Vol. 3, Chapter 41: Over the Clouds

The airship technically counts as a single target, yet, its size is far from comparable than a single person. In this world, the larger the target, the greater the Mp cost would be to cast a spell upon it. If the princess were to attempt to cast [Feather Weight] upon this vessel, more likely than not, the resulting mana drain would kill her. And so, for this monumental task, we have requested the aid of the Holy Beast who readily answered our plea.

At first I was worried since she would not only have to apply the spell to the airship, but the soldiers numbering over a hundred that we have stuffed into the vessel as well as the supplies we will need for the return trip after the battle. However, without even breaking a sweat, the spell was successfully casted and with the fire beneath the balloon lit, airship began to float. With the airship lifting off, the Holy Beast began summoning the winds that will both deliver us to the heart of enemy territory as well as protect us from the wild turbulence high up in the sky.

Upon feeling the winds picking up, the troops were ordered to cut the tether tying down the airship. With that, our platoon of over a hundred troops was carried into the air and before I knew it, we were above the clouds.

***

I say, I was a bit worried at first when she said that she was weakening, but to still have so much power left over, it makes me wonder how powerful a Keeper can be at their strongest. Considering that we'll be, for the first time, going up against another Keeper in the upcoming battle, I can't help but be afraid.

Suddenly, I feel a hand grasping on to mine, prompting me to look to my side. Greeting my gaze is the princess, wearing a white caster's robe with chainmail beneath for the coming battle.

"You're shaking. The Beastkins have sharp senses so we can tell if someone is afraid quite easily. You are both their Champion and the one who would be their king, try not to make them too nervous for you."

"Really, this coming from you?"

Quietly, while pouting, she pinches my arm. It hurts, but it makes me less nervous at least.

At the moment, the princess and I, as well as Merida, are gathered around a corner within the lower deck. With over a hundred troops stuffed in here, this corner here is the least crowded and stuffy location available. Of course, there's also the upper deck, but to access it, one will be required to wear tethers with hooks that will attach them to the various railing built into the upper deck of this airship. This is not only due to it being dangerous to be out in the open so high up in the sky, but our reduced weight may cause us to fly off at the slightest gale that may slip through the protection of the Holy Beast's winds. At the moment, Toto is up there, inspecting the airship to see whether or not it's holding together.

At the center of the lower deck, there is a furnace. This is where the spell casters build their fire and through a chimney-like construct, the heat and flames would be funneled up towards the massive balloon made out of soft leather above.

On the deck even further below, casters work to create layers of clouds around the ship, covering all but the lowest tip of the ship to act as camouflage as we approach the heart of Faefolk territory. It may seem a little too much considering that we're so high up, but considering that this plan hinges on the element of surprise, any and all precautions that can be taken will be taken.

From the lowest tip of the ship, lookouts are stationed to watch for our approach towards the target as well as incoming hostiles that may or may not exist at our current altitude. Hopefully, we don't run into anything.

Last but not least, the inside of the ship as well as parts of the upper deck is protected by an [Air Ward] in place to prevent depressurization at this altitude where air is sure to be thin. One of the priestess of the Holy Beast, Celestia, created it for us. She was rather embarrassed when her antlers were caught on the doorframes when entering and exiting the ship though. I have a feeling she hates me more now, even though it was Toto and the craftsmen who designed this ship.

All in all, for something so abruptly put together in the shortest of notice, we have a rather functioning vessel, though it's mostly a patchwork of wood and magic. It's not something I would call a marvel of engineering, and more so the crazed jury-rigging of some very desperate people based on a design born from an imaginative mind of a twenty-six(?) year old. In other words, we are flying on a cloud of dreams and imagination sprinkled with a metric ton of fairy dust. Between this and the upcoming battle, can anyone really blame me for being terrified out of my mind? Heck, even I'm surprised that I'm not foaming out of my mouth at the moment.

