The second-to-last day before the Saints’ Day Festival was a beautiful day, and Kano, for once, arrived at the Tower of Stars early.
"It’s a real sha to miss the biggest and grandest festival."
"There have been too many banquets lately. I’d rather go ho for so peace and quiet. I’m leaving, Teacher Kano."
"Alright, alright. Be careful on your way."
Rorschach walked out of the chief professor’s office, out of the Tower of Stars, and off Prairie Avenue.
Hired carriages were easy to hail again, their drivers serving custors with beaming smiles.
"Sorry, sir, the price has gone up a bit. Is twenty copper coins okay?"
"That’s fine. Let’s go."
Rorschach wasn’t heading straight out of the city. Instead, he went to the teahouse diagonally across from the Pachaluka Trading Company. His last transaction of the year was imminent.
After ordering a cup of hot honey tea, Rorschach waited patiently. The bells of the Saints’ Day Festival were drawing near, but it was a good thing the largest holiday in the Saint Vallova Kingdom didn’t co with early leave. Otherwise, the streets and this teahouse would have been packed. ’Then again, who knows if the teahouse would even be open,’ he thought.
"Cigarettes, sir? Top-shelf imports from Istani..."
A young newsboy with a small vendor’s tray hanging from his neck and a satchel full of newspapers approached him to make a sale.
"Buy so stocks, sir? Official contracts, you sign right across the street. Minimum investnt is one livre."
"What?" It was the first ti Rorschach had ever encountered a newsboy peddling stocks.
The newsboy, thinking Rorschach was interested in the stocks, quickly rattled off a list: "You can buy fractional shares in the trading company across the street, or a sliver of Shaleanna Mining Company. We’ve got other stocks too: Lowe Trading Company, Monto Transportation Company, Valuva Newspaper, the Seine Daily Press..."
"No, thanks. Just give a copy of the Morning News and the Elental Newspaper."
"The Elental Newspaper? I don’t have that one, sir. How about the Red Butterfly Report?"
"Fine. How much?" Rorschach felt his contact was especially slow today. Fortunately, his airship didn’t leave until the afternoon, so he had plenty of ti. He simply bought the two newspapers and started reading.
The Valuva Morning News had already dedicated an entire section to tracking the rise and fall of stocks. The headliner was naturally the gold mining company, but many other trading companies had also issued stocks. Everything was going up, up, up—the only difference was between a small rise and a big one. It painted a picture of vigorous growth and universal prosperity.
"Rorschach Mage, you play the stock market too?" The employee from the trading company finally ca down. He sat down without ordering any tea. "I’ll be direct. The company is tight on cash right now. We can’t pay your salary at the mont."
’What? I’m your informant. How dare they pull this on ?’
"I’m here for two reasons. First, to collect my pay. Second, to inform you that I will be delivering this month’s report to the agency myself—I’m setting off for the Empire today."
The employee put on a fawning, forced smile. "Understood, understood. It’s like this, Rorschach Mage. We are indeed tight on funds, but we would never short you. We’ve converted your entire paynt into stock and credited it to your account. You now own... twenty-one hundredths of a share.
Isn’t that great? You know, a single share of Shaleanna Mining Company is hard to co by these days... If you need travel expenses, just let us know. We can squeeze out two lang for you for ergencies. We just hope you’ll put in a good word for us with the boss."
’Hard to co by? How co I didn’t know that, when I have ninety-five shares?’ To prepare for his return trip, Rorschach had tasked the Guild with selling five of his shares, then asked Kano to help exchange the proceeds for gold coins. After accounting for fees and losses, Rorschach received seventy percent of the value—a "huge sum" of about 2,000 gold.
He collected his newspapers and stood up. "Thank you for your company’s kind offer. Goodbye."
"Have a safe trip." The employee acted like a friend seeing Rorschach off, but Rorschach just felt it was a waste of ti and didn’t respond.
At the Central Port District, the core structure was a building nad the ’Sky Tree.’ No longer just passing by, Rorschach was here to board an airship. He entered the base of the colossal high-rise, which also served as its main hall.
The hall was incredibly spacious. Small carts constantly delivered goods, and there was a security checkpoint. The entire area was illuminated by magic lamps permanently enchanted with the Light Technique. Countless solid stone pillars provided a sense of security. ’If they replaced the gilded reliefs and wooden floors with a minimalist, plain-colored marble design, it would feel a lot more like a transportation hub from my previous life,’ he mused.
