Kousuke decided to leave gathering the goddesses to Eris and returned to Amamiya Tower for the time being.
This was because it would take time for all the goddesses to be informed, and Kousuke had to prepare to create a divine realm.
It was not possible to turn the entire Central Continent into a divine realm without any preparation.
Fundamentally, it would involve performing rituals in several locations using only Kousuke’s divine power.
This time, it wasn’t just that; he also had to travel around the continent to leave his own footprints.
Furthermore, he couldn’t travel through the sky on Kouhi.
However, if he were to truly travel the continent solely on foot, it would take years to complete.
For that reason, preparation of a certain secret weapon was essential.
Upon returning to the tower, Kousuke was greeted by Silvia with a worried expression.
“….How was it?”
“Ah. I still have to go again because I haven’t finished greeting everyone, but at least they didn’t oppose it.”
When Kousuke replied, Silvia let out a sigh of relief.
“Is that so? Then, about going again…”
“Ah. That’s because this time I only went to get permission. I wanted some time to inform the goddesses.”
Silvia seemed to understand Kousuke’s explanation regarding the goddesses’ hidden circumstances and nodded.
“So that’s how it was.”
“Well, because of that, I’ll proceed with preparations here for a while, and plan to go again when they are ready.”
“Understood.”
Kousuke confirmed Silvia’s nod once more and started walking to explain to the other members.
♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦
After explaining the current situation, Kousuke immediately entered the laboratory.
He had to create a tool to travel all over the continent.
The basic tool had already been made, and it needed to be improved.
“Ah, you’ve returned.”
As Kousuke opened the laboratory door, Isunani was already working inside.
Lately, Isunani, after finishing training the younger generation in Crown, has been going back and forth with the management layer.
“Yeah. How’s it going?”
Kousuke had asked Isunani to improve the means of transportation while he was in Asura’s divine realm.
However, since less than a day had passed since Kousuke went to the divine realm, he didn’t expect any significant improvements.
This time, rather than improvement, making it easier to use was more important.
When asked by Kousuke, Isunani smiled while looking at the wagon that was sitting grandly in the room.
“It’s progressing quite a bit. At this rate, I think I’ll have something satisfactory in less than two days.”
Kousuke was genuinely surprised by Isunani’s reply.
“Huh!? It’s already that far along?”
“Yes. However, there’s almost nothing I’ve touched. Besides, there are still parts that can only be understood by actually driving it and adjusting it.”
“I see. That is certainly necessary.”
It was common for a device to function as intended in the laboratory but to encounter unexpected problems during actual use.
What Kousuke and the others were trying to create this time was an automatically running wagon.
However, it was not powered by an internal combustion engine like the cars Kousuke knew of.
The foundation was a magic tool they had made previously for carrying goods.
The one made before was solely for sliding on ice and was not designed to move on its own.
Therefore, Kousuke had created a device that would allow the wagon itself to move automatically using divine power.
However, because it was powered by divine power, ordinary people could not operate it.
It could only be operated by those skilled in divine power manipulation, so at present, it was effectively only operable by the members of the tower.
Of course, security was also in place to prevent unauthorized entry into the wagon.
Kousuke had been intermittently creating something with all these functions incorporated for a while, but the final adjustments had not been made.
He had left it to Isunani and gone to the divine realm, but such extensive adjustments were not necessary.
All that remained was to confirm whether any major defects would appear during actual operation.
“…In that case, should I test it on some floor?”
It would be difficult to completely avoid being seen when traveling around the Central Continent, but Kousuke wanted to keep it hidden as much as possible until the journey began.
In that case, it would be best to test ride it on a floor where adventurers did not frequent.
“Yes. I think that would be best.”
Isunani agreed with Kousuke’s proposal.
Kousuke and the others stored the self-propelled wagon (tentative name) in Kouhi’s Item Box and then teleported to an appropriate floor.
Silvia, Floria, and Shurein also accompanied them for the trial run.
In a world where wagons were the basic mode of transportation, a vehicle that could travel to a destination on its own was an unknown tool.
No matter how much Kousuke explained, it was difficult for them to understand, so they came to see it directly.
Seeing the self-propelled wagon (tentative) that Kouhi produced near the teleport gate, Silvia and the others expressed their impressions.
“…The exterior doesn’t look any different from a normal wagon?”
“This will move automatically?”
“I can’t believe it.”
The self-propelled wagon created this time was, after all, an improvement of a wagon they already possessed.
Therefore, the exterior was largely unchanged from before.
However, since it had already undergone considerable magical modification, there were differences here and there compared to a normal wagon.
Kousuke, ignoring the voices of Silvia and the others coming from behind, began checking the self-propelled wagon.
He got inside the wagon and confirmed that the power unit was operating normally and checked the instruments.
After seeing that the divine power, which served as fuel, was abundant from one of the instruments, Kousuke called out to Silvia and the others who were outside.
“I’m about to depart, do you want to ride?”
Since there was no risk of it exploding immediately after starting, Kousuke was inviting them with a degree of confidence.
Upon Kousuke’s words, Silvia and the others hurriedly got into the wagon.
Kousuke confirmed this and slowly started driving the wagon.
The self-propelled wagon did not have a steering wheel or accelerator like a car.
It moved in a way similar to how wizards fly, operating on a completely different principle than cars that move by friction with the ground.
Shurein, who was watching Kousuke drive with interest, demanded to switch places with him shortly after the self-propelled wagon started moving.
As it was for experimentation and adjustment, Kousuke couldn’t switch immediately, but since there were no particular signs of instability, he switched with Shurein ten minutes after he started driving.
“Oh ho. This is quite interesting.”
Seeing Shurein driving with a pleased expression, Kousuke chuckled.
“That’s good. It would be lonely if no one else wanted to use it besides me.”
“I doubt that’s the case. Next, I want you to let me drive.”
It was the only divine tool in the world at the moment.
Floria continued, saying it was natural to want to drive it oneself if one could.
Her face seemed to say, “Let me switch quickly.”
Kousuke nodded with a wry smile and told Shurein that it would be Floria’s turn next.
For Kousuke, having multiple people investigate also had its meaning.
In the end, after about ten minutes, Shurein handed over the driving to Floria, and ten minutes after that, it was Silvia’s turn.
Since they would be traveling around the continent, a means of transportation was essential!
The difference between traveling by Hiryu and by wagon is whether or not one has their feet on the ground.
