Ch.35The Road to Technological Development is Long and Arduous. (3)

# Chapter 35: The Road to Technological Development is Long and Arduous (3)

After concluding her meeting with Arto, Minister Bermut departed.

Just as when she arrived, her departure was equally dignified and utterly manic.

“Next time, I’ll teach you about chemical gas combinations!!”

“Please, next time let’s just meet officially, I beg you.”

Until the very end, she brazenly tried to recruit a graduate student from someone who ranked within the top five of the Empire’s power hierarchy.

“Adios!”

“Ah! You’re leaving mechanical arm imprints on the lawn!”

The return of madness—she didn’t even walk normally on her way out, but rather used her mechanical arms to move like some octopus professor.

————————

After she naturally returned to the Ministry of Technology and Science.

“…I thought I was going to die!”

Deactivating her clear-eyed maniac mode, she instantly reverted to what appeared to be a completely ordinary person.

“Minister Arto is so scary! Uhuhuhu!”

No, not an ordinary person, but rather someone resembling a terrified supporting character from a horror movie.

Everyone might have been bewildered by the sudden disappearance of her mad scientist demeanor that she had displayed just moments ago, but…

“We told you, didn’t we? We asked if you should really approach him like that.”

“Nnngh, but still…”

The graduate students themselves, the actual parties involved, criticized Minister Bermut with half-dead eyes.

Even considering that they were stuck in their “Sticky Master’s” program without graduating because of Minister Bermut…

It seemed unlikely they could speak so freely to Bermut, who was still a noble after all.

“But Minister Arto used to be the Minister of Enforcement! He’s the type who would try to devour me with the Inspection Department at any opportunity!”

“Are you not aware that you’ve been walking such a dangerous tightrope that both those groups tried to catch you simultaneously?”

“Bah, be quiet! Go finish developing your technology!”

“Waaah, abuse of power, waaah.”

The interior of the Ministry of Technology and Science was strangely filled with egalitarianism, to the point where playful reactions toward a noble minister were commonplace.

“Quiet, and develop proper weapons as quickly as possible.”

But unlike usual, Minister Bermut showed a rather serious attitude, even breaking into a cold sweat.

Seeing their minister like this, the “Sticky Master’s” graduate students made faces of incomprehension and said:

“What’s wrong, Minister?”

“You know as well as we do, Minister. We’re already being squeezed to our limits. If we push any harder, we’ll all die.”

They mentioned they were already at their limit and couldn’t accept unreasonable demands, but…

Minister Bermut sighed deeply at their response and said:

“Actually, you know what? Minister Arto told me something.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he happened to have a conversation with His Majesty the Emperor recently, and during that conversation, they discussed serious problems with the Empire’s fleet forces.”

“Oh…”

Only then did the poor graduate students realize why their madness-loving, slave-driving minister had returned to being a normal person.

It meant that the strict and fearsome Minister of Enforcement was driving them hard in accordance with the will of the great Emperor himself.

The engineering graduate student friends, facing reality, showed concern for their minister amid their belated panic.

“S-so what do we do now?”

“For now, I showed him the weapons and blueprints I’ve been making as a hobby to somehow buy us time.”

“You really have no fear.”

“Be quiet. If we hadn’t shown any results there… the Imperial Palace would have come after us this time.”

“Ah.”

But merely putting their heads together like this wouldn’t solve anything.

“Still, we’ve developed various things, but did the Ministry of Diplomacy and Enforcement know what we were doing?”

“Yes, he smoothly listed all our latest research topics that should have been confidential.”

“…”

“So he requested that we please start developing practical weapons as soon as possible.”

On the surface, it sounded very polite and optional, giving the impression that it didn’t matter whether they did it or not.

But once they realized the speaker was Minister Arto, everyone recognized that these words were literally an ultimatum.

Therefore, the researchers and technicians gathered here began to quickly accept the situation, nodding their heads.

“…Then we’ll immediately halt development of existing research topics and begin developing new lance battery systems.”

“Keep the engineering projects going; fortress development is important even if it’s not fleet-related.”

“What about biology and chemistry?”

“Should we develop NBC weapons?”

“Whatever it is, bring results worthy of showing to His Majesty, and make sure it’s combat-related.”

“What’s our deadline?”

“As soon as possible, but perfect.”

