Chapter 744

The engine room located at the bottom of the airship’s hull.

About ten magicians were running around frantically, fully immersed in flight preparations, making the engine room as chaotic as a bustling marketplace.

– Uuuuung!

A massive mechanical device installed on the engine room’s walls. A complex metal structure of metal cylinders, numerous pipes, cylinders, and cranks shook like a giant’s baby, emitting a heavy cry.

The magical engine, composed of a mana furnace that consumes mana to generate heat and pressure, and a power unit that converts energy into mechanical motion.

A masterpiece of magical engineering, combining the foundational technology of the dwarves, the rune magic system, and the magical studies of the Empire’s Mage Tower.

“Main mana furnace activation successful! Mana charge at 87%. Power conversion efficiency at 74%! All systems go!”

“Secondary mana furnace also functioning normally!”

The magicians in charge of the metal cylinder—the mana furnace’s charge and output control—shouted with their hands pressed against the magical circuit engraved on the front of the furnace.

“Good. Retract the side wings and activate the side thrusters! Move forward!”

Eduard, the temporary captain and a magician from the Mage Tower, overseeing the airship’s operations, commanded while observing the hangar’s situation through the engine room’s window. Not a flight command, but a forward command.

It was a natural order. The Tears of the Tower Master could vertically take off thanks to its rotating side wings, but activating them inside the hangar would only result in crashing into the ceiling and sinking.

To soar into the sky, they first had to exit the hangar.

“Yes! Activating side thrusters!”

The magicians in charge of the propulsion system manipulated levers installed throughout the engine room, directing the engine’s power to the ship’s various propulsion devices.

The side sails, resembling dragon wings, quickly folded and clung to the hull, while the cylindrical propulsion devices beneath them began rotating, spewing a storm-like wind toward the rear.

– Kugugugugung!

Soon after, with a roar as if an earthquake had begun, the airship slowly started moving forward.

Scraping the hangar’s floor roughly with its metal-reinforced hull.

Though not fast, relying only on auxiliary thrusters, it was still an impressive sight, enough to awe the watching magicians.

“Wow… it’s really moving….”

“Quite a spectacle…. It succeeded in tests too, but back then, it was more like a wooden barrel than a ship….”

If Ha-shal-leur had heard their conversation, he might have jumped off the ship in shock.

Unbeknownst to the higher-ups, this was the first flight of the completed Tears of the Tower Master.

Though test runs had been conducted to confirm safety and flight performance, the Tears of the Tower Master at that time was far from its current completed form—merely a hastily assembled wooden barrel with an engine and propulsion devices.

Preparing cabins for long-term travel, reinforcing the hull with metal armor, and installing sails and auxiliary propulsion devices came later.

In other words, whether the completed Tears of the Tower Master could successfully fly and transport passengers to the Sky Mountain Range… was something no one could guarantee.

The Mage Tower’s research magicians had calculated that it was theoretically possible, but theory is just theory.

However, upon confirming no theoretical issues, the research magicians declared it a “perfect success.”

Whether this was due to the magicians’ inherent arrogance in their calculations and theories or their exhaustion from the hellish all-nighters with only six hours of sleep per week, only they knew.

—-

“Stop the sub-thrusters! Activate the flight rotors! We’re ascending now!”

Regardless, after the Mage Tower’s Tears and the research magicians’ desperate efforts, the airship successfully activated and exited the hangar, immediately deploying the two rotating wings on each side to unleash a massive wind pressure toward the ground.

– Kugugugugung!

A noise comparable to, if not exceeding, Nidhogg’s rampage.

With an earth-shaking roar that made city dwellers, preparing for sleep, jump up thinking the Insect-Dragons had returned, the Tears of the Tower Master began ascending into the sky.

“What’s that…?!”

“Good heavens, a ship is flying in the sky! A ship is flying in the sky!”

“What have those Mage Tower folks made…?”

It was an unbelievable sight, even to those witnessing it firsthand.

Even the nobles, who had heard of the airship development plan, rubbed their eyes and stared blankly at the sky, let alone the ordinary folk who knew nothing.

It was nothing short of a miraculous spectacle.

