Ragnar stared at the Frankish tactician for three seconds, before a bark of laughter erupted from his chest.
"Build it now?" Ragnar scoffed, tossing his cleaning rag onto the desk. "Do you think an aerostat is a child's toy, Richard? A paper lantern you fold out of parchment and light with a tallow candle to watch it drift over the garden wall?"
Richard didn't flinch. "You forged steam-driven behemoths of iron and conquered the North Sea in ironclads, Sire. Surely a canopy of cloth and hot air presents fewer structural hurdles than a twelve-pounder rifled cannon."