Still, with so many people crammed into one space, I'm surprised it's so quiet. Other the fire raging within the furnace in the center of the deck, there's hardly any sound. It's a far cry from the ceremony yesterday. I guess everyone's just as nervous as I am, perhaps even more. The idea of flying without wings is probably something very foreign to them after all, but they all went along with it anyways because we, the Champions, said it would work. Do they actually have this much faith in us, or are they so desperate? I suppose either way, this is it, there's no turning back even if we want to, there's no steering on this thing after all. The only thing we can do is let the wind guide us and be done with what we came here to do.

I rise from my spot in the corner, letting go of the princess' hand as I got on my feet.

"Going somewhere?"

"I'll just be taking a look around. It's not every day you get to ride on an airship after all."

The princess chuckles, apparently finding something funny.

"You speak of it as if it's a rare occasion, but I would have never even dreamt that I would be flying in the sky like this. It's just not possible until you Champions arrived."

"Well, flying is pretty common in our world though, heck this airship and the planes Toto designed were actually something considered to be rather primitive."

"That's an amazing world you live in. I wonder if I'll get to visit."

"There's really nothing much to look at, you'll get bored of it in no time."

The princess mildly shakes her head in response.

"Oh, but I think I'll enjoy it very much if I were to see it with you by my side."

This princess, she says the darnest things doesn't she? What are you trying to accomplish by making this old man blush? All you're doing is make things awkward for me.

"In that case, why don't you come and have a look around with me?"

"Oh... O-of course, I'd love to."

Did she just stutter?

Slowly, almost hesitantly, the princess gets up to her feet, only to lose the strength in her knees and falls forward. I would like to say that I caught her, but it's more so that she fell right into me.

"I... I guess my legs fell asleep."

So she says, but with her in my arms, I can more or less feel it, the trembling of her slender frame. I guess she as scared as the rest of us, but I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't touching her directly like this. She sure can put up a front. Wish I could say the same for myself.

"Guess they did. You need a shoulder?"

"Yes, that would be much appreciated."

I lean my shoulder close, and the princess grasps onto them with all her being, sticking to me in a way that makes it somewhat hard to walk. I guess she's is really that scared. I wonder if it would better to just have her stay put.

"Is it too hard to walk like this?"

"I'll manage."

Well, she already said that she's coming with me. Knowing her, she'll probably stick to her word and insist on tagging along no matter what I say. We're not in private here, if I start an argument before the eyes of the troops, it going to affect morale.

On a whim, I shake the princess's arms off, prompting a small cry of confusion from the princess. While she is confused, I wrap my arms around her, pulling her closer, and as I hold her close, I offer up my free hand. The princess, beginning to understand what I am doing take my hand into hers, allowing me to guide and support her as we go.

"Now it's easier to walk, right?"

"Y-yes, I suppose it is."

The princess is flustered now, enough that her shaking is completely gone. Her face blushes with bright red as we head towards the stairs leading towards the bottommost deck, and though she tries to hide it, form the musing look the soldiers we pass by are giving us, I'd say she isn't very successful. Well, serves her right for saying such cute things before. Consider this payback.

"Um, Merida, would you like to join us?"

"I'll be fine here, princess. There's no need for me to accompany you on this vessel and I think it'll be nice for you two to spend some times just between yourselves. I doubt you'll get many chances to do so going forward."

In other words, she doesn't want to be the third wheel. I don't really mind though, it's not like having her around will make any difference. Not for me at least.

"I see. Thank you, Merida."

The princess apparently doesn't seem to think the same. Speaking of which, I haven't really asked her did I? About what she thinks of this odd relationship. I didn't think to ask, since the idea came from her in the first place. Once this battle is over, perhaps I'll find some time to mention it.

***

"This... this is rather dizzying."

Even while clinging onto me, the princess stares through one of the openings used to view the outside on the bottommost deck. The opening is rather narrow, about as narrow as the space between the tips of my middle and index finger. Through this opening, the princess looks upon the land far beneath us and seems to be getting even more nervous upon realizing exactly how high up we are.

"D-do, everyone from your world fly like this?"

"I wouldn't say everyone, but we usually go even higher."

"I wonder how you handle it."

"Usually we don't get to look down like this and our vessels then to be... better put together."

"You sound as if this one isn't put together well at all."

