Airship
Would the outcome have been different if I had given it everything I had?
If I, like the other mages, had used the preparation time to draw up my mana and unleash fire…
Belated regret and meaningless what-ifs drifted through my mind.
I stepped down from the ring and stared blankly at my open hands. Beneath the small hands of a girl, the forms of countless mages who had fallen flickered past in a haze.
I had been arrogant, it seemed.
A week had passed since the competition. Originally I had planned to leave the Magic Tower the moment the tournament ended, but I still had not managed to go.
I needed time. Time to fully make what I had experienced then my own.
For the past week I had cut back on sleep and thrown myself into magical research.
“Haa…”
The hundredth attempt.
Through a low-released breath, dense starlight mana scattered. Following the motion of my hand, the starlight mana began to move and seize the surroundings.
⟨ Inner World Manifestation ⟩
The principle by which the magic activated was something I grasped the moment I saw it. Using mana to seize space, then calling forth the inner world upon it. Of course that was not the end. Maintaining the summoned world demanded tremendous mental concentration and a vast quantity of mana.
A bitter regret lingered. If I had experienced that magic when my body had already left humanity behind, when the traces of the dragon had revealed themselves, I would have learned far more. But this was the price of my arrogance. I closed my mouth and focused on the inner world.
It began with a single light that illuminated the darkness. That tiny glittering star was another world, carrying its own story.
Above the black-stained space another star rose. Thus the birth of stars continued without end. From dozens to hundreds, then again to thousands.
The moment the stars, too many to count, began to flow like a river, rings of fire and ice took on clear form. The two slowly rotating rings started to gather the disorderly flowing stars into one place.
The instant that vivid image locked into place, I began to project the world I was seeing outward. Because everything had to possess substance, belief was essential. The belief that that world was truly alive and breathing.
Memories of my previous life were both blessing and curse. Through the recollection of countless worlds I had read, worlds composed of lines of text, I had been able to construct the inner world I now possessed. And so I knew that every world inside those glittering stars was fiction born of imagination.
Even after directly realizing imaginary magic, the recognition would not vanish. Memories engraved upon the soul beyond the world itself. That was what held me back.
As a result the tower built upon belief began to collapse. That meant the failure of the magic. The glittering stars and the black space faded and vanished.
“Ah…”
A sigh of regret slipped from my lips. The mana that remained after the magic failed only faintly illuminated the inner world I possessed.
In this way I took another step forward. It might have been walking in place. I might even have been taking steps backward. Yet I was not disappointed. I knew that the talent I possessed would, in the end, complete this magic.
I began to rebuild the collapsed tower of belief. It felt as though the brain inside my skull were burning white-hot. The continued stimulation of mana made the blood in my body boil, and that soon brought about the result of the dragon’s form manifesting upon my body.
At the same time the dragon’s arrogance began to settle into my flesh. Through that I only needed to pile my belief even more firmly.
What did it matter if the world was fiction? If I believed it to be truth, then so it would become.
Continued failure and repetition. The mana that filled the room glittered in finely shattered fragments. It felt as though I were drifting through outer space.
Because my sense of time had vanished, I could not tell how much time had passed afterward. I only vaguely realized that my body had reached its limit.
One last time, once more.
The circle in my heart spun rapidly, adding acceleration to the slow heartbeat. The blood that had been cooling began to boil again, and the moment it breathed life into the stars that had been losing their light, a small realization arrived.
If I could not call forth everything, then why not call forth only a part?
Fragments of broken stars began to gather behind my back. When the traces of mana from repeated failures received new light, a second circle rose behind me.
Kiiing!
The instant the external circle resonated with the one inside, the floor beneath my feet began to stain black. Like light emerging from darkness, glittering stars started to fill the black-stained space of the room.
"Partial Inner World Manifestation"
⟨ Birth of Stars ⟩
I looked blankly around me. A small floating landmass drifting through the black space was the only ground I could stand upon. The dozens of stars slowly wandering the black-stained space were other worlds I had called forth.
A vast sense of omnipotence washed over my entire body. Because this space itself lay under my control, I realized that everything I imagined would become reality.
From the birth of a star…
…to its end.
When I spread my hands left and right, one of the stars rotating sideways scattered into white light and began to be reborn on the opposite side in a new form.
At that moment the world I had summoned began to collapse at high speed. Declining condition, lack of mana, and various other problems had piled up.
Through the crumbling starlight, the shadows of countless absolute beings scattered away.
