Early in the morning, a carriage could be seen exiting the ground of the academy, thundering away to bring the two to the capital. The travel, while long was without any disruption and had Kirche and Alex in the ruling city of the kingdom a few hours later.Since it was a direct summons from the King, he was rapidly introduced into the palace, leaving behind the redhead to roam the larger shop here.
Following the guard sent to guide him, he was soon introduced into the throne room. Here was the royal couple alongside Agnes. The former and latter were sporting grave face while the queen was a mess.
"Thank you for responding the summon while you aren"t a part of one of my subject. You were firstly called here for you to receive compensation and reward for your deeds for the crown of this kingdom, but another urgent matter has arisen as you were making your way here. I have not right to ask you to act, but as a father, I can only hope that you accept this request of mine."
The pleading tone of the king did surprise Alex at first but when he heard that he ask it as a father he knows that something had happened to Henrietta.
"Did the potion had to cease to bear effect?" Ask him worried about the purplette.
"Worse, as of three hours ago, our Healers had finally been able to create a cure, not without the precious help you had given them. At the time she awoken, Henrietta had asked what had happened since she was attacked and upon hearing what the Valliere girl was accused, had asked for her to see her.
Since she was still recovering, Viscount Wardes had escorted the girl to her chamber along with Agnes. Regretfully it was only after that, that I learn from those going through the doc.u.ments you have given, that he was a spy from Reconquista, by the time the guards were sent to arrest him and secure the princess, he had already fled with the two other. Being of the Griffin corps, he was already too far for us to track him down." Say the King, barely restraining his anger, while Agnes could be seen lowering her head in shame to not have been able to defend the Princess once more.
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Taking a deep breath, the king locks his gaze with Alex.
"As the king, I can"t send any force to retrieve my abducted daughter, where we think he had taken them, Albion..."
"... And since I am not yet a member of this country, I can"t be counted as a breach from the treaty established between the two nation and start a war."
"Yes." Say him, thankful that he was able to catch this rapidly.
"While I am rapid, I don"t know the ground around here enough to go to Albion, and I doubt that I will be able to arrive before they do, Even if I can, they could easily fly there with the gryphon."
"We are well aware of this fact, but all bear to think that they will try to use my daughter as a bargaining chip. While the maid Siesta had been interrogated for the shake of clarification some point on Mott precedent action, she hears of what happened to the princess and had shared something about the "dragon plumage" a somewhat well know fairy tale from her village that turn to be a family heirloom from her great-grandfather.
She said that it was rumoured to be faster than most small dragons. I want you to see if those rumours were true, and should they be, try to use it to rejoin Albion through it. Should you not obtain the result in three days, you are to immediately depart for Albion and track down my daughter."
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Alex could refuse this and wash his wand of the affair, but he was never one to leave someone he know suffer a tragic fate.
When the royal couple saw him nod, they were immensely relieved.
"Even with a gryphon, they should need at least three days to rejoin la Roch.e.l.le before being able to fly to the floating island. From the actual position of the island, they would need a few hours to rejoin it and would need to let the gryphon rest after supporting the weight of three persons. After that, it will be at least three other days to rejoin the nearest cities. While we don"t know where is the HQ of Reconquista, they would need to travel quite a little.
To rejoin Tarbes, you will need a day. With the maid lead, you should be able to found the plumage rapidly, leaving you some time to try and see if you can use it, whatever is it. After three days, and if you don"t have results, then made haste to La Roch.e.l.le, it would take more than two to three days to do so, leaving you not more than two days behind them.
As Albion don"t have gryphon, you should be able to obtain some clue as to where they have to go to."
After hearing the king, Alex could help to praise the man to be able to plan this in so little time, it needs a great amount of knowledge on not only his territory but a mult.i.tude of other factors. He knows that tracking down the gryphon would be easy, but having taken a sniff of the general magical signature of the beast, he would be able to catch the remaining trail left behind when in Albion.
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As he made his way out of the castle he sees that Siest was already waiting for him at the fence. Seeing him, she hastily bow.
"Master, I..."
