“And for that reason!” Sasha brandished her sword, raising it toward the sky as she also raised her voice.
In that moment, the thought that crossed my mind was that it sure must have been a lot of work being a princess. They’d dressed her in that ceremonial armor at the crack of dawn, so she was well within her right to tell us off for being greedy.
“In accordance with the Eight Grand Kingdoms’ custom! Those pupils who fly from this spot before the sun hits its peak will be allowed entry into the floating cemetery!”
Sasha herself probably couldn’t care less about the cemetery.
But as she carried out her duties as a princess, the wind fluttering through her silvery-white hair, which glistened in the divine morning rays, made the beautiful girl absolutely breathtaking to all who laid eyes upon her.
Then…
“Only those who will not lament if they are struck down as they make their way to the cemetery should take flight!!”
After we were taken aback for a moment by her encouragement, which sounded a whole lot more like scolding, everyone sprang into action.
“Eye of lightning, piercing the skies, the one who holds the name of a star—”
“Stone plumage, born of flame—”
“Behold Karoma’s gusts. Echoing through the night—”
“Kizma Kazma, carry the rain clouds, the great glass of daybreak—”
Summoning incantations started up all over the roof.
Of course, the place descended to chaos immediately. And that was because the whole area filled with a bunch of spreading wings—of monstrous birds with wingspans of multiple mejals, of wyverns with front legs made of membranous wings, of giant centipedes with dragonfly wings at each joint, of a gigantic demon with a wolf’s head, and much more.
But it wasn’t like all hundred students were gonna just take off into the air at the same time. The chaos only started in the beginning, and eventually, something like a natural order started to form. Once one team went up, then the next would go.
“All right. Guess we should get goin’ soon, too.”
“Wait, Feil—N-no, Myfila. You can’t fall asleep now. Wake up. You need to wake up. Please wake up!”
“Uh…well, it’s not like we’re in a competition to get there sooner,” I said.
Since we couldn’t wake Myfila up after she’d passed out again, we were the last team to take off…by a wide margin.
“All right. We’re heading out, Feil Fonaf. Good luck.”
“Yeah, you too. Don’t go too hard and die out there.”
“I hope that Myfila wakes up for you.”
I watched Lulua gently wave at us before leaving, all three of her teammates riding on the slender neck of a white dragon that had beautiful, long fur instead of scales.
And then…we waited.
For a sec, I was panicking about what we’d do, but finally, Myfila woke up with a “Shut up, Cyril, and don’t tug on my cheek, Feil. I’m actually awake, okay?” Once she was up, she summoned the king of winged creatures: a dragon—or rather, its carcass.
It was the type of thing that the necrospecters could just barely manipulate. Only the strongest and largest necrospecters Myfila could summon were capable of entering its dead body.
Cyril looked up at the giant, jet-black body, which was big enough—if its wings were included—to cover most of the Academy roof, and muttered, “Actually, maybe it really was a blessing we had the last summoning. We’re pretty used to the stench, but…I think this would have sent some people to the infirmary.”
I picked Myfila up by her delicate waist with both my hands and lifted her high into the air.
“Even maggots wouldn’t eat a dragon’s necrotic flesh. I’ve heard the only things that’ll get near ’em are a handful of microbes and necrospecters, so it’s supposed to be cleaner than you think. Some studies suggest that it smells so bad because their remaining abilities to preserve magical reserves go off-kilter.”
Then the dead black dragon extended its neck and lowered its long snout before me and Myfila. It was like it was telling us to get on.
My eyes met its hollow eye socket.
It was covered head to toe in black scales that wouldn’t be damaged very easily by any normal magic. I knew it was a corpse, but it was still pretty intimidating. It could fit three entire horses in its mouth.
It had probably been a majestic ruler of the world’s skies right until the very moment it breathed its last. It might’ve even been a tyrant without much respect for life, for all I knew. A lot of black dragons were known for having violent temperaments.
“Myfila, could you ascend in one go? If the town catches a whiff of this, the Academy’ll get complaints,” I said after climbing onto the dragon and finding a spot that was easy to sit atop its broad back. I grabbed its thick scales and used those to hold myself in place.
“You took your sweet time. Please put yourself in our shoes and think about how we need to catch up to everyone else now.”
When someone said that to us, I turned to find Sasha on her pegasus overhead.
“Sorry it took so long,” I told her. “Are ya gonna catch up to the first group right now?”
“I do need to help those who drop out, of course.”
“You’re somethin’ else, ya know that? First, you see everybody off as a royal family member, then you’ve gotta go around as the Academy’s number one and clean up after everyone who gets eliminated. Sounds like a weekend down the drain.”
“I have little choice in the matter. This is my lot in life.”
“I’ve got no clue when they started havin’ the top-ranking team do the dropout recovery, but it sure seems like you got the raw end of the deal.”
“It’s a better deal than losing a precious summoner. It is merciless over there, after all.”
“We’ll do our best to not add to your burden.”
“Yes, I would certainly appreciate it. Cecelia and I would have some qualms carrying the three of you in our arms now that this stench has permeated through you.”
She smiled, looking a little worried. We waited until her pegasus was safely out of the way before letting the dragon corpse flap its wings.
It shot straight into the air, all three of us on it. I waved at Sasha below from the dragon’s back. Then Sasha waved to me like a princess—go figure.
“See ya, Sasha!”
“We’re sorry for causing a delay!”
“Buh-bye!”
After just five flaps of its wings, we were above the clouds. The morning air was ridiculously clear, and I felt I could almost make out the deep purple of the starry night, which lingered at the edge of the sky.
Suddenly, the dragon carcass’s neck writhed as it let loose a ferocious roar.
It had probably been the necrospecters that’d crawled into the dragon doing that, but the low growl still vividly made me imagine the dragon as it must have been while alive. Then its giant black wings changed course to head west.
“Hey, Cyril, how long do ya think it takes to get to the graveyard?”
“Well…the wind’s pretty strong today, so I think an hour and a half would be a sensible estimate.”
“Urk. But I’m already feelin’ pretty chilly. Also, there’s no bathroom on this dragon.”
“Well, of course not… This isn’t some royal’s wyvern boat.”
“You can pee over there somewhere, if you wanna,” Myfila offered.
“Aw, well… Suppose nobody’s goin’ to be around in the middle of the woods or on the top of a mountain.”
It wasn’t even a long trip or a harrowing journey. But thinking of the “trial” that awaited me an hour and a half from now was enough to give me a case of nervous bladder. The one saving grace was the beautiful sky spread out before me.