Chapter 1447: Airship To The Academy
"Sails up!! All hands, prepare for take off!!" Someone shouted from the front of the ship.
I watched from the side of the deck as sailors moved to secure various boxes with ropes that were chained down to the deck.
We were told to hang onto the railing if we intend to stand out on the main deck instead of going below deck, and that they would not be responsible if anyone ends up falling overboard while the ship is in the air.
I guess if you wanted to take that risk, then you would have to accept the consequences yourself.
Though... I wonder how they will keep track of who was left on the ship if someone fell overboard...
Well, not that I plan to fall overboard anyway so I held on tightly to the railing as everyone else prepared for the ship to fly.
The ship sped up and cut through the waves as the two ’engines’ at the side of the ship flared to life.
The deck we were standing on rumbled and I felt my stomach lurch before the sea started to fall away.
I watched as the ship lifted off the surface of the water and slowly rose up into the air.
We gained even more speed and the ship broke contact with the waves, cresting one of them before soaring into the air proper.
We rose higher and higher until the sea was far below us, the waves looking nothing more than small lines on top of the vast sea.
There was a loud ’crack’ sound as the ’fins’ on the sides of the ship extended themselves, forming into its wings and stabilising its flight.
I wondered how they kept the sails on those wings dry despite them being submerged completely in the water.
The sails then fully extended and the ship shook as they caught the wind, accelerating the ship even faster.
While I was watching the ship fly through the air, I heard a scream and turned to see one of the passengers being flung over the railing after the sudden bump just now.
Fortunately, he managed to grab onto the railing before he was flung off completely and his friends got to him in time and pulled him back onto the ship.
Speaking of which, the others that were on deck were all looking around with awed expressions on their faces. No doubt this was their first time on board a flying ship.
Well... So was I but it wasn’t my first time flying in this World or my original World so... While it might feel cool to see an actual ship flying into the air, it’s not something that I would lose myself over.
In fact, even my girls also seem quite nonchalant about being on board a flying ship as well.
I guess the fact that I sometimes take them out on flying dates was part of the reason for that...
Hey, it’s pretty romantic, ok? Especially when I’m carrying them in a princess carry and flying through the air!
I held tightly on the ship’s railings as we ascended to the clouds, now making it look like the ship was sailing on top of a white, fluffy sea.
I was worried that breathing might become difficult at this height but... Surprisingly I realised there was no change.
The ship was already flying at a much higher height than what I would fly at so I was expecting at least some kind of difference.
Either in this World, the air doesn’t get thinner even at this height, or there’s some kind of magic on this ship that is allowing us to breathe.
Maybe next time I could try to fly this high up to see if there’s any difference...
That was when I realised that despite how fast the ship was currently flying, there was no wind blowing through the deck so there must be some magic involved.
Anyway... If I’m not wrong, the flight there will take about half a day so we should reach there around late afternoon.
I watched the clouds roll past the ship as we headed towards our destination, the deck a bustle of activity as the sailors worked on maintaining the ship’s course.
I enjoyed the feeling the ship sailing through the air alongside my girls, watching the clouds roll by the ship’s sails which was quite an interesting sight and different from the rolling waves that I might see on a normal ship.
Right then, I heard a flap of wings and I turned to see what looked like a large wyvern appearing out of the clouds.
I pulled back, preparing to shoot a spell at the wyvern since I was sure that it was trying to attack the ship.
But before I could, the wyvern let out a screech before banking its body and diving away, as though the ship had spooked it.
I guess to the wyvern, the ship looked like some giant monster that just appeared out of nowhere I guess? After all... It was barely half the size of the flying ship.
Lisa chuckled, "Ehehe~ You don’t need to worry, Aster~ We’re not hired to defend this ship after all. This ship has its own defenses against aerial threats like that. Even if a dragon were to show up, they have mages and cannons that would be able to repel them~"
Right... I forgot we’re actually guests here and guests aren’t expected to help protect a ship.
I guess my habits of escorting merchants just got the better of me.
Sure enough, there was another group of wyverns that came banking out of the clouds and instead of running away when they saw us, they dove towards us instead.
The air was filled with the screeches of wyverns as the group of monsters flapped their wings to accelerate towards us.
I watched as one of the sailors rang the alarm bell delicately before going right back to work in securing the boxes to the deck, almost like a wyvern attack like this was akin to spotting some birds flying in the sky.
The reason for that became clear when the top of the mast suddenly shot out a lightning bolt at the wyvern, nailing one of the wyverns in the chest and blowing a hole through it.
The monster let out a scream of pain before it spiraled away, down into the watery depths below the clouds.
I thought the wyverns would scatter since their leader was dead but one of them let out a vengeful roar which prompted all of them to dive straight down towards our ship.
I did see a few other passengers panic but the sailors seemed to not care about what was going on... Like the wyverns were just something you see everyday.
The reason for them to not be worried became clear as lightning was shot out from not only the main mast but the secondary masts joined in as well in shooting lightning at the wyverns.
Four of them were struck immediately, leaving only four left as they increased their speed to dive towards us.
The masts seemed to charge up again before three more lightning bolts were shot out and pierced through the chest of three of them, leaving one final wyvern who seemed set on avenging its comrades.
I wondered why the last mast did not fire a lightning bolt to finish it off and thought it might have malfunctioned or something where a loud ’bang’ came from the front of the ship.
I watched as a giant spear shot out from the front of the ship, the spear piercing through the wyvern’s neck with absolute precision and embedding itself in it.
The monster let out a pained scream and floundered in the air for a moment before it started spiralling down after the rest of the other wyverns.
Just when I thought it was over, the corpse of the wyvern jerked and started flying back towards the ship.
That was when I realised the spear had a cable attached to it and whatever shot out the spear was currently reeling the wyvern in like some kind of fishing javelin.
I went over to that side of the ship and sure enough, I found some kind of cannon jutting out at the side with the cable disappearing into the same porthole as the cannon was jutting out from.
I wondered why they wanted to capture this wyvern when I heard one of the sailors shout out, "We’re eating good tonight boys! Wyvern’s meat back on the menu!!"
A loud cheer went out throughout the deck as the sailors celebrated the catch.
Wow, really? Hmm... I guess I can understand why... Wyvern’s meat is actually pretty tasty.
Ironically, I’ve eaten it both without draining its mana and after draining its mana... Let’s not talk about the time I ate them when I didn’t know you had to drain mana from monster meat before eating them...
Anyway... Good to know that this ship can defend itself from aerial threats. Guess I’ll just go below deck and relax with my girls~