Beepbeepbeepbeep! Beepbeepbeepbeep!
At the nonstop blaring alarm, the captain manipulated the controls and shouted.
“Damn it, what’s the target?”
“Analysis of the mana pattern shows a flock of sky rays. Around thirty of them.”
“...Hoo.”
The captain let out a deep breath, as though setting one worry aside.
Well, if it was monsters, encountering them during flight wasn’t strange at all.
He stared at the red dots floating on the radar and muttered.
“That’s unexpected. I thought sky rays only appeared in the southern regions.”
“That’s not the case. Some species live in lakes near the center of the continent.”
“...Why do you know so much?”
“I’m pretty interested in flying creatures.”
The first officer shrugged.
“Did you know there were attempts in the past to raise sky rays and conquer the skies?”
“Really?”
“Yes. Their top speed reaches 250 kilometers per hour, after all. Though no matter how much they trained them, they couldn’t fly longer than ten minutes, so it failed.”
“You’re practically a scholar. A sky ray scholar.”
“You flatter me.”
The first officer, observing the radar, chuckled softly.
“This kinda makes me feel bad for no reason. If you think about it, we’re the ones barging into the territory where they’d been living peacefully.”
“Can’t be helped. The route from Rouen to the capital’s already been decided, so once they get used to it, they’ll avoid us on their own. I heard they’re fairly intelligent.”
“Hopefully.”
Beepbeepbeep! Beepbeepbeep!
The cockpit was still filled with warning beeps, and the red light refused to turn off.
“First, turn that damn noise off. It’s driving me insane.”
“Please don’t worry. Once we move farther away from the flock of sky rays, the warning sound should naturally deactivate, hm?”
At that moment, the first officer frowned after noticing something.
“What the hell is this? Did it malfunction or something?”
“What? What is it?”
“Well... the flock of sky rays isn’t disappearing from the detection magic’s range.”
“What?”
The captain, who had been looking forward, slowly turned his head.
Just as the first officer said, the red dots displayed on the radar by the 『Scan』 spell weren’t disappearing.
“Check the magic formula. There wasn’t any issue during inspection, right?”
“No. There were no problems when we checked before takeoff... Could it have overloaded and frozen after suddenly detecting such a large number of monsters?”
Thinking about it rationally, it was entirely possible.
Though this massive airship looked sluggish on the outside, in truth it was the culmination of civilization itself, loaded with hundreds of advanced magitech systems and the essence of White Tower magic.
One or two unverified errors appearing wasn’t impossible.
Beep! Beep!
“Hm?”
At that moment, the first officer tilted his head.
“Was I mistaken? The red dots just now... I think they moved?”
“You sure you didn’t see wrong? Check again.”
“Yes, I’ll observe a bit longer.”
The first officer stared intently at the radar.
Then suddenly, he jolted in shock.
“T-They’re moving! These things! They’re definitely moving! They’re even getting closer!”
“What?”
The captain’s face stiffened.
Without realizing it, he checked the instrument panel.
“That’s impossible... We’re flying at 350 kilometers per hour right now?”
Meanwhile, the maximum speed of a sky ray was around 250 kilometers per hour.
Which meant those sky rays were variants far faster than previously known.
At that moment, the first officer discovered something and shouted.
“This is insane! Captain, there are people riding on top of the monsters!”
“What?”
The captain’s face twisted as he glared at the radar.
‘Did they hide their mana as much as possible so only the sky rays would be detected?’
If they were the sort of people to do that, there was no way they were approaching with good intentions.
The captain shouted.
“Connect the announcement system! We need to get the passengers back to their seats first!”
“Understood!”
Suppressing his agitation, the captain evacuated the passengers to their seats with the calmest voice he could manage.
The official reason given was that they had encountered a flock of monsters and turbulence was expected, so passengers were requested to return to safety.
“What about the passengers?”
“I believe almost all of them have returned to their seats!”
“In that case...”
The captain pushed the lever all the way forward.
Kuuuuuuung!
At the same time, the airship’s output surged to maximum, breaking past 400 kilometers per hour.
This was the highest speed the first-generation Nospella could produce.
“Deploy defensive magic at maximum power, and activate the interception system.”
“Yes!”
The first officer pressed several buttons in sequence.
Then sticks popped out from both sides.
Gripping them tightly, the first officer put on interception goggles and locked onto the targets.
He pressed the button with his thumb.
“Commence firing!”
Kwaaaaaaaa!
A massive mana cannon was fired from the artillery mounted along the airship’s exterior.
“The targets?”
“Confirmed six mana signatures eliminated from the radar! Twenty-four remaining!”
“Good, keep intercepting them!”
The captain’s eyebrows twitched with anger.
“Make them pay for daring to target a White Tower airship.”
“Yes!”
Kwaaaang!
Every time a mana cannon fired, a red dot vanished from the radar.
The passengers seated in their chairs watched the scene vaguely and nodded in amazement.
“Whoa, the airship’s got stuff like that attached to it?”
“Look at those beams of light shooting out... that’s incredible.”
“Hm?”
At that moment, a child staring at the falling monsters tugged at his mother’s sleeve.
“Mother, it’s a person!”
“Hm? A person?”
The mother lowered her head to look out the window and smiled faintly.
“That’s not a person, dear. It’s a monster called a sky ray.”
“No... it really was a person....”
Just as the child’s muttering faded away—
all the glass showing the outside scenery was replaced by walls.
Kuuuuung!
At the same time, the airship shook, and an announcement echoed out.
-This airship has encountered turbulence alongside a monster flock... shaking is expected. Passengers are requested to fasten their seatbelts and refrain from moving around.
After quickly reassuring the passengers, the captain shut off the announcement and asked.
