[V4C17] Turn Your Anger Into Action
Translated by Jodas 4: Flying Through the SkyIn front of the Third Spire: Water Bubble, Tia strapped the Magical Flying Device on her back and climbed onto Oliver’s back.
Watching her were Director Kappel and Barrett from the Management Office, as well as the Apprentice Mages Wren, Sevil, and Rukiye.
Rukiye had prepared paper and writing implements and was sketching images of the Magical Flying Device and of Tia and Oliver’s form.
“Piyopp! Let’s get this started! Hit it, Oliver!”
“Got it. Here I go!”
Oliver chanted, and activated his flight magic. His flight magic sent him rocketing straight up into the air.
Once Oliver’s body cleared the height of the Spire, Tia pulled the lever.
The metal wings folded up on her back spread out widely.
“Magical Flying Device deployed! Pefu, let’s fly!”
Wind began to stir behind the Magical Flying Device. A motive thrust was born, and the metal wings caught the wind.
Their two bodies rode on the wind, and began to circle high above the Wedge Tower.
It felt good. It felt thrilling. It made her want to sing to her heart’s content, but this method of flight was far from stable at this stage.
The momentum provided by the Magical Flying Device was too powerful, and Tia’s tiny body would end up spinning uncontrollably. She was only able to keep her balance and mitigate that effect by using Oliver as a counterweight.
Then, if they decreased their altitude, they could climb again using Oliver’s flight magic, but getting the timing right and splitting the load between the flight magic and the Magical Flying Device was incredibly difficult.
Many of those minute adjustments had to be compensated for by Tia reading the wind currents and making slight adjustments to their angle of attack.
That was a skill that only Tia, as a Harpy well experienced in flying, could accomplish.
Eventually, the two of them slowly descended before finally landing on the ground.
Once Tia retracted the metal wings, Wren ran up to her and shouted in amazement.
“That was SO COOL!!!! Awesome, Tia! You were totally flying there!”
“Pefufufufu, Yep, I flew. I was flying! All thanks to Oliver and the Magical Flying Device!”
Tia flapped her arms on both sides of her body. This was an expression of joy.
Meanwhile, Director Kappel of the Management Office wore a conflicted expression: one half joy, the other half frustration.
“Mgh… Supporting the limitations of the device with supplemental magecraft techniques… It works, but I don’t like that our device can’t do everything by itself.”
“You just don’t like to admit defeat, huh…”
Kappel snorted out of his nose to Barrett’s muttered quipping.
“First, we need to work on finding a way to allow finer control of its output. To be honest, that little squirt can read the wind a lot better than I expected.”
And while Wren gushed and Kappel talked to Barrett, Sevil glanced at the sketch Rukiye was making and thought deeply about something.
Expecting to get some compliments, Tia waddled up to Sevil, and when she noticed Tia’s gaze, Sevil spoke with a smile.
“Tia, looks like you’ve taken a step forward. I’ll give you my compliments!”
“Yep!”
Sevil rustled Tia’s hair. It felt really good, so Tia warbled “Pefufufufu!”
“On top of that, we need to think how we’ll make use of it in the magic battle. As it stands, your combination flight would be difficult to pull off in the upcoming magic battle.”
“Peu!?”
“Ngh!?”
Tia and Oliver shouted in sync.
Sevil made a more tense voice than usual. This was the face she made when she was thinking about how to win a fight.
“Problem number one. Oliver can’t carry a weapon.”
She made a valid point.
In order for Oliver to fly with Tia on his back, Oliver’s hands were occupied holding her, and Tia had to put all of her focus into making precise maneuvers with the Magical Flying Device, so there was no opportunity for either of them to swing a sword, spear, or anything else.
However, Oliver apparently had already considered a solution to that problem.
“In that case, I have an idea.”
Oliver folded his arms and spoke, enveloped in the confidence of an adult.
“I’ve been training my jaw so I can hold the spear in my mouth.”
“It’s no use. This guy… When you leave him alone, he’s a genius at aiming his effort in the wrong direction…”
Wren stared at the sky and grumbled, but Tia didn’t think it was that bad of an idea. If you couldn’t use your hands, then just use another part of your body.
Harpies, who used their wings to fly and their mouth to sing, generally used the talons on their feet as weapons.
