88 – Airship (Modification)
Everyone was shocked by the flames and smoke rising from the Airship.
“What? Did the airship explode just now!?”
“Eh, will Elizabeth be okay?”
Schurz looked up at the sky with a puzzled expression, and Titania raised her voice in fright. But no one could answer their questions.
While everyone was in confusion, the embarrassing voice of the presenter was heard over the radio.
[This, how did this happen? There’s an explosion on the airship, and black smoke is rising! Buy… Is it an accident?]
Emotions are contagious. Fear, in particular, is stronger and faster.
Uneasiness spread like fog, following the murmurs of citizens heard on the radio. The festive atmosphere that had been full of joy until just now seemed like a lie. The agitation of the students was also unavoidable.
But all of this was familiar to me like breathing. On the battlefield, the situation is always fluctuating from moment to moment. As the seal had been sealed for a long time, my head cooled down rather coldly, and my reason quickly judged what I had to do.
I gave the instructions calmly to the students.
“Go back to the dormitory immediately.”
Marian answered my order one beat late.
“… You want me to just go in? There is something we can do-“
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“There is nothing you can do about this situation.”
There was no one to talk back to the determined attitude. Even Marian, who spoke first. If only one of these people here has the possibility to help me…. It was Oznia.
Titania, who had been napping on her lap just a few minutes ago, was now fully awake, looking at me with her calm eyes.
“Oznia. Can you teleport?”
Spatial movement is a high level of magic. Originally, it is natural that students cannot write.
But she is a disciple of the Mage Tower Master. Oznia replied with a nod of her head as if it were natural.
“I can write. But there is a problem.”
“What if it’s a problem?”
“Because of the interference with coordinates, space movement is impossible in the academy, and similar things exist in airships. That’s why I can’t teleport to a place close to the airship.”
Yes. There’s no easy way.
Anyway, it was a good thing that Oznia could teleport.
It meant that even if you couldn’t move inside the airship, you could move close to it.
“Only Osnia follows me, and everyone else evacuates to the dormitory.”
“School, Instructor. What about Elizabeth?”
Titania asked. At those words, the eyes of the students were focused on me. There was a mixture of fear and worry in their eyes.
“Don’t worry.”
I slowly looked up at the sky. Black smoke continued to pour out of the flaming airship, but the airship was still floating in the sky.
But with such a big explosion, it wasn’t clear how much longer he could stay in the air. It wouldn’t be strange to leave right now.
In the past, it would have contributed to evacuating civilians and responding to situations in accordance with military duty. Perhaps he was given the role of saving the princess.
But it was different now.
I am now an instructor, and on that airship was my student, Elizabeth, before she was the princess.
If you are an instructor, you have to protect the students.
“I will bring Elizabeth.”
Shurtz asked in a questioning voice.
“Instructor. How are you going to get to the airship floating high in the sky like that?”
Shurz’s question was reasonable. Because people can’t fly But I answered succinctly.
“There is a way.”
***
Boom! Puff!
Flame!
Hot flames, thick smoke, and a steady stream of small explosions. The wildly bobbing airship looked like it could fall at any moment.
As much as the people on the ground were confused, the airship committee was in a more serious situation. It had to be. If this airship were to fail, all the people inside would be dead.
Dr. Brown, with his beard scorched by the intense heat and soot and dust all over his body, came out of the engine room and coughed loudly.
“Cough, Cough! Wrong! The engine is dead!”
People’s expressions hardened at the declaration of Dr. Brown, who developed this airship.
That meant that not even Dr. Brown could prevent the airship from going down.
The princess’ faithful escort, Katarina, shouted in a huff.
“Do something! Didn’t you build this ship!”
“That’s why you see more unanswered things! Engine completely stopped! Right now, I’m just floating for a while with my remaining power! sh*t! My design must have been perfect… !”
“It finally exploded again!”
“It was floated with the expectation that everything would explode! This is something that has been tested dozens of times over! It’s strange that such a guy suddenly explodes today!”
“Stop!”
The two of them fell silent at Elisabeth’s angry voice.
“It’s not Dr. Brown’s fault. So stop. Katarina, extinguish the fire as best you can. At this rate, we’ll suffocate to death before the airship even falls. Doc, if possible, find a way to restore the engine. If that’s not possible, at least a way for people to land safely.”
“I understand, Her Highness the Princess.”
“I will do that.”
According to Elizabeth’s instructions, the two left the deck to perform their respective roles.
After they left, Elizabeth calmly tried to assess the situation.
I knew that this might be a trap prepared for me.
