✦ ✦ ✦
Fortunately, his assumption that the wall would become transparent rather than open up was borne out, so there was no wind invading the cabin. Just in case, he ran his finger over the wall and the transparent section, and was greeted by a cold and hard sensation that didn’t change in any way as his finger moved across. It was likely some form of magic that simply removed the color to allow light through.
The transparent section looked—in Zenjirou’s estimation, at least—to be around one meter high and one point five meters wide. He considered switching to “full” transparency for a moment, but even understanding what was happening wasn’t enough to quell the sense of unease it would cause.
He ended up leaving it set as it was and instead tiptoed over to look through the window. He could see land far out in the distance. The colors were a roughly equal mix of brown and white, with splashes of green. The brown was plain rock, while the white was snow, and the green was probably plants.
“There’s already that much snow?” he asked. He had frequently visited the continent, but the majority of his time had been spent in the palace, so he didn’t know much about the uninhabited regions. The season was supposed to be early fall, and while Uppasala was far enough north that it felt cold, he hadn’t yet seen any deep snow.
Behind him, Yngvi let out a shocked reply. “The first snows have already arrived in the mountains, and some regions have snow year-round, so that itself isn’t particularly surprising. The time and angle of the sun, though... Are these the Misted Mountains, Pokafatch?”
“Misted Mountains?” Zenjirou asked.
The range beneath them was covered in uneven snow and certainly didn’t seem to have any mist. Were they often misty but currently clear?
Yngvi guessed at what he was thinking and explained excitedly, “They usually live up to their name. The summits are obvious, but the mist normally covers the land straight to the foot of the mountain. People say climbing it is suicide. Utgard is located within the mountain range, so the general assumption is that the mist is artificial in some way.”
Being located in the middle of the mountains, with no path, covered in deep fog seemed to be the main reason for it being unreachable without an invitation.
“I see,” Zenjirou said. “So the reason we aren’t seeing it could be that we’ve been invited and they temporarily stopped it?”
“It’s possible, but...” Some of the excitement had faded from the younger man’s voice. Zenjirou noticed and his companion looked at him meaningfully.
“Hm? What is it?”
“You seem shockingly at home with this. It’s all alien to me.”
“Ah...”
His statement made Zenjirou understand his carelessness. People who grew up in Japan but weren’t familiar with touch panels would be in the minority. In this world, however, they would never have seen the like.
“Um, well, the way it’s written meant I could understand it, and I mostly guessed with the rest.”
It wasn’t a secret that he was from another world, per se, but he didn’t want to explain the differences in culture, particularly to those from other countries, hence his vague dissembling. Fortunately, Yngvi didn’t inquire further.
“I see. You have impressive insight. You were the first to notice we were flying as well.”
Zenjirou could only laugh off his brother-in-law’s praise. It went without saying, but he had no greater insight than the average person. Realizing that the sleigh was flying, and how to use the controls, were both due to him having had similar experiences in Japan. He’d flown in planes and used touch devices like smartphones, so he’d just adapted to this new experience. Fortunately, his reaction didn’t seem to prompt any further suspicion. Of course, the prince’s mind was mostly occupied with the fact that they were actually flying.
“This is amazing. We’re flying in the sky. If we had even a few of these vehicles, we could use them for scouting. Having more would be revolutionary. The commonwealth has their Husaria, but even a few of these would break their aerial superiority.” His icy blue eyes were alight with ambition as he gazed out of the window.
“Since you didn’t know about them before, I doubt Utgard has many either. I don’t know how many Husaria the commonwealth has, but unless you can beat them in speed, altitude, or maneuverability, it wouldn’t be a contest,” Zenjirou commented.
“Oh, you’re familiar with aerial tactics?”
“It’s just the general theory,” Zenjirou answered eventually, avoiding Yngvi’s eyes as the younger man grinned. He’d let something slip again. While showing his familiarity with aerial combat was a slip, his excuse had been even worse. It made it clear that Zenjirou came from a world where aerial combat was commonplace.
In this world, there were no examples of real aerial combat in recorded history. The only country even capable of it was Złota Wolność. Of course, the commonwealth was neither stupid nor incompetent, so they regularly drilled their Husaria in tactics that would be used against other countries if they someday gained flying horses or similar options.
Additionally, it was all but impossible to hide those aerial displays from other nations, so the concept itself and the knowledge of it following their example had spread across the upper echelons of the Northern Continent. However, there was by no means anything that would be considered a “general theory” of aerial combat. It was common knowledge that Zenjirou had come from a world far removed from this one, but now Yngvi knew they had enough of a history in aerial combat to have formed a general theory about it.
“I see.”
Although the prince recognized that Zenjirou didn’t want to talk about it anymore and accommodated him, he also internally decided that he was going to get much closer to his brother-in-law.