Well no, it's isn't, but if I say it out loud, she's just going to get more nervous.

"Well, we do have far better tools for such things."

"What kind of tools."

"The kinds that are impossible to use by human hands alone."

The powers tools at least.

"A-are you speaking of the Relics? No wonder those of your world are able to construct such marvels."

Looks like she misunderstood, but, well, I did word it in such a way that would make it all sound that much more impressive. Still, I better correct her, she's going to get mad at me for making fun of her if one of the others tell her the truth anyways.

"No, it's nothing so impressive. We have something called electricity you see..."

I start to explain vaguely about the concept of electricity, relating it to something akin to mana they have in this world, but not as easy to manipulate and not as versatile. I try telling her that we generate them through reactors and conduct them throughout the city, but it seems like she got the idea that they're like ley lines, which are apparently the flow of mana beneath the ground that tends to align with landmarks. By this point, I somewhat realize that neither of us actually understands what the other is saying and toss in the towel. Perhaps we'll save complicated stuff like this for another time, when we can learn about one another's world more leisurely.

After a brief tour down at the bottommost deck, we return to the lower deck to find some chatter, at the center of which is Toto, looking rather troubled by the attention surrounding her. Curious, I discreetly turn towards Merida.

"Something happened?"

"Nothing much, a Sorcerer just started striking up a conversation with Lady Toto, mostly praising her for the creation of this vessel. Then some other spell casters started joining in as well. They seem to admire her greatly."

I see, so Toto has got herself some fan. I have a few buddies of my own, namely, Arnaud, Cecil, and Titus, the guys part of the unit that fought by my side against the Warrior Champion atop the mountains. They became part of a roaming unit formed around me to combat [Demons] around the northern borders. I haven't seen them since I've been dispatched to defend the western front. With the north in trouble at the moment, I hope they're doing alright.

"L-like I said, I was only copying what I've seen back in my world, and it's a rather poor copy at that."

"But the laws of your world works differently than ours, don't they? To be able to adapt technology in your world to work in ours is quite impressive indeed."

"No, you don't understand, it's just that the magic in this world is rather convenient."

"Ah, brilliant and humble, as expected of a Champion."

Those guys seem to using any excuse they could find to shower praise on Toto, and while they're laughing and enjoying themselves, they've apparently mistaken Toto abject rejection of their praises to be humility and bashfulness. Toto, on the other hand, rather than being red from blushing, seems to actually be turning blue. She really don't seem to be enjoying this, and I sort of understand, I myself am not someone who likes to be praise or take credit when I don't feel like I deserve it. Though it's not that I don't understand why they wanted to say things that might make her happy either, Toto's avatar is small and cute after all.

Well, as it doesn't seem like she'll be able to break out of it herself, I suppose I could lend a hand.

"Toto, how goes the inspection up top?"

Seeing me cut through the crowd, Toto face brightens, as if a ray of light is shining down upon her.

"Everything is doing fine. At least, the airship is holding together."

"Good to know. How about you sit down, you must be tired."

I point her towards the corner the princess, Merida, and I have been occupying, the least crowded spot available on the lower deck.

"Yes, I would very much like that, thank you."

As the corner is meant for the princess, Toto's little fan club did not follow her, as that would mean crowding the princess and possibly making things unpleasant for her.

Speaking of Toto, I was wondering if I should even let her be here. She said she's twenty-six, but somehow, I don't buy it. I get the feeling that she's younger than that. Still, she wants to be here, and if I'm letting the princess come, I suppose trying to stop anyone else would be hypocritical of me. I guess if they want to fight, and they know what they're doing, there's no reason for me to stop them. There's probably no meaning in trying to force them to step down either, since the ones stubborn enough to refuse listening will just find another way, like the princess for example.

Quietly, I sigh. If only I'm more capable somehow, no one else would have to do this. If only...

As I am about to join up with Toto and the princess, from the bottommost deck, one of the lookouts emerges.

"We... We're nearing the [Demonic Tree]!"

And so it begins. I only hope that this does not become the beginning of the end.

***

End of Chapter 41