Chapter 1448: Aerialla Academy
Right as the sun was beginning to set in the horizon, a cluster of what looked like floating islands appeared as we flew through a large cloud.
The islands were massive in size and I was most certainly not prepared to see them appear directly beside us when we burst through that cloud.
It was only then did I realise all the clouds here were covering the islands from the very beginning which was why we did not see it from a distance away.
Our ship was still at a lower elevation than the ground level of the lowest island and we were treated to the sight of waterfalls cascading down the sides of the various different islands.
I’m not sure if it was necessary but the ship chose to fly underneath a cluster of islands between the waterfalls, letting the spray from the cascading water rain down on the deck.
Several of the deck hands even extended their arms wide and lifted their heads as though welcoming the spray landing on their faces.
I was wondering why they were doing that when one of said deckhands who was standing close to us saw my face and grinned.
"It’s a tradition of ours. One time we had a big dragon chasing after us that we couldn’t shake off or kill. Burst through the clouds and past the waterfalls we did, and the dragon gave up on the chase. Now, we always go through this route when approaching the islands."
Huh, that’s interesting. I guess to them, it’s like a symbolic event where they managed to complete their journey safely or something.
The ship flew under the landmasses and I couldn’t help but marvel at their size.
The entire cluster was large enough to form a giant landmass if they were to combine together but being separated like this made it seem more like we were sailing through a large archipelago except this one was floating in the air.
The central island where I believe the main Academy was built on was big enough that the entire Crown Capital City and its surrounding area could be built on top of it with space to spare.
And as we were flying underneath these islands, the landmasses completely blotted out the sun and we could only see small beams of light being filtered through the rare gaps above and also because there seemed to be glowing crystals under these landmasses that illuminated this area.
If it weren’t for those crystals, I think this entire area would be no different from being stuck in perpetual darkness.
I wonder if these floating islands actually move at all? Or do they just stay in the same spot and never move?
The ship slowly ascended, using a flight path that led towards an opening between a cluster of islands and allowing us to fly up to the same altitude as the island’s ground level.
Even here, I could see that not all islands were floating at the same height as some were higher or lower than the others, making me wonder how people here got from one island to the other.
The ship rose even higher and I could now see the main island in the very centre of the cluster where a sprawling Academy the size of an entire city was located.
In the very centre was a large tower that stretched high up into the air with a large rectangular base at the bottom.
The Academy seemed to be designed in a circular grid that resembled a magic circle in design and I have a feeling that this arrangement was not accidental.
Within the circular grid, there were also various buildings of different designs, some of them circular, some of them rectangular and others in a mix of shapes to form into the aforementioned buildings.
It kind of reminded me of those university campuses in my old World except this was clearly larger in scale.
I guess it’s not an exaggeration to say that this place was not just an Academy but a nation city by itself.
On some of the other islands floating around, I could also see a few other buildings and towers dotted around on top of them.
From what I learned before, some of them were private islands that were granted to exceptional students for them to use in researching their magic. But I knew there were also some islands that belonged to the school itself that were used to teach subjects or conduct magic experiments that were deemed to be too dangerous to take place in a place with a lot of people.
So in the event of some explosive catastrophe, only that small island will be affected instead of the other islands around it.
I wonder if there was ever a case of an entire island falling out of the air because of that?
And if there was... Do they replace that island or do they just get smaller?
Those were the questions going through my mind as the ship turned to head towards one of the smaller islands that was in front of the main island.
I could see that this was one of the few islands that had an actual bridge built to connect the main island to it and this island seemed to house the Academy’s entrance since there was something like a harbour built on top of it with piers sticking out the side of the edge.
There were two other airships that were currently moored at the pier but there seemed to be space for six more aside from ours.
Incidentally, those other two ships were also in the process of having their passengers disembark so I’m assuming they were also airships from other ports that have just picked up prospective students here.
The deck of our ship came alive again as the sailors worked on preparing the ship for docking and the helmsman manoeuvred the ship to slowly come to a stop beside one of the piers.
Ropes were thrown and the ship was secured to the pier, somehow floating in place as the sails furled themselves.
The ship wasn’t even bobbing up and down as far as I could tell, it was like the entire thing was just stopped in midair from moving.
People started coming up from below decks as sailors shouted for us to get ready to disembark and some of them looked quite queasy, no doubt from motion sickness.
The gangplanks were lowered and secured to the pier with resounding thuds and passengers were told to get off first while the sailors gathered boxes of supplies and other stuff to be offloaded as well.
My girls and I followed the crowd off the ship to find a few people dressed in mage robes waiting at the pier and gesturing towards the island.
"All prospective students! Please head towards the registration hall and get yourselves registered! Please line up orderly and do not push!"
One of the prospective students in front of me peered over the side of the pier and shuddered when he saw the long way down to the crashing waves of the sea below.
I don’t blame him, it was a long way down... We were high enough that the air should have been too thin to breathe properly but yet there doesn’t seem to be any problems at all, interestingly enough.
So it wasn’t just some enchantment on the ship either, though there was definitely one that stopped wind from blowing through the deck at least.
Actually... There should also be wind blowing up here as well but I definitely do not feel any of that... So maybe it really was an enchantment allowing us to breathe up here.
The crowd continued to the large building at the end of the pier which I realised was both a warehouse facility to process the deliveries coming from the airship and also some kind of security building where they process people leaving and arriving on the floating islands.
This place really was a nation by itself and not just a simple school.
We were filtered through the main entrance where several counters were set up to register us and we were given some kind of arm band that had a number and a colour on them after we gave our name to the staff.
Incidentally, the staff went wide-eyed when I gave him my name and he checked it through some crystal orb before he told me to wait and ran off somewhere else.
He then talked to some other important looking guy who disappeared through a side door and returned with a gold coloured armband with the number one on it.
The guy then passed it over to me quickly which I then slipped it over my right arm before joining up with my girls.
I found that Odeta and Delmare both had silver arm bands with the numbers eleven and twelve on them while my other girls had black armbands with various different numbers.
Needless to say, mine was probably because I was the valedictorian while Odeta and Delmare had silver arm bands because of their Special Class student status. Everyone else would just get a black armband instead.
Alright... So what’s next?