The Flying Crimson

Over the next two days, Klarisa and Alex worked tirelessly, supervising every piece of cargo loaded onto the company’s flagship to ensure nothing suspicious was brought aboard.

The married couple still feared someone might have sabotaged the other five ships by sneaking something aboard that would attract unwanted attention.

In the meantime, Lina and Skayla stayed at Klarisa’s estate, where they quickly became temporary nannies for Klarisa and Alex’s four-year-old twin daughters, Ceto and Eurybia. Ceto was five minutes older than her sister.

By departure day, the twins had grown so attached to Skayla that saying goodbye turned into a small disaster. The moment they started crying, Skayla couldn’t hold back her own tears either. She embraced them one last time as Ceto and Eurybia promised they would find her again someday.

“I still can’t believe how much my children adore you,” Klarisa said with a laugh as they slowly walked toward the company’s private docking bay.

Klarisa glanced at Skayla, who was still wiping tears from her eyes.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay and become their nanny? Just until they’re fifteen,” she joked.

“Absolutely not!” Skayla protested. “Besides, young children are naturally attracted to magic. That’s probably the only reason they liked me so much.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Klarisa said, laughing. “Oh, here we are!”

The two passed through a giant warehouse doorway and were immediately greeted by a magnificent ship.

“Whoa...” Skayla muttered, staring at the vessel floating before her. “HOW GORGEOUS IS THAT?!”

The Flying Crimson was unlike any ship Skayla had ever seen in a painting or book. Crimson streaks ran along its refined brown hull, evoking a bird in flight, while its mastless deck set it apart from the ships throughout the port.

“I’m glad you like her,” Klarisa said proudly. “She is, after all, the pride of our company.”

Skayla walked along the dock, admiring the ship until she spotted something that didn’t match the rest of it: the figurehead on the bow.

“Hmmm...” she hummed, tilting her head from side to side and squinting at its face. “Am I imagining things, or does that look a bit like Lina?”

Klarisa covered her mouth, struggling not to laugh. “That’s because Alex carved it using Lina as the model,” she revealed before bursting into laughter.

“NO WAY!” Skayla shouted, her laughter echoing throughout the docking bay.

“Go ahead, laugh it up,” Lina shouted from the ship’s deck. Having finished her inspection, she descended the gangway and approached them with an annoyed expression.

“I still can’t believe that idiot carved my face onto a ship,” Lina said. “What exactly was he thinking?”

“Yeah, I was wondering the same thing,” Skayla said, turning toward Klarisa.

“Because this ship wouldn’t exist without you, Lina,” Klarisa revealed, smiling softly as she gazed at the Flying Crimson. “Do you remember the ‘extravagant’ engagement gift you gave Alex and me?”

“Engagement gift?” Lina repeated, trying to remember, with her face lit up. “Wait... is that what powers this ship?”

“Exactly,” Klarisa answered.

“Okay, spill it,” Skayla demanded. “What did Lina give you?”

“She gave us her share of the SS-Rank King Goliath Tusk Boar’s mana stone,” Klarisa revealed.

“Eh?” Skayla muttered. “Wasn’t that gigantic mana stone left in the possession of the Royal Family?”

“The stone was too large to use, so it was broken into four pieces,” Lina explained. “Two were placed up for auction, one remained with the Royal Family, and the last piece was awarded to me for killing the beast.”

Skayla slowly turned toward Lina and grabbed her by both shoulders.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD SOMETHING THAT VALUABLE?!” she shouted, shaking her. “I COULD HAVE USED IT FOR SO MANY THINGS!”

“Absolutely not!” Lina shouted, breaking free. “If I gave something like that to you, you’d probably destroy half the Kingdom with your dangerous ideas.”

Skayla opened her mouth to argue but quickly realized Lina wasn’t wrong.

“But why did you give it away?” Skayla asked. “You would be filthy rich if you had sold it.”

Lina’s entire body began to tremble, startling Skayla and Klarisa.

