Chapter 263: Skying Spectate
———Lynda———
<11: 07 am>
“...How much do they spend their school budget on food?” I wondered out loud since that’s something they keep supplying in large quantity and high quality.
“Probably on a level that our school tuition alone clearly can’t fulfill. Unless we want to do some unhinged detective work for such a trivial topic it’s best to end the discussion here.” Kroin said, looking like he realized how far we had to go and how suspicious we’ll look to even remotely get an idea. He sure is trying to shut that down quickly
“Yeesh. I guess we’ll just keep it at that.” I said, not feeling like it’s worth arguing. “…There’s still no announcement on where we’re going, right?”
“That is weird. They usually announce it a day in advance.” Kroin pointed out. This obviously means there is something insidious in play. Nothing that would threaten us, but would no doubt spook us really badly or try to awe us in some way.
It’s still too early in the trip to make any educated guesses. Probably best to keep quiet for the time being. We’ll know when we get there.
“Not really much to worry about anyway, right? This is basically a free day where we don’t have to do anything and relax if we don’t want to.” Trener said before shoving a cupcake into his mouth. Have some class, dude.
“Ugh.” Rousi muttered in disgust at that display. “...Onto a different topic. Have any of you been visiting the dungeon since the ‘instances update’ came out?”
“I have. Literally nothing changed outside of not accidentally running into people, which is good enough for me.” I answered. Obviously it’s hard to expect whoever created those things to even try making the underground murder gauntlet easier. “I did get a new solo record. Only five floors further, so not really worth talking about.”
“That’s still quite a good amount of progress.” Luik remarked. “I have also increased my record by that amount. So the gap between us is still the same.”
“It’s not really a competition, you know?” Especially for something where a really bad slip up could literally kill you. Probably not the best thing to try to outdo the others on.
“Anything can be a competition.” She bluntly replied. Looks like she ain’t all that interested in dropping that. I guess as long as nothing went wrong in the long run I can just opt to ignore it. She hadn’t shown any worrisome signs so far so there’s that.
…Histon had been looking out of the glass wall for a while now, probably trying to figure out where we’re going. He’s being quite diligent even if they’ll spill the beans on where we’re going eventually.
Oh. The food’s here. There is even a chocolate fountain this time around. You can never complain about the budget they blow on the food for us students. We might never know the logistics but we’re definitely not complaining.
“Mhmm…” …I wonder. Wasn’t there some studies on food tasting different at this high of an altitude? This doesn’t taste off to me, but I do remember airplane food always tasting a bit weird. Maybe they did some weird magic stuff or something. “Oh. Histon. You found anything?”
“We’re going east.” He replied before sitting down with a plate of food. I see, so that’s not really a lot to go off- “Over the ocean.”
“Huh?” Doesn’t that mean we’re going overseas? Why? I’m pretty sure we’re not even close to visiting all the Fantarban Realms in the country. Heck, it doesn’t look like we’re going to cover it all even before we graduate. We don’t even have that much time left… About four months or so? If memory serves. No idea what is going to happen during that period, but there’s no way we would’ve explored all the monster habitats by then.
“Truly mystifying. I think they could’ve hid it a bit better, right? These ships could teleport or go a lot faster than this if I remember correctly.” Luik chimed in.
“They are moving way slower than their top speed, I think that’s correct. It’s pretty clear that was done to give us breathing room.” Kroin joined in on the conversation. “Doing it this way gives us more time to acclimate and be mentally ready when we reach our destination. Besides, it allows us to explore this ship a lot more and see what it has in store. It’s almost like a mobile hotel with all the commodities it has in store.”
“...It does feel like a place we can stay in for a few days.” Histon said in agreement. “Anyway. I would imagine that they’ll tell us soon what the plan for today is. They clearly don’t plan on keeping it quiet with how the ship is moving.”
“...Where is Elrik?” Rousi asked, not seeing him anywhere. The only one in the lobby right now is the blonde pilot we don’t know the name of. Never speak or anything.
“He’ll probably show up eventually to tell us what’s going on.” Histon said with confidence. “Regardless, we’ll probably get to fight a lot of monsters down there. I think I have improved a lot this week alone.”
“Is that so? Perhaps this is a lucky week for you.” Luik commented without much emotion in her tone. I do think something about this week in particular gives me a bit more inspiration than before. Probably because of the weapon I was given last week, for one.
…It does feel off though. Like something is nudging us to try a bit harder… I don’t know why, I just got that feeling in me. Maybe tomorrow will prove me wrong.
“You sure you should be eating so much right now?” Kroin can’t help but to say that. “We are going into uncharted territory. It wouldn’t be surprising if they are planning on showing us something stomach churning, or stressing us out.”