Leaving behind their confusion, admiration, shock, and praise, the airship soared high into the sky, spreading its dragon-like side sails and flying off into the night.

Carrying the Empire’s strongest forces.

======[ Ha-shal-leur ]======

“Sister, sister! Look down below! The Imperial Capital looks smaller than my palm!”

“Rana, I know you’re excited, but don’t lean over the deck like that? If you fall, we won’t even recover your body.”

I grabbed Rana’s shoulder, who was excitedly looking down at the ground, and gently pulled her back.

For Rana, this was her first flight experience, so her excitement was understandable, but if she lost her balance or got swept by the wind and fell over the railing, it would be an unimaginable disaster.

If it were just a fall, Damian or I could save her… but falling from the airship’s deck was beyond our control.

Given the airship’s design, relying on propeller rotation for lift, falling here would mean getting sucked into the propellers by the airflow.

What follows? A crimson waterfall.

“Ah, sorry, sister. It’s just so fascinating….”

Understanding my point, Rana obediently stepped back, smiling sheepishly.

“It is fascinating, isn’t it?”

I smirked, pulling up the corner of my mouth holding a cigarette, adding a wisp of smoke to the clouds that seemed within reach.

Rana and I weren’t the only ones on the deck enjoying the night view.

After the airship stabilized at cruising altitude, our entire group had come out of the cabins to gaze at the distant ground, each expressing their awe at this first-time experience.

“Is this really safe…? One arrow and it feels like we’d crash.”

Milia was inspecting the airship’s durability, seemingly uneasy.

Indeed, though the hull’s underside was reinforced with metal, the armor’s thickness was thin to reduce weight.

As Milia said, one of her arrows could easily pierce through and bring it down.

…Of course, we should consider that her arrows have anti-aircraft cannon-level power.

“Being a transport ship, it only has two Dragon-Slaying Crossbows. Flying without a single cannon. What were they thinking if we encounter flying monsters?”

“How could they mount cannons? You guys wouldn’t sell them to us.”

Asha pointed out the airship’s pitiful armament compared to her nation’s airships, but for the Empire, this was their best effort.

While the dwarves could easily mount cannons and machine guns on their ships, if the Empire did the same, the dwarves would turn their guns on them. Gunpowder technology was the dwarves’ top secret.

As long as dwarves existed, no other race could touch gunpowder-related technology.

Even if someone developed gunpowder and created cannons, the dwarves would never acknowledge it, claiming their technology was stolen.

And not just verbally—they’d bombard entire cities.

Two hundred years ago, a secret gunpowder research facility of Panam alchemists was wiped off the map.

The dwarves of Himell claimed the alchemists, who kidnapped and tortured their kin to extract gunpowder secrets, were punished by heaven, denying their involvement… but it was clearly their doing.

However, the humans at the time had no way to pursue it.

The bombardment obliterated the entire city, turning everything related to it into dust.

Thus, history books recorded it as an “explosion of unknown origin.”

Regardless, since then, other nations avoided gunpowder technology.

Investing time and capital into gunpowder development would only result in being reduced to dust by the dwarves before deployment.

—-

“To lift such a massive object into the sky… the power of sorcerers, even experiencing it firsthand, is hard to believe.”

Ja-han shook his head in disbelief, his mouth half-open.

As a warrior of Ka`har, far removed from magic, he seemed to feel a sense of awe before the marvel created by the magicians.

“Feeling the greatness of the Empire, the vanguard of human civilization? The grasslands can’t compare.”

Nigel boasted proudly beside him.

Ja-han glanced at her briefly—

“Now I see why the western warriors are so weak. With sorcerers’ power this immense, warriors’ martial skills naturally decline. No wonder….”

He chuckled, delivering a near-taunt.

“W-what did you say? How dare you, after your defeat!”

“That was thanks to Ha-shal-leur. Without him, you were helpless, weren’t you?”

Nigel flared up, shouting angrily, but Ja-han shrugged, continuing his provocation.

Indeed, before I joined the battle, defeat seemed inevitable, leaving Nigel unable to retort, only flushing red with anger.

On the ground, she might have drawn her spear and challenged him, but on a flying ship, any fight could lead to disaster, leaving Nigel with no choice.