Longing For The Sky—And Then Back To Reality

“I understand the situation.”

“Mm, I am counting on you, Bangagonga.”

After deciding with Lynferia on the members who would head to Gigil-Po, I immediately visited Bangagonga in the castle town.

Before coming to the castle town, I had confirmed which diplomat had infiltrated Gigil-Po, and after that I made a small detour before coming here, but I would speak about that later.

“I am entrusted with handling fairy-folk, and I have no problem going to Gigil-Po, but when it comes to dwarves, I feel that having me negotiate would not mean much.”

“True. Dwarves are more like artisans, or rather, negotiations in that direction will probably be the main focus, so leave that side to us. What I want to ask you about, Bangagonga, concerns installing mana collection devices within Gigil-Po.”

“…Would installing mana collection devices in the dwarf country not be fine? They are fairy-folk, just as we are. They must undoubtedly be struggling with how to deal with Frenzy. I do not think they would fail to welcome the installation of mana collection devices.”

Bangagonga tilted his head as he said that, but I shrugged slightly.

“That is true. However, whether they trust us, who possess that technology, is a separate issue. In Bangagonga and the others’ case, there were unavoidable circumstances, and there was proof through saving Bangagonga when he was on the verge of Frenzy. Conveniently… though I feel a little bad saying that to you, Bangagonga, I do not think something like saving someone right when they are about to fall into Frenzy will happen so conveniently over and over.”

“…In other words, my role is to tell the dwarves, from the standpoint of a fairy-folk, that Einheria is worthy of trust.”

“To put it simply, yes. But actually doing it will be quite difficult. I think we can draw their technical interest, but installing mana collection devices will be difficult unless they trust us.”

We might be able to install the simplified version without the teleportation function, but if that happened, future exchange would become troublesome in terms of travel… no, I might not go back and forth very often, but Otonoha and the like might have more reasons to come and go, and spending time traveling every single time would be absurd.

“Since there is no better countermeasure against Frenzy, I do not think there is any reason to refuse.”

Bangagonga muttered as though he still did not quite understand, and I answered while shrugging.

“That is one of the strange things about the world of people: you cannot say that across the board. Well, if you think from the opposite position… I can understand thinking it is not something you can accept so easily. If someone you did not know suddenly approached with a smile saying they would help you, it would be only natural to be wary, right?”

“…That is true. Even we could not easily reach a conclusion in that situation, despite knowing we had no way out.”

Bangagonga said that while rubbing his own head, likely remembering when we first met.

“Is that so? It seemed to me that you reached a conclusion fairly quickly.”

“Even so, we argued quite a bit, you know? Well, there was talk that even the time spent arguing was precious… and more than anything, we had seen how you and the others fought. There was also the opinion that resisting would be pointless.”

…So it had still ended up feeling a little like a threat.

Well… currently, the goblins seemed to be living freely in the castle town, so I would consider it all’s well that ended well.

“I did not intend to threaten you.”

“Of course, I understood that Fels fought the frenzied monsters out of goodwill. But to us, it was quite a shock.”

Bangagonga said that with a vicious smile.

“At that time, we were attacked by a pack of frenzied monsters, weren’t we? Come to think of it, I have not heard of frenzied monsters appearing around here lately. Perhaps that is because the installation of mana collection devices has been progressing.”

Previously, when I had an important matter that required me to meet Fio, I had worked hard hunting monsters… but I had not encountered any frenzied monsters.

Perhaps, as Fio wished, the mana collection devices were producing results as a countermeasure against the Demon King’s mana.

The effect probably only appeared around the center of Einheria for now, but first all of Einheria and the Lufelon Holy Kingdom, and once that was done, even farther beyond… taking hands with those who could take hands, and beating those who would not listen until they obeyed… it was the contradiction of repeating wars in order to make the world peaceful.

Well, that kind of topic was often used as a slogan, agonized over, or had its contradictions pointed out… and there were many sides to it, but my Overlord-like thinking had nothing to do with that sort of ambivalence.

At the very least, I did not think in the slightest that what I was doing was right for everyone, and to begin with, I was not doing it because I wanted to save the world.

It was just that, as a result of Fio wishing for it, we were born here.

Although it was not something Fio had done intentionally, I was grateful to exist in this world as Fels like this, and I wanted to grant that wish.

