Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 722 - 721: Dragon Cavalry Type I

Gawain reacted for two seconds before finally breaking into an uncontrollable joyful smile.

Amber had been chattering excitedly just a moment ago, but stopped dumbfounded when she saw Gawain’s expression.

She rarely saw Gawain show his emotions so openly, rarely saw him smile so happily.

He hadn’t even smiled like this during his coronation.

So this "Flying Machine" is such an important thing?

"Let’s go take a look," Gawain said, pulling Amber along and striding toward the door, "It’s at the East Suburb Testing Field, right?"

"Oh, oh right... Hey, let go, I can walk by myself, don’t pull... don’t lift... don’t tuck me under your arm again! I can..."

...

At the suburban testing field, the "Dragon Cavalry" that had successfully completed its first flight test had already landed smoothly in the open space. A large group of technical personnel were busy around this flying machine, checking each component over and over. Rebecca, as the project’s chief manager, was also on the scene herself. She held tools in her hands, circling around the Machinery Cabin, her face smeared with several streaks of oil, her clothes stained, but she smiled more brilliantly than anyone else on site—happy like a child.

Maji stood quietly on the side, watching the busy and joyous scene before her, her gaze occasionally resting on Rebecca—over the years, Maji had met all kinds of human aristocrats, but a "princess" like Rebecca was something she had never seen before.

"Perfect, perfect, not a single problem! No breaks, no falls, no overheating, none of the previous issues appeared..." a Mage Technician leapt down from the connection shaft of the dragon-wing rudder, full of excitement, "The new structure worked!"

"Now that’s more like it!" Rebecca also emerged from beneath the main spindle of the Flying Machine, her eyes sparkling, "It wasn’t in vain that we tested it a thousand times..."

Maji knew that the thousands of tests Rebecca mentioned were not all actual flight tests, most were completed in the Origin Laboratory—but even though it was in a simulated environment, the hard work put in by everyone in the team was absolutely real.

In the blink of an eye, Rebecca had come to Maji and was smiling brightly: "Hey, hey, Maji, how does it feel to fly?"

Maji was momentarily stunned, then awkwardly lowered her head and said with proper etiquette, "It feels very... good, Your Highness."

She was always a bit uncomfortable with the princess’s lack of aristocratic conduct, but after all, she was representing the Duke of the North’s image and had to strive for impeccable manners.

"Don’t always be so uptight, we’re not in the city, Aunt Heidi and Ancestor can’t see us, it’s fine to relax a bit," Rebecca casually patted Maji on the shoulder. Realizing the grease on her hand only after putting it down, she quickly pulled it back, glanced at the oil stains on her hand, rubbed it hard on her robe, and then patted Maji’s other shoulder, "No titles in the laboratory, that’s what we agreed on from the start."

Maji glanced up at her, her expression somewhat peculiar: "... But, Your Highness, I think necessary etiquette is still... necessary..."

Upon hearing this, Rebecca couldn’t help but puff out her cheeks: "Why do you sound like my aunt? Let me tell you, always being so tense will age you quickly, that’s why Aunt’s dark circles get worse every day, and as for Ancestor, looking so serious all the time, I’ve seen his wrinkles and..."

Maji looked up again, wisely choosing to close her mouth and quietly retreated to the side.

Around them, several technical personnels also looked up, casting peculiar glances at Rebecca and subtly stepping back.

Rebecca took a look around, sensing the atmosphere, and quickly came to a conclusion—

Oh no, I’m done for.

The experienced princess didn’t need anyone to remind her of what to do next; she wiped her hands on her robe, then wrapped her arms around her head and slowly squatted down: "Can we not hit my head this time..."

Rebecca had only just started to squat when a large hand reached over from behind, grabbing her by the collar and lifting her up: "Don’t squat, Aunt Heidi’s not here."

Hearing Gawain’s voice, Rebecca quickly turned her head despite being dangling by the collar, and found herself facing the ancestor with a helpless expression, alongside Amber walking beside him—just the two of them, confirming Aunt Heidi wasn’t there.

Her recently restrained expression immediately broke into a dazzling smile: "Ancestor, you’re here!!"

The Ancestor was always indulgent with her, although he seemed serious usually, it wasn’t the same severity as her aunt’s—he wouldn’t knock her on the head. And Rebecca was very clear on this.

From a young age, she was very optimistic, primarily because she could find her own sunshine and shine on her own.

Gawain actually had some inclination to knock this girl’s head, since to his knowledge Rebecca hadn’t been disciplined in three days, and experience suggested her current mindset was likely hovering between wreaking havoc on the roof and setting fire to the mountains, but before that, his attention was already fixed on the strange machine beside them.

He gazed long at the device which in both design and principle were entirely different from the "airplane" in his memory, reflecting deeply before finally uttering softly, "So this is our Flying Machine..."

It’s really different, completely different.

That is a gyro-like inverted cone device with a main diameter of about two to three meters, and the lower half of the cone floats with a metal ring full of magic symbols—that ring should be the Anti-Gravity Ring, which continuously floats at the base of the cone body through a long-lasting force field, controlling the entire device’s ascent, descent, and gravity balance. The sides and top of the device each have crescent-shaped main wing panels and rudder wing panels that mimic dragon wings, making it overall look like a giant, upright steel insect, somewhat strange but filled with the unique aesthetic of the magical industry.

Gawain couldn’t see a hint of "aircraft" in it.

This is the flying machine developed by the technical team led by Rebecca, who, after Gawain shared only the application requirements and some performance characteristics, managed to create based on this world’s technological foundation and logic.

