Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 99: Devastation and the Fire of Retaliation

Aramellianna enjoys a relaxing cruise on the massive airship the Grand Duchy engineers and artisans completed work on recently. She had two of the futuristic vessels built in relative secrecy, though she knows that Rikuto is aware of their existence. It's hard to conceal such massive constructions, and so she told him that she was building additional defensive measures to protect both the kingdom and the Grand Duchy's interests, but the Grand Duchy would maintain proprietary control of the vessels.

She's fairly confident Rikuto is suspicious, since she deflected more than one royal summons of Wenlianna and has been making her own moves in regards to the Grand Duchy's military readiness. But, because he needed enhanced magic crystals -diamonds- in humongous quantities for his weapons, he couldn't afford to make accusations without solid evidence.

And, technically, Aramellianna is simply double-dealing, not committing outright treason. Of course, a tribunal wouldn't agree with her, but she has the Kingdom of Mornistae's best interests at heart with everything she does.

She's just smart enough to know that allying themselves with Daniel, rather than making him an enemy, is the more prudent and practical course of action. Daniel has weapons that can surpass even the most powerful magic spells, tireless soldiers in the form of golems that can fight endlessly and in humongous numbers without fear of sickness, starvation, dehydration, or a need for sleep. And, he also has the dragons allied with him.

Rikuto has the same Kingdom of Mornistae that existed before his and Daniel's divine magical summoning, except that he has likely bankrupted them once more in his efforts to make Daniel an enemy.

This trip is in part to tell Daniel that the weapons Rikuto has prepared are complete, as well as to visit her daughter and celebrate.

After a few months, it seems Wenlianna has succeeded in her noble duty as the unofficial consort to an emperor. And, even if he wasn't an emperor, Aramellianna would be content that Wenlianna is with the child of the man she loves. Aramellianna came to love her husband, the Grand Duke, after marriage. Wenlianna simply fell in love before.

And as far as the message of the weapons, Aramellianna has been sending letters via Stalvaltan riders through Fort Peony to communicate with Daniel, and she had a letter sent that should arrive any moment informing Daniel of the risks of Rikuto's weapons. Even Aramellianna struggled to gather what little information she did gain, but it was a small price to pay in order to protect her eldest daughter and newest son in law and future grandchildren. Rikuto has become singularly obsessed with his fear of Daniel, though even Aramellianna can't fully grasp what is so terrifying about Daniel's most powerful weapons Rikuto referred to as 'atomic bombs', which has no meaning to Aramellianna by name alone. Given what she does know, though, it is very likely true what Rikuto says about the bombs being responsible for the wave of weakness and mana deficiency that swept across the world that fateful day.

Rikuto seems to believe his own new weapon can counter Daniel's atomic bombs, and he'll likely deploy them as soon as possible.

The Grand Duchess observes the mountains as the airship is passing over them at a comfortable cruising speed. What used to take weeks of travel now takes a couple of days, and the Stalvaltan soldiers tasked with operating the airship have become proficient at navigating and piloting the vessel.

The mountains are hardly an obstacle any longer for the Grand Duchy of Stalvaltan, an irony since it was the mountains that held the war at a stalemate for so long. She listens to Bunnrimae exclaim to Yanidere, "Big Sister Yani! Look! I can see the flower fort! There! There!" She is pointing east, where the relatively small Fort Peony is tucked into a valley near an even deeper cut through the mountains where the river flows.