218-212  flight




 After leaving Melatni's Adventurer's Guild and walking further out of the city, we walked about three hundred meters down the city road and then stepped into a grassy field away from the city road.

 Then Lionel took out an amphibian from his magic bag, but as I watched, I had the impression that an amphibian was going to fly out of it.
 How can something so big fit in there?
 I was once again impressed by the awesomeness of the magic bag, but that impression was drowned out by a frothing voice next to me.

 ''Oh! This is awesome. Does it really fly? Dolan's husband makes great stuff, doesn't he?
 Hmm. It was Master Luciel who prepared the ingredients. And much credit goes to Lord Blod for raising it.
 With a huff, Master paid tribute to Dolan, and Dolan was also shy as he praised Master, who had raised me, and the two of them were completely on good terms with each other.

''Master, are you really going to the Holy City with us?''
 Master stayed up all night doing paperwork and was asleep after fighting me when Garba reported to him that he had woken up.
 And he was reluctant to let me return to the Holy City. But as soon as I told him about the amphibian, he invoked his power, saying, "I'm definitely going to go too.
 But even though Mr. Galba and Mr. Gruger squeezed me stiffly last night, Master doesn't learn his lesson, does he?
 I wasn't the only one who felt that Gruger-san should be the master of Meratni's Adventurer's Guild.

''Oh. I've made sure Grugar is well informed, so it'll be fine.
Have you gotten their approval?
'That can be anything later. Besides, you won't see Galva in a panic anytime soon.
 One icy face appears behind his master with an icy smile behind him as he grins at him.
'It's in bad taste, Brod. If you're so bored, you can leave it to your training and I won't help you with the paperwork if you turn it over to us.
 Yes, that's Mr. Galba.
 Even though the morning sun was out and it was bright, I didn't notice Galba-san's appearance until halfway through the conversation.
''.......When did you take the back?''
'This is when you're having a good time, Brod. You've done a bad thing to Grugar this time.
'Why don't I buy you something to take back to the Holy City?
 Master blithely told Mr. Galba that.
 Mr. Galba had to laugh at his master's split mindedness, too.

 I decided to ask Dolan a question about what was interesting about the amphibian, because I knew I would be a bush snake if I talked to the two men.
'When I saw this one flying through the air yesterday, I think it was well controlled, but does it not shake much inside either?'
 It's a good idea to have a wind barrier deployed on this amphibian, so it rarely shakes. But it will be defenseless against flying demons. Just keep in mind that in the worst case scenario, someone may have to go and defeat it.
 Something pretty important jumped out of Dolan's mouth, but wouldn't that make me the only one who could fly? I'm going to think about it here without saying it out loud.

 If my masters' level hadn't fallen, they would have been able to do something with flying slashes.
 
 "If we put an area barrier on this airship, won't we be able to escape?
 ''Hmmm. I suppose an ordinary demon could do that, but if a pterodactyl (wyvern) comes out, I don't know what will happen.
I'll go for the pterodactyl, but otherwise, please.
 I'm sure there will be no problem with the dragon species.
 I'm sure there's something like that in my mind.
 However, it's my true feeling that I don't want to fight if at all possible.

 As a back-up technique, I also thought about spraying object X and advancing, but I don't think I should do that as a human being.
 If a person were to accidentally pass through the vicinity of the amphibian, they might destroy their nose and eyes indiscriminately, and there is also the danger of strange plants growing in the area.
 I still decided to keep the spraying of object X in my mind.

 Lionel and the others seemed to have finished checking the safety of the airship and gave me a signal to make sure it wouldn't collapse.
'Well, let's get you inside, shall we?
 With Dolan in the lead, we all made our way into the amphibian.

 As we approached the amphibian, a round circle of lifters came down to raise and lower us to get inside, as if it were an anti-personnel sensor.
'This is the principle of a magic elevator, right?
'That's right. Unbeknownst to me, Paula and Lythian had altered it, and I stuttered right away.
 It's mischievously high performance, but it's certainly useful if you have it, and I guess it feels like you can't get mad at it.
 I decided to let it go first this time, as it seemed to be able to raise and lower about five or six people at a time with room to spare.

 As the lift ascended, I was surprised at the size of the amphibian's interior.
 It was even larger inside than it looked from the outside, or at least unusually so.
'Could this be...'
Spatial Expansion!
 It was a smug Paula who answered my muttering with a smug look on her face.
 But before I could smile at the smug face, I was lightly confused.
 The Master and Doran who were supposed to be riding with me earlier were gone, and Paula, Lisian, Nadia and Lydia were on the lift.
''Oh, where are Master and Doran?''
'All but the owner, Luciel, are ladies first. Grandpa and Grandpa are second.
 I honestly think it's awesome that Paula is like that, calling her mentor an old man.
 But when did they switch them around? I didn't notice it at all as my eyes fell on the airship.
 Dwarves are full of wonders, so I decided to ask about the inside, telling myself that if I cared about it, I would lose.
'Just because you've learned to expand space doesn't mean this is comparable to a carriage? How big is this thing?
The planes are five times larger, so it's a lot bigger.
 Considering that from the outside, it was less than ten meters long and around seven meters wide, this space was approximately three hundred and fifty square meters.
 This was about three times the size of the Adventurer's Guild's training ground.
''It's too big!''

