Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 46 - Chapter Aft

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Afterword

It has been a while. It’s the author, Takehaya, here. The all-episodes-in-one Blu-ray for the Invaders of the Rokujouma!? anime is currently on sale! But that’s enough direct marketing, as this time volume 46 of Invaders of the Rokujouma!? has been safely published. The story is finally moving toward the end. From here on, Koutarou and the others’ battle will turn into a large war, and I would like to touch on that.

Those who keep up with the news will know that there are several wars happening in the world at the moment. Moreover, they have been continuing for a long time. War takes a lot of time. There are some exceptions, but in most cases wars last for several months to several years. But that doesn’t work very well in a story. You can’t have Koutarou-kun spend months to years in a back-and-forth with Maxfern’s forces. So I wondered how I could fit a war into the time frame of the story, and my answer was this volume.

Kiriha, Clan, and Ruth risk their own lives in hopes of shortening the war. By using an assassination plan against Maxfern, they attempt to discover the location of his stronghold. Such places have a lot of supplies, facilities, and personnel gathered within them, so discovering one early on would cut a war short. There are cases in history where quick attacks have captured a capital and ended a war in a matter of days. Moving headquarters takes a lot of time, so Maxfern and Grevanas are in a dangerous period. In other words, thanks to the girls’ hard work, I won’t have to write about a long war. I can’t change the novel into a war chronicle now, after all! Of course I can’t say that it’s a perfect method, but I hope it will fill some of the gaps between real and fictional wars.

Speaking of real wars, there is a problem: the unmanned weapons that Ruth controls, which are like drones in reality. When this series was first released in 2009, drones weren’t common. Technology was very basic as well. They required constant remote control like radio-controlled machines did. The exception was expensive military drones used by advanced countries, which met the requirements for modern drones, like automatic flight. Ruth’s unmanned craft are based on that idea, made more advanced with Forthorthe’s technology. Thus her unmanned craft, which can fly in any direction using space distortion technology complete with semiautonomous AI that can support infantry, were born.

However, though two years have passed in the series, twenty years have passed in reality. Drone technology has advanced and is closing in on the capabilities of Ruth-san’s unmanned crafts. AI is starting to be introduced to drones that can be guided by GPS without the need of a remote control. Technology for drones of the same type to coordinate is starting to be introduced as well. This is bad. In the series, it’s the year 2011, but to readers it might not feel all that novel. That was why Ruth needed to get a new special move: the ability to use various kinds of unmanned craft and command them like an army.

Military drones began as unmanned reconnaissance drones. Afterward, they were given the ability to attack or blow up. Technology for autonomous control has been progressing since the appearance of reconnaissance drones. If we use that as a basis to imagine the progress of unmanned craft, after attack craft appeared, antiair drones that would automatically intercept unmanned craft with lasers would naturally appear. If they didn’t, the attack and self-destructing unmanned crafts would dominate the battlefield, so that invention would be inevitable. If not, then light, highly mobile weapons would be the only things that could be used, with heavier weapons being unable to appear on the battlefield.

Once antiair unmanned craft appear, slower unmanned craft with heavy weapons, which didn’t exist before, would start appearing. Then, to counter those unmanned craft like attack helicopters or fighters, alternatively simple drones equipped with powerful distortion fields would appear. This development would continue back and forth until all kinds of unmanned craft existed, which is why I believe that all sorts of unmanned craft will exist in Forthorthe.

But only one or two types would be used, which would differ on a unit-by-unit basis. Infantry might use antiair and reconnaissance craft. The reason for the limited variety is a matter of logistics, as repair parts and ammunition would be required for each type. Because of that, the Forthorthe Imperial Army has no concept of simultaneously deploying a wide variety of unmanned craft on the same battlefield. They might have at one point in time but the idea would have been culled in the name of efficiency.

As such, Ruth being able to do so is an exception. Since Maxfern does anything necessary, there are always special conditions applied to battles with him, which is why after considering all possibilities, Ruth discarded efficiency for the advancement of technology. She realized that against Maxfern, she couldn’t afford to use operational difficulties as an excuse. Her mindset paid off, as she was able to send in a steel legion when it mattered the most. So as an author, that is a relief, but in another decade or so, the real world will likely be using a wide variety of drones in tandem. But by then, Invaders of the Rokujouma!? should be completed, so I don’t mind. Incidentally, the Warlord and Motor Knights control technology end up being crushed by this new technology.

All this talk about Ruth’s enhancements have filled up the available space, so I will end things here for today. I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to: HJ Bunko’s editorial department and everyone in affiliated companies; Poco-san, who goes along with my somewhat bothersome requests and draws illustrations for this volume; and all the readers who continue to support this series, which has become like a hobby to me.