From a maritime perspective, the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago sat at the center—flanked by us, the Kingdom of Lastania, the Euphoria Kingdom, and even the Spirit Kingdom. They exported goods crafted with advanced techniques and were rapidly developing into a key relay hub at sea. Maintaining peace across the region was clearly in their best interest.
“Gotcha. Then let’s revise the plan to include the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Kingdom too.”
“Hee hee. Thank you.”
With that settled, Lumiere, who’d been silently observing, turned to Jeanne.
“Jeanne, since they’re establishing an airway in the east, how about we create one along our western border as well?” she said. “If we extend it to the Spirit Kingdom, I think it would encourage more ‘lively exchange’ between our three nations.”
Jeanne blinked at the suggestion.
“That sounds fine to me, but...haven’t we had several clashes with the Great Tiger Kingdom? The animosity still runs deep. You may be okay with it, Lumi, but can you really convince your people to support this?”
“As far as that’s concerned, we’ll have to swallow our pride and humbly ask for forgiveness. But, Jeanne...if you’re willing to accept, I’ll personally take responsibility for persuading the Great Tiger Kingdom’s side. With the rest of the world strengthening their ties, isolating ourselves out of stubborn pride would only leave us behind. I won’t allow the Great Tiger Kingdom—entrusted to me by Lady Yuriga, and which I will someday pass on to Lord Suiga—to fall into decline.”
“Lumi...”
Hearing Lumiere take on such a heavy burden, Jeanne instinctively began searching for the right words to say.
But Lumiere offered her a soft smile, as if to say there was no need to worry.
“Besides, Jeanne, just think about it. There’ll be an airway connecting Friedonia and Lastania to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago in the east. And if we establish a western route through our lands and the Euphoria Kingdom to the Spirit Kingdom...imagine one more route, linking the Spirit Kingdom to the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago...”
“Ah! That would create an airway that circles the entire world!”
“Right? Isn’t that exciting?”
“Yeah... Ah! Um... Who can say?” Jeanne began to get excited but quickly regained her composure and turned to Hakuya.
She knew she wasn’t the kind of ruler who could instinctively arrive at the right answer, like her sister Maria. That was why she always looked to the logical and reliable Hakuya for confirmation.
Hakuya offered her a gentle smile. “I believe it would be fine.”
“It would?! Then let’s go ahead with it, Lumi!” Jeanne said, sounding delighted.
Dang, Hakuya was never that soft when he worked for me. Well, she was his wife, after all, so go figure, I guessed.
Princess Elulu, who’d been listening in, clapped her hands in excitement. “Let’s do it, Father! Now our country will have airmail too!”
“I know, Elulu, so settle down,” Garula said with a wry smile.
“Hee hee, now I can visit Sir Shuukin whenever I want!”
“Ahh, ah ha ha...”
Shuukin and Garula exchanged awkward smiles in response to the energetic princess.
“Whoa, whoa, are we the only ones being left out?!” Kuu suddenly interjected. “I want the dragon knights to come to my place too!”
“But dragons can’t fly through the cold air currents over the Republic, remember?” I reminded him.
“Then just have them fly to the Zem Region. I’ll build roads connecting us to there.”
“In that case, how about extending an airway south from the circuit around the Star Dragon Mountain Range? We could take it along the former border between us and the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State, and then trace our border with Zem. Though, that would also mean running it along our borders with both the Euphoria Kingdom and the Kingdom of Lastania.”
“Sure! Sounds great, bro!”
And just like that, the airways of the Dragon Knight Kingdom were settled.
In the near future, air routes would circle the continent with the Star Dragon Mountain Range at the center—and someday, perhaps, they would even stretch across the entire southern hemisphere.
In time, I hoped to establish airways along the borders of the other nations as well. However, connecting to Haalga would take more time, since it served as a gateway to the northern hemisphere. For quarantine reasons, we had to prevent the spread of mysterious illnesses like Magic Bug Disease, whether brought back from the north or carried up into it.
But that was something we could all figure out together later.
“Come to think of it,” I said, “we’re still calling it ‘the airmail service provided by the dragon knights of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom.’ That’s kind of a mouthful, huh? Have you come up with a proper name for it yet?”
When I asked Madam Sill, she crossed her arms and groaned in thought.
“Well...the airway goes around the world in a ring shape, though it’s a bit warped. How about...Dragon Ring Airline?”
“Dragon Ring Airline... That might work.”
The airline code would be DRA. It could be read phonetically, had a nice dragon-y sound to it, and seemed pretty solid. Or so I thought...
“Isn’t it still a bit long?” Liscia asked. “Something shorter would be easier to say.”
“Hmm...” Madam Sill got a thoughtful look. “Then how about we take the first syllables and shorten it to Driaila?”
“Sounds a lot like ‘drill,’” Kuu chimed in, clapping his hands. “Why not use the ‘gon’ from ‘dragon’ instead of ‘dra’? Keep it snappy, like three syllables. So...”
Wait. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. And I was right.
“Gorilla! How about Gorilla Airways?” Kuu suggested proudly.
Wait, hold on! I knew it! A ridiculous name like that is no good! Or so I thought...until I saw Madam Sill considering it with a straight face.
“Gorilla... Gorilla, you say...”
“No, um, that’s kind of...”
“Yes. I quite like the ring of it. Gorilla.”
“Wait, seriously?! You’re okay with that?!”
Oh, right. There aren’t any gorillas in this world. At the monster symposium, I’d almost called an ogre a gorilla before correcting myself to shoujou. That meant no one here had a mental image of a giant primate when they heard the word gorilla. That’s why no one thought it was a strange name for an airline. Except me.
So, technically, it wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t...or shouldn’t have been a problem. Hrmm...
“What have you been groaning about over there?” Liscia asked, giving me a cold look as I sat clutching my head while everyone else warmly congratulated Madam Sill on finding such a “good” name. Well... What’s done is done. In a world moving towards globalization, it wouldn’t do for me to rain on everyone’s parade.
I’d just have to keep it to myself that, from now on, every time I used the dragon knight delivery service... I’d probably be picturing a gorilla.
—And so, Gorilla Airways opened for business.
After the summit concluded, the busy leaders all returned to their respective countries, but our group from the Kingdom of Friedonia had received a personal invitation from Madam Sill.
It was me, Liscia, Naden, and our guards Halbert and Ruby. The five of us were escorted to a reception room by Madam Sill herself after the meeting.
“I’m sorry. I need to go get changed, so please wait here,” she said before leaving the room with her partner, Pai. We took our seats on the sofas and drank the tea prepared by the castle’s maids as we waited.
“I wonder what she wants to talk about,” Liscia said between sips of tea. “Is it something about Gorilla Airways?”
“Bwugh!”
Hearing that name out of nowhere, I choked and spat out my tea.
Naden, sitting across from Liscia, flinched slightly, then shot me a reproachful look as if to say, What was that about, all of a sudden?
Coughing, I managed to say, “Ahh, sorry. I don’t think it’s that. If there were any adjustments to be made to the airways, we’d have handled that at the summit with all the leaders present.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Liscia agreed.