The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War ~And Thus, I Became The Strongest Knight Disciple (♀) in The World~

A Highland’s Aerial Battleship stayed afloat in the airspace above the capital’s suburb. The hangar in its hull was thrown wide open with Flygears and Flygear Carriers flying right into it. Those were the Knights preparing to sortie against the invasion of Venefique Kingdom.

Inglis and her group were also recruited in order to help with the preparation, and right now, they were boarding a Carrier piloted by Rafinha. Their aim was to bring the Carrier they were on, the Flygears it carried, as well as provisions and other extras to the Aerial Battleship.

They were actively practicing Flygears as per the Academy’s curriculum, but so far, they could only touch a Flygear Carrier at most. This would be good training for Rafinha.

「Phew. It’s quite tiring, huh」

Remarked Rafinha, sweeping the sweat off her forehead. By connecting to the Carrier, a Flygear could be supplied with mana to be operated separately. However, the mana for the Carrier itself had to be supplied directly much like an Artifact. It could be filled up beforehand, but right now, Rafinha was supplying the power directly. That was why she was the one piloting the Carrier, and the one most exhausted.

In the event that the power supply to the Flygear Carrier was cut off, once the power ran out, the Flygears that are on board would also be unable to recharge and malfunction with it. Which was why it was necessary to have a Knight in charge of each Carrier. And it was advised to have a Knight with Middle-Grade Rune or higher for it.

Knights who had a Low-Grade Rune wouldn’t have enough mana output to directly power a Carrier and pilot it. Knights with a High-Grade Rune, like Rafinha, were even more preferable. The strength of the Rune affected the speed of the Carrier and the amount of power filled into it.

In the current system of Chivalric Order, a squad consisted of a single Carrier, several mounted Flygears, and the pilots. Students with High Grade Runes like Rafinha, Leone, and Liselotte would be given a squad and the rank of a Commanding Officer right after they graduated. The sessions of training they had in the Academy were also in anticipation of that.

「If so, shall I take your place? I would like to practice it.」

「Yeah, please, Liselotte.」

Rafinha left the steering device to Liselotte then went to stand beside Inglis.

「Good work, Rani. Want a drink?」

「Mhm, thanks, Glis.」

After swallowing the water Inglis offered in big gulps, Rafinha let out a big sigh.

「There are still lots of things we need to carry. Seems like it won’t end yet.」

「I’ll take it over after you, Liselotte.」

Said Leone.

「I’m only in charge of water bottles today.」

Inglis waved everyone’s water bottle that hung around her neck.

「Just because it’s not a battle, you sure are in the slacking-off mood today, Glis……」

「No, isn’t it better if the Flygear Carrier is piloted by you three?」

「Well, Inglis is always the one who does the most during battles, so——」

「You don’t have to worry about that. Glis does that because she likes it, and it’s practically her raison d’etre.」

「Yeah. There’s nothing to worry about.」

「Hahaha…… Well, it’s actually worrying if that wasn’t Inglis’ answer.」

Leone laughed wryly.

「However, that ship is really big, loading things into it is really hard work. They even recruited us for help.」

「There really isn’t much time until sortie, after all.」

Compared to the ship that almost crashed into the Royal Castle, this Aerial Battleship was almost twice as big. The armoring of the whole ship and its total armaments were multilayered, boasting an impressive strength to the punch. It was a ship for the Special Envoy’s exclusive use.

「But still, Lord Theodore really did a lot of things for us. He even prepared such a ship for us……」

「I think he took a huge risk with the higher-ups at Highland just to set this up.」

The Highland still wouldn’t approve the bestowal of flying vessels to the Midland. The reason the Battleship was deployed this time was that Special Envoy Theodore just happened to want to observe the area where the Kingdom’s Chivalric Order would be stationed.

It was quite the stretch of an excuse, but it only proved how far Theodore would take the risk. However, if this Battleship were to show up, it would surely become a threat for the Venefique army.

Save for its battle prowess, they must also know the vessel belonged to the Special Envoy. Attacking it could only be seen as attacking the Highland itself.

There were two major factions in the Highland, and Special Envoy Theodore was in the opposing faction of Venefique Kingdom’s Special Envoy.

If things went south, an attack towards the ship could trigger the war between the two major forces of Highland, and that trigger fell upon Venefique Kingdom’s decision, or more like, it was pushed to them. If they didn’t have the resolution to start such a war, both sides could withdraw their soldiers without a drop of blood spilled.

Inglis guessed that Special Envoy Theodore had calculated thus far and so he chose to pick this countermeasure. Furthermore, Prince Wayne also embarked on the ship. The side intention of this mission was to help the Kingdom’s personnel familiarize themselves with the Highland’s Aerial Battleship, it seemed. In short, it was assumed that another such flying ship would be authorized for bestowal.

「To think he’s going so far to help us, Lord Theodore really is Lady Cyrene’s older brother. They’re good people even though they’re Highlanders!」

「……As long as he doesn’t do anything weird to Rani.」

After all, Theodore seemed to adore Rafinha’s purity and sense of justice, much like Cyrene did.

「Anything weird, you say…… It’s not like he does something personal to me, right?」

「Yeah, you’re right. This matter is more pressing. After all, I can’t possibly let any pest get near you, Rani.」

People’s political beliefs held no importance to Inglis. Neither justice nor evil could win against time. As time passed, everything would be forgotten and lost. And so, Inglis had no reason to dabble with politics. If someone was being a pest to Rani, then they would be a bad person in Inglis’ book. That was all there was to it.

「——We’re entering the hangar!」

With a little bit of tension, Liselotte brought the Flygear Carrier into the Aerial Battleship’s hangar.