Even though countless graduate students would be ground down in the process, they would dedicate their lives to completing this task…

—————————

Although I couldn’t bring myself to deliberately push them hard because of the madness evident in those clear eyes and actions.

Before I knew it, I had become so irritated that I even revealed my conversation with Artraia.

‘That was dangerous. Such things shouldn’t be carelessly revealed.’

Sharing a private conversation with the sole monarch of an absolute monarchy with another minister?

One misstep could strain my relationship with Artraia and potentially cost me my head.

But that slip-up seemed to have put pressure on Minister Bermut.

[Event: Holy Sebelli Empire Technology Expo Opening]

[The newly established Ministry of Technology and Science through recent organizational reforms has held an expo to widely promote the Empire’s technological prowess, including their own achievements.]

[Countless people from neighboring countries are flocking to see new technologies and inventions, and this naturally includes stakeholders from various nations seeking to assess the Empire’s technological level.]

[Empire’s internal cohesion increased for 1 year]

Otherwise, how could such a splendid event be offered so soon after I had left the Ministry of Diplomacy and Enforcement with a stern warning?

‘This comes at a good time, as cohesion has been faltering since the recent end of the war.’

With that thought, I closed the event window and checked the message that appeared on my terminal.

[Technology Expo Invitation]

[Would you… like to study fun science together?]

“…”

I wondered if this might be a joke, given how it omitted all formalities and got straight to the point, but…

“This message is totally Minister Bermut herself.”

“So you think so too.”

As Riel said, anyone could see this was Minister Bermut inviting me to the expo.

“Alright, what’s my afternoon schedule?”

“You have a meeting with the Minister of Defense, but if you say you’re going to the expo, he’d probably be happy to join you.”

“…Hmm.”

Remembering the image of that battleship-and-heavy-artillery enthusiast, I nodded and said:

“Good, then please prepare for us to depart in the afternoon.”

“Understood.”

———————–

And finally, we arrived at the expo.

Or rather, at a classified weapons demonstration site somewhere within the expo.

Inside a specially designed bunker wrapped in ultra-heavy armor suitable for a fortress, we were able to experience the power of various new weapons that the Ministry of Technology and Science proudly showcased.

“What do you think?! Of the new weapons our Ministry of Technology and Science has ambitiously created?!”

“…Impressive.”

“Astonishing power, exceeding even the simulation levels.”

Of course, they only directly fired personal weapons and tank-grade armaments before our eyes.

For ship-mounted weapons, they only brought the actual items and we had to watch footage of test firings in space on screens.

‘Indeed, the saying “where there’s a will, there’s a way” holds true.’

Could these really be the same researchers who were developing strange and useless things until just recently?

Truly feeling my heart swell with pride, I was about to tell Minister Bermut, who stood with her hands on her hips and her white lab coat fluttering, that this exceeded my expectations, but—

“Wait, how long would it take to deploy these weapons in actual combat?”

Sensing something was off from the Defense Minister’s question, I stopped what I was about to do and naturally composed myself.

And Minister Bermut, receiving the question, answered with her characteristically exaggerated manner, even waving her mechanical arms:

“We can deploy them in actual combat whenever needed! The designs are perfect!”

“Oh… is that so?”

But the Defense Minister continued while flipping through documents on his terminal:

“But according to this report I’ve seen, these weapons and new ships require resources called ‘Geronimo Ore’ and ‘Feyr Crystal’.”

“That’s correct?”

“And it says dark matter is needed too… Does our Empire have any places where these strategic resources are produced?”

“No?”

“Are there places where we can import them from?”

“N…no?”

“Then how exactly do you plan to deploy these in actual combat?”

“Well, that’s a problem for the ministers of diplomacy and commerce to work out, isn’t it?”

“??”

‘Has her brain been damaged from being pushed too hard?’

Listening to this bizarre exchange, I felt my mind becoming disoriented.

‘I asked for functional weapons, not one-off technology demonstrators that can’t be mass-produced.’

At a time when we barely had enough resources produced within the Empire, they proudly unveiled weapons using resources that were exceedingly rare throughout the universe.

Naturally, the Defense Minister, a mass-production enthusiast of battleships and heavy artillery, couldn’t accept such an absurd proposal.

Unfortunately for the developers who had worked so hard, the blueprints for these new weapons were immediately stuffed into a storage room in the Imperial Palace… a glorified warehouse called the “weapons repository.”