What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy?

I got to watch those inspectors basically drain every single Crea the merchant had and confiscated pretty much all of his cargo.

Of course, we were free to go since we were merely just hired Mercs that the merchant hired to guard his ship and we were not responsible for his supposed crimes in any way.

At least... That’s what I thought but the inspectors ended up detaining all of us saying that we might be complicit in the merchant’s crimes and for some reason, my group especially needed to be questioned separately.

I guess this might just be a normal procedure and we followed them to one of the larger buildings near the docks, which I presume must be some official building for these inspectors or something.

We were guided inside the building and led down a corridor before we were put inside a rather comfortable room with plush chairs that we were made to sit in.

Hmm... Comfy~

Just as I was wondering if we were going to be interrogated, the Infrid that had been the leader of the group returned and she bows to Emilia.

"Boss... It is done."

I blinked as Emilia nodded at her, "And the money?"

The Infrid quickly fished out a large pouch filled with Creas to hand it over to her, my Nekomata lover taking it from the Infrid like it was the most normal thing to do and sliding the pouch inside her sleeve.

I watched the exchange and blinked a few times before looking at Emilia.

"Emilia?"

She started cuddling herself against me and making cat noises.

"Nyaaaa~ Bosssss~ Nyaa, nyaaa~"

"Ok... Let me guess... This is also our company..."

"Nyaaa~ Not exactly. They’re just in our pockets~ It’s normal for people like us to make sure we own the local authorities after all~ Makes it easy for us to move goods through checkpoints and to make sure our rivals have trouble moving theirs through~"

Right... I should have expected that from her...

Emilia then turned back to the Infrid, "Pack up the confiscated goods. We have another ship coming three days from now. Let them carry it to send them back to trade at Nomed Metropolis. That fat bastard will buy it back to sell it back here again."

Damn Emilia... You’re really devious... You’re really taking his stuff and money, then selling his stuff back to him for more money? As expected of her.

Now I totally understand why she didn’t mind paying that guy money...

After that transaction, we were guided back out and released like nothing happened.

The merchant guy was still standing beside his ship, the Nekomata looking absolutely furious as his ship’s cargo was being unloaded from his ship and he wouldn’t be paid a single Crea for it.

This is what happens when you mess with Emilia... And I would feel some sympathy for you if you weren’t such an ass.

Ignoring him, we entered the city proper and I found the place to be quite different to all the places I’ve visited so far.

The first thing I noticed is how much the place used magic to power everything.

Sure, Crown Capital City also used Mana Crystals to power a lot of things but it wasn’t to this standard here.

Not only were the streetlights powered by Mana Crystals, I was also seeing what looked like carriages being powered by Mana Crystals and driven around like magic cars on the streets.

Not only that, I also spotted several machines around the place that were also either working inside the stores or on the streets where they might be doing work like cleaning the streets.

At first, I thought they were Autos which was a race of sentient electrical energy occupying metallic bodies, but I was told by Lisa that these machines were not Autos. Instead, these were simple machines powered by Mana Crystals that were designed to do various works around the city.

If I had to say... This place felt like some Victorian city but powered by Mana Crystals. That was really cool.

I was recording everything down as fast as I could using my [Screened], writing down my first impressions and what I thought of the place.

As though following my lead, Minnera and Lilith were also busy painting the city from where we were standing, both of them drawing it in their own style.

My other girls were content to wait for us, all of them just standing behind and watching us work.

I had to do my best to ignore Lisa rubbing her face against my butt though... Which ended up prompting my other girls to start taking turns to come up and start rubbing their faces against my butt as well while I finished writing my record of the city.

Once I was done, I turned back to look at my girls, "So... Are we staying in this city?"

Emilia nodded, "The next airship will be coming tomorrow, Boss. We can board it to head towards the Academy."

"So where will we be staying? I assume you also have an inn here?"

The Nekomata grins at me, "Nyaaa~ That’s right, Boss. But... I’m afraid we won’t be staying there today unless you really want to..."

I blinked at her in surprise, completely not expecting such an answer coming from her.

"Why not? And what do you mean when you say ’unless I really want to’?" I asked.

This time, it was Lisa who answered, "All the people who intend to admit themselves as a new student of Aerialla Academy will gather and wait at a specific building before the airship arrives. They will all spend a night there to wait for the Airship to arrive."

Ah... I see.

Emilia then continued, "But if you want to stay at our own inn... We could spend one night there before we head over to that place tomorrow. It would mean we will enroll one day later though."

Odeta waved her hand, "Bah! What’s the issue with that? Why can’t we just stay where we want and head over there when the airship arrives?"

Lisa shook her head, "They have to keep a tab on who is boarding the airship and heading to the Academy. Everyone who goes to the islands of Aerialla Academy has to be accounted for and if you are found to have reached the Academy without going through the proper channels, you might be killed or locked up there."

I blinked at her, "That serious? Even getting killed? I mean... I understand getting locked up but killing trespassers is a little extreme, don’t you think?"

Emilia chuckled, "Not at all. You’re seeing it as a normal school, Boss. But Aerialla Academy could pretty much be seen as a nation of its own. Those people are basically seen as foreign invaders."

Lisa continued, "The Academy only allows specific people to enter that place to begin with after all. And there’s people who would stand to gain to either steal their magic or to sabotage the Academy itself. Some people might also try to stay on the islands and hide themselves after failing the exam as they hope to cling to the outskirts of the island and somehow learn magic from the Academy that way without being permitted to. Those people might also end up using the magic against the Academy later either by accident or on purpose."

Emilia then gestured towards the end of the harbour, "So by accounting for everyone who boards the airship, they can account for the people who passed and those who failed and returned back here. If the numbers add up, that would be fine but if the numbers don’t add up... They would be flipping the Academy upside down to search for the missing person."

Huh... I guess this certainly would be quite serious if you think about it...

Having some unknown person hiding on one of your floating islands unaccounted for... What if he somehow managed to trigger something that stops all the islands from floating? Yeah... They definitely do not want a variable like that to be hanging around their location.

I guess we’ll just have to follow along with their rules then.

We headed towards a particularly large building at the end of the pier and there were quite a large group of people lining up to enter it, which I assume were all prospective students trying to enter the school

But as we got in line, there was a large explosion coming from the gate and a group of people were sent flying out.

A person dressed in mage robes stepped out of the gates past the smoke and slammed his staff in the ground.

"People as pathetic as you think you even stand a chance of entering the Academy?! Don’t make me laugh!! Pathetic!! Get out of my sight you useless pieces of trash!!"

The people who were sent flying quickly scrambled to their feet and ran off.

Err... Is this normal too?