People of the Wind (4)
Hugo, who always wore his arrogance like a badge, froze solid.
It wasn't merely a figure of speech—the finger he'd been pointing at Walker hung suspended in midair, rigid as a statue.
"Ch-Chief Inspector. The finger, first the finger……"
"Huh? Ah. Ah, right."
Snapping back to his senses at his secretary's words, Hugo hastily lowered his hand and hid it behind his back.
Then he flashed an awkward smile and started stammering.
"Ch-Chief Superintendent Walker, what brings you here—no, more importantly, when exactly did you……"
"I arrived this morning."
Tunk, tunk.
Walker tapped the bike with the helmet he was carrying as he spoke.
"I'm here to inspect this machine's stability performance."
"F-for such a trivial matter, you came in person? The Chief Superintendent himself……?"
"Trivial?"
Walker's eyes narrowed. What lay at the end of that gaze was pure rebuke.
"Do you truly believe that?"
"Well, that is……"
Hugo wriggled and looked away from the stare. His head was filled with nothing but thoughts of somehow getting out of this situation.
"My apologies. I've been traveling a long way and slept poorly, so I spoke out of turn."
"Hm."
Walker gave a noncommittal grunt and held out his hand to the secretary.
"Hand it over, if you would."
"Y-yes, sir!"
Under that pressure, the secretary hurriedly surrendered the score sheet for the safety evaluation checklist he'd been holding. He could feel Hugo glaring daggers at him from the side, but what choice did he have?
"Hm."
As Walker slowly examined each item, his brow gradually furrowed.
"There are scores here that I simply cannot understand. Can you explain them?"
"As the vehicle is being unveiled to the world for the first time, I graded it a bit more strictly than usual."
Hugo's reply flowed as smoothly as water. If he didn't keep his wits about him now, even his position could be at risk—or so he had judged.
"Graded strictly. Well, I suppose that's possible. But even so, I cannot fathom how the Zephyr-001 received a 3.6 out of 10 in the safety category. What exactly is the basis for these scores?"
"That is……"
Swallowing hard and racking his brain, Hugo managed to scrape together a plausible answer.
"Most Zephyr-001 riders will be ordinary civilians. Unlike an athletic man such as yourself, Chief Superintendent, their situational judgment and reaction speed in a crisis would inevitably be slower. In other words, since we have no data on how an average person would handle this bike, I had no choice but to assign a modest score."
For something improvised on the spot, it was a decent excuse—so decent that even Hugo himself believed the logic had no holes in it.
"Then we simply start gathering that data now."
"Of course, that was the plan. We'd have to find ordinary riders and bring them in, though……"
"I'm afraid I don't have the leisure for that."
At this, Hugo nodded with a genial smile.
"Ah, of course. You're a terribly busy man, Chief Superintendent—perfectly understandable. If you're pressed for time, please go on ahead. I'll stay here, gather sufficient data from civilian riders, and re-grade it myself."
"Is there any real need to drag the process out like that? You could simply do it right now."
"Pardon? But I'd still need to bring in a rider and—"
"You could ride it yourself, couldn't you? We need data from an ordinary person anyway."
"……Pardon?"
That was the moment Hugo sensed something had gone terribly wrong.
He looked at his secretary, who stood behind him, wearing a strained smile.
"Ha-haha. What a wicked joke. Very well then. I'll have my secretary ride it."
"No. Your secretary is, at a glance, trained in magic. Am I wrong?"
"Well…… he lacks talent, so he's nothing impressive, but technically he is a Level 2 Mage."
At those words, Hugo nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Wait, since when is a mere Level 2 even called a mage—!"
"Doesn't work. That won't do. What we want is neither a knight nor a mage, but a pure, ordinary civilian, isn't it? And regrettably, there is no one here but you."
At that, Hugo glanced around him. But naturally, the only figures visible around the outdoor training grounds were White Tower mages.
The moment he began racking his brain for a fresh excuse—swoosh!
His field of vision shrank all at once.
"There, helmet on. Off you go."
"Ch-Chief Superintendent Walker. I truly have no athletic ability. I'm completely hopeless with my body, I swear."
"All the better. That's precisely the kind of rider we were looking for, isn't it?"
Walker lifted the struggling, resistant Hugo with almost laughable ease and seated him on the bike.
Then he pressed the ascent button firmly and said:
"Don't worry too much. From what I've verified, this machine's safety performance is quite excellent."
"……"
In an instant, the ground fell away beneath Hugo—and it was a long, long while before he finally came back down, after the performance inspection was thoroughly complete.
"This is exactly why experience matters. See for yourself, and the results change completely."
Walker smirked as he looked over the freshly rewritten evaluation sheet—now scoring near-perfect marks in every single category.
Hugo, who was being supported by his secretary with the hollow face of a man whose soul had left his body, nodded at the remark.
"Th-that's right. So if you would kindly let me down now—"
"You're already on the ground…… no, you seem to be in rather serious condition. Get him to a vehicle at once."
"Y-yes, sir!"
As the secretary helped him back toward the car, Oscar approached Walker.
"Thank you for your help. I never imagined you'd actually come."
"I simply judged that I had nothing to lose."
Walker replied in a flat, dry voice.
"If the reason you called me had been to secure some petty personal gain, you would never have seen my face again. If not that, then it meant you were in a situation where you genuinely needed me. I merely came to tell the difference."
"Whatever the reason, the result is that you helped us."
"Hm."
Walker turned his head and looked at the Zephyr-001.
"A well-made machine. And yet……"
The eyes that met his gleamed sharply.
"While piloting it, I felt a strange sense of familiarity. As though it wasn't performing at its full capability. Am I merely imagining things?"
"……My stomach's feeling a bit off. If you have the time, would you care to take a walk?"
