075: Encounter in the Sky

December 5, 2020 - 12 minutes read - 2525 words

“Ah, I really did it. What do I do now?” Shelka

Shelka is frozen and is muttering things as she watch Bran keel over like a dead frog. She was all fired up trying to punish us from her shame, but she is catatonic after knocking out the unrelated party of Bran. Bran is a complete disappointment, but he’s the eldest son of a Count family. He just got stunned by a Duke’s daughter, Shelka knocked him out with Wind Magic!

Is he unsuited for the real world?

So did I win the duel?

I don’t think I have a reputation, but would I get a bad reputation now? We didn’t do a good job setting up the rules for this weird duel. Eric and I look at each other and shrug.

“Ms. Shelka should take care of him” Al

“Yes, yes” Eric

We can leave Shelka behind and Bran will get picked up, perfect. Unfortunately, Shelka has come to her senses.

“Ugh, you guys are about to start running again.” Shelka

Shelka looks at us with suspicious eyes, she’s probably seen our intentions. Still, doesn’t she have some sense of responsibility for the guy she ko’d? Why is look so angry when I answer ‘Yes’? Shouldn’t she be more angry at Eric, he has the more annoying face of the two of us?

“You’ve done it now, take responsibility!” Eric

Eric is provoking Shelka, but will that work?

“Hey Alfred! Are you making fun of me with that face?” Shelka

“This is my normal face!” Al

I got angry, what is she talking about? Why aren’t you retorting at Eric?

“Well, that’s Al. He’s that kind of sloppy, even his face gets it.” Eric

“Ok, let’s duel Eric!” Al

I pick up the wooden sword Bran dropped and hold it out. I need it settle things with Eric at least once. I feel like I’ve learned some things about dueling from Bran.

“Stop, just drop the wooden sword. It’s dangerous and a bad joke.” Eric

“Weren’t you joking about my face?” Al

“Well, Ms. Shelka, can you take care of him? You did arrive in a carriage, will that be fine?” Eric

Eric brushes away my duel request and ignores my words. How dare he!

“Ugh, fine” Shelka

For the time being, we lean the unconscious Bran again the wall along with the wooden sword he was carrying. The bystanders have regained their usual calm and go about their business. That’s pretty quick.

Soon, Shelka’s carriage arrived at where we were. Shelka had used magic conspicuously, so it would be easy to find us. If you ask anyone where the angry magic girl went, they’ll point you to us right away. The only issue was when we ducked down the side street, so the carriage had to find a detour. When the carriage arrived, the maid exited from the carriage. Shelka has a guilty look as the maid exits.

“Shelka and Lana apologize for the inconvenience today.” the Maid says as she bows lightly.

“But, give me a little slack!” Shelka

“Shelka, except for an emergency, it is forbidden to use offensive magic in the city. You know that, right?” Maid

Shelka grumbles some, but doesn’t try to interject. It seems the maid has calmed down Shelka. Maybe the maid is also the tutor for Shelka and Ra-chan? Shelka is not trying to talk back.

“But, you know, my underwear…” Shelka

“This incident was caused by Lana. Well, if someone saw my Lady’s underwear, she should have done something like a slap.” Maid

Eric and I are worried that we’ll be slapped in a second, so we both retreat a few steps. Would she slap all the guys around her? That would be surreal.

“Would you have done that, Riel?” Shelka

“No, I would hit him with a good punch. Well, my maid outfit has a long skirt, so the breeze wouldn’t affect me.” Riel

The maid Riel seems like she could and would do it, what a presence. She turns around and puts the unconscious Bran on her shoulder, then heads for the carriage. It’s like she’s carrying a sack of potatoes, even though her build is on the thin side, I can’t see any strain from her. How much power is built into her body?

“Oh, yeah. Be careful on your return? Freed…” Shelka tells us as she turns to face us.

“Return?” Al

When I asked, Shelka smiled mischievously while fluttering her hair.

