“W-We’re just floating in place right now, right? How long could we stay up here if we wanted to?” asked Rosell.
“Just floatin’? Good long while. Using magic to move expends aqua magia, of course, but the device that’s keepin’ us airbound just uses the special qualities of wind magistones─it doesn’t expend them at all. Now, I’m not sayin’ we could stay up here forever, course! The device itself has some wear and tear to keep an eye on, and it has to get serviced on the regular. Bein’ up this high in bad weather would be pretty dangerous, too, so we’d have to descend when it gets stormy. Then there’s the question of how you’re feeding the crew. Can’t stay floatin’ in the air forever if nobody has anything to eat, can you? Point is, aqua magia expenditure’s just one part of a bigger picture.”
So just floating doesn’t expend any aqua magia at all? Doesn’t that mean we might be able to use the same technology to make permanently airbound buildings in the future? You’d just need to fly a ship up to them from time to time to restock them with supplies. I guess riding out storms and rough weather is a problem we’d have to solve, though, and I’m sure there are other issues I just haven’t thought of.
“Okay, then─how ’bout we get moving, eh?” Shin suggested. He turned to shout orders to the crew, and a moment later, the ship began drifting slowly forward. “Full speed ahead!”
The airship began to accelerate. We were up on deck, of course, which meant we were exposed to the wind, and it got awfully cold in an awful hurry.
“I-It’s rather frigid, isn’t it?” said Licia, who’d started shivering.
“N-No kidding! Can’t you do something to fix this?!” Charlotte─who was trembling just as violently as Licia─shouted at Shin.
“Oh, right. Forgot you were dressed like that. You’d better stick below decks, for now! Bring her to a stop, everyone!”
The airship halted midair, and we made our way inside. It hadn’t struck me before, but Shin and his crew were all pretty bundled up. Winter was in its closing days and it had already started warming up again, so I’d thought it was a little odd, but it only now hit me that they were dressed that way so they could stand the chill of the high-altitude winds.
The ship was equipped with a single, small room for passengers, which we were led to. It had windows, thankfully, so we could still see outside. The view from up on deck had been nicer, but there was still plenty for us to see. Soon, Shin gave the signal to his crew and the ship started moving once more.
“It’s still a little hard to believe we’re flying. What exactly’s the principle that lets that happen?” I asked Shin, who’d returned to the cabin to talk with us.
“The whole explanation’s pretty long. We’re usin’ wind magic, of course, and… Well, to put it nice and easy, we’re pointing the magic behind us and blasting out wind at high speeds to move us forward.”
Oh, so it’s like a jet engine?
“I spent a good long time thinkin’ over my options for how to move the ship around. My first idea might’ve worked, but it would’ve been way too slow, no matter how you slice it.”
“Oh, really? How did you solve that problem?” I asked.
“I didn’t. Enan’s the one who figured it out,” said Shin.
“Oh, Enan? Did she?”
“Yeah, she came up with a real nice little device that lets us generate some proper speed. She says there’s still plenty of room to improve on it, though.”
“That’s incredible, isn’t it?”
“You said it. She’s got a sort of creativity you don’t stumble across every day. I kinda hate to admit it, but she’s caught me by surprise plenty of times. Should’ve figured, seeing as you were the one who sent her my way!”
Once again, my Appraisal skill had been right on the mark. Enan was an incredibly talented inventor. She would have to be, I reflected, to make someone like Shin admit she had what it took.
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Enan yet. Isn’t she on the airship?
“Where is Enan, by the way?” I asked.
“Oh, she can’t take heights at all,” said Shin. “She knows we’re not gonna fall, but she still just can’t bring herself to get on the ship, so she didn’t come along today. I’d bet she’s locked up in her room dreamin’ up a blueprint for some new device, right about now.”
She can’t handle heights? I guess that sounds about right.
Enan had seemed like a very timid young woman. The fact that she was probably still hard at work proved how industrious she was, at least.
“I see. It sounds like she’s applying herself,” I said. I’d been considering stopping in to say hello to her, but decided to put it off since I wouldn’t want to distract her from her work.
“We’ll keep cruisin’ along at this altitude for a while. Just sit back and enjoy the view,” Shin said before departing from the cabin.
Our flight carried on smoothly. Unlike seabound vessels, riding the airship didn’t involve putting up with the constant swaying of the waves. It was quite a comfortable trip, all things considered.
Vast swaths of nature spread out across the surface below us. Missian was a very green region, and it turned out to be beautiful from the sky.
“It’s a breathtaking sight, isn’t it?” Licia muttered as she looked out over the landscape.
“It really is,” I agreed.
“I would love to travel across all of Summerforth like this, someday,” she added with a dazzlingly bright smile.
“We will,” I said with a nod. “We’ll make it happen.”
Someday, peace might return to Summerforth and airship technology might spread far and wide. It wasn’t an impossible future to picture, by any means.
Our flight carried on for some time until eventually, we returned home and touched down in Shin’s workshop.
“You’ve built something truly incredible, Shin, and I couldn’t be happier to have chosen to support your project. Thank you,” I said once we’d landed and disembarked from the airship.
“N-Naaah, it’s not that impressive or anything!” said Shin. “And anyway, I should be thankin’ you for believing I had what it takes. You did me a solid there! I’ll be makin’ even more incredible stuff from here on out, too, so the work’s not done yet, and I hope you’ll be stickin’ around for the ride!”
“Lord Ars? I believe it would be in our best interests to have a second and third airship built immediately,” suggested Rietz. “While I’m certain the costs will be substantial, I assure you that they will be valuable enough to justify any expenditure.”
Rietz didn’t need to work hard to convince me. I’d already been thinking along those same lines, in fact. A few airships on our side would mean that no enemy invasion would stand a chance of making it into our territory.
“I’d love to keep crankin’ out ships one after another for you, but this workshop’s gonna be focused on developing the next model,” said Shin. “Like I said before, we’re hoping to get an even bigger ship up in the air! I’ve got a few ideas for some little improvements we could make to this design, too.”
“I see…” replied Rietz. “In that case, perhaps it would be worth investing in the construction of a shipyard? The new facility could handle construction of additional ships while Shin and his people continue their research here.”
“No complaints ’bout that over here!” said Shin. “This workshop’s not the most efficient place to be puttin’ a buncha ships together in, anyhow.”
Rietz had a point. If we were going to make more airships, then a proper shipyard would be indispensable…though also expensive, most likely.
“For now, I’d like to call everyone together for a meeting,” I said. “We can discuss the creation of a shipyard and the potential uses for the airship then.”
“Considering the importance of this matter, that strikes me as an excellent idea,” said Rietz.
With that decided, we left the workshop.
○
A few days later, my retainers and I gathered up in Castle Canarre for a meeting regarding the airship. The meeting was attended by the retainers who spent their days in the castle already, plus Mireille, who I’d put in charge of Lamberg, and the Fujimiya siblings, who were working as her assistants. Shin was also in attendance, this time.
“Heya, kiddo. Finish shaking off that poison yet?” Mireille asked. It was a little rare for her to show concern for my health.
“Yes, I’m fine now, “ I said with a nod.
“Well, good. I’d be in a nasty fix if you kicked the bucket.”
“And what about you? Are you taking your work in Lamberg seriously?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Of course I am! What else would I be doing?” Mireille said, doing her best to look wounded by my question’s implications.