Chapter 149: Dichinzan Observatory
An observatory is a facility for astronomical observation.
Observatories cannot be built just anywhere; there are optimal locations.
The important things are darkness and clean air.
There are few bright stars like the sun and moon; most stars emit truly weak light.
That’s why stars cannot be seen during the bright daytime when the sun is out, and nights with a bright full moon are also unsuitable for astronomical observation.
Streetlights are also a great enemy; near large cities, the brilliantly shining city lights reflect off dust and moisture in the atmosphere even at midnight, obscuring and hiding the starlight.
Of course, if the air is turbid, stars become harder to see too.
How can stars be clearly seen through smoggy air?
Especially in recent years, petroleum refining plankton industries have been on the rise, steam engines have become increasingly widespread, and exhaust gases have increased. The air along major cities, main roads, and large rivers tends to stagnate, making it unsuitable for observatory placement.
In that regard, the Hengduan Mountains lying between the great nations of India and China have no large cities, little human traffic, few lights, and clear air.
To add, the monster are weak and extermination or repulsion is relatively easy, so there is low risk of the observatory being destroyed.
Dichinzan Observatory was a Chinese state-run observatory built in a remote area taking advantage of such good location conditions.
Beside the kokeshi-like shaped observatory standing alone on the mountain top, several houses were built huddled together. And surrounding the series of houses in a circle, artillery impatiens were planted.
Artillery impatiens are domesticated mutated magical beasts of the impatiens flower, commonly used for base defense. This plant magical beast that shoots seeds like artillery shells at approaching creatures possesses considerable killing power, can deal with B-3 class magical beasts, and can be expected to delay or repel even B-2 class.
Hiyori, who had stopped just outside the range of the artillery impatiens guarding the observatory, wrote a letter and chanted teleportation magic to make it disappear.
After waiting a while, a letter appeared in her hand opposite to when it disappeared.
Hiyori grabbed it, read it once, and nodded.
“I got permission to camp around here. There’s a well over that way, they said we can use it.”
“Eh— Can’t we borrow a bed?”
“Do you think there are private rooms? If you can sleep soundly in the same room as observers whose faces you don’t even know, I’m fine with it.”
“Camping banzai! I’ll set up the tent, so Tsubaki, I’m counting on you to fetch water. Give the tiger some water too.”
“Mi!”
Tsubaki energetically raised her fist in acknowledgment, stuck her hand into the tiger’s fur and pulled out a pocket sparrow.
Then taking the reins of the tiger magical beast Dun, who gave a big yawn, she went down the mountain path relying on the map drawn on the letter received from Hiyori.
Pulling out the tent from the belly pouch of the pocket sparrow Tsubaki left behind, I asked about something I’d been wondering while setting it up with Hiyori.
“How are observatories compared to the old days?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re looking at stars with telescopes, right? Since you’re just using lenses to magnify and look, I feel like they maintain pre-era performance regardless of the gremlin disaster. But weren’t those ultra-high precision astronomical telescopes in places like Hawaii? controlled electronically? Can’t those be used anymore?”
“Ah, Dairi is talking about the Subaru Telescope.”
Hiyori nodded while spreading out a waterproof sheet.
“As you said, since electronic control no longer works, precision has dropped. But since the lenses haven’t become cloudy or cracked, they’ve downgraded and are maintaining considerable observational precision in operation.
Countries with a certain degree of national power are all investing considerably in astronomical observation. Several decades ago, Japan and America had a dispute over ownership of the Subaru Telescope. Japan built it, but after the gremlin disaster, America was managing and operating it. It got quite complicated, and I remember having to put in a good word myself.”
According to the long-lived, knowledgeable witch, humanity is still continuing its pursuit of the Shantak meteor shower and investigating celestial bodies.
Once, humanity was thoroughly destroyed in its advanced electrical civilization by the gremlin disaster.
The gremlin disaster was caused by the Shantak meteor shower that flew in from space.
Knowing the mystery of the Shantak meteor shower leads to knowing the beginning of everything.
Astronomy in the magic era had become even more important than in the previous era.
Regarding the Shantak meteor shower, several facts have become clear through years of research.
First, this meteor shower appeared magically.
Normally, meteors and asteroids falling to Earth are detected in advance.
In the previous era, America’s NASA had been operating an asteroid Earth impact alert system. A meteor group on the scale of the Shantak meteor shower should have been observable several weeks in advance. This is backed by testimony from amateur astronomers in various countries and observatory records.
However, it was discovered only seven days before falling to Earth. Too late.
There are cases where, unfortunately, meteors approach Earth’s vicinity without being observed due to being hidden behind other stars or unfavorable weather conditions.
But the Shantak meteor shower was not like that.
The sky in the direction of Shantak was always clearly visible, and there was no star configuration that would hide meteors.
Nevertheless, observatories around the world missed the meteors until seven days before impact.
Researchers have concluded that the reason was magical movement.
For example, return magic transforms the target of the magic into golden particles, rises into the sky, and moves as if flowing down.
Those who have seen return magic say in unison: “Like a golden comet,” “Like a golden Milky Way.”
Furthermore, the star magic of meteor mages has been confirmed to have interfering power against return magic.
A certain kind of star magic and movement magic have a strong relationship.
The reason the Shantak meteor shower could not be observed until it inexplicably approached Earth is that rather than continuously passing through space from far away in the universe, it is consistent to consider that it warped here by magic from somewhere completely different.
Another thing that became clear is the peculiarity of magic stones; it is thought that magic stones were dropped on Earth with at least some degree of intention.
The reason is that there were no cracked magic stones at the time of falling, and they were protected by magic characters.
Magic stones have a Mohs hardness of 11, making them the hardest in the world.