“Those are strange words for a Duke’s daughter, who is Freed?” Al

“It’s just refreshing for me.” Shelka

I don’t know of anyone named Freed. Is that someone connected to Bran? While Eric and I were thinking on the words, Ra-chan appeared at the window of the carriage. Her eyes seem a bit teary and red, she’s probably been disciplined some on the way over. When she saw us, she smiled and waved, it’s really cute. If at all possible, don’t grow up to be as ferocious as your sister. We waved back as the carriage slowly left.

“Well, the play should start in the evening. We can arrive early, but there’s plenty of time before then. We can use side streets to get there quickly.” Eric

Eric make an attempt to return to the area of the rotten women, that’s really ignorant and scary.

“Wait! It’s fine to take shortcuts, but let’s take a normal road this time! It’s dangerous there!” Al

I’m not sure how to escape when I’m not familiar with the area. Could we escape by acting like young girls instead?

“Don’t worry so much, it’s just a shortcut. What’s the problem? Are you afraid of the dark?” Eric

Eric laughs when he misunderstands my trepidation. Idiot. These are things scarier than darkness.

“No! Something worse than that…” Al

I thought I would have time to explain the situation, but before I could, I heard a woman’s voice.

“I saw them! That boy!” Rotten Woman A

“They’re pretty similar! To think it could happen…” Rotten Woman B

“The loose eyes that invite another man! It’s rare to see a boy with such eyes!” Rotten Woman A

“No doubt. Freed” Rotten Woman B

“Where are they, Zion? I wanted to see the couple.” Freed

There are some of the rotten women ahead of Eric’s path.

“What are they saying? Invite? Couple? They make no sense!” Eric

Eric may be naive, but he’s starting to realize the danger.

“Ah! They’re already nearby. This is why I wanted to escape quickly! Come over here! I’ll get us away!” Al

“Oh, ok?” Eric

I take Eric’s hand and start running. Behind us, I can hear the rotten women making their weird comments, but I can’t stop them. My current priority is to escape this situation as soon as possible.

It feels like I’m just running away today, I just wanted to walk around the royal capital normally for once.

“Hey, what’s going on here? The people are so small…” Eric

It looks like Eric is nervous about our altitude. Since I was familiar with the horrors of the strange women, I got a little distance and escaped to the sky. Since the capital is more built up than Koriat Village, I ended up climbing to a fairly high height. Looking down, I can only see people as small dots now.

“Hey, what would happen if you fell? You’d die, right?” Eric

“It’s fine. I’m good at this magic. It’s just an alternate application of the Shield magic I used earlier.” Al

Eric crawls around on all fours, and tests the magic by hitting it with his fists. Even though I explained it wouldn’t fail, his complexion is still pale. You would think he would have realized it was strong, since it was able to block Shelka’s magic.

“Hey, isn’t this dangerous? If you fell from here, there’s no way to be saved!” Eric

“Don’t worry so much. Look around at the view, it’s a waste if you don’t enjoy it.” Al

“Can you make the Shield magic bigger? I’m worried I can fall off at this rate.” Eric

Eric makes a good point, so I’ll increase the size of the Shield magic. It should be around 3.2 meters on each side now, Eric shouldn’t have to worry. Since Eric is finally standing up, I’ll look around at the royal capital.

The cityscape of the royal capital spreads out from the central plaza in a circle shape. A river runs through a portion of the city, you get a sense of the river’s large size from this vantage point. The roofs of the buildings are lined up neatly along the roads. You can see the boulevards that are the main thoroughfares for the capital leading away from the central plaza where me met. I wonder if I can spot the inn I’m staying at?

I definitely can’t spot Koriat Village from here. It’s blocked by forests and mountains from here. It’s a bit chilly and windy here, but the view is astounding. I should go on a picnic in the sky when I get back to Koriat Village, the food must be delicious with this kind of view. I could bring along Thor and Asmo, wait, let’s not bring Asmo. I don’t think he’ll break the Shield magic, but I don’t want any bad luck after he broke the ice in winter. It would spoil the meal.

I can see people and carriages in line for the gates, as well as guards and knights running around in various places. However, the most eye-catching structure has to be the Misfilt royal castle. We’re high up, but the castle is even taller. I don’t want to go higher, it might be blasphemous to look down on the royal family.

