Forêt’s attack on the wyverns had been so flashy that it had ended up attracting other monsters to our location. Thankfully, they had no way of reaching us at such a high altitude, so we didn’t have to fight again until we could see the capital. Truthfully, I felt it was pure luck that we managed to avoid combat almost entirely.
“We’ve almost reached the capital, so I’m going to head back to the others, all right?” I told Forêt.
“Sure. But...something’s bothering me,” her voice echoed through my head as she stared at the city in the distance.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve been observing the capital since earlier, but I can’t sense a single presence or mana signature inside.”
“You can’t?”
“No. We’re so close, yet I can’t feel a thing. There might be a barrier around the city.”
Forêt had good mana detection abilities in her pegasus form, so if she couldn’t feel anything, it must’ve been a pretty strong barrier.
“Well, that’s a pain. I was hoping nothing would get in our way, but alas... Do you think we can just charge straight ahead or not?”
“Hmm... You should be able to break through the barrier without issue, but I’m not sure if you should. I can’t see any soldiers guarding the city walls, so they must have other measures to deal with trespassers...unless the guards are just hiding.”
“So not only can you not feel anything in the city, but you can’t even see any guards? There’s definitely something fishy going on. The sun hasn’t risen yet, but that shouldn’t be a reason for the walls to be completely unguarded.”
Monsters occasionally appeared in Illumasia, so it was unthinkable that the imperial capital would be left defenseless like this. As for the potential barrier, neither Albert, Melphina, nor Bazack had mentioned anything about it, so I couldn’t tell if it truly existed. Perhaps they had already charged into the capital and begun causing chaos to lead the guards away from the walls? No, they wouldn’t do something that stupid. Bazack was with them, so they’d most likely managed to sneak into the city unnoticed.
Don’t get me wrong, it would have been great for us if the capital truly was defenseless, but if it was a trap, we might end up having to fight much sooner than anticipated...
“Maybe the imperial soldiers are simply disorganized. Or maybe we’re flying into a trap,” Forêt said. She seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
“Well, we don’t have anything to lose by being cautious. I guess the only thing we can do right now is hope that the prince has managed to recruit the city guards, and that’s why they’re not guarding the walls.”
“Are you really heading back?” Forêt asked me after a short pause. “We could also charge ahead, just the two of us, and attack the city.”
“Yeah, that’s a hard pass. I get that you’re strong, but we’re not here to destroy the capital. Plus, that could potentially work if we could slowly lower the ship into the city, but there are too many variables for us to do that. No, it’s better if I take the others and we sneak into the capital.”
“If you say so,” Forêt replied, before flying me over to the elevator. Then, she turned back into her regular, black horse form and added, “Summon me immediately if you need my help again.”
With that, she disappeared into the hermit stable.
“Forêt really values my opinion, huh? I definitely have a nice, reliable partner. If she ever wants something in the future, I’d better do my hardest to help,” I muttered to myself as I returned to the cockpit. “Hey, guys, I’m back. Uh, is something wrong?”
Everyone’s gazes immediately converged on me as soon as I stepped into the room.
“Whaddya mean, ‘Is something wrong’?! What was that horse? It dealt with them wyverns in seconds! We lost our chance to use our magic artillery ’cause of ye,” Dhoran said, though he seemed quite excited despite his complaints.
“Yeah, I didn’t expect Forêt to be that strong either,” I said, unable to stop a chuckle from escaping me.
Dhoran laughed as well. “Guess it can’t be ’elped, then. We can still keep goin’ with the airship as is, right?”
“Yeah. But it seems like there’s a barrier around the capital. According to Forêt, she couldn’t sense any presence or mana whatsoever coming from the city. It might be an ambush, so to everyone who’s coming with me to the palace, we’ll be jumping together, all right?”
“S-Sir, are we sure it’s a good idea to jump from this height?” Kefin asked me. He seemed completely fine on the surface, but I could tell from the way he’d stuttered that he was slightly nervous. I mean, people did say that dogs were afraid of heights, didn’t they? Perhaps it was the same for beastfolk. Then again, I supposed being scared of heights was just an instinctual thing for most people.
“Don’t worry, we’ll make it safely even if I run out of mana,” I reassured him.
“I’m sorry, sir. I spoke out of turn,” Kefin said, forcing himself to smile despite how stiff his expression was and bowing to me.
The sight was so comical that I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “I’m counting on you when we’re down there, okay? We might get arrows and spells fired at us as soon as we land, so I’ll be relying on you guys and gals to handle that.”
“Yes, sir!” Kefin replied.
“His Highness can be a bit careless at times, so he might have given away our plan,” Ketty commented.
“Yup. His Highness always had a knack for royally screwing things up, so I’m a little worried,” Lionel added.
The two of them were saying those troubling things with dead serious expressions, and it didn’t look like they were entirely joking.