Chapter 394: Together

Jin’s airship slowly landed at the center of the square after it flew over Tosmo Lake for about 10 minutes.

He felt relieved. He did the demonstration without a rehearsal, but it went unexpectedly well. In his pocket was something Laojun handed to him before he left.

(He said it was imbued with weight ultra-lightening magic, but I’m glad I didn’t have to use it.)

Although Gravity Magic was still under an analytical study, he managed to reproduce Weight Reduction.

Even if the airship crashed, utilizing this magic would reduce the weight to almost zero and prevent injuries.

As the airship landed, the audience exploded into applause and cheers.

“Take me for the next ride!”

“No, me first!”

“Me!!”

The arena became chaotic due to people fighting to go for the next ride.

“W-wow, this is amazing.”

Saki was also being pulled a little while she was disembarking.

People seemed to have a dream to fly in the sky.

“Please be quiet!”

The announcer at the venue was screaming but was drowned by the voices of the audience.

At that moment …

“Be quiet!”

The voice of the Empress echoed throughout the arena.

It was undoubtedly a voice of authority. The audience in the venue calmed and quieted down.

“I understand your feelings. But please maintain order!”

Looking at the time allotted for his demonstration, he could only take one more volunteer for a ride. Even though there were dissatisfied visitors, he managed to get their acceptance of the situation.

And then the next volunteer for the test-drive was selected. The Empress would appoint a name. There was no other selection method that the audience would accept.

The Empress appointed an elderly nobleman. Jin was not personally acquainted with him.

But Saki seemed to know him and showed astonishment in her expression for a split second. She immediately turned her face away and returned to the arena. Even though she seemed to know him, she definitely did not have a good impression of him.

On the contrary, the nobleman seemed wanting to say something to Saki. But she ran off without giving him a chance to say a word.

The nobleman was bald with an indiscriminately tall physique. But he was terribly thin, and his complexion was not very good. His bodyweight seemed to be very light.

“I’ll be in your care.”

The nobleman nodded to Jin courteously and slowly boarded the airship.

“O-okay, let’s go.”

Jin ascended the airship again. Until they reached altitude, the nobleman silently gazed at the ground.

(This is awkward …)

Jin was troubled about what to say. But to his surprise, the nobleman broke the ice and started to talk to Jin.

“Um, did you say your name is Jin? This is an outstanding vehicle.”

“Y-yes, thank you. It’s called an airship.”

“I see. You mentioned that a while ago. It certainly is a ship that flies in the sky. The vehicle called ‘Hot Flying Ball’ that raided Klein Kingdom and Egelia Kingdom would be inferior to this vehicle, wouldn’t it?”

“Pardon me, but perhaps do you have military relations?”

Jin asked him out of curiosity because his attitude toward Jin was gentle, but his aura was somewhat different.

“Um, I haven’t introduced myself yet. I am Marquess Gueren Theodoric von Eisen. I’m retired now, but I was a lieutenant general in the military.”

“…!”

He was Saki’s grandfather that said he wanted Elsa to be his wife. However, the impression was quite different from what Jin had heard. He seemed serious and did not seem to throw his weight around.

“Pardon me, but how fast can this airship go? Would you show me the maximum speed?”

“Y-yes.”

Jin set the Magi Propulsion Device to its maximum output. The airship sailed through the wind. It picked up quite a speed since it was supported by a weak tailwind as well.

“Oh, it’s fast! It’s about 100 kilometers per hour, isn’t it?”

In this world, vehicles that could run as fast as 100 kilometers per hour were almost nonexistent. Horses could run as fast as about 70 kilometers per hour.

He was supposed to be surprised by it, but the Marquess was persistently calm in giving his assessment. The Empress might have selected him based on this reason.

“How far can it fly?”

“Well, I’ve never tried it, but as long as there’s no problem with the people on board, I think it could fly forever.”

But since water supply and provisions could be a problem, if it flew for about 12 hours with a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, then it would travel 1,200 kilometers. It was a reasonable distance.

“Hmm, how much weight can it carry?”

“Let’s see. It can carry about 6 people. In terms of weight, it would be up to about 500 kilograms.”

“Hmm, that’s not quite enough.”

As expected, he was thinking of military applications for the airship after all.

A Hot Flying Ball could carry 200 kilograms at most, but the Marquess seemed not to know such detail.

“What is the cos