I’m curious about what is going on in the castle, so I strengthen my eyesight with magic energy. I can see an old man in a fancy robe walking down a corridor on the third floor, with many people following him. I wonder if that is the king?

At the same time, a middle-aged man with a crown is sneaking down a corridor on the second floor. Huh? Is the sneaking man the actual king? He does have a crown, wears fancy clothes, and has the same blonde hair as Princess Cordelia. Well, I can’t count on that, the king does have multiple wives. While trying to figure him out, I noticed a girl in another room.

Suddenly I was drawn to that girl and focused my line of sight on her. She was looking in my direction, but that doesn’t mean she’s able to see me. There were maids and knights who were looking in my general direction, but she’s the only one who seems to be looking at me.

She has deep sea blue eyes under silky blonde hair make her so beautiful you’d stop breathing for a second. I can only see her shoulders and above, but it seems she’s dressed in a blue dress. The complementing colors bring out her attractiveness even more, though her well-proportioned face is currently surprised, as her mouth is half open. Few are good enough a magic control to strengthen their eyesight, but is she one of them. When I waved to her, the girl quickly turned around.

It seems I must have been mistaken. Over that distance, there’s no way she could see me unaided, so I must have been overthinking things. It’s uncomfortable to be seen like this, so it’s time to get back to ground level.

“Hey, Eric. It’s time to descend.” Al

“Oh, finally. How do we do that?” Eric

Eric is still anxious about the place we are, I can see it in his face.

“We just run back down.” Al

A room in Misfilt Castle

The third princess Leila was sitting in a wheelchair and staring at the sky. To be exact, a person in the sky.

“Can people walk in the sky?” Leila

“No, that’s impossible, right?” Maid

A female maid with pink hair laughs at Leila’s question, while peeking at the sky through the window. She has a motherly expression, stemming from her gentle eyes.

“Are you trying develop some jokes, Leila?” Maid

“No, Sariyah, I wasn’t joking.” Leila

“Ok, I’m brewing some tea, you’re thirsty, right?” Sariyah

Leila turns her wheelchair to try to explain herself, but Sariyah walks off to the tea cart. There’s a good relationship between the maid and the third princess, like a parent and child.

“You know me.” Leila

Leila gives up on trying to explain what she’s seeing to Sariyah, as she’s engrossed in making tea. Leila looks out the window again, using magic to enhance her vision. When magic energy is properly gathered in the eyes, distant objects can be magnified and clarified. As she does that, she realizes that there are two boys in the sky, one of which is clinging onto the other. The one that is being clinged to waves to her.

Leila has no idea what they’re doing there, or how they’re walking in the sky, but she bets they’re having fun. What kind of sights could a person see from that place? Since Leila can’t walk or move around freely, she envied the two of them.

Have I ever laughed like those two? I wish I could run around and laugh like them?

Leila looked down at her legs, that don’t move for her. When she tries to move them like her arms, they just don’t listen. It’s like they’re not part of her body. Leila was depressed earlier today, but it seems spotting the boys in the sky cheered her up. Their cheerful frolics were infectious.

Leila looks back at the sky, and wonders how they got up there. Did they get up there with magic? The boy Leila saw must be a magician, the other one probably isn’t. It’s impossible to make them out from the castle without strengthening vision like Leila.

Leila guesses that they got up there using Shield magic, since it looks like there’s a large square object under them. Most people could understand the theory of using Shield magic to climb up as footholds. Leila had read about experiments that attempted to use Shield magic in that way, but none of the experiments were successful. The problem is that a magician needs to specify strength, size, duration and placement for each shield, and on top of that, the magician needs significant magical energy to make all the Shield magics. To use Shield magic to get up there, you’d need to be better than a court mage, or some other method had to be used. Whether by creativity or magic energy, that’s an insane talent.

“Tea is ready!” Sariyah

“Oh, thank you. Leave it there.” Leila

Leila looks over to Sariyah to respond, but when she looks back out the window, the boys are gone.

“Eh? Disappeared?” Leila

There was no one there, all that is there is the royal city under an endless blue sky. It’s as if there were never any boys in the sky…