When We Last Left Our Heroes:
“Kragon—Depart!”
“HM? What’s the matter, Reina?”
“N-nothing! Nothing at all!”
Kragon, the elder dragon, had sworn to carry the Crimson Vow atop his back to the demon homeland. But now that the time had come to climb aboard, Reina was acting a bit strange. She shrugged off Mile’s question but was clearly troubled by something.
The other three stared at her in a pensive silence, unsure how to address her discomfort, which she was obviously attempting to hide.
“Oh.”
The three of them suddenly patted their fists on their palms in sync, having recalled a singular memory. It’s because of what happened with Lobreth…
Reina’s behavior was undoubtedly because she was petrified by the memory of what had happened during their battle with the wyvern, when Mile had tossed her straight up into the sky, resulting in a descent of the same trajectory. She had wet her pan—er, well, it had been a rather unfortunate incident. It would be no wonder if she’d developed a fear of heights. Unlike Mavis, who possessed the courage of a knight, and Pauline, who had lost consciousness the moment she had been tossed in the air, Reina—aircraft no. 1—had been flung up into the wild blue yonder with zero chance to prepare.
Still, she wasn’t about to admit that she was afraid to climb aboard Kragon. If she didn’t join them on the elder dragon’s back, there was no chance of the Crimson Vow ever making it all the way to the northern end of the continent. And then they wouldn’t be able to make Mile’s wish come true, all because of Reina’s cowardice… She could never forgive herself for such a thing.
And yet.
The other three continued to stare silently as she stood there, pale-faced and still as a statue.
Meanwhile, the following thoughts ran through Mile’s brain. So she’s thinking about the time that she ended up being Thunderbird No. 1 in that battle with Lobreth, the “Certain Magical Reina-gun” plan, and that’s got her spooked… Lobreth, the wyvern… Fear of a second flight…
“A second fright!!” Mile suddenly shrieked, her commentary totally out of context, as usual.
The others, naturally, ignored her.
***
Mile, Mavis, and Pauline sat in a line atop Kragon’s back as the dragon soared through the air, the trio drinking up the scenery as it passed them by. Behind them sat an unmoving Reina, who kept a death grip on her staff, her face blank as a Tibetan sand fox…
On the off chance that she should slip from Kragon’s back, a staff wouldn’t really help her, but it made her feel better to be able to hold on to something. Indeed, as a mage, she never really had to have a staff. It was always more of a bonus than a true necessity.
Kragon was using a shielding spell, so there was no real danger of anyone falling. Reina should have been able to glean as much from the fact that they weren’t being buffeted by gale-force winds, but she wasn’t exactly in her right mind at the moment. Besides, the fastest vehicle she had ever ridden in prior to this was a passenger coach, making it entirely possible she didn’t even understand the phenomenon. She had never ridden a horse, and certainly not a bicycle. On the rare occasions a coach might need to be driven at top speed, the situation usually didn’t leave one room to pay attention to the wind. All of which was to say, it was possible it hadn’t even occurred to her that movement and wind speed might have anything to do with each other.
At any rate, Kragon had experience with a variety of beast and demon riders—those who were terrified out of their wits, those who got overexcited in their curiosity and leaned recklessly far to the side, and those who brazenly fell asleep and toppled over—so he naturally had some safety measures in place.
Reina merely continued to stare at her own feet, petrified by the thought of looking at the world beneath them.
Humans were typically more awed than frightened by viewing the surface of the planet from great heights—it was middling altitudes that tended to induce more fear. Unfortunately, Kragon was currently in the latter. While higher altitudes might have made for less air resistance and faster travel, the cold, thin air at those heights would have been a bit much for the poor humans. The temperature dropped by two degrees centigrade for every thousand feet (roughly three hundred meters), so gaining ten thousand feet would bring you into air that was twenty degrees cooler than on the ground. When it was twenty degrees on the ground, flying at ten thousand feet would mean freezing temperatures. Factor in the wind, and you were looking at a dangerous drop in body temperature. As such, without the protection of Kragon’s magic, they would probably die.
Sadly, Mile was the only one who realized just how thoughtful and considerate the elder dragon was. Of course, she could have put up a barrier herself, inside which she could also have regulated the air pressure and maintained the temperature—if only the thought had occurred to her.
Hang in there. Hang in there. Hang in there… With an elder dragon’s speed on our side, we’ll be there in no time. Hang in there. Hang in there. Hang in there…
They would be there soon. This was the thought with which Reina was steeling herself. But of course, for every departure, there is a return. For every journey away, there is a road home. For better or worse, that thought had not yet occurred to her…
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