Chapter 76: Someday I will definitely repay this debt properly!

A sound like a large passenger jet revving its engines to take off from an airfield rang across the morning sky of Aquila.

Even hearing a roar that shook the air first thing in the morning, the residents were not surprised.

It was the sound that rang out every time a Terrestrial Ship entered or left Aquila Port, so they were used to it.

The source of this morning’s roar was the Black Maiden, about to depart from Aquila Port’s first Floating Pier.

The Black Maiden’s huge black hull was already floating about ten meters above the ground.

Intense jets of air were blasting from the many Jet Flowers on the bottom of the ship, lifting the Black Maiden.

A Jet Flower was a magic machine that used magic stones as its energy source to generate a violent jet of air, with a flower-shaped nozzle.

Every Terrestrial Ship had weight-reduction treatment applied to its hull by magic and was equipped with a large number of Jet Flowers on the bottom.

Ordinary Terrestrial Ships only had Jet Flowers on the bottom.

Both floating and propulsion were done by changing the direction of the jets from those bottom Jet Flowers.

High-speed ships like the Black Maiden were equipped with many propulsion Jet Flowers on the stern as well as the bottom.

Compared to ordinary ships, high-speed ships cost more to build and had a smaller maximum load.

With more Jet Flowers, fuel efficiency was naturally worse, and they were also harder to steer.

Because of that, there were not many high-speed ships.

Once the Jet Flowers started moving, they kicked up huge clouds of dust with their jets and produced a roar that shook the air.

The voices the people gathered on top of the eastern wall to see off Iron Maiden were throwing toward the Black Maiden were drowned out by that roar.

The news that the Black Maiden would depart this morning, two days after the city defense battle, had already spread throughout Aquila.

That was why the residents of Aquila, who had been protected by Iron Maiden, had come to see the departing Black Maiden off and convey their gratitude.

On top of the wall, which formed a corridor, far more than two thousand residents of Aquila had gathered.

Knowing their voices would not reach the adventurers of Iron Maiden, they still waved and shouted words of thanks at the top of their lungs.

Among them, dressed as usual, were Kazui and Yuri.

That morning the two of them had gone to a familiar shop to buy meat pies and milk for breakfast and heard from the clerk that the Black Maiden was about to leave Aquila Port.

After leaving the shop, they had hurried to the eastern wall to see it off.

That was why they were holding paper bags with milk and meat pies in them.

"Ebony-san, Ivory-san! Thank you for saving us!"

Shouting so hard his throat felt like it might give out, Kazui continued.

"Someday I will definitely repay this debt properly!"

Not only Kazui. Yuri was also shouting in a voice unlike his usual self.

"Thank you for saving us! I will never forget this debt as long as I live!"

Repeating similar words of thanks over and over, Kazui and Yuri kept waving toward the Black Maiden.

Not just the two of them. Everyone around them was doing much the same.

The Black Maiden’s bow was already pointing south.

It was not heading for a city to the south. It would circle around Aquila and head west.

The destination of the Black Maiden, carrying the Iron Maiden group, was the labyrinth city to the west of Aquila... Virgo.

The same Virgo that Kazui and the others would someday head for as well.

On the deck of the Black Maiden as it started moving south, there were a dozen or so figures.

They were as small as beans, so Kazui and Yuri could not tell who they were, but the adventurers of Iron Maiden were waving toward the wall as well.

At first it had been moving slowly, but before long the Jet Flowers at the stern began blasting air with force and the Black Maiden picked up speed.

At a speed hard to imagine from its huge hull, it glided across the grassland, kicking up dust and grass.

Then it turned right as if circling around Aquila, and the Black Maiden disappeared from Kazui and Yuri’s sight.

Even after it vanished, the roar of the Jet Flowers continued for a while, but that too grew steadily smaller.

That was how fast a high-speed ship like the Black Maiden was.

With the Black Maiden gone, the people who had been seeing it off from the wall began descending to the ground using elevators and stairs.

Unlike the others, Kazui and Yuri did not go down right away. They gazed in the direction the Black Maiden had gone with deep feeling.

"They’re gone."

Yuri answered Kazui’s murmur.

"I heard Iron Maiden’s destination is Virgo, so we might have a chance to meet them again. We’re going to Virgo too, after all."

Since Yuri had brought up Virgo, Kazui took the chance to raise the topic about Virgo that he had not managed to talk about yet.