“What’s the current situation?”
“Tch, these bastards are chasing us relentlessly.”
The first officer pulled off his goggles roughly and spoke while sweating.
“The mana cannon barrels have overheated, so they need time to cool down. Can’t we increase speed any further?”
“This is the limit. How the hell are sky rays moving at that speed...?”
Sensing strong doubt from the captain, the first officer replied.
“Still, don’t we only need to hold out for about ten minutes?”
“No, we can’t even be sure of that.”
That speed had already surpassed common sense.
Which meant they couldn’t blindly trust the idea that sky rays could only fly for around ten minutes either.
The captain swallowed dryly.
“But as long as the defensive magic remains intact, they can’t infiltrate from outside.”
“That’s right. If we keep intercepting them like this, time is on our side.”
But why?
Why did he feel so uneasy?
Without realizing it, the captain spoke.
“Check the internal situation through the observation crystal orb.”
“Understood.”
Tak, tatak!
As the first officer rapidly pressed buttons, dozens of screens appeared before his eyes.
Each area of the ship was displayed in crystal-clear quality.
“The seating areas are safe for now. Nobody’s standing or wandering around... though there are three empty seats.”
“Those are probably the disguised passengers deployed by the Imperial Family.”
The captain and first officer also knew disguised soldiers existed aboard.
However, they didn’t know exactly how many there were or which seats they occupied.
That was to eliminate even the slightest possibility of information leaking.
“Find their positions.”
“Yes. The soldiers are guarding the deck for now, the restaurant is safe as well. And... huh?”
The first officer’s pupils trembled slightly.
He had discovered two corpses on one of the screens.
“Shit! We found bodies! Judging by their appearance, they seem to be Imperial disguised soldiers!”
“What? Send soldiers to that location immediately!”
The instant the captain gave the order—
Beep! Beep! Beep!
A new warning sound, one they hadn’t heard before, rang through the cockpit.
The two men, both aware of what the sound meant, unconsciously looked at each other.
Normally, the defensive magic that blocked outside interference was controlled from the cockpit.
However, in emergencies, the airship possessed an ‘Emergency Barrier Release Lever’ capable of partially deactivating that barrier for passenger safety.
The sound now blaring madly meant someone had pulled it down and opened part of the barrier.
“Captain, this is...”
“Yeah.”
The enemies not only knew who the Imperial disguised soldiers were, but even knew first-class confidential information about the airship.
Which meant information had leaked from somewhere.
“What did you just say?”
Oscar, who had been waiting at The Central Airport in the capital, asked.
The one who answered him was the airport director.
“The airships’ movements are strange.”
“In what way exactly?”
“The policy for civilian airships is to maintain a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, but they’ve already surpassed 400 kilometers per hour.”
That was certainly strange.
The captains had no reason to take such risks just to arrive early.
“I’ll confirm it myself. But you said airship‘s’?”
“Yes. All four airships that departed for the capital today have exceeded 400 kilometers per hour. Their signals were cut off ten minutes ago as well.”
Oscar’s expression grew slightly serious.
“You can’t establish communication?”
“We haven’t been able to contact any of the four since earlier.”
“Understood for now.”
Naturally, he pulled a personal communication device from his coat.
It was shared only among certain people within the Imperial Family and the White Tower, allowing direct contact with the Imperial disguised soldiers.
[The communication has ended due to no response from the other party.]
All the disguised soldiers dispatched to the four ships had gone silent.
No matter how optimistically one interpreted it, they were likely incapacitated—or in the worst case, dead.
At that point, even Oscar’s gaze turned cold.
‘Interesting.’
This was blatant terrorism.
Someone had illegally seized White Tower airships in midair.
Fidelina, who had been listening to the two converse, spoke with a pale face.
“W-Wait, then the VIPs who were supposed to arrive at the capital today too...”
“There’s a high chance they were the main targets.”
Oscar stared at the map displayed on the wall of the airport director’s office.
Normally, each airship’s current location should’ve been displayed as blinking dots.
But the absence of blinking meant the other side had unilaterally cut the signals.
“They do seem to be heading here for now.”
“What? That’s impossible. Do you know how many soldiers are stationed at this airport and around the capital?”
“The more, the better.”
The people who seized the airships never deviated from the flight route until the last recorded position.
Which meant they were indeed heading toward the capital.
“Perhaps... they’re considering the worst possible move.”
“The worst possible move? What’s that?”
“On the first day of airship operations, if all four airships crashed into the capital... wouldn’t that be horrifying?”
Imagining the scene, Fidelina staggered as though dizzy.
“T-That’s impossible. If something like that happened...”
“We would lose everything in an instant.”
The airships carried VIPs from across the continent.
Not only the greatest authorities in every field, but even royalty and nobility were aboard.
The moment they all died on the same day, the White Tower would be stained with an irredeemable disgrace.
‘That’s probably beyond even Uncle Emperor’s ability to cover up.’
If things went wrong, even he could suffer backlash.
After all, Uncle Emperor had supported the White Tower and invested generously into the airships and the business itself.
‘Assuming the Imperial disguised soldiers were taken down, then information leaked.’
Since every passenger had passed through checkpoints, the airships couldn’t have been seized solely by people inside.
In that case, there was a high probability they also had support forces outside.
‘If information about the Imperial disguised soldiers leaked, then they’d know about the Emergency Barrier Release Lever too.’
The enemy was even thoroughly wary of his spatial magic.
That was likely one reason they seized all four ships instead of just one.
Oscar loosened his tie slightly with a hardened expression and rose from his seat.
“I’ll go resolve this.”
The moment those words ended—
his figure vanished like a ghost.

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