A Famous Traitor and Treacherous Genius

245 – Barcelona Terror (5)

[January 24th of the Imperial Calendar, written by the Marquess of Gibraltar.]

Build a battleship made entirely of gold.

It is an unreasonable command.

This is a ridiculous and unfair order.

However, if it is confirmed who gave this order, everyone will sigh and sigh.

“His Majesty King Saint Geo Nostrum ordered us to build a ship made of gold, so we decided to comply.”

“…”

My father, sitting in his study, opened a copy of his order with a serious expression and simply tapped his finger on it.

“What is the budget?”

“No.”

“What are the blueprints?”

“You have to make it.”

“What about the shipyard?”

“We’ll have to make that too, or use Sirene’s shipyard.”

“So make a ship out of gold from scratch?”

“Yes.”

“Should I kill him?”

My father began to worry seriously while fiddling with the sword on his waist.

“Why does this man keep acting like he has two lives?”

“It may actually be true, or he may be under the illusion that he is.”

“Once you cut it, you’ll know.”

“Be patient. There is less than a year left.”

I’ve endured and endured for over 20 years now, but what a waste of time it would be to not be able to tolerate something like this.

“If it were impossible, I wouldn’t have accepted it in the first place. And I already gave the business plan to my father.”

I pointed to the business plan for building the ‘Golden Saint’ that was placed in front of my father.

“…Father.”

“Hmm.”

“Apple, didn’t you always eat the peel?”

Next to the business plan, there were red apples brought in from the empire, each cut into the shape of a rabbit.

“Lettar gave it to me.”

My father twitched the corner of his mouth as if he was bragging, or really bragging.

“I heard that my eldest brother was coming, so I practiced hard and sharpened it myself. Maybe it’s because I inherited Gibraltar’s blood, but I’m really good at cutting.”

“…”

Lettar. Cutting. My head suddenly felt dizzy-

“I can’t believe they gave me a cut just because my eldest brother is coming. Really, I guess I’ll have to cut some candy and give it to them as a gift later.”

“…Let me tell you one thing, I usually give apples sliced very thinly into flower petals.”

“…”

The Lettar I know used to throw me sliced corpses.

“Father, please know that you are truly grateful to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s all thanks to me.”

“Of course. Isn’t it because of you that we were able to come this far?”

“…That’s it. Don’t say anything.”

I tried to suppress something boiling inside me and pointed to the business plan lying next to the apple.

“Preparations are already complete. All we have to do is get my father’s approval and proceed with the rest.”

“If there’s one part I don’t understand the most, it’s this part right here.”

My father pointed to the place circled in red in the business plan.

“Budget, is this really all you need?”

“Yes. It doesn’t cost that much.”

“…”

“It may be hard to believe, but this is easier than you think.”

I pointed to the part that took up the largest portion of the budget.

“All you have to do is purchase a ship that will serve as a model for the Golden Saint. Whether it is an imperial model or an actual battleship.”

“Buying a battleship won’t be a problem. And transporting it is as simple as attaching wheels underneath and running it on a railway. Construction of the railway from Gibraltar to Barcelona has already begun.”

“Yes. I will use that.”

To make a golden ship, you need a 1:1 ratio real ship.

“What about transport by ship?”

“I will do it myself. I also plan to mobilize all the knights in Barcelona.”

“That means it’s that important.”

“Yes. If you have a prototype of a ship, it is very easy to make a golden ship.”

I lifted a sword hanging on the wall.

“It’s the same as a sword. It’s difficult to make a new sword body from scratch, but making an identical sword is a simpler process than you think. You just take the mold and melt it into the shape.”

“…And pour gold into it.”

My father tilted his head with a serious face.

“Do you know how much heat gold melts?”

“Yes, I know.”

“If you’re making a mold and trying to withstand the heat of gold…”

“If you do that, the mold should be able to withstand the heat that melted the gold. Luckily, if it’s iron, it should be able to withstand it for quite a long time.”

“It looks like the mold may even melt and the iron and gold get mixed together.”

“Yes. If you pour molten gold into a boat-shaped mold.”

“…What kind of nefarious thoughts are you thinking again?”

My father covered his face with one hand as if he was in pain.

“If Saint Geo makes people feel ridiculous in a way that makes no sense, then you make people feel embarrassed in a way that goes beyond common sense.”

“Oh my god. Are you putting me on the same level as St. Geo Nostrum?”

“The difference is that St. Geo is just incompetent, and you produce meaningful results in ridiculous ways.”

“This time will be no different.”

I pulled the sword from my staff.

“As always, do it Gibraltar’s way.”

“It’s Gibraltar’s way…”

“You can do it too, father. It’s just very annoying and time-consuming.”

“Hmm.”

The father was lost in his thoughts for a moment, rubbing his chin with his hand.

There are many ways, but my father will soon find the answer.

“…Should I cut it with an auror?”

Cut with aura.

What?

“When I once tried to give Charlotte jewelry, I tried to give her jewelry made of gold from Barcelona.”

His father his his was fiddling with his wedding ring his his.

“There wasn’t a single shape I wanted. At the time, all the influential jewelers were controlled by Morgania, so it was difficult to do business with them.”

“It is self-employed.”

“That’s why I said it. In the end, I couldn’t buy what was already in stock, and even custom-made was impossible. So I came to a conclusion.”

My father took out his wedding ring for a moment and then threw it at me.

“Take a look.”

“You can see it from far away.”

“If you wear it, you can’t see it.”

“…There’s an engraving on the inside too.”

This is my first time seeing this.

Before his return his his, his father was often seen wearing his wedding ring his even after his mother’s death his his, but this wedding ring was never seen after his execution his his.

“[May I be with you at any time].”