However, I never expected that the other party would use such an extreme move.
Could you try to kill your own brother? It’s not that I was stupidly careless thinking the same thing. Had she had such complacency, she would have lost her life long ago, on her fifth birthday, to an assassin posing as her maid.
Elizabeth has been plagued with assassination threats from time to time. So she knew long ago that her prince wanted to kill her.
However, most of the assassination attempts so far have been carried out in secret and quiet places. Even if Elizabeth dies, she can later fake it as an accident or suicide.
Of course, any sane noble would know that this was an assassination, but there was still a clear difference between faking an accident or suicide and killing in public.
The former could be seen as part of a common clandestine struggle within the imperial family, but the latter was something a tyrant would do.
Moreover, Prince Wilhelm is a person who always likes situations where he is in the spotlight.
She must have been enjoying the feeling of being her main character in her parade, but did she want to kill her so much, even to the point of damaging her own stage?
Such a ruse was a ploy that Elizabeth would never do. Because it was Prince Wilhelm who ordered the airship to board.
If the flying fair explodes in the skies of the island with her princess on board, guessing that Prince Wilhelm is behind it is a reasonable deduction that anyone can think of.
If she died here today, it was only natural that she would be ridiculed by the entire continent for the collapse of the non-fair project she had promoted so extensively.
Moreover, even if Wilhelm later became emperor, he would have to bear the stigma of killing his younger brother and ruining the face of the empire himself.
Has it been so precarious that he dared to do something like this, considering all of that….
“Whoa….”
Elizabeth let out a short sigh to calm her mind.
It was she herself, and no one else, who decided that she would ride the fairway, even at her own risk.
We have thoroughly prepared for the worst case scenario. The interior of the airship was checked several times for hidden traps, and the crew was selected as trustworthy with the help of Imperial Intelligence.
Dr. Brown, because of his eccentric personality, was not interested in the dispute over the throne, so it was not a problem, and the Imperial Intelligence Department always maintained neutrality, so their information was judged to be reliable.
But when it came to this situation, it all felt suspicious.
Who is behind this incident? Did Wilhelm really do all of this? Is the culprit responsible for blowing up the airship in the sky, Dr. Brown, who developed the airship, or is it one of the airship’s crew?
While immersed in such thoughts, someone approached Elisabeth.
“Are you okay? Her Highness the Princess.”
The man looks like a rough sailor with a beard, but he is wearing the uniform of the Imperial Army.
It was Colonel Alfred who was elected captain of this non-fair, based on his experience of driving numerous ships as a Colonel in the Imperial Navy.
‘… If he was the captain of the ship, he might have had a chance to plant the bomb without anyone noticing.’
Elisabeth answered calmly without revealing her inner doubts.
“I’m fine. The colonel is also quite calm.”
“That’s not to say I’ve only had the experience of losing a boat once or twice.”
“Are you familiar with this situation?”
“Somehow it happened. As a captain, she should have shared her fate with the ship, but it’s a pity that she hasn’t been able to do so until now… Maybe today is the day.”
That wasn’t just a joke to be laughed off.
Elizabeth said she never intended to die here. She had always been prepared for her death, but dying here and under these circumstances was unacceptable.
Even for all those who had to die in her place.
Elisabeth’s hand was tightly holding the ’emergency measure’ she had secretly prepared in her bosom.
She can only live for herself if she uses this, but… She couldn’t guarantee the lives of other people when she rode the fairway.
She was worried all along. Is it right to abandon everyone in this airship and escape alone?
Reason said it was right, of course, but Elizabeth kept putting off that decision.
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‘Someone….’
Is there anyone who will come to help?
Elisabeth almost thought she was weak, but she resolutely insisted on herself.
Who the hell is coming? Above this sky.
The only thing she could trust and rely on was herself, and she was only in a relationship where others used and were used only when needed. Her chivalry, her friends at her school, and everyone else who swore allegiance to her.
“Whoops….”
Who would risk his life to save such a cold woman who doesn’t trust others and doesn’t open her heart to anyone.
Even if she had such a person, the reason would be only because she is the princess. Other than that, there can be no other reason.
It was the moment I thought so.
-Booooong!
A familiar roar echoed from somewhere. At first, I mistook it for the sound of an airship engine, but it wasn’t. The engine had already stopped a long time ago, and this sound was coming from farther away.
“What the hell is this… ?”
The moment they turned their heads at the sudden roar, everyone witnessed an unbelievable sight.
A man on a bike was falling towards the airship.
Definitely Bollywood.
Bollywood
Wow… Hollywood!