Chapter 115: Flying Overload
———Lynda———
<7: 37 am>
“Argh! Why is it so damn cold today!” I can’t help but complain, which spooked Glery a bit. It’s snowing and the clouds are thick, making it look like it is still nighttime even though it certainly is not. “Seriously, what shitty weather we’re having today.”
“T-This is nothing!” Trener said, his body shaking as we entered the campus. He could’ve put on a more convincing act than that.
“Well aren’t you all just completely miserable!” A voice came from overhead, and we looked up to see a smug crow looking down on us. She doesn’t look like she is bothered by the cold at all. “Don’t just stand there, get inside already, unless you wanna freeze out here to death! Hahaha!”
She flies off in the direction of the school, leaving all of us in the dust.
“That freaking bitch…” Histon bitterly muttered out. Let’s just not dwell on that and get inside. They want us to meet up at a meeting room before eight.
“Come on, let’s not waste any time out here.” I said while grabbing Glery and quickly dragging us two inside the building so we won’t get saddled with hypothermia.
Not a lot of students had entered this place at this point and time, and the two classrooms don’t have a lot of time left to meet up. Maybe the Perfect Class already got there and is waiting for us. Histon is probably thinking about how they’re gonna mock him for being late, I bet.
“The meeting room is…” We both stand in the teleport area and check for the room we’re meant to go to. It should be… this number.
*Zoom*
Hmm… This looks correct. The people from that class are here, and some faces I had expected.
I see Karra sitting down and looking at her phone with a bored expression. I see Kenni looking at me mischievously. I see some other guys from the class also sitting there with small talks I can’t make out.
Despite being called a meeting room, it’s actually very large, enough space to fit multiple classes inside it.
I’m not really sure if we were designated a seat, but considering the lack of organization here with everyone just sitting wherever, I guess I can just sit down with Glery, not worrying about anything until it’s actually meeting time.
“Let’s sit there.” I said to Glery and led her to two seats that are pretty far from the others.
…Feel a bit awkward. I’m not really friends with anyone from this class, and those guys from my class aren't exactly close with me either… Huh. I wonder if I have been hanging out with Glery for too long. She always looks so defenseless so I rarely ever keep her out of my sight whenever we’re in school. Maybe it’s something to think about in the future. For now I should just wait patiently. I think all of us are waiting and wanting to know how we’re actually supposed to reach the flying island.
I’d like to speak, but I don’t really know if Glery is interested in talking about anything. She hasn’t shown any interest in the island itself, so I don’t really know if there’s any aspect to it that she might like and wanna talk about.
More people poured into the room and they all quickly found a seat and just stayed there, not having anything to say. There’s only one teacher here and it’s Elrik. He’s just standing there with a blank expression. Where are the other teachers?
…Well this is starting to feel quite awkward. If both classes were in different rooms before going for whatever transportation we’re meant to use, maybe it’d be a bit less…
*Zoom*
“Alright children, it’s nearly time to travel. Let me check to make sure we’re not missing a lot of people.” Rico suddenly came in and started scanning us with her eyes. “Only six people left, shouldn’t be of any concern, we got five minutes.”
It didn’t take long for more people to come in. I think that’s everyone plus another teacher. Odd, aside from Rico the other two teachers aren’t from the old guard, why is that?
I see an androgynous man who quickly made his way to Elrik’s side, his pink hair stood out very prominently. I have heard rumors about him, which just boils down to him being another teacher from far away. That’s not really something I couldn’t figure out just with a single glance.
“Hm… Yep. That’s everyone. Alright, here’s the code for the next teleport location. Please make your way there quickly.” The projection shows the code. It’s not really a system I saw being used before. On those teleport panels there are options to use code instead of selecting a location. I wasn’t sure why it’s a thing until now. “Don’t make a typo, you might die.”
I was about to go along with Glery to the teleport pad and she said that!? What the hell is that warning!?
“First!” Kenni ran past me and quickly typed in the code.
*Zoom*
And there she goes… Wait. Where did the teachers go!? They were here a second ago!
“Where did they go?” Trener couldn't help but ask once everyone realized they disappeared.
You know what, that’s not super important as getting to the next meeting place. The code is…
*Zoom*
“...Now what the heck is all this?” I muttered out, seeing that we seemed to be in a… hangar of sorts? There are multiple sections that are closed off, so we couldn’t really see if they are concealing something. Where are we on the campus anyway?
Everyone is understandably feeling quite overwhelmed by the scale of the place. Even if we don’t really know what kind of vehicles are stored here, just the size of this place alone makes it clear just how huge it would be.
