The main workshop’s grand expansion, and the state of the kingdom

 
 
 ☆
 
 
 Owlforest, a forest that spreads across the southern foot of the Grimoire mountainous region which has a magic stone mine.
 
 Seemingly wedged in there is the 『Town of Owlforest』, and our mansion and workshop at the northern edge are also surrounded by forest.
 
 Flowing from the Grimoire Mountain, the 『Riel River』 runs north through the forest and town, transporting mined magic stones to the town and workshop.
 
 In short.
 
 It would seem that, for the sake of the Owleyes Main Workshop’s confidentiality, the workshop has been built within the reclaimed forest along the Riel River.
 
 Now then, this Main Workshop.
 Originally, it was of a reasonable size.
 
 『The Main Building』, where the office and design room, as well as things like the cafeteria are.
 『The Steelmaking Workshop』 for making iron and steel materials.
 『The Blacksmithing Workshop』 where metalworking occurs.
 『The Circuit Board Workshop』 where magic circuit boards are produced.
 『The Woodworking Workshop』 where wood processing is done.
 And then, 『The Assembly Workshop』 where mass-produced magic tools are put together.
 
 Other than that, the warehouses and such are arranged radially with the Main Building in the centre, with about 50 craftsmen and staff employed.
 
 At its peak, there were close to 100 craftsmen employed, and although that number has been halved, at any rate, it used to originally be of that kind of scale.
 
 However right now, that Main Workshop is feverishly undergoing its greatest expansion since the workshop was established.
 
 
 ☆
 
 
 After Master’s eyes went absolutely wide hearing my 『request』.
 
 We came to the Owleyes Workshop’s northern edge… no, it’s now 『what was the edge』.
 
 “Hey… Isn’t this too much of a change?!”
 
 In a place that once was the forest but has now been greatly cleared, lots of construction workers are going back and forth in front of me.
 And, one-story buildings which shouldn’t even have had a shadow of a shape were already busy being built.
 
 These industrial sites are to be factories for manufacturing the magic rifles ordered from the country.
 
 Seeing me surprised, Otou-sama, who joined up with us from behind, snickered.
 
 “The construction work seems to be going well, Godwin.”
 
 Having been called out to, the workshop chief beside me sent a glance to his former apprentice, then returned his gaze to the state of the construction work going on before him.
 
 “The industrial sites are doing good, yeah. But the problem is the craftmen, Brad. The scale is this much. It’ll take more than 100 workers. You can’t raise that many in a day. We should also think about calling back the craftsmen who’ve retired in the last 20 years.”
 
 “Ugh…”
 
 Otou-sama’s face twisted as Godwin touched on a sore spot.
 
 Otou-sama also knows quite well what he’s talking about.
 He knows about the outflow of personnel due to management failure.
 
 Well, since Otou-sama has been expecting to manage the territory centred on knights order dispatch jobs since young, to now say 『Couldn’t you have done the workshop management better?』 is harsh though.
 
 “It’s fine, Otou-sama. We’ll do our best together so that everyone comes back!”
 
 “——— that’s right. Then we’d have the strength of a hundred.”
 
 Hearing my words, Otou-sama nodded with a wry smile.
 
 
 
 “But, you sure made a terrible thing, Ojou-chan. No wonder the country wants it.”
 
 Saying so, Workshop Chief Godwin looked down at the 4th edition prototype held in both his hands.
 
 The biggest difference from the 1st prototype I demonstrated to His Majesty is that the bullet shape has been changed from a sphere to a gavel’s shape, and the outer diameter has been corrected from 9mm to 7mm. (2nd edition prototype)
 
 And the second and third difference is the addition of an insertion-type magazine in front of the trigger, and the fact that a drawer-type magic stone slot that used a lever allowed for a maximum of 3 magic stones to be set. (3rd and 4th edition prototype)
 
 This allows the magic rifle to be directly fed in from the magazine and not the muzzle, eliminating the need to load a bullet each time it’s fired.
 
