Chapter 32 - A Night of Counting Stars (6)

The flying fish in a certain novel at least had stairs to climb. An aerial battleship had no such thing. And humans had no wings.

So infiltrating an aerial battleship was extraordinarily difficult, even if it was floating motionless in the sky with its guard completely down in the dead of night.

And now they had to infiltrate that aerial battleship, threaten its captain, and deal with the entire crew without killing anyone.

“Battleships at sea are often compared to fortresses. An aerial battleship could certainly be called a fortress in the heavens.”

Oswald said this with a gentle smile. He wasn't wrong, but it was still irritating.

“That bastard thinks he's an actual elf.”

“I am an actual elf. Can't you see the ears?”

“Wow, he's gone pointy-ear right down to his soul. Boss! I've got a brilliant idea!”

Grumbling, Eugene shot his hand up. When Ivan gestured with his chin, Eugene gave a proud shrug.

“Just have that pointy-ear cast [Feather Step]!”

“How many times must I tell you that I specialize in Mind Sorcery? Are you slow to learn because you're human?”

“Wow, this bastard's a full-blown pointy-ear now. How are we supposed to trust a mage who can't even cast Feather Step in our party? Boss, let's grab someone else from the Magic Department while we still can. Preferably someone specializing in Destruction—the school of destruction magic.”

“[Mind Fracture].”

Purple mana swirled around Oswald's fingertips, and Eugene's eyes went slack and unfocused. His head drooped, drool dripping from his mouth.

Silence descended on the clubroom.

Useful. Ivan nodded.

“We just have to wait until evening.”

“Is the warship suddenly going to land this evening?”

“No. Some people who need to reach it will show up.”

The Krasilof monarchy had given the warship three days to leave. That had been yesterday.

Then, yesterday evening, Elizaveta had threatened to shoot it down unless it left within a day.

The captain would be anxious. As early as tomorrow, the entire monarchy might take military action. Even if it didn't, he would expect Elizaveta to try something before today was over.

That meant he had to contact the Crown Prince today. It was his only way to turn the situation around.

They wouldn't be able to move in broad daylight. As long as Counterintelligence Command existed, all of Prizhenkaya lay within Elizaveta's sight.

That left the evening—or rather, night, after the sun had set.

“Well... even if the Crown Prince's people contact the warship, how do we slip in with them?”

“They'll use a carriage with a levitation spell on it.”

“Exactly. Are we going to ask them to make room for us?”

“No.”

Ivan glanced over Oswald, who was watching him suspiciously; Yuri, who was still fearfully gauging everyone's reactions; and Eugene, who was staring blankly. Then he addressed Yuri in a grave voice.

“If you had to carry one of us on your back, whom would you choose?”

“Sorry...?”

“Not me. Which of those two would you carry?”

Yuri looked at the two young men with trembling eyes. One was a blond, tanned creep, and the other was a slit-eyed hypnotist.

Worse, the slit-eyed hypnotist had just proved his powers by casting a hypnosis spell on the blond, tanned creep.

She bit her lip hard and barely managed an answer.

“Um, Eugene... please. If I have to choose...”

“If you have to choose...?”

Ignoring Oswald's wounded flinch, Ivan readily nodded.

“Then I'll carry Oswald.”

“But why are we suddenly being carried?”

“Because we're going to hang on for the ride.”

Roughly eight hundred meters above the ground. Absurdly low compared to an ordinary aircraft on Earth, but an impossible height for people to reach in this premodern world.

Even with Earth's highly advanced civil engineering, eight hundred meters was on the scale of the Burj Khalifa. In other words, only the tallest structure in history could reach that high.

If they used another vehicle enchanted with levitation to ascend to that height, they would inevitably be spotted on the way.

So their only way to infiltrate unseen was to hide beneath the carriage the Crown Prince's Faction would send to make contact.

The question was whether they had the stamina to hang beneath a carriage.

Oswald obviously looked incapable of it, and Eugene hardly inspired confidence. However good he was with a sword, he was a priest, after all.

Yuri, on the other hand, was the Knight Department's top student. Apart from Morde, she was the freshman with the strongest practical skills. Surely she could carry one person on her back and hang on for ten minutes or so.

“You make it sound as though you've infiltrated a ship while dangling in midair before.”

“Fortunately, I've done something similar.”

“What kind of life have you lived? Actually, I don't particularly want to know.”

Ignoring Oswald, Ivan rose from his seat. There was much to prepare.

“Bring warm clothes, arm yourselves thoroughly, and meet me at the Magic Department's astronomy spire.”

Apart from summer, every season in Krasilof was much like winter. They ran in order: little winter, summer, medium winter, and fucking winter.

In other words, it was rather cold weather for flying eight hundred meters up while hanging from a carriage in the middle of the night. The Possessors shivered as they considered what Ivan's words meant.

* * *

Ivan and the Possessors had been lying flat on the spire's rooftop since evening. Only after the sun had completely set did they rise and stretch their stiff bodies.

Their hands were numb and stiff with cold. The Possessors sighed and worked their hands and feet loose. Only after yet more time had passed did Ivan finally lift his head.

Darkness had settled all around them. Among the streets, made darker still by the enormous ship's shadow, a small light flashed briefly.

“Ready.”

Ivan rolled a shoulder to loosen it and drew an axe. He spun the rope-tied axe once, then extended it straight out to gauge the distance.