“I think I got control of my stomach. It’s not gonna come out the way it goes in.” He boldly claimed. Alright dude, I better not catch you lacking.
While everyone else was chatting, a screen suddenly appeared in the middle of the lobby for all of us to see. Looks like they’ll actually start explaining to us what the hell is going on.
Right now it’s simply displaying the map and the trajectory of the ship. We’re now hovering above the European continent and seem to be flying past those countries near the shoreline.
“Was there any interesting place near here?” Trener asked as if any of us would be able to provide an answer.
“Hell if I know.” Histon replied quickly. I have zero information on what’s going on on this side of the planet. I think combing through the news in the States is already headache-inducing as is.
“...Ah.” Luik suddenly muttered as if realizing something. All of us quickly turned our heads to look at her, and she shrunk back in response. “It’s just a guess. Don’t look at me like that.”
“It’s best for all of you to temper your expectations.” Elrik said as he returned to the lobby, clearly geared up for a fight. Compared to some of the other teachers he usually has his combat gear ready. It’s just a tunic and a cape, but it at least looks like something a fantasy swordsman wore. I think that Able guy wore something stylish and more futuristic-looking? But he also has a combat uniform of his own. Now as for the others- “Keep yourselves relaxed at this point. We’re not near our destination just yet, but I want you to pay attention to the things on screen soon.”
He then casually walked away. What is even the point of wearing that if we’re not even near our destination yet? Maybe if that pilot talked we could’ve got more context on that, but they’ve been completely silent.
“Seems like we really won’t get any more information before the answer is right in our face.” Kroin remarked. So should we keep guessing or just ignore the question for now?
We are still going east and past some countries already. Still no idea where we are going to land. I’m just going to focus on eating the variety of desserts they got for us today. We need a lot of calories going into battle anyway.
…Huh. We’re going past Europe and into Asia at this rate. These are the areas none of us really know much about with how little coverage people are willing to share to the wider world nowadays. It feels like global news in general has been pretty infrequent as of late.
“That looks so disgusting.” Trener said as he witnessed Histon eating pineapple covered in chocolate. “I get it with other fruits, but pineapple? Come on man.”
“Don’t knock it until you try it.” Histon said without sounding particularly bothered by the complaint.
“I’d rather not eat that mouth disintegrator in the first place if I could help it.” Trener said in response.
“...Didn’t you say you were fine with pineapple on pizza before?” I pointed out that weird discrepancy.
“I don’t like raw pineapple, okay!?” He snapped back. That’s… a weird preference. “How the hell do you eat pineapple juice without feeling like your whole mouth is bleeding.”
“Pretty sure most people here even drink pineapple juice on the regular.” Rousi chimed in.
“...Hey, what is going on on the map?” Kroin can’t help but say with his eyes glued onto the hovering screen the entire time. Looks like there has been an update to it finally.
Certain areas on the map have been highlighted in red and zooming in on one specific country.
“Hey. Isn’t this kinda crazy? It’s like coming over to check someone licking their wounds.” Histon remarked with less than perfect composure. “Are we going there to see people scrambling and panicking? That seems like a bit much isn’t it?”
“Yeah. No way they make us do that. At least not in person, right?” I said, trying to not think of a bad case scenario.
The screen suddenly began showing footage from multiple areas in Russia of people rioting. There were already reports on this, and now they’re seriously showing us real time footage?
“Well. This wouldn’t be the first time…” Kroin muttered to himself. He must’ve been talking about the First Few Weeks, but basically every country had riots happening everywhere during that time so it isn’t really anything unique. “Still. Why would they show us this?”
The people in the footage all seem to be very uncompromising. Attacking others and making a mess of the area. The law enforcements seem to be on the backfoot and the attacks are relentless. I would imagine that they are seeking answers as to what happened on Monday.
“It seems that we are close to our destination. I am obligated to begin explaining what is going on.” Elrik finally returned with a weirdly hesitant tone. He’s not a man of many emotions so it’s rare for him to show concern. “First off. A personal note from me. This was not the original intention of the school’s board. It’s something one specific person requested for and they have way more authority than most of us do.”
That’s one hell of a bombshell already. Is this the mysterious backer everyone keeps theorizing over or perhaps someone else entirely?
…Actually why does Elrik even know about that in the first place?
“Now onto the official statement. Due to the unprovoked attack towards the school on the 28th of January by the Russian Government, one member of the institute has retaliated and made an example. The country is now demilitarized with all the areas occupied by soldiers wiped out alongside anyone assisting their efforts, along with a few extra areas. The ships will first be used to broadcast that fact to the masses before we go about our regular schedule, albeit with a change in location. That’s all.” …What the fuck? “We will be entering one of the Forbidden Zones once we finish with the broadcast. Please be careful once we land.”