Chapter 86. Setting Out to the Empire

“Very well,” I said, giving Asteora a serious look. “What is it that I have to do with the Emperor?”

“Oh…! Finally meeting with him,” Nicole said with a bit of excitement. “Be sure to take pictures and send them to me.”

“Sure,” I dismissively replied.

“You’ll be coming with us as well,” Asteora followed up, giving Nicole a look as if it was obvious.

“Eh!? But I don’t have anything to do with the Empire!” she replied, her eyes wide.

“What do you mean ‘you don’t’? You’re my disciple, and that already gives you a connection to it. Eventually, you’ll have to learn how to face people with great political, and magical power, so it’s better to start with someone like this,” Asteora said, crossing her arms and nodding.

“Y-you think it’s better to start with a literal Emperor…?” Nicole asked, narrowing her eyes as she looked at Asteora.

Asteora chuckled, and shook her head. “He’s not as bad as you think he is.”

I also couldn’t help but give Asteora a narrowed-eye look as well. “Really…? All I remember from that child was that he was a skirt chaser who had no redeeming qualities and was of no use in the war.”

“You might think so because that’s all you cared about, but you’ll see when you meet him the kind of man that he is,” she said, shrugging slightly.

“But can you finally tell me what it is that he’ll want me to do?” I asked, trying my best to put away the suspicions I still carried about that boy.

Asteora shook her head. “No. I cannot share that information with you because I don’t have it. All I know is that it’s related to your old ‘Hero of the Holy Gods legacy’ as he calls it.”

I frowned and looked down as I thought about what that could possibly mean. It could be something related to my old Holy powers… Perhaps a piece of equipment that somehow got here… The Holy Faith, or even the Holy Knight Order itself, but I wouldn’t know unless I went to see him, so with a sigh, I nodded.

“Then, that’s what I’ll have to find out for myself,” I said, giving Asteora a determined look, before turning to look at Nicole. “What about her? Will she just follow me around?”

“Oh yeah, is this like a vacation for me? I won’t have to train for a while?” Nicole followed up.

“Training doesn’t stop,” Asteora said, raising one eyebrow, “and yes, for the most part, you’ll be watching what Althea does, however…”

She turned her eyes to me, giving me a thoughtful look. “What?”

“Do try to keep in mind the things that Althea does right, and—most importantly—the things that she does wrong,” she answered.

Nicole gave me a sidelong look accompanied with a smirk. “It’s not hard to tell when she does the ‘wrong’ thing. Like when she got fined for setting a fire in a public park. Really, who does that?”

I cleared my throat and looked away. “It’s what I thought I should do in a strange place to keep myself warm…”

Asteora looked at me with a raised eyebrow. She didn’t know exactly what I’d done on my first day in this world, and I would rather not remember those times, so as long as she doesn’t ask, I’ll keep it between me and Nicole.

“You’ll also need to get your papers in order. Again, like I said to Althea, talk to Oliver and he’ll handle most of the annoying parts,” Asteora said, glossing over what Nicole said before. “And make sure that you bring your equipment. I don’t think that there’s going to be any issues with the Emperor, but it’s better to have them in hand just in case something comes up.”

“Eh… like what?” Nicole asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Like a test, or a request that needs to be done sooner rather than later. It doesn’t matter. Just think of it like it’s better having it and not needing it than needing it and not having it.”

“I see… well alright,” Nicole replied with a nod. “So, is there something else?”

“Not right now,” Asteora replied, standing from the chair. “But you’ll still have to train.”

“Can’t we skip it? We just went to a funeral, you know…” she said, pursing her lips and looking down.

Asteora considered her for a moment, but she eventually shook her head. “No. Think of it as a way to meditate about it. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to go all out.”

With a sigh, Nicole stood up from the couch as well. “Very well… I’ll go get my things…”

Her things weren’t in my room, so she walked over to the door. I decided that I might as well go meet with Oliver in the meantime, so I followed after her and we both went to do our own things.

