merely here as a subordinate of Weed.
And more importantly...
"Hey there! Did you manage to get some good data?"
I opened the door to the CDC with a smile, only to find...
"Agil, you’re as energetic as ever..."
Dressa was standing there, looking utterly gaunt and exhausted.
"If you're tired, you should sit down."
"I can't just sit while Vilia and Hiiro are out there fighting. Besides, I have to be the first one to welcome them back when they return."
It seemed Dressa, having been entrusted with the roles of commander and captain, still hadn't learned how to pace herself.
"I understand the sentiment, but you need to learn to delegate and rest. At this rate, you won't get any sleep at all. Someone always has to be awake and working to keep this ship running, you know."
"...I know that. It’s just this once. It’s their first battle, after all."
"If you know that, then fine. Just don't worry Yuki too much, or he’ll relegate you to the rear as a mere ornament."
"I know that too! Yuki is kind, so... but that’s not the point! About the data, you should ask the observation team over there."
She had blatantly changed the subject.
She could have just been honest and said she liked Yuki.
Well, if I were to say the same, I suppose I’d be no different.
Ah, love is such a troublesome business for both of us.
But, putting that aside—data, data.
"Hey, observation team. How’s it going? You had a few spells fly at you and hit the barriers, right? How was the damage or the load during those impacts?"
When I asked, the goblin observation team turned toward me.
"No particular issues. Neither the barrier nor the outer hull sustained any damage."
"Here is the load rate for the magic barrier."
The goblin handed me the documents.
Under normal circumstances, this would be top-secret information that someone like me, merely affiliated with the Enaria Kingdom, would never be allowed to see. But since the magic barrier deployment system on this carrier was installed by me and the technicians from Weed, it was a different story.
Besides, even if I took this information back, it would be nearly impossible to replicate in Enaria. We lacked the materials, the personnel, and everything else.
It was only because of Weed's abundance of both talent and resources that such development was possible.
Well, the cost of the carrier itself was astronomical, so in comparison, this was still manageable.
I looked over the documents while lost in thought.
"Hmm, I see. Well, it’s within the tolerance range. It felt like a massive impact when I was watching, but the load wasn't actually that high."
The load on the hull's magic barrier from the Fireball bombardment was surprisingly low.
Even though it was built quite well, I had expected some unforeseen flaws in a prototype like this, but it had stayed within acceptable limits.
It was an ideal result, yet as data, it was almost too textbook-perfect, which made it rather boring.
To improve the perfection of a weapon, one needs all kinds of data. I wouldn't say we don't need the mundane data that matches the design, but data showing malfunctions is much better for understanding the limits of a weapon.
While feeling dissatisfied with the overly clean data, I continued reading and found a point where the load had spiked suddenly.
"The load spikes suddenly at this point—what happened here? And it’s not just a normal increase; it’s about three times the design limit. Did something happen at this moment?"
"There were two simultaneous impacts at that time."
"Two impacts—magic bombardment from two different locations?"
"That is correct. The impact points were separate."
"Hmm. Do you have the footage?"
"Right here."
The data immediately appeared on the observation PC monitor.
The fact that they had already prepared all the footage of the impacts showed the skill of the goblin observation team.
According to Yuki, they were hand-picked from the unit that always handles data collection for experimental squads, which explained why they were so efficient.
The footage played.
Indeed, hits were recorded on the bow and the broadside simultaneously.
Well, even if they were hits, they were essentially just slightly oversized Fireballs; it was questionable whether an attack of that level could even damage the hull.
Yet, an attack of that level had tripled the load on the magic barrier.
The overall load capacity still had plenty of room, so it wasn't a level of concern yet, but if the load multiplied with simultaneous impacts, that would be quite problematic.
"...We need to run an experiment on this later."
"Agreed. If the number of simultaneous impacts increases, there is a possibility that the load will rise even further."
The observation team was right.
If many low-power attacks hit simultaneously, the load would increase, and there was a risk of the magic barrier being breached.
No, if it were a high-firepower attack, it would be expected for the barrier to be breached, but having the barrier neutralized by a few simultaneous hits from such pathetic attacks would be a disgrace to a technician.
"Well, we'll investigate this later. Any other issues? Or rather, I assume you took those hits on purpose, but how was the evasion performance?"
"There is no way to verify evasion performance. If the enemy gets that close, there is no room to evade."
"True."
"Besides, it is fundamentally impossible for a carrier to evade bombardment or torpedoes given the size of the hull. It would be more accurate to say the opponent missed."
"Indeed. It’s impossible for electronically controlled bombardment or missile attacks to miss, so we should be looking at the interception systems and defensive functions instead."
"Be that as it may, no weapons requiring such measures appeared this time."