It was my second time steering the airship. There really was something epic about soaring through the sky, huh? In that moment, I began to understand why some pilots were so hesitant to retire, even after years of pushing their bodies through long hours in the air.
As I admired the scenery rushing by, two voices I wasn’t very familiar with echoed through the control cabin.
“We’re going so fast, yet the ship is barely shaking. This proves just how incredible the control system is! We can’t feel any g-force either. Is it because the barrier is dispersing the pressure on the airframe?” she muttered under her breath.
“Look, Miss Rina, we’re already so far from the Holy City!” Nanya said excitedly.
“Huh? Didn’t you two return to your shop yesterday? I didn’t see you at breakfast,” I said, confused.
“Hello, Mister Luciel,” Rina said.
“Good morning, boss!” Nanya greeted me next.
The two of them exchanged glances before Rina said something completely unexpected, “Um, master and the others showed us around the airship and talked to us until dawn, so we slept in one of the cabins.”
Dhoran probably hadn’t wanted to lose his new working force, which explained their presence. And Rina had mentioned “the others” too, which meant Pola and Lycian must’ve been in cahoots with him.
Oh well. I just wished he’d told me about them before we left the Holy City.
“You don’t understand what’s going on...do you?” I asked.
“Is there anything to understand other than the fact that we’re flying in the sky?”
“Our destination, maybe?” I suggested.
“Isn’t this just a trial run?”
Nanya gasped. “Hold on a minute!” she exclaimed, her face growing paler and paler by the second.
It seemed that she’d noticed something was wrong.
“Are we going to...Illumasia?” she asked.
“I request an immediate U-turn,” Rina declared.
“I don’t want to die just yet!” Nanya added.
✦ ✦ ✦
Having understood the situation they were in, the two of them immediately requested that we turn back.
I chuckled at their reaction. “Don’t worry. We’re not going to the empire just yet; we’re heading to a little town up north in Saint Shurule. And of course, I’ll make sure everyone’s safety is my main priority.”
“But still!” Rina whined.
I glanced at Dhoran, silently asking him to turn the airship back, but he shook his head. It seemed that he wanted them to tag along. But I really didn’t like the idea of forcing them to come with us without even giving them time to prepare themselves mentally.
With a sigh, I shifted my focus and tried to find a compromise that would satisfy the girls as well. “You can just stay in the airship with Dhoran and the others,” I said.
“Can we?”
“Yeah. We’ll prepare you three meals a day, and you can just stay in your cabins if you want.”
“Three meals a day and no work? Miss Rina, is this place heaven?” Nanya marveled, seemingly overjoyed.
“Wait, what?” I didn’t think my offer had been that generous.
“We heard you talking about the empire, and we know that it’s a very dangerous place. That’s why we wanted to go home,” Rina explained. “But could we really just stay inside the airship?”
“Sure, yeah.”
The girls exchanged glances before lowering their heads to me and saying in unison, “Thank you for having us!”
It seemed like I’d managed to convince them to stay.
After that, they went to find Dhoran to ask him more questions about the ship while I asked Estia for directions to the town she had told us about.
“Am I going the right way? Oh, and if you could share what you know about the topography, that’d be helpful.”
“I think our current route is correct. As for the terrain, there’s a mountain range between the Holy City and the empire, and Ebiza—the town I used to live in—is located at the foot of it, on the Holy City’s side,” she explained.
“Ebiza... I feel like I’ve heard that name before.”
“Did the pope tell you that I used to live there, perhaps?” Estia offered.
I hummed. “Maybe. I don’t remember. Is it a nice place to live?”
“I don’t recall much about when I first arrived, but when I left, all the people who took care of me came to see me off. Oh, and there’s a large inn in the town, so you can probably all stay there,” she said, a fond smile curling her lips as she reminisced.
Knowing how tumultuous her life had been, I was relieved to see that she had at least some happy memories to look back on. That made me a little excited to actually get to Ebiza.
For a while, the airship smoothly continued on its course, maintaining a steady speed and altitude. At some point, my master—who really, really seemed to dislike flying—came to ask me if we were nearing our destination. I noticed that he didn’t look well, but perhaps it was just the serious look on his face that made him appear that way. Or maybe he was getting restless from being unable to move his body.
Unwilling to watch him struggle any longer, Dhoran told him about the deck on the top of the airship, and Brod immediately headed there.
“Not so tough now, huh?” Lionel muttered under his breath.
His humorous comment made the tense atmosphere lighten instantly. Rina and Nanya let out relieved sighs and began to happily chitchat with Dhoran, Pola, and Lycian about artifacts. Meanwhile, Estia helped me steer by giving me directions.
“What kind of town is Ebiza, by the way?” I asked her.
“Ebiza? Well...my impression of it when I lived there was that there were a lot of rowdy people,” she replied.
And here I thought it would be a town full of nice people who’d supported her in her time of need. My expectations were already crushed.
“Rowdy people, huh? That doesn’t sound like the kind of town one would visit willingly.”
She nodded. “I can understand that. But they’re actually just putting on an act to keep any stray soldiers from the empire or kingdom from causing trouble. It’s an unspoken rule that everyone works together to keep the town safe.”
“It kind of sounds like it’s been forsaken by the rest of the nation. From what you said, the people there seem more used to fighting other human beings than monsters.”
“They’re used to both. Mercenaries and adventurers go to grind levels in the nearby labyrinth, and both enemy and allied soldiers work together to protect the townsfolk.”
Hold on a minute. Could it be that they were even stronger than the knights? “Did you learn how to fight there?” I asked.
“No, I was a healer. I learned how to fight when I was a slave in Illumasia.”
Oops. I had accidentally put my foot in my mouth. “I see. Uhhh, so there’s a labyrinth too, you say?” I asked, changing the topic to hide my embarrassment. “What kind?” I’d have loved it to be one with an Eternal Dragon trapped inside.
“It’s a rare type of labyrinth, as it has entrances in both Saint Shurule and Illumasia. I went through it when I escaped from the empire, so I’ve seen both for myself.”
“So it’s basically a tunnel that links the two nations, huh?”
That was useful to know. The tunnel had been a spider’s thread that had brought her out of hell, just like in that famous Japanese novel. She didn’t seem to have struggled that much in the labyrinth, and there could be an Eternal Dragon hidden within, so I supposed I had no choice but to go.
After that, I decided to switch to more harmless topics, such as life in Ebiza and the people who’d looked after her, to avoid triggering her trauma again. But I felt like that made Estia careful not to upset me instead.
Before long, the mountain range between Saint Shurule and Illumasia came into view. I adjusted our route based on Estia’s instructions, and a little town finally came into view in the distance.
“Is that Ebiza?” I asked.