Rorschach had been on his way back to Lansite, but he was intercepted and invited to the Bayern Royal Family’s castle.

The castle’s reception hall had been converted into something resembling a command post. In addition to a conference table and chairs, a large map of the continent hung on one wall. Rorschach could see the Holy Kingdom’s military spearhead pointing toward Losa, a state neighboring the Bayern Kingdom.

The Valois Kingdom’s army was advancing from north of their Royal Capital, bypassing the Empire’s southern gateway—the fortress city of Andorrella—in an attempt to close in on the Imperial Capital via the shortest route.

The war objective, passed unanimously by the National Assembly, was to demand that the Marlin Kingdom dissolve the Empire Council and restore the independence of the Southern Countries. Otherwise, Valois claimed the right to follow the Empire’s example and annex the three duchies on its border.

Bart was already in the Meeting Room. He was dressed in a crisp, sharp uniform, identical in style to those of the Empire’s military, but its color—white fabric with blue trim—marked him as one of the Empire’s Casters.

Other Town Mages were present as well, all dressed identically to Bart. This indicated that the Empire had completed its conscription of these Casters; they were no longer answerable to the council but were, in theory, under the command of the military.

He was visibly tense, sitting stiffly in his chair, and only relaxed slightly upon seeing Rorschach arrive—for at the head of the table sat Bart’s father-in-law, His Majesty King Albert.

Prince Otto was also there. Upon seeing Rorschach led into the hall by a servant, he immediately addressed the other Town Mages. "Thank you all for coming, Mages. What follows is a private conversation between myself and these two young men. The rest of you may leave."

The other Mages rose to their feet. The Town Mage of Munich, who had previously accepted some fine wine from Rorschach, looked a bit surprised and gave Rorschach a slight nod.

Dispensing with formalities, Albert spoke directly. "I have summoned many people today, and you are the last. Rorschach Mage, have you received the funds you requested?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you for your generosity." Rorschach hadn’t actually drawn up a budget; he had just quoted a high price. ’It’s a good thing the funds came through,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, with steel prices soaring before the war, I really might not have been able to finish the new factory.’

"Verbal thanks aren’t worth a single Gold Coin." Prince Otto, apparently playing the role of the bad cop, stared at Rorschach. "The Kingdom needs to arm itself. How soon can you begin production?"

"High-performance explosives can be mass-produced within a month." There was now more than enough ammonia-nitrogen compound to go around, as long as there were no production accidents. But smokeless powder was a different story. "As for the powder," he continued, "achieving better performance will require simultaneous modification and upgrading of the corresponding firearms and ammunition. I’m not sure if the Kingdom has enough gunsmiths..."

"What’s the minimum time?"

"Three months... maybe even half a year."

"I doubt Valois can hold out for three months." Otto’s expression was scornful. "We don’t want to wait until the war is over to see results."

"I am willing to do my part to defend the Kingdom. No, more than my part." Rorschach was unfazed by Otto’s pressure. His gaze lowered as he said calmly, "If His Majesty wishes to see immediate results, I have an idea. We could organize a special force for the Kingdom."

"It’s something that can show results in the short term. However, I believe the scale of this war may ultimately exceed everyone’s expectations. If I may be so bold as to offer a few suggestions to Your Majesty, we could not only tap into the Kingdom’s war-readiness potential but also use this opportunity to reorganize all of Bayern’s trade associations."

Bart’s lip twitched. The last time this "Overseas Dragon" did some "reorganizing," he’d crushed a local powerhouse and devoured Bayern’s entire glass industry. ’And now Rorschach seemed to be saying ’all of them.’’

"Are you about to ask for the moon again?" Otto felt he couldn’t let Rorschach keep sweet-talking them. He had to set a cost limit to avoid pouring endless funds into this Mage.

"No, I will need other kinds of help from His Majesty..."

...

