Ch.183Besfelt Coast (3)

Year of Extinction 1201, August 6.

On a bright spring day. We finally succeeded in restoring the airship.

The technicians were hugging each other in joy, saying we had brought that thing back to life, while the crew members were staring in amazement at the enormous vessel standing upright.

“To become both owner and captain! Is this a dream or reality?”

“Now we too can fly through the skies!”

Simon was up there, using magic to paint the vessel and inscribing the name Sky Warden.

When the work was finished, he descended from the sky and shouted to the crowd.

“Behold! Through your efforts and dedication, what was once a rusting ruin has been given new life! This airship has received a new name and will once again take flight, becoming the glorious master of sky, land, and sea!”

“””Wooooah!!!!”

“Under the command of your lord, the Knight of the Sun, and our representative, Viktor Walker, I, Sage Simon, hereby proclaim that this vessel has been given the name ‘Sky Warden’!”

“””Viktor! Viktor! Viktor!”””

I could hear the crew members shouting from below.

Ah… how sweet it is to hear my name, which means victory, being chanted?

I closed my eyes, nodded slightly, then solemnly raised my hand to calm the crew.

And then, I began a short speech.

“You all know well that you were destined to die.

With or without skills, with or without family. Without food, people starve, and the starving will abandon their humanity to fill their bellies. And I, by employing my sage, rescued you from that hellscape.

I was born in Parsifal, a western port of Faerun, and like you, I was of humble birth until the Sun took pity on me and bestowed upon me power and honor. That is why I follow the Sun, and why I have shown mercy to you.

I have a sacred mission. To pilgrimage to all the famous places of the 13 Continents and capture this world in my eyes.

Although I do not possess the mighty power and authority like the Sun, and compared to the radiance it shines upon us, I am but a mere mortal, less than dust.

However, I have a dream, which is to build a powerful nation where other children need not experience the misfortunes I once suffered. From village to city, from city to kingdom, my ideals will spread. This vessel is the vanguard and pioneer of my dream. You are my first subjects.

I will travel, pilgrimage, adventure, and explore the 13 Continents toward a nation where people strive not to survive but to prosper, and you shall be my limbs, the watchers and guardians of my journey.

So rejoice in the glory I bestow upon you. Strong men! Cheer so loudly that those far away tremble and those nearby stagger!”

As the speech ended, thunderous acclaim reached where I stood.

Down there was what I wanted.

The immense sense of omnipotence—being able to determine someone’s fate—something I had dreamed of my entire life, had finally come into my hands today.

I looked up at the sky for a moment, searching for the sun.

I didn’t think I could catch up to the mighty empire built under the sun.

A small kingdom sharing in the radiance under the sun would be enough.

After all, establishing a nation where one doesn’t have to kill others to fill their own belly shouldn’t require that much.

“Everyone! Board the ship!”

*

Flap! Flap!

“Hahaha! Captain! Another big catch!”

“At this rate, we’ll fill the entire ship in just a few days!”

“You’re doing well. Remember, the more you catch, the larger your share will be.”

“Yes!”

Three days had passed, and we were flying over the sea, casting nets and capturing schools of Pacific saury as many as we could find.

I had worried about how to fill the daunting cargo capacity of 1,600 tons, but at this rate, we could truly fill all these warehouses in just a few days, given the abundant catch.

The icing on the cake was an old notebook found in the storage area. During repairs, we couldn’t freely turn on the lights, so it had remained hidden until the voyage… or should I say flight?

Anyway, once the airship was operating normally, the crew members found it and brought it to me.

According to this notebook, the Sky Warden’s previous name was the Howling Cloud. This airship was originally built for supply purposes, so it was equipped with devices to minimize self-supply, such as a mechanism to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen, and another to liquefy hydrogen into liquid hydrogen to cool the storage areas.

Thanks to this, the technicians literally worked above the clouds to restore and recover the buried devices, and because of that, we were able to freeze and store the freshly caught Pacific saury.

No wonder it had such a large cargo capacity despite its class. If it was a supply ship that had to follow the army and provide regular supplies, the high storage capacity made sense.

“Hehehe… It won’t be long before we start making money.”

“Master. You’re drooling.”

“Oh my.”

I wiped away the flowing desire with the hand of reason and regained my composure.

As the owner, captain, and knight, I shouldn’t show such an undignified appearance.

So I was in the captain’s quarters, watching the undulating waves and passing clouds without much else happening.

“Hey there. Master and Commander. How are you doing?”

“Simon… sit down here.”

As Simon entered the captain’s quarters, I had Raisha bring a chair for him.

Once Simon sat down, he tossed me another small notebook.

“What’s this?”

“Found another notebook. This one was hidden in the engine room. Seems like it had a rough time in the bathroom.”

“Good grief… what is this, a treasure chest? Why do things keep popping up?”

Despite my words, my hand was already reaching for the notebook.

Reading through it, most of the content was blurred by seawater and illegible, but some parts were still barely readable.

[Airship damaged]

[Self-repair deemed impossible.]

[Multiple supplies lost.]

[Ship abandoned. Moving to target location by own means.]

[Remaining supplies to be transported manually.]

Given that it was found in the engine room, it was probably written by one of the engineers. The content stated that the airship was damaged, most supplies were lost, and they would move the remaining supplies themselves.

“Can’t you restore this with magic?”

“That’s what I tried. This must be the most recently written part, so the magic worked. I could try again with the rest, but it wouldn’t be very effective. Unless it’s completely weathered… restoring something altered by the sea to its pure original state is nearly impossible.”

“Well… so magic isn’t omnipotent either. I understand. It’s clear that it wasn’t intentionally sunk, but damaged and crashed due to something external.”

“That’s right. And that’s what worries me. When we arrived, this airship hadn’t rusted yet. That means not much time had passed…”

“So whatever could do this might still be nearby?”

“If we’re to be suspicious.”

I closed the notebook, handed it back to Simon, and said:

“Be prepared, but don’t worry. As a mage of your caliber, you know what I mean?”

Simon nodded and then left.

As he closed the door to the captain’s quarters, Raisha, curious, snuggled into my arms and asked:

“That conversation just now. What did it mean?”

“Nothing much. Just saying not to be scared prematurely.”

“But if such a being is nearby, one can’t help but be scared…”

“That’s why I said to be prepared. To use an analogy, let’s say you’re a commander, but you don’t know where the enemies are or how many there are. You’d be anxious, right?”

“Yes.”

“But even if you don’t know the enemy’s size or location, if you adjust your formation for a chaotic battle, maintain the best training condition, and plan your supply routes well, you can win even if ambushed, or at least retreat in an orderly manner if necessary. That’s what preparation is.”

One of my favorite survival maxims is, ‘The prepared can avoid being controlled by circumstances.’

Not just in the example of a unit, but if a sailing ship enters a windless zone, unprepared navigators would wither and die on board, but prepared ones could use pre-prepared wind magic scrolls to navigate through the windless zone, couldn’t they?

“Being anxious despite doing everything possible is no different from a mental illness. Well… you’re a woman whose instinct is to be scared, so you might not understand well.”

I said this as I picked up Raisha.

“I suppose it’s a man’s duty to take on a woman’s anxieties?”

Today, the sun set early.