Sword, Magic and Academic Society

Vol. 1 - Chapter 173 - Transportation Assignment (2)

Three hours after our departure from the Royal Capital— I manipulated the wind while Dan controlled the ship from the cabin.

A veil of darkness covered our vision, but for us and the Knight Order's Commander Glover plus Cass-san, it barely posed a problem for our cruise. Meanwhile, Glover-san also had all the dangerous zones like reefs that could block our ship memorized.

It was incredible, admittedly, but I think a precise river and sea chart would be way better than relying on intuition and experience.

For these past three hours, Glover-san and Cass-san had been staying close to Dan, learning our way of sailing.

I didn't expect them to learn wind magic within the timeframe of this mission, but just being able to navigate the ship was a huge lifesaver as it would allow Dan and me to rest intermittently. They were necessary so that we could travel up the route with efficiency.

This was the reason why I requested additional sailors, though the two of them were much better than me in navigating the ship.

Cass-san, especially, seemed to own several personal ships of his liking, and his skills rivaled even Dan's. But then again, Dan and I spent a lot of our time synchronizing our movements at our club activities, so in terms of coordination, they still had some ways to go.

Navigating with wind magic was a joint effort of the front — the one who manipulates the wind — and the back — the one who controls the ship.

In one of these moments, seemingly having learned the basics through occasionally steering the ship, the two approached me as I controlled the flow of the wind at the center of the ship.

"I heard the basic principle from Daniel-kun, but...... this is unbelievable. It's happening right before my eyes, however, this speed really blows away all that my knowledge and experience...... I mean, the wind isn't blowing as strongly as the ship's speed suggests. Anyway, you've been using your wind magic for three hours now, would you like to take a rest?"

Glover had an incredulous expression as he inquired.

"Thank you, but I’m alright. This is faster than pushing the boat with wind magic."

The wind was currently blowing from the northwest at about 10 m/s.

Converting this to speed yielded around 36 km/h. In a scenario where we had a perfectly favorable wind directly behind us, using only the force of the wind on the sails without dynamic force, the maximum speed we could achieve would still be below 36 km/h.

Of course, the actual speed would be even lower due to many factors like water resistance among other things.

But right now, the ship's speed likely exceeded 36 km/h.

It might be hard to grasp intuitively, but with proper use of dynamic force, a sailboat can indeed achieve speeds greater than the blowing wind itself, which is one of the fascinating aspects of this technique.

There were two crucial aspects to utilizing the Sail Wind magic.

I manipulated the tailwind and turned it into a crosswind, using the dynamic force to propel us forward. This was, however, quite hard to achieve as one had to take control of the air spread out in a vast area. Dan was still incapable of doing it.

Of course, controlling all the wind in a complete 180 degree area was impossible even for me, and it was neither efficient nor practical. However, the mana loss was minimal if it was just turning the direction of wind to 30 degrees around from a distance and this was something I trained myself to do since the development of the flying magic car. The flying capability of this technique was totally dependent on where and at which angle the wind was striking the wings.

The second task was to keep the wind blowing within the confines of the sail — lest the wind dispersed — as much as possible and build up the dynamic force.

The general procedure was to curb the speed of the wind within the ship, which would cause an atmospheric difference with the drifting wind outside the ship. However, this required me to maintain a delicate balance as overdoing it could easily push the ship to move erratically, or in a 'stall' like situation that happens with airplanes.

The erratic movements could be suppressed, but it was a lot harder to do so and it had its limit. This was why it was required to ascertain how much you could control, and build up dynamic force accordingly. And since Dan, who was sailing the ship, was familiar with my limit, we could bring out our maximum speed from the get-go.

Nature was never one to stay at a steady pace— the wind could change its direction, or even die down altogether at the drop of a hat, hence there had to be an understanding between both sides. By synchronizing our rhythm — with me controlling the wind with magic and Dan steering the ship — we kept the ship balanced.

Anyway, that was the rundown on the Sail Wind Magic and why you had to dive deep into the technicality of it all. But, applying the various rotations we came up with was what made it worth it and fun.

Cass-san gave off a bright smile, an expression of excitement on his face, however, he suppressed it to the limit as he spoke.

"My word, this is nothing short of a revolutionary discovery. You were even able to successfully execute it. As long as you reveal this technique to the world, your names will undoubtedly be engraved in the annals of history. I heard from Dan that you've been hiding everything so far because you weren't yet sure if it could be replicated by the public, but you do realize that you can’t shrug off such an achievement with a simple reason like that, right?

Ah, but I’m not saying this to scold you for hiding it, by the way. No, you've taken a wise route, in my opinion. This can literally repaint— bring a new dawn in maritime history. However, what exactly is your vision for this technique? Are you going to spread it worldwide? I was hoping to confirm this with you. Of course, depending on your intention, I and even Glover-san would be happy to cooperate with you."

"This is all for Dan to decide. If you ask me, I would love for the world to know more of this fundamental technique, it's not really that important to me. This much is nothing to me."

I replied nonchalantly, and it made both of their mouths open wide as they looked at each other.

Glover-san put up a strained smile as he put a hand on his chin, shaking his head wryly.