The flip-board schedule showed that the main flights were round trips between Valuva and the Kingdom’s other major regions. The bustling crowds had the chaotic beauty of a miniature Spring Festival travel rush.
’To the Imperial Capital... to the Imperial Capital... to the Imperial Capital...’ He scanned down the long list before finally finding his flight. According to his plan, Rorschach would first travel to the Imperial Capital, report to the bald man at the academy, and then head ho.
"Is this your first ti flying on an airship?" a middle-aged man in a uniform asked, walking up next to Rorschach. He had been drawn over by Rorschach’s mage robe.
Rorschach had asked the Tower Spirit—which in practice ant asking the Magic Guild—to buy his ticket, and the Guild had defaulted to sending him a first-class ticket.
’Wear your mage robe to the airship,’ Kano had advised.
Rorschach nodded. "Yes, it is."
"Welco. I’m a staff mber here. May I see your ticket? I can guide you. Anyone flying on an airship for the first ti is bound to get turned around in here."
Rorschach hesitated for a mont. ’This isn’t so old-fashioned train station,’ he thought, ’and I have my Mage’s Hand if anything happens.’ So he handed the ticket over.
"What a coincidence! I’m Ted, the Caster First Officer of the ’Sky Fortress.’ First-class tickets get to use a separate passenger elevator. As it happens, we’re headed to the sa place. Please, follow ."
The *Sky Fortress* was the na of the airship Rorschach was taking. The two chatted as they walked and boarded a small, refined passenger elevator next to the large freight lifts. "Caster First Officer?"
"Don’t be fooled by the uniform. I’m a First-level Mage, too. This place and the airships need Casters to operate everything. I graduated from the Tower of Stars. And you?"
Rorschach put on his Tower of Stars ’ID Card.’ "I’m a new researcher and teacher this year."
"You’re so young!" The first officer looked at Rorschach anew. He had originally thought the young man was the son of so noble family, heading to the Empire for ’training’—it had beco fashionable in recent years for the children of the nobility and rchants to squander money while running all over the world, calling it ’gaining experience.’
"Why don’t the elevators go straight up and down?" Whether it was the elevators for cargo and regular passengers or the one he was currently in, you had to transfer after rising about ten stories. It was like a system of two elevators running in alternation.
"Because during the Sky Tree’s first year of operation, a large elevator plumted from the top floor all the way to the bottom, along with five tons of cargo. It almost smashed through the foundation. The guy in charge almost jumped from the top floor himself. Besides the handcuffs and leg shackles, they still trussed him up like a turkey before throwing him in jail," the first officer explained with a smile, as if telling an amusing story.
’Smashed through?’ Rorschach couldn’t even imagine it. The building was about a hundred stories tall. The passenger elevators were one thing, but the freight lifts were extrely slow and tedious. Now, however, Rorschach felt it was entirely necessary.
"Weren’t there any deceleration chanisms?"
"There were. A Feather Fall Skill magic array and electromagnetic damping components. The Dwarves and the Guild had it all set up when they designed and built it, but none of it worked during the fall." First Officer Ted shrugged. "So the person in charge deserved to be arrested, don’t you think?"
The wind howled across the boarding platform. "It’s very dangerous here. Please hold the handrail the entire way."
Rorschach got an up-close look at the nearly three-hundred-ter-long ’Aerial Fortress.’ The surface of the cigar-shaped gasbag was coated in oil, glinting in the sunlight, and magic circuits running all over its body flickered intermittently. Standing before this veritable fortress, this ’giant beast,’ one could truly feel its imnse size, and how small a person was before their own creation... especially a Dwarf.
She was currently secured by nurous cables, her boilers preheating and spewing imnse clouds of steam. The payload section, which looked like a ship with everything above the deck sliced off, hung beneath the gasbag. According to Ted, her maximum payload was twenty tons. Rorschach was finally experiencing a direct result of this otherworld’s unique technology tree—after all, an airship of this scale wasn’t built in his previous life until just before World War II... and it had exploded.
The first officer saw that Rorschach was as fascinated by the airship as he himself had been the first ti he’d seen one. The man straightened his uniform, boarded the vessel, and invited Rorschach, "Rorschach Mage, if you’d like to learn more about the airship, you can co to our cockpit after you’ve stowed your luggage. It’s very close to first class. Just give them my na, Ted."
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