Looking out through the window in front of me now, I can see the horizon and skyline intertwined in the distance.
Yes. I'm in the sky right now.
It's very small compared to the airship I rode when coming from Bern City to the royal palace initially, but it's still an airship the size of a small ship.
The car that departed from in front of the lodging immediately entered the military base surrounding the royal palace, and we boarded an airship right away at the dock.
Come to think of it, this world also had many machines that fly in the air.
That's because there's an unknown substance called flying stone that actually exists. According to some memories, it's either a collection of microorganisms that float using magic power, or it's a substance that's originally unaffected by gravity but has the property of adsorbing magic power, so it's often found on planets where magic power is gathered.
There are various examples, but this world has magic power of different qualities, so it has the property of floating on one side and sinking on the other.
To explain it simply, if you pour water and oil, water goes down and oil floats on top. If there's an object that sinks on top of oil and floats under water, it gathers at the boundary between water and oil.
It seems to be that kind of substance. In short, the airships of this world are vehicles that move up and down using a substance that rises to a certain altitude.
It means there are layers of magic power, and at least there are types of magic power that don't mix, but what does it matter? I can't use magic power.
Looking at Primordial Heavenly Lord's memory, I'm probably a completely opposite type to magic power, so it's impossible for me to use magic even if I die and wake up again.
So I turn off my attention to such things and look around.
The front is blocked by a transparent panel, and a pilot or captain is driving in front. And clockwork machines are assisting that control on the left and right.
And there's one door separating the cockpit and the passenger cabin.
There's a large circular glass window in the center so you can see the cockpit. And the passenger cabin has two seats attached on the left and right like a bus.
But the difference is that the seats are quite plush seats, one per person.
Polaris is sitting in her seat resting as if she's used to it.
Looking at Kanna's memory, relatively wealthy nobles have airships, so it's not strange for her to be familiar with airships.
However, it's hard to see airships in the capital.
They say that except for certain airships, if an airship approaches within a certain distance of the capital, after one warning broadcast, if it continues to approach, it's immediately shot down.
So even though Kanna rode an airship when returning home, she headed to a place where docks are gathered after leaving the capital to ride it.
By the way, there are also flying monsters and air pirates in this world.
So the airship we're riding has defensive equipment installed.
Flash!
So when you look out the window, it sometimes fires electric shocks at organisms approaching the airship.
Electric shocks in the air are dangerous. Yes.
Anyway, thinking about Victoria's current location...
Ah.
We've come further south than Victoria now. Indeed, the air route is much faster than going on the ground.
But since I can't show that, I sat quietly.
Polaris also didn't speak to me separately, perhaps because I seemed awkward, so only the faint sound of the airship's clockwork mechanism turning can be heard.
Unlike me who has countless movie theater channels constantly, it will be a somewhat boring journey for Polaris.
I have a concept of answering sincerely if the other person speaks to me, but not actively speaking if they don't, so it looks like it will be a quiet journey unless something significant happens.
Yes.
Unless something significant happens.
The incident occurred as we approached Bern City.
"Arghhhh!"
Up front.
Without any warning, the window that slightly shows the cockpit suddenly turned red with a scream. It's clearly a lethal amount of blood splatter to anyone who sees it.
The only person in front is the pilot.
There was no monster appearing or enemy intruding right before. Then it becomes a locked room murder, but.
This is a world where non-humans can also kill humans.
Crash!
Despite having hands that can open doors, a clockwork machine comes out of the cockpit blatantly showing hostility, covered in blood.
Unlike the knowledge I have, its visual device isn't stained red or anything, but anyone could see that it was the machine that killed the person.
Bam!
As soon as it comes out, a chair smashes into its face and explodes.
The person who threw the chair is none other than Polaris.
I thought most people in this neighborhood were good, but there are many people who deal with dangerous situations without wavering. No, they're not unwavering. Looking at her face, it's full of confusion and fear, and she's shocked too.
She's just somehow pushing it down.
Lowering my gaze slightly to look down, the chair is firmly bolted to the ground with screws. In other words, she tore this chair off with her bare hands and threw it.
Screech
With the sound of steel tearing again, the chair grasped in Polaris's hand was ripped off the floor. Ah. So the chair structure was made of steel.
Polaris tries to say something, but a high-pitched sound comes out, so she clears her throat a few times and straightens her back, pretending she wasn't confused at all.
"Belle, don't go to the door, it's dangerous. What, an assassination?"
"Rather than that, doesn't it feel more like a machine rebellion?"
Click.
Hearing a sound from behind, I turn around to see a doll-shaped clockwork machine, also covered in blood, walking towards us with what appears to be remnants of internal organs stuffed into a half-broken teapot.
Come to think of it, there were a few crew members when we entered, and that looks like their remains. That.
"Who's controlling the clockwork machines?"
"Is there no possibility they gained self-awareness?"
"Machines? That's impossible. They have some level of judgment, but it's at the level of insects. I don't know about the latest clockwork machines, but the one in front looks quite old. There must be someone ordering them."