"...You heard him, Cass? This much is nothing to me— a discovery that can overturn maritime travel as a whole is... just... nothing much? Well, it might be easy to overlook it from your vantage point, being a Class-A student of the Royal Academy, but this is a game changer in every possible way."

Err, hey, I do have some idea at least. But I didn't care much about the money and fame. Plus, I’m just borrowing what I learned in my past life. I was merely copying someone else's discovery. I mean, I was a straightforward lad my entire previous life, so there was no way I could change my roots and suddenly grow a pompous nose.

"......I kinda know what you're talking about, Glover-san, but I'm not interested in fame or money. I would rather have this spread throughout the world so that I can find more allies of the wind."

"......The wind... 'Allies of the wind' what?"

"Hmm? Well, err, with the power of the wind at their beck and call, they're friends who’ll share and seek new discoveries together with me!"

As I made an impromptu reply, Cass-san burst into a chuckle.

"Kukuku!... I also used to admire the talent of external magic in my childhood, though I curbed that longing a long ago. But you're doing great, even I’m feeling all fired up. What do you think, how about we challenge the rumored 'Flip Path' that you’ve been researching in the Emission Magic Research Club? It has become quite the rumor, and we can have your Sail Club as the intermediary. I would like to see for myself the abyss that Mujikka called and evaluated as the ‘Fiend Road’. Aren't you curious too, Glover-san?"

Huh? So he and Mujikka-sensei are acquaintances? Oh wait, they were almost of the same age, so I guess it wouldn't be surprising for them to know each other from their Academy days.

Glover-san just shrugged at his question.

"I know, I know, this isn't something I can avoid, but... for god's sake, at least try to change the name from 'Flipping Flip Circle’. My daughter is of marriageable age, and... I might not be able to speak with her if she heard that I joined it."

I could only scratch my cheek in awkwardness.

I mean, I did try to straighten out those morons, telling them that 'We aren't a Flipping Blipping Road!' countless times, yet they didn't show any sign of improvement. Rather, they all continued to proclaim things like 'This is the path 'I' live and die for-degozaru!' and in the end it was me who raised the flag of surrender in front of their persistence.

“Aha… ha, err, believe me. I didn't set that up. So, you mean you're going to join the Academy's Sail Club for this?"

Was that even possible?

As I tilted my head in confusion, Glover-san shook his head.

“We may be graduates, but we don’t have the right to join the Academy’s clubs, nor the time for it. Realistically, we’d sign a collaborative research contract between the Royal Academy’s Sail Club and the Kingdom’s Knight Order to share the research results… It’s not entirely unheard of since researchers affiliated with that Academy are quite competent. However, I’ve never heard of a case where a student-run club and the Knight Order collaborated on research, even for the Royal Academy.”

Ah, so that's it.

I assume it was something similar to the 'Spreadsheet Program' I accidentally created, and in which the researcher Emi-sensei, the advisor of the Emission Magic Research Club, was a participant.

The advantages of a collaboration would be honor and funding, which I didn’t really feel like I needed, but there was no reason to outright refuse or oppose it.

It was a good thing for technology to advance, and an increase in the number of wind magic uses was a welcome change for me.

“Well, all the final decisions regarding the Sail Club are for our President to decide, so you can continue this with him.”

That said, it was another tiresome matter, so I pushed it onto Dan.

As for why I said 'This much is nothing to me', it was because Dan wanted to seek the possibility of creating ships fundamentally different from the conventional sailboats we were currently using.

It was when we were exchanging our ideas, and I was referring to this physical phenomenon as ‘fluid dynamics’ for convenience, when Dan, as sharp as ever, immediately asked 'Fluid? You mean this phenomenon can be applied to streams… I mean water as well, and not just air?'

I dodged the question back then with 'Well, for all that it matters, maybe?'

Back when I was in Japan, there was a passenger ship that travelled to a remote island using a method called a jet foil.

By placing small wings underwater, the hull would lift, allowing the parts not covered by the wings to glide above the water without facing resistance— essentially a flying ship.

Since water and air have densities that differed by hundreds of times, the dynamic force generated would be vastly different, resulting in such a strange phenomenon.

Out of curiosity, I did a quick search online and found that in the yacht world championship from my previous life, the foiling method of lifting the hull was the mainstream, and the top speeds were certainly over 100 km/h.

And that was only using the wind, with nary an ounce of magic. I could only wonder the speed we would be able to gain if we also brought wind magic into the picture. Besides, for a world where rowing the boat with physical strengthening magic was much faster than magic ships, it would be an absolute game-changer.

Our current ship was just a glimpse of that underlying technique, a mere milestone in the long path ahead. But, I had no doubt that Dan would open a brand new path for the world.

"Your discovery has put you far ahead of anyone else, but we're also the kingdom's renowned Knight Order. We're not simply here to receive. We’ll definitely bring out a result that’ll be eye-opening for you as well."

Eyes brimming with fighting spirit, Cass-san flashed a daring grin.

I also grinned back at him.

Meanwhile, our ship continued to sail through the Rune River.

E/N - F me, these past few chapters have been hard to edit. The sailing terms and theories just fly right over my head. ?

T/N - Can't miss out on academic part after the magic, eh?