Walker nodded at the deflection and gestured lightly behind him. Several traces of mana could be felt retreating into the distance.
Knights of the Security Bureau, then.
No doubt they were the ones who shadowed Walker like his own shadow. Oscar led him into the forest of the White Tower.
"This is my favorite walking path. It's quiet and rarely visited—ideal for thinking things over or having a conversation."
"Not bad."
Sunlight filtered through the canopy of leaves, illuminating the forest in gentle moderation. The cool breeze drifting along the trail made it perfect for a stroll.
"Now then. Out with it."
"You're right."
"……What is that supposed to mean?"
"The Zephyr-001 is performing at half its true capability—no, at a quarter of it. You saw it exactly right."
At the frank admission, Walker stopped walking and turned to look at him. His eyes had widened slightly in surprise, and they seemed busy trying to decipher the meaning behind it.
"There's nothing sinister behind it. It was simply for our own protection."
"Protection, is it. I see."
There was no need to ask protection from whom. Just this once, a manager who could only be called a man of the Yellow Tower had come looking for them.
"As an aside, an investigation into that matter will be conducted. If evidence emerges that he received some form of payment from the Yellow Tower, he'll be dismissed."
"Oh dear. He'll be awfully busy if he needs to find himself a new job."
At the reply—delivered as though Oscar were already certain the man had taken payment—Walker burst into unresisting laughter.
"Khm. You're a funny one. And telling me all this is because I am, wholly and completely, His Majesty the Emperor's man?"
"Precisely. You're a loyalist so renowned that hardly a soul in the Empire doesn't know your name."
"Then I trust you understand that everything we discuss today will flow straight into His Majesty's ears."
Oscar smiled quietly. That was precisely what he wanted.
"You……"
Watching the reaction, Walker narrowed his eyes, then let out a laugh of pure exasperation.
"You intend to use me as a messenger."
"Hm. Depending on your point of view, I suppose you could put it that way."
"……Ha."
His Majesty the Emperor had once personally taken part in the Sky Project—a man that devoted to the heavens. Naturally, if Walker reported that he'd seen the Zephyr-001, the Emperor would demand every detail: his impressions, and everything that had happened there.
Walker shook his head with the expression of a man who knew he'd been thoroughly outplayed.
"You will be the only person alive to ever use the Chief Superintendent of the Security Bureau for such a purpose."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."
"Spare me the act and say what you came to say. Isn't finding a quiet spot the very reason for this walk?"
"Very well."
Oscar flashed a serene smile and shrugged.
"The White Tower is building an airship."
"……!"
At that bombshell of a declaration, Walker's steps halted once again. He stared at Oscar, his eyes now far wider than before.
"What did you just say?"
"An airship."
"Impossible. That project was abandoned by the Yellow Tower itself after the war ended—"
"Well, yes. The Yellow Tower couldn't do it."
Oscar, walking with his hands clasped behind his back, paused for a moment and drew his right hand forward, raising it up.
"Because they don't have this."
As he spoke, a single magic circle completed itself in the air. A serpent biting its own tail—a symbol of eternal circulation. The magic circle, shaped in that very image, continued to pour out wind without cease.
"……Ouroboros."
Walker murmured as he took in the magic. He had encountered this spell only through books—he had never once seen it with his own eyes.
But the instant his gaze landed on it, he knew. He knew it instinctively.
There couldn't possibly be two spells like this in all the world.
"That's right. The one and only magic capable of serving as the heart of an airship—the magic created long ago by Oscar Sage."
"……Don't tell me you were the one who restored it?"
Before any misunderstanding could take root, Oscar swiftly drew the line.
"Of course not. This is the magic that Elder Schwein devoted over seven years of his life to restore. I merely joined in at the tail end of the process and lent a hand with the menial work."
"I see……"
"Our White Tower combined Magic Engineering with Ouroboros to create an engine the likes of which has never existed. The result is the Zephyr-001 you saw earlier."
"Then the maximum altitude and operating time were lies as well."
"They were. But to announce that truth to the world, we must either grow strong enough to defend it ourselves, or secure a dependable shield. One of the two. There's no other way."
Only then did Walker grasp Oscar's intent, and he deliberately hardened his expression.
"……You dare seek to make the sun of this continent your shield?"
"I am merely making a request. The answer will be His Majesty's to give. If he refuses, we will simply wait quietly, growing strong on our own until we no longer need one."
"……"
Walker studied Oscar for a long moment, then let out a soft sigh.
"Talking with one so young, and yet I somehow keep finding myself backed into corners."
You weren't even born yet when I was a boy of ten.
Oscar smiled gently.
"I do hope good news finds its way to us."
The Imperial Grand Hall of the Calderan Empire.
The magnificent structure, a masterful blend of pure white marble and gold, was deliberately, almost oppressively sacred in its grandeur.
"We bow before His Majesty the Emperor."
Chief Superintendent Walker walked along the scarlet carpet and knelt on one knee at the foot of the dais, lowering his head.
"……"
Upon the throne at the top of the steps sat an old man. Age had stripped him of flesh and muscle, yet his eyes burned keener than any man's. He was the master of this vast empire—the Emperor, Ludwig de Calderan.
"A surprise. I took you for a man with no interest in such things—never imagined you would travel all the way to the White Tower to see it with your own eyes."
"I was asked to."
"That, too, surprises me."
For Ludwig was not a man so easily moved—certainly not one who would stir at a mere request.
"So. Your impressions, now that you've seen it for yourself?"
"……"
After a moment of choosing his words, Walker slowly raised his head.
And then, to the sovereign of the continent who looked down upon him with eyes of fondness, he gave his answer.
"Before long, the Azure Skies will open once more."