Chapter 90: First Departure Abroad, and the Airship
Chapter 90: First Departure Abroad, and the Airship
“What is the purpose of your departure?”
“Business.”
“Is the woman behind you accompanying you?”
“Yes.”
“Mm. Pass!”
The employee stamped the documents with an indifferent face. Ras thought it was rather anticlimactic, but in truth, other means of travel, such as trains, ships, and border checkpoints, were far stricter and far less friendly than this place.
This place was loose because it mainly dealt with people wealthy enough to ride airships. Moreover, there were not many cases of illegal immigration from the Republic of Smite into Brunyad. The opposite, however, was fairly common.
There was nothing particularly worth seeing inside the airport building, so Ras and Ella immediately left and headed for the boarding platform where the airship was waiting.
And seeing the airship from right in front of them, they marveled at its overwhelming presence.
“You really have to look up at this thing?”
Ella tilted her head back and kept staring upward in amazement. Even to Ras, it was truly astonishing. With its size, unusual color, and shape combined, it felt like a spaceship built by aliens.
At one end of the airship stood something like a large tower, and perhaps it was injecting gas there, because a hissing sound could be heard. Airships in this world usually used helium.
Since it was an unfamiliar means of transportation, and one that flew through the sky, Ras could not feel completely free of unease. That was why he had researched it beforehand. Another distinctive trait, as mentioned before, was that unlike Earth’s airships, this world’s airships made extensive use of magic.
Because of that, they were sturdier and faster than the airships in Earth’s history, and their transport capacity relative to volume was also better. Even if airplanes were introduced later, it seemed highly likely that airships in this world would not become obsolete.
This was a relatively small airport, so there were only three gas injection towers, and only one airship was currently present. But apparently, Ranchert Airport had a total of ten gas injection towers across an area so wide people had to travel by bus inside it. Imagining it, Ras thought it must be a truly spectacular sight.
As they looked around the airport and the airship, boarding time approached.
“Let’s start boarding.”
“It’s time?”
When Ras took a pocket watch from his pocket and announced that it was time, Ella widened her eyes in surprise.
The two pulled their suitcases and quickly began walking toward the boarding gate. But because the airship was so enormous that it distorted distance, it felt as though they were barely getting closer. Still, they had not moved so late that they were pressed for time.
“Can we board?”
“Yes, of course.”
The eagle-headed flight attendant in a white uniform answered Ella in a kind voice, despite his expression being difficult to read. Ras glanced at him for a moment. For some reason, he suddenly remembered a magazine article stating that Beastmen whose faces were entirely animal-like had completely different aesthetic senses.
Perhaps the air injection had already finished, because the airship was quiet. Ras and Ella crossed the metal-plated gangway and entered the airship entrance.
“It’s like a building.”
After stepping inside, Ella looked around briefly and whispered to Ras. She was right. Unlike airplanes or buses, where seats immediately filled the space upon entry, a small lobby welcomed them inside the airship.
And when they went farther in, there were narrow corridors, a restaurant, a lounge, a shop, storage rooms, a library, restrooms, and more. There were seats along both sides of the aircraft, but unlike airplane seats, they had wide chairs and tables, making the place feel like a café.
This level of facility existed even though the airship was not traveling especially far. Long-distance airships supposedly had private rooms and other additional facilities, so those must have been practically hotels.
Not long afterward, a rough announcement flowed through the transmission tube.
<Departure will begin shortly. Passengers, please take your seats.>
Ras and Ella had already found suitable seats and sat down.
“Ooh! I think we’re rising.”
“We really are!”
A short while later, the airship jolted slightly, and then a strange floating sensation began. It was not only Ras and Ella. Quite a few passengers also let out exclamations of amazement.
The airship’s takeoff did not give any sense of speed. But surprisingly, it was not that slow, and before they knew it, they had already climbed quite high. As soon as an announcement said it was safe to move, the two immediately stood up and headed for the window.
From the moment they discovered that window earlier, they had already decided to cling to it and watch once they rose into the sky.
“Wow... They’re clouds. This really is the sky.”
Ella murmured in a dazed voice. Ras had ridden airplanes on Earth, so it was not that surprising to him, but for people of this world, where airships were extremely difficult to ride, it was a sight that naturally drew admiration.
In truth, Ras also found it exciting. Unlike the tiny windows of airplanes, this airship had large diagonal windows specifically meant for looking down, so the experience was very different.
But no matter how wonderful a view was, the time spent being moved by it was brief. After taking their eyes away from the toy-like ground and the clouds drifting between them, the two spent time wandering around the airship.
At least there was a place to buy snacks, so the two ate and drank various things while chatting, or passed the time reading magazines and newspapers.
There were arcade machines here too. But they were extremely popular, and in Ras’s case, he played them so often normally that he had no particular desire to play them all the way out here.
He did, however, feel some regret that handheld game consoles did not exist yet. Naturally, this world still did not have handheld game consoles. He had thought about making one before.
But with the technology of this era, it seemed difficult. If it were something extremely simple, it might be possible somehow, but Ras had no interest in that.
They flew for roughly seven hours.
Their destination, Bricon City, was not that far from the border, and even from Keynes City, it was only 1,500 kilometers away, which was not particularly far for a city in another country. But even though the airship was reinforced with magic, it was still far slower than an airplane. So taking this long was unavoidable.