In the process, whether I crushed someone’s dream or ambition was not something I cared about.

It was neither hypocrisy nor posing as evil. I would simply do as I wanted.

And what I needed for that was the dwarves’ cooperation.

“Mana collection devices, huh. To think they might even prevent the Frenzy of monsters that do not live in towns… they are truly tremendous things. The dwarves will surely accept them as well. The pain of losing brethren to Frenzy is probably something the dwarves also know.”

“It would be best if things went smoothly.”

“Yes… by the way, Fels. You said this was preparation for going to Gigil-Po, but why did we come outside the castle town… to the plains?”

“Ah, there is a very important problem when heading to Gigil-Po.”

I answered Bangagonga’s question with an extremely serious expression.

“A problem?”

“Transportation. Unlike before, when heading to Gigil-Po, we cannot use teleportation.”

“Well, we are going there to negotiate the installation of mana collection devices for teleportation, after all.”

“Exactly. And Gigil-Po is not a neighboring country. It is located somewhere we cannot reach unless we pass through either the Kingdom of Sorakil to the north or the Kingdom of Kugarlan to the northeast.”

“Oh, it is farther than I thought.”

Thanking Bangagonga for giving me exactly the response I wanted, I continued speaking.

“Gigil-Po is far away, and traveling there takes time… but I am a king. I am fairly busy despite how I may look… and above all, I cannot be allowed to leave the country for several months.”

“Does it take that long?”

“If traveling by carriage, apparently it would be better to expect around a month and a half. If negotiations failed, just the round trip alone would take three months. If we also considered the negotiation period, I would be away from the country for nearly four months… and with the current situation, there is no way I could leave the country for that long.”

“…That is certainly true, but then wouldn’t it be better if Fels did not go? In fact, is there any need for Fels, the king, to go for the first negotiation?”

That kind of sound argument was not what I wanted!?

“This matter requires me to go.”

“I see. Sorry. It seems I said something unnecessary.”

My tone had turned a little strange… but Bangagonga apologized as though he had said something wrong, so I smiled wryly and shook my head.

“No, you do not have to worry. Bangagonga’s opinion is very reasonable. In fact, as I said earlier, I cannot leave the country for too long. There is a saying that time is money, but that is a lie. Money can be earned and increased, and there are any number of ways to do that, but time can absolutely never be increased. Time only decreases and cannot be increased at all, so it is far more precious than money, is it not?”

“That golden saying is very reasonable, but… is it fine for the preface to be so long?”

Bangagonga twisted his mouth into a grin and told me to get to the main point already.

“In other words, I am saying that I am not free enough to spend that long traveling by carriage.”

“I understand that, but it cannot be helped, can it? For you and the others, who are used to the absurd thing called teleportation, it may be an unbearable amount of time, but that does not mean it can be easily shortened, right?”

“Certainly, if we travel by carriage, then shortening the travel time will not be easy. In that case, we simply should not use a carriage.”

When I said that full of confidence, Bangagonga tilted his head slightly and voiced his question.

“That may be true, but… is there a means of transportation other than carriages?”

“There is one, in a way… but we cannot use it this time. So I have decided to use another method.”

“Another method?”

“Yes. Even without relying on a carriage… we have two splendid legs, do we not?”

“…”

Bangagonga’s expression suddenly turned vicious… was he frowning? Since I could not see his teeth, he did not seem to be smiling.

“It takes time because we travel by carriage. That is why, this time, when heading to Gigil-Po, we will run there.”

“…Wait, Fels. It may be faster for you and the others to run than ride in a carriage with your physical abilities, but… no matter what, I do not have that kind of stamina… wait, don’t tell me you brought me to the grassland because…”

Bangagonga looked down at me with his eyes wide open.

He probably thought I intended to make him train on the grassland to build stamina.

“…Lack of exercise is not good, Bangagonga.”

“No, it is not like I lack exercise. I basically do physical work around the castle town, after all…”

As he said that, Bangagonga slowly backed away as though putting a little distance between us.

“Kukuku… I am joking. As expected, it would be impossible to train you to run like us in the short period before departure.”

Honestly, I did not think he would become able to run like us no matter how much time he had, though.

“I-I see.”

Bangagonga let out a sigh of relief, clearly relieved.

“That is why I brought this.”