Any time.

I felt a chill down my spine for a moment, but I smiled and handed the wedding ring directly to my father.

“If someone sees it, they’ll think it’s just a stain.”

“It’s not big enough to be recognized unless you’re a master level.”

“You didn’t even put initials on it, but engraved a sentence into this small ring. Did you use some kind of magic? Like a shrinking magic?”

“It was quite difficult to engrave the needle with the aura.”

“…”

I almost burst out laughing for a moment when I thought of my father holding a needle and scratching the inside of a circular ring alone in his office to engrave a sentence.

“Why are you doing that? You don’t think that’s the case?”

“I decided to just buy it and give it to them.”

“Tsk, tsk. Maybe it’s because you grew up seeing only one person since you were so young, so you don’t know women very well.”

“…”

I felt moved for a moment, but if you focus on this topic for no reason, there is only one outcome.

“Why? If you have something to say, say it.”

“Yes. Father is right. So, if there is a difference of opinion, please leave aside the comment about fighting with swords. I am busy.”

“Tsk.”

My father used this as an excuse to spar with me, but unfortunately there was no time for that.

“It just needs to stretch for about three days.”

“I wouldn’t mind if Astasia were by my side to give me a massage and nurse me, but I don’t want to rub the area where I got hit by a monk in a place where Astasia isn’t around.”＜ Br＞

“…Well, that’s right. I also told my father…Hmm.”

My father cleared his throat and stood up.

“Anyway, back to the story of the Golden Ship.”

Then he pulled out the sword from his waist and aimed it at the wall of the study.

“Building a golden ship. Naturally, this perspective of making is aligned with ‘Joseon’.”

The process of building a ship involves making a keel, assembling the plates, and driving nails to prevent water from seeing in.

“But Gibraltar is different.”

My father lightly swung his sword towards the canyon on the map hanging on the wall.

“We are better at cutting than at making, and we are better at cutting than assembling.”

Sword Masters are beings that go beyond the standards, and sometimes go beyond human common sense.

In the past, Gibraltar carved a canyon with aurors.

Thus, the terrain was changed so that the wind only flowed from Nostrum towards Thersian.

“Yes, I am.”

Gibraltar style.

“We don’t build ships in a shipyard…”

Our own way that others can never do.

I lightly took a bite of the rabbit-shaped apple that was placed on my father’s desk.

“I’m going to carve the boat.”

* * *

Aside from the task of building a golden ship, I have a more important task.

It’s been quite a while since I came to the Gibraltar Gorge, the place where the task lies.

‘A lot has changed.’

The gates of the canyon are wide open from Gate 1 to Gate 3, and in the middle of them is a railway made of ‘iron’ rather than wood.

Of course, the Mado Auto Line is a train road for trains to come and go.

Unlike the wooden rails that exist throughout Nostrum, the railroad tracks and even under the railroad tracks are lined with iron plates and egg-sized rock chunks.

If a war breaks out in the future and the gate is closed, Gibraltar’s gate will definitely not be caught on the railroad tracks.

Although there was such an intention, Gibraltar did not think that this was a problem at all, and the kingdom’s loyal soldiers who pointed this out rushed to the canyon, but had already seen the iron rails laid below.

They couldn’t say anything.

All he could do was stand on the train and shout, ‘This should never happen!’ But he became the first person to be hit and killed on the tracks in Nostrum.

“Every time I look at this place, it’s really high.”

“Do you want to go up? Lord Mente, try to stop us. If we continue like this, it looks like we’re going to go up there.”

“If there’s a reason to go up, you go up. …But it’s going to go up, right?”

The two sword masters who followed me into the canyon were disgusted by the sheer cliffs, but I lightly shrugged my shoulders.

“There is no reason to go up.”

The elevator was demolished.

The pungseok, which served as an elevator, was used to climb over the walls of the Marquis Castle in Yeongjijeon and fulfilled its role.

“I said we need gold to make ships, but gold isn’t the only thing we need to make.”

I drew the sword I brought from the Marquess of Gibraltar and activated the aura.

“We need to build a shipyard, rebuild the walls, and most of all, we need stones for the numerous buildings that will be built in Barcelona.”

“Hey, master. Could it be… “

“If you need wood, go to the forest. If you need rock, go to the quarry.”

Before your eyes, there is a treasure trove of stone resources that have not been exploited in 500 years.

“Boy, if you need rocks, wouldn’t it be okay to use what you find while digging for gold?”

“What matters is where the quarry was taken.”

I stabbed the sword imbued with aura towards the cliff and then cut it sideways.

“Stones mined from gold mines may have gold mixed in, so wouldn’t it be possible to build a house by baking bricks with that?”

“…Isn’t there actually a golden ship hiding in this canyon?”

“I hope so.”

This is something I don’t know.

“Wow. That would be really fun. Gold is pouring out of Barcelona at random. What if you start digging the Gibraltar Gorge and find a vein of gold?”

Since it is unknown, more and more labor is needed.

“The whole kingdom will come to dig a canyon.”

“Still, such a wide cliff…”

“It’s heavy, but it sells?”

I lightly lifted a piece of rock from the Gibraltar Gorge that had been cut to size.

“A symbol of peace. A ‘commemorative stone’ with the seal of Gibraltar is available for only 10 thalers.”

“…Will it sell?”

“Sold.”

Even if it doesn’t sell, I will sell it.

“All you have to do is say that through a lottery, the winner will be given a ticket to visit Gibraltar Castle.”

Because I’m going to make it sell.

“If it’s a stone with no value, wouldn’t it be enough to give it value?”

Containing the strongest values.

“It is a ‘Peace Memorial Stone,’ a symbol of the end of 500 years of war between the kingdom and the empire.”