Still, it was much faster than a car or train.
The entry procedure was not particularly difficult either. People working at an airship airport knew at least some simple Aran Language, so there was no real inconvenience.
But the moment they exited the airport, the Ruta Language coming from every direction made it clear that they were in a foreign country, and at the same time, made the situation feel overwhelming.
“Ras, do you know what that says?”
Ella knew from hearing about it that people spoke foreign languages in foreign countries. She had also studied Ruta Language fairly hard during the short time they had. But when she actually stood here in a foreign country surrounded by Ruta Language, she could not help feeling flustered.
It was only natural.
“No. I don’t really know either.”
Ras smiled slightly as he answered. But he was not flustered at all. That was because he had prepared something in advance.
“Let’s go over there for a moment.”
This airport, too, was a quiet place with few people around. Ras took Ella and headed somewhere even more deserted. Then he took out the Mana Cartridge he had packed in his suitcase.
His preparation was Communication Magic. As soon as he decided to make this business trip, he had begun memorizing this spell over and over. Just in case, he had even written the spell separately in his notes.
“I’m going to use magic for a moment.”
Ras placed his hand on the cartridge and began chanting the spell. It was a fairly difficult spell, but he had spent three days memorizing only this one.
There was no visible reaction, so he could not immediately tell, but after finishing the spell, he discreetly opened the cartridge and saw that the magical materials had clearly decreased. That meant it had activated safely.
“Let’s go back.”
“Mhm.”
When he returned with Ella to the airport entrance, where many taxis were gathered, all the Ruta Language he had been unable to understand earlier now made sense.
“How is it?”
“I can understand everything.”
Ella asked with worry in her eyes, and after hearing Ras’s answer, she let out a sigh of relief. She had truly been frightened by the situation.
Ras became triumphant. But this Communication Magic was not purely good. Its performance caused no problem, but first of all, it was expensive. The materials Ras used today alone cost over 700 del. That was around 700,000 won. And it lasted only two days, so its cost-effectiveness was terrible.
Moreover, it was not something one could use just by having money. One had to either be a mage oneself or buy an extremely expensive item to use this kind of magic.
In any case, now that communication was possible, Ras first headed to Kunalin, where the former Hexa Soft was located. It was a city right beside Bricon City, where the airport was located, and there was no need to enter downtown Bricon. They could simply take a taxi from the airport and go straight there.
The taxi fare came out to about 50,000 won, but that amount of money did not feel particularly wasteful to him.
After riding the taxi for about an hour and a half, Ras arrived at the building where Hexa Soft was located according to the address.
“Is this it?”
Ella looked up at the building, which had no signboard and whose first floor was sealed off with a fire door, looking long abandoned, and spoke suspiciously.
“Yeah. The address is right, at least. We’ll know once we go up.”
The building looked a bit rough, but the area was just a residential neighborhood, so it did not feel especially dangerous. And even if something did happen, they were both wearing self-defense artifacts, Ras could use magic, and Ella, as a magic user, possessed fairly strong combat ability.
So there was almost no chance of falling into danger in a place like this.
And when they entered the stairway, it was surprisingly decent. There were also traces of cleaning, so it clearly did not seem to be an entirely abandoned building.
Fortunately, when they reached the second floor, there was a small nameplate reading “Hexa Soft” attached to the iron door. Ras looked for a bell, but when he could not find one anywhere, he simply knocked on the iron door.
“...Who is it?”
A short while later, a tanned young man who looked around thirty opened the door slightly and showed his face. His attitude seemed cautious.
“Is this Hexa Soft?”
“Yes... It is, but.”
“We’re from Meta Soft.”
Instead of explaining at length, Ras first handed over his business card. Then he inwardly flinched. The card was only written in Aran Language.
“Huh? Meta Soft?!”
Fortunately, the man seemed to have studied somewhat. He immediately read the name on the card and looked surprised.
“Yes. We’re from headquarters.”
“Ah! Please wait a moment.”
The man briefly closed the door, removed the chain, then opened it again. Only then could Ras see inside Hexa Soft. It was ordinary. Though rather cramped, it was filled with several desks and computers, exactly the kind of scenery one would expect from a game development studio in this world.
“Hello.”
“Yes... Turn. Who are they?”
The Gnome young man who made eye contact with Ras awkwardly returned the greeting, then asked the tanned young man who opened the door in a low voice.
“They’re from Meta Soft.”
“What? From the Republic of Smite?”
Ras listened to their clearly audible conversation with an awkward smile, then introduced himself first.
“Hello. I’m Epek Ras, president of Meta Soft.”
Naturally, the Hexa Soft employees were startled. In particular, a man who looked to be in his early thirties, with a shaggy yellow beard and a somewhat grimy appearance, sprang up from his seat and hurriedly approached Ras.
“Oh my. I’m Dnallin, the president here.”
“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you.”
Ras found it a little strange that they did not doubt someone who suddenly showed up and claimed to be the president. But that was because his photograph had already spread through magazines and newspapers, and he was extremely famous among people in the industry, so most of them knew Ras’s face.
“Are all the employees here?”
“Yes. Yes, they are.”
Ras nodded. He liked that. In truth, since they had not yet been given any actual work, it would have been fine for only one person to stay in the office while the rest rested at home or did other work. But seeing them all at work and waiting made it seem like they were ready to work at any time.