* * *

A couple of days later, we were at a place called an ‘airport’. Strange name, since said port wasn’t near a body of water at all, and neither was it on the air. It was like any other building in this city, the only difference being that it was much larger; similar to some of the malls I’ve seen. I also finally took notice of the loud beings that I would sometimes see flying across the sky.

At first, I thought they were simply some form of special magical being that existed in this world, and that the noise it made was just from the speed at which it was flying—something normal that people with strong magic and the ability to fly could do; like some dragons, monsters, and, most of all, the powerful generals and soldiers of both Tenebreius and the Empire back in Arretia.

But now that I was in this airport and had the opportunity to look at these beings closely, they were just… artifacts. No different than the cars, or buses that people of this world use to move around. I was amazed to see that such a large thing was capable of flying without the use of any magical power. Even after a few months, I still couldn't get used to how the people of this world managed to make things that even magic would have a hard time replicating—if it could at all.

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“Nervous?” Nicole asked, standing next to me with a large case on the floor that she was holding with one hand.

I looked at the artifacts that were parked near the building, and the few ones that were slowly moving around. After a moment, I shook my head. “No, not really. I’ve flown plenty of times before, and as long as we’re with Asteora, I don’t think there’s anything to be worried about.”

“Eh… is that so?” she said, then turned to look at the artifacts. “It’s my first time getting on a plane myself.”

“Are you worried?” I asked, tracking with my eyes the movement of one of those artifacts that was already turning on a corner.

“Well… a little. But you’re right, as long as I’m with you guys, I think there’s nothing to be worried about,” she said with a forced smile.

While looking at the artifact—the plane—I noticed how loud it got as it gained a lot of speed. I watched carefully how it was picking up speed, trying my best to notice what kind of magic, or trick, it would use to get off the ground. But all I could notice were tiny movements from the things that appeared like stiff bird wings, before the thing took off the ground, as softly and gracefully as a bird simply gliding in the air—if it wasn’t for the loud noise it was making.

“Why are you looking at that like it’s the first time you’ve seen a plane? Are you like a country bumpkin or something?” a man’s voice came from behind me.

With a half-turn of my face I glanced at him, then ignored him. It was James. For some reason, he was on the same trip as we were.

“Why are you here as well? We didn’t invite you!” Nicole spat, glaring fiercely at the man.

He shrugged. “I didn’t ask to be invited, nor did I invite myself. I simply have a trip to Leyfall as well, and we just happened to be on the same plane.”

“Well… you don’t have to hang out with us! You can just go be annoying at a quiet corner,” Nicole followed up, shooing him with one hand.

“Heh, that would be too boring. I’d rather annoy a couple of stupid people,” he said with a smirk plastered on his face.

“Grr…! This is harassment! I can have you jailed for that!” Nicole exclaimed, pointing a finger at James.

“What? And how are they going to capture me, huh? I know Holy magic—the most powerful magic there is—and no cop will be able to grab me, especially over such a stupid reason like me just hanging out,” he said with a confident smile as he looked down on Nicole.

“But I can definitely flatten you if you turn out to be a problem,” Asteora’s voice came from above us.

Nicole and James looked up with surprise, but I had already felt a faint presence in the air and figured she was with us. I was certain that she would’ve been able to fly by herself to any place that she wanted, but she told me that it was much more comfortable to fly ‘first class’ in one of those airplanes, and that it was a good time to excuse herself from dealing with anyone.

After a moment, James’ confident expression returned. “That would be the case if I only used normal magic, but according to the Holy Knight Order, Holy magic is above any other kind of magic. I might just be able to stop you.”

“Hm…” Asteora simply replied, looking down at James with an unreadable expression. “We could put it to the test if you wanted. But that’ll be when we’re not in a place where property damage could cause a lot of problems.”

Saying that, she looked somewhere behind us. People were already looking this way, pointing fingers and even taking out their cameras. It wasn’t unusual for such a thing to happen whenever we were with Asteora, and sometimes it would happen to Nicole as well, since rumors about her being her new student had already spread.

People generally ignored me, since there were a lot of people saying that I had nothing to do with them due to my usage of Dark and Hell spells, which is something that the Hero of the Holy Gods would never use. It also helped that Oliver had done a great job with dealing with the people that asked questions.

