“Sure, the airship was amazing and all, but what about me? I was incredible too, right?” said Charlotte, who had appeared behind me. She’d spoken up without warning, and made me jump a little.
“Y-Yes, that’s true. You did well too, Charlotte,” I admitted. The truth was that if it weren’t for her magic, we wouldn’t have been able to bring the fort down, airship on our side or not. This had been a battle that let her put her destructive potential on full display.
“Heh heh,” Charlotte chuckled with a self-satisfied smirk. “Really, though, the view from the airship was something else! I wanna ride it again soon.”
“I’ll certainly agree with that,” I said.
“Oh, I know! Hey, Shin! Make another airship just for me, okay?” Charlotte said, asking the impossible with no preamble whatsoever.
“H-Huh? Y-You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Shin said, completely bewildered by her unreasonable demand.
“Oh, c’mon! They’re not even that big! Just whip one up for me real quick!”
“That’s not how it works! They’re on the small side for ships, sure, but they’re filled with all sorts of mechanical junk! Makin’ an airship’s not that easy!”
“Boo. It would’ve been so fun to fly wherever I wanted to.”
“Even if you had an airship, you don’t know how to fly one in the first place!”
I had to assume it was unintentional, but it felt like Charlotte was goading Shin into some sort of comedic dialogue sketch.
“Oh, Lord Ars!” Braham said as he rushed over to me. Zaht and the Fujimiya Siblings were with him, for some reason.
“Braham!” I said. “Thank you again for your work when we were transporting the airship. I hope you’re enjoying the banquet?”
“Sure am! And wow, was that airship ever amazing! Hey, speaking of, I’ve got a request: Can I ride it? Just once?! Please?!” Braham asked, more than a little forcefully.
“You want to ride the airship…? I can understand why…but that might be out of the question for now,” I replied. “Purledo County may be under our control, but we’re not out of the woods just yet. We can’t risk sending it out for any flights that aren’t necessary.”
“Y-Yeah, figures! It doesn’t have to be right now, though! I can wait till the war’s over! I just really, really wanna try riding something that can go that high up into the sky!”
“Well, in that case, I’m sure that’s something I can arrange.”
“Woohoo!” Braham shouted. He was over the moon to have gotten the permission he wanted.
“Well, lucky you,” said Rikuya. “I’d like a chance to ride it as well!”
“It can fit a fair number of people, so you’ll be welcome to come along, if you’d like,” I said.
“Oh, really? You should come along too, then, Maika!” Rikuya happily urged his sister.
“I shall refrain,” Maika replied. “How, precisely, does that ship fly in the first place? The principles escape me, and a fall from that height would mean certain death. I won’t get anywhere near it.”
Apparently, she didn’t trust anything that she didn’t fully understand.
“W-Well, when you put it that way, I’m starting to feel a little nervous too,” Rikuya said with a shudder.
“The airship’s inventor is right here, as it so happens,” I said, gesturing to Shin. “Maybe you’d feel better about it after talking with him?”
“Oh, yes─Shin, I believe?” said Rikuya. Shin and the Fujimiyas had attended meetings together on a number of occasions, but hadn’t had the chance to speak one-on-one yet, from what I could tell. “I’d appreciate that, but do you think you could explain it in a way that even a child could understand? Seems like a tall order.”
“Wh-Who are you insinuating is a child?! I am a fully grown, seventeen-year-old woman!”
“Y-You’re seventeen?! You sure don’t look it!” Shin said, gaping at Maika. Incidentally, by this world’s standards, being seventeen meant she was considered a fully-grown adult.
Shin’s less than polite exclamation led to a rapid breakdown between him and Maika, which I did my best to mediate. Eventually, the two of them cooled down enough for Shin to start explaining the principles behind the airship’s flight to Maika. Maika, in yet another demonstration of her remarkable intelligence, grasped his explanation with ease, much to Shin’s shock. It seemed he hadn’t been expecting her to catch on that fast.
“Well, I’m not following any of this,” Rikuya commented from the sidelines. He’d been listening in, apparently in vain. I’d heard Shin’s explanation a number of times at that point, by the way, and I still didn’t feel like I had a handle on it either.
“How about you, Takao? Are you interested in trying out the airship?” asked Rikuya.
“I dunno. Are airships tasty?”
“They’re… They’re not food, Takao.”
“Oh. Then no thanks.”
The moment he learned food wasn’t involved, Takao lost interest. As always, eating was the one and only thing on his mind.
Things got a little out of hand as the banquet wore on─Mireille going on a drunken rampage that Rietz had to put a stop to was a stand-out moment─but in the end, everything came to a more or less peaceful resolution. The day after, the restoration of Fort Purledo began in earnest.
○
“I see. Lund has fallen…” Couran regretfully muttered in his chamber in Castle Arcantez.
The allied forces of Seitz and Paradille had stormed into Missian by way of Lund County, and although Couran had sent a force of troops to help repel the invasion, they hadn’t made it in time. The county had fallen without putting up any real fight to speak of. The Count of Lund, at least, had managed to flee without falling into the enemy’s clutches, and had brought the remnants of Lund’s army to the neighboring Maasa County.
“What movements has the enemy army made since?” Couran asked Robinson.
This time, Couran would not be leading from the front. He had left that task to his followers, and only intended to take to the field himself if or when the enemy army managed to occupy a location closer to Arcantez. Thus, he remained behind in the capital, overseeing the war from afar.
“None so far, Your Majesty,” Robinson explained. “Currently, they’re in position in Castle Lund. I fear, however, that it will not be long before they set out on the warpath once more.”
“I’m sure,” Couran agreed. “Where do you believe they will attack next?”
“They may stage a direct assault upon Arcantez…but I believe there is also a chance they will choose to steer toward Maasa County instead.”
“Arcantez is a farther march from Castle Lund than Maasa, yes. I can certainly believe that they would choose to assault Maasa first, depriving us of an army we could otherwise call in to defend ourselves with,” Couran thoughtfully muttered.
“Indeed…and conquering Maasa would offer a number of logistical advantages, as well. Even if they were to conquer Arcantez, it’s so far separated from Seitz proper that any form of transit between the two, and even communications between the duchy and the front, would be challenging. Maasa, in contrast, is located closer to Seitz and would make the question of transportation much easier to surmount,” said Robinson, supplementing Couran’s analysis with his own.