Including faded memories, this kind of intelligence is, hmm. No. There's more than I thought. Rather, it's strange that the worlds in faded memories are so advanced but don't have this kind of artificial intelligence.
Tap tap
At that moment, the clockwork machine holding the blood-covered half-broken teapot rushes towards Polaris.
Bam!
But Polaris holding the chair swings it sideways.
Bang!
It crashes into the wall and gets stuck. Although it seems to have considerable durability as it rattles trying to get out of where it's stuck, it just struggles as it doesn't have the output to pull its body out of the dented steel plate it's stuck in.
"How many are inside?"
"I don't know."
"You're not helping."
Polaris carefully walks towards the back. But she stops before reaching the rear door of the passenger cabin.
Three blood-covered clockwork machines.
They jumped out from the rear door of the passenger cabin. Behind such machines, a corpse with a considerable part of its skin peeled off can be seen.
I quickly turned my gaze to Polaris. I was worried because it's quite a horrific sight for a young girl to see, but Polaris coldly glares at the clockwork machines.
The clockwork machines walk towards Polaris creaking. Then suddenly, with the sound of gears turning violently, they rush at Polaris.
Bam!
But they crash into the chair and their bodies are crushed, and she avoids the hands of the machines rushing in succession by ducking. While ducking, she rotates her body and kicks their heads.
Crack!
Their heads are ripped off their bodies just like that.
But the last, third one grabbed Polaris's body rotating in mid-air.
Will a harvester be created now?
Bam!
Wow.
When the clockwork machine grabs her body, Polaris's legs, which were rotating in the air with the remaining inertia from kicking the clockwork machine earlier, make a full rotation. And like a snake crawling, her legs wrap around the clockwork machine's head and shoulders, then slam it to the ground.
As if action and reaction exist, Polaris bounces up into the air ridiculously, but as if that's also according to Polaris's plan, she grabs the ceiling and moves to a slightly distant spot, taking a martial arts stance.
And she approaches the clockwork machine that's staggering to get up even though its head was slammed into the ground, maybe because it's a machine, jumps up slightly and stomps down.
Yikes.
This time, instead of the head being slammed into the ground, the frame acting as the skull shatters into pieces, and gear fragments scatter in all directions.
Her body size is the same as Rebecca's, but how does this burst like a bear striking down with its front paws?
No, come to think of it, Rebecca in her final stages could do something like this too.
After I left, Rebecca, who somehow started moving again despite having no light or warmth, had become tremendously strong when I witnessed her again much later.
Since there's magic, does it receive some correction to simple physical force?
Thinking it's an interesting phenomenon, I watch Polaris going out through the door at the back of the passenger cabin. I follow her to the back of the passenger cabin.
"Don't come!"
As I grab the door, a threatening voice comes from inside. This is more of a tone saying there's something disgusting so I can't show you, rather than a tone saying don't come because it's dangerous.
But I went inside.
I can see Polaris's back, and a strong smell of blood stings my nose next.
Polaris's clenched fist visible from behind has turned pale white.
Shattered corpses are scattered all over the corridor. But looking at the scattered pieces, it seems like one person...
Ah. No.
Under the sign saying crew room. One hand is sticking out between the door gap. Polaris must have seen it too, as she walks over there and stands.
I walked over there too. While at it, I slightly step on the corpse and take the faint warmth still remaining.
Maybe because the memory is also representing a corpse, it's broken here and there, but it came to me.
I check what happened just before.
Content saying they were hurriedly dragged here for an emergency flight and they're sad. This isn't it. The memory right before death...
Ah, I found it.
They were chatting about why they're suddenly going to Bern City carrying two children, when the clockwork machines that were helping with trivial tasks gradually surrounded them and killed them without giving them time to respond.
It was more fatal because they didn't suspect anything at all, thinking something was happening even when the clockwork machines surrounded them.
Polaris steps back from the door and comes out. Polaris's face gradually revealed is pale and stiff.
"Belle."
"We should check what happened."
Polaris calls my name, meaning don't come, hearing my footsteps. But I say I might be able to find the reason inside and enter, leaving Polaris behind.
There are two more.
I pretend to search those corpses while obtaining the disappearing warmth. Corpses that haven't been dead for long literally still have the warmth of the dead.
It's extremely faint, and the incoming memories are broken, but.
"All three died from surprise attacks."
"Three?"
"Including the corridor."
Polaris nods her head dejectedly. That's when it happened.
Suddenly the body of the vehicle shook with a thud, and inertia pointed upwards.
"This is falling, right?"
"It seems so."
At my words, Polaris's face turned pale. But we're not completely losing buoyancy and falling. If that were the case, we should be in a zero-gravity state, but now it's just the level of going down. It means someone is controlling it.
Come to think of it, there were clockwork machines on both sides of the pilot, but only one came out.
I head to the cockpit.
"Where are you going?"
"To the cockpit."
Polaris follows, saying "Was there that method?"
My first goal is to go get the pilot's warmth before it cools down, but since there's no need to explain that in detail, I headed forward pretending to try to solve this situation.