A bold experiment, the results of which proved Gawain’s consistent thought: the magic world’s own technological route is the most suited for this place.

He did consider transplanting Earth’s airplanes to this world, because even though many of this world’s rules greatly differ from Earth, at least there is wind and birds here, implying the possibility of achieving aerodynamics-based flying machines. But he ultimately chose not to do so.

It’s because he didn’t know everything, even with enhanced memory abilities and a wealth of "miscellaneous knowledge", he has areas he is unfamiliar with, and aircraft manufacturing is undoubtedly one of them.

In the early stages, certain simple machinery might be pieced together using those miscellaneous knowledge in his mind, but aircraft is a too specialized field. Gawain knows that the rough sketches he could recall would likely only mislead his technical personnel—not to mention he has to face a fact: due to unique elementals spells, this world has a blank technological foundation in the field of aerodynamics, but it has a mature path of anti-gravity technology.

Rather than sketching a bunch of error-filled drawings himself and letting the technical staff start from zero and light up a tech tree, it is better to let them deduce and transform based on existing technology of this world. After all, this world already has flying units like Gryphon Knights and Giant Eagle Knights, with powerful Mages capable of directly soaring through the air. Mortals in the sky aren’t completely inexperienced, under this premise, even if he spends several years creating a primitive aerodynamics-based flying machine, it likely wouldn’t compete with this world’s existing aerial units. It’s better to boldly try, let Rebecca and her technical team go all out, directly challenge the mature anti-gravity aerial combat platform.

This bold attempt yielded the result in front of them, this quirky yet absolutely performance-exceeding early Earth aircraft—the "Dragon Cavalry".

Relying on anti-gravity vertical takeoff and landing, highly agile maneuverability, able to conduct aerial combat and suppression with trained Gryphon Knights, driven by magic power wave utilizing dragon wing symbols, achieving the highest speed beyond Giant Eagles of the elves. Meanwhile, the wind language symbols spread over the cone’s shell and the magic circle of the dragon wings solved the wind resistance caused by its strange shape. If added with advanced magic infantry and communication devices, undoubtedly it will become the most advanced and powerful aerial force of this era.

Of course, it currently has many shortcomings, as a brand new creation, and the currently most complex and advanced technology product, it has much testing to undergo, it requires some time before mass production. But anyway, this path has finally been proven feasible.

This flying machine’s framework will become the foundation for a series of Cecil Clan’s future flying technologies, its accumulated experience might benefit a hundred years...

"Yeah, this is the flying machine we created..." Rebecca looked up with a proud smile on her face, "It took a lot of effort!"

Then she said: "Ancestor sir, would you like to give it an official name? After all, ’Dragon Cavalry’ is only a code name..."

"The official name will still be Dragon Cavalry, I think this code name itself is expressive and sounds good," Gawain laughed, "In reference to the Warhammer Tank, this type of anti-gravity flying machine will be named Dragon Cavalry Type I."

Saying this, he suddenly felt a flash in his heart, couldn’t help but look at Maji standing quietly to the side.

"Speaking of which, as a member of Dragonkin, what do you think of the name ’Dragon Cavalry’?"

Maji thought for a moment in confusion, then shook her head: "I have no thoughts... why do you ask, King?"

"I’m just worried that the name might upset the Dragonkin," Gawain laughed with slight embarrassment, "I didn’t think much when deciding the code name earlier and didn’t ask for your opinion. Now suddenly I feel something might be off. Wouldn’t you Dragonkin consider this term offensive? After all, it implies using Dragons as mounts..."

Maji paused for a moment, then faintly laughed.

"King, I don’t know how the Dragons in Talronde would think, but as far as I know, humans on the continent have put Dragons in important roles in various epic stories and mythological tales for hundreds of years or longer, and most of the times these roles aren’t bright—dragons robbing castles, kidnapping princesses, hoarding treasures, threatening kingdoms, where brave adventurers and Knights repel evil dragons, old dragon lairs occupied, even dragons turned into mounts. So many years have passed, have you seen those bards and novelists be pursued by forces from Talronde or Sacred Dragon Kingdom because of story fabrication?"

"...Seems like not..."

"Dragons don’t care about human’s stories, because even if they spread for long, they will quickly be swept away, even the short-lived ’degraded Dragonborn’ of Sacred Dragon Kingdom have ample time watching humans’ most thrilling legendary stories fade to dust," Maji said with a smile, but then added, "Of course, a ’story protagonist’ like you who has returned to the stage of history probably seems an accident to Dragons..."

Gawain: "..."

Quite unexpected indeed, those guys in Mithril Vault who made a fortune by occupying commission materials have been in chaos for a while because of a resurrected client like him, reportedly not only dug up over a thousand tombs in a month but also summoned over a hundred times...

Maji also seemed to find this topic somewhat strange, awkwardly switching back, "So overall, in dealing with these ’insignificant offenses’, Dragons’ attitude is far more nonchalant than you think. But again, this is just from my own understanding, as for how ’orthodox’ Dragonkin in Talronde thinks when seeing ’Dragon Cavalry’... probably only the ’high-ranking agent’ who knows you well can provide the answer."

In Gawain’s mind, the image of My Little Pony appeared unwittingly.

I wonder how that blue dragon from Dragon Kingdom will feel when learning humans imitated the principle of dragon wings to create a flying machine named "Dragon Cavalry".

And I wonder if I asked Melita whether Dragons could be ridden, how she would respond—whether she’d be furious, or explain a lot of logic.

Gawain pondered for a long time, suddenly feeling the answer might be "starting at seven coins, flat rate five hundred, toll charges apply, night driving costs extra"...