Sea of Romance (1)
“Have you heard the rumor?”
“What rumor?”
“They say the Blackwood Merchant Company has started selling ‘games.’”
The other world Ian had been reincarnated into was not a place with advanced communications, but precisely because information traveled from person to person, certain rumors spread surprisingly quickly.
As a result, Ian's third work, ‘Age of Great Voyages,’ which had finished testing through Sir Blackwood, also quickly spread by word of mouth.
“A game? Do you mean that thing they say captivated His Majesty the Emperor?”
“That's right. The one we've only heard about. Apparently, they released a new game not long ago.”
“So what? Weren't those only sold to nobles anyway?”
“My friend, you haven't been listening to me. I told you the Blackwood Merchant Company has started selling it. This time, they're selling it even to commoners like us.”
“What? Really?”
It was a society with a rigid class system, but perhaps precisely because of that, commoners often admired the nobility.
Commoners living in cities in particular were exposed to a somewhat freer atmosphere. Even if they could never become true nobles themselves, they often imitated what nobles did and turned those things into trends.
“Excuse me, give me one of those things called ‘Age of Great Voyages’ too.”
“You arrived at just the right time. I have one left. Here you are.”
“Everyone seems to be buying one these days. Is it really that entertaining?”
“Once you try it, you'll have trouble stopping. You'll start wanting to play the other games too.”
And so, the newly released ‘Age of Great Voyages’ attracted enormous attention among commoners from the moment it went on sale.
The response was explosive.
“I've never done anything this entertaining in my life!”
“It's insanely entertaining. I only tried it briefly, but I couldn't think about anything else for the rest of the day.”
“Exactly. So I set aside an entire day and cleared it in one sitting. If I didn't have work, I'd want to do nothing but play games every day.”
“Is there any way to get Civilization Development or Honorlord?”
Although it had been adapted to fit this world, Age of Great Voyages faithfully recreated the original's storytelling and charming systems, and it became a sensational success.
And that popularity naturally carried over to the real sea.
“The endless sea of adventure and romance… Ah, I want to go to sea too!”
“But is something like this actually possible? Building ships this huge and loading them with all those things called cannons…”
“I heard Sir Blackwood is actually trying to build them. Apparently, he's gathering investors. Interested?”
Even modern Earthlings occasionally became overly immersed in games.
To the people of another world experiencing games for the first time, however, Age of Great Voyages did not look like a romantic work of fiction.
It looked like something that could actually happen.
And in truth, it could.
“Well? Can you make them?”
“For starters, this thing called a cannon should not be particularly difficult. If anything, the cannon itself is easier to make than a gun. It will require a large amount of steel or bronze, and operating it will consume plenty of gunpowder… but its power should be correspondingly immense.”
“Then what about the ships? Can you build those enormous vessels I mentioned before?”
“That ‘ship of the line’ you described is absolutely impossible… but a frigate or carrack seems feasible for now. Once our techniques become more refined, I believe a galleon should be possible as well.”
Blackwood poured all the revenue he had earned from selling Age of Great Voyages into building cannons and ships.
He recruited artisans who had already made guns and had them build cannons, while commissioning skilled shipwrights by showing them the appearances and designs of the ships he remembered.
Surprisingly, making them wasn't particularly difficult in itself.
The artisans who had accumulated know-how while producing guns found it relatively easy to create cannons, which were essentially larger versions of the same concept.
The same was true for the ships.
Until now, no one had known about cannons, so there had simply been no particular reason to build vessels on such a massive scale. Their shipbuilding techniques themselves were actually fairly good.
The problem lay elsewhere.
“The problem is money. Both the ships and the cannons cost an enormous amount.”
Ships were expensive to begin with, even small ones, and cannons naturally cost far more than guns.
“Maybe I should cut costs a little… No. Doing it half-heartedly would be worse. If I'm going to do this, I need to do it properly. I need at least three carracks or frigates.”
The sea was a dangerous place.