The Watchmakers of Bayern were a fortunate lot. While their business was often the first to suffer in times of turmoil, today they had once again received an order so large it required the entire industry to fulfill.

The order came not from that Mage, but directly from the Bayern Royal Family.

However, the master craftsmen were surprised to discover that the order’s contents were identical to the previous one. They were required to produce the same parts from the same blueprints, but this time, the quantity was massively increased—they were to produce and finish ten full sets.

The feudal Lord, as the client, was far more ruthless than Rorschach. He dispatched Guards to "invite" the craftsmen to work together, providing them with food and lodging. Then, he had henchmen supervise them around the clock, strictly enforcing a 16-hour workday.

The Apprentice Gao Pei, now freed from the basement, had been transformed into the project’s manager. He spent his days wielding a vernier caliper and wearing a watchmaker’s loupe, inspecting the work of the other master craftsmen. His own mentor, Mr. Boles, had escaped this fate by falling ill. For some reason, Gao Pei, whose psyche was becoming progressively more twisted, could only sigh in bitter regret.

Rorschach had advocated for manufacturing more computing cores to expand the processing power of the intelligence.

His rationale for having the Royal Family gather the craftsmen to manufacture these cores was that they were needed to support a special military unit.

「Deep in the mountains.」

The newly formed unit began its training.

"Press the button on this control stick, and the mobility device on your back will activate. Remember, don’t jam the switch to maximum power all at once. Your ascent height should not exceed the tallest tree in your line of sight."

The instructor was now guiding the unit members through their first attempt at flight. The recruits, selected from the ranks of hunters and the army’s finest marksmen, were equipped with the mobility devices that allowed them to take flight, as well as new rifles developed based on smokeless powder—boasting slimmer barrels, longer range, and greater precision.

Rorschach had inscribed the Magic Arrays for the Floating Skill and Air Cannon within the layers of the Leather Armor. He then attached an external Energy Storage unit loaded with Transmuting Dust. This combination formed the so-called mobility device, capable of lifting a person into the air.

The Energy Storage unit contained three canisters of Transmuting Dust. By opening a valve, an Alchemy Potion would flow in and absorb the Magic Power from the dust. This magically charged Potion would then circulate through a closed loop. Controlling the Potion’s circulatory path allowed for ascent, descent, and movement—forward, backward, left, and right.

They were also equipped with a wrist-mounted device similar to a watch. Its main features were a time-telling dial and a compass, but it also included a small crystal that indicated the remaining Magic Power. When the crystal dimmed, the user had to turn a valve to let the Potion saturate the next canister of Transmuting Dust, thereby replenishing the Magic Power.

"Watch the brightness of the indicator crystal! As soon as it matches the color on the adjacent chart, or gets even darker, you must turn the valve! You can do this three times before you’re out!" The instructor was a Town Mage. He wasn’t particularly interested in Rorschach’s invention. The only reason it worked for common people was its use of highly concentrated Magic Power. ’To put it bluntly, it’s just brute force,’ he thought.

He was, however, quite interested in training these commoners to soar through the sky. While everyone else flailed about in the air, as clumsy as fish out of water, constantly spinning and tumbling as they tried to find their balance, he used his own Magic to stroll leisurely across the sky, correcting their flight postures.

These soldiers, capable of rapid aerial maneuvering, were personally named "Sky Knights" by Albert. Rorschach desperately wanted to complain about how lame the name was, but since the unit was, in name, the King’s new Personal Guard, he had no choice but to accept it.

Still, the name was fitting in one sense: like Light Knights, they would be tasked with reconnaissance and harassment missions, only they would be coming from the sky.

In Rorschach’s view, however, a component even more critical than the mobility device was the second wrist-mounted device. It maintained a low-bandwidth connection to the expanded intelligence core in Lansite. Using the intelligence core’s location in Lansite as its origin point, it established a polar coordinate system that covered the entire Kingdom, allowing it to pinpoint the coordinates of every single unit member.