(I could go barefoot and hold the spear with my feet… But I’m not really used to using weapons, so it might be difficult for me.)
Most importantly, if she had a long pole dangling from her feet, it would seriously change the way she managed her balance while she was flying.
Considering how Frederik could fly with such astounding maneuverability while wielding a spear was nothing short of impressive to Tia.
(And didn’t you have to coat your attacks in mana during a magic battle? … Then just holding a spear and thrusting at the enemy wouldn’t work.)
“You wanted to gather information, didn’t you? It would be a waste if you had your eyes closed the whole time.”
That was what Frederik had said before flying inches off of the ground, then showing off his skill weaving through trees at high speed.
Frederik surely knew that the upcoming magic battle would take place in a forested arena where flight magic was at a disadvantage.
By showing off his high speed flight skills to Tia, he was telling her something.
That even if the magic battle took place in a forest, he would use his flight magic regardless.
(You’ve definitely given me too much information, Frederik.)
That was just how confident Frederik was in his flight magic.
Frederik’s flight magic excelled in every area. His speed, maneuverability, and air time were all outstanding. On top of that, he could attack with mana imbued attacks from his spear.
On the other hand, Tia had only just managed to take back to the skies with Oliver’s help.
“Hey, do you have a second?”
Letting her pen hand come to a stop, Rukiye asked.
Since they showed off their combination flight, she hadn’t stopped her pen for a second.
Rukiye glanced at Director Kappel, sat up straight, and spoke.
“While you were flying, the way you angled your body to balance yourself intrigued me, Tia. Whenever you twisted your body to adjust the angle of your wings, it always looked a little shaky to me.”
“Piyo….!”
Tia let out a chirp of surprise.
As Rukiye had said, during their combined flight, Tia had tried to adjust the angle of her wings by brute force through twisting her body. However, when she was a Harpy, she could simply twist her wings themselves.
Rukiye lifted the paper in her hands for everyone to see.
Drawn on the page were a number of simplified illustrations of Tia and Oliver flying. Most of them focused on illustrating the angle of their bodies as they were flying.
Pointing at each drawing in sequence, Rukiye continued.
“I think it would be more stable if it was possible to control not just the output power, but the angle of the wings as well. Also, if it were possible to have some sort of incremental control when the wings deployed, it would make it easier to use in confined spaces.”
“Hm. I’d thought those precise adjustments would be out of the question since the user would be preoccupied with catching the wind currents, but… I think this little squirt just might be able to do it.”
Kappel whispered to himself, and Barrett nodded along.
“This kid’s actually got some serious skills. Her talent for reading the winds might be even better than mine.”
“Pefufu!”
She was happy to hear people complimenting her flying ability. So, so very happy.
It was only after losing her ability to fly that she realized that about herself.
Since it was only natural for Harpies to fly, they didn’t think of flying as a thing to be amazed of, and they didn’t compliment each other on their flying skills.
The only time they might do that was when a child was flying for the first time.
“Umm… I do think I’d be able to fly better if I could control the angle of my wings or how open they were, or those sorts of things, but… can you guys do all that?”
Tia thought this question might make Rukiye angry if she asked it.
Do you think I can’t do it?! Are you mocking me? — Some response like that.
However, Rukiye wasn’t angry. The edges of her mouth shifted slightly; she made a tiny, tiny smile.
Frustration, irritation, but also the motivation to take on a challenge— It was a smile filled with all sorts of such complicated emotions.
“It turns out I’m going to be making a secret weapon for this magic battle.”
For whatever reason, Rukiye looked at Wren as she said that. Wren’s averted his eyes awkwardly.
“…Piyo? Seek-rit we-pon?”
“I haven’t decided yet what exactly I’ll be making, but it’s already been decided that I’ll ‘make’ something, so let me know if there’s anything you want. I’ll do everything I can.”
Tia realized something.
Rukiye was angry. She didn’t know at what or whom, but just as flying was important to Tia, Rukiye was angry over something related to a thing that was equally important to her.
On top of that, she was letting that anger simmer inside her, and was trying to turn it into actions.
Creatures like that were incredibly strong. So Tia felt that Rukiye was absolutely a strong creature.