Building only a single ship would accomplish little beyond turning it into a target for pirates.
He needed a fleet of at least three vessels.
And then there were the naval cannons to fill them with, the crews, and all manner of supplies.
It required an almost absurd amount of money.
Age of Great Voyages was selling extremely well and bringing in considerable profits, but even that wasn't enough.
“I need to secure investment somehow… but it's proving more difficult than I expected.”
Blackwood had known from the beginning that the plan would require an enormous amount of money, so he'd always intended to seek investors.
But attracting investment was more difficult than expected.
“You want to actually recreate the things from Age of Great Voyages? Remarkable! But investing my own money in it is another matter. Isn't it too much of a gamble?”
“I know you're an excellent adventurer… but you never know what will happen at sea. If your ships sink and you never return, my investment will never come back either.”
“And will those ships and cannons really be as powerful as they are in the game? I don't know. The game is well made, certainly, but in the end, it's still only a game.”
A considerable number of people became interested in investing after playing Age of Great Voyages.
But there were even more who remained cautious.
Even the nouveau nobility like Blackwood were surprisingly lukewarm.
The problem was that there were no reliable precedents or proven results.
Blackwood's plan certainly had potential, but pioneering ideas were difficult for ordinary people to follow.
Then one day—
“This is troublesome… Is there really no other way?”
“Master! We have a serious problem!”
“What is it?”
“H-His Majesty the Emperor is summoning you!”
“What?! Is that true?!”
Rumors that Blackwood was building enormous ships and cannons eventually reached the emperor's ears.
Having also played ‘Age of Great Voyages,’ the emperor took an interest and summoned Blackwood to the Imperial Palace.
“You are Blackwood? The man who cooperated with Baron Maxwell in creating the game?”
“That is correct, Your Majesty.”
“Then those ships and cannons you are building were originally Ian's ideas as well?”
“They were. All I advised him on were matters of geography.”
“Which means those concepts were new to you as well. Why would you spend such a vast fortune trying to realize them?”
“Because they can be realized. With those things, we can bring tremendous wealth to the Empire!”
Granted an audience with the emperor, Blackwood laid out his vision.
If things went poorly, he could have been executed for spouting absurd fantasies.
Instead, the corners of the emperor's lips rose as though he had been waiting to hear exactly that.
“I thought the same. Long before you did. Those concepts had already appeared in ‘Civilization Development,’ after all.”
Of course, Civilization Development had never depicted the romance of the sea shown in Age of Great Voyages.
The ships had simply appeared as naval combat units.
But the perceptive emperor had already seen the possibilities offered by enormous ships and naval cannons.
His thoughts were exactly the same as Blackwood's.
“A great ship loaded with naval cannons would be difficult even for pirates to challenge, and ports across the sea that refuse our trade could be subdued with ease. Naturally, such vessels could bring enormous wealth to the Empire.”
“Exactly. So long as we possess the courage to venture out to sea, the plan is entirely achievable!”
“Very well. I shall invest in you. Produce results no matter what it takes.”
“I obey Your Majesty's command!”
In the end, Blackwood secured investment directly from the emperor.
After that, everything proceeded at breathtaking speed.
“His Majesty invested in Sir Blackwood?”
“Then that must mean it's genuinely worth investing in, doesn't it? He wouldn't dare squander money from the imperial household!”
“D-Damn! I need to invest while I still can!”
The moment word spread that the emperor had invested, everyone began rushing to invest as well.
In an instant, Blackwood secured investment capital hundreds of times greater than what he had possessed before.
As a result, he was able to complete his planned fleet far earlier than originally expected.
“Good. This is where it begins. Raise the sails!”
“Yes, Admiral!”
Blackwood personally became the Admiral and set sail.
On the day of his departure, crowds watched as ships far larger than the vessels they were accustomed to seeing sailed out of port.
Would they truly return carrying enormous riches, just as they did in the game?
Some remained skeptical.
The prevailing belief was that they wouldn't make it far before the numerous pirates infesting the seas seized their ships.
