Book 3: Chapter 50

** Queen of the Night **

The hull of the airship was illuminated by the searchlights.

The deck, however, was unmanned. Because you will get swept away by the strong winds during flight. It is basically suicidal to go onto the deck, so the airship was designed to be operated from inboard.

「Boss! We’re in deep shit! The Empire’s military airships are coming after us! Like swarms of flies gathering around a corpse!」

「Things like that are called “Like a fog”. Hmm, but there are not that many airships, so it’s not a very accurate analogy.」the boss said.

「This is not the time to analyze analogies!」

The large control room was lit with minimal red lighting. The commander’s seat was positioned in the center, and surrounding it was a speaking tube and a control panel for performing various inboard functions.

The night sky spread out beyond the thick window on the front. The airship was facing the undeveloped land “Canion”, so the land ahead was clad in deep darkness.

The Empire was behind the airship.

「It was impossible after all! For mere five people to operate such a huge airship!」

「The young miss and I haven’t really touched anything, so, technically, only three people are operating it. KaKaKa… It’s exciting, isn’t it? You operated such an unprecedented airship with only three people.」the boss said.

「It’s no laughing matter! What are we going to do?! The fuel is almost empty!」

「Calm down. We’re the “Full Sky” sky pirates! It means we’ll reach out our hand and grab the whole damn sky.」

「It’s only been several months since we became sky pirates after the young miss showed up! We were just bandits up until then!」

「Our bandit group name, the “Mountainous Gale”, was also a good name, wasn’t it! Kakaka….」

「I don’t get what you’re thinkin’ no more!」

Truth of the matter is, “Queen of the Night” never escaped from the territory of the Empire. The airship was almost out of fuel, so they found a large cavern in the mountain recesses and made an emergency landing.

They seem to have been lucky enough to give the slip to their pursuers, but the question was what to do about the fuel. Food was well stocked, so if there were only about five people, it would last for a whole year instead of just a monthーso long as it doesn’t rot. These people weren’t well versed at operating magic tools, so they didn’t know where to look for fuel, however. They thought that such a big airship would surely have reserve fuel and were searching about the entire ship. And that’s when the collapse of the large cavern happened.

After the capture of the Labyrinth of Fear, the Empire’s Research Team conducted an “experiment” in the innermost small room of the labyrinth. As a result, the large cavern adjacent to the labyrinth was also affected and the collapse began. Naturally, “Full Sky” has no way of knowing this. They didn’t even know about the feeler geckos that settled in that large cavern, either. They were just focused on escaping.

DON——-the sound of the hull reverberating echoed.

「Did you shoot?」

「Y-Yeah…They seemed to be catching up, so I fired a warning shot for the time being. I told em’ to fire at a wide unoccupied ground, so it should be okay.」

「That’s good then.」

The bombardment dropped in the garden of Anastasia’s mansion.

「Boss. What about the young miss? If it breaks into a battle, her powers will be–」

「No. We can’t let her fight.」The boss’ tone sounded serious.「It wouldn’t make any sense to do that. We were saved by the young miss. And now she is suffering. So we decided to get an airship to help her. However, if we let the young miss use her powers, that black power will erode her body once again.」

「I know… I know.」

「Then do something to get us out of this situation. You’re the only engineer on this airship. We’re all counting on you.」

The man scratched his head in response.

「Fine, I get it! Our foremost goal is to escape from the Empire. At worst, we will run out of fuel. In which case, we will still give top priority to survival!」

「That’s good enough.」

「What will you be doing, boss?」

「Me? There is nothing I can do. So I’m gonna grab a drink to watch the show from this special seat—」

「At least become the gunner and help us shoot!」

「Man… you’re a rough subordinate who likes to work his own boss, don’t ya.」

Following the man who left shaking in anger, the boss also got up and started walking.

「Young miss… Don’t lose to the likes of side effects of a skill orb.」

The boss muttered under his breath and headed to the floor with the turret.

**

Everyone stopped moving due to the shock wave from the explosion.

「W-What the hell!?」

「Enemy attack!?」

「PUSHA!?」

The soldiers who stepped into Her Highness’ room panicked. The big man wielding the large sledgehammer was worried about whether there was an internal communication problem within the department–or so I imagined in my head

…As expected of Mimino-san! I can already move.

The numb left half of my body was already moving. I wanted to pull out the lodged arrow, but it was out of reach, so I gave up on it.

「Ah, the thief is moving!」

「Kill him!」

The soldiers seemed to prioritise me over the situation outside and attacked me again. But having regained control over my body, I can exercise magic with no problem.

The invocation efficacy of “Magic”, which is activated by using the mana circulating within the body, drops significantly if there is an abnormality in the body. Poisons and illnesses are especially impactful, though not so much if it’s an injury. Even if I could have activated magic in my previous state, it was likely to have run out of control.

「Your Highness, close your eyes.」

「!」

Aiming at the three rushing soldiers, I collected a fairly high amount of mana and emitted【Light Magic】. The room suddenly became brighter—bright enough to be blinded even with closed eyelids. The soldiers screamed and staggered.

I took advantage of that gap and stood up.

「Your Highness. I will be leaving now. It seems to be dangerous outside, so please evacuate to a safe place.」

「…………」

「Your Highness?」

Her Highness grabbed my hand and did not let go. She was gazing at me as if she wanted to say something. However, Her Highness soundlessly just mouthed, “Thank you”, and let go of my hand.

…What’s wrong? Why does Her Highness look like she’s about to cry?

She wanted to say something important, but couldn’t—that’s how it felt.

In situations like this,【World Ruler】is useless.

No… I’m the one who is useless. I don’t have the slightest idea what Her Highness is thinking.

「PURSHAAAAAAA!」

Crap! The Sledgehammer Berserker’s vision has recovered.

I started running in a hurry. Although I was at a loss for a moment, I grabbed the leather bag containing Her Highness’ skill orbs, and thrust it into my own tool bag.

I don’t think it is necessary for Her Highness to see these skill orbs. And if I leave it here, it will just become another big problem.

I jumped out of the window that Polina-san broke.

「Wow…」

I saw the “Queen of the Night”, illuminated by searchlights, escaping and several smaller airships from all over the Empire pursuing it.

『The general public is prohibited from going outdoors. Take shelter under a sturdy roof or a building and——』

The alarm was still ringing.