Saying that, I spread out the plain-colored cloth I had been holding the whole time.

This was precisely the main subject today, and the reason I had made a detour at the castle before meeting Bangagonga.

“Is this… a cloak?”

“Yes. This is an item called a ‘Flying Mantle.’ It is a magical tool, and as the name suggests, it lets you fly through the sky.”

“There is such a mantle…?”

Bangagonga’s eyes widened again as he stared intently at the mantle I had spread out.

Needless to say, this mantle was an item from the Sword and Legions era, a piece of equipment classified in the accessory slot.

Rather than flying through the sky to move, its effect was more like moving while floating in the air, perhaps?

In war, when moving units, they were often affected by terrain effects.

It was possible to change the terrain with the “Earth Area” I had cast in the mock battle the other day to stop movement, or create terrain suited for defense. There were also many natural terrains such as forests, rivers, and mountains where infantry had difficulty moving and their mobility dropped.

This “Flying Mantle” was equipment that removed the influence of such movement restrictions and terrain effects.

Well… frankly speaking, it was mostly the sort of equipment that was left in storage… accessory slots were valuable, so there were better pieces of equipment, after all.

“In other words, this time, we will use this to fly through the sky?”

“Yes, only Bangagonga.”

“…Why only me? Wouldn’t it be faster if everyone flew?”

“No, the movement speed of that mantle is not that fast. Well, it is far faster than a carriage, but slower than us running.”

It was not a tool for increasing movement speed, after all. When we used it, it was about that speed, so if Bangagonga used it, there was a high possibility that his movement speed would be slower than ours.

“Then doesn’t that make it meaningless?”

“Well, try using it for now. The way to use it is simple. If you equip the mantle and think about flying, you can fly. Movement is the same. If you think about going forward, you go forward, and if you think about stopping, you stop. Turning is similar.”

“Hmm…”

“We have properly checked that it is safe, so it will be all right. That is why we came to an empty plain to practice. The speed it can produce is only about the speed of you lightly running, so there is not much danger.”

“I see… but flying through the sky, huh… I am looking forward to it a little.”

Still showing his usual vicious smile, Bangagonga equipped the mantle.

…When Bangagonga, who was over two meters tall, wore it, the mantle looked a little short… could he really fly properly?

Also… I felt bad for Bangagonga, who was looking forward to it, but the effect of that mantle probably was not like what he was imagining.

“All right, I am flying… o-oh…”

Bangagonga, who had put some spirit into it, slowly rose upward while letting out a confused voice.

“It is more stable than I thought. I expected it to feel more unsteady…”

Bangagonga murmured with interest while slowly rising.

When he had risen about fifty centimeters, Bangagonga’s ascent stopped.

“…? Fels, I stopped.”

Bangagonga’s voice came down from an even higher position than usual.

“Yes, because that is the height limit.”

“…Height limit?”

“It means you cannot fly any higher than that.”

“…”

Bangagonga fell silent with an expression that was difficult to describe… yes, I understood that feeling very well.

When I first used that mantle while excited, I was also terribly disappointed.

“…Somehow, this is different from what I imagined.”

“I thought so… but with that, you can keep moving without getting tired. Although it is far from freely flying through the sky.”

“I do feel like I was somewhat let down… but well, if this lets me keep up with you and the others running, then there is no problem.”

“I am glad you accepted it. Then next, wrap this rope around your waist.”

“A rope… a lifeline?”

“No, for towing.”

“Towing…? Towing!?”

While gripping the rope, Bangagonga shouted.

“Wait, Fels! What do you mean by towing?”

“It means we will use that rope to pull you. I said it earlier, didn’t I? The movement speed of that mantle is only about a light jog. But if we pull you, that restriction does not apply.”

“…”

“The practice we are about to do is training so that you, floating in the air, can control yourself without getting into an accident even when you are swung left and right to match our movement.”

When I said that with a grin, Bangagonga’s face turned pale.

Bangagonga was huge, so carrying him was quite difficult… even when we carried Bangagonga back when he was on the verge of Frenzy, it had taken two people.

The solution to that was this towing plan using the “Flying Mantle.”

While holding the rope, I told Bangagonga, who was making an extremely displeased face, to quickly tie the rope around his waist, then handed the end of the rope to Lynferia and showed him a grin.