New chapter of Control Engineer is out! (1/1 chapter)

Limiter Release

(Thank you for reading at bayabuscotranslation.com)

Why did I lose consciousness and fall asleep in a place like that? I still don’t really understand. I went to the lake to do magic training, but my condition just wouldn’t improve.

After returning and having dinner, it was already getting late.

I have to fulfill my promise to Kaa-sama. She was trying not to look at me, but I feel like she was glaring at me during dinner. Let’s start the national history assignment. I already brought reference books from the main library’s archive.

“Research in detail the three major achievements of the founding father, Martin I.”

He is the ancestor of our current royal family. Martin Schole. In the year 184, he won. Well, not quite… he fought the war of independence against the former suzerain, the Loutnas Kingdom, and managed to secure independence in a sort of stalemate, ascending as the first king.

Well, I already know the general outline of his achievements. But all of them are suspicious, almost like miracles. I don’t really feel motivated to seriously research them. But I promised Kaa-sama. If I break that promise, I might get banned from going out.

Let’s do it.

The founding father has many achievements. Even among those, when people refer to the “three major” ones, scholars tend to disagree. But there are some common ones.

1. Bloodless opening of the royal capital
2. Famine relief in Ardel County

The bloodless opening of the royal capital occurred during the war of independence against the Loutnas Kingdom, when the current royal capital Salomea was surrounded. After the cathedral’s noon bell rang out, at a rally held on Hebes Hill, Schole shouted, “Now is the time to open the gates!”, and the governor of Loutnas, Morales, responded by opening the city gates, which led to peace negotiations.

That’s how the story goes.  But even a 14-year-old like me finds that hard to believe. Why, you ask? That’s because many painters have drawn that scene, and I’ve seen one of those paintings at Emilia’s church. It was quite a grand panorama. Even in that painting, Hebes Hill and the city gates were pretty far apart, so the idea that Schole’s voice reached the gates seems implausible. Thinking about it normally, it was probably already agreed upon by the higher-ups on both sides, the independence forces and the ruling army, and the bell was the signal to put on a show.

But for what purpose? Obviously, both sides had something to gain. Just from reading a few books in Tou-sama’s library, there are multiple theories. The Loutnas Kingdom had seen a decrease in mineral resources from present-day Cecilia, making it no longer a very profitable colony. On top of that, it was struggling with a rebellion disguised as a war of independence, and was looking for a way out.

The founding father Schole must have known that burning down the capital Salomea would result in a harsh economic future, even if they achieved independence. Furthermore, there were several factions within the independence army. Schole gained a decisive advantage through those power struggles and was able to ascend the throne after the peace talks.

That said, both armies were supposed to be hostile, so someone must have mediated. It was probably the Tyros Church.

The Loutnas side referred to it as a sacred peace brokered in accordance with the sound of the bell, and the Tyros Church promoted that story. For that reason, Loutnas’ loss of prestige in the eyes of other countries after losing Cecilia was minimized. Thanks to that, the Tyros Church strengthened its position as the state religion in both the Cecilia Kingdom and the Loutnas Kingdom. But still, it’s all circumstantial evidence.

The second achievement, famine relief… Well, it’s true that 100,000 people were saved. But rather than being Schole’s personal achievement, it was thanks to the merchant guild Rexby Company. They are said to have procured huge amounts of grain both domestically and from abroad. As a result, their position as official purveyors remains solid even today. However, this too seems like something we only recognize in hindsight, just identifying who profited the most.

I can’t help but feel like this way of thinking is heavily influenced by Reo. Even if I compile my assignment along these lines, is that really what Beigel-sensei is expecting from a 14-year-old? That’s a concern too. What should I do for the third one…? Depending on the book, the third major achievement varies. Just thinking about it is tiring. Come to think of it, I’ve been reading books ever since dinner. No wonder I’m exhausted. I’ll take a short break. Maybe I’ll read a Stetra document.

Distracting myself from the fatigue of reading by reading something else… how troublesome I am. In the end, it’s just escapism. But magic documents are great. No matter how many times I read them, I always make new discoveries. Well, about half of those are things I’d already learned and forgotten.

As I got more into it and kept following links, I ended up, as usual, on that page a few levels deep. The one where everything is garbled into boxes with Xs.

Annoying, but there’s nothing I can do. I haven’t paid any usage fee for this system anyway. Let’s go back to the previous page. Huh? It’s not going back. Some kind of dialog just popped up. Hmm? “Update completed.” For what?

Just as I thought that, it closed.

“Sysler AI! What changed?” (Leon)

“Yes. A new language subset for documents has been installed. Would you like to activate it?” (Sysler AI)

What!?