With a sigh, James turned his back on us. “You girls only bring trouble. Every time it’s something like this. I better do as Nicole wishes and go away. I don’t want to deal with those jackasses from the news outlets and that stupid shit that they say.”

“Yeah! Go away,” Nicole followed up, crossing her arms and throwing a glare at his back.

He didn’t see it as he simply dismissively waved his hand in the air and swiftly walked somewhere else.

“We should probably find somewhere else to be as well. Since we got first class tickets, we can use the VIP sections of the airport while we get ready to go,” Asteora said, floating down to the floor and gesturing to us to follow her.

Without standing around to wait for more people to gather around her, we quickly made our way to another place in the airport.

The place looked quite luxurious, with a handful of people already inside, doing different things, like working on a computer, watching the planes come and go, eating, or— as a few people were doing—getting drunk.

“Is it okay for people to be doing that before getting on that artifact?” I asked as we were easily let inside by someone who looked with awe at Asteora.

“Yes. A lot of people don’t actually like to fly on these machines, so to make things easier on themselves, they prefer to not remember most of the trip or drink just to have the bravery to get on it. Others… simply like to drink,” Asteora replied and found a place to rest far away from prying eyes.

“I see… then is that one of the reasons that you’re reaching for one of those?” I asked, glancing at Nicole, who was already pointing at a bottle.

She froze on the spot, and slowly turned to look at me with a wry smile. “N-no, it’s nothing like that! It’s just that… well… how often do you get to be in one of these places… might as well take the opportunity, right!? Hahaha!”

I looked at her with narrowed eyes for a moment, and she avoided looking at me. Nicole had a tendency to ‘try’ drinks whenever she could, so it was obvious that she simply wanted to drink. However, she never got drunk—at least, not too much—so I didn’t see a reason to deny her.

With a small shrug, I turned away from her. “Do as you please.”

“Hehe, don’t worry, it’s just a taste!” she continued, and I could hear the glasses moving.

I personally didn’t have a particular thing I wanted to do in this place, so I did as Asteora, and found myself a place to sit down while watching the loud artifacts come and go on the wide gray field that they moved.

* * *

A while later, it was finally time for us to move on to one of those artifacts. The one that we were using wasn’t particularly large, since apparently, we had to go to another city and then take another, much larger airplane that would take us directly to the Empire.

“How long is the trip going to be?” I asked, since I hadn’t thought about it, and both Nicole and Asteora seemed to have an idea of it, which is why I didn’t ask sooner.

“It’s going to be about fourteen hours,” Asteora replied.

“That long? Is the Empire that far?” I asked this time with my eyebrows raised.

I was expecting it to be a fairly fast trip, judging by the speed of those airplanes, and when compared to when I learned to fly at high speeds, it would usually take only a few minutes to get to one of the Empire’s provinces or a few hours to another battlefield.

If it was like when I started moving around as the Hero of the Holy Gods, when I couldn’t fly at all and my powers weren’t developed, it would instead be a trip on a carriage, horse, or just by foot. A trip from one kingdom to another would take a long time. If we were to go to the empire in those means… it would take months to get there.

“Yep. It’s almost half-way across the world!” Nicole exclaimed, “Good thing we have first class. It’s going to feel like it went by in a moment!”

“Planes are indeed fast,” Asteora said, following another person as we were being guided. “One could always go even faster with magic, but why waste energy on that when it’s not urgent.”

And once more, I was amazed by the artifacts of this world as I made my way to the plane.

It was slightly windy outside, and the chilly air of this city graced me as I walked to the airplane. I didn’t actually go outside, since the plane was connected to the building by a small covered bridge, but I could still feel the air.

It was quite strange how this city didn’t change after so many months. There was no winter snow, nor a burning sun of summer. It was always the same, the sun going down at the same time every day, and coming up again at the same time the next day.

I hadn’t looked into it, but I wondered if this world had seasons like my world did as well… I could ask about it right now, but I felt like I would rather see for myself once I reached what was supposed to be the same place where I was born—even if the actual place no longer existed.

And so, I settled myself and waited to see what flying on this artifact felt.