“Hmm… That should be everyone.” Suddenly a new voice rang out in the massive hangar. A person with long blonde hair, green eyes, a simple long blue dress and stockings, as well as a blue coat. Weird. Have I seen someone like this before? “Welcome, one and all. I will be the one in charge of transportation today. My name is Edea Weltal, nice to meet all of you.”
Edea Weltal… Edea Wel… tal? Where have I heard that name? That name and face, that name and face… Hmm…
“What the hell!?” Histon screamed out loud, completely breaking my concentration. Dude, why are you losing your shit at this point? Talk about a bad first impression.
“Jeez, what a terrible reaction.” Kenni mockingly remarked. Can’t even disagree with her there.
“Quiet down, this is no time to cause a commotion.” Elrik suddenly walked into view along with the other teachers. “Edea, it’s time for everyone to get on board.”
“No need to tell me that.” The new person said before doing something with the tablet in-
*Rumble*
Suddenly a loud sound rang out and the feeling of the ground shaking interrupted my line of thought. One of the sections in the hangar opened up, revealing a… ship? Not an actual aircraft or anything, just a ship that sails in the water.
It’s massive and has a white and gold coloring to everything. It’s no cruise ship, but it could probably hold over a hundred people.
“What in the world is something like that doing here?” I can’t help but asked quietly, probably only heard by Glery.
The ship suddenly began to move… How in the world is it moving!? It doesn’t have wheels or anything! It’s supposed to be meant for sailing on the sea isn’t it!? What in the world am I looking at!?
*Float*
“H-Huh?” Suddenly all of us are suddenly levitating. What? Why? What in the world is- “Whoa!”
“Eeek!” Glery yelped and clung to me as we were sent flying and ended up on the ship’s deck. Thankfully all of us reached the ground of the deck safely. At this point what else am I supposed to be surprised about.
“Welcome aboard to the flying ship, Starai Cruiser. I will be your pilot during the trip. Please follow me.” The blonde one said, leading us down a set of stairs into a massive fancy lobby. It reminds me of those pictures of cruise ships. At one end of the room there is a… I think those are control panels for the ship? At least from how this Edea person is walking there. “Okay everyone, enjoy your time inside the ship as we make our way towards the floating island. Don’t disturb me while I pilot the ship, okay?”
Wait, I don’t think we even address how we’re going to go to the floating island with this-
*Rumble*
“W-Whoa!” That scared the heck out of me! The ship is rumbling again. What is happening now!?
I looked through the glass window in front of the ship, saw the hangar door opened up and saw the clear sky… Wait, clear sky!?
“Where the hell is this hangar located!?” Rousi asked with his tail standing straight, feeling overwhelmed much like everyone else.
This place is located high up in the sky, and we are on a ship that is approaching the exit! If this thing can’t fly then we’re gonna die from falling! Don’t tell me this is actually one of those fantasy flying ships!?
Suddenly the speed picked up and from what I can tell from the glass wall, we are still in the air and thankfully aren’t descending down into fine red paste… Are you for real, we’re in a giant flying ship? How does this thing even stay afloat?
“W-We’re actually flying?” Trener said in disbelief as he walked towards the glass to get a better look outside, seeing the clouds we were passing by, as well as some snow sticking to the glass. It’s still snowing outside and probably very cold up on the deck.
I-I’m overwhelmed. Very overwhelmed. It felt like too many things were happening at once. First the giant hangar, then the new person whose name I…
“Edea Weltal… The billionaire kid!?” No freaking wonder Histon freaked out earlier. Why is a rich kid like them here!?
“The hell is with that nickname? I’m older than you guys, you know? Or are you all bad at math?” Edea said with a mocking smile.
“Leave them be. They’re still trying to process what is going on.” Elrik said, being more understanding of our situations. Seriously though, what the heck is happening anymore…
Is the other class at least as freaked out as we… Why do they look so relaxed and nonchalant? Don’t tell me they already know about all of this as well!?
“Alright everyone! The trip is gonna take a while. Have some snacks.” Rico said as suddenly a bunch of robots walked in and placed down large amounts of snacks and drinks. “Eat as much as you want, just make sure to not get motion sickness and vomit all over the place.”
You know what. I don’t want to think about anything anymore. My mind is overloaded enough as is. I was curious about how we’re gonna get there, and somehow the answer is much more ridiculous than I expected. I thought maybe a rented airplane or even a teleportation spell. Maybe it was wrong of me to think it’s the former since that’s too reasonable. Sorry for thinking it might be the latter since there are precedents for it.
In what world am I supposed to expect it’s a fantasy airship? I thought we are all taught that a lot of things are still very limited because it ‘uses too much mana’ or ‘impractical to pull off’ and nonsense like that! Surely something like this is being a tad too excessive… No. What am I even thinking? We’re talking about a place that appeared freaking overnight!
…Let me just take a nap or something… After the snacks, of course, they look pretty good.