 It’s also become possible to replace the magic stones after a maximum of 15 successive shots.
 
 Incidentally, the rapid-fire function has not been added.
 With the small-sized magic stone used, magic stone replacement is needed for every 5 shots.
 
 It’s better to avoid wasteful firing, and because machine guns just have to be made close to machine guns^[1], this time I’ve limited the improvements only up to 『rifles』 to the bitter end.
 
 It has a load count of 30 shots.
 
 The magazine form in which bullets are packed alternately in two rows, known as a double column, allows one to increase the number of bullets per length when compared to a single column, which packs bullets in one row.
 
 When it comes to the 30-shot assault rifles on Earth, the banana-type long magazine is popular, but the one I made is about half the length and a straight-type.
 
 The reason for that is simple.
 
 My magic rifles use magic, not gunpowder, to accelerate the bullets.
 Meaning, the bullets have no casing.
 
 For the portion of thickness which the casing would’ve taken up, the magazine’s length can be shortened, and because the bullet body doesn’t have a taper, they can neatly fit into a straight magazine.
 
 I had thought of making the magic stone slot a drawer-type from the very beginning, but there’s a reason why I even improved and enhanced the mass-production magic rifle.
 
 
 
 At first, when I had only just returned back in time, the country itself was a threat.
 
 My memories of before the redo were a nightmare, and in order to protect my family, I intended to only present the matchlock guns to His Majesty, while for the Owleyes Knights Order and territory soldiers I’d develop things like machine guns, assault rifles and mortars.
 
 In other words.
 
 『If the country tries to destroy Ainsworth, we’ll go independant.』
 
 That’s what I thought.
 
 However, now there’s no need for that.
 
 Those who caught myself and my family in a trap have been punished, and I’ve bocome the knigdom’s strongest military strength, Otou-sama became His Majesty’s 『adviser』, and Graham became the deputy commander of the Unified Knights Order.
 
 In short, the Ainsworth Family and the Heielland Kingdom are in the same boat.
 
 Therefore, the present threat has become the Brandishka Principality, who is likely scheming a reinvasion.
 
 
 
 Many Royalist nobles have fallen from power, and the territories they ruled have been temporarily placed in the custody of the royal family.
 
 These territories, after a transition period of three years, will be bestowed on the new nobles who were knighted this time.
 
 Presently, they ought to have been dispatched as governors to various places in the country.
 In order to prepare them for ruling over their own territories.
 
 Putting it the other way around, the government structures and knight orders possessed by the fallen nobles have collapsed, and the kingdom’s overall military strength has dropped drastically.
 
 This is the reason why the punitive war against the Principality has been postponed, and trade restrictions suspended.
 
 With things like this, what would happen should the Principality reinvade?
 
 If it were only conventional military forces, then myself and the Unified Knights Order, along with the Owleyes Knights Order, could probably somehow drive them away.
 
 However, it’d certainly be tough if even dragon riders came.
 
 It is necessary to bolster the kingdom’s overall military strength as soon as possible early on.
 To protect my family and myself as well.
 
 Such is the reason I set to work improving the magic rifles.
 
 
 
 “So, how much do you expect to produce?”
 
 Hearing my words, Otou-sama folded his arms and glared at the construction site.
 
 “The country has requested that we supply 3000 magic rifles within a year. These are for the Unified Knights Order and the Direct Army^[2]. At 250 guns a month, we’d need to make sure to assemble 13 guns a day.”
 
 “I see-… uh, just now, how many did you say?!”
 
 “Th-, three thousand, guns?”
 
 My father was slightly taken aback by my menacing look.
 
 “… Master?”
 
 Workshop Chief Godwin was also unusually taken aback.
 
 “Do you seriously think you can achieve those production numbers with just 100 craftsmen?”
 
 “I-, it’s quite a tough number, huh.”
 
 Master said such a thing, averting his eyes.
 
 I looked alternately between my father and the workshop chief.
 And then, I looked up toward the heavens.
 
 
 “That’s, absoluuutely, not enough enough people, aaaarrghhh!!”