The ropes attached to the two axes were tied to Yuri's and Ivan's waists respectively.

After checking that Yuri had Eugene on her back, Ivan slowly drew his arm back.

“It's coming.”

The Possessors swallowed nervously. Ivan was staring straight at some point in the dark night sky where nothing was visible.

Mana flowed. Finely regulated mana coursed through Ivan's muscle fibers.

On his back, Oswald privately marveled at its intricate arrangement.

“You go first.”

“What? All ri... Huh?! Aaaaaaah!”

WHOOOOSH!!

Ivan threw the axe without waiting for Yuri's reply. The hatchet cut a clean, straight line through the night sky.

The rope tied to its end rippled once, and Yuri, tied to the other end, went flying as though she had been snatched away.

Her silhouette vanished into the darkness in an instant.

“Hold tight.”

“W-wait a moment. I'm not mentally prepared yet... Wait, wait, perhaps we should reconsider...!”

WHOOOOSH!!!

“Urrrghaaaaaagh?!”

The ground receded in a flash, and savage winds battered both of Oswald's cheeks. He screamed, frothing at the mouth.

The terror of death. A shrill ringing in his ears. The weightless sensation of having been dropped into the sky... He must have been mad to accept this as a plan...! Oswald reflexively clutched Ivan's shoulders and howled.

“Urgh...! Uuugh...! Ack...! Huh...?”

The tremendous noise battering his ears abruptly stopped.

Oswald looked around in a daze. Right beside him were Yuri and Eugene, both deathly pale.

They were hanging from the carriage wheels.

“Uhh...? Uhhhh...?”

“Wow...”

Far away, they could see the spire they had launched from. That whole distance...? By throwing a hatchet...? They looked at Ivan with fresh eyes.

“But won't this get us caught?”

“Of course it will.”

Ivan could already hear the commotion inside the carriage.

The people in there weren't deaf. The carriage had suddenly lurched, gained the weight of four people, and taken direct hits from axes. There was no way they wouldn't notice.

For the moment, it wasn't a problem: they couldn't open the carriage door, nor could they see beneath the wheels through the windows. But that would only last so long.

The moment they stepped onto the deck, they would be surrounded. Crown Prince Alexander himself wouldn't be aboard, but they had ambushed a carriage carrying his secret envoy. Naturally, they were going to be attacked.

In short, the plan had never allowed for a stealthy infiltration in the first place.

Realizing this, the Possessors stared at Ivan in disbelief.

“Then what do we do now?”

“Hold out.”

“Huh?”

Staring straight at a point in the night sky, Ivan slowly pulled out the axe embedded in the carriage.

Beneath the clouds, the aerial battleship was gradually drawing closer.

Once he could even make out the blinking lights on the deck guiding the carriage to its landing spot, Ivan hooked Oswald onto a carriage wheel and hung by one hand.

Then he aimed the freed axe straight ahead again and turned his head slightly.

“Come on, no way. You're ditching us? Boss, you're ditching the Korean Patriotic Corps? What about friendship?”

Ignoring Eugene's stumbling stream of nonsense, he drew his arm back and circulated his mana.

Stealthy infiltration had been impossible under these conditions from the start.

In that case, surely the right approach was to draw attention one way and strike from another. It was only natural. The Extermination Unit had always adhered to the doctrine of throwing the enemy into confusion immediately before infiltrating.

Not quite... expendable pawns, but decoys to divert attention.

Besides, two of the Possessors were nobles: one a high-ranking military noble, the other an elf.

Even if they came under attack, they wouldn't be summarily executed. And if only students appeared, there was a good chance the incident would be dismissed as an immature prank.

That was why he had told them things like “no killing crew members.” To keep the situation from becoming a fight to the death.

“I'll come for you soon.”

“No, wait, Boss...? Boss!”

WHOOOOSH!!!

Ivan hurled his axe toward a point in the night sky. The powerful recoil shook the carriage once, and by the time the Possessors opened their eyes again, he was already gone.

He was shooting through the darkness of the night.

“Like some crazy flying Santa Claus. He wouldn't even need Rudolph.”

“Ahahaha... What do we do now?”

“What else?”

Watching the deck draw ever closer, Eugene gritted his teeth.

“We clear the Quest.”

If the reward for this Quest was lousy, he was going to kill that bastard of a Status window, whatever it took.

* * *

Ivan hung below the warship's waterline, his axe embedded in a gunport.

Harsh wind swept past his ears. Beneath his feet was a sensation of weightlessness, and far, far below, the streets dotted the ground like grains of sand.

A fall would mean death. No—at this height, not even fragments of his limbs would remain.

“Hup.”

CRACK!!

Hanging by one hand at that height, he twisted at the waist to build momentum and drove a blow straight into the gunport.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

CRRRUNCH!!

Swaying precariously as though he might fall at any moment, he kept at it, steadily and expressionlessly.

In silence. As though chopping wood with his feet planted on solid ground.

Soon, the wooden gunport gave way, leaving a hole large enough for a person to pass through.

WEEEEEE! WEEEEEE! WEEEEEE!

Warning lights flashed madly inside, and he heard the clamor of crew members rushing out.

Attention successfully diverted.

Ivan nodded impassively, then flung himself into the dark opening in the gunport.

Now, here at last,

the woodsman had arrived.