Chapter 1667 - 232 - Preparation Done (4)

"Is that so?" I asked while watching her closely.

"Although, it would honestly take some time," she admitted. "And I still have my training with you."

Well, I supposed she was right.

I couldn't exactly make her completely abandon her training with me, especially considering the amount of work we still had ahead of us and the fact that I had already taken responsibility for helping her improve.

However, I wasn't entirely convinced that continuing her training with me would be the most efficient way to use her time.

Morofuji specialized in magic, after all.

My own training wouldn't necessarily help her as much as someone who specialized in magical techniques and could actually guide her properly.

I had honestly been considering transferring some of her training to Dorothea, since Dorothea was a magician herself and would probably be much better suited to teaching her in that area.

Still, this situation presented another possibility that I hadn't considered before.

"How about you?" I asked her. "What do you want to do?"

She looked at me for a moment without immediately answering.

Her expression changed slightly as she seemed to think carefully about the question, apparently weighing her options before giving me an answer.

I wasn't asking her what I thought she should do.

I was asking what she actually wanted to do herself.

If she told me that she wanted to continue training with me, then I would allow her to do exactly that without forcing her to abandon something she wanted to pursue.

On the other hand, if she wanted to learn more about the mechanisms behind aircraft in this world and possibly help us figure out how to operate this thing, then perhaps allowing her to pursue that instead would be the better choice for everyone involved.

After all, we had very little experience with aircraft ourselves.

Amon could fly helicopters, of course, and I had already been considering having her become the first person to test the fighter jet.

However, perhaps two heads really were better than one when it came to something this complicated.

I could have Amon work together with Morofuji and let the two of them approach the problem from completely different perspectives.

Amon could probably learn how to operate the aircraft even without having any prior knowledge of fighter jets, but I was certain that it would still take her some time to understand everything involved.

The bigger problem was that she didn't have much knowledge of the actual mechanisms involved either.

Helicopters and fighter jets might both be flying vehicles, but their structures, components, controls, and methods of operation were completely different from one another.

Knowing how to fly one didn't automatically mean you could jump into another aircraft and figure everything out immediately.

If things were really that easy, I probably wouldn't have needed to spend this much time thinking about who should operate the damn thing.

Morofuji continued examining the controls for a while longer before eventually stepping back slightly and looking toward me again.

After thinking about it for a bit, she finally nodded with a determined expression.

"I think I'd like to give this a try," she said, sounding considerably more confident than she had earlier.

I could tell from the look on her face that she genuinely wanted to learn.

Perhaps this was exactly the opportunity she needed.

At the very least, having someone who already understood the basic principles of aircraft and had grown up around a pilot could prove useful.

The heroes smiled after hearing that Morofuji was going to take that route instead of having to train directly with me, and judging from their expressions, it seemed like most of them were actually relieved that she had found something she was more interested in doing with her abilities.

Technically, if she still wanted to, she could continue flying with the fighter jets and eventually learn how to operate one herself, which would allow her to make use of her specialty from the air while still participating in the war. If the enemy happened to have fighter jets of their own, she could also engage them directly and fight them in the sky instead of being forced into close-quarters combat on the ground, which was probably a much better fit for someone who clearly preferred the idea of flying around at ridiculous speeds.

Although, the risk of her dying would still be fairly large, since she would be sitting inside a vehicle with what would basically amount to a massive hitbox, at least when explained in the simplest terms possible. Naturally, having such a large target meant she would be more vulnerable to incoming attacks, which would increase the chances of her getting hit during an actual battle, especially if the enemy had weapons specifically designed to bring aircraft down.

The problem with fighting in the sky was that there weren't exactly many places to hide once someone had already spotted you.

On the ground, you could at least take cover behind buildings, trees, walls, rocks, or practically anything else that happened to be large enough to stop whatever was being fired at you. Up in the sky, your options became considerably more limited, because telling someone to hide behind a cloud probably wasn't going to save them from a missile or another aircraft coming straight at them.

The jets we were planning to manufacture would at least be built with extremely strong materials, so even if one of them took a direct hit, it wouldn't necessarily be destroyed immediately. They would be designed to withstand a considerable amount of punishment, but that didn't mean they were completely indestructible or that there was absolutely no chance of one getting blown apart in the middle of combat.

There was always a chance of something going wrong during a real battle, regardless of how carefully we prepared beforehand.

A battlefield had a funny way of reminding people about that.

Still, I wasn't going to pretend that Morofuji's decision was unreasonable.

In fact, considering her abilities, it made quite a bit of sense.

She wasn't exactly someone who needed to be forced into becoming a foot soldier just because everyone else was preparing for ground combat. If she could contribute from the air, then allowing her to develop that role might actually be more useful than forcing her into a training regimen that didn't suit her strengths.

But...

This was her choice, I guess, and if Morofuji genuinely wanted to take this path, then who was I to tell her that she couldn't do it?