The Executed Sage Reincarnates as a Lich and Begins a War of Aggression

The Sage Looks Around at the Imperial Capital’s Weapons

I browsed through the magic workshop sprawled out beneath the Imperial capital.

I killed the mages who were coming towards me and broke through multiple barriers.

I was holding a stack of papers in one hand.

It contained the various documents I found in the magic workshops.

According to the documents, the Empire was developing weapons other than magic artillery cannons.

At this point, it seems that the magic artillery cannon is the only thing that is completed.

If we had let the Imperial researchers go unchecked for a few more dozen days, several more weapons would be in service.

It was an enormous workshop; I had only explored part of it.

I planned to examine the remaining rooms and retrieve all the documents that looked similar to the one I just saw.

Of the accounts in the documents I collected, I also identified the existence of an allied country.

It provided raw materials, prototypes, and engineers to the Empire.

It seems that they have been assisting each other even before I became the Demon Lord.

However, their recent research seems to be particularly zealous.

The intensity of their research indicated they were in no way underestimating the Demon Lord.

I will set aside the matter with the allied nation for now.

I need the allied nation to assist the Empire, which had been badly affected by the recent war, behind the scenes.

Even though they were allies, it would be inconvenient to have the Empire fall into ruin now.

If we leave the allied nation alone, they will surely help the empire.

This is good. Humanity needs to work hand in hand.

As I continued to explore the workshop, I found an open space.

The inside of this room was covered with a special metal.

The room was extremely durable and it was constructed to prevent the leakage of magic power.

It was quite a secure facility.

Inside the room, there were several prototypes in the process of being manufactured.

I picked up one of the prototypes which was resting on the desk.

It looked like a small cannon with a grip attached to one end

It was similar to a crossbow that lacked parts.

This was mentioned in the documents I found.

I flipped through the documents I had collected along the way and found the relevant information pertaining to the prototype.

It was called a “gun”.

According to the documents, the gun utilizes a technique that sends out special bullets with a small explosion.

Various performance issues were documented, which the researchers seemed to be currently addressing.

I held up the weapon to try it out.

There were instructions in the documents describing how to use the gun, so I followed them.

The centre of gravity seemed unbalanced because it was difficult to aim.

Although I am not very familiar with military equipment, it certainly gave me the impression of being unfinished.

The prototype weapons, including this gun, would be brought back to the capital later.

It's easy to do so by using teleportation magic.

Since I was able to transfer the Forest of Yggdrasil itself, this much can be done in no time.

It might be a good idea to build a research facility like this workshop in the royal capital.

It should be feasible if I can gather knowledgeable people among my subordinates.

Since we were going through the trouble of looting the Imperial capital, I wanted to gain the ability to develop weapons in return.

I planned to consult with Grom and Luciana about this later.

Next to the space lined with prototypes was a room lined with shelves.

The shelves were filled with numerous documents.

They were stored haphazardly.

What kind of documents are these?

I began reading the documents I picked up.

The documents provided an overview of the magic artillery cannons installed on the outer wall of the Imperial capital.

The name of that weapon is the “Magic Cannon”, and the documents described it as a weapon for attacking outside the range of mages and archers.

It was supposed to be the cornerstone of interception in the defence of the Imperial capital.

Its development began five years ago.

With the cooperation of allied countries, the research was being carried out in secret.

After my appearance as this era’s Demon Lord, they started to add holy attributes to it.

It was transformed from an interceptor into a weapon for special attacks on the undead.

Their plans went pretty much as expected.

I continued to sift through the documents that were stored nearby.

Among them, I found a journal that appeared to be written by the designer of the magic cannon.

After considering the trouble I had to go through to get here, I decided to start reading it.

The magic cannon’s performance was high, but was difficult to manufacture at first.

The journal noted that there were many times when the upper echelons of the Empire pressured the researcher because of a lack of results over the years.

There was a section where he wrote his complained and cynical remarks

I was not interested in the anguish of the designer, so I skipped over it.

What caught my attention was the latter part of the document.

It was around the time when the topic of conversation turned to the current generation of Demon Lords.

I relaxed my hand turning the paper and paid attention to the accounts.

One day, the designer received a new order from the upper management.

It was an order to incorporate the holy attribute into the shells of the magic cannon.

In other words, it was a modification to counter the Demon Lord.

In a situation where even the design of the gun battery itself was not yet complete, the designer pondered over it for three days and three nights.

It was not something he could make thoughtlessly, but he had neither the will nor the authority to refuse.

If he didn't produce results quickly, he would be punished.

The designer, pushed to his limit, suddenly had an epiphany.

He discarded the unfinished blueprints he had been working on and revised the structure of the magic cannon in a flash.

In this way, he created a new prototype in no time at all.

The development progressed smoothly as if all the troubles before were a lie, and he was able to mass-produce the finished product in no time.

The excitement of the designer was clearly written.

After that, the magic theory was written down with much pride.

The intentions and mechanisms of the internal structure were also written.

He must have been very happy with the completion of the magic cannon.

At the end of the document, there was also a template of a blueprint with annotations.

“……”

After reading them, I put my hand on my forehead.

I was assaulted by dizziness and leaned my back against the wall.

In human form, I would have let out a sigh.

Everything's a mess…

This is, of course, my opinion of the designer's records.

With this magic theory and design, there is no way the magic cannon will be stable.

If done poorly, the workshop will be blown up in a huge explosion.

Nonetheless, that cannon was completed.

The accidental insights were meshing together like some kind of joke.

Even though I am currently the Demon Lord, I was known as a Sage back when I was alive.

Although ten years have passed, I take pride in my proficiency in magical knowledge.

I believe I can understand the contents of the blueprint.

The method described in this document had an extremely low success rate.

Even if it does take shape, it shouldn’t be as stable as that magic cannon was.

As far as I can tell from eyeballing the document, the designer's knowledge of magic was very superficial.

He was more knowledgeable than the average magician, but I am probably more erudite.

The blueprints had a number of flaws here and there, and there were a great many sudden alterations.

It was not uncommon for the designers themselves to not understand why things worked the way they did.

It was written that those involved in the development had the same reaction, but it seems that these questions were swept away by the joy of completion.

Mass production proceeded without a hitch, so no one must have had a problem with it.

–Clearly, some other forces are at work here.

After reviewing the information, I concluded.

There was no other way to explain it.

However, it is not an area that can be managed by someone's plan.

The only possibility I can think of is the will of the world.

There was fate at work that wanted to destroy the Demon Lord.

If I interpreted it that way, this unnatural phenomenon would make sense.

The support from the world is not limited to the awakening of the heroes.

It can also appear in the form of revelations and miracles, as in this case.

It's just a guess on my part, but I'm sure I'm not wrong.

This is a situation that I really can't afford to let my guard down on.

Even behind the scenes, there is a movement underway to eliminate me.

It was a simultaneous and multifaceted development.

The world is on the side of humans everywhere.

The invasion of the Imperial City was worth it just to find this out.

Countermeasures were difficult, but we can make plans based on this phenomenon.

It seems that the existence of a Demon Lord is something that should be thoroughly eliminated.

This was the moment when I realized that again.