“Activate it.” (Leon)

“Understood.” (Sysler AI)

Ah, ahhh… The characters displayed began to change one after another. Ahh! Aren’t these the characters used in activation symbols? Yes! Ahhh…

Just as I was about to rejoice, I stopped myself.

Even if the garbled text is fixed, I still can’t read it. Huh? Another dialog popped up. What now?

“You can now use the translation function with the activated language subset. Would you like to convert it into the registered language (Cecilian)?”

Ooh! Yes, yes!

As I focused on the “Translate” button, I felt the click response.

After waiting about 10 seconds, the document reloaded, and now it was filled with familiar characters.

“Oh wow. It’s really in Cecilia language.” (Leon)

Now I can read it. The language barrier that had blocked me for years was gone!

Despite it being past midnight, I stood from my chair and danced in excitement.

But why? This never happened in the past four years. Why was the language subset suddenly installed today? Did I do something today? No matter how hard I think, I can’t come up with anything. At most, I collapsed in front of a shrine. No, that’s unrelated.

More importantly… I can finally read the document. Wait, no! If I start reading that now, it’ll be a repeat of last night. First, the assignment. Assignment first.

Now spinning at full motivation, I pushed aside all the suspicions I felt about the founding father’s achievements and completed my assignment.

 

—

 

“What’s the matter, Leon? That face of yours.” (Mother)

“Wha… what is it, Kaa-sama?” (Leon)

In the dining room at breakfast. I put down the spoon from my soup.

“Hmm. Indeed, there are bags under your eyes. Didn’t sleep, did you?” (Father)

Rarely, even Tou-sama spoke to me.

“N-not really. I was just working on my national history assignment, and I did sleep for a few hours.” (Leon)

I couldn’t exactly say that I quickly finished my assignment and then got absorbed in reading documents.

Well, I did sleep for about two hours, completely passed out.

“That’s not admirable. At your age, you need more sleep to grow… ah, well, just listen to what Henrietta says.” (Father)

His momentum kind of faded partway through.

Henrietta is Kaa-sama’s name. Apparently, when it comes to the children, especially me, he leaves things to Kaa-sama. Maybe because of that, or maybe not, people often say I resemble Kaa-sama.

“Yes, Tou-sama.” (Leon)

Then, Kaa-sama nodded silently.

“So, did you finish your assignment?” (Mother)

“O-of course I did.” (Leon)

 

—

 

“…n-sama, Leon-sama.” (Ursula)

“Uwah!” (Leon)

When I opened my eyes, Ursula was there, behind the characters on the screen. Looking around, I was on my bed in my room.

Shoot. I must have fallen asleep while reading the magic document. Hmm…

“Um…” (Ursula)

“Wh-what is it?” (Leon)

The characters disappeared, and I could see the maid’s face. Sunlight shone on the right side of it.

“Eh, it’s already evening?” (Leon)

“It’s almost five o’clock… ah…” (Ursula)

Her voice cut off as the church bells chimed.

“Madam instructed me to wake you soon. I shall take my leave.” (Ursula)

“Ah, thank you.” (Leon)

“Then…” (Ursula)

“Ah, this? Thank you.” (Leon)

I pointed to the blanket that had been pulled up to my waist.

“N-no, I just arrived… Please excuse me.” (Ursula)

Ursula bowed and left the room.

Since I had just been lying down reading the document, I definitely hadn’t pulled the blanket over myself.

It must have been Kaa-sama. Probably. Haaaah… Even so… so the speed of light is a complex quantity? The things I read in the document before falling asleep started spinning in my head again.

According to Reo’s knowledge, the product of the permittivity and permeability equals the reciprocal of the square of the speed of light. But according to the document, there’s also this new constant called the “magical permeability”. This value is the ratio of mana flux density to magical field intensity, or rather, maybe it’s better to call it the ease with which mana flows? Anyway, magical permeability appears on the left side of that equation now.

Which means magic is, more or less, a phenomenon caused by electromagnetic force. That itself was a surprise, but even more shocking is that the speed of light is a complex number. The speed of light can be said to represent the medium of space itself. So, if the speed of light is complex, that means the medium is complex as well.

On Earth, the speed of light in a vacuum is approximately 3×10⁸ meters per second, a real number. But if there’s an imaginary part, what does that mean?

I didn’t understand at all, but after reading through the linked document, I kind of understood. Or maybe just vaguely accepted it. The imaginary part seems to represent “subspace”. In other words, light apparently travels into subspace as well.

Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know. What even is subspace? There’s no such memory even in Reo’s mind. But it does feel like things are starting to make sense. For the past few years, the idea that energy of magic art comes from subspace, it can now be explained, at least broadly. That’s important.

It felt like a fog had been lifted.

 

—

(Thank you for reading at bayabuscotranslation.com)