Chapter 504: Departure (2/2)

Curiously enough, there was no highway connecting the Celuroa Kingdom with its vassal state, the Frantz Kingdom. To get to the Frantz Kingdom, they had to go through the Klein Kingdom.

Laojun had sent some of the Quinta to confirm this, believing that there must be some kind of secret road.

“A blimp…? Is this something you made as well?”

The demons had records of humans having used aircrafts known as “hot flying balloons” during the Great Magic War 300 years ago, but a blimp was beyond their imagination.

There were some improvements to be found between the hot flying balloons of the past. Specifically, it had an increased load capacity, and it featured an elongated air sac to increase buoyancy.

“Yeah, we’ll use this until we get to the national borders. We can use this to freely move around the Klein Kingdom. After that, we’ll go the rest of the way by carriage.”

The carriage Jin was talking about was one that he had already transferred to the national borders of the kingdoms of Klein and Frantz in advance.

“Alright, let’s go!”

The blimp took off from Nidou Castle. For the time being, they were under the effects of “Invisible” in order to not cause an uproar.

“It’s so dark…”

Since Jin wouldn’t cancel “Invisible” until they were way high up in the sky, the view outside the blimp would be completely dark.

But once it was cancelled…

“Woah, amazing! We’re above the clouds!”

Once they had reached level flight, “Invisible” was cancelled, and everyone on board could finally see the surroundings.

Shion was frolicking in excitement as she looked down onto the world under the blimp.

“Jin… no, Magi Craft Meister, you’re amazing!”

Lucas’ face didn’t express much, but a hint of excitement could be seen in his blushed cheeks.

Even to Elsa and Jin, the view of the world from the sky was a completely fresh experience.

The blimp was sailing over an endless sea of clouds.

As clouds became thinner, the world below was more visible. Jin made the blimp drop a little altitude to further improve the visibility of the world below the clouds.

“This land is so vast. And there are so many humans living on it…”

Shion said that as she gazed upon the fields and villages that seemed to be so tiny below that it seemed as if she was looking at a map.

Since the blimp managed to travel faster thanks to the Wind Barrier, they arrived at Storsk about 2 hours later. They landed in an unpopulated suburb while cloaked with “Invisibile”.

Jin had sent a golem carriage there before by transfer machine. The coachman was, of course, Steward.

“Okay, let’s ride that carriage.”

Shion had a curious expression on her face.

“J-Jin… what’s this?”

“That’s my carriage?”

“No, I know, but how is it here already?”

“Ah, that’s a trade secret.”

“Trade?”

“Well, I’ll tell you one of these days. Don’t worry too much about that for now.”

“…”

After that, they boarded the carriage. Ten minutes later, they had left Storsk behind.

The village of Storsk was a place where the scars of the conflict that occurred last April still remained here and there.

Like any border town, it was surrounded by walls, but these walls were about to crumble in some places, and hadn’t been repaired yet.

Jin’s carriage approached a checkpoint on the outskirts of that town.

“Stop!”

The border guard soldiers of the Klein Kingdom stopped the carriage right before the checkpoint.

Jin stepped down from the carriage and showed them a permit. Of course, he was wearing a coat similar to the ones used by the Shouro Empire’s aristocracy.

“…Very well. You may pass.”

The effect of the permit issued by the royal family was glaring, and the soldiers gave permission to pass after simply taking a quick peek inside the carriage.

“…It was a bit too easy, don’t you think?”

Elsa muttered that once the guards were far enough.

No matter how good Jin’s permit was, it was quite negligent for a border soldier to allow them all to pass without taking a good look at everyone else who had come with him.

That had been an impression unique to Elsa, since she had been on diplomatic trips with Reinhardt.

“They really are falling short in human resources…”

Jin remembered the immigration examination that he underwent back when he entered the Shouro Empire from the Celuroa Kingdom.

After passing through a stone gate, they finally arrived in the Frantz Kingdom.