"Don"t worry Siesta, I understand that you had to respond to the call of the king, and I am rather thankful that you were here, without you, I wouldn"t guess as to how to go after them and catch up."
"You have heard..." He stops her before she could speak further, looking around, seeing quite a few people looking at them.
"Not here." Say him with his hand still on her mouth, making her nod.
"I know of an inn that would be able to house us to speak."
"Lead the way, then."
Nodding at him, she leads him through the streets, all thoughts of Kirche in the back of his mind.
After half an hour, she leads him in front of a well maintained three stories building and was greeted by skimpy-wearing uniform"s girls serving the customer. Leading him deeper, all of the girls greet Siesta when she pa.s.ses.
"Jessica! Is Scaron here?"
In the kitchen, an older girl bearing quite a few similarities to Siesta turn around.
"Siesta! I didn"t know you were in the capital!" Respond to the girls, taking her in a quick hug.
"I was just leading master here, I need a place to speak privately."
She was about to tease the girl for bringing her new master here, but seeing that she was quite serious, she didn"t.
"Sure, take the room in the attic, it not the best, but there is no one there, it should be enough for a private chat. Do you need dad" for something?"
"Since you know where we could go, not anymore."
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Once in said room, Alex resumes the adjourned meeting with the king. Hearing that he was the one tasked to take a look at their family heirloom she was relieved. She had spoken of it on the spur of the moment, only realising that they could take it away for them now that they know of his proved existence.
Since Alex was her master, she a less apprehension has to what it will become. Not wanting to lose more time, the two immediately depart, after Alex cast a Patronus to avert Kirche that an emergency had risen and he wouldn"t be able to pa.s.s the day with her or even accompany her back to the academy.
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Carried on a shifted Alex"s back, the two tore through the road leading to the village while she was giving him direction. Since being way faster than a horse, it didn"t take as much time that it would have for them to make their way back half-way to the academy before taking another road.
Three hours and a ruffled Siesta later, the two were standing at the door of her family home. Taking a few second to arrange herself, she opens the door on her dining family. Curious as to the living condition of a commoner in this ear, Alex takes a glance all around.
Their condition wasn"t that much different from a family leaving in middle ages from his world if only a little more luxurious. From the look of the well fits children at the table, it seems that the father of Siesta was able to carter for the need of such large family easily, perhaps with the help of Siesta.
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The family gathering was a joyous affair until her father hears about the near fate of his daughter. While quite thankful that Alex saves her, he was a little put off that she now was at the service of a particular individual and not the school, where he would be able to abuse of his power over her.
It became more so when he heard that they were here for their family heirloom but none of them had ever been able to make it work. If it could help the king he was willing to part with it, the 100 ecus given by Alex, greatly helping in his decision.
As it was starting to darken outside, it was concluded that they would go for it the following day. They were surprised that Alex didn"t make a fuse when he was asked to bunk with the boys for the night.
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Without many conversations between the three, Siesta father lead them through the natural network of galleries in the mountain.
Says path lead them in an enclosed area in the mountain range that would only be accessible through the air if one didn"t know the path through the mountain.
The moment his eyes land on the air-shed, he knows what was behind the mosses-covered doors. Taking a key out of his pocket, he opens the rusting lock, making it fall on the ground with a thud, while starting to open a door.
Inside, a well preserved Mitsubishi A6M Zero was proudly standing, ready to take the air once again.
"I never through to witness the sight of a zero, much less here."
While his voice has been soft and low, the two others had easily caught it inside the silent hangar.
"Zero?"
"Yes, it is also known as a plane, an aerial way of transportation from my world, those are made for a single pa.s.sager."
While he trusts Siesta, he didn"t for her father, and both of them didn"t need to know that it was a war machine. Being now is, he put a hand on the side of the plane. He was about to deconstruct it to gain further knowledge of the inner working when something seems to snape in his mind. He was flooded with information about it. How to pilot it, the inner working of the motor, the way to change and recharge the ammunition, all information concerning it and its actual state was transferred to his mind in a single second.
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Taking a step back for the sudden rush of information, he couldn"t help a large smile splitting his face when he found all of them stored into a new file in his mind, even without touching it.