“Because I was afraid of it!” Lina exclaimed, grabbing Skayla by the shoulders and shaking her.

“H-H-How c-c-can you be afraid of it?!” Skayla stuttered. “I-I-It’s just a s-s-stone!”

“That thing contained an absurd amount of mana!” Lina shouted. “If it ever fell into the wrong hands, the consequences could have been catastrophic!”

Lina finally let go.

“So where did you keep it?” Skayla asked, trying to regain her balance as Klarisa held her up.

“I kept the item bag containing the stone inside a locked drawer in my office,” Lina admitted. “I was constantly worried someone would break in and steal it whenever I was away.”

“I’m pretty sure no one was dumb enough to steal something from Lina’s private office,” Skayla whispered to Klarisa with a chuckle. She turned back to Lina. “So what made you give it to Klarisa and Alex?”

“When I received their wedding invitation, I asked some of my knights what kind of gift I should give,” Lina explained. “They told me that high-ranking mana stones were traditional wedding gifts.”

“Really?” Skayla asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“They probably assumed someone in the Royal Family was getting married,” Klarisa said with a chuckle. “Mana stones that valuable are normally reserved for royal weddings.”

“I’m so sorry!” Lina apologized.

“No... it’s fine,” Klarisa said. “In fact, your gift saved my engagement to Alex.”

After Lina warned them not to open the item bag indoors, Klarisa, Alex, and her family took it into the garden. The moment they opened it, the enormous mana stone crushed several marble statues, destroyed a fountain, and flattened half the ornamental landscaping. Once Klarisa’s family realized its value, their opposition to the marriage disappeared—canceling the wedding would mean returning Lina’s gift.

“They immediately stopped criticizing our engagement and began rushing us to make the marriage official,” Klarisa explained.

“So their greed saved your engagement,” Skayla concluded.

“HEY! That’s a rude way of putting it!” Lina said, elbowing Skayla in the side.

“Well... she isn’t wrong,” Klarisa admitted.

“Hey, Klarisa, can we use Mana Sight to examine the ship?” Skayla asked. “We want to see what mana looks like after being refined into a Mana Core.”

Mana Sight was a rare skill that allowed someone to see the flow of mana, but awakening it incorrectly could result in permanent blindness.

“Wait... you can both use Mana Sight?” Klarisa asked.

“Yep!” Skayla said, flashing a peace sign. “We awakened it when we were nine.”

“NINE?!” Klarisa shouted.

“Mother Ofilia guided us through the process while Zenos stabilized the mana around our eyes,” Lina explained. “We were never in any real danger.”

Klarisa stared at them, once again reminded of how abnormal their childhood must have been.

“So... can we use it?” Skayla asked.

“Go ahead,” Klarisa said with a weary sigh.

Lina and Skayla closed their eyes and slowly circulated their mana, concentrating it around their eyes; when they opened them again, Skayla’s grey eyes glowed with a light-blue aura while Lina’s orange eyes glowed scarlet.

The moment they gazed at the Flying Crimson, both flinched and stumbled several steps backward.

“W-W-What an unbelievable amount of mana...” Skayla muttered, terrified by the sight before her.

“I-I agree...” Lina said, equally overwhelmed.

A massive wave of purple mana surged from the center of the ship, pulsing like a living heart.

“Ha... ha... ha...” Lina chuckled nervously. “I remember seeing the mana stone when it was awarded to me, but it wasn’t anywhere near this fierce. Is this what happens when an SS-Rank mana stone is refined into a Mana Core?”

“What’s the Mana Core’s purity percentage?” Skayla asked.

Klarisa cleared her throat with a loud AHEM!, struggling to hide her excitement.

“Ninety-five percent,” she proudly announced.

Lina and Skayla exchanged glances. They blinked several times as the glow of their Mana Sight faded before turning toward Klarisa.

“N-N-NINETY-FIVE PERCENT?!” they shouted, their voices echoing throughout the docking facility.