 It's like a private jet that has been classed as a jumbo jet just inside.
 My tweak made Paula freak out for a moment, but her smug face didn't fall apart.
''Well I'm sorry. I was just a little surprised. Are there other things that have higher performance?''
 When I got my mind back on track and asked, Paula and Lisian decided to give me a tour of the interior as if they were competing with each other.
 First of all, each private room was, of course, equipped with a double bed and a dresser, but surprisingly, it was also equipped with a unit bath.
 There were ten such private rooms, a dining room, a storage room, a demolition space and for some reason, Paula, Lisian's magic tool workshop was set up.
''........was this necessary?''
Of course.
We're going to design and develop a simplified version of our magic cannon here in the future.
Well....
 I couldn't bring myself to say anything more.
 After being shown around, we finally decided to move into the cockpit.
 The entrance to the cockpit was an automatic door, and again, the high performance technology was used for nothing here, but we decided to go through.

 The masters were already in the cockpit, each taking a free seat and sitting down.
'You're late, Luciel,'
"Mr. Luciel, if you can, it would be nice if you could hurry.
 Master couldn't wait to fly and Garba-san would want to get to the Holy City as soon as possible.

''Excuse me. Then let's go as soon as possible.''
'Master Luciel, come over here then. We will set up your personal identification before you fly.
Okay ... hmm? I'm going to fly?
'It's no surprise that it belongs to Luciel-sama. You won't be so hardened. It's not that hard, it's all right.
 Dolan says it like it's nothing, but if it crashes, everyone's lives will be destroyed.
 The thought of it is unbearable.

'The first thing we need to do is set up your personal identification. I need you to pass your magic through this crystal.
 It was embedded on a cylindrical platform, just as Doran had told him to. I put my hand on the semi-circular crystal and let the magic flow through it.
 Then the crystal emitted light and immediately lost its luster.
''It's a mistake?
'No, that's it. Put the magic back in.
 As soon as the amphibian was activated as he was told, the previously invisible view outside jumped into view as soon as it was activated.
 What had been a wall just a few moments ago was indeed a wall, but before I knew it, it had been transformed into tempered glass, allowing me to see 180 degrees in front of me.

 As I was stunned by the sheer power of the technology, Dolan looked at me with a smug smile on his face and began to explain the rest of the story.
If you put your hand on the crystal, the amount of magic power stored in it will come out. The magic power can be replenished from that crystal, and we have a system that allows us to do so in the tech vault where the nucleus is located.
'Is this not just Dolan's power, but the engineers in Rockford?
'Oh. The only reason Rockford wasn't swallowed by ants was because of Master Luciel. Everyone did the best they could, too.
The engineers at Rockford are all very good engineers, aren't they?
 Lord Leinster's creation of Rockford and Nerdal had been a solid achievement.
 I'm sure that the church was the only one that crumbled unlike what he had in mind, probably because of the lack of people to support the Pope and his character, but maybe the biggest problem was that he didn't create an escape route for the Pope.
 Such things vaguely came to mind.

'Finally, the maneuvering, the operation is the same for both levitation and landing, if you lightly push the crystal down, you'll land if you're levitating, and vice versa. There are five forward movement settings, and if you slide your hand in the direction you want to move, you can fly or increase the speed. On the other hand, if you let your hand slide, your speed will decrease. Also, if there is an obstacle in front of you, such as a mountain, you can pull the lever on the left side and you will float further, or vice versa, you will fly low.
 It sounds easier than the manual operation of a car, but it might take some getting used to.
''Well it sounds difficult, but I'll give it a try. But what if those demons you were talking about appear?
I can stop them in mid-air, and I want you to take them down before this amphibian runs out of magic.
 Dolan said that with a straight face.
''Well Doran, I'm expecting a magic cannon.
Click. I'll take care of it, and if you can, you can name this airship.
Yeah, I'll think about it.
 I turned to the others and decided to call out to them.
''Hey guys, sorry for the wait. I'm heading to the Holy City now. It's our first flight, so it might be a bit bumpy, but please take care of us.
 After taking one deep breath, I pushed the crystal in.

 Gradually the view outside rose and I could see the plane float away.
 There was surprisingly no sound, no tremors.

 Then it stopped at a certain height.
 With a high-pitched heartbeat, he moved the hand that placed the crystal forward.
"Amphibians, take off for the Holy City!
 His voice was somehow out of place, but he didn't care about that, and the amphibian began to fly in a flight that lived up to its name.