"Are you alright master?" Ask siesta worry.
"Yes, it just that something strange had happened out of nowhere, I"m good now.
"Need anything else?" Ask gruffly her father when he sees his daughter fawning around the boy.
"Not that good."
Nodding at this, he takes Siesta back with him, leaving Alex alone.
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Once sure that they won"t come back after closing the door behind him and sealing the two panels into one, he takes a large slab of stone from his storage, trans.m.u.ting it into a large working station at hips high height. Taking out gemstones collected from the vault of Mott, he floods them with runes, inscribing numerous array on them. This work alone takes him the complete day they had saved by rushing here rather than depart the same morning. Done, he inserts the eight corners of the work station and another one in the centre.
Turning back to the zero, he completely deconstructs it, leaving behind nothing, storing the materials, before returning to the enchanted slab of stone.
Activating the table a translucent screen pop out in front of him, selecting the setting, the table morph into the desired shape, a smith station.
Putting ingot after ingot of iron inside the large craved bowl, he baths them in large gout of fire, melting it immediately into his liquid form, burning away any impurities still inside. Opening his storage above the incandescent melted metal, powered coal fall into it, soon followed by chromium.
Raising again the temperature, he starts to stir the alloy while filling the craved tank on the side, of water. With a light tap on a rune at the side of the bowl, the shape change to a paved one before another rune was activated, switching the content into the tank of water. Coming in contact with cold water, the formed ingot hadn"t time to shift of shape before hardening.
the new large ingot cooled, letting him resumes the operation a few times, obtaining five ingots of 100 kg of Evans steel.
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The alloy made, he change the configuration of the table for a plane surface. Entering the needed measure, the table change into a four-meter-long, nine-meter-wide table. Out of the four upper corners, a light green beam ray rise two-meter above the surface before linking to the three other, forming a translucent cube.
Taking one of the five ingots, he trans.m.u.tes it into a three-meter long, a meter wide, and ten-centimetre thick oblong shape. Two four-meter-long, fifty centimetre wide wings were added a meter from the tip as well as the two meter-long, thirty centimetre wide wings at the tail.
As soon as the metal finish to shape inside the cube, a translucent green screen appears, showing the replica in it. taking his pen, he starts to inscribe line after line of runes on the replica, zooming to allow a better view and engraving.
inscribing cl.u.s.ter after cl.u.s.ter of runes on the replica was what take him another half day out of the four he had, leaving him with two and a half. When he was done, the screen flashes a single time and the lines of runes alight. He needs some minors modification here and there when the screen would detect errors in the scheme, but one the entire replica" runes cl.u.s.ters were lighted, he presses the upper left corner of the screen.
In a hum of power, the centre enchanted gemstone come into life as the model on it was engraved entirely. Done, the table dim before stopping to being alight. Putting a hand on the smooth, cool bluish-white metal, he put other large gemstones inside the slots he had left to power the different cl.u.s.ters.
Sinking into the metal, only a small part of them could be seen exceed from the wings. On the central part, a slight depression at the height of the wings joins had been made to house the future c.o.c.kpit.
Taking the crafted half-finished aircraft out of the table to the side, letting it absorb the surrounding magic to finish the initial charge, he turned to the rest of the ingots, taking two, he trans.m.u.tes them into rounds core with a gemstone shard inside.
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Taking again ingot of iron, powdered coal and chromium, he trans.m.u.tes simple steel, before turning them in 20 mm hollowed rounds.
Putting one on the previous place of his crafted aircraft, the screen appears again. While the rune work on them wouldn"t be as heavy as the one on the plane, he simply gives them a feather-weight, silencing, and unbreakable cl.u.s.ter on the outer steel sh.e.l.l. the rune immediately appears on the sh.e.l.l, before he swaps with the Evan steel round" core. On it was inscribed a simple cl.u.s.ter that would return the round into the aircraft magazine after ten seconds.
Sealing the core inside the hollow part, he put the complete round into another set of the table. Another screen appears, showing the round" two components, seeing that the cl.u.s.ter inside hadn"t been changed, he put all his crafted sh.e.l.l and core into two separated tank, and start the production.
Putting a block of wood into yet another compartment, case of 25 fully engraved and charged rounds start to emerge from the work station.
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While the runes of the aircraft were charging and the rounds produced, he works on the inside of the c.o.c.kpit. Taking a block of wood he obtains from the furniture of Mott, he shapes it at the size of the slight depression on the metal made to house the c.o.c.kpit, he starts to inscribe rune on it.
While keeping is thinness, the inside was soon expanded into a comfortable s.p.a.ce able to house four raw of two-seat and another one for the pilot. After creating the frame in runes" reinforced wood, he starts to create a comfortable seat from the looted chairs of Mott"s previous manor.
Entering inside the deceiving c.o.c.kpit, he trans.m.u.tes a gla.s.s bubble above it and starts to inscribe runes inside to reinforce it too.
Done, he exits it before starting to craft the crystal screen that would be linked to the plane" systems. As he had endowed the plane with eye fish camera and scanning system, he would have a map of the overflying area.
The crystal screen would also let him know the state of the two railguns" magazine that would fire the rounds or the number of different bombs he would equip it.
Along with the hovering, propulsion, gravitation, negation field and camouflage system, he knows he had created a monster, but he needs that type of firepower if he was too intrude into Albion air s.p.a.ce. While they hadn"t gryphon, they have a load of dragons months for the single unit as well an enormous flying wooden ship used for troops transport and flying fortress to bombard ground position.
As it would run on runes, not only would his aircraft be silent and deadly but no one would be able to compete with its speed.
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It was only after a complete night that the runes have completely charged. Done, he installs the c.o.c.kpit, trans.m.u.ting it into the metallic structure. The rounds were finished long ago and he starts to load them into the two magically expended magazine. The railgun runic mechanism would swap rounds into the slot each time it was empty.
Not wanting to overload the plane magic consumption, those two canons would feed on large crafted magical diamonds that would suck the surrounding magic and transform it into an electrical source to power them.
While the round and plane were charging, he had run into the mountain range, plundering underground deposits of copper, gold, iron, gemstones and even found pouch of crude oil.
From this, he crafted incendiary, flash, MSF (magic suppressing field), phosphorous, and hydrogen bombs.
All the bomb had a simple thermite ignition rune system crafted into the iron sh.e.l.l.
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Entering into the c.o.c.kpit, he starts the plane, making the resting aircraft on the ground, hover. Starting all the system, he checks all his ammunition. Seeing the two slots displaying 10,000 each and the bombs one displaying that the 5 slots had 50 in each, he nodded.
He didn"t want wanton destruction so he only creates 5kg bomb, but even with just 5 kg of highly flammable liquid, the damage would be disastrous for any struck position. The second set of bombs where 1kg phosphorous ones and the corrosive cloud would inflict disastrous AOE damages.
The doors of the hangar open, he put his hand onto the armrest, putting his finger in each of the slots, while his palm rest on a gel pouch. Giving a tentative light impulse from his two thumbs, the plane silently starts to move forward.
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After leading the plane out of it, he gave a light push with his two indexes, he could feel the powering gems hum with power while the plane slowly starts to rise from the ground. Pushing further on his thumb, he rapidly gains in speed while the screen displays the scanned area. With but the faintest of the impulse of his right middle finger, the aircraft respond instantaneously and tilt on the right before stabilizing straight again.
He didn"t dare to use his ring finger and pinky as they command the railguns and bomb respectively. With a rapid succession of two impulses from his thumb, the map turns into a frontal view with a target ring in the centre of it. A light pulse from the two indexes and the view change to the ground below the plane for bomb strike.
Another double click of his thumbs and the map return. Happy with the working system, he starts to push the plane faster and faster, the screen rapidly displaying an ever-growing speed. When he felt the light resistance for his thumbs he pushes deeper. The moment he pushed through it, the aircraft break through the sound barrier into a deafening blast.
His last test pa.s.sed, he set the way back to Siesta village into the voice-activated GPS. During the entire flight, he never feels a single G from the completely pressurised c.o.c.kpit. Lower his speed and alt.i.tude, he stops his aircraft just before the maid house.