However, while they have high hardness, their strength is low, and they are brittle enough to be shattered with a hammer.
If such magic stones collided with the ground at a speed of 11.2 km per second (the minimum meteor falling speed), they would naturally shatter into pieces.
However, all magic stones were found without cracks or chips, maintaining perfect condition despite differences in shape.
According to people who luckily witnessed the moment magic stones impacted the surface, the magic stones were enveloped in light and rapidly decelerated just before surface impact.
Also, among the magic stones on the seabed recovered by the mermaid witch, there are some where the metal alloy covering the magic stone retains its original form, and it has been confirmed that this metal alloy takes the shape of magic characters.
Though half-melted and distorted, making it impossible to clearly distinguish words, they are indeed magical characters.
Magic stones were clearly dropped on Earth with countermeasures to prevent them from breaking.
Clearly, magic civilization’s intention is embedded in them.
They did not fall by chance.
…Listening to Hiyori’s open-air lecture, I was thinking, but isn’t the mystery deepening rather than being solved?
I understand more, but I feel like there’s just as much I don’t understand.
“That’s a shame. I should have asked Hatobato about that stuff. Maybe I’ll ask him next time we meet.”
“I never want to meet him again. He may have been easy for you to talk to, but I was on edge the whole time.”
After finishing setting up the tent, Hiyori muttered while building a fire with magic by arranging stones.
Hatobato is disliked, huh.
Well, it can’t be helped. He called Tsubaki a pest or something. He didn’t even try to hide his dangerous ideology. I’m probably the abnormal one for feeling fondness toward him.
Don’t worry, Hatobato. International arrest warrant is unfortunate but expected.
“Anyway. Attempts to explore magic astronomically are yielding results and are being regarded as important. If you’re interested, why not read some books next time? Though there are many garbage books that will make you want to burn them, so you need to choose the right ones.”
“Strong ideology. Are there garbage books?”
“There are. The conspiracy theories about the Shantak meteor shower are terrible.”
“Seriously?”
Hiyori, not even trying to hide her disgust, listed several conspiracy theories and extreme ideologies.
Primitive civilization regression theory, which holds that electrical civilization is defiled and was destroyed by God’s judgment meteors, and that humanity should reflect and completely abandon science.
Historical revisionism, which claims that electrical civilization never existed on Earth from the beginning and is fabricated fictional history conspired by great nations.
The dangerous one is meteor shower return awaiting ideology.
The idea that since the Shantak meteor shower brought magic and magic stones to Earth, if it falls again, more magic and magic stones will increase and humanity will become richer!
Eh, that’s creepy. Is their brain a flower garden?
The negative fact that the Shantak meteor shower triggered a great disaster that killed over ninety percent of humanity’s total population seems to be conveniently forgotten.
21st century civilization collapsed and declined, and after nearly 100 years, we’ve finally crawled back to about 19th century levels. If another disaster on the scale of the Shantak meteor shower happened again, wouldn’t we decline to a level where recovery is impossible this time?
This is no joke. You stupid peace-addled fools who don’t know the miserable era right after the gremlin disaster when people dropped dead from lacking everything. Don’t go spreading trash ideologies like that!
While warming ourselves by the campfire and dissing conspiracy theories in agreement with Hiyori’s disgust, Tsubaki returned with the tiger carrying buckets in its mouth.
Before we knew it, it was already evening, and stars were beginning to twinkle here and there in the sky.
It was a good time for dinner.
“Welcome back, Tsubaki. Shall we eat? Come here, I’m warming up the oil now.”
“You were late. Was the well hard to find?”
Tsubaki, who had eagerly sat down next to the beckoning Hiyori, drooled at the oil slowly convecting in the pot hanging over the campfire.
“I found the well. But there was a big dead tree, so I set it on fire.”
Tsubaki said with an innocent smile.
“On days when stars sparkle, my heart pounds more than usual. Setting fires becomes fun. Dairi and the Blue Witch, won’t you burn with me and get excited too?”
“…N-no thanks.”
“…O-oh.”
Hiyori and I, who had both detected the same unsettling feeling, smiled vaguely and mumbled in response, then cautiously exchanged glances.
Isn’t that, you know, a bit…?
We couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat at words that faintly carried the blood of the mother from the more obscene side.
“Isn’t that dangerous? I hope it’s just my imagination. Do salamanders have mating seasons or something?”
“Don’t say mating season. Tsubaki has my blood. Unlike Keika, I want to believe she’s not in perpetual heat.”
“But you just said mating season too.”
Peeking through the tent gap, Tsubaki was humming a carefree me-me tune with her toes stuck into the campfire. Cute.
“Mokutan and Sekitan have been lectured by Keika about salamander ecology, right? Including how they reproduce. Tsubaki, who left Japan and came to China quickly, hasn’t received that, uh, sex education…”
“I refuse. You tell her. She’s your pet, isn’t she?”
“You’re only treating her like a pet at times like this! You always tell me to treat Tsubaki like a human. You tell her, Hiyori, you’re both women.”
“What face am I supposed to make while talking about this? Absolutely not.”
We pushed the role of giving Tsubaki sex education onto each other for a while, but ultimately I played my strongest card—”Great Sage Dairi is poor at communication”—and successfully assigned Hiyori the role of health and physical education teacher.
This is an important conversation!
If I, with my poor speaking skills, accidentally give a misleading explanation, it would be troublesome!
Hiyori, I’m counting on you!
While listening to Hiyori reluctantly leaving the tent and gently speaking to Tsubaki, I turned my back to them and covered my ears with awkward feelings.
So this is what parents with adolescent children feel like.
Being a parent is tough…