But those predictions proved completely wrong.
“Pirates spotted!”
“Prepare the naval cannons!”
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
“M-My god! They must have mages aboard that ship!”
“The entire ship was destroyed! Run!”
Pirates did indeed appear, exactly as people had expected.
But after only a few volleys of naval cannon fire, they were reduced to ‘what had once been pirates.’
Of course, the accuracy of naval cannons they were using for the first time was not particularly impressive.
That wasn't much of a problem.
The thunderous roar of the cannons, incomparably louder than the sound of gunfire, was more than enough to terrify the pirates.
Moreover, pirate ships usually prioritized speed, so they tended to be small vessels, or at most medium-sized galleys.
Such ships were far smaller than Blackwood's vessels, and even if they somehow managed to approach, climbing aboard those enormous ships was no easy task.
“As expected, the pirates are no match for us. Conserve the cannonballs and gunpowder. We have no means of resupplying during our first voyage.”
After easily driving off the pirates, Blackwood conserved as much ammunition as possible and followed the trade route he had planned.
It was a route where all sorts of valuable trade goods, including spices, could be obtained.
But it had never become active because it lay far from the Empire and was infested with pirates.
Now, however, things were different.
They had enormous ships capable of enduring long, arduous voyages and powerful cannons that made pirates irrelevant.
And before long, they achieved tremendous results.
“We've struck it rich, Admiral! We've obtained huge quantities of valuable goods, including pepper! If we return like this, we'll all be rich!”
Just as Blackwood had predicted, they made an enormous profit through trade.
The sailors cheered at the sight of enough trade goods to fill the cargo hold of an entire ship.
For some reason, however, Blackwood wasn't satisfied.
“Are all of you truly satisfied with only this?”
“What? What do you mean……?”
“Exactly what I said. The holds of the other ships still aren't full.”
“Well, that's because we don't really have many worthwhile goods left to trade…….”
They had brought various Imperial products with them, but those weren't always profitable.
No matter how valuable something was in the Empire, its worth fell if the other party had little need for it.
And even when that wasn't the case, filling every hold through ordinary trade alone was difficult.
“Indeed. But now that I think about it, we still have something else we can sell.”
“What would that be?”
“Cannonballs.”
“…Pardon?”
“We will give them cannonballs and conduct some ‘trade.’ Using the cannons, naturally.”
In short, he was suggesting they pillage.
At first, many of the sailors looked somewhat uncomfortable at Blackwood's proposal.
But before long, they began agreeing with him.
“Come to think of it, didn't people do this all the time in Age of Great Voyages…?”
“Merchants have always turned into pirates whenever things went sour anyway.”
“In the game, you usually hunted pirates… but there were pirate characters like Hayreddin too.”
“Hell, let's do it. We all came to sea hoping to make a fortune anyway, didn't we?”
Because more than half of the sailors had played ‘Age of Great Voyages.’
The exact playstyle differed depending on the player, but the game certainly allowed people to raid ports or plunder merchant ships.
And that kind of ‘trade’ was always profitable.
Fire a few cannonballs, and free trade goods appeared.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
“Aaaagh! Please spare us!”
“Heh heh, loot everything!”
“Take everything and burn it all down!”
And so several coastal villages and ports were pillaged.
After replacing every cannonball they had loaded aboard their ships with valuable goods, Blackwood returned to the Empire.
Naturally, the entire Empire was thrown into an uproar.
The ships that had departed amid equal measures of anticipation and concern had returned carrying tremendous wealth.
“Age of Great Voyages was real! If you want to rise in the world, you have to go to sea!”
“I'll build a fleet too! Is there anyone willing to invest in me?”
“Innkeeper, I'll buy everyone a round! Find me some sailors!”
A craze for the sea immediately swept through the Empire.
Everyone who yearned to become a man of the sea headed for the coast.
All of this had been caused by a single game.
“How the hell did it end up like this?”
Even the man who had made that game had never expected any of it.