Celestina Shoukan

Chapter 6: A trip to Celestina (Qua-Toyne's Perspective)

Rewinding time for a while...

Qua-Toyne Principality, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 24th December 1522 / 223

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs interacted with multiple countries. Now, they are preparing a delegation to visit Celestina, a developed country, to make a diplomatic relationship.

"Yago! I heard you are going to be a part of the delegation to that new 'Celestina' country, huh! You're lucky dog! I also want to come, too!" yelled one of his coworkers.

International delegation were fairly common. There were many countries in this world, and ruler and country names changed often, especially in more moderate countries. Larger countries also sometimes broke up into smaller ones.

There were dangers on the road and while visiting other countries, so it was not uncommon for there to be injuries or deaths while on a mission. The destinations oftentimes had a low standard of living. (Qua-Toyne Cuisine was like, rare for a so-called "barbarian" nation, considered to be on the same level as the Third Civilization's.) They also frequently had problems with sanitation, disease handling, and/or security. This made delegation work generally undesirable.

However, this mission was a country that was attracting a lot of attention. The preparation materials contain outlandish stories: Karl Schutz and 6th Wyvern Squadron accounts regarding a statement of the iron dragon that surpasses the performance of the wyverns in speed and height; the navy's report regarding a 300-meter metal ship with no sails.

"This all can't be true..." Yago kept thinking about it over and over.

Wyverns are priceless weapons, and dragon knights were the cream of the crop, admired by all soldiers as champions of the sky. The same way an average soldier couldn't compete with a mounted knight, an average knight couldn't compete with a dragon knight. They could reach a speed of 250 kilometers per hour, fly out of bow range, generate fireballs that completely overpowered human-made weapons, their scales could repel both arrows and knives. The only tamed beast stronger than a wyvern was the "wyvern lord" that was being bred in low numbers in the major civilizations.

Indeed, the only things humans could not tame were specific types of dragons, such as ancient dragons or holy dragons. These were basically considered natural disasters, so the thought of the humans of taming them was dreams within dreams. It would be impossible for even the Second Civilization of Mu to create something the size of a Wyvern yet superior to it in every way.

However, unbelievable it was, Celestina's flying machine was in fact seen in action in the skies above the commercial city Mayhark by numerous witnesses, so Yago had become quite interested in them.

(This delegation is a chance for me to make it big)

--

"Let's start the meeting."

His thought process was interrupted by the sudden declaration. The five delegates, four of them who were various officials from the foreign affairs bureau as well as General Hanki from Military Affairs, sat together in a small conference room. The chief delegate provided a detailed explanation.

"Our primary objective this time is to evaluate whether Celestina is a threat to our country. As you know, our aerial defensive measures are completely ineffective against Celestina's iron dragon. We lack any means to defend against that weapon.

Currently, Celestina indicates that it wants to establish diplomatic ties with our country, but, in truth, we know nothing about their aims at all. Whether or not they're hegemony, or whether they're like Louria and discriminate against demihumans, we need to determine the real reason they want to align themselves with us."