“You’re really leaving…?”
I nodded at Rain’s question and climbed onto Nightmare’s back. It had been a long time since I last rode, yet I settled into place with practiced ease.
“Stay a little longer…”
“I’ll come back later.”
“You said it was a two-year mission…? You’re planning to finish the whole thing before you return…”
“Mm.”
Rain looked up at me with a dejected expression. Thanks to Nightmare’s height I could look down at her.
“You don’t regret it?”
I nodded and met Haven’s eyes. The question of whether I felt no regret was aimed at me, who had failed to learn the magic I wanted because I had been eliminated from the tournament.
Haven’s eyes were said to imitate a dragon’s. Magic that altered the way one viewed the world.
I raised my right hand and rubbed my eyes. If it was merely imitation, then it was magic I did not need. Through long hours of research while wearing the dragon’s form upon my body, I had come to know. Someday my eyes would surpass Haven’s.
“If you happen to stop by your hometown, head for the Floating Dock.”
“The Floating Dock…?”
I tilted my head at Haven’s sudden words. I had never once mentioned my hometown to him. Not even to Rain, with whom I had grown close.
“Were you planning to cross by some other means?”
“Cross? Cross where?”
Haven frowned at my question, then asked back.
“Where else? The Blue Veil you crossed over from.”
A strange silence settled. It seemed Haven was under some odd misunderstanding. When I checked Rain’s expression beside him, she was the same.
I dredged up a hazy memory. The eastern end. The place called the Blue Veil was a sea of dense fog so thick one could not see an inch ahead, an unknown ocean from which every ship that set out for exploration had vanished without returning.
Why had Haven spoken of the Blue Veil? What lay beyond it? I slowly nodded while watching both their faces.
“I brought this just in case. If any trouble arises, show that letter to your parents.”
“A letter…? You know my parents?”
I accepted the elegant paper envelope Haven held out and asked again. Haven answered with a peculiar smile.
“Beastmen who wear a dragon’s form upon their bodies are not common.”
“Beastman…”
“Do not worry. If you show them that letter, they will let you go easily.”
The information one could normally obtain about the Blue Veil was extremely limited. Because no adventurers who went to that sea had ever returned, no knowledge had been passed down.
Yet Haven and Rain seemed to possess knowledge of what lay beyond. I swallowed dryly. The unknown world I had set aside because I could not reach it had suddenly drawn near. This was clearly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Where exactly is that Floating Dock?”
Fragmentary information began to swirl through my mind. Clutching my pounding chest, I asked Haven.
“Rain.”
“Yes! You want me to guide her to the magic circle and come back, right?”
Haven nodded at Rain’s question. Thus, under Rain’s guidance, I left the Tower of Dawn. The place she led me to was outside the walls that encircled the Magic Tower, a quiet forest.
After walking a long while along the narrow forest path, the view suddenly opened and a wide space revealed itself.
A massive stone slab, utterly out of place amid the green forest, was deeply embedded in the ground. Upon the slab was carved an enormous magic circle, and the figures of mages standing as if guarding its surroundings came into view.
“Do you intend to use the magic circle?”
One of the mages standing near the circle asked. Rain nodded and answered.
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“One horse and one girl.”
“Hmm… that doesn’t look like the volume of a single horse…”
At Rain’s words the mage looked at me and Nightmare and let out a small sound. Then he nodded and spoke.
“This way, please. If we hurry we can make the airship’s departure time.”
I looked back at Rain. She met my gaze, nodded, and gestured toward the magic circle, as if telling me to climb onto it.
I felt a little uneasy, yet there was no reason not to follow. Pulling Nightmare’s reins, I headed onto the magic circle.
Several mages then stepped outside the circle and began to move mana.
“Immediately after transfer there may be a slight dizziness. It is temporary, so there is no need to worry grea—”
The moment the magic circle reacted to the flow of mana, the mage’s words began to stretch long. A sensation as though space itself were twisting. It was the teleportation magic Haven had used.
Fwaaat—!
The next instant after pure white light swallowed my vision, Nightmare and I were standing in the middle of a dock.
It did not take long to realize that the surroundings were the sky. The hazy clouds drifting about made that clear.
“Whoa…”
Countless mages were bustling about. I looked up at the enormous ship that flaunted its massive presence before the dock.
In this world, ships flew through the sky as well.
Like whales soaring